It was almost an hour later when Gaster finally found the strength to call Dr. Avory. True to her word, she was up and at their place as fast as she could get there. The first thing she went to do was check on Helvetica who wasn't doing very well. Ever since the whole ordeal ended she hadn't moved sitting in the middle of her bed desperately clinging to the still body of their child.

Avory tried to take the small thing away and that was when Helvetica even noticed that the doctor was there. With the small revelation she begged the doctor to tell her that the baby was actually alive. Gaster had to hand it to the doctor, she made a real show of checking the body over, but they all knew that the baby was not going to magically reanimate. It was always ironic to Gaster how magical beings couldn't bring something like a baby to life through pure will alone.

When Avory said that the baby was not coming back Helvetica just ... stopped. Concerned Gaster went to his wife and held her, prompting Helvetica to turn and cry into his shirt. Avory gently put the child's body down next to her on the bed and tried to get them to separate for a few minutes so she could check over Helvetica's soul. She needed to check for any tears from the force the small soul placed on its mother. While Helvetica was against removing herself from her husband, Gaster tried as best he could to accommodate the doctor so she could check over his wife. Eventually they were able to maneuver themselves so that Avory could look, and she quickly deemed the soul fine.

With the major concern over with Avory decided that she should let the monsters grieve in peace. Carefully picking up the child Avory went to stand and make her leave. "Well I suggest that we should still meet tomorrow. We can reschedule the time-"

"Give him back." Helvetica said her left eye burning a deep indigo from her magic.

"I'm sorry Helvetica. I can't bring your child back." Avory said disheartened. This just seemed to enrage Helvetica.

"I know that! I'm not talking about that!" Helvetica seethed getting out of Gasters hold; he tried to hold her back concerned for what his wife was planning to do. "Give me back my BABY'S BODY!" She yell holding out the one hand that Gaster hadn't grabbed to hold her back.

"Wha-what you wan- I'm sorry but I don't know if that such a good idea-" Avory started but was slammed to a wall dropping the child's body.

"HELVETICA!" Gaster exclaimed surprised at his wife. He had never seen her use such powerful magic before. "What do you think you are doing? Do you honestly feel it's a good idea to keep the body? What will that accomplish?"

"That's right dear, it's a body, it's an organic body don't you see. Did it not even cross your mind once?" Helvetica asked her husband turning to him.

"… no … Helvetica you can't be serious." Gaster said appalled at what his wife was suggesting.

"Why not?" She asked getting down to his level once more by sitting on the bed. She held her husband's head in her hands and looked at him with a look that Gaster had never seen before, she was cracked. Avory was wrong; there was something wrong with his wife's soul. "Our baby died Gaster but you can bring them back. You can use the Extractor Machine and give them a soul."

"Helvetica this is our child." Gaster tried to emphasize the word and bring her back to her senses. "What you are suggesting is … if we did this they would be a weapon, no longer our child. You won't be able to raise them, they would be an experiment, and not something you could care for. Don't you see?"

"No, Don't You SEE!" Helvetica exclaimed distraught and her magic flared making Dr. Avory cry out in pain. Gaster looked towards the poor monster.

"Helvetica, you need to let Dr. Avory go. She won't take the body. Isn't that right Dr. Avory?" Gaster asked her, hoping she would take the hint and leave.

"Right, I'll leave the body." Avory said gasping in pain.

"See? Now go pick them up and meet me downstairs ok? We can have some tea and talk about the prospect of what you are suggesting alright?" Gaster smiled at his wife and bonked their foreheads, hoping the move would help calm her.

"So you'll think about it." Helvetica asked calming somewhat.

"Of course my dear, you know I always listen to what you have to say." Gaster said passively.

Helvetica gave him a small smile and nuzzled his forehead before getting up to collect her baby's body from the ground. "See you downstairs my love. Oh my baby, look what happened, we're going to have to make sure nothing broke before your father fixes you." She said as she left the room, as the door closed behind Helvetica Avory fell from her suspended position. Gaster instantly ran over to the doctor to check her over. Avory waved him off.

"It's all good, no worries, serves me right for having my guard down. All mothers take the news differently, I should have known better." Avory said smiling at Gaster.

"Even still, I would never have guessed she would have done that." Gaster said helping Avory to stand. I think it is best that you leave, she's definitely not taking this well. Are you sure that there was nothing wrong with her soul?" Gaster asked, remembering the crazed look that Helvetica had only moments before. The look did not fit the wife he had known for years, the prospect of there being something worse off with her was very convincing at the moment.

"I assure you Dr. Gaster, her soul is fine. This reaction was caused from grief. I can assure you of that. If you feel there might be something wrong, it is not physical. I think it would be best if you talk to one of her co-workers, maybe have one of them help her during this time of need. Even as great of a psychiatrist as she is, Helvetica can't handle these emotions on her own." Avory explained as they made their way out of the room and towards the front door. Helvetica was in the kitchen making some tea for her and her husband. "Keep an eye on her Gaster, have her try and rest. My best advice is that she just needs time."

Gaster thanked Avory as he let her out of the house. Turning back to the kitchen area he saw his wife collecting a tray of tea and make her way over to the living room's coffee table. She sat down in her favorite chair and poured two cups for them.

"Are you going to join me dear? Or are you going to continue to stand near the doorway?" Helvetica asked in a collected tone. It was nice to hear after the scene in their bedroom.

"Right," Gaster said making his way over to his own chair, passing the couch he noticed the baby's body was lying there swaddled in a blanket he's never seen before. He stopped and examined the body. "Where did you get the blanket?"

"Hmm? Oh, it's a scarf, found it in the closet since I forgot to grab the one in the room. I never really liked that red one." Helvetica said sipping from her cup. Gaster hummed in acknowledgement before he sat in his chair and grabbed his own cup of tea. They sat in silence before Helvetica sighed and spoke up. "Gaster, I'm sorry about how I acted up there. I understand that I was over-reacting, but with the stress of that transfer, and the … the loss ... to see Dr. Avory try to take the child. I just couldn't handle it right then."

Gaster looked towards his wife for a moment before giving a quiet sigh of his own. He put the cup down before turning and laying a hand on her knee. "Don't get me wrong my dear, I understand I do. To expect you to act any other way would be for me to act as if I do not understand the torment you were going through, what you are going through. I do not agree with how you handled Dr. Avory, but I don't really need to tell you that. What we still need to talk about is that one thing I can't ignore. What you proposed in the room, about using our child's body with the Extractor Machine, to give it a life; are you serious?" Looking at his wife Gaster contemplated her for a long while.

Sighing Helvetica answered. "Yes, I am."

"You know this is an experiment, it might not even work." Gaster tried to explain.

"I know." She answered monotonically.

"You might not be able to raise it yourself."

"I-I know."

"If this worked, they would be a weapon, forced to go through testing, and when we finally try to take down the barrier, it has not been calculated that whatever we make would survive. The blaster we used incinerated from the amount of energy it had to harness."

There was a long pause before Helvetica drew in a shaky breath. "Gaster, I want my baby back."

Gaster stood and enveloped his wife in a hug. "I know my dear, but whatever I make in the labs will not be the child we lost today. It will be something-someone else. You understand that don't you."

Helvetica cried and shook her head. "Of course I understand that, yes, I understand that. But we could get them back."

Gaster moved back and knelt near his wife's chair looking up in Helvetica's eyes. "No, we would not be getting back our child. We would be getting back a substitution. You have to understand that Helvetica." Tears continued to fall from her eyes, breaking Gaster's heart every second he looked at him with distraught in her eyes.

"I want my baby back, I didn't even get to know them. Whatever comes of this experiment could be my baby and I would have them back."

"That's round about logic my dear."

Helvetica lowered her head. "I know. It's just, it's possible, so why not try? Even if I cannot care for it myself I could still see them, still get to know them."

Gaster looked towards the child himself. "Helvetica darling, I must admit you brought to my attention something that I had not even thought of before. I will confess that I will try this experiment regardless if we use this body or not, but it's our child's body, something that was meant to have life but then had that life stripped away. Can't we use another? Something was made to take on the responsibility that we would force upon it. You're thinking too much with your emotions-"

"Gaster how exactly do you expect to create another one?" Helvetica asked skeptically. "You know how this works. Skeletons can only make a baby if there is a new soul present in the mother. We don't know why it happens, but trying to make a body with no intention of giving that body life has never worked before. Don't you remember the Ghost Home experiments; skeletons tried to make bodies for ghosts to inhabit but every single pair failed to even produce a skull never mind a full-fledged body. Only skeletons that had a new life forming inside a mother could create a body and that is where we learned the one body per new soul rule. Would you really suggest that you take a new body for this experiment from soon to be skeleparents? We have the solution right here in our own living room." Helvetica said motioning towards the baby's body. "I understand your hesitance Gaster, but no matter what you say I want this done. So please, won't you do it?"

"I don't know." Gaster said somberly.

Sighing Helvetica stood up. "I understand. I need to sleep. I have an early morning appointment tomorrow." She made her way to their room closing the door without looking back.

Gaster sighed and sat down into his chair steepling his fingers and leaning forward, he stared down at the body before him as he contemplated the choices before him. If he was honest with himself, he wanted this as much as his wife. He wanted to take this body and bring it to life, but what kind of life would that be for a child. To be experimented on, to be forced to harness a magic there is no reason to believe could ever be controlled, to be used and disposed of, without consent.

Wait, no.

There was consent. Every monster soul in the Extractor Machine had given their consent. They expected him to use them to take down the barrier. They had faith and hope that his newest experiment would work. Yes, Helvetica was thinking with her emotions, but not as much as he was. Every time he looked at the body he thought of the life he was denied, a life of a happy family. That's why he didn't want to use the body, because he was still thinking of what could have been, what should have been.

Closing his eyes Gaster tried to refocus himself. Thinking about the situation as it is now, not the could haves or the should haves. When he opened his eye once more staring at the body he saw what his wife did, an organic body, a vessel, waiting to be used. Not a baby, for that's no longer what is could have been, just a vessel. Gaster laughed a bit and sat back, his wife was right, she was always right, and she was a genius. If not for her his one opportunity would have slid through his fingers.

Standing abruptly Gaster strode over to the vessel and gathered it up before leaving the house. There was no time to wait. Gaster grabbed his phone and dialed the numbers of his co-workers. They had work to do.

So interesting story change that I made I though people might find interesting.
Originally I was going to have Helvetica go to sleep crying about her baby not making it, and then Gaster was going to leave at the dead of night and take the baby's body to use for his experiments without telling her. In the end though, I felt Gaster has too much respect for Helvetica to go behind her back and do something like that without at least telling her first, so I had her become the one to suggest the possibility.
What do you all think about how it came out?

What did you think of this chapter? Of the story? Of my writing? Characters? Be sure to review I want to know what I'm doing right/wrong. Or if I'm just writing into the void (Granted regardless I know that's what I'm doing, I'm sure of it). Write me anything, even if it's "You really suck/great." "Chapters are too long/sort." "Too many/few long words." "Your story is confusing/on point." "I have a cat/dog." "The cake is a lie." "Anything." I want to know how this story is being perceived. Thank you.