Sly Cooper: Armed and Dangerous Chapter 21: Fall To Pieces, a sly cooper fanfic

(A/N: Heya, guys! I decided to slip in another song for this chapter. I heard this from my sister's stereo and felt that it just seemed to fit. Enjoy!)

Sly Cooper: Armed and Dangerous

Tampico, Mexico

6:11 am

The Orca was a flurry of activity as the current crew members hurried to dump things overboard. Things like tables, chairs, pots and pans, crates, ammunition that wouldn't fit in the captain's cabin, all went overboard in their desperation to lighten the ship of the required seventy pounds. Bentley's laptop was sitting in his lap, monitoring the weight as items went off. Once or twice he had to reposition the computer so that it wouldn't slide off his legs.

Marty, having injected himself with a painkiller, was hobbling around on Bentley's prosthesis, helping out as much as he could. It was rather odd when your leg touched the ground and you expected to feel the contact in your foot, but instead only felt more pressure on the top half. The first time Marty stood with the metallic appendage, it had just felt so wrong. Now, however, it felt like…well, like his leg was still there. At times, his imagination supplied the feelings for his missing foot, and now, it seemed as though he'd never lost that limb. It had taken some getting used to, but Marty finally just ignored the thing. The first time he had put the leg on and fallen over, thrashing from pain and trying to keep his balance, seemed like a dream now.

Marty had exchanged the only piece of his clothing that had survived, his battered, blood-stained jeans, for some clothes out of the captain's cabin. They were a little tight, but at least they worked. A new muscle shirt, which popped a few stitches as Marty pulled it on, another pair of blue jeans, the pockets of which were too small to fit his hands into, some old cowboy boots that seemed already stretched and fit his foot decently, a pair of gloves that he'd had to tear the fingers off of to make fit, and, to top off the new outfit, a weathered, old, black Stetson. The first time Marty observed himself in the mirror, he had to admit that he could pass for a Texan. At least the captain had clothes that were somewhere around his size.

Now, the gangs were down to the final minutes before they were to launch the ship and get "Operation Wave Rider," as Bentley called it, under way. Marty was standing at the starboard bow gunwale, that is, the front right side of the ship. The water just looked so pleasant right now, he could see his reflection, even from about twenty feet up. He looked over to his right and spotted Dimitri, about two hundred feet away, smoking a cigarette. Right about now, Marty considered having one himself. The equine sighed and looked back to the water, shifting his weight back onto his left leg. The painkiller was starting to wear off now, and the stump of his leg was starting to get sore.

"What's that like?"

The voice was soft and quiet, but Marty still jumped in shock. He whirled around, hand going for the gun that he knew wasn't there, and forced himself to take a breath as he spotted Caroline, standing right behind him. As soon as his heartbeat returned to normal, he asked, breathlessly, "What's what like?"

I looked away
Then I look back at you
You try to say
The things that you can't undo
If I had my way
I'd never get over you
Today's the day
I pray that we make it through

Make it through the fall
Make it through it all

And I don't wanna fall to pieces
I just want to sit and stare at you
I don't want to talk about it
And I don't want a conversation
I just want to cry in front of you
I don't want to talk about it
Cuz I'm in Love With you

Caroline walked up and leaned on the gunwale next to him, still looking at him.

"Missing a leg. My uncle fought in Vietnam, and he never got that sort of injury."

Marty sighed and looked back into the water, a glum look on his face. Caroline, catching on, hurriedly said "Sorry. Stupid question."

Marty laughed gently, but didn't smile, commenting "No, it's okay. You're curious. It's just that…well, I'm not ready to talk about it yet."

Caroline nodded, understanding. There were just times when an individual just had to keep to themselves. Marty looked back at her for a second before taking note of something; he'd told her all about him, and he knew almost nothing about her. He frowned, thinking that this might be as good a time as any to ask, since they weren't going anywhere.

"Hey, what about you?"

"Hmm? What about me?"

"What about…well, your life. Your past, mostly. I'm curious about who I'm-" Marty caught himself in time and continued, rather rushed "Who I'm traveling with."

She looked at him suspiciously, making Marty sure that she wasn't deceived. She could tell he was hiding something.

"And I know what it is. Now, to make him stop hiding it!" the Labrador thought to herself.

Caroline smiled and brushed a strand of blonde hair that had come loose out of her face. Marty watched her with hidden fascination, wishing that he could be the one pulling the rouge strand away.

"Well, my mother was British, brother to my uncle. My father, slightly surprisingly, was a Staffordshire Bull Terrier."

Marty blinked and frowned in disbelief. SHE was a hybrid of species too? She continued, however, before he could do anything else.

"They met in Montreal, Canada. My mother was on a business trip for Interpol, and my father had been stationed in Portsmouth by the Queen's Army. He was part of the 23rd Armored, drove a tank, and had been on leave from Portsmouth, where his and many other forces were sitting in preparation for a launch to South America. Britain had many colonies on the Falkland Islands, and hostilities between them and the Argentinean government made Parliament paranoid. My father was in a pub, having a few drinks with his friends, when he spotted my mother across the street. Several of his friends also saw her, and they began making bets about who would be able to seduce her. Almost all of them failed, but my father didn't get into it at all. Instead, he tracked her down to her apartment and apologized for his friends' behavior. My mother was touched, and they became friends. They stuck together for a few days, up until my father had to leave to go back to Portsmouth. Even then, he and my mother still kept in touch. When the Falkland war erupted a year later, my father was shipped out with his division, but he and my mother still wrote letters to each other. By now, they were deeply in love. My father, early in the war, managed to single-handedly infiltrate and blow up an enemy fuel and ammo depot when he got separated from the rest his division. Of course, mind you, he had a tank and all, but the higher ups still praised him. For that, he got a promotion to Captain and a two month leave. Of course, he chose Portsmouth. From there, he went back to my mother. By the time he left, she as pregnant with me, and they were engaged."

A forlorn looked settled on the canine's face.

"Of course, he didn't return after that. He was killed in action when an enemy artillery shell came down on his tank, which was leading his division towards Stanley, the capital of Falkland Islands, during the final assault."

You're the only one,
I'd be with till the end
When I come undone
You bring me back again
Back under the stars
Back into your arms

Marty frowned slightly, shifting his weight onto his prosthetic leg since his real one was going numb.

"What about your mother?"

Caroline turned back to him, a small smile on his face, but sadness in her eyes.

"She died during childbirth."

Marty was taken aback, slightly. "Oh…I'm sorry."

"I've managed to cope." She replied, standing up straight and looking out to the sea. "Uncle took me in, started me of in law enforcement when I was sixteen. Of course, then I was only his secretary. When I hit seventeen, one year from graduating out of high school, I decided that enough was enough, and applied for Oxford University." She smiled again. "I got in and graduated six months ago. I was a weapons scientist, assigned to Weapons Research and Development. My first experiment was to design a shotgun that could fire further and more powerfully. Unfortunately, Shuker had begun his war with the police by then, so it wasn't really that surprising that one day, when I come back to my lab, my prototype is gone. They took it out in the field, untested. A man lost his arm there. Since then, Interpol's faith in scatterguns has steadily gone downhill."

Wanna know who you are
Wanna know where to start
I wanna know what this means

Wanna know how you feel
Wanna know what is real
I wanna know everything, everything

Caroline turned back to Marty, expecting him to be looking out to sea, not paying attention and lost in his thoughts, but instead, she found him staring at her, his eye-lids half-closed, a small smile on his face. Caroline blinked a few times.

Their faces were so close.

She could see a scar over his eyebrow, hidden in his reddish-brown hair, and he could see the different layers of her chocolate eyes. Slowly, the distance between their lips began to close.

I'm in Love With you

Caroline's eyelids closed halfway, her head canting to the side slowly, lips parted slightly.

Cuz I'm in Love With you

She looked into his eyes and saw passion and longing etched in every millimter. She had no doubt it was what was in her mind and eyes too.

I'm in Love With you

Slowly, ever so slowly, their lips met, and for that brief moment, all of the harbor, hell, all the world seemed frozen. Caroline could feel joy, passion, longing, and ecstasy leaking out of her as she slowly moved her velvety lips against his rough and weathered ones, memorizing his taste, his texture, everything about those lips. They opened, slightly, and his tongue ran along her lips slightly, begging for entrance.

I'm in Love With you

She smiled, slightly, opening her mouth to allow him in, all the while feeling his arms wrap around her waist as she put hers around his neck, pulling him in and deepening the kiss. One thing was running through both their minds; Oh, my god, I must be dreaming!

Fifty meters away, the coyote sniper was watching them through binoculars, his rifle leaning against the railing of the fire escape. He had, however, no intention of firing at them, for his mouth hung open as he recognized her; Caroline Newkirk, the niece of the Chief in Paris. Missing posters with her face had gone up everywhere in every Interpol Headquarters; New York, Mexico City, London, Sydney-ALL the major cities.

The coyote began groping around for his handset, still watching them.

"Caramba, McCoy. I'd say you have good taste, but you're deep in the shit pile now."

Finally, he brought the handset up to his ear.

"Oi! Amigo! It's me! Listen, I'm coming back down, get on the horn to HQ and tell them I've got some VERY interesting news for them!"

He listened for a few seconds, then said "Si. Out."

He was just about to go down the ladder when he took one last look at Marty and Caroline, then slid down the ladder, a slight smile on his face with one thought in mind ; "Promotion to Detective, here I come!"

Mexico City

7:29 am

Sly flopped back on the couch, sighing in relief. He hadn't even bothered to hang up his padded jacket, and it simply lay on the floor. Murray had unlaced and kicked off his combat boots and literally sank into an overstuffed armchair, a broad grin on his face as he leaned back and closed his eyes. Julio leapt up next to Sly, picking up the TV's remote and flipping through the channels, whistling at the widescreen plasma set. Mikhail, having properly hung up his trench coat, was rummaging in the refrigerator for something cold to drink, and came up, grinning, with a Coors Lite. He took a few gulps, then sighed as well, shutting the door and sitting down in another chair.

Unbeknownst to all of them, however, they were being watched by a certain…individual. Muggshot scratched his chin as he watched through the security monitors. Vinny, being the loyal dog that he was, had fetched the gang lord as soon as he could. It didn't take long for a plan to formulate in Muggshot's head. He turned back to the Doberman, who was smoking a new cigarette, and said "Watch them for a few days. Send them a warning. If they don't clear out by next week-" Muggshot finished with a finger across the throat.

(Sorry about the rushed ending, but I really wanted to get the first part in. I finally did it! I wrote a love scene all on my own! HELLS YEAH!!)