Title - Written By The Victors
Chapter title - The Crash
Author - OblivionsGarden
Genre - Romance/Adventure/Friendship/Drama
Disclaimer - I do not own the Uncharted Series in anyway shape or form. I only own the plot points surrounding my oc's, not recognized from the games. For this chapter I own, Penny Kingsley.
Chapter Word Count - 3298 words.

A/n - Please leave a review, I'd greatly appreciate it. Hope you enjoy, xx (:

Penny's leg was throbbing when she woke the following morning. It was far too early for the boys to be awake yet and so after cleaning her wound she headed to the first shop she could find for some pain killers. It took a while considering the language barrier but she eventually got a half decent paracetamol. When she found her way back to the hotel, after taking a brief detour around a few market stalls where she bought a blue patterned bandanna, the boys were in the restaurant area eating breakfast. Well, drinking coffee at least.

After breakfast they gathered up the things they needed and headed down to the harbor where Nate was securing a boat, Sam was smoking his umpteenth cigarette and Penny was trying to contact Sully. She hung up on his answering machine for the fifth time when Sam told her to give it up and try again later.

"But we'll already be gone by then. Where is he?"

Just as she spoke her phone chimed with a text message. Sam moved closer to read over her shoulder.

'With Elena. Go with the boys. See you soon.'

Penny sighed with a small frown. "At least he's alright."

"It's Sully." Sam smiled. "He's always alright."

Nate called them over to the boat that he'd probably paid to much to rent. They set in all of their gear before sailing off.

Nathan began with the sailing and then Sam took over. He seemed content to go the rest of the way but Penny thought it would only be fair if she had a go too. Only problem was she had no idea how to sail a boat. Even the small one they were in.

"Hey." She greeted Sam as she moved to stand beside him, pushing her sunglasses up into her hair. "Is it hard?"

Sam blinked and stared before answering. "That's a very forward question, doll."

"Wha- Shit." Penny slapped a hand over her mouth as she giggled. "That's not what I meant."

"Well what did you mean?"

"Sailing this thing. Is sailing this thing hard?" She corrected herself not bothering to hide her rosy cheeks.

"Simple." He stepped slightly to the side and let her slip in beside him. "Here, take the throttle and ease it up. Slowly now, don't send us flying."

He stayed close beside her as he taught her the basics. She handled the steering pretty well but sometimes she pushed the throttle up too fast and jerked them forward. The first time was because Sam's breath was tickling her neck, the second time he had placed his hand on the small of her back and the third time his chest was pressed to her back as his hands guided hers on the wheel. When his free hand covered hers that rest on the throttle she only squoze it harder, gulping as he chuckled by her ear.

"Maybe I should take over for now." He let her slip past him, moving to sit at the side of the boat. "We should continue these lessons though."

After a while she moved over to sit with Nate who had been quiet the entire morning. He was staring off the back of the boat, lost in his own thoughts.

"Sorry about the jerky ride there." She sighed as she took a seat. "Never sailed a boat before."

"Hm." Nate offered her a small smile as he glanced over his shoulder at Sam. "It's either that or the fact that you've got the hots for my brother."

"I have not." Penny defended, forcing out a laugh that sounded way too fake to be believed. "You're talking rubbish."

"Sure I am."

There was a brief silence as they shared a laugh before turning back to watch the sea pass by.

"She'll come round." Penny stated. "Your wife... I don't know her but it's pretty obvious how much she loves you. She wouldn't have come if she didn't. And you've obviously been through alot together. I think it'll work out... Eventually. But she's a woman so you just gotta let her be mad for a while."

"Maybe." He didn't seem so certain.

"Hey, guys." Sam called, pulling them both from their conversation. "Land ho!" They both jumped up, joining Sam, who was wearing a grin, at his side. "What do you think 'bout that huh?"

"That's pretty cool."

"Take the wheel for a second." Sam gave Nate a pat on the back as he moved to the back of the boat. "You know, all this running around, surviving by the skin of our teeth... I don't think we've actually taken a moment to step back and appreciate just how far we've come." He handed Nate and Penny a beer each as he stood in between them. "Sic parvis magna."

He held up his bottle, looking between the two who repeated his words and clinked their bottles together. Sam gave Penny a pointed look as he nodded his head to the back of the boat and then at Nate. She took the hint, taking her drink and leaving to let the brothers talk.

"Nathan, up there!" Penny followed Sam's line of sight and spotted the tall tower he was eyeing.

"Well, that definitely qualifies as man-made."

"Ah-ah, pirate-made." Sam corrected with a toothy grin.

"You're such a dork." Penny laughed, climbing over the side of the boat and dropping onto the sand. "You know, forgetting about Alcazar for a second... This place would be great for a holiday."

"Mm." Sam hummed standing beside her with his hands on his hips. "Hot, clean sand, blue sea... Nice and secluded for some private beach activities..." He winked, following Nathan further inland. Penny shook her head as she jogged to keep up with his long stride.

"Hey, you're other tattoo..." She began. "Is it a tramp stamp? Y'know, like hell's angel or something?"

"Your other tattoo?" Nathan looked bemused as he walked ahead of the pair.

"Don't worry yourself, little brother." Sam turned on Penny. "And you are way off the mark."

"If I guess it right will you tell me?"

"You'll never guess."

"Hypothetically?"

"Sure."

After the lookout tower literally gave them their directions they were all back on the boat and following the arrows.

"Wait, you guys grew up with nuns right?" Penny asked and both brothers nodded. "Do you have angel wings? Oh, a sacred heart!"

"Wrong and wrong." Sam snorted.

"He probably has 'I heart Avery' somewhere." Nathan smirked as he turned the boat.

Penny looked at Sam expectantly but he shook his head with a sarcastic laugh. "Don't even go there, shorty."

"That is the second biggest cistern I've ever seen."

"Wait... where was the biggest?"

"I'll tell you later. C'mon, let's get down there."

Penny climbed up onto a rock, pulling her camera from her back pack. She leaned forward, making sure all of the statues were in frame before pressing down the button. She took a few more, zooming in here and there, moving around to get her perfect pictures. Being so engrossed in her camera, she didn't realize how far forward she had moved and her foot slipped off the edge of the rock. She nearly tumbled off the edge but luckily a strong hand caught her arm.

"You might wanna watch your footing when your on the edge of a thirty foot drop." Sam chided. "Also, if you do slip, drop the camera."

"Are you kidding?" Penny scoffed. "I'm not dropping her, she's been with me for years."

"Her?" Sam frowned but shook his head. "Either way, you are more important than your camera. Drop her and save yourself."

"Aye aye, Captain." She mock saluted him, shoving her camera away and following Nate down the cistern.

Once on the ground her camera was back out and she was taking more pictures. She even snapped a cheeky one of Nate and Sam lifting up the heavy door before she moved to help out. And once again when she saw the room they ended up in, she was clicking away.

"You must have thousands of pictures already." Sam shook his head with a smile.

"So? I like to document."

She stalled as she watched the older man wonder around the room. With the dim light and the holes in the ceiling, he looked different. He had a thin sheen of sweat beginning to form across his forehead and Penny couldn't help but find it incredibly attractive. As discreetly as she could she raised her camera and took a shot of him, looking up at the puzzle on the wall. She looked at the display screen of her camera, smiling when she saw it. He looked so handsome in the light and Penny couldn't help the blush as she let her thoughts wonder.

She put the camera away, assisting in the solving of the puzzle as best as she could but it seems that her brain was having a moment of bliss, thinking about all the things Sam Drake could do to her. She had brief flashes of his smirk, his wink, his large hands all over her body, sweating from something other than scaling cliffs, pants and grunts in her ear, stubble tickling her thighs, eyes closed tight in bliss as he-

"Penny?"

She snapped her head up, lip stuck between her teeth, hands in fists and legs pressed close together. She saw Nate halfway up the staircase that hadn't been there earlier and Sam staring at her with a frown.

"Sorry." She brushed past the elder Drake, allowing her hair to fall and cover her face. "I was, uh... Miles away."

"Miles away, huh?" Nathan murmured as she reached his side. "Or just a few feet behind you?" He looked pointedly at his brother with raised eyebrows as Penny glared and pushed past him to lead the way.

When the platform lifted them up and revealed Avery's statue, Sam bumped her shoulder, oblivious to her daydreaming.

"Now that would make a great picture."

"All right, Captain. What are we looking at?"

Sam and Penny stood back, waiting for Nathan to look through Avery's spyglass.

"So?" Sam called. "Big skull shaped island? What?"

"Big island." Nate confirmed, jumping down to their level. "No skull."

"That's gotta be it." Sam had an excited grin on his face as the sky rumbled above them. "Libertalia."

"That's optimistic, considering everything."

"You know, it is just us here. You're allowed to feel just a little bit of excitement over this."

"I'll get excited when we get Alcazar's noose off your neck. C'mon." Nate made to walk away as Sam scoffed.

"Okay." Sensing a brotherly argument Penny turned away, spotting something just ahead in the sea.

"What?"

"I said okay."

"No, no, no. Your 'okay's' are never just okay. It usually means the opposite of okay."

"Guys..." Penny called, as the something came in closer. "We gotta get out of here." The boys joined her, following her line of sight.

"That our boy Rafe?"

"Who the hell else?"

The three of them rushed off to their boat, quickly finding their way through the water as the heavens above them opened, sky rumbling and lightning flashing. They tried to fight shoreline as best as they could, but there were too many and their boat was too small. A much larger vessel came crashing down into the side of them, splitting their boat into splinters.

Penny screamed, feeling the floor shift beneath her feet. She called out for Sam, for Nathan, for anybody when her back hit the water, forcing the air from her lungs. She forced herself to swim, as far as she could but it proved needless when a chunk of what had been there boat was swept up in a wave and slammed down onto the side of her head, sending her into a world of darkness.

Pain was the first thing her conscious mind felt when she came to. No longer just in her leg but everywhere. He entire body throbbed and ached and her head was pounding. When she opened her eyes the still pouring rain stung them and she snapped them shut again. She lay still, trying to breath through the pain and feel if anything was broken. She could feel water lapping around her lower half and she realized she was on the shore.

With a deep breath she forced herself to sit up, crying out with the sharp pain that shot from the middle of her head down behind her eye socket. She held her head in her hands as she let out a sob. For the first time she let herself break, just a little. She needed to let something out or she'd only explode later. When she pulled her hands away, even in the dark she could see the blood. She raised her hand again, feeling around until she felt the wound, just by her hairline.

She tried not to panic, thinking of what to do next rather than how fast it takes to bleed out from a head wound. She knew logically that she wouldn't die from this, it wasn't her temple that was wounded. She knew coagulation will stop the bleeding eventually. But still, she was marooned, in pain, covered in her own blood and completely alone. She thought that the situation merited a small psychological break at bare minimum.

Eventually she managed to climb to her feet. She noticed that her backpack was nowhere to be seen. She hadn't taken it off when they got onto the boat but she figured it must've come off when she fell. It'd be at the bottom of the ocean by now. She turned in a circle, wondering which way to go. To begin with, she decided to just get out of the rain and wait for sunrise. She could barely see in the dark with this whether.

It took alot of effort to find a hollowed part of the cliff face. It was little ways up but she just managed to climb inside and slump against the wall. She tried to fight the exhaustion, knowing how dangerous it is to fall asleep with a head wound. But in the end she just couldn't hold on and she allowed her eyes to slip closed.

"Come on, you gotta wake up." She felt someone touching her. Her arms, her neck, her face. Large hands, rough and calloused. "C'mon Penny, open your eyes." The voice was deep, accented and she wanted to oblige but the aching of her limbs told her to ignore them. "Penny... dammit." They were shaking her now, lightly tapping her cheek, squeezing her arms.

"Stop." She groaned, raising a hand to push whoever it was away. "Annoying." She grumbled when her hand came into contact with something wet and soft. Opening her eyes she saw that she had a brown shirt fisted in her hand. Looking up she saw those familiar hazel eyes filled with worry. "Sam." She smiled, releasing his shirt and moving her hands to touch his face. "You alright?"

"A little banged up and bruised but I'm okay." He shrugged, his eyes shifting to her head.

He'd jumped out of his skin when he'd seen someone jump up to the ledge and pull themselves inside the cavern. But then he'd heard her mumbling about concussion and staying awake and quickly followed her inside. When he saw her unconscious, pale and shivering form slumped against the wall, half of her face a crimson red with the blood that was running down it, he damn near had a heart attack.

He went to remove his outer shirt but realized with the dirt and salt water caked into it, it'd only make her wound worse. He used his torch to see it better and found that it wasn't bleeding anymore. It was just open and looked nasty.

"I'll be fine." She pushed his hand when the light of the torch shone in her eyes. "The bleeding has stopped so as long as I don't make it worse, I should be alright for a while."

"Okay." Sam took a breath, gathering his thoughts. "Have you seen Nathan... or anyone?"

"No. I climbed up here to wait for the sun."

Even in the heat, she shivered. She knew it must be her damn clothes that were clinging to her skin. Sam noticed and shifted closer to her, pulling her into his side and wrapping his long arms around her. She tensed at first but soon let herself relax, resting her head on his chest and closing her eyes.

"Hey, stay awake."

"I am." She defended, trying to think of something to say to keep herself alert. "Do you have a tribal tattoo?" She felt his chuckle rumble through his chest.

"No."

"Mum written in a scroll over a red heart?"

"No."

"A jolly roger?"

"That's be a great tattoo but no."

"Oh, I know!" She grinned, already laughing at herself. "A treasure chest on your arse... Y'know, for your booty."

"Oh my god!" Sam laughed aloud, and Penny joined him. "And I thought Sully's jokes were bad."

"Where do you think I get it from?" Penny sighed, looking around the cave. "If there's a spider in here, I'm gonna cry."

"You don't like spiders?"

"I don't like insects full stop."

Smiling, Sam used one of his hands to begin lightly tracing up her arm, tickling her. She shuddered, leaning further into him, unknowing whether it was the thought of a spider or Sam's touch that sent tingles up her spine.

"Quit it."

They shared another laugh before drifting into silence as they waited for the sun to rise. Sam allowed Penny to sleep for a while, satisfied that she wasn't concuss. At least not anymore. She shifted occasionally as she slept, murmuring incoherently and placing a small hand on his stomach.

He found himself staring down at her for most of the night. She looked so small in his arms and when he placed his hand over hers, he dwarfed it. He traced his thumb over her knuckles amazed at how soft her skin was. Maybe it was having only been around the rough from work hands of the other inmates for so long but even sitting in a cavern in the middle of a storm, Sam felt relaxed as he felt her skin.

She was so gentle when she'd touched his tattoo back at the hotel and he longed to have her touch him again. He didn't want her to feel afraid or shy or bashful... He just wanted her soft hands on his skin. He wanted her to make him feel again, really feel. He was still suprised that this young and beautiful creature would even give him the time of day let alone blush at his playful words.

He knew he should keep his distance, he was too rough and too damaged for someone like Penny but he'd be damned if he was going to let her slip away. It'd be bad enough when she found out the truth. He was so certain that she was going to run a mile when she knew, so he needed this moment. This moment of quiet, of peace. In that cavern he could pretend that she was his and her hands would always be there to comfort him.

He took a deep shuddering breath and closed his eyes, his cheek rested on her head, careful not to touch her wound. In his dreams she was there, stoking his cheek, tracing his tattoo and running her nimble fingers through his hair. It made his chest ache with what he knew would never be but he drifted with the dream, letting it consume him until those gentle hands, were shaking him awake again.