"Professor," Zim said, pacing back and forth. Professor Membrane had untied Zim from the metal table and let him walk freely. However, he made Zim wear a shock collar that would tase him if he tried escaping the lab. "What exactly triggers your son's meltdowns?"

"You," Professor Membrane said through grit teeth.
"Heh heh, well, I know that…" Zim said nervously. "What I meant, I think, is how does he act during these meltdowns?"
"Well, he usually screams and hits people, and, well, I guess you could say that he freaks out." Zim pondered this. He wrote something down.
"We'll need some form of tranquility medication, then," Zim said. "Something to calm him down. Some things we will not be able to fix, like his educational abilities, but we could make him more… rational."
"Rational" is a word Membrane didn't want anyone using to describe his son. His son was in no case irrational. How dare that ugly green freak call his son irrational?
"My son isn't irrational," Membrane said. "He's just cleaning up the mess that YOU made." Zim smiled nervously.
"Yes, well," he coughed. "We need to figure out how to calm Dib down."
"Uh huh. Thank you, Einstein." Membrane threw his hands up in the air. "What ever would this world do without you?" Zim flinched at Membrane's sarcasm.
"What we need," Membrane said, "is something that can make him keep hold of reality. I mean really. The stuff he's on now isn't doing him much good…" Membrane looked over as his son ran to the sink and spewed out the few stomach contents he had into it.
"Stay there," Professor Membrane said to Zim. He ran over to Dib to help him out.
"Are you okay, Son?" Membrane asked sympathetically. He was so thin.
"Yeah Dad; don't worry."
"I'm your father. I'm supposed to worry for you." Zim looked over at Dib and Professor Membrane. Zim had never had parents who would worry if he was unwell.
"Dad, really. I'm fine." After saying this, Dib vomited, getting it on the floor, himself and his father.
This is all my fault, Zim thought. If I had never attacked Dib— I'm not even going to go through this again.
"Son," Professor Membrane said, somewhat sternly, but still gentle. "I'm going to take you upstairs and I'm going to clean you up a bit, and then I want you to drink a very tall glass of orange juice. You look very thin, and I'm becoming worried for your well being." He glanced at Zim quickly before going upstairs, making sure that the alien was still wearing the collar. He was. And he was staring innocently at him with Ruby eyes, with his antenna flattened on his head.
When Membrane got upstairs, Gaz was still watching TV.
"Finally," she said. "You're back from beneath your lab."
"Yes. Your brother has vomited on both himself and me, and I must clean us both."
"Oh…" Gaz was disappointed that her father wasn't going to stay up on the main floor with her, but she understood. Dib needed care. Why wasn't SHE down in the lab?

Professor Membrane handed Dib some fresh clothes.
"Son, while you put these on I'm going to change as well. Okay?" Dib nodded.
"Good." Membrane walked out of the bathroom and into his. When he came out, he looked pretty much the same, only he wasn't covered in vomit. Dib walked up to him.
"Dad, should I get the OJ now?" He asked.
"Of course, Son! Meet me in my lab when you've got it." Dib could hear his dad's heavy boots walking across the floor and down the stairs into his lab. When he came in, he saw Zim mixing up various chemicals.
"And just what do you think you're doing?" He asked Zim.
"Making a cure for your son." Zim said casually.
"Really? Let me see it." After careful inspection, he decided that it would be safe to give it to his son. He was a very important man, so he really didn't need the FDA's approval.
"Son! Taste this medicine." Dib did as he was told. He immediately puked it up. Professor Membrane glared at Zim, and Zim smiled nervously back at him.
"Heh heh…"
"Hah. Hah. Hah. I'm not laughing, Zim," Professor Membrane said angrily. Then he rubbed his chin.
"Well, Dib does seem to be a little more tranquil. Hmmm… what we need is something gentle on the stomach. I know!"
He began mixing chemicals together. "Son, try this!" Immediately when Dib drank it he lost it. He began running around crazily and throwing things everywhere. A notebook hit Professor Membrane's face. Soon after, though, he returned to normal.

Days passed.

Then weeks.

"Ugh! How are we supposed to cute my son if we don't even know the target of what is going on—"
"Professor!" Zim yelled. "Do you have an MRI of Dib's brain after the incident?"
"Yes, but what does that have to—"
"Bring it to me, please."
Professor Membrane fetched the MRI picture. Zim inspected it. "Hmm…" he rubbed his antenna, in a similar fashion that one would run their chin.
"Nothing seems to be wrong his brain! Nothing on the outside, at least. Not outside of the concussion bruises and things." Membrane stared at it.
Suddenly, Gaz walked down the stairs. She looked at Zim and her father.
"What are you looking at, Dad?" She said apathetically.
"An MRI of your brother's brain," Membrane said. "No matter how hard we try, we just can't see anything wrong with it. We've been at this for weeks! And yet…"
"Let me see it," Gaz said, taking it from them.
"Dad. If you look up here, there's an entire section if his brain that's screwed up. I mean look here." She pointed at an area on the picture.
"I don't see where you're getting at."
"Dad! Look!" Gaz said. She handed Professor Membrane a pair of glasses. He gasped.
"Egad! How could I have missed that? Daughter, you truly have a talent."
"Dad, you're a chemist, not a doctor. But to be honest, I found a diagram of a human brain in your lab and looked through it for a bit." Professor Membrane was surprised at his daughter's intelligence.
"Perhaps I have underestimated you, Gaz," he said. "You are very smart. So is your brother, and so am I. It's in our DNA, it seems." Professor Membrane snapped his attention back to the cure.
"Hm. If we touch Dib's brain, it will probably kill him. So… how are we going to do this without opening his head?"
"Just do what we do on Irk," Zim said. Laser surgery. It never fails. Only takes a few minutes." Membrane pondered this.
"Hm. Yes. That will work. Unfortunately I do not have the equipment to do this."
"I do! But it's at my lab. And in order for us to use it, we'll have to bring Dib over!"
"Do you think he'll go anywhere NEAR your house after what you did?" Gaz snapped.
"That will be the challenge," Zim said. "Getting him to my house without giving him a nervous breakdown." Zim approached Dib. Dib looked a little nervous.
"Dib, you're going to have to come to my lab," Zim said.
"No way! Not after what you did!" Professor Membrane approached Dib. He put both his hands on Dib's shoulders and looked him in the eye.
"Son, I know it's scary. But if we go to Zim's lab, he'll be able to make you better. No more strong medications that make you vomit. No more breakdowns if you don't take the strong medicine. Just peace. And I'll be there with you, okay? I won't let anyone hurt you. Not Zim, nor his robot dog, nor his fake Robo-Parents. But you're going to have to stay strong. I know it's hard. But there's no way you'll get hurt. I won't let that happen. Because…" he hugged Dib close to him.
"I love you Son, and everything is going to be okay."
Dib sobbed, holding his father.
"I'm scared, Dad," he said. Professor Membrane rubbed his back.
"I know, Son. I can imagine. When I was little…" Dib looked up. Professor Membrane rarely told him stories about his childhood. When he did tell him stories, it was usually "I invented the cure for the common cold!" or "Those mutant pigs got out of their cages again." But never "When I was little".
"When I was little I had to get my appendix removed. One of the most simple surgeries out there. But I was nervous. So, so nervous. I thought to myself 'What if something goes wrong?' But nothing went wrong. Because the doctors took good care of me. Just like I'm going to do to you." Dib stood up strait, a war-like expression on his face.
"I won't let you down, Dad." He said. Professor Membrane picked his Son up.
"Let's go to Zim's lab."

Dib was shivering violently when they arrived at Zim's lab.
"It's okay, Son. No need to be afraid."
Zim marched over to a table.
"You may set him down here." Professor Membrane did so, all the while giving Dib a sympathetic look.
Zim attached a cap to Dib's head.
"This is going to be quick and simple," Zim said as he walked over to his computer.
"All this is going to do is send signals to your brain to fix the damaged area. Shouldn't take more than five minutes."

But as soon as Zim started it up, something went awry. The cap started smoking and buzzing. Dib screamed.
"DAD! IT HURTS! GET IT OFF, GET IT OFF!" Professor Membrane turned to Zim.
"You heard him! Stop the machine NOW!"
"I can't! It's on auto-fix!" Zim pulled his antenna.
"We have to do something!" Zim yelled. "Or he'll loose his memory for good!" Zim thought. "PROFESSOR! Grab that lever! Gaz! Push down that button!" Both the professor and Gaz did as they were told. Zim frantically typed into his computer. Kill scripts. Quit program scripts. Nothing was working! Zim ran over to a lever. He pulled it up then down.

A bright light flashed throughout the entire room.

They all fell to the floor. Their hearing was disabled. Professor Membrane reached into the light. He couldn't see anything but white. He couldn't hear anything.
"Son!" He called out. Did any sound escape him at all? "SON!" He yelled louder. He couldn't hear. This quietness was getting lonely.

All of a sudden, the light withdrew. Professor Membrane groaned. He was laying on his back. He could see again. He could hear again, but it sounded muffled.
Gradually, his ability to move returned. He opened and closed his fist, and moved his feet around. "Son!" He yelled. He heard a soft moan. Dib laid on the floor. Membrane hobbled over to him.
"Son," he said again, tears forming in his eyes.
He took Dib's head and put it in his lap. Dib closed his eyes.
"I promised you you'd be okay," Membrane said, his voice cracking. He sniffed and rubbed his eyes with the back of his lab coat sleeve. He hugged Dib close to him.
"Well, you're okay now." He hugged Dib up to his chest, sobbing. Gaz and Zim bowed their heads.
Dib opened his eyes.
"Dad," he whispered. Professor Membrane opened his eyes.
"You're okay?"
"More than okay!" Dib exclaimed, sudden enthusiasm coming back to him. "I feel great! I can think now!" Membrane laughed and smiled.
"Quick! What's the square root of sixty-four?"
"Eight!"
"Yes!" Membrane picked Dib up and spun him around.
"No more nervous breakdowns. No more pain! It's all good now, Son!" Membrane laughed.
"It's all thanks to you, Dad!" Dib said.
"Well," Professor Membrane said. "Not just me."
Dib turned around. Zim and Gaz looked at him, Gaz smiling for real this time. Zim was smiling as well.
"You guys?"
"Well," Zim said. "We kind of used MY equipment for this, eh… heh heh." Before Zim could do anything else, Dib ran over to him and hugged him.
"Whoa, there, Dib-human!" Zim said. He returned the hug. Dib then spun around and looked at Gaz.
"You know, sometimes I feel bad for other people…" Dib said. Gaz raised her eyebrow at him in confusion.
"…Because they don't have a sister like you." Dib ran over to her and hugged her. Gaz hugged him back harder.
"I love you, weirdo." She said.

That night, Zim, Gaz, Dib, and Professor Membrane ate dinner together. Professor Membrane had adopted Zim, and Zim was more than overjoyed to be accepted into the family. Professor Membrane raised his glass.
"Let's have a toast," he said. "To Zim joining our family, and to Dib being okay. And to Gaz for discovering what no one else could."
And for the best dad ever," Dib said. Professor Membrane smiled.

They clinked their glasses and ate, happiness spreading throughout the house that night faster than a light could light up a room.

The end

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sail. Explore. Dream. Discover."

-H. Jackson Brown Jr.

And here I end The Sands of Time. I really hope you liked it! I loved writing it. Guess what? My birthday is in ten days; I can't wait! Expect more stories from me! I love you all! 3

-InvaderProfessorMembrane