"How was your first day at work, honey?" Mom asked as Silver walked in after five. He rubbed his eyes and yawned. "Did you eat lunch?"

"Yup," he yawned, before curling up on the couch. Like Haku would let him leave on an empty stomach. Vienna laughed and pulled a blanket over his tired body.

"Did you know Haku was a mixed martial arts student?" he mumbled.

"Hm?"

"Haku... she works there..." Silver remembered Vienna didn't know the names and faces of his other family. "I...I'll introduce you, if you want."

"Your father went to that coffee shop a few times before. He said the staff there were like a family."

'They all live in the same house together," he explained before yawning into sleep.

"I remember he said years ago that this girl ran into the restaurant to tell one of them she was pregnant."

Shadow woke up, shaking his head before putting a hand to his forehead. It was coated in cold sweat. He didn't know why he was getting nightmares now, the start of summer. Maybe...

You haven't talked to him. See how he's doing.

No, no... the less he interfered the better. Silver seemed eager to go back to his real family with the Hedgehogs, without any questions whatsoever.

"Shadow?" Metal Sonic called from downstairs, "Are you up?"

"Yeah," he called back, rubbing his brow. "Just woke up."

"Coming down for breakfast or what?"

Why am I thinking about her now? "I'll be right there, just a minute..." He slid out of bed and shuffled downstairs, rubbing his forehead as he waddled into the kitchen.

"There he is," Haku said, and Shadow half-waved to her as he yawned. "Hee hee. What, is it your day off or something?"

"No, the studio's gone under," he sighed. "I'll get my last paycheck... day after tomorrow, I think."

Metal Sonic's computer whirred. "The company was bought out, and you're receiving compensation for it? Where are you going to work now?"

"Shadow!"

Shadow put a hand on his forehead as if silencing her- but-

"Wha- Lennie? What's-"

"I'm pregnant."

He fell against the counter and Haku and Metal rushed over to him, calling his name.

"Shadow! What's wrong?"

"He's having a panic.." Their voices started fading away... and all Shadow could hear was...was...

"Shadow!" Selene pushed open the door, making the chime go off as she rushed to the counter. Shadow was already stepping out to meet her, and she nearly toppled them both over.

"Lennie- Lennie, what's wrong?" Did-did she run all the way from-

"Shad- shadow-"

"Calm down," he said, squeezing her arms a bit. "Just calm down..."

"I'm pregnant."

Shadow stopped squeezing before feeling weightless, and he blinked. "Preg-pregnant?"

"Yes."

"So-so... I'm-"

"Yeah."

"And you-re-"

"Yeah."

"And we're-"

She threw her hands around his neck and he spun her around, balloons tied together and spinning up into the sky.

"Drinks are on the house!" Metal announced while some clapped. "Shado... Can you... me?"

"Sh...dow... wake up..."

"Please wake up."

He wasn't in the coffee shop anymore, now... he was on the kitchen floor being pulled up by Bolts and Booze, the latter with big eyes like he'd fell down a well. Metal spoke calmly, "Shadow? Can you hear me? Are you awake?"

Shadow felt his heart beating a mile a minute, was- did he just have a-

"What's... what's going on?" he mumbled, reaching for his chest. "H-heart attack?"

"No. Much worse, I'd say," Metal sighed, putting a cold, skeletal hand on Shadow's forehead. "You just had a panic attack."

"Do... do you really think this is a good idea?" Shadow asked as Metal and Haku walked him up the steps to the office building, towards a space named Someone & Someoneelse Psychiatric Associates. He didn't really remember being one-on-one with a stranger about something but... he didn't remember a lot of things, like names.

Who's this, this girl I keep seeing sometimes, Metal?

What does she look like?

I... I don't know...

You see her, but you can't...?

It's all... fuzzy.

"We'll be right there with you, Stripes," Haku cooed as Metal pushed open the door. "We'll be right next to you, 'kay?"

"Hey, you think... you think Selene saw these guys?" he wondered absently. "Like, what if, right?"

"I dunno. Her parents had prescriptions for her, but I don't know about any shrink."

"Hm. Maybe that's what we were there for."

"Pretty sure you don't go to Allodole with your shrinks."

"Ha."

A few minutes of joking around and Metal came up to them, "She's ready to see us, now." Shadow's ears prickled and his body went stiff, snapping to attention. Haku patted his shoulder as he stood up and followed Metal into the room, where Dr. Erato waited.

She was an interesting character to look at; she was a gray margay with silky fur that if it caught the light just right it looked like-

"Yo-you?"

He smacked his forehead as if a mosquito had started biting him, wincing.

"Something the matter?" Dr. Erato asked, ears flicking at the black hedgehog.

He grumbled a little before managing, "It's... it's okay. It's not like..."

"He's not going into an attack," Metal finished, giving Shadow room to breathe. "Although, this is something he's been doing a lot of over the years. It's possible... that those lead up to that episode we mentioned."

"I see," she hummed, clicking her pen to start her notes. "So... Shadow...what exactly do you see... recently, I mean, during these, small episodes of yours?"

He sighed, taking a deep breath, happy that Haku and Metal flanked him like guard dogs. In...

"I see my dead girlfriend." Dr. Erato flinched, eyes widening. Maybe she was expecting denial., or reluctance, not an immediate answer. Shadow went on anyway. "Sometimes an image... sometimes a memory, or her voice."

The shrink regained her composure and cleared her throat. "I'm... um... I'm sorry to hear that... When-when exactly did she pass?"

"About sixteen years ago," Metal inputted.

"She...she died young."

"In an accident?" The Crew nodded, quickly. "And how old was she?"

"Seventeen," Haku answered. "She would've turned eighteen in a week or so, but..."

Dr. Erato shook her head a little. "But... why didn't you seek help sooner? I-if you don't mind me asking..."

They all exchanged a look between each other before Shadow nodded and managed, "It... it wasn't a problem... I-I mean... we were coping... until last year."

"What happened last year..?"

"Around the time she died... her son showed up out of nowhere."

The psychiatrist almost dropped her pen. "Her...her son?"

"Lennie..." Haku mumbled, "she was pregnant... before she passed, she gave birth to him-"

"I thought it was best if he was raised by a normal family," Metal broke in. "Since... since we all took Lennie's death very hard."

The margay seemed to have no clue where to go from here, her eyes darted around for an answer. "I-this is a lot to process..." she cleared her throat again before continuing. "Right... so- 'Lennie,' your dead girlfriend, died about sixteen years ago, but after giving birth to a son... which, I assume, is yours?" She pointed her pen at Shadow and he shrunk under its glare. He nodded, shying away.

"So... you put him up for adoption, and last year he showed up at your house? What happened then?"

Shadow felt himself sinking into the chair as he answered. "I... I couldn't face him as his father. I made my friends lie to him that I had died in the accident with his mother, and that he had no family left."

"Did he believe them?"

"No... he got angry... and he called them out on it."

"So... he never found out who you were?"

"No... but eventually he went back to his family, who adopted him."

"And... you think this is where the panic is coming from not telling him the truth, setting down with him and explaining why you couldn't raise him?"

Shadow shrugged, I thought this is what you're here for, to find out my problems for me? "I guess..."

"You need closure," she remarked, seeming to finally bounce back from all the secrets they had sprung on her. "So you should talk to your son, and tell him the truth."

Shadow nodded, even though he knew that was impossible. Tell him the truth? He knows the truth. He chose his family, and it wasn't me.

"But..." Haku started, "what about the ones with Lennie in them? He can't... can't talk to her."

Dr. Erato nodded in understanding, saying, "I'll think about that, for next time. But for now, I want you to meet with your son... um... what did you say his name was?"

"Gladio," Haku butted in, and then it was all over.

"Gladio?" Metal and Shadow echoed out of the building.

She shrugged, saying, "Got it from Gladiolus, or something."

Metal's computer hummed before remarking, "Narkissos would've fit better."

It was closing time at last. Dr. Erato sighed as her receptionist left her in the dark, but she was more concerned about the patients she'd seen today. Something wasn't sitting right with her.

When she picked up her bag and her notepad fell out, she picked it up and remembered. Yes, that group of hedgehogs- or, the two hedgehogs and that one robot that looked like a hedgehog. Something wasn't right.

The father gave up his child after the mom had died and last year the son ran off to find him... She'd heard that story before...

Yes, that was it- that kid that ran off last year looking for his real father, but... the mom had died shortly after giving birth... that was eerie too. Maybe there was something else to this 'Shadow.'

What else had he been lying about?