Chapter Text
Joel Robinson opened his eyes was greeted was confusion. His vision was blurry and he didn’t recognize which part of the Satellite of Love he was on. The lighting was just a little bit too off to be the bridge, and he was lying in a small bed. Not his own bed in his cabin, he couldn’t feel the familiar indent of his shape in the mattress. The blankets didn’t have a comfortable fluff to them that could only come from being well loved. The smell was sterile. Very sterile. And not the kind of sterile a ship in geostationary orbit usually was.
He looked forward. There was a blurry shape of a man he didn’t recognize that had just taken his hand.
“Joel?” asked the man carefully.
Joel tried to process this, his mind not quite understanding where he was. So that’s what he led with.
“Where am I...Where’s Doctor Forrester?”
“Shh...you’re okay. You’re okay. You’re in the...wait. Did you just say Dr. Forrester ?”
Another figure suddenly appeared dressed all in one color. They got close enough for Joel to make out a blob of silver and black around their neck which might have been a stethoscope or a weird necklace. He wasn’t sure which. They handed Joel what felt like a pair of glasses from the bedside table but they felt wrong and unfamiliar to the touch, like everything was now. He put them on anyway. His vision came back into view, but his confusion didn’t go away.
“Joel,” asked the man. “Do you know who I am?”
“Uh...no.”
The figure that had handed Joel the glasses, a doctor or nurse wearing mauve scrubs, was now ushering the man standing over his bedside away. The man let out a choked cry of Joel’s name and resisted a bit. A another nurse seemed to materialize from somewhere and helped the first usher him towards the doorway.
In the doorway was another man. He was exceptionally tall and dressed in what looked like a Gizmonic issue jumpsuit, a yellow one. Joel tried to remember which rank yellow signified, but at this point his brain was having trouble processing just the scene in front of him.
Crow and Tom Servo were standing with the man in yellow. His bots. Whatever was going on, however he had ended up here, his bots were here. Joel let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. He couldn’t see Gypsum or Cambot, but maybe they were just outside of view. The man in yellow was large enough that even Gypsum could hide behind him. He let himself breathe again. The bots were okay. Whatever was going on the bots were okay.
Whoever the tall man was, the bots seemed to trust him. Tommy burrowed himself in the man’s chest, and Crow’s small, delicate, claw hand was clutching the man’s very large hand. When the first man, the one from Joel’s bedside, reached the doorway with the nurses Crow lunged forward like he was trying to get in the room himself. But the bearded man, still very gently, held him back. The nurses were to talking to the first man in hushed tones, and a third figure in a white lab coat had appeared talking to him as well. Crow then practically launched himself at the man from his bedside, taking him into a desperate hug. That...Crow wouldn’t do that unless he was scared. Really scared. And who were these people that his bots were trusting so much anyways?
The man in the yellow took the other man into a hug as well, carefully maneuvering around Tom who was still snuggled to his chest. All four were embracing each other now, along with a fifth addition, a robot Joel hadn’t seen. It was...was that his Cambot? The casing was wholly unfamiliar, but the bot was clearly a camera at any rate, with a theater-light-like set up hiding a lens. Cambot. It had to be Cambot. But how and when did Cambot look like...
While trying to watch all of this Joel had failed to notice there was now a doctor in a white lab coat next to his bed. While he was focused on watching the bots she must have made her way over.
The doctor smiled. Joel tried to smile back but wasn’t sure if he actually managed. The only expression that could have possibly been on his usually relaxed face right now was one of pure confusion. Maybe a bit of pain. His head hurt.
The doctor again smiled patiently. She put a finger in front of Joel’s face and he attempted to follow it.
“Can you tell me your name?” she asked.
Joel took a moment just to process the question. He tried to look back over her to the doorway, but the two men and his bots were gone, likely taken back to some kind of waiting room? Joel head was still pounding.
“Joel Robinson,” he answered finally. His head hurt. It really hurt. He rubbed his temples unsuccessfully. “Am I...this a hospital right?”
The doctor nodded. “Yes.”
Joel blinked. “How did I end up here? What happened to The Satellite of Love?”
The doctor frowned a bit at that question. Instead of answering she asked one of her own.
“What’s today’s date?”
Joel blinked. “Oh gee I’m not sure of the exact day to be honest with you, but it should be September 1993? The 18th-ish?”
The doctor didn’t say anything, instead just wrote that down.
“Who’s the president?”
“Um...Bush’s term should be over soon, right?”
“Do you mean...George H W Bush?”
“Is there another one?”
The doctor just frowned. Frowned deeply.
“What’s the last thing you remember Mr. Robinson?”
Joel blinked, searching for the answer. “I...I think it was working on an invention for the invention exchange. The uh, the Backtalk thing. It’s going to be a backwards memo machine.”
What happened after that he had no idea.
The doctor wrote down his answer furiously.
“What year were you born?”
“1960.”
“And how old are you now?”
Joel told her and the frown on the doctor's face grew.
“What’s your mom’s name?”
Joel answered. And then supplied his father’s name. He hesitated a bit when asked about kids, but told the doctor about his bots, brimming with parental pride despite the pounding of his head. As he talked about them the doctor’s expression flickered between emotionlessly professional and very subtly annoyed, but somehow also attempting to be reassuring.
“Can you tell me who that is?” She asked, gesturing across the room.
The man who had been at his bedside earlier had apparently been let back in the room during his exchange with the Doctor, and was sitting patiently in a chair in the rooms far corner. Either he had been quiet, or Joel was so focused on answering these easy questions that he hadn’t noticed him.
Joel studied the man. He had dirty blonde hair, and was maybe a bit taller than he was. His face was familiar, but Joel couldn’t quite place it. It could just be one of those faces. Slap a beard on the guy and he looks like Torgo. Dye his hair black and he looks like Morrissey. Maybe a bit of Jack Perkins in there. Yeah. One of those faces. Still, the man’s blue eyes looked expectantly at Joel from the chair.
Joel shook his head. “I dunno.”
The doctor took this all down, while the man in the corner winced and seemed to stare at the floor, as if he was trying to hide some other reaction.
“Alright. My name is Dr. Kent. Your uh, visitor,” said the doctor carefully, “will stay in the room with you. Is that okay? If you’ll be more comfortable alone that will be okay too. ”
“Can I see my bots, ma’am?” asked Joel. “I think I saw them just now outside the room and I want them here with me.”
The doctor’s expression looked strained, but she managed a patient, if condescending, smile. “Only one visitor at a time right now. Once we’re done here you can see them quickly, but one at a time.”
Joel nodded, realizing he hadn’t quite answered the earlier question about the other man. “Um who is that over there anyways?”
The other man now just looked hurt. As if Joel had just physically punched him.
“It’s me...Mike.”
That didn’t jog Joel’s memory. At all.
“I can...I can go if…”
Joel probably should have sent him away. He had no idea who this guy was and there was clearly a big piece of something he wasn’t getting. He wasn’t on the satellite, was presumably on Earth, his bots were scared, and the Doctor was treating him with kid gloves, not telling what was wrong just yet. But the man was clearly concerned about him, and earlier his bots seemed to trust him completely. So Joel just nodded despite his reservations. “Uh yeah. You can stay uh, Mike was it?”
The man wrung his hands. “Yeah.”
“Do I have your permission to share medical information with your immediate family?”
“Yeah I guess...but aside from my bots I really don’t have anyone left alive…”
“Do I have your permission to share information with Mike, specifically?”
Joel was confused. “Why would you...sure?”
He was definitely missing something.
She asked some questions about Joel’s pain level (just the head ache, but it was a killer headache), before explaining what was wrong.
“You were in an accident, and you’re experiencing some memory loss, Joel,” she explained.
“Memory loss?” he repeated back.
What wasn’t he remembering? His visitor in the hospital room, Mike, who was close enough to be a medical confidant apparently? The other man in the yellow? Cambot’s new casing? Was he supposed to remember this stuff?
The doctor smiled at him sympathetically, any possible trace of the slightly annoyed look from earlier fading away. “We think you have a form of retrograde amnesia where you’re not remembering a good deal of time from before your accident. We’re going to have to work on getting you back up to speed as part of your recovery process. You may never fully remember your missing time, or you might. What’s important now is figuring out how you can cope with what you’re missing. But before we do any of that we have to work on making sure you’re comfortable.
We’re also going to be running some CAT scans and some more cognitive tests over the next few days. You’re going to be bed bound while we keep you under observation, and check on your injuries.”
Joel didn’t respond. He wasn’t even sure how to respond to that.
“It’s been a stressful day for you, so we’ll start most of this tomorrow. I’m going to be working with you along with my colleague Dr. Singer. If you need anything while you’re here don’t be afraid to push that button on your bedside table, okay?”
The doctor demonstrated carefully. Joel felt a little irritable because he remembered clearly how to do this from the last time he was in the hospital as a kid to get his tonsils out. And if the Satellite of Love had taught him anything, it was how to push a button. But he bit his tongue. He was generally pretty good at disguising annoyance or distress under his laid back demeanor.
The doctor asked him a few more basic questions about his memories, before finally letting him see Crow. Mike excused himself once the doctor left, and he could see the doctor chatting with him in the hallway again.
Crow plopped himself down on the chair directly next to the bed. Joel’s hand was quickly grabbed and was being squeezed tightly by the little robot.
“Joel?” asked Crow carefully.
“Yeah Crow. I’m here. The doctor said I’m having some trouble with my memories but it’s all alright.”
Crow made a sobbing noise. “Don’t you ever scare me like that again! You promised you’d never leave me again and you almost...you almost…di...”
Crow’s beak wobbled. Joel looked at him incredulously. Leave him again . What the heck did that mean?
Crow took a moment, still squeezing his hand.
“Sorry. I’m...I’m really glad you’re okay and not dea...dead or anything like that...”
Joel absentmindedly removed Crow’s netting and carefully stroked the top of the robot’s head. “Hey Crow, it’s alright. It’s alright. I’m okay see? It’s okay. We’re all okay.”
He stayed just petting the bot’s head for a minute before continuing.
“So my memories are a little hazy right now apparently? Do you want to maybe tell me about what’s been going on with you lately to catch me up?”
Crow noticeably calmed down a bit after that, launching telling Joel all about his latest screenplays. Joel listened intently. Usually Crow’s plays were...well after a point you kind of had to tune them out. But just hearing Crow talk was comforting. Comforting except for…
“Honey,” Joel cut him off. “Did you change your bowling pin?”
Crow’s voice sounded similar enough. He might not have even caught the change it if not for the fact that he was so used to the sound of him. But there was a little something there…
“Oh yeah that,” said Crow. “I actually changed it twice. The second time my voice was actually really different than my first voice. I really like this one, it’s a lot like my original voice but with a bit of the edge of my second voice thrown in there. Do you like it? You said you liked it...well before...”
Joel really had no point of comparison beyond what Crow’s original voice sounded like to him. And it was just now occurring him to him that the doctor hadn’t told him how much time he was missing, because for Crow to need to change the voice wiring in his bowling pin not once, but twice, it had to have been a significant amount of time. But he nodded carefully.
“It suits you.”
“Oh Servo’s voice changed again too. He’s still all singy and stuff, and it’s just a little less baritone.”
“Huh.”
Joel’s head hurt too much to do the math on how long Servo’s voice box had on his last diagnostic of the bots. But it should have been a while. A long while.
“And Gyps’ voice is all midwestern and feminine now.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah she really likes it. But my voice is still the best one.”
Crow kept babbling for a bit after that, until Mike appeared and tapped Crow on the shoulder to tell him his time was up. Joel couldn’t help but feel a little angry at the man for that. Sure, the guy was probably just acting on orders from the doctor, but he didn’t want Crow to leave. Not right now. He wasn’t sure if Mike caught on to what he was feeling, but the guy tried putting his hand on Joel’s arm in a reassuring manner. Joel flinched.
“Right...I’m about to send Servo in. Sorry, the doc was really strict about 15 minutes for each of them. Uh, Gypsum won’t be in until later tonight, so you can see her tomorrow.”
Yeah, Joel felt bitter about his time being limited. He usually wasn’t one to hold grudges but his desire to just have the bots here with him as long he could, the headache, and his growing confusion over what exactly it was he didn’t know anymore wasn’t helping. He said his goodbye to Crow, who didn’t shy away from Joel’s hug like he normally might have tried to, gave his hand another long squeeze, and promised to see him tomorrow. The bot then grabbed onto Mike’s hand as he left the room. Huh. He really had never seen Crow do that with someone other than himself...or the other man that was in the hallway earlier.
Still, despite everything as soon as Servo hovered in and planted himself on the bed, Joel felt a lot better. The bot instantly began talking at top speed asking everything from if Joel was okay to if being in the hospital was anything like the movie Soultaker . He seemed confused when Joel said he didn’t remember that one, but soon Servo was babbling about the dinosaur chicken nuggets in the hospital food court, and how that related to some movie based on Edgar Rice Burrough's The Land That Time Forgot .
Tom’s voice was different, and he was glad he’d gotten a heads up about that because it was noticeably different as opposed to the subtle difference in Crow’s. But Tom was very much himself, talkative and curious and full of life. And that was comforting in a way Joel couldn’t even begin to describe right now. After a point Tom just stopped talking, and cuddled himself next to Joel. Joel returned the favor, taking his bot into a hug.
“I love you Tom Servo, you know that right?”
“I love you too Joel. I’m really glad you’re okay.”
Joel just held him close until Mike came back to tag him out. That small bit of probably irrational bitterness directed at Mike was still there when Servo left, but once again he felt better upon seeing the next of his creations enter the room. Although he was confused to see Servo gingerly carried out of the room by Mike the way Joel carried him into the theater.
See he’s probably not that bad if the bots like him so much, the voice in head said.
Why is the doctor letting him stay in here and not your kids? Said another voice apparently playing the devil on his shoulder. Isn’t that weird? What’s up with him anyways? Who is he?
Joel’s thoughts were cut off by Cambot excitedly chirping.
“Well hello to you too Cambot,” said Joel. “Now I don’t really remember your new casing but it looks great on you.”
The bot bashfully open and closed the spotlight flaps.
“Hey Cambot,” said Joel. “I’m apparently not remembering a lot of stuff actually. When the time comes do you think you can help me go through the tapes of stuff I ought to know?”
Cambot answered by playing a quick montage of what looked like mostly experiment tapes. They went by too quick to really get anything out of, but Cambot’s meaning was clear; the bot was up to the challenge when the time came.
“Thanks honey,”
“Are you doing okay?”
The bot chirped happily.
“Glad to hear it.”
Joel proceeded to hug his bot until his time was up.