Chapter 6 - London: "Sing your melody."

"Penny?"

"Mm?" Penny looked up from the two fries she was dipping in her ketchup-mayonnaise mixture.

"Can I ask you something?"

Rolling her eyes, she ate the fries and sighed. "Fine, you can have some of my fries, but only if I can have some of that Mexican rice."

"What? No, I wasn't going to ask for fries."

"Oh. Well can I still have some of that Mexican rice?"

"Yeah, sure." Leonard shrugged. He watched as she leaned forward to take a few spoonfuls of his rice onto her plate. She had been thoroughly enjoying the food here, even more so when he'd told her the company paid for his meals.

"So what did you want to ask me?" Penny said, settling back into her seat and beginning on the rice.

"You don't have to answer this if you don't want to. But how did you end up here, in London?"

Shrugging, she chewed excessively on a mouthful of rice before replying to him. "I got an acting job here."

"Oh. Okay."

Picking up two fries and using her fork to place rice on top of them, Penny ate this combination curiously, seeming to approve of it when she nodded and continued to eat like this for a while. "You want the honest answer?" She asked, once she'd finished the rice.

"I don't mind... you don't have to."

"No, it's fine, I've just never told anyone why I decided to do a play in London." Penny chewed on her lip for a moment, before looking at him with a blank expression. "You remember my acting class? And when you saw me in that play we done?"

"Uh-huh." Leonard nodded.

"And there was that British girl in it? You asked me if she was really British or just putting on an accent, and then Sheldon argued that that wouldn't make sense because the play isn't British. Anyway, she - Christine - told me about this audition she had in London that her parents had told her agent in LA about. I asked her for the details and then I passed them on to my agent, and she got me an audition - instead of flying over there, for the first audition we just sent over a tape."

"When about was this?"

"It was... it was around the time you were supposed to be finishing up your second trip." Penny nodded, more to herself than to Leonard. "I never wanted anything so badly. If I got this, I could get the hell out of Pasadena and try give myself a fresh start. When I got the recall, I had to fly out there - which cost an arm and a leg, by the way - and I was sat on the plane and I thought... I thought if I'm in England, I'm closer to you. Even if you were on land somewhere in Europe, I was still closer to you than I was back home. I guessed you probably wouldn't want to come back to Pasadena anyway. I didn't think I'd ever actually see you, and I had no idea what you were doing by this point, but... it made me feel a little better. And they liked me, and I got it. So I said yes, and I moved out here."

"Wow." Leonard blinked a few times. That wasn't what he had been expecting, at all. After her story, he'd figured maybe it would stop at 'I just needed a fresh start' or something along those lines. But moving to England to be closer to him? Not to see him, but just to know? It was incredibly touching, and he wasn't quite sure how to respond to that. The casual way in which she'd said it didn't hide the emotion behind it, just as with many things she'd said over the years he had known her.

"I know, it's really stupid."

"No, no, it's not stupid, it's... touching, that that's the reason you wanted to be here." Leonard smiled at her. "And I'm glad that you got the part, because you seem to really be enjoying it. You're very talented."

"Oh... thank you." Penny blushed a little, diverting her eyes back to her food for a moment. "I think being here just made it easier to get on with things and start moving forward."

"I'm glad it worked out for you."

"Thank you. I'm glad it did too." Penny looked back up at him, placing her cutlery onto her plate to show she was finished. "So, what about you? What brings the brilliant Doctor Leonard Hofstadter to London?"

"Do you want the short story or the full story?"

Tilting her head to her shoulder, Penny raised a brow at him. "I think after all of that, I deserve the full story."

"Yes, that is true. I was just checking."

Just then, their waiter turned up, having spotted their plates pushed to the center of the table and their cutlery resting on top. "May I take your plates?"

"Yeah, sure." Penny nodded. "Thank you."

"Your desserts will be with you shortly." The waiter told them, in reference to the desserts they had ordered at the start of their meal - Leonard had recommended the one he knew Penny would like most.

"Thank you." Leonard nodded and smiled up at the waiter as he left, before returning his attention to Penny. "Okay. So, I guess you know about the second trip." He paused as she nodded, and he brought his hands up, elbows leaning on the table, resting his chin in his hands. "After that, I didn't really want to go back to Pasadena. By then, I was pretty good friends with one of the guys who leads the teams. I told I'm about what had happened and asked if there was another trip coming up soon. He offered me a deal similar to his - a few months at a time at sea, and then anywhere between a week to a few months on land, to gather our results together or run accompanying lab tests, that kind of thing. Giving presentations, all of that. Obviously not the same as his role, but I'd be part of the team. So I accepted it, since... there really was nothing else for me at that point."

Penny looked guiltily at him, but refrained herself from apologizing at loud, knowing he would insist that it wasn't her fault.

"Anyway, I accepted that. And at first it was difficult, because I was so worried about you, and I knew I couldn't do anything about it. You wiped yourself from social media and... I tried calling but you never answered, or it went to voicemail, so after a while I guess I realized maybe you wanted it that way. I was still always worried but I just threw myself into my work."

Placing her free hand over his, Penny put her dessert fork down. "I'm sorry that I did that to you. But I'm glad that you had your work."

"I know." Leonard nodded. "I'm glad too." He smiled at her, to assure her that he had acknowledged her apology. "Eventually, that kind of just turned into my life - travelling and being on boats. That 'It's a Small World' ride would be a breeze nowadays."

"I'll bet it would." Penny giggled.

"One day I'll test that theory out." Leonard shrugged. "A few months ago, a bunch of us were asked to go to London to do a few presentations, meet with some new scientists, that kind of stuff. Then the rest of the team would meet us down here before we head off again."

"So you weren't in London before that?"

"No."

"Okay." Penny nodded slowly. That, somehow, made her feel better. It meant that she hadn't been missing out on any opportunity to see him. Smiling slightly to herself, she worked through the last few bites of her dessert, grinning up at him once she had finished. "You were right, this was amazing, by the way."

"Good." Leonard grinned. "Unless you want more, we can go back upstairs if you like."

"Yeah, I'd like that," she nodded, standing, "and you can tell me all about your work. You've seen my work, so you get to tell me all about what you've actually been doing."

"Okay. But it's not that exciting."

"You're lying." Penny peered at him.

"Alright, it is exciting. It just doesn't sound exciting." Leonard pressed the button for the elevator.

"I still want to hear about it. But I have to warn you," Penny said, as they stepped into the elevator, "I will probably get jealous if you mention other women, so, you know... in my mind it's just guys on that ship."

"There were a few girls on that ship but honestly interacting with them on any level other than for work was the last thing on my mind."

"That's great to know but they still don't exist in my mind." Penny sighed when he raised a brow at her. "Look, I can't help it, okay! After Alex I had to stay cautious. Just... it's just the way it is."

"Okay. Admittedly I'd like to pretend there are no guys in your play, but I saw already saw them, so that doesn't really work in my favor."

Shrugging, Penny stepped out of the elevator behind Leonard as the doors opened. "If it helps, three of them are gay and the others are taken. Except for one but he slept with Christine, who is seeing Lewis."

"That does help." Leonard nodded to himself, opening the door to his room.

Instantly, Penny went to the bed, flopping onto it. For a moment, she closed her eyes. Emotionally, she was drained. Sharing all of that with Leonard had been terrifying. But at the same time, it had been liberating. The one person who could really understand her, even though he was the one person who would feel the most affected by it, knew. She didn't have worry about him not knowing the truth anymore. It wasn't all cooped up inside her anymore. So while she felt emotionally exhausted, she had a new energy in her. She'd come to London thinking it would give her a fresh perspective, but she'd been wrong; this was her fresh perspective.

"You okay there?" Leonard chuckled, taking off his jacket and placing it over the back of the chair.

"Mm-hmm." Penny nodded, keeping her eyes closed, a smile on her face.

He stood there for a few minutes, not sure of what to do. "What're you thinking about?"

"How great I feel right now."

"Oh. You want me to leave you here for a while, or..."

"No, it was just a nice moment." Penny grinned as she sat up, leaning on her elbows. "You know, when things feel like they've fallen into place." Shuffling backwards to lean against the pillows and headboard, she patted the space next to her. "Now, come on, catch me up on the great adventures of Leonard Hofstadter."

"Alright." Leonard nodded, tentatively climbing into the bed next to her, but relaxing as he leaned back and began talking.

He told her about the experiments he had been working on, and took the time to explain them to her so she understood why they were doing them and what the result was. He told her about the places they had visited, the countries they had been located at and why they'd gone there. He shared the things he'd learned in those countries about their cultures and customs, the food he'd experienced and the problem with not knowing how to speak their languages. She laughed at him when he said he'd always try to ask for things in the native language, but ended up just sounding ridiculous, telling him he could ask in English and they'd probably get the gist of it. He argued that he wanted to try and 'fit in' and make the most of being there.

"So when I came to London it was a relief to just be able to read and speak without getting a headache." Leonard concluded with a laugh. "Though I do still get a headache sometimes from trying to pronounce the names of some people on our team."

"Aw, poor you." Penny giggled. "That's what you get for having such an international job. At least I just had to learn an accent, not a language."

"Well I can introduce myself in like, ten different languages now, so it has it's benefits." Leonard shrugged.

"Including British?" Penny wiggled her brows.

"What? British is English."

"I meant, can you introduce yourself in a British accent?" She grinned at him with her tongue between her teeth.

"I'm not going to do a British accent for you! Compared to yours now, it's going to sound awful."

"You watch, I'm going to make you do it at some point."

"If you say so."

"I do."

"Fine." Leonard chuckled slightly when she peered at him with a determined expression on her face. "Hey, you know where I haven't been yet that we could go?"

"Where?"

"The Royal Observatory."

Throwing her head back, Penny closed her eyes and mocked falling asleep and snoring. "Bo-ring."

"Come on! Apparently it's really cool there. Besides, I was planning to go this weekend anyway."

Penny looked up at him, chewing on her lip. Okay, so she didn't really know what the Royal Observatory was - apart from that it was probably something nerdy, because Leonard had suggested it. But then again, she'd gone to the Science Museum and enjoyed it a lot more than she had expected to. And it would give them a chance to get out of this room and take their mind off the difficult things. Fresh perspective, she reminded herself. And it meant spending time with Leonard, actually doing something with him, being with him, and him being happy. With that thought, she jumped off the bed.

"Okay then, Doctor, let's go." Penny said in her best British accent, grinning widely at him. He raised a brow at her, folding his arms across her chest. "What?"

"Sounds like you're talking to the Doctor from Doctor Who."

"Yeah, that's what I was going for. They were showing the ones with David Tennant and Billie Piper the other week."

Leonard nodded. "Yeah, that's what it reminded me of, which was - wait, you watched Doctor Who?"

"Yes, oh my God, okay, I watch your stupid nerdy television shows sometimes," Penny exclaimed defensively, before bursting into giggles when she noticed his worried expression. "Sorry."

"Don't do that!" Leonard frowned.

"I said I'm sorry! Now come on, I thought we're going to this Observe-y thing."

"Observatory." Leonard corrected her, pulling his jacket back on as they went to leave the room.

"Yeah, you're going to need to explain what that is."