Yay! New chapter! Can you feel the excitement? Crowd: YES!!! Well, that's awesome! Now let's see what YOU have to say to it :D because, every single person that reads this is my new best friend, whether I know you or not. So, best friend, let me show you what I've written.

Exchanges

Kowalski waits for Marlene to answer but gets no response. He knocks again, more forcefully this time, a heavy dread beginning to develop in his stomach. Not again…

"Hey Kowalski!"

Kowalski turns, so relieved he could have hugged her. Still, he holds back. Too much stress is bad for the mind Kowalski.

He smiles back at Marlene who stood dripping before him. She goes to a nearby rock and gets a towel, beginning to dry herself. She didn't smell like garbage anymore, and her fur was litter free.

"So what's up?" She asks. Kowalski clears his throat, remembering what he was there to do.

"Well…"

A human comes to the habitat. Thinking quickly, Kowalski dives inside Marlene's cave. Marlene scurries to the entrance and pretends to sit sunning herself.

"You were saying?" She says, still faking casualness. Kowalski gets as close to the edge of the cave as possible without any humans noticing him there.

"Do you still have the egg?" He asks her. Marlene nods quickly.

"Why?"

"It's imperative that I return it. Now." Marlene turns to smile at him.

"Don't worry, we can wait until the zoo closes to get the egg back to Mrs. Eagle, I'm sure she won't mind."

Kowalski shakes his head, but then realizes Marlene couldn't see him, the cave was too dark.

"No, I have to return it now. Time is of essence, the quicker I can get it back the better." Marlene tries to make him out in the dark, unconsciously scooting closer.

"Why? Did Skipper tell you to?" Kowalski manages to stop himself from shaking his head once again and answers her instead.

"Marlene, we're losing precious time here, just tell me the egg's location so I can return it." Marlene frowns and doesn't answer. She walks into the cave, not looking at him and starts rummaging through a pile of pillows on her bed. She carefully pulls out the soft brown egg. Kowalski goes to take it from her, but she pulls it back.

"I'm going with you." She states. Kowalski looks at her.

"Marlene-"

"I went to the eagle and got you in trouble, so I'm going to help you return it." Kowalski glowers.

"You're only making this more difficult than it needs to be." He replies meeting her gaze. Marlene smiles sardonically and begins leading the way out. Kowalski grabs on to her arm and tries to pull her back but she yanks it away.

"Why can't I go? It's my fault, and you seem desperate to get this thing back." Kowalski simply holds his flippers out reaching for the egg but she steps back.

"Why?" She hints. Kowalski sighs frustrated.

"This is no time for lollygagging Marlene-"

"Just tell me." Marlene cuts in. Kowalski glares at her. So this is what Skipper meant by Marlene being too obstinate for her own good. He knew from experience, though, that there was only one way to go when others had their minds set on his opposite side.

"Fine."

Marlene smirks and begins walking out again, the egg on her side. Kowalski takes the opportunity to rush forward and take it from her. Marlene gasps staring at her empty paws. She looks up and sees Kowalski running away with the egg. She didn't know that he was manipulative, when had that happened?

She chases after him, getting closer every second. Kowalski had to keep diving into different hiding spots to keep the humans from seeing him, but she could run freely wherever she wanted. Kowalski looks back at her looking surprisingly annoyed.

Marlene smiles smugly and runs faster; this was actually sort of fun. She gets just a few inches behind him; all she needed was a final push. Marlene jumps at him, not noticing the brick wall in front of her. She slams painfully into it, feeling a sharp pain on her head. She falls to the ground and sits for a few seconds, blinking in her daze. She looks for Kowalski, but he's gone. She sighs and looks around; glad that at least he hadn't seen that.

A flipper appears in front of her. Marlene looks up and finds Kowalski standing beside her, the egg held on his other flipper.

"You can come with me only as far as the nest." He tells her. Marlene grimaces and takes his flipper. How was it that he was being a jerk and a gentleman at the same time?

After quickly placing an otter doll by a rock Kowalski and Marlene set out to the nest.

Kowalski leads her farther down the main gate once he had made sure that there were no humans in their path, and begins running his flipper down the zoo wall. He stops at the edge of a brick and pulls. Marlene hides her surprise at the door he opens. He gestures for her to go first, which for some reason she found aggravating.

They go swiftly from place to place through the city, or at least he did, she simply ran after him whenever he moved. (It was amazing how much precaution he took to not be noticed; all she had done was walk down the sidewalk with a box on top of her).

They get to the building a few moments later, Marlene remembering grimly what had happened the last time she had been there. She scowls at the dumpster in front of her, heading to the stairs once more. Hearing a soft tap she turns to see Kowalski jump on the dumpster. Using it as a standing point, he flips into the air and lands neatly a few flights of stairs higher. He places the egg carefully beside him and looks at her through the rail.

Marlene scowls up at him and begins climbing the first set of stairs. She looks up and finds him back at the top of the first flight, his flipper already held out to her.

They climb up the stairs together, Marlene amazed at how patient he was of her slow pace. After climbing for a few minutes she takes the egg from him.

"My turn." She replies to his questioning look. She was determined to prove that she could be helpful. Kowalski nods and keeps walking beside her, not making any attempt at conversation. Marlene feels the silence is heavy, though Kowalski doesn't even seem to mind it. She opens her mouth to say something but stops when he turns to face her. She looks away and pretends to be blowing on the egg to polish it.

"Do you want me to carry it?"

Marlene looks at Kowalski. His flippers were stretched out towards her but he still climbed the stairs smoothly, seeming undisturbed by his awkward position. Marlene shakes her head and hugs the egg closer to her.

"I've got it." She replies. Kowalski shrugs and keeps climbing. Marlene goes over possible conversations in her head, looking for something to say. Still, Kowalski doesn't say anything.

Just when Marlene felt that she couldn't take much more of the silence, the stairs come to a stop. Kowalski takes the egg from her and jumps onto the roof. He holds his flipper out to her yet again. She takes it grudgingly; did he think she was so weak?

They walk up to the nest. Marlene bracing herself in case of another attack. When nothing happens she looks around and realizes how empty the place was. Kowalski climbs the heap of metal and feels the nest floor.

"It's cold." He says, whether to her or himself she couldn't tell.

Kowalski walks around the place, looking up at the sky occasionally. Marlene sits, hugging the egg; it was light brown with scattered speckles of dark brown.

She watches Kowalski as he conducts a few more observation; somehow he now held a notepad and pencil. She supposed that this was just typical Kowalski stuff, though she did find it a bit weird. He walks around seemingly in control, but the pace and force with which he wrote seemed to be getting more frantic. Finally Kowalski lowers his notepad, sighing as he looks at what he's written. Marlene cranes her neck and sees that most of what was written was crossed out.

"What's wrong?" She asks once Kowalski fails to tell her what was going on. He looks at her as if he had forgotten she was there. Maybe he had…

"The eagle seems to have left." He replies. Marlene shrugs.

"Maybe she just went to get something to eat."

Kowalski shakes his head.

"She didn't go to get food, my observations dictate she usually does that an hour before this." Marlene stands up and picks up the egg.

"Well, I'll bet she was tired of sitting on her nest and she went to, I don't know, stretch her wings-" Kowalski doesn't even wait for her to finish this time. He shakes his head again and looks down.

"Marlene, the eagle didn't leave for rations, or to stretch, or even to see the view… she left because she gave up."

Marlene stands confused.

"What?"

Kowalski takes the egg from her.

"When you fell in the dumpster, you had the egg with you. We searched for you, but you didn't show up, and there was no other place to look in. You just disappeared…"

"Well, of course I didn't show up. I was scared." Says Marlene defensively, "Did you want me to jump out and scream 'Here I am!' when that eagle would've shredded me to pieces?" Kowalski sighs, a bit of impatience showing on his face when he looks at her.

"What would you do if you lost your child?" He asks suddenly. Marlene backs a few steps, startled at the abrupt change in conversation.

"Lost my child? Why? I don't have a child." She stutters. Kowalski holds the egg up to her. Marlene looks at it. It looked so soft and smooth, and vulnerable. Inside it there was a cute little baby that would soon hatch…

"A child?" She whispers. That was it. What would she do if she lost her child? Look for it of course. But if it seemed to have just disappeared and there was no place left to look…

Kowalski nods once he saw that she got it and begins to walk away.

"Wait! Where're you going?" She calls to him. Kowalski turns around.

"I'm going to look for the mother so that I can give her back her egg. You, meanwhile, are going back to the zoo to watch over things while I'm gone."

Marlene stares at him. He was kidding right?

"What?"

Kowalski walks back to her and places his flipper on her shoulder.

"I might be gone for a while. Until I return, with the team gone, there is only one individual I can depend on to watch over things. You have to stay Marlene."

She shakes her head stubbornly.

"Hey. I'm not part of your military group you know. You can't expect me to take orders from you."

Kowalski's grip tightens on her shoulder and she tries steps back from him.

"If not you then who?" He asks. Marlene opens her mouth to answer, expecting a brilliant come back, but all that comes out is silence. Dang! He was right.

"Fine." She grumbles, "But what about you?"

Kowalski takes his flipper from her shoulder now that he knew she would do what he told her.

"What about me?" He asks raising an eyebrow. Marlene narrows her eyes in suspicion.

"You're going on a mission all by yourself with no team to back you up in case of trouble," She states. Kowalski smiles grimly.

"I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself, I've been training all my life." Marlene crosses her arms.

"Yeah? And if anything goes wrong?" Kowalski frowns and thinks for a few seconds.

"The odds of that are-"

"Forget the odds!" exclaims Marlene, "You might be overly cocky on this but there's still a chance of this going wrong even if they're slim. You can't go by yourself."

Kowalski steps closer, almost intimidating.

"What are you suggesting?" He asks, distrustful. Marlene prepares herself to snap back but the words get stuck on her throat. What was she hinting at?

"I'm going with you." She says for a second time that day. Kowalski shakes his head.

"No." He says simply and jumps off of the nest. Marlene stomps after him. So it would be this all over again. Still, if she had managed to convince him to let her come once (had she convinced him?) than she could do it again. But how? Last time all she had done was crash into a wall, not exactly the most persuasive argument in history.

Kowalski begins climbing down the stairs fairly quickly, but Marlene notices that it was actually a slow pace for him. She jumps down onto the stairs and runs to catch up to him. He keeps walking and ignores her when she turns up on his side.

"Why?"

It was a simple question. She didn't understand why he wouldn't answer it. Kowalski keeps staring straight ahead. He figured that Marlene's hate of being ignored would win over her persistence therefore she might stop talking if he didn't answer.

"So?" Just a few more questions.

"Kowalski?" She was bound to give up soon.

"Kowalski!" Any minute now.

"What will Skipper think of this?"

So maybe his calculations had been wrong.

Kowalski stops in his tracks, knowing that there was no way out of this one. Marlene realizes that she had finally managed a break-through. She resists the urge to smile and faces Kowalski.

"Well then?" She asks. Kowalski doesn't answer and resumes walking. Marlene hates how unresponsive he is. Still, she had to get him to let her go. She couldn't allow him to go who-knew-where to maybe get himself killed. She knew that she wasn't much but if trouble arose at least she would be there to help in whatever way she could. At least to make it even. Kowalski had saved her from the eagle earlier that day. She was strong and independent, Kowalski had to let her come…for his own good.

And he would, she would make sure of that.

Kowalski places the egg on a mobile incubator he had designed himself. The battery ran out fast so he had some extras saved up on a burlap sack. In it he also carried his notepad, a pencil, the feathers he had taken from the eagle during their struggle, a map, and a few of his gadgets. Not a heavy load, but he also had to carry the egg with him. He looks down at the paper he held on his flippers and places it on the table in front of him. He takes one last look around the HQ before heading out, the note left on the tables folded in half. One single word is written at the top "Skipper".

He realizes now what a bad idea it had been to send them away, but his time machine exploded every time he turned it on so he knew that there was no going back.

He takes out the map he had worked on after this entire mess started and looks at the many places he had positioned as possible places the eagle had gone to. Each was marked as a small red dot. Practically the entire map was red.

He squares his shoulders and walks out of the penguin habitat, looking back at the stuffed dolls that would take his and the team's place. Four stuffed penguins, then there would be three real ones back. Would they need a fourth doll for their next mission, or would there simply be three?

Kowalski looks back at the zoo gates; unable to believe he was doing this. He felt a cold knot in his stomach that told him this was wrong, but his mind was telling him this was, more importantly, necessary. And in Kowalski's case, the mind always wins. He dives behind a lamppost with the incubator at hand and then goes back for the burlap sack. A bus stops ahead of him and people begin to climb on board.

He holds on tightly to the sack and the incubator, hoping that he would be able to carry the two at the same time. Something begins to pull on the incubator and Kowalski turns around quickly. Marlene stood in front of him, smiling warmly, her paw on the incubator. Kowalski sighs and lets it go. Marlene hugs the machine to her and looks at the egg through the glass. She follows Kowalski onto the bus once all the humans were in and they hide beneath the first chair.

The bus takes off into the street and the two animals look back at their home, which suddenly seemed so strange and unknown to them. It was so different in the inside; there it was the home they had always felt safe in. Outside, it was just another building among the many, and they were outsiders. Marlene hugs herself and scoots closer to Kowalski. She didn't know why, but she felt better knowing she wasn't alone.

Kowalski looks at Marlene sitting beside him. Surprisingly, he too, felt glad that she had come along. Even it was for a little while. He knew he would have to send her back, whatever the cost…for her own good.

He would make sure of that.

It's actually odd. I hadn't meant to end both of their thoughts on the same note, but, it somehow happened. So, dedications? As always, Blouper, because I'm not the best author, and with her i actually feel like I might be at least a good one. Knockknocktimerico, how amazing his story is just leaves me in awe. And YOU my best friend from far away that i don't know. Thanks for sticking this far :D