CYRANO: He hath an eloquent tongue in telling his love?

ROXANE: In telling his love? why, 'tis not simple telling, 'tis dissertation, 'tis analysis!

CYRANO: How is he with the pen?

ROXANE: Still better! Listen, -- here: -- [(Reciting)] 'The more of my poor heart you take

The larger grows my heart!'

[(Triumphantly to Cyrano)]

How like you those lines?

ROXANE: And thus it goes on. . .

'And, since some target I must show

For Cupid's cruel dart,

Oh, if mine own you deign to keep,

Then give me your sweet heart!'

CYRANO: Lord! First he has too much, then anon not enough! How much heart does the fellow want?

ROXANE: You would vex a saint!. . .But 'tis your jealousy.

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Penny was excited yet scared all at once. She had just received a call from one of her theatre contacts that they were looking for a woman to play Roxane in a new production of Cyrano De Bergerac at the Falcon Theatre in Burbank.

After the fiasco of Rent and the lukewarm success of The Diary of Anne Frank, it didn't seem as though Penny would ever play any type of role ever again.

However, it was exciting news that she could audition and would be considered for the role of Roxane. As soon as she hung up the phone, she went online to research the play and the particular character she would audition for. After all, the only thing she knew about Cyrano was that it was the play about the guy with the big nose and that Greg had helped Peter with a girl he liked on the Brady Bunch.

After reading about the play and the character, she decided that maybe some actual field work by visiting local theatre companies' websites and finding out if any other local venues were undertaking the same production. It seemed like long shot because after checking out Pasadena Theatre Company as well as Glendale Center Theatre, along with the Burbank Colony Theatre, she was disappointed to learn that none of these groups were performing Cyrano anytime within the time frame of casting call and production.

She went to check the local University Web Sites to see if any one of these would be performing a production of Cyrano before she needed to audition.

Visiting, UCLA, USC, UC Irvine, CS Fullerton, CS Long Beach, CS Los Angeles, and Pasadena City College, she finally located a small production of the play would be held at CS Northridge the following Friday at 8:00 p.m.

Perfect! She thought. I can switch shifts with Kelly on Thursday and be able to attend the play!

The only thing was the drive, although not as long as driving to UC Irvine or CS Fullerton, Northridge was still about a 20-25 mile drive one way and with Friday traffic, she knew she would have to leave about 2 hours before the show started, just in case of any accidents or other unforeseen circumstances.

Before logging off, she visited the Google Maps site to look at the driving directions to what freeways and streets she would take in order to get there. As she put her laptop away, a quandary presented itself into Penny's head.

Who am I going to go with?! I certainly don't want to go alone in a part of town I'm not familiar with!

At first she thought about asking Leonard, even though Leonard had acted strangely recently, asking her how the date with his friend Stuart had turned out.

Thank God he doesn't know how it ended! Geez! That was so embarrassing!

Then there was that strange incident when they were all having dinner at the guys' apartment the night after her date with Stuart and she asked him for the soy sauce and he responded by asking her if she was talking to him even though she was sitting right next to him and asked directly for it. Since then 5 days had passed and he had not stopped by once to say hello or to ask how she was doing. At first she was really upset with him for prying into her date results and combined with her faux pas with Stuart; it was about the longest span she hadn't had contact with any of the guys since her trip to Nebraska the previous year. But then again, she had pulled later shifts at work during the past week, making her absent when Leonard and Sheldon were home while she would be asleep when they left for work in the morning.

For a moment she considered Stuart. Stuart was friendly and charming but was a bit shy in a similar manner to Leonard. Their first date had gone well until Sheldon interrupted and had torpedoed it with his incessant comic book talk. Of course, it didn't help that Stuart had jumped right into the same boat with Sheldon and pretty much ended any chance of a romantic night. When Stuart asked her out again, it was kind of a mixed bag. Penny was happy that he asked her on a second date, yet she was also apprehensive about going out with one of Leonard's friends again especially how he reacted to both of them coming out of her apartment on their way out to the art exhibit. Penny felt uncomfortable, as uncomfortable as she had felt when she had gone out with that guy, and ran into the guys coming back from the Renaissance Fair because Leonard had reacted the same way back then – quiet, aloof and although he tried hiding it, the look of someone deeply hurt.

She knew that Leonard liked her, perhaps even loved her and knew he was jealous of her dating Stuart. But he didn't act on that jealousy. Even when the David Underhill fiasco ended, Leonard had had exhibited undeniable jealousy by confronting her but had pulled up just shy of declaring his true feelings. Yet this time he hadn't even reacted close to the same way, even after two dates with Stuart.

What's wrong with him? She pondered.

He didn't fight for her and she wanted that. She wanted a man that would make the effort to court her and make her feel special and consider her feelings and wishes and dreams. However, Leonard seemed to keep his true feelings for her bottled up and hidden away. She thought about all the times he was kind to her, had fixed her laptop quite a few times, and listened to what she had to say and sought out her advice from time to time. She smiled thinking about the time he invited her to play Paintball with the rest of the guys and Leslie Winkle. How in a way Leonard had defended her by shooting Sheldon after the latter had surprisingly shot her in retaliation for the sofa cushion incident. Also, he had shown that he would not take advantage of her inebriated self during her Halloween Party nearly two years ago.

Then of course, there was the infamous Salt/Shot/Lime Night when both had drank their way into a stupor stemming from Mrs. Hofstadter's visit and had ended up in bed together only to be short circuited by his big mouth and trying to rationalize that their need to have sex stemmed from emotional rejections by his mother and her father. In hindsight, though Penny thought about the fact that alcohol lowers your inhibition and brings out what you really want to do and say. When their inhibitions were down, they had both wanted each other. She pulled him in and he had willingly followed her to her bed.

It was here more than before, where she pieced together that night and replayed it over and over and started discovering how much she was missing being in his arms and kissing him and totally and uncontrollably giving herself to him

Almost at the same time she went over her second date with Stuart and how it had gone down the same path – alcoholically speaking – and ended with her calling out Leonard's name in the throes of passion with Stuart.

Leonard!

At that moment, she realized her growing attraction to Leonard and that her heart was beginning to long for him. She flashed back again to everything Leonard had done for her and again, none of it included manipulative actions to try and get her in the sack. After all the only reason they had ended up in bed together was because of her, not him.

He really does care for me but does he love me? I think I do love him.

There was only one way to find out and that would be to ask him out and settle where their relationship stood once and for all.

I will ask Leonard out! She decided.