He heard her climb down the ladder and, after a moment, the door to his cramped bathroom closed. Water ran, then stopped, and he heard her opening and closing cupboards for some time.
Then he lost track of her. He'd forgotten how quiet she could be: stealth had seemed necessary when inventing a robot who would work while he was asleep. Now it irked him. He couldn't bring himself to turn around and risk her accusing stare.
As it turned out, he didn't have to. He felt something tug at the loose bandage he'd wrapped around his right hand. The magazine slid, forgotten, into his lap as he stared at Wren who was gingerly beginning to unwrap the gauze.
She reached down into a bowl she'd brought, and started to dab at the bloody cuts with warm water. Her touch was feather light, like the brush of a bird's wing. They sat like that for a long time: Robbie in stunned silence, and Wren intent on the task at hand. She was good at her job, and after a liberal dousing of antibiotics she rewrapped his hand in a far neater manner than he had originally.
Wren's hand lingered briefly on his after she clipped the end of the gauze securely to itself. Then it was gone, and she sat back on her heels, head bowed as she waited for his sentence.
Robbie keenly felt the absence of her touch. He felt the bandage with his good hand, his fingers sliding over the folds of its neat, tight wrapping. He looked back down at the top of her lowered head.
"So what name did you pick?" he asked, his voice hoarse from recent disuse.
"I got rid of it," she replied, without looking up. "I'm the Robbiebot, version one-point-oh."
"No, you..." Robbie brought his fingers up to massage his forehead. How had everything become so difficult all of a sudden? "Just tell me. I want to know your name."
"I picked...Wren."
He saw her hesitation, and the wild guilt that he'd penned up inside came loose with a roar that rang in his ears. He could see that she knew, with the certainty of the abused, that he was going to strike her again. And she was afraid.
Robbie sighed. He could feel a headache building behind his eyes. "Wren. You never should have come back."
"Why not?"
"Because I don't deserve you," Robbie replied. He waved one hand vaguely at the workshop. "Keeping you here, using you. You should have stayed with the blue elf. He'd've treated you better."
"But I belong to you."
Robbie laughed bitterly. "Yes, I suppose you do. That's the only reason you stayed in the first place. You didn't know anything else."
He wasn't certain that she had responded, but a faint sound made him look at her. Wren was mumbling something under her breath. "What?" he asked. "I can't--"
The girl thrust herself to her feet. Her hands were clenched at her sides, and she had begun to tremble. "You..." she started. "You..."
"You don't have to say anything," Robbie told her. "You have my permission to go."
There was a brief pause, and then he felt a stinging pain explode on his cheek. He stared at her while one hand gingerly touched the place where she had slapped him.
"You gave me an emotion program," Wren shouted at him. "You gave me an emotion program and you didn't expect me to want to stay with you? I came back because I wanted to! If hitting me makes you feel better sometimes, then that's fine! That's what I'm built for! But don't send me away because you don't feel you deserve me, because that's just...that's..." she trailed off for a moment, "...I don't know what that is yet, but I want to stay here!"
"You can't know what you want!" Robbie said, lurching awkwardly to his feet. He glared down at her, and she met his gaze with childlike defiance. "I beat you into unconsciousness. You should go somewhere safe, where you'll be happy and can act like a normal child!"
"I'm not a normal child!"
"You're not a robot either!" Robbie shouted back. "What are you?"
"I'm Wren!" The girl stomped one foot in frustration. "I'm Wren, and I love you, and I'm staying!"
"Fine!" Robbie threw his hands into the air, equally annoyed. "Fine, stay! Live the fabulous life that is being Robbie Rotten's daughter!"
"Fine! I will!" Wren said, lifting her little chin in the air.
"Fine with me!"
"Me too!"
"Fine then!"
Silence descended upon them. Wren's chin fell somewhat as her indignance faded.
"...you want some cake now?"
Robbie sighed. "Desperately."
Things in Lazytown didn't really change after that. Sportacus still swooped down from his airship to save people. Stephanie still danced for the other kids. The Mayor still got into trouble, and Bessie always to do her best to get him out of it. And of course, Robbie Rotten continued to plot to make Lazytown lazy again.
If anyone ever noticed that he walked a little slower whenever he was being followed by a little girl with a ribbon in her hair, they never said anything.