Chapter 2
Newlyweds – The Gang's Perspective
It's Saturday night and after a day of chores and errands, Leonard is relaxing playing video games.
"Leonard?" say Penny looking up from her phone as she sits on the couch.
"Yay" he says, his eyes never leaving the TV screen.
"Did you ever get that last load of laundry out of the dryer?" she asks.
"Shoot," he says "I forgot." Leonard is momentarily distracted and his character dies in the game. "Shoot," he says again.
"Can you go get it now please?" asks Penny.
"Yay, yay. Might as well since I'm dead now anyway," he huffs.
"Thank you Sweetie" says Penny in a sing-song voice.
"Yay, yay," he shrugs picking up the empty clothes basket and heading out the apartment door.
Leonard heads off down the stairs and arrives in the laundry room. As he goes inside to retrieve Penny and his clothes from the dryer, he notices a pile of lumpy blankets on the folding table.
Great, he thinks. Now I won't even be able to fold my clothes. Who would just leave…, Leonard's thoughts trail off as he notices something strange about the blanket pile.
"What the?" he says moving closer to the table to get a better look. Suddenly he stops and backs away slowly moving back to the dryer. He quickly retrieves the clothes putting them in the basket, slams the dryer door shut more loudly than necessary and leaves the laundry room practically stomping up the stairs.
As Leonard comes into the apartment Penny, still on the couch, notices that the clothes are not folded neatly in the basket as usual. More like they are in a giant wad. Not much on folding, Penny doesn't really care but that is odd behavior for her husband to not care.
"Leonard, what's up with the giant spitball of our clothes? We're you too torn up about dying in your game to fold them?" she asks.
Leonard says nothing as he puts down the basket on the floor next to the chair. He plops in the chair and takes off his glasses leaning his head back.
"Leonard?" Penny questions. "Are you okay? Is it your asthma?"
"I'm fine" he says but still has his head back.
Penny thinks perhaps he has just been working too hard today on chores and since she interrupted his video game time, he needs another way to relax. She puts her phone down and moves from the couch to the chair and crawls on his lap. She puts her arms around him and begins kisses his neck but she soon stops as she notices he is just not into it. She shifts her weight to the arm of the chair.
"Sorry babe," Leonard says as he rises up from the chair. "But I think I'm just going to put up the clothes, take a shower, and head to bed." Leonard kisses Penny on top of her head, grabs the clothes basket and heads off down the hallway toward the bedroom.
Penny just sits there in a confused state. Has there ever been in a time in their 12 years together (off and on anyway) where Dr. Leonard Hofstadter refused her affections? She couldn't recall any, as least ones where she was sober.
Uh, oh, she thought. What's going on? Are we in trouble?