Disclaimer: The Big Bang Theory is, unfortunately, not mine. If it were, Penny/Sheldon would definitely be a thing. Just saying.
Hey! So, since I'm in the UK, I'm not up to date on all the episodes, so can we maybe just assume knowledge up until maybe halfway through season five? Okay. Also, this is AU. Amy doesn't exist here. Yeah. The question you should be asking, my lovelies, is not "where's Amy?" but rather "who's Amy?" Call it an alternate timeline if you will.
Anyway, this story is split into two main parts. This is really something of a prologue for the first part, which is why it's so short. Anyway, without further ado, I present to you…
The Cult Fame Variation: Part One
Subsection 0
The room is filled with girls who all look exactly like her.
She sighs, running a hand through her blonde hair. All the others are blonde, too, and young and white and American and preppy. She has to assume that, like her, most of them had once been cheerleaders, prom queens, popular girls. A hundred editions of her. She doesn't even have a chance.
She almost gets up to leave, but then they call her name. And what's the harm in trying, really?
They film her reading through part of the script, and with a bit of time left in her audition slot, they ask if she has any short monologues prepared. She launches into one that – she thinks it was Sheldon who suggested it to her. Yeah, she remembers. She was eating Chinese food with the guys, watching TV, and Sheldon had suddenly said you could use that for your auditions, Penny. He'd been right.
When she's done, one of the casting directors is staring at her so intently she's convinced he's about to get up, flip the table in anger, and demand that she leave and never, ever audition for anything ever again. But he doesn't. He leans forward, steepling his fingers, and says, "that was from Doctor Who."
She blushes a little. It wasn't a question, but she decides to answer anyway.
"Yeah."
"You're a science fiction fan?" The other people behind the table seem interested now, and this time it's a woman who speaks, raising an eyebrow.
Less of a fan, more like unwillingly forced into watching it on a disturbingly regular basis.
"You could say that." Penny isn't totally sure where this is going.
"Does that mean that you've watched Star Trek before? The movies, any of the TV series?"
"Well, yeah. I mean, I've pretty much seen it all. I went to the midnight release of the newest movie." This is true. Leonard and the guys dragged her along. Sheldon had offered to make her a Starfleet uniform. She had politely, but forcefully, refused his offer.
The casting people are exchanging looks. She's dismissed, with thanks and a promise to get in touch.
Yeah, right. She's heard that one before.
XXX
A call back.
She has a call back?
She has a serious chance of getting a major role in the new Star Trek movie. A serious chance of acting alongside Zachary Quinto (and God knows, she's been in love with him ever since she first saw him in Heroes – something to do with the eyebrows), and maybe even Leonard Nimoy.
Sheldon is going to flip out.
She tells Leonard first, and watches his face morph from shocked into excited and then into concerned. He reaches out to touch her arm, tells her that it's okay if she doesn't get the part, that the call back was an achievement in itself, that he believes in her. It doesn't feellike he believes in her, but she smiles anyway and kisses him on the cheek, because he's trying, at least.
When she tells Sheldon, his eye twitches. He insists that she has to get the part. He must meet Leonard Nimoy, restraining order or no, and besides, he has some serious qualms about the alternate timeline that showed up in the most recent movie and he would very much like to speak to the writers about it.
When Penny leaves, Leonard allows himself to feel that first stab of worry. Since Priya left, he's been allowing his old feelings for Penny to renew themselves, and he feels like – it feels ridiculous to admit it, but he feels like they will end up together, given the chance, like they belong together or something. And if Penny lands a major part in Star Trek, well, she's going to be the object of every nerdy guy's desire, and what does he have over any of them?
Of course he wants her to be successful, of course he does, but he doesn't want to lose his Penny, either.
When he voices his concerns to Sheldon, the taller man brushes them off.
"The more pressing matter, Leonard, is that Penny is auditioning for the role of a new character. They are writing in a new character. I'm aware that this is an alternate timeline, but really, this is a very troubling divergence from canon…"
Leonard lets him talk.
XXX
This time, she is in a notably smaller room, with far fewer editions of herself.
They all look nervous. They're all batting through scripts, engaging in some last minute prep work, but Penny's ready. She's got this. She's been running lines with Howard, Raj occasionally whispering feedback into the engineer's ear. Having Bernadette sitting next to her is making her feel better too, and when her name is called this time, the smaller blonde offers an encouraging smile, a genuine good luck.
She thinks it goes well, and when she's done she goes out to dinner with Bernadette and the guys, and they laugh and toast her success.
It's a few weeks later that Leonard is awoken one morning by high-pitched squealing coming from 4B, and he knows Penny has the part.