Carmelita just sat with Penelope, worrying about her kids. She could not imagine why this was all happening, but despite that she still could not help but blame herself. Everyone was right through the years, Skylar and Silvester deserved to know everything about their father. Now that they were back in time where he was found, there is a huge chance they already discovered him.

Carmelita sat down on the floor and brought her knees to her face. "I shouldn't have done this." She murmured.

Penelope looked over at her concerningly. "Done what?"

Carmelita's eyes overloaded with a few tears she was trying to hold back. "My babies are gone, Penelope. All they wanted to know was more information about their father and I left them having to go seek it themselves. I just hope they aren't hurt. They can't get hurt."

Penelope sat next to her and rubbed her shoulders to try to comfort the upset Carmelita. "I'm sure they're okay, Carmelita. I haven't received any real intense distress calls. As far as I know they're okay."

Carmelita looked up at Penelope, still crying. "But what if they can't send a call?"

Penelope sighed. "Bentley is a genius, Carmelita, and he loves your kids. I really think he has it under control. To be honest, that should say a lot considering…"

"Considering you still hate him?"

Penelope turned red, but she wasn't angry. "...I never hated him. I just hate that he chose to stick with Sly. I felt Sly was using him."

Carmelita groaned. "Yeah, you aren't the only one who feels Sly used someone."

"Despite that, though, you have to agree Sly doesn't deserve to be trapped in a place he isn't from, and a time period he isn't from. He's alone, you know. He might be a jerk, but he shouldn't be in ancient Egypt."

Carmelita looked off into the distance with a blank stare as her tears dried up. "I do agree. I mean…I do love him, Penelope." Carmelita's face started to pour heavily with tears. "I…love him…so much. I just wish I could tell him that…"

Just as Carmelita was saying this, the signature Cooper van fell out of the sky and hurdled straight to the ground. Murray tried everything to flip it over and managed to succeed without damaging the vehicle. Skylar tumbled out of the van as a result, clearly showing she wasn't wearing her seatbelt. Carmelita looked out the window and rushed over to the van to see her kids.

"Skylar, Silvester!" She ran as fast as she could to her kids and picked up Skylar, who was brushing her butt off from the impact. She hugged her daughter as tight as she could, causing her to turn purple.

"Mom…MOM!" She choked.

Carmelita released Skylar from her grasp and ran over to Silvester, who was casually exiting the van. She picked him up as well and covered him in kisses. "I missed you. I was so worried about you two. Are you okay?"

Silvester tried to prie her off as he didn't like people up close to him like that. "Yeah, we're fine, mom, honest."

Carmelita blushed and released her son, who was a bit annoyed. Skylar looked down at the ground with an ashamed expression. "We're gonna get it…aren't we?" She quietly asked.

Before Carmelita could think, Sly walked out of the vehicle carrying his signature cane. He looked like he hadn't changed a bit the last time she had seen him. Carmelita almost forgot how attractive he was, despite her constantly trying to remind herself with photos. As soon as their eyes met, Sly just stood still with his face turning pale. He had no idea what to say to her.

Despite Sly standing still, Carmelita ignored his lack of response and decided to give him the biggest hug she could give, relieving any burdens she was carrying for the past 10 years by herself. She really and truly missed him, and her heart was hurting for him. She had no idea what Skylar or Silvester could've said to him, but she didn't care. He was here now, and she hoped to keep it that way no matter what it takes.

Sly didn't respond for a few seconds, but ended up slowly embracing her in return. He felt his face grow hot with tears, as the woman he loved was finally in his arms. It was going to be hard to push aside what the twins had told him in Egypt, but at that moment that didn't matter to him. "Carm…" He tried to mutter.

"I'm sorry, Sly!" Carmelita cried. "I'm sorry for everything I have ever done. I love you, and only you. It's been hell here without you!"

Sly released her from his embrace and looked over at Skylar, who was staring at them with a confused expression on her face. "I should be the one who is sorry, Carm." He sighed. "I didn't make a hard enough attempt to come home. You shouldn't have had to raise those two babies by yourself. I'm not sure what I can do to make up for it, but please don't take them away." He started to cry, despite Carmelita never mentioning that she was ever planning on keeping their kids away from him. "I didn't…"

"Sly." Carmelita dried off his tears with her jacket sleeve. "I would never EVER take those kids away from you. It's not your fault you got stuck and it's not your fault you weren't here. I knew you would've been there all the way for them, I'm not stupid."

Sly smiled a bit, but still remembered him knowing Carmelita tried to hide the fact he was a thief from the kids. "I know you're not stupid. But…why? They told me, and I think you know what they told me."

Carmelita's heart dropped into her stomach. She knew exactly what he was talking about, and she wasn't sure if her explanation would help anything. "Sly, I…just…I didn't want them to go to prison and live the criminal life. I've seen it. Prison isn't the same anymore. I feel personally guilty for some of the criminals I've busted that are currently in there. I just…well I couldn't let our kids go through that. I just couldn't."

"You didn't need to hide my legacy, Carmelita. You know that, surely you do."

Carmelita looked down at her boots. "I didn't exactly hide your legacy. I told them about you, they're aware you're their father. They just didn't know you are…well a thief, technically. You really should learn what Skylar is like and I'm sure you'd understand."

"I've met Skylar." Sly sternly replied. "She's me. She's all me. The Coopers feel that power in our blood, and I know she did. I can't say much right now, but I do know that she probably wouldn't have committed all those petty theft crimes if she had known who the Coopers really were."

Carmelita retaliated some. His words were piercing her heart, but he was right.

Sly looked over at Skylar and smiled a bit. "Well, it doesn't matter right now anyway. I mean, we can't really change the fact we have kids now. We just…well we just need to move on from here and repair the damage I guess. At the end of the day, I'm not going to leave my now family behind, not ever again, that is if you'd let me stay."

Carmelita smiled a bit, but her heart was still shattered by his words. "Of course you can stay."

Sly embraced her once again. "I love you." He mumbled softly to her. "I'm willing to forgive all of this. I can't be without you."

Penelope walked sternly over to Bentley to greet him, although she still felt awkward around him. "Hey Bentley."

Sly turned around and noticed Penelope. He narrowed his eyes, forgetting what the gang had told him earlier about her. "You." He growled.

Penelope backed away in fear of Sly. "Sly…it's good to see you." She awkwardly smiled, trying to beg him not to whack the crap out of her with his cane.

Sly let go of Carmelita aggressively and swung his cane in an aggressive way. "Long time no punch, Penelope. I'd say we should go for round 2."

Bentley quickly wheeled in front of Sly to try to get him to stop. "Sly, calm down." He begged. "Remember, she's on our side."

Sly narrowed his eyes but managed to slowly lower his cane. He took a final jab at her to threaten her before he attached his cane to his back. "Keep that in mind the next time you plan on breaking my best friend's heart again."

Penelope backed off with her hands in the air, trying to let Sly know she wasn't a threat. "I get it. I promise I'm not here to hurt anyone."

"Dad, you shouldn't hit girls." Silvester popped up, seemingly out of nowhere, and started tugging on Sly's red bag.

Sly ignored his son, trying to calm himself down. "Yeah, you're right. I shouldn't hit girls, unless they hit first."

Skylar walked over to her brother in a teasing form and tapped on his shoulders. "So that means you wouldn't hit me?" She snatched his backpack right off his back, trying to get a rise out of him. "Even if I do this?"

"Skylar!" He cried. He knocked his sister right on the head, forcing her to drop the backpack. She wasn't harmed, but she was now angry. "I told you to stop messing with my stuff!"

Skylar narrowed her eyes. "I thought you weren't supposed to hit girls."

"You're not a girl." Silvester eyed her aggressively. "You're an evil little thief!"

Carmelita just groaned as she was fairly used to this. She just simply picked up Skylar to remove her from the situation and dropped her back down. "I'm not dealing with this." She growled.

Skylar brushed off her jeans and huffed. "Tell Silvester he shouldn't hit girls."

Carmelita just looked over at Sly and awkwardly smiled. "You sure you want to deal with this?"

Sly just laughed a bit. "That doesn't seem so bad."

Carmelita rolled her eyes, ignoring Skylar's pleas to get her brother into trouble. "Oh, just you wait."

A few hours later after Carmelita got everyone settled in her small apartment, she made the twins sit on the couch to listen to her lecture. Both Skylar and Silvester just followed their mom with their eyes in fear as she was clearly very angrily explaining what they had done.

"You two had NO permission to leave this apartment by yourselves. Do either of you have the slightest idea how worried I was?" Carmelita narrowed her eyes in Silvester's direction. "You especially mister. You're smart enough to know this was a bad idea. You two could've been killed."

Skylar smiled nervously. "I was almost."

Carmelita narrowed in her direction immediately after she had said that. "Well, that's comforting to know."

Sly was over on her kitchen table playing with a pencil, clearly not paying attention. "Carm, they're fine. I kept them safe."

Carmelita started to aggressively stomp her feet as she was pacing around. "That doesn't matter. These two had NO permission and I mean NO permission to leave by themselves. Not to mention I found out about the little heist you two pulled."

Silvester tried to intervene to defend himself and his sister. "Okay mom, we can explain…"

"I don't want to hear it." Carmelita interrupted. "Do any of you even have the slightest idea why I try to protect you two? You wanna know what prison is like?"

"Mom, if we hadn't took the statue thing we would've never found dad." Skylar boldly interrupted, trying to stand up to her mother. "We were going to give it back."

Sly got up from the chair he was sitting in to try to diffuse the situation. "Carmelita." He sighed. "I'm sure we can deal with this later. They're safe, I kept them safe, and so did Bentley and Murray. If it wasn't for them I wouldn't be here, you know that."

Carmelita sighed, trying to calm herself down. Sly was right, but it didn't change the fact of how worried she was throughout their journey. "Okay, look. Next time, please just tell me what is going on. I'm not really upset at you two for what you did…sort of…I'm upset that I had no idea where you two were at all. You didn't even bother leaving me a note. I get that I should've probably been more supportive but that is not an excuse for just packing up and bolting."

Silvester looked right into his mother's eyes and started to cry. "I'm sorry mom!" He couldn't stand it when Carmelita got upset, especially when she was upset at him. "I should've known better! I told her it wasn't a good idea!"

"Silvester, do not blame this all on your sister." Carmelita put her hands on her hips. "If you didn't want to do something you know you could've just said no. I'm not taking that excuse from you."

"How come you don't call him Sly Jr.?" Sly asked.

Carmelita looked up in a bit of shock, surprised he even asked this. "Well, I wanted to keep your name." She explained. "I just, well I thought you weren't coming back so I quit calling him Jr when he was a baby, I'm sorry I guess it just hurt too much." She soon went quiet thinking about her and the kids being by themselves for so long and how much that hurt her. She looked over at both her kids who were still sitting on the couch, clearly a little terrified. "I think we've had enough for one night. We will resolve this later. Just go ahead and go to bed."

Skylar and Silvester didn't bother to argue with their mom about this. The truth was they were a bit upset about worrying her so much, especially Silvester. Silvester loved his mom more than anything and it killed him that he worried her so much.

As soon as the twins disappeared into their room, Carmelita just laid down on the couch, ignoring Sly. Sly didn't really respond to her, he just observed her small apartment and couldn't help but feel a bit upset about it. He knew Carmelita wasn't the richest person in Paris, but he had no idea how much she really struggled raising two kids on her own. He knew he wouldn't have been able to provide a whole lot himself, but his kids might've had their own separate bedrooms if Carmeltia just had a bit of help. He noticed the apartment looked old and run down, as if the upkeep from the management was non-existent. He did notice one thing; just how much she adored Skylar and Silvester. She had framed photos all over the walls from when they were babies all the way up until their most recent school photo. Sly took one photo off the wall, noticing Skylar as a baby in a little pink sparkly dress and her hair having a big pink bow in it. She sat next to her brother who wore blue overalls and a bright red shirt with white sneakers and a red baseball cap. He couldn't help but smile when he saw just how cute they were.

"They were a huge mess back then." Carmelita said, not looking up at all, as if she knew exactly what photo he was looking at. "Don't let their cuteness fool you."

Sly laughed. "If they were anything like me, I wouldn't be surprised if they were." He stared at the photo longer, trying to hold back tears. He wished he could just get Bentley's time machine and go back to when they were babies, but he knew that most likely wouldn't be possible. He remembered Bentley explaining going back too soon would cause a lot more issues, possibly ripping a hole in time. Bentley was a genius, but he wouldn't be able to fix that. "I just wish this was different, Carm. I really do."

Carmelita sat up from the couch. "I believe you, and trust me I do too. I just feel…this isn't right you know. Things shouldn't have gone this way."

"I do appreciate you letting me make things right, though." Sly placed the photo down on the coffee table. "Still, I just wish you didn't hold back the truth, but I guess I can understand it. No matter what happened, I just can't personally let it get in the way of our kids. I've, well you know I've always wanted a kid. I never got the chance to be with my mom or my dad growing up."

Carmelita slouched down with her face growing sadder. "Me either, Sly. I guess that's why I kind of get over protective of them, which I shouldn't have. I'm so sorry about that."

"Wait, you didn't really have parents either?" Sly was now curious. "I thought your mom lived in Spain."

Carmelita dropped her ears, thinking about her mother. "Well, you're right, although she isn't around much. I had to stay here because of Interpol, but even if I didn't have to, I would've probably just stayed here." She looked up at Sly, trying to read his thoughts but failing. "I guess I haven't shared much about my past."

Sly shook his head and continued to grow curious about what Carmelita had to say. She was right, he had really no idea what her past was like. She never really shared it too much.

Carmelita sighed. "My dad was mugged and shot when I was younger. After that happened, well mom just withdrew herself and kind of left me to raise myself. That's why I'm a cop, and why I hated it so much when you stole stuff. I knew you didn't hurt anyone or tried to, at least when they didn't deserve it, so that was why I never really went too harsh on you when I did catch you."

Sly was shocked. He had no idea this had ever happened to her. "I'm…I'm so sorry. I had no idea."

"I know you didn't know, but I guess that's why I am the way I am." She stared down at her shoes, refusing to talk about her past further.

Sly sat next to her and looked at her with reassuring eyes. "Thank you for telling me. That must've been hard."

Carmelita smiled a bit, relieved she finally got that off of her chest. "I could've caught you if I wanted to, you know."

Sly raised an eyebrow. "Really now? I doubt that. I remember getting out of your cuffs a time or…"

Before he could finish his sentence, he heard a click and felt something tighten around his wrist. He looked down and noticed Carmelita had handcuffed him to the coffee table. He was very surprised, as he usually predicted when she was going to capture him. This time though, he didn't really want to escape.

"I told you." She laughed.

Sly ignored her and just leaned in for a kiss, despite only having one arm to touch her. Carmelita didn't reject his kiss this time as she enjoyed every second. Skylar peered out of her room and noticed her mother kissing Sly and made gagging noises. Carmelita stopped kissing Sly and perked up at her peeping daughter.

"Go to bed!" She yelled.

Skylar just laughed and shut her door. She looked over at her brother and started to cry a bit. "We finally have a dad, Silver. We finally have him home."

A/N: I don't know anything about Carmelita's past. I've dug around for weeks and found nothing, so I just made this up. If there was something I missed, I'm sorry. I do think it's fitting though.