A high-pitched screech from a bedside alarm clock caused Shadow to shoot up in bed. The part of the blanket that had been coving his chest found its way down to his lap as he reached out and aggressively slammed his fist down on the reset button. Shadow was still immensely tired as he barely had gotten much sleep over the weekend, due to the dust up between himself and his wife.

After a few deep breaths Shadow looked over and was surprised to see the side of the bed next to him was currently empty. He was generally an extremely light sleeper, so the fact that Sandy had woken and left the room while he continued to sleep just showed how excessively fatigued he was.

Shadow forced himself on his feet and slowly stumbled into the master bathroom where he started the shower right before relieving his full bladder. The hedgehog finished up his shower quickly as he turned the water far colder than he preferred in an attempt to wake himself up faster. Once he cleaned himself up, he then groggily dressed himself for the day in his usual business casual attire. His dark gray slacks complemented his even darker blue long-sleeved shirt. But the real finishing touch to his outfit was his sliver watch, that was a gift from Sandy, that he attached on his left wrist.

Shadow looked from his silver watch to his white gold wedding band a few times as he made his way out of the bedroom and moved towards the kitchen. The aroma of cooking food, and fresh coffee, hit his senses as he walked closer to the small kitchen. His mouth actually started to salivate as he entered the dinner area and saw his wife turning off the stove and placing the last of the food on the two plates set out on the counter near her.

"Morning." Sandy smiled at her husband as she picked up the plates in front of her and moved them to the table. Sandy motioned for her lover to take his seat across from her as she seated herself, still covered in her bathrobe.

Shadow could tell by the look of her fur that she had already showered this morning which only caused him more worry at the fact she hadn't woken him up. "Thank you." He stated as he took a seat and then took a sip of coffee before taking a fork full of food into his mouth. "Why does this tase so amazing?" He wondered as he looked down at the simple plate of eggs, toast, and sausage.

"Sorry fer the plain meal, but we're out of milk." Sandy frowned as she took a bite of the meal herself.

"It's fine." Shadow responded as he continued to eat. He wanted to look up at her and engage but was now finding himself frightened due to the idea of her calling him out for their fight of not so long ago. Despite how badly he didn't want kids, as he never thought he'd have any, and the fact he had caused her so much pain by refusing theirs… He started to somewhat rethink his priorities… He was mostly scared that by having children he wouldn't be just a bad father but then become a bad husband in her eyes too. However, her mind was made up. With or without him she'd be bring this child into the world, so he might as well try to appease her as he didn't want to envision his life without her.

"When is your next appointment?" Shadow asked as a cold shiver of unease passed through his body.

Sandy looked towards her husband a bit shocked as she placed her cup of tea down that she was about to take a drink from. Shadow continued to looked down at his food but could still make out her focusing on him as he was far taller than her.

"This Thursday at 11:00 AM." She continued to look at him as he kept on casually eating and avoiding eye contact. "Randy said he'd take me."

A sigh of escaped Shadow before he then coughed in an attempt to hid it. If her brother was willing to accompany her to the appointment, he'd be able to dodge having to deal with this dreaded change a bit longer. "Too short of notice for me. I need to work. Might as well let your brother do something useful for you for once. I'll take you to the next one."

"Randy took me ta the doctor on Friday. That was very useful, in my opinion." Sandy picked up her fork and started pushing around her food. "So, yer ok with this now?"

Shadow could tell by the tone of her voice that her mood was wavering. "I'm ok with what you want." It was all he could state honestly before taking his dishes to the sink and rinsing them off. He made his way into the living area where he put on his shoes and retrieved his wallet and keys. He usually wouldn't leave this early but he could already sense the tension coming back between them, so he felt it best to go into work early rather than stay around and risk another round of hurtful words coming out of both of their mouths. "Thank you for breakfast." He called out as he opened the door and left his wife alone with her thoughts.

The next few days went by rather slowly with Shadow trying to avoid his wife. She didn't bring up her pregnancy after their short discussion during breakfast on Monday, but Shadow was still being cautious. He knew they were going to need to have a long, and in-depth conversation on the subject but he was still trying like hell to push it off for as long as possible. His reasoning for this was that the longer they waited the more use to it he'd get and the less stress would be present as they discussed things. However, he was starting to realized full well that was just a pipe dream as he found himself becoming more stressed with each passing day.

Right now, Shadow sat in front of his therapist, Dr. Archer, and to his own shock almost wanted to openly talk to him about an issue for once. The older black panther looked at him in the same blank way he always did. Shadow swore he did that in an attempt to make his clients feel uneasy, as if he was reading their mind. Shadow wasn't so easily shaken and just found Dr. Archer's bleak interactions to be tiresome and annoying… then again, he generally found interactions with most people tiresome, but this man was by far his most irritating.

"So, how was your week?" The elder man asked his client.

Shadow looked off to his right at nothing in particular as he shifted in his chair a bit. After a few minutes of avoiding the question he finally breathed out an uneasy answer. "She went to her brothers for the weekend."

"A fight?" The panther questioned.

"Yes." Shadow responded as he kept his eyes locked far away from his parole ordered care taker.

"Sounds like it's still a lingering issue."

Shadow sighed before he finally looked at his therapist with a faint bit of worry on his face. "Yes."

"What was the fight about?" Dr. Archer asked seeming actually somewhat curious as he started writing down notes on the large slab of notebook paper, that laid on his desk.

"Children."

Dr. Archer looked up at him surprised. "She wants to adopt?" He pressed.

"She's pregnant." Shadow spat with anger as he stood up and paced for a moment. He then looked at his doctor and pointed an accusing finger at the man. "You people told me I couldn't have children."

Dr. Archer dropped his pen and looked at Shadow dumbfounded. "You can't." The man seemed to become lost in though as his mouth dropped agape before standing up and going over to a file cabinet where he retrieved a few files.

Shadow watched his current handler go through some of his files only causing him to become more furious. "What are you looking for?"

"Here." Archer smiled as he finally found the medical report he had been looking for. "Well, it seems we haven't tested your fertility in 8 years." The panther started to rub his chin as he became lost in thought.

"Why would that matter? If I was sterile then I should still be sterile now." Shadow growled.

"I suppose I should be fully open with you on this issue now." The doctor put the paperwork back in its folder and tossed the lot of them to the side of his desk.

Shadow looked at him already feeling the irritation crawling up his spine. "What?"

"You were never fully sterile. You did have a very low sperm count in your younger years, but due to your condition we've been giving you injection to make you unable to have children. It was found you having offspring was too large of a risk. But it seems your body has overcome the medication we were feeding into you and you still managed to impregnated your wife. This is truly amazing on so many levels."

The younger hedgehog just looked down at the older panther now finding his anger fully boiling over, so much so that the quills on his head rustled a bit. "You people can't even dope me up right!" He hissed.

"We need to get Sandra in here right away for our doctors to look at her."

"To Hell with that!" Shadow slammed his fist down on the desk the other man was sitting at. "My wife and child aren't going to be your test subjects. You'll have to settling for studying me."

Dr. Archer looked at Shadow concerned. "Shadow, this is for her own good, as well as the child's. We don't know what this developing youth is capable of. Your wife might likely be in danger with this pregnancy. If that is the case, we might be able to take measures to make sure she can come to full term successfully. But if not… we can make sure she'll not come to harm."

Shadow took a step back now that he was overcome with even more stress. The idea of a normal child was off putting enough, but now being hit with the reality that his seed wasn't normal, as he wasn't normal, caused him far more fear. "When?"

"As soon as she can. I'm sure there will not be an issuing making time for her due to the current circumstances."

Shadow face fell into defeat as he nodded his head in approval. "She had an ultra sound earlier today. I'll take the day off tomorrow to bring her in."

"Great! I'll let the rest of your team know and we will see you bright and early. Let's cut today session short as you'll be back here tomorrow."

Shadow turned to leave but right as his hand hit the door knob he turned his head around as Dr. Archer called his name.

The panther had his phone in his hand as it seemed he was about to start calling his colleagues. "Congratulation."

Shadow's face turned into even more of a frown before he finished walking out the door and slammed it behind him.