After about an hour's time, Penny headed toward the ladies room to fix herself up. She had been waiting for any news about Leonard but no news had come from any doctor.

She decided to fix herself in case the long shot possibility that she was able to see Leonard.

I hope I can see him but he can't see me like this!

Her hair was disheveled, her eyes were red and her mascara had run. She went into her purse and tried to make herself back up as best she could.

After coming out she went to the cafeteria to get herself a bottle of water to quench her thirst but she wasn't hungry. Food right now had no appeal.

She went into the elevator and went back upstairs to the Emergency Room.

When she came in she noticed with a doctor with medium length auburn hair and stocky built with her back to her. She thought she recognized her. Only when she turned to face Penny, did she realize who it was.

It was Dr. Stephanie Barnett, Leonard's recent ex-girlfriend.

"Stephanie, I mean Doctor" Penny corrected herself. She wasn't sure how to handle the situation now with Leonard's recent love interest all of the sudden back in the picture.

"Hi Penny." She stated with a slight smile.

"Please call me Stephanie" she said.

"Thanks Stephanie." Penny said as she calmed down a bit, feeling relieved that the situation would be friendly rather than confrontational. She remembered how Stephanie seemed perturbed at Leonard that he had not mentioned Penny to her while the two had been dating a couple of months before. To Penny, it seemed, Stephanie perceived her as a rival and even though the two had parted on friendly terms, she couldn't shake that feeling.

"Listen, Penny, I need to talk to you about Leonard." Her smile gave way to a concerned look as she reached her hand and touched Penny's arm to bring her closer. It seemed to Penny she was about to receive the worst news possible.

"What is it? Is he going to be okay?" Penny asked.

Stephanie sensed Penny's anxiety and fear. She had seen it many times before in situations similar to this one. She also sensed that Penny would be devastated by any news less than promising but she had to let her know that Leonard's chances of surviving were up in the air.

"Leonard's in a coma." She said almost matter of fact.

Penny stopped, brought her hands to her face and stared at Stephanie with an incredulous look.

"The doctors relieved the blood clot in his brain but he hasn't regained consciousness and just a short time ago, he slipped into a coma."

"Is he going to make it?" Penny choked up.

Stephanie realized now that Penny deeply cared for Leonard and had hidden it very well from not only him but from her as well during the time she had dated and briefly moved in with him. Now, however, this terrible event had brought those hidden emotions out into the light of day.

She continued to explain.

"His injuries are recoverable, although it will take some time. His slipping into a coma doesn't seem reasonable because just by the nature of his injuries and the relieving of the blood clot, he should have been on the road to recovery, albeit a slow one."

"Then why is he…"

"In a coma?" Stephanie concluded Penny's sentence.

"I don't know." She continued. "However, Penny, it seems as though he doesn't want to stay here. In other words, he seems to want to go."

"No!" Penny exclaimed. "He's young and strong and intelligent and full of life, why wouldn't he want to come back. He's got his whole future ahead of him!" Penny cried again once more.

"Can I ask a personal question?" Stephanie requested trying to keep Penny and situation calm.

"Okay." Penny said, not knowing what to expect from the doctor, as she wiped away tears with tissues.

"Do you love Leonard?" she asked straightforward.

"We're just friends" she said. She quickly qualified it, "I mean, we're good friends but that's all." Penny hoped to quell any suspicion by Stephanie of her true feelings for Leonard.

"Are you sure? Because by the way you're taking this, this is more than friendship."

How can she know that I love him? Damn our feminine intuition! Penny thought.

"Penny, do you want to know why Leonard and I broke up?" She asked.

Penny snapped to attention but did not want to reveal her observation that Stephanie had in her opinion suffocated poor Leonard by moving in with him and setting the speed of the relationship to warp drive.

Damn those Star Trek terminologies! Where the hell do they come from?

"Listen, Stephanie, it's none of my business and I really don't want to…"

"He called out your name the last time we were together." Stephanie said with a hint of sadness and a bit of jealousy.

Oh my God! He wanted me even when he was with her!

Penny tried processing this new information and it struck her so strange. Here was a Doctor, for heaven's sake, accomplished, intelligent and pretty so high above Penny's educational accomplishment scale that it just didn't make sense that Leonard would want her instead of Stephanie. She thought that she may want to let Stephanie know that it was never her intention to break up their relationship.

"Stephanie, please believe me when I tell you that I never wanted to break you two up. I stayed clear out of the way. I was happy for Leonard." Penny declared.

Stephanie looked at her and knew that Penny was telling the truth and lying at the same time.

"Happy for him, but not for me, right?" Even though you loved him then as you do now" she stated.

Penny thought about it for a moment. She searched in her mind as to what type of answer would make the good doctor not think she was the cause of their break up.

Stephanie thought it best to bring this potential confrontation to an end once and for all. It just did not serve any purpose to get Penny even more upset and hurt Leonard in the long run.

"Penny, look, its okay; what's best now is that you stay with Leonard and talk to him and let him know that you love him. Even though he's in a coma, he can still hear you. If you let him know your true feelings, I think you can bring him back."

"No hard feelings." Stephanie declared.

"No hard feelings." Penny echoed.

Stephanie embraced Penny and said: "Go to him and bring him back. He's a good man."

"I will!"

"Don't let him get away." With that Stephanie looked at Penny with a smile, turned around and walked away.

Penny let out a sigh of relief and proceeded to Leonard's room.