CHAPTER 41

When Shadow had stepped into the lobby of the Chaotix, his eyes fell upon a green female crocodile who stood in front of the entrance doors. He studied her expression and she didn't seem happy or angry. She just seemed worried about something. He decided to walk over to see what she had wanted to talk to him about. "Margaret? What do I owe this lovely visit?"

Margaret crossed her arms and tried her best to put behind the grudges she had with him. "Shadow, we…need to talk."

He arched an eyebrow, "…Talk?" He had already found it strange that she would come out of the blue to actually make some kind of conversation with him. "About what?"

She bit her lip as she hesitated to begin to start talking about the sensitive subject. "…It's about Charmy."

Shadow's heart skipped a beat when she had mentioned the bee's name. "What about Charmy? Is he hurt or something?"

"Isn't he here?"

He shook his head, "He's been in all week but today's the first day, no one's seen him. I thought he just slept in or something."

"So he has been coming here then…" She had noticed that he still had the same confused expression on his face. "Have you been noticing how he's been acting?"

"…He's probably acting the same way at home just as he is here."

"…Distant?"

He made a nod, "And quiet. He barely socializes with any of us anymore. All he does is lock himself down in the garage all day."

"Shadow, something's wrong with Charmy…"

"I know. He's walking around like the world's ending."

She slowly shook her head, "Shadow, he's scaring me and I don't know what to do…"

His eyes widened when he saw tears beginning to swell in her eyes. Other than at Vector's funeral, this was one of the rare times he had seen her at the edge of tears. Something serious was going on with Charmy and now it appeared it was getting worse. "…Tell me what's going on at home."

She fought hard to hold back her tears as she began to explain. "He's barely at home anymore. He's always out and I think he's even been sneaking out late at night."

"Why is he going out so much?"

She shook her head, "I don't know. He won't tell me…but there's something else…"

He had then saw her taking a small white bottle out of her coat pocket. He watched as she handed it to him. He looked at the writing that was on the bottle until he came across the word 'oxycodone.'

"…You do know what that is right?"

He made a slow nod as he continued to observe the half empty bottle of pills. "…I'm more than familiar with it. It's oxy…" He looked away from the bottle and looked back at her. "What are you doing with this?"

"Charmy dropped it one day when he came home." Tears swelled back in her eyes as she remembered the day she had found the pills. "Drugs…Charmy is doing drugs, Shadow."

"Did you confront him about it?"

She made a small nod, "Yeah but he refuses to listen to me. He just ignores me and locks himself in his room or just goes out."

"When did you find the pills?"

"Just a few days ago."

He clenched the pill bottle in his hand tightly. "Margaret, do you not know how serious this is? This shit can kill him."

"I know. I should've came to you earlier but I was just trying to find different ways to talk to him."

They were then interrupted when they saw Charmy walking through the doors and into the lobby.

Charmy pretended that Margaret wasn't even there and turned to Shadow. "…Sorry I'm late."

Even Shadow could tell by the uncaring tone of his voice that he didn't sound very apologetic. He fixed his eyes onto him and tried to figure out if he was high or not. At the moment, he appeared to look somewhat normal. "…It's okay."

As soon as Charmy walked downstairs and into the garage, Margaret turned to Shadow in worry. "Did you see how he was acting?"

He made a small nod as he agreed with her. Even if he didn't look high, he was definitely acting stranger than usual. "Yeah…"

She clasped her hands together as she gave the hedgehog a sympathetic look. "Look Shadow, I know that we don't exactly see eye to eye but please…for once I'm begging you. Talk to Charmy. He listens to you…"

He gave her a weak nod and watched her leave out of the building. He remembered the things Charmy had said to him a while back and he wasn't quite sure if he could do no better trying to convince Charmy to listen to him than Margaret had.

As soon as Margaret had left the agency, Shadow had briefly told the other detectives what was going on and then immediately made his way down into the garage. He had spotted the bee working on a huge white plane while listening to hard rock music that filled the garage. Shadow had stood there at the doorway glaring at the bee who didn't seem to notice that he was also in the garage. "Charmy!" He yelled but no response. He didn't even look in his direction. "Charmy!" Again there was nothing. Agitated, he walked over to the stereo that was playing the loud music and unplugged the cord from the socket. Even after when the room was silent, he still yelled out his name. "Charmy!"

The bee dropped the tools he held to the floor and spun around to the seemingly angered hedgehog.

"I need you to come into my office now."

Just by hearing his sudden demands, he knew right then that it would be about whatever Margaret had discussed with him earlier.

When Charmy had met with Shadow in his office, he sat in a black leather chair that was across from the desk Shadow was sitting at. It was silent and awkward as the two stared each other down. Charmy had decided to break the silence between the two. "…Why did you call me in here?"

"So we can talk."

"…About what?" His eyes widened when he saw him set a familiar white pill bottle in the center of his desk.

Shadow saw Charmy's reaction when he had set down the pill bottle in front of him. "…You wanna tell me what that is?"

The bee looked away from the bottle and glared at the hedgehog. "You should already know what that is."

"So what were you doing with it?"

"They're mine. I take them."

"Really? Last time I checked, you weren't in any serious pain. You have no reason to be taking them."

"I do have my reasons…", he growled.

"…Do you have more on you?"

"You don't need to know", he had snapped.

Already he had gotten more angered with his attitude. "Take off your jacket", he demanded.

He hesitated because of his sudden demand. "…What?"

"Did I stutter? Take off your jacket and give me your backpack while your at it."

He once again hesitated from his demands. "…You're going to actually search through my stuff?"

Shadow noticed that he was hesitating to do what he asked and began to grow even more impatient with him. "Now, Charmy", he spoke in a louder and firm tone.

He then decided to do as he wanted and gave him his jacket and backpack.

When he handed his jacket over to him, he began to search through all the pockets.

Charmy bit his lip nervously as he saw Shadow take out several more pill bottles. Some bottle were filled with other pills besides oxycodone.

Shadow shook his head slightly in disappointment when he discovered that he had carried other pills. "Oh my fucking God…" He angrily threw down the jacket and began to search through his backpack.

Charmy watched him place expensive looking headphones, music players, and even tools on the top of his desk.

Shadow dropped his backpack to the floor and turned back to him. "…You stole all that stuff…didn't you?"

His eyes shifted away from his while he remained silent.

"Charmy, what the hell has gotten into you? You're stealing and popping pills? Do you not know how serious this is? Do you know how much shit you're in right now? We're talking about prison!"

His eyes wandered down onto the floor. "You don't think I know that?"

"Yeah? I bet you knew that you could fucking die from doing this shit too?" His eyes glanced down at the pill bottles that he had laying on his desk, "Oxy? Vicodin? Percocet? What the hell else are you doing?"

He slowly shook his head, "…Nothing. Just pills."

"Just pills? Then what? Coke? Meth? The list could go on."

He slowly looked back up at the furious hedgehog with a hateful look, "I guess you would know every single one of them huh, Shadow?"

His eyes were suddenly fixed onto the bee.

"You're so hilarious. Preaching to me about drugs. But then again, who else has better experience with them other than you?"

Shadow sat there in silence as he glared at him.

"You're such a hypocrite you know that? You put on this act that you're a changed man, but you're wrong. You're more dysfunctional than I am. I may be taking pills and stealing, but at least I'm not a depressed suicidal freak!"

He bit his lip and clenched the arm of his chair as Charmy continued to insult him. "…Charmy…" He called in a low and angered tone.

"You have so many problems. I don't even know how you figure you could run a detective agency. I can't believe everyone raised their hand and made you leader. You're not fit for it!" A small laugh escaped him, "I don't even know why Rouge even married you! You suck as a leader, a role model, and a husband!"

Now he was just infuriated. He had struck a nerve inside of him and he wanted him to stop speaking before he had done something that he would regret. "Charmy…" he growled.

"You're so pathetic! You can't even give her a child!" He flinched when he saw Shadow stand from his chair and slam his fist down onto the desk.

The vibration from him slamming his fist down had made a few of the things fall from the desk.

"That's enough!" He grabbed Charmy's jacket and tossed it at him along with his backpack. "Get the hell out", he growled.

While Charmy held his belongings in his hands, he paused and realized all of the hurtful things he had said to him. But he couldn't take it all back. Not now. If he didn't know at first, he now knew that Shadow had absolutely hated him. And that's exactly what he had wanted. He wanted him to despise him. It was the only way to remove him from his life it seemed. He spun around and left his office in a hurry.

After when Charmy had left his office, Shadow sat back down in his chair and rested his head on his hand on the surface of his desk. He sat there and wondered what else was there left to do?

In The Next Chapter…

Tonya: He seemed so upset…

Ker: Aren't you going to go after him?

Ryder: Your boss knows about you having the pills…this is bad…

Charmy: He wants nothing to do with me anymore. I made sure of that…

Shadow: …Charmy…

Charmy: Stay away from me! I hate you!