Chapter 5: Babies and Books

The first of October is a busy day for everyone. Nature busies itself with the slow changing of the season. While the leaves are still pretty green, they are beginning their shift into red, orange, and yellow hues. Marlene likes this time of year well enough, but still mourns the passing of summer. Not that she had any time for that.

After all, Marlene had plans as well.

"Wait, where are you going again?" Sun asks, watching as Marlene slips on her shoes by the front door.

"I have a doctor's appointment today," Marlene answers, readjusting her brown purse over her shoulders. She then turns to the wall and picks her car keys off the hook as Sun steps a little closer.

"Are you sick?"

He said it in such a genuinely concerned way that makes Marlene pause before she glances up at the brightly colored jester. He tilts his head, a sign Marlene had come to understand as his way of silently communicating curiosity or confusion. "I'm pregnant. Was that not in my file?"

While it was true that Marlene told her boss about her pregnancy only a short time before losing her job, she assumed it would have been in her file.

But the robot shakes his head and begins to ask another question before Marlene's phone alarm rings, cutting him off. Marlene switches the alarm off and places a hand on the doorknob, giving it a quick twist before opening it.

"Sorry Sun, I've gotta fly!" Marlene closes the door before the chatty animatronic could get another word in, rushing out to her car and sliding in. Without delay, she was on her way to her third appointment with her doctor, Dr. Wendy Spence.

When Marlene enters the clinic, she makes her way towards the receptionist's desk and glances over at the clock hanging just behind them. It read 8:50 - She was ten minutes early for her appointment. The click-clacking from the receptionist halts as he glances up and greets her with a friendly smile.

"Who are you here to see?"

"Dr. Wendy Spence. I'm her 9 o'clock appointment."

The man turns his attention back to the computer, typing away before looking back up. "Name?"

"Marlene Devyns."

"Okay, we'll let her know you've arrived. Please take a seat."

Marlene sinks into a chair and studies the office. The room was pretty empty for the most part besides one or two other people scattered around. Some quiet music plays in the background, though Marlene couldn't place any of the artists. It then struck Marlene that she could name most songs when she was in her early 20's and she suddenly felt a little dated.

A nurse calls her name and Marlene abruptly rises to her feet before hurrying over to the nurse, anxious that the lady would find her too slow. Nurses always walked like they were on a mission and one could always tell if they were in a hurry. Being so early in the morning, Marlene wonders what the rush was about but keeps her mouth shut.

After they filed into a room, Marlene was asked to stand on the scale while the nurse took her weight. She had gained a bit, though she wasn't too sure if she should have been gaining more or less. Weight was a fickle thing from her understanding. Her mother had complained about gaining far too much weight while pregnant while her aunt barely gained any at all. Because of that, it took her aunt until her second trimester to find out she was pregnant. Marlene imagined it was quite a shock for her! 'It must all come down to body type, diet, and luck,' Marlene muses as she follows the nurse's instructions.

The nurse then moves on to taking her blood pressure and asking her some questions before leaving Marlene alone in the room.

There were only a few sounds Marlene could hear inside the room, all coming from outside. The times when people walked pass her door made her sit up straight in her seat before deflating as the sounds in the hallway went quiet again. She wasn't particularly fond of the waiting. Marlene didn't think of herself as an impatient person, but she did dread the silence. Perhaps that's why she got along with Sun.

Her thoughts shift to the robot and she realizes that this would be his first day alone in the house since he moved in. Granted, it had only been a week or so since his arrival but that made Marlene worry more. 'Will he be okay?' Marlene glances at her phone, suddenly hoping the time goes by quicker. Atlas, glancing at one's phone does not make time go faster.

Much to her relief, it was not too long before Dr. Spence came.

Dr. Spence was a very nice woman in her forties. The woman had dark brown hair and was shorter than herself - though Marlene didn't think that said much since she was rather tall. Not a giant by any means unless you asked the clothing companies, but most certainly tall.

They speak a bit about the baby, what to expect now that she was fourteen weeks along, and about some of her symptoms.

"They don't like eggs. That's new." Marlene says sarcastically, eliciting a laugh from the doctor who then proceeds to ask her more about her diet. Apparently, it was pretty common for pregnant people to experience nausea with meat products. Marlene counted her lucky stars that the little one growing inside of her didn't force her to give those up.

Not yet anyway. She supposes that could change.

"Now, let's have a look at baby. Hop on the table if you please."

With a quick nod, Marlene gets herself settled on the table. When Dr. Spence is ready to apply the cool gel, Marlene tugs her shirt up to expose her stomach. The bump is hardly noticeable but it brings about warm feelings in her chest nonetheless.

On the monitor, the baby moves quite a bit more than it did before. Marlene thought it was a bit strange that it moves so well but that she couldn't feel anything yet. After looking over the monitor for a little while, the doctor types a few keys and faces Marlene.

"Well, baby looks healthy. I'll get this printed for you and we'll discuss what comes next."

They spoke more about different tests that they could do to screen for defects and Marlene ends up allowing them to take some of her blood for testing. She was then all but pushed back out into the waiting area and Marlene set out for home, the little ultrasound photo in hand.

Upon arriving home, Sun ambushes her with questions he had no doubt been sitting on all day. Disoriented, Marlene makes a time-out signal with her hands. "Hold it! Give me a couple of seconds, I just got back." She says as she kicks off her shoes and walks further into the house.

The first thing Marlene notices is how Sun hovers close to her as she moves towards the living room. Sure, Sun was always nearby when she was home and Marlene had no trouble with it. However, she draws the line at him being so close that she could feel the heat radiating off him. Marlene walks a little faster to put some space between them but Sun picks up the pace.

When she sits down and Sun follows so close that one of his legs touches hers, Marlene knows she is going to have to speak up.

"Sun," Marlene says, frowning a little as she edges into the armrest, "you're in my space. Back up a little."

"Sorry!" Sun scooches away, though only by an inch or so. 'Good enough,' Marlene thinks, but the whole thing feels weird.

"You seem a little… off today. Is anything wrong?" Marlene asks, hoping she had worded her sentence carefully enough. Perhaps she shouldn't have to worry about what she said, with Sun being a robot and all, but she felt bad when she didn't.

But there was more to it than that.

Sun had astonishingly human reactions to the world around him. Back when she picked him up at the Pizzaplex, Marlene never would have thought the animatronics were so advanced. Sure, she heard all about how amazing the band members were, but she never heard much about the daycare attendant.

The way he always fidgets and sways reminds her of nervous ticks, and Marlene knows for a fact Sun had his likes and dislikes. This particularly showed in how he expressed not liking having nothing to do.

"That's so silly! Don't worry about it, Sunshine!" Sun replies, but something in his tone felt wrong. His voice still comes out as loud, but his words come out rushed, as though urging her to forget about it. "Tell me about your day instead!"

Marlene doesn't believe him but begins telling him about her appointment anyway. 'It can't be helped if he doesn't want to talk about it.' She thinks to herself, pushing away the bubbling feeling of disappointment.

Sun nods his head as she talks and Marlene holds out the ultrasound photo.

"They're really small, aren't they?" Marlene says, smiling down at the picture.

"Marlene?"

"Hm?"

"Can I ask you a question about this?" He gestures to the photo.

"Sure." Marlene nods. "Go ahead."

"I get how pregnancy works," Sun says as he fiddles with one of his bent orange points, "Since I work with kids and kids ask questions… Well, Fazbear Entertainment didn't want more lawsuits on their hands from the parents."

In all honesty, she was surprised the robot knew how conception worked but she supposed it made sense when he put it that way. Marlene was just happy she didn't have to explain how pregnancy happens.

"But to become pregnant, you need a partner, don't you? But I haven't seen anyone else around so I was wondering…"

Ah, so he had noticed something was different about her pregnancy. Admittedly, Marlene didn't think Sun would pick up on that so soon. Perhaps she didn't give him enough credit.

"Well, you're right. Normally, for someone to get pregnant they need another person." Marlene glances away in thought, "But that also typically requires people to love each other at least on the physical level."

Sun tilts his head and Marlene sighs.

"Sexually, Sun."

"Oh."

"It's very rare for me to experience emotions like that," Marlene goes on to explain, "and even rarer for me to act on them. But I wanted a family, so I had to get pregnant in another way. I went to a doctor and I had a procedure done to help me get pregnant. There are other ways of having a family, but this is the path I took…. Do you have any questions?"

"Nope!" Sun replies, pausing for a moment before laughing, "I don't think so anyway! Sometimes, I don't think of questions until later though. It's like my questions get a little lost on the way to the station. How silly is that?"

Other than the fact that she barely understands a word he said, Marlene supposed this went pretty well. Her shoulders begin to relax and Marlene rubs the more tensely knotted muscles.

"Pretty silly," She agrees, moving up and walking towards the fridge with Sun trotting close behind. Something is up with him and Marlene knows it, so she decides to allow this sudden clinginess for a little while. She pins the ultrasound under a magnet and turns to Sun.

"Last time, we tried coloring," Marlene says, "Would you like to do that again, or do you want to see if you like reading?"

"Choices! Choices! Both sound like fun!" Sun hums, "Let's try something new! What should I read?"

"Hm, I don't own too many books," Marlene leads him over to her bookshelf and scans the titles. As a teenager, she went through books like a moth to clothes. However, in recent years Marlene hadn't picked up any of her books. Sure, she had moments where she suddenly possessed an urge to reread an old favorite, but something always got in the way.

Marlene then spots the familiar blue cover of her favorite book - Castle on the Hill. It was a simple and short book, but it had two of her favorite things in a story - romance and magic.

Though she found herself at odds with romance in her life, she enjoyed the genre. Then again, Marlene supposed she couldn't do magic either and she absolutely adored that in books too.

"Here, try this one," Marlene says as she pulls the book from its spot, the books left on the shelf leaning in its absence. Handing it to Sun, she starts having doubts. What if he didn't like the book? The robot didn't seem to have any particular feelings about reading yet, but what if he hated it?

Marlene shakes her head to herself, as though trying to shake off her thoughts. 'It doesn't matter. You tried.' She tells herself but says "It's okay if you don't like it" just to be safe.

"If you like it, I'm sure I will too!" Sun replies, pulling the book closer and Marlene wonders if he meant it. Would she feel better if he did?

Maybe.

Maybe not.

It was then that Marlene recalls that she forgot to check the mailbox and leaves Sun to his own devices. After grabbing the few envelopes in the mailbox, Marlene scans them for anything important as she returns to the house. Most of them were junk and she set them off to the side to burn.

There is a bill for electricity and gas, so she settles down at the round kitchen table next to Sun. He gives her a habitual "hello" before returning to his book. Marlene opens the bill and glances at the numbers.

Her stomach sinks.

A/N - I'll keep this short since I know frequent and long author notes can be annoying. Thank you all so much for the love and support! I don't normally post any of my work, so it has been really encouraging to be able to see the reads and reviews popping up on this story.

Wishing you all the best!