A/N; I hope you are enjoying it so far, I'm trying to make the chapters longer, more in depth. Rated M for Mature Themes later in book. I do not own anything in this story.
It was late afternoon on a Saturday in Pasadena, California and Leonard had returned from an unscheduled visit to the practical lab. He walked up the stairs, with his earphones in. When he reached the fourth floor, he turned towards the elevator instead of entering his apartment. For about ten minutes, he stood and reminisced on the day that the elevator had worked, and evidentially, the day that the elevator stopped working. The saying that 'every cloud has a silver lining' really played a part in this situation especially for the frequent visitors to the building, which was mainly Raj and Howard; and walking up those stairs was the only exercise those poor bastards ever got. Howard tried to convince them that he went to the gym on Thursday afternoons, but they all knew that was just a cover over for him going to aquarobics with his Mom and her friends. He entered his apartment, and pulled out the mail that he had grabbed from the lobby on his way in, chucking it on the table not even taking an interest in what it was or who it was addressed to. Leonard dumped his shoulder bag beside the chair and headed straight for a shower. When he exited, he decided that he would go for a quick sleep, after having to be at the lab since 4:30am this morning.
About 3 hour later, he emerged from his bedroom, finding Sheldon sitting in his spot watching Doctor Who reruns.
"Evening Leonard" Sheldon spoke, startling Leonard as he still tried to wake up.
"Yeah, hi" he mumbled, rubbing his eyes.
"There is a letter there for you from your mother, she is divorcing your dad and your dog died." Sheldon said, still not taking his eye contact away from the television.
"Wait, what wait! You opened my mail?" Leonard yelled, quickly unfolding the letter. "Why would you do that"?
"Leonard, please keep your yelling to a minimal, I am trying to watch this television show."
Leonard just groaned, as he picked up the phone to ring his mother.
'Hi, you've reached Beverly Hofstadter. Leave a message if you must'
Leonard just hung up, too furious to explain in a message.
He rummaged through the other pieces of mail. Finding one addressed to Jennifer. He walked to towards the door, to go and give it to her. When he heard chaos in the hallway.
"Look just leave me alone!"
"Oh come on baby, let's just go inside'"
Leonard peeked through the peephole in the door, to find some man harassing Jennifer in the hallway. Leonard took a deep breath, and opened the door to defend her. The man instantly let go of Jennifer, and turned around to put eyes on Leonard. From normal view, Leonard could tell her was at least 2 feet taller than him, and about a meter wider.
"Leonard, go back inside" Jennifer mouthed, as the tall man took steps towards Leonard.
"And what do you want little man" he said, standing over Leonard, showing the height difference quite dramatically.
"I just have a few pieces of Jennifer's mail..." Leonard gulped. "Why don't you just go home and let her go inside, she clearly doesn't want to 'go inside'..."
Leonard had a dramatic boost in confidence as the man slightly backed away.
"And how are you going to make me?" he asked, once again standing tall in front of Leonard.
"I just think that it would be nice if you could leave her alone. Understand it from her side of the relationship, Michael"
"Wait, have we met before?" he said, stepping backwards.
"Nup." Leonard smiled proudly. "You better go home, or your Mom might get cranky, considering you still live with her."
His face went blank. He didn't reply. He turned around to look at Jennifer, and she was trying so hard not to laugh. Leonard could tell that she was intoxicated, and struggling to stand up. Michael clenched his fists, but turned and casually walked down the stairs as Jennifer burst into laughter.
"Wow, you are really something huh, how'd you know that?" she chuckled, sliding her back along the door until her bottom touched the floor.
"It was embroidered on his t-shirt" Leonard exclaimed bluntly. "Now lets get you up"
Leonard grabbed Jennifer's hand, and pulled her up, she latched onto his shoulders, and put her head on his chest. He went to open her apartment door, but it was locked.
"Hey, where is you key to your apartment?" Leonard asked, still holding her entire body weight.
"In my pocket, back pocket." she chuckled.
"Can you get it?" Leonard asked, not finding what was so amusing to her.
"Nope" she laughed, once again throwing her head back into Leonard's chest.
Leonard tried to politely feel around her backside area for where her key was. She was almost asleep on his shoulder, pressing all of her body weight against him. Leonard located the key, and stretched the back pocket of her jeans, so that he could minimalize the amount of feeling around her had to do to get the key. He pushed his hand in her pocket, to grab the key, which made her jump. He quickly grabbed the key, and opened the door. He shuffled into her apartment, with Jennifer still attached to his body.
They moved towards her couch, and Leonard just wanted to make sure she was alright and get out of there. He couldn't fall for his neighbor, when he really liked her best friend. Jennifer was dozing in and out of sleep. She woke up, just as Leonard tried to detach himself from her.
'Why… Why are you leaving me?" she mumbled, as he tried to get up, but immediately sat back down as soon as she noticed. Jennifer put her hand on Leonard's leg, and slowly moved it up towards his crouch. He shuffled further away; slightly uncomfortable with what was happening.
"Come on, lets have some fun" Jennifer said, about to pass out.
Leonard removed himself from her grasp, she continued to fall, but ended up curled up in a ball, asleep on the couch. He smiled, and exited her apartment, leaving the key on the TV cabinet.
"Morning, how are you feelings?" Leonard texted Jennifer straight away, after waking up.
Not long after, Jennifer replied.
"Thank you helping me. Means a lot. Xx"
Leonard had a day off today, the sun was out and the sky was clear.
"Did you want to grab some lunch and go to the beach today?" He texted Penny, wondering if it was too soon to go out again.
He walked into the Lounge Room, to find Sheldon sitting on the furthest left side of the couch, and which he had dubbed 'his spot'.
"What are you up to today Sheldon?" Leonard asked, as a conversational icebreaker, after sitting down next to him.
"I shall be watching the rest of the new Doctor Who episode, then I am heading to the University library to study…" He said, quietly not loosing eye contact from the television. "I'd ask what you're doing, but I simply do not care."
Leonard waited for the jug to boil, and once it did he got up to make himself a cup of coffee. His phone buzzed, and he hoped that it was a reply from Penny.
"I'm just at Jennifer's, come over" the text read, Leonard grabbed his coffee, and heading across the hall into apartment 4B, he knocked on the door a few times taking casual sips from his coffee. The door was opened fast by Penny, who smiled as soon as she saw Leonard.
"Morning" Penny said, as she lent into hug him. He reciprocated the hug and replied with just a smile.
Leonard entered Jennifer's apartment to find her with her head swung over the toilet seat, constantly feeling the urge to vomit out the left overs in her stomach from last night.
As soon as Jennifer noticed Leonard, she smiled, trying to thank him for last night in between 'hurls'.
Penny went to the kitchen to make her some chicken soup to calm the irritation in her stomach from all the alcohol.
"What actually happened last night?" Penny asked Leonard, as she poured the boiled soup into a bowl for her friend.
"I got given her mail, went to give it to her and there was some guy harassing her, I told him to leave, and much to my surprise he did." Leonard laughed, eating some of the left over soup.
"So you didn't get beat up?"
"Hey, he may have been 2 feet taller, and about a meter wider than me… but, I could of taken him" Leonard joked, flexing his 'muscles'.
"Okay big boy" Penny laughed, giving him a hug. "Once Jennifer is feeling better, we can go on that date if you still wanted to?"
"It wasn't meant to be a date…"
"Leonard, relax. I want to go on a date with you"
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