A/N: Another predictable chapter, but this story is coming to an end! Read and review...you know, the usual routine. :)
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~Yes~
Yes. It's a simple word, really.
Sheldon asked Penny to join him on a date to the most classiest restaurant she had never been in. He's asked her to give up her plans for one night, or rather her lack thereof, to plan to be with him. Sheldon wants it, with startling need. He cannot stand the thought of Penny just...being his girlfriend. After everything. After they've finally come to know each other in and out. So he does the hard thing, and asks Penny to marry him.
Sheldon feels good about it, as terrifying as it is; he thinks they've been waiting all this time for him to build up the courage to ask, to admit, that he wants her forever. But now he's sitting there, with the proposal hanging between them, and Penny looking utterly torn. Panicked. As though she never expected to hear such a thing, and therefore is entirely overwhelmed and unprepared.
Penny can see that the question is hard for him to ask, even though somehow, she knows Sheldon wants to ask it.
"Do you love me, Penny?" Sheldon asks, knowing she does. "Do you want to be with me?" Doubt is starting to get the better of him at her deafening silence.
Penny's panicked eyes dart to his, as if startled by the question. And Sheldon is certain there is going to be a "yes, but" and then a very rapid disappearance.
But Penny surprises him. Her face goes smooth and resolved, her eyes glint, and she smiles at Sheldon as if she hasn't realized until right now how easy the truth truly is. How simple the equation has become. How easy it is to just say it, the one word, and seal the deal.
"Yes. Yes, Sheldon, I love you."
Sheldon closes his eyes as a sigh of relief escapes his lips.
"And yes...I will marry you." Penny continued, a single happy tear falling from her eye as she smiles widely at the man across from her who is now her intended husband to be.