Remember when Leonard went to Kurt's place to ask for the money Kurt had to give back to Penny, in 2 x 14, "The Financial Permeability" ? Poor Leonard came back with an inscription on his forehead and Kurt gave the money back to Penny without telling her it was thanks to Leonard. We never heard from it again. Well, I think Penny HAS to know what Leonard did...
So this is taking place well after season 2... It's in season 6, after "The Decoupling Fluctuation", when Penny wasn't sure about her relationship with Leonard. She learns a secret and it will help her to see clearer.
I hope you'll like this story as much as I enjoyed writing it :)
Chapter 1 : Confused
Penny left Bernadette's apartment thinking about last night. If Leonard had not made those eyes, would she really have had the guts to tell him that she wanted to think about their relationship, that she needed space and time ? Does she have the guts to do it now ? After the text she receveid ? No. No. Does Leonard have a clue ? Is that why he made those eyes yesterday ? Penny had the day off from work, and she knew she was going to spend all her free time wondering about what she should do. "Damn Leonard and his puppy eyes !", she said angrily through her teeth, in her car, driving back to her building. She was lost. She didn't want to lose him, she didn't want to hurt him, and she definitely had strong feelings for him, but at the same time she sometimes wondered what were those feelings exactly. Maybe she was just overthinking... Talking with the girls didn't help, they didn't give her any advice. She needed a fresh point of view.
Climbing the stairs, she smiled to herself while considering what were her options in term of fresh point of view of her relationship with Leonard : Howard – who was up in space -, Raj – who still couldn't talk to her without drinking alcohol -, and Sheldon... who... well... Sheldon. She knew Leonard was away for the day whereas Sheldon was at home. She was now at the fourth floor, and she knocked briefly on 4A before opening the door and popping her head. She saw Sheldon alone in front of a white board, writing stuff she didn't even bother to read.
"Hey Sheldon, are you busy ?" quickly asked Penny.
Sheldon turned promptly his head, looked at Penny for a second, closed his eyes and sighed while shooking his head, clearly already exasperated : "Penny... I'm ALWAYS busy."
Penny felt this wasn't the time to try to discuss things like her relationship with Leonard with him, so she apologized : "Ooops, sorry Sheldon, I'm going away !"
But she couldn't close the door, because Sheldon raised his right hand, interromping her : "Penny ! Now I can't go back to work ! You cut me off in the middle of my brilliant work, and if I never have a Nobel Prize – which I highly doubt – this would be your fault, but I'm now bothered by the fact that I want to know what you wanted from me. Now please enter and make yourself comfortable."
Sheldon said the last sentence with a weird smile on his face and Penny was confused, her eyes grewing bigger and her mouth lightly open. She quickly blinked a few times to come back to reality, then entered the apartment and sat on the couch.
"Okay, Sheldon, this isn't easy..." she started, but Sheldon interrupted her : "Mmm, pretty sure it is. THIS", he added showing his board, "isn't easy."
Penny wanted to yell at him but she knew he wouldn't understand, so she bit her bottom lip and continued as if Sheldon had not said a thing : "I'm sure you remember that Amy told you about my insecurities about my relationship with Leonard, and we discussed it in the middle of the night and..."
Sheldon closed his eyes and exhaled loudly : "Arh, not this again..."
Again, Penny pretented she didn't hear her friend and asked : "You haven't told anything to Leonard, have you ?"
Sheldon sat down next to Penny, answering : "No. This was hard for me. So I tried to make him understand with a lovely metaphore with Transformers, but of course he didn't get it."
Hearing the last sentence and the "of course he didn't get it", Penny was hurt and wanted to stand up for her man, but she felt it wasn't the right time, especially considering she needed his (probably weird, but eh, it was better than nothing) point of view. So she continued : "OK, look, I know that you want me to continue to date Leonard – you have your very particular reasons..."
Again, Sheldon cut her off : "And did you change your shampoo ?"
Exasperated, Penny glared at him and resumed after a few seconds : "It's just that Leonard is so different from the other guys that I used to date. Remember Kurt ? Zack ?"
Sheldon snorted. "How could I forget them ? The bully and the dolphin..."
Penny was taken aback by the last nickname and stared at Sheldon with a puzzled look for a few seconds, before speaking again : "The dol... ?! Never mind."
Sheldon couldn't help but continue to reflect on both guys Penny had just mentioned : "At least Zack was quite nice. Kurt was just an animal. Last time we saw him, Raj almost wet himself."
Once again, Penny was confused, because for all she knew, Kurt and Raj were in the same room only one time in their life, at the Halloween party she threw when she was just starting to know her new friends : "What ?"
Penny tried hard to remember – it was a long time ago – but at her Halloween party, she didn't see any interaction between Raj and Kurt. She wondered if she was going to regret that (with Sheldon and his explanations you never know...), but she had to ask : "What are you talking about ?"
To Be Continued...
