Deviant Behavior (Connor x Reader)

Part III: Disconnect Command

"Guess it doesn't matter..." Hank sighed, "Either way, you did the right thing. Minus the whole temper tantrum at the end. Could've done without that."

Connor scowled. His elbow planted itself on the armrest, and the back of his chair bumped your knees as he adjusted himself. You pulled back, rigid with every muscle tight as you jammed your hands in your pockets.

"We got what we came for, regardless...So much for a 'need to know basis, huh?'" Hank chuckled under his breath.

Your jaw tightened, and you kept your vision locked to the snowy blurs outside.

"Look, kid...It's okay to be upset. That shit weirded me out...I can't imagine-"

"No." Your fingernails dug deep in your palms, hands balled in fists, "You can't."

"I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation here," He said your last name, and your head whipped around, "If what you wrote put this whole thing in motion, you're at risk for liability. Accessory. Fucking-"

"I know, Hank." Your eyes began to well again, "I know..."

Connor shifted, and it shook the seat in front of you. You pursed your lips, trying to move farther away.

"Let's start with something small, then. Work our way up." He leaned back in his seat, "How did you meet?"

You were his escape from the media. The pressure. Everything. Just a normal girl who wanted to get to know Elijah Kamski, not the rising star everyone wanted him to be.

"By chance, back when we were young." You swallowed, "I lived with my family in the house I grew up in. Our neighbors were friends of his parents. The Kamksi family visited them one day, and..."

You sucked in the rest of the memory, holding it captive. You couldn't go back that far. Not here, not now.

Not ever.

He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, "What was he like?"

You wanted to tell him how awkward this was with Connor in the car. How badly you didn't want to keep this going. So, you simplified things.

"He had such a bleak understanding about the world...Had it broken down into algorithms, and statistics. It was stripped bare...so I tried to teach him the beauty of it all. Art, music, creative literature – let him explore..." You frowned, "I just wanted him to be happy. He was doing so much for 'us,' as a collective...He deserved a bit of peace."

No amount of simplicity could stop the crying you'd found yourself doing much too often.

"And I watched him grow into a man. One I helped shape, and then one I let be manipulated and twisted into a..." You choked, "A machine. A being without empathy. Someone who reflected all the cold characteristics that he pinned on his creations."

You gave a hopeless smirk to the blizzard at the irony of it all. Like how it took an android – Connor, to remind him how to be human.

"Amanda Stern was an Artificial Intelligence Professor at Colbridge. Ambitious as she was, she sucked the life out of him, again. Put distance between him and I, strained his friendship with Carl after we'd met him at one of his galleries..." Your brows tightened, "Elijah resented me when I became a...an 'uncontrolled variable.' The thing in is life that didn't fit his formulas and charts. So, he tried to get me to fit. Tried to get everyone – everything, to fit. He couldn't. And that lack of parameters...that's what turned him into what he is today."

"If things were that bad, why'd you deal with it for so long?"

"I was convinced it was my fault. He made me feel like I let him down. And when I tried to fix it – when I tried to correct the spiral he was sending the world into...I only made it worse." You looked out the window, "I didn't know how much worse, until today..."