All Characters are (C) to Dreamworks and Aardman Studios. Only the Idea is mine.

The name of the cat is dedicated to my friend Jenn who had to put her cat Tiger to sleep over Christmas break.
God Bless you Tiger you are always with us.

Flushed Away: Down and Out

Prologue

It had been a year since the episode with the Toad and his minions and Roderick St. James was farther away from everything then he ever thought he would be at this point in his life. He lay in bed and thought back on all that had transpired in one year. Many thoughts raced through his mind, while he stared from the bedroom window into the night sky.

He had stayed in the sewers for a while after Rita and her dad had built the Jammy Dodger II, but he just wasn't cut out for the sewer life. He had tried to fit in, he tried to cope, but he knew, deep down, he just wasn't meant to be there. It just wasn't in his cards to stay with the Malone's or in the sewers, so after a heartfelt and tearful goodbye Roddy and Rita set a course back for Kensington. That whole trip Rita was deadly silent. Roddy knew why but, being the somewhat cowardly rat that he was, he kept silent too. It tore his heart to know he was leaving the one true friend he had ever had, but he was just too pampered, too… well to put it mildly, just too Roddy to fit in down in the sewer.
When the Jammy Dodger had reached Kensington, Rita found a place to anchor the Dodger and waited for Roddy to walk out her life forever. She had fought back tears the whole time after he had told her he wanted to return to Kensington, but now it was just them, alone. Not even the slugs had come along with them nor were there any around. Rita had had her back turned to him almost the whole trip and finally Roddy had had enough of it. He steeled his courage and walked up to her and wrapped his arms around her from behind. He felt her tense when he did that but just sighed then nuzzled her and held her close. Rita's composure failed her and she broke down. It pained him so deeply to hear her shallow gasps. He knew it was killing them both, it pained them to their cores, but he was resolute in his decision to go. He couldn't stay. He didn't belong in this under earth world. He just didn't belong in her world, but she belonged in his life.

'Not anymore.' Roddy thought to himself as he gazed longingly at the night sky.
It was because if his love for her that he returned to save her and her family after realizing the Toads plans to flush away the rat city. Then he knew he had to leave, also for love, because he couldn't be that kind of burden on her family. True that they were accommodating and loving, but he understood the difficulties of living a life in the sewers, and he also understood that he just wasn't meant to live that way. So for love, he left. But he could never make Rita see it that way and now he may never get the chance to see her again.

He had returned home to Kensington to find a complete mess. Sid was almost killed on a daily basis by Tabitha's new pet, which at first was quite funny to watch but even Roddy understood when enough was enough. This was the first time Roddy broke the cardinal rule of the animal kingdom.
'Never communicate with humans in their own language.'
All animals followed this rule, but Roddy just had to get through to Tabitha in some way. So he broke that rule. He talked to her.

What surprised him the most was that she didn't, pardon the expression, rat him out to her parents. They kept their conversations secret and sparingly, at first. However over time Roddy grew to like his late night talks with his owner. She had convinced her parents to let both Roddy and Sid stay, without giving away their secret. After a while Sid would come to speak with her as well as the pet cat, Tiger. She shared their secret with no one and Roddy trusted with his intentions, and he with hers. It was a good arrangement that they had and it seemed to be working thus far.

Roddy still laid with his face turned upwards towards the night sky as he watched the midnight moon and stars drift overhead. He reached behind his head and pulled out a very tiny photo. It was of Rita and her family. The photo looked old, torn up and broken, but it meant the world to him. So just like every other night, for the past year Roddy kissed Rita in the photo and said a prayer for her and her family then, he rolled over and began to drift off. This night however, right before he fell asleep he whispered,
"I love you, Rita."