Chapter Four

Birdie grimaced, their head between their knees and their back against bottom of the couch. There was a bucket tucked under their legs just in case if they needed to throw up, but they were confident that they weren't going to. This wasn't their first rodeo, but this was one of the very few times that they hadn't just passed out right away.

G rummaged around the kitchen, looking for something light to give to the human, before finally settling on brewing tea for now. He silently hoped that they were feeling up to eating by the time it was done.

Birdie dry heaved, grabbing the bucket and pulling it closer to their face in case something came up.

Doc fluttered around them, checking and double checking their temperature. They were a little warmer than average but there wasn't much he could do right now, and he really didn't like the way they kept shaking and how their eyes kept fluttering close.

With an exhausted groan, Birdie set the bucket down with a thud and leaned their head back. Their ribs ached, it hurt to breath, the pounding headache they had certainly wasn't helping. Birdie couldn't remember the last time they had an… episode like this, they always made sure they ate enough protein but it seemed as if the last couple of days had been especially harsh.

Gentle mint colored hands carefully picked up the exhausted human and settled them on the couch. Birdie closed their eyes as Doc bundled them up in (several) blankets. Seconds, maybe minutes later, golden hands pinched at their cheeks, gently setting a warm mug in their cold hands. Opening their eyes was a struggle, all they wanted to do was fall asleep, but Doc wasn't letting them, and Birdie doubted that G was going to let them sleep either.

With a yawn, they lifted the mug to their lips. It wasn't goldenflower tea this time, but it was just as sweet and just as good. It still wasn't one Birdie was familiar with. They slowly sipped at it, too tired to really do much else.

"Well that was an exciting morning!" Doc sat on the other end of the couch, keeping an eye on his patient.

"it's three in the afternoon." G commented.

Doc chuckled and waved a dismissive hand, "Its morning somewhere, dear brother."

Birdie snorted into their mug of tea, missing the relieved looks Doc and G shared.

You walked down the hallway.

It had been some time since the "crossover", as you have started calling it, but you still couldn't help the swell of anxiety in your gut. Something felt very, very wrong. You had already updated every single one of your stories informing your readers that you weren't comfortable continuing them as the characters in them were real people, and that it didn't feel right to you to continue writing something that could potentially make them uncomfortable. You had even updated your blog that you were no longer posting on it and decided to remove yourself from the fandom, if it could still be considered a fandom at this point.

You were sad to see it go, but you knew that it would never leave. Literally. You were living a fanfiction now, and all you wanted was a guarantee that you wouldn't be running into any versions of the "main cast".

A door slammed shut. You sighed, your {redacted} was home and it sounded like he wasn't very happy. He was rarely happy these days since he lost his job to a monster who could do it better, for cheaper.

"{redacted}!" he called your name out. It was too late to go back into your room, he had already seen you, "{redacted} come here!"

He-

He was grinning for once. You didn't know why this scared you even more than when he was mad.

"-," he said, "I found people who can- but we have to move, okay? They're working on- , and they said I can help them-." he clapped your shoulder and practically pranced off. "They're picking us up on-!"

You opened your mouth to speak-

Birdie woke up suddenly with tears in their eyes, and static eating away at their dream. The room was quiet, way too quiet to even consider going back to sleep. Gently rubbing their eyes, they looked around.

The bed was ridiculously large, and they knew that if Doc and G were big, whoever this bed was for was even taller, because it was certainly big even by their standards. Birdie considered the other skeletons they knew about, but haven't met yet. Their stomach pinched in realization that there were simply too many, and that they were all here.

Pressure built up behind their eyes, a few tears escaping before they could get a grip on themself.

They never wanted this. They never asked for this to happen.

And now they were stuck.

A bubble of resentment build up in their chest, and they couldn't understand why. They were safe.

They shoved the blankets off of them, too hot to fall asleep now, and pulled a hoodie on. G's, they thought. One that they had borrowed from him yesterday after their episode. It had gotten too cold in his apartment and there wasn't enough blankets to bundle up in.

They pushed the door to their temporary room open and padded out of the waiting room into the cold night air. The stone was frigid underneath Birdies bare feet. They grimaced, and looked back at the door, debating whether or not they should go back in and put shoes on.

Squaring their shoulders, Birdie walked on.

It was as dark as it was cold outside, which was to say, very. Birdie walked forward, across the large town square. It was strange being in a large open area after avoiding them for so long.

It didn't take long for Birdie to hear the sound of rushing water.