The engagement was extremely short, since both Sly and Carmelita were eager to officially start their new life together. Besides their families, most of Interpol came to the ceremony of two of their most successful officers, (luckily, the Cooper gang had been off the radar for a while, so Bentley, Murray and Penelope were only met with pleasantries from the officers) as well as some of Sly's past friends. The Guru came to offer his spiritual blessing, though most of the guests weren't sure of what he said at all. Jean King came and offered her blessing and that of her father. Sly had invited the Panda King (wow, a member of the Fiendish Five invited to Sly Cooper's wedding, the world's a crazy place, ain't it folks?), but he respectfully declined since he thought it wasn't prudent for a former member of the Fiendish Five to attend an event with so many Interpol officers present. He felt the attention should naturally be on the new couple and not himself. And everyone was shocked and impressed to see the celebrity skin diver, Dimitri Cousteau, make an appearance. The new couple was a little surprised (but happy) to see him since he didn't receive an invitation. Sly figured, why waste the paper when he was sure his old friend would show up to grace everyone with his presence. The wedding was an incredible night and the new couple spent their honeymoon week at their new home: they already traveled around the world for work and decided that the most exotic thing for them would be an actual week off from work at home.

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Speaking of home:

The two of them sold their apartments in the city and bought an old farm a little outside the suburbs of Paris. The farmhouse was large enough for them and their entire 'extended family' if they so chose to visit. They also turned the old barn into a training area, complete with work-out machines and a place for sparring, gymnastics, martial arts, etc. This extra space allowed the two of them to spend a little more time at home since they didn't need to use the Paris Interpol work out facilities as often, and it allowed them to continually sharpen their skills. Besides, nothing turned the two of them on like a bout of intense physical and verbal sparring. The property was also large enough for the two of them to occasionally relive some of their past days and practice their agility and tracking techniques. I mean, they really couldn't run around the rooftops of Paris now to rekindle some of that early excitement and passion they had. So chasing each other around their property at night was a good substitute. Sly preferred it that way anyway: there were no shock pistol blasts to dodge and it was never a bad thing if he got caught!

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The couple had consummated their relationship on their wedding night (when else would you do it?) and a month or so after they had settled down in their Parisian farm, both were overjoyed to discover that Carmelita was pregnant. Sly predictably became the doting husband and Carmelita had to put her foot down at times in order to let him know that she appreciated his help, but that she was really more than capable of doing most things for herself. If Carmelita became self-conscious about her pregnancy weight, she wasn't able to show it.

"You know Carmelita, pregnancy has done something to you that I never thought was possible."

"What's that Cooper?" she asked on guard and Sly knew to be careful since she would call him by his surname when she got a little annoyed with him.

"It's made you even more beautiful than I could have possibly imagined," he replied as he came up behind her and kissed her cheek and gently rubbed her pregnant belly.

"You are such a generous woman," he told her.

"I know, but what's the reason this time?"

"Because you've given me another wonderful gift," again he rubbed her belly gently.

Carmelita couldn't believe how sappy her husband was getting: wasn't he the same Sly Cooper that used to taunt her and give her so much agitation? She realized that this apparently suave ladies' man was really a fragile little boy after all: one who was overjoyed at having a family again. Though if she was honest with herself, beneath the exterior she took so much care in building up, she was just a sad little girl at times. Carmelita knew that though both of them seemed so strong from the outside, they had both been falling apart internally. She now understood her husband's seemingly over the top affection for her and for their child: their current life was a true gift. If things had not proceeded exactly the way that they had occurred, if she had told Sly that he was a master thief and not her partner, or if Sly didn't accept the idea, none of this would have happened: she would have burned herself out in her obsession over work, he would have become a lonely husk of a thief, and neither of them would have realized true happiness on the paths they had formerly walked alone. Carmelita turned and passionately kissed her husband.

"What was that for, querera?"

"An apology for getting frustrated at your over the top affection towards me. I just figured out what you've known for a while- how lucky we truly are and how miserable we both would have been if things didn't turn out the way they did."

"I know, but I found out it's best to not dwell on that anymore. It's too depressing a thought. Besides, we have too much of a future together to be focusing on the past," and he hugged her as they both caressed the area where their new child was resting.

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about 8 months later:

The new parents looked at the little raccoon girl nestled in her mother's arms. She had her father's coloring: she was gray all over, including her face, which, like her dad's, was missing the typical 'mask' around the eyes, though she also had three black rings around her tail. The rest of her was more like her mother: she had a fluffier fox-like tail, her ears and facial features looked more like Carmelita's and she had raven black hair. The tiny raccoon looked up at her parents with her brown eyes and the pair of them beamed at their little Sadie Cooper.

Sly was just beside himself with happiness. He never imagined that this was where his life would have taken him. It was funny, he felt more fulfilled now as a husband and father than he ever did before. He now had the two most precious things in the world, 'mis chicas', his girls. This was the treasure he earned while in the Cooper Vault and it was worth everything he had been through to get it.

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Though Sly and Carmelita were loving parents, there was one thing that none of their years of training could have prepared them for: their new little girl. There seemed to be one big disadvantage to Sadie being both a Cooper and a Fox: she had an almost endless supply of energy that didn't seem to wane night or day. She was a happy, content little thing and wasn't too troublesome, she just never seemed to have an off button (though when she did fall asleep, she was usually out cold, in order to store up more energy for later!). Sadie would eventually outgrow her precociousness, but like her parents, she never seemed to be able to be more than a few steps away from trouble…

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When Sadie was about two, her father was carrying her in his arms around the house. He stopped in front of the hallway mirror and showed her their reflections.

"Look, that's daddy," Sly said as he pointed to his reflection, "and that's Sadie," he pointed to her reflection.

"See. Daddy," he pointed to himself again. "Sadie," he pointed to her.

Sly expected his daughter to get excited about seeing their reflections, but she got quiet as her big brown eyes stared at the reflections looking at her. Whatever she was thinking was starting to upset her.

Carmelita walked into the hall to see her family standing in front of the mirror: she noticed that Sadie was starting to look upset as she looked from her reflection to her dad's. A realization hit Carmelita.

"I'm surprised I figured this out before you," she whispered into her worried husband's ear as she gently touched his shoulder and started to remove his mask.

When Sadie saw her father's new reflection in the mirror, she took a minute and thoughtfully looked from his reflection to hers and back to his again.

"Daddy!" she gleefully yelled as she looked at him and grabbed his face, bringing his to hers and nosing him, "Daddy."

Carmelita smiled and put the mask in front of Sly's eyes again. "Who's this?" she asked her daughter.

"Daddy!" Sadie exclaimed.

"And this?" she asked as she took the mask away and showed her daughter Sly's plain gray face again.

"Daddy."

"Who's this?" she asked as she placed the mask on her daughter's face and showed her daughter her reflection.

Sadie pondered the reflection for a second, smiled and let out a joyful, yet whispered, "Sadie!"

"Yes. Now who's this?" Carmelita said as she took the mask off of her daughter and showed her the new reflection.

"Sadie!" her daughter exclaimed, proud of her new realization.

Carmelita put her daughter down and the pair watched as she played in the hallway with the blue mask, putting it on and off and getting excited when she caught her reflection in glass or another reflective surface.

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A few days later, Alma had come to stay with her daughter's family for a while to help take care of Sadie while Carmelita went back to work, as well as to enjoy her first grandchild.

"Abuela, mis ojos, my eyes!"

Alma got worried and carefully examined her granddaughter's eyes, worried that she had irritated them somehow.

"There's nothing wrong with your eyes, nieta," she said relieved, "now go play and abuela will make you some lunch."

When lunch was ready, Alma noticed that the house was unusually quiet.

"What is that granddaughter of mine up to?" she thought to herself. Alma had raised two Fox girls and she knew how rambunctious they were. She could hardly imagine the trouble that a Fox and Cooper child could get into. She finally found her granddaughter in her parent's room, enjoying looking at herself in her mother's full-length mirror with what looked like a homemade mask wrapped around her face and a pair of scissors and one of her father's blue shirts cut up lying on the floor.

Sadie stopped and looked at her grandmother in her new Cooper mask and looked a little worried. Her grandmother just smiled at her and said.

"Que bonita! You're parents will be quite surprised when they come home today. Now let's go get some lunch."

The little girl was napping when her parents came home. Alma told them that there was a surprise for them and to not get upset. The two of them looked at their sleeping daughter and saw the new addition to her angelic face.

"She made it herself today, out of one of your shirts, hijo," Alma said, squeezing her son, as she brought them into their bedroom and showed them the tattered remains of one of Sly's old thief shirts.

"I guess this means we should get her a proper mask," Sly replied, the two Fox women laughing in reply.

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Sadie didn't have too much trouble fitting in with the other children when she started school: she was a bright, funny and outgoing child and she had a lot of friends when she started school. As she got older though, Sadie started to get tired of the cliques and bullies and just general nonsense of school and stopped trying to 'earn' other people's friendships. She was friendly to everyone, but she just wasn't going to jump through hoops to fit in. Around the same time, she started to develop a certain pair's sense of right and wrong.

When a pair of the school bully's underpants had mysteriously disappeared from his gym locker and appeared on the head of the ten foot statue in front of the school, only two individuals knew who had the ability to pull off such a feat.

"It looks like we need to reign in some of your daughter's excessive energy Mr. Cooper."

"Any suggestions Mrs. Cooper?"

"Well, I do have one suggestion…." as a smile spread across the vixen's face….

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"Gymnastics? Why do I have to take gymnastics classes?" the young raccoon complained.

"Your father and I feel that they will give you an outlet for that excess energy of yours."

"Besides mi hija, think of this as the cost for your mother and I keeping quiet about who placed that boy's under shorts on the statue," Sly said as he smiled proudly and kissed her on the head.

"Well, he had it coming to him. He had been terrorizing the chess club so much and they did nothing to deserve it. It was so frustrating to see nothing done about it, so I took things into my own hands," Sadie vented to her parents.

"It looks like someone is developing her mother's temper," Sly teased with a smile.

"And her father's sense of justice," Carmelita teased back.

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For all the complaining she did when she found out she was signed up for gymnastics classes (pre-teens, go figure), Sadie took well to the sport. Besides doing well, she really enjoyed herself. Her parents were right: she did some type of outlet for her energy, she was a natural at it (for some reason, ) and she seemed to get along better with the girls in her class since they all shared a common interest.