Authors note: Thanks for the reviews! I have so many ideas for future chapters and I can't wait to write them!

At some point in time I need to go through the chapters and fix all the errors. I always forget to wear my glasses when I write my chapters lol

On with the story!

Chapter Sixteen: Time Apart

May 10

The gym was packed for a Sunday afternoon. The loud sounds of music filled the various rooms. Followed by the grunts of people lifting weights and the sounds of various machines working over time. Many strong and muscular men were taking the weights, showing off just how much they can lift to boost their already inflated egos. While most of the woman in the gym used the treadmills and workout bikes, occasionally looking at the men with lust filled eyes.

One of the many woman who were looking at the men flirtatiously was Rouge. The ivory shapely bat was walking on the treadmill and occasionally looking up from her phone to get a perfect view of her big red boyfriend. The treadmill she was on was across the room from where the weights were. She watched as Knuckles would switch from lifting heavy weights, bench pressing heavy pounds, and punch a punching bag furiously. She had to admit, it was turning her on. It didn't help that the muscular echidna was shirtless, showing off his rock hard abs and tattoos.

She was currently in a group chat involving her self, Amy, and Blaze. The hot topic they were discussing about was of course Sally and Sonic. Blaze told the bat and hedgehog about when she ran into Sally at the grocery store and when she over heard her conversation. She told her friends how deep the one sided conversation was getting, and that if she didn't make herself known, she would of heard more unpleasant things.

A: Something still doesn't add up.

B: What?

A: When I was out with Sonic the other day, he made a joke about him trying to get me to call him 'Daddy' when we use to date and I told him it was weird. He said that Sally says the same thing to him. Sooooo who ever she was on the phone with the other day could not of been Sonic.

R: And the plot thickens.

B: Is it weird that I'm oddly excited to figure out who this guy is?

A: Nope. For once, I'm not the one going through all this drama.

R: Well how did Sonic react when you told Pinky?

A: He looked shocked and confused. Mostly confused.

B: I think Silver and Shadow were suppose to meet up with him today.

A: Let's just hope that maybe they can talk some sense into him.

R: Hopefully.

Rouge looked up from her phone and sighed. She honestly felt bad for the blue hedgehog. Sure, he lied and cheated to her best friend multiple times and she felt like killing him for it, but she loved Sonic. He was like the annoying older brother she never wanted. She got off the treadmill and did a few stretches. She stretched out her wings, her arms and legs, then bent down to stretch her back.

And that's when the cat calling started.

Annoying whistles, manly grunts, and unwanted compliments were heard. She rolled her eyes and sighed hard. Dressed in a black sports bra, black shorts, and purple sneakers, she expected to get some type of attention. But not this much. She didn't want any other mans attention on her. She had Knuckles for that. Speaking of her red beau, Knuckles noticed few of the guys howling at his girlfriend. They were acting as if they've never seen a woman before. Sure she had a banging body that any man would drool over, but they should show her respect.

"Damn baby," said a shirtless cheetah, "you need some help stretching. I could definitely help you out." He raised his eyebrows suggestively and inched his way closer to the bat.

Rouge grunted and rolled her eyes. "Please spare me the useless and tasteless flirting," she said as she cracked her limbs.

A dark grey fox came up and leaned his arm on the cheetahs shoulder. "Come on sexy," he reached and grabbed Rouge by the waist, "come with us and we can show you how to get rid of those kinks."

Rouge's wings twitched with much irritation and slapped the hand away. "Vete a la mierda," she spat as she glared at the annoying duo.

"What did you say?" asked the cheetah as he and fox took a step closer. The fox was about to take another grab at Rouge, that is until a Knuckles made himself known.

The big and muscular red male grabbed the nuisance wrist with a strong grip. "She said fuck off." He glared at the fox, who was trying his hardest not to squeal in pain of his wrist being crushed. When Knuckles released his wrist, the fox took a step back. His friend seemed to have also gotten the message and scurried off.

Rouge turned to face her boyfriend and grinned. She stood on her toes and rose up till she was close to his face and kissed him. "My hero," she said with a smile. Knuckles smiled back and wrapped his tattooed arm around her shapely waist and led her out the gym. He reached down and quickly gave her firm behind a squeeze to which to giggled to. He looked back at the men and glared at them, making sure they got the message to not mess with his girlfriend.

The couple went to the locker rooms to wash off all the sweat from their bodies. As Rouge took her quick shower, she thought about her and Knuckles. He has proven to her that he was a loyal and protective boyfriend. When ever he would take her out places, he would make sure nobody else would bother her. She liked that he treated her with respect that she deserved, he didn't tell her what to do, and that he trusted her.

It was a nice and pleasant change from how she used to be treated. With her abusive ex boyfriend, she would have to home at a certain time, and she couldn't do things she wanted to do. If she even tried to say no to anything he said, he wouldn't think twice about slapping her of course the face or punching her hard in the stomach. With Scourge, it was slightly better, since they weren't in a relationship. When he wanted his time with her, she would have to drop what she was doing and be ready to please him. It could of been her place, his car, or his office. As long as he was getting what he wanted, he was fine.

But she knew she didn't have to worry about that anymore. Knuckles was never violent with her, he never threatened her, and he especially never forced her to do something she didn't wanted to do. He was gentle with her, showed her respect, and showed her all the passion he had for her.

After they were both washed up, Knuckles drove Rouge back home. He took the elevator back up to her high rise condo and walked her to her front door.

"Thanks for coming with me to the gym," said Knuckles. "Sorry about the harassment you had to go through."

Rouge smiled and giggled as she wrapped her arms. "It's okay Knuckie, I had you to protect me." She kissed him and nuzzled into his neck. Knuckles welcomed the embrace and wrapped his arms around her waist, and returned the kiss.

"So are you doing anything later?" he asked.

The bat pulled back to see him smirking at her. She smirked back with half lidded eyes. "No. Why do you ask?"

Knuckles leaned his forehead on hers. "Can I come inside?"

"Hmmm," she hummed in thought, "are you going to behave yourself?"

Knuckles lifted her up and her legs wrapped around his waist. "No promises."

Rouge giggled and reached back to unlock her door. Once unlocked, the two entered the lavish condo in a heated lip lock.

Sonic has been very on edge for the past five days. Ever since Amy told him what she overheard at the brunch, his denial started to come back. Slowly but surely. He was sure at some point he would pop a vein from all the stress he was putting himself through. As much as he wanted to, he hasn't told his mother or his siblings about it. Not yet at least. The last thing he needed to hear was an 'I told you so' speech from all three. So instead he invited Shadow and Silver to his house to talk about it. He hoped that talking to his friends about it would help.

"So what seems to be the problem? Besides the obvious," asked Silver as he and Shadow took a seat on the couch. They both have arrived not too long ago.

"To be honest, I don't know." Sonic sighed and his hands through his quills. "Ever since Amy told me what she heard, I don't know what to do or how to act. And it doesn't help that Sally's been so hot and cold with me for a few days."

Shadow was slouched on the couch, absentmindedly playing with his tongue ring. He raised his eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well when I got home, I asked her if she was seeing somebody else and if she wants to be with me, but she just kinda dismissed it. But ever since then, she's been acting crazy."

"Her being crazy isn't surprising," mumbled Shadow.

Silver hummed and squinted his eyes. "Define crazy."

Sonic sighed heavily and leaned back into the recliner. "Well like I said, the day I asked her if anything was up, she just laughed it off and told her I was just being paranoid."

"You didn't tell that Amy you, right?" asked Shadow. Sonic shook his head and Shadow sighed with relief. "Good. Cause if this whole things blows up I don't want Sally pestering Rose."

"Right," nodded Sonic, "so the next day, she started all weird with me. I had to be a substitute at school again and almost every hour or so she was calling me, asking me where I was and what I was doing." The blue hedgehog shook his head. "She never called so many times like that before cause she knew I was at work. Then when I came home, she acting normal."

Shadow and Silver gave each other a look and signaled for Sonic to continue.

"She acted weirder the next day. She started picking fights with me and giving me all this attitude. She even asked me if I was the one that's cheating."

"Why would she think that?" asked Silver.

Sonic sighed and rolled his eyes. "She accused me of cheating on her because she said she saw me with 'some bitch' in my car. She kept ranting on and on when I finally told her that girl in my car was Sonia. I was taking her to a doctors appointment. I don't even know how and where she saw me."

The blank hedgehog raised his eyebrow. "What about the next day and yesterday?"

"She was back to her usual self. She went out shopping, was out with her friend, then she came home and spent time with me. I'm just confused about everything now."

"I think that's her feeling guilty," Shadow stated.

Sonic tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

"I don't think she was expecting for you to ask if she was cheating on you," said Silver. "Usually when a person is feeling guilty about something, they flip the situation around as a way to defend themselves. So now she's wondering what you're doing when you're not around."

Sonic groaned as he leaned forward and buried his face in his hands. Suddenly the front door opened and the sound of heels was heard. Sally walked into the living room both of her arms full of bags from various store.

"Oh hey you two," she greeted Shadow and Silver with a wave. "Hey baby," she cooed as planted a kiss on her fiance's cheek.

"Looks like you had a great time today," said Sonic as he gestured to the many bags she carried.

Sally nodded her head and giggled. "Can you carry these upstairs for me sweetie?"

Sonic nodded his head and excused himself from his two friends. He took the bags from Sally's hands and headed upstairs with his fiance following him. When they walked inside their bedroom, Sonic placed the bags on the bed.

"Damn Sal," said the blue male as he peeped inside the bags, "don't you think you have enough clothes?"

Sally rolled her eyes and walked to the bed. She smirked as she pulled out lingerie and laid it out on the bed. "Do you like this?"

Sonic cleared his throat as his cheeks got a bit red. "Y-yeah, I like it a lot."

His fiance slid her hands up and his chest and stood on her toes. "Come upstairs as soon as Silver and Shadow leave," she whispered against his ear. She giggled as Sonic blushed more and nodded his head. Sonic left the room and headed back downstairs. Sally picked up the lingerie and smirked to herself as she walked to her bathroom to change.

"Too easy."

Sitting outside of a restaurant, admiring the sun setting on the beach was Amy and Shadow. The ebony hedgehog decided to take his girlfriend to dinner since he will be leaving tomorrow for New York. Amy was super excited when he asked to take her to dinner. She wasn't looking forward to him leaving her, but she knew he had to for work. She knew it would only be a week of him being gone, but she knew she was really going to miss him while he was gone.

"So what exactly do you have to do at these meetings?" asked Amy as she dipped her fry in ketchup.

"Pretty much the same thing I do now. Just sit and listen and try not to fall asleep." Amy laughed along with Shadow. "Also, my boss told me that some new people have been hired so he wants me to show them how to handle the paper work and things of that nature."

The waiter came by to their table and took their finished meals. "Are you two up for desert?" he asked politely.

Amy smiled and glanced at Shadow, eagerly nodding her head for dessert. Shadow chuckled and faced the waiter. "We'll have a slice of chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream please."

"Excellent choice!" The waiter wrote down their orders and walked off.

Shadow turned to look back Amy. "Rose," he said as he caught her attention, "can you do me favor while I'm gone."

"Sure Shadow," she answered.

"Do you mind watching Luna for me? I would take her to a pet hotel but their not always trustworthy."

Amy smiled that dazzling smiled that Shadow loved to see and giggled. "Of course I'll watch her for you. In fact, she can stay with me for the week."

Shadow smiled back and intertwined his hand with hers. "Thank you, Rose."

Shortly after the waiter came back with their dessert. Shadow enjoying his ice cream and savored every bite he took. Whereas Amy was eating her cake like there was no tomorrow. Shadow watched her and chuckled. "You must really love chocolate."

The pink hedgehog blushed and slowed down her bites. "This cake is super delicious! Plus, I've been craving chocolate for a few days now."

After finishing their desert, and taking a quick romantic walk on the beach, Shadow drove Amy home. Amy offered to take him to the airport in the morning, to which Shadow agreed to. She also told him that she'll pick Luna up from his house on the way back home. When they got to Amy's house, their kiss goodnight lasted longer than anticipated since Amy was getting getting her last kisses.

The Next Day

May 11

It was now Monday morning, the morning that Amy dreaded. She woke up early to shower, get dressed, and do her makeup. She wore light blue skinny jeans, a red tank top, and white sandals. She also had her long hair up in a pony tail to keep it out of her face. Since she was taking Shadow to the airport and was going to get Luna from his house, she decided to take a day off of work.

She looked at her clock to check the time and noticed that she needed to get going. She didn't want to be the reason for Shadow missing his plane. She grabbed her phone, purse, car keys, and made her way downstairs. She hopped in her car and drove her way to Shadow's house.

She's been thinking all night how this week would be with out Shadow around. She wouldn't say she's a clingy girlfriend, but she was use to seeing Shadow basically everyday since they began dating. She was hoping that when he wasn't busy, they could find a way to talk to each other. She was worrying about Shadow so much that she didn't realize she was down the street from his house.

After she parked her car in the drive way, she got out and walked to the front door. She knocked and not even a minute went by when Shadow answered the door. Amy thought he looked down right handsome. He wore a white long sleeve button up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows and a black tie, black pants and black shoes.

"Well don't you look handsome," said Amy as she adjusted his tie. She reached up and planted a kiss on his soft lips. Shadow smirked and embraced her.

"Thank you, Rose." He kissed her on her forehead then walked back inside his house. He came back out with his suitcase and followed Amy to her car. She opened her trunk and he placed his suitcase inside then closed the door. After making sure his house was locked up, he sat inside on the passenger side of Amy's car.

As Amy drove to the airport, she told her boyfriend that he must call her everyday and to try and skype her so that she can see his face. She didn't want to come off as the annoying girlfriend, but she couldn't help it. Shadow smiled throughout her lecture and agreed to everything she said. He thought it cute to see Amy being nervous and some what scared of him not being around. It showed him that she truly cared about their relationship.

About thirty minutes later of Amy's lecture and horrible traffic later, they finally made it to the airport. She parked her car and both hedgehogs got out. After Shadow had his suitcase, he turned to look at his girlfriend. Amy pouted as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Are you sure you have to go?" she asked as she looked up at him.

Shadow smiled a small smile as he held her face in his hand. "Yes I'm sure."

"Well like I said in the car, please keep in contact with me." The ebony hedgehog leaned his fore head on hers as he wrapped his arms around her waist.

"I'll talk to you every chance I get. I promise."

Amy looked deep into those red eyes she adored and sighed. "I'll miss you."

Shadow reached up and caressed her cheek. "I'll miss you too," he kissed her sweetly yet passionately on the lips, "so much."

The couple hugged each other in a warm and loving embrace. Amy felt so content in his arms, but frowned when he unwrapped his arms. "I have to go," he said with a frown. "As soon as I land in New York, I'll call you."

Amy nodded her head and sighed. Shadow gave her one last before going inside the airport. Amy watched as he walked further and further into the mass of people until he couldn't be seen anymore. She sighed and got back into her car to drive to Shadow's house to get Luna.

When she got to Shadow's house, she too out the key he gave her and unlocked his door. Luna came running down the stairs and greeted the pink hedgehog with loving licks. She giggled and gave the husky a quick belly rub before walking to the living room to get Luna's things. There was a bag on the coffee table that was filled with all of the necessary items to take care of the big door. From food, treats, her toys, and her leash. Amy smiled and thought how cute it was that Shadow treated Luna as if she was his child.

After grabbing the bag and Luna's bed, she called the dog and walked out to her car. She placed all the items in her trunk and had Luna sit in the back sit.

"Well Luna," said Amy as she drove out of the drive way, "looks like it's just you and me this week." She frowned and sighed. "Hopefully this week goes by fast." Suddenly she smiled when an idea came to mind. "Luna, wanna go for a walk?"

Luna barked, and Amy took that as a yes. She giggled and continued to drive back home.

Yay another chapter done!

I promise more conflict picks up on the next couple of chapters. I already started on the next one and I can't wait to post it!

I hope you all liked this chapter! :)