Robotic Hearts

Prologue: A little Damaged

Gavin's POV-
April 26, 2039 2:08 am
Detective Gavin Reed's Residence

I sat exhausted and mentally drained at the end of my miserable bed. The room was cold and empty, mimicking the way I always felt when I was in it. I glanced at the alarm clock as I snatched the pack of cigarettes off the bedside table. Warm light flickered across the cream colored walls when I sparked my lighter. My hope was that the bitter, toxic smoke would relax my body enough for me to get at least an hour of sleep before work later. I slowly inhaled the sickening fumes, allowing myself to be damaged from the inside out. A part of me hoped that one day the addiction to the poisonous smoke would kill me, but till then I would have to keep living. To do that, I needed to keep my shitty job at the DPD, and to accomplish that I needed sleep. Sluggishly I put out the cigarette in an ashtray and laid down in bed.My eye lids felt like hundred pound weights, and as much as I fought to stay awake, I slipped into subconsciousness without hesitation when my face hit my pillow. For a short time, I was peacefully asleep, but like all good things, it didn't last.

"Gavin... Gavin wake up..... GAVIN!!!", I jolted awake at the call of a familiar woman's voice. I was in a patrol car with my first partner- Lily Cross. Her old, silvery-blue eyes peered over at me full of worry,"You okay kiddo? Looked like you were having a nightmare over there." I nodded out of confusion,"Mmph, yeah." She smiled brightly at me and pushed her bushy gray hair out of her face. It was dark outside and I couldn't recall how I had gotten here."You passed out like an hour ago, I figured you could use the rest so I let you sleep.", she was so calm and lively, something was off about the situation. There was an air of dread that caused my stomach to twist in pain. A voice blared over the radio but I couldn't hear what it said."Oh shit, buckle up Gav, we gotta go.",Lily hissed as she stared up the car and pulled off the road we had been on.I held my stomach and tried to shake off this sick feeling in my head,"What's happening?", I grunted holding back vomit. Lily's eyes never left the road as she spoke,"Isaac was shot during a traffic stop, Martin called for backup.... He said he thinks it was planned cause the shooter came from a nearby allie. We are the closest ones but Ol'brook and Keth are on their way too." she gave me a nervous glance," Kiddo tell me you remembered your vest today." I groped my chest," Phck, No, I forgot it!"She pulled over violently, and took her vest off," Here, no rookie is dying on my watch.", a half smile spread across her face when she noticed my worried expression," I'll be okay Kiddo My job is to keep you safe." Pain shot through my chest, she was like a mother to me. I could tell this was going to end badly, but I kept my mouth shut.Isaac and Martin were Lily's best friends and I could tell she wasn't thinking straight as she sped through the dark roads. Her eyes were wide and fearful as tears threatened to pour over. I placed my hand on top of hers on the shifter,"They'll be okay Lily....."She let out a soft whimper and finally let the tears drip down her cold face,"I know kiddo..." It was all so real, but it felt so unreal. Everything was familiar and vivid, like I had lived in this moment before.....

No, everything came rushing back to me as we pulled up to the scene. Lily gasped, seeing Isaac slumped over with his back to his patrol car."Lily, something's off, don't- HEY, STOP!", she ignored me and jumped out of the car and fled to his side,"Isaac,Isaac, oh god, Isaac!"she furiously shook his arm,"Gav, call for an ambulance! He isn't responding!"I turned to run back to the car but heard Isaac's cold and weary voice,"L-lily...... help Martin......." he struggled to point back towards his car before falling over in Lily"s arms. She sat there scared and crying,"WAKE UP!DON'T YOU DARE FUCKING DIE!" My abdomen churned and I was about to call for an ambulance when OL'Brook and his partner Keth arrived,"Shit! Lily is he okay",Keth called as he found his way to her side "He needs help.....", she whimpered trying to stop the blood pouring out from his abdomen.OL'Brook looked around,"Kiddo, where is Martin?" I realized that we hadn't seen him yet, hell he should have been with Isaac,"Phck, I don't know, I'm gonna check the car, can you call for help?" Ol'Brook nodded softly and we each went our separate ways.This was all bad- Isaac was bleeding out, Lily wasn't thinking straight,and Martin was missing. Every little hair on my body stood on end as i approached the patrol car Isaac was behind, there was a thick scent of iron from him, but it also was coming from the passenger seat,"Shit-GUYS I FOUND HIM,HE ISN'T ANY BETTER OFF THAT ISAAC!" Keth stood up with his head hung low allowing his shaggy blond hair to cover his face,"Is he breathing?" I checked quietly, then responded,"Yeah, he's alive!" Keth helped up Lily who was crying hysterically now ,"Then he's doing better than Isaac...."Lily cried into Keth's chest as he pulled her away. I looked towards Ol'Brook who was returning from his car,"No, is he?" Keth looked away remorsefully," I couldn't stop the bleeding, I'm sorry-",he broke off crying. Keth,Martin and I were only rookies, we never expected this, phck, we couldn't have known but Keth was ready to take the blame for Isaac. Ol'Brook pushed past them, trying not to get distracted and forget that we still had martin to worry about."Help me get him to my car Kiddo, I'm not waiting for him to bleed out too.", he asked as he pulled martin out of the car. I grabbed Martins other side and lifted his feet off the ground. Martin grunted in pain but we kept going, till there was a loud bang behind us.

Ol'Brook fell to the ground, leaving me holding Martin on my own. I stumbled forward asI force pushed me from behind.phck that stung, but it was fading fast and I realized that it was a bullet, that if not for Lily's vest, would have wizzed right through me. I accidentally dropped Martin as I stumbled and couldn't find the strength to pick him back up. There were two more shots fired then I heard footsteps to my right,"GET UP KIDDO RUN WE GOTTA GO!", Lily rushed past with her gun out but safety still on. Confused and dazed I ran after her, pushing through the pain and leaving everyone else on the ground. I glanced back just once and almost got shot for it, Ol'Brook and Martin were still where they had dropped and Keth was trying to crawl towards us,"Lily, we gotta go b-"BANG. Phck, he stopped moving as a mist of red exploded from his head. I continued into the allie with Lily, we were scared and just kept running till she collapsed in front of me,"Lily get up we gotta keep going, they are gonna be after us." As I tried to help her up I finally noticed the blood pouring out of a wound on her neck. There was no way she could keep going like this. I knelt down and wrapped my jacket around her neck,"Lily?" Her eyes flicked open slowly then closed again,"Lily, hey...", I whimpered softly, holding back all of my emotions which were finally catching up to the situation,"Lily come on, I got 'cha....Get up.... Please..." She was breathing heavy and her eyes barely moved. She pushed her last words out desperately,"It's okay Kiddo, you go ahead.... I'll catch up...", she smiled briefly,"You know us old folks..." I couldn't take it anymore and let myself cry while holding her hands,"No we gotta go now Lily..." she didn't respond, just laid there motionless. I couldn't leave her here, but the sound of footsteps approaching made me flee, phck I'm such a coward. I looked back to see two men following me. I looked for an escape route and found a building with a fire escape, perfect. I started to climb, taking a moment to fire back at the men. Luck shot, the larger of the two dropped. I continued to climb until I got to the top, from there I took a running start and lept for another building. As I jumped the world slowed and I felt something tear through my right shoulder as I hit the other roof safely."Phck!", the bastard actually got me. He stood on the other roof , gun drawn,"That was for my brother!" I turned around to face him, if I was going to die I was going to die a fighter,"Yeah, was it now.", I noticed that he was just a kid but my mind was clouded with anger and pain. I drew my gun before he could shoot again and shot him in the chest,"That's for everyone you fucking slaughtered tonight you little shit!" as he collapsed I felt everything at once and just did the same. It was all just to much.... Eventually I passed out from blood loss and woke up hours later still in a puddle of my blood, but it was half dried now. The sun burned my eyes and I felt too weak to move. I was probably going to die there. As I tried to recall the events of the night before,"Phck...." before I could think to do anything else, a familiar voice called out from below,"GAAAAVIIIIIN!" Could it be? Hank, the grumpy old detective? I needed to get his attention. Using all the strength I had left, I belly crawled to the edge of the roof. Looking down into the small allie I saw not only Hank, but also Tina, oh sweet Tina- the only person left that I was close to. They were walking away and I grew scared that they might leave me here,"Tina...Hank....", my voice was weak and raspy,"Hank help me." They stopped and looked at each other before calling out,"Gavin?!Where are you?" I cried out in pain,"Up here!" Tears clouded my vision as Tina pointed me out to Hank,"How the hell did you get up there?!" I just gave up, my vision had been darkening and now that they knew where I was I trusted them to get me down on their own..... I just kept seeing it over and over again.... Their dead bodies.....,"IT's my fault...." Hank was now holding me but I couldn't see where we were,"Shhhh, shh Kid, you're okay, I gotcha...."
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I woke up crying. My body was shaking and without a thought I sat up and lit another cigarette."Phckin' nightmares.." The toxic smoke calmed me back down but the images of my dead friends remained as it always had. I put out the cancer stick and laid back down, still an hour till work. I was crying still too, but I remained as quiet as possible.... It won't happen again, it can't- I don't work with partners anymore.... Not since her.... Not since Lily......

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Hey, thanks for reading I kinda deleted this story before but I'm bringing it back because I love DBH so much. Hope you guys enjoy. Sorry no trigger warning, oops.