Sans missed Laughing Jack and Jane already. It felt weird, to miss them so quickly and harshly, yet he found himself missing the warmth of their bodies next to his when he woke up. Ever since they started dating, Jane switched from sleeping in her room to his. When Jane wasn't sleeping with him, Laughing Jack took her spot. So Sans didn't lay in bed alone. Not anymore.

The morning was spent with Helen sleepily blinking his way through the motions of breakfast before drifting off for a nap halfway through the meal. The poor man passed out so fast that Sans had to double-check his bowl of dry cereal to see if any sleeping medication was somehow ground inside.

And during that nap, Sans spent some one-on-one time with his daughter. Held her up to look through the glass and see all the new types of plants she never has seen before, let her play with a ladybug (that she tried to eat, but he had to drag it away to preserve its life), and decided to practice some crawling with her. Bean was stupidly good at it. Impressive for her age. Sans didn't think she'd be this quick of a learner.

The Puppeteer didn't return, but Sans didn't dare walk out. Not with this magic restraint on. He'd be a walking target, especially since he wouldn't know his way home from here. A small, fragile skeleton carrying a baby girl with a magic restraint on him? Not worth the risk.

The greenhouse was admittedly beautiful. Sans never actually was inside of one before. The glass containing the interior glistened a wondrous combination of sparkles and light down upon the colorful and bright flowers plaguing the flower beds tucked into the corner. Sans set Bean into one of them, ready to sacrifice her cleanliness for her overall happiness. And Bean loved it, patting the dirt and poking at the flowers with a curious, wide gaze.

"Baba!" Bean said, pointing to the flower.

"Yeah?" Sans chuckled, leaning forward. "You like that one?"

The flower was a deep shade of red that seemed to almost glow under the sun's light. Reminded him of echo flowers, in a way. He should probably show Bean them one day. She'd love them.

"Those are... uh... I don't know the name," Sans said, shrugging. "But I'll keep an eye out so we can plant them in our house."

Bean babbled excitedly, slapping her muddy hands together.

She needed a bath now. Sans should probably ask Helen if he had anywhere to bathe her when he woke up. Her teeth were still lightly stained with blood that Sans couldn't wide off despite how hard he tried, there was a stain of peach juice on her cheek, and now her hands were all muddy. Thankfully, baths weren't too difficult for Bean. The change of clothes was going to be a problem, though.

Laughing Jack would probably like her reaction. Sometimes, when she'd start one of her random rants of noise, he'd lean and down nod enthusiastically, saying "Mhm, mhm," over and over as if having a serious conversation with her.

"Oh, you're so cute," Sans said, patting Bean's cheek.

Helen ended up waking up shortly after that with a quick startle. Guy seemed to be on alert when he awoke, blinking a few times while looking around. Their gazes met, and Sans awkwardly offered a slight smile when Helen awoke.

"You uh... okay?" Sans asked.

Helen blinked. "Yes, yes... sorry. Don't usually fall asleep here." He pulled back from the table, moving his likely sore joints to try and stretch them.

"Sleeping at tables does suck. Prefer the bed. Or the couch. Nice to have a cushion. Especially with bones, man, sleeping with a body of pure jointy edges on a flat rough surface is difficult."

"I'd imagine."

Sans hummed in agreement, picking up Bean who reached for the flower to pluck it. When she managed to grasp it, she played with it in the air, waving it back and forth. Huh. She's managing to get past her insistent need to chew everything she plays with. Every single toy of hers has ended up between her chompers at least once. However, now she was simply - never mind. Bean closed her teeth around a leaf, chewing on it briefly before spitting it out with a huff. And, as if it was his fault she ate the disgusting plant, she turned and glared at Sans.

"Oh come on, you're the one who's a biter," Sans grumbled towards her. He redirected his attention to Helen, who had long since drifted into his thoughts again. "Do you have anywhere to give her a bath?"

"Huh?" Helen perked up. His eyes looked watery from whatever thoughts he let himself indulge in.

"Uh, a bath," Sans said, holding up Bean lightly with one arm while the other held down his shirt to keep it from raising with the movement. He really missed having pants.

"I uh... yes. We do have one."

The bathroom was a small space, with one of those tubs unattached to the building and stationed below a faucet. Helen explained briefly how to turn on the hot water before awkwardly standing by, waiting to see if Sans would need any more help.

"Soaps over here, Puppeteer steals whatever he can find," Helen mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Thanks."

Sans moved forward to turn on the water. For a moment, the faucet groaned and creaked, before spitting out lukewarm water. Better than freezing, at least.

"You can stay if you want," Sans said, turning towards Helen.

"What?" Helen asked.

"It's just a baby skeleton. If you want to stay you can," Sans offered.

"Oh... okay."

Helen moved to sit on the ground next to Sans, keeping a respectful distance and patting his knees with antsy fingers. Guy looked lonely. And Bean was cute, and cute cheered people up. So this might help him.

"Is the soap we have okay for her? I don't... know what skeleton children have to worry about," Helen said quietly, looking over toward Sans.

"Well, since she can't get poisoned we don't have to worry about what type of soap we use. And since she can't drown we don't have to worry about water levels." Sans spoke as he lowered Bean into the now-filling bath, who eagerly giggled in glee from seeing the water. She loved splashing around in the water. "We actually prefer to add more than less water in the tub so she's almost submerged. Not too many bubbles because then we can't see her and she likes to sneak around underneath the bubbles."

Helen peered down into the tub as Bean smacked her hands down into the rising water. Sans kept a hand on her while he gathered some soap into his free hand, before moving down to gently scrub at her bones.

"Skeletons seem easier to take care of than humans," Helen said, quietly noting it to himself.

"In certain ways. Other ways are really difficult. Since Bean's a baby she's not fully used to her body yet so sometimes a bone will pop off. It was more common after she was just born, but now it barely happens. Still gotta keep an eye out."

With a grumble, Bean glared as Sans ran some soapy fingers through her hair before immediately she was distracted by the bubbles in the bath.

"And the problem is she doesn't seem to sleep, right?" Helen asked. "That has to be difficult."

"Oh, you noticed?"

Bean probably demanded his attention last night. With a long sigh, Sans leaned forward and gently scrubbed at her cheek and her now blood-free teeth. Bean gurgled, head half submerged under the water as she stared.

"I tried to put her to sleep last night. It... didn't work."

Sans snorted. "Yeah, should've warned you. She doesn't need sleep. She gets that from Laughing Jack."

He continued to wash her, awaiting Helen's response. The silence was what brought Sans to turn his head towards the other man.

And there he sat, staring wide-eyed at Sans. And at that moment, Sans realized that this guy had no idea Sans knew other CreepyPasta.

"You... do know that I'm dating..." Sans paused, a frown taking over his face. "Fuck, that guy didn't even tell you anything about me, did he?"

Helen quietly shook his head, the shocked expression still caught firmly on his face.

"Yikes. Alright, so," Sans moved forward to cup Bean's head and turn it to Helen, "She's the kid of me and Laughing Jack. I'm also dating Jane. And I know yer a CreepyPasta too."

"I..." Helen choked on his breath, falling silent as he pawed at his chest as if he was suffocating. "You... know I'm... and what I..."

"Hey, hey, calm down. I know you're a CreepyPasta. I know you've killed people. But I'm dating two. And I live with a few more as well. You don't have to freak out. I've known this entire time. It's okay."

There was a moment where Helen just stared, his blue eyes caught on Sans as if needing something to hold onto. Just for that moment. Then, like a deflating air balloon, his tense shoulders sagged and his eyes dropped to the floor.

"So you... that's why he brought you here. The rest of the women were all scared of me. He said he'd find someone who wasn't. I just assumed he hadn't told you as he did them, I..." Helen, with fingers digging into his shirt, suddenly stood. "I need to go."

~~~~~~

When the Puppeteer first met Helen, he was so bright and full of life. New and ignorant to the CreepyPasta world, but with a smirking girlfriend by his side that gave him life and hope, he was flourishing. Judge Angels was the key to Helen's happiness. Despite the close friendship they developed, the Puppeteer always knew he would be second to her.

She wasn't a kind girl. She was loud, and demanding, didn't play around with words, and was straight to the point. A determined and set girl, like Jane, but while Jane could dance around the lines of a conversation and make it flow smoothly and in her favor, Judge Angels was curt and to the point. Like a fast sword, ready to strike at a moment's notice.

That's why she worked so well with Helen. She cut through the bullshit thoughts of self-hatred. She helped him improve. Brutally honest with both her insults and her appraisals. That's what set her so far apart from others. What made Helen able to smile when he was with her. With her gleaming dark eyes and talent with her sword, she was someone to be feared. A fine CreepyPasta with a soft side for her quiet and reserved boyfriend.

The Puppeteer never did mind being the third wheel. He expected that. He could tolerate Judge Angel, and Helen was his best friend. He'd do anything for that man.

Then came the news.

Judge Angels, on the warm summer night, had challenged a CreepyPasta to a duel. Something unfortunately common between CreepyPasta. Both she and another wanted a specific victim. Neither was willing to back down. And, knowing that Helen would likely urge her to not follow through despite his participation in duels, she didn't tell him. She had thought she would come back. That's what Clockwork, one of her friends, had confirmed with trembling hands to Helen and the Puppeteer. That Judge Angels thought the outcome would be in her favor.

It certainly wasn't. Her opponent was a challenging one. Nurse Ann. A woman whose past was clouded in mystery and who had a track record for killing CreepyPasta simply because she could. Judge Angels must have thought this fight would also avenge those fallen Creepypastas. Her sense of justice, as warped as it was, almost held a sense of honor to it. She despised CreepyPasta that didn't work together. Probably used the victim as an excuse to challenge someone who held different ideals than her.

There wasn't even a body to mourn. Nurse Ann used her signature chainsaw as a weapon. Something that a sword wouldn't stand a chance against, no matter how sharp the blade or how fast the user. Nurse Ann also had ten years of experience more than Judge Angels. The Puppeteer couldn't bring himself to let Helen see her body. Or what was left of it. Nurse Ann never stopped after they were dead. She kept going out of her intense love of blood and gore. And his girlfriend had suffered the same fate.

It was Toby and Clockwork that had found the body. The two people who went on double dates with Judge Angels and Helen, and the two people Helen had considered close friends. Toby couldn't handle it. Oh, how he freaked out. Cried because his friend was dead and there was nothing that could be done other than wish she had never become a CreepyPasta. The Puppeteer only stood by as Clockwork tried to comfort Toby. What else could he do? All that mattered was Helen.

Then he found out Clockwork and Toby had known she was going out. Known what she was doing. She told them. They didn't tell Helen, the one person who could talk her down, out of respect for her choice.

Safe to say Toby and Clockwork weren't seen again by either Helen or the Puppeteer. He chased them out. Threw things at them. Tried to strangle them. It was their fault she went out and died, after all. He couldn't bring himself to blame her. Because Helen couldn't, and the Puppeteer couldn't do that to his friend.

So, he tried to find ways to make him feel better. Clockwork and Toby ended up being dead ends. Toby quit being a CreepyPasta altogether and Clockwork ended up in the arms of another woman he doubted would get along with Helen. He tried to be there for Helen, but the painter only became sadder and sadder until, one day, he couldn't even get out of bed. His insomnia got worse. His headaches became more frequent. He cried almost every day, begging Judge Angels to return and hold him.

The Puppeteer didn't have the heart to tell him that, even if she lived that attack, she wouldn't have any arms to hug him with. They couldn't even find one of them to bury with her body.

He wasn't enough. He realized that, in the early months of this year. Friendship itself wasn't working. It wasn't what made him truly happy before. It wasn't what brought him out of bed with a warm smile and enthusiasm. No, it was romance.

So that's why, in a desperate bid for his friend to not wither away entirely, he cashed in his favor with Offender to gain his roses. To use them to kidnap women. It was far easier than knocking them out and tying them up. And it allowed him to erase their memories, letting him leave them alive instead of killing them. He needed Helen to fall in love again. Needed someone to be there instead of the Puppeteer, because he wasn't enough. He wasn't someone who could help Helen fully.

Helen did mention before he did have an interest in men, but the Puppeteer knew he had a larger preference for women. So he aimed for those first, so one of them could replace Judge Angels. Be her. But none of them were like her, so the effort was fruitless. Countless women were kidnapped and returned when they all were terrified of his friend.

Then he heard about Sans.

A man dating CreepyPasta. A man who could look at them and accept them. One who date two and had a child with one of them. Who had love to give.

Who was surrounded by an army of defenders who, the Puppeteer knew, would kill him if he followed through on his plan.

Laughing Jack was someone to not be fucked with. He had a history. And the Puppeteer knew Jane, he knew she was quick in heels and had a good hand with a knife. Both were intense threats that meant he couldn't go in as he did with the other woman. It didn't help that Sans lived with Jeff the Killer, who had an ego so large he had a confrontation with Slenderman over one of his past proxies, and he now lived with Toby as well. Someone he long since wasn't very fond of.

And Laughing Jack was, obviously, the biggest threat. If the Puppeteer went through with this, he'd be on his target list. But Helen needed Sans more than Laughing Jack did. If Sans could fix that guy, he could help Helen.

And he knew he had to take that opportunity when one presented itself. Laughing Jack would probably kill him once he found out. But he had to. Helen was more important than that.