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Vector slammed through the hospital's doors, Charmy flying only a beat behind him. His heart raced, and not just from rushing halfway across the city to get here. He'd done nothing but pray the entire way over.
A squad of Eggman's robots had attacked Seaside City. Vector had led the counterattack, Charmy close by his side, while Espio and Knuckles (who happened to be in the area) evacuated the citizens.
Everything had been going well until a stray missile hit a nearby building, causing a collapse. Vector hadn't even known Espio was in the building until he'd gotten an urgent call from Knuckles at the hospital. Chaos, he'd been stupid to let the kid go off on his own. He wanted to punch himself. That was one of his team, one of his boys. He should've been there to protect him...
Knuckles was waiting for them as soon as they burst through the doors. Vector didn't think he'd ever seen his friend quite so pale. He looked about as awful as Vector felt.
"I couldn't get to him," Knuckles said. His fists clenched and unclenched at his sides, shifting like he didn't know what to do with them. "I'm sorry, Vector, I wasn't able to..."
Vector swallowed back a flurry of emotions. It wasn't Knuckles' fault. "It's— it's okay. Where is he?"
"In the back. The doctors won't let me go check on him."
Yeah, well, he'd see about that. Vector turned and dashed towards the reception desk, Knuckles and Charmy right behind him. His hand slammed down on the desk, harder than he meant. "What's going on with Espio? Where is he? Is he alright?"
The tiny shrew receptionist looked like she'd rather not have to deal with both a six-foot crocodile and an echidna with spikes for fists, and she immediately called back for one of the doctors to come out.
It took a few minutes before the double doors back into the actual hospital opened, minutes of Vector's insides continuing to twist themselves up in knots. Chaos, if anything happens to him... He paced around the waiting room before slumping in one of the far-too-small chairs, hands toying with his headphones in his lap. Charmy hovered close, wings maintaining a frantic buzz and eyes looking like they might burst into tears at any moment. Finally the doors swung open, and an armadillo in a white doctor's coat came out.
Vector sprang up. "Where is he? How's he doing?"
The doctor's voice remained calm and professional. "Your chameleon friend got pretty banged up in that collapse. A few broken ribs, a concussion. The worst injury was a sharp piece of rubble that pierced his abdomen, but it fortunately missed his vital organs. There's nothing that appears life-threatening and he's out of surgery now, but he'll need a good deal of care to fully recover."
Vector took a slow breath, swiping one trembling hand over the spikes on the back of his head. Okay. Espio was alive. He was alive, and it sounded like he would be okay. He swallowed, his heart still pounding and pressing at his throat. "Okay. Okay. Where is— where is he? I need to see him."
"Sir, like I told the echidna, you can't go back right now."
"Whaddya mean I CAN'T GO BACK? I NEED TO SEE IF HE'S OKAY!"
"I understand that, sir, but only immediate family are allowed in the ICU."
Immediate family? Like who, that loser tribe of ninjas somewhere on the other side of the globe that had left Espio with severe case of perfectionism and self-esteem issues? The ones that sent him off on his own when he was barely a teenager? They were hardly family. Espio had no one more "immediate" than him and Charmy.
Vector's hands clenched into fists at his side. "Yeah, well, I'm his DAD!"
The words came out so forceful, for a moment Vector almost believed himself. It took him a second to even realize what he'd said. Dad. Had he really just called himself that?
The doctor blinked at him. "You're his father?"
Vector stood up straighter. "Yeah. Yes, I am."
Maybe lying had simply been his most immediate instinct to get what he needed, or maybe it was the rearing up of some emotional connection he'd been trying his best to ignore for a long time. But this wasn't the moment to figure that out. What mattered was that this was now his current best way to get to see Espio, and he was gonna roll with it.
"You're the father of the chameleon?"
DANG IT.
"...Interspecies relationship. You know how it is." Vector chuckled wryly. "He takes after his mom."
Dang it, why didn't he say something a little more believable, like he was his uncle or cousin or ANYTHING else? No one would ever believe that.
Vector glanced over at Charmy, afraid the kid would say something and ruin it. He might have, but the moment his mouth even started to open Knuckles covered it with his mitt. The echidna gave Vector a look that said, very clearly, "You'd better know what you're doing." He pulled Charmy aside and muttered something in his ear.
Having already made an idiot of himself, Vector foraged on. "He's got my eyes, though." Espio's eyes were a bit more yellow, but they almost matched, if the doctor hadn't looked too carefully.
The doctor raised an eyebrow. He definitely wasn't buying it. "You, uh... look rather young to have a kid that age."
Ack. "Well, kids keep you young, right?" When the two of them weren't prematurely aging him through stress, like right now. It was a wonder he didn't have gray scales yet. "We had him as teens. Super unexpected. Probably why the whole thing didn't work out, but I got him in the custody battle..."
Knuckles stared at the ground and rubbed his temples, an absolutely pained expression on his face. Yeah. Vector didn't need him to tell him just how awful his lying was. He could hear himself. The doctor, too, looked at him askance.
But he had to get in to be with Espio. Whatever he had to do. Lie, or fight, or plead.
"Please," he begged. "Please. I gotta see my kid."
The doctor stared at him for a long moment, the entirety of which Vector's heart was deathly still. Finally the doctor sighed. "Alright. You can come back."
Oh thank you God. Vector threw up a silent prayer of thanks, along with the promise he'd repent of lying later. He grabbed the doctor's hand. "Thank you. Thank you thank you thank you." He shook the armadillo's hand vigorously.
"...Yes, well." The doctor disentangled himself from Vector's grip. "Your friends will still have to wait here. If you'll just follow me..."
"I wanna go with!" Charmy wailed.
Oh boy. There was no way he could pull off convincing them that Charmy was also family. His chance of getting back there was already hanging by a thread. "Kid, you gotta stay here with Knuckles, okay? I'll be right back as soon as—"
"NO I WANNA SEE ESPIO!" Charmy flung himself onto Vector, yanking at his arm.
"Charmy—"
Knuckles's large mitts wrapped around Charmy's torso and he pulled the kid off Vector, tucking him under one arm. Charmy kicked at him, but Knuckles just grunted and continued holding him gently but firmly. "Go," he told Vector.
Vector couldn't bear to leave Charmy there, especially as the kid began to cry. But Charmy would be alright, and Espio needed him right now. So after giving Charmy a quick, final assurance everything would be okay and he'd let him know anything he found out, he turned and followed the doctor through the double doors while Knuckles carried Charmy towards the waiting room.
They made their way through the long hallways of the hospital, all sterile white and as cold and dreary as an Eggman prison cell, past other patients who looked like they might have gotten caught in the crosshairs of the robot attack as well. The doctor finally turned in at one of the small recovery rooms, and Vector braced himself as he stepped through the door.
Espio lay in a hospital bed, eyes closed. His scales had dulled from their normal purple to a sickly pinkish-gray color. Bandages swathed his torso and head, and he was hooked up to about a half-a-dozen machines that beeped intermittently.
He looked so small. So fragile. Nothing but a thin hospital sheet protecting him from the outside world. The stoic teenager Vector knew would never have approved of being seen in such a weak and vulnerable state, but Vector was just happy to see the rise and fall of his chest and hear the steady beeping of the heart monitor. He was gonna be okay. The kid was a fighter. Always had been.
The doctor stepped closer to the bed. "Mr. Espio, your... father is here to see you."
If Espio was confused, or if he even understood the words, he didn’t show it. He only barely stirred, head shifting slightly, but his eyes remained shut.
"He's going to be pretty out of it for a bit, but he'll be coming around soon," the doctor said. "We should be able to get him out of here and back home within a couple days."
"...Thanks, doc," Vector mumbled. He stepped forward, almost afraid to stir the fragile scene in front of him. As if he could lose Espio just by breathing wrong. He slipped into the chair next to the hospital bed. "Es..." He swallowed, glancing up at the doctor. "Hey kid. It's me. It's... Dad."
The word was difficult to choke out past the strange lump in his throat. But once he said it... it sounded more natural than breathing.
"Dad's here," he whispered again.
Espio's eyelids flickered, revealing just a glimpse of yellow eyes. Eyes that really didn't look at all like Vector's, but for now he was still willing to pretend. Espio stared at him, gaze unfocused from whatever cocktail of anesthesia and painkillers they had him on.
"Dad..." he mumbled. And Vector couldn't tell by his voice if he was confused, or going along, or still just completely out of it. But that name, that title, being said to him, settled like an honor on his shoulders in a way he never could have imagined. Dad.
Vector's chest clenched, and he reached out, gently squeezing Espio's ungloved hand.
"It's okay, kid," he whispered. "I'm here."