Chapter 29.

Not much to say except I just couldn't get my head down with this one.
Doesn't help when I'm packing up to move house, had to *grumble-mutter*

Anyway! Ignore me and hope you enjoy.


His eyes blinked bleary open and it was a few moments until his eyesight unblurred enough for him to take in his surroundings. His hearing was slowly returning and he began to make out faint bleeps and clicks and muffled footsteps and voices. He tried to move only for his body to be wracked with pain.

He looked around from his prone, yet elevated position to find himself in a strange light green, undecorated room with dark green pattern curtains drawn across a window that wasn't his. I fact, nothing in this room was his. Where was he?

Something moved in the corner of his eye and he strained his neck to see what it was, a red and pink bundle lying on top of an armchair. It moved again and he saw a face he recognised sleeping peacefully.

Wait… She was here, sleeping in the same strange room he was in, and what the hell was that beeping sound?

He tried to move his arm and felt an uncomfortable stinging sensation. He looked down and saw a thin plastic tube line sticking from his arm. His eyes followed the transparent tube to a clear plastic bag hanging from a metal pole, the contents of which were slowly dripping down the tube. He looked at his other arm and saw something similar, except that the stuff that dripped from the bag was a deep crimson.

He noticed that the beeping was getting faster and his eyes darted everywhere trying to find the source of the sound. His heavy breathing stung his chest and he winced with every breath.

Suddenly the door burst open and in surged three people, two dressed in blue and the other in a white long coat. Their voices sounded garbled as they raced around him, one reached towards him but he pulled away, and all the while that damned beeping kept getting faster.

"Sonic!" His name cut through the noise and his eyes sought out the speaker, recognising the voice immediately. Her emerald eyes glittered and she squeezed his hand gently. "It's alright Sonic."

He had no reason not to trust her and he began to calm down, although that infernal beeping still bit loudly in the gloom.

"Heart rate returning to normal parameters, pulse slowing. He's in the clear." Sonic's eyes never left hers as unseen hands worked around them.

"Push two more cc's to keep him stable."

"No!" Amy interjected, breaking their eye contact. "No, it's alright. Its fine, he's going to be fine."

She gazed back into the eyes that had captured her so long ago, tears glinting in the corners of hers and smiled sweetly. Sonic managed a painfully weak smile in return before fading back into unconsciousness.

-0-

Amy continued to stroke his had long after the two nurses and the attendant had left the room. The fear in his eyes had been so real, it had actually scared her. She thought nothing could scare him, but then again she had never before seen him get hurt before.

She stood and stretched with a yawn, mumbling about how uncomfortable the armchair was. She rubbed her eyes and wandered out of the room in search for something to cure her growling stomach.

The hospital was brighter than she remembered, with bright lights blaring, reflecting off the crisp white walls at all the wrong angles, making her squint as she walled, the green lino flooring squeaking underfoot.

Twice she had to sidestep a bed being hurriedly pushed along, and with all the twists and turns it wasn't long before she had to stop a nurse and ask for directions to the canteen.

She knew that Sonic would be well fed due to the time Vanilla had been admitted to have her appendix removed. Amy had looked after her best friend Cream during that time, but whenever they had visited, Vanilla was always provided with a good and healthy meal. The hospital staff had even been kind enough to bring Cream a children's meal as well, but Amy had to buy hers herself.

She walked down the long off-white corridor the nurse had pointed her down in hopes that she could find herself out of this maze.

"Amy?" The sakura hedgehog turned with a start to see two people she had never expected to see.

"Cassie? Shadow?" The two GUN Agents stepped out of the elevator and walked towards her. "What are you two doing here?"

"We're here to see Rouge and a friend from work." Shadow answered folding his arms. His expression seemed somewhat less moody to Amy. He was no longer frowning, and was that a glimmer of concern in his eyes?

"What about you Amy? Looks like you had a rough night." Amy sighed, Cassie's words ringing truer than possibly intended.

"I've been with Sonic all night." Shadow looked away for a moment.

"How is he?"

"He's…" Amy wasn't sure how to respond. She didn't know the medical jargon or how to properly describe Sonic's condition. "He's stable. That's what the doctor's say."

"That's good, isn't it?" Cassie said, glancing worriedly at her partner.

"Stable means he's not getting any worse. But also that he's not getting any better." Amy looked down at the floor, a feeling of hopelessness flooding through her.

"Come on, even I've heard of this Sonic guy. He doesn't go down easy and even when he does he's right back up and in the fight!" Cassie said, trying to lift the mood.

"Maybe so, but this time was different." Shadow looked away to make sure the two women didn't see the shame in his eyes. "And it was my fault."

"Oh will you two just stop mopping already!" Shadow and Amy both stared at Cassie, shock written on their faces. "Shadow, we're Agents. Amy, Sonic's a hero; getting hurt is an occupational hazard for us! Yes it's sad that our friends have been hospitalized for Chaos knows how long, of course we're gonna feel responsible, but that doesn't mean we should be beating ourselves up about it! We knuckle down and get on with our lives, adapting however we can!"

Cassie turned her gaze on the sakura hedgehog who suddenly felt very self conscious. "Amy, you told me that you love Sonic and always want to be by his side. While that's an admirable trait, don't you think it destroys the point of such a relationship if you can't handle him getting hurt? He's gonna keep adventuring and fighting evil, he might even get hurt again but that's just who he is! And Shadow, why do you keep piling all the blame on yourself?"

Now it was his turn to squirm under Cassie's unrelenting glare. "You may be the Ultimate Lifeform, but that doesn't mean you're responsible for everything that goes wrong! Sometimes life sucks and you lose those you care about, sometimes fate roles you a bad set of dice, but that shouldn't stop us! Get you stuff together, please! If not for yourselves then for the ones you care about!"

In the silence that followed, Shadow and Amy shared a moment of realisation. They looked at each other and then back a Cassie, who was still breathing heavily after her outburst. Amy suddenly stepped up and gave Cassie a firm hug. "Oh for…"

"Thank you Cassie."

"Uh… no problem." Amy let go and Cassie looked over at Shadow who was grinning. She smiled.

"What?"

"Oh nothing, it's just you never hold back do you. Kinda makes you wonder why you were stuck at a desk job for so long." She grinned at that comment.

"I speak my mind; the higher ups don't like that."

"I'll bet."

"I'm sorry to break up this thing between you guys, but I haven't had breakfast yet and I'm still trying to find the canteen." As if on queue Amy's stomach growled loudly enough to cause Cassie to burst into laughter.

"I'd say." She commented after her small bout of amusement. "Shadow, I'll take Amy to satisfy that monster of a stomach of hers, why don't you have a chat with Sheba and find out what she knows, I'll catch up outside Rouge's room."

Shadow smiled and shook his head. "Alright, have fun and I'll see you later."

With a wave he turned and marched down the corridor and disappeared around the corner. Cassie turned to Amy with a grin.

"Alright, let's go." She grabbed Amy's arm and began leading her with conviction.

"Shouldn't you be-"

"Shadow doesn't need me to hold his hand, although I doubt he'd mind." Cassie said wistfully. "That said you and I have a lot to talk about."

-0-

Shadow knocked the door and entered. Sheba looked up from the medical journal she was reading and smiled.

"Shadow, nice of you to pop by." She placed the journal on her bedside table and sat herself up. "Please tell me you brought something better than grapes this time."

"What do you think of this?" Shadow grinned as he handed the file over to the ginger feline. She flicked through the papers, her eyes swiftly scanning over the information that was there, hovering over a certain word or focussing on a little detail within the photographs.

"Bloody Gracian, can't believe he missed that…" She mumbled after hearing Shadow's explanation of why he was there. Sheba flipped the papers onto the end of her hospital bed and looked at the hedgehog. "Now you're wishing you had me back, right?"

Shadow grunted his agreement and she grinned. "So Cassie thinks this might have something to do with the 'Assassins Dance' a few years back, eh? Can see how she would, smart girl that one."

"The three bodies we have in the morgue all have the same tattoo." Shadow said as Sheba looked back over the pictures. "All three are connected to this 'Assassins Dance' in some way but how, I couldn't care less. I want to find out who killed that bloody black crow and throw him in a cell to rot!"

"But something tells me it's not gonna be as easy as that." Sheba quipped back with a smirk. Shadow rolled his eyes.

"It hasn't been easy! Every time we find something useful, something happens to throw us off track! It's like we're being watched, and I don't like being screwed with." The ebony hedgehog growled as his eyes narrowed.

"You say that now… Where is Cassie anyway?" Shadow was caught on the back foot and fumbled for a comeback.

"What do you mean?" He managed after he had stopped spouting gibberish.

"Oh come on Shadow! You really think it's not obvious?" Shadow didn't like where this conversation was going, but with Sheba there were very few ways to get her to change the track of her thoughts.

"I… She… ran into a friend and they're umm, getting something to eat."

"Come on, tell what's going on between you two and don't spare on the details." She said, leaning further forward and grinning evilly.

"You really like watching me squirm don't you." Sheba cocked her head.

"Am I that obvious?" Shadow rubbed his face and sighed in defeat.

"All right, but afterwards you're going to tell me what you think of all this."

"Deal."

-0-

"Shadow actually asked you to stay the night?" Cassie nonchalantly shrugged in answer to Amy's question. The sakura furred hedgehog leaned back in the uncomfortable plastic chair. "Wow! That's the first time I've ever heard Shadow even invite someone home."

"It was really late at night and, well…" Amy leaned on the table between them her eyes suddenly sparkling with interest.

"Did what? Come on don't leave me in the dark!" Cassie's cheeks were beginning to redden.

"I kissed him ok, and it was only on the cheek!" She hid her face behind her hands.

"Was it a goodnight kiss?"

"No, it was before we went to his apartment." Cassie answered placing her hands back on the table.

"So what did you do at his place then?"

"You really are nosey, do you know that?" Amy nodded shamelessly and Cassie sighed. "We talked, ordered in Chinese and got to know each other better."

"Amy giggled and Cassie realised that what she just said could be taken out of context. "But not in that way!"

"I bet you wanted too though." Amy's smirk was infectious and despite her cheeks glowing, Cassie found herself grinning back.

"How old are you anyway Amy?"

"Seventeen, I turn eighteen in a few months."

"Pity. That means you can't join us for a night on the town this weekend." Cassie said with an evil grin. Amy's jaw dropped open.

"But that's not fair!" She folded her arms in a huff. "Can I ask why?"

"Shadow made the mistake of telling me he's never gotten drunk." Amy stifled a giggle and Cassie continued. "So the plan was, get a bunch of his friends together and go out on the town. That way not only do I get to know his friends, but I get to embarrass Shadow."

"You're evil."

"Do you want in?" The excited spark reappeared in Amy's eyes.

"Do I ever!"


It occurs to me that I never actually said how much the Sonic characters had been aged by.
Needless to say, to fit in with the content and plotline of FntS, all characters have been aged by three years, give or take.

Yes I am planning on doing the whole 'get Shadow drunk' shtick. It's just gotta be done.

Mostly character and relationship development in this chapter, but I swear, if you look closely you can see some plot developments as well.
No?
Well uhh...
Look it's the Goodyear Blimp!
*Scampers away*

-Corrupt TE-