"I don't believe it. They really want to abandon us in the middle of the forest!" Alex groaned in annoyance when the topic returned to the tasks for tomorrow's competition. There was a puzzle task that was secret, a rappelling exercise and a search for people in the forest was to be carried out.

"Which can only mean one thing with our two oldies," Tom now objected with a grin.

"Oldies?" Penny and Sam asked at the same time and looked at each other in shock.

"Now you're really going too far, Tom. If you call Sam an 'old man' that's one thing, but I'm not an oldie," protested Penny with a grin.

"Hey! Do you really love me, or are you just saying that?" Sam demanded.

"You own all my love, my heart." She gave him a quick pat on the cheek before turning back to Tom. "What do you actually want to tell us?"

"Well, you two alone in the forest, where you can hardly keep your hands off each other? They'll send you in there tomorrow and in nine months we'll become three godparents!"

"That's what you dream about at night, isn't it?"

"That you'll get pregnant?"

"That you become a godfather!"

"Pen, you don't want to seriously discuss the question of godparents with him when we haven't even talked about children ourselves?!" He knew the two were just teasing each other, but somehow it still made him uncomfortable.

"Why? Does it scare you, Sam?" Franziska asked him, grinning.

"Children? Surely not. I was hoping for five. I just thought we'd talk about it before doing it with others."

"Five?!" Penny turned to him in shock and his thoughtless remark gave him a good excuse to tease her a little too.

"What? Do you want more?"

"I was thinking more of two or three?!"

"Let me hazard a guess: Penny has a lot of siblings and Sam has few or none at all?"

"We'll see when the time comes," Sam said with a smile, pulled her to him and kissed her on the cheek, ignoring Tom's objection as he saw that his comment had visibly made Penny nervous.

"You see? Family planning is already complete. Once you're older, it has to happen very quickly before the biological clock stops ticking," Tom explained to the other two and as punishment, Sam threw a crumpled napkin without comment at his head.

"I would like to tell people at home that I danced with the world champion and world record holder. Can I?" Alex asked Penny and she looked at Sam questioningly. Even though he would never forbid her, she still hoped that he would want to dance with her himself. Instead, he just smiled, clearly showing her that he left the choice up to her and that he was obviously okay with it. "Come on, Penny. You don't need permission from your superior, do you?" Alex teased her and she rolled her eyes, annoyed but smiling, before following him.

Sam was left alone when Tom and Franzi also came up with the idea of ​​dancing. He watched Penny talk to Alex for a moment, but she didn't have that smile on her face or that sparkle in her eyes that he always noticed when she was in his arms or dancing with him.

A beep snapped him out of his thoughts and he pulled his phone out of his pocket, only to discover a message from Ben. Apparently the news hadn't gone past him either. Sam's face immediately darkened - which didn't go unnoticed by Penny, who was looking over at him at that moment - but Sam decided to confront her about it later when they were alone. He knew Ben and there had been a constant secret rivalry between them ever since he appeared in Pontypandy. They had both noticed that the other was interested in Penny and they hadn't had to talk about it, which meant they would never have coffee together outside of work.

Sam looked up in surprise when someone placed a schnapps on the table in front of him and spotted Pedro next to him, who was now putting his arm around his shoulders.

"I didn't want to miss the opportunity to personally congratulate the new world champion. Come have a drink with me to celebrate the day." He pointed to the schnapps on the table in front of him and raised his own glass to toast.

"I'm not much into spirits, Pedro, thanks."

"Oh come on, just this one. It won't knock you off your feet." He pushed the glass into Sam's hand and bumped it with his before emptying his glass in one quick gulp. "Now don't act like that. I haven't done anything wrong to you. It's all over now anyway. What reason should I still have to take you out?"

"The team competition tomorrow?!"

"I'm only doing it because Alex is so keen on it. I'm not in the mood for it. There's no point anyway. It's best to just rely on yourself, right Sam?"

"I always rely on my team and have always done well with it."

"And yet you are the big hero in your city. A lone warrior who would rather do his job himself before letting others do it, right?" Sam looked at him questioningly and Pedro laughed. "I like to be informed about my opponents and the website for your city, what's it called? Pontypiddy Planet? It shows very clearly how you work. Now drink up." Lost in thought, Sam raised the glass and drank it before making a disgusted face. It tasted disgusting and Pedro laughed again. "It doesn't taste good, but the effect is powerful," he said with a grin and patted him on the back before leaving him alone when Penny and Alex came back to him at the table. Penny immediately sat down next to him while Alex stopped his brother and started a conversation with him.

"What did he want, Sam?"

"He just wanted to buy me one to congratulate me on the victory." Penny picked up his glass and sniffed it, but he immediately took it from her and put it back on the table. "Don't be so suspicious. I would have a lot more reason to be," he grumbled sullenly. Pedro's words had made him doubt himself and his way of working and at the same time Ben's message was constantly running through his head without him being able to do anything about it.

"What does that mean now?"

"Nothing. We'll talk later," he just mumbled when Alex and Tom and Franziska came back to the table and sat down with them again.

Sam was unusually quiet the rest of the evening. He couldn't manage anything more than a smile, which usually seemed pained and that soon clouded the mood of the others.

Sam, however, had little nerve for the conversations at the table; Ben's news bothered him too much. Was it really like that and he was just an adventure for Penny? Would she ignore him when they were back in Pontypandy and Ben was near her again?

He ordered another water, the fifth in the last hour. His thirst was unbearable, his pulse had increased noticeably some time ago and his heart was racing while he was gripped by a restlessness that he had never experienced before. It kept flickering in front of his eyes and his stomach clenched, sometimes more and sometimes less painfully. Was he sick? Certainly, because the thoughts of Penny lying in Ben's arms, kissing him and making fun of his love for her behind his back, couldn't get out of his head, they kept flickering up as images in his mind's eye and left him feel miserable.

"I think we'd better go to the hotel and rest up for tomorrow's competition, what do you think, Sam?" Penny turned to him gently. It wasn't lost on her that something was bothering him and how much it was weighing on him. It was time to clarify and get this out of the way.

"Yeah, it's probably better if I lie down. You can keep celebrating," he replied, silently congratulating himself on the fake smile he'd managed and stood up, only to immediately sway.

"Woah, Sam. Careful. When did you drink so much?" Tom, who had jumped up next to him and was supporting him, interjected with a grin.

"I'm fine. I just got stuck somewhere," Sam grumbled, tore himself away from him and went to the counter. "That table over there," he said to the waiter, put money on the counter and didn't wait for change. He walked outside and took a deep breath as the cool night air hit him.

"Nobody asked you to pay the bill, Sam," Penny said and wanted to put an arm around him, but he took a step back and continued resolutely. He couldn't stand her closeness - not until he knew she wasn't playing tricks on him.

"I felt like it," he grumbled. In reality, he had just wanted to get out of there quickly and any minute the waiter would have needed to calculate the bill would have been too much for him.

"What's wrong with him?" Franziska asked Penny quietly, but she just shrugged her shoulders.

"Let him go. Maybe he's nervous about the competition tomorrow," Tom simply objected, but he noticed from the critical looks that now met him that his joke hadn't been well received.

"Did your brother say anything he wanted from Sam?" Franziska turned to Alex, but he just shook his head.

"He just said he wanted to show himself as a good loser and congratulated him."

"While Alex and I were dancing, he looked at his cell phone. He didn't look happy. Maybe he got some bad news from home. We'll definitely get this sorted out soon," Penny objected and everyone agreed with that , while the thought of Pedro's friendly gesture didn't leave her mind and she didn't take her eyes off Sam, who was walking a few meters in front of them with his hands buried deep in the pockets of his jacket and obviously wanted to be alone.

Alex said goodbye in the hotel lobby and went to the doorman. Sam didn't say another word, didn't say goodbye to the other two when they got to their door, but went straight into the room.

Penny followed him a moment later and closed the door quietly as she watched Sam turn down his blanket and tuck his sleeping clothes under his arm to head to the bathroom.

"Sam? What's wrong?" she asked him gently, but he ignored her and continued on his way to find a few more minutes of peace in the bathroom and to sort out his thoughts. The restlessness inside him grew and he was afraid to say something that might scare Penny if there was no truth to the story. But if so? Why should he still be friendly to her when she played with his feelings like that? He was so disappointed in her. "Sam?!" He turned to Penny, who had grabbed his wrist, stopping him, but he pulled it away as if he had been burned. Basically that's how it was. His heart was on fire for this woman and it would never be otherwise, even if the fire threatened to burn his heart to a dead lump of coal - it would always be hers.

"Maybe you should answer this question for me?" he replied harshly and she looked at him perplexed.

"What do you want to know?" she now gave in. He obviously had something on his mind and they wouldn't be able to sort it out if she also became stubborn, as perplexed and angry as his behavior made her.

"What's between you and Ben?"

"Ben? We are friends, colleagues. What else should be there?"

"We are too, aren't we?" he replied sarcastically. "Which didn't stop you from kissing me. So is that how things work between you two too?" Shocked by his accusation, she took a step back.

"Sam, what makes you think of something like that? I have no interest in Ben."

"When he came to Pontypandy, you already had that. You can't deny that," he snapped at her and she looked down, embarrassed.

"That's right. He was good-looking and I was dazzled by it, like many others in the city. But I never started anything with him because he's just not you. I got to know him and he's not my cup of tea. It would never work out, simply because I only ever wanted you."

"So Ben was just your filler, your consolation while you couldn't have me?" This thought made him rejoice inwardly with glee, but it still wasn't nice. "And if I get bored with you, we argue or I have to work the night shift without you, what then? Will you comfort yourself in his arms?" That hurt her. It hit her right in the heart that Sam would accuse her of such a thing. It wasn't true, it was mean. Hadn't she remained faithful to him all these years? Waiting for the possibility that one day he would love her like she loved him? She had never given up on him and now this!

"How can you accuse me of something like that, Samuel Jones?! Didn't I have to watch how after the film premiere the women almost ran into your door? Didn't I patiently watch as one after the other fell on your neck, kissed and groped you and you received what felt like thousands of love letters? Do I accuse you of probably having countless women in every city up to the border who would throw themselves at your feet and did I ask you where you are in your free time?"

"You're doing it now," he snapped at her. His patience was at an end. How could she accuse him of that?!"You saw for yourself how disgusting it all was for me. You stood by when I burned all those letters in the fire barrel in my garden. You hid me often enough when that happened that a horde was lurking in front of the station."

"Exactly and that's why I trust you. Have you ever seen me throw myself at Ben or even do more?"

"Sometimes a hint is enough."

"And which one should that be?" Sam pulled out his phone and held it out to her after opening the message. Confused, she read the sender's name as Sam handed her the phone and disappeared into the bathroom. A crack indicated he had locked himself in and she turned to the phone in her hand to read the message.

>My fist is looking forward to meeting your nose for stealing my girl from me. You will have filled the gap for the first and last time, I'll make sure of that. Penny only loves me! She belongs to me!<

Perplexed, she lowered the phone and placed it on the table next to her before sitting on her bed and burying her face in her hands.

She didn't understand why Ben had written that message, nor why Sam was so upset about it. He was always so calm and composed. Normally everything could be resolved peacefully with him...normally - but Sam wasn't normal today. He was completely beside himself. Could he really be so upset just out of jealousy?

To be continued...