Sly Speaks

I know she's out there. She wasn't supposed to find out about this. I look at the clothes on the bed that I haven't wore in three years, at the family staff I haven't touched until Bentley got it to me this week, and I think of everything that's happened. I got a roundabout message from Penelope after Bentley saw Carmelita and me on his binocucom on that balcony, and we got in touch very carefully. He's happy for me and they're happy; Murray's doing well on the racing circuit and I've seen him as well. Carmelita doesn't know; I don't want her to think I might be going back to my old ways. I can't; there isn't a gang any more. We're more like a family that is connected loosely but not closely. I got in touch when I needed the stuff; Bentley and Murray know why, but I asked them not to get further involved. I don't want them hit by the backlash if there is one. I have to rely on my new friends to get me out of this.

Three years ago, when Carmelita asked me what I remembered, I told her the truth- at the time. I've never really lied to her. Chosen my words very carefully, yes, let her think what she wanted to, yes, misled her, yes, but I haven't lied. She came up to me just as I was waking, dazed, sore and with a headache that barely left me thinking, yet aware we needed to get out of there like yesterday, and I did not really remember what was going on. I managed most of the way out on my own, but she had to help me the last part. Still, something about the way she was acting told me something was wrong. She didn't want to let me out of her sight, which seemed odd in a partner. The mercenaries kept giving us funny looks. When the painkiller she gave me kicked in, my memory came back. Dr. M had said something about my losing what was most important to me, and shot at her. I jumped in the way of the shot. I don't remember anything after that except seeing her come up to me. For an uneasy moment, when we were in the boat and I hurt so much I really wasn't sure of my own name, I wondered if she was simply bringing me in the easiest way possible, but that was not like Carmelita. She could easily have done everything she was doing and kept me in handcuffs. I could have left, but I took the chance and stayed. I'd proven myself by the Cooper Clan's standards, even to the amount of wealth I had built up. I was fairly sure I could rely on Bentley and Murray to hold my share (which they did, another thing Carmelita doesn't know) and I owed them, all the gang. They would be okay. Murray had proved he could survive on his own and he could lean on the guru if he had to; Bentley had Penelope.

The gang and I always took time off after a big job; that's when we healed and settled ourselves. I heal very well, so I was surprised when I got shoved into a hospital as fast as possible. Honestly, Carmelita was acting like I was going to expire any minute. Sure, I was bruised, and when they finished doing their electronic voodoo (I hate hospitals) the doctors fed me some kind of stuff until they were satisfied I wasn't going to die from having my head conked hard twice in a week or so. Since Carmelita was in and out all the time and by this time it was clear that I wasn't going to be arrested, I let them for a day or two while I both slept and worked out how I was going to play the silence game. Then I started raising a fuss; I wanted out. Carmelita took me home. She lived alone in an apartment with two bedrooms because it was convenient to her headquarters. She said she always intended to get a roommate and never did, and for a time, that was what she had, a roommate. It was easier for me that it was for Carmelita; I've never been alone my entire life except when I was an unwilling guest of the Contessa and Interpol for several weeks. I spent more time in solitary there than I did out of it.

The one I had trouble working the silence game with was not Carmelita. It was the Captain, a crusty old owl that for a very short time reminded me of Clockwerk. It was his idea to call me Syl instead of Sly; that reminded me that I was no longer Sly Cooper the thief. But the old boy is brilliant the way Bentley isn't, with people. Bentley and I were a great team with Murray because we balanced each other; this guy was more like a really intelligent Murray, and after an hour or so of polite fencing, we got along fine. He knew about my public persona, and used it. Carmelita came out of that session looking like someone hit her with her own shock pistol. I really got a charge out of how he carefully explained to me what he knew of my background, to "perhaps help me recover my memory." It was a good thing he did, considering I didn't have a shred of personal items and had to buy them. I hope the bankers didn't have a heart attack; it was probably the first time I withdrew money from that particular account. Murray, Bentley and I always worked out expenses and then had our own accounts where we split everything equally, that money being our own. The Contessa would have had a fit if she had gotten Murray to talk. He would have only known about his own money, and I know for a fact that he just stuck it all in bonds, because that was all he could understand.

The Captain used the amnesia line to get me though that basic training stuff, but even he was surprised that I knew a lot of international law. Of course I did; how can you know what to avoid if you don't know the rules? He was equally surprised that I couldn't swim. I swear Carmelita came to watch some of those sessions with the otter (bless his soul, he said he'd teach me and by God he did it) to watch me fumble around for the first time. When I told her I was never going near deep water again, she couldn't stop laughing. I didn't mind. I love seeing her laugh. Does she know she glows when she's happy? Did she know how great it was when she started tugging my ears and calling me ringtail in that affectionate voice, when she started relying on me without even noticing, how gorgeous she is when we race over the rooftops and she loses and curses and then give me that smile and says, "I'll catch you one day, ringtail?" Does she have any idea how much those crusty guys at the office respect her? They watched me like a hawk those first few weeks. For a long time, months, I wondered if I would ever prove myself to all of them.

Then that damn fool constable chased a band of children into a rickety building. They got up to the roof, running from him; then he tried to climb on the building and almost brought it down. Getting those kids down was hard. I don't know if Carmelita noticed that I wouldn't let her on that roof; I knew the thing could come down any minute. I had to bring the last kid down on my back. I actually considered leaving the constable there, but I went back for him. The captain let me chew him out that night. The kids were part of a gang, true, but he had no business going after them the way he did. Carmelita did her thing with the media. I was happy to let her have all the credit and the Captain knew why. It would have told anyone who ever knew who Sly Cooper was where I was and what I was doing, and that would have ruined the silence game. That job was what got me in with the old men. I'd already gotten in good with the ladies; didn't any of the men there realized that any woman, no matter how old or cranky, likes being treated like a person and not a convenience? Only once did I have to ignore flirting with the younger ones; Carmelita took care of that for me. I don't know what passed between those two and I don't want to know. The other by-product was that both being just a roommate and the silence game with Carmelita ended that night.

We've been happy. We've got a good back up team. Shelly the squirrel constable isn't brilliant like Bentley but she does know very well how to use the Interpol sources to get information, and that makes her almost as good. Hank- everybody but me calls him Hunk- is an amiable bull with more brains than Murray, almost as much skill driving, and just as much heart- and a temper that I've had to rein in a few times. I think Shelly knows I'm playing the silence game; Hank feels sorry for me that I can't remember much.

But recently Carmelita is getting up sick. The whole office knew before I caught on- give me a break, I was mostly raised in an orphanage, how would I know about morning sickness? But she won't discuss the possibility or go see a doctor, and it's breaking my heart. I want her to be happy- but I would love to have a real family of my own, too. Maybe she'll finally marry me. I've offered, but she always said we had time to think about it later. Now later is here, and she's got to decide what she's going to do. I had about decided to confront her when the blackmail threat arrived. I was determined to be sure she didn't know. I've made arrangements. All I can do is hope they work out.

I got dressed and went out. It was up to her to follow or not.