A/N: I forgot to update this on Wednesday! I'm sorry, guys. For my mistake, you get two updates today! I'll be posting chapter 13 soon after this. Enjoy!

CHAPTER TWELVE

It had been four days. Frisk had tried to call and text Sans with no response. She'd talked to her mom, who only said it was probably for the best. She decided not to listen to her mother and instead focus on hoping that Sans would reach out to her soon.

She had done everything she could to forget what she'd read online about Gaster. Some of it was impossible, but she did manage to convince herself that some of the more outrageous things were false. She made herself believe that Sans wouldn't stick up for someone who hurt him, and that meant that Gaster hadn't hurt him. It made her feel a little better.

On the fifth day with no response, she reached out to Papyrus. Her leg bounced nervously in the break room at work as the phone rang.

"Hello?" the familiar voice all but shouted in her ear.

"Hey Papyrus! How are you?"

The line was silent for a second.

"Oh. Hello, Human." He sounded cautious.

Frisk felt tears start to gather in her eyes. Had Sans turned his brother against her?

"Hey, have you heard from Sans?" She almost wanted to smack her forehead; of course he'd heard from his brother—they lived together.

"I've been told I cannot talk to you for the time being. I'm sorry, Frisk."

The line went dead. She screamed internally as she all but slammed her phone down on the table. She just wanted a chance to apologize for real. She'd made one stupid mistake; couldn't he give her one more chance? It wasn't like she'd openly accused his dad of horrible things. He couldn't really be willing to give up two and a half years of friendship over that—could he?

Her brain decided to turn the tables on her. How would she feel if he'd broken a promise to her? One she was really serious about? She'd be pretty damn upset, that was for sure. But she had to believe she'd give him a chance to explain himself.

With that, she took a deep breath and picked up her phone. Before she could even unlock it, her text alert chimed. It was Sans.

Excitement and fear swirled together in her gut as she opened the message.

Leave Papyrus out of this. Do you work tomorrow?

She breathed a sigh of relief.

No, I don't.

I'll come over sometime and we can talk.

She nodded to herself with a little smile.

Okay. Thank you.

There was no response after that. Oh, well. At least she'd gotten something.

She looked at the clock and realized her break was over. Time to get back to work.

~LM~

Frisk set the pan on the stove and nervously checked the time. Even though Sans hadn't said a specific time, she really hoped he'd be there in time for lunch. She set the table as she waited.

Twenty minutes passed. She sat at the table and stared into her casserole mindlessly.

Another fifteen minutes later, she finally dished her plate and began eating. Once finished, she cleaned up and went to sit on the couch. She really hoped he actually showed. She leaned forward and grabbed the remote to turn on the television. She watched thoughtlessly for what felt like hours before there was finally a knock on the door.

She sighed in relief and got up to let Sans in. He came in and stood next to her as she shut the door. She wasn't surprised to see him in his blue hoodie and black shorts.

"Hi Sans. Thank you for coming."

He nodded and looked around. He really needed more time to think about what he wanted to do, but her contacting Papyrus proved to him that he needed to give her something. Paps was already upset enough about the situation; he couldn't stand the thought of losing his only human friend. He wanted Sans to make up with her so they could stay friends, but he understood why he couldn't push his brother to do so.

"Yeah. I don't really know what to tell you, Frisk."

She smiled sadly and reached out to take his hand. He pulled back from her and looked down at his feet.

"Sans, if you're going to break up with me, please just do it. Don't leave me hanging like this." That wasn't at all what she wanted to say. She cleared her throat. "I love you—I really, really do—and I'm so sorry for what I did. I want another chance to prove myself to you."

"How would you prove yourself to me? It's not like I've asked you to promise me much. Just one damn thing, Frisk. One fucking thing and you couldn't keep your nose out of it." He was disgusted with her again, but still a part of his soul wanted to hold her close and never let go. He had missed her more than he let himself believe.

Frisk lowered her head in shame. "I know. It was really stupid and selfish of me, and I regret ever even thinking of it. I had tried to ask my mom about him first, but she wouldn't really talk much. The conversation just made me want to know even more."

Sans stopped and looked at her for a long moment. "You talked to your mom about my dad?" he asked incredulously. "Why the fuck would you do that?"

"No, that was before I looked him up. I asked her because she knows a lot about monsters. She's taken Monster History classes before."

He shook his head; he couldn't really believe what he was hearing. "So you thought a human who had taken a few classes would tell you what you wanted to know. What makes you think that the classes available to humans even have the right information?"

She wasn't sure what to say to that for a few minutes. She took a deep breath. "She's always told me about monsters. Even when I was a kid, she'd read to me about the ancient king and queen, Toriel and Asgore. I just want to know as much about you as I can, Sans. I love you so much, and it kind of hurts to know that you want to keep a part of you hidden away from me."

He snorted. "Yeah, you love me enough to break the only promise I've ever asked you to make."

"Come on, Sans. Please don't be like that. I'm sorry, okay? Tell me what I need to do to make it up to you." She held her hands out, pleading with him.

He looked her over for a moment, thinking about what she'd said. He wasn't ready to forgive her just yet, but maybe there was something else she could offer him.

"You said in one of your voicemails that you had all but forgotten what you'd read, right?"

Frisk nodded. "You said he was a good guy, so I'm choosing to believe that instead."

He took that into consideration for a second. "Then I want you to meet him."

Her eyes widened. "What?"

He smiled. "Yeah. Show me that you're really over whatever those fucks wrote about him, and maybe I'll forgive you."

Oh gods, she thought to herself, this could be bad. "O-okay." She tried to remind herself that she trusted Sans; he wouldn't put her in danger. Even so, she could feel the words 'human experimentation' crawling on her skin.

"If you're that scared, you don't have to." Sans had really wanted to believe that she could trust him, but the look on her face proved otherwise.

Frisk shook herself and met his eyes. "No, I want to. It's been hard to forget what I read, but I want to show you that I'm serious about this."

With a nod, Sans pulled her close and snapped his fingers.

~LM~

Gaster sighed when he felt the familiar rush of energy that was Sans' teleportation. Once again, he hadn't expected his son in the lab today. As much as he wanted to comfort the young skeleton, he had important work to do.

"Hey Dad," Sans called from the lounge. "Come here for a sec."

Gaster looked up, staring blankly at the wall. There was another presence in the room, one he wouldn't soon forget. Anger began to build in his chest, but he pushed it down far enough to at least find out what in the blazes his son thought he was doing.

He got up and walked into the lounge. Sure enough, a small human girl—woman, really, but sometimes it was hard to tell ages—stood halfway behind Sans. Gaster sighed.

"What are you doing, Sans?" he asked.

Sans pulled on Frisk's hand pushed her in front of him. "This is Frisk, my girlfriend. I thought it was about time you two met."

Frisk could only stare for a few long seconds. The skeleton in front of her was taller than even Papyrus, dressed in a pair of dark slacks and a cream, high-necked sweater covered by a white lab coat. His hands were behind his back, and he stood tall and looked down on her with what she could only assume was disgust in his features.

His face frightened her. Whatever she had been expecting, it wasn't this. His left eye had a crack that went down to his mouth, slightly distorting his features. His right eyelid was half closed and cracked up into his skull. His mouth was pulled up into a grin on the left side, but the right was curved downward in a scowl. This was the face of a person she could imagine experimenting on innocent people.

"It isn't a pleasure," Gaster sneered.

Frisk shivered at his voice. It was low, threatening. She could almost feel the cold hatred he felt toward her dripping in every syllable. She swallowed thickly.

"Come on, Dad," Sans complained. "Can you be nice for five minutes?"

Gaster closed his good eye and sighed. "Fine. Hello, Frisk." He held out his right hand.

Frisk nearly gasped at the sight of the large hole in the middle of his palm. Sans didn't have one of those…was it normal? She couldn't force herself to reach out and take his hand. What if she hurt him?

Gaster scoffed. "I have work to do." He turned on his heel and walked away.

As he walked away, Frisk remembered something that Sans had told her. Gaster had suffered through a lot. It suddenly hit her that he was the one who'd had the accident. Sans' father was the one he'd inherited only one glowing eye from. She also realized it wasn't an accident that had caused all of his scars; it was humans.

"Nice job, Frisk," Sans all but growled in her ear. "I can tell you're so over it."

"Wait, Sans," she turned to him and hugged him tightly. "I'm so sorry for what happened to him." She really wanted to say the words to Gaster, but she was too afraid of facing his hatred again.

Sans was a little surprised. That wasn't what he'd expected to hear from her. "What?"

She shook her head against his chest. "I don't understand how someone could do that to a monster. Gods, it must have hurt so badly." Just the idea of someone suffering through so much pain made her heart hurt.

"I don't get it, Frisk. What do you mean?"

She moved back just enough to look up at him. "I mean, you were talking about your father when you mentioned your parent that had the accident. He's gone through so much at the hands of humans." She stepped back and turned to look into the lab where Gaster was sitting at a desk in the middle of the room. She took a deep breath and turned back to Sans. "Can I go in there?"

Sans raised a brow bone. "As long as he doesn't have a beaker in his hand, you should be okay for a minute."

She nodded and walked toward the elder monster. Sans followed her closely.

"Doctor Gaster?" she said timidly.

Gaster sighed and looked up. "What do you want, Human?" he nearly growled the last word.

"I want to apologize; my behavior a moment ago was atrocious. It really is a pleasure to finally meet you." She held out her hand.

Gaster looked at her hand in disgust for a second before standing up. He gently curled his fingers around hers for a brief handshake. He tried not to wipe his hand on his lab coat when he pulled it back.

"While I can't say the same for you, I appreciate your apology."

She nodded. "I understand completely. I would say I'm sorry for what happened, but we both know that won't change anything."

He narrowed his eye at her. "What is that supposed to mean?"

Had she said something wrong? She tried to think quickly to clarify. "I mean…I just thought…"

"She means she's sorry for what humans did to you," Sans supplied.

Gaster frowned. "Why?"

She thought about her words for a second before speaking. "Knowing that my kind hurt a monster so badly…it makes me feel ashamed to say I'm associated with them." She shrugged and looked down at her feet.

That was not what Gaster had expected to hear. He pondered her words for a moment. "That's ridiculous. You clearly weren't involved, so there's no reason to feel remorse."

She looked up and smiled ruefully. "Maybe not, but I can't help it. You're Sans' dad, and that makes it worse. He cares about you, which means I care about you."

Gaster stepped back. "I have to get back to work." He turned, nearly bumping against his desk in the process, and went to the counter in the corner of the room.

Sans smirked and took Frisk's hand. "Come on; let's let him be."

She nodded and stepped up to him. He wrapped an arm around her and snapped his fingers, and suddenly they were back in her living room.

A/N: Thanks so much for reading! I'd love to know your thoughts.