Author's Note:

This story idea came from a flashback in the story Penguin Madness, written by the amazing author, Candysweets. Some of the speech and words are taken from the flashback itself, such as: "Hoover Dam, Marlene! The weather outside is freezing but you're burning up!"

Marlene stared into the center of her room. Her head was throbbing, her whole body was screaming with aches and she knew her temperature was well over 100.2 degrees. In other words, she was sick and felt like shit.

She closed her eyes tiredly as she didn't get any sleep last night thanks to her headache, cough and rising temperature and the party that Julien threw last night didn't help anything. She wanted to go over there and kill him but she couldn't even stand without nearly passing out.

She licked her dry lips and wished she had a huge glass of ice cold water next to her. She groaned as she tried to get her legs over the edge of her bed to head to her pond but immediately stopped when suicide entered her mind.

Marlene tried to forget about the water and closed her heavy eyelids to attempt to drift off into a much needed slumber, worrying whether or not she would wake up or die peacefully in her sleep.

***

Marlene's eyelids fluttered open slowly at the feeling of something cold pressed up against her forehead. She finally managed to keep her eyes open long enough to make out something white and black through her slightly blurred vision. She blinked twice as the blurriness cleared so she could see the visitor clearly.

She stared into his iceberg blue eyes for a moment, temporarily lost in them. As her emotions took flight, she knew exactly who it was.

"S-Skipper…?" Finally… someone who can drag me out of this nightmare…

"Hoover Dam, Marlene! The weather outside is freezing but you're burning up!" Skipper's eyes widened as his flipper took in the heat from her soft forehead.

Marlene bit back a groan as she sat up. "I'm fine, Skipper. Nothing a little rest can't cure." She swung her legs around the side, trying to keep her expression straight but inside she was screaming to let Skipper know how bad she really was.

"Are you sure…?" Skipper eyed her warily, ready to catch her if she were to fall unexpectedly.

"I'm as positive as a plus sign, Skip-" Suddenly she felt her legs give out from under her. She gasped as she saw the ground rushing up at her. She clenched her teeth and closed her eyes to wait for the impact… but it never came. She slowly opened them back up as she felt something wrap around her.

Marlene turned her pulsating head to see Skipper holding her tightly. "Skipper… don't get sick… you need to… your military training…" She closed her eyes again and laid her head on his shoulder.

"I'll take the risk," Skipper chuckled as he scooped her up bridal style in his strong yet thin flippers.

"Thank you, Skipper…" she whispered as she snuggled into his soft feathers.

"You're welcome… Rico hasn't lost a mammal yet."

Marlene furrowed her eyebrows at the thought of their weapons specialist playing nurse for her. She did not like the idea one bit but she was much too tired to argue with Skipper. She sighed and let her muscles go slack for the journey to the HQ.

After what seemed like hours, Skipper finally opened the door with Marlene still cradled against his chest. The other penguins' heads jerked up toward them and were shocked at what they saw.

"Marlene! Skipper, what happened to her?" Private asked as he began to wring his flippers together from nervousness.

"She's sick and very sick at that. Kowalski! Make an errand over to the Animal Clinic and bring back some medicine for Marlene," Skipper looked down at her with concern and worry in his eyes as she moaned again, "double time!"

"Rico, I want you to check her out. Make note of her temperature, her heartbeat, her blood pressure… anything a doctor would do." Skipper carried her over to the table and sat her down. He watched her as she doubled over with her paws on her knees and her back arched.

"Uh-huh! Uh-huh!" Rico rushed over to the other side of the room to get his medical supplies that he stole from various doctors over the time the team had been together. He didn't want to swallow any of it because he wanted and needed to keep it sterile.

"Skipper… if he even tries anything funny… I don't want to see him take that flamethrower of his out of that bag. Especially the chainsaw." Marlene looked up at him with pleading eyes.

"Don't worry; Rico has helped all of us in our time of sickness. You don't have anything to worry about. He's actually quite gentle. You just haven't seen him in doctor mode yet." Skipper rested his flippers on her back so she could lean into them. He didn't think she would want to lie on the cold hard table.

Marlene rolled her eyes at the thought of Rico stroking a little baby kitten. "I don't think so, Skipper." She looked up at Rico who was starting to return with a white bag that had a red nurse's cross on the front. She closed her eyes and sighed.

After about ten minutes of being checked out and prodded by Rico, they finally got her a tall glass of water. Skipper plopped a straw in it but Marlene just ending up taking it out and chugging the whole thing down.

They both stared at her in awe just as Kowalski returned with the medicine.

"Sorry it took me so long. They rearranged the medicine around so it… never mind." Kowalski slid on his stomach over to the three and handed Rico the medicine. He poured the clear liquid into a spoon and fed it to Marlene, which was a much gentler way than what the human's usually did.

"Now, I'm sure Rico would recommend sleep and relaxation… right Rico?" Kowalski asked as he looked over at his friend.

"Uh, huh," Rico muttered as he nodded vigorously.

Skipper took in a deep breath as he looked back over to the otter sitting next to him. "Marlene, would you rather stay here or do you want to make the trip back to your exhibit?"

"I really don't want to be a bother to you guys…" Marlene began.

"Huh, surprise, surprise," Skipper interrupted with a grin and a roll of his eyes.

Marlene glared at Skipper before continuing, "…so I think I can make the trip back home." She placed her feet on the ground but immediately regretted it as her vision went black. She gasped at her sudden blindness but immediately felt safe when Skipper wrapped his flippers around her.

"Maybe you should stay here… for good measure," Kowalski said as he began to wring his flippers together like Private was doing earlier.

"Eh, I guess so. I don't really care if I'm a bother to you anyway," Marlene teased with a grin.

"I think someone is feeling better!" Skipper teased as he scooped her up again.

"Yeah, you just keep talking," Marlene snapped, bringing a chuckle from Skipper.

Private stared across the room at the two, feeling a little jealous how Skipper was treating Marlene. He sighed and got up to go talk to Kowalski about it. He stared at the intellectual's back as he gathered up the courage to tap his shoulder.

"What do you need, Private?"

The young penguin jumped slightly at the sound of Kowalski's voice. "Um… nothing much. I just wanted to talk to you about Skipper and Marlene."

Kowalski stopped right in the middle of connecting a blue and red wire on his latest invention, which was a shrink ray. Private's sudden interest in Skipper and Marlene's whereabouts and actions around each other was definitely surprising.

He looked up at the otter and the penguin across the room. They were sitting side by side in the makeshift bed for Marlene (which was just a dog bed) talking about something that he couldn't make out. He took careful notice that Skipper had his flipper around her shoulders and how they were both lying on their back. He didn't even seem concerned or uncomfortable how Marlene was almost laying her head on his chest.

He was hardly taken aback at how they were acting around each other since he had long known their true feelings for each other. A blind person could see they liked each other.

"Well, young Private… Skipper has different feelings towards Marlene… the feelings he has for us isn't as strong as the feelings he has for her. He has a more sensitive soft spot for her," Kowalski explained between glances at Private and the couple talking in the dog bed.

"You mean… he likes her?" Private asked with a confused expression. Kowalski made things way too complicated sometimes. He watched as Kowalski looked at him with surprise and embarrassment.

"Uh… yeah. How did you…?"

"I just compared their behavior to the behavior of the characters on my soap opera. It's actually quite similar if you would watch the show with me." Private shrugged innocently. "I think they would make a very cute couple, don't you?"

Kowalski watched with shock and amazement as Private went to sit down in front of the TV. He had no idea that Private could obtain that from a simple soap opera and actually bother to compare it to the real world. Private is more observant than I thought… I could teach him a few things.

He looked back over to Skipper and Marlene to see her nodding off and Skipper watching her with a sharp-eye. They would make a cute couple… Kowalski mentally slapped himself away from that thought and continued on toying with his invention.

Skipper eyed Marlene as her eyes closed, feeling her muscles relax against his side and flipper. His eyes widened as she scooted up higher onto him and laid her head on his chest. She placed her paw just below her chin and stroked his feathers. He swallowed and glanced around the room as he felt a blush taking over his face.

"Let me guess… it's time to 'hit the hay, team'?" Kowalski asked with a smirk.

Skipper glanced at the clock and nodded instead of speaking so he wouldn't disturb Marlene. He looked back down at her, missing Kowalski's nod in return.

Kowalski watched his leader with interest before he headed to his own bunk. He waited for him to scoot out from underneath Marlene but he never did. He just froze in place as an uncomfortable expression flashed on his face but it only stayed there for a moment.

His eyebrows rose as a different expression took over his leaders face. It was something that he had never seen before in Skipper's emotions. And his emotions were so wild and unpredictable that sometimes Kowalski wondered if his leader was PMS-ing.

He felt like screaming as Skipper smiled and closed his eyes, his flipper wrapping tighter around Marlene so he could pull her further into his body. Kowalski blinked as a soft smile appeared on Marlene's lips as well. Instead of going crazy, he grinned like a lunatic and went to turn out the light.

Author's Note:

I hope you enjoyed this first chapter! Don't forget to review and tell me how I did. I personally think a few characters were out of character but I'll let you be the judge of that.