A/N: Okay, so this is my first short story, and it's my first time writing in first person. I'm not sure how it's going to turn out. It is only two parts long, but I hope you enjoy. Please review!

Part One

I stood, admiring and preening myself in front of my mirror inside of the confinements of my lab. Preening isn't something I would normally do, well, not as thoroughly as I was now. Each of my feathers needed to be shiny and neatly in place, no feather sticking up. I couldn't afford that to happen. As you could probably guess, I am making a big deal of my appearance, but there is a reason for that.

Earlier today I received a neatly written letter from my girlfriend Doris, I felt so thrilled and eager to know what she had wrote to me about, I literally squealed once I saw the letter addressed to me. Well, considering I can't read, it took my intelligent mind to figure out the encryption of the letters. Once I had opened the letter, I decrypted the message with my speak and say while writing the letters in my notebook. It took me two hours and 37 minutes exactly, or I'm estimating. Yeah, that's an estimate. However, back to the point, I was hoping for words of love or an 'I miss you' from her because I haven't seen her for about a week now. I would have loved to see her, but I've been too busy with my inventing and Skipper's missions. Anyway, what do you think about this? I am not sure if I should be excited or seriously worrying at this point in time. Take a look, here's the letter:

'Dear Kowalski,

We have to talk, but I can't tell you what I need to say in writing. It has to be face to face. But, I haven't seen you since Sunday, so I haven't been able to tell you. I haven't even had the courage to tell you until tonight.

Meet me at the Manhattan Docks at 8pm tonight. Come alone. I'll be waiting for you.

Have a safe journey, I'll see you tonight.

Doris'

To be honest, I don't know how I feel about this, but all I hope is that what she wants to tell me isn't bad. But, it couldn't be, everything between us has been going great lately. We've had no disagreements, no arguments and especially no fights. But, if what she wants to tell me is bad, my heart will break. And, I don't think I'll be able to take it again. The heartbreak I have experienced from Doris's rejections of my courtship with her and when she broke up with me the first time we were going out, well even that was too much. Why would she not like me in the first place? I mean, I'm intelligent, mature, quirky, quick thinking, and I'm perfectly suitable for any matching female to my standards out there. So, why wouldn't Doris like me? Why am I so bad with the female gender? Okay, I admit, I don't understand women. I've never understood them. And all I've ever heard in the relationships I've had was 'I don't like you'. That's it, and I was always upset, but when Doris said that to me, I was even more upset. There's something special about me and Doris. I've always seen it.

Doris, Doris, is just amazing. She's beautiful, she's smart, she's funny... Oh, she's just incredible! There's too many good traits about her that if I went on with them, then I wouldn't stop. There's not one bad bone in her body. Nope, there's nothing wrong about her. I love her, I've always loved her, so if she was to say anything bad, my heart would shatter into tiny pieces. I think I love her so much; I would want her to be the mother of my children, if that was physically possible... I would love if she became my mate, we'd be mated for life, and we'd be happy. I've always been, as people put it 'head over tail feathers for her'. Now you can tell how much Doris means to me. I even have a tattoo of her, but the location of where it is on my body, is confidential for my privacy. Anyway, the way she smiles could light up the world in an unbreakable light. Her liberty eyes always glisten in the ocean, they are like blue pearls of bueaty. And, she is so streamline in the ocean, she's a mermaid in my eyes. A beautiful, inside and out, smart bottlenose dolphin. She really is incredible...

I stood from my preening and checked myself out in the mirror once again with a huge smile. I was ready for my meeting with Doris as I stood tall in accomplishment. I was even more good looking than normal. Little did I know that preening is so useful when it comes to feathers, it works better than a hair brush let me tell you. Once I had fully looked over my lean slimming stature, I drew my instinctive attention up to the white brimmed clock hanging on my wall. The time was 7.30pm, and my eyes went wide in surprise, before I legged it out of my lab and into the main part of the HQ in a rush. I was going to be late, I absolutely knew it, but I couldn't let that happen either. I never want to look like an idiot in frontier Doris again. Especially by being late on this important talk she needed to have on me.

I burst towards the ladder which was near by and I was just about to climb up the hatch, before I was broken out of my rushed state by an over familiar ordering voice.

"Kowalski, where are you going?" Skipper asked without even looking at me. He was absorbed into a game of Go Fish at the stone table with Rico and Private.

I didn't even notice they were there; my brain was just so full of mixed feelings about my date with Doris, that nothing around me was real, it felt like that anyway. Rico and Private drew their expectant attention up towards where I was by the ladder, I could see they're blue eyes looking me over with either a knowing or polite gleam about them. Clearing my throat, I answered Skipper's previous question as he was still beak deep into his playing cards. But, I could tell he was waiting for an answer.

"Oh, I'm going to be Doris at the harbor," I answered, before adding in a rush, "I have to go else I'll be late."

And at that, Skipper finally turned his head up to me with a raised brow and an uninterrested frown. I became tense with anziousness as his thoughtful stare. Sometimes Skipper wouldn't let me go, and that seemed to be a recent occurrence lately, almost as if Skipper didn't like the thought of me being around Doris. The reason for that, well, I didn't know, but I was too rushed or unbothered to ask most of the time. I could be wrong though.

Skipper cooked his brow with sparking eyes. "Okay, I grant you clearance for a late pass tonight. But, only tonight," he added with a sparking serious glint in his sapphire eyes. "And when I say late pass, I mean be back at midnight at the latest, not two or three in the morning. Am I clear?"

"Yes sir, I'll be back earlier than midnight, that I can promise." I gave a nod in clarity at Skipper's expectant glare. Although, I took no notice of that. Skipper was always like that. It could have been out of paranoia, sleep depravity or protectiveness of the team. It was always one of those. More so the paranoia than anything else, but I wasn't sure if I could see any in his unblinking eyes.

Well, Skipper may have been paranoid, that was just part of his personal, but he was more understanding than you'd think. Especially to me, Rico and Private. And having an understanding mind, or parts of an understanding mind, was a good trait to have as a great Captain, and of course I thought Skipper was a great Captain. If I didn't, I wouldn't be here working in his unit. Although, sometimes as you have seen, I know I can do much better than him at some tasks. Besides the great tactics and combat moves he can perform like it's no big deal, missions he specialises in and his snappy comebacks. All that I pretty much suck at, and when I what him do it, it really annoys and impresses me. But, I know one day I'll be great like Skipper. One day... Although, I'm better at him at planning, intelligence, logical tasks (even know Skipper is quite logical), and definitely physics. I mean, I've never seen Skipper even look at an atom and seem interested about its functions! COME ON! Oops, got a little bit over excited there... Anyway, everyone knows Skipper is a very tactful fighter in battle, and he isn't beaten easily. Believe me, I've tried. But, Skipper's experience in combat can be a little intimidating to me, but it's efficient all in all. I try not to take it as a threat, but that's what I think about his fighting skills, and not to mention his leadership skills. But, the reason why Skipper's knowledge of military combat is efficient is because it comes in handy when trying to defeat Dr Blowhole, or Francis, Doris's brother, you might know him from that name. Please yourself, but I'd rather not talk about one of our greatest enemies... And my girlfriends brother... However, what really makes Skipper, Skipper, is the way he protects all of us, he is always there for us, well, pretty much. You know what, I've always thought this about the four of us, me, Skipper, Rico, and Private, we're more than just a team, we're brothers. Not blood related brothers, but brothers in arms. We have been for for many years and, we all know it. We just never say it. Unless it's in dire situations, like when Rico turned into a hippy because of his doll girlfriend. Anyway, me and Skipper are best friends. We're brothers-

Rico then spoke up, breaking me from my thoughts in surprise. Looking over the stone table full of playing cards, I saw that Skipper had turned back to the game, so had Private, but Rico was now interested in my date with Doris, but just like always, he was only being crude.

"I beta th's timi ets gong to be mor' tha' just kissig. Am I 'ight, dude?" Rico chuckled out in an understandable cracked voice. Rico raised his brows suggestively and gave me a huge knowing smile. I don't think I have to tell you what he was getting at.

I rolled my eyes at the comment and gave a sigh of annoyance. But, I couldn't help but let the corners of my beak coil into a light smile at the thought of doing that with Doris. Although, I'm not that sort of male who likes a one night stand or to have meaningless, ugh, never mind. Actually, I've never had a one night stand, at least I hope I haven't. Anyway, I only like Doris's company, but if she wanted something more, then who would I be to turn that down?

After placing a swift card onto the pile in the middle of the table, Private looked up at me with his curious baby blue eyes. They were gleaming in curiosity, and then he spoke up as the young penguin seemed to be in thought. "You and Doris have been going out for some time now," he smiled sweetly, bringing up his cards once again from where he was sat at the table. "How long have you two been going out for now?"

"Four months, twelve days, and seven hours," I smugly answered, crossing my sleek flippers as I gave a deep smile of a mixed happiness and surprise. Yes, I have been counting, and yes, I didn't think we would be going out this long either.

The others gave me a surprised expression as they swivelled on their stone blocks in my direction. Their eyes were wide in shock, and slight weirdness aimed at me. But, other than that they were blank, even the light of the room didn't cast the emotionless shadow off their faces. I couldn't tell if they were just giving me this look out of surprise that I had been counting, or this look was general. Knowing me I couldn't tell. Skipper exchanged a blank look with both Private and Rico, who had the same expression stuck on them like a visible cloud. I looked in-between them with utter confusion as my brow was raised, I was just waiting for someone to say something. Until, I was almost stunned by the shock of laughter in the room. Even Skipper was laughing at me, which wasn't surprising. Rico was sniggering to himself as he tried to maintain his laughter, before he started to hit the table with his powerful flipper, making a banging noise as he laughed full on in a cracked tone. And Private was just sweetly chuckling to himself from beside the crazed older brother of ours.

"What?" I couldn't help but ask as soon as they seemed to calm down from their fit of laughter.

Skipper wiped a manly tear from his eye, before answering me with an hysterical tone to it. "Kowalski, your, your!- Counting how long you've been out with Doris for! I mean, who does that?!" He laughed out with wide amused eyes.

Frowning, I turned my attention up towards the clock above the steel door, and my eyes went wide in fear once again. It was 7.45pm! I had only 15 minutes to make my way all the way to the harbor! And I had to make it. I couldn't be late for my meeting with Doris because i don't want to piss her off. And leaving right now seemed like the best opportunity for me to make my escape. I didn't want to stay with these individuals who knew nothing about me and Doris any longer.

Looking back to the quiet others who had turned back to the game, I quickly gave a quick goodbye before shooting up the ladder and into the heated wind of a summer afternoon in a frantic mess. Hopefully my groomed feathers wouldn't fall out of place in the humid wind.

"Have fun on your date Kowalski!" I heard a clear voice shout after me, although, I didn't know who had wished me off. It wasn't Rico, obviously, and it wasn't Skipper because he didn't have a weak voice, so it must have been Private.

After that, I made my way as quick as I could towards the harbor, I was in such a rush. I knew if I was late for this important thing she had to tell me, Doris was going to be pissed off with me. I knew she would. However, I still had no clue what she wanted to tell me, but it sounded serious. I just hoped whatever she had to tell me wasn't bad, because then my heart would be eternally broken...

A/N: Thanks for reading the first part of my two part story. I'm not sure if the characters are out of character. Please review! Thank you.