The darkness of the room had overtaken him. Shadow lay on the large bed, alone, as he stared into the void of the darkness surrounding him. It was far past midnight and Sandy had still yet to show up even after their talk. His mind wondered in an attempt not to take in her rejection of him. After an hour more of tossing and turning he threw the covers off of him and got fully dressed to go see her again. "I can't take this!" He screamed to himself as he grabbed his car keys and headed out the door.

When Shadow finally parked his car across the street, once again, he noticed a lone light on in the living area of Static's house. Without hesitation, this time, he left his car and approached the front door and knocked lightly. He could hear a light fussing beyond the door even before he made his presence know, so he figured he might be in luck to not have to wake the whole neighborhood to get Sandy's attention at this late hour.

Two minutes later the door opened slightly to show Sandy looking back at him, unsurprised, as she held their crying son in her arms. "It's late Shadow." She spoke without hiding how incredibly tired she way.

Shadow looked from her to their son and then back to her. "Then you might as well let me help you." He lightly pleaded.

Sandy sighed in irritation before opening the door for her husband to enter. As soon as she closed the door behind him, she thrust their young son in his arms so she could go tend to their now cranky daughter. Shadow looked down at his unhappy son. Most days this crying spell would cause him to become upset but right now he found himself happy to try to tend to his never-ending fussing. "Shhh." He tried to calm the boy as he rocked him with no results. "I missed you." He lightly breathed under his breath as he watched his male offspring continue to thrash about.

"His colic should have gone away by now, but he don't want ta give it up, and as usual it upsets Tex." She rocked her daughter as she looked at Shadow sadly. "No wonder ya got sick of us, but I don't blame him… I blame me." She then looked back down at Tex as she started to fall back to sleep.

"I never got sick of you." Shadow's face took on even more sadness as he realized just how warped her perceptions of his feelings were. Her misjudgment of his feelings was his own fault. He knew he'd been cold lately, but he never thought he'd been that cold.

"Bullshit Shadow." She just shook her head at him in disbelief. "Ya acted like ya couldn't wait to get away from us the past 6 months 'til we were finally gone." Sandy slowed her rocking of Tex as the little girl finally fell asleep again. "Now all of the sudden that I'm gone do you finally give a damn!"

Shadow kept looking at his crying son as his emotions started to boil up on him again. "I'm sorry. I'll do better." He took a large breath of air to try to push back his tears once again. "I promise."

"Shadow…. I really wish I could believe you, but I'm scared in a month or two you'd just fall back into hating us again." Sandy sulked as she placed their daughter back into her playpen.

"I never hated you!" He responded a bit too loud.

"Maybe not." Sandy answered while facing him. "But Static's treated the kids and me better the past few days than you have to us since they were born." She looked away while she lightly started to cry. "He wants us! Heck he even thinks of the kids as his own."

"You really think that pampered little pest will stay interested in taking care of you? It's just a game to him! As soon as the new feel fades away, he'll throw you away just like all the high-priced toys his daddy has bought him before. Besides…" Shadow clenched his jaw and tensed up with anger, while trying to hold his son gently. "I'm their father! NOT HIM!"

Sandy rushed up to him and took Wes away after seeing him on the edge of losing it. "I'm just letting you know I'm not staying here just to make you upset, but because he is good to us. And I don't believe this is a game to him. I can't be after how long he's hung around even before all this."

"You're my wife!" Shadow shouted even louder. "YOU'RE MY FAMILY!" He panted a bit more before watching Static walk out of the bedroom, half awake, with a pistol in his hand.

"You?" Static yawed as he noticed Shadow inside his living room. "What's going on?" He then looked towards Sandy.

Sandy walked towards Static and placed her hand on his shoulder while removing the gun from his hand. "Ain't no need fer that." She then kissed the other squirrel on the cheek. "Sorry ta wake ya. We were just having talking some things out."

Static looked from Sandy's soft smile to Shadow's fuming expression. "Once people start to scream, I don't think you can consider it just talking anymore." The male squirrel then walked over to the young boy that was still fussing and picked him up.

"Put my son down!" Shadow commanded while taking a step towards him. Static just gave him a sly grin in response.

Sandy rushed over and put the handgun on the fireplace mantel before gently taking the boy away from Static. "Now isn't the time for this conversation Shadow. Let's get together tomorrow and get this all sorted out while Randy watches the kids. Should be easy enough for all of us considering it's Sunday."

"He has no business being there." Shadow pointed at Static as his eyes narrowed.

"He won't be. He has some emergency business at work tomorrow, so it'll just be you and me."

"Don't tell him that!" Static growled while staring down Shadow.

"It don't matter if he knows, hun. Besides he's right… we need to settles this just the two of us. I'll call ya around lunch time so we can get together."

Shadow sighed and then nodded his approval before turning around and leaving the upscale house. The hedgehog sat in his car for a moment before turning the keys in the ignition. He didn't have much time to get some sleep and come up with a way to get her to change her mind about coming back home to him.

As he started his drive home, he worried there was very little hope of getting her to change her mind after rethinking the past two times they'd spoken to each other. However, he knew full well no matter what tomorrows outcome would be he wasn't about to give up hope on her anytime soon.