Authors Note: Hope this is somewhat liked. Be sure to check out the Madagascar and Penguins of Madagascar crossover by me and RandomFanfictioner13, my special palsy walsy!

-TheSkivate


"No, no, no, no, NO!" Kowalski shouted in peril. "You can't move that piece there Rico! That's cheating!"

"Blarghyabadabadabdada!" Rico babbled. "Checkmate!"

"But we're playing SOLITAIRE!" The scientist complained, tossing up his flippers.

Rico coughed up a checker piece and slapped down his cards on it. "Go fish!"

"Urgh!" Kowalski started bashing his head on the table.

Private walked in, setting a tray with four mugs down next to the scattered cards. "Oh, just go with it and play with him K'walski, it's almost bedtime anyway. No need to go to bed all worked up."

"Fine." Kowalski nodded, straightening himself out. He calmed down. "You're right, Private." And started shuffling his cards. "I shouldn't let rules and regulations get in the way of a standard friendly card game between civilized penguin personnel such as ourselves who—"

"Tic-tac-toe!" Rico shouted and hacked up a black marker, making X's across all the playing cards.

"WE…ARE…PLAYING…SOLITAIRE!" screamed Kowalski.

Private laughed and walked away from the table. He left the tray and two mugs on the table, taking the two remaining mugs in his flippers to bring to the other room. The young penguin waddled into the lab where his leader stood silently in front of the computer, his recorder nearby so the private assumed he had just added another log to the skipper's log.

"Here's your fish coffee, Skippah. Hot and fishy, just the way you like it." Private smiled, and after a while frowned at the lack of response. "Skippah? …Skippah!"

"Oh, huh?" Skipper snapped back to attention. "Sorry Private, what did you say?"

"Coffee, sir."

"Oh right, yeah. Thanks…" The leader trailed off and waved his flipper at the computer desk in front of him. "Just put it right there."

"Is something the matter?" asked Private, concerned. The young penguin watched his leader turn to him completely.

"What? No. Why would you think that?"

"Well, you just seem a little off ever since this morning when you—"

"Private." interrupted Skipper.

"Yes Skippah?"

"I'm fine."

"Yes but ever since you got that—"

"I wouldn't lie to you, Private."

"I know that Skippah but I'm just concerned—"

"Don't be." Skipper wrapped a flipper around the young boy, sporting that trademarked smirk. "Look at me. I'm fine, if anything I'm just overtired. That's all. Just need some shut eye and I'll be right as rain, back to my old self in the a.m."

"Well, alright." Private started to yawn. "I'm a bit on the tired side myself actually."

"I just need to finish this one thing and then its light's out." Skipper started at the computer again. "Why don't you head on to your bunk and I'll be there in a little while?"

"Actually Skippah, I'd rather just wait in here with you, if that's alright…" Private said.

"Are those two at it again?" Skipper asked, crossly. "I thought I told them to lay off the card games."

"I'm not even sure they're playing cards at this point…"

Skipper blinked. "Well what're they playing then?"

Private shrugged.

"Bingo! Tag you're-it 'Walski!" came Rico's crazed yell from the other room.

"OH COME ON!" Kowalski cried in the distance.

Skipper sighed and slid down from the seat. It didn't look like he was getting anything done at all tonight. He guessed it didn't really matter, nothing was going to change because of his investigation anyway. But he still wanted to know as much as possible on the matter at hand. He'd probably get something done tomorrow… "I suppose we should get in there then, hm?"

Private nodded.

"Come on." Skipper nodded towards the lab exit and the two shortest penguins went out into the main part of the HQ. "Lights out, boys."

"Awww…" Rico bowed his head.

"Finally!" Kowalski exclaimed.

"Oh Kowalski, don't be such a sore loser. It's unsettling…" Skipper walked past them to the bunks.

"A sore loser?! I'm the only one here who has the decency to play by the rules!" Kowalski pointed out.

"And do you know what happens to those who play by the rules?" Skipper asked.

"They end up like Manfredi and Johnson?" chirped in Private.

"That's right, my young little private." Skipper pinched the youngest penguin's cheeks, shaking his face and leaving the private a little dazed. "They end up just like Manfredi and Johnson! Now hit the bunks, and move it! We've got a lot of stuff to do tomorrow…" The leader climbed up into his bunk.

Private slipped up into his. "What kind of stuff Skippah?"

"Classified stuff."

"Will it be declassified tomorrow then?" asked Private.

"Private, once something is classified as being classified, it doesn't just become UN-classified!" Skipper scolded. "If something is classified then that something will remain classified for all eternity, case closed, forever. Kaput! Completely classified! Just like—"

"Just like Denmark, right Skippah?" Private said. There was a silence. "Skippah?"

Kowalski and Rico exchanged glances between each other, knowingly. Then they stared between their leader and Private. Skipper seemed to be in a trance of some sort, unresponsive to the private's calls.

Private looked at Kowalski for some assistance, but the scientist silently motioned for him not to say anything more. The three operatives got up into their bunks, watching their leader just stand there thinking of something.

"We're ready for lights out, Skipper." Kowalski broke the eerie silence.

Skipper nodded once and turned out the lights but he didn't get in bed. Instead he climbed up the ladder and out the hatch without a word. Most likely to get some air or clear his head like he sometimes did. Once he was gone, the three remaining penguins sat up in their bunks.

"I hope he's alright." Private commented. "He's been off ever since this morning when—"

"Private…" Kowalski said. "I think it's best if we don't mention Hans anymore, or Denmark, or anything having to do with all of the above."

"But why?"

Kowalski and Rico exchanged looks again.

"Um…" Rico croaked.

"It's like this…" Kowalski simply put it. "Hans is a part of Skipper's past, correct?"

"Yeah?" Private replied.

"He's a bad part of Skipper's past, and people often like to forget the bad things that have happened to them. Therefore, Skipper shut Hans completely out of his life so as to never repeat whatever incident that happened between them. But now that Hans is…well…gone, things can never be truly resolved between them with whatever conflicts they once had. Bottom line is, Skipper wasn't emotionally ready for something as drastic as Hans being murdered. It is taking a toll on him."

"But I thought Hans was Skippah's enemy."

Kowalski nodded. "He is, but it's like this. We don't know what happened back in Copenhagen, do we?"

"Nuh-uh." Rico shook his head.

"He won't tell us." Private said.

"It's between him and Hans. The incident is in both of their memories, both a part of their past lives." Kowalski explained. "Hans is gone, so now Skipper is the one left to carry the burden of what happened on his own. Now this is just a theory or a mere part of what Skipper is feeling as if this wasn't enough already. Another is that Skipper and Hans share a past together. Hans called Skipper his frienemy, so perhaps at one point or another they could have been friends. Either way, Skipper isn't going to take this well. It'll take time for him to cope with this and we all have to be able to be there for him, just like he's always been here for us from the very beginning. Do you understand the situation now, Private?"

"Yes, I think I do. So we don't mention Hans at all?"

"Nope." said Rico.

"Not so much as a syllable about him or Denmark." Kowalski told them. "Got it?"

"Yes." nodded Private.

"Yup." Rico nodded as well.

"Good." Kowalski sat back on his pillow.

The hatch opened up and the dull silence was back in the HQ. Skipper got in bed, but he didn't get any sleep. Hans was gone. What now?