New chapter! I'm cutting this so close with the every other day thing, but I'll keep doing it as long as I can. : ) This one is a little longer than the last one, going back to focus more on the A plot. But the other plots will receive love as well; this is primarily a Leonard/Penny story but everyone will get their moments to shine, both with Leonard/Penny and away from them.

Less than three days until the 100th episode! One passing remark in this fic is a prediction of mine from the 100th, if it sounds familiar to you, please don't comment in the review details about the 100th episode, I know very little and would like to keep it that way. : )

And I still own nothing. Very sad, these disclaimers.

It was three days before Leonard actually got Penny a ring. He hadn't thought that much about marriage, as crazy as it would sound should he admit that to any members of the gang. He loved where they were and where they had been, and even though he didn't doubt how she felt about him he always thought they'd date for a while longer before he would even think about proposing.. Now that they did actually get engaged, however – at least…at least sort of – he didn't want to make her wait. He wanted her to have something to wear on her finger, both for her happiness and his own – that ring would show that, even when he wasn't with her, she belonged to somebody. Leonard briefly wondered if, should his thoughts be recorded, people would be angry with him for that sort of thinking. No matter how old fashioned Sheldon called him, what with his desire for a family, he wasn't so stuck in the old days that he actually thought women should be owned by the men at their sides; at the same time he did really like thinking of Penny as his. If some people had a problem with that, well, quite frankly, it didn't matter to him. Penny didn't mind; she'd flat out told people she was his before. And she was all that mattered.

He'd asked the other girls for advice on what to buy, but Amy had admitted that she'd be useless in this particular endeavor. "I like the extravert," she said, motioning to the tiara on top of her head that she wore on Date Night. "And Penny and Sheldon's comments upon my receiving this shows that she is not as glamour searching as I am." Bernadette, who'd jumped forward to give Leonard a huge hug when he told her, promised to keep quiet about the ring. Leonard had laughed. "She already knows we're engaged," he said, "she can probably figure out that she's getting a ring. I'm surprised that she didn't tell you about it already."

"She mentioned it over the phone," Bernadette had admitted flat out, "but she used to call me drunk when you two were broken up and…"

Leonard had waited a moment, and when Bernadette didn't say anything he'd asked, "what?"

The microbiology student had looked uncomfortable. "She used to call me in the middle of the night, really, really drunk, and she'd tell stories. Stories about you two being together, and in a few of them you guys got engaged."

"She was…said…what?" Leonard was so confused. "Why would she do that?"

Bernadette had shrugged. "Have you ever seen that show where they get historians drunk and have them talk about history? They make a story about it, adding in their own details. It's like Story Time, based on a true story but with their own spin. That's kinda what she was doing, although she's told me since you guys got back together that she used to imagine marrying you. So I didn't want to get too excited about this on the off chance that it was something like that."

"I see," Leonard had said. "Well, this time it's as true as the cosmological constant." Which wasn't even guaranteed true anymore; the experiments at the Large Hadron Collider could any day prove that all of physics was not what everyone thought. He wished he could have had that information back in the first weeks he knew Penny so he'd have had a better answer to "so, what's new in the world of physics?" Of course, that might have turned her off, but hey, she asked, and pretty much anything was better than "nothing..."

Bernadette nodded in response to his comment, not bothering to voice what he was sure were thoughts similar to his own, physics enthusiast that she was. "Good!"

So Bernadette had gone with him that following Sunday, and now he had the ring in a box in his pocket that was just small enough to make him constantly aware that the ring was there, and was busying himself wondering exactly how he should go about transferring the jewelry from himself to his...well, fiance. Huh. It was sure going to take him a while to get used to that word. But anyway...

He for sure wasn't going up to Penny, handing the box to her, and saying "here", but…they were already engaged, he didn't need to make a big deal out of it. Or did he?

He was at the counter in his kitchen, just standing there and thinking. He'd already shredded the paper on the water bottle he'd been holding for the past half an hour, and now he was busy scraping the glue off of the plastic part and actually trying to be neat about it just to expend more nervous energy. Busy work was all it was, and now that he thought about it, it was completely pointless busy work. You couldn't get that water bottle completely cleaned, and even if you should manage it, who cared?

He jumped when the door to his apartment opened without a warning knock. Thankfully it was Penny - one of the only ones to enter without knocking, which would have been an indication if such little time hadn't passed between the door opening and his ability to perceive the visitor - had it been anyone else Leonard would have grown more anxious. He wasn't sure why he was nervous; they were already engaged, and she wasn't going to reject the ring or just thank him. But he was nervous anyway. It was just how he rolled in the shire, unfortunately.

"Hey sweetie," she said affectionately, dropping her purse on the right end of the couch and coming over to him, holding a paper bag. "I got you something today."

"Oh yeah?" He asked as she slid both of her arms around his right one. "What would that be?"

She grinned. "I was walking home from work and I happened by this street vendor who was selling…" She let go of him with the arm that was holding the bag and set it carefully on the counter. Reaching in, she drew out "Star Wars mugs. I got you Darth Vader!"

"Oh, my God!" Leonard exclaimed, taking ahold of the mug by the handle. "That is so great!"

"Hmmm."

Leonard smiled. Penny always made that sound through her lips when she was happy. "As a matter of fact," he said, putting the mug down so Darth Vader was facing him, "I got something for you, too," he said.

"Oh yeah?" Penny said curiously. "What is it?"

"Just a little something," Leonard said, facing her. "For the greatest, kindest, most beautful woman I've ever known."

Her face melted into the most wonderful expression. "Aw," she said, reaching out to take both of his hands. "You're so sweet."

"Although we didn't go about it in the most romantic way possible," Leonard said, "a few days ago we made a big decision. A decision that couldn't have made me any happier." He let go of one of her hands and slid his own to her jawline. "And I have a way that you can show it to the world." He brought his hand down to his pocket and pulled out the box. "Will you agree to becoming officially engaged?"

She grinned at his word choice. "Of course, honey," she said, almost playfully. She took the box from him before he could open it and cracked it open herself. The next instant she was on the floor, sitting up but leaning against the counter, her legs off to one side, and sobbing.

"Penny," Leonard said, dropping on his knees. He had a feeling that they were happy tears, but he wasn't totally sure. He'd never seen someone…fall…in happiness before.

"I knew you were going to get it eventually," she choked, "but just seeing it…it makes it so much more real." With shaking hands, she took the ring out of the box and held it to her finger before handing the band back to Leonard. "You do it."

Leonard took her hand in one of his and used the other to slide the ring onto her finger. She raised her other hand to her eyes to dry them – or attempt to, anyway – while they gazed down at her left hand, destined to never be bare again. Then she looked over at Leonard, who was now sitting next to her, his right arm around her shoulders as he too, looked at her hand. When he felt her eyes on him, he lifted them to her face. "This is us," she said, holding it up and looking at him lovingly. "We look good on my hand."

"Yes, we do," Leonard said, kissing the top of her hand. She smiled, shaking her head from side to side slowly. "You came along and…I didn't know how you were going to affect my life." She didn't know why she felt the need to give a little speech; it wasn't the woman's job, but the words kept on coming and she never really cared about doing what society wanted in terms of gender; Hell, she told people she belonged to Leonard and some would have her head for that line of thought. But she didn't care; he was all that mattered and dammit, she'd say that if she wanted to, she'd love it if she wanted to, and she'd give a speech if she wanted to.

She always liked doing what would make some people angry, anyway. Hell, they'd made out in Sheldon's spot more times than they could count, and she hadn't done it yet, but was bound and determined to beat Bernadette at limbo.

But that wasn't important now; she almost felt bad for the tangent on her line of thought. Leonard didn't seem to notice, so she continued speaking without offering an explanation for her brief pause. "You've fixed me, Leonard. You gave me courage to open the box again. I love you," she finished, her voice cracking again on the final words.

He smiled at her. "I love you, too." They leaned toward each other, but instead of kissing they just rubbed their noses against the other, looking in each other's eyes. Then she shifted her position ever so slightly so she could kiss him, put her arms around his neck and moved closer. "Penny?" He said quietly after a few more moments.

"Yeah?" she asked him, drawing her face away ever so slightly.

"Sheldon would kill me if we did it outside of a bedroom, so…"

She cocked her head. "What makes you think I was initiating?"

"Well," Leonard said, "I just put that ring on your finger, and you're a big ol' five."

Penny shook her head slightly, laughing. "You have a point, Leonard Hofstadter." She jumped up and grabbed his hand. "You sure you don't want to consummate the engagement in his spot?"

Leonard motioned with his head, and Penny turned to see a complex figure balanced precariously on the left end of the couch. "I think Amy tipped him off that I was going to do this and he wanted to make sure that didn't happen."

"That clever little…" Penny trailed off when Leonard raised his eyebrows. "Never mind." She grinned and began backing toward the hallway, pulling him with her. "I hear we – are – going – to – get – married sex is pretty damn good."

A reviewer had asked me if they were going to get officially engaged – and my answer was yes, and there it is! I am undecided on whether or not I will write the wedding; that's not what this fic is about but I may make it an epilogue type fic like I did for The Third Party Accumulation. But we'll see.

Remember, I love reviews! (Especially, you know, ones that are more than like three words? :D )