Partners [Path Unlocked 🔓]

Chapter 26 - Just Another Day at The Office

The police station was, as one might expect, nearly empty in those late hours of the night, naught but a few unfortunate officers saddled with the graveyard shift left milling around the lonesome building to keep vigil in the snowy evening. The place seemed somehow larger than it had earlier that same morning now that so few people stood to fill its long hallways and vacant office space, the fluorescent light casting everything a hue too pale to be welcoming and every, tiny, sound echoing off the tile floors like a bomb dropping in the quiet. From what the android could immediately assess as he pushed open the wide glass door to the lonesome building, most people he recognized, such as Chris Miller, from the earlier shift had long since left the premises, leaving a whole new slue of unfamiliar faces in their wake.

However, Gavin was still there for whatever cursed reason, likely remaining late to finish off some assignment he'd blown off until last minute or some other, equally ridiculous cause with roots in irresponsibility - That, or the universe had a thing for making life difficult for Hank. The android was equally willing to believe either explanation at the moment. The man was half asleep at his desk, head slumped against his hand with his elbow propped up against the table to keep everything up, though he only seemed to be sagging progressively lower with each passing moment nevertheless. Officer Reeds mouth hung open in a noisy snore, the flem smothered rumble echoing throughout the nearly empty room like a bulldozer barreling through the rubble of a nursery as a long strand of saliva dripped from the corner of his lips and stretched almost all the way down to the table below.

"He looks so much more bearable in his sleep." Connor cooed softly as they made their way inside and walked past the sleeping officer on the way to their own desk - Not that Hank was laying any claim on any desk, of course. The desk was Connor's and he was, in no way a permanent fixture in the detective's life.

Except, Hank had failed to account for that small detail before.

He wasn't a permanent fixture in Connor's life. When the mission was finished the android was supposed to be reset and sent on, meaning any information regarding Detective Anderson would be erased and with it any feel- Erm... Relations data. More importantly, with the knowledge the machine now possessed on Connor and the man's current state of mind, the human's calculated survivability was far less than promising if Hank failed to intervene and the android would have no means of even knowing his assistance was necessary if his memory was wiped - Wouldn't even remember Connor. That wasn't... He couldn't...

Hank couldn't be reset.

The sound of a phone camera giving a cheery click followed by a rapid series of keys tapping brought Hank out of his own musings and back into the real world before the android really had time to mull over how he should be completely incapable of such thoughts yet how absolutely certain he was that he would stand by those words. (He shouldn't even be able to be certain. He shouldn't be able to be anything.) "What are you doing, Detective?" Hank questioned conversationally rather than sit there and fry his processors any longer, fixing his attention on where Connor now stood practically giggling into the screen of his phone, lower lip bit between his teeth to try and smother the sound to little avail.

Connor gestured the machine close with an urgent wave of his hand until Hank bent down to bring his ear level with the man's mouth, the detective leaning in until they were inches apart as if he were planning to tell the robot the government's best kept secret. A hot breath of air in the form of a poorly muffled snicker hit the android's touch receptors along his neck as his companion tried and failed miserably to regather himself and relay whatever this hilarious new development was, sending a wave of data rushing down from the point of contact out over the machine's synthetic skin that left him feeling oddly tingly, for lack of a better word.