Lilly and Dan had been beyond generous with how they had chosen to set Penelope up. Her bedroom was so huge, it even had its own bathroom, and a walk-in closet! It took Penelope a few days to begin to adjust it all. She did a lot of tossing and turning as she slept, crying out as nightmares of Mary yanking her out of bed over and over again plagued her. One night, Derek heard her screaming and came to her side, holding her as she cried into his shoulder.
"Shhhh. Its ok. You're safe. I've got you. You never have to go back there again." He assured her over and over again. Eventually, Penelope had fallen back asleep in his arms.
The next morning, Lilly had found them both in Lilly's room together, Penelope cradled in Derek's arms. He was sitting up against her headboard, his head slumped over as he lightly snored. "Derek" Lilly called lightly. "You can't be in the bed with her, Son."
Her words were met with a wimper from Penelope as she clutched him tighter in her sleep. So Lilly backed out of her room and gone downstairs to make breakfast.
Some time later, Derek came down the stairs, buttoning his shirt as he made his way towards the dining room. "Morning Mom." He said through a yawn.
"Didn't sleep very well, I take it?"
Derek shook his head.
"Well at least she managed to get some. The way she was clinging onto you just a little bit ago was so cute! But Derek, you can't be sleeping in the same room with her."
"I know mom. I didn't mean to. I was going to leave when she fell back asleep but I guess…"
"I understand, dear. Just try not to let it happen again. There are strict rules that we have to follow with this."
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do anything wrong." Came Penelope's small voice as she entered the dining room.
Lilly rushed over to her. "Oh no, dear. You didn't do anything wrong at all! I know you were having a tough time. I'm glad Derek was able to help you. We just have to be careful is all, sweetheart."
"Yes Ma'am." Penelope replied, breathing a sigh of relief that she wasn't about to get screamed at. Every time Lilly talked to her, Penelope was worried about when the screaming would start. When it never came, she could relax and let just a tiny bit more of herself come out.
"Good girl. Now lets get you some breakfast. Do you like pancakes?" Lilly asked.
"I love pancakes!" Penelope exclaimed.
"Can I have syrup with them? And butter?"
"Of course! Who eats pancakes without syrup?" Lilly poked, holding up her spatula in protest of pancakes without syrup.
"Well-"
"You've gotta be kidding me! Really!?"
"Um. Yeah." Penelope said, looking down at the floor.
"Oh, I'm not judging you, sweetie. I'm judging her. I'm beginning to think that shes more than just a witch. That thing is SATAN himself!"
Penelope laughed and sat down at the table. "Well Satan has magic too, so I guess maybe that's not too far off, right?" she couldn't stop herself from saying the words that came out of her head. Derek and Lilly stared at her for a moment, wide eyed and unbelieving of what had just came out of her. Penelope looked back at them, her eyes wide as well. Did she really just say that? Then, they both burst out laughing.
"You tell it like it is, honey! Theres freedom of speech in this house!" Lilly exclaimed, hoping that it would encourage her to come out of her shell more.
"Thank you." Penelope allowed more of her smile to show. "Its nice to be able to say what I think. And how I feel. Its so refreshing."
"Whats refreshing? Orange juice? Did Lilly make OJ?" Dan asked, stepping into the kitchen, looking sharp in his business suit.
"No, silly but there is some in the fridge."
"Thank you, dear. So how is my family on this fine morning?" Dan asked, going to the cabinet for a glass.
"I'm great!" Lilly said.
"Tired." Derek said.
When Penelope said nothing, Dan looked over to her. "Penelope?"
"Oh, um, me? I'm fine."
"You are part of this family now, too, young lady. So when I ask how you're doing, I expect an answer."
"Yes, Sir." She replied quickly.
"I'm only being half serious." He said, pulling a glass down from the cabinet. "Would you like some, Pennie?" He offered. At Penelope's nod, he grabbed a second glass.
"I do mean it, though. You are family, now. And in our family, we always check in on one another to make sure everyone is doing ok." He brought the glass to the table and sat it down in front of Penelope. " That way, we can share one another's burdens and celebrate our good days."
"Thank you."
Shortly after, Lilly started bringing over plates full of pancakes loaded with butter and syrup. And bacon. There was bacon on the plate, too! Just before she brought Penelope her plate, though, she reached into the fridge and pulled out a can of whipped cream. When the plate was sat in front of Penelope, the whipped cream was smiling at her on top of the pancakes.
"Hey, I didn't get any!" Derek whined.
"You're not the favorite anymore." Lilly teased, winking at Penelope. She giggled quietly at the exchange and looked back at her pancakes before digging in. She almost didn't want to eat them, but they looked too good not to. When she popped that first bite into her mouth, she let out a pleasurable moan.
Was this her reality, now? Pancakes with syrup and whipped cream and bacon? Could she have this every day for the rest of her life? She would be happy if this was the only meal she was ever allowed to eat again. Penelope was so engrossed with her meal that didn't even notice everyone smiling back at her enjoying it.
Eventually, her pleasured expression faded into simple chewing and everyone began to concentrate on their own food.
"So Derek, whats got you all tired this morning?"
"Oh, nothing, really, dad. I just slept a little, eh, awkward."
"I was having night terrors." Penelope answered. "Derek came in and he-" What was she saying? She shouldn't be telling Derek's dad that he had slept with her! She stopped herself.
"Oh, it was the cutest thing!" Lilly expressed. "I walked in to check on Penelope this morning and he had her all cradled in his lap."
Thank you, Lilly Penelope thought to herself. She knew she wasn't going to finish explaining that.
"I'm sorry, sweetie, that you had a bad night." Dan said sincerely. "I just don't understand, though. Your dad has been working for me for a very long time. I don't know him entirely well, but I do know that he is a good man. Why did he let all of that happen to you?"
Penelope looked down at her pancakes, frozen for a moment. "He didn't know." She said quietly.
Dan froze as well, realizing that he'd probably just made a mistake. Lilly looked at them both with sorrow in her eyes. "Shit. I'm sorry. I should not have voiced that aloud."
"No, its okay." Penelope looked back up at Dan. "She did the majority of it when he was at work. Especially when he went on business trips. And when he got home, she would just tell him how badly I had behaved that day." Penelope absentmindedly picked at her plate with her fork. "Whenever she would yell at me for no reason, he'd make excuses for her. But he never saw her hit me. He never saw her drag me to the bathroom to chop my hair. She always told him that I did it to myself. And he believed her. He never believed me, so I never told."
"My goodness. Sweet girl. I'm so sorry."
Lilly's face fell. "None of that is okay. None of it at all."
"Yeah, well, it still happened, though. I was just biding my time until I could get out of there. My plan was to get through my senior year without her kicking me out of the house, get a scholarship for college, and be gone. At least now I can start growing my hair out again. Maybe by the end of the school year, it'll be long enough for all the kids to stop calling me crop top and butch."
Lilly and Dan's jaws dropped. "You were bullied, too?" Dan's face began to turn red.
"Well, yeah. One of my step-brothers is the same age as I am. And, well, you can't go to school looking like this-" she said pointing to her head "and wearing clothes that make you look like a beached whale without being shoved into a locker at least once a week."
Dan blew out a long breath. "Yeah, I'm gonna go to work now." He said through gritted teeth.
Derek, who had sat there speechless through the conversation chose to excuse himself as well. His face was redder than Dan's. There were no words to express how livid he was.
"Don't worry, dear." Lilly assured her. "They're not angry at you. They're angry over how they treated you."
"I can tell." Penelope said. "Maybe I shouldn't say anything?" she pondered. "I don't want to make anybody angry."
"No, sweet girl. Its ok to let it all out. You need to. Otherwise, you are not going to heal. We are all here for you, and we all want you to process and work through things however you need to work through them. Now finish your breakfast and go get dressed. We've gotta get you to your first therapy appointment, and after, we have some things that we need to go do. Now, I've got a phone call I need to make. You just leave the dishes there and the maid will come clean up after you, alright?"
Lilly kissed Penelope on top of her head and took her leave. Penelope finished her breakfast as she had been told. She couldn't, however, bring herself to leave the dishes on the table. So she took them all to the kitchen, scraped them, rinsed them, put them in the dishwasher and then went to get dressed.
Some things she was probably never going be able to break herself free from.