Author's Note: So I've finally gotten around to seeing the end of season three and I've got to say that while I loved all the episodes, I wish that the whole Penny / Leonard break up had been handled just a little differently. This is my way of changing it. I hope you enjoy. Please review.

The 'I Love You' Entanglement

Leonard smiled at his girlfriend. "I love you,"

Penny's eyes went wide. "Oh," she muttered. "Oh, I uh..."

"Penny?" asked Leonard, feeling as though he was a deer caught in headlights.

Penny said nothing she just sat up in bed and turned her back on Leonard. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry? Why are you sorry?"

"I can't say it."

"You can't say it because you don't feel the same, or?"

"No," Penny assured as she turned back to him. "You have to know how much I care about you."

"I do/ I do Penny, I just don't understand."

Penny shook her head, tears in her eyes. "I've said it too soon too many times," she explained as she turned away from him. "I just don't want to get burned again."

"Hey now," Leonard soothed as he put his arms around Penny. "You're not going to get burned."

"You don't know that,"

"Yes I do," Leonard comforted. "I am never going to hurt you Penny."

"Maybe not intentionally," she replied. "But it'll happen. It always happen."

"It won't happen with me," he promised. "I won't let it happen to us."

Penny turned around and allowed Leonard to take her into his arms. "How can you be sure?"

"I'm sure because I love you," Leonard explained. "I know you probably don't want to hear that right now, and it's okay. We're in two different places right now, and that makes sense really seeing how I've been in this relationship two years longer than you have."

Despite the turmoil of feelings that Penny was feeling she couldn't help but laugh at the last little bit of Leonard's explanation. Deep down, she also knew that he was right. She had known it all along. Penny knew that Leonard had had feelings for her, strong feelings for a very long time and Penny would have been lying to herself is she didn't admit that she had been drawn to Leonard from the very beginning.

"Oh Leonard," she sighed, deciding that if he was being honest, it was the least she could do to be honest back. "I don't know if that's true."

"What?" he asked, clearly perplexed. "Of course it is."

"No. I mean that you haven't been in this relationship two years longer than I have."

"I don't understand,"

"I've always been drawn to you," Penny confessed. "From the very beginning. I know that it might not have seemed like it at the very beginning. But I was. When you had all those problems with Leslie Winkle, I wasn't all that upset. I knew that you liked me but I just didn't know how to handle it and then when you went away to the north pole, it was like I'd lost my heart or something."

"Penny... what are you saying?"

Penny looked up into Leonard's eyes. "I'm saying that I love you,"

"Really?"

Penny nodded. "Really, and I'm sorry that I couldn't say it right away."

"No," Leonard assured. "It's alright. Anything you do will always be alright."

Penny smiled and leaned in to kiss her boyfriend. "Then I better do something worthy of that praise."

END