See the end for author's notes.

"If you don't mind we would like to take a moment
to invite you to an ongoing performance…"

Chapter 1. Welcome Back

When Danny Fitzgerald's shift ended, he was so tried he could have cried.

Pulling himself through the doors and down the steps, he started for the stretch of sidewalk that would take him to his apartment. The sun was setting somewhere behind a mass of buildings, and it was doing it swiftly and without much fanfare. He thought about calling his mom on the way home, or maybe stopping and getting something to eat. Mostly, he thought about his bed and the work he still had to do.

Sometimes, when the sun set before he could go home, he let his memories wander. Especially when the walk was dark and Danny saw the glowing signs of restaurants and bars, he would look up at them and remember another business else altogether.

How long had it been since that restaurant closed its doors?

Easily seven, maybe six years already.

Fitzgerald glanced at the pink streaked sunset sky. The lights of bars were on, and there was one neon sign he would pass as soon as he turned onto Kotter Ave. There it was, in fact. He still had ten minutes of walking to go, but it saved on gas he supposed. Kept him healthy, even.

'Bonnie would laugh at you and tell you to get a bike.' Said his mind.

'No,' he almost instantly and angrily corrected himself. 'Bonnie would laugh at you and tell you to quit your dead-end job and find somewhere that was more fun to work. Then he would tell you to get a bike.'

But sometimes life wasn't about fun; it was about making ends meet.

Look at Schmidt, after all. Sure, working at that restaurant was fun but in the end the business had gone under anyway. Not through any fault of Mike's own, either. After the doors had closed, his mother said Mike had reopened the place as a small workshop, intending to keep some income flowing for the electricity most likely. Danny didn't know for sure the night guard's reasons for this, since Mike had stopped calling after Danny moved across the state.

Maybe that was for the best. Danny had heard even through the grapevine that the animatronics on their closing month were wearing out so bad they were scaring children. The job was no longer small enough for Mike, and the animatronics were out dated by now and in sorely need of upgrades the pizzeria couldn't afford. The night guard slash manage slash technician was in a sinking boat, but Danny knew Mike. No one had gotten scrapped, he was sure of it.

'If you're so sure, then why don't you call him?' Came another cruel, demanding thought. 'I'll tell you why, Fitzy, you're too scared. Your life has gone nowhere and what would they all say to that? You're not the day guard anymore; you're not even within four hours of that old place. If it even still stands!'

His job in the factory was supposed to keep him too tired to think about that restaurant. He hadn't really kept in touch with Mike and the others, not when he went off to college. And as the restaurant went under, Mike hadn't needed another guard, so the calls had petered out. Then, they had stopped altogether. Which was…strange, but from Danny's point of view Mike was most likely hiring someone else who was at least in the town Freddy's was in. Any sting of betrayal was washed away with the reminder that Danny had been the one to leave the job in the first place. To move to another city entirely, in fact. It wasn't anyone's fault but his own.

Bitterly, the young man forced himself to stop thinking of the past. Fitzgerald stomped up the steps off the apartment building. A window on the stairway showed the twilight starting to drape over the city. City lights twinkled on, but they were nothing like the star bed you could see above Freddy Fazbear's at night—dammit, there he was again! Thinking about it!

Well he was done, Danny decided.

"I'll eat dinner, watch that doofy soap opera Mom got me into, and then go the hell to sleep." Danny said sulkily as he unlocked his apartment and kicked the door behind him and his work boots off. "And no more thoughts of Freddy's or Mike or even Bonnie. Zero."

This was the perfect plan, too. He dutifully ignored the frozen pizza (because pizza reminded him of Chica and Chica reminded him of Bonnie,) and instead threw a thing of popcorn into the microwave. As it started popping he wandered into his bedroom to peel off his clothes and find something hopefully a little cleaner.

This is where it all went to shit.

Not because he had no clean clothes, or because he saw a message on his laptop as he booted it up. Because what he was seeing was impossible. It was impossible and insane and he had worked too long in the generator room, right. The heat was getting to him…right, that was it. The microwave beeped twice, insistently, but Danny ignored it. He was standing still and gawking at the thing by his bed.

Sitting innocently on his bedside table was a yellowed plastic flashlight with a crack in it. When he picked it up and tried it, it did not turn on.

"Well no fucking wonder," Danny muttered to himself with a frown, giving the thing a good shake as he heard something rattled around in its middle. He unscrewed the bottom and pulled off the cap.

"No batteries…how the hell did this thing even…" He stopped as his fingers met something that had no place being in a flashlight casing. Danny pulled out a folded piece of paper, and opened it.

Dear Alice,

Let the rabbit lead the way.

-The Mostly Ghostly, Sadly Madly Hatter

On the back of that was an address. The destination chilled Danny to his bones.

Freddy's Sister Location.

Well, here we go kids. Nice to have you back! I want to say a HUGE thank you to EVERYONE who reviewed, either on or A03. I read them ALL and loved them! Your amazing, thoughtful and warm reviews push my chapters out faster, don't ever forget that.

I will say this, Finding Freddy looks so far to be a little longer chapter wise than London Bridge is. Though I do want to make the chapters at least 6-8k but we'll see. I can't write in word length only chapters or I get bored and rambly fast, haha. And before I forget, the first song is called Welcome Back is by TryHardNinja.