The first thing I was aware of was numbness. It felt so good. The next thing I noticed was stillness. That, also, would never again be taken for granted. Those two things alone were enough to make me think that maybe this wasn't so bad. Floating here in my world of nothing. No thoughts meant no worries. No worries meant no stress. No stress was a new feeling all together.

I wasn't sacred. I wasn't angry or enduring, confused or sure, tired or energetic, weak or strong, sad or happy. I was nothing. It wasn't okay, but it wasn't not okay either. Nothing was something new as well.

Gradually, I became more aware of things. How this was nothing. How I was so content with it. There was no pain. There was no waves of energy surging through me, trying to take over. That was gone. So was all other feeling. Was this death? Nothing...forever? I would have panicked, but...panic wasn't real here. Just the stillness and the numbness and the nothing. The increasingly overwhelming nothing.

As thought came into the picture, so did emotion. The nothing began clearing form my mind, at least, and it eventually began forming a cloudy haziness of...thought. Stress came back and I knew this could no longer be death. It was no longer nothing, just...stillness and numbness. As I became aware of this, I began to get scared. Was I trapped here forever in the black? Would I ever get out? How?

Emotion and thought and turbulence had all come back by now. I could feel my chest rise and fall as I breathed. I could feel my heart beating, pulsing. I had a pulse. I had life. All that was left was feeling; the hardest thing to want back after all I'd been through. I was scared to go back to the pain! What if it wasn't gone? What if I still had to suffer from every touch with everything?

My breath became part of my personal action rather than an involuntary reflex and my heart beat quickened to an actual pace rather than the required bump only every few seconds that just barely proved I was alive. I was coming back and all that was left was the feeling.

Rather than pain, the first thing I felt was...softness. I could barely remember it; there had been nothing but either numbness or pain for what seemed almost like forever now. I felt softness underneath me and around me. I felt it on me. In my hand, the one that had been either burning or numb from my first light bulb experiment who knows how long ago from now. It was such a gentle, reassuring feeling.

It was warmth and comfort and everything I'd been longing for ever since...forever come to think of it. I took control over from the involuntarily stimulated part of my brain so that I was breathing and laying and being still all on my own. I wrapped my fingers around the comfort in my hand and opened my eyes.

It was the opposite of blackness on the other side. It was the brightest white light I'd ever seen! I squinted my eyes immediately back shut and waited for the light to stop burning through my eye lids before I allowed them to flutter-slowly-opened to face the world. It took a moment for the blurs to become distinctive shapes, but once they did it seemed so beautiful!

It was just a light blue ceiling tile with little specs, but after eternities in the dark it seemed so gloriously relieving! Next to the tile were dozens more exactly alike, so I let my sight branch out to find other things. The room, the machines-which I could now hear droning a consistent beeping that followed that of my heart rate-and Sonic.

He was on his knees on the floor against the side of my bed. And he had his hand in mine in the most comforting way I'd ever felt.

"Welcome back," he said quietly with a smile so big it could barely fit on his face.

I smiled back and he gave my hand a reassuring squeeze.

"I...I'm" my voice was dry and hoarse; it was too hard to make it work.

"Okay. You're okay Ames!" My smiled widened and I nodded slightly.

I was okay! Despite the fact that the odds were against me and that even I thought I wouldn't make it, I had. I was so much more than okay!

"I should get Tails; he'll want to know you're awake. Are you okay?"

"Better," I whispered, not exactly sounding better than okay, but that didn't matter. In all honesty I'd probably never felt weaker in my life, but that didn't matter. I didn't feel pain anymore; that's what mattered.

He held my hand tightly in both of his. He was so warm and his grasp was firm, but gentle. It was amazing.

"No pain?" he asked and I shook my head, not sure if I'd be able to speak anymore than I had with just one word.

His smile grew impossibly larger and he kissed the back of my hand before standing up.

"I'll be right back," he promised and practically jumped out of the room.

Tails came back with Sonic just a few seconds later looking more like an actual doctor than an eight-year-old kitsune. I smiled at him and made a move to sit up but found myself incapable of any large amount of motion. Tails noticed and held up a hand in a motion to stop as he returned my smile.

"Don't try anything funny now, Amy. I'm gonna check all your vitals first so just relax for a minute, okay?" He said politely as Sonic took a seat a few feet away. "How are you feeling? Any pain whatsoever?"

I glanced quickly at Sonic and back. The fox followed my gaze and Sonic said how I'd already told him no to the pain.

"Does your throat hurt or anything? Can you talk?" he asked.

I shook my head no, sort of an answer to both. "I'm just hoarse is all; I'm great," I said honestly, but the words were mostly just shapes on my lips, coming out in a whisper at loudest.

"Do you want some water or anything?" Tails asked, gesturing to an unopened water bottle waiting on a table next to the bed.

I took a small sip and found that it barely helped at all. "Any better?" Tails asked.

I cleared my throat and was able to make semi-words mix in with the whispers. "Not too much; I'm fine though."

"Okay, but you've gotta let me know if you need anything," he said and I nodded in agreement as he got a little bag and set it up on the bed next to my side. He pressed a button on the bed rail that tilted the bed until it move me to a sitting position. "What's the last thing you remember before you woke up?"

"I didn't forget anything; I'm sure of that," I whispered, giving up on the stupid talking. Honestly I could whisper louder than I could speak at this point. "I got upset and I started to run away," I kept stealing glances at Sonic to see his reaction, but he seemed completely calm and happy. "When Sonic caught me I guess I just gave up because there was too much energy and I...released it."

"Okay, that's good. Keep you eyes focused on my finger," he instructed while pulling out a little flashlight and sweeping it in front of my face a few times. "You don't have a headache or anything like that?"

I shook my head. "I feel really good."

He put down the flashlight and scribbled something quickly on a clipboard. "Do you feel tired or anything?"

That's where my perfect healthiness streak died. "Weak," I admitted.

"Don't worry, Amy; that shouldn't be a problem. I'd honestly be more worried if you were up and active already. It's going to take you some time to get all your energy back, but until then you just take it easy, okay?"

"Tails, how long was I...unconscious?"

"About a week and a half," he admitted.

"Day after tomorrow would've been two," Sonic interjected.

"How...it only felt like 10 minutes!"

"It's okay, Amy. I've know people who go into a comma for months before they wake up; there's nothing to worry about, okay?" Tails said reassuringly. I nodded. "You're probably going to have a concussion, but I'll have to do a CT scan before I give you any numbers. We can go ahead and get that over with now if you want so you won't have anything to worry about."

"Yes please," I said quietly and Sonic automatically stood up and stepped over.

Tails put the few things back in his bag and went to open the door while Sonic slid his arms under my legs and behind my back, pulling me out of the bed in one fluid, gentle movement. I wrapped my arms around him, not because I was afraid he might drop me or anything, but just because I'd missed being able to feel him without the accompanying pain. When we got to the big machine a few rooms over, it was harder than I expected to let him put me down.

After Tails finished all of his tests, I felt ready to pass out all over again. I had barely any energy, but I was determined to make what I could out of what I did have. It wasn't more than five minutes before Tails came out with his analysis. Sonic was sitting on the bed with me now, holding his arms around me while I half-slept with my head on his shoulder.

"Like I figured, Amy, you do have a concussion. It's not the worst, but it's not something you can just ignore. First, on a scale of 1 to 10, how much energy do you have right now?" he asked. "10 is most by the way."

I cleared my throat so I'd at least have a shot at audible words. "0.5," I said, "at most."

"See that's the only thing that makes it tricky; after everything, I figured you'd be tired, since being passed out like you were is a completely different thing from sleep. The problem is that if you go to sleep with a concussion of this level any time within the next 30 hours, you'd be very likely to go into a comma, which I can't even assure you'd be able to come out of. Since you're out of energy, you'd be risking fatigue if you stayed up and a comma if you didn't."

"So what's the plan?" Sonic asked, looking a little nervous.

"Well, I say we've just got to make her stay up. As long as you don't overdose on caffeine or something to force yourself to stay awake, you wouldn't be able to die of fatigue or anything. You'll be pretty exhausted by the end of this, but the worst that could happen other than that would be a system shut down, which is basically the same thing that happened to keep you passed out the past two weeks. I really doubt that would happen again, but it's always technically possible.

"If it came down to sleep or pass out, you'd be able to rest for a little while, but that would probably just make it even harder to be awake afterward. 30 minutes or less at a time would be preferable, but it would have to be several hours between intervals; up to an hour is about as long as you could sleep at a time, though, without going into full unconsciousness."

I sighed. That sucked. I was honestly hoping to be able to go home and sleep the night and be better by tomorrow or something, but I guess that wasn't going to happen.

"30 hours?" I recapped and Tails nodded.

"That would mean about 8:00 tomorrow night at the soonest, since it's 2 pm now."

I sighed again and Sonic wrapped his hand around mine in a comforting way. "You've made it this far," he said and I smiled.

"Okay," I agreed.

"Well, you can stay here until then if you want or go home, but I'm not going to let you be left alone until tomorrow," Tails said.

"Okay, Sonic you've gotta come with me then because I really want to go home," I said, giving him my best pouty face.

He laughed. "Not a problem; I'll take care of her Tails," he said and the fox nodded.

Sonic held me tighter in his arms and stood up. He sped off towards my house and I took refuge in the comfort of his arms.

Sometimes it seemed like there were only extremes with nothing in the middle to soak them up. It seemed like one second there was too much energy to deal with and now...none. I groaned at the very thought. Within a short amount of time, Sonic could have me back home and I could relax for a while, but even then I wouldn't be able to give in to the exhaustion plaguing myself. 30 hours; that was torture.

I had my eyes closed the whole time and when I felt Sonic slide to a stop in front of my house I knew that those few seconds of darkness were over.

"Wake up, we're here," Sonic said only somewhat sarcastically, shifting so that he had a free arm to open the door without putting me down.

"I'm not asleep; someone glued my eyes closed," I mumbled sort of audibly.

"Oh good; now I'm completely in charge!"

I sighed and forced my eyes open. Everything was more or less the same as how I remembered it, excusing the thin layer of dust that proved the house had been uninhabited for a while. I took in a slow breath through my nose and smiled contently. It still smelled like home...only dustier. I'd have some cleaning to do once I got back into the pattern of living.

"First thing's first," Sonic began, using a foot to close the door behind him, "you need to get something to eat. It's been about five whole weeks since you've had actual food in your system."

"Okay," I agreed as he set me down on the kitchen counter top next to the sink.

"So what'll it be?"

"I'm just gonna say toast for now."

"Toast?"

"Toast," I repeated.

"Toast," Sonic confirmed.

I sighed. "Would you please just get out the bread?"

"Yes. Because you use bread to make toast!"

I groaned. "Sonic, you're hopeless in the kitchen. You know that, right?"

He shrugged, chuckling as he retrieved a loaf of bread from the cabinet. At least he knew where it was. I stuck two slices in the toaster and he got out butter and cinnamon for me while it cooked. My stomach started to growl at the nearly undetectable crispy smell until the toaster popped. The sudden movement surprised me so that I gasped. Sonic laughed at me.

"So you're afraid of the toaster?"

"Yeah, whatsit to ya?"

He laughed. "It's just...strange. Anything else?"

I sighed while buttering the toast. "The microwave too; if it beeps when I'm not expecting it, sometimes I scream."

Now Sonic was fully cracking up. "So you can jump in front of a laser no problem, but when it comes to food preparation-"

"I use the oven!" I finished.

"Well it's a good thing you can cook so well that that's all you need. You know, even if it comes with directions I still need Tails conformation that I'm doing it right."

"Trust me, Sonic, I know," I shuddered at the memory of the spaghetti night Sonic tried to organize once. The noodles were black and all shriveled up, the sauce...well, no one dared to try the sauce, and, to top it all off, he left the stove on once it was done and nearly caught a metal pan on fire! We had pizza that night.

"Well you're nice," he said sarcastically.

After I finished my toast, I looked in the fridge to find that just about everything in it had gone bad! The only thing that seemed digestible out of the mess was a bottle of vegetable juice and some cheese, but even the cheese would require slicing the mold off. I shuddered and closed the fridge. Sonic sat at the table a few feet and looked at me puzzled.

"I'm gonna have some shopping to do soon," I explained, hoping the fridge wouldn't need to be opened again for a while.

"What about the pantry?" he suggested and I nodded.

The food still looked good, but mostly it was just canned or boxed foods; not exactly the right thing for a mid-day meal. I scanned the shelves and finally chose a bag of noddle soup from near the bottom. It was quick to make and okay to eat whenever, so I put on a pot of water to boil for a minute.

"So what do you want me to do?" Sonic asked helpfully.

I thought for a moment. Really the only things that needed to be done was cleaning and grocery shopping, but I'd rather wait and handle that when I felt better. As for now, all I really wanted to do was get something to eat so I'd feel a little better, and Sonic probably shouldn't help with that.

"Sit with me," I finally said, hopping back up on the counter and gesturing for him to come over next to me.

"That's not exactly what I meant," he said as he walked over and complied to my request, "but I'll do it."

"Well there's nothing else I want to get done right now; I'm allowed to procrastinate until I'm able to stand up for five whole minutes, right?"

"Yes, Amy, get better first and then worry about," he fake gasped, "a dirty floor!"

"I'm not that much a neat freak, am I?"

"You've got second place right after Vanilla," Sonic said.

…

I guess it's a good thing that the day passed by so quickly; that meant that tomorrow wasn't a forever away and that I might actually make it until then without collapsing. Night time, however, was a different story entirely. I could still remember the first time I ever pulled an all-nighter; I was eight years old and one night seemed to feel like three times as long as a day. Seven years later and the nights still felt longer; I was in for a rough ride.

"I'll be up with you, Ames; no worries," Sonic promised.

"But then you'll be tired too," I protested.

"Not as bad as you; I'd have to anyway just to make sure you don't fall asleep accidentally."

"I wouldn't," I said with a yawn that proved I was lying.

"Yeah, I can tell. So what do you want to do? We can watch a movie or something," Sonic offered.

"I've seen every movie I have twice or more and now they just put me to sleep faster," I said.

"Well, let's see if there's something good playing on TV," he offered.

It was Tuesday night at 10:00; how could there possibly be anything good on right now? I sighed and let Sonic check the guide, surprisingly enough finding that several movies either were or soon would be on. The real challenge was finding a good one.

Eventually, Sonic talked me into a horror movie that was supposed to come on in half an hour called "Hide and Seek". I didn't really care too much for horror movies, but Sonic convinced me somehow. I guess it made sense; I told him that I was prone to falling asleep during movies, so he had to choose the only one with the 'horror' genre so that I wouldn't be able to fall asleep.

During the half hour we waited before it came on, I made popcorn and Sonic decided to transform my living room into a complex castle of blankets. It was really pretty cool, actually. He moved the little table, the only thing in the middle of the room since all the furniture was against walls, and had it against the wall under the TV, which was mounted in an entertainment station. There were some thick blankets laying out on the floor and thinner sheets hanging on the furniture or picture frames on the walls. I laughed as I walked in carrying the bowl of popcorn.

"Tada!" Sonic exclaimed, seeming very proud of his creation.

"Wow, this is really cool!"

"Thanks! I hope you don't mind that I got all your blankets from the hall closet."

"Not at all; it's great!"

"Cool," he said, tossing a piece of popcorn in his mouth. "Oh, and if you get too scared, just remember that it's only a movie."

"I won't get scared!"

"Then why did you agree that you could only stay up if it was scary?"

"I never said that! Come on, it'll be starting soon anyway," I fussed, following him to a comfortable spot in the blanket fort.

The movie ended up being pretty good...in a creepy unexpected way. Like I said, I'm not a huge fan of horror flicks, so I wasn't exactly sure what to expect, but it was okay. Alright, it freaked me out. But I wasn't too painfully obvious about it, so Sonic agreed that I fared pretty well. It was just...surprising a lot of the time. I mean, it's not like I didn't expect something to jump out of the closet when the scary background music started getting louder, but it was completely misleading in the end!

"Okay, so you survived it; I'm pretty impressed."

"Pft, piece of cake!" I said, trying to hide the slight waver in my voice.

"Well, it's 12:30 in the morning; what do you want to do now?"

"I'm too tired to do anything," I admitted with a groan.

"Alright, so a basic nothing without sleep. Do you want to watch stars?" he offered. Though it was an obvious answer, I still took a moment of consideration; Sonic spent most of his nights on rooftops and I had always wondered what it would be like, though I never really got around to trying it for myself. All in all, it sounded great!

"Sure!" I said.

Sonic smiled and picked me up, zipping up the staircase and out my bedroom window without a word of warning. I was too exhausted to scream, but let me assure you I was terrified at first! He kicked off from a tree branch and landed easily on the roof with perfect balance.

"Why do you feel the need to scare the crap out of me so much?" I scolded as he found a flat spot on top of where a window was.

"I guess I'm just addicted to your scream," he laughed, sitting down with me in his arms.

"Oh I'm so flattered," I remarked, but I couldn't help but smile at the whole situation in general.

We talked for a few minutes about random little half-topics that jumped arbitrarily to mind. I think the talking was just to keep me awake. Which probably would have been tricky otherwise considering the serene mood that filled the night air. It certainly wasn't nothing, but that was the most relaxing part; crickets chirping and the sounds of life only added to the comfort.

It was a beautiful night; the stars glistened brightly high above and a thin sliver of the moon was visible, glowing its silvery smile. It was fairly warm, but the evening breeze still blew goosebumps onto my bare arms, sending a shiver up my spine. Sonic laid down and put his arms around me and I folded mine so that one was around him and my other hand could be tucked safe and warmly into his.

"You're cold," he stated, holding me tighter.

"I'm glad you could tell."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Just...it feels nice...to feel again," I sighed blissfully.

I know it should have been at least slightly surprising, but when Sonic lightly kissed the top of my head, it only felt natural. The only surprising part was the spark of feeling that came when he did.

"Did you fell that?" he asked quietly, just before I was able to.

I looked up at him, slightly puzzled, and nodded. A smile crept onto his face and he leaned towards me again. His lips touched lightly against my cheek and, again, I felt-a little more presently-a spark of enjoyment. Another shiver crept up my sides, but this one was more of pleasure than cold. Like whispering aloud the final words of a beautiful story and the chilling happiness that accompanies it.

"What about that time?" now I was one the one to ask.

"That's not the same kind of shock you had before, right?" Sonic asked cautiously and I shook my head no.

With one final test in mind, I knew I had to try this before either of us backed out. I tilted my head up and pressed my lips against him, feeling a wonderful rush of energy with the contact. I was flooded with a wonderful luster and, if it were up to me, I never would have pulled away. But I ended it quickly, leaving it as just one amazingly energetic peck.

"Wow," Sonic whispered.

"You really felt it too?"

He nodded. "It doesn't hurt like before?"

"No; it's a different kind of energy or spark or something."

"Tell me how it's different," he asked.

"Well...for one thing I don't think it will ever be too much to handle. In fact, I don't know if there'll even be enough," I admitted.

"There will," Sonic said reassuringly, leaning back in with a deeper kiss.

He was right; I knew that before he even said it. Yes, it was intense and electric and filled with energy, but the difference is...love has no overload.

Wow, sorry this took so long to update, but I kind of conjoined the last two chapters to give you a long one to make up for it. I got some AMAZING reviews on this story and I'm so thankful to all of my readers!

A shout out to:

Nickyy-my first reviewer on this story XD Thanks so much for following me this far with all my stories!

Aamypink-helped me out of a mini-funk when I thought all my readers hated me for the incredibly long hiatus

01SonAmy01-Really awesome; I'm not sure where the idea came from, but yeah, it's WAY different, lolz XD

And a very anonymous reviewer (no name)-Thank you so much! That's so nice and I hope to be more active on the sight now that I've got a laptop and can get some privacy with my writing :)

I really loved writing this story (as always) and I hope I carried out this idea to meet all of your expectations! I'll be back with another story (hopefully) very soon (the description to such can be found in my last fic, If You Seek Amy). Mostly it's just finding time to write and revising the original plot to meet my new ideas. Thanks so much and sorry for ruining that peaceful mood. Now to bring it back for reviews, I ask you all to please scroll up and read that last line again. Thanks a million everyone! :)