Two updates in one night! Wow, I really am getting back into the swing of it.


A couple of weeks later, Leonard stood in the dark outside the apartment building, waiting for Penny to get out of her car so he could escort her inside. The temperature outside had dropped dramatically, and Leonard couldn't keep himself from shuffling around a little bit, trying to keep warm. Once Penny locked up, she smiled and made her way to Leonard. "You know, I don't think the guy would be stupid enough to come here."

"Not taking any chances," Leonard responded, relieving her of her duffel bag of clothes. "Dear God, I had no idea they made you wear so many different outfits."

"They don't. I just like to keep a fresh look." She smiled brightly at Leonard and walked through the door he had just opened for her. They began making their way up the winding staircase.

"So, how was work?" Leonard asked her, adjusting the strap of the duffel bag on his shoulder.

"Strenuous," she replied, giving him an exasperated look. "We've moved on to boot camp scenes and it's not easy. It's like a real boot camp."

He could tell she was tired, but he knew she was accepting the difficulties with grace. It was her dream to be an actress, and she knew what it entailed. The inconvenience of a good work out every day was minor in comparison to her actually living her dream.

"Well, Howard and Raj will be back any moment with our Chinese food. You're still coming over, right? You're not too tired, are you?" he asked her nervously, pitching a glance in her direction.

She gave him a small smile. "I think I can manage a bite to eat. Besides, I haven't seen the girls in forever."

It was true. She hated it, but she hadn't been able to spend girl time with Amy and Bernadette in weeks. Her work schedule clashed with theirs terribly, and the most she could manage was sending them texts every now and then.

When she and Leonard finally reached the landing, he held up her bag and asked her, "Would you like for me to set this inside your apartment?"

"Sure. And after dinner, there's something in that bag I need to show you, okay?" She blushed a little, unlocking her door and allowing him to set the bag inside. She closed it and locked it once more.

"Okay, but George Lucas' dead body better not be in there. You have no idea how upset Sheldon would be," he chuckled.

"Yeah, like you wouldn't be upset," she poked, waiting for him to open his apartment door.

"I might would go into mourning... For a little while... Like... Maybe a month." He grinned back at her, opening the door and letting her go in first.

"On the contrary, Leonard" came Sheldon's voice as Leonard shut the door behind him. He turned to face Sheldon sitting in his usual spot, with Amy next to him and Bernadette beside her. "If Penny were in possession of George Lucas' lifeless body, I would be much more excited than upset." Leonard gave him a puzzled look, which Sheldon accurately interpreted and explained. "Having George Lucas' lifeless body means I would have plenty of DNA to choose from to clone him like I plan on doing with Leonard Nimoy. In fact, I might be inclined to design a hybrid between the two. The possibilities could be endless! Penny!" Sheldon addressed the girl now sitting in Leonard's chair as Leonard drew up a stool. "Are you in possession of George Lucas' body?"

"What? Sheldon, no!" she exclaimed, looking at Leonard for help.

"Sheldon, you need to keep your Vulcan hearing to yourself. It was just a joke." Leonard rolled his eyes.

"Well," Amy chimed in, directing her speech to Penny. "If you did have his dead body, and you needed a good friend to have a look at his brain, I'd be more than happy – "

" – There is no dead body!" Penny reiterated. "George Lucas is happy, healthy and living. Dear Lord, I should have never opened my mouth."

"Food's here!" Howard announced as he and Raj came through the door laden with bags.

Bernadette stood and kissed Howard on the cheek before settling back into her spot. In her sweet voice, she said, "So, you missed an interesting topic about George Lucas' dead body."

"George Lucas is dead?!" Raj exclaimed.

"Oh my God, Raj! You spoke in front of us without being three sheets to the wind!" Penny laughed, but was still surprised.

"Oh, he may have had a cup or two of sake while we waited on our food," Howard explained as he unloaded the bags onto the table.

"It wasn't my fault," said Raj, pulling up a computer chair. "That Geisha lady seemed so nice, it would have been rude to tell her no."

"Raj, that wasn't a Geisha. That was an old Mexican lady wearing a bathrobe."

"Didn't mean she wasn't nice," Raj mumbled dejectedly.

"So, Penny," Amy decided to change the subject. "How was work?"

"Eh," Penny replied, piling food onto her plate. "Like I told Leonard, we've been doing boot camp scenes so I'm pretty tired."

"I bet you've been having a lot of fun, though," Bernadette added, sipping her glass of wine.

"Yeah," Amy said as she settled back with her plate. "I bet with all those boot camp scenes you get to see a lot of really hot guys."

"Ugh," Penny groaned, rolling her eyes. "Please. I've already said that actors are off limits. They're too melodramatic. They all act like they're hot shit in a champagne glass, but in all reality, they're nothing more than cold diarrhea in a Dixie cup."

"What about the guy who's going to play the lead male role? Who is he?" Howard asked in a sleazy tone.

"I told you, already. Neil Patrick Harris. And you should know he's no kind of option," Penny added hurriedly, glancing at Leonard. "He's notoriously gay, despite his womanizing roles on TV. He's even got a husband and kids."

Before Sheldon could ask, Leonard cut him off. "Adoption."

Penny nodded her head as she shoved an egg roll into her mouth.

"So," said Raj. "George Lucas is dead?"

A few hours later, Penny and Leonard made their way to Penny's apartment. "So what did you want to show me?" Leonard asked, pouring a glass of wine for the both of them.

Penny grabbed her duffel bag and dumped the contents in the middle of the living room floor. Leonard winced slightly at her messy display, but it didn't bother him near as much as it used to. For the weeks he was in her apartment every day while she was recovering, he had taken to deep cleaning it, simply out of boredom. Ever since, she seemed to make a little more conscious effort in keeping her apartment at least short of a pig sty.

"This!" she said happily, holding up an outfit. It was a standard military uniform, which he failed to understand the excitement over.

"Hang on, I'll model it for you!" she said excitedly, running into her bedroom and shutting the door. Leonard set both of their glasses on the coffee table and turned the TV on. A few minutes later, Penny reemerged, fully uniformed.

Leonard was honestly speechless. The uniform was obviously custom made, because it hugged her figure to where he would see every curve of her body. He had always been attracted to a woman in uniform, and seeing Penny in one was almost painful.

"Well?" she asked, waiting for a response.

Leonard nearly choked trying to speak. "Um... You... Wow... They want you to... wear that? On TV?"

Penny gave him a perplexed look. "Um, yeah. That's what actors do. We wear clothes on TV."

"But... Er..." Leonard wasn't sure how to continue. He couldn't tell her that she was going to drive every man that watched the show insane with lust. She was the epitome of sexy in that uniform, and his jeans grew uncomfortably tight just looking at her.

"Do you like it?" she asked, turning and giving him a good view of her backside. He started reciting elements in his head to stave off his urges.

When she turned to look at him expectantly, his mouth felt so dry that he could only nod and try clearing his throat.

"What's the matter, Leonard? Cat got your tongue?" she giggled at him, leaning over the couch and poking him in the stomach. She had forgotten that he had been working out, and was caught off guard by the firmness of his abdomen. She jerked her hand away and stepped back nervously. She didn't miss the heated look in Leonard's eyes, which made her stomach do a flip-flop. "Um... I'm gonna go... change."

"Yeah," he replied in a squeaky voice. Clearing his throat once more, he said," That might be a good idea. You don't want to... Uh, ruin your uniform."

Leonard took the time she was gone to calm himself down by flipping through the channels. He was embarrassed that he was acting like a thirteen year old boy when he had already seen her naked. Focusing on finding something to watch, he settled for Tosh.0, which was gross enough to keep his mind off of anything sexual.

When Penny reemerged in her sweats, she settled next to Leonard and grabbed her glass of wine, holding it out to Leonard in a toast. He picked up his glass and clinked them together, careful to avoid eye contact. Both taking a generous drink from their glasses, they settled back onto the couch.

"So, how is your job going?" she asked, taking an extra sip.

"Oh, it's going good," he said enthusiastically. Work was a very safe topic. "We're kind of at a standstill at the moment until the next grant comes through, so mainly I just placed with the laser."

"You're not melting action figures again, are you?" she asked.

"No. I've moved on to pictures of people's faces that I don't like. It passes time." He gave a halfhearted laugh. "The grant should come through next week, so it's not so bad."

"Well, that's good. So, guess what," she said excitedly, turning to him.

"What?"

"Well, Mr. Lucas announced today that our pilot was reviewed, and they loved it!" she squealed excitedly. "That means that our pilot will be airing next month!"

"Oh my God, Penny. That's amazing! You're going to be a real TV star!" Leonard hugged her tightly, which she did not reject. She loved the feel of his new muscles, and she could tell the definite improvement of his strength. Pulling back, he asked, "But why didn't you say so back in my apartment?"

"Because..." she said, smiling. "I wanted you to be the first to know."

"Why? I wasn't the only one who helped you train for the part..."

"Yeah, but I don't think I would have been well enough to audition for it if it weren't for you. If you hadn't been there to help me after the attack... Well, I wouldn't have been able to do it. I'm sure of it." She tried not to let her voice shake too badly talking on the subject.

Leonard didn't know what to say to that, so he emptied his glass and set it on the coffee table. "Um... How are you... Are you... Doing okay? By the way? I know I haven't really asked how you feel about everything going on, but I kind of figured. I just want to make sure it's nothing you can't handle."

Penny contemplated what he was asking. She hadn't really thought about it much. If fact, she had been trying not to think about it, but when she did, she didn't feel near as bad as she used to. Leonard had helped her so much, and proved to her that she wasn't broken. She may still be damaged, but it was really only a few dents and dings. "I'm doing much better. I'll be a lot more relaxed once Donovan and his possible employer are behind bars. I feel pretty safe here at home, especially when you're here. But it may be the electrified net Howard set up." She ended her sentence with a little distaste. Howard and Sheldon had insisted it was her best security bet, and when she tried to argue them down and look to Leonard for help, he kept his mouth shut, but only because he kind of liked the idea, too. "And at work there's always a security guard standing right next to the door, which is where my parking spot happens to be – right next to George Lucas." She waggled her eyebrows, obviously rubbing it in his face.

"Ha ha, okay. I get it. You can quit rubbing in this George Lucas thing. I'm already jealous, what more do you want?" he grumbled.

Penny laughed and hugged him. "But seriously, I have felt better these past couple of weeks than I have since all of this mess started. And I have you to thank for that." With no other pretense, she downed the rest of her glass and grabbed the front of Leonard's collar, drawing him to her and kissing him.

R&R