Chapter 14

Healing session

MOBOTROPOLIS GENERAL HOSPITAL

2:35PM

The sounds he could currently hear felt like they were far away, he thought he was going deaf. Then suddenly the noises got too loud. There was a constant beeping noise and his eyes could feel themselves under a bright light.

Wait. A bright light? Could it be the light to the other side? Then he remembered his eyes were merely closed. He could open them whenever he wanted.

Tails' eyes slowly cracked open and were immediately assaulted by the brightness of the fluorescent lights. He turned away from the light and groaned lightly.

"Tails! Buddy!" he heard Sonic's voice come from the other side of the room. The blue hedgehog was instantly at his bedside. "You're awake!"

Tails tried to speak but his throat felt scratchy. "How long was I out?" His voice was raspy, like Scary Movie's Ghostface.

Sonic checked his watch. "About seventeen hours."

Tails was surprised but he did his best to hide it. "It was that bad, huh?"

Sonic nodded. "Yeah. The doctors said you have like five broken ribs and two fractured vertebrae –you're lucky to not have suffered paralysis. And you lost a lot of blood from a stab wound in your side."

At the mention of the stab wound all memories of last night came flooding back to him. A low growl came from his throat. Sonic heard it as well but he ignored it, probably thinking it was just a pained moan.

"Well, I should tell everyone that you're awake and you're fine… well… more or less." The hedgehog took out his phone and quickly began texting.

-X-X-X-

3:00PM

For the last twenty-five minutes, Tails' ward had different well wishers who had come to wish him a speedy recovery: his parents, his co-workers at Cyber and his friends had all stopped by. At the end of the day, only Sonic, Amy, Sally, Knuckles and surprisingly Shadow stayed with him. That was when Tails noted another notable absentee.

"Hey, where's Cream? She was inevitably supposed to be here."

"I don't know." Sally replied. "We have not heard from her since last night when she ecstatically texted and told us she was soon gonna be moving in with you."

Tails was confused. "But you did tell her I'm in the hospital, right?"

"Yeah." Sally nodded. "But she never replied back."

Tails' brow furrowed. "Something's not right." He knew Cream always carried her phone around and was always on it, texting.

Suddenly there was a ringing; Tails' ring tone. Sonic fished Tails, phone out of the pocket of his pants, which were bundled up on a chair and checked the caller ID.

"It's Cream's mother." He said, handing the phone over to the fox.

He answered it. "Hello?"

Hs ear was quickly assaulted by sobbing and distressed whimpering from the other end. It was obvious Vanilla was crying. "Tails… Tails… its Cream… someone kidnapped her!"

"What?!" Tails exclaimed. Then he remembered last night. When Clement stabbed him, explained his vile plans and pushed him in the path of an oncoming car, hoping to end his life.

The sobbing mother explained. Tails put her on loudspeaker so that everyone could hear. "I… I came home… late last night… and… I found the backdoor's lock broken… and… when I went to Cream's room… the whole place was a mess… and… and…" That was all before Vanilla broke down into sobbing.

"Vanilla. Calm down. Look, everything will be alright OK?" Tails tried to reassure her. "I'll find her."

"How?" The rabbit sniffed.

Tails actually didn't know how but what he did know was that Clement was responsible. "I'll… just trust me, OK?"

That wasn't all that reassuring and even Tails himself knew that. But it was all he was offering. He hung up before he could hear Vanilla sob some more.

Everyone looked at him. "What are you going to do?" Knuckles asked.

"I'm gonna go find her." Tails tried to get up and to pry the wires of the machines of his chest but Sonic held his down.

"Dude, just look at yourself. You can't be running around let alone walk. The doctors say you probably six weeks to fully recuperate."

Tails struggled against his grip. "I don't care! I have to find Cream!"

"Tails, listen to reason." Amy pleaded. "And the doctors said if you keep shaking like that, you might get paralyzed."

Tails' struggling minimized. "But I just can't leave her. Who knows what those psychos are going to do to her."

Knuckles put a hand on the despondent fox. "We'll do our best to find her but you've got to stay here. I mean' look at you, it's not like you can just magically heal in one day."

"He can." Came Shadow's voice. It was the first time he had spoken and everyone pretty much forgot about his presence in the room, his voice startled them. "There's a way."

"How?" Sally asked.

"I can use Chaos Energy to heal his injuries." Shadow explained.

"Is that even possible?" Sonic asked, incredulous.

"Yes." The ebony hedgehog approached the bed. "But the process will hurt like hell." He said bluntly. "So, what's will your choice be?"

Tails weighed in his options. If he chose not to do so, then he would be stuck in the hospital for a while. And by then, Cream would have already been hurt. Or killed. But if he did, then he would have to endure maybe two to three minutes of excruciating pain to heal quickly. The choice was pretty obvious.

"Do it."

Shadow nodded and rolled up his sleeves. He told everyone to stand back and keep an eye out for nurses. He then balled up a part of the sheet and shoved it in the fox's mouth. "You might want to bite down on something."

Shadow closed his eyes and concentrated, placing his hands on Tails' chest. He took a deep breath and his hands started to glow a pale yellow. Then that's when the pain started.

It started off as a small tingle but then erupted into multiple needles of pain. Tails screamed through the blanket and bit down on it so hard, he thought his fangs would snap. His clenched his fist and arched his back and his breathing rate increased dramatically.

His friends looked at the entire procedure with a bit of concern but they knew that it would all be well in the end.

After about two minutes, Shadow stopped and Tails' breathing returned to normal. His sheets were soaked in a light sweat.

He spat out the sheet. "Whew! Glad that's over." Tails sighed in relief.

"Unfortunately, we're not finished. I have to do your back as well." Shadow said, putting a damper on Tails' relief. When he saw the fox's shaken look, he added. "This is no picnic for me either, Tails."

With a groan, Tails flipped over and exposed his lower back. "It's just right there."

Shadow sighed with a bit of disgust. "Definitely not a picnic." He mumbled to himself before he set off to work.

Once again, the room was filled with Tails' muffled screams.

A/N: I wanted to right this part and another part in this same chapter but instead, I've opted to split it. The other part will be in the other chapter , which I might upload tomorrow. Please R&R.

J.W.H. 10