The Non-Standard Man

I was fucked if I went to court on my charges. There was no throwing the dice, no begging for the mercy of the judge, or no hoping for the best. Raina would make good on her threat and pull all the strings at her malicious command. If I went to jail, I lost my child. Period. End of story. No happy ending for me.

At this moment I'm staring at the ceiling, wide-awake, while my robot laid on one side, and my husband the other. And this was yet another problem in my life. What was I going to do with them?

Not that I didn't enjoy my ménage with the boys last night. Oh no, I did. But I couldn't see living that way permanently, especially since Roger would get bored eventually and start acting out again. Gawd, he was a child, wasn't he?

But I had to see to him, just as I always did. I don't know why I did that, except he brought out my protective instincts. Roger always did since the first time I saw him in the classroom getting chewed verbally by that nasty torts professor.

Now someone shot him? What was that about? Maybe I didn't feel so warm and fuzzy towards my husband. But he was my husband. No one fucks with him but me.

But I had other people screwing with me too.

Jason and Cicily. What the hell? Andrew considered them his family, and who was I to keep a robot from his family?

His owner.

That bothered me too. The whole owner of a sentient being thing freaked me out. So what if he wasn't flesh and blood? He loved like a human. Isn't that what was important?

I shivered despite the warmth under the blankets and the two bodies next to me.

Wait? Warmth of two bodies?

Andrew didn't project body warmth. Now he was?

"Andrew?" I said.

He groaned but otherwise didn't move.

"Andrew!"

Roger stirred. "What Evaline?"

"Something's wrong with Andrew."

I shook Andrew.

"Andrew! Wake up!" Right then, in my fright it didn't occur to me how stupid those words were. Andrew didn't sleep.

Roger got out of bed. He turned on the light, and we both saw something was seriously wrong. Andrew's biologic skin was a pasty white, and yes, it was hot to the touch.

"Shit," said Roger. "What should we do?"

"I don't know. What does one do with a sick robot?"

"I think we should get him into a cold shower," said Roger. "Try to cool him down."

"Okay," I said. Could anything else possibly go wrong?

"Come on, Andrew. Let's get you in the shower," said Roger.

Andrew groaned as we both pulled him to sit. His head lolled to the side.

"We need help, Roger. This is bad."

"What do you suggest," said Roger as he attempted to wedge his good shoulder under Andrew.

"You shouldn't do that. You'll rip your stitches."

"Wait. The security guards," said Roger. "They are hefty enough for this job."

I called in the security guards who gave me a doubtful look.

"Look, I clear it with your boss. You'll both get a bonus. Help me get him in the shower."

They hauled him into the shower and let him sink to the floor as I turned on the water.

"Anything else, ma'am," said one of the guards.

"No. Thank you."

They went back to the front door, as I sat on the commode, watching Andrew. I felt his skin, and it was cooler, but he didn't seem any better.

Roger put his head in the bathroom. "I've called Betty. She was going to the detention facility anyway to speak to Cicily. Maybe Cicily knows what is going on."

I pressed my lips together. "When is she going?"

"Because I asked her, now."

"Thank you, Roger."

I took Andrews hand and sank down on the floor. If anything happened to him, I don't think I could bear it. Was that tears sliding down my cheeks? Fuck me.

#

A few hours later, my phone rang. Roger answered it. I heard him give the clearance to allow someone up. Before long Jason Wells stood in the bathroom.

"I was at the jail visiting mom when Betty came in."

"He was hot," I said apologetically. "We thought this would cool him down."

"Actually, that's not bad thinking."

Jason squatted next to me.

"Hey, Andrew, buddy," he said. "How are you feeling?"

Andrew's eyelids fluttered.

"Jason? Where am I, Jason? Why is everything so wet?" Andrew's voice was a ghostly shell of his usual self.

"Your biologic skin is infected."

Andrew shivered.

"I'm cold."

"I know, buddy. But we have to keep your neural pathways chilled. Evaline was very smart to get you in the shower."

"Evaline?" he said. "Who's Evaline?"

My heart nearly stopped.

Jason looked at me. "I've seen this before in our early experiments with biologic skin. Sometimes the heat fries some of the neural pathways."

"I'm cold," Andrew said again. "Where's Cicily? Cicily can fix me."

Now tears streamed down my face. Again.

"Mom's not available, Andrew. But I'm here, and I'll do all I can for you."

"I want Cicily," Andrew said, as petulant as a child.

"Okay, buddy. Let's get you out of here."

I called back the security guards and we hauled him out of the shower. While he stood, I stripped him of his clothes, and dried him down. His skin looked a little greenish in places.

"Jason," I said, pointing out the green patches.

"Yeah. Not good. Let's get him on the bed."

We did that, and I sent the security guards back to their post after Jason instructed them to wash their hands.

"Do you think he's contagious?"

"No. But it doesn't hurt to take precautions."

Andrew stared at both of us, but there was a strange look in his eyes.

"Cicily?" he said. "Something is wrong."

I took his hand. "I know, Andrew. We're going to fix you."

"I know you would. I trust you, Cicily."

Oh, fuck.

"Jason! What do we do?"

"Do you have any more of his ejaculate?"

I took the tube out of the bag in the nightstand.

"Rub it on him. I need to make some calls."

"Is it going to help?" I said. "Is he going to be okay?"

Jason looked away. "I don't know, Evaline. All the robots we experimented on that developed this condition terminated."

#

Jason yelled into his phone.

"God damn it, Sinta. If you don't, Andrew will terminate. Do you want that?...Well, good luck getting another sentient robot out of my mother OR me, then...I don't care what my mother said in court...Just, just come over here, okay. You'll see for yourself."

I heard Jason give my address and then click off his phone.

"Do you think you can keep it down?" I said. "Andrew is barely holding it together as he is. He was agitated when he heard your yelling."

"Sorry," said Jason raking his hair with his hands. "It's just Sinta is very stubborn."

"And what do you expect her to do? I thought it was your mother that was in charge of development."

"She was. It's just that we created a vaccine against this condition, and Sinta is the only one with access to it now."

"Does this vaccine work."

Jason grimaced. "It might."

"Might? Might? Is that all you have?"

"Yes! That's all I have. The only other option is stripping all his skin off his frame, but doing that could terminate him just as easily, especially in his weakened state."

"Geez," said Roger walking into the bedroom. "Can you two keep it down? I can't imagine both of you sniping at each other is doing a thing for Andrew."

Both of us glared at a very calm and collected Roger who was sipping some coffee.

"I ordered some ice for delivery," he said. "We can pack it around Andrew to keep his temperature down."

I just stared at Roger, not used to this caring or thoughtful side. Then the smell of his coffee hit me, twisting my stomach into an instant mess. I flew into the bathroom and wretched into the commode.

Fuck.

"Is she okay?" I heard Jason say from the bedroom.

"Pregnancy," said Roger. "Who knew it would be so much fun?"

#

I slowly put myself together with a shower, and a couple pieces of dry toast. All the while my gut twisted with the combined forces of morning sickness and worry. I couldn't bear the thought of losing Andrew. At the same time, I knew all this stress wasn't good for the baby or me.

The doorbell rang, and Roger went to answer it. I sat next to Andrew on the bed, holding his hand. I don't know if that did anything for him, but I felt better just being next to him.

Sinta Grant walked into my bedroom, her expression carefully neutral. Gone was the carefree girl I saw in the picture in Amanda's house. She stood straight and tall, dressed in a simple but skintight black dress, her brunette hair cut in the same bob that Cicily sported.

"Jason," she said coolly. "Ms. Shipley." She nodded her head in my direction.

"Thank god!" said Jason. "Did you bring it?"

"Yes. How did he develop the condition?"

"I haven't figured that out. He did have exposure to various contaminants when he was outside this apartment, but-"

"Take samples, Jason. And I'll take them to the lab. We can't market a robot that is vulnerable to infection."

"I don't have a collection kit," he said.

"Good thing I thought to bring one then." She handed him two small cardboard boxes.

"Wait!" I said. "Is that all you care about? Getting samples off my Andrew?"

"Miss Shipley," said Sinta, "Don't think that the matter of Andrew's ownership is closed. I'm fully prepared to bring all my resources to bear on recovering Andrew."

I stood ready to stand my ground, but just then Roger walked into the bedroom.

"Ms. Grant, this is neither the time nor the place to be making threats. Either you've come to help Andrew, or you'll leave. It's one or the other."

Sinta stared up at Roger, apparently not used to having anyone stand up to her, especially someone who stood several inches taller than her. I saw her swallow. Yep, that's my Roger.

"Of course, Mr. Shipley."

"Call me Roger," he said with his brightest grin. He converted to charm on a stick from zero to three seconds flat. I shook my head. Yep. That's my Roger.

"Let's go into the living room while Jason does his work. Do you want some coffee?"

He led Sinta out of the room, on his arm no less. I watched as Jason cut some samples of Andrews skin off him. One of the boxes was the collection kit, including a razor-sharp scalpel. Andrew whimpered at the samples were excised from his feverish skin.

"Sorry, buddy," said Jason, as he worked.

The second box held three needles. Jason took one and inserted it in a place behind Andrew's ear.

"His ear! That's got to be painful."

"No. There's a shunt in back of his ear for things like this." Jason stood. "That's all we can do for now. If his fever breaks he'll live. We'll have to replace the damaged skin, but that's for another day. If not, well-"

"Did anyone tell you that your bedside manner sucks?"

"I'm an engineer, not a doctor," he said. "A bedside manner is not required."

"Keep making sentient robots, and you'll find that part of your job description will change."

#

After the ice came we packed it around Andrew on the bed after we wrapped them in towels. Andrew barely noticed what we did. His eyes had a scary glassy look. Jason pulled up the chair to the side of the bed and sank into it.

"Now what?" I said.

"We wait." The color had gone out of Jason's face, and for such a young man the life seemed sucked out of him.

"Do you want some coffee?"

He shook his head. "Coke if you have it."

"I'll see what I can do."

Roger and Sinta were sitting on the couch, deep into conversation. He had his hand on her thigh, and she was smiling at him. Figured. I sailed past them into the kitchen, looking for something to give Jason. Strangely, though I don't usually keep coke in the house, there was a six-pack there. Andrew must have ordered it though I hadn't a clue why.

I fixed up a glass of coke and ice and took it to Jason.

"Thanks," he said.

I sat on the edge of the bed.

"Thank you," I said.

Jason shook his head. "No need to thank me." He swallowed hard.

"Jason, how often did your experimental robots develop this condition?"

"Most of them. Then we developed the ejaculate. We thought that would be enough."

"Do you think because he had to claw his way through the dirt and lost all that skin?" I stopped, unable to go on.

"I couldn't say, Evaline. Until we get the results back from the lab we won't know the exact cause. I wouldn't beat yourself up over it, not until we know."

"Someone should have told me that Andrew was that fragile."

Jason looked away. "It wasn't my decision."

"Fuck you! How long are you going to let your mother lead you around by the nose, eh?"

"Evaline."

I turned my head to see Roger in the door.

"I need to talk to you," he said. He jerked his head toward the living room and I followed. Roger sat on the couch and I joined him.

"I had a nice conversation with Sinta and it's possible we can get a lot of our troubles worked out with her help."

"Oh, is that while you were getting cozy with her."

"Yes."

"I see."

"Don't be like that, Evaline. It's not like we have a lot of options. Sinta knows a lot of people. And some of them can put my mother in her place."

"People like Amanda Cook?"

"Like that, yeah. And better."

"I don't like it, Roger. I don't like owing favors."

"It's not favors we are trading, but access. Access to Andrew. That's all she wants, Evaline." "To experiment on."

"No! She wants to map his neural pathways now that he's fully sentient. It's totally non-evasive."

"God, Roger. These, these people have done horrible things to Andrew all of his life. I can't imagine anything they do will be non-evasive. No."

"Evaline, there is more at stake here than just a robot. Our child. Your career. Our life."

"Andrew isn't just a robot, Roger. I love him. Love. Get it. I won't let anything happen to him."

Roger's mouth drew up into a tight line.

"Love? You love that thing? For heaven's sake, Evaline!"

Twisting away from Roger, he put his hand on my shoulder. With a twist

"For once in your life listen to me, Evaline. We have a child to consider now. Do you really want her raised by my mother?"

"No, of course not."

"Sinta isn't asking for that much. In fact, she's willing to drop all attempts at retaking ownership of Andrew, if you just agree to let him work with Androdyne."

"I may 'own' him, Roger. But I won't speak for him. That will be his decision. If he lives, that is. And that is a big if."

#

I stared at the refrigerator looking at the food Andrew had bought. There were three humans in the house needing food, one of them being me, but I hadn't a clue as to what to do.

Roger came to stand over my shoulder.

"We can order out," he said.

"I'm sick of take-out. Ah. Here are some steaks. How hard can it be?"

"I don't know," he said. "I'll look it up on the internet."

"Good idea."

He turned on the television, and I retracted the half-wall that gave access to the counter facing the living room. From here we read the instructions, and put together a passable meal of steaks, baked potatoes and salad. Okay, the steaks were a little burnt, and the potatoes cooked in the microwave were a bit on the underdone side, but as I said passable. Roger retrieved Jason from the bedroom and we sat together.

Jason just poked around at his food, looking glum. Roger, of course, had no trouble eating. Nothing separated that man's stomach from his food. I missed Andrew's cooking, especially choking down the results of my own efforts. God, how was I going to take care of a child if I couldn't even put a meal on the table? I said so.

"You'll be fine," reassured Roger. "We'll do it the old fashioned way. Nannies."

"You're awful," I said.

"I turned out okay," he said. I rolled my eyes, and finally there was a hint of amusement in Jason's blue eyes.

"Well, you didn't have a single nanny, and look at the mess you are."

Jason gave Roger an incredulous look.

I chuckled. "That's an old joke between us, Jason, the difference between how we grew up."

"How did you grow up?"

"Poor. Hungry. Running the streets. Dodging the law, the drug dealers and the gangs."

"That's terrible."

"That's life for the poor, Jason. That was before the plague, when eighty percent of the men died, and work was available for everyone who wanted it."

"Evie, is not giving herself enough credit. She got herself quite the little gang going herself, and made a decent little living as a crime boss."

I rolled my eyes again. "Oh, for heaven's sake. I was hardly a crime boss."

"You managed to play the other gangs against each other to keep them from bothering you."

"I should never tell you anything," I said. "It was all survival anyway."

"No, it just shows how very smart you always were. And that's why, Jason, Evie got to attend Harvard," said Roger, "even though she had an arrest record."

Well, that was a sore subject now, knowing that Jason's mother, Sinta and Amanda looked for someone like me to help hatch their plans. But I kept my mouth shut on that.

"She did?"

"Yep," I said. "But it was all juvie stuff, and the records were sealed. But the time in Juvie Hall was well spent. I was bored locked up and spent time in the library. They had an extensive collection of old law books. They were the best."

"So," said Roger, "on a long shot she took the L-Sats, and got a one seventy-nine."

"Is that high?"

I put my head in my hands. "Oh, god. When I saw the number I thought I failed."

Roger snorted. "The median score is one-hundred fifty. The highest score you could get is one-hundred eighty."

"And how did you do, Roger?" asked Jason.

"Not one seventy-nine," he said.

I chuckled again. "He had a very respectable one sixty-five. But that didn't stop him from graduating top of the class."

Roger got up and picked up the plates to clear the table. "That was only because she was at my back nagging me to do better. Hey, rich boy, she'd say. Are you telling me you can't do better than a girl from the streets? Gawd, she was so annoying."

"And so very right," I said.

"As you usually are," he said, giving me a peck on the cheek. Jason picked up the rest of the dishes and followed Roger into the kitchen. I decided to check on Andrew.

Andrew's color wasn't looking any better though he was considerably cooler. In fact he was shivering. I moved the ice packs away, which were just bags of water now, and put them in the shower. With my hands I felt to make sure the bed was dry. Sinking into the chair by the bed I took his hand.

"Evaline," he said faintly.

My heart leaped in my chest.

"Andrew! Thank goodness. You remember me."

"How could I forget you?"

"You didn't there for a while."

"I'm sorry."

"You shouldn't apologize. None of this is your fault. You're sick is all, and if I were told how easy it was for you to get sick, I'd never let you out of this apartment. I'm the one that's sorry."

"Not your fault, Evaline. The RIB agents-" His eyes fluttered and closed again.

"What about the RIB agents?"

But Andrew didn't say anything. Just speaking those few words taxed him. Then his eyes fluttered open again.

"Hold me, Evaline. Please."

"God, you don't have to ask. Of course I will."

I lay next to him at his back and put my arms around him. The bed was chilled, but just knowing that Andrew didn't forget me warmed my heart. Before long I was sleeping too.

#

Sometime in the middle of the night, Jason came in and checked on Andrew. Maybe he came other times too, but this time I woke when he entered the room. He felt Andrew's skin and gave him another injection. I just lay and didn't say a word, watching Jason in the dark room through half-closed eyes. The only light in the room was from the streetlights that sliced through the panels on the window.

Jason straightened and walked out of the room, closing the door as he left. I got up, and went to the door, intending to get a glass of water. But I heard Roger speaking with Jason, and something in his tone stopped me in my tracks.