Guess what? A regular update! And by the way guys, there's going to be two or three days, possibly a week in-between updates. I have another story (check out my story Divinity if you're a Harry Potter Hermione/Snape fan) that I also try and update, so I switch back and forth. I write a chapter for this story, upload it, write a chapter for that one, upload it. I gotta be fair to all my fans. Enjoy!


"George Lucas? The George Lucas? Like, Star Wars George Lucas?" Sheldon exclaimed as he jumped from his seat.

Penny grinned. "The one and only."

"Penny, that's amazing!" Leonard said, a look of complete surprise on his face. "You get to work under one of our biggest idols. You do know how much of a big deal this is to us – "

"Big deal?" Sheldon cut in. "Big deal? It's more than a big deal! It means that I can finally meet George Lucas and share my ideas with him! I might can even help him with this TV series – "

"Whoa, whoa, hold your horses, dude," Penny said, standing up. "I don't want to pester the man after I just met him. He can take me off the show just as easily as he put me on."

"I don't follow," Sheldon said simply, looking confused.

Leonard decided to help. "It means that she wants to get the man to like her and know her more before she starts bringing her horde of psychotic nerds to annoy him."

Sheldon gave Leonard a blank look. "I still don't follow."

With an exasperated sigh, Penny sat back down. "And you never will, Sheldon. Just, give me some time before forcing me to introduce you."

"Well, I don't know why, but I guess I have no choice." Sheldon pouted, sitting back down in his spot.

Amy leaned over and whispered loudly to Sheldon,"Don't worry. I have the utmost confidence that Penny will understand and let you meet him. She's right, though. You're so brilliant, he might want some time to prepare beforehand."

Sheldon took this as comfort and finally moved on.

"So, Penny," Bernadette addressed the taller blonde. "What is he like?"

"Obnoxious, control freak, total nerd..." said Penny, listing off qualities.

"Is he really that bad?" Bernadette asked.

"Of course not!" Sheldon cut in. "How could a legend such as George Lucas ever be obnoxious?"

Penny looked at Sheldon. "Oh, I thought she was asking about you."

An hour later, Penny made her way back to her apartment, ready to get into some comfy clothes and have a large glass of wine. After showering and dressing, she made her way into the kitchen to retrieve her wine and settled onto the couch. She flipped through the channels for about thirty minutes before she heard a knock on her door.

Grabbing her baseball bat from under the couch, she slowly approached the door and said aloud, "Who is it?"

"It's just me," came Leonard's voice from the other side of the door.

Relieved, Penny propped the baseball bat against the wall and opened the door. Leonard was standing there with her cell phone in his hand. "You left this on the couch."

"Oh, thanks." Penny was slightly disappointed that that was the reason he came over. "Say, I'm having a glass of wine. Care to join me?"

Leonard looked at the clock on his phone, making sure he didn't look too desperate. "Sure, I've got some time. But only one."

He followed her into her apartment, shutting and locking the door behind him. Penny made her way into the kitchen and poured a glass for him, setting it in front of him on the coffee table. "I was just about to find a movie to watch. Any preferences?"

"As long as it doesn't involve crying I think I can handle anything. Though, I'd prefer something with a little action," Leonard said as he sipped from his glass and relaxed back on the couch. Penny flipped through her movies and found Underworld: Evolution, which she hadn't seen in ages.

"Here we go. Plenty of action and blood and stuff." She put it in the DVD player and sat on the couch, almost on top of Leonard. He adjusted himself out from under her and turned his attention to the movie. Her closeness did not go unnoticed by him, and the warmth of her body on his was enough to make him want to totally forget about the movie. She curled up to him and watched the movie intently, but Leonard couldn't seem to focus at all. He felt Penny's body pressed against his side, and she smelled of her green apple shampoo, which he couldn't get enough of. Stopping himself before he buried his nose in her hair, he returned his attention to the movie.

About halfway through, they watched as Selene and Michael fought to find cover before the sun rose. Things took a turn for the sexy, and Penny found herself biting her lip and casting quick glances at Leonard. His breathing was a little harsher than usual, and she was sure she saw him glance at her out of the corner of his. She glanced at him one last time and caught him staring at her.

"Leonard?"

He bent his head down and leaned into her. Without thinking, she leaned up to him as he captured her lips with his. She panicked slightly before his lips began to move against hers as one of his hands snaked behind her head to draw her in closer. She moaned quietly as her lips responded to his, and tentatively wrapped her arms around his waist, gripping his back. She was surprised to find definition and muscle ingrained, and experimented by moving one hand to grip his arm, finding a bicep she didn't know about. Pulling back breathlessly and looking at him, she gave his bicep a squeeze.

"Biceps?"

Leonard broke eye contact and looked around sheepishly. "Yeah..."

"Working out? Or are you a closet jock posing as a nerd?" She poked at his abdomen, which, surprise surprise, was firm and possibly on its way to being a six-pack.

Leonard knew she wouldn't leave it alone. "I may go to the gym every once in a while."

Penny gave him an unconvinced look. "Once in a while?"

"Or possibly three times a week."

She gave him a surprised look. "Since when?"

He looked at her worriedly, embarrassed that she might make fun of his efforts. "Since... Your attack."

Penny's eyes widened and clouded over with the fleeting memory before pushing it out of her mind. "Why?"

Leonard really didn't want to have to explain it to her. He didn't even want to have to explain it to himself. But if there was nothing else in her Nebraskan blood, it was determination. Or hard-headedness. "Because, after I saw you lying in that hospital bed, I made a vow to myself to never let anything like that happen to you again. My biggest problem with that was, even if I had been with you, I probably couldn't have stopped him. So I decided to work on getting fit and learning a few defensive moves."

"Defensive moves?"

Again, Leonard looked sheepishly around the room. "Um, yeah. Some kickboxing, a little MMA. They have all sorts of different classes for it in the gym at the university."

Penny took a long drag from her wine before asking, "Is that why you were randomly gone while I was still hurt and had Sheldon look after me?"

Leonard nodded, drinking deeply from his glass as well. As soon as he pulled his lips away from the glass, he found Penny latching herself onto him and crushing her lips against his. It startled him momentarily before quickly decided that he had no problem accepting her gratitude, especially if it came in this form. He kissed her back as he blindly set his glass on the coffee table and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her flush against him. Her arms reached around him and gripped his newly-muscled back just as her cell phone rang.

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

The speaker was a very obviously disappointed Penny, who grabbed her phone off the table and looked at the caller.

"It's Officer Hodgkins." She quickly answered it. "Hello?"

There was a moment of silence as she listened. "I'm doing much better, thank you. So, any news?"

She listened intently, at which Leonard was trying to keep himself from going crazy wanting to know what was going on.

"So, he tried to use one of my cards?" Leonard motioned at Penny to get her attention and mouthed at her to turn the phone on speaker. She pressed a button and Officer Hodgkins voice filled the room.

"Yes. The ATM picked up an exact image of him, so we were able to finally identify him. We didn't manage to apprehend him, but now we have a name and face so it's only a matter of time."

"Officer Hodgkins, this is Dr. Hofstadter. Do you have any more information on the guy? Like, motive?" Leonard's brow was drawn together in concern.

"We have reason to believe that he's a hired hit man, though we can't find any solid evidence to prove it. He has a criminal record a mile long, but his offenses were never serious enough for him to spend much time on the inside. He's gone on trial a couple of times for murder, though he always managed to worm his way out. But now that we have a solid witness and a serious enough crime, we have a better chance of putting him away for a long time, maybe even for life if we can link him to any recent murder cases."

In an unstable voice, Penny asked, "What's his name?"

"Donovan Aberstan."

"Wh... Do you have any idea who hired him? I.. I mean, if he was hired at all." Penny's voice shook as she tried to remain calm.

"Unfortunately, no. We can't know anything for sure on that front until we've apprehended Aberstan. I'm sorry I can't give you much more information right now."

Leonard spoke up to save Penny the breakdown. "Do you have any idea how long it might take to apprehend him?"

There was a pause on the other end of the line, the Officer Hodgkins spoke. "We tried his home address, but we have reason to believe he was tipped off and made a run for it. That's part of the reason I called. He's a hired hit man. If he is the one who attacked Penny – " Penny couldn't suppress the involuntary shudder that ran through her. " – then that means he didn't complete his job, because she's still alive. That means she runs a great chance of running into him. We can offer Witness Protection – "

"NO!" Penny shouted, barely managing to keep her seat. She tried to sound strong, but there was a falter in her voice that told Leonard that she was scared. "I refuse to hide like a scared little kid. He caught me off guard last time, but I've got a Louisville Slugger with his name on it – "

"Penny," Leonard started, grabbing her around the waist and pulling her to him in a hug with ease. The unusually strong force that he exerted actually made her gasp as she felt his muscling chest press against her. He didn't miss the look on her face, and he couldn't help but grin a little in a slight sense of smug satisfaction.

"Thank you, Officer Hodgkins. Call us as soon as you have more information," said Leonard.

"Of course. And please make sure she's not left alone. We're going to have officers patrolling your block every half-hour. To be sure. We're going to get him. It's only a matter of time."

The line went dead and Penny hung up her phone. She was scared to the core. Before she could get a sob out, Leonard turned her to face him. "You do know that I refuse to let anything happen to you, right? I'm not leaving you alone until they catch him."

Penny wrapped her arms around him and shook as she cried. He held her and stroked her hair, thinking about his words. He meant every one of them. He refused to let anyone hurt her again. Even if she wasn't his to protect, he'd do it because he was pretty sure he loved her. He knew it was way too soon to assume that, but he wasn't quite sure what else could explain it. Hell, he had pined for her since the day she moved in across the hall, and minutes ago, which then felt like hours, she did not reject his advances. She seemed to be happy to oblige, if he were honest with himself. The only flaw in this huge fucked up plan, though, was that he wanted to get her past behind her before he tried to go much further. And to do so, it meant that Aberstan needed to be behind bars, with whoever may have hired him.