Kowalski slowly opened his eyes, blinking twice to bring his vision into focus. He let a yawn escape from his mouth, stretching as he did so. Something didn’t feel right to Kowalski this morning, like something was missing.

Finally it hit him; he had not been woken up by Skipper’s demanding voice this morning. He slipped out of bed and quickly turned around to see if Skipper had ever made it back to the HQ last night. Unsurprisingly to Kowalski he found Skipper’s bunk empty. A small grin found its way to Kowalski’s face; he knew exactly where Skipper was.

But that wasn’t important right now, what was important was what Skipper had said the previous day:

“What are we gonna do when you’re not here?” asked Private worriedly. He shuddered at the thought of something going wrong when Skipper wasn’t there.

“That’s where Kowalski comes in. He should be more than capable of taking over when I’m out.” Skipper answered proudly and he pointed towards Kowalski with a smile.

“He’s not here, so that means I’m in charge,” Kowalski thought out loud to himself, “Skipper has put his team in my hands, I can’t disappoint him.”

“All right rise and shine boys!” Demanded the tall penguin as he stood straight up, feet together, in a stiff military position.

Almost automatically Private and Rico shot out of their beds, both standing tall and proud as Kowalski was.

“As you can see,” Kowalski began, “Skipper is currently…out, which, according to the chain of command, puts me in charge of today’s activities.”

Kowalski was ecstatic when he finished speaking, he had always wanted to be in charge of the team, and now he finally had his chance to show what he could do.

“Ok first things first, let’s get out side and swim laps,” He barked sternly.

With out so much as a question Private and Rico obeyed Kowalski’s orders and headed outside into the brisk, cool, New York air.

As expected everything went according to plan with no protest from either Private or Rico.

While Kowalski kept watch from the cement island located in the center of their habitat, his attention was drawn to Marlene’s home. He wasn’t sure why he chose to look at the otter’s habitat; maybe he was hoping to see Skipper come rushing out to lead his team. Or maybe it was to catch sight of the otter herself.

He sighed at the thought, he knew that Marlene would never have feelings for him, and besides she was Skipper’s girl now, he had won fair and square…but still what if?

“No there’s no way...not even the slightest chance...” He told himself only trying to discourage his true feelings.

“Kowalski, who are you talking to?” Inquired Private, he had finished his laps and caught Kowalski off guard.

“Oh me? No one…just running some equations through my head that’s all” Kowalski responded with a smile, obviously surprised by Private’s sudden appearance. Not far behind Private was Rico

After finishing with their morning work out Kowalski gave them some free time before lunch. As usual Private was mesmerized by the TV, fully engrossed into the cheesy plot twists and sappy love stories of his favorite soap operas. Rico too decided not to stray far from the norm and spent his off time cuddling and cooing at his doll.

Kowalski tried to finish up on his new invention that turned water into fish, but his mind was fogged by thoughts of a specific otter. He was unsure why these thoughts had suddenly popped into his mind, maybe because she now was with Skipper and he finally realized he missed his chance. Kowalski would never know for sure.

The intellect tried to focus on his work but was sorely out matched by the thoughts of Marlene that infected his head. Her soft brown fur, her big brown eyes, that sweet soothing voice, everything about her just made his heart flutter.

He began to regret encouraging Skipper to tell her his true feelings. He began regretting not having the courage to do it himself.

Kowalski shook his head, trying to clear his mind. I had my chance and didn’t act on it, that’s all the past now and I can’t dwell on that, he thought to himself hoping to regain control of the war waging inside his head.

He heard the familiar splat of fish hitting the ground outside. Maybe a little lunch will help me clear my mind.

“Ok men upstairs, pronto, lunch is being served.”

Both Private and Rico got up eagerly and hurriedly rushed up the ladder to get the catch of the day. Kowalski followed close behind.

As he had hoped a nice meal had cleared Kowalski’s mind of any thoughts of Marlene. He was now worried bout Skipper, lunch had just passed and he was nowhere to be seen. Kowalski knew exactly where he was, but not what he was doing and that bothered him. Oh well, what he does in none of my business, he reassured himself.

Not knowing what else to do, Kowalski decided to have them do a perimeter scan of the zoo, just to make sure nothing was out of the ordinary. Not to mention it would help them kill some time.

They slyly exited the zoo and began their scan just west of the zoo entrance. Not more than 5 minutes into it did they suddenly notice a soft noise coming from a nearby tree. Under Kowalski’s orders Private tobogganed over to the tree where the strange noise was coming from.

As he got closer to the tree Private noticed that the strange noise was animal in origin. He looked up into the branches and noticed a small little cat stranded on the upper most branch.

“K’walski come check this out. That poor kitten is stuck on the highest branch.” Private reported with concern embedded in his voice.

Kowalski quickly slid over and started to asses the situation. He ran the options through his head; they could have Rico throw up a chainsaw and maybe cut down the tree hoping to catch the cat on the way down, or maybe he could send one of them up there to get the cat.

In his head the later seemed better, cutting down the tree might bring unwanted attention to them. But still the first option wasn’t perfect.

“Ok…Private do you think you’d be able to climb the tree and retrieve the kitten?”

“Yes sir!” Private chimed placing his flipper to his forehead in a salute.

He slowly but surely began making his way up the tree, one branch at a time, being careful to watch his step. Both Kowalski and Rico stood alert ready to catch him if he fell.

After what seemed like an eternity Private finally reached the last branch where the kitten was stuck.

“C’mon little guy I got you.” Private said in a calm and collective voice. He reached his flipper as far as he could but was short by mere inches.

“Just a little more…” he continued to reassure himself and he scooted closer and closer to the kitten. He could hear the branch underneath him beginning to creek and crack under his weight.

Suddenly a loud snap could be heard from the top of the tree. Kowalski watched with terror.

“PRIVATE!”