I am so sorry, I swear, I would have updated earlier, and I really wanted to. But it's the holiday season, things are busy. Anyways, I'm back now, ready to write the next two chapters and finish this story.
When Rico first woke up, he couldn't bring himself to opening his eyes. His body felt like it just didn't want to cooperate with him. He felt stiff and sore everywhere. His thoughts were very jumbled up and, worst of all, his stomach felt empty. Rico hated the feeling of an empty stomach. If his stomach felt empty, then he felt empty.
It was a few minutes before Rico finally forced his eyes open, and when he did he saw Kowalski looking at him, and he looked relieved to see Rico awake.
"Rico, I'm glad to see you're alright." Kowalski exclaimed happily, then he frowned and looked concerned, "You are alright, aren't you?"
"Um, yup." Rico responded. Sure, he felt sore and tired, but other than that, he was fine.
"No permanent damage?" Kowalski asked nervously. This confused Rico. Permanent damage from what? He wasn't even sure what had happened.
"Uh, nope?" Rico didn't know what kind of damage Kowalski was talking about. He didn't feel any different.
"We'll have to ask the doctor, to be sure." Skipper said, causing Rico to jump slightly. He hadn't noticed that Skipper was in the room as well. And did he just say doctor?
"Wha' doctor?" Rico asked.
"When we noticed that you seemed to be waking up, we sent Private to get the doctor." Skipper replied. That didn't answer Rico's question though, so he looked to Kowalski for the answer.
"Well, Rico, we're at the hospital." Kowalski said.
"Huh? Wha' 'appened?" Rico asked.
"You overdosed." A new voice said. The three of them looked to see that Private had returned with the doctor, who had been the one to speak. Rico didn't really know what overdose meant, so he looked to Kowalski again to answer him.
"Well, you know how your medication helps you?" Kowalski asked. Rico nodded, of course he knew that. Kowalski continued. "An overdose is when you take too much medication. Overdoses can permanently damage your mind or body, or even kill you." Kowalski sounded like he was trying to speak as he normally did, but Rico could hear the emotion in his voice.
"There doesn't seem to be any permanent damage, which is quite surprising." The doctor said. "Considering the type and quantity of medication you took, we were expecting to see some brain damage or something similar.
"I think Rico's brain is already as damaged as it can get." Skipper commented, causing the doctor to frown and the others to chuckle. So many people said that Rico was insane, including Skipper. He would call Rico a maniac or crazy all the time, though he never said or meant it as an insult. He said it as if he thought it were funny that others would think of Rico that way.
"In any case, you appear to be fine." The doctor told Rico. "You're free to go, though I suggest that you take things easy for a few days. And come back if your condition worsens."
Kowalski helped Rico up and they went into the hallway. Before they could leave the doctor took Skipper aside to have a quick word with him.
"You may want to consider having him talk to a therapist." The doctor whispered to Skipper, though they all heard him. "From what I can figure, Rico's mentality seems to be rather unique and, admittedly, disturbing. It may do some good for him to see a professional about his issues."
"I don't think that will be needed." Skipper said with a frown. "No offense, but the last thing we need is for some nosy namby-pamby know-it-all to pretend to know more about how Rico thinks than he does.
The four Penguins left the hospital together and headed back home. They went in silence, which they didn't do often when they weren't on missions. Rico felt uncomfortable the entire way back, because he noticed that both Skipper and Kowalski were now acting kind of strangely. Skipper seemed frustrated and somewhat nervous about something, and Kowalski just seemed ashamed and upset. Rico couldn't help but think that it was because of him.
The next few days were tough for Rico, he was so bored. He couldn't leave their apartment without running into someone else in the building who thought he was insane, which was normal, but for some reason, it was now worse. They all seemed so uncomfortable around him that they avoided him altogether, yet wouldn't stop shooting him strange suspicious looks.
Rico was used to people behaving like this around him, though to a lesser degree. Usually he was able to handle it fine with his roommates on his side. But Kowalski had also been avoiding him, that was the worst part of this whole thing. Rico didn't even know why Kowalski was avoiding him.
Rico didn't enjoy the judgemental looks sent his way, so he avoided leaving their apartment. He spent a good amount of his time with Private, but there was only so much of the kid's childish ways and obsession with Luncacorns that Rico could take. So Rico spent most of his time in his room, by himself.
One day, while Rico was struggling through watching an episode of Lunacorns with Private, (Yes, with Kowalski avoiding him, Rico was that desperate for interaction with his teammates,) Skipper got a phone call. Rico and Private continued watching the television until Skipper came over and turned it off. Private wasn't happy, but Skipper wasn't going to hear his protests.
"Rico, take Private over to Marlene's." Skipper ordered. Rico obeyed without hesitation, glad for an excuse to get away from that infuriating show. Besides, Rico was pretty sure that this phone call was important. Skipper had been anxious and nervous for days, especially when the phone rang. He had been expecting someone to call, and it seemed as if they had, and he wanted to speak in private.
Rico dropped Private off at Marlene's apartment, but refused her offer for him to come in as well. Marlene was great and all, but Rico didn't really feel like being around her and Private at the moment. He only one he wanted to be around was his best friends, who had decided to avoid him for who knows why. Maybe Skipper knew where Kowalski ran off to. Rico decided to go and ask, so he headed back to their apartment.
The first thing he heard when he got back was Skipper arguing very loudly with whoever he was talking to. Alright, so maybe now wasn't a good time to ask Skipper where Kowalski was. Rico would just find him by himself, it shouldn't be too hard. Rico made to leave, but froze when he heard what Skipper was saying.
"Sir, I mean no offense by this, but you have no idea what you are talking about!" Skipper shouted into the phone. He listened for a minute before interrupting who was talking. "Yes, I am perfectly aware of his behavior, but that does not mean-" Skipper got cut off by the other person, and seemed to get angrier about what they'd just said. "No! I'm telling you, he's not like that. You can't just assume things about Rico, he's-" Rico left at this point. He didn't want to hear anymore.
Rico needed to be alone and have some space. None of the Penguins were allowed to leave the apartment building by themselves, and Rico didn't want to face anybody else. There was no way he was going to stay in the apartment, so Rico went up to the roof where, hopefully, no one would bother him.
Rico had expected there to be no one else up on the roof, because he and his teammates were the only ones who went up there frequently. So Rico was surprised to see Kowalski already up there, though really, Rico shouldn't have been that surprised. After all, if the roof was the only place Rico could go for some peace, the same thing would apply for Kowalski. Though he had come up here to be alone, Rico changed his mind. Maybe having company would be good. Rico walked over to stand next to Kowalski, who seemed uncomfortable that Rico was there.
"Oh, well, hello Rico." Kowalski mumbled without looking at his companion. Rico didn't say anything for a minute, and Kowalski was beginning to feel awkward. "You know what? Maybe I should go." Rico grabbed Kowalski's arm to stop him, and for the first time in days Kowalski actually brought himself to look at him, and was shocked at how distressed Rico looked.
"Rico, what's wrong?" Kowalski asked, alarmed. Rico didn't answer for a minute, as if trying to decide which of his problems was bothering him most. Finally, Rico made up his mind.
"Ca' we talk?" Rico asked. He was clearly upset and needed comfort, which was not Kowalski's strong point at all.
"Uhm, Rico, I'm not very good at this kind of thing." Kowalski said, "Why not talk to Skipper?"
"'Kipper on phone." Rico answered. Kowalski felt a pit in his stomach. Skipper being on the phone wasn't odd on its own, but the fact that Rico was this upset meant that Skipper must've been talking to his superiors at the agency, about Rico.
"And you heard Skipper?" Kowalski asked.
"Yup, some." Rico answered with a nod. "Why they talkin' 'bou' me?"
"They must've heard about what happened to you." Kowalski said. "Do you remember when I said that too much medication may kill you?" Rico nodded, "Well, some people overdose themselves for just that reason." Rico's eyes widened.
"Do they thin' tha' I di' tha'?" Rico asked.
"Yes, and I suspect that many of our neighbors do as well." Kowalski said. Well, at least Rico understood why everyone was acting so weird around him, though it didn't make him feel any better. Did they honestly think that Rico was suicidal? Wait a second. Kowalski had been acting strangely around him too.
"Do 'oo think tha'?" Rico asked, fearing the answer.
"What? No!" Kowalski exclaimed. "Rico, I know as well as you do that this was an accident."
"Then why are 'oo avoi'in' me?" Rico asked in an accusing tone. Kowalski paled, he hadn't thought that Rico had noticed.
"It's not like that." Kowalski insisted, "It's just that, well, ugh." This was hard. Kowalski couldn't tell Rico, but he couldn't not tell him. Rico looked expectantly at Kowalski, waiting for an answer.
"Because this is all my fault." Kowalski cried out, "I should have been more responsible, but I wasn't, just because Doris called. You could have been seriously injured because of me."
"Bu' I wa''nt" Rico said.
"That's besides the point." Kowalski shouted. "And because of what happened, the agency thinks that the only way to handle you is to just lock you up for life, or worse." This time Rico looked pale, and Kowalski felt terrible. That may have been the truth, and Rico may have suspected it, but he really did not need his suspicion confirmed.
"I'm sorry, that was out of line of me." Kowalski apologized.
"No' 'oor faul'." Rico said quietly. Kowalski hadn't meant for Rico to get hurt, he just had a moment of poor judgement, which Rico had every other day. Rico was not mad at Kowalski for this. Rico decided to change the subject to something not so depressing, and he had the perfect new topic.
"Wha' di' Doris wan'?" Rico asked slyly and was pleased to see Kowalski's face go red.
"It wasn't anything of importance." Kowalski said. Rico raised his eyebrows and Kowalski told him. "Fine, if you must know, she said that she'll be coming through New York next Wednesday, and she thought that I might like to 'hang out'."
"Ooh, 'oo've go' a date." Rico chuckled and Kowalski's face went even redder.
"It's not a date." Kowalski insisted. Rico snorted. Maybe Doris didn't think of it as a date, but Kowalski certainly did. Rico continued to tease Kowalski about his 'date' for a few minutes before the door to the roof opened and Skipper joined them, and he didn't look happy. Kowalski and Rico's playful mood quickly diminished.
"So?" Kowalski asked nervously, "What's the verdict?"
"It could have gone worse." Skipper said. "Luckily some of the people on the committee agree that Rico is a good agent, so they will allow us a chance to convince them that Rico is safe." Kowalski sighed. Skipper was right, it could be much worse.
"When will you be meeting with them?" Kowalski asked.
"Next Wednesday."
Okay, I'm not sure how that is, all I know is that it took hours to write, it's insane. I apologize if you were wanting a longer story, because there will be just one more chapter. Oh, and if anybody has any advice on how to write Rico's speech pattern, I would really, really, really appreciate it. Seriously, it is so hard, it's ridiculous. So please, review, send advice, feedback, whatever.