Author's Notes: Hey everyone! We've got a fun announcement. We're writing a series of 'what if' short stories that we're going to post on Corona Pax's profile. Basically ideas or things we wanted to write that don't fit in with the story. None of it will be canon but it'll all still be in the ETU universe. Some will be happy, some funny and some depressingly sad. Hope you'll hop on that side to take a look. We're posting the first of them tomorrow.

Chapter 184

Update

Ruby groaned when she sat up, rubbing her face. They'd completely crashed when they reached their room since they'd been coming off a lot of adrenaline. A couple of hours was all they needed to be functional again though. The joys of being regular night shift.

"You alive, Hedy?" she asked, scrambling out of bed as she started hunting for coffee. She could appreciate this hotel purely for their dedication in keeping the room stocked with the stuff. And they never commented on any weird stuff they found during cleaning either.

Top tier professionalism right there. Ruby was even being nice to the cleaners as a result. The teen eyed Hedy as she got the kettle boiling. As much as she wanted to sleep like the dead until their next shift, they had a lot of shit to talk through after last night.

So Ruby wasn't very kind when she threw a pillow at the older girl when Hedy didn't make a move to get up.

"Oi! If I've got to be awake, so do you!"

"Fuck off," Hedy muttered, grabbing the assaulting pillow and holding it over her head. "I have a headache."

Ruby bit back the automatic "Drink more water" that sounded suspiciously like Alice and rolled her eyes. She poked Hedy's foot with the point of a hotel branded pen she grabbed from the desk, carelessly dropping it and not bothering to retrieve it when it rolled beneath the bed.

Hedy jerked her foot away and yelped, poking her face out from under the pillow to glare at her, and then Timmy when the boy failed to stifle his snicker.

"Up up up," Ruby said, shoving a glass of water at her. "We've got to phone the others before they think something went horribly wrong and Jeremy drives down here."

That was a genuinely valid concern so Hedy couldn't even argue that Ruby was being overdramatic.

"Coffee after water," Ruby added when Hedy tried to ignore the glass.

Hedy eyed the younger girl suspiciously, seeing the odd mothering for what it was. She wasn't sure whether that was Ruby being impatient or it was her habit of living with younger children.

Ruby took an obnoxious sip of her coffee, fully intent on holding the stuff hostage to get Hedy to drink water. "They're probably glaring at the phone right now," she reminded the mechanic. "I'd bet that Mangle is doing that stuttery growl thing she does when she's anxious. You hate the stuttery growl."

"You do," Timmy agreed.

Hedy rolled her eyes and took the water, rubbing her temple from the splitting headache. She was dehydrated and stress didn't help. "Where's my phone…" she muttered, looking at the bedside table.

Ruby held up the device and wiggled it. "Water first," she said with a shit-eating grin.

Hedy rolled her eyes more dramatically and drank the water, shoving a pillow behind her as she sat up properly. "I'm not getting out of bed yet. My back hurts."

"That's fine," Ruby shrugged. She waited until the glass was finished before handing over the phone and mug of coffee. After that, she scrambled onto the bed with Hedy and squirmed around until she was comfortable.

Timmy jumped from Ruby's bed to Hedy's, barely missing their legs.

Hedy had to smile a little at the action that made Timmy really look like a little kid.

Ruby made an impatient movement with her hand. "Come on, call them already. We need to try and sleep at least a little more today. We can't spend forever on this." She squinted at the time. It was already nine in the morning. And she still wanted to talk to Hedy about the weird vibe between her and Alex too.

She was going to need so much coffee this morning…

The phone rang.

"Took you long enough!"

"Hello to you too, Mags," Hedy said. "Why do you have Mike's phone? Is he still there?"

"He's been sleeping in the staff room the last few days," Mangle said casually. "I think the day staff thinks he's homeless."

"Are those the girls?" Freddy's voice interjected.

"Hi!" Ruby called. "Still alive and running off coffee. Is everyone there?"

"We just opened, but no customers yet. Why did you take so long to call?" Mangle said. "Here Freddy, I'll go get the others!" She didn't even wait for an answer to her snippy question.

Ruby glanced over at Hedy. "Let's just say… it was an eventful night," she said delicately. "It was… interesting."

Freddy didn't say anything for a moment. "You met someone?"

"Who?" Goldy's voice popped in along with a faint rush of air. She sounded anxious.

Ruby grimaced. "Well, that's a surprisingly complicated question," Ruby said, choosing her words carefully. "We saw a few animatronics. But we're a little uncertain on if we actually talked to… well, them."

She sipped at her coffee as she let them process that. She wasn't actually sure how to explain this without freaking everyone out. "So, I suspect I might have maybe spoken to Baby. Not too sure on that. Had a delightful game of bowling with her mini versions though. That was fun. I think I broke Afton a little during that though. He was very confused."

She took a noisy sip of coffee.

"What mini–" Goldy interrupted, hyper-fixated on one thing at a time. "What are you talking about?" She sounded stressed by Ruby's vague answers.

"And there were Ballora's minis too," Ruby steamrolled past the question. "I know for sure that that bit of ballet was actually with her. And Hedy met the bots. I think she likes them–"

"What?" Hedy interrupted, confused.

Ruby ignored her. "-They remind me too much of Puppet to make a final decision yet. But we aren't fully sure if we spoke to her or not. The room was pitch black."

"Lass, what are you even talking about? Minis?" Foxy asked, bewildered.

Ruby didn't answer the question as she continued. "Hedy was brilliant and turned off the shock problem without electrocuting herself and we did get to meet Fredbear. That was a bit more clear. He's… interesting…" she drew the word out for a moment. "Bon Bon is adorable, though. They've screwed around with her voicebox though."

Maybe there was a faint sympathetic whimper from a bot, but it was hard to tell which Toy it came from. It wasn't Mangle.

"We definitely spoke to her though. She and Fred were the only ones we saw when she spoke."

She took another long sip of coffee.

"And then… well, there was that thing in the hallways… no details on that yet," she finished lightly.

"Slow down!" Bonnie cut in as it sounded like the others arrived.

"I think she's done," Hedy said. She vaguely heard Mike ask if Mangle stole his cellphone.

Ruby gave a bright grin and went to refill her coffee.

"Then back up!" Bonnie demanded.

"Oh it was just all very dark and we might have an unknown stalker in the vents," Ruby told them lightly. "Who has a very strange voice that could possibly mimic others."

It was quiet for a moment.

"When we can't see her, I can't tell if we're supposed to be worried or not," Teddy complained.

"Just assume she's being sarcastic!" BB chirped happily.

"Who could do that?" Freddy asked over the talking, apparently to Goldy or Puppet. "Mimic like that."

"I'd like to know too," Ruby mused, tone turning dark. "Before I lose my temper over whoever it is taunting us and freaking Timmy out."

"Is he okay?" Goldy asked, her voice tightening in worry.

"I'm fine," Timmy insisted, glancing at Hedy guiltily.

Ruby eyed him dubiously but didn't call him out.

"We know whoever it was isn't the fox. It can't be a regular sized bot, but it's too big to be a mini," Ruby studied her coffee. She looked up at the phone with a blank expression. "It's someone you don't know about, isn't it?"

There was another pause and they could imagine all of the bots and Mike (and Jeremy if he was there and just hadn't said anything yet) staring at the two eldest bots. Waiting.

"Yes…" Puppet eventually said after thinking hard. "I can't think of anyone else. Any of us might be able to mimic other voices, but not without a lot of tedious adjustments to the concatenative synthesis code and the tonal variation—"

"Been a while since you used your big nerd words," Foxy cut in with a derisive snort.

"I was answering the question," Puppet snapped.

"Bite me."

"How exactly is he supposed to do that?" Spring asked, sounding innocently confused.

Most of them were not fooled.

Hedy cut in. "Guys."

She glanced at Ruby but the teen seemed to completely miss the exchange if only to be offended at Puppet in Foxy's defence. She also might still be processing the 'big nerd words' too. Ruby still zoned out when Hedy went full tech speak.

Hedy brushed it off. Puppet didn't seem to talk to the other bots much unless he had to, besides Spring and Goldy. Things were still very tense between him and the Toys. Despite whatever the business said, Mangle seemed the leader of the Toys, emotionally at least. Teddy could often be caught deferring to her. And if she could hold a grudge against Puppet, then so could they.

Puppet's relationship with the Originals had never seemed to find much footing after coming back. Fifteen years away and it seemed he lost whatever older sibling standing he used to have with them. He was just too different. Too hurt and cold. Except for right then. Despite the harsh tones, the exchange seemed almost playful.

Puppet muttered something rude under his 'breath' before refocusing. "Are you sure all the others are accounted for?"

"Yes," Hedy said. "Whatever it was, wasn't someone Goldy told us about or one of the little ones."

"Little ones…" Goldy echoed, sounding confused. "Um…Puppet's right. If it's just the Funtimes there…I can't think of anyone else."

Ruby scowled a little. She'd been hoping that they'd get at least a clue about what they were dealing with.

"Can we talk about…" Goldy trailed off. "Can you describe the little ones? I'm still worried about this other thing, but… I don't know who you're talking about with those."

"Afton seemed surprised to see them too," Ruby added, ignoring the faint grumbles that always came when she mentioned the man. "From what I'm understanding, the Bidy-Babs look like little versions of Baby. They roll well. Hedy got a better look at the minis though. I was busy with Ballora in the other room."

"I didn't really see them at first," Hedy said. "They resemble artist mannequins with…er…with something like Puppet's face. And wearing little tutus. I don't know how many there were. They were crawling all over me while I was trying to get through the room in the dark." She blinked. "They didn't hurt me," she added quickly. "They seemed more curious and very childish in a way. I think their job was to help Ballora keep track of me while she was busy with Ruby. I don't think they were expecting two people…"

"The Bidy-Babs were definitely intending harm. They just weren't expecting me," Ruby said sweetly. "Their casings remind me a little of the Toys, but metal instead of plastic. Still fairly delicate though."

" Ballora's mini bots were way more fragile," Hedy added. "They felt like wood and thin plastic."

"Will…" Goldy paused at the sounds of irritation when she said the name. "Will had designs for small bots. Helpers. Especially since the Funtimes had a….lot of moving parts…" She hesitated. "And really, he was probably planning for smaller bots to help those of us who are just too big for some tasks. Fine motor skill things. Writing? Small repairs. But he abandoned the idea. Never even started them. I think."

Mangle scoffed and muttered something the phone couldn't pick up.

Ruby hummed absently, staring at the ceiling now. "He definitely wasn't expecting the minis. Also wasn't expecting Betty's appearance, but I can respect that he didn't comment on it afterwards."

"I think he was a little stunned," Hedy pointed out.

"We pissed everyone off though and I'm going to punch Andre," Ruby added. "If that man calls Hedy a 'girl' in that tone or threatens child services one more time, there's going to be a murder and it will not be bots for once."

They knew it was an empty threat. Ruby wouldn't actually kill the man. But she was clearly pissed off with him.

"Just make it look like an accident."

"Bonnie!" Chica scolded.

"Oh so Spring is allowed to make the morbid jokes?"

"You sound depressed when you try," Spring said casually.

"But you're both okay, right?" Mike said, trying to redirect Ruby's attention just a bit as Chica and Bonnie bickered. "No injuries last night or before? You didn't really tell us how yesterday went."

"Hedy almost died," Timmy said bluntly, looking toward the TV.

"Timmy!" Hedy snapped at him as the noise on the other end picked up.

"What?!"

Hedy flinched at the alarm in Spring's voice that drowned out the other's. Spring did not yell often. Or at all actually.

Timmy glared at her. "You were going to downplay it," he said sternly.

"Hedy! What happened?" Mike demanded after telling the others to kindly shut up.

"Nothing! It was an accident! But I'm fine and nothing bad happened."

"Timmy," Goldy demanded.

"She got shocked. Almost electrocuted. Grabbed a live wire and everything. I could tell it punched her heart really hard." Timmy ignored Hedy's glares as he sharply tilted his head and the TV flicked to life. He turned the volume down without moving and started flicking through the channels.

"Hedy!" Mike's voice was tight and Hedy had to wince at the genuine fear in his voice. "That's it. I'm coming—"

"No you're not!" Hedy snapped.

"You promised me you would be—-!" Mike sucked in a sharp breath and cut off his own words. He let out a slow breath as he forced himself to be calm. "You promised you would be careful." His voice was soft and strained.

Ruby was staring at Hedy as she shifted, knowing that this was somewhat between Mike and Hedy. It was still uncomfortable knowing Mike was so upset. Out of all of them, he professionally knew how bad an electrocution could be.

The bots on the other end were probably just as uncomfortable.

"I went to the hospital," Hedy admitted. "I'm okay, Mike. Cardiogram. All that stuff."

"Dad made her go to get checked out. He was worried," Timmy said, knowing it would give the bots conflicting feelings knowing their Dad did that for someone they cared so much for. "He's a good boss."

Ruby rolled her eyes. "Could you make the manipulation a little less obvious?"

Timmy ignored her. "And he's been upset about Ruby walking alone to and from the hotel every night."

"He needs to mind his own business," Ruby said automatically. "Snitch."

"Mike, please don't come. We're so close to figuring out what's going on," Hedy said. "I don't think we can give a reason for you showing up that doesn't cause suspicion. Or at least keep Alex from tipping Afton off."

"He still hasn't realised then?" Puppet grumbled.

"That we know you?" Hedy asked. "I'm not actually sure. He hasn't asked."

"I think he's overwhelmed too," Ruby said with a shrug. "He's too busy thinking about stuff going on to question us being weird."

"How do you know we're being weird?" Hedy asked, somewhat offended. "Eighty percent of your personality is being weird, so you're oblivious eighty percent of the time!"

Ruby rolled her eyes. "He's watching us. He thinks something is off. But he's not asking anything because there's more pressing stuff every night so he doesn't have a chance."

"Can we talk about anything else, please?" Chica complained, the irritation somewhat strange from her. Then again, all the bots had been acting off in the weeks between Afton's phone call and when Hedy and Ruby finally left for the hole in the ground.

"Okay… but we have to switch one uncomfortable topic for another…" Hedy warned. "Not including the little bots, it doesn't make sense for the larger bots to be the ones stalking us. They look on the larger side of you guys and there's no way any of you can move that fast or be that flexible to fit in the vents." She hesitated, glancing at Timmy. "There's something…off… about whatever it is." Her voice went dry. "Are we sure it's not a–"

"It's not a ghost!" Timmy snapped.

It was quiet.

"Timmy…"

"No! There isn't anyone!" Timmy insisted, but his voice cracked as he turned away from the television. "I know what you're thinking and it isn't her!"

Hedy nodded, glancing at the phone.

Timmy moaned and rubbed the heels of his palms into his eyes. "I know what a ghost feels like! And I know what she would feel like!" He spoke to the phone. "It isn't…it isn't her, Goldy." He pleaded.

"I believe you," Goldy said calmly and not like she was just agreeing to please him. "The Funtimes stayed home, with us, for a long time after…" she trailed off. "It was years before Will finished them. Longer before he let them go to their own location. We would have found her if she stayed behind. She would have shown up to someone. The kids materialised the night they died."

"That wasn't…fun…" the girls heard Bonnie whisper, sounding ill and probably not even aware he said anything.

Timmy relaxed a little, but still looked jumpy. "I…I woke up when…" he swallowed, looking ashamed and about to cry. "The next day…You were all at the house…" He looked a little panicked and pulled himself out of the distressing memory.

It was silent for a moment. Ruby could imagine they were thinking back to that day, combing their memories for any sign they missed of Timmy being there.

Puppet's voice was tight. "Did you try to talk to us?" he asked.

Timmy hesitated. "You…you couldn't see or hear me. I…I knocked over Mom's vase."

Freddy made a noise. "I thought I had bumped into the table," he whispered.

"It was way easier to do stuff at the pizzeria," Timmy said. "But…it took me a while to figure out I could even go there. I stayed at the house for a while."

"So ghosts show up immediately…" Puppet said.

"She…she wasn't there," Timmy insisted. "I…I looked. I checked the house. Dad…I watched him pack up the Funtimes. She wasn't there."

"It doesn't have to be your sister," Ruby interrupted bluntly. This train of thought would not end well if she didn't redirect them. "Ghost or whatever that is. That place is a deathtrap. In more ways than one." She frowned. "The Bidibabs have experience." There was an awkward silence.

"Afton did mention something about mechanics going missing…" Hedy admitted. "It's what prompted this 'project' in the first place."

"You have conveniently left out that detail," Puppet said.

"Point is," Ruby said, "There're skeletons in someone's closet down there. If there's a ghost, there's probably a lot of people it could be."

"I would have sensed it," Timmy said, a little irritated as he stared at his cartoon.

Hedy and Ruby shared a glance.

"We can't rule out anything just yet," Ruby said. "We need more information. On everything. I want to see what's happening with the fox. We've got some info on everyone but her." She kept talking before anyone else could. "Who built that place, by the way? Afton doesn't seem to know much about it. But it's weird. The rooms and layout don't feel… right."

"What do you mean?" Foxy asked, going along with Ruby's obvious subject change before anyone could protest.

"If the place were a jigsaw puzzle, the pieces wouldn't fit right," Ruby said. "The walls are curved, there's no traditionally shaped rooms. It feels like there should be dead space between the rooms but that doesn't make any sense. The vents don't make up for that space either."

"Well…" Goldy said, hesitant for some reason. "Someone…we knew…built the locations with Scott. I mean, they designed them."

"Oh, so it is Scott's fault we have those stupid doors," Mike suddenly said.

Some of the bots snickered.

"Yeah, I don't know what they were thinking with those," Goldy admitted.

"Scott found the blast doors at an auction. I don't know what kind of auction," Puppet cut in, his tone strange. "He claimed he knew a guy that worked at a nuclear testing facility that was closing down. The government was auctioning off some things and Scott thought they were…cool…"

Ruby started snickering so hard that Hedy was worried she was going to fall off the bed. The more they talked about Steve, the more certain the teen was that she would have got along with him fantastically.

"I don't know if he was telling the truth," Puppet said dryly. "I believe we're getting off topic."

"Maybe not…" Hedy said. "This place is underground. It's weird. People don't just build stuff underground. Maybe it used to be a bunker?" Her throat went a little dry.

"Are you saying Scott built that place?" Toby asked, worried about the implication. The Toys might not have been very close to Scott unlike the other sets, but they knew him long enough before everything went horribly wrong to know he wouldn't make the deathtrap the girls were describing.

"No," Hedy said quickly. "But…maybe he knew about it?"

Ruby leaned back, over her hysterical giggling fit, and listened for the moment. She'd never known Steve beyond the phone calls so she couldn't really contribute to the discussion. Mike was also quiet.

She glanced over at Timmy who was watching the tv. Or at least pretending to. She knew he was listening closely.

"You know…" Bonnie said, slowly. "Randomly buying a bunker sounds like something Scott would do."

Surprisingly (or maybe not) no one disagreed.

"But he wouldn't make a location out of it," Foxy said. "Not for the Funtimes. Not for anyone."

"He'd turn it into a collector's cave," Goldy mused. "Probably for Fazbear merchandise."

"Or his personal stuff," Chica pointed out. "He did buy a lot of weird stuff once we started making money with the business…"

"I don't think him and Mom had a lot growing up," Hedy explained. "I think he liked buying stuff he would have wanted as a kid. Or he got me and Jeremy a lot of presents…"

"I don't know whether that's sad or adorable," Mike mused.

Ruby was going to vote on the adorable side. Although she frequently found herself feeling disappointment over never actually knowing the man. That she could remember at least.

"Ok. Let's say, hypothetically," Hedy continued. "That Scott bought the place. But we know he wouldn't do this so let's assume he just…had a property that was a hole in the ground he didn't use for anything. How would it end up like this?"

"The company bought it from him?" Teddy suggested.

"Or just used it without him knowing," Mangle grumbled.

"He…wouldn't exactly have had time to check on any properties he had the last decade," Chica admitted softly.

"Illegal property usage," Ruby mused. "Wait. What about his will? If they covered up his death, there wouldn't be a will reading. Who the hell is managing his assets then? Did the company just quietly seize his stuff?"

Hedy stilled. She hadn't thought about that. "His apartment is empty but someone is paying the bills. Jeremy and I tried to get him declared missing, but I'm not sure if anyone filed it. I couldn't figure out why the company would try to make it seem like he's still around. But it makes sense. I don't know if he even had a will. Even if he did, I don't know who'd he leave anything to. He wasn't married and he never had any kids."

It was quiet for a beat.

"Is she serious?" BB deadpanned.

"Hedwig," Puppet said, a rare bit of amusement in his tone. "You're very intelligent, but that may have been one of the dumbest things I've heard you say."

"What?"

"I think Puppet means that Scott would have left everything to you and Jeremy," Spring said.

Hedy blinked. "O-oh. Uh…Well a bomb shelter had to be on my Christmas list at some point."

Mike snickered at the awkward joke. As least he appreciated it.

Hedy huffed. "Well, that doesn't mean anything right now. We're just making stuff up at this point. But it belonging to him and the company just using it is pretty plausible."

"If that's true," Puppet said, "Then how is any of that useful to us?"

Ruby put a mental pin in it and swore to come back later to the topic with her lawyer involved.

"It's not really. It just means that if any of that is true, the company will be in a hell of a lot of trouble when it comes out later and they'd have to pay so many fines their bank accounts will cry. And they might go to jail too," she said. "But we need something to help us now. That place has clearly been very altered if it used to be a bunker or something. So who could have altered it? Does the company employ specific people or just contract outsiders?"

"It's been years, Ruby," Goldy admitted. "I didn't pay very much attention during any construction projects."

"Will and the others just approved designs and then Mr. Emily hired the contractor to do the actual project," Puppet said, his voice tight suddenly.

"Who's…" Hedy started asking. She heard Goldy's wince.

"Charlotte's father," Puppet said bluntly. "I know Goldy told you about her. Without asking me. Not important at the moment."

Ruby kept quiet for once. She'd done her own research on the man when learning about Afton. She preferred not to let everyone know just how much she knew about their family due to her internet and sometimes not legal research.

"...And he was in charge of construction?" Hedy asked. "Was he the architect?"

"Only for the diner," Puppet said. "He left the company a long time ago."

"Oh. I see."

Ruby groaned. "So we've got nothing on Mr Architect," she complained. "We've got a weird ass building, bots who are trying to kill us again, something in the vents and Andre."

Hedy snorted. Andre was his own personal category apparently according to Ruby.

"And on top of that. Hedy's having a cat fight with her friend that gets kids drunk."

"You are never going to drop what happened at my birthday, are you?"

"No. You can pry it out of my cold dead hands."

The teen got multiple complaints for her choice of words, like usual.

"We just argued about the job. It's handled."

"You didn't look very handled last night," Timmy said.

Hedy glared at him again. Ruby was giving her that look though. The one that usually preceded a very irritating 'tell meeeeeee' conversation.

"Did you try convincing her to leave?" Mike asked, knowingly.

"I didn't do a great job," Hedy grumbled. "Now she's mad at me."

Mike hummed. "Did you tell her what's going on?"

Hedy frowned and shot the phone a look even though Mike couldn't see. "She knows the bots are alive."

"What about the rest?"

"We can't just tell people. The hell am I supposed to say? Oh by the way, my robot friends killed people, but don't worry. They don't do that anymore! How the hell is that supposed to go over?!"

Ruby facepalmed. "You are so bad at talking to normal people sometimes. You lie Hedy!"

"It's not that easy Ruby! How do I even lie? What could I possibly say that she believes?"

"I dunno. Seems pretty straightforward."

"You're not helping, Mangle," Chica said.

"I'm currently undercover to help my cop brother get the information he needs to solve a spree of murders," Ruby suggested. "So please Alex, I need you to play along so that I don't get exposed."

"No way she falls for that," Hedy said, frustrated.

"Not with that attitude she won't," Mangle said.

"For someone who couldn't talk over eighty percent of her life, you sure seem confident in your lying skills," Toby said.

There was silence for a moment and a faint whimper.

"Why did you have to remind me?" Mangle whispered.

"Toby!" Chi scolded.

"I-I'm sorry!" Toby said. "I'm sorry, Mangle. Mags, don't cry. I didn't mean it."

Ruby smirked. I'm so proud of her, she signed at Hedy. You should take lessons.

Hedy rolled her eyes, still upset.

"Mags. Mags. I'm sorry."

"Not bad for someone who couldn't talk eighty percent of her life," Mangle said idly.

"..." Toby sputtered. "You… you b–." He cut off.

Ruby slow-clapped near the phone. "A master in action my dear Mangle."

"Was pretty good," Foxy admitted. "She even got that subtle eye shine change right lass."

"That deserves a reward. What movie am I bringing for you next movie night Mangle?" Ruby asked gleefully.

"Texas Chainsaw Massacre."

There was a loud chorus of complaints and denials.

"What? Nothing all of us haven't seen before. Well. Besides Mike."

"Mangle!" Hedy joined the shout this time as Mangle laughed, pleased that even Hedy sounded amused, her secretly morbid humour winning out.

Ruby was just smiling way too wide. Mangle was a chaotic gremlin and she loved that fox.

"Hedy?" Timmy asked, later when the girls had eaten something then decided to get the rest of their sleep.

"Hm?" Hedy mumbled while half asleep.

Timmy hesitated, staring up at the ceiling as he laid on her bed. He was switching between which bed he decided to hang out on. "Do you think I should tell my Dad I'm here?"

He felt her tense and he knew Ruby was listening too.

Hedy peeked at him. "Why are you asking me, Timmy?"

"Because you…you didn't really react great when you learned your friends were ghosts."

"In Hedy's defence," Ruby spoke up. "They were dicks about it. I wasn't great either. I'm still mad you called me a liar though."

Hedy huffed but didn't apologize. "There was a lot going on, Timmy. And I made the connection to the night guard murders pretty quickly."

"But you still had grieved already. And you were done, and then that all got reset right?"

"I was never really 'done'," Hedy admitted. "I just blocked out the memories."

He sighed in frustration.

"Timmy," Hedy said, gently. "Whether you want to or not, I don't think you're going to be able to avoid your dad forever. The way things are going, I think he's going to have to come home with us eventually. He's going to learn.."

"...I could hide," he whispered.

"Like you hid from Goldy?" Ruby asked softly.

The bear had been devastated to learn that he'd always been there, but they were now at the point where she just lit up whenever she saw him.

"You can't hide from people forever kiddo. It's not healthy."

"What if…" Timmy trailed off and they waited in the dark for him to keep talking. "What if it breaks him again and he leaves again and this time he doesn't come back?"

Or it kills him?

Ruby was quiet for a moment. "Sometimes you've got to trust that someone can handle the truth. Because lying never really helps anyone in the long run. I'm glad Jeremy told me the truth about my parents. It… helped. Knowing for sure what happened."

"It wasn't intentional, I know. And it was more an omission than a lie, but the building keeping all those memories until it showed us the video tapes? It…well. It hurt a lot. It still hurts." It was difficult for Hedy to talk. "And some days I wish…" she trailed off. "I don't know if I've figured out how to handle it yet, but I rather know what I was missing."

"But we wouldn't even have a reason to be upset about forgetting stuff if it never told us," Timmy pointed out.

"..." Hedy was tempted to agree but she knew he didn't need that from her, even if he might want it. "Didn't you hear Puppet laugh earlier?"

"He's getting better," Timmy said. "But that's not because of the tapes right?"

"It is. The bots have always been uneasy about the fact that they don't remember that time. They have a reason now that isn't 'someone messed with their heads'. While they aren't happy that I made a deal back then, they understand it better than Michael potentially doing something to them," Ruby explained.

"But…" Timmy trailed off again. He didn't know whether he was trying to get them to talk him out of it or if he was really trying to decide what to do. "It was both. Michael did tamper with them."

"But I know what he did," Hedy said. "I'm fixing it. We know what's wrong rather than just wondering."

"Between knowing and not knowing, everyone deserves the truth. No matter how much it hurts," Ruby whispered.

Timmy didn't say anything for a while.

"We talk about depressing stuff too much," Hedy said softly. "Do any of us have any fun, not-traumatic stuff going on back home that we can talk about?" She asked it almost as a joke, not quite sure herself.

"...Pranked my science teacher last week before we left," Ruby said eventually. "He's an ass. Haven't done a good prank at school in a while. I've lulled them into a false sense of security. I needed to remind the school I was still there."

Hedy groaned while Timmy gigged.

"Goldy's been helping me practice my reading more," Timmy said. "I hide over Harrison's shoulder to read his paper in the morning. Sometimes I mess with him by whispering the words as he reads. He caught me a few times but he thinks it's funny."

"Mike wants me to go with him to visit his parents for Christmas," Hedy said.

"What? No! You have to have Christmas with us!" Timmy said, sitting up sharply.

"That sounds like an absolute disaster," Ruby mused, sounding sleepy. "And you get to be the one to tell Spring that you won't be there on Christmas."

Hedy groaned. "Mike really wants me to meet them. Just once, he said."

"Go after Christmas. No one likes New Years," Timmy said, pouting.

Hedy snickered, also falling asleep. "We'll be…here," she assured. "Mike said his mom will complain if he's not there Christmas morning." She yawned. "But his family does a big dinner…thing…in the… that evening. So we just leave right after presents Christmas morning to make the drive.

Ruby let out a vague hum. Honestly, she sounded mostly asleep by now. "Good luck telling the Toys."

Hedy mumbled. "Mangle's gonna throw a fit…"

"I'm gonna throw a fit," Timmy complained but he knew the girls were already asleep as he sighed and waited for the time when he needed to wake them up.

Ruby rolled over and cracked open an eye as she heard something a little odd. Scratching?

"Think this place has rats," she mumbled before drifting off again.

"...Fucking thanks, Ruby," Hedy groaned into her pillow. She couldn't sleep now. She hated rats.

Exhaustion won though and she was out a minute later.

Timmy listened for the noises again but didn't notice anything off the rest of the day.