"What's wrong, Sam?" Penny asked him as she put her uniform in her bag and put her arms around him and her head on his back as he looked out the window.

He had been ready for a few minutes and had stood here while she finished packing as well. Tomorrow they would pack up their sleeping clothes and toiletry bags and then they would finally go home after breakfast. "Don't think about what happened anymore. We'll go home tomorrow."

"I was thinking less about what happened and more about what happens next?" he murmured, lost in thought.

"What?" Penny was confused. What was he getting at? Did he just want to reduce what they had to a holiday flirt? "Are you getting cold feet? Because of us?" she asked him quietly as she pulled away from him, but he immediately turned to her and pulled her close to himself, placing a hand under her chin and gently forcing her to look at him before he kissed her tenderly.

"Never, my angel. I want to be with you. There is nothing and no one who can keep me away from you. Never."

"Then what is it that concerns you so much?"

"I have a lot of questions running through my head. Should we survive the flight..." He paused when Penny gave him a critical look, but smiled anyway and he kissed her briefly. "I strongly suspect that we will . But what then? Our shifts are rarely together, so how are we supposed to spend time together? It would certainly be easier if we lived together, but I don't know if that's too fast for you. I..." She stopped him with a kiss that clouded his mind, but he didn't want to complain. He would never do that.

"We'll find a solution as soon as we get home. I don't care where I am or where I live, as long as I can be with you and we'll survive the flight," she then replied, laughing softly as he didn't seemed very convinced, but he kissed her gently again.

"I love you so much, my kitten." He pulled her close and sank into her eyes.

"Certainly not as much as I love you, my wild tiger," she replied with a grin and wrapped her arms around his neck to pull him in for another kiss when there was a knock on the door. "If that's the others I'll tear them up in the air," she muttered sullenly and Sam laughed as he gave her a kiss on the forehead and pulled away from her to open the door.

"Samuel Jones? Penny Morris?" asked one of the two police officers standing in front of the door, looking at the pad in his hand.

"Yes, that's us. What's this about?" Penny asked, now afraid that this could be one last trap by Pedro to get  over on them.

"It's about Pedro Salvador. He played a bad game with you, as we heard?" Sam just nodded. What would he have to say about that?!"We would like to record your statements before you fly home. We already have them from everyone else."

"Who is everyone else?" Sam asked, now confused, and invited the two of them in so that they didn't have to sort this out in the hotel hallway.

"Your three friends, the doctor and the porter downstairs. In addition, the jury kindly provided us with all the video material. The porter gave us a glass the night they were poisoned, which the doctor confirmed to us yesterday, in which her friend Alexander suspected the poison. He took it out of the bar and handed it over to the porter with the request that we check it for residues of any substance. The suspicion was confirmed. The poison was in the liquor, that you drank that evening."

"What a surprise," Penny murmured sarcastically, and an amused smile appeared on the police officer's face.

"We just wanted to hear your version of your experiences this week too. Would it be okay if I interviewed you and my colleague asked your colleague? Then it would go faster."

"Sure," Sam replied, placing a chair on one side of the bed while the other officer placed one on the opposite side of the other bed. Sam and Penny sat on the beds with their backs to each other while the police officers sat in the chairs opposite them and listened to what they had experienced during the week.

Neither of them left anything out while the police officers listened attentively and took notes, nodded knowingly when something from the other statements sounded familiar to them and shook their heads again and again, stunned that a person could really have done all of this. purely out of sheer envy.

"We thank you very much, Mr. Jones, Ms. Morris," one of the two police officers objected as he walked away. "Your statements match those of your friends and have given us even more insight."

"Is this Pedro going to be sentenced for what he did?"

"Since he is not a German citizen, he will fly back to his country tomorrow with the complaint in his luggage. But our colleagues over there are informed and of course have to investigate the matter as well. However, I am not familiar with Spanish law, so I can't say what his punishment will be, but he will definitely get one."

"And it will definitely have an impact on his work. Given this background, he will no longer be allowed to serve in the fire department for moral reasons alone. Our Spanish colleagues have told us that much. Good evening. We wish you a good flight tomorrow and all the best for the future. If there are any more questions, we or our colleagues will contact you again," the police officer said goodbye and his colleague nodded before they put their hats back on and left them alone.

"Life seems to be fair," Penny objected and glanced at Sam's watch. "We should get ready. We'll meet the others in the hall in half an hour."

"I'm excited to see where they're taking us for their big farewell party," Sam replied with a smile, thinking about how theatrically the three of them had announced it to them and how much fun they'd had by hiding it from them and still teasing them .

----------------------------------------------------------------------

A little over four hours later they walked again through the medieval streets of Rothenburg, after eating in one restaurant - Tom, of course, again plenty - and stopping for dancing in another.

"Well, have we promised you too much? Anyone who hasn't experienced this at night wasn't really here," Tom now objected proudly and even Alex looked around in amazement at the illuminated streets. Due to the lighting in the streets and the countless city gates, it almost seemed as if the city was bathed in gold. It was quiet and more than romantic, which also affected Sam and Penny, who followed their three new friends, snuggled up close to each other.

It had all turned out so wonderfully and neither of them could really believe that they had successfully completed the week. Neither of them wanted it to be over at that moment. They suspected and knew that the other person was not only great love and soul mate, but also their fate.

Sam looked at Penny's face, framed just as gold as the houses around him, and knew in that moment that if he ever lost her, it wouldn't just break his heart. He couldn't let her go. Never.

He stopped suddenly under an archway and pulled her close so that she looked up at him in surprise. Holy sparks, she was so beautiful, he thought as he cupped her cheeks in his hands and kissed her so gently that Penny thought her heart would jump out of her chest. But she never in her wildest dreams would have expected what he did next - at least not so early in their new relationship. He got down on one knee in front of her and took her hand, looking up at her, glowing golden in the city lights as if he were an angel, his eyes shining with joy but also determination.

"Penny, I have never loved anyone the way I love you. I never thought it was possible to love anyone like that. I need you more than you can imagine. Always have. Every day I couldn't see you, was a lost day, without joy and without meaning. I still can't believe that you give your love to me of all people and if this is a dream, my greatest wish is that I never wake up from it, but if it isn't a dream, I want nothing more than that you would give me the greatest joy in becoming my wife. I want to marry you, I want to start a family with you and above all I want you to be mine. Now and forever. I never want to let you go again because I want to make you happier for the rest of my life than you can even imagine. That will always be my only goal if you let me." He stopped when he saw tears shimmering in her eyes, looking at him in disbelief. Had he done something wrong? Didn't she want him like he wanted her? Had he been too hasty and ruined everything? He stood up and placed his free hand on her cheek, which she practically nestled into, before she placed hers on his and looked into his eyes again.

"You've had one or two beers too much again, Sam," she replied with a smile, and that offended him a little.

"Yes, I did, but I am still the master of my senses. I know what I want and that is only you. It has been that way from day one and it will never change again. We are meant for each other. We belong together. How can I convince you of this?"

"You don't have to convince me, Sam. I've known for a long time that you are my destiny, that only you can make me happy and that I need and, above all, love you at least as much as you love me." He couldn't help the smile that now took up his entire face before he kissed her tenderly and they completely forgot each other in the moment before parting breathlessly.

"Should I propose to you again sometime, when some time has passed and you really know what you're getting into and when I have a ring? I was probably a little too spontaneous for that." Penny laughed softly before gently stroking his cheek.

"I love you, Sam. That's what matters, not just any ring. I won't take any time either because I know for a fact that nothing in the world will change the fact that I'll always only want you."

"So is that a yes?" he asked with an overjoyed grin on his face.

"Of course that's a yes, my tiger," she replied with a laugh and pulled him in again to kiss him, while their friends, who had watched the two with excitement and captured this special moment with one or two photos, applauded cheerfully .

"This has to be celebrated," Tom then shouted enthusiastically. "I know a great pub there that also makes great sandwiches."

"Are you thinking about food again, Tom?"

"To be honest, I could need another bite too, my angel," Sam now objected embarrassedly and Tom laughed scornfully and patted Sam proudly on the shoulder.

"For God's sake. It's about time we got home. Tom's contagious," Penny protested sarcastically, but smiled as she put an arm around Sam and he gave her a kiss on the temple while she watched Tom and him followed by the other two, who spent the rest of the evening enthusiastically talking about nothing other than Sam's spontaneous but successful marriage proposal.

To be continued...