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It was a typical day in the precinct. Hank Anderson was grumbling about something. Connor Anderson was smiling about something. Captain Fowler was yelling about something. Civilians were complaining about something. And Gavin? Gavin was already having a migraine before shit hit the fan.
Even his bitter- ass coffee wasn’t helping, so Detective Gavin Reed downed an Advil. He grimaced as the already cold drink left an unpleasant taste in his mouth. The tired man rubbed his eyes, and slowly got out of his seat to grab himself a new cup of coffee.
As if he were in a trance, Gavin dragged himself to the break room, a stumbled to a stop in front of the precinct’s beloved coffee machine. The Detective lazily watched the dark liquid flow into his favourite mug as the throbbing in the side of his head intensified. He picked up his coffee, and went to pour some packets of sugar-
“Detective Reed, are you feeling alright?”
Gavin jumped, and consequently spilled the burning hot liquid all over his hand.
“Fuck!” Gavin quickly placed the mug on the table and dashed to run napkins under cold water. “Fuck fuck fuckfuckfuck…” He mumbled.
Gavin furiously dabbed at his steadily growing red hand as the person who called his name approached him once more.
“May I help you with that, Detective Reed?” Dammit, of course it was that plastic prick.
“Fuck off asshole, I don’t need your help!” Gavin snarled, but winced as his head throbbed in protest.
“Detective, you are showing the symptoms of a migraine, and first degree burns. I highly recommend you accept my assistance,”
“Shut the hell up, you overrated toaster!”
“Please, Detective, I only-”
“Connor!” Gavin jumped once more as Hank shouted towards the thing that was currently annoying him out of his wits. “I need you over here,”
“Coming, Lieutenant!” Connor called back enthusiastically. He then immediately left Gavin’s side, and bound towards the man who was looking at him with a fond expression.
To be honest, Gavin wasn’t sure when Connor had went from an it to a he in his mind. Maybe it was when Gavin saw the Android on TV, leading an army to defend his rights, maybe it was when Connor first walked into the precinct again with the biggest smile he’s ever seen on his face, maybe it was when he caught a glimpse of him sobbing in Anderson’s arms about something- Gavin hadn’t had the guts to ask- or maybe it was when he saw Elijah’s face on that damned magazine, and realized that the Robocop was nothing like the image he was sure Elijah had in his head when he decided to play god.
Don’t get Gavin wrong- he still hates Connor, but not because of his prejudice, or his opinion of his elder brother. He hated Connor because he was too damn happy! Gavin had never met a person who smiled nearly 24/7, and it was definitely unnerving, to say the least. He brought this up to Tina Chen, who responded with telling him that he was “just jealous! You’re incapable of feeling regular human emotions, so anytime someone displays the ability to be happy, the demon possessing your body convinces you to hate them!” Of course, Gavin responded to this by flipping the woman off and calling her a dirty little whore. She only laughed and sipped her coffee.
Gavin watched as the android happily chatted with the grumpy Lieutenant, and dabbed some more at his burn. He went and grabbed his mug that he left on the counter, and was silently thankful that nobody else had entered the break room while that shit went down. Finally, he got himself a cup of coffee- one cream and three sugar, yes he likes his coffee sweet, fuck off- and slid into his desk.
The case in front of him was honestly just fucking with his brain. Some stupid- ass kid decided that it would be fun to break into a store with their buddies. Of course, this damned, shady store has no cameras whatsoever, so the only word that Gavin got was from the store’s manager, who Gavin was 75% sure was smoking something illegal before he entered the crime scene.
He dropped his head into his hand and let out an abnormally loud grumble. His migraine was only getting worse. His hand stung. There was literally nothing that could make this day wor-
“Gavin!”
Oh god. No…
Connor approached him, with two people standing behind him.
“Hello, Detective! How’s your hand?”
“I… wha-?” Gavin couldn’t form words.
“You have visitors! These people said that they’re your parents…?” Connor waited a moment, most likely for Gavin to speak up, but once it was clear that the man was not opening his mouth, the android cleared his throat and shuffled away, leaving Gavin and his ‘visitors’ alone.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Gavin finally whispered.
“Son, we only wanted to see-” He tried to say. Gavin cut him off.
“Yeah- fucking- right. What do you want?” The Detective growled. How dare they come here? How dare they? She sighed.
“We need your help. There’s a problem, and some people have accused us of using some… illegal things. We only want your help clearing this up,” He put his hand on Gavin’s shoulder. His calloused hand gripped a little tighter than necessary-
Gavin screamed.
Why was he hurting him?
“Dad! Please, stop!”
“Mom it hurts!”
“Shut the hell up, brat!”
He couldn’t stop the tears from rolling down his face.
His arm was slowly growing darker and bluer where his father had- oh god, oh god oh god-
“Don’t fucking touch me!” Gavin hissed. A couple heads turned in their direction. He quickly lifted his hand off of Gavin’s shoulder. She sent him her warning look.
Gavin didn’t wimper. He didn’t fucking wimper.
“God I cannot fucking deal-” He didn’t sob, dammit! “Fuck!” Gavin stumbled out of his chair and basically sprinted to, well, anywhere. Anywhere away from his goddamn parents.
Gavin slammed the bathroom door behind him, and immediately collapsed on the floor. His breathing picked up- he couldn’t feel his arms- what were they doing here- he was choking- he couldn’t breath he was going to die he was going to die hewasgoingtodieohgodhelp-
“Yes, good. C’mon kid, breath in,” Somebody breathed in through their nose beside him. Gavin struggled to match his breath. “And out. You’re doing great, Reed. It’s gonna be alright,” Another deep breath. Gavin copied, and slowly began to gain awareness of his surroundings.
“What the hell?” Gavin’s voice was raspy. Dammit, of course he had a fucking panic attack. How long was it going on for?
The person who helped him let out a relieved chuckle. “You sure gave us a scare, kid!”
Gavin blinked a couple times, and looked up at… Hank? The man was still clutching the Detective’s arm, and was grinning at him. Connor was standing behind him, and so was Chris and Tina.
“Ah, get the fuck off me, Anderson,” Gavin tried to snap. There was no real threat in the words. To be frank, Gavin truly appreciated the man in that moment. Hank didn’t hesitate in releasing his arm, but instead of backing off, the Lieutenant shifted from his squatting position in front of him to a sitting position beside him. He nodded towards Connor, who immediately understood what the man was saying, and ushered some of Gavin’s only friends out of the bathroom.
“What happened, Reed?” Hank asked, looking at him with a serious, concerned expression.
“I don’t… I can’t… They…” Gavin's tongue turned to lead once more . No words would come out. Hank sighed.
“I’m gonna be blunt here, kid. Were they abusive?” Gavin gulped. Finally, he nodded. Hank squeezed his eyes shut.
“Damn… okay, uh, we have them arrested, but we can’t really do anything further unless you confirm that they hurt you. Can you… can you do that?”
“No!” Gavin shouted almost immediately. “You can’t! It’ll ruin Elijah’s reputation, we can’t do that to him-”
“Hold on, hold on. Who’s Elijah?” Shit. Gavin’s already said too much.
“My brother,” He answered slowly.
“You have a brother?” Hank looked surprised.
“Yeah, and he’s a dick,” Gavin bitterly mumbled.
Hank took a long, hard look at him.
“It’s Kamski, isn’t it?” Gavin flinched, and then glared at the man. He began to protest, but Hank cut him off. “Okay, so it is. That’s why you hate androids?”
Gavin only nodded.
“Alright. Alright, kid, let’s get out of here. You can head outside and take a walk. I’m going to go sort this out,” Hank stood up, and offered a hand to the Detective.
Gavin gratefully accepted the help, and stood up. He walked out of the bathroom, with Hank by his side. His back was ramrod straight, and the only thing he looked at were the glass doors straight ahead of him. There was an uprising of shouts behind him.
“Gavin! Son, please, come here! What did you say? Gavin?!”
Gavin Reed didn’t look back.