anunluckypenny | IC Contact

Maybe I should come by and see if they look familiar.

Maybe you should. Want me to get some coffee going?

Will it still be good after I finish this procedure appraisal? Maybe half an hour?

Yeah, I can have it waiting.

I'll try not to be longer than that.

[And he isn't, much. It's perhaps forty minutes later that he comes looking for her, following the smell of sugar cookies.]

[The coffee is still hot and there are still cookies to be had. It's Christmas; perpetual baking is all a part of it. The sad little Christmas tree has been replaced by a lovely seven-foot artificial fir. The tree looks somewhat stark due to a lack of decorations, but it's a vast improvement. Nothing is quite as lovely as the real tree outside, though.

Penny greets Chase with a smile and a hug.]

Hey there.

Hey,

[The hug makes him smile, though he has to readjust the wrapped package he's holding to get his arms around her.]

Happy Christmas.

[Hugs are more important than packages.]

Thanks, and a happy Christmas right back at you.

[Well of course, although it does get presented to her once she's stepped back.]

I think I'm too late to get this one under the tree.

It was there in spirit.

[She accepts it with some reluctance.]

Chase, you really didn't have to get me anything. I don't have anything for you.

[Presents were limited to little things for some of the people who are newer to the City and the kids she knows. There might be some drawbacks to paying yourself with a place to live instead of with money.]

Gifts you have to get invariably suck. I usually go with gift vouchers.

[It's a bag, vegan leather, that she might have seen in the window of one of - well, Chase would call it a hippy store - in town. The package is surprisingly heavy, though, almost as if the bag had a hammer in it.

...Which is because the bag has a hammer in it, wrapped up, with a little ribbon and label tied to it that says 'for the loft'.]

You invited me over.

[Present enough.]

That's thoughtful of--

[But she had to open it, and she's been eying that exact same bag. Penny can't hide how excited she is. Even the hammer and note get a smile.]

Chase... thank you so much. I don't even... I mean, inviting you over isn't exactly a gift...

It's thoughtful.

[He'll just cut her off there, an arm round her shoulder gently steering them toward the kitchen.

It's thoughtful, although he's aware the thought must have cropped up while watching that memory. So it's pity, too.]

How's the super-amazing chilli been going down with the residents?

[Okay, that'll do.

If only the invitation had been motivated by thoughtfulness and pity alone. There was some pity, yes, but for the most part Penny just wanted Chase's company.]

Pretty well, but I don't think anyone likes it as much as you.

Good. There should be leftovers.

[He grins, pleased with this and with her reaction to the gift - it wasn't much and he went for what was in the window because that had to make it the best in stock, right?]

I meant what I said about helping you use that, by the way. [and, pause.] The um. Hammer, not the purse.

Plenty, but it's not hard to make. You know, if you ever need something to eat.

[Good guess, Chase. It helps that it's cruelty-free. She grabs a mug and fills it with coffee from the coffeemaker.]

I figured, and I'd really appreciate it. It's a little drafty.

[He's smart enough not to give leather to the girl fretting over killing a tree.]

Insulating the roof's a good place to start. It should bring down the heating costs for the whole building. As well as being the foundation for a cozy flat.

You know a lot about home improvement for a doctor. Is that a guy thing or a hobby?

I like to think of it as a guy hobby. Don't worry, I'll leave the wires and pipes to professionals.

Sounds fair. Stop in whenever you feel like fixing things; I'll probably be here.

[She pauses as if considering what she's about to say.]

You know you're always welcome to come by, right?

[The sign over the door says welcome, and it's truer here than anywhere else in the city. So he nods, though - with a small hesitation.]

I know.

[Because it's not just the centre's genral welcome she means, is it. As much as she embodies it.]

You're still worried about me, aren't you.

Okay.

[The Welcome Center is one thing; everyone's perfectly welcome there. Penny does mean something different where Chase is concerned.]

Honestly? I'm always a little worried about you, crazy memory-pears or not. But it's not a bad kind of worried.

[He's dubious about this.]

What's the good kind?

It's the kind I don't mind being because you're worth worrying about.

[That's not the kind of thing he hears often. In Chase's life there's been the woman who told him she was the last person she could ever love, then changed her mind about whether she ever had. There's been the mentor slash father figure for whom admitting he cares would be grounds for diagnosing a personality disorder. And there's been the real father, the real mother, neither of whom lived up to the term duty of care.

He's not, in fact, used to being told he's worth much of anything.

So there's a small soundless attempt at a reply before he ducks his head and breathes out the assurance that she doesn't need to worry about him. He doesn't deserve it.

Instead he takes a minute, fingers drumming a quiet beat where they're curled against his ribs, and then says.]

It was a nun thing.

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