Disclaimer: Penny is mine, the rest aren't.

Zack's Penny

By Be Boring

Chapter 2: Attachments

*~* Penny

This has certainly been one of the most interesting times of my life. I've been living with Cindy for about a month now, and there hasn't been an end to the excitement. She and Miguel must have led a very strange lifestyle, to say the least. Cindy wakes up early in the morning, and when I say early, I mean early! I usually wake up at about six, which is early enough as it is, but she gets up at four! Not only is she up and ready to go, but she goes rattling around doing things around the apartment so that there's no chance for me to get back to sleep. You would think that Miguel would have objected to this when they were living together, but, from the way she carries on as though she's not aware I'm there, I'm led to believe that he got up with her at this time and did the stuff with her.

Cindy seems to be a bit of a clean freak; she cooks, she cleans, she scrubs, she scours, and she practically strips the linoleum right off the floor when she's washing it! To be honest, I feel nervous walking around because I'm afraid I'll leave a speck of dust somewhere! Jesse and Miguel pay no attention to this whenever they come over, they storm right in with their filthy shoes on and put their feet on the furniture while they sit. I swear the only thing that holds her back from hitting them is the fact that I'm there. I hate to think of what she did to them before I came here.

Life has a very strange habit of sticking to a strict schedule around here. Cindy gets up at four and does her stuff, I get up at six even though I've already been awake for two hours and make breakfast for myself and Cindy (I was just used to doing this with Zack since I don't think he ever knew what a frying pan was, and I figured it was the least I could do for her), Jesse and Miguel show up at about seven, Jesse and I sit around and try to keep our eyes on the television as Cindy and Miguel make out, everyone except for me goes to work, then they all go to a club after work. They've taken me a couple times, but the looks I was getting from guys completely turned me off to the idea of going there again.

There's one thing the club has made me see: Jesse and Miguel have already accepted me. I've seen how protective they are of Cindy, and it seems they feel the same way about me too. The last time I was at the club, some jackass walked right up behind me and groped me! I know that kind of thing happens a lot nowadays, but Zack kept me under such a close watch that this was the first time I'd ever really been exposed to it. It was a good thing Miguel saw the guy and reacted before my instincts could kick in, otherwise he would have seen quite a show. I know I'm not up to par with the rest of the X5s, but I'm still pretty strong in my own right. Your average man wouldn't be able to stand up to me, and even someone more professional like a boxer would have a hard time with me. I've been known to leave one hell of a shiner when I'm left to defend myself.

I did have to appreciate how strong Miguel was, though. The punch he threw sent the man flying over the bar and into the bartender. Apparently the bartender is used to this kind of thing with Miguel around because he didn't seem too upset. Then he handed me off to Jesse so he could take the man out into the alley. It seems that these people take things literally. Miguel had asked Jesse to protect me, and he planned to do it. It was like I had a bodyguard, he was never more than two feet away from me. I wanted to shove him away, I hate having my personal space crowded, but I knew my shove might have more of an effect on him than your average shove. The last thing I need is to be compromised.

Right now I'm sitting on the living room couch of Cindy's apartment, watching an old rerun of COPS on Saturday morning with Jesse while I can hear Cindy and Miguel making out in the bedroom. Actually, if I lean a little closer in Jesse's direction I can see them. I'm just glad they don't sleep together while I'm sitting there. I know that they head back to the apartment that Miguel and Jesse are sharing so they can do that while Jesse just stays at the club, then Cindy comes home when she's done. I prefer having her around, somehow I feel safe.

Anything I doubted about my new friends at the beginning has been proven wrong. They're not freaks that want to take me hostage or anything like that, they're just really generous. Plus Cindy already explained away my confusion about her and Jesse. She said she'd just told me that they were old friends because she rarely told anyone they were related. Apparently whoever they're trying to keep from finding them would have an easier time finding them if people they knew were brother and sister. From what she's said, which isn't much, this guy that's following them has been keeping an eye on them, usually at their expense, so they were avoiding him so they could be together. When she wasn't looking, I snuck a wistful smile, that sounded a lot like Zack.

I glanced over at Jesse to see what he was doing. He'd been taking apart a pen and tearing up small bits of paper for a few minutes now. His eyes kept darting to the bedroom where Cindy and Miguel were in their own little world. After a couple more minutes of watching him roll the tiny bits of paper into balls, I had to indulge my curiosity.

"What are you doing?" I whispered, keeping my voice soft enough so that the lovebirds wouldn't hear me.

He glanced at me and raised an eyebrow mischievously. "Have you ever seen a spitwad shooter?"

"A what?"

"Spitwad shooter. It's really simple. All you do is take apart a pen so you're just left with the main body of it. Then you ball up tiny pieces of paper and put them in your mouth to get them wet and shoot them through the empty pen. If you get enough power behind it, you can cover quite a bit of distance in one shot."

When his eyes darted once again towards the bedroom, my mouth dropped open. "You're not..."

He grinned and wiggled his eyebrows. "Oh, but I am." With that said, he placed one of the balls in his mouth, put one end of the pen's body up to his mouth, worked his tongue so the ball was in the opening of the pen, and blew hard. I covered my mouth to stifle my giggles as the spitwad landed perfectly on the back of Miguel's neck and dropped to the floor. At first I wondered if he was going to feel it, but then his hand went up to his neck and he felt around. There was nothing there, so he went back to kissing Cindy and seemed to forget about it.

Jesse nudged me in the side. "Want to give it a try? It's more fun that you might think."

I studied him for a moment, then took the pen and one of the balls that he held out to me. Copying his actions, I took aim at Cindy's bare arm and fired. It struck its target and hit the ground. For a moment she used her other hand to see what had hit her, but as there was nothing there she too chose to forget about it. I grinned and passed the pen back to Jesse. We sat there for a good fifteen minutes just shooting spitwads at our friends, and they were so wrapped up in each other that they seemed to have developed a short term memory problem. I couldn't see how they could just forget about it each time and not make the connection after it happened repeatedly, but apparently they could. It wasn't until they decided to stop that the connection was made.

Cindy was the first to figure it out. She swung her feet over the edge of the bed and started to stand up, then plopped back down and picked up one of her feet. Apparently she had stepped on several of the spitwads that had fallen to the ground and they had stuck to her foot. Miguel saw her foot and looked down to the floor where there was practically a pile of the tiny balls. The two of them looked up at me and Jesse at the same time. There was dead silence for a moment while we stared at each other, then the fight broke out.

"You asshole!" Cindy cried and she launched one of the pillows from the bed at Jesse's head. He ducked it easily, but the next one hit me. For a moment she looked shocked and seemed about to apologize, but I decided not to hear it. Instead, I threw the pillow back at her. Soon the pillows were flying back and forth between myself and Miguel and Cindy. Jesse, instead of helping me, started pelting them with spitwads as they focused their attention on me.

It wasn't until over an hour later that we stopped, completely breathless. The fight had progressed until we were wrestling in the living room and whacking each other with anything we could find. It was all fun and games, so we were all taking it easy. The only thing I had been worried about was that my barcode might show a little while we were fooling around. That's the last thing I need.

It wasn't until around noon that the guys started acting funny. They started shooting side glances at Cindy as though she had suddenly turned into an atom bomb, and she was acting pretty strangely too. I noticed she was walking differently, there was more swing in her hips and it looked like she was trying to show her body off. Everything about her body language seemed to be saying something, but I was getting the feeling that I was missing the message. It seemed that Jesse and Miguel were catching on to it though, from the strange looks they were giving her.

Jesse finally took my arm and led me out into the hallway. "Why don't we go for a ride or something, I think they need to spend a little time alone right now."

"What's going on? Don't think that I didn't catch all those weird looks you were giving her. Why is she acting so funny?"

"I can't really explain that to you, all I can tell you is that we need to stay out of that apartment for a couple days."

"Where am I supposed to stay?"

I was little worried that he might tell me I should just find my own place, but I guess he wasn't thinking along those lines. In fact, he shot me a nervous look and said, "You could stay with me until it's safe to go back. There's two bedrooms, and it's more than obvious that Miguel won't be using his. I'll be gone half the time anyway with work and stuff. Besides, you know how much Keisha likes you."

I didn't really know what to say. Hanging out with Jesse was one thing, but living with him? Even for just a couple days? I'm not sure I could do that.

"You won't be gone tomorrow. It's Sunday, you don't have work."

"We'll just cope then. It won't be any big deal, and I have quite a few movies. You could knock yourself out with those."

I sat there for a moment in silence, pondering it. I pretty much trust Jesse, he's one of the safest people in the world to be around, but I still don't know if I could handle living with him for a couple days. I nearly smiled as it struck me what Zack's reaction to this would be. I could almost see his face now. I felt a tiny pang of pain, spending so much time with my friends had nearly made me forget that he was gone. Was there any chance that he could ever come back?

*~* Zane

I couldn't help feeling nervous as hell. I had just asked a girl I hardly knew to stay with me for a couple days for Christ's sake! Even though I had good intentions, I wasn't sure she'd see it that way. I'm not sure even I see it that way. I have to admit being around Syl worked me up. That's the first time I've ever been around an X5 in heat, and it had more of an effect on me than I'd expected. Now dirty thoughts were popping into my head every time I looked at something female, and there was no doubt that the thought of Penny sleeping in the same apartment as me turned me on. Ok, fine, I'm your average male. So sue me.

I bit my lip as we climbed into my car. I didn't want her to be uncomfortable about this. After all, there was no way she could go back to Syl's place. She wouldn't be able to pry Krit and Syl apart with a crowbar, and that was bound to lead to more questions. How was I supposed to explain that my sister had a chemical imbalance every four months that made her extremely horny for a couple days? There's no way that I could make that sound normal, so it's best not to try and explain it at all. No matter how close Penny was to us, we couldn't let her know those things.

I still don't understand how Penny became a part of our lives so easily. She seemed to slip in and fit perfectly, it was like she had always been there. I can still picture the fight Syl and Krit had had at my new apartment after I had left Penny in Syl's. Krit just didn't understand why Syl would do that to him. At first I didn't understand either, but after spending more time with Penny it sort of dawned on me that she has a strange effect on people. She can make anyone like her no matter how cold she is. It took a while for her to warm up to me --three weeks in fact-- but I still liked her beforehand. Even Krit, who was dead set against her seeing as how her arrival got him kicked out, came around after a few days. She seemed to take to him easier, I'm guessing it's because he's taken by Syl and wouldn't think of looking at another woman. Well, maybe he'd look, but he wouldn't do anything about it. Maybe that made her feel safer.

She finally raised her eyes from her lap and stared out through the windshield. "Are you sure it would only be for a couple days?" I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Would she actually agree to it?

"Yeah, things should be back to normal by then. We'll know for sure when Kr...Miguel comes back." I couldn't believe I had nearly said Krit's name, but she didn't seem to notice. I think she was focusing too much on the problem at hand. I really hoped she'd say yes, it would make for much less questions that I'd have to answer.

"I guess I could stay over for a little while. There's only one little problem: what will I wear? All my clothes are at home."

I couldn't help but notice that she referred to Syl's place as home, but I turned my attention to her little problem. "I guess we'll just have to pick up some stuff at a store or something. You can sleep in one of my shirts, some of them are pretty big, then tomorrow we'll get you some stuff to wear."

She nodded mutely, still staring fixedly through the windshield. After several minutes of silence, she spoke very softly. "I guess I could stay with you then." I didn't get a chance to reply since she turned to look in the side view mirror. "Who's that behind us?"

I looked up into the rearview mirror and studied the truck behind us. My face paled as I recognized the face from the driver's seat. "Penny, you might want to hold on." Not even a split second after I'd spoken I whipped the steering wheel to the right and turned down a side street. I heard Penny cry out in shock, but she had already listened to me and grabbed hold of the handle above her window. The truck behind me nearly missed the turn, but somehow the driver pulled it off. When I saw the driver pick up something that looked like a walkie-talkie, I did something I never thought I'd do. I shouted, "Brace yourself!" to Penny and slammed on the brakes. The car I had was good, it screeched to a nice halt, but the guy behind me wasn't so lucky. Before he had the chance to speak into his walkie-talkie, his truck had crashed straight into the back of my car.

The next few seconds happened in a blur. I had already removed my seatbelt and lunged out the door, all the while grabbing Penny's arm and dragging her with me. The only thing I hadn't counted on was the dumpster next to us. The truck slid sideways behind us, slamming into one end of the dumpster and forcing it in our direction. Still holding onto Penny, I pulled her forward and sideways so we were out of reach of the now quickly moving dumpster. Then the next thing happened, my car was nearly crushed inside, and the front section had been crunched down onto the pedals. Apparently the accelerator was what was being pressed, because the car shot straight towards us. I shoved Penny in the opposite direction as I threw myself in the general direction of the dumpster. The only real problem was that I knew I hadn't shoved Penny hard enough. Oh God, the car had to have hit her. There's no way it could have missed her, she's not fast enough to get out of the way!

As soon as everything came to a stop, I lunged over the hood of the car and tried to see where Penny was. I felt a huge surge of relief when I saw that she wasn't directly in front of the car, she was more towards the side. With her back on the ground, it was obvious that only her right side had been struck, but that still wasn't good. The only positive thing it gave me was that her heart hadn't been impacted, but there was no doubt that she'd have broken ribs and most likely a punctured lung. Her ribs would definitely have pushed into it. I just hoped to God that her head hadn't been struck.

A low groan was more than I'd expected. "Penny?" Her eyes opened slowly and she gazed blearily around, not really seeing anything. I kneeled down beside her and started slowly running my hands up her ribs. There was already swelling, but not as much as I had thought I would feel. I lifted up her shirt to chest level so I could get a good look. There was bruising, but there was no sign of a severely broken rib. It didn't even look like anything had been completely broken off. The car must not have hit her nearly as hard as I'd thought.

"Can you breathe alright?"

She nodded slowly, her jaw looked like it had taken quite a hit. Still, from what I could see, she had been a lot luckier than I doubt any other normal person would have been. Making sure that she was comfortable for the moment, I went to the truck and peered inside. There wasn't much to see, it had practically been flattened, but I could tell that the driver had to be dead. I just hoped he hadn't been following us for a while and had already used his walkie-talkie. I had recognized him instantly, he had chased me before. He was one of Lydecker's men, and he was no easy task to get rid of. I guess he just hadn't expected me to pull such a stupid stunt. I just had to make sure they never knew I was the one who got rid of him.

Running up to Penny and pulling her a safe distance from the car despite the obvious pain it caused her, I ran back and opened my glove compartment which thankfully hadn't been jammed shut. I pulled out the whole assortment of weapons Zack had provided me with several months ago. He always gave us fresh supplies to defend ourselves with, and I had more than my choice to pick from now.

"Thank you Big Brother for wherever you got this!" I whispered fervently to myself, then I pulled the pin out of a grenade and tossed it inside the car. I barely had time to reach Penny before it went off, causing the gas to light on fire and letting the whole car explode along with my pursuers truck. I smiled slightly to myself, let Lydecker try and find any proof that I was here in that car.

Carefully gathering Penny into my arms, I started walking to the nearest hospital.

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Author's Note: Yay, I got another chapter done! I'm still not sure when I'll be able to get another one up, I have a history report to do right now but I'm trying to put it off, so I'll just hurry as fast as I can! I hope you like it! Please review, I love reading them and finding out what you think! Any input is greatly appreciated!