Disclaimer: Penguins of Madagasgar don't belong to me! Jojo does however.
Bemused, Skipper looked at the tear-stained face of Marlene with his unswollen eye.
She came here. He thought. His men were scouring every pen, cage and habitat in the zoo on his order for this otter and she'd been here in HQ the whole time. In his bunk no less! His heart lurched a little, however, at the utterly exhausted look on her face. She was a civilian with no training to handle betrayal, especially one so close.
Unthinkingly, he raised a flipper to stroke her face; then he froze. What was he doing!? Skipper shook his head to clear it.
"Snap out of it man!" He hissed quietly to himself and hardened his expression. "Marlene!" He barked, as though she were one of his men. "Wake up!"
"Uwa ...?" Came a sleepy moan as she struggled, and failed, to open her eyes. "Skipper?" A groan. "Go away, Skip, I'm not in the mood." She rolled her back to him. Skipper felt a wry grin tilt up the corners of his beak.
"Don't presume to order me around in my own Head Quarters woman! Get your tail out of my bunk and explain what, exactly, you're doing here!" He couldn't let his men come in and see this! That would make for some extremely awkward questions!
The following silence was broken by a yawn and the shuffling of blankets as the dark otter finally woke up enough to take in her surroundings. He watched as Marlene jumped from the bunk and flicked her eyes everywhere, confirming that yes, she was in his HQ and yes, she had been sleeping in his bunk.
"Y'know ... that's a really good question. What am I doing here?" One hand came up to wipe sleep-boogers from her eyes. "I was at Julien's party and ..." He watched as the memory of the evening came back. "Jojo!" Marlene exclaimed before she started pacing and snarling angrily to herself. On her second pass, she stopped mid-step and actually looked at him. "Your eye! Did ... did Jojo do that?" She sounded disbelieving.
"I know this is a fact you've only become recently aware of, but your sister is a very skilled fighter." That was the closest he'd ever get to admitting the female was actually good enough to blacken his eye. He had his pride after all.
"Riiiiight ..." She drawled. "Sooooo, back to the question at hand. Why am I here and not, y'know, in my own habitat?"
"Unknown. After your distraught departure I sent Kowalski and Private to keep an eye on you while Rico and I fought your sister. Once Jojo was subdued and restrained, Rico and I escorted her to your habitat. There we met with Private and Kowalski, they admitted to being eluded by you and that Roger knew your location but would not tell; currently they're searching the zoo."
He watched the emotions flicker across her face.
Concern, for her sister probably. A small bit of astonishment that he thought was the fact she had manage to outmaneuvre two of his men. And boy would they be paying for being unable to catch a civilian! Then there was the briefest glimpse of relief. At Roger for maintaining confidence? Had she taken the alligator into confidence? Told him things that he, Skipper, wasn't aware of? That simply wouldn't fly. He resolved to make sure there was nothing important that Marlene was keeping from him.