Disclaimer: I will only ever own as much cats as Sheldon had that one episode. Other than that, nothing.

Definitions of Leonard

Chapter 7: Shock

Sheldon did his quirky knock on Penny's apartment door, while Leonard unlocked their own apartment to deposit their work bags, before joining Sheldon back at the door of 4B. In Sheldon's non-knocking hand, he held a new video game, and the roommates were both very eager to share the joy of opening it with their neighbour. Well, Sheldon was just excited to open it, really, regardless if Penny was there or not.

However, Penny had to be there for Sheldon to open his prized new game. They had promised Penny, after the last 'New Video Game Party' that she would be invited, no matter what - even if that meant waiting for her if she couldn't be there the second the game came out.

"She's not answering." Sheldon commented as he started his third round of three groups of three consecutive knocks. He tried speaking Penny's name louder.

"Maybe she's not home... I know we mentioned this to her, but she could have had to work late or something." Leonard said, feeling a little disappointed.

"No, we scheduled the pick-up to coincide with her schedule. She should be home. And she would have texted." Sheldon insisted, continuing his knocking patterns, even louder. He was all but shouting, and Leonard took a step back and gave him a dirty look.

"I am not leaving! I want to play that game!" Sheldon hissed, just as the door was thrown open.

shock 1 | sh äk|

noun

A sudden upsetting or surprising event or experience : it was a shock to face such hostile attitudes when I arrived.

"What the hell do you want?" A tall, muscular man demanded. He was shirtless, and he reminded Leonard of Kurt, except with more hair on his head. The two roommates in the hall took an involuntary step back as the stranger glowered at them.

"Umm... Is Penny there? We... picked up a new game! We had promised to invite her so we thought we would stop by and..." Leonard trailed off, realizing he was babbling. He was also receiving a very weird look from the man in the doorway.

"Hey, who's there?" Penny's voice sounded from behind the man. She walked up behind him, hair a mess, and barely dressed. She stopped short at the sight of Leonard and Sheldon.

Leonard felt his heart drop. So it had finally happened. Penny had gotten a... boy-toy, boyfriend, who knew? Leonard felt sick. He turned around.

"Sorry to have disturbed you. We'll be going. Sheldon?"

"No, wait Leonard. You entered a verbal social contract with Penny. We cannot violate it." Sheldon held up a hand to indicate Leonard should stop. He then went on, sounding like someone trying to convince a dog to come.

"Penny, we have a new game! Come play! It'll be fun, and there's Chinese food!"

"So these are the loser neighbours you told me about? Come on, let's get back to what we were doing and leave these geeks to do whatever." The man laughed, looking down at the two physicists. He shook his head as if in disbelief. Turning to Penny, who had opened her mouth, about to speak, he put his arm around her and gave her a kiss, effectively shutting her up. He pulled her back into the apartment, despite Penny's uncomfortable look. She shot Leonard a quick, apologetic look as the door slammed in Sheldon's and his faces.

"Social contract negated, apparently." Leonard said, and with a nod from Sheldon, the pair crossed the hall to their own apartment.

A feeling of disturbed surprise resulting from such an event.

Leonard was a little upset. Who the hell was this guy to be so rude? And how could Penny have told him that they were losers? He had thought they were friends.

Leonard exhaled sharply. When he actually thought about it, he sincerely doubted Penny really called them losers. She wasn't like that. Or at least he didn't think she was. The guy had probably drawn that conclusion on his own. It wasn't like it was hard.

The feeling of disillusionment that washed over him unsettled him. He couldn't lie to himself that one of the biggest things he was upset about was simply the presence of another guy - though it was made infinitely worse by the fact that guy was an asshole. He was suddenly annoyed at Penny. She had no right to treat them like that, even if she didn't insult their social abilities - no matter how true the evaluations are, if you're a friend you're not supposed to point them out. And she had known they were planning their 'New Game Night' tonight. Now she and her new 'boyfriend' had ruined Leonard's night. They had even ruined Sheldon's; he was clearly affronted at the social contract violation, and at the fact he was verbally insulted.

Taking a deep breath, Leonard tried to calm himself. It wouldn't do any good to get any madder about this, he figured. He just needed to let it go. If he knew Penny, the guy wouldn't be around long. She was their friend; she would get mad and dump the jerk. She had started trying to defend them.

Leonard, feeling kind of sick from his rapid mood swings, sat down in his usual chair and silently watched, sorting out his thoughts, while Sheldon unpacked the game alone (though Leonard wryly noted that his excitement was enough for two of them).

Howard and Raj arrived shortly after, and the story was relayed to them.

A disturbance causing instability in an economy.

"You obviously interrupted them having coitus." Howard said matter-of-factly, helping himself to more chicken fried rice.

"What does this mean for our friendship? She told her boyfriend we were losers, and more importantly, she violated an agreement! This game came out at midnight last night, and we did not pick up it up until this afternoon!" Sheldon complained as he executed several complicated maneuvers in the said game.

"Did you do something to make her mad Leonard? Is this guy an ex? Did you drive her into the arms of another guy?" Raj asked, settling himself next to Howard on the couch. He grabbed a plate and started helping himself.

"Ha. I didn't recognize him. But why is it always my fault? Couldn't Sheldon have done something wrong?" Leonard protested.

Raj and Howard simply stared at him. Sheldon was still immersed in his game.

Leonard sighed, and went on, "Look, I really didn't do anything. I haven't even seen Penny in three days because of work and stuff. But we were totally fine before then."

A loud sound from the game distracted them all, and they turned to watch.

An acute medical condition associated with a fall in blood pressure, caused by such events as loss of blood, severe burns, bacterial infection, allergic reaction, or sudden emotional stress, and marked by cold, pallid skin, irregular breathing, rapid pulse, and dilated pupils.

Short for electric shock.

"He should have really died from that fall." Sheldon commented as his character swan dived off an Italian tower and landed in a hay wagon.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure a wagon of hay wouldn't have really lessened the effects of jumping from a high altitude to an area of low altitude."

"Even if for whatever reason he didn't just shatter his skull and die instantly, he would at least severely break many bones in his body."

"Then die from blood loss or shock."

"Well, the present-time guy should have died jumping into the freezing water then."

"Not to mention there would be extreme concussions to the body with all the other jumping and slamming into stone walls... fighting injuries."

"He's a super hero. Therefore, that explains all."

"Agreed."

"Wait, how did he become a super hero, anyways?"

"There's probably some storyline. But how about radioactive bug?"

"Alien technology."

"An intense electric shock when he touched a chemical?"

2. A violent shaking movement caused by an impact, explosion, or tremor.

The apartment suddenly shook slightly, interrupting the guys' conversation. There was a large bang, like the slamming of the door. The thump of footsteps echoed in the hallway.

The four men stopped, looked at each other, and then at the door.

"That sounded like it was from Penny's apartment." Sheldon said, as he turned back to his game. The rest continued to stare at the door

"Maybe I should go check on her..." Howard suggested and stood up.

"No, Howard." Leonard sighed, and stood up as well. It was his obligation as her closest friend here to see if she was okay. Plus it was his duty as a friend to both Penny and Howard to protect them from each other. Bruises and sexual advances were probably not what either of them wanted. "I guess I'll go."

"Rebound sex!" Raj advised him, grinning. Leonard shook his head and rolled his eyes in response as he left the apartment.

He stopped in the hallway, and took a deep breath before crossing to 4B and knocking on the door. His residual anger from the earlier encounter has dissipated, mostly because he figured whatever had just happened between Penny and her ... 'beau'... was a result of the incident an hour before.

"Penny?" Leonard called, when she didn't answer. He suddenly wished he had x-ray vision so he could see through the door and check if she was alright. Then he thought about that, and while sometimes it would be an awesome power, other times, it really wouldn't be. Like whenever a guy was around.

verb

[ trans. ] (often be shocked) cause (someone) to feel surprised and upset.

The door finally opened, after a few more knocks and a few threats, and Leonard was a little surprised at how upset she looked. He entered Penny's apartment when she held the door open for him, and followed her to her couch. There was a bottle of wine, just opened, on the coffee table.

They sat down, and she lent against her pillow, sniffling slightly. He looked at her, and they sat in silence for a minute.

"You wanna talk about it?" Leonard asked softly, reaching out to touch her cheek, then her shoulder. She smiled at him in response, and scootched over so that she was sitting next to him. He put his arm around her unconsciously, and she leaned into him.

"I'm sorry." Penny said, very softly. "I dumped him."

Leonard argued with himself over what to say; what was appropriate; what would make her feel better.

"Well... I'd say I'm sorry, but I'm not. But it's not like we don't get insulted by the regular population from time to time. By social definition we are losers." He offered, smiling at her. to let her know it was okay.

Offend the moral feelings of; outrage : the revelations shocked the nation.

"No, you're not. Sheldon might be crazy, and Howard might be disgusting, and Raj might not be able to talk to women, and you all might be a little awkward, but you are good people. You've never treated me badly." Penny argued, sitting up straighter and turning herself to face Leonard directly.

Leonard didn't have time to organize his response before Penny continued speaking.

"I'm sorry I didn't stand up for you right away. He's an asshole. When I told him to get out, he ignored me and kept kissing me. I finally hit him with a book and he started yelling at me, before I forced him out. What a jerk." She finished up looking a little tearful again, and leaned back into Leonard's open arms.

Leonard, however, suddenly felt hot all over, and not in the good, sexual way, but in the infuriated, hostile way. Who was this guy to make Penny cry? He hugged her tightly for a second, feeling like he should go find that guy and... The disappointing thing was he knew he couldn't actually do anything that would make Penny feel better. He couldn't go beat the guy up - at most do more complex math equations, or beat the guy in Halo. And Leonard sincerely doubted the guy would consent to a 'math-off' in a battle of honour. No, he definitely wouldn't.

"I'm sorry I can't go beat him up for you." Leonard said, making Penny burst into laughter. She assured him it was okay, and that getting a hug from her best friend was better anyways.

Affect with physiological shock, or with an electric shock.

After a while longer of silence, in which Leonard continued to hold Penny, the younger blonde finally looked up, her eyes dry, and kissed Leonard on the cheek. He felt a shock go through him, but his neurons automatically sent a smile at her without showing this surprise, thankfully. She reached forward to grab the clicker and turned on the TV.

"Thanks for being my friend Leonard," Penny said quietly, "I appreciate it."

"No problem." Leonard managed. His head was still reeling, but he felt immensely happy. She used to kiss him on the cheek all the time before they dated. This was the first time she had done so since they had broken up.

He smiled, and settled in to watch some chick flick he probably wouldn't really enjoy, but he knew he would end up being very happy this evening.

A/N: Sorry this took so long. Had papers due, and final exams are coming up. Plus this week has been hell - my cat died, I got stuck in a snow drift and now my truck is in the shop because something screwed up, my friend is deciding to be a drama queen (literally, she's randomly getting mad about nothing that apparently happened two weeks ago...). So my updates may be a touch slower. But we'll be done this one soon-ish. It depends on how fast things work out I guess! Thanks for reading, and I hope you guys have a great weekend!