Where's Rico?

Ch. 9- He's missing?

Skipper woke up from his nap around 1:30 AM. He sits up on his bed for a bit so he could have a chance to wake up a little more. After he woke up more, he hops out of bed and for some reason, he looks back at the bunks. Maybe it's a habit he picked up every time he wakes up. He sees that Kowalski is sleeping a deep sleep. He could tell because Kowalski's flipper was hanging off the side of his bed and there was a huge glob of drool coming out of his mouth.

Skipper looks down at Rico's bed and sees Private curled up, like he was cold. He grabs his own blanket and covers Private with it, then climbs up the ladder and heads to Marlene's place.

Otter Habitat-

Skipper was standing at the entrance, thinking if it was a going to be a good idea to walk in just to see if Rico was back at this time. He walks in, but told himself that he was going to be quiet as possible so that he doesn't wake up Marlene.

He looks all over inside the habitat, he also checked outside around the habitat. He went back inside to do another sweep, and again, didn't see Rico. Skipper turns to the entrance to walk back home, but somehow he stepped wrong, and tripped himself, causing a loud thud that wakes Marlene.

She shot up from her bed. "Rico?"

"Uh, it's me Marlene." Skipper said while getting back up.

"Skipper?" Marlene asked, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the dark.

"Affirmative."

"What are you doing here?" Marlene asked as she was getting out of bed and walked to his direction.

"I was, uh, seeing if Rico was here." Skipper said.

"Well, is he?

Skipper takes a breath. "It doesn't seem like it."

Marlene literally shoots off her bed. "WHAT? He's not? We've got to find him!" She hastily runs to her entrance, but Skipper grabs onto her arm, and turns her around so that she is facing him.

"I agree with you, Marlene. But, this is a job for professionals. You should go back to sleep."

"How can I sleep at a time like this?" Marlene questioned.

"I know it'll be hard, but you need your sleep." Skipper answered.

"Yeah, but-"

Skipper shakes his head. "No 'buts' Marlene." Skipper said. "My men and I will handles this. We'll find him."

"You promise?" Marlene asked.

"I promise." Skipper said, as he led her back to the bed.

Skipper watches Marlene climb back into bed. He sees that Marlene's eyes are full of hope. "I promise." Skipper said the slid back to the penguin habitat. Skipper enters and sees Kowalski and Private are still sleeping peacefully. He wanted to wake them up to go look for Rico, but a part of him told that he should leave them alone. He leaves them alone for right now and walks in Kowalski's lab and writes down plans of how they are going to find Rico.

Hours later, Skipper is done with his plans, which were pretty basic, but he wanted to take his time on them. He walks out of Kowalski's lab and looks at the clock in the main room. It's 4:30 AM. Probably it's still a little too early to wake up his men. He makes himself a pot of coffee, then heads up the ladder to the habitat.

He looks up at the sky and thinks of the many moments that he's had with Rico. He also thinks of the brotherly memories he also had with him. He might be psychotic, but he has a heart too. Skipper told himself. He stays outside for a couple of minutes, and then decides to wake his team so that they can go find their missing brother.

A/N- Sorry that this chapter seemed too short or seemed too rushed or something like that. To tell you the truth, I was extremely tired when I wrote this and I wanted to get this chapter done. So, I hope you enjoyed this one :D. I'm working on the next chapter, and will put it up ASAP