Disclaimer: I still don't own TBBT
A/N: I'm afraid it's time for Penny to say good-bye. Mostly from Penny's POV you did get a little bit of Raj's POV too. Thank you all for the reviews.
13 days later, at 3:15PM I closed and locked the door to 4B for the last time.
Walking across the landing, I let my finger trace the 4A. I leaned my forehead against the door and let a final tear run down my cheek.
"Blondie you coming?" I looked down the stairs at Jarrod waiting patiently for me. I wiped the tear away and left Los Robles for the last time.
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"Come in." Sheldon calls at the rap on his office door. He looked over at the Federal Express Delivery man.
"Dr. Sheldon Cooper?" He asked, and Sheldon nodded his head as he wrote more numbers on his whiteboard.
"Sign here Dr. Cooper." He held out his board. Sheldon sighed in frustration at being interrupted,
but signed his signature.
"Whatever it is, just put it on my desk and get out." The Fed-Ex man rolled his eyes at the cranky doctor laying the envelope on the desk and left.
"What's this?" Raj asked lifting up the Fed-Ex envelope. " When he came back into the office a few minutes later.
"I have no idea. Open it up and find out. I'm certainly not expecting anything." Sheldon snapped, erasing what he'd just put on the whiteboard.
Raj bit his tongue to keep from asking Sheldon what his problem was. Mostly because Raj, was sure he knew the answer. It had been days since Penny had been around.
They really had only seen her at the Cheesecake Factory.
Sheldon's problem was he missed Penny. Raj felt for Sheldon, really he did. Sheldon was in a tough spot. Raj believed Sheldon was finally figuring out, it was Penny he belonged with.
While she wasn't at his intellectual level. Who was?
Penny challenged Sheldon in every other way.
In Raj's opinion, no matter how hard Sheldon tried. Amy would never be Penny.
Raj thought Amy was finally starting to see this herself. Something had changed, he often saw Amy watching the door of Apt 4A, with a fearful look. Like she was waiting for someone to burst through.
Raj wondered when big ole 5 Penny, was finally going to let Sheldon know how she felt. He had already told Howard, if one of the two didn't do something soon, he was going to step in.
He'd grown to really like Amy. If there was one thing Raj would bet money on, that this thing between Sheldon and Penny was on the verge of exploding. He just didn't want Amy to get hurt.
Shaking his thoughts away, Raj tore open the envelope and pulled out a dvd disc, 2 twenty dollar bills and a pink Hello Kitty note paper. He quickly scanned the note and then read it a second time.
"Sheldon this is from Penny."
"What? Why would Penny send me a Fed-Ex? That woman wastes more money. She could have just stuck whatever it is on my desk at home." He sighed in exasperation, dropping his marker and taking the pink note from Raj, he quickly read it himself.
"Well you better call everyone. Tell them pizza is on Penny tonight and she's sent us a special movie to watch." Sheldon picked up the dvd and he felt a shiver run up his spine. He shook it off looking around the office for a draft coming from an open window. Finding nothing he shook the strange feeling off and thought to himself... "Knowing her, it's probably some pirated copy of a film she was an extra on."
At 8:00PM the gang is sitting in Sheldon and Leonard's apartment. Bernadette returns to her seat on the couch, from cleaning up the remnants of the pizzas. Howard sat on the floor in front of Bernadette. Raj sat to his left and Leonard was in the arm chair on the other side of Sheldon.
"Sheldon where is Penny?" Amy asked, from her seat on the couch next to him.
Raj looked over at her. "She shouldn't be in Penny's spot." He has an incredible urge to tell her that. To say "Amy you need to sit over here by me." Even if he could speak to her, Raj knew those words wouldn't leave his lips. Whatever this is that Penny wants us to watch is going to turn out badly. I just know it!
"I have no idea. Her note said to start watching at 8:00PM. We are almost one minute late."
With that Sheldon presses the remote control and the dvd started.
For a moment all there was, was the blank blue screen, but then Penny appeared on the screen.
Her hair was a mass of gold pulled up on one side, it was held there by a bright green Penny Blossom. She was perched on a stool in front of a blank green wall. She was wearing a pair of blue denim capris, bright pink sandals,and a tank top in a matching pink.
She looked nervously down at her hands clasped together in her lap, she took a deep breath,looked back up into the camera and began to speak. Sheldon's hand gripped the arm of the couch. His stomach rolls over and for some reason his brain was screaming "DANGER! DANGER!" All he wanted to do was get up and run to his room. Locking himself away from whatever Penny was about to say.
"Hi guys! I'm going to get right to the point, before I lose my nerve. I want you all to know, how very honored I've been to be in your group. You are an amazing set of people. It's been such an intense experience for me. I'm not anywhere near any of your level of intelligence. Yet you let me stay and included me in your lives. I can't tell you how much that has meant to me. I wont ever remember everything you've tried to teach me. Frankly most of it flies right out of my head as soon as you're done explaining it to me.
These last couple of years you all have grown so much. Bernadette and Howard are married. Raj has moved into Sheldon's field of work. Leonard you're doing amazing things with that lazer. Sheldon you and Amy well. You're just the perfect couple." She choked out, pausing for a moment.
"That's the point. You've grown and will continue to do amazing things with your lives. You will literally change the world. Me...I'm still just a waitress at the Cheesecake Factory.
You see that's the problem lately. I feel like I'm suffocating. I can't breathe anymore when I'm around you. I will never do anything to make a difference in the world. Every day it becomes harder and harder for me to stay around here. I just feel so useless compared to you. Now that is totally on me. It's nothing any of you have done.
I'm taking every one of my memories of you with me." Looking down at her clenched hands, Penny seems to take a deep breath. Looking up, she drives the final nail into the wall that she's created between she and her friends. "I've moved out of my apartment." A collective gasp can be heard, at her words.
"A friend recently told me that life rarely gives you what you want. Life usually gives you what you need. What I need is to move away from you. I need to be with, for a lack of a better phrase, with my own kind. I need to learn that I can spread my own wings and fly too. Just like all of you.
The thing is, I have to accept that I'm flying with the wings of a mockingbird, not the wings of an eagle like you do.
My wings wont ever take me any higher then the top of the nearest tree. But the wings of an eagle gives you the ability to soar up into the clouds. Your brilliant minds will push you up into the heavens."
Then she held her fingers up in the Vulcan sign and spoke to her friends for what Penny believes is the final time...
"I love you. Live long and prosper my friends. This is Penny from 4B signing out." She gave them a final sad smile, with single tear running down her cheek and the screen went blue again.
Before anyone could think straight, Sheldon had shot up off the couch, was grabbing his spare key to Penny's apartment out of the bowl and was rushing across the hall.
The others finally pulled themselves together and found him struggling with the lock. Finally it gave way and he shoved the door open, letting it bang against the wall, never taking the key out of the lock.
He took a step back at the sight of the barren apartment. He'd been sure it was some kind of elaborate joke on her part. He kept waiting for the bazinga to come. Sucking in huge gulps of air, he took long strides and pushed the bedroom door open. Taking two steps into the room and then he heard a crunch under his foot.
Sheldon took a step back and then crouched down. He'd stepped on the brilliant emerald green Penny Blossom. He gently picked it up, fussing with the leaves he'd crushed. Clasping it tightly in his fist he next went into the bathroom. Empty save for whimsical adhesive ducks, still in place on the bottom of the bathtub.
Oddly it was Howard who found his voice first..."Sheldon, look don't worry. I can find her easily. I have all her information. It won't be a problem. We'll bring her back home where she belongs."
Sheldon whirls around..."Absolutely not. She wanted out of the group. Well then, we'll give her what she wants. I'm telling all of you." he turned looking directly at Leonard..."You will leave her alone. It's the only thing she asked of us. We can only hope she comes to her senses soon."
Then he stalked out of the empty apartment and went back to his own bedroom, where he finally did slam the door shut and locked the rest of the world out.
For the first time in his life, Sheldon looked to that God his mother was always going on about. He prayed for Penny to realize her mistake and come home. Sadly though Sheldon wouldn't have his prayer answered for many years.