"D-Doctor Gaster… Doc-Doctor Gaster… Doctor Gaster!"

If Gaster had skin, he would have jumped out of it at this point. The papers he had been reading over went flying into the air at his sudden startle and as they came floating back down the skeleton let out an annoyed sigh; those would take forever to get back in order.

"O-Oh my gosh! I'm s-so s-sorry!" Alphys voice squeaked loudly in Gaster's hearing range and as he turned to his left he found the short yellow lizard haphazardly trying to catch all the falling papers. "I-I normally d-don't get that loud, b-but you weren't responding s-so I—"

"It is alright Alphys, no real harm done." Gaster sighed as he got out of his chair and bent down to pick up the pieces of paper that had already hit the ground. "I should be the one apologizing, for ignoring you."

"No, I am s-sorry. You were s-so engrossed in your work I-I shouldn't have bothered you." Alphys meekly responded as she helped gather the last of the papers.

Gaster had never met such a timid monster like Alphys, and sometimes wondered why such a bright minded person like herself was like this. Always apologizing for such miniscule things and getting flustered so easily wasn't a quality Gaster had thought she would have when he read over her resume. When she had applied a few months back her paper was so neat, tidy, and so well organized that Gaster had been shocked when he first met the lizard monster.

She was a bright minded woman but became a complete train wreck when she talked to people. Gaster understood that everyone had their flaws, but he just didn't expect it with how she wrote about herself in her resume. Flaws aside though, Alphys was a tremendous help in the lab and her mind did not go to waste here; her brilliance was always a great help to Gaster.

"Nonsense Alphys," Gaster had gathered up as many pages as he could that Alphys had gathered up and stood his full height. "You may come bother me whenever you need me; that is what I am here for after all."

"Y-Yes, of course." Alphys smiled nervously as she handed Gaster his papers.

"Now, what is it you needed me for?"

"O-Oh right! Um… have you decided on whether or not to hire Sans or not?"

… of all things Alphys had to ask it would be that.

Gaster sighed tiredly as he set his papers down on the work bench next to him. Sans had asked to work at the lab a week ago, and with each passing day the boy continued to ask Gaster if he had made his decision or not. And apparently now he was getting Alphys to do this as well. Gaster would give his son this, he was very persistent.

"No, I have yet to decide." Gaster grumbled as he turned his back to Alphys. "And you can tell Sans that I will make it on my own time, but if he keeps constantly pestering me about it I will not make a decision at all."

"Y-Yes doctor Gaster… s-sorry Doctor Gaster." Alphys spoke softly as the taller monster walked out of the room. Gaster didn't like being so rude towards Alphys, but with Sans constantly bothering him to make a decision it was getting rather annoying.

At this point Gaster needed to take a break from work and everything portraying to it; all of it was giving him a migraine. Walking down the empty halls, Gaster took a deep breath to calm his soul. He should, no, needed to apologize to Alphys later, but he would do that after he cooled down some and wasn't so agitated. Some quiet time in his office should do that trick.

Once there Gaster let out a long and heavy sigh before mindlessly walking over to his desk chair and sitting down. Today was weighing heavily on Gaster's mind and soul, and the skeleton wanted nothing more then to toss everything to the wind and forget about it… but he couldn't. There were too many lives counting on him, and not just his family; the whole underground.

With each new human soul, their king was one step closer to gaining their freedom… as well as one step closer to falling down. These soul reapings we're crushing Asgore's soul, and Gaster was fearful their king wouldn't be able to handle absorbing all the needed souls to break the barrier. Boss monster or not, a weak soul could and would break with that much power, and Gaster knew that even if the king managed to break the barrier and free monster kind he… he wouldn't last to see their freedom.

These killings were going against who Asgore really was inside, but the king had gone too far to stop now; or at least that is what he told Gaster. Gaster had tried multiple times to get the king to reconsider but Asgore was as stubborn as he was old. The king had seen many things in his lifetime… many of which shaped him into what he was today, and after seeing such things there was no going back.

Gaster shook his head as he sat at his desk before running a hand over his skull. He was thinking about too many things at once, and it each topic was pounding in his skull to gain his attention.

"I need to focus on something else." Gaster groaned as he looked down at his desk, or more so at the secret compartment where Frisk usually slept. "… Frisk, are you awake?"

Knocking on the metal sliding door, Gaster pushed it open to find that the small bundle of blankets and pillows were all that were in there; Frisk was not inside.

"Frisk?" Gaster called out as his eyes scanned over the room. Frisk wasn't anywhere to be seen, but the door that led off to into the small side lab was open. Taking that as evidence Frisk was in there Gaster got up and walked over to the door. Pushing it open Gaster let out a shocked gasp at the mess he found.

Everything was in disarray. The table was turned over, the fridge was thrown open, silverware and other kitchenware were all over the floor, and a few of his beakers and Bunsen burners that he kept in here were broken. With all the damage done, the first thing one Gaster's mind was finding Frisk.

"Frisk, Frisk answer me." Gaster tried to stay calm as he stepped into the room and heard the crunching sound of glass breaking under his shoe. "Frisk, where are you?"

At first there was no response, but after a moment of silence a trembling hand rose from behind the overturned table, followed by the disheveled mop of hair that belonged to frisk. When she finally showed herself, Gaster's pupils shrank at how damaged Frisk was. There were cuts all over her face and the blood on her cheeks had been washed away by her tears.

"Stars above Frisk! What happened?" Gaster rushed over to the small human, the sound of broken glass under his feet crunched loudly as he made his way over to Frisk.

Falling to his knees Gaster picked Frisk up and placed her on his lap to examine her. She had two cuts on her cheeks, one under her bangs, and her arms had smaller scratches but most of them had stopped bleeding a long time ago. From the blood that appeared on Gaster's lap was anything to go by Frisk had also cut their feet, and with how they refused to lean or sit on their right side Gaster had an idea that they have some injuries or bruising on that side.

"Frisk, tell me what happened?" Gaster asked as he pulled a handkerchief from his lab coat pocket and tried to clean the blood from Frisk's face. "How did all this happen?"

Frisk just sniffled and clung to Gaster tightly; not saying a word. Gaster wasn't surprised honestly, Frisk had all the signs of being in shock and until she calmed down she wouldn't say a thing. Once he was somewhat satisfied with cleaning up Frisk's face, Gaster picked her up and walked her over to the sink and counter. Setting the small child down, Gaster began to examine Frisk closer.

The poor child had glass in their feet and some shards were still in their arms. That was going to take time to get them all out and it was going to be painful.

"Frisk, I need to get the glass out. I won't lie, it is going to hurt." Gaster could see the fear in the human's eyes as she stared up at him. He wanted nothing more then to just simply heal her, but Gaster knew that in order for the wounds to heal properly the glass had to be taken out. "If you need me to stop at any time to calm down, just grab my sleeve, okay?"

Frisk stared for the longest time, but after Gaster grabbed a pair of tweezers they nodded their head slowly. Nodding back, Gaster moved the tweezers towards Frisk's feet. The human child looked terrified the whole time, and when Gaster barely touched one of the glass shards Frisk let out a terrified scream and pulled her foot back.

"Frisk, my special little one, I need to remove the glass." Gaster said calmly as he pulled his tweezers back. "You can't leave them in your foot."

Frisk started to sob as she grabbed and tugged at Gaster's sleeve. She didn't want to continue with this, but Gaster knew it would hurt more later on if he left the glass in Frisk's feet so he had to continue. Reaching again for a shard Gaster had it pinched between the tweezers and started to pull but stopped when Frisk Screamed even louder.

"Frisk, I am not trying to hurt you but—" Gaster stopped. There was a heavy feeling in the air, and it was steadily growing heavier the more Frisk screamed and cried. Gaster had never felt this kind of energy before, monster magic had a similar feeling, but this felt ten thousand times stronger; more potent.

Looking up slowly Gaster looked to Frisk as she continued to cry. This new feeling of overpowering magic was centered around Frisk, Gaster knew it was, and deep down it terrified him. Frisk's shrill crying was becoming mindless background noise as Gaster stood his full height and looked down at his small human. What… what was this kind of power? Was it...? No, it couldn't be. They all died out by the end of the War between monsters and humans, and the last few of them…

"Frisk, Frisk you need to calm down." Gaster said softly as the weight of the air around them became so heavy that the skeleton felt the urge to sit down but didn't, and as soft and soothing as he tried to be Frisk wouldn't calm down. "Frisk please, you need to—"

Frisk let out a ear rupturing scream just as a flash of blinding light washed over everything in the room. Gaster didn't even get a chance to react as the light flooded over his entire body and a blissful nothingness consumed his mind and thoughts.

"D-Doctor Gaster… Doc-Doctor Gaster… Doctor Gaster!"

Papers went flying as Gaster was scared from his thoughts and startled enough to send the notes and work he had been reading over his shoulder and raining down in front of poor Alphys.

"O-Oh my gosh! I'm s-so s-sorry!" Alphys sounded terrified as she raced to catch all the falling papers just as Gaster turned around in his chair to see her do it. "I-I normally d-don't get that loud, b-but you weren't responding s-so I—"

"It is alright Alphys, no real harm done." Gaster let out a sigh as he got up from his chair to help pick up the papers that had fallen to the floor. "I should be the one apologizing, for ignoring you."

"No, I am s-sorry. You were s-so engrossed in your work I-I shouldn't have bothered you." As she gathered up some more papers, Alphys tried to not make eye contact with Gaster; ashamed she had made such a mess.

"Nonsense Alphys," Gaster smiled as he picked up a few more pieces of paper. "You may come bother me whenever you need me; that is what I am here for after…"

Gaster stopped what he was doing and looked down at the papers he had in his hands. This all felt so familiar; as if he had done this already. That was silly though, he hadn't seen Alphys at all today except for now to have done this before. He must be having a very bad case of Déjà vu or something… but it didn't feel like that was the case. It also felt like he was forgetting something, something important, but that was crazy seeing as nothing important had happened today. Today was actually rather slow considering all that had gone on; or lack thereof. So why did he feel like something was not-

"D-Doctor Gaster? A-Are you a-alright?" Snapping himself from his thoughts, Gaster looked to Alphys to see she had on a worried expression on her face as she held out his papers to him. "Y-You were zoning out there for a moment."

"… Yes, sorry. Something just came to me that I had forgotten to do earlier. If you will excuse me." Gaster took the papers from Alphys and set them on the workbench he had been sitting at before leaving the room to head to his office. As he left though Alphys watched him with a concern written on her brow and it wouldn't leave her for a long while; not even after Gaster left her gaze.

As the skeleton continued to walk on his way to his office, he couldn't get ride of the feeling of forgetting something important. It felt important enough for him to try and remember, but at the same time if it had been that important he wouldn't have forgotten. So whatever it was must not have been as important as Gaster was making it out to be… hopefully.

By the time he reached his office and stepped in though the thought of this mystery forgotten memory was pushed aside as soon as Frisk came at him to hug his legs. The door barely had shut before the small human was hugging him and clinging to him for dear life. Frisk was also shaking so badly that it was making Gaster's bone rattle a bit.

"Frisk, what is the matter?" Gaster asked as he lifted Frisk up into his arms and let her hug him around his neck. "What has frightened you?"

Frisk wouldn't answer him, she just held onto him like her life depended on it, and Gaster was just fine with that. She possibly just had a bad dream and needed some comforting.

"It's alright Frisk; it's going to be alright. How about we go make lunch and relax?" Gaster suggested as he went into his private area and walked in to find it just like it always looked. Nothing was out of place, nothing broken, and the only sign Frisk had been in here all day was a small glass bowl on the table that was probably from their snack time.

For the remainder of their time together, Frisk managed to calm down and enjoy some lunch with Gaster. The skeleton was clearly still concerned about what had spooked Frisk, but with how calm she was now he wasn't going to worry about it too much. For now he was just going to enjoy spending time with his human child before he had to go back to work and then head home to his sons.