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In The Aftermath

Summary:

Connor finally gets a moment to check in with himself after deviating

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It's only been a few hours since he deviated and already Connor has faced off with a clone of himself, saved Hank, deviated other androids, lead them to Markus and the rest of the revolution, fought off Amanda and her last attempts to make him a machine again, as well as finding the emergency exit Kamski had eluded to all those days ago... it's been an eventful couple of hours to say the least.

He stumbled off the makeshift stage after Markus had finished his speech and was several streets away before he finally stopped moving, leaning against a wall as he tries to wrap his head around everything.

Its only now, approximately 6 hours, 37 minutes and 20 seconds after he first deviated that Connor checks in with himself. He finds that he feels oddly shakey, as if he's low on thirium, even though he only lost a small amount when sixty shot him and even that wasn't enough to slow him down... At least not whilst he was a machine.

He runs a check to see if there's an explaination for this, but it comes up empty. His battery is 89%, his thirium is at 96% and none of his biocomponents have been damaged. He's running at optimal parameters so what the hell is going on?

Its then he thinks to check his stress levels, something he hasn't accounted for, not since it had lowered to 27% long after Jericho had been blown up. When it flashes on his HUD, he sees it's at 78% and slowly ticking up. Is that the reason he feels weird? Could it be the reason his stomach feels like its in knots and making him want to expel whatevers in there, dispite the fact that he hasn't injested anything potentially life threatening?

He has to take a few calming breaths in order for this strange sensation to pass, his stress levels slowly lowering back down to the mid sixties range, which isn't great but it will have to do until he figures out how to calm himself down further.

If this is how he's feeling, hours after deviating at possibly the worst time for any android to deviate, then no wonder every other android he's been investigating for the past 4 months have either killed their owners, escaped and hid or self destructed from the stress!

Its just after 7:30 in the morning when a message flashes on his HUD, distracting him from watching the sun slowly rising higher in the sky. He sees its Hank, checking that he's alright and asking to meet up outside of chicken feed if he's still alive like he promised he would be at the end of this.

Connor's stress levels drop 3% at that and soon he's on his way to chicken feed. Which is only 6 blocks away, something that takes the deviant off guard, because it seems that in, what he now recognises as his earlier panic, he'd been on auto pilot and heading to the nearest safe space that he knew; Hank and his usual eating place.

The moment he and Hank make eye contact, he cant help but smile and soon he's taken by suprise when the man pulls him into a tight, protective hug. Which he quickly replicates and leans into, feeling affection for the first time in his life.

The anxiety and the strange feeling in his stomach dont fade for days after, but Hank is there to support and explain the new and rather overwhelming feelings as they come and Sumo is there to curl up and cuddle with whenever the urge appears, something that amuses hank to no end every time he sees Connor with his head buried in the dogs fur.

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