Holding His Heart

~insanity and co~

Chapter Seven; "Two Wrongs and a Ride"

"We should not be doing this. We should definitely not be doing this," Lee mutters, crouching down behind Penny in the bushes a few miles away from their house.

"And why not?" Penny asks in a whisper, eyes flickering up and down the street.

"Isn't there something about 'two wrongs don't make a right'?"

"I'm not looking to make things right, am I?" Penny retorts sharply, turning to glance at Lee over her shoulder. "And since when do you ever live by that rule?"

"Fine, whatever. This still doesn't feel right." Lee shrugged and sat back on his heels, adjusting his legs which were getting sore from the constant crouching and short bursts of running.

"Probably because it's not."

"So why are we doing it? Why did you drag me into this?" Lee asks, jumping when a car drove past and relaxing just a bit when the street fell silent again.

"I thought you didn't want me to have my skin shredded off with a cheese-grater, or something like that," Penny says distractedly, voice just barely loud enough for Lee to hear.

"I don't-"

"That's why I brought you along. Protection...of sorts," Penny adds, glancing once more at Lee behind her with a small grin.

"Of sorts?" Lee whispers sharply, but Penny dashes across the street and after a moment of checking both directions and seeing that the coast was clear, he takes off after her.

"This is how people get lured into dungeons and tortured to death!" Lee hisses when he joins Penny, crouching behind a van.

"This isn't a video game," Penny says, rolling her eyes and moving to peer behind the van.

"You're right, so when we kill us they actually kill us." Lee waits for some quip from Penny but she was either ignoring him or had nothing to say to that. "How did you find this place, anyway?" Lee asks, becoming more curious as he glances out at the nice-looking house just half a block down the street. It looked cozy, warm...definitely not where he thought a stalker would live.

"That man that came to the store, Axl. He used his membership card. Found his address in our system."

"Isn't that...illegal?"

"I'm really not sure, actually," Penny says, only slightly distracted by that thought.

"So, we found the house," Lee says slowly, retreating back behind the van completely and sitting on the cold sidewalk. "What's the plan now?"

"I dunno, I didn't really have a plan," Penny replies sheepishly. "They stalked me, I wanted to see why. Why did they choose me?"

Lee's face softens a bit, but he still looks worried and on edge. "I'm not sure that looking at their house at night is going to give you any answers."

Penny's shoulder slump and she sighs, leaning her head back against the van.

"I guess."

"Should we get some food?" Lee asks, standing up and offering his hand to help Penny up. She nods and accepts, letting him pull her to her feet. She takes a final glance at the surprisingly nice-looking house, pretty flowers lining the walkway and shadows moving behind the lightened windows, and turns to follow Lee down the street.

"You would be able to tell, wouldn't you, Ingrid?" Anders asks, bolting upright from the couch and turning to the tipsy Oracle. His own wine glass sloshed in his hand but miraculously did not spill all over the couch. "If you were to see Penny, you could tell if she was a Goddess, right?"

"I have been able to tell with Agnetha and Michele, yes. But Stacey not so much," Ingrid said slowly, as if expecting the sharp-tongued Fulla to appear and take offense. "There's really no telling if I will know her Goddess-status."

Anders grabbed the remote and turned the TV off, turning to fully face the Goddess with a newly-found energy.

"We go find her, you look at her and do your...Goddess, thing. Whatever you do," Anders says, waving his hand around vaguely in the air. Ingrid takes a long moment, staring at the black TV screen and hmm-ing to herself. She takes the last long gulp of her glass and grinned.

"I shall do my Goddess thing!" she says, grinning through her overly-professional tone. "But you are in no driving-state!" Ingrid yells and points accusingly when Anders scrambles to get to his feet.

He falters for a moment and sways on his feet. "You might be right."

"But I know someone who can drive us!" Ingrid whispers with a grin, shushing Anders – despite the fact that he was not talking – while she whips out her cellphone and dials a number. "Ty!" she cries out happily, slurring several over-the-top compliments until the man on the phone hushes her and asks her to get to the point.

"Anders is being very rude to me," Ingrid says, her voice cross but she grins nontheless. "I require a ride somewhere less rude!"

Anders gives her a questioning quirk of his eyebrow but he's shushed by Ingrid again.

"Well, he's being very rude, you see. And I would rather not have him drive me anywhere and be rude during the car ride and you are a very kind person, Ty. I can't imagine you'd be rude to an old Oracle-"

"Fine, fine fine." Anders hears Ty's voice over the phone loudly shushing the drunk, half-giggling woman. He lets out a long sigh, says a few more words that seem to delight Ingrid before hanging up.

"I'm rude, now?" Anders asks, feigning pain at her lies.

"Shhhhhh," Ingrid giggles, holding a finger up to hush him as she gets to her feet and stows her phone in one of her skirt-pockets. "We now have a ride to meet Miss Penny!"

Author's Note: Thanks again for all the wonderful reviews! They are so appreciated and keep me thinking about the story everytime I get a little 'bing!' on my phone. :) Happy birthday, Meg! And thank you, RhythmicSound, for being my native-Newzie and helping with a few details to make this maybe not look like it was written by someone who's never been to NZ. :)