Can't We Just Pretend Nothing Happened?
"I'm pulling the plug on this operation of yours," Chief Shepherd announced after Carmelita had taken her seat opposite him. He watched her expression dampen rapidly.
When she had walked into his office, she had barely been able to contain a grin of sheer giddiness, resulting from the latest of her training sessions with Cooper, which had been steadily increasing in successfulness for a week. She blinked and furrowed her eyebrows, squinting slightly, as if seeing the Chief more clearly would help her better comprehend his news.
"I- I'm sorry?" she asked, struggling to keep pace, while at the same time trying to contain the sudden panic rising in her chest.
"We have to bring an end to this impromptu arrangement you've come up with regarding Cooper's future at Interpol," he clarified patiently.
"Why?" she probed, noting the edge of hysteria in her own voice, and the nervous twitch of her tail. She grabbed it, fiddling with the fur at the tip.
He pushed aside the folders he had been rifling through, and regarded her fully. "We can't continue to lie to him like this. It's not just a legal matter; it's a matter of morals, ethics. This needs to be his choice." He gave her a pointed look. "We need to tell him what his life was, and give him the option of being a cop, or being a civilian. It's only fair."
Carmelita stared at the table, ears pushed back against her head. "Oh," she thought. "That makes sense."
The Chief hesitated, but spoke again. "If you really love him," he watched Carmelita's head jerk up and her ears perk up, eyes wide, "you'll tell him the truth."
"I am not in love with Cooper," she snapped, her voice steely, battling a sudden surge of irrational anger and defensiveness, and the strong urge to smack her palm on his desk. "He's the most elusive criminal I've ever chased, and now that he's dragged me in this deep, now that I've finally caught him, I am going to finish what I started and reform him into a respectable citizen." She found herself leaning angrily toward the Chief and sat up straight. "If he lets me," she added reluctantly, dropping her eyes to the desk again.
The Chief didn't look convinced, but didn't press the issue. "Tell him as soon as possible, or I'll be forced to intervene. I want you both back here at twelve hundred hours tomorrow to discuss where to go once he has processed the news. If you'd prefer that I tell him, I can do it then. Understood?"
"Yes sir."
"Good. Dismissed," he told her with a wave of his hand, turning his attention back to the open folders on his desk, ignoring her.
Carmelita stood on shaky legs, and walked out of his office. She made her way to her car and sat, staring at the steering wheel.
What would Cooper think when she told him? He would know she had lied to him when she told him he was her partner; would that affect the decision he had to make about staying at Interpol? Once she told him, what if he assumed he couldn't trust her anymore because of one lie? What if he was angry that she took advantage of him and his lost memory, thinking she only wanted him because he was a fresh slate? She let her head fall forward in exasperation, hitting it against the steering wheel. The horn honked, and she leapt upright with a sharp intake of breath, the sudden shock grating on her already frazzled nerves. She sighed in defeat, and started her car. It would be better for Sly to hear it from her; maybe her honesty now would make up for her.. weeks.. of lying to him. She grimaced. Maybe this hadn't been such a good idea in the first place.
Carmelita's feet had fallen asleep. To gauge time, that was how long she had been sitting in her car, staring at Sly's apartment building. With a sigh of defeat, and the heavy knowledge that Sly would find out about her deceptiveness one way or another, she wiggled her toes and pulled her keys out of the car's ignition. Stumbling only once over her tingling feet, she made her way to Sly's apartment, a black cloud of dread for his reaction hanging over her head. Stopping in front of his door, she raised her arm, hesitated, and lowered it again. Maybe she should just leave it to the Chief to tell him...
No; she had to do this herself. It would be her redeeming herself for lying to him and dragging him into this in the first place. She raised her arm again, cringed, and lowered it. He was bound to be mad at her. What if he yelled? Told her off?
No, no matter what the situation, Carmelita couldn't see Sly reacting that angrily. With that reassurance, Carmelita quickly raised her hand and knocked, before she could come up with another fallback, like the fact that even if he wasn't mad initially after hearing the news, the longer he thought about how she had taken advantage of his amnesia, the angrier, most likely, he would get. Oh, yes; this had been such a bad idea.
She swallowed, trying to relax the tension of her whole body, which was slowly closing up her throat and hindering her ability to breathe properly. As the door knob jiggled, she could only hope that the smile she plastered on her face didn't look like a grimace.
The door opened and Carmelita's eyes widened, her pained expression changing instantly to one of shock. Sly was shirtless, dripping wet, with only a towel wrapped around his waist for covering.
"Oh!" she exclaimed, jerking her eyes away from his bare muscular chest and exposed abdomen, noticing the precariously low set of the towel on his hips. Her cheeks burned.
"Sorry!" Sly hid his lower half behind the door. "I thought you were a food delivery." He smirked scandalously.
"Oh, yeah, well, that's..." Her voice was an odd pitch; she cleared her throat, staring at the wall over his shoulder.
"Did you want to talk about something? Come on in. I'll change and we can talk."
"No!" she tried and failed not to shout. Sly raised an eyebrow. "I mean," she covered quickly, "why don't we take a, a walk? Yeah, let's take a walk."
"Okay," he replied, sounding amused. "Let me just change and we can go. Do you want to wait in here?" He opened the door a little wider.
"No, no just change and I'll wait here," she said quickly and a bit too loudly, forcing a smile.
"Okay, I'll be out in a sec." He flashed her a grin before closing the door softly.
Carmelita closed her eyes and blew out a huge breath as leaned against the wall, fanning her face, which was hot with embarrassment. Oh, wow, did Sly have a nice body.
"Wait, what?" she thought, her eyes pulling open in surprise. She stared at the carpet, brows furrowed. "Where did that come from? This is Sly. Just Sly. He's my partner and nothing else. He can't be anything else," she scolded herself. Not that she would make him anything else if she could; she definitely did not think of Sly that way.
The door opened to her left, making her jump slightly, pulling her away from her own mind. He was clad in his usual attire, with the exception of the hat. He hadn't worn it for a while, actually. Carmelita noticed that his hair looked a bit more tame than she had usually seen it. Sly held up his key to her, as if to prove that he could remember to lock his own door, as he had been jokingly doing for weeks, and locked his door behind him. Carmelita smiled weakly, trying to remember why she had come here in the first place, when a thought occurred to her.
"Why do you receive food deliveries in a towel?"
Sly looked at her with raised eyebrows, a slow grin overtaking his features and brightening up his face. He began walking toward the elevator with Carmelita trailing behind. "I did it once on accident. I had ordered food, but the delivery had taken so long, I wanted to pass the time with something, and I needed a shower anyway. The delivery showed up before I finished, and I didn't want to keep the person waiting, so I answered the door in a towel. Every time since then, that delivery girl has refused to accept my tips and has always given me extra fries. And she seems to be the only one from this food place that ever delivers to me anymore ever since that incident." He grinned, and Carmelita couldn't help but laugh at the absurdity of the situation.
"Wait, don't you want to stay and get your delivery now?" she asked. The door to the elevator let out a short ding before the doors opened. Carmelita made no move to step in; Sly held the door, waiting for her inside.
"Eh, I'll just tell Mora at the desk that she can have the order. The delivery people have to let the clerks at the desk know why they're there anyway. Mora can just take it then."
Carmelita smiled as she stepped into the elevator. Even as a thief, he had always been this thoughtful.
A massive wave of guilt enveloped her as she remembered that the only reason he wasn't living his thieving life was because of her, and she turned her face away from Sly's as her smile disappeared. His entire life was changed now because of her- because of one stupid decision she had made in haste. She hadn't even thought it through before she took over his life. He was never going to forgive her for this.
"So, what would happen if you answered the door to a delivery man?" she couldn't help but ask as the thought occurred to her.
Sly let out a laugh, loud and ringing, and Carmelita smiled, enjoying the sound. "I imagine I would get some very different results."
DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Cooper series, nor do I profit from using it's characters.
Whoop whoop! Another chapter!
Buwahahaha, I'm so evil to Carmelita. Don't worry, I'll improve her situation soon. ;)
I know, I know, this chapter isn't very long either! Ack! I'm sorry! I try to make them long, but I write slowly and I want to give you guys a Sly fix more often than I finish chapters. The next chapter will be GOOD though! Trust me. I'm so excited for it. It has yet to be written up, but I've got the best idea for it. You'll love it, or your money back! Heheh, I'm kidding. You're gonna hate it.
No, now I'm actually kidding. lawl
Okay, I need to stop typing now because I'm getting more and more random. Oh, and the girl at the desk, Mora, is not an important character. I just thought I'd throw in another OC, but I really have no plans for her. She's kind of just there, just a detail in Sly's life; Mora the receptionist. She's a Mora Romagnola pig (hence the name Mora) but the sources that I looked at for the name of the breed could be wrong. Don't take my word for the breed. XD
Anyway, please review! I love reviews, and I get so inspired by the fact that people actually like my story enough to leave their opinions about it.
Oh, and I keep forgetting to add.. Thank you sooo much to everyone who has already reviewed, subscribed, and favorited(!)! I appreciate your support for my story so much!
Thanks for reading!
