Hello all. Here's a slightly different story. I've been wondering for a long time what could actually have happened that Sam and especially Penny, who was rather reserved until season 9, have thawed out so much, so from season 10 onwards the two of them treat each other so much more easily and have obviously deepened their friendship even more. Now I got around to writing down what was going on in my head. No expressions of love, but I still hope you like it. Takes place between seasons 9 and 10. Enjoy reading.

"Is everything okay, Sam?" I turned to the angelic voice and looked into those beautiful hazel eyes. I loved that wonderful look: alert and gentle, like that of a deer, but always friendly and open, but now worried - and obviously about me, which made my heart beat a little faster.

"Yeah, of course Penny. It's just been a long day."

"I understand. A 24-hour shift is never easy to deal with. Maybe you should go home. I can still manage the one hour and Elvis is already here."

"You've done the same shift as me. How come you're still so fit?"

"It just seems that way. I'll just fall into bed and probably won't get up again until tomorrow morning." I laughed quietly to myself because I would feel the same way.

"I feel the same way. But what keeps you going? You seem like you only work half the time. Tell me your secret."

"There isn't any. You just seem extremely tired today. Otherwise you're always so fit that I get the feeling that you could easily get through a 48-hour shift."

"Like you said, it seems that way. In reality, I could bang my head against the wall sometimes, but it doesn't help. Responsibility keeps you going. It's like being trapped in a bubble of expectations."

"Who are you telling this to?"

"Do you feel the same way?" She shrugged as she sat down next to me on the closet bench.

"I always just wanted to join the fire department. But asserting yourself as a woman in this male-dominated world is anything but easy. So I just had to grit my teeth, work harder on myself, learn more as the others. I wanted to prove to everyone, that I can do it at least as well as any man. But no matter how much you have achieved in life, if you show a moment of weakness or make a mistake, everyone will only talk about it and not about the hundreds of times that you have done good."

"You're better than any of us, you know that, right?" She immediately blushed, but smiled gratefully. "But I feel the same way. Being a firefighter was all I wanted as a child. I had so much fun that the ambition came automatically and learning was easy for me. I still love this job today, but some days it's just too much for me."

"To what extent?" she asked me carefully.

"Steele made me team leader early on. Even he relies on me blindly. All of Pontypandy calls me the hero next door, Fireman Sam." I moved my hands in a sarcastic gesture, as if I was trying to trace a rainbow on the horizon. "If you hear 'Fireman Sam' a hundred times a day and everyone keeps calling you that even after work - even your own family - then I sometimes wonder whether I still have my own identity or whether I'm really just the serious, level-headed and courageous firefighter that everyone wants to see in me. I'm nothing without all of you and yet I'm not just a firefighter either. That all annoys me."

"What's the real Sam like?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you said that you feel reduced to the role of a firefighter. What are you really like? What hobbies do you have, what do you like to do when you're alone? That kind of things." And now I shrugged my shoulders.

"I like puzzles. I like reading. Crime novels and thrillers. I like to go for walks to think. Actually, I think a lot."

"About what?"

"Life. Wishes, dreams and hopes," I replied with a shrug, trying to make it sound casual.

"When you're with the children, you show a different side. Sometimes helpless, sometimes funny and exuberant. Is that what you're hiding and how you'd like to be more often?"

"Yes, maybe. I just want to be able to be myself. But I risk losing respect from others if I let myself go, fool around or talk about my feelings."

"Me too."

"Really?" She just nodded absentmindedly. "You know that with me you can be who you are. I respect your achievements, your skills, your courage and your strength. I admire you for all of that and nothing could change that, even if you tell me that you love watching Sesame Street, jumping rope and eating noodles with ketchup while singing childish songs." Penny looked at me wide before we both couldn't stop ourselves from laughing.

"Are you doing all this or where do these strange ideas come from?"

"No, although I have to admit that I love singing in the shower and there is a children's series about a firefighter that I still love to this day."

"I know it too. I have all the DVDs of them," Penny said enthusiastically. "Do you remember when the fire station was on fire and the main fireman came running with just a bucket of water?"

"Yeah, or that one colleague who kept setting the kitchen on fire."

We thought through a few more scenes from the series and laughed so hard together that we cried until we couldn't take it anymore and couldn't think of anything else, before Penny sighed deeply.

"Sometimes our life and work here in Pontypandy feels like it has come out of a series."

"Yes, sometimes it's really too bizarre."

"There are parallels. Maybe we should watch the series together and analyze it?!"

"Is this turning into a date?" I asked teasingly, but Penny blushed and gently nudged me with her shoulder.

"Just feel-good time among colleagues and friends to...relax?"

"Gladly."

"I'm looking forward to it and I'm very happy that our great hero is only human. But don't worry, your secret is safe with me." Now I nudged her with my shoulder and grinned.

"I think it's only fair. The two of us team leaders are conspiring against everyone else."

"This isn't a conspiracy Sam. This is friendship." She held out her hand to me. "If you like?"

"We've been friends for so long," I replied surprised, but then took her hand anyway. "But I'm really looking forward to deepening this."

"Me too," she objected quietly and a beautiful, gentle blush covered her cheeks. "And you see, we've had a good time over the last hour."

"It's finally closing time," I cheered with a gesture to the sky and we laughed as we went to our lockers to change.

It was good to get it off my chest and I trusted Penny unconditionally. It was easy for me to joke and laugh with her about a children's series and I was very happy to be able to spend a little more time with her in the future and get to know a side of her that I didn't know about her - the one she had tried to hide, just like I did mine, for fear of losing the respect of others.

We were so surprisingly similar that I fell more and more in love with her. I just hoped that one day she would give me a chance to prove that I could be a good man to her.

THE END