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Hanging by a Thread - DBH REWRITE Chapter Two

[Detroit: Become Human MASTERLIST]

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Summary: After they failed to catch the deviants they were after and protecting Connor from getting destroyed if he tried to run after them on the highway, they had a casual chat over lunch until Connor was sent a report on another potential deviant not far from where they were having lunch. The outcome of this second chase of the day was much more unexpected than initially thought by the three of them, especially for the perfect android that was Connor, and by far.

Words: 3.9k

Warnings: DBH spoilers (especially chapter 15 : The nest), sarcasm, chase down, angst, life or death situation, first hint of deviancy, more angst

November 6th, 2038

03:02 PM

Hank drove past the fast-food stand and pulled over, parking the car along the sidewalk, right across the street from the Chicken Feed. The rain had been falling non-stop ever since they chased this deviant and the little girl, but were ultimately unsuccessful in catching them, because Hank kept Connor from running after them on the highway. It had gotten the young woman thinking about this, for a moment, Hank and she had felt like their partner was human and the Lieutenant acted like he would have actually died but she knew they were both aware it wouldn’t have been the case. He was just a walking piece of plastic who had been assigned to them as their partner, not a human whose life they had to care about, at least she thought. Charlie had opted for the hooded sweatshirt she had put in her car, with the hood pulled over her head, and her police officer uniform jacket over, to protect against the rain since it was waterproof. Her hoodie was more comfortable and warmer than the tee-shirt she previously wore anyway.

She was typing a text to her mom when she saw her dad park the car. She looked down at her phone screen and just turned it off, looking away. The last contact she had with her mother probably dated back to her birthday, two months ago. You couldn't say their relationship was at its best, but it wasn't unusual for Charlie. Since her little brother died and she got out of the hospital, she made her mother feel left alone when she chose to stick with her father, but Charlie resented her for leaving him in the first place. What happened wasn't his fault, so he wasn't to blame and yet that's exactly what her mother did, out of grief for sure but he didn't deserve such a treatment. At least, his daughter didn't give up on him. Hank got out of the car without a word and so did she, ignoring Connor sitting on the back of the car. She swept those thoughts away in a sigh and followed her father out of the car, ignoring Connor sitting on the backseat of the car and as he always did, he just watched them silently.

“Whooa! Hey! Hey! Hey!” He grabbed Charlie’s arm and stretched out his hand as a driverless taxi came their way and it slowed down until they passed.

“Hank. How’ you doing?” Gary asked, busying himself in his truck.

“Eh, you know, same old shit.” Hank shrugged and the tall man looked at Charlie with a warm smile.

“Always amazes me how much you’ve grown, kid. Look at these bright blue eyes, you must have guys lining up.” Charlie laughed, more out of embarrassment than because it was funny though.

“Yeah, well, wherever they are they can wait. I’m just 25. ‘m not gonna get married tomorrow.” She joked and Hank nodded.

“Good answer.” She chuckled and rolled her eyes, like she used to do as a teenager, and he said something that would annoy her. Gary laughed with them, and he turned around to make his burger.

“Plastic with you?” He asked.

“Only temporary…” Hank affirmed heavily, like it was some death sentence. Charlie crossed her arms over her chest, looking down the street when Pedro, a friend of her father’s came up to him and hugged each other. She noticed Connor walk across the road to join them and rolled her eyes again, pacing on her arm with her finger. The android glanced at her and joined his hand behind his back and stood equidistant between her father and her, looking around with that emotionless facial expression that seemed frozen on his face, but that was normal after all, it was just a piece of plastic mimicking humans. Charlie looked at Connor from the corner of her eyes; the little LED on his temple turned yellow as he observed the man her father was talking with. It was really a thing he always did to watch people. She wondered how much he could see by doing whatever it was he was doing, and she wondered what had shown up when he looked at her back at the police station.

“Hey! You won’t regret this!” Pedro assured Hank and as he walked past Charlie, he gave her a warm smile. The now young woman and police officers was rather well-known among her father friends. Connor then stepped forward and went right next to Hank and the latter sighed heavily.

“What is your problem? Don’t you ever do as you’re told? Look, you don’t have to follow me around like a poodle!” Connor seemed confused when he looked away and Charlie cleared her throat to contain a laugh. The android sometimes made the situation so awkward it was becoming funny.

“I’m sorry for my behavior back at the police station.” Connor said. “I didn’t mean to be unpleasant.”

“Oh, wow…” She chuckled softly, shooting up her eyebrows. It took Charlie a second to realize that she had had the exact same reaction as her father to Connor’s apology.

“You’ve even got a brown-nosing apology program!” He turned his head to Connor for an instant before looking straight ahead at Gary again. “Guys at Cyberlife thought of everything, huh?”

“Sure did.” Charlie nodded and noticed Connor’s LED going yellow again when Gary handed to Hank his drink and burger.

“Here you go.”

“Ah! Thanks, Gary. I’m starving…”

“Don’t leave that thing here!” Gary groaned, pointing at Connor when Hank walked to the standing tables next to the food truck. Hank briefly stopped in his tracks, letting out a slight chuckle.

“Huh, not a chance! Follows me everywhere…” Charlie followed her father to the tables and so did Connor, obviously. Hank opened the burger box and let Charlie take two bites of it before starting to eat the food he had ordered for himself. She didn’t eat fast food much and especially not that kind of high calorie fast food but when she accompanied her father, she would always eat some of his food, just for the sake of the old days, as she used to do this very thing as a child and even as a teenager. Her mom wasn’t very fond of that kind of food, so she didn’t eat many burgers but with her father, it was a different story. He would always let her eat some of his burger as a kid and not tell his ex-wife about it. It was something she kept doing, even after becoming an adult of her own. Connor watched them before speaking up.

“Your meal contains 1.4 times the recommended daily intake of calories and twice the cholesterol level. You shouldn’t eat that.”

“Everybody’s gotta die of something…” Hank shrugged, and Charlie rose her eyebrows, staring down at Connor, swallowing the bite she took of the hamburger they shouldn’t eat, and she leaned over on the table.

“I don’t want to alarm you, Lieutenant, but I think your friends are engaged in illegal activities…” Charlie smirked, widening her eyes, looking shocked.

“Do you now?” She chuckled and glanced down the street. It was nicer now that the rain had came to a stop, but she kept her hood over her head for warmth.

“Everybody does what they have to, to get by… As long as they’re not hurting anybody, I don’t bother ‘em.” Hank then replied. Connor simply nodded before continuing.

“You seem to know everyone in the district.”

“Detroit’s my home. Born and raised. Know most of the guys around here. Went to school with them, or I busted ‘em… sometimes both.” He shrugged lightly before taking another bite of his hamburger. Charlie looked at her father. He sure knew a lot of people in town and even if she was born and raised here as well, she was acquainted to far less people. Maybe because after being bullying and treated as undeserving while being seen as competition by her peers, she never gave much of a thought to starting friendships. She had a few friends during her time at the academy, but they all left the state and went to other places, so she never kept in touch with them, and they didn’t either. Now, all that her life was about was her job, her father and making him proud of her, and being proud of herself too. She really felt like she had no need for friends or a lover. She was genuinely far too busy for these things that would greatly slow down her career. After the disaster that came of her parents’ marriage, she never wanted to go through something like that, so maybe in a way, avoiding bonding with other people would help prevent anything like it to be thrown her way in the future.

“This morning, when we were chasing those deviants…” Connor was leaning on the standing table, staring at Hank. “Why didn’t you want me to cross the highway?”

“Cause you could’ve been killed.” Hank declared and he nodded at himself as he went on to add more to the explanation to the reason why. Charlie frowned imperceptibly, remembering the moment when he had ordered Connor to stand down and stay behind this high grid that separated him from the successful completion of the chase with the deviants. And she thought that his question wasn’t so dumb after all; he was an android and technically he couldn't die. “And I don’t like filling out paperwork for damaged equipment.”

“Is there anything you’d like to know about me?” Connor wondered, changing the subject.

“Hell, no… Well, yeah, um… Why did they make you look so goofy and give you that weird voice?”

“CyberLife androids are designed to work harmoniously with humans. Both my appearance and voice were specifically designed to facilitate my integration.” He explained.

“Well, they fucked up.” Charlie exclaimed, granting a proud look from her father as he was surely thinking the same and about to say it as well. She definitely took the words right out of his mouth. After all, she had learned her sarcasm from no other than the great Lieutenant Anderson, her illustrious father.

“Can I ask you a personal question, Lieutenant?” Hank didn’t say anything and simply nodded. “Why do you hate androids so much?”

“I have my reasons.” He replied in a serious tone, gazing at him. Charlie let out a silent sigh and straightened up, randomly looking down the street. Connor glanced at her as she remained quiet, but she had nothing to add to this. Although he had spoken in the first person, she was very much included in that statement. They both sure did have their reasons why they despised androids so much. After an awkward silence, Connor spoke up again.

“Maybe I should tell you what we know about deviants?”

“You read my mind. Proceed.”

“We believe that a mutation occurs in the software of some androids, which can lead to them emulating a human emotion.”

“In English, please.” He raised his hand, stopping Connor in his explanation. Charlie chuckled quietly because on her side, she was understanding what he was saying. Connor inclined his head, looking down at the table.

“They don’t really feel emotions, they just get overwhelmed by irrational instructions, which can lead to unpredictable behavior.” Hank nodded, taking a sip of his soda.

“Emotions always screw everything up… Maybe androids aren’t as different from us as we thought.” Charlie stared into space out of the corner of his eye, biting the inside of her cheek, thoughtful. He was definitely not wrong. She looked back at Connor and Hank as he continued. “You ever dealt with deviants before?”

“A few months back… a deviant was threatening to jump off the roof with a little girl… I managed to save her.” He declared.

“So, I guess you’ve done all your homework, right?” Hank wondered. “Know everything there is to know about me?”

“I know you graduated top of your class, so did your daughter. You made a name for yourself in several cases and became the youngest lieutenant in Detroit. I also know you’ve received several disciplinary warnings in recent years and… you spend a lot of time in bars.”

“So, what’s your conclusion?”

“I know you’re an experienced officer, and I’d like to earn your trust. Both of you. I’m sure we can solve this case if if we manage to work together.” His brown gaze shifted from Charlie to Hank as he spoke, and he subtly winked at them. The LED on his temple turned yellow and he blinked. “I just got a report of a suspected deviant. It’s a few blocks away. We should go have a look.” He glanced down the street. “I’ll let you finish your meal. I’ll be in the car, if you need me.” Hank and Charlie watched him walk towards the car and exchanged glances out of the corner of their eyes.

“Hey, Connor!” Hank called out to him, and the android opened his eyes, his LED going back to blue after it went yellow for a little while. He was standing still in the elevator and just looked at Hank and Charlie, standing in front of him in the hallway. “You ran outta batteries or what?”

“I’m sorry. I was making a report to Cyberlife.”

“Huh…” Charlie sighed, replacing behind her ear a blond lock that had escaped from her bun, looking around the filthy corridor and Hank called out to Connor after the android stayed still for a few seconds, in silence. “Well, do you plan on staying in the elevator?”

“No! I’m coming.” He assured and Hank shook his head before walking down the hallway, followed by Charlie who gave a sidelong glance at Connor. The android eventually came along.

“What do we know about this guy?” Hank inquired.

“Not much. Just that a neighbor reported that he heard strange noises coming from this floor. Nobody’s supposed to be living here, but the neighbor said he saw a man hiding a LED under his cap.” Charlie frowned, listening to Connor as he stated the information thay had on this and she watched him crouch down and observe a mucky pile of feathers on the floor.

“Oh Christ, if we have to investigate every time someone hears a strange noise, we’re gonna need more cops.” He crossed his arms over his chest and Connor stood up and went to knock on the apartment’s door. As there was no response, he looked at Hank ad the latter shrugged.

“Anybody home?” He knocked harder on the door. Charlie and Hank frowned upon hearing noises coming from inside. There was some movement. “Open up! Detroit Police!” Suddenly, the loud noise of something fallig over caught their attention.

“Stay behind me.” Hank demanded as he and Charlie pulled out their guns. She kept her weapon aiming down, her hands gripped on the handle.

“Got it.” Connor said, stepping back. Hank kicked in the door, and it slammed opened. He entered the premises with Charlie and Connor behind him. It was suspiciously quiet all of a sudden and Charlie thought that if there was indeed someone in there, it was not just unlikely but rather impossible that they just vanished into thin air. While Connor and Hank inspected a couple of rooms along the entrance hallway, she walked to the main room. The door wasn’t closed all the way, so she glanced through the opening, remaining at safe distance in case someone was behind it and when her father and Connor came, she kicked the door in. She winced and grunted, raising her hand to her face in reflex as dozens of pigeons flew away as they arrived.

“What the fuck is this ?!” Hank swore. Charlie looked around the room. The foul stench that literally assaulted her nostrils led her to keep her hand at her face as she looked around them. The sole window of the room was closed so she walked up to it. “Jesus, this place stinks.”

“Only an android can live with such a smell… and so many fucking pigeons.” She declared as she pulled up the window and took a deep breath in of fresh air, fresh Detroit air anyway.

“Uh, looks like we came for nothin’, our man’s gone…”

“Were the windows closed in the other rooms?” Charlie asked and Hank looked at her curiously.

“Yeah.”

“Well then, unless our man’s a fucking ghost, he must not be very far. You can only leave this place through the door, or the windows.”

“Actually, you’re right.” He nodded and she smirked.

“Of course, I am.” Her gaze then shifted on Connor as he picked something up from a shelf.

“The driver’s licence is fake.” The android stated.

“Cool! At least we didn’t come for nothing…” Hank figured; hands pressed to his waist. Connor then leaned over a jacket lying on a piece of furniture by a doorframe leading to a small bathroom.

“R.T. Probably initials.”

“He put his initials on his jacket? That’s something your mom does when you’re in first grade.”

“I remember mom doing that to all of my clothes. The tags were so itchy though.” Charlie sighed at the memory as she walked around. It was sad that she had lost touch with her mom, but the young woman didn’t like the way her mother dismissed her father’s grief after her little brother’s passing, as if only her pain and sadness was valid. It wasn’t his fault they got into a car accident. Charlie believed that when really love someone, you don’t just throw them under the bus at every inconveniency, you stick by them and get through whathever situation you’re in, together. But her mother didn’t do that, and she was disappointed.

“Its LED is in the sink.” Connor told them.

“Not surprised it was an android. No human could live with all these fuckin’ pigeons…”

“That’s what I said.” Charlie stared at her father, nodding and while he joined Connor in the bathroom and she heard them speak, she walked to a poster hung on the wall and observed every inch of it until she noticed the corners that must have been bent and moved so much that they were worn. She stretched her arm and picked up a top corner, letting the poster hang to the side. There was a large hole in the wall with a tattered diary.

“Found something?” She turned around at her father’s voice rising from behind her and showed the small book as she opened it, only to find strange encryption and drawings.

“Connor, come here.” She called him and the android walked up to her. She handed him the diary and crossed her arms after putting her gun away. He frowned, trying to understand the stuff written inside but he shook his head.

“I don’t know… It’s indecipherable.”

“Great.” She sighed and went to take another look around. “What else did you find in the bathroom?”

“Maze drawings and scriptures all over the wall.” Her father informed and she nodded. She bit her lips, frowning and stared at the birdcage knocked over on the floor. She walked to the doorframe to the bathroom and noticed a wooden stool lying on the floor in the corner of the small room.

"Connor." The android looked at her and she gestured towards the cage and the stool. “You can see what happened here? It wouldn’t sound too crazy to me if that’s what we heard falling earlier.”

“Good intuition.” Hank nodded, pursuing his lips, proud of his daughter’s sharp wits. While the two human police officers then watched their android partner stare at various objects in the apartment staying for a dozen of seconds in front of each of them, Hank swore more than time than one could count about how he hated these pigeons. Connor started by looking at the stool in the bathroom, and after a few minutes of observation, he walked to an armchair in the corner of the living room and looked up. Charlie frowned as she approached and saw a shadow move above their heads. Suddenly, someone jumped down and Charlie and Connor fell backwards, both letting out a grunt as their backs hit the parquet. Hank helped up his daughter.

“What are you waiting for?! Chase it!” He urged Connor, already back on his feet and the android immidietaly started running after the deviant. Hank and Charlie followed him but even a young and fit woman like her, although skinnier than she should be, couldn’t keep up with a machine as such as Connor. They kept up with the machines as best they could, watching the chase between the two androids, quickly out of breath. Charlie outran her father, crossing the fields of the urban farms over the Detroit skyline. They eventually came near the edge of the roof and the deviant budged her, making her fall over the edge. She let out a cry but managed to seize the eave in time, holding her whole body weight with one hand. Teeth clenched, she stretched up her arm to try and lift herself up, but Connor face appeared above her and held his hand out for her to grab. She took his hand and he helped her back on the roof.

“Thank you.” She said, still trying to catch her breath, glancing over the edge, thinking that she could have fallen to her death if it wasn’t for Connor. When she looked to her right, she saw the deviant vanished through the high corn cobs on the building and she realized that for some reason, Connor chose to prioritise her survival over the success of the mission he had been assigned.

“Charlie!” Hank called out her name, panting. He bent forward, leaning on his knees before he straightened up and held her tightly in his arms. She couldn’t take her eyes off Connor as he stepped back, still confused as to why he didn’t go after the deviant if that was what he had been so carefully programmed to do. She had only met him this morning and she already started to see some humanity in him, however small it was. She wondered if he was even a deviant or something. First, he chose to obey Hank when the latter ordered him not to go after that female deviant, and now he chose to save her life instead of completing his dear mission. Hank eventually broke the embrace and looked over at Connor without saying anything until he glanced at where the deviant had disappeared. “We had it.”

“It’s my fault. I should have been faster.” Connor explained himself, following the Lieutenant’s gaze.

“You’d have caught it if it weren’t for me…”

“That’s all right.” Hank breathed out, patting Charlie’s shoulder and gave a grateful look at Connor. “We know what it looks like. We’ll find it.” Hank then led Charlie along with him to leave and get out of the building, but he came to a stop in the doorframe and turned to Connor. “Hey, Connor…” The android looked at him, but Hank shook his head. Charlie knew what he wanted to tell him, he was grateful because he chose to save the life of his dear daughter over his mission but pride as he was, he waved it off and left the premises with Charlie, leaving Connor slightly confused on the roof. If he was a deviant, he surely didn’t know that just yet. He was still very much a programmed android.

[To be continued…]

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Published (08/07/2022) by Andrea

Taglist: @cathrin2405 @kika64

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