As soon as Sheldon was out of sight the tears that had been welling up in Penny's eyes spilled over and ran down her face. She gave a single sob, then wiped at her eyes and made her way out of the building.

She made it through her shift and at the end of the day returned home to her apartment. She did a quick change out of her uniform and went across the hall to the apartment whose lease had been transferred to Leonard's name. When she opened the door, Leonard himself was standing in the kitchen making a snack.

"Hey Penny! Watch this!" He began to whistle a jaunty tune. Penny laughed at the sheer joy that Leonard took from performing this simple action. In her head she could hear Sheldon saying, "That's strike one Leonard!" The smile suddenly fell from her lips.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Leonard asked, coming around to the other side of the island.

"Oh, nothing. I'm just finding it a little hard to believe that he's actually gone, you know?"

"I know!" Leonard said, sounding a little too happy about the absence of his roommate of several years and so-called best friend. "And look," he continued as he led her over to the sofa, "Now you can sit wherever you want!"

Penny looked at Sheldon's spot. No, it wasn't his spot anymore; he wasn't here to sit in it. It was her spot now.

She sat down tentatively and wiggled her butt a little. She grinned up at Leonard. "Comfy."

"Right?"

He snuggled up beside her and they watched a movie.

That night as they lay together in Leonard's bed with his arms wrapped around her, Penny's mind flashed back to that morning when it was Sheldon who had held her tightly. Sheldon, with his long, lanky frame, had wrapped his strong arms around her. Looking back on it, she was surprised to realize that being in his arms had made her feel extremely safe. She had never felt protected like that before. Leonard was, let's face it, a wimp. Even when she had been with Kurt, she hadn't felt like that. Sure, Kurt was huge and could (and would) beat up any guy who would hit on her, but that had never been able to give her this sense of calm. Sheldon was different. Sheldon had a working knowledge of the entire universe and (nearly) everything it contains. He knew who he was and didn't apologize for it. He was generous and helpful. And now he was gone. Penny was a little shocked at how much she missed him, and he hadn't even been gone for an entire day. A tear slid down her cheek and soaked into the pillowcase as she drifted off to sleep.

Penny woke up alone the next morning. She rolled over and looked at the clock. 10:15. Leonard had left for work a couple of hours ago. Penny got out of bed and padded to the kitchen. A cold, half full pot of coffee sat on the counter. She poured herself a cup and warmed it in the microwave. She surveyed the apartment as she sipped her reheated coffee. It looked much sparser than it had before. Sheldon's desk was bare, the bookcase at the back of the room had about a third as many books as it usually held. Even the top of the fridge held only a couple of the more sugary cereals. There was a void in the apartment and it made Penny feel strange. Things were not as they were meant to be.

There was something inexplicable that Penny could feel drawing her back down the hallway. She stood outside the closed door to Sheldon's bedroom and the memory of his voice saying, "Penny, people cannot be in my bedroom," made her pause.

"It's not your bedroom anymore," she said quietly to herself and turned the doorknob.

The room had an eerie quality to it, as if it were haunted. It had been stripped of all linens, DVDs, comic books, and memorabilia of any sort. Penny ran her hand along the bookshelf that had previously held organizational baskets that contained said comic books and DVDs. She sat down on the bare mattress and looked around her. He had taken every single item with him, there was nothing left, not a fragment. The only thing of Sheldon's that remained was his scent. He always smelled of soap and fabric softener and the air in this room was heavy with it. Penny breathed in deeply and sighed, and then fiddled with her earring. The back unexpectedly came loose and the earring fell to the floor and rolled underneath the bed.

"Crap."

Penny got on her hands and knees on the floor and reached underneath the bed. She felt around until her hand landed on her earring. As she was pulling her hand back from underneath the bed she brushed against something.

"What the heck?"

She lowered her head to look for the thing she had touched. It was a small item and felt smooth to the touch. Penny pulled it out and looked at it. It was three small, round, red balls that had been stuck together. They formed a sort of triangle. Penny held it up to examine it closer and she decided that it looked a little like a lumpy heart, but she could not figure out the purpose of it. She pocketed the item and left the room, closing the door behind her.

After her shift that evening Penny felt exhausted. She went over to Leonard's apartment to give him a good night kiss and let him know that she was going to crash at her own place. She went home and got ready for bed. Right before she was about to go to sleep, she reached down to pick up the pair of jeans she had been wearing earlier in the day from off of the floor. From the pocket she plucked out the trinket she had found under Sheldon's former bed. She placed it on her nightstand next to her lamp, crawled under the covers and drifted off to sleep.