#dr ruby stone

It wasn’t unusual for the pair to get hurt, injured severely or nearly die, but this was different. Stationed in Mexico, Robotnik sat by the white bed nervously, eyes already feeling dry from staring and limps restless from staying still for a long time.

That damned hedgehog and his stupid team…The doctor might not recover at this rate.

Robotnik pulled at his tie nervously and anxiously as he got up to go and inform a nurse about the doctor’s current state. The woman nodded and went in, excusing him outside for her to perform some necessary check-ups. She brought a cart in with her. He didn’t want to leave the doctor’s side right now, or ever, but he had to.

Green electric sparks painted his skin in such a magnificent way, Robotnik couldn’t quite place it. That ‘detective’ did a bad job at securing the agent, he could’ve broken out the restrains at any time but he kind of refused to. The doctor, ever observant and quiet, was positively beaming. His smile stretched on his lips like he had never smiled before, his eyes sent electric shocks down Robotnik’s spine. His pupils weren’t like the ones he was accustomed to from their work days. Swirling white whirlpools, going down and down into those black depths that were the doctor’s eyes, almost hauntingly attractive.

The sound of the door creaking open broke Robotnik out of trance as the nurse politely excused herself and let the mustached man reenter the room. Robotnik wasted no time rushing back in and locking the door shut.

The doctor’s eyes – the same ones that would look at his machines with silent passion, the same ones that would implore his agent to drag him away from meaningless conversations, the same ones that would stare at him like he was dissecting the agent under a microscope – were but blacken voids, soulless and definitely emotionless. No sparks remained in them.

Robotnik sighed heavily and picked up the bowl of soup the nurse had left behind after the check up and tried to feed the doctor. If he wanted to recover, he needed nutrients.

“Please, Doctor, you need this.” Robotnik begged, his voice sounded broken. The spoon shook lightly in his hand, years of military training failing him when the agent fall into the whirlpool of emotions.

Dr. Stone – the man he used to adore before he fell into being a husk of his former glory – refused to look at Robotnik. He stared, unblinking, at the white ceiling of the hospital.

The spoon was gently placed back into the bowl, metal clicking against porcelain, as Robotnik lowered it back into the cart. Robotnik stared and took it in all over again. The burns, the scrapes and ruined tissues. The tight cast over his body, his arms, his legs, bounding him to the bed with a few thick white ropes (he assumed they were ropes) elevating his limps. His hair was, to put it simply, a black mess. Stubbles was starting to form over the spots where his heard was unfortunately shaven.

Robotnik swore his eyes felt watery, like fat drops of tears might fall from them at any given moment. Dr. Stone still refused to look at him. The agent slowly and cautiously placed a hand over the blanket covering Dr. Stone’s upper torso, almost feeling the rough bandages underneath. Over the cast, his heart beat seemed…slower than usual, like the heart was still beating but the soul had left. And, in a way, that was the doctor’s current situation.

Robotnik dragged a hand down his face and continued to stare, knowing that Dr. Stone couldn’t care less at this point, and he mourned. The first tear gone unnoticed to the high alerted agent, but then there was a second, a third and then the dam holding back his tears ever since he dug the doctor up from the rubble and debris broke.

It had been a while since he cried, but now he was incapable of stopping it. Tears streamed down his face, soaking his perfectly ironed suit and falling down on his lap. Darker wet spots formed on his dark dress pants, his mustache felt wet and unnatural, his eyes stung but were too wet to care.

He cried, and cried, and although you would run out the ability to cry, his tears kept coming. Through his sobs and whimpers, Robotnik desperately begged for a non-existence deity to give him mercy and bring his doctor back.

Nothing answered.

“Please…” Robotnik begged into the empty space around him. The insistence beeps continued, the sound of doctors and nurses shuffling around were still heard. Dr. Stone hadn’t spoken or even moved ever since they got to the hospital. “Please tell me you’re okay, Doc.” Robotnik whispered through his tears, voice cracking slightly.

Night and day came and went, Robotnik stubbornly insisted that he stay in the same room as Dr. Stone despite all the health regulations. Eventually, Robotnik snuck the doctor out of the hospital, feeling like the nurses and doctors there weren’t of any help.

At least they got the Isopod to go back to.

Robotnik begged again for the last time that month.