Sans had been awake for a good few hours now.

He had fallen asleep some time after Jeff had come... and then was forced out. How long he had been asleep he didn't know, but he had been awake for several hours.

At least, he thought it had been. It felt like hours. Maybe it hadn't been. Maybe it had only been a few minutes.

Maybe, it had been an eternity.

Maybe, decades had passed outside the lab, and monsters had all gone on with their lives, lived with their families, alive and well, and fathers took care of their children--

"Sans."

Sans half-opened his right eye. As soon as he did so, a wave of nausea flooded over him, but he forced it down. Gaster was standing beside the table, looking down at Sans.

"... hnnngn..."

"I need to take the bandage off. Check to make sure everything's still healing right."

"... 'kay." He closed his eye again.

"Sit up."

Sans blew out a slow breath. His head still hurt, and moving too much made him feel sick.

"Sans. Sit up."

Sans took a deep breath. Slowly, right eye still tightly closed, he pushed himself up on his elbows. He paused there for a moment, breathing slowly to ward off the oncoming nausea. After a moment, he began to push himself to sit up.

By the time he was sitting upright, he felt like he was going to puke. He was shivering fiercely, and doubted he would be able to stay upright for long.

Suddenly, though, there was something pressed against his back, supporting the base of his skull, keeping him up. Sans realized it was Gaster's arm, his hand holding Sans' head in place.

Sans leaned into Gaster's arm, still trembling and nauseous, but just a bit less so with the support.

Gaster, meanwhile, began unwrapping the bandages around Sans' skull. Once the bandages were off, Gaster tilted Sans' skull forward, looking along the back of it.

Sans tried to stay still, stop trembling. He took deep breaths, eyes tightly closed, trying to block out the pain in his skull and the nausea that made his vision swim.

Then a sharp stab of agony tore through his skull. He cried out, lurching forward and away from the pain.

Gaster let him sit for a moment, hunched over, head nearly to his knees, breathing hard, before carefully but firmly forcing him up again. This time, though, Gaster gripped Sans' jaw, tilting his skull upwards.

"Open your eyes."

"n-no-..." Sans whimpered. Opening his eyes would only mean more nausea.

"Sans."

"n-no-- don'-- wanna--... m-makes me s-i-ick-..."

Gaster sighed frustratedly. "Sans, I need to see your eye. The sooner I can make sure everything is in order, the sooner you can go to bed."

Bed... sounded good. Sans wanted to go to bed. He wanted to curl up under the covers and sleep, sleep forever, just sleep.

Slowly, taking shaky breaths, Sans opened his eyes. He struggled against the wave of nausea that threatened to drown him, his trembling getting worse every second, his breaths coming sharp and fast.

Gaster stood, holding his skull back, looking into, or, rather, at his left eye.

Eventually, just when it seemed Sans would pass out, Gaster nodded once, releasing his grip on Sans' jaw. Sans immediately ducked his head and hunched his shoulders, eyes snapping shut.

Gaster let him sit like that for a few seconds, before lifting his skull once more and beginning to wrap the bandage around it again, covering Sans' left eye socket once more. When he finished, he lowered Sans again back onto the table, and started detaching the various sensors across his body.

When he finished that, he said, slowly, "And I suppose you're not going to be walking yourself to bed?"

Sans just gave a small, barely perceptible shake of the head.

So Gaster scooped him up and started walking. There was no love in his grip, and the only gentleness was to ensure Sans was not damaged, rather than for comfort. He strode into the small bedroom and set Sans down on the bed, not bothering with the covers.

Sans was so intent on trying to breathe steadily, on calming the nausea that threatened sickness, on pushing away the pounding in his skull, that he did not hear Gaster leave, didn't hear the swish of the door closing, didn't hear the soft click as Gaster turned the door's lock.

And as Sans finally began to slip into something resembling sleep, he came to a conclusion. This was not the same Dings he had known all his life. This person who was here now was not the same Dings who had raised him for fourteen years.

This was Dr. Gaster, now, the Royal Scientist.

~o0o~

Jeff was still sitting in the hallway when Gaster stepped out of his lab.

The tall skeleton paused after locking the door to his lab, peering down at the cat monster. "What are you doing?"

"Waiting." Was Jeff's short response.

"...For?"

"You to let me in to see Sans."

Gaster just scoffed and walked away.

And Jeff sat there.

And waited.

It was rather boring, sitting there. But it was okay. It was the least he could do; Sans needed him, and he wanted to help Sans.

So he sat there.

Eventually, Gaster returned, a folder tucked under his arm. He stopped in front of Jeff. "Still here, I see."

"Yes."

"Have you moved?"

"Not really, no."

"Hm."

Gaster unlocked the door to his lab and slipped inside, pulling the door closed behind him.

And Jeff sat there. Honestly, he should have planned this better. Gotten some food before deciding to stay there. He was getting really hungry.

But, he would stay there. Sans needed him, and he wanted to help Sans.

More time passed, and Gaster came out of his lab again, a sheaf of papers in his hands. He dumped these in Jeff's lap.

"If you're just sitting there, you may as well do some work."

Jeff gathered up the papers, shuffled them into a neat stack, and set it on the floor beside him, then folded his hands over his chest. "Or, you could let me in to check on Sans."

Gaster practically rolled his eyes, before disappearing back into his lab.

Jeff allowed himself a small grin. This was working better than he had expected it to. If things kept up like this, it would only be a few more hours before Gaster caved.

~o0o~

It was more than a few hours.

Checking his watch, Jeff saw it was nearly one in the morning. He was starving, and hadn't seen Gaster since the Royal Scientist had tried to get him to work.

Jeff stuffed his hands into his lab coat pocket, and was pleased to find that he did, in fact, have a snack bar in one pocket.

But, he might be sitting here for a while, so best to ration it.

He broke it into quarters, stuck three of the quarters back in the wrapper and that back into his pocket, and started to chew on the quarter he had kept out.

After eating that, he fell asleep, there in the hallway.

He was awoken around three in the morning by the sound of Gaster's lab door opening.

And yet again, Gaster stopped, irked. "You're still here?"

Blinking the sleep from his eyes, Jeff looked up at Gaster. "Yeah. And I'm going to stay here until you let me see Sans."

Gaster let out an irritated breath, dragging his hand down his face. "... Fine. Come on, make it fast."

Jeff scrambled to his feet, and followed Gaster into the lab. Sans wasn't still on the steel table, though.

"Where...?"

"This way."

Gaster led Jeff to a door, and unlocked it. Inside was Sans' small bedroom, and, curled up on the mattress, was Sans himself.

Jeff let out an involuntary gasp of pity, hurrying forward to the mattress, reaching out to Sans. At his touch, Sans flinched away, whimpering and trembling.

Jeff paused a moment.

While healing Magic was mostly used for healing physical damage and restoring HP, it also helped with things such as anxiety, and calms people down.

So when Jeff reached forward again, soft greenish flickers of healing Magic played across his hands. He was, after all, a doctor, and healing was his main skill.

This time, Sans whimpered, but didn't pull away. Jeff gently rubbed Sans' shoulders, working the Magic into his body. It took a little while, but gradually, Sans began to calm down. His slight trembling eased, his breathing leveled out.

Jeff kept at it with the healing Magic, rubbing Sans' shoulders and back and arms, cradling Sans' skull in his other hand.

Eventually, Sans stirred a little. He twisted a bit to look up at Jeff with his not-bandaged eye. "... jeff...?"

Jeff gave him a small smile and nodded. "Shhh, just relax, Sans. It's okay, I'm here. You're going to be okay."

Sans just let out a small, agreeable sound.

"Do you want to try to sit up?"

A small nod.

"Okay. I'll help you."

Sans sat up and leaned against Jeff. Like this, Jeff could feel each of the little tremors that ran through the small skeleton's frame.

For a minute or two, Jeff just hugged Sans.

Then, quietly, "Have you eaten recently?"

Sans shook his head.

"Are you hungry? I have a little food..."

For a moment, Sans hesitated. Then he gave a small nod.

Jeff pulled one of the three remaining quarters of the snack bar out of his pocket and handed it to Sans.

Sans took the small morsel in both hands, clutching it like a squirrel with a nut. After a second, he shoved it towards his jaw. Jeff looked away for the moment that Sans was slipping the food into his mouth, still preferring to never see that again.

And then Sans was snuggling against his chest again. Jeff hugged him, rocking gently back and forth.

Slowly, Sans relaxed more and more, his breaths becoming more spaced out, and the trembling stopping entirely.

Jeff kept Sans pressed to his chest, still gently rubbing the healing Magic into Sans' bones.

And finally, Sans slept, deep and peacefully, his face relaxed so the permanent smile almost seemed genuine.

Carefully, Jeff lowered Sans onto the mattress, tucking him under the blankets. For another minute or two, he stayed there, hand resting on Sans' skull.

Then he turned to leave.

Gaster was at the door. "Well. I will admit, that was... impressive. Now I know where to go if I have any more... problems."

Jeff wanted to tell Gaster to go solve his own problems, to leave Sans alone, to stop all this stupidity. But that would lose him his job, and Sans needed him, and he would be there for Sans.

So he just nodded grimly, and left.

He would be there for Sans.

§

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