Can I beg for forgiveness? I'm sorry this is so late, I have exams at the minute and I spent a lot of time over the hols revising. Torture! Also, I know it's late but happy new year. The good news is that I'm inspired again.

And so I present to you the very overdue next chapter, it's a bit longer than usual. I didn't write this to any particular music, it's a combination of stuff.

Iced Over

Chapter 4 – Full of Surprises

The only sound generated within the lowly lit and silent room was the sound of soft snoring; it was a civilized and girly snore and considering the fact that there was only two occupants within the room, the snoring belonged to Amy. The noise of hustle and bustle was faint as patients, doctors, nurses, soldiers, agents and officers made their way up and down the corridor outside the room, only the slightest bit of noise filtered under the closed door, a metallic plate on the door read 'G.U.N Medical Facility - Room 69'.

Even though one was asleep, the other occupant was too. Shadow's weary head had slowly lolled to the side as time went on; it wasn't often that he fell asleep outside of his suspension capsule, in fact, the hedgehog didn't need much sleep and so you would rarely find him inside his capsule either, the capsule had been obtained from Doctor Eggman's base.

Asleep; the male hedgehog looked peaceful and content. Awake; he looked nothing but the opposite.

The hushed and placid silence was broken as Amy awoke suddenly, her awakening pressured by a dream she had been having, it wasn't a nightmare; it wasn't scary, but it was weird and it was on the verge of becoming one. With a light head, she allowed her eyes to adjust to the darkness.

Groaning, she positioned her elbows into the soft, white pillow and pushed herself upright just as a newly introduced headache snagged her full attention. "Ow." She mumbled as she placed an un-gloved hand against her sore head before another pain surpassed that; her foot. "Ah." She moaned loudly as her eyes fell upon the cast that was snugly fitted around her foot. "What the... ?" At the sight of the plaster, her mind began to run through the previous events, she found that she was also wearing a white dressing gown. Slowly remembering, she spoke to nobody, "I'm... not dead?" her strained voice echoing back and forth while bouncing of the walls.

In the farthest corner of the room, the male was disturbed from his light sleeping as her voice reached his ears. Shadow's eyes opened in a snap and he stared over at her; Amy had been sleeping for thirteen hours straight and during that period she'd awoken three times, only to speak a load of gibberish and drift back into a deep sleep again. Now it seemed she was fully awake without the effect of the medication she'd been given as pain relief. Grunting, the crimson and ebony hedgehog shuffled out of his slouching position.

At the sound of his grunt, her head snapped to the side. "Who's there?" she questioned as she searched the dim room frantically, his figure then catching her eye, a shadow lingering over the corner he was seated in. To her, the shape of the body looked like Sonic and so she assumed that was who it was, that was who she had expected him to be. "Sonic?" she questioned on point. After all, wasn't it always Sonic who saved her in the end?

Clearing his throat, the male corrected her flatly with "Shadow."

Amy blinked in astonishment and squinted her eyes as she lent over the edge of the bed to try and get a closer look, "Shadow?"

"Yes."

"Really?" she asked in disbelief. She knew it was the dark hedgehog, his voice was enough to prove it, but it still seemed... unbelievable. Why was he here? This was strange and it was really unexpected. Was it not Sonic who had saved her, her hero? If this was Shadow then didn't that mean that he saved her? No way.

"Yes." He rose to his feet and hesitantly decided to walk over to stand a few meters away from her bed to prove a point.

She ran her eyes up and down his body, her heart beginning to flutter at the sight of him but she thought it was just nerves from being in a room with someone different for a change. He couldn't be here; this was all just a dream, Shadow wasn't the type to save her, he'd never bother or waste his own time, and so with that thought in mind, she came to one of the stupidest conclusions: "Why must you always show up in my dreams?" she moaned as she threw her head back into her pillow, her pink hair-like quills fanning out all over it. It wasn't the first time he'd shown up, actually; the weird dream she'd just had involved him. "It's weird though, waking from a dream in a dream... I like my brain, it's unique."

The dark hedgehog was not exactly amused. "You think you're dreaming?" he folded his arms across his hairy chest, studying her. Maybe he was wrong; maybe the full effect of the morphine hadn't worn off yet.

"Why else would you be here..." she said with a single laugh; an almost ignorant sounding one. "Seriously, I come up with the most-crazy scenarios." Expecting a smart comment as a retort, she rolled her head in her pillow to face him, only to find an unhappy and un-entertained face staring down at her. "And you act like Shadow too, all 'I am the ultimate' and grumpy and stuff. So characteristic!" she said in a delighted tone, not even realising the insults she was firing at the artificial life-form.

His face furthered into a deeper frown, an angry one. "I can assure you that you are not dreaming." he spoke, his voice rough and disgusted. Turning his back on her, readying himself to leave, he said, "I can see I am clearly wasting my time here; I did not plan on saving you to only to receive smart comments in return. I thought I was performing an act of good will..."

As he took one step towards the door, Amy's teasing voice stopped him. "Ooh, pinch me." She chimed.

With a low growl and a tilt of his head, he asked "What?" but he did not turn to face her, he had every intention of leaving her behind to find out that she would never be able to walk again on her own. But this girl never failed to surprise him, from some helpless being beforehand, she had morphed into an annoying and arrogant person who seemed to have no idea who she was irritating.

"Seriously, prove to me that I'm not dreaming?" she said with a smirk. "Go on, pinch me."

He slowly turned to face her and following a heavy sigh he responded with "No."

"The Shadow in my dreams would've pinched me..." she said with a laugh. The crimson hedgehog just raised an eye ridge and tightened his jaw. It then dawned on her. "Oh, shit..." she muttered.

Shadow closed his eyes and lowered his head in half a nod of sorts. "I thought your injury would have been a clear indicator of your conscious state."

Ignoring his logic and sense, Amy pinched herself, and it hurt. "I'm not dreaming..." she said in slight shock and surprise and turned to look at the other hedgehog.

Shadow only made a single 'Hmph' sound in response and proceeded to stand there in silence, his eyes still closed and his head lowered, his arms folded across his torso as his back was positioned in the typical Shadow-slant. While he stood there, Amy pondered as to why he saved her, how he saved her, when he saved her and how he found her in the first place. Why was he in Eggman's base to begin with? Was Tail's okay? And where had Sonic and Knuckles been? What had happened in the end up?

"Tell me everything..." Amy spoke softly, her voice suddenly timid and weak. "Beginning with why you saved me..."

Shadow pulled in a heavy breath and opened his eyes to look down on her, whatever way the dim light had been shining into them; they seemed to glow, bringing out the intense red instead of his irises being drowned in the usual dull crimson colour. He looked at her, his orbs wide, as if he couldn't believe what she'd just said, although actually; he was questioning himself. "Why did I save you?" he said under his breath, his voice was not directed at her as such, but more at himself yet Amy had still overheard him. He wasn't exactly sure why he saved the rose-pink hedgehog but he was going to try and explain himself. When a faint image of a blonde girl was brought forth in his mind, Shadow muttered "Maria..."

All Amy could do was wait, she didn't know what went on inside Shadows head but one day, she hoped to find out how he functioned. "Why Shadow..." she prompted in a small voice.

"This is driving me crazy!" said the blue-blur as he paced Tail's living room. "I've checked with the hospital, as far as they know, no-one called Amy Rose has been admitted. I even took a spin past every ward and she wasn't there! I checked her house, nothing. She wasn't in mine, she's not here! Where the heck is she? She wouldn't be at Shadow's, would she? Because if she is, we'll never find her, Rouge doesn't even know if that freaking hedgehog has a house!"

"Sonic, please breathe for a second." The little fox said to try and calm the blue hedgehog's nerves even just the littlest bit. At this rate Sonic was going to become mentally unstable. The way his best friend had been acting recently was worrying Tails, he'd never seen the speedster so jumpy and restless. "I'm sure Shadow's with her somewhere... We've got to trust him that he's took her to somewhere safe and somewhere where she can get treated."

"You let him run off with her!" the blue hedgehog snapped angrily as his head swung around to glare at Tails. "Don't try and make it sound any better than what it actually is!" Sonic barked, Tails now hung his head low, tears prickling at the corner of his eyes; Sonic had never spoke to him in such harsh tone before.

Noticing Tails growing more upset with each second that went by, Knuckles stepped between the two. "Sonic, cut it out!" he said in a stern yet strangely calming tone. "You're upsetting him!" He placed a huge hand on Tail's head before giving it a comforting pat. "It's not Tail's fault. You're the one making the situation sound worse than it already is, it's not the other way around." As the echidna turned look at the fox, the kitsune tried to force a smile, but it came out weak and faint. Looking back to Sonic, Knuckles asked, "Why have you been so uptight lately? Even before this whole Amy situation..."

After another few seconds of directing a hard stare at Tails, Sonic let out a huge sigh as his eyes softened and he hung his head in shame. "I'm sorry little bro." Spoke Sonic to Tails apologetically. "I didn't mean to say that, I know it's not your fault. I'm just... worried."

"I know. We all are." The fox replied, he didn't need an apology from his big bro, he would always be forgiven by the kitsune no matter what he had said or done.

"I'm not just worried that Amy's with... Shadow. I'm worried that I'm losing her in more ways than one..." his words were selective and hesitant, almost as if he were having a hard time getting them out.

"How so?" Knuckles asked carefully.

"She's just..." The hedgehog took a breath and rethought what he was going to say before continuing. "Ever since I dated my last girlfriend, Amy's just distanced herself from me... I knew she'd find it hard to see me with someone else but I always figured she'd stand by me no matter what I done, like she had so many other times before. Then I realised I was wrong, her love... her love for me was real... not some crazy fan-girl obsession. I think..." he stopped and took a breath of realisation, realisation that he'd caused an incredible amount of emotional pain to her, her changes were all because of him, her bitterness, her sorrow; all his fault. Their crumbling friendship; that too, was his fault.

"You think what?" Knuckles once again asked, but it was more of a prompt this time, yet he was still careful when speaking to his friend.

Sonic raised his head and closed his eyes as he felt guilt and regret flow through his veins. "I think... I really did break her heart this time."

Intense silence engulfed them for quite a while as Shadow said nothing at all, he only stared through her as if she wasn't there and it was actually beginning the freak the poor girl out. "Maria..." Amy repeated softly; it was an extremely touchy subject. Years ago, she could remember reading plenty of articles on the black and red hedgehog when some information about project S.H.A.D.O.W was finally released to the public by G.U.N officials after the ARK incident; since the whole population of the planet needed an explanation for their near death experience. Maria was briefly mentioned; the article stated that she had been murdered by G.U.N soldiers during the termination process, that she was the grand daughter of Professor Gerald Robotnik and would have been the cousin of Doctor Ivo Robotnik. Amy didn't know much about what Shadow thought of the girl, but it was evidently clear that the events of that particular day caused him a great amount of pain and sorrow, not so much the termination process or the fact that he himself was going to be destroyed but more so the death of the girl, Maria; Amy understood that Maria was one of his only friends and that he had at the time and that someday, Shadow would need to share his thoughts and feelings with somebody if he was ever going to rid himself of the pain and sorrow, the only way he could do that would be by talking it out with someone who listened and cared.

"Maria... I saved you because of her." Shadow said slowly as a reaction to her spoken name with a distant and glazed look in his intensely red eyes.

"Was it... part of your promise to her?" Amy asked softly, she didn't want to seem nosy but she at least wanted to show Shadow that she did care about how he felt and how the 'accident' affected him.

Snapping out of his memories in an instant, he eyed her suspiciously, his face strained and tense once again. "Why do you continue to ask about her?" he questioned as if he had never emotionally connected with the Maria subject at all.

"Because I care about the way she effects you." Amy said simply, truthfully, the rose-pink hedgehog was unsure of what she was saying. "Clearly, she's the reason you saved me so I thank her for influencing you. She must have been a beautiful girl if you still think about her and honor her wish everyday, a special friend."

"She was and still is." Shadow said as he began to warm to the rose-pink hedgehog, even though he hated people asking him about Maria and people poking their noses into his personal life, Amy had been doing it in a way that was not of her own interest, it seemed to Shadow that she was doing out of a true and pure kindness and this helped him trust the girl. "If she were alive today then she'd be grateful for the thing you just said. I thank you."

"You're welcome." Amy said in respect, realising Shadow was more comfortable with her now and visa versa, she shuffled over on the bed and made some space beside her. "Go on, sit down... I need to know what happened yesterday."

Shadow took a step back but reluctantly began to approach her bedside just before talking a seat on her foot of her bed. "What do you want to know?" he asked as he eventually turned to look at her, Amy found herself admiring the creature, as if he were a completely different guy, he was settled and relaxed instead of being his usual angst self. As she expected, there was more to Shadow the hedgehog than what meets the eyes. She was glad that she'd got some alone time with him, every second she spent with him helped her understand him a bit better and time helped form a bond between them.

"I just want to know if Tail's is okay and then I'll be satisfied, I promise no more questions." she said, the concern over her young friend would remain until she was sure he was okay.

"He should be, I believe his friend Sonic should have collected him outside the base as intended."

"Shadow, are you positively sure?" Amy asked with disbelief laced in her words.

"I didn't physically see the two meet up, but I did Chaos Control him to safety."

With a deep breath, Amy said to herself "I trust you Sonic."

"That reminds me that your assigned doctor has got news on you're well being, as you slept, a medical team performed a series of scans and X-rays on your limbs." Shadow informed her as he rose from the bed to turn on the light. Amy hissed as the sudden exposure to the light, the density of the brightness hurt her emerald green eyes, she through an arm over her face as a form of splitting the brightness. Hearing Shadow press a button to the side of her bed, she removed her arm to look at him.

"What are you doing?" Amy asked while she struggled to sit up properly, she winced at the pain that shot up and down her leg at the sudden attempt at movement.

"Your doctor ordered me to inform him once you've awakened. You have awakened."

"Yes, I have..." Amy said with slight sarcasm as the two began to wait.

A few minutes later, a young Mobian man in a white coat sauntered through the door with a clipboard filled with medical information in his hand . He was a grey hyena with some black and brown faded spots here and there.

"Ah, You are awake, Mrs..." his pale blue eyes moved from Amy to Shadow and then down to his Clipboard. "Sorry, Miss Amy Rose." he chuckled to himself for a moment before looking back up at the two, "I thought you were his wife for a second there." At his foolish words, Amy's eyes widened noticeably and she blushed extremely hard before beginning to rub at her temples awkwardly. "Apologies Miss." he apologized as he eyed the two. "Although, may I add that you two are extremely suited, are you a couple of sorts?"

Amy stared at the doctor with an embarrassed and racing heart thumping within her chest. Why the heck would this asshole even ask this? Glancing at Shadow, she reluctantly piped up since the black and red hedgehog didn't react all that much except for the usual tilt of his head as if he were finding it hard to translate the hyena's words like a confused puppy. "No sorry, we're not." she said with noticeable discomfort.

Taking a second to look at Amy, Shadow noticed her glowing red face out of embarrassment and turned to look at the doctor again with dislike in his eyes, a scowl settling on his face. Reaching into his quills, Shadow pulled out his G.U.N identification card and flipped it open. "Shadow the hedgehog, a G.U.N intelligence agent. I'm here purely on business." The doctor's eyes widened at the name, Agent Shadow and an Agent called Rouge were quite well known throughout G.U.N, but only a small amount of people ever had saw face to face with the two since they had incredibly high rankings. "I would appreciate it if you stopped playing match-maker and focused on doing your job." A small smile slipped onto Amy's muzzle at his words, that was actually... true. She wondered were her fiery temper had gone over the years? If she were the old Amy, then that doctor would've received a hammer to the face. With an amused smile, Amy sighed, she missed her old self.

"Uh... S-Sorry sir." The doctor stuttered as he hurriedly directed his gaze to his clip board as he remained under Shadow's pressurizing stare. Determined to avoid eye contact with the dark hedgehog, he looked back up at the patient and chugged on with his work frantically. "Miss Rose, we performed a couple of scans and X-rays on your right foot yesterday and it seems that almost every bone in your foot is broken in an average of four to six places per bone. We also noticed that cracks have traveled up your ankle and so we performed further scans on your limb, it too has some minor damage. We had you on morphine but now we have treated the pain in your foot with a variety of numbing injections, we will have a list of the medications we used for you shortly. You're pelvic area has also been badly bruised, do you have any idea on what might have caused the bruising?"

Amy looked puzzled for a second as she thoroughly ran through the events in her head. "Uh... Yeah... I think it might have happened as I tried to get under that stupid door. You know what happened right?" she asked.

The doctor nodded, his pale blue eyes still fixed on her. "Yes, Agent Shadow explained what he knew yesterday when he brought you in. Unfortunately, we can not do much to help you with getting justice, normally we'd have some of our agents investigate into all different types of assault cases no matter how small, but we cannot do much for you if you're injury involved Doctor Eggman, we are unable to prosecute him for any of his crimes due to his resistance towards the law."

"No, it's alright, I fight against him all the time." Amy straightened her shoulders. "Friend of Sonic's." she said proudly.

"Oh, yes, the fastest thing alive... I see. So you obtained your injury fighting alongside him?"

"Yup. A battle wound." Amy said cheerily but her smile straightened when she saw the serious look on the doctor's face.

With a straight face, the doctor took a breath and stared Amy dead in the eye. "... I am sorry to have to reveal this to you Miss Rose, but you may not be able to walk again. You see, there is a ninety-two percent chance that your foot will not fully heal, some bones will eventually heal completely overtime if you are patient but the damage is simply too much for every bone to mend itself thoroughly, you foot will be extremely weak and fragile, there my also be some problems due to possible deformalities."

"What?"

"I said that you may not be ab-"

"I know what you said, but... seriously?" Her cheeks had gone from a healthy red to dangerously pale in a matter of seconds.

The doctor nodded solemnly. Shadow closed his eyes.

Amy stared at her foot and tried to wiggle her toes, she physically couldn't. "... Shit. "

"We can release you over Christmas and bring you in for a range of different operations after the new year if you would like. Many patients prefer to spend Christmas at home although it's only a suggestion. Would you like to do the same?"

With teary eyes, Amy sniffed and gave a weak nod.

The doctor also nodded slowly in response, respecting her wishes as he sympathized with her. "Although you'll need someone at home to look after you, do you have someone to do that?"

Amy shook her head as a tear trickled from the corner of her eye, the thought of not being able to walk again was killing her. "Looks like I'm staying here..." she said, her voice little and shaky.

"I'm so sorry Miss Ross." the doctor spoke quietly as he turned away from her before hesitantly leaving the room.

Amy raised her hanging head and watched him go. She'd never felt so depressed in her entire life, Shadow was about to open his mouth just when the door swung open once again with a bang, a familiar and annoying bat strutting in. At the sound, Amy jerked, more tears began to run down her face as if the loud noise had scared them out of her wet eyes.

"Have a bit of respect!" Shadow growled at Rouge as she slowed her approaching and came to a stop.

"What's wrong with her?" Rouge asked insensitively. Shadow looked to the ceiling and gritted his sharp teeth. Sometimes Rouge was great with things like this, other times she seemed to just not give a shit. Today seemed to be one of her 'I don't care' days. Between him and Rouge, the bat would know how to deal with this better than he did, hopefully she would help Shadow out later on.

Rouge looked back and forth from Shadow and Amy, Amy was crying, Shadow was glaring at her through angry eyes, a stare she was only met with when she'd did something wrong such as blowing their cover on a mission. And the first thought that occurred to her was that Shadow, for some weird reason, cared about that pink-hedgehog.

With nothing less than an arrogant laugh, she asked "When were you able to make friends outside of business, Shad?"

Something snapped deep within Shadows mind. "Out."

"Fine. As you wish." she said with a shrug before spinning on the heel and looking back at her colleague. "... But just before I go, I got a call from Sonic asking me to check if Amy was within G.U.N and I don't think her blue boyfriend will be two happy that you, Shad, denied me the chance to find out how she is, he wanted me to pass on information about her well-being. He's really, and I mean really worried about her."

Shadow narrowed his eyes into a cold glare. "Go find her doctor, he just left and he's got all her medical stats recorded, show him you're identification card and I'm sure he'll have no problem getting you a copy of the information. Now get out."

The bat raised her eyebrows at Shadow's strange behavior and rolled her eyes. Just as she went to strut out again, Amy lifted her head and whispered "Wait..." but the bat didn't hear her and marched out the door and down the hallway, leaving Amy's question hanging on her tongue. Sonic and her had only made up a few days ago, and they were both still fragile but she had agreed to come for Christmas dinner anyways, she really felt the need to, at the least, give him a call and tell him she was alive and, to some extent, well. Tears once again blurred her version as she turned and lifted her battered leg over the side of the bed, a sharp pain shooting through her hip at the movement.

"What are you doing?" the dark hedgehog asked as Amy hissed while standing up using her good leg. Putting pressure on her demented foot, she tried to take one step but let out and agonizing cry before falling to the ground, completely stunned due to the pain. Shadow's eyes widened, "You're foolish." he commented as he walked to her side before putting a strong arm around her tiny shoulders. Enjoying the heat radiating his warm body, Amy nodded in bewilderment and she savored his touch. He helped her stand before lifting her into him arms. Amy let out a tiny "Woah" as she felt her feet being eased of the ground. "But you're determined." he added while setting her back down gently onto the white bed sheets.

With the wet trails of tears drying on her now flushed cheeks, Amy asked, "Is that a good thing?" the black hedgehog nodded as he once again took a seat at the bottom of her bed.

"I believe it is, yes."

She smiled shyly and lowered her head, she had really begun to enjoy his company, it was fresh and new and so sweet, something she would have never associated at all with Shadow in the past. "Thank you... for all this... You've been so kind." looking up, she found the hedgehog looking into her eyes, unafraid of making direct eye contact unlike her.

"Uh... You're welcome, I guess." he replied, she swore she saw a twitch of a smile occupy his lips, even if it was just for a fraction of a second.

"Uh-huh. This is him." Sonic spoke into the phone. Tails and Knuckles stood close by, listening in closely to Sonic's side of the conversation. "Oh, thank god!" Sonic suddenly exclaimed happily, a smile bursting onto his face. This caused Knuckles to smile and Tail's to make a little leap of joy. By the sounds of things, they'd finally located Amy and all it took was one single phone call. "Thanks Rouge, how is she?... Uh... did you find out?" There was a long silence as the bat explained from her end of the line and Sonic's face fell. "Well, is there a way of seeing her? When's the first operation?" Tail's and Knuckle's faces paled. Operation? Oh no. "Okay... Um... that would be great if you could, call me back then once you have... Yeah, that's fine. Okay, bye and thanks." The hedgehog said before he hung up and turned to face his two friends.

Knuckles stepped forward a little. "She there?" Sonic nodded. "That's great!"

"Is she okay?" the little fox asked, pure concern in his little blue eyes.

"She's injured and G.U.N only let family and authorized employees in to see their patients..." Sonic said with a strained voice. "It's my fault, I let one of the most important people in my life down." Taking a seat on the couch nearby, he put his head in his hands. "What's she going to think now? She's going to hate me! She'll never accept my apology, I don't want to lose her..."

"No, Sonic..." Tail's said as he took a seat beside the cerulean hedgehog. "If anyone, she'll blame me... I was there, she was trying to save me."

Knuckles clenched his fists. "Pfft. Listen to the both of you, nobody is at fault for this..." he became plagued in brief thought for a moment before adding "Actually, Eggman is! And I'm going to go right now and knock him right out into space!"

Sonic looked up and Tail's reached out to stop the echidna. "No, Knuckles!" both of them said in unison as Knuckles took off and stomped out into the street.

Sighing, Sonic rose to his feet. "Damn." he muttered as he sped out to stop the red echidna's rampage.

"Christmas is going to really suck this year..." Amy spoke with a sigh as she fiddled with a bang of rosy-pink hair, watching the hedgehog at the foot of her bed through the corner of her eye.

"And why's that?" Shadow asked with a raised eyebrow. Amy looked at him and shot him an disbelieving look.

"You should know, I'll be stuck in here wondering whether I'll ever be able to walk again..."

"Yes, I'm sorry. I knew that of course and... I can't imagine how horrible you must feel." Shadow added. "But for me, Christmas is never that great anyway."

"What?!" Amy said in shock. "You don't like Christmas?"

"I don't see why it's so appealing." Shadow replied simply.

"Gosh, you should really come for Christmas dinner some year, it's always fun once the cooking's over and done with. I think you'd like it. It's that time of year for getting close to people and sitting by the fire drinking eggnog." Amy said with a giggle as fond memories filled her head. "I've always loved it."

"No I wouldn't." Shadow said before becoming curious. "This eggnog you speak of... Is it in relation to Dr. Robotnik, because if it is then I suggest that no being on this planet should drink it."

Amy giggled a little bit more. "No, silly. It's a drink that involves eggs, Sonic gave Eggman the nickname because he looks like an egg, that's all."

He shrugged of the fact that she had called him silly, to be honest, he didn't mind. Shadow thought about it for a moment. "Well, I suppose the Doctor is a little bit rounded. It seems fitting."

Amy nodded. "I think 'little bit' is a bit of an understatement " she said with sweet smile directed at Shadow, the black and red hedgehog found the smile on Amy's face... nice... almost beautiful. He blinked twice in surprise at his thoughts before directing his gaze casually towards the bed sheets, this was strange... he felt strange. He'd never thought like this before. Why now? What was different about this girl in comparison to everyone else? He became frustrated and tightened his fists, there was so much he didn't understand. Amy watched as the hedgehog noticeably became ridged.

It was unfair that the girl had to spend such a time in a hospital bed, the ebony and crimson hedgehog supposed Christmas only came around once a year, and he hated the fact that she was unable to spend a time she enjoyed so much in comfort. Relaxing his fists and looking up, he lent back against the metal barrier at the bottom of the bed before asking, "Would you rather spend Christmas at home?"

Confused at his behavior, Amy nodded anyway. "Yes, honestly I would but I'd rather stay here knowing that I'm safe instead of being in my house on my own... That's a recipe for disaster."

"Well..." Shadow's crimson eyes searched the bed sheets as he thought 'what the hell am I thinking?' but it was like the words had intentions of their own, slipping through his lips, those words were a question. "If you allowed me, would you be more comfortable at home if I were there to watch over you just to make sure you were okay?"

Amy was thankful she still had skin and muscle keeping her jaw in place, otherwise it would've dropped right off. Shadow... he was requesting to look after her? Had he gone mad, no, had she gone mad instead? Maybe she was having really realistic illusions, maybe she was hearing things. "You'd... do that... for me?" she said, pointing at herself. "Did I just hear right? Are you okay?"

Shadow's eyes widened at her reaction and he cleared his throat. "Yes, I would, you did and I am." but Amy just stared at him in complete awe. A bubble of happiness and excitement exploding inside of her, making her heart flop about in her chest.

"Uh.. um... I wouldn't mind!" she exclaimed, nerves washing over her. "I-I mean, I don't want to be a nuisance or anything..."

"You're modest, I understand that." Shadow said with half a nod as he stood up. Amy blushed and turned away, not wanting Shadow to she the burning color spreading across her cheeks. "You're not a nuisance, I just feel the need to repay you for all those years ago." Of course Shadow knew that his explanation wasn't the whole story but it would be until he found out what was going on with him.

Despite the color of her cheeks, she shifted towards him a little bit. "Do you mean the ARK?"

"Yes. Without you, I wouldn't have realized Maria's true dying wish, and this planet would have been destroyed along with everyone on it. Thank you." he paused and held out his hand. "So, do you accept my offer?"

She looked at his outstretched hand and back up to his face, realizing he was extremely handsome, he was more good-looking now than she had ever thought him to be. Maybe it was his expression, a expression that was so un-Shadow like, his lips sat on the turning point of a smile, he's eyes glittered and blinked like everyone else's, she loved the way his chest fluff brushed of his chin and she felt the need to just reach out and fluff it, of course, she repressed those urges. To an extent she could even say there was something cute and lovable about him. "Okay, fine. I accept the offer." she said while taking his hand and giving it a firm shake, unable to believe what was happening. This was the last thing she expected from this hedgehog, but he had proven to be full of surprises so far. Once they both let go, Shadow turned away from her and walked towards the door. "Where are you going?" she questioned.

"I'm going to sign you out and collect all the medical equipment you need."

It was like all the hesitation she felt restricting her had left her in that second, she didn't care what she said anymore. "Oh, Okay... Go ahead and do that while I relax." she said with grin, this definitely wasn't a dream, she pinched herself for the second time that day, nope, definitely not a dream.

Shadow slipped out the door without saying another word and Amy lay back to stare at the ceiling, a permanent smile stuck on her face. Who knew Shadow could be such a gentleman? Who knew Shadow could be this... stranger he was now?

Who could have predicted she'd find herself having a slight crush on one of the most angst, rude and ridiculous hedgehogs to ever walk on the planet. She couldn't deny anything anymore, she knew better, she knew this feeling inside out, the beginnings of a feeling that had caused her to do many crazy things.

And all those thoughts over a blue-hedgehog had been discarded, thrown away.

Sonic was losing Amy fast to the unpredictable, the impossible.

Shadow the Hedgehog.

Thank you for reading, leave a review if you liked it, reviews are my motivation. I'm also happy to answer any questions you have down here starting next chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or anything related to it, rightfully belongs to SEGA.