Notes at the end. Don't own it, don't make money with it.
Penny was surprised to see Leonard's car in the apartment building's parking lot. It wasn't even three in the afternoon, and he should still be at work for at least another two hours. Leonard wasn't one to go home on a whim, so that meant he'd probably gotten ill. But again, Leonard wasn't one to go home unless he was really too sick to do anything useful.
Penny quickly got out of the car and hurried up the stairs. She knocked once on the apartment door, and entered without waiting for an answer. She immediately spotted Leonard laying on the couch, face down. She dropped her bag on the floor and walked over, slightly frowning. "Hey, Baby. Are you sick?" She crouched down and put her hand against the small area of his forehead that she could reach. He didn't feel warmer than usual, so he probably didn't have a fever.
"No," Leonard replied, definitely sounding gloomy.
Penny let her hand move through his hair. "What's wrong then, Sweetie?" When he simply shrugged, she added, "I can't help you if you don't tell me."
He sighed and moved to sit up. "I guess it's nothing. Just a bad day at work."
His smile didn't fool her for one minute; it was clearly forced. Penny wanted to be supportive, but didn't really know how to do that, if she didn't even know what was going on. She simply sat down beside him and hugged him. "I wish I could make it better."
"I guess I should just stop obsessing about it."
Penny grinned. "You could definitely use a distraction," she said, bumping her shoulder against his playfully.
His smile was less than enthusiastic and he quickly became serious again as he looked at her. "I guess you haven't been to your apartment yet. How about you go take a shower and we'll meet in an hour or so?"
Penny grinned again. "How 'bout you join me in that shower?"
Something was definitely wrong, Penny realized, as she looked from Amy to Bernadette and back. Both had become very nervous as soon as Penny had mentioned if they had noticed how withdrawn and stressed Leonard had become since last Friday. "Okay, what gives?"
"What do you mean," Bernadette asked.
"Don't play dumb with me," Penny said in a warning tone of voice. "As soon as I mentioned Leonard's change, you both became nervous and right now you're trying to avoid the conversation. What's going on? Should I be worried?"
"No," Bernadette replied immediately. "It's just..." Bernadette looked toward Amy.
"Leonard's under a lot of pressure at work at the moment," Amy took over from Bernadette.
"Right," Penny said, taking a sip of wine. "But why did you get nervous when I brought it up?"
"Well," Bernadette answered, "like we said, Leonard's under pressure at work. If you start to question him, you're only going to add to his stress."
"Right," Penny said again, frowning slightly. "What do you mean, me questioning him?"
Amy put her hand on Penny's arm. "Bernadette didn't mean you questioning his fidelity."
Penny looked alarmed. "I'm not questioning his… wait, is some nerdy girl hitting on him again?"
"No, no," Amy said, glancing at Bernadette with a look that Penny could only describe as fear and a desperate plea for help.
"What we mean is," Bernadette interjected, "if you start asking Leonard what's bothering him, it will only stress him out more."
Penny grabbed her keys and walked down the stairs toward her car, despite just being asked by her manager to not come in today and do a double shift tomorrow. It gave her a chance to go visit Leonard in his lab, ask him what the hell was going on that had him so withdrawn and stressed they hadn't even had sex in over a week.
What irked her the most about this situation was that everyone around her seemed to know exactly what was going on, except her. If anyone deserved to know what was bothering her boyfriend, it was her. And today she was going to find out, no matter what.
The drive over was uneventful and she parked her car in the only available visitors spot. She signed in and made her way over to Leonard's lab, knowing the route by heart. She was surprised to see the door was closed; Leonard usually left it open, unless he was actually working on a dangerous experiment. But the light above his door, that would signal such an experiment was in progress, was not on.
Nonetheless, she knocked on the door and waited until she was actually given permission to enter. She heard slight shuffling and it took almost fifteen seconds before the door finally opened. Penny was shocked at the sight that greeted her, the shock quickly being replaced by hurt and anger. There he stood, shirtless and panting. As she peeked inside, she could see a half naked Leslie Winkle.
"Penny? Uh, I..."
She raised her hand to silence him. "Don't bother, I don't want to hear it." She turned around and quickly walked towards the exit. Halfway there, she stopped, glanced at the signs and made her way to the astrophysics department. It didn't take her long to find Raj's office, and she barged right in. "What the hell?"
Raj looked up surprised. "Penny? What are you doing here?"
"What am I doing here? I came to visit my boyfriend so I could find out why the hell he is so withdrawn and stressed. And you all knew!"
Raj looked worriedly at the door that Penny had closed behind her. "We thought it was better if you wouldn't find out."
"Better? You think keeping me in the dark and worried about my boyfriend was better? Do you have any idea what this was doing to me?"
Raj shrugged. "We were more worried about what you might do when you found out. Speaking of which, should I call nine one one?"
Penny almost laughed, and shook her head. "I didn't hurt him." She plopped down in the seat opposite Raj, her initial anger having dissipated. "Why didn't he just tell me?" She turned around at a knock on the door, followed by the door opening.
"Raj, I got the results you… Penny?"
Penny stood up and walked toward Leonard, hugging him tightly. "You should've told me David was back."
Leonard glanced past her to Raj. "You told her?"
"No, dufus," Penny replied before Raj could. "I came to visit you in your lab."
"Do we need to call nine one one?"
Penny rolled her eyes as she looked at him with a watery smile. "No, I didn't touch him."
Leonard found himself alone in his lab once again, and sighed. Why had Underhill insisted to Gablehauser that he was the best choice to assist him? None of the remaining steps needed his expertise and pretty much any undergraduate could complete the experimental setup. Besides, could you even call it assisting when you were doing pretty much all the work, because your partner is more interested in hanging around the women?
He turned around at the knock and saw Penny entering the lab. They kissed and Leonard held on to her for a little longer. He'd been a fool not explaining to her what was going on. She was his girlfriend, she loved him, and she gave him support when he needed it. He apologized to her several times over the last couple of days, but she seemed just happy to finally know what was going on.
"He's not here," she asked. As he shook his head, she continued, "Leonard, are you doing all the work again?"
Leonard sighed. "Yeah, I guess."
She looked incredulously at him. "What the hell? Did you talk to Gablehauser about this?"
"No and I'm not going to. It's only a few more days before I'm done."
"You'll be interested in this." Leslie Winkle dropped a bulletin on an empty area of Leonard's work surface.
Leonard read the caption which informed him David Underhill had made a new discovery. He glanced at Leslie. "What's that got to do with me?"
Leslie smiled. "Read it."
Leonard skimmed the few paragraphs, his eyebrows furrowing in confusion. "This is the physics prank we did years ago for April fool's day."
Leslie started to grin and nodded. "Uh huh. He stole that from me after he and I had sex."
Leonard shook his head. "I can't believe he published this prank. Everyone with a fundamental knowledge of the basic principles involved, would see this wouldn't work."
Leslie nodded. "Exactly. Dr. Underhill, however, doesn't have the fundamental knowledge everyone thinks he has."
Leonard's head shot up. "You did this on purpose? Why?"
Leslie moved closer, anger shooting from her eyes. "Because that piece of shit stole an award winning theory from a very good friend of mine! She became so depressed, she wanted to kill herself! The last time he was here, I was away, or I would've done it then."
"So, he's not a physicist," Penny asked.
Leslie shook her head. "No, not really. He knows just enough to follow a conversation, but that's it. I'm not quite sure how he managed to obtain a PhD, but he has been dating and sleeping with any female physicist he thought had a potentially interesting theory to further his career. I've talked to several of them, even got signed confessions."
Penny shook her head. "So, besides cheating on his wife, he's also cheating and lying to advance his career?"
Leslie nodded. "Yeah. And he takes nude pictures of his intended victims in case he needs their help later, as one unfortunate woman found out."
Penny's features darkened. "That idiot tried taking nude photos of me. Luckily I noticed the nude photo's of his wife."
Leslie looked surprised at Penny and then turned to Leonard. "Leonard, he probably was going to use it to force your cooperation."
"What? How," Leonard asked.
"He probably realized, like the rest of the world, you had a crush on Penny. That's how he would've been able to control you, except Blondie here bailed out."
"Yeah, well, he still managed to force me to help him. So, what happens now?"
Leslie shrugged. "I've sent all the information, signed confessions and my personal account over to the Committee of Postgraduate Studies. Though I have not found any proof of cheating in obtaining his PhD, given his lack of basic understanding he must have cheated there, too. I doubt he will show himself here again, so even if his title isn't revoked, he won't bother coming here."
"I think we should find out who's theory I was working on. It looks really promising and it would be a great waste to just end it now."
"Actually, it is my friend's discovery. I already contacted her, obviously to let her know I got back at the bastard. I'll ask her if she wants you to continue on it and if she still wants to be acknowledged for it."
Leonard frowned. "Why wouldn't she?"
"Leonard, if people find out Underhill stole it from her, they'll know she slept with him. I think she'd just rather forget about it. But I'll ask. Anyway, I figured you'd like to know what was going on. I'll see you later, Leonard."
You know how you can watch an episode like a million times and then suddenly you notice something (like in the 'Habitation Configuration', Sheldon goes to Wil Wheaton and it turns out he's living at no. 1701, as in the NCC-1701, a.k.a. USS Enterprise), or wonder about something? Like, what happened to David after Penny saw the pictures on his phone? He's never mentioned again, and neither is his discovery or the experiment. And I also suddenly got the impression David wasn't really all that involved in the experiment setup, not even before he met Penny. So, this story was born out of those thoughts.