Hey. Sorry for the hiatus, I was working on something else and forgot about it for a bit. Thank you to Daniel6, Just-Tails and .fox for reviewing the last chapter.

I do not own Sonic or any associated characters.

You couldn't leave these boys alone for five minutes. Alright, slight exaggeration, it was an hour. Tom thought they'd be fine for one hour, while Maddie was at work and he had to run to the shop -because all three boys seemed to have a bottomless stomach - but he was wrong.

At least Sonic had the good sense to run and find him. Literally, the young hedgehog came speeding into the shop, skidding to a stop in front of him before saying, breathlessly. "Dad, Tail's is hurt!"

Tom felt his chest go cold. "What happened?"

"He electrocuted himself!"

"Is he injured?"

"I'm not sure."

"Well, is he standing?"

"Yeah. He told me not to get you actually but-"

Tom held his hand out and counted to ten in his head. If Tails was standing it probably wasn't that bad.

"Was he talking properly?"

"Yeah."

"And is Knuckles still there?"

"Yeah. He said he'd 'guard' him?"

Another deep breath. By now Tom was aware they had all the store looking at them. "Ok. Go home and keep an eye on Tails. I'll be there in 15 minutes, ok? If he gets worse, call Maddie."

By the time Tom got home he'd developed a headache. Great. Just what he needed.

He was greeted by Sonic throwing open the door and exclaiming. "Finally! Knuckles has got him laying down, but he keeps wanting to get up..."

His concern increasing, Tom headed to the living room where Knuckles was standing guard over an irritated-looking Tails, who had been placed on the couch. As soon as the young kit saw him, he half sat up and said. "Tom, will you tell these two I'm ok? They won't let me do anything and I'm bored!"

Tom blinked. "How long since you were electrocuted?"

"40 minutes!" Tails said, eyes going wide. "And they won't let me do anything."

"I refuse to let the young one injure himself further." Knuckles said, looking defiantly at Tom as if he himself was personally responsible for Tails's state. "You must rest after an injury, that is what my clan taught me."

By now Tom's 'parent' sense was tingling. He needed to tread carefully here. "Thank you, Knuckles, I'm sure Tail's appreciates it." The fox opened his mouth to protest, but Tom swiftly distracted him with: "Now then, Tails, where did you electrocute yourself and what were you doing?"

"In the garage." Tails said, sullenly. "And I was trying to build a robot for Sonic to help him out with stuff while his arm heals."

To the side of him, Tom saw Sonic give his arm a guilty look. Making a mental reminded to come back to that, he clarified. "I meant where on your body?"

"Oh, just my finger." Tails held said finger out. "And it was just a small shock. It was stupid really, I needed a break, so I ran around on the little rug you have in the garage, cos I didn't want to go to far away from my robot, and I forgot electricity can travel up from the carpet to a body, I then touched the desk to pick something up and had a small shock. I yelled - mainly from shock rather than pain - next thing I know Knuckles is breaking the door down and Sonic is asking me if I'm alright. I told them yes, but they refused to listen!"

During Tail's rant, Tom had been carefully examining his hand. He wasn't entirely sure what he should be looking for, so he was just looking for any 'differences' in Tails's fur. Satisfied it was alright Tom told Tails he was clear.

"Thank you!" The young kit jumped up. "Can I get back to work on my robot now?"

"Sure." Tom said. "Just be careful. Now, Knuckles..." He placed a hand on his eldest's shoulder. "How bad is the damage to the door?"

"I removed it from its protection and threw it to one side." Tom took another deep breath. This would be fun to explain to Maddie later on. Thankfully they weren't paying for this.

Knuckles clearly sensed he'd gone wrong somewhere, because he said, reassuringly. "Do not worry, father-figure, I picked the door up and placed it up against the wall."

Not convinced Tom got Knuckles to show him said door, and sure enough, as Tom had suspected, it had a massive hole in the middle of it. They'd need a new one.

He sighed again. Looks like they were going door shopping tomorrow.