Another one finished. Hurried a bit to get it out today, since I'll be busy next week looking for a new apartment. I need to get out of the building I'm currently in. Two cases of arson in the past two months, someone apparently got stabbed as well and the guy above me, a Syrian immigrant... damn that guy talks loud when he and his friends play video games.
Still, enjoy :)
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters that appeared in the show.
"Good afternoon." a smiling Leonard greeted her face when Penny opened her eyes.
"Hey." she smiled at him before his words sunk in. "Afternoon?"
"Easy, easy." he stopped her when she was about to sit up sharply. "You have a freshly sewn wound on your hip, remember?"
"Right." she remembered and slowly got into a sitting position. "Oh no, I really have to pee!"
She hurried into the bathroom and did her ablution with a sigh of relief. Once she was done, she drank some water from the tap and brushed her teeth before washing her face and neck. After removing the bandage, she checked out the wound and to her untrained eye, it looked fine, though it already began to itch.
"How are you feeling?" he asked once she returned to the main room.
"Better." she nodded as she sat back down on the bed. "What time is it? How long did I sleep?"
"A bit after three." he told her. "You slept for roughly thirteen hours."
"Why didn't you wake me up?" she wondered.
"You needed the sleep." he shrugged.
"What about the tailor?" she asked. "The guy at the reception said she would be here at ten."
"She was here and left you some clothes." he pointed to the couch, where she saw several fresh clothing items.
"Neat." she was impressed and got up. "Can you help me shower?"
"Sure." he nodded again and followed her into the bathroom.
She took off her underwear and stepped into the shower stall. Before she turned on the water, Leonard removed the old bandages and used a new cloth to carefully clean the wound before putting a new bandage on, which he covered with plastic foil. Once the wound was protected, she turned on the tap, letting the warm water run over her body. Leonard helped her with her back and every other spot she couldn't reach due to her current limitations and after ten minutes, she was cleaned and refreshed.
After drying off, she returned into the main room and checked out the clothing the tailor had left for her. It was nothing fancy, some underwear and a bra, a loose button-down shirt, an equally loose jacket and some comfortable sweatpants. She noted that none of the clothes required her to lift her arms over her head to put on, and she smiled at Leonard's consideration of choosing them for her.
"You want something to eat?" he wanted to know.
"Yes, please." she nodded.
While he ordered room service, she got dressed, working slowly and taking special care not to overstretch when she put on the socks. Two minutes later, she was properly dressed and sat down on the couch, waiting for Leonard to put the phone back down so she could ask her the question that had been on her mind since the night before.
"Why were you there?" she asked him directly.
"What?" he looked confused.
"Your dad and you said that I had to do the exam alone." she pointed out. "So, why were you there?"
"I was there for the very reason that I had to be there." he said, a bit confusingly. "You did your exam alone, remember? I only stepped in when I saw that something you had no control over started happening."
"Does Albert know you're here?" she wanted to know.
"Who do you think sent me?" he chuckled. "Normally, the duty of overwatch falls to the trainer of the assassin but since my dad isn't in his best years anymore, he asked me to take his place."
"So when an assassin runs into trouble on his or her exam, the trainer helps them out?"
"Only when that trouble is something that the examinee has no control over." he repeated. "That's why the examinees aren't told that they're being observed, because it could lead to them becoming careless."
"What does that mean?" she didn't understand.
"So, if you had run into trouble because of bad preparation, for example by not scouting out the location or not making sure how many people you might face, then this is something that you had control over." he explained. "But another gang attacking your target is something you can't find out beforehand by observing the target gang. It's like you making plans for taking out a target, do everything correctly and on the day and time you chose, a tornado comes down and ruins your plans completely."
"So, if those guys had been in the same gang, you couldn't have helped?"
"No." he shook his head but she could see his relief that it hadn't come to that.
"Even though it might have cost me my life?" she asked point blank.
"Let me put it this way." he sighed. "I would have been forbidden from helping you. The rules of the organization are clear about it. If you had run into trouble due to lack of preparation, I couldn't have helped you because it would have been your fault for being in that situation."
"I see." she took a deep breath, realizing how close she had come to getting killed.
"Unofficially speaking though, a horde of wild horses couldn't have stopped me from helping you." he added. "I don't care what the organization says, I wouldn't have been able to just sit there and watch the woman I love get killed."
"I love you too." she smiled widely, her stomach churning with a million butterflies at hearing those words again.
Before she could kiss him, however, a knock on the door announced the arrival of room service and Leonard went and picked it up. Knowing him, he had surely chosen food items that improved wound healing and when he set the tray down on the table, she saw scrambled eggs with what looked like broccoli mixed into it, as well as a chicken salad with assorted nuts and some dressing. A can of herbal tea rounded out the meal and without hesitation, she began to eat.
"But at least now I know that your dogs are more than just companions." she mentioned, looking at the two animals.
"Yeah." he chuckled, running his hand over Major's head. "Another reason why I kept them. Malignoi are great fighting dogs. That's why the military uses them too."
"So, what happens now?" she wanted to know while she ate.
"First thing we do is take two million dollars of your money and exchange it for coins." he told her. "Then you will receive some of your standard gear and you will have to get measured so Howard can make you some proper bodygloves."
"Cool." she grinned. "I bet my ass will look killer in that thing."
"I'm sure it will." he chuckled. "Your boobs will also fill it out quite nicely."
"Pig." she playfully poked out her tongue but the memory of her hesitation made her face fall again.
"What's going on?" he asked, having seen her sudden change in mood.
"I have a confession to make." she sighed, a tear forming in her eye. "I almost walked away from the job."
"Because you couldn't bring yourself to kill someone." he stated but she heard it as a question.
"Yeah." she nodded. "I walked away but then I found a girl they had tied up and used for sex. Raped her daily. Seeing her, I saw red. I cut her loose and then I killed them all."
"Whatever helps." he shrugged, surprising her with his apparent indifference.
"Are you not mad?" she wondered. "Or at least surprised?"
"I told dad that I didn't know if you could bring yourself to kill someone in cold blood." the told her. "And even though you had this lapse, you still finished your job."
"But it only worked because I got mad." she argued.
"As I said, whatever helps." he repeated. "Remember when I told you that nobody should like doing this kind of work?"
"Yeah." she nodded.
"How do you think I started out?" he smiled sadly. "After me and dad killed the people responsible for the deaths of my mother and siblings and the others, I turned to civilian life. But a few years after that I became an official member of the organization, and I had to take the scraps that Archangel gave newbies. So whenever I had to kill someone, I had to imagine them being part of the group that killed Jenny and my family. It took half a dozen jobs before I learned to compartmentalize, to just do my job with the knowledge that I'm just the weapon, that I'm not killing them but my employers did."
"You're not mad?"
"Why would I?" he shrugged. "You finished the job. If you need to pretend that your target is a rapist in order to take them out, do it. Remember, we are the weapons in the hands of those who choose to wield them."
"That's very philosophical." she smiled. "Do I tell Albert?"
"If you want to but he won't tell you anything I haven't told you just now. Dad knew that you might hesitate when it comes to killing but since you got it done, he won't say anything that I haven't said already."
"I'm an assassin now." she said, almost barely able to believe it.
"You are." he winked at her. "Though you will now have to wait a few days before your fitting for the bodygloves."
"Why?" she wondered.
"You have a fresh wound on your hip, the bandage would mess with the measuring." he explained. "Wait a few more days and when the stitches are out, you can do the measuring and then Howard can get to work."
"Oh, alright." she nodded.
"Do you want to stay here a while longer?" he asked her once she finished eating. "Otherwise, we could leave now, we still have to get the car back."
"Wait." she said and turned on the TV, choosing the local news. "You think it's safe for us to go there? There's still a large police presence in the area."
"Howard is scrubbing our presence from the CCTV footage as we speak." he told her. "But you're right, I should go alone. Someone might have seen a couple running away from the scene with two large dogs."
"Or you could send Raj." she suggested.
"Or that." he nodded and took out his phone. "Hey Raj, it's me... I guess you have seen the news?... Yes, she's fine... Yes, she finished it successfully... Listen, the reason I'm calling is that we had to leave the car there, could you pick it up just in case someone might have told he police that they saw us running away from the area?... Thanks, Raj."
"He's going?" she looked at him.
"Yes." Leonard nodded and put his phone away before packing the leather pants and jacket that Penny had been wearing on her mission.
"What will you do with that?" she asked.
"Take it back, the leather is fine." he shrugged. "We can get rid of the shirt here, they'll burn it."
"Really?" she was surprised. "They do that?"
"Not usually, but they do anyway." he chuckled. "They really burn the bodies in the hotels, so a shirt is nothing."
"Wait, they burn bodies here?" she gasped.
"What did you think they'd do to the bodies the cleaners remove from scenes?"
"I thought they'd take them to a landfill somewhere or bury them." she said.
"There aren't too many bodies burned in the hotels." he told her. "When we do assassinations, we want the bodies to be found as proof."
"Then who lands there?"
"People like Kurt or Caspar and the crew he hired." he shrugged. "Those either few would miss, or those whose friends couldn't really go to the police for if they know why they disappeared."
"What do you mean?"
"Imagine you're the friend of one of the guys that Caspar hired and I kill them all. You could go to the police and issue a missing person's report." he explained. "However, imagine you know what your friend was doing last. Would you go to the police and say 'Hey, he went to that house to kill someone there'? Not only would you incriminate yourself because you knew that he was going to commit a crime but when the police searches the place, it will have been cleaned days ago."
"True." she conceded.
"Ready to go?" he asked.
"Yeah." she nodded, getting up slowly to avoid tearing her stitches.
Leonard grabbed the bags, which included their weapons and the dogs' backpacks as well as her leather outfit and as they left, he rolled the tray with their breakfast out into the hallway, putting a ten dollar bill on the tray. She wondered if that money would be taken by some other guest but she guessed that there was an unspoken rule that money on trays would be left where it is.
She had learned from Leonard that the hotel reserved certain floors for the assassins while others were free for regular customers. They took the elevator down and entered the lobby and were about to leave when the receptionist came running over to them.
"Excuse me, you're presence is requested downstairs." the man told them.
"Alright." Leonard nodded and turned to Penny. "I'll be back in a few minutes."
"I'm sorry, I was unclear." the receptionist interjected. "You are both expected downstairs."
"We are?" Leonard wondered and looked to the dogs. "What about..."
"I will keep an eye on them." the man nodded and Leonard gave him the leashes.
Leonard led her to the back and down a set of stairs until they reached a door without a handle on the outside but with a thin slot on the wall. Leonard took two silver coins and pushed them into the slot, the door opening and the doorman nodding before handing him the coins back. Penny could see in Leonard's surprised look that this was usually not done and she was surprised on her own when they were met with applause upon entering what she could see was a bar, almost two dozen people standing around and applauding.
"What's going on?" Leonard smiled.
"You don't think we would just let you walk out, do you?" Antoine came over, smiling. "It doesn't happen often that a new assassin joins our ranks."
"We would have come back later for the money exchange." Leonard chuckled.
"You can still do that." Antoine waved him off. "Welcome, I'm Antoine, the manager of this fine establishment."
"Penny." she introduced herself back.
"Welcome to our organization." Antoine said, in a bit of grandstanding. "You are now part of a worldwide group of people who help people seek justice when the system fails them."
"Or take out ex wives for greedy husbands or vice versa." Leonard mumbled under his breath.
"Hush, you." Antoine laughed.
"Congratulations, Penny."
"Thank you, Jeremy." Penny smiled, surprised at seeing him here.
"I'm sure you will make the organization proud." Lillian added, almost pushing Jeremy away. "I can still teach you my way of doing things."
"Over my dead body." Leonard rolled his eyes.
"I can arrange that." Lillian winked at him.
"Nah, I'm only doing that to Leonard but without poison." Penny giggled. "And certainly not with the goal of killing him."
"Antoine, can I talk to you for a minute?" Leonard asked and left to a booth while the other people in the room came forward to congratulate her.
"What do you need, my boy?" Antoine asked when they were in the booth.
"I just wanted to give you a heads-up, in a few days I will have a meeting with Robert McNamara." Leonard told him.
"And you will kill him?"
"I hope I don't have to but I might." Leonard sighed. "Do you know that he almost killed Ricardo?"
"No, I do not." Antoine said after a few seconds. "Almost?"
"He stabbed him but Aaron got him help quickly enough." Leonard said. "At least that's what Aaron told me when he came to me to tell me about Robert's plan."
"If you kill him, know that the organization stands behind you."
"Thanks, Antoine." Leonard shook his hand. "Is there a chance the organization would stand behind me when I have to deal with Kenta?"
"Why?"
"Turns out, a few days ago, he observed me and my dad and found out that I was behind the destruction of the criminal crew that was led by his boss's son." Leonard explained.
"But Kenta surely knows that you only did a job and that the real culprit would be the person who placed it, right?" Antoine was surprised.
"You would think but if what my dad told me is correct, then Kenta's boss doesn't care."
"Whatever happens, the organization will not get involved in that, no matter my own opinions on it." Antoine said.
"I know." Leonard chuckled. "By the way, remember when I asked you if you had enough coins on hand for a big exchange?"
"Yes, and we had them here since that day." Antoine smiled.
"You were that sure that she would succeed, without meeting her?" Leonard asked surprised.
"When your dad thinks someone could be an assassin and they pass his training, then yes." Antoine nodded. "Just come back at any time for the exchange and bring her with you, since she has to receive them."
"Will do." Leonard nodded, knowing how it works. "See you later, Antoine."
"So, I guess you will soon leave again?" Jeremy asked him when Leonard joined him and Penny.
"We'll be here for a few more days." Leonard replied. "Penny got injured during her exam and the wound has to heal before she can do her fitting. Then Howard still has to make her starting gear."
"I've seen it on the news, seemed to have been quite the harrowing experience." Jeremy stated. "But it shows that even a supposedly easy job can go very wrong when unforeseen things happen."
"Don't I know it." Penny chuckled.
"So, how are you, really?" Jeremy wanted to know.
"Still a little shaken." Penny admitted. "Before Leonard showed up, I kept thinking how I could have been so wrong in counting the amount of people."
"You helped her?" Jeremy looked at Leonard with alarm.
"Only when the shit hit the fan." Leonard clarified. "She finished the mission on her own."
"Good." Jeremy nodded. "Did you make the test for her?"
"No, my dad did, he's waiting at home."
"Wait, your father is here in Pasadena?" Jeremy was surprised. "Tell him to come by."
"Yes, why have I not learned that he's here." Lillian joined the conversation. "That old bastard should really be a bit more social with his fellow assassins. Especially me, given how I helped you guys."
"I'll tell him." Leonard laughed. "But you know how my dad is."
"Yeah, the old codger likes his quiet." Lillian grinned. "Still, he shouldn't forget his friends."
"I'll tell him to visit you both." Leonard promised.
They shook a few more hands and left the bar, Leonard getting the dogs while Penny waited. Upon exiting the building, Penny saw a heavy looking car waiting in front, the driver standing next to the doors and opening them. A look at Leonard confirmed for her that it was actually for them and he whistled, causing both dogs to hop onto the backseat, Penny following them in while Leonard got into the passenger seat.
Leonard gave him the address and the driver drove them to their apartment block without saying a word. After they arrived, Leonard handed him a hundred dollar bill while Penny got out and waved for the dogs to follow her. He unlocked the security door and in consideration for her injury, Leonard called the elevator down instead of going up the stairs like they usually did.
"WELCOME HOME!" a shout from several mouths greeted them when they entered their apartment.
"Jeez!" Penny cursed in shock, not having expected that. "Thank you."
"Congratulations, Penny." Albert smiled proudly. "I'm happy that Leonard's gut feeling was justified."
"Thank you, Albert." Penny smiled and received hugs from the others, grimacing in pain when Bernadette squeezed her wounded side with her arms.
"Easy." she pushed the diminutive blond away. "I got a small injury."
"Oh no, what happened?" Bernadette asked.
"Didn't you watch the news?" Leonard wondered.
"I mean, how did she get injured." Bernadette clarified.
"A bullet hit a shipping container and a piece went into my hip." Penny shrugged.
"So that's why you went to the hotel instead of coming home." Raj nodded. "We thought you did that to do some hardcore lovemaking without your dad in the next room."
"Thanks for that image." Albert grimaced.
"Why are you making a face about that?" Leonard chuckled. "You were the one telling me to have sex with her the night before her training."
"Hush, you." Albert waved him off.
"So, I think that means you will leave soon?" Sheldon actually looked sad asking this.
"We'll stay for a few more days, two weeks maybe." Leonard shrugged. "Penny has to heal first before she can get the measurements for the bodygloves."
"Penny, when do you want to start with your weapons?" Howard wanted to know.
"What do you mean?" she wondered. "Isn't a gun a gun?"
"There's guns and then there's guns that fit your hands like they're made for each other, with perfect grips, perfect trigger size and resistance and so on." Howard explained.
"How would this go?"
"We'll take laser measurements of your hands and fingers, test your grip strength, your way of holding guns and so on." Howard told her.
"Can we do that tomorrow?" Penny asked. "I don't know if I could stand around with weapons in my hands, given that the wound pulls when I lift my arm."
"Sure, no problem." Howard shrugged. "We can also do it when you're fully healed."
"That might be more prudent." Sheldon agreed.
"You just want Leonard to stay longer so you don't have to ask Leslie Winkle to create the experiments for your theories again." Bernadette smirked.
"Who's Leslie?" Penny wanted to know.
"She works in another lab close to Leonard's, I can't quite believe that you never met her." Raj said.
"Leslie is somewhat of a female Sheldon in some regards." Leonard told her. "She has a dry way of talking, comes over as emotionally cold but unlike him, she is somewhat promiscuous."
"Yep, even Howard got to tap that." Raj laughed.
"Long before I met Bernadette." Howard quickly added.
"Did you get to tap that?" Penny grinned at Leonard.
"Yes." Leonard admitted. "A few times."
"You did?" Howard gasped. "When?"
"Remember when Leslie asked me to play my cello in the university string quartet?"
"Wait, let me get this straight." Howard shook his head in disbelief. "When you guys played music in your apartment and the other two had left, Leslie let you play on her strings?"
"If you're asking if we had sex, then yes." Leonard said.
"And you don't have a problem with that?" Raj asked Penny.
"Why would I?" Penny shrugged. "It's not as if I was a virgin when we met. Quite the opposite given what I was doing before Leonard saved me from that life. And he's not playing her strings these days. Although I'm a bit disappointed that I learn only now that you play the cello as well."
"Come to think of it, I haven't seen Leslie at all since I came back, not even during lunchtime." Leonard said.
"To change the topic, how are we going to celebrate Penny's success?" Amy asked. "Strip club?"
"You want us to go watch men undress for a dollar?" Penny laughed. "I'm in!"
"Hey!" Leonard complained.
"I'm kidding." Penny grinned. "Not really though."
"Howie is a little self-conscious about me watching very fit men take off their clothes in front of me." Bernadette added, her fiance turning red in embarrassment.
"That sentiment goes both ways though." Howard added. "A few years ago, a colleague was having his bachelor party and we went to a strip club. Bernie blew a gasket when she found out."
"Please don't have this argument again." Raj pleaded just as Bernadette was breathing in to unload on Howard.
"Fine." Bernadette huffed. "We'll talk about this back home."
"Great." Howard sighed.
"There's another reason why you shouldn't go to a strip club." Albert interjected. "You are a beautiful woman, you would probably sit close to the stage and the stripper might be inclined to get you on it."
"So far that sounds exactly why women go to strip clubs." Penny giggled.
"Yes, but women usually don't have a freshly sewn wound on their hip." Albert said. "And getting pulled on a stage can easily tear the stitches and I doubt the stripper will do his dance around you while you are bleeding through your dress."
"Ugh, point taken." Penny begrudgingly accepted Albert's wisdom.
"How about we just have a quiet evening and allow you to heal?" Leonard suggested. "Allow Penny to heal and once she can do her fitting, we can talk about a celebration."
"Sounds good." Penny agreed. "Not to mention that Leonard has to deal with Robert too. When will that be?"
"Tomorrow, I'll go and look at the location that Yorinobu gave me." Albert said. "If Patrick or whatever underling he has in the city set a trap, it will go off on me and not on Leonard."
"Do you think that's a good idea?" Penny was worried.
"As I told Yorinobu, I lived a long life, so while I'm not looking forward to death, I'd rather it be me than my son." Albert stated.
"The last thing I want is you going there and dying." Leonard said. "This is my fight, not yours."
"Leonard, you're my son, of course this is my fight." Albert corrected him.
"Given that his brother threatened my family and would probably have killed them, it's my fight too." Penny interjected.
"Not in a million years." Leonard shook his head. "You're injured, the last thing I want is you being there."
"Guys, lets not talk about this now." Raj stopped the argument. "Lets just enjoy the occasion."
"Right, me and her have to go to the hotel anyway." Leonard agreed. "Oh, and dad, I was ordered to tell you to visit Jeremy Siebert and Lillian Mendoza while you're here."
"Alright, I will go to them." Albert chuckled.
As the group left the apartment, Leonard went into their bedroom to get the bag with the money. He counted the bundles and removed two million dollars from the pile, putting it into another gym bag. They left the dogs with Albert and took the car back to the hotel where they got out, the doorman again opening the door for them.
"We're here for the exchange." Leonard told the man behind the reception desk.
"He's waiting for you downstairs." the man nodded and grabbed the phone, presumable to call ahead.
They walked downstairs once more and were greeted with an open door, Leonard not having to put a coin into the slot. A few of the people present nodded at them, Penny recognizing them from earlier and Leonard led them towards a man sitting in a booth, who smiled warmly at them and who Penny had learned was called Antoine.
"There you are." Antoine smiled and got up. "So, you're here for the exchange?"
"Yes, brought the money." Leonard held up the bag.
"Then follow me." Antoine nodded and started walking towards the back area of the bar.
He put his hand on a pad, the device reading his hand print and a piece of wall opened, revealing a small room with an armed, and clearly muscular man sitting behind a desk, next to a woman. After the wall behind them had closed again, Leonard handed her the bag and the woman opened it, producing a money counting machine where she began to put the bills into. The entire process took a while, during which Antoine, Leonard and her stayed quite and Penny, for some reason, didn't even feel like talking as if the moment was too overwhelming to do so. When the woman was done, she nodded to Antoine who in turn nodded to the man.
The man got up and hit a button before he reached into his shirt and produced a key, Antoine doing the same. Both went to one of the two keyholes set in what was clearly a vault door and on a nod from the man, they turned the keys at the same time, a loud click announcing the unlocking.
The man pulled the door open, Penny seeing that it was at least ten inches of steel thick. Behind the door was a vault and Antoine led them inside, the woman following them with the bag of money in her hands. Penny could see rows upon rows of guns of all sizes and a smaller steel door that Antoine opened using another key and a complicated code, the door unlocking and swinging open on its own.
"Whoa." Penny gasped when she saw what was inside.
"So, my question if there were enough coins here was kind of moot." Leonard chuckled.
"You could say that." Antoine laughed.
Several rows of golden and silver coins greeted them as well as large stacks of cash money and Penny was surprised that the light above the shelves wasn't reflecting on the coins. The woman began to place the cash money into the shelves while Antoine produced a large box, lifting the lid and taking out an inside piece to reveal a second layer of what Penny could see was coin holding slots.
Antoine reached into the coin shelves, taking out entire stacks and counting them before placing them inside the box. This process took even longer than counting the cash but after a while, and with Leonard helping, the box was soon full of golden coins. They repeated the process with another box which they filled with silver coins and after that was over with as well, Antoine closing the lids and locking them before handing her the keys.
"You might want to put the coins into other boxes once you're home." Antoine told her. "These are heavy."
"Wow, they really are." Penny agreed when she lifted the box with the silver coins. "How heavy is this?"
"A bit over thirty pounds." Leonard told her as he took the other box. "This one as well."
"Jeez." Penny made a face and followed the two men back out, the woman having already left when her job was done.
Once they were out, the large man closed the vault door again and then Antoine reopened the wall door so they could leave the room. They carried the boxes through the bar and to their car, which they entered again so he could drive them home.
She wondered how many coins Leonard had in his home. When they got back to Vermont, she would make him show her.
Ending the chapter here. Next week, I'm having my final week of vacation this year, though no travels due to me being busy. If anyone wonders why I write that so often, yes, I do have 30 days of paid vacation every year, which equates to a total of six weeks ^^
Review please :)
