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John just happened to be walking by. Dorian stepped out of the conference room and John noted his partner�s expression. Stopped in his tracks, stopped in his thoughts, and stared. �What?� Dorian looked� devastated. �I�m to be decommissioned.� A thousand thoughts flashed through John�s mind, one of them beating out all the rest. Bastards. Not a perceptive thought, admittedly, and not all that intelligent. But it kicked him into action. He threw open the door of the conference room, shaking off his Dorian�s hand from his arm before it had a chance to get a grip, ignoring his protests. No one - no one - was going to take away his partner, his best friend. His only friend when it came down to it. The board was packing up, five of them, three men in bad suits and two woman in cheap suits. Five Human Resource bureaucrats against one android. That wasn�t fair. �Sit down!� They stared at him, obeyed slowly and cautiously. The gun in his holster tended to have that effect on people who didn�t carry one. �How dare you? What gives you the right to end the career of a cop - a good cop? Better than so many you give away pay raises and promotions to with a wave of your hand and without a second thought. That man,� he swung his arm to point back, through the glass to where Dorian at least had been standing, �that man has saved my life more times than I can remember. He�s saved hundreds of lives, through bravery and selflessness. He�s put countless kidnappers, rapists and killers in the cubes. �You�re worried he�s going to go crazy, lose it like so many DRNs did. Because he�s different to the MXs, because when he�s angry he shows it, when something disturbs him, he doesn�t keep that to himself. That scares you but it shouldn�t. He isn�t just a robot, staring out at the world with dead eyes, seeing the logic in everything and dismissing human emotions as if they have no meaning in police work. But let me tell you something, you all - spending your days behind desks, judging people you�re not qualified to, based on experience you don�t have. Human emotion has everything to do with police work. Every crime committed has at least one emotion somewhere at its heart. Dorian can infer what that was from the information he picks up, and by doing that he gives us the greatest weapon we can have in our fight against crime. He gives us understanding. �By taking him away from me, you would hurt this department, you would hurt the people of this city and I won�t - do you hear me? - won�t let you do that. I won�t let you take away the best thing that�s ever happened to this force. The best thing that�s ever happened to me.� It was one of the women who stood up again. She didn�t shout, didn�t berate him for his words or his tone. She didn�t threaten suspension or disciplinary action. She leaned across and put a hand on his arm, a gentle hand, and spoke in a gentle tone. �Detective Kennex. Your partner passed his review with the most glowing of recommendations for continued active duty that I�ve ever heard or seen in any of my twenty years working here. Your comments alone, during your interview with my colleague here, would have seen him sainted in a different court, but the comments of Captain Maldonado, Mr Rudy Lom, Detectives Stahl and Paul together mean that we wouldn�t, and in all likelihood, couldn�t have Dorian decommissioned.� John turned, confused as hell, and caught sight of his horrified partner still standing outside the conference room, and the barely contained laughter of their fellow detectives. Even the MXs looked faintly amused. Oh my God. Bastards. �I�m� sorry.� �Don�t worry. Please. It�s good to see that you and your partner do indeed have a healthy relationship of give and take, Detective Kennex.� That one was lost on him, but he decided not to press his luck and let himself out with another mumbled apology. He resisted the urge to punch his partner in the mouth. That wouldn�t have looked good in front of the review board after his little outburst and he would only end up bruising and scraping his knuckles on the titanium under Dorian�s skin. �John�.� To his credit, he sounded mortified. �I�m sorry. It was supposed to be a quick joke but you went in there before I could stop you�.� John shook his head, but he was too relieved to be angry. Losing Dorian would be like losing himself. He�d said something along those lines when he�d been interviewed about Dorian�s performance in the field. �You did say some very nice things.� �You owe me.� He hoped he wasn�t blushing. �Of course.� �Sushi. At Toshi�s.� It was the most expensive place John knew. Dorian didn�t blink. �Anywhere you want.� But when he thought about it, he didn�t want to go to Toshi�s. There was somewhere better, the first noodle bar where he and Dorian first connected. He smiled his most forgiving smile. �Come on. I know a place. I might even let you drive.� |