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Topic Started: May 25 2012, 06:27:45 PM (219 Views)
Penelope Lester
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*Laney; s:t | w:p
12 May 2039
Thursday
Late Afternoon

Lex was watching Penelope carefully. The news had finally reached the Department of Mysteries. They were difficult to contact. Someone had to come in person, and even that wasn’t easy. He tried to send her home, for as long as she needed.

“No. I’m fine. I just need a drink.” That was a lie. An elephant was sitting on her chest. She struggled to breath. She took a couple of deep breaths, but she couldn’t get enough air.

“Let me get it,” said the man who had unknowingly harbored PJ for a couple of days when she was eighteen. He’d known them both growing up, and he had reverted back to dad mode from boss mode. As far as he was concerned, Penelope was, for the moment, just a girl. She was not a highly skilled Unspeakable a hair’s breadth from something huge.

“I can get it,” she argued stubbornly. She stood up, but her vision went black. She flopped back down in the chair, huffing in frustration. She blinked a couple of times before she could see again.

“Here,” he told her, putting her hand over her mouth. He was nearly positive that she was hyperventilating. Hands were nearly as good as paper bags in a pinch. “Sit. Don’t get up. I’ll be back,” he told her. He prayed that the arms of the chair would be enough to keep her from falling out of it. He didn’t want to leave her alone in his office, but he didn’t want anybody gawking at her or offering her sympathy or asking her questions, either. Penny liked to be left alone, except for Paul.

He was back in a few minutes with her water. A little too long, really, just for a drink. She still felt like a fish out of water, but she put her hand down. “Paul will be here as soon as he can. They’re short staffed, and finding somebody to fill in is going to be a nightmare. He’s meeting you in the atrium by the fountain.” His department was already missing Becketts and other people who had kids at Forsyth.

“I told you, I’m not going home,” she snapped. She started crying then. She didn’t want to go home. Down here, isolated from the world, it was just a rumor. Just a bad dream. When she stepped outside, everything was going to be real. She was going to hide in the dark.

Lex dropped to his knees beside her. He put an arm around her shoulders. She threw her arms around his neck and started sobbing, so he hugged her over the chair’s arm. ‘I’m sorry’ wasn’t enough and would remind her of a funeral. It’s alright was blatantly untrue. Instead he just held her until she got control of herself, still sniffling.

“Let me walk you up the steps,” he told her. It wasn’t really a request. In his opinion, whoever had made their department only accessible by a series of slick steps hadn’t planned on women ever working there.

They took them slow. They got a couple of funny looks when they emerged, the single boss with his arm around his young employee. Idiots. He wondered what sorts of rumors would fly around. They sat down by the fountain. “You’re allowed time off every decade or so,” he told her. It had been a long time since she was an intern. Kevin emerged from one of the fireplaces and started walking. The paperwork was going to be atrocious.

Penelope apparently found new strength at the sight of him. She leapt up and walked briskly in his direction. The look that he gave her was pitiful. He never ran into her. Why now? Lex followed just a little behind her. She reached Kevin and…punched him as hard as she could. That was the only one that hurt. After that, her arms went to mush, but she kept swatting at him. He just let her. Tears were streaming down her face. She was screaming and people were starring and she didn’t care. “WHY COULDN’T YOU JUST LOVE HER! DAMMIT! WHY NOT!” As Lex pulled her back from his son, shushing her all the while, she regressed into a juvenile repetition of, “I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU!” Once in his arms, she went nearly limp and quit screaming.

Kevin’s hand went to his nose. He felt something warm and wet. Both eyes watered. He pulled it back to look and wasn’t surprised to see blood. Yep. Wolverine. Lacy Jones had been brave enough to come over while everyone else gawked. She handed him a handkerchief. He took it, but it wasn’t going to help much. He’d seen Penny hysterical before, and he tried not to take her screaming to heart. She needed somebody to be mad at. He supposed that if Colin had walked through the lobby, his nose would be broken right now. It still hurt, though, and he was emotionally drained. They’d been friends for ever. Paul and Penny had even mock-fought over whether he was going to be a groomsman or a bridesmaid at their wedding. He’d opted for pants, and stood opposite of Ligia. Never once had she said that she hated him in all those years. Not until now.

“We were waiting on Paul. Tell him I’m bringing her to him at St. Mungos. Now. You need to go?”

“I can get that,” Lacy assured him, waving her hand. Broken noses were her specialty. “We aren’t writing this up, are we?” She knew more about what was going on than nearly anybody else in the atrium, largely from rummaging through PJ’s things.

“No,” Kevin said simply, trying to staunch the bleeding.

“I want to talk to you, but I’ve got to get her out of here,” Lex told him. He ushered Penny, sobbing hysterically again, toward the fireplaces. He wasn’t sure that she knew where she was, let alone how to leave. Kevin would still be there when he got back, he was sure, bent over a stack of papers.

And Kevin couldn’t help but think that everyone thought that this was his fault.
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