(Caught but Forgiven)

Rouge was flying through the night sky over the bright lights of the city streets far below her. The jewel thief was on her way to the space center to steal the rare metal for Dr Eggman.

As she flew her communicator watch started to beep. She pushed a button and Eggman appeared on the small screen. "Hello Rouge, are you at the Space center yet?"

"I'm just about there" she answered him as the white bat saw the center down below ahead of her. "Good, good" said Eggman with a smile. "Be careful not to get caught now."

Rouge rolled her eyes as Eggman hung up. She was wondering if doing a job for him was a good idea. The thought of her rare payment however silenced her better judgment. She flew down and landed on the roof of the building. The bat looked around and saw a ventilation duct. She walked over and quietly removed the grate and laid it on the ground.

Rouge then crawled into the vent and started to make her way inside the Space Center.

"This settle's it….I'm going on a diet. I'm getting too big for this." Rouge murmured to herself as her body felt a bit squished in the small vent which she usually didn't feel or notice.

As she kept crawling she saw a grate to the right and headed towards it. She looked through the small holes of the grate down to a large room which looked like a lab. "Bingo."

Rouge soon lowered herself down and landed on the lab floor with a light tap. She looked around at all the lab counters and equipment. "Hmmm, if I was a rare metal where would I be?"

Rouge kept looking around when she saw a medium sized safe near a corner. The bat walked over and knelt down on one knee in front of it and put her ear to the safe and started turning the safe combination lock. With a few turns and careful clicks the safe was soon unlocked.

"Ok let's see what we have in here." said Rouge as she looked in the safe. There were a few papers and documents but no rare metal. Rouge frowned a bit and closed the safe back up.

"Ok if it's not in a safe then where is it?" she said putting her hands on her hips. She looked around some more then saw a round metal object in a round glass container on one of the counters. Rouge raised an eyebrow as to why she didn't see that before.

The thief walked over and took the object out of the glass container. "I guess this is what he wants." Rouge put the light metal in a small pouch. "Hmmm I don't feel like going back the way I came…" Rouge walked out of the lab and peeked around a corner to see if there were any guards.

The coast was clear so she quickly but quietly made her way through the center and saw a window up above. "Perfect" she said with a smile. Just as she was about to fly up there the lights in the room came on.

Ngh..what the..!" Rouge said shielding her eyes and face with one of her wings from the sudden bright light. "Freeze thief!"

Once her eyes had adjusted she looked around and shocked to find 10 officers surrounding her. An officer took a step forward. "Rouge the Bat you are under arrest for breaking and entering"

Rouge stood her ground and narrowed her eyes at the cop. "Oh really…how did you know I was going to be here?" The cop chuckled a bit. "We got a tip from an unknown source that you would be paying a visit tonight."

Rouge narrowed her eyes a bit more and looked at the other cops slowly moving in to grab her. "Don't even think about it Rouge. We have you surrounded"

"Oh do you now?" she said with a sly smile. The bat then quickly pulled out a smoke bomb pellet and threw it down in front of her causing thick smoke to appear. "Quick grab her" said the lead cop. The offciers quickly sprang to the spot where Rouge had been standing. As they fought through the smoke Rouge was hovering over them.

She quickly flew out of the room as the smoke cleared. Once the smoke was gone the lead officer was shocked to see his men all tangled up grabbing each other all thinking they had grabbed the bat instead.

"Spread out and find her! Don't let her escape!"

Rouge was still flying through the center trying to find a way out. In the back of her mind though she was thinking who told the cops about here being here. She first thought it was Sonic. She shook her head. "He would never…would he?"

Rouge then heard a humming noise around her. She stopped and looked out a window to see two police choppers hovering around the building. "Oh you have got to be kidding me"

Suddenly her watch began to beep. She quickly answered it and hid behind a large plant. "Dr thank goodness…I could use some help"

"Oh is that so?" said Eggman with a grin while twirling his mustache a bit. "Something tells me the cops are right on your tail"

Rouge looked a bit surprised. "Y-yes but how did you know?"

Eggman laughed evilly before he answered her question. "Who do you think told the cops about you being at the Space Center tonight hmmmm?" Rouge froze up and then gritted her teeth. "You back stabber!" she growled "How am I supposed to give you this rare metal?"

Eggman laughed some as he saw the metal she pulled out of a pouch. "That is just a regular piece of metal my dear" Rouge's eyes almost went up in flames. "WHAT!"

Eggman just stroked his mustache "Yeah I made the rare metal thing up" he then held up her two chaos emeralds. "Oh and I hope you don't mind if I stopped by your place to take what's mine"

Rouge's eye twitched as her anger rose even higher. "You son of a..."

"Ah, ah, ah" said Eggman raising a finger to stop the white bat from finishing her sentence. "E for everyone"

Before Rouge could say anything a police officer saw her and charged. Rouge quickly dodged him and kicked him into a wall. "Don't worry my dear I hear prison is nice this time of year" Eggman snickered before ending the call between them. Rouge narrowed her eyes and ran past the guard she had kicked. The guard slowly shook his head and sat up while watching the outlaw run into another room.

"This is officer Lennard, Rouge the Bat is headed for the back exit." He said in his walky-talkie.

Soon Rouge made it to the back door and before she could reach for the door knob an electric net suddenly fell on top of her. "Aahhhh!"

The bat fell to the floor groaning in pain from the amount of electricity that had shocked her. Her sight started to blur and she could just make out a few officers walking over to her then it all went black.

…

Rouge sat there in a cell on a small bench with a depressed and defeated look on her face. It had been a whole night since she was captured and brought to this cell in the police station. She sighed sadly. How could she be so careless as to not notice the back door had been booby trapped. She swore if she ever got out of here she would find that back stabbing egg jerk and tie his mustache in a knot.

She had tried to explain to the cops Eggman had set her up but it didn't help with all the other thefts she had done of her own. "This really stinks…"

Soon the sun began to rise and shone through her cell barred up window. Rouge rested her back on the cold stone wall and hugged her legs and hid her face in her knees. "Sonic was right to be mad at me….I guess I only do care for myself" Her thoughts soon traveled down the times her and Sonic had first met, the time they danced and their first kiss.

The white bat shed a small tear and hugged her legs tighter as the thought of never seeing Sonic again crossed her mind.

Suddenly a cop came into the room and unlocked the cell and pulled it open. "Rouge the Bat your free to go" Rouge wiped the tear from her eyes and she slowly stood up with a very confused look on her face. "W-what?"

"Your free to go" the cop repeated with a small smile. "Someone has paid your $700 bail money release."

Rouge walked out of the cell and glanced at the guard who just nodded to her and she walked out of the room and down a flight of steps. Her mind was buzzing with questions as to who bailed her out of jail. As far as she knew she didn't have any friends who would do that for her. The female bat soon walked out of the police station and into the warm morning air as the sun beat down on her just a bit.

"Hey there"

Rouge paused then looked ahead and was surprised to see Sonic leaning by a pole with his usual grin.

"Sonic…?" Rouge whispered his name as the blue hedgehog walked up to her and soon stood just a foot away from the bat.

"Seems you had quite the adventure" Sonic said still smiling. Rouge mouth hung open a bit as she tried to ask what was going on. Sonic held up his hand to stop her. "I was the one who paid for your bail"

"Why….why would you do that?" Rouge asked. "I thought you didn't want to see me anymore."

"Your right about that." she flinched a bit at his words but she saw his soft looking gaze. "But a close friend gave me some good advice and…"

He put a hand on her shoulder and Rouge just stared at him. "I want to make this work between us Rouge."

Rouge's teal colored eyes teared up at his words then surprised him and herself as she suddenly hugged him tightly. The blue hero was indeed surprised but smiled and hugged her back.

(Present day)

"And that's how we ended up together" said Sonic finishing his story. "I still can't believe you bailed me out of jail" said Rouge with a happy look on her face as she was still snuggled up next to him on the ledge of the building they had been sitting on.

"Yeah well it was so worth it"

Rouge smirked and kissed his cheek causing the hedgehog to blush a bit. "At least we got the emeralds back from Eggman a few days later"

He nodded. "Yeah and that's when G.U.N came to you offering a job as a government spy." The bat nodded. "Yeah now were both happy."

Sonic smiled and looked up at the full moon. "Wow that story took longer than I thought it's about midnight" Rouged glanced up at the moon as well. "Guess we should turn in for the night"

Sonic nodded and they both stood up when he then pulled Rouge into his arms and kissed the beautiful bat gently but firm. Her eyes widened a bit in surprise but soon closed them slowly and kissed him back while running her hands through his blue spines.

The two stayed like that for a long moment then broke away but still in each other arms. "Sonic?" breathed Rouge.

"Hmmm?"

"Would you like to stay the night at my place?" she asked with lidded eyes and a warm smile. Sonic looked a bit surprised but smiled back at his wonderful girlfriend.

"Sure."

(YEAH! At long last this story is done. I want to thank all of you for being patient with me on this story. I hoped you all enjoyed it and I very might make another Sonic and Rouge story. But a short one this time haha. If you want leave a comment and tell me what you thought of this chapter or the entire story. I always enjoy hearing what you guys have to say. So until next time keep being awesome ;)