Chapter 151

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Puppet winced a bit, cursing the lack of filter.

Ruby's gleeful mood dropped faster than a stone and she looked away, picking at her sleeve.

The day shift looked confused while the bots winced a bit but understood what he meant. Timmy looked down.

"I...need to see their graves...If they're here."

"They're empty, Puppet," Hedy said quietly.

Harrison squeezed his eyes shut and flinched.

"...not Timmy's. O-or Elizabeth," Puppet said, speaking a name that some of them didn't know. "And..." he trailed off, covering his mouth to keep from saying. He seemed to gather himself for a moment. "And the other kids have headstones, don't they?"

"...Yes."

Everyone was silent for a long moment before Ruby broke it.

"I am not going on that trip," her tone was flat, but they knew why. There was only one cemetery in town.

She couldn't go. Not now. She looked at Jeremy for a second and immediately regretted it.

The man was already watching her, gauging her reaction.

Puppet hung his head a bit, glancing at Hedy.

"If you give me a map...I could..."

Jeremy snorted. "What? You'll walk there yourself? You're going to get lost," he said, his attention off Ruby.

"What the heck is going there even going to do?" a voice asked from the hallway.

Hedy wordlessly glared at the girl who turned up.

"I'm not trying to be mean," Ginny defended herself with a scoff. "I get why he'd maybe see some other people, but why Timmy and us if we aren't even there?"

"No one's there," Ruby snapped. "That's not the point."

Foxy, still a bit drunk, pulled her into a hug.

Huffing, she let it happen, but continued to stare at Ginny.

"We can go as a group. Ruby and Hedy were going to swap now after all," Goldy suggested gently.

Hedy shifted, but she nodded. She wasn't the most enthused about going to the cemetery. It made her feel odd these days. She wasn't too sure how the bots would react, either.

"Well..." Ginny shrugged, glancing at the day shifts who were staring at her. "If anyone left me flowers, I want em."

That succeeded in getting a strained snort out of Hedy, at least. "That's awful." She wasn't even sure why she was talking to Ginny right now. She was still mad.

"What? You said our mums leave us toys sometimes."

Jeremy winced at the kid's morbid flippancy while the day shift looked freaked.

Mike frowned in concern.

"I'm not grave robbing, Ginny," Hedy said, her voice deadpan. "How exactly am I going to explain that if we get caught? It looks terrible."

"Coward."

Hedy just stared at the ghost and frowned while Timmy sighed but oddly looked a bit amused too. He was also surprised by the lack of anger Hedy was displaying towards Ginny. Maybe it was the weirdness of the day. Maybe it was the stress from the previous day.

Whatever it was, Ginny seemed to be fully intent on taking advantage of it.

"Brat," Ruby muttered, glowering at Ginny.

Ginny glared back. Personally, Timmy thought that Ginny was a bit jealous over how close the teen was growing to Hedy. Ruby continued to grow closer to Hedy while Ginny was in the doghouse over what she did during the coma week.

Ginny stuck her tongue out at Ruby.

"Very mature," Hedy muttered. "Fine. I'll bring you old flowers and grass-stained plushies if they're there and if no one's going to get caught. But this is a one-time thing because your families left them for you."

"Deal?" Ginny smirked jokingly. Her voice wavered a bit at the mention of her family.

No one dared even glancing at Michael but they could imagine he was smirking like a piece of shit.

"You wish," Hedy hissed, lowering her voice. She wanted to make sure Ginny understood there wasn't good will in her agreement to the favor.

Ginny's flinch was barely noticeable, and she covered it up with a shrug. "Shoot." Ginny pretended she wasn't too disappointed by the malice in Hedy's voice. She almost got Hedy to joke with her again...

Ruby flicked a glance between Hedy and the ghost, a frown pulling at her lips. Only Timmy really noticed.

Ginny tilted her head and stared at Puppet, clearly a bit weirded out by his behavior. He was looking at her like he was about to actually cry. It was really weird. And pathetic. She'd never seen Puppet come close to crying.

"He's still mostly drunk," Goldy explained when she saw Ginny's expression. She was still the most civil to the ghost kids. "That's why Foxy is so clingy and Mangle is giggling inappropriately right now."

"Oh. That makes sense," Ginny nodded, grimacing at the idea of being drunk. (She still refused to acknowledge that night Ruby brought the alcohol and poured it down the sink.)

"Does it…?" Jerry mumbled, stiffening when Ginny's eyes shifted to him.

Timmy frowned at the girl.

She was behaving somewhat. Surprisingly. And she was completely ignoring Michael, so that was good. It was weird she came alone, though. Then again she was the one that he knew wanted Hedy's friendship back the most. Felix was sulking, claiming to be in the right. Frederick was being stubborn. Cheryl and Benji were just listless and depressed.

Timmy knew some of the kids were aware of what was going on, but he had expected none of them to be comfortable enough with the day shift there to show themselves

It made sense that Felix and Benji didn't show. Benji avoided Michael more than any of the others, and Felix still showed up the least.

"Where are the other brats?" Ruby asked suspiciously.

Ginny rolled her eyes and shrugged.

"I'm not the babysitter," she said. "Cheryl's..." she hesitating in confusion, "Trying to 'sleep'. Fredrick and Benji are listening. I don't care what the hell Felix is whining about today."

It was odd hearing what looked like a five or six-year-old say "hell."

The day shift didn't know how to react. Ruby just huffed and looked back at Hedy.

Hedy sighed, zipping up her bag. "Ok. Who's riding with who? If anyone pukes in my car, Mangle, then you're walking back."

Izzy looked panicked. "Have you done my errands yet?"

"No," Teddy said.

"You're taking Mangle to do my job while she's drunk?"

Mangle giggled incessantly at the concept. "I'll be f-fine!"

"I'm hoping everyone sobers up before we have to do too much," Hedy said.

Jeremy squinted. "Looking at her now, she's probably not going to be completely sober until 6 am tomorrow morning. She should be coherent, but not completely sober, in about three hours if she pukes up the excess before it's all absorbed."

"What? How do you know that?" Toby asked.

Jeremy looked at him in silence for a minute. "Toby, what's my job again?" he asked slowly.

Toby still looked confused. "You're a police officer...detective...person."

Ruby choked on a laugh. Maybe they needed to explain the exact details to the bots beyond 'cop' at some point.

"I can help her throw it up," Ruby offered after getting herself under control. "I went through a bit of a phase once when I learned how."

Hedy gave Ruby a look. "Are you trying to worry everyone?" She glanced at Mangle. "Also, you might not need to help too much."

Ruby shrugged. "Hedy, I literally went through every self-destructive phase there is. It's the past. No point ignoring it. No way to learn from it if I do."

She glanced at Mangle who really wasn't looking too great. Foxy seemed a bit better at holding the alcohol at least.

Mangle was still grinning but she looked a little strained. She looked a bit pale too.

Hedy made a mental note to talk to Ruby about expecting everyone to just be fine about her painful past without addressing it.

"Don't puke in my box," Puppet felt the need to request, still slurring his words a bit.

Ginny made a face. "Ewww..."

There was a thin far-away noise that muttered, "Gross..." in Benji's voice as a light flickered, just slightly.

Ruby snickered before standing up. "Come on Mangle. Let's get you to the bathroom where you can suffer the joys of a human stomach rebelling on you."

"Awww..." Mangle whined as Ruby led her away.

Hedy shook her head and ran her hand through her hair. "Right. So what do we have to do next? We can leave the cemetery for last. I know we still have to go to the bank before it closes. Who still needs their 'wish' done?"

"Bonnie and Foxy are done," Mike was glad he didn't have to deal with a drunk throwing up. He was a bit surprised that Ruby volunteered. Then again she did have that sadistic streak… And she lived with a lot of kids so maybe she was used to puke.

"Very done," Foxy said with a smirk. "YAR HAR FIDDLE-DEE-DEE BEING AH PIRATE IS ALRIGHT WIT ME-"

"NOO!" All the other bots, plus Mike and Jeremy shouted at him to shut up.

Michael shook his head. "The fuck?"

Mike groaned. "He's been singing that the whole way down the street," he explained to the staff, ignoring Michael.

Chi, weirdly enough, was the one to try tackling Foxy and covering his mouth with her hand. "SHUT UP!" The small chicken seemed to be at the end of her rope.

Foxy snickered and held her in a headlock as she complained and he held her free hand away from his mouth. "Oi, you're the one who assumed I'd want ta get drunk."

"That was Mangle's fault!" Chi screeched, squirming. She stomped on his squishy human foot.

Marion winced, twitching Foxy's animatronic foot as Foxy yelped.

"Hey! The rule was no damage to the human bodies!" Mike snapped. He was so done with the day already.

"Sorry," Chi muttered as she squirmed out of Foxy's hold.

Hedy sighed. "Ok. You guys didn't get a chance to go go-cart racing?"

There was a round of negatives.

"We spent longer at the convention than planned," Freddy explained. "Then Ruby acted..oddly and said she needed to come back early."

Bonnie pouted. "Everything was basically over at that point. No offense to Mike and Jeremy. But they're not as entertaining."

"Thanks," Jeremy said seriously.

Hedy groaned. "Okay so we're doing everything else on my turn. Well...we'll be busy."

Chica raised her hand. "Technically, I'm done. I got to eat something."

"But you wanted to go to a restaurant," Jeremy said. "We had ice cream and were at a convention with snack food. Doughnuts don't count either."

Chica looked grateful Jeremy was willing to stick to what she wanted instead of taking a short cut. Even if he had that exhausted dad look they often saw from fathers at the pizzeria.

"Okay, so proper lunch next?" Mike asked tiredly. "I'm guessing Ruby is staying here."

He glanced at Michael.

"I'm expecting to come back to an exorcism, honestly. Since we're leaving Ruby here alone with him. And the staff.

"Fuck you, Mike," Michael said dryly. "Exorcisms are for demons anyway."

Mike stared at him. "I stand by my exorcism statement," he responded dryly, making a few people choke on laughter.

"Lunch. Then we'll split up," Hedy said, "Mike can take Toby, Teddy, and whoever wants to go with them to the go-carts, Jeremy can take Goldy skydiving..."

"Shoot. I forgot about that," Jeremy said.

"I'll go to supervise," Freddy added, shooting Goldy a warning look. "I'll ask Jeremy to take me to the library after skydiving."

"And whoever else wants to do that. I'll take Mangle to the bank and the post office. Then we can meet up at the beach."

"Then the cemetery?" Puppet mumbled questioningly. He almost sounded sheepish.

"Then we'll stop at my house and then we'll all go to the cemetery before heading back home. That should cover almost everyone." She looked toward Spring.

Spring didn't say anything.

Goldy poked Spring. "You haven't said anything yet," she pointed out.

Spring startled. "I..." he grimaced apologetically. "I don't really know what I want..."

"Well, let us know if you think of something." Mike offered.

Spring nodded, looking thoughtful. He glanced over at Andrew in his body.

"Did you break something?" he asked, tilting his head at the teenager.

Andrew recoiled. "Yeah. Sorry, sir..."

Spring blinked in surprise at the title and chuckled."Sir? Uh..." He shook his head in confusion. "N-No, I figured you would. I mean I was hoping you wouldn't deal with that but..."

Michael scoffed and Spring glanced at the ghost with a small flinch.

Andrew glared at the dead man. "Hey. You can just..." He halted, looking confused as his voice cut off.

"I think you were trying to say 'fuck off'," Jerry said helpfully, eyeing Michael.

"I was trying to be more creative than that actually," Andrew said.

Before Michael could say anything, Ruby reappeared in the doorway behind him and slammed him into the ground with a well-placed kick. "Shut up," she snapped. "No one here cares about anything you've got to say." Her 'Michael is being a Dick' senses were in superb shape lately.

Mangle followed after her, swaying slightly and looking a lot less happy than before.

Spring had to chuckle a bit as Mangle distractedly stepped over Michael as if she wasn't consciously aware he was there.

They were all used to the casual way Ruby kicked or hit Michael now. A lot of them thought it was karma after everything he'd done.

The staff, on the other hand, were a little more uncomfortable with her casual aggression.

They didn't sympathize with Michael after hearing what he'd done, but Ruby's behavior was scary.

There was also something else that bothered them.

Harrison and Frank shared a look. Harrison was closer and in Toby's body could move faster than Frank in Chica's body if Michael reacted. Plus he was closer to the ghost anyway.

Frank gestured at the ghost and Harrison squinted back for a moment but still walked up to the ghost and for curiosity's sake tried to poke the young man on the shoulder as Michael was pushing himself up.

"What the hell are you doing?" Michael spat, trying to slap Harrison away. But even then, his hand passed through Harrison's like nothing.

Harrison frowned, the experiment complete, and looked at Ruby in confusion.

She had been able to touch the ghost. Easily. They definitely hadn't been imagining it.

The teen just shrugged. "Perks of almost dying," she said brightly. "I can beat him up whenever I want. If you want to hit him you'll have to cover your hand in salt."

"Or soak a crowbar in salt water until it rusts and gets coated in salt," Jeremy said.

"And risk tetanus," Mike added.

The staff ignored them and Hedy's laugh to stare at Ruby. The teen said it so flippantly, like it wasn't a big deal.

"Good to know..." Harrison said lamely, shaking his hand as if Michael was something disgusting to even try touching.

Spring turned his attention back to the teenager stuck in his body and looked at him sympathetically. "Are you doing alright?"

Why the heck did he look apologetic?!

Andrew gave an awkward shrug. How did he even answer that?

Ruby perched on the nearest table and watched them all closely with sharp eyes.

"I need coffee," Jeremy muttered as he left for the staff breakroom, grateful that Amelia had elected to stay outside as the kids ran around batting at each other with plastic light sabers while they waited for a taxi to take them to Hedy's house.

Mike opened his mouth but Jeremy waved him off without even looking. "Yeah yeah I'll get you some too."

"Hedy fixed it," Andrew said, shifting. He glanced at Hedy as she ignored him and packed up her tools.

"She fixes everything," Spring agreed. "When we let her."

There were a few obvious looks towards Puppet.

Puppet was just sober enough to scowl (pout) stubbornly, but still too drunk to be able to brush it off with an eye roll.

"She's a really good mechanic," Mangle said, still slurring a bit. She walked over to Freddy and touched his nose. "Boop!"

"I'm the only mechanic you guys have had that was actually qualified or wasn't being blackmailed," Hedy scoffed. "Not a great group to compare me to," she pointed out. She looked up with a small frown. "Scratch that. I'm not even properly qualified."

"You're the only mechanic allowed here," Ruby said without looking up. "It's the new rule."

"Technically," Olivia spoke up. "You guys hired me as both a day guard and emergency mechanic. The Manager never asked me to fix anyone though. The most I've done is fix a mixer Marco broke and Jerry's car," She looked at Hedy almost accusingly. "You threw a cookie bomb at me and told me to fix it."

"Oh yeah." Hedy said. She winced a bit. "That was mostly a joke. And I was trying to be clever."

"You're lucky it was the model without a secondary trigger," Ruby snickered.

"I'm missing something here," Harrison said in confusion.

"The Manager made us do a round of interviews a while back," Hedy explained.

Izzy suddenly yelped. "The papers! Mangle, you have to go get my papers from the Manager."

Ruby frowned and looked at the still giggly Mangle. "Do you have to be the one to get them or can I threaten him into giving them to me?" She asked Izzy.

"N-no. Well, maybe," Izzy said. "But I'm supposed to... Oh dear, I know it's problematic but I would prefer Mangle get them. It's in my contract that only the Manager and I are supposed to handle financial documents." She blinked, adding, "And I'm not allowed to look at them if the envelopes are already sealed. So please don't open them." She looked worried, having some idea of what a snoop Ruby could be.

Ruby gave an over dramatic sigh. "Fine. I'll walk Mangle there, she'll get the documents and act like a good sober fox or we're banning her favourite shows from the tv for a month, then I'll walk her back. Hedy will keep an eye on her after that."

Mangle pouted. She tilted her head a bit. "I don't like him. Can I call him rude things just a little?"

"No!" Izzy said.

"Mangle, sweetie. You have to behave like you're perfectly polite Izzy, or I won't teach you swearing in sign language anymore."

Mangle glared in annoyance and pointed toward the Manager's office. She held her right hand flat like a knife, perpendicular to the floor and her thumb tucked down against her palm, in a "b" sign-language letter. She brought it up to tap her chin.

Hedy raised her eyebrows. She knew an insult when she saw it..

"But fine..." Mangle grumbled. She rubbed the side of her head, probably already having a headache.

Ruby hooked her arm through Mangle's and started walking her to the office. "Be back in a few!" she called with a salute.

"This can either go fine or incredibly bad," Hedy said, "There is no in-between."

"Should we take bets?" Mike asked in an attempt at levity.

"No teaching them to gamble, please," Jeremy groaned.

"Hedy and Ricky already taught some of us poker," Chica said with a slight scowl at Foxy.

"Ricky?"Jeremy asked. "How does he know poker? Wait. Scratch that. Ruby of course."

"I say Mangle's going to get Izzy fired," Jess said, only half-joking.

Izzy whined.

"She's got more self-control than that," Mike said.

"She's drunk. That's a wildcard," Hedy said.

"Ruby's with her-"

"That's also a wildcard."

"They'll be fine," Spring said. "The Manager wouldn't fire Izzy with Ruby there." He looked at Izzy, "But he might be giving you weird glares for a while."

Izzy covered her face. Her eyes really. Mangle's snout got in the way.

"Or everything is completely fine," Hedy huffed. She zipped up her bag and rested it on her lap, ready to leave and put it in the backseat of her truck.

It wasn't long before Ruby strolled back in with Mangle holding the documents. She raised an eyebrow at the expectant looks.

"I glared at him as we walked in so he was too distracted to notice anything was off with her. I think he pissed himself in fright." She sounded so proud of that too.

Mangle giggled. "I almost called him fat. These right, Izzy?"

Izzy looked at the envelopes. "Yes...Make sure the right one gets to the right place. The one for the post office should have a send-to address with the company name, while the bank one should just have the company name." She frowned in a bit of worry. "I'm sorry...can you read?" She cringed at how rude that sounded but she had to know.

"We can all read text," Puppet said dryly, rubbing his eyes. "Writing and deciphering human handwriting is what we had to learn."

"They're actually better than most humans. You know how hard it is to read a five year old's handwriting? These guys don't even have to squint." Ruby actually pouted a bit.

"Is everyone ready to brave the outdoors again?" Mike asked, noticing that Hedy was ready.

"Is it going to rain?" Puppet asked, worried almost.

He must still be a little drunk to let that emotion in his voice.

Ruby glanced up. "No. Clear skies predicted for the rest of the day," she answered casually. "But it might get cloudy tonight."

They hadn't even realised she'd looked it up.

Goldy looked at Puppet in concern while Hedy nodded.

"Alright then. Let's go before it gets too late. Ruby, you're officially in charge. Don't kill anyone. Michael excluded."

Michael grunted and squinted at them.

"I'm technically always in charge!" the night guard called back. "And does that include emotional or psychological torture? Because Henry's here!"

Hedy ignored Ruby's calls at the back of her head as Mike held the door for her and she went outside, everyone following like ducklings with Jeremy last and keeping an eye on the drunks. It wasn't nearly as dramatic as the first time.

Hopefully it stayed that way.