Mentions of blood warning

Tina Chen was already waiting sitting on her and Gavin's usual cafeteria's terrace with coffee in front of her when Gavin and Nines showed up. Her face lit up slightly as usual, but she raised an eyebrow at the android accompanying Gavin. "What's up Gavin? Forgot to leave your android at the station yesterday?"

Gavin shook his head, but hugged Tina shortly as she stood up. "He was helping me with some investigation and I didn't feel like driving him to the station, so I let him stay at my place."

"Uh-huh." She said with a weird look on her face as she sat down again. "So, you said you wanted to talk about something and I'm guessing it'll take long, so you should take a seat."

"Oh how generous of you. I would've thought all the seats were reserved for you." He remarked with sarcasm, but still sat down next to her. He noticed the android was still standing around and motioned to the last empty chair at the table. "The chairs don't bite you know."

Nines sat down as well, a little closer to Gavin. "I am well aware of that, detective."

Gavin pulled his attention back to Tina who was frowning slightly at the two of them. "Gavin? Are you.. feeling alright?"

He lifted his brow, surprised. "Should I not be?"

Tina shook her head and turned the cup in her hands. "No, whatever." She lifted her sharp eyes at him again. "So, what was it you wanted to talk about?"

"Well, your team got a case few days ago, right? Some kind of gang shooting." he started carefully.

"Yeah.." She dragged out the word looking at him quizzicaly and taking a sip of her drink.

"In the general report, there has been a detail that could help in my latest case. It was about the attackers and I need to talk to the man." He finished stating his request and held his breath, hoping, Tina will grant it.

Tina set down her cup and raised her eyebrows at him. "Gavin, he's in hospital. We finished our questioning and you shouldn'it bother him anymore."

He leaned forward propping his elbows on the table. "Tina, this is important. I just need to ask him a few questions."

"He's not the only one attacked, you can wait untill others are well enough to be questioned."

"I can't wait that long Tina." He was getting slightly agitated.

Tina sighed. "Gavin, I can't let you talk to him. I'm sorry."

Gavin defeatedly slumped back in his chair. Knowing his friend, she wouldn't let him have his way, she was more stubborn than him. Suddenly, the android spoke up as well. "Could we at least see the crime scene, before it's completely cleaned up?" Gavin perked up a little at that, looking expectantly at Tina who seemed to be thinking.

After a painfully long while, she spoke. "Alright, I suppose I could do that."

"That's great!"

"But I need to talk to you." She shot a glare towards the android. "Alone."

Nines understood the message and stood up, straightening out his clothes. "I will be waiting by the motorcycle, detective."

She waited until Nines was out of sight and then gave Gavin a scrutinizing glare. "Gavin, what do you think you're doing?"

He lifted one eyebrow. "Uh, my job?"

She shook her head. "Not that. I'm talking about the tin can."

Gavin furrowed his eyebrows, very much confused. "I have no idea what the fuck you're talking about."

"I'm talking about how you're treating him. Just a few months ago, you hated androids and now you're all buddy-buddy with this one. What the hell came over you?"

"I'm not buddy-buddy with him. You're spewing nonsense." He said angrily.

She groaned, getting angry as well. "Listen to yourself! It's a machine and you're treating it like a human, even calling it by a nickname!"

"Calling him RK900 is annoying! Nines is much easier." he defended himself, refusing to acknowledge anything she was saying.

She covered her eyes, sighing. "Jesus, this is gonna end bad. You're not listening to me at all!"

"What you're saying is bullshit!" He barked at her so loudly, people were starting to turn and stare at them.

Tina looked around and lowered her voice. "Gavin, I'm just worried about you."

"I'm fine." He bit back shortly.

She sighed and shook her head, downing the rest of her coffee. "I'll send the document and authorisation to enter to your e-mail."

"Thank you, Tina." He said, finally calmly, glad he at least got everything he wanted.

"Well, I'd better go. See you later Gavin." She stood up, Gavin following her.

"See you too." They hugged shortly and went their seperate ways. Gavin went to get his motorbike and almost ran into Nines, when he turned the corner. Nines grabbed his arm to help him find his footing and not fall over. "Fuck! You scared me."

"I apologise, detective." Said the android in a stern voice, which made Gavin scrutinize him.

"You heard everything, didn't you?" He asked, already suspecting the answer.

"My hearing is in perfect condition." Sounded the short evasive answer.

Gavin sighed and scratched the back of his head. "Look, she doesn't know, what she's talking about."

"You don't have to apologise, she's right. I am not human and therefore have no human emotions that could be hurt." Gavin realized, that it sounded like a big fucking lie, which actually scared him a little, when he realized the implications. He still decided to ignore it.

"Oh here we go again with the depressing talk. Didn't I tell you not to talk like that?"

The android, as if just now realizing, widened his eyes. "I apologise, it will not happen again."

"It better not. Now let's go, I have to actually get to work, before we can check out the place." They silently got onto the motorcycle and drove to work. No one except Chris greeted them as usual and he just went to his desk as if he didn't come to work almost six hours later than normally, which he figured would be a big deal, but it seems no one cared. As long as Fowler wasn't screaming his lungs out, everything was in perfect order. He turned on his computer and jokingly remarked to the android who, of course, followed him. "Well, now that you have access to my e-mail, I'd better change my password, huh?"

"The password was incredibly simple, so a change was neccessary sooner or later."

Gavin barked out a quiet laugh. "Fuck you." He said non-chalantly and opened his e-mail without changing the password. Surprisingly, Tina had already sent him a mail with the personal permit to enter the premises of the crime scene. He downloaded a screenshot of the form onto his phone and checked the rest of his e-mails. Almost no one was using e-mail for personal purposes anymore, so he only had a bussiness e-mail,which meant, that finding e-mails from his mother almost every month in there was considered very unprofessional by him and he usually trashed them almost immediatly. He went to do the exact same thing now, but Nines stopped him.

"Detective, that is an e-mail from your family. I don't think it would be wise to throw it out." He said in a concerned voice.

"It's my bussiness what I do with my e-mails." He moved the mouse to put the e-mail in the trash bin, but Nines covered Gavin's hand with his to stop him.

"What if she needs something? Would you let your family suffer when they need you?"

"My mother only ever contacts me when she wants something from me." He growled under his breath, but loud enough for Nines to hear him. "She is a selfish bitch, who almost ruined my life twice so get your fucking hands off me."

With that, Nines backed out without a word and Gavin finally trashed the despised e-mail. Heavy silence hung between them for the remainder of the time they stayed at the precinct. They only spoke, when they arrived to where the shooting took place. An officer stopped him at the entrance of a seemingly abandoned building in the middle of a suburban area. It looked like it used to be a small hotel.

The policeman put his hand out towards Gavin. "You can't go further sir, this is a restricted area."

Gavin fished out his badge and his phone out of his pockets. "Detective Gavin Reed. I have permission to enter the premises." He flashed them at him and moved past without more stalling. He only stopped when he realized the android wasn't following him and when he turned back, he noticed Nines arguing with the cop, who obviously didn't want to let him go further. "Hey, he's with me." he barked out at the officer when he came closer.

"Sir, androids are not allowed here."

"He goes where I go and I won't enter without him." He crossed his arms intimidatingly. "And if I can't get in there and get what I need, let me assure you, you will not be in the way of another detective again."

The officer paused and seemed to think it through, before standing aside and letting Nines pass. He joined him and they walked together towards the building. "Thank you." Said Nines quietly.

Gavin gave him a loopside grin. "You don't think I'd leave you there, do you?"

"Well-" the android cut himself off without finishing the sentence.

Gavin lifted one brow and stopped right before the entrance to the building. "Really? You're a part of this investigation now. Besides, it's handy to have a super-computer at hand at any time."

Nines nodded, seemingly satisfied. "I see."

They turned back to the door and entered. There were still some people hanging around, but the majority has done their work already and were getting ready to wrap up the bodies. Some of them gave them strange looks and one woman in a white overall approached them. Before she could say anything, Gavin flashed his badge at her. "Detective Gavin Reed. We'll just look around for a bit and then we'll go."

"You're late to the party detective. We're almost done here."

"We only need a few minutes."

The lady shrugged and went back to her work, letting Gavin and Nines do their own thing. There were many stains of blood everywhere. Some pooling around the bodies and some looked like someone sprayed blood there. Gavin crossed his arms as he looked around the scene. "Well, the report didn't state any details about why they were here, but no innocent group of people would meet in an abandoned place like this. They were probably junkies or a part of some mafia."

Nines walked around taking a closer look at everything. "I don't see any syringes anywhere, they were probably not drug addicts or dealers. Their bodies also have no signs of taking drugs." He crouched and went to dip his fingers in a still wet pool of blood, before the same lady stopped him.

"Hey, don't touch that. You're not even supposed to be here." she barked at him.

Gavin frowned at her and was about to say sonething nasty, but Nines was faster. "I apologise my presence disturbs you, but finishing my mission is currently more important." And with that, he dipped his fingers into the blood and put it in his mouth. The lady looked both horrified and disgusted and gave Gavin, who couldn't decide between being disguted as well and laughing his ass off, a burning glare, before walking out, steam rising from her ears. Nines carried on as if nothing happened and moved on to another pool of blood.

"Okay, wait. That was honestly funny as hell, but what the fuck are you even doing?" asked Gavin, still breaking out into short laughs between words.

"I'm analyzing the blood, so we can determine who was here and who these people were."

"By putting it in your mouth."

"Yes."

Gavin huffed out another laugh. "That's fucking disgusting."

"It's effective. And my mouth is sterile." said the android defensively.

Gavin waved his hand. "Yeah yeah, whatever, just do your thing." He laughed one more time. "But that bitch stormed out of here like there was a swarm of bees was following her."

"Well, at least she's not getting in my way anymore." said Nines nonchalantly as he was dipping his fingers in yet another pool of blood.

"True that."

He focused again on looking around and trying to piece the scene together. After maybe half an hour spent just inspecting the big room along with the three smaller neighbouring rooms, Nines came up to Gavin.

"So, did you find something helpful?" asked Gavin.

Nines nodded slowly. "Maybe, I noticed the same graffiti like last time, but this one was older."

"Yeah I noticed it too. It still might mean something."

"Well, I also found some traces of dried up blue blood."

Gavin lifted his eyebrows in surprise. "Oh? So do we have a lead?"

"Well, not really. The thirium has already evaporated, so I wasn't able to analyse it at all. All I can say, is that it has already been several hours, since it had dried."

"Hmm, and what about the human blood you were examining?"

"It all belongs to the victims. Either no attackers were harmed, or they just left no traces."

Gavin clicked his tongue, annoyed, that they came out empty handed. He wanted to kick something, but thought twice about disturbing the crime scene. "Shit! We just wasted time here."

"It wasn't a complete waste of time, detective. We found possible android involvement." Said Nines, probably trying to be helpful, but Gavin was too pissed off to care.

"And that helps us how exactly?"

"Well, we can keep monitoring it for new information and-"

"Let me spare you the rest of your little speech. It doesn't. It doesn't fucking help us. Fuck! I need fresh air." He was just getting angrier, barely containing his rising voice. He felt bad about taking it out on Nines. At least outside, he could finally light a cigarette. He took a long drag, held it in as long as he could and blew it out. It immediatly calmed him and after probably four more drags, he wasn't even angry when the android joined him. They stood in silence, thinking about the case, until Gavin threw the remainder of his cigarette on the ground and crushe dit with his boot.

"Detective, that is not very eco-friendly."

He blew out the last puff of smoke. "I don't give a shit." He checked his phone for messages or emails, but found himself relieved, when he found none. He still had some nervous energy and needed some way to get it out, without ruining his lungs even further. "I need a drink. How about we go to a bar?"

"I am not allowed in most bars detective and I don't think that is the most appropriate thing to do on the job."

"You're such a pussy. C'mon, ever heard of a disguise?" Gavin winked at him.

"I am not allowed to alter my looks." said the android, frowning a bit.

"But I can do whatever the fuck I want, right?" Gavin awaited his answer, which came a little unsure.

"Technically.. Yes."

He smirked. That's all he needed. "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go."