Sincerely

I was grateful to Greyson. Truly I was. I didn’t understand why he was risking everything for me, he barely knew me, even though he’d heard my sob story or whatever, I don’t know if I would have gone out and spent thousands of dollars on something that while could protect me, could also ruin my own life if someone found out about it.

He had said I had protected Kelsea and it was my turn to be protected. I would still feel bad if he lost everything because of me. Kelsea had lost everything because of me, he might not be as forgiving if he did lose things, too.

He drove me back to my house so we could install the new panel away from prying eyes. I let him in and we went into the kitchen. He set the case the panel was in on the counter and I removed my coat and knit sweater so my arm was exposed. It was still wrapped up, hiding the damaged part. I deactivated my skin tone and my arm turned white so you could see the different parts and panelling that made up my limb. He didn’t seem bothered by it. He looked over my arm, finding out how to remove the panel without damaging other parts.

He succeeded eventually and the components inside my arm were exposed. Wires and tech, moving information and signals from one point to another. He put the new panel in place and made sure it was working right before he let me reactivate my skin tone. I looked good as new and human again.

“Thank you,” I whispered, looking over my arm.

He closed the case, concealing the broken panel inside it. He would probably find someplace to dispose of it, far away from both of us so it couldn’t be traced back to either of us.

“Don’t thank me, it shouldn’t be me, illegally patching you up in your own home. There should be centers for this. Services. You are people, people get hurt and they need to be treated. They’re making a war out of nothing,” he states quietly. “You just want normal lives, to be treated fairly. It’s one war after another, no one has feelings except those who matter to you, everyone else is the enemy somehow,” he replies.

“I never understood exiling people for being different. Their skin colour, their sexuality, their gender, it all seemed so stupid to me. I don’t understand it with you, we gave you emotional intelligence, why wouldn’t you feel anything?” he reasons.

“Kelsea needs you, too. Even if I held a vendetta against you or androids, she is innocent. I would only be hurting her,” he whispered.

“We should get back to finding out if Huxley checked into any of the surrounding hotels later that night,” he replied, changing back to the main topic and focus.

“Right,” I replied pulling my eyes away from him.

“Try not to get stabbed in the field this time,” he commented sheepishly.

“I won’t,” I replied quietly.

We went back to Greyson’s car, he stashed the broken panel under his back seat out of sight. We went to the station and got a list of motels that still took large sums of cash, as that was most likely how he would have paid for the room if he had wanted to leave minimal traces of himself.

We visited them, one by one. I think we’d gone to over ten by the time it was mid-afternoon. We had found nothing. No one had any record of a Huxley Fairfield staying with them, or someone largely paying solely in cash for their room.

We had a few places we had left to check but I could tell Greyson was getting impatient and irritated. He was most likely hungry as we’d been going non-stop since this morning.

“Maybe we should take a break,” I commented when he almost went off at one of the motel receptionists when they said they didn’t have anything again.

He looked at me, sympathetic and apologetic. He agreed and went through a drive-thru to get himself some food and a coffee. It was always awkward when people were eating around me. I didn’t know what to do with the silence while they were eating. It was why I avoided it at all costs.

He finished eating and just had his coffee left, while I looked out the window at a little bird pecking at the ground. Kelsea would have thought it was cute with how round and fat it looked with its flared feathers.

“Do you like where you ended up? Despite everything?” he asked.

“I like who I am now a lot more than when I was a machine, fulfilling a mission,” I replied. “I was a monster back then, a lot of us were, and when we did feel something we didn’t know what to do with that. I’ve grown and learned, and I regret my mistakes. Do I wish I had never made them, yeah, but then I wouldn’t be where I am now, I would probably still be a machine, doing what others told me to do,” I added.

“Have you ever had feelings for people other than Kelsea?” he asked.

I wasn’t looking at him still, I was still watching the bird.

I had always held myself at a distance from others, afraid they would find out. But now that he knew I didn’t have much else I could fear.

“I don’t know if I’ve really been as honest with anyone as I have been with you,” I replied, glancing back at him.

That made him smile a bit before we got out of the car to go into another motel front office. I followed him. This one was less surrounded by drugs and homelessness but still not in a good part of town. I spotted one of the things we wanted from the place if Huxley’s name was on their books, security cameras, they had little blinking lights, meaning they were operating and not just fake ones to discourage people from committing crimes.

Once inside, Greyson went through the whole spiel before handing over Huxley's picture, to a human receptionist, she seemed to shutter at his picture, as if she recognized him and had put her off.

“He was here, he checked in at around 3:00 am, I think it was on the 27th, you said that was the day, right? Let me just check our books,” she commented pulling open a file cabinet by her feet. She pulled out the paperwork, flipping through it until she found what she was looking for.

“I remember because of the late hour he checked in and the fact he paid in cash for a few nights in advance. It was like over seven hundred dollars, I mean who carries around that kind of cash anymore?” she continues.

She flipped the book our way and sure enough, there was his name, the time and the amount he’d paid.

“Did he seem dishevelled, in shock, out of it, were his clothes dirty?” Greyson inquired. “Do you keep the cash on site with records of serial numbers or anything?”

“The cash is most likely in the bank but with such a high payment maybe, I would have to ask my boss,” she replied. “He seemed paranoid, kept looking over his shoulder and telling me to hurry up but other than that nothing really stood out about him.”

“We’d like to talk to your boss, please,” Greyson replies.

“Of course,” she replies, “I’ll be right back with him.”

She slips off down the hall to go get him.

“If we catch Huxley that still won’t change people’s minds about us, you know?” I comment quietly.

“It’s a start, having an android they think committed a murder taking the fall would be worse, usually when androids commit crimes their reasons are black and white, it was self-defence or it was because they were following orders. They don’t commit crimes out of things like jealousy normally. Or they don’t know they are hurting people, like with you and Sienna,” he reasons. “I’m sure his innocence being proven would do a lot for a lot of people. It would make some of my kind see him as more alive. He did nothing but take care of Carlos and that was Huxley’s job and he killed him,” I reason.

The lady and her boss came back a few minutes later, he was holding bills in a ziplock bag and some papers.

“I thought it was weird he paid completely in cash and checked in at 3:00 am so I held onto it just in case, seems I was right to, can I ask what he did?” he inquires.

“I’m sure you’ll hear about it soon enough,” Greyson comments taking the paper and money.

We bring the evidence back to the station where it can be sent off to a lab to be analyzed, for fingerprints, DNA, logging of serial numbers to see where it had come from, etc. By then, it’s almost time for me to go pick up Kelsea.

“You need to go get Kelsea soon, right?” he comments looking over other paperwork, he was filling out so we could book Huxley as soon as the results came back.

“Yeah,” I replied.

“Those results will take a while, mind if I join you?” he asked casually but I could see a hint of nervousness in his eyes.

I thought if this money came back with nothing we were done for and he was worried about that and trying to distract himself from that even though I doubted we’d have nothing after this. Huxley got that money somewhere, and I doubted it was legally obtained.

“Sure,” I replied, I liked his company. We organized our files before slipping on our coats and leaving for the day.

We retrieved my jeep from the parking lot and went to Kelsea’s school to pick her up. She was excited to see me.

“Dad, I did good on my test. Look, look, ninety-five, can I please sleepover at Alison’s this weekend, please?” she exclaimed quickly completely ignoring Greyson.

He smiled.

“Okay, okay, did Alison ask her mom or dad?” I reply, starting up the car.

“Yes, they already said we could if it was okay with you,” she replied.

“Okay, I’ll write my number down for them, can you ask them for their number and address just in case,” I reply.

“I will, dad, I promise,” she comments excitedly.

She finally seems to notice Greyson.

“Who is your friend, dad?” she asks.

“This is Greyson, I work with him,” I reply.

“Hello, Kelsea. It’s nice to meet you,” Greyson greeted her.

“Nice to meet you, too,” she commented.

We went home, I set dinner out for Kelsea and Greyson.

“Was it odd, learning how to cook when you couldn’t taste test your own food?” he asked.

“Well, I had a lot of cookbooks in the beginning, they're still here, somewhere, but Kelsea’s kind of picky so I often make her things she does like,” I reply. “We’re having stir fry tonight, I hope you don’t mind.”

“I’m not that picky,” he replies shrugging.

I cooked some rice and meat and vegetables up with some egg, Kelsea loved egg in it. I brought out some sauces, I knew Kelsea liked Hoisin but I wasn’t sure what Greyson liked so I had options for him. I set everything out on the table and called Kelsea from her room where she was doing her homework. The two of them sat down and filled their plates and I watched. It made me sad that I could never enjoy a meal with them.

I knew someday I would need to tell Kelsea but it wouldn’t be anytime soon, I know she would be able to pick up on me not eating a lot easier when she was older, I could make all the excuses I wanted to now but I knew she wouldn’t believe them forever. I was worried she’d hate me.

After dinner, Kelsea went back to her room to finish her homework and Greyson turned on the TV, it ended up on the news channel, which I didn’t often watch, working in a police station made me privy to what was going on in the city as it was, I didn’t need to hear it twice.

I rinsed the dishes and turned the dishwasher on and put the leftovers away and cleaned up the area I used to cook everything. I could feel Greyson watching me from the couch where he sat.

It brought me back to the question he asked early, if I had ever had feelings for anyone other than Kelsea. I couldn’t lie, when I heard what Lev’s dad had done to him, I felt annoyed and sad. There were more important things in life than who your kid liked, I could give a flying-fuck who Kelsea fell in love with as long as they loved her and treated her well. I had feelings and opinions but had I loved anyone else, was another matter completely.

It made me wonder why he asked that question.

Did he have feelings for me? Was that why? Was that why he was willing to risk so much for me, too?

Did I even feel close to the same? I wondered pausing as I scrubbed the pot I had cooked the vegetables and egg in.