There will be some headcanon in this fic from the fandom (mostly from Tumblr XD) and also a homage to the whole story that we had known so far.

Also, this fic have different timelines, don't be surprised if there are multiple Joeys and other characters in here XD

The characters' personalities and details here were only my speculations, so don't be mad if they're not like what you expected :p

Special thanks to ToonyTou on Tumblr for allowing me to use his design of Wally Franks in this chapter!

On with the show!

Six years later…

"I told you to pick us up earlier, Sammy! Would you look at the time right now? It's almost closing time!"

"Not my problem. At least I brought you all here to the hospital."

"Yeah, but -"

"Will you two just be quiet already? This is a hospital, gentlemen!"

"But Susie -"

"Shhh!"

The whole crew of Joey Drew Studios were standing by the bed of an ill Joey Drew, who was sleeping, including three of which were cartoon characters; Bendy the Dancing Demon, Boris the Wolf and Alice Angel, all had a distraught look in their faces.

"Joey," spoke a man with light brown hair, whose name was Henry. The bedridden Joey woke up and blinked his eyes several times before replying weakly, "Oh, hello, Henry." His eyes then trailed on the rest: Sammy Lawrence, Susie Campbell, Norman Polk, Wally Franks and of course, the living toons he had created a few years ago. "Hello, everyone. How's your day, guys? All good?"

The five humans glanced at each other, bewildered with their boss's statement. They were the ones who should ask the question, not Joey. The ink toons were puzzled as well.

Nevertheless, Wally said, "Yep. It's pretty good in the studio. In fact, we just finished a new episode! Though -" the janitor suddenly caught Sammy's piercing green eyes were on him and went quiet.

"Anyway, what does the doctor say?" said Henry hastily, trying to cover up for Wally. "Any good news?" "He said I'll be fine in a few days. But he recommended that I should stay at home for a while before coming back to work," the man in the bed explained.

"You surely do need some rest, Joey," said Susie, "especially your leg." All of them took a sympathetic look at Joey's left leg, which was bandaged.

Joey's leg was broken when he was fixing one of the leaking pipes for the Ink Machine nearby the stairs which led to the Music Department of his studio. The time he reached out for his wrench, he lost his footing and slipped before falling downstairs. Luckily, Sammy, who had a break from his work heard him and went for his help along with the rest of the crew.

To be honest, it had been a week since Joey was admitted to the hospital.

"You don't look so good, Joey," the head of orchestral performance of the company, Norman voiced. "Are you sure you're fine? I mean, you look very pale."

"There's nothing wrong with me, Norman; you must be seeing things," joked the black-haired man, but everyone there knew he was just hiding the fact; he did look like he was about to faint at any moment.

"Well, what do you know; visiting time is almost over," interrupted Sammy flatly, glancing at the clock hanging on the wall, which showed the time was almost six in the evening. "We better get going before the nurse kicked us out of here," and Bendy snorted in amusement. He had always liked Sammy's sarcastic attitude, but simply couldn't put a finger why the music composer was sour almost the whole time.

"Well, thanks to you, Sammy. Also, that was my catchphrase!" exclaimed Wally and Sammy rolled his eyes. "You're not the only who claimed it was your favorite line, Franks," replied the blond man and walked out of the room.

'Wait, what? Hey, Sammy! Sammy! Come back!" But the door was closed before Wally could finish his words.

The janitor fumed a bit and muttered, "I still don't get on why he's such a killjoy. I mean, he was grumpy 24/7! Can you believe it? Like at one point I was simply asking him about his day and-"

"Oh, come on, Wally; we knew that already," Susie comforted him and began pushing him out, tailed by Alice Angel. "See you again tomorrow, Joey. Have a good rest." She then swung open the door and left as well along with Wally. The others who were still in the room could hear the dark-haired youth ranting on Sammy even a minute after he left.

"I'll see you guys outside," spoke Alice and the female toon followed suit.

The only ones in the room who weren't leaving yet were Norman, Henry, Bendy and Boris.

Norman cleared his throat before patting Joey lightly on his back and said, "Well, hope you're getting well soon, Mr. Drew. The studio's not the same without you. Say, Boris, wanna come along with me? I'll buy you a drink if you want."

The toon wolf's pie-cut eyes lit up when he heard it. "Y-you mean it, Mr. Polk? I-I don't want to force you, but -" Boris quivered. "Not buts, Boris; let's go right away! We surely don't want Sammy give us another of his rambles, am I right?" With that, the jovial conductor dragged Boris out and Joey cut in, "Bendy, why don't you join Norman? I need to talk to Henry for a while. In private."

"Joey, I think he needs to be here, on….whatever it is that you wanna talk about," Henry said, and he was quite confused. Why would Joey want to talk to him alone?

Then again, they were partners since they were teenagers. Joey was interested with his drawings and convinced him to join his cartoon studio, literally named "Joey Drew Studios". At first Henry thought Joey's last name was a joke, but immediately regretted it after telling the pun to the rest of the newly founded crew. He even had a mental vision that Joey would fire him and he would be sent back to his lame normal days, doing nothing.

But even the black-haired man laughed at the mention of his surname, and he felt the burden on his shoulder was lifted a bit before they began talking about other bad puns involving writing utensils and such, and they eventually became best friends.

No wonder that Joey had selected me out of the others to have this…little chat, Henry thought.

"But Joey, I want to stay here!" The squeaky voice of the Dancing Demon snapped the brown-haired man back to reality. He went to look for Norman and Boris, but apparently they had left (mainly because they knew it will take a long time for either Joey or Bendy to stop). "You've been away for so long; we miss you!"

"It's only a week ago, Bendy," Joey reassured the toon but Henry knew it was useless. Bendy was stubborn, much like Joey himself. Henry chuckled a bit as he continued to watch the small argument between the man and the toon demon.

"Bendy, perhaps it's better if you're not here," he finally broke into the fight. "Joey and I have something important to talk about." "Not you too, Henry!" Bendy said in bewilderment. "I'm afraid it is. Tell you what, take this" -he handed Bendy a couple of bucks- "and buy anything that you want. Then go home along with the others."

"What about you?" Bendy voiced his concern. "I'll catch a bus, a taxi, something else," explained Henry. "Now go before Sammy leaves."

"Fine." The living toon sighed and slouched as he headed toward the door and eyed the two men before closing it.

Henry went to the window to see if Bendy did obey him, and to his surprise, the ink demon was joining the whole crew and hopped into Sammy's car. He went on watching as the red car exited the parking lot.

"Alright Joey, what is it that you had in your mind right now?" the brown-haired man then broke the silence and turned his head to Joey. He immediately sensed something was not right with his boss; his face was much paler than when Norman pointed out about it.

"Joey!" Henry shook the patient's shoulders to snap him out of his thoughts but to no avail. "I will call for the doctor!"

"No!" Suddenly, Joey grabbed his shirt. "I need to tell you something, Henry." "Yeah, about what?" the man was getting rather impatient. "About the toons."

That perked Henry's attention.

"The toons?" he repeated. "You mean…Bendy, Boris and Alice?" "Yes," replied Joey.

"You better tell me ahead; I haven't got time for any drama you're gonna pull up next, Drew," Henry said and Joey loosened his grip before letting go of his friend's shirt.

"They will be gone, Henry. Soon."