Needless to say, lunch didn't go very well. Sara opted out of eating with the others, which immediately excused Shadow as well. Maria was rather confused over the whole thing and left with a lot of questions neither of them wanted to answer. She did show up for lunch, but only poked at her food.

The hedgehog family returned home the following day, though tension was still high. Maria was upset that she wasn't allowed to see Chase before they left. Ash had picked up on the negative atmosphere, so even he was gloomy. Sara didn't feel like doing much when they got home and as such, deciding on dinner was up to Shadow.

The bell rang on Vinnie's Pizza, and as usual, the human proprietor greeted Shadow enthusiastically. "Hey! Shadow! Long time no see...where ya been?"

"...Mobius," he replied with a sigh.

"Hey...you look troubled," the caramel-haired human put in.

"Yeah..." From his height, he could easily see the family pictures Tony had pasted on the front of the counter. In the center was a picture of him and his happy family, to the left was Sonic and his brood, and to the right was a picture of him, Sara, and a baby Maria. It didn't seem like so long ago he was completely and totally happy with his family. Right now, however, it seemed quite distant.

"Care to talk?"

"Not really," Shadow replied. "Just give me the usual, okay?"

"Yeah. I'll throw in a few breadsticks if it'll make ya feel better." Tony smirked a bit.

"You know what, Tony? You're free to beat me up," he said, staring at the picture of his happy family.

"Now why ya go and say that for?" the human asked.

"I hurt Sara...and probably Maria too." He sighed.

Tony whistled. "Whoa. Not used to ya opening up...must be bad, huh?" The hedgehog nodded to him glumly. "Look...go talk to ya wife an' see about workin' things out. Women don't like silence."

Shadow sighed, "Somehow I feel like I should've kept my mouth shut."

"Hey...I know she's crazy about you. Whatever it is, I'm sure she won't stay mad forever." About fifteen minutes later, he handed a fresh pizza with free breadsticks to Shadow.

Pizza was eaten pretty much in silence. Maria wanted to say something, but the way her daddy looked, she thought better of it. "Ash? Wanna go play?"

"Okay." The boy slipped from his seat at the table and followed his sister into the den.

Sara dipped a cheesy breadstick into some ranch sipping sauce and took a bite. Shadow had been watching her, and the silence had finally gotten to him. "Sara?"

"...What do you want?" Sara's edgy tone took him by surprise.

"Just...you've been quiet." Shadow sighed.

"I don't feel like talking...not like you trust what I say." Sara took another bite of cheesy bread, then put the rest of the stick down.

"Huh?" A puzzled expression came over Shadow.

Sara strained against crying like she wanted to, "...You really think I lied? He didn't rape me...I told you...I swore to you...but you had to bring it up again!?" A few tears escaped the corners of her eyes.

Shadow reached to wipe the tears from her eyes but found his hand batted away. "It's..." he paused, "...Sara, please…."

Sara gave a cry of frustration, "I begged you to stop! I begged him to stop! Why wouldn't you listen?!" His mouth hung open a minute, dumbstruck. "Do I mean nothing to you?"

"Of course...you mean everything to me." Shadow's turn to fold his ears back.

"...Why do that? Why bring it up...? I...I never wanted to think about that again..." Her eyes were hidden by her bangs once more.

"...Sara..." He got up from the table and walked over to her. He lightly placed his hands on her shoulders. He flinched slightly as he felt several of her quills sink into his skin. "...I didn't mean to hurt you."

Sara trembled slightly. "I can't stop thinking about it now... It almost happened... You remember...how you stayed up with me and held me that night? I needed that...you didn't...I mean...I knew you suspected he did...but you let it go…." Shadow sighed and put his arms around Sara, ignoring her prickly quills. "You believe me, don't you? I'm not trying to protect Duo or justify what he tried to do…."

"I believe you," he said softly. He gave a couple licks to the back of one of her ears gently. Sara sighed and relaxed notably, for which Shadow was glad, as that meant her quills had relaxed as well. "You all right now?"

"...No..." Sara sniffed lightly. "I made you bleed again.."

"I did worse.. I made you cry." He held her tight and nuzzled against her.

"I feel like crap..." she sighed.

Shadow gently helped her up and brushed her bangs away from her eyes. "Come on...let's go clean up."

"Dad? Can we go back to Mobius?" Maria asked a few days later, having caught her father resting on the den's couch.

He was slightly surprised at her greeting. "Maybe sometime." Shadow shrugged. The question hadn't surprised him, and after a few talks with Sara, his anger had abated...at least for the time being.

"How about now? I wanna play with my friends there." She smiled brightly.

Shadow frowned a bit. "You have friends here...and family. Blitz and Rift are back, you know."

"Yeah, but Chase and the others are new friends. And there were lots of different things to do there that aren't here!" She smiled innocently.

Mentioning Chase first certainly struck a sour note with Shadow, though he chose to ignore it, his ear twitching being the only sign of annoyance. "We'll visit Mobius again sometime...but not now."

Maria sighed a bit, "So what do I do now? I really wanted to go play..."

"...How about asking your mother about going to the mall?" Shadow suggested. He really just wanted to stay in and rest.

"I don't wanna go to the mall...I just wanna get out. The great forest was so pretty!" she commented.

Shadow grunted but sat up. "I know where there's some woodlands near here." He gently stroked Maria's head. One thing about his work, he was intimately familiar with a lot of the natural landscape surrounding Station Square.

"That mean we can run?" It wasn't Mobius, but it would appease her for now.

"Yeah." Shadow stood and stretched a bit. "Let's go." He managed a smile and the two were out the door moments later.

What Sara said about Maria's being able to leave soon was true. It was just another thing to weigh on Shadow's mind. His relationship with his daughter and mate had been strained since their visit to Mobius. Despite his assurances he trusted Sara, the damage had been done. Maria's vocal desires to return to Mobius were not very reassuring either. The tighter Shadow wanted to hold onto his life and set things right, the more he felt like it was all breaking apart.

"Well...funny seeing you out here," Sara said softly to Shadow. She'd found him out on the balcony attached to their bedroom. It was a starry night, and a lot more stars shone down on their home in the mountains than when they were in the city.

"Really?" Shadow asked softly.

"No, I guess not. Thinking?" She slipped her arms around him from behind.

"All the time." Shadow looked a bit sadly at her.

Sara hugged him a bit more tightly and lay her head on his shoulder. "What about?"

"Lots of things." He shrugged.

"...Specifically?" She shivered a bit at the crisp air. The leaves had already begun to change.

"Maria really wants to go back to Mobius." Shadow sighed. "You saw this coming, didn't you?"

Sara paused a moment before answering, "Well... after she made friends, yeah."

Shadow frowned a bit. "Think if we did a vacation there it'd satisfy her?"

"...If you mean so she doesn't move away when she's older? I can't say...but maybe a more positive experience might help," Sara replied.

Shadow grunted a bit. "I don't want to go back."

"...I know." Sara buried herself in his quills, which were relaxed enough that they didn't prick her. Shadow made an extra effort to be relaxed in her presence and couldn't remember ever pricking her.

"I don't want her playing with Chase either." He sighed a bit.

"Even I'm uneasy about that one," Sara commented. "...Nothing to be done, though...you can't change the past...no matter how much you might want to."

"...Yeah." Shadow closed his eyes, thinking about the human Maria he left on the Ark. If ever there was an event he wished he could change, it was that one.

"You gonna come to bed sometime? It's kind of chilly out here," Sara asked softly, finally releasing him.

"I don't know... You sure you want me in bed?" The question did carry a double meaning, and he slightly smiled at her. He hadn't really smiled much, especially since their trip to Knothole.

"I'm sure." She smiled a bit in return.

Shadow followed her inside, pausing at the door. He should've realized long ago how fragile life was. After all of Tony's talks about love and life, he should have also seen how fragile relationships could be. At least Sara was still with him, and if he had any doubts about her claim that Duo didn't rape her, he certainly didn't doubt her love. He could count on her staying with him no matter what, but he had no idea what he'd do if his little girl left for Mobius. He only had a few months before Maria would be eight, so little time to patch things up. "...Want another kid?"

Sara laughed, "Ohh...give me another four years."