Work Text:
In his office on one of the top floors of the manor, Peter had just finished going over the gig schedule planned for the first few months of next year with Rabbit, Zer0, and The Spine. It was looking to be a busy year too with lots of booking inquiries beyond the solid commitments. When they were done The Spine and Zer0 left quickly. Rabbit lingered behind, her attention, as always, caught by the colorful fish Peter kept in a large built-in wall tank near his desk. Peter stood to stretch. He looked out the window that looked out over the gardens. Arborus was in sight, tending what was now a good sized section of the productive gardens. Cob, his work horse, was with him. The horse was not harnessed for plow work but did have two large panniers slung over his back. Even though it was early winter, Arborus was selectively pulling carrots. He knelt to gently remove some of them from the earth without disturbing the others nearby.
Peter looked back over his shoulder at a giggle from Rabbit as she watched the fish. When he looked back down at the garden, something wasn’t right. Arborus was still kneeling but he had his left hand clenched to his right side and as Peter watched, he fell forward onto his right hand then sat back, scrabbling at his forearm held against his side, unable to get a purchase on the wooden plating.
It only took a moment for Peter to realize, “transponder.” That was the arm where they had put Arborus’s transponder when he arrived. He was at high risk for abduction and had a remote device rather than a wi-fi connection, as they had yet to work that out with his operating system. That transponder was also an emergency alert device.
Peter leapt for the phone on his desk. “Security! Robot down. Productive garden, Gate 3. Pick up and bring to Lab 8. STAT!”
“Roger, Six. We’re on it,” came the reply.
Rabbit looked around, alarmed. Peter took one more look out the window. Arborus was still upright, but his head was bent down, his arms dropped to his sides, no longer covering the dark stain that slowly oozed down over the wooden plating on his chest. He saw Cob nuzzling at his friend’s shoulder.
“Arborus is down,” was all Peter said as he rushed to his elevator that would take him directly to the labs below. The elevator wasn’t built to carry the weight of any of the robots. As the door closed he could see Rabbit making a headlong dash for the stairs.
*
Arborus drifted slowly into a foggy awareness. He was lying on his side on something soft. When his auditory processes came online he could hear a woman’s voice speaking softly nearby. “Momma?” he whispered. A gentle human hand rested on his shoulder. “Momma?” He couldn’t move.
“It’s Chelsea, Arborus. You’re going to be okay.”
“Chelsea?” His eyes opened. Then opened wider. “I’m leaking! It won’t stop! It’s supposed to stop by itself!” Arborus was panicked now, unable to move.
“You’re going to be okay. You’re in the lab. We have you on a recirculator. That’s why it feels like it’s not stopping. Your system worked exactly like it was supposed to when your hydraulic pump ruptured out in the field. It clamped your lines and shut you down. For now, you’ll have a flashing red in your diagnostics - and probably several yellows for low pressure too.” She touched a key on the console that allowed his servos to reconnect. As they powered on slowly she lifted the light sheet covering his torso. “See?” He looked down. All of his chest and abdominal plates were removed and heavy armored tubing snaked into and out of his body cavity under his metal frame ribs, making its way to a motorized unit just under his bed. “Don’t move too much. Peter is over in the machine shop right now fabricating a new pressurizing pump for your thoracic hydraulic system. He has the CNC schematics, it’s just going to take some time to make and test.” She looked over at someone standing behind him. “Are you sure?”
Rabbit’s voice answered back. “I can stay with him. You go. It’s the middle of the night. Peter said it would be another several hours, maybe even after breakfast, and he wanted you on the repair team. You go on! I can handle calling Peter over if needed.”
Chelsea patted Arborus on the shoulder reassuringly, “Do you want me to put you back in static repair mode? Or can you promise me that you won’t move too much?”
“I won’t move.”
“Ok. Rabbit, see that he doesn’t. And you call Peter if you need to.” She left for her room. Arborus began to tremble.
Seeing this Rabbit asked, “Wanna play some cards?” She improvised the sound of a shuffling deck. Arborus just shook his head. He started to weep. In barely a whisper he cried, “I want my momma, Rabbit. I want my Momma….” His hand grasped weakly at the green stone on the choker he wore, the one his mother had given to him.
Rabbit leaned over the bed to put her arm over his shoulder in a hug. Arborus took her hand but it wasn’t enough. He started to cry for his momma again, his crying quickly becoming chest heaving sobs. This was not good. Rabbit tried to hug him tighter but didn’t want to move him to wrap her arms around him. She didn't want to interrupt Peter's work either. Impulsively she clambered up on top of the sheet to lie against his back on the bed. With him on his side, there was just enough room. She wrapped her arm carefully but tightly around his chest and held him close, rocking ever so gently and resting her head against his shoulder.
“Shh. Shhhhh, Arborus. I know. I know you miss your Momma.” She realized now that he may have been hiding his grief a little too deeply under his work and it was all bubbling up now that he was hurt and scared. She cuddled closer hugging him tightly. “Shh. You’ll be okay.” I need you to breathe now though. Calmly. Come on, breathe with me.” She drew in a breath and blew it out, doing this several times before he even attempted to try. Then he did his best to follow her lead, bringing the heavy sobs back down to a quiet weeping as she began to softly sing to him, a common child’s lullaby, alternately patting his shoulder or hugging him tight. He was still trembling but the cry had eased itself out.
“That’s good Arborus. Yer doin’ good.” She waited patiently while his breathing evened out more. “You should put yourself in sleep mode if you can. Can you do that for me?”
“I d-don’t think so,” he said softly. “I’m scared. I’m scared I won’t wake up.”
“I’m right here. Nothing will happen to you. Trust me?” She squeezed him tight at his nod. “Let’s give it a try. Nice even breathing. That’s it.” She began singing again, softly.
“Momma used to sing that sometimes,” Arborus whispered. “At night, before she went to sleep.” He snuggled back into her embrace and sighed heavily. Rabbit smiled to herself. It took quite a long time for his trembling to ease and even longer before she felt him relax as he let himself slip into sleep mode. She stayed very still, quietly humming, her arm still wrapped to his chest, not daring to move or disturb his rest.
A few hours passed. When a weary Peter appeared in the doorway, Rabbit raised her head, a finger to her lips warning him to be quiet. Peter came over to the bed, mildly concerned about the combined weight of two robots, but everything here was over-engineered with robots in mind, so he put it immediately from his mind. He whispered to Rabbit, “The new component is in final test. It has to run for two more hours. I’m gonna go catch a little power nap while it’s doing that and we’ll fix him up first thing. You all good?”
“Yup. I’m all good,” whispered Rabbit. Arborus stirred but didn’t wake. She rested her head back against Arborus’s shoulder. “We’re all good….”