InsaneJournal

Narrative: Penny Ross
Who: Penny Ross
Where: Her apartment in Marvel
What: New life ahoy?
When: After her conversation with Clem. Before she embarks to DC.
Warnings: Probably some swears and some drinking.



The apartment that the hotel had been good enough to provide for her upon her arrival in fictional comic book New York City was nice. It wasn't perfect, but it was safe and it was nice sized. The floors creaked and the pipes moaned, but she was in the Army. Doctor or not she wasn't rich enough to live in a fancy Manhattan apartment. So the hotel had given her a 1 bedroom walk-up on the lower east side and she'd take it. She was six floors up, on the top floor.

She'd arrived, in this apartment that looked lived in, that looked exactly like, well, her. Clothes in the closet - military and civilian - there were even scrubs in her laundry basket to give even her the illusion that this was where she belonged. But it did not, at all, feel like she belonged there. There was an eerie feeling to it, it was almost too perfect. On her counter there had been an envelope, everything about her life, identification, schedule, COs, even her god damn dentist had a card in the envelope. This was it now. half a lifetime of working her ass off to have a life handed to her in an envelope that was thick but hardly "overstuffed."

She sat on a barstool at her counter, looking through the documents, a can of bud light sitting next to her sweating on the counter. Bud light she hadn't bought. It had just been there. Just like there was a damn passport in the envelope. Even had the same stamps the one back in DC had. Shit. DC? May as well have been the one back on the god damn planet Xenon at this point. Reading through the journals, catching up with Graham of all people, and Clementine. It was all a hell of a lot for her to take in.

She tried to go with the flow as much as she could, as often as she could. Don't panic was basically her life mantra. And she didn't. She didn't panic. She didn't even panic on the inside. Sure her heart would increase as adrenaline pumped through her body if the need called for it, but she didn't panic. She had been in war zones, she had been held at gunpoint, she had fought in a war. She had delivered children on dirt floors. She'd been married for fuck's sake. To someone from New England. No. Penny did not panic.

So she'd lollygagged, she'd talked to Clem and Graham briefly. She'd seen a rather disturbing conversation about the hotel party, and talked to Clem again. And apparently she was going to Gotham City. Where Batman lived. Tomorrow. Tomorrow she was going to the city of the god damned Dark Knight.

For tonight though, she was opening closet doors, checking her uniforms, ribbons in place, her uniform fatigues, the key to her locker at the hospital. The hospital she'd stopped in and everyone had known her name.

The can of beer continued to sweat on the kitchen counter.

She ran her hands over clothing, opened drawers, looked at bookshelves, logged into her computer, tested her landline (767-2676 - popcorn works everywhere), she changed clothes. Then she changed clothes again. Jeans and an Alabama pullover hoodie. It all fit. She even had bills that had been poked through the mail slot. Fucking bills to pay.

She had a checkbook, she had a lease, she had a bank account.

Exploring the kitchen she opened a drawer, inside she found an unopened pouch of Kentucky Select, a packet of zig zags and a hot pink bic.

Perfect.

As if this place hadn't been strange enough.

She grabbed the paraphernalia, opened a new, less sweaty beer, stuck the can in a coozie and headed out onto her fire escape. She tucked in, as much as she could given that she was all legs, and leaned against the railing, her beer resting on the window sill as she opened the tobacco packet and rolled a cigarette without paying much attention. She hadn't done it in a few years, hadn't smoked since she'd graduated medical school. Well. A few here and there. Cigarettes smoked while on deployment never counted. Ever.

True, this one probably would - she wasn't deployed. Not technically. Maybe displaced. Despite the fact that there was staunch evidence to the contrary and that this was, in fact, exactly where she was supposed to be. Never mind that she knew differently, this place clearly had plans of its own. Which was strange enough to consider, sentient cities in sentient hotels doing creepy shit to perfectly sensible people.

She put the freshly rolled cigarette up to her mouth, the tip of her tongue wetting it only slightly, enough to get it to stick. She put the end in her mouth and lit the end without a shred of shame. Not one shred of it. Occasionally, she suffered from that particular affliction, but it had gotten better as the years passed and she found herself giving less and less of a shit about what any one choice or anyone person might make of her.

She leaned her head against the railing on the fire escape, it was chilly and breezy. She loved Autumn, no matter where she was in the Autumn she could find something that reminded her of home. Home that she knew she wouldn't be interested in going back to, she wasn't one who could settle down like the rest of the women she knew. Well maybe not the rest, but enough of them in any case. She inhaled and exhaled, the cigarette burning quickly at the end, more quickly than the tightly packed - but less satisfying - store bought smokes. Besides, roll your own smokes took up less space in a bag, a pocket, etc. And it gave people something the teach the PFCs who had never smoked a day in their life a new skill.

No, Penny didn't panic. And cigarettes on deployment didn't count. But this cigarette surely did, and the thump in her ears the rhythm of the complete unknown was loud. Louder than the city streets below her, the sirens in the distance, the cars honking, the kids in the apartment downstairs arguing over a toy. All she heard was the echo of her heartbeat, and the crackling of the cigarette paper between her fingers, and the sharp taste of a piece of stray tobacco on her tongue. She was fucked. She was so fucking fucked.