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"Because the idea of space has scared me for as long as I can remember. I always thought space was darker than dark and colder than cold, and worst of all, empty. I can't think of a lonelier place."
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Maureen has read Penny's book so many times by now that she can recite passages off of it by memory, but she keeps coming back to the beginning. Of Penny's apprehension about space and finding it lonely. She wished she'd known about how scared Penny had been before, because she would always bury her fears under three layers of sarcastic quips, when Will would wear his worries on his sleeve. So she'd ignored Penny's ramblings as teenage behavior. John had guessed, she thinks. "Penny tries harder than anyone will ever giver credit for," he had said. She hadn't understood it then, she did now. She'd never understood Penny. They'd had, for the most part, very different interests. For as long as she could remember, Maureen had wanted to go closer to the stars. She found comfort in her math, in scientific predictions and logical algorithms. Penny was the complete opposite. She preferred prose and poetry over equations, fictional worlds to the one in the textbooks, the Earth's dirt and sunshine and flowers to the starry skies.
Maybe she got that from John, a little bit. He wasn't a writer by any means, but he loved stories too. That had always been their thing. He was so proud of the book she had written he'd read it in one sitting. She wished she had too; the resigned look on Penny's face when she'd asked her about the book, like she hadn't really expected Maureen to read it, it hurt her more than she imagined. And now, her words were what served as her greatest connection to her children.
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"This is the story of discovery... but not of strange new worlds. It's about discovering what's in the places you thought were empty."
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"Did you know Penny's got a love triangle going on?"
John looked up with a tired smile, and nodded. "She brought it up as a distraction, earlier. I really don't want to think about it, honestly. And I think the Robot agrees."
Maureen chuckled. "Yeah. Smith told me. Said this Liam fellow was very... cliche."
John snorts, "Sounded like it. I liked Victor's kid. Seemed sensible."
"Well," she said, peering over her calculations again, "I'm glad she got to be a teenager for a while, at least."
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"Sometimes it's the invisible force of my family... pulling at me, even when I can't see them... reminding me... that I'm never really alone."
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"You nearly gave us a heart attack Will -"
"Yeah, can you please at least TELL us next time you plan on doing something like this? You could have died - AGAIN."
"Oh, please, Penny, you're one to talk!"
"Wha-- What did I do?! I have more self-preservation instincts than anyone else in the family."
"What about that robot you rescued instead of running away?"
"Well, that's different, Sally was dying, I was just being nice."
"Sally?"
"She looked like a Sally!"
"What are you kids talking about?"
"Penny made a robot friend, like Will," Judy said. "When we were supposed to be hiding the engine. She named her Sally."
"Uhh that robot friend is what saved our butts out there, so you're welcome," Penny rolled her eyes, as her parents stared at them, lost for words.
Judy grinned, "I'm not denying that, I'm just saying you're bad as all the rest of us."
"Am not!"
"Well, anyway, it makes sense that Penny would be the one to do that, she's the one who spends a lot of time with Robot after me. Well, her and Smith, right Robot?"
Robot looked at Will, "Friend. Penny Robinson."
Penny beamed at him.
The robots they had befriended earlier came up then, Sally leading the pack. Penny led the introductions and Don cracked a joke about Penny's naming skills, who threatened him with excluding him from her book's sequel. Maureen tuned out a little, but she exchanged a glance with with John and laughed, relieved, and grateful, to be back with her whole family.
It made sense that Penny would be the one to try and befriend the robots again, in spite of what had happened with Will. As much as Will brought innocence to science, he still took after Maureen in more ways than one, but they needed Penny's heart to look beyond the logic of it all and find the humanity in the robots.
They finally had a chance to settle down and breathe again, as a family. And this time, Maureen vowed, she was going to pay more attention to her middle child. The one who pretends she's confident and cool and doesn't care, but cares so very much that she rescued a robot that had been trying to kill them a while back, and immediately gave the robot a very human name, the child who was so very scared of going into the dark and cold space, but did so anyway, and found pieces of sunshine amidst all the danger they'd lived through over the past couple of years. She may not understand Penny when she waxes on about Melville and Bronte, and she may not be the first person Penny turns to when she has boy troubles, but if she wants to, Maureen will be there. (With a pack of Oreos, of course.)