Work schedule allows me to write a bit before noon when my housework is done :) Don't get used to it :D
Enjoy :)
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters that appeared in the show.
Disclaimer2: I'm again using the Penny family members that TerribleWaitress created, simply because I'm used to it :D
When Penny woke up, she was smiling as wide as she had been when she went to sleep. Then again, it wasn't the first time that day that she had woken up and went back to sleep with a smile. It must have been at somewhere around two in the morning when she had woken up because Leonard had run his hand over her leg and hip.
As soon as he had noticed that she was awake, he had kissed her neck, rolled her over onto her stomach and entered her. What had followed was ten minutes of grunting and quiet moaning, both trying not to be too loud since it was the dead of night and Penny's sister was on the other side of the wall.
This was the closest Penny had felt to the past three years when strange men had taken from her what they wanted but she also had known that if she had told him that she didn't want to, he'd never have done it. But even with that thought, she had welcomed him, the act feeling more intimate than any she had since the beginning of her relationship with Kurt, the end of it nothing worth remembering.
At roughly five in the morning, it had happened again but this time, it was Penny who wanted one more. She had poked him in the chest until he had woken up and with a smile, she had mounted him and proceeded to ride him gently, still mindful of his injury, though he must have felt better because when his hands weren't on her breasts or interlocked with hers, they were on her hips, moving her harder.
She had been worried that it may have been too much for him, especially given his condition, but unbeknownst to her, it had been Leonard's first carnal encounter since the Korean spy five years ago and with Penny, he had realized how much he had missed it. He gladly took the discomfort in his hip for the feeling of sex that he got in return.
Still smiling, Penny got up and walked into the bathroom for some much needed release and afterwards, she washed her face and brushed her teeth. To her surprise, she hadn't even though of putting on clothes after getting up, showing her how comfortable she already felt around him. With a new smile and thoughts of round four swirling in her head, she returned to her bedroom but when she saw her bed, her smile faded when she found it empty.
"What the fuck?" she gasped and looked around, not seeing his borrowed clothes anywhere.
With a curse, she grabbed her clothes from the day before and quickly jumped into them, not even bothering with underwear in her haste, just her jeans shorts and the tank top. She practically jumped into her slippers and almost ripped the door of its hinges when she opened it before stomping down the stairs in a quickly rising rage, finding her mother in the kitchen, where she was cooking bacon and scrambled eggs.
"Did Leonard leave again?" she asked her mother.
"No, I'm here." his voice startled her and she found him standing in the corner of the kitchen, hidden by the open door.
"Oh." her anger dissipated as fast as it had come as she watched him rub the zinc paste onto his wounds. "I thought you had left."
"Penny, you're acting as if he's your date who slipped out the window during the night." Meryl joked but saw her daughter's blushing face and heard Leonard's subdued cough, making her grin. "Oh, I see."
"Please don't tell dad." Penny pleaded.
"Don't worry, he likes Leonard." Meryl winked. "So he wouldn't hurt him about that."
"Hurting Leonard about what?" an appearing Bridget asked.
"Nothing." Penny shook her head.
"Okay." Bridget shrugged. "I almost thought you would tell me that you and Leonard did it like rabbits three times last night."
"I have no idea what you're talking about." Penny blushed so hard that she felt she would combust.
"Ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh. Oh, it's so hard. Oh god, yes! I'm coming!" Bridget mimicked the sounds and words she had heard through the wall the night before. "Should I go on with the sounds your bed springs were making?"
"Please don't." Penny pleaded, her face burning.
"What have I gotten myself into here." Leonard groaned in embarrassment.
"You'll get used to it." Bridget laughed.
"I doubt that." Leonard shook his head.
"When did you get up?" Penny asked him.
"Six." Leonard told her. "Did some meditative techniques and slow combat routines."
"Is that wise?" Bridget wondered.
"As I said before, this isn't my first rodeo." Leonard shrugged. "I know what I can do without stitches ripping."
"What kind of meditation do you do?" Penny asked. "Do you sit around with your hands on your knees?"
"No, I do Tai Chi." Leonard replied. "It's a regular martial art that when done slow is used for meditation."
"Can you do other martial arts forms?" Bridget wanted to know.
"Yes, Krav Maga, Wushu and Wing Chun." Leonard nodded. "When I fight, I use a style combining all three forms."
"I heard of the last one from some Asian movie but the rest..." Bridget shrugged.
"Krav Maga is an Israeli martial art form that is focused on efficiency in combat. Finish a fight as quickly as possible with the least amount of energy so you can fight on." Leonard explained.
"I can attest to that." Penny nodded. "He took out five guys that almost raped me by breaking their bones."
"You were almost raped?" Meryl shrieked. "Why didn't you tell me? Did you call the police?"
"Leonard saved me from them." Penny pointed out. "And believe me, what they got was worse than what the police would have done."
"And the other forms?" Bridget directed at Leonard, wanting to stop the developing argument between her mother and sister.
"Wushu is traditional Chinese martial arts while Wing Chun is more focused on defense." Leonard finished.
"No Kung Fu?" Bridget grinned.
"Kung Fu isn't a martial art." Leonard shook his head. "It's only called that because of people in the west, who coined all Chinese martial arts as Kung Fu that we use that term at all."
"Then what is Kung Fu?" Meryl asked, eager to learn this.
"Kung Fu means hard work over time to accomplish a skill, any skill." Leonard told her. "A painter can have Kung Fu or even a butcher who cuts meat every day with such a skill that his knife never touches bone. A musician or a poet can have Kung Fu, those who paint perfect pictures with words."
"Very poetic." Bridget chuckled.
"My point is, someone like me needs to be versatile." Leonard went on. "I can also use weapons like swords, knifes and even clubs, with one or both hands and I can accurately shoot almost every type of gun."
"I'm kinda scared now." Bridget shuddered. "Just for curiosity's sake, if you had to, how many ways would you know how to kill me, lets say with stuff from this room?"
"That's kinda morbid." Leonard commented.
"I know but I'm curious." Bridget shrugged.
"Just by looking around and knowing what's in the drawers, I can see five ways of killing you." Leonard said after looking around.
"Only five?" Bridget was surprised.
"Well, I count several things as one way." Leonard shrugged. "Cutlery, which is spoons, forks and knives, furniture, which is the table or one of the chairs, the dishes, so plates and whatnot, pots and pans is counted as one and of course, the lamp."
"The lamp?" Penny wondered, looking at the light source above them. "How?"
"I can either use the light bulb by smashing it and using a shard to cut open your aorta or wrists or even cut your throat or take out the bulb and use the power cords to electrocute you."
"Jesus." Penny gasped.
"Well, now that I'm properly scared to death, I have to get back home." Bridget announced and got up. "Me and Josh are supposed to be at his parents' for lunch."
"You're not staying for breakfast?" Penny asked.
"I already ate." Bridget told her and went to hug her sister. "Nice catch."
"Ah, thanks?" Penny replied to her sister's whispered words. "What do you mean?"
"Him." she leaned her head into Leonard's direction. "Be careful not to break him while he's not healed yet."
"Bridget!" Penny hissed. "I wont."
"Bye mom." Bridget hugged her mother as well.
"Don't forget to say goodbye to your dad." Meryl told her.
"Will do." Bridget nodded and went out the back door to say goodbye to her dad as well, finding him in on the yard, tending to his tractor. "Bye dad."
"You're leaving?" Wyatt asked, accepting Bridget's hug.
"Yeah, Josh and me are going to his parents for lunch." Bridget confirmed.
"Drive safe, honey." Wyatt said when he released her. "Before you go, what's your opinion about our guest?"
"I think he'll be good for Penny." Bridget shrugged.
"What do you mean?" Wyatt looked at her confused. "Are they...?"
"Oh yes." Bridget giggled. "If you weren't such a heavy sleeper, you'd know what I mean."
"Alright." Wyatt rolled his eyes. "But if that's such a good idea given what Penny had gone through?"
"I think so." Bridget nodded. "First, she chose him, he didn't force himself on her. And second, I firmly believe that he will treat her as an equal and not a piece of meat to use as he sees fit."
"I talked with your mom last night and she thinks that Penny wants to go with him, to do what he does." Wyatt said.
"I kinda get that feeling too." Bridget nodded. "Again, it would be her choice. You know how stubborn the women in this family can be."
"Yeah, the only way to stop her would be to tie her up." Wyatt sighed. "Alright, thanks honey."
"Bye dad!" Bridget yelled as she walked away, past the house instead of through it to get to her car.
"Penny, you want to get dressed?" Meryl suggested, making Penny aware that she was still clad in her clothes from the day before without underwear. "I'll make you some breakfast then."
"Yeah, sure, be right back." she nodded and left them alone.
"Leonard, what do you think about Penny wanting to learn what you do?" Meryl asked him point blank.
"I tried to talk her out of it, she wouldn't budge." Leonard shrugged.
"You could still refuse and leave." Meryl suggested. "Even though it would hurt her feelings."
"Frankly, I think she would find me wherever I go." Leonard chuckled sadly. "And she seems too determined."
"She is." Meryl sighed.
"So, would you rather have me train her or that she tries to emulate me without any training at all?"
"I hate that that makes sense." Meryl put her hands over her face. "How will you do that?"
"I don't do it at all." Leonard said. "For the physical fighting and weapons training, I'll bring her to the man who taught me everything. Then to some associates of mine for the rest."
"And what will you do in the meantime?"
"Once I've healed properly, I'll do what I always did." Leonard shrugged again. "There are still a lot of bad people in the world that others want to see dead."
"Do you always kill your targets?"
"Usually, yes." Leonard nodded. "But sometimes, destroying someone's reputation is a worse punishment than death could ever be."
"Why do you do it anyway?"
"Because as it turned out, I'm really good at it." Leonard shrugged once more. "I don't enjoy my work but I do it well and it's a necessary evil. There are aspects of my work that most people hate, for example when rich people have their ex-wives killed to save alimony or to prevent having to hand over half their assets but in my opinion, the other part of what we do equalizes it."
"Did you ever do one of those jobs?" Meryl asked.
"Yes, once, right at the beginning of my career, so to speak." Leonard nodded. "After that, I had to kill the husband as well because he tried to kill me to tie up loose ends. Since then, I took jobs that killed people who really deserve it and ignored the others."
"Given how much money you've given my daughter, I guess your job pays well." Meryl mused.
"That depends on the person who orders the mission." Leonard told her. "I once did a job that was listed for fifteen dollars and twenty-four cents."
"What?" Meryl couldn't stop herself from laughing at that number. "Who would offer that weird amount?"
"An eleven year old girl." Leonard replied, surprising her. "Somehow she had found her way to our message boards and she had a grievance because a, quote, 'bad man had killed her dog', end quote. I had my friend dive into that to find out what was going on and it turned out, there was a man who enjoyed torturing and killing the pets of the people living in his neighborhood."
"What did you do to him?"
"He was savaged by wild dogs which they never found." Leonard smiled evasively.
"Savaged how?" Meryl asked, not sure if she wanted to know.
"He doesn't have hands anymore. Or a penis. And only one foot left." Leonard shrugged. "Bitten off."
"Ouch!" Meryl gasped. "How can he live without a penis? How does he pee?"
"Oh, as far as I know, they surgically attached a small hose for that."
"Yikes!"
"I also had a message sent to the girl to keep her money." Leonard added. "And to forget how she got on the board."
"Alright, done." Penny said proudly, now fully dressed with fresh underwear and fresh clothes.
"Why don't you two go out for breakfast?" Mery suggested.
"Hey, good idea." Penny smiled and turned to Leonard. "You in?"
"I'm game if you drive." he nodded.
"Certainly." Penny giggled and grabbed the keys. "Come on!"
"Wow, she must be hungry." Leonard chuckled.
"I doubt she wants you to hurry because she wants to get food." Meryl winked and watched them leave.
"So, what type of breakfast guy are you?" she asked as she started driving. "Bacon and eggs or more towards waffles?"
"Not what you want to hear, but I rarely care." he shrugged.
"What kind of breakfasts do these hotels offer that are geared towards you?"
"That depends on the location." he said. "The best I had was in Prague. Banana bread with peanut butter, banana slices, pomegranate, walnuts and maple syrup."
"That sounds... weird." Penny admitted. "Never thought about that. What was your worst?"
"Some gruel I think they added bugs into for protein."
"Ew!" she made a grossed face. "Where?"
"Colombian jungle." he chuckled. "Had to eat something."
"What were you doing in the Colombian jungle?" she wanted to know.
"Hunting."
"What, some animal?" she wondered.
"So to speak." he nodded. "A particularly savage Farc rebel cell. They had slaughtered an entire village because the people refused to support them. They took some of the young women and girls as their personal slaves and toys, killed everyone else."
"Oh my god!" she whispered in shock. "How many rebels?"
"Eighty-four."
"Wait, you're telling me that you killed eighty-four people by yourself?" Penny was disbelieving. "Who were, I assume, heavily armed?"
"No, there were five of us." he shook his head, his gaze forward in his remembrance.
"How did they die?" she asked, not sure if she even wanted to know.
"Violently." he sighed. "And slowly."
"Not your usual way, I guess?"
"No." he confirmed. "But when we saw the dead villagers... especially the mothers clutching their babies who were killed as well... we snapped. We searched for the cell, for four days and nights, found them and made a plan. When they went to sleep, we killed the guards, freed the captives and then proceeded to paralyze the rest of the rebels with neurotoxin."
"And then what?"
"We cut off their hands and feet, cauterized the stumps so they wouldn't bleed out, bound their bodies to logs and then released a swarm of army ants." he said quietly. "Their screams could be heard for three days as they were eaten by the ants and whatever animal was lured in by the smell of blood and charred flesh. We had also hung a sign close by, telling everyone what we did it as a warning to other rebels."
"Um... we're here." she said, stopping at the diner she had driven them to.
"Lets eat." he smiled and got out of the car.
"I kinda lost my appetite a bit." she squirmed but got out anyway.
She thought about what he told her and her idea to learn it as well. From what she'd heard, she knew that this particular strategy wasn't Leonard's usual way of taking out his targets but hearing what they had found made her wonder how she would react if she ever had a similar job and found the victims of the target or targets and if they included babies. She'd probably want to make these people hurt as well. She followed him into the diner where Leonard had already gotten a table of two. She sat down across from him and smiled at him as a waitress approached them.
"Good morning." she greeted them. "Do you need menus or do you know what you want?"
"I'll have a grand slam number two, with extra bacon, extra eggs and a side of hash browns and a large cup of hot chocolate without whipped cream." Leonard ordered after looking at the menu boards behind the bar.
"I'll take the crepe special number three." Penny chose. "And a large coffee."
"You take cream in your coffee?"
"No, just sugar." Penny shook her head.
"Coming right up." the waitress said and left them alone.
"What's crepe special number three?" Leonard asked her.
"Over there." she pointed to the choices on the wall. "It's a large crepe with cheese, two sausages, two cut tomatoes, bacon and scrambled eggs. They roll it up and you can eat it."
"Interesting." he said.
"Seriously, do you always eat that much food for breakfast?" she wondered about his order.
"Only if I'm not on a job. On free days like today, I eat that much to get fuel into my body for my training later." he explained.
"Why not on jobs?"
"Given what I do, I need to eat light." he told her. "The last thing you want is throwing up because you exerted yourself after a big meal."
"How much training can you do with your injuries?" she wanted to know. "And how much do you train in general?"
"I can do some things even impaired, but not my usual." he shrugged. "Not to mention that I'm not in my home with my private gym where I would have a three hour training routine."
"You have your own gym?" she was surprised, seeing him look around as if gauging if anyone was listening.
"I gave you five million dollars, you shouldn't be shocked that I have my own gym." he said quietly.
"Well, when you put it like that." she chuckled, feeling a bit stupid.
"There you go." the waitress announced, putting the plates down. "Enjoy your meal."
"Thank you." Leonard nodded at her and began eating, looking at Penny's meal. "How do they get the cheese on the crepe like that?"
"They spread grated cheese out on it, use a blowtorch to heat it so it melts against the crepe, then they put the sausages, tomatoes and bacon on it and then they wrap it." she explained her meal before grabbing it and taking her first bite.
"So, you're eating it like a burrito." Leonard chuckled, while Penny gobbled down her food. "It looks as if you're eating an octopus."
"What?" she mumbled, her mouth full and looked down at her food where the two sausages were sticking out the bottom before continuing to eat.
"Is it weird for me to say that seeing you eat like this, I want to take you right here on this table?" Leonard laughed.
"What, me eating like a pig turns you on?" she grinned.
"Kinda, yeah." he admitted. "It's refreshing that a beautiful woman doesn't care how she looks when eating."
"Bad experience?"
"Yeah, some." he nodded. "I had a dinner during a job with some rich people and boy, was that a dull affair."
"Do tell." she giggled.
"The women were all eating salad and they did that in such paltry forkfuls that I thought their salads would wither before they finished it. The men had all some form of meat but ate around it." he told her. "And when I cut a part of my steak and ate it, they looked at me as if I had grown two heads."
"Why?" she wondered. "It was a dinner, right?"
"I think the hostess was a vegan and didn't like anyone that ate meat. That's why the men only ate around it." he replied. "Why they had meat on the plates in the first place, I really don't know."
"Was she your target?"
"No, one of her other guests."
"How did you... you know?"
"Garlic." he winked.
"What, was he a vampire?" she laughed.
"No, allergic. Some garlic injected into the hot sauce he liked to use on his chicken wings and replacing the contents of his epipen with water and he... was done quickly." he told her, mindful of the people around them.
"You know, I never knew there were so many ways to... you know."
"You'd be surprised." he winked at her and finished his food.
"Do you drink coffee?" Penny looked at his hot chocolate.
"I never liked the taste." he said. "I drink it if there's nothing else but I try to drink tea or hot chocolate or juice or water."
"Given how little you seem to sleep, I'd have thought you drank that by the gallon each day." she chuckled.
"No, I conditioned my body to be fine with four hours of sleep at night. More than that is luxury." he told her. "And there's a reason for not drinking too much coffee."
"And that is?"
"If you have a few days without it, you get bad headaches."
"That's true." she conceded and emptied her cup, putting it on the empty plate. "Done."
"Me too." he nodded and mentioned for the waitress to come by.
"You guys done?" the waitress asked her mandatory question. "Need something else?"
"The check, please." Leonard smiled at her.
"Coming right up." the waitress smiled at them and left with the empty plates, returning with the bill two minutes later. "There you go."
"Thank you." Leonard said and handed her a couple of bills, Penny knowing that they included a gracious tip.
"You folks have a nice day." the waitress suddenly became even more friendly than she already had been.
"You too." Leonard smiled at her and they left the diner. "We need to go back to my hotel."
"Already tired of bunking with my family?" she joked but felt trepidation.
"No, but I need some more things and my room lease runs out today as well." he explained.
"Sure."
They got into the truck and Penny began driving again. She thought about how to approach her desire to go with him and while she was feeling that he had warmed up to the idea, she still had no clue as to how to ask him properly and also, how it would even work. Would he even have the time to properly train her, given what he did for a living and how it apparently moved him around the world? Her train of thought was stopped when they reached the hotel, Leonard getting out and Penny following him.
"Ah, Mister Hofstadter." the receptionist greeted him, surprising Penny since she hadn't even known his last name before now. "We thought something might have happened to you."
"No, everything's fine." Leonard smiled at the man.
"We heard of the... unfortunate event that happened." the man hinted at the explosion and the subsequent events.
"Yes, that was... unexpected." Leonard admitted.
"Will you need the room for longer?"
"Yes, one more day at least." Leonard nodded, pushing one of the gold coins he had produced from somewhere to the man who took it and put it into his pocket.
"Then I hope you continue to enjoy your stay." the man said and eyed Penny, and she could see that he remembered her. "Miss."
"Thank you." Penny said, unsure what to say.
They rode the elevator up in silence, exiting on the sixth floor and walking to room twelve. Leonard unlocked the door and both went in, Penny staying in the middle of the room while Leonard discarded his borrowed clothes, grabbing some fresh clothes from his own luggage and donning it. He opened one of his suitcases and unlocked the secret bottom, revealing a row of knifes and more of those coins he uses to pay for things, taking out a small bag and producing an ointment that he rubbed on the wound.
"Leonard?" she spoke up, deciding that this was the best chance.
"Yes?" he looked at her and stood up.
"I want to stay with you." she said as he closed in on her.
"I know." he nodded.
"I want to learn what you do." she added.
"I know." he sighed as he reached her.
"Will you teach me?" she asked, feeling heat going into her abdomen from his close proximity.
"No." he shook his head and her heart sunk. "But I will take you to the man who taught me how to fight and kill."
"You will?" she gasped, her heart leaping back up. "But why won't you do it?"
"Because he can teach better than I can and he also won't have an emotional attachment to you, so he will be unbiased." he told her. "And he will make sure that you are in fact capable of actually killing a person. Saying you can and really doing it are two different things."
"I did shoot the guy who attacked you." she argued.
"Not in cold blood." he retorted. "You were in the heat of the moment and I would like to believe you did it because you cared for me."
"I do care for you." she confirmed, putting her arms around his neck.
"And I care for you and that's why I can't train you." he said.
"I understand." she nodded. "I will prove to you that I have what it takes."
"We will see." he accepted and let her kiss him.
Penny smiled into the kiss when Leonard picked her up and carried her to the bed.
Alright, finished with that one. Hope you enjoyed :D
Review please :)
