Chapter 29 – A Vessel for The Past.

A/N: Wow, huge chapter once more – don't ask how they get so big, I just start writing and they take over from there. Anyway, that's by the by, I just hope people are still enjoying this:

BC (formerly PBJJ) – Well you guessed my challenge right; did you get the mail I sent you with my idea on it? Hope it gave you some food for thought, and that this new chapter picks up where the old one left off in your enjoyment stakes.

IOS – I heard the new game wasn't that great – some things are just better left they way they were! Aside from that, is Gears of War up to much; a lot of m mates have been ranting about it but I can't play it – my game console history ended with the Mega Drive! Just out of interest though, you said in your review you don';t read this in your spare time, when exactly do you read my work :-)? Anyway, thanks for the review on the massage chapter; no-one mentioned if I'd got the scene where Shadow hears himself speaking and puts two and two together right – now I reckon I wouldn't be too far wrong saying it went down well. Thanks – nice to know when you're appreciated!

TG – Delicately; that was the one word in my head the whole time I was writing chapter 28 – I needed to get the balance right between humour and seriousness. Anyhow, hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it.

It had been an, interesting, yes, that was a good word, an interesting sort of weekend Shadow mused as he walked into his place of work his customary fifteen minutes early first thing on Monday morning. Again, as was customary in his weekly routine, the black hedgehog paused for a second after greeting the receptionist at the front of the C.A. lobby, halfway up the stairs as he tried to remember at exactly what point he'd started this ritual of entering work early at the beginning of the week and, as always, the answer eluded him, leaving him to the inevitable conclusion that since he was here now he might as well get on with it and do something useful because it was too far to go back home to make the trip worthwhile. Padding through corridors he knew as well as the back of his own hand, the hedgehog quickly located the department he'd been assigned to on what he was coming to think was a permanent basis; though it was company policy to rotate the runners between departments on a quarterly basis, he'd been in the Housing and Location Issues Department ever since the day he'd first burst onto the Central Administration scene. Good thing too – barring one exception; as he slid inside the darkened room and gave a slight shiver at the chill in the air; bereft as it was of its normal crowd of typing echidnas the air conditioning in the office was giving the atmosphere a definite nip; he directed a single scathing glance at the desk at the head of the office, something he'd have never dared to do if its normal occupant had been in the same building, never mind the same room as himself; they're as nice a crowd as you could hope to fall in with. Not looking around as he was sure he'd be alone for the next fifteen or so minutes, the hedgehog headed over to the runners rack; a selection of bags where the runners assigned to this department hung their running sacks at the end of the day and over the weekend; he remembered where his was by recalling his official number and hefted the bag off the row of pegs, throwing it around his body with the ease of long practise and flicking his gaze up around the top of the pegs, never for a second suspecting he was being stalked in this darkness; and I thought it was the Dark Legion where they called you all by number; he chuckled a little – somehow he could never recall the number that he was supposed to sign off all his delivered parcels with to officiate the run; perhaps there's not so much difference between Necronopolis and Echi-oh! He held that thought as something very solid and very cold was stabbed into the flesh in his back, just above his kidneys, making him freeze in time for an arm to slip around his neck, compressing his windpipe and dragging him backwards, rocking him back on his heels as a harsh voice growled into his ears,

"Okay you", he wisely stayed quiet as his unseen captor continued, though he counted himself lucky that, if his guess was right, his assailant couldn't see his face, "I want gossip, lots of it and the juicier the better, you savvy?"

"Hmm", he disguised his true intent with deliberation, hoping she wouldn't see his hands move, "I guess so; but before I savvy", his hand shot backwards; he gently felt his fingertips compress into flesh and was rewarded with a badly-muffled squawk of laughter, the pressure around his neck dissipating as his favourite workmate was forced to jump backwards by his sudden attack, "you squeal!"

With a fractional pause Shadow span around on his heel in time to see Honey straighten up, just about controlling her giggles at the sudden attack even if she couldn't displace the grin on her face,

"Let me guess", he recalled a line Knuckles had once told him worked to rile Espio up and pointed at the object she'd tried to use to imitate a firearm, "in the right hands that could wipe out half the Legion?"

"You've obvious never had a fight with one and come off second best", the echidna riposted, setting the staple gun down on the nearest desk before seeing Shadow's questioning look and sighing, "I was trying to get a few reports together and hold a chat with Sefa at the same time, not really looking at what I was doing; next thing I know I've got a couple of staples right here; stung like…well, you can guess?"

"I can", Shadow assured her, seeing her tap the muscle between her thumb and index finger and give a slight shiver, "did they send you to the general?" Honey laughed,

"I wish; you know what Snappy's like – I got them pulled out with a pair of pliers, a plaster and a warning for being lax with the office supplies – staples cost you know?"

"I bet"; sounds too much like Snappy to be anything but the truth; the hedgehog's thought was cut off by a sudden click, then another; he tuned back into reality in time to raise his hand as Honey snatched her weapon back up and started popping off rounds at him, "hey, I'm an unarmed man – this has got to be illegal".

"No you're a man holding in the news I need to hear – until I get said news there are no rules. Now out with it", she backed up her verbal volley with another couple of rounds from the staple gun, "what did you do to get Julie to forgive you, and did it work?"

"Well", tempting though it was to draw this out and reduce his friend to a quivering mess of frustrated nerves, Shadow decided against that course of action for the simple reason that, thought the staples themselves weren't going to hurt him, the gun they were issuing from would probably work as a pretty effective club in such close quarters, "yes and no at the same time; take a seat Honey or this won't make sense; anyway, why are you so interested?"

"Obviously it won't make sense; why break the habit of a lifetime?" The blonde echidna pulled out the closest chair and settled herself as Shadow leaned on the nearest wall, "and I'm interested not just because I'm nosey; say nothing or else", the threat of the raised gun was enough to dissuade even Shadow's sore temptations, "but I've got a bet on with Micah and we've been working each other up all weekend; there's a dinner out riding on this".

"Well then, I guess I'd better not keep you in suspense", the hedgehog said genially before smiling, "so where's the betted meal going ahead; wait, no, I'll spill", he gabbled desperately as Honey threw herself to her feet, fist and staple gun drawn back by a woman on the edge, "I did some thinking about it and decided I'd try to use your, or Micah's method actually, to try and grind it out of her. I made a bet with her a little while ago and, as always, she scraped out on top and I had to pay eventually. I worked it all out, got a couple of things when I left early on Friday".

"Aww, and there was me thinking you'd just done that to avoid me for the rest of the day?" Honey fluttered her lashes prettily as Shadow beat down a threatening smile before replying, hoping that the laughter wouldn't be too noticeable in his voice,

"Nah, that was just an added bonus", he gave an ironic bow as Honey flicked her tongue out at him, "but I just nipped downtown, found this neat little place that sold me a pack of incense burners and some oil to burn in them, then I called a favour or two in and got it all ready; I'd told Julie that this was a ceremony of sorts on the world below, kind of like the ones they've got in the Legion and she had to vanish while I set it up…"

"They've got ceremonies in the Legion? I mean", Honey broke in, apparently flummoxed by this revelation before she caught the look on Shadow's face, "they, er, I didn't think they had a religion of any sort". Shadow scratched an ear as he tried to think of a way to put this next sentence into words Honey might understand; and ones I can picture come to that;

"It's a little tricky to explain, but yeah, they've got a couple of little does that go on through the year; I sat through one of them in the autumn time, just so Jules wouldn't feel so homesick like", he defended himself a little unnecessarily as Honey's eyes bulged at the news, "it wasn't too bad, nothing really terrible went on, just like any other kind of thing really, like carols at Christmas I suppose".

"Fair enough, but"; got to give her points for trying; Shadow suppressed a smile as he realised Honey was trying desperately not to let on how much she wanted to hear about this but the speed at which she tried to jump him back on topic was far too much of a giveaway, "what was the bet you pair made in the first place?"

"Ah, not important; the thing that is was how I made up for it – picture this", the hedgehog wetted his lip for a second as Honey leant forwards uncontrollably, magnetised by the lure of his news, "she's in the shower and I gave a knock, told her there was a little dress code of sorts; I hang it on the back of the door and go get ready, light a couple of candles…"

"You", unable to contain her wild guessing Honey jumped in headlong, "you put up a…what did you cook?"

"Nothing, it wasn't a romantic occasion", Shadow reprimanded, adding a slightly peevish tone to his voice as she interrupted the flow of his story; luckily however, he was quickly able to pick up where he'd left off, "but yeah, I go in the lounge, everything's set, just waiting for Julie; lo and behold a couple of minutes later I hear the bathroom door open, she was coming down the hall", Honey's feet stamped the floor a couple of times, her fists clasped hard under her chin as almost deranged apprehension began to set in, coaxed there by the hedgehog's tone and undercurrent of excitement, "I just waited behind the door; I heard her gasp, she must have seen it, she walked right past me in the dark; the room was lit by candlelight".

"What was it?" Honey moaned, almost writhing in anticipation as an entire weekend's worth of guessing, bluff and double-bluff was about to come to an end – Shadow held up a hand, picking up the pace as he took note of the virtual desperation in her body language,

"It went better than I'd hoped; just as she was looking I stepped up, she must have remembered what I'd said, saw it dawn in her eyes. She just lay down, perfect positioning, and I", he gave the barest of pauses, watching with a rapidly-growing grin as the echidna's hands shrunk into claw-like positions as through desperate to grasp onto the answer and never let go, "I started at the ankles and worked my way up from there".

As he'd expected, there was a slight time lag between Honey hearing what he'd said and actually understanding it; he waited a couple of seconds, then another few – the words of explanation were almost on the very tip of his tongue before the blonde Mobians' eyes suddenly swelled up huge and one hand clapped over her mouth, the voice behind it muffled as much by awe as by the organic barrier in front of it,

"You didn't?"

"I did", Shadow assured her proudly, one hand gliding through the air towards her in a textbook masseur grip, "the full works, right down to the dreadlock roots". That was enough; Honey shook with laughter for a second as the hand at her mouth slid up her face until it covered her forehead, the echidna leaning on her elbow to take the weight as she reeled for this sort of a blow,

"Ohhoho, spirits above", she tried to picture it and failed, having to resort to the genuine font of information in front of her as her own imagination failed to encapsulate what he was saying, her questioning voice panting with almost exhausted shock, "what did she say?"

"I'm not too sure", Shadow mused after a second of thinking, raising his eyebrows as Honey shook her head, "must have been a foreign language, unless you know what 'urrgghh', ummmm' and 'lowalowalowaaaahhhaahhhaa' happen to stand for?"

"A job well done would be my best guess; looks like Micah and I are going halves this Friday; neither of us managed to come up with that", dabbing at her eyes Honey shook her head one last time before spinning in her seat to observe the hedgehog opposite her, "so did she say it? I mean, after she'd had time to recover?"

"No she didn't – she didn't have to", he quickly added as the echidna before him swelled with indignation at the sudden thought, "I don't know how she did it but somehow she'd got hold of a CD from somewhere – remember the day I was off…ill", he said eventually, deciding to come clean about this after checking to see they were still alone in the office. Honey thought for a second then suddenly twigged, nodding,

"Yeah, Julie called in for you. Was it bad was it?"

"Worse; I'd, er, well I'd had a lot of problems before that Honey", the hedgehog said tiredly, not really wanting to go through this again but not really having a choice in this instance; besides, say this now and asking her for the favour I need might be easier; "so, after work, I went out, on the town as it were, just wanted to get drunk as quickly as possible, make it all go away – stupid yes", he answered her suddenly sharp look with a raised hand and weary smile, letting her know she was completely right to scold him for his sudden weakness of moral fibre, "and I'm not going to say it was the brightest thing I've ever done, but anyway, somewhere along the line, I forget where, one of my buddies joined up with me, guy called Vector…"

"Vector, so he…"; oh no – I didn't want him to know about that!

It was too late to snap her mouth shut as Shadow's head shot up, the black hedgehog seizing her slip up and silently demanding an explanation with his eyes, "…so he's a friend of yours?"

"Yeah", Shadow replied slowly, sizing her up almost as his question was delivered in a would-be curious tone that fooled neither of them, "how do you know him?"

"Micah's mentioned the name a couple of times", she answered casually, falling back on the old adage of blaming the boyfriend for anything; as long as he never found out about it nothing would happen, "he said, um, he said, what is he now – tall and, er, oh what is it", she snapped her fingers, hoping against hope she was doing well enough to fool the hedgehog into thinking her memory lapse was genuine and throw him off the scent she was desperate to conceal, "something like crackadoll?"

"Crocodile?"

"Yep, that's the one; must be the same guy; Micah runs into him when he's doing the shopping occasionally".

"Why don't you do the shopping", Shadow queried innocently; Honey sniffed dismissively, internally singing wonderful praises out to the world that she'd managed to cover her tracks,

"Because he can't tell one end of a hoover from the other and one of us needs to make sure the house is tidied sometimes in a week", she explained patiently before throwing back onto what was in her mind the right topic, "but anyway, what happened next?" Shadow's eyes crossed for a second before he suddenly realised where she was coming from,

"Oh, yeah sorry; we proceeded to get ourselves levelled; I don't remember any of it really, least of all what I was saying – more's the bloody pity", he muttered under his breath before raising his voice again, "but somehow ol' scaly managed to pull the wool over my eyes. Never asked how he did it but somehow he taped me saying I was sorry to everyone for generally acting like such a prat and, well, three guesses who he gave that little present to". Honey screwed her eyes shut in shared embarrassment even if she was quick enough to realise where the hedgehog was going with this story,

"Oh no; I bet she made your life miserable when she told you – I know I would have if it'd been me", she added with refreshing honesty; to her amazement however, Shadow shook his head,

"Nah, not really; I mean she kept the fact that I'd said sorry secret from me and strung me along for weeks that she was still hacked off, but after Friday night, when I'd done with the massage and she was snoring away merrily, she'd told me where that CD was and I listened to it – don't even think about it", he warned suddenly; he knew Honey well enough to recognise a devious smirk when he saw one blooming on her smug features, "that CD has been confined to Davy Jones's locker, I've made sure of that".

"Spoilsport"; his answering smile would have sloughed tar off a road surface,

"Quite, but anyway I just went to bed on that knowledge; after all, she'd heard what I needed her to hear and she must have accepted I was sorry – why rock the boat any further? So off to bed I went, and it all snowballed downhill from there".

As he'd expected, she didn't quite follow; he heaved in a sigh and, just when he was sure she was starting to think about what he'd said and the inevitable question was growing in her mind, he spoke once more,

"I, that night, while I was asleep, I had a dream, a really vivid dream; you know my amnesia", once more her eyes grew huge and her lips trembled but not a sound escaped them, nothing issued from her parched throat save an exhumed croak as the hedgehog bowed his head and spoke again, "I had a flashback, a really long and real-feeling one; I don't want to talk about it really, it's not something I enjoy at all, but someone close to me…they died, and I was there when it happened. Please don't…" For a second he was afraid she wouldn't be able to contain herself and the whole thing was going to have to come out again but to his ineffable relief Honey managed to clamp the reins on her tongue and, with a concerted effort, refused to speak, merely extending her hand onto his arm and, after a second strengthening her tone, speaking in a cracked voice,

"I'm so sorry Shadow; and of all the nights for it to happen, after that".

"I know, irony's a bitch", the hedgehog replied with a tepid smile, one Honey did her best to try and echo even if pity and concern were coiling around her emotional output for the hedgehog in front of her, "but to cut a long story short I went a bit nuts and, for the second time I might add", he fingered the side of his jaw for a second as he said his next words, "Julie's anatomy colliding at high speed with mine was the only thing that brought my mind back to reality. I had a bad night but, in the morning, we were both surprised really".

"I can imagine"; even if I really can't; Honey knew her words weren't true but they sounded supportive and that was all that really mattered, "it must have been…" Shadow shook his head, unknowingly diverging from Honey's line of thought for a second,

"No, it wasn't quite that bad; it could have been", he added wryly, picturing with iron certainty what might have happened had anyone who'd visited over the weekend taken a peek behind the settee and asked a couple of awkward questions, "but luckily it never quite got that embarrassing".

"Really?"

"Yeah, we were quick enough to…oh", the black hedgehog suddenly caught the eye of the echidna opposite him and realised the discrepancy between what he was saying and what she was hearing, "sorry Honey, I'm not quite on your page there; yes, remembering what happened, it wasn't the nicest thing I've ever had to do and, and I'm just glad the worst's over now, but the important thing is that I had help, every step of the way", her head jerked up, the merest hint of a hopeful smile beckoning and Shadow chose his words carefully to encourage it ever onwards, "Jules and I were caught out in the morning, some friends from the lands below arrived and caught me looking as bad as I can look without trying; of course, I had to tell them, they knew about my amnesia from the word go and helped me get over it as much as they were able to. Before I knew it, Julie went of to give me some quiet time, but these two, well they've got transport between here and downstairs, and they brought up other friends, really close ones, to help me; without that, I probably wouldn't have been able to come in today".

"Then why are you in", Honey pleaded, recalling for the first time in her life half-remembered passages from the tome that called itself guidelines for working in the C.A, "get yourself off home, no-one can deny that's a grievance holiday allowance; not even Snappy can gainsay it". In time with the ball of bile rising up her throat, concern for her friend given emotional feeling, Shadow shook his head,

"No Honey; not that I'm not grateful for the offer", he assured her with a smile before continuing, "but I just want to get back to normal, which is why I'll need your help". Really?; the echidna nodded, mind made up in a flash; well you've got it;

"What can I do?"

"If I start gazing off into the distance, like I'm lost in thought", the hedgehog explained slowly, fighting not to do just that as talking of the memory he'd been able to bring back from his misty past threatened to overwhelm his sense of the here and now, "just give me a tap; I had this problem through the weekend, getting lost in the past Amy called it, and I've got to stop doing it; I'll need you to snap me out of it if you see it, okay?"

"Sure; I can buzz you as well if you've been gone a long time", the echidna said suddenly; oh brilliant. Shadow felt another of his major worries for the day melt away in the face of that offer and nodded,

"Thank you Henu; it does mean a lot". She merely smiled, her hand racing down his arm into his, holding softly,

"No need to thank me, let me know if there's anything else I can do".

"I will, thanks again; mind you", the sudden note of conversational humour in his voice brought her head up, a slight grin hovering near her lips as he smiled, "if it had really gone to pot on Saturday, boy wild horses wouldn't have dragged me into work today; I'd still be hiding under the bed and praying it was all just going to go away".

"I just know…oh forget it", knowing it was a lost struggle Honey merely heaved a sigh, "go on – what happened?" Clasping his hands, Shadow leant forwards, his face open and expression bordering on the brink between humour and acute embarrassment,

"Well, you know I said the first two friends to arrive arrived early, well, early for Julie and I anyway", Honey nodded; he didn't mention it exactly but I can imagine that was what happened; "well when they banged on the door, everything was still out, and I mean everything". The emphasis on the last word tipped her off; only her gloved hand stopped her sniggers percolating throughout the entire deserted office,

"Oh no; they saw the massage kit you left out?"

"Thank God no; I was just fast enough – Jules hit the shower and I threw everything behind the settee, it was the only thing big enough to fit the table behind", Shadow explained as Honey wiped imaginary sweat from her brow, miming how close his escape had been, "before I let them in. That was fine; it was when they brought back the company, early afternoon, that it could have gone wrong; remember Sonic?" Honey's eyes closed in concentration, the pictures he'd brought in flashing before her mind as she struggled to put names to faces but, in the end, she took a stab in the dark,

"The huge purple guy?"

"No, the blue hedgehog, looks a bit like me", Shadow explained, an 'oh' from Honey letting him know she had him in her minds eye now, "well he came up and just as I was passing the coffee round he noticed one of the legs of the table poking out from behind the sofa", her hands covered her face and even then he could still see her grin, hear the disguised glee in her muffled voice,

"Oh no, what happened?"

"Well, Sonic being Sonic and not able to keep his mouth shut if his life depended on it, he asks what it is and if he can get it out; I said yes", the way the blonde echidnas hands' shot down and her flabbergasted expression stood out like a sore thumb made the hedgehog chuckle before he filled in the final piece of the puzzle, "if he wanted to do the work on it".

"What, he's a masseur too?"

"No", Shadow's own grin, restrained for far too long, slid out over his face, "I told him it was the ironing board".

All throughout that day, even when her paper feeder jammed half a dozen times and her computer along with around half the office shorted out due to a sudden power surge, nothing could shift the resolute grin nor displace the giggles punctuating her speech from Honey's lips. Only once, when she saw Shadow gazing steadily into the remnants of his canteen meal, did it waver and even then it was restored back to full health within seconds, aided by Shadow's comment that he had wanted a tap, not a slapshot.

"But all the better to cure you with Shadow"; with that, she showed the hedgehog a clean pair of heels and made it back to her desk just before he could grab her, his volcanic grimace broken in a split-second as he ran his hand down the length of her plait and by a miracle declined to pull out the bobble at the end of it. He'll be well again soon; that was the certain thought echoing around the petite echidnas head as she reciprocated the gesture of rough affection with a nudge from her elbow, peeking at him from the corner of her eye; I'll make sure of that, and if I can't I can always do what I did last time – from what he's been telling me no matter what Vector did to him Julie can make that look like a storm in a teacup!

XXX

How long has it been now – a week or more; Julie ticked off the days on her computer calendar just before she shut the computer down for the rest of the day and realised that her first guess had been right; ten days ago this all kicked off. With a reminiscent sigh the ex-Legionnaire picked up her standard desk equipment and stashed it into her bag with a distinct lack of anything even vaguely resembling order and stood up straight, heading for the exit of her workplace and absent-mindedly waving silent goodbyes to the echidnas who remained behind, working as they were full-time. She repeated the manoeuvre with Yesa, the desk sergeant heeding his innate sense of intuition and deciding against attempting to draw the other echidna into a prolonged conversation, instead letting her walk out of the headquarters at her own, noticeably reduced pace. Lost in a world of her own; glancing down and straightening his badge, a gesture he now did out of habit whenever making his mind up about something and wanting to appear casual, the elder Mobian nodded to himself as he reached a inner conclusion; not for the first time recently either, a couple of days last week she was like that – oh well; with a last jerk of his shirt hem, he drew himself up in his seat, hiding his inner thoughts beneath a veneer of impassive observance; I'm sure it'll work itself out in time, whatever it is that's bothering her.

As had become usual for the past week, Julie's trip home seemed to drag on forever, the echidna lost like a blind man out in the snow as she tried desperately to recognise a landmark she recognised as familiar to her; as had also become usual though, in this endeavour she was repeatedly frustrated – for all the training and drills the Dark Legion had rigorously installed into her; even now after several months clean she would have betted on herself to field-strip a glow-gun in less than a minute; all her past experiences couldn't do anything to help her here and that, almost more than the problem itself, chafed at her nerves. Feeling unable to do something, a sky-ball spectator on the sidelines who might cheer as much as she wanted to but was unable to directly affect the outcome of a game, was alien and uncomfortable to her and she tried to break the deadlock as much as she was able to but for once all her thinking was getting her precisely nowhere. But there's got to be something I can do – he did for me; she refused to give in, resolutely planting her mental feet and not yielding ground to this fresh pressure, thinking of it as another challenge, like all the other ones life had thrown her way, to be bested and broken down; it doesn't even have to be anything big, nothing he did was, just smoothing out the little things that might have tripped me up, like making my pack up or making sure I could get to work on time. But this; Julie shook her head, mechanical dreadlock slashing the air in front of her eyes as though acting out her frustrations as she tapped the side of her head; this is all in his mind and, much as I'd like to and he's let me as much as he can, I can't get in there, not properly. He's just trying to do it himself, like I did; for a second she stopped and shivered, recalling through a veiled memory the depths of despair she'd almost drowned in after having attempted to brush off Xenin's assault on not only her freedom but her hope for the future as well; but he can't, and I should know because I couldn't.

That was it, the central bone of contention she had to break in order to get this mess sorted out once and for all; Shadow was, as far as she knew, acting as normal as it was possible for him to act and that in itself was a problem – despite his repeated promises that his unconscious dwelling on his memories wasn't hurting anyone, Julie was a little too worldly-wise to fall for it completely. More than once she'd seen the black hedgehog either sat or stood upright, not moving as he seemed to concentrate on a point far away in the distance, not registering what was going on around him until she did something to actively snap him out of his trance. As always he'd deny, no, actually that was wrong; he never denied what he was thinking about – what he did deny, and what was currently driving Julie around the bend trying to figure out a solution to, was that looking backwards was both painful and distracting for him. I know Amy told him that he shouldn't live in his past and he's taken that on board; once more in her mind she gave the pink hedgehog a subconscious vote of thanks for applying the skills she had towards making sure Shadow's torment remained minimal and setting him some real, achievable goals to aim at; but remembering shouldn't just jump out at him like this. He needs to focus his energy on something else, something linked to his past but not actually a part of it, sort of like a nice reminder of Maria rather than just having visions of her…; she refused to complete the sentence, instead lowering her eyes to the pavement in respect for the deceased. But she knew what she was working towards, that was a start; as she brought her head up she recognised that much had been gained and the knowledge rekindled her determination; she knew she could crack this if only a little spark of inspiration would flicker up out of somewhere, if something would just galvanise her thinking, if…

At that precise second something galvanised her thinking, and just for good measure her unsuspecting body got a proverbial kick in the pants to boot; adrenaline was sent flooding all through her system and she jumped upwards as the world suddenly went black, two pressure pads sealing over her eyes, blocking out the light. She clawed up at them, desperation lending her strength, only noticing the words whispered into her ears when their issuer restated them, this time with increased volume,

"Guess who?"

"Wha?" She took a breath, the voice completely unfamiliar to her but the sudden realisation that this was because someone was trying to disguise their speech deliberately reduced her panic somewhat; it had to be someone she knew, if it had been a Legion agent she'd be down by now, "oh for the love of Pete", she clapped a hand over her chest, trying to still her hammering heart as she panted down some air, the sudden snake of fear transformed into a fuse of slow-burning anger as she straightened and attempted to turn the tables on her pranker, "don't do that to me, umm", she re-ran the words, noticing the grating speech and feeling the heavy pressure around her eyes, the strength in the hands ruling out her first, instinctive guess, "Vector?"

"Not quite", as the disguise sloughed away from the answer and the restraining hands fell away from Julies' face the echidna blinked at the sudden light before turning to face her would-be assailant, knowing who it was before she even went face to face, "long time no see Jules".

"Likewise", the ex-Legionnaire agreed with the Chaotix, accepting Mighty's extended hand and shaking briefly before slapping her heavily-muscled shoulder, "don't scare me like that".

"Ah why not, it's fun; you wouldn't have said anything if Charmy had done it", the armadillo pointed out suddenly, neatly trumping Julies verbal ace only to see the echidna pull another trick out of her sleeve to thwart her improving wordplay,

"No but I expect that sort of thing from him, and Vector too – all that talk for the kid to grow up, as if he's the perfect role-model". The armadillo gave a rumble of laughter, falling into pace with her echidna friend as she answered,

"You don't know how right you are; all the leg-pulling they rib Esp with, not like it gets them very far mind", she pointed out with a shake of her helmeted head, the wall-crawler's attitude to life in general still grating on her optimistic personality even after so long in the team with him, "anyway, what's on your mind; saw you walking down the street looking like a wet weekend, figured something was up", she shrugged casually before Julie could translate her affronted glance into words. Left without a meaningful avenue to escape down, Julie had to let the truth come out,

"And you'd be right in that figuring", she sighed, glancing to the side of her to see Mighty give a slight nod of encouragement, "it's about Shadow".

"I thought as much", the armadillo took in her friends' assumption with her usual openness, not mentioning the obvious reason behind the black hedgehogs' uncommon behaviour as she already knew exactly what it was; Sonic said she was important to him – guess he must have been right or it wouldn't have Shadow this shook up; "anything you want to spill on me?"

"Apart from half a gallon of itching powder?" Mighty whipped around suddenly, even her laughing green eyes suddenly narrowed to razor edges as Julie smirked, "well you did just give me a nasty turn".

"Threaten me like that again and I'll give you an even nastier turn – the inside-out variety", the armadillo growled as she rubbed a hand over the back of her shell, memories of what had happened last time that taboo had been breached in tandem by Sonic and Cream still painfully evident as she couldn't stop herself squirming at the spectacle she must have made of herself; break dancing Charmy called it – they were only lucky I didn't break one of them kicking out like I was; she shook herself in time to see Julie look over at her with a curious expression and gave a wry smile, "sorry, just remembered last time someone used that old trick on me – not good", she shook her head with a final grimace, banishing the evil thoughts back into the pits of her mind, "not good at all".

"I can guess, but, anyway", Julie decided not to linger on the subject as much for Mighty's memory as her own sudden need to clear the air around her, "it's, er, it's weird Mighty".

"No change there then; after living with the Chaotix this long I sometimes reckon that if I had to go back to a normal life they'd end up carting me off somewhere for my own safety, never mind anyone else's"; the sudden comment brought the smile she'd been hoping to see, but far too quickly for the armadillo's liking the expression was soaked up, lost by the wistful regret resurfacing over Julie's face. With another second's pause the echidna must have tried to find the right words for what she wanted to say and, listening intently, Mighty tried to sort out the next logical step for her to take, trying to put herself in Julie's shoes as she did so,

"Well quite; if you looked up abnormal in the dictionary you'd probably get a picture of Charmy grinning back at you from the page – but as for Shadow, no this is different. Don't worry", Mighty cursed quietly as she realised her fear must have shown on her face for an instant, Julie raising her hand to stave off such worries, "he's not pulled that trick again, or, maybe he has slightly, I'm not sure how to describe it exactly".

"Just give it your best shot".

"It's like he gets lost; 'away from keyboard' as Kadu would say", Julie explained as well as she was able to, heeding Mighty's advice even if she wasn't fully aware of hearing it, "he just stares off into space, forgets what's going on around him – he says it's not a problem, actually no, he doesn't say that he says he's got to stop doing it somehow, but that's the thing, none of us know how to stop it".

"Even if you know what he's zoned out about", Mighty finished for her, bringing a finger to her lip in contemplation as she tried to wrack her brain around this puzzle, "you need to find a way to make him snap out of it?" To her equal parts shock and consternation, rather than agree Julie laughed,

"No, he's trying to do that on his own; what I've got to do is help him somehow, but I can't help him directly because I can't be on hand twenty-four seven – you have any idea how hard it is trying to trail someone who's customary speed rattles the sound barrier?"

"I can imagine; if he was anything like Sonic used to be he'd be a real handful, and that was back when the Smurf wasn't going as fast as he can now – no, don't ask me", the armadillo said in the nick of time, Julie having just drawn in the breath to ask the inevitable, "I'm under oath not to tell another living soul about anything that happened back in our dancing days; I let Rouge know his old nickname and that was bad enough when he copped hold of me afterwards. Never, ever ever again".

"Aww, that's nasty from both of you, but anyway", immediately the humour was replaced by puzzled worrying, Julie's eyes almost misting over as once more she dived headlong into her problem, probing for answers but feeling nothing more than mist coiling around her fingertips, "what I need is to find some way of, er, of focussing, if that is the right word, his attention on something else; I'm not stupid, I know he's thinking about Maria when he tails off mid-sentence and I completely understand why but it's not healthy for anyone concerned, least of all him".

"Basically he needs something to keep his mind occupied?" Yeah, and that's the problem – basically, you're right; Julie thought and her smile must have conveyed her unease to the armadillo as Mighty craned her neck backwards, increasing the distance between the pair of them as she caught the undercurrent of tension present; it's when it gets complicated the situation deteriorates;

"Not quite Mighty; as far as I can work out he needs something to do with his past that can occupy his mind now, make sure Maria doesn't keep popping out the closet – oh that was an awful thing to say".

"Maybe but it was true", Mighty stated firmly, quickly stepping in to stop Julie beating herself up over something that had been, as far as the armadillo was concerned, necessary to say, "he can't, and no-one else can for that matter, live with one foot down memory lane and one in the real world – you're right, Shadow's got to find a line to divide the two properly; as far as I can see from what you're telling me he's not quite figured out where that is yet. But look on the bright side", that did it; in a second Julie's hope had come back to the fore – she looked earnestly across as Mighty grinned, "at least he's trying this time around; he must have learnt something. Even men can get it right eventually". Holding a hand over her mouth as snorting noises ripped out of her nose, trying to set the rest of her laughter free from behind the recently-imposed organic prison, Julie touched knuckles with the Mobian opposite her, shared sisterhood allowing the a joke at the expense of the other half of the world's population,

"How very true; they can, as long as you give them a packet's worth of sticky notes in direction and gentle reminders. Anyway", standing up and stretching off a little, Julie felt a little more freedom around her, the shackles restraining her imagination slipped a little as a result of Mighty acting as a post for her to bounce ideas off, "I'll be off, got some more thinking to do; thanks for…"

"Hold it", though the metal on her forearms were as nerveless as the shell clamped around the back of her friend, Julie nevertheless knew Mighty had seized one of her arms when she failed to go anywhere despite her legs moving; turning around she saw the other Mobian smiling a at her in a knowing manner she wasn't sure she liked all that much, "you've figured out what Shadow needs and well done, but you neglected something in your earlier thinking that I, in all my infinite wisdom, managed to figure out for you". Julie raised an eyebrow at the same time as tried to free her arm from Mighty's 'gentle' grip; gentle for her maybe, bloody crushing to everyone else;

"And what secret, oh wise and sagacious oracle that you undoubtedly are, have you managed to deduce from the chaos of the cosmos?" Mighty's chest hitched in laughter at the ex-Legionnaire's joke though tellingly she never loosened her grip on Julie's arm,

"I figured out that you need to unwind, all that thinking you've been doing's tensed you up something chronic", she said simply; while Julie's eyes were crossed trying to figure out if her words were actually true she delivered the second half of her killer combination, "so you need to come with me".

What for?; it was as the question was forming on the echidnas lips that she finally saw the strap crossed over Mighty's left shoulder and, recognising it instantly as the strap attached to the armadillo's gym bag, rapidly altered the question she had primed,

"Okay, where are you off? I didn't think you used the gym?"

"I don't; I'm hitting the pool"; Julie took a step back in shock, or at least she would have done had Mighty let up her grip and set her arm free as she shook her head suddenly,

"What, but I er"; actually I never asked, I just assumed – well she'll probably say I'm wrong but it's an easy mistake to make; "I didn't think you could swim". Heaving a tolerant sigh the armadillo rolled her eyes and Julie knew, even before she opened her mouth, that she was about to be educated differently,

"Everyone says that; it's not easy I grant you, trying to float with this thing weighing you down like a ton of bricks", she jerked the thumb of her free hand over her shoulder, "but I can just about manage; anyway I'm not going there to swim, no", she assured the echidna's sceptical expression with a raised finger and crooked smile, "it's true. I found out a way to work on my speed; I stand in the shallow end, water about up to here", the flat of her hand this time was positioned across from her neck, the armadillo virtually feeling the water lapping around her neck as she envisioned what was going to be happening a half-hour or so from now, pistoning her hand back and forwards in a series of short, sharp jabs, "and then I just box, under the water; the drag sharpens me up, gets me moving my feet more and that's the area I need help with. I, in fact everyone knows how hard I can hit".

"Amen to that", Julie chuckled for a second, seeing in her minds eye Vector going through a series of airborne cartwheels as everyone spectating gasped in awe and shock, "how many loops did you knock Vec for last time we got together?"

"A couple; it was his own fault, he ducked right into it", Mighty retorted defensively before coming back on track, "but I need to get some snap into my punches; pointless throwing them if everyone's just going to dance around them. Fancy giving it a spin", she finished, eyeing Julie with a smile as sweet as she could make it, "always more fun with company after all. You in?"

It took a couple of seconds for the full absurdity of Mighty's suggestion to sink in; I've just finished work, I've got no kit and even less money on me and to top it all off I can barely swim for toffee – how is this a good idea? Mind made up, Julie set about informing the armadillo of her choice with a whole plethora of reasons to support it,

"Ah, sorry, I'll have to duck out of this one".

"Why?" You can not be serious?!; Julie's mind boggled at the armadillo's seemingly innocuous question, and it boggled a second time at the openly questioning look on her friend's face,

"How much time have you got? Look, for a start I don't have a costume…"

"You can get one at the pool, I'll sub you the cash". Choked off in full flow by the unexpected riposte Julie stumbled before, after recollecting her bearings, she regrouped at her second line of defence,

"Okay, but look at me, at these", she indicated her augmented dreadlock with a flush of triumph, one that was completely wiped away a second later by Mighty's excellently-timed comment,

"I remember you telling Espio they were completely water-proof; at least that's what you said when he threatened to get through your defences with a bucket straight from the nearest spring. You weren't lying were you?"

"Er, no, of course not", Julie was forced to concede that point as well; her second line was now a smoking hole in the ground left in the wake of Mighty's seemingly relentless advance, "they are…"

"So what's the problem; come on", the Chaotix member smiled as she made to lead the way, "as Vector would say, time is money and we're running short on both. Face it"; gotcha; Mighty glowed with internal pride as she recognised that she'd hit the nail on the head in her timing, Julie's falling face letting her know she'd beaten her off the mental train she'd been about to board for another lame excuse, "anything you come up with I can match if not better – there's no way you're getting out of this".

"But, but", bereft of other options Julie was forced to use the last, most effective and most personally unpleasant weapon in her arsenal, a weapon that signalled she'd run out of all other options and handed her opponent a technical victory, "I just don't feel like it right now Mighty; another time yes, but right now I just don't want to go".

"Aha, even that I can better"; what! Julie looked forwards with alarm, the cocky self-assurance in Mighty's tone a world removed from the dispirited acceptance she'd been expecting – she had only the briefest glimpse of something moving forwards fast, her arm was pulled on irresistibly and next second the world had tilted a full ninety degrees, "you can not want to go if I don't give you a choice in the matter; trust me you'll thank me when we get there".

"But, hey, put me down!" Julie's brain suddenly caught up with the outside world and her cheeks went red, a feat not entirely accomplished by vertigo alone as she brought her fist down on the shell covering the armadillo's back, "people are staring, this is extremely undignifying!"

"Like I care", Julie felt as well as heard the armadillo's chuckled response, "Mightys' first rule on the world – don't give a damn about what anyone random on the street thinks because chances are you'll never find out about their opinion anyway". Needing to snap back at her unforeseen captor Julie opened her mouth before engaging her brain,

"That's stupid it makes…"; actually; her mind put in suddenly, a little peevish at being ignored for so long; it makes perfect sense; "…umm…" Her stuttering wasn't unnoticed; a second later another rumble of laughter reached her ears,

"Armadillo logic; nothing beats it". Giving one last wriggle for freedom, Julie came to the unfortunate but unavoidable conclusion that she was going nowhere fast; all she could do was try to keep her cool as much as possible and hope this story didn't get back to the ears of a certain ebony-spined hedgehog,

"I'll be beating you the second you let me down for here Michelle", the ex-Legionnaire huffed, crossing her arms and glaring through a shop window at a dumbstruck passer-by following the strange procession as it walked past, "you got my word on that".

"Well if that's going to be your attitude you've got 'til we get to the pool to rethink it or they'll be the devil to pay". That comment tickled; even in the ludicrous position she found herself occupying Julie couldn't help but snicker as her imagination drew immediate parallels,

"What, after living with Shadow; I can take the worst Old Nick can throw at me"; oh really?; Mighty didn't answer, her eyes instead flicking to the side of her shoulder, seeing the back of Julie's legs in her peripheral vision as she trooped along; well Shadow told me a thing or two about you Jules, but still, better the devil you know than the devil you don't I suppose!

XXX

Shadow hadn't been lying either; that was the conclusion Mighty had reached by a couple of minutes later, still carrying the ex-Dark Legionnaire over one shoulder and recalling how the hedgehog had gone to great lengths to point out how stubborn his housemate was when it came to matters such as doing anything she didn't agree with; and I thought he was joking at the time – now I know better. Still, though the drain this extra burden represented on the armadillo's virtually indomitable constitution was negligible the fact of the matter was that she was right, Julie was wrong and wasn't admitting it and that was starting to rub the armadillo up the wrong way. Well, Mighty's sense of fair play decreed that her friend could have one last chance to give this futile struggle up but after that, the armadillo's eyes flicked sideways, it was time to break out the big guns to get this straightened out,

"Julie", the slight movement transmitted through her arms let her know the echidna had shifted position, probably to hear her better, "you've got to the count of three to give this up and agree to come with me off your own bat". Typical; as she rolled her eyes the armadillo was only grateful the ex-Legionnaire couldn't see her smile grow, watered as it was by Julie's semi-sarcastic laughter,

"You just keep right on counting shelly, I'm saying nothing". The armadillo drew in a sharp hiss before tutting; as far as she was concerned use of her hated nickname negated the need for one of the digits,

"Okay then; two?" Silence.

"Two and a half?" Still silence,

"Two and three quarters; last chance?" Mighty waited a second, then another; it was during the third second that she rolled her eyes and moved her hand across her chest, keeping Julie's legs tightly hugged into herself to make sure the echidna couldn't thrash around too much; well, don't say I never gave you a chance – Shadow, I sure hope you weren't over-exaggerating this either. With that, the Chaotix placed her fingertips on the back of her friend's thigh and dragged her hand lightly downwards.

No, he wasn't exaggerating; as the captive echidna gave a spontaneous jack-knife and a half-muffled bellow of laughter, the armadillo couldn't deny herself a slightly prideful grin as she repeated her offer,

"One last time Jules; say it or this gets really unpleasant, for you at least"; as she'd expected there were a couple of seconds silence before her friend could compose herself enough to reply in even a desperate, gasping tone,

"No fair; this has got to class as torture!"

"Maybe", the armadillo gave a shrug, flicking the back of one of her captives' knees with one finger, eliciting a growl from behind her shell before continuing, "but it's effective. Just say it; I'm right, you're wrong and we'll just hit the pool together, best of friends – what'dya reckon?"

"I reckon you're going tah-hahaha – quit it! Heeheehee!"

"Wrong answer", the Chaotix assured her smugly over her shoulder, not letting up in her attacks as she could just picture Julie's face as she attempted to choke off the source of her giggling, "I stop when you say it". With that, Mighty simply tuned out the words and half-baked ramblings from behind herself, listening out for only three words and resolving not to stop until they were issued from the echidna over her shoulder,

"I'ahaham, I'm gonna rihip your shelf ohohohohoff", considering what she could have done Mighty was being merciful for Julie in at least two respects; by going as slowly as she was the armadillo was ensuring that the echidna could both talk and wasn't laughing loudly enough to gather undue attention from people in the street around her; or, at least; she reconsidered that statement with a glance around, noticing how many Mobians in the street were giving the odd coupling a sideways glance at the very least; no more than we're getting at the minute anyway; "and, an' use it, hahaha, use itheheheit to grow plants in if yohoohoohooo – STOP!"

It was the unexpectedness rather than the volume that ensured Mighty's compliance, the armadillo freezing in mid-stride at the unforeseen command, formerly tormenting hand dropping limp to her side as she tried to look over her shoulder and see why the echidna had shouted so.

"Put me down!" Such was the urgency that Mighty nearly obeyed before it suddenly twigged in her mind and she stopped, a sly note in her voice as she saw through the bluff,

"Ah, nice try but you haven't said it", the Chaotix spoke smugly, already prepared to relaunch her offensive, "so…" Suddenly she was having to clamp her arm around the echidnas' waist even harder to prevent her squirming free, Julie trying to wriggle down over the armadillo's shoulder back down to her feet even as she found her voice again, all traces of humour gone completely and steel in her tone, a desperate, almost frantic note in her voice that compelled obedience,

"No, put me down, this is serious. Please Mighty, I…" She never finished that sentence as suddenly there was ground beneath her feet once more, the armadillo bending her knees to set her friend back on solid ground, not at all liking this sudden development and wanting to get to the bottom of what was going on as soon as she was able to, speaking as she straightened up,

"Okay Jules, what's bitten…Julie?" The sudden sight of a patch of empty space in front of her only deepened the armadillo's confusion; it was only the registering of a sudden cold breeze on her left side that let her know where the ex-Legionnaire had run off to, and run was quite the optimal word here. The speed at which Julie hammered across the road, barely sparing a glance to check for oncoming traffic, almost made Mighty's jaw drop, her confusion only deepening as she flicked her eyes up to see the name of the store her friend had hared off into. What on Earth has she seen in there?; myriad possibilities, each one making even less sense than the previous, snaked through her mind as she squinted across the road, shuffling back along the street she'd carried Julie down to get a better look at what was going on in the store. She had just enough time to see the augmented echidna yammer a couple of words over her shoulder at the assistant behind the till before virtually throwing herself out the doorway, looking left and right for something; Mighty quailed as those chameleonic eyes came to rest on her and suddenly dilated, allowing the sudden determination to rear up behind them, show itself plainly and a force on that scale managed to rattle even someone as steadfast as the armadillo. Tearing across the road again, the echidna somehow came to a stop just in front of her friend and managed to gasp,

"How much money have you got on you I need forty and I've only got twenty five I can pay you back".

"Err", more for an excuse to look down and drop her gaze from the sudden intensity in the echidna's face Mighty fumbled for her gym bag, "hang on I'll check". She knew better than to ask what she was shelling out towards, such questions would be lost on the echidna before her in this new and manic state; instead she simply ruffled through the folds of her private wallet and quickly plucked out a twenty crest note. She doubted it was in her hand more than a second before it was suddenly snatched away, Julie once more haring into the same store as before and, Mighty never had time to see which one it was as she pulled something off the window display, the thing that must have grabbed her undivided attention as it had; no more than a minute later the shop bell rang a fourth time and Julie was in front of her once more, breath coming in fits and starts even if she virtually glowed with inner triumph, the sizable bag dangling from one hand clasped as though it was her grip on life itself,

"Here", she thrust some change forwards, Mighty accepting the gift gingerly as her friend continued, a little less frantic than before but still with the general demeanour of someone who suddenly wants to be somewhere else other than where they are now at extremely short notice, "sorry it's not everything but I'll square up next time I see you".

"No problem", the armadillo assured her, realising that it would be a wasted effort to try and pin the echidna down into giving her a full explanation and instead resolving to do something about this later, "I take it you're not coming then?"

"No, sorry but this is important Michelle"; must be; the very fact that Julie had called her by her full name immediately sent a couple of alarm bells ringing in the armadillo's ears, "I've got to get home – I'll catch up with you another time, maybe next week, that okay?" Banishing her confusion for the moment, Mighty stuck on a cheerful smile and nodded down the road the way they'd come earlier,

"That's fine; now, go on, scoot"; Julie needed no second bidding – no sooner were the words out of her mouth than Mighty was once more watching her friend take off, running like the wind with the bag in her hand flying out behind her. Giving a low whistle at her passing Mighty shook her head before turning back around the way she'd originally been going – however, as was obvious by the next turning she took, her new course taking her directly away from the Echidnopolis swimming pool, over the past three or so minutes the armadillo's direction had changed completely.

XXX

A short time later and with the granddaddy of all stitches thumping away merrily in her side, Julie threw herself over the threshold of her shared apartment, storming into the kitchen, the fridge not even spared a glance as she yanked out a seat for herself and flumped down, blood thundering in her legs as she took a moment out to stretch them off; even as excited as she was with her sudden purchase she wasn't going to forget the pain a sudden cramp could send right when she didn't need it. Especially with this; reminded by the sudden thought, Julie carefully caught her breath and reached down to the side of her, one hand sliding into the bag that contained what must have been the single most important item she'd ever brought in her life; I really owe Mighty for this one – if she hadn't been tickling me I wouldn't have reared up and seen this. With that and an exhaled sigh, she slowly gripped the box within the bag and drew it up onto the table in front of her, grateful for her augmentations that she didn't have to use both hands to handle the heavy package. Placing it down in front of her, the echidna took a long look at her purchase; noticing the size of the container itself and the satisfying rattling sounds that emanated from deep within she gave a nod; it certainly looked like a long and complicated procedure that would keep Shadow wrapped up for ages, but at the same time she was certain he'd keep his mind on this subject. The final nod that put the matter beyond doubt was the label at the bottom left corner of the box; 'ages 12 and upwards' and 'choking hazard – keep out of reach of children'; perfect – this really is just what I was after; she ran a thumb over the picture on the front of the box, besmirching the illustration of the finished piece with ruffled light from the rippled plastic; something connected to his past but not part of it – in fact this is better, it's linked to Maria directly. He'll really get into this I'm sure of it – as long as I'm careful and make sure he doesn't spend his every waking moment on this, it should, or at least I hope it'll keep his mind from wandering backwards…oh.

Lost in her thoughts, Julie only noticed that the repeated movements of her thumb over the front of the box had actually ripped the plastic protection over it when a filament of the sundered translucent material feathered over her glove and onto her fur; pausing for a moment, the ex-Legionnaire licked her lips suddenly before heeding a sudden whim and tearing the rest of the plastic loose, stuffing it quickly into the bag she'd transported her prize home in and out of her mind – all that mattered was what was inside the box. As her fingers took a very delicate hold at the sides of the box there was another fractional pause as she belatedly remembered who she'd originally brought this gift for, but it was fleeting and nothing more; Shadow of all people was definitely easy-going enough to not mind her having a peek. Whoa; as the kitchen light illuminated the pieces of the puzzle before her Julie felt her eyes widen; this thing was going to take him longer than even her most optimistic guessing – she barely believed what she was seeing as she picked up one of the numerous tins contained within the cardboard-reinforced areas of the box and read the label with incredulous eyes; you even get varnish with this thing! And you can make a carry-case for it…

XXX

Progress report – a definite improvement on yesterday; as was becoming customary as he walked up the flight of stairs to his apartment, Shadow filed a daily note in his mental diary of the past day, comparing it to the previous week at work and actually finding himself slightly and pleasantly surprised; only went into space about three times and only in front of a customer once – definitely encouraging, but nothing I can't improve on tomorrow. As always his mental dressing-down ended on that challenging note, a dare to himself to make sure he could and would give it his all to make sure that tomorrow he wouldn't slip off backwards into his memory – even without Amy's words of council he was smart enough to know that he couldn't have his recently-rediscovered memories, trauma and triumph both, swamp his present and drag his attention away from the matters at hand. It was tempting though; he couldn't deny that yes, after so long separated from it he truly did want nothing more than to relive what he had come to perceive as his past life over and over again and once or twice he did fall into the trap, caught up in a daydream he didn't really want to end.

But I've got to – Amy was right; dredging his consciousness back to the sight in front of him as he crested the last of the stairs before him, the ebon hedgehog shook his head and once more, as he had countless times when he'd come close to letting his grip on the present slip, restated his goal; I can not live in my past – it's a good thing to have yes, but if I keep on the way I'm going it might soon be the only thing I've got. The last part wasn't strictly true but it was enough to keep him on his toes as far as wandering was concerned; the two women who were in his life most often were on hand often enough to snap him out of his trances and, to his great relief, such moments seemed to be getting slightly rarer as he kept himself active – now more than ever he was grateful he'd not taken up the offer of a grievance holiday as he felt certain that a couple of days alone in his apartment when Julie had been working would have been a lot worse for him than the situation he was in. Still, stay alert and I'll have this licked pretty soon – Julie must have felt like this after the goon squad gave her a scare and she never backed down; that much was certainly true and as powerful an incentive as anything else he could come up with – squaring his shoulders the hedgehog twisted the door handle and stepped inside his hallway; he would have given his customary greeting had not the sudden flurry of language from the kitchen caught his ears and made him raise his eyebrows.

"Julie", at her name the language stopped, all was quiet for a second before a second noise took over, a quick and hurried scuffling noise that did nothing to assuage Shadow's sudden suspicions; in fact if anything it did rather the opposite, "everything okay?"

"Err, yeah yeah, we're all fine here, just, um, just give us a sec?" Really – nah, sorry; despite his normal respect for other peoples' personal space, there was a certain threshold of curiosity he could tolerate before having to investigate and the sudden guilt in Julie's voice more than crossed it; okay, let's see what you're up to; with such a thought in his mind the hedgehog pushed open the kitchen door to see the scene of chaos before him.

For a second he couldn't make sense of what he was seeing; the only thing that provided a point of stability to work from was Julie-Su herself, but even then, why was she suddenly looking so guilty? And more to the point, why did his kitchen table look like a workshop of some kind, covered in what looked to be various pieces of wood and tins containing Heaven-alone-knew-what?

"Jules, what's all this? Hey", he answered, or at least he thought he answered his own question as he picked up one of the thin slats of wood nearest to him and noticed the outlines of wooden pieces within it, ready to be pushed through when needed, "I never knew you were into air-fix and things like that".

"Well, that's, er, that's the thing", his housemate wheedled, seemingly not able to look directly at him as she fiddled her hands in her lap, trying to speak without moving her lips, "this, ah, this isn't for me Shadow". As she indicated the assembled pieces piled higgledy-piggledy on the table the hedgehog felt only confusion,

"What? But I'm no good at…" He found his question muted as something was pushed gently but insistently towards him; glancing down as he took it, the hedgehog found himself regarding the box the kit must have come in – he had a second to take in what this random scattering of pieces could eventually combine itself into before Julie's voice made him glance up; now she was looking at him, directly at him as the next words came at him without pause, without a doubt that they were the right ones for him to hear,

"You promised you'd go sailing one day Shadow", his eyes and mouth both fell open as Julie stood up, her finger spearing towards the top of the box now held limply in his hands, "and to do that, you'll need a ship of your own".

Almost without his realising the picture was held aloft before his eyes once more by his shaking hand and this time he could absorb it; now he realised what it was every detail sank in deep and then deeper; the hand-stitched sails hung down from the ornately decorated masts, the forecastle of the proud vessel crowned by a figurehead that pointed out towards the horizon as the gun decks; no, no guns – Maria would never have used weapons of any sort; he would have to see if there was a way to remove the cannons, create a peaceful ship of passage rather than an armoured frigate from this kit. But it was all there; this was real, this was something he had and could affect; history was history and nothing he could feasibly do was ever going to change that but this was happening in the here and now; and who made it happen? Without really realising it the box had slipped from his hands, meaningless now he could understand what was meant to happen next, what he could do with the raw materials provided for him by the Mobian in front of him, staring at the fallen box almost speechless. She looked up in time for him to reach forwards; she might have struggled at his suddenly forceful grip but he didn't care as he pulled forwards; nothing was going to stop this. She looked up into his face; he had the briefest instant to wonder why she was looking so suddenly startled before the link was established and he felt all those concerns simply fade away.

XXX

He dropped it; Julie felt the whole world shrink into the distance, the barely audible boom of the cardboard sounding like the death-knell of reality as with agonising slowness the container fell to the floor, rocked and then came to a steady halt; he, he doesn't like it – oh no, what the hell have I done?! The world started to spin slowly in her vision, the scene almost greying out until a sudden contact stopped it; she glanced down, going on instincts and seeking to escape the sudden grip on her arms, struggling against the sudden pull but unable to get anything meaningful put together as a resistance; almost frantic to be away, avoid hearing Shadow's forthcoming scream of rage Julie dared to glance up, try and see a way past him; the sudden contact on her lips was electrifying, divorcing her from reality once more. She barely recalled anything past that instant; a vague puppeteer had control of her body now and she was lost within a blanket of bliss where fear, worry and all other forms of panic were denied entry. Her extremities moved but she barely recognised the movements, trusting to instinct to get them right and feeling only the results of such trust; there was warmth at her front, slight breathing at her ear as she realised that he must have broken their kiss at some point, she couldn't remember when and didn't care – as long as he was close to her like this, it didn't matter, nothing much really did. Whatever we went through to get here, no matter how much that might have hurt, it was worth it; cocooned within a nirvana deeper and more open than even the paradise his hands had induced upon her earlier, Julie recognised only that truth and accepted it gladly, all her normal resistance to such emotions forgotten; to get to where we are now, where I am; her fingers flexed, she must have somehow entwined her hands with his as she felt similar pulses of feeling shoot like lightning up her arm; anything's worth it.

Sometime later, she couldn't be any more specific as she'd lost track of time the same way she'd lost track of pretty much everything else, a voice breathed into her ear,

"I owe you one". Without thinking about it, she knew what her answer had to be; rolling slightly in their joint embrace Julie turned her head to reply,

"No you don't", her voice was little more than a murmur but it didn't matter, he'd hear her, "I never paid you back the eighty I owed you". Brrr!; it was only when she recognised that there was sweat drenching the front of her shirt that the echidna had some inkling of how long she and Shadow had been stood together as they had – now he'd taken a step back the sudden gust of freezing air around her chest and midriff seemed to snap her out of the trance she'd been in as he looked her up and down, frowning,

"Julie this is about more than money", he began, the echidna forcing herself to keep a straight face as he went on, pointing at the pieces scattered all over the table as he tried to keep his thought coherent, "I…I never thought…sailing…"

"I know Shadow; I never thought about it either until I bumped into Mighty earlier, and you're right this isn't about money", the ex-Legionnaire explained as best she could whilst also indicating her most recent purchase, "remember how you picked me up when you did; after Knuckles and then after the Legion went for me? This is just like that", reaching forwards she clasped his hands in hers, bringing them forwards as she smiled, suddenly shy and not quite able to meet eyes with him, "it's just something to keep your mind clear, let you get some rest from whatever's going on in your head; you went into the Legion's den for the answers I needed, just when I needed them; this", she pointed at the table once more, "this is just the same for you".

"And, and unlike me", his smile was stained with a touch of shame, "you were actually on hand to see what happened when the news was delivered properly". At the sudden reminder Julie laughed, all at once surprised that she could laugh at such previously damning memories and merely accepting that she could laugh at them,

"Yeah, and thank the spirits it went as well as I hoped", she shrugged as Shadow eased one of his hands free of her grip, trailing it down the side of her face and cupping her cheek delicately; now this I could get used to; not able to hold in a shiver of pleasure from the caress the echidna was barely able to finish her sentence, "glad you appreciate it". She turned the side of her face further into his palm, loving the feel of his gloved fingers around the back of her head and neck; his grip shifted slightly, a little firmer and she opened her eyes a crack; oh, that's what you're after; a grin tugged the corners of her lips as she saw Shadow's face approaching hers once more, lips puckered and after a fractional pause she leaned in to greet him reciprocally; well, I guess I can oblige, just this once…or more if this keeps up…

XXX

It was as she drew back, having once more lost all sense of time and most of her sense of reality, that Julie's dreamy eyes flicked upwards lackadaisically and caught sight of the clock; the sudden vision of time ticking away correlated with the reminder of what day it was she gasped, having to use one of her hands to push Shadow away slightly, the hedgehog slightly misreading her signals and taking her surprise as another invitation.

"No, Shadow", the sudden urgency penetrated his haze of euphoria; he shook his head and a second later followed her finger to the clock face, "look at the time; you're going to be late!"

"Late for…oh God it's Monday! But…" The name of the day was muffled as his hand clapped over his mouth; if he didn't get a quite serious move on Honey and Micah were going to be stood around in the dark and cold for far too long for him to be comfortable; but, then again; his thought echoed the movement of his eyes and mouth, straying to the puzzle pieces; should I really be going with this here now? For a second Shadow felt torn between conflicting desires, one to do right by the past and the other to do right by the present – the two wrestled in his mind for a second before he came to the sudden realisation; he could virtually hear the reassuring, soft and confident, always confident tone in Amy's voice as she spoke to him once more and he finally understood what she'd meant; dwell on the past don't live in it – I can take my time on this ship, make sure I get it right because it doesn't matter how long I take, but if I keep my friends waiting too long I might lose them altogether – Amy Rose, one day after you've gotten that piece of paper you need the university to give you, you and Sonic are going to be rich, rich Mobians with a talent like yours.

"No, nonono", he waved a finger at the wooden equipment on the table, the smile broadening on his face as he saw Julie prick her ears at his mental decision, "I'll come back to you; Julie, assuming you can keep your cavern of a stomach at bay for long enough I'll get a takeout for us on the way back, that okay?"

"An insult and a tempting offer in the same sentence", the echidna chuckled for a second as she crossed her arms, shaking her head before giving him the nod, "I can wait; after all, you need to keep learning your trade to keep me sweet; I can get hold of Sonic at a moment's notice don't forget".

"As if I would", her housemate slimed obsequiously, his over-the-top crawling almost making her laugh again before he glanced at the time once more and got ready to move out, "okay, I've got to split; would you mind making a start if you could?" Okay, time for me to…huh?;

"Shadow, I", it was the tone of the sudden query rather than the actual question that gave him pause and made him look around again, see Julie reach for the nearest chair for support as some question tore at her for a moment, "I can't do this, it's yours".

"Never stopped you earlier did it", he riposted with lightning swiftness before, seeing the quick pang of hurt in her eyes, he relented a touch and softened his voice, "come on Jules, this is me we're talking about; I'm going to need all the help I can get to make sure I get this right without it taking until the island sinks back into the sea. And anyway, aren't I talking to the girl who could field-strip a glow-gun and put it back together inside of two minutes?" Bull's-eye; the reminder made her eyes flash again, though this time in acceptance of the challenge rather than hurt as she smirked back at him,

"You bet you are; I was doing puzzles like these at the age everyone else thought a kid putting two blocks on top of each other made him Einstein".

"Right", the hedgehog drawled in obvious disbelief before pointing to the clock once more, his meaning obvious, "well, see you later tonight and I'll bring dinner".

"You better, unless you want to find out where the word man-eater was derived from first-hand". As she'd expected with time pressing even his powers of super-speed uncomfortably the hedgehog didn't reply, merely disappearing down into the hallway – with the slam of the front door she realised she was alone inside the apartment once more, and it felt glorious.

XXX

Some time later, having finally gotten over repeating the events that had just occurred over and over again in her mind, wiped a soppy grin off her lips, blinked the faraway look from her vision and located the instruction manual of the ship-building kit in front of her, Julie-Su found herself in the far-from-ideal position of having to work very, very slowly to make sure she could get the bottom of the ship done first and, more importantly, done right. Having read with some surprise that, if built correctly and painted with the varnish supplied liberally enough, the finished piece would be completely water-tight and able to actually float in a still pond, the ex-Legionnaire was utterly convicted to the goal of making sure that she followed the instructions to the absolute letter and then some; though it said in the virtually unreadable small print accompanying the kit that the ribs making up the bottom of the vessel should just slot easily into the main spine running along the bottom, she was adding a couple of spots of glue to the tip of each rib just to be on the extra-safe side. This should give them a bit more stability; her internal reasoning was sound as she nodded in triumph, reducing the contact between her hands and the most recent rib she'd constructed marginally over an extended period of time, wary for any movement, the slightest hint of a wobble that might have indicated an improper setting of the rib within the spine of the ship's bottom; especially as all the decks are going to be braced up on this – right, job's a good one on this one – for once you got something right Xenin.

Just for the very faintest second Julie had a cause to direct some very ill-mannered praise towards her former drill-sergeant and his exacting need for perfection in all things; despite her best efforts some of his drive to be the best or, in this case, do the best job possible, must have rubbed off on her and now Shadow was going to reap the reward. Maria will too, spirits accept her; once more Julie nodded in deference to the memory of the deceased before looking down for the next spur she had to use, locating the rib labelled 4 from the wooden tablet in front of her and carefully easing it free of the surrounding material. Gently she took up the craft knife supplied with the kit, the sharp edge very carefully paring away the slivers of residue left from the extraction of the wooden rib as Julie wielded it with apt dexterity and even greater concentration. Satisfied all was well in this respect, the augmented echidna set the knife down and reached for the tube of wood glue, twisting the cap free with a couple of fingers at the same time as invert the rib itself, the tip cleaned up ready for the glue to make sure it would never move once she'd finished this next stage of construction. Okay, carefully does it – if this is anything like the stuff old Hapi let you use it'll glue fingers together just as well as it will wood; the memory of her at least half-insane former crafts teacher made Julie smile, remembering fondly his erratically-functioning bionic eye that half his students swore could actually see even when it was switched off as well as the odd clunking noise his metal leg always made whenever it hit the floor; one of the tools he kept on his belt always bumping into it – he never took that belt off – come on now, concentrate. Mnemonic diversion complete if entertaining, Julie narrowed her eyes as she let the tip of the glue tube touch the wood of the rib, alert for the very slightest hint of any clear liquid leaking from the end of it; only a drop would be needed, more than that risked rendering the rib completely inflexible and that could spell disaster when it came to installing the decks themselves.

Of course, irony dictated the exact series of events that happened next; Julie could have reacted to the sudden stimulus at any time except the one it actually occurred in. Having just inserted the newly-glued rib into the spine she had to keep the two pieces of wood held together tightly for a few minutes, give the glue time to get a decent grip before she could let it go; for this she needed both hands and a few minutes stood perfectly still so, of course, at the exact moment she'd started holding them together, the knock at the door came.

XXX

Ah, now this is awkward; she spared enough time for a glance around her surroundings and just as quickly shook her head, recognising that there was just no way she could be quick enough to brace the hardening rib against anything before it shifted minutely in its position, destroying the integrity of the ship's base. As that was the case, the echidna resorted to the only option she had left,

"Come in, it's open"; she had to hope her call was loud enough to get through the front door, but the sudden succession of noises from the end of the hallway assuaged her concerns; wonder who…;

"Hey Jules"; Charmy?; now that was unexpected – if anyone, Julie had been expecting Kadu to appear as he sometimes did, asking to borrow some mundane item or other such as a hammer or a saucepan to complete a job he needed doing – the sound of the buzz-boy's voice threw her for a bit of loop in that regard, "where are you?"

"Kitchen" was her curt reply; as she'd expected the bee appeared in the doorway a couple of seconds later; even he couldn't help but be struck by the scene in front of him for a couple of seconds as Julie tried to give a wistful smile at the same time as not move her hands.

"Wow", the single word from his awed senses was the only reaction Charmy was able to come up with at first; however, his natural insectile curiosity banished rapidly threw off such hindrances to finding out what was going on and he quickly pulled out a chair opposite the echidna, sitting down and reaching for a couple of pieces of wood, "neat; is this what you brought that meant you had to get away from Mighty?"

That was unexpected and the time it took Julie to process how Charmy had known what had happened earlier in the day explained the time lag between her hearing the question and her answering it,

"Er, yeah, it is"; of course, they're team-mates remember – they share a house so it's probably old news to all of them by now; "listen, I take it that's why you're here, to find out?"

"You got it", the bee winked over at her and again she fought to keep her face straight in the face of an assault from his infective charisma, "Mighty's sense of direction being what it is, i.e. non-existent, she sent me over to check everything was okay, so yeah that's one reason I'm here". Pursing her lips at the same time as start to disengage her hands from the two planks of wood she currently held, Julie saw the trap he was setting her up for and moved deftly to avoid it,

"Let me guess; the other reason you're here is to see me?"

"That's one of them I'll admit"; must have seen that coming – oh well, plenty of ideas left where that one came from; as he gave a mental shrug at Julie's quick evasion from his preliminary word's work, his eye was caught by something in the box and, inquisitive as always, where his eye strayed his fingers were quick to follow, "hey – here's goodly gear; a sail, a sail". He carefully stretched the thin material as Julie flexed her fists, shaking her head at his quote and holding her hand out for it,

"Well not quite", the bee glanced up curious, casually folding the square of cotton up like a handkerchief before passing it back to here, "as of now it's a napkin but it'll magically transform itself into a sail when we get the masts up and running".

"Now that'll be something to see", Charmy agreed as he picked the top of the packaging up off the floor and took an eyeful of what the completed work would look like, "wow, this is a beast and no mistake; no wonder you wanted to get it started so quick". What did I say there?; though he'd hoped to one day be Vector's equal in the field of reading people Charmy knew that it was unlikely to ever happen fully; he knew he wore his heart on his sleeve most of the time and just couldn't keep his face straight the way the crocodile could. Julie must have seen the look of open questioning on his face – she was moving to answer the query he hadn't even asked, though there was something of a contrite note in her voice as she did so, the explanation not flowing as well as it should have done to an accomplished talker such as the ex-Legionnaire,

"Well, sort of; listen, whatever else you do tonight do not forget to tell Mighty I'm sorry for sprinting out on her like that and I meant what I said; I'll catch up with her next week sometime. But, thing is Charm, I, er, I didn't really get this for me, if you see where I'm going?"

"You got this for Shadow?" His exclamation was equal parts awe and calculation; she could virtually see the thought he was putting into trying to deduce the reasons behind her actions but, in the end, not even his sharp little mind could quite break the deadlock, "why; not wanting to sound rude but I didn't think this was quite his cup of tea, or, coffee in his case; black, no sugar right?"

"Yep, that's his order alright", Julie confirmed flippantly before turning more serious, "but the reason, well it's, it's complicated; you know…he had that…nightmare, a little while ago?"

As she'd expected even Charmy's face fell as he realised exactly what she was talking about; no-one even marginally connected with the black hedgehog she was shacked up with could have possibly not understood the core of chill behind her solitary words,

"Yeah, I know what you mean". Even his voice seemed to have had the light and laughter drained out of it, the grimness of such an occurrence still tangible for the pair of them. But Julie steeled herself; she had to push on regardless through this rough territory to reach the verdant pastures beyond,

"I know it's not pleasant, but Shadow can't forget about it – he's trying to live with it, the way Amy suggested he should, but it's not been easy".

"I can imagine; how have you been bearing up?" His sudden question caught her off-guard and touched her quite deeply – sometimes she felt she was so concerned with how Shadow was coping that she forgot to look after herself and figure out how she was picking up the pieces, "you know where we are if you need to spit some bricks out at someone?"

"I know and I'm grateful"; good; the sight of her re-emergent, if slightly rueful, grin was enough to give the bee cheer once more as he watched on, "but I've been coping, and now thanks to this", her grin suddenly bloomed, rising to a glorious crescendo as she triumphantly waved a hand over her recent purchase, "so will he. That was part of his memory you see; he and Maria said they'd go sailing one day…"

"…And this is the boat", Charmy finished for her, working out where she was going easily and giving his own grin, "genius, absolute genius Jules".

"Thanks, but you should have seen his face when I told him what it was for"; actually, funny you should mention that; as he observed the echidna in front of him shiver in rapturous bliss Charmy's smile twisted a touch; going off the pictures you've given me I think I can get a pretty shrewd idea what happened. Hmmm…;

"Jules?"

"Hmm"; so wrapped up in her own very recent history the echidna was bereft of all her usual danger senses and so never saw the barb in the bee's innocuous opening first line,

"Talking of Shadow", the pause he left was absolutely crucial; just as she was starting to knit her brow he moved in for the killing blow, "have you made out with him yet?"

As he'd expected the explosion came but he forced himself to ride it out, not dropping his eyes from echidna's face; the second he saw past her fur once more he knew the answer to his own question and all the frenzied blustering in the world wasn't going to alter his conclusion,

"Wah; are you…no I…"

"And that", he clapped his hands in victory, choking off her tirade before she could put any thought into her words, "is another textbook case of echidean responses to embarrassment; Knuckles is just the same when we give him a ribbing about the juicy bits of his marriage. Oh come on", he chuckled as Julie let her face fall forwards, dreadlocks forming a semi-steel barrier between her magenta cheeks and the rest of the world, "if you weren't into each other that much one or other of you'd have moved out a long time ago, 'specially from a flat with only one bedroom in it". Julie didn't respond; there wasn't any way on this earth or any other she would have been able to, squirming as she was to try and avoid the visions dancing in her head about what had gone on not an hour ago, the high emotions that had swept right through her suddenly unearthed excruciatingly by the insect before her and certain, just so certain that he was going to make the absolute most of this opportunity. Dimly aware of his voice once more the echidna forced her reeling mind to come back forwards slightly, tune into his voice if only to distance herself from the cloying certainty that if the bee let his mouth run away with him to a couple of other Mobians about this, then what she was feeling now was going to be only the precursor of what was to come,

"Well, tempting as it is for me and you've got no idea how hard I'm having to try not ask", that at least was the truth; despite the grin on his face there was a definite look of effort in Charmy's expression as he carried on, the words slightly hurried as if in a rush to get them out, "I'm not going to go fishing for specifics; but it's just too, too…cute".

"Cute", the echidna finally managed to gasp, inhaling for the first time in what felt like fifteen minutes; nodding at what he took for assent the bee carried on before she could reinforce her one-word beachhead,

"Yeah; I mean it was obvious really – he went after the Legion for you and you took him back in after he made that horrendous cock-up and ended up levelled with Vector, something had to be going down pretty soon. Ohh I'm so happy; now what's it worth I don't tell the rest of them? Or Rouge – I bet batgirl would…"

"You so much as dare and I'll throw you off this damn island Charmy Bee", Julie glowered up at him with gritted teeth, adding with icy venom in her voice as the riposte was on the tip of his tongue, "after I've ripped your wings off and made you eat them that is". Ouch; confident as he usually was in a slanging match Charmy couldn't quite suppress the ripple of unease that slid through him at those words; at the minute Julie had the look of someone who would literally carry out that threat if he didn't behave himself, and looked like she was more than capable of doing it too; right then, forget the teasing, right into the good stuff;

"Okay point made", the insect said easily, hoping to diffuse her internal time-bomb before giving the detonator another little tweak, "well, now that we've ascertained your first red-hot smooch is out the way…"

"Second"; Julie had no idea why she growled that word out at him but some part of her simply demanded that Charmy couldn't have it all his own way – she had to prove he was wrong in one small regard irrespective of the new shame such an admission would doubtless heap upon her. To her surprise however, though the smirk and a couple of peeps of laughter were irrepressible, Charmy managed to avoid giving a quip or comment at the news, merely taking a second to recompose himself before carrying on,

"Well, even more so now we're actually a little behind schedule as it were", his grin was the only thing that stayed confident about him as Julie growled and started to slowly crack her fingers together, "it's my duty as a friend and confidante to invite you pair out to your first engagement as an official couple; interested?"

Whatever Julie had been expecting to hear that hadn't been it; of that Charmy was one hundred and ten percent certain. To his immense relief it also seemed that he'd been correct in that assumption as the echidna blinked a couple of times in confusion, anger temporarily waylaid by this new and faintly intriguing idea as it swirled around in her mind; a date? What's he on about this time?;

"Er, I, er, well, what did you have in mind? Anyway", a certain amount of fire was injected back into her tone, hoping to burn back his advances before he could probe too deeply, "we've been out together before now; you should know, you've been there with us a few times". Charmy nodded acceptingly before raising and weaving a finger slightly,

"Ah, that's as maybe, but you've not been out to a function like this before, and before you say anything about how wonderful I am in arranging this save it for Mighty; she sorted this out, not me".

"What; when?"

"Forget it, that doesn't matter", the bee reminded her forcefully but not unkindly, reminding himself that she was new this whole 'going out with someone other than a friend' thing, "what does matter is that a fortnight before jolly ol' St Nick does his rounds, there's going to be a formal dinner taking place with a couple of seats left unfilled, unless of course you and Shadow can make yourselves available?"

"A formal dinner; you mean a real shirt-and-tie job; heh", the ex-Legionnaire chuckled for a second, "never been to anything like that before; in fact never been to anything other than a traditional Legion shin-dig".

"Let me guess", Charmy broke in on her recollections with a bit of a smile, "for shin-dig read booze-up?"

"Most of the time, but getting back to this, offer of yours", Julie moved into a more business-like persona as she steepled her fingers, regarding the insect before her with a calculating gaze, "who's throwing a bash like this, and who else have they invited?"

"It's being held by Lara and Wyn; Knuckles' family", the bee extrapolated as Julie drew a blank look for a second before giving a gasp of recollection, "yeah, they've got something to say and I'll bet you any money it's to do with the bundle of joy they've got in the pipeline; Lara's BTS you know?"

"BTS?" Julie hadn't heard of that one; smiling, Charmy ghosted his hands over his stomach to give the impression of a bump,

"Beginning To Show – Vector, not me", he was quick to point out as Julie tried to look sternly disapproving of the comment at the same time as wrestle down a smile, "but anyhow, let's see", he started to tick off names on his fingers, "there's both of them, obviously, Knuckles and Rouge both signed up of course, Mighty, Esp – yes, we finally managed to coax him out of hiding for this", he sighed, shaking his head as he recalled the struggled they'd had to sign up the chameleon to the even this modicum of an evening out without resorting to fisticuffs or, worse from the wall-crawler's point of view, a quick dip in an ice bath, "Vector, me; oh, and you'll get to see Mighty's squeeze if you show up – Tails is bringing him up, he's been invited as well, him and 'one other'. Want to take a bet who he invites?"

"No because I've got the same person in mind you have", the echidna grinned before giving a nod, making up her mind, "sure, you can count on us to show up; tell Lara we're grateful for the invite".

"Sure, I'll let her know", the bee assured her before leaning forwards, inspecting the ship once more, "what are you up to now?" Carefully rotating the pieces she'd made up so far, the ex-Legionnaire allowed him to inspect the work she'd done so far, explaining as she pointed out some of the details,

"See these ribs here? Well they should just slot into place, but the instructions say this thing'll actually float if it's made and varnished up right", Charmy raised an eyebrow that this; it'll actually do that – I thought it was just a display piece; "so I'm gluing them in place to make sure they don't move in the water; it's slow going but I'll get there in the end".

"Oh right – need a hand?"

"Oh, er…", for a second she wasn't sure what to say; after all it was supposed to be Shadow's work in the end; but he did ask me to work on it after all – I can't see the harm; mind just about made up, she gave an engaging smile and nodded at one of the pieces she had yet to push out of its mould, "…sure, he wouldn't mind; just carefully get that one loose and trim off the excess – just go steady with that knife".

"Oh come on", the bee said casually, hoping she wouldn't notice his half an eye still held resolutely on the flimsy wooden shaft he was prising from its wooden bed, "do I look that stupid?"

"You want that answer with or without honesty?"

"And aren't you just the comedian these days. Now where's the glue you've been using…?"

XXX

If ever there was a king definition of 'exhausted but happy' Julie would have laid good money that, as she slumped back into her chair and tried to flex her flattened fingertips, ignoring the pain they were transmitting right up her arms as she smiled almost indulgently at the result of her and Charmy's work; just as well he stayed as long as he did – I'd never have got all this side done if he hadn't been here; she'd have been pretty close to it. Running the tips of her fingers along the palms of her hands, the echidna allowed herself a long moment of pride as she viewed her achievement; one side of the bottom of the ship had been completely built up and glued into place; and if just two of us could do that in a single night; the mere thought of this piece being finished so quickly sent a shiver up and down her spine – as far as she concerned the sooner this was done the quicker Shadow's priceless memories would be enshrined for all time; never again would he look in the mirror and feel the fear of losing his past, losing Maria over the course of his…immortality. That sudden thought quashed her triumph slightly and she frowned, eyes mournful as she reached that old conclusion once more; the simple fact that Shadow would one day be left alone, all his friends gone and she couldn't help but pity him for that – to have that to look forwards to, knowing all along it was coming and not able to do a damn thing about it took a lot of guts and quiet stoicism that she found, if she was completely honest about it, not a little humbling. Still; she shook her head and scanned her eyes over the paper once more, determined again; it's not getting him down, so there's no reason it should me either…;

"Hello"; huh? No, surely not…; the voice burst into her ears like a thunderclap and she immediately shot up in her seat, hardly daring to trust her own her senses; …I can't have been working that long!; "Julie, are you still up?" Not even the sight of the clock itself blatantly pointing out the obvious made her believe that she'd been sat where she had for near enough three hours – it was only when the door to the kitchen creaked open and Shadow himself poked his head around the door that she really believed what was going on. Her mouth worked soundlessly, her brain not able to connect to her lips in time to come up with anything like an explanation as he gaped at her incredulously,

"Have you been there all night?" She swallowed and gave a nod; he stepped fully into the room and shook his head, bag of takeaway swaying in his hand, "man, I only asked you to make a start, not get the whole thing done".

"Sorry", she mumbled before just in the nick of time her memory came to her rescue; plucking one of recent lines from his mind her drawling tone grew in strength and confidence as she continued her answer, "just got into the rhythm and it all went from there; pretended it was a glow-gun and it all fell into place".

"So I see", the hedgehog half-chuckled as he stooped by the side of her chair to inspect her work more closely, "this looks absolutely perfect; you'll have to show me how you do it sometime".

"How does tomorrow sound; you're not going out then are you?"

"Nah", she felt him twist over her shoulder and grinned sheepishly as she felt him kiss her cheek, "not on the evidence of this anyway; you have really excelled yourself this time, easy as that might be". Her grin curdled as she reached over and shoved him playfully,

"Hey"; only his skilful deployment of the plastic bag he held onto the tabletop prevented her carrying on with the insults – the scent of a hot takeaway blunting her sharp tongue on the rock of sudden hunger resurgent, "okay, get the plates and I'll let you off; oh, and this wasn't all my own work", she added, reminded suddenly by the sound of the kitchen door banging shut that she'd only seen out her previous guest about three quarters of an hour before as Shadow looked up from his squatted position in front of the plate drawer with interest, "Charmy popped in…ah, a couple of hours or so ago; supposed to be a flying visit you know, but", she swept a hand across the table towards the semi-constructed nautical vessel, "he got slightly bogged down".

"So I see", the hedgehog replied faintly, setting the plates he'd gathered down on the side as he took in again the craft done in his few hours of absence, "well I need to say thanks next time I see him; what did he come over here for, originally at least?" He glanced across as Julie's shoulder shook for a second, though before he could deduce whether such a tremor stemmed from mirth or misery she turned to face him,

"He came here with an invite for us and some cheap fun for you"; an ebony eyebrow rose but before Shadow could ask she had continued, "apparently Lara and, oh I can never remember his name; Knuckles' step-dad?"

"Wynmacher?" At the helpful reminder Julie nodded before picking up where she'd left off,

"Well they're having some sort of a meal or a do about this time in December, buzz-boy said he'd let us know the details when he had them set in stone himself, and they decided to extend a greeting to us. I took the liberty of saying yes", she pointed out with a meaningful glance towards the calendar, "I hope you don't mind?"

"Not at all", Shadow replied easily, his eyes following hers and immediately posting a mental reminder to keep every night of the twelfth month clear until further notice; got that sorted, but what was that about fun she mentioned?; "and the fun for me?" Okay here we go; she knew he was going to come out with some sort of quip, resigned herself to it and forced herself to think of happy, smily things in an effort to force his good mood up at the expense of her self-esteem. Then she spoke,

"Well it's going to be a fairly posh do, all skirts and suits, you follow", his nod confirmed that he did; Julie swallowed slightly before continuing, "so you're going to have to help me find a little black number from somewhere". It took a couple of seconds to sink in fully; ah, and there we go; but eventually it dawned over Shadow's face and she could virtually see the effort he was having to expend pinning down his suddenly lively tongue and keep a straight face,

"Oh, er, is that all? Sure, sounds like a laugh". She fixed him with a beady eye for another couple of seconds; his fingers fumbled for the cutlery draw and plunged inside, hoping to distract himself from the opportunity, the rest of his body gradually twisting to see what he was pulling out of the spoon draw haphazardly; okay, I think he's going to leave it; she waited until his back was completely turned before sending her attention back to the tabletop, clearing some space from the to eat at the same time as pack everything meticulously back into the box to make sure nothing got lost,

"This dress size you're after", the voice was reedy with the effort of trying not to laugh as the hedgehog finished with a muffled snigger, "two digits or three?"

The happy, smily faces in her mind suddenly vanished; of its own volition her left hand crabbed over the tabletop and scooped a sudden something up into her hand; oh yes; seeing the weapon her body had selected, the ex-Legionnaire let her own snigger percolate the air; it's showtime! She turned around slowly, paused just long enough to see Shadow look over his shoulder and go white at the sight of the craft knife in her hand before grinning like a maniac and taking a slow step forwards, laughing darkly all the time as he threw his hands up in futile defiance of his slowly-approaching doom.

A/N: I ask you, when will he learn? Ah well, assuming I can talk Julie into putting the sharp object down I'll see you in the next chapter.