Summery: For Charlie's 13th, Mr. Wonka takes him on his first trip to Loompaland; but they never make it. The Glass Elevator brakes leaving Charlie and Mr. Wonka alone in the coldness of a snowy desert; but they're adventure is only beginning.

A/T: Just please ignore possible spelling mistakes, Kay?

Chapter 7

Mr. Wonka didn't know what had caused him to sleep that night, but he felt that if he went on sobbing, he'd wake Charlie up and he'd have to make an excuse for crying. Charlie was always a caring boy and helpful too, even though sometimes these days he could be a bit snappy. Mrs. Bucket had told him that Charlie was just growing up and sometimes his mood could change at improper moments, though Mr. Wonka had made the excuse 'I was never as him when I was his age' every time it was mentioned.

There had been many times where he'd done something and Charlie had tried his best to pull the truth right out of him. The two that stuck in Mr. Wonka's mind the most was when he went to reunite with his father and around Easter last year that the young apprentice wanted to know why Mr. Wonka had these so called 'flashbacks' all the time; but never quite succeeded.

Charlie had awoke a few hours after the chocolatier had gone to sleep, and was frustrated by the sudden heat that had made him sweat. He bounced up and rubbed the sweat away from his forehead and the sleep out of his eyes, he glanced over at a familiar digital clock that his mentor had given him as soon as he moved in to keep on time during his lessons in the factory. Charlie gave a smile at it and bent over, whipping the dust off it and looking deeply into its blackness. The lights were still on, though they were flickering, it was still easily able to see what you were doing.

Charlie stretched and tried to pull his shoes on, but that morning feeling was still on him, and no matter what he did, he just felt too weak to do anything. Trying to balance on his good foot, he made his was down the ladder and into the bottom half of his house, but as he got to the bottom part of the ladder, just couldn't resist jumping down onto the couch. One food let off, but just before the other one did, memory struck him and he remembered everything that had happened before he went to sleep.

He got down slowly and balanced himself on the armrest of the couch, not touching Mr. Wonka at the least. Charlie hit the floor slowly, landing in a cat like stance on the mat right next to the couch. Mr. Wonka was sleeping on his back with his mouth wide open, one arm was behind the cushion while the other one rested aimlessly on his back. His legs hung over the other arm of the couch, crossed over at the ankles, showing a pair of dark purple socks with a few holes near the toes and one on the heel.

Charlie gave a toothless grin before pulling himself up, he'd never seen his mentor sleep before; it seemed different and kind of…weird; then something caught his eyes. He'd terribly cut his hands in the accident, then why would he be sleeping on them?

Careful not to wake him, the young apprentice pulled himself across to try and check the hand that was tucked under the chocolatier's back. One thing Charlie had learned during this was that Mr. Wonka was an overly heavy sleeper, and everything that Charlie did; he'd continue to sleep.

Charlie was amazed at what he saw when he was able to grab both hands. The cuts and bruises that had covered the palm of both his hands were gone, not even scars were visible; it was like nothing had happened. He played with the soft velvet like hands for a few seconds before placing them back on Mr. Wonka's chest like he had died and made his way over to a dusty mirror. He quickly rubbed the dust off and –through the clean areas of the mirror- examined his face, finding not even a scar left. His black eye was now perfectly clear and it showed two beaming blue eyes.

"How-?" Charlie was lost for words, he tried to say something but nothing came out. Before he could actually say anything, he felt weak and the area went black.

"Charlie…"

"Charlie…"

"Wake up Charlie."

The sing-song voice played through Charlie's mind, the voice sounded faint and far off, but he wanted to say something, but no matter how hard he tried, nothing reasonable would come out.

"Arh." Charlie moaned, the only thing he could say when he was waking up. His eyes fluttered open and he was greeted by a strangely smiling and excited Willy Wonka. Charlie gave a weak smile in return and tried to sit up, but a headache got the better of him and he sank back down again, the springs from the bed he was sitting on made a hard noise.

"Good morning Sprout."

"What happened?" Charlie asked through a raspy voice.

"You fainted and hit your head on a chair."

Charlie gave a loud moan in embarrassment; Mr. Wonka started to giggle loudly.

There then came a knock on the door and the chocolatier left Charlie's side and skipped over to the door, opening it happily. A woman was standing in the doorway, she was either in early adulthood or in her mid teens, either was she was breathing quickly and had a tray in her hand. Charlie lifted himself up to get a better look at the lady.

She had a few blemishes and wasn't exactly the prettiest thing you'd ever see, she wore an Asian looking dress; it was a shade of light blue with a belt made out of cloth. The dress reached the top of her shins or the bottom of her knee, with different looking flowers imprinted on it.

Mr. Wonka nodded quickly and took the tray away from her and quickly shut the door, balancing the tray in his hands he skipped over to the young boy and placed the tray in front of Charlie. The smell of toast, sausages and eggs filled the room, he stomach growled at the smell; telling him to eat everything that was sitting on the small tray.

"Go on." Mr. Wonka encouraged. "Eat up."

A shaking hand lifted up and took the mettle lid off, presenting Charlie with scrambled eggs and sausages on toast. He bit his bottom lip and took the napkin on his left side, pulling out a knife and a fork. Taking the pepper, he shook it over his meal and then took the salt, repeating what he had just done and then started to eat. He placed some egg on the slice of toast and stabbed the fork through it, cutting the edge he put it in his mouth and started chewing; and then something hit him. Charlie started to chew on that one slice quicker, once swallowed; he coughed to grab his mentor's attention.

"Mr. Wonka, who was that?" Charlie cocked his head to an angle in curiosity.

"Wha!" Mr. Wonka's head spun around, facing his apprentice. "Oh! You never guess what happened. I woke up and I went to go check on my dear old river, but when I opened the door I was somewhere different. But you know something; I actually saw snow turn into an ocean in only ten minutes!"

Mr. Wonka was practically beaming, he was also bouncing, making the bed strings squeak. "But just eat, you need it."

"Don't you want any?" Charlie asked, concerned.

The chocolatier shook his head, giggling once more. "Nup, I already had something."

Charlie nodded and took a sip of Orange Juice before continuing on with his meal, another knock came from the door and Mr. Wonka happily opened it, this time it was a middle aged man wearing what looked like the top half of what the lady had worn but with pants that reached the came height as the lady's dress, it also had the same design on it with the exact same cloth belt. Mr. Wonka nodded to everything the man said and when the man had finished, he made a perfect 'o' with his mouth and turned over to Charlie.

"Sprout! Could you go with this kind man please?" Charlie stopped eating and gathered himself up before following the man away and out of the room and down into a long hall way which connected to many different other bedrooms, once they got down to the end of the hall, the made there way down some wooden stairs and into a hall presented with many other rooms. Other men, women, boys and girls were in the halls either talking or working, but one thing was, they all wore the same clothes, the blue clothes he'd seen on this man and the other lady that had brag him his breakfast. Almost everyone stopped and stared at Charlie when he followed the man down to a small almost abandoned hall, looking up, Charlie read the sign of which said 'Uniform Closet' he'd have to wear what everyone else was wearing, he'd feel like a penguin.

"Who are these people?" He asked himself, speed walking over to the door which had a sign, 'Uniform Closet' written on it in black marker. The man of opened the door and came out with a blue uniform, and handed it to Charlie.

"You will wear these during work; Mandy will show you where you will work in a few hours when I find her." The man instructed. "I'm sure you'll be able to find your way back."

Charlie shook his head quickly, he didn't like this man at all, he was too big and scary for his liking. After looking up at his muscular middle aged man for at least ten seconds, he skidded away to find where his room was.

What had happened? Was the old factory some kind of disguise? Were these people even human and why did Mr. Wonka seem so comfortable with them when he wasn't much of a 'people person'?

A/N: Another chapter up, I now have major writers block and my head hurts. Besides that, I went to see Corpse Bride this Saturday. It wasn't as good as CatCF though, and it could have been longer, but it still entertained me for a while. Well, my reviewers keep on reviewing and hopefully you like the chapter.