Hickory

Meeting Mr Hughes

A couple of weeks passed in the same way. Reed's therapy was going alright, despite his increasingly bad temper. The transition from cigarettes to patches wasn't going well. He'd given up on the gum entirely, unable to stand the taste of it. Nines had cut him back to four cigarettes instead of five, and it was slowly killing him. All that seemed to help was fighting it out in the gym, but even that was losing its appeal because Connor was making himself less available. It seemed that every time he asked; he was just on his way out, or busy with case files, or chasing down witnesses. That meant he was left with Nines.

Ever since their first session, the tank of an android had become much more eager to take part, and Reed didn't hate the idea of sparring with him. Nines was a fucking challenge, and he loved a challenge. He couldn't count the amount of times that powerhouse had slammed him into the floor over the past two weeks, unapologetically smug each time. He'd even started teaching him some useful techniques, like how to incapacitate lesser models. A hard palm to the power core would momentarily stall most models, besides security and construction androids. Rotary cuffs were a vulnerability for a lot of models, so armlocks were always a good choice. Keeping focus on the chest area rather than the head in a hand to hand fight was key, but a gunshot to the head was still the best option for long range where necessary.

The lessons were great. Reed burned some energy. His temper settled down. He felt good. Despite that, there was a problem. Gavin Reed was strung out. He had a lot of pent up frustration, and not the angry kind. If it were the angry kind, he'd know what to do with it. This was different. He was convinced it had something to do with the drop in caffeine because he hadn't been this fucking wired since his academy days. Phck, even then, it wasn't this bad! He woke up hard almost every morning. Recently, that hadn't been a problem. What with their caseload being a little lighter at the moment, Nines had been staying at the precinct. It had been weird for the first few days, unpleasant even, but he couldn't keep taking him home like some sort of lost kitten.

He'd considered just going out and getting laid, but he was too tired most of the time. Between sparring with Nines, the drop in caffeine, regular working hours, and the unhealthy dose of nightmares, he just didn't feel like leaving the house. Not to go to some loud, crowded club to get groped and soaked in alcohol. He didn't even feel like going to one of the quieter bars like Jimmy's. But this is getting ridiculous! He turned away from Nines, his body soaked in sweat from their latest session. All Nines had to do was look at him funny and he'd swell these days! If Nines had noticed, he hadn't said anything. He never did. Small mercies.

"I'm going to hit the showers," Reed gasped as he bent over and rested his hands on his knees, hearing Nines give his usual agreement before they headed into the changing rooms. Reed couldn't say his mood had improved, but jerking off in the shower at least calmed him down a little. By the time he'd cleaned up and dressed, Nines was already back at his desk, typing away as if nothing had happened. That was fine with him. He took his seat and leaned back, crossing his legs beneath the desk as he idly flicked through a file. He grabbed a pen and started spinning it between his fingers. The motion and small taps were enough to draw Nines' blue eyes from his own terminal. This was a nervous tick of sorts, likely stemming from the higher stress. He would have said something to distract him, but the phone rang before he could. Reed sat forward and plucked the receiver with disinterest.

"Reed." He nodded and hummed to the person on the other end. Nines could have intercepted the call and listened in himself, but he knew it gave Reed a certain amount of satisfaction to impart details verbally. Green eyes met blue and flicked upwards, telling him to get to his feet. Reed followed moments later, still holding the receiver to his ear. "Uh-huh...Uh-huh, sure. Message me the address." He hung up and grabbed his cell phone.