Chapter 99

What's Your Name?

Hedy was trying really, really hard not to laugh.

It would be terrible if she laughed.

But she really wanted to.

She'd arrived first that night to find Spring with a tiny little kitten draped over him, purring contentedly as he pet her. The Originals and Goldy all seemed pretty happy with the entire thing while the Toys looked dumbfounded.

Puppet just seemed vaguely annoyed about a cat in the pizzeria.

Chica had told her the story and it turned out that Olivia couldn't take the kitten back to her apartment, so after the vet visit she'd been forced to leave her with Spring. None of the employees had another option so they were conspiring ways to keep the manager from noticing her.

Henry wasn't pleased. At all.

Jeremy didn't focus on the whole thing much. He was too busy on his laptop which he'd brought with. He was really swamped with work due to the case he was working but he wasn't comfortable leaving Hedy in the same building as Michael without him yet.

Amelia and the twins had driven home several days ago, but Jeremy was crashing on Hedy's couch before he had to go home and back to work. He was already in hot water for all the time off he had asked for.

Then Ruby walked in the door and froze as she saw the cat. Hedy had been briefly concerned because some people just weren't animal people and she'd never actually asked Ruby.

The teen had just let out a dismayed 'fuck' before she'd started sneezing.

Turned out that she was allergic to cats.

So it was awful but Hedy still felt the urge to laugh as she watched the teen do her best to avoid the cat while the Originals scrambled to clean up the cat hair that had spread in the room. It was quickly decided that they'd keep the animal in Fazbear's Fright most of the time. Surprisingly Ruby wasn't really annoyed with Spring or the cat. She was mostly resigned and admitted she liked cats.

She just sneezed her brains out when she was near them.

Eventually, the teen fled the room, leaving the bots to their cleaning.

Hedy was sitting next to Jeremy, trying desperately to hide her snickering behind her hands.

"You're awful," her brother muttered, not looking up from the computer.

"It's just..." Hedy tried to get herself back under control. "That girl looks evil in the eye and laughs in its face...but a kitten has her running from the room."

His lips twitched. "I can say the say about you and plushies."

She punched his arm in retaliation.

"What are you doing anyway? You don't usually bring your work here? If it's an important case then you don't have to come here Jeremy."

Jeremy paused before forcing a shrug. "I just wanted to keep an eye on things."

Hedy frowned. "Are you seriously still concerned about Michael? He can't do anything and it's not like you can stay overnight forever." Her stare softened. "And don't take this the wrong way, but you and I both know you can't really do much against him."

Jeremy sneered but couldn't argue. "I just..." he glanced around. "I just want you safe."

Hedy smirked and reached up to peck her brother on the cheek. "I know."

Jeremy huffed.

"But seriously..." Hedy said, straining to look at Jeremy's laptop screen. "What are you working on?"

Jeremy frowned and turned it away from her. "A case."

"Obviously."

"A potential murder case. You don't want to see..."

Hedy sobered. "Ah."

Jeremy shifted. "I'll tell you more later...just...maybe not here."

That was a little odd. Jeremy didn't usually talk about his cases with her. Sometimes he'd ask questions regarding mechanics if he needed to but otherwise, he never brought it up.

She didn't really get a chance to interrogate him though since Goldy started speaking at that point.

"I don't know if she's trying to gnaw your hand off or if she's just happy Spring," she said in amusement, watching the kitten bite at his fingers.

Hard.

Puppet twitched at every bite, making sure to keep his own far more fragile fingers away.

Spring smiled shyly. "It doesn't hurt," he assured her, continuing to pet the little animal.

"She looks young enough to socialize to people," Hedy mentioned. "The cutoff for feral kittens in twelve weeks I'm pretty sure."

She didn't want to risk petting the cat herself. It probably didn't trust humans at the moment.

But hopefully the kitten would learn that she and Ruby (and the other humans) were safe. She already seemed pretty okay with animatronics. Could she tell the difference? Probably.

Actually, maybe they didn't want her to look for cuddles with Ruby anyway.

The poor teen had been sneezing hard when she left the room.

It was still very weird to realise she had something as normal as allergies.

Goldy was cooing at the kitten even if she did keep a healthy distance away. Better safe than sorry.

Spring just looked so hopeful as he asked Hedy if they were going to keep her now.

Hedy wasn't entirely sure of the answer. She wanted to say yes. But she wasn't sure if they had the means to take care of it.

She sighed. "Spring, can we take care of her? Food. Litter. Keeping her away from the manager?"

"I'm not cleaning up the cat poop," Toby immediately said.

"Then you can claim no ownership of the cat," Hedy retorted without hesitation.

"I can take care of her," Spring said softly.

"I'll help," Goldy offered. She really wanted Spring to keep the cat.

Hedy cracked a smile. "Ok, so long as we can keep Ruby's...heh...allergies in check I'm cool with it."

Spring cracked the biggest smile. "Really?!"

Puppet narrowed his eyes at the cat as it started licking itself on Spring's lap, still purring.

"Aw she's gotten nicer," Chi said, inspecting the scratches in her paint on her hand.

"I think she just likes Spring," Mangle pointed out in amusement.

"It's probably only Spring," Goldy agreed as the cat swiped at her hand when she got closer again.

"Heh, the cat has a pet rabbit," Jeremy spoke up.

Spring cracked a smile at the joke.

"So what are you going to name her?" Jeremy asked.

Spring's ears dropped again as he stared down at the cat. He hadn't thought of that.

"I...don't know." He looked up at the others in the room hopefully.

All the bots looked just as clueless.

None of them could really remember a time when they named anything.

Hedy looked unfairly amused.

Goldy looked a little worried though. The bots could rarely agree on a movie to watch. Agreeing on a name? Didn't seem likely.

"Spring Jr.?" Mangle snickered.

Bonnie made a face and Spring didn't seem very enthused either.

"Uhhhh...Fluffy?" Bonnie said at Mangle's challenging expression.

Puppet snorted.

"That's so generic," Chi complained.

"I don't see you coming up with anything," Bonnie muttered.

"Demon," Foxy said, eyeing the way the thing swiped at Goldy again, hissing.

"Ah, I rather like that one," Puppet said. "It has my vote."

"Are we voting or is Spring picking one he likes for the kitty?" Hedy asked.

Spring did not look keen to have that pressure when everyone looked at him again.

"Candy?" BB threw in.

"How about we stick to something simple in honor of just how awful and uncreative most of your actual names are," Hedy said.

Jeremy snorted. "What? Like Kitty the Cat?"

"Perhaps just until inspiration strikes," Hedy continued, ignoring everyone's affronted looks.

"You can't just call her Kitty!" Goldy argued.

"As a placeholder?" Hedy asked, with a laugh.

"Besides," Jeremy said. "Don't we already have a Foxy? That's basically the same thing."

Foxy gave Jeremy a bland look. "I didn't name myself."

Spring was kind of hoping Hedy would be more helpful. She was good at naming, wasn't she? He privately hoped she wasn't just trying to encourage him to make up something himself. He really couldn't pick anything.

"Don't know why you're asking Hedy," Jeremy continued, looking down at his notes again. "She sucks at naming things."
"I do not!" Hedy sounded affronted now.

Without looking up, Jeremy pointed at Chi and Teddy.
"Point," Goldy said thoughtfully.

Chi looked offended.

So did Hedy. She thought her nicknames were clever.

Ruby strolled through the halls of Fazbear's Fright, sniffing and still occasionally sneezing. Why did it have to be a cat? Why couldn't Spring have gotten attached to a dog or a raccoon or something? Why did it have to be a cat? Sure she liked cats but-

A sneeze interrupted her thoughts and she groaned to herself, rubbing her watering eyes. She was going to need to invest in some allergy medication.

Spring had looked so happy with the little furball though. She could handle some sneezing for that.

A small smile appeared as she thought about what she had seen between the sneezing. He'd looked content. Something none of them had seen since getting him back. He hadn't been looking over his shoulder or watching everyone around him nervously.

He'd just looked...content.

Ruby paused as she caught sight of something out of the corner of her eye. She frowned when she found nothing there once she'd turned her head.

Was Michael trying to freak her out? She didn't have that feeling of being watched though.

Actually...she did have that odd feeling that had been plaguing her for days now.

Like she was being followed.

She couldn't help looking around again. The feeling had continued when she left the pizzeria so she knew it wasn't one of the ghosts.

Ruby rubbed her chest, having a rare moment of anxiety. Something wasn't right.

She turned to leave and join the others again, forgetting about the cat for the moment, and stopped dead.

Standing in the previously empty hallway only inches from her stood...something.

Her brain didn't quite want to process it. Some details filtered through to her mind however.

Black.

Big.

Teeth.

It smiled and that uneasy feeling escalated into screaming alarm in her head.

"Who are you?" she demanded.

That grin stretched wider and suddenly Timmy was there, looking terrified and staring at the...thing in horror.

It reached out a clawed hand towards her and she meant to move back but found herself frozen in place.

"No!" Timmy screamed.

The creature rested it's heavy paw on her shoulder, claws curling around it, and leaned in to answer her question. Blood red eyes stared into her own.

I'm your Nightmare.

Hedy cried out and curled in on herself when the building suddenly projected sheer panic into her head. Goldy dropped to the floor, clutching her head as well.

Everyone was yelling in alarm at the two's sudden actions and Jeremy was holding Hedy up and saying something. She couldn't hear what past the ringing in her ears and the dread pooling in her stomach.

Something was wrong.

Wrong wrong wrong!

The voice that wasn't a voice screamed at her over and over. She couldn't "hear" anything else.

"Where's Ruby?" she gasped out, forcing herself to look up. Spring was anxiously reaching out to Goldy while Puppet was the one crouching next to the bear surprisingly.

"I don't-" Goldy stuttered. "Can't think, too much, too much."

Another slam of horror hit her mind and Hedy gasped, clutching her head.

They needed to find her. Now.

She shoved Jeremy away and started to shakily wheel herself out of the room. The others followed, worry and confusion the dominant emotion of the group.

She had to remind herself that they couldn't feel what she and Goldy had just felt. Foxy was the only one who was twitching in a way that she knew meant he wanted to run and find Ruby. But he didn't know where she was.

Before she realised where she was heading, she found herself outside Fazbear's Fright.

Spring shifted uneasily, still holding Kitty. The cat was quiet now, eyes watching them all intently.

Hedy reached out to touch the door but it slammed open violently before she could, startling them all.

Shaken and unable to shake off that dread, she continued to move forward. A couple of turns down the hallways later, and she froze, the friction of gripping her sharply spinning wheels burning her palms.

There was a choked garble of static and Foxy shot past her while Goldy dropped to the floor again, nearly falling on Hedy.

Ruby was lying in the middle of the hallway, crumpled as if her legs had simply given way under her.

She wasn't moving.