The Ultimate Commitment – Chapter 2
When Leonard returned home from work, he found Sheldon sitting on the couch, attached to his laptop.
"Hey Buddy, why didn't you go into work today?" Leonard asked Sheldon, as he put his keys into the bowl beside the door.
"I wanted to, but Professor Siebert has forced me to take my vacation days. He locked my office. I tried to get Penny to sneak me in, but she didn't answer her door. I haven't seen her in days. Not that I'm complaining." Sheldon whinged, as Leonard eventually zoned out, until Penny's name was mentioned.
"I might go and check on her then. I haven't seen her in a while either." Leonard realized, as he walked out the door and across the hallway.
He knocked on the door, and call out to Penny, but as Sheldon said; there was no reply. What if she was unwell and needed help, what if something happened? Leonard remembered when she got angry at them for entering her apartment when she wasn't there, but Leonard had a feeling that something wasn't right. He shuffled at the door, and it unlocked, 'she obviously wasn't at work then', Leonard thought to himself.
He walked in through the door to find Penny's apartment in a huge mess, there was empty glasses on the table, and take away food all messed around on the ground. He noticed the lights turned on in her bedroom, and a silhouette moving around behind her opaque door.
"Penny?" Leonard called out.
The shuffling stopped, as Leonard slowly opened her bedroom door.
"Oh my god, Penny, are you okay?" As Leonard walked through the door, he saw Penny sitting in the corner of her bedroom, with a bottle of wine in her hand, her hair in a mess and mascara smudged down her face.
"I'm fine. Please leave me alone Leonard."
"Okay." Leonard replied, as he turned around to walk back to their apartment.
"Leonard, wait!" He heard Penny call from her apartment. Leonard turned back around, and found Penny with her head in her hands, sobbing loudly, as if Penny seeing Leonard was some kind of trigger. He went and sat next to Penny, with both of them leaning up against Penny's bathroom door.
"What is wrong with me?"
"Nothing" Leonard replied. 'You're perfect to me…' "You're..."
"Penny!" A loud noise boomed from behind Penny's door. "Open the door!"
"Clifford, leave me alone! I'll call the police." Penny defended, standing up immediately. Leonard could see the fright in her eyes. She was terrified of him. And at this point in time, so was Leonard.
Clifford just opened the door anyways, and rushed in through the door. Leonard's heart dropped when his eyes connected with Clifford. Leonard was no match with this man, in any other aspect than intellectually.
"So you're just given it out to everyone now Penny? Even the little virgin dorks ahy?"
"Clifford, please just leave. I don't want any trouble." Penny pleaded, she was as distraught and as scared as Leonard was. Leonard remained seated where he was, as Penny tried to reason with Clifford to get him to leave.
Penny kept yelling at him, trying to get him to leave, but all it did was infuriate him more. Leonard could tell that he had been drinking, and was, in fact, highly intoxicated.
"Just shut up Penny!" He yelled in her face.
Leonard was about to do something that he was one hundred percent sure he would regret at some stage.
"Clifford, you need to go." Leonard said, standing up and walking out to defend Penny. "Penny did nothing to you, and she doesn't deserve to be treated the way you treat her. I will call the police if you don't leave."
For a split second Leonard felt empowered, but that soon faded as Clifford walked towards Leonard; still towering a foot over him.
"Oh okay shorty, what are you going to do if I don't leave?" Clifford said, obviously using his advanced height and width to intimidate Leonard.
"I already said that I'd call the cops, Clifford." Leonard looked back at Penny, with a large smile on his face. "Are the misfiring neurons in your hippocampus preventing the conversion from short-term to long-term memory?"
"Okay, stop that." Clifford said, trying to process the words that came out of Leonard's mouth.
"A homo-habilus discovering his opposable thumbs says what?" Leonard said, feeling slightly more confident.
"What?" Clifford said, as he cuffed his hands into a fist.
"I think I've made my point." Leonard exclaimed, taking a step back from Clifford and looking back at Penny.
Clifford's face turned red after he finally pieced together what Leonard had said, as Leonard turned back to face Clifford, with a grin on his face, it didn't last long as his face was struck by Clifford's fist which immediately dropped Leonard to the ground. Penny gasped as she watched Leonard drop to the ground, unsure of what to do. Clifford turned around and walked out her door, slamming it behind him.
"Oh my god, Leonard are you okay?" Penny said, falling to the ground next to Leonard.
"I'm fine." Leonard rebounded, holding his nose, as a black eye quickly started to form, and blood rushed from in between his fingers.
"Thank you Leonard." Penny said, helping him stand up. "I can't believe you stood up to him like that for me."
I'd do anything for you Penny. Anything.
"It's alright."
"I'll get some tissues and stuff. Just sit on my couch."
Penny rushed around grabbing 'stuff' for Leonard. She felt so bad about what Clifford had done to him, when he was just trying to stick up for Penny. She felt like it was all her fault, and didn't really know how to act around Leonard. She was still a little bit intoxicated, and felt like crap. Obviously not as bad as Leonard, but still pretty bad.
What he did for her, really surprised Penny. In a good way. She didn't think that Leonard would have to guts to stand up to someone like Clifford for anyone, let alone Penny.
Leonard sat in silence on Penny's couch, as Penny gave him some tissues, and a ice-pack she found in the back of her freezer.
"I better go home." Leonard managed to mumble as he wiped the blood away from his nose.
"Oh, okay then. Thank you, for everything Leonard."
Before Leonard could stand up, Penny placed a small kiss on Leonard's cheek, immediately making everything Leonard did for her worth it. He cared so much for her, and she would never know.
He went back to his apartment, and just went straight to his room, and into bed.
It wasn't long before he fell asleep, even though he was in so much pain.
'I love you Leonard. You are my everything, and I couldn't think of anyone better to spend the rest of my life with.' As those words came out of Penny's mouth, it made everything worth it. All the chasing, all the time he waited to be the one for her. The one that would be her final. Someone that she truly loved, and someone who truly loved her.
A/N – A few references to 1x06, because I thought they fit. I had some great reviews so I decided to write a 2nd chapter for this story. I am sorry for spelling mistakes, I don't have a beta reader, and I am normally too lazy to read over my work. But, anyways. Please read and review! xx