Chapter 4: Friends Reunite

Soon Jessica saw Carmelita again. Her face looked the same, but her clothes didn't. She was wearing a light blue shirt, black tight jeans and for once, she was wearing normal shoes instead of boots.

"Jessica? It's been like four weeks! What finally brings you here?" Carmelita asked excitedly and hugged Jessica.

Carmelita seemed to be on a happy mood. Jessica would have to break the news to her about Jenny. She sighed and pulled back so they could look each other in the eyes.

"I don't want to scare you, or anything, but.. I got a weird call from Jenny yesterday." Tears started to gather in Jessica's eyes.

Carmelita didn't seem to understand, and just stood there and arched an eyebrow.

"What? You're not saying that she has ran away with Jack, hasn't she?

It was Jessica's turn to be bewildered.

"No, nothing like that. I would have come here yesterday, but I didn't remember that you had moved so I ran into Rachel and slept in her place last night. It was last night around three that I got the weird call from Jenny. She seemed to be in trouble but she didn't have the time to explain more because the line went dead. I have tried to call her again, but..." Jessica's voice faded away.

"You may be overreacting a bit. What if she's at home and everything's just fine?" Carmelita tried to reassure Jessica. It didn't seem to help, when Jessica sniffled and swallowed hard.

"No, I'm not. I checked her apartment. She wasn't there, and it seemed that she didn't go there last night."

Now Carmelita was starting to be worried too. She frowned when she tried to think of something to do here. And the fact that Jessica was being really serious about the whole thing didn't help at all.

Bentley was listening to Carmelita and Jessica's conversation from the living room and his brains were already forming a plan. When he couldn't keep it to himself anymore, he turned around, rested his hands to the back of the couch and piped out:

"I'm sorry to interrupt you, but I think I have a plan."

Jessica was startled and turned to face the turtle and wiped her eyes while doing so.

"Y-You do? W-Who are you?"

Bentley was about to answer, but instead it was another male voice that answered to Jessica's question.

"That's Bentley, this hippo next to me is Murray and I'm Sly."

Jessica saw a raccoon that she didn't recognize (but who seemed familiar) and the same hippo that opened the door for her coming from the hall where Carmelita came in the first place. Jessica didn't know what to say so she just spluttered:

"There's even more people?"

Carmelita laughed at her comment, but pointed out "No, there's just the Cooper Gang and me."

It took Jessica a split second to take all in, but then it hit her. He had seen the raccoon before, at the party, and realized now what Carmelita had meant when she had said that they had met before.

"That's.. Uhh.. I mean.. that's Sly Cooper right? And, and your gang?" Jessica got to say out of amesement. "Awesome to meet you! Carmelita here of course has told all kinds of things..." Jessica said and smiled, okay, grinned to them all. Carmelita just blushed and tried to change the subject.

"So, Bentley, you said you had some plan, right?"

Bentley nodded. "Yes. So, you said that your friend is missing, so.. There's not much what Interpol can do right now, so I just thought that maybe we could start looking for her at night, particularly Sly and Carmelita would." Bentley looked at everyone and their reactions. Jessica looked quite happy, must be the fact that she finally found people who could be able to help Jenny. Murray was just Murray, Sly seemed serious for once and nodded his approval. Carmelita on the other hand didn't seem so relaxed.

"What? But, Bentley! I know nothing of being sneaky or anything, I suck!"

"Just follow my footsteps, and you'll be fine." Sly said reassuring and pulled Carmelita closer.

Carmelita felt delirious by his touch, it seemed to have the same effect each and every time. She just blushed and relaxed a bit.

"There's then no way to work at day?" Jessica asked hopefully.

Bentley thought a second, and and idea popped his mind. "Well.. Not much for Sly, me nor murray, but you two could take some pictures from Jenny to town and put them around. Maybe someone has seen her or something. Otherwise we'll have to wait until night."

"Well, I think I have a photo of Jenny somewhere..." Jessica mumbled and started looking for it.

"Actually, so do I." Sly said suddenly.

"What? Ringtail, always taking pictures of pretty girls." Carmelita laughed and tried to stay serious and pretended to be hurt. Sly seemed to really think she was hurt and tried to say something, but Carmelita just ushered him to get the picture.

A minute later Sly brought the picture with him. It was a picture of Jenny and Jack standing under a mistletoe. Jessica recognized the place immediately.

"Hey! That's from my parent's mansion! From the party!" She exclaimed and peered at the picture.

"Yeah, I snatched it without them noticing me taking it." Sly said proudly while swinging his binoc-u-com in his left hand and grinning.

"Now I'm really concerned. You didn't take pictures of me now, did you?" Carmelita said in horror; she was out like a light most of the time, so.. definitely not good pictures.

"Yeah, I did..." A whack in the head silenced him. "But! They're actually good! I'll show them to you later."

"You'd better! So I get the pleasure to tear them apart!" Carmelita said mischievously.

Ten minutes later Bentley had copied the picture and edited it so they had a stack of A4 papers ready to go. They would go and visit Interpol first and tell about Jenny. It would be a little bit hard for Carmelita to go back to her old working place. It hadn't even been more than four weeks since she had called to her chief and quit her job. He was of course upset, but didn't get to beg her back because she hung up. Carmelita even went to pick up her stuff when she knew that the chief wasn't in Paris.

They drove to Interpol with Jessica's car. After visiting there they would go around walking and put the papers around town.

"So, here we are. You sure you want to come? I could go by myself." Jessica said while bringing her car to a stop.

"No. I can't just avoid the place forever." Carmelita said and got up from the car.

They got to the 2nd floor without no one bothering them. Carmelita saw Rachel's office at the end of the corridor.

"Hey Jess, if I go and talk to Rachel, could you still manage by yourself?"

"Sure, I'll come and fetch you as soon as I'm done."

Jessica turned left and Carmelita continued to go straight forward. She knocked politely, and when she heard Rachel say "Come in", she stepped inside.

"Hi! Wow, what brings you back here? You're not coming back to the force, are you?" Rachel was surprised to see Carmelita.

They caught up with everything. Carmelita told how things weren't proceeding with Jenny's disappearance. They made a deal that Rachel would call Carmelita immediately if she heard anything about Jenny. Carmelita even told Rachel about Sly, but she made her promise not to tell anyone. Rachel was a little dumbfounded by the news, but finally grinned and told Carmelita how she always knew that she would find someone special. A moment later Jessica came, and they left to put the A4's around town.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Around the same time, Paris.

"The more I try not to think about last night, the more it comes back to me." Sasha complained while she and Rebecca were walking around town. They were hoping to find a lead so that they would find Lindsay.

"The same with me. Though you didn't get chased at." Rebecca pondered and closed her eyes in horror when she thought about it.

-flashback-

"Uhmm, well.. Let's split up!" Lindsay yelled. Rebecca panicked but tried to speed up. After a while she was left alone to run when she and Lindsay turned to different directions. She looked over her shoulder and saw the other goon still running after her. Luckily the other one had gone somewhere. It would be easier to hide from him.

Rebecca tried to misslead the wolf by turning to narrow alleys, but she didn't know the alleys so well, so it was hard. They had been running for a while already, when Rebecca turned to a really narrow alley and tripped. Her heart was pounding like crazy, but she got up quickly and continued to run straight forward. She noticed some garbage and hid behind them, panting like crazy.

The goon hadn't noticed her turning there, and just ran past the alley. Rebecca tried to neutralize her breathing; she was afraid he would hear her. After some long agonizing minutes it was silent. Rebecca didn't hear anything else than her own breathing. Apparently he had gone far already. She didn't dare to come out yet, so she waited a little longer.

Wild thoughts ran through her mind, and she didn't even dare to go back the same way she came. She started to look behind her, if the alley would lead her somewhere. She saw a ladder about 4 feet high. Becca sighed in relief. A savior.

-end of the flashback-

"But it just annoys me so much! I can't do anything! And then there was that other woman..." Sasha moaned while sighing.

"What? There was?" Rebecca asked. Well that was a surprise! The three of them had went separated ways, so it wasn't a miracle that Rebecca didn't know about it...

"It was like this.."

-flashback-

Sasha sped up and took support from a lamppost to get to the rooftop. Once she got there she immediately took a fighting pose in case they came after her. Apparently they hadn't come after her, but she saw from up there that Lindsay and Rebecca were still running for their lives, and the goons were after them. Sasha had to see what was happening, so she ran after them. She ran along them, but they didn't see her. The rooftop ended suddenly, so she didn't have any other choice but to take a left turn; to another rooftop. She saw while she jumped acrobatically to the other rooftop that right on that same moment Lindsay ran directly beneath her on the alleys.

Sasha stopped for a while to see the situation. There was only the other goon running after Lindsay.

"Nice. Now I can try and help her. It's easier to take down one than two."

She saw from up there that they were heading to the harbour. Sasha knew that Lindsay knew the city pretty well; usually they had been hanging around the city; exploring things. Unfortunately Lindsay's sense of direction was apparently lost in this kind of situation, so she ended up to a dead end. Sasha saw the wolf carrying a gun so she just had to witness her friend being captured by the wolf. After a few minutes the other wolf joined the first and they started to drag Lindsay away.

Sasha realized that she couldn't do anything, but she still followed them, hoping she could see were they were heading...

-end of the flashback-

"I saw the other woman walking there, alone. I would have warned her, but she heard Lindsay so she went to hide behind some cargo boxes." Sasha explained while they were still walking around.

"But..If that woman saw everything, why didn't she call the police?" Rebecca wondered.

"She couldn't. She dropped the upper box by accident and they went after her. I tried to stay along but they disappeared to the dark alleys... I have no idea where they went and that annoys me! If I just went and did something, they wouldn't have taken Lindsay..." Sasha bewailed and kicked a can in agony.

"Don't blame yourself! You were braver than I would've never been! You followed them! At least you tried!" Rebecca tried to reassure her other best friend.

"Yeah, you're right. We should start really looking for Lindsay and not just wander around. Come, let's check the inner town."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

A/N: That's the end of chapter 4! Hmm hmm.. Poor Lindsay and Jenny! They will make an appearance on the next chapter or on the one after the next chapter!

See ya!
Heid