I didn't have much desire to sleep. Though I was told to rest, I had too much energy. Though my movement was limited, I wanted to look around where I would spend some time. Sorely, I stood up and walked over to a door that went outside.

It led to a small yard that had a grassy area and some flowers along the edges. I limped to the grass and looked up to the star-filled sky. It seemed I was in an area that had little light pollution because I could see a lot more than what I saw when I was in city areas.

My thoughts turned to Maria. Sitting down, I allowed my mind to wander and think about my time with her, and how we enjoyed watching the stars. After a while, I noticed some patterns in the stars I hadn't observed before. Knowing humans, they must have had some idea of those patterns. I would have to ask Esme, in the morning. I relaxed on the grass and enjoyed the stories I was making up about the stars. I was glad that we were successful in saving Earth.

Something warm draped around my shoulder, and I found that a blanket had been placed on me by Esme. She looked at me in concern, "Everything okay?"

I gave a small nod. "Not tired."

She nodded her head and sat next to me. We sat in silence for a while, just watching the night sky.

"What are those patterns in the sky?" I asked.

"With the stars?" She confirmed my question. I nodded again. "You're probably talking about the constellations."

"Constellations." I took in the word. I was sure that I would have learned about them earlier if everything hadn't happened with G.U.N. and Maria was still around.

Esme smiled. "Constellations are groups of stars that many ancient civilizations assigned meaning to. That's Cassiopeia." She pointed to one group. "Over there is Ursa Major, also known as the Big Dipper." She pointed to another.

"Why is it called the Big Dipper?" I questioned.

"Because if you take a section of the group of stars, it looks like a drinking ladle." She responded. Her hand raised and pointed to another group that looked similar to Ursa Major. "That's Ursa Minor and the Little Dipper. If you follow the two stars at the end of Ursa Major, they point directly to the other end of Ursa Minor. The very end of Ursa Minor's tail is the North Star, named Polaris."

This human was very knowledgeable about the stars that scattered Earth's skies. "You seem to enjoy this topic."

She let out a small laugh. "Yeah, while growing up I enjoyed anything dealing with the night sky. I learned all I could about the moon, the stars, and the solar system."

When she mentioned the moon, my heart rate spiked. But she continued to just smile at me. My eyes avoided her gaze. She just gently placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Are there any constellations you'd like to know the story behind?" She asked me.

I looked back up at the sky and pointed to one.

"Oh, that's Scorpio," she started and went into the mythology behind the group of stars.

We spent quite a bit of time just discussing the stars and her telling the stories behind them. Some would be considered cute and simple. Others, I was quite surprised with how the civilizations of the past would decide how that constellation came to be. And as that time continued, I found myself starting to drift out of consciousness. But Esme stayed close to me. The last thing I remembered was resting my head on her lap and drifting off to sleep.

When my eyes opened, it was morning. Esme was already at work making food again. I raised myself from the couch and walked over to the kitchen to see what she was making. Looked like eggs, toast, and several other side items.

"Good morning, Shadow." She said with a smile. "I hope you like eggs. I can make some pancakes instead if you want."

"No, this is plenty," I stated.

She nodded. "Go ahead and take a seat at the table. I'll bring you your food."

I complied and took a seat. There was already a cup of something warm where I sat. "Is this a latte with steamed Austrian goat milk?"

Esme stopped what she was doing and looked over at me with a confused expression. "Um, no. It's an herbal tea with a bit of lemon, honey, and cream. I thought it would help your throat. I don't have any coffee here. I don't like the flavor, but I can get you some if you want any."

I grabbed the cup. "I'll be okay drinking this."

She gave me a small nod and finished plating the food. Grabbing the two plates she walked over to the table and placed one in front of me. I grabbed the fork and began to eat. Like the last meal, it satisfied the hunger very well. She was a good cook. I wondered if she would be able to make cakes like they did when Maria and I would play together.

"I have work today," Esme interrupted my thoughts. "So, I'll be gone for a few hours. I can show you how to use the T.V. or you are welcome to read any of the books I have on my shelf. I don't want you doing too much until you're more fully healed. And before I go, I want to change the bandages."

"Who do you work for?" I asked curiously.

She lifted her fork and pointed in some direction. "Oh, I'm just a marketing supervisor for a company. We do cover nationally, but it's not someplace super big that everyone would know."

"Marketing?"

"Yeah, so any commercials, or advertisements you see anywhere. I do stuff like that. I have a small team that helps me with a lot of stuff. We work with smaller companies to help with their ads and also maybe help with rebranding. Nothing major." She responded. "My favorite thing to work on is honestly designing and building websites for the smaller companies."

This was the second thing I had seen her get passionate about. She enjoyed a lot of things, but she also seemed lonely at times. Maybe she would tell me as we spent more time together. But, it's not my business, and I should leave as soon as I am better. It would be better for her safety. I'm not sure what else is happening in the outside world at this time either. I may be needed. And to honor Maria's memory, I need to be available to protect this planet from any threats.

We finished our meal and she brought me back to the living area. "The T.V. is very easy to use. Just turn it on with this button on the remote and you can change the channel with this button. Volume is this set of buttons. If you want to watch a movie, turn on the player, and switch to source 2 with the remote. I'm sure you'll catch on soon. There's lots of food in the kitchen, so if you get hungry you can grab something there. I've already prepared some lunches in the fridge you can eat. You don't have to cook anything. You're welcome to any of the books on the shelf, but I will warn you that the majority of them are romance novels. So, if that's not your cup of tea, then you don't have to read them."

I nodded at her instructions. It was quite interesting that a human would be so willing to help a stranger like me. Especially a Hedgehog that was not from this world. This kind of kindness, was it normal for humans? Esme reminded me of Maria, Agent Stone, and even Sonic seemed to act with that kindness thanks to the humans that took him in.

After we finished eating, we went back to the living area. She carefully took off the bandages and checked the progress of my healing wounds. After being satisfied with the progress, she applied an ointment and rewrapped them.

"I gotta get going." She handed me the remote. "I'll see you in a few hours. When I get home, we can make dinner together and we should have some time to do something else. Maybe watch a movie."

She grabbed her bag and began to walk towards the door. "I will be home close to 5:30. If you need to reach me, I wrote my number down and put it next to the phone in the kitchen. Just give me a call."

I nodded and she went out the door.