If he had siblings

part 9

Tom and Maddie were fixing their house from the attack. "You got enough there?"
Tom joked as he watched Maddie paint the wall.

"Yes, Mr. Manager." She joked back.

"Need any more?" He stuck the roller brush he held in his hand, in front of her face.

"You get that away!"

They both paused at a knock at the front door. Tom walked over and answered it to find Commander Walters on their doorstep. "Mr. and Mrs. Wachowski?" The government official asked.

"Yes?" Tom asked hesitantly.

Commander Walters reached into his coat and handed them an envelope. "A token of appreciation from your government for keeping quiet about recent incidents which never occurred."

"Wow!" Tom took the envelope carefully. "I wonder what it is."

Maddie smiled. "Money to fix the house?"

Toms eyes widened as he looked to Maddie and back to Commander Walters. "Letter from the president?"

"You'll see."

"Okay." Tom opened the envelope, revealing a $50 gift card to Olive Garden from Uncle Sam.

"Olive Garden." Maddie deadpans, her face dropping a little bit.

"Yeah, heh. The way you said "You'll see" made me think it was something better than the things we said." Tom stated, his disappointment showed as well.

Commander Walters remained oblivious. "Have you tried their Never Ending Pasta Bowl? It never ends!"

"That sounds... fancy."

"Mm-hmm. Well!" Maddie clapped her hands together. "Thank you. We appreciate the gesture."

"Oh, hey. I guess we can close the file on that Robotnik guy, huh? Just disappeared." Tom nonchalantly replied.

"I'm sorry, but no such person exists or ever has existed." Commander Walters stated.

"I wish that were true."

Commander Walters continued on. "You haven't, by any chance, been in contact with some certain alien creatures since the incident, have you? Uncle Sam would love to have a chat with them. Very casual. Brunch, perhaps."

Tom shook his head. "Oh, you mean the little blue, silver and red guys? No. No, nothing. No."

"Mm-mmm." Maddie agreed, pursing her lips.

"Doubt we'll ever hear from him again."

"Mm-mmm."

Commander Walters seemed hesitant. "Very well."

Tom nodded and let out a sharp breath. "Okay. Thank you."

"Great." Maddie smiled politely.

Commander Walters glanced inside the house but Tom slowly closes the door. "Yep."

The government official tried to peek inside a little more, but Tom made sure to close the door firmly shut before turning back to Maddie. "To be honest, I'm pretty pumped about the pasta bowl."

Tom and Maddie walk into the living room and Sonic poked his head up from behind the couch.
"So, do you guys wanna watch a movie or what?"

"Sorry, buddy. It's a school night. It's time for you guys to go back to your cave." Maddie replied.

"What?!" Sonic jumped up from behind the couch and sat on it next to Ozzie. "It's 3:00 in the afternoon!"

"You know how you get when you're tired." Tom teased. "Come on."

"Me? I'm not like anything, not even those dorks in the kitchen."

"Heard that!" Shadow shouted as Silver came running in and tackled Sonic.

"Ugh, you guys are so uncool!" Sonic moaned from the floor where Silver sat on top of him.

"Yeah, yeah, we know." Tom said, chuckling at the scene.

"I'm cool." Silver said, offended, he pointed a thumb to himself. "I'm so cool you fell to the ground and became a SEAT for me."

Sonic raised his quills in response, making Silver yelp and jump off him.

Shadow walked from the kitchen to the living room, shoving Silver. "Idiot." Together the trio start making their way to the door.

"Hey, fellas, where you going?" Tom asked, feigning confusion.

"You said we have to go back to our cave." Shadow pointed out.

"We did." Both of the adults shared a smile and walk toward the attic. Tom opened the hatch to the attic and the two let the hedgehogs go in first, and all three were visibly surprised when all of their possessions from the cave in the woods were now in the attic.

"Oh, my--"

"Are you kidding me?"

"I can't believe it!"

"How did you--"

"It's-- it's all here."

Tom and Maddie climb up as well and Sonic started zipping around their possessions and furniture. Shadow grabbed the small spear he made to protect himself and his brothers when they first got to earth. A genuine smile lighting his face as Silver floats over to their beds.  They each had one. Sonic's bed looked like a race car, Shadow's looked like a motorcycle and Silver's looked like a spaceship.

Sonic was still running around, rambling.
"Look at this! Are you kidding?! And the beanbag?! No way! How did you even get this?! And you got it all the way over--" Sonic laughed as he flossed on his bed and jumped up and down a few times.

"I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it!"

Sonic lays down and then sits up as his brothers sit next to him, Tom and Maddie follow after, sandwiching the hedgehogs in.

"Well, welcome home." Maddie said warmly.

"Thank you, so much." Silver whispered.

Shadow made eye contact with Tom, giving him a nod of appreciation. Maybe he could finally accept someone else to protect and care for him and his brothers. Maybe they weren't truly alone.

Ozzie suddenly rushed up the attic stairs and started barking.

"Oh, no, you don't!" Silver shouted playfully.

"No second-best animal friends allowed in our room." Sonic laughed.

Ozzie barked again.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Shadow abruptly asked. "Stay away! Stop it! I'm warning you!" He lightly pushed the dog away.

"I've got nunchucks!" Sonic shouted when Ozzie rounded on him, "Stop! Okay, you can stay!"

The three hedgehogs sat still and silent for a moment. They all stared around at the attic, taking it all in. It was no cave. There were no traces of starving hedgehogs struggling to survive. There was only warmth and safety. They weren't alone anymore, everything's changed, and people know about them. Sure it went against what Longclaw instructed but they've made their mark so maybe...

maybe that was okay.

~Fin~

AN: And just like that? Book 1 is over... holy cow. Almost 4 years of this book and i finally finished it. I hope you guys enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. BOOK TWO IS OFFICIALLY COMING AND WILL BE IN THE WORKS SOON. bye everyone :)