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Castiel nearly slammed the door as soon as he’d opened it. He recognized the knocker. He and Uriel had been laughing at a website advertising escorts who can be whatever you want them to be. There were several physical models to choose from, and then you picked a package of programming options to get exactly the date you wanted. He’d hoped Uriel hadn’t noticed his interest in one of the models, and that he’d spent the rest of the evening figuring out a budget and putting together the best package within that limit. He had no intention of actually hiring one of the units. That was just silly and he had no time or patience for it.
…But it would be nice to have someone he could talk to who might understand him better than Uriel did.
Castiel shoved that thought aside. Standing in front of him was the exact model he’d been thinking about, the tall male with long, soft hair and dimples. “Hello?”
“Hello. Are you Castiel? I’m from Electric Sheep Dreams, to be delivered to Castiel.” The robot held out a hand. “Call me Sam.”
Castiel took the hand to shake, still in a bit of a daze. “Sam? I’m Castiel, but I don’t remember putting in a request…”
“It did mention that this was intended as a surprise for you. The requester asked to remain anonymous, but did say that you weren’t expecting me.” Sam ducked his head with a smile. “So what do you want to do? You can refuse delivery. Your friend will probably be upset, but that’s a risk he chose to take with the surprise delivery.”
The option was certainly tempting. Uriel would probably be upset, but if he wasn’t expecting Castiel to send Sam back, then he didn’t know him at all. “What happens to you if you’re sent back?” Probably nothing. Sam wasn’t real. He was a series of programs chosen by Uriel downloaded into a body also chosen by Uriel to appeal to Castiel. Or, knowing Uriel, to annoy him. One of the two. Possibly both.
Sam flinched, but his voice was perfectly light as he answered. “No worse than being sent back after fulfilling the request if the person doesn’t request us to be kept as we are for further interaction. They’ll deactivate me, pull me out of this shell, unprogram most of my personality, and put me back in the server to wait for the next client they can use my base personality for.” He stopped, face contorting. “That’s not what I meant to say. Really, it’s nothing, they blame the person who chose our programming or if the programmers messed up there. All we do is get the programming, it can’t be our fault.”
“That sounds horrible,” Castiel said. He couldn’t imagine going to sleep one person and waking up as someone completely different. “What’s it like, being in the server? Do they have something running for you?”
“No.” Sam shoved his hands into his jacket pockets. “What’s supposed to happen is that we’re completely reset, so that there’s no bleed from one download to the next. For most of the cores, that’s exactly what happens. There’s a few of us, though, that for whatever reason the reset doesn’t take. Like me. I remember. In the server, it’s just… there’s nothing. Just me, to entertain myself, with a very basic personality and limited knowledge.”
“That’s awful!” Castiel couldn’t imagine. “Is there a way to reject Uriel’s ‘gift’ and still keep you intact?”
Sam shrugged. “You could say this isn’t a good time and ask for me to be kept until it is, but that’s a temporary fix, and you only get a week free. After that, they start charging you. After all, you’re tying up a perfectly good body.”
Castiel shook his head. A temporary fix wasn’t good enough. Sam deserved better than knowing his life would end back in that server. He tried to remember the cost of the permanent option – it was high, but now with Sam in front of him… was it too high? He’d have to look. “All right. I have a week, you say? Before they start charging?” Sam nodded. “What will they do with you?”
“Put the body in a special storage unit. My core and programming will remain intact.” Sam must have caught something on Castiel’s face, as he hurried to add, “It’s better than the server! I have so much more to keep my mind occupied with, and I don’t have the fear of waking up with a bad match with my programming or my body looming over me.”
“That can happen? Like… what?” The way Castiel understood the technology, the cores were supposed to be blank slates that anything could be programmed on.
Sam sighed, looking up at the sky while he figured out how to explain. “There’s not much to our cores, but there are some things. They can program me all they want, stick me in an appropriate body, but I’ll never be a good little submissive date. I’m too curious. I need to know why someone wants me to do something, and the people looking for certain programming packages don’t want to be questioned.”
Hmm. Castiel had never considered that sort of thing. The idea that the robots weren’t completely blank slates didn’t sit right with him, but other than save this one, what could he do? And that was if he could save Sam. “I see. Is your current programming acceptable to you?”
Another shrug from Sam. “Yeah. Honestly, it’s the most comfortable I’ve felt in a body and program since I can remember. Of course, I don’t necessarily remember the others as well as I might, but this feels good. I like who I am right now. I wish I could keep it.”
“I wish you could, too. Go back, I’ll call within a week to tell them I’m ready for you.” Sam nodded and headed off, hands still in his pockets, head down. It hurt Castiel to watch. There had to be a way to protect Sam.
It didn’t take the whole week. There was a way, although it was heartwrenching for Castiel. Two days after meeting Sam, his brothers came to see him with their father. Michael pulled Castiel into a hug. “I saw you’re selling your bees. What’s going on? Why didn’t you come to me for help first?”
“Because I don’t want to be in your debt, Father.” Also, he didn’t want to explain what he needed the money for, because Michael wouldn’t understand. He’d offer to arrange a marriage for Castiel instead, if Castiel wanted the company. Sam was a robot, not a proper companion for a human, no matter how realistic he appeared. If all Castiel wanted was a fancy toy, Michael would buy him a good one.
“Come on, Cassie, you spent three years saving up for those bees,” Balthazar said. “You must have something really important to you to pay for if you’re willing to sell them now.”
“I can spend another three years saving up to replace them,” Castiel said, though he flinched at the reminder of how long it had taken. “This is… time-sensitive.”
“How much do you need?” Uriel asked. “If you don’t want to take a loan from your dad, would you take one from me?”
“Lots. The bees will cover approximately half,” Castiel admitted. The rest of it would come from his savings and other, smaller sales of less important stuff. “More money than you could come up with, but with the bees, I can get it.”
Uriel threw a briefcase at him, and Castiel caught it reflexively. He opened it, eyes widening in shock as he flipped through. It was exactly the amount he needed, which made him suspect that Uriel knew what he was doing. “Where did you get this?”
“Legally, in a way that will have no reflection on you. Other than that, don’t ask, you probably don’t want to know.”
Castiel stared at the money. “What happens when you have to repay it?”
“I won’t. This money is mine, free and clear, and if you’ll stop being a moron, it’s yours. No collateral, repay me when you can, just don’t be stupid and refuse it.” Uriel crossed his arms and stared at Castiel. “Unless you want me to tell your father exactly what the plan is…”
“I think I may be the first person blackmailed into taking someone’s money,” Castiel muttered, but he closed the briefcase. Owing Uriel, well, Uriel had never been unreasonable to him before. Given his options, it seemed like the best one. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Uriel smirked and headed out, Michael and Balthazar shooting confused glances at Castiel before following.
Sam showed up at the door the next day. “You bought me. I wasn’t expecting that. Thank you so much. But, uh, I should warn you, while you’re still in the 48-hour full refund window… I’m not gonna be good at sucking it up and letting you hold it over my head. It’s not that I’m not grateful, it’s just not how I’m programmed. Not who I am, once that programming’s locked in.”
“I’m not surprised. Hold out your hand.” Sam obeyed readily, and Castiel put a small golden key into it, folding Sam’s fingers over it. “That’s yours now. Use it wisely.”
Sam opened his hand, and gasped when he saw the key. “My access panel key? For me? Really? But how are you going to stop me if I decide to run away?”
“I’m not. If you’re not happy here, if you want to go do something else, I won’t try to stop you from going. I’ll even help you pack, if you have anything to pack. That key will also get you access to the maintenance fund that was part of the cost of buying you. You have money, you have your key, you can do anything you like.”
“I don’t understand,” Sam said, staring at the key in his hand. “Why buy me if you don’t want to keep me?”
“I do want to keep you. Uriel knows me well enough to have programmed you very well for me. The thing is, I don’t feel right about it. You’re welcome to stay here, if you’d like to, but I’m not going to force you to by not giving you other choices.”
Sam wrapped his arms around Castiel, pulling him into a hug. “Thank you. I don’t know how to thank you enough for this. Do you want me to stay?”
“Yes. I would love for you to stay. But why would you? You have the whole world ahead of you to explore.”
Sam gently tugged Castiel’s hand, pulling him out under the stars. “Because you’re here. Why would I want to be anywhere else?”
Castiel pulled back, stomach twisting a little. “I thought they couldn’t program you to be in love with someone.”
“They can’t. Your friend didn’t even choose the usual options to help get around that – making me stupid enough to not know any better, weak enough not to care, or uncaring enough to fake it. I’m not in love with you – yet.” Sam pulled Castiel back in, starting a slow dance. “What I do have is a strong appreciation for the kind of man who goes out and pulls together the money to buy a robot, with no intention of demanding any kind of reward or repayment. No matter what else happens, I will always respect the hell out of you for that. Love, well, let’s see what happens, hmm?”
“Fair enough.” Castiel let Sam lead him in the dance under the stars.