Sans was lying in bed. He had pleaded that he was still in a lot of pain from yesterday's injection. And, truth be told, he was, just not physical pain.

He didn't understand what had happened. He didn't understand how he could go back. How he could change things like that. And he still could do it. He had tried, slipping into that blackness, able to reach for the buttons...

He always hit continue. He didn't want to reset, have to go through all that again...

More painful than that was the thought that, one of those times, he had let Papyrus be taken. He had let Papyrus be used for the DTW project.

He had broken his promise. He didn't want to do that. He didn't want to be like Gaster.

He couldn't break his promise.

.... he couldn't break his promise....

~o0o~

Jeff had decided that this was enough.

Seeing Sans on his knees like that, begging. Not even to not do the injection. Just to lower the dosage.

It was more than enough. Jeff could not simply stand by while this happened.

He had to do something. Now.

This had gone on for far too long!

~o0o~

It was late. Gaster was sitting at his desk, running some calculations.

It was strange. It seemed that Sans somehow had known he made a mistake. Looking at things now, hid he had gone on with the dosage increased as he had, Sans would have probably died.

How had Sans known when Gaster hadn't? Especially since Sans had never even seen the dosage calculations.

How had he known?

He would have to ask Sans. Perhaps the Determination gave Sans some sort of premonit--

Gaster's phone rung. He had stressed the importance to people of only calling him if there was imminent danger.

Grumbling, he answered the call with a sharp "What?"

"D-doctor Gaster!" A voice on the other end stuttered. "S-someone's fallen off the catwalks in the CORE!!"

Gaster growled a couple of irritated words. "I'll be there in a minute."

~o0o~

Sans was lying in bed. Papyrus was snuggled close to his chest, sound asleep.

Sans didn't sleep much anymore. Not well, at least. He always waited, tense, for that moment Gaster would come in and tell him to get up, that it was time to start for the day-...

He didn't sleep much.

And when the door opened, he flinched, curling tightly around Papyrus. He might have also whimpered a little, and cringed when a hand landed on his shoulder.

"Shh, shh. It's just me, Sans." Jeff. Sans relaxed. "Come on, we have to hurry."

Sans uncurled a little. "why? what are we doing?"

Jeff grinned with a surprising viciousness. "Getting you two outta this hell."

Sans was up immediately, holding Papyrus to his chest. "what?!"

"Yeah! Come on!" Jeff was already running out the door.

Sans bolted after him. "how's this working?" He asked as they reached the elevator.

"I'm going to take you to New Home. From there, my nephew will lead you to a hotel, where you can lay low until Gaster calms down."

"where is gaster?"

"At the CORE. My nephew wants to be an actor, so I had him call Gaster in one of playacting voices, that someone had fallen off one of the catwalks. When he gets there, he'll have to hunt all over to find them."

"but they won't be there!" Sans' grin widened.

"Exactly."

The elevator door opened, and they were racing out of the lab. This was the first time Papyrus had been not only in the elevator (that had scared him), but outside the lab. He let out a whimper as they entered the sweltering heat of Hotland. Sans hugged him tighter, reveling in the sudden exhilaration of freedom.

The same Determined feeling he felt the other day in the hallway filled him again, bubbling up in his chest, and Sans knew that if anything went wrong, he could return to this moment, and try again.

They ran on, coming to New Home. A short cat monster with an even more nervous disposition than Jeff's normal look was waiting for them. Really, he was more of a kitten-- probably seven or eight.

Jeff gave him a quick hug. "Hey, furball. You know where you're going?"

"Yes, Uncle Jeff. The hamsters' hotel."

"Yeah. Good." Jeff turned to Sans. "When you get there, sign in with the name 'Felinurst.' That way, I'll be able to come find you." He reached out, giving Sans a handful of gold. "And that should be enough for about six months' rent. To get food, just call room service. Don't leave until I tell you it's safe."

"jeff, i--... thank you."

Jeff shook his head. "No, Sans. I should have done something a long time ago."

"still."

Jeff smiled a little. Then he leaned forward and hugged Sans for a long moment. Eventually, he pulled away.

"Now go! I need to get back to the lab!"

Sans nodded, and took off after Jeff's nephew, who had already started running.

From there, everything went smoothly. They made it to the hotel. Sans checked in with the name Felinurst, and paid the six months' rent.

The room wasn't large, or anything special. It was room number twenty six, on the second floor. It was just a kitchenette, a bathroom with a shower you could hardly turn around in, and a small bedroom with a small tv at the foot of the queen size bed.

But to Sans, it was heaven.

He and Papyrus were safe there. Sans didn't have to worry about the next experiment, or Gaster getting annoyed and taking Papyrus, or dying.

It was... exhilarating.

There was practically nothing to do in that small hotel room, but Sans was so excited, he didn't know what to do first.

And then he remembered the small life in his arms, the way Papyrus was clinging to his shirt, shaking with fear. So, first was calming Papyrus down.

Sans sat down in the middle of the kitchenette floor, and relaxed his grip on Papyrus.

"hey, pap, 's okay. we're okay. we're safe here."

Continuing to speak softly to him and rubbing his back, Sans gradually coaxed Papyrus's grip to loosen, to get his brother to slowly crawl out of his lap.

"there, see?" Sans murmured softly, as his brother's fear gave way to curiosity. "it's okay. we're safe here. no more hurting."

Papyrus didn't fully understand what Sans was saying, but he could hear the soft contentedness in his brother's voice. That made him happy.

So he stood up and toddled over to Sans, flopping forward to hug him. Sans chuckled and returned the hug.

And then, the exploration commenced. Papyrus wanted to know all the ins and outs of the room, and Sans humored him, "discovering" all the interesting things, such as the minifridge in the kitchenette, or the tv, or the shower.

They both got thoroughly doused with the last one, and, in pulling off their clothes to squeeze them out as best he could, Sans was suddenly reminded of his first time in Snowdin. They had ended up at Gaster's house, drenched, and--

No. No, that time is done and gone. I need to think about right here, right now. About Papyrus.

After setting out their clothes to dry, Sans pulled two blankets off the bed, one for each of them to wrap up in. Sans made a mental note to ask Jeff about getting more clothes next time he saw him. They only had one pair each.

They were huddled to each other, when Papyrus let out a small whine. "Sa-an'..."

"yeah?"

"... Nyeh..."

"hungry?"

Papyrus nodded.

Sans remembered what Jeff had said, about getting room service. He got up and walked over to the small table beside the door, on which there was a phone. Under it was a phone guide, and then a room service menu. He was looking through it, and about to ask Papyrus what he wanted, when he realized that Papyrus had never had anything beside the food solution. Sans hadn't had much else recently, either.

So he flipped through the menu a bit, looking for something simple and plain, that wouldn't taste too wild or shocking. Something to ease Papyrus into this entire new world, something warm, and probably liquidy, as that was what he was used to.

Finally, he found it.

He ordered to room service: two hot dogs and a ketchup bottle for himself, and a bowl of oatmeal for Papyrus.

The food arrived.

Anticipating the potential mess, Sans brought Papyrus into the kitchenette, where the floor was tile. They sat down, and Sans set the bowl of oatmeal in front of Papyrus. Papyrus looked at it, confused.

"here, lemme help. open your mouth."

Papyrus did so, and Sans scooped up a spoonful of oatmeal and dumped it into Papyrus's mouth. "there ya go. eat that."

Papyrus did so, his expression one of wild wonder.

Then he opened his mouth again. "Nyeh?"

"more?"

Papyrus nodded.

Sans chuckled, and scooted a little closer to Papyrus to feed him more easily.

He knew that Papyrus could easily hold the spoon and feed himself, but... in all honesty, Sans enjoyed this. He liked being able to take care of his brother like this, with no interfering problems like--

... Like falling unconscious during an experiment, and not being around to help Papyrus for a while.

But now he didn't have to worry about that. They were safe here, safe enough that, if Sans wanted, he could snuggle up to his brother and take the time to spoon-feed him, if he wanted.

After the first few spoonfuls, Papyrus wanted to feed himself. Sans let him. It made a mess everywhere.

Sans didn't mind, though. He could clean it up. Without Gaster coming in and telling him it was time for an injection.

He did so. Then he cleaned Papyrus off in the shower. Then he cleaned himself off in the shower.

By then, their clothes were dry. They abandoned the blankets and got dressed again.

Then they curled up together in bed, and slept.

~o0o~

Gaster was furious.

To see him mad, that was terrifying. He yelled and shouted and swore, sometimes threw things, sometimes threatened people.

But when he was furious... That was another story.

He was cold. Icy calm. Said exactly what he meant. Moved with a sharp precision.

And his eyesockets went completely black, dark voids of icy rage.

There was a not-so-funny joke that went around the lab about that. How he was seldom seen like this, and no one ever saw it coming; how if he only wore black, instead of the white lab coat, he would be the Grim Reaper. Death itself.

Gaster knew of this reputation. He didn't contradict it.

When he found Jeff on the third floor, he stopped.

"Jeff. C o m e ."

Everyone in the room stopped, looking from Jeff to Gaster and back again.

Slowly, looking nervous and confused, Jeff came. Followed Gaster down the hall, into an empty lab.

Gaster immediately rounded on him. "W H E R E   A R E   T H E Y ?"

"W-what?" Jeff stammered. In all the time he had worked with Gaster, he had only seen him like this three or four times. It still scared him.

"My test subjects. Where are they?"

"They're not-- not in your lab?"

"No. What did you do with them?"

"What did I--?! Nothing! You said you would kill me if I did anything!"

"That was before you became attached."

"Gaster, I didn't do anything!"

Gaster scrutinized the cat monster. But he saw no giveaway, no tell that Jeff was lying.

So, signing a number of expletives in Hands, he stalked out of the room. He had test subjects to find, and no time to waste with clueless assistants.

Jeff was left alone in the room, silently thankful for his nephew's insistence that Jeff practice acting skills with him.

§

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