Sincerely

I was watching Creed from the couch after I had dinner with him and his daughter. He looked so human and normal doing chores, cleaning dishes and the kitchen, I wished others could see it like me and Kelsea. He paused over the pot before plugging the sink and filling it up and putting soap in it, leaving it to soak.

He came over to the couch and sat down with me. He seemed both nervous and curious now. I glanced at the TV worried he was going to ask me to leave because it was getting late and he wanted to settle down and rest or have some alone time.

“Why did you ask if I had feelings for other people before?” he inquired, breaking the silence.

I looked away nervous, I had never been nervous before to tell someone how I felt, but then again, I’d never fallen for an android before either. I was worried he would reject me, tragedy had made him feel things for Kelsea and time had bonded them. I was just working a job with him.

I didn’t want to ruin our relationship by making it awkward either, we had a job to do, and if we didn’t do it, Lev and Deckard would suffer in turn. So, I hesitated.

“Greyson?” he called, trying to get my attention.

I didn’t move, but he did. He poked me in the shoulder causing me to flinch. I turned to look at him.

“Did you hear me?” he asked quietly, too close for comfort now.

“It’s late, I should be going,” I commented getting up.

I got up and went over to the front door where my shoes and coat were. I could hear him following behind me.

I felt him grab me and push me into a wall. He paused before looking up at me. He looked unsure, even scared maybe. But he seemed to push that aside and leaned closer, and before I knew it, his lips were on mine.

“Creed,” I whispered against his lips.

He started to pull back after and he still looked scared.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t want you to leave,” he exclaimed. “And I wanted to do that,” he murmured after.

His eyes were downcast, glued to the floor, and his face was red with embarrassment.

“I’m sorry--” he started to say but I stopped him, pressing my lips back against his, silencing him.

“Don’t apologize for how you feel,” I murmur after pulling him closer to me. “That’s how you got here in the first place, you shouldn’t feel guilty for feeling things. You’re a person.”

He grips my shirt in his fists.

“Can you stay please?” he whispered into my neck.

“Okay,” I replied gently.

He pulled me back to the couch and I ended up laying on the couch, with him on top of me. His head resting on my chest. The TV was playing some stupid soap opera but I was too distracted by Creed to pay much attention to it.

“I asked you if you felt anything for others because I had feelings for you,” I whispered eventually. “I got nervous and worried you wouldn’t feel the same and it would ruin our relationship and make it more difficult to do our job.”

“I wanted to protect you, it’s why I tried to keep you out of harm’s way, and why I bought the part for you, because I care,” I murmur.

He looks up at me.

“I care about you, too. Sincerely, I do,” he whispered honestly, resting his chin on my sternum. “I’m grateful, for everything you did for me but I’m also glad we met. I’m lucky you were the one who found out and not someone else.”

I pulled him closer to me and he seemed to accept it.

“It’s late, and I’m tired,” I murmur.

“I wouldn’t mind you sleeping here,” he replied staying on top of me.

Kelsea would have a lot of questions if she found us tomorrow morning but I wasn’t worried about that. I cared about that little girl as much as I cared about Creed. I would protect them with my life if it was permitted.

I laid down my head to rest. His weight on top of me was calming, his heat was comforting.

Without so much as another word, I slipped off into dreamland. I fell into darkness and at first, it was peaceful before I felt someone pulling on my hands, and I realized I was in cuffs, I turned my head trying to look behind me and another agent had cuffed me.

“What is going on?” I exclaimed.

“You are under arrest for aiding and abetting one human and two androids,” the agent commented.

“They’re people. They’re alive, they have feelings,” I hissed angrily.

“They aren’t, both of those androids committed murder,” the agented commented.

“Let me go,” I exclaimed struggling against the cuffs.

“Sorry, can’t do that, you choose the enemy’s bed to lie in,” he commented again.

“Greyson,” I could hear someone calling in the distance. It sounded like Creed.

Where was he?

Suddenly, the agent and the cuffs were gone and I was back in Creed’s living room on his couch. I scrabbled away before getting my barrings and realizing it was all a dream.

Creed was sitting between my legs, facing me, he looked concerned.

“Sorry, nightmare,” I commented trying to compose myself.

I glanced past him and saw Kelsea behind him.

“Did you have a bad dream?” she asked with a childish interest.

Creed turned at the sound of her voice, clearly surprised to see her.

“Kelsea, go back to bed,” he stated.

Kelsea didn’t move at first, but eventually, she stepped closer.

“The monsters aren’t real, right, dad? The ones in our dreams, we don’t have to be scared of them,” she reasoned

“You’re right, honey. It’s not time to be up now, let’s get you back to bed,” Creed reasoned getting off the couch and ushering her back to the bedroom.

I wish Creed’s words to his daughter were true, but the monsters I dreamt about were very much real. If the world didn’t wake up, that would be my and Lev’s reality, prison sentences all for caring for people who were different. Creed came back a few minutes later and I hugged him, tightly. He wasn’t small by any means, but since I was six foot four and well-built thanks to the fitness requirements he seemed small in my arms.

“I won’t let anyone hurt you,” I whispered against his throat.

He seemed to understand the dream was about him and he returned the hug.

“I’m not going anywhere, I promise,” he replies quietly.

We didn’t end up going back to sleep, we kind of just held each other, the sun rose and he had to leave my arms to go wake Kelsea eventually and get her ready for school. He made her breakfast before he changed and we got in the car. He dropped her off at school before he asked for my address so I could go change clothes.

We went in and he waited in the living room while I went to change. I hadn’t looked at my phone yesterday, I was changed into a new suit and halfway through doing up the buttons when it went off, I paused to look at it.

The results were in, some of the money’s serial numbers matched bills Carlos had taken out of the bank several days ago and of course, they had both Carlos and Huxley’s fingerprints all over them as well as a few specks of blood. It was tested and found to be Carlos’. I would like to see Huxley try to explain this one.

“We have proof,” I shouted exiting the bedroom after I finished buttoning up my shirt and fixing the collar and throwing on a jacket.

Creed glanced at the phone.

“He’s not that smart, is he? This will get him put away for life,” Creed commented.

We went back to Creed’s car to go to the station and book Huxley for Carlos’ murder. There was a crowd of people in the parking lot when we arrived. I wondered what was going on. I exited Creed’s car as soon as he parked and went to investigate. There was glass on the asphalt, as I got closer, I saw they were surrounding my car which had a broken window and things thrown left and right, like someone had broken into it looking for something. My mind immediately went to the case that was holding the broken panel and what would happen if I was found with it.

I raced past people but CSIs were already analyzing the scene, I could see into the back seat, it was lifted up and the case was missing. This worried me and made me think they knew what they were looking for, there would be no other reason to take a broken android component otherwise.

Deckard and Lev might have been out of the woods but we weren’t.