Hey! Long time no see! Sorry about the super long delay, there have been some things going on that have stressed me out a bit, and thus caused a halt in my creativity, but I thought I could give you guys a chapter for Christmas! (Or just a holiday gift, if you don't celebrate Christmas :) I hope to start writing more soon, so I haven't given up! Just hit a bit of a creative block. Anyways, I want to say super thanks to everyone who has reviewed, followed and favorited this story! Looking at the reviews always help me to feel encouraged to write another chapter! So your reviews, follows, and favorites definitely help this story continue on! I am so happy so many people like Leo, I had been worried about him since he can come off as a abrasive guy, but to know that there are people who like him, well it makes me really happy. :)

Anyways, after that paragraph long speech...onto the reviews...

TU4QU0I53T4IAN6L3: Yeah, I would not recommend it as a design, it isn't very well thought out. And as for his fingers well you will find out very soon! And yes, Freddy's can certainly ruin a person, Jeremy ended up in the same boat as Leo sadly.

SilentAmbiance: Oooh yeah definitely, I've had my fingers smashed and my toes stubbed before and that is not a pain I would wish on anyone, and I'm sorry about your fingers! I hope they are alright. And yes, he really should, but with his life choices, that isn't a option tragically.

Guest: I would like to say it is something that he will be able to easily put behind him, but I'm afraid it will be something that takes a lot of work to get through, but yes, I agree, drugs are never a good thing.

Silverleone: Yes, he certainly will. And thank you so much! I'm so glad you like this story! And yes, in some ways I myself can relate to some of Leo's thoughts, I'm not completely antisocial, but I have some of the tendencies, and my friendships are very similar. And thank you so much for the follow and review! Reading it helped me be inspired to finish writing this chapter!

I own nothing but my characters

Chapter Eighteen
Reflections

The slamming force of his jaws made Leo let out a sharp cry. He felt the furry paws of Bonnie grab him, only to hear the voice of Jamie tell him to stop, just as he heard Chica call his name.

Jamie's warning may have been for the best, as the next second the jaws released and continued their strange pattern. Once his fingers were free Bonnie pulled him away and Leo was jerked back and placed right up against the purple bot.

But he was too blind in pain to care.

Freddy was still spasming as Jamie came over to look at the hand that Leo couldn't look away from.

...why were they bent like that?

"^#%$...&%#%..." The waiter cursed before ripping off his apron and quickly wrapping his hand but mostly fingers in the fabric. The guard let out a hiss as he tensed up more. It didn't hurt as bad as one would expect, and that was likely because of the fact that he was pretty high at the moment.

Jamie helped him down from the stage as it was clear that Leo could no longer even hold his crutch.

"C'mon I'm taking you to the hospital." The redhead ordered, but Leo couldn't help but whine.

"Nooo! I don't have the money! Hafta save up..." he slurred as pain and the drugs hit him harder than before.

"I will pay for it! Now c'mon, I'll call in the mechanic to fix it." Jamie insisted, moving past the customers quickly. There were fewer than before but some still remained. "Freddy and his friends will be out of commission for the rest of the day!" The redhead proclaimed before turning to look at one of the waiters. Leo couldn't for the life of him remember who the tall man was. "Jared you're in charge. I need to help Leo with something." He said pointedly and the dizzyingly tall man, at least to Leo, nodded and turned to the customers.

"How would everyone like some free tokens?" He asked, but their replies were only vaguely heard as Jamie got Leo out of the pizzeria.

"Ya really tall Jamie...that's one thing I hate about you." the guard slurred, and Jamie looked at him a moment brow furrowed.

"Jeez Leo. How much of that stuff did you take?" He asked as he helped the delirious guard into the car.

"Huh…? Oh uh..." he looked down at his hands and shrugged looking up at him. "I'd tell you...but my fingers are backwards." He told him helplessly, and Jamie took a breath.

"I know." He shut the door and went to the driver's side. The waiter had already buckled his fellow employee in. And soon did so to himself as he started up the car.

"I don't wanna go to the hospital..." Leo protested with a bit of a whine as Jamie pulled out of the parking lot.

"Yeah, most people don't. But hazards come with your employment." The driver then took a breath, "plus your inability to stay safe." The last part grumbled, but Leo didn't hear it as he was staring at his wrapped fingers.

"They aren't supposed to go that way..." the guard mumbled and Jamie spared a glance at his hand before taking a deep breath and turning back to the road.

"You are just lucky you still have your fingers Leo." The waiter shook his head and took a breath.

As the car ride progressed Leo was looking progressively more and more uncomfortable and distressed, that's what made Jamie speed faster down the road. He was just lucky this was a smaller town without traffic police.

Honestly it was an incredibly small sheriff department.

...which is probably why Freddy's was even still open in the first place.

Due to the speed it didn't take terribly long for them to get there, Leo was barely lucid and Jamie had to help the guard inside the hospital where nurses spotted them and came over taking the mumbling guard away.

Jamie was left in the front room and took a breath sitting down.

"What do you mean he bit his fingers?" The mechanic demanded standing before them hands on her hips. Bonnie glanced at Chica but the hen refused to respond looking worriedly at the door.

With Freddy powered down by the mechanic before him, the hare was left to respond, he mocked a breath and turned to the woman before him. "Yes, Leo was trying to reach the power off button behind Freddy's jaw, but the timing was off and the pattern inconsistent. Jamie...the waiter took him to the hospital." the hare explained.

Joey took a breath and rubbed her face.

"Okay, okay, well, I'll make the repairs to Freddy. Acid can you..." she trailed as she looked around only to find that once more the terrible assistant was missing. She sighed but nothing more and turned back to the animatronics. Bonnie's eyes flickered about as he tried to find out where the madman was, but there was no sign of him.

Who knows, he was probably hunting spiders or something.

"Oh whatever, Bonnie, can you go grab some tools from the parts and service?" She asked, making him turn and look back at her, for a moment the rabbit debated before nodding and getting off the stage and going to the back room. On the way there he saw Acid sitting in the office spinning in the chair.

Bonnie paused and stopped as he watched him for a moment, "that's Leo's office." He said, not sure why he felt so upset about the strange man being in there.

Acid spun to face him and tilted his head, "but he isn't here right now! Someone needs to be in the office." Then he paused, and tilted his head more as if listening to something, before suddenly the multi-color haired man got up, ducked around Bonnie and went to the very same place that Bonnie needed to go.

Absently the bot wondered if he had heard what his boss wanted, before he followed the useless assistant, only to find him reading a note.

Bonnie came over and without a word snatched the piece of paper from him. It was hand-written and vaguely Bonnie registered the manager's handwriting.

Leo, corporate is insisting, they think that bringing back the toys will help aid in the reputation of this location. They are much more child friendly, and as the CEO put it, "they are more equipped to deal with hostile situations and individuals." I tried to tell them that this wasn't the time, but they didn't want to listen. I left a note in your office as well.

We have two days.

(Do not #$%# this up)

John.

Bonnie stared at the note his ears raised up high and on alert, what did he mean the toys were coming? Weren't they destroyed?!

The hare barely acknowledged Acid's presence anymore as he stood there before crushing the note in his paw. His vision glitched and went fussy as his paw's grip only tightened further.

Why was this happening? Why did they have to bring back the toys?! Everything was going fine! The children were calm, they had a consistent guard and life hadn't been completely miserable all the time! Why did the stupid company have to mess that up!?

The lagomorph didn't realize he had been shaking until he heard a few of his joints groan in complaint. Only then did he mock a breath and look down at the crumbled paper in his hand.

They were coming. He couldn't change that…

But couldn't you? Couldn't we? Think about it, when things were like how they were before, we didn't have the toys to compete with. They didn't want to bring in any more dangerous animatronics…

Bonnie felt his endoskeleton stiffen up and his ears droop a bit, magenta eyes flickering back and forth about the room, as if he could see the boy who spoke bodiless.

"Jeremy this isn't the time." The hare chided his eyes still scanning over the room, he stiffened more and shut his eyes tightly at the familiar child's laugh.

But it's the perfect time Bon! When they were afraid of us no one threatened selling us off! No one threatened to bring back the toys! When we took out those terrible men they left us alone! And we got to play our games!

The purple bot mocked breath and kept his eyes shut, shoulders hunched up, "but that was before. Things are different now!"

Why? Because of the whiny night guard? He is an adult!

"I thought you guys had come to an agreement with him!" The hare protested opening his eyes.

But that was so long ago! We are bored! We want to play!

The boy protested and Bonnie took a breath, "I'm not hurting Leo anymore." He said definitively, and a long sigh emanated around him.

Even if they take off our face again?

At the reminder, Bonnie's paws instantly went to his face and he mock swallowed, "shut up..." he mumbled gazing at the ground between his fingers.

Just think about it Bon...things are only like this because we are no longer feared...how are we supposed to scare the bad man away if we aren't scary anymore?

"What if we don't want to be scary Jeremy? Huh!? What if we don't want to kill the adults! Did you ever think of that!?" The lagomorph demanded, his endoskeleton stiffening up more.

So...you don't want to make us happy anymore? Are we not special like the other children?

At that the rabbit froze and dropped his hands, "no! No! I didn't say that! Of course we want to make you happy!" He tried, and there was another sigh from the boy.

I hate the toys, they were mean to us, I don't want them here. Them not being here makes me happy.

Bonnie's eyes flickered down to the pages before him, before finally looking away, "I'll think of something. Cause you are right about one thing." He paused gazing at the paper his ears pulled up high, "the toys can't be allowed to be here."

What little memories Leo had of the hospital were never good, he hated going to the hospital. The night guard had a strong hatred for nosey people, and the hospital was full of them.

So he was instantly put into a sour mood when he woke up in one, stripped of his clothes and in one of those stupid hospital gown, one hand was wrapped while his broken arm was in what felt and looked like a cast. Smaller casts were on his fingers and the rest of his hand wrapped as well. He looked down at himself only to pause at the blanket. He looked at both hands before pausing and slowly lifting the seemingly less injured one.

Using the three good fingers he had, the guard clumsily lifted the blanket and tossed it over the side, his leg was also freshly wrapped and casted.

Leo was also notably no longer in pain, and with a quick glance to his right he discovered it was because of the morphine drip attached to his arm.

As he glanced at it, an ache echoed through his body, he could call the nurses, but honestly the dial was right there.

Reaching over he used his ring finger and thumb to turn the dial up higher, before letting out a soft gasp and relaxing against the bed, now that was better.

"Good, good you're up." The guard's attention was drawn to the door as the doctor walked in. His face looked slightly familiar, but so many things had happened recently he couldn't be faulted for not remembering every face he had seen.

"Yeah...I guess...where are my clothes?" He did not like being out of his uniform, that was probably because while he was in them. Well he didn't feel so much like a street bum.

"Always to the point," the man chuckled and shook his head, "I had Justine go and wash them, they were quite...well, smelly, so I figured you might want them washed up." At that Leo relaxed before tensing again and frowning at him.

"Wait...are you going to charge me for that?" He was already up to his ears in hospital bills…

"Oh no, don't worry about it, I think we can spare some detergent." He smiled, but Leo could only offer a half one in return. The man seemed to read the room well and went over to the machines, but that only made Leo tense up.

$%$%^ he probably shouldn't have messed with the morphine.

The guard watched the doctor tensely and bit his lip as he saw him stay by the IV stand for longer than the others. Only to relax once he stepped away and started writing things down. Though with a quick glance at it, Leo did notice he had turned it down.

#$%&.

"So, when your coworker brought you here, I was impressed at how well you were handling the pain." The doctor turned to look at him, "have you always had a high pain tolerance?"

He asked the question simply, like making light conversation...but Leo was finding it anything but that.

"...well, that and other things." He mumbled, using his good hand to mess with the IV in his arm.

"Like the twenty seven different drugs in your system?" The doctor asked, it was in that same light tone, but Leo felt like he was a child being scolded.

Which was stupid, he was a ^%#%&% adult…

"And what's your point? It helped me with the pain and whatever." There was an edge to his voice.

"Look, Leo…you are young, you are only twenty six, you have your entire life ahead of you, do you really want to self-destruct before you can live any of it?" He asked, taking on an almost parenting tone.

"But it is my life. I can live it how I choose." He countered wishing at least one of his hands could curl into a fist.

"This isn't living, I have seen too many kids fall down a similar path and never make it out." He said taking a breath, before looking out the window. Leo followed his gaze and it was only then that he realized what time of day it was.

"$#$$%..." he pushed himself up biting back a wince, "I need to get back to work." This was going to be interesting, how the heck was he supposed to get back to work in his condition, he couldn't use his arms or one of his legs.

Maybe he could hop?

...no, that would be very stupid.

Dang how intense was this morphine?

"Ah, well that's not going to happen. You haven't been released yet, and I'm afraid your friend left to go back to work as well." At that Leo froze and looked up at him.

"...he...what?" His voice was low, the man brought him to the hospital, only to leave him there?!

"He left about an hour ago, he said he needed to take care of some things at work. He'll be back in a little bit to pick you up again. He also gave very specific instructions not to let you leave here until he got back." At that Leo's brow furrowed deeply and he glared at the man before him.

"...I'm sorry, am I under arrest?" His voice had grown an edge to it, the doctor let out a chuckle which only made Leo further infuriated.

"No, no, of course not. If you are absolutely set on leaving we can't stop you, but we can definitely recommend against it." He said pointedly, and Leo let out a breath.

"Well, I will definitely be getting fired if I don't get back." His eyes flickered to the window as he watched the plane of glass frost at the corners.

Was it winter already?

"I can give you a doctor's note if that will help." The doctor offered but Leo just let out a breath letting himself fall against the bed once more.

"Nah, he won't care, I'm already on the edge, there a...incident the other day. Kind of...lost my temper..." he trailed looking out the window.

"...ah yes, the Anderson incident. Honestly, while I don't condone violence...I don't blame you. I've had to treat Linda before...and man, she and her husband really test your temper." He shook his head and took a breath, causing the guard to look at him.

"That's not what I expected from you." he voiced before laying back on the bed, the doctor was amused but Leo decidedly ignored him. "When will Jamie be back again?" He didn't care if he sounded whiny, he was tired, and now didn't have any ability to use his hands.

This sucked.

"He should be back soon, why don't you relax? You look like you've been running a million miles an hour for awhile now. Take this as an opportunity to rest." The older man suggested with a smile before leaving, Leo frowned after him moodily.

"Rest is for the weak old man." Then with a breath he let his head fall back against the pillow.

Being by himself and 'resting' was the last thing that Leo wanted, any time that he was left alone with his thoughts for a prolonged period of time, well it never worked out well.

Inevitably his thoughts drifted back to the incident that brought him here, and honestly he was so lucky he was high or that would've been agonizing.

It was all because some stupid kid had gotten too close to Freddy, part of him naturally wondered what happened after he and Jamie had left. But he hoped someone had gotten to the off button on the bear.

He certainly couldn't do it now.

The guard wanted to return to work, he wanted to get back and do his job. Which in and of itself was a strange and unfamiliar feeling. This bizarre place, with the unexplainable situation surrounding it, well, it had somehow wormed itself into his life, it and the animatronics that came with it.

Now, Leo was not naïve enough to believe that this was going to last, the suing was proof enough of that, but at the moment, as he thought back over the months that he had been there, and how rapidly and unexpectedly things had changed…

Well it made him feel strangely nostalgic for the weird place, he practically lived there with them. He spent every one of his nights with those robots, it would've been stupid to claim that no one could get attached.

With his memory as hazy and shaky as it was, Leo couldn't recall any sort of family from his past, he didn't remember who his parents were, if he had any siblings, on what conditions that he had left things.

Did they care? Had they fought? Were they good to him?

Did they wonder where he was now?

It was a strange and shaky feeling having no attachment to the past. It left a hollow sort of feeling buried inside of him. Something that couldn't be filled no matter what he did.

Getting philosophical was not one of Leo's favorite things to do, but inevitably he couldn't help but feel like his roots were missing, and that made him feel completely out of place in this world.

Where had he come from? Was he even born in America? Why were his memories so blurry? Had the drugs he had taken affected his memory this much? Or was there something else that he didn't remember? Did he have an injury aside from the ones he had gotten here?

And...how long had it been since he had forgotten?

Millions of questions raced around in his pounding head, and in a futile attempt to silence them he closed his eyes. Perhaps sleep was what he needed, maybe these things would drift into the back of his head where they belonged. Collecting dust and allowing his more pressing concerns to be at the forefront.

But it was then that a grim thought hit him.

...would he forget his time here as well?

That made his eyes snap open and a painful sort of constricting feeling ignite in his chest, which didn't entirely make since.

Sure things had been fairly nice, but there had also been a lot of bad memories here, his injuries were evidence of that.

But...he didn't want to forget. He didn't want to forget the animatronics after they were sold off.

In a weird way they had almost become his friends, even the annoying and obnoxious Jamie.

With a furrowed brow, Leo realized...he had ended up letting all of them a lot closer than he ever intended to.

So much so, that already, he glanced at the clock waiting for Jamie to arrive so he could go back and reassure them that he was fine.

...because they were concerned, and they would be frightened for his safety.

And that knowledge ended up replacing that constricting feeling with a rather warm one in his chest.

They cared, someone...cared about his well being, and while he would never admit it aloud…

He found that he cared as well.

I hope to update again soon, but due to the holidays I can't promise anything right now.

Anyways, what did you think of the chapter? Leo finally is coming to the realization that there are those who care about him, do you think that will affect how he conducts himself in the future? How do you think the other animatronics will react once the toys arrive? What do you thing of Bonnie's conversation with Jeremy? Are you excited for the toys?

Lots of questions this chapter! I always love to hear what you guys think! And I am so, so grateful for all the support!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!