Okay, so I have enough written to at least give you guys a nice new chunk to read while the rest is being completed. I’m so excited for you guys to read this, and anxious to get this thing finished! I hope everyone else is as excited as I am, ahaha 
Soooo, hereeee we goooo… at long last, I give you Chapter 13!
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Chapter Thirteen, Part One
“So, how did you know I was in here?” Eve wondered after a while, looking up at Alex as she spoke the words. “I mean, I’m pretty sure no one called you to let you know I was having the baby.”
McCrea had been busy studying Alex the past few minutes, and presently wagged a finger at him while keeping his eyes locked on the man’s face. “There’s something different about you. Don’t you always wear that silly eyepatch?” Alex grinned at the comment.
“Actually, that ties right in with Eve’s question,” he replied with a chuckle. “I came in to have the doctors check in on that eye, and while I was here they were able to repair it within twenty minutes.” He shrugged as if it were no big deal. “Apparently, I only had a pinched nerve in that eye, and through some sort of non-invasive procedure, the doctors were able to fix it completely.”
Mo raised an eyebrow. “But your right eye is blue, and the other one is brown.”
“That’s what’s different,” McCrea suddenly exclaimed. “I’ve never seen anything like that before.”
“Honestly, I was a bit shocked myself,” Alex admitted with a laugh. “I’d never bothered to actually check and see what that other eye looked like until after the procedure was completed.” He paused and put an arm around Eve. “I figured since I was already in here that I’d check and see if you were, too. I knew you were quite close to having the baby, and it turns out I was just in time.”
McCrea cleared his throat and got up from his seat, motioning for Mo to follow him.
“Why don’t you and I step out for a while and give Eve some time to rest?” he suggested. Reluctantly, Mo trudged out the door behind McCrea and left Alex and WALL•E still in the room with Eve. WALL•E was only half-attentive by then, and was barely paying attention to the things Alex and Eve were saying to each other. At that point, he could care less, anyway.
“I’m going to bring WALL•E home with me tonight, if that’s okay with you,” Alex was telling Eve, and at the comment she tilted her head.
“How come?”
“Well…” Alex paused uncomfortably, then leaned closer to whisper in Eve’s ear. “You know how unstable he is. After I reformatted his filing system, I knew it’d get him working again, but I’m not all that sure how long it’s going to keep him. If I bring him home, I can monitor his condition and possibly look for more ways to keep him going longer.”
Eve bit her lip at the words. “Do… do you have any idea how long he has left, exactly?” Her heart began to pound at the idea of WALL•E shutting down for good. She didn’t even want to begin thinking about such a thing. There was enough on her mind troubling her as it was.
Alex gently shook his head, sadly lifting his eyes up to hers. “I wish I knew. But unfortunately, there’s no way of telling specifically.” He immediately took her hand in a gesture of tender assurance. “Eve, look. It’s gonna be okay. We’re going to work this out however we need to. I promise that we won’t lose WALL•E.”
Eve gave a light smile. Though she doubted some of Alex’s words, the manner in which he spoke them was enough to give her a few ounces of peace.
“Well, besides the fact that he’s underweight, it seems as though he’s completely blind in his right eye,” the doctor noted after he had examined the baby for some time. “He also seems extremely sensitive to touch.”
The baby had stopped crying for the time being, and continued to stare at the ceiling in the exact same manner as he was earlier. Even though his right eye was blind, it still seemed to move in coordination with his other working eye, which was uncharacteristic of a dead eye.
“Odd,” the doctor whispered to himself, observing the eye movement. He moved into the infant’s line of vision, making eye contact with him. However, the baby completely avoided his gaze. The doctor even spoke a few words to grab the baby’s attention, but it didn’t avert the infant’s concentration.
“Sir, we need to get him fed and on IVs ASAP,” a nurse anxiously spoke up. “He seems to be deficient of several key nutrients, and we’d like to have that resolved as quickly as we can.”
“I’m quite aware of that, ma’me,” the doctor calmly responded. “I’m just afraid that we may be dealing with a much larger problem here aside from the blindness.”
Another nurse stepped closer, ready to take the baby. “What do you mean?”
The doctor stood up straight. “If he’s this alert, he should be at least attempting to make eye contact. The vision of a newborn is hazy and they can only see basic shapes, but they recognize and are typically fascinated by eyes. This child won’t make eye contact at all. It’s as if he avoids it completely.” He shook his head and folded his arms. “He also has an unusual sensitivity to touch, and this might stem from the blindness in his right eye. It’s hard to know for sure until he is a bit older, when he becomes more aware of movement.”
The nurses were quiet. The baby whimpered as one lifted him into her arms.
“Do you think you might know what’s wrong with him?” she wondered.
The doctor let out a sigh. “Maybe, but I can’t be certain that’s what it is. Give him a few months – we’ll check in on him and his parents when he’s a little older. It’ll be easier to make a sure diagnosis if we see these symptoms persisting, or if new ones crop up with age.”
Alex and Eve made the decision to name the baby Blake Edward O’Neill sometime before he was brought back in to them. The new parents never seemed to notice baby Blake’s passive stares and weren’t bothered by his unusual fussiness when being handled.
WALL•E, hearing the baby’s whimpers, excitedly scooted over to the bed to see the new human in Eve’s arms. He gave a soft coo of affection and gently reached up to touch Blake’s tiny feet.
“Baby,” he reverently hummed. He looked up at Eve, his metal eyes alight with fascination, and she chuckled at the sight. “Baby… naaaame?”
Eve grinned proudly. “Blake,” she replied. “The baby’s name is Blake.”
WALL•E nodded. His processors clicked and whirred as he attempted to pronounce the name as best as he could.
“Buuu…buuuhhh… Buuuhh-lake!” he finally managed. Even Alex was laughing with Eve at WALL•E’s first utterance of the name. “Blake. Mmmm. Baby… Blake.”
Though the words were mechanical, they were so warm with fascination. He continued to gently prod Blake’s miniature toes, whirring in contentment, and repeating the baby’s name to himself at random. Eve had let her mind wander back to what Alex had said about the garbage bot being on his very last leg, and felt her eyes beginning to sting with tears.
No. She couldn’t go there right now.
She needed to drink in and cherish every single moment that she had with WALL•E, while he was still here.
She turned her eyes down to meet the robot’s wide, curious gaze. “Do you like him, WALL•E?”
“Mmm-hmm,” WALL•E quietly whirred.
Alex got up from his chair and put a hand on Eve’s shoulder. “I should probably head out soon. I’ll come in sometime tomorrow to check on you guys, okay?”
“Okay,” Eve slowly replied. “Promise you’ll take good care of WALL•E?”
WALL•E almost became completely seized with panic. He was leaving with Alex?!
“Only if you promise you’ll take good care of Blake,” Alex chuckled. He kissed her on the forehead, then placed a kiss on his newborn son’s warm cheek. Eve smiled.
“Of course I will,” she assured him. She waved at WALL•E. “Bye, WALL•E! I love you.”
The robot let out a troubled blip, holding his arms out in front of him. “Ee…Eeva…”
“C’mon, WALL•E,” Alex gently urged him. “It’s okay. You’ll see them again. It’s just for a little while, anyway.”
With some difficulty, WALL•E turned his head to look up at Alex, then swiveled it back around to take another glimpse at his precious Eve and her baby. From a distance, it was hard to tell, but it appeared that Eve’s eyes were becoming slightly misty.
Why?
His tires felt heavy and his engine slowly propelled him across the floor, following Alex as he stepped out of the hospital room. For some strange reason, the idea that he would never see Eve again appeared in his mind, but he couldn’t pinpoint where that thought came from or if it was even relevant.
He looked back one more time, and his eyes were locked on Eve and the baby right up until the door closed in front of him.
To say that life began to settle down after the baby was born would be a complete lie.
Blake was kept in the hospital for over a week, much longer than the average newborn. Since he was born underweight and deficient of several extremely important nutrients, as well as the fact that he was exhibiting that strange, passive behavior not typical of newborns, the doctors extended his stay to make sure that he became healthy enough to go home.
Eve hadn’t found herself a home of her own yet, and still lived with Brandon and Mo. The small house that they all shared suddenly became even smaller with the addition of the baby. While Mo had constantly complained about the baby before, he found that after it was born, he was beginning to feel a bit of attachment to him. When Eve would leave her room, Mo would slip into her bedroom and look over the side of Blake’s crib, then reach down and finger the baby’s downy hair with a small smile on his face. He always asked to hold Blake, even offering to feed him sometimes. Brandon and Eve noticed the positive change in the teen, and were relieved that Mo had finally come around.
Alex called on occasion to check on Eve and Blake, though it was difficult for him to do often, since he was busy trying to come up with some sort of solution for WALL•E’s imminent hard drive failure. From the moment he brought the garbage bot home, he’d noticed unusually noisy clicks and stalls coming from within WALL•E’s casing, and knew that he had to find a way to repair him – fast.
That is, if there were any way to repair him at all.
A few days before Blake was released from the hospital, Alex was having one such stressful evening. He mulled over his scribbled notes and a computer program he had started writing, occasionally glancing down at WALL•E, who was contently boxed up beside the desk, yet clearly struggling to stay active. Alex sighed and anxiously ran his fingers through his hair.
WALL•E, I don’t know what to do anymore, he nearly said out loud, but caught himself before the words could come out of his mouth. The last thing he wanted was for WALL•E to get upset. I promised Eve I wouldn’t let anything happen to you. And… I couldn’t let anything happen to you. Not after all you did for us.
He felt a slight lump forming in his throat at the thought. Nearly thirteen years ago, this one robot – who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time – changed the lives of millions. If it weren’t for him, humans may have never rediscovered the Earth and would have still been floating around aimlessly in space. If it weren’t for him, Directive A113 would still be in place, holding everyone back from living full and purposeful lives.
If it weren’t for him, Alex would have never known the joy of being a father.
On second thought, it was wrong to say that garbage bot, the lowly Earth-class machine, was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He couldn’t have picked a more perfect moment in time to come on the scene and challenge the status quo.
Alex wiped tears from his eyes and took in a deep breath. Even though what WALL•E had done led to a forced usurpation of his former power as the AUTO Pilot, he wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Only a robot like WALL•E, in his complete innocence and total oblivion, could have changed the world and redefined directives at the same time.
“There’s gotta be something I can do,” he repeated for what felt like the millionth time. WALL•E heard Alex speak, and his camera eyes slowly tilted upwards. “But… but I’ve tried everything. This program won’t do anything. The only thing that would work is a new hard drive, but where in the world would you find a Seagate hard drive? They don’t even exist anymore!”
WALL•E wasn’t sure why, but that ancient word sparked a centuries-old memory; vague, hazy, and almost indistinguishable. All he could really pick out from the fuzzy recollection was a joyful pair of bright, brown eyes gazing into his, coupled with a toothy grin that seemed fit to appear on a twelve year-old child.
And it was such a stupid word that triggered the memory. Seagate. Of all things.
“WALL•E, would… would you be okay with me doing anything possible to keep you with us?” Alex’s voice broke into the robot’s thoughts. WALL•E gave a low-pitched, confused hum. “I mean… I don’t want anything to happen to you. I promised Eve nothing would happen to you. I just want to make sure it’s okay with you for me to do whatever possible to keep you alive.”
WALL•E was struck with horror. He was… dying?
He simply nodded in response to Alex, too overcome with fear to do anything else. He couldn’t die! He’d been running seamlessly for over seven-hundred years now – well, despite that one time several months ago when he unexpectedly went into standby. But that couldn’t have been enough to make his hard drive start failing.
He almost didn’t hear the next words Alex spoke as he rose from the desk and took a jacket off the wall.
“Hang in here for a little while, okay?” he was saying to the robot. “I’m going to make a quick run to the hospital to see Eve and the baby.”
At the mention of Eve and little Blake, WALL•E perked up slightly. He even waved goodbye to Alex, when normally he would have let him walk away without any response.
Alex made it to the hospital just after the sun had gone down, and all seemed fairly quiet in the hospital overall. He happened to notice a nurse by the bedside of a young boy as he made his way down the halls, but what was strange about the sight was the lack of parents in the room. It was simply the nurse alone with this child.
He paused and studied the scene. She was wiping his eyes and kissing his head, holding his hand firmly and talking over the loud beeping of monitors. Alex couldn’t help but be concerned for the boy, and wondered if it would be wrong for him to step into the room.
He stood in the doorway and gently cleared his throat. The nurse looked up, her eyes full of tears, and let out a sort of relieved gasp.
“You… you’re a family member of this boy, right?” she wondered, her tone of voice hopeful. Alex cautiously stepped into the room and shook his head.
“No, ma’me,” he replied. Her face fell. “I just happened to notice how upset you were, and that this boy didn’t have any parents present. I… I didn’t mean to interrupt, and I’m genuinely sorry if I disturbed you.” The nurse sat up.
“See the problem is, we can’t get in contact with anyone who knew this kid,” she told him. “No family members, no close friends. The only family members we located moved out of state, so their contact information is no longer relevant.” She paused for a moment, stroking the unconscious boy’s hand gently. “His parents were killed in a car crash just a few hours ago.”
Alex bit his lip. “I’m so sorry.”
The room fell silent. While the nurse returned to whispering encouraging words in the child’s ear, Alex studied the monitors that showed the boy had slow breathing patterns and irregular heart beats. He seemed to recognize this particular pattern as one Rylee had exhibited in the coma-like state she’d been in when she was brought to the Axiom.
He shook his head a bit. It felt as though all that had happened yesterday.
Without any words of comfort to give to the distraught nurse, Alex could only dwell on the memories that were returning to him. It had seemed like such a logical thing to do in his past robotic mind; to take a dying human and use her as a recipient of the memory of an inactive robot. In retrospect, he realized that there were several moral implications to that process, but there were also many positive results as well. The recipient of the robotic memory isn’t “killed” – rather, something about the fresh surge of electrical impulses to the brain actually revives them and begins to send commands to dying organs or a failing heart.
The downsides of the procedure were that in this transfer of memory, the new memories are forced to the forefront of recollection and therefore push the original recipient’s thoughts, feelings, and personality to a part of the brain where memories are much harder to recall. The result is a strange state of living where the recipient begins to think they are the robot – whose memories were transferred into the human – yet they are still themselves. Oftentimes they will recall some of their past or begin to exhibit behavior of the person they were before, but it is confusing to them, since they think predominantly in the mind of the robot.
He focused again on the boy, beginning to think on WALL•E as well. This kid was potentially dying, and so was WALL•E. Alex had promised Eve that nothing was going to happen to the robot, and even asked WALL•E if it were all right for him to do whatever possible to keep him alive.
An idea flashed in his mind.
The restorative procedure.
The option was there. It would save two lives at the same time. Now if only he could convince the nurse to allow it to happen.
Hesitantly, he cleared his throat again and opened his mouth to speak, which grabbed her attention and caused her to look up.
“There… might be something I can do,” he slowly began. She furrowed her brow.
“What do you mean?” she cautiously wondered. Alex folded his hands.
“I’m no doctor, but I am a skilled computer programmer,” he replied. The nurse was eyeing him carefully. “I’ve discovered a restorative procedure that can be initiated by using a computer program that sends fresh electrical impulses to the brain, stimulating it as well as failing organs. It’s already been tested three times, with success.” He paused and gave a small smile. “I’m living proof that it works.”
The nurse was silent for quite some time. She bit her lip, glanced down at the thirteen year-old, then at the doorway. There seemed to be a gleam of hope and curiosity in her eyes, though her visage was doubtful and slightly confused.
“If you don’t mind waiting here with Mr. Hackl, I’ll talk to the doctor real quick and see what he thinks,” she eventually answered him, getting up from her seat and offering it to Alex. She left the room and Alex seated himself beside the brown-haired, ruddy-faced boy. He smiled and folded his hands again on top of the boy’s blankets.
“Hackl, huh?” he noted with a slight chuckle. “Just like that character out of Hello, Dolly! – WALL•E’s favorite movie.”
This was one of the first fanfics I followed on the forums (next to TSS’ 'Incredibles Trilogy) and it’s close to a year since you started it. Time to bring Eve and Alex home! 
I bumped this thread on the last page… anyway, yes, you must get crackin’ and finish this epic tale of romance, identity and betrayal! 
