Okay, here's the end. I could not figure out how to finish this, and that's why it took so long. I had the end of the chapter written, and I absolutely HATED how it ended…so I went with this…not sure if it's much better, but…it's all I got.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own anything.

"Hey guys," Penny said as Raj and Howard entered her apartment. "Do you have the food?"

"It's all right here," Howard said, gesturing to Raj behind him. Penny raised her eyebrows; Raj had nothing in his hands, and he looked at Howard in confusion. "Where's the bag?" Howard asked in annoyance. Raj leaned over and whispered something. "Well," Howard said in frustration, "go and get it!" Raj assumed a look of slight panic and darted out the door.

Under normal circumstances, Penny would have just rolled her eyes, but it was important to her that this go well, so she was afflicted with paranoia. "Oh, God," she moaned, "did you guys forget to bring it?"

"No," Howard assured her. "It's in the car." He looked around. "Where's Sheldon?"

Penny gestured toward the apartment door. "Over there in his big ice thingy. He's practicing his 'casual' expressions."

Howard was one of four people on the planet who didn't find that explanation strange. "Oh, I see."

"Personally, I don't think a few hours of practice will help, but…"

"Ah, don't over think it. He's nuts." Howard and Penny both looked up when Raj re-entered the room carrying a large paper bag. He held up a dirty piece of notebook paper that read "The food's here!"

"Yay!" Penny said with playful enthusiasm as she took the food from Raj.

Sheldon entered the room behind Raj. "Is that the food?"

"Yes." Penny set the bag on her counter and peered inside.

Sheldon followed her. "Black beans, not pinto beans?"

Penny checked the container. "Yep."

"Double guacamole?"

"Yep."

"Lettuce shredded, not chopped?"

"Uh…" Penny lifted the container and tilted it. "Yes."

"Good, because if it didn't, Leonard would grumble about it for the next week. Don't you hate it when someone complains that much?" Sheldon looked horribly confused at the looks exchanged between Penny, Raj, and Howard. "Did I miss something?"

"Something?" Penny asked. "As in one thing?"

"No. Something pluralized." Howard said.

"Multiplied by Avogadro's number," Penny added. A second later she blinked in surprise. "Whoa."

"You mean six point oh two times ten to the twenty-third?" Sheldon asked.

"No, the Avogadro in 2A," Penny said sarcastically.

"That's Mrs. Grossinger. She has the Mexican Hairless that…sarcasm?"

Penny nodded. "Yes, Shelly."

"Don't ever call me Shelly!"

"Leonard called you that multiple times while you were having your work problems."

"I was sleep deprived. No time to quibble over terms of address. All energy was focused on the task at hand. In fact…"

"Here we go," the other three said in unison.

Sheldon had begun to babble about the necessities of sleep, but stopped at their words. "Your clichéd phrase regarding my inevitable explanation on the focus of energy is no longer humorous."

"Why don't we take a rain check on that lecture?" Penny said. "Leonard will be here any minute. Is everyone clear on the plan?"

"Yes," Howard said.

"Got it," Sheldon confirmed.

Raj nodded.

"Great." Penny set the five cartons of food on her coffee table.

Just then there was a knock at the door, and then Leonard opened it and came inside. "Hey, Penny." He noticed the others in the room. "Oh. Hey guys."

"Leonard!" Howard said with over exaggerated happiness. "How are you today?"

"Eh…" Leonard shrugged. "Get up, go to work, come home…you know."

"Oh, that's okay," Howard said, slapping Leonard's shoulder lightly. "I'm sure that things will get better. Everyone has off days."

"Yeah, I guess." Leonard gave Howard a small smile. "So. What's for dinner?"

"Well," Sheldon said, going over to the couch and gesturing to the food. "We got you…buddy…your favorite food. As you can see, we have black beans, not pinto beans, double guacamole, and lettuce shredded, not chopped. Just as you like it…buddy." Sheldon turned away slightly so Leonard couldn't see the twitch.

This conversation was making Penny very uncomfortable. Leonard was a beautiful mind…even his somewhat lack of social skills wouldn't prevent him from realizing that his friends weren't acting normally. Penny cleared her throat, beginning to realize that telling her friends to be "overly nice" to Leonard may not have been the best way of wording it. "Guys, why don't we eat?"

"Great idea. Leonard must be so hungry after toiling at the university all day." Howard shook his head.

"Toiling on nothing but…" Sheldon caught himself. Penny sat down on the couch, and Leonard sat on the other side of her. "Excuse me," Sheldon said, "but that's my spot."

"You always sit in the green chair," Penny said. "Remember? You chose that as your place to sit."

"That's not my spot. This," he said, pointing to where Penny was. "Is my spot."

"Fine." Penny leaned over, bumping her shoulder into Leonard's. "Scoot down."

It was a bit crowded, three people on the couch, but with only four seats available around the coffee table, they had to make due. Howard took the green chair. That left Raj standing. He bent and whispered in Howard's ear. "No one cares where you're gonna sit," Howard told him. "You're not crazy!"

Raj rolled his eyes and sank down cross-legged on the floor in front of the coffee table, facing the others.

"So…" Penny said. "How was everyone's day?"

"Oh, it was great," Howard said. "Raj and I went to a Star Lab."

"A Star Lab?" Penny raised her eyebrows. "Like those big balloon things that kids crawl into at schools and they look at stars?"

"Those were horrible," Sheldon said. "They actually point out the constellations to you! They don't think that second graders already know all of that information."

"Yes, that kind of Star Lab," Howard said. "Raj was giving the presentation."

"Oh, well, good for you, Raj," Penny said, smiling with encouragement.

Raj whispered something to Howard again. "Right." He turned to Leonard. "But why are we talking about Raj? We are far more interested in your day."

Leonard frowned. "You want to know about my day?"

"Oh, yes! We are very interested in how you spent your time on this fine Tuesday."

"Huh." Leonard chewed slowly and swallowed. "You do."

Penny's face was bright red. This was the most horrible, awkward conversation the five of them had had in a long, long time. Leonard answered all of Sheldon, Howard, and Raj's questions, giving them odd glances occasionally. Once, after Sheldon gave him an extreme compliment on his latest experiment, Penny caught Leonard looking at her. She gave him a smile and then broke the eye contact to stab at more of her food.

"Well," Howard said an hour or so later, "I'd better get going. I have to take Raj home, and then I'm meeting Bernadette. We're going to see the creepy Alice in Wonderland movie."

"Oh. Okay," Penny said. "Bye guys. Glad you could come over."

"Thanks for having us" Howard said, and Penny sighed inwardly. Way too formal, Howard. "Well," the engineer continued. "You all have a pleasant evening. Especially you, Leonard."

"Go!" Penny said. When the other four gave her simultaneous surprised glances, she swallowed. "You don't want to…be late for the movie, Howard." Nice save, Penny, she thought.

When Howard and Raj left, Sheldon stood up. "Well, now that that little charade is over with, I need to…"

"Wait."

Sheldon was halfway out the door, and Penny was in the kitchen getting a water bottle, but both of them simultaneously turned to look at Leonard, standing by the couch. "What?" They asked in unison.

"What's going on?"

"I…don't know what you mean," Penny said casually.

"I don't know what you mean either," Sheldon said. "Nor do I know what Penny knows that she doesn't know what you mean."

Leonard crossed his arms. "You guys never have gotten along this long before." He turned to Penny. "You never have me go to movies alone." He looked at Sheldon. "You haven't twitched this much since you were keeping the community college secret from me." He looked at both of them. "And you said nothing when Raj and Howard-and you guys, for that matter-were acting ridiculously nice to me today. So…what is going on?"

Penny walked over to him. "Leonard, honey, they're your friends. Friends are nice to each other."

Sheldon gave a little snort. Penny's head shot around and glared. "Sorry." He came over to Leonard and tapped him on the shoulder. When Leonard looked at him, he gave his creepy not-kill-Batman smile.

Leonard looked at them for a moment longer, and then his face relaxed. Putting one hand on Penny's shoulder and the other on Sheldon's, he smiled. "You guys are the best."

Hope that didn't massively disappoint anyone…review, please!