Chap. 13
Files lay sprang out of the floor. Percival sits Indian style on the beige carpet rubbing his chin seeing if he missed anything. He had probably had ran through them fifty times, maybe even hundred times. These were all the files he stole from C.Z.I. that he needed for this mission.
"You have know idea how bad I wanted a shower." Ariadne stepping into the same room where Private, Percival, was sprang out in stress.
Percival looks up at her. She look better, and smelled better. She had a robe over her slim bony body, and her orange locks up wrap into a towel, "Good, you needed one." She frowns as he says this.
Theirs a knock at the door, and snaps her from her frowning, "Percival?"
"I ordered Chinese, I thought you would be hunger." Without taking his eyes off the files he hands her a twenty from his back pocket, "Tell him to keep the change."
She smiles, she was right he did have a twenty in his back pocket. She takes the money from his hand without stepping on a single file. She goes to the door, and hands the money to the man handing her the Chinese food. It smelt divine. She was starving. She was practically drooling over the smell of it.
Percival smiled, "Eat, instead of drooling, you need to build your strength back up." She did not wait for him to eat, "How long have you been like this?" He asked, worried still not taking his off from reading though.
"Muh-Mount mix muffs." She said, with her mouth full of noodles.
"A translation, please?" The no longer Private asked, rolling his eyes at her.
She swallowed, "About six weeks." He looked up shocked, looking like the caring Private he really was, "Relax, I got by, barely though. I guess I was lucky when you caught me."
"Luck..." He sighed.
"What? You have a different idea than luck?" She pries.
"Yes," He smiles at her, "Fate." She feels herself blush madly, when did he become a charmer? Just like Marcus. "Such a color of red, Ace, if I didn't know any better I'd say that was a blush."
"I can still take you down, you know?" She huffs out, trying to make the red go away, "Have you found anything?"
He sighs exhaustibly, "Nope, but I did find the location of the lab I must have been born into."
She chews the sour and sweet chicken down in her throat, "Can I see?" He hands her the file. She about jumps out of the chair she's sitting in when she sees the location, and pictures of the destroyed lab, "Percival! I know this lab! I mean I've heard of it!"
"Really? How? It was burnt when I was baby, how would you know?" He inquired, finally taking his eyes officially away from the tower of papers, as soon as he asks, he already knows, "Marcus..."
She swallows the bile in her throat, "Y-Yes..." She breathes again, "He was like me very young when he was taken, but Creed took more of an interest in me...He was probably the same age as us if he was still here...Maybe a year o-older." Her voice slowly started to crack. She stared at the blank ceiling hoping for the tears to disappear away in the blank.
"I know this must be hard for you."
"You have no idea."
"I've fell in love before." She laughs, "What's so funny?"
"I can guess the reason why you couldn't be with her. Skipper right?"
Percival huff out with was a breath of amusement, and astonishment. She guessed...Right. Skipper was paranoid with each girl he meant. He could never go on a date with his crush, or any girl for that matter. The team would either go undercover as a waiter if he took his date to restaurant, and it would end up terrible with the girl soaking wet from the 'waiter' who served them: Skipper, Kowalski, or even Rico. They were always protective of him.
Sometimes they would go too far...
But even Percival would too far...
Ace tilt her head, as she finished off the Chinese food, "Tell me." She leaned in putting her elbow on her crossed legs.
"Tell you what?" He asked, puzzled.
"About the girl you loved." She stated.
"There's probably three I fell hard for, and the only three I really care about still." He smiles, "One of them I shouldn't have fell in love. I did the stupidest things just to see her." He frowns, "Of course, the team thought of it as puppy love, but stupid me thought more of puppies."
"What happened?" She asked.
"For one thing she was a couple of years older, and she worked at C.Z.I. as a nurse. I would get hurt just to see her." He sighs, "Skipper, and the guys finally found out why I kept on getting hurt...For puppy love. It's probably the reason Skipper is so paranoid about it, because he doesn't want to see me hurt like that...Ever again." He shakes his head, "It was puppy love though. The other two..."
"Private-" His violent stare of his name scares her to say, "Percival, you don't have to tell me this."
"I want to. There's finally someone for me to talk to." He stands, and sits in the chair across from her, "Someone who understands." She nods, "Cupid Reins, and Hunter Seal."
"Huh?" She asked.
"Those were the two girls. Skipper forbid me to ever see Cupid Reins, because of her last name. Reins, as in Reindeer. Their codename in the C.Z.I. there was a rivalry between the Penguins, and Reindeer. It wasn't a good rivalry...It never would work between us. Are 'families' would be in a freud for the rest of our lives." He shakes his head in disappointment, "Hunter, was different, very different. She, and I became friends instantly, I help her get back to her family. Hunter family was another enemy of the Penguins...I miss her." He grits his teeth, "Every girl always had to be on their bad side!"
"Maybe..." Ace spoke up, "They weren't who you were destined to be , they were supposed to be on the bad side. Maybe it was for the best."
Percival shakes his head, "Or maybe," He glares at her to intimated her, "The Penguins were supposed to be on my bad side."
"Percival, they raised you." Ace tried to persuade him, but he looks down at the ground ignoring her, "Private," She got another death glare, and finally his attention, "Stop wishing they don't care."
He casts his eyes back on the file, "Come on, let's get back to work." He wished that he didn't hear her. He wished that she wasn't right. He wished to not care what she had to say. He wished that the team didn't care about him. He wished not to care.
Truth was: He did care.
# # #
Skipper panting breath was enough for Kowalski to tell that he was stressed over the edge. Skipper punches to the lifeless punching bag were useless. He couldn't get Private back home by punching an inanimate object. He pops his knuckles.
"What?" Skipper snaps, punching harder, and harder, as Kowalski comes forward.
"Don't you need rest? Isn't Marlene waiting for you?" Kowalski asks, trying to get him away from the punching bag for a second.
"Marlene's working, and no, I'm fine." The punching bag sways like the ocean waves, but much more powerful, "Did you want anything? Did you find anything?" Kowalski sighed, the guilt was eating his stomach up keeping this from his friend, and leader. "Save your breath if you haven't got a thing for me."
Now he went in with his legs kicking it like it was a real person he hated with a passion. Both legs were like guns continuously firing until the bullets were no more. Not a pelt left in them, "Skipper, this is unhealthy. It's four thirty in the morning, and of course Marlene up! She getting ready to go to work! It's four thirty in the morning!"
Skipper smirks, "Coffee really does help."
Kowalski knew he had a addiction to coffee, but at least he wasn't drinking energy drinks, or worse...Alcohol. He had seen Skipper dunk before...Let's just say he never wants to see that again, or Denmark for that matter. Ugh...Denmark.
"Caffeine is not a suitable substance for energy."
"Well it is for me."
"Just because you hate that you can't find Private, and bring him home does not mean for you to act this way." Skipper stops punching, "He wouldn't want you to stress yourself over the edge. We all do not want you to."
He pants, and wipes his forehead, "I'm just letting it out." He pops his neck,
"Trying, anyway."
"Letting it out? Consuming yourself to letting it all out is stressing you out." Kowalski said, calmly as he could.
"I. Am. Not. Stressed." He grits his teeth together, "I'm just worried is all."
"Worrying can cause stress."
"Kowalski!" He screams, with his veins popping out all over his head, and his final kick pulling the chain off the top of the punching bag, "Do I look stressed to you?"
Kowalski gulps, "No sir."
He pops his neck seeming like it would hurt, but he walks off from it. Leaving the training room with a broken chain to jingle in the room. Kowalski notice something on the bench besides the broken punchbag. He pick it up, and a long sigh. Kowalski ran after him, "Skipper, the Private, that we knew before is gone!"
Skipper turned his hunched over body, "Kowalski, it's not the fact that he might have changed. I'm not keeping my promises to him. Promises are supposed to be kept, right?"
"But secrets aren't..." Kowalski eyed him, expecting him to get what he was saying.
"Either way, he would have been upset with us."
"You mean upset with you, because as I recall, Rico, and I were told not to say a word to him about his parents. That was an order from you." Kowalski said, getting the smudges off his glasses.
Skipper look at him, "Your saying this is my fault?"
"Yes."
"I've been protecting him! And your blaming me for that?"
"Maybe the bird needed to leave the nest. Or caged." Kowalski said, putting his glasses back to see Skipper face madden beyond belief. "We kept him caged up, and only you had the key. But one day the key got lost, and somehow..."
Skipper's fist clenched together, "Kowalski..." He warned.
"The bird got out...Why is that?" Kowalski mocked Skipper harshly. The guilt seem to wash away from his system. He now got why Private left. He had enough of it. Kowalski didn't blame him, he would want to know who his parents are. He grips what he pick in the training room, "You know Skipper he doesn't keep his promises...So why would you want to keep-"
"Because," Skipper shouts, Kowalski, almost thought he saw anger tears. Skipper never cried. Never. "I'm his father!"
Kowalski instantly drop what he was holding: A picture frame of Skipper holding Private when he was a toddler at the most. A picture of a father and a son...
# # #
"Does Creed have a business other then kidnapping child?" Percival asked, putting the files back in his backpack.
"Of course, he had to make money somewhere for the experiments. Why?" Ace asked, yawning though it was four thirty in the morning, sleep would have been nice by now. But they went through file after file searching for answers for herself, and Private. They hadn't found a thing, only a few things on places, and people. But that was nothing to them.
"I have a idea up my sleeve, and it involves going uncover." Percival smirk, "And there might be a smidgen of revenge too."
Ariadne grinned wildly at him. She was already into this planned idea. This was getting back what she lost. This was to Marcus. This was to her innocent. This was to her truth. Her, and Percival's truth.
First off I would like to say sorry for the delay...School been holding me back...ugh...Too much homework...for one girl...ugh. I'm hoping for snow now:). So some of you probably noticed I took down my other story, well, I got a really great idea for a story for POM. Sooo I'll be working on this story, and hopefully get it up sometime...HOPEFULLY! gather storyline should be interesting: Private has a lot of past, and one of them finally comes to bite him in the butt. He's a wanted fugitive...Something like that. Some of you know this idea from the last story I had. But don't worry I'll still be working on this one too!
LOVE,
aDORKable Rosy XD