CHAPTER 1: ARRIVAL

"So, this is it, eh?"

"Yep. This is the place. Uncle Chuck said he cleaned it up not long before so we won't have to worry about that for now."

"So… How are we supposed to get him in?"

The blue hedgehog turned to look at her father-in-law, whomst was sitting in his wheelchair, mumbling away to himself. Today hadn't been a good day for him, having to leave his safe sanctuary of the castle to be escorted here, so needless to say they were treading on thin ice. Any more inconveniences and he'd have a breakdown.

"We'll have to carry him up and down the stairs into the house until I can find a solution."

"Riiigghhtttt. You carry him, I'll bring the chair up."

"Got it. Come on, Max, we're going inside." She proceeded to come closer, wrapping her left arm around his waist and her right around his legs, hoisting him up into her arms. He was very weightless, so this was an easy job for her. Despite his bad mood, Maximillian clung tight to her, wanting some sort of comfort for himself. He was missing Alicia a lot.

Kate slowly walked up the steps of the house, opening the door and stepping inside. This was it. This was gonna be their life for the next while. She slowly walked around with Max in arms, taking a moment to look around the home. At least it was pre-furnished. She wanted to look around more, but Max began to become restless in her arms, wanting to be put down. And so, she walked over to the sofa, gently placing Max down so he could have a rest, since she could tell he was exhausted. Max slowly turned himself around to face away from her, as Elias finally came inside, pushing Max's empty wheelchair in with him and placing the bag full of food/drinks they'd gotten on the ground.

"Looks like he's made himself comfy already, eh?" He looked at his father as he was slowly dozing off, envying him. He wished he could fall asleep that easily.

"He'll probably be asleep until dinner time now, gives us a chance to have a look around the place." She stood up from the couch, quickly covering Max up with his blanket, before starting to explore. It was as she'd expected, just like Uncle Chuck told her.

The house was quite small, consisting of only the necessities, such as the kitchen, dining room, living room, bathroom and bedroom.

"Dammit, there's only one bedroom. What are we gonna do? Dad has to sleep in a bed, you know how restless he'll be otherwise."

"All 3 of us will just have to sleep together in the bed. I'm sure Max won't mind… I hope anyways."

"I guess you're right… I'm just scared. Because of all this."

"Hey, it'll be alright. It'll be fine. We're safe, safe away from Naugus and Geoffrey St. John. He won't be able to find us. We have a plan in case he does too."

"Yeah, but what about mom? Sally? What if they… ?"

"Stop. Don't say that. As soon as I can get a burner phone we'll be able to keep in touch with them. Alicia gave me enough money to keep us going for a long while, and I can always ask her to send more if we need it."

"Right, right. I'm just… Worried about dad too. He's already been so riled up, and now we're so far away from home…"

"He's definitely going to have a lot of struggles. I can tell already. All we can do is help him through it." Kate proceeded to peek her head out the door, seeing Max still fast asleep on the couch. "I know he blames himself for what happened, and I do admit he made a mistake, but I really don't want him to take the burden for all this, he can barely handle it all as is."

"Tell me about it. But hey, at least this place isn't all that bad! There's loads of apple trees outside! Maybe you could finally perfect your apple pie recipe."

"I always have wanted to do it, just never had the time. I guess you're right. C'mon, why don't we do it together?" She watched as Elias happily nodded, and the two quickly went off to get a basket, sneaking past the snoozing Max and walking outdoors, immediately embracing the cool air of the late afternoon. They stepped down the steps together, both staring at the miles and miles of trees surrounding their new home.

"Now, let's get looking for the apple ones." She proceeded to turn, walking in a direction she thought would be ideal as Elias walked in the other, basket in hand. Eventually, the apple trees were found, and Elias and Kate both had a relaxing afternoon pulling apples from the branches and placing them into the basket (Elias could only pick from the bottom branches, he was scared of heights). Once the basket was full, they returned indoors, once again sneaking by Max, placing the basket full of apples on the kitchen counter.

"This is great! I have loads of apples to make stuff with now." Kate turned to the clock, looking at the time. 6:37pm. "I better get started on making dinner now, might as well make us some apple pie for dessert too."

"Oh, please do! Your apple pie is sooooo goooddd!"

She smirked. "Alright, alright, I will, I promise. You go and keep an eye on Max, he'll need to be woken up soon if he's gonna sleep through the night."

"You're right. Just… Give me a moment to change, my binder is getting uncomfortable…" He quickly went off to remove it, looking like his 8 hours was up. Once changed, he went to the living room, gently sitting himself down next to Max as Kate began to cook, firstly beginning with the apple pie, washing and slicing up her apples before beginning to make her filling, hearing the whines of Max waking up, and the sound of Elias bringing him somewhere. No bother, she continued to make the food, placing the apple pie in the oven as soon as she had finished latticing the top. She then began the process of making actual dinner, ensuring to make a meal that all 3 of them would eat. She zoned off into her own world whilst cooking. The past few months had been insane. Going from being a rockstar, selling out every concert, her albums going platinum… To the Queen of Mobius. Yeeaaaahhh, her life had taken a complete 180 turn, but could she complain? Not really, it was for the better… In some ways…

She was pulled out of daydream by the apparent noise of the oven dinging, signaling that her food was ready. Perfect! She quickly put the oven gloves on, and opened the oven up, immediately being hit with the sweet aroma of the apple pie. It smelled amazing as always. She pulled it out, putting it on the hobs to cool, before starting to dish up dinner. She hadn't heard a sound from Max or Elias in a while, and so she wondered what they were up to. Once dinner was dished up, she went to investigate, finding the both of them curled up under Max's blanket on the couch, reading one of the many books that they brought with them. At least they were doing something worthwhile.

"Hey, you two, dinners ready. Get moving if you want it while it's still hot." She proceeded to walk back into the kitchen, grabbing her plate of food and sitting down at the dining table.

"Ohp-! Come on, dad! We can finish reading later." Elias proceeded to shut the book, standing up and helping Max sit in his wheelchair. He looked quite sadly at his dad as he attempted to stand, his legs shaking and his knees buckling. He hadn't been doing the best since he woke up from the coma after being poisoned. Regardless, Elias was able to get him in the wheelchair easily, and pushed him to the dining table, getting him his dinner and placing it in front of him before getting his own. He took a bite, and immediately all his fears went away. Kate's cooking was amazing, as always.

"I gotta say, this is soooo much better than the last time you made it, wouldn't you agree, dad?" He looked at Max, who was just zoned out, taking small bites of his food. At least he was eating. "...I think he likes it too."

"It's always been one of his favorites. Say, did you get any Cherry Coke? I think we should give him some, it'll keep him happy." Elias nodded and stood up, going to get one from the fridge, cracking it open and placing it in front of Max, who immediately snapped out of his daydream to start drinking it, very much pleased with himself in the moment.

Dinner went by without a hitch, and dessert was cleared off very easily too, Max and Elias enjoying it a lot. The rest of the night was spent lazing about, Max and Elias sitting reading once again whilst Kate cleared up around the place and got stuff ready for bed. It was around 10:45 pm when Elias began to notice Max dozing off, leaning on his shoulder, eyes shut. Elias slowly put the book down, standing up and picking Max up. Looks like it was bedtime. He took Max into the bedroom, laying him down on the bed and rustling through his bag to find a pair of pajamas. He couldn't find a matching pair, so he put Max in a pink pajama top and blue pants. Good enough. Once he was dressed, he got him in the middle of the bed, pulling the covers up to his chest, Max pretty much already passed out by then. He turned around to leave Max to sleep, but spotted Kate looking into the doorframe.

"I think we should follow suit. It's gonna be a long day tomorrow of doing nothing and I don't know about you but I'm ready for sleep."

"Yeah.. I think you're right.. I am quite tired.." Elias didn't even bother to get changed, just slowly slipping himself into bed beside Max as Kate slipped in the other side, Max in between them. They didn't even bother to say goodnight to each other, copying Max and pretty much falling asleep instantly. Life was about to be so much more different and difficult in more ways than they could imagine.