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fivenightsatfreddysfanfiction · 4 months ago

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Thanks for the Memories

Jeremy draws on various memories when Gregory and Cassie ask for help with their school reports, and a visit by Alex sets off far darker and more painful ones, all revolving around one man; Mike Schmidt.

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The bell over the door jingled, catching Jeremy’s attention as he looked up from the small endoskeleton he was assembling to see who had walked into the shop. “Oh, hey, Mike,” he greeted with a grin, seeing the older man step carefully around a table covered in scrap parts and plush animatronic casings. The dubious look on Mike’s face at the miniature versions of the Fazband was par for the course; neither of them expected to be able to make the toys without Fazbear Entertainment coming for their heads, but considering the legal debacle the company was in over Mike being the Bite victim and Jeremy’s father being cleared of allegations of being a murder accomplice, maybe they were letting it slide to avoid more trouble.

Fine by Jeremy, he’d use his father’s software to do some good in the world and protect kids via the Securi-Toys. Balance out the crap Fazbear Entertainment did to cover up those kids’ murders.

“It’s weird to be around tiny Fazfucks,” Mike remarked dryly, picking up a fuzzy head for a Freddy toy and squinting at it suspiciously, “Feels like they’re gonna come to life and come for my kneecaps or some shit.”

“Well, they’re not. I’m the one making them, so they’re more defense than ‘I’m gonna stuff you in a Christmas stocking at midnight’,” Jeremy replied with a chuckle. He reached out to pat his computer affectionately, “Papa’s software will finally get to do what he intended it to do; keep kids safe from harm.”

Mike took another look around at the collection of parts and equipment, eyes squinting as he took time to process what he was seeing, likely just now realizing that Jeremy had quite a lot of stuff for his new workshop that he couldn’t have been able to afford by himself. He set the Freddy head down, a scowl on his face that Jeremy could tell came from confusion and frustration with that confusion. His new medication to help with managing the lingering effects of his head injury was a lot less effective compared to having the 5th Child’s spirit guide his thoughts and give internal reminders.

But Faith was gone now, passing on in the effort spent to keep Mike alive from the second bite a possessed Foxy gave him, so now the two of them had to continue living without her to rely on for help and support. Probably for the best that Mike and Jeremy had no plans to go near a Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza Place location for the rest of their lives, if they could help it. The Home Location was locked down, fully taken over by the spirits of the children still bound there and his papa’s ghost looking over the place to ensure they got to ‘play’ freely within its boundary.

“Where’d this stuff come from anyway?” Mike finally asked, poking at an animatronic eye and watching it roll around in its tray.

“Papa’s family contacted me after the stuff with us and Fazbear Entertainment hit the news,” Jeremy replied. He still didn’t know how to feel about that; anger that they had stayed distant for so long after disowning his father, irritation that they only chose now to reach out, after his father was long dead and his name had been smeared and it took Jeremy’s efforts to clear it, a strange gratitude that they reached out at all, that somebody wanted him. Most of all was just frustration that they could have cleared things up sooner, faster, if they hadn’t turned away from his father’s plight and ignored the early signs of spousal abuse his mother inflicted on him and then turned to inflicting on Jeremy once his father was dead.

But then, Jeremy would have never met Mike, wouldn’t have the Dad he yearned to have as a kid and the loving family home he’d always hoped for. So many conflicting feelings.

“They sent me all this stuff when I told them I was planning to make little animatronic toys with Papa’s software as a business and then offered to be a supplier of parts on a family discount.” Jeremy waved his hand over all the equipment and boxes of metal. He shrugged. “Guess this was their way of saying ‘Sorry for ignoring you and your papa for your entire lives’. Kind of a lame apology but at least it saves me the trouble of buying all this myself at full price. I can spend my money on going to school for engineering instead, get a better handle on how all this stuff goes together.”

“Back to school for you, huh?” Mike remarked with a proud smile, “Yeah, that’s a good use of the bribe money that fuckwad company gave you to settle out of court. Using mine to finally pay for the wedding Doll deserves to have for putting up with me.” Jeremy lit up at the news, his smile stretching his cheeks in excitement.

“That’s awesome! You guys are getting married at last! This is the best ending ever!” he exclaimed, jumping up from his chair to hug Mike, snuggling into the older man’s embrace.

“Yeah, and we have you to thank for that, too,” Mike told him in quiet joy, “You looking for answers to questions I didn’t even think to ask or knew was there, savin’ me from the bullshit that happened that night. We’re gonna have a good life from now on, you, me, and Doll. Make some good memories that’ll last us both.”

That was the happiest Jeremy felt in a long time, beaten out only by the joy they all shared when Mike’s daughter Faith was born.

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Present Day-

The bell over the door jingled, catching Jeremy’s attention as he looked up from the small endoskeleton he was assembling to see who had walked into the shop. “Oh, hey, Gregory,” he greeted with a grin and glanced over to the girl that walked in with him, “and you brought a friend! That’s a first.” He snickered at the pout Gregory shot him in return.

“Come on, Mr. Fitzgerald, you’re gonna make me sound lame!” the boy complained while the newcomer looked around at everything in awe. “This is Cassie,” Gregory introduced his friend and Jeremy greeted her with a nod, “We’re doing reports on technology innovators for school and Cassie’s doing hers on Afton Robotics. Her dad used to work for them as a technician so she’s really interested in their A.I. and stuff.”

“Huh, I thought you’d do that one yourself,” Jeremy commented, eyebrows raising in surprise. The boy had been primed to be an Afton engineer, a perfect host body for William Afton, based on what Ven and Damien had figured out and what Vanessa had told them happened under the Pizzaplex.

“Nah, the whole class expected me to write about Afton Robotics, but I don’t want to get seen poking in their official stuff,” Gregory grumbled, arms folding over his chest. Probably to avoid being put in a position to get disappeared again. Jeremy sighed; seemed like Fazbear Entertainment hadn’t stopped with the weird cover-ups. Not with how many people kept disappearing in town over the years.

“So then what are you doing here?” he asked in confusion before blinking at Gregory’s phrasing. ‘Official’ resources. “You want Cassie to have access to our data on Afton Robotics?” he asked warily, narrowing his eyes at Gregory nodding and Cassie giving him a puzzled look.

“Why do you have something like that? Isn’t your family’s company a competitor to Afton Robotics?” she questioned.

“It’s complicated,” Jeremy told her and rubbed his head, a long sigh drawing out of him as he thought over how to explain things. “I don’t know. Our database is seriously out of date, and we only have it to try and figure out what happened in the past to make sure it doesn’t happen again in the future.” He gave Gregory a meaningful glare, “Clearly we didn’t get enough relevant information to prevent a repeat of Circus Baby and the Eggs Benedict A.I. situation.”

Gregory scowled briefly before shrugging it off, his expression turning more uncaring of his experience. Cassie blinked in surprise, “Circus Baby? From Circus Baby’s Pizza and Parties? Gregory said you’re the one who built her.”

“Her physical forms, yeah,” Jeremy admitted, leaning back in his chair and looking over the scattering of parts and tools in the workshop, “Her first body was originally from Afton Robotics, but her A.I. was stolen from another family.”

“Bold accusation,” Cassie pointed out flatly. Jeremy shrugged.

“We have proof, but that proof will cause a lot more pain and trouble to a lot more people than it’s worth. So the best that happened was a good copy of the A.I. was stolen back, which had a ton of Afton Robotics data attached to it that we kept, Fazbear Entertainment kept the master copy, and their feud stays in the shadows as long as no one else gets dragged into the mess,” he replied carefully. “I built Circus Baby’s current self for the rescued A.I. and that’s who you see in Meera’s pizzeria. Fazbear Entertainment doesn’t bother me about it because of an old settlement between them and me about my papa.”

“The guy in the museum who looks like you?” Gregory asked, his eyes wide, “You had beef with Fazbear Entertainment cuz of him?”

“Huh, didn’t know the family put Papa’s picture back up there,” Jeremy remarked in an unimpressed tone, “Nice of them to do after so many years of pretending he and I didn’t exist. Guess that was also part of the apology gift of all this stuff they sent me for the business back when I was younger.” He frowned a bit, studying Cassie carefully before glancing back over at Gregory. “I can print out some stuff from the files, but I gotta make sure it’s safe stuff. Think you two can spare some time to wait around for that?”

Gregory looked uncertain for a bit there, and Jeremy felt a little bad about reminding the kid that his database wasn’t public knowledge for good reason. But what was contained in the copy of Afton files he stored in the workshop was less about the surface level stuff on the animatronics as entertainment and more about William Afton’s research on Remnant and how to get more of it and what it could do for creating A.I. and extending human life. Stuff that no child should see.

Stuff that Gregory shouldn’t have had first hand knowledge of but it couldn’t be helped since he and his mother were unfortunate victims of Elizabeth Afton’s attempts to resurrect her daughter and William.

Jeremy would have to carefully sift through what he had and pick out anything that looked like it was just about animatronic coding and hope there wasn’t anything mentioned that could lead down a rabbit hole Cassie could get lost in. Maybe he’d be lucky and find some new angles on the current mystery of what went on in the Pizzaplex during this search.

“Grandma knows where I am, so I can take my time,” Cassie chimed in, looking for a chair to sit in and settle down for writing, “Dunno why you guys are so weird about some files but I guess it has something to do with legal stuff.”

Gregory shrugged listlessly and Jeremy just sighed and turned to his computer, setting up a search in the database for a sample of files based on some keywords. With that done, he turned back to Gregory. “My ‘beef’ with Fazbear Entertainment was because of Papa, Jeremy Jonathan Fitzgerald Sr.,” he replied to the boy’s earlier question, “He was accused of something he didn’t do and died before he could clear his name. I finished the investigation myself, found the proof that he was innocent that had been hidden because of the cover-ups done to the Missing Children Incident they did, and to keep me and my proof out of court, Fazbear Entertainment publicly declared my father innocent of wrongdoing after their own ‘investigation’ and gave me a hell of a settlement check as an ‘apology’ for taking that long to clear his name.”

“Yeah, sounds about right for that Afton lady to do,” Gregory grumbled, “They did the same thing for Vanessa and Sydney to make us ‘go away’.” Jeremy gave him a wry grin. It did seem like a repeat situation, though likely it was because of Vanessa bearing the name ‘Afton’ and the company scrambling to not piss off their owner, and Meera had stormed into their office in a fury over the condition of her ‘cousin’ Sydney, which set off the earlier secret unofficial agreement to keep peace between the Enfuego Family and Fazbear Entertainment.

Not like Meera was going to honor her side anyway, blood feuds didn’t end until a whole bloodline was wiped out, but Jeremy hoped to be far away from that fallout when it happened.

Gregory’s eyes flicked to Jeremy’s computer screen as an image flashed by in the database search, and his expression twitched. Jeremy glanced over to see what he had reacted to and smiled a bit at the images of the Guards scrolling through at a set speed. The keywords had been about animatronics, so it might have pulled up the files on the various guards who matched certain generations of animatronics. He pointed at the screen. “You saw me in there? I was the night watch for the ‘new’ Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza Place at the home location, when the Toy Fazband was built and sent over and ended up getting Papa’s software uploaded when they connected to the network.”

“You were a security guard?” Gregory questioned dubiously.

“How did you think I was doing my investigation? I got hired there to save up for a place of my own and also look for the clues and evidence I needed to clear Papa’s name,” Jeremy replied with a chuckle, “That’s where I met my best friend, who then became my dad.” He reached out to grab a framed photo from his desk and held it out to the boy. “That’s him,” he pointed out, “Mike Schmidt, best dad a lonely teen with PTSD could ask for.”

Gregory took the framed photo from him and studied it in silence, leaving Jeremy to turn back to his database search and clean up the results. There were a few files that seemed safe enough to share, mostly early blueprints for the Funtime animatronics and planning discussions for the types of personalities their A.I. would have programmed. He sent those to the printer and flagged the rest of the search for later reading himself.

“Did your headache come back? Here, you’re lucky I always keep some medicine on me for you these days,” Cassie said suddenly. Jeremy spun in his chair to blink at Gregory gripping his head with a grimace, the photo held close to his chest in a hug to keep from dropping it. The girl had hopped out of her chair, unzipping her pouch to take out a bottle of basic headache medication, sorting out a couple of pills to hold out to Gregory. While he threw both of them into his mouth, she also grabbed a bottle of water out of her backpack to hand to him as well. “Maybe it’s something to do with stress? My dad used to get headaches after coming home from work and he blamed stress.”

“Y-yeah, probably that,” Gregory muttered between sips of water. He handed the photo back to Jeremy with a weak smile. “He seems.. nice.”

“He looked nice in that photo cuz that was when I got accepted to the college I wanted to go to,” Jeremy replied with a laugh, “If you asked anyone else, Mike was a jerk on the best of days and an asshole with a mean streak on the worst days. Then again, most people didn’t know that part of the reason he was perpetually pissed off was because of having to survive six hours a night for five nights a week against killer robots.”

“Can’t relate,” Gregory snarked dryly before looking over at the printer buzzing, papers sliding out into the tray, “Oh, hey, stuff’s done.” Jeremy gestured at him to go ahead and the boy took the papers, handing them over to Cassie. “Here ya go, hope that’s enough for a decent report,” he told her. She flashed him a smile in thanks, taking the stack and immediately turning to read them, an excited gleam in her eyes.

“So if you’re not doing a report on Afton Robotics, which company did you pick?” Jeremy asked Gregory in mild interest. With a nervous laugh, the kid just rubbed the back of his neck and gave a one-shoulder shrug.

“I went with Fitzgerald Defense and Security. Figured it’d be easy to do if I ask you about it,” Gregory admitted and widened his eyes, poking his fingertips together, “Could you help me, Mr. Fitzgerald?” He then immediately flinched, one hand rising up to press to his forehead, “Ow! What the fuck.. stupid headache.. when’s that damn medicine gonna kick in?!”

“I’ll help when you feel better. Go sit,” Jeremy told him with a wry grin. He was a little touched that the kid wanted to write about his father’s family company, but he wasn’t sure how much help he’d actually be. His father didn’t really say much to anyone about Fitzgerald Defense and Security, didn’t keep a lot of notes in regards to it, just small references and names in regards to the maintenance and creation of the first set of Toy Animatronics. Jeremy turned back to the database, frowning at a few mentions of his father’s name in the Afton files.

It was a little frightening to have learned just how close his father came to catching Elizabeth Afton’s attention for looking too hard and too intently at the springlock mechanisms of those early hybrid animatronics. If he’d been at that sister location when the failures happened.. well, that would explain a lot about his father’s behavior at the home location afterwards and why Damien was so violently aggressive towards any iteration of Springtrap. Might actually have been a good thing that he went back to the home location immediately to decommission Spring Bonnie and Fredbear; Elizabeth seemed to target software-leaning engineers and programmers for host bodies for her father-in-law if Gregory’s affinity for Afton software and animatronic hardware was any indicator.

He dismissed the files with a soft sigh, trying to push thoughts of his father out of mind as he turned his gaze towards the photo of himself and Mike. His relationship with his father was complicated, doubly so when first interacting with Damien after their mutual realization; lots of arguing, lots of crying, lots of apologies, lots of explanations, excuses, accusations, and regrets, enough to have any therapist who could work with them rolling in counseling fees. By now, Jeremy had settled into a kind of equilibrium with his memories of his father and his life now with the man’s soul existing within his reincarnation. He could work with Damien and sometimes he’d end up working alongside Jonathan, in those few instances where he was Awake to help him and Damien get through some difficult troubleshooting in the workshop.

“So when will I get to see you again, Dad?” Jeremy mumbled, reaching out to tap his fingertip to the photo, “Or did you lose out on reincarnation by giving up Six? Would that happen to me when it’s time I give back Seven?” Because Seven was like Six, born from Jeremy’s feelings of hope for living and desire to heal his wounded past and family, and given the direction to protect by Damien, and so the created spirit endlessly kept Jeremy’s body healing, extending his life and slowing his aging. Jeremy didn’t want to live forever, but he also didn’t want to miss his chance to possibly find Mike again.

If his Papa got his soul messed with and exposed to enough Remnant to be reincarnated, then surely Mike would get the same chance. Years of working at Freddy’s, surrounded by so much Remnant, actually being possessed for nearly his whole life up until they both left Freddy’s employment, if anyone deserved to be reincarnated it was him. But did giving up Six change that? Supernatural stuff was way beyond his knowledge.

“Mr. Fitzgerald? I’m feeling better now, so could I ask you about your family’s company for my report?” Gregory asked cautiously, pencil and paper in his hands and concerned expression on his face. Jeremy gave him a small smile before shaking himself off, setting his thoughts aside for later. He could almost imagine Mike telling him to wait until after work to mope and his grin grew more genuine.

“Yeah, sure, let’s see how much help I can be,” he replied.

They talked for a while about the kinds of things Fitzgerald Defense and Security worked on, though Jeremy knew more about the line of observation and reporting animatronics than anything else. That was the line that developed based on the Toy Animatronics his father had programmed and the source of the parts he used to build Circus Baby’s forms and the Securi-Toys. Part of him wondered who handled the programming for them now, since Jonathan was the software engineer for the family before his disowning and death.

The scratching of pencils over paper as both kids wrote their reports filled the air, letting Jeremy sit back and relax. It was a slow business day, much of his paperwork had been done already, Damien’s paycheck was already sent out and the few orders for repairs he had were nearly complete so he could afford a little break before finishing them. Despite the melancholy brought about by his usual missing of his dad, he was happy with his life. A little longer, he’ll wait a little longer for any signs of him reincarnating and if he or Damien couldn’t find Mike anywhere then Jeremy would have to accept that his dad got his wish of truly passing on.

True rest sounded like it’d be nice. If it worked out like that, then maybe giving Seven to Damien again wouldn’t be so bad; the spirit worked well with him and Six, a solid team.

The kids exchanged papers to read over the reports and double check their work and Cassie quickly made a face at Gregory’s writing. “Gregory, you can’t turn in a paper that calls Toy Chica ‘Stupid Japanese Bird’!” she scolded, “That’s awful!”

“I’m not the one who made her that way,” Gregory replied with a pout, folding his arms over his chest.

“Y’know, I never understood why Papa programmed that into her,” Jeremy admitted, sheepish expression on his face. “The pervy stuff she kinda learned on her own, though. It was the reason why Mike hated her during my time at the pizzeria. So much weird innuendo.”

“See? Mr. Fitzgerald agrees with me!” Gregory declared smugly. Cassie just gave him an unimpressed look as she slid the paper back across the table.

“Fix it,” she told him and he sighed in complaint but took the paper and began erasing his words.

“Fine, but I still stand by my opinion!”

“Your opinion sucks; you didn’t even know she existed until Mr. Fitzgerald told you about the Toys.”

The kids were amusing. Jeremy hid his quiet laughter behind his hand.

It wasn’t long before Cassie checked her phone and informed him and Gregory that she was being picked up by her grandmother. “Thanks a bunch for the info, Mr. Fitzgerald,” she said with a smile, “It was really cool to learn about the Funtimes. Do you think Funtime Foxy was the starting base for Roxy? Both of them were pretty gung-ho about their show times and making sure people were there to see them.”

“It’s possible. Afton Robotics kept pretty good records on their animatronic programming, even if some of that programming wasn’t exactly theirs to keep. I can still respect archiving old software, even if I don’t like the people doing the archiving,” Jeremy mused and squinted a bit in thought, “I wonder.. it’s been a while since I thought about where the drives holding the backups of the original Fazband went. Router stole copies long ago, but the originals also went missing during the fire sale after Fazbear Frights burned down.”

“You think if Afton Robotics got them they’d remake the old animatronics for the museum?” Cassie asked hopefully, “It’d be really cool to see what Freddy and the others looked like in the old times!” Jeremy laughed again, rueful in sound. ‘Old times’ certainly made him feel a lot older.

The funny part was they did sort of remake the old Fazband, but they had been silent, empty shells of themselves, little more than hunting endos dressed up in suits that mimicked the original Fazband crafted to capture Mike and collect samples of his Remnant. Didn’t work since they didn’t pose the challenge Mike was used to countering, so he kept them at bay easily. All that did was prove that the drives housing the programming for the originals wasn’t in Afton’s hands, so they were still lost.

Gregory didn’t chime in, tapping the eraser end of his pencil against the table top as he gazed distantly off, like he wasn’t quite tuned into the here and now. Lost in his thoughts maybe? Jeremy couldn’t really tell. Every now and then the boy’s eyebrows twitched, eyes narrowing just the smallest bit. It reminded him of when Mike would be processing events after a flurry of them on a night shift, slowly sifting through what information he’d managed to grab and sorting them out to something coherent enough for him. Maybe Gregory was the same way, just with something else affecting his thought processing. Jeremy had seen Damien hand off a few fidget toys to the boy some time back so the tapping pencil was probably his immediate stand-in for one.

He pulled himself out of it in time to walk Cassie to the shop entrance when her grandmother pulled up, waving goodbye as she left and then coming back to sit at the table again, a frown on his face.

“Something on your mind?” Jeremy asked. With Cassie gone, they could both be more open about things in regards to the Aftons and animatronics.

“I dunno. My headache’s not really gone, but it’s not really hurting either,” Gregory replied uncertainly, hand rising to his forehead to rub carefully at his scalp. “Like... it itches inside my head and it’s kinda annoying. What the hell am I supposed to do about that?”

“Mike used to have a problem like that. We figured out a bit late in the game that he could kinda soothe it with a heating pad. Wait here, I think I’ve got one stashed away,” Jeremy replied, getting to his feet and wincing at feeling a tingle around his knees. Whatever creaking or popping was supposed to happen at his age simply didn’t, not with Seven immediately dealing with any minor damages caused by growing older. “Since Cassie’s gone home, how about you? Gonna call Vanessa to pick you up?” he called over his shoulder as he went into the backroom to search for a heating pad or hand warmer.

“I dunno if she’s home right now. She said she was gonna go bargain shopping for suppliers for Radical Eats with Sydney, so maybe Alex will come get me. I can text him and maybe he’ll actually bring those lemon cookies I told him to make,” Gregory said and Jeremy’s eyebrows rose at the words. That sounded super appealing since Faith liked to tease him by making lemon bars for Damien and not letting him have any until after Damien had his fill. His adoptive little sister could be such a pain sometimes but he loved her all the same.

“I didn’t know Router could bake cookies. Figured being an angry hacker was all he could do,” he commented as he fished a small hot water bottle out of his med kit and filled it with hot tap water. He wrapped it in a cloth towel and headed back out to the workshop. “Why did you tell him to make my favorite cookies?” he asked curiously.

Gregory was looking down at his phone, legs idly kicking back and forth as he tapped out his texts rapidly. “Because I was getting bored with him whining about you showing me stuff and I can tell he’s just clinging to this whole idea of being your rival cuz you’re not giving him any attention,” he replied with a roll of his eyes and a huff of exasperation, “So I told him to bribe you into talking to him with a plate of lemon cookies like ages ago but he hasn’t done it yet so I keep poking him about it whenever I get the chance and this is another good chance to do it since I’m making him come here to get me.”

“You didn’t have to do that,” Jeremy sighed, shoulders slumping as yet more complicated feelings and memories rose up from the conversation. He really didn’t care for Router, was happier to think of him as just up and gone after making that deal in the weird underground facility, had never really forgiven him for the chaos he caused in Freddy’s that night he and his partner and mercenary gang broke in to steal the Fazbands and ended up temporarily killing Mike. As far as Jeremy was concerned, if he never had to cross paths with the hacker again, he’d pretend there was a god and thank them every day just for that. “I haven’t reached out probably for the same reason he hasn’t tried to contact me,” he added firmly, holding out the wrapped hot water bottle and watching Gregory carefully place it on his head, “We don’t like each other for past and personal reasons, and we’d probably just end up fighting if you put us in the same room for any length of time. It’s safer for both of us and everyone we care about if we just don’t make contact.”

“Uuuugh, you two are so laaaame! And annoying!” Gregory complained loudly, slumping back in his chair with the bottle on his head, “What even did you guys do to each other for this stupid rival thing to start in the first place?!”

“He got my best friend killed the night we ‘met’,” Jeremy told him flatly, a scowl on his face as he folded his arms over his chest.

Gregory blinked a few times, then looked away bashfully. “Oh,” he said quietly before his brow furrowed a little and he looked back up in confusion, “But.. you brought him back.. right?”

Jeremy felt his eye twitch. “That doesn’t make it all better, you know,” he replied and there was something else. Something that didn’t feel right about this, something uncomfortable that he couldn’t pin down. But he’d spent too long at Freddy’s to ignore gut feelings of something not quite right and he could feel himself getting more on edge, eyes glancing around to try and see if he could find the source of his unease.

“Sorry,” Gregory mumbled, a miserable look on his face, “I thought.. Freddy said that he and Knife Lady talked and agreed that they weren’t gonna be friends cuz Freddy did something in his past life that pissed off Knife Lady and she wasn’t gonna forgive him for it but she was okay with him being around us because he was trying to do better in this life. So.. so I thought...”

Jeremy sighed again, feeling his own headache coming on between trying to deal with Gregory and trying to pin down whatever was causing this sense of unease. “You thought if we talked something like that would come up and we’d come to some agreement too,” he guessed and pinched the bridge of his nose as he heard Gregory sniffle a little.

“I just.. I just want Alex to stop being an asshole cuz I like coming here to visit when you’re around,” he whimpered, “And I want you to just give him a chance cuz he’s really trying. He bakes stuff for me and helps me with homework and teaches me about hacking and programming-”

“I get it, I get it, he’s great to you and you want us to get along,” Jeremy cut in because he didn’t want to hear any more. It was so much easier to just think of Router as he remembered him in their first encounter with each other, when they were enemies and things were black and white because he and Mike were the good guys protecting the property and Router and Panther were the bad guys breaking in to steal it and then Mike got killed and Router was forever stamped as evil beyond forgiveness in Jeremy’s eyes.

He was so furious with the man that he had very nearly killed him that night. If it hadn’t been for Faith, for the Fifth Child, he probably would have and destroyed his own hope to save Mike in the process.

But this? A child pleading with him to give the guy a chance.. at what exactly? He didn’t want anything to do with Router, but he felt bad that Gregory felt this way about the fact that neither of them liked each other. And yet that wasn’t a good enough reason to just wave away the trauma and anger and pain of that night just so Gregory could have his ideal.

The bell above the door jingled and Jeremy pulled his fingers from his pinching to see who walked in. The young man who was Router’s reincarnation.. great.

The first thing Router did was zero in on Gregory looking gloomy in his chair with a hot water bottle on his head and then look up at Jeremy with a near-murderous glower that Jeremy returned with a glare of his own, sparks of green electricity flickering around his hand, daring him to try anything.

“What did you do to him?” Router growled, stepping closer to Gregory and giving his sparking hand a wary glance. “Did you make him cry?!”

“I didn’t do shit to him,” Jeremy retorted, “He got a headache while working on his homework, hence water bottle.” He folded his arms over his chest again. “Him looking all sad like this is because of you holding this stupid grudge towards me when you’re the one who fucked things up.”

“Me fucking up?!” Router declared in offense, stepping forward in confrontation, “You were never supposed to be at that fucking pizzeria, Fitzgerald! I had your precious daddy tell you to fuck off and you’re the one who showed up and fucked everything for all of us! You fucking got my best friend killed that night and I’m never forgiving you for that!”

“You got my best friend killed that same night, so I’m not forgiving you for that either!” Jeremy yelled, feeling the urge to beat the ego out of the man again.

“But you got him back!” Router shot back furiously, “You brought him back to life somehow! I saw him with you in that bunker! You brought him back but you couldn’t do the same for Panther, you couldn’t do it for my best friend and I hate you for leaving me without him for so long!”

“I wouldn’t have done it even if I knew I could at the start,” Jeremy hissed in contempt, “He deserved to rot in hell for coming after Mike for whatever stupid reason he got into his head and I’m glad he lost all his memories because at least he’s less of a shithead without them while you’re a reincarnated asshole who still didn’t get his best friend back.”

“Stop fighting!” Gregory shrieked, throwing the hot water bottle at Jeremy and hitting him in the stomach with surprising force. He stumbled back in surprise, feeling Seven already working to heal the bruising. “You’re both being fucking jerks! Get some therapy! Or shoot each other with Nerf guns or something, I don’t care! Just stop fighting!”

Silence filled the workshop then, broken only by Gregory still sniffling, now hugging Router’s side tight, and Router’s own breathing shaky in the wake of Jeremy’s last barrage of words. He thought back over what he’d said and winced a little. Okay, that had been a low blow so maybe Gregory was fair in chucking that water bottle at him.

“Let’s go,” Router muttered after a long exhale that Jeremy was pretty sure was meant to steady his voice, “Vanessa and Sydney are bringing takeout again so I told Freddy he doesn’t have to make pizza for dinner before I came to pick you up.”

“I’m sorry,” Gregory mumbled and Router just shook his head, rolling his eyes even as he patted the boy on the back comfortingly.

“Now do you believe me about how Fitzgerald and I have an undying hate for each other?” he asked lightly, almost mockingly, “And how we’ll never get along?”

“I wouldn’t say ‘undying’,” Jeremy corrected mildly, returning the glare Router gave him with a quick shrug, “I do plan to die someday, from old age. Just on my terms.” It wasn’t often he got to be petty so he’d take the chance even if it didn’t really feel as good as he thought it should.

“Why can’t you just talk to each other?” Gregory complained bitterly, “Fucking assholes, both of you.”

“Some things you just can’t get past, so the only thing you can do is just recognize that it’s better to not be around things, or people, that are an issue,” Jeremy replied carefully.

“But you were both there at the Pizzaplex!” Gregory protested, “You were working together there that night to save me and Vanessa and Freddy!”

“We.. we weren’t there for you or her,” Router admitted quietly, a grimace on his face, “We were actually there for Sydney. You three were just kinda a bonus we didn’t expect.” Gregory stared up at him in surprise before swiveling his head over to give the same stare at Jeremy when he spoke up.

“And we weren’t exactly working together. Router ran off to do whatever on his own and I stayed with Damien to do technical support for Circus Baby,” he clarified, shifting uneasily on his feet. That sense of something not right never left, still lingered in the back of his mind and the sooner he got both of them to leave so he could focus on analyzing it, the better. “So, yeah. Not in the same place if we can help it.”

“You guys are assholes,” Gregory repeated stubbornly, hugging Router tighter.

“If I stop bitching every time you want to come here or talk about Fitzgerald, will you stop trying to get us to talk to each other?” Router offered with a sigh. Jeremy noted how the younger man very obviously refused to face or look at him, keeping his eyes on the door to the workshop.

Gregory sniffed, but at least looked like he was considering it. He glanced up at Jeremy while still silent and he almost looked.. disappointed.

For some reason, seeing that expression.. hurt.

Jeremy swallowed, tightening his fingers to clutch at the sleeves of his shirt, and he looked away to evade that disappointed gaze. “You can’t force forgiveness,” he explained quietly, “Not.. not when we’re not ready to try.”

“Not when we’re not willing to try,” Router amended with a huff, glaring at the door.

“..Do you think.. if Mike was around.. he’d try to talk things out with Sydney?” Gregory asked haltingly.

“Dunno. Doubt we’ll ever know,” Jeremy sighed, stepping back to lean against his desk and letting his eyes fall to the framed photo. God, he missed him so, so much. Mike would probably know what to do in this situation, right? Or at least just make it painfully clear where he stood with just a punch to break up the situation entirely. “Panther doesn’t remember Mike and.. and Mike hasn’t appeared in any way, ghost or reincarnation. For all I know, he’d probably flip Panther off and the guy won’t know why Mike would be so pissed.”

“His name’s Sydney, not Panther,” Router bit out, shooting him another glare before refocusing on the door. His eyes looked almost watery. “He doesn’t act like that anymore, doesn’t remember it, so there’s no point giving him his old codename when it doesn’t fit him anymore.”

Jeremy opened his mouth, closed it, then sighed again. “Alright,” he murmured.

“I wanna go home,” Gregory decided listlessly and flashed him a weak smile, “Thanks for the help with my report, Mr. Fitzgerald. See you again soon?”

“Sure, it was no trouble. You’re always welcome to stop by,” Jeremy told him reassuringly and looked up at Router, “And there’s no need to make me any baked goods, even for a bribe.”

“If I did make you anything, I’d have poisoned it first,” Router huffed, folding his arms over his chest. Jeremy smiled thinly back at him, lifting his left hand to show a faint green ‘7’ appearing on the back.

“Would have been neutralized before it did anything to me, but it’s cute you thought to try your dad’s M.O.,” he replied in saccharine tones.

“I said, stop,” Gregory ordered, glaring up at both of them, and Jeremy froze, shoulders hunching up, like he was back on his first week at Freddy’s and Mike had called him ‘Probie’ in that same tone that meant he was getting close to the man’s limit on patience. Router winced, one hand dropping to his arm to grip it tightly near the inner elbow. “Cassie said once that if you can’t be civil, then just shut the fuck up.” He blinked, then squinted one eye in consideration, “Well, okay, she didn’t say it exactly like that but it’s like that.” He started pushing at Router’s back, “Come on! Let’s go! Being pissed off at you two makes me hungry and I wanna know what Vanessa and Sydney brought back for dinner!”

Router shot Jeremy a glare over his shoulder as they headed out the door and Jeremy just threw his middle finger up at him, his face blank of any other expression.

He held the pose until both of them were gone and then allowed himself to let out a long exhale in relief. That was so much stress crammed into a short amount of time. He’d almost prefer another night at Freddy’s in comparison. At least then he could just put on a mask and avoid most encounters. After that whole mess with Router, he half-wished he could just drink the memory away but Mike had cut back heavily on drinking when Doll got pregnant and kept mostly dry from then on so there wasn’t any alcohol within easy reach.

The bell jingled again and Jeremy groaned, facepalming as he hoped it was just a regular customer or something.

“Hey, old man.. eh, what’s with that face?” Damien asked warily as he set down a plastic bag with some takeout cartons inside and Jeremy pulled his hand away to blink at him in surprise.

“Damien? You’re at home by this time, what’s up?” he returned in a confused tone.

“Steph dragged Ven and Meera off to some nightclub to scope it out for fashion ideas, so I caught a bus over since I know you like to work late on the weekend and you tend to forget to feed yourself,” Damien pointed out, unpacking the cartons before pausing with a frown, lifting his right hand to look at the back of it. “Weird, reacting again.”

“Probably because I used some of Seven’s power earlier,” Jeremy sighed, heading over to the door to lock it and flip the sign to ‘Closed’, “Router came by to pick up Gregory and it went about as expected between us.” He took the wooden chopsticks Damien held out to him and sat at the table, nudging aside a small endoskeleton arm to make room for a carton of fried rice.

“Which old man did you inherit that anger issue from, Jonathan or Mike?” the younger man quipped as he peeled the lid off his ramen. He slurped up some noodles with a happy hum before blinking. “Wait, was this in front of the kid? Dude, not cool,” he added with a disapproving scowl, “I chewed out my soul for being a shit father to you, now I gotta chew you out for being a crap role model?”

“I didn’t mean to scare Gregory!” Jeremy protested over his carton of sesame chicken, “Router just brings out the worst in me, and apparently I bring out the worst in him too. Both of us already knew it would be bad to meet and actually interact, but Gregory forced both our hands!”

Damien gave him an ugly look, sneering over his cup of ramen, “Damn, that’s cold. Blaming the kid for both of you having issues that blew up in front of him when you coulda dealt with it way before Gregory even entered the picture. You sure as hell didn’t learn that from Jonathan or Mike.” Jeremy groaned and planted his face in his palm again. “Ah ah, don’t hide from this.” Damien poked at the top of his head with the other end of his chopsticks, tapping his skull just hard enough to get his message across.

They resumed eating together in silence, companionable and comfortable, while waiting for him to pull himself together enough to give an account of what happened. Damien had a good sense of humor but he also had a strong sense of justice and a deep dislike for poor parenting. As many issues as Jeremy had had with his father along with complicated feelings towards the man, he felt just as bad for Damien’s initial turmoil, anger, and hatred that had directed inward at himself because of his father’s soul. Vincent helped a lot with sorting out a lot of their family and reincarnation issues, but something Jeremy didn’t allow him to help with was his issues with Router.

Mainly because he’d never thought he’d see the guy ever again.

“Talking to Gregory brought back some good memories of Papa and Mike,” Jeremy began after a good amount of their dinner was eaten. “It was nice to talk about them, the few good memories I had of Papa, and all the stuff Dad did for and with me.” His mouth thinned, his expression souring. “Then Router showed up and brought up a lot of bad memories.”

“Reconsidered talking with Vincent about it?” Damien asked around an egg roll in his mouth, his words slurred from the food. Jeremy frowned.

“Don’t talk with your mouth full,” he scolded before grimacing, “Wait.. no.. don’t...”

“You’re not my dad,” Damien quipped with a wide smile and gleeful eyes, cackling at his groan as he held the egg roll between his fingers, “How do you keep falling for my dad joke bait? You had two of them!”

“You take way too much enjoyment out of that,” Jeremy told him irritably before returning to his chicken, “And after Gregory’s reaction, I think I should get some help with what I remember of that night. He said Router was trying to be a better person, but my mind won’t let go of the things he said and did that night.”

“Memories can be a pain,” Damien agreed somberly, “but at least we have them. Still, sometimes I’m a little jealous of Gregory, Vanessa, and Sydney. Memories can be heavy; is it lighter to not have them?”

“Memories can keep hurting us years after they’re formed,” Jeremy muttered, poking at his food, “Would it be easier to have them taken away?”

The silence was heavier as they reflected on their words. Eventually, Damien raised his eyes to the older man, sadness that he shared with the soul inside shining through. “Would losing memories of the people we love be worth giving up the painful ones?” he wondered aloud. Jeremy tilted his head, thinking of the shining gold of his Papa before he fell to shadows and inflicted hurt, of the rough friendship with Mike that hardened into strong and stable familial bonds, lasting through the pain and grief and horrors of the night shifts.

“No, I suppose it isn’t,” he finally said quietly, “And I feel so sorry for Router and Sydney now. I can’t imagine how painful it must be.. to face your best friend’s reincarnation and realize they’ve lost their memories of you and your life together.”

It must be.. true agony.

#fnaf fanfiction #fnaf au #fanfiction #parlourverse au #jeremy fitzgerald #fnaf gregory #fnaf cassie #mike schmidt #alex herrera #damien woods

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