Broken and Together

Chapter Two: Just Like Old Times

     Charlie blew a strand of hair from her eyes, focusing hard on the broken animatronic. Well...sort of broken, anyway. It appeared to be functional, but was completely mangled, so much so that some of the employees recently started to call it "the Mangle". Kids did not treat Toy Foxy well, but Charlie was determined to fix this. She would get the animatronic up and running again and be sure that no one could pull it apart again.

    "Now let's see here..." she mumbled to herself as she worked her wrench around the machine's neck. "I think I can make this more stable, if I just—"

    "Charlie?" a sudden voice said, startling her. With a gasp, she jerked backwards. The wrench went flying from her hand. It bashed into the wall behind her and fell harmlessly to the floor. However, it had been inches away from hitting the man who'd entered.

    "Oh! Sorry, Dad." Charlie rose to her feet and turned around, sending him a sheepish smile. "Didn't notice you there...ha, ha."

    With a deep sigh, Henry pinched the bridge of his nose. "You know what I've said about the animatronics. You are not to mess with them, without my supervision and permission."

    "Well, yes, I know that," she said, "but I thought for once it would be alright. And, besides, technically I wasn't messing with it, I was repairing it. See? The poor thing's gotten all mangled again." She motioned towards Toy Foxy. "I think I correctly repaired a thing or two, though. Want to take a look?"

    "I suppose." He approached and proceeded to examine Charlie's work. She swelled with pride at the impressed look that swept across his features. "Hm. Good work, I knew your training was paying off."

    "Yes, it is," she said.

    "You're certainly following in my footsteps." He patted her on the shoulder. "However, my point still stands. You cannot do such things without at least letting me know before. These animatronics are more dangerous than they look. You could get seriously injured, Charlie, and that's something I would never want."

    "I know, I know." She glanced away. "I just feel like sometimes you're a little too protective of me. I'm growing up, Dad. I can handle myself more than you think."

    "Oh, I know." He rubbed her shoulder. "I'm only looking out for your safety. Now why don't you leave the rest of the work to William, the other workers, and I?"

    Fighting back the urge to roll her eyes, Charlie nodded and left the room. With a wistful sigh, she plopped down at one of the tables, where she glanced about the area. The pizzeria had not yet opened, but already she could smell the classic, Freddy Fazbear pizza cooking up in the kitchen. She was not comforted by the familiar scent, however.

    Dad isn't letting me work on the animatronics as much as I'd like, she thought. If only I...well...I, oh, I don't know. Maybe I'm just being too overeager. I mean, I don't know everything about engineering just yet. She shifted her eyes to the table where she drummed her fingers listlessly. Still though...

    "Charlotte, aren't you supposed to be headed for your job now?" Henry breezed into the room, sending her a quick glance.

    "Oh, right!" She jumped to her feet. Recently, she'd taken up a job at the diner downtown. Until she became a professional technician, it was where she worked. "Bye, Dad!" She waved over her shoulder as she darted out of the building. After quickly sliding into her vehicle, she hastily drove it through town and all the way to the diner. Once inside, she promptly set to work, hoping nobody noticed her slight tardiness.

    She spent the next hour or so taking orders and serving up food. Shortly after noon, she felt winded and wanted nothing more than to go back to the pizzeria. Perhaps she would be able to convince her father to let her work on that animatronic again. After all, he'd praised her work, hadn't he? Maybe he could sometime even hire her as an official employee. Oh, how she would love that!