A/N: The aftermath of the episode Private and the Winky Factory. PTSD!

Fears of the Marshmallow Meow-Meow

"Don't eat me!"

Skipper's eyes flew open as a scream tore the peaceful silence of the night. The first thought that crossed his mind was that maybe another alligator chose the sewage under Marlene's habitat as its new home. And this time it could be a /real/ alligator and not a wannabe Broadway star. However, the piercing shriek was to loud and didn't resemble Marlene's voice. It had to be someone else's.

"What the deuce? War or what now?" Jumping out of his bunk and landing perfectly on the floor, the leader turned towards his men, noticing a shaking...Kowalski?!
"A-apologies, Skipper. It, it was me but t-that's nothing. All's fine." The scientist was sitting curled up in his bunk, hyperventilating. "Just a dream...about k-k-killer whales."

Skipper gave the taller penguin a 'you ain't fooling anyone' look: "Oh, let me guess, the name of the orca was Rico, hm?" Kowalski shook his head but Skipper continued: "No? Strange. My guts still tell me I'm right. And you know why I'm right? Because a shiver runs down your long spine every time Rico opens his beak and you freak out when he chokes something up. You're scared that he will do what he did in the factory. Get rid of that childish fear, soldier. Rico is your teammate and-"

"I can't!" On wobbly legs Kowalski stood up and shouted into Skipper's beak: "He swallowed me alive! I thought I was dead! My own teammate swallowed me alive!" Not receiving a response from the puzzled commander penguin, the analyst headed towards the laboratory. His sanctuary and the place he felt save in. "Not to mention the things I have seen." Mumbling more to himself than to the other avian, he opened the lab door and entered the next room, shutting the door behind him.

Of course, he felt a bit guilty for yelling at Skipper, after all how could the fearless leader of a commando understand something like that. That perfect penguin whose task was to prevent such situations but concentrated on Private's /childish/ mission to save some sweets instead of helping him get out of Rico's beak. Cross out the guilt, Skipper had it coming. The rest of the night passed by as the tall penguin imagined how the captain would feel if they had switched places and he would have been the eaten one.

In the meantime, Skipper made himself some coffee and stirring the fish around his favourite mug, he watched the two other penguins.
"Skippah, I think we should help him overcome the fear." Private sighed as he glanced towards the lab door. "It's our fault that he's like that."
"Nah, he will be fine...eventually." The leader took a sip of his drink. "And Rico broke Kowalski, so no blame taken." Private tried to protest but Skipper interrupted him.
"Instead of piling up objections you could suggest how to fix him. My idea is to throw them both into a box. Either they will make up or they will kill each other."
"Uhm, I thought rather about making them talk." Skipper rolled his eyes to that: "Chit-chat has never solved anything."
"Kaboom?" Rico, who wasn't really sure what caused all the fuss, not remembering his 'crazy-for-Meow-Meow' state, regurgitated a stick of dynamite. That suggestion wasn't immediately rejected what worried the Brit: "You don't want to dynamite K'walski up, Skippah, do you?"
"Of course not, young Private." The commanding officer smirked, placing his mug away. "We'll use a different explosive. Take him out of that can he calls a lab, pronto. It's time for the morning training."

Following Private's request, Kowalski walked out of his laboratory. A suspicious look on his face wandered from one penguin to another, finally stopping on Skipper. They smiled towards him. And when penguins smile towards you, you should start looking for an exit. Joining the rather peculiar circle his team mates made, the scientist asked: "Aren't we supposed to train outside?"
"No, the outdoor morning training is canceled due to indoor games, my men deserve it once in a while."
Yay, thank you, Skippah!" Private cheered as he thought that playing games was an excellent idea to repair the team spirit and help Kowalski relax in Rico's presence. "Shall I take them out of our storage?"
"It won't be necessary, young Private. I already have the fun object we need for this." The previous smirk didn't leave Skipper's beak as the other penguins watched him with curiosity. "The rules are chic simple. It can't leave this room and one penguin can't get it two times." Actually, only Private and Rico were interested in learning what game Skipper had on his mind. After hearing 'fun object', Kowalski already knew that it couldn't be a quiz game.
"Hot Potato!" A classical round bomb appeared out of thin air in the room and landed right in Private's flippers.
"What?! Everything but that!" The Brit threw it towards Rico, who bounced it like a ball to Skipper. The leader gifted the 'fun object' to Kowalski who welcomed it with a glare.

"Of course..." Panic grew inside the scientist as the bomb started to buzz which seemed like an information that it would soon explode. There was nothing he could do without breaking the rules of the game, so he closed his eyes, still hoping that the bomb would be a dummy.
Then suddenly he felt that the weight of the bomb was taken off his flippers. A relief, of course but what...

BOOOOM

BUUUUUURP

Daring a look, Kowalski found himself eye-to-eye with Rico. The weapon expert swallowed the bomb with detonated inside of his stomach. Used to such actions and tricks, nothing happened to the avian, apart from the rather nasty burp...
"See, tall boy." Skipper started, waddling towards the ladder because soon Alice would open the gates and they had already wasted enough time on the game. "As long as you're not covered in pink sugar or you don't look like a marshmallow cat, you're save. Case closed. Rico, you lost the game, maintenance duty for you."
Rico gave a cry of disappointment as he followed the leader to the surface.
Private tried to sum the event up with a nice friendship reference he had learnt from watching the Lunacorns: "What Skippah tried to say was that you need to trust your friends because that's what friends do...friends trust friends...or at least I understood him like that."

Kowalski nodded to that, although the game didn't convince him. However, he could play along as long as they would give him a break and stop nagging him about the problem. All he learnt was to watch his own back and not trust the team boundlessly. Also to avoid playing games with Skipper.