Kowalski paced back and forth in the H.Q. Why had the humans taken Anna away again? She had seemed fine even that morning. Tired, yes, but her insomnia wasn't a new thing. He was worried about her cancer returning; maybe the humans had seen something he, her husband, had missed.

"Kowalski?" Skipper asked, realizing how nervous and out-of-it his soldier was. "Kowalski? Kowalski!"

Jumping out of his trance, Kowalski turned to Skipper. "What?"

"Why don't you go to the veterinary clinic, and see what's going on?"

Kowalski's shoulders sagged. "I can't. The humans will notice that I'm missing from the cute-and-cuddly routine. It's midday."

Skipper smiled at Kowalski's concern for Anna. The two of them were evidently still in love; so much so that they had tied the knot about a year ago. Already, their marriage had lasted longer than Skipper's had to that doll. Besides, he reminded himself, they had dated for almost five years before the wedding. "We'll cover for you, Kowalski. That's what friends are for, or so I'm told."

Kowalski beamed at his superior, "Thank you, Skipper. I'll be back as soon as I find out what's up." And without wasting any time, since he was worried, he flipped out of the habitat and found himself running to get to the vet clinic.

Once he located Anna's room, he simply leapt up into the window. In her room, Anna was inside one of those metal cages, slumping against the wall. She looked shocked.

He allowed himself one minute of adoring her before he heard the bad news. He still thought she looked as beautiful as the first day he had seen her, even if she was six years older now. Her eyes were still as green, her head feathers were still that beautiful shade of cream that they had always been. She simply sat there, her pupils contracting in the light from the window, when she looked up and saw him standing in the windowsill.

"Oh, Kowalski…" she said, sounding relieved and yet…still slightly dazed. Standing, she pressed herself up against the wall of the cage closest to him.

"Why do the humans have you here, Anna?" Kowalski asked, crossing the room. "Do you have any theories?"

She seemed hesitant. "I do know why, but…I can't believe it."

Kowalski felt his worse fears confirmed. "It's your cancer, isn't it?" Unbelievably, Anna hadn't had a relapse since he had left her, so many years ago now…she had been so happy when the year marks had gone by.

She shook her head, making him look at her questionably. "The humans…they were talking about it when they came in a few minutes ago…" she sighed, closing her eyes as if bracing herself. "I…I'm pre-egg."

Kowalski felt like he couldn't breathe. Pre-egg was the bird way of saying 'I'm pregnant'. He couldn't seem to come up with anything to say. He wasn't sure what he was supposed to be feeling, either. He was a sudden mixture of excited, shocked, nervous, scared (for her), and many more he couldn't categorize in one glance. "W-what?"

Anna opened her eyes, and he saw the apprehension and joy hidden there. She was just as confused and startled as he was. "We're going to be parents, Kowalski." She whispered, barely able to say it.

Kowalski's head was reeling. His brain, for all its knowledge, couldn't come up with a comment to make besides a single word sentence. "…w-when?"

Anna knew what he was asking. "Today. They're taking me in to another room in a few minutes, in fact. They're so excited; this is the first penguin hatching they've had in captivity here."

Kowalski felt instantly more nervous. "So…I can't be with you?"

She looked like she was tearing up. "Afraid not, Kowalski."

He didn't have time to say anything else before the vets came back in the room. Diving to the cover of the curtains, Kowalski peered out from behind them. They were talking amongst themselves, as they undid Anna's cage door lock.

He knew she was looking for him and where he had went to. As the humans picked her up and held her over their shoulders, he stepped out from behind the curtains. She saw him, and gave him a weak smile.

Oh, Anna…he thought, feeling weak himself.

Forgetting his promise to Skipper, Kowalski stayed in the vet room, pacing in the corner. He could barely think straight. He didn't even try to keep track of time. The world was frozen for him, since he had no way of knowing what was going on with Anna. Was she ok? He wished he knew.

It must have been much later in the day when she came back to the other room where Kowalski was, since the sun was no longer in the middle of the sky. Orange-ish light came in from behind the curtains, and no longer reached the table where they set Anna back in her cage.

Kowalski held his breath as the vet left the room, and then he flew over to where Anna was. Not literally of course, since even burning love can't change the fact that penguins can't actually fly.

"Anna?" he asked, since she was dozing off. Her eyelids fluttered.

"Kowalski?" she said, sitting up shakily. She seemed exhausted.

"Are you alright?" Kowalski asked, and then he gulped before he could ask the next question. "…Is…is the egg?"

Anna smiled at his concern. "I'm fine. Just the stupid medicine they gave me made me sleepy. And the vets still have them, so I don't know. I didn't really even get to see them before the vets whisked them off…" and then she choked up. "I don't even know if they're alright!"

"Anna…" Kowalski said, feeling her concern settle on him too. And then her whole comment registered. "…them? They're? You mean…"

Anna smiled through her tears. "Yes, Kowalski. Twins."

Since they were both emperor penguins, the fact that Anna had laid two eggs wasn't unusual. Simply surprising, since it hadn't been expected. But Kowalski felt his mind settle back into the numb state that it had been for the past few hours.

"T-twins?" he confirmed, squeezing her flipper through the grating. She simply nodded.

Kowalski was fiddling with the stupid lock on the cage door. They had recently replaced the simple pin tumblers with something far harder for a penguin to open; a cage lock that you had to have simple finger manipulation to open, if you were a human. But Kowalski couldn't squeeze the mechanism hard enough to open the door. He needed more leverage on this side.

Jumping off of the table top, he searched around the room for something that might work. But before he could find anything, the vet came in, reverently holding something in his cupped hands.

Perhaps two somethings, Kowalski thought, feeling dizzy as he stood still, hoping the vet didn't notice him.

But the vet mumbled to Anna as he opened her cage door. "And…here you go…your little eggs. Who's the father, I wonder? Could it be the tallest? I've seen you spending a bunch of time with him over the past few years." He asked her the question like he was talking to himself, since he obviously didn't expect Anna to answer.

It's me, Kowalski thought, I'm the father. He couldn't believe it. If he had awakened that morning with this knowledge, he wouldn't have believed it then either. This was happening too fast to register.

The vet swung the cage door closed, but sly Anna stuffed a corner of the blanket in between the door and the cage wall, so the lock didn't click.

The vet hadn't noticed. "Well, you'd better take care of those, now. Perhaps both will somehow survive until hatching."

And then the vet was gone.