Jeremy sat at a table in a small, private room. His wrists cuffed to a bar in the middle of the table. He felt as though he was in interrogation again. He looked over to the two-way mirror off to his left, hoping to potentially see who was watching him. His heart pounded in his throat. He raked heavy coughs into his sleeve. He was feeling better, but he still felt somewhat congested. He rested his forehead into his hands and took in some deep, slightly wheezy, breaths. He closed his eyes, trying to imagine Olivia again, knowing that he wasn't allowed to see her again until everything had been sorted out. He wanted to imagine home, with Star, the cat he knew he was allergic to, but loved to death because Mike loved him so much. He wanted to see Lori, his psychic who always told him that things will work out, even though they didn't sometimes. Rhythmi and Jarvis, the newlyweds.

He wanted to see Mike.

He didn't want to be here.

He furrowed his eyebrows and stopped bouncing his leg, "When did she get me a lawyer?" he asked himself, opening his eyes and staring down at the scratched surface of the metal table.

The door clicked. His body ran cold, his stomach twisted.

There was a chuckle, "Mr. Fitzgerald…" the voice sighed, "You've definitely seen better days." He sat down across the table.

Jeremy still avoided looking up, "I've been sick…"

"So I've heard."

Jeremy finally forced himself to look up and blinked, "Darrel." He shook his head, "You're a lawyer?"

"Yep." Darrel smiled, "Just finished law school in Denver. And I'm gonna be representing you." He cracked his knuckles, "Now, what's this I'm hearing about you pickin' fights?" he asked. "I talked to the guards and I talked to Olivia."

Jeremy sank and looked away, "They started it…" he said, huffing.

Darrel tipped his head, "Jeremy…" he started, dragging out the name as though he were to start a lecture. "And while I fully believe that some punk in here would taunt you into beatin' them into a pulp, you gotta remember, Jer, you're… what- almost almost forty? Don't be acting like a child about this, you need to prove that you're better than them, and better than what they say you are." He said, "So… some guy says you killed Mike, which I know for a fact is not true-"

"How would you respond?" Jeremy cut him off with a growl.

Darrel paused and opened his mouth to speak. It was simple. 'Mike isn't dead' was all that needed to be said. He took a deep breath, "Jeremy, I know this is difficult." He said, "Mikey's my best friend growing up. I care about him like my own brother. There isn't a thing I don't know about him. And recently, the only thing he didn't know about me is that I'm a qualified lawyer now. I'd hate to see him get hurt."

Jeremy looked down at the table, "Do… do you even know what happened to him?"

"Way more than you know." Darrel answered, folding his hands and leaning across the table, "And I know you didn't kill him." He started, "The other night I got a phone call from a friend of mine, sayin' he had a guy that was in desperate need for a lawyer. He said it was a special case. After hearing the name of the guy I took the case in a heartbeat."

Jeremy furrowed his eyebrows, "What are you getting at? Did Jarvis call you?" he asked.

"No, not Jarvis." Darrel shook his head, "Mr. Fitzgerald, what would you do if I told you that Mike was alive?" he asked.

Jeremy stomach churned, even Mary was at a loss for words. He shook his head, "Alive, wh-what do you mean?" he asked. Anger and grief bubbling up within him, anxiety shocking his nerves, but deep inside, he felt a little pang of hope. His green eye flickering black, though he tried to keep Mary contained, knowing she was screaming obscenities demanding to not be disrespected.

Darrel's brown eyes watched Jeremy's cautiously, but he didn't falter. He'd seen his… trick… before. Jeremy's eyes would often do this if it ever involved Mike's safety of happiness. He just stared unblinking, his expression serious, no longer there as a friend. "I did some asking around, the hospital, the coroner… it was a faulty machine that declared Michael dead. He woke up before the coroner could prep him. Scared the hell out of the ladies." He explained, "They knew it was the machine because a patient using that same room a couple days later had the machine flatlining. But they were talking to the doctor about their situation."

"Wh-What about a pulse? Surely they would've found one." Jeremy asked.

"Not if he'd lost too much blood. And his heartbeat was too weak at the time. The nurses were panicking." He said, "I wouldn't want to be the one to tell you that Mike was dead, either."

Jeremy sat in his seat slack-jawed. "But- wait- Olivia told me that she was still-" he shook his head.

"This is the part where I told Mike that I'd slap the hell out of him if he weren't back in the hospital-"

"Back!? What happened?" Jeremy asked with fear.

Darrel's eyebrows shot up and he exhaled slowly though his teeth, "He gets his recklessness from you, you know that, right?" he asked, "He had gotten another job so he could build up some money to hire you a good lawyer. But of course, of all things he could've picked…" he shook his head, "He chose to work for the Fazbear franchise again. With an angry, haunted animatronic that he called Springtrap." He said, "I'm still working out the details about this Springtrap thing, but the thing was hell-bent on killing him and it almost succeeded had the building not caught on fire and came down." He looked up at Jeremy, "You two are too much alike."

"Wait- Mike went back to some… life threatening job to hire me a lawyer?" he asked. "Wh- why didn't anyone tell me he was alive?!" he demanded, "And he went back to a job that could potentially kill him? Is he at least okay?"

"He'll be in the hospital for a while, he was stabbed with a rusty pair of scissors, but he'll be fine." He said, "He wanted to surprise you when you got out of jail. But..." Darrel shook his head, "He's a lot like you. He does things that he thinks are best, but he goes about them the wrong way."

"I do that?" Jeremy asked.

"You didn't have to keep working at Fazbear's." Darrel said. "You've been there a long time. You did it for Mike, risking your life every night. But did it ever occur to you what would happen if you didn't go home one night? If you were never to go home again? What would've happened to Mike?"

Jeremy looked down, "I just… I wish someone had told me." He put his head in his hands.

"They were also afraid that you might break out if they told you." He added.

"Why would they-" he started to ask, but Mary had mentally cut him off, "They got me there…" he instead sighed heavily and pinched the bridge of his nose, "I understand that… but I can't afford to get into any more trouble. I'm already in solitary confinement,. My back is still healing and I'm finally getting over a fever from the infection from my back." He said, "I can't get into any more trouble."

"They were keeping that in mind. They didn't want you to hurt yourself more than you already are." Darrel gave him a warm smile, "Let start with Gerald Schmidt." He said, "One of the murders you're getting pinned for."

"I didn't kill him." Jeremy said instantly.

"Great." Darrel shrugged, "Easy as that, right? Got any proof?"

Jeremy opened his mouth and closed it. "A few dead, robot witnesses, but they were destroyed in the fire." He shook his head, "Unless Mike saw everything."

Darrel leaned forward, "Mike mentioned something. What would that be?"

"Gerald Schmidt jumped into a spring-locked Bonnie suit and the suit failed on him. Everything snapped into place and killed him." He said, "I didn't touch him."

Darrel nodded, "That's what Mike was saying. He said he barely remembers it." He took a deep breath, "He also mentioned that a robot named Mangle might've seen it. Was she present?"

"Mangle was destroyed in the fire." Jeremy shook his head, "If she did see anything-"

"Mike has Mangle. She's intact. I think- Mike said he wanted to fix her up." Darrel corrected him, "Another surprise he wanted to have lined up for you, but she'd be a witness and might have video evidence." He said.

Jeremy let out a breath of relief, "Okay…" he hummed. "Maybe…" he said, "Wait- was the spring lock suit destroyed?"

"Springtrap is destroyed, yes. There was a fire last night, it was nothing but ash by the time the fire department got to it." Darrel said, "They did find a human skeleton inside the endoskeleton, but it crumpled when they tried to recover it."

"Springtrap?" Jeremy furrowed his eyebrows, "Is that what they called it?"

"I guess so…" Darrel shrugged. "Now for Morgan Afton…" he hummed, "What happened with him? We better come up with something good because you had a lot of witnesses to that one."

Jeremy shook his head, "I… don't remember. I blacked out. I-"

"Mike suggested that some… 'Mary' took over."

"You know about Mary?" Jeremy asked.

Darrel nodded, unsure, "More or less." He said, "Mike said you're possessed, and that Mary has a temper."

"That she does." Jeremy nodded. "Mary… she protects. But… she's vengeful. Her son was murdered and she couldn't do anything to prevent it. That's why she's with me, she wants to keep the same thing from happening to Mike. So… when I heard that Mike… 'died'…" he used air quotes, "She went ballistic. And it was directed at Morgan Afton because I begged him not to hire him."

Darrel took a deep breath, "Okay then… would she be able to testify?" he asked.

Jeremy nodded. "She's going to have to."

Darrel nodded, "Given this, the best I can probably do is…" he shrugged, "Less prison time." He took a deep breath. "That's all I'd be able to do. And no more fights, okay?"

"No more fights, I wasn't in control of that one either…" "Bullshit." "I was barely in control of that one." He corrected himself.

Darrel chuckled, "Hang in there, Mr. Fitzgerald." He closed his notepad and stood up. "I'm going to go see what I can do to fix this." He said with a smile.

"Thank you, so much." Jeremy smiled, "And tell Mike we're going to have a long talk when I see him again."

"Will do." Darrel smirked. "Your giraffe was never dead, Jeremy, and I don't think he'll ever be for a long time." He said as he walked out of the room.

**Again, sorry this took so long to get out. Last week I didn't even get the chance to touch my laptop and this week was a couple birthdays (mine included), not to mention there was a huge Minecraft update that I had to binge-play, so I got ridiculously distracted. I can't guarantee a weekly update at this point, but I will definitely aim for bi-weekly updates. I need a vote! Should I go for one more filler chapter? Or should I just go straight for trial? Please leave a review with your opinion and it will determine the next chapter. Sorry again that this is late, I'll see you guys later. Stay awesome, folks!**