Penny had sat down awkwardly on the bed, waiting for Bane to come to her. She could feel the eyes of the men surrounding her burning on her body, figuring they hadn't seen or touched a woman in a long time, Penny tried to ignore it.

"It took you long enough to find us, Penelope"

At the sound of his voice, Penny sprung up, feeling the butterflies in her stomach starting to flutter again.

"You left me behind" Penny confronted.

"I had no choice. They caught us off guard and I had to bring my men to safety"

"You mean, you had to bring yourself to safety?"

She could hear the low grumble of the men around her, responding to her harsh comment.

Bane moved closer to her and violently grabbed her wrist. Around her she could hear the men picking up their guns, ready to attack if necessary. Penny could feel his fingers tightening and she let out a soft gasp of pain.

"Did I not tell you not to speak with such a tone?" Bane eyes looked violent and menacing, but Penny ignored it. She knew the adrenaline from his fight with Batman was still rushing through his veins.

Not sure what to reply, Penny kept her mouth shut and waited for Bane to release his grip. Their eyes locked and slowly she could feel Bane removing his fingers from her wrist. The men around them did the same with their guns. It was as if Bane didn't even had to tell them what to do.

"Did they hurt you?" He asked softly, letting his hands fall next to his body.

Something inside her wanted Bane to touch her again, even if it hurt.

"No" she replied honestly. The officer had actually taken quite good care of her.

Bane unlocked his eyes from hers and turned around to face the men around him. "Leave us" he demanded. Without hesitation his men packed up and left , leaving only Penny and Bane in the enormous room.

"What did you do with the Batman?" Penny asked carefully.

"I have not killed him, if that was what you was wondering" Bane replied somewhat amusing.

Bane moved closer the Penny and she could feel her stomach starting to flutter. She had to contain herself for not touching his bare arms.

"You are hurt" Penny said, after taking a better look at his arms and noticing they had some damage from the fight.

"It is nothing" Bane replied .

"It's something" Penny snapped back. While waiting for Bane she had spotted a worn down first aid kit in the far right corner. Reaching for it, she nodded for Bane to sit down.

To her surprise Bane actually sat down and waited for Penny to do her thing. Softly she traced the wound which Batman had caused with her fingers. Luckily the wound was quite shallow and only needed some bandaging. When her fingers reached Bane's vest, Penny realized the wound continued beneath it. Avoiding eye contact with him, she said: "You have to remove your vest."

Bane moved his head and forced his eyes onto hers. "Please" Penny added, hoping that Bane would listen to her. He did. Penny was taken aback with surprise, both from the fact that he again listened, and from the fact that he was soon sitting in front of her, shirtless.

Slowly Bane removed his vest, only breaking eye contact to pull the vest over his head. He didn't speak a word, which made Penny somewhat nervous. She could feel her heart racing as she moved behind him on the bed to get a closer look of the wound. It ran even further down his back than she had anticipating. "It's pretty big" she mumbled more to herself than to Bane.

Firstly she softly patted on some disinfectant to help clean the wound. His skin felt hot under her fingers. She had always imagined Bane to feel cold, but she realized he wasn't cold like everyone thought he was. He did have a heart, he has to have one. If he didn't, why am I still alive? Why isn't he breaking my neck right now? Why is he letting me touch him?

Next she patted the wound dry with a ball of cotton. Penny knew she had to clean the wound in case it might get infected. Bane didn't flinch once while she cleaned him, although she doubted whether he would even feel this pain at all.

Lastly she covered the wound with some gauze and taped it off so it wouldn't fall off. Penny had taken her time, moving as slowly as she could. The moment felt so peaceful and she didn't want to disrupt it. Even though she was done, her fingers still lingered on his skin, not wanting to let go of him.

"Are you done?" Bane's menacing voice said, breaking the silence. Penny knew she enjoyed this maybe a little too much. She was confused of her feelings. From one side she knew this was wrong, deeply wrong. This was a terrorist for crying out loud. But on the other hand she could not deny that she was growing feelings for him, and they became stronger each and every day.

"Done" Penny repeated, before stepping off the bed to move into Bane's line of sight.

"Come closer, Penelope" Bane ordered and before Penny had even time to think, she was already standing closer to him. "I will be out of the country for a couple of days. Barsad will be here to take care of you…"

"… What?" Penny interrupted him. "Where are you going?" She had finally found him and she didn't want to let him go again.

"Let me finish" Bane's eyes pierced through hers. "There is some business I need to tend to. Nothing to worry about. Just do what Barsad tells you to do and stay out of trouble"

Without an another word Bane pushed himself off the bed and walked out of the huge room. Leaving Penny alone, again.

They did not move back to the farm. Barsad claimed it wasn't safe anymore and showed Penny her new room in the sewers. She had grown quite fond of the farm and she was sad to see it go. The one thing she missed most was the daylight streaming through the windows every day. Now, she only sat in the dark until Bane returned to her.

She tried to talk to Barsad as often as she could, but the only friend that she had also had work to do, especially since he was second-in-command. Her days pretty much existed of watching men come and go, men she had never seen before arrived and someone she had seen a couple of times before left in a body bag.

Penny noticed they had a lot more casualties lately. Maybe the police were finally acting up, finally defending Gotham. Well they have to now the Batman is gone. Penny didn't know what had happened to him and to be honest she didn't know if she even wanted to know, she could only imagine the horrors that were happening to him right now.

"Are you back already?" Penny had spotted Barsad entering the sewers a lot earlier than he normally would.

"Yes, I felt like calling it a day" he replied, putting his weapons aside. Penny leaned against the wall next to him, her eyes scanning over the weapons which she was never allowed to hold. She moved her eyes up until they met with Barsad, a soft smile covering his face. "You are bored, aren't you?"

"Out of my mind" Penny replied honestly. Back at the farm she had some books to entertain her, she had her trusty old laptop, but here she had nothing.

"To be honest, I don't know what to do with you" Barsad said, ascending the stairs a level higher up, followed closely by Penny. "Bane didn't leave me any set of instructions regarding you"

"Instructions?" Penny raised her eyebrows.

"No computer work needs to be done…" Barsad said thoughtful. "… and apart from that"

"I can do other stuff too, you know" Penny said. "I can hold a gun"

Barsad started laughing. "If I let you hold a gun Bane will kill me"

"I'm not saying you should give me a gun. I'm only saying that I can hold one. I can also drive cars, stand on lookout, hell I can ever answer phone calls if necessary. Just give me something to do!" Penny replied enthusiastically. This was her shot to get something to do except for watching people all day.

Barsad furrowed his eyebrows. "Okay, I might have something for you. But you have to promise me that you will listen to me and do not anything rash. Promise me."

"I promise!" Penny replied quickly, happy that Barsad was giving her a chance.

The following day Penny woke up bright and early, ready for her first real mission. Last night , Barsad had explained everything she had to do in detail. She was to drive one of the getaway cars from the mission back to the sewers, as quick as possible. Luckily for her, there were multiple getaway cars so she only had to follow. What could possibly go wrong?

Barsad handed her a bulletproof vest, cargo pants and army boots, so she blended in with the rest. None of the clothes really fit her, but it was better than nothing. After sitting around doing nothing, she had to admit she was kind of excited about this mission. She felt like she was now part of something, she felt like she mattered.

The car was an old Chevy of about twenty years old. She had never driven a car like this, but Barsad convinced it was no different than any other car. "I personally made sure this car was in mint condition" he reassured her. Penny didn't know anything about cars, apart from how to drive them, so she trusted Barsad's word.

Barsad also drove with her, sitting next to her in the passenger seat, making sure nothing could go wrong. The car quickly filled up with as many men as the car could hold and soon after that they were off. Penny could feel her heart starting to pound and tried calming herself down. Nothing can go wrong, Barsad is right beside me.

The drive to the building went by quietly and quickly. Penny didn't know exactly what they were going to do inside, but she didn't mind. The fact that she didn't knew anything of the plan was for her own safety. "If we are not back within seven minutes, drive back to the sewers" Barsad ordered. Penny nodded and gripped the steering wheel tighter, ready to take off as soon as they returned.

All the men moved out of the car and disappeared into the building, leaving Penny alone. In front of her were three other getaway cars and another one behind her. She felt safer, being in the middle. After the first minute past Penny could feel her nerves kicking in. She kept on staring at her watch, watching how the minutes crept by slowly.

On the sixth minute the doors of the building swung open and Bane's men quickly moved back to the car. Nervousness now made it's way for adrenaline, this was the moment where everything could go horribly wrong.

Swiftly all the men moved back in the car. "Drive" Barsad commanded as he seated himself behind him. He barely had the chance to close the door as Penny started driving away immediately. The getaway route was simple and it was just a matter of following the rest carefully. The driver in front of her had upped the speed and they were now moving quickly out of sight. Penny hoped the police had not seen them.

But they had.

Out of nowhere bullets started soaring passed them, hitting objects all around them. "Shit" Barsad mumbled, turnig around to see where the gunshots were coming from. Penny quickly glanced at her rearview mirror, only to find that the car behind them had crashed. "Shit" she too mumbled.

The clean and quick getaway turned into a full blown chase. "I've lost them!" Penny yelled at Barsad once she realized the cars in front of her were now too gone. "Make a right" Barsad ordered.

Penny turned the steering wheel and made a sharp turn down a back alley. Sirens were still blaring behind them but the gun shots had stopped. "We have to lose them!" Penny didn't know how to react. This wasn't really how she had envisioned her first mission. This was all meant to go smoothly.

Trying not to get caught, Penny drove the car into various alleys. The men in the backseat were now hanging out of the window, firing their guns at the police in a desperate attempt to shake them off. They could not return to the sewers before they were absolutely sure they had lost them.

Barsad told Penny which way she should go and she did what she was told. They drove through all various parts of Gotham she had never seen before.

Suddenly the gunshots stopped and the sirens died down.

"Have we lost them?" Penny asked softly. She let her foot off the gas to let the car slow down.

"I'm not sure" Barsad replied, looking around him trying to spot anyone.

The car came to a complete halt. Penny looked around her and she couldn't see anyone. The alley was empty.

Out of nowhere a bullet soared through the windows of the old Chevy, instantly killing the man sitting right behind her. Penny let out a shriek of surprise and her immediate reaction was pressing the gas. They had to get out of here as fast as they could.

"SHIT!" Barsad now shouted. "Snipers!"

The men behind her tried to tend to their shot-down brother, but it was no use, the bullet went straight through his neck.

Penny made another left, a right, a u turn. She didn't even know where they were going, as long as it was away from the police.

However no sirens followed them and no bullets appeared in the next fifteen minutes. "Start heading east" Barsad ordered her. Penny turned the car around. It seemed as if they had lost them again, although they also thought that last time.

As they moved closer to the sewers no one seemed to be following them and nothing striking was to be seen.

Penny took in a deep breath. She realized that this was probably a very, very bad idea. If I'd just stayed at the sewers. But it was too late to turn back, she couldn't undo what she had done. All she now could do was hope that Bane wouldn't find out that she put her life in danger, against his orders.

"We've lost them" Barsad confirmed. "Let's get inside, quickly"

"Where are you coming from?" Penny hadn't seen Bane when she had entered the sewers and she had bumped into him if he hadn't started speaking.

Penny didn't know what to reply. He had specifically told her to stay out of trouble and she hadn't listened. She avoided eye contact and started at the ground, waiting for Bane to speak again. Waiting for him to hit her because she disobeyed him.

Behind her she could hear the men who were with her in the car moving the body inside the building. From the corner of her eye could see Bane's hands curling up into a fist. She knew it was going to happen. Penny closed her eyes, anticipating Bane's fist that was about to collide with her head.

"Where is Barsad?"

Penny softly opened her eyes. No hitting? "I don't know" Penny said, her voice trembling slightly.

"I'm here, boss!" Barsad quickly moved to them, stopping right next to Penny. "Where did you go?" Bane asked him.

"We went on the mission, like you ordered me" Unlike Penny, Barsad looked his boss straight in the eye.

"And you took her?"

"Yes" Barsad replied honestly.

"And you thought that taking her was a good idea? Did you think I would approve?"

Barsad remained silent. Penny could sense Bane was getting very angry, but figured he would be angry with her, not with Barsad. After all it was her who suggested it.

"I'm very disappointed, Barsad" Bane continued. "This will not go unpunished…"

Author's Note: Finally had some time to write another chapter. I hope you guys all like it and I suddenly remembered after a very observant reviewer pointed out that Penny had a knife. Let's just pretend that she lost it in the forest :'). Anyway enjoy and as always review!