"The Vixen"
Author: Robert Brown
Disclaimer: This story uses characters created and copyrighted by Sucker
Punch, Inc. (except where noted, in which case they were created
and copyrighted by me or by another and I have permission to use
them). The author hereby gives permission for this story to be
downloaded and/or printed at 1 copy per user as long as (1) no
changes to the story are made without my express written(not
e-mailed) permission and (2) no attempt is made to profit from
this story. If either or both rules are violated, it will be
considered a violation of copyright law.
Chapter 10: The Final Revelations
Sly could only stare in shock as the Vixen lifted off her mask and let
it fall behind her. The fur of her face was as white as he'd imagined it to
be and her hair was as short and as blonde as he'd caught glimpses of in
their past encounters, surrounding her head in short, frizzy curls. He could
honestly say he had never met anyone that matched her description before.
But her eyes.... Her eyes were a completely different matter. If he
could recognize nothing else, he would never mistake those warm brown eyes
anywhere. The inner strength, the playful glint, the slightly challenging
stare they gaze as they gazed intently into his own eyes. Those eyes could
only belong to one individual.
"CARMELITA?"
"You got it, Ringtail," Carmelita confirmed with a saucy wink. "In the
flesh, if not exactly in the fur."
"But...how...when...who?" Sly spluttered incoherently. To put it
bluntly, his mind was blown. He couldn't form a single rational thought as
Carmelita just stood there, smirking at him. He jaw felt like it had dropped
to somewhere around the floor, but he couldn't even bring himself to close his
mouth.
Carmelita laughed at the dumbfounded expression on Sly's face. "I can't
believe I made you speechless again!" she said, a warm smile touching her
lips. "I'm really getting good at that."
Sly finally regained control of his lower jaw at Carmelita's teasing,
but he still couldn't quite make any comprehensible sentences with it. After
a few attempts to articulate his disbelief, he settled for just getting
anything to come out of his mouth. "What the hell did you do to your hair?"
Carmelita blinked in surprise. "Of all the questions I expected you to
ask," she said slowly, "that wasn't even close to being on the list. But why
am I even surprised?" she added exasperatedly. "This whole time you've been
doing everything but what I expected you to!"
"What are you talking about?" Sly demanded.
"Do you know how much planning went into this?" she demanded, her tail
lashing the air behind her. "Every single situation had to be planned for,
and we thought we had it all figured out. Then you had to try and screw
things up by changing your routine. That one act almost ruined everything!"
Sly was still finding it hard to accept the fact that Carmelita was the
Vixen, despite what he was seeing and hearing. There were just too many
things that made no sense and even more unanswered questions. "But why all
this?" he asked. "Was this all just some elaborate setup to capture me?"
"If I had wanted to capture you Cooper, I had more than one opportunity
without dragging you all the way out here. This wasn't professional Cooper,
this was personal.
"After our chopper ride together," she continued, "I was called into my
chief's office. I was sure I was going to be chewed out for letting you
escape again. And while that did happen, I was also told I would be taken off
your case and replaced with Chemp."
"Chemp?" Sly asked. "Isn't he the one that shoots first and doesn't
even bother asking questions?"
Carmelita nodded, and Sly could see real fear in her eyes at the thought
of it. "I couldn't let that happen. The chief gave me one chance to change
his mind, but only if I could give him the truest reason I could why it
shouldn't happen. And after thinking about it, there was only reason I could
give. I love you Sly Cooper."
Just when Sly thought he couldn't be more shocked, that announcement
floored him. "You love me?" he asked in a small voice, afraid he hadn't
heard her right.
"I love you," she repeated, reaching out and touching his cheek fondly.
"And I couldn't let anything happen to you. You were...are...too important to
me Ringtail."
Sly smiled genuinely at her confession, touched by the warmth in her
eyes and in her voice. He had no doubt that she was telling the truth, but a
few things still nagged at him. "So why go through all this?" he wondered.
"Why not just come to me and tell me how you felt?"
Carmelita tilted her head, a few of her blonde ringlets falling down
over her forehead. "Think about it Sly. If I had just popped up out of
nowhere and declared my undying love for you, what would you have thought?"
"That you'd finally fallen for my irresistible charm."
She scowled at him and smacked him in the back of my head. "Be serious
for a minute, would you?"
Sly wished he could rub the back of his head, but that was a little hard
to do seeing as he was still manacled to the chair. "I guess I would've been
suspicious," he admitted. "And if not me, Bentley definitely would have been.
He wouldn't have trusted you in the least and would've tried to get me to send
you away."
"And that's why I couldn't do it," Carmelita sighed, sitting down on his
lap sideways and letting her legs dangle over his arm and the arm of the
chair. "The mistrust between you guys and me, though understandable, would've
driven a wedge between us. As hard as I would've had to try and prove myself,
resentment and bad feelings would've sprouted and choked the life out of our
love. We would've grown bitter and apart; any chance we had of being together
and staying together would've been wrecked."
As much as it pained him to, Sly had to acknowledge the truth in her
words. All his thoughts about getting together with Carmelita had been
hopelessly romanticized. Now the bare facts were laid down in front of him,
the way they were going it would not have ever worked out. "That answers that
question," he said, looking up into her face. It still disconcerted him to no
end to see her fur white and her hair short and blonde, so he focused on her
eyes instead. "But you still haven't explained why you had to go through all
this."
"I was told by someone who made a lot of sense that the only way I could
fully accept you was to live life in your shoes for a little while. To see
what drew you to being a thief, what made you keep going. I'll admit, being
the Vixen was exhilarating. Outwitting other criminals, stealing from them,
leaving all the loot behind except for one trophy piece.... I felt alive in a
way I hadn't since I first joined the force.
"But it was more than that," she continued, ignoring Sly's dumbfounded
expression. "What I said as the Vixen was true; I did need to prove myself to
be your equal. But I also needed to see how you would react. Did I mean as
much to you as you said I did, or was I just a challenge to you? Would you
forget about me and fall for the Vixen? I had to see if you truly did love me
before I let you know that I love you."
"Couldn't you have just asked me?" Sly demanded though his voice held
no anger behind it.
"And risk falling for your 'irresistible charm'?" she returned
playfully. "No Sly, if I had outright asked you about it, you would've turned
it into a situation to flirt with me and I wouldn't have gotten a serious
answer out of you. You know you would have," she said a little forcefully as
he opened his mouth to protest. "This was too important to me to let it be
trivialized.
"And I got my answer. Not just here, but before when we were out on
jobs. Every time things started to get a little heated between us, and let
me say here that you are one fantastic kisser, it always stopped the moment
'Carmelita' showed up. I may have acted jealous and angry, but inside I was
almost singing with happiness and relief."
"How did you pull that off anyway? I know I saw you and...well, you
together on more than one occasion. You even kidnapped...you...am I making
any sense here?"
Carmelita laughed again, a warm and happy sound. "Sly," she said when
she noticed his ears flatten back at her laughter, "I'm not laughing at you,
not really. It's just that I've never seen you so confused before and you
just look so cute." Sly ducked his head a little, trying to hide his blush.
But Carmelita wouldn't let him, placing a finger under his chin and lifting
his face to hers. "Don't hide from me Sly," she whispered. "We've done
enough hiding from each other."
Sly nodded slightly. "So how did you do it?" he asked. "How could
you be in two places at the same time?"
"Who says I was?" she asked teasingly, pulling the remote from her
pocket and opening the hallway. As soon as it was open a very familiar form
stood within the shadows. If Carmelita wasn't sitting on his lap, he'd swear
that she was in the hall, even if that one was wearing a uniform typical of an
Interpol Constable. "I'd like you to meet Constable Jennifer Benton,"
Carmelita said with a flourish of her arm. "She's the newest recruit of
Interpol."
"How ya doing sugar?" Jennifer asked as she stepped out into the light,
her soft voice heavily accented with an American southern twang.
Sly's face scrunched up as she walked toward him. Now that he could
see her, the differences between them were obvious. Glaringly obvious in
fact. Even if you discounted the fact that she sounded nothing like Carmelita
there was no way this Constable Benton could be mistaken for her. Her muzzle
was a few inches shorter, her fur color was at least three shades closer to
red, and her eyes were a bright blue. But perhaps the biggest difference was
her hair; it was short, spiky, and neon blue. "This is not who I saw," he
said confidently, starting to sound a bit angry.
Carmelita and Jennifer exchanged a knowing glance which only made Sly
angrier. Jennifer slung a small duffel bag off her shoulder that Sly hadn't
noticed and opened it up. She pulled out Carmelita's badge choker and
attached it around her neck. While Sly could admit it helped with the look
slightly, he still didn't see the big deal. The next thing she drew from the
bag, however, surprised him to no end.
Jennifer smirked as she settled the mass of blue-black hair on her head.
She took a moment to fix it so that the braid fell down her back just right
and then fixed Sly with a harsh stare. "What are you staring at Ringtail?"
she demanded in a perfect imitation of Carmelita's voice.
"Voice changer hidden in the choker," Carmelita explained before Sly
could ask. "Quite the effective bit of technology if I do say so myself. I
almost used it myself, but I've lived in Paris long enough to pick up a French
accent."
"That wasn't what I was going to ask," Sly said slowly, "though I am
interested on how you got your hands on that kind of technology. "I was going
to ask you about that wig she's wearing. It's...not really a wig, is it?"
Carmelita touched her short hair self-consciously. "I knew a regular
wig wouldn't fool you," she said, a wistful tinge to her voice. "Besides,"
she added in a pale attempt at being lighthearted, "there was no way I'd be
able to conceal all that under the Vixen's mask. So I had it all shaved off
and fashioned into a wig for Constable Benton to wear."
"It's Jennifer," the constable said in her own voice; she'd removed
Carmelita's choker without Sly realizing it. "I've told you that before. Now
go and change. I'm sure you'll feel better once you're in your normal
clothes."
Carmelita caught the duffel bag that Jennifer tossed to her with one
hand and got up to her feet, wincing slightly as she did so. "Is the gunk in
here too?" she asked.
"Of course," Jennifer returned brightly. "But you better not let them
hear you call it 'gunk' again. You know what happened last time."
Carmelita rolled her eyes but said nothing as she hooked her cane onto a
small metal ring on the wall. "You two keep each other company," she said,
using the cane to spring back up to the wooden platform she had used to enter
the room. She landed a little awkwardly and grabbed at her ribs. "Are there
any bandages in here?" she called down. "I think he busted one of my ribs."
Sly felt his blood turn to ice as he remembered the satisfaction of
feeling her rib break under his fist. "Carmelita," he began in a strained and
choked voice.
"Save it Sly," she said, pretty confident that she knew what was coming.
"I don't blame you for this. If anything, I'm glad it happened. After all,
you wouldn't have done it if you knew it was me. That just shows how
completely I had you fooled! Now don't go anywhere!"
"Like I can," Sly grumbled as Carmelita ducked out a door he could not
see. He still wasn't too convinced with Carmelita's words, but he had the
feeling she'd beat him up if he dwelled on it. With nothing else to do, he
turned his attention to the only other occupant in the room. "Hey, do you
think you can let me out of this chair?"
Jennifer shook her head, pulling Carmelita's hair off her head and
running her fingers through her own neon blue spikes. "No can do. Carmelita
gave specific instructions not to let you out of that chair until she said so.
Something about wanting you to stay and hear everything."
Sly sighed irritably. He hated being forced to sit and stay in one
place. "So what else did you do?" he asked, pulling at the restraints again.
"Even with the voice and the hair, I think I'd be able to tell you weren't
Carmelita."
"I don't doubt it," Jennifer agreed, leaning casually against the wall.
"Which is why I made sure you never got a good look at me. You only saw me
three times before today: once I had a floodlight behind me and the other two
were from at least a hundred feet away. You're good Cooper, but not that
good. Maybe under different circumstances you might've been able to tell the
difference. But you expected to see Carmelita, so that's what you saw."
"I guess," Sly said petulantly, like a small child who'd been told he
could not fly no matter how hard he flapped his arms. "And the voice changer?
Where did that come from?"
Jennifer dropped into a squat, her back against the wall. "From two of
the most brilliant people you have ever met," she answered mysteriously.
Sly had been shocked so many times today that all these surprises were
starting to lose their effect on him. "So I know these two, huh? And I
suppose they're here as well?"
"Of course hun! You don't think we could have this whole big reveal
party without inviting everyone who made it possible, do you?"
"What have you been telling him?" Carmelita asked as she jumped down
from the platform to land between them, still favoring her injured side. "You
better not have given anything away."
"Well if you had taken any longer to get back here I just might have,"
Jennifer retorted.
Carmelita rolled her eyes and spun around to face Sly. She was once
more attired in her usual outfit, though it seemed to fit her a little bit
more snugly than Sly remembered. He noticed that she had her ribs taped up
and remorse shot through his soul again. He forced himself to move on though,
for his sake as much as hers.
Her fur was back to its normal coloring as well, though a stray streak
of white remained where she had missed it. Her hair had returned to its
normal blue-black color, though it still remained in short ringlets. The only
thing that remained from her alternate look was the indigo lipstick. And Sly
had to admit, no matter how good she looked dressed as the Vixen, he was
really happy to have the old Carmelita back.
Carmelita noticed his eyes traveling up and down her body, taking in her
"new" look. "Not that I mind," she said after clearing her throat to get his
attention back on her face and not on her slightly enhanced assets, "but do
you just want to stare all day or get all your questions answered?"
"Tough choice," Sly quipped automatically.
Jennifer giggled as Carmelita crossed her arms in exasperation. "He is
smooth," the constable said, waggling her eyebrows at Sly.
"Don't get used to it," Carmelita snapped.
"Well, before you interrupted us I was about to find out who made that
voice changer," Sly said, feeling more at ease now that he had Carmelita riled
up a bit. "But now that you're here, what did you use to dye your fur? I
know you can't use anything like hair dye, and no matter how good it is some
of it should've rubbed off on me when we fought."
"That was a problem," Carmelita admitted. "But the same two who made
the voice changer came up with something that bonded to my fur so well it
won't come off even if I get dunked in a vat of soapy water and scrubbed until
my fur frizzed. That's why I need the gunk to get it off."
"What did I tell you about calling my invention that?" a rough voice
growled from the hallway, one that sounded very familiar to Sly.
Carmelita flinched a little at the growl and tried to hide her reaction
to the voice. "It's only half yours," she insisted even though it sounded
lame to her own ears.
"Like that matters?" the owner of the voice asked as she stepped into
the room.
Sly couldn't work up the energy to be too shocked when he saw who it
was. Even though she was dressed in a grey blouse and black trousers, he knew
her immediately. "Luka, right?" he asked, glaring at the arctic wolf.
Luka straightened up to her full height at being addressed in such a
casual manner by Sly. "That's Special Detective Luka Destler to you Cooper,"
she said, pulling an Interpol badge from her pocket. "Head of the new tech
department. You're already intimately familiar with one of my greatest
inventions."
"And that would be?" Sly asked, arching his eyebrow. Luka whipped a
black shock pistol out of a hidden holster and launched a shockbolt over his
head. Despite where she aimed, Sly still ducked as much as he could. "You're
the one who created the shock pistol?" At Luka's sharp nod, Sly fixed her
with a calm gaze. "Then you're the one responsible for all my singed sweaters
and caps. You'll be getting my dry cleaning bill."
The unexpected comment made Luka stumble slightly and the others in the
room giggle. "Is he always like this?" she asked, more than a touch
perturbed.
"Yes," Carmelita answered quickly and emphatically.
"Come now Luka," another feminine voice purred from the hallway. "I've
only known him for a little longer than you and even I know he's always like
that."
Sly's eyes swung back over to the hallway just as a familiar calico cat,
dressed in a white blouse with a conservative grey skirt and a grey blazer,
walked into the room. "It only makes sense," he muttered more to himself than
anything else. "If Luka is part of Interpol, then I guess you had to be too."
"Chief Inspector Maia Genía," Maia said, showing Sly her badge. "Head
of Interpol's North American HQ."
"Chief Inspector?" So Sly was wrong, he still could be surprised. "You
can't be; it's not possible."
Maia's blue eyes hardened into little shards of ice, her gaze sharp and
cutting. "And why is that Cooper?" she demanded, her voice dripping with
venom. "Because I'm a woman? I thought you were better than that."
If Sly could've raised his arms defensively, he would have. "I'm not
saying that at all," he protested. "It's just that after our tango together I
had Bentley look up information on you to see if you were telling the truth
about being a six-time champion. It said you'd disappeared from sight when
they stripped the trophy from you. It's nothing about you being a woman,
really! It's just that there's no way Bentley could make such a mistake."
Maia had the grace to look ashamed after Sly's explanation. But just as
she was about to apologize, a soft giggle interrupted her. "Well, there is a
really good explanation for that," Jennifer said, standing up and stretching
her legs out. "Remember how I said the voice changer was the product of two
people you know?"
"Yeah but--" Sly stopped as what Constable Benton was inferring worked
its way through his brain. "No," he murmured, shaking his head. "No no no no
NO!"
"It's true Sly," Bentley said as he wheeled himself into the room,
Murray following close behind. "We were in on it as well."
Watching his two teammates, his two best friends, two of only three
people in this world that he would gladly lay his life down for, be there now
siding with the cops, Sly could feel his soul break. "Why?" he croaked out
past the sharp pain of betrayal that gripped his heart and closed off his
throat.
"Now don't jump to conclusions Sly," Bentley said calmly, adjusting his
glasses. Inside though, he was quaking. He'd never seen such a look of utter
despair on Sly's face and it broke his heart to know that he put it there.
"Trust me," he forced himself to say, "there is a very good reason for this."
Sly turned a flat gaze on Bentley. "What could you possibly tell me
that could possibly make me understand?" he asked in a defeated voice.
"I didn't really give them much choice," Carmelita began until Bentley
held up his hand.
"We could've told you no, despite the consequences," Bentley said
firmly. "If we didn't believe in this, nothing you threatened us with would
have made us go along with it."
"That's right," Murray affirmed. "As it is, I had my doubts about it,
but Bentley talked me around. I just hope we made the right choice."
Sly turned his face away in anger. "All right, explain yourselves
then."
Bentley rolled closer to Sly, stopping in front of his friend. "Soon
after the incident with Clock-La, when I was building my new wheelchair,
Murray took me for a ride in the van to get some equipment I needed. Since
you were busy mooning over Carmelita, we were actually going to buy it."
"Wait, I remember that day," Sly interrupted. "You spent over three
hours out. I was getting ready to come looking for you two and you came home
empty-handed."
Bentley shifted nervously. "Well, there was a reason behind that. Just
when we got to the store, we were surrounded by cops. They came out of
nowhere and took us down like it was nothing. I thought we were going to be
carted off to jail without a second thought.
"But then Carmelita showed up and escorted us into the back of the van.
She gave us a really simple choice: either we go to jail or we help her with
her crazy scheme. She laid out what she had planned, and I immediately saw
twenty things wrong with it. Even though she was angry, she admitted that's
why she sought us out. She swore up and down she couldn't pull it off without
us, that she needed us to make this work. But even that wasn't enough for me.
I was convinced she was going to turn on us and throw us all in jail."
Despite his best efforts, Sly found himself becoming interested in
Bentley's tale. "So what changed your mind?" he asked.
Bentley leaned forward slightly. "She was very persuasive," he said in
all seriousness. "She made us a deal we simply could not refuse. If we
helped her, no matter how it turned out, all three of us would be given full
pardons and amnesty."
"No strings attached?" Sly asked, amazed. Something was bothering him
about it, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
"Well, if we betrayed her, the deal was null and void. But that only
makes sense. If she hadn't insisted on it I would've been suspicious."
"And what convinced you Murray?" Sly had to ask, turning his attention
to his large friend. "How did she get you on board?"
Murray smirked a little. "I didn't care about the pardon or any of that
other stuff. I told her to look me in the eyes and tell me why she was doing
it."
"And the reason I gave to him was the same reason I gave to you,"
Carmelita said softly. "It was enough for him."
Murray nodded, his eyes peculiarly soft. "She swore to me that you
wouldn't be hurt, that she only had your best interest in mind. I could see
she was telling the truth, but I still didn't like how they were going about
it."
"It was the only way Murray," Bentley said in a long-suffering voice.
"We've been through this. This was the only thing we came up with that had a
chance of working."
Sly looked back and forth between his friends. "You lied to me," he
accused. "You gave Carmelita copies of the Thievius Racoonus, didn't you?
That's the only way she could've gotten it."
"You're quite right Sly," Bentley agreed. "I did make copies for her,
digitally altered to remove your notes. If she was going to do this, she was
going to learn it the same way you did. But no, we did not lie to you about
it."
"How can you sit there and say that?" Sly exploded, straining against
his manacles. "I asked you if you gave the copies to the Vixen and you said
you didn't!"
Even in the face of Sly's anger, Bentley had a superior smirk on his
face. "Did I?" he challenged. "The way I remember it, all I said was that
we would never give anything to your enemies. How many times have you told us
that Carmelita is not our enemy?"
Sly bit down on the curses he wanted to spew at his friends. "I'm not
even going to try and argue semantics with you," he grumbled. "It's still a
cheap trick though."
"Just one of the many scenarios I cooked up for when you found out about
that," Bentley said. "The only thing is, it wasn't supposed to happen quite
that soon. You weren't supposed to find out until the sixth encounter with
the Vixen, at least!"
"I had no choice," Carmelita explained. "When he changed the routine we
had planned out, I had to do something to make sure we moved it along the
right direction. I know this messed up your plan, but if we had tried to
stick with it he would've figured everything out."
"I've already accepted that," Bentley assured her. "I had some plans
ready in case he did stuff like this. But even then, Sly is so unpredictable,
even to me, that we still almost messed up." He glanced over to Maia who
cringed a little under his gaze. "What were you thinking telling him you were
a six-time champion? If my computer skills were any less than what they are,
there's no way I could've adjusted your online biography in time. You needed
to communicate these things to me."
"That reminds me," Carmelita growled before Maia could respond, pressing
her hand to her injured side. "When were you going to tell me that he was
learning to fight hand-to-hand? Or did you want me to get beat up?"
Bentley looked a little ruffled at her accusation. "The agreement was
for me to tell you anything I found out. If I had known he was training like
that, you'd better believe I would've passed it on."
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that," Murray said, scratching his head. "I
caught Sly working over the heavy bag on his own."
Both Bentley and Carmelita slowly turned to look at Murray. "And you
didn't think to share this with us...why?" Bentley asked slowly.
"Well, I meant to, but then Sly whipped me in the butt with his towel
and I forgot all about it."
Bentley slapped his hands to his forehead. "Anyway, despite everything
that managed to go wrong we got it to work. And you can all thank me for
that."
"You?" Luka snapped, startling everyone in the room. She stalked over
to Bentley, spun around his wheelchair, and bent down until she was almost
nose to nose with him. "Give me a break! If I hadn't figured out how to make
your voice changer portable, all your plans would've been for nothing!"
"Oh yeah?" Bentley snarled, surprising Sly with his sudden show of
anger. "Don't forget that it was my voice changer to begin with! And you
still needed my help to make sure it always picked up Jennifer's voice!"
"Don't give me that! I could've figured it out without your help. You
just happened to barge in on me during one of my brainstorming sessions."
"I didn't know brainstorming meant 'destroying everything in my workshop
because I'm frustrated.' And let's not forget the simple mistake you made
with the fur dye; you nearly turned her fur black instead of white!"
"At least I was able to produce a cane for her from the scans you sent
while Sly was konked out with my knockout potion that I told Murray to slip
into his food. You didn't even know where to get the materials from."
Sly eyed Luka and Bentley worriedly as their argument got progressively
more heated and the insults they hurled got nastier and nastier. He was a
little upset at Bentley, especially hearing about that knockout potion, but he
didn't want him to get hurt. He looked around, hoping that someone would
interfere before it came to blows and was surprised yet again when they were
all looking at them with a beyond bored expression. Carmelita was even
counting down from ten under her breath. She caught him looking and winked at
him just as she reached zero.
No sooner had that number left her lips than the argument abruptly
stopped. He noticed that Murray had his face averted while Maia and Jennifer
were giggling softly. He turned back to see what was so funny and lurched
back in surprise. If the chair hadn't been bolted to the floor, it would've
tipped over and made him land on his head.
Bentley and Luka were...kissing? Could what they were doing even be
called kissing? Sly didn't know, but they certainly seemed like they were
enjoying themselves. "Did I get dropped off in The Twilight Zone or
something?" he asked rhetorically, not really expecting to get an answer.
"I said the same thing when I first saw them," Carmelita confided,
seating herself in his lap again. "I had to get the others and show them to
make sure I wasn't losing my mind."
"Something we weren't all that happy about," Bentley said after he and
Luka broke their kiss. "I have to say, when I first met her, I was skeptical.
Luka is a very pretty woman, but I didn't honestly think there could be a
technological mind behind the pretty facade."
"I was no better," Luka said, laying across Bentley's lap and snuggling
up to him. "I flat out refused to work with him because he was a thief and
because he was paralyzed. But he proved me wrong."
"Just as you did," Bentley added, stroking Luka's cheek affectionately.
"The more we got to know each other, the more we respected each other.
Respect turned into friendship and friendship into love."
Sly let his head drop onto her shoulder tiredly. "I don't know if I
can handle any more surprises today," he whispered. "I don't even know if I
should be upset that all of you ganged up on me like this or if I should be
proud that it took all of you to dupe me so badly."
Carmelita wrapped her arms around him and cradled his head to her chest
gently. "I'm sorry I had to put you through all this," she murmured. "Even I
wasn't sold on it the first time I heard it."
Sly was quiet a moment before he jerked his head up in surprise. "Wait
a minute. This wasn't your idea to begin with?" Carmelita shook her head
sadly. "Then whose was it?"
"That would be me," Chief Barkley said as he strolled into the room.
Sly stared at him for what seemed like forever, unable to understand
what he was doing there. Then a light went on in his mind. "Well, that
explains why Maia and Luka are in on it and how Carmelita arranged for those
pardons. But what it doesn't explain is why you all helped Carmelita do this
just to convince me that she loved me."
"Don't flatter yourself Cooper," the chief barked. "Truth is, I had my
own reasons for forcing Carmelita to confess as well as setting you up like
this. The first is that I had a promise to keep, a promise I made a long time
ago."
"Dare I ask what that promise is?"
The chief drew a folded paper from his pocket and handed it to Carmelita
so that she could open it up for him. "Look familiar?" he asked gruffly.
Sly really didn't want to look at the paper, but Carmelita had already
lifted it in front of his eyes. It was an old wedding photograph of a couple
that Sly hadn't seen for over ten years. "Mom? Dad?" he whispered. "How?
How did you get this picture?"
A smile cracked Chief Barkley's face. "Take another look Sly," he
urged. "This time look at everyone in the picture."
Sly reluctantly did as he was told. He didn't recognize the woman
standing beside his mother as her maid of honor, but his father's best man was
unmistakable. "You knew my parents?"
"Knew them? Hah! Your mother was my partner when we were both just
starting out."
"She was what?" Sly asked dumbly.
The chief chuckled and rubbed his hand across his forehead. "You and
your father are so much alike it's scary. We were assigned to stop your
father and his gang, and he flirted with my partner every chance he got. It
made her so mad that no one, not even me, dared go near her for a few hours
after one of our encounters with your father. I swear she must've plotted a
hundred different ways to hang your father up by his toes, among other things.
"But then came a day where he didn't flirt with her. Either he was too
busy or just didn't notice her, but he didn't say a word to her all night. I
thought she'd be glad not to have to deal with that, but if anything she was
more furious. Instead of ranting about 'how dare he' and 'who does he think
he is' and all, she was raving about him daring to find some other girl but
her."
"Sound familiar Cooper?" Carmelita purred in his ear. "I was much the
same way when I found out you were showing some kind of interest in Neyla. I
didn't exactly let anyone know about it, but I guess the chief picked up on it
anyway."
"It was hard to miss," Chief Barkley remarked dryly. "Anyway, that
night I confronted your mother on her real feelings for your father and got
her to admit that she'd fallen in love with him. The next time he tried to
steal something, she chased him off somewhere while I dealt with the rest of
the gang. The next time I saw them, they were both looking very dazed and
some of their clothing was rumpled."
"That's an unwelcome mental image," Sly said, shuddering a bit.
"Although I wonder what would've happened if you had tried that with me," he
added with a suggestive wink.
Carmelita didn't even so much as blush as she answered him. "I don't
think you could've handled me," she said, flicking his nose playfully.
Amidst the laughter that followed, Chief Barkley cleared his throat.
"As much as you might've liked that, there's one big difference between your
mother and Carmelita. Your mother knew and accepted that your father was
often a help to us and even thanked him for it on a number of occasions. The
only thing that pissed her off was his flirting. Part of the point of all
this was to show you that Carmelita could accept your thieving ways."
"I see your point," Sly allowed. "So what was this promise you had to
keep?"
The mood in the room grew somber, telling Sly that everyone else knew
about this promise. "Before your father passed away, he left a detailed will
with me in case something happened to him. He had only two requests to make
of me. His first request was that I not take you in. As much as I wanted to,
being your godfather and all, you were not meant to be raised in a cop's life.
And that's the only way I could've raised you. Instead, I was to make sure
you were placed in a warm and loving orphanage and to use the money your
father left me to make sure you had everything you needed until you set out to
reclaim your family's heritage."
Sly grimaced slightly at the chief's words, but he agreed it was for
the best. If he'd never been in that orphanage, he would've never met Murray
or Bentley, and he would've never been able to take on the Fiendish Five.
Given the choice between that and being raised in a loving home, he had to
admit that he wouldn't have wanted anything done differently. "So what was
the second request?" he asked quietly.
"When the time was right and you committed your first successful crime,
I was to scour the profiles of all my female constables to find the one that
best matched your mother, promote her to inspector, and assign her to your
case. Even then he knew that you would be like him; attracted to the cop that
was supposed to stop you. And if I guessed right, I was to help you two try
and make things work when it got to that point."
"I don't know how I feel about my life being messed with like this,"
Sly said, a serious expression on his face. But when he saw Carmelita's ears
droop sadly, his look softened. "But I can't complain about the results," he
said with a warm smile.
Carmelita lightly slapped his chest in frustration, then she kissed his
cheek in gratitude. "Do you want to hear the other reason?" she asked as she
slowly slid off his lap, making Sly stiffen. "I'm sure you'll find that one
quite funny."
"I have a feeling I'll regret this," Sly muttered. "All right, all
right, let's hear it."
"She's already got you whipped, doesn't she?" Jennifer teased only to
be cut off by the others. "Well, excuse me," she huffed.
Chief Barkley resisted the temptation to roll his eyes. "The truth is,
I got tired of you making a mockery out of Interpol and I wanted you out of my
way. There was no way any of my officers were going to capture or stop you, I
knew that and so did everyone else. And apparently, so has everyone who has
pursued a Cooper down through the ages."
"I don't understand...."
"It all started with your first ancestor, Slytunkhamen. The Pharoah's
guardsmen, similar to the Interpol I run now, couldn't even come close to
stopping him. But then one day he just...stopped. No one could figure out
why until he was located at an outlying oasis caring for his wife and his
firstborn son."
Sly's ears shot straight up at that news. "What?" he asked, paying
careful attention.
The chief nodded, folding his hands over his stomach. "He had given up
his thieving ways to settle down and raise a family. That became his whole
life and he never stole again. The guards decided to leave him alone since he
wasn't bothering anyone and they enjoyed a level of peace that they hadn't
since before Slytunkhamen took up his cane. Or rather, they did until his son
took up the mantle of 'World's Greatest Thief' and proceeded to forge his own
legacy.
"So just as there has been a Cooper line throughout the ages, so has
their been a line of cops trying to keep tabs on them. We know we can't stop
them, only that we can keep their mischief to a minimum. When they get too
troublesome, and take too long to do it on their own, we actively try to
encourage them to settle down and start a family so we can have between
fourteen and twenty years of quiet. And then we pass down this information to
whoever the unlucky soul is that has to oversee the crime spree of the next
Cooper."
Sly couldn't help but laugh. Carmelita was right, this was hilarious.
"Who said anything about me settling--" His words died in his throat as he
noticed Carmelita sink down to one knee. "You've got to be kidding me."
Carmelita covered his hand with hers. "I'm not a patient woman Sly,"
she said earnestly, "so I don't feel like waiting around for you to ask me.
Here I am, on bended knee, and all I want is to become your bride. So answer
me just one question Ringtail, will you marry me?"
Sly felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room. On a day
filled with surprises, this one took the cake. "Umm, doesn't the guy
traditionally ask the girl?" It was stupid, he knew, but it was the only
thing that came to mind at the moment.
The corner of Carmelita's indigo painted lips quirked up ever so
slightly. "Is there anything traditional about our love?"
"I suppose not. But it's not like I have a ring or anything."
The chief walked over and pulled a small pouch from his pocket. "Your
mom left this for you in her will. Any other questions?"
Sly glanced down at his still manacled hands and looked back at him,
raising his eyebrow. Carmelita sheepishly reached behind the chair and
tripped a switch, causing the manacles to release Sly. He quickly rubbed his
wrists, trying restore circulation to them. Once the stiffness had faded, he
took the pouch from Chief Barkley and opened it up, tipping the contents into
his palm.
Three rings tumbled out, glittering faintly in the light. Two were made
of gold and void of any decoration, one slightly wider and thicker than the
other. The third was made of white gold and had a small yet perfect diamond
set in it. "My parents' rings," he said, turning them over and over in his
hands.
When he was younger, he'd often asked his father why the rings weren't
more flashy or intricate like someone would expect a Master Thief to have.
The answer he got was very simple yet very profound: you might want to show
off to the rest of the world, but the one person you should never feel you
have to impress is the woman you make your wife. He didn't understand it at
the time, but now he did.
Sly placed two of the rings back into the bag, placing them carefully
in his pocket. "I guess here is where I ask you," he said, taking Carmelita's
hand and slipping her glove off. "But since you already did it, this will be
where I answer. I love you as much as you have shown that you love me. Yes
Carmelita Montoya Fox. Yes I will marry you."
There were a few awws as Sly slipped the ring on her finger, but he
wasn't really listening to them. His first thought was that the ring was a
little loose and would have to be resized to fit her finger. Any other
thoughts were going to wait as Carmelita pulled him up into her arms and
kissed him soundly, a kiss that he eagerly returned.
By the time they broke apart, both of them were breathless. "You know
I don't like to be kept waiting," she breathed against his lips. "This
better not be one of those long and drawn-out engagements. Our wedding
better be soon."
"Is tomorrow night soon enough?" Sly quipped, pecking her lightly on
her nose.
Carmelita pondered it for a moment before shaking her head. "Not
really, but then I doubt you could find a priest down here. So I guess it'll
have to do."
"What? You mean you didn't bring one with you?"
"I thought about it, but then I realized it wouldn't be a good idea with
all those Prinnies around. Having a priest in the same building as demonic
exploding penguins is a tragedy waiting to happen."
"Oh yeah," Murray said, drawn from his conversation with Chief Barkley
at the mention of the Prinnies. "What are you going to do with those things?"
Carmelita shrugged distractedly. "I'm not really sure. We don't know
how to send them back and we can't leave them here. I'm sure we'll find some
place for them until we can get them home. At the very least, I want one of
them to be our ringbearer."
"Please tell me you're joking," Sly pleaded, making Carmelita burst out
in laughter. "I'm not tied down anymore," he reminded her, slowly advancing
on her.
Carmelita backed away with a saucy smile. "At least until tomorrow
night," she said before turning tail and running, Sly hot on her heels.
Chief Barkley watched them go with a wistful grin on his face. "I hope
I did you both proud," he whispered to the empty air beside him. "Your son
has grown into a fine man. He's a credit to you both and to the Cooper line.
I know their child will be the same way."
FIN (
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