This is a fanfiction, and as such, most of the characters in the story are not mine. Most characters are © Sega, and are not used with permission.

Chapter 5: With Missed Opportunities comes Eternal Regret

Rouge glanced outside; the sky was still dark, but the stars were disappearing, signaling that the sun was fast approaching. A look at the clock showed it was now 5 o'clock. Once again, her mind wandered to thoughts of Mobotropolis; this time to memories taken in absentia.

"Aaahh!"

"Hang on there, you're doing fine."

Bunnie was lying in a hospital bed, and at her side was the peach echidna.

"Where's Shadow?!"

"He'll be here, I only just contacted him, even he isn't that fast. Just calm down, I know exactly what you're going through, I had twins remember."

"Unless yah're having them right now, shut up!"

"This is great." Off in a corner, Omochao was watching the action, recording it for prosperity. "The tension, the energy, the struggle; this is what great television is all about."

"If yah don't stop with the stupid comments, Ah'm gonna get off this table, and rip out all yah circuits!"

Tikal laid her hand on Bunnie's head and wiped her brow. "Bunnie, calm down, this'll be over soon enough."

"But it hurts so much, Ah feel like Ah'm gonna faint."

"Just hang in there."

The door opened and a nurse escorted another person guised in surgical garb.

"Right in here."

"Bunnie?"

Shadow came in the door and moved to Bunnie's side.

"Shadow, yah're finally here." Bunnie reached her hand out and the hedgehog took it; she squeezed it hard as her calm voice turned to pure evil. "Where the Hell were you?!"

"I got here as fast as I could, then they got me to put this stuff on."

Tikal noticed a unique feature of Shadow's costume. "What is that on your head?"

"Those stupid paper hats wouldn't fit over my spines so they wrapped a towel over my head instead; that delayed me by a couple of minutes."

"You're here now, that's all that's important."

"If yah'll are done talkin' about hospital fashion, can we turn our attention back tah me? Ah'm the one with a baby ripping out of mah bottom."

Tikal and Shadow both apologized.

"On the other hand, that towel on yah head does look pretty stupid, it's like yah just came out of the shower."

"I thought you said you didn't want to talk about the way I'm dressed."

Bunnie did not like being contradicted by her husband, and gave him a squeeze to remind him.

"Ow, what was that for?"

"Ah'm not in the mood for jokes right now."

"Sorry, I'm just trying to help you calm down."

"Bunnie, you can't allow yourself to get stressed out." Tikal spoke in her eternally calm voice. "It won't do you any good and it's not good for the baby."

Bunnie sighed and flopped back into her pillow, she was so stressed out, and not in the most comfortable position possible on a bed with such a thin mattress that she cold feel the steel that made up the frame.

From under the sheet that covered Bunnie's legs, a man's voice could be heard.

"Bunnie, you're doing fine, you're dilated 5cm."

Bunnie didn't really know what that meant, but she could feel in deep inside that her baby was coming. "Does that mean it's close?"

"No; you've got to reach 10cm first, but you're moving along nicely."

Not what she wanted to hear.

It had been almost three hours that Bunnie had been lying on that bed, trying to give birth. She could feel her baby in her belly, waiting at the gate, ready to push through, but not until it was ready. The doctor had been keeping track of Bunnie's progress and although it was slow going, her water had broke and she had dilated to 9cm, so she would soon be giving birth.

"How are you?"

"Alright. It's just… ung."

"Another contraction?"

"Yeah. Mah body wants this baby out, but he doesn't want out yet."

Shadow was as impatient as ever, though for the sake of his wife tried to avoid the obvious question that eventually came out.

"How long does this child birth thing take?"

"Well, Ah'm sorry if Ah messed up yah schedule any, but Ah was hopin' this would take as little time as possible."

"I was in labor for almost 20 hours with the twins."

Bunnie scowled at Tikal with that little tidbit, not liking the idea of this lasting most of a day. "Yah're not helpin'."

Dr. Quack called out to try and calm Bunnie down. "You're doing fine, you could give birth any time now. The average is about 12 hours, but that includes the contractions, the water breaking and the whole mess."

Bunnie only heard the "12 hour" bit which still sounded like 12 hours too much.

"Just stay calm, you're looking good."

"Yeah, and I'm getting some good footage here."

Shadow looked down and saw Omochao positioned past the foot of the bed, jut behind the doctor's head. "Can you find another angle to take your shots? That's my wife under there."

"Are you kidding me? This is the money shot, you won't see this on those lame broadcast TV shows on the Discovery Channel."

"Omochao! Pan… Out!"

"It's attitudes like this that are killing the independent film makers."

"Aaaaaahh!"

Bunnie's scream redirected Shadow's attention back to her. With Shadow distracted, Omochao ignored the video neophyte's order.

"Hold on hun, it'll be over soon enough."

Tikal was still at Bunnie's other side, as calm and demure as ever. "You're doing fine, Bunnie, just a little bit more."

From under the sheet, the doctor called out. "O.K. You're already to go. At the next contraction, push."

"Nnngh." Bunnie grunted as she squeezed her abdomen, subconsciously forgetting to breathe while she clamped down.

"Breathe Bunnie, don't forget to breathe."

Bunnie fought her instinct to hear Tikal's advice, and took in a breath.

"Steady Bunnie, take even breaths and keep pushing; just go with the contractions and this'll be a lot easier." The doctor returned under the sheet.

Bunnie continued to alternate between breathing and pushing, taking signals from her body to push and hints from Tikal to breathe. Through all of this Shadow was left dumbfounded, wondering just what he was supposed to do; he didn't want to say anything as he had no experience in the delivery room, unlike the doctor and the recent mother of twins, but he didn't want to stand around like an idiot.

"Alright Bunnie, hang in there, you're doing fine." Shadow couldn't think of anything else to say, and in hindsight thought that rather asinine piece of advice sounded really silly, as if it proved he knew nothing of what was going on.

Despite the pain and panic, Bunnie heard Shadow's pep talk, and although she thought it was pretty worthless, at least she knew that there was someone as scared and unsure as herself.

"That's it, just a bit more."

Bunnie clamped down and forced down her abdomen, trying to eject the large lump that was tearing through her lower body, splitting her in half. It was so unbearable that she didn't know if she was going to faint or if the pain was going to keep her conscious through this whole ordeal.

"A little bit more, one more push."

Bunnie screamed as she gave it her all.

Below her, the baby was now freed and the doctor was able to pull him out completely. Putting a finger in the child's mouth, Dr. Quack cleaned out some fluid and the tot responded with a gag and a wail.

Everyone's attention jumped to the sheet over Bunnie's legs. Tikal had a big smile on her face, while all the color drained from Shadow's.

"Congratulations, it's a boy, a healthy baby rabbit."

Bunnie let out one sob of relief over the end of the sharp pain, combined with immense joy over being a new mother.

The doctor cut the umbilical cord and cleaned up the baby a bit before bringing him to his mother. Bunnie, despite being exhausted from the monumental act of child birth, was too excited to show even the slightest bit of weakness, and reached out to take her child in arms. Although she was more than strong enough, the energy of the moment left her speechless.

"Oh, he's so beautiful." Tikal was looking over Bunnie's shoulder, though is was a little hard to see since Bunnie was holding him with his head to her right so that Shadow would have the better view. "You must be proud, Shadow?"

Shadow was totally ensnared, and like Bunnie, was left with no words on his tongue, blown away like a mighty wind had scooped into his mouth and stolen his voice the moment he heard that first whine.

Tikal could see the look on the new parents' faces and knew she was not going to get much out of them for several minutes; Bunnie was almost crying, overwhelmed by the new life that she wrought into the world, while Shadow looked completely dumbfounded. Eventually the echidna had to snap them out of it.

"So, have you chosen a name for him yet?"

Bunnie was the only one cognizant enough to answer. "We thought about that a lot over the last few weeks. If it was a girl, we were gonna name her 'Sonya', but for a boy, we chose 'Randy'."

"That's a nice name, any special meaning behind it?"

"Not really, it just sounded like a nice name."

"Yeah, but if he takes after me in the least, it would be quite appropriate." Shadow had a freakish grin over his face.

"Oh, would yah stop that, or Ah'm calling him Bentley like I wanted."

Tikal giggled. "Bentley's a nice name, for a hippo."

An hour later, Bunnie was getting some much needed rest and Shadow was sitting in the chair next to her, holding their son in his arms.

"So, you're my son."

Randy was also asleep, wrapped inside a small white blanket that emphasized the jet-black fur he inherited from his father.

"Hello there, little guy; I don't know if you know who I am, but I'm your daddy."

The little rabbit didn't respond.

"It's pretty funny really, a guy like me, having a kid; you know, you're my first. I'm a little new at this so I hope you'll understand if I'm not perfect; but then, this is your first too."

Shadow looked to his right at his sleeping wife.

"You've met your mother, I'm sure you know her pretty well. I don't know, you'll probably like her more than me; I'm not all that likeable, but I hope that I'll still be a good father, and you'll like me anyway."

"When I came home that day, after being gone so long, I really wasn't expecting coming home to you. I'm not sad or angry or anything, I just wanted to get back to Bunnie and Rouge." Shadow stopped abruptly at saying the bat's name. How was he supposed to explain loving another woman to his son? He could lie or at least play down the relationship; but Shadow was apprehensive about demeaning Rouge in any way, she meant far too much to him to ever speak less than sincere about. Looking down at his son, he realized that the small one wouldn't understand, so he had some time to come up with some explanation.

"Where was I? Oh yeah. For more than a month I was freezing my butt off in the mountains trying to help some people from a dragon invasion. Don't worry the dragons aren't going to come and eat you, they're not really bad, it was just a misunderstanding. So I had been gone for more than a month, I was very lonely, and I missed your mother very much; I was so lonely, that I almost sought solace with another woman that I met there. Don't get me wrong, I love your mother and would never betray her; but I was so lonely. When I got back and she jumped into my arms, I just wanted everything to get back to normal; but then when I saw you, everything completely unraveled."

Shadow thought about the huge changes in his life.

"It's pretty amazing, how much of an impact one life can have on someone. I don't want you to get the wrong idea, I don't hate you for coming into my life, it was just something I didn't expect. You turned my life upside down, even more than anything before, but you didn't destroy it, it's just changing, and I'm going to change along with it."

"My boy, my life has undergone a lot of radical shifts, and I think this one will be the best. I'm going to be the best father that I can, and I'm going to raise you in a warm and loving home; you're going to grow up to be a fine young man."

"As you grow up, you're going to hear a lot of things about me. I know that a lot of what you hear is going to sound pretty amazing, and you might think that I want you to follow in my footsteps or that I expect you to be like me, because that's not something you should aspire to. I just want you to grow up happy, and strong, and to be as good as you can be; and more importantly, to not have the heart of darkness that I have."

"Randy, if you can just be a kind and gentle person, I'd be happy."

Shadow stopped and simply looked down at the boy in his arms. He thought about just what kind of father he would be, would he be a good father, could he be the father that this little boy needed; or would it turn into a disaster, would he be a terrible father whose darkness would hurt him and corrode him. For now, that didn't matter, he only knew that he was going to be a father, and that was all that mattered; come Hell or high water, he was going to be a father.

"I'll be a good father, I have to be…"

The hedgehog sat for a minute, just sitting calmly, like he was waiting to fall asleep.

After a minute, Shadow looked up from his son. In the darkness, a pair of yellow lights was seen, like two eyes spying on them, studying every little detail.

"What? Omochao?"

"Hello."

"Have you been recording this whole time?!"

"Yeah, lots of good footage too."

"You little…"

"Waaaaahhhh!!"

"Now look what you did, you woke him up."

Rouge turned off the video and laid back in the chair. That was a memory that would last forever, but it also saddened her, because it wasn't her memory. It was one more reason that she regretted leaving Mobotropolis.

To be continued