Despite the fact that it was well early in the morning, the injured Private was dado a few hours to himself for rest and recovery. Skipper stayed true to his word, being sure as to give Private his privacy throughout the entire day. Having done this, the leader also granted the rest of the team absolute freedom for the day. Hopefully, this would give the other penguins some time to themselves. After Private’s unexpected disappearance, it was probably for the best.

Taking advantage of these moments, Kowalski chose to sit in a corner of the room, escritura all of his thoughts on his notepad. He couldn’t rid the anterior moment from his mind; the emotional harm that he had induced upon Rico. Surely the hulky pingüino, pingüino de would eventually forgive him, though. When these things occurred in the past, the worst that would happen would have been a few hours of silence; and even that was never anything new for him. Everything would resolve itself in no más and two hours. Kowalski smiled as he continued these calculations.

Skipper used this time to prepare a meal for the team. A blue pescado was placed in four feeding bowls, each organized for a hungry penguin. During the preparation of the fish, Skipper would glance at the televisión every so often to pass the time. Apparently, someone had left the channel on some sort of soap opera, assorted with the bad actors, low budgets, and countless affairs. Several instances from the episode caused Skipper to chuckle in amusement; but, overall, it was entertaining enough to capture the penguin’s full attention. In fact, the pescado that he had been working on were now completed before a segundo had even seemed to pass.

The leader grabbed two of the bowls and turned, making his way towards Kowalski. The tall pingüino, pingüino de glanced up from his notebook and his face immediately brightened. This was just what he needed! Kowalski set aside his utensil and notes and reached out for his bowl with his two flippers. Skipper smirked and tossed the bowl adelante, hacia adelante in hopes of Kowalski catching it. Fortunately, this was the case; and with that, Skipper turned away to head over to Rico for his fish.

Rico, on the other hand, did not appear to be in the mood for food. He decided to do the same as Kowalski and sit in a corner for the remainder of the day. Only, he did so in despair, rather than contemplation. His head was hung low and his hunched posture almost appeared to have doubled in magnitude. His scarred beak wore a frown that would have made even the most cheerful person experience his pain. Skipper immediately noticed his sadness on approach and his eyes grew wide in shock.

“Good lord, man, what happened to you?” Skipper asked loudly. Rico didn’t even bother to acknowledge his presence. This caused Skipper to grow impatient. However, he retained his process of thought and decided to wear a comforting grin, “C’mon, it’s time to chow down, soldier!” Skipper made an attempt to cheer him up, having obviously failed. He finally chose to give it up and leave Rico to himself, “Well, tu know where I’m at…” he finished, dropping the bowl of pescado on the hard ground in front Rico and walking away to continue the viewing of his shows.

Rico quietly sighed to himself and glanced up to watch Skipper waddle away. It saddened him to think that everyone truly looked upon Rico as some sort of pet for the team. He knew he wasn’t very talented with words, but that was who he was. He was still perfectly capable of thinking for himself and making observations of his surroundings. So, why was he treated this way? It didn’t make much sense to the penguin.

“Sk-Skippa…? Skippa?!” a voice cried out nearby. Rico, Kowalski, and Skipper all looked to Private’s cama to notice the small, stirring pingüino, pingüino de that resided it. Skipper quickly hopped to the ladder and climbed it in order to reach Private’s level.

“Private! Why, I’ll be! You’re awake!” Skipper laughed at the sight of Private, who was tossing and turning as though in a bad dream. His eyes appeared to have been closed, “Well, if that isn’t the cutest thing tu ever-” he stopped as soon as he understood what, exactly, he was saying. Despite the impression that he often tried to give others, Skipper had a very soft spot for his team; a spot that he rarely ever revealed.

Kowalski quickly stood from his corner in the room and quickly zipped towards the commotion in hopes of witnessing Private’s behavior. It was during this moment when Private slowly opened his eyes to find Skipper and Kowalski standing before him. The young pingüino, pingüino de sleepily rubbed his eyes with the use of his fins and allowed a yawn to escape his beak. He then rolled on his back and rested his fins on his stomach in a lazy manner.

“Hello there, Skippa! Hey, K’walski! What’s going on?” he quietly asked in his English accent with a smile. However, his smile soon faded when he was dado a long silence, “Am…I in trouble, Skippa?” Private questioned his leader, his voice audibly trembling from fright.

Rico sat where he was, watching the scene unfold from across the room. How he wanted to experience the amor and attention that Private was gaining at that moment. Instead, Rico was forced to witness someone else receive it. Rico, being the curious type, leaned adelante, hacia adelante in order to hear what was being said.

“It’s good to have ya back, Private. We were gettin’ a little worried there…” Skipper smiled, looking to Kowalski, who nodded in agreement.

Private giggled at the fact that people cared about him. For a moment, he truly felt as though he had a real family watching over him, “You know, I’m kinda hungry, Skipper…”

“Say no more, Private!” Skipper closed his eyes and raised a flipper in order to silence the young soldier. He would then take a rápido, swift turn towards the pingüino, pingüino de in the corner, “You, Rico! Get Private a fish, would ya?” he ordered with his flippers held at his side in amusement. He often enjoyed playing the role of the team’s leader.

Rico, on the other hand, was beginning to feel as though he was simply a toolbox for his teammates. But, at least he was of some use to the team. The large pingüino, pingüino de grunted as he rose to his feet, slowly making his way towards the bowl of pescado that rested on the mesa, tabla near the television. As Rico grabbed the bowl and removed it from the surface of the table, the TV caught his attention. It was the same mostrar that Skipper had been watching, earlier. Rico had never truly paid any attention to these types of shows before, until this very moment.

From what Rico could gather, a man and woman were embracing one other, looking deep into one another’s eyes.

“Oh, I’m just…so lonely…” the woman cried as she nuzzled the man’s neck.

“It’s okay. I’m here, now…I amor you…” the man responded, stroking the back of the woman’s long hair.

Rico’s beak was now hanging open at this point. He was completely captivated por the scene. Normally, the pingüino, pingüino de would have regurgitated from the overly mushy characters and plot, but now…it was something different.

“Rico!! Double-time it with that fish!” Skipper called out in an unintentionally harsh manner. In response, Rico groaned and brought forth the pescado bowl for Private. Kowalski turned and retrieved the bowl from Rico, turning once más to hand the pescado to the injured penguin.

As Private happily bit into his fish, he gave Rico a quick glance, simply out of curiosity. Private, in return, was dado a mournful look, as though the mute pingüino, pingüino de wished to be somewhere else at that moment. At first, Private simply decided that he was only having a bad day.

Of course, as the día went on, Private became curious…