Danger! In this chapter you will find 'hints' of adult content. But first of all, have fun reading.

"Oh my God. I must have been bitten by a hundred mosquitoes," Lizzie whined.

"Don't you think you're exaggerating a bit?" Helen replied skeptically as she watched her ointment for insect bites running out far too quickly while everyone complained about becoming victims of these little bloodsuckers since they entered this swampy area.

"She definitely doesn't. If I count every single stitch, I'd definitely come up with a lot more," Ellie groaned as she took the ointment from Lizzie. Penny rolled her eyes in annoyance and decided to ignore her friends. She gave Helen a questioning look and she immediately caught up with Penny gratefully. She certainly wouldn't get the ointment back and she hadn't even rubbed it on one of her own stitches.

"Why are the beasts so aggressive here? Can't they find other victims?" Penny complained as she hit another mosquito on her neck.

"Are you talking about the mosquitoes or our colleagues?" Helen murmured with a grin and they both laughed briefly.

"I meant the mosquitoes. They bite like crazy," Penny explained to her.

"I can understand them. They probably think you look good too," they heard a familiar voice behind them and turned in surprise to Sam, who had just had a smile on his face, but now turned bright red under Penny's confused look "I...um...Here. That helps keep them away," he then objected sheepishly and gave Helen and Penny some leaves from a plant before shooting past them and walking a good distance ahead to take a deep breath.

"Lemon balm. Of course," Helen then objected as she examined the leaves and began to rub them between her fingers and rub the scent into her skin. She glanced at Penny, who was still looking thoughtfully at Sam. "What is it?"

"Did he say 'too'?"

"He did," she replied, grinning.

"Who else thinks that?"

"Oh Penny. Really?" Helen groaned and then laughed. Ben now also overtook her, while Sam delved into the map in front of them. "Finally grab him. If not on this hike, then when?" she then whispered to her friend.

"Helen. Please. Not again. If he really would care about me, he would have done something long ago."

"You are such a modern woman and stand up in an absolute male domain, but when it comes to love, you live in the past. Come out of your romantic medieval novels and take the first step. You certainly won't be disappointed. "

Penny awkwardly adjusted the backpack on her back, but said nothing about it. She still couldn't get over her own shadow, no matter how hard her friends tried to make her realize that her dreams were true, would come true if she would open her mouth. But it was too good to be true. She had never had much luck in love. Why would a man like him lose his heart to someone like her?

"Sam, can I talk to you for a moment?" Ben turned to Sam when he caught up with him, just as he was putting the card away. They had just finished their lunch break, but no one had complained this time when Sam had suggested to going further. There was no one there who couldn't wait to get out of this swampland.

"Sure, Ben. What's up?"

"Well, it's about Penny." Sam silently took a deep breath. What else? This conversation had to come at some point.

Ben and he knew each other from childhood. They had already played together in kindergarten, but then lost touch. Sam's excitement at seeing an old childhood friend again had quickly faded after it became apparent that Ben was attracting every female eye - including and especially Penny's. He wasn't a bad person, more a good friend and colleague, but there was still that voice in his head that branded Ben as his competitor. He didn't know if he had or ever would have a chance with Penny, but from the moment Ben showed up in town, he had vowed to woo and win Penny over. Well, he wasn't very good at courting and he was probably still a long way from winning her over, but at least they had both grown together in the last few years in a way that he had never experienced before with a colleague and they really became very good friends. There was only one thing he couldn't talk to her about and that was his love for her.

"What's wrong with her?" he asked as coolly as possible and put on a neutral smile.

"We never had a chance to talk about it, but I thought we could do it now." Sam gave him a skeptical look. He suspected what was on Ben's mind and to be honest, he wanted to get this conversation over with quickly if he couldn't avoid it - especially so successfully that he didn't run the risk of Penny being separated from him when she experienced his feelings. That would just make things more awkward if he really was just a friend in her eyes.

"Spit it out, Ben. You don't usually push around like that."

"What's going on between you and Penny?"

"What should be there? We are colleagues and very good friends."

"And there's nothing else?" What should he say to that without lying? He never lied.

"What are you getting at, Ben?" Satisfied with his counter question, he inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.

"I'm just saying. She's so much more relaxed with you than with any of us and she doesn't flirt with anyone. But with you it often seems like that."

"Really?" Sam immediately cleared his throat to cover his hopeful and surprised tone.

"You never noticed that?"

"We often joke around and pick on each other. It's fun to joke around with her. Our job forces us to be serious all the time. We're constantly confronted with danger, so it's good to do that every now and then and not have to hide everything." He stole a glance at Ben and saw that he seemed to be thinking about his words. "Why are you even asking me that, Ben?"

"I'm just interested?!" he replied with a shrug. "Penny is an amazing woman, but just as confusing."

"How do you mean that now?"

"When I came here, I noticed the way she was looking at me. I mean, what woman in the city doesn't do that?! I'm used to it and even your sister-in-law adored me," he objected and laughed quietly to himself while Sam subtly rolled his eyes. He could vividly remember the many evenings in which Charlie had poured out his heart to him because he was afraid that Bronwyn would throw herself into the arms of this pretty boy for a little adventure. "But married women are not my thing. Too much trouble with the cheated husbands. Anyway, Penny was the only single woman in town and I went out with her a few times too."

"What?!" Sam exclaimed in shock, who immediately recognized his mistake and feigned a full-blown coughing fit. "I think I swallowed a mosquito. Sorry. Keep talking, Ben," he then covered it up in a pained voice. He actually didn't want to hear anything more. Above all, no details, perhaps even raunchy ones, that would surely follow immediately. His heart clenched painfully.

"I really thought I had a chance. She was so nervous on the first date. No matter what I tried back then, she always kept her distance. I didn't even get a goodnight kiss from her. On any of our three dates." Sam breathed a sigh of relief. "And then when I asked her out on the fourth date she told me that it would be better if we just stayed friends because she couldn't imagine herself with me anymore. Can you imagine that?" Sam gave him a questioning look, but Ben didn't feign his incredulity.

"I can't understand it at all," he murmured, just to make his colleague happy, while he was dancing with joy inside. He was a better actor in real life than he was in the movie.

"See. What I've said. I told her that too. Then she told me that she had never realized it before, but that her heart already belonged to someone else and it would feel wrong to go out with me. She didn't want to tell me who it was. But when I see you together like that, I think about it and wonder if it could be you." Sam's heart began to race. Could it be?"And then I always remember that you're actually way too boring. No offense, Sam," he added with a grin.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Penny is an extreme athlete. She loves jogging, climbing, diving, caving. I'm into windsurfing, sailing and kayaking. What are your hobbies?"

"I love my job and I like working in the garden. I used to invent things, but I stopped doing that many years ago."

"Ah, right. I heard about it. There was that robot that set the station on fire and put Penny in danger, right? What was his name? Dudley?"

"Bentley," Sam grumbled sullenly. He didn't want to be reminded of that. He had never been as afraid for a person as he was that day for Penny...and every day after it, that she could have been in danger. It had hurt him so much to be responsible for Penny being trapped in the flames and in danger in the hall that he had given up inventing forever. He would never take that risk again, even though he knew that Bentley's malfunction was basically Norman's fault.

"Please don't take it against me, Sam, but your life is boring as hell. Always working and then working in the garden? That certainly wouldn't appeal to Penny, where she looks for action in her free time."

"Penny loves reading and she also loves sailing, both of which I also enjoy doing. So it's not like we have nothing in common."

"I really didn't mean to step on your toes, buddy. I was just curious. But the idea of ​​you being the one seems a bit unrealistic to me, so..." He tapped his forehead with two fingers and saluted casually, as he wanted to turn around to go to Tom, who had just called him.

"And what do you plan to do with this new knowledge?" Sam asked him quickly before he could disappear and saw Ben shrugging his shoulders.

"Keep trying? Maybe she's forgotten the guy by now. It's been a few years and if a woman has to wait that long, maybe she'll change her mind," he answered and Sam then let Ben go, while he was lost in his own thoughts that Ben had put into his head.

"Are you okay, Sam?" Penny asked him after a while, recognizing his pensive mood and watching him while Helen and Moose were next to her having a debate about first aid in the forest. What had been fun at first gradually became too much for her and she decided to catch up with Sam, only to find him again still lost in his thoughts.

"Huh?" he woke up and looked at her confused for a moment. "Yeah. Yeah sure. Everything's fine. I just had to think about something."

"And what would that be? Maybe I can help you find an answer so you don't have to worry about it anymore?"

"It's nothing. Really," he simply replied and they continued on their way in silence. "Do you think I'm boring?" he then asked her, still staring stubbornly at the path in front of them. So he could only imagine her confused look when she briefly looked over at him.

"As if you'd ever be of all people, Sam Jones," she replied with a smile, hoping that would change his mind and saw with satisfaction how a smile now appeared on his face. "Who said that? The Twins?"

"No. It was just a thought that crossed my mind," he said then, looking into her eyes for a moment. "Thanks, Pen."

"Always with pleasure," she replied with a wink and just a minute later they both switched back to their usual flirting mode without consciously realizing it.

Almost four hours later they had left the swamp area behind them and had been hiking through a dense mixed forest for some time when it ended abruptly and a wonderful view of a large lake opened up to them in an even larger clearing.

"Oh my God, it's beautiful here," sighed Jodie, entranced.

"We have to stay here. Absolutely," Ellie said enthusiastically as she enjoyed the same view as those first in line.

"I think we should go a little further. It's only 5 p.m. and we still have a few miles to catch up on. I..."

"You can just let it be 5 degrees. We've been rushing to get out of the swamp over there and we've all been doing nothing but washing cats for three days. It will be good for the general mood if everyone cools off in the lake and wash," Helen jumped to help her colleagues and pretty much everyone agreed with her - at least those who were still there, because Tom and Moose were already running towards the lake cheering enthusiastically and carelessly leaving their backpacks and clothes on falling on the way only to jump in at the end in her shorts.

Sam looked confused as his colleagues walked towards the lake, chatting euphorically, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

"You'd think we're on a relaxing camping trip and not one of Boyce's boot camps," Penny said with a smile as she walked past Sam last and gently nudged him with her shoulder to get him to go along.

"Almost seems like it, yeah," he mumbled as he shouldered his backpack and followed her.

"Take it easy, Sam. The mood has suddenly changed. This will be good for the team and if Boyce tells us a route like that, I personally won't care if we get home a day later."

"Great tangled hoses! Ms. Morris! I'm horrified," Sam mimicked Steele's usual phrase when shocked by something that happened. Penny laughed quietly. "Swimming race to the other end of the lake?" he then asked her with a grin and she was happy to accept his challenge.

For two hours everyone laughed and joked or relaxed in the cool water. It was enough for Helen, her brother, Arnold and Lizzie to swim or drift for a few laps before they sat down on the bank and watched their other colleagues curiously, while Ellie and Jodie playfully wrestled with each other on Elvis' and Ben's shoulders, which Ben had also tried once with Penny, but she had immediately fallen backwards from his shoulders before he could even resurface - and what a miracle, she had more or less fallen into Sam's arms. He quickly forgot his surprise and took the opportunity to play a joke with her himself, which he promptly did by throwing her into the water in front of him, only to be dunked under by Tom himself. Moose joined them and the four of them preferred to splash and dive into each other while the other four next to them continued their tussle and obviously had a lot of fun doing it.

Sam was the first to give up and started building a fire pit with Malcolm, while Penny preferred to leave the two wild guys to their business and go for a few more relaxing laps. But little by little the lake emptied more and more and everyone gathered around the fire pit, visibly more relaxed and content. Moose and Tom had actually managed to enrich their diet with a few fish that they had caught in the lake and gutted with the help of Sam's knife. They ate together, chatted and laughed, and no one noticed that two of them were missing.

"What are those noises?" Ben then asked confused and turned to the lake behind him. All conversations immediately stopped and everyone listened in the darkness.

"Could that be an owl?"

"Sounds more like a deer in rut."

"It's not rutting season, buddy."

"Maybe a late bloomer?"

"Or a wild sow. They also snort like that," objected Lizzie.

"Now it's caught something and is killing it," Ben murmured in horror as a second, higher sound joined in.

"Whatever. We're running out of firewood and I'm going to go collect some," Sam said and still unfolded his knife from his multi-tool as he stood up.

"I'll come with you. The quicker we'll be back in the camp." Penny followed him. She couldn't and didn't want to let him wander around in the dark forest alone and Malcolm also went with them and lit their way with his flashlight.

"That sounds really scary. Let's quickly gather some wood and go back to camp."

"Is our police officer fed up?" Sam teased his friend and a discussion immediately ensued between the two.

Penny half-listened to them, smiling at the way the two men teased each other while neither let anything stop them from gathering wood. But when she heard a splashing noise in the distance, in addition to the strange noises, and shortly afterwards heard a quiet 'Oh Elvis', she was finally able to identify who was doing what.

"We should go back," Penny argued as she quickly walked back to the men and gently pushed them both towards the camp.

"We can carry a little more."

"Besides, there shouldn't be any danger there anymore. It's become quiet out there," Malcolm stated.

"Isn't calm usually a sign of danger before the storm breaks out?" Penny added sheepishly, always aware that Ellie would have to come back with Elvis at any moment and her friend would certainly be embarrassed if they unexpectedly approached the three of them in the forest "The wood will be enough. We won't be awake forever. At least I'm dead tired."

"Okay," Sam said, surprised and looked at Mal for a moment, confused by Penny's nervousness. "Then we'll go back." Mal nodded and Penny breathed a sigh of relief as she finally turned towards the camp. They hadn't gone far when a sharp scream shattered the silence, followed by harsh curses. She immediately ran to the person who caused it and found Ellie hanging upside down from the tree with her foot caught in a snare. For a moment she didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the sight. Thanks to the fire of the camp behind her, she could clearly see the ranting Ellie.

"Stop laughing, Morris, and get me down here instead. What idiot sets traps here?"

"If you had been a little quieter during your little hour, the others wouldn't have thought that wild animals were lying in wait for us," she murmured to her friend.

Ellie opened her eyes in shock that Penny knew about it, as Mal and Sam came out of the forest and Moose, followed by everyone else - including Elvis, who had sneaked into the camp from another direction - came out of the camp. Moose immediately took the knife from Sam as he excitedly apologized to Ellie.

Meanwhile, Penny had climbed onto a rock and was fiddling with the knot while Elvis tried to support Ellie. In the semi-darkness and completely nervous from Ellie's scoldings, Moose wanted only to get her down there as quickly as possible and cut the rope. But he also underestimated Sam's knife, because it cut the rope faster than Penny could pull her hands away and cut open her palm. She sucked in a hissing breath as the knife went through her skin like lightning and hurt just as much.

"I...I'm sorry, Penny. I didn't mean to. I..." Moose babbled in shock as he realized what he had done. Helen immediately led Penny to the camp, where she dug her first aid bag out of her backpack and began cleaning and dressing her wound with the few supplies it contained.

"You've done enough for one evening, I think, Moose," Sam grumbled, taking the knife from him as soon as the two women had left. Embarrassed, he looked down as Sam followed the two and apologized to Ellie, feeling embarrassed.

"I just wanted to make the camp a little safer," Moose muttered as he followed everyone else back into camp.

"Sure, buddy. But I don't think we have anything to worry about today. We should go to sleep." Tom gave his buddy an encouraging pat on the shoulder before they followed most of the others and climbed into their sleeping bags.

"I did what I could with my limited resources, but I don't have anything other than bandages. There will definitely be a scar. Let's just hope that the wound doesn't become infected. Since the knife was used to gut the fish earlier it won't have been particularly germ-free," explained Helen Penny worriedly, as Sam also sat down next to her and put his hand on Penny's back. She was white as a sheet, which was probably due to the pain of the wound itself and from washing it with disinfectant. She was a strong woman, but no matter how hard she tried to force a smile, she couldn't fool either of them.

"How will we know if the wound becomes infected?" Sam asked Helen worriedly.

"Either we'll see it from the wound itself or we'll know it when Penny starts running a fever. We should use your radio and call for help to get your hand treated properly, Penny."

"It's okay. The pain is going away. It'll be okay. I don't have to walk on my hands," she simply replied.

"I agree with Helen, but I also know how stubborn you can be. That's why I'll take care of you. But if your temperature seems to rise even a little or your wound takes a turn for the worse, we will call for help immediately", Sam now objected seriously and Penny nodded with a smile, touched by his concern.

He stood up and laid out her sleeping bag to unzip it. She quickly got ready and lay down. Sam immediately zipped it up and worked his way into his own sleeping bag before turning back to her. He then gently placed a hand on her forehead for a moment.

"It's okay. Really, Sam," Penny objected, smiling.

"Says the one whose hand was almost cut off," he replied seriously and she rolled her eyes, smiling, but deeply flattered that he was so worried about her. "I'm sorry, Pen. I should have expected that something goes wrong. It's always like that. I should have taken better care of the knife."

"It wasn't your fault. Stop blaming yourself," Penny said, smiling.

"I'm just wondering what Ellie was doing in the forest."

"Oh, she...surely just needed to step out."

"Yes, probably. Still strange, especially since Elvis and she were only there to eat and had disappeared before the noises started," he murmured, lost in thought. "Whatever. We should sleep. We're definitely not going to find out about it today what's going on in the woods? Good night, Pen."

"Good night, Sam," Penny replied with a smile and closed her eyes. The pain in her hand had turned into a throbbing, but it didn't stop her from falling asleep for long as she listened to Sam's steady breathing next to her.

To be continued...