Accident Prone - Becoming Human

Reassurance

Resuming a normal life was proving itself to be more difficult than expected. Connor stood in the middle of the kitchen with his arms folded over his chest as he leaned back against the kitchen countertop with his eyes closed and his ears focused on the sound of coffee marker brewing with a steady hum on the neighboring counter. Normally Connor was wide awake, fully alert and going through his routine promptly at seven in the morning every morning he had to work, but it was only six fifteen and Connor was unable to sleep a little longer courtesy of his frequent and vivid nightmares that had been plaguing him for two weeks.

The lack of sleep was beginning to show as Connor's mood dipped with each passing day and his energy levels began to dwindle. It seemed as if insomnia and night terrors were just as damaging to deviants as they were to humans.

"Connor?" Hank walked into the kitchen with his right hand running through his bed-headed messy hair and let out a sleepy yawn as he addressed the young deviant under his care. "Why are you awake so early?"

"I couldn't sleep."

"Another nightmare?"

Connor nodded as he opened his eyes and looked over to the senior detective standing a few feet away. "Yes. I've attempted to go back to sleep three previous times but I was unable to properly return to rest mode."

"Same nightmare as before?"

"No. This one was different."

"Want to talk about it?"

"No. I'm aware that nightmares are common after enduring traumatic events. They'll stop soon enough."

Dropping his hand from his hair Hank sighed and gave Connor a sympathetic stare. "Want to call off work today or report in a couple hours late so you can try to sleep again?"

"I'm okay. It's been two weeks since I struck the suspect and I haven't had any incidents since my return in that time." Connor heard Sumo scratching at the backdoor and made a move to let him back inside the house as he continued to speak with Hank. "The nightmares are becoming less frequent as well."

"But you're still having them."

"Correct." Connor opened the door and Sumo barrelled back inside and went right to his already filled food bowl to chow down. "I'm not experiencing any delusions or hallucinations during my waking hours, if that's what you're worried about."

"No, but I am worried you aren't getting enough sleep." The coffee brewer lit up with a small blue light and shut itself off automatically. "Unlike me, who can fall back on some coffee to keep me awake, you don't have that luxury."

"You should reduce your caffeine intake altogether. With only one functioning kidney-"

Hank held up a 'shushing' left hand to stop Connor's lecture as he prevented the deviant from trying to change the subject. "We're not talking about me, we're talking about you. Don't try to deflect."

"I'm running at optimal parameters and at full power. Androids don't suffer ill effects from a lack of sleep, only low energy that can be easily remedied through manually activated rest mode or by entering low power mode."

"Okay, whatever you say." Hank dropped his hand and turned around to head back down the hallway toward the bathroom. "I'm going to shower off and get ready for work."

"But you don't have to be awake until-"

"I know, but I'm already up." Hank grumbled as he made his way into the bathroom and turned on the light. "Might as well make use of it."

Connor was unsure of what Hank meant by that but decided that he would do something productive while Hank was in the shower and proceeded to make a light breakfast for Hank to try to encourage the senior detective to have more than just one cup of coffee in the morning. Sumo was immediately at Connor's side as he prepared the early morning meal, but Connor refrained from letting the energetic young dog have any of the scraps from the frying pan.