•Never Look Back•

[Penny Michaela Kendall]

Penny had more knowledge of languages than any one person probably should that wasn’t a Government Agent. She could have had almost any job she chose, and yet she didn’t know where she wanted to be. She wanted to stay in New York, but so far, she couldn’t find an ad she was interested in. So her spare time was spent volunteering at the closest hospital, translating for those who couldn’t speak English. She knew six languages that she could speak fluently and another four she was still trying to master. Languages was a beyond a hobby for her, it was a passion and she wanted to share it.

It was her day off from Planet Hollywood and she was going to volunteer for a couple hours at the hospital, like usual on her free days. She didn’t have anything more pressing to do. She woke up, showered, dressed and fed Frankie before getting herself a bagel. She couldn’t make a cup of coffee to save her life, and she didn’t have a coffee maker. Instead, she put her hair up in quick messy braids, grabbed a sweater hoping it would do its job, her bag, and shoved her phone, wallet in before slipping on her shoes and practically running out the door, locking it in her wake.

She hit the café across the street from the hospital before crossing and heading straight in to the white walled office she had seen a hundred times already. She signed in, grabbed a pass and checked the list. She loved visiting the kids, they always laughed when she switched from language to language and asked her to teach them, but there were already two people up there, so she took the elderly, wrote her name on the board and went up to the proper floor. It wasn’t her usual place, she didn’t know where to be exactly, but the nurse at the station directed her to an old woman whose family rarely visited. She knocked on the door and waited a beat before entering. “Mrs. Cavanaugh?” she called out, finding the older woman sitting up in her bed, reading a romance novel. “I’m Penny Kendall, a volunteer here at the hospital,” she said smiling warmly at the woman. “Is there anything I can help you with?” she asked, taking another step into the room. Mrs. Cavanaugh motioned towards the chair and asked her to take a sit, which she did.

The older woman just wanted a chat, about everything. She was sweet and terribly lonely. Penny ended up spending her entire few hours with Mrs. Cavanaugh with a promise that she would visit again on her next day off. And she was walking out of the room when she came perilously close to running into a cart. With a grace she wasn’t completely aware of having, stopped and folded over the cart before her heels landed on the ground with a dull thud and she straightened again. “Oh, jeez que estava perto,” she said, holding her hand over her heart.

•Tag• Chase <3
•Words• 508
•Clothes• Klutzy?!
•Lyrics• Christmas TV//Slow Club
•Notes• She said, "Oh, jeez that was close" is Portuguese xD

[Chase Logan McMahon]

It was almost the end of his shift and Chase was starting to feel the effects of a fourteen hour shift as his caffeine buzz slowly began to wane. He was hoping to crawl into his bed sooner rather than later and make the most of his day off by catching up on the precious hours of rest he had sacrificed for his job. His internship definitely wasn’t getting any easier, but Chase thrived under the pressure of hard work; something his political father had passed on to him after years of listening to his campaigns and promises back in Washington. If anything, it had made the young man more driven and determined to succeed in his career and sometimes that meant putting everyone else’s health before his own. He wasn’t going to be the one to complain about that when he was helping so many other people in the city who needed it. There was a rush, almost a buzz that came with diagnosing and curing someone, so much that sometimes it numbed the pain of having to announce a not-so-positive diagnosis elsewhere.

Chase was sitting at a small desk in the lab where most of the blood work was processed. He was waiting for a few more results to come in before he called an end to his day and the haematologist was patiently looking over some medical records whilst he spun gently in the chair, the movement almost rocking him to sleep and it was then, against his better judgement, that he moved to pour himself another cup of coffee from the machine set up just outside the door. He’d rather be awake a little bit longer than falling asleep at the desk before his work was even finished for the day, or night. Chase had lost track of the time a while back now, but the clock on the desk was flashing and telling him that he had indeed worked right through the night once again. It didn’t bother the young intern too much considering he had very little in regards of a social life and now that the holiday season had passed everyone seemed to be getting back to reality, not concerning themselves with drunken nights out complete with strategically placed mistletoe and spiked eggnog. For Chase, it was just another month of the year with no meaningful significance. There were no birthdays or family festivities to be aware of, which meant he could lose himself in his work, the hospital and any other bits of research that snagged his attention when he got home.

Speaking of which, home would be happening soon, now that the lab had finally finished the blood work analysis for his final patients of the day. His dark eyes scanned over the findings, the med school knowledge swirling in his mind as he placed together what the results indicated. Luckily, they were both going to be good news visits and shouldn’t take him too long to update patient files and adapt the medication for their specific conditions.
He moved towards the end of the hospital where his patients were this time around, smiling and nodding at those who he recognised along the way. He popped into his first patient’s side room and delivered the news, explaining her condition, informing her that with some new medication everything would be fine again in no time, but a few days of observation would be best before they discharged her. He saw the way her aged blue eyes lit up at the news and he couldn’t help but smile as he told the nurse about the new course of treatment.

Chase stepped out of the room just in time to see a young woman narrowly avoid being rammed over by an orderly cart carrying the clean linen. There was no crisis to be alarmed for, but she did look a little startled and whilst Chase didn’t understand the words rolling from her lips, the protector in him made him step forward, placing his hand on her elbow just to make sure she was steady again. “Are you okay, Miss?”

[/color]
[/blockquote][/blockquote][/size][/justify]

• • •

TAGGED! Penny
WORDS! 721!
OUTFIT! Dress down friday
LYRICS! Sunshine - - - Kids in Glass Houses
NOTES! <3

[Penny Michaela Kendall]

Where the hell had that cart come from? And not a single apology from the porter dragging it around. Figured as much, seeing as how he had headphones in and his eyes were anywhere but looking ahead of him. With her hand still holding her heart, Penny took a step back, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She really hated when her heart rose from her chest to her throat, it brought on all sorts of problems, and her Frankenstein languages. Though the meshing together languages weren’t something that actually bothered her, it was hearing her heart race in her chest and the fear it brought on with almost falling into a cart and possibly breaking something.

When she opened her eyes again, someone was holding her elbow and an embarrassed smile spread across her face. She was so mortified that anyone had seen that blunder; whether it was hers or not. It was starting to seem like a day couldn’t go by without something embarrassing happening to her. And Penny had thought she’d left all of that behind in Indiana. She had to blink a couple time to fully understand his words. Her mind was stuck in Portuguese apparently, and had to take an extra second to switch back to English. “Oh! Yes, yes I’m fine, thank you,” she said, sounding a bit sheepish. She honestly couldn’t believe she’d just done all that and sputtered out words in a different language.

Why couldn’t she just say “Fuck!” in English and be done with it? Because that wasn’t Penny Kendall, she had to be different and be able to swear in eight different languages. “I think I’ve just scared ten years off my life, but I’m fine,” she added afterward, her laughter shaky. She cursed her need to wear skyscraper heels everywhere. The weather was exactly perfect for her shoes, but then, she hadn’t planned on being outside in them for very long. And she’d been sitting down with an older woman who had plenty of hilarious stories from her “good old days” to pass along.

•Tag• Chase <3
•Words• 348
•Clothes• Klutzy?!
•Lyrics• Christmas TV//Slow Club
•Notes• My muse is there, but sadly lacking Dx

[Chase Logan McMahon]

The hospital, and moving around it, was second nature to Chase now. It only made sense considering how much time he spent there compared to anywhere else in the city. He may not have known the names of everyone who he regularly bumped into, but he usually knew where to find them, the times the corridors were heaving with nurses, doctors and porters all racing to complete their jobs and when the cafeteria had the best food on offer. Usually, the interns were left with the remains after they completed their rounds, but Chase had learnt quickly that this was often a trick by their mentors; sort of like an unofficial initiation to the world of medicine. It was one he didn’t like so much and would never try to pull it on his own interns if that day ever came. Who knew how long he’d be in New York for at the end of the day, even if he felt totally at home here compared to the harsh political streets of Washington.
His dad, forever the workaholic himself, even commented on Chase’s dedication to the job, mainly after his mother was hysterical after she had left him fifteen messages over twenty four hours and had yet to receive a reply from the quiet doctor.

The young woman seemed alright, just a little jumpy after the brush with disaster. Chase had seen it before and been in her shoes before; though he had been wearing sensible sneakers, not break-neck heels. It was one of the common problems with working in the hospital, especially when the porters believed they had better places to be than where they were. His brown eyes followed the direction this one went in and narrowed when he recognised the unnecessary swagger in the man’s steps. He was relatively knew and currently the biggest pain in the ass Chase had encountered. He seemed to rush his tasks and leave patients short a blanket, or with itchy sheets. He’d already chased him down three times this week to get him to correct his errors, and he always did it with a disgruntled sigh and a sour attitude.
“Well, there’s no lasting damage done, so I can safely say you’ll be right as rain in no time. Although, some sweet tea might calm those nerves a little bit.”

[/color] Why people always turned to tea, specifically, after a shock, he never knew, but it did the trick, thanks to the sugar in it.

He laughed softly at her reaction to what had happened and then he shook his head gently. “I don’t think that’s medically possible, luckily for you.”[/color] He said, in a rare moment of humour for the young intern. Chase wasn’t usually one for fun and games and joking was something he rarely caught onto in time, which was quite a shame considering he was still young and with a lot of potential for a sociable future, as his mother constantly reminded him of. “Don’t worry. You’re not the first that it’s happened to and you definitely won’t be the last.”[/color] His own mentor often joked that they needed to introduce a traffic system into the hospital, but Chase failed to understand how it would prove useful in the end when most of the hospital lived on the edge of emergency and chaos and couldn’t afford to politely move around the corridors like this was some museum where they had all the time in the world.

[/blockquote][/blockquote][/size][/justify]

• • •

TAGGED! Penny
WORDS! 721!
OUTFIT! Dress down friday
LYRICS! Sunshine - - - Kids in Glass Houses
NOTES! <3

[Penny Michaela Kendall]

Penny couldn’t remember a time when she’d done something like this to herself. Up until she was twelve, it had always been other kids picking on her and making her trip and fall into things. When she left Indianapolis with her dad, she’d made sure she wasn’t picked on ever again by other kids. She got contacts, braces, and took a ton of classes, including ballet for her balance. She wasn’t going to be embarrassed like that ever again; at least, not by other people. And yet, here she was just barely catching herself because someone could watch where they were going, or shout out real quick when they saw to for warning. She knew she couldn’t put all the blame on that porter; she was the one in the skyscrapers, but she would have sworn that guy hadn’t even been around when she was at the door.

Penny smiled, nodding her head. “Good to know I won’t need any extra medical attention,” she said, joking along. “Do you know where I could get that tea? I think you may be right about that,” she added. She didn’t normally drink tea of any kind, though when she did, she usually stuck to herbal teas like green or chai, a sweet tea would be more than welcomed right then. Just something that got her out of the corridors of this particular floor. Penny loosened up at little hearing someone else laugh. “There is that,” she said, nodding. It was a good thing that it was impossible to scare years off a life, because she was pretty sure after that, she’d only live to thirty; if she was lucky.

Penny chuckled nervously, still trying to get over her mild case of the jitters. Her heart rate was slowing down; she could feel that with every breath she took. “Well, that’s good news,” she said, laughing. She extended her hand. “I’m Pen- Lo!” she said, correcting herself. Having too many nicknames got confusing sometimes. “Penny, or Lo, whichever you'd prefer,” she said, sheepishly running her free hand over one of her braids. Since she left Indiana she’d been almost at a loss for an identity. It wasn’t true, but when she was nervous she fumbled through the nickname she had her senior year and the one she’d had her entire life; unfortunately, it was looking like Penny got confused a lot, lately.

•Tag• Chase <3
•Words• 400
•Clothes• Klutzy?!
•Lyrics• Christmas TV//Slow Club
•Notes• <3 <3 <3

[Chase Logan McMahon]

There were a surprising amount of accidents in the hospital and most of them were similar to the one that had barely been evaded by the young girl. Porters rushed by with their trolleys, beds and stretchers hurtled through the corridors at break-neck speed and doctors ran from one wing of the hospital to another without thinking about the things that could get in their way. More often than not people fell over carts, trolleys and crashed into each other. There were more scrubs and coats soaked with coffee than with blood and it was all just another day in the office for most of them there. An occupational hazard was what Chase would describe it as and no one had ever been severely injured as far as he was aware and he’d been there long enough to get to know most of the comical and shocking tales the walls had to tell.

Chuckling softly, he glanced around to make sure the corridor was clear of any other potential hazards for the young woman to run into. His shift was over once these records were dropped off at the ward where his final patient rested and then he could do what he wanted with his free time and the rest of the day. “There’s a small café not many people know of just at the end of the second floor corridor by the radiology department.”

[/color] He said with a warm smile. It was usually the place where he chose to take his lunch break when the food or company didn’t seem too appealing in the staff cafeteria. “I’m heading that way myself now to drop these last files off. I can show you, if you like?”[/color] He could do with another cup of coffee before he left the hospital anyway and his feet would probably guide him there without any prompt from the rest of his body or thoughts.

His eyes narrowed in confusion before she managed to correct herself. He did think that ‘Penlo’ was a rather peculiar name and he had heard hundreds of names over the years and there had been a fair handful of them that had caused him to do a double take and then check that the records didn’t have a typing mistake on them or a smudge of ink.
It made a bit more sense though when she corrected herself and he smiled warmly down at her, swapping the hand that held the file so that he could shake hers. “Pleasure to meet you, Penny. I’m Doctor McMahon, but, please, call me Chase.”[/color] His official shift was over and there was no need for professionalism with her. She wasn’t a patient or a fellow employee and sometimes, even for how serious Chase could be, he did enjoy when the formalities were dropped. It made it easier to relax and enjoy work sometimes, though accompanying a pretty girl for a drink was hardly his job.
[/blockquote][/blockquote][/size][/justify]

• • •

TAGGED! Penny
WORDS! 529!
OUTFIT! Dress down friday
LYRICS! Sunshine - - - Kids in Glass Houses
NOTES! <3

[Penny Michaela Kendall]

Though she volunteered at the hospital a few hours every week, penny wasn’t familiar with it at all. She could get from the volunteer office to wherever she was going thanks to the maps around, but that was it. She walked in the doors and a few hours later, she walked back out after clocking in her time. She didn’t know where to go for the cafeteria, or anything that most people who spent hours at the hospital knew about; just point A to B for her. So when the charming man offered to show her to a café she was completely clueless about she smiled. “Thank you, I’d like that a lot,” she said, her tone unknowingly flirty.

She wasn’t usually the flirty one, unless she was stuck behind the bar for her shift at Planet Hollywood. The flirtier you were with the male clientele, the better the tips. The women were different, but Penny could still work with that and get some decent pocket money for her shoe addiction. It was a pro to being the GM at the restaurant, though, as long as she didn’t have a pile of paperwork to do, she spent most of her time at the bar helping out. So she was even surprised to hear the subtle flirting tone she used to rarely; her real flirting tone. Though she would never admit it, her childhood had left scars. So she hid behind her fake flirt and her bitch attitude when the other wouldn’t work. The people she worked with were the only ones that knew her even remotely well, and they didn’t know a lot about her from before her move.

She wasn’t feeling any of the flirting she’d felt a minute ago. She was so embarrassed! Besides the fact that she was flirting with a guy she didn’t even know the name of, she’d messed up because of nerves. She should have just gone with Penelope, but no one ever called her that. Hell, even the people she worked with called her by either or. Her cheeks were probably red as cherries right now, and she couldn’t make it stop. It was a good thing she could work through the blush, and the embarrassment; she’d had years perfecting her own emotional invisibility cloak when it came to mortification. It was bad enough she’d almost toppled in front of him, now she was messing up her own name?! Things couldn’t get much worse in Penny’s eyes. But saying that usually meant it would, so she held back from repeating her thoughts out loud. Penny’s embarrassed smile brightened. “Nice to meet you, Chase,” she said, still willing that blush to disappear. “Lead the way,” she said with a soft laughing, trying to hide the nerves she hoped weren’t in her voice. She remembered then that her hand was still in his and let go immediately, allowing her hand to fall back down to her side.

•Tag• Chase <3
•Words• 492
•Clothes• Klutzy?!
•Lyrics• Christmas TV//Slow Club
•Notes• <3 <3 <3

[Chase Logan McMahon]

Chase smiled at the young woman and nodded his head. “It’s no problem at all.”

[/color] He said politely, manners driven into him from a young age. He started off in the direction both locations were and kept his pace slow enough for Penny to keep up. His speed around here was usually quick, eager to keep on top of his work, but now he lacked both the energy and the motivation to speed around the place like The Flash. Plus, it would hardly be polite to make the girl practically job just to keep up with him.

He didn’t pick up on her flirtatious tone, but then that was something his sisters were forever laughing about. Chase wasn’t exactly Prince Charming and he lacked most of the charismatic skills that were necessary to woo a girl. He had always been much more focused on everything else that he never really took the time to practice his talents on numerous dates. His love life probably read like the obituaries to tell the truth, each one listing another tragic flaw in his personality. He wasn’t the most romantic of guys, couldn’t pick up on flirtatious remarks and sometimes forgot that living was more important than his job.
In the hospital, he had been around patients who could work the charm and who often tried to tell their daughters or grandkids to meet a nice guy like him, but all Chase could ever do then was look at their notes and smile out of politeness. He got asked regularly if he was married or had a girlfriend and the response of ‘oh, what a shame’ was not unfamiliar when he explained that he was single. He never quite understood why patients took an interest in his life, especially the older ones.

“The pleasure is all mine.”[/color] He said with a small little smile that was about as charming as the young doctor could manage. He may sound flirtatious at times, but more often than not his attempts were embarrassing and fell flat in the air once the line was delivered. It wasn’t something he tried often for that lone reason.
He led her in the direction of the elevators, pressing button to call it before speaking to her again. He didn’t like too much silence when he was in the company of another. “Were you visiting someone?”[/color] He enquired, just trying to make casual conversation, though he was worried it might have come out as nosy. His mother always joked though, that as a doctor it was in his right to ask as many relevant and irrelevant questions as he felt like. The doors dinged open and he gestured for her to enter first, following behind a second later and tapping the button for the floor below them when no one else rushed to join them, as was usually the way in the busy hospital.
[/blockquote][/blockquote][/size][/justify]

• • •

TAGGED! Penny
WORDS! 520!
OUTFIT! Dress down friday
LYRICS! Sunshine - - - Kids in Glass Houses
NOTES! <3

[Penny Michaela Kendall]

Penny smiled, not knowing what else to say or do. She wasn’t usually very socially awkward, but walking down the hallway towards the elevator bay, she was. Of course, Penny chalked it up to being in an almost collision with a porter with poor driving skills. She pitied the drivers on the road if that man had a license. It was easy to keep up with Chase’s pace, though she knew, like everyone did, he slowed down for her. She was short, yes, and she was wearing skyscrapers on her feet, sure, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t keep up, hell she could run in her shoes, which shocked people for whatever reason. It wasn’t like it was a rare sight for her to wear them.

Penny’s dark eyes were wide as she realized she’d been genuinely flirty in the short silence. She was single for a reason, and hardly had dates because of said reason, she was shy as all hell when it was the real her. Usually, she was hidden behind an outgoing façade, a girl happy and flirty and ready to take on the world. She was that person, in a way. She was ready to take on the world if she needed to and she was happy, now that she was as far away from Indiana as she was willing to get right now. Penny returned Chase’s smile easily enough, though she still felt a little awkward from everything. When they were in the elevator and he’d asked his question, Penny almost sighed with relief; a safe topic, something she could talk about without blushing furiously.

She laughed softly. “Well, I guess you could say that,” she replied. “I’m a volunteer. I come in for a couple hours on my days off and chat with the patients who don’t get many visitors or the ones that don’t speak English well,” she added, elaborating, though leaving out the language addiction she had. Since she’d been picked on as a child, she’d grow guarded about her personal life. So when she was talking to someone, she usually only gave out as much information as she needed to and left the rest up to the imagination. She didn’t usually spill her knowledge of languages, unless it was on her resume. “What is it you do around here, Doctor?” she asked with a smirk, slipping back into that flirty tone, since the title was a pretty generic one in a hospital. If they weren’t a patient, visitor or nurse, they were a doctor. And since she spoke so many languages, she’d been called upon to interpret from time to time by many of the doctors, none of which were Chase.

•Tag• Chase <3
•Words• 450
•Clothes• Klutzy?!
•Lyrics• Christmas TV//Slow Club
•Notes• <3 <3 <3

[Chase Logan McMahon]

Chase was always the doctor who was the quietest when there was a collective group of them. He had always been like that; somewhat stoical in his character and never using an excess of words when a few short ones would do. It was the same way that he remained something of a mystery to those around him. A few people recognised his last name and the connection he shared with his adoptive parents, but because of that crucial point; he was adopted, he shared no genetic traits or resemblance to those who he called his parents and if he didn’t specifically spell it out for people then they simply didn’t put it together. During his time interning at the hospital he had dealt with a few moms-to-be or other children who didn’t know their biological family and Chase often found himself spending more time reaching out to them than anyone else, his own heart ever remaining torn about tracking down his own family.

It wasn’t something he thought about daily or something that he allowed to define his life, though other people expected it to be, which was why he hid the truth from so many others. They were always so full of curious questions that Chase had grown tired of answering after the first twenty times of being asked them. On the other hand, it was probably one of the only interesting facts about the young intern. The only other thing people seemed to be impressed by was when his sisters came to visit and insisted on telling the tale of his heroism the night of the fire. It was a story that caused Chase to cringe and wish to be anywhere but here, but it was another thing that people found incredible.

His eyebrows instantly shot up when Penny mentioned that she was a volunteer. He knew that the hospital had them, but he rarely ever saw them. Granted, it wasn’t really within his job description to keep his eyes on them and it wasn’t like he walked around specifically looking for them either. “How did you get into that?

[/color] He asked with a curious smile. “And what language do you translate for?”[/color] He knew they had translators in the hospital; it was a necessity, but he’d never heard of one of the volunteers being fluent in something other than English to help them out too. He flashed her a small smile and nodded his head slowly before he spoke again. “I’m a haematology intern. Basically, I deal with the blood samples and tests and most of my patients are those with diseases of the blood. The actual nurses like to fondly call my kind ‘the vampires’. Although, I’ve yet to see any of us sparkle in the sun.”[/color] His youngest sister had been obsessed with the Twilight saga and Chase had been forced to endure it for quite a long time until she outgrew it and moved onto something even more irksome for him; shoes.
[/blockquote][/blockquote][/size][/justify]

• • •

TAGGED! Penny
WORDS! 537!
OUTFIT! Dress down friday
LYRICS! Sunshine - - - Kids in Glass Houses
NOTES! <3

[Penny Michaela Kendall]

Penny wanted to cringe but held herself in check; years of practice gave her the ability to do so. She should have kept her mouth shut, but of course, when she was asked a question, she just had to answer it; yet another reason behind her bullied childhood. She’d risen above it, even went back to face them all in her final year of high school, but there had been years with no friends; years being alone with her siblings before the move. Well, she couldn’t lie to him; her volunteer records were easily accessible to doctors. “You seem shocked by that, why?” she asked, rather bluntly. This was her; the real her. She was blunt, but usually only when she was comfortable with the person. She shook her head, smiling. There really was no way to get around that question. It was bound to come up when you mention translating. She lifted her shoulder in a careless shrug. “You name it, I can probably speak it,” she admitted ruefully. “To a point, anyway,” she conceded at a second’s thought.

There had been plenty of time to learn new things, new languages when she was younger, and even after she’d found out what a social life was, she’d kept up, having fallen too hard for the written and spoken word. Penny smiled interested in his line of work. She wasn’t good with blood at all; in fact it made her a little bit dizzy and woozy. Penny started to chuckle at the nickname until Chase continued with it and instead she almost choked on the laugh. She rolled her eyes. “Those movies,” she started using finger quotations, “gave the myths and legends a terrible name! Count Dracula would be rolling over in his grave. If, you know, he had a grave and all that,” she said with a smirk. Alright, good job looking like a dork, she thought with a shake of her head. She really hated those movies. They were terrible and really, who ever heard about a sparkling in the sun vampire? Some dreams were better off staying in the mists of unconsciousness. “Please don’t tell me you’re a fan of that drivel?” she asked, forgetting to be shy and quiet around this man who was basically still a stranger.

•Tag• Chase <3
•Words• 382
•Clothes• Klutzy?!
•Lyrics• Christmas TV//Slow Club
•Notes• <3 <3 <3