Kowalski awoke to find himself cocooned in a swathe of fluffy blankets, noting that the one on top was privates hideous brightly coloured Lunacorn comfort blanket. he should have complained, pushed them off of him onto the cold stone floor… but he was freezing. a cold sweat breaking out across his brow with the effort of lifting his head, a heavy lead weight.
"AARGH!" he groaned. a sharp stabbing pain accosting his left frontal lobe.
"he's awake!" shouted skipper, and the whole crew leaped into action eventually surrounding his bed. another groan escaped his beak that this time had nothing to do with his head "Walski!" cooed Rico running up to him and wrapping his flippers around Kowalski's torso.
unfortunately as Rico rested his head against the analysts chest a whole new bout of coughing begun causing Rico to leap away and hide behind skipper upset about setting him off.
"private, medicine!" skipper held out a flipper and a pack of pills was smacked into the appendage. two white pills where tipped into a cup. a glass of water was passed into skippers other flipper and skipper waddled up to him. Kowalski frowned as he approached his eyes blurring slightly as he tried to sit up a little, Kowalski must have been feeling ill to except medicine thought private sadly. two sharp hacking coughs erupted from his beak but he managed to control it, holding out shaking flippers to receive the pills.
as smoothly as he could noticing his seconds unsteady flippers skipper gently guided the pills into Kowalski's flippers holding onto the cup as it tilted upwards. the same was repeated for the water and Kowalski quickly swallowed before a bout of coughing could dislodge the medicine. Rico waddled over shyly with a thankfully non regurgitated flannel and lay it across the analysts brow with a wet squelch. "thanks guys" Kowalski whispered softly, his throat still dry despite just drinking some water. Finding himself becoming very sleepy he let his eyelids shut for just a moment. His headache abating somewhat although he speculated the placebo effect must have been part of the equation. Rico lowered Kowalski's tired head onto the soft pillows.
and soon a soft snoring punctuated by the occasional cough and a constant unsettling wheezing could be heard around HQ. "Rico, front and centre!" Rco complied with the order quickly lining up next to private but not after a quick glance at where Kowalski lay on his bunk. " I want surveillance, we have a man down, we are weakened as a unit, private i know you'd love to sit by Kowalski's bedside and repeatedly wet his flannel and all that gooey stuff- he winced at private's deflated look-"which you are excellent at," that earned a smile- he looked back to Rico- " but you aren't a terrifying explosive swallowing attack dog!" he said with a flourish continuing his pacing in front of them both " if anyone catches wind of our weakness we need to be prepared, so Rico I'm posting you on guard duty for tonight before resuming training as usual in the morning"
private piped up " erm Skippah?-won't Rico be tired after staying up all night watching Kowalski? too tired to train too?" private asked innocently, not noticing the annoyed long-suffering look skipper was sporting and the worried glances Rico kept shooting their sick comrade. "no, my men have nerves of steel and can go days without sleep.-private looked slightly worried- "right private?" "erm yeah-i mean yes Skippah" was the anxious reply. " we need someone to make sure Kowalski doesn't get any worse, and that we don't get any unwanted visits from our enemies whilst were sleeping, the cowards, they're just waiting for the cover of darkness to attack!"
"erm- skipper" interjected private for the second time-" doesn't that seem a little erm, well-paranoid?" "look private, who knows what tech Kowalski is creating. they could easily capture him in this state, just imagine the weapons they would have at their disposal with their very own Kowalski!"
Private knew what sort of inventions Kowalski created on a daily bases now. if his skills were utilised by the enemy he couldn't imagine what horrors Kowalski could be forced to create…
but private highly doubted that would happen. skipper was far too paranoid for his own good.
and watching Rico gently stroking back Kowalski's head-feathers he really did believe that even if skippers fears actually came true and the enemy were plotting to exploit their weakness and kidnap Kowalski, Rico would protect his comrade admirably. besides the fact that he would do the same for any member of the small unit. And private knew Rico had a soft spot for the nerdy penguin of the team. Rico and Kowalski were thick as thieves.
"private you are dismissed, Rico-" skipper hesitated watching the weapons expert intently petting the analysts feathers, he wondered if Kowalski would mind being petted in such a way had he been awake, although the action seemed to be comforting him in sleep as his worrying forehead was slowly relaxing. skipper stood uncomfortably watching the scene for a few moments until Rico looked up shaking his head from side to side as if snapping out of a daze "wazzup?" he asked.
skipper was going to ask Rico to make some of his signature sushi, but thought better of it deciding to ask private to make some fishtail soup. it would probably be easier for the teams analyst to consume and was warm so would help with his temperature and hopefully stop him from shivering, with the added bonus of none of them having tasted it in a long time. "er-I was just going to say, maybe you should re wet that flannel, it looks a little dry..." he said. "training is suspended for the day" skipper explained whilst pouring himself his third fish coffee of the day.
their whole operation had been put on standby out of worry for the teams analyst. skipper knew it was safer for the team to stay down in HQ for today as they would not only be distracted by Kowalski's absence whilst said penguin would be left alone and vulnerable. besides it was no fun training without watching Kowalski's inventions blowing up in his own face half way through.
Skipper stirred his coffee trying not to let his paranoia run wild as he went over the possibility of whether the teams analyst had perhaps been poisoned, or injected with some sort of super-virus when he wasn't looking... instead he instructed private to make the much needed soup and tasked Rico with a virtual exercise on the x box and as night fell stood outside watching the sky turn crimson and the sun a blood red eye sink into the ground.