A/N – I own nothing from The Big Bang Theory, everything goes to CBS, Chuck and Bill

Please note that this story contains spoilers from the 100th episode, "The Recombination Hypothesis," It is my take one why Leonard still made the choice to ask her out.

Thanks to WeBuiltThesePyramids for the beta help and letting me bounce ideas around.

The Recombination Divergence

Leonard had tuned Sheldon out as he ranted about getting the wrong Spock. His gaze was fixed on Penny through her open apartment door. He shook his head as he tried to understand the dream or maybe nightmare he just seemed to have.

He noted that she caught his glance and smiled back shyly at him. It was so startlingly similar to the first time he had caught her gaze all those years ago when she was first moving in.

He couldn't get the last moment of his dream out of his head. The echoing last words of his pseudo self, shook him. "Every scenario I imagine for us ends badly." He tried to make sense of that thought.

He had been about to ask her out; he knew there was something there but his inner voice mocked him that it would never work. Why should he even wander over and ask? His insecurities were telling him he would never end up happy in this. He was beginning to think if it was worth it to even go talk to her.

When that thought crossed his mind he was drawn back to the first time he had to make that decision, he went back to that day she moved in.

Leonard wanted to introduce them to their new neighbor, to invite her over for food with the guys. He had overcome his fear to do that.

All of a sudden Leonard was watching that scene again in the third person, but something was different. Sheldon won out and convinced him not to invite their new neighbor. He was making the case that there was no purpose as she obviously had no place in their little circle.

Past Leonard relented and collapsed down in their chair as they waited for Howard and Raj to show up for dinner.

Leonard all of a sudden found himself out in the hallway as he saw Howard sauntering over to Penny as she was still unpacking. He noted Howard was openly leering at Penny in her tank top and shorts and he could almost see the shiver that ran through Penny as she noticed it.

Howard introduced himself and suggested that she needed a smart, Jewish infusion, that a beautiful creature such as herself absolutely had to come over for some of his mother's briquette and to view the mood lighting in his room.

Sheldon had opened the door and asked Howard and Raj that they hurry up as the food was getting cold and there was really no reason to be wasting time a woman that had no intelligence.

Leonard shook his head as he forgot how uncultured Howard was back then and how arrogant Sheldon had been.

As he looked back at the scene he caught Penny slamming her door closed in Howard's face while Raj laughed at his friend's misfortune.

Time seemed to move rapidly forward as Leonard observed moments over the next few years. Penny distanced herself from her new neighbors as Howard continued to hit on her, only a few months after moving in and a horrible fight with a guy named Kurt she left the building with just a brief comment about moving back to Nebraska.

He saw the difference in all the guys without the influence of Penny. Raj never learned to drink so he could talk with a woman and eventually lost his grant allowing him to stay in the US. No Bernadette ever entered their life and Howard continued to get worse and worse in his behavior. He was fired from the University due to sexual harassment complaints.

Sheldon became more and more intolerable and relied on Leonard for everything. Leonard has shrunk into a shell of himself. He simple existed to help out Sheldon in everything he needed; he never did anything for himself anymore.

Future Leonard shook his head in disbelief, had Penny really impacted their group that much? That one moment in time had determined so much, just one quick invitation to dinner.

As Leonard came back to the present and had his gaze still locked with Penny, he said to Sheldon, "I will be right back."

Leonard walked over to Penny's door and poked his head inside. "Penny do you have plans for dinner tonight?"

When he clarified for Penny that it would be a date, and she asked if he had thought it through.

He responded "Yes, but I still think we should go anyway." Leonard wasn't sure if he didn't ask Penny out for dinner that something bad would happen, but Leonard was a smart man, the only reason he would have seen his life without Penny was to prove to him that regardless of the potential hardships they might have to face their lives were always going to be better with the other involved in it.

The End