Here we are. The final chapter. Wolfofsheep, welcome back. This place just isn't the same without your special brand of insanity!
She had known in the back of her mind that eventually this day would come. She had always pushed away that knowledge because she didn't want to face it. Then last night Leonard had joked about Sheldon having a grey hair. He said soon she and Sheldon would look more like father and daughter than man and wife. She knew what she had to do. And it broke her heart.
"Do you intend to say goodbye, or will you just disappear?"
She turned from her packing to see Sheldon standing stiffly in their bedroom door. She swallowed hard and looked back at her suitcase. "I'm thinking more along the lines of a sudden visit to see my sister, who is sick. Car crash. I don't survive, burned to a crisp."
He was silent for a long time. Pink tinged tears slipped silently down her cheeks as she added her Wonder Woman tee to the suitcase. "I can't live without you," he swore.
"Sheldon," she sighed brokenly.
A heartbeat later he was wrapping his arms around her from behind. His face was buried in her hair. "I love you," he whispered. "How can you expect me to just move on?"
Penny gasped with pain and spun in his arms. She clung to him tightly. "I can't stay," she cried. "We both know I can't, Sheldon! Please, this is hard enough as it is!"
Sheldon captured her lips and poured all his love and need into her. Penny moaned and melted against him. He picked her up and laid her across the bed. Every touch and kiss was desperate, almost rough. They clawed off each other's clothing and crashed together in tormented passion. They both knew they were leaving marks with their teeth and fingernails, but they couldn't stop themselves. Every moment was filled with the pleasure of each other's love and pain of their inevitable separation.
"Don't leave me," he begged against her skin.
"How can I stay?" she whispered tearfully in his ear.
Leonard walked into the bedroom and silently handed Missy another roll of packing tape. She gave him a tiny smile, almost obliterated by her tears. "Thank you," she whispered.
Leonard nodded and walked over to the bookshelf to continue packing the action figures in bubble wrap. "Have you decided what to do with the rest of these things?" he asked to break the silence.
Missy nodded. "You guys picked out some things you wanted to keep. Some of it my son wants. The toys and comics I'm giving to the Children's Hospital. The clothes are going to Goodwill. The rest I'm taking home."
Leonard sighed and stared at the trophy for best group costume from Stuart's Halloween party so many years ago. "I can't believe they're gone," he mumbled. "They were just going to visit Penny's sister. Just a quick weekend trip. I should have convinced them to wait. Sheldon had just spent two days in bed, sick with that bug he caught. I'd never seen him so pale and weak. I should have made them wait."
Missy shook her head. "You and I both know Sheldon did whatever he wanted to do. He wasn't about to let Penny go on that trip without him."
Leonard smiled vaguely. "Yeah. He never did like spending time away from her. It was like they weren't whole unless they were together."
Missy nodded and taped the box shut. She wiped away her tears and stood up. "At least they're still together," she said softly. "In all honesty, I don't think either one of them could live without the other."
Leonard nodded after a moment. Missy was right, he thought. For almost ten years together, they had been inseparable. Now they would be together for eternity. Somehow, that made losing them a tiny bit easier.
