JUDAS

Chapter 13: Deux

Sonic was pacing unendingly, wearing out the soles of his sneakers. It seemed like Amy and the baby had gone into that emergency room days ago. He was impatient to find out what was wrong with his daughter.

And then he began to think. What if it's my fault? He asked himself, his heart thudding against his temples. What if I jostled her? What if somewhere, in my gene pool, there's some sort of defect? I know I stop breathing when I'm running really fast some times, but she wasn't running! She's too young to die! That will destroy Amy! Not to mention her brother back home! Sonic believed in twin telepathy. Will she live?

THAT was the important question, the question that couldn't wait to be answered. Would she live? Would Sonic's daughter die before she even possessed a name?

The door to the emergency room opened. The doctor, a pudgy old mountain goat with hair in tight woven braids about his dangerous-looking horns (which made Sonic feel uneasy), was looking over a clipboard. "Mr. Hedgehog?"

Sonic looked up. "Yes, Doctor?" He was fearful of this doctor's words. He could feel himself shivering with cold, though the room was of normal temperature.

"Please come in."

That doctor didn't have to say it twice. In a second, Sonic was in the room, his fur standing on end. He was jittery, and he prayed that the goat wouldn't ask him to sit. He wouldn't be able to, not without fidgeting. The doctor clopped around the room (for feet, he had cloven hooves, common of his species), adjusted his glasses, doodled on the clipboard. Sonic saw his daughter—his infant daughter, barely a few hours old—attached to a respirator. He saw her chest moving. She was alive. He shed one of the skins of his worry, but those skins were thick. He had many more to spare yet. He wanted to goat to speak.

Amy was sitting on a cot, looking down at her slippered feet. She had no proper shoes; he had no gloves…both were a bit disheveled. She looked flushed, guilty. Why? Another layer of worry began to grow on Sonic like moss upon a tree. He could feel himself getting greener.

"I understand you are the father, Mr. Hedgehog?" The goat finally said. His voice was oddly pitched and raspy. It hurt Sonic's ears.

"It's Sonic, if you please, and yes."

"Sonic." The doctor mused, and Sonic was afraid he would get off topic. "Yes, well. I am Doctor Aouror, and I have some terrible news."

Sonic ceased to breathe any more. Amy looked away from her baby and stared instead at a container of tongue depressors on the far wall.

"Careful study reveals that your daughter was not conceived at the same time as her identical twin. She is in a different stage of development, and is actually one week younger than the boy, and therefore one week behind in development. Luckily, not much damage seems to have been done."

Amy was crying. It took Sonic several minutes to register her tears. He didn't care or know why. But…why was his daughter a full one week late?! "But…?" Sonic pressured, still barely able to take a breath.

"But—and I regret to tell you this—she has a birth defect."

"A…A birth defect." Sonic repeated, glancing at Amy, who was glancing at their baby. "How severe?" He looked back at the goat.

"Not terribly. It could've been worse, to be honest." The doctor glanced at his clipboard. What was his name? Aouror. Sonic had forgotten. Aouror. Didn't that have something to do with gold?

"Please, Doctor Aouror. Please tell me what's wrong with my daughter." Sonic pleaded.

"It's a consciousness development. Something in her brain that would keep her from fainting without cause switches on and off sometimes. She'll be all right, if she sleeps. She seems to pick up breathing after a few moments."

"And…?"

"We don't know how often it will occur. Until a pattern is discovered, she must be kept under constant watch. Especially when she is older, as the condition may worsen."

Sonic looked painfully at his wife. "I understand." He told the doctor. "Will she live?"

"For now." Aouror answered. "For now, she lives."

Sonic felt himself breathing again. His heartbeat calmed. There was a light in the dark tunnel after all. There was the promise of life, even if the only answer was 'for now'. "Thank you, doctor." Sonic responded, bowing respectively.

Amy turned and looked at the doctor. "Is she all right? Can we take her home?"

"Yes." The doctor answered, smiling. "I'll have the nurse give her to you on your way out."

In the lobby, Sonic helped Amy with her coat. He wanted to ask her so much, but the tear-stained face didn't seem like one that wanted to answer him right now. They took their baby, and Sonic fired up the X-Tornado. When they got home, Sonic wordlessly relinquished the plane, and baby duty, to Tails. Both parents then spent a sleepless night keeping a vigil over their baby in absolute silence.

A birth defect. And just when they thought parenting was going to be easy.