A/N: This is one long chapter, I didn't mean for it to be this long, I just kept writing and couldn't stop. I wanted to split it into two chapters but decided against it. There is also some angst and emotional moments. I also had two different scenarios, and it was so hard to pick which one to publish. I hope I chose the right one. Enjoy and thanks to all those who reviewed and to all those who read but didn't review.

Leonard looks at Penny waiting for her to tell him what was on her mind. He didn't want to pressure her. He was willing to wait until she was ready to talk. That's what's friends do. She seems sad, distracted, a little less energetic, he had noticed this before. Penny looked troubled. He pats her gently on the shoulder.

"What's going on Penny.?" Leonard asked.

Penny was finding it difficult to express her true feelings to Leonard; his presence was comforting Penny though,

"I'm sorry Leonard, can we talk later when it just the two of us." She whispered so Howard couldn't hear.

"Sure, I'm here for you anytime." He wanted to know what was troubling Penny, but Leonard was willing to be patient and understanding and be her source of support.

"We will talk later, I promise Leonard, right now I need a drink to calm my nerves. Howard, are we there yet." Penny asked.

The bar was half full of men and women, drinking, playing pool and other activities. The smell of alcohol was intoxicating. The background music wasn't too loud and was just right. Leonard, Howard, and Penny looked around and spotted Bernadette by herself sitting on one of four stools with a combo table in the middle; she is keeping a bottle of wine and two glasses. They headed over and sat with her. It was a nice bar. There was a mix of seating options including booths, loveseats, and couch low to the ground for a lounge-like feel and solid wooden chairs for a tavern-like atmosphere.

"Hi, Penny I got wine." Bernadette giggled holding up the bottle of half empty wine.

"I need a large one of that." Penny grabbed the bottle from Bernadette and the spare glass; she poured herself a very large one.

"I guess you want a beer," Leonard asked Howard.

"Yes please, as Bernadette didn't get us anything to drink," Howard grumbled.

"I didn't know what you guys were drinking." She said in her defence.

"Right," Leonard said as he walked toward the bar area.

"Leonard," Penny shouted. "While you there, be a dear and grabbed us another bottle of wine." She gave him a roguish grin.

The bar was an island-shaped with a classic wood bar top and sliding doors for back-bar fridges which was full of exotic beers from all parts of the world. There were also beer brass taps for serving pints and a back bar for premium spirits. Leonard ordered two beers and a bottle of wine, as he waited for his orders, he looked back at their table to see Penny finishing off the bottle of wine. He couldn't help thinking she was carrying a lot of burdens.

They sat at their table just making small talk, the earlier tension now gone and replaced with banter and humour. Penny and Bernadette were in deep conversation, whispering among themselves and every once in while they look at the guys and giggle like a couple of teenagers. Leonard and Howard couldn't hear their conversation as the music was now getting louder, but they had a feeling the girls were talking about them.

Howard and Leonard headed to the bar to get some more drinks.

Two men at the next table kept staring at Penny and Bernadette. "We have some admirers," Bernadette said to Penny and giggled.

"The one on the left is cute." Penny said.

"Yeah, he keeps staring at you. Oh my god I think they are coming over." Bernadette warned.

"Be cool." penny said.

"What do you think they are talking about? Howard asked. They waited at the bar for their orders.

"I don't know; I'm not psychic But I have a feeling it about us," Leonard replied.

"Yeah, I got that too. I bet they are talking about who got the biggest; you know what." Howard grinned.

"Howard, don't be so gross. Probably just talking about how lame we are."

"Speak for yourself. I have already caught Bernadette's eye and just buying time to ask her out. So what do you think of Penny?" Howard enquired.

"Nothing and why do you ask?" He looked away to hide his blush at the question. It was too late, Howard already saw his reaction. "You like her don't you.?"

"No, Penny is annoying and so full of herself," Leonard said defensively.

"Come on Leonard; you can't fool me. I've seen the way you look at her."

"Look at her how! Anyway, she hates me and blames me for Sheldon escaping." Leonard pouted his lips.

"Don't be silly; she does not hate you. Penny is just taking her frustration out on you. They are getting really drunk. If we play our card right. We might get lucky tonight." Howard grinned.

"Howard, how can I put this in a language you understand? No one is getting lucky. Well, not us anyway. Leonard turns away from the bar and saw two men talking to Bernadette and Penny. "They have gone off to dance with those two guys." Leonard informed Howard.

Howard turned around to see Penny & Bernadette slow dancing with two tall and hot looking guys. "We should go and rescue them."

I don't think they need rescuing; they seem to be having a great time." Leonard pouted.

"Damn it. I was so close." Howard replied.

"Yeah in your dreams buddy." Leonard retorted.

The girls were enjoying themselves dancing and were not short of drinks; All eyes were on them as they danced provokingly side by side with their dance partners spinning and twirling on every move ignoring Leonard and Howard who sat watching in envy and gloomy faces., hating the two guys. Leonard was especially jealous of the guy dancing with Penny. He was tall, slim and had the deepest hazel eyes he had ever seen and was what you would call a heartthrob, plain and simple. After the song had finished, the girls headed to the guy's table leaving Howard and Leonard by themselves. They seem to be getting on with their new-found friends and were chatting about everything under the sun. After what looks like an hour but was only 20 minutes, the girls came back to join them having exchanged telephone numbers.

"Hello, guys," Penny chirped. "Missed us."

"No, we were too busy chatting up girls." Howard lied.

"Really, all we saw was two sad, lonely guys sitting by themselves," Bernadette grinned. Leonard thought that was sweat that they kept an eye out for them.

"So what do you guys wanna do," Penny asked and sat facing Leonard.

"Are you bored, or did they get bored of you," Leonard asked.

"No we felt sorry for you losers, so we decided to come keep you company. Besides we got their numbers." Penny smiled.

"Are you okay," Bernadette asked Howard?

Yeah, I'm fine, just didn't like the way you were dancing with him."

"I'm sorry Howard, I didn't know we were dating," Bernadette said sarcastically.

"Look I thought we had something going, I guess I was wrong," Howard said sadly.

"She felt bad for the way she was treating him. He had been nice to her, and she did like him and was expecting something to happen between them tonight as they had been flirting with each other a lot. It was just a bit of fun dancing with the guy and making Howard jealous. Had she had gone too far. She decided to make it up to him. "Howard, would you like to dance with me." Howard smiled and nodded. Bernadette grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the dance floor.

Leonard and Penny looked on in shock as they sat facing each other in uncomfortable silence staring into each other's eyes for a moment or two. Penny broke the trance. "Can I ask you a question." Leonard put his head down and blushed. She smiled at his innocence.

"Yeah sure. What's up?"

"Were you jealous that I was dancing with that guy?"

Leonard put his head down again, embarrassed. Searching for the right words as his eyes shifted to where Howard and Bernadette were dancing "No, why would I be." He answered.

Penny paused and pulled back in surprise. "Really, so how come you kept staring in my direction and looking sad," Penny asked.

Leonard hated to answer the question "I wasn't, I was just looking out for you that's all." Leonard shifted his body on the stool.

This made Penny smile. "I can take care of myself," Penny said softly.

"Fine next time I wouldn't bother."

Penny's smile disappeared. "Sorry I didn't mean to snap at you earlier, I'm just tired, and it's been a long day." Penny paused. "Now we are alone; I think you need to know something." Penny shifted in her seat, biting her nails.

"Okay." Leonard guessed Penny was ready to talk and let her continue.

"Have you tried to find your duplicate self," Penny asked.

Leonard was shocked at the question; they have been doing their best to avoid meeting themselves in this world as they don't know what the consequences will be.

"No, why do you ask.?" Leonard enquired.

"I don't know how to tell you this Leonard. but here goes. You, Sheldon and Howard, are dead in this world." Penny said quickly.

"What, we are deceased?" Leonard was not expecting this news.

"I'm sorry, you never made it back when you accidentally got transported in the failed time machine you created in your lab. In your world. You survived, here you guys were disintegrated. Please keep this to yourself. This is classified information." Penny begged.

Leonard was shocked; it took a couple of seconds for the news to sink in. No wonder the scout sent out to find his other self so he can avoid contact never found any trace of the Leonard of this world.

"Okay, I'll keep it to myself. He finally said. "Tell me about him?" Leonard asked.

"Well, when we found out about the time jumpers, Leonard was drafted in as an advisor because of his knowledge of space-time and his project to build a time machine.

"Really, he was not part of your team. Leonard said disappointedly.

"No he worked at Caltech, we contacted him, and he agreed to be a consultant. He was not in the loop at first. We just told him we were exploring the idea of building a portal."

"Did he buy it." Leonard asked.

"He did at first, but then he began to ask questions and kind of worked it out that jumpers were arriving here. It was part of my job to contact him for advice or arrange meetings with our scientists, we only communicated by phone and email, but we got on so well and talked and flirted for hours." Penny said happily. He was a breath of fresh air in her life.

"Really, am I all, I mean is he all you expected," Leonard asked.

"I never met him face to face until I met you. I guess I thought he/you would be taller. We got on really well, and I kinda was like falling for him" Penny said shyly.

"Go on." Leonard took a sip of his beer.

I didn't really know his name back then; it was classified, we communicated through secure channels using usernames. I had to access our secure database to find out his real name."

"What was his username? Leonard asked.

"Leakey76." Penny laughed.

"How am I not surprised." Leonard rolled his eyes. "What was yours?"

"Queen Penelope." Penny proudly said.

"Short for Penny. Cool name."

Penny touched his hands and brought them together with hers.

"When I first met you, there was something familiar about you, the more I got to know you, the more you reminded me of Leakey76, so I decided to break into our secure network and find out his name and if he was the same person as you."

"Leonard Leakey Hofstadter. That must have been a shock to you." Leonard said.

Penny nodded. "It was, but I felt like I had been given a second chance to meet him in you." Penny intimately said.

"I guess the same for me too. It's a shame you never met your Leonard." Added Leonard.

"We nearly did. We decide to meet when I got back from a mission to Australia, but it never materialized because of the accident and a few months later, a meteorite hit our world, its trajectory was predicted, but it still killed thousands," Penny said sadly.

"Yeah, we had the same hit in my world, a lot of people lost their lives including some dear friends," Leonard also said sadly. "Parallel universes are like a copy of each other, and usually, the opposite happens in each world and…"

"It took out my entire family." She suddenly said and began to cry. Penny didn't want Leonard to see her in a weak state, but she couldn't help herself. She had been holding in the pain for so long; it felt good letting it all out.

Leonard was taken aback with this information. Leonard didn't know what to say and just said: "I'm so sorry for your loss." Leonard now realized what Penny had been going through. The loss of her family, Her change in behaviours and the sadness he noticed sometimes. Maybe she was experiencing major depression as a result of grief and trauma. Leonard vowed to be there for her no matter what it takes. Leonard held her and waited for her to stop crying, rubbing her back. Penny looked up at Leonard, they both smiled and stared into each other's eyes, secretly hoping the night would not end.