Chapter 38

Month 4

"Shadow?" Sally called out from her bedroom. "You awake?"

"Yeah, just a sec." he called from his room as he slipped on his pants and headed toward her room. "Morning." he said to her as he stood by the side of the bed. "Ready to get up?" he asked. She nodded. By now she was showing fully, her belly a nice round hump.

"Baby's kicking." Sally said with a laugh. Shadow smiled and offered her his hand. "Ready?"

She nodded and took it while Shadow slipped a hand under her left shoulder. "On three. One... two... three." On three, he pulled up while she pushed against the mattress, the bed shaking a bit as she did.

"Nngh..." Sally groaned as she struggled to sit up. "*whew* Never gets easier." she said when she was finally sitting up.

"Well, still one more round to go." Shadow said, allowing her to rest a moment. Even though she'd never admit it to him, just getting out of bed took a lot of energy on her part. In fact, it took most of it just staying awake throughout the day. Pregnancy had also sidelined her cleaning and cooking duties almost to the point where the most she'd do in a day was walk to the bathroom. It didn't sit well with her while Shadow did almost all the work but she really had no choice. The black hedgehog wasn't about to let her put any unnecessary strain on her body and besides, he was just as stubborn as she was and wouldn't win the argument anyway.

After a small break, she nodded to Shadow. "Ready." she said. He nodded back and with one hand under her arm and the other holding her hand, he lifted on her and with a good effort on her part, she was finally on her feet.

"Thank you." she said, a bit out of breath.

Shadow nodded yet again. "No problem. You uh, need help in there?" he asked.

"No." she said. "I think I got it." Shadow let go of her and she made her way out the room and toward the bathroom while he went off to the kitchen to make breakfast. "Anything you want?"

"Not really." she said from behind the door.

Opting for a simple meal, he chose bagels and cream cheese, fruit and orange juice, setting it on the table followed by making the coffee. As he grabbed two cups and went to pour one for both of them, he heard the toilet flush followed by her walking out on her own. "Feeling better this morning?" he asked. It was a rare occurrence when she could get up on her own nowadays but they did happen. The downside was they wore her out much faster but being able to do it herself gave her happiness a boost and Shadow couldn't argue with that.

"Bagels and fruit?" she said when she reached the table. "Not bad." she said as she sat down and sipped her coffee. "Too bad I can't say the same thing about the coffee." she said with a laugh. With the baby she had to switch to decaffeinated which didn't sit well with her.

"Well you could have no coffee at all." Shadow said as he sat down, grabbing a bagel.

"That might be better than this." she said. "I didn't think I'd miss the caffeine this bad."

"You'll get it back in a couple months though." Shadow said, taking a bite of his bagel.

"Not soon enough." she replied, taking a sip then setting the cup down. *sigh* "I know I'd trade anything to have it today." she said grabbing an apple and pushing the coffee away. Not only did she have an appointment with Dr. Anderson, she also had to go buy the store and the bank; not an easy day for her.

When they got to her appointment, she was called back and they went back to the exam room. Dr. Anderson came in and asked her the standard questions he'd asked at every examination. "Any new problems?" he asked.

"Well, there's a couple." she said, then turned to Shadow. "Um..." she began nervously. "Do you mind stepping out for a minute?" she asked Shadow. He nodded then stood up. "Mm-hmm. I'll be in the waiting room if you need me." he said with a smile and left.

"Okay." she said, her voice a but lower than normal. "I've been having some cramping in my stomach and it's been pretty bad; about once or twice every couple days."

Dr. Anderson nodded. "On a scale of 1 to 10 with ten being the worst, how would you rate it?"

"About a 7." she said.

He nodded and wrote it down. "Anything else?" he asked.

"Y-yes..." she said, her voice shaky, hands shaking just slightly. "I've... uh..." she stammered, her eyes shifting back and forth.

"What is it?" Dr. Anderson asked gently.

"It's just..." she stammered again; she could feel her cheeks flushing. "I've been... getting... aroused. Quite a bit actually." she finally said, her face away from Dr. Anderson. "I mean... I'll be s-standing at the fridge and bam, it hits then goes away." she said. These flashes had been happening off and on over the last month. Once it had happened when she was eating lunch. Sally had taken a bite of a sandwich and suddenly, she felt it happen. Luckily Shadow had been taking a shower at the time and wasn't around to see it.

Normally when they happened she was able to keep quiet and not show any sign of distress, but that one had been particularly powerful and she made a couple small, quick moans. But now, they had gotten more frequent, going from one or two to once a day. The last one had accidentally triggered by Shadow, something that bothered her greatly. He knocked a plastic glass off the counter and bent over to pick it up. Sally heard the noise and went to investigate and got a full view of his rear which triggered a response quickly. Fortunately, he didn't hear her and she managed to run into her room until it passed. That incident was what made her finally bring it up to Dr. Anderson. Thinking about Shadow in that way didn't sit well with her. She didn't have those feelings for her and she couldn't imagine ever having them. Her heart belonged to Sonic and no one else.

"I was wondering... is there anything I can take or anything I can do to stop them or at least make them easier to handle?" she asked.

"Unfortunately, there isn't." he said. "It's another of those things that happens when hormones go into overdrive, like with pregnancy. Once you have the baby, they'll stop but until then, you'll just have to deal with it as best you can." he said. "Anything else?"

"No. T-that's it." she said.

He nodded and grabbed the ultrasound wand. "Ok. Let's take a look at your little one." he said with a smile.

Just like last time, the baby was doing well and healthy and this time, the baby had reached a point where it was no longer an unidentifiable blob, but a baby. Receiving an appointment for three weeks, she left the room and headed back to the waiting room to retrieve Shadow, something she wasn't looking forward to after what she said to Dr. Anderson.

When she walked out, he stood up and she felt her cheeks flush again.

"You ok?" he asked.

"Yeah. I'm fine." she said with a smile; she prayed that there wouldn't be an incident at that moment and they headed out to the car.

Month 5

"Be there in a minute." Shadow said as he set the plate on the counter and headed for her bedroom. "Need to go?" he asked when he walked through the door and she nodded. By this point, she had reached a point where she needed help doing almost everything. Aside from walking, there was nothing she could do on her own. Getting in and out of the car, bed, shower, bathroom and now dressing required Shadow's help; the latter of which he had done a few times before but was now a daily task. Shadow took it in stride though, and kept to the plan of keeping his eyes closed.

"Have a good nap?" he asked as he got her to a sitting position.

"Eh, baby was kicking a lot but I managed to get a bit." she replied.

"He seems to be doing that a lot. Sure she's not trying to find a weak spot and break out of there?" he asked with a laugh. Not knowing if it was going to be a boy or a girl, Shadow had begun to say 'him' or 'her' every time he mentioned the baby, switching back and forth between the two.

"Well, it's not exactly the most roomy apartment so I don't blame it." Sally replied. Once she was up and in the bathroom, Shadow waited outside until she was finished then helped her get off the toilet. "I think," she said slightly out of breath. "I think I'm going to go back to bed." she said. Shadow nodded and helped her back to bed and went back to fixing lunch for the both of them; once that was done, he returned to the living room and plopped down in one of the recliners, exhausted.

Later that night

"SHADOW!" Sally screamed from her room. Immediately, Shadow bolted out of bed, running to her room wearing only pants. Throwing the door open, he ran in, heart going a mile a minute. "What's wrong?!" he demanded, his voice crawling with panic; a rare thing for him.

Sally was laying on the bed, hand on her belly and breathing rapidly, a grimace of pain on her face. "Baby's... coming..." she said, her voice straining. "NNNNNGGGHHH!"

Shadow grabbed the phone and dialed 911 and the operator picked up.

"911, what's your emergency?" the operator asked.

"My friend is going into labor!" he said.

"Okay sir, remain calm. Has her water broke yet?"

"Water broke?" Shadow asked and she shook her head no. "No."

"Okay, and how far along is she?"

"Five months." he said.

"Okay." the operator said. Shadow could hear the sound of a keyboard being tapped. "I'm dispatching paramedics to your location right now. Stay on the line." he said, then there was silence.

"They're sending the paramedics out." Shadow said to her and she nodded. "Tell them to hurryNNNNGGHHH!" she yelled as another pain hit, followed by heavy breathing.

"Sir?" the dispatcher said.

"Yea?" Shadow asked as he sat down beside Sally.

"What I need you to do now is keep her calm and have her breathe normally until the medics get there. No matter what happens, she should not push until they get there."

"Okay." Shadow said and turned to Sally. "Just breathe easy and don't push." she nodded and gritted her teeth as another pain hit. Sally reached out for his hand and he took it, then another pain hit. "HUUUUUUGGGHHH!" she groaned and squeezed Shadow's hand. The hedgehog's eyes grew three times their size and he almost doubled over as her grip began crushing his hand. It was a pain he had never felt before and got a taste of what she was going through.

In ten minutes, the flash of red lights shined through the window and Shadow got up to let them in. While they did a quick assessment of her Shadow went to change and when he came back, they had her on the gurney and where taking her to the ambulance.

A few minutes later

The medics wheeled her into the ER and she went straight back, Sally screaming in pain as they did and Shadow right behind them. They got her in an exam room and a nurse and a doctor came in to assess her, getting the info from the medics.

"Shouldn't there be more people in here?" Shadow asked, but they ignored him.

The doctor asked the medics a question and he turned to Sally. "You're only along five months?" he asked. She nodded and grunted as another pain struck her and he nodded. "You're water hasn't broke?" he asked. Again, she shook her head no.

"Okay. This may be false labor. It's common this far into pregnancy but we're gonna check just to make sure." he said. "Are you the father?" he asked Shadow.

"No. But I want to make sure-" Shadow said, then the doctor cut him off. "I'm sorry sir, but unless your her husband or family, you'll have to wait outside." he said, and the nurse went over to him to escort him out. The tone in which the doctor spoke to him didn't sit well with him and Shadow resisted the urge to punch him in the face and walked to the door. "You'll be ok, Sally." he said to her, giving her a reassuring smile. The nurse escorted him out and he made a beeline for the main doors. Asshole. He didn't have to talk to me like that. Lucky she was there. he thought as he went outside but stayed right by the doors in case they came looking for him.

After cooling off, Shadow came back inside, deciding against sitting in the waiting room as people were coughing and sneezing, not even bothering to cover their mouths; just another reason to dislike people. Jeez. he thought, shaking his head.

After what seemed like days, the nurse that escorted him from the exam room found him. "Okay sir, she's fine. It was just false labor." she told him.

"False labor?" he asked.

"Yes. She's not dilated and her water didn't break. We managed to stop the labor pains so she can go home." the nurse said.

"Well, don't you want to keep her overnight or something? Monitor her?"

"No. It's common for women in their fifth month to go into false labor. As long as her water doesn't break, there's no need to worry. Just call her doctor today and let him know what happened."

Shadow wanted to demand they keep her for a bit longer to make absolutely sure she wasn't going to have the baby but knew it was pointless. He nodded and ten minutes later, another nurse came out with Sally, pushing her in a wheelchair. "Do you mind going and getting the car?" Sally asked him.

"You know I don't have a license, right?" he said to her.

"I know," she said. "But how else are we getting back? I didn't bring my purse and I'm not calling Tails for a ride at four in the morning." Sally said. "Besides, I trust you."

"Okay." he said. "I'll be back in a few minutes." he said. Sally watched as he went outside and immediately shot off into the night. While she waited for him to return, she wondered about what would happen when she actually went into labor.

If this was just false, what's the actual labor gonna feel like? she thought as she wheeled over to the door and watched. And how's Shadow going to take it? He practically freaked out. Never heard him sound like that before. That fear in his voice. I hope he can handle it. Suddenly, a drop of water hit the concrete outside, followed by another one. Slowly, it began to rain; Sally chuckled. *heh* I'm surprised he actually made it here. He's so exhausted I'm surprised he ran to the bedroom like he did. *sigh* He does too much for me. I- Sally stopped mid thought as she saw her car pull in and drive up to the doors. Shadow got out and went in to retrieve her. "Ready?" he asked, his shirt pockmarked with drops of water.

"You mind driving?" she asked. The question kind of surprised Shadow but he nodded he would. There was no way she was up to driving at the moment. She was too exhausted and just wanted to get home.

Shadow pushed her out to the car and helped her get in. The air was cold and the rain falling steady and she climbed in quicker than usual while Shadow took the wheelchair back inside. Sally, shaking, reached over and turned the heater on to low. "Wasn't supposed to be this cold today." she said as Shadow climbed back into the car. "Cold?" he asked as he shut the door.

"Yeah. Sorry. I can turn it off if you want." she said, but he shook his head no. "Let's get you home." he said and put the car in drive.