Hey and welcome back. I'm so very sorry it took so long. Last chapter, yeah I was kinda mean; I left you all on a cliff hanger, but thanks for all the reviews! I won't bother you with a long note so onto the adventure! Go ahead, read the next chapter of BRAINS!

Breathing heavily, four penguins collapsed to the floor of the igloo in utter exhaustion, remaining energy fading fast. Skipper and Kowalski stared at each other in worry. A lonely tear started to form in the corner of Kowalski's eye. What they had just witnessed was frightening. Everything that was fun at first, seemed to go horribly wrong after a couple of minutes.

"Rico." Kowalski softly muttered before bursting into tears. Skipper, also feeling overwhelmed by the current situation, also got watery eyes.

"Now, now Walski," Grandpa comforted as he gave a reassuring flipper squeeze to his wife sitting tiredly on the bench. "Everything is going to be okay."

"That's right, darling. Rico will be fine." Grandma said as she gently pulled the nearest chick into her lap, which happened to be Kowalski. Grandpa also guided Skipper into his lap, allowing him to cry into his feathers.

Closing his eyes, Kowalski snuggled as deep as he could into Grandma's feathers, hoping somehow that he could forget what he had witnessed a couple of minutes ago. Rico's unconscious figure was just another painful reminder that he was not good at anything. If he was Skipper, he would have tackled Rico and sped up and used the momentum to cross the crevasse, but no, he was Kowalski. Freezing, like a deer caught in headlights, he did nothing. He was close enough to help, but not brave enough. He just stood there hoping Rico would be okay. Unfortunately, hoping was not enough this time. Kowalski shuttered as he remembered the loud impact into the crevasse's cold, hard side.

Taking his head out of the comfort of his grandmother's feathers, Kowalski shifted his position to stare accusingly at Skipper who was masking his true emotions as usual. After all, it was his idea to go sliding down the newly formed slopes.

The boys had wandered away from the colony of igloos and had picked the snow slope to toboggan down from. It was smooth and much softer that any other slope they had ever gone on. At first, they started about half way up the slope. The first slide was nice, but a bit slow to what they were use to. Rico decided he would do another, but this time he would go higher up.

Rico started full speed down the slope. Kowalski, standing at the bottom, instantly knew he was going too fast; just like Skipper who had yelled to Rico to slow down. Either Rico didn't hear or couldn't do anything. He was going to fast to stop safely and to slow to clear the crevasse. It was a decent sized crevasse going down a couple of meters, but it was as least 10 meters wide at the narrowest part.

Kowalski remembered watching in horror as Rico's body slammed headfirst into the opposite side of the rock-solid crevasse. His unconscious body kept dashing against the wall all the way to the bottom like a pebble dropping from the top of a cliff. Skipper, seeing that there was no moment to lose, immediately slid over and shook Kowalski by his shoulders; ordering him to get the adults.

Everything from there on happened so fast. Kowalski couldn't remember precisely how it happened; one minute he was urgently conversing with his parents the next minute Rico was expertly lifted from the crevasse by his parents and grandparents. What had happened to Rico from there on in was still unknown to him.

"Where are they and when will they be back?" Kowalski asked breaking the silence. Startled at the loudness of his voice, Grandpa turned sharply and gazed at him.

"Well, they went to Doc and as for how long, that's anybody's guess." Replied Grandpa, satisfied and sort of disappointed that there was no intruder. Kowalski nodded slowly.

"You two boys should go to sleep, there's nothing anyone of us can do now." Grandma said gently. Kowalski and Grandma stood up and waddle to Kowalski's bed. Dropping into a sitting position, Kowalski buried his head in his flipper. Grandma stood quietly watching the distraught penguin; deciding it was best to leave him alone, she shuffled out back into the living area.

Skipper remained sitting on Grandpa's lap. He did not even blink, just stared into the opposite wall. Soon enough, the two grandparents started to talk about Rico. They discussed possible problems and solutions, their way of dealing with the stress.

After a couple of hours had gone by, Skipper snapped out of his trance-like behaviour to see Grandma had fallen asleep in a rather uncomfortable way.

"It's my fault." He said sadly. "If I had not suggested we slide, this would never have happened." Skipper turned to face Grandpa who was partly stuck in his own dreams.

"Now Skipper," Grandpa started firmly, shaking off all thoughts of sleep. "No one knew this would happen, so stop beating yourself up over it. You couldn't change anything then nor can you now. It is not your fault. If you continue to be angry at yourself, you will be no help for us others."

"But-"

"No 'buts' about it young man! You cannot be the penguin we need you to be if you can't work with a clear mind. You cannot change the circumstances now; you can only help it. Or harm it for a matter of fact. But now we'll go to sleep, not everyone is trained like your father to go without sleep for long." Grandpa said in his best no-nonsense voice. Skipper meekly obeyed and shut his eyes; slowly drifting of into dreamland.

Later, Grandma and Skipper stood abreast observing a patch of snow. Grandma's sharply trained gaze drifted over the frozen patch, calculating the hardness of the snow. Grandpa and Kowalski were inside the igloo talking together about feeling responsible for Rico; the same conversation Skipper had had with Grandpa.

"Yes! This will work perfectly for out purpose." Grandma exclaimed as she ran an aging flipper through her head feathers as she started to lose herself in old memories. Skipper shot her confused glance. He knew she was a retired builder, strangely one of the first sane and smart ones too. Building igloos and the Penguin Labs was considered a job for the school dropouts and well the village crazy people, which kind of made you more hesitant to step into any building after reports of roof and wall collapses. Builders were sadly stereotyped into half-wits and were looked down upon by the society as the brainless group, like most of the other careers. Yet Grandma was determined to make a difference. When she had finished school, she was the best in her class. Much to the bitter disappointment of teachers and adults alike, she bypassed all the "good" subjects and career choices to do what she loved, building. She became a amateur builder.

Grandma practiced by herself how to make strong igloos and as soon as she mastered the technique, she entered the building business. Rising to the top of the business, she enforced training courses on the newer generation, teaching them what school wouldn't. Soon enough builders were not just dropouts anymore, but intelligent builder penguins. And later on, other smart penguin finishing school would also join; rebelling against the stereotype society. Grandma's stubborn attitude and passion to do things she loved was the turning point of her generation. Of course she faced many criticism, but she didn't care; she would push on. She loved building and that wasn't going to stop.

"Grandma, how is this precisely learning an important life lesson?" Skipper questioned waving his flippers around her face and drawing her from her memory train. Skipper was slightly annoyed that they had not yet heard from the other 3 and Grandma floating off to Memory Fair was not helping either. Grandma gave a sad smile to the snow as she bent over, dragging her flipper in a rough rectangular shape, happy to be back at what she loved.

"Skipper, darling." She drawled. "There's no point in getting angry. I know you're worried about Rico. He gave us all a fright. There's no need to worry."

"What are we building again?" Skipper said changing the subject, unwilling to stop worrying.

"An igloo."

"Life lesson?"

"If you are ever lost, you'll know how to make a shelter." Grandma remarked, flashing Skipper a deadpan look.

"Oh…does it work on rock too?" Skipper asked cheekily. Grandma laughed, this was more like the Skipper she knew. After various instructions from the former builder, a crude igloo stood askew. "It doesn't really look like our home." Skipper said cocking his head in a confused manner as he gazed at the family's home, which had been built by yours truly, the first generation of actual professionally trained builders.

"Of course dear, you must remember that this is your first try, and the builders that built our house has passed many building courses. It looks lovely." Said Grandma smiling lopsidedly. "Now, my poor, old, aching bones need a rest. My, oh my, how your parents keep up with you lot is a wonder to the world."

It was roughly 13 hours since the remaining 4 penguins had seen or heard about Rico, Kate and Liam. They all were starting show their jumpiness on the last couple of hours. Just when everyone was about to lose the last part of his or her sanity, an exhausted Liam turned up.

Liam sank to the bench as inquires was hurled at him. Holding up his flippers in a surrender gesture, he asked everyone to sit down.

"Rico is in a stable condition, well that's what Doc says. Somehow, Doc managed to identify that Rico damage his left hemisphere of his brain; more precisely the Frontal Lobe. Doc labelled it as dysarthria." Kowalski was the first to speak.

"Die-what?"

"Dy-sarth-ria. A motor speech disorder. It affects the muscles in the face, mouth and respiratory–breathing-systems. It's a brain injury that causes the muscles to become weak. It won't kill him, but his speech will be much more slurred and he will grunt more that actually using words." The penguins fell into a heavy silence and rest of the day passed slowly and quietly, everyone obviously shocked and scared. Neither penguin really went into a real conversation with another; they only murmured their answer when spoken to.

Liam was busy catching up on lost sleep when a handsome and muscular penguin appeared at the door of the igloo with a message from Kate. After the usual polite greetings, the penguin asked to see "Captain". When Grandma had waddled in to wake their dad, Skipper asked the penguin a question that had been bothering him.

"Excuse me, why do you call my dad 'Captain'?" A smile lined the face of the penguin as his demeanour instantly changed. Instead of continuing to be the rock-hard professional commando he was in front of Grandma, he gave a merry laugh.

"You see it has a little backstory which I will tell you about. When the Flippers started; the members would refer to any other penguin as an avian. And one time your father said aviator instead of avian."

"What's an aviator?" Kowalski asked, thinking it was time to emerge from the shadows.

"An aviator is another name for a pilot. That's why we nicknamed him the Captain. But when we nicknamed him, it also ended the calling of other birds 'an avian'." Whenever we saw another penguin on a mission, we'd say to each other 'avian in view' and burst out laughing cause Captain would perk up and ask us–"

"What up?" said Liam waddling out of the igloo with a smirk. Just as fast as the penguin had dropped his professional manner, he returned it. He was yet again the rock-hard professional commando, straightening up he saluted. Liam grinned and saluted back. "At ease soldier. You wanted to tell me something?"

"Your wife and son have finished up at the Doc's. They want you escort them back, sir." Said the penguin respectfully, dropping some, yet not all of his professional cover.

"Thanks Sarge. Oh before I go, can you look after the boys for me? Their grandparents are quite tired with their escapades. I know it's a big thing to ask but–"

"No worries Captain. Sure I'd love to teach them a couple of stunts." The Captain smiled gratefully at his teammate. Liam knew behind the tough cover of his sergeant that there was a soft spot he'd never show in front of the higher-ups; that was his love for helping young penguin chicks. The Sarge was always considered the big brothers of the boys, even though he was old enough to be their uncle. His love for justice and honour was just a great as the next penguin; but there was always something a shy chick could do to unravel years of brutal training on that penguin.

Liam said good-bye to his sons and slid off on his stomach. 'There's always something about Sarge that everyone loves. Can never put a flipper on it, but I trust him with my life. Sometimes shocking that an innocent, friendly-looking penguin like him can actually be a die-hard commando and be good at it! Guess you never can judge a book by it's cover...'

When Liam arrived at the igloo, he just stood outside the door and wondered how Doc who had seen the world could come back and live in such a small cramped-up home. Doc also had said that he hated the cold, that's why he left in the first place. Things just didn't add up. He'd have to ask him about that later.

Quietly shuffling into the igloo, he saw a conscious Rico propped up on clean, white snow. Next to him sat Kate with her eyes half closed, and sitting on a crystal clear, ice chair was the Doc. Wild white feathers bobbed around as the Doc turned to Liam. And for a split second, Liam thought he looked strangely similar to a mad scientist he used to know. Doc is the only medical doctor known to the entire penguin colony, he's also known to be rather...eccentric.

"Ahh…Liam, just on time! Have a seat." Doc said, using his strangely gruff, yet soft voice as he motioned to another chair.

"Hello honey, glad you came so quick. We're both almost ready to go home." Kate said allowing her British accent to shine through again as she opened eyes completely.

"That's good the others are worried about you two. Hey Rico how are you buddy?" Liam asked as he sat down on the chair. Rico grinned and waved but did not say anything.

"Rico is to rest as much as possible, and if you can, keep him from sliding into crevasses again…that would be great." Said the Doc with a grin, causing Rico to silently laugh, still unwilling to use his voice.

"Well it's about time for us to go. Thank you Doc, really appreciate it. If you need any help, you know where to find us." Said Kate standing up and waddling over to her husband.

"No thank you, I'm honoured to have helped." Replied Doc also getting up. Rico looked sadly at Doc with puppy eyes and Doc seemed to read his mind. "Don't worry my lad, I'll finish telling you the stories of my journey some other time. Maybe I'll even tell your brothers too."

At that Rico lit up, and opened his mouth to reply. Promptly closing it, he frowned.

"Rico, you don't have to worry how you sound. We're all here for you." Said Doc quietly. In responses, Rico only nodded.

"Doc, can we speak with you in private for a moment?" inquired Liam already stepping outside. Following the pair outside, Doc gazed around at his surroundings, almost certain of what they were going to ask.

"Is there anything we can do? Will he ever be the same?" Kate asked worriedly, starting to crack under the pressure. Liam hugged her tightly, knowing this was tough for her.

"I understand from what you have told me that Rico has always had problems with speaking, correct?"

"Yes, we always just passed it off. Saying he'll grow out off it." Said Kate crying.

"It is common for some penguins, when they learn to talk, to be unable to say certain letters. For instance, I've seen cases where "R" is replaced with the letter "L". So red becomes led. Yet, you have told me he speaks in broken sentences. Has he ever had any self-confidence problems that you know of?"

"No," answered Liam, gently rubbing the back of his sobbing wife. "He was always just a quiet kid, never talked much."

"Uh huh…. Kate, as your friend and as a doctor co-worker in Penguin Labs, you cannot crack down in front of him never ever ever. It will make him go insane, then he might become uncontrollable. That would be one of the greatest sorrows I have ever seen, because he has so much potential and is willing to learn. You can bring him here if you feel like breaking down and just crying, but never do it in front of him because he is so fragile at the moment."

"Thank you. Your offer will be accepted." Said Liam, nodding to the eccentric penguin. Kate, who had now stopped crying, sadly smiled at the snow on the ground. The doctor, seeing the pair wanted some privacy, waddled back into the igloo to start helping Rico get ready for the journey back home.

"I better head of to work now, science doesn't wait for anyone you know. I really need to apply for a break." She said quietly, still shaken by the whole ordeal. "The boys?"

"They're okay, Sarge is looking after them."

"That's good, Sarge always know what to do. Tell my parents I'm sorry I can't be there now. I love you. "Kate said squeezing her husband's flipper.

"I will. I love you too. Take care now." He called after her as she left without another word.

"Alright, come on Rico." Said Doc as he waddled out the igloo backwards, holding Rico's shaky flipper. After the awkward, but necessary good-byes, they were on their way.

Slowly and steadily they waddled back to the igloo. Because Rico tired easily, short breaks were needed for him to catch his breath. Deciding they would cover more ground fast if Rico was carried, Liam hoisted his son onto his strong, safe shoulders. After what seemed like forever, the exhausted pair made it home.

Surprised and confused to find partly demolished walls and forts everywhere, the pair raised their non-existent eyebrows as they eyed the rubble. Rounding a wall, they saw Skipper, Kowalski and Sarge and what seemed to be a battle plan.

"Hey Captain, your back!" announced Sarge with a laugh. "So like I said Kowalski you can't please everyone –you're not a jar of Nutella. So be a fruit loop in a world full of cheerios."

"Hello boys, having fun?" Said Liam, slightly confused at what Sarge just said. Rico wiggled to let Liam know he wanted to slide off of his back, which his father allowed.

"Yes Dad!" the boys chorused, grinning crazily. "Rico!"

The trio embraced it an awkward triangle hug. Laughing and grinning, they all fell down into the snow. As the boy's dad and Sarge went inside, the boys started to make small snow figures.

"So Rico, how you feeling?" asked Skipper momentarily glancing up from his small snow cannon.

"Eh, 'ood. 'oice ur's bit." He replied watching both Skipper and Kowalski with hawk-like expressions. Hoping and wondering they understood him.

"That's not too bad." Kowalski said, genuinely smiling for the first time in a long time. "You head doesn't hurt right?"

Rico's beak fell open; he thought nobody would understand him. He thought he'd become an outcast and be called a freak. Yet, here was his brother talking to him and understanding him like he was the clearest speaker in the world. "No." He grunted back, still surprised.

"Hey Walski, why do you want to be a scientist or commando so bad? Why not just become a builder or teacher or even an artist?" asked Skipper and he started to make snowballs for his cannon. Kowalski considered his question with a deep frown, he never though about it before; but he knew his answer right off the bat.

"Awwwh… you know Skip, it's just that commandos and scientists are like the best careers out there. Why pick a career or job that will get you a lot of hate mail and hurtful words? Besides, I-I admire Dad, Sarge and Mum do, you know helping people with science and protecting them and all that. I want to really be a commando scientist! The best of both worlds. Besides, you need more that two penguins to have a commando unit." Kowalski said grinning. "I want to stay with you guys. I can't handle being alone. You're the best brothers I could have ever asked for."

"Eh, 'ee al'ays ne'd a 'ood br-othe' to c-ou-nt on." Said Rico, taking his time to try to sound out the words.

"He's right Walski, we always need a good, smart brother to count on, especially when we're out here in the desert."

"We're in a desert?"

"Yep! There's almost no rainfall here. And because our location, it makes Antarctica the coldest desert in the world." Said Skipper smartly. "Like I say before, while Rico was away, we'll go to the ends of the planet for you Walski. Your our lanky brother, and we're penguins; we stick together. No questions about it."

"Thanks you guys. I really don't know what I'd do without you." Said Kowalski smiling genuinely. "Do wanna build a snowman?"

"Nah…how about an igloo?" Skipper asked, jumping up to add the last part of his cannon. "Grandma taught me today." Yet again, the trio was having heaps of fun and laughter, using their imaginations to the fullest; much to the delight of the adults inside.

And thank you again for reading this chapter. "Do you want to build a snowman?" is a song from the movie Frozen. (I do not own it. Just making it clear.)

Dysarthria: Yes, it is a real motor speech disorder. It is pronounced Die-sarth-ria or Dye-sarth-ria. I have researched different types of motor speech disorders, (What Rico has) and decided to use my research of dysarthria in the story; since it is the closest to Rico's "symptoms". So if you want to go search it up on the internet, go ahead! It's really cool to read about it. Just so you know, there are more than one type of dysarthria, five actually and in some case they mix! Yeah don't judge, I'm a fan who likes facts ;)

Anyway, Thank for reading, following, and favouring my story. Your thoughts are alway appreciated in a review. Good day/night friends!