Chapter Text
Dr. Horrible tried to warn Captain Hammer that the ray would backfire when damaged, but he didn't listen. He didn't realize that Penny would be in range, focusing only on killing his enemy, leaving no room to worry about his girlfriend. He shot the ray and was blasted back, shards spraying in her direction. Dr. Horrible scrambled off the floor and over to Penny. She had a shard in her stomach and two in her arm, the rest of them close to her side, stuck in the wall, including the biggest one. He was both relieved and worried; the majority hadn't struck her, but the one caught by her stomach was concerning, and he wasn't sure how long it would take for Captain Hammer to attack him again. A quick glance behind him quelled his secondary fear, as Captain Hammer was whining and ran out the door.
Billy carefully picked her up, and after getting to his feet, turned to face the stunned, scared audience. He took a deep breath and announced in a forcefully calm and threatening tone, “I'm taking Captain Hammer’s girlfriend as leverage. Stay away or you’re next.” He hoped this might save some of his evil reputation, making it look like he injured and kidnapped an innocent girl to get back at his opponent, even if that wasn't his true intention.
He strode out of the room as fast as would make sense for his false reasoning. As soon as he made it to his van, he dropped his facade, gently setting her down, his voice now showing his true emotions.
“Penny?” He asked, checking to see if she was mentally present and understanding the situation.
“What?” She mumbled.
“Are you awake? Do you know what happened?” Her physical reaction seemingly answered the question before she spoke, her eyes snapped open all the way and he saw the clarity in her eyes, mixed with pain and a slight hint of what might have been betrayal.
“Billy. You're Dr. Horrible? Why- what are you doing?” Penny cut herself off when Billy removed her jacket. He tied it tightly around her midsection as he responded.
“I'm tying this up so it's secure and hopefully won't go further in or come out and cause you to bleed to death.” He made sure she was secure, and then climbed over to the driver's seat and sped over to the hospital. He changed into civilian clothes before returning to her side. She wasn't conscious anymore, he checked her breathing and heart rate and while they were slower than usual, they were detectable.
He luckily was able to convince the doctors to let him stay, after they removed the shards and stitched her up, since her family lives hours away from Los Angeles.
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Penny woke up about an hour later with Billy at her side. She noticed him and inched away. “I thought you were my friend, but you attacked the shelter and kidnapped me!” It didn't elude his notice that Captain Hammer wasn't as much of her concern.
“I'm not actually kidnapping you. The official story, I've already told the doctors, is that Dr. Horrible took you but you escaped and I, as just Billy, found you and brought you here.”
“Why?”
“I need to still be taken seriously as evil. But I can't hurt you.”
🎵 That was the plan. Rule the world. Side by side. 🎵
🎶 I can’t do that, Billy 🎶
🎵 You and me, make the rules, every day 🎵
“You agreed, the power needs to be put in different hands.”
“But I thought you- I can’t do this right now. This is all too much, and I don’t feel well.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, blinking nervously. “I got ahead of myself.” As he pushed the thought of his ideal future away, he was brought back to the situation at hand. “How do you feel?”
“How do you think?” She replied, and while he would usually roll his eyes, this time he just felt bad. “Yeah…” she looked exhausted and in pain. “You get some rest. I’ll be here when you wake up again.”
She complied, mostly because she didn’t have the energy to stay awake much longer.
He lied. That was her first thought upon waking up. She was alone in her room even though he had said he would be there. She then wondered why she was disappointed he was gone, because wasn’t he a bad guy? He had tried to kill Captain Hammer, and, even without his scary doctor persona, Billy hadn’t been showing up on their shared laundry days recently. She knew they never actually agreed to meet there, but they had talked two days each week while their laundry was cleaned, for three weeks straight. But the last two times she ended up sitting alone with two frozen yogurts and looking up every time the door opened.
She tried to push Billy- Doctor Horrible?- out of her mind, but her efforts were null when he slid through the door less than a minute later. He was holding two cups of frozen yogurt. He offered her a cup from a distance, arm fully outstretched. She took it after a moment's hesitation, and he sat back in the chair at her bedside.
“Have you been awake long? I was sitting, and I thought maybe you would want some frozen yogurt, and there was a line.”
She was still a little tense as she mumbled her response, “Just a minute or so.” And then, the hurt bubbled back up from those missed laundry days. “At least I’m awake, or you would have to wait for me while the yogurt melts.”
Billy was confused. “What?”
She shook her head. “Nothing.” She took a bite of her frozen yogurt, which made her feel both better and worse. Not just the disappointment from him not being there, but this felt so familiar, just her and her laundry buddy, but he wasn’t just her laundry buddy, he was a would-be murderer, pretending to be a sweet, awkward person she got along with so well.
After a couple more bites, she couldn't stop herself from confronting him about it. “Don't do this to me, Billy. Don't pretend to be a sweet, awkward, caring person that can get me frozen yogurt and talk for an hour about whatever.”
He was, once again, confused. “What do you mean?”
“You're not Billy, my laundry buddy. You're Dr. Horrible, a villain that tried to kill this town's hero, and were going to do who knows what else.”
“I'm both,” he said quietly, not looking her in the eyes. “Those conversations weren't fake, the time I spent with you. But neither is what I'm trying to accomplish.”
“How many people have you killed?” She asked harshly, setting her frozen yogurt on the table behind her, as she couldn't stand eating it anymore right now.
The question caught him off guard. He didn't realize anyone would assume he had killed already, probably since the idea seemed repulsive to him and he had never even contemplated it until Bad Horse had told him to, never planned to until Captain Hammer had pushed him too far. “I haven't. Killing isn't creative, or elegant, or.. and then I was told I had to kill someone, to get that.. job I wanted, since I had messed up at the bridge, and even then, I- I didn't think I could. But then Hammer crossed a line, and if anyone deserves it, it's him.”
“He's a jerk, yeah, but he helps people. He's a hero.”
Billy let out a half scoff, half laugh. “Whenever I steal something, stopping me from taking it isn’t his priority. I honestly don’t think he cares about stopping villains from whatever they’re trying to do, or if anyone actually gets hurt. As long as he can beat the crap out of me, get credit, and maybe flirt with some girls, he’s happy.” Penny looked unsure, so he continued. “You were there one of the times. A few weeks ago, after we had our first real conversation, with the van.” She nodded, urging him to get to the point. “I was planning on controlling the van, with a device I had placed, to deliver the wonderflonium to myself. He smashed the device, and then paused to flirt with some girl, and the van went out of control because my remote wasn't working. Finally he realized, and shoved you all the way to the pile of garbage, while I finally got the van to stop. He choked me, bashed my head to the van a few times as you came up to him, then pushed me away and focused on flirting and taking credit while I took the wonderflonium and left. Half the time that’s what happens. Sometimes he’s not distracted and actually does what he takes credit for, and I’m unconscious before I have the chance.” He paused to take a breath and a bite of frozen yogurt, and then continued, calmer than he had been, as he had started to speed up and raise his voice slightly. “It’s not that he pummels me. Well, he could put me in jail or hit me just enough to be able to prevent whatever, but he enjoys hurting me, watching me crash through a wall, or struggle for breath, the control over what happens to me because he can do whatever to me and be praised for it. But that’s not the main issue. When I plan and execute a heist, I make sure no innocent people get hurt. He doesn't make the same considerations when trying to stop me. I plan out a heist to ruin the corporate competitors to the local bookstore when no one was in the building, but he takes me outside and then he rips a lamp post from the ground to throw at me. Except his aim is a bit off, and he instead hits a sixteen year old that was back to my left. And then that sixteen year old is in the hospital for a week, but it was worth it, right? And his fans would be fine with anything he does, blindly following him like sheep. Like at the dedication when he called homeless people dogs and scary alcoholic bums while the crowd hummed along.” He got quieter, yet again. “He would use and lead on the kindest, most caring and beautiful girl just to spite the man who actually cares about her.” The last few words are mumbled, but she can still hear them. “‘She’s giving it up hard’, like you’re-” he cut himself off, hand clinched.
Penny just sat there for a second, trying to process everything as Billy looked at the ground. “Whoa, okay.” Part of the rant was more relevant to her, and the most confusing, so she started with that. “What do you mean about the last part? Are you saying he was only ever interested in me because we're friends? How did he know?”
Billy looked up and nodded. “I mean, at first you were a pretty girl he had saved, so a date or two was because of that. But he never dates long-term, and you’re not his type.”
“Thanks.”
“That’s not a bad thing. You aren’t his type because you’re smart, have goals of your own, don’t think he’s the most important thing ever. Uh, he knows because I sort of have a video blog that he apparently watches. It must have been the same video that he used to foil my plan at the dedication of the heroes bridge. I mentioned that- that, uh, well that he was going out with you. And at the laundromat he told me he was going to sleep with you because he gets what I want,” he said it like the statement was acid, burning his tongue. “To be clear, I don't just want to.. sleep with you. He might assume so, but that says more about him..”
So what did he want? Did he feel the same way about her that she did about him before all of this confused her feelings? She wasn’t sure she wanted the answer, or what she would want it to be.
“Can you give me some time please, Billy? Let me think about things, and we can finish this conversation the day after tomorrow?”
Billy nodded. “Of course. I’ll see you then.” He gave her a small smile, and then he was gone, and she was alone.