The growling at the bedroom door brought Gadget to his senses. Penny slumped atop him, her arms loosely around his chest, her face beatific. He didn't have a chance to enjoy the magnificent sight of her; the doorknob rattled, and then a sharp bark resounded in the hallway. Dammit...Brain! Oh no. How could he ever explain himself to the dog? Brain had as much sense as any human, probably more than most people, and he was aggressively loyal toward Penny. Gadget looked from the door to the young woman in his arms, her blonde hair flowing over her naked back like a stream of honey.

"Just a minute, Brain!" Gadget said as loudly as he dared. Trying not to disturb Penny, he eased her aside and pulled the covers up to her neck. The doorknob continued to shake, and a fierce growling came from the other side. Worried that on top of everything else tonight, he'd have to fend off an angry dog, Gadget stumbled from the bed and found his bathrobe. He'd scarcely belted it before the knob-shaking turned to outright pounding on the door. "Brain, quiet! Just a minute!" Gadget called, and glanced back at the bed, hoping Penny wouldn't be startled awake. He was still unsteady from the lightning strike; his foot caught the edge of the rug, and he sprawled painfully on the floor inches from the door. "Oof!" Ow. Wincing, he looked under the door, and saw baleful canine eyes glaring back at him. "Hold your horses," Gadget muttered. "Go go Gadget Arm." By extending one arm to the doorknob and hanging onto it to lever himself up, he was able to regain his footing, if not his dignity. He braced himself for a possible confrontation and unlocked the door.

Brain came in, nose high, sniffing suspiciously. Gadget stood still, uncomfortable in nothing but his robe. Brain's sharp gaze flicked from the bed, where lovely blonde tresses were visible above the blankets, to Gadget's own wildly disarrayed hair. The dog's eyes widened, and he sniffed more, then shifted into a crouch, growling at Gadget.

"Down, boy," Gadget muttered. "Everything's fine." He wasn't certain of that himself.

Brain approached the bed cautiously, still throwing glares over his shoulder at Gadget every few steps. Gadget followed, going to the other side of the bed, looking down in worry. Brain whined, nudging at Penny's shoulder. She sighed, and moved her head on the pillow. Brain sniffed more, shot a look at Gadget which could've been murderous if he had laser eyes to go with his enhanced brain, and patted Penny's arm with one paw. Gadget knew his face was scarlet, but he knelt at the side of the bed, anxious to see her reaction as she came to.

Penny raised her head weakly. "Uncle...?" She squinted at him, then at the dog. "Brain?"

"Are you all right?" Gadget asked. He'd cringed inside at her use of his family title. This wasn't incest! We're not related at all! However, Brain's angry reaction brought him firmly down from the haze of bliss he'd lain in minutes ago. You still raised her, for God's sake. You were the closest thing to a parent she had since she was a tiny girl! How could you allow this!

"I'm...I'm okay," Penny said, her voice faint. Her own expression changed to one more pensive as she looked at Gadget. She rolled halfway over to touch the dog's furry head. "I'm okay, Brain. Relax."

He growled a question at her, and she shook her head. "No. Everything's fine. Go lay down." Brain persisted, whuffing as he looked from her to Gadget. "Not now, Brain, please? Not now. We'll...we'll talk in the morning. Please go back to bed."

Brain clearly wasn't sure all was well, but he reluctantly left the room. Gadget crossed to shut the door behind him, then hastened back to the bed and climbed in beside her, wanting to reassure himself she wasn't badly hurt, yet fearful of touching her. "Penny, I'm sorry. I don't...I shouldn't..."

He saw tears starting in her eyes. "You're sorry?" she whispered.

He struggled to force words up his throat. "This is all my fault..."

"Uncle Gadget, please don't say that," she begged. She drew her arms close to her body, hugging herself under the blankets. "Didn't you like...wasn't I good...enough...?"

"Oh, Penny!" Upset, he threw back the covers and gathered her into his embrace. "Of course you...oh, hell. What have I done?"

She cried silently, the tears trickling down his chest. Gadget held her, stroked her hair, tried to soothe her as he used to be able to, when she was a scared little girl. She sniffled, and her voice came out thickly. "I love you, Uncle."

"And I love you, Penny. More than anything." He kissed her forehead. She pulled back, her eyes searching his, and then hesitantly offered her lips. Overwhelmed, he kissed her, softly at first, then deeply, intensely, putting all his fear and grief and longing into it. She hugged him tight. When he sensed she needed to breathe, he released her lips. She snuggled against his chest, her arms wrapped around his back as though she were afraid he'd disappear.

"Please don't send me away, Uncle Gadget."

Pain stabbed through his chest. "I won't." He had to explain himself, though he knew he could never excuse what he'd just done. He could feel her blood drying on his synthetic skin. "Penny...I love you...but I shouldn't have taken advantage of you. You...your heart is so generous...I know that if you hadn't seen me that night, and felt sorry for me, you never—"

He gulped when her arms gave him a sharp shake. Her sapphire eyes were fierce. "Don't you dare intimate that this was a pity fuck!"

His jaw dropped open. She blushed, but went on, her voice growing stronger: "Uncle Gadget, I have loved you for years! I followed you on your missions because I couldn't bear the thought of anything happening to you, because I couldn't stand the idea that I might lose you...and now..." She heaved a breath that made him all too aware of her bare breasts against his chest, and finished, "Now that I've found the real man behind the trenchcoat, I am not going to let you back out of this just because you feel guilty! Look me in the eye and tell me you don't want this – you don't want me!"

Gadget shook his head, eyes wide, stunned. "Penny..."

"Do you love me as much as I love you?" she asked. Her voice broke. "Yes, or no?"

Heat pricked the corners of his eyes. "Yes," he whispered.

She shoved that adorable little nose up at him, her lips meeting his. He melted into her arms, tasting her, his heart soaring on the heat of her lithe body wrapping around his. He couldn't stop the tears, but he held her, kissed her, stroked her hair. He felt himself hardening again, but he didn't want to add to the damage he'd already inflicted within her tonight, so he did his best to focus on what his heart felt rather than the rest of his body.

He moved a leg, trying to diminish the effect she was having on him, and saw her wince. "We should clean up," he suggested gently. Penny nodded. He rose from the bed and helped her to her feet. Seeing her waver a bit, he put one arm around her shoulders and one under her knees and lifted her against his chest. She held onto his neck, and he carried her into the bathroom and placed her very gently in the tub, then ran the water until it was comfortably hot. "Is that all right?"

She nodded again, huddled at the back of the tub. "Close your eyes," he directed softly, and when she did, he turned on the shower. He loaded a scrubbie with the cucumber bath gel he used, and handed it to her, then knelt at the side of the tub and used the extended showerhead to rinse her from the shoulders down. Hesitantly at first, wincing again, she washed herself all over. Gadget's thoughts were grim. He resolved never to cause her pain again, if he could help it. "I'm sorry," he repeated.

Penny shook her head and smiled weakly at him. "I'm not."

He helped her up when she was done and wrapped her in the plushest towel he could find before stepping into the tub himself and washing off. Though he didn't have biological fluids of that sort anymore, the lubricant oil he'd expelled was messy enough. The sight of red streaks running down the drain sobered him more. Penny waited for him, the towel wrapped tight around her shoulders, and the instant he'd dried off, she took his hand and tugged him back to the bedroom. Wordlessly, he followed her lead, climbing under the covers with her and opening his arms so she could rest beside him, on the dry side of the mattress. He was somewhat startled when she chose to lay on top of him instead, the curves of her body fitting provokingly against him. She tucked one thigh over his, resting the other on the bed, and lay her head upon him. He breathed in the scent of her clean body, her honey-floral hair. It proved an effort to quell the stirring between his legs, but he held himself utterly still, reminding himself of the blood and pain she'd suffered tonight.

Penny sighed, snuggling against him. He stroked one hand through her hair, saying nothing. Though the cybernetic hands they'd given him weren't as sensitive as his flesh ones had been once upon a time, they still bore enough sensor pads for temperature and pressure to allow him to feel the softness of the silken strands as they slid between his fingers.

She whispered, "Will you still be my Uncle Gadget?"

Somehow, he couldn't conceive of her calling him anything else, despite the events of this night. He murmured, "I'll be anything you want me to."

Penny sighed again, and kissed the skin of his upper chest, and then kissed one of the metal plates farther down. "Will you be my...my lover, too?"

He closed his eyes, shaken by the responsibility she was offering him. "Only when you want me, Penny."

"I think I...I think maybe I have wanted this, for a while..." He felt her shift unhappily.

Gadget embraced her, a tremor running from his heart to the extremities of all his circuits. "I didn't let myself think about it either."

She was quiet a long while, but he could tell from her breathing pattern she hadn't fallen asleep. "Uncle?"

"Yes, Penny?"

"Can we sleep like this every night?"

He had to figure out where his voice had gone; his throat seemed empty. "I'd like that very much."

"Good," she said.

When she finally drifted off, warm and supple in his arms, he lay awake, listening to the eaves dripping. The storm had moved on. He knew when the sun rose tomorrow, everything would be glistening, sharp and new in the clarity of the cleared air. He thought about how she would appear with the sun shining through his window, lighting up her hair like fire, like pure gold. He held her close, amazed and oddly content, and waited to see what the new world would look like.