Who: Johnny and Penny What: Coming to a realization When: Friday Where: Hospital Rating: Medium for Johnny's mouth just in case
If John believed that things couldn't possibly get worse, he was very wrong indeed. Like many of them, he assumed that once Penny was released from the hospital, everything would get better. She would no longer have to take chemo for a while. That meant she wouldn't be Penelogre any more, and she could come home and try to live her normal life. But life was not normal for Penny. John should have realized. He shouldn't have fallen into that false sense of security he was always wary of. With the whole baby situation though, John wasn't his usual self half the time. He wasn't bringing his A-game like he should have, like he always did.
He should have figured that the worst time for Penny was right after she got out of the hospital and was exposed to all those real world germs from all her visitors. He should have taken time away from going with Kaylee to doctor's appointment, from trying desperately to get his music back, from frantically trying to think of a decent job to support at least his future kid. The thought of it still boggled his mind. But he shouldn't have let all that take away his sight when it came to Penny. He was the first and only one who detected there was something off about Penny before she landed in the hospital. Now it seemed like he was as disconnected from her as ever.
The view from ICU was about as grim as it could get. Johnny wasn't fazed though. Those things didn't bother him. What bothered him was the fact that Penny was getting antibiotics for this so-called infection, yet her fever still hadn't gone down much. And she was sleeping far more than he was comfortable with. Seeing her sleep gave him chills for some reason. He knew it wasn't peaceful sleep. It was fever sleep. She couldn't help it. There was a giant war raging inside her body, and she was just the vessel, powerless to call a cease fire, just a human.
A sound from her bed made him blink. Penny had muttered something in her sleep. Or she had woken up? He wasn't sure. He wasn't close enough to her to tell. He forced himself to get up. Getting closer was the only way he could see what was wrong with her. But he was afraid. He didn't want to be the one to have to call her mother to tell her to come inside because he wasn't sure if she was going to make it. It was almost paralyzing. Until he heard her say...