Let me start with a big Merry Christmas and a Happy Holidays to all who happen to read today's chapter. Festivities have ended at my house and its time to get another chapter out there! Today marks the second half of the Halloween party, so I hope you all enjoy! Thanks to all who read!

Chapter 20: Party Time

October 31st 2012

The site of the cafeteria took the breath away from the seven friends as they entered the double doors. The entire scene was like nothing they had expected. The once normal, white walled cafeteria that was usually decorated with little else besides dozens of round tables had been completely transformed.

It seemed like something out of the movies, music was playing, orange and black streamers coated the walls along side silhouettes of ghosts, skeletons, and jack o' lanterns. There were classic Halloween games like bobbing for apples and ring toss scattered around the sides, a dance floor that took up about a third of the room and a buffet set against the opposite wall full of goodies.

As the gang looked around they noticed just how many people had showed up. It seemed like every patient at the center had brought five people. It was hard to differentiate between who was staying there and was there for the party but they supposed that was the point.

They had barely gotten inside when they were approached by a female witch who Leonard recognized as one of the staff at the center.

"Hey Sandy," he said wheeling himself in front of the group, "the place looks great."

"Thanks Leonard," she responded smiling at the group, "the X-men, very nice choice, we didn't actually see to many group costumes this year."

Sheldon spoke up then, "why would there not be many group costumes?" he asked questioningly, "a group costume statistically tends to increase ones chance of winning a costume party due to the number of possible variables between costumes and variety."

Sandy looked at him taken slightly aback by his up front attitude, "umm, the costume contest winner here is usually just one person, we try to help keep our patients spirits higher with events like this. Its not about winning its about getting everyone's mind off the troubles they are experiencing at the moment."

"Well that seems highly un-" Sheldon started but Penny pinched the back of his arm, "that sounds great, you guys did an amazing job," she said stepping in front of Sheldon. "Come on guys lets partay!" she exclaimed taking a hold of Leonard's wheelchair and pushing him into the room.

"Have fun," Sandy said before walking away to rejoin the party.

"What should we do first," Bernadette asked as they made their way into the middle of the large room. The flashing lights and music from the dance floor were splashing across the entirety add a fun mix of color across the entirety of the room.

"How bout we get a table and put some stuff down," suggested Penny moving towards the side with the buffet and tables. "Good plan," said Howard who quickly stepped in behind her followed by the rest of the group.

They found a table in a corner that was far enough from the music for them to talk each other comfortably and the girls set down their bags and coats while the guys deposited what few belongings they had on their person.

Raj sat down and removed his silver mask for a moment and reached into a fold in his large colossus suit. He withdrew another silver object and moved to unscrew it.

"Raj what the hell?" Bernadette exclaimed as she caught sight of him. Raj finished unscrewing his flask and took a long draw from it. "Hey I'm not gonna sit here in silence all night," he took another swig and through his mask back on, "woo, lets get this party started." He jumped up and moved to the in the direction of the dance floor. "Well I better go keep an eye on him," Howard said moving quickly to keep up with the light weight Indian.

"Well I guess that leaves time for some ladies fun," Amy practically yelled jumping up, "come on girls I wanna try and bite an apple!"

Penny and Bernadette looked at each other skeptically as she took off across the floor. Penny leaned down to give Leonard a quick kiss, "come save me later?" Leonard laughed slightly, "of course, Lady Ororo." She just gave him a quizzical look. "Oh come on," he laughed out loud this time, "Storm's real name?"

Penny continued to stare, "hey all I was supposed to research was appearance not back story," she laughed. "Fair enough," Leonard responded kissing her again before she got up to follow Bernadette and Amy who was barely visible anymore.

"Well looks like its just us for now huh Wolverine?" Leonard asked behind him giggling. He still couldn't get used to Sheldon playing the bad ass and often short tempered hero from the marvel universe.

"I suppose," Sheldon responded not catching Leonard's amusement, "shall we see what entertainment we may find in the land of mediocrity."

So off they went, Professor X and his companion Wolverine as they began to wander the party taking in the sights, games, and costumes. Leonard was impressed with it all. Many of the patients had found clever ways to incorporate that which ails them into their costumes.

There were a pair of leg amputees talking together, one was a pirate with a peg leg the other only had one leg but was wearing an IHOP uniform. That made Leonard laugh, some people managed to find humor in any situation.

The pair continued to wander just enjoying the atmosphere when they found themselves near a small Halloween trivia table. They stopped and decided to watch for a minute. There were three participants at the table and one staff member reading questions.

"Halloween is also known as what?" the staff member asked.

"All hallows eve," Sheldon said to Leonard.

There was a pause then the middle contestant said, "all hallows eve?"

"Correct, next question, the word Halloween comes from old English dating back to what century?"

Again Sheldon leaned in to Leonard, "sixteenth," he said.

This time none of the participants were able to answer, "sixteenth," said the staff member in charge.

"This is ridiculous," Sheldon said as he turned and walked away, not even bothering to stop for Leonard, who was forced to apologize for his Sheldon's outburst when all four members of the table looked in their direction.

When Leonard finally caught up with him, he found Sheldon in a heated argument with a teenager who had come dressed as the flash but apparently had several flaws in his costume.

Leonard just shook his head as he turned in the other direction hoping to find Penny. After several minutes of searching he found all three girls out dancing together on the floor. He noticed Amy's face and hair dripping wet and had to laugh imagining her face down in an apple bucket.

He got an idea then and used his remote to wheel himself up to the group purposely behind Penny. Bernadette noticed him but he put a finger to his lips motioning for her to keep quiet. She smiled as Leonard rolled up and bumped into the back of Penny's legs.

She squealed slightly as she started to fall but topped as she quickly ended up in Leonard's lap. He smiled at her as she turned towards him, "care for a dance?" he asked. Penny laughed, "feeling light on our feet are we Hofstadter?" He kissed her in response and started moving his wheelchair back and forth ever so slightly.

They stayed like that for several wonderful moments, her in his lap, head on his shoulder, just gently listing back and forth as the wheel chair made its movements.

Three songs had gone by before they had even realized it. "Hey, wanna go see if we can find everyone?" Penny asked. Leonard nuzzled his face in her hair, "I could stay here all night," he said, "but I guess that makes sense." He laughed as he turned the chair towards the rest of the room.

He started wheeling them both, Penny still in his lap, towards the more crowded parts of the room. Something caught her eye and she told him to stop. She jumped from his lap and headed towards a table in a darker corner of the room, Leonard close behind.

He realized what table she was headed for and his heart sank slightly, he had seen the table earlier and purposely avoided it. It was a divination table.

"Penny," he said slightly exasperated, when he caught up to her at the table. "Leonard don't," she warned remembering their last talk about psychics years ago, "I want to do this."

Leonard had learned much since that day, and he knew when to back up, he held his hands up in front of him, "okay, okay, be my guest."

She approached the table and the gowned gypsy woman behind it. "Are you a psychic?" she asked cautiously. The woman smiled at her, "not exactly, there are many who refute the term psychic and what it stands for," she paused as Penny turned her eyes on Leonard briefly. "I am merely here to pass on an old Scottish tradition of divination that has been practiced for centuries.

Penny smiled, "Ooo, I wanna try, hows it work?" The old woman smiled back, "it's simple really, all you do is take an apple-" she seemed to produce one from no where, "and a peeler-" like wise appearing with a wave of her hand, "then you simply peel one strip from the apple until it breaks off on its own."

"That's it?" Penny asked. "Lets just start their the woman responded. Leonard rolled his eyes slightly behind Penny's back as she picked up the apple and peeler. She touched the peeler to the skin and started spinning the apple through it.

"There we go... oops," Penny said as she got her strip of apple peel, "is it okay if it tore a little bit?"

"Perfectly fine," the woman said, "every little variable is what makes these unique to their peeler, now face the opposite way and toss your peel over your shoulder and onto the table and it is said it will land in the shape of the letter of your future spouse."

Leonard snorted quietly at this but managed to hide it under a coughing fit as Penny turned towards him. She gave him a slightly terrifying wolfish grin as she tossed her peel high into the air.

Both her and Leonard craned their necks then to see what had happened.

There on the table was the peel, it was bent perfectly right in the spot where Penny had accidentally ripped it at a 90 degree angle with just a small piece of skin holding it together.

A 90 degree angle that formed a perfect "L."

So I think this is all I'm going to do for the party. This is supposed to be an L/P fic so I'm keeping many of the characters to smaller roles as I'm sure we've noticed. I might go back and do a one shot though fully detailing the party and each of the characters little adventures while here I just need to think of some first lol feel free to offer ideas or take the idea and run with it! :)

Also the divination bit at the end I added after doing some Halloween research and learned that this was in fact a real tradition. Thought it would be fun since Leonard is usually so anti psychic stuff :) Hope you enjoyed and thanks to all who are reading!