Tails and Cosmo sat in the living room and talked about Roots, as well as other important things Tails wanted to know about.

“So, Cosmo… After we defeated the Metarex, the Chaos Emeralds have been scattered throughout the galaxy.” Tails exclaimed, “Did we find them again in the past 17 years?”
Cosmo shrugged, “No, they’ve been missing ever since, Tails. They could be anywhere… Knuckles figures they’re probably scattered apart drifting somewhere through space. So even if anyone does find one chaos emerald, the other 6 are still somewhere else throughout the entire galaxy. And there aren’t many people out there that know how to use them.”
“Yeah, true.” Tails nodded, “Perhaps it’s better this way.”
“I’m sure they’re safer where they are now than when Knuckles was guarding them.” Cosmo chuckled. Tails laughed and agreed nodding.

“Roots sure is special…” Cosmo said moving onto a new topic, “He’s getting your hansom looks, Tails!”
Tails smiled, “You sound proud.”
Cosmo leaned over and kissed Tails on the cheek, “Very.”
Tails blushed and lowered his head.

“Cosmo… There’s something I never got to tell you 17 years ago.”
Cosmo smiled and asked, “What’s that, Tails…?”
“Before I fired the cannon, I knew in my heart how I felt about you… But I was afraid to confess it out loud… because I only felt it would make my feelings worse in the end after losing you… But I was wrong… I should have told you, because since I didn’t, it kept building inside of me, because it was never spoken. Cosmo, I love you.”

Cosmo smiled and took Tails’ hands, “Aw, Tails. I know how you felt about me back then… And I’m sorry that I had to make that sacrifice… In all honesty, I have loved you ever since we first met… And I too was afraid to confess it. I should have said something as well…” She continued, “But that’s in the past now. We’re together again, and I still love you.” She finished, and kissed Tails gently on the lips. Tails blushed during their kiss, and tears started to roll down his cheeks. Tails pulled away from the kiss and looked at Cosmo in the eyes as he continued to cry.
“Tails, is something wrong…?”
Tails shook his head, “No… Everything is so… Perfect…” He whimpered as he cried, “I didn’t think I would ever be with you again…”

Cosmo smiled and hugged Tails to support him.
“Shh, Tails, I came back though.”
“What if this is all just a dream…?” Tails whispered, “What if I wake up and you are gone again…?”
Cosmo sighed and kept her smile hugging him tighter, “You won’t, Tails.”
Tails hugged back and smiled, “Cosmo… You are wonderful…”

……
It is now 2:30pm. Roots finally woke up from his long nap and began to demand assistance on helping him out of his crib.

“WAAAAAH! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”
“Coming, Roots!” Cosmo called. She entered the room and Tails followed right behind her. Cosmo reached down and picked up Roots.
“Hello there, Roots!” She greeted, “You had a long sleep!”
Roots giggled and hugged onto Cosmo’s face.
“Okay, Roots, that’s enough.” She laughed as she pulled Roots off of her face and set him down onto the floor. Roots immediately collapsed onto his hands and knees and crawled up to Tails. He started pulling on one of Tails’ tails. “DA!”

Tails shrugged and bent over to pick up Roots.
“Hey Roots!”
“DA!”
“Yeah, good to see you too!” Tails giggled. He put Roots back down and Roots crawled out of the room. Tails and Cosmo followed him to keep an eye on him.

Roots came across a cheerio lying on the floor.
“Aw, Roots, don’t eat that, it’s filthy!” Cosmo said. Roots just laughed at her and ate the cheerio.
“Or… eat the cheerio…”

Roots continued adventuring around the house crawling on his hands and knees as Cosmo and Tails followed him to keep him out of trouble. Roots crawled passed the refrigerator in the kitchen, and found a piece of paper that was tucked underneath it. He pulled it out and started to chew on it.
“Hey, Roots, don’t do that! Nooo.” Cosmo took the paper and shook her index finger at him, “No, you don’t do that.”
Roots just crawled off. Cosmo shrugged and checked the piece of paper that Roots found. It was just an out of date memo note that must have been on the fridge some time ago; not important. She shrugged and chucked it out and they continued to keep an eye on their little explorer…

“He keeps putting things in his mouth.” Tails thought, “You think he’s hungry, Cosmo?”
Cosmo looked at Tails and smiled excitedly, “Hey Tails, I think you just might be right! You’re going to get the hang of this fast, I know it!” She then walked over to the kitchen cupboards and pulled out a jar of baby food.
“He likes this mashed carrots stuff.” She informed walking over to Roots and picked him up, then sat down on a chair with him and began to spoon-feed him from the jar.

Tails sat and watched for a few minutes then asked, “May I try to feed him?”
Cosmo smiled and nodded, “Absolutely, Tails!” and handed Roots to Tails. Tails began to try spoon-feed Roots. Apparently at first, Roots didn’t like the way Tails handled the spoon and began to cry.

“WAAAAAAAAAH!”
“What am I doing wrong, Cosmo?”
Cosmo smiled, “Keep trying, Tails. Go slower.”
“Okay…” Tails nodded and tried to feed Roots slower and more gently. Roots finally started to approve and willingly ate.

As Tails fed Roots, he smiled down at him and said in a calm voice, “Roots, I promise you, I will be the best father I can be. I want you to look up to me as you grow older, as I will always be there for you.”