Twin Trees Hospital - Wednesday November 10th, 1993

His eyes opened with greater ease this time, bright fluorescent lights flooding his field of vision. When his surroundings came into focus, Mike realized he was in the hospital. This time, it was real. He could also feel that the medical staff had put a neck brace on him.

Mike began to recall what happened. Freddy saved him from Bonnie, then Mr. Fazbear had taken him to the hospital. He was thankful for the relief he was starting to feel. He carefully brought his left hand up to his immobilized neck, where he saw it had an I.V. attached to it, realizing his relief was due to the use of painkillers.

"Ah, you're awake," his boss greeted. "How do you feel?"

"Better, I-I guess…" Mike's voice was rather weak, but was certainly stronger than when he'd woken up the first time.

Mr. Fazbear's mouth curled into a bleak smile, pleased to see that Mike's condition was improving. It was mid afternoon, and he'd only just woken up. With the liability concerns at hand, he didn't dare to leave the hospital since the time he brought his employee in for medical care.

His smile faded almost as quickly as it came when he said, "I'm terribly sorry, my boy. I honestly didn't think Bonnie would do something like that... I should've listened to you yesterday."

"I-I didn't t-think so... e-either..." He had to speak slowly, yet was grateful to be able to at all by this point.

"We haven't had too much trouble with them. Not for a while, at least. Mr. Howard complained about them before, once. He'd-"

"M-Mr... Howard?" Mike found himself getting lost in Mr. Fazbear's description, likely due to fatigue.

"You haven't met him in person, but you've heard from him before. He's my assistant, Anthony Howard. He had the foresight to create those training messages for the new night guards such as yourself. I've got to say, they're efficient." When Mike made a sound of agreement, or acknowledgement at the very least, the boss continued. "After you complained about the working conditions on Tuesday, I listened to the voice recording, and... well, by his fourth message, things sounded as though they were going downhill."

"W-What...?"

"I heard some banging in the background, some sort of moaning, even a favourite song of mine slipped in there. Then, the call suddenly dropped after a loud screech interrupted it. Mr. Howard was talking very fast, flustered, even. The message following it just sounds like incomprehensible noise."

Mike began to panic. "I-Is he...?" His mind raced with horrific scenarios of what could have happened to Anthony. He didn't want to know which suit his body had been inevitably stuffed into.

"He's fine, I assure you. I'm sure the tape just got damaged, somehow."

"T-The... song..."

Mr. Fazbear paused. "I'm not sure why that's in there." He looked away, pain entering his voice. "It's a piece from Carmen, a excerpt called Toreador March. My sons and I used to love that opera…"

"U-Used to?"

"They... went missing," he continued, " around six or seven years ago."

"I-I'm so sorry," Mike replied hoarsely.

He sighed. "I miss them, but I like to believe they're still out there, somewhere. Not a day goes by where I don't sit by the front door, waiting for them to walk in."

Mike frowned. "W-What are... their n-names?"

"Their names are, or I should say were, Gilead and Frederick." Mr. Fazbear uttered mournfully.

"F-Freddy... Fazbear...? I-Isn't that the name... o-of the b-bear?"

"It is... You see, my brother founded the company, Fazbear Entertainment. I took over later on after the original restaurant, Fredbear's Family Diner, closed." His smile started to return. "Everett always loved bears, actually. The original restaurant had two animatronics: a bear and a rabbit, both a beautiful yellow colour. The bear was even named 'Fredbear', too. It wasn't exactly original, but the kids seemed to like it."

Mike would've nodded, had he been able to, but couldn't with the brace fastened to his neck. "H-How did that b-become Freddy?"

"When the original restaurant closed down, Everett opened a new one. He needed to rename it after an... incident. I took over at this point. My youngest son wasn't born yet, but I'd always liked the name 'Freddy'. And with a name like 'Fazbear', it sounded like a fine name for a restaurant with a bear mascot. So, Fazbear Entertainment named the new restaurant 'Freddy Fazbear's Pizza'. Then, when my son was born, I named him Frederick as well."

Unfortunately, Mr. Fazbear's frown returned. "My sons always loved that singing bear..." Mike could've sworn his disheartened boss was close to tears.

Adeline's House - Thursday January 21st, 1988

Two months had passed since the terrible accident at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, the one that put Jeremy Fitzgerald into intensive care at the hospital. Adeline would visit him often, holding onto the hope that a person in a coma would benefit from having company come. One afternoon came when she returned home after picking Taryn up from school and checked the phone messages. The hospital called; Jeremy woke up from his coma. She was filled with relief with the news of the miracle. Against odds, she would be able to talk to him once more.

Adeline arranged for her daughter to go to a friend's house before making her way to the hospital Jeremy was staying in. She came in and saw him sitting up in his hospital bed, looking around the room much like a scared animal would. She approached slowly and said, "Jeremy... You're awake."

He jerked back a little. "W-Wha... W-Who?" On top of appearing frightened, he also seemed confused.

She smiled softly and kept her distance to make him more comfortable. "It's me, Adeline. Don't you remember me?"

His narrowed his eyes and furrowed his brow, studying her face for a while. Jeremy then nodded slowly and answered her. "I... Um..." He made a quiet murmuring sound as he tried to form the rest of his sentence."Y-Yes... I do..."

Adeline drew closer as she saw the man's fear subside, standing beside his bed. "Do you remember what happened?"

He looked away and gripped the sheet that rested over his body. His knuckles turned white from the tightness of his hold on it. "Y-Yeah..."

"Hey..." She rested her hand on his shoulder and continued, "You're safe now." He nodded. "I thought I lost you..."

Without warning, Jeremy let go of the sheet and bear hugged his friend, his body shaking a little as he began to cry, despite appearing to have been fine the second before. Adeline couldn't make sense of his sudden shifts of emotion.

Adeline tried to recall if he had been as emotional as he currently was before the accident, soon concluding that he wasn't. The accident had changed Jeremy, there was no question in her mind about it. She returned the hug and said, "It's ok..."

He managed to choke out a sentence between his sobs. He pleaded, "D-Don't... leave m-me..."

She didn't quite know what to say to him. She couldn't turn her life upside down to look after a man with a serious brain trauma on top of caring for her daughter, pursuing a culinary career, and maintaining her home. It would be too much to handle. Then again, Jeremy lived on his own and wouldn't be able to look after himself in his current state; someone needed to be there for him.

"I'll... I'll look after you. I won't abandon you."

In response, Jeremy nodded and held her tighter.

A while later, he managed to calm himself. He smiled at Adeline, a hint of his previous charm shining through. "I-I... uh..." he began, stumbling on his words yet not appearing to be too anxious.

"Yes?" Adeline waited patiently to hear what he had to say.

"I... You..."

She drew back slightly to smile at him encouragingly. "Go on."

"L-Love..." Jeremy simply stared into her eyes, captivated. A smile crept across his lips.

"Love? What do you love?"

"Y-You..." He drifted off, squeezing his eyes shut for a moment. "A-A-Al... Hmm... Have, um, long time."

Adeline paused, piecing together the choppy revelation. "Are you... trying to say you're in love with me, Jeremy?" It took him a few seconds before he nodded and grinned. He appeared to be pleased that she managed to understand the cryptic message he'd tried so hard to communicate. "That's... very sweet of you," she said carefully, not sure of what to do with the new information. With his injury, which she knew little about the repercussions of, it was impossible for her to know if he would be in a position to be in a relationship.

"W-" Jeremy look down briefly, snapping his fingers as he thought about what word he was trying to say, looking up again when the word came to him. "Well?" He smirked, proud to have found the proper word without help that time.

"I... I love you too," she admitted. This made Jeremy's smile grow as he embraced her tightly. Adeline wasn't sure if she made the right choice to listen to how she felt, but decided it was worth the risk. He was still Jeremy, after all. She hugged him back, knowing that she was taking the biggest leap of faith of her life.