A/N and Disclaimer: Okay, gonna get right into this, so I don't own Sly Cooper, Bentley, Murray, Carmelita, or any other things that I don't own. On with the story…

Carmelita woke to find herself on a strange couch that didn't look at all like her bed. She raised herself on one arm sleepily and looked around at the sunlight streaming in from long windows, illuminating the television, stereo and coffee table in the strange room.

'¿Que…adonde…quanto…?' she murmured, brushing her hair back from her eyes. She got a sudden shock when her hair stopped at her ears, and she froze. A moment later, her memories flooded back, and she knew exactly where she was.

'You speak Spanish?' a voice said from beside the couch. She jumped and turned to see an all-too-familiar raccoon, leaning against the wall next to one of the golden windows. His arms were crossed, and he had a confident grin on his face. Her heart warmed at the sight, and her cop side growled. They had stopped their truce, and were about to start warring again, when Carmelita stopped them.

'Yes.' she said bluntly, having to quickly stop herself from adding 'Ringtail' at the end.

He pushed himself off the wall, uncrossing his arms, a glint in his eyes that Carmelita didn't trust. 'Well,' he said. 'Maybe you could teach me over breakfast, eh Carmen?'

'Right. Sure.' she said, getting up from the couch and making her way to the dining table, rubbing the sleep briefly from her eyes. She cleared away some blueprints, looking at the sketches made on them. 'Hey, what is this?' she asked curiously.

Bentley came from behind the kitchen bench and scooped up the papers. 'They're just, uh, some plans for a heist, uh, not finished or anything.' He mumbled, throwing them into a cabinet drawer next to the table. 'But it's not important. Hey, who wants coffee?'

'I'll have one.' said Sly. 'And you too, Carmen?' he asked, looking over at Carmelita.

But before she could agree, Murray, who was already sitting at the table, interrupted. 'Aren't you a little young for coffee?'

Carmelita paused, not sure how to react. If she said yes, she'd miss out on a caffeine burst that'd wake her up for the day. If she said no, it might be suspicious that a 'mere 16 year old' is drinking coffee. Maybe she could split it halfway…

'Well,' she began slowly. 'I guess I could have some, but I haven't had much coffee before…' she trailed off, not sure if they'd buy it.

Murray looked at Sly. Sly looked at Bentley. Bentley shrugged. Sly looked at Murray, and shrugged. Murray nodded.

'Fair enough.' Murray said, voicing the gang's opinion. Carmelita let out a breath she didn't realise she was holding, and looked over at Bentley, who was making her a coffee. She smiled.

Once they had all seated themselves, with bacon and eggs for breakfast (made by Murray, who is a very good cook) in celebration of their new member. No one talked for a couple of minutes as they ate their delicious food. After their initial hunger had ebbed (Carmelita especially), conversation began.

'So, Carmen,' Sly said, swallowing a mouthful of breakfast. 'What did you say before?'

Carmelita was confused. It showed, and Sly added. 'When you woke up. It sounded like Spanish.'

Then it clicked. 'Oh yeah, right. I said, oh, what did I say? I think it was just confusion. You know, like 'what, where, how'?'

Sly nodded. 'Okay. So, you speak fluently?'

'Something like that.' she said, smiling.

Bentley interrupted. 'Come on, hurry up you guys! We have a heist to plan, remember?'

Sly slapped his forehead, smiling. 'Ah, how could I forget?' he turned to Murray, who had already finished, then gulped down the rest of his food. With his food still in his mouth, he stood up and dumped his dishes in the sink with Bentley and Murray's. 'Cob ob Cabem.' He said, his mouth almost bursting with bacon and eggs.

Murray waved a hand dismissively at Sly. 'Don't worry Sly, Carmen will meet us in the other living room, right?' he said, looking over at her.

Carmelita, stuffing her face with breakfast so as to finish quickly (she couldn't leave it, she was starving!) nodded vigorously. 'Mm-hm!' she said (well, it was more of a noise than a word). Satisfied, the gang left for the other room.

Carmelita almost gave herself heartburn from eating so fast, and she washed down her breakfast with lukewarm coffee. Putting her dishes in the sink, she walked towards the living room. But her curiosity got the better, and as she neared the doorway, she slowed until she was creeping, and pressed herself against the wall, listening to the conversation on the other side.

'…don't know if we can trust him.' Bentley was saying.

'Come on Bentley, he's just a boy. What harm could he do?' Sly said.

So ISP were right, Carmelita thought ironically, as she listened to their argument.

'We've only known him one day!' Bentley exclaimed. 'We can't trust him!'

'What's not to trust? He's an orphan boy looking for a job. He's probably doing it for the cash.' Sly defended. 'Why shouldn't he have a temporary job here?'

'Because that's just it!' Bentley cried. 'It's just temporary! He could leak our hideout to the police! To Interpol! He could be a spy!'

Carmelita froze. Bentley didn't know how right he was. She suddenly felt a wave of guilt wash over her. Her heart wanted to be friends with these guys, they were such nice people. She realised she hated lying to them. It was like lying to a best friend. Not that I'd remember what that was like, Carmelita thought ironically. Her sense of honour felt bad at not telling them the truth, and for eavesdropping. Sooner or later, she would have to decide what side was right. But not now. Quietly, she crept back to the kitchen, and then turned away and walked normally back to the living room. Their conversation stopped as soon as she neared the doorway, and when she entered, everyone was acting casually. Sly was draped over a lounge chair, Bentley was situated behind a laptop, which was connected to a projector, and Murray was fiddling with his gloves. None of them made eye contact with her, which in itself would be odd, even without hearing what she had. She tried to act normally.

'Hey,' she said in greeting. They all looked up at her and smiled awkwardly.

'Oh, hey Carmen. We're just planning a heist,' Sly said casually, grinning until Bentley glared him into silence.

'Am I allowed to join in?' she asked politely, her hands behind her back.

Murray and Sly looked at Bentley. The turtle frowned for a moment, looking at Carmen. She held her breath as Bentley summed her up. Finally, he gave her a small smile. 'Yes, you can. But be quiet during the slideshow.' he said, and the others relaxed.

'Bentley's our brains,' Sly explained, grinning at his friend. 'He comes up with all our plans.'

'Yeah, well, on with the plan.' Bentley said, although he couldn't hide the grateful smile that crossed his face. He picked up a small remote and clicked a red button.

'Okay guys, here's the deal…'

Carmelita listened closely as Bentley explained the heist they were going to pull off. In the Paris Underworld, a scientist by the name of Locco Hombre is working on an experiment to create an immortal race of soldiers. He has, surprising, come very close to success, which is no good for the general public. This has to be stopped, and the Cooper gang were going to be the ones to do it. Also, they'd hopefully catch the mad scientist, and leave him and the evidence for Interpol.

Carmelita absorbed as much of this as possible. She never knew they worked like this. She always assumed they were trying to steal some valuable object, and if it was convenient for them, they'd leave her a criminal to arrest. She never would have guessed that they actually went looking for criminals to stop.

Carmelita was thinking so hard on these thoughts she almost missed the plan, which was pretty basic, really. Sly would sneak in to his laboratory in outer Paris, after Murray drove them to the location and Bentley disarmed the security, and steal the vial that held the precious experiment.

'…and that pretty much sums it up.' said Bentley, switching off the projector. He turned to Sly. 'And I don't think I have to remind you Sly, not to flirt with Inspector Fox.'

Carmelita stiffened at the mention of her title. No, she assured herself, they didn't know she was Carmen. At least, not yet, her heart whispered. But she pushed it away, and tried to act like the person she was supposed to be.

'Carmelita?' she asked innocently. 'Who is that?'

Sly looked almost shocked, then smiled as he said. 'Who is she? Why, the most stubborn, irritable, beautiful vixen I've ever met.' A glint came into his eyes as he sighed, staring into space, a silly grin on his face. 'She's amazing.'

Carmelita was grateful that the black fur dye hid her blush, so she only looked a little stunned at Sly's explanation. Murray tried to explain to the seemingly confused fox.

'Carmelita's been chasing us for years now.' he said. 'She's kind of scary, and she's always yelling at us. But Sly just laughs it off. He and the Inspector have been through a lot together.'

'And every time he flirts with her, we risk getting caught ten times more!' Bentley added loudly, as Sly was snapped out of his daydreaming.

'Yeah, I know,' he admitted, grinning. 'But a woman like her, man, how can I resist?' he smiled over at Carmelita, who was too stunned to respond. He has feelings for you, her heart chimed in happily. But her cop side disapproved in masses. This is awful! it thought, that damned raccoon likes you!

That damned good-looking raccoon, her heart responded cleverly. Carmelita shook her head, clearing her mind. But Sly saw this as disagreement.

'You don't think so Carmen?' he questioned, an eyebrow raised. 'Well, you'll see tonight.'

'Tonight?' Carmelita asked, stiffening in shock.

'Yeah,' said Bentley. 'We do most of these heists as soon as we finish planning them. Why, do you have a problem with tonight, Carmen?' he asked suspiciously.

'No no!' she said quickly, raising her hands quickly to prove her innocence. 'I was just surprised is all. Tonight is fine.'

Bentley grumbled to himself and walked off to the kitchen, Murray in toe, and the group got to work, preparing for the heist to come. Sly smiled and stood, beckoning for Carmelita to follow him into his room. Carmelita gulped, her feelings still racing around her head, and her imagination running away with her. Sly let her in, closing the door behind the edgy fox.

'Gee, Carmen, relax.' he commented, clapping her good-naturedly on the shoulder. 'I just wanted to give you something.'

Sly walked over to his wardrobe, pulling out a stick from beside it. Looking closely at it, Carmelita saw it wasn't a stick, it was a copy of Sly's cane.

'It's for the heist.' he explained. 'I don't think Carmelita will be fooled by it, she's too smart for a simple trick like this, but Bentley reckons she has gone on holiday, which is really strange, but I guess she deserves it. Shame really, you won't get to meet her. But anyway, on any other officer, this should work well to fool them into thinking you are me.'

Carmelita stood, rooted to the spot with information overdrive. Trying to sound indifferent, she tried to answer some nagging questions.

'How did you know she was going on holiday, Sly?' she asked, getting an unusual rush from talking to him on a first name basis.

'Oh, Bentley's our info guy,' he said, not shy to promote his friend. 'He's a brilliant hacker, so he just hacked into Interpol's website, and got access to their private files. Great, right? So, Bentley found, and bookmarked on my request, Carmelita's file, and it said she's on holiday indefinitely.'

Sly seemed troubled by this, and he paused. Carmelita felt a strange urge to comfort him, but restrained herself. She stood there awkwardly, twirling the cane in her hands. Eventually Sly snapped out of it, grinning at Carmelita. 'Come on,' he said, opening the door for her. 'Bentley'll be angry we've waited 'precious heist time' already.'

He walked out of his room. Carmelita followed him down the corridor to the rest of the gang, her head swimming with emotions, information, new theories and new facts. She needed time to think, but didn't have the chance.

'Come on, you two!' Bentley called from the kitchen. 'We're behind schedule!'

'Schedule?' Carmelita questioned. Sly chucked, one that made her heart pleasantly warm.

'Yeah, he's pretty organised for a criminal.' He said. Carmelita just looked at him. Sly had a glint in his eyes, and she looked for any sign that he knew who she was. But she couldn't see anything in that chocolate gaze. She gave a small smile towards his joke, and they continued down the hall, to find the other members of the Cooper gang already packed and ready.

'But it's still daytime!' Carmelita said quickly, startled. Surely they wouldn't plan on robbing someone in broad daylight! 'You're going to do this in full daylight!'

'Don't be stupid Carmen,' Bentley scoffed. 'If we are ready now, we can go to the location, observe the area and tweak any problems with the plan. We need to see what the area is like before we begin.'

Carmelita stood there, shocked by his very logical answer. This was definitely not what she expected. It made her angry that Bentley thought she was stupid, and her fists clenched, as well as her teeth. She saw that Bentley had dismissed it as a passing comment. Sly noticed her expression and placed a calming hand on her shoulder. 'Don't mind Bentley,' he whispered to the enraged fox. 'Sometimes words just slip out, you know? He doesn't mean it.'

Carmelita continued to glare at Bentley, who was busying himself looking over blueprints and hadn't realised his offence, but eventually she calmed down. She sighed, and gave Sly a small grin. 'Thanks.' she whispered back.

He grinned friendlily at her. 'No worries.' he said, and then turned to Murray. 'Hey Murray, when are we going?'

Murray wiped cookie crumbs off his face quickly. 'Oh, uh, ahem, 'The Murray' is ready whenever you are, Sly. I'll go and get my baby started.' he said, standing up from the dining table to go check on his van. Carmelita, however, didn't understand.

'Baby? What's he talking about?' she asked, looking at Sly questioningly.

'Come and see!' he grinned, and with that, the gang (including a suddenly very nervous fox) packed into Murray's beloved panel van, and made their way to the outskirts of Paris, to whittle away the time until the heist was set to go.

And soon enough, it was.

A/N: Ah, I had a bit of a block while writing this story, so it might jump around a bit, I don't know, I can't read over these stories! Anyway, I hope you are enjoying yourselves, and hopefully I'll update soon! Oh, and Carmelita's translation to Sly was word for word, but if you don't get it just say so, right? Bye for now!