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It was a normal Thursday morning, and the Wachowski family was eating breakfast before Tom and Maddie went to work.
“Why can’t we have chili dogs for breakfast?” Sonic pouted, sitting on the stool at the kitchen island.”
“Bud, it doesn’t work like that.” Said Tom taking a sip from his glass of orange juice.
“Work like what?”
Maddie chimed in next. “People don’t eat chili dogs for breakfast, and it wouldn’t be very healthy to eat that in the morning.”
“But-“ Sonic wanted to protest, until Tom interrupted him.
“Tonight” Tom said “we can have chili dogs. For now eat your eggs.”
Sonic just nodded and ate his eggs, there was no point in arguing.
It was a normal morning so far. Tom went upstairs to put his uniform on and Maddie had her vet scrubs on. Tom had to leave a little early after getting a call from Wade saying that a duck stole another bagel again.
After some hugs goodbye, Tom walked out the front door. So it was just Maddie, Sonic, and Ozzy left in the house.
“Alright, just so you remember.. I need your room to be clean by the time me or Tom get back. Got it?” Maddie said grabbing her car keys.
“M’kay.” Sonic said sitting on the couch with his head in his hand.
Maddie was about to leave, until she turned around to look at Sonic, and kneeled down to his level. “You didn’t forget to hug me goodbye did you?” Maddie said with a smile.
Sonic zipped over and threw himself into her arms. “I didn’t forget, I was uhhh just seeing if you remembered.” Sonic pulled his head back to where he was looking into Maddie’s eyes, and grinned.
“Uh huh.” Maddie giggled and booped his nose.
“Be good okay? I should be back around four. Tom might be home a little earlier.”
“Okay mo-“ he quickly caught himself. “Maddie.” Sonic’s cheeks blushed with embarrassment. Oh no is she going to be mad I almost called her that?!
Maddie apparently noticed his embarrassment, but just smiled. “It’s okay blueberry, you can call me mom if you want to, we are family after all.” She kissed him between the ears before standing up. “See you later sweetie.”
Sonic watched her, get into her car and drive away, through the living room window.
After she was out of sight he yawned, and sat down on the couch. He would like to go to bed, he was pretty tired… but maybe a quick run would wake him up.
He zipped over to Ozzy and petted him goodbye. He just got a lazy woof in return as Ozzy walked to his dog bed and plopped down with a huff.
He went out the front door at the speed of sound, occasionally waving to neighbors and people in town.
But that word that Maddie had said was tumbling around in his brain. Family she had said. He knew they were a family, so why was it bothering him so much now? Maybe the thought of it just shook him.
He had been hoping, waiting, and longing for a real family for ten years. And the fact that he actually has a family now… made him feel a spark of joy and happiness.
But it wasn’t so easy at first. The first few weeks of being taken in by the Wachowski’s was hard. He didn’t know how to be a normal kid, and he thought he was just being a burden to Tom and Maddie. He wanted to make sure he was being a perfect kid for them, or else he feared they would just dump him on the streets because he was too much.
He would break and spill things. But nothing compared to that one terrible morning when he thought that he was going to try to be a good kid and make breakfast for them. He’d made pancakes with Maddie before so it couldn’t be that hard, right? Wrong. The pan caught on fire, he didn’t know how but somehow it did. Tom and Maddie had woken up with a start to the sound of the smoke alarm blaring in their ears. Tom quickly grabbed a fire extinguisher and put out the fire in a panic.
He cried and cried. There were so many sorries. Tom and Maddie tried to assure him that “it was okay it was an accident, we learn from our mistakes.” But he couldn’t stop the single fear in his mind that that was the final straw, and they were going to kick him out.
But that was a while ago. He has gotten a lot better now, he’s become much more comfortable about expressing his feelings to his parents. Even it meant that sometimes lights or lamps would get blown out from his sparks. But it was okay now-
Something jumped him out of his thoughts and back into reality.
He’d apparently ran to the forest near his old cave, out of habit.
But what was in front of him was about a seven foot drop. At the edge of the steep drop there was an uprooted branch sticking out of the ground.
He was already running at too fast of a speed that he couldn’t turn sharp enough. He tried to turn, until the heal of his left shoe got caught in the uprooted branch. The force of the turn caused him to lean over the edge, with his foot still stuck and it twisted in a painful way. He could hear a snap in his ankle as the pain shot through his leg.
He gasped as his foot finally came loose and he fell down the whole seven feet.
He eventually woke up. How long had it even been? He didn’t know.
Wait did I pass out?!
He lifted his head up trying to regain consciousness and his thoughts. He tried to sit up, only for a sharp pain to shoot through his leg starting from his ankle. He winced as tears started forming in the corners of his eyes.
He brought his leg closer to him so he could actually see it. Moving his sock down a little, he could see it was really swollen, and the skin underneath his fur was a bright purple and red.
He lifted his leg up only to see his ankle abnormally, lean way too far to the side than it should.
It was definitely broken.
He looked up to the sky to try and figure out what time of day it was. Thanks to Longclaw’s teachings he learned how to tell time by looking at the sun. It looked like it was around noon.
He started breathing heavily trying to ensure himself that everything was fine.
I can just try to walk all the way home… it’s fine.
It wasn’t fine. When he tried to stand up and take a step, he fell back down and let out a gasp when his ankle rolled to the side.
Okay maybe this isn’t fine.
Tears started trickling down his muzzle as he laid back down on the grass. He shut his eyes tightly, taking fistfuls of grass into his hands.
His house was about a mile away. There was no way he would be able to walk all the way there on a broken ankle. Not to mention Tom and Maddie didn’t get off work until four.
And the pain was unbearable.
“TOM, MADDIE, PLEASE!”
*******************************************
Tom had just gotten off of work, and he opened the door to be greeted by Ozzy with his tail wagging.
“Where is the little speedster at?” Said Tom while petting Ozzy.
He stood up and started walking toward the attic stairs. “Sonic? You up there?”
No response.
Well that was weird. Whenever Tom or Maddie comes home from work he is always at the door in a split second.
He walked up the attic steps to just see his room but no hedgehog. The room hadn’t even been cleaned yet, Maddie told him that she told Sonic to clean his room before they got back. Sonic usually always listens and does his chores. He had a feeling that something was wrong.
He called his name a few more times and after not getting an answer he became anxious. He searched the whole house for the blue blur.
He searched the living room, the kitchen, the bathroom, and their bedroom. But nothing. Maybe he just went out on a run?
He decided to wait it out a little bit, deciding he was just on a run.
Maddie came home about thirty minutes later. “Where is Sonic at?” She asked as she was hanging up her keys.
“I don’t know. I’m assuming he is on a run? But it’s been about forty five minutes… and we told him not to be out longer than thirty.”
Maddie face turned to one of worry. “Did he at least clean his room?”
“Nope, I checked it was the same as this morning.”
“That’s odd.. he always listens.”
It was now almost five o’clock and Maddie and Tom had made dinner and sat the third plate on an empty spot at the kitchen island.
“Tom, why isn’t he back yet? He should be back by now.” Maddie pressed her fist up to her mouth as she furrowed her eye brows.
Tom was expressing the same worry. “I don’t know… I tried calling him but he left his phone here.”
“W-what if something happened?” She gasped. “Do you think the government found him?”
Tom tried to calm down his worried wife, although he was worried just as much. “Let’s not jump to the what if’s yet. Why don’t we maybe try to drive around a bit, see if we can find him.”
“Okay… yeah let’s do that.”
They drove around town stopping by some neighbors and people walking in the town square to ask if they had seen him. Most of them said they hadn’t, while a few others said that they saw him running around this morning around 7:30 but haven’t seen him since.
To say that the two parents were worried was an understatement. They were worried sick.
It was a little past six o’clock now and they were still driving around, rolling down the car windows calling for his name.
“If that kid is fine, he’s grounded.” He said sternly, tightening his grip on the steering wheel.
“Tom, I just-“ her voiced tightened. “I’m worried-“
Tom put his free hand on her shoulder, but his voice was still tinted with worry. “It’s okay we will find him, even if the government did take him it’s nothing we can’t handle, we will rescue him because he is our kid.” he bit the inside of his cheek. “But still, that doesn’t mean that the government took-“
“Tom! Look!” Tom was startled by Maddie’s panicked voice. He slammed on the brakes, and saw her pointing to blue sparks flying in the woods.
He quickly pulled over to the side of the road, as they hurriedly jumped out and ran to the crying hedgehog.
“Sonic!” Maddie shouted.
“Mom?!” The voice was hoarse and scared.
They both ran to his side and dropped down on their knees next to the hedgehog. Maddie carefully scooped him up in her arms. He buried his face into her shirt, the sweet smell of lavender and vanilla filling his nose. Tom was rubbing calming circles on his back.
“Bud, what happened? You scared me and Maddie to our grave.”
“Sonic why didn’t you come home?”
He continued crying into her shoulder, “I’m sorry, I’m s-sorry, I’m so sorry.”
“Sweetie what happened?” She pulled back his head so she could see his face better. The poor kids eyes were bloodshot from all the crying, as well as wet tears that were stained onto his muzzle.
He choked on a sob. “I-I was just going for a run a-and I fell and hurt my ankle really b-bad and I couldn’t walk home.” He started crying harder as he buried his face back into her shirt. “It hurts really bad.”
“I know baby it’s okay we’re right here, just breathe for me okay?”
He did. He took in a few shaky breaths until his breathing evened, feeling safe in his mom’s arms.
Once she knew he was calmed down she tried handing him to Tom. “Okay I’m gonna have dad hold you okay? And I’m going to look at your ankle.”
He whined when his foot was bumped in the transition between Maddie and Tom. Tom gently took him into his arms and rubbed his back, whispering comforting words.
Maddie looked over to his ankle and could tell immediately that the left one was definitely more swollen than the other one. She gently grabbed his ankle, and the sudden touch made him flinch and let out a gasp.
“I’m sorry baby, but I need to see it okay?”
Sonic peeked out of Tom’s shirt a little, eyeing her every move.
She lifted his ankle up a little, being much more gentle this time. She noticed that the skin was purple, and how his foot flopped over to the side to where it definitely shouldn’t be. She also felt around his ankle for a break. And as she suspected, it was broken.
There was a pained whine as his leg flinched and she gently laid his ankle back on the ground.
“Is it bad?” Tom asked, his voice full of worry for the little speedster.
“Well I think it’s definitely broken.. we might have to take him to the clinic to do an x-ray to see how bad the break actually is.”
“So should we be going now?”
“Yeah I don’t want it to get worse.”
Tom gently handed the crying hedgehog to Maddie, as he snuggled up against her. Tom wrapped him up in a fuzzy blanket they had in the car as Maddie cradled him the whole way to the vet clinic.
“How long were you out there?” Tom asked glancing over to the hedgehog in Maddie’s arms for a second, then focusing back on the road.
“I-I don’t know I went on a run this morning right a-after you guys left. But it was about noon I t-think when I woke up.” Sonic sniffled and wiped his nose with the back of his gloved hand.
“You were out there the whole day?”
Maddie gasped as she realized what he had said. “Wait… woke up? Did you pass out?!”
“I t-think so.. yeah.”
Well that’s another thing, she would have to check if he had a concussion as well as the x-ray.
Today was a crazy day.
Once they got to the clinic Maddie took some x-rays of his left ankle as well as the other one to have something to compare it to, because she still didn’t know much about his biology or bone structure.
After getting the results she found that the bone had snapped entirely in half.
She picked Sonic up, who was snuggled in Tom’s arms as he followed her into the room. She placed him on one of the tables that you would normally put a dog or cat on.
“What’s gonna happen?” Sonic said worrying, he’d never actually had a broken bone before. But it was one of his worst fears when he lived in the forest. Mostly because if he ever broke his leg it would be so hard to find food near peoples houses without him getting caught by someone.
“Well it’s pretty bad the whole bone is snapped in half.” She could see Tom grimace in sympathy in the corner of her eye. “so in the meantime I’m going to have to wrap it up in a cast, okay?”
“Okay… will it hurt?”
“It might a little, just hold your leg still okay?”
He hissed through his teeth when she started wrapping the first layer of the bandage onto his ankle.
“I forgot to warn you, it’s gonna have to be pretty tight so it will support your foot.”
When Tom noticed the tears in the corner of the hedgehog’s eyes were coming back at full force, he ran over there to comfort him, rubbing his ear. “It’s okay buddy it will be done soon.”
That at least got him to calm down a little.
It was almost ten o’clock before they actually got home. They were all exhausted. Tom and Maddie decided to take the next few days off of work to care for Sonic.
He wanted to watch speed again that night. His huge puppy eyes and all that he had been through today managed to somehow convince the tired parents to all snuggle up on the couch.
Sonic had his leg,which was now wearing a boot, propped up on a pillow, as he laid his head on Tom.
The pain was still there but the comforting feeling of his family surrounding him was enough to ease the pain for a while.
He smiled as he drifted off into dreamland, with the people he loved the most.