I know I said I would update in a week or two but I was already writing and just cut my writing in half and so here is chapter 2.

I don't own Cooper.

Chapter 2: Time Passes And People Change

Carmelita's POV

Almost a month had passed since Cooper found out about Katrina. Carmelita hasn't heard from Cooper at all and he hadn't pulled any heists that she has heard about. It was like he had gone off radar. Carmelita was back at work bringing in bad guys and was now finishing up her report on today's events. She finished and then looked at the time.

"5 o'clock already?" She sighed in frustration. "Katrina is going to be mad at me. I was supposed to take her to the park so she could play on the new jungle gym." She shook her head and got up with her file and headed towards Barkley's office.

As she neared she could hear shouting coming from inside the closed door.

"I don't care if you want to change shifts, you signed up to be a cop and then you wanted to become an agent and you are one. Now the agent needs to watch over their underlings and since Carmelita is the senior officer here she chose to have the morning shift. And since it seems like you have a hard time waking up, you got the night shift. Do I have to remind you of the third time you 'forgot' to wake up?"

Carmelita laughed remembering the time he didn't wake up and the chief personally went to his house and found him sleeping in his bed and had a pillow over his ringing alarm clock. She was waiting outside sitting on the patrols car hood and the next thing she knew was that Steven was thrown out of his house in nothing but his underwear.

She looked at the rookie lemur and just shook her head. He on the other hand was totally embarrassed in front of the woman he most dearly admired. It wasn't the first time she had seen a guy in nothing but his underwear and so she thought nothing of it. Steven on the other hand was thinking, not about losing his job, but if she thought he looked good without a shirt on.

"No sir, you don't have to remind me." His ring tail was wrapped around his right leg while his head was down.

"Good. Now leave and get back to work." Barkley waved him away and as he opened the door Carmelita pushed passed him and his ears shot up and he smiled a little. But when she passed him as if he was invisible his ears fell flat against his face. "Carmelita! Glad to see you. Have you finished at least some of today's work?"

"Of course sir. Here is my report on today's events and Rodger Rabbit is in cell block B awaiting your orders."

"That guy gives that bunny a bad name. That rabbit is a genius and then this guy comes around and says that his name is Rodger and he just happens to be a rabbit. Ugh! What is the world coming to?"

Carmelita laughed and just shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. "Well, I'm gonna clock out now. Have to pick up Katrina and take her wrath." Her ears flatten against her head and her orange tail puffed out, like if she had the chills.

"You forgot something about today didn't you?" Barkley laughed in his throat.

"I did. The park down lovers lane just reopened today and they built a big new jungle gym and I was going to, well, I promised to take her today at four. And I got caught up in work and forgot."

"I was going to remind you but you were out in the field and your phone was off."

"Not off sir, not working. That one bat guy I brought in two days ago smashed it when he tackled me and landed on it. I was to receive one yesterday but the phone store didn't have anything in stock. Apparently someone robbed them dry and I was already heading to work. I ordered one in store but they said I wouldn't get it until two weeks."

"What kind of phone company is that? I ordered one and got it the next day."

"Chief, you only got it because you threatened the manager and they paid for one day shipping in order to get it to you."

"Nice customer service I say." He laughed as she turned an left.

She made her way out of the building and was stopped by Steven. She cursed herself for not leaving sooner. She would always miss him when she left. She would be either walking away or driving away just as he would pull up to work.

"Hey, Carm." He smiled. She hated that nickname he gave her. "I am glad we finally got to meet and have a chance to talk to each other."

"Well, you wouldn't even have this chance if you weren't blocking my path." She said harshly.

"Anyways," completely ignoring her. "I was wondering if you had any plans later.."

"I do." She interrupted him.

"What?"

"I have plans. I'm meeting someone today and we are going to go out and have dinner and then go home together." She smiled.

"What?! Who is he? Do I know him?"

"Uh, she is my little girl and no you shouldn't know her because I don't want you to know her. Now can you please get out of my way long tail?" She pushed passed him again.

"You gave me a nickname?" He was ignoring her again.

"No. Your tail is always in the way and if I'm not correct I believe that five people have already stepped on it today." His normal black covered ears went red.

"Um…well, uh."

"Okay good. No more to talk about? Now please, GET out of my way." Her Latin temper was getting the best of her. And as she smiled at him he could see small, but bigger than normal fangs in her smile. He jumped back and she walked passed him.

He just watched as she walked away and him being of the male kind called out to her. "So is that a yes for the dinner?!" He smiled but then ran inside as electric bullets barley missed him.

Carmelita walked along the side of the road alone and seemed to be really enjoying the peace and quiet. She has been walking to and from work a lot more than she use to. And she is loving it. She always loved seeing inside the buildings that she walks by. The toy store that always had children in it, the bakery and the smells that it would produce, the candy shop where she would always get her favorite chocolate covered almonds.

She especially loved walking down the street that lead towards the daycare center that was just outside the city. She would walk down the road that had no buildings on it. Nothing but street lamps. Like she was walking through a portal into another part of the realm.

She shook her head. "Man, I have to stop watching all those syfy shows." She laughed as she came up to the daycare building. She saw someone exiting the building and was then entering a van and drove up the street and disappeared into the night. "Who was that?" She wondered.

As she made her way up the steps she was meet by her friend who was standing just outside the doors.

"Hey, Carmelita. Your late." Subaru smiled.

"Ugh! I know. Got caught up at work…"

"Again." Subaru added.

"Yes, again. And I forgot. Is she mad?"

"Not in the least. She has been playing with some of her best friends. They just left like a few seconds ago."

"Really?! Who?"

"You know them. You know one of them pretty well."

"I don't really know any of her friends at all…wait." She looked down the street that the van drove down. "Cooper?" She looked back at her friend who was just smiling ear to ear.

"Yes, ever since that one faithful meeting, he has been coming here almost every day. For at least five hours. Mostly by himself. His friend will show up maybe hours later and then they spend at least a good one to two hours together. Since she is mostly alone throughout the day." She looked back to see the small grey fox playing with a new toy that she was just given.

"Yeah, make me feel even worse. Tell me that I'm bad at my job."

"You are." Carmelita's ears shot up and her eyes opened wide.

"How can you say that?!"

"Because you're not her mother. You're her sister."

"But I can't tell her that. At least not now. I tried to get her to say sister but she called me mommy. What was I supposed to do?"

"I don't know. All I can say is that is my advice. Be her sister, but in a motherly way."

"That really doesn't make any sense at all. You know that right?"

"Like I said. My advice. Take it or leave it. Hey, maybe you should take a vacation. How much PTO do you have saved at work?"

"I don't know. I probably only have a month saved up."

"Nah-uh. You have been working like crazy and had crazy hours. You must have more than that."

"I'll see tomorrow." She said as she was walking inside.

"Oh yeah!" Subaru remembered. "Don't forget that tomorrow I'm going to close early because I have an appointment and the building is getting its plumbing system checked and I don't want any of the kids around when there is construction going on."

"What?! Ugh!" She slapped her head with her hand.

"You forgot didn't you?" She ran a had threw her grey hair and tapped her foot.

"I'm sorry, I'll be here tomorrow at two."

"Noon." Subaru had a hand on her head as she said this.

"Noon?!"

Carmelita didn't know what to do. She just walked inside and saw her sister sitting on the floor playing with a pink fluffy hippo and was wearing a small blue hat that strangely looked a lot like Sly's cap.

"Who gave her these?"

"Mommy!" Katrina yelled and got up. She ran over to her mother and jumped into her arms. The small cap fell off her head and Carmelita caught it.

"Who do you think gave her that?"

Carmelita smiled and laughed a little. She felt the small hat and reminisced about the time when Sly lent her his hat when they were stuck in a snow cave when Jon Bison went bad again after someone trashed his penguin farm. They were stuck for almost a full day and she was freezing and she offered her his hat. Or more like placed it on her as he went out into the snow to look for wood to use in a fire.

"You like my hat? Sly gave me it when I said that I liked his hat. He would let me wear it and today he gave me that. Mr. Murray gave me this that fluffy toy and turtle man gave me talkie-walkie."

"A what?" She looked Subaru.

"A walky-talky that she can use anytime that she comes here. To talk to the guys when they aren't here. When she is alone she usually uses it." This tugged at her heart and her smile faded away.

"I'll do better Katrina. I'll be here when you need me and I'm going to take you on a vacation to your most favorite place. Anywhere you want to go I'll take you."

Katrina's ears perked up and she looked at her mommy. And with a smile she said, "Disneyland?!"

"What?!" Subaru only laughed.

"I saw a commercial that said it was the happiest place on earth. And that it will become your most favorite place ever."

"Uh-huh. Well, I guess we could always go there for a day." She looked at her friend who didn't stop laughing.

"Yay!" She jumped out of her arms and grabbed her stuffed toy and then her bag.

As they were heading out to met up with Farmer Joe Subaru called out again.

"Remember, noon she will have to be picked up."

"I got it." Carmelita called back.

They were almost home when they came to a stop. The sisters hoped off the wagon and Katrina ran to pet the carriage horses. Carmelita thanked the driver.

"Thanks as always Mr. Ferguson. Always fun when we ride with you."

"And for me as well. And of course for Coal and Mr. Giggles. They always love playing with your little girl."

"You really went with that name? Mr. Giggles?"

"Well, Katrina named him because she said he giggles a lot. A horse giggle anyways." They laughed as they parted ways.

They walked up their homes steps and entered the house. Carmelita grabbed her mail and smiled when she got her check. She opened it first and saw that it was a really good check. She then went and stuck it in one of her boxes where she keeps checks like this and saves them. She then took Katrina up the stairs to get her ready for a bath and once she managed to get her away from her new hat and was in the tub she went to her room and started to take her work clothes off.

She took her boots off and then took her jacket off and threw it on her bed. She then grabbed some sweats and her night shirt. She heads to the bath room and takes a quick shower and then goes to find her sister already drying herself and was struggling to get her shirt over her head. Carmelita laughed and helped her to bed and then finally laid down in her own bed.

"Ah. What am I going to do about tomorrow? What am I going to do about Disneyland?" She just pondered this until it drove her to sleep.

That morning Sly was walking down the street towards the daycare center while eating a donut and was drinking a cup of coffee. He laughed a bit because people weren't staring at him anymore. He hadn't really done anything major that would make him local news, but he had calmed his thieving ways down.

He had stolen some items from some really not so nice people, and he had also stopped and did normal activities like everyone else did. Eat out, grab a donut and grabbed himself a cup of coffee. Before people would talk and whisper. Knowing who he was and what he does for a living. But never suspected him of doing bad things when he was walking down the street. Some would come up to him to get an autograph. One asked for a picture. He smiled when he could walk by someone, say good morning and they would reply back without giving him their wallets. He laughed again when he remembered that happening one time.

He walked up to the daycare and saw Subaru outside talking, more like yelling, on the phone.

"I told you that I need to leave by noon. The guys are already here and are about to start taking the place apart to work on the pipes." She threw a hand into her forehead. "I don't care about other people, you could have just let that one guy get away when you knew full well that you had to be here. She is your sis.." she stopped mid rant when she saw Sly. "Never mind. I have something to take care of this problem." She hung up the phone.

"Hey Subaru. Something wrong?"

"Not anymore." She turned around. "Katrina come out here with your things."

"Umm…" Sly looked around. "I Carmelita coming already? I don't see her."

"She is running late. Like always. I have to leave for an appointment and I have guys here to fix that leaking pipe I told you about."

"Oh yeah, and they were going to install a few more stalls too."

"Exactly. But Carmelita isn't here and…" Katrina came out with her things.

"Hey Katrina. How are you?" Sly said as he kneeled down.

"Sly!" She smiled and jumped into his arms.

"Well, I have to get going." She ran inside and grabbed her things and grabbed a piece of paper.

"What?! Hey, what about Katrina?"

"That's what you're here for. That's my solution. You're my solution." She stuck the note on the door and ran down the sidewalk and got on her bike. "See you later lover boy." She then sped off.

Both Sly and Katrina looked at each other and then the note. Katrina said let her read it since she came read now.

"Fixed the pro-problem, your boy…your boyfriend picked her up. Sly's tic-tac-toe mark?" She looked at Sly. Who laughed.

"No that's a symbol for a phone number. I guess Subaru wants me to leave it here for your mommy." He started to look for a pen when Katrina pulled out one of hers from her backpack. He smiled. "Thank you malady." He wrote it down and then gave her pen back. "So what did you want to do until your momma calls?"

"Well, she promised me that she would take me for ice cream and then we would go to the park, but…." She paused and leaned her head on Sly's shoulder.

"But what?"

"She says nice things but we never do any of them. Like yesterday we were going to go to the park and then get go out to eat at Toni's pizza but we just went home and ordered pizza from pizza palace."

Sly felt sorry for the little fox but understood why this was going on. Carmelita was a hard worker and knows all too well about the pain and hardship of her job. But he smiled and hugged her.

"Hey, how about I take you out and get you that ice cream and then I'll take you out to that park?" The little fox's eyes lit up and she hugged him tighter. "Then it is settled, to the ice cream parlor!" He got in a stance and extended his arm out and pointed in the direction of the ice cream shop.

"To the ice cream polar!" Sly laughed.

"No, parlor. Par…"

"Polar." Katrina looked at him.

"Parlor. Like beauty parlor. Or par like in golf."

"Polar, like polar bear. They live in the ice." He just looked at her and smiled at her innocence.

"Ok, ice cream polar."

Carmelita yelled out to no one in particular as she ran down the street. She cursed as Subaru didn't answer her calls anymore. "What did she mean to care of the problem?!" She was late again. By two hours. She ran up the stairs and pushed on the doors but just slammed into them. "What the?!"

She looked at the door and then looked through the window. She saw no one inside and no lights were on. She then saw something flutter in the wind. She looked at it and then grabbed it. She read it and then gasped.

"Fixed the problem. Your boyfriend picked her up.

#805*******"

She saw that her friend wrote the first part and then she could tell in an instant that Sly wrote his number down. She smiled but then it faded away. She immediately got her phone out and called Sly's phone.

"Come on pick up already." She waited as it rang. "Come the heck on ringtail."

"Hello!" She heard a females voice.

"Uh, hello?"

"Yes, hello." She gasped again.

"Katrina?!"

"Yes, hello."

"Katrina, its mom. Where are you at?"

"Mommy?! Hi, I'm here having ice cream."

"Yes honey but where? The ice cream parlor?" Carmelita started to head in the direction of the parlor.

"Yes, I'm waiting because Sly is paying for the ice cream and then were are going to the park and then he is taking me out to eat!"

"That's nice sweetie but can you pass the phone over too…"

"Oh! Got to go now mommy, Sly is coming back and then we are leaving. Bye!"

"No wait Katrina!" Too late, she hung up. "Ugh that girl. At least she is fine." She started to run towards the parlor.

"Did someone call on my phone?" Sly came up to Katrina.

"No, I was playing this game and then it started to ring."

"So someone did call?"

"No see," she showed him the phone. "I won!"

He read the phone and it said 'congratulations you won.' He laughed and just said lets go. She hopped off her bar stool and grabbed his hand as he grabbed her bag. As they were walking towards the exit Sly overheard some ladies talking.

"How cute, a father-daughter date."

Sly stopped and looked at the two girls eating. "Oh no she isn't my daughter. This is a friends and I'm looking after her."

"Right. Then why does she look like you?" Sly looked at Katrina who looked at him.

"She's a fox and I'm a raccoon."

"A fox with a nice shade of grey for fur."

"He's not my daddy." Katrina said. The ladies looked at her as well as Sly. "He's my mommy's boyfriend." And with that Sly picked her up and ran out of the parlor as the girls laughed.

They finally made it to the park and Sly managed to look at his phone and noticed that someone in fact called. He looked at the number and knew that it was Carmelita's.

"Hey, I thought you said no one called?" He looked up at Katrina on his shoulders.

"No one called." She looked down.

"Then why does it say that your mom called?"

"Oh! Was I supposed to tell you that?" She asked.

He shook his head and started to call Carmelita. It rang once before she picked up. "Hello Carmelita?"

"Sly?! Where are you? I thought you were at the parlor."

"We were, but…sorry about earlier. I was paying for the ice creams and Katrina had my phone and your friend was in a rush and…"

"Sly?!" Carmelita stopped him. "It's okay. Just…where are you now?"

"Oh yeah, where are we at…oh we are just coming up to the…"

"Ahhh!" Carmelita had to pull the phone away from her ear.

"Sly?! What happened?!" Worry was in her voice. "Sly?!"

"The park, we are finally here!" Instantly she knew it was her sister's excitement. "Come on let's go let's go!"

"Ah! Okay ugh! Come on let go of my cheeks. Ah!"

Carmelita didn't know what to make of this conversation and just listened. She could hear her sister yelling and could hear Sly's cries of agony. She then heard a ripping sound and then she heard a 'sorry' come out of her sister.

"We are at the park now Carmelita. Bring some cream when you come. Please."

She hung up the phone and just stared at it. She then reached into her pocket on her jacket and brought out a small bottle of lotion.

"What a day for me to remember my lotion." She laughed as she started to run towards the park.

When she got there she found Sly kneeling down and was tying one of Katrina's shoes. He watched as she looked on at him and then when he finished she started to work on her other foot. She smiled as she tied her shoe and Sly gave her a high five when she finished. She watched on as Katrina waged her tail and then ran off towards the swings and called out to him.

He laughed as he got up from kneeling and walked over towards her and as she got on he then started to push her. She laughed and cried out to go faster and he just pushed harder but not too hard to throw her off. She smiled at the sight of her sister with this raccoon that she had come to tolerate. And as these few months went by and learned that he was spending most of his time with Katrina not knowing that she in fact not her daughter tugged at her heart strings. Carmelita thought for a moment and said to herself that she has to tell him.

She slowly walked up the two and Katrina spotted her first.

"Mommy!" She jumped off mid swing and flung herself forward.

"Careful you can hurt yourself." Sly called out.

Carmelita picked her up and nuzzled her face with Katrina's. She just stood there hugging her for a moment and then looked up at Sly who still stood by the swing.

"Did you have fun today?" She asked Katrina.

"Oh yes. Sly took me out to get ice cream, then bought me a flower, and then he brought me here and then he said he was going to take me out to eat."

"Really?" She smiled and looked up at Sly who looked like he was embarrassed.

"Uh, yeah. I kind of promised her I would take her out to a nice restaurant where they have the best pasta ever."

"Yeah, the Macaroni hut. They also have pizza there." Carmelita laughed.

"Really, well, I think Sly would like to go home after this long day…"

"I don't mind." He stopped her. "In fact, I kinda, was hoping that…"

Carmelita looked at him as if she was hoping that he would say what she thought he would say. "Yeah…" she encouraged him to go on.

"That maybe you would like to join us. I pay of course." He smiled and then smiled bigger when he saw Carmelita's lips go up into her own smile.

"That sounds really nice." She said to him.

They went out and ate and had a good time. So good that they stayed until closing time.

"9 o'clock. I thought they closed later than that." Sly laughed.

"I did too. Maybe because it's during the week and not the weekend." Carmelita said.

"Maybe. Well, here we are." He said as he held onto the sleeping Katrina.

They walked up to the door and Carmelita unlocked it and let in Sly and he placed Katrina on the couch and headed back towards the door where Carmelita was about to close it.

"Oh, you don't want to stay for coffee or something?" Carmelita asked hopefully.

"I should really get going. Wouldn't want to disturbed a mother and daughter's sleep."

And just like that he was heading out the door. But just before he could walk away Carmelita followed and grabbed his arm stopping him.

"Sly wait."

He turned to her. "Yeah, what is it?"

"I have to tell you something. Something important." Sly came back up to stand level with her and held her hands in his. "It's…it's about Katrina."

"What? What is it? Is something wrong with her?" He looked up and over at the sleeping fox kit.

"No! No…nothing is wrong. Sly…Katrina's is not my daughter."

This sent a wave of confusion over Sly. His eyes narrowed and his ears went flat behind him. He looked at Carmelita and then raised an eyebrow over at Katrina.

"What do you mean? I don't understand."

"I'm saying she isn't mine. She is not my child…..she is my sister."

"What?!"

"My parents decided five years ago to have another child. My father of course wanted another girl. And when they had her they were so full of life and I was elated that I now have this wonderful girl as s sister." She paused but then continued. "Then one day when I was watching her and they were on their way to pick her up I received a call hearing that they were in a car accident."

"I remember the paper said that it might have been intentional. But nothing about you having a sister. But at the funeral I didn't see you with her at all."

"You were there?" Her ears perked up and her tail swayed back and forth. "I never saw you there." Carmelita trying to remember if she saw him there or not. Thinking about it now she wished he was there so she could have had him hold her.

"I was, just not in the crowd. Knowing how we were back then I figured you would have blasted me on the spot. I was up in that big oak tree you put them under. I was there, right above you, watching over you."

She smiled as a small tear was about to run down her face. She then felt Sly's finger brush it away and held her face in his hand. "I wasn't holding her at the funeral. And I told the news to not to put their next article in the paper because it might not have been an accident and I didn't want to put her in any danger."

Carmelita placed her hand on Sly's and they just looked at each other. Sly then moved in and placed his forehead on hers and they enjoyed the silence between them. That is until Sly chuckled.

"What's so funny?" Carmelita pulled back.

"What is happening to us? We were once against each other and now we are enjoying each other's company. Or at least I am."

She laughed this time. "I'm enjoying it too. As shocking as that may be. But, time passes and people change. Possibly for the better." She smiled at him with her eyes closed.

Sly just looked at her with wonder in his eyes and warmth in his heart. He didn't know what he was doing but he just went with it. He grabbed her face in his hands and caused her to open her eyes. She saw him coming closer to her and she didn't know what she should do. So she just let it happen.

Sly placed his lips onto Carmelita's and to the both of them, it was pure bliss. It was just a press of the lips but it seemed more to them. Sly pulled back but Carmelita pushed forward and captured his lips this time and grabbed his head and grabbed fists full of his hair. He was taken aback by this but just returned her passion. He tilted his head and pressed into her. He pressed so much that when he opened his eyes he had dipped her back so much he was supporting her with his arms wrapped around her back.

He pulled them back up into a standing position and he broke the kiss. "Ah, sorry about that. Didn't know I pushed that hard." He giggled. She just laughed while placing her fingers near her mouth.

"Don't be, sorry I sprang that on you."

"Ha-ha, I enjoyed that actually." There was another silence between them until he spoke again. "Well, I'll let you get some sleep. You probably have work again in the morning." He turned an began to walk.

"Actually, I don't." He stopped and turned towards her. "I'm from this point on, on a three month paid vacation." She looked down and rubbed the tip of her boot into the ground as if trying to give him a clue. She looked back up at him with a smile.

He smiled as well and walked back up the stairs and grabbed her hands in his and held them at their waist line. "If that's the case, then that cup of coffee sounds really good right now. Then we could talk about what your plans are for the next three months."

She just laughed and kissed him again and they both walked back inside Carmelita's home. They crept passed Katrina who was still sleeping and entered the kitchen. They then talked for hours and hours. Not going to sleep until the both ran out of coffee.

Ha! Done with chapter two. Still have some story left over but not a lot to make a chapter. So maybe within this next week I will have yet another chapter up. Thanks for reading and reviews. Hopefully this one doesn't have grammar mistakes in it. Ha-ha.