Chapter 8
As Tails and Amy sobbed into each others arms, Knuckles suddenly sped around the corner. He skidded to a halt besides Tails and Amy, and instantly knew that something was wrong.
"What have I missed?" he asked in a concerned manner.
"He… he… I… I think… he's-" Amy stammered through her crying, unable to get the words out.
"Dead," Tails finished the sentence for her, tears heavily streaming down his white muzzle.
"What?" Knuckles stared, taken aback by this information. He ran to the door and peered through the circular window; he could not see Sonic, only the nurses surrounding him, "He can't be. He's not dead is he?"
Both Amy and Tails were stunned to see a tear roll down the side of Knuckles' cheek.
"I don't know," Amy sobbed; in that instant she and Tails began to sob on the echidna's shoulders. He rubbed their backs gently and silently prayed that Sonic didn't die. After a few minutes Sonic's three closest friends found themselves sitting on some of the seats opposite the door.
"Oh please be alright! I'll never forgive myself!" Amy pleaded, wiping her tear-stained eyes heavily with a pink handkerchief. Tails sat biting his glove-covered fingers nervously, feeling terribly guilty for not getting him out of the fire in time.
"I don't know what I'll do if he… he… he-" the young fox cried; he couldn't bring himself to say the last word.
"Look nothing's actually been, well, confirmed yet; let's just try and stay positive," said Knuckles sadly; he held Tails and Amy's hands as all they could do was sit and wait.
"I feel so helpless!" Amy cried restlessly.
"We all do but there's nothing we can do. We just got to let the nurses do their jobs…" Tails replied, wiping his blotchy eyes with the back of his gloved hand that wasn't held by Knuckles.
Suddenly a nurse came out of the room backwards. The three friends stood up in an instant as the nurses were wheeling Sonic and his bed out the room and down the corridor at a fast pace.
"What's going on? Where are you taking him?" Amy asked instantly in wild panic. One of the nurses quickly stopped and spoke to them.
"He needs emergency surgery, we're taking him down to theatre; you wait here," she informed them before she quickly ran after the other nurses.
"Emergency surgery?" Amy thought, the words echoing in her mind.
"They're going to save him, I just know it!" proclaimed Tails encouragingly. He had ceased crying and became very confident that his best friend would be saved. He simply had to be.
"I sure hope so," Amy replied weakly, she had stopped crying but tears were still slowly rolling down her cheek.
"Let's just grab a bite while we wait," Knuckles suggested; anything to break the tension.
"Fine," Amy replied not listening to what he had said. An image of Sonic undergoing surgery was running through her mind. She snapped out of her thoughts when Tails grabbed her shoulder.
"They'll save him. I know they will…" he said weakly, almost as if he were willing himself to believe it as much as he was her. Amy nodded and followed the boys to the hospital cafe.
xxx
An hour later they arrived outside the theatre room. The same nurse that spoke to them before emerged from the room and began walking briskly towards them. As soon as she approached them they glanced at the nurse expectantly, waiting to hear Sonic's fate.
"He's a very lucky hedgehog," The nurse announced with a little smile.
"Does that mean…?" Amy asked hopefully.
"Yes, he is going to be fine," the nurse confirmed. Amy immediately burst into tears of happiness and threw her arms around the nurse.
"Oh thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you!" Amy repeated, thoroughly relieved. Knuckles gave a deep sigh of relief.
"Just doing my job," the nurse replied with a smile, gently pushing Amy away. Tails stood forward, unable to stop grinning with joy and shook the nurse's hand.
"Thank you," he said tearfully, "you don't know how much this means to us."
"It's a pleasure," the nurse replied, relieved that Tails did not jump on her.
The fox glanced around quickly and whispered to the nurse in a hopeful tone of voice, "Look, he lost his memory before he was knocked out in the fire and brought here, do you know if there's any chance it might return?"
"I'm afraid I can't say," the nurse admitted, "But he will be fine, just a few cuts, bruises and burns that will heal over time." There was a minute of silence before the nurse announced, "We just need to clean him up a bit then take him back to his room and you'll be free to see him."
"We'll wait for him there then," Tails suggested. The nurse nodded and disappeared. Tails walked back to where Knuckles and Amy were sitting. The pink hedgehog seemed to be in deep thought.
"He's going to be fine… he's going to be fine…" she whispered to herself with a huge grin.
"Yeah, he will," Tails replied, equally grinning. Amy suddenly let out a loud cheer and unexpectedly hugged Tails.
"He's going to live!" Amy shouted out loud.
"Everything's going to be alright," Tails replied; both friends' eyes filled with tears of relief and happiness. Knuckles grinned to himself, Tails knew that he was never one to express his emotion and knew he was just as happy as they were to have Sonic alive, whether he showed it or not.
"The nurses said they are going to bring Sonic back to the other room so I told them we'll wait for them there," Tails informed his friends.
"Good idea," Amy replied and the three of them made their way back to the other room. As they walked down the corridor Amy ran ahead of them and suddenly jumped up and punched the air with her fist, shouting "YES!" as she did so. Tails and Knuckles laughed, both amused.
"She really is happy to have him back isn't she?" Knuckles chuckled.
"Yeah… and she's not the only one," Tails replied, a huge grin plastered on his face.
They soon approached the room and waited in the seats opposite for the blue speedster to arrive.
"I'll go and get us a drink," Amy suggested in a much more cheerful mood and headed into the nearby lift.
"I think she's going to be in a good mood for a long time," Knuckles thought out loud, clearly amused.
"That depends on what condition Sonic's in when he wakes," Tails replied; there was no telling what state Sonic's memory was in.
Shortly nurses emerged round the corner, wheeling Sonic along with them.
"Sonic!" Tails exclaimed and jumped out of his seat as they wheeled Sonic into the room. As they passed Tails and entered the room, the young fox was sure he witnessed his best friend move his head slowly. As the nurses shut the door on Tails to set up the monitors, he walked back to Knuckles.
"I swear I just saw him move," Tails informed Knuckles, "could he be waking up?"
"Maybe we should get Amy," Knuckles suggested, knowing that Amy would want to be around when he wakes.
"I don't know, having too many people around him might startle him," Tails replied. However he didn't need to make a choice as at that moment the elevator bell rang and the doors slid open as Amy emerged out of it, carrying three juice drinks.
"I think Sonic's waking up," Knuckles said instantly.
"Really?" Amy exclaimed excitedly, handing Knuckles his drink a little more forcefully than intended. She dashed to the door, shoving Tails' drink into his hands as she did so. She looked through the window but couldn't see Sonic due to all the nurses surrounding him.
"We don't know that, I just told Knuckles that I think I saw him move his head," Tails informed her, giving Knuckles an annoyed look. Amy sighed and sat down in a slumped position. They all sat there for a few minutes, drinking and waiting. After about ten minutes the nurses emerged from the room and all went different ways. One of them approached the trio.
"Is he waking up?" Amy asked eagerly.
"He's beginning to stir, I must ask you not to smother him as he'll be very weak," the nurse warned and left as abruptly as she had arrived. Discarding her drink carton, Amy immediately ran in to the room and grabbed Sonic's hand.
"Amy, remember what the nurse said!" Tails warned her as he and Knuckles entered, standing at the side of the bed opposite Amy and taking hold of Sonic's other hand.
"He feels so warm," Amy observed, holding Sonic's hand tightly.
The blue hedgehog suddenly groaned, turning his head.
"Sonic?" Amy called. "Sonic, can you hear me?"
Sonic groaned again and turned his head so that he was facing Tails and Knuckles, then faced the ceiling. He opened his eyes halfway before he closed them again.
"He is waking up!" Amy exclaimed loudly as Sonic opened his eyes fully before closing them again.
"Ssshhhh…" Tails whispered, putting a finger to his lips, "Don't startle him."
Sonic opened his eyes a third time.
"Where am I?" he asked quietly.
"You're in hospital. You… err… had a bit of an accident," Tails informed him wearily, unsure of how to describe the incident.
"My head hurts," he complained, rubbing the back of his spiky head with a gloved hand.
"The nurses said you'll heal over time," Tails informed him, glad that his friend was making progress. Sonic slowly sat up, taking in his surroundings.
"What happened?" he asked, sounding a lot more like his usual self.
"Well, it's a long story," Tails replied, rubbing his bangs.
"I need a drink," Sonic suddenly requested.
"I'll get you some!" Amy volunteered eagerly. She noticed there were no cups and quickly left to get some. Tails found himself asking the question he'd been dreading to ask.
"Er Sonic, what do you remember?" he asked nervously, not sure if he wanted to know the answer… but he had to know what condition his friend's memory was in.
Sonic looked thoughtful.
"Well… I remember getting hit in the head after running from something," Sonic replied.
"Metal Sonic," Tails muttered under his breath.
"What?"
"N-Nothing," Tails replied quickly. He tried to find the courage to ask him if he knew them, but was too scared of hearing a negative answer. Sonic glanced at Knuckles who was standing there with a small grin on his face.
"Hey Knuckles, you're quiet. Has the Master Emerald gone missing or something?" Sonic asked cheekily. Tails and Knuckles grins suddenly widened.
"You remember us?" Tails asked. Sonic nodded with a grin.
"That's not all. Did you know that when you told me about my life you missed out the part where I was killed by Mephiles?" he remarked, his cheeky smirk widening.
"You remember everything?" Tails asked, delighted and a little surprised.
"Everything," Sonic confirmed, "Until I got knocked out in that fire that is."
Tails burst in to tears of joy and hugged his best friend, "I've missed you so much!"
"I've missed you too, buddy," Sonic replied and hugged him back.
"Err… good to have you back," said Knuckles sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head in a manner that suggested awkwardness. Sonic winked at him.
"Hey, don't tell Amy, I want to test something," he informed them, just before the pink hedgehog walked in with a small stack of cups.
"How are you Sonic?" she asked eagerly, stacking the cups and pouring water into each one.
"I'm alright under the circumstances… and who might you be?" Sonic asked, faking memory loss.
"You don't remember me?" Amy asked, her worst fear supposedly confirmed. The look on her face turned to a look of horror.
"Sorry… I don't remember anything," Sonic gave an apologetic shake of the head as Tails and Knuckles tried to hide their grins, "so who are you?"
"I'm Amy Rose, a close friend of yours," the pink hedgehog answered, discovering that tears were prickling in the corners of her eyes; she had only just made up with Sonic and now he'd forgotten her.
"How close?" Sonic asked, waiting to see if she told the truth this time.
"Just friends who hang out a lot, nothing more than that," Amy replied, wiping her eyes hastily; she couldn't let him see her crying.
"I really have learnt your lesson, haven't you?" Sonic remarked, impressed, "Last time you told me we were engaged."
Amy looked at Sonic, confused, before it hit her.
"You do remember?"
"Yeah, I remember everything. Sorry, I just wanted to see if you were going to be honest with me," Sonic confessed sheepishly, trying to avoid her gaze.
"Oh, Sonic!" Amy squealed in delight, throwing her arms around him. "I'm so glad that you're back to your old self!"
The four of them all sat there, merely grinning at each other.
"Once I'm out of here, there's one thing I've got to do," Sonic announced suddenly, breaking the blissful silence.
"What's that?" Tails asked, feeling happy that his friend had returned. Sonic sent him a quizzical look.
"Isn't that obvious?" he asked. When Tails shook his head he revealed "Do you really think I'm going to let Eggman get away all this? He made me lose my memory, Metal Sonic almost killed me and you expect me to just let him get away?"
"Ah." Tails gave him a knowing look.
"You're not going to do anything stupid, are you?" Amy asked concerned.
Sonic shook his head, "I'm not going to do anything stupid, but I am going to make Eggman pay for what he's done."