A/N - It felt like this chapter took ages to write!

Disclaimer - I do NOT own Sonic the Hedgehog or any of its characters!

10 – Putting Pieces Together

"Here." Knuckles handed a steaming paper cup to Amy. "I thought you could use a coffee."

"Thank you." Amy fidgeted on the spot for a moment then sat down on the cold chair. She stared absently into the frothy brown surface. "How much longer do you think we need to wait?"

Knuckles shrugged and sat down next to her. "No idea."

She sipped her hot coffee and looked up as Vector zipped past her, whipping up a breeze as he paced back and forth with his arms crossed. Behind him, lay over three seats, was Charmy, his soft snores filling the otherwise quiet waiting room.

All of them had refused to leave the hospital. After her and Knuckles were refused access to the emergency room, they'd glued themselves to the waiting area and she'd gone from sitting to standing to sitting again, restlessly looking over the fliers on the walls and changing seats like she was playing some kind of imaginary, solo game of musical chairs. It didn't take long for Vector and Charmy to respond to Knuckles' urgent phone call. Within minutes the crocodile burst into the emergency ward, booming a cry of 'Where is he?! What happened?!'

After they'd explained everything, Vector couldn't sit still and Charmy had switched between despair and optimism every ten minutes before he finally fell asleep.

"Excuse me?"

Vector came to an abrupt stop and turned to face the speaker. Amy and Knuckles followed his gaze to a squirrel who was much too bright-eyed for this hour of the morning.

"I can finally give you some news." He looked down at his clip board. "I'm sorry for your wait. We wanted to make sure we flushed out whatever it was before we did a full blood transfusion. The samples we sent off to the lab show no traces of anything, which if it was a poison-"

"Which it was," said Vector.

"Yes, I don't disagree with you." The doctor peered at him over his glasses. "The signs were all there. However, nothing showed up. That narrows it down, but unfortunately doesn't tell us what it was."

Charmy sat propped on one hand as he rubbed his bleary eyes. "Nothing showed up?"

"Yes. Which means we can't administer an antidote."

Amy almost dropped her coffee. "You still need to do that?"

"We need to cover all grounds to make sure it's completely dealt with, since we can't see if there's anything still there. If there is, then it could spread again."

"Then... then do something!"
"We're doing all we can, but we can't counter something if we don't know what it is."

Vector huffed and crossed his arms. "I think we might be able to shed some light on that. We've been lookin' into a suspicious case, see? The targets we've been followin' have a warehouse beside fields filled with lonely primrose and bright scarlet. Why don't you give those two a try?"

"I.. I can certainly suggest it to our lab department."

The crocodile thumped himself in the chest. "Why don't you take me to your lab department and I'll talk to them myself? We've just had tests run on those two flowers and apparently their poison is notorious for not showing up in the body after a certain length of time!"
The doctor looked away from him. "Okay. Wait one moment."

He scurried over to the reception desk and picked up the phone, speaking in hushed tones that Amy couldn't work out. Vector stood watching him, blocking her view of the doctor, his foot tapping audibly on the tile floor. She looked back down at her rapidly cooling coffee, trying to quell the sick feeling in her stomach that had been there the second they'd climbed into the ambulance. A heavy hand fell on her shoulder and she jumped, looking up and meeting Knuckles' violet eyes. They weren't cold and steely like they usually were, instead they were somewhat reassuring as he silently tried to tell her everything would be okay. As comforted as she was, she was very aware he didn't know that. None of them did.

"Vector?" came the doctor's voice.

Everyone turned to look at the squirrel as he returned to them.

"I'm afraid you're not permitted to enter the lab, so one of the assistants is coming to you. She's a professional in toxins so she can tell you everything you need to know. I need to get back to the ward."

Vector shrugged. "Sure. How long will she be?"

"She's on her way now. I'll be back with more news later."

Later...

Amy sank down into her seat, clutching her cup in both hands. It was now back to waiting, wondering and worrying. While her mind was reeling through every worse-case scenario and reliving the events at the restaurant, the lab assistant showed up and it took her a moment to process this as Vector's voice rumbled through her jumbled mind.

"... right near the warehouse!"
"Hmm." A slight tabby cat stood near the crocodile, a hand placed over her mouth in thought. "It's certainly plausible. If she is the culprit then she's got them easy to hand."
Vector frowned at her. "Then what's stoppin' you administering an antidote?"

"The lonely primrose is easy. Its antidote has no side effects. However, bright scarlet is more complicated. It needs an anti-venom, which is just as toxic itself if it's nothing to counter." The tabby cat shook her head sadly at Vector's raised eyebrow. "We don't really want to risk putting him through another poisoning."
"Then try the one for lonely primrose and if that don't work then-"

"Wait!" Amy leapt off her seat as an unwelcome idea struck her like a ton of bricks. The rest of the Chaotix and the lab assistant looked round at her all wearing equal expressions of surprise. "What if it's a combination of the two?"

"Huh?" Vector rubbed beneath his headphones. "A combination?"

"Why else would they have two toxic flowers growing nearby?"

"I hate to suggest this, Amy," said Knuckles. "But there's every chance one of them is a red herring."

Vector grunted. "And a nasty one at that."

"If that were the case," said the cat, "then we would need to treat both." Her pocket beeped and she pulled out her phone, scanning over the message quickly.

"I say you give it a try anyway," Vector went on. "He's young and strong, and if you catch anything amiss early enough then that's okay, right?"

"It might cause unnecessary damage." She put her phone back into her pocket and glanced away from him. "But unfortunately, we now don't have any choice. I'm sorry, I'm needed at the lab."

"Hang on!" Vector reached out and grabbed the cat by the shoulder as she turned away. "What do you mean 'unfortunately'? What's goin' on?!"

Amy's heart was hammering at a mile a minute as the small cat fixed Vector with a firm stare.

"The annoying thing about invisible poisons," she said bluntly, "is that you can't see if there's any still left until its effects begin to show. Your friend needs urgent help and I'm going to provide that."

...

The next hour was a blur. Amy couldn't focus, and any conversation that went on around her was nothing more than a drone in the back of her mind. It wasn't until the young squirrel doctor returned wearing a smile on his face that she finally pinged back to reality.

"The treatment was a success," he said. "You're free to see him now, but he's resting."
It felt like a huge weight lifted off her so much so she thought she might have floated from her seat. She followed Vector and the doctor down the corridor to a small ward empty save for one bed. If it weren't for the IV stood beside it she would have thought the chameleon was just sleeping and would be up and ready in a couple of hours.

Nevertheless, the doctor's words were a comfort.

"So what was the treatment?" Vector asked him. "Which antidote was it?"

He flicked through the papers on his clipboard. "It says here they used both."

"And it worked? Nothing went wrong?"

"Nothing went wrong at all. In fact you could say the turnaround was quite quick."

"Hnn." Vector looked back down at his friend. "Interesting."

Charmy looked up at him. "So it could be like Amy said. It might be a combination."

Vector scratched the back of his head in thought. "Yeh. But at least we know it's one of them."

"However, I do want to say one thing," said the doctor. "Whoever did this wanted to make sure they got rid of him."

Vector's face twisted into a frown as he stared silently down at Espio. Amy followed his gaze. Sasha had wanted him gone. She felt sick to the stomach.

"If I were you, I'd get the police involved," the doctor went on.

"We are the police," grumbled Vector. "We've been on this case for the past fortnight."

"Very well." The doctor gave them a smile. "I'll be back to check on him in the morning. But all being well, he should be able to leave before tomorrow evening."
The sound of clattering metal and plastic reached her ears and she looked around at Knuckles as he carried a stack of chairs over to them, passing the doctor on his way out. He offered one to Amy and she muttered a thank you as sat down heavily in it. The night was catching up to her now. She stared down at Espio and tears pricked at her eyes again.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled.

"Hmm?" Vector looked round at her from the foot of the bed. "What for?"

"If it weren't for me, this wouldn't have happened."

"Don't be ridiculous, Amy! If it weren't for you, we wouldn't have found out what we now know!"
"Yes, but at what cost?" She ran a hand over her eyes. The words she'd said had just come out. Her mind was now filling with a dense fog and she felt herself sinking down into the chair.

"Accidents happen," Vector explained.

"Yeh," came Knuckles' voice. "You had no idea this would happen. None of us did."

She gave a small shrug and let her hands fall into her lap. "I still think... it could have been avoided."

Vector crossed his arms and winked at her. "If you wanna build a time machine?"

She chuckled and closed her eyes. That heavy fog took over and before she knew it she had fallen into a dreamless sleep.

...

The bright light from the hospital and the drone of voices woke the pink hedgehog from a deep sleep. She blinked her eyes a few times to adjust to the brightness and pushed her stiff body up from the bed. At some point she'd fallen forwards onto it with her bottom still on the chair. Her back cracked with the movement and she grimaced, raising her left arm in a stretch. It was then she became aware her right arm was still resting on the bed, currently held firmly in place. Espio's fingers were wound through hers, although the chameleon still seemed to be asleep.

She felt her heart flutter, now unwilling to move her hand despite how much her shoulder told her it needed a good pop.

"Ah, you're awake," said Vector.

She looked over at the crocodile. He was gathered at the foot of the bed looking as lively as ever with Knuckles and Charmy. As for the latter two, they looked like they hadn't slept a wink in days.

"You could have woken me," she said.

Vector chuckled. "Nah. You looked so peaceful."

Knuckles looked from her to the sleeping chameleon and seemed about to say something until the door flying open cut him off. They all turned to see an ageing squirrel nurse pushing a breakfast trolley ahead of her.

Her eyes widened when she spotted the group.

"Oh! A full house?" She dodged Charmy with the trolley and brought it to a stop at the other side of the bed and turned to address Espio. "Okay, young man. It's breakfast time."

Espio opened his eyes and looked up at the nurse as she popped the tray on the table. The wheels on the trolley creaked as she strutted back out of the room.

"Good to see you awake, Espio." Vector grinned. "How're you feelin'?"

"Surprised," said Espio as he looked at each of them in turn. "You're all still here."

Amy jerked as he pushed himself up, realising she needed to reclaim her hand all too late. He looked down at it then followed her arm up to her face, his eyes slowly widening as he realised who it was attached to.

He blinked. "Erm..."

"I'm sorry!" Amy tugged her hand back and clasped it in her lap. She tried to stutter an explanation but it just came out as utter word salad which she was almost certain Charmy had managed to record on his voice recorder.

Espio closed his eyes and chuckled, waving a hand at her. "Don't worry about it."

Vector nodded thoughtfully. "I think I heard her say the word 'bacon'. Now I have an appetite. I think I'm gonna see if the cafe here does bacon barms."

Charmy zig-zagged into the air. "Ooh, great idea!"

Vector paused on his way to the door and looked back at Knuckles. "You comin', Knux?"

The echidna looked from Amy to Vector and nodded. "Might as well. Give Espio time to wake up. What about you, Amy?"

Amy glanced at Espio and slid from the chair. "I-"

"Leave her!" Vector laughed and turned away. "Let the love-birds catch up! They don't need us hovering around!"

"Wha'?! No, I..." She felt her face heat up so much she thought she might be glowing. "I need to go home and change. And sleep!"

She zipped past the crocodile and fled from the room, leaving a confused Espio staring after her.

Knuckles frowned and crossed his arms. "Subtle, Vector. Subtle."

The crocodile looked down at him and raised his hands in an innocent shrug. "What?"

...

Please R&R! =D