Okay. This fic includes a fight, physical violence, cheating, and the F-word among other swear words. You have been warned. If Penny seems a little bit OOC, please remember this is pre-season one Penny.
DISCLAIMER: I own Cassie…that's pretty much it.
The blonde woman stuck her hip out to balance the bag of groceries as she punched in the password for the building. It was simple enough – just press every button from top to bottom – and once the doors glided open for her she readjusted her hold on the grocery bag and waltzed into the apartment building. She stepped into the elevator and rode it up to her floor, humming. "Hey, Doug," she said to the wonderfully tan twenty-five year old as she passed him in the hallway. He lived the floor above her, and if she didn't have a wonderful boyfriend, well, she'd be all up on that. For a week or so, after they moved in, Kurt had been extremely jealous of him – while he was taller and better muscled any time he saw Penny smile at another guy he made it very clear to them that she was his. And that made Penny feel good – she liked being independent but loved knowing that there was someone out there who she could rely on, who she could trust.
Reaching her home, Penny put the key in the lock and opened the door. "Hey baby, I'm home!" She was early today-he wouldn't have left for the gym yet. She tossed her purse onto the table and looked around the apartment. "Kurt?" She put her hands on her hips, realizing that something in the bag had leaked through and stained the bottom of her shirt. "Shit."
Picking her purse back up, she headed toward their bedroom, confused as she heard shuffling, as if someone was hurriedly trying to accomplish something. Pushing open the door, she saw Kurt lying in the bed, naked from at least the waist up, the sheets covering him. He was holding a Sports Illustrated, and he smiled at her when her eyes met his. "Hey, love. You're home early."
"Cheryl came in to train, and so they let me come home. I stopped at the market, got us the beer for the World's Strongest Man coverage."
"Hey, do you want to do me a favor?" He asked casually, resting his hands on his lap. "Go down to the lobby and get our mail? I was helping the grandma next door with her painting…" he flexed his arm muscles "and didn't have the time. Then I thought I'd take a nap before you came home so I could have some…energy…for you before I went to work out."
Penny giggled. "Okay! Just let me…" she moved toward the closet "get into another shirt first."
"Oh, why?" Kurt said, putting on a puppy – dog look. "You're not going to be wearing it much longer."
"I'm not going down to the lobby with a hot sauce stain on my uniform," Penny said. "Let me put something on that you can enjoy ripping off a little more than this thing." Giving Kurt a mischevious smile, she opened the closet door…and dropped her purse on the floor at her feet.
Inside the closet crouched a woman, her legs up to her naked chest and her arms curled around them. Penny's eyes flashed, and she looked back toward Kurt, who had gotten out of the bed and slipped on the boxers that she now realized weren't on a moment earlier. "Babe…"
She was at a loss for words. She looked from Kurt to the woman to Kurt again, and then back once more. "What…" Her neck muscles were tight; she felt tears spring to her eyes but she didn't know yet if they were of anger, hurt, or a little bit of both.
After a few moments she found her voice again. "You!" She said, reaching for her purse and swinging it back behind her and at the naked woman's head. It struck her on the side of the face, and she cried out, holding her hands up to shield herself from the object.
Penny hit her several more times before spinning toward her boyfriend. "How could you?"
"How could you?" The woman echoed, and Penny was about to turn and spit at the whore until she realized that the third party's question was directed at Kurt. "You said you broke up with her!"
"When?" Penny challenged, not knowing what to think, who to yell at, who to beat first.
"A year ago," the woman said, standing up and pulling the blanket that was folded at the bottom of the closet around her body. "When we started…"
"A year?" Penny shrieked, rushing at Kurt and swinging the purse at his face while her knee came up to ram him in the part of his body who'd been doing the most cheating.
Kurt's hands came up to close around her wrists; he spun around and let her go, careening into the wall. A photo of them slid down the wall and hit Penny's head, she grabbed it and spiked it at him. He jumped out of the way and it hit the floor with a crash.
"And when I caught you with my sister, you promised you'd change. You said I was the only one!" The woman shouted.
"Cassie…" Kurt said, looking between him and Penny. "Don't make this difficult."
"No! You know what?" She shook her head. "I'm getting my clothes, and I'm getting my ass out of here. You have a girlfriend!"
"Not anymore, he doesn't!" Penny said, getting up and clutching her purse. "Get out! Go!" She waved her arms and rushed at Cassie, who bolted out the door. "My clothes…"
"I don't give a fuck!" Penny screeched. "Get the hell out of here!"
When Cassie was gone, Penny slammed the door shut and locked it, turning around to shoot daggers with her eyes at the man she loved. The man who she thought needed her, who loved her and cared for her and told her all of those wonderful things. "What…the…hell?"
"Penny, look," he said gently, coming toward her.
"I saw plenty already."
"It was just that one time…"
"What the hell kind of lie is that? Penny said, her eyes blurring in anger and pain. "I heard her. This has been going on for…I have to go."
"Penny, don't…I never meant for you to find out…"
"Shut the hell up!" She shouted, grabbing her laptop and storming out the door. Once she let it slam, Penny broke into a run, not stopping until she reached the bench about two blocks from the apartment. Collapsing on it, she burst into tears, letting her shoulders heave with sobs.
"How could you do that?" she asked Kurt, even though he wasn't there. "I love you…" Why couldn't that be enough? They loved each other…or did he even love her now? Did he stop loving her when he starting banging that Cassie chick an entire year ago? Or was he with her because she never said no when he wanted to have sex? Thinking back, she couldn't remember ever objecting. She was just so flattered that someone like him would want someone like her.
By the time her crying stopped, it was much later in the day, around the time that she would be arriving home had she worked her full day. By this time, Cassie would have been gone. God, how many times…Penny pulled out her phone and dialed. "Cheryl? Can you send me a link to the apartments for rent in the area? Thanks. No, I'll tell you later. Yeah. Bye." When the link arrived minutes later, Penny began a search for an apartment.
It was ten frustrating minutes later when she came upon a place halfway across town. It was six floors, two apartments on each floor, and the rent was cheap because the elevator was broken. Penny pulled out her phone and called the number, assuring the manager that she could afford the rent, and no, she didn't have to see the place in advance, she just needed some space and she felt that this place was the answer. After sharing her information with him, Penny hung up, snapped the laptop closed, and headed back home.
"I'm leaving."
"What?" Kurt looked up from the television to Penny standing in the door. "No, baby, I'm sorry, look."
"Shut your lying cheating hole, Kurt," she snapped. "And if you come any closer, I swear to God…"
"Where will you go?" He asked her. "You need me." His voice grew quiet. "And I need you."
"I'm so, so fucking done with your shit," she said. "And I'm moving out in two days. I'll sleep on the couch until then, and if you even try to touch me I will go all Nebraska on your ass. With this." Penny grabbed her baseball bat from where it sat next to the door. "This will not leave my side."
"Penny, you're overreacting."
"Kurt, I'm going to leave right now, and I'm going to let you keep your man parts. If you try to apologize again, I will hog-tie and castrate you. And leave here with you still hog-tied. Are we understanding each other?"
Kurt sighed. "Penny..."
She stuck her chin in the air, eyes flashing. He backed down.
"Thank you," Penny said to the moving men as they carried her boxes out the door. She moved back to the living room and unplugged her television.
"Where do you think you're going with that?" Kurt asked, standing in the doorway to his bedroom. He tipped his beer bottle back and finished it.
"It's mine. I bought it."
Kurt gave a little laugh. "Yeah. But you're not taking it."
"Will you pay back the fourteen hundred dollars you owe me?" she challenged, putting her hands on her hips and tapping the toe of her Uggs.
"When you get it, you'll get it." Kurt said. "But you're not taking the television."
"What are you going to do about it?" Penny asked.
"Well," Kurt said. "I'm bigger and stronger than you are…"
Penny's hand went to the baseball bat. "And this think is actually harder than your head, so if you even try to touch me…"
He shrugged. "There won't be anything to worry about if you leave the television. And that's not what I meant. You're a woman. You wouldn't stand a chance if you sued me."
You're a woman. If only Penny had a man, or men, to help her. But she had no one. She didn't know that she'd trust a man again – everyone she'd ever known was a jerk. Penny moved toward him, snatched the beer bottle out of his hand, and chucked it at the floor, jumping back before it shattered around Kurt's feet. Abandoning the television, she bolted out the door. He wouldn't hit her, but she didn't want to see his face anymore – or ever again.
When Penny entered the apartment building, she wondered if anyone else lived there. It was dimly lit; the lights to the rooms marked TELEPHONE and LAUNDRY were off, and her key was in her unlocked mailbox, right where the manager had promised. As she climbed the stairs, she didn't meet anyone. The movers were talking among themselves, so that may have been why she didn't hear anyone in the rooms talking, but it could just as easily be because no one else was there, not even behind the blue-grey doors that signaled entry ways into the apartments.
She reached the fourth floor and unlocked the room on the right – 4B. The door swung open and she smiled. A nice, small apartment: living area, kitchen, and the bedroom seemed to be off to the right. She let the movers in and helped put her boxes in the center (her couch and the bed she ordered was being shipped later in the day, more furniture would follow in the week to come) and went to the bedroom. It was big enough for her.
She stood in the doorway between the bedroom and living area, wondering what to do first. She wiped sweat from her brow, and figured that a shower would be the best bet. She stepped into the bathroom and turned the handle on the showerhead.
Nothing.
Penny frowned, trying the other way. It made a high pitched creaking sound. Still nothing.
Penny was confused.
She pulled her phone out and called Cheryl, who suggested that she check if the water was on. "You're so smart!" She said when she turned the faucet at the sink and water came shooting out. Her giddiness at figuring it out was short lived; her shower was broken.
"Ugh." She went back into the living area, deciding to unpack. But she had to find the radio first-music would distract her.
She left the door to the apartment open to let air move about – the air in her new place seemed stale, even though the manager had said that the previous tenant had only been gone a day when Penny'd called. Though she remembered in school hearing something about movement of the masses in the air would make the air actually move itself…or something like that. So if no one else lived here, there'd be no one to move the air. Still, leaving the door open – and knowing that Kurt didn't know where she was, made her feel, well, free.
She put a few of her larger items away and began going through the boxes. She'd packed in a hurry, and then unpacked and re-packed when she'd realize that there were two days left before she could actually leave and needed something to do when she couldn't sleep. She'd been afraid to get a hotel for fear he'd change the locks and she'd be unable to get anything out of there.
She'd just glanced at the radio – and it told her that two hours had passed since her arrival, when she heard a noise above her, like someone had dropped something. It was so reminiscent of the fighting that she'd been involved in this the past week that it made Penny jump…remember Kurt and what he'd done…and then she'd have to stop for a few moments to wipe her eyes. As angry as she was at him, four years of intensifying feelings couldn't go away in a few days.
It was nearly another hour gone when she felt like she was being watched. Hesitantly, she looked up, and outside her apartment. Two men stood there, dressed in cartoonish clothing. One was short with glasses; one was tall and unusually pale and skinny.
They weren't the type of people that she usually spent any time with. But that – they looked nothing like Kurt – and the relief that someone else lived in this dimly lit building caused a natural smile to come over Penny's face. "Oh. Hi!"
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