Chapter XIII: Home...

(two days after Tails's escape)
The doctors at the hospital decided that it was best to keep Tails over night; the stab wound in his shoulder had nicked an artery and it could have been very easy for him to bleed to death if it were to open up again. His body was heavily bandaged from the cuts left by Vyce's sword and claws...now that he thought about it he preferred being shot. Tails was a bit hurt as he'd noticed that Kara had not come to see him, Sonic had informed him that she was helping Espio fix their place, but for some reason Tails thought that it may be more than that. Myra visited on a daily basis, she'd already made some friends, and Gwen had agreed that she could stay with her...Tails had no doubt that the kid would end up working at the bar. The only two in his room at this early hour of the morning was a silver wolf and a blue hedgehog...

"It's good to see that you're doing alright Lynn..."

"And it's good to see you're still getting into trouble..." Lynn said with a slight grin.

"Seems to be an everyday thing these days..." Tails replied wincing at the pain in his back as he sat up, he'd forgotten about the cut.

Lynn sat down on the side of the fox's bed, "Now would be a good time to fill me in on what I saw back at that base...Who was the black fox that looked like you ?"

Tails and Sonic both told the story as best they could, it seemed that this story was getting longer and longer the more times Tails was forced to tell it. After filling Lynn in on everything Sonic took it on himself to leave the hospital, he claimed that he had business. Lynn however stayed behind...

"So when are you going to introduce me to your...girl?" Lynn asked.

"I would say as soon as I get out of this hospital..."

"Then you're gonna introduce me to that other girl...right?" Lynn asked with a crooked smile.

"Huh..." Tails looked at him, "...Oh...you mean Myra. No problem."

Lynn walked over to the window, "The town looks pretty fucked up. It was worth coming here though...I got to see everybody again...I didn't expect Master Espio to be here though."

"Yeah he's been hanging around here a lot recently..."

"You also need to learn how to use that sword better..."

"You were watching that whole fight?" Tails asked in an angered tone.

"No...I closed my eyes once or twice." Lynn replied smiling, "Well if you think it's a good idea we could get you checked out so you can go home."

Tails was in a hurry to get home, he wanted to see Kara. It took a number of hours to get fully checked out. The walk home was horrible; Tails could see the extent of the damages inflicted on the town, buildings were nothing more than rubble, there were bodies that had been pulled from some of the debris. Despite the fact that most of it's people had returned there was almost no noise, no cars, no kids, just a dull listless silence that seemed to crawl through Tails's body letting him know that this was no longer a simple conflict...it had escalated to another war. On their way Tails notice the bodies of two soldiers, one had been shot in the chest, the other looked like he had died trying to protect his friend. He reached down and picked up one of the soldiers' guns...he always wanted an Mx-9 but they were strictly military and not sold to general public...he felt a bit low for it but, he still took the weapon...

Lynn looked at him oddly, "I've always wanted one of these." Tails said holding up the assault rifle.

Lynn shook his head, "You and your fucking guns..."

Tails and Lynn continued their walk through the city...Tails couldn't help but claim all of this as his fault, if he hadn't been in the city none of it would have happened. Robotnick never would've come for him, never would have taken Kara, and never would have attacked the innocent people of the city...it weighed down on him...

"It's not you're fault Miles..." Lynn said as they walked.

"What?..." Tails replied.

"It's not your fault...if it hadn't been this place at this time, it just would have been another city somewhere else. I know you too well Miles...you'll cut yourself off from everyone and try to take all of this out on yourself, and you know who it'll hurt the most?"

"Kara..." Tails replied weakly, "...but this is my fault. If I weren't here this never would have happened."

"So it's your fault you wanted to be around your friends and family, and not become some secluded hermit living in the middle of nowhere years ago..."

"Well anything sounds stupid when you put it like that..."

"You're not getting my point..." Lynn said stopping their walk, "...look around. Is this hard to take in because these are all people you care about?...No. This is hard to take in for one reason...they were people who didn't deserve to die...and since they died without a reason, people like you try to put reason to it, and that leads to one outcome... "It's all my fault"...The simple fact of the matter is...eventually this was going to happen. So stop with the self blaming or I'll have to smack you around."

Despite the obvious lack of consideration to Tails's direct feelings, Lynn's words did help. Tails had more important things on his mind that his own misplaced guilt though, he was in a big hurry to see Kara. As he and Lynn approached his house Tails could see her familiar form helping Espio replace the door...as he made his way to the house she notice it was him but, she didn't act surprised or happy to see him. She smiled and welcomed him home but that was it. She acted like she was angry but didn't want to show it...they finished the door and and Kara walked into the house ignoring him altogether...

"Oh come on...I already got stabbed, cut, shocked, and beaten...What the hell did I do?" Tails asked.

"You may have a bit of explaining to do..." Lynn said, "...So Master it's been a few years."

"Real mature you two..." Tails said, "...so you two are ignoring me too."

"I hope you've been keeping up your practice..." Espio said turning to Lynn.

"Hello...HEY!!!" Tails yelled.

Tails smiled to himself and walked over to Lynn, "You know Lynn...I've always wanted to say this but...Your face looks like your neck stepped in something."

Lynn's arm quickly jolted around smacking Tails in the back of the head, "I can still hear you idiot...go talk to her."

000

Tails heeded the advice and headed into the house, Kara was cleaning up in the kitchen, her clone had left a lot of blood on the floor. Tails walked in and started to help but, she simply moved on to doing something else. Tails rolled his eyes, she wasn't getting away so easily, he followed and started helping her with the next job. She eventually went to a job where she figured he couldn't follow, she made her way to the back of the house and climbed a ladder to the roof. Tails sighed as he stood at the base of the ladder, his back injury caused pain anytime he stretched too far...

He stifled back a cry of pain as he felt his stitches rip when he reached for a high rung on the ladder...

"What the hell are you doing?" Kara almost yelled at him as he began to yell pulling himself up the ladder.

"You're gonna talk to me...one way or another..." Tails replied making another painful step up the ladder.

Kara could almost feel every ounce of that pain jolting through his body as he climbed the ladder, his shirt was soaked with blood by the time he pulled himself onto the roof. Kara was finally paying some sort of attention to him now helping him stand up...

"Are you out of your mind?" She asked.

"Yeah...but I told you, you'd talk to me. So why are you ignoring me?"

Kara moved away from him, "...better me than you...What the hell was that supposed to mean?"

"Look Kara..." Tails said limping toward her, "...That's the way I feel okay. I'd rather you lived then me if given the option. It's not a big deal, that's the way any man in that position should react...you are a lot more important to me that my own life Kara...there aren't a whole lot of things that can change that." Tails started back down the ladder, "I love you Kara...and if you need me I think I'll have Espio fix these stitches in my back, I'm not going back to the hospital again."

Kara sighed to herself, "I love you too you idiot...but I'm tired of you having to protect me."

000

Kara finished with the roof and headed back down to the yard where she found Espio and an unfamiliar silver wolf. As she saw the two she got an idea...

"Umm...Espio..."

Espio and the wolf both turned toward her, "Yes..."

"Look...is it possible for you to stick around for a bit longer?"

Espio laughed lightly, "My dear I'm a chameleon...I can stick to pretty much anything...all jokes aside why?"

"I want you to teach me how to fight..." She said quickly.

"Really...interesting concept, I've never had a female student before..." Espio said rubbing his chin, "..what do you think Lynn?"

"Miles said she has spirit...isn't that why you started training me?"

"We'll all sleep on it..." Espio said, "...if you're still this devoted in the morning, I'll consider staying long enough to teach you. From what Lynn has told me another student of mine could use a few lessons as well..." Espio finished looking toward the house.

"Thank you Espio..." Kara said walking toward the house, "...but I think I need to talk to Miles."

"Good...please tell him that he needs to clean that wound before I stitch it back up." Espio said.

000

Tails had returned to his room where he removed his bloody shirt, he took some time to look into a full length mirror that was in his room. His face and chest was covered in the tiny cuts from his scuffle with Vyce...at least the cuts were not deep enough to leave scars...spare for the two on his left cheek that moved diagonally toward his muzzle and hooked under his jaw. He wished he could see the cut on his back, the doctors had told him it was not that bad, but it was deep enough to require stitches and stretched from his left shoulder to his lower back. As he studied himself Kara walked into the room quietly enough for him not to notice her. She watched as he cautiously made his way toward the bathroom, it obviously pained him to walk. Finally she could not watch anymore and rushed over to help him...

"I thought you were mad at me..." He said as she placed herself under one of his arms for support.

"Forget it...I was mad at myself not you...I never should have taken it out on you like that."

"That's okay...I understand..." Tails said wincing as he opened the bathroom door.

Kara didn't like the look of the large slash across his back, "Espio said you need to clean that wound before he can fix you up...unless you'd prefer the hospital again."

"Alright..."

Kara got the shower going and helped Tails into the water...he yelped as the hot waters seeped into the cut, but the hot water soon began to numb the wound. Kara disrobed and stepped into the waters behind him, she began to carefully wash his back for him as she didn't expect him to do it himself in his condition. She was a bit ashamed as she stood there washing his fur when she began to think to herself; with him so badly injured their physical relationship would falter, a bullet in his shoulder was one thing, but this time there was a gash that nearly stretched the full length of his back...he wouldn't be of able body for weeks. When she was done with his back she lay her head against his shoulder...

"You know...I never really thanked you for getting me out of that place." She said wrapping her arms around him.

Tails back hurt as she pressed against him but he didn't care. He leaned his head into her and held it to his face with a hand on her cheek, "I'll never let anything like that happen to you Kara...not so long as I'm still breathing."

"That's what's been scaring me Miles..." She said lifting her head a bit to look him in the eyes, "If you keep this up for too much longer...there's no telling how long you're going to last..." She hugged him again, "I don't think I could keep going in this life without you here with me...I don't think I'd want to..."

Tails turned around to face her, "What do you want me to do then? Just leave? Cause if that's what it'll take to make you happy, we can pack up and by tomorrow we'll never see this place again."

His offer sounded tempting, "You know I couldn't ask you to do that...you don't fight to be a hero, it's just who you are, you like to help people, especially the ones you care about the most. I should be flattered that you place my safety above everyone else's...but...I just don't like seeing you like this..."

Tails took her in his arms, "Listen...this whole thing can't possibly pan out much longer. Vyce is dead and if we're lucky Robotnick was still in the base when it exploded. Myra knows where his other bases are so, if he is still alive she'll be able to point out his bases and we can take them out too..."

Kara hugged him tightly, "I hope you're right..."

She pulled away from their embrace and kissed him deeply; he'd missed the feeling and the taste of her lips. Even more so the feeling of her body against his...the feel of her fur had it's normal effect on him. She jumped a bit as she felt his arousal brush up against her leg. She broke their embrace and smiled at him, she'd have given almost anything at that moment to have been able to have her way with him but, as she thought about it, it really wasn't worth the amount of pain it would put him in...

000

Downstairs the two found Espio waiting near the couch...Tails lay on his stomach and waited. Compared to the pain he'd already been in, the repeated penetration of his flesh with a needle and thread was tolerable. Kara stood by watching Espio's work as the wound slowly closed up...It wasn't long before Tails was allowed to stand up and put on the red shirt that Kara held for him. There was a time of silence before Espio brought up what he and Kara had talked about, Tails didn't seem to think it too bad of an idea...though he did think that his teaching her to use her pistol were enough...

For Tails the day progressed slowly, his back gave him grief of the simplest tasks. Lynn left early in the day to see what he could help with in town, he may come off a brash and harsh at times but, essentially he wasn't a bad person...just a bit of an ass at times. Slowly throughout the day Tails was visited by all of his friends; first Gwen stopped in, her right arm had somehow been broken, then Sonic and Sally, then Knuckles and Julie-su. Now it was about 1 o'clock and he was visited by a friendly face he'd not seen in years. As Tails answered a knock at the door he was embraced by a familiar white bat...

"OH GOD!!!" He screamed, "ROUGE MY BACK!!!"

Rouge instantly recoiled at his cries of pain, "Miles I'm sorry I didn't know." She said putting a hand over her mouth.

"That's okay..." Tails replied in a strained voice, "...Hugs are fine...Just not so hard." He finished hugging her back.

As she walked in Tails notice that she was dressed a bit differently than usual; she was dressed like a normal person, she didn't wear her old sneaking suit...instead she was wearing tight blue jeans and a red tank top. Tails had always been attracted to her when he was younger...then again he was still young then and wasn't used to seeing women like Rouge, her figure put some of the girls at the bar to shame...if Tails had to guess her measurements he was sure that they would almost match Kara's, if not slightly dwarf them...

Left in the doorway watching her saunter across the room was the black hedgehog that Tails had believed was dead, "It's good to see you Miles..." Shadow said shaking the fox's hand.

"Good to know you're still alive and kick'n." Tails replied. "You mind filling me in on how it is you are alive, last I heard you weren't."

"Only if you can shed more light on this whole clone thing..." Shadow said walking in. "Sonic tried to explain but...he just ended up confusing himself."

"No problem..." Tails said as the hedgehog walked in.

As he walked in Tails notice that Shadow's right arm was a bit limp, as if he refused to move it; at the moment he was wearing a silver colored muscle shirt and a pair of long, black, jean shorts.

(2 hours later)

Over the next two hours they explained their stories to each other, Tails's story took up most of the time, Shadow didn't seem to like the sound of any of it. He hated Robotnick with a passion, not just Robotnick himself but, the man's entire family line seemed to make Shadow's blood boil...Then again he had his reasons for hating the Robotnick family. He seemed horribly disturbed however by the fact that Vyce was able to use Chaos Control with a single emerald, so far him and Vyce seemed to be the only two that could do so but, that was just the problem...What if Robotnick found a way to create that effect in his clones? Rouge had seen and dealt with a Mechanized version of herself before...she personally knew how bad a Mecha Sonic and Knuckles could be especially working together...she even had her doubts that Shadow could handle either of them by himself...

"Something doesn't seem right here..." Shadow said as Tails finished his story, "You said Nack was clearly after the emeralds...right?"

"Yeah..." Tails replied.

"Well if Robotnick didn't ask for the emeralds, and that Vyce guy didn't seem to be after them..."

Tails nodded at the thought, "You think there's someone deeper into this too huh?"

Shadow stretched his neck to either side, "Good chance...I don't like it."

"I guess we can only sit and wait...unless Myra knows something, I'll check with her tonight..." Tails said.

"Good...I'll talk with Espio and the others and see what we can come up with."

As the couple left Rouge hugged Tails again, this time not hard enough to hurt him. Not long after Kara came through the door...

"Who were those two?" She asked, yawning a bit.

"That was Shadow and Rouge...I guess I'll have to introduce you to them sometime."

Kara sat in a nearby chair and lay her head on the table...she looked tired she and the others had been working for hours restoring the house, and the worst part was that Tails couldn't help. He stood up and placed himself behind her where he began to massage her shoulders. She was incredibly stiff, her muscles felt like rocks...it was so bad that a few time she yelped as he hit a particularly sensitive spot. At first it had hurt to have his strong hand kneading her sore muscles but, after a few minutes the pain was replaced with a mixture of relief and pleasure as he moved on to different muscles, her neck and back seemed especially sensitive...Her eyes seemed to close involuntarily and her head moved from side to side. Tails knew that it was helping when he heard a familiar sound resonating from her, she'd started purring if only lightly enough for him to hear it. It was a sound that he had always enjoyed, the fact that she was enjoying herself made him happy.

She sighed as her claws dug into the table, "Miles...you may want to stop that."

"Oh really? And why would I do that?" He asked leaning his head toward her shoulder.

Kara turned her head to meet his gaze...

"Oh..." Tails smiled, "...Is that right?" He asked as he stopped with his massage, "So what if I did this instead?"

With that he began to rub the base of her ear, the action causing her to shift slightly in her seat, as her tail began to twitch uncontrollably from side to side. He knew the effect this had on her, he was really just playing but, nonetheless it was getting her worked up. Her head began to lean to the side that he was scratching, she tilted her head all the way back...

"You'd better be able to finish what you start." Kara said with a light smile.

"I can try..." Tails said smiling back.

He kissed her as hungrily as she had dons so to him in the past...it was odd she wasn't used to him kissing her like that, but she had to admit she liked it. It felt like he absolutely had to have her...the desperation soon got to her and she wrapped her arms around the back of his head. She'd also never kissed anyone upside down before, it was a bit awkward, but as long as he was the one doing it she didn't care how he kissed her. Soon enough the two were completely enveloped in one another cutting themselves off from the outside world. As their passion began to take over, Tails's paws snaked their way into her shirt and began to massage her breasts...

As he was about to take her shirt off there was a knock at the door, Kara laughed as he rolled his eyes, "I hope this isn't starting a trend all again."

Tails's smile instantly faded, "Don't even joke about that...I'll remove that door and put a wall there I swear to god."

Tails weakly walked to the door and opened it only to find a smiling black fox...

"Oh...hi Myra."

"Hi yourself...can I come in?"

Tails stepped aside, "Yeah...I wanted you to meet someone..." Tails turned to notice Kara was not at the table, "...who has apparently got better things to do at the moment."

The two sat at the table where Tails began to go over all of the things that he had talked about with the others. Myra happily agreed to show them where Robotnick's other bases were. Tails was happy that she was agreeing to help but, he couldn't help but to wonder where Kara had gone...he really wanted Kara to meet Myra, he knew they'd make good friends. As they sat there Sally poked her head through the slightly opened front door while knocking...

"Miles? Are you busy? If you are I can come back..."

"No Sally...come on in."

Sally took a few steps through the door before she nearly tripped over a loose floorboard, "Watch your step, repairs aren't done yet." Tails said.

Sally carried something in her hands and set it on the table. Tails smelled chocolate...

"Cake...?" Tails said with a questioning look.

"No specific reason but yes..." Sally replied, "...well half a cake, Sonic decided to help himself while it was cooling." She said sitting at the table. "Say where's Kara?"

Tails shifted in his seat, "Don't know...Myra showed up and she vanished."

As they sat there and began to chat a bit, Tails still couldn't help but to wonder where Kara had gotten off to. He wondered why she'd taken off so suddenly. It wasn't like her to simply rush off so suddenly, especially when they'd been so occupied with each other, usually when they were interrupted she stuck around, waiting to finish what they'd started. At some point during their conversation, Sally decided that Tails could use something hot to drink as his back kept acting up, and went to the kitchen to brew some tea, at that same time Myra excused herself to the bathroom upstairs leaving Tails at the table alone. He hadn't bothered to get up even though he wanted to, his back hurt every time he tried to stand up...

As Sally was busy in the kitchen Tails felt something...a sensation that hit him so fast he had to stop himself from falling out of his chair. Sally turned quickly to see that his face was beet red and his claws were dug into the table's wooden surface peeling small curls of wood out of the table top...

"Tails? Are you okay?" Sally asked getting only a weak nod in reply, "You look a little flushed."

Tail jolted forward a bit, "I-It's just...my-my back." He said in a strained voice.

Sally sat a cup of hot tea in front of Tails and kissed him on the forehead, "Well...you take it easy, okay. I have to meet Sonic somewhere..." She said heading for the door, "...you get some sleep okay?"

"I will..." His voice cracked.

"Bye Tails...tell Kara I said hi."

Tails felt a moment of relaxation before Myra came back downstairs, it was getting late though. Myra only stayed for a few more minutes, long enough for her to bombard him with questions about why he was acting so odd. Soon after she was done with her questions the red slowly faded from his face and he lay his head on the table...

"I think you need some sleep." Myra said standing next to Tails who had been breathing heavily,

"It'll make your back feel better...Well I need to get back to Gwen's apartment."

After she had been gone for a minute or so Tails moved away from the table, where Kara's head was protruding from beneath the table cloth. She wore a mischievous smirk on her face...

"What?" She asked innocently.

"You are gonna pay for that."

Kara smiled, "I told you not to start what you can't finish."

"Still...a little warning would have been nice."

The awkward situation angered him a little, but, it seemed that no matter what she did, he was never able to actually stay angry with her for long. After too long Tails took a shower, which took longer than usual...he wasn't dirty, but the water helped his back. By the time he was done he found that Kara was already in bed. Laying there with her seemed to make his back stop hurting, his thoughts faded from one subject to another, though his main thoughts were of what their next step was toward Robotnick...for a brief moment he thought of Vyce but, in his mind there was no way he could have survived the explosion. His primary thoughts were of Robotnick however. Wether or not he had survived the base's explosion, but his track record was against Tails's better luck. He simply lay there trying to sleep while hoping that the next attack did not include the Mechanized Sonic and Knuckles clones...He feared that he'd never get to sleep before Kara opened her eyes and noticed he wasn't sleeping. She didn't bother saying anything, she already knew him well enough to know what was wrong...she kissed him and pulled herself closer to him resting her head on his chest, that seemed to be enough as soon Tails found himself asleep...

AN: My time's been a little here and there lately. You know...new games to beat PS3 and all...though most of my time has been spent on the Wii and my DS. I finally worked out the ending to this fic...I've got it planned at about 25 chapters, but that could turn out to be more pretty quickly. Chapter 14 Time&Patience will be out soon...