"So, what happens now?" Leonard asked softly as he stroked Pennys arm. He was sprawled across the sofa with Penny lying at his side, almost on top of him with her head resting at his neck, while her hand made patterns on his chest. Their clothes were scattered across the floor, leaving them with nothing on but their underwear.

Penny didn't know how to answer. She felt contented, happy in his arms, but she knew it couldn't last. She cared about Leonard, more than she had ever cared about anyone in her life, but she knew the two of them would never work out as a couple. She wasn't good enough for him. At some point, whether it is in a few weeks or a few months, she would hurt him again and not only could she not live with herself if she did, she was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to handle any more pain in his heart. She needed to be with someone like Brandon. He was stronger than Leonard. He hadn't been through what Leonard had in his lifetime and she knew that Brandon could take any hurt she might inflict on him, not that she wanted to hurt him.

Penny sighed as she stroked his chest. She needed to be with someone who would be able to handle her fiery, unpredictable personality with ease like Brandon, but that didn't change how hard it was to let Leonard go. "I don't know, Leonard…" She said quietly.

Leonard heard how hurt and confused she was, he really didn't know what this all meant, but he guessed that she must still have feelings for him. She wouldn't have done all of this if she hadn't, she wasn't overly drunk; she knew what she was doing. He had reminded her about Brandon when she began kissing him and she didn't stop, she didn't want to.

He still had feelings for her too, so much so that he considered asking her to break up with Brandon and stay with him, but he couldn't do that. Even if she did have some feelings for him, she had agreed to marry Brandon, so whatever feelings she may have for him, were probably outweighed by those for Brandon. What they had done was a mistake, an amazing one, but a mistake none-the-less.

He wanted to be with her, but more than that he wanted her to be happy, and Brandon made her happy. He was the kind of guy she should be with, and even although they were going through some problems at the moment, he knew it would probably pass.

So he savoured this moment as he held her to him, because he knew it would probably be the last time it would happen. He listened to her breathe as she continued to caress his chest and closed his eyes, trying to engrave every second of this in his memory. He made a note of her sweet smell, the softness of her skin and the feel of her heart beating against his.

Penny turned her head and looked up at him. She didn't want this moment to end but she knew it had to. Slowly, feelings of guilt were starting to creep into her skin and she knew she had to let him go. "Leonard, I care about you…" She said softly.

"I know…" He whispered back, he sensed there was a 'but' coming in her sentence, so he decided to say it before she had to. "But we shouldn't have done this."

"Yeah..." She said as she nodded her head a little.

"Are you going to tell him?"

"I don't know." She moved her head back to rest on his chest. She couldn't tell him. He would leave her, and she didn't want that. She was lucky enough to manage to find another good man, and she had promised herself she wouldn't let him go like she had Leonard. "Probably not." She eventually said. "I can't. I already know I shouldn't have done this, and it won't happen again." She pulled her head back up and reached her hand up to Leonards jaw and held it. "This was… incredible. It really was…" She leant over and placed her lips on his. "…One last moment of weakness," She said softly when they parted, "That's what this was," and she kissed him again, but longer this time, knowing it would probably be the last time she ever kissed him.

One last moment of weakness. It summed it up perfectly. They were pretty much magnetised towards each other, they had a passion for one another that had not been matched with anyone else, but as much as they cared about each other, as soon as they decided to become a couple, they messed it up. Now Penny had found someone that she could be with, that she wanted to marry and this, Leonard thought, was the perfect way to say goodbye to their own past. They let their passion for one another take over, one last time, before she moved on to a life with Brandon, and it was now time for him to do the same. He knew it would be hard, for a good part of his life he had never been able to imagine himself with anyone but her, but he knew now he had to.

They lay in one anothers arms, for a little while longer, in complete contented silence, until Leonard decided it was time for him to go. He would have happily laid there for the rest of the night, and he was sure Penny would be quite happy with that too, but he knew he had to leave at some point, and the longer he left it, the harder it would be.

"I should go." He said quietly, almost like he was afraid of the words.

Pennys heart sunk. She really wanted to tell him to stay. No matter how much she told herself that this was for the best, her body and her heart would say it wasn't. She had let her body and heart win earlier though, and now she had to listen to her head, no matter how much it hurt. She felt him kiss her hair and she squeezed him tightly as she fought back tears. "Okay." She said as she reluctantly moved off of him. She watched him as he walked around the apartment collecting his clothes, and gave Penny hers.

"So…" He said as he put on his pants, "Is this how all games of 'never ever have I ever' end? Because if so, I really have to start playing more often." He laughed as he grabbed his t-shirt and threw it on.

"No, I'm afraid it's not." Penny giggled as she put her own clothes back on. She was so glad he was being so normal, because it made the whole situation much easier for her to handle. She got off the sofa and walked him to the door when he had finished getting dressed. "I'll see you later, I guess." She said quietly and with a small smile.

Leonard grinned before he opened the door and said. "Yeah, I'll see you later." Then he found himself instinctively moving forward and gave her one lastkiss.

Penny almost held onto him when he kissed her, but she managed to stop herself and pull away. She gave him a smile, which he returned before turning and leaving her apartment.

Penny rested her head against the door for a second, wishing that he didn't have to go, but before long the reality of what just happened hit her. She decided she had to shower, to wash Leonard off her skin. She didn't want to, she would quite happily have gone to bed and let the smell of his cologne seep into her skin, but she couldn't. She had to think about Brandon, poor unsuspecting Brandon. He had left a while ago and said he was staying with his friend, but she couldn't be sure, for all she knew he could walk through that door any second.

She headed to her room, shed her body of her clothes once more and stepped into the shower. While she washed her body she thought more about Brandon. She wondered for a second if she should just tell him what had happened, unsure if she was going to be able to keep it from him, but she quickly decided against it as she had done earlier. He was so excited about their wedding, so in love with her and it would crush him if he knew she had cheated on him. A little voice told her she should have thought of that earlier, and she knew it was true, but still she couldn't tell him.

One last moment of weakness. That's what it was and that's what it would stay. He didn't need to know, because it wouldn't happen again. She wasn't sure why all of those intimate feelings for Leonard had come to the surface, the feelings that she hadn't felt for him in a long time, but she hoped now that she had given in to those feelings one last time, they would stop. She knew what she felt for Leonard would never completely go away, but she also knew they had to move on. It hurt, so bad, but she couldn't be selfish anymore. She couldn't have her cake and eat it too. Brandon didn't deserve to be treated like this, and neither did Leonard.

Penny returned home from working the early shift at The Cheesecake Factory the next day, with her guilt from what had happened the night before, still oozing throughout her body. She had thought that as time went on her guilt would subside, that it would ease off a little, but she was wrong. She still hadn't spoken to Brandon since their fight, and she was dreading the first time when she would see him, because she was sure that the guilt would just get worse.

She sighed as she slowly unlocked her door and stepped inside, gasping in shock when she saw Brandon sitting on the sofa.

"Hey." He said quietly with a hint of a smile.

"Brandon… I…" Penny felt sick to her stomach, how could she do this to him? She wanted to say something else to him but choked. What could she say? What should she say? She didn't have a clue.

"Penny," He said interrupting her thought process. He stood up off the couch and walked towards her slowly. "I'm sorry for last night. I shouldn't have let our fight get so out of hand." He moved closer to her and held her hands, "I love you Penny, and I know you are starting to freak out a little about the wedding, so if you want to wait and stay engaged for a while, we can do that."

Penny felt her tears well up in her eyes. She had wished that he would be angry with her, that he would yell and tell her she was being unreasonable by not wanting to marry him right away, because she deserved it. She didn't want him to be nice to her, because that just made her guilt over what had happened the night before even stronger. She hung her head, resting her forehead against his chest. Why did she always do this? Why couldn't she just treat the men in her life the way they ought to be treated? "I'm so, so, sorry Brandon." She said with a crack in her voice. She looked up at him, and broke down in tears, unable to hold them inside any longer.

"Oh, honey." He said softly and wrapped him arms around her. "Don't cry. Everything's okay."

"No it's not." She sobbed. "I'm a horrible person, I don't deserve you. I don't deserve anyone."

Brandon held her face, forcing her to look up at him, making her cry even harder. His face dripped with confusion and hurt. He had no idea what she was talking about, he didn't know how she had betrayed him and that that was what she was actually apologising to him for. "What are you talking about? You aren't a horrible person. It was just a little fight okay? Come here, stop being silly." He rubbed her back, pulled her close and she sobbed into his shoulder.

What was she doing? What had she become? She knew then that there was no way she could tell him what had happened with Leonard. She knew how it felt to be cheated on by someone she loved, and she couldn't inflict that pain on someone else. What had happened would stay a secret between her and Leonard, one last moment of weakness, that no-one else need know about.