Chapter Text
“Lieutenant.”
The slam against his desk had Connor sitting bolt upright, startling near out of his skin as he quickly stood from his desk, chair kicked and clattering behind him in what was surely the world’s loudest echo. The seconds ticked by as he brought himself back up to speed with his surroundings, his heart hammering in his chest alongside the echoes of awkward coughs covering poorly concealed snickering from his fellow officers. He scrubbed a hand down his tired face, brown eyes tracking the hand — that had, up until a moment ago, been slammed down next to his head — up its owner’s arm to face one Captain North Atkins.
A terrifying, ageless woman, as far as he was concerned.
Her lips curled into a dangerous smile. The one that told him he was—
“My office. Now.”
—probably in trouble. How long had she been calling for him?
And she was turning on her heel to the glass walls, leaving him with the expectation to follow her.
He chanced a glance over across the bullpen of the 7th Precinct, meeting the ice-blue eyes of his younger brother — Niles “Nines” Anderson, newly assigned detective of the Detroit Police Department. He furrowed his brows at him, only to receive a slight head cant towards North’s office.
Well, that didn’t answer any questions.
At first.
As Connor adjusted his vest, he caught sight of the android standing tall inside the glass walls of North’s office. An android model he’d certainly seen only once before — tall, built like a house, and old-looking, at least bearing the appearance of a middle-aged man with greying hair tied half-up and a matching silver beard.
It had been more than a little uncanny to find an unknown, old-looking android show up at his doorstep of all things — when he very certainly did not and refused to own one — to drag him off to a homicide approximately fifteen minutes before he’d even been notified of his own assignment.
Much like last night, he couldn’t recall any androids that looked like that these days. Cyberlife had certainly tried, at one point, to make androids bearing the appearance of a variety of age groups, but had stopped in the early 2030s when they were deemed to be financial disasters. Humans, it turned out, didn’t like androids looking old and being significantly more capable than their fleshy counterparts.
So this one being here was a surprise, to say the least.
”… Captain,” Connor started once he’d closed the glass door behind him. He sat in the chair opposite North when she gestured for him to sit.
”Lieutenant.” She threaded her fingers together as she leaned her elbows against the desk. “You’ve probably heard there’s a rise in defective android incidents lately. Just today, I’ve gotten ten new cases on my desk alone. We’ve always had isolated incidents, old ladies losing their androids maids, that sort of crap.” She sighed as she leaned back in her chair. “But now we’re getting reports of assaults and homicides, like that guy from last night.”
”It’s now a criminal investigation, then?”
”Exactly. Preferably before shit hits the fan.”
”And you want me to investigate them.”
”Putting that brain of yours to use. I want you to see if there’s any link.”
”Okay, but why me?” He asked, furrowing his brows at his Captain. “I know nothing about androids, and I’m already working on another case—“
”Any other cases you have rank well below this one.”
”—that’s not—!” Connor had stood up before he could help himself, bit the inside of his lip against the rising anger bubbling inside him, steeling himself with a deep breath. “You know that case is important!”
”I also know you’ve hit a dead end on it for months now.” The edge to North’s tone had Connor further biting down on whatever else he wanted to say. “This one’s priority, and everybody’s overloaded. It’s not Cyberlife’s problem anymore. Fortunately for us—“ She gestured towards the android in the back. “—they’re more than willing to help. They’ve sent over this android—“
“Niles is my partner!” he snapped, leaning over her desk now. “I don't need an android to help me!”
“It’s a state-of-the-art prototype that will act as your partner.” The terseness of her tone was threatening to leave no room for argument, but he wasn’t having it.
”Absolutely not! I’m not going to trust a machine—“
”Don’t test me, Connor!” North snapped, shooting to stand as well. “For months you’ve been hyper-focused on this serial killer — yeah, I know you’ve been working on it!”
He curled his hands into fists against the wood of her desk. He could hear his blood pounding in his ears, his anger burning in his veins.
”You’re not even supposed to be, and you know it! I turned a blind eye because I get it, it was your personal fucking nightmare, but face it — nothing has turned up. The Feds are working on it. If something comes up, I will let you know. But right now I need you on this — and if you won’t do it, then you’d damn well better turn in your badge.”
This sucked.
Connor knew she was serious about this.
His heart hammered in his chest. She was his superior officer, and it wasn’t as if they had ever been on bad terms. She had looked out for him much more than any Captain of the DPD ever really should, but that didn’t stop the horrendous mix of anger and something else swirling in his gut, stealing his breath. He had no control over this situation. He had to listen, had to obey—
He wanted to vomit.
He pushed away from the desk, marched his way out of her office. Breathe.
He ignored the dead silence of the bullpen, ignored the questioning words and concerned gaze from his brother. No doubt he had been heard when he’d raised his voice. Breathe.
He was just supposed to ignore his a killer on the loose? In favour of androids killing their owners? Even just a cursory glance at some of their so-called assaults and homicides screamed no small amount of self defense on the androids’ part. Hell, Ortiz’s android had just been a drop of proof in his growing suspicions, right up to when it had smashed its head into the wall of its cell because it realized it was being sent back to Cyberlife.
His stomach hurt, twisted in stressful, aching knots. Breathe.
It was a damn miracle he’d made it to the bathroom before he lost the precious little amount of food he’d managed to scarf down that morning — or had it been last night? It hardly mattered when it was all getting flushed down the toilet.
This sucked, he decided again, taking his time to rinse out his mouth, wash his tired face. His hands were already shaking at the idea of having not-Niles to cover his back. He had made his way up to Lieutenant fair and square, climbed up the same way anyone else would have. Yet having the title as the younget in DPD history came with its consequences, with barbed words and snide jeers shot his way at even the slightest mess up. It had only seemed to get worse since—
“Connor?”
He lifted tired brown eyes to look to his brother standing in the doorway. Niles’ brows furrowed in concern as he crossed the distance between them without hesitating, already reaching up to press the back of his hand to Connor’s forehead.
”’m not sick,” the older grumbled, swatting the hand away. The pointed look that reply earned him had Connor huffing out a small breath in defeat. “… Just a little stressed.”
”You haven’t been sleeping.” It wasn’t a question.
”It’s fine, Nines.”
The younger detective didn’t look convinced. Yet the brothers had long-since established when it was and wasn’t the time to press an issue. This was certainly the latter. “I heard about the new case.”
Connor couldn’t help the scoff that escaped him, leaning back against the sink with his arms folded. “Did you see the babysitter, too?”
”I did.” A beat passed as Nines settled beside him. “I don't think this will be as bad as you think it will be. You get along fine with the station androids.”
”I know—!” He bit down on the rage that bubbled over, took a breath, let it out slowly to force himself to calm down. No, he wasn’t going to snap at his brother, especially when Nines wasn’t doing anything wrong. “I know, I just… don't like this. I don't like that we aren’t working together on this.”
”We were lucky to be partnered together this long. You said it yourself.”
Connor felt himself deflating, scrubbing his hands over his tired face with a groan. Nines was right: family members typically didn’t get paired up together, let alone when one so severely outranked the other. It had been a miracle in its own way, created solely by the grace of gods and one too many of his own panic attacks since his return. The station psychologist had deemed it a necessary partnership until he’d gotten himself back together, and it had simply fallen under the radar with the amount of android cases piling up. “When did you grow up to be so sensible?”
”A decade ago.”
He snorted in amusement, knocking himself against Nines’ shoulder and earning himself a more subdued smile from his sibling in return. Unlike Connor, Nines had always been more subtle with his expressions, less prone to emotional outbursts and more likely to freeze someone to death with his icy stare alone. Yet beneath the more robot-like exterior his younger brother seemed to keep, he knew better than anyone that Nines always had others’ best interests in heart, often taking on the role of Silent Protector for those he deemed it necessary for.
It had been the driving force behind Connor’s recovery since his kidnapping.
”I’m okay,” he assured, pushing to stand despite Nines’ wary gaze. “Really. I’ve looked worse, anyway.”
The deadpan from Nines suggested the self-depreciating joke was no quite appreciated this time around
Yet it was time to head back out into the bullpen whether he liked it or not. Led along by his brother, keeping his gaze firmly fixed off of their remaining colleagues. He had a case he was assigned, that had to be his priority for now if he wanted to keep his job—
“Lieutenant Anderson.”
Connor went rigid, spinning on his heel as he came face-to-face with the android from North’s office. The old-looking android regarded him with a raised brow, his LED spinning a steady yellow before flipping back to blue.
Jesus, this thing didn’t make a sound.
”Hey… “ Ah. What was his name again. Connor found his hand naturally seeking out the coin he normally left out on his desk. “… you.”
Eloquent, Anderson.
He shot Nines a look across the bullpen when he heard his brother cough to hide a chuckle.
”Hank,” the android replied with a snort of amusement, bringing Connor’s attention back to him. “The android sent by Cyberlife. We met yesterday at the crime scene of Carlos Ortiz.”
”Technically, we met at my doorstep.”
”I figured you weren’t exactly awake enough to remember that at the time.”
Connor rolled his eyes and plopped back into his chair at his desk, biting down the long-suffering sigh as he plucked his favoured coin into his hand. “No, I still remember, unfortunately.” He gestured to the desk across from him. “Well, let’s get to work then.”