Penny's statments were still ringing in my ears, no matter how hard I tried to drown them out. I was afraid I waited for far too long to win her heart and now I would have to live the rest of my life with regret. I didn't know anymore whether it was a good idea to stay there, hidden under Jupiter, or should I go upstairs to the rest and try to pretend as I hadn't overheard anything.
But especially one thing had a huge hold on me. What did Penny had on her mind when she said she would never leave Pontypandy not because of me. I didn't know whether to jump from joy about it or to be scared. I was relieved that the thought of transferring didn't cross her mind, but what did it have to do with me? And that was what made me so anxious, it could be either good or bad. But I wasn't capable of enough knowlegde to decide it on my own. All I knew was just I had to do my best to make it stay that way. Penny couldn't leave Pontypandy, for the city's sake and for my own too.

I realized my own thoughts weren't much a help to calm me down either. So I decided to stay under Jupiter and not only check the chassis, but also clean it up a little bit. Scrubbing the landing gear, I tried to focus my thoughts on the job, trying to forget about the anxiety building inside me, until I heard someone open the Jupiter's curtain, to his right side I assumed due to the direction from where the sound had come from. Hearing footsteps slowly moving away from Jupiter, I gave in to my curiosity and looked out.

"Hi, Penny" I shouted after her, to get her attention, as I tried to gather myself from the ground, however I hit my head on the Juputer painfully in hurry.

"You're alright, Sam?" She immediately asked me worriedly, but I could bet there was also a bit of amusement hidden under her question.

"I'm fine" I assured as I massaged briefly the back of my head.

"You're sure?" There it was again, that teasing sparkle in her eyes I wish to see so much every time.

"Are you?" I objected, finally getting up from my knees and heading to the open locker to put the tools back to its box. "You seem pretty determined to get out of there unnoticed by anyone" I couldn't help but laughed when I saw her skeptical gaze.

"I was actually trying to escape Ellie and her curious questions" Penny objected as she bent to get the second sponge out of the shelf.

"Like you tried before?" I couldn't help, but teased her a bit. However I quickly recognized my mistake when she looked up at me confused.

"What?" She just reacted a bit skeptically and I instantly felt small under her cautious look focused on me.

"I..." I stammered nervously, trying to find a reasonable excuss for myself. I couldn't possibly told her that I overheard it by mistake, could I?

"What was that supposted to mean, Sam?" She replied more confidently, crossing her arms on her chest, but the way she was looking at me didn't change.

"It is obvious sometimes that..." I felt like I was going too deep in that lie, but I had to make her believe me. "Ellie is pushing a lot on you" I said on one breath, wishing in spirit that I could trust Penny enough not to tell it straight to Ellie.

"Maybe" she surprised me when she shrugged her shoulders like it was nothing. "Sometimes she is a bit too nosy, I agree".

"And you're not too talking type?" I asked curiously, seeing nothing too bad in that question. However Penny obviously had a different opinion about it as she throw a wet sponge right at me. I managed to catch it, but I still achieved a wet stain on my shirt.

"This is not exactly the case" Penny sighed as she continued on washing Venus' window when I handed her back the sponge. "Sometimes it is not good to let somebody know too much about you. It can destroy everything" she explained, but I still didn't understand anything.

"Does it has to do anything with your past?" I asked carefully, gently laying my hand on her shoulder.

"No" she quickly clarified. "But it is not simple either" Penny added quietly.

There was silence between us. I didn't want to force Penny in any way and I was afraid I would tell something that would clearly confirmed that I was eavedroping. So we stayed like that, washing Venus. I was about to reached out for the rear view mirror while Penny just finished drying the front window, when our hands met. I looked up from the sponge I was trying to focused on and saw that it also woke Penny up from her thoughts. She smiled embarrassedly and was about to back her hand, but I, not exactly knowing what I was doing, reached out and took her hand in mine, without bothering that the sponges landed on the floor.

"You know you look beautiful when you think somethings are actually far more simpler that you thought" I didn't know what to say until the words just went out from my mouth. I smiled embarrassedly when I saw how Penny shyly lowered her gaze a little and now I was the one who wanted to back my hand, but Penny didn't let me.

"You always makes everything look simpler" she stated quietly as she looked back up at me. "What is your secret?" She asked me curiously as a challenging sparkle shone again in her eyes.

"Secret?" I was totally not expecting that. I didn't know at first what to say as I just stared at Penny with wide open eyes. "It's not a secret, actually..." I stuttered as I nervously felt how my cheeks started to burn. "I just can easily see something in simple way, when I have a friend like you by my side" I just explained, trying to get something out of that situation. I was well aware that I wanted to say something totally different, especially when I now knew that my small signs weren't obvious for Penny before, but I was far too nervous to put in words what I really felt.
Penny softly smiled and raised her eyebrows in surprise. She gently squeezed my hand and gently, but firmly picked them up to let me see them. But I was suppostedly too slow to realize what she was getting at, because I couldn't follow in her steps as, out of corner of my eye, I saw in rear view mirror Station Officer Steele walking through the hall.

Not a moment later we heard an alarm and without a word we looked at each other, nodding our heads meaningfully as we ran to put our uniforms on.

"There's a fire at the Whole Fish Cafe" Arnold announced through the speaker.

I stopped for a moment, wondering what this time had happened there. It wasn't like it had never happened before that my brother, sister-in-law or the twins could be in danger, but I always felt that queasy feeling in my stomach.
Penny must have noticed that I was lost in my thoughts and she must have took the leadership as Ellie and Elvis were already running to the vehicles and only Penny stayed next to me.

"Take Jupiter. I'll follow in Venus" she said calmly to me, gently laying her hand on my shoulder.

I just nodded my head in responce as I approached Elvis in the Jupiter. I started the engine as he turned on the siren. In the rear view mirror I saw Penny and Ellie following us in Venus and it didn't took us long to reach the harbor.

As soon as I stopped Jupiter, I and Elvis jumped out of him. I looked around and noticed Sarah and James with Bronwyn, standing at the safe distance from their house, which made me breathed with relief. But there was something wrong. I didn't spotted my brother anywhere. I looked around once again and with fear noticed that Charlie's boat was still tied to the shore, but I couldn't saw him anywhere around. My eyes must have met Bronwyn's because she told something quickly to the twins, before she ran to me.

"Sam! Charlie is still inside" she said to me terriefied. And I could totally understood her fear, because, judging by the location fire was reported to start, there was no way out either from staircase or from basement. So it meant my brother was trapped inside.

"I'll get him out, Bronwyn" I assured as I turned to my team. "Charlie is still inside" I announced, however it barely went through my throat. "Elvis and Ellie you're take care of the hoses and wait for the signal when I turned off the power. I'm going in to find Charlie" I ordered and as I put on my breathing apparatus, they replied with short 'Roger that!' and went to fulfill their tasks.

"I'm coming with you, Sam" Penny proposed stubbornly as she stood right next to me.

I didn't objected, not wanting to waste time as from a corner of my eye I saw how Penny was already putting on her gloves and breathing apparatus as she had handed the board over to Elvis.

We opened the door carefully not to give fire too much oxygen at once. It seemed like the fire had started on the kitchen, but now it quickly spread onto the tables in the corner and the counter. It was still passable, but the fire was visibly spreading, so we knew we have to move fast.

"I go check in the basement" I signaled to Penny as we passed between the sources of fire.

"I check upstairs" she replied as we splitted.

I took off my glove and put my hand to the door. It was cold, so, without hesitation, I squeezed the handle and opened the door to look in the dark basement. I turned on my flashlight as I put one foot at the time on stairs. Keeping my hand on the banister, I reached the end of stairs and stepped on the floor before I started calling out for my brother.

I carefully looked behind every single box and promised to myself that I would have to talk with Charlie how thoughtless it is to keep cardboard boxes in the basement. I checked one more time before I heard with relief how Penny informed Elvis through the radio that she had found Charlie upstairs. I climbed upstairs and on my way back I turned off the power. As soon as I closed the door of the basement behind me, I came across Penny who was slowly walking with Charlie down the stairs. I smiled seeing my brother was alright and I stepped to his side to put my hand on his back. He didn't look up at me, but I felt how he relaxed a bit under my touch, as he always did when we were kids.

But this moment was quickly broke when I heard very characteristic hiss next to me. I looked around in confusion as I felt how Penny's questioning gaze laid on me, but I didn't bother myself about that anymore when I noticed that we were standing right next to two gas cylinders which were standing closer to the fire that I would wish. They must have been getting only hotter and hotter because the hiss was only getting louder and louder. Finding myself in such danger I reacted instinctively.

"Run!" I screamed as I pushed Charlie towards the door.

Before it was too late at least he managed to get out. As soon as I met Penny's gaze I knew she realized herself in danger as much as I did so without a word we rushed to the door, but we were too slow.

Taking a short look through my shoulder, which was a mistake, I noticed that it was already under time.  We wouldn't get to the safety quickly enough, I thought terrified and before the fear could clouded my senses, I knew one thing, I had to protect Penny.

So as soon as I heard the moment when the hissing stopped, I jumped, pushing Penny forward to the floor to protect her from the impact of explosion.

Or so I hoped it would, because as soon as I jumped, I felt the heat even through my uniform and felt how an invisible force was trying to push the air out from my lungs. I wanted to fighted against the darkness, but I couldn't anymore and the last thing I registered at that moment was how someone screamed my name.