Tails slowly opened his eyes, and everything was all blurry. He slowly sat up feeling very dizzy and sleepy, then after a few moments when his vision came back, he realized he was back in his room; alone.
“Oh… It was only a dream…” Tails sighed. Suddenly his bedroom door opened.
“Hey there, Tails! You’re up!”
Before Tails fainted again he shook his head off trying to snap out of his dizziness.
“Dream? That’s cute.” Cosmo giggled at him as she approached him with Roots in her arms, who was currently awake, but half asleep.

“It… wasn’t a dream…?” Tails asked himself, “But… this doesn’t make sense! Everything has aged, including myself! There’s no logical explanation to how this happened besides the fact that I wished to be with you when I saw a shooting star!”
“Well explanations aren’t always clear right away, Tails.”
Tails sighed trying to understand and nodded slowly.
“Don’t worry, Tails. Everything happens for a reason, and I’m sure you’ll find an explanation to this soon.” Cosmo assured him.
“Yeah… How long was I out anyway…?”
“About 3 hours… It’s 10:00 now.”
“Oh, okay…”

Roots peeked his head from around Cosmo’s arms and looked straight at Tails. Tails looked back at him, and Roots made a quick squeak, “DA!”
This made Tails giggle.
“Aww, Tails, he called you his dad!”
“DA!”
Tails giggled some more.
“Do you want to hold him?” Cosmo asked.
“Uh…” Tails hesitated, “No! No thanks! I, uh, I don’t know about---!”

Before Tails finished his sentence, Cosmo placed Roots into his arms. Tails looked at Roots, and Roots looked back at him.
“DA!” Roots squeaked again, and hugged onto Tails’ arm.
After a few moments, Tails started to smile, and started to cry with a soft voice, “H-hi there…”
Tails sat up straight and looked at Roots. He began to rock him back and forth in his arms whispering, “Cosmo… I… I’m so… so…”
Cosmo sat down beside Tails and put her arm around his shoulders and looked at him smiling, “Happy? Tails?”

Tails nodded and gave Roots a hug, and tears kept rolling down his muzzle. Cosmo pet Roots’ head as she explained, “When you hold a child in your arms, and the child is of your own blood… it gives you a greater sense of peace inside of you… such a happy feeling…”
Tails nodded and continued to cry, “I-I don’t feel very much like a kid any more… I… I feel like… a parent… a father…”
Cosmo silently chuckled, “Well you are, Tails…”

Roots then yawned and stretched in Tails’ arms, and then fell asleep against his chest.
“Aw… He’s tired…” Cosmo giggled, and went to reach for him to take him back to bed, when Tails whispered, “No, Cosmo, wait… I still want to hold him…” He looked up at Cosmo face to face and smiled so peacefully, “Cosmo, I don’t think I have ever been this happy…”
Cosmo giggled and kissed Tails on the cheek, “You sure sound like a grown-up, Tails.”
Tails blushed after Cosmo kissed him, “Heh, um, thank you…”

“Do you have any more questions by the way?” Cosmo asked.
Tails looked back at Roots and thought for a moment, “Yeah… How old is he anyway?”
“He’ll be turning 1 in exactly 4 weeks from now.”
“Okay.” Tails nodded.

“Oh, and Tails, I told the others already about what happened to you.”
“Oh okay. And?”
Cosmo sighed, “None of them believed me…”
“I see…” Tails tilted his head, “Well it is a pretty hard situation to believe…”
“It is, I know…” Cosmo nodded.
“Cosmo, what made ‘you’ believe this happened to me…? If it’s such a hard thing to believe.”
“Well you never lie to me, Tails. Well, whenever you ‘do’ lie I can tell anyway.”
Tails giggled, “How can you tell?”
“Trust me Tails, I know. You could never hide a secret from me… I’m not sure how I could tell when you were lying; maybe it was just the way you sucked at it!” Cosmo laughed, “I don’t know…”
Tails had no comment and just laughed.

“So how are the others anyway? Have they changed at all?”
“Actually not a whole lot has been changed for a long time. Ever since the Metarex, it has always been carefree and peaceful. We haven’t heard from Eggman since then. We think he gave up on the Eggman Empire and decided to leave us alone.”
Tails smiled, “Wow. Well that’s nice… How’s Sonic been?”

Cosmo laughed, “Amy finally caught him. They’re married now for 5 years.”
“Five years??” Tails jumped, “We’ve been married longer then that! I assumed for sure Amy would’ve got him sooner!”
“Ya well, you know Sonic… Always pushing his luck and running off somewhere.”
“Heh, yeah… What about Knuckles?”

“Still guarding the Master Emerald and sleeping on the job, and of course picking random fights with any visitors.” Cosmo giggled.
“Yup!” Tails laughed, “Sounds like him alright!”
“Rouge constantly visits him as well. If you ask me, I think they like each other, but they’re too afraid to confess it to each other.”
“Why does she visit him then?”
Cosmo shrugged, “To aggravate him constantly trying to take his emeralds for some fun…”
“Heh… And how’s Cream?”

“Cream moved out of her mother’s house last year. She lives on her own in an apartment at the moment now.”
“Oh okay, that’s good.”
“She’s also quite tall now. Also, there are rumors going around that she’s dating somebody too.”
Tails giggled, “Oh, who’s that?”
“They’ve been saying that it’s Charmy, but neither of them will admit to it.”
“Ah, I see.” Tails laughed, “Didn’t see that one coming.”

“Shadow hasn’t returned yet though…” Cosmo exclaimed.
Tails raised his eyebrow, “What? Well, he has been missing for the 2 months after the Metarex were gone… He disappeared on that last day and we haven’t heard of him at all since. He’s still not back?”
“Yeah… Who knows what happened to him…” Cosmo shrugged, “Anyway, Tails, do you want to go and see Sonic or any of the others?”
Tails nodded, “Sure, I want to see my friends!”

“Alright.” Cosmo nodded and smiled, picking up Roots from Tails’ arms, and went to Roots’ room to put him in his crib.
“Before we go I’m going to call Cream or Amy and see if they could baby-sit Roots while we’re gone.”
“Okay, Cosmo.”