Gaster looked over his notes one last time. He had to be 100% sure on this. He knew what happens when DT is injected into a monster's soul because he'd done it to Sans. But Sans was alright, he gotten it out and the DT Extractor had been improved vastly. He'd inject it into his own soul, observe it for a few days or weeks and if it started looking bad he's strap himself into the machine and get it out. He'd be fine as long as it was properly controlled but he had to do it alone. This was the kind of experiment Sans had been volunteering for so he didn't want to give him ideas. He also knew Asgore would not approve of monster testing and would defiantly try to stop him.

Gaster rubbed his skull, looking down at the papers, he didn't need to prepare a lot of things; only a sterile needle, a camera to record the results, the DT Extractor and of course DT. He'd need to do it alone, maybe he could call Asgore and see if he wanted to watch the boys for a while.

Speaking of the boys...

Gaster sighed as Papyrus screamed out his best war cry and jumped off of the table he was standing on and onto Sans's back, arms around his neck and legs around his torso. "GO HORSEY! TO THE DARK LORD'S LAIR!" Papyrus yelled, letting go with one hand and pointing forward.

"i think you're getting too big for this bro," Sans said, he looked like he was struggling to keep a hold of his brother.

"NO! YOU'RE JUST LAZY!" Papyrus tapped the top of Sans's skull with his fist, "ONWARD!"

Sans groaned and Gaster decided he should put a stop to it before they got hurt. "I THINK THAT'S ENOUGH. PAPYRUS, LET YOUR BROTHER GO."

"NO!"

"PAPYRUS, NOW."

The four year old whined, "I DON'T WANT TO!"

"please, bro, you're kinda heavy and i don't wanna drop you."

"NO!"

Gaster was about to scold his youngest but Sans spoke first, "hey papyrus, if you keep being a naughty little skeleton, we'll have to put you in a rib cage!"

Papyrus got off of Sans quickly once he said that, "NO! THAT WAS HORRIBLE!"

Sans was in a fit of laughter, as was Gaster although he tried to contain it.

Papyrus stomped his foot a few times, "NO, STOP LAUGHING, IT WASN'T FUNNY!"

Sans managed to stop laughing only to poke his brother's cheek bone and through giggles he said "aw, come on, bro, you're smiling!"

"I AM NOT!"

"you are~"

Papyrus summoned a blue bone attack into his hand and raised it up, he looked to make sure Sans saw it and was standing still before bringing it down on him, again and again.

"ok, ok, i'm sorry!" Sans called, Papyrus didn't stop.

Gaster realised he should really put an end to this quickly, he stood up and grabbed his cane before walking or limping rather, over to his sons as quickly as he could. He knew Papyrus wouldn't hurt Sans but if Sans moved or if Papyrus, who was still very new to this more advanced magic, lost control it could end really badly. He carefully took hold of Papyrus's wrist and lowered his arm. "THAT'S ENOUGH, PAPYRUS! DON'T HURT YOUR BROTHER! THIS ISN'T SAFE! IF SANS EVEN FLINCHES HE'D GET BADLY HURT, YOU KNOW HOW LITTLE HIS HP IS," Gaster told his son firmly.

Papyrus dispelled his attack and looked down at the ground, realising he was in trouble, "I'M SORRY, DADDY."

"IT'S ALRIGHT, YOU DIDN'T MEAN ANY HARM. JUST DON'T DO THAT EVER AGAIN AND APOLOGISE TO YOUR BROTHER!"

"SORRY, SANS!"

"it's ok, bro."

"THERE, FRIENDS AGAIN," Gaster smiled at his boys, "BUT I THINK YOU BOTH HAVE TOO MUCH ENERGY, MAYBE YOU SHOULD GO PLAY OUTSIDE?"

Papyrus gasped and began jumping up and down, "CAN WE?"

"YES, JUST DON'T WANDER TOO FAR AND BE BACK BEFORE FIVE. AND SANS KEEP AN EYE ON PAPYRUS, DON'T FALL ASLEEP!"

Sans nodded and took Papyrus's hand, "don't worry. i'm not a little kid, we'll be fine."

Papyrus began to pull Sans along towards the door, "LET'S GO! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL DEFEAT THE DARK LORD AND SAVE THE PRINCESS! ... AND YOU ARE PLAYING BOTH PARTS!"

Sans laughed as he allowed himself to be pulled along, "you're so cool, bro."

"I KNOW! AND YOU, BROTHER, ARE COOL TO!"

Gaster watched them leave with a final shout of "BE GOOD," which was met with his boys each giving him a thumbs up.

Limping back to his desk, Gaster sat with a thud and turned on his computer, bringing up live security footage so he could keep an eye on his sons while they played outside the lab. He picked up the notes again, this was it. He got his kids out of the lab without them being suspicious of what he was doing and he knew they'd be outside for a while. He worked fast anyway.

"ENTRY NUMBER ONE.

DT WAS SUCCESSFULLY INJECTED INTO THE SUBJECT.

NO NOTABLE DIFFERENCES YET.

I WILL BEGIN THE TESTS.

I WILL START WITH A SIMPLE ONE.

A TEST OF THE HEALING POSSIBILITIES OF DT.

I WILL CUT THE SUBJECT AND SEE HOW FAST THE WOUND HEALS.

THE EXTRACTOR IS ON STANDBY."

[Error. Error. Retracted. File does not exist.]

Sans slammed his fist onto the desk, he needed those journals, he needed that research. He thought this would be it, he thought for sure they'd be here and that he could open them. They were his only lead.

"ENTRY NUMBER TWO.

SUBJECT IS STABLE, ONLY SHOWING SLIGHT DEFORMATION.

SMALL CUTS AND FRACTURES HEAL QUICKLY.

THE SUBJECT SOMETIMES BLACKS OUT, IT IS UNKNOWN IF THIS IS AN EFFECT OF THE DT OR SOMETHING ELSE...

THE SUBJECT ISN'T REALLY THE HEALTHIEST.

WITH THIS MUCH DT I FEEL LIKE I'M GETTING SOMEWHERE.

SUBJECT CAN...

FEEL TIME AND SPACE. ALMOST SEE THE WORLD'S CODE...

I CAN MANIPULATE IT WITH THE RIGHT AMOUNT OF DT AND TECH."

[Error. Error. Retracted. File does not exist.]

He needed it. He'd only seen one entry. He needed them all.

Sans deiced to keep trying, he owed it to Papyrus.

"ENTRY NUMBER THREE.

THE FIRST MACHINE HAS BEEN BUILT.

SANS AND ALPHYS HAVE BEEN VALUABLE ASSISTANTS.

IT WAS SO EASY WITH THEM HELPING.

THEY'LL DO WELL IN MY PLACE ONCE I'M GONE.

THIS MACHINE WILL HELP TO MANIPULATE SPACE, IT'LL GIVE THE SUBJECT THE ABILITY TO FOLD REALITY TO ALLOW FOR TELEPORTATION.

WE MAY SIMPLY BE ABLE TO TELEPORT OUT."

[Error. Error. Retracted. File does not exist.]

"oh come on, one of these fuckers has to work!" Sans was getting annoyed with it now. It had taken such a considerable amount of time to get the computer to work again, he'd wasted so much time on it. There had to be something here. He was desperate, desperate for anything, no matter how small.

Gaster nodded to his followers as they strapped him onto the metal table, a huge laser gun above him, they looked worried but Gaster had done all he could to reassure them he'd be fine. He had to do this, he was closer than ever to setting monster kind free. If he could teleport to the surface he could go to a human hospital and take seven souls form the recently diseased then he could come back and free everyone. He was the only one who could do this, the only boss monster, except for the King and Toriel and the only monster to have determination.

"dad? are you sure about this?" Sans asked. He was standing at his father's feet, wearing a lab coat over his stripped hoodie. Alphys was by his side looking just as nervous as he was but too scared to say anything.

"I'LL BE FINE, SANS, IT'S PERFECTLY SAFE."

"then let me do it instead."

"NO, YOU'RE STILL JUST A KID SANS, I CAN'T PUSH THE RESPONSIBILITY ONTO YOU." A weak excuse but he couldn't let anyone know about the injections he'd been giving himself.

"dad i-"

"YOU'RE ELEVEN, DON'T SAY YOU'RE NOT A KID, YOU ARE."

Sans nodded, "i'm staying next to the emergency stop button. i don't care how much you tell me not to press it, if i think you're in even the slightest amount of danger i'm mashing it."

Gaster sighed, his poor son was so scared although he seemed to be trying to hid it. It wasn't like Gaster could blame him. Sans was still traumatised after all.

Gaster gave Sans a firm nod and he watched as Sans made his way over to the button, Papyrus was there as well, interested in what they were doing. Gaster was happy about that. Papyrus didn't seem that interested in science, he was more interested in cooking and the engineering of puzzles, so having him interested in this was a surprise. It was probably because his father was the test subject.

Once Gaster was sure everyone was at a safe distance he gave the order to turn on the lasers and the machine came to life. Gaster let out a scream as the laser shot into his broken eye, another reason he was a good candidate for this. There was a change that it could cause blindness and he was already half blind so it didn't matter.

Gaster felt really dizzy, like the whole room was spinning, it probably was, for him anyway as space was bent and broken around him. It was disorienting but not painful.

"dad!"

"DADDY!"

Gaster hardly heard his sons shouting but he couldn't understand why they were. The machine was working, he was fine... Right?

He saw Sans's two glowing eyes grow bigger as he came closer. Gaster didn't know if it was because space was being messed with or if it was because Sans was running towards him.

The next thing he saw was the laser move away from him and hit Sans in the right eye, he screamed out but the laser was still going. It shot into his eye for about ten seconds before the machine crashed to the ground, still firing but hitting a wall. Sans groaned in pain and collapsed onto the floor with a thud. Gaster tried to sit up, he didn't know what was happening but Sans was hurt and he needed to help him, but he couldn't move; he was tired down tightly. He began to panic and pull at his restraints but the dizziness just got worse and he began to weaken... How did he lose that much HP?

The last thing he heard before he passed out was Papyrus shouting; "THE BUTTON'S WORKING AGAIN!"

Gaster awoke in another room, on a bed. He sat up fast and felt dizzy, dizzier than he'd ever felt before, his empty eye socket hurt and he felt like he might puke. He did, suddenly. Someone just managed to push a bucket in front of him to catch it. Whoever it was, was at his blind side so he turned to see Papyrus sitting on Alphys's lap. Gaster squinted a little trying to see them, still feeling rather dizzy. Papyrus handed his father his glasses and Gaster put them on, the dizziness subsided slightly now his vision was back to normal but didn't go completely. Both Papyrus and Alphys looked at him with with a frown, they were clearly worried about him.

"DADDY! ARE YOU OKAY NOW?" Papyrus blurted out.

Gaster groaned in response before shaking his head, trying to rid himself of the dizziness. "PAPY..." He let out another groan and grabbed his head. "WHAT HAPPENED?"

"T-the machine... um, w-well it m-malfunctioned, w-we couldn't c-control the l-level of intensity and um, well... i-it was too much f-for you to t-take, y-you were p-passing out and um, l-losing HP... a-and the emergency s-stop didn't work either," Alphys explained looking rather guilty.

Everything came rushing back to Gaster and he turned to get up, after putting the puke bucket to the side. "WHERE'S SANS!? IS HE ALRIGHT? OH GOD..."

"S-Sans is f-fine. H-he ran forward b-before we could stop h-him. He s-saved you but hasn't w-woken yet." Alphys gestured behind herself to another bed where Sans was lying, still unconscious but he was alive and Gaster felt a rush of relief.

He stood up as fast as he could, he didn't have his cane so he struggled to limp to his eldest's side, ignoring Alphys and Papyrus's pleas for him to rest. Once there he collapsed to his knees and took hold of Sans's hand, he couldn't stop his sobbing as he muttered apologises to him over and over again.

He looked up once he heard Sans groan. Sans opened his eyes, his left glowing but his right remained normal. The glow slowly disappeared and he rolled his head to the side. "oh, hey daddy'o, you look like shit," he mumbled and then let out a groan, "...that was fucking terrifying."

Gaster didn't have it in him to scold Sans for swearing, he simply got onto the bed pulled his son in for a hug. Gaster held his son tightly and Sans began to cry as he hugged his father back just as tightly. Soon Papyrus joined them by jumping onto the bed and grabbing onto his father and brother. Gaster removed one arm from Sans to hug Papyrus as well and the three cried together in a group hug, listening to Gaster's sobbed apologises.

The Gasters let go of each other once they calmed down. Gaster gently caressed his sons' faces, he never wanted to let them go. "I'M SO SORRY," he said again, "I LOVE YOU TWO SO MUCH, I CAN'T BELIEVE I EVER PUT YOU IN DANGER!"

"THAT WAS REALLY SCARY," Papyrus shot forward, practically gluing himself to Gaster's side who then placed a gentle, comforting hand on his youngest's back.

"IT'S OKAY PAPYRUS, WE'RE ALL OKAY NOW...ARE YOU ALRIGHT SANS?" Gaster asked, he noticed that Sans kept blinking his right eye and rubbing at it.

"um... don't freak out but i can't see right out of my right eye."

Gaster's jaw dropped and Papyrus gasped.

"YOU... YOU'RE BLIND IN THAT EYE?" Gaster asked slowly.

Sans shook his head, "no...? i don't think so? it's just all really... blurry?" he closed his left eye just looking out of his broken one. "yeah, blurry, like the world is spinning but my left eye is fine."

"Y-you were h-hit with the l-laser when you u-used b-blue magic to m-move it," Alphys spoke up, she'd been watching the whole exchange awkwardly in the corner. "Y-your lucky t-that you d-did s-start losing HP as w-well."

Gaster put his head in his hands, he couldn't believe what a huge failure this was. He'd hurt his own son; ruined his eyesight, could've killed him. He felt guilty, he felt his sins crawling on his back.

Seeing his father look so distraught, Sans placed a hand on his shoulder, he wanted to comfort him and let him know he didn't blame him. "hey, i'm ok. i'm not blind and we're both alive, that's what's important. i'll get used to it... probably... i hope..."

Gaster nodded. "YOU'RE RIGHT, I LOVE YOU SANS AND I'M SO SORRY. I SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE THAT."

Sans pulled his father down to him and hugged him. "it's ok. i forgive you."

The room went silent for a few minutes and Gaster simply held his children close until Papyrus spoke up, "SO, DID IT WORK?"

Gaster looked down at his son and shrugged. "DUNNO, I'LL TEST IT NOW." He stood up, he legs felt weak but he simply wanted to see if he could teleport.

"Um... D-Doctor Gaster, m-maybe you should r-rest?"

"I'M FINE. WE'RE ON A SCHEDULE!"

"Y-yes but we don't know w-what'll happen. What i-if you t-teleport into a w-wall o-or something?"

Gaster shrugged and faded away, leaving the other three confused and a little panicked. "what just-" Sans began.

Gaster came limping back into the room now with his cane. "IT WORKED!" he said happily. "I JUST NEED SOME PRACTICE. I WENT RIGHT WHERE I WANTED TO BE BUT WHEN I CAME BACK I ENDED UP OUTSIDE OF THE ROOM INSTEAD. ONCE I GET THE HANG OF IT I CAN TRY TO LEAVE THE UNDERGROUND."

"COOL!" Papyrus clapped his hands and bounced on the bed.

"wow ok. well at least something good happened. don't do anything like that again though."

"SANS, CAN YOU DO THAT TO?" Papyrus asked, turning fast in the air and stopped his bouncing. "YOU GOT HIT WITH THE LASER TO!"

Sans shrugged, "probably not..."

Gaster looked at his eldest, he hoped he could. He didn't want Sans leaving the Underground before it was safe but teleportation could be useful, especially for running away and he wanted something good to come out of that horrible accident. He hated how Sans had gotten hurt and didn't want Sans's vision destroyed for nothing. Although Sans didn't have DT anymore but that probably wasn't really necessary for short distant teleportation, the machine was probably enough for that.

"TRY IT," Gaster urged.

"how?"

Gaster shrugged again, "I JUST KIND OF DID IT? THINK ABOUT WHERE YOU WANT TO GO AND... WILL IT?"

Sans took a deep breath, he didn't even know where he wanted to go, he could try to teleport straight to his own bed but he'd have to come back to stop his family from freaking out.

He got an idea and closed his eyes. Then Sans faded away much like Gaster had.

"AAH," Grillby screamed, sparks flying off of him and one hand grabbing his chest, the other gripped the stove top as he blinked down at Sans who had just appeared in front of him.

"heya, hot shot," Sans laughed at his own joke and grabbed a ketchup bottle off of the counter top.

"...Sans," Grillby said slowly, "...Where did you come from?... I thought you were in Hotland?"

Sans snapped his fingers, shot Grillby finger guns and winked, the ketchup now in his pocket and faded away again.

"that. was. awesome!" Sans said as soon as he saw his family and Alphys again.

"YOU CAN DO IT! THAT'S GREAT!" Gaster smiled proudly and hugged his son again.

"ok, ok! dad! stop hugging me!" Sans protested as he tried to shove his father away.

"WHERE DID YOU GO?" Papyrus interrupted, clearly very interested in his father and brother's new powers. He was once again jumping on the bed.

"i teleported."

"YES, BUT WHERE?" Papyrus pouted but didn't stop his bouncing.

"grillby's," Sans said as he squirted some ketchup into his mouth. "poor guy screamed. I must have given him quite the scare."

"SANS, THAT'S MEAN! YOU NEED TO SAY SORRY!" Papyrus scolded his big brother.

Gaster frowned at the bottle, "YOU STOLE THAT, DIDN'T YOU?"

Sans lowered the bottle at blinked at it, "... more like i forgot to pay?"

"IT'S COMING OUT OF YOUR ALLOWANCE," Gaster said as he faded away again, reappearing in Grillby's kitchen.

Grillby, who was in the same position trying to make sense of what just happened, screamed again, even more sparks flying, when he saw Gaster suddenly appear before him.

"I AM VERY SORRY ABOUT MY SON," Gaster apologised with a bow and offered no explanation for what happened, he placed the gold on the counter and faded away again.

Grillby slid down to the floor, wondering if he was so overworked that he was losing his mind but the ketchup that was missing from the counter and replaced by gold was proof that wasn't true.

He lent back hitting his head on the wall with a thud and muttered out, "... Those skeletons are so weird..."

"ENTRY NUMBER FOUR.

A HUGE SUCCESS AND TWO HUGE FAILURES.

SUCCESS: SUBJECT CAN TELEPORT.

FAILURE: SUBJECT CANNOT TELEPORT OUTSIDE THE BARRIER.

IT SEEMS THE BARRIER ACCOUNTS FOR TELEPORTATION.

TRULY NOTHING CAN GET OUT WITHOUT A HUMAN SOUL.

I WILL HAVE TO LOOK INTO TIME TRAVEL INSTEAD OF THE MANIPULATION OF SPACE AND MATTER, IF WE ARE TO BE FREE.

THE OTHER (BIGGER) FAILURE IS THAT UNFORTUNATELY SANS WAS HIT WITH THE LASER.

I THINK HE'S FINE.

IT'LL TAKE SOME TIME FOR HIM TO GET USED TO BEING PARTIALLY BLIND IN ONE EYE BUT HE'S STRONGER THAN HE APPEARS.

TELEPORTATION OR AS SANS HAS BEEN CALLING IT 'SHORTCUTS,' HAVE STILL BEEN VERY USEFUL, DESPITE THE FAILURES.

WE CAN GO HOME AND TO WORK/SCHOOL IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE, SAVING A LOT OF TIME.

...

IT'S DARK

...

SUBJECT IS MELTING, TIME TO REMOVE THE DT.

AFTER A SUITABLE AMOUNT OF TIME HAS PASSED, DT INJECTIONS SHALL BEGIN AGAIN."

[Error. Error. Retracted. File does not exist.]

Sans sighed in annoyance, maybe he should try something else... No, there were sixteen journals he hadn't seen, he'd only tired four and he'd started this, might as well finish it, no matter how annoyed with it he was. No matter how much he wanted to just give up and go back to bed.

"for papyrus..."

Gaster threw a snowball at Sans, who shortcut out of the way. Mixing in the space manipulation into their training was helping a lot. Sans was much faster now, although none of his stats had risen. Gaster and Sans were having fun testing their limits with their new powers and Papyrus loved the extra challenge he now had while trying to hit Sans with snow and while sparing with Gaster.

Gaster was sparing with Sans, Papyrus was serving as referee since both of the older skeletons were known for cheap shots and cheating which Papyrus deeply disapproved of; everyone should fight fair and any self respecting human would as well!

Nether father or son could land a hit on each other, Sans was getting better and faster and Gaster beamed with pride as he narrowly avoided a bone attack. He was still confidant in his dodging despite his limp. He stepped forward, a snowball in hand and ready to throw, only to trip over and fall. Sans had hit him with a small bone attack at Gaster's right; Gaster hadn't seen it.

One damage was done.

No, more than one, no... his HP was still falling... how?

Gaster looked up at Sans, panicking.

"dad? what's wrong?" Sans asked confused, "did the fall hurt?"

"W-WHAT DID YOU DO?" Gaster asked, filled with relief as his HP stopped dropping.

"what do you mean? i tripped you with a small attack."

"NO YOU... DRAINED MY HP..." Gaster showed Sans his stats.

Sans blinked at it, "there's no way i did that much damage. it must have been the fall, not my attack."

"YOU DID IT. IT WASN'T THE FALL."

Papyrus came over and looked at his father stats, he was frowning and handed him a cinnamon bun. "ARE YOU OKAY?" Papyrus asked.

"I'M FINE, PAPY." Gaster ate the bun and looked back at Sans, he kept his stats out and told him, "DO IT AGAIN."

"but i might have hurt you..."

"JUST DO IT SANS. THIS IS VERY INTERESTING, THE LASER MAY HAVE GIVEN US OTHER POWERS. DO IT FOR SCIENCE!"

Sans hesitated but he saw how serious his father was and nodded. He summoned a bone and sent it towards Gaster. It did one damage but a KR appeared next to his HP bar and it started depleting.

Papyrus handed Gaster a nice-cream, he ate it. "FASCINATING..." Gaster was awestruck, he didn't know how to feel about this, he should be happy that his son was doing more damage but when it hit, it hurt, not quite physically but it was like he was experiencing all the hurt he'd ever inflicted on others. It didn't make him scream or double over in pain but it hurt him deep inside his soul, it made him remember the war. Karma.

Sans still seemed confused, "what was that? i hit papy with an attack yesterday and that didn't happen."

Papyrus nodded, "HE DID! IT WAS VERY MEAN AND NOT NICE AT ALL BUT IT DIDN'T HURT!"

"IT'S SOME KIND OF KARMA POWER, I THINK," Gaster explained, "I'VE HURT A LOT OF PEOPLE IN THE PAST AND MY LV IS HIGH. PAPYRUS, YOU ARE A SWEAT CINNAMON ROLL WHO NEVER HAS NOR EVER WILL HURT ANOTHER PERSON, SANS'S ATTACKS CAN'T HURT YOU..."

"wow, ok... so can you do that to, dad?" Sans also didn't know how to feel about that, he was used to being weak and not dealing any damage but suddenly... It was a big change.

"I DON'T KNOW BUT I HAVE NO WAY TO TEST IT. I CAN'T HURT MYSELF WITH MY OWN ATTACKS AND CLEARLY IT DOESN'T WORK ON PAPYRUS, NOT LIKE I'D NEVER HURT YOU BOYS ANYWAY."

Sans shrugged, a lazy grin on his face. He put his hands on the back of his skull and turned away, for some reason he felt unconformable, like something was wrong. He didn't want to confront it, he was scared so he did what he did with most of his problems; he ignored it and changed the subject. "well, that's really something. speaking of karma and getting what one deserves, i'm hungry and after that i think i deserve some flaming hot food. can we got to grillby's?"

Papyrus groaned but didn't protest as Gaster nodded and took Papyrus by the hand. "I'LL GET YOU A NICE-CREAM ON THE WAY, PAPYRUS. YOU CAN CHOOSE WHAT WE HAVE TOMORROW. FAIR?"

Papyrus nodded and gripped onto his father's hand tightly. "YES," He said. They began to walk back towards the town. Papyrus looked up at Gaster, something was wrong. Papyrus knew there was something wrong with his father but he couldn't put his finger on what it was... He was much more tired than he used to be but that wasn't that odd, after all he worked so hard. There was something else, sometimes it seemed as if he wasn't there. Of course Gaster was always there but Papyrus couldn't help but feel that sometimes when he looked at Gaster it felt like he was just an empty shell, like his mind, his soul was somewhere else. Maybe he could ask Sans about it later. Just as Papyrus thought that, there was a... glitch? Part of Gaster just glitched! Was he just seeing things? He couldn't be. Papyrus knew that there was definitely something very wrong. These experiments were a bad idea...

Gaster felt happy as he walked; he could take the evening off to spend more time with his children and go right back to work first thing in the morning. Spending time with his sons was very important after all and he didn't want them to worry about him. He didn't realise it was already far too late for that.