Tick Tock Part One - Hickory

Cyberlife

"I heard about your latest case," Dr Marr pried almost sympathetically as Gavin lounged on the sofa. He was already feeling pretty raw from talking about Jack and the staircase. Again. She'd almost caught him off guard this time. She would have if he hadn't expected someone to tell her about his case. He grunted tiredly as he turned on his side to face her. His tan boots had been abandoned on the floor so he could curl up. Screw it. If she was going to mind fuck him, he was going to be comfortable.

"Which one? I have so many," he replied with feigned indifference, hoping she'd drop the subject. She gave him that knowing look, lips pulled in a small smile that told him she knew what he'd say before he'd even thought to open his mouth. Nothing he did or said seemed to surprise her as she nodded her agreement. She kept up with him, even outside their sessions. She knew all the cases he was working on and could assess their likely impact on his mental health.

"You know the one. The one about Richard," she prompted as she rested her pen on the pad. Gavin's mind blanked for a moment. Was that the kid's name? He thought back to Connor's voice the night before. His hand slamming the table. His LED flashing red. "The YK600," Marr encouraged, watching Gavin nod his agreement. It was a case. He was working on it. Marr waited patiently, allowing the silence to stretch until Gavin broke it.

"Yeah...that thing was busted up pretty bad. What about it?" he asked defensively, already raising his internal drawbridges. Marr's dark eyes sharpened as she honed in on his wording. He shifted his green eyes elsewhere to avoid her penetrating gaze and rolled onto his back, staring up at the faded white ceiling.

"The YK600, Richard, was a child...Likely an orphan." Gavin scoffed and turned away to lie facing the back of the leather sofa. He didn't want to hear that shit. Why personalise the thing? It was a broken robot that should be lying in some evidence locker somewhere right now. Instead, it would be lying on a cold metal slab in the morgue. Probably being poked and prodded. Opened up. Searched through. Then it would be left alone in a small dark storage compartment until someone claimed it or it was broken down for parts.

"It was an android! An android that got turned over to Cyberlife during the revolution for decommission. Don't start giving it human labels. A machine is a machine!" He maintained his insistent tone as he tried not to think about it. It was almost like he was searching for validation or confirmation. As if the more he said the words, the more likely it was that someone would agree with him. Dr Marr sat forward and scribbled on her pad.

"Then why does it bother you so much? You've seen worse sexual abuse and mutilation in other models, and yet upon your return, you had a heated altercation with Connor in the gymnasium." Gavin quietly cursed Connor to high heaven. He'd hoped to keep his moment of vulnerability secret. He couldn't say anything to refute it. She may even have looked at the security footage to confirm it.

"Because they made it look like a phcking child! Because they designed a machine to be a child replacement service with working parts! Functional phcking parts! You tell me, what's the reason for that?" Gavin demanded heatedly as he turned over again to level Dr Marr with an accusing glare. It had kept him up a lot in the early morning hours. They didn't just make it look a little like a child. Cyberlife had lovingly crafted the perfect child replica. A replica that all shades of people could take advantage of. It wasn't something he liked to think about.

"But it's still just a machine." Marr's clinical tone almost had him glaring at her in disgust.

"So it's okay for perverts to get their rocks off with it?" He threw a look of pure loathing at her, rolling onto his side to do so. She didn't give anything away. She neither agreed nor disagreed. That just pissed him off more as he scoffed and lay back. Marr leaned forward thoughtfully as she toyed with a strand of ebony hair, plump legs neatly crossed at the ankles.