The egg hatched hours later. The chick blinked up at them with big blue eyes in an endearing innocent way.

"Look, he has Shelley's eyes." Skipper pointed out.

"What'll we call him?" Kowalski asked, gingerly patting the baby penguin's fuzzy grey head. He'd had about as much experience with chicks as Rico had.

"Private." Skipper said.

"Huh?" Rico said. Kowalski looked doubtful.

"We don't know what Shelley or his father would have named him. So we'll call him what part of the team he is for now and when he's older, he can pick a name of his own."

"Yeah, OK."

Rico seemed fine with it. He didn't speak much anymore. He hated the fact that he couldn't say anything recognisable. He'd never been much of a talker, but now he was completely silent, unless ordered to speak or something.

But he would be OK. They all would, for Shelley lived on in the eyes of her son.

SkipperPrivate, Skipper917, Kittypig, Gamergirl247, K The Epic Penguin, appleduck, Kowalski1202, ice wolf, XxPenguinSoldierxX, Dinosaur-Fun, Skoolgrl09, Lovepaw and Silverpaw, puppy-anime-luvr, Godspilla and of course, my first reviewer, Layra.

What can I say? I love you guys, you've all reviewed my story, but it's more than that. You've all said such nice things about it. I'll miss the reviews. I'm honoured to have gained the attention of such cool people, especially as some of you are such excellent authors yourselves. I owe you guys, that's for sure!

Good God,what a tearjerker this is. OK, I've got a rough idea of the next PoM fanfic Im doing. All Im gonna tell you about it is, it's gonna be cuter, funnier and many chapters longer. And that, my friends, is a promise.

My brothers and sisters, I can't wait to meet you again!