There's No Business Like Show Business

108 8 1
                                    

Annie Get Your Gun – There's No Business Like Show Business

Taylor recognized the Chicken Feed as they pulled up to the curb and gave Connor a skeptical look. She wasn't quite sure why they hadn't just met the lieutenant at his house other than they might be closer to the precinct from here, but she wasn't about to argue. Proceeding from the taxi, she waited for Connor to join her on the sidewalk.

They were lucky the cabs were automated and still working. Not everyone had heeded the evacuation warning, certainly, but compared to the usual morning in Detroit, it certainly felt like a ghost town. Taylor had left her car parked at the hotel, so it would have been quite a long walk from her house to here.

Connor spotted Hank almost immediately, and she hung back as he made his way over. When the two of them hugged, she smiled. She'd had the inclination, during the case, that the two had grown closer, but she hadn't realized just how much of a bond the two had formed until now. It seemed that Hank wasn't as immune to Connor's charm as he made out to be.

"Hank said you two would be together. Guess he was right." Taylor turned at the sudden voice, noticing the figure leaning against one of the tables for the first time.

His normally meticulous black hair was unruly and falling into his eyes, looking like it hadn't even been brushed. A two-day-old stubble had collected on his face, aging his normally youthful appearance by several years. Dark circles were smudged under his eyes.

Her feet carried her toward him almost before she could process his presence, the intense look in his normally laughing eyes. She was nearly sprinting by the time she reached him, and she didn't care that she was throwing her full body weight into his arms. He caught her, either way, wrapping his long arms around her.

"Alex," Everything about him was familiar. She'd known him since she was ten years old. Clinging to him now, he felt like the only solid thing that had ever existed.

"You idiot," he grumbled when she started to cry, sighing into her hair. He held back though, didn't say I told you so, didn't start to lecture her. Just held her.

"I'm sorry," she said, over and over, her tears soaking into his coat. He didn't respond to her insistent apologies, and she couldn't see his face, but she felt she couldn't say it enough times for what she must have put him through in the past couple of weeks. When she pulled away, wiping at her eyes, he was frowning at her.

"You guys done?" Taylor looked over at Hank, who was eyeing the two of them with his arms crossed, disgruntled.

"Don't act like you're itching to get to work," she teased.

"Thanks to a certain android revolution, I have a shit ton of extra work to do." Hank complained. "So no, I'm not itching to get to work."

"Alright, alright, let's go."

"Who says you're coming? You don't work at the station anymore, remember?" He raised an eyebrow at her.

"I know, but I'm late for a date with Gavin Reed." She responded with a smile. Hank sputtered, and she laughed in turn. "I have to give a statement. You'll give me a ride, right?"

"Fine," he sighed. "Come on."

Connor, who had been observing the conversation, stepped forward and offered his hand to Alex to shake. Taylor watched Alex consider him, looking slightly perplexed, but he did reach out and shake Connor's hand. "My name is Connor."

She could almost see him hesitate, ready to say the second half of his usual introduction but remembering that he didn't belong to CyberLife anymore. Alex didn't seem to notice, for he just responded with, "Alex. I think you called me before."

Survivor - Connor x OCWhere stories live. Discover now