Chapter 20: Nightmares

Kowalski adjusts the IVs he has Marissa on and makes sure that the sedatives are not too high. He then softly closes the door behind himself and waddles over to the table with a sigh.

"How is she?" Trixy asks and looks at him, worriedly.

"Currently she is sleeping...But her vital signs appear to be holding up and when she is awake, she's sarcastic, so I believe she is recovering spectacularly." He smiles at her and gets a cup of coffee from Rico.

Trixy nods and looks relieved. "Good...Because I'm so not ready to take her spot…"

"I'd imagine not, she'd be some interestingly challenging shoes to fill." The scientist chuckles and drinks his coffee. "And I prefer not to be insulted regularly by a child."

Trixy opens her beak to say something, but then closes it as she thinks better of herself. She then looks over at the elevator as it comes up with Cecelia scrambling to get out of its way. Skipper waddles out of it, looking drained and stressed and in a no-nonsense mood. "Skipper?"

"Skippsy is on her way." He just says and sits down. "And she is in her screaming mood." He rubs his temples. "So this should be just the best flipping conversation with her ever."

"Oh…" The female private nods. "Maybe we should wait to tell her everything then…"

Skipper shakes his head. "You know your skipper, that'll just make things worse."

Trixy nods solemnly. "Right."

All six of them then jump as there is a shriek from the lab. Kowalski quickly slides into the lab to check on Marissa. He finds her fast asleep, wiggling around in a nightmare. He sighs and drags a stool over to the table and softly gets her flipper. "It's just a dream. Marissa, stop screaming, you're scaring penguins." He sighs.

Marissa whimpers and and holds his flipper very close.

"Ehm…" The other scientist awkwardly looks at her with small blush. "There there…"

Marissa starts sleep crying making Kowalski look even more awkwardly at her. He tentatively pats her a bit. He also looks back towards the door as he silently wishes one of the others would come deal with this. He looks at her again and continues the petting. "I see not even when you are asleep that I can have peace." He mutters. She begins to calm down and turns over with his flipper.

"I'm going to need that back...Preferably sooner rather than later." He clears his throat. To this, Marissa only snores and snuggles with his flipper. "Well...This is humiliating…" He sighs as he can't pull his flipper away from her grip and its angle.

Cecelia then steps in. "I'm going to go now." She says with a small smile at him. "Good luck…"

Kowalski nods a little and gives her a look resembling a sad puppy. "Be safe…"

"Oh please don't give me that look…" She sighs and waddles closer. "Goodbye is hard enough as it is…"

"I know." He nods and looks away.

Cecelia sighs and softly pecks his cheek. "And who knows...Maybe in the future sometime it could work for us to be together...Just not right now."

"What if there isn't another time, though?" He asks and looks at her.

"Then we can remain good friends and you have to let yourself move on...Find someone along your own IQ lines so you're not bored with her, but you don't get messed up if things go wrong." She chuckles a little.

Kowalski nods and looks a bit annoyed at Marissa. "It'd be easier to say goodbye if she'd give me back my flipper." He grumbles.

Cecelia laughs a little softly. "Oh Kowalski." She shakes her head a little. "Let the girl have a second chance...Don't be a Doris."

"What?" He looks at her, taken aback.

"You heard me. The way you talked about that dolphin constantly saying no and never giving you another chance...Here she is and she's asking for another chance in nearly everything she does."

Kowalski looks conflicted and takes a deep breath. "It's just...Weird...I don't know, Cici…."

"Maybe she'll grow on you." She pats his shoulder. "And if she doesn't, don't worry. There are other fish out there that'd love for a catch like you."

"Shouldn't I be the one doing the catching?" He looks at her.

Cecelia laughs. "Kowalski, I'm sorry to say, you're too oblvious to notice if you've got a girl on the hook to catch one unless that same girl gets up the gusto to drag you out to sea without a choice."

Kowalski looks unamused. "I'm not that oblivious."

"Trust me." She kisses his cheek one last time. "You are."

He kisses her cheek back with still a sad shine to his eyes. "Goodbye, Cecelia…"

Cecelia softly pets his cheek for a moment and nods before taking a breath and turning away. "Goodbye, my purple kitten…" She sighs and then waddles out.

Kowalski watches her go silently and bites his tongue. He then looks at Marissa as she releases his flipper.

"Go after her…" Marissa mumbles, but pretends to be asleep.

"That'd be a lost cause and make me seem needy." He shakes his head.

"Looked at yourself in a mirror lately?" She mutters and looks at him. "You love her, go after her."

Kowalski shakes his head. "I have to let her go…"

Marissa drags herself up into a sitting position and feels a little woozy. "Fine...But I guess I should get my stuff to go, too."

"Where do you think you are going?" He looks at her weirdly.

"Back to the HQ. I can take care of myself well enough." She starts to slide herself down from the table, but Kowalski stops her.

"Lay back down. You're in no condition to be up yet." He snorts.

Marissa glares at him. "It's not like I'm pregnant. My condition is fine enough."

Kowalski gives her a look. "No."

"Oh come on! I could let you mope in peace!" She groans and lays back down.

"You need a psychiatric examination." He rolls his eyes.

Marissa glares at him. "Like you care…" She turns away. "Just let me go with Trixy and I'll be out of your feathers and you can get on with life."

"You and I both know you won't leave me alone that easily." He scoffs.

She then turns and gives him a sharp look. "If I say I'll be gone, then I'll be gone, Kowalski. I won't bother you again."

Kowalski now just stares at her. "But you-"

"That doesn't matter." She cuts him off. "Just forget about that and anything else you might have read. I know better than to go chasing rainbows. Some things are just impossible and there is no use hoping for things that won't happen. You can move on with your life, and so will I."

"Marissa." He looks at her. "You're under a lot of medications and unwell and stressed beyond your levels."

"I don't have to be thinking straight to see something so obvious, Kowalski. It'd never work between us. I'm a hateful sarcastic harpy. You're fairly nice and almost intelligent."

Kowalski looks at her. "I've heard of worse combinations."

"Just zip it and go back to hating me. Things were easier that way." She says.

"I thought we were going to try to be friends now?" He says and sits down again.

Marissa sighs and holds her breath for a moment before slowly letting it out again. "What's the use? It's been too long since we were friends."

"Says the girl who I poured a gallon of sap on the head of a whelp for after he broke your heart that time." Kowalski chuckles.

She turns back towards him. "You remember that?"

"How was I supposed to forget? That was a heavy bucket." He chuckles. "I also remember how put dye in that vole's pond after she ripped up my plans…."

Marissa chuckles some. "She was so green…"

Kowalski nods and laughs. "It was almost worth losing the plans over, I'll admit."

"Oh! Oh! Remember that vacation in Japan!" She laughs.

Kowalski's face takes a grim look. "You remember we agreed to never speak of that...Things happened…"

Marissa nods some. "Right...Ehhem...I had forgotten…"

"Obviously, but that's alright." He nods and looks at her. "But you see, it hasn't been too long...Our friendships just needs a lot of work."

"If you say so...I still think it's better off forgetting about. You're much happier as things have been in recent years." She sighs. "I don't want to mess that up."

"You're thinking too far into things, Marissa. We'll just let things go how they go and see from there, alright?" He covers her up, raising her sedative levels again.

"Alright…" She nods and yawns some.

"Good, now try to not nightmare as much. You nearly made Rico have a bomb." He says.

Marissa nods some and starts to doze. "Sure…"

Kowalski nods and starts to waddle out. He flips out the light and looks back at her again, thoughtfully, before waddling out and closing the door again. "Never realized before just how bad that argument must have hurt her…" He sighs. "I know it had been a bad one...But not bad enough to make her like this...I mean, it had just been a failed experiment, nothing more. I just don't get it."