I Don't Own Fnaf
The door needed to close, but she couldn't get it to, but it didn't matter as the little girl rushed back and forth between two doors and a single closest. The things in the darkness couldn't get in, she couldn't let him in.
The sounds of shuffling thudding feet echoing to her left made her move before she had recovered from the last streak. Her lungs felt like they were burning, her eyes couldn't be trusted, but still she moved, rushing to the door to hold it closed, to hold her life in her hands once more, wondering when it would finally end. How it would end.
Jeremy was anxious and more than a little nervous, but the main thing he felt was dread and fear as he paced the walls of the hospital's waiting room.
He had only gotten there in the last hour, with how early in the morning it was, it had been hard to find someone to get him where he needed to be, to be updated on what was happening. He wasn't- He didn't want to be here, but Fritz had to care for Mari, and so he was the only one who could be here. Even as his hands shook at the festering sound of the lights and smells of the walls of a place he never wanted to be in again.
Jeremy hated hospitals, the nerves of being here didn't get any better as he was finally told of Mike's condition.
The man was in surgery, Jeremy hadn't been told in detail what had happened by anyone, so it was the first time he was being told of his friend's injuries. It was horrific, the doctor, a tired older man, hadn't been gentle in informing him of what all the damage was, nor Mike's chances of surviving the operation. It made Jeremy's head spin, even as he somehow managed to talk through the conversation until the man had left without much of a word as Jeremy fell against one of the walls.
Mike had been impaled. The metal had dug deep into his lower right side, slicing deep into and then through his large intestine and liver. The damage was bad enough that they were apparently doing something the doctor had called a colectomy and hepatectomy. Jeremy didn't really know what that all meant, but he had been told in simple terms it was major organ surgery and with how much blood Mike had lost, there wasn't even a moderate chance of him coming out of that room alive. It had already been mentioned to be a miracle the man had survived getting there, with the blood loss and shattered ribs, the trauma alone should have killed him.
Like Jeremy had known about the shattered ribs before the doctor had said it without an ounce of care.
So there the man was left, at nearly three in the morning, his hands shaking, his mind rolling and buckling under the anxiety of being in a hospital again, feeling the death in the walls, and praying to whoever listened, that Mike's wouldn't join them.
He was told barely an hour later about the first time Mike's heart stopped.
Michael felt himself just stare ahead at slumped and heavily breathing man in front of him, looking at the blood that trailed from a bloody face, to the chin, before dripping slowly onto his own shirt with how he was slumped against a wall. There was talks around him, sounds of jeering, Michael ignored it, ignored the faint stinging in his hands which too were dripping with red. The faint pain in his side from the single hit the man got in was the only thing keeping him in the moment. He was so...
Tired.
Time passed, it was in the middle of the afternoon, Mike had been in surgery the entire time, people came and went updating the exhausted Jeremy.
He had only made a few calls, the Cove was closed for obvious reasons, he downplayed it a bit with the others, not wanting them to worry, but more realistically not wanting to be the one who had to break the news of the man's chances to them.
Fritz had been the one he had spoken to, they talked for a bit, the man said he'd try to go up to the hospital, but from what Jeremy had been told, Mari's body wasn't in great shape, and Fritz being who he was, was focusing all his attention on that. Trying his best to pretend everything was fine as long as he could keep his hands busy then his mind was as well. Jeremy wished he could have something like that, as it was he was only left with his thoughts.
They had finally asked him if he was friends or family and if he had any family that should be contacted. Jeremy just said that Mike only had friends left, he felt dirty for saying it, knowing how much the man's brother was worrying, even if he doubted the bear would admit to it, he could practically feel it from here. Still, he withheld that and just continued to wait, ignoring the painfully familiar aches in his head at being in a now filled and active hospital.
And the anger that came from the few conversations he had with the professionals about how it was miraculous that Mike had made it as far as he had, even through a number of close calls when they had thought to give up. They began to sound almost hopeful, but he could feel the cautious confusion and the disgusting curiosity that they held at just how. It was too familiar, that feeling of almost being studied for living when you shouldn't have.
It made something close to a painful twist in his chest at the thought. Mike was stubborn and strong, but... What were the chances he had held on this long? Slim to none, Jeremy could feel the shock from the doctors.
Jeremy did his best to not think about it, he didn't want that answer right now, not knowing just how he would feel no matter the answer, of the idea of Mike maybe being like him.
He wouldn't want that to be put on anyone.
The thing in front of him let out a slow haunting laugh, as it sat there, slumped over, staring off to one of several nearby doorways in the small hall, with those strange beady red eyes. Claws like boney hands hung by its side. He couldn't get his eyes off of it, the light in his hands shaking, even as it flickered, he just had to hope that it wouldn't die until it was over.
The day ended, Jeremy wanted to stay, but he had been told that he needed to be family to stay after closing of the hospital's traditional operating hours. Mike was out of surgery though, and while Jeremy was told he wasn't stable just yet, it was only now that he was let in the know to be 'cautiously optimistic', Jeremy had never hated that term as much as he had in that moment.
He was running on a dangerously low amount of sleep, but the idea of going back to his apartment at that moment made something in Jeremy's chest feel like it was being crushed, so instead he found himself heading to the warehouse. Fritz was still there, and Goldie had been kind enough to stop Jeremy from going to him immediately, or perhaps the bear was simply impatient to hear what Jeremy had to say, it didn't matter because Jeremy was just grateful after the fact when he learned Fritz was still wrist deep in the puppet's chest, repairing a slightly crushed music box.
That was something the man wasn't sure he'd be able to get out of his head any time soon.
Foxy had been picked up at some point as well, the fox had done his best it seemed to keep the mood up, clearing hovering around Goldie trying to keep the bear's thoughts off what was actually happening, but it was clear he wasn't in the best spirits either, more than a little nervous as Jeremy slowly explained everything, leaving off at the end of being 'cautiously optimistic', even as he said the words with a pained tone.
From there Jeremy was caught up, at least a bit, on what little Mari had been able to explain to Goldie before he went in for his own 'surgery'. The idea of more animatronics out there, ones that they just happened to miss and that had managed to do so much harm was not something that set well with Jeremy. Even as the bear explained it to him, it was clear it hadn't with Goldie either, if the waves of anger pooling off him was any indication.
Foxy was just a ball of nerves, but when it was mentioned that someone had hurt the two, it was clear that the fox was more than a little ready to march all the way out into the desert where Afton Robotics was, and try and find the animatronics to tear them a new one. That wasn't a very pleasant thing to feel either, Jeremy's head felt more like a shaken can of soup, and remembering just how deadly the seventeen year old was, was not helping his current state of mind.
In the end, no one got much sleep, Jeremy ended up using the couch in the office after Fritz had to call it for a night before going home himself. The sounds of the music box and the sight of the motionless puppet resting on the cleared off desk in the room was not what restful nights were made out of, but it was better than going back to his empty apartment.
The sound of the tv from across the hotel room played a late night show that Michael wasn't really paying attention to, it wasn't worth the effort, nothing really was. He had gotten a box cutter with the faint remains of what he had left of his 'savings', he could have had more, but he was tired of dealing with the people around him. Tired of the work he kept falling into, tired of needing to deal with the days that passed him by.
Hopefully the... sleep he was about to get would give him the kind of rest he had been looking for.
Mari was 'fixed' as much as Jeremy hated to think of it like that, by the second day, Mike still wasn't awake. Jeremy almost couldn't handle the fear and despair that rolled off the puppet, even as he clearly fought with everything he had to not let the others know. The mask Mari had had also seemingly healed on it's own, and while normally Jeremy might have found himself interested in questioning about it, he couldn't find it in him now to do so.
It was then that the group finally learned what had happened, Mari hadn't spared many details, everything from them being contacted through Marionette's dreams by a strange woman, to the drive over, to learning about the hidden levels underneath the building on the surface and the strange rooms that were there... To the scooped man in the vents, and the thing that the puppet had dubbed Ennard trying to do the same to Mike, and very nearly succeeding before they had managed to barely escape where Mari then had called Fritz in a panic.
He even mentioned the gift that he had given Mike, Jeremy left the second that had been brought up though. He didn't want to know, he didn't want to hear about it, didn't want to think about it, or anything of the sort. All it did was drag up memories much better left forgotten of months alone in a hospital trying to relearn... everything.
Jeremy learned later from Fritz that the gift meant that while it was the reason Mike had been able to hold on in those hours upon hours of surgeries, apparently Marionette had no idea if it would hold or not, it was up to what was basically chance as to if Mike would either wake up or simply pass in his sleep after whatever Marionette did either fully bound itself or faded like it was never there.
He only managed to get through that explanation with the idea that he could throw up later. It was fine though, he hadn't really been eating much at the moment anyways, so it hardly mattered given there would be nothing to expel from his guts.
He felt nearly sick not too much later when they all had to have the talk about opening up the Cove. It felt wrong, it probably just was wrong, but they didn't have a choice but to work. All of their lives were wrapped up in the business and they already had bills that were just barely being paid as it was.
Marionette had been surprisingly the biggest one who voiced his opinion on getting back to work, but Jeremy knew the puppet was mostly just desperate for a distraction more than anything else, desperate for a reason to not stay in an empty home. And there wasn't anything else they could do beyond just wait and hope. It was clear that didn't set well with any of them, but that's what they had, so they just got back to work, the next day the Cove opened, and while most wouldn't notice, Jeremy would never forget just how heavy the air felt to him that day as the work crew moved around trying their best to appear normal while underneath the surface an anxious dread continued to build.
It just... wasn't normal. It didn't feel right to be in this place with Mike missing, if any of them were missing it probably would have felt that way no matter what, but with Mike? It wasn't... not worse, if the same thing happened with Fritz, Jeremy was sure he'd still feel the same way, the same with any of them if any of the people Jeremy had come to be so close with were in such a situation. But it was different because it was Mike.
Maybe it would always be different depending on who it was, because they all were so different, but Jeremy wished he never had to figure out just how it was different. But it didn't matter because this time, hopefully the only time they would have to go through this, it was Mike.
Mike wasn't just a person someone looked over, he was head and shoulders taller than most people Jeremy has ever met, the only person he routinely saw that was taller than the man was a six and a half foot tall animatronic fox. Sure he was fairly quiet and subdued as a person, but Mike was not someone a person's eyes just looked over, even after knowing the man for the better part of a year now, Jeremy's eyes naturally sort of just moved to the man first in a group of people.
And at work, where the man literally towered over everyone else often wearing a foxy mask? The fact he just wasn't there was startling every time Jeremy turned around and looked about and he just wasn't there was instantly noticeable to the shorter man. And that was just a part of the reasons.
Jeremy hadn't really noticed just how much the man kind of... hovered about from place to place, nor the fact that after a long shift where something had felt off for a fair portion of it that he hadn't been able to label beyond just missing a whole giant, was that his hands were empty. It didn't seem like much, but for a while now Mike, usually at some point during the day, usually during the more quiet hours between the lunch and dinner rush, gave Jeremy some kind of thing to snack on.
It made him feel more than a little embarrassed when he realized that's what he was missing, Jeremy really hadn't noticed he had sort of just adjusted to the man's weird habit of trying to get him to eat stuff. There were other smaller things as well of course, but those were the two that stood out to him as the day continued and moved on until closing.
Mari went to the warehouse instead of back to his own home. Jeremy decided to not mention it as he drove Foxy back to the warehouse as well on the animatronic's request to spend more time with Goldie.
Mike still hadn't woken up by the start of the fourth day.
Jeremy made a call to Charlie, he could have visitors now, the hospital said he had stabilized and it was just a matter of time. No one knew how to correct them so they didn't. He also ignored the pouring of grief and pain Marionette felt at the fact he couldn't visit and at least see the man, because he knew he'd do something stupid if he dwelled on the puppet's grief.
Jeremy managed to hold himself off in the end for about another two days until he did the stupid.
After the call, it was difficult to tell just what it was she was supposed to do. What Charlie was suppose to do now, with all her uncertain suspicions, fighting against her fear of something happening to one of the few people left in her life she could almost consider family.
In the end, she arrived at the hospital within the next day, uncertain and unsure, but being led to the room in question all the same. She didn't see anyone, something she was grateful for, slipping in during a time that no one else was there to visit the man. She didn't want to talk to anyone else, didn't know what she would say. Did Michael's friends know what he could be up to? It didn't matter now, as she slipped into the room.
The sight that greeted her was a hard one. Michael laid out in the bed, looking lifeless, a number of machines hooked up to him, and the sound of a slow rhythmic beeping only slightly muffled the almost deafening silence of the room. Moving over, slowly, she just looked the man over. He was dressed in one of the hospital gowns that did nothing for a person's figure, but even then he looked... sickly, thin, and not a little battered as he laid there, motionless.
It was hard to look at, it hurt to see, she hadn't been told much, just what room he was in when she had mentioned who she was visiting at the front desk, and from Jeremy she had only learned that there had been an accident, he hadn't said much more than that, the man had sounded so tired, and she hadn't know what to say at the time, the only thing she had gotten from him was where Michael was, in Saint George of all places, before the phone call had ended.
She hadn't felt right calling back, not with what was on her mind, and uncertain if the man would even answer her questions.
So now she was just here, staring at the man, as she moved over and reached out to a chair, probably left from the last person who visited the man, as she sat down with a faint uncertainty to her movements. What was she doing here? Making sure he was alright? He was stable now, Charlie knew that much, but... What did that really mean? Staring ahead at the man in front of her, she couldn't help but wonder just who in the world Michael Afton was now. And wondered even more just what she would do if she ever got that answer.
Before Charlie could really begin to think on that line of thought however, something happened. As she heard the door behind her slide open as she looked over to see a man walk in, one of the doctors obviously, from the white coat he was wearing that was only made more clear as the man's face morphed into faint surprise at the sight of her while she took in his appearance.
An older man, maybe mid to late forties, with his hair beginning to show signs of greying, he was very neat looking, his clothes clearly pressed to not have a wrinkle in sight, it was fairly clear he took great strides in his outward appearance... Maybe a habit from the fact that his face... wasn't pleasing too the eyes. Still Charlie didn't want to be rude, so she quickly banished that thought from her mind as she gave him a nice, friendly, if tired, smile as the man spoke up.
"Oh, hello there, I don't believe I've seen you here before" Charlie just shrugged.
"I-, uh, hadn't had the time until recently to come visit Michael, are you his doctor?" The man simply nodded, moving further into the room, staring at the sleeping man's vitals for a long moment, a look crossing his face at something that Charlie simply didn't know enough about to tell.
"Yes, I am Mike's, or rather Michael's I suppose, doctor. Dr. Taggart, it's nice to meet you" She just nodded.
"Uh, right, I'm Charlie. I'll, get out of your hair, I just wanted to stop by and see him" The man just gave a short nod, still staring at the machines, Charlie finally being able to see just which one he was focusing on as she moved to leave, now a bit uncomfortable, feeling off now that someone else was there, not that she had felt all that great before, as her eyes moved to track as well to the machine in question. It was the heart beat. She didn't know what the man was looking for, but felt compelled to ask as she realized he had turned to look at her, standing awkwardly now half out of her chair.
"What is it? Is, something wrong?" The man just shrugged.
"No, nothing of the sort, in fact everything is going very right for dear Michael, he's... very lucky to have survived. You should have nothing more to worry about" he gave her a smile, it was one that should have been comforting on many other faces, not on his though, as Charlie just gave a shaky smile back before turning to leave. She had done what she had set out to do in the end, Michael was going to make it.
As much as she wasn't certain or sure of, Charlie had to admit, she was relieved to know that.
The air tasted wrong, that was the first thing they had noticed, before the nightmare of reality began, before the monsters came for them, before their mind slowly began to slip more and more.
The frenzied sounds from the unnaturally tidy bed from behind were the first to haunt them, but the others began to join soon enough.
The faint beeping.
The humming of lights.
The faint sounds of footsteps and voices.
There was a lot of little things that made sounds around him, even as he was half aware, he could slowly pin point more and more things, it was hard to tell if they were real or not. Faint blurry foreign thoughts and imagines of a room pulling to mind and old uncomfortable memories. He wasn't sure just how long he faded in and out, how many times he struggled just for a moment before something pulled him back down.
The longer it went, the harder it was to bother, his memory was a bit... blurry. Things and events came and went, but sometimes he wanted to fight just a bit more, and others it was harder to find a reason, but he kept at it. It was strange, it was hard, and it hurt.
That was the main thing he realized, the pain, when he... faded back in as it were, it hurt, he hurt, it was worse than nearly anything, and it wasn't all that tempting to go back to if he was being honest with himself, as much as he could be in the not at all coherent state of mind his half aware self was.
It felt like forever, an infinite space in which his mind drifted back and forth from one thing to another, never solid enough for much in the way of thought, but never lucky enough to escape the memories. Then he heard something, it was faint like the beeping, the lights, the voices that he knew wasn't in his head, in the world he was seemingly held below the surface of.
The soft melancholic chimes of music.
It itched something, stirred something in his chest, a memory surfacing again, this one not heavy or harsh, but light and... sad... The music sounded sad, the chimes slow and mournful. He wanted to tell whoever it was making the sound to feel better.
And then, Michael woke up.
It wasn't some slow coming to consciousness, it was like a snap awake from a nightmare, one moment nothing, the next gasping breaths and lurching as his eyes looked around for something that didn't exist. The faint almost rhythmic beeping spiking into a frantic sound as he tried to lift himself up only to feel a mangled yelp come from his throat as he collapsed back into the bed as his entire body felt like it was burning from the inside out.
The sounds of voices came and Mike couldn't help but flinch as his almost manic eyes shot to his left where he listened to and then saw the door to the room he was in get thrown open as a lady rushed in. She was saying something, but Mike didn't really hear what she was saying as with a grit of his teeth he forced his head to raise up his hands scouring around for something to grab onto to pull himself up from where he was laying.
He only stopped when his hands had moved to the rails of the bedding and he finally managed to see them with his own eyes. When he saw how wrong they were, as his heart continued to beat louder and louder in his chest, a dizzying panic settled in his chest as he stared at them in horror.
At the bright purple that stained over his fingers that trailed up and stuck to his arms almost all the way to the elbows in uneven splattered patterns. Mike only managed to let out a faint yell before his entire body went fuzzy as the sounds around him faded out as his eyes rolled back at the same time his head dropped back onto the pillow as he passed back out, shock, pain, and the pain sedatives still running through his system putting him down before he could hope to calm down.
The next time he came to consciousness it was slower, less panic inducing and a lot more painful.
Waking up in a hospital was one of the least enjoyable things Mike could think of if he was being honest, his last trip wasn't great, and the trip before that had him being held in the suicide ward for a month. This time around he somehow felt worse than both those times combined, and the memories that came up as the reasons for those visits along with the reason for this one wasn't... a great mental headspace to be in. Then the doctors came in and started talking at him as he tried to not feel like puking out his stomach, because he had the feeling he shouldn't risk losing any more organs...
Yeah, organs.
Mike was missing a few now.
Apparently that was a thing and it was just fine?!
The claw had ruptured a long stretch of his colon and liver, so they just, sort of, got rid of them?
Or, well, they got rid of half his liver, but that would just grow back apparently within a few months, which was mildly revolting to know about, but he just didn't have most of his large intestine now. Apparently it was mostly just for liquid so it wasn't a massive loss and he could live without it, it was just a bit of major rearranging his digestive system. So, he was down an entire colon, his appendix as a side bonus, and half his liver.
Oh, and there was apparently some kind of set of metal pins that was holding his fractured ribs together because apparently his sternum had been cracked hard enough that something was needed to make it heal properly with the bones being lined up properly, which was a thing that Mike wasn't sure just how he felt about it.
The doctor wasn't really nice enough to give him much time to really do much in the way of dealing with the insane information he had been presented with, mostly just moving right along to telling him he would have to spend another night in the hospital where he would be made to learn how to handle the sights of his injuries and the sight of the surgeries that had basically opened his chest up. Like he didn't already have enough scars.
He was mostly just numb when he absently told the doctor he had a partner to help him when the man asked him if he would need nursing assistance to come out when he was at home for the first one to two weeks given walking and moving around would apparently be ungodly painful. For two of the three major surgeries he had, the average recovery time was about two to four weeks, for his ribs to fully mend it would take closer to six to eight normally.
Given his entire upper body was basically one big sight of destruction and pain, the doctors said he shouldn't do any heavy lifting or strenuous activity for at least ten weeks, and it would probably be closer to five before he was fully recovered from the organ surgeries to resume a normal active life, knocking a week off because of Mike's apparent coma. Mike almost had a laughing fit at the idea of doing that long without something trying to kill him, he only didn't because it probably would have ripped his stitches out and he wanted the remains of his insides to stay on the inside.
There was a lot more things Mike was told, from needing to eat soft and easy foods for the first month given the obvious change to his insides, as well as being barred from any alcohol for at least six months while his liver regenerated, to medications he would have to be on during this time, and several other things, but to be honest, Mike had kind of tuned out around the point he had been told he would be given written instructions to what he would be expected to do for a full recovery.
It was a lot of information, and he was mostly just waiting until the man was done enough to ask if he could get his phone, given he had no idea just where his things had gone, waking up in a hospital gown which was deeply unsettlingly knowing someone had changed his clothes without him being awake or even aware of what was happening. Apparently his belongings had gone with the people who had been visiting him, needless to say that made Mike feel a bit weird, warm, but weird.
He's never had friends who cared enough to visit him when he was in a hospital, though a fair bit of the weirdness came from being told he had been asleep for about a week, that felt not too great. Either way, the doctor said the hospital could contact one on his behalf and let them know he was awake, there wasn't much else he could do, so he just said yes and just did his best to get comfortable while his chest protested everything from small shifts in his body when trying to get comfortable, to the odd pangs of pain when he breathed to deeply.
It sucked.
The painkillers made it harder to think in a way he really didn't like as well, even as he stared up ahead. Everything was... loose and kind of wiggly.
He ended up staring at his hands for a while as he rationalized and thought over everything that had happened. His skin stayed the same pale tone, not even a flick of purple, but he could still envision it. Then he thought back to Afton Robotics, and then he felt his stomach twist up in a lot of things.
Guilt, regret, concern, worry, it wasn't a great mix.
His thoughts rolled through his mind in the way only his thoughts could, harsh and unforgiving. He nearly killed that animatronic, he had wanted to and as frightening as it was to think about, he probably wouldn't have regretted it, he still didn't really regret it, it had hurt Mari, had nearly killed him... Maybe it did. Mike stared at his hands again, but they didn't change, even as he waited for something to happen, it didn't make him feel better. Self-defense was one thing, but what he had done was past that line.
He didn't care much about thinking about it but he still did, just like months ago with Miller, he had been ready and willing to help kill the man, and the only part he had been regretful about was that he didn't feel nearly as bad as he should have about doing so. Hell... In the end, did he really even care after it was over? During? When he had helped kill the man in a way that was much more direct than he had thought he would? He hadn't, he had never thought twice about it.
He didn't regret what he had done, he regretted that someone was there to see what he was like, to see him as who he really was. That's where the guilt and worry came from, and it made Mike feel sick with himself. God what the hell was wrong with him? What would Mari think about him? What did Mari think about him now?
Letting out a groan of annoyance with just about everything, the man tried to sink a bit into the bed, hoping to be able to catch any amount of sleep that would help him ignore just pain his head was putting him through, not to mention the respite from his body would be delightful.
He had only managed to just close his eyes a bit to start the idea of resting when the sound of a faint chime had his eyes snapping opening as he nearly hefted himself up to look around only to be stopped by his own body's protests, as he still looked around only... to blink in confusion as he watched as from the side room in the room he was in, probably the bathroom, slowly creaked open as set of three familiar long black inhuman fingers held onto the side of the door to push it open just a bit more as the top half of a white mask peeked out.
Mike just sort of stared at the sight for a moment, before his eyes flickered to the side of the room where the door to the rest of the hospital stayed closed, before feeling a faint snort try to pull in his chest as he said casually.
"Should I be concerned about how long you've been hiding in the bathroom?" It seemed being spoken to convinced the puppet that no one was around as the door was practically flung open as Mike just felt the first proper smile on his face form in apparently a week, as he watched as Marionette shot forwards with a ringing thrilling sound as Mike just held out a hand as the puppet grabbed onto it tightly as the animatronic just beamed down at the man.
"Y-you're awake" Mike just smiled up at Mari and said simply.
"Oh course I am Net, you aren't getting rid of me that easily" He just got a huff in response at the casual dismissal even as he watched as Mari slowly lowered himself down until his head was pressed lightly into Mike's upper body, the bedridden man just reached up, ignoring the pain in his ribs, as he pulled Mari into a light holding hug.
"I- I was so worried, it's never taken that long before, I was so scared Mike" Mike wasn't entirely sure just what he was being told, but he didn't bother thinking about it, instead just holding the puppet a bit more firmly in his arms as he felt the way he trembled, as Mari's own arms came up to hold onto Mike, almost desperate in how they sought out and grabbed around his shoulders, like the puppet was making sure Mike was really there.
Mike hated it, hated that he had worried the man so much, but he was just grateful to hold onto the puppet, a pressure both known to him and one that had been subconscious from the haunting days of sleep in which he got very little rest, lessening just a bit.
"It's alright, I'm here, I'm so sorry I worried you" The puppet just huffed.
"Maybe you should be... Everyone's been worried, Jeremy called me right away when the hospital called, I bet he's on his way now" Mike just hummed.
"Is that where my phone went?" Mari just let out a soft chime, and Mike just enjoyed the sound of it, the lack of strain, the way it was clear Mari's body was fine. He was going to think of a way of paying Fritz back at some point for helping Marionette. But for right now, he just enjoyed the moment, the two of them together, for a long while, he had almost even begun to drift back into sleep, his body was so tired still, but Mari spoke up, a faint hesitance to his voice.
"I-... I had to give you a gift" Mike froze for a moment, his eyes flickering to the hands and arms around the puppet in his arms, they were his, human hands, even the right color still... He let out a faint breath, before saying back.
"Am I in a Jeremy situation? Because I don't remember dreaming about you, though that doesn't sound like a bad time as long as no guests showed up" Marionette let out a small chiming laugh, but pulled away still, even if Mike kind of wished the hug kept going.
"N-no... Sort of? I don't know, I was just... desperate but there was nothing around, and I knew you wouldn't want that, so I... I think I..." Mike waited, patiently even if he felt a faint sense of sickness trying to creep back in, mostly at the idea of being so close to being stuck in a suit, "I think I bound you to... you?" Mike, just, sort of blinked, before asking.
"What?"
"N-no, that's wrong, um... Like Jeremy, I kind of put some of you to the only metal you had in you at the time, the, uh, scooper" Before Mike could figure out if he was suppose to freak out or laugh at the idea of his soul being put in the thing that had tried, and apparently succeed, in killing him, Mari quickly clarified "But, uh, I knew it would be removed and then I'd just have to move you from that to an actual body, so... I sort of just... bounced you back afterwards?"
"What... does that mean?" Mike was about as confused as he always was when supernatural stuff was explained to him, which was very. Mari just sort of fidgeted.
"I don't really know? I had no idea if it would work or not, or really what I was doing but... Uh, I guess the best way of trying to explain it... I-... Um..." Marionette was clearly trying to find the words, and Mike was beginning to realize the puppet was slowly fidgeting and getting more and more anxious in his words, as he stopped Mari before he could continue by reaching out and grabbing onto the puppet's wrists, moving so he was holding the his hand properly, as he said.
"It's fine, I don't need the details, I don't care. Thank you Mari, I love you" The fidgeting broke to a flustered mess in an instant as Mike just managed to smile a bit wider at the sight, because while he had so much going on in his head, and the idea that he wasn't exactly... 'normal' anymore, if he could have ever been considered normal, was a bit hard, with everything happening right now, it didn't change the facts that he was choosing to focus on.
He was still alive, he wasn't trapped, and he had Mari, who was alright, with him right now. Everything else he could handle later, right now he was just... relieved.
"I- I love you too" The pain in his chest couldn't beat back the warmth from those simple words. Even if that warmth was spiked down not even a moment later as with a guilty but almost desperate voice, Marionette asked, "Just… You're not angry right?" Mike felt himself tense for a moment, before asking softly.
"Why would I?"
"You didn't want a gift… Y-you… You made that very clear and I-" Mike moved, pulling back just enough to reach up with his hands to cup Mari's head as he made the puppet look at him, a faint tinge of desperation matching into his own voice.
"I'm not mad, alright? I-I'll never be mad at you, I'll never get angry, I promise" Mari just nodded, leaning more into the touch.
"I know Mike ,I know you'll never get angry with me, just- just… W-why?" It made Mike's heart hurt to hear the puppet so uncertain. As he gulped before keeping himself from looking away in shame.
"I-... I couldn't take it, I'm sorry Mari, but I just… I've been stuffed in a suit before, I- I-... I can't be put in another, no matter the method, I couldn't do it, I couldn't handle that" Mike had to take a breath afterwards to keep the rolling panic he had felt in that moment, back down there, flood back into him along with the memories of his time in that metal death trap of a Springlock suit, as he focused back on Mari before it could become to much, as he said with as much gratitude as he could muster "But I don't have to, because you let me stay with you without having to change, and I'll never be able to tell you just how much I love you, how much I appreciate you, how much I adore you, for respecting me enough to try something new for me… Thank you for loving me"
Marionette was just stuck there, looking at Mike for a long moment as his words seeped in before a faint trail of purple began to leak from the corners of his masked eyes, as he muttered as he pushed forwards to hold onto Mike.
"Thank you for choosing to stay" Mike wasn't sure just what that meant, but he could hear the importance in the puppet's words, as he just held back with just as much need to just exist in this moment. And for a long moment that's all they needed… Of course until Mike couldn't help but ask-
"So, why the bathroom?" The agony was worth breaking into snickers at the unimpressed look on his puppet's face.
"Why do you have to ruin everything?"
"Because being serious is boring... and because I'm high on painkillers, now come on, I want to hold you some more until someone comes in and gets traumatized" Mari just laughed but conceded to his request. It was weird, and it was nice.
For as empty as his body felt now, he sure felt full of something, so many things, relief, happiness, the idea of future dread, so many things, but for right now, in this moment, Mike just wanted to appreciate being able to still be here, right now, with his boyfriend.
Fun chapter! I loved writing the fluff at the end, it was very nice, though there sure is a lot of questions in the air right now isn't there?
Mike had some real weird dreams didn't he? I bet that won't come up ever in the future, so no need to worry about it. The Jeremy POV was a choice I wasn't sure if I wanted to stick with until Mike woke up or if I wanted it to shift around to the entire cast for the chapter to show how they all were doing, but that felt... Bloated I guess? We were already getting a lot of different moments and points of view, might as well keep the one that was actually happening be with just one person. It helped anchor it I think as well, being Jeremy, who has a lot of thoughts and feelings about everything happening to Mike because he's kind of gone through it himself.
Mike had some real weird dreams didn't he? I bet that won't come up ever in the future, so no need to worry about it. The Jeremy POV was a choice I wasn't sure if I wanted to stick with until Mike woke up or if I wanted it to shift around to the entire cast for the chapter to show how they all were doing, but that felt... Bloated I guess? To do everyone. We were already getting a lot of different moments and points of view, might as well keep the one that was actually happening be with just one person for the most part, ignoring of course the small Charlie segment, just to remind everyone she exists. It helped anchor it I think as well, being Jeremy, who has a lot of thoughts and feelings about everything happening to Mike because he's kind of gone through it himself.
In this case... Holy shit, I got lost in research here, I literally spent like a full night just looking into and studying medical stuff, from types of injuries to organs that a person can live without and the surgeries in which they are called and how they are gone about them, to levels of trauma and blood loss and different kinds of recovery times and requirements for out of hospital care, and so much more that just didn't get added to the chapter because it made no sense to put in. But I want it to be known, I know way to much about this stuff now to make sure it just barely worked with reality. I studied human anatomy for this just to make sure my ghost possession gift bullshit was not reality breaking for the hospital professionals even though they have beyond no real idea just how Mike pulled through.
I literally researched the types of scars you would get from the certain types of surgeries Mike underwent and will have goings forward for example. Cause... Well, honestly, mostly because ADHD hyper-fixations go brrr, but that's neither here nor there, so I'll end it off here so I can get started on the next one.
Well, almost, cause, as sad as it is to say, after doing... what? 60k words a month for going on half a year now? I'm beginning to run out of my stockpile, I'm still a few chapters ahead of where we're here now, but I want to keep it that way so I don't panic write anything or accidently stumble myself into burn out. So, this is going to be the last chapter on a Friday for a while, but I'll still be updating this trauma train every Monday so don't worry to much. But in the mean time, See ya!