A/N:

Pen: Nooooo. No, no, no! I thought we were finished with this!

Sword: Are you kidding? We're just getting started! Grab a diaper bag and strap in!

What she means to say is we had another idea for this series. It's funny the kind of things your mind will come up with when you're in a melancholy mood and listening to Rod Stewart's "Forever Young". *gives thousand yard stare*

Sword:…Uh…

Oh, right. Anywho, Tails, Cream, and all related material belong to Sega. Violet belongs to CandiCindy on Deviantart. The story, Sword, and Pen belong to me. Please do not use without permission. Thank you to IT'S NO USE I'M OUTTA USE, chidoriprime, KnightofTheWind, SaltwaterJanuary, and sad Little demon for their reviews on the last chapter. And now, please enjoy.

Grease Monkey

Tails entered the house, reeking of grease and oil and covered head to toe in black, slick stains that matted his fur. He set his toolkit by the door and pried off his googles, revealing his baby blue eyes, the only bit of him actually clean. There was nothing more cathartic than working in his garage all day, rebuilding engines, repairing machines, or even doing simple tune-ups. Somehow, he always managed to get so covered in grime that he could've passed for Shadow.

He entered the kitchen/dining room combo, where Cream was heating up a bottle on the stove. Against the counter that separated the kitchen from the dining room, Violet sat in her high chair, babbling and smacking her hands. On her high chair's tray, Cheese snoozed peacefully. He had grown larger in recent years, or fatter as Tails thought, and his skin was a paler blue than it was in his youth. Other than that, he was the same cheerful Chao that often latched onto Violet ever since her birth. Same as her mother, Tails thought.

When Violet saw Tails, she stared at him for a moment, as if to mentally process him, then reached up, grabbing for him. "Ba, ba, ma, ma," she said.

"Hey there," he said, bending down to her level. Her ears had grown longer than her body and drooped over the chair. A bit of color was coming into her fur as well. The biggest change, and personally best he thought, was that she no longer cried non-stop. The first few months had seemed so long, but now they could get a decent night's sleep.

He stuck out his forefinger, circling it near her nose and watching her fascinated eyes follow it. She tried to grab it and gum it in her mouth, but he pulled back. "No, no. You don't want to eat oil. It's nasty, trust me. Daddy's had enough fall in his mouth before." He scratched her head and she cooed.

"Tails," Cream said, checking the bottle's temperature by squeezing a few drops on her arm and wiping the milk off on a towel. "I just gave her a bath."

"Right, sorry," he said, checking Violet's head. No sign of grease, but he was filthy. He headed to the shower, scrubbing his work away until he was squeaky clean. Once out of the shower, he headed back to the kitchen, smelling a delicious butterscotch pie on his way in.

"Sonic and Amy here yet?" he asked, eyeing the oven.

"Should be soon," she said, pulling his face away from the oven by his chin and kissing him. She tapped him on the nose. "You'll just have to wait until then."

"Okay, okay," he said. "I'll feed Violet."

"Thanks," she said.

He grabbed the bottle, testing its heat on his arm, and picked his daughter up out of her high chair. As soon as he did, Violet scrunched up her face and let loose a terrible cry that hurt his ears. "Ssh, ssh," he said. "Violet, it's okay. Here's your bottle." But when he tried to give her the milk, she refused to drink and continued shrieking. "Look, I'm here. It's Daddy." He reached out his finger again, hoping that would calm her. If anything, it made the yelling worse and she smacked at his hand.

Cheese woke up, covering his ears and shaking like a leaf from the noise. He cooed low, upset and annoyed.

Tails looked to Cream, helpless and unsure what to do, the same as he had a lot lately. Cream understood and dried her hands on a towel. "Here, I'll feed her," she said. "Would you keep an eye on the oven? The pie needs to come out in fifteen minutes."

"Yeah," he said, hanging his head dejectedly and passing her to Cream. Almost as suddenly as she had started crying, she stopped and allowed Cream to feed her the bottle. Violet looked up at her parents with curious eyes, as if wondering why they wore grim expressions.

Tails sighed and headed into the kitchen, leaning against a counter. His mood soured and he grumbled, angry at himself and wondering why this kept happening.

"It'll pass," Cream said, reassuring him the same way she always did. "It's just a phase." The same reasoning she always gave. The same that Tails had been buying into for the past few weeks. "Maybe it's just separation anxiety. Did you read those books my mom gave us?"

"And re-read them and re-read them. It's too early for that. She's only a few months old."

"And the ones we bought?"

"Nothing in there either." He had scoured every available source for any reasoning why Violet feared him. The worst explanations had been because the baby was abused or didn't feel safe with the parent. The first definitely wasn't true and he hoped the second wasn't either. Unfortunately, not feeling safe was the only answer that made sense.

With a heavy face, Cream sat in the living room, feeding their daughter while Tails watched the pie. When it was ready, he took it out of the oven and set it on the counter to cool. At least this doesn't cry when I try to hold it, he thought.

He wished he understood what about him scared his daughter so much. The crying happened seemingly at random. The only surefire way to get her to wail was to pick her up. One hundred percent of the time, it always happened to him. Never to Cream, never to Vanilla when she visited. Even their friends, including Shadow, could hold her now and then without inducing tears. Never Tails.

Why? He couldn't figure it out. He wasn't a bad father, was he? No, no. That thought came up every time and he always shot it down. He followed the books to a t, same as any engineering book he read, and he made sure to memorize each and every word. He took the advice of his friends, copied Cream's care for Violet, and did his utmost best to provide for her.

Then what's wrong?

Although he constantly pushed away the notion of being a bad father, it never truly went away and gnawed at the back of his mind. Maybe kids found him unlikable? That had certainly been the case when he was a child, always poked fun at for his twin namesakes and ousted as abnormal. Perhaps Violet already sensed her father was a genetic freak? Still, he would have thought his own daughter would accept him.

A small bump brought him back down to the kitchen. He stared into Cheese's concerned and disapproving eyes, as if the small Chao could read his thoughts. The same look Cream always gave him when she sensed his self-doubt. It was a scarily accurate imitation and he wondered if pets truly reflected their owners. Or is it the other way around?

He reached out and scratched Cheese's head. "I'm alright, buddy," he said with a small smile. "Thanks."

Cheese cooed and nuzzled against him, then dove straight for the pie. "Ah, ah, ah." Tails snatched the dessert away and hovered over it. "This is for lunch. Cream would kill me if you ate it before Sonic and Amy got here."

Ding-dong!

Speaking of which, he thought and carried the pie to the dining room, laying it beside the rest of the food. As he headed to the door, he threw a sharp glance over his shoulder, and Cheese halted midway to chomping into the pie. "Don't."

Tails opened the door and greeted Sonic and Amy. "Hey, how you doing, bro?" Sonic asked, clasping Tails' hand and pulling him in for a one-arm hug.

"Good, you?" he asked, then hugged Amy, minding her round belly. Their second baby seemed fit to burst out of her right then and there.

"Good," Sonic said, helping Amy in.

Cream entered with Violet and whispered excitedly to her. "Look who it is, sweetie." She greeted Sonic and Amy. "You look great," she told Amy.

"I look like I'm smuggling a beach ball," she said, rubbing her stomach. "Should be any day now though. Thank goodness. I forgot that it's like carrying a sack of rocks tied to her waist. Sorry we're late," she continued, as her husband helped her with her coat. "We were at Shadow and Rouge's longer than we planned to be."

"Weren't you just dropping off Florian?" Tails asked.

"Yeah," Sonic said, hanging up her coat. "But Shadow kept us waiting in the foyer for a long time. Something about insisting 'laying down fly paper and Velcro to catch Florian'."

Tails exchanged a knowing look with Cream. Sounds about right, he thought.

Sonic helped Amy to a chair at the table. "Oh, it looks delicious, Cream," she said, noting the food.

"Yeah," Sonic said and Tails noticed him swallow the drool in his watering mouth.

"Thank you," Cream said and began ladling soup into a bowl for everyone. However, Violet had grown bored and started tugging on Cream's ears. "Ow, ow. No, no. No pulling Mommy's ears. Violet!" She looked to Tails and he started to stand, preparing for more screaming.

Amy beat him to the punch. "Oh, here. I can hold her." And she took Violet off of Cream's hands. She smiled and poked a finger into Violet's belly. The baby gurgled and beat her tiny limbs up and down, enjoying the attention. Sonic leaned over too, making a silly face and tickling her toes.

On the one hand, Tails was happy to see his daughter happy. On the other, he should've been the one able to make her smile like that. He stirred a finger around his glass, trying to block out the negative thoughts that relentlessly pounded his mind.

When he raised his head, Amy's eyes shifted away from him. Before he could question if she had been staring at him, Cream finished doling out the food and placed Violet in her high chair at the end of the table beside Sonic and Tails.

For the next half hour, Amy and Cream talked about their kids and how each were doing, Amy's due date and health, names she had settled on for the baby. "It's actually been pretty hard," Amy said. "I can't decide on any yet. None have stuck out to me."

"Better pick one soon before they arrive. You still don't want to know if it's a boy or girl?" Cream asked.

"No, we want to be surprised."

Meanwhile, Sonic regaled Tails with their latest encounter with Robotnik as Tails tried to get Violet to finish her bottle "And then Silver's twins destroyed the robot. You should've seen it."

"Anyone hurt?" he asked.

"Nah," Sonic said. "Everyone was fine. No problem. Ouch!" Violet had smacked the bottle out of Tails' hand and whacked Sonic's forehead with it, leaving behind some white drops clinging to his eyebrow.

"Violet, no," Tails said, pointing a stern finger at her, then apologized to Sonic, offering him a napkin.

"Hey, not the first time I've had milk on me," he said. "Florian spits the stuff like a sprinkler. I smell like a dairy almost every day."

Tails chuckled and picked up the bottle. "Here, drink," he said to Violet, but she scooted away from him, frowning and searching elsewhere. He reached out further to her and she whined, her face growing red and twisted. Not again.

"Hey," Sonic said, gaining Violet's attention. "You need to drink your milk if you want to grow up like your dad. C'mon." She stared at Sonic, trying to register his face again. Tails took the opportunity to push the bottle to her mouth. Again, she opened her mouth wide to cry. "Want me to try?" he asked Tails.

The kitsune sighed and handed over the bottle. Sonic pressed it against Violet's lips and to their surprise, she accepted it. She started sucking on the last of the milk, watching Sonic the whole time. Sonic, and not Tails. Letting Sonic feed her and not her father.

Although he maintained a polite grin on his face as Sonic made baby talk to Violet and helped her drink the last drops, Tails' mood darkened in his heart. And that made him feel worse. He didn't want to be mad at his best friend, nor frustrated with his daughter, but it happened and he hated himself for that. It wasn't their fault. It was his, somehow, and he couldn't figure out how to fix it. That only poured on the self-loathing for himself and he pushed away from the table.

"Excuse me," he said, not looking at anyone in particular. "I just remembered that I have something I need to work on."

"But we're eating lunch. And we haven't had dessert yet," Cream said, noting the untouched pie. "It's your favorite."

"Sorry, it really can't wait," he said and nodded to Sonic and Amy. "Sorry." Then he hurried to the garage, shut the door, and leaned against it. He banged his head on the door, closing his eyes and feeling foolish for how he left.

Well, this day is going great, he thought to himself. Heaving a sigh through his nostrils, he looked to the Tornado. The navy blue biplane was parked in the center of the large garage. May as well get some work done, he thought, grabbing a pair of goggles off his tool table. He scooped up a toolbelt too, strapping it around his waist, and plopped onto his creeper, scooting underneath the plane for some maintenance.

This was relaxing for him. All the parts of a machine laid out, easy to locate any problems or repair any damage. Everything made sense as he worked, everything meshed and fit together, and he always had the right tool for the job.

Even before Violet was born, he had thought he would be ready. Everyone had told Cream and him the horror stories of the first few months and he had brushed up on all the problems that were bound to occur. And while caring for a baby was more overwhelming than he could've imagined, he thought Cream and he had managed well so far. Not perfect, for sure, and there had been several instances where he was completely lost on what to do. Yet they pulled through.

This, on the other hand, was different. Nobody had any answer for your child being afraid of you with no discernible cause. There wasn't any diagnosis on that and there seemed to be nothing wrong with Violet. So it had to be him. She was just naturally afraid of him for some reason.

Did she already believe him to be a bad father and would he be? Did he exhibit some trait for that? Was it something he constantly did that upset her? Or did she really see him as a genetic freak because of his twin tails?

None of it made sense and the more Tails dwelled on it, the more his mind ran in circles until he unscrewed the wrong screw and a piece of the plane fell off, conking him in the head. "Ow!" he said, grabbing his scalp and biting back several swears. He hissed, rolling out on his creeper and met a pair of bright green eyes overhead.

"I think you forgot something," Sonic said with a smirk, holding out a hardly used, yellow hard hat. "Safety first."

"I'm done anyway," he said, standing and kicking the creeper away. "Amy inside?"

"Nah, I already ran her home. She wasn't feeling good."

He nodded. "And she wanted you to come check on me?"

Sonic shrugged. "She suggested it."

"She volun-told you too, then."

"I wanted to," he said. "And Cream was worried too."

Tails rubbed his eyes. He hadn't meant to worry Cream. Another stack to the misery pile for him. "Sorry. I didn't mean to cause a scene. I'm fine now." Sonic sat on a stool by the tool table, spinning around in it and humming to himself. He was waiting for Tails to open up. Tails knew Sonic wouldn't leave until he heard the whole story and the blue hedgehog could be very persistent. "Infuriatingly so," as Shadow often put it.

"Fine." Tails sat on the table next to Sonic, taking off his tool belt. "It's Violet." He explained the crying situation that had been happening over the past few weeks and all the solutions they had tried, from quiet and familiar environments to help her feel safe to imitating Cream's exact maneuvers when carrying her. "And nothing we do works. She's still scared of me."

"No kidding. You look like The Creature from the Black Lagoon," he said, pointing out the grease stains covering Tails.

The kitsune examined himself. He was just as dirty as he was before his shower. He vaguely wondered how he had managed to get so filthy. "Did this ever happen with Florian?"

Sonic crossed his arms and raised his eyes to the ceiling, thinking hard. "Not that I can remember."

"So just me then," he said glumly.

"Hey, it could be anything. She could be a cranky baby. Or maybe it's something else entirely. Either way, it's a phase that'll pass."

"That's what Cream keeps saying," he said, hopping off the table. "But what if my own daughter is scared of me the rest of her life? Even as an adult, she'll be traumatized of me."

"That won't happen," Sonic said.

He knew that, but his mind was on a roll now. "Yeah, but what if Violet grows up and is afraid to talk to me, never invites me to events, always lives in fear of me, her father?" Silly, of course, yet the fear persisted and continued growing.

"Dude, sit," Sonic said, offering his seat and forcing Tails into it by his shoulder. Then he looked him dead in the eye, making sure Tails didn't turn away. "Look, you're a great father and doing all you can. This is a temporary thing. That's it. Got it?"

"Yeah," he said, nodding, his worries still carrying his heart around in their whirlpool of despair.

The door cracked open and Cream poked her head in, carrying Violet in her arm. "Tails?" she asked. "You okay?"

"Yeah." He glanced at her. "Sorry about earlier."

"It's okay." She kissed the top of his head and smiled, cupping his cheek.

Maybe Sonic and Cream are right, he thought, watching Violet yawn and stretch her little arms and legs. Maybe this is a phase. He could only hope it was. Still, it stung to not be able to hold Violet at all.

"I better get going," Sonic said. "Amy probably needs help." He hugged Tails, Cream, and opened his hands to Violet. Cream placed the baby in his arms and he rubbed his nose in her face. "See you later too, fuzzball." She cooed and he held her up to Tails. "Say 'Bye-bye, Daddy!' "

"Ba-ba-ba," Violet said and Tails smiled, stroking her belly with his finger. She grabbed his digit, her own hands barely circling it, and pressed the finger to her mouth, slobbering on it.

Oh, now she likes me, he thought.

Sonic raised an eyebrow. "Here," he said, setting Violet against Tails' chest.

"Sonic, no, I'm dirty and—"

He shushed Tails. "Just give me a minute. Hold her."

Tails wrapped his arms around her reluctantly. They watched Violet and waited, Tails squirming in his seat and preparing for an earth-shattering scream.

But no crying came. None whatsoever. In fact, Violet grabbed Tails' nose, pulling her face to him and running her hands through his fur. Tails was baffled. What? How?

Meanwhile, Sonic smacked his forehead and belted out a laugh. "I can't believe you didn't see it!" He wiped away a tear. "For how smart you are, you don't notice when the answer is right in front of your face! Or all over you."

"Which is?"

"Grease."

Tails examined himself once more, noting all the grease stains, then it slowly dawned on him. "There it is," Sonic said. Cream tilted her head, puzzled by what they knew that she didn't. She looked her husband over and soon realized it too.

"His smell," she said.

"Exactly," Sonic said. "Tails always smells like an engine. For as long as I've known him, there's always a faint whiff of it."

"And when I shower and scrub it off for Violet, she gets scared because she doesn't recognize me," Tails finished.

"Exactly," the hedgehog said. "She's knows the smell of her dad."

He smiled and looked at Violet. He didn't need to question it. It all made sense and the living proof was right before him, nestling into his chest. All the fears of being a bad parent washed over him and his spirit soared like a plane through the clouds. "Thanks," he said, blinking back his watery eyes. He wasn't a bad father. His daughter did love him and he could finally hold her at long last.

"Anytime," Sonic said, rubbing his nose.

Cream frowned. "I hope this doesn't mean I'll find oil everywhere in the house."

"Nah," Tails said. "Just a dab behind each ear. After all, can't argue that it's not my natural smell. Two against one." He lifted Violet high in the air above his head. "Isn't that right, my little grease monkey?"

She burbled, waving her arms in circles. A line of drool smacked Tails' forehead and Cream chuckled. "I suppose so. But don't make me chase after both of you with a shower head."

"Wouldn't dream of it," he said and brought Violet back down into his arms, enjoying her small body against his, and kissed the top of her head, smearing a dab of grease into her fur. She didn't seem to mind and neither did he. Tails planned to stay on that stool and hold his daughter for a long while. After all, he had a lot of lost time to make up for.

A/N:

Pen: Ugh, thank goodness that's over.

Sword: Oh, it'll never be over.

Hope you're right. Thank you all for reading and please let us know what you thought of it. Take care now.

Pen: I'm off for a stiff drink. And several more after that.