Time past and friends gone by. We are now entering the final phase of the story...

Penny and Leonard, still on their own with the owners of TBBT are put together with some friends that you will all recognize (I don't own any of them either)... as well as a couple from the unaired pilot. We go off a bit more in an AU for some characters where the personalities are altered a bit to accommodate some of those unaired pilot personalities.

Penny and Leonard have grown through their experiences and the influences of those occurrences and acquaintances around them into people that have had many personal and professional advancements and disappointments. Penny is a hard as nails, devil may care free spirited young woman that has a soft and loving center that she keeps well hidden. Leonard is a somewhat insecure genius that is looking for acceptance for who he is… without judgement… still looking for the love that will settle his demons of youth… being raised in a purely academic setting… never really finding peace and love except for a few years scattered about in his youth in a small town in Nebraska.


Leonard has become… a research scientist of Experimental Physics at Cal Tech, having completed both his undergrad and Graduate degrees. He is now a PhD. living with an overbearing roommate, also a PhD at Cal Tech that doesn't appreciate what Leonard offers him in friendship and companionship. There have been both professional setbacks with unproven experiments and extreme advancements with an expedition to the North Sea for Stephen Hawking's team. Leonard is still the ever bending willow in a strong headwind trying his best to please his friends while looking for love. He is quite smitten with the blonde that has moved in next door and tries his best to accept their on again… off again relationship.


Penny went from boyfriend to boyfriend her last two years in High School… finally settling on Kurt. She was the most popular girl in school and Kurt was already working at the feed store having graduated the year before her. He seemed to have all the means to support them both as she looked for a way for her dreams to come true. Penny thought she had it all and moved out to Sunny California at the first suggestion by her boyfriend. They were a steady couple and she had a yearning for the Hollywood Lights.


Penny's move to California was years ago and she found that lightning surely does not strike twice. She had tried sitting at a sandwich counter to be discovered to no success. She even let Kurt convince her that some gratuitous nudity would probably help her career when she signed to do a TERRIBLE movie called Serial Apist. The only good that came from having to show off her boobs before getting killed in a shower scene was the fact that she got her SAG card. Thankfully that piece of crap never saw the light of day. With her settling on going to every audition she could fit into her schedule, a little coaching and a lot of acting lessons, Penny had made a paying career out of acting. Unfortunately, upon her signing her first contract, she went home… only to find her boyfriend in bed with one of her best Audition Buddies… Penny later found out that Kurt was fooling around with quite a few of the other starlet wannabe's when Penny was at auditions. Devastated by yet another instance of disappointment and rejection, she was once again… on her own.

Penny had made it to the point where she was a regular in the best of the local theaters and had a few national commercials on her resume, one for a hemorrhoid cream, and reoccurring shoots for a small SUV and an on-line travel booking service. All in all she was pretty happy with her career… being able to support herself and being free from the lying cheating sonofabitch Kurt… or Mike… or Doug… Eric… or even Cole… while still waiting for her big break. Penny had no better luck with Boyfriends these days than she had when she was in High School… something always seemed to get in the way… Either they would cheat on her or they would agree to disagree. One thing was for sure… Penny was becoming very disenchanted in the dating scene. Her last attempt was an e-dating site with a guy by the name of Tom… it turned out that he would have taken way too much effort on her part. Sure she had indicated that she liked to initiate sex… but sometimes you just wanted to be spoiled and Tom would never initiate ANYTHING.


Penny had recently moved into a small apartment. She decorated it with brightly colored furniture and was very pleased with the outcome. Her previous roommate had gotten an offer to perform on Broadway in New York, making the rent a little more than Penny wanted to commit to. Across the hall, her new neighbors were two girls. One was a scientist from Cal Tech. She thought she said she was a Physicist… When Penny heard that word, she immediately thought back all the years to her High School days and listening to Leonard go on… and on… about all that stuff she really didn't understand. She just liked seeing his face light up and listening to the excitement in his voice. Penny always thought it was so calming to listen to Leonard when he wasn't all nervous. The girl's name was Gilda… a strange name but it seemed to fit her pretty well. Gilda always would talk about things that Penny liked to term "Smart Stuff". She would get as excited about new discoveries all the time. They had become fast friends when Penny went to support an animal shelter where Gilda volunteered. It seemed that they had a common interest in rescue pets.

This night, Penny had come home as Gilda was coming in the building with groceries. In one of the bags were a couple of bottles of wine. Penny noticed the bottles and smiled. "SO… rough day sorting out the secrets of the Universe? Or just restocking?

Gilda smirked. "I guess a little of both… My experiment isn't going as well as I thought… and I'm not having much luck with this guy at work…"

Penny frowned. "Boyfriend troubles?... Oh Sweetie… we need to open that bottle right NOW!"

Gilda smiled as they got to their floor. "Hardly boyfriend troubles... although I wouldn't mind… if he would just pay some attention once in a while."

Gilda opened her door and Penny followed her inside. Gilda poured two glasses of wine and they sat on her couch. Penny took a sip of her wine. "Is this guy someone you work with?"

Gilda followed with a large sip of her own. "Not really… his roommate works in the same department s me… but this guy… Sheldon… is a Theoretical Physicist… his is the theory my current experiment is trying to prove. He thinks this stuff up and people like me have to prove it or disprove it. Sheldon is a bit of a stickler on this stuff. If you ever say he's wrong… he basically tries to tear you a new one because it MUST have been you parameters for the experiment rather than his theory."

Penny frowned. "He sounds like a whackadoodle… why would you get mixed up with him anyway?"

Gilda took another sip. "Well… he's brilliant… he has an I.Q. of 180… and he's kinda cute… and we sort of hooked up at Comic Con last year…"

Penny had a quick comeback. "LAST YEAR?! Just once? in a whole year?"


Leonard flopped onto the couch in his apartment and took off his glasses then rubbed his eyes. As much as Sheldon tried to not ask questions that would inevitably lead to nonsensical chit chat about inane topics, he had come to realize that Leonard needed some moral support when dealing with certain topics. "Leonard?... are you having discomfort due to yet another failed attempt at your current relationship?"

Leonard looked to the side as Sheldon came from behind the breakfast bar in the kitchen with two cups of tea, setting one in front of Leonard. "What's this?"

Sheldon sat in what had become known to Leonard and his friends as "His Spot". "I think that is fairly self-evident… it's tea… you seemed distressed… and since I was making a cup for myself, it seemed only a mild deviation from my planned activity to provide you with a warm beverage due to the fact that you seem upset."

Leonard half smiled as he put his glasses on. "I'm sorry that I interfered with your planned activity… what exactly did you have planned?"

Sheldon looked confused. "I planned on having a cup of tea…"

Leonard shook his head. "Thank you for the tea Sheldon, that was very thoughtful of you".

Sheldon sipped his tea. "Social convention is that it is… the interference I fear hasn't happened yet. It seems that I have been told I should take a more interested attitude to other people's apparent problems… So… what seems to be upsetting you?"

Leonard was more than surprised at Sheldon's interest. " Well… thank you for asking… I guess I had a little misunderstanding with Kate..."

Sheldon picked up the T.V. remote and pointed it at the Television. "Nope… That's just not going to interest me at all."

Leonard cocked his head. "Just who was it that tried to bring you into the normal world?"

Sheldon flipped through some channels. "Gilda of course… Now… what would you rather watch… Battlestar… or StarTrek… the original series?"


Gilda sat at a lunch table in the cafeteria at Cal Tech waiting for Leonard to join her. Unfortunately, Howard Wolowitz and Rajesh Koothrapalli came in and sat down. They were both friends of Leonard's… although Gilda really didn't understand just why that was sometimes. Gilda smiled. "Hi guys… where's Leonard?"

Howard sat down. "I have no idea… He said something about Kate… and then asked if I could pick Sheldon up and bring him to work."

Gilda's eyes lit up. "Sheldon's coming to lunch?"

Raj smiled. "Back off on the enthusiasm… He was pretty deep in thought at his board when I passed his office."

Gilda was a little shocked. "My… MY… aren't WE chatty?"

Howard chuckled. "He's half bombed… the Astrophysics department had a meet and greet this morning… complete with Mimosas."

Raj giggled. "They're kicking my little brown ass!"

Just then… Leonard sat down. Gilda frowned. "You look like shit".

Leonard shrugged. "No… it's all good… I just had to see Kate before I got in."

Sheldon entered the cafeteria and sat with his tray next to Howard and Raj, across from Leonard and Gilda. "Good afternoon all… what are we talking about?"

Howard took a bite of his sandwich. "Leonard's having a hard time getting laid again".

Rag giggled. "Tough times in Kate-land".

Leonard shook his head. "No… it's not like that."

Sheldon harrumphed. "Leonard… please… that girl is just using you to get from one drunken night to another… The only time she is slightly civil is when we go to the Cheese cake Factory on Tuesday night… and that's only because she has been threatened by her manager for berating the customers… it's no wonder she gets so poorly tipped".

Howard put his sandwich down. "Hey… can you get Kate to maybe set me up with that other hot blonde waitress?"

Leonard thought. "Bernadette?"

Howard smiled. "Sure… Bernadette… the one with the huge "fun bags".

Gilda frowned. "You're a pig Howard". She then turned her attention across the table next to Howard. "Hey Sheldon".

Sheldon looked up. "Have WE had any more success in proving my theory?"

Gilda grimaced. "Actually… I was having a little problem and was going to ask for Leonard's help."

Leonard almost choked half spitting out a fork full of salad. "Are you insane? Why you would even THINK of attempting to prove anything from him is a mystery to me… There's no way I'M going down THAT particular rabbit hole…"

Gilda just looked at Leonard. "Gee… THANKS… buddy…"

Sheldon looked on with derision. "Honestly… I don't really know why you Bench Monkeys are having so many problems… you're practically Engineers…"

Raj interjected. "Enough of all of that. I think it would be a wonderful idea if we all tried to DE-stress by having a night out as a group… I've been thinking about dinner at my apartment…"

Howard quickly looked up. "NO friggin way are you going to start another one of your Murder Mystery Dinner Theaters… I'm OUT." He then looked at Leonard. "Unless you can get Kate to bring Bernadette…"

Sheldon looked over. "Counter proposal… The new Sci-Fi pot luck theater is having a showing this weekend."

Gilda smiled. "Great… Leonard and Kate… Howard and Bernadette… Sheldon… Me… and Raj."

Raj frowned. "Sorry Sheldon… you're alone again…"

Gilda looked slightly horrified. "Hey… what are you saying? Why am I going with YOU… I'm not going with you…"

Raj was confused. "You clearly said you were… you said… and I quote… Sheldon… Me and Raj… that would be… Sheldon… yourself and ME."

Gilda rubbed her forehead while leaning on the table with her elbow. "We really need to find you a girlfriend…"

Leonard chuckled. "You mean other than Howard… right?"


Penny had been rehearsing all week for the Streetcar Named Desire. She had the part of Blanche. It was not a hard part but Penny just didn't like the way the director was seeing the part. Blanche was a southern girl and the director wanted a flat even pitch that could come from anywhere USA… somehow, Penny thought that there was something missing from the performance. She had tried to tell him but was having no luck at all. There was not much she could do about it… short of sleeping with him to get his attention… and there was NO WAY she was about to do something like that! All she could do was put as much feeling into the words she could. It was a pretty long day and all she wanted to do was sit on her couch and watch some mundane old sitcoms… with wine of course.

As Penny got to her floor, she saw Gilda had the door to her apartment open and she was pushing some things inboxes into the hall. Penny smiled. "Whatchadoin?"

Gilda almost threw the box she was carrying. "Omygod… geez…" She put down the box and held her chest. "Oh… Hi Penny… Wendy's moving out… it seems her boyfriend finally warmed up to the Idea of moving in together."

Penny frowned. "That's too bad… you'll have to find a new roommate".

Gilda suddenly lit up with hope. "You don't suppose…"

Penny stepped back and held up her hand. "Woah… woah… woah… nu… uh… I just got my place the way I like it and I just lost a roommate… I was thinking that I was really liking the single thing…"

Gilda's eyes brightened again… "You're SINGLE!"

Penny cocked her head. "And staying that way! In my own apartment…" Penny noticed Gilda's disappointment. "But I WILL offer you a glass of wine… or a cold Beer… you look like you could use it… I know I can… C'mon over… Bar opens in a half hour after I take a shower."

Gilda smiled. "You're on… I just have to get these boxes down stairs… Wendy's coming over for them… she's getting the car."

Penny smiled. "Bring her too…"

Gilda shrugged. "Nah… she's coming with her boyfriend and he's kind of an ass. Besides… I have something I want to ask you… a favor…"


Howard and Raj sat on the couch with Leonard in his chair. Sheldon was coming over with a four pads and pencils and a game box. They were going to play Klingon Boggle.

Howard looked Leonard in the eyes. "Seriously… we had a pact… if either of us ever got a hot girlfriend… that girlfriend would have to set up the other one of us with an equally hot girlfriend…"

Leonard slumped in his chair. "Howard… just because Kate works at the Cheesecake Factory… and Bernadette works at the Cheesecake Factory… doesn't mean she would set you up with Bernadette. I don't even know if they are friends. And if they are… and if she wants to STAY friends… that fact may play into whether she would actually set you up…"

Howard put up his hands. "Not my problem… a pact is a pact".


Penny took her shower and mostly dried her hair pulling it into a ponytail, then put on a pair of comfortable sweat pants and an oversized Nebraska Cornhuskers sweatshirt just like the one she had as a teenager. She then heard a knock on the door and let Gilda in.

Gilda looked at Penny's attire and smiled. "Looks more like a beer night."

Penny laughed as she looked down at herself. "Yeah… well… that's the kind of day it was…" Penny went to the fridge and took out two beers, handing one to Gilda when she came to the couch. "I had to fend off one of the producers of the play again… this guy just doesn't take NO for an answer. And his hands are all over the place.

Gilda looked surprised. "What did you do?"

Penny smiled slightly. "I was at my makeup table and went to fix one of my shoes and was bent over… when he went for my ass… I stood up fast turned quick and elbowed him right in the ribs… I made it look like it was a mistake… but he might have seen through that."

Gilda smiled. "Could that get you off the play?"

Penny shrugged. "I've been trying to get the Director to change some stuff… which he won't do… so… eh… although, I do need the money…"

Gilda was surprised and gasped a bit. "What are you saying? You wouldn't…"

Penny waved her hands. "NO… of course not… not with either of them… even if they are good on the eyes." Penny then thought back to her High School days…. It certainly would have been something to think about back then. "So… what're you gonna do for a roommate? Can you afford the rent all alone?"

Gilda took a swig of beer. "Not really… My cousin has a friend from college… she went to Harvard… her old roommate is looking for a place to live… she wants to get away from her mother for some reason or another…She's in Glendale… My cousin said she might want to room together… I hear she's a little strange… but hey… who isn't..."

Penny held out her beer and the two friends clinked bottles. "You got that right sister… So… what is it that you need help with?"


Leonard knocked on the door to 4B. He heard some slight swearing from the other side of the door and it opened with Kate sharply stating. "WHAT?!... oh… Leonard… Hi… what…"

Leonard half smiled. "I see that you have had another stellar day at the restaurant?"

Kate shut the door as Leonard entered, took a puff from her cigarette and walked to the couch. "Yeah… well… it's hard to get all worked up and positive when all you do is bring food to people that are too lazy to cook something for themselves… Oh... Sorry about this morning... You really should know better than to wake me up so early..." She then snuffed the cigarette out in the already too full ashtray on the coffee table knowing that Leonard didn't approve of smoking for more reasons than it irritated his asthma.

Leonard held up a finger after waving the remnants of Kate's exhale. "Yeah... I guess by now I should but ...On that other note… We're having Chinese… do you want some?"

Kate shrugged. "Well… if you're gonna force me…" She then picked up her Tic Tac's and shook one into her mouth as she half smiled back at her boyfriend. "Is that all you came over here to ask me?" She threw her hands around his neck and smiled.

Leonard could smell the beer on her breath and looked thoughtfully, trying to figure if this was the right time to bring this up. It looked like Kate's mood was a little brighter and things could move in a more positive way if she was in one of those moods. "Well… you see… the guys all want to get together… and… Have you ever made a pact?"

Kate stopped smiling. "Sure".

Leonard saw the change in her mood. "Well... Howard wanted to know if you…"

Kate dropped her arms and bent over to get a cigarette. Quickly lighting it she took a puff and exhaled in Leonard's general direction. "Uh… huh… You better not go where this sounds it's going…"

Leonard waved his hands to clear the air. "No… not that… not EVER that… He was just wondering… I WAS... just wondering… if you might ask Bernadette if she might want to go out with all of us…"

Kate snuffed out the cigarette after taking a long drag and exhaling off to the side. "I don't know… Bernie's a little up tight sometimes… she scares most of us…. If Howard gets out of hand… she could pretty much KILL him…" Kate then stepped closer to Leonard and smiled again.

"Leonard bent down to pick up the Tic Tac's… handing the pack to Kate. "Either way… it might be fun to watch."

A/N: Leonard has, as you can see, hooked up with his neighbor in 4B... Kate. She is from the unaired pilot and has a mix of that episode and what we know from some of Penny's experiences with the guys. Don't judge... I'm just trying to fit this all together.