Author's Note: Okay, this one is most the one I"m most pleased with, and the one I'm the most nervous about. I'm pleased with it mostly because I had such a great time just writing it (Mainly because this is something I always have enjoyed happening to Sonic for some reason. I'm evil, I guess. XD), and I'm nervous simply because of the fact that Sonic is probably pretty OOC in it; my only defense is that something like what happens to him has massive emotional impact; and by the time the final scene takes place, it's been a year or two. Time can change people, but usually only when it's aided by events, such as it is in this story.

I also have a strong desire to actually make a seperate series following this storyline, because there's still things that are begging to be told. You'll probably see what I mean when you read it. Warnings for this include emotional trauma on behalf of Sonic, and . .. well, this one is most definitely SonAmy, more so than anything else I've ever written. You can't ignore it either, as it's one of the central ideas.

But, oh, I am so worried about how this one will be received. I rewrote it about three times before I finally got it set up how I liked; so I put quite a bit more creative effort into 'Lifeline' than I have into any of the others. Be warned, also - this is my first time to try and write dialogue from a 1st-person perspective; also, this is kind of a story-within-a-story. . . but at the same time, it's not. You'll see.

Disclaimer: Not mine, however much I hug and squeeze and love 'em forever and try to rip their heads off.

Sonic watched at Robo Knux drew ever closer to the bubbles where he and Amy Rose were imprisoned, unable to act, unable to speak, unable to do anything other than quake in terror at what was to come. The sadistic robot was obviously enjoying himself, taking his time, savoring the moment as he moved toward the bubble that held his next victim, relishing the fear that was reflected in the captive hedgehog's green eyes. Sonic shuddered, closing his eyes and folding his ears so he wouldn't see the sick pleasure in the electronic eyes, and so he wouldn't hear the sound of metal piercing flesh.

Neither of these things blocked out the pain.

Lifeline

Sometimes, you think you know a person inside and out - every little thing about them, from the color of their eyes to the way they think. Then something comes along, something so life-altering that it forces you to see the world in an entirely different perspective, and you realize: you don't know this person as well as you thought you did.

The person you thought to be rather helpless is really one of the strongest people you've ever known, and the shallowest person has hidden depths. Someone you thought would always depend on you becomes the one to support you through your weakest moments. A person who you thought never saw past the masks you wore actually sees the real you, right down to the very core of your being.

It was like that with Amy Rose.

"This is stupid," Sonic moaned, scratching the side of his muzzle with his pencil. "She's just going to wind up laughing at me, I know it. This is never going to work . . ." He sighed, and stared into space for a minute. Then he shrugged and went back to writing.

I don't know why I was so wrong about her; I guess I just didn't have the patience to stick around and get to know her. That's another thing I've learned over the past year: patience. It used to be that 'patience' was my exact opposite. 'Impatient' didn't even begin to describe me.

Sometimes I wonder how anyone ever put up with me.

But, yeah, this last year, Amy's been surprising me left and right.

The first of the surprises came not long after it happened. I think it was about two weeks afterwards, and I was still in the hospital, not doing anything but feeling sorry for myself. Looking back on it, I'm pretty ashamed of how I acted. Whenever someone came to see me, I'd either completely ignore him or her, or I'd lose my temper and just . . . go off on them. I know that doesn't sound like me, but I wasn't exactly feeling like myself just then.

Anyway, that day, Tails and Amy Rose both came in at about the same time. Tails, poor kid, had a hard time even looking at me. He tried, I know he did, but hey – he's still young and seeing me was pretty hard on everyone at that point in time. Looking back on it, I could kick myself for how I treated him, but at the time I was too wrapped up in my own little private ball of misery to see anyone else's pain.

I don't remember exactly how it started, because for the first part of the visit I was zoned out in my own little world. I do know that Tails and Amy both tried talking to me, trying to get me to react – to show them that I was still there and still me, I guess. I'm not sure. That continued for a little while, but then Tails said something that actually caught my attention.

"- And, Sonic, I'm gonna try and work on an invention that'll make you walk again."

As you can probably imagine, that snapped me back to reality in a hurry.

"Wait, what?" I asked, finally turning my head and noticing them. I almost couldn't believe my own ears; did Tails really say something about an invention to make me walk again?

The kid was so thrilled by the fact that I acknowledged him that he could barely get anything out of his mouth for the next few minutes.

"Uh-huh - Sonic – I'm – I mean, I think I- what I mean is-"

I rolled my eyes - back then I was still pretty low in the patience department. "Yeah, yeah, kiddo. Spit it out already; I'm wasting away here."

Which, in retrospect, probably wasn't the best thing to say.

Tails took a deep breath, I assume to calm himself, and tried again. "I think I might be able to invent something that could . . . reroute the signals in your spinal chord. See, your brain's still sending the signals; they're just not getting through. If I could come up with something that bridged the gap, then the signals would get through to your legs and you'd be able to run again!"

Now I was definitely interested, but I wasn't concerned with the technicalities; I'd let Tails worry about how it was done – all I cared about was that it happened, and how soon it would occur.

"How long do you think it'll take you, Tails?" I asked, more curious than anything else. I felt better than I had in weeks – finally, I had something to hope for. This wasn't necessarily permanent after all. I might even be out fighting Eggman again by next week! My mind was already running through the list of places I'd go, the taunts I'd use on Eggman, the adventures that I was sure were waiting for me, just around the corner.

But the seconds dragged on, and Tails didn't answer my question. His ears folded back and he refused to look at me, and I knew that I wouldn't like what I was going to hear.

"Um, well, Sonic, it could be a little while. I have to study how the spinal chord works, figure out a substance that can interpret the signals your body sends, and find a way to attach it so it doesn't hurt you, not to mention locate a power source, unless I can discover a way for your body to power it - "

"How long?" My irritation was growing, mostly because the idea that I'd be back to my normal life in a week was becoming a smaller possibility by the second.

Tails seemed to wilt under my comment, and he didn't reply immediately. When he did, he spoke very slowly and so quietly that I could barely hear him.

"My best estimate is anywhere from two to five years, and that's if I manage to find everything I need to even attempt it . . . it . . . might never happen."

This, of course, was not what I wanted to hear. I went ballistic.

"What do you mean 'two to five years'? That's practically forever – how do you expect me to wait that long? Do you think Eggman's going to sit around and wait for me to get better before he attacks? That isn't going to work, Tails! You might as well have not told me anything; you got my hopes up and all for nothing!"

"Sonic, I - " Man, the look on the kit's face . . . if I hadn't been so closed off to everybody else's feelings at that point, that would have had me apologizing instantly. As it was, it cooled me off considerably, and I faced the wall so I wouldn't have to see the tears that were flowing down my best friend's face – tears that I caused.

"Just. . . go home, Tails. Leave me alone."

Without another word, Tails turned and left the room. A part of me wanted to call him back and tell him I didn't mean it, I was grateful, really I was, but I was hurting and two to five years was just such a long time. (I didn't let myself think about the "it might never happen" part of his estimate.) For some reason, though, I didn't.

That was when Amy surprised me. She had been so quiet during the chewing out I gave Tails that I somehow forgot she was there. Boy, did it ever shock me when she came over and slapped me full on the face. There was no awe in her eyes, no pity. All that was there was fury. I'd never seen her so angry, at least not with me – annoyed at times, yes, but never this burning rage that looked like she wanted to tear me apart! It was more than enough to make me listen to every word she had to say.

"Sonic the Hedgehog, I am astounded by you! Tails is doing everything he can to make you feel better, to help you get your feet back under you, to get you out of this emotional dung pile you've buried yourself in, and you treat him like that? He's your best friend, Sonic, and he's hurting too – we all are. Doesn't his pain matter? Or is it all about you, and how you feel? I don't think I need to tell you this, but I will anyway – you're losing your friends, Sonic. Knuckles, Tails – you're even starting to get to me. We care about you, Sonic, but all you're doing is pushing us away."

I really had no reply to this, and even if I did I doubt I could have said anything. I couldn't even look her in the eyes. She stared at me for a moment, and seemed to be studying me. Finally, she took a deep breath, which seemed to calm her down, and a light came on in her eyes. It's like she understood something that even I didn't know – I still have no clue how she realized it. But all of a sudden she sat down next to me, took my hand and started speaking again.

"That's what you want, isn't it, Sonikku? You want to drive everyone away so that they don't want to help you. That's really what this is all about – you're hurting so badly but you don't want anyone's help! Well, nothing like that's going to happen on my watch, Sonikku; you can't drive me off no matter what you say or do. Whether you like it or not, I'm going to help you through this."

It was like she had penetrated through every defense I've ever had, and brought them down all in one instant. I wasn't sure what to say, or what to do. Even what I felt at that moment is hard to describe. It was like . . . wonder, fear, pain and relief all mixed into one big emotional mess. Have you ever heard the saying 'the dam burst'? Well, that's what it was like for me. I'd spent so much of my life holding back any negative emotion I had, both for my benefit and the benefit of my friends, that I just couldn't deal with the feelings that were overwhelming me.

"A-Amy," I whispered, noticing that my throat was oddly tight and that my eyes felt more wet than usual. Amy just smiled and did something, which, under normal conditions, would have at least made me flinch: she ran a hand over my head quills and kissed my forehead.

"Everything will work out eventually, Sonikku; I know it will."

That was the statement that sent me over the edge . . . Suffice it to say that I wound up bawling my eyes out for the next few hours. Oddly enough, it helped; I felt better afterwards and even called Tails to apologize. He was more than willing to forgive me; which is more than I could probably say if our situations were reversed. The kit has a good heart.

Sonic paused in his writing to look up at the clock. "Whew – I still have an hour. Maybe I'll get this finished after all." He stretched his arms out for a minute, then wiggled his fingers, trying to get some of the stiffness out of them. After about ten seconds, he went back to writing.

The second time Amy surprised me was about a month later. I was finally getting out of the hospital after a very long, not to mention extremely unpleasant and humiliating, stay. Unfortunately, despite being glad to be getting out of that place, I was not looking forward to returning to the world. One of the reasons I had been kept in the hospital for so long was that Robo Knux hadn't been content with just severing my spine – he decided to test the results of his 'operation' by seeing where I still had feeling. He did it in a manner typical of his sadistic personality: tearing into my legs, arms, and even once across my stomach.

I recovered, of course, but it left some pretty nasty scars that showed through my fur. Me being myself . . . well, it did not sit too well with this hedgehog. I was already having trouble enough thinking of the stares people would give me when they saw their hero in a wheelchair, without adding the stares I'd get because of my scars to them. Now, normally, I don't care what people think so much, and I'm not too bothered by things like that anymore, but at the time I was scared stiff.

I didn't breathe a word of this fear to anyone. Now, another thing you need to know, is that checking out of a hospital takes a long time. I was supposed to get out at eleven-thirty, but they didn't even give me the check out forms until noon.

Amy was with me again, but for some reason nobody else was; when I asked where Tails and Knuckles were Amy didn't really give me an answer. She just said they were busy and left it at that. The fact that they weren't there had me more than a little irritated, but it was overwhelmed by the anxiety I felt. (As it turns out, the reason why they weren't there is because they were setting up a party in the house they'd bought for me.)

Anyway, when the nurse came with the clipboard of forms to fill out, I was shaking so badly I could barely write.

"Sonikku, is everything all right?"

I blushed, ashamed of telling her what it was that had me so upset, and nodded. "Uh-huh, just ready to get out of this place is all."

She blinked, but seemed to take my word for it. "Okay. If you say so. Um, Sonikku?"

"Yeah, Amy?" I asked, trying to make sense of the forms I was holding, and not really paying attention to her.

"I need to run down to the store and pick something up really quick – will you be alright until I get back?"

I stopped writing and looked over at her. "What, exactly, are you needing to pick up?"

She didn't meet my eyes as she replied, "Just some . . . stuff. I should be less than an hour. I don't think you'll be out before then, do you?"

"No," I replied, miffed that she picked today of all days to go shopping. "Go ahead."

She smiled then, and hugged me, clipboard and all. "Thank you, Sonikku."

I was still blushing when she walked out the door.

While she was gone, I tried to concentrate on the forms I had to fill out, but my mind kept wondering to the ordeal that lay ahead. It insisted on running through every possible situation it could think of, none of them with good results. Finally, fifteen minutes and fifteen million mental scenarios later, I finished filling out the forms, gave them to the nurse that was on call, and tried to calm down. It didn't work.

Amy came back about half an hour after I finished the forms, and she was literally glowing. Surprisingly, she only held one shopping bag.

"Hi, Sonikku," She said, smiling. "Holding up okay?"

I nodded, hiding my hands behind my head so she couldn't see how badly they were shaking. "I'm cool. So, what was it you had to go buy, anyway?"

She smiled wider, if it were possible, and dumped the bag on my bed. "Something for you."

"Huh?" Was my intelligent reply.

"Just look in the bag, Sonikku," She replied, oozing patience with every syllable.

Curiosity getting the better of me, I pulled open the bag and peeked inside, then looked over at Amy. She must have noticed how confused I was, because she giggled. "Aren't you going take them out?" I did so, drawing out, one by one, a long-sleeved brown shirt, long black pants, and a bright green vest.

"Erm, Amy – what am I supposed to do with these?"

All right, I admit that was a pretty stupid question. But let's not forget that I was rather. . . distracted at the time.

"You wear them, silly!"

I looked at Amy, at the clothes, then at Amy again. "Okay . . . but, how?"

Now before you go and think this is another stupid question, you have to remember that up to this point I'd never worn anything other than my gloves, socks, shoes, and occasionally a jacket. So I had a right to be a little unsure in this situation.

Amy must have realized where I was coming from, because she grabbed the shirt from me. "Let me help you, Sonikku."

I'm . . . not going to go into how I responded to that suggestion. I wound up trying to do it myself and did okay with the shirt and vest, but I did wind up needing assistance on the pants, since I wasn't very good at working with my lifeless limbs a that point in time. (I wound up getting my male nurse to help, though – not Amy.)

Surprisingly, everything fit perfectly. How Amy knew what sizes I wore . . . let's just say there are some things everyone (Including myself) are better off not knowing.

"So why did you buy these, Amy?" The question was pretty much out of the blue, since Amy and I had been sitting in silence for the last few minutes, waiting for the orderly that would escort us to the exit, but it was a question that I was dying to know the answer to. Amy shrugged and looked away, as if she were thinking about it.

"Promise me you won't get mad, Sonikku?"

I blinked in confusion, "Okay, sure. I promise. But why?"

"I . . . saw how nervous you were today, and I thought it might have had something to do with your scars. I thought that if you had some nice clothes that covered them up, you might feel better and be able to calm down. I'm sorry if I was wrong, Sonikku. I just want you to feel better."

She sounded so dejected in her last sentence that I couldn't help myself – I reached over and took her hand. "They do help, Amy. Thanks."

Of course that would be when the orderly walked in. I dropped Amy's hand so fast it looked like I'd never been holding it. Not that it did anything about that fact that we were both blushing. The orderly, thank goodness, took no notice. She was a brown tabby cat, and had this huge smile on her face that looked like it'd been painted on – it reminded me of a clown's smile, to be honest.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Hedgehog – are you ready to get out of here?" The 'Mr. Hedgehog' comment made me wince (What was I? Forty?) but I decided to ignore it, for the moment. "You have all your forms filled out, right? And you understand that you're still going to need to come in regularly for checkups?"

I rolled my eyes, now definitely irritated. I did not appreciate being reminded of unpleasant subjects. "Yes, yes, and can I go now?"

"Sonikku!" Amy interjected, giving me a scolding look. She turned to the orderly and apologized, "Sorry, ma'am, Sonikku's just - "

The orderly waved her off, "No big deal; I'd want to get out of here too if I were him. Now, if you could just wait another minute while I go find a wheelchair. . ."

She started out of the room, but Amy caught up to her and stopped her.

"Um, ma'am? Could you," Amy looked over at me, and then whispered something I couldn't hear. The orderly smiled wider, nodded, and headed out of the room. As Amy came over and sat back down, I questioned her.

"What was that all about?"

"You'll see," She said, sounding immensely pleased with herself. It wasn't long before the orderly came back, pushing a wheelchair that was most definitely not hospital regulation. It was really flashy, and looked like the ones that athletes used. The seat part of it was bright red, and both the handles and wheels were a golden color. I thought for a second that it looked pretty cool. That's when I realized that it was mine – the one I would probably spend the rest of my life in, and it didn't look so flashy anymore.

I must have looked at depressed as I felt, because Amy came over and hugged me.

"Don't worry, Sonikku - it's okay if you don't like it that much. It's understandable."

She understood. About everything. And I never said a word to her about any of it.

That still surprises me today.

Sonic paused and read over what he'd just written. "This almost makes me want to gag – it's so sappy. Guess it's a good thing she likes this kind of stuff." He glanced at the clock again, then turned back to the notebook. "Wow – this is getting pretty long. And it's about to get longer," he sighed, putting pencil to paper once more.

It was six months ago when I finally realized how much I'd come to depend on Amy, and just how much I really needed her.

When I first got out of the hospital, I found out that my friends had pooled their funds to buy and modify the house next door to Amy's. To this day I don't know how much it cost, but it was probably pretty expensive, since it's a fairly large house, and the modifications to it to make it easier for me to live in couldn't have been cheap.

If I'd known about it beforehand, I most likely would have refused it, because I didn't see the point in having a house. Before, I didn't really have a "home", at least not in the traditional sense of the word. I just slept wherever I felt like, whenever I felt like it. Obviously, that area of my lifestyle underwent one of the biggest changes, and I'm extremely thankful my friends thought of it.

During those first few months, Amy could almost always be found at my house, mostly checking up on me and making certain I would eat, take medications and things like that. She had to, because I'd forget a lot. I was still pretty moody most of the time back then, although I was starting to get depressed a little less often. I'd like to say the reason I've recovered so well is because of me, and my personal philosophy of not focusing on the past, but that would be a lie. I did a lot of 'focusing on the past', and still have a tendency to do so on certain occasions.

Amy was the glue that held me together, and she still is. Without her, I would fall apart at the seams. At that time, I didn't realize just how much I needed her; I took her for granted. I knew that she was always around, keeping me alive, cheering me up, etc., but I didn't realize what would happen if she wasn't there.

I think that's why it was so hard on me when she left.

For most of the time I'd been recovering, Eggman had been pretty quiet – it was almost like he'd given up on conquering the world, now that his main obstacle was out of the way. Who knows what his reasons were, but the fact remains that for six months, nothing happened. I was too focused on my own problems at that point to worry about what Eggman was doing, but I don't know what to say for the others. Probably it was the same thing.

Well, whatever the reason, we let our guards down, just long enough for Eggman to make his move. Tails was the first one to spot the 'bots. Oddly enough, they weren't new inventions or anything – they were the same design he'd used in his last take-over attempt. I guess he thought he didn't need to upgrade, what with me out of the way. The first thing Tails did was try to contact Amy.

This meant he had to reach her at my house; something he didn't want to do. I didn't know it, but Tails, Amy, and Knuckles had all agreed that if Eggman were to cause trouble, they were to keep news of it from me at all costs. They didn't want me to hurt myself trying to do something I couldn't do. I can't say I blame them – they meant well, after all.

Still, Tails didn't have much of a choice, so he went ahead and called my house, hoping that Amy would answer the phone. Unfortunately for him, that wasn't what happened.

"Hello?"

"H-hey, Sonic."

"Hey, little bro'. What's up?"

I was bored at the time, and looking for a distraction, so I was really eager to talk to Tails. But for some reason I couldn't help but think that Tails sounded nervous about talking to me. Maybe it was the slight hesitance in his voice when he replied,

"Oh, nothing much. Is Amy there? 'Cause I really, really need to talk to her."

Now I knew something was up – Tails 'really, really needed' to talk to Amy? That put my senses on alert, but not as much as when I went to find Amy in the kitchen, where she was baking some kind of brownies, and handed her the phone, saying that Tails wanted to speak with her.

At first, she smiled, "Hey Tails; what's going on?" Then her face darkened, "Uh-oh; really? How many? . . . You're kidding! Not even he would send out that many – no, no, you were right to ask me. Sure, I'll help; have you contacted Knuckles yet? Yeah; we can meet there. Do you know of someone who could stay with – Oh, Vanilla? Yeah, that would be a good idea. I'll give her a call now. Yes, I'll be there in about fifteen minutes, give or take. Take care! Bye."

She hung up the phone and frowned at it for a minute. I was definitely alarmed now, and stopped her before she could start dialing Vanilla Rabbit's phone number.

"All right, what's going on?"

I think I scared her, because she jumped about a foot in the air at my question. Her mouth opened and closed a few times with nothing coming out, making her look like a fish out of water. Then she smiled, but if she meant it to reassure me, then it didn't work, because it looked like someone had pasted it on.

"N-nothing! Nothing's going on! Why would you ask that, Sonikku?"

I may not always be the smartest hedgehog around, but I'm not an idiot. I knew what she was trying to hide, and had an idea of why she was trying to hide it from me. (Admittedly, that idea was way off base, but oh well, you can't win them all.)

"It's Eggman, isn't it?"

Although she said, "No," I could tell by the way her voice shook that it was. I just stared at her until finally she sighed and gave in.

"Yes, Sonikku. It is. Tails wants me to go help fight him; it's going to take everyone we can round up to stop him this time."

"You can't go!" It was out of my mouth before I really knew what I was saying. Honestly, I didn't know how much I meant it until I had said it and was staring up at Amy's shocked face, my own flushed with embarrassment.

"Sonikku?" The only emotion in her voice was concern.

"Uh – what I mean is – are you sure it's really a good idea for you to go? If something happened, I wouldn't be there to protect you and - "

". . . Do you not think I can take care of myself?" She questioned, eyes flashing in anger. Oops. Wrong thing to say.

I shook my head rapidly, "No, that's not what I meant at all! What I meant was . . . what I meant. . ." Knowing what I wanted to say didn't make it any easier, especially when Amy frowned in worry.

"You can tell me, Sonikku. You know that."

" . . . I just . . . I don't think I could handle it if something happened to you, all right? I," I paused, my ears flattening out as I scowled, angry at myself both for the way I felt and for being such a coward about confessing. "You're the only . . . . the only thing that keeps me alive anymore, Amy. If I lost you . . . well, I don't think I could stand it." I couldn't look at her, and found my eyes watering, which only added to my embarrassment.

"Oh, Sonikku. . ." All of a sudden Amy was kissing me – and not on the forehead or the cheek either. It didn't last very long; after a few seconds she pulled away and I could see that she was crying. "I . . . Sonikku, I have to go."

I sighed, looking away, "I know you do. It's just – if I could be out there. . ."

She smiled then, "You will someday, Sonikku. I'm sure of it."

Nothing was said between us after that. Amy called Vanilla, who agreed to come over and keep me company, although I wasn't too thrilled about that. After that, she left, and I watched her go, feeling like the most useless thing on the face of the planet for not being able to help. I don't want to think about how hard a time I must have given Vanilla – I felt so pathetic, was so worried, and was so angry about not being able to help out that I was a pain to be around. I know I yelled at her more than a few times; I'm just glad she was so patient with me.

But you know what? They wound up defeating him anyway. Somehow they managed to get Rouge and Shadow both to help – how they did it, I'll never know. They didn't come out of it completely unscathed, (Tails had a laser wound on his left side, Knuckles limped for about a week and a half, and Amy's left arm was in a sling for two weeks – I flipped out when I first saw it. I don't know if Shadow or Rouge were hurt; I never saw them.) but they did it. I thought I'd be disappointed that I hadn't really been needed, but frankly, I was just glad it was over.

Sonic wiped a bit of sweat from his forehead and checked the clock again. "Oh man, she'll be here any second and I'm not ready!" He hurriedly turned back to his notebook and wrote a few more paragraphs. He had just laid the pencil down and breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the front door creak open.

"Sonikku?"

"In here, Ames!" He called, waving to her through the open bedroom door. Amy blushed at the nickname as she walked inside, a vaguely concerned look on her face. She was dressed in much the same way as she always did, save that her quills had grown much longer.

"Why did you want me to wait to come over until now, Sonikku? You've had me worried. . ."

Sonic grinned, and pushed himself away from his writing desk, wheeling himself over to his girlfriend. "Sorry for worrying you, but I think you'll like what I've got to show for it."

"A present, Sonikku? You shouldn't have!"

Sonic laughed, hoping he didn't sound as nervous as he felt, "Well, it's not exactly a present. Could you read through that notebook on my writing desk and tell me what you think?"

Amy rolled her eyes in mock exasperation, "I should have known the only reason you wanted to see me was to get me to edit one of your stories!"

Sonic shrugged, "Hey, you were the one who got me into writing, remember?"

"It was supposed to be therapeutic – I didn't know you'd turn into a novelist!"

"Funny how people change, isn't it?" Sonic said with a straight face, but he couldn't keep the laughter out of his eyes.

Amy sighed, "Fine, fine, I'll read it." She made a show up stomping over to the desk, picking up the notebook and nonchalantly flipping through the pages, but eventually started reading it for real. When her eyes fell on the last few paragraphs, they widened in shock. She blinked, and stared at Sonic, who was grinning like a madman the whole time, then turned back to the last few paragraphs. "Is this .. . some sort of joke, Sonikku?"

Sonic shook his head. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Ames."

She shoved the notebook in his face, and pointed to a particular section. Her voice was shaking.

"I mean this! . . . Do you . . .really mean it?"

Sonic looked at the section Amy had pointed out, the section he had hastily scribbled down just before she walked in the door, and read it over.

I guess what I'm trying to say, more than anything else, is that I had to have everything that defined me stripped away before I could really begin to see what I needed to see. I have no doubt that if my life hadn't been changed so drastically and so suddenly, I would never have really known Amy Rose.

I certainly wouldn't have fallen in love with her – not the real her, anyway. Maybe with the version of Amy I saw, but it wouldn't have been the real thing, and I don't doubt it wouldn't have lasted very long. I dunno; maybe I'm being pessimistic. I do think it would have taken a lot longer for me to grow up; things like this have a way of speeding up the maturing process.

As it is, though, I did fall in love with her, and I fell in love with the real Amy – the Amy that's smart, brave, determined, and the most understanding individual I've ever known. The main reason I'm writing this, though, isn't so much to describe Amy's good points (Of which she has many), or to sing her praises (Although it might seem like it here and there), or even just to tell a story.

The main reason I'm writing this is to ask a question. Amy, if you're reading this (I know you are.), look in the right-hand drawer of my writing desk, then read the question written below. No peeking at it until you've looked in the desk, now!

Sonic smiled, "I think you'd better follow my directions."

"Will you explain then, Sonikku?" Amy asked, even as she dropped the notebook on Sonic's lap and turned to open the drawer. "You're not making any se - " She fell silent as she pulled out a small, velvet covered box. "Is this . . . is this what I think it is?"

"It depends on what you think it is," Sonic replied, eyes dancing.

Amy hesitantly opened the box, to reveal a ring studded with rubies and emeralds, formed in the shape of a rose. She gasped, her eyes appearing three times larger than their normal size.

"This must have cost a fortune! Is this what you spent all of that money from your book on, Sonikku?"

Sonic seemed to smile even wider, if it were possible, "You'll never know for sure unless I tell you." Suddenly his smile disappeared, replaced by a look Amy couldn't identify. "Do you have an answer to my question?" He asked, handing her back the notebook, opened to the last written page.

She glanced over it and blinked, "What question are you talking about, Sonikku?"

He blinked, "The one in the notebook – wait, don't tell me I forgot to write it!" He groaned.

Amy giggled, "It doesn't matter – I know what your question was, and the answer's yes."

Sonic didn't seem to hear her, "And I had it worked out so well, too! I can't believe I forgot to write it down!"

"Sonikku."

"After all the time I spent planning this, I manage to mess it up within five minutes!"

"Sonikku!"

"This is just great – does nothing work out on this planet!"

"Sonic!"

Finally, Sonic snapped out of his private world and looked up at Amy, the embarrassment on his face easy to see. "Ames, I'm sorry. . . this isn't going how I wanted it to at all. I - "

Amy sighed, "I know what your question is Sonikku; it really doesn't matter, though, because the answer's yes."

"Yes what?" Sonic asked, playing the ignorant once again.

"Yes I will marry you!"

Later that evening, after all of their friends had been duly informed, Amy and Sonic sat together on Sonic's couch, Sonic having been hauled onto it by Amy. Amy was stroking Sonic's quills and Sonic was fiddling with hers. Sonic had been in a state of mild shock all day, unable to completely believe that Amy had accepted him even though he was nothing like he once was. They had been sitting there, lost in a comfortable silence for about an hour when Sonic broke the silence

"Hey Amy, do you think Tails will ever figure out how to build that invention?"

"The one that will make you walk?"

Sonic sighed, his eyes going glassy as his mind turned inward. "Uh-huh . . ."

Amy paused in her rhythmic stroking and thought for a minute. "I honestly don't know, Sonikku. I wish I could say yes, for his sake as much as yours because he's trying so hard, but since he keeps getting interrupted whenever Eggman attacks . . . if he does, it's still a long while off." Sonic closed his eyes and leaned back against Amy, but opened them again a few minutes later when he heard Amy sigh sadly.

"What's wrong, Ames?"

She turned to look out the window, frowning. "Sonikku . . . do you ever regret the choice you made that night?"

Sonic thought about it for several minutes, then replied slowly, ". . . Robo Knux's goal that night wasn't to kill me, you know; it was to destroy me by taking away what I loved the most."

"Then . . . he succeeded, didn't he?"

Sonic smiled, shifting his weight so he could pull his fiancée's face down to his for a kiss.

"No, Ames. He didn't."

-End-