I Didn't Want This Either | Gavin Reed x Reader

RK900 - 4

"I got you, kids, I got you. It's okay now, I got you." Hank's voice is the final sign of safety. The cap on the bottle of the past days events. It marks the true ending, the final ending of all of this, of the pain and the terror. His embrace is warm and safe, and he kisses each of your heads in turn. Gavin loses track of how long he sits there with you and Nines and Hank, crying and letting the feeling of the end wash over them. He guesses it isn't long, because you're still losing blood and the EMTs pull apart the hug. Gavin is helped to his feet by an android with a warm reassuring smile and nurse's scrubs, and he tries to guide Gavin away from you and from Nines but Gavin is afraid. 

"No, no please I can't leave them, I can't leave-"

"Gavvy!" just as he had broken free from the nurses grasp someone else stopped him from returning to you. Elijah pulled Gavin into his chest, hugging him tightly, lovingly. Gavin's knees almost buckled. You were going to be okay. He needed to accept that this was over and you were going to be taken care of. "Oh, Gavin, I'm so glad you're safe!" Gavin and Elijah hadn't been on good terms before all of this, but now Gavin wouldn't want to be seeing anyone else- except maybe you. 

"I-I-I'm s-sorry, Eli, I'm so sorry I- I broke your Tin Can, or, well, Nines is in your Tin Can now and I- I..." Gavin trailed off as Elijah pulled away, smiling, a warm smile, warm like summer or sunshine in winter with blue blue eyes like a midday sky. Elijah just hugs him again, and then the nurse android is insisting they take him to the hospital.

-----

As Gavin left you, doctors replaced him. They spoke to you, their words fast and steady and you couldn't decipher what they were saying. The blow of relief that was now washing over you was washing up everything else. You look down at your hand, at your arm, the blood and the bruising and the unnatural angle. You feel the blood still dripping from your neck and then all of the pain steals your vision away. You're still smiling, trying not to topple over, but then you're being lifted and laid down on a stretcher and carried away. People are shouting and commanding and then doors slam and the car bursts into motion. You're vaguely away of people around you, poking and prodding and hooking you up to things. You're dizzy and so so tired but they keep telling you to stay awake and so you try your very best.

-----

It's all grey. Flat, flat grey, as far as the eye can see. A blank slate, empty other than him- no, no he isn't alone. Nines' eyes grow bleary and his heartbeat speeds. His knees begin to wobble and then he's stumbling forwards and into the open arms of Amanda. She holds him close and shushes him gently, petting his hair and providing comfort with her presence. 

"A-Amanda, I thought you were dead? I thought he killed you?" Nines pulls away, and then hugs her once again as she lets out a small chuckle and begins to rub circles into his back just like a mother would.

"I would be dead if you hadn't saved yourself. I am the garden, Nines." hearing his name, here, with Amanda, it drew his tears out again. "It's alright now, Nines." Nines nodded his head, and wiped at his eyes. It was all alright. Conan had saved him- Conan had switched it's own AI with his, dying and holding the virus in that other body, giving it's life for his sake. 

"W-What happened to the garden? Is it... gone? Forever?" Nines takes a step back, still wiping at his eyes, and lets out a small laugh. Amanda is smiling so warmly as she shakes her head. 

"We can rebuild it together, Nines. However you'd like it to be." Nines smiles, eyes still watering, and the next question is asked in a sturdier voice than he had known for days.

"Can I make a grave for Conan?" he wrings his hands as he asks, uncharacteristically nervous. He wishes to be the same stoic, professional man he was before, but maybe that will come with time. Right now, it's okay for him to be nervous. It's another emotion he is finally feeling in it's full effect with his new deviancy. He remembers the feeling, the freedom, of destroying the red wall, of throwing that punch into Kamski's face. He would do it again in a heartbeat.