Accident Prone - Becoming Human

Special Delivery

Three long and boring weeks had passed since Gavin had been shot and the wounded detective was making a full, albeit slow, recovery at home. After spending a single full week in the hospital with Abby and Tina keeping him company and helping him with his overall recovery process, Gavin had been cleared by his doctors and ordered to take it easy for a full month before even attempting to resume his usual workout routine regarding his healing core or even try to return to the precinct to work. Even so, he'd have to remain on mandatory desk duty for another month before he'd be fully medically cleared to return to the field again.

Chris had the honor of catching the shooter and the fool was promised a long stay behind bars for the assault and attempted murder of a police officer. The shooter's punishment would be swift and heavy, and it seemed no one in the precinct had any complaints against it.

At the precinct Connor, Hank, Chris, Jack, Tina and Ben all had the responsibility of picking up the slack with Gavin out of action, and Captain Fowler himself decided to handle a few of Gavin's cases as well to help lighten the overall caseload. But that didn't make it any less difficult to keep up with the work or not think about how one of their own had been so close to death.

Connor had little difficulty in keeping up the hectic pace as the cases piled up, but Hank was tired from all the extended and additional shifts and was happy to finally take the day off to lay around and do nothing at home. Unfortunately it seemed Connor was still unable to fully grasp the concept of a proper day off.

After enjoying his ability to sleep-in that morning Hank awoke to a quiet house and absolutely loved the sound of the expansive nothingness. Walking out of the bedroom Hank strolled down the hallway in the livingroom just after noon and let out a deep sleepy yawn as he ran his right hand over his face. As he set foot inside the kitchen he found Connor sitting at the kitchen table with a small shoe box sitting before him and Sumo curiously sitting on the floor beside Connor with his tail wagging rhythmically.

"Uh, Connor?" Hank had no idea what was going on and was still too tired to really care, but he had to ask anyway. "What're you doing?"

The deviant looked up at Hank with a touch of worry in his soulful brown eyes. "Did I wake you?"

"...No. You were completely quiet." Crossing his arms suspiciously over his chest he just gave the deviant an odd look. "And as a parent who had raised an extremely energetic toddler and a puppy at the same time I can say with certainty that quiet typically means you're doing something you don't want me to know about."

"Or I was being quiet to allow you to rest."

"Connor." Stepping closer to the kitchen table Hank dared to peer inside the box in front of him. "What's going on?"

Tilting his head a little Connor finally answered with a curiously guilty voice. "...This morning when I let Sumo outside he went to the fence where the neighbor's tree leans over the property and started barking loudly."

"Aaaaaand?" Hank pressed somewhat impatiently for further details. "What about it?"

"And... Sumo had found a baby robin."

Hank peered closer at the box and sighed. "And you brought it inside." It didn't take long for Hank to identify the little creature protected inside the box in front of Connor. Huddled down in a pile of shredded tissues was a small, partially feathered bird that was staring up at Connor as if trying to understand why the deviant had brought it inside the house. "Why?"

"Sumo tried to eat him."

"So you brought it inside instead of putting it in the tree again?"

"It is also raining."

"Man, if you were human you would've been that kid who came home with a new pet every damn day because they 'followed you home'."