AN-Hey everyone! :D So here is a one-shot I wrote after being bored for a good while in the car. I hope y'all enjoy it :D (Oh, and of course, message me if it seems like I need to adjust the rating, I wasn't sure if it needed to be high or not :/)
Marissa giggles and kisses Kowalski's cheek as they lay together under the moonlight. Kowalski smiles and nuzzles her neck and sighs. They lay there in complete silence, listening to the crickets chirp and the the soft swish of the pond. Marissa rests her head and her flipper on his chest and he softly holds her flipper.
"It's a shame we can't do this more often."
Marissa sighs. "And there you go, ruining my bliss with your flapping beak."
"But I'm serious, Marissa, tonight has been excellent." He smiles at her and softly brushes his flipper through her feathers.
"You and I both know why we can't, Kowalski." She says as she snuggles closer to him. "Our skippers would get suspicious and have our heads if they found out."
Kowalski nods and sighs. "It still is a shame…"
"Yes...It is." She smiles as his flipper still brushes through her feathers. "Doris really doesn't know what she's missed out on." She chuckles.
Kowalski just smiles happily and nuzzles her again.
Again they lay there in the cool silence. The two nearly fall asleep if not for the sudden, though soft, hooting of an owl. Marissa stretches, looks at the sky, and sighs.
"We should go...It shouldn't be but a few hours until the skippers wake and we don't want them to know we've been out." She sits up.
Kowalski nods and sits up. He looks at her and then kisses her full on the beak and tries to push her back down.
She gently pushes him back and shakes her head. "No. It is time to go. It's too much to risk…"
"...Must we really go now?" He sighs. "Surely an hour more couldn't hurt—"
"—No, we can't risk it. It's better this way than a little more bliss and then never being allowed to see another again. Patience." She says and kisses the tip of his beak. "Now help me up."
Kowalski stands up and pulls her up. "I'll walk you home."
"No, you moron, you'll go back to your HQ and I'll walk to mine. We don't need extra sets of footsteps out at my zoo to alert Skippsy. One set of tracks she may think I needed to go out for some fresh air after working with my chemicals all evening." She snorts. "I've heard love makes men stupid, but I swear it makes you a complete idiot."
Kowalski now looks highly unamused. "Fine. Text me when you get home."
"I will." She nods before sliding off right then, leaving Kowalski standing alone under the bright full moon. He stands and watches her until she is no longer in sight before waddling back to his own zoo. He slips in via a back entrance and silently unlocks his lab door and lays down in his bunk and smiles. Tomorrow was going to be horrible, but tonight...Tonight was bliss.
A week later, Marissa and Kowalski sneak out again and meet in the park. They exchange quick kisses and then Kowalski gets her flipper to lead her to their secret spot, but she doesn't move.
"What's wrong?" He then looks at her.
"Let's elope." She says.
Kowalski looks at her. "What? No, we can't do that." He shakes his head. "Our teams need us."
"Right…" She sighs.
"Why do you want to elope?" He looks at her, suspiciously.
Marissa looks at the grass. "I'm going to have to tell Skippsy about our outings…" She sighs.
This takes Kowalski aback and he looks at her. "Wh-what? Why?" He almost demands.
She says nothing.
"Are you breaking up—breaking up with me?" He looks at her sadly.
Marissa shakes her head. "No, it's not like that...It's because there is no way we can keep it a secret forever...And especially not now."
"What do you mean?" Kowalski stares at her and watches as she sits down on the ground.
"Sit down." She sighs.
Kowalski shakes his head. "No, not until you tell me what this is all about." He stands there, looking down at her.
Marissa gives him a stressed look but doesn't say anything.
"Mari, come on, tell me, what's wrong?" He sighs and starts to sit down as he still holds her flipper.
"I'm-I-I'm...Pregnant." She starts crying.
Kowalski looks at her in shock for a long minute before pulling her to him and holding her close. "Oh Marissa…."
Marissa cries and buries her face in his chest feathers.
"Surely there is some excuse we can come up with…" He murmurs.
"She's going to want to kill you! I just know!" She cries.
Kowalski rubs her back. "Maybe she would believe in you being parthenogenetic and had spontaneous egg production?"
Marissa gives him a look and sniffs. "She's ruthless, not stupid."
"It was worth a shot…" He shrugs and thinks some more as he rubs her back.
"I..I have one id-idea but it's risky." She sniffs.
Kowalski looks at her and nods for her to continue.
"We sign up for the breeding program on the computer secretly...Our zoos are so close that for sure we'd be put together most likely...The problem is that they may not grab us...They might grab I don't know, Skippsy and Rico, or Trixy and Skipper, there is just no telling." She wipes her eyes.
He considers this for a moment. "We sign up and have the others busy down below while we are up on the ice flow and the only penguin Alice and—" He looks at her.
"Andrew."
Kowalski nods. "And we will be the only penguins Alice and Andrew see so there can be no mistakes."
"What if the team intervenes?" Marissa looks at him.
"Then we pray the zookeepers win for once."
"They'll try to break us out."
"Wonderful, less explaining for us. We'll claim we were drugged." Kowalski shrugs. "We were not in control of ourselves, we will be out of blame."
"I doubt they'll let you completely out of the blame then…" She sighs.
"How about you don't worry about me? We have you to worry about." He says. "I say we sign up tonight on the computers and place the date to be tomorrow."
Marissa nods some and wipes her eyes. "I'm sorry…"
Kowalski hugs her closer. "No, no, don't be." He nuzzles her head. "This is a good thing, we just have to find a way for us both to survive it. You're supposed to be excited over something like this, not upset."
"But…"
"No buts, it's going to be one cute egg and it's going to have the most protective family ever." He kisses her head. "It's going to be just fine."
Marissa nods and sighs. She leans more on him and closes her eyes.
"Up and attem, men." Skipper orders and takes a sip of his coffee. "Due to the rain today, we'll be doing training inside."
Kowalski tiredly climbs from his bunk. He is silently both pleased and anxious of the rain. Hopefully, Alice will choose to follow deadlines instead of the weather. He then wonders how he is going to be able to watch for Alice topside when he has to stay down there. Surely there was some excuse he could use?
"Actually, Skipper, I have an experiment that I will have to run outside in the rain." He says.
Skipper gives him a displeased look. "Fine, just don't come back sick." He takes another sip of coffee.
"Roger that, sir." He nods and disappears into his lab. Alright, some test tubes and beakers should suffice for this ruse. Also, he is sure Marissa could be curious over the acidity of the rain around there—actually she probably couldn't care less, but she could pretend to be interested in his findings. He then hops up the ladder topside with his glass beakers and sits them along an inconspicuous ledge before sitting under a slightly sheltered part of their habitat. Surely Alice shouldn't be too long now….
Kowalski begins to think about the night before. It had been too sudden for him to actually digest the information thoroughly last night. He and Marissa are going to be parents...How the Uranium 238 is that going to work with them living in different zoos?
"I suppose it would live with her but I'd get visitation rights...Though hatching eggs is more a guy's thing...Skipper will not be pleased...Skippsy will be even less happy." He sighs and leans back into the cubby.
"I had heard that their zoo wasn't doing as well...So maybe it and this zoo will merge...But then who would be the skipper if the teams merged? They don't seem like the skippers who would share authority and neither would give over their team and authority to the other…Mmh…" He sighs. "I supposed we should wait to worry about that later…"
"But how could I be a father? As Private would gladly tell anyone, none of the rest of us are very in touch with our offspring-rearing sides." He rubs under his chin. "This is going to be a challenge for sure…"
Kowalski then sees Alice approaching and waddles out onto the ice flow. Now as long as the others remained inside and wonderfully unobservant, this should go without issue.
"Come 'ere, you." Alice grumbles as she slams the plank across the pool and begins to step across.
Kowalski flinches and crosses his toes. "Please, please don't notice the thumping yet…" He mutters. He then waddles closer to her and holds his flippers up to be a simpler grab.
Alice swipes him up with a grumble and grabs the plank. Kowalski gasps as she practically squeezes the life out of him.
"Egads, woman! Is it possible for you to squeeze any harder? Did you forget you are carrying a living being?!" He squirms some, hoping to loosen her grip enough to allow sufficient oxygen supply to his brain.
Alive makes no notice of him as she enters the vet's office. "Here's that other one for the penguin love-nest thing." She sighs and hands the penguin off to the vet.
"Ah, yes, thank you." The vet nods and takes Kowalski from her. "This little fella will do just nicely." He says, giving Kowalski a quick once-over physical. "Very nicely indeed."
"Hey!" Kowalski exclaims as the vet starts to get a bit more thorough. "Good golly wally, you don't have to check there, sir. I promise, it is completely fine!" He snorts with a glare and makes an attempt to cover himself.
The vet chuckles and pokes Kowalski. "You must be a shy one." He then gets an injection from a drawer. "Now, now, be still. Just a little pinch and this should dispel any insecurities."
Kowalski watches him unsure. He sharply inhales at the quick stab of the needle, but tries not to make a large fuss. "Well...At least the drugs won't be too large of a lie." He sighs as the veterinarian begins to carry him into another room.
"Here you are, little one." He smiles and softly drops Kowalski into a darkened cage. "You two have a nice time now." He says before leaving.
Kowalski is relieved to see that it is Marissa in the cage...Though she certainly is not acting like herself under the influence of her own medication. She rubs on him like cat and he awkwardly looks at her. For one thing, he wasn't exactly in the mood...And for another she didn't even look like herself and she probably can't see since she is without her glasses. While he still has his wits about him, Kowalski softly feels on her and gets out her glasses and puts them on her beak. "That's better." He smiles and softly strokes her.
Skipper harumphs and taps his flipper on the table some hours later. Kowalski had been up topside for too long and was missing out on too much training. He looks over at Private, who is watching the Lunacorns, and Rico, who has fallen asleep close by.
"I suppose that leaves me." He murmurs before sitting his coffee down and climbing the ladder.
Besides the rain coming down in buckets, there is not a thing to be seen. The zoo had closed early from the rain coming down so hard, so of course there are no visitors to be seen.
Skipper notices a few broken and turned over beakers at the edge and floating in their pool. "What the deuce? Kowalski?!" He calls but gets no response. He waddles along the ice flow before spotting the muddy boot print and narrows his eyes.
"Alice…." He growls. He then jumps out from the habitat and slides for the zoo office. Why did she take his lieutenant and not become suspicious of the rest of their absences? Granted, she isn't the most observant or caring zoo keeper, but it still should have sent up red flags.
Skipper silently hops up to the window and opens it. He slips inside with his back to the room and slowly turns around to look around the dark room. He sees movement and readies himself for a fight. "Who goes there?" He growls into the dark.
"I don't know, am I a friend or foe, Skippy?" A familiar voice snorts in the dark.
Skipper sighs and drops his flippers. "Skippsy...Why the Hoover's Dam are you here?"
"I could ask you the same...Or more importantly, why did your zoo kidnap Marissa!?" She growls, stomping over.
"I'm wondering the same about why Alice snagged Kowalski." He says and rubs under his chin and glances around. "Obviously, they're not in here."
"Did you need your fancy-dancy night-vision goggles to figure that out, Skippy?" She snorts. "It's been silent as a churchyard if not for your not-so-quiet entry."
Skipper rolls his eyes. "Enough talk. Let's check the back room." He mutters as he slides over and waits. "Well? What are you waiting for? A written, floral invite?"
"Maybe." She shrugs before hopping up on top of his head and opens the door. She then hops back to the floor as the door opens with an eerie creak. She turns on a flashlight and the two quietly waddle inside. She shines the light then upon a cage covered in an orange blanket.
Skipper motions that he's got it and tiptoes over. He quietly lifts the blanket and motions again for her to approach slowly with the light. The light shines upon the two sleeping scientists.
"What the fried kipper is your lieutenant doing sleeping on top of my lieutenant?!" Skippsy hisses at Skipper.
"How the salmon am I supposed to know?!" Skipper growls and then rattles the cage. "KOWALSKI!"
Kowalski wags his tail in his sleep, however Marissa does wake up and looks sleepily at the skippers before nudging Kowalski.
"Marissa! What the deuce is going on?!" Skippsy growls.
Marissa sits up as Kowalski gets off. "Eh….."
"Well, er…" Kowalski continues for her.
"The humans they—"
"—Have this program, euhm…"
Skipper and Skippsy both narrow their eyes. "Y'all didn't."
Marissa clears her throat and doesn't look either in the eye. "We did…" Actually, she couldn't remember if they did or not, but she knew they had in the past at least.
"But we weren't in control of ourselves! We were drugged!" Kowalski blurts.
Skippsy gives Kowalski a look of death. "If she gets pregnant, I'm going to hunt you down and used your hide as the stuffing of my new pillow." She growls and then turns to Skipper. She points at him and glares. "And don't you DARE protect him, or I'll take you out as well." She snarls.
Kowalski goes pale as a sheet and discreetly holds Marissa's flipper behind her back. She gives it a soft, comforting squeeze.
Skippsy then turns back to Kowalski. "Neither of you are going to want to raise it." She growls. "And Skips for sure will not want it at his team. Therefore I'll be the one stuck with it. Do I look like a nanny to you?!" She growls.
Marissa shakes her head and opens her beak to speak, but Skippsy cuts her off.
"I run a top of the line commando operation, not a brothel, not a daycare." She snorts.
"Now, Skippsy, I think you're being a little over the top." Skipper rolls his eyes. "They couldn't help something they couldn't predict was going to happen. In any case, it is our fault for not checking the zoo computers routinely enough to delete any unwanted schedules."
Skippsy glares at him. "They knew better than to do what they did."
"They were drugged." He gives her a level look.
Skippsy just snorts and looks at Marissa. "Let's go." She barks and grabs her flipper, but doesn't yank her roughly. She gives her a quick glance and leads her out.
Skipper sighs and waits for them to be out of earshot before looking at Kowalski. "Tell me what the kipper is going on. The more accurate, the more likely I can come up with something to save your bacon." He sighs.
Kowalski sighs. "Marissa and I have been seeing each other for a while...About six months."
"I'm not surprised. I knew you had been sneaking out, I just didn't know where." Skipper nods.
Kowalski looks flabbergasted. "Wha-what? How?"
Skipper shrugs. "I know everything that happens in this unit. Now continue."
"Well..last night we snuck out like usual...But..."
"Let me guess, she's already pregnant so you both had to devise some elaborate cover up scheme." He crosses his flippers.
Kowalski blinks. "That's exactly it..."
Skipper nods. "It wasn't that hard to guess. In fact, I'm not even surprised. The moment I saw how much the two of you acted like you hated each other I knew there were some underlying sparks. Everyone knows there is a fine line between hate and love sometimes." He says and sits down next to him. "And the two of you had enough sparks going to set a pyromaniac up for life."
"You never cease to amaze me, sir." He sighs.
Skipper nods and looks at Kowalski. "I'll have to still come up with a punishment for you, of course, but I'll see what I can do about Skippsy." He rubs his face. "And we'll wait until the egg comes to see who hatches it where. Who knows? The zoo overlords may have something entirely different planned." He shrugs.
Kowalski nods some and sighs.
"But you know I do not like being lied to, even more than I dislike when my team disobeys orders." He gives him a look. "It's going to have to be a high penalty, Kowalski…"
"Of course, sir." He nods.
"We'll decide on it after your clear from my sister's wrath." He stands up. "Now come on, you have an entire gut instinct lesson to catch up on."
Skipper, Kowalski, Rico, and Private sit a couple evenings later at their table playing a round of poker. However, the scientist is not on his best game. He's distracted by a feeling of impending doom. He lays another fish in the pot anyhow though he already knows he is going to lose.
Then suddenly, all of their concentrations are scattered with the slamming of their side entrance door. Skipper says nothing and gets up.
Skippsy marches in looking furious. "That one is coming with me." She growls, glaring at Kowalski.
"No!" Marissa exclaims in tears, running in behind her. "No, Skippsy! Please!"
Skipper stands with his flippers crossed between her and Kowalski. "I'd suggest listening to your lieutenant, sister."
Skippsy snarls and gets toe to toe with Skipper. "I made a promise and I intend to keep it. I have a pillowcase back home with his name on it."
Skipper looks at her seriously and then looks at the others. "Get out of here, all of you." He orders. Rico understands the look and grabs Private and takes him down below. Kowalski and Marissa on the other hand do not budge. Skipper gives them a look. "You both, too."
Kowalski then slowly does lead Marissa into his lab and shuts the door. Both of the lieutenants bear a grim, nervous look.
Skipper then looks at his sister. "Now we are going to talk this out...Diplomalize some sense into the situation." He says.
"Like you're one for talk." Skippsy snorts and crosses her flippers. "I want justice."
"I am when it is the right thing to do, Skippsy." He sighs and makes two cups of coffee. "But first you have to calm down. "
Skippsy glares at him, but does sit down at the table. "What diplomatic lie are you wanting to test?" She snorts. "And just for you to know, diplomacy never works except between two idiots or cowards."
"I'm not out to make a deal, I'm just trying to help you see things differently. To see things in a way that doesn't end up with my team being a member short." He passes her a cup of coffee.
Skippsy plops one of the fish from the poker game into her cup and stirs it. "Then let me show you my view first." She rolls her eyes. "Let's start with they are not responsible enough so I'll have to be the one taking care of it."
"Well, it could teach them responsibility."
"If they wanted to be taught responsibility they could have gotten a pet! I hear crickets are popular right now, and they're lucky!" She sips her coffee and coughs. "What the deuce did you put in this, Skips?" She glances at him. "Hemlock?"
Skipper rolls his eyes. "If I wanted to poison you, it wouldn't be tasteable." He sighs. "I invoke our don't ask don't tell policy and just let it calm you down. Trust me, some days this is the best joe in the world."
Skippsy gives him a strange look and takes another sip. "Another problem is that it is a bad influence on the privates. I don't need my seventeen year old private out getting pregnant because Marissa did. And I know she looks up to her." She sighs. "It's bad enough Trixy's out dating as it is."
"Well, Private is a good kid and doesn't even know about that stuff yet." Skipper nods some.
"I know and that is what scares me. He's too easily persuaded and she could probably persuade him right into her bunk side." She gives him a look. "And he wouldn't know what he's doing until they discover the repercussions."
Skipper sighs. "I'm sure Trixy is smart enough to know better."
"I thought the same of our scientists but you know how that has played out." She scoffs. "A military team is no place for an egg. It's going to be a weakness for our enemies to exploit. It will be in constant danger."
Skipper takes a long drink of his coffee. "Then we raise our defenses and always keep it within the sight of someone capable." He says. "But killing off its father is not going to help anything."
Skippsy sighs and hangs her head. "I know..."
Skipper softly rubs her back. "I know, you're just scared and worried, but you can't take it all out on Kowalski."
Skippsy sighs and drinks some more of the coffee. "And I just...I can't have another screaming infant around, I just can't." She shakes her head. "I haven't slept decently in over a month due to those blasted meerkats!" She moans. "If it ain't the partying, it is the baby squalling and it's driving me insane!"
"I can see that." He says. "I'll have Kowalski come up with something to fix your sleep problems, like he did mine, and we'll come up with some acceptable, non-lethal punishment for them, eh?"
"Fine..." She sighs and rubs her temples. "I need a painkiller."
"Weeeeellll, you can't have one with that coffee." He chuckles. "Sorry."
Skippsy sighs. "Then give me another of those coffees, Skips."
Skipper nods and gets it for her. "Plus, have you seen Marissa so happy before? I can say it has been simply bliss not having Kowalski whining over that dolphin anymore."
"Yeah..." She looks towards the lab door. "It has been nice seeing her not so depressed..." She sighs. "I don't know, Skipper...Maybe this will be alright, but it is just..." She shakes her head.
"I know what you mean, Skippsy." He sighs and gives her the cup. "Maybe we make Kowalski take care of the first diaper change."
Skippsy chuckles and nods. "I've heard those are real doozies, he'd probably wish he was dead then."
Skipper nods and motions for her to follow him to the lab. He then carefully opens the door and peaks inside at the two scientists. "You see what you're wanting to mess up?" He whispers to her. "You really want to kill young love?"
She looks at the two cuddly love-birds and shakes her head with a sigh. "No...But you better punish him good, Skips." She says with a look.
Skipper gives her a mock salute. "Of course, dear tyrannical sister."
Skippsy rolls her eyes and drinks her coffee. "One of these days, Skips...It's going to be pow! To the moon!" She says and jokingly shows him her fist.
"Yeah, I'm sure." He chuckles and rolls his eyes. "You'll be too busy picking yourself up off of Mars."