What A Long Hard Life

Chapter 10: Getting Close

If some of the chapters seem a bit short, it means it didn't have enough time to make them longer, I like to upload at least one a day.

Fast-forward to eight months later, meaning Maria's baby would be there soon. In a few weeks. So her tummy was huge and she was starting to struggle. Shadow was still working very hard and they had nearly all of the baby things ready.

Shadow hadn't heard anything from the commander since that little prank of his, so the commander obviously hadn't guessed it was Shadow. Shadow smiled every time he thought of that moment, and the look on the commander's face when he came outside to his car and saw all of the tires were flat.

So, Maria wasn't really in the condition to do many things herself. Instead she would have one of their friends help her. It really depended on who was available. Maria promised to give this all back, by helping the others when they were in need. They were all a group of best friends.

Shadow was annoyed to see that one of his deliveries that day was one he had done before, and that he would not be getting a tip from the man. "Damn it." he said to himself, and nervously walked down that same drive way again. He knocked on the door, looking nervous.

The door opened, this time it was a woman, who looked as if she was in her sixties, possibly fifties. Shadow sighed and gave her the pizza. This time he got a tip. Shadow began peering around her body curiously into the house. Noticing this, she cleared her throat audibly. Shadow stopped peeking immediately. "You'd better get out of here before my husband notices you." she said, becoming concerned. Shadow smiled and turned around to leave.

The door was closed behind him and he began walking up the drive way, then he heard a gun shot. The top of the short hedge in front of him was cut off by a flying bullet. Shadow turned around with wide eyes to see the commander in the window, pointing a gun at him, the warning shot. Shadow leaped out of the way as he shot again and made a ran for it. He couldn't fight back now, he'd lose his job. Maybe another time.

Shadow got home to see that Amy was with Maria today, helping her with a few things. "Good day at work today Shadow?" Maria asked him. Shadow shut the door behind him feeling irritated.

"Good day? Good day? I got shot at!" Shadow yelled. Maria gasped.

"WHY!" she screamed.

"I had to make a delivery to the commander again. I thought I was lucky since his wife opened the door… but as I left, he shot at me through the window!" Shadow said angrily. "I would have fought back but… I was in uniform.. It would have been traced back to the company and I would have been fired."

"So you did the right thing to walk away Shadow… well done…" Maria said, getting up to hug him. With her huge stomach, she was unable to reach him, so she just kissed him on the cheek. "I know how hard it is for you to walk away from something like that." she smiled.

Shadow sat down, taking Maria with him, and he sighed deeply. "I bet he ordered that pizza on purpose. And he'd better not order another… if he does… I'd better not be chosen to deliver it!" Shadow said angrily. He tired to calm himself down. "So… how was your day?" he asked Maria.

"Just the usual lazy day." she heaved a sigh. "This is so boring."

"I know Maria… how about I take you out this weekend." Shadow said. "If you're able to walk that is…"

"I can walk…" she smiled. "But not for long… so you better not plan a hike or something." she joked. Amy walked up to them.

"I'd better get going… Sonic is waiting for me." she said, she grabbed her coat and bag. "It's a shame I'm only 13... Poor Sonic is gonna have to wait a long time before me and him go as for as you two." she sighed. "And he's hating it…" she giggled. "Bye." she chirped and left.

"I hope Amy doesn't rush into things with Sonic… I mean… we're only 15... But were technically not… we've both been living… or existing for over 50 years." Maria explained. "But no one but our friends will believe us… everyone looks at me and frowns… that's why I hardly leave the house."

"Do you wanna stay in this weekend then?" Shadow asked. Maria nodded ."Okay… I'll just have to think of something special to do, in the apartment." he looked at the clock. "Wow, I got home pretty early today… is there anything you need me to do?"

"Hmm… actually… I heard there's a sale over in the shop that sells baby stuff… down the road… I need you to go and get the things that you can… that are on this list." she smiled, and handed him the list of things they hadn't got for the baby yet. "I'm sure it wont take long… since you're the ultimate life form…" she said, quite seductively. Shadow smiled, and went to get it.

There was quite a lot of things to get, he looked at all of the sizes of baby grows. New born and up for humans… then there was new born and up for Mobians. As Mobians were a lot smaller than humans. It was like this in all of the clothes shops an stores that sold clothes, all over Mobius. Of course they knew no different so it wasn't strange to them.

The ultimate life form came out of the shop with bags and boxes full of baby things. And he had to carry them all up the street, and up the stairs. He needed help, or he'd drop it all. He decided the best thing to do would be to do chaos control, it would take up a lot of energy, but so would carrying the stuff. He put it all down on the floor by him and got out his chaos emerald.

A large shadow then loomed over him, he looked up and nearly fainted once he saw who it was. "Commander…" Shadow choked.

"A lot of… baby things… isn't it Shadow?" he said curiously and slightly angrily. "Any particular reason?"

"Just uh… running some errands for a couple of friends of mine…" Shadow lied nervously.

"Are you sure you haven't gotten anyone pregnant, rodent?" he said, reaching into his pocket for his gun. "Because, I don't want to see your filthy genes getting passed onto any child… okay?" he said threateningly.

"What has it got to do with you?" Shadow asked, "If I wasn't a baby, then I can have one…"

"So, you are expecting…" he growled. "That's it-" he clicked his gun.

"ADOPTING!" Shadow yelled out, cowardly.

"You'd better be right hedgehog…" he said and left. Shadow wiped his face of all of the sweat he had just released from that awfully terrifying moment. He then did chaos control to get him and all of his new stuff to his apartment.

He was now inside the apartment. He seemed to lost all strength in his legs, and collapsed against the wall feeling drained. "Shadow… what's going on?"

"He's on to me Maria… the commander's on to me… he was out and he saw me with all of this stuff." he said, Maria started to look afraid. "I told him I was adopting but… I don't think he believed me…"

"Well… don't worry about it for now… it's stressing you up… just put al of that stuff in the baby's room and we'll go to bed. Maria went to the bedroom while Shadow moved all of the stuff.

Shadow didn't sleep well that night since he was worried sick about the safety of his wife and unborn child. He could see it, he imagined it in his head. His family captured and hated, because they had his genes. His new son or daughter, experimented on, because they had his genes. His child hating him for it, when they grow up and realise, wanting him out of their life for what he did to them. His kid would suffer, and it would be all his fault.

Maria noticed that Shadow looked worried and upset, when she woke up at about two o'clock in the morning. Shadow was wide awake, sat up straight, and in his thoughts. Maria shook him to bring him back to reality. Shadow then sent frantic, explaining his day dream to her, to which she listened. But all of the way, she was in disbelief because- "It won't happen… and if it does, they won't hate you… I'll make sure they don't hate you… you're going to protect us, like you do to me now… and it'll all be okay…" she assured him. "Now go to sleep… you have work in the morning… and I have some important relaxing to do…" she sighed.

"The baby will be out soon… and then we can all go out as a family." Shadow said, and kissed her on the lips, passionately. "I promise." he said and they both went quiet, dropping back into their pillows and falling asleep.

Lucy Labrador