Chapter Text
Going back to work the next day was a tense affair. You trusted Hit when he had said he would take care of it without alerting anyone, but still when you scanned in your ID and worked towards your office you were tense. When the ID didn’t work the first time you swear you felt your heart give out in your chest, but the receptionist just laughed saying the machine had been faulty all day and waved you in, while all you could do was return the laugh trying to pretend that you hadn’t almost just had a heart attack on the spot.
You hadn’t slept much the night before, having just spent it tossing and turning as your brain was unable to let go of all the events you had heard the night before. You longed to see Hit, wanting to check on him and any aftereffects that may have followed the night before but there were no messages waiting for you and you weren’t about to try and hunt him down if he was working. So instead, you kept yourself in your office and just went through files. As you sorted through them, putting them in the cabinet you came across Sans’, just holding it tightly in your grip staring down at it. Your chest ached for some reason, and you tightened your grip as if staring at the folder would bring everything to light. Why he had reacted so badly to Hit even though he had only been trying to restrain Skull from attacking anyone else. When no magical words started revealing the truth you just huffed a sigh and slipping away the folder in with the rest of them.
You had known that getting close to patients was a bad idea, especially if they were prisoners, but you just couldn’t help it. There was something about the skeletons that just drew you to them, maybe it was the similar humour of Sans, or the way that Red tried to hide his growing smile as he watched the fell clan eat together and maybe it was the way that Skull desperately wanted to get better. But you just couldn’t seem to shake that ache in your chest, rubbing at your sternum as if that would make it go away. Tired and frustrated, the feelings seemed to grow into a headache and you groaned pressing your head against the table, the cool material offering some slight relief to the pounding that was currently making your head it’s home.
That was how Hit found you a few hours later, knocking on the door and only entering when you gave a half hearted mumble of come in as a response. You gave him a weak smile but he just rose a brow at you.
“Ya look like shit doll.” He chuckled walking over. You scanned him over trying to take notes of his appearance. His eyelights had levelled out, probably stablising alongside his magic, and if you looked carefully, you could see the slight off colour bone that the scars left. But apart from that, he looked like he was doing okay. Satisfied, you moved back to your first position, with your forehead on the desk.
“Thank you. I rolled out of bed like this.” You snarked back raising your head after a moment with a small sigh. He chuckled keeping his voice quiet as if he knew the cause of the pain, though knowing his observation skills you probably weren’t that far off. He walked over to your side placing a hand against your forehead, and for a brief moment you were reminded of how you two met for the first time, just without the scalpel this time. And his hands were a lot softer as he moved behind you, boney fingers trailing across your forehead. You vaguely recognised what he was doing, and you let out a small hum of relief as he put pressure on each of the edges of your forehead. The dull ache in your chest was still there but was a lot less noticeable now that you had something else to focus on and eventually the headache died away.
“How the hell did you manage that?” You asked after he had eventually stepped back. “Can’t imagine monsters have the same pressure points as humans.” Hit just laughed at you as he settled down towards the chair that had unofficially become his as his time working with you.
“I read ya books sometimes.” He said waving his hand towards the many medical books you had lining the bookshelf. A lot of them were there before you arrived but you had added a few of your own, making sure that the very limited monster medical manuals found their place. Hit probably had a lot of time to entertain himself if he was in your office while you were working. So, you weren’t too surprised that he had eventually started reading them.
“Well if it leads to head massages like that, then I can’t complain.” You laughed lightly, but it sounded off even to you. A silence fell back between you, and instead of filling it like you normally would, you let it hang for a while. You found that with Hit, you didn’t feel obliged to fill every silence, the two of you just sitting there in each other’s company.
“I was thinkin.” There was something about Hit’s voice this time, something different and you quickly looked over shifting your gaze over, but he wasn’t looking at you, his gaze was back off towards the wall staring blanky at the motivational posters corporate had put up. He was nervous, you could tell by the slight twisting of his cufflinks, and by the way his accent slipped into something heavier. “There’s a new place that popped up near me. Real nice Italian joint. Was wonderin’ if you perhaps wanted to come with me and try out the food.”
Your eyes widened slightly as you took in the question he was trying to ask, as your heart roared in your chest.
“Like…as friends?” You said carefully, hands falling to your knees. If he meant it as friends you could just laugh the whole thing off, if he meant it as more than that you would have to find a way to turn him down gently so he didn’t lash out. It wasn’t that you didn’t like Hit, he had been really nice to you, and honestly wasn’t bad looking (you would question yourself on that one later), but your emotions just didn’t push far enough to want to date. Also you were still a little nervous about dating a co-worker. In the past, you had been in many a relationship that hadn’t worked out, and caused just unnecessary drama and stress for you in the workplace.
You had been dreading the silence that would follow your really awkward question, but Hit just melted back into a smile.
“Of course.” He dismissed your worries and the breath entered your lungs a little easier though you would never willingly admit. You were unsure if he realised just how reliving those two words were to hear. “We’re good buds, its always good to share some food with friends.” His eyelights flicked over you carefully as you relaxed into the chair.
“Oh yeah of course. If you say it’s good then I can’t wait to try it!” You were pulled away from the conversation by a notification on your computer notifying you of an update to your schedule. Opening the program you looked at it carefully. It was updated with your scheduled check up with both Skull and Sans. Despite yourself, you felt the breath get caught in your throat.
No one knew of the fight that had occurred, past the public one, no one but you and Hit. The latter who had noticed you staring at your computer for probably a little too long, and shifted so that he stood behind you. Without speaking he reached out and put a gentle hand on your shoulder, and the weight of it pulled you back a little with a soft sigh.
“Well, I do need to do my job after all.” You chuckled, but it was flat, and the twisting of your fingers gave away how you truly felt.
“I could come in with you if you wanted.” Hit offered and you frowned a little to yourself as you thought about it. Did you really want him to come in with you? Skull surely would have had time to calm down, and if you worded things carefully you were sure that it would go over just as usual. Skull would not hurt you, or at least he would never consciously hurt you. It was more Sans you were worried about. Something about that skeleton was just so confusing, and whenever you tried to think about him and what his motivation might be, there was an ache in your chest that you couldn’t quite ignore or get to go away. Even now, as you tried to think about how to answer Hit, your hand absentmindedly moved up towards your sternum rubbing it lightly. Sans had done nothing to you, in fact he had somehow managed to find a way to break out and come and help you with Skull when he had rampaged. But it wasn’t how he treated you that had you worried; it was how he had treated Hit. You knew that most prisoners, would have some sort of anger towards the guards of the prison but that didn’t excuse lashing out at Hit especially after he had helped him.
“I don’t know…” Because that was the truth, and it was all you could say. Though luckily it didn’t seem that Hit minded as he just shifted his chair over, so it was closer to your side and desk. His knee gently nudging yours.
“Well I put up an anti-magic field around them in their own cells, so I would need to come and take them down anyway.” Hit explained his hands waving slightly in the air. “So we could see how you feel then and there.” You brightened a little as he explained the plan. That really didn’t sound too bad.
“There is also this other magic thing I could do.” The jazz hands at Magic made you scoff which just made him widen his smile. “It basically puts a layer of protection magic on ya.” He explained keeping it simple with his explanation which you were glad for. There was just so many complications with magic, and you found that you would quickly lose your way if someone didn’t break it down for you. You might be a nurse specializing in Monsters, but magic was a huge concept and was still something just a little out of reach to you. “Though I will say, it’ll probably be for the best if we don’t do it around Skull.” Hit rubbed the back of his neck with a small nervous smile. “ I have a feeling that it would probably bring a situation like the other day, or at least get him a little mad.” He admitted and you hummed.
“I mean, I’m not worried about Skull.” You admitted glancing back towards the schedule. “Skull is in the morning, but Sans is in the afternoon.” You hummed trying to think out a good time, you had nothing else on afterall. “How about just after lunch you can do this little magic thing.” Hit grinned as you repeated his earlier movements. “Then I can do his appointment.”
Hit just nodded and agreed with the plan, deciding to stick around in the room for a little bit before you would have to go down to do Skulls checkup. As you walked past the guards you could feel your hands getting sweaty and you wrung them together to try and get rid of the nerves that was quickly working their way up your arm. The wringing was stopped as a cold boney hand slipped into yours pulling them away, and Hit shot you a smile as you walked. His grip was light and allowed you to pull away if needed, but you kept your hand hanging in his until you reached Skulls cell. Dimly, you realised that Sans had been moved out of the cell you had seen him in before but you didn’t think much of it. You had a one track mind for the task ahead of you and didn’t want any distractions.
It was a little surprising that Skull didn’t react to your approaching, normally he would offer some sort of greeting, or if he thought that he had done something wrong he would quickly hide. But this time he was just sat there, looking down at the floor with a strange blank expression.
“It’s the magic barrier.” Hit explained seeing your confused look. “He can’t see or sense us, and can’t use any magic.” You just nodded trying to pay attention but knowing that all the information was going straight in one ear and out the other. After a moment you felt confident to speak.
“You can let it down, and then-“ You thought about it, you didn’t really want him to go. But you didn’t really want him close by incase that aggravated Skull. “Maybe wait a little bit away?” Your voice was uncertain, and the statement was more of a question than anything else. Skull nodded as he looked towards the cell, and as he stepped away you felt that familiar buzz of magic as what you could only assume was the barrier fell away. He squeezed your hand once before walking back around the corner and you let out a shaky breath turning back towards the cell.
Skull had noticed you now, and turned making direct eye contact with you, both frozen in place. For a moment, his crazed growl filled your head, and you struggled to find your breath. Why were you doing this. The last time you had seen him he had attacked you and your friends. And still here you were about to go in there by yourself. The silence dragged out for longer, as you took a few deep breaths and took a step forwards towards the cell, the keys jingling together as you picked them up lifting them towards the lock. What you didn’t expect though, was Skull to jolt with your movement and moving quicker than you had ever seen him back towards the wall planting himself down onto the bed. Your surprise cancelled out your fear as he remained at a distance from you, watching you extremely carefully. At first you had been worried that it was some sort of predatory gaze, that after the fight his attitude had now changed, and you were nothing more than an annoyance to him. Something easy he could easily swipe away with his large hands. But as you entered the cell and he pressed even further back, not making a single noise you realised that you had been reading his attitude completely wrong. He wasn’t trying to scare you. He was scared OF you.
If the situation wasn’t so sad, realizing this giant skeleton was scared of you would have made you laugh.
“Hello Skull.” You tried to keep the emotion out of your voice but still there was a still small wobble. You put down your bag down onto the floor. “I need to check you over. Is that okay?” This was a song and dance that you had done before and you were only a little surprised as Skull shook his head. “Why not?” You asked carefully but didn’t approach. It felt like your first meeting, where Skull had been too emotional for you to touch him so had to quietly talk to him. You still didn’t feel comfortable enough to sit down, so you remained standing but keeping your distance.
“Scared.”
“Of me?” Your heart ached, you were glad he was talking to you instead of being silent, but he had made so much progress with speaking and sharing his thoughts that hearing just the single word from him felt strange. There was another pause and you let out a breath as he shook his head in response. You reached in for your equipment making sure to keep your movements slow and easily predictable.
“I’m not scared of you Skull.” You were met with a level stare and you were surprised at the amount of emotion in that one eye. “Okay Okay.” You rolled your eyes with a small smile, relaxing ever so slightly. “I WAS Scared.” You pushed. “And sure, I am a little nervous but that’s just because I was worried. I don’t know what happened Skull. So when you freaked out…I didn’t know how to help you. And that scared me.” It felt good to let out all your emotions and feelings. As you spoke you walked a little bit closer to him holding a few of the tools. It was obvious that he was listening to you because as you approached, he didn’t seem to back away at all just studying you carefully.
“You were obviously lost in your own thoughts. Something had hurt you badly, and as your nurse I had wanted to help you. But I couldn’t. I’m sorry Skull.” At this point you were right in front of him and reached out to touch his hand, which flexed under your own. You couldn’t deny the small spike of panic that went through you at that moment, but you forced yourself to breathe through your nose and relax a little. It wasn’t his fault.
“My Nurse?” There was a cheeky edge to his voice, and you just looked at him.
“Really. That’s the only thing you picked up from that conversation.” You stood crossing your arms, but the corners of your mouth threatened to twitch upwards. Skull was a lot better at keeping his expression level, but there was a slight shaking from his shoulders. It quickly progressed from low chuckles to an almost barking laugh. And that noise washed all the remaining tension from the room. “So then big guy if you’re not scared of me can I do my job?” Through his laughter he let out a nod. Relieved you let out a gentle smile, and started your usual routine.
You knew that the two of you should have talked about what had happened, but you weren’t a therapist and you didn’t want to risk another outburst. So instead you talked about seeing his brother. Skull was content to listen as you talked about the arguments from the other brothers, and your hang out day with updates of his brother. When you finished you decided that the jaw would be okay to leave until next time.
Overall, Skull was in good health, physically and magic wise. Which was something you didn’t realise you would be so relieved by. He was missing a few Health Points and there were a few spikes of magic, and a few scratches from the fight but for the most part it seemed that his insane strength and maybe the overflowing magic had healed the majority of his injuries. Still, you would make sure to check the food he was getting so that he would be able to regain those points to full.
“Alright there we go!” You smiled as you went to get down you leant forwards and planted a small kiss on his cheek and went to pack up the bag. “I’m glad you’re feeling a little better.” Confused there was a silence and you turned Skulls eye was blown wide as he stared at you a dark red colour spread over his cheek. “All good for our next check up?”
Skull still said nothing but offered you a tiny nod looking down at his hands. You take that queue to leave and walked back out locking the cell. Maybe it was the knowledge that everything was okay but you found that some of the tightness in your chest had vanished and you wore a bright smile as you walked around the corner. Hit was still waiting where you had left him, and studied you carefully, his eyes narrowing a little in suspicion.
“Everything okay?” He asked carefully and you nodded.
“Yeah come on lets go get lunch.” You grinned feeling a lot better. “I’ll buy!”