Carmelita speaks.
Hank carried me away and I was too dizzy and sick to stop him until I was in the ambulance and moving away. Then I started raising a fuss. I was certain Pierre would kill him, and I was equally certain that Sly would go after Pierre. The medics, who had already shoved some kind of needle in my arm to put fluid in, just put something in the fluid, and within a few minutes I was in some kind of dreamy limbo. By the time I came out of it, they had taken blood and put me in a hospital bed. Shortly afterward a doctor came in and talked to me for some time. Behind her came the Captain. "Sly is fine so far," he told me. "You'd only get in his way." I glared. "I believe we have something else to discuss. You have your test results by now." I nodded. "The whole damn station already knows it was positive, so don't bother to lie about it. What are you going to do?"
"I don't know," I told him.
"Have you spoken to Syl?" I shook my head. "You should, you know. As of now, you're off field duty." I growled. "You knew that was coming. You're also off that shock pistol. Don't you know that thing can cause a miscarriage? That's why Syl knocked it out of your hand." He pushed himself off the chair and walked out. "Come to the station when they let you go. I'll let you monitor if you promise to behave yourself. We have an interesting new method of staying in contact. I've already sent Shelly and Hank to work with Syl's-er- friends. I've agreed to ignore their past at this time for their assistance in this matter. It seems Mr. Kitsune arranged for an explosive device at the orphanage where they once resided." I knew from the way he was talking that the situation was bad. He always talks formally when there are serious problems. "Hank and Murray have dealt with the guards designated to prevent help, and Shelly and Bentley are working to get into the computer system. Syl's turned on a computer and disabled the detonating device. The house is cleared; it's only the two of them." I nodded numbly. When the nurse came back in, I meekly went though all the paperwork and then got to the station as soon as I could.
In between reports, the Captain explained to me that Sly came to him as soon as he got the blackmail note, and they made arrangements from there. "I did not expect the hippo, the turtle, or the mouse to show," he said, "but I have to admit they've been very useful. If not for them, we may not have reached you in time, and the odds of finding and disabling the bomb have improved considerably. You will pretend stupidity, do you understand? You have no idea what their background is. As far as we know, they have not committed any crimes since Syl joined us, and I want their cooperation." I nodded, too grateful for their assistance to quibble, since I was listening in on the binocucom at the time. When it was all over and Sly was being taken to the hospital, I went there, and on the way my communicator came on.
Sly was in bed when I got there; his arm was in a cast from wrist to shoulder. He looked exhausted and drawn, but he tried to smile when I came in. "It's over," I said, coming to the bed and taking his hand. "Shelly and Bentley found the bomb. The orphanage is safe. The Captain has the office working on the computer information now." I took a deep breath. "They're doing an autopsy, but they found Pierre's doctor. He was dying of cancer." We were quiet a moment.
" How are you?"
"Tired. You?"
"I got a very long lecture about taking care of myself. I'm fine now. " I hesitated. As usual, he knew what I wanted to say.
"Was Pierre right?" He was watching me carefully, trying to be casual, but I could see he was tense.
"No. The Captain found the chemist. He was pathetically glad to confess. Pierre was threatening his family if he didn't cooperate. He didn't use fertility pills. He just didn't use the usual pills, only sugar." I moved the bed rail and sat on the bed. He got the bed to put him in a sitting position so we could face each other more easily. My heart started to beat faster. "I guess it was enough. I'm pregnant. The Captain took me off field duty."
"Do you mind?" He was watching me carefully.
"Of course I do! I'll be off field duty for months, and be out of work for weeks-"
"You've needed a break anyway."
"I'm going to get fat-"
"Pregnant women aren't fat, they're pregnant."
"-We'll have to move, which means looking for a house and getting a mortgage-"
"You should know by now money isn't that much of a problem."
"-We'll have to find someone to take care of the baby-"
"Like your mother would object?"
"-we'll have to get married-"
"I've asked you about six times."
I stopped ranting. Somewhere along the line I realized that not only did Sly not mind, but that he was relived for some reason. Here I had been scared to death that he wouldn't want to deal with having a baby, and he'd been worried that I didn't. "Dammit, we've got all this mess to deal with, why are you grinning at me?"
"Because I'm going to have a family again," he said.
For some stupid reason that made me cry. By the time I was calmed down, I was lying on the bed with his arm around me.
Sly speaks
"Hey," a gruff voice said from the door, "they don't allow that stuff around here." We both looked toward the door, where Hank was sticking his head in. "Is it safe to come in now?"
"It's safe," I said, and in they came, Sly's gang and Syl's team, crowding into the room somehow. Shelly wound up on the windowsill and Penelope sat in Bentley's lap. Murray came in last and closed the door, putting his back against it. For a moment there was silence as we all eyed each other.
Then Shelly said to Carmelita, "Did the Captain take you off field duty?" Carmelita nodded. "Payback's a pain, isn't it?" I caught Carmelita's arm before she could throw the tissue box at our team member, who leaped off the bed and hid behind Hank.
"Hey!" he said, alarmed, and we all started to laugh.
"You have to admit that's better that the shock pistol," Bentley said to Shelly.
"You know where we found the bomb?" Hank told Sly. "In the playroom, buried in toys. One of the kids found it and 'put it away.' It's a damn good thing Murray asked the kids if they'd seen it. Otherwise we would have been dealing with a bunch of kids screaming about losing their toys. "
"We already know how you handle crying kids," Shelly said dryly, back on the windowsill. "Sylvia tears up and you go to pieces. My little girl," she added to the gang.
"My kids do that to Murray, too," Penelope told her.
"Kids?" Carmelita said in disbelief. "How many?"
"Two. Twins, boy and girl." Carmelita looked at the two of them and shook her head. "Hey, how do you think we felt? But you get used to it."
"Speak for yourself," Bentley grumped.
"And who added the rocking chair function to this thing? I didn't!"
"I did," Murray said, clueless as usual. "Bentley designed it." Shelly started to giggle. "What kind of payback?"
"I took her off street duty when she was pregnant," Carmelita said, glancing at the squirrel, "when Sly rescued both she and a kidnapped little girl from a criminal warehouse." Bentley gave me an accusing glare.
"I knew there was a reason you went off in that deep sleep that night," he said.
A pounding on the door and an irate nurse's voice saved me. Murray moved before I could tell him not to, and the nurse came in and chased everyone out except Carmelita. As much as I was glad to see everyone, and how well they got along, the pain stuff they gave me was starting to wear off, the adrenaline had worn off, and I was ready to rest. The nurse had a needle in her hand. I informed her I did not need more medicine, thank you. I hate hospitals. I hated the anchor they had put my arm in, too. I asked the doctor why they had put weights in my arm, and she said she wanted me to stay in one place for a while. I don't know if she was joking or not. Carmelita said, "I can't believe Bentley has children. He's in a wheelchair! How did they manage that?"
"I'm not going to ask," I told her, "except he does have some feeling in his legs. He just can't support himself. The boy looks just like him."
"And just how long have you been in touch with them?" she asked, crossing her arms.
"About two years-ow!" The nurse sneaked around and got me in the arm while I was looking at Carmelita. I tried to glare at her, and got nowhere, as she just trotted off with a smug look.
"It's about time for me to look after you a while, hmm?" Carmelita said, coming up to the bed. I could barely keep my eyes open. "Go to sleep, ringtail. We'll work it all out later, like how we're going to manage the wedding without getting your gang arrested."
Carmelita speaks
We did manage it, simply by playing the silence game. No one else really knew who they were. Shelly, Hank, Bentley and Penelope all took turns keeping Murray from giving himself away. We wanted to keep the wedding small, and we did. The reception was engineered by my mother and the Captain, and was one whopping party that lasted into the night. Half the first shift went in with hangovers.
Months later, Sly called the station, sounding as tired as I felt. "It's a girl, just one, and she came out acting just like her mother, screaming her head off."
I would have thrown something at him, but I had my hands full of the most beautiful child in the universe.