Aaah! I'm late! I'm late, I'm late, I'm late! Sorry! I got distracted. By- y'know... Doctor Who.

I'm sorry! Even when I'm not watching it, it's eating my brain!

Anyways, I'm here now and I'm updating, just in time for Thanksgiving, yaaaay!

On with the chapter!

I awoke to someone shaking my shoulder impatiently. I swatted at the hand, mentally deciding that if Sly wanted me to help him out on a job when I was so tired I would tell him exactly and in great detail where to shove his cane.

The next shake came with a mildly familiar garble of gibberish. My mouth twisted in confusion until I realized where I'd heard it before.

Just to be sure, I cracked an open and beheld Ritsuka hovering over me. I groaned to myself and sat up, just realizing that I must have fallen asleep on the obscenely comfortable couch that lay in front of Ahanu's television.

"And the dead shall riiissseee…." Ahanu's drawl came from the direction of the kitchen. Ritsuka gave an exaggerated eye roll before gripping my wrist and pulling me to my feet, muttering something I didn't even try to decipher with my brain still fogged by sleep.

I obediently stumbled into the kitchen, surreptitiously stretching my sore muscles. Ahanu was hovering over the stove, but looked up and gave me a grin nonetheless, "Nice to see the TV entertained you so much."

I covered my yawn with a hand, "It was quite entertaining actually, I was just tired. I can't sleep in hospitals."

"No one in their right mind can."

Ritsuka was apparently fed up with something because he yanked on Ahanu's arm and started speaking so rapidly that I couldn't even distinguish individual words. The fox paused in stirring whatever was in the enigmatic pot and swiveled one ear to listen to Ritsuka, turning fully to him after a moment.

I didn't even try to make sense of the gibberish; I just yawned and dropped into one of the dining room chairs. Nap… I wanted one.

I must have actually dozed off because the next thing I knew Ahanu was elbowing me in the head to wake me up and handing me a plastic bowl which contained-

"Macaroni and cheese?" Was that seriously all anyone ever ate?

He winked, "The midnight snack of champions." He turned and said something to Ritsuka, who nodded and started eating his own cheesy noodles.

"What are you guys talking about?" I asked around a mouthful of pasta-y goodness.

"He just wants me to translate for him; he doesn't like being kept in the dark." Ahanu apparently had the patience of a sea turtle, because he turned and translated what he'd just said for Ritsuka, despite it being totally uninteresting and invalid.

"Speaking of being kept in the dark," I washed down my mouthful with a sip of Coke. There are just some things that survive the culture barrier, "Not that I'm complaining, but why the covert escape from the hospital? I mean, I get that I had to get out of there because of Interpol and all, but why'd you guys help me? You had no reason to."

Ahanu shrugged, "Ritsuka called in a favor. I've known him for half a decade and he's never done that, so I would've helped him steal the Mona Lisa. As for his reasons, give me a sec."

While he and Ritsuka were talking, I shoveled the rest of the macaroni down my throat and finished off my drink. Now, I'm not the biggest fan of Coke, but it was my first soda in a while. I was a little enthusiastic.

Ahanu finished his conversation by, from what I could tell, teasing Ritsuka, and turned back to me, "He says that he was worried by what you said about the corruption of Interpol officers. He heard from a nurse when he was changing shifts that Constable Neyla was sorting out the transfer of your custody with hospital security and panicked, hence the impromptu escape. He ran home and back to the hospital before she got there and got some stuff to disguise you." He shrugged, "Ritsuka's a good guy, even if he doesn't know it."

I allowed myself a small smile, "So what now?"

Fox and cat shared a brief conversation, before the latter crossed over to me, "Ritsuka wants to change your bandages, then we'll take you back to the Cooper gang."

"Huh?" I started at the abruptness and matter-of-fact tone of his statement, causing Ritsuka to have to hold my head still, "Really?"

He shrugged, "Yeah. Ritsuka told me it was the safest place for you and that you wanted to be there anyhow, so why not? The entire city knows about the mini-war between Interpol and the Contessa's estate, which is where I'm assuming they are, from what you told Ritsuka. It may be tricky to get near there, but we can definitely get you in. Most people are trying to get away from there, not closer."

I ignored Ritsuka poking around a sore spot on the back of my head and gave an ear-splitting grin. "You are my new best friend. And tell Ritsuka I might just have to kiss him."

Ahanu did and it was like a continental shift occurred. One second, Ritsuka was standing next to me, the next he was on the other side of the kitchen, ears completely red, watching me warily.

I could have been offended or amused. As it was, I somehow managed to get a stitch in my side from laughing so hard. Ahanu wasn't much better. Ritsuka had the martyred expression of one used to being teased as he came back and gave my head an extra-hard prod, before telling Ahanu, in a kind of sulky tone, "Je to skoro uzdravil, prostě potřebuje obvazy na trochu více."

The fox caught his breath and translated, "Ritsuka says you're mostly healed, but still need bandages as a precaution."

I shrugged, "Okay. When are we going to head out?"

"As soon as he's done. It'll be better to do it in the dead of night anyhow."

I shrugged and complied as Ritsuka manipulated the angle of my head so he could get bandages secured around it that wouldn't fall off, "Oh, could you ask him what the odds are of getting my stuff back from the hospital?"

Ritsuka's reply was curt and slightly annoyed, "He says that Constable Neyla took them into possession as 'evidence'."

I grimaced, "I dislike her with great intensity."

Ahanu smirked, "Not hate?"

"I haven't ever actually met her. It'd have to be more personal to be hate." Ritsuka finished off the bandage and I stood, "Let's do this thing."

"You have a sidecar?"

Ahanu smirked again, "I like to mess with Ritsuka as often as possible."

"I can see that."

Aforementioned feline was staring at the sidecar with an expression of the utmost loathing. Then suddenly, he smirked. That was scary. He started talking to Ahanu, gesturing from the sidecar to me and from him to the fox.

The smirk slid off Ahanu's face and he shook his head, "He can make a good argument when he wants to." He pulled off his goggles and tossed them to me, "You get to ride in the side car, Kaia."

"What?" Now I knew what Ritsuka's smirk meant. "Buh- but… why?"

"Ritsuka's smaller than you. It'll even out the weight more if he rides with me and you ride in the side car."

I grumbled as I pulled the goggles down over my eyes and put on my hood, "Tell him I retract my offer to kiss him."

At this revelation, Ritsuka made a show of wiping sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand and breathing a sigh of relief.

"Cheeky, isn't he?" I asked as I climbed in to the sidecar.

"Oh, you have no idea." Ahanu said with a super creepy grin, swinging a leg over the motorcycle and waiting until Ritsuka was on well behind him before handing the cat the helmet and gunning the engine.

It took a good half hour of darkness, cold, and needle-like rain before we got near the Contessa's estate. We had to pull over on the side of the road to keep the noise of the motorcycle from attracting any of the patrolling guards.

"Think you can make it from here?" Ahanu asked, putting down the kickstand.

I squinted out over the estate, "Yeah, a Cooper Safehouse isn't hard to find, if you know what to look for." Yeah, it's easy to find even if you don't. The van is always clearly visible. How have they never gotten caught?

"Well… okay then."

I turned back to them and there were a few seconds of awkward silence, "Thanks for everything, guys." Just for fun, I grabbed Ritsuka and gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. You'd have thought I tazed him, from his expression.

Ahanu roared with laughter and waved me off when I tried to hand his goggles back to him, "Keep them, you never know when a good pair of goggles will come in handy. Besides, my name, number and address are sewn on the inside of the band, in case those get lost. Send me a post card of the next place you end up and we'll call it even."

With a wave, they took off into the night, Ritsuka in the sidecar of shame this time.

I squared my shoulders and turned back to the estate. It was time to put what I'd learned from the Thievius Raccoonus to the test.

You know how hard it is to sneak into a heavily guarded fortress in the dead of night while wearing a white sweatshirt?

Very.

Especially when the moon is full and not only illuminating the sweatshirt, but also your fur. White fur? Usually neat. Not so much when you're trying to be sneaky.

The Contessa' castle estate was ridiculous. It had a moat. A moat.

WTF, Contessa?

Thankfully, I didn't have to cross the moat to get to the Safehouse. I spotted that quickly enough. Like I said, their van wasn't the most inconspicuous thing. The problem was the tanks.

Yeah, you read that right.

T.A.N.K.S.

They were apparently hanging around because the Safehouse was pretty much right nextdoor to Neyla's HQ. I couldn't wait to hear Bentley's logic for putting the Safehouse in the middle of a tank patrol route.

I had to avoid them exclusively. Y'know, so I didn't get blown into little, sticky pieces. The thing is, they had headlights attached to them that saw quite a ways. It took me a little over a half hour to figure out their patrol routines so I could slip by and by then I was a shivery mess.

Still, if there's one thing I've been called, it's stubborn. And loud, but we won't go there.

I made my way past the tanks and towards the Safehouse which, this time, appeared to be an old observation station with glass walls. Good for keeping an eye on everything, bad for keeping it subtle. Seriously, it was like the Safehouse had some kind of invisible barrier around it that just diverted guards and prying eyes. Actually, knowing Bentley, it might.

I slipped up the stairs and to the door, staying low so they couldn't see me through the windows. I peered in and saw that the turtle was standing on a chair to look over a massive map of the estate and surrounding area, Murray was completely absorbed in what looked like my Nintendo DS, and Sly was nowhere to be seen, probably out doing recon. Now was as good a time as any to slip in.

I took several deep, calming breaths, before the knot of anxiety in my stomach had enough time to make its way up to my throat, and pushed the door open.

Bentley looked up at my entrance and his jaw dropped, causing a pencil he'd been chewing on thoughtfully to clatter to the table. Murray blinked, taking several seconds to process my entrance.

Even with the storm going on outside, the room was dead silent.

"You know," I said, trying to lighten the mood, "You guys really ought to lock the door."

"We'll keep that in mind."

I jumped when the voice tickled in my ear and looked over my shoulder at Sly, who was staring down at me with brown eyes thoughtful and amused and… something else I couldn't identify.

He closed the door behind him and I smiled sheepishly, folding my arms behind my back, "Err… hi?"

He chuckled and reached out to touch the bandage over my eyes, "Somehow I knew we hadn't seen the last of you."

I gave him a competitive smirk, "You can't get rid of me that easily."

That apparently broke the spell the room was under. I didn't even have time to turn around before I was practically steamrolled by Murray, who swept me up into a bear hug with a whoop. After having all the vertebrae in my back popped, he set me down and I gave Bentley a hug, 'cause he was just standing there awkwardly.

Then I turned around and was in Sly's arms. I was surprised that we was so warm after being outside.

And just like that, I was back in.

Between me getting changed (they'd held onto my backpack, for some reason, so I had a dry set of clothes) and planning out the current job, the story of our separation came out.

When I'd jumped from the blimp, Sly had caught me, but lost his balance on the wall and we'd both fallen. Now, the rocks surrounding the prison were not the best things to fall down, so we both got banged up pretty bad, but I'd hit my head and it was bleeding pretty profusely.

Bentley's medical knowledge was limited and he had absolutely no idea what to do about a head injury (a fact that he told me he intended to remedy as soon as possible), so they'd driven me to the nearest hospital and dropped me off in the emergency room for care because, let's face it, they were international criminals and couldn't stick around. Somehow, this annoyed me less now. I wondered why that was.

"But what about you?" I asked Sly, "Are you okay?"

He shrugged, "I've been worse."

"That doesn't make me feel any better."

Anyways, when Sly was doing recon, he found out about Carmelita being an unwilling guest of the Contessa, who was using her as a test subject to calibrate the Clockwerk Eyes as a hypnotizing tool. Stupid Klaww Gang and their paranormal Clockwerk parts…

"Guh, now I see why all the Clockwerk parts need to be destroyed. Even individually they cause headaches."

"It took you this long?" Bentley asked sarcastically.

I kicked the chair he was standing on.

After a few more moments of discussion, Bentley retreated to go over the pictures Sly had taken during recon, which left me, Murray, and the raccoon himself trying to entertain ourselves.

Things went exactly as well as expected.

"That was really, really stupid." I muttered, winding a bandage around Sly's arm, which was also slathered in burn ointment.

He gave me a sidelong grin, "Fun though."

"No, Sly, sliding along electrically charged wires that are interspersed with trans… trans… those things that are like, super-conductors, is not fun. It's dangerous." Somewhat begrudgingly, I felt inclined to add, "Whether or not fun was had is an entirely different matter."

That earned me a much more hearty laugh than it deserved. I caught myself staring at Sly with blatant suspicion. "Did you hit your head when I wasn't looking?" Catching him trying to smother giggles behind a hand, my suspicion morphed into horror, "Oh, God, you're not hyper are you?"

"I can't help it!" He said, trying to swallow his amusement, "Everything's going right! You came back, we're gonna get Carmelita out, the gang's back together…"

I shook my head at him while I tied off the bandage. I couldn't exactly blame him for being glad that three bad situations had been resolved, but still, "Have you been getting any sleep at all?" It's universally known that there is a point between sleep-deprivation and total exhaustion where everything is hilarious.

"Nope."

"That'd do it," I muttered to myself, seizing Sly's forearms, which had thankfully healed from the ordeal in the jungle, and hauling him to his feet, "You need to get some sl-" I cut myself off when Sly slumped against me, "Are you still conscious?"

"Mmhmm…" he drew the sound out, sliding his arms around me, for support, I thought, before it became perfectly clear that he had no intention of moving.

"Sly?"

"I like hugs," he muttered, as if to himself, "But Bentley's not a very huggy person and Murray breaks people."

I wasn't sure what to say to that. Sly sounded off; more off than someone who was just sleep deprived should sound. "Sly, are you okay?"

"Oh, look, Bentley's done setting up for the slideshow." And he walked inside, leaving me to wonder what that all had been about and to realize just how cold it was.

"Well, what about me?" I asked as the slideshow ended. Everyone had gotten a job but me and I didn't intend to just sit around waiting for them to come back. I had a score to settle with the Contessa too.

Bentley checked the sights on his crossbow as he answered. "You coordinate our missions. We were going to have to space them out to make sure someone was always at the Safehouse, but this way we can pull them off almost simultaneously."

I fought off the eye twitch. "That sounds like a very weak excuse."

"Ah, come on Jinx." I blinked and caught the incoming juice box, "We'd already had most of the plan when you showed up again. Cut us a break."

I found myself staring at the juice box long after everyone had left, contemplating both whether Sly was making a play on my age or not and how on Earth he'd gotten Juicy Juice in the Czech Republic.

"Okay, apparently," I looked rapidly between the monitor that displayed the view from Sly's binocucom, the maps spread out on the table, and Bentley's notes. "You need to go into that creepy catacomb and smash up the coffin of an evil wolf priestess."

"Sounds pretty harsh. Does the old girl really deserve that sort of treatment?"

I rubbed my forehead, "Sly, in Bentley's notes, 'evil' is capitalized and underlined three times."

"Ah."

"Once you smash up the coffin, it'll apparently free all the ghosts trapped in there with her."

"Okay, I don't know where Bentley's going with all this, but freeing trapped ghosts sounds vaguely heroic."

"Ah the sentimentality. Just try not to inhale until you get outside, after you smash up the coffin. Inhaling bone dust can lead to I don't know how many diseases."

"Thanks. Thanks for that."

I glanced over at the screens and saw Bentley was nearly at his objective. I managed to switch over to his channel just in time to hear him say, "I KNEW it! I knew she'd have a bad mojo collector to transport the overflow."

I sighed, "Okay, Bentley, you're going to have to run this by me again, especially since I just sent Sly to free ghosts, which I don't believe in, and now we're talking magic?"

"It's a semi-magical device." Bentley explained, "I'll need it to gather the run-off from these spouts."

"What, there are just spouts that spit black magic? That's creepy, but sounds easy enough."

"Not really. Bad mojo is a powerfully destructive force. Take any damage while carrying the collector and you're done for."

"You mean you're done for. I'm safely in the Safehouse. Being safe."

"You're just precious, you know that?"

I snickered. It was great fun to get Bentley riled up. "Okay, okay, I give. I'm sure you have some sort of plan, right?"

"Yes, it presents an interesting tactical challenge. Perhaps I can use the death traps native to these crypts to against any foe that might attempt to thwart my collection of the ectoplasm."

"Ectoplasmic death traps. Just like Mom used to make."

"Your jocular wit gives me fits of adulate glee."

Switching over to my connection with Murray, I readjusted my headset, "Alright Murray, talk to me. You got a visual on the General yet?"

"Nope. Just an old man coming up the ramp."

I glanced at the screen, then back at Bentley's notes. "Actually, that's General Clawfoot. Apparently he's really tough and head of castle security. He's the guy we need to talk to."

"What if he doesn't want to come? I don't want to hurt him."

Something about hearing that honest concern in such an innocent voice was adorable. "Don't worry about it. According to Bentley, you couldn't hurt him even if you wanted to. It looks like he's only scared of fire and water. You could probably use him to beat other guards."

"Wow. That's handy."

Leaving Murray to it, I switched back to Sly, who'd smashed up the coffin and was booking it out of the crypt. I waited until he'd perched on a nearby spire and was gulping lungfuls of air to contact him.

"So? How'd it go?"

"There are ghosts. Six of them."

"Wait, what?" I watched in disbelief as Sly directed his binocucom and, sure enough, there were glowing, skeletal forms flying around the estate. "I-… I don't even… what?" It was that singular moment that I became very glad that I wasn't afraid of ghosts.

"She's speechless! We must document this moment for all of history!"

I grumbled into the microphone and consulted Bentley's notes again, "Okay, apparently your binocucom camera has been tweaked to capture ghosts. How Bentley did that, I'm not even going to question."

"Didn't I just set these guys free? Why would I want to capture them again?"

He was taking the whole 'ghost' thing very calmly. I read ahead in Bentley's notes and smirked. "Oh, don't worry, Sly. It won't be for long. In fact, you get to set them free down the chimney of Neyla's headquarters. Won't that be nice?"

There was a chuckle. "I get you, she'll think it's a sneak attack from the Contessa."

"Yup, from what I can decipher from Bentley's notes, Neyla should buy more firepower in response. I don't know how that's good for us, but he somehow proved it with math, so I'm not questioning it."

"Anything bad for the Contessa is good for us… and we get to really freak out Neyla!" The almost childlike glee in that exclamation had me laughing as I went over to check up on Bentley.

"How's it going?"

"Half… done… so… many… buttons…"

"Way to be a team player. Murray, what's up?"

"I've got the General but he keeps… kicking me… in the face!"

"I believe in you!"

There we go! A fun chapter to make up for the distinct lack of gang last time. Have a good Thanksgiving, everyone! God bless and feel free to let me know what you think!