Better on our own - English

Trouble at Halloween Night

"You look different than usual," I heard Sam say to Penny and paused for a moment. They were dancing no more than a meter away from us and I saw from the corner of my eye that Cody had rested his arms on his father's head and was looking at his mother just as dreamily as his father did. Cody must have liked this quite a bit. His silence spoke volumes. He definitely didn't want to get in the way of the two of them when they got along for once.

"I'm here today in civilian clothes," Penny replied with a smile.

"Like I've never seen you in civilian clothes!" Sam grimaced briefly at her teasing. "That's not it. You shine more. Your eyes shine so beautifully. I noticed that this morning as well," he then stated and I lost my rhythm for a moment, which made me earning a confused look from Sarah. I tried to cover it up with an embarrassed grin and she actually seemed more interested in the conversation about her uncle and his great love. Did pregnancy really have such an impact on appearance? Could you really see it that clearly on her face? Most importantly, was she really so happy that it made her shine so much and why hadn't anyone else noticed?

"A lot has changed in the last few days," Penny answered him, suddenly serious again and looking down. Would she tell him now that she was expecting his second child? How would he react?

"Who are you telling that to? Chief Fire Officer Penny Morris. You get my respect for that!" he simply stated and it was clear that he was really impressed. If only he knew!

Sarah's look became skeptical and only then did I realize that I had rolled my eyes. I put on my most innocent grin, but I couldn't fool Sarah any more than my mother could - especially since Sarah was just about to find out about the two's career changes for the first time.

"I can only say that back to you, Deputy Chief Fire Officer Jones. You didn't wait long for your answer," Penny remarked, and that left me a little surprised. Apparently Sam didn't have to think about it for long.

"We're almost a team again. Like before," he said with a smile.

"Maybe we'll be right again someday," Penny replied to him, much to my surprise, and I could see that Sarah was also completely taken aback by all these changes in their life. Ooh! If she only knew she was expecting another little cousin..."Elliot gave me an idea today. When I first looked through my uncle's documents on Saturday, I came across plans to renovate our two stations. However, the costs would be considerable and there is a large building site for sale near my house."

"And you thought about just rebuilding and merging the two fire stations?" Sam sounded genuinely amazed and I looked over at them. He was really surprised, but didn't seem reluctant - more like he was waiting.

"Why not? Together we would be stronger and we move out together 57.84 percent of the time anyway. And the trend is rising," Penny answered him with a slight shrug of her shoulders because she wasn't in a position to be able to do more than that, because he used one of her hands to dance and the other rested on his shoulder. But he just smiled in amusement at that, and I'd bet it was at her detailed analysis of the frequency of joint missions.

57.84 percent?!" Didn't I say it? He teased her about it for a reason, to which Penny only replied with a cheeky smile. "It's worth considering, but it will take you years to get through it and the station will be built," he then objected again more seriously. Was that too long for him? Was he suddenly impatient now that they had started to get closer again after 8 years?

"I sent it to our superiors by email this afternoon so that they can discuss it at their meeting today. If they accept the idea, the plans will be made quickly and a new building will take a maximum of 2 years. Our old stations can't make it much longer until they're so dilapidated that it really rains in or the cracks in the walls get bigger. I think if we both hold on together, we could have a good chance of really pushing this through and speeding it up," she told him now serious and I also saw the smile disappear from his face. Did she want to test him? Did she want to dump the boss now? Did he expect any of this?