A.N.- Here is my first one-shot. (I never thought that writing something short would be harder than writing something long XD) This is based off of how the past couple of days I myself have had laryngitis. It inspired me to write this random little story. ^^ Enjoy!

(Skipper's POV)

Finally, it is morning. I wake up and stretch. I look up and see that my teammates are still snoozing. I smile. I get out of my bunk and waddle over to the coffee machine. I pour myself a cup and sit down with it. It isn't long until I am joined by Kowalski, Rico, and Private at the table. I open my mouth to greet them. Good morning, boys. But not a sound comes from my beak. I closed it and frown. I decide to try again.

"Morning, boys." I croak. I immediately shut my beak surprised by the horrible sound of my own voice. Private tilts his head at me, Kowalski raises a non-existent eyebrow, and Rico doesn't pay me any attention.

"Skippah? Are you feeling okay?" Private asks. I nod, scared to speak again.

"Yeah, I feel fine." My voice still sounds horrible. "Kowalski?" Kowalski pulls out his clipboard and a tongue-depressor. First he touches my forehead with the back of his flipper. He rights something down on his clipboard.

"Okay, Skipper, say ah." Kowalski says. I open my mouth and Kowalski shoves the tongue-depressor down my throat. I gag and almost bite him.

"*Cough! Cough!* What was that, Kowalski? Were you trying to kill me or something?!" My voice kept fading in and out.

"No, sir, I was simply trying to see the back of your throat. And since you closed your beak before I could; we will have to do it again. But this time I'm going to need a flashlight."

"Ugh." Rico gives Kowalski a flashlight and Kowalski turns it on.

"Okay, once more; open wide, don't bite me, and say ah." I open my beak and Kowalski once more shoves the tongue-depressor down my throat. "Um hum." Kowalski takes the tongue-depressor out of my mouth and jots something down on his clipboard. "Does your throat hurt, sir?"

"Well, now that you mention it, it is bothering me a little." Kowalski nods.

"It would seem then, sir, that you have laryngitis."

"What's laryngitis, K'walski?" Private asks confused. "Is it deadly?" Kowalski chuckles.

"No, Private, there's nothing deadly about laryngitis."

"Oh, okay. What is it exactly?"

"Laryngitis is when your larynx or voice box is swollen or irritated. This causes either for you to have a hoarse voice or no voice at all. It is most often caused by allergies, bronchitis, injury, pneumonia, or viruses."

"Oh."

"Which reminds me; Skipper, do you have any allergies?" I nod.

"Just a small pollen allergy; nothing major." I say with my voice both fading in and out and cracking. Great, I sound worse than Rico when he has a cold.

"That's probably the cause of your laryngitis, sir. You were around a lot of flowers and heavily pollened plants during yesterday's mission." I nod.

"How long will it be until my voice is back to normal, Kowalski?" He shrugs.

"Hard to say, sir. All I know is that you need to try to talk as little as possible for the rest of the day and possibly tomorrow too."

"What!"

"You can communicate by writing notes or drawing pictures." I give Kowalski a look of annoyance. He gives me a clipboard and a pencil. I take it from him and draw something. I give it back to him. He looks at it and frowns. "Sir, I know you don't like it. But let me put it this way; if you don't rest your voice, you may never get it back. Then I may have to give you a shot." A stone drops in my stomach. A shot? With a needle? I take to clipboard back and draw another picture and give it back to him. He nods. "That's what I thought you'd say."

"Um, K'walski, what is Skippah supposed to do since he isn't allowed to talk?" Private asks. I too look at Kowalski; I am wondering the same thing.

"He should stay in bed and rest." He looks at me and the face I made. "Skipper, I know you want us to train. So, how about I lead the training today while you rest?" I ponder this for a moment. Hmm, either I stay in bed and rest my voice, or I don't and I possibly lose my voice and have to get a shot…I think I'll go with curtain number 1. I nod. "Excellent choice, sir." I nod again and waddle back to my bed. I sigh. This is going to be a very long rest of the day.


(Nobody's POV)

Kowalski, Rico, and Private climb the ladder and go topside leaving Skipper in the HQ to rest. "K'walski?" Private asks when they get up there.

"Yes, Private?" Kowalski replies looking at the youngest recruit.

"Would Skippah really lose his voice forevah if he didn't rest it?" Kowalski shakes his head.

"Nope, but it would take a very long time for it to heal."

"So you lied to Skippah then?" Kowalski nods.

"Yes, Private, but it was the only way. If I hadn't Skipper would still keep trying to talk and it would eventually end up hurting his throat even more." Private nods.

"I suppose that makes sense."

"It should." Kowalski and Rico start to waddle over to the wall around their habitat.

"Where are you going? I thought you said we were going to train?"

"I did; but I didn't say when I was going to." Kowalski grins.

"Oh. So where are you going?"

"Snow-cones!" Exclaims Rico. Kowalski nods.

"I'll come too!" They then all leave for snow-cones.


-4 Days Later—

(Nobody's POV)

Skipper wakes up and gets his coffee. He hadn't said a single word since Saturday; the day that Kowalski had told him to stop talking. Private joins him at the table soon, rubbing his eyes sleepily.

"G'morning, Skippah." He says.

"Good morning, Private." Skipper says. He then smiles. Private looks at Skipper.

"Skippah! Your voice sounds normal again."

"That it does, young Private. That it does." He then ruffles the young penguin's feathers and waddles over to the bunks. He grins to himself and lifts a megaphone. "Kowalski! Rico! Wake up!" Kowalski and Rico fall out of their bunks in surprise. They fall directly in front of Skipper's feet. They look up at him.

"Skipper?" Kowalski says.

"Yes, Kowalski?" Skipper says with his voice sounding perfectly normal.

"You've got your voice back."

"Thank you for noticing. Now I want you and Rico bright eyed and alert at the table by 0600 hours." Kowalski glances up at a clock.

"That's now, sir." Skipper nods.

"Well, you had better get a move on then, hadn't you?" Skipper grins and waddles back to the table and his coffee. Kowalski scramble up out of the floor and also come to the table. Once again, everything is normal at the penguins' HQ at the Central Park Zoo.