Carmen Ivy AU

By: FunahoMisaki

(A/N: I own nothing and what if Carmen begins noticing something strange going on with her favorite detectives and has no clue what it is or why it's happening until one of her henchmen brings her along to his second job? AU OOC)

"Hey Boss." Al said trying to catch his boss in a good mood as he looked at the woman who was studying something at one table.

"Not now Al. I'm trying to figure out what's up with Ivy lately. She has been acting strange, Zack too but not as much as Ivy has." Carmen said not even glancing up from her computer while Sara sweat dropped slightly. Her boss really did care a lot about those two detectives.

"Well from all of the recorded evidence I've seen, there's no drugs or alcohol involved." Sara said making Carmen bite her lip slightly.

"Hmm…maybe something at home or school?" Carmen murmured as she tapped her chin in thought, eyes glued to all of the data that they had gathered on Ivy over the last month since Carmen had declared that the girl was acting strange and she wanted to know why.

"Why don't you just ask her?" Al asked earning a snort from Dara who was nearby with her arm in a cast.

"Yeah sure. Just ask her if something is going on at home in the middle of a heist. Do you want her to break our jaws? She already broke my arm when I grabbed her brother during that last heist." Dara said with a roll of her eyes although there was a bit of respect in her voice. She hadn't thought the detective was capable of or would break an arm. She was so very very wrong.

"At least she apologized and sent you flowers and a get well soon card." Hannah said trying to point out the good side and earning a nod from Dara. As soon as Ivy realized what she had done she had apologized profusely and helped the muscle woman to the hospital, making sure she wasn't arrested during the visit and even sending Dara flowers.

"Who said anything about asking her at a heist? Why not just ask her when we're not on the clock?" Al asked earning a raised eyebrow from Carmen and the others.

"Oh sure approach her at home or school and ask, that's just asking for her to break us in two. Trying to ask her at ACME is just asking for us to get arrested." Lars said pointing out this fact.

"Not there either… look what if you could meet her at a location where she goes when not on ACME's clock? It'd be neutral ground and time, she'd be away from her brother, and you can ask her your questions whenever she gets a chance to talk!" Al said making Carmen look at him with narrowed eyes.

"And where would this be?" Carmen asked as she watched the man curiously.

"You know that club I work as a bouncer at part time? She has a job there. You can go there and meet her." Al said making Carmen's eyes widen and then narrow in fury.

"What kind of club is this?" Carmen's voice was artic cold and sent a shiver down the others spines.

"Not a strip club or anything like that. Just your normal night club. She started off as a waitress and somehow ended up being promoted to the entertainment." Al said hurriedly.

"Entertainment?" Carmen's voice was a hiss and Al waved his hands in front of his face as if to ward her off or placate her.

"She sings and plays the instruments! Guitar, Piano, Violin, Saxophone, Flute, you name it she plays it and she's damn good at it!" Al said quickly as he glanced around for help.

"I wish to make sure nothing untoward is happening at this club." Carmens voice had returned to being artic cold again as she stared down Al who gave a small snort despite himself.

"Sure you can come see. Usually there's only one or two drunk guys that try messing with her, but after she broke the first ones wrist when he wouldn't take no for an answer the others all learned to stay away while sober. They get too bad and most of the time I intervene myself even though she never needs my help." Al said with a small grin on his face, remembering how Ivy handled the drunken idiots.

"And besides even if I didn't intervene on her behalf, all of the regulars would without hesitation. Most everyone up there loves that girl, er…platonically of course." Al quickly added that after seeing Carmen's eyes begin narrowing again.

"So she knows you work there?" Sara asked staring at Al as if he were stupid.

"Well yeah. I mean it's kind of hard to miss a guy my size leaning against the wall inside or outside of the club depending on where I'm stationed that night." Al said shrugging while the others were giving him weird looks.

"Why hasn't she arrested you yet?" Lars asked looking confused by this.

"Well her first night there I was still in jail over the heist, I only found she worked there about two days after Carmen broke me out. When I first got there and saw her I thought I was going to end up having to run and fight too. She just looked at me and asked if I was there to cause trouble." Al said shrugging again as he looked at everyone.

"When I told her I was the bouncer she just nodded and said that as long as I was off the clock and not trying to do any crimes then she wasn't going to try and arrest me or nothing. Said she was off the clock too and that what I got up to in my own time was my business and she wasn't going to get into it." Al said earning surprised looks from the others and even Carmen looked surprised for a brief moment.

"She's a fairly good listener for someone who's mainly the brute force on her team and she doesn't mind talking with me about different books or the compounds of metals and all. I even helped her with some of her science homework once by explaining how to test the acidity of different metals without harming the metals themselves. She's a good kid." Al said smiling slightly, he had grown to look forward to his talks with Ivy when business was slow for him and she was on break for a few minutes.

"Aw looks like someone has a crush." Dara teased the big guy, causing him to snort loudly.

"Like hell. She's kind of like either my younger sister, or one of my friends. Sides I'm not even her type and I'll leave it at that." Al said with a grin at that. Oh he couldn't wait to see their reactions if they came with him to the club, that was going to be hilarious!

"…We're going to this club. I want answers. Sara you will be dressing as me while I'll be in normal cloths. Let's see if she can notice the deception this time." Carmen said glancing at Sara who raised an eyebrow.

"Have you forgotten that she knows I'm left handed? If it were Zachary then I could see him falling for it for a while, but Ivy is more perceptive than most give her credit for." Sara asked earning a smirk from Carmen.

"While I do prefer using my right hand…I've broken my right wrist enough times that learning how to use my left hand was nearly required. We'll see how perceptive Ivy is." Carmen said although her heart wasn't really into testing the detective at the moment.

No she was interested in seeing what the hell was going on with her favorite female detective lately.