ONE MONTH LATER
Lately , Amy had begun noticing changes in her body. Her waist line seemed to be expanding at an astonishing rate, and her strange wishes for strange foods was also noted. She would wonder around the house, with a dreamy expression on her face and sigh accationally. For her, she was in heaven. Her dream had come true. But she couldn't help but think about what Sonic was thinking, as he never mentioned anything about it to her, and if she was really ready for this leap in their relationship. The thoughts that came to her about that subject were not good, so she decided to only focass on the good things and push any negative events out of her mind.
The slam of a door and sudden gust of wind told Amy that her hero was indeed home. She rushed over to him and seized him in a hug almost as soon as he had appeared in the living room.
" Woah! Take it easy Amy!" He said, now well over the shock of her little announcement, by now, the worry had set in. They still hadn't told the others, as Amy wanted them to figure out out for themselves. Sonic was just plain embarrissed, but didn't tell Amy this of course.
" Sonic!" Screamed Amy, her eyes shining with maternal glee.
" What?" He replied, raising a brow.
" It's started showing! Look, I have a bump!" She squeled, lifting up her shirt and showing him. Sonic was sweating underneath his fur, mainly becuase Amy was a completly different person since becoming pregnant. But also becuase he was in no way ready to become a father. He stared at her expectant face for a while, wondering what to say to his wife. He couldn't tell any different from what Amy usualy looked like, and what was he suposed to say anyway?
" That's...er, great" he muttered, dissapointing Amy. The hedgehogs cheerful face dropped and she said
" For god sake Sonic! At least show some interest in me! Arn't you proud of what i've done?". Sonic was barely holding back his emotions. The stress that he was containing within him was about to escape. It was only going to take one last thing to push him over the edge. One spark to start the fire. And, unfortunatly, Amy was that spark. " Honestly Sonic! Im not suposed to be stressed in my condition!" She nagged, folding her arms and frowning in disaproval. Sonic clenched his fist as he heard Amy say the words that she had been repeated everyday since he found out. He couldn't take it any longer. Finnaly he burst out
" For god sake Amy! Theres nothing wrong with you! How can I be proud of you if you havn't done anything! Pregnancy is a fuckin' natural process so shut the hell up about it!" He almost screamed. Amy stared at him in shock. He realised he had sworn. He never ever swore unless he was incredably upset. Amy looked as she had physically been hit. Her eyes began to glass over as their corners leaked tears. She finnaly realised why Sonic had been avoiding her, seeming to be in his own little world when he was around, why he suddenly refused to even kiss her properly anymore. He didn't want the baby. " Amy, i'm sorry. I didn't mean-"he stuttered, now realising what he had done. He did care about Amy, but he still wasn't anywhere near ready to become a father. But it was too late, the damage was done when Amy began to cry.
" You don't want this do you?" She sobbed quietly, her voice shaking more by the second. Sonic didn't know what to say, he did love Amy, but he wasn't sure if he wanted a baby. Amy gave a small gasp and her shoulders shook pathetically as the tears came faster and faster. With speed Sonic was surprised at, Amy rushed towards the door, not knowing where she was going, just that she wanted to get away from Sonic. In panic, the blue hedgehog slipped forward and grabbed onto Amy's arm forcefully, his grip hard against her skin. " Let go of me!" She squeled and swung round, smashing her palm into Sonics cheek. The force of the impact wasn't the reason Sonic let go, it was becuase of the fact that Amy had hit him. She NEVER hit him, ever. To her, he couldn't do any wrong and stricking him would be like heracy. But there he stood, with a sting on is cheek, and a wife who was fast leaving the house. He didn't even try to stop her, the shock of the slap had forced him into stillness, as his mind cried out when Amy left.
" Sonic you idiot. You've blown it already!" He said to himself with self loathing. He slouched over to the wall and started banging his head heavily on the plaster board.
The next few hours passed horrendosly slow and Sonic had no idea where Amy was. A thousand different situations ran through his head, none of them seemed to end with Amy safe. He paced the living room, not doing anything except wishing for Amy's safe return. He slouched on the sofa, staring at the same spot on the floor that he had been for the last 30 minetes. He sighed and closed his eyes, but opened them again soon after. It was nearly christmas and their house was decorated in colourful banners, chaines and a large christmas tree that stood proudly in the corner of the room, holding up all of it's decorations and wearing it's shining star. But even though the atmosphere was a cheerful one, Sonic just couldn't bring his mind to think any kind of positive thought.
The sound of a the door handle turned made Sonic snap out of his depressing trance and tried to stand up on his stiff legs. He swallowed when he saw Amy make her way timidly into the living room and sit on the chair opposite to the one he had just been occupying. Sonic sunk back into it and stared at the floor. There was a long, uncomfertable science where both hegdehogs tried to think of something suitable to say.
It was Amy who made the first move, or rather , first sentance.
" I can still abort you know". This made Sonic tear his glance away from the carpet and look Amy directly in the eye. Her fur was matted with dry tears, a lot of them. He immidiatly felt a twindge of guilt at the pain he had caused Amy and his pupils dilated at the thought of Amy aborting, it wasn't fair, but the other option wasn't the most attrative either.
" Amy, I can't let you do that. I've been fighting all my life against people who kill selfishly, and if I did that myself, i'd be just as bad as Robotnic. But..." He said, hesitating and stopping his sentance.
" But your not ready to be a father" said Amy, finishing his sentance. Sonic winced at the word father. He was still getting used to the fact that he and Amy were living together, acting like all couples who had just got married do. He didn't want that to stop that life, he didn't want to have to be chained to the house to look after the baby, but he didn't want to kill his own child either.
" Ok Amy. I'll stay with you, i'll help you with this as much as I can-" Amy's face lit up. " But just let me get used to all this before we start talking about anything heavy, this is a lot for me to handle" he finished. Amy frowned and said
" Havn't you thought about how I feel about all of this?". This caught Sonic off guard, he realised he really hadn't, and admitted it with a shack of his head. This ashamed him as Amy must have been under a terrible amount of stress as well, but covering it up with her cheerful spirit. Sonic thought about how he had been a fool to not see the mask Amy had been using. Looking at her now, her face was full of locked up worry and guilt, anciety and stress. He had been thinking selfishly all this time, as Amy waited for his approval of what had happened.
" I'm sorry Amy, I don't know what else to say" Sonic muttered, his voice guilt filled.
" Say you'll be here for me" she said in an equally low voice. Sonic swallowed and nodded uneasily. Both hedgehogs knew it would take some time to adjust to this new reality. Amy just hoped Sonic would get used to it before she became heavily pregnant, when she would need his full attention.
THE NEXT WEEK
It was christmas day. Amy had accepted that Sonic needed time to get used to the new situation and decided not to say too much about how she felt or the baby. It wasn't as is she wanted it to be this way though. They would have to talk about it at some point. Time was running out for Amy to abort if Sonic decided that he really wasn't ready, and after that Amy knew that she would have to convince him to talk about it too her, hoping by then he would have come to accept what had happened.
Both Seth and Draco continued to grow in a very noticable rate. The hedgehog baby was now just over 5 months old, and his chubby face was already taking on the unmistackable shape of his fathers. Seth was looking incredably like both parents, which seemed to surprise everyone. None of them thought that it was possible for a creature to look like such a perfect merge of two different species. But little Seth proved them wrong. His wings were still very small and his spines very short. But Rouge ashured Knuckles that bats wings only really start growing properly at puberty, while the echindna told Rouge that echidna spines grew very slowly, which is why he never cut his.
Both Siberia and Amy had reglected to tell anyone else that they were expecting. With Siberia, she didn't really need to, as it was pretty obvios to anyone when she had something on that was fairly tight around her. Amy seemed to want to hide it as much as possible however. It was dawning on her that she was scared and nervous of telling everyone, becuase she knew Knuckles would tease Sonic, and Sonic wasn't in a particularly secure about the situation already. He didn't need his freind and rival to be making fun of him.
For the first time in at least half a year. The whole gang gathered at a party at Vectors house for a christmas party. Tails was looking more of a man every day, with his frindge growing into fine long hair and his height increasing so it topped his girlfreind, Talims. He also seemed to be bulking up, as his golden fur bulged beneath with muscles, his stick like arms long gone. He also seemed to be getting more of an attitide everyday. When Sonic would remind him to be careful with Talim, he wouls snap at Sonic and tell him not too politly to mind his own buissness.
Everyone had turned up, except for one person. Espio. Vector wasn't to pleased about him missing the party, as he claimed to have spent a large amount of monney on the gift he got for the ex-ninja camilion. But Knuckles had a sneaking suspition that he missed his old freind, the feeling was mutual. Ever since the camilion had gone on his honney moon with his bride, the extroidinary water dragon Aquariun, no one had seen or heard from him. They doughted the honney moon was this long, and Knuckles started to wonder whether Espio was living in Aquariuns forest home, perminatly.
" I'm sure Espio will come back soon" comferted Seringhetti to the brooding Vector. Before the guess arrived he had tacken advantage of the crowdless drinks table, and needless to say he wasn't thinking entirerly accuratly at that point.
" He was my best pal in the world ever! I remember when we was stuck on a case, he would always come along and stare at it for a second. It was so funny how he did that! And then, after he had stared some more, he would click his fingers and he'd know what was going on! Now he's lost in the woods with some dragon thing, doing good knows what..." He rambled desperatly. Knuckles grinned and walked over, saying
" Hey! Don't worry Vec, we're her right?". He knudged the crododile playfully, hoping to cheer him up. It worked, becuase Vector dropped his beer can and got up quickly.
" Yeah! Who needs him when I have all my other best freinds?". Charmy hovered above and squeked in his annoyingly childish voice
" What me?"
" Let's party lads!" Yelled Vector completly ignoring the hyper active bee. With that he switched on the karioki machine and started droning into it rather badly. But at least he was having fun.
Seth and Draco were placed together in the play pen that Shadow bought with him so he could keep Draco out of trouble. The little hedgehog babies eyes fixed on Seth and he froze, giving him a look as if he was annoyed that Seth had intruded into his territory. But the little bachidna didn't seem to notice, and simply started chewing his toes in a careless matter. Draco watched in wonder as he saw for the first time a creature that wasn't ten times bigger than him. Seth didn't seem to care. The two sat and lay there for a few seconds, until Draco got curios and crawled over to the strange red thing that was intruding in his home. Seth didn't notice until Draco was right next to him, and he dropped his toe and stared at the other baby too. Draco reached forward cautiosly and poked Seth between the eyes. Seth watched his finger until he was cross eyed, and sneezed Dracos finger off of his face. Draco was scared by this and quickly withdrew his hand, backing up a little and continuing to stare at the other baby. Seths mouth hung open from his sneeze, his eyes slowly closed and he feel on his front, asleep. Draco stared for a few more seconds, before crawling next to him and laying down , almost certain to fall asleep next to his new found compainion . He thought Seth was one of his teady bears, it didn't matter if it moved.
" Shadow! Come and look!" Yelled Siberia across the room when she saw the two babies snoozing together. Shadow walked over and looked over the railing of the play pen, raising an eyebrow at the two little boys. " Arn't they cute?". Shadow shrugged and said
" I supose so".
" I hope Draco is as nice to our other child" she mumbled quietly and couldn't help but lay a hand on her belly". Shadow nodded absentmindidly, remembering the secret he was planning to keep from Siberia until she found out herself. Vector spotted the two standing quietly at the play pen in the corner of his eye. He stopped his horrible rapping and stared at them for a while. He noticed how Siberia happened to be putting on weight again, and that she was acting all dreamy again, just like he saw her like when she was pregnant with Draco.
" Hey Vector! Why'd you stop?" Asked Charmy, who had suddenly appeared hovering over his shoulder. Vector came out of his trance and started rapping again, much to the dissaproval of almost everyone in the room. He wouldn't tell anyone, he wasn't exactly sure himself anyway, and would have embarrissed himself if Siberia wasn't pregnant. He chuckled at the thought, imagining him wondering up to her and casually asking when it was due, and getting a slap from Siberia then a chaos blast from Shadow.
Meanwhile , Sonic had dragged Tails and Knuckles into another room to talk to them in private.
" So what's up blue dude?" Asked Knuckles, as he senced Sonic's ancios behavior and almost frightened voice. Sonic closed the door and sat on one of the chairs in the bedroom, while Knuckles and Tails sat on the edge of the velvet sheeted bed. Vector sure knew how to live in luxery. Sonic shifted around anciosly before procedding nervously with
" Guys. I need you to keep this a secret. And for god sake Knuckles don't laugh!". Knuckles straightened his face in it's most serious position and said
" All right Sonic, I promise". Sonic gave them a quick once over. He seemed to be shaking slighty, before taking a long, haggered breath and saying
" Me and Amy are having a baby". There was silence. Tails genuinly looked shocked, while Knuckles struggled to keep a straight face. He bit his lip and grinded his teeth, but in the end it was no use, a huge bellow of a laugh erupted from his mouth.
" Ahahahaha! Sonic's gonna be a daddy! That's rich! And with Amy too!". Sonic felt himself loose control and got up in fury, striding over to Knuckles and grabbing him around the scruff of the neck. " SHUT THE HELL UP!" He screamed, saliver flying out of his mouth. Infuriated , Sonic hocked Knuckles around the jaw with his fist, making sure the echidna stopped laughing and was flung backwards onto the bed.
It took a while for the echidna to react. He reached up and felt his sore cheek with his huge hand, rubbing it slightly.
" You prick!" He said in a somewhat astonished tone. Sonic was standing , breathing heavily as he stared at his struck freind. It didn't take long for Knuckles to become enraged. He flipped off the bed with a quick flick of his legs and charged forward, jumping at Sonic and knocking the hedgehog off of his feet. " Why'd you hit me!" He demanded, his cheek stinging with a red tint.
" You laughed! I told you not to laugh!" Sonic yelled into the echidnas face, causing his dreadlocks to waver a little at the sudden rush of air. Tails watched, unsure in the corner. He got ready incase the two rivels decided to get violent and he needed to interfer.
" That doesn't give you an excust to take your anger out on me!" Yelled the echidna back. His deep voice proving to be quite inntimidating. Sonic came to his sences and tried to push the echidna off, but Knuckles wouldn't budge. Despite his anger he was finding it quiet amusing to see Sonic trapped like he was. He liked being in control.
" Get off you smelly animal!" Said Sonic, saying the sentance with more spite than perhaps it disserved. Knuckles tried to hide his grin an said
" Say pretty please!". Sonic growled in discust and was about to strick Knuckles again, when Tails intervened and pulled the heavy echidna away from Sonic. He put himself between the raging hedgehog and the sniggering echinda and made sure they were seperated with his hands, hopefully preventing any further halm.
" Look! Sonic has decided to tell us this and only us, so he obviosly trusts us and he's under a lot of stress, so laughing was a stupid thing to do!" Tails nagged in Knuckles direction. Sonic couldn't help but smirk and yell
" Ha!" In Knuckles direction. Tails turned to him and said
" And you! I know your stressed, but there was no reason to hit him!". Sonic pouted and slouched onto the floor. Knuckles realised just how serious the situation was and sighed. Sonic must have been feeling exactly how he felt when Rouge told him that Seth was on the way, and realised how embarrissed he was when Soic laughed in his face about.
" I'm sorry for laughing at you and knocking you over" mumbled Knuckles, who never did like appologising. Sonic would have normally let out a little snigger and replied
" I'm sorry for hitting you and calling you a smelly animal". Tails , sencing there was no more danger of insultes and fists flying, dropped his arms and resumed his seat on the bed. Knuckles did the same as Sonic slouched onto the floor. It was all serious now, as Knuckles tone indicated.
" So, Amy's pregnant. Your getting a kid, what's the problem?" The echidna asked, although he was pretty sure he already knew.
" What's the problem? I don't wanna be a father, that's the problem!" Burst out Sonic. Knuckles grinded his teeth. If Sonic didn't want it , then there was nothing more any of them could do, but that wouldn't have been very good advice.
" How about, just for now, we forget this? It's christmas day! We should have fun, not be worrying! Plus if we just stayed in this bedroom all day the rest of them lot would get suspisious" said Tails, provoding a solution. Knuckles got up and said
" I don't want to know what you mean by that" he said to Tails, who raised a eyebrow. They both left through the door and left Sonic sitting in the corner on his own. He sighed and lazily got to his feet, dragging himself out of the bedroom.
Authors notes
Thank you all for you fantastic reviews last chapter, i enjoyed reading everyone of them and please keep them up, as i will answer all of them certanly. Hmmm. i just realised how much of this chpater was about Sonic, but dont worry knuckles fans out there, there is plently of action for him, Rouge and his little son Seth! but it will come later. Happy new year!