(DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Sonic the Hedgehog or any of their characters and props. But I do own my OCs.)

Chapter 6: Catching Up

It's been three days since Carrie has return from her 5 year disappearance. Knowing she wasn't ready to talk about what had happened, everybody decided to wait till she was ready. Ella tried calling Mr. and Mrs. Thorndyke, but the two were out of town and staying in an area with no cell phone service.

Every day, Carrie and Chris would talk about the old days (which always brought a sad smile to their faces).

Every day, Ella would tend to Carrie's wounds to insure that they were healing properly.

Every day, Carrie would try to eat 3 full meals to get her weight back up for it was dangerously low. But after the years of not eating much, her appetite has adjusted to her lifestyle.

Every day, Carrie would pick flowers with Cream and Cheese. Tails and her Grandpa would show her their nifty inventions and teach her a thing or two about science. Amy had lightened up to Sonic and Carrie's friendship but was still slightly jealous. Carrie enjoyed Sonic's company very much, she always felt safe around him.

As well as the daytime goes, unfortunately, nighttime was something that Carrie never looked forward to. She could never sleep because she would have horrible flashbacks at the warehouse.

Bang!

Carrie jerked into a sitting position in her soft bed. She sat there for a moment and waited for the same sound to pierce her hearing. After a moment of silence, she sighed and lay back down.

Thump, thump, thump!

I know those footsteps! She exclaimed in her head as she jumped out of her warm comforters. She clenched her fists through her bandages as she stared at her closed door.

Thump, thump, thump!

Her breathing started to become short rasps as she desperately looked around her room for a hiding spot. The closet! It wasn't much but it was something. As the thumps grew louder and more intense, Carrie dove into her closet and hid with the door shut. As she buried herself under old clothes and stuffed animals, she listened to her door open with an eerie creak. She tried to stop her heart from beating for she was positive that anyone could hear it. She held her breath when the thumps stopped in her room.

After a few bitter moments of silence, she heard the footsteps hastily thump toward the closet. She froze when her door was swung open and she was dragged out by her hair. As she closed her eyes, hoping she would wake up from this horrible dream, she was thrown to the other side of the room. She hesitantly looked up and saw no one. With wide eyes, she looked around her empty room.

"What?" she murmured in fear and confusion. Just then, her door from her balcony burst into tiny glass pieces. She quickly got up and dashed out of her room, but she didn't get far because she tripped over something. After hitting the ground with a sickening crack, she howled from the pain that course through her left wrist. But she quickly tossed her pain aside when she felt hands trying to lift her up.

They're trying to take me away again! She screamed as she kicked the figure hard in the stomach. The small figure hutched over in pain, Carrie took this opportunity to run. She tried to get up but another pair of arms hugged her securely. She struggled to get away but the hold was strong.

"Carrie! Chill out!"

Carrie stopped abruptly and looked into those familiar green eyes. Tears rimmed her eyes as she buried her face in his blue fur and cried her heart out.

"Whoa, whoa, what happened?" Sonic soothed.

"They're here, they're here," she choked out. "He tried to attack me!"

"You mean Knuckles?"

"Wha?" she looked up at him confusion. He nodded to the direction behind her and she quickly turned her head to look. She saw a red echidna with dreads hutched over in pain. He looked up at her in annoyance and anger as Carrie shrunk back into Sonic's arms. "Who are you?"

"Asking who I am would've been appreciated BEFORE you kicked me!" he growled.

"Knux, chill out. You scared her." Sonic defended as he felt Carrie tremble.

"How did I scare her? She tripped over me and I tried to help her up, and then she kicked me in my diaphragm!"

"I-I'm sorry," Carrie apologized. "I thought you were one of them…."

"One of who?" Knuckles cocked his eyebrow.

"The one in my room… and the one who broke my balcony door."

"Wait, what?" Sonic put her out at arm's length. "Someone is in your room?" She nodded timidly.

"Did you say that someone broke your glass sliding door?" Knuckles asked as he already went in her room.

"Yeah," she confirmed quietly.

"Well," Knuckles came back with his hands on his hips. "Well, no one is in your room and your sliding door seems to be fine."

"What?" Carrie got up and ran into her room. What? Her room was fine, her balcony door was fine, and her closet was open and empty. "Huh?"

"Carrie," Sonic stood beside her. "Maybe it was a dream."

"But it felt so real…. I mean, the footsteps, me being thrown out of my closet when I hid… the balcony door breaking into pieces." She leaned back on her wall and slid down. "It felt so real…."

"What happened to your wrist?" Sonic asked as he kneeled in front of her.

"I'm afraid," Knuckles started after being quiet for a couple of minutes. "I'm afraid she injured herself when she tripped over me. Let me look at it." Knuckles walked up to her and delicately touched her wrist. She grimaced at the contact and flinched away.

"It's ok, Carrie…. Let him look at it." Sonic encourage as he moved to the side of her to let Knuckles get closer.

Reluctantly, Carrie allowed Knuckles examine her wrist. After a few seconds, Knuckles came to a conclusion. "Her wrist is broken. You should get a cast for that."

"Good job, Knux," Sonic sarcastically said as he glared at the echidna. "Her other wounds were beginning to heal, and then you show up and break her wrist. Thanks a lot."

"Hey! It's not my fault that she burst out of her room when I was passing by!"

"And you were too slow to move out of the way!"

"I couldn't! I was right next to her DOOR! She should've watched where she was going!"

"She probably was! You're just too short for her line of view!"

"You're the same height, blue-boy!"

"That may be so, but I CAUGHT her when she tripped over me!"

"And you two are scaring the shit out of my sister!" Chris's voice boomed annoyingly.

Sonic and Knuckles blinked as they stared at the teenage boy, who was standing in the doorway. And then at the same time, they realized that they were towering over a sitting (and a very scared) Carrie Thorndyke. She was in the fetal position with her good hand over her head.

"Whoops," they backed away. Knuckles just huffed in annoyance while Sonic kneeled next to Carrie.

"I'm sorry, Carrie… I didn't mean to scare ya," Sonic apologized sincerely. He smiled when she looked up and weakly smiled back.

"It's ok," she replied. "I just couldn't move when you two stood up. All exits were blocked." She turned to Knuckles. "I'm sorry I tripped over you."

"And," Knuckles sighed. "I'm sorry that you broke your wrist when you fell."

"Carrie-WHAT?" Chris ran to his big sister and saw her wrist. "We better get this fixed, pronto."

"I don't see why we can't take her to the hospital to do this…." Ella, in her robe, stated as she crossed her arms. Carrie, Chuck, Chris, Ella, Sonic and Knuckles were all in Chuck's lab.

Chuck, who was making a cast for Carrie, replied. "Well, for one, Carrie is labeled as dead. Two, I don't think she is ready to go out in public."

"And three," Sonic piped while he was sitting on the counter. "Those goons are still out there somewhere. Knowing their handy work, they would assume she went to a hospital."

"But wouldn't they assume I went here too?" Carrie asked as she grimaced at the throbbing wrist.

"Yes," Chris answered. "But we got three-foot, walking, talking animals that can fight."

"Which is the answer for everything," Carrie numbly joked. She added in an advertisement voice, "Have a problem? Buy a speedy hedgehog at a local store near you!"

Sonic cocked his eyebrow in amusement but became more intrigued when Grandpa Chuck joined in.

"He walks, he talks, and all he needs is a lifetime supply of chili dogs!"

"This is… weird." Knuckles commented.

"Buy one now and get a red echidna that comes with a Chaos Emerald FOR FREE!"

"That's just insulting."

"Batteries are not included."

"Seriously, Chris, Sonic, you don't have to sleep on the floor." Carrie said as she readied her bed. "I mean, we could drag mattresses in here."

"No need for that, Carrie," Chris reassured as he lay down his sleeping bag on Carrie's floor.

"It will be like camping for us," Sonic also reassured as he too found a comfy spot on the floor.

"If you put it that way," Carrie smirked as she plopped her blankets and pillows on the floor.

"Carrie, you should sleep in your bed!" Chris scolded as he put his hands on his hips. "You're injured!"

"What?" Carrie asked innocently. "I like camping. C'mon, Chris, it will be like the old days."

"Oh yeah, when we used to camp in the garden and roast marshmallows with matches?"

"With matches?" Sonic cocked his eyebrow.

"You think we could get away with making a campfire in the garden? No way."

Chris, Sonic and Carrie formed a circle on the floor as they talked about… well, nothing. They set a flashlight in the middle of the circle and pretended it was a campfire. They all laid and stared at the glow-in-the-dark stars that were plastered on the ceiling.

"So, Chris," Carrie started with a sly voice. "This wheelchair girl… that is your 'friend'… does she, ya know… like you back?"

"Who said I liked her?" Chris retorted.

"Chris, home-fry," Sonic grinned. "It's obvious."

"Is it really that obvious?" Chris sighed.

"Yeah," Sonic and Carrie chorused.

"Aw man! Well, to answer your question, Carrie… I don't know."

"Well, have you ever told her you liked her?" Carrie asked with a raised eyebrow.

"What is up with girls and telling things?" Chris shook his head. "No, I haven't told her! What do you want me to do? Walk up to her and kiss her?"

"Whatever floats your boat, brother dear."

"No! That wouldn't float ANY boat!"

"Maybe to the girl that you'll be kissing…." Sonic remarked.

"That's what I'm saying," Carrie high-fived Sonic while still staring at the ceiling.

"What about you, Carrie? Why don't you go up to your crush and kiss him!" Chris crossed his arms.

"What crush, Chris? I've been held hostage for the past five years. Did you expect me to form romantic feelings toward my rapists? I don't think so."

"Whoa," Sonic looked at her wide-eyed. "Dark humor."

"I know, right?" Chris stated as he too stared at his sister wide-eyed.

"Yeah," Carrie awed. "I kinda creeped myself out." Silence.

"Carrie," Sonic started slowly. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Silence.

"Carrie?"

Silence.

"Carrie? You ok?" Chris sat up and checked on his sister. He crawled over to her and saw her spacing out toward at the ceiling. She had no emotion on her face, she didn't move, she didn't even blink. Chris shook her shoulder but got no response. "Carrie, you're freaking me out here."

"What's going on?" Sonic asked as he crawled over. He too shook her shoulder, but again, she didn't respond. "What's wrong with her?"

"I don't know. Carrie!" Chris moved into her line of sight and shook both of her shoulders. Her eyes stayed opened as a tear trickled out. "Sonic, I'm worried."

"Here, let me try." Sonic moved and saw a tear rolling down her cheek. "Carrie, can you move at all?" He got nothing but he felt something move beside him. He turned to look and saw Carrie's right hand clutching onto to her blanket. He noted that her fist trembled horribly and her knuckles were turning white. "Something's happening."