She waited until Sheldon went back into the bedroom before rising. Raj just smirked at her. She rolled her eyes and checked her weapons.
"You're next sweep isn't for an hour," he said calmly.
Penny nodded. "The twins will arrive soon. I need to meet up with them. Can you handle this until I get back?"
Raj nodded, getting up to fill a thermos with coffee. "How long until you get back?"
"3 hours tops. You know the drill if I'm not back in 5."
He glanced to the bedrooms and shook his head. "Won't be easy. He'll balk at moving without you."
Penny's eyes were like green ice. "Rajesh."
He held up his hands in surrender. "I didn't say I wouldn't. I just said it wouldn't be easy." He handed her the thermos and her jacket. "If you don't get back in 4, I'll call in Barton. He's only 90 minutes away."
Penny nodded. She ignored the urge to look in on him, and make sure he was sleeping. She slipped on the coat and headed out the door.
When he woke up, he could hear his mom shouting. Sheldon scrambled from the bed and rushed out into the main room. Penny was standing in the center of the room watching his mom shout and wave her arms around in a furious rage.
"..don't care what you say! I have faith and that's all I need. I'm going no matter what you say!"
George sidled up beside him. "Momma wants to go to church since it's Sunday. Your Penny said no."
Penny rolled her eyes and Mary's temper snapped. She tried to storm past Penny, but Penny's hand shot out and gripped her forearm. Sheldon looked over at Raj who was calmly eating some eggs and watching the scene unfold.
"Enough," Penny said in a steady voice. "You are not going anywhere, Mrs. Cooper. Now, listen carefully. You can either sit down like a lady, or I can take you into the bedroom and handcuff you to the head board. You're choice."
"You wouldn't dare!" Missy screeched in outrage.
Sheldon shivered as Penny's eyes went dead. He watched as she turned off her emotions. He had never feared Penny before, but at that moment, he came close.
"Let me explain something that none of you seem to have grasped. I am not your friend. I am not your enemy. What I am is the only thing standing between Sheldon and a bullet. I do not care one whit about any of you. The only reason you are here is because he loves you. If I have to put a knife through your heart myself to keep him safe, I will. And I'll sleep just fine."
She looked around the room at all of them before turning back to Mary. "You are not leaving this cabin. I don't give a fuck about your god or your beliefs. I have a job to do, and I am going to do it. You want to pray? Fine, pray. You want to read your bible, go ahead. You want a sermon? Do it yourself. But get in the way of my job, and I will hurt you. I have been shot, stabbed, and bludgeoned to protect people I was assigned to. I didn't care about a one of them. They were a job. I care about Sheldon." Penny's eyes narrowed and her voice was deadly. "I'll see every other goddamn person in this room dead before I let you put Sheldon in harm's way. Do you understand me?"
With wide eyes Mary shrunk back from Penny. "How do you live with yourself?"
Penny didn't even blink as she answered. "Regret is for the innocent. Remorse is for the weak. I am neither." Penny released Mary's arm and walked over to the sink. She grabbed a thermos of coffee and went out the door.
Meemaw sighed and crossed over to Mary who cried angrily. "Mary, darling, you need to calm down."
"Mother, didn't you hear her? The blasphemy, the threats? She is a killer. She said so herself," Mary sobbed.
Meemaw nodded. "You are correct, sugar. But you brought this on yourself. You wanted to have this fight." Mary gasped and Meemaw patted her arm comfortingly. "You know it's true. You're mad, and scared and you egged Penny on. You wanted to hurt her for your fear."
Mary crumbled onto the couch and let her mother rock her. She knew it was true. She had lashed out and tried to hurt Penny.
Raj stood up from the table and put his plate in the sink. "I have to say, it's kind of nice. She must really like all of you."
They all looked at him in astonishment. Raj shrugged. "My first job, we had a woman to guard. She wanted to see her son's wedding. Pen said no. Too dangerous. When the woman pitched a fit, and tried to leave, Pen shot her in the leg. All she did was threaten you."
Raj looked at the door Penny had disappeared out of. "The last time I looked, her kill count was over 70. That's how many people she has put a bullet into personally. Or knife, bomb, whatever. The people she's saved? Thousands. Men, women, children. She and I got caught in Columbia once. We had spent 5 days trekking through enemy territory to rescue a 9 yr old little girl of one of our fellow soldiers. Our escape car was damaged by gunfire. She stole a motorcycle and sent me and the girl ahead. By the time we got back in and found her, they had tortured her, raped her, and left her in a fucking hole to die. Half starved, dehydrated, delirious. Her first question was if we got little Taylor out."
A knock on the door drew Raj's attention and his gun. He held up a hand to silence them and moved closer. "Is Pluto a planet, or a dog?" he called out.
"Pluto is a freak of nature." came a gruff reply. Raj grinned widely and threw open the door.
Two huge men stood there. Raj put away his gun and the shorter of the two walked in. The other looked around the room and nodded. "She gone?"
Raj shrugged. "Mom Cooper went haywire. She removed herself. You know where she's liable to be."
The man groaned and walked off. The one left turned to the family. He sighed sadly before turning to Raj. "After listening to the history, I didn't expect it from these people."
Raj nodded. "Yeah, but I think she did. She was prepared."
The new guy walked to the pantry and pulled out some small silver packs. Sheldon recognized them as MREs. Then he turned back to the group.
"You can hate her all you want." he said "Blame her, condemn her. She's strong enough to take it. But don't ever doubt her dedication to the job. You have no idea what she had to do to honor the promise she made Sheldon. She gave up her career."
Sheldon's eyes went wide. What?
"She was about to retire. No more field work. No more guns. No more deaths. She gave her future up. Because he wanted her here. She'll be their foot soldier until it kills her now. Pen is the best. But eventually everyone is just that split second too slow. Chooses left instead of right. She'll die violently. Or she'll go insane. She's right that remorse is for the weak. Someday this job will wear her down and everything she's done or will do is going to come back to haunt her."
"I think it'll be a suicide mission. I can't see her putting a bullet in her mouth," Raj mused aloud.
The new guy nodded and smiled. "Yeah, and you can bet she'll still manage to get the job done." Then he walked back out the door and loped off toward the woods.
"Rajesh," Mary said softly. He looked at her strangely. Mrs. Cooper had never called him by his name before. "Is that true? She's going to get herself killed because of us?"
Sheldon slumped against his brother's frame momentarily. No, she couldn't. Not Penny.
Raj sighed and nodded. "Yes and no. Not because of you. Because of her dedication. Her devotion to doing whatever is necessary to do what is right. She told me, not long after we met, that this job is only ever about one thing. No matter who the package is, no matter what the situation, it boils down to just that one thing. Save the innocent. That's what will get her killed. Innocence."
He checked the windows and settle in on the couch. "She'll be back as soon as she kicks one of the twin's asses. Maybe both. Their sweep through the woods took 23 minutes too long, and she won't let that slide. Not with a mad on. Don't worry, Mrs. Cooper. Penny will be just fine. She understands better than you know. Just don't apologize when she gets back. She'll respect you more for it." Then he turned on the tv and settled in to watch a rerun of Friends.
