Am I dragging this part of the story out? Yes, but it's going to be worth it for the next chapter when an old friend (foe?) returns. Also, I will write a drabble within the Madagascar franchise(so tpom, ahkj are included) for whoever figures out the easter egg hidden in the phone number towards the end of the chapter.

Chapter 7

"Do you think Rico will be okay?" Private asked quietly, startling Kowalski. They had been watching the door of the room Skipper had been called into nearly an hour ago with an uneasy silence.

"I don't know," Kowalski answered honestly. He had already feared the worst when they rushed into HQ and found Rico unresponsive. The only comfort they had was that it had been dry paint rather than fresh blood surrounding their fallen teammate. And yet that was such little comfort when Kowalski recalled how faint and thready Rico's pulse had been under his fingers. "But if anyone has a shot at pulling through it would be Rico."

Private nodded but they both knew Kowalski's words were an empty reassurance. They didn't know what had happened to leave Rico in an almost coma like state and CENTRAAL was still trying to get some type of answer for them. If anything that was the hardest part of waiting. If it had been one of the standard injuries at least one of them would have been allowed to sit in the room with Rico, but because none of them had been permitted to see him there was no way of knowing if Rico was still alive in the hours that had passed.

The door the room Skipper had entered swung open and he stepped out enough to wave the pair over to the room. He felt Private tense beside him before they stood and made a line straight towards the door. Despite never being one to have strong gut feelings, Kowalski felt his stomach drop and knew that it wasn't a good sign that they were headed into a private room. A part of his mind insisted that they had been too late, but he refused to let that part take over.

"Bloody hell."

Private's voice startled Kowalski out of his thoughts and he followed Private's tearful gaze to the large observation window.

"Rico…" Kowalski breathed his throat going tight as his vision blurred. The sight of Rico in a hospital bed was somehow worse than having seen him on the floor of his studio. He looked paler than before, washed out with dark circles under his eyes which were at least open. But they were glassy and distant, something Kowalski had learned was a sign that Rico was in pain. Without thinking Kowalski reached up and touched the glass as if he could will the barrier between them away. For a moment it seemed like Rico saw him, glassy eyes seeming to meet his, before flicking over to a door where a nurse entered.

Kowalski turned away from the window unable to watch as the nurse maneuvered around the various wires and IVs surrounding Rico in order to draw blood. "When are we going to be able to see him? Actually see him?"

"For now this is the best I could do," Skipper answered tensely,resisting the overwhelming urge to charge into the lab and put at least one of CENTRAALs best through a wall. "Depending on test results, Private might be able to see him in another hour or so. Kowalski, you'll have to wait to be cleared —"

"What do you mean I'll have to be cleared?"

"I have no say in the matter," Skipper had been equally outraged when they had told him that Kowalski had been barred from visiting Rico. "Believe me I argued against it but they said it's too much of a risk."

"But I don't understand why I would be a risk to Rico? If anything, I might be the only one who can do something about whatever is obviously wrong!"

"I know!" Skipper snapped. " Believe me I know, but they're worried that you're already too close to the problem."

"What exactly is the problem Skippa?" Private intervened sensing the growing tension and not wanting to risk getting thrown out for causing a disturbance.

"It's…" Skipper hesitated for a moment, "There's two reason. One is that they want to limit any exposure to him until they identify whatever concoction is in his blood and what it's doing to his body."

"What is it doing?" Kowalski heard himself ask as he turned back to the window. He winced as the nurse took another vial of blood, number 6 from the look of the other filled vials on the cart next to her.

"Earlier, when he was first coming around, he went into cardiac arrest…" Skipper's voice wavered for a moment, "and they lost him. For a full minute his heart stopped. They don't want to risk Rico having an extreme emotional reaction in case that is what triggered it."

It felt unreal to hear what Skipper was saying. The words are not quite registering in Kowalski's brain. They lost him? His heart stopped? Beside him he heard Private make a choking sound like he was holding back sobs. Although it wasn't as if Kowalski wasn't holding back his own tears, the analytical part of him remained front and center. He could hold it together as long as there was a problem in front of him. Because a problem had to have a solution and finding a solution was what he was good at. "That still doesn't explain why I can't see him."

"And that's the second part of it. When Rico came around the second time they were able to get a name, two actually." Skipper fixed Kowalski with a cool glare and pulled on his commander persona anticipating the reaction that would follow. "First he said, Kowalski and then, Doris."

Kowalski felt the air leave his lungs as if he'd been punched. Surely, there had been a misunderstanding somewhere.

"But Kowalski was with us during the mission," Private verbalized what they all knew and why it was impossible to think that Kowalski would have anything to do with what happened to Rico. "Are they sure that Rico wasn't just asking for him?"

At this question Skipper sighed in defeat. "That's what my gut tells me, but whatever Rico was dosed with isn't like anything they've seen before and given some of Kowalski's work and inventions they can't eliminate it as a possibility."

"They think I used my girlfriend to try to kill one of my teammates?" Kowalski asked in disbelief, still trying to process everything Skipper had said.

"Or that she used you to try to kill one of us," Skipper replied, knowing that CENTRAAL would be able to confirm what he already suspected. He had known that something wasn't right when it came to Doris and regretted that he didn't listen to his gut sooner. He looked over into Rico's room and resisted the urge to shudder as the nurse gathered the blood samples and left. For a moment he wondered if Rico wouldn't look half as bad if they quit taking his blood for more testing.

Kowalski shook his head. It felt like he couldn't breathe and his mind was pulling at threads to make sense of what Skipper was saying. "I need to get some air."

He turned to leave, sparing one last look at Rico before he rushed to the lockers where their phones were being kept. It vaguely occurred to him that he hadn't heard from Doris since last night during the mission. She should have sent him a text or something that she had landed safely or was waiting out a delay. Maybe he had missed a call or text since turning in their phones, but there was a part of him that knew Rico wasn't one to outright lie and if he had in fact seen Doris that night there had to be some truth to it, but he wasn't about to buy into the idea that Doris had done this to Rico.

If he could get a hold of Doris the witch-hunt Skipper was on could be over and they could figure out who really had gone after Rico. They had no shortage of enemies as a team and he was sure Rico still had a few from his days in Chile and Guatemala. That of course brought a new fear to light- if Doris had in fact been at HQ when Rico was attacked then they may have taken her, mistaking her as someone close to Rico.

After retrieving his phone and making his way to one of the interior courtyards he pulled up his contacts and hoped that Doris was awake and not on a flight. His heart dropped as it rolled straight over to voicemail: "You've been directed to an automated voice messaging system for 305-555-7446. Please leave a message after the tone."

"Doris, when you get this message I need you to call me. Something happened last night, Rico's—" Kowalski choked on the next words and took a shaky breath. He couldn't worry about Rico, at least not at that moment. "Just call me and let me know you're okay."