Chapter 4: Quiet Morning

Rouge let out an almost silent yawn as she shifted herself up into a more comfortable sitting position as her eyes soon gazed over to the powder white sofa that lay in front of her. It wasn't hard to notice the black hedgehog lying down on his back calmly asleep looking as if he had barely moved an inch the whole time. She watched as he lay motionless, not a single breath entering his body. The quietness of the room calmed her slightly, and before she realised what had woken her, a light knock at the door had then repeated itself as the white bat pushed herself off the comfortable chair.

She steadily made her way to the door, opening it slowly as it let out a small creek, Rouge was then greeted by a grey vixen that had been stood behind the wooden door. "Hello Cass, I see your back" she said in almost a whisper as too not wake the sleeping hedgehog a few feet away.

"Hey Rouge" She spoke softly after Rouge. "Rex is hurt on his shoulder, is it ok if we can get him bandaged up here?" She too spoke quietly as she pointed at the Brown wolf sitting next to her on the small garden wall using his hand to try and pull his opposite shoulder forwards to get a look at a bleeding wound on the back of it. Rouge nodded.

"Oh, yes of cores." She approved with out hesitation as she parted herself from the doorway to allow Cass and Rex to enter.

"I see Shadow had no problem with getting comfortable." Rex smiled threw his pain as his green eyes noticed the black figure on the sofa. Rouge in turn smiled with him.

"He went off like a light." She explained as the trio gazed at the peaceful looking hedgehog. "It's good that he got some rest. He needs it by the look of him." Rouge escorted the two canines into the kitchen. "Honestly, you would think he was dead by the way he sleeps."

"Well technically, he is." Cass smiled as she sat Rex down on a chair and inspected the brown wolf's shoulder as Rouge rummaged in a small draw, pulling out a small green plastic case. "Got it." She spoke as she handed it to Cass. The vixen slowly opened it with a low 'click' of a not so affective lock as she peered inside.

"Awesome, thanks Rouge." She grinned taking out a roll of white cotton fabric and began to unravel it around Rex's bleeding shoulder.

"Ow! Easy there Cassandra, any tighter and my arm will fall off." The brown wolf wined as he attempted to tug his arm away, but to no use as he just seemed to make it hurt more.

"Well maybe if you stop complaining and stay still it wouldn't hurt as much." Cass spoke harshly as she ripped the peace of bandage to the right length and tied it. "There we go, Rex."

The ivory bat watched with a smile as Rex pushed himself from the comfort of his chair and rolled his shoulder around to test it out. "Thank you." He groaned as he forced himself to smile threw the painful sensation in his shoulder.

"Your welcome…" She answered. She stood and listened for a moment. "…It's so quiet." Turning her attention back to Rouge, who was waiting to ask a question that had been on her mind for some time. "Rouge?" The grey vixen tilted her head slightly to meet the bat's gaze as she stood and awaited her question.

"Are you going to tell me what happened?" Rouge finally asked while leaning herself against the cold marble counter. Cass nodded.

"Well you see, we chased after Shadow when he headed after the other two soldiers and that echidna." She began as she sat herself down on one of the chairs and made herself comfortable. Rex taking a small walk around the room but it didn't really distract Rouge or Cass much. "Shadow took care of the soldiers before we had got there so we told him to go back to the were house and wait while we went after the echidna."

"He must of decided to check on you." Rex piped in as he stood by the doorway watching the sleeping hedgehog. Rouge folded her arms across her chest as she pondered about it, emitting a small laugh under her breath as she did so. Rex looked back waiting for an answer to prove different, leaning his relaxed form against the pale wooden door frame.

"I don't think so, when he turned up in my room he wanted to know where you two were. But I insisted that he wait for you and Cassandra." She explained as she looked back into her memory.

"Fair enough." Rex nodded as he took himself away from the door frame and straightened himself up with a small stretch.

"As I was saying, Rex and I went after that echidna, and Rex knocked him out with his bat, but not before ended up getting himself shot." The wolf rolled his eyes and crossed his arms after she was finished, Rouge just stood and thought back further, she then realised, the loud bang must have been the gunshot she and Shadow had herd on the stairs but she didn't say anything about it. She didn't think that much of it anyway. But then again, she had realised that everything was unusually quiet around the house and street since Shadow decided to 'check in on her', as Rex put it.

"Well I think you both need your rest." She suggested as Cass and Rex shook their heads softly almost in sync with each other.

"Thanks for the offer Rouge but it's a good idea to stay a good distance away from Shad when you have an bad injury." Rex explained as he rubbed his bandaged shoulder and laughed a little to lighten the moment. "Just the smell of blood around him can make him go crazy some times."

Rouge nodded to show that she understood perfectly. She felt a little disappointed that they where going to leave so soon but she knew it was for the best as the two canines made there way out from the softly lightened kitchen.

"When Shadow wakes up tell him me and Rex went back to the were house to clean up. Then we need to have a talk about getting that crystal." The grey fox requested, Rouge nodding as Cass looked back before walking out the door and closing it behind her with a small click of the latch as it did so.

Rouge let out a long sigh and turned to see the black and red hedgehog sitting up and watching with curiosity. It was clear he had been watching them the whole time but they hadn't noticed.

The white bat put her hands on her hips and shook her head as she looked at shadow in disappointment.

"And how long have you been awake?" She questioned while making her way over to the sofa, Shadow moving his legs off so she could sit down.

"A lot longer than you have." He smirked causing Rouge to do the same.

"You know you could of said something." The white bat spoke as she sat down and made her self comfortable upon the cushions. "I thought you wouldn't of herd the door by the way you were sleeping."

Shadow shook his head slightly. "That's because I didn't." He began but decided to chance the subject onto what he considered more important at that time. "So what are we going to do about that crystal?"

"We can discuss that later, when Rex and Cass are finished." Rouge commanded as she turned and opened the door once more allowing a calm breeze to sweep the shaded room. Shadow hushed himself for a moment and awaited the ivory bat to speak once more as she stood and stared out into the open street. Nothing but silence was herd for both members of the room, eerie enough, the house was silent. The street was too.

Rouge had began to get suspicious about how quiet it was a while ago, and she wasn't the only one. The dark warrior was also starting to get suspicious, even for him this was too quiet, for the only sound to be herd for him was the soft rhythmic sound of the white bat's calm breaths and a soft beating in her chest as she took an almost silent step forward.

Neither wanted to speak or even dare brake the chilling silence as they awaited something to brake it for them.

'Something is wrong here..' The white bat thought as she gazed around outside her door, the street that usually had cars running up and down it or children playing outside in the morning sun this time of day.

"I'm going to guess this isn't normal." The ebony whispered in her ear quietly as to not scare her from the sudden noise, but it still sent a quick shiver threw her body.

"Shad, Something is wrong. Its too quiet." She feared as she managed a low whisper. She did wonder how he got to her to fast and so quietly but she shook it away from her thoughts as she walked, with Shadow close behind, to a house just opposite her own.

The curtains were still drawn in every window of every house, apart from those who Rouge knew didn't like to close them, so it wasn't as simple as looking threw the window to see if anyone was home. Shadow straightened himself up, out stretching his left arm in front of him and allowing his fingers to fold themselves one by one around the brass doorknob of the front door. Surprisingly it had been left ajar by an inch so all he had to do is slowly push it open. The old hinges connecting the door to it's frame emitted a long 'creek' as it turned away from them revealing a long hallway.

"Looks like some one forgot to close the door behind them.." Rouge murmured as she peered inside.

"..Or, some one was expecting us." The dark hedgehog assumed as he lifted his heavy boot and placed it onto the wooden floor of the hallway and lifted himself into the shaded entrance of the home.

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This was kind of… rushed I suppose, and it is really short, but I haven't had much time to finish chapters lately. Damn night shifts are making me tired as hell so I don't really have much times since I'm sleeping 80 percent of the day and working all night o.-

Ah well, hope you enjoy and hopefully I can get the other chapter finished ASAP.