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Silence follows her outburst, Penny flushes further. "Oh my gawd, somebody kill me."
This time, it’s Knight who winces.
Penny slaps her forehead. "Oh shoot, what am I thinking about, prattling on about killing and dying and—" She waves her hand in the air. "Forget I said that. You probably have PTSD from just hearing me blathering on like this, huh?"
I gape at her, as does everyone else in the room. When I risk a glance at Knight, it’s to find his face wearing a dark expression. Interesting. I’ve never seen my friend this worked up.
"Oh, no, no, no. Did I say the P-word? I’m not supposed to say the P-word." Penny shuffles her feet. "No, no. Forget I said it."
Knight glares at her. The veins on his neck pop. He seems to be holding himself in check, barely.
“What are you doing here anyway? Shouldn’t you be in debriefing or whatever it is you have to do once you're rescued?” Penny waves her hand in the air.
Knight’s features grow hard, then he seems to force himself to relax. “I debriefed with my superiors before I flew in.”
“O-k-a-y.” She swallows. “And therapy? Shouldn’t you have gone straight into therapy?"
Someone—JJ I think—clears his throat. Mira giggles nervously. All of it is lost on Penny and Knight who’re too involved in... whatever it is that’s unfolding between them. Like spectators in a tennis match, all of us turn to Knight in anticipation of his reaction. He does not disappoint.
His eyes narrow. "What did you just say?" he growls.
A-n-d all of us look to Penny. The tension between them ratchets up. Penny must sense it too for she shifts her weight from foot to foot, then tilts up her chin. “It’s just… I wondered if you shouldn’t acclimatize to people in phases and—” her voice peters off. Utter silence descends upon the room.
Penny hunches her shoulders, then flashes him a smile. "Sorry, sorry, I’m so sorry for being so indiscreet. I don’t normally have such a non-filter. I mean, no, I normally don’t have much of a filter, but I’m being especially filterless today. It’s all your fault."
Knight blinks.
She stabs a finger at him.
"Yes, sireee, it’s your fault. You make me nervous. Am I the only one who’s nervous?"
She glances at the rest of us and must not see any help forthcoming for she turns on him. "But seriously, isn’t therapy the best way to give yourself a chance to adjust back to civilian life?"
“Are you saying you’d rather I had not come to meet you and”—he jerks his chin in the general direction of the room—“our friends?”
“No, no, I was only concerned that it might be too much for you to have descended here in the middle of a group of people when you’ve spent the last six months being tortured and—” She squeezes her eyes shut, then snaps them open."Oh, my gawd! That’s it. I have officially reached the end of my tether. Can’t take me out anywhere, eh?" She laughs weakly.
Someone in the room begins to chuckle—it’s Cade, Abby’s husband. He quickly turns it into a cough. JJ guffaws loudly, and shoots Penny a thumbs up sign. Sinclair looks between her and Knight, then smirks.
That only seems to annoy Knight even more. His gaze intensifies, and his jaw tightens further.
Penny tips up her chin, "Right, then. Now that I’ve made a complete earthworm of myself, can someone point me in the direction of the door?"
Mira’s lips twitch. "Uh, Penny, did you say earthworm?"
"Yeah, you know, since I don’t like to swear. And I’ll take my torn Chucks—which, by the way, are the same as Converse. Did you know that? I didn’t. I had to, uh, Google it and— Oh, my god, I’m doing it again. I’m jabbering on." She hunches her shoulders. "Can we pretend that didn’t happen?"
A nerve pops at Knight’s temple. “To answer your question, I’m good. I might have been locked up and tortured for six months—”
She swallows.
“—but that’s only made me stronger. It’s exactly what my job prepared me for. A job I've since given up. And now, I have a question of my own.” He looks her up and down. "Who the fuck are you?"
To find out what happens next read Knight and Penny’s story HERE
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Penny
