𝘿𝙚𝙫𝙤𝙪𝙧.

•𝐄𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭•

"We can remove the bullet, but he'll need to stay overnight so we can be sure that the stitches don't come out," the doctor spoke while tapping a pen against his clipboard. Sonic currently had some gauze coiled around his wound, a little disinfectant having been sprayed on beforehand, but aside from that, he received no other treatment.

Shadow glared at the doctor. "He can't stay overnight."
"He'll have to if we operate on him."
"Then you're not operating on him," Shadow snatched Sonic's left wrist into his hand and yanked the blue hedgehog out of the hospital after him, the dark hybrid's muzzle twitching in annoyance.

Sonic swallowed thickly. "So... Now what?" He questioned hesitantly. Shadow just released him and plopped himself down on a nearby bench lining the sidewalk, dragging a hand down his face and groaning. "I can remove it. I know how and I've done it before. It's just that I was hoping we could get you into the hospital so they could use anesthetics on you. But that's no longer an option, now that we know you'll have to be kept overnight," Shadow explained, pinching the bridge of his nose.

Sonic gave a nervous chuckle. "And if I left the bullet in?"
"It will get infected past the point of repair and I'll have to amputate it. Not like I'm against getting your blood on my hands. Just warning you," he stated nonchalantly. The hero swallowed again. "O-okay, so let's go back to Tails' workshop. You can pull it out there. And maybe we can even talk to him about what's going on."

Shadow hummed and stood up, agreeing to Sonic's suggestion. Quickly, he took Sonic's hand, Chaos Controlling right into the middle of the garage. Tails was sat at his workbench, his nose stuck in some papers, and Amy happened to be sitting on a wheelie chair not too far off, filing her nails while she conversed calmly with Miles. A rather surprising sight after what she had pulled the previous night.

The ebony hedgie led Sonic to a table near the shattered chamber; Sonic's eyes were glued to it. "You really weren't kidding, huh?" he mumbled, pulling both Tails and Amy's attention away from what they had been doing. "Sonic! You're okay!" the two yelled at the same time, smiling widely. Shadow raised his brows, slightly shocked. Last time he had checked, Sonic wasn't the one who had put his life in danger.

"Uh, yeah... Shouldn't you be more worried about Shads, here? He was the one he stuck with me all night, after all," Sonic said, almost as if he had been reading Shadow's protected mind. The life form huffed and folded his arms over his chest as Tails began to look Sonic over, checking for wounds. "What happened to your arm?" Tails asked and tilted his head at the bloodied gauze.

Sonic opened his mouth to tell his brother of the events that had supposedly taken place, but the way Shadow seemed uninterested into the story made him think twice. He's trying to prepare for an outburst from Tails. "It was crazy," Sonic started. "Shadow and I were running through the woods when this massive bear came out of nowhere! It tried to get to Shadow, but I totally saved his life by pushing him out of the way; sank its teeth right into me!" Sonic boasted at his false story. Shadow's ear twitched.

"Excuse your sorry ass, but that's not how the encounter went at all," Shadow stepped in, deciding to at least try and make Sonic's lie believable. "You were losing a fight to the bear and I was the one that saved you. Stop twisting my words to show off to the kid. Your memories fail you when you switch between forms." The blue blur rolled his eyes and started to open and close his mouth to mock Shadow, very much like he had done as the beast.

"Woah... That is crazy!"
"One of the bear's teeth got lodged into his arm. I'm going to take it out. Got anything I can work with?"

Tails handed Shadow a box of medical supplies a few moments later, leaving Shadow to his work at the back of the workshop. Tails explained that he wanted to show something to Shadow once he had finished helping Sonic and wandered back to his desk.