What could have been Chapter 35, a big bang theory fanfic

Wow, the last chapter really caused a shit storm of controversy ^^ Several readers didn't like it, some vocalized it (hey Guest0419, I think I invested more of myself in writing these than you of yourself in reading, so bite me :-P) but I needed something of this magnitude for a much later chapter ;)

Added side note: to the guest who reviewed thrice, telling me to hurry up and continue (I know you're the same person ^^). While I appreciate your impatience (and also increasing my review ratio), believe it or not, I do have a life. My sister is moving and getting married soon, so I have to help carry their furniture, since unfortunately I also go the gym and lift weights, so her poor brother can carry the couch.

Little heads up to the reader who mentioned my lack of keeping the timeline straight: this one is going to make your head explode :D

Also, I apologize if you notice a drop in quality of writing. I literally had to force myself to write some evenings because otherwise you wouldn't have gotten a new chapter for another month. I'm so extremely busy, it's not funny anymore :(

Still, I hope you enjoy it :)

Disclaimer: I don't own anything of the franchise. I write here only for my own pleasure and that of others who read the story and I don't make any money. Any similarities to song titles or lyrics are absolutely coincidental and unintended. Some dialog is verbatim from different episodes and are there to keep the story going.

"Yeah, I wanted to say…" he started to say but she didn't give him the opportunity to finish the sentence by throwing herself at him.

Finally! She finally felt his lips on hers again after three long months of forced separation. She felt his hands wrap around her back and shoved her tongue into his mouth, moaning into the kiss and pressing his head as hard to her as she could. She kissed him so hard that she even pressed their noses shut making it necessary to break the kiss to draw a breath which she did with a loud and satisfied sigh.

"...hello." Leonard finished

"Hi!" she squealed and kissed him again, moving backwards and dragging him into her apartment, managing to push the door close and shutting it by slamming him against it before shoving her tongue back into his mouth.

They kept kissing for minutes, the only sounds escaping being moans and sometimes a suppressed squeal when one bit into the lip of the other in their haste. At some point, Penny needed to go bigger and started pulling back.

"I missed you so much." she said and just had to kiss him again.

"I missed you, too." came his reply.

"I was worried sick when I didn't hear anything from you."

"Everything went fine. Except for one night when the heat went out." he said as he moved towards her neck, making her look at him. "It's a long story." he added, when suddenly the familiar knocking combination announced the arrival of Leonard's roommate, and of course doing it at the perfect time.

"Do not make a sound." Leonard whispered and held her still.

"Whispering do not make a sound is a sound." Sheldon said from the outside, surprising Penny that he heard that.

"Damn his Vulcan hearing." Leonard cursed. "Not a good time, Sheldon." he shouted and pushed Penny backwards, kissing her again until Sheldon knocked again but this time saying Penny's name in between knocks.

"Oh, this is ridiculous." she cursed this time and opened the door to reveal Sheldon with only slightly longer hair and a goatee. "What do you want CBS?"

"Hello, Penny." he greeted her after a few seconds of confusion over her greeting. "I realize you're currently at the mercy of your primitive biological urges, but as you have an entire lifetime of poor decisions ahead of you, may I interrupt this one?"

"It's great to see you too. Come on in." he said and made way, knowing that he wouldn't stop pestering them anyway.

"Wolowitz has informed me of your grand deception. Do you have anything to say for yourself?" Sheldon accused Leonard.

"Yes, I feel terrible about it. I will never forgive myself, I don't expect you to either, and I would really appreciate it if you would leave me with Penny for a session of self-criticism and repentance." Leonard deadpanned in response, without even taking a breath and ending with a cute pout that Penny had to work hard not to laugh at.

"Okay, can someone please tell me what's going on here?" she interrupted.

"What's going on is I was led to believe I was making groundbreaking strides in science, when in fact, I was being fed false data at the hands of Wolowitz, Koothrappali and your furry little boy toy." Sheldon explained.

"Is that true?" Penny directed to Leonard.

"It was the only way to make him happy." he replied.

"Why did you have to make him happy?" she inquired further.

"Because when he wasn't happy, we wanted to kill him." he answered. "There was even a plan. We were going to throw his Kindle outside, and when he went to get it, lock the door and let him freeze to death."

"That seems like a bit of an overreaction." Sheldon argued.

"No, the overreaction was the plan to tie your limbs to four different sled dog teams and yell mush." he shouted, making Penny grin before he sat down on her couch. "Look, we kept the original data. You can still publish the actual results."

"Yes, but the actual results are unsuccessful and I've already sent an e-mail to everyone at the university explaining that I have confirmed string theory and forever changed man's understanding of the universe."

"Aw, see, yeah, you probably shouldn't have done that. So write another e-mail, set the record straight, it's no big deal."

"You're right, Leonard, it's not a big deal. All you did was lie to me destroy my dream and humiliate me in front of the whole university." Sheldon said and turned to leave before turning around again. "That, FYI, was sarcasm. I, in fact, believe it is a big deal."

"Oh, the poor thing." Penny said, feeling terribly sorry for Sheldon at the moment.

"Yeah, I feel terrible." Leonard said with a grin and stood up again before closing in on her, intent to continue what Sheldon had interrupted.

"Wait, wait. Aren't you going to go talk to him?"

"What? Uh, he'll be fine, the guy's a trouper, come here."

"No, you're right, you shouldn't talk to him. I will." she decided and turned to leave.

"No, don't go. I haven't seen you in person for three months." he said and grabbed her around the waist, pressing her against him and starting to nuzzle her neck.

"Leonard, I love you but your roommate is in need plus you're beard is tickling me." she grinned and wriggled out of his grasp, giving him a kiss and leaving him standing in her apartment.

She walked across the hall and into the other apartment, seeing Howard and Raj standing in the living room, their facial hair as bushy as Leonard's, making her wonder why Sheldon has only grown a goatee and barely any additional head hair.

Ignoring their looks at her outfit, especially Howard's, she headed back to the bedroom area, her habit of sleeping in Leonard's bed during his absence making her able to walk that way with her eyes closed and almost entered Leonard's room by reflex before stopping herself and stepping back to Sheldon's door.

She knocked on the door and after receiving no invitation, simply opened the door and found Sheldon on his bed, her back facing her. Looking at the figure, she felt a mixture of sadness, pity and even a little rage because here was the man responsible for the three months of Leonard's absence and even worse, her somewhat infidelity, something she knew she had to tell Leonard someday, if not today or tomorrow.

"Hey. Do you want to talk?" she announced her presence.

"About what? Being betrayed by my friends? Spending three months at the North Pole for nothing? And I didn't even get to go to Comic-Con!" he replied, not even turning to her.

"Uh..." she started, not knowing how to respond to the last part. "Soft kitty, warm kitty…" she started to sing in an attempt to make him feel better but he stopped her.

"That's for when I'm sick. Sad is not sick."

"Oh. Sorry. I don't know your sad song." she told him.

"I don't have a sad song. I'm not a child." he pouted but Penny had a hard time to agree since he habitually behaved like one. "And while you're here, is your relationship with Leonard going to be a long-running thing or will you do the right thing and end it as soon as possible?"

"Why would I end it?"

"Because I need to know that my life won't be disturbed by even more of your presence and especially from distracting sounds coming from the next room."

"Leonard and I are going to have sex in his bed, get used to it." she said.

"I don't want to get used to that. Can't you agree to spend the nights in your bed?" Sheldon asked.

"Sure, why not."

"Can you leave now? I want to be alone after being betrayed."

"Well, you know, I do understand what you're going through." she said, remembering something from her past.

"Really? Did you just have the Nobel Prize in waitressing stolen from you?" he asked condescendingly.

"No, but when I was a senior in high school, one of my friends heard I was going to be named head cheerleader. Oh, I was so excited. My mom even made me a celebration pie. Then they named stupid Valerie Mossbacher head cheerleader. Big ol' slutbag." she muttered.

"Are you saying that you think a celebration pie is even remotely comparable to a Nobel Prize?" he asked incredulous. "And on a different, but not unrelated topic, based on your current efforts to buoy my spirits, do you truly believe that you were ever fit to be a cheer leader?"

"Look, Sheldon, I just don't think that the guys and Leonard really meant to hurt you." she brought the conversation back to topic. "You know? They just told an unfortunate lie to deal with a difficult situation. Okay, you know what it's like? Remember that scene in the new Star Trek movie when Kirk has to take over the ship, so he tells Spock all that stuff he knew wasn't true, like saying Spock didn't care his mom died?" she asked and after seeing his shocked face, she realized that the guys couldn't have watched the movie since it came out while they were at the North Pole.

"I missed Comic-Con and the new Star Trek movie!" Sheldon almost shouted and burst into tears, burying his face into his cushion.

After deciding not to pat him on the back, since he abhorred human contact anyway, she walked back into the living room where she found the guys still waiting and Leonard, who had joined them. She smiled at her sweetie and walked into his arms, slinging hers around his waist and turning until she stood next to him, their entire sides touching.

"I hope he feels better." she said. "He's pretty upset, especially after I kind of spoiled the new Star Trek movie."

"You watched the new Star Trek movie?" Howard asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, my friend Marie is a fan and one day her boyfriend had to work and she asked me and since I didn't have anything else to do, I went." she replied. "But seriously, Sheldon is really upset with you."

"What other choice did we have? You told me to think of another way to deal with Sheldon instead of killing him." Leonard said.

"Wait, you two were in communication? How?" Howard asked again.

"Very infrequent satellite coverage and WhatsApp." Leonard replied. "But back to Sheldon, we really were about to kill him."

"He's right." Howard added and Raj simply nodded.

"He couldn't have been that bad, couldn't he?" Penny asked and received three looks in return. "Yeah okay, my bad."

"So, how are we going to do this?" Howard asked. "It's late and I doubt Sheldon will want to talk to us tonight."

"I think we should all head to bed, since we're still jet lagged and we have to go to work tomorrow morning." Leonard replied. "Also, we need to get haircuts and shave plus, I have to get a new phone."

"Wait, you have to go to work tomorrow?" Penny asked incredulous. "You have been at the North Pole for three months without any breaks and they can't even give you Friday off?"

"First, we haven't submitted vacation requests before we left but I plan to do it tomorrow so I can have next week off but tomorrow are the concluding meetings with the NSF officials and the university president." Leonard replied.

"Will you sleep with me tonight?" Penny asked as Howard and Raj took their bags and started to head out the door.

"Sure, if you're willing to see me fall asleep as soon as I hit the mattress and get up with me at seven in the morning." he grinned and Penny could see the red in his eyes, confirming his claim to be tired.

"Good night sweetie." she said and kissed him one last time before heading out herself.

She returned to her apartment and almost skipped into her bedroom to finish finding the perfect outfit for the first evening she could have with Leonard. It needed to be sexy enough to make him want to ravish her but also cheap enough to warrant the danger of him simply ripping her clothes apart in his attempt to get her naked.

Thinking of an idea, she opened her drawer and took out the underwear she had bought in Omaha on that shopping afternoon with her sister. She took off her clothes and tried the underwear on, looking at herself in the mirror. The g-string was barely there and what fabric covered her was almost transparent, clearly marking her folds while the string in the back disappeared between her cheeks.

The bra was also barely covering her, her nipples poking out even though they weren't even hard yet and almost spilling over the cup for lack of material. Grinning, she took out her phone and snapped a few pictures of herself in various poses in that underwear before sending them to Leonard with the message attached that she would wear this if he promised her to behave.

After waiting for a reply for a few minutes, she assumed that Leonard was already asleep before she remembered that Leonard's phone had been broken for a few weeks now. Shaking her head, she put away the clothes she had tried on and took off the underwear again. As she looked at herself in her mirror, she realized that not being able to be with Leonard tonight was somewhat a positive thing since she had her salon appointment tomorrow.

As she headed into the shower, she hoped that her bikini wax tomorrow would be good again. Leonard was supposed to be home only the day after tomorrow and while she was beyond glad that he was back and healthy, she felt slightly embarrassed at the stubble on her legs and the hairs growing in her center.

After her shower, she dried off and put on her pajamas before coming back into the living room for her usual DVD before sleep. By chance, she chose the one of the third season of Friends and one of the last episode she watched was the one where Ross and Rachel broke up after 'going on a break' and him sleeping with another woman.

She shut off her TV and sighed. It reminded her too much of the night three weeks ago where her friends had used a very intimate way to comfort her after breaking down at the Cheesecake Factory. While it happened and the morning after, she had felt better but guilty, though not as much since there wasn't a guy involved. But as the days wore on, she had come to realize that she had let something horrible happen during that night because it still was cheating in a way.

She knew and had every intention of telling him but also knew that she couldn't do it right away. She needed to find the right moment and words so he would hopefully understand and not rip her heart out by leaving her. Because she wouldn't survive emotionally if he broke up with her about something stupid like this.

She was woken up in the morning by her phone buzzing with a message. Usually she wouldn't hear them coming in during sleep but she had placed it on her nightstand and not on a doily so the vibrations were pretty loud.

She took it and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, seeing the time on her phone to be a few minutes before her alarm rang anyway, and seeing the message being from Leonard. She wasted no time opening it, realizing that he must have gotten a new phone already.

Got my new phone. And the first message came from the woman I love with attached pictures that made me almost have an asthma attack :) If you wear this tonight, they will be ripped apart. You have been warned :D

She grinned at the message and quickly typed in her response.

Then maybe I won't wear any underwear at all ;)

An response was quick in coming.

O_o

She laughed and got up, going to the bathroom for her morning routine before brewing herself some coffee. As the black liquid dropped into the can, she put on some makeup and her uniform, cursing its lack of comfort when wearing it.

She poured herself a cup and quickly drank it, pouring the second and sitting down on her couch with it to eat a bear claw she had bought herself the day before. Since Leonard would be at work the entire day, she could get her shift done and then take her salon appointment to get herself all ready for the comeback night with Leonard.

She knew that he most likely wouldn't care if she had a stubble on her legs or between them but she wanted the skin smooth as if to tell him 'You can put your mouth there'. Especially since she wanted his mouth to be there again. And he had told her some time ago that he loved it that she shaved down there because it made the foreplay even greater.

Looking at the clock, she realized that she had to leave right now. She poured the almost cold coffee into the sink, wondering how long she had daydreamed, and wolfed down the remains of her bear claw before she hurried out of the apartment, locking it. As she walked down the first flight of stairs, she saw old lady Henderson, the woman living below her, unlocking her apartment door.

"Good morning, Misses Henderson." she greeted her downstairs neighbor.

"Ah, young miss Penny." came the reply. "I saw doctors Cooper and Hofstadter coming down the stairs when I left, can I assume that I should take out my hearing aid tonight?"

"Um..." Penny mumbled, not knowing how to respond to that other than to blush hard. "Maybe not just tonight." she finally got out.

"To be young again." the old woman sighed and walked into her apartment, leaving Penny standing in the hall with a red face.

Facepalming herself, she walked down the other flights and exited the building, getting into her car and driving to the Cheesecake Factory. She knew that she and Leonard weren't particularly quiet when in her bed. Quite the opposite, Leonard usually came with a very loud grunt and moan, while she herself was immensely vocal in expressing her pleasure. But she herself had never experienced someone else having loud and wild sex in an adjacent room. Her sister had quite a few men in her room during Penny's childhood but at least they had the sense to stay as quiet as possible because of their dad.

But now she also knew that she had the blessing to be loud from Misses Henderson with her taking out the hearing aid. With another grin, she drove onto the Cheesecake Factory parking lot, getting out of her car and walking into the restaurant.

"Good morning Penny." Mike greeted her.

"Hey Mike. Busy day?"

"Not so far, it's Friday but the lunch crowd isn't here yet."

"Won't stay like this for long." she said.

"True. I saw that you took another week next week, another trip?"

"No, my boyfriend is back from the North Pole." she grinned.

"Oh, okay. I don't need to know more." Mike said with closed eyes before walking away.

Penny smiled and walked to the bar to get her notebook. Not wanting to repeat a situation from two days ago, she checked if the pen was still good and walked back into the restaurant to find all of her tables empty. To pass some time, she headed towards the bar and her colleague behind it.

"Hey Steve." she greeted the man.

"Hey Penny."

"How's the husband?" she grinned.

"You know that we're not married due to this stupid prop eight shit. But he's fine, nursing a bit of a cold. How's the boyfriend? Isn't he out of the country? I overheard you and Cheryl talking sometimes."

"Yeah, he was at the North Pole for three months but came back yesterday."

"Ah, now I understand why you have next week off." Steve grinned.

"Why Steve, if I didn't know better, I would think that you imagine something very dirty in your mind right now." Penny mocked.

"Yeah yeah, you go and wait tables, one of yours just got taken."

Penny walked away from the bar and greeted the customers who just came in. She hoped that the shift would end soon so she could take her salon appointment and then get back home to spend the next few days in her bed with Leonard. She had wisely stocked up on food and drink and other necessities so they would have to leave her apartment as little as possible.

After an uneventful shift, she drove back home and hopped into the shower as she always did after work. After finishing, she dried off and put on some plain underwear plus a pink shirt before throwing dark red dress with flowers on it over herself. As she reapplied some of her makeup, she heard a knock on her door, making her wonder who it could be since Leonard should still be at work. But as she opened the door, she was greeted by the smiling face of her boyfriend, all shaven and hair cut.

"Hi." she greeted him. "I thought you were at work."

"Hey. I was, but after the meetings were over, we had lunch at the cafeteria and another fallout with Sheldon. Also, since we got, you know, interrupted last night, I didn't have a chance to give you this." he said and handed her a red velvet pouch.

"Oh Leonard, you shouldn't have." she told him, touched by his generosity and felt something thin and hard in it before opening the pouch and taking out the content. "Oh, boy!" she exclaimed upon seeing the item. "What is it?"

"It's a snowflake. From the North Pole." he smiled.

"Are you serious?" she asked shocked, holding the glass up and holding it into the light to look at the small spot in it, just making out the crystalline form.

"Uh-huh. It'll last forever. I preserved it in a one percent solution of polyvinyl acetal resin."

"Oh, my God. That's the most romantic thing anyone's ever said to me that I didn't understand." she almost squealed. "But before you start doing that thing where you explain a process to me with words I don't know the meaning of, come here."

She walked into him and kissed him hard, slinging her arms around his body as his came around hers. She pushed her tongue into his mouth, letting it roam in the cavity as his played with hers. She felt herself get aroused when her lower body came in contact with his, the erection in his pants becoming quite noticeable.

"Leonard?" she asked quietly after separating their lips.

"Hm?" he replied and his lips went to her neck.

"You came back too early." she sighed as his lips found that point that made her shiver.

"What?"

"I have my salon appointment in a little over an hour."

"What does that have to do with anything."

"I'm still not shaved down there." she said.

"I don't care. I need you." he told her and grabbed her butt.

"Well then, come in and..." she started but they were interrupted by trampling on the stairs before Howard and Raj came around the corner.

"Red alert, Leonard. Sheldon ran away." Howard said urgently.

"You have got to be kidding me." Penny and Leonard said in unison and separated.

"So, how do you know he ran away?" she directed at Howard. "And why do you look like Mario?"

"Shut up." Howard replied through clenched teeth. "Well, Sheldon's not answering his phone, he handed in his resignation at the university and he sent me a text that said, I'm running away."

"Okay, well, thanks for letting me know." Leonard said nonchalantly and turned back to Penny.

"Wait, aren't you going to do something?" she asked him, surprised at his lack of care.

"Of course I'm going to do something. Uh, Howard, you check the comic book store. Raj, go to the Thai restaurant. I'll stay here with Penny in her apartment." he grinned and was interrupted by his phone.

He accepted the call and Penny watched him talk to Mary Cooper as she told him about Sheldon and probably berated him a bit going by Leonard's facial expression. The call ended and he turned back to the others.

"Okay, new plan. Howard, you take Raj and go to Texas, I'll stay here with Penny in her apartment." Leonard ordered.

"I like this idea." Penny agreed.

"I don't." Howard stated and Raj also shook his head. "I'm not going to Texas to get Sheldon."

"Someone has to, otherwise his mother will maybe bring him here. And you know what will happen to us if she does."

"Dear lord, she will give us a lecture about Christianity and what Jesus taught us." Howard sighed.

"What do we do then?" Leonard asked. "I don't want to go to Texas."

"Oh, right, and I do?" Howard asked. "My people already crossed a desert once, we're done."

"Trust me, you'll be fine. Flying to Houston isn't crossing a desert on foot." Leonard stated and walked into Penny's apartment.

"Leonard, just go, you know you will have to eventually." Penny said, resigning herself to the fact that her night with Leonard will be delayed for several hours more.

"But I don't want to. I want to be with you." he almost whined.

"I promise I will be here when you get back. Just go help Sheldon. We managed three months. We can wait a few more hours." she told him and kissed him hard again, rubbing her hips against him and feeling his erection growing once more.

"Maybe you can." he almost laughed.

"Go." she ordered. "And hurry back."

"Fine." Leonard sighed.

"How will you get him to come back?" Howard asked as they all walked into the hallway.

"Inveniam viam aut faciam." Leonard said, speaking Latin.

"That could work if you choose the right way." Howard laughed and even Raj chuckled.

"Excuse me." Penny spoke up. "What did you say?"

"It's Latin, it translates roughly to 'I will find a way or I shall make one'. Which means, either Sheldon comes back on his own volition or I will throw him into the trunk of the rental car and bring him on the plane as carry-on." Leonard explained.

"Well then." Penny said and walked into his arms once more. "I have my salon appointment in an hour, you can imagine how my skin will feel when you're back."

"Why do you continue to torture me. You know I won't last long during the first time after three months."

"Excuse us." Howard interjected on behalf of him and Raj. "What do you mean after three months? What happened three months ago?"

Penny hummed in content and walked backwards into her apartment, grinning all the way. She closed the door and put her ear to it, listening closely to hear if Howard or Raj finally figure out that she and Leonard had been dating for a while now.

"Don't walk away and leave us in the dark, tell us something." she heard Howard shout and then nothing when they rounded the corner on the stairwell.

She let herself flop down on the couch and sighed deeply. Once again, even without being there, Sheldon had proven that he truly deserved the CBS moniker that Leonard had bestowed on him. For all her bluster about telling Leonard that they could wait until he was back, it had been hard for her to actually go through with it.

But on the other hand, she now could keep her appointment at the salon to be as perfect for Leonard as possible. She looked at her watch and noticed that it was only forty-five minutes until she had to be there. She stood back up and grabbed her car keys before leaving.

After three hours at the salon, she was on her way back home, all depilated but for her head and eyebrows. She felt great and couldn't wait for Leonard to finally be back, hopefully before the next day. Although it was kind of fitting that they had been thwarted by Sheldon again, since the guys originally were supposed to come home the next day. As she stopped at her block, she heard her phone buzz with a new message and she took it out to read it, seeing that it came from Leonard.

Got Sheldon. Boarding the plane now. Flight time 3.5 hours. We'll be home in about 4 if there aren't any delays before liftoff

She quickly typed in a reply, hoping he would read it before he had to turn off his phone.

I'll be waiting for you. Just come over as soon as you are home. Don't care what time it is

She pocketed her phone again and entered her apartment, realizing that she now had around four hours to kill. She got out her laptop and started browsing through Leonard' Netflix account to find a movie she could watch. Numerous science fiction and fantasy movies along with superhero movies dominated his list and while she had come to enjoy watching them sometimes, right now she needed something more to her liking.

She chose one of the romantic comedies she had made him add and sat back to watch it, connecting her laptop to the TV and transferring the picture to it like Leonard had shown her while they were in Omaha the year before.

The movie took two hours and a few minutes off the waiting time when it ended. She closed her laptop and want into her bathroom, taking off her clothes and getting into the shower to clean herself for her sweetie. After drying off, she looked at herself in the mirror, proud at the smooth skin she had again after her day at the salon.

She rummaged in her drawers for something sexy to wear that she could bear getting ripped apart. While she had originally decided to wear the new underwear she had bought in Omaha, Leonard did tell her that they would be ripped apart on his arrival and since it had been not cheap, she didn't want to lose them right away.

After deciding what to wear, she grabbed two bottles of water and a pack of certain pills and got into her bed, before putting on some music on her phone, placing it on her nightstand and pulling the comforter over her, so Leonard could peel it off and reveal her. She closed her eyes and waited for the sound of her door opening.

"Penny?" a voice woke her up. She opened her eyes and saw Leonard standing in her bedroom, smiling down at her.

"Ugh, I must have fallen asleep." she mumbled as her phone still played soft music. "What time is it?"

"A few minutes before midnight." came his reply.

She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and really looked at him in the soft light of her nightstand lamp. He was already clad in his robe, with his usual white shirt visible at the neck. Her upper body sprung up and her arms went around his neck, pulling him down with her until their lips were attached. She knew that this position might be uncomfortable for him because now he stood bend forward but right now she just wanted to feel his lips.

He awkwardly managed to get his left knee on the bed and crawled on top of her, the comforter still between them. Her arms were still holding him as close as possible and due to her body being pressed onto the bed, Leonard couldn't put his arms around her as well.

They kissed for what Penny felt was like an hour but was only a couple of minutes when he pulled away and took a deep breath. She smiled brightly at him, both in relief at his final return but also in humor because during their kiss, his glasses had skewed a bit. She took them off and put them on her nightstand before resuming this kiss, pulling the robe off his body in the process, with him helping it along by stretching his arms one after the other until the piece of fabric landed on the floor.

She took his shirt off by tearing the shoulder seam which gave her the added bonus of not having to stop the kiss and pushed his shorts down his legs as far as she could reach. He helped her along by bending his knees and lifting his lower legs so she could pull them the rest of the way and let them join his robe on the floor.

"So, what kind of underwear did you choose?" he grinned after stopping the kiss.

"Pull the comforter off me and you will see." she smiled right back.

He sat back up and Penny's mouth salivated at the sight of his erection, all hard and thick the way she wanted it, the tip already moist with the pre-cum. He slowly pulled the comforter off her and pushed it aside before staring at her body.

"So, I see you chose the invisible one." he winked at her upon seeing her naked body.

"Yes, seemed like the easiest way." she replied and spread her legs. "Now come here."

He didn't waste any time and placed herself between her legs, entering her with one swift move and stopping when he was all the way in. Both moaned loudly at the contact, finally experiencing each other again after such a long time. Penny started wiggling around in an attempt to get some friction when Leonard hadn't started moving even after a minute.

"Leonard, please move." she begged.

"No." he groaned, his attempt to stay motionless apparent.

"Why not?"

"Because I will climax as soon as I move."

"Leonard, we have all night. Please move." she said and attempted to buck up her hips.

"Fine." Leonard sighed and pulled almost completely out before thrusting back in.

He repeated that move once and even without his groan, Penny would have known that he had climaxed in that moment because she felt him unload into her. He let his head fall on the bed beside hers and breathed slowly in and out.

"Wow, you weren't kidding." Penny laughed and tapped him on the back to get him to get up.

"I told you."

"You did, but now let me up so I can get clean myself out."

He made room and Penny threw him a box of wet wipes before heading into her bathroom. She took some toilet paper and held it between her legs, jumping up and down until his spill was completely out of her again. She returned to the bedroom and got into bed beside him, snuggling against him and he wrapped his arm around her shoulder.

"I'm sorry." he said morose.

"Don't be. As I said, we have all night." she reassured him.

"Do you think we can last all night? At some point we need to sleep."

"Sleep is for wussies." she grinned and grabbed the box of pills she got earlier. "Take one of these."

"What are they?" Leonard asked as he held one in his hand.

"Caffeine pills. They have as much caffeine in them as three cups of coffee. Should last us a while."

"You really did plan on going all night long, didn't you?" he asked with a grin and swallowed the pill.

"Yep." she replied, emphasizing the 'P' and swallowing one herself before placing herself against his body again.

"Do you think it will get weird now?" he asked her after a few minutes of silence.

"What do you mean? Why would it get weird?" she returned, wondering with some apprehension if he knew somehow about what she did or allowed to happen with her two slutty friends.

"I mean, now that the guys know."

"I don't know. Do you think it will?"

"No idea. But I always thought that them not knowing added some spice to our relationship. And it was kinda funny that they were so clueless."

"I have to agree there. But we will see." she said and gave him a kiss.

"Did you know that they heard us when we had sex in Vegas? You know, after you did your dance on that pillar thing in those silver high heels."

"You mean where I rode you for almost an hour with the rubber band?" she grinned.

"Yeah. The guys asked me after we were back if I woke up during the night like they did because, and I quote, 'Someone did it like rabbits for an hour and we thought the guy was murdering the woman'. End quote."

"Well, they were kinda right, weren't they?" she still grinned.

"Yeah. It would have been better if we remembered what happened afterwards. The only thing I can recall after that sex is you dragging me out again for more of those buckets of Margarita."

"I only remember that and lots of lights, colors and laughing."

"Well, it was Vegas."

"Yeah. Makes me wonder what was in that envelope you got from there."

"Right. Well, so far there was nothing else, so I guess it was just some information, maybe some advertisement so we come back."

"Will we go back?"

"Why not at some point. Was always fun there."

"Good." she said and let her hand go down to his manhood. "How's it going down there? Ready for round two?"

"Whoa, you're not even letting me rest for an hour?" he grinned but she could feel him grow hard when she started to stroke him.

"Well, your buddy down there doesn't seem to mind."

"But I think he needs some help." he hummed and smiled.

"Why Mister Hofstadter, I think you are getting more forward in your attempts to get me to blow you."

"Is it working?"

"Of course." she said and scooted down the bed.

She crawled under the covers and Leonard watched the bulge in the comforter moving ever downwards. Her hand, which never released its grip on his best buddy, moved to the base, her fingers curling around it and holding it tight. He closed his eyes as he felt her lips touch the tip before they moved slowly down the shaft as her tongue swirled aggressively.

As Leonard's manhood started growing again to the size Penny loved, Leonard let his head fall on the cushion and his eyes rolled back into his skull. While the first few times that Penny had blown him had been good, it had become great after about half a year of them knowing each other and it had turned into amazing after his birthday where she had had her period.

But what she did now was out of this world. It felt as if she tried to suck his insides out through his cock and boy did it feel great. Her tongue was never still while her head bobbed up and down, swirling around the tip when it was up and running the lengths of his shaft when it came down.

"Dear lord, that feels good." he panted and removed the comforter from them, wanting to see her doing it.

What he saw was Penny attacking his cock with gusto, letting it exit her mouth with a loud plop and a grin before taking it in again and continuing the bobbing movements of her head. While feeling it was already amazing, seeing it was even more arousing. He grabbed her head and held it, unable to stop himself from holding her a bit when his hips started bucking upwards.

A shocked squeal made him realized what he was doing and he quickly let her go, upon which Penny released him to take a deep breath. She kept stroking him while she placed feathery kisses on his manhood, still smiling at him.

"Can I take from your reaction just now that you liked that?"

"Oh yes. That felt so amazing." he panted. "Come up here and I will return the favor."

"No." she breathed and started climbing up his body until her head was on level with his. "This time it's all about you."

She interlinked their hands and used his to get leverage. She lifted her upper body to a sitting position and guided herself to his manhood until she felt it at her opening. Slowly, she sunk down, the tip spreading her folds and gliding inside. She started gyrating her hips to let him get into her easier while she feels herself get spread even more by his girth.

She moaned loudly when she finally reaches his skin, pressing herself down to get him as deep into her as possible. Their hands still interlinked, she used them like the reigns on a horse, moving her hips forward and back as if riding a stallion at a leisurely pace. She didn't want to speed up too much to prevent him from climaxing too early, wanting to feel him as long as possible.

She rode. And rode. And rode. Keeping her speed moderate, she managed to keep him from climaxing for almost forty minutes and even without the orgasms that she would have had with a faster movement, it was one of the greatest experiences she could imagine.

She knew that her desire to please him like this as long as possible was partially fueled by her need to show him what she could and would do for him, so he would not react too harshly on the day she would tell him about her indiscretion with Kim and Cheryl, if she ever found a way to actually put it into words.

She started speeding up against her will and her hands went to his chest, just above his heart to steady herself. Leonard used his now free hands to start caressing her breasts and promptly sat up to take the left one into his mouth. She felt his arms circle around her and him pressuring her hips but she quickly took his arms away and his hands onto her breasts again.

"Don't you... want to... change position?" he panted in sync with her movements.

"No. This is... just for you." she returned in the same staccato manner.

"Come for me." he told her and she finally let herself go.

She sped up immensely, the bed moving with them but luckily not hitting the wall since she had had the sense of pulling it away far enough from it. She grunted heavily with the exertion, as he did, while she rode him harder and harder until she climaxed with a loud scream and felt him spill into her as well.

She collapsed onto his chest and let their tongues play with each other as both breathed hard after their long lovemaking. His arms encircled her back and held her tight to him and she had no intention of getting up as long as he was inside her, effectively plugging her and preventing his spill from coming out, at least for now.

She felt sweat running down her spine and forehead, a testament to the duration of what they just did. She would have loved for him to get into a dominant position but as she had told him, this time it had just been all about him. Knowing him and his sense of reciprocation, he would return the favor when they did it again.

"Ok, we should get cleaned up now." Leonard said and pushed her gently off him.

She got up reluctantly and walked into the bathroom with him right behind her. She did her ablutions while he stepped into the bathtub and used the shower head to wash the sweat of his body. After she was done on the toilet, she joined him in the tub and let him clean her. He got out first and dried himself off while she stayed in the tub to clean herself out.

He pushed the shower curtain close and used the toilet, making her grin at his habit of not letting anyone see him using it, even if she was already in the same room and he was naked. She shut off the tap and waited for the sound of flushing before getting out and drying herself off too.

She rejoined him in the bedroom and waited for him to lay down again before joining him in the same position as they had after his first climax. Leonard started kissing her neck and she craned hers to give him even greater access, moaning when he found that point on it that made her shiver.

"Why didn't you let me turn us?" he asked her.

"Because I meant what I said. This time it was all about you and I know how much you love it when I'm on top."

"Thank you." he said sincerely. "But I hope you realize that I will reciprocate, right?"

"I'm counting on that." she grinned and kissed him again.

He turned her onto her side and pressed himself into her back, wrapping her arm around her waist and holding her close. She turned her head and their lips connected again, their tongues again dancing the slow dance of love. Usually after making love for almost an hour, they both would be tired but thanks to the caffeine pills she had them take, both were still wide awake.

"By the way, while I was talking to Sheldon, he told me that he doesn't want us to have sex in your bed because it would disturb his life even more." Penny told him.

"Really? Well, I have no problem spending the nights here. Though I won't kowtow to his demands when we push each other to the closest bed."

"Good. Also, what I wanted to ask you, did Howard and Raj finally figure it out? I heard him ask you about what happened three months ago when you walked down the stairs to get to Texas."

"I think Raj did. After they asked me, I told them 'What do you think?' and they promptly started arguing. Raj said that our behavior has been one of a couple, you know, when you invited me into your apartment before we went to get coffee after our all-nighter with the space toilet or when we went to Vegas and shared a room much to their surprise."

"And Howard?"

"Howard was adamant that nothing was going on between us. They kept arguing all the way to the airport and once we were on the plane, I put earplugs into my ears and listened to music. And in Texas itself, we kept making fun of Howard's red cowboy hat."

"He wore a red cowboy hat?" Penny asked laughing.

"Yeah. He looked like a character from Toy Story. Combined with his mustache, he looked completely ridiculous. Then he tried to act all Texan with Misses Cooper, who immediately called him out on it."

"How did you get Sheldon do come back? Did you apologize?" Penny asked.

"Yeah, we did. But he wouldn't accept it."

"Then why did he come back with you?"

"He wanted to stay there and start to, and I quote again, 'Teach evolution to creationists'. That pretty much upset his mother, leading to Sheldon immediately forgiving us and came back."

"That sounds like him. Mary Cooper is one tough woman." she said.

"Yeah. She's scary too with her unwavering christian faith." he agreed.

"Oh, before I forget, I think Sheldon didn't know anything about us before today." she suddenly remembered.

"What makes you say that?"

"When I was consoling him, he asked me something like if this is a one-time thing or if we're going to be together in the long run. I don't think you would ask that if you knew that your roommate and your neighbor have been doing it for almost two years already."

"So, to sum up, after two years, the only one of our genius friends to figure something out is Raj." Leonard mused. "I'm not sure if I should be amused or insulted by their lack of faith in me."

"When any of my friends said something about me dating you, since my last guys were always considered jocks, I always tell them 'When I get regular and strong orgasms, I don't care what you guys think of me'. That usually shuts them up." she grinned.

"I think what shuts them up is not the fact that you don't care but the comment about orgasms." Leonard laughed.

"Maybe. But I bask in their envy all the same." she said and looked at her clock. "Wow, it's already three in the morning."

"So?"

"Well, we did it just twice and already three hours have gone by. We talk too much."

"Honey, I like this cuddling and talking as much as the sex. But if you insist." Leonard said and hugged her tighter, before intertwining their fingers and kissing her again.

Still kissing, Leonard turned them around until Penny was on her stomach and he on her back. With their fingers still interlinked, her neck was stretched to the limit to keep their lips together while Leonard settled himself on her back. She felt his erect manhood between her thighs and opened them just enough to let it snap against her folds, making her squeak into his mouth.

He laughed softly into her mouth at her reaction and let go of her left hand to use his to guide himself to her opening. With his thighs pressing her legs together, he entered her slowly, her tightness making her feel every inch that penetrated her.

When he was completely in, she both groaned and sighed at the same time, feeling him scrape over her most sensitive spot again in this, her most favorite position. After a few seconds, he started moving, making her moan in sync with his thrusts. After a few seconds, she had to stop the kiss because she needed to suck in more air to continue the moans that she couldn't stop if she wanted to.

"Oh, I love this." she panted as she clenched her legs together to get the maximum amount of friction.

He kept thrusting in what was to her excruciatingly slow speed, but always and reliably hitting her g-spot. She attempted to lift her hips up to meet his thrusts but the angle was bad and his body still weighted her down.

"Leonard?"

"Yeah?"

"Please pound me hard." she begged and cursed herself for sounding that way.

Instead of answering, she took his hands out of hers and placed them next to her body to hold up his body. She tried to brace herself for what she knew was coming but as usual, it was more than she could bear and he strong and deep thrusts soon had her quivering.

"Oh... god... yes... yes... yes... YES!" she yelled, getting progressively louder with each word.

With a scream, she climaxed hard and true to form, he didn't let her ride it out. His arms next to her prevented her body from moving away and she kept screaming her joy into the cushion as she rode the wave of endorphins that he continued to strengthen with his ongoing thrusts.

Leonard, who had trouble keeping himself in his position, changed his position to relieve the tension in his arms which had kept him propped up for several minutes. His upper body went vertical and he grabbed her ass, pushing her cheeks forward to get a better angle.

"OhMyGodOhMyGodOhMyGodOhMyGodOhMyGodOhMyGod!" Penny yelled as he continued thrusting after repositioning himself.

By accident or design, he had found the same combination of position and angle as he did during their last time before his trip when he gave her the up to then greatest orgasm she had ever experienced. And now he was doing it again, his every push constantly stimulating her g-spot while at the same time her coil tightened at a tortuous slow pace.

"Don't... change... the... angle... one... bit." she managed to word during his thrusts.

Leonard didn't answer and simply continued his strong thrusts. He simply smiled as he watched his girlfriend pushing her head down into the cushion and coming up again. He looked down where they were joined and looked at her perfect ass and her parting folds that so invited his manhood.

Even after two years, he couldn't believe how lucky he was to have such a beautiful girlfriend. And now he somehow was in the process of making her howl to the moon doing something he still hadn't figured out how he did it. He knew that as soon as he started to think about it, the whole thing would stop so he stopped himself, closed his eyes and continued to thrust into her tight hole as she screamed under him.

For almost half an hour, he continued. Penny wondered how she could still have a voice when she kept screaming practically the entire time. Or how he was able to keep the speed he had started with without succumbing to the temptation to speed up to get more friction for himself. In those thirty minutes, the coil had tightened to unbearable levels, just like last time and she knew that her oncoming climax would again be massive.

"Oh... god... Leonard... I'm ...com..." she started but couldn't finish the last word as the orgasm hit her.

It started like the last time they did that, slowly running up her spine until the wave broke inside her brain as if a river broke through a dam. Her entire body started shaking violently, the rapid twitching of her hips unable to stay localized to that area of her body. This time however, Leonard's grip wasn't as hard on her as it was the last time and with a scream, her entire body shot forward and sideways until she fell from the bed and hit the floor with a thud.

She dimly heard Leonard saying something as the blood kept rushing past her ears and her hips kept twitching as she wriggled on the floor. After a minute or so, she had calmed enough for words to get inside her head again but the huge smile still hadn't left her face.

"Penny, are you alright?" Leonard asked her concerned.

"I really hate you right now." she said, still grinning.

"Okay, I'll play along. Why?"

"Because I will never be able to make you experience the same thing. Have you any idea what that felt like?"

"No, unfortunately not."

"I wish you could. As if I would burst apart just from pleasure." she sighed in content. "You managed to do it again. Did you do it on purpose?"

"I want to say yes but I can't. I just did what I felt was right. I'm afraid that if I ever start thinking about it, it won't work anymore."

"Then don't ever think about it." she said as she struggled to get up and went back on the bed.

"Um..."

"Yes?"

"Do we continue..." he left open-ended.

"As much as I want to, I think I'm over-sexed right now." she giggled.

"Oh... okay." he said, a bit dejected.

"Oh, I get it." she grinned as her eyes fell on his still straining erection. "I think you have earned it."

"You get what? And earned what?"

"You want me to finish you off. And you earned this." she said and scooted down again.

Wrapping her fingers around his base, she took him into her mouth again. Leonard's head, which had watched her move down his body, slammed back into the cushion and his eyes rolled back into his skull. This felt even better than during foreplay, Penny expertly drawing out his pleasure without lessening the intensity.

Thanks to the grip of her fingers, which acted as a rubber band made of flesh and bone, she prevented him from climaxing while she sucked hard on his manhood before taking him in deep again and swallowing to let her contracting throat massage the tip while fighting the gag reflex.

With excruciating slowness, she lifted her head, her lips still pressed together and let her tongue run his length with her lips. When she reached the tips, she let her lips stay together under the rim and swirled her tongue rapidly around, feeling him twitch in repressed desire to climax. He groaned heavily, because of pleasure or agony she couldn't tell, maybe a mixture of both.

Still sucking and swirling, she released her fingers and less than five seconds later, he erupted inside her mouth. She kept her head where it was, moving with him as he lifted his hips, so she could catch his spill without it getting too far into her mouth. After he was done and collapsed back into the mattress, she got up quickly and ran into her bathroom, spitting his spill into the toilet and using water from the tap to rinse her mouth.

After returning to the bedroom, she got back into bed and sat down on his abdomen before lowering her upper body to kiss him. They let their tongues play with each other languidly for several minutes until Leonard broke the contact to smile at her.

"That was amazing."

"Well, after the earth-shattering orgasm you gave me, it was the least I could do." she grinned.

"But just so you know, having you jump up and run into the bathroom after I come doesn't really look good. If I didn't know why you did it, I would assume that you felt so dirty after doing it, that you just had to clean yourself." he smiled right back.

"Funny. You know why I do it, I still won't swallow."

"I know. And I still will never demand it of you. What you already do and sometimes allow me to do is enough." he said serious.

"And I will allow you to do it for as long as you want me." she replied. 'And I hope that you want me more than you will hate me when I find a way to tell you about what I allowed to happen.' she added in her head.

"So far I can't think of anything that would stop to make me want you."

"Well, if I tell you some facts about my past someday, you might reconsider. I just hope you won't." she said morose.

"When will you tell me those facts?"

"I don't know. Maybe on our ten-year anniversary."

"Why not our fiftieth anniversary?" Leonard asked sarcastically.

"Okay, deal." she laughed and kissed him again.

"Very funny." Leonard pouted and yawned. "It seems the pills wear off."

"Yeah, they're not that strong. Want another one?"

"No, I think we should get at least some sleep tonight." he said.

"Hey, are you already tired of me? What happened to my plan to have sex all night?" she grinned.

"Sweetheart, remember that all-nighter we had?" he asked. "The one where we did it eight times in ten hours."

"Of course, I'll never forget that night."

"But do you also remember how sore you were for the following three days?"

"It wasn't that bad." she said defensively.

"You winced every time you peed!"

"Well... okay, you're right. No eight times tonight."

"And since I'm still reloading, we need to rest anyway." he said.

She let herself slide down the side of his body until it was on the bed, her leg still around his waist and one arm across his chest. She laid her head down on his shoulder and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and basking in the afterglow of the mind-blowing orgasm she had received only half an hour earlier.

There was no way that any man in the world would be able to do that to her. She knew that it wasn't only because his member was thick while not overly long although that was a bonus. What made their lovemaking special were the feelings they shared. She loved him with all her heart and simply prayed that he loved her enough to forgive her when the day came.

She felt a tear roll down her cheek and hoped that he wouldn't notice but he seemed to have dozed off. With a small smile, she wondered how energetic he usually was in bed but could fall asleep with a snap of a finger. While she pondered that paradox, she closed her eyes and fell asleep as well.

When she woke up again, daylight was coming into the bedroom through the open door. She looked at her clock again and saw that it was just after six-thirty in the morning and surprisingly, she was rather awake, considering the fact that she had slept only three and a half hours. As she took one of the water bottles and took a sip, she noticed that Leonard was in the process of waking up as well, his eyes opening slowly.

"Good morning, sweetie." she greeted him and handed him the bottle which he drank from gratefully.

"Morning." he replied and gave her a kiss, now that the effect of their morning breath was lessened thanks to the water.

"Slept well?" she asked, mentally slapping herself since it sounded to silly.

"Considering that it was not even four hours, I'm surprisingly awake." he said.

"That's what I thought after waking up and seeing the time." she added. "But now I have to pee."

She got up and went into her bathroom to use the toilet. After flushing, she stood in front of her sink and looked at herself in the mirror. Today, even she noticed the glow on her face, the involuntary uptick of her lips into a smile. With added joy, she realized that she wasn't aching between her legs as much as she had feared.

"All yours." she said after washing her face and returning to the bedroom.

As he disappeared into the bathroom, she got back into the bed and on her back. With closed eyes, she stretched her arms above her until she heard the bones in her shoulders crack and craned her beck from side to side to get the tension out of it. Next she lifted her left leg and pulled it all the way to her shoulder, repeating the process with her right leg before spreading them apart using her hands on her knees to stretch her abductors.

"Oh god!" she shouted when she suddenly felt pleasure coursing through her again. She opened her eyes and saw Leonard between her legs, his tongue running over her folds and nub. "Leonard!"

"What?" he asked, lifting his head. "Coming out of the bathroom to the view of you spreading your legs wasn't an invitation for me to lick you?"

"Actually, I was stretching my muscles." she replied.

"Okay, I'll stop."

"Don't you dare!" she said and used her hands and feet to press his head down again.

She started moaning immediately as he used his expertise to pleasure her. After concentrating on her clit for some time, always stopping before she could fall off the cliff, he moved downwards and started running his tongue over her folds before dipping his tongue into her to stimulate her inner walls. For several more minutes, she enjoyed his ministrations until he finally let her climax, which she did with a loud squeal and quivering thighs.

Grinning, he moved up the bed and got on his back, the smug grin on his face both infuriating and deserving in her eyes. She looked down and noticed his erection and before he could comprehend it, she had swung her legs around him and sunk down on him. Before he even finished taking his sharp breath in, she started moving, riding him hard and pressing him down with her hands on his chest.

"Turn around and lean back." he ordered after several minutes and his tone made her comply immediately.

He lined himself up and used his other hand on her hip to push her down again. She leaned her body back and placed her hands to the left and right of his chest to get leverage and started bouncing her hips hard. The angle was once again great for him hitting her g-spot and she started moaning loudly with each bounce, a sound that soon turned into yells as the pleasure intensified.

At some point, she lifted her body upwards again and placed her feet on the bed. Using her thigh muscles, she bounced even harder, the slaps of skin hitting skin probably audible even from the stairwell, telling anyone walking down the stairs what was going on there, even if they didn't understand it by listening to the sounds their mouths were making.

Penny was now yelling almost constantly, the feeling of pleasure too much to enjoy quietly. Unfortunately, she was loud enough to block any other sound and so both didn't hear the creaking sound coming from below them. As Penny felt her climax approaching, she intensified her bounces in an attempt to get him even deeper into her. But before she could fall off the cliff, something broke and both were actually falling and landing with a loud oomph.

"Are you okay?" Penny asked Leonard after she had reoriented herself.

"Yeah, you?" came the reply.

"Yes. What the hell happened?"

"I think the bed broke." he said, stating the obvious, since they were on the floor.

"I know that." she snapped and both scrambled to their feet. "Sorry for the snapping but how did it break?"

"Well, the frame looks still intact. I think the slats broke. Luckily, the mattress broke our fall."

"Great. Now I have to get a new bed." Penny sighed.

"Yeah, but be happy that the mattress didn't rip apart. That's the most expensive part when buying a bed. The actual bed is comparatively cheap." Leonard stated.

"That's something at least."

"If you want, we can go shopping for a new bed today. It's Monday and we're both having it off."

"That's a great idea!" she squealed at the prospect of shopping before realizing that it wasn't for clothes or shoes. "So, what do we do now? Finish what we started on the couch?"

"Nah. Put something on, we're going across the hall and use my bed." he said and put on his robe before grabbing his clothes.

"I must say, being with you gets me a lot of firsts." she laughed as she threw on her own robe.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you're the first guy I told that I love him, you're the first guy I ever did anal sex with and now you're the first guy who I broke a bed with. That's quite an achievement." she grinned.

"Well, I aim to please." he smiled back and took the measurements of the mattress before taking her hand to lead her out of the apartment.

Both walked across the hall, entering Leonard's apartment and finding the living room empty. They tiptoed to the bedrooms as not to wake Sheldon and entered Leonard's bedroom. She watched him discard his robe and get into bed and as soon as he had settled himself, she opened her won robe and threw it across the room before almost jumping on him.

She wasted no time in getting him inside her again and started rocking on him as she had before. Pleasure began coursing through her again as she moved hard on him, her moans almost drowning out the sound of the bed hitting the wall. It didn't take long for her to climax and apparently she clenched hard enough to take him over the cliff as well.

"Wow, that was fast." she laughed as she lay on his chest, panting.

"With you moving like that, who could blame me." he grinned back.

"Now I'm hungry." she said and got up, using some of his wet wipes to clean herself up.

She looked around and realized that she hadn't taken any clothes with her apart from her robe but she didn't want to wear that right now. Her eyes fell on a red pair of Leonard's shorts, which she put on before opening his closet and taking out the blue shirt she had worn during the nights of his absence.

"How can anyone look so ridiculously hot in my clothes." he whined.

"Because I'm adorable." Penny grinned and kissed him hard before exiting the room and heading into the kitchen.

She turned on the radio and started dancing to the music as she looked inside the cupboards for something to make. She didn't really want any of the eight variations of cereal standing on the fridge, so she opted for french toast after finding a pack of toast in one of the cabinets.

She activated the stove, placed a pan on the stove and poured some oil into it and while it heated up, she cracked some eggs open over a deep dish, swirling them apart until it was nothing more than a yellow-y mass. After that, she added some vanilla and soaked two pieces of toast until they were saturated before placing them into the pan, waiting for them to fry while she soaked two more pieces of toast.

After the third pair of toast was finished, a Shania Twain song started on the radio and Penny danced vigorously with it, shaking her hips while still preparing breakfast. As she put the last two pieces of toast into the beaten eggs, she noticed Sheldon standing in the living room, looking at her curiously.

"Morning, Sheldon. Come dance with me." she grinned, her entire body still saturated with endorphins after the night she had and even looking at Sheldon couldn't bring her down.

"No." he said deadpan.

"Why not?"

"Penny, while I subscribe to the many worlds theory which posits the existence of an infinite number of Sheldons in an infinite number of universes, I assure you that in none of them am I dancing."

"Are you fun in any of them?" she asked, not having understood one word.

"The math would suggest that in a few I'm a clown made of candy. But I don't dance."

"All right." she conceded, tired of the conversation. "Want some French toast?"

"It's Oatmeal Day." came the reply.

"Tell you what, next French Toast Day, I will make you oatmeal." she grinned and put the last two pieces into the pan.

"Dear Lord, are you still going to be here on French Toast Day?" Sheldon asked exasperated but the appearance of Leonard prevented her from replying.

"Morning." her sweetie greeted.

"Look, Leonard, Penny made French toast." Sheldon told his roommate.

"Really? That's so sweet of you." Leonard directed at her and came to the kitchen table to help with the coffee while she got the last two pieces of toast out of the pan and divided all pieces up on three plates.

"Leonard, you know it's Monday." Sheldon stated.

"Sorry. I haven't given her your schedule yet." Leonard replied.

"It's an iCal download, she can put it right in her phone." Sheldon said to him before turning to her. "And didn't I ask you to have your conjugal visits in your apartment?"

"There were extenuating circumstances." she grinned.

"I see. Did your abysmal housekeeping skills drive him out of your apartment?"

"No, her bed kind of… broke." Leonard told him, making Penny unable to stop grinning. Never before had a bed broken during lovemaking, even with the wildest guys she had before Leonard.

"That doesn't seem likely. Her bed's of sturdy construction. Even the addition of a second normal sized human being wouldn't cause a structural failure, much less a homunculus such as yourself." Sheldon stated condescendingly.

"A homunculus?" Penny interjected, not knowing what that word meant.

"Perfectly formed miniature human being." Leonard replied, with evident unease in his voice.

"Oh, you're my little homunculus." she tried to cheer him up, putting her arm around his shoulder.

"Don't do that." he said, shaking his head.

"Sorry. Okay, who wants syrup and who wants cinnamon sugar?" she asked around, holding up a bottle and a pack.

"I want oatmeal." Sheldon stated defiantly.

"Yes, well, I want a boyfriend whose roommate isn't a giant pain in the ass." she returned.

"I'm sure that will happen soon enough. But in the meantime, I still want oatmeal." Sheldon said again.

"You know what, I give up. He's impossible." he huffed and left, taking her plate and the bottle of syrup with her.

"I can't be impossible. I exist. I believe what you meant to say is, "I give up, he's improbable."" he called behind her.

She got back into Leonard's room and into his bed, sitting up against the headboard with her plate on her lap. She waited for a minute and soon enough, Leonard entered as well, closing the door and taking off his robe to reveal his shorts and white shirt before climbing into bed next to her.

"You know, I love him but he's one crazy man." Penny said and started eating. "Did he at least eat the toast I made for him?"

"He probably threw it away and is eating oatmeal right now." Leonard said as he put some powdered sugar on his food and started eating as well.

As they ate, Penny squirted more syrup on her toast but as she was putting the bottle away, a last drop fell from it, landing in her cleavage between the open top of Leonard's shirt. She quickly sat up and bent forward to prevent the shirt from touching the syrup on her skin and placed the plate on his nightstand.

"Damn, can you hand me a wet wipe?" she asked him and took off the shirt before leaning back again.

Instead of handing her the piece of fabric in question, he simply bent down and ran his tongue over her body, lapping up the syrup and cleaning her skin. Penny's breath hitched and as he was lifting his head again, she poured another drop of syrup directly on her nipple, pouting as she looked at him. He simply grinned and sucked her nipple clean, doing it for a whole minute to get every last shred of syrup away.

"Unfortunately we don't have time for this." he said and took the bottle away from her just as she was about to pour more syrup to a certain spot between her legs.

"Why not?"

"Because we need to go shopping for a new bed if you want to have a new one by the end of the day. That also depends on them having a bed available apart from the ones they show to people."

"You're no fun." she pouted but put on her robe just the same. "Okay, I will head over to my place, shower and get dressed."

"I'll do the same. Pick you up in fifteen minutes?" he asked.

"Sure. Until then, sweetie." she said and kissed him before leaving, passing Sheldon, who was eating oatmeal while sitting in his spot, and leaving the apartment.

After arriving at her place, she quickly discarded her robe and hopped into the shower to clean herself up, having build up quite a sweat last night. After drying herself off, she hung up her towel and brushed her teeth before returning to her bedroom, where she found Leonard moving around.

"Jeez Leonard, are you trying to give me a heart attack?" she asked.

"Sorry. But I said I'll be here in fifteen minutes."

"Has it already been fifteen minutes?"

"Yep. And now get dressed while I continue."

"What are you doing?" she asked as she put on some blue underwear.

"Cleaning up a bit. I don't think that you want the delivery guys who'll bring the bed to see your underwear lying around."

"That's true." she agreed as she put on a pair of jeans and grabbed a blue shirt.

"Nice." Leonard grinned. "If you bend forward, you might get a discount, if the salesperson is a guy."

"Hey, I don't do stuff like this." she said and received a glare in return. "Okay, I don't do stuff like this when you're with me." she added and helped him.

"By the way, I checked the frame again in the light and it's cracked. So we really do need to shop for a new bed." he told her as he kept putting stuff away.

"Wasn't that the plan anyhow?"

"Yeah, but if the frame had been still fine, all we had to get would have been a new slatted frame to replace the broken one."

"Ah well, maybe the new bed could be one without a frame like this one." she suggested.

"Oh no." he sighed.

"What now?"

"Help me lift the mattress." he said and grabbed one end of it.

They lifted the mattress into a vertical position and Penny's heart sank upon seeing the underside of it. Contrary to their first assessment, the mattress was indeed ruined and it's insides were spilling out through a large rip made by the splintered wood of the slats.

"Dammit." she cursed. "That could become expensive indeed."

"Okay, we should head out now." he said and offered her his hand, which she took gladly.

"What about this one?" Penny asked. She hoped they would be done soon since they were currently in the third store and she was getting hungry.

"Well, I think it looks good but ultimately it's your decision, since it's your bed and not mine."

"Right, but I'd like to think that you'll be sleeping as much in it as I am." she smiled and kissed his cheek. "Also, it fits my budget." she continued, thinking about her fifteen hundred dollar limit for a new bed plus mattress.

"Wow, look at that one." he exclaimed and led her to a bed standing at the far end of the row of beds they were just checking out.

When they reached their target, Penny saw a great looking bed without a headboard. The frame itself was made of solid wood, two inches thick and after lifting the mattress, they saw that the slats inside the frame were made of wood of a lighter color and fitted into what looked like rubber stockings.

"May I help you?" a store clerk came over.

"Oh, I hope we're not doing anything wrong." Leonard said. "We're checking out the slats because the frame is solid wood and the ones in our old bed broke this morning. And these here look like they are made of a much lighter wood."

"Actually, it's not wood. It's reinforced carbon fiber varnished to look like wood. Also, they are held tight by those elastic straps on the sides so if you by any chance exert too much pressure on one of them, it slips out of the straps instead of breaking and you can simply reinsert them. It also helps to replace one, should one really break, so you don't have to buy a completely new frame." the clerk explained.

"That's handy." Leonard returned and they put the mattress back into place.

"For your information, this mattress is very comfortable. Go on, try it out."

"Really?" Penny asked.

"Yes. Take off your shoes and lay down."

Leonard did as he was told and got onto the mattress after taking off his shoes, getting on his back and lying flat on it. Penny took off her own shoes and hopped into the space next to him before lying down on her back as well.

"Wow, independent coil suspension." Leonard said with closed eyes.

"Very impressive, sir." the clerk told him. "You're absolutely correct."

"What's independent coil suspension?" Penny asked.

"Let me show you." Leonard replied and stood up before starting to jump on the bed.

To Penny's surprise, the jolts from Leonard's jumps didn't reach her and the mattress below her still felt as if nobody next to her was putting any form of pressure on it. She thought about the things they could do in a bed like this and started to blush.

"It also has lateral suspension." the clerk continued as Leonard laid back down. "So forward or sideways movements won't move the frame as much as in beds with a mattress without this technology."

"Wow, this bed is perfect." Penny said. "How much is it?"

"Twenty-one hundred dollars." the clerk replied, making her face fall.

"Damn, that's a bit over my budget." she sighed in defeat.

"I'm sorry but this one is already on sale, so I can't go any lower." the clerk said just as his phone rang. "Excuse me, I have to take this. Feel free to continue browsing."

"Man, this sucks, this bed is so amazing." Penny sighed.

"Well, the bed itself probably costs two- or three hundred dollars, the mattress is the kicker. But yeah, it's totally amazing." he agreed.

"Let me try something." she said and looked around to find nobody walking around who could see them.

She got up and quickly straddled Leonard before rocking hard forward and backward and gyrating her hips as if they were having sex. To her surprise, the bed barely moved, which reinforced her conviction that it would be perfect if it just were six hundred dollars less.

They browsed for another twenty minutes until Penny had decided on a bed that was acceptable an in her price range, even if just barely. Leonard offered to take care of the paperwork while she thought about a place to go to eat and after ten minutes, he came to her with a smile and together they left the store.

"You're in luck." Leonard said as they walked towards his car.

"How come? Did they make the bed of my dreams six hundred bucks cheaper?"

"No, but they will deliver the new bed this afternoon. And I paid an extra fee for you so they take the old bed with them."

"That's great. And now drive, I'm hungry." she grinned.

Since it was pretty close, they decided to go eat at the Cheesecake Factory. They sat down at a table for two and Penny watched her coworkers bustle around, making her glad that she had the week off. Although she had originally planned to spend it in bed with Leonard instead of looking for a new one.

"Hey Penny." Bernadette greeted her and poured them their complementary water. "Just you two or are the other guys still coming in?"

"No, it's just us today." Penny replied.

"Oh, okay." Bernadette said a bit dejected and Penny knew that she was probably hoping that Howard came here, although she couldn't fathom why Bernie found him cute. "You need menus?"

"I don't think so. I have memorized it." Penny said.

"I'll take the salmon filet in lactose free cream-dill-gratin on spinach noodles. And a sprite." Leonard said.

"And please, underline the lactose free." Penny said to Bernadette. "I'll take the second spaghetti menu and some ginger ale."

"Coming right up." Bernadette and walked off.

They waited for a few minutes, during which Bernadette brought them their drinks and Penny started to play footsie with Leonard's leg. He simply enjoyed her attention, putting his hand into the middle of the table to grasp hers. They kept holding hands and looking into each others eyes until Bernadette brought them their food.

"Enjoy." the diminutive waitress told them. "By the way Penny, you're the only one of us who hasn't met Kim yet."

"Uh, I met Kim lots of times." Penny said confused.

"No, not Kim the almost-Penny-clone." Bernadette replied.

"Very funny." Penny deadpanned.

"No, haven't you heard? They let Carl go, the night manager nobody liked, and hired a new female one who's name is Kim. And get this, she got hired being eight months pregnant."

"Really? Isn't that a bit strange?" Leonard asked.

"No, I think her husband is somehow related to someone higher up." Bernadette told him.

"Ah, she has vitamin C." he grinned.

"Vitamin C?" Penny asked.

"Connections. If someone has connections to someone, you colloquially call it having vitamin C, since it's healthy." Leonard explained as Bernadette left them alone.

They ate their food doing meaningless chitchat and after paying, left the restaurant and headed back to his car. They drove towards their block and Penny sighed in contentment, her stomach full and a new bed on the way. Just as Leonard pulled into the parking lot, his phone rang.

"Yeah?" he said into the phone. "Okay... when?... I see... does it have to be right now?... Alright, I'll be there in a few minutes."

"What was that about?" Penny asked as he pocketed his phone.

"That was Professor Brinkman. He asked me to come in. He and Frank have some trouble with an important experiment and asked me to help them look it over."

"Oh, can I come with you?" she asked. "I'd like to see Frank again."

"No, you can't. The experiment they're doing is considered classified and you don't have the necessary clearances."

"Too bad. Well, I'll see you later then." she said and kissed him goodbye.

She went upstairs and into her apartment, trying to move the remains of the old bed so the movers could put the new one into the room. She was able to move the old slatted frame and the mattress into the living room but the rest of the bed was too bulky for her to move on her own. She sat down on her couch and was booting up her laptop when her phone rang.

"Yeah?"

"Hey, it's Bernadette. Just wanted to let you know, they put Kim on maternity leave an hour after you left."

"Really? Is she having her baby already?" Penny asked.

"No, but she called, saying she wasn't feeling well, so they pushed the leave forward. I overheard them talking on the phone, her husband Sandy came in and brought some papers."

"Her husband's name is Sandy?"

"Yeah." Bernadette replied. "They already brought in the replacement. A woman named Sandy, and get this, her husband's name is Kim."

"A guy called Kim? Isn't that a female name?" Penny asked.

"Usually yeah, but it's really an unisex name, so sometimes sons are named Kim as well."

"So let me get this straight, we had a relatively new night manager called Kim with a husband who's name is Sandy and now we have a female night manger with the name Sandy and a husband named Kim?"

"Yeah."

"That's so funny. I hope she's comfortable with us making fun of that."

"I haven't met her only once during her introduction, so I can't say." Bernadette replied. "Okay, I gotta go, enjoy your vacation."

"Thanks Bernie." Penny said and hung up.

She got on her laptop and watched a few Youtube videos until almost five hours have passed. She cursed at herself for wasting so much time and got up to straighten out her apartment since her new bed should be delivered shortly. Before she could even start cleaning, a knock sounded on her door. She opened it and saw two guys in overalls standing in front of it, four large boxes behind them.

"Good afternoon, Miss. Bed Depot delivery." the older one greeted her.

"Oh, hi. Come on in."

The two men carried the first box into her apartment and placed it against the wall in her bedroom. They repeated the process with the other three, stacking each up against each other, before they begin taking her old bed out of her apartment and into the hallway. She watched them manhandle her old bed, cursing at its bulk since they didn't have the right tools with them to take it apart. But after ten minutes of pushing and pulling, they finally got it out of her place.

"So, now we just need a signature from you." the younger man told her and held a pen and a clipboard out to her. "And while you're at it, would you like to go out tonight?"

"Dammit John, stop hitting on the customers." the older man sighed and slapped John on the back of the head.

"It's okay, I'm not available anyway." Penny laughed and signed the delivery form, receiving one copy for herself.

"Have a nice evening." the older man said and both men left her apartment.

She could hear them cursing and groaning as they manhandled her old bed down the stairs. She grinned at the thought of them making it so hard on themselves instead of going down to their delivery truck and getting the tools to take it apart. Just as she was about to go into her bedroom to open the boxes, another knock stopped her.

"Penny, you here?" Leonard said to her upon coming in.

"Yeah."

"Want to come over for dinner and a movie?"

"Sure, I'd love to." Penny replied and left with him.

She followed Leonard into his apartment and found Sheldon sitting in his spot, watching TV. He looked at her with a curious face and sighed, as if her presence is a burden on him, making her wonder since she had been here almost every night for the last two years.

"So, what's for dinner?" she inquired.

"You're eating with us?" Sheldon asked her.

"Yes, Sheldon, I asked her to come over." Leonard replied instead.

"Sure, violate the roommate agreement even further by inviting a guest without early notice after already breaking the Monday dinner schedule."

"Sheldon, so we don't eat Thai food one Monday, it won't kill you." Leonard said exasperated.

"It only starts with not eating Thai food on Monday. What's next? No barbecue burger on Tuesday or Chinese food on Wednesday? What about pizza on Thursday. Or what are we watching tonight? Harry Potter as we planned? Or will we have to suffer some romantic comedy that's so predictable that it borders on giving us the script of the movie beforehand?"

"Sure Sheldon, one night like this will completely alter the world." Penny laughed and sat down in Leonard's armchair.

"See, it's already starting. You're sitting in Leonard's spot." Sheldon stated.

"Unlike you, I have no problem sitting somewhere else." Leonard said from the kitchen and brought the plates. "And to answer your question from before Penny, we're having vegetable potpourri on brown rice."

"Thanks honey." she said and kissed him.

As they ate, Penny and Leonard continuously looked at each other and smiling, much to Sheldon's chagrin, if his huffs were a good indication, although he could have meant them for the food he had to eat. Showing his apparent dislike for it, he continued to pick at his dinner while Penny finished hers but Leonard also took his time eating his portion.

"So, what did you today Sheldon?" she asked him.

"I was attempting to unravel the mysteries of the universe after getting to work by riding on the bus because you made Leonard take a week off for the completely animalistic urges of coitus."

"Coitus is fun." Penny said, poking her tongue at him.

"Sheldon, be nice to Penny."

"Fine. So Penny, what is going on at the Cheesecake Factory?"

"Okay, so Kim the night manager went on maternity leave, and her husband's name is Sandy, right? So get this, her replacement is a woman named Sandy whose husband's name is Kim." she repeated the story Bernadette told her.

"Wow!" Leonard commented.

"I know. What are the odds?" she giggled.

"Easily calculable, we begin by identifying the set of married couples with unisex names. We then eliminate those unqualified for restaurant work, the aged, the imprisoned and the limbless, for example. Next we look at…" Sheldon started talking but was interrupted by Leonard.

"Sheldon! it's an amazing coincidence, can we leave it at that?" her sweetie asked him.

"I'm sorry. Ooh, Penny, it's as if the Cheesecake Factory is run by witches." Sheldon said with mock excitement and put his plate on the table.

"Ooh, Sheldon, it's as if you don't think I'll punch you." she returned, dead serious, making him lean back.

"Come on, you guys, let it go." Leonard tried to ease the tension.

"Fine, whatever. Are you finished?" she asked Sheldon, pointing to his plate and picking it up.

"Well, thank you. How thoughtful. Would you like a chocolate?" Sheldon asked her in return.

"Um, yeah, sure." she said, a little confused but let him put the chocolate into her mouth. "Thanks."

She went into the kitchen area and deposed the used plates into the sink, hearing Sheldon and Leonard argue in low voices as she chewed the very tasty chocolate Sheldon had given her. It surprised her a bit that he was so generous all of a sudden. She walked to the fridge to get a bottle of water and as she closed it, she saw Raj and Howard walk into the apartment, the latter dressed in a black coat.

"What's going on, day dwellers?" the engineer greeted them.

"Oh, man, did the Kiss Army repeal don't ask, don't tell?" she asked as she walked back to the living area and sat back down in the armchair.

"No. Raj and I are going a goth club in Hollywood to hang with the night people." Howard replied. "Anybody want to come along?"

"Oh, wow, you're actually going out like that?" Penny asked him disbelievingly.

"No, no. I'm going out like this." Howard answered and took off his coat, revealing tattoos on his arms.

"Howard, what did you do?" Leonard asked his friend.

"They're called tattoo sleeves." he explained. "Look. I bought them online, Raj got a set, too. Fantastic, right? Put them on, have hot sex with some freaky girl with her business pierced, take them off, and I can still be buried in a Jewish cemetery."

"You know, I've always wanted to go to a goth nightclub." Sheldon interjected, surprising everybody, making Howard ask for confimation. "Bazinga! None of you ever see my practical jokes coming, do you?" he continued and stood up.

"Okay, how about you two? Look, I've got some extra tat sleeves." Howard turned to her and Leonard.

"Uh, yeah, I think we'll pass." Penny replied for both of them.

"Oh, is the misses speaking for the couple now?" Howard directed at Leonard, his voice full of a mixture of mild contempt and sarcasm.

"In this case, you bet she is." Leonard admitted proudly and Penny watched Raj whisper in Howard's ear.

"What do you mean she's speaking for them for two years? Are you still on that?" Howard asked the Indian and shook his head. "I told you, if there had been something between them, we would have known. Leonard is not that hard to read."

"You're faith in me is warming." Leonard said sarcastically.

"Yeah yeah." Howard waved off Leonard's comment and turned to Raj. "Come on, I want to stop at Walgreens and pick up some more eyeliner." he told the Indian and they left.

"They're gonna get beaten up at that club." Leonard commented.

"They're gonna get beaten up at Walgreens." Penny clarified and sat down in Sheldon's spot before jumping up again. "Oh, sorry, Sheldon, I almost sat in your spot."

"Did you? I didn't notice. Have a chocolate." the lanky physicist said and held the box out for her.

She scooted into the middle seat with Leonard standing up and putting his own plate away as Sheldon put the DVD of the movie into the player that they would be watching tonight. Penny knew that it wouldn't be a movie that she usually liked to watch but hoped that it would at least some superhero movie with a hot lead actor. But then she saw a cartoon coming up and sat back, wondering how she should watch this when the characters started talking in Japanese.

After an hour, she was more confused than at the start of the movie. She couldn't even watch it properly, since it was in Japanese with subtitles that she had to read fast because they sometimes appeared only for a couple of seconds. She did enjoy the swordplay the characters showed, although it was mostly too fast to be believable, but it WAS a cartoon.

"What's this cartoon called again?" she asked the guys, who she sat between.

"Oshikuru: Demon Samurai." Leonard said proudly.

"And it's not a cartoon, it's anime." Sheldon clarified.

"Anime. You know, I knew a girl in high school named Anna May. Anna May Fletcher." she remembered and started to giggle. "She was born with one nostril. Then she had this bad nose job and basically wound up with three."

"You're here a lot now." Sheldon remarked but didn't say anything more.

"I'm here practically every day, you should have gotten used to it by now."

"You talk a lot." Sheldon remarked again.

"Oh, am I talking too much? I'm sorry. Zip." she mimicked zipping her mouth shut.

"Thank you." Sheldon said and held the chocolate box out again and she took one just as her phone rang. She looked at the caller-ID and saw Kim's contact on it.

"Hey Kim."

"Hey Penny, I just wanted to call to ask if everything is okay, we haven't really talked to each other since... you know."

"Yeah, I..." she started and saw Sheldon look at her disapprovingly."You know what, hold on, let me take this in the hall." she continued and to her surprise, got another chocolate which she chewed as she walked outside.

"So listen, have you heard about Kim?" Penny asked.

"I am Kim." came the reply.

"No, Kim the night manager."

"Oh yeah, I heard they put her on maternity leave." Kim told her.

"They did but I mean about her husband and her replacement."

"No, what?"

"Do you know Kim's husband?" Penny asked.

"Um... I think his name is Sandy, isn't it?"

"Yeah but here's the funny part. Kim's replacement is a woman named Sandy who has a husband called Kim." Penny laughed.

"Wait, isn't Kim a female name?"

"Apparently not but hey, we're not males called Kim."

"No, we're not." Kim said and paused for several seconds, making Penny look at her screen to see if the call had been disconnected.

"Kim, you still there?"

"Yeah. I, uh... I wanted to ask if you hate me and Cheryl now." Kim asked quietly.

"Why would you think that?" Penny asked, just as quiet.

"Well... while you haven't actively avoided us since the... incident, you didn't really talk to us since then."

"I don't... hate you. It's just, while I was grateful for what you did when you did it, it became clear to me that it still was kind of cheating. And now I don't know if I should tell him or if I do, how would I do that."

"I can't help you there. I admit, I have cheated on my boyfriends with guys who then became my boyfriends and not once did the original relationship survive." Kim said.

"And you wonder why other people think you're sluts." Penny muttered.

"Very funny. We haven't been with guys for a while now." Cheryl's voice came out of the speaker.

"Cheryl, is that you?"

"Yeah, Kim put you on speaker." her other friend told her. "So, you think you cheated on Leonard but not really, because there wasn't another guy involved and you were stinking drunk and we kinda started it?"

"See, that's why I don't know what to do. I hate myself for having done it, I hate myself even more for keeping it from him but I love him too much to tell him." Penny replied, starting to tear up.

"We're sorry." Kim said. "But we do promise not to tell him anything. Either you tell him or not, it will be your decision."

"Thank you. I really do want to tell him but I don't know how."

"We can't help you with that." Cheryl said. "Oh, did you talk to Marie recently?"

"No, why?"

"She wants a baby from Eric and stopped her birth control without telling him." Cheryl laughed.

"Oh my God, she didn't!" Penny shouted.

"Yeah, she did."

"Why would she do that? Won't that threaten her relationship with him?"

"Apparently he wanted it that way? She said that he told her that he would never be ready to become a father but would also never shirk the responsibility, so if she wanted a child with him, she needs to stop take birth control and not tell him."

"Wow, I hope this stuff doesn't backfire on her. If he's saying that he'll never be ready to be a father, he could panic and bolt when her stomach is round and the first contractions begin." Penny said.

"What are you doing tonight?" Kim asked.

"Movie night with Leonard and his roommate. They're watching a weird Japanese cartoon. Even in Japanese language with English subtitles."

"Um... okay. Weird... but okay." Cheryl stuttered.

"Come on, you know they are nerds." Penny grinned.

"Still, Japanese? Couldn't they watch it with English voice-overs?" Kim asked.

"Have you ever seen a Japanese movie with English voice-overs? Their mouths keep moving when the voice stops. It looks ridiculous." Penny answered.

"How do you know about how that looks?"

"Leonard made me watch some of those old Godzilla movies." Penny sighed.

"Alright. I think we'll let you go back to your... movie." Kim laughed.

"Fine. Bye girls." Penny huffed and hung up, pocketing her phone again.

Penny reentered the apartment, receiving another chocolate from Sheldon as she sat down, not knowing what for but accepting it anyway, since they still tasted amazing. She leaned back and looked at the TV again, wondering again why the guys watched this while she tried to read fast enough to understand the dialog.

The move ran for more than another hour, making her again wonder how they could watch a movie not in English that ran as long as the extended version of Lord of the Rings. As the guys started moving again, she asked herself why the first movie that popped into her head as a comparison was a fantasy movie she had never watched before meeting Leonard.

"Well, I'm going to make some warm milk and then turn in." Sheldon proclaimed as he stood up. "I trust if you two are planning in engaging in amorous activities, you'll keep the decibel level to a minimum, unlike this morning."

"Of course." Penny agreed, a little ashamed at the thought of him hearing them.

"Thank you." Sheldon returned and threw her another piece of chocolate, which she caught with her mouth.

"Mmmh, these are so good." she exclaimed.

"We should probably turn in too. I'm a little tired after our short night, even with those caffeine pills."

"Well, my new bed got delivered this afternoon, if you come over and put it together, you can stay at my place." she suggested.

"Really, that's a lot of work, and it's kind of late. And if we have to do loud work, we violate the house rules for working after ten."

"Yeah, but if we stay there, we won't have to be quiet." she said seductively and grinned when he immediately turned around and fast-walked towards the apartment door.

They walked over to her apartment and Penny opened the door for them, making room for Leonard to walk in. They continued on into the bedroom and Penny grabbed a letter opener to cut the adhesive tape holding the boxes together.

"Wait a minute." Penny interrupted them. "I just realized that they must have delivered either the wrong bed or a wrong box."

"Why do you say that?" Leonard asked.

"The bed I had to choose had a pretty high headboard. The box with the bed parts is too small to contain the headboard."

"No, it's the right bed." he smiled back at her.

"Leonard, what did you do?"

"Nothing bad, you'll see."

He unpacked the box and got out the top, bottom, middle and side parts, along with the screws and the corner brackets. He started screwing one of the brackets to the headpiece before doing the same with the other side. Next he lined up the side pieces and screwed them tight to the top brackets and added two other brackets to the bottom part of the bed.

With Penny holding it, he fastened the last screws to attach the bottom piece before inserting the middle board that divided the halves and installing the remaining brackets, thereby fastening the middle piece to the top and bottom part.

"What kind of bed did they deliver? I don't remember that middle piece in the bed I bought." Penny said.

"Lets install the slatted frames. They are screwed into the remaining holes, for them I need the screws with nuts." Leonard evaded her question.

Penny held them ready while he unpacked the two slatted frames. Her mouth dropped open when she saw that they were the same that her dream bed had, with the same-colored wooden slats wrapped into their elastic straps on the sides. She helped Leonard by holding the frames in place while he screwed them tight to the bed before he got up again and put away the screwdriver and wrench.

The kicker came when he was done folding up the empty boxes and bringing them out of the bedroom and opening the last box that contained the mattress. While Penny hold on to one end of the box, Leonard pulled the foil-covered mattress out. Since the foil was green and not transparent, she could only assume that he had an ace up his sleeve by the grin on his face.

"Leonard, you did something." she said through squinted eyes as he grabbed a pair of scissors to open the foil.

"Nothing bad, I promise." he returned and pulled the foil off the mattress, revealing a different mattress that she bought.

"Leonard! That is my dream bed. The one I can't afford."

"I know. I fronted the rest of it." came his reply.

"Damn Leonard, I can't always take your money." she complained. "I will pay you back."

"Of course you will. This isn't a gift, it's a loan without interest. You can pay me back in tens or twenties or fifties, whatever amount you can afford each month."

"But..."

"Penny. This mattress is not only comfortable, it's healthy. It doesn't only have the coil suspension, it has a silicone shell that conforms to your body when it's on it, no matter how you are lying on it." he explained as he put the mattress on the bed.

"But..."

"Penny." he stopped her again. "It's okay. Also, since I hope to sleep in his bed quite often, it's also for me. And I like to be comfortable when I sleep, no matter in what... position." he winked.

"Thank you." she said sincerely and kissed him before they put the sheets on the bed together.

Once the bed was made, both went into the bathroom and took turns washing themselves at the sink. Penny used the toilet as he brushed his teeth and brushed her own teeth in the bedroom while he used the toilet.

As she was taking her pajamas out of the drawers for later, Leonard left her apartment for a minute before returning with his own night clothes and robe. He changed directly into them and got into bed, a move she watched with confusion.

"Um... Leonard?" she asked, pointing at her naked body.

"Not tonight honey, I'm tired." he said with a laugh.

"Isn't that supposed to my line?" she grinned. "But why not?"

"Penny, believe it or not, I truly am tired. Also, while you tried to hide, you feel sore down there."

"How do you know?"

"You walk with a very slight limp."

"Leonard!" she whined.

"Honey, we have all week. For now, lets enjoy this new bed. Get in here and experience the comfort of body conforming silicon in independent coil suspension."

She put on her pajama shorts and top and got into the bed, pulling the comforter over herself and hearing the crack of the contorting mattress, a sound she heard every time she laid down on a brand new mattress.

"Oh my god, I love you so much." she sighed.

"Thanks, I love you too." Leonard said.

"Oh, yeah, I love you too Leonard."

"You meant the mattress!" he said with mock indignation.

"Of course I meant the mattress." she laughed. "But I really love you for going behind my back on this."

"Good night Penny." he said with a smile.

"Good night Leonard."

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Leonard had been right, she did feel a little sore from their activities last night and she was tired. And this was the first night in a long time that they spent in her bed without sleeping in each others arms. But tomorrow, he would again be under her, causing her pleasure. With a smile, she soon fell asleep.

Okay, I'm stopping here, otherwise you won't get this chapter for another week ^^

You might have noticed, I have combined two episodes and left one out (since there was no reason for the won't-they-after-all drama)

Review please :)