For her off day, Lea had gone down the street to visit Todd. Todd was a middle-aged black man who Lea had known since she was little. He had been good friends with her father from their high school years, and he was one of the smartest people she knew. She had been keeping him in the loop in regards to her investigations and work at the Pizzaplex. After telling him about her recent discoveries – Chica and the Daycare attendant being aware of the missing children's incidents, the animatronics' impressive human-like AIs, as well as their odd behavior recently – she gave him the copies she had made of their chips so that he could maybe figure out what was wrong with them. After taking just one glance at them, he told her that it may take some time, several days at least.

On her way out, she noticed how tall the sunflowers Todd had been growing were getting and stopped to admire them. An idea came into her head and she asked if she could take one with her. With his permission, she cut the head of one of the larger flowers from its stem and brought it home. After placing it on the kitchen table, she left again to walk over to the house next door and used a key to enter.

"Ms. Westin?" she called, poking her head into the bedroom.

"Leanne," the old woman said with a smile. "Come in, come in." As expected, she was laying in her bed, propped up a little by pillows. "How is your new job going? It's been about a month now, right?"

Lea nodded and took a seat in a chair beside her. "The job has been going well."

"And your investigations?"

"Mm…" Lea considered it for a minute. "I've learned a lot, but not nearly enough. I haven't really made any progress."

"Oh, I'm sure it will come soon enough. Don't fret." She stroked the long-haired white cat that had just leapt up to lay with her. It purred loudly and closed its eyes. "Have you seen Tom around? He sure likes being a street cat, doesn't he?"

Lea smiled and nodded. "He does. Yes, I see him every day. At least once."

"They say black cats are bad luck, you know."

"He doesn't seem so bad. Besides, I tend to make my own bad luck."

Ms. Westin chuckled at that. "Don't we all? Tell me about your new animatronic friends. What are they like? No ghosts this time, hm?"

"No. No ghosts. They all have different personalities. Freddy is very friendly and polite. Ticklish, too. Roxanne is nice, but she puts a lot of pressure on herself. Chica is very friendly, too. And very hungry. Then there's Monty. Sometimes he has these fits where he just smashes and tears things apart. I've never seen it outside of his room though. But besides that, he's kind of an awkward goofball."

Ms. Westin chuckled.

"Oh, and the DJ is pretty laid-back. He's content if he can play or listen to music. Sun and Moon – well, they're technically the same animatronic, but Sun is… sunny. He's happy and friendly. Sometimes he's a little sassy though…"

"Oh? Been getting an attitude?"

"Not exactly. Not from him. Moon on the other hand… Oh! But yesterday they actually let me take a look at them."

"That's good."

She nodded. "Abby told me there's another animatronic running around. A small one. I've never found it yet though."

"Good luck finding the little thing. From what you've told me, that place is enormous."

"It is."

Lea spent a few hours with her, helping her get cleaned up, cooking her food, cleaning around the house, and tending to the cats. While she was dusting, Lea passed the duster over a small locked chest, causing the lock to clink against the wood. Lea used to visit Ms. Westin all the time anyway and was positive that the chest had not been there. It was not until the woman fell ill a few months ago that the chest suddenly appeared on the shelf in the living room. Lea never bothered to ask her about it, despite being curious. Ms. Westin was full of secrets, most of which Lea was sure she would never know, and this chest was just another one to add to the list. After making sure the house was squared away and that Ms. Westin was fed, clean, and comfortable, Lea bid her farewell and left to return to her own home. Sitting outside her front door was the black cat, Tom.

"We were talking about you earlier," Lea told him.

He stood up as she neared him and meowed as he rubbed his head on her legs. Lea crouched down to stroke his back, which he arched as a purr began to rumble through his body.

She chuckled. "Good kitty."

The next night, Lea returned to work. After just a single day of not being there, several S.T.A.F.F. bots were now suddenly in need of repairs. Most of them were simple problems with easy and quick solutions. A few were a tad more challenging. Sometimes S.T.A.F.F. bots would arrive severely damaged with no explanation as to what happened. Some of them she could guess, like the ones from the lower level who would sometimes get damaged from heavy crates or machinery. Others were more puzzling, such as the one from the kitchen with a broken neck and missing arm.

Freddy, Roxy, and Chica had been excited to see Lea again, even after a single day. Monty had perked up upon seeing her as well, but was a bit more bashful about it. None of them had any damage and Chica only had some minor touch-ups needed for her paint. When she went to check on the DJ, Lea found him snoozing with his head resting on his arms. Not wanting to wake the giant, she checked him over in silence before cleaning his gloved hands and repainting them with clean white paint. He did not stir at all during the process.

Just before six, she began to make her way over to the Daycare. Earlier, she had gone to check on Moon, who remained physically distant from her atop a slide where he sat cross-legged. Though a little disappointed that he would not come down, she was glad that he was willing to have a conversation with her. He seemed calmer than usual and displayed some curiosity about her.

"Where did you go?" he had asked upon seeing her.

"I was at home," she replied. "It was my off day. I always have one day off where I don't show up. Did you just realize?"

He tilted his head. "What did you do at home?"

"I actually spent most of my day with the neighbors. I went to Todd's to drop off those copies of some of you guys' chips, like I said I would. Then, I went to visit and take care of Ms. Westin. She's the old lady next door to me. She's been sick for a few months now."

"Sick?"

Lea nodded. "Yeah. She's very old. The doctors say she won't last the year."

"So, by sick you mean dying."

"Um, yeah. That's the blunt way of putting it. But she is sick."

He stared at her in silence for a long time. "…What does it feel like to be sick?"

"Hm? Well, it depends what you're sick with. But for most, you feel tired and weak. Sometimes parts of your body hurt or you get headaches or nausea. Maybe even dizzy. But no matter what it is, you just feel…off. Like something's not right."

"…I may be sick," he said quietly.

Lea had been surprised by this remark. "What's wrong? Does something hurt?"

"No. But something is off…"

"Well, whatever it is, I'm sure that Todd will be able to figure it out. We just have to wait. Once he does, we'll be able to determine how to fix it."

"Not all sickness can be cured."

"Yes, that's true. But I think you will be okay. I'll do whatever I can to make sure you and the others get better."

He had stopped talking after this and merely observed her as she used her tools to fix the seesaw before leaving to go check on the others.

Now that it was turning 6:00, the lights would be turning on in the Daycare and Sun would be waking up. Although they were the same animatronic, Lea liked to take the time to visit and check on them both independently from each other since they had their own separate opinions and interactions with her.

"Hellooooo, princess!" Sun greeted her from where he was on the same slide as Moon earlier. As he greeted her, he twisted himself around until he was upside-down and hanging by his legs from the steps leading to the top of the slide. "How are you this morning?"

She smiled at him. "Good. Thank you. How are you?"

"Great! Thanks for asking!"

"Sunny, I brought you something."

"Oh? For me?" He let himself drop down, twisting like a cat to land on his hands and feet. He stood up and approached her, watching curiously as she placed her bag down to take something out. It was circular, with a dark center and bright yellow around the edges.

"Look." She held it out to him. "It's a sunflower. It reminded me of you."

"Sunflower? A real one?"

"Mm-hm! Here. It's for you."

He carefully took the flower in his hands and studied it. "Wow! I've never seen a real flower before." He ran a fingertips along the petals. "It's soft!"

Lea chuckled. "Yeah. Petals are usually silky or soft like that. Since it's a real sunflower, it won't last too long after being cut. But I thought you'd still like to see one."

"Oh I do! Thank you! No one has ever given me a gift before! Well, besides the kids of course."

"I'm glad you like it. They're in peak bloom right now, so they're big and bright. This kind can get up to twelve feet tall and the flower itself about twelve inches in diameter."

"Wow!" He was enamored with the flower. "Amazing!"

Lea laughed. She had discovered that the animatronics seemed highly fascinated by living things and the outside world. They would always listen intently when she spoke about it, especially if it involved animals or nature. After witnessing Sun's reaction to a flower, she thought that perhaps she would start bringing other simple things in to show them. She chuckled to herself when she wondered if Tom or Pudge would be willing to stow away in her bag.

Two days later, Lea was called by Mr. Stanley while she was getting ready to leave for work. Curiously, she answered the phone. "Hello?"

"Leanne!" he sounded exasperated. "I know you're probably soon to be heading over anyway, but… When you get here, please head straight over to the Daycare! The Daycare attendant has a serious injury to his right hand and he refuses to let anyone near him!"

"What? What happened?"

"No clue! He won't say. He's hidden himself away in his room. Vanessa tells me you've managed to get a look at him once or twice."

"I have, but he wasn't injured then. Do you think he'll let me?"

"You're the only one he might. If he's too heavily damaged anywhere, then we can't open the Daycare tomorrow morning. Heavy damage can cause these guys to act out. Not to mention the risk of further damage or harm to guests."

"Right." She was slipping on her shoes. "I'll do what I can, Mr. Stanley. I'm leaving my house now."

"Great! Thanks Leanne! I'll check in with you in the morning before you leave. Oh, and uh, be careful, would you? Like I said, serious damage can cause them to act out or malfunction."

After hanging up, Lea grabbed her backpack and headed out to her van. She gently but urgently shooed Tom off the hood before getting in and turning it on to back out of the driveway. When she arrived at the Pizzaplex, she swiped her ID through the clock-in machine, hardly pausing, and continued on her way to the Daycare where she met Abby standing in the lobby with her hands on her hips. The lights throughout the Daycare were still on.

"There you are," Abby said. "Your jester pal is hiding in his room. Have you been up there yet? There's a door behind the big poster in the theater that leads up to it."

"Yeah, I know. Do you know what happened?"

She shrugged. "Nope. All I know is that his hand's messed up pretty bad. That, and he won't let anyone near him. If you need any help, just yell. I'll stay here."

"You're afraid of him."

"No I'm not! He just has a less likely chance of cooperating if someone else is around." She huffed and turned away from her.

Lea smirked a little at that and left for the nearby theater. With a swipe of her card, the hidden door opened and she stepped into the hall and made her way into his messy room.

"G-Go away please…"

"Sun?" She walked further in as the door shut behind her. It took her a moment, but she found him huddled up in the corner on the floor, hiding beneath a table. "Sunny."

"Leanne?" He looked at her. He was hunched up in the corner with his back against the wall, clinging to his right hand and keeping it close against his chest behind his knees. "Oh… Hello, Leanne…" He sounded sad.

"Hey." She got down on the floor to sit across from him. "Why are you hiding?"

"Hiding? I'm not. I just… I just wanted to sit here."

"Mr. Stanley told me you got injured."

"Did he? Oh, no. I'm fine, really."

Lea tilted her head. "Are you sure? Can I see your hand?"

"No!"

She jumped a little.

"Uh, I mean… I-I'm fine. Really."

"Sunny… If you're injured, I really need to fix it."

"I'm fine!" There was a quick flash of red in his eyes which he quickly shook away. "S-Sorry…"

Lea figured it was Moon telling her that time. "It's okay. You don't really have to show me. But it hurts, doesn't it?"

He did not respond and only stared at the floor.

"I just want to help you guys." She thought for a moment. "Okay, how about this? Just let me take a look at it. I won't do anything else," she added quickly. "I won't even touch it."

"…Promise?"

She nodded. "I promise."

He considered it for a minute or so before moving to sit up with his legs crossed. Hesitating a moment longer, he finally let go of his hand and held it out to show her. Lea was shocked. His right hand was mangled and torn. The joints of the fingers were broken, stretched and popped, and the back of the hand itself looked as though it had been cut or torn open to expose the damaged wiring beneath. It looked painful.

Lea stared at it in surprise. "Sunny… Can you move anything?"

"No…"

Although she seriously wanted to get a closer look and even fix it, she kept her word and did not touch him. "What happened?"

"…It was nothing."

"Nothing? This is a serious injury! This affects your ability to physically function!"

He retracted his arm to hold his hand against himself again.

Lea sighed. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to raise my voice. I wasn't yelling at you. It's just that this is really bad, Sunny." She sighed again. "If you don't want to tell me what happened, that's fine. But if this isn't fixed, they won't be able to open the Daycare tomorrow."

"Not open the Daycare!? Oh…" They were both quiet for a while. "…Lea?"

"Yes?"

"It will hurt if I let you fix it."

She did not doubt that. "It hurts now, doesn't it? If you leave it like that, it will get worse. If you want, I can shut you down to –"

"No! Please, no."

She was surprised. "Okay. I won't."

He stared down at the floor again and returned to silence. "…Lea… Are we friends?"

"Hm? Of course we are."

"Friends…help each other, right?"

"That's right."

"…You just want to help us…"

She nodded. "Yeah. If you let me, then I'll try to be as gentle as I can. But you're right. I'm pretty sure it will hurt. I'll stop at any point if you tell me to."

"…"

Lea let out a tiny sigh. "Hey, Sunny. Can I come sit by you?"

"I… I guess that's okay." He curiously watched as she crawled under the table with him and sat against his side.

Lea smiled at him. "Hi!"

"Heh… Hi. …The flower you gave me is starting to darken and dry."

"Yeah, I told you it wouldn't last long."

"It's a bit sad."

She shrugged a little. "Yeah, it is. But when flowers die, they help feed new flowers and plants. Sunflowers also have lots of big seeds that animals love to eat. The rest fall and become new flowers. It's not so bad, I guess."

"Do flowers know they are alive?"

"I don't know. Maybe. They don't have brains or chips like us. They like music though."

"Do they?" He looked at her.

Lea smiled. "Mm-hm. Studies have found that plants' growth and health can be affected by different types of music or soundwaves. They seem to like classical music."

He giggled.

They sat in silence a little longer until Sun looked down at his hand.

"…Okay, Lea. We'll let you fix our hand."

Lea looked at him. Sometimes he referred to himself as "we" or "us" to include Moon in his ideas or decisions. She was glad to know that it was both of them wanting her help instead of them arguing over it. "All right," she said. "If you want a break at any point, just say so."

She crawled out from under the table halfway to grab her backpack by a strap and pull it under with her. From the quick look she had gotten earlier, Lea could already tell what kinds of tools she would need and began to retrieve them from the bag. After getting what she needed, she held her hand out to Sun and gave him a reassuring smile. He placed his hand in hers and watched as she looked it over thoroughly before grabbing two of her tools and some smaller pieces.

Lea grabbed a stripping tool and used it to strip away the wire insulation at the ends of some of them. She then took her thumb and forefinger and used them to pinch and twist the exposed pieces of wire, taking notice how he winced each time. After, she took one wire and placed the exposed end in a connector, positioned the crimping tool's mouth around it, then forced it shut. Sun let out a yelp and cringed, startling her.

"I'm sorry," she said quickly. "Are you okay?"

"I-I'm fine. Continue…"

Slightly hesitant, Lea continued. With each clamp of the crimper, he winced or let out a short sound of pain. Lea felt terrible, but her only other option would be to completely replace the wires, which would have required shutting him down for a while, something he was apparently not willing to do.

With the last crimp, he pulled his hand away from her. "S-Stop! Please…"

Lea placed the crimper down and held up her hands. "Okay. Okay. That part's done anyway. Don't worry." She heard him make a quiet sound like someone trying not to cry. "I'm sorry, Sunshine," she said softly. "But we're done with that part, I promise." She scooted over to stroke his back. "Shhh, it's okay. Take a break. All that's left now is to reattach your finger joints, and that will be easy."

"You…don't think it will hurt?"

"Nope. All the wires are better now. They should stop hurting any second now once they fully reestablish connection." She continued to comfort him. "You did really well. Great job."

He looked over his hand, studying the fixed wires. "…It doesn't hurt anymore."

"Good. Hey, while you take a break, I'm going to run down to Parts and Service really quick. I need to get some exterior parts for your hand so those wires don't stay exposed."

"Okay."

Upon entering the Daycare lobby, Lea found Abby still waiting there. She stood up from one of the chairs and approached her. Surprised when Lea said that the Daycare attendant was allowing her to work on him, she made a silly remark about Lea being the "robot whisperer" before parting ways with her to go find Vanessa. Lea continued to Parts and Service, giving a pat on the head to a cute little bot that resembled a wet floor sign. Though they were called caution bots, Lea and Abby had taken to calling them Pat-Pats on account that they seemed to enjoy getting gentle pats on the head. After retrieving what she needed, she made her way back to the Daycare and found Sun now out and leaning back against a large triangular foam cushion.

"Oh? You look comfortable," she told him.

He looked over at her. "It doesn't hurt anymore, but I can't move anything."

"Yeah. Let me fix that real quick."

He reached over to let her reconnect the finger joints. This actually did not require too much force but still a bit of effort. She did not need any tools either. After reconnecting all of them, she had him test each one by moving and bending them and making a fist. Satisfied, Lea began to work on replacing the outer casing. She had found that removing and attaching the outer casings never seemed to bother the animatronics, yet they clearly displayed discomfort or even pain when the casing was damaged while it was still attached to them. Lea wanted very badly to understand how their touch and pain receptors worked, but half of it involved software, which she was not very good with. She would look into it more later.

"There," she said as she finished. "All better."

Sun looked over his hand, testing his movement again. Apparently satisfied, he suddenly threw all his limbs out with a happy cheer and jumped up to hug her. "Thank you so much!"

Lea had been surprised. "Ah! Hey, put me down!"

"Whoops. Sorry." He giggled.

She could not help but smile at his excitement. "Nothing hurts anymore, right?"

"Nope!"

"Good. Very good." She gently grabbed his face with both hands and pulled him close to nuzzle him. "Thanks for trusting me to help you."

"Oh! Hehe… No, thank you, Lea. You're so nice to us. I'm glad you're our friend!"

"Me too." She let go of him. "Okay, Sunny. I have to go check on the others now. You do your best to keep that from happening again, okay?"

He nodded. "Oh! Yes, yes! Of course! I mean… I'll try my best."

…

Hardly two weeks had passed since Lea had to fix the Daycare attendant's hand when she got another phone call from Stanley. He had informed her that, once again, the Daycare attendant was heavily damaged – this time on the leg. Worse yet was that he was apparently in his Moon form, making him far less cooperative and potentially hostile.

When she arrived in the Daycare, the lights were all off. Figuring that he was probably hiding away in his room, she went straight upstairs. The room was also dark, the fairy lights strung up above the curtains to the balcony being the only lights. As she took a step inside, she heard the growling voice of Moon from somewhere.

"Get ouuuut…"

"Moon." She began to look around, clicking on a flashlight and sweeping it over the room.

"Get ouuuut…"

Not seeing any sign of him, she decided to check under the table off to the side. Immediately as she crouched down to look, she heard a snarl and the flashlight was roughly knocked out of her hand. It clunked on the floor and quickly rolled away, the beam of light flickering from the impact.

"Moon!"

"No light!"

She heard a strange clacking sound and scrambled to grab the flashlight, pointing it under the table at an angle that allowed her to see without shining it on him. "Stop that!" she scolded as he growled at her and scooted himself backwards. "You're behaving like a wild animal!"

"Get out!"

"No, Moon," she said firmly, trying not to raise her voice too much. "You're hurt. You need help."

The Daycare attendant wore baggy pants, so it was impossible for her to see the extent of the damage. However, it was clear to her that he was damaged since his left leg appeared limp and would not work when he tried to move away from her.

"Moon, I need to –"

"NO!"

Lea inhaled deeply, bracing herself. Moon was not compliant like Sun in any way and would never listen to her. Unfortunately, she was going to have to go back on her word a bit and be more persistent with him. Lea was prepared to get hurt and crawled under the table towards him. Frightened, Moon jumped back from her and tried to scramble away, but his injured leg gave out and he stumbled onto his side.

"Don't touch me! Get away!"

He cowered beneath her as she reached her hand out and became stiff the moment her fingers touched his face. "Hey," Lea said in a quiet and calm voice. "You're okay." She began to lightly stroke his face with her fingertips while speaking softly to him. "I'm not going to hurt you. It's okay."

He remained as he was for a long time before he seemed to relax a little and looked at her face.

"There you go," she soothed. "Everything is okay now. It's just me."

"…Leanne?"

Lea smiled. "Yep. Just me. Can you come out please? Let me look at your leg."

He did not answer and stayed where he was until she backed out from under the table. He then followed her slowly and cautiously, glancing around to make sure that no one else was there. With a wince, he pulled himself up to sit.

Lea was a little surprised when he allowed her to remove the pants and check his leg without any fuss. Truthfully, although it was still pretty bad, she was relieved when she saw the damage. It was not nearly on the level of damage that his hand had been. The joint connecting the leg to the hip had been bent inwardly, as if he had gotten hit by something blunt, and was no longer fully connected to the body. Fortunately, none of the wiring was damaged and Lea was quite sure she could fix it simply by forcing it back into place. Still, despite how simple of a fix it would be, she was amazed at how painful it seemed to be.

"Moon," she said. "What happened? This is the second time in less than two weeks that you guys have gotten hurt."

"…" He stared at her.

"Moon, if you tell me what's going on, then maybe we can stop it from happening again."

"…Jeremiah…" he growled lowly.

"Huh? The Daycare security guard? He did this?"

He nodded.

"And your hand?"

Nod.

"Tch. I knew there was a reason I didn't like him… Hang on. Let me fix this." Lea grabbed the joint with one hand and pushed with the other against his waist.

Abby had walked in just in time to see Lea doing this and hear a loud snap. "Whoa there!" She looked at the clothing on the ground. "What are you guys doing? Should I leave you alone for a while?"

"Abigail," Lea growled. "I don't appreciate your stupid jokes right now."

"You never do. All good?"

Moon was staring at Abby in silence.

"Yeah," Lea said. Moon had jumped a little when she popped the joint back into place but otherwise did not react much. "I just need to reattach the leg here…" With a quick and forceful push, she replaced the leg into the hip. "There."

Moon instantly snagged his pants and dashed under the table again, startling them.

"Holy shit!" Abby said. "He's fast!"

"Abby." Lea stood up. "We need to check the evening security footage from the Daycare."

"Okay. But why?"

"To see what happened, of course."

"Ah. All right."

Together, they made their way downstairs. While Abby went ahead to the security desk, Lea made a quick detour to flip on the lights directly above the desk.

"Check this out," Abby said when Lea rejoined her. "What a total jerk."

One of the cameras had caught Jeremiah attacking the Daycare attendant. Judging by the timestamp, all of the children had gone home and Jeremiah was on his way out. Sun had been cleaning up the Daycare when the man kicked him down and stomped his boot down on the animatronic's hip.

"Asshole," Lea grumbled. "I never liked him."

"Yeah," Abby agreed. "He's always been a jerk for no reason. I've caught him messing with the S.T.A.F.F. bots and Pat-Pats, too. But blatantly damaging one? What is he, stupid?"

"Obviously." Lea stood up straight. "I don't care what it is, if someone chooses to be cruel to something, they're a terrible person. It could've been an inanimate object and I'd still think just as lowly of him."

"I'm going to take the footage so we can show Mr. Stanley in the morning."

…

In the morning, Lea returned to the Daycare at her usual six o'clock. The lights were still off, aside from the ones above the security desk, so Sun was not out and Moon was currently hiding somewhere. She had returned to the terminals to look up the footage from the day she had to fix their hand. The sound of the large double doors opening nearby pulled her attention away briefly to watch Jeremiah walk in. He seemed surprised to see her there.

"Hm? Aren't you just a mechanic? What are you fucking around with the security monitors for? They broken?"

"No," she said shortly. "In fact, they're working perfectly." She finished retrieving the footage and stood up, stepping out from behind the desk. "And it seems you've been giving me more work to do recently."

"Hm? What're you talking about?"

"I'm talking about you injuring the Daycare attendant."

"Injuring?" He let out a short laugh. "They're machines. They don't feel real pain. They don't get 'injured.'"

There was a heated anger boiling in her core, but she forced herself to remain calm. "Whether you believe that or not, you're still damaging property that doesn't belong to you. You're going to be in serious trouble."

"Oh? So, what? You're gonna rat me out for that? Tch. Listen, bitch."

She tightened her fists at her sides and stiffened as he walked closer to her.

"Just do your job and keep your mouth shut, okay? Like you said, gives you something to do." He noticed her holding a flash drive. "… Give me that." He held his hand out.

"Get away from me," she warned as she took a step back so he could not touch her.

"Give me the fucking drive!" He tried to grab her, but she quickly backed out of his reach again. Before he could lunge again, Moon dropped down from somewhere above them, standing between them to block him from her.

"Naughty, naughty…" he growled as he stood up, head tilting with little jerks back-and-forth.

Jeremiah clicked his tongue, annoyed. "Get out of the way you stupid thing!" He tried to move past him, reaching for Lea again.

Lea was not entirely sure what happened exactly, but somehow Jeremiah ended up getting knocked over and falling. As he fell, he hit the back of his head on the corner of the desk with a sickening sound. Lea and Moon stared at him laying on the ground, eyes open and a small puddle of blood forming from behind his head. Lea hurried over to check his neck and breathing. "He's dead?"

Moon seemed surprised and suddenly became nervous. "I… He… No, no…"

Before she could stop him, he called down the hook from the ceiling and fled up to his room. "Shit." She pulled out her phone to dial 911 while messaging Abby to get Mr. Stanley.

…

Unsurprisingly, the Daycare had to be shutdown that day. After handling the paramedics and police, Mr. Stanley brought both Lea and Abby into his office to speak with them. Abby had taken the flash drive from Lea and presented what was on it to him. She had also managed to get a copy of the event leading to Jeremiah's death.

"You see?" Abby said. "It was an accident. He was totally assaulting Lea and the robot was defending her. He's supposed to do that, isn't he? Protect people?"

Stanley observed the footage with his chin resting on his folded hands. "…And why again did Jeremiah try to harm you, Leanne?"

"I don't know if he was intending to harm me," she admitted, "but he was trying to take the flash drive from me so we couldn't show you the footage of him attacking the Daycare attendant."

"I see… It does appear to have been an unintentional death." He sighed heavily. "Right then. I'll deal with the rest. You two are free to go. Oh, but Abigail."

"Huh?"

"Since you seem so inclined to defend the Daycare attendant, you'll be the Daycare's daytime security guard until we find a replacement."

"Aw what? You mean I have to wake up early again?"

…

Before heading home for the day, despite how tired she was, Lea returned to the Daycare to head up to the attendant's room. "Moon?" she called, glancing around. "Sun?" She crouched down to look at him under the table. He was huddled up as far back against the wall as possible. "Moon. Are you okay?"

"…They are going to decommission us."

"Huh? No, they won't! Really! Abby and I showed the footage to Mr. Stanley and talked to him. He understands it was an accident. You're going to be fine, Moon."

"I…" he trailed off.

"Hey. Thanks for protecting me either way, Moony. It's unfortunate what happened, even if he was a jerk. But I appreciate you coming to help me. I won't forget that."

"…Are you…hurt?"

She smiled and shook her head. "No. I'm not hurt. Thanks for asking. Are you?"

"No…"

"Good. You'll be okay, Moon."

She got up to leave but stopped at the door, not wanting to leave him alone. She was so tired, though. She decided to go over to the triangular cushion and sleep there for a while before heading home. As she dozed off, she heard the quiet clacking sound of Moon's movements as he crawled over to check on her.

To be continued…

Oops. He's dead.