"Uh… This… This should help with the pain." Alphys said quietly, pulling out a syringe from her bag.

"ALPHYS! PLEASE DO BE CAREFUL." Papyrus reached out to her nervously. "MAKE IT AS PAINLESS AS POSSIBLE. HE'S ALREADY BEEN THROUGH A LOT..."

"I'll m-make it quick." She assured, filling up the syringe with painkillers.

"It's just a shot, Papyrus." Undyne said, rolling her eyes.

"HAVE YOU EVER HAD A SHOT BEFORE?!" Papyrus stamped his foot. "IT… IT REALLY HURTS."

"It's cool, bro." Sans said, holding out his arm to Alphys. "It can't be any worse than this god-awful headache I have."

"I-It's a migraine." Alphys corrected timidly, taking his arm.

"Same difference." He shrugged. The needle pierced his bone and injected the medicine into his marrow. He was right. It was next to nothing. The pain in his head faded away almost instantly, making him actually sigh in relief. He winced a little bit in embarrassment from his reaction.

"WOW SANS! YOU DIDN'T EVEN BLINK!" Papyrus clapped.

"Jesus, Papyrus." Undyne sighed, putting a hand to her head. "It's just a shot."

Sans cleared his throat loudly and glared at Undyne. She rolled her eyes again.

"Is he good, Alphys? Do you need me to get anything else for him?" Undyne asked, walking up to Alphys, her arms folded.

"I WILL ALSO HELP, IF IT IS NEEDED!" Papyrus proclaimed.

"Uh… No. He's good." Alphys said, putting away her medical supplies. "He… He just needs to rest… And get some sleep."

"Great!" Undyne exclaimed, clasping her hands together. "How 'bout we go watch some anime, then? I wanna watch the one with the swords again!"

"Oh! O-okay!" Alphys lit up. "Sure!"

"Are... Are you okay if we leave you here for a little while?" Alphys asked, turning to Sans.

"Yep." He said, stretching. "I could really use a few winks."

"Okay." Alphys nodded. "Let's go, Undyne."

"Sweet!" Undyne said loudly, fist pumping. "I'll go get some food. You want spaghetti?"

"Sure! I always love everything you cook!" Alphys beamed.

"... SPAGHETTI?" Papyrus asked slowly. "YOU'RE... MAKING SPAGHETTI?"

"Yeah! Do you wanna help?" Undyne asked, waving him over to the door.

"UM…" Papyrus shrunk back timidly. "I… I DON'T KNOW HOW."

"No problem! I'll teach you, okay?" She offered, already halfway out the door. "Now c'mon already!"

"REALLY?! WOWIE! I CAN'T BELIEVE THE CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARD IS TEACHING ME HOW TO COOK!" He cheered, following her out the door.

Papyrus suddenly froze in place, slowly looking back at Sans in apprehension.

"I'll be fine, dude." Sans assured, waving him off. "Go knock yourself out."

"IF YOU'RE SURE." He said cautiously, flipping off the light switch to the room. "I'LL LEAVE YOU TO SLEEP, THEN."

"Don't burn the house down." Sans called after him as he closed the door, leaving him in serene darkness.

He rolled over in the bed and let his eyes droop shut, welcoming the unconscious embrace that was sleep.

But he suddenly felt the strange need to check his coat pocket.

He shifted a little, brushing off the urge as paranoia. But it rapidly started growing worse. The feeling scratched at the back of his head, nagging at him to look. He grimaced as he grabbed the pillow and shoved it over his head. Why was it so hard to get some sleep now? He'd fallen asleep standing up before, for god's sakes. And yet, here he was, lying on a surprisingly comfortable bed after his body had gone through extreme stress, and he couldn't go to sleep because he might have something in his coat pocket.

He sighed in defeat, reaching over to Undyne's nightstand and switching on her lamp. He didn't notice until that moment that the lamp had a picture of a yellow lizard on it.

He reached over on the other side of the bed where the coat lay and dragged it over to him, yawning as he fumbled it around, trying to find the pockets.

He found the opening for one of the pockets and stuck his hand inside. There was something in there. He pulled it out.

It was one gold.

Was that it?! He was so worried about forgetting he had enough money to buy two french fries? He threw his hand into the other pocket, hoping there was something of significance in it.

He heard a crinkling noise as his hand hit paper.

… When did paper get in there? He hardly wrote anything unless he really had to remember something. He pulled it out to find a crumpled ball. He smoothed it out on the covers. Something on the paper revealed itself as it unfolded.

Thank god he saw it when no one else was in the room.

His breath caught in his throat at the image on the page. It was an awful drawing of Him, Papyrus, and… That was…

"Oh god." He gripped the paper tightly. "Oh god."

Bits and pieces of memories flooded back to him. Asgore's request, the machine, the fall. Even a vague memory of who he was came back to him, a blurry image of his face appeared in his head.

If he wasn't so hopped up on every drug known to monsterkind, he probably would have had a panic attack.

"... Alphys." He called out quietly.

No response.

"Alphys!" He called louder, shoving the drawing back into his coat.

He heard frantic footsteps scamper up to his door before she burst into the room.

"What?!" She squeaked nervously, flipping the light switch back on. "W-what's wrong?!"

"Please knock me out." He croaked, squeezing his eyes shut.

"What? Are you still in pain? Why-"

"Just do it!" He cried.

"O-okay!" She squeaked, fumbling as she opened the medical bag by the bed.

"I n-need to be out for a few days." His voice shook. "At least."

"B-but…" she hesitated. "That many sleeping pills would kill you…"

"Just please, for the love of god, put me out." He pushed, his voice getting more frantic.

"... Well…" She poured a few pills in her hand from the bottle. "I guess I could make it so that-"

"Do it." he swiped the pills from her hand and swallowed them dry. He put the pillow back over his head and squeezed his eyes shut.

"SANS? WHAT'S WRONG?" He heard Papyrus's voice through the open door.

"Ah, h-he, he wanted to sleep." Alphys answered for him. "So I gave him some medicine to help."

"... I SEE." Papyrus's voice was already starting to get further away. This was some heavy stuff she gave him. Probably infused with magic, thank god.

"So… he's probably really tired now." Alphys explained. "We should probably let him-"

He was out before he could even hear her finish her sentence.

The dreams were probably worse than what would have happened if he had stayed up.

He opened his eyes to find that he was in the lab, sitting on his desk and facing forward. He tried to look around the room, but he quickly found that he couldn't move his head. He tried to lift his arms. He couldn't. His legs? Nope. He couldn't even wiggle his toes. It was like someone welded him to chair.

The man suddenly appeared in the doorway, standing tall and confident. His face was pixelated and blurry, making it almost impossible to see. Sans watched as the man turned to him, looking down on him as he approached. He found himself intimidated by the man. He tried to shrink backwards, forgetting that he couldn't move.

When the man spoke to him, he spoke in... The language. His voice was garbled and morphed.

"Why?" He said angrily.

Sans tried to speak, but nothing came out.

"Why didn't you save me?"

Again, he tried to choke out sound, but to no avail.

The man suddenly slammed his hands on the desk, his face landing less than an inch away from Sans's. He tried to jump back away from him. He still couldn't move.

"WHY DIDN'T YOU SAVE ME?!" He screamed at an impossible volume.

A surge of fear rushed through him as the words deafened his hearing. His ears started ringing. He tried to cry out. He couldn't make a sound. He tried to cover his face. He still couldn't move.

The man grabbed Sans by the shoulders, lifting him out of his chair and shaking him violently. Sans could read his mouth saying "Why didn't you save me?" over and over. He tried to close his eyes to block him out. He couldn't close them.

The man threw him across the room, slamming him against the wall. San's vision went out when he plummeted to the ground.

It took him a few seconds to realize that he could move again. He gasped loudly as he scrambled to sit up.

He frantically flung his head around, trying to look for where the man was. But found himself in an entirely black room, and the man was nowhere in sight.

"It's your fault." He heard a genderless whisper from behind him. He jumped in surprise and turned his head toward the sound. No one was there.

"He's gone now." He heard to his right. He whipped his head around. No one was there.

More and more whispers began to fill the air around him.

"You could have saved him."

"After all he did for you."

"It's your fault."

"You'll never see him again."

"He's in a never ending torment."

"It's your fault."

He spun around frantically, trying to find the source of the words. He ended up making himself dizzy. He fell onto the floor on his hands and knees.

"You've failed him."

"It's your fault."

They were getting closer.

"You could have saved him."

"It's your fault."

"You could have saved him."

"It's your fault."

He squeezed his eyes shut as he curled into a fetal position and covered his ears, desperately trying to block out the whispers.

"It's your fault."

"It's your fault."

"It's your fault."

"I'm sorry!" He shrieked. "I'M SORRY!"

"Sans?" Came a gentle voice.

The whispers ceased abruptly at the voice. Sans's cries of panic slowly diminished as he opened his eyes. He lifted his hands off of his head and sat up slowly, looking around for the voice.

The room was still void of anyone but himself. He waited until he calmed down enough before he stood up, brushing off his coat.

His… Coat? He wasn't wearing that before. He looked down. It was blue and fuzzy. Where did it come from? He's never seen it before.

"I felt… Guilty." The voice echoed. "Guilty for how much I put you through."

"... Dad?"

He blinked, and suddenly clear as day, he stood in front of him.

"Oh god."

He ran towards him.

The man kneeled as Sans landed into his arms. His embrace was warm and welcoming. Sans gripped his lab coat, afraid he would disappear if he let go.

"I'm sorry, Sans." His reassuring voice echoed.

"... It's cool, dude." His voice cracked as he squeezed him harder, tears pricking in the corners of his eyes.

"Sans?"

"... Yeah?"

"You won't forget me, will you?"

Sans froze, trying to process what he just said. He slowly lifted his head up to look at him.

"... What?"

The man suddenly evaporated Sans's arms.

He remained frozen in place, his arms still outstretched. It took him a few seconds to look down at himself.

The hysteria slowly rose through him until he was screaming at the sight of the dust covering him.

Sans flung upwards in his bed, blue smoke swirling around his head as he panted. He quickly looked down at his arms. There wasn't a speck of dust.

"SANS! YOU'RE AWAKE!" he heard Papyrus shout from the other room.

Sans jumped at his voice, clutching his chest as his soul pounded. Papyrus flung into the room, joy radiating from his face. When he took a closer look at Sans, his happiness slowly faded away.

"...SANS? WHAT'S WRONG?"

He gulped and took a deep breath, taking in his surroundings.

He was back in his own room, the sun was shining through his window. It was mid day.

"... How long was I out?" He asked, forcing his breathing to calm down.

"AROUND THIRTY SIX HOURS." Papyrus said. "I'VE… I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU TO WAKE UP FOR A WHILE NOW."

Sans blinked a couple of times before he moved aside his blanket and placed his feet on the floor.

"ARE YOU FEELING ANY BETTER?" He asked, watching him anxiously.

"... Where's my coat?" Sans asked, staring at the wall.

"IT'S... OVER HERE." Papyrus said as he made his way to his nightstand, where his coat was draped over the top.

"... SANS, WHY DO YOU FEEL THAT YOU NEED IT SO MUCH?" He asked as he picked it up and handed it to him.

He didn't respond. He reached his hand inside the pocket. He hit paper. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"... I gotta go do somethin' real quick." He slurred, hoisting himself off of his bed.

He fumbled a little bit when he stood up. Being asleep for so long really fucks up your legs.

"I'm fine." He intruded upon seeing Papyrus raise a hand at him.

Once he regained his balance, he shrugged on his coat and began to drag his way out the door.

"SANS, WHERE ARE YOU GOING?" Papyrus called after him.

"To the lab." He mumbled, already halfway down the stairs.

"... ALRIGHT. PLEASE BE CAREFUL."

Auther's Note: sheesh. It's been over a month, hasn't it? I'm ashamed of myself imsosorry