A/N:I'm starting to think you guys are planning an intervention for my Dr. Pepper problem. Well I've got news for you. It's not a problem, and I can stop whenever I want to. I just don't want to. Moving on, I've noticed that we haven't seen Sonic since chapter nine. So I was all :o… that won't do. I'm planning on sticking him in here. And I've figured out how I'm going to end the story :). No clue how many chapters are left, mind :/. Enjoy B-).
--LA
Hina, Grace, Gabrielle, Felix… and Leah belong to me. Everyone else… does not.
The first day of April should have dawned cool and crisp. The sun should have risen, melting the frost clinging like icy leeches to every single blade of emerald grass. It should have been a beautiful spring day. It wasn't. There was no way it could be.
Leah lay crumpled beneath the thin blanket. Her despair was so total that it seemed impossible for the earth to be spinning as it always had. No, today would most certainly be as miserable and hopeless as she was feeling. There was no way the sun could rise when there was a person feeling this unbearably awful. She was sure that as soon as she raised her head, a dreadful, gloomy sky would meet her.
The little panda was shocked when she finally tore the blanket from over her head. All was how it should be. The sky was an astonishing blue and completely cloudless. There was nothing out of the ordinary. Leah felt as though the world was taunting her with its happiness. How could one person be so sad without the entire world tearing apart for heartbreak?
She felt completely abandoned. The world, her world, was the same as always, as if nothing had happened. But something had certainly happened, and it seemed as though the world was refusing to mourn with her; to share her pain. She blinked a tear from her eye and peeked around their makeshift bedroom; Gabrielle's sleek, red convertible with the top pulled over to serve as some form of shelter.
In the seat beside her, Felix was still sleeping. Leah knew that he, at least, shared her suffering. He too had experienced a loss. Poor little Lily. Thinking of this made her feel even worse. She buried her head again under the blankets, sobbing. She tried her hardest to keep the noise down, but, after a few moments, she was bawling uncontrollably.
She lost track of time for a while. It could have been a few minutes, or an hour before she felt a gentle hand on her back.
"Leah?" Gabrielle said softly. For some reason, the squirrel's gentle voice and delicate accent were strangely comforting. Without thinking, Leah flung the blanket from herself, and threw herself into the shocked squirrel's lap, now wailing.
"Mama?" Leah heard Felix say groggily. Gabrielle made a sharp hissing sound to hush him. She returned to stroking Leah's forehead.
"It is going to be alright." She whispered, brushing a dark curl from her face. Leah looked up, dark eyes red and watery. Both Gabrielle and Felix were gazing down at her. The younger one looked concerned and pitying, but the older looked tender, and completely motherly.
"We will be alright." She repeated softly, pulling both children into a tight hug. She felt certain that it was true. Despite the fact that all of their money had been reduced to ashes along with the rest of the hotel, she knew that they would be fine. The three sat together in the back seat of the car, tears spilling down each of their cheeks. They sat in the cramped compartment until it seemed as though they might soon drown in their own salty tears. After a moment, Gabrielle straitened up.
"Now, now, mes chéris." She said, her voice shaking slightly. "We will be alright."
"Mama?" breathed Felix, wiping his eye. "What's Leah going to do?"
Gabrielle took him by the shoulders and looked straight into his eyes.
"Leah is coming with us." The squirrel said softly. Little Leah froze mid-sob and stared up at Gabrielle. Completely speechless, the panda bear's face broke into a watery smile.
"Thank you." she whispered. The three crouched together with nothing but each other in the entire world.
Like a child waiting angrily for her booster shots, Rouge sat, fuming, on the paper-covered bench with her arms crossed. They had been waiting for nearly fifteen minutes, and the bat was getting tired of reading and rereading the many anatomical posters which papered the walls. The male reproductive system had never seemed more boring to her. On the considerably more comfortable chair across the tiny, cramped room sat Grace, lazily flipping through a magazine.
"If you're going to make me sit on this stupid chair," Rouge said irritably, "can you at least pass me a magazine?"
Grace looked up.
"Of course!" She said, almost sounding offended. "There's no need to get so upset."
She reached over to the table on her right and tossed a magazine over to Rouge, who thanked her with a rather pitiful attempt at pleasantness. She let out a frustrated sigh. 'Teenz' magazine.
"I'm not a baby, Grace." She said flatly, tossing the booklet back across the room.
"That's why I gave you 'Teenz'." replied Grace, not looking up from the periodical in her lap. Rouge opened her mouth to retort angrily, but a stout, balding raccoon entered the room.
"Good evening, ladies." He said in a deep voice which was partially masked by a strong Indian accent.
"Hello, doctor." Grace said pleasantly, neatly placing the magazine on the top of the pile.
"So," the doctor said, placing a beige file open on the table and grabbing a pair of rubber gloves, "Rita tells me that you've been having stomach problems?"
Rouge nodded.
"Yeah, I've-"
"She's been experiencing stomach pain and nausea over the past few weeks." Grace cut in, apparently under the impression that Rouge was incapable of describing her own symptoms.
"Alright," Doctor Hinduli said, scribbling a quick note in the file. "I'm guessing from your accents that you're not from here?"
"No, we're-" Grace began, but the doctor gave her a gentle, yet slightly intimidating look which made it quite clear who he wished to answer his questions.
"We're not from here." Rouge repeated, feeling quite grateful towards him. It was nice that, for one of the first times since she had been in India, it seemed as though someone was actually seeing her as a competent adult.
"Okay." The raccoon said thoughtfully, scribbling down a second note. "Well there are a few things it could be. The most obvious is a simple stomach flu, but there are a few, more serious things it could be."
He knelt down and grabbed a glass beaker from beneath the sink.
"Fill this up for me." He said casually, handing it to a fairly horrified Rouge.
"You mean-" she asked in dislike, but was cut off by Grace.
"You know what he means." She said sharply, crossing her arms. "Go pee in the jar."
Rouge raised an eyebrow to mask her embarrassment.
"Thanks for being so sympathetic." She said with flat sarcasm, hopping off of the bench and marching off to the washroom. Her shoes clacked loudly on the tiled floor as she walked, trying to maintain as much of her dignity as she could manage.
A few minutes later, Rouge returned to the room with a full beaker, which the doctor took and carefully placed on a shining silver table beside the paper-covered stool.
"Perfect." He said pleasantly, brushing his hands and smiling at the two women, "Come back in three hours and we should know what the problem is."
"Thank you." Rouge said, feeling rather confident. She had quite forgotten what it was like to be a grown-up. She strolled out of the room with, for one, Grace following behind her.
"So, what do you think it is?" Rouge asked later, over a cup of steaming coffee. Grace shrugged, sipping her own hot coffee.
"Like he said," she recalled, "It could be just about anything."
Rouge inspected her fingers dully, feeling quite confident that it was only a minor stomach bug.
"I can't see why you had to make such a big deal over it." She said in annoyance. The fact that she could have been home within a few days was extremely irritating, now that they had to postpone their little trip to the museum.
"Well," Grace said, the familiar superiority in her voice making it quite clear that she had far from shared in noticing Rouge's reentry into adulthood. In fact, it seemed as though she was trying with all of her willpower to reinstate her dominance with as much subtlety as she could. "If it's an intestinal worm or something like that, and it's pretty likely that it is since you've never been really careful with what you eat, then it's inside of you now and its taking all of the nutrition out of that coffee-"
Rouge scowled. She hated how out of character the fox always made her.
"I'm trying to keep my breakfast down at the moment, thanks."
"Come on." Grace commanded, glancing at a clock on the wall of the café. "We've got to start walking back to the hospital."
Rouge frowned, and seriously considered retorting irritably that it would have made more sense to stay at the hospital than to leave, have a ten minute break, and walk back, but she bit it back and resolved to pick her battles more carefully.
As they walked in silence, Rouge was beginning to get nervous. What if it was some horrible parasite? She was extremely grateful that her years of spy work had left her with an impeccable poker face. It was very seldom that she let panic show. Anger was a different matter. It was a lesser sign of a weakness than fear or anxiety. She honestly believed that being around Knuckles had drastically shortened her fuse. Perhaps when she got home, she thought with a little smile, she would buy them both fuse extensions with the money she was soon to make.
The pair arrived at the hospital, and navigated their way back to the welcome desk, which was frustratingly difficult to locate even after visiting it before.
The finally located it, and took their places in the back of the queue. For the entire time that they stood in line, they were completely wordless.
"Can I help you?" asked the same porcupine who had been sitting there hours ago. Rouge thought that must be an absolutely brutal job.
"Doctor Hunduli told us to come back now." Grace said with a charming smile. She seemed to be perfectly pleasant around everyone but Rouge.
"Go right in." The secretary said, sounding bored. They made their way back to the same room as before, where they waited in silence; Grace returning to her magazines, and Rouge to the boring posters covering the walls.
After the bat had read through the anatomical structure of an eyeball five times, the door opened and Doctor Hinduli entered at last, looking cheerful.
"Great news." He said happily, before either of the women could ask. They gave him inquisitive looks, but Rouge felt her torso loosen in relief. "You're pregnant."
A/N: Ewww maan my writing is disgusting D:! It's so... so... blegh! Is that a really typical thing, what I did with Rouge :\? Am I an unoriginal blob? Most likely. Sniffers. Oh well :)! School starts tomorrow T.T! Maaan am I going to miss sleeping. And sitting around all day with nothing to do but stare at my computer, draw, and drink Dr. Pepper. Yes, those three things are my life in a nutshell. Ooh and skiing B-)! Thanks for reading, please review :).
--LA
P.S: Oh good gosh! I just realized that I've excluded Sonic AGAIN D:! How did that happen 0.o? Sorry Sonic :)! Next chapter fo sho.!