Halfhuman123- Thank you! You're awesome!

Forever'nAlways- I actually had more, but that was the best spot to leave it off. As for your guess…: )

Twighlight's Desire- All are correct, my dear friend! Cliffies will make more appearances in this story; don't think the last chapter was the last time because I have been told I like to torture my characters.

Porsche101- Thank you for the compliment and for reviewing since the first chapter! Now, update your stories woman!

Mattie Scary- I love guesses, your guess earns a : )

TO THE STORY!!

"Why would I kill my best friend?" Skipper blinked, the somewhat falsetto voice of the huge man throwing him off. The man reached for the light switch and flicked it on. The mysterious man was still carrying Marlene, much to his dislike, and he didn't have the face to be a killer.

"She's your best friend? Then why did you sneak in here?"

"I was trying to be quiet. I didn't want to wake her up. You must be Skipper, she's told me a lot about you. I'm Rodger." Skipper racked his brains, trying to come up with some sort of memory about Marlene talking about Rodger. Surprisingly, there turned up none.

"I don't think I know anything about you. You're not a spy for Archai, are you?"

"Who?"

Skipper shook his head and looked down from Rodger's overly kind face to Marlene. She didn't even seem to register she wasn't in the chairs anymore, that was until she stirred, grabbing onto Rodger's green shirt. Skipper bit his lip and found himself reaching out to her. He blinked and shook his head clear of any thoughts about grabbing her arm and pulling her away from the creepy guy.

"You like her." Rodger's idiototically large grin and singsong statement snapped Skipper completely out of his thoughts.

"Love is for weak people."

"This is coming from the man who's in love with Marley."

"Get out of here." Skipper tried to growl it out, but it didn't work in scaring Rodger into leaving, if anything it just gave the man fuel. Skipper groaned and fell back onto the bed, covering his ears to the kindergarten song Rodger started to sing, deciding he liked Rodger better when he thought he was here to kill everybody.

Marlene woke up to find herself still in the hospital with only one difference, Rodger had apparently received her text message and had directed his route to the hospital. He must have fallen asleep, cuddling her of all things. She detached herself from his arms and stretched. The room had grown to be more inviting with the morning sun as the light cast all shadows of the night away.

She froze as she heard whispering from the other side of the room. Skipper and Private seemed to be awake and were whispering back and forth about something. Marlene grinned and fell back into Rodger's arms to fake being asleep. It wouldn't take a genius to figure out the relationship between the two. Skipper was overprotective of the boy, Private looked up to Skipper, they have similar names, and they looked strangely alike. What else could Private be if not Skipper's son?

Skipper looked away from Private to wherever the sound had come from, he didn't see anything but scowled at Marlene happily curled up in Rodger's arms. He didn't really know why he didn't feel comfortable with the big guy holding Marlene, maybe because Rodger didn't really strike him as Marlene's type.

"Skipper, do you like her?" Skipper turned back to his burned up son and a new wave of guilt surged over him. He had managed to protect the boy from the exploding glass, but not from the fireball causing burn marks to cover the young man's body.

"Next time, you're staying home."

"I will not! You know the credo, never walk alone!" Private's outburst, even while guilt plagued him, had to make Skipper smile. While the boy was too naïve and gentle, he still took after his father more than his mother.

"Kid, you just got lucky. It'll only get worse."

Private glowered at him causing even the toughest detective to back down. He settled back down on the bed and looked over to Marlene, who he just swore opened her eyes and quickly shut them.

"Marlene?"

The woman winced and opened an eye to look at him. She grinned sheepishly, detangled herself from Rodger, and made her way to his bedside. "You feel better?"

"Much, nothing a little sleep didn't fix." Skipper felt a grin rise on his face and fought it off. She had, fortunately, turned away to talk to Private so she didn't see him slap his face to clear his head. Unfortunately, Private did see this and stared blankly at him until Marlene turned around.

"Skipper, you okay?"

"I think they put something in the IV, I feel all lightheaded."

"It's called pain medication. It stops it from hurting." Marlene smiled at him and then it all hit Skipper. The strange lightheadedness had a strange potency that he only could identify it with one time in his life. It was when he and Lola had been happily married.

Kowalski was the last to regain consciousness out of them all, though when he finally did wake up, he was excited and shocked to see Doris beside his bedside. Though soon, he became more focused on why he couldn't move without yelping in pain. His mind was in overdrive, coming up with statistics of bombing victims and survival rates.

"Kowalski? Are you okay?" Doris bit her lip and grabbed his arm gingerly, throwing all statistics from his head, the last one being 17%, for what he wasn't too sure. He nodded his head, taking pleasure from Doris' giant smile as she ran off to drag Marlene to his bedside.

"He's awake?" Marlene whispered, for some strange reason she was refusing to look at him.

"I think I just got hit with a van…one of the exploding variety." He groaned, attempting to push himself up but Doris shook her head. He tilted his head and looked to Marlene who was finally looking at him, but not without a trace amount of horror. He knew it was possible he got the worst of the explosion considering that he was the slowest one, but how bad could it possibly be? Doris was having no problem looking at him; in fact, she was being more doctorish than the actual doctor was. He took a glance at the reflective surface of the bars surrounding his bed and recoiled. Whatever that thing was, it was definitely not him.

"The doctor said the scars will be permanent but they won't hurt after maybe a week." Doris smiled, patted his hand and sent a glare to Marlene.

The brunette nodded and grinned, "Yep, you guys should be up and chasing bad guys within a few days, hours if Skipper has his way." She rolled her eyes and grinned, "Speaking of which, I think I should probably go check on him. See you guys later."

"I think she might like Skipper. What do you think?"

"I think that if she even tried, she'd get shot down. Skipper really does not mess with the female side of the species ever since his wife divorced him. Why are you here? Not that I don't want you here! However, I'm just curious because you really didn't seem to like me. Not that it matters! Well, it does matter apparently because you're here…what my question again?"

"Why am I here?" Doris shook her head and laughed, "You really got to learn how to relax. I'm here because you're my friend and I wanted to make sure you were okay."

"That's all?"

"Do you want that to be all?" Doris smirked at the huge blush spreading over Kowalski's face, "I mean I could be here for different reasons."

"What would those be?"

"You'd have to wait and see." Doris grinned and walked away from Kowalski's bedside, extremely happy her first time flirting had been utterly successful.

I love Rodger, he's fun to write for.

Honestly, I don't see why most people pair Skipper up with Private. They have too much of a father-son relationship to overlook. Yes, I know they're the closest and with a show where there are only two females (Three if you include Doris) but still!

Doris and Kowalski…my second favorite couple! First belongs to Rico and the Barbie. Don't look at the screen like that. It creeps your computer out.