Sly runs his fingers along his father's cane and stares down at the children's hospital blanket wrapped around his legs. There's a dog nurse writing something beside him and the rhino officer who – well he's here too, sitting on a chair by the door, but they haven't asked him anymore questions since the rhino finished talking to someone on his phone.
"There we go, you're all set," announces the nurse, clicking his pen. His nametag says 'Duke' and it's covered in green and purple sparkles, which keeps getting Sly's attention. "Fit as a fiddle and ready to take on the world."
He beams at Sly, who looks up at his face, to his nametag, then back down to the colorful polka-dot blanket. The rhino tries to cross his legs in front of him but the chair he's sitting in makes a weird noise, so he stops.
"That's great news, but he still can't leave the room right now, I'm sure someone has talked to you already." The officer says politely as Duke turns his way.
"Oh don't worry, I'm well aware of the situation." The dog smiles again. "You hear that, John? You'll have to stay here a little bit longer, but I'm sure we can keep you plenty entertained!"
Sly scowls at the fake name. That's what the rhino said he was called when – when Sly came to this place. He had told him that it was just because they didn't know Sly's real name, and that it was also supposed to 'keep him safe'.
The raccoon hates being treated like a dumb little kid, and he hates the fake name even more. That's not who he is. He's better than that stupid name, his family is better. But every time Sly wants to tell them, something gets in his throat and he feels like he can't breathe. Like he's back where it's not safe, back where – well. It's easier to let these dumb adults play pretend, so he just won't say anything.
The dog nurse leaves after that, leaving Sly alone with the rhino who – did that. He doesn't want to think about that though, so he keeps staring at his bed. His fingers haven't stopped touching his father's cane.
After a while, the officer gets another call on his phone and leaves the room. There's a little window in the door, so Sly pretends to stare at the happy cartoon pictures on the wall and tries to watch the rhino when he's not looking. It's hard and he can't figure out why the man is making that face. Then he hangs up and walks back in, so Sly drops his head again.
"Listen, kiddo," he says, and Sly grips the cane tighter, "there are some people on their way to visit us right now, and they'll be here very soon. They'll be asking a lot of questions which…some of them I've already asked you, and some will be a lot different. I know you didn't want to talk to me before, I understand, but these guys work for a big police place called Interpol, alright? So I really want you to answer the questions this time, okay? Can you do that for me?"
Interpol. The name buzzes in the back of Sly's head like a fly. He knows that's supposed to mean something big, something important, so he nods his head a little bit. The rhino nods back and sits down on the creaky chair, grabbing a magazine on the counter next to him.
It takes over an hour for the Interpol people to show up, and Sly knows this because of the clock above the door that tick, ticks while he sits and stares at nothing. There are two of them, and they come in with shiny badges held up by their faces as the rhino officer stands up really quick.
"I'm Chief Inspector Pennington," says the lady elephant. She puts her badge away and folds her arms over her chest with her trunk held high, and Sly decides he doesn't like her.
"And I'm Detective Inspector Singh," says the guy bear. He smiles at Sly, then looks down at the Cooper cane and frowns, and Sly decides he doesn't like him either.
"Ah, great, wonderful," the rhino shifts side to side. "Do you need me to, uh, I mean I've already tried asking the kit a few questions, do you want to know what I've asked?"
"What questions has he answered?" Inspector Pennington asks, peering around the hospital room like it's disgusting.
"Well, he hasn't answered any yet, but –"
"Then your presence isn't necessary." She waves him away. "Thank you for your work tonight, but this is now a classified Interpol investigation. Authorized personnel only."
The rhino officer sort of blinks rapidly and shuffles out of the door in a daze. Sly watches him go with a nervous pit in his stomach. The man wasn't all that great, but he was still much better than these two, and he did get Sly out of – well, it's almost hard to see him leave.
As soon as the door is closed again, Inspector Singh pulls the chair over to the side of the bed and sits down, clasping his hands together very nicely. He gives Sly a very sad look.
"Hey there buddy, sounds like it's been a rough night, huh? How are you doing?"
Sly stares at him. The bear tilts his head and uses a different approach.
"Did the nice police officer tell you why we're here?" He smiles when Sly slowly nods. "Great! So we'll just start with the easy questions. You heard me introduce myself, but I don't know who you are. What's your name?"
Sly touches the sharp edges of his father's cane. He's not sure if they want his real name or the stupid fake one. To be safe, he points carefully at the end of the bed, where Duke the Nurse put down his clipboard. Inspector Pennington comes over and picks it up to read. Her face gets all pinched.
"They have Cooper's son listed as John Doe," she hands the clipboard to her partner. "We won't get anything from this, it's useless."
"Alright, we'll try again then." The bear rubs his cheek and gives another smile. It's starting to look more like he's grimacing. "I know what the hospital has been calling you, bucko, but it's really important to get your real name. Can you tell us?"
This is the part where Sly is supposed to set them straight. Tell them his full name with pride like he's done all his life, and then tell them what happened because that's what his father used to say, 'half the fun of stealing from criminals is leading the law right to them, kiddo, letting them get their just desserts'. He needs to tell them so they can catch the bad guys.
So Sly opens his mouth and he –
He.
The inspectors wait patiently for something to happen. When nothing does, they glance at each other like they aren't surprised, like they were expecting this. Sly wants to ask them what's going on, but that isn't coming out either. Nothing is coming out. It's getting hard to breathe again, so Sly closes his mouth and stares at the blanket until the thing is out of his throat.
"Alrighty, it's okay if you don't want to tell us your name. I can just call you 'kiddo', is that okay?" It's absolutely not okay, but the words still won't come. "Let's talk about why we came here instead. I'm really sorry to have to tell you this, kiddo, but your father was a criminal. He wasn't a very nice person and he did a lot of bad things to good people."
Inspector Singh pauses as if he thinks Sly is supposed to do something about this information. Sly just runs his fingers along the cane, waiting for the lump to go away so he doesn't feel lightheaded anymore. The bear purses his lips and continues.
"I know it's been a hard night for you, kiddo, but we need to know what happened."
"We know what happened," Inspector Pennington interrupts. "Cooper finally got too in over his head. What we need to know is who did it."
The bear sighs and rubs his nose. "Yes, thank you. Okay kiddo? Can you tell us anything about who did this? What they might have looked like, if there was more than one person?"
When Sly starts to open his mouth again the room feels like it's tilting to the side, so he doesn't do that.
"You don't have anything to tell us? Anything at all?"
He wants to though, he doesn't want to think about it but he needs to tell them because that's what his father would do if he were here, he'd lead them right to the bad guys because that's what Coopers are supposed to do. But Coopers are also supposed to be thieves, and thieves only say anything when they're safe, and he can't say anything because –
"You're not going to talk at all?"
He doesn't feel safe at all.
"This isn't getting us anywhere," Pennington snaps. She leans over the bed and scowls at the raccoon kit. "I know your criminal parents probably told you never to talk to officers of the law, but they're gone now, you understand?"
Sly clutches his father's cane close to his chest. He feels his lips trembling and clenches his jaw so this horrible person can't see. Inspector Singh looks back and forth, a frown growing on his face.
"Francine, I think you're pushing too hard. He's just a kid."
"He's Cooper's kid, don't you dare forget that. The bastard probably taught him to hate us, or be non-cooperative. That's what you're doing," she turns back to Sly. "You're obstructing justice. Someone killed Cooper and his wife and you're wasting our time instead of telling us what we need to know."
But Sly wants to tell them, can't she see that? He wants to tell them his name, tell them all about how strong his mother is and how gentle his father is and ask them why they're saying such awful things about his family when they don't know, they don't know anything about me or Dad or Mom, and I'm the only one who can tell them now because they're both gone. They're gone and I don't know what to do, I'm supposed to be a Cooper but Dad's gone and the book's gone and I don't know what to do.
The lump is back in Sly's throat and he can't breathe at all now and it's getting hard to think, and he only really hears the last thing the horrible elephant lady is saying.
" – a criminal weapon, I don't even know why they'd let you hold onto it."
Inspector Pennington takes the Cooper cane and takes it, takes it away from Sly and it's.
It's too much.
McHorn leans against the wall outside the little kit's hospital room and does his best not to hold his ear to the door to eavesdrop. He knows it will get him in a lot of trouble and it's probably illegal on every level. And besides, he's already tried it and could only get low murmured gibberish as a result.
His feet almost slip out from under him when the screaming starts.
It's a child's scream, strangled and panicked, and McHorn stumbles to open the door and dashes into the room. He sees two very startled inspectors, sees one of them holding the infamous cane that Connor Cooper used in all of his heists.
And he sees the raccoon kit screaming at the top of his lungs, shaking horribly with his arms stretched out as if he could pull the cane back to him by will alone.
"What the hell?!" He rushes up to the bed and picks the child up in an attempt to sooth him.
It has the opposite effect; the instant hands are on him the raccoon's cries reach a whole other octave and he struggles to get out of the rhino's grip. McHorn nearly drops the kit when he rocks backward in a textbook maneuver to smash a captor's nose with a skull.
"Jesus!" The officer bites his tongue to keep the string of profanity to himself and turns to the two inspectors who have finally broken out of their shock. "Help me!"
Inspector Singh rises out of his chair and tries to take ahold of the child's wrists, who responds by rotating his hands and slipping out effortlessly, still screaming and reaching for the Cooper cane. McHorn realizes belatedly that the kid is probably on autopilot.
Inspector Pennington steps away with the cane, irritation clear across her features. She looks like she's going to leave the room, but there's suddenly another presence in the doorway.
It's the children's nurse, Duke, taking in the scene with wide eyes. His gaze dances between the two officers trying to restrain the thrashing raccoon kit and the third holding what the kit is obviously freaking out over. He goes from alarmed to stormy stone in a heartbeat.
McHorn's not really sure what happens; one moment he's trying not to lose his horn from a panicked self-defense move and the next he and the two inspectors have been banished to the hallway as Duke locks the door behind them with the Cooper cane in his hands.
The screaming dies down soon after that, but the nurse doesn't open the door.
"Well," Inspector Singh shoves his hands in his pockets, completely nonchalant. "That could have gone a lot better."
A/N: Sorry for the longer wait time, I haven't had much access to writing the last few weeks.
Fun fact: This chapter was supposed to cover a few more events, but Sly's POV got away from me and I thought that last line was a good cut-off. We'll see in the next one what else is going down, don't worry.
Hope you enjoy it, and thanks for reading!