Chapter 16
2 months later
Knuckles shifted from his place curled up on the settee as the children in his belly became restless. He looked down at his large stomach as the children didn't settle but continued to move, he stood to walk to the bathroom, but a gush of water going down his legs and his stomach contracting stopped him.
"So that's why your restless" he said stroking his stomach, it was time for the birth but first he needed to find the fathers, carefully he walked into the nursery before calling them over their bond before another contraction hit him, he reached for the phone.
"Hello powers residence?" came Tails voice.
"Hey Tails, can you get Sarah up here please" asked Knuckles calmly "I've started having contractions"
"Yes yes we'll be right there" said Tails sounded panicked, Before the phone went dead. Knuckles stood by the window watching as two blurs came rushing towards the house, once again the blue one slightly in front of the black, Knuckles heard the door open and closed as a call of "knuckles?" rang through the house, the Echidna walked over to the top of the stairs and looked down.
"What's the matter?" asked Shadow.
"nothing much" smiled Knuckles "I've just started having contractions"
"oh is that all" sighed Sonic before registering what he had said "contractions!"
"go and lie down" ordered Shadow walking up the stairs towards Knuckles.
"Shadow I have hours left, I've called Tails he's brining Sarah. I'll lay down when they start to get painful" said Knuckles.
4 hours later
Knuckles walked around the Nusery holding his stomach, the condraction had began become more frequent and the pain had increased, Knuckles knew the time was close but Tales and Sarah had yet to arrive. Sonic was in the kitchen gathering water and a towel (doing what he had seen in the movies) Whie Shadow sat in the nursery watching his husband pace.
"Are you alright?" asked the black hedgehog moving over to Knuckles drawing him into his arms.
"I'm just a bit worried, I've never seen a birth of my kind" said Knuckles holding tightly as another contraction hit him. "I just want to get it over with" he moaned has he pulled away to lay down on his side, Shadow moved to spoon up beside him, rubbing his paw over Knuckles Stomach to try and ease the pain.
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"AHHHHHHHH" Came a yell that echoed though the house as Tails opened the door leading Sarah in, they started for the stairs thinking that the shout had been Knuckles, they met Shadow on the stairs holding his paw, but Sarah could see it was dripping with blood.
"What happened?" asked Tails
"disagreement" murmured the dark hedgehog. Sarah looked at his hand and revealed the wound to be a bite and very deep.
"He's gone slightly feral. I thought this could happen" said the Doctor "I suggest that you, Sonic and Tails stay down here, make some food or something while I help Knuckles."
Shadow reluctantly agreed, watching as the Squirrel walk towards the nursery, turning his back he walked to the kitchen. Ten minutes later Sonic came in holding his cheek.
"Punched" he said as he collected some ice from the freezer and pressed it to his cheek.
"is he alright?" asked Tails when he heard a yell.
"He's gonna be in pain, but him being in protective mode isn't gonna help" said Shadow.
"He'll call if he needs us" said Sonic sitting down at the breakfast bar watching Shadow cook.
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Knuckles was proped up on cusions and staring at the Doctor who had ordered him to keep still as she drew his legs apart to check what was going on.
"the channel is ready and you feel the need to push?" she asked.
"Yes" gasped Knuckles as he resisted pushing.
"Next time that feeling comes.. Push!" she said. Knuckles pushed the next time that it happened, he felt something move so he pushed again, Sarah saying encouraging words to him that where lost in the vortex of pain and his own loud yells.
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Shadow and Sonic paced about having made food enough to feed an army, half an hour after Sarah had arrived nurses had come up the room and all filed into the room where there was a lot of yelling and growling, followed by a little sound of crying.
"That's has to be the fourth time that's happened" said Sonic listening to a baby cry. Shadow just shrugged thinking he was exaggerating and continued to pace. 3 parts of an hour later Sarah and the nurses walked out the nursery and down the stairs.
"your family awaits you" she said looking at the overjoyed fathers who raced upstairs into the nursery. Sonic opened the door wide revealing the room on each side of the bed was 3 cots all holding a small baby happily asleep, in the centre of the bed was knuckles curled up asleep his features tired and his fur messed up. Sonic looked over to his other lover before walking to Knuckles who woke with the sound of their approach, smiling tiredly at them.
"at least we didn't just have the one" he said quietly. Sonic smiled and sat beside him.
"hey how are you?" he asked holding the Echidna's hand.
"tired, its not easy giving birth" said Knuckles struggling to get up, Shadow moved to help him.
"I guess Blue is boys and Pink is girls?" he asked as he put a cushion behind Knuckles. Knuckles nodded in a yes and closes his eyes leaning against Sonics shoulder, before shaking his head and sitting back up.
"Names? What we gonna call them?" asked Sonic.
"Well we could look at each of them and think of a name for them?" suggested Shadow "the carve them into their cots so we don't forget"
Sonic nodded before moving to get the first child. "it's a boy" he stated wrapping the blue blanket around him more. Sonic brought him over to sit with them so they could all see him. The baby opened his eyes to reveal bright violet eyes, he was covered in a blacky blue fur that spiked at the back, he gave a yawn revealing his toothless mouth.
"Knuckles Jr?" asked Sonic looking at him.
"No" said Knuckles "no juniors, one of us is bad enough"
"How about Collin?" said Shadow.
"Cole" said Knuckles looking at the child.
"Cool, I like that" smiled Sonic and Shadow nodded and smiled.
"we better write this down" said the dark furred hedgehog before he left the room for some paper, but first going down stairs seeing the nurses and Sarah loading up the vans they had come in.
"Thank you Sarah" he smiled brightly at her.
"just doing my Job" she smiled back.
"come back and visit anytime" he said shaking her hand.
"I will, I'll come in a couple of weeks to check everything is going okay, Knuckles will be weak for a couple of days so if the children cries you get it and try and let Knuckles sleep, I'm not sure how he will feed them but Knuckles had ordered a lot of milk so I'm guessing they are bottle feed. If there are any questions ask Knuckles he should have some idea"
"thanks again" said Shadow as he shut the door, seeing Tales sat in the Kitchen. "come on kid" he said as he trudge back upstairs. Tails brightened and followed holding the paper and pen Shadow had handed him.
"you can write the signs for the names" he said as he lead the fox to the nursery where knuckles was cuddling up to Sonic.
"cute" beamed Tails looking at all the cots "there's soo many"
"it felt like more" muttered Knuckles shifting the baby in his arms. "hey Cole this is Uncle Tails" showing the child to Tails. The two tailed fox looked at the child wonder in his eyes before he wrote it down on the paper and slipped into the bottom of the cot.
"you want to put him back?" said Shadow taking the bundle from Knuckles and handing him to Tales who gently placed him down before looking to seek permission to pick up the next one.
The Next child was a wake and looking around, it was wrapped in a pink blanket. She made a little gurgle as she was handed to knuckles who looked down at her, she had red fur like her bearer but with black paws and her eyes where bright blue.
"Angel?" said Sonic looking into her eyes,
"No that's Knuckles, what about Scarlet?" said Shadow looking at the others, Knuckles looked down at the child.
"hey Scarlet" he whispers as the child looked at him.
"that's a sweet name" said Sonic in agreement, Scarlet was put back in her cot and next one was handed over, once again a girl who seemed to glare at Tails when he picked her up.
"must be tired" said Tales as he handed her over to Knuckles who looked down at the girl, who had black fur with blue paws, and scarlet eyes that seemed to glare at everyone for disturbing her sleep.
"Joanna" said Shadow, Knuckles shook his head.
"Jazmine?" he said but then shook his head again.
"Quinn?" said Sonic as he stroked her cheek, her eyes closed.
"I like it" said Knuckles looking down at her "Hello little Quinn" he asked getting a rumble in return as she had fallen asleep. Quinn was taken back to her cot by Shadow who was entranced by her. Sonic picked up the next child wrapped in a blue blanket as he carried him over the child curled up into the blanket and quietly watched the world around him. Shadow looked at his second son who had blue fur like Sonic with red and black alternative paws ad bright purple eyes which was watching them.
"Johnny?" suggested Sonic looking at him.
"Ciran" said Shadow.
"how about Trowa?" Said Tales looking at the child who gurgled at the name.
"I think he likes that name" chuckled Knuckles yawning.
"Trowa it is then" beamed Sonic with Shadows nod of approval.
"next" said Shadow "no wonder your tired angel" he said to Knuckles who gave him a wide yawn in reply. The Next child was picked up its blue blanket securely around it, its dark blue eyes looking at Tails before it smiled and his purple fur flecked with blue and black paw reached out for Tails' nose.
"hey little one" said Tails as he handed the boy over to Knuckles who found one of his dreadlocks caught in the little ones hand.
"Gribber?" said Sonic
"Reimond?" said Shadow places his finger for the boy to hold on to.
"Rei" said Knuckles unwrapping Rei's hand from his hair, and holding out a finger.
"I like" said Sonic smiling.
"only one more to go" said Shadow as he picked up the last child as Tails held Rei. The last child gave a cry as he was picked up but soon quieted down when he was given to Knuckles, his black eyes tired but alert, he had red, blue and black patched fur with purple paws.
"Matthew?" said Shadow, Knuckles wrinkled his nose.
"Matt?" he suggested and the other shrugged.
"Yamato?" suggested Tails, as he looked at the last child.
"I like it" said Shadow. "Hey little Yamato"
Knuckles handed Yamato to Shadow, who smiled at him before putting him back into his cot. Knuckles yawned widely and cringed as Scarlet started to cry setting Cole off.
"that's our quiet nights destroyed" he said tiredly. Shadow and Sonic picked up the crying children and tired to quiet them.
"go to sleep Angel, we'll take care of these" said Sonic watching Knuckles' eyes cover, flickering as Yamato started to whimper, but he fell asleep letting the fathers look after the children while he recovered and readied himself for the total change in life style.
THE END.!