Disclaimer: Same thing for the last few Chaps.
A few days passed and Helen didn't make any move to try and wiggle her toes, why should she? She had, after all, been paralyzed for almost her whole life.
Shadow was starting to get impatient.
It was dinner, Chris had called in advance to make sure that Helen could stay for a while, her parents had been shocked when they found out Sable had actually been Shadow.
"This is so good Ella!" Amy exclaimed, eating another one of the dumplings. Helen giggled slightly as Sonic had plowed his way through his forth serving. Shadow just leaned against a wall, arms crossed and eyes closed.
"Oh, it is nothing." Ella blushed, eating a little dumpling herself.
"You have got to give me the recipe!" Amy squealed, enjoying a meat dumpling. Shadow frowned, the high voice had brought back a headache, he had been getting those lately, a side effect of trying to get his body to create the lacking fluid in his spine.
Nobody had noticed his messed up back, part of the good thing was that he had a black leather jacket on, safe enough to hide the stitches and support his back while the bone plates healed. They didn't hurt now, but after an incident of trying to spin dash….
"Mr. Shadow, do you want some?" Cream offered, holding out a bowl with a few dumplings in them. Shadow had gained respect for the rabbit after being in Chao form for so long; she actually was a nice girl.
"No thanks Cream, I'm not hungry." Shadow declined looking out the window.
"Hey Cream, do you know where Cheese, Swift and Sable are?" Sonic asked, having grown worried for his little 'host' one could say.
"Cheese said that they were going on a little camping trip with a few Chao known as Zinc, Peak, and Aqua."
Sonic groaned and his head fell back, Helen laughed.
"Not on friendly terms with the Chao?"
"Oh man, Zinc is nice, reminds me of a nicer Shadow…"
Shadow glared at this.
"Peak is kinda like Espio, except he never really talks and is a little bit creepy with those big eyes….then Aqua, man don't even get me started."
Helen giggled, Shadow as Sable had met Aqua before, and it didn't end well for the Chao.
"How did it feel to be a Chao?" Chris asked Sonic who shrugged.
"It was kinda being like a new person, nobody really knew who you are, and you had to work from scratch. It took a lot of time to be a fast Chao runner." Sonic grinned and leaned back with ease.
"Yeah, it was funny to watch you attack Cheese like that." Tails laughed and Sonic grinned sheepishly. Shadow frowned; this was doing nothing for his headache. Gently he reached back and pressed on the wound, a flash of pain was the trace of it, and he winced slightly.
"Hey Shads, you alright?" Sonic asked, apparently he saw what had happened, luckily, it was only him.
"Fine Faker, just a little headache." Shadow did a show of rubbing his temples, closing his eyes to block out the light.
"If you sleep it helps." Tails added, knowing that it was probably his back that was hurting him. Shadow did a curt nod, taking a few stumbling steps.
"We have a guest room up the stairs on the left." Ella noted, giving a firm nod saying that he would be in that bed. Finally, Shadow saw his plan. He made a slight show of using the table for balance as he trudged down, then 'accidently' putting his weight on Helens chair not 'remembering' that is could move. The force of the push caused the chair to tip sending the two falling. Sadly, Shadow fell onto his back, and he clenched his fist, holding out his cry of pain.
"Sorry Shadow! I should have noticed how sick you were feeling! Can I help you in any way? Here, just let me get back in my chair and-"Shadow leaned his head back with a slight smile, unknowingly, Helen had gone back into a take-care-of-Sable mode.
Helen began easily dragging herself across the ground towards her chair, Amy, the closest person, got up and offered to help.
"It's okay, I'll just-"
"Why don't you walk?" Shadow asked quietly, using his arms to lift his back off of the ground. At once, Helens head snapped up and she smiled in confusion.
"Huh? Shadow you know that I ca-"
"Try." Shadow suddenly demanded, Helen frowned and crossed her arms.
"Shadow the Hedgehog-"
"Ohh, she's using the full name-"Sonic whispered to Tails who held in his giggles.
"-You tell me this instant what is wrong with you." Shadow frowned and crossed his arms, imitating her.
"Try to walk and I'll tell you what's wrong."
Sonic inhaled loudly, eyes widening as he finally understood what was going on.
"Shadow-"He started before gulping and slowly getting to his feet.
"Here Helen, I'll help you up." Sonic said, gently helping up the girl, now knowing why Shadow didn't, it took a fair bit of strain on your back to help up a girl.
Then, Sonic set her on her feet, still holding her weight.
"Sonic you know I can't w-ALK!" The last bit was turned into a yelp as Sonic gently pushed Helens shoulders, activating the human reaction to kick out a leg and stop the fall.
Which is just what happened.
It was silent, everybody staring at Helen, but mostly Helen was staring at her legs in awe. All she ever wanted was to walk, and now, she could.
"Hey Tails, is this what you wanted to happen?" Sonic called over to the grinning Tails. Helen spun, still not trusting her ability to move her feet, as she wasn't sure how.
"Tails! You-But-I-"
Tails laughed, grinning mostly, and without Helen noticing, Shadow got to his feet.
"The fluid in your spine was an infection, so we needed something that would beat back in infection to fix it." Tails beamed, his two tails flickering in joy.
"You used Nanobots?" Amy asked, still stunned beyond belief.
"No, Tails wouldn't use machines on our friend." Cream defended, thinking about what it could be.
"Well I don't know what caused this, but it's a miracle!" Ella exclaimed, a large smile on her face. Chris was just stunned, not trusting his voice.
"So…there was a medicine or something? But the doctors never invented anything!" Helen exclaimed, Sonic smirked.
"Well, I guess you could call it a medicine…"
Tails said aloud, Shadow glared silently, still not saying anything.
"What do you think Sonic?" Helen twisted her hips, not moving her feet in the slightest, Sonic smirked than put on a thinking face.
"I'm not sure, why don't you ask Mr. Sunshine over there?" Sonic pointed to a glaring Shadow who immediately looked down and refused to look up.
"Shadow?" Helen asked, now worried as he hadn't said anything for a few moments, his frame began shaking, and Helen expected him to be mad.
"I-If you d-don't like it y-you can just s-say." Helen sniffled, looking down, hiding the tear in her eye.
Then she heard the tiny chuckle from Shadow, barley being heard.
"Don't like? I might as well say that it worked, looks like the Professor was right after all" Shadow mused, looking pleased at the shocked look on Helens face.
"You knew? But-How?" She spluttered, as did all of the others, Shadow rolled his eyes.
"Well, I got my back cut open by two idiots-"
"-I'm insulted by that!"
"Shut it Faker, then went through surgery, and now, I'm trying to get my back fixed from being punched and spin dashed on- hey, don't look at me like that, I'll heal." Shadow noted at the pale look on Helens face.
"You…..did that….for…..me?" She whispered, and Shadow smirked, wincing slightly as he crossed his arms.
"Least I could do, I'm immortal, and I was created to 'help' cure humans of diseases so might as well try." Shadow shrugged, Than Sonic grinned, and Shadow knew that grin as one Sonic did before doing something reckless.
"Well…now that they know, I don't think you need that jacket…." Shadow's eyes widened and he tried to back away, but a well placed spin-dash and the jacket fell off in ribbons, showing the faintly visible furless area with black stitches.
Helen was stunned, staring at the strange, but healing wound.
"You…You went through….that….just….for me?" she breathed, in complete shock. Shadow looked down, he never really was good with this sentimental crap.
"I-I-"
"Sorry if you didn't want th-." Shadow instantly shut up as he was stuck in a giant hug, Helen was sobbing with joy into his chest fur, Shadow was completely still, eyes huge and ears back. He wasn't used to physical contact, and this was just over shooting it. Tails quickly got up and herded everyone from the room, Sonic saw this and helped, leaving only the two in the room.
"I..I can't tell you how happy I am…." She sniffled looking up with huge watery blue eyes with an overjoyed smile on her face.
"Thank you Shadow, oh thank you." She sniffled once again pressing her face into him. Shadow awkwardly patted her back, easing into it as he remembered what he once did when Maria was distraught. After a few moments, the sniffles had died down, and Shadow said the only thing he could at a time like that.
"You're welcome Helen."
That's it. I'm done with this story, i know it was a bad ending, but i'm done! There! I'm throwing in the hat! (throws hat onto floor and walks away)