Chip had awoken to find a snoring Dale lying his head next to him while still sitting in a chair. He noticed the hat and bag as well. They were old, but at the same time still seemed as new as when Dale had gotten them from their father. He stroked his brother's head with worry, hoping that his brother was alright. For a moment he thought he was a child again and he was still recovering from the fight that had made his brother become… silly, for lack of a better word. Monterey Jack quickly dissolved that thought as he entered and left a large saltine cracker for him. Monterey then left and went downstairs, no doubt to tell the others that he was up. He soon found himself back asleep, trying to figure out what to do and how he was going to make it up to his team, not to mention his brother. He felt so useless.
When Chip woke again later, Dale was up as well and was relieved to find his twin brother was awake. "Chip!" He hugged his brother tenderly, trying not to hurt him anymore than he already was. "You're awake! Are you okay?"
"Ugh, yeah, just fine, Dale…" Chip winced as his brother hugged his bruised ribs.
"Whoops, sorry, Chip." Dale blushed as he backed off, noticing his brother's pain.
Chip smiled weakly to his twin brother. "I'm fine, Dale… what about you guys, are you all okay?"
"Huh? Yeah, of course we are! We were all pretty worried about you though, I mean, you looked pretty bad for a while there." Chip noticed that Dale was back to wearing his red Hawaiian shirt with the yellow flowers on it.
There was no sign of "Danger" Dale in the room, save for in the dark brown eyes of his twin. They were filled with a dangerous spark that had been hidden for years, one of intelligence, one of worry, one that said "I'll protect you no matter what happens." It was the way with these twins when danger had come into their young lives.
Chip closed his eyes for a few more seconds, trying to ease his breathing, making his breaths long and slow while he thought about all this. "Get some rest, Chip. I'll be downstairs with the others if you need us. Just call, okay?" Chip opened his eyes to see the tears still in his brother's eyes. He nodded weakly. He couldn't do much else yet and didn't want to worry them all any more than he already had.
When Dale got downstairs, he found the others looking at an old scrapbook. He stopped, frozen with fear as he saw them looking at the old newspaper clippings with the twin chipmunks on them. He looked at his friends, trying to think of some way to explain himself, but found none. He gritted his teeth and looked down, wishing he had never left his brother alone. If he had just stayed behind with him, then he wouldn't have been captured and none of this would've happened, and his friends wouldn't have found out how much of a disappointment he was.
He was stunned when Gadget came up to him and hugged him tightly while crying. He didn't know how to respond. Dale felt weak in his knees. He had expected his friends to be angry at him and Chip for hiding that part of their past from them, but at the same time he was slightly relieved. They didn't hate him or his brother. They weren't even angry with them. They were concerned. He looked at Monty over Gadget's shoulder and saw him and Zipper wiping tears from their eyes. They were all worried for him and his brother.
Dale sighed and patted Gadget on the back. "Chip's gonna be fine." He whispered, mostly to reassure himself of this fact. The group sat back down at the table and let Dale take a moment to breathe and think.
He glanced at the scrap book and grimaced at the serious duo that looked out at him from the newspaper clippings. The one that was currently showing was a clip about their great rescue of the mayor's daughter, Sunny, the squirrel.
Dale's face then got serious again, or at least as serious as his childish face had ever gotten. "I think we need to take a break…" He picked up the scrapbook, grimaced and asked, "Anyone know when the next flight to the Redwoods is?"