Sly passed his psychological evaluations, though he had to stop himself from toying too much with the shrinks or else he might have given himself away (boy he loved to mess with therapist types, ever since him and his boys tangled with the Contessa, but of course it was always in fun!). With that hurdle overcome, Carmelita took up her part of the bargain with gusto and started putting Sly through his paces. Granted she was fair like she said she would be, but Sly felt that his new partner was taking a little too much pleasure in his suffering through the physical training (especially the swimming part, he hated to swim and it took him forever (or it felt like that to him) to get through it) and the amount of regulations he needed to know and memorize. Sly did figure that it was probably her way of getting back at him for all the teasing and flirting he did to her in the past and he guessed he deserved some of this punishment. Although, he chuckled to himself as he thought of the numerous times he stole precious items, only to place them in Carmelita's office the next day with a flirtatious note attached.
The hours training under Carmelita seemed to fly by to Sly, and he was able to get proficient at everything rather quickly.
'At least I know that all my training to be a thief didn't go to waste,' Sly thought. Weapons training was the only thing that Sly had a little hang up on: he became proficient at using a shock pistol because he had to, but he really despised the weapon. Sly just preferred sneaking up behind and defeating his enemies by hand.
'Some things never change,' Carmelita thought as she saw her partner take down another 'perp' in his training rounds without the aide of the shock pistol strapped by his side.
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Sly felt that the training was the easiest thing for him to get used to while starting his work at Interpol. Now, office bureaucracy and politics, that was something new to him. The former thief was used to getting along with his old coworkers, and if he bugged Bentley or Murray or they bugged him, they just let each other know and got on with work. Of course, he could take the office craziness: he was used to dealing with creeps and liars as a master thief and he even started to figure out how to get around the office bureaucracy- I mean, come on, he was still Sly Cooper, master thief, if he could maneuver around laser security systems, then he could get around a little office red tape! Sly also paid no attention to the flirting he received from some of the female officers and the cold, jealous stares he got from some of the male officers. He was used to being treated like he was different from everyone else, ever since grammar school, when he and his friends were shunned for being orphans, or for being too sneaky or too brainy or too big. The one thing that really shocked and bothered him though was how Carmelita was treated by some of her fellow officers. Call it a biased opinion, but Sly thought that Carmelita was an excellent policewoman. In fact, she had been the only officer in Interpol assigned to his case that had ever gotten close to apprehending him (and that was even when he wasn't trying to get caught by her!). Consequently, he felt that she would be treated like the outstanding officer with the near perfect arrest record she was. Boy was he wrong! Most of the officers at Interpol were fine, respectable people, but some of the male officers still had a 'boy's club' mentality and they would ogle and hit on some of the more attractive female personnel. Sly was surprised at how little they took the hint when Carmelita would glare at them or make a smart comment when they tried their pathetic pick up lines (though he had to admit to himself that he didn't take the hint either when she rejected him after some of the corny pick up lines he said to her in the past). Some of the female officers were just as bad. They were jealous that Carmelita received the attention she did from some of the male officers (like she even asked for it), and most of them were fond of Sly, being the new, svelte, muscular, well-built recruit that he was, and were jealous that he was Carmelita's partner and seemed to pay her and not them any attention.
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After a while, Sly got over the interpersonal nonsense and felt that maybe it was time he started being a little more social around work. Sly was a pretty extroverted guy (for a man who used to make a living sneaking around places!) and though he loved spending time with Carmelita, he felt it might be in his best interest to get to know his fellow officers. Besides, he wouldn't mind having a couple more friends around work (being that he almost spent a hundred percent of his time with his one 'friend' and he had no idea where his two best friends were currently). So, one day at lunch, Sly asked Carmelita, if she wanted to go with him and have lunch with some of the other officers. Carmelita became really quiet.
"I don't know Sly. I'm pretty immersed in my work usually, so I'm not really friendly with a lot of people here," the vixen replied, with what might have been a hint of trepidation in her voice.
It hurt Sly to see the strong and proud policewoman he admired for so long feel so small and hurt. He knew that she had been treated badly by a lot of her co-workers, but he also knew that her life would be better as well if she knew a few more friendly faces at work. With that decided, the constable sat down next to his partner and quietly talked to her, so nobody could hear their conversation.
"Look Inspector, I don't remember how things were before my 'condition', but I see the way that some of the 'officers' and I use that term loosely for some of them, treat you and I personally would go and let those guys and gals know exactly what I think of them, but then I'd be thrown off the force," Carmelita felt a little better at the thought of Sly defending her like that, "I'm just saying that there are a lot of officers here who aren't complete jerks and it might do us both some good to get to know some of them. I bet you're probably getting tired of just seeing my sorry face day in and day out. So, come on…' smiling, Sly offered his hand to Carmelita.
'Things are definitely different with you around ringtail', Carmelita thought.
It was funny, but for how brave she was on the job, Carmelita had been intimidated with the thought of being social with her fellow officers. She knew that she had a bad reputation around the office as being harsh and hot-tempered (though that was mainly due to her interactions with those meat-heads who hit on her) and she just felt things would be easier if she kept to herself. She did realize that someone like Sly would eventually want to make some more friends and she was encouraged by the fact that he wanted her to join him in meeting new people. Though feeling she might regret it, the inspector took her partner's hand and followed him over to another table.
"Hi do you mind if we join you for lunch?" Sly asked with a smile.
"No problem, have a seat," one of the officers replied.
"Well let me introduce myself. I'm one of the new officers in training, Sly Cooper and this is my partner, Carmelita Fox," Sly responded.
Lunch went better than Carmelita expected. Both her and Sly were welcomed by the officers and everyone seemed to have a good time. Carmelita would have been upset if she heard the conversation her co-workers had after she and Sly left: though it wasn't as bad as one would have thought….
"Carmelita has a new partner, huh. I guess no one's told him about 'Old Ironsides' yet."
"I don't know. Didn't Fox seem different to you today, a lot more friendly and approachable than normal?"
"Well, yeah, for once she didn't eat lunch by herself."
"Yeah and our conversation was pretty lively."
"Maybe we've misjudged her."
"We'll see. Who knows, it might be nice to get to know the 'real' Inspector Fox."
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With Sly's help (though honestly Carmelita didn't realize he was helping her, she just felt more comfortable in his presence and was able to let more people see a better side of her without worrying what everyone would think), Carmelita became a lot more social around work. She and Sly would even go out with some of the other officers on Friday nights for drinks, though Sly would usually nurse a soda when they were out, he had never been much of a drinker. As Carmelita became more social around work, her icy façade melted and luckily, so did the 'Ironsides' nickname.
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Although a little unorthodox in some of his techniques, Sly had passed his proficiencies. When Sly was finished with his training, he had the next big hurdle in front of him: his first big mission with Carmelita.
Carmelita sat Sly down in her office to go over the details of their mission.
"You probably don't remember, but before your 'incident' your specialty was recon and infiltration, but with a twist. Constable, you were an incredible undercover agent and still are. You have the ability to blend in to any situation and get inside many different operations that other officers couldn't. The case that we're on is going to take a few weeks of work before we can carry out the actual bust. The two of us are going undercover and both of us, but especially you, are going to need to make the target feel comfortable enough to get us into his inner circle. This job is going to take some finesse: the man we're trying to take down has a known criminal reputation, but he's equally known and comfortable in high class, law-abiding circles," Carmelita briefed the new constable.
"Oh, like Dimitri Cousteau," Sly realized his mistake only after he made it. He kept his cool though and waited to react based on Carmelita's next actions.
Alarm bells started to go off in Carmelita's head.
'If he has amnesia, he shouldn't know about Cousteau's past. That occurred way before our time on Kaine island and Dimitri hasn't been seen in criminal circles for a while, another man who seemed to have gone legit.'
'Now wait, see if there is a rational explanation for his knowing this,' she told herself, for once not wanting to overreact prematurely.
"Have you been reading up on our past work Cooper?" Carmelita asked, hoping he would pass her test.
"I'm ashamed to admit it, but you caught me, partner. I just couldn't stand not knowing about our past work together and so I flipped through some of our past files to get a handle on the types of characters we've dealt with. You know, in order to prepare for our, my, first mission back. I hate not being prepared, so I felt like I needed to get this background info. I hope I didn't overstep any boundaries."
"No, that's okay. I'm glad you're taking the initiative. Now let's get back to the case at hand….' Carmelita was at least partially relieved by his explanation. Though, she knew Cooper better: if anyone else had told her that story, she would have totally believed them. But Sly, now he was smart enough to come up with a cover like that and make it sound believable. She hated not trusting him, but something inside her knew that Sly was totally capable of faking amnesia. Sometimes she thought that she caught him saying or doing things that he probably shouldn't have known. Things that made it seem like Sly still had memories about their past together. Carmelita did know that it was easiest for her to trust her partner, since he'd given her no reason to believe he's not trustworthy now. Though a small part of her did hope that he was faking amnesia, because it meant that he knew who he was and was going legit because he wanted to, possibly because he wanted to be with her, and not because he had no other choice. In any case, she did hope that his reading those files didn't jog his memory too much: she'd have to keep a closer eye on what files he has access to in the future.
Inside, Sly breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that Carmelita bought his cover story. Though the raccoon knew her better. Carmelita was so smart that she could not believe his story but give him the impression that she did to lull him into a false sense of security. At the moment, he did feel that his thoughts seemed like a bit of paranoia. Deep down, he did hope that she knew that he didn't have amnesia, since maybe it would show her that he truly did go legit and that maybe she would also realize that he did it for her.
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After a few weeks of recon work, it was finally time for Sly and Carmelita to make their first bust as partners. The two got dolled up for the evening: they had been posing as society types in order to get close to their mark and gather damaging evidence on him. Tonight at a gala event, they were going to surprise him with a trip to jail, but before they left, Carmelita had some plans for Sly.
"Sly, I have a surprise for you," Carmelita beamed as went into the kitchen.
"What is it partner? Don't forget, we have our first real mission since I was re-instated and I want everything to go smoothly," Sly said as he left his room dressed to the nines in his tuxedo.
"It won't take too long. Besides, we have to celebrate," Carmelita said as she left the kitchen with a bottle of champagne and two glasses.
Sly got a first look at Carmelita in her long black evening gown and was taken back by her beauty, though he remembered his cover.
"Looking good partner. Now what are we celebrating?"
"Thanks. You clean up nice yourself. Well, we're celebrating our first official operation as partners, again. I must say that out of the ones I've had in the past, you've been the best to work with," Carmelita wanted to mention that it had also been three months to the day that Sly had given up his old life, but she knew better.
"Nice to know. Though I hope you won't be regretting saying that tonight," Sly tensed up a little after saying that because he knew there was a lot riding on tonight. If things didn't go well, he might be thrown off the force, or worse, he could be responsible for getting Carmelita fired as well. He was used to operations, but smaller ones. Working for Interpol meant orchestrating huge operations with multiple operatives all working in sync. He was prepared, but this type of mission wasn't his usual mode of operation.
"Don't worry, we've gone over all the scenarios multiple times. Plus, you did receive some of the best scores in your training, even for someone with amnesia," Carmelita tried to comfort Sly. It was rare to see him nervous and although she found it cute, the vixen knew she needed her partner ready to go for tonight. Sly wasn't the only one who knew how much was riding on a successful outcome of the mission.
"Now, let's toast to your first mission back at Interpol," Carmelita said, keeping up her ruse as she poured the champagne and stepped onto her balcony with her glass.
"To our first mission," Sly corrected her as he joined her on the balcony and they clinked glasses before taking a sip.
"Tonight seems like it's going to be a good night," Carmelita commented as she took in the view from her apartment.
Sly was also enjoying the view, and not just the scenery, if you know what I mean, when he felt that he was being watched. He quickly looked behind him and smiled as he saw his former, green 'guardian angel' peering at him through a familiar set of binocucoms a few buildings away. He was happy to see his friend, though a little ashamed of not telling him goodbye and gave the turtle a wink to let him know that he knew that he was there and to let his friend know that he was doing fine.
"See something Sly?" Carmelita asked, when she noticed him look over his shoulder for a brief moment.
"I thought I did, but it was nothing, must be those nerves of mine."
"For the last time, you'll be fine. Now let's go before the chief starts to get impatient."
"Starts?" Sly asked mockingly.
Carmelita laughed at his joke as the two went inside the apartment before they got their coats and left to meet their fellow officers to start the final stages of their undercover operation.