With thanks to MariaShades for the prompt: Penny watching Gordon sleep. Pen & Ink
Squid. Squiddy. Squidboy. Even Squidito.
There were many squid names that Gordon was called by his brothers, and for very good reason.
Awake, he could (and did) squeeze himself into impossible places and improbable positions, an absolute boon for International Rescue and excellent for giving older brothers grey hairs when playing hide-and-seek. It was only yesterday Scott had resorted to cheating and asking John to locate him via his watch.
(Ok, in the interests of fair disclosure and because Gordon doesn't want you all to think his oldest brother is a cheater and a jerk, they weren't actually playing, Scott wanted Gordon to do a particular task in the kitchen and Gordon really, really didn't want to…)
Also, Gordon's squid hugs were almost as legendary as Virgil's. Not because they were bear hugs, but because they were squid hugs. Once Gordon hugged you couldn't dislodge him until he felt you relax.
Asleep for Gordon didn't mean still. Unlike all three of his older brothers, he had always been active as a child even asleep, tossing and turning, moving up and down the bed. His mom had once said that it was the product of him swimming in his sleep. Gordon thought that was quite probably true.
Lady Penelope Creighton-Ward knew all this. It was something Gordon was ribbed about on a daily basis, and she had seen some of the results. Not that the man had ever dared to involve her in any of these activities, but she had smiled politely and indulged in watching and secretly delighted that a man such as Gordon, with everything that life had thrown at him, could retain such a magical mischievous and sunny nature.
Which was why, as she sat beside his bed, she felt keenly that the stillness of the man she had only just begun to realise had got under her defences was so utterly utterly wrong.
When had Gordon become more than just a friend? More than the close friendship she shared with Scott? More than the deep friendship she shared with John?
When had the squid wiggled his way into her heart?
Penny scoffed at herself. She was not a melodramatic teenaged girl with a crush on the local surfer dude. Nor was she prey to the whimsy of hysterical worship of a man in uniform. (Oh. She wondered if Gordon still had his WASP uniform…)
Finding Gordon unconscious in the ruins of Four had shaken her to her core. Penny truly believed that she had been immune to the flattery and sometimes immature flirting from the fourth-born Tracy. She appreciated the flattery, and his clumsy efforts to flirt were endearing, sure.
But now that he wasn't able to be himself, Penny found that she missed them. She was missing him. The beep-beep-beep made a steady backdrop to the sudden awareness she had come to.
She liked him.
She more than liked him.
She needed him to wake up so that she could tell him.
Penny lent forward, placed a hand on Gordon's forearm, and watched him sleep.