Disclaimer: I don't own any Sly Cooper characters; they belong to Sucker Punch. The idea of Phantom of the Opera belongs to its rightful owner(s).

Claimer: I own all of my original characters.

Ok, I know it's a little late in the story to say this but I do try to update daily, it's not always at the same time, but I do try to get things posted before 10 on weekdays then there's no telling on weekends. But this story is starting to wind down; it'll probably go to 12 chapters, maybe 13. And I do have a few oneshot ideas in the works but no really big stories like this. There is a possibility that I'll do a crossover (if I can think of a decent plot) between the Sly Cooper and Crash Bandicoot (since with my stories the Crash characters are related to my OC) but I'm not sure yet. That one is just a big 'if' but I do have a few oneshots in progress. Anyway, if you have any questions, comments, etc. about the story please let me know. So, please read and review and let me know what you think.

Chapter 9: Realization

My heavy eyelids opened slowly and I let the steady stream of light enter my eyes. I had to blink my eyes and allow them to focus before it finally registered in my mind that I was in a hospital and not dead. I actually couldn't see how that was even possible but of course overjoyed that I hadn't slipped into a permanent state of rest. I sighed and gently placed a paw over my wrapped wound. Even though it was stitched, I could still feel the deep cut in my abdomen and each movement sent a dull ache to it. It wasn't that big of a gash, five inches maybe, but it certainly was deep and it had to have hit a few organs. I looked around the room, hoping to see someone there with me to talk to, but I was alone. I had no idea where Bentley was and Ramona certainly wasn't around. That's when I remembered yelling her name before I passed out. She had handed me off to her two brothers before heading back down the staircase. I sighed and sunk my head into my pillow when realizing she probably went back down there and got married to the Phantom. Realization hit me like a ton of bricks when it sunk in my brain that I had failed at my job and that she was probably getting ready to honeymoon with the man who stabbed me right now. Despite all my efforts, I still had failed at saving her from the Phantom and now her memory was whatever he wanted it to be and she would more than likely hate my guts from here on out. I couldn't help but feel horrible in more ways than one. I was sitting in a hospital bed with a stab would, I was alone in the hospital, and then to add icing to the cake of misery, the woman I was madly in love with was married to another man and I would never be able to talk to her again without being called a stalker or worse.

"Can we talk?" my head shot up from the pillow and my eyes were glued to the door to the room, the place where the all too familiar voice had come from.

"Sure," I said as I patted the side of my bed since there were no other chairs or pieces of furniture in the room. I was actually surprised to see that Ramona was standing in the doorway to my hospital room wanting to talk, "What are you doing here? I thought that you…" I paused and didn't want to complete my sentence and admit defeat. I could see that she had something in her grasp but I wasn't entirely sure what it was. She came in slowly and gently sat down on the edge of the bed and picked at her fingernails.

"No," she was quiet and still fumbled with her nails, "I decided not to in the end," She had changed out of her wedding dress and changed simply into a pair of jeans and a sweater since I last saw her so I could only assume I'd been in here for a while, "I needed to talk to you about what you told me," she finally made eye contact, "but I still don't know who you are." I sighed and sat up as best as I could.

"I was afraid you'd say that," I said quietly as she looked back down at her paws. Her bangs fell over the left side of her face so I couldn't see what she was looking at directly but it surely wasn't eye contact, "Then what did you want to talk about?" she picked up the object she had come in with and handed it to me. I had forgotten about leaving my cane in the sewers and somewhat surprised to see she had decided to return it.

"You left this down there," she looked up again, "I figured it was important." I grabbed her paw with mine when she handed to cane over to my possession but she pulled away. We sat in silence before I attempted to start up a conversation.

"Why did you go back down after bringing me up?" I could only assume why she had gone back down there but if she said she didn't marry him then my hopes were lifted.

"Honestly, I went back down to get married, but after I went back down he had changed," she looked at me again, "He was a little more forceful and eager to get the wedding moving but I wanted to figure out why he…" she paused and pointed to my abdomen and I nodded, "but he just wanted to get married and ignore what happened and just get married. That's all he talked about doing. I still refused until he told me why he was so forceful but he was still headstrong. It was when he grabbed me by the arm once and tried to pull me to the altar that I figured something was wrong. That was crossing the line when he tried to yank me to the altar." I knew she had a temper and forcing her to do anything was a bad choice.

"So what'd you do?" I had a pretty good idea on what she did, but hearing it from her was just icing on the cake.

"I beat the snot out of him." I smirked and let out a snort of laughter at her comment and to my surprise she smiled as well, "he's over there in the other room," she pointed to the rooms across from mine.

"You put him in the hospital?" I was still smirking at just the thought of having the Phantom sitting in the same predicament I was enough to make me not care about getting stabbed. She nodded and laughed again, "Whether you have memory faults or not you still have a temper, don't you pretty lady?" I winked and she nodded before staring at me intently.

"You've called me that before, haven't you?" I nodded. It wasn't everyday that I called her that, but if she could remember one name that I called her, she might remember other things if I could trigger them in her mind. I watched as her eyebrows knitted together in thought. She shook her head before sighing softly. I assumed she still had her selective amnesia and I couldn't think of anything that would help jog her memory.

"I don't know," she simply muttered before reaching up and swiping the apple that had been placed on the lunch tray next to my bed.

"You little sneak!" I said through a laugh and she nodded before starting to stare again. I stared back and watched to see what she would do next. He pupils seemed to shrink back to normal size and the fog that clouded them disappeared. She blinked rapidly a few times before looking at me again before glancing around the room. Her glances finally returned to me and shook her head disapprovingly.

"Sly," she said after she started to chew through the apple she stole, "what did you do this time?" she motioned to my wrapped abdomen and raised an eyebrow. This was the first time she had called me by my first name since this entire ordeal had started and now she didn't know why I was in the hospital, "And you call me the klutz." She shifted her position on the edge of the bed and sat like in Indian; staring the entire time.

"You have no idea what happened?" was the only thing I could ask. She shook her head and gnawed at the apple she still had clutched in her paw.

"Not really. I mean," she paused and brushed her bangs out of the way, "you were fine yesterday when you tried to get that file you left at my apartment and now you're cooped up in a hospital. What's you do?" she was referring to a file I had left at her home a week before. The only thing it could think of was that her amnesia caused by the Phantom had gone away but she had no memory of what happened while she was 'engaged' to the Phantom.

"Do you not remember anything that's happened in the past week?" I was trying to decipher what was going through her mind and it appeared she was doing the same with me.

"I think someone can't handle hospital medicines." She giggled before pushing my head softly and standing. I watched as she walked to the foot of the bed and overlooked the medical records that pertained to my stabbing, "You got stabbed?" she said loudly after looking back up.

"You were there!" I couldn't help but laugh out my answer. She knitted her eyebrows together again and sat on the edge of the bed.

"No I wasn't!" She shot back and playfully rolled her eyes, "I think I would have remembered that. Just tell me what happened."

"I'll explain it to you later." Even if she didn't remember anything about the past week, including a few personal feelings that finally came to the surface, I had the old Ramona back and I'd be able to explain what happened to her later. She raised an eyebrow suspiciously and I pulled her towards me in a hug. She replied with a grunt but fell into the hug quickly. The union was short lived when the sounds of footsteps could be heard coming towards the room and Ramona sat up quickly. We both stared at the door and watched Inspector Fox stand at the doorway. She motioned for Ramona to meet her in the hallway. Ramona lifted an eyebrow in suspicion but hesitantly followed her sister to the hallway. I watched her slap the handcuffs on her sister and attempt to explain to her why she was being arrested. But like the Ramona I knew all too well, she put up a fight. Ramona was just as headstrong as Carmelita and the Inspector had to eventually call another officer the haul the flustered raccoon away.

"Battery and assault charges," she turned to me, "I doubt they'll stick though. She manages to avoid every charge that's been placed on her." And with that, I was once again alone. Seeing that there was no one left to talk to, I decided that I'd take a nap and let the antibiotics run their course and the blood transfusion finish.

I was in a light sleep and could hear what was going on around me even if it wasn't registering in my mind. I heard the door open and close before I heard heavy footsteps in my room. I could tell someone was standing over me and I opened my eyes to see who it was. I felt me heart almost stop when I saw that it wasn't a nurse but a battered and bruised Phantom. He said nothing but simply ripped the I.V. from the bag that let the blood return to my veins. The blood started spurting from the tube and I doubled over in a howl when I punched me in the stab wound. In my temporary daze from the blow to my abdomen, I wasn't fully aware of what he was doing until it was too late. He had taken the rack that held the blood bag and used it to bar the door closed. Again, he said nothing but escaped from the hospital room from the window. I knew in my heart I was screwed. I couldn't walk because of the wound, the door was barred so no one could get in, and I was loosing blood faster than I could think. I would die of blood lass and there was no one around to help. Blood was still pouring out when I started to get light headed again and I slumped back into the hospital bed. My breathing was becoming labored again and there was nothing I could do about it. I knew the current mission of the Phantom was to have me dead for ruining his plans and I feared this time that he was dangerously close. My ears were ringing and the last picture in my mind before I passed out once again was the haunting, mask wearing face of the Phantom.

I know this chapter is long and it was freakishly hard to write. I still don't like the way this turned out but it got the point across of what I wanted to happen. So, here's chapter 9 and please review and let me know what you think!