Story [Penguin of Madagascar] Crash and Burn ("This Wasn't Supposed To Happen" Whumptober prompt)

Title: Crash and Burn

Author: pronker

Rated: T

Era: Sometime after the run of the TV show.

Summary: Marlene and Skipper play games over the weekend.

A/N: Written for tumblr's Whumptober challenge, Day 1, prompt: "This wasn't supposed to happen."

IOIOIOIOIO

Stab. Stabbity stab stab. Marlene bent double and clutched her chest. "Uhhhhh --- stop --- "

Skipper halted mid-tickle and blurted, playful as was his nature, "Hey, no fair, Slap 'Em and Grab 'Em ends when the timer goes off and I advance from home to first base like the coin toss said --- what --- "

"I s-said stop it, this hurts! Ow!" Marlene turned her back to her love, sobs threatening to burst forth. When she straightened, agony sizzled along her six nipples, first the right row, then the left, then top tier of two to mid to bottom and back up again. Skipper edged into her range of vision to say something because his beak moved, but she couldn't tell what it was. She groaned as he touched her, supporting her shoulders like he would any of his team; she broke away as the sobs erupted, seeing his confused face through a haze. He helicoptered as much as he would if young Private showed distress, his panache shading into panic while he fluttered his flippers in an aureole around her.

This was supposed to be a fun game to perk up her spirits after her sick spell this Saturday morning. Skipper awoke immediately upon hearing her gag and held her head as she heaved until she was dry. His little murmurs and soft touches had comforted five hours ago, and now they did not. What in the world could cause such pain to her lady parts, the ones that Skipper loved to play with? Okay, so all six remained puffy even after her last heat ended, so what? So she drank her usual intake of water and not very much made its way out of her body, so what? So she hid her month-long fatigue from her teammates and especially from her leader, so what? So this was her fifth barfing session in as many weeks, so what? So she turned down second helpings lately, even for cotton candy, so what? What could this all mean, she wondered, as the strength drained from her.

"Marlene!" Now that she could hear him again, she caught a whiff of guilt in his voice. "I was too rough --- that must be it --- you're so damn pretty and I got carried away --- "

She tried to speak but sat down suddenly instead. Fog from an unusually chill October afternoon drifted into her habitat, skirling in silver waves around the curve of the entryway that had blocked last night's downpour. Fog licked both of them, but only Marlene whimpered as fine droplets settled on her to add a deep ache to the other pains in the vicinity. "Ow oww oh what is this, this, this --- "

"Mi vida, you're going to see Doc inmediatamente --- now what the braap?" He moved to touch her chest until she leaned away.

"Don't! I couldn't stand it!" She closed her eyes to gather her strength because surely, surely this would pass soon.

She heard his rapid-fire breathing turn to gasps of disbelief. "It's not possible --- I'm hallucinating --- where is Kowalski when you need him --- he'd know what this means --- it can't mean what I think it means because that would mean --- no no no --- "

Since when did she have to be the adult in the habitat? "Skipper, get a grip. I don't know what this is, but I'm not going to die from it. Come on now, honey."

"M-Marlene, babe, open your eyes and look." The pain steadied until she was almost used to it. From sensing stabs to burns to slices, her nipples remained the center of her existence. She could take whatever happened because she had her love sitting beside her, plus she had herself to rely on, the same otter whose move away from parents and California birthplace had made her stronger. She could do this.

Marlene opened her eyes and followed Skipper's gaze. "Aaaaaaaaah! Oh my gosh, what is it!"

Pearls of milk dropped from each nipple. Like volcanoes surrounded by atolls of fur, her nipples slowly pushed out white bubbles. She and Skipper stared for a timeless time until she babbled, "Yeah, it's milk I don't know how but that's why I'm making milk because I'll need it to feed --- er, you know."

Skipper's tones could not have sounded less commando-like. "It can't be. Kowalski!" His yell cut through the fog in Marlene's mind as well as the visible fog in her cave. "Kowalski! Code Red! Code Red! Routine Sixty-Nine!"

"He can't hear you, well I don't think he can from here, anyway." Sure, she'd thought this might happen, sure, but not now, not with him, a penguin. She pinched herself. "Ouch."

He returned to staring. He licked his beak.

"Don't even think about it, Skipper."

"I wouldn't because it'll need all you have to give oh braap Marlene what have we done?"

I must become a gyroscope, Marlene thought groggily, spinning but staying upright, always balanced perfectly. Until she knew the answer to end this pain, she needed to keep on an even keel. But there, once the milk dribbled more, wasn't the pain less? Wasn't this what her mother had said: "You forget about the pain because you're doing an important thing, lambie."

More important than entertaining zoo guests, more important than being a part-time commando, more important than --- well, she didn't know what. She moved experimentally, twisting her shoulders, and breathed deeply before standing. She stood without swaying. "Ha!"

"Ha," echoed Skipper. "Ha. Oh braap braap braap Marlene." A teensy bit of leadership stiffened his spine as he stood, too. "What did we make?"

Maybe it was the fog lifting, maybe it was hormones, maybe it was a brand new mood expressing itself, but she found the right word as she bumped shoulders with him ever so gently. "A pengotter."

"P-P-Private will be over the moon, Rico will shrug, and Kowalski will study you like you've never been studied, Marlene. The Big Boss will, will, will, erm, actually I don't know her that well. I hope you can handle everything. I'm with you all the way." He looped a flipper around her shoulders with exaggerated care. "How goes it now?"

She took a moment to answer, surveying Numbers One-Two-Three-Four before she bent slightly to check out Numbers Five and Six. "They ache like in my usual heat --- now get that look off your face, I know it squicks you to talk about it --- but you know, you know, it's not too bad."

He sat down suddenly, like a deflating air dancer advertising peanut butter winkies. She must be mother to him, too. She felt up to the job; it ought not to be that difficult because now the commander sounded more in his element. "Marlene, let's think harder. This can't really happen. I never wanted it to because I was so careful with everyone else but I sure as hell didn't need to be with you. What we're assuming just can't be true."

She'd drifted in speculation, a little bit warmed by dreams abandoned some time back, so his words pricked a rising bubble. Uh oh, problem ahead. "It --- It might not be so awful," she ventured. "Come on, it's past closing time so let's talk it over while we swim."

"Can you?"

Marlene bent forward and backwards, wincing. This bred a pause, a moment to see if anything else unusual began. The ache got no worse. "Sure!" She led the way to her pond, ready for a sedate dip, maybe not quite ready to tackle the sloshing water slide for acrobatics. Huh, still foggy at late afternoon, weird but the water called to her. Water provided comfort, and stability and --- "Aaaaaaaaah! Ow ow ow owwie ouch glub!"

A wrong step, a non-part-time-commando step, a rookie step to simply dive in as usual. Skipper overbalanced with pinwheeling flippers on the lip of her pool and splashed in beside her, the wave drenching her head. Before she knew it, he'd plunged beneath her to hoist her back on semi-dry cement. "Aaaaagh! Hurts!" Like a champ, her love soothed the sitch with coos and mumbles.

"Sorry my bad all my fault --- "

"Stabs like n-nothing I've ever felt oh this is terrible I won't be able to entertain the guests --- hold me."

"Always."

After awhile, she caught him peeking at her chest. "Anything?"

"Drying fur like usual, no milk, do you want to go back indoors?"

"Uh huh."

The bed called, too, as the two of them stretched out side by side. Marlene clenched Skipper's flipper. "So, um, about this what I've got going on, um, how do you feel about it?"

The ceiling fascinated him, oddly. "There's no operation or routine for how I feel. I keep coming up with scenarios of us as parents and can't see it. On the bright side, you'll be the best mother ever and I'll try my best to be padre." He squeezed her paw until she winced. "On the dark side, Alice and Doc will take it to study and we'll never see --- "

"You won't let that happen, I won't let that happen, so hush. Not gonna happen. You know, we'll bug out of here before our family splits up." He'd tensed at her last words. "What?"

What on her ceiling held his interest? "Our family sounds misterioso." He paddled his feet, the classic sign of nervousness in penguins.

Warmth spread like the feeling she remembered cuddling with Mom and Dad in San Francisco. "You know what? It is. I love a mystery."

Now he turned to look at her, diddling the top of her head. "I'm used to strange things like space squids --- well you were, too, for that one invasion --- but I always thought you were a happy homebody."

"I'm one for sure, but you know what, for a baby I'd leave whenever it was right. Protectprotectprotect, isn't that your motto?"

He groaned. "So serious and our game began a fun afternoon after your little gut-rot this morning." He pulled her close. "Maybe leading into a canoodle or three --- "

"Later."

"Yeah, I thought you'd say that." Was that a sigh? "So, you okay now?"

Kowalski would advise 'do a self-diagnostic, 'Eenie,' so she did. The mackerel lunch stayed put, the ache stayed bearable, no leaks, and she put paid to this day, this strange and borderline wonderful day. "Yeaahhhh, I'm all right, just tired. Let's sleep on all our questions."

"It's only six p.m."

"So nap with me, then."

He paddled his feet harder. "I insist you see Doc. I'll make it an order if I have to."

"Not necessary, since I want to figure out what, and when, and how the zoo will treat the little stranger, too."

Another groan. "That's another thing, names."

"Later. 'Nuh-Night." She blew him a kiss over her shoulder as they spooned.

IOIOIOIOIO

Marlene woke up first on a clear Sunday morning, all fog gone to wherever fog goes. She stretched joyous paws to greet the nine a.m. sunshine to be followed by a ten a.m. opening to hordes of divorcés hustling their weekending kidlets through the exhibits, strolling lovers with eyes ninety per cent on each other, and serious nature observers. Marlene mused how the world would classify a pengotter as she missed Alice's approaching clunky boots.

"Gotcha!"

"Don't fight it, Marlene, let Alice net you hopping halibut what am I saying?" Skipper's voice echoed from inside her habitat, out of sight.

"I'm okay! You'll receive all the intel when I get back, Papa!" Marlene meeped. Mustn't struggle, mustn't put someone so helpless, so dear, so darling in danger. Maybe it wasn't commando thinking, but it was right. She swung dizzily as Alice slung the net pole over her shoulder and trotted off to Doc's. Uh oh, it would serve Alice right if fishy otter sick cascaded down her uniform back. Marlene tried to work up to it and failed after two belches.

As Doc palpated her body with gentle, knowing hands, she relaxed like a plateful of pad thai, allowing probes, pats and a puncture for blood work. She had stars in her eyes from simply thinking over the possibilities in the next few months.

After three hours, Doc hmmm'd over the lab results. He frowned, mumbled phrases that Marlene couldn't make out, and when Doc phoned Alice with the results, the otter listened with all her full heart.

"Alice, you did well to bring her in. Her weight is the same" --- even though I'm not hungry lately? --- "she appears in a bred condition" --- well, duh ---- "but mammals often display false pregnancies, and such is the case with our otter. Yes, symptoms mimic the signs" --- false --- "colostrum production" --- it's false --- "water retention" --- oh. Oh.

The world roared, then the world tightened down to a single, throbbing ache. The ache spread everywhere, from pounding head to burning eyes to sore chest. Marlene's whiskers drooped as much as her tail and when Alice released her back into her habitat with a, "Fooled me, you tricky dicky," she dove into her pond to stay down for all six minutes before surfacing.

Skipper must have played fast and loose with zoo rules because he ignored onlookers as he swam beside her. Ooohs and aaaahs and uh-ohs from the guests registered dimly in Marlene's ears as she gripped Skipper's shoulders. "False alarm. Aren't you glad?"

Then tears sluiced down her cheeks as Skipper shook his head, supporting her in turn. "I was starting to like the idea. It's impossible, I realize that, but I did lean towards like --- "

"Oh oh o- " she began before diving alongside him, tugging his foot to make him follow. No words surfaced for others to hear even if humans could not understand them.

IOIOIOIOIO

The End.

IOIOIOIOIO

 

Awww! They were getting all ready to be parents, and then to find out it's a false pregnancy...ouch.

This was so cute! They're playful and flirty and caring - they make such a good pair!

I just love this line and the alliteration!

Poor Marlene! I felt so bad for her. At least she and Skipper have each other and will get through it together. Great job on this!

 

Love this with the funny things between Marlene and Skipper not becoming parents at all.

 

Thanks for reading!

This makes my day - they are all these things, plus strong enough to endure a situation they each never imagined was possible, yet they face it with grace and aplomb. Their days will darken for some time, though, as they work through the leftover feelings.

No, in this iteration of their story, parenting is not in the future. I like to mess with the characters, though, and in other stories on this site, they do "the impossible" and produce offspring ...

 

Very heart tugging with the teasing and anticipation only to find out it's a false pregnancy. Their affection for one another is adorable.

 

Thanks for reading - yup, the characters are heavily involved with each other, play to entertain zoo guests, all the while conducting serious missions - and in Skipper's case, saving the world once or twice.