Prompt – 093: Hide
Claim – Captain Jack Harkness
Summary – When Penny was ten her brother Jack left home.
Disclaimer – Not mine.
Notes – This is scene is mentioned briefly in Jacob Hardy-Bennett III, which is on my prompt table, under prompt 024: Family. It should be able to be read alone, but I'm also going to tell you to read Jacob Hardy-Bennett III, because it's my fic, and I'm not afraid of shameless plugging a little self-promotion.

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No one noticed when young Penny hid under the table. She felt safer under there, because it was darker and while the heavy, ancient wood above her did nothing to stop the raging voices, now she could only see her family's legs, and that much, much better than their angry faces.

The things that were being said were horrific, even more so than usual. Penny had never heard them all so angry. Even at ten she could sense the raw emotion coming out, and none of it was pleasant. Jack and her parents fought often, over many things – there was not a lot that eighteen-year-old Jack could do right, and their mother and father seemed to take all opportunities to remind him of this. However, tonight it seemed that everything had boiled over, and just because Jack had said he wanted to be an engineer and not a lawyer, sending everything spinning out of control.

So far tonight her brother had been called so many names: slacker, irresponsible, childish, short-sighted, good-for-nothing, slut. Of course, her brother had a few of his own to throw back: blind, overbearing, out-of-touch, oppressive. Penny didn't bother trying to figure out what all of the words meant, because she knew some of them, and that was more than enough.

When her father's voice reached a certain pitch, and she heard skin hitting skin, she covered her ears with her hands, squeezed her eyes shut, and rocked back and forth, trying to imagine she was somewhere else, in a family that didn't shout at each other. Maybe she and Jack could run away and find that family, or maybe they could go and be that family. Maybe, maybe, maybe…

So involved in her fantasy was she that she failed to notice when the voices had stopped, and she'd been left alone. She drifted off to sleep, into uncomfortable dreams, arms and legs tucked in a small, painful ball around her body.

"Penny?" At her brother's voice she roused to find him half under the table, looking at her in concern. A darker patch across his cheek bone indicated a painful bruise, matching the cut on his lip. Still, he opened up his arms and without a thought she leapt into them. This was her security.

Jack helped her up and to the bathroom where he cleaned her tear-streaked face off with a cool cloth, before helping her to bed. Her nanny usually did this, but Alesie didn't show up, and when she asked, Jack said that he was having a turn at putting her to bed. At her request he told her a story that made her laugh – Jack was best at those stories, even if she didn't always understand them – then he kissed her goodnight.

That was when he said goodbye, and she never saw him again.

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