Part 4 - The aftermath

Fifteen dead, it said on the news. Penny swallowed, pulling her car into the drive. Fifteen dead was the largest single death toll attributed to Doctor Horrible, the newscaster announced stridently. The municipal building had exploded, killing all the occupants, at midnight the previous night.

All dead. Penny closed her eyes. All dead. How could a person do that? How could she work for a person who could do that? But hadn't she known he was a ruthless killer when she met him? Wasn't she being entirely hypocritical?

She sighed, getting out of the car. Being a Sunday, the grounds were deserted. She shook her head to clear it, fetching her overall and bag from the back of the car before striding up to the house, more confidently than she felt. Did she really think she knew Doctor Horrible? Did she think they'd become friends, she and the Doc? Hypocritical or not, she didn't think she could do this any more. She'd hand in her notice that very day. She could stand up to his stare now.

On entering the house, she could hear classical music playing. A piano something - concerto? She wasn't really very knowledgeable about that sort of thing, but the music was sweet and sad. She wondering if Moist had the radio on in the kitchen again? She smiled. She hadn't thought Moist was a piano concerto kind of guy! She'd miss Moist…

Making her way down to the kitchen, she slipped on her overall. Moist wasn't there. That was weird - he was always in earlier than she was. Sometimes she swore he must have stayed the night.

So where was the music coming from?

She walked back through to the library, noticing the door to the lab had been left ajar. She closed it carefully. Better for him to stay down there that morning. She was in no mood to talk to him yet. Perhaps later after she'd spent an hour working off her disappointment and anger cleaning the floor..?

As she walked past the parlour, she realised that the music had got louder. She frowned, slowing to a stop outside the adjacent room. The music sounded echo-y and strange, like an old vinyl record recording or something, played on a trumpet gramophone, but without the scratches. She poked her head round the door, wondering what it was.

It wasn't a record.

What it was, was a piano. A real, old-fashioned upright piano. And Doctor Horrible was playing it, fingers skating nimbly across the keys, making the beautiful, heart-wrenching music. She couldn't see his face, his back was turned to her, but she could see he wasn't wearing his costume. Sunlight streamed through the window, illuminating the red lab-coat, goggles and gloves that had been cast to the floor when he'd taken them off the night before, still laying where he'd thrown them.

Her jaw dropped. She had no idea he could play the piano! But she guessed it was relatively stereotypical as far as villains were concerned. Penny sighed. She hated him then. How could he sit there, blithely playing such a beautiful piece of music while fifteen people lay dead at his hands? She took a step back and the door creaked.

He stopped playing instantly, but didn't look around. His shoulders slumped.

"S-sorry!" She said. "I'm sorry!" She was about to leave but he swivelled around on the stool and at last she could see him.

"Penny…" He said simply, the word barely a whisper. He looked… a fright. His eyes were red and puffy, his face pale as a ghost. "Don't go?" He said, breathing out the words as if they were twin wraiths, sent out to keep her there for just a few seconds.

"Fifteen dead," She said, not knowing why she said it.

His brow furrowed, his eyes shining with unshed tears. "I know." He said simply. At least he didn't try to deny it.

"Fifteen dead, Doc," She repeated, and this time he cringed.

"D- Don't call me that…" He stuttered. "Billy… Billy is… my name."

"You work for an evil organisation, Billy," She said, although it was hard to carry on with this. She could see the pain, etched plainly on his face. She could see something, something raw and vulnerable in him, that she'd never seen before.

"I know that." He said simply. "It could be a lot worse."

She shrugged, not understanding him.

"It was fifteen. It should have been thousands last night, Pen. Thousands."

She shook her head, trying to deny this. Was it a lie? Was he playing with her again? But every instinct told her that he was telling the truth.

"I still believe in chaos," He said, eyes unfocussed as if he were reading a speech from deep inside his mind, written years before. "I still believe in putting the power in different hands. But murder? Mass slaughter? There's people in the ELE who relish that. Who glory in it. I'm all that stands between them and the world."

Penny slumped against the back of the door. "You still killed fifteen people." She said, although she was wavering. Given such a choice, could she do that? Sacrifice a few to save thousands? She knew without a doubt she couldn't do that. Only frikkin' Presidents had to make choices like that! And how could he live with himself. Billy…? Why tell her that? Why burden her with his real name? If it even was his real name..? She felt her anger build again.

"I killed fifteen people." He said, nodding. "At one time I would have given you a litany of excuses. It was a mistake. They weren't meant to be there. They were all evil anyway." He swallowed. "There is no excuse. It was always my fault."

She frowned. This sounded pretty close to self-pity to her.

He grimaced, obviously recognising the look on her face. "I killed the love of my life. A girl. Another girl named Penny. The first Penny. I killed her, not because I did something but because I didn't do something. B-because I didn't kill someone. It's when you fail to act that the world goes to hell. It's when you hesitate…"

"That's ridiculous…" She said, although she knew she couldn't possibly understand any of this. She suddenly felt very small in the world, very inexperienced. All her anger at him evaporated, to be replaced by shame. She sighed. "You can't throw out your moral compass completely. Every time you compromise like that, every time you say that one murder is okay, that's when a bit of evil eats your soul."

Billy looked straight at her. "I know," He said. "I guess that means I'm in hell already."

She strode over to him. "Gah! I just want to shake you! If this is the way you feel, Doc, then leave! Quit! Get out of the Evil League of Evil. There's other things you could do. It's not all your responsibility."

Billy shook his head and looked away. For a moment, Penny thought she caught a look of doubt about him. But he shook it off. "They'd never let me leave. I know too much about them. And if I did leave then who else would stop them? The heroes? Captain Hammer?" He spat out the last two words. "I have to stay. I have to endure this. I have to accept this."

Penny smiled then and gently took his hand. "You may feel you have to stay. But you don't have to do it alone. Moist will help you. I will help you."

There was a spark of hope in his eyes as she leaned in closer, silently and earnestly trying to give his strength. There was a tingle in the air between them then-

Bump! The door knocked against her back as Moist ran into the room.

"Doc!" He said. "Oh, hey Pen." Most looked back and forward between the two of them for a moment, then continued. "Doc, urgent message from Professor Normal. Thought you'd want it as soon as it arrived."

The moment broken, Billy stood up, smoothed down his rumpled t-shirt and ran his fingers through his hair. "Thanks Moist. Where is it?"

Moist grinned. "It's in the hallway." On seeing Penny's expression, he laughed. "What, you think I'd risk getting it all sticky?"

The corner of Billy's lips turned up with a ghost of a smile. "Come on then," he said, patting them both on the back. "Let's see what the ELE want us to do now?"

"Us?" Moist asked, raising an eyebrow.

Billy grinned. "Yeah. Let's give that a try."

To be continued...