A Learning Experience (Connor x OC)

Chapter 12- Crossroads

The blaring, breaking news coming from the tv drowned her entire home with its sense of urgency, and fear coming from the reporter. An attack had been ordered on Jericho. Helicopters and drones swarmed the ship, shining intense lights on the scene, scouring and finding every last android on it . Soldiers could be seen breaking down doors and shooting anything that moved in the place. It wasn't an attack...it looked like a goddamn massacre.

She and Hank stayed silent throughout the whole thing, watching as androids poured out of the ship, running away in all directions, fearing for their lives. And the soldiers were absolutely merciless. The bodies were scattered about, blue blood spilled everywhere. In what world was this just?

And to make matters worse, what happened next made her weak in the knees. Jericho exploded. Actually burst into flames. Thousands of androids fell into the water as the blast set the entire ship into flame, it was terrifying sight.

"Holy shit..." Hank breathed out.

"This is inhumane...this isn't right," Margaret choked out.

She buried her face in her hands as the news kept blurting everything happening in real time. Her heart sank as she thought about every worse possibility she think of.

"Hey, look I'm sure Connor's fine, he can take care of himself," Hank pats her back.

"Please...can you just make me some tea, Hank?" She tells him softly. She points a shaking hand at her kitchen, "The machine will make it automatically..."

"Uh, sure, kid," Hank gets up and makes his way to the kitchen.

She still has her head buried in her hands, trying to ignore the invading thoughts and treacherous emotions get the best of her. She dug her palms into her eyes to prevent any tears from falling out. But it was no use, now her hand became wet from her tears, and the tremble from her body could not longer be held back.

Hank placed the tea in front of her with a quiet clink and sat next to her once again.

"Look, I'm not good at comforting others, but uh, I think everything will work out. Bad things are bound to happen, but there's usually something good that comes out of it," he says in such a father-like way.

She finally looks up at him with puffy and bloodshot eyes, "Y-You think so?" She falters in her words.

"People all over the city are watching this. Not everyone hates androids. They keep seeing the shit they're doing, they'll eventually realize this ain't right."

She reaches over to her tea cup and relishes in the warmth enveloping her hand. She takes a small sip and smiles at Hank. "Thank you for the tea. It tastes wonderful."

Hank returns her smile with an awkward one and nods. "Yeah, I just kinda punched in whatever looked right. I don't know much about technology," He sheepishly admits.

"Really? You seem to handle Connor pretty well," she jabs at him.

"Yeah fucking right. I have to stop him before he licks everything in the goddamn crime scene," he jokes back.

She snorts and chuckles at the Lieutenant's frustration. "I suppose that's true. Licking evidence is a strange feature they added to him."

"CyberLife is full of fucking weirdos."

She gives him a side glance and rolls her eyes, "I'll try and pretend I didn't hear that."

"Hey, I ain't lying with that shit!"

The two bickered and talked the rest of the night, trying to forget the tragedy that happened a few minutes ago. It wasn't exactly the standard therapy session, but it made her feel better, and Hank seemed more at ease than recently.

Two sharp quick knocks on the door alerted them. Who could be knocking at this hour when the streets of Detroit were completely bare?

Hank stood up at walked slowly over to the door and opened it with care. At the door stood the person she had been worried about all night.

"Connor..." she whispered in disbelief.

Connor walked in without a word, just a solemn expression on his face and his hands gripped into fists.

"The hell's wrong with you, Connor? You gonna tell what the hell happened back there," Hank said freaked out by Connor's lack of response.

Connor remained tight-lipped and kept his head held down low.

"For fuck's sake, Connor! You've had Margaret worrying all night cause of you. Least you can do is say something!" Hank shouts at Connor.

His head snaps up and his eyes lock on to hers. He takes notice of her worried expression and bloodshot eyes. She had been crying...

"I'm sorry, Hank. A lot has happened tonight. I've noticed many things about myself and everything I've done in the past. The leader, Markus, he made realize it all," he finally says.

"So you saying you're finally deviant?" Hank crosses his arms and gives him a doubtful look.

"I...think I am. I think I always was," he turns to face Margaret, "I just didn't want to admit it."

Margaret smiles weakly at his confession. Finally...he finally understood.

"I was so scared, Connor. I believed in you, but when Hank and I saw Jericho explode... I just assumed the worst," she wrung her hands together, "the thought of never seeing you again...I can't," she shook her head, "I couldn't."

Connor walked over to where Margaret was sitting and sat down close to her. He reach over and slowly grabbed her arm reassuringly. Margaret looked up in surprise at Connor's sudden caring touch.

"I'm sorry, Margaret. For everything I've done. The person I was before, that wasn't me," Connor squeezed her arm to console her, "After this is all over, I'd like to start once again with our friendship. I feel like I owe it to you and Hank," he spills his feelings.

Margaret smiled at him warmly and looked at him with loving eyes. He sounded so sincere and kind. The few moments in which Connor showed emotion, warmed her heart, and made her heart beat just a little bit faster.

"Of course, Connor. We'll start over, and get this through this together," she agreed.

Meanwhile, Hank watched the two of them have a heartfelt conversation, and he couldn't help but smile at the growth from the both of them. To think he couldn't tolerate either of them at the very beginning, but now here he was, watching them as they melted his old man heart.

"I do need to tell you the both of you something , however," Connor interjected in the heartfelt moment.

"What is it?" Margaret asked.

Connor looked at both of them, with a subtle fear in his eyes.

"I need to infiltrate CyberLife," he admits.

"Connor that's-" Hank immediately tries to remove that thought from Connor's head.

"And Margaret needs to come with me," he finishes.