Sorry for the long gap, college is insane. And I wrote this on two of my study breaks before finals. This does focus more on Leonard and Penny, but the catalyst is Penny/Benny. And it focuses on Penny's drinking problem and where it could lead.

I still don't own anything. I've written that more than two hundred times. And it never gets any less depressing.

"She's been really sad recently."

Sheldon spun his chair around to look at Leonard. "Leonard, please don't take offense to this, but while you're sitting in your chair worrying over a woman, I'm trying to accomplish something useful. I'd appreciate if you'd leave me alone."

"Sorry," Leonard said in irritation. "I'm just worried about her."

"So go get back together with her and save us all the trouble of listening to you whine about it." Sheldon turned back to his computer and rolled his eyes so Amy, taking up a quarter of his screen, could see. "Honestly."

"I didn't say I was getting back together with her," Leonard said.

"Maybe not, but we all know you should."

"Can you minimize her?" Leonard asked.

"Minimizing would do no good, Leonard. Honestly, don't you know basic computer trivia?"

"He wouldn't react in such a volatile way unless I hit a nerve," Amy said. "Sheldon, would it be possible for you to meet me at the park in a half an hour? I'm going to be doing a social experiment with our son."

"Of course," Sheldon said. "Leonard, you have to drive me to the park."

"Walk." He said. "It's a two minute drive."

"Sheldon will walk if you go and talk to Penny," Amy said. Sheldon opened his mouth to protest and then stopped himself.

Leonard raised an eyebrow. Clearly at some point since Benny's birth Amy had become Sheldon's boss. "I'll talk to her," he said. "About what's been bothering her. Not about…not about us. She doesn't want that."

"Bull," Amy said. "Sheldon, at the rate you walk…"

"Fine," Sheldon said, minimizing his windows and grabbing his jacket. "I'll see you later, Leonard, and please, figure out what's wrong with that woman so we can all have some peace around here."

When he was gone, Leonard leaned back and fell deep in thought. She'd definitely seemed upset earlier; she'd probably want someone to talk to, and she usually opened up to him…he sighed. Yeah, fine, he did want to be with her again. But what Sheldon and Amy failed to realize is that wasn't what she wanted.

"Oh, what does it matter?" he asked himself, getting up. Penny needed someone to talk to. And friends did that.

Leonard crossed the hall, took a breath, knocked at the door and sighed when there was no answer. "Penny, open the door."

Nothing.

Leonard considered going back across the hall and leaving her alone, but the last couple of times she hadn't responded to his knock or told him to go away she ended up really needing to talk. "Come on," he said, trying what had worked in the past. "Just let me talk to you."

Nothing.

"I'm coming in," he said, cracking open the door. She was lying on the couch, her head raised, looking at the door. Clearly she'd heard his knock. "Hey," he said. "Are you okay?"

She blinked. "What?"

Leonard stopped, suddenly concerned. She hadn't spoken in a sarcastic way or angrily, or in a way that suggested she hadn't heard him. She sounded genuinely confused. He noticed multiple bottles beside her on the couch or on the coffee table. "Penny," he said, going toward her, "how much have you had to drink?"

"Mmm," she mumbled, dropping her head and closing her eyes.

"No," Leonard said, "No, you can't go to sleep." He wasn't sure exactly what was wrong, but he knew it had something to do with the drinking, and letting someone who had drank a large amount of alcohol go to sleep was not a good idea. "Penny."

"Mmm," she said again.

Alcohol poisoning. That was probably it. Leonard looked around at the bottles again. He knew she'd been drinking more since Benny was weaned, but he hadn't realized it was this bad. To test his theory – he was an experimental physicist, after all – he reached out and pinched Penny's skin. No response.

Leonard was sure he'd visibly paled. "Penny, you've got to get to the hospital." He reached over and tried to get her to a sitting position, but as he eased her up she pitched forward, gagging. Leonard didn't know what to do. Do I hold her shoulders? Pound her back? What? His doctorate was useless to him at this moment. Leonard wished he'd gone into medical first response. Experimental physics could never save someone's life.

There was a water bottle on the desk near the table, probably left from when Benny was there. Leonard grabbed it and tipped Penny's head back, pouring it in. He wondered if rubbing her throat would make her swallow like it did for puppies. But the thought became moot when Penny swallowed on her own, and his relief at getting her to drink evaporated when she gagged, leaned forward, and expulsed the liquid.

He knew he couldn't carry her. He was "the muscle", but that didn't mean that he could carry someone who could carry him. But he didn't want to leave her to get help – she was incoherent and dry vomiting was a bad sign. He was just relieved she was still conscious.

"Okay," He said aloud. "I'm going to pick you up, Penny." Maybe he could. Superhuman strength an all, that people got when they were on adrenaline. And adrenaline was coursing through him right now; he was terrified for her life. He reached his arm under her knees and his other around her back and stood. It wasn't easy, and she wasn't doing much to help, but it didn't matter, he could carry her. "It's going to be okay," he said as he started toward stairs, using his foot to create enough momentum on the door to close it. "They thought Luke might die on Hoth, but they saved him. You'll be okay."

"Mmm," Penny said when Leonard tripped on the stairs. It gave him a bit of comfort, knowing that she wasn't entirely unresponsive. But not much, because he had no idea if there was any brain damage. Intelligent people and people with severe mental incapabilities both say "Mmm," at some point in their lives.

But it was something.

Upon reaching the lobby Penny's body convulsed again as she tried to throw up, this time succeeding a little bit, and Leonard shifted his weight to hold her in a standing position so she could throw up in the trash can by the door. He wasn't looking forward to the car ride like this, or having to get her back into a carrying position before that, but the fact that she had succeeded in throwing up meant that all of the alcohol had not internalized. "God, we've got to stop you from drinking," he said, lowering her to the floor so he could pick her up again. "Let's go."

He settled her into the passenger seat and drove to the hospital with the recklessness that Penny drove on a regular basis, keeping his right arm stretched across the car with his hand on her shoulder to make sure she didn't slump forward or backward. Her eyes were still open and when he spoke they shifted toward him, which made him feel better – just a little bit. Just stay conscious, Penny, he thought. Don't slip away. Benny won't…Leonard figured that was a better thought to say out loud. He knew how much Penny loved that little boy. "Benny won't remember you," he said, looking at her. Her eyelids fluttered. "Penny!" he shouted. She blinked open. "What?"

"Stay awake."

"I…" Penny gagged again, choking.

Leonard cut through a parking lot to avoid a red light.

Luckily, not too many cars were parked by Emergency. Leonard pulled up to the doors and a nurse came out. "Alcohol poisoning," he said.

"How much did she consume?" the man asked.

Leonard shrugged, holding the door open while the man eased Penny into a wheelchair that another nurse had brought. "I don't know. I found her like this twenty minutes ago." He looked at her, seeming so small in that chair. "She's conscious but incoherent and she threw up once on the way to the car and once on the way here."

"That's a good sign, considering," he said. "You'll be okay," he said to Penny, who didn't really seem to know what he was telling her. Her arms dangled at her sides, and the nurse reached to put them in her lap. "I'm Doug, we're going to take you in, and your hus…boyfriend," he changed upon shifting her left hand to her lap, "will be right here."

Leonard didn't bother to correct him.

"Did you give her any water?"

"I did," Leonard said, "but she threw up almost immediately. Is she going to be okay?"

"We'll get her hooked up to an I.V. and give her an oxygen tube. And we may have to pump her stomach." Leonard cringed. "I know," said Doug. "It's not pleasant, but if she can't keep anything down we'll have to artificially clear out any remaining alcohol."

"Can I stay with her?" he asked, jogging to keep up with Doug as the nurse pushed the wheelchair down the hall.

"Yes," he said. "She'll want you there, especially as she becomes more coherent." He pushed open a room and wheeled Penny inside, situating her on the chair. "I'll be back with someone in a minute," he told Leonard, and left.

Leonard sat down next to Penny and took her hand in both of his, squeezing it and running his thumb over her skin. She opened her eyes and blinked several times before shutting them again. He saw her throat spasm as she unconsciously fought her gag reflex. "God," he said, putting his forehead on their hands. Being in the hospital didn't make him feel better one bit-none of the poison had been removed from her body and she was still barely aware. He noticed some vomit at the corner of her mouth and he grabbed a tissue to remove it.

Doug returned with two more employees, one of which began to prepare for the stomach pumping. The other nurse put an oxygen tube under Penny's nose, and Doug began to feed the tube down Penny's throat. She gagged severely and Dan withdrew the inch or two of tube to try again. "There we go," he said.

"This hurts, doesn't it?" Leonard asked.

"It can," said the nurse who had placed the oxygen tube. "But it's necessary."

With the tube in place and the oxygen being fed into Penny's lungs, Leonard began to feel a bit better. She was getting help, it couldn't get any worse. "God," he said, looking at her, "why did you do it?"

"Do you think it was intentional?" Doug asked.

"What?" Leonard said, sounding like Penny. "No, she…she drinks frequently. I've been told that on her girls' nights she drinks the most…but she's not the type to attempt suicide."

When the pump was removed, the nurses adjusted the oxygen tube and I.V. and left Leonard and Penny alone. She was awake, and slowly becoming more coherent. "How much did I drink?"

"Just…" he trailed off, looking down at their hands and then back up to her face. "A lot." Penny shuddered. "Are you okay?" She nodded, blinking hard as tears sprung to her eyes. "Why are you drinking so much?" He asked gently.

She sighed. "Because I'm upset."

"Is this about Benny?" he inquired, watching her face.

Penny bit her lip. "Yes, and you, and my job…"

"Me?" He cocked his head.

"When you were with Priya, I started drinking more, and it made me forget for a while, and then when Benny stopped needing me I started up again…and it just…seemed like the…solution…" her throat jerked again this time in an attempt not to cry. Leonard saw her focus her eyes on the ceiling in an attempt to neutralize her emotions. "Hey," he said scooting his chair closer. Despite the I.V.'s ability to restore her hydration rapidly, he didn't want her crying. "It's okay." He slid an arm awkwardly around her. "Benny loves you."

She nodded. "But I'm not his mom."

"You knew that going in," Leonard said gently.

"I didn't know how much I'd want him," she said sniffling and removing her hand from Leonard's to wipe her eyes. "I never know how much I want a lot of things until it's too late."

Leonard was still trying to process what she'd said earlier. "You have feelings for me?"

She started, then looked up at him for a long moment. He stared back at her, both of them unblinking. Then Penny looked away. "So?"

"So?" Leonard repeated. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"You liked me for a year before you asked me out," Penny said. "You didn't waltz over 'hey, Penny, I like you, let's have babies'."

"No," he admitted. "But I told Sheldon that any kids you and I had would be smart and beautiful, and that was the day we met. And technically I asked you out less than a month later."

Penny coughed a couple of times and reached up to readjust the oxygen tube. Then she looked back at Leonard and smiled weakly. "Our kids would be pretty incredible, huh?"

He smiled. "Yeah, probably." He leaned in and kissed her forehead. "Looks like they gave you the treatments in time."

She shook her head. "Yeah."

"I can't believe you let it get this bad," Leonard said. "I just…"

Penny shifted her weight and leaned slightly over to kiss him, holding her arm back behind her for the sake of the I.V. They were positioned awkwardly, but held the kiss for several seconds before breaking apart. Penny fell back into her old position on the bed, and Leonard looked at her, only managing a quiet, "what did that mean?"

She sighed, staring up at the ceiling again. "It means I need you more than you probably know. And that's aside from what happened today."

He looked at her hands, then back at her face, wondering just how many times he had done that today. "Are you saying you want…"

"To try again?" She let her head loll toward him. "If you think an emotionally scarred, premature empty nesting drunk is worth a second try."

Leonard hated that she had to suffer this much, both emotionally and physically, for them to get to this point. But she wasn't drunk now or incoherent from medication. And Lord knows, he needed her, too. So he smiled. "I thought there was no try."

Penny looked at him for another moment before breaking into a smile. "You..."

"You have to promise me that you'll get help for this drinking problem," he said. "You need to get to a place in your life where it won't be a problem."

She cocked her head slightly and let her eyes meet his. "I'm on my way."

I had a lot of people asking me in reviews and PMs to get Leonard and Penny back together in The Surrogate Paradox, but that wasn't the focus of that fic, it was intended to show how the gang is a family. But the sequel had no such ambitions. There will probably be two more chapters.