Frisk woke up in Alphys' lab.
When I came to, I was lying on one of the beds that were used for the amalgamates in the true lab. I leaned forward, and tried to sit up only to be greeted with a huge wave of nausea. I flopped back onto the bed.
The lights were out, and it was cold underneath my thin blanket. I listened carefully for any sign of people, but I couldn't hear anything. I looked to the foot of my bed. No one was sitting at my bedside, but it looked like someone had pulled up a chair to sit beside me.
I took a deep breath and carefully lifted myself off of the bed top, and sat myself upright against the metal bed board. I took a better look around.
The amalgamate room hade been greatly expanded. It looked like there had to be at least two-hundred beds, and a couple of tables scattered throughout the room. There were beds upon beds of monsters sleeping next to me. Rows of people were bleeding through bandages. Wheezing children sat beside injured mothers, Nurses were sweeping dust into urns, soldiers were stuck in their armour, and glittering vials of liquid determination were sitting on empty beds. No one was making any noise, but I could feel their pain. The silent suffering of the wounded, and the grieving of the kids and family. I could hardly bear to see what had happened to all of the people that I was supposed to protect.
I started to feel their eyes drift upon me. What a lame excuse of a princess I was. I didn't even know that any of them were here! Let alone that this many were injured. Here I was. Knocked out because of a mere domestic fight. I suppose I knew what I was getting into, but that didn't make it appropriate or necessary. I felt awful. So many monsters...
"So this is what happened." I whispered.
I reached up to scratch my head, and nearly screamed out in pain when I grazed it. I guess I was hit pretty hard. I could feel a huge bump that spread from behind my right ear to back of my skull. I had to use every ounce of determination not to scream out in pain.
A moan echoed out from somewhere in the room.
I took another look at the monsters around me. They risked their lives trying to save the Monster race, and here I was bellyaching about a bruised head.
"This won't do." I thought to myself
*This fills you with DETERMINATION.*
I fully sat up in my bed. I managed to control my nausea, and slid my legs off the side of my bed and stood up. I swooned to the side, but caught my balance before falling over. I leaned against my bed board and waited to regain the nerve to try again. I stood up, and started to walk little, slow steps.
I spotted a nurses station and started to make my way over passing row upon row of the injured and dying. I arrived at the Nurse's table near the entrance of the west hallway. There wasn't anyone there, but there were half a dozen small medical bags lined in a row on top of the desk. I picked one up and examined it carefully. There were vials of determination, bandages, gauze, rubbing alcohol, and a bottle of pain killers. I thought it was strange to see so many vials of determination after the failed experiments, but I suppose Alphys had found a way to make it usable in first aid.
"I hope she isn't going on a whim." I thought to myself.
I took the medical bag and walked down the west hallway a little. There was a water fountain with canteens hung up along the wall. I filled two of the canteens and walked back into the room. i took a sip of the canteen. I felt much better after a drink, so I started to go around to see the patients.
The first monster I saw was a lesser dog. it was in a sorry state. It looked like it had been pierced with a spear. It wagged its tail as best it could. I gave it a pet and motioned for it to sit up. I changed the bandages on its abdomen, ignoring the oozing coming from its wound, and filled its water glass. I did the same to all the patients. I cheered them up a little bit, dressed their wounds, and refiled their water glasses. Everyone was different. The Tems insisted on having a few temflakes, the dogs all wanted a pet or a belly scratch, the Froggits loved soothing compliments, the Knight Knights loved lullabies... It had never occurred to me how many different monsters were out fighting.
I will never forget any of the monsters I saw that day. Not ever.
After I had seen all of the patients I went back to my bed. I had just realized that I was wearing a hospital gown and not my regular clothes, and was hoping to find my regular clothes, or a note telling me where to find them. after looking for a few minutes I found neither, so I went off to look for Alphys.
I look all over the lab and couldn't find her anywhere. Well, I didn't look in the core, and I didn't look in the room they converted into a surgery table. It was too dangerous to go wandering around in those rooms, so I decided to go up the elevator and look for her at her usual lab.
I found her immediately. She was going to use the elevator to go down and see the patients, and I was on my way up to find her and we almost ran into each other. I fell on my butt from the surprise and was laughing. Alphys was taken back for a few moments, but when she realized what had happened she started to frantically fuss over me.
"OH MY GOSH! Im so sorry, Frisk! I didn't mean to- Oh I'm such a klutz." Alphys said, slightly distressed.
"Hahahaha! Its OK Alphys. I was just looking for you." I laughed.
"Oh, Im sorry I wasn't down sooner. Its just- I- I don't really like being down there." Alphys said slightly ashamed.
"Thats alright. Everyone seems to be okay. I just finished going around giving everyone water." I replied, trying to make her feel better.
"T- Thats good. H- How are your wounds?" Alphys asked.
"Im fine. I was a little dizzy when I first stood up, but I should be okay. Im sorry to worry you." I apologized. I couldn't very well control what Sans did after I blacked out, but I wished he didn't take me to the doctors. I would've been fine on the couch.
"Well you actually sustained serious injuries when you were first brought here. Your entire skull was cracked and half of the bones in your body from the shoulders down had minor fractures. And that's just what happened to your bones. You were luck to have been brought here so quick. I was able to i- inject you with some liquid determination, and you healed almost immediately." Alphys said in a doctor-like tone.
I guess I wouldn't have been fine on the couch.
"Can I have my clothes before we go down? Its kind of cold in the lab." I asked.
"I- Im sorry. Sans took them t- to wash so they'd be clean for when you woke up. He left ab- about half an hour ago." Alphys stated apologetically.
"Thats okay." I replied.
Alphys pushed the down button, and the elevator doors closed.
"Whats with all the liquid determination? I thought it didn't work on monsters." I asked, curiously.
"W- Well, when we were on the surface I took some books about what y- you humans call "Modern Medicine" an- and some books on "Herbal Remedies" and "Natural Cures". I used the information from the books as a reference and s- started using a medical procedure called "Tolerance." B- Basically we give monsters very small dosages at a time, and slowly increases the dosage as their bodies learn to tolerate it. This process can be done naturally by becoming more determined over time by monsters own will, but we don't h- have time f- for that." Alphys answered
"Thats amazing!" I replied.
"Y-Yeah! Now monsters can be hit dozens of times before... before.." Alphys stated excitedly at first, then stopped short when she realized how horrid her statement was.
"I- Its okay. We have a lot more monsters coming home alive than dead, and thats a good thing." I added, swiftly.
"Yeah." alphas replied.
We were silent for the rest of the ride.
For the next hour or so I helped Alphys dress more wounds, administer determination, feed patients, bring around water, cheered monsters, and even helped perform a surgery on a greater dog. It was a simple operation to remove a bullet from a flesh wound. When we were finished we sat down at the west hall Nurse's station and ate some potato chisps, and talked about the new anime Alphys had brought down from the surface.
Just as we were discussing the likely hood of Princess Chops and Sir Cliddlehorn getting together, Sans walked in. Alphys stopped in the middle of her sentence, and I didn't realize why until I turned to look at what she was staring at.
Sans was staring at the floor, my clothes neatly folded and freshly washed in his hands. His skull was a shade of bright blue, and he swayed from one side of the hall to the other as if he was drunk.
"Sans?" I called out.
"Wha-" Sans looked up quickly, and started to blush a deeper blue when he saw me. He looked back to the floor and marched up to us and placed my clothes on the table.
"I, uh, washed 'em." Sans said, looking away from me.
"Thanks." I said.
I took my clothes and walked into the bathroom to change. He brought my sweater, a blue shirt, a pair of jeans, underwear, and my... oh god. He brought me my bra. *SIGHHHHHHHHhhhhhhh* Oh well. I put everything on, and looked in the small bathroom mirror. There was a green patch the size of my fist on the left side of my sweater. The bright green wasn't even the same holly material as my sweater was, and I wasn't even wearing it when we fought. Oh well. I collected myself and headed back out.
Sans was whispering with Alphys, and wen I got close enough for them to see me the ceased their conversation.
"So, uhhh. Im guessing you'd like to go home." Sans said.
"Yeah. Im starting to miss Papyrus." I replied honestly.
Sans looked at me. I couldn't tell what his expression was. Regret? Anger? Disappointment? Shame? I couldn't tell.
He started down the hallway without saying another word. When we got outside he led me through a shortcut and we were back home in no time. We didn't utter a word to each other the whole way there.
When we got home Papyrus was so happy to see me. We cooked extra fancy spaghetti, made a terrible sauce, watched one of Mettaton's programs, and solved a few puzzles. I fell asleep on the couch halfway through a word search, and Papyrus carried me to bed. He didn't ask me any questions about where I was, he wasn't even the least bit angry with me for leaving so suddenly. I couldn't help but love Papyrus for his unconditional brotherly love.
I woke up at a round one in the morning. I sat up in bed and looked over to Sans. He was sitting on his bed, leaning against the wall looking out the window. I got up and sat next to him. He didn't even glance at me when I sat down. We looked out the window for a seemingly endless amount of time, listening to the wind.
"I don't know what Im going to do with you." He said, not really directed at me.
"I don't know what I'm going to do with you, either" I replied.
For some time we just sat, looking at the trees.
"Whats the deal with the sword?" He asked, still looking our the window.
"I didn't want to use a stick." I replied, half joking.
Another pause.
"Im just as dangerous as any other monster." He said.
I didn't reply.
"I didn't realize how dangerous I was... How dangerous I am." He continued.
I hesitated before responding, "I deserved every last blow. No one should ever abandon the people they love."
Sans tensed at the statement.
A few minutes passed.
"Do ya remember when you gave me those flowers? and I said, 'You're pollen my leg, orchid you be serious?' Heh. And then I said, 'You need to be a lily more careful about the thorns.' when you pricked yourself handin' them to me?" Sans asked.
"Yeah." I replied.
Another pause
"Why did things have to get so complicated between us? " Sans asked, rhetorically. I answered anyway.
"Because things had never NOT been complicated." I replied.
After that we didn't talk anymore, and I eventually fell asleep on Sans' shoulder.
One thought echoed in my brain like a firework that night. Never fading, but persistent like a headache.
"Its never complicated when I'm with you."