14.New colleagues

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Hi! Some more inside look into Penny's future. I'll see if I can continue it as planned for 31 chapters or should I stop your torture quicker? I don't know yet. We'll see what future holds. (From now I plan another story's debut for tommorrow or Thursday at last.)

The night had been probably the most nightmare-free for Penny since her father's death. Every night she fall asleep only to wake up with a scream. Even sleeping at the firestation didn't help. So maybe running away from Pontypandy and Newtown was what she needed...

She looked in the mirror, putting her toothbrush away. She got used to her look. Short hair since she ended Newtown Fire Academy and no make-up since she broke up with Ryan. She didn't even take notice of it as she was fully accepted in Pontypandy for who she was. But deep inside she missed her old-self. 

A knock on the door brought her back to reality as closed the water running and gently squeezed the handle. Émilie was standing behind the door with her eyes still partly closed as she pointed to the clock on the wall behind her. 

"Nous commeçons nos quarts de travail à neuf heures(We start our shifts at nine o'clock)" she groaned, before she yawned. 

"Desolé(Sorry)" Penny looked down embarrassed. She couldn't shake away her living habits. "À Pontypandy, les équipes commencent à huit heures(At Pontypandy the shifts start at eight o'clock)" Penny excused herself. 

"Tu es de Pontypandy?(You're from Pontypandy?)" Émilie was at instant wide awake. She ran and appeared again in a blink of an eye. "Vous avez les urgences les plus originales, probablement dans tout le monde. Rien d'aussi excitant ne s'était jamais produit ici(You have the most original emergencies, probably in a whole world. Nothing so exciting had ever happened here)" she  complained. 

"Croyez-moi, trop d'excitation peut aussi être ennuyeuse(Believe me, too much of excitement can also be boring)" Penny tried to turn it into a joke, but the pain in her voice was still heard. 

Émilie left the topic as she went back to her room for another hour. Penny didn't want to sleep anymore, she sat on her bed and walked through photos in her phone galery. 

When she came to one particular she liked the most, tears welled up in her eyes. She was so far away from their team, but the feeling of missing them overwhelmed her in a blink of an eye. 

It was a rainy evening when Penny heard a knock to her door. She wanted to spend this week alone, away from people. The lost of her father hit her harder than she showed anyone. She tried to play strong, but it was a mistake as she realized when she opened the door only to see Sam's face, hidden in the shadow of his hood. He hold a chocolate bar, the one which was Penny's favourite. 

"Can I step in?" Sam joked when Penny reluctantly invited him in. She didn't have anything against Sam's visit, on the contrary, but Sam could easily see right through her defenses up till now. "It is for you" he gave Penny a chocolate, hoping at least it would bring a smile on her face, that was the reason why he rode all the way to Newtown and back only to buy it.

"You didn't have to, Sam" maybe Penny didn't smile, but her voice was not so indifferent anymore. 

"If you want to be alone, I can..." he pointed to door, embarrassed that he didn't think it over. 

"No, stay" Penny objected, smiling faintly, as she stopped Sam from turning around. "It's raining cats and dogs, I don't want you to go all the way back to Pontypandy in such bad weather. You can catch a cold."

"So you worry about me?" Sam teased her a little, realized that stupid chocolate could lead to change of mind so quickly. 

"You've been caring about me, I'm just paying my debt back" Penny replied when she showed Sam a way to living room. "Do you want some tea?" 

"Gladly" Sam replied. 

"Here you go" Penny quickly came back from the kitchen and sat down opposite Sam on the second chair. 

"How are you?" Sam asked after he took a sip. "Everything is still grey or...?"

"I'm somehow dealing with it" Penny tried to push the topic away, but Sam didn't let go. He squeezed Penny's hand with his free one, why looking at her caringly. 

"I know you don't, but I understand why". 

"I lost the only member of my family I've known, Sam" she turned her head to him so suddenly that Sam almost dropped the cup he was holding. "How would you feel?"

They discussed the topic for over three more hours, Sam even managed to make Penny laugh a few times. When it stopped raining, Penny agreed that it was already time for Sam. As she closed the door after him, she took notice of a piece of paper that for sure was Sam's. It must have fallen out of Sam's pocket when he came or left. It was a photo of him and her dancing together at the opening of new firestation. 

She realized she was crying when Émilie knocked to her closed door. 

"Nous devons partir! Tu ne voulais pas être en retard, n'est-ce pas ?(We have to go! You don't want to be late, do you?)".

It was a good march for half an hour before Penny's eyes saw something different from sand-yellow houses with red roofs. Just moderned, grey firehouse with white stripes on the walls shone brightly in the sun. 

"Alors, que dois-je savoir?(So what do I need to know?)" Penny asked Émilie when she invited her inside. 

"Nous travaillons par équipes de vingt-quatre heures. On écoute Antoine. C'est un leader ici. Tout le reste que tu sais déjà(We work twenty-four hours shifts. We listen to Antoine. He's a leader here. Everything else you already know)" Émilie explained taking her uniform out of her locker. "Attends-moi un moment ici(Wait a moment for me here)". 

She disappeared around the corner and, by the time she came back, Penny decided to take a look around. Two big fire trucks were shining from a amount of red paint. The locker room was little, but the garage with its vehicles was two times bigger that the one in Pontypandy Fire station.

"Ils ont envoyé une fille! Ils ont envoyé une fille!(They sent the girl, they sent a girl!)" a young brown haired man in dark blue shirt screamed when he saw Penny. 

"Qui était-ce?(Who was that?)" Penny asked startled, when Émilie came back. 

"C'était Jean(It was Jean)" she waved her hand. 

"Est-il ton frère? Il te ressemble(Is he your brother? He resambles you)" Penny smiled on their way upstairs. 

"Les autres le pensent aussi(The rest thinks so too)" Émilie chuckled. "Mais dans la vraie vie, non. J'ai une sœur, mais pas un frère(But in real life, no. I have a sister, but not brother)" she explained. "Nous sommes arrivés ici presque en même temps, c'est probablement pour ça, n'est-ce pas, François ?(We came here almost in the same time, that's probably the reason, isn't it, François?)" She welcomed two other men who were sitting with their backs to them. 

"Is it our new colleague?" The second one turned to them, speaking with broken English. He was older and with a grey temples in black hair. 

"Oui(Yes)" Émilie agreed. "François, Mattieu et Jean(François, Matthieu, and Jean)" she turned to the door just to see how the youngest came inside curiously as well. "Rencontrez Penny Morris de Pontypandy(Meet Penny Morris from Pontypandy). Penny, this is François, Matthieu and you've already known Jean" Émilie turned to Penny, explaining who is who, while a last missing person surprised them. 

"I'm Antoine. A captain" he informed indifferently. 

"Enchantée de vous rencontrer(Nice to meet you)" Penny smiled and began telling something about herself, sitting at the table with her new colleagues, besides of a captain Antoine, who disappeared as soon as he appeared. 

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