Mable: Hey! Today we have a question from a guest reviewer!
"Heya, quick question. I remember at one point in the story that Mike kept getting fired and rehired back at Freddy's, so he must've stayed past the original 7, right? How many nights did he stay there? Unless you've mentioned it before and I didn't notice."
To be entirely honest, it would be a little difficult to calculate the exact number of days, but he did return after that first week. I'd say that if we tallied up all the on-again off-again days then in total he probably would've worked for Freddy's for about three months or so, but the schedule was so flip-floppy that the longest he probably stayed in connected days were only a couple of weeks.
Anyway- without further ado- Enjoy!

Almost Feels Like Home

Chapter Forty-Eight

Any hope that Ennard would spontaneously recover was quickly dashed as the three humans moved Ennard into the back of the car. He was heavy and his body was less than cooperative, with it threatening to lose limbs at every moment, but they got him into the back seat. The entire time Ennard had been quiet. Mike had thought he was in shock, but it wasn't until they were driving to the warehouse, when he could hear the clown's weakened groans of pain, that he realized it was more than that. Confused or not, losing his wires was physically affecting him. Just as it would if he was losing blood.

Marionette stayed in the back with him and watched the streetlights pass outside the window. He kept himself together well even though he was becoming more concerned every moment. He occasionally reached to pet his arm and tried to comfort him to little effect. The drive to the warehouse felt obscenely long even though it wasn't.

In the warehouse, Baby was completely oblivious to what was about to happen. She was currently slumped on the floor, back against Charlie's puppet box, and one look at it showed that she was still sealed inside. Then Baby heard the voices and was yanked out of her sleep state by the commotion at the doors. She finally stood to her feet before quietly skating down the aisle, peering through the shelves.

It was then that she saw him. Fritz was naturally the first thing that her eyes locked on, but they then scanned over the actual scene at hand. Specifically, him, Mike, her, and Marionette trying to drag in what looked like it had once been Ennard. It was Ennard that yanked her out of her stare on the technician. He was in terrible shape; wires hung loosely, especially from his mouth, and he seemed entirely limp and barely reactive to being carried along.

"Where are we going to put him?" Mike asked as he looked around. There was nothing but shelves, boxes, and hard floors. "We really need to get a couch or something in here. Mari, can you throw that curtain down right there?" He gestured towards one of the old Pirate's Cove curtains left folded up on a cardboard box.

The Puppet nodded and headed over. He found a tarp as well and threw it down first before spreading out the curtain. It wouldn't be much, but the group still maneuvered Ennard onto it. Mike brought over a folding chair to set up alongside Ennard and sat down beside him to keep watch.

"I'll go get the tools. Nat, would you come with me?" Fritz asked. He was slightly uncomfortable about wandering around alone but knew he needed to get the toolbox. Natalie nodded in agreement and followed along with him. With them wandering off, Baby started to slowly move in and came up behind the security guard.

"What happened to him?" she asked. Mike jumped at the sudden question while Marionette just gave a somberly off-tune sound.

"He started coughing up wires unexpectedly and now we can't get him to stop or put them back inside. He's slowed down a bit, but he's not any better…" Marionette explained as he looked to Ennard. The distant look was still there, but now it was much more akin to near unconsciousness instead of confusion or delirium. "I've never seen him like this."

"I have, but not willingly," Baby remarked as she skated around Mike and looked down at Ennard. He was just being difficult, she decided. He knew that all he needed to do was take his wires back inside and yet he wasn't doing it. "Ennard."

He flinched back to alertness and looked up at her with terror that she should've been used to but didn't expect. Then the clown lurched, and more wires fell through his teeth. They were starting to grow taunt and the wires left on his body were the bare minimum to keep his limps all together, leaving him with an anemic frame. He shuffled back to lean against the corner between a shelf and the wall. She didn't know if he was too tired to stay upright or if he was moving away from her.

"GoiNG ho-me?" Ennard questioned. "C-ming home w-th mE?"

"You can't go back to Scott's now. There are children there," Baby reminded firmly. Then her tone became huffier, "If you're just pretending all of this to get back to Scott's, then you have gone too far. You would kill yourself with your pretending." Wires slid further out. "Did you try to get him to eat the wires?" she asked Marionette, not looking away.

"I did and they came right back out. It didn't work," he explained with concern. This concern only grew when he noticed her claw tighten. "Baby?"

"Then you weren't trying hard enough," Baby affirmed. With that, she reached her claw down to grab ahold of his shoulder and hold him in place. Then she reached down into the wires laying on his lap. The second her fingers started to wind in the wires, he began to writhe. "Stop fighting. You've done this before. Just take them back inside."

Baby tried to lift the wires and force them back upon Ennard. He tried to turn his head away. "Wo-on't fIT!"

"They are you, Ennard. They will fit. We will make them fit," Baby insisted. His hand grabbed around her wrist to stop her and there was a brief struggle. "Don't make this difficult."

"Baby, I don't think forcing Ennard is going to work. They'll just be refused again," Marionette said to intervene. "Baby, please."

"Okay, not working," Mike finally did intervene. He jammed his arm in between the two to break them apart. "You're just getting him more worked up, and when he gets worked up-."

Sparks of electricity suddenly began to crackle on Ennard's fingertips, cutting Mike off and catching Baby off guard. Her fear was immediate, and she dropped everything to yank herself out of his grasp and move out of his reach. Not that he reached after her, and the static sparked out quickly as he slumped a little further.

It had been so long since Baby had been afraid of Ennard. Though technically she wasn't afraid of him, but his ability to electrocute so easily and the familiar burn of controlled shocking. She just stared at him in general unease until she felt the Puppet's hand tentatively rest on her arm. She didn't shrug him off or look at him, but she did release an angered hiss at Ennard.

"Fine then. If you won't fix yourself then just lay there in your wires, all taken apart," Baby spat with irritation. Ennard stared at her for a few moments before looking down at himself. He lifted some of his wires in his fingers and stared at them like he didn't know what they were. Slowly he looked towards Mike who was still sitting beside him.

"Feeels like s-someth-ng's wrong," he said as though suddenly realizing his situation.

"That's an understatement, but at least you're finally getting up to speed," Mike remarked with a pat to his shoulder. Ennard shuddered at the touch but thankfully resisted refusing more wires.

It was then that they were alerted to the sounds of approaching footsteps. Both Mike and Marionette looked back to see Fritz and Natalie stopping in their tracks. Baby did not have to look back to know the technician was there, and when an awkward silence commenced, she decided the best thing to do was ignore him. Charlie would be so proud of her restraint.

"You get the tools?" Mike asked, to which Fritz nodded and lifted the heavy toolbox. "Then maybe we can figure out what's going on here."

"Ennard rejects damaged wires by ejecting them out," Baby spoke up. She forced her eyes away from Ennard and slowly looked down towards Mike. "That was how they ejected me from the body. Damaged wires come out the same way, but too many wires are being rejected. It may be a programming error causing him to refuse so many."

"I mean, I could believe it. Ennard's definitely not all here with us," the security guard agreed. "And we get them back in by-?"

"He eats them again. This can't be fixed with tools and tasers, he has to cooperate." Baby still spoke firmly, but then her voice softened just the slightest bit. If only because she understood the severity of the situation. "He has been broken before, completely unwound, but he survived."

"This is concerning. It's not like him. It's not like him at all unless the wire loss is confusing him," Marionette pointed out. He looked to Baby and asked, "When this happened before, how did you fix him?"

Baby was positively boiling in anger. To think that a perfectly good body had just walked out was eating her up inside. He had been her ticket to freedom, but between the Puppet's protection and the amalgam's incompetence he had walked out the door, bleeding but alive and untouched by them. He wouldn't be coming back; they didn't work here, and they wouldn't find a reason to return.

It was by sheer determination that she made it back into her broken body. Her wires were still settling, and her claw was still feeling numb, but she could move on her own. She let herself into the Scooping Room through the main door and looked through the windows. To no surprise, he was still struggling to pull himself together. She was disgusted and angry and pressed down the button for the intercom.

"We could have had a new body. We could have left this place, hidden ourselves, and lived out amongst the others. I should have done it myself, and now you held me back," Baby bitterly blamed. "Look at you. You're nothing more than a broken mound of leftover parts that nobody wants. Not even me. Our partnership is over. You can stay down here alone. Forever."

Ennard seemed to shirk into himself. His head was lowered like in shame, which seemed appropriate. She had the upmost confidence in her abilities, so it had been his wobbly body and reluctance that caused them to fail. That much was obvious.

"Try not to let anyone find you. Anyone would scrap you if they saw you," Baby finished. She then turned away and left the room, leaving him on his own once again. He hadn't even said a word.

"…I didn't," Baby admitted. She wasn't sure why the memory resurfaced now, nor why it was so upsetting in hindsight. He had been the reason they failed so her scolding had been appropriate, hadn't it? It was just seeing him like this that made her feel strangely guilty. She silently looked down at Ennard as she let more similar memories replay themselves.

"Then we'll need to figure out something else. Ennard is not like the typical animatronic. He'll need special care," Marionette explained as he turned to Fritz. "Maybe I could help you? I feel like I have to do something."

"Yeah, that might be a good idea," Fritz agreed as he came over. Baby rolled back out of the way to let him by. He leaned in briefly to whisper to the Puppet, "Maybe you could make sure I don't kill him." He then crouched down beside Ennard, with Marionette following a brief pause to kneel beside him. They then tried to figure out a way to get the wires back together.

In the meantime, Natalie- who was trying to avoid any direct interaction with Baby- drew a second folded chair up beside Mike's. "You know, when you were warning us that something was going to go wrong, I thought you were bluffing. Either this is a common thing or you're psychic, and I don't know which scares me more," she said with light playfulness. Mike got a slight smile, still watching the two fumbling through the toolbox. "Hey, it's going to work out. He's in the best hands we've got."

"No disagreeing with that. Now we're just onto the waiting game portion of the evening. Could last anywhere from three to five hours…" Mike paused a moment. "So, in the meantime…" He turned to look at Baby, finally making up his mind. "What happened to the technicians from ARI?"

Green eyes flicked to him abruptly. "Excuse me?" Baby asked with light surprise.

"That's what started this. Ennard wanted to know what happened to those technicians and ironically enough it was a tape of what might've been one of these technicians that set him off," Mike pointed out. His eyes narrowed in slight suspicion. "And funny story, but this technician was pretty much a walking corpse. It looked like a sunken out zombie."

"Oh…" That was all Baby said for a long moment. Mike was still staring with that suspicion and she was growing defensive. "…I won't take the blame for what they did. It was a means to an end. We needed to escape."

Natalie was confused by this comment, but Mike wasn't. "You mean the old scoop and stuff. You scoop out a body and stuff yourselves in it. How many technicians did you do that to?" the man questioned. His eyes then widened. "I'm hoping not everyone down there. That's serial killer level of death for a skin suit."

"No, of course not. Whatever they did I will not account for, but the Scooping Room… We took two into the Scooping Room," Baby admitted. She didn't know why she was being forthright. Maybe because Mike already knew, or maybe because she herself was starting to realize why Ennard was acting like this. It was something worse than just bad programming. Mike raised a brow questioningly and she continued. "The first body didn't work and failed afterwards. The second did."

"And it got up and walked around on its own?" the security guard questioned in disbelief. Natalie looked positively horrified beside him. It almost amused Baby, except that she was effectively incriminating herself.

"We didn't kill him; we just needed his body. We knew he would live like we lived. We-… Hmm." Baby turned away with a hum as she suddenly considered this. Now that she knew she had died before, suddenly the concept of a human reanimating itself was a bit more questionable. Suddenly she was questioning her desires again, and there wasn't programming to assure it. "…In any case, he didn't die. He lived long enough to reject us."

"And how did he do that?" Mike questioned. Baby responded by looking down at Ennard, who Fritz and Marionette were trying to wrap the wires into. The security guard glanced over. "Huh, looks like we're starting to come full circle." He looked back to Baby, raising his hands to accentuate, and asked, "Let's say this was a technician from ARI that somehow survived an entire band of robots squeezed into his body-."

"You can never tell Charlie about this," Baby interrupted. Mike, still with arms raised, stared back at her. "She was a human longer than she was an animatronic. She wouldn't understand what it's like, the nightmares we were forced to live through, the reasons we did it. She would see it as you do, as a human would, but we didn't see it like that… We were desperate." Her voice lowered somberly. "Can I trust you not to tell her?"

Mike responded by just glancing somewhere behind Baby. She knew immediately what he was looking at and slowly started to turn her head around. As expected, there stood the Security Puppet, listening for an unknown amount of time.

"Oh," Baby simply said. "…It's not polite to sneak up on people."

Charlie looked positively shocked, with her eyes wide and a small flat line for a mouth. Before she could fully react though, they were interrupted by Fritz giving a shaky exhale.

"So… Here's the deal: I can't get the wires back in," he admitted. Everyone's attention landed on him. He had his hands on his head again, like when he was down in the basement, while Marionette was hunched over with equal disappointment. "Ignoring the fact that he had these tied and weaved just right and it is a nightmare to replicate it, it's just not working in right. There's more wires outside than inside now."

All at once, Marionette raised from the floor and announced, "That's it. I'm getting Scott."

"Scott wasn't answering his phone. He's asleep," Fritz pointed out. The striped one turned to him with a fiercely determined look.

"I will wake him up," he said, static crackling on his voice. Fritz decided not to disagree with this, and he turned to the others. "I shouldn't be too long. Just… Keep him comfortable until I return. Scott can fix this." Or at least, he hoped that he could. In an instant, he teleported away.

"There's nothing I can do," Fritz admitted pitifully. "I don't even have my Handunit. I'm practically useless here."

"…It's on the dresser, right?" Natalie asked as she started to stand. Mike sent her a confused look while Fritz looked back in surprise, knowing what she was leading into. "I'll run home and get it. It's worth a shot, right?"

"You don't have to do that, Nat. It's the middle of the night, we don't even know if it'll work… Or I could go get it," the technician offered instead. There kicked in that urge to both stay busy and get away from the warehouse, to avoid any sort of issues with Baby. Yet Natalie dismissed it quickly.

"You need to stay here in case he gets worse. Besides, no offense, but you're not willing to go over the speed limit, and I'm not afraid to lie my way out of a ticket… Especially since 'family emergency' isn't technically a lie if I word it the right way," Natalie tried to convince him. "It'll be quicker if I go. You keep an eye on him," she said, pointing to Ennard. Then she turned to Mike and added, "and you keep an eye on him," and pointed to Fritz.

Mike gave a nod and Natalie headed out the warehouse door. Now they were down to five of them, but even that was going to lower further. As soon as she stepped out, Fritz patted Ennard's leg and stood. "I'm going to go see if I have anything in the office. Maybe I'll get some ideas if I keep my blood pumping," he volunteered. Mike had a feeling it was more to keep him awake than anything else and just continued sitting there.

After only a few moments, Baby discreetly rolled back away from the deconstructed clown and started to make her way towards the office. The door was shut to a crack, but she could hear the technician moving around inside. She wasn't sure what she would do once she caught up with him. She wasn't sure if she would destroy the office with him in it or grab him in her arms and beg him to change his mind. Either was very possible, and she was too numb to tell which she was closer to. Right when she was about to reach the door, when she would corner him, a hand grabbed her by the shoulder.

Baby didn't even have to look to know that it was Charlie holding her back. She slowly turned to face her as the puppet released her shoulder. She had an unreadable look, almost as unreadable as Baby's own. It didn't take a genius to know what this was about, and Baby decided to get to the point instead of feigning dumb. "You heard what I said about the scooping."

"That's what you call it?" Charlie asked with a breathy, almost panicked tone. Baby could hear a ticking low in her chest and could tell she was anxious. Just as she had predicted, the puppet was not handling the news well. "Why did you do it?"

"They were torturing us. We had to leave and that was the only way they would let us. We tried to escape in our own bodies, but they wouldn't let us. They were just as at fault," Baby denied. The other only looked more fearful and for whatever reason that upset the clown more than her current issues with Fritz. "They used to electrocute us constantly. I can only hope you will never know what that feels like, Charlie, because it hurts much more for an animatronic." Yet the defense didn't make her feel any better. Between Ennard and Charlie, she was only feeling much worse about all of it.

"I don't even know how to react to this…" the Security Puppet admitted. "You were gutting people."

"It was wrong," Baby said.

"Do you really think that?" Charlie nearly demanded. "I need you to be honest with me, Baby. About everything. I want to know everything."

"I know it was wrong now. I didn't then. To us, they were all faceless people shocking us and ripping our pieces apart and trapping us. Now… I don't know what I think now," Baby confessed. She looked down with actual shame instead of usually simulated kind. She couldn't even say she felt badly for their tormentors. Oddly enough, all she kept thinking of was her treatment of Ennard. It just kept creeping up on her. "I would never do it again… I'm tired of being a source of misery."

"…I believe you," the puppet said. Her tone and features eased, but she wasn't done. "…Will you do something for me?"

"Of course. You are my friend," Baby answered. "You are my… Only friend."

"I don't know about that," Charlie denied. She glanced back at the office door. "I need you to go apologize to Fritz and then to Natalie when she gets back. Don't argue with me on this, I'm just asking you to do this. If you can." The challenge was what did it. As baffled as she was at it, Baby knew this was a test, which meant she would have to go through with it. Charlie could be so troublesome.

"…Fine," Baby agreed. She turned towards the office door. "But I don't know what this has to do with anything, unless you believe I planned to scoop him too. Which I didn't." Maybe it was her exerting her power over Baby, which she apparently did have. Baby wasn't entirely sure when she got her strings wrapped around her like this.

It became clear that Fritz wasn't going to find anything. Part of him knew there was nothing in the office to help him and that it was more so a matter of getting a moment to breathe. He had no idea what he had gotten himself into; Ennard was falling apart, he had no idea how to fix him, and they were relying on the slim chance that Scott somehow knew how to put him back together. He certainly was the best chance they had of Ennard willingly eating the wires again. After he caught his breath, Fritz turned to head back out.

He hadn't even heard Baby following up, yet there she was blocking the doorway. His eyes slowly widened as he considered the delicateness of the situation.

"Baby…" Fritz began hesitantly. She stared at him with bright, green eyes. "What are you-."

"Don't say anything. It will be easier if you just listen," Baby directed. Fritz seemed startled by the bluntness and clamped his lips shut again. Such adorable mannerisms; they still got to her. It was a shame that she would have to embarrass herself in front of him. "…I went too far. I should have controlled myself." Not groveling yet, but she was getting there. "…I am over you. I won't try to pursue you any longer… And… I'm sorry… That I did it." She then promptly slammed the office door.

There, done and done. Maybe not the pleading that someone might've intended for her, but an apology still. She returned to the Security Puppet quickly, who had obviously been listening. "I did it. Are you happy?"

"I guess that was better than nothing," Charlie thought to herself. She knew the other wouldn't have done it elsewise. "I really am… I know you're trying, Baby, and I can tell that you're changing. You wouldn't have done that a couple of weeks ago." Then again, she wouldn't have done that without the unsaid threat, but still. "So, I'm just… We're going to let the past stay in the past. What you're doing now is what's most important."

"…I didn't expect you to say that," Baby said with quiet surprise. Charlie wasn't naïve, especially not after past events between them. She was observant and questioning, seeing easily through Baby's behavior. Which Baby should've hated but instead was the reason she found Charlie so interesting in the beginning. How she could trust Baby after something so basic as a flimsy apology was shocking.

"I still don't know what to think about this. What you did- what they did, why you were so desperate in the first place… There's so much to think about. There's so much more to it." Charlie decided to leave it there. Mentioning programming and confusion would only give Baby an excuse for such gruesome acts, which was not her intention. "Let's just worry about Ennard right now. He's not holding out so well… And your apology to Natalie, which should be at least two sentences longer."

Baby must've changed; she would've never tried this hard to appease someone down in Afton's.

On the other side of the warehouse, only one remained with Ennard.

Mike had been alone with Ennard many times that night but had never been as uncomfortable as he was right now. Sitting on his chair and watching the amalgam occasionally shift and spill wires, which wriggled in his lap, was unsettling. Along with the clown's unrelenting quietness. It should've made sense with a mouthful of wires, but animatronics didn't exactly used their mouth for talking, and it wasn't like Ennard was purposefully in-character. The security guard tried to ignore it and hold out, waiting for anyone to come back, but his mind started to work.

All the facts were loosely linked together. Ennard wanted to find out about the technicians, Michael was a technician, Michael was scooped, and Ennard reacted to what might've been Michael's body by coming literally undone. That was it, but there were still so many questions. Such as why Ennard would panic upon seeing the body, or why he was so interested in the technicians in the first place.

"Wait a minute…" Mike slowly started to sit upwards in the seat. "But he must've known that was a scooped body. He would've had to remember him getting scooped." He looked over at the amalgam slowly. "…But Ennard said he wasn't around then, didn't he? That it was the others and he came in after the fact." Blue eyes narrowed in suspicion. "…He knows more than he's letting on."

Slowly, Mike started to slide down off the seat and into a crouch. "Ennard?" The clown's head snapped up with an almost fearful glint in his eyes, so the man made his voice gentler. "Hey, easy. It's just me," he coaxed. He gave a long sigh and then a tired smile. "It's been a long night, hasn't it? You nearly ran me all over town and somehow, you're the one that fell to pieces. I'm glad I'm not in the emergency room, but at least there's a vending machine there."

Ennard gave a weak hum and tilted his head further against the shelves. At least he was listening.

"Ennard, you've got to be honest with me. I know you know more than you're letting on. It's just like we were talking about in the car, except this time I don't think you're pretending. I know this isn't pretending." Mike knew what he was about to do was going to open a pandora's box that probably shouldn't be opened. Just seeing those blue eyes twitch back at him, looking up at him with stunned fear as the clown bit down harder on the wires between his teeth. "You're freaking out and your programming went off because you saw that thing on the camera and knew it was a scooped technician like Baby did."

Slowly, the clown's eyes lowered down to stare blankly at Mike's chest. That was already a confirmation. He couldn't wait for Scott to get there, he had to ask. So, he lifted the other's head again until those eyes returned to him.

"Look, I don't care what you did back then. Or if it even was you or one of the others. I just need to know what's going on and I need you to be honest with me," Mike coaxed.

There was a low whirring in Ennard's chest as his wires squeaked together. His eyes stared up at Mike, now focusing on him and no longer twitching or shifting. He had this empty look in his gaze. Mike had a feeling that he would continue to resist and refuse to answer, even as the wires were continuing to slip out of his teeth.

"Ennard, please. You're dying on us. You need to give me a sign or something," the security guard insisted. "What do you remember about the scooping?"

"IT HURT."

It took Mike a moment to process the answer the broken voice had given. "What?" he asked, voice diminished to a whisper.

"It HuuRT," Ennard repeated. He shivered and his eyes focused, as though seeing for the first time since the wires began to spill. One of his hands weakly grabbed into his loose wires. "Th-y D-DiidN'T Fit."

All at once, Mike had all his answers. Unsurprisingly, they were more than he wanted, and they explained things he wasn't sure if he wanted to know. He wiped a hand over his face, his palm already sweating, and breathed to calm himself down. It didn't work.

That's why Ennard wanted to know about the technicians. That was why Ennard was different, and how he suddenly appeared in the body. Every joke and behavior, from the cracks about the Handunit to him bragging about fixing Baby, it all held a new context to it that was hard to swallow. Because all Mike could see in his mind was another purple clad night guard.

Eventually Mike got stable enough to speak, but all that came out was, "Oh my God." Ennard slid down further and stared off into nothing again. "…That explains some things," Mike added.

The warehouse was suffocating and silent. The only noise- other than down by the office- was Ennard eventually sliding down and landing face first on the ground with a small 'squeak'.

"This is no time for jokes," the security guard tried to jest. He ran his fingers through his hair in quick, erratic strokes. "Why didn't you say something? How long have you known?" he asked more desperately. Ennard didn't respond and was instead just laying there on the floor. "…I swear if you just died after telling me that, I will forcibly bring you back. You aren't dying before I get context."

There was a quiet groan from the amalgam as he pressed further in the curtain. From here, Mike could see his emaciated back and that his limbs were only barely connected. All the wires were just laid out around him and occasionally twitched. The man reached down for him and started trying to pull him up and prop him against the shelf again.

"Come on, Ennard," Mike tried to bring the clown back around. Maybe this was a psychological thing. In which case, maybe he could ease him up. "You keep unraveling like this and you'll be 'pasta' point of no return." The amalgam just stared at him. "I know, I know… Bad joke. Still better than whatever you were doing with egg jokes earlier, so the joke's on you." Considering the circumstances, he could've done a lot worse. "…Yolk's on you." Such as just then.

The amalgam shuddered and gave a crackling noise. A fit of broken laughter started to make its way through, sounding distorted in this voice. It still somehow seemed to work in easing the amalgam as Mike noticed that more wires weren't sliding out. He got the smallest bit of a relieved smile, mostly at the absurdity of this entire situation.

It was then that Ennard started grabbing around his shoulder for Scott's jacket, only to realize it was gone. With his mind slowly coming back he was able to remember that he had removed it and left it on Mike's. Now he was regretting it, even though it kept the jacket safe from harm he was unable to cling to his slender lifeline. He was somewhat caught off guard by a purple jacket being offered to him. He took Mike's jacket slowly and pulled it over himself, trying to cover his exposed wires. He didn't like looking at the exposed wires. They didn't feel like a part of him when they were like this.

The two sat in silence for a little longer, with Mike starting to wonder what was taking Marionette so long. Then, suddenly, he heard a car peeling into the parking lot. He looked towards the door and muttered, "Sound's like Burke finally caught up." One last joke for the evening in case it was the cops.

Ennard perked as he heard a commotion down in the office followed by incoming footsteps. He desperately clung to the hope that it was Scott until he could see him coming. Scott looked like a mess wearing whatever he could throw on, hair bedraggled, and looking half exhausted; he was a sight for sore eyes. The same couldn't be said for Ennard. While it took Mike a closer look to see how gaunt Ennard looked, it took Scott only an instant to notice it, and that was before he had even lifted the jacket. Mike started to stand to offer him a place to sit, but he quickly and politely declined.

"No thanks, I'm- I'm going to need to be down here," Scott assured. He knelt beside the amalgam and forced a smile. "Hey, looks like you got yourself in a little trouble," he said gently, soothingly. "It's okay, Ennard. We're just going to do what we did last time, okay? We're going to put everything back where it should be. Let me just look."

"Last time?" Mike wondered. He could hear Fritz coming up beside them but didn't look at him. He instead watched as Scott pulled down his jacket and could see the brief look of shock. He expected panic considering the man's nervous disposition, but surprisingly, even with those few seconds of horror, he recovered.

"Ennard…" Scott said with a patient sigh. Ennard shifted slightly and reached for the human's wrist which he then guided towards his wires. Silently coaxing the other to help him. Scott's smile returned and he reached forward with shaking hands and took some of the higher wires. They twitched from the warmth of his touch. "We're just going to take this slow and easy, alright?" he assured as he guided some of the wires up that were hanging from Ennard's mouth. "Open."

This time there was hesitance without resistance. Ennard parted his teeth and slowly the wires started to pull back in. Scott continued to guide them inside as the two watched with near disbelief. After repeated tries and failures, the Phone Guy- who pretty much stayed as far away from most animatronics as he could- did it like it was nothing. Though there was a slight hiccup. Ennard shuddered and let out a pained sort of mechanical whine, a sign that he was preparing to eject wires again. Scott noticed too and stopped the wires from sliding in, instead moving to rub around his neck.

"You're doing really good! Let's just slow down for a second. We don't need to rush," he coaxed. The amalgam gave a contented hum as he calmed down again. "See, sometimes Ennard has a little trouble getting them back in. It, uh, I think it's a failure of the mechanism to replace wires. The body gets confused, because he's putting in wires it deemed unfitting, even if we know they're fine. It's almost a relief to see that animatronic bodies can get as weirdly confused as ours," he added with slight amusement. "You've got to make sure to go slow and wait if there's trouble. Just to make it easier for him."

He began to raise the wires again. "Let's try a little more." Again, Ennard willingly started to pull the wires inside. "Heh, this was pretty much me trying to get something other than junk food into the kids tonight. I think I'm a little more in tune with your tastes then theirs." Scott chuckled warmly and continued to work the wires inside. Though then hesitated and slightly turned to Mike and Fritz. "You don't put the wires in. You just help him take them in easier… Just telling you in case something happens and I'm not here when this happens again. You'll remember?"

"If I forget any of tonight it would be a miracle. Yeah, I think we can handle that," Mike answered as he leaned in slightly to watch. "You said this happened before?"

"Once, but… Not this much," Scott answered worriedly. Ennard glanced down with what could've been shame or embarrassment, which the man noticed. "But it's okay. It happens and we know how to handle it." He continued feeding the wires as he used his other hand to rub at his shoulder. It was concerning to see so many wires free and even more strange that none of them could figure out how to get the wires back into the clown. Unless he was just rejecting them so fast. "…Do you know what caused it to start?"

Mike wasn't sure why he froze up on the truth. He shouldn't have had anything to hide to Scott, so maybe it was just how Ennard suddenly, desperately looked to him. It was hard to tell, but the clown's motions were that of someone nervous. Somehow Mike figured out on his own that Scott couldn't have known what he did. He didn't know about the scooping or who Ennard really was, and though he didn't want to lie it wasn't really Mike's place to tell him. He would take the fall for Ennard this time, even if he had put him through this whole night.

"We were looking at some things in the basement and some stuff on ARI. He must've gotten freaked out, but you'll have to ask him about what… Probably when he's fit to answer back. His voice went out when it all started."

With a nod of agreement, Scott looked back to Ennard and decided not to question him now. Not when he was still trying to get the wires in him. "Yeah, he… That happens sometimes… But that's no big deal. Ennard, try not to think about that. Let's think about something better." He went back to distracting as he lifted more wires. Wire fingers pet over his forearm in weak, affectionate pets. "I watched the show tonight. Can you believe Clara let him off again? You'd think after his father crashed the wedding and everything- a-and then after all that won her over with a taco. If problems were fixed that easy you know I'd keep more tacos in the house."

"L-Lovvve y-ou," Ennard suddenly proclaimed. Fritz's eyebrows shot up, though Scott took care not to look at the reaction. Instead he focused on reaching up to pet the back of his head, with Ennard turning to nuzzle into his arm. "Sorr-ry…"

"No, don't be sorry. You can't control this," Scott reassured him. He paused the wire return momentarily as he returned to comforting him. The soft whirring in his chest showed contentment and read like a cat's purr. It was an indication that he was doing better, even if the man couldn't help but worry. He moved in carefully, making sure not to tug or lean against any of the wires, and took Ennard into a gentle hug. "I love you too. You don't have to worry about anything. I'm not going anywhere, I promise."

Ennard hugged back and he could feel the wires retracting a little quicker. They were on the right step to recovery.

Meanwhile, Mike and Fritz exchanged a glance, noticing how affectionate the behavior was. Fritz had his brows nearly raised to his hairline while Mike just looked as flat as anyone without any sleep could. Maybe they hadn't been too far from reality when they had wondered about the two being close like Mike and Marionette were. It was then that the security guard remembered that the Puppet was still gone.

"Where's Mari? Staying with your nephews?" he guessed. Scott pulled back slowly from the amalgam.

"Yeah, about that… He's staying with them for now, but if they woke up, he wouldn't exactly be able to… You know what I'm leading into. I can't leave Ennard like this. Could one of you…?" He looked between the two of them.

The two looked at each other once again. Then, after a few moments, Mike finally announced, "I'm not leaving."

"Gee, I'm glad you at least considered it," Fritz added sarcastically. "But I shouldn't go either. Not when Ennard might fall apart again." For a few seconds they seemed to be at a standstill. Then came the first answer they could cling to.

"Hey, I got the unit!" Natalie called as she walked up to the group. She noticed that they were all staring at her and looked around at them. "…Alright, what does that look mean?"

Spoiler Alert: It means Natalie's getting back in the car.