Geez, I'm busy these days. Writing really has to take a backseat. My grandma moved three floors down last week and since my aunt and uncle are lazy asses, me, my sister and my parents had to help her with the move. So I had to go there after work and rip out all the carpets from the old rooms and bring them downstairs to the bulk waste pile as well as all the wall and ceiling panels. And the next few days, I learned that I'm getting old and was unused to climbing stairs when my legs were burning and my shoulders were killing me.
Richard76310: Keep reading, then you'll see which other characters will appear ^^
Enjoy :)
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters that appeared in the show.
Disclaimer2: Using terribleWaitress's characters for Penny's family again, because I'm used to them.
"Morning, cute ass." Penny grinned after opening her eyes, seeing Leonard move around in a dim light she never knew she had. "What's with the light?"
"It's a bell luminator." Leonard pointed to the device on her room table, which looked like one of those old bell from an old hotel reception, although it was glowing. "It can be set to a certain lumen to avoid blinding in the morning."
"Cool, more of your assassin toys?"
"No, more like a gift from a friend." Leonard chuckled. "Someone very versed in engineering."
"What time is it?" she asked, turning onto her back and stretching her arms over her head.
"Four in the morning." he told her.
"Ugh!" she groaned, pulling the blanket over her head. "Leonard, why are you getting dressed?"
"Going on a run." he shrugged, making her look again and seeing him in sweat clothes.
"At four in the morning?"
"I did explain my sleep routine to you, didn't I?" he smirked at her.
"Don't get sassy." she pointed a finger. "How will you even run in the dark over a field that you don't know nothing about?"
"Well, your backyard is clear all the way to the edge of the field, so plenty of room to run, if only just in a wide circle." he shrugged. "I can also run up and down the street."
"Okay." she accepted.
"You... wanna come with me?" he asked.
"Leonard, there's one thing you need to know about me, I don't get up at four if I don't have to." she chuckled and pulled the blanket back over her head. "Now turn off that light, I want darkness."
"Yes, dear." he said through pouted lips, his humor audible.
"I can hear you smirk." she replied, her voice muffled by the blanket.
Leonard whistled and both dogs jumped up, following him out. He first went out the backdoor, running a few laps around the yard before deciding that the road was a better solution. He exited out of the front gate and chose the left direction, running until reaching an intersection and turning around there to run into the other direction.
Major and Tyson easily kept up with him, both trotting along, not quite running but also not walking. Leonard did six runs of the road back and forth, totaling eleven miles before returning to the house, his inner clothes soaked with sweat while his outer clothes were covered with a thin coating of snow and frost, his moist breath having frosted over on his face. Still, he enjoyed running in the crisp morning air, the coolness making his lungs burn and feel the exertion even more.
"You look like one of those guys on TV that do arctic expeditions." Meryl joked as he passed the kitchen.
"You're up early." he remarked.
"Of course, Wyatt has to take care of the animals and I'm making breakfast." Meryl shrugged. "Any special breakfast wishes?"
"Not really." Leonard shrugged. "Do you have some meat or kibble for these two?"
"No kibble, but we do have some leftover turkey." Meryl smiled, scratching Major's chin.
"Me and Penny will go into town today to get some dog food for the next two weeks." Leonard told her. "But if you want to use the leftover turkey for something, you don't have to give it to the dogs, they eat any other kind of meat as well."
"It's okay, on Christmas we usually make a stew, and the turkey is not required for it." Meryl said. "Where's Penny?"
"Well, she did wake up when I got dressed she said, and I quote, I don't get up at four if I don't have to, end quote but what she really said was 'get out, I wanna sleep'." he chuckled.
"Yeah, Penny was never really a morning person." Meryl nodded. "But really, even though me and Wyatt get up early every morning, I too can't fathom how you function on four hours of sleep without caffeine."
"Well, the tea I usually drink has similar properties as caffeine without being caffeine." Leonard shrugged. "Other than that, it's conditioning. Though I do sleep longer than four hours when I don't feel well."
"Does that happen often?"
"No, I keep myself in good shape, which helps fight off diseases." Leonard said.
"By the way, how are you feeling?" Meryl asked, pointing to Leonard's hip.
"Oh, that's fine, just one more thing that adds to the aches that plague me." Leonard replied.
"Is that a big problem?"
"It's mostly phantom pain." Leonard explained. "When you get shot or stabbed and something reminds you of that, you sometimes feel a residual pain in the wound or wounds."
"That still sounds horrible." Meryl sighed. "Your job doesn't seem good for your health."
"But is it different from people who work in labor intensive jobs and end up with bad backs that will bring them pain for the rest of their lives?" Leonard retorted. "I mean, one small misstep and your husband could end up with a back injury for live."
"You know how maddening it is when you deflate my arguments with logic?" Meryl chuckled sadly.
"Good morning." Albert interrupted them, entering the kitchen.
"Hey dad." Leonard smiled at his father. "How did you sleep?"
"Normally." Albert shrugged.
"Really?" Meryl was surprised. "I always had problem in the first night when sleeping in a new bed."
"When you had nights sleeping on the ground, you quickly get used to sleeping on strange surfaces." Albert smiled.
"Wow, everyone's up early." an appearing Wyatt remarked. "Morning."
"Good morning, Wyatt." Albert nodded to his host, noticing his dirty work clothes. "I guess the work of a farmer never stops."
"Not for a day." Wyatt chuckled. "Though in winter, it's a little less because there's no wheat fields to care for, only the animals."
"What kind of animals do you have anyway?" Albert wanted to know.
" A bunch of cows, some pigs and a few horses." Wyatt replied.
"That's... a handful, I'd guess."
"Well, it's not like ranchers who have hundreds of animals." Wyatt shrugged. "The cows are mostly for our own dairy and occasional meat, the pigs are a way to get rid of garbage and occasional meat and the horses are used by my wife to teach kids to ride."
"Oh, I didn't know you offered riding lessons." Leonard threw in.
"You want some lessons?" Meryl grinned.
"No need, I can ride a horse." Leonard chuckled. "I literally learned on the job."
"Wait, during one of your... missions, you learned to ride a horse?" Wyatt was confused.
"Yes, without a saddle even." Leonard confirmed. "When you have to make a quick getaway, you take whatever form of transportation is available. In my case, it was a horse."
"How did you steer it without a saddle?" Meryl wondered.
"Grabbed its mane and pulled." he shrugged. "Worked as well as it could have and I got away."
"Riding a horse once doesn't make you an equestrian though." Meryl pointed out.
"Never said I was, but I did take some more lessons after that job, just to be prepared if it ever happened again." Leonard said. "But so far, I never had to use one again to flee a scene."
"Then how do you usually flee a scene?" Wyatt wanted to know.
"Usually I don't flee at all, I simply walk away or I have been away for a while when the target dies." Leonard told him. "If you have to flee, that means something went wrong."
"Not making many mistakes, I guess?"
"In our business, making mistakes gets you caught or killed." Albert threw in.
"Did you do the same kind of jobs as Leonard?" Meryl asked.
"Sure, though I had it both easier and harder." Albert nodded. "Harder because today's technology makes it easier to take out a target. Easier because today's technology makes it harder to approach a target or get away undetected."
"Albert, I wanna ask you something." Meryl said. "Leonard just ran for an hour, I guess, but how do you keep in shape? Penny mentioned that you could easily keep up with her when you trained."
"Except the running, my knees don't allow that anymore." Albert chuckled. "I use home trainers, like stationary bikes or elliptical trainers. I even have one you can use while sitting on your couch."
"Really?" Meryl was surprised. "How does that work?"
"It's like the lower half of a bicycle. You sit down like on a bicycle seat and you start pedaling."
"That sounds good, I might get one." Meryl mused.
"Why?" Wyatt wondered. "It's not as if you need one."
"Look at you, giving me compliments." Meryl laughed. "Now go wash up, breakfast is almost ready."
"Yes, dear." Wyatt chuckled and left to get cleaned from his farm work.
"Morning." a yawning Penny greeted them. "I'm hungry."
"Hi Hungry." Meryl retorted. "I'm Meryl."
"I..." Penny stammered, too tired to quickly comprehend the joke. "Jeez, mom, not before I had some coffee."
"Still funny though." Leonard chuckled.
"Leonard, my mom already likes you, no need to brown-nose."
"Why are you even up already?" Meryl asked her daughter.
"Because for better part of the year, I had to get up at five-thirty every morning and it's hard to unlearn that." Penny mumbled through her hands. "And a certain someone got up at four to go running and made too much noise getting dressed."
"You also shouldn't let your physical fitness slide." Albert told her.
"I'll go on my run after breakfast." Penny promised. "Where did you run?"
"I tried the backyard for a few laps but then went to the road, running back and forth between the two intersections." Leonard replied.
"So, pancakes for breakfast okay with everyone?" Meryl asked, looking at Leonard and Albert.
"No problem for me." Leonard shrugged.
"Same here." Albert confirmed.
Meryl set to work, mixing the batter and using two pans to quickly turn the liquid into flat discs. While they cooked, she set the table, placing dishes and cutlery on the table as well as maple syrup, powdered sugar, peanut butter and applesauce. The coffeemaker glugged the last of its water through the coffee powder inside the filter to create a hot dark liquid. Leonard opened the cupboard and grabbed the tea box, opening it and choosing a type before making room for Albert who also chose a bag.
A quick use of the water heater later and both had steaming cups of tea in front of them while Meryl, Wyatt and Penny drank coffee. Every ate two pancakes, Penny using the applesauce with powdered sugar while Albert ate his with maple syrup, which surprised Penny given that she had never seen him eat something that sweet. She stuck to peanut butter and applesauce, not wanting to get something too heavy into hear in order to not spoil her run later.
After she finished eating, she put on her jacket and running shoes as well as her headphones to listen to music, then left the house to get on the sidewalk to run along the road like Leonard did. Since the dogs had already run with Leonard, they didn't accompany her so Penny simply let her mind wander as she put one foot before the other, only using her concentration to turn around at the intersections.
She did ten runs, five into each direction, totaling ten miles and returned into the house, sweat pouring out of her forehead and making her skin extremely cold. She walked upstairs to get some new clothes and went to get a shower, locking the door this time to avoid someone walking in. To be honest, only to avoid Josh walking in in case he was already up, since everyone else had seen her naked at some point in her life already, though her dad walking in would also feel very awkward. Once clean, she got dressed and walked downstairs, finding her mom sitting in the living room and watching TV.
"Where are the others?" she asked her mother.
"Outside, your dad wanted to see what kind of shots Albert and Leonard are." Meryl replied.
"That must have been interesting." Penny chuckled and put on a jacket again to leave the house and go behind the barn area, where she and her dad used to shoot against an old concrete wall that Wyatt hanged targets on.
She found them together, Leonard and Albert discussing something while pointing at the targets and her dad sitting on an old barrel, his head in his hands.
"Hey dad." she called out. "What's going on?"
"These two." Wyatt pointed to the other two men. "They hit every shot in the ten ring."
"What did you expect?" Penny giggled.
"Slugger, are you as good as them?" Wyatt looked at her.
"I can hold my own." she nodded and walked over to Leonard, Wyatt following her.
She took her dad's gun and checked it before inserting a new magazine while Wyatt used spray paint to make a new target. She got into the stance she learned and took a deep breath before unloading the ten shots in the magazine in quick succession, her shots all going into the middle of the target, Penny laughing at how good a shot she had become.
"Jesus Christ!" Wyatt huffed. "That's insane."
"For the love of god, can't you do that later in the day?" Bridget yelled at them from her window, her window facing the area like Penny's did, though she and Josh were the only ones still in bed.
"Why, are we disturbing you during morning sex?" Penny yelled back, seeing her sister covering her upper body only with a blanket.
"Shut up!" Bridget shouted and slammed the window shut.
"She's apparently the same kind of morning person that Penny is." Leonard grinned.
"Hey, I was up at five-thirty." Penny argued.
"Not by choice though." Leonard winked. "Only by habit."
"Ugh." Penny huffed. "Leonard, it's eight, you wanna head to town to get the dog stuff?"
"Sure." he nodded. "Dad, you wanna come with?"
"Nah, you two go on." Albert waved them off.
"Mom, when is lunch?" Penny asked after doing a quick return to the house, while Leonard walked around the house, the two dogs with him.
"Noon-ish, twelve-thirty at the latest." Meryl told her.
"Leonard and I are heading into town to pick up some stuff for the dogs, do you need anything?"
"Actually, can you pick me up some whipped cream and... wait, I'll make a list." Meryl said and began writing some things down.
"Great, grocery shopping on Christmas." Penny sighed.
"Don't act as if you're bothered, you're going shopping anyway." Meryl smirked, handing Penny the piece of paper.
"We only wanted to go to a pet store." Penny chuckled and took the list, joining Leonard at the car. "Honey, we have to get some stuff from the grocery store too."
"No worries, just tell me where to go." Leonard shrugged and turned to his dogs. "You two, stay here and be good, and you'll get some treats, okay?"
The dogs both barked their approval and trotted back the way they came, around the house to the back area. Leonard unlocked the car and both got inside, Leonard starting the car and driving off to the instructions of Penny on where to go. Half an hour later, he stopped at the pet supply store in question, a pretty small corner store that didn't sell live animals, only food and other accessories for pets.
"Good morning and merry Christmas." a cheery young woman greeted them as they entered.
"Good morning." Penny smiled back.
"What can I do for you?" the woman asked.
"I need some bags of dog food for two dogs for about eight days." Leonard told her. "And some cans of wet food."
"What breed of dogs are we talking about?"
"Belgian Malinois." Leonard replied. "I need some food high in protein, vitamins and omega fatty acids."
"Um, we have three brands designed specifically for large breeds." the woman said, leading him to a shelf at the left wall where several brands were placed.
"I'll take this." Leonard said, holding the second of the three, that one having the best ratio of every ingredient. "Do you have more of them?"
"How many do you need?" the clerk asked.
"Two pound bags, two dogs, eight days." Leonard calculated. "I need four bags."
"Very good." the clerk nodded.
"How big are the cans of wet food?" Leonard asked. "And is it raw food like the dry food?"
"Of course." she nodded and led him to the wet food aisle.
"I'll take fourteen cans of this." Leonard said after perusing the offers, reading the ingredients.
"Why this?" Penny asked.
"It's one of the few that is really raw foods, which means no carbs, only proteins." Leonard explained.
"Are carbs bad for a dog?" Penny wondered.
"A dog's stomach is anatomically not designed to digest and ferment carbohydrates." Leonard told her. "Feeding dogs food containing lots of carbs can cause inflammation and other, more serious health conditions. That's why I hate that so many people buy kibble, where the main ingredient is carbs."
"Well, I don't hear that many reports of dogs dying from kibble." Penny mused.
"There's a difference between surviving and thriving." Leonard pointed out as he got out his wallet to pay for the food.
"The total comes to one hundred one dollars and eighty-two cents." the woman said after putting the numbers into her checkout.
"Keep the change." Leonard said after handing her six twenties.
"Thank you and have a good holiday." the woman smiled widely.
"You too." Penny smiled back and followed Leonard out, holding two of the four bags of dry food while Leonard carried the other two plus a large bag with the wet food.
"So, where to now for the grocery stuff?" Leonard asked after both had gotten back into the car.
"There's a store not far from here." Penny replied and pointed out the turns Leonard had to take.
"Holy shit!" Leonard gasped when they arrived at the parking lot of the store. "Why are so many people shopping on Christmas Eve?"
"Because people like to push things to do as far back as possible." Penny chuckled.
"So, what kind of stuff do we have to buy?" Leonard asked after he grabbed a shopping cart.
"Lets see." Penny unfolded the list. "Whipped cream, goose stock, a few boxes of dumplings, shredded red cabbage and some pies."
"So, did your mom buy anything but the goose for the Christmas dinner?" Leonard chuckled.
"I guess she didn't buy enough." Penny shrugged and put the boxes with the dumplings into the cart.
They pushed through the throng of people to get the goose stock, shredded cabbage and the pies. Leonard also took a few bags with vanilla sugar before moving towards the cool section. Penny was about to grab a few bottles of whipped cream when Leonard stopped her and got several cups of liquid cream and a block of butter.
"What's this for?" Penny asked.
"To make whipped cream." Leonard answered.
"But there are bottles of already made whipped cream back there." she pointed out.
"But when you make it yourself, you don't get all that sugar that the manufacturers put into theirs."
"Well, that's true." she accepted. "Though you may have to volunteer to make it since my mom is busy enough with preparing all the food for all the family members that are coming over tomorrow."
"No problem, it only takes a few minutes." he shrugged.
On their way to the checkout, Leonard went into the pet food isle and grabbed several bags of dog treats, all-meat sticks that looked like a stiff pepperoni. They stood in the line for almost ten minutes, the throng of people in front of them loading such large amounts groceries onto the conveyors that it looked as if the store would close for a month come Christmas. To her surprise, Leonard even paid for everything, reminding Penny that she didn't even bring money with her, her purse still at home. Come to think of it, she still needed to ask her parents where they had hidden her money.
"Ah, finally." Leonard sighed as they exited the store. "A second longer and I would have brought out the knifes and gone on a spree to make space."
"Don't be melodramatic." Penny huffed.
Leonard pushed the cart to the car where he put their purchases into the trunk. Penny then brought the cart back to where they got it before getting into the passenger seat again. Leonard drove them back to her parents' farm and as they walked onto the property, laden with bags, Penny saw the two dogs run circles in the enclosure where her dad usually let the pigs out to when it was warmer.
"We're back." Leonard announced their arrival, placing the non-dog food bags onto the kitchen table.
"Thanks." Meryl smiled at him and unpacked the bags. "Where's the whipped cream?"
"I bought liquid cream and butter, we can make the whipped cream ourselves." Leonard told her.
"Huh." Meryl hummed.
"Don't worry, I'll make it." Leonard chuckled.
"Hey Leonard, is there something wrong with your dogs?" Wyatt asked, pointing out of the window. "When I asked your dad, he just smiled."
"Oh, they're doing what their breed was bred to do." Leonard explained the dogs behavior. "They're herding dogs."
"But there aren't any animals to herd in there." Wyatt wondered.
"Doesn't matter." Leonard laughed and whistled loudly, both dogs' ears perking up before both ran back to the house.
Both canines made their feelings about their return clear, tails wagging, Tyson even jumping up to put his front paws against Penny's chest. Penny rubbed Tyson's head, keeping mostly to the chin and throat before taking one of the bags with treats, both dogs sitting down at attention and looking at the item in question.
Penny took two of the treats, squeezing them between her index- and middle finger as well as the ring- and pinkie finger respectively, then held them out and down for the dogs to take. They both closed in, sniffing at the treats before biting into them and pulling them out of her grasp. The treats were apparently very chewy because both dogs took several minutes to eat them instead of wolfing them down in a few seconds.
"Okay, time for lunch." Meryl announced and pointed to the others to sit down. "BRIDGET, LUNCH!"
"Coming, mom." Bridget called back from upstairs.
"Appearing is enough." Penny yelled, laughing.
"Yeah, yeah." Bridget huffed when she and her husband arrived downstairs. "Ah, I see you got some real food for them."
"Of course." Leonard nodded while he poured two cups of dry dog food into two bowls each, placing both on the floor so the dogs could eat too.
"Cabbage soup?" Bridget wrinkled her nose.
"As we always have on Christmas Eve." Meryl retorted. "Sit down."
"Yes, mom." Bridget obeyed and sat.
"Something smells good." an appearing Albert said. "Brings back memories."
"Which ones?" Wyatt was curious.
"A few trips to South Korea I had over the years." Albert chuckled. "My host there served Kimchi for almost every meal and it kinda smelled like this."
"What's Kimchi?" Bridget asked.
"It's fermented vegetables." Albert explained. "Mostly napa cabbage or radish. He also seasoned it with gochugaru, garlic, ginger and jeotgal."
"Okay, I understood two of those." Josh laughed. "And I run a restaurant."
"Sorry, force of habit." Albert chuckled. "Gochugaru is chili powder made from Korean peppers and jeotgal is salted seafood."
"You speak Korean?" Penny wondered.
"Just some." Albert sighed. "The problem is that you forget how to do it once you stop speaking it. I used to go to Korea town in various cities just to practice the language but that stopped when I moved to where I live now. That small town doesn't have a Korea town."
"Where do you live, anyway?" Bridget asked. "Penny only mentioned Vermont."
"It's a small town called Newport, a few miles away from the Canadian border." Albert told her. Me and Leonard live north of that town, close to the border."
"Do you live together?" Josh wanted to know.
"No, we're neighbors." Leonard shook his head. "Distant neighbors even, it's a few miles from me to him."
"Why?" Josh wondered. "Don't like neighbors?"
"Not really." Leonard admitted. "I like the quiet."
"Me too." Albert agreed. "It's tranquil."
"I can imagine." Bridget interjected. "Though getting takeout must be a pain."
"Neither of us eats takeout often." Albert said. "We both can cook."
"Penny, never let him go." Bridget laughed.
Penny only chuckled as Meryl ladled soup into her bowl, prompting her to eat. It tasted as good as ever when her mom made it, so she began to eat it faster, even taking a second helping. Albert and Leonard described their properties, both making sure not to mention too much, so Josh wouldn't become too suspicious about how a former private investigator and a systems analyst could afford to buy an entire forest.
"Bridge, when are you guys leaving?" Penny asked her sister. "Tomorrow morning or after the family dinner?"
"After the dinner." Bridget replied. "We're leaving in the evening so he can open the restaurant up in the morning."
"You offer breakfasts too?" Albert asked Josh.
"No, but lunch time begins at eleven." Josh shrugged. "And that means to be there at least an hour earlier to prepare everything. And since I really don't want to get up at six to drive home before that, I'd rather drive home in the evening and sleep in."
"I can understand that." Albert nodded.
After lunch, Josh and Bridget drove into town to spend some time there, giving Penny and Leonard the chance to do some combat training. Both dressed in sweats, they went through some techniques, Leonard's dad watching and sometimes giving advice while Penny's parents were looking on in awe at the skill both she and Leonard displayed.
"You taught them both?" Wyatt asked Albert.
"I did, yes." Albert nodded. "Though in the field, the fights are rarely that graceful or fair."
"What do you mean?" Meryl wondered.
"That one instance where Penny knocked Leonard down and then helped him back up?" he pointed out. "If that had been a real fight, she would have kicked him while he's down and probably killed him on the spot. This isn't like the movies where to combatants stay fair, it's life and death and the one who made the second-to-last mistake wins."
"And when you say these things, I start worrying about her again." Meryl sighed.
"If it helps, the number of people in our business who died during a job is less than ten since I started. And that's really just the young folks who don't know what staying under the radar means or they take jobs that are way over their heads." Albert said. "Me and Leonard, with what happened to us, we taught her that strategy and planning is key to avoid dying."
"What does that mean?" Wyatt asked.
"Look at Leonard's last job, you've seen him on TV. It took three months for him to do it and it required him to become another person." Albert described. "Even when his job is to end someone's life, he doesn't just go in and pulls the trigger, so to speak. He figures out how to do it and then makes it appear as a natural death, not only to avoid law enforcement looking to deep into the death but also to make it more acceptable for the family, if the target had one."
"How does that make it better?" Meryl was a bit indignant.
"Just imagine your husband being shot compared to him dying in a car accident due to a faulty break line that every engineer who is investigating it tells you was due to wear and tear and not sabotage." Albert coincidentally used the same example Leonard gave to Penny. "You would grieve, of course, but if he died in what you perceive as an accident, you may not feel as bad as knowing he was shot to death but not knowing why or by whom."
"I really don't want to think about these things." Meryl held her hand over her eyes. "I'm afraid that if I do, I will drive myself crazy."
As the afternoon went on, Wyatt continued to tend to the animals while Meryl returned to the kitchen to make the potato salad for the evening and started preparing the geese she would put into the oven the next day. As she worked, she could hear Penny and Leonard talking and laughing in the living room, and it again hit her how normal both Leonard and Albert were, given the profession that they had taken.
And for all her trepidation about Penny going into the same business, hearing those sounds calmed her down a bit and making the idea of Penny staying the good person she was even if she began to really start doing the work that Leonard already did.
Going to end this chapter here now. Work is crazy and I would otherwise not release this for another week
Review please :)
