Hide and Seek

Del Spooner blinked blearily at the alarm clock next to his bed. Who would be outside his door at 2:30 in the morning? Whoever it was had chosen an incredibly lousy night to bother him. He had only gotten back from the workplace an hour ago due to a an especially ugly homicide case. Wait. He suddenly sat up straight. This could be serious. It wasn't unheard of for witnesses to seek out detectives at their homes, or even...the murderer. Gun in hand, he made his way quietly toward the door, keeping to the side, in case his visitor had a gun of his own...

"Detective! Detective Spooner, please wake up..." A very familiar voice could be heard whispering urgently when Spooner was only a few feet away.

"Sonny!" Locks came undone as Spooner proceeded to give the robot entrance as soon as possible. It wasn't safe for Sonny to wander around alone since the NS5 crisis that occurred over two months ago. He was likely to get shot at or told to jump off a bridge...not that he'd have to follow the command.

"Get in he...what the hell?" The detective gawked as Sonny moved quickly past him, dressed in a coat and hat and holding someone in his arms. "Sonny, who is this? What's going on?" He knew it had to be an emergency of some sort since they had agreed not to meet at his apartment. This went for Dr. Calvin as well. It would be bad if people caught wind of an NS5 just 'hanging around' either human, since they had become somewhat famous due to their role in Vicki's attempted take-over. Facts had been edited from their story right and left to cover up Sonny's role in it. They had agreed that it would be better for Sonny to remain "decommissioned". People wouldn't be looking for him if they thought he had been destroyed.

Dr. Calvin had quietly fixed up his arm, given him a new serial number, and sent him off, as one of the employee hand-outs, to another roboticist's family. The higher-ups at U.S.R. had decided that giving out NS5s to people in the company would be a good way to rebuild public trust in the robots. It also didn't cost the company anything to give them out to employees since almost no one was buying anyway.

Normally Sonny's records wouldn't need to be obscured, but the investigations into the NS5 crisis of two months ago hadn't died down in the least, and certainly wouldn't anytime soon. People wanted answers, someone had to pay, and robots everywhere needed to be reassessed. The Three Laws of Robotics, which served as the building blocks for all advanced robots, were being called into question. If Sonny was found out, he would surely be destroyed, after a thorough questioning and analysis of his unique structure, both which needed to be avoided at all costs.

"I'm very sorry about this, Detective, but I didn't know where else to go. The situation I find myself in is somewhat beyond my ability to handle. I believe it falls directly into your field of expertise, unfortunately." Spooner turned to face him at the end of this, having finished relocking the door.

"Okay then." Del raised his eyebrows. "First thing's first. Who's your companion, and do you want her in on this conversation?" The person in question appeared to be a thirteen or fourteen year old girl dressed in a very dirty pair of pajama pants and T-shirt, with humongous bags under eyes, probably due to lack of sleep. She was positively glaring at him from under her messy brown hair, only half of which was still held up by the dangerous looking hair pin on top of her head.

"I'm not talking to him. I hate him. You called him 'Detective'! John! How could you..." Okay, she wasn't so much staring at him as through him, thought Spooner.

"Please trust me, Alex, I wouldn't have brought you here if I didn't trust this man. He is a very good person, he'll..."

"I can't believe you! Put me down, I want out! I...I don't need you help! You're mean and you lie! You...you...I hate you..." Her spluttering rage broke down into disconsolate sobbing as she convulsively attempted to twist out of Sonny's grasp. Sonny looked slightly stricken at her words. Not wanting her to get hurt, he carefully sat her on the ground, at which point she crawled over to a nearby chair and, not bothering to sit in it, buried her head in her arms to more comfortably sob her heart out.

"Well, you've certainly found yourself a charming traveling companion, Sonny" Spooner wondered abstractly whether Sonny would recognize the dripping sarcasm in his voice for what it was. "Care to explain miss ungrateful rag-doll here?"

"Of course, Detective. I apologize for her behavior. She is only a child..."

"I am not, I'm fourteen!"

"...well, her father was kidnapped recently, and her mother is out of the country. She is undergoing trauma, and wouldn't be this rude normally."

"How recently?"

The question, Sonny surmised from his previous comment, referred to Alex's father. He lowered his voice to a whisper. "Her father was killed very early this morning. She doesn't know yet, although she very nearly witnessed it. Apparently the killers are convinced she has evidence against them and are searching for her as well." He paused. "Detective, if I may ask, do you have any food she could eat? She hasn't eaten anything since this morning."

"Stop whispering! You're both jerks! I'm not some sniveling little.."

"Hey, if you're not hungry that's fine, but Sonny here was trying to convince me you needed feeding." Spooner watched with more than a little satisfaction as her mouth snapped shut. She looked away sulkily and her eyes started leaking again.

"Who needs food?" She said it mostly to herself though, and as Spooner made his way toward his miniature fridge she kept him in the corner of her eye. She turned completely as he brought out some cold chicken in a take out box and a half eaten pie. He fished out a fork as well, and placing it in the pie, walked over to her.

"It's a little old, but it won't kill you. And the pie's to die for anyway."

If he was holding out for laughter it wasn't going to come, but she took the pie quickly, in any case, and began inhaling it. "Well, then, guess you were hungry..." Spooner pursed his lips. "You know, you kind of have a special odor too. You're welcome to the shower. You need it. In fact, I insist." The last comment finally elicited a glare, but she was unwilling to stop eating even so.

"Actually, Detective, she might have considerable trouble taking a shower. She has hurt her left ankle and can't put any weight on it." Sonny had been standing off to the side, observing the goings on with his unique blend of curiosity and somewhat eerie understanding.

"Really. Well, Alex, that's your name, right? I have a more than decent first aid kit and could probably help that a little bit if you want. In fact, I even have an ice pack I keep in the freezer for emergencies." He looked back to Sonny. "As for taking a shower, you could help her there. Since you're a robo..."

"No!" They both turned to look at Alex. "I can...I don't need your help, Johnny." She quickly looked back down at her food as she said this. Color tinged her cheeks.

"Okaaay. Well, I suppose we can sit you next to the shower and you can wash sitting down."

"That's fine. Do you...have any water?" Spooner noted that food seemed to help her temper extraordinarily.

"Sure. Let me get you some." A moment later he came back with a glass which she downed in a few moments.

"Okay. Bath time." Spooner stepped forward, but her eyes widened in alarm.

"Johnny can carry me." She looked up at Sonny imploringly, arms outstretched, eyebrows up.

Silently, and with a fluidity only robots possessed, Sonny crouched down next to her and gathered her carefully into his arms. Rising smoothly, he turned to follow Spooner to the back of his apartment, where the detective quickly made the shower ready for use, setting clean towels and such out for easy access.

A few minutes later found Sonny and Spooner back in the living room area of the apartment. Sonny was looking at the detective with an expectant face that said 'I know you've got questions.' It was that look, among others, that continually made Spooner take pause. The humanity Sonny exhibited...was truly amazing, he supposed, since better words wouldn't come.

Spooner pulled his head back out of the clouds and toward the problem at hand. "Okay, Sonny, spill the beans."