Skylar took deep breaths, trying to figure out in her head how she was going to explain all of this. "I'm gonna be in trouble."
Carmelita just stared blankly at her in disbelief. Does she really not trust her? She couldn't help but blame herself, realizing her daughter was just too afraid to get in trouble. Skylar normally acted like she wasn't scared, but Carmelita soon realized that was just what it was…acting. "Maybe I have been too hard on you." She looked away from her daughter. "I'm…sorry."
Skylar just blinked her eyes. Carmelita continued. "Just, please tell me. I love you." She looked back over at her daughter with shameful eyes. "This is a different level, Skylar. Kennedy broke your nose. I need to know what happened so I can get this sorted out. It doesn't matter what you did, Kennedy shouldn't have broken your nose. I wouldn't even do that to a criminal, no matter the crime, unless I was defending myself. Was she defending herself? Be honest with me."
"Sort of." Skylar looked at her sneakers.
"Start at the beginning." Carmelita ordered. "Otherwise I'll get it from your brother."
Skylar knew her brother was going to rat her out anyway. There was no way he was going to keep this hidden from their mother. "Okay, I stole Kennedy's pen the other day when the break ended to mess with her. She had been messing with me and Silver all yeah and I just wanted to be funny." She started to look up at her mother. "I…well I can't tell you what happened. All I can say is that I bought a pen from this girl named Savannah because I had lost the original pen. I wanted to mess with her."
Carmelita raised an eyebrow. "Why did you do that?"
"Well, that part I can't tell you."
Carmelita growled. "Skylar, I cannot work with you unless you tell me EVERYTHING. You stole a silly pen, okay? You're telling me this fight started over a pen?"
Skylar just sighed. "Well, yes. But I provoked her."
"Skylar, you don't do that, like ever. What made you want to do that?"
"Like I said…" Skylar looked up at her mother with pleading eyes. "That I cannot tell you, mom. I just can't. All I can say is that I provoked her and she gave me a reaction I did not expect. I climbed a tree and she got her stupid friends to shake me out. I thought it would end there, but it didn't. She started to beat me up."
"And she broke your nose?"
"No." Skylar knew she had to tell the truth, it was going to come out sooner or later. "I kicked her off and got really REALLY upset. I decided I wanted a turn and punched her in the face."
"SKYLAR?!" Carmelita gasped. She knew there was no turning back for Skylar, as she was for sure going to get in trouble now.
"Well, in response she punched me super hard in the nose. Next thing I knew the teacher came running over to us and, well you know the rest."
Carmelita crossed her arms. "So, Kennedy started the fight?"
"Technically no." Skylar laughed a bit, but felt ashamed at the same time.
"Skylar, taking a pen was no reason to beat up someone. No reason at all. Kennedy started that fight. Now what I want to know is WHY you decided to provoke her. What did you think was going to happen?"
Skylar shrugged. "I just thought she was going to tattle to the teacher and I was going to get after school detention."
Carmelita furrowed her brow. "Why on Earth did you think after school detention was worth messing with her over a pen? Skylar, you knew better. Why didn't you just tell me?"
"That part I can't tell you." Skylar repeated. "I can't tell you."
"Well, sooner or later you're going to tell me. Don't make me get it out of your brother. I need to know EVERYTHING Skylar, I'm not joking." She took a seat on the bed next to Skylar, who was refusing to make eye contact with her. Skylar's nose started to bleed through the cotton balls the nurse shoved up, so Carmelita removed them and wiped her nose with the blanket that was on the bed. "I'm on your side, honey. Believe me. I'm not here to yell at you. Whatever happened you NEED to tell me. Please don't make me ask Silvester."
Skylar looked over at her. It was over. Her mother was going to get the information one way or another. "Okay, it was planned." She blurted. "The pen thing, well not me taking it at first, provoking Kennedy was the plan. I needed after school detention. I was going to sneak out and meet someone at the sandwich shop next to the school. I figured you would just say oh yeah that's Skylar I'll ground her with the extra 2 detention days and move on. I didn't want to get in a fight."
Carmelita grew extremely puzzled. "What? Who were you meeting?"
Skylar grew extremely nervous. "Some girl named Penelope. She claims she knows where dad is."
Carmelita stood up right away. She felt all the hair on her body, including the hair on her head, stand straight up. Her body felt overwhelmed with rage. She knew Penelope had escaped prison, and she had been searching for the sly mouse for years. All she could ask herself was what gave Penelope the right to be messing with her daughter. "Do not speak to her again, Sky. Do you understand me?"
Skylar looked up at her very angry mother. "But why, mom? She knows where dad is."
"She's lying." Carmelita's body started to heat up from the rage. "She is a liar. Trust me, she is supposed to be in jail, not talking to MY DAUGHTER." Carmelita slammed her fists on a nearby table. "Where is she?"
"Well, if it's after school, probably by the sandwich shop." Skylar started to sweat all over. She hated seeing her mother this upset. "She mentioned you and her are on bad terms, I think."
"You damn right we are on bad terms." Carmelita barked. "She's a criminal. She's a liar. She belongs in jail!"
Skylar backed herself into the bed, avoiding her fuming mother. "Mom, I'm sorry. I didn't know."
Carmelita started to take some deep breaths. Before she could mention anything, an elephant entered the room. He was wearing a white coat and had a stethoscope around his neck. He approached the terrified Skylar and smiled. "You must be Skylar. I'm Dr. Smith. I hear you have a nose problem?"
Skylar sighed in relief. "Yeah, my nose really hurts."
The doctor looked over at Carmelita, who was still calming down. "Hello, you must be her mother…miss…"
"Fox." She answered. "Carmelita Fox."
"Okay." The doctor walked over to Skylar, who was now sitting up in the bed. He examined her nose and noticed it was purple, swollen, and bleeding. "May I touch it?"
"Please don't." Skylar begged. "It'll really hurt."
"Oh yes, it is most probably a broken nose." The doctor wrote down some notes on his clipboard. "Let's get an x-ray."
Skylar's face turned pale? "An x-ray? I don't want to-"
"Oh sweetheart, it won't hurt at all." He interrupted. A nurse is just going to take some photos of your nose so I can see inside of it. That's all."
"Oh, well okay. If she promises not to touch it, I'll go."
"She won't." The doctor reassured her. "Miss Fox, do you mind waiting here while we do the x-ray?"
Carmelita sat down on a chair that was next to the bed. "No, I don't mind."
"Well, let's get you back there. A nurse is going to come and get you here in a minute, okay?" The doctor smiled and disappeared into the main hallway and closed the curtains, giving Carmelita and Skylar some privacy.
Skylar remained quiet. Carmelita buried her face into her hands. "Skylar." She mumbled. "Please promise you will not speak to Penelope again?"
Skylar stared at the wall blankly. "I promise."
About an hour later…
Skylar started to fall asleep due to the nurse injecting some pain medication in her IV. After her x-ray, a nurse followed up and hooked Skylar up to an IV to give her fluids and pain medication. She felt as if she was floating. Her thoughts turned non-existent as she fell into dream mode. "No mom, I don't want to go swimming today…" She mumbled.
Carmelita laughed. "Looks like the medication is working."
Skylar started to drool. "I'm fine."
Carmelita laughed some more. "Go to sleep."
Skylar soon closed her eyes and passed out. Carmelita looked over at her extremely high daughter and laughed, wishing the nurse could give her some of that medication. Waiting just a few minutes to assure her daughter was asleep, she grabbed her phone out of her handbag and made a phone call.
"Hello? Hey Bentley." She looked over at her daughter to verify she was still sleeping. "Hey, Skylar is in the hospital." She paused a bit. "She got into a fight at school today and probably broke her nose…" She rolled her eyes hearing Bentley asking all sorts of questions on the other line. "We're getting that sorted. I kind of need a favor from you." She listened to Bentley for a while before asking. "Would you mind coming to be with Skylar for a while? I have…something to take care of." Carmelita got instantly irritated listening to Bentley's response. "What? No! Look, this is important. Penelope is back!" She paused for a bit, listening to Bentley who is now angry. "She had the nerve to say to MY DAUGHTER that she knows where Sly is. Yeah. Skylar. Anyway, I need to go…well you know, speak to her." Bentley asked on the other end if he could do it instead. "No, please don't do that. I have authority over her. She's going to jail. Anyway, while I'm gone would you mind watching Skylar? I am going to leave after the doctor comes back and gives me his plan." She smiled hearing Bentley's response. "You will? Oh thank you!" Bentley assured he was going to be there soon. "Thank you so much! I'll see you in about 10 minutes! Be careful." She hung up the phone and went over to her sleeping daughter to kiss her on her forehead.
The doctor with the nurse Carmelita had met earlier opened the sheet and noticed Skylar asleep. "Perhaps the nurse gave her too much." The doctor chuckled. "Anyway, I've reviewed Skylar's x-rays. Her nose is broken in several different places and she's going to need surgery."
Carmelita perked her ears up hearing this. "What? Surgery? A 10-year-old punched her so badly she needs surgery?!"
"Well, not exactly." The doctor continued. "Skylar's nose wasn't exactly in the best shape. Have you heard of a deviated septum?"
Carmelita shook her head. "No?"
The doctor continued. "All it means was Skylar's nose wasn't correct to begin with. When she was punched, well it just made it simply worse. Surgery to fix her nose will solve the issue. It's not serious. Has she ever complained about her nose before?"
Carmelita tried to remember if Skylar had ever complained. Skylar rarely ever complained about pain, usually trying to fight it off herself. If she stated she was in pain, she was at a level 100 pain. "No, but she does have congestion often."
"I see." The doctor looked over at his clipboard more. "Well, Miss Fox, luckily for Miss Skylar we can put her nose all back together. Hopefully she won't have any more issues."
"When are you going to do the surgery?"
"Oh, I'm not going to do it." The doctor looked up at Carmelita. "We have a plastic surgeon that is going to do it. He is going to visit her later and get a plan going. As far as I know she will be prepped and ready to go tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?" Carmelita looked over at Skylar, who now had drool falling down her face. "So she's going to stay overnight?"
"I'm worried it's going to get infected, Miss Fox." The doctor frowned. "I'm really sorry."
Carmelita sighed. "I guess that makes sense."
The nurse walked over to Skylar and wiped the drool from her face. "We're going to put her in a fun kids room, Miss Fox, don't you worry." The doctor smiled. "She's a very good kid, you know. I usually don't get kids who are so cooperative."
Carmelita smiled when the doctor said this. It wasn't often anyone said Skylar was a good kid. "Yeah, I suppose she is a great kid."
"I'll let you know when we have a room ready." The nurse smiled. As they were about to leave, Carmelita jumped up, remembering Bentley.
"Is it okay if her uncle comes up here for a short while? I need to…take care of something. I'll be back though, and I won't leave until he gets here."
The nurse looked over at the doctor and shrugged. "Well, I suppose that won't be a problem. We can't have any more guests come and visit though if that's okay. When we get her a room she can have as many as she likes."
Carmelita smiled. Just before she could respond, Bentley wheeled up into the room. "What's going on?" He eagerly asked.
The nurse raised an eyebrow. "Um, is this the uncle?"
Carmelita looked over at Bentley. "Yeah…he's…an adopted brother of her father."
"Oh, well that's good. Does Skylar's father want to come by? I can make an exception for him…"
"Skylar's father isn't…here right now." Bentley mumbled. "He…uh…well he didn't bail out I can say that."
The nurse instantly regretted asking about the father. "Oh, I am so sorry. I didn't mean to bring up something."
"It's okay, you didn't know." Carmelita assured her.
Bentley frowned, trying to brush off his thoughts about Sly. He was more concerned about Skylar anyway, and he knew Sly would be hysterical right now. "Skylar will be fine." He wheeled over to the passed out Skylar and looked over at Carmelita. "You sure you want to leave her? I really don't mind clearing this up with Penelope."
"We are going to leave you guys alone." The nurse smiled. "We will be back as soon as we find a room." The doctor left followed by the nurse, who quickly closed the curtains to give them some privacy.
Carmelita looked over at Skylar, who was now starting to snore. She laughed a bit. "I'll be fine, Bentley. She can't do anything to me…in fact I dare her too. I doubt missy over here is going to wake up anytime soon…"
"Muffins…" Skylar mumbled, still very much asleep.
"Yeah. Muffins." She laughed. "Anyway, just call me if they get her a room before I get back, or if she wakes up."
"Okay. She'll be okay?"
"Yes." Carmelita smiled a bit, remembering how lucky she is that Bentley even stepped up to this position for her. In the past, she hated Bentley. Now, she really cared more for him than she did anyone. In the back of her head, she did wonder about Murray some. She didn't really know much about what happened to him after Sly disappeared. She remembered Sly telling her about Murray leaving the gang after Bentley lost the ability to walk. She figured he must've blamed himself again, even though it wasn't his fault Sly disappeared. She didn't really talk to Murray much, but she did understand he had feelings like everyone else. She had no ill feelings towards him, as Bentley had told her he was just hurt. Sly was his brother. He just did not know how to deal with his emotions like Bentley did, so he just left. Carmelita hoped he was okay though, and she couldn't wait to introduce Skylar and Silvester to him. She felt he deserved to meet them.
"I'll be back soon." Carmelita opened the curtain to leave.
"Muffins with unicorns!" Skylar blurted, still clearly asleep.
"And I'll bring back muffins." Carmelita laughed. She closed the curtain, leaving Bentley alone with the clearly high Skylar.
Sometime later…
Carmelita drove in her patrol car over to the sandwich shop to confront Penelope. She checked the time and verified she would be there just in time for school to end. All she could see was red, making it hard for her to drive. She even drove pretty fast, although not as fast as she was driving to take Skylar to the hospital. She soon found the sandwich shop and pulled into the parking lot. She quickly noticed Silvester hanging behind the dumpster, and got really angry. Now Penelope was messing with her son too? She quickly got out of her car and slammed the driver's side door. She marched over to Silvester, who was sitting nervously waiting for Penelope.
"Silvester, get in the car."
"Mom?" Silvester looked up at Carmelita nervously. "How did you-"
"Get in the car." Carmelita demanded once more.
Silvester grabbed his backpack from behind the dumpster and shamefully walked to the patrol car. He knew he had been caught, and there was no arguing with his mother about it.
"Sit in the front!" Carmelita yelled back at him.
Silvester opened the passenger side door and sat in the car, worried about what was going to happen to him. He just remained quiet in the car and pulled out his homework for the day. It was the only thing to numb his mind at this point.
Carmelita chose not to think too much about why Silvester would be there. She wasn't at all mad at him. Pushing away her thoughts, she grabbed her handcuffs and shock pistol and sat behind the dumpster awaiting for Penelope to show up.
Just a few short moments later, Penelope emerged from the corner. Carmelita very quickly jumped out from hiding and pointed her shock pistol at her. "FREEZE!" She yelled.
Penelope stared at the shock pistol like a deer in headlights. This was exactly what Penelope feared about, but she needed to take the punishment with her head held high. She couldn't let Carmelita know she was scared.
Carmelita ran over to her and quickly placed her in handcuffs. "You're going to jail." She shouted. "How DARE you taunt my daughter with your lies!"
Penelope quickly realized just what was going on. "Taunt? I didn't taunt her. I told her the truth. I know where Sly is!"
"You're a liar." Carmelita ignored Penelope's pleas. "If you want to hurt us, FINE, but you do NOT hurt my children." She yanked Penelope's arms as she was tightening the cuffs.
"I didn't lie!" Penelope was now begging. "I know where Sly is! He is in Egypt! Inspector, I can prove it!"
Carmelita paused, debating to listen to her or ignore her. She wondered if Penelope was possibly telling the truth.
"Please, I'll go with you. Just hear me out!"
Carmelita hesitantly loosened her grip, but did not take off the cuffs. "Go on…"
Penelope didn't bother asking if the cuffs could be released. Looking over at the back of the shop, she tried to explain to Carmelita what was going on. "Look, I feel bad. Bentley was right, Le Paradox just used me. I realized this entire time I was listening to the wrong guy." She started to tear up a bit. "I know all of you don't trust me, and I don't blame you for that. I felt as if I needed to make it up to you guys."
Carmelita grew annoyed. "Skip to Sly." She demanded.
Penelope sighed. "Okay, I don't like Sly. I'll be honest. That's why I did what I did, I thought I was protecting Bentley, but I wasn't. When I saw how hurt he was after Sly disappeared, I knew I needed to try to find him. I've been out and about trying to find any clues I could. I came back shortly after and saw you with a stroller talking to Bentley."
"So you were stalking us?!" Carmelita accused.
"No! Penelope quickly answered. "I was trying to talk to Bentley. I was going to sneak in because I knew he wasn't going to answer the door."
"That's breaking in and entering, Penelope."
"Can I finish, please?" Penelope begged.
"Fine."
"I noticed you had two babies in that stroller. One of them looked just like Sly, but I assumed they had to have been twins. I felt bad you had to raise them all alone, so I figured I'd step in to help. I checked up on you guys every so often to encourage me to find him. I didn't want to, but I knew everyone needed him back, especially Skylar and Silvester. I didn't want to talk to you guys about it unless I was absolutely sure I found him…for this exact reason. I built Le Paradox's time machine. I dug around and managed to put together the pieces. The machine pointed Sly back in ancient Egypt, 1500 BC to be exact. I gave Skylar an artifact from that period so Bentley could use it. I knew you guys wouldn't trust me, but I felt Skylar might. I just want to help."
Carmelita couldn't help but believe her. She still didn't exactly trust her, but she couldn't understand why Penelope would make that story up. Criminals don't make up stories like that. Hesitantly, Carmelita released Penelope completely from her grip.
Penelope turned to face her. "Can I make a deal with you?"
Carmelita eyed her. She wanted Penelope to pay for what she had done, but at the same time, she couldn't help but think she was telling the truth. All Carmelita wants is for Sly to come home. Despite her best judgment, she decided to accept whatever Penelope had to offer. "Okay?"
"I will help you go get Sly. As an exchange when this is over, I'll let you take me to jail to serve my time. I won't try to escape."
Carmelita thought about this for a while. What if Penelope was pulling her leg and this was just a massive escape attempt? She soon shook that thought away thinking about Sly. Penelope wouldn't just make that up, would she? "Okay, deal. But I'm not taking those cuffs off of you."
Penelope smiled. "Okay, awesome! Can you just take me to my house? I'll-"
"Can't do that." Carmelita interrupted. "Skylar is in the hospital right now."
Penelope gasped. "Wait, what? Is she okay?"
"Yes, but her nose is broken. She's going to need surgery. Something about a deviated septum…"
Penelope laughed. "Oh she is just like her father!"
Carmelita paused. "What?"
"Oh, Sly had always had issues with his nose. That's what he had! He had to get surgery when he was a teen to correct it. I wondered why his nose was so perfect."
Carmelita was very confused. "Huh? How did you know that?"
Penelope laughed again. "Oh, Bentley told me!"
"Interesting. Sly never mentioned it."
Penelope frowned. "He's a ladies man. You think he'd tell a girl that his nose once looked funky?"
Carmelita couldn't help but laugh. She was now wondering where any photos of him as a teenager were. She suspected SOMETHING wasn't natural with him. "Okay, well just get in the car." Carmelita ushered her to the back of her patrol car and shoved Penelope in the back seat. "For now, I'm taking you home, but don't skip town. I'll be sure to find you." Carmelita walked around to the rear of the vehicle and opened the trunk. She dug around until she found an ankle monitor and a tracker. She smiled then went around back to Penelope. She opened the monitor and cuffed it around Penelope's ankle.
"Cops just keep these around?" Penelope asked.
"I do." Carmelita answered while programming the monitor. "I'm an inspector. I can keep tabs on suspects, so I keep these handy."
Penelope didn't bother to ask why Carmelita was doing this. She was just relieved Carmelita believed her. Now, she could finally reunite Carmelita and her kids back to Sly.