Tick Tock Part Four - The Mouse Fell Down

Uninvited

"Here." Elijah looked up from the electronic pad with a curious hum and accepted the steaming mug with a warm smile. Chloe always knew. He murmured his thanks as he took the mug and let it burn his hands for a few moments. As was his habit, he took one tiny sip and placed it on the coaster at his elbow to be forgotten. He was sitting at the bar for a change, reading the latest news in robotics as he did every morning. It was Sunday, so he wouldn't be going anywhere that day. Sunday...It was the day Gavin and Nines used to visit most. The date in the corner of his pad told him it was the seventh of October. Gavin's birthday. He'd be forty. It's been over a year, and they still haven't..."It's a special day today...We should call Nines and see if he wants to come over." Chloe was right. Nines would be feeling it even more than he was. This wasn't a day one should spend alone.

"That sounds nice." Reading the article wasn't appealing anymore. He was too busy thinking about Gavin, something he tried not to do so much these days. It was hard not to think about him on his birthday. He clenched his teeth and swallowed, doing his best to keep it inside. There was no one besides Chloe to see it, but if he started, he didn't think he'd stop. It was hard to believe how strongly he felt when he'd only met Gavin around two and a half years ago. He'd lived without a brother for almost thirty-seven years before Gavin stumbled into his life, so why did his disappearance affect him so much? It didn't seem logical. He'd lived before, he could live after.

"Eli..." He coughed and closed his eyes, taking a breath as tears pricked the corners. I'm not going to start. I'm not going to start. "It isn't good for you to bottle things up." His lips trembled at that. Did she have to push it? He flinched at the first press of her hand landing on his lower back. She stroked slowly, fingers gliding up the fresh cotton of his shirt until she could rub circles on his hunched shoulder blades. "I miss him too." The pain in her voice was palpable, and her words were enough to move him. His eyes were already blurry as he turned in his seat and pulled her against his chest. She measured her strength as she wrapped her arms around his neck and sobbed against his shoulder.

Elijah's breaths shuddered as he tried to stay quiet. He wasn't one for making a ruckus. His cries were silent huffs against her neck. Tears streamed down his cheeks to be wiped on the sleeve of his shirt. He didn't want to dirty her pretty blue dress. His shoulders heaved with each sob, something he couldn't hide or stop. Chloe didn't mention it. She was crying too, greedily accepting Elijah's fingers in her hair and the hand rubbing her back. Elijah kept a tight grip on his emotions, so it didn't take long for him to regain his composure and remind himself who he was. He was Elijah Kamski, creator of androids. Even behind closed doors he had an image to uphold. Chloe disagreed, of course, but he'd always been the same. Emotions like grief belonged on the inside. Show no weakness. It was an outdated mentality, but it also protected him from the media.

"Sorry, I just...They should have found him by now." One way or the other, they should have brought Gavin home. They'd turned Detroit upside down, searched every corner, and found nothing! How could he disappear without a trace like that? The most logical conclusion was that they'd left the state, maybe even the country, and yet the FBI were still in Detroit. The only time they'd left was to cover other cases. It had been a while since he'd asked them for an update, choosing instead to get on with life. It seemed cold to think such a thing, but waiting for answers that never came was both frustrating and a waste of time.

He was Elijah Kamski, creator or androids, and his time was too valuable to waste standing still. There were software updates to create, new hardware to invent, business projects to look into, and android rights to fight for. He and Markus were still working together closely in order to bring androids and humans closer together. The internal stomach components had been a complete success, prompting companies to begin thirium food production. There was a vast market now. The teenage bodies were ready to be rolled out, and some had even upgraded already. He was currently looking into updating the bodies of older models without upgrading them into a completely new model.