Chapter 17: A Possible Cure

Kowalski and Cecelia are side by side examining some samples under microscopes. Cecelia looks at the small fluid they have in an erlenmeyer. "If she's as good as you say she is at chemistry, she'd have been better off right here."

"I know...But she's slipping into some paranoid insanity." Kowalski sighs. "She needs someone and she knows that, but she's upset so she doesn't want anyone around."

"I can get that, but she needs observed." Cecelia nods and writes something down.

"I know that, and she knows that, but it would make her feel even worse." He sighs. "I know how she works mentally, Cici. I know she isn't able to handle too many emotional things at once. The stress of this, her fear, etc...It'd be too much for her."

"Okay, okay, but how do you suppose we tell her blood from the poison?" She says.

Kowalski slips another slide under her microscope without a word.

"You have a sample of her blood usually?" She looks curiously at him.

"It's from a while back...But it should be good enough." Kowalski shrugs. "It's a long story."

Cecelia nods and tests something on the newer blood. "I see." She says. "Well, we've got time and I can multitask…"

He shrugs and looks at a microscope. "It was years ago in Poland."

"You're a Pole?" She glances at him. "Didn't detect much accent."

Kowalski shrugs again. "Marissa and I both have worked on our accents...Our mothers were friends, American. Our fathers were lab partners at the zoo." He explains. "So we grew up together...When we were older we worked together on experiments." He sighs. "There was one time we were...Messing with some viruses that we weren't supposed to and one broke all over her. We freaked out and I ran a blood test on her to see if she contracted it. We were lucky that it was a placebo drug they were working on instead and it had just been mislabelled, so she was fine...But Dad preserved a few slides so that we'd always remember that we shouldn't mess with things that aren't ours in their lab."

Cecelia nods and smiles. "I think I have a way to slow it down at least."

"Slowed down would be great if we could easily get to her and administer it to her." Kowalski sighs. "We could try that...But for how long would it slow it down? An exponential amount or just a little?"

"...About five minutes if my calculations are right."

"It's not worth it then. We just waste those minutes getting it to her and getting back." He shakes his head. "But it gives us somewhere to go from at least."

"Maybe putting her into a sleep like state would help...I know honey badgers will nap off the deadly toxin of a king cobra…"

Kowalski shakes his head. "Their systems are made to handle that, our penguin systems are not and it would just let her die in her sleep. We...We need a way to get the poison to separate itself from her blood cells. Then we just need a way for it to pass through her system."

"I get we need an antidote, Kowalski. I can't just snap my flippers and give one over like some genie!" Cecelia snaps at him. She then takes a deep breath. "Sorry...That was uncalled for."

"No, it was fine." He sighs and tries something on his slide. "I know you're just trying to help."

Kowalski then looks up as Rico waddles in with a phone. "It Ra'el." He says.

The scientist turns the phone on speaker. "Speak."

"Eh, hi, can someone please explain why Marissa is moaning like a dying cat and won't let me in to check on her?" Rachel asks, sounding a little worried.

Kowalski bites his tongue for a moment. "Marissa is starting to go through the process of her system shutting down from a lethal toxin which I and Private's sister, Cecelia, are trying to make an antidote for." He says quickly.

"Oh!" Rachel gasps. "What type of toxin?"

"Bioengineered snake, we are thinking."

"I–I have some different antivenom plants from Peru...Could that maybe help?" She asks.

Cecelia nods enthusiastically.

Kowalski nods. "Bring them here and hurry. Maybe some mixture of them can work."

"I'll be over." She nods and hangs up.

Kowalski then goes over to his cabinets and starts tossing out some different chemical solutions. Cecelia watches him for a moment. "What are those?"

"Extracts from some plants like those Rachel is bringing...Except some of these are for like spiders and poisonous plants that might have been eaten." He says and carries them all over to the microscopes. "Surely a mixture of nearly all of it will do some sort of good."

Cecelia nods some. "I'd think so….Say, isn't there some poisonous amphibian here at the zoo?"

"Barry?" He nods. "I already have an extract of poison-dart frog here." He says, holding a red-lidded bottle.

"Okay good." Cecelia nods. She then takes a sample of each of the antivenoms and starts mixing them together.

"Wait, none of this one." Kowalski takes the bottle she was about to get.

"Why not?"

"She's allergic."

Cecelia nods some. "But if it might save her life, then we could give her something else later for the reaction."

Kowalski is hesitant. "But with her compromised immune system, an allergic reaction could prove fatal." He says.

"So is this if we don't cure her." She says.

"I'm still not sure…" He says.

"Here are the plants!" Rachel exclaims then as she slides into the lab. She regurgitates a little bag and holds it out. Cecelia turns away and gags for a moment with her flipper over her beak to try to keep from throwing up.

"Great, thank you." Kowalski nods and hands the specimens to Cecelia. "Now you should go back and see about a way to break into her lab."

Rachel nods. "On it." She says and slides out again.

Cecelia sighs and mashes up some of these new plants and adds them to her solution. "As I was saying, we can try the antidote with and then without the mongoose plant on her blood sample and see if it helps, if it does, it's going in and you can give it to her and chase it with an epipen."

Kowalski sighs and rubs his face. "Alright…"

"Good, now you're being sensible." She nods and tests her first mixture on another blood sample. She tries with the blue bottled sample of the mongoose plant extract on another set of blood. "Yes, yes! This is going to work I think!"

"Really?" He looks at her.

Cecelia nods and mixes a larger amount together. "Correct, so grab that epipen or whatever she will need for that."

Kowalski nods and watches her as he grabs another medicine for Marissa's probable reaction. "...Do you really have someone over in England?"

"This isn't really the time to discuss this, Kowalski."

"I'm sure she has a couple minutes to spare on this, she won't mind much." He says. "But do you really have a guy in England?"

Cecelia stops for a moment and sighs. "No...And Kowalski, as much as I'd like for us to continue...We just can't." She looks at him. "The long distance is killing me."

"You could stay here." He says.

Cecelia shakes her head. "I don't like it here in America. You all drive on the wrong side. You are all so, so loud and there is just too much action. I can't concentrate here. I could never be happy here, Kowalski, I'm sorry...And you can't stay there either and you know that before you even start. Your team needs you here."

"But…"

"I'm sorry, Kowalski, you're an attractive, intelligent man, but it just isn't working...The stress of never knowing if you are safe while I am safe over in England...It's just too much. I worry enough about Lieutenant and Private...And now George is starting too...And we just got Mum and Dad back from this sort of thing." She sighs shakily. "It's just too much. Too much stress. Too much worry. I'm sorry, Kowalski, I wish it could work, but Lieutenant is going to need my help up in England with his and Anita's three little peaguins...It just can't work between us."

Kowalski nods some and looks at the floor. "Oh…"

"But it isn't anything personal, I still like you...I still like you a lot and think you'd make an adorable purple kitten." She chuckles a little. "But I just can't see any way that it could work between us...And that's my fault." She sighs. "But you know there are other girls that like you too."

"Sure…" He sighs and packs the medicine.

"I'm serious." Cecelia looks at him. "I've noticed that there is a woman around here that is quite jealous of my being here with you."

"Sure you have." He waddles towards the door.

Cecelia grabs his shoulder and kisses him full on the beak. He is astonished and kisses her back. She then breaks the kiss and looks him in the eyes. "I'm not lying, you just have to be a little more observant, Kowalski. But like it or not, it's for the best we do not continue dating...But you will always be my friend, I promise, darling." She says and kisses his cheek. "Now go give Marissa that antidote before it's too late and she's dead because you wanted to talk about something at a bad time."

Kowalski nods some, still a little dazed from the kiss and hops up the stairs.

Cecelia sighs and rubs her face. "Why must men always make things so complicated…"