I Can't Breathe Without You

Diagnosis

Chapter Two - Diagnosis

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Shadow sat in the G.U.N lunchroom all by himself. His black coffee warmed his hands as he dissociatively stared out the window. The last three days had been very odd for him.

Ever since he helped paramedics transport Amy Rose to Station Square hospital, his mind seemed to be stuck on her wellbeing.

How pale and fragile she appeared as he lifted Amy into his arms in the back of the ambulance. It hadn't taken him long once finding out about her condition from Tails, to catch up and assist in getting her to a hospital quicker.

The ambulance was struggling to make its way through the crowded, damaged streets. Shadow was just grateful he had a chaos emerald on him, so he could teleport Amy to the hospital quicker. He couldn't shake the look on the hospital staff faces as he burst through the emergency room enterance. Not a single person wasn't staring on in worry and concern at the sight of heroine Amy Rose, down from battle.

Or so they thought.

Since then, he had only been able to see the pink hedgehog through tempered glass as she remained in a coma. Despite the fact that doctors had assured Amy was in a stable condition, it was apparently "too risky" for her to have visitors.

Shadow knew with his DNA there was no possible way he could worsen Amy's immune system, yet he didn't want to cause a scene over it while she was still in a coma. Shadow's ability to fight off all diseases was more so an open secret. Only G.U.N and those closest to Shadow knew he had such an ability. It was best the world wasn't aware of it for now. As much as Shadow would have liked to have finished his work against N.I.D.S and all diseases on The Ark, unfortunately that fantasy died when Maria did.

Maybe one day, when the time was right, he could return to it somehow.

Shadow's ears twitched, noticing Rouge's presence before he even glanced up at her. He returned back to his gazing out the window as Rouge approached the table, taking a seat across the broadening hedgehog. She placed down her tupperware container full of salad, cracking it open in preparation to begin eating.

"Heya Handsome." She greeted, a hint of melancholy in her tone, which was unusual for the likes of Rouge. Even she had been pretty worried about the pink hedgehog.

Shadow simply nods his head in greetings, returning his attention back to the window.

It had been hard for Rouge to get much out of her best friend over the last couple of days. He was terrible at talking about his feelings, and Rouge could tell the Amy situation was really getting to him.

If Shadow could opt to hide his feelings, he always would. Rouge had gotten used to the fact that sometimes, she just had no choice but to wait until Shadow was ready to talk about whatever was concocting inside his brain. Even though it would drive Rouge insane with his excessive broadening and cut short conversations, she knew that he would eventually open up.

She just had to trust him.

"Knuckles told me last night that Amy had woken up for a little bit yesterday." Rouge informed Shadow, as she picked at her salad, hoping to start a conversation. Shadow glanced over in intrigue.

"Is she out of her medically induced coma?" Shadow asked, hoping for the answer to be yes, however the way Rouge had phrased her sentence, didn't give him much hope.

"They believe so. She keeps coming in and out of consciousness. They'll have to do more tests. The doctors aren't telling anyone anything." Shadow grits his teeth in anger, shaking his head disapprovingly.