Amy's cell phone started to ring, and all eyes in the room turned to her. Sara had just started to relax, and she was again bolt upright and tense. What a day this was turning out to be. "It's Sonic..." Amy said quietly.
Mr. Tanaka coughed lightly. "I think Master Chris is here... If you need me just call." The butler bowed and left the room.
Amy put the cell on speaker setting. "Sonic, you there?"
"Hey, Amy, uh..." Sonic's voice carried into the room.
"Did you find Shadow? And Duo? Are they okay?!" Sara sat on the couch with her hands digging into the pillows.
"Sara? Ohh…yeah, I found 'em." Even at a distance he could imagine her perched on the edge of her seat, staring at the phone like it was going to explode. "Umm...I'm at the MRT building with Shadow...uh... Sara? He's not regged."
"Say what?!" Sara's alarm grew worse; she felt ill.
"I had to fight with them over treating him; if he doesn't agree to the test program like you did, heh...I'd hate to see the bill." Sonic whistled.
"W-what happened?" Sara's voice was a raspy whisper.
"Umm...I'll explain when you get here...oh... and could you bring Maria with you?" he continued.
"...Why?" Sara's voice shook, but it was a little louder.
"Well...he'll be needing a lil' extra tomato juice to get him back to go... No worries, uh...could you guys hurry, though?" Sonic tried to be lighthearted about it, though he fully expected Amy to loan Sara her piko hammer to beat him with once they saw the extent of the injuries. "I can't use my cell in the MRC so...text me, 'kay?" And with that the convo ended.
"Hey, guys!" Chris huffed, rushing into the living room where the gathering was. "Ahh...I..."
"We need to go to the MRC... Ella?! Ella? I need Maria back!" Sara said, bounding off the couch.
"Uhh..." Chris watched Sara scramble to gather her baby, only to trip over the rug. "Hey watch i--ow!" Chris pulled back his hand from trying to help her. A couple of quills stuck out of his palm. "Hey...it's all right...Shadow's going to be fine…." Sara sobbed a bit. Her quills were all flared out and trembling. He just wanted to help...
"It looks like your uncle has arrived, Master Chris," Tanaka said, looking out the window.
"Yeah...!" The boy brightened. "He can get us to the MRC in no time." Chris smiled.
"Oi! Midnight Rush is here!" Sam grinned as he stepped into the manor. He walked over to the Mobians and knelt by the trembling sky blue ball of quills. He ran a gloved hand along her quills comfortingly. "A blue hedgehog told me you needed a ride, little miss?"
Sara stopped shaking and nodded to the redhead. "...Thanks..."
"Ahh no problem!" He gave her one of his winning smiles, setting her more at ease. Chris wished he could do that, be that charming, calm down a crying friend, as he plucked one of the quills from his palm. "Just get Shadow to race me sometime when he's better." He winked.
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Time seemed to have done a very bizarre warp from the time they'd entered Sam's car, excuse me, Midnight Rush's car, to the time they arrived at the MRC. Everything seemed to be in slow motion, and the whole situation had finally settled into Sara's brain so that the initial shock had worn off and replaced it with a sort of calm. Despite Midnight's best efforts to crack jokes, and the others pretending it was funny, Sara failed to smile.
At the MRC, Amy did most of the talking, prying every detail out of Sonic as to what happened. The immediate need for a blood donor for Shadow squelched most of the chit chat until Sara handed Maria over with some reluctance. Without the baby that bound her to her mate, or her love in sight, Sara seemed naked, exposed... Amy began putting a positive spin on things as she could, but it didn't seem to help.
Sonic eventually spat out that Shadow had a punctured lung and that there was some internal bleeding as well...yeah...he was a mess. Sara wasn't crying; she'd used up all her tears already...but the sorrow was clearly plastered on her face. Sonic really hated being the bearer of bad news.
Eventually one of the nurses came back with Maria, who was sleeping soundly. The transfusion had gone well, and Shadow was responding to the treatment, though he was still far from out of danger. At least having Maria back brightened Sara's disposition a bit. She didn't have any shame to lose, so she began nursing her when she woke up hungry about an hour later. Nobody said anything.
The hours passed at a painfully slow rate. Amy and Sonic managed to catch a few winks, but whenever they'd wake up, they'd check on Sara. She was awake, you could say, but her eyes were half lidded and the shine in them seemed to have gone out. Both of them were trying to encourage her but her deep depression somehow stilled their tongues.
As the wee hours of dawn were creeping in, an MRT rep came into the waiting room. "Mrs. Shadow?" she said gently. Sara had only recently fallen asleep.
"Nnn?" Her heart began to beat more rapidly in anticipation of the news.
"Shadow's condition is stable and his eyes have opened... You can visit, but..." she paused, "I'm afraid you'll have to make it brief."
Sara nodded. "That's okay." She stood and kicked Sonic in the ankle.
"Ow! What was that fo-" He found Maria thrust into his arms and watched Sara leave with the nurse. "Heh... You know you're screwed, right? Your dad's a pompous, arrogant bastard and your mom's a pushy bi--OW!" Sonic caught a swat from Amy next to him. Maria began giggling.
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The room Shadow was in was quiet, save for the steady beeping and whirring of machinery, mostly monitoring his vitals. He wasn't a very good patient, and as soon as his eyes were open he was trying to fight off the MRT staff. It wasn't until they told him Sara would see him shortly that he calmed down--without being sedated.
Sara took a seat next to him, some spark returning to her eyes. "Hi, Shadow...honey." It came out a bit softer than she'd intended. She gently reached for his hand, his fingers curling around hers.
His eyes moved to her hands and then up her arms, eventually making contact with her deep brown eyes. He smiled a bit. "Hey…." He coughed a little even at that. It was hard to breathe and his chest felt like it was on fire. He attempted to keep the smile a little longer, if only to calm his mate down. He could feel her shaking slightly.
"You stupid jerk...you messed up my pillow..." She wiped away a tear and reached for the white tuft of fur that adorned his chest, at least what was left of it. Some of his chest fur was shaved off for the surgery to repair some of the damage to his left lung; he was also pretty well bandaged up across his chest.
"So...that was your ex-boyfriend, huh?" Shadow coughed a bit and saw Sara's expression sink. "He's a good shot."
Sara gulped before she spoke up with some strain in her voice. "I'm so sorry…."
Shadow brushed away the tears that were already forming in her eyes. "Don't be." He leaned back against the hospital pillows. Even that small amount of movement hurt, but considering he was still alive to feel anything at all was a relief. "Your pillow will grow back soon enough."
Did he just make a joke? "Shadow..." Sara smiled a bit even though she was crying, "I'm so glad I didn't lose you...and that I didn't tell you about Duo sooner…."
Shadow shrugged, and winced; that hurt too. "Did you have to get Sonic to ruin our duel?"
"...Baka..." Sara sighed.
"You told me you'd never really had anyone interested in you, though..." Shadow said after a stretch of silence.
"Yeah...well...other than Duo." Sara paused. "We were very good friends growing up...I considered him my buddy more than anything…. But sometimes he would tell me I was pretty or something...and I actually believed it."
Shadow's ears tilted more in her direction. "You are beautiful."
She smiled at that. "Yeah, I just...didn't believe it if anyone else said it...like it was all fake and they wanted something from me."
"So I'm a liar?" He gave a small growl, which turned to a cough.
"No! Not at all." Sara placed him with a slightly wounded look. "No...actually...that's part of why I..." she gently stroked her fingers through his quills, "why I chose you." She saw his eyes gaze up at her; the light in them had shifted.
Shadow smiled a bit. "You know, though...if I ever see that bastard..." he coughed again and took a minute to recover this time, "...I'm still going to beat the shit out of him."
"I love you too." Sara smiled and gently leaned in until their lips met.
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Shadow was kept at the MRC a couple days after before he was allowed home. The whole incident had even been on TV. Apparently someone with a cell phone took video footage of Shadow getting shot. It was all over YouTube the next day, and Duo was being referred to as "The guy who shot Shadow!" It was a good thing Shadow didn't watch much news. There was a big debate over Mobian behavior and the "sanctified murder" of someone's mate was lawful or acceptable. Shadow had refused to be interviewed and forbade Sara from it.
Sara assumed the next thing would be Montel hosting a couple of hostile Mobians under the header "He tried to steal my mate and now she don't love me anymore!" While not as high profile as Sonic, Sara was finding the mailbox flooded with everything from sympathy cards to hate mail.
Although Shadow was a fast healer, he wasn't nearly as fast as he would have liked in that regard. Though his sky blue mate with brown bangs certainly didn't shy away from affection, his condition made things difficult. Though she was supposed to be returning to work the week he got out of the hospital; she had to inform them she would have to take an extended leave of absence to care for Shadow. She was grateful for the FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act), but at the same time she felt like she was dumping on her co-workers.
Understandably, Shadow was a bit on the grouchy side...more than usual. He was in pain, had a half-shaved chest, and still had a crying baby waking him up every two hours. Sara did her best to placate them both, but the strain was starting to show on her.
Toward the end of May, Amy paid Sara a visit with Blitz in tow. It was warm enough to leave the windows open now and they'd soon be complaining about the heat in a short amount of time. Shadow was asleep in the bedroom, so the girls had the rest of the apartment to themselves and the children. Blitz and Maria were both little scooters now, and had even begun clinging to furniture in an attempt to stand.
"Coffee?" Sara asked.
"No thanks. You shouldn't be drinking that stuff either if you're nursing her," Amy replied. She'd taken a seat on the couch and watched the little hooligans.
"It's decaf. I just drink it out of habit... Tea instead? Or maybe some milk?"
Amy laughed, "That's all Blitz ever wants." She laughed again when he turned his head to her in rapt attention. "He said Mama the other day." She beamed.
Sara smiled warmly. "It was so sweet, you should've seen it, but last night Shadow was holding Maria and she said 'Dada.'"
Amy laughed again. "I never thought he'd be the cuddly-huggy type."
"He's not." Sara returned to the living room with two cups of lemonade instead. "He tries, though." She smiled and handed the glass over to Amy.
She shook her head lightly. "I don't know...I know...I know I was his defense lawyer for even talking to you...so maybe I should get some blame for you guys getting together, it's just...I mean…." She looked out the window at the bright, cloudless sky outside. "I can't believe he's actually happy."
Sonic's kind of grin crept onto Sara's face and stayed there. "Generally, yeah he is. Don't let the 'ultimate life form' stuff fool you...he's normal in every way that counts."
"Normal?" Amy leaned over to redirect Blitz from crashing into the couch.
"Yes. Normal. He has normal feelings...love, hate, sadness, envy, greed, lust..." She smiled a bit broader at the last one.
Amy burst out laughing at that, then glanced over at the bedroom door and tried to mute it. "I am so sorry..." She said with her cheeks pink, and trying to hide her laughter. "I just can't see him...that way."
Sara's turn to divert the twin terrors as she kept Maria from butting heads with Blitz. "They never look where they're going…." she sighed. "Shadow has been kind of tense lately, though...I'd like to get him to relax."
"Ahh, so you aren't immune to that sourpuss aura of his after all!" Amy said as a kind of "AHA!"
"Usually I ignore it...unless he's really depressed. He isn't, but..." Sara looked down to find Maria clinging to her leg. She stroked the top of her head gently. "Good baby."
"Ooohhh...out with it already! I get enough 'hidden feelings' and half-said messages from Sonic. What are you thinking?" the pink one inquired.
"I want to throw him a party, I think..." she said thoughtfully as she picked Maria up.
"Mama!" The baby giggled. "Mooo mooo?" she asked and patted at her mother's chest. That slightly surprised Sara, but the request was, of course, granted.
"A party?" Amy blinked. "He doesn't exactly strike me as the partying type…."
Sara nodded. "I know…. Hmm...it can't be a get well party and he's not going anywhere..." She paused, ear twitching as she thought about it. "Aha! I know...a birthday party!"
"B-birthday?!" Amy almost fell out of her seat at that. "Do you even know when his birthday is? For that matter...how old is Shadow?" she squeaked.
"No...no I don't know his birthday. Now keep it down...I don't want him to hear." She stroked Maria's head lightly. Her fur was really growing in well, and she was getting a puffy version of her mom's bangs. "As for his age, that would have to depend on if you take his age to be literally, physically, or figuratively." Amy's face scrunched up at that. "I mean...literally he was created over fifty years ago but physically he's a teenager...and then figuratively speaking, he-"
"Okay, okay, I get it." Amy shook her head. "So we'll call him eighteen. Same age as Duo?" She saw the look Sara shot her and quickly looked away, "Sorry…."
"Ahh...It's okay...eighteen then." She blushed a bit, then smiled wryly. "We'll make it a surprise birthday party...so I'm going to need your help big time...!"