The Time Before (Undertale)

3 ~ Raising the Test Subject

Jeff took readily to the task of caring for S642. He was, primarily, a literal doctor, having earned his M.D. in the Magical physiology of monsters. Taking care of people was his job- or, at least, it had been before Gaster had hired him some twenty years ago for a project and just kept him on since then.

On top of that, Jeff was a two-time dad, and, Gaster had told him, he wouldn't have to worry about feeding S642, as Gaster wanted to take care of that himself. So that made things a little easier.

First thing first, he needed to get S642 some clothes. He would have, actually, first given him a real name, but Gaster had been firm on vetoing that. So, the test subject clone child would remain S642, and Jeff would get him some clothes.

Luckily, this was fairly easy. The lab hired employees of all sizes, so a quick raid of a supply closet procured a fitting outfit. Granted, S642 looked like a small scientist, what with the loose grey teeshirt, standard issue cargo pants, and a small lab coat, but the clothes all fit, they were free, and S642 would not likely be leaving the tenth floor of the lab any time soon, so it wasn't like anyone was going to be mistaking him for an actual scientist.

Still considering himself a doctor, Jeff's next step was checking up on S642's health. It wasn't that he didn't trust Gaster to make certain to keep his project in working order, but he did realize that Gaster had next to no experience with children, and he wanted to make sure that S642 was properly developing. He was happy to see that S642 was indeed growing, and quite quickly at that. Gaster was feeding him well.

Beyond that, it was mostly just ensuring that S642's mental growth was properly stimulated. That wasn't too difficult, as he was an incredibly curious child, and, Gaster told Jeff, literally was getting more intelligent by the day. All Jeff really had to do was provide him with something- anything, really- to play with and figure out, and he was satisfied.

Other than that, things really were easy. An occasional snuggle or just a few minutes of attention, and S642 really was contented.

The only thing that concerned Jeff was how much S642 slept. Because he slept a lot. Sometimes, Jeff would even be talking to him, and he would just sort of flop sideways, curl up, and sleep for a good hour and a half. But, of course, Gaster had an answer to that, too. He said that S642's Soul was still growing, and, as it caught up to his body, the constant naps would taper off.

And they did. Just a few weeks after Jeff started taking care of S642, he started to sleep less and... well, as much as Jeff wanted to take care of him, he really did get in the way often. Always wanting to show Jeff whatever he had figured out, or a picture he had found in a book, or a little doodle he had done with crayons. Of course, Jeff always paused in whatever he was doing to take a few minutes to look at whatever S642 was showing him.

And S642 was always ceaselessly, endlessly, infinitely happy to see Gaster.

Throughout the day, Jeff kept S642 in his workspace. The child had no qualms in sitting on the floor, playing or drawing or doing whatever Jeff had brought to keep him amused. But whenever he heard the door opening, signifying Gaster's arrival, he always stood, toddled over to the door like the toddler he was, and wrapped his stubby arms around Gaster's leg, burbling happily all the way.

The first few times this had happened, Gaster had been surprised, and maybe even a little disgusted. Why would he-- it, Gaster reminded himself, why would it have any reason to love him? He really wasn't nice to it, all he ever did was feed it. At this point, it was more like providing S642 with food, as he only just gave it the bottle containing the food solution and growth serum, and it did the rest, holding the bottle and drinking from it. He didn't even give S642 the same friendly- if fake- smiles anymore, only just keeping an eye on it in case something happened and he needed to save it. (Choking was hard for skeletons to do, but it still was possible.)