Recovered, but never truly.

4

TestTube had a lot to do. A lot to work on, even past getting a nearly empty shell functioning again. Thankfully, he was much less of that now, but his arm would be a big problem to figure out. Especially since he wasn't letting her run any tests on his programming.

Really, most of her fixing his internals had been guessing. Of course, that wasn't very secure, but this was a rushed job. It was a miracle he powered back on in the first place, honestly, and maybe it would've been better to figure out the arm before turning him on, but she just needed to know everything else would work, too.

It might take a while to figure out this arm, but... Hopefully she'd be able to. It was at least a much less stressful thing to work on. Less secrets to be kept now, and more chances to take real breaks and get some real sleep that she probably desperately needed. Tonight though, she was working away at it. Before getting really deep into her work, she had gotten up to check on MePhone, who had been asleep on the couch when she had opened the door to peek in. And with that, she let him be, figuring, and hoping he'd make it known if he needed anything.

As she worked away at all of this, mostly just working on the framing today, welding the pieces together, and hoping she'd at least get far enough to test the joints and gather the wires needed, she couldn't help but let her mind wander.

Really, with how much of a rushed job all of this was, she was really hoping there wouldn't be any underlying issues with his systems past all this. His internals possibly giving out on him. Killing him all over again. That was the last thing he, or anyone else close to him needed right now, so she just had to pray her work was enough.

It was while she was welding one of the fingers onto the hand, when a long, terrified scream ripped through the lab. Her hand jolted, letting out a pained hiss as the welding torch burned her hand a bit, quickly stepping back, and choosing to ignore that for now as she got up, and rushed to the source of the noise.

MePhone was completely still on the couch, staring up at the ceiling with wide eyes as he moved his trembling arm to grip at his shirt. He felt like he could barely move it, just glad he managed to as he gripped at his chest, heaving out wheezes and desperate breaths.

This is where sleeping got him. Of course his brain would only mess with him further. Of course he'd be plagued with so many awful things the moment he willingly resigned to sleep on his own.

Despite his terror, he didn't cry yet. Really, he was just trying to catch his breath at the moment. Too shocked by all of this. Waking up so suddenly the way he did. Seeing the things he saw in that stupid, shitty nightmare. He couldn't get any peace, could he? He was cursed to this. Cursed to live, even after finally getting some rest. Cursed to hurt, and hurt others.

Despite not feeling like he was able to move, his body jolted as the door to the room slammed open, a shuddered, panicked whimper leaving him. He was too scared to look over. He could see the white of a lab coat. He could see the security camera in the corner of the room. Why was there a camera in here? Why hadn't he noticed it before? He was going to die again. He was going to get hurt again. TestTube was going to hurt him, and he was going to continue to suffer, because when would he ever be granted any peace to just live his life.

He could hear her saying things. He couldn't process the words though, and he couldn't tear his gaze away from the ceiling, his grip on his shirt tightening as he let out a pitiful, pathetic whine. He was so scared right now. This is when he started crying, unable to help the tears that rolled down his face, only making his breathing worse. He couldn't do anything, just trying so hard to brace himself for the inevitable hurt.

But that hurt never came. The only thing that snapped him out of all of these spiraling thoughts was a small noise. And a constant, muffled, and quiet noise that seemed to fill the air. He finally mastered the courage to slowly glance over, seeing TestTube had turned on the TV. He didn't recognize what was on, but she moved to sit down on the small table next to the couch, making sure to give him some space as he let out more quick, shuddered breaths. It took him a while to get that under control, never lessening the grip on his shirt once. After a few moments, the voices on the program became clearer. He finally allowed himself to blink after a while too, looking over fully at TestTube, who was looking at him.