10 years ago…

After the twins' birth, Carmelita felt like she had not really 'bounced back' quite yet. Despite it only being a few weeks, her stomach still was flabby, she was covered in stretch marks, she STILL craved tacos and ice cream, and her lower region hurt like hell every time she needed to use the restroom. All she bothered to wear was still unflattering large shirts and sweatpants. She was glad she still had work off for a few more months, she couldn't imagine even trying to chase after criminals in her state.

Carmelita laid down in her bed exhausted from her babies. She tightened her messy bun and adjusted herself to get comfortable on her bed. Just as she began to close her eyes, she heard loud screaming coming from the kids' room. She groaned, as she could have sworn that they were down for a nap. She slowly got up and wandered over to her babies' room, finding Skylar in her little pink onesie screaming at the top of her lungs. Silvester in his little gray baseball onesie just stared blankly at his space mobile sucking on his pacifier.

"Skylar, SKYLAR!" Carmelita cried. She picked up her screaming daughter trying to attempt to calm her down. She quickly smelled Skylar's little butt to check for a dirty diaper, but she smelt normal. Sighing, she attempted to rock her back and forth but Skylar continued to cry. She had just had her bottle, so there was no reason for her to be hungry. Truthfully, Carmelita was struggling quite a bit with her new babies. Both of the babies did not sleep throughout the night, and Carmelita felt as if she could never make them both happy at once to leave her some peace.

Carmelita continued to rock Skylar, but soon heard a loud knock on the door. With Skylar still screaming, she groaned and left Silvester in his crib to answer the door. She opened the door and was surprised to find Bentley was the visitor. "Hey Carmelita!" He greeted, ignoring the screaming baby. "I just thought I'd check up on you. Haven't heard from you in a while."

Carmelita groaned. She was not in the mood for visitors. She debated just to ask Bentley to leave, but at the same time she was appreciative that he bothered to check up on her. "I'm sorry, Bentley. Please come in." She invited the turtle into her small apartment and he happily wheeled through the doorway. "I…I apologize about my outfit and…well Skylar." Skylar continued to scream at the top of her lungs. Soon after, Silvester started to scream from his bedroom. Carmelita rolled her eyes and groaned. "Oh my God, it just never ends!"

"Here, let me hold Skylar." Bentley offered. "You look stressed, Carmelita. Is everything okay?"

Normally, Carmelita was very cautious who held her babies, but at that moment she really didn't care. She handed Skylar over to Bentley and rushed over to Silvester to attempt to calm him down.

Bentley just looked at Carmelita with concern. He hadn't even met the twins yet, and he was really worried how Carmelita was handling things. He debated whether to visit her, and he was glad he decided to. His gut instincts were correct, Carmelita really needed some help. He held up the still screaming Skylar and looked at her. "You are loud!" He laughed. "I wonder who that came from." He rested Skylar upon his shoulder and started to pat the middle of her back. He gently bounced her up and down, which resulted in her finally starting to calm down.

Carmelita walked back in the living room with Silvester draped over her shoulder sucking on his pacifier. His eyes were halfway closed, but Carmelita felt as if she had put him down, he would start to cry again. She looked over at Bentley and widened her eyes to see he managed to calm Skylar down. "Bentley!" She cried. "Skylar isn't crying!"

Bentley smiled, still patting Skylar. "Yeah, I'm not really sure why. I saw this on TV and wondered if it would work."

Carmelita thought for a little bit. "I have tried that before, but I guess she doesn't like it when I do it. Thank you so much, I am so grateful."

Skylar began to fall asleep on Bentley's shoulder. Bentley smiled, but still did not stop patting her. "It's not a problem, Carmelita. I'm sorry for intruding on things, I just got concerned about you. Is everything okay? No offense, but you look…" He observed the clearly exhausted Carmelita. Her hair was extremely frizzy and she looked like she had not even bothered to put on her makeup for weeks. Her big shirt had a huge mustard stain on it, and she had no shoes on. "...stressed."

Carmelita's face started to swell with tears. "Oh Bentley!" She cried. "I'm hideous!"

Bentley's face turned pale. "No…that's not what I meant!" He instantly regretted what he had said. He quickly tried to form a plan to try to cheer her up, but was failing. He forgot Carmelita was still extremely emotional. "You're…you look nice!"

Carmelita began to cry. "Sly used to say I looked beautiful!"

Bentley just shook his head. "No…I mean…Carmelita just work with me here."

"No Bentley!" Carmelita snapped, still crying. "I haven't slept in weeks. These hell spawns won't stop crying! Just every day 24 hours, crying, crying, crying. I wonder how Skylar's vocal chords still work, she cries the most. I have no help, Bentley. Please tell me you found Sly, please! I can't do this by myself!"

Bentley frowned and felt his heart break. He didn't want to hurt her, but he instantly started to regret visiting her. He had no idea things were this bad for her, and he wanted nothing more than to have Sly here to help her. "Carmelita, I'm sorry." He shook his head. "I still haven't found anything. I was just worried about you. You haven't said anything in weeks."

Carmelita dried her eyes with her sleeve, still holding Silvester, who was now passed out. "I'm sorry Bentley. I am stressed out. I'm…I'm glad you stopped by. And I'm extremely glad you managed to calm down Skylar."

Bentley looked down and noticed Skylar was passed out as well, drooling on his shoulder. "It's not a problem at all. This is what family is for. We take care of each other."

Carmelita smiled hearing Bentley say this. He was right, and she couldn't have been more thankful. She had felt so alone with everything, and she couldn't feel better knowing Bentley was at least on her side.

Sly started to snore on the couch with his feet propped up. Drool started to fall out of his mouth and the TV blared over his snoring. Carmelita entered the apartment with Skylar and looked at Sly. She had started to slowly get irritated with him being around, since all he was really doing was sleeping. It only has been about 3 months, but she was slowly starting to feel like she had a third child. She aggressively dropped her bag, causing a loud thud. Sly seemed unfazed and continued to snore.

"DAD!" Skylar yelled from the door.

Sly quickly choked on his saliva as he suddenly woke up. "What? Huh?"

Carmelita furrowed her brow. "Get up."

Sly sat up quickly and awkwardly smiled at the irritated Carmelita. Truthfully, he didn't really like being lazy, but he felt as if he just didn't have anything to do. He tried to find things to do, but he was starting to get bored sitting at Bentley's house. All he did there was just play video games with Murray. He looked over at Skylar and noticed her nose cast was off, revealing her shiny new nose.

"Guess what?" Skylar smiled, with her voice no longer sounding nasally.

"You have a nose!" Sly smiled.

Skylar grinned widely. "I can smell again!"

Carmelita stared him down, refusing to leave from the entrance. "Sly…"

"Carmelita, I'm sorry. I fell asleep." Sly grinned awkwardly.

Carmelita just groaned. She understood that Sly had nothing to do, but she wished he had helped out a bit. While the kids were at school, Sly just went over to Bentley's house and camped out there until they came home. "Skylar wanted you to come to see her new nose. I tried to wake you up, but you didn't."

Sly frowned in embarrassment. He had no response to this. To be truthful, he couldn't even remember her waking him up to ask.

Skylar seemed unfazed about her mother being upset at Sly. She continued to have a huge grin displayed on her face. "I have a beautiful nose. I look AMAZING."

Sly laughed. Skylar soon stood in front of him while he was still laying down on the couch. "You sure do, Skylar. You look beautiful."

Skylar blushed. "Yeah. Mom told me about your nose. Looks like we have a lot in common!"

Sly's cheeks turned bright red with embarrassment. He was hoping he could take that secret to his grave. "I..yeah I guess we do." He looked over at Carmelita who was unloading her things in the kitchen. "Hey, Carm, I'll make dinner tonight."

Carmelita stopped unloading her things and looked up at Sly. "You can cook?"

Sly laughed awkwardly. "Well, I'm sure I can figure it out. I just feel bad."

Carmelita laughed and resumed unloading her things. "Don't worry about it, Sly." She soon hung her keys up on the key ring in the kitchen and approached him. She looked over into Sly's eyes, feeling as if she was going to cry. This still seemed like a dream to her, a dream she never wanted to awake from. "I'm…I'm glad you're home, where you belong."

Sly laughed. "Yeah, me too. This is still crazy, all of this. Twins? I mean I'm a lucky dude!"

Carmelita rolled her eyes. "Lucky you were spared the diaper phase. Just imagine changing one poopy diaper and then soon another one comes up. You change it and BAM! Another dirty diaper. You change that one and BAM! One is hungry. You feed them and then BAM! The other one reminds you that you forgot their pacifier. It was insane."

Sly felt his heart shatter hearing this, even though she was trying to be funny. "Carmelita, I'm going to make this up to you. I promise." He looked up at her eyes and started to tear up.

Carmeltia didn't respond and just got on her knees and hugged his neck. "Sly, let's just get married." She mumbled into his fur.

Sly's entire body froze up hearing this. "Carm…um…aren't I supposed to be asking you that?"

Carmelita laughed. "I'm not asking, I'm insisting."

Sly gently detached her from his fur and looked into her eyes. "Carmelita, I'm not leaving you. Just have faith in me, okay?" He grinned real wide. "I'm not predictable."

The apartment was pitch black with the bright moon peering in through the windows. Sly was the only one awake at this time, watching a good movie he hadn't seen in a while; good old Mission Impossible. He was laying down on the couch with a bag of cheetos on his lap. He reached into the bag, grabbing some more of the delicious orange powered chips and stuffed his mouth full of them. He soon heard a soft knock coming from the door. Confused and concerned, he perked up and rolled the bag back closed, refusing to wipe his hands. He went over to the door and opened it. To his surprise, Bentley was on the other side. "Bentley?"

"Sly…" Bentley gasped, as if he had just got done wheeling for his life. "I found out what is happening in Egypt. We…" He gasped some more. "Sorry, you know how it is when an asthmatic goes too fast. Anyway, the guy we saw in Egypt is planning on making his company a huge monopoly!"

Sly blinked in confusion. "The suited tiger dude? What kind of monopoly…plus…what is a monopoly?"

Bentley groaned. "Really? A monopoly means that it is one big company. They have no competition. He wants to have his company the one and only company, for EVERYTHING. Entertainment, oil and gas, food, vehicle manufacturing, literally everything. I think he used your ancestor somehow, but I have no idea how. I think he got the time machine from Le Paradox."

Sly tapped his chin. "Interesting. Why would he want to use my ancestor? Is this another clown that wants to wipe out my family?"

Bentley shook his head. "Actually, Sly, no. I don't think he honestly cares about who you are. I think he just wanted the time machine and it happened to be programmed to where your ancestor was. I'm still trying to figure out why he would be where you were at, but if I were to suspect it wasn't intentional."

Sly invited him inside and sat back down on the couch. Bentley observed around and noticed the cheeto bag and the movie that was playing. "I see you haven't been any more productive here than you are back at my place."

Sly sighed. "I mean, yeah sadly."

Bentley smiled and reached into his bag, pulling Sly's old mask out. "How about we change that?"

Just as Sly was about to grab the mask, he quickly heard an uninvited guest emerge from the twins's bedroom. He quickly turned over and saw Skylar in her pink pajama set, looking very confused. "I can't sleep." She said while rubbing her eyes.

"How are you awake?" Sly asked.

"What is this about a monopoly?" Skylar slowly walked over towards Bentley and Sly.

"Skylar, you need to go back to bed." Bentley tried to direct. "Don't worry about all of this."

"I'm leaving if dad is leaving." She crossed her arms. "He isn't leaving by himself."

"Skylar, it's late…" Sly started to redirect her back to her bedroom, but Skylar refused to move. Sly groaned and looked down on the floor. "Are you hungry?"

Skylar tapped her chin. "At 2 AM? Yeah, I could go for something to eat."

Sly, regretting what he was going to say next, looked down. "Look, if you wanna come you cannot say anything about any of this. I'll take you to McDonald's if you want."

Skylar smiled real big. She quickly clapped her hands in excitement. "So I can come?"

"Only because you won't go back to sleep." Sly groaned. "Come on, Bentley, let's go." He grabbed his mask from Bentley and tied it around his eyes. He looked off into the distance, feeling stronger than ever.

Bentley didn't bother to argue with Sly or Skylar, knowing he would lose. He figured Skylar probably was helpful anyways.

Sly opened the door with Bentley and Skylar exiting. Sly looked back and saw the apartment was still undisturbed, so he slowly closed the door, careful not to wake anyone.