Yaaay, finally have all of Chapter Ten finished, guys! 
For those of you who have anxiously been wondering about WALL•E’s place in all of this, this piece should peak your interest a little bit. It’s about to get better.
I watched the movie last night, and it really helped to give me some ideas for where I want this to go. Hope you guys enjoy - all comments as well as critique are more than welcome.
Chapter Ten
McCrea’s entire household had entered into a continuous state of chaos and unease, and it never seemed to dissipate. Now more than ever before, Mo and Eve got on each other’s nerves and did nothing but argue. Mo frequently paced on the lawn outside, muttering to himself in frustration. WALL•E stood outside Eve’s room and whimpered as he listened to her relentless cries of guilt and anguish. And McCrea found himself being pulled in several directions all at once; trying to maintain the peace at all hours of the day, keeping the matters of his business balanced, and attempting to keep Mo out of trouble - not to mention the many hours he put into bringing Eve out of the pit of depression she was in and restoring her back to the bubbly, happy person she once was. To add to the confusion, now there was a baby to worry about. There were already medical bills that needed to be paid as a result of the horrible car accident that had happened just over a year ago, and he knew they would quickly add up once Eve started going in for monthly checkups.
To put it bluntly, McCrea was utterly overwhelmed.
As he sat poring over bills and business paperwork, he could hear Eve and Mo at it again, and he looked up to see Mo leaning into Eve’s room.
“If you mention that jerk again, I’m going to punch you! And I’m not even joking, Eve!” he was yelling at her. “To hell with that freakin’ jerk! He doesn’t even love you, and you know that!”
“But I still love him!” Eve cried in return, sounding on the verge of tears. “Nothing you say about him is going to change my mind!”
“You didn’t even want that kid!” Mo screamed, pointing an accusing finger at her. “Yet you accept it like, ‘oh, this is the way things are going to be and I can’t change that’-”
“But this is the way things are going to be,” Eve replied. “And I think you’re the one who needs to accept that!”
“It didn’t have to be that way,” Mo carried on. “You know there’s this magic option called abortion? Come on, Eve. This is Alex Freakin’ O’Neill we’re talking about! That baby’s gonna be just as evil as his dumb father, if not more so!” WALL•E invited himself over to the two, oblivious to what was being said.
“Baby?” he curiously wondered.
“Yeah, 'cuz I’m stupid enough to go get an abortion,” Eve spat, rolling her eyes. “In case you can’t tell already, it’s way past the point of a safe abortion. It would be more of a threat to both of us at this point, and I’ve already felt it kick - I’m not gonna kill it!”
Mo plugged his ears at her last sentence and turned away from her. “La, la, la, la, la… can’t hear you talking about Alex’s kid…”
WALL•E turned to Eve this time, his head cocked. “…Baby…?”
She didn’t reply. “Mo, shut up and stop being so immature!” she yelled, clenching her fists. Hearing the argument carry on, McCrea sighed and buried his face in the palm of his hand.
“If you both don’t stop, I’m gonna… I dunno… I’m gonna sit on you! Both of you!” he eventually cried, directing his loud words at Eve and Mo. Mo leaned against the wall and folded his arms.
“Puts a whole new meaning in ‘babysitting’,” he said with a shrug.
“Oh, would you stop?!” Eve screamed. “You’re so mean and cruel! How could you even think up something like that?!”
WALL•E was persistent in getting Eve’s attention, and this time he waved a hand at her. “Yoo-hoo! Eeeeva? Baaaby?”
Again, she completely ignored him and stood to her feet. She stuck her head out of the doorway and met gazes with McCrea, who was frustrated out of his mind. “Brandon, can you please deal with Mo and tell him to stop acting so immature?”
“Stop acting immature, Mo,” McCrea flatly said, looking back down at his papers.
Mo rolled his eyes. “Sure, whatever.”
Eve shook her head and sighed. She placed a hand on her hip as she leaned against the doorway, again directing her words at McCrea. “Don’t forget that I have a doctor’s appointment in fifteen minutes. They’re supposed to be taking an ultrasound today.”
WALL•E excitedly clapped his hands together. “Baby!”
“He’s clueless,” Mo muttered, rolling his eyes again. He looked down at WALL•E and shook his head. “This baby is no good, WALL•E. Bad. Bad baby. Evil baby.”
WALL•E looked a bit hurt, and he shrank back a bit at the words. Eve ignored Mo this time and smiled down at WALL•E.
“It’s okay, WALL•E,” she assured him, “the baby’s not bad. Mo’s just pulling your leg.”
“Tire,” Mo smartly corrected.
“Mo…” Eve angrily began, but McCrea’s stern voice immediately broke it up.
“Okay guys, that’s enough,” he snapped. “I don’t want to hear another argument out of you guys; it’s caused nothing but anger and hasn’t solved anything. I want it to end right here and right now.”
The three standing outside Eve’s room fell silent. McCrea pushed the papers away and pushed his chair out from behind the table.
“Get your shoes on, you’re all coming to her appointment,” he demanded. Mo bit the inside of his lip to keep himself from making another remark about the baby, and instead of speaking his mind he looked up and gave Eve a sharp glare. All the way to the hospital and even in the waiting room there, Mo never once looked up at Eve or acknowledged her and kept his headphones in with his iPod turned up loud enough to block out all noise. WALL•E even came along, and when Eve got up to leave with her doctor, he began to follow her.
“No, WALL•E,” she said, holding out her hand to stop him. “You can’t come with me.”
A sad look formed in WALL•E’s camera eyes. “No…? No… baby?”
“You can see the baby later,” she hastily replied, a bit embarrassed that she was holding up her doctor to talk to a robot. “I’ve gotta go right now. But I won’t be long.”
WALL•E’s eyes sadly followed Eve until she disappeared down a hallway, and he heaved a sigh once she was out of sight. He felt so left out of her life recently, and only now did he figure out that there was a baby involved. He wasn’t sure how it had gotten there, and really didn’t care, but was quite upset that Eve hadn’t told him before. He had never seen a human baby before, and to say he was curious about Eve’s child was a harsh understatement. He wheeled back to where McCrea and Mo were sitting and caught McCrea’s attention by pointing down one of the halls.
“That’s where people go to get checkups,” McCrea explained. “But that’s not where Eve is, if that’s what you’re asking.”
WALL•E shook his head. “Go see?” he asked. McCrea shrugged.
“Sure, I guess you can go explore,” he replied. “Just don’t bother anyone.”
This whole new world called a hospital seemed to fascinate WALL•E like nothing before. It seemed so reminiscent of the Axiom, the way everything was so pristine and sterile, the way the staff dressed in crisp white uniforms, and even how it had a devision for automated assistants. The hospital’s stretchers were modeled after the Axiom’s hoverchairs and ran on light tracks in the floor for faster mobility. The robot stood still when he caught a glance of a man with one leg using springed crutches. Didn’t humans have two legs?
A doctor came out of one of the rooms and immediately waved the man in. “Hey there, Mr. Garrity! Your leg is ready - if you’ll step in here for a minute, we’ll have it installed in no time.”
WALL•E was curious to see how this would go down, and he cautiously followed the one-legged man. He kept hidden and watched from the doorway as the doctor returned with another leg that looked so real, it almost freaked out the robot. The man sat still and quietly watched as his doctor uncovered the stump left from his other leg. Several brightly-colored wires were sticking out, and the doctor took them and matched them up to circuit chips on the new leg using some sort of high-tech fusing device. He used a different device to bring the man’s skin over the new leg and fuse it there, and the result was seamless.
“Give it a minute or two, and the computer will begin to respond to the wires,” the doctor told his elated patient. “You’ll start feeling a sort of tingling in that leg.”
After a few moments, the man nodded. “I feel it,” he laughed.
“Try and move your leg,” the doctor suggested. The man easily moved his leg up and down and laughed again.
“It feels just like normal,” he exclaimed. “I can even wiggle my toes!”
WALL•E was in awe of the procedure. A human… with a robotic leg? He never knew those kind of things were even possible! He left the scene uplifted by what he had witnessed and continued to drink in the sights and sounds all around him. Several nurses walking by happened to notice WALL•E strolling along and gave him a smile and wave as he passed them by. As he browsed the halls, he noticed he was gliding over several different-colored light tracks, just like they had back on the Axiom. One he knew was for the stretchers, but there were two others that would branch off and separate from each other. He decided to follow the white light track for a little while, keeping his eyes on the ground as he went. He nearly tripped several doctors and nurses and almost accidentally ran into an old man in his hoverchair, as they now served for wheelchairs. With a short blip of apology, he continued on his way, adamant to find out where this path led to.
“Whoa!” he found himself exclaiming as his body collided with something small and made of metal. He pulled back and shook his head, finding as he looked down that he had run into another robot who had been minding her own business until she collided with WALL•E. Her eyes were LED lights as EVE’s had been, and they were that same distinct blue, too. Her design was sleek and seamless, also like EVE; almost as if she had been developed around the same time as the EVE probes. She had those same magnetic fingers, except they were on small jointed arms. Her face was more angular than EVE’s, and she had more of a distinct body shape.
She sat stunned for a few seconds, looking up at WALL•E with a confused look in her eyes. WALL•E nervously clasped his hands together and backed up.
“Sorry,” he managed, dipping his head. The other robot straightened and cautiously floated closer.
“E-e-earth class?” she slowly asked, pointing at the logo stamped on WALL•E’s front panel. He happily pointed at it as well.
“WALL•E!” he cried. Someone had noticed him! He pointed at her. “Naaame?”
“DOLL-E,” she gleefully replied. WALL•E gave a gasp of excitement. Wasn’t that the same name as the main character from his favorite movie, Hello, Dolly!?
“DOLL-E… Leeevi!” he said, clapping his hands together. DOLL-E gave him a look.
“Hmm?”
WALL•E shook his head, as if to say “never mind.”
DOLL-E stared at WALL•E for a little while, then spoke up to break the silence. “WALL•E… lost?” The garbage bot shook his head.
“No, looking,” he responded.
“For…?”
“No one. Just… looking.”
DOLL-E smiled and held out her hand. “WALL•E come!” WALL•E was hesitant to respond, but eventually let her take his hand and lead her down various hallways of the hospital. They ended up in a room filled with small humans, and WALL•E noticed that most of their eyes were closed. DOLL-E carefully led him down the rows of beds containing the miniature humans, gesturing for WALL•E to be quiet. They stopped in front of one of the beds and DOLL-E jumped up onto a stool, where she was lifted up high enough to look down on the human resting in the bed. She reached in, pulled the blankets away, and lifted the tiny human into her arms, then got off the stool to show WALL•E.
“Baby,” she explained. The little human squirmed a bit in her arms and waved his fists in the air. WALL•E was at a complete loss for words as he gingerly reached out and fingered the baby’s hand. So this is what human babies looked like. They were so small and fragile-looking, their features so defined and delicate, and their little bodies mysteriously curled as if they were meant to fit right into the crook of your arm.
“Baby,” WALL•E reverantly repeated. He let out a sigh of awe and clasped his hands together again. “Eeva baby?”
DOLL-E shook her head. “Liam baby.”
“No… Eeva… have baby?”
Once again, DOLL-E objected. “Ingrid have baby. Baby Liam.” WALL•E was a bit disappointed, thinking that it was Eve’s baby, since she had said he could see the baby later. Obviously, she hadn’t had the baby yet. How long was it going to take?
DOLL-E put the infant back into his bed and looked up at WALL•E again. “WALL•E come. Can’t stay, WALL•E.” She took his hand again and began leading him out of the nursery. WALL•E couldn’t help but keep his eyes locked on those precious infants as he was slowly dragged away from them. Soon enough he found himself back in the waiting room where McCrea and Mo were still seated, and DOLL-E made sure to introduce herself to them before she returned to the maternity ward where she worked. Almost as soon as WALL•E returned to McCrea and Mo, Eve excitedly walked in with pictures in her hand and sat down next to McCrea.
“Do you want to see my baby?” she asked, holding out the pictures for McCrea to take. WALL•E watched as a smile spread over the man’s face. Curious, the robot wheeled closer and lifted his head up as high as he possibly could to see if he could catch a glimpse of the pictures.
“You can see it really well,” McCrea noted. “Look, there’s the head right there… and its hands, right up here.”
“They’re not quite sure what it is right now, but they’re almost 90% sure it’s a boy,” Eve excitedly told him. Mo couldn’t help but be curious as well and leaned over McCrea’s shoulder to look at the pictures.
“I bet it’ll look just like Alex,” he angrily spat as he sat back in his seat. Eve was still smiling.
“I hope he does,” she added. McCrea got up from his seat and helped Eve up, putting a hand on her shoulder.
“Let’s get you home - it’s almost supper time and you guys are probably famished,” he said, leading them out the door. WALL•E followed close behind, feeling as if he had been completely left out again.
“Eeva?” he called as he kept up with the three. “Eeva, WALL•E see baaaby?”
But Eve tucked the pictures into her purse as if she hadn’t even acknowledged WALL•E’s plea.
[i]HD_directory/EVEprobe1=commandoverride%pbug.exe {run:emotion_panic}
…Run successful! Initialize=panic_override/pbug.exe
inquirybank/ProbeHD=command/open {PROBE_DIRECTIVE=status?}
Initialize=vegetationstatus%directive.exe
…
…
… {Initialization interrupted!}[/i]
For once in her robotic life, she found herself rising above the programming that bound for so long her newfound ability to reason.
Abandon directive! WALL•E is in trouble! Abandon, abandon, abandon!!! Forget the plant, it means nothing…! AUTO is attacking WALL•E - abandon directive!!!
She struggled to break free of the suspension beam she was trapped in by GO-4 as WALL•E fought against AUTO to keep the plant safe. He knew the fate of that plant would decide the fate of an entire colonization, as she also knew well. He believed that EVE wanted, more than anything else, to follow her directive - and that was to deliver the plant to the Axiom Superior and bring the ship home. But all of that had changed within a matter of 48 hours.
Her programmed directive was useless at this point. She didn’t care anymore. Right now, WALL•E was in trouble.
Before her eyes, AUTO had retracted his taser, and to her horror, jammed it into WALL•E’s microprocessor.
“No!!!” she screamed, completely helpless in GO-4’s unrelenting grip.
WALL•E couldn’t take it any longer. As soon as AUTO put away the taser, WALL•E lost all stamina and went into free fall down the garbage chute.
Panic like never before pulsed through EVE’s circuits as her precious garbage bot fell to his death. Her eyes bulged with fright as GO-4 led her closer to AUTO. She looked up at him, pleading with him using her eyes, and losing all control to panic.
“WALL•E!” she continued to wail. AUTO beamed her with his one glaring eye as she began carrying on in that computerized language only the robots understood. “No, you can’t do this! You can’t do this to him, AUTO!!! Let me go! LET ME GO!!!”
You have violated protocol, AUTO mercilessly thought, barely acknowledging EVE’s anguished pleas. He reached foward and pressed a button that would shut down EVE’s system completely. You will be silenced and will cease to function…
“No, WALL•E!!!” Eve found herself screaming as she shot up straight in bed. Her skin felt clammy and the nerves in her body shook with intense fear. Sweat poured down her face and neck as if someone had poured a glass of water on her. Realizing it had only been a dream, she pressed a hand to her head and leaned back onto her pillow, bursting into tears at the mere memory of the situation. All she could do was repeat the robot’s name, her sobs nearly muffling it entirely. The tears from her eyes mixed with the sweat on her face and rolled down her neck as she cried, hardly able to bear the strong wave of emotion that surged through her at the very thought of that Earth-class bot - who was the one who showed her how to love in the first place - being destroyed.
He had been destroyed by AUTO.
Eve threw the blankets off of her bed and raced out of her room into the living room, where WALL•E usually slept. She needed to just hold his hand, touch him, even; just assure herself that he was there, safe and sound. She whisked the tears from her eyes and groped alongside the wall in the dark to find the light switch.
“WALL•E,” she continued to sob. “WALL•E, where are you?”
The light turned on, and Eve nervously glanced around the room, but WALL•E was nowhere to be found.
Right when she thought she had composed herself, she burst into sobs again. “WALL•E, please, where did you go?!”
McCrea heard Eve from his bedroom and got up as well at the sound of her distressed cries. He ran into the room where she was and put a hand on her trembling shoulder.
“Eve, are you all right?” he breathlessly asked, trying to get her to look at him. “What’s wrong?”
Eve drew in a shaky breath, wiped her eyes again, and pointed to the doorway. WALL•E’s clearly visible trail of dirt from his tires left a path from his favorite corner of the living room to the door. Now that they both looked again, it had been left open a crack.
“WALL•E’s… gone,” she painfully managed, biting back more sobs. “What in the world would have caused him to leave?!”
“Eve, calm down,” McCrea urged her, trying to be as calm as he possibly could; but his own unease showed through his voice despite his composure. “We’ll… we’ll look for him right now. We’ll find out why he’s gone.” He put a hand on her back and looked her in the eye. “It’s going to be okay. Maybe he hasn’t even gone all that far.”
As McCrea walked off to wake up Mo, Eve stood still in the living room trying to process everything that was going on. The fact that she had just had that dream before finding WALL•E missing gave her a strange, uneasy vibe. And as she had wondered before, what would have caused the robot to just up and leave without telling anyone?
While McCrea and Mo got dressed in their rooms, Eve ran to the phone and kept her hand on the table to keep herself up as she waited for someone to answer.
“Hello?” came a groggy voice.
“Alex, we need you to meet us at Brandon’s,” Eve choked. “We need your help.”
“Wha… why are you calling at three in the morning?” Alex mumbled. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine; I’m okay,” Eve assured him. “It’s WALL•E. He ran away and we have absolutely no idea where he’s gone - or even if he’s all right.” She burst into tears all over again and put her forehead into the palm of her free hand. “Alex, we need you here. I need you here. I just want to know that he’s going to be okay.”
Alex gulped on the lump in his throat. A wave of compassion and love poured over him at the sound of her anguished sobs. His eyes began to sting with tears, and all traces of sleep had suddenly vanished.
“Okay,” he whispered. “I’m coming, just calm down. We’re going to find him, Eve.”
)
I really hope AUTO didn’t do to Eve what you seem to imply he did, that would be terrible! I like how he fights an internal conflict between being emotionless and having feelings for his former ‘colleague’.
baited breath
And I’m glad that you won’t kill me for that certain detail of the story… honestly, I battled for months with myself on whether or not I should actually incorporate it into the story, but now I think it’s only going to make things more interesting, as you’ve said. After things slow down a bit here and my sibs start school I’ll probably have a bit more time on my hands to get some massive writing in. (At least, I hope so! 
)
But it’s flattering to hear a compliment like that… thank you so much, 
So… yeah, I’ll be back on this as soon as I get the chance!