Hi everyone! Sorry it took so long - so many things were starting up! All-State Chorus (not that I made it in, but I still had auditions), fall play, oral interp, voice lessons, HOMEWORK!... anyway, here is the final chapter of my Flashback Series. There's an important note at the end, please pay attention to it! Enjoy!
Kowalski couldn't believe how the HQ had changed in the last year. They'd had more changes in residency than he could ever remember, and he'd seen so much growth in his teammate's - and his own - characters, particularly young Private's. This year had definitely changed them all for the better.
First had been Rico's traitorous brother come to visit in May. That particular visit no one really cared to remember much, but it was hard not to notice how much Rico had really been affected in the incident - even for someone like him, it was no mean feat to be forced to murder your own brother, no matter how evil and twisted he had been.
Near the end of October, Skipper had been unexpectedly reunited with his ex-wife Vanessa and met his daughter, Sarah, for the first time when they'd been temporarily transferred from their zoo in Boston. They'd stayed for three months - created friendships, found love, and re-lived memories - then been forced to go back to Boston, leaving behind a brokenhearted team of penguins - most of all Private, who'd fallen hard for Sarah. He didn't talk much for quite a while.
Then came that glorious March day, those days that came in like a lamb - Kowalski was rejoined with his beloved Katrina, the blind but beautiful (well… to him at least) girl he'd grown up with, and was now happily mated to.
Finally, in the middle of May (spring, the season of love), a miracle occurred. Alice, their zookeeper, and the zookeeper in the Boston zoo where Vanessa and Sarah lived had finally made a connection between two penguins' unusually gloomy behavior (well, for one it was unusual - for the other, not so much, but it was worse than before) and had sought to fix the problem. Sarah had returned to the Central Park Zoo - and to Private! Technically, they were now mates, they had heard the heart songs after all, but both felt they weren't quite ready to… ahem, make it official yet. Boston wasn't really that far away, so Private and Sarah (often accompanied by Skipper) went to visit Vanessa occasionally.
Then came June. June twenty-ninth through the thirtieth, to be exact. Kowalski remembered it so well… Katrina had been feeling out of sorts for a while, so she'd went to the vet, pretending to have a violent cough so Alice would notice her. She'd spent the night in the Zoo Hospital, much to Kowalski's dismay. She'd come home the next morning with extra cough syrup and news that Kowalski still thought to wonderful to be really true - she was carrying an egg!
As earlier mentioned, that had been June thirtieth. The egg had been laid with no complications a week after Independence Day, and had been placed in the incubation chamber Kowalski had invented for Eggy almost two years ago.
The date today was September twelfth. Everyone knew that the incubation period of two months was well overdue, and no one was prouder or more nervous than the soon-to-be parents - especially the father. Kowalski had filled seven entire notebooks, cover to cover, dealing with situations he might encounter as a dad and various ways to deal with them - three books for both genders, plus an extra one for if the chick took on Katrina's trait of blindness. He still felt he wasn't really ready, but he supposed everyone felt this way.
Since the hatching could happen at any moment - chicks had a way of coming extremely late or early more often than on time, all penguins knew that - Skipper had organized shifts for egg-watching duty for every penguin in the HQ - himself, Kowalski, Rico, Private, Sarah and Katrina, though she and her mate received the most shifts, considering it was theirs. Sometimes on weekends Marlene, Maurice, or Julien (who could only be trusted when he was on a walkie-talkie system directly with Skipper or Kowalski) watched the egg while the penguins got some rest out of the anxiety of the HQ.
Quite ironically, it was Rico who was on duty when it happened. He was actually a little miffed - his favorite TV show, Mythbusters (so many explosions!) was on, and he couldn't hear or see the screen well at all from the particular angle he needed to sit to be able to see the egg. He almost didn't hear the little "tap-tap-tap" over his stream of grumbled curses in the Antarctic language.
"…should have traded with Private, he doesn't even like that show…huh?" he first said to himself, then stopped to take a closer look at the egg. He waited a second, then - it twitched! He was sure of it!
He sucked in a breath and shouted, "EGG!"
That probably wasn't the best way to announce his discovery: Skipper and Private jumped in their seats on the concrete blocks in front of the TV; Sarah, as always the calmest, merely looked up from her drawing pad; Katrina, thinking something was wrong, just about ran over Sarah (spread out on the floor) and Rico while rushing to press her ear-hole-thing against the incubation chamber; Best of all, Kowalski, who'd been working with some chemicals for a mission planned in a couple of days, exclaimed loudly and dropped his vial of what-ever-it-was-ium and didn't even notice when the spilled solution ate right through his work table, leaving a dark purple stain around the edges of the hole.
Katrina, now at the chamber and ignoring Rico (who'd resumed his Antarctic curses when she'd stepped on his foot quite forcefully), listened intently for any noise inside the chamber. She heard the same "tap-tap-tap" Rico had heard. She beamed.
"It's hatching!" She shrieked happily.
Kowalski, like all first-time fathers, proved to be completely useless (in other words, was too shocked to do much of anything for a minute or so, then began flipping through his notebooks, realizing too late that, in all his hours of making the notebooks, he hadn't put so much as a thought on the actual hatching), so Skipper stepped in.
"Private! Go get Marlene and the lemurs, we promised them they could see this. Katrina, I apologize, but you need to step away and let Kowalski stand there - chicks always identify the father first."
She was resisting, so Sarah stepped in to help. While guiding Katrina away, she said calmly, "He's right, it took me almost a year to figure out my mom was ACTUALLY my mom."
Katrina finally agreed. Kowalski, still locked in freak-out mode, had to be pushed in front of the chamber before he finally came back to his senses enough to know he had to take the egg out of the chamber and place it on top of his feet.
"Now what do I do?" He frantically begged of Skipper.
"First of all, calm down, man!" Skipper advised. "Other than that, not much, I think - just wait for the little bugger to poke his head out or something."
The egg twitched again on top of Kowalski's feet, causing him to flinch. He was more than surprised to see a crack in the shell.
"Darwin's dress pants!"
The hatch opened up and Private, accompanied by Marlene, Julien, Maurice, and Mort, jumped inside.
"The entire zoo is waiting outside - they want to see the chick too!" Private reported to Skipper.
"Well, they're probably gonna have to wait!" Skipper said exasperatedly. "I've heard of hatchings that took days to -"
CRACK!
"I see a beak!" Kowalski shouted.
Skipper paused and took a deep breath. "Never mind."
Julien asked Skipper, "Why is the smart one-"
"Kowalski."
"Whatever. Why is he the one with the egg?"
"Better yet," Maurice added, "Why is he carrying it between his legs?"
Skipper, knowing this was not the time, said, "Classified."
The HQ grew completely silent, except for the cracking of the egg. Kowalski's anxiety had quickly switched to excitement upon seeing that tiny black beak for a nanosecond. He bent down and quietly egged the little chick to break through (pun totally intended).
"Come on, little guy, you can do it! Momma and Daddy want to see you… it's only a thing layer of calcium carbonate, you can get through it…"
The egging on (hee hee hee) worked. With one last crack and a little 'pop', the top half of the egg flew off.
The chick was… perfect. Snow white face, jet-black head and fluffy, silver down feathers…. The chick turned around a bit, then looked up when he noticed someone holding the bottom half of the egg in place. The chick had big, cobalt-blue eyes - Kowalski's eyes. He held up his arms in the universal 'carry me?' sign.
"Dada?" he said in an adorable baby voice. Kowalski's heart melted and he picked up his child, hugging him close. His feathers had the same silky softness Katrina's did…
"Katrina!" he called, pure emotion making his voice quiet and husky. Katrina ran up to him, following his voice and holding out her hand.
"What does he look like?" she asked, beaming a proud smile.
Kowalski struggled for the right adjectives.
"He's got my eyes, and your feathers, and a tiny little black beak…he's… he's…" Kowalski paused for a moment, his science sense tingling. He took a closer look at his son… and smiled, chuckling. "… he's a she."
"What?" Katrina (and all the others) gasped.
"It's a girl!" Kowalski said happily.
Katrina gasped. "Give her to me!" she shrieked joyfully.
Kowalski carefully handed his daughter over. Katrina held her securely in one flipper, and very softly touched her little girl's face, taking in each little curve of her features and whispering, "I always wanted a little girl…" Katrina's flipper touched the chick under the beak, and she giggled at the tickly feeling. Kowalski and Katrina laughed along.
"What should we name her? I've got a few lists of preferable names in one of my notebooks-" Kowalski said.
"I've always liked Rachel." Katrina blurted out.
Kowalski blinked. "Oh. That was easier than I thought it would be. Rachel… that's a beautiful name."
Katrina smiled.
Kowalski heard Private's strained whisper to Skipper: "When will we get to see her?"
"Be patient, Private." Skipper replied. "Let the parents have some time."
Kowalski chuckled and put his flipper on Katrina's open arm, saying, "I think the rest of them want to see her."
Katrina grinned and nodded. Together, they turned around, revealing the chick to the rest of the animals in the room.
Sarah, Marlene, Private, Skipper and Maurice all gasped quite audibly, and Rico, Julien and Mort let out an "Aww!"
"She's beautiful!" Marlene exclaimed.
"She's got Kowalski's eyes." Sarah remarked with a smile.
Kowalski beamed proudly, and looked around at everyone around him. As much as he felt his teammates were his brothers, and Katrina thought of Marlene and Sarah as sisters, he wanted his Rachel to think of them as such too.
He took Katrina, who was still holding Rachel, by the flipper and led her to the first penguin he saw.
"Do you mind?" Kowalski whispered to Katrina and gently pulled Rachel away a bit. Katrina nodded and handed her over.
"Now, Rachel." he said when his girl was facing the penguin, "This here is your Uncle Private. He'll probably be the one that gives you too many Peanut Butter Winkies and will watch the Lunacorns with you."
Private smiled. That would be him, all right.
Katrina said, "And, more than likely, standing right to him is your Aunt Sarah, who will try to teach you how to draw and how to be true to yourself."
Kowalski added, knowing Rachel wouldn't understand, "And I certainly hope they were paying attention a few minutes ago, since it will probably be their turn next."
The young couple blushed, but knowing it was true Private put his arm around Sarah and hugged her.
Kowalski winked, then moved on. He said to Rachel, "This is your Aunt Marlene. She doesn't really look like the rest of us, but I know she loves you just as much. She'll probably be the one you go to for advice and show you the wonders of Spanish guitar."
"And you know," Marlene said to the little chick in a whisper, "It's just like I told your mom - if you ever need to get away from all the army guys for a while, you just come on over." Katrina heard this and smiled.
Marlene was crouched down enough that the chick could reach out and touch her face, which she did. Rachel felt the softness of Marlene's fur and smiled.
"I think she likes you, Marlene." Kowalski said. Marlene beamed.
"Can I hold her?" she asked.
"Sure-" Kowalski started, but the next one in line pushed Marlene away, demanding an answer as to why she was hogging the babyish penguin.
Katrina shook her head. "And that would be Julien." She came closer to little Rachel and whispered, "I'd stay away from him."
"Julien's not really an uncle, per say…" Kowalski said, searching for the right description. "He's more like a… third cousin, twice removed."
"She's so adorabibble - say what?" Julien said, cooing and then standing straight up and looked at Kowalski sternly. Rachel seemed to understand the joke and giggled a little.
Julien said defensively, "HA! I told you she likes me!"
"You never said-"
"Here, I will make her laugh by showing her one of my kingly funny faces!" He made a ridiculous face, crossing his eyes and puffing out his cheeks. Rachel looked at him thoughtfully… silently… then looked away at the next lemur.
Kowalski held back a laugh as he said, "Looks like she's tired of you, Julien."
Julien pouted and muttered something about "everyone's a critic."
Kowalski moved on. "This here's Uncle Maurice-"
"Eh, I'm not really an uncle, so much as a friend." Maurice said, shrugging.
"True." Kowalski agreed. "He's probably the most sane of our lemur friends. He's the one to go to when Julien's giving you a hard time."
"Somewhere around here is probably your cousin Mort…" Katrina said.
Kowalski bent down. "Your mother's right - Mort's right down here. You know, he's probably the closest in age…"
"I like new friends." Mort said sincerely.
Just as long as he doesn't pass on any odd foot fetishes… Kowalski thought to himself. He, Katrina, and Rachel moved on.
"This is your Uncle Rico, Rachel. He will probably be the one with whom you watch movies your mother and I forbid, and who shows you how to have fun."
Rico laughed. Rachel reached up towards her uncle, and Rico excitedly bent down a little to see what she wanted. She reached out her flipper - Rico frowned, she was probably wondering about his scar… and she reached up even higher, touching his mohawk and giggling.
Katrina opened her beak to ask why she was giggling, but as usual, Kowalski beat her to it. "She likes Rico's mohawk." he explained quietly.
Katrina laughed quietly. Rico smiled - Kowalski hadn't seen Rico smile that way since… well, in truth, since that day his twin brother had showed up. Rico was very happy indeed that his scar didn't frighten Rachel.
"Play with?" Rico asked hopefully.
"In a minute, Rico." Kowalski answered. "There's still one more penguins she needs to meet."
Rico nodded. Kowalski, Katrina, and Rachel moved to the final member of their family.
"This is your Uncle Skipper." Kowalski said to his daughter. "To quote Private, he's like toast - crusty on the outside, soft on the inside, and good in a jam. He's one of the men I look up to … and I hope you'll feel the same."
Kowalski and Skipper looked at each other, a different kind of pride shining in each penguin's eyes. The silence was broken only when Rico repeated his request to play with Rachel. Kowalski agreed and gave Rachel to him. Everyone, save for Kowalski and Skipper crowded around Rico and Rachel, ooh-ing and ahh-ing.
"Skipper…" Kowalski said nervously. "Do you think I'll be a good father?"
Skipper, catching a glimpse of Sarah, laughed a bit to himself and said, "Well, you're here, right?"
"Right…"
"Well, then… you're already doing a better job than I did."
I've wanted to use the name Rachel for such a long time, but I only knew I could use it for a very special character... remember in chapter 1 of Part 1, when I said all my characters were named after somebody (except Rico's brother)? Well, Rachel is the name of my beautiful younger sister. She's part of the reason my stories are (I modestly admit) somewhat good - I read them aloud to her before I post them to make sure the words flow right. She's just as busy as I am, but always makes time to hear me out, and I dedicate this series to her - Rachel, my wonderful almost 11-year-old sister. Love ya! (Though she probably won't see it... or will she?)
Thanks again to all my readers and reviewers. Please remember how busy I am, but also remember this - even though I am a junior in high school (ugh), I'm definitely not ready to put my inner child away, and POM is a big way I can still retain... myself. So, it might take a while, there will be more stories!
Review!