Hey guys! Two chapters in one week!

I was a little surprised at the reactions to the last chapter, but I guess I shouldn't have given it to you while Penny and the Doc were in such an intense place. Oops.

Congrats to Pen E Forthotz for being the first to guess all four David Bowie songs.

In case you couldn't tell with the change of subject in the last chapter, we're hitting a turning point in this story. Hopefully it will be more intense from now on...


Moist felt the phone slip from his hand, and it hit the ground before he'd even registered that he'd dropped it.

The League was looking for The Doc. This was bad. This was really, really bad. Moist had assumed that the Doc's busy schedule with the League was what kept him form calling, and just socializing in general, and while it was not unusual for the Doc to hole up in his lab for days at a time, it was now bordering four months since the las time he'd seen the Doc, and if the League hadn't seen him. Moist feared the worst.

'Doc's not completely insane. He'd call before he did anything too rash.' Moist tried to rationalize, but the gnawing feeling in his stomach would not go away. Something was not right. And Moist would be damned if he left his friend alone when he was in trouble.

Moist pulled on a pair of rubber gloves, (an ingenious trick his girlfriend had come up with,) and started his car. The rusted green honda tore down the streets of Echo Park, braving the flying debris of what had become a very windy day, and breaking at least four traffic laws before entering the parking structure of the Doc's building.

He jumped out of the car, sneakers squelching on the cement but thankfully not sliding out from under him, like they usually did. He raced up the stairs, leaving dark, sopping footprints in the carpet on every other step. Moist never was in line to be a stealth master.

Three flights later, he reached the Doc's apartment and opened the door, letting himself in.


Earlier...

"I can't believe you're doing this for me." Penny said, as she stepped out of the way of a speeding couch. She cracked a smile in the Doc's general direction, before flushing and looking away. She still wasn't used to this new friendship, and they were both on tenterhooks around each other.

It had only been a few days since the nightmare, but the combined efforts of the kindness the Doc had been exhibiting, and Penny's inability to sleep (due to both latent jitters from the nightmare, and guild that she was still taking the Doc's bed) had helped convince both of them that moving a second bed into the already too cramped bedroom was a good idea.

So Penny sat, and watched the Doc manhandle his bedroom furniture to make room for the other bed. She had tried to help, but the Doc would so sharply rebuke her, that she eventually just sat on her bed and watched.

"Really, I could have just slept on the couch." Penny continued, watching the Doc move his belongings around effortlessly with his freeze ray.

"Penny, you're not sleeping on the couch, and that's the end of it. Besides, it's not for you, I'm not having such a great time on the armchair." The Doc replied, smiling back at her.

"But I-"

"Penny, it's already here. I'm not pulling it back through the door again." Penny giggled at the comically pained look that graced the doctors face. Watching him try to get the bed frame and mattress into the apartment had been one of the most entertaining things Penny had ever seen. He insisted on measuring everything, then calculating to geometry, physics, and trajectory, for some reason. He did the math a total of four different times, while the bed stood in the hall, and eight more times, when the bed was stuck in his door way, before he got fed up, and broke out the freeze ray. Penny instinctively shyed away from the gun, knowing that it was the cause of something horrible (no pun intended), but she couldn't remember what it was.

The already cramped room was really tight now, with only a foot of space between the two beds, and only enough room for the few monitors Penny needed at the foot of her bed. Penny couldn't help laughing at the faces she imagined the Doc was making under his mask, before she settled down again, content to watch him work.

"Hey, Doc?" The pair in the bedroom froze, and the heavy end table clattered to the floor. "Doc?" Both Penny, and the voice The Doc had come to recognize as Moist, asked at the same time. The Doc looked over at Penny, who bore a striking resemblance to a deer in the headlights, terrified of what could be happening.

Thinking fast, the Doc grabbed a sweatshirt he hoped was clean off the floor and tossed it to Penny. It hit her on the shoulder, jarring her out of her frozen state.

"Put that on," He hissed. She did so, quickly pulling the strangely familiar smelling hoodie over her head. "Go out to the balcony. Stay away from the windows, and don't talk to anyone." The Doc commanded as he pulled the hood as far over Penny's head as it would go, and he pushed her towards the glass door.

"Moist!" Billy greeted cheerily, the goggles sitting atop his head like usual. He smirked as Moist gave him a nervous once-over. "What are you doing here?" He asked, a slight mixture of utter annoyance, tension, and a pinch of joy at seeing his friend coloring his tone.

"You know, just stopping by to see how you were. The outside world misses you, Doc. Hey, your place looks great!" Moist sugarcoated the truth. But the Doc could see through his nervous glancings around, and soon Moist's defenses melted under the Doc's questioning gaze.

"I got a call from Fury Lieka, okay?" He said, moving towards the wooden chair that had always sat in the Doc's living room, specifically for him, so he wouldn't soak the other furniture. "The League is asking about you. They want to know where you are, and why you haven't been to any meetings since they let you in."

"I've been to meetings." The Doc scoffed, trying to hide the panic that shot through him. Had he actually gone to any meetings? There was that one party. Suddenly it occurred to him how reclusive he'd actually been.

"Are they coming after me?" The Doc asked, fear underlining his question, as he sat on the couch, processing the very real threat that posed an end to all of them.

Penny sat on the balcony for what felt like hours. The three-by-four slab of concrete with a lawn chair was a sad excuse for a balcony, and Penny was miserable. The sun beat down on her, quickly heating the navy blue sweatshirt she was too scared to take off, and the wind would alternate between trying to rip the hood from her head, and blowing her own hair into her face and eyes. It had succeeded with the hood more then a few times, and Penny swore that she would never step outside without a hair tie, ever again.

That is, if she was ever allowed out, ever again. It was not lost on Penny that this was the first time she'd been out in the sun in months, and despite not being an outdoorsy girl in the first place, she was really enjoying the feel of the sun on her skin -er- what was actually available for it to hit. She spent a few more minutes contemplating the feel of the rays on her fingertips, and spitting out hair, until the door slid open. Penny stood up, the wind winning again, tearing the hood off her head and unleashing her fiery hair on the world, and turned to find the Doc stalking towards her with a desperate, fearful, air about him, and a dangerous look on his face.

Before Penny could react, he'd grabbed her and pulled her closer, until she could feel the buttons of his lab coat digging in through her sweater. Then, he was kissing her, and Penny couldn't think. She didn't care that his goggles were digging into her forehead, or that the rubber gloves he was wearing would be hopelessly difficult to get out of her hair. For a moment, she didn't even care that the man she was kissing was the same man that was holding her captive. All she knew was that her knees had turned to jelly, and that something had to be very wrong to make him do this.

They moved inside, and Penny wasn't sure how the door shut, but the click of it sliding home was enough to bring her back to her senses. She shoved the Doc away, roughly.

"Penny-" He tried to begin, sounding just as confused as she felt.

"No! No, you have no reason to- what were you even-" Penny didn't even know what she wanted to say.

"You don't understand-" The doc tried again, still sorting out everything in his head.

"No, you don't understand! You kidnap me, you lock me up with no access to the outside world, and finally, when I think maybe this isn't so bad. Maybe this could work, you pull that?" She cried, backing towards the front door. She could feel the knob hit her hip, and she was surprised it wasn't rigged to shock her or something.

"Penny, if you walk out that door, we'll both die." The Doc begged as she turned the knob, her eyes were steeled with resolve.

"Maybe I think you're lying." She said, pushing the door open and stepping into the hall. Doctor Horrible pulled his stun gun off the counter and ran after her. She hadn't made it very far, to the next apartment, maybe, when he caught up to her.

"We are going back inside, and weather you're awake or not is up to you. You can scream and cry in there all you want." He said, holding her in a position not unlike the one they had been in only a few seconds earlier. But this time, he was holding a gun, and Penny knew he wouldn't let her push him away. She continued to struggle, giving up never crossing her mind. Until she felt a sharp prick, and everything blurred, until she couldn't struggle anymore.


So, send in all thoughts, comments, opinions, criticisms, I want to hear what you guys think!

-B