Hello nurse~

V and N get a check up, and we finally get a Thad chapter!

to all my fellow Thad enjoyers, this ones for you!

The halls of the medical wing were bright and sterile, medical staff scurrying about like ants, all of them preparing for what could be the biggest day in their careers.

It wasn't every day that two Disassembly Drones came to get a check up, after all.

To say that people were excited was an understatement, nurses were gossiping, the head doctors were fighting over who would get to write an award-winning medical journal with the information they would gather, everyone was damn near glowing with excitement! Well, everyone except Paul, the poor drone in charge of the medical wing's oil reserves, who had barricaded himself in the storeroom the minute they got the news.

Thad wiped the sweat off his brow as he hurried from one room to the next, trying to finish his rounds as quickly as possible before N and V arrived, since Uzi wouldn’t be able to come with them( she had ‘important earth invasion stuff’), and Thad was the only other drone they kind of knew (besides Lizzy, but she hated going to the doctors), that coupled with him being a nurse in training meant he would be the one guiding the two Dissemblers through their exams today. And he had football practice tonight, so he wanted to avoid any overtime if he could help it.

He quickly logged another patient's diagnostic report and sent it to the assigned physician, now that Uzi lived on the surface and the Dissemblers were on their side, the worst medical issues the staff had to deal with were cracked visors and buggy code.

A clock on a nearby wall made a ding! As the hour struck, Thad ran his fingers through his short blond hair before making the trek to the waiting room at the front of the medical wing.

N and V were sitting in the plastic chairs of the waiting room when Thad arrived. N was fidgeting in his seat, optics flickering from spot to spot, never settling for long, V however was playing it cool, her posture was relaxed as she lounged in her chair, but Thad could see a stiffness to her that suggested she wasn't as calm about this as she was trying to appear.

V was the first to notice him, straightening in her chair and bumping N’s shoulder to get his attention. N perked up as he saw Thad approaching, hopping up to his feet with an eager smile.

Thad smiled back. “Hey N&M’s, V” he shot the female Disassembler a pair of finger guns, which she responded to with an eye-roll. “I'm gonna be your assigned nurse for today, which just means I'm going to be the one guiding you through all your physical exams and talking to the doctors, before we get started, I just wanted to ask if either of you had any questions?”

N immediately took him up on his offer. “Hey Thad, good to see you! And I was just wondering, what are we actually going to do during these exams? Uzi said we would have to do them for our upgrades, but she never actually explained why or how that would work, so I just wanted to know- if that's alright to ask”

The word ‘upgrades’ settled into Thad's mind, Uzi was going to upgrade them? Weren't they strong enough as is? He would have loved to go and ask her about it, but he was on the clock, so Thad would just have to stew with that for a little while.

Thad pulled his mind back from where it had wandered. “Sure man, it’s no problem at all, I wouldn’t have asked if it was” he pointed his thumb over his shoulder to the doors leading to the rest of the medical wing. “Why don’t we walk and talk? They should be ready for you guys by now anyway” N nodded eagerly and grabbed a disinterested looking V by the hand as Thad led them towards imaging.

“Ok so first up is getting a scan, you just have to lie down in this big sideways tube thing, and the doctor uses special equipment inside the tube to scan you and see your insides so we can get a full render of your blueprints, they also might get some reference photos, but only if you guys are ok with it”

“Does it hurt?”

“It shouldn’t, no, but it does feel kinda ticklish, which is annoying because you have to stay really still so they can get a clear picture. There'd be a lot of times where a patient had to re-do it a bunch because they kept moving -oh- here we are!”

Thad pushed open the door to Imaging and let the others inside, it was a large room, the scanner taking up most of the space, with a PC hooked up to it off to the side, this is where the doctor was waiting. The doctor was an older looking drone with mousy brown hair done up in a stately bun, her pale yellow optics shone with curiosity as she eyed the two Disassembly Drones in front of her.

“Hello there, my name is Dr. Helmann, I'm assuming Thad here informed you about what we'll be doing today?” she walked over to the scanner and started pressing buttons on its side panel.

“Yeah! Something about blueprints right? And that you might need to take pictures of us?” N answered, rocking on his heels.

The doctor clapped her hands as the gurney extended from the scanner. “Yes! We were hoping to get some photos of your anatomy to use as reference material, but that can wait until after your scans, so please disrobe and hop up here” she patted the gurney.

N seemed somewhat taken aback by being told to ‘disrobe’ so Thad made sure to pitch in before things got awkward. “Yeah, sorry i didn’t mention that part earlier, but fabric tends to mess up the image so you can’t wear it while you’re in there, it’s alright if you feel a little awkward though, most Drones do, we can even turn around and face the wall while you get in if it helps”

“Oh, it’s ok, you don’t have to do all that” and before Thad could tell him that N was completely entitled to privacy and that it was no trouble at all, he was already unbuckling his belt and shucking his jacket off his shoulders.

The general design of N’s torso was the same as a Worker Drones, a chest and pelvis made of a hard shell material (aluminium alloy for Workers, but Disassembly Drones seemed to have something more durable than that) with a plexi-glass cover that housed the core and soft, flexible silicone making up the midsection. But while Workers just had uniform silicone, the Dissemblers appeared to have armour plating on their stomachs, similar in shape and distribution to human abdominal muscles. 

His spine was a whole ‘nother can of worms, Thad realised as N turned around. Spinal discs running down the length of his back, small interlocking ridges on each individual disc, with thin cables pinned underneath that fed all the way down to his tail. And up at the top of his back near his shoulder blades were two clusters of nanites, thin filaments reaching outwards and wavering in the air, ready to form into wings at a moment's notice.

It was fascinating. And also, if the partially exposed cables were anything to go by, a major weak point.

N folded his coat with military precision, taking off his pilot's hat and placing it atop the folded square before gently placing it on the ground at his feet, he made a little ‘hup’ as he hopped up onto the gurney, squirming slightly as he attempted to get comfortable.

After verbal confirmation with the doctor, the gurney slid into the scanner, the inside lit up with an unearthly blue glow as it started mapping N’s insides, cataloguing the functions and material composition of each component that made up his body.

V stalked closer to the scanner, eyeing it warily, like she was waiting for something to go wrong.

But nothing did, N was able to last the whole five minutes necessary for the scan without so much as twitching and slid off the re-extended gurney in a single smooth motion, making room for V to approach. Her optics flickered between the gurney and her squadmate before she sighed, shucked off her jacket and hopped up.

 Thad watched as the gurney receded back into the scanner before turning to watch as Dr. Helmann got N ready for the photos, getting him to stand against the back wall, holding his arms akimbo as she fiddled with the lens. The doctor got a photo of his front, his side, his back then his other side. Then she got different arm attachments, tail positions, a wing out (the room was too small for his full wingspan) his X visor, and many more, Thad would have kept observing had a beep from the scanner not distracted him.

He went over and pushed the button to extend the gurney. Stepping aside to let out a scowling V.

She grumbled as she walked past him to the wall where N was, swapping places with him as he trotted over to his discarded coat. He grabbed the folded garment, unfolding it and slipping it back over his shoulders. Thad grinned at him.

“Good job man! The doc should sent those blueprints over to your HUD once she’s done with V-the photos too if you want- and then we should be all good to go to your next exams”

Before N could reply, a hand shot between the two Drones, V scowled at them as she hastily swiped her crumpled jacket from the ground. “Can we hurry this up?” She fastened the buckles on her jacket with a huff. “I have places to be” She sent a pointed glare at N as she said that.

Thad bit down on a reply, he may have issues with V, but he wasn’t going to let his emotions get the better of him at work. Instead, he checked off ‘getting a scan’ from the check-list of medical exams that were scheduled for today on his HUD, took a nice deep breath and led the Dissemblers out the door.

The next few exams went by much quicker than the first, reflex testing, checking vitals, nanite samples, mobility, audio visual testing- which came with the somewhat terrifying revelation that what he thought was just a weird hair accessory was actually their optical array this whole time, and what he had thought were their optics were nothing more than simple cameras with LEDs used purely for emoting, also that V really didn’t like doing visual exams. 

Height measurements, plating samples, which Thad was right about because while regular Worker Drones just had aluminum, Disassembly Drones had stellar steel alloy making up most of their frame, with ceramite plating on top of that! No wonder there were so few of them, N and V must have cost more to manufacture than half the colony combined! And now they were on to the last, and arguably most important part of the medical exam.

Updating their anti-virus.

Without humans around to actually delete them at the source, a lot of self-maintaining malware had been allowed to run rampant, constantly re-writing their own code to get past any firewall that stood in their way. So without a way to actually get rid of the things, the best the Drones of copper-9 could do was constantly update their anti-virus software to keep them at bay. Every drone had the latest version installed when they were put into their toddler body and had a booster patch installed roughly once a year after that, sometimes more, if the malware strains were particularly malicious. 

But that didn’t guarantee safety, Thad shuddered as he remembered when he came down with a nasty strain of ‘ILUVU’ a few years back, it was a miracle it hadn’t deleted any load bearing files before they patched it out of him, which was why it was so important N and V got theirs now, who knew how out of date their anti-virus was compared to the drone population on Copper-9. Yeah, they were both military tech, but that didn’t mean much when the stuff that was infecting them had never been encountered by humans before. If they weren't careful they could have a super spreader event on their hands.

And he told them as much when they arrived at the last stop for the day, a small office near the front of the medical ward. Being a trainee nurse who had a year and a half’s residency under his belt, Thad was more than qualified to handle administering the updates himself.

“Ok N&M’s , your up first. Now I'm gonna be real with you, this is gonna sting a bit, and you might feel kinda weird for a few days after. But that's normal, ok?”

N nodded. His face set in that same bright smile he had been wearing the whole day. Thad hefted the USB cable up to the port in N’s neck, which was luckily the same as every other drone and therefore compatible with their stuff, and plugged it in. N yelped as a spark of electricity shot from the nearby computer  through the cord into his neck port, his visor being overtaken by a large loading screen, lines of code scrolling by at lightning speed as the software was installed.

V squirmed as she watched the loading bar fill, scratching at her neck with one hand while the other dug its fingers into the armrest of the chair.

They waited in uneasy silence as the anti-virus software was installed, Thad drumming his fingers against his thighs as V grew more and more agitated, both watching as N twitched in place.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the loading bar filled and N’s visor display flicked back to his regular optics, he gently tugged the cable out of his port. Wincing as he rubbed at the opening which was no doubt tender after the procedure. Thad checked the monitor on the computer, no errors, the software had been installed with no issues. “Alright V, your up”

She was startled when he said her name, despite having her optics (both real and fake) trained on him the entire time, she edged her way closer to him. Her tail was lashing wildly as he readied the cable, her optics hollowed in grim anticipation, Thad took a breath as he started giving her the same speech he had just given N. “so as I’ve said before, this will sting a little-”

“I know that! Can you just shut up and we get this stupid thing over with so I can leave, please!”

She cast a withering scowl at N. “ Some of us have better things to do than play house with a bunch of defective hardware”

Thad grimaced as the words ‘defective hardware’ reached his audials. “I'm sorry, ma’m, but this kind of behaviour won't be tolerated, I understand that your nervous about this but that’s no excuse for that kind of language” He levelled her with a firm disapproving look, that coupled with his ‘customer service voice’ being used to its fullest effect was enough to make both V and N freeze. 

V’s optics flickered between Thad and N before she shrunk back in resignation. “Ugh, fine! I'm sorry or, whatever” 

It wasn’t the worst apology Thad had ever received, but certainly wouldn’t win her any awards either. But it was good enough for him to continue, so with that, he inserted the USB cord into her neck port. She winced as it sparked, but managed to stay relatively still as the software installed. Thad’s optics flicked over to where N was standing awkwardly in the doorway, rubbing his arm with a type of nervous energy that only came with shame, he was probably embarrassed by V’s outburst. Thad could sympathise, there had been several occasions where he had been left standing the exact same way after Lizzie had one of her patented ‘Bitch fits’ (her words, not his).

V grunted as the loading bar on her visor filled, she yanked the cable out of her neck with such ferocity that Thad wouldn’t be surprised if it had broken. She launched herself out the door, uncaring of how she shoved N into the wall in her haste to escape. The two boys were left alone in the sudden quiet

“Well…” Thad began. “I was going to tell you both that you're free to go, but I guess V already took care of that, ha-ha…” his forced laugh petered out into nothing, leaving them both to marinate in the awkward silence.

Thad opened his mouth to try and keep the stilted conversation going just to keep the oppressive atmosphere at bay. “I-”

“Thad I am so sorry about today” N’s frenetic tone cut through the air like a knife.

“I don’t know why I thought V would be able to behave herself for this, I should have known better, this is my fault” 

“N-”

“But she’s just been doing so well lately, you know? After everything at Prom she actually seemed like she was willing to listen to me for the first time in years, and she didn’t even seem that murder-y on the flight over!”

“ N -”

“But I should have known she would snap, she never liked check ups! I got so caught up in her actually remembering my name for once that i forgot about everything else and-”

“N calm down! It’s okay!” Thad cut him off, grabbing him firmly by the shoulders before he could keep spiralling. “Today wasn’t actually that bad, not even in my top ten worst experiences with a patient” 

N sniffled. “But she was mean to you all day”

Thad shrugged. “Yeah, she was, but like ninety percent of the Drones that come into the medical wing are at least a little bit agitated, pain does that to you” He pat N’s shoulder encouragingly. “Plus, she didn’t even get physical! Now, I might not know her that well, but for someone who seemed to actually like her job as a murder machine. Keeping her outbursts as purely verbal seems like a pretty good outcome to me, yeah?”

N nodded slowly, his posture relaxing slightly. “Yeah, your right, but I'm still upset that she still treats you all like your less than her”

“And that's fine, your feelings are valid dude” Thad made sure N was watching before continuing. “But you gotta understand that’s not something you can change, it’s like this one human saying my mom always told me ‘you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink’. You can give V all the opportunities in the world to be a better person , but it's up to V herself to actually make that change, and trying to shoulder all the blame for what she chooses to do is only gonna lead to you getting hurt”

“I know, but I just don’t want her to burn all her bridges before she sees that she wants to be on the other side, you know?”

“I get it man, i used to be the same with Lizzy, but after a while I realised that it’s not my job to be her social meat shield, and it’s not yours either”

Thad pulled back, letting his arms rest at his sides, making sure to give N some space to process. N took a minute to compose himself before giving Thad a small, tired smile. “Thanks for talking to me about this Thad, it means a lot” his optics flicked to an old analogue clock on the wall. “Aw, biscuits! I promised Uzi I would be back at the spire by now so she could show me her anime collection! Thanks again for the talk, Thad, and for today in general, but I gotta go!”

And with that, N ducked out of the door and into the hallway, leaving Thad alone in the room, his core twinged in sympathy for N. He reminded Thad of himself when he was younger, still stuck as Lizzy’s doormat of a twin, Thad hoped N would be able to find his footing on his own like he did.

Thad spared a glance at the clock, he perked up when he saw that his shift was nearly over, only for his mood to immediately dampen when he realized that he had to run all the way across the colony to football practice, ugh .

Don’t get him wrong, Thad loved football, it was his favourite pastime. But it would only ever be a pastime to him, something his dad- who was also his coach -just couldn’t accept.

"But you're so talented, son!”  “the team would be lost without you!” “c’mon, don’t you wanna do this for your old man?” “ Oh please, son, leave the nursing to the women, us men are built for tougher stuff”

And it just never stopped , at school, at home. Everywhere he went his dad would find a way to take a dig at him for his career choice, about how ‘disappointing’ it was that Thad would ‘throw away his life like this’ and how he didn’t raise a ‘pansy’ who couldn’t be a ‘real man’ despite there being literally zero differences between a male and female drone aside from voice and pronouns . How his dad managed to be sexist when their entire race was functionally inter-sex, Thad would never understand.

Thad sighed deeply, suddenly feeling like a massive weight was resting on his shoulders, his scrubs felt suffocatingly tight. He thought about just skipping practice and hiding at a friend's place, but he would inevitably run into him at some point, so he decided that it would be better to just get it over with.

So he walked to the door, flicked off the light, and trudged towards school. The leash of his fathers expectations was still too tight for him to shake.

…For now.

End notes

hey guys! sorry that this chapter is *checks date* a week late, but I didn't really have a lot of time to write. which is why I just wanted to let you all know now I'm going to be taking a break from updating this fic over the holiday season because I will be spending time with family.

Thank you all so much for reading, commenting and leaving Kudos on this fic. I genuinely can't express just how happy it makes me that people enjoy my writing, I hope everyone has a happy holidays and a fantastic new years! as of posting this chapter, A Future Worth Fighting For has 2,029 hits, and I can't wait to see how many more it gets next year!

See you all in 2025!