Disclaimer: I do not own The Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters. I do own the penguin Alex in this story.
He took a deep breath and began. "Well, to start with, I should say that me, Kowalski, Rico, and Private all grew up together. We were a team from the beginning, and we did everything together. But at some point, I felt like I had to go out on my own. They tried to talk me out of it, but I felt like it was something I had to do."
Alex listened carefully, determined not to miss a thing. She tried to picture a young Skipper setting out all on his own when he spent all his life with the others, but she couldn't. She pushed the thought away as her father went on.
"I was tracking down the evil mastermind, Dr. Blowhole, and I had a really good lead this time. Soon I found myself at the Baton Rouge zoo in Louisiana. I had heard that he was there undercover, working on some evil plan," Skipper explained. "But I was there for months and I never saw him. Of course in the last month or two, I stopped looking because you were born."
Suddenly interested, Alex looked closely at her father. "What happened?" she asked, trying not to show how desperate she was for an answer.
"Let me tell you how I met Daisy," he insisted. "When I first got there, I hardly paid attention to the other penguins. I was so focused on finding Blowhole; I needed to find him because the last couple of places I went to where he was supposed to be, it all led to dead ends. But this time I thought I had a good chance of stopping him, and that's all I wanted to do. However, when I was there for a few weeks, I started to think I had hit another dead end."
Get on with it! Alex screamed in her head. She didn't really care about all this. She just wanted to know why her father left her and her mother, and never returned.
"I was getting ready to leave," Skipper told her," when I finally noticed your mother. She was sitting by herself and for some reason I felt drawn to her. I decided to stay a few more days, and all that time I spent with Daisy, getting to know her, and the more I discovered about her, the more I longed to stay. She was so sweet and smart and I was even starting to teach her some fighting moves in case Blowhole did show up and she had to protect herself. I found myself confessing everything to her: My solo mission; my teammates; everything."
Alex was confused. "If you loved her so much, then why did you leave?" she ventured.
"Well, I had to return to my team," her father said. "One day, I finally decided it was time to go. I was getting ready to tell Daisy when she told me that she was expecting. For a long time, I was torn between leaving or staying and helping Daisy. I thought about Kowalski, Rico, and Private, and wondered what they would say. I wanted to get a message to them somehow and ask for their advice, but I felt like that would have taken too long."
"What made you decide to leave?" she asked, anger and sadness washing over her. This was it. She was about to find out why she grew up without a father.
"At first, I had decided to stay. I never told Daisy that I was even considering leaving. I just told her that I was going to be the best father I could be."
"But you weren't," Alex muttered.
He sighed and looked away. "I know. You were still so young when I got a message that Dr. Blowhole found out that I left my team and he was working on a way to find them. I had to get to them before Blowhole did. I was going to tell all this to Daisy, but when I saw her holding you, telling you how brave and noble I was and how much she was proud of me, I couldn't break her heart by telling her that I was leaving."
"So you left without saying anything," Alex growled. "Which broke her heart more." She jumped to her feet and glared at her father. "You weren't there; you didn't see what you did to her. Unlike you, she did everything for me, but it was clear she was hurting. She suffered quietly, but I saw the sadness in her eyes and her misery was clear in the way she spoke. She hated talking about you, and eventually I stopped asking questions, for her sake."
"I'm sorry, Alex," he pleaded, getting up as well. "I really am. But… my team was in danger. I had to return to them."
"Fine, whatever," she muttered. "I guess I can understand that. But what about afterwards?" she demanded. "After you helped your friends? Why didn't you ever return to us? You haven't even told the others about me!"
Skipper hung his head. "I regret not saying anything to them," he admitted. "And I wanted to return to you and Daisy, but… it was so soon after defeating Blowhole. I didn't want to leave my team a second time in case Blowhole showed up again. And before I knew it, so much time had passed by and I figured Daisy wouldn't want to see me again…" His voice trailed off and he stared helplessly at his daughter.
Alex stared at him in shock. "You never cared about us," she realized, starting to back up. "If you did, you would have come back to us somehow. No," she added when he opened his mouth to object. "You know it's true. You would have done something to find us after your friends were safe, if you cared." She wanted to cry or scream or break something. Almost blinded by her tears, she just saw when Skipper told a step toward her, but she spun around and ran to the ladder, jumping over the steps in one mighty leap.
Before she disappeared through the hole, she said over her shoulder," I wish I never came here! I wish I never tried to find you!"
She pushed off the ladder and launched herself through the hole, not waiting for an answer from her father. The sudden sunlight burned her eyes, but she didn't care. She just wanted to get far away from here. She could hear him climbing up the ladder after her.
She turned to jump over the gates so she wouldn't be in the habitat when the leader came out of the HQ, but she paused when she heard a British voice ask her," Are you alright?" She suddenly realized that tears were running down her face. She opened her beak to reply, but just then, Skipper flipped out of the hole onto the platform and landed in front of his daughter.
"Hold it right there, Alex," he said sternly. "We aren't done talking!"
"Well, I'm done listening!" she snapped, glaring at her father. "It's obvious that you don't want me. You much rather them!" She pointed to the three penguins who stood on the other side of the island, staring at their leader and his daughter with wide, confused eyes. "So let me go and return to my mother, and I'll never bother you again." She heard her own voice crack, but she didn't back down from her father. She continued to glare at him.
"I understand you're upset, Alex, but—" Skipper began.
"Upset?" Alex interrupted, finally losing her temper. All the anger she's ever felt about growing up without a father— and now learning that he could have returned to them but chose not to— came spilling out of her. "I'm past upset, Skipper! You don't even deserve the title of father anymore!" She took a step toward the leader, but suddenly the other three penguins were in between them.
"Okay, Alex," said Kowalski, holding his flippers up and staring at the female penguin with that same, weird look that he had earlier before Skipper told her the truth. "I know you're upset with Skipper, but yelling and screaming at him won't change the past. What's done is done. What really matters is that you're together now. Maybe he can finally become a father you can count on. Right, Skipper?" He turned to his leader, who was nodding and staring at his daughter with hopeful eyes.
Alex continued to glare at her father. Then shook her head. Instead of replying, she backed away slowly. When one of the penguins took a step toward her, she spun around and jumped over the gate, clearing the water with ease and landing outside the habitat. She groaned when she heard her father order that she was brought back to him.
Dropping to her stomach, she slid away, aware that the other penguins were on her tail. She could hear Skipper calling to her, but she ignored him, turning a corner and quickly jumping onto a table. She ducked under the umbrella. She sighed with relief when the four penguins went by without seeing her.
Jumping down, she started toward the entrance of the zoo, but she heard something. Thinking fast, she ran to a building and pressed her back to it. She poked her head around the corner but didn't see anyone. Maybe it was just her imagination.
"He's going to find you."
Alex jumped at the voice, and she fell into a fighting position as the tall penguin stepped out from under a table. She braced herself, ready to fight him if he tried to take her back to her father. She was determined to do whatever it took to not see that penguin again!
There was a hint of amusement in Kowalski's eyes- and still that unknown sparkle that was always there when he looked at Alex. He waddled over to the female penguin, laying his flipper on her shoulder, the humor suddenly vanishing from his eyes. Sympathy replaced it. "I'm sorry, Alex," he murmured. "But I have to take you to Skipper. It's an order." He sighed and shifted his feet.
Alex thought quickly. Could I trick him into disobeying his leader? He looks so uncomfortable with this whole thing! Alex frowned deeply and looked down at the ground. "I just thought when I finally found my father, things would turn out differently," she whispered. "I didn't realize it would hurt this much." She glanced back up at Kowalski, glad to see the indecision on his face. It was working! For the first time in her entire life, she was happy that someone felt sorry for her. Maybe Kowalski will let her leave without her father knowing that he found her— she didn't want him to get in trouble, even if she didn't know him.
Suddenly a young, British voice called out. "Great! You found her, Kowalski! I'll go and find Skippah!"
The tall penguin slid over to the smaller one and covered his beak with his flipper. Private stared up at him with huge, confused eyes. Kowalski dragged Private over to Alex.
"What are you doing, Kowalski?" asked Private as soon as the taller bird let go of his beak. He stared at his friend, then at Alex, and back again. Alex could see the look in his eyes, and she was worried he might run off anyways and go find Skipper— then both her and Kowalski would be in trouble.
"Just look at her, Private." Kowalski pointed a flipper at Alex, and she frowned, showing him how miserable she was, hoping that he would see that she didn't want to go back to her father.
Private frowned too when he saw the look in Alex's eyes and it was a while before he finally nodded. "Okay," he murmured. "I can't hand her over to Skipper like this, just seeing how sad she is. What are we supposed to do, then?" he asked.
Shrugging, Kowalski replied," Hide her, I suppose."
Before Private could answer, a grunting noise startled them, and Alex turned to see Rico standing a little way off. He was pointing and grunting as he jumped up and down.
His friends slid to him, covering his beak. Alex slowly followed them, looking around and making sure her father wasn't near. By the time she got to them, Kowalski and Private had Rico calmed, and he was listening as Kowalski tried to convince him to go against Skipper and help Alex.
At first, Rico looked surprised, and Alex thought he was about to push his friends off and go find his leader to tell him where Alex was.
Alex waited nervously for several moments while the three penguins discussed things.
"Are you with us?" Kowalski finally asked.
Rico seemed to think for another minute, before nodding.
"That's great!" Private exclaimed, a little too loudly, and Alex looked around, expecting her father to come out of nowhere and catch her.
Kowalski covered his beak. "Shh!" he whispered, and the private nodded, his eyes huge.
The tall penguin thought for a moment, tapping his beak. "Let's go to the lemur habitat."
"Why?" Private asked, confused.
"That would be the last place Skipper would look," Kowalski replied, walking away.
The other penguins followed him. Alex was grateful to the others for helping her, but she still didn't understand why Kowalski so easily agreed to help her. Surely she wasn't that pitiful?
And why does he keep looking at me that way? He's staring at me like that right now! She could see the tall penguin looking at her with warm, bright eyes, but there was something else deep down in them that she couldn't read. I don't know if I want to find out either. I have more important things to worry about right now than some boy!
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