Chapter 2

Unpleasant news

Last Night

Penny groaned and glanced at her clock, wincing at the pain in her head. It was 2:15 AM, Leonard had returned home just 45 minutes ago. He had been working long hours on an important experiment for the last two weeks, and Penny had become quite stressed at hardly seeing him lately. She groaned again why did she always drink when she was stressed, an image in her memory came of the night that she became so stressed , that she had then filled a measuring jug with wine to stop the empty feeling that she had had when Leonard was dating Priya and thence came a strong desire within herself to see him.

She had taken her laptop over to 4A in pretense to get the WiFi password. only to find out from Sheldon that Leonard was now living with Priya at Raj's. the tears brimmed once again as she recalled the sickening empty feeling at hearing this news only to drink more alcohol and then waking up naked beside Rajesh, only to be caught later by Leonard as she attempted to tiptoe out.
The pain at causing Leonard hurt was still strong within her even now, especially when she remembered lamely saying "it's not what it looks like" before fleeing in shame and guilt.
In spite of Raj confessing that they had not had sex she still drank to nullify the grief she felt at hurting Leonard, and it still made her very angry with herself for all the times she hurt him.

Penny gets unpleasant news

It was on a girls night with Amy and Bernadette on the Wednesday evening a week ago. And straight away Penny noticed Bernadette seemed rather tense, so Penny took advantage of Amy's bathroom break and asked Bernadette if anything was wrong. As Penny, still thankful for Bernadette's help with Penny's commitment issues was keen to repay the favour and help her friend.

Bernadette at first seemed too nervous of Penny to say what was up. But she decided that Penny was her friend and she really ought to know.

"Well, you see Penny, Howard told me last night that Stephen Hawking is planning another trip to the North sea and also a couple of months in the Barents sea, so they will be going for a total of four months".

"What?, are you kidding me?", Penny interrupted, "Don't tell me, I bet he's asked for Leonard again, Hasn't he?", Penny asked Bernadette, as Penny Immediately began fretting over being apart from Leonard for four months.

Bernadette felt her her own stress levels begin to rise as Penny's voice had risen an octave. "I'm sorry Penny but Howard told me that Professor hawking had rung him and asked for Leonard's cellphone number.

Penny said nothing for a few minutes as she was feeling stunned at this news. Suddenly with an "Excuse me" to Bernadette she made her way rapidly over to 4a and hammered violently on the door.

"Really Penny how can you expect me to work on the rules for my new game, three person chess when you seem intent on causing a ruckus", Sheldon told her as he opened his door.

"shut up Sheldon. Now tell me did you know about another trip to the north sea coming up?", Penny demanded fiercely.

"why yes of course, Leonard and I were discussing it last week, and would you believe it but they are taking my labradoodle Alex from me, and sending her on the expedition, honest the effrontery of them. now who on earth am I supposed to get to do all the menial tasks that will need to be carried out. I mean I would've asked Leonard but..., well really she comes banging on my door then suddenly leaves in a huff while I am still speaking", and shaking his head at Penny's rudeness he closed his door.

Penny burst into her apartment so suddenly that it startled the two women who were nervously waiting for her to return.

Penny without hesitation immediately opened another bottle of wine and after quickly offering a top up to Amy and Bernadette, who both declined, Penny by now very stressed over the news, immediately began drinking from the bottle.

"Hey Penny!, go easy, we have already consumed 2 bottles tonight between the three of us. And too much alcohol can do irreparable damage to ones liver", Amy informed her.

"I can't help it Amy, God I feel so stressed I've got to do something, what do I do?, I feel as if I could climb the walls right now", Penny replied before taking another hefty swig.

"Penny, you really need to talk to Leonard and find out for sure", Bernadette advised.

"I don't know, wouldn't I be guilty of holding back his career?, wouldn't he think the same?", Penny replied before once again decanting the bottle straight to her mouth.

"but at the same time I know I just can't be without him for four months, especially now Sheldon's informed me that Alex has also been assigned to the project", Penny told them before again raising the bottle.

"I'm sure you have nothing to worry about, you know Leonard loves you very much", Amy reminded her.

"Yeah but how would he cope with being holed up in the small confines of a boat for four months with her", and at this Penny drained her bottle before collapsing on her couch, before looking round for something more to drink.

Amy and Bernadette did not know what to do, Penny was getting more and more wasted by the hour.

She really needed to talk to Leonard and they could not do it for her.

Amy suggested they talk to Leonard but Bernadette reminded her that Penny might not be too pleased with them both if Leonard stayed and damaged his career prospects.

So with them reaching a seemingly insurmountable obstacle, they decided to leave as Penny was by now snoring drunkenly on her couch.

The Present

Leonard Wearily arrived at 4b at 11:45 pm. He was sick of staring at mountains of data on a computer screen and shuddered at knowing he would be doing the same thing for the rest of the week. But he was sure the answer was in that data somewhere, he had no choice he just had to carry on and find it.

He put down his work-bag and removed his hoodie before becoming aware of the snoring from Penny.

"Well Honey, looks like you all had another successful girls night then, I wouldn't have minded trading places with you this evening that's for sure", he said half to himself and half to a comatose Penny once again worse the wear for drink, through her stress.

Picking her up off of the couch, he unsteadily made his way over to the bedroom while wondering to himself how Penny would have coped with staring at a computer screen all day, then once he was in the bedroom he laid her on the bed before stripping her down to her underwear then undressing himself he got in beside her and pulled the covers over them both and immediately fell asleep despite Penny's drunken snoring in his ear.

Penny awoke with a blinding hangover and an extremely foul taste in her mouth, then turning to peer at her clock through half open eyelids, she muttered an oath as it read 11:15 am. Then gratefully spying the water and tablets by her clock she carefully sat up and took the tablets and drank the water, feeling thankful to Leonard as it took away the foul taste a little. She then phoned in sick telling Dan that she had a migraine, (Well it certainly feels like one, so it was a little like the truth after all).

And not feeling ready to get up she lay there and mulled over her situation, but alas she only found she had upped her stress levels again as she failed to come up with an answer. She lay there and just could not get the visions of Alex hitting on Leonard again, and worse still she imagined them making out and worse during that trip so to say Penny was in bits by now would be an understatement. It was bad enough Penny's agonizing over whether to speak to Leonard or not over the past week or more, but finally her tiredness won out but to her chagrin she woke up to find Leonard had already left.

Penny returned home and sadly once again hit the bottle, so by the time Leonard had arrived home she had consumed a bottle and a half of wine. Then in spite of her inebriated state Penny decided to see if Leonard would mention Hawking's trip.

"Hey, how was it at the Lab today?", she began, her tension evident in her voice. And hoping Leonard would then talk to her about a certain expedition.

"It was OK, nothing special" Leonard replied quietly, still mulling over the data inside his head but not without Penny's notice "thinking of four months with Alex I'll bet", she thought.
And at that very thought all Penny's fears and insecurities came to a head and Penny's outrage burst forth.

"So when the hell are you going to tell me about the north sea trip then?" Penny screeched.
"Oh you've heard about that then" said Leonard a bit taken aback "I wasn't going to say anything" he said
Penny shrieked, "yes I'll bet you weren't, or to inform me that Alex was also going either I suppose".
Leonard moved towards Penny despite her resistance and put his arms around her "Alex is going because I won't be, I turned it down", he informed her "that English Doctor, Doctor Stephen Jones, you know him, well he's on loan from Cambridge university for a while. And he is going in my stead and he personally asked Dr Gabelhauser if he could have Alex as his assistant, I didn't tell you because I thought you would be sure to fret about holding me back in my career". "also", he giggled, "Sheldon was not a little annoyed at losing his labradoodle for four months"

"Oh" , Penny gasped not hearing his comment about Sheldon, suddenly finding she needed support from the arm of her couch, as she was feeling weak with Relief (or nearly two bottles of wine, or both) and now feeling a little foolish for over reacting, "but I was so sure you would be going?", she said, but feeling absolutely elated inside herself that he was staying put.

"My Darling Penny, You see I could not bear to be parted from you now, you see everything has changed with us moving forward as a couple, with us now living together, everything has changed now that you have overcome your fear of committing to me and also you have even set the date and started to plan our wedding;
So now I need to make any decisions now for 'us'; 'we' are now my number one priority and I will decide whatever it takes that will make 'us' stronger as a couple, and a whole four months away will not do that, that is why I turned it down".

Penny finally giving way to tears sobbed with relief and held him tightly telling him over and over again how much she loved him and how precious to her he was.

Later that night In bed, with Penny spooning in front of Leonard, She moved her hand onto Leonard's intertwining their fingers and thought about Leonard's statement to her;
"he's right, we are a committed couple now and how true that is for I know Leonard is so important to me, and vowing to herself that for her too Leonard would always take priority and she will also always make the decisions that would make their partnership stronger

Then she turned to face him kissing him despite him sleeping.
alerting Leonard who asked if she was OK in reply Penny begged " just hold me close please honey, I love you so much", she sniffed.

Leonard held her tightly to him and told her "Listen, after looking at a computer screen for two weeks, I'm going to take the rest of the week off, is there anywhere you would like to go my love".
Penny nuzzled her cheek against his, "I don't mind, just as long as I'm with you" she whispered lovingly to him", then added, "The beach would be good and perhaps a picnic too, especially when it's with you", she added.

And at that she snuggled closer in Leonard's arms and slept soundly and dreamed she was spending a wonderful time on the beach with her Leonard.