Apartment 4B Las Robles Avenue

Amy informs Penny "Good news: the wildebeest is in the curry."

Penny is, not for the first time that day, confused."The what?"

"Bernadette is with Priya and Leonard. Message received. Commence operation "Priya Wouldn't Wanna be-ya."

Penny gets slightly exasperated."Seriously? Didn't you get enough of this cliquey crap in high school?"

Amy's response then evokes her sympathy. "I wish. A clique requires friends. I didn't have any."

Penny is surprised. "None?

"I used to take my lunch down to the maintenance room and eat with the janitor. It was nice until his wife called me a puta and made me stop. Hang on. It's the wildebeest. Priya just made a snide comment about your acting career."

Amy's sudden change of topic catches Penny by surprise."Wh… What the hell did she say?"

"She thinks it's cool you're following your dream, no matter what.

"That bitch!"

"How do you want to handle it?" Amy is getting excited.

Penny has to think very quickly."Um, okay. Tell Bernadette to tell Priya that I'm on my way to Prague to shoot a movie with Angelina Jolie."

"Got it. Is it going to be in 3-D?"

Penny is further confused. "What? I don't know. It doesn't matter."

Amy now had a very mischievous smile. "I'm gonna say 3-D. That'll let her know the studio has faith in it."

Raj's apartment.

Leonard is startled "You're kidding. 3-D?"

Bernadette is surprisingly confident."That's what I hear."

Howard backs her up."Then the studio must have real faith in it."

Leonard is still very surprised."Wonder why she didn't tell me."

Even though she is not a litigator Priya suddenly goes into cross examination mode on her boyfriend. "Have you been spending time with your ex-girlfriend?"

Leonard is lying through his teeth."No".

Priya continues."Then why are you surprised she didn't tell you?"

Leonard is now struggling."Well, it's not as much surprised as, uh, uh, you know, uh. th-th-th-the other thing."

"What other thing?"

Leonard is finding it harder and harder to get out of the metaphorical hole that he had dug for himself.

"Well, you know, if you, if, if, if you, uh, I don't, oh, what's the word I'm looking for?"

Leonard looks pleadingly towards Howard. Howard however has a big grin on his face."I'm not going to help you. This is hilarious."

Howard's wife however does try to change the subject."She's also dating an astronaut."

Priya is slightly taken aback."Wow. That's very impressive."

Bernadette however doesn't like her friends feeling inferior."Yeah. But Leonard's impressive, too".

Leonard tried to build on Bernadette's comment in order to recover from his earlier faux pas."Thank you. Befuddled. The word I was looking for was befuddled."

This however does not have the effect Leonard intended and instead leads to Priya reverting back to interrogation mode."Leonard you promised that you would no longer be spending any time with Penny. Have you broken your promise?"

Leonard's voice becomes higher pitched."No"

However he is now overcome with guilt and whispers to himself 'I can't do this'."Actually yes. My car broke down the other week and I asked Penny to come and pick us up. I'm sorry".

Priya is now confused."When did your car breakdown and who is this us?"

Leonard is now in full confessional mode. "My car broke down after I, Sheldon, Howard and Raj went to Todd Zarnecki's house"

"Who the hell is Todd Zarnecki?"

"He is the guy that hacked into Sheldon's World of Warcraft account and stole his stuff. Sheldon traced him to his address in San Diego and we all went to confront him. On the way back home my car broke down"

Priya was staring to get angry."So you called Penny instead of me. Why?"

"Because I had told you that I was working late when in fact I had gone to San Diego"

Priya realised something and felt further betrayed."Hold on I asked Rajesh about whether you were working late that day he said that you were."

Leonard's levels of guilt were increasing.

"Sorry I actually told him to do that"

Priya's anger levels were rising although outwardly she maintained a facade of calm."So now I not only have my boyfriend lying to me but also have my brother being complicit in that lie with him. This just gets better. However what I don't understand is why you felt the need to lie in the first place?"

Leonard's confessional continued."I didn't think you would understand that I had blown off spending time with you in order to help Sheldon retrieve his stolen items "

Priya retorted."You're right I don't understand but I suppose Penny does? That is why you called her instead of me. After all I bet she finds you and your friends' teenage obsessions of superheroes and games, cute?"

Leonard now found that he was getting angry. "Please Priya, Penny did nothing wrong .All she did is help her friends out when we needed her".

"You told me that you had spoken to her about you and her not associating with each other anymore. Yet the first chance she gets she violates that".

Leonard defends Penny. "Actually it was I who broke the promise not Penny. I rang her"

However Priya is still in attack mode. "She could have said no".

"I was the one who told Penny that me and her needed to stay away from each other. Although she respected the reasons for my request I know it is not something she wanted. It is something I requested because you asked me to. It was I who then contradicted what I had told her by ringing her.

Anyway what I talked to her about was about was me and her keeping our distance from each other. I have no right to tell Penny to stay away from Sheldon, Howard or even Raj, who were in the car with me. These are people that she has known and been friends with for years. Is she not allowed to help them?

By the way you are right; Penny is not somebody who is judgemental about her friends' hobbies. Sure she rolls her eyes and makes fun of us occasionally but she accepts us for what we are. That is one of the things that I lo.. I mean like about her."

Priya's fury is now starting to become visible on her face.

"You were going to say love weren't you? You are still in love with your ex-girlfriend despite the fact that she dumped you publicly when you told her this. You're not only defending her, but you are insinuating that she was somehow a better girlfriend to you than I am because she was tolerant of your childish hobbies. You are all grown men for God's sake, you need to act your age"

Leonard's need to defend Penny and his friends was making him even less inhibited but he was now getting emotional when Priya reminded him about the Bowling Alley incident. His eyes were moist and his voice was cracking and he was no longer looking at Priya but looking into the distance.

"She is mo.. more than tolerant Priya she is somebody who takes an interest in our hobbies, before and even after she stopped dating me. She is somebody who has always tried to smooth our rough edges in order to get us to fit in but has never tried to fundamentally change me or my friends. She likes us for who we are. Unlike you she was nev.. never embarrassed by me, she never made me wear contact lenses or completely change my wardrobe".

Priya was now very jealous after them remarks."So me trying to improve your style, make you more presentable was wrong. In fact compared to Penny everything that I do as your girlfriend is wrong. This is the same Penny who was so good to you that she decided to break up with you in public."

Leonard was now visibly distressed and was furiously shaking his Asthma inhaler. He took a couple of puffs from it before replying."That was mmm my faul..lt I was pushing her to make a commitment that she was not ready for".

Priya was incredulous."That is pathetic Leonard. I am glad that we have had this discussion because I now realise how deluded you are when it comes to that girl. My God she humiliated you, yet you still defend her. It goes without saying that our relationship is now over, not that it ever stood a chance with you constantly pining and unfavourably comparing me to the actress slash waitress who is your lost love."

"Enough Priya".Howard had reached the end of his tether. He had found Leonard's discomfort amusing at first but then as the discussion between Priya and Leonard became more heated he realised that his friend was now being put through the proverbial emotional wringer he became increasingly concerned.

Priya is momentarily startled by Howard's uncharacteristic forcefulness however she quickly recovers her poise."Please Howard this is none of your business. This is between me and Leonard".

Howard however was not backing down.

"The hell it is, Leonard is my friend and I get the fact that he has hurt you but I have known him for nearly 8 years and I know what he did wouldn't have been intentional. Yes he lied to you however it wasn't about anything major, it's not like he cheated on you."

Priya was not backing down either

"Well no he didn't cheat but he might as well have he chose to spend time with his friends and his ex-girlfriend over me".

"Yes because he knew that you not only don't understand our hobbies but you are openly contemptuous of them. With regards to Penny you also really don't understand, she is more than his ex-girlfriend she is his neighbour and close friend. Like Leonard said she sometimes makes fun of us but she does understand, like Bernie does, like Amy does, the passion we have for our hobbies. Penny has been part of our social group for a long time even before I met Bernie and before Sheldon met Amy. In fact it was Leonard and Penny who were responsible for getting Bernie and I together. Considering this is it reasonable for you to ask him to stay from her?

"It is absolutely reasonable especially considering what we have found out now about his feelings for her. He was supposedly in a serious relationship with me and that should have trumped any sort of relationship that he had with Penny. Unless of course he still has feelings for her in which case he should not be in a relationship with anyone else until he has resolved those feelings."

"To be fair he hasn't said he still has feelings for Penny.

Priya was on a roll."He was just about to admit it before he stopped himself and let's be honest the way he has been speaking about her and the way he looks at her, even when I am there, makes it patently obvious"

"May be it is to those who are on the outside looking in, but I don't think it is obvious to Leonard and that is my point. You've criticised the way that Penny dumped, sorry, ended her relationship with Leonard. At the time we were all pretty mad at her but we all know now that she was confused and allowed Will Wheaton to deceive her. The bottom line is Leonard told her he loved her she obviously didn't feel the same way and didn't want to string him along. What she did was misguided but her intention was to spare the feelings of somebody she cared about. What you are doing is humiliating him as some sort of revenge as he has unintentionally hurt you"

Priya's fury was now visible."EXCUSE me for being human and for criticising my boyfriend for having feelings for another woman. I didn't realise that this was wrong and that I was on some sort of path to sainthood."

Leonard was going through an emotional rollercoaster he was feeling guilty, humiliated and hurt especially when he was reminded for the third time within the space of a few minutes, on this occasion by Howard, of Penny's rejection of him at the Bowling Alley. He was also conflicted about his relationship with Priya. He had really wanted it to work but Priya had just made him realise that he had been, albeit unknowingly, always been comparing her in an unfavourable way to Penny. Whether he meant to or not he had hurt her. He needed to apologise and let the relationship end with Priya's dignity and self respect intact.

"Priya I am very sorry. You have every right to be mad because I have betrayed you. I didn't mean to but I have. You are a wonderful woman and I am very lucky that you gave me the time of day, much less went out with me. Any problems are to do with me and what's going on in my head. Nothing to do with you. I am going to leave now and I again emphasise I am really, really sorry."

He was now in tears. Bernadette has been unusually quiet but there had been a reason for this. Whilst Priya was interrogating Leonard, she had texted Amy telling her that she was going to ring her but that Amy was to answer the 'phone but not say anything. Bernadette was then going to put her 'phone on speaker mode to allow both Amy but particularly Penny to eavesdrop on the argument that was taking place. Bernadette had an idea that the discussion would be heading in the direction that it had and that Penny needed to hear it. However after seeing the impact that the row was having on Leonard she also felt moved to intervene.

"Leonard you always do this, all your friends love you". 'Some more deeply than others, even though they don't realise it themselves'. she thought to herself.

She continued. "We can't stand by and let you feel that you are solely to blame for this relationship ending".

Bernadette was now also on the verge of losing her temper and as a result her voice became deeper and more shrill until she sounded like her future mother in law. She was glaring at Priya whilst still talking to Leonard.

"How can you be when the person you are in a relationship with is trying to mould you into becoming somebody you are not. You are not only a genius scientist but you are more importantly a loving, tolerant person and a loyal friend. Yes you are also a geek your hobbies and the way you dress reflect that. However if you truly care for somebody then you accept that person both for their qualities and their flaws. You don't try to change them to become something they are not".

Leonard however was now overwhelmed with guilt. "Bernadette I have to take responsibility for my actions. I was obviously stringing Priya along and she doesn't deserve that. Nobody deserves that. This is all on me and for what I have done Priya I am truly sorry. I am hope one day you will find it in your heart to forgive me".

Leonard was walking out to leave when he heard a faint but familiar voice say "Leonard Hofstadter don't you dare blame yourself".

He looked around and was very puzzled as to whose voice that was and where the voice was originating from. Seeing Bernadette furiously doing something to her 'phone did not immediately clarify the situation.

He however didn't want to think about that now. He just wanted to leave. He approached the door and was just about to go into the hallway when he heard Priya shout. "Leonard, wait".