Hope you enjoyed the first chapter! Couldn't wait to write the second, so here you go!

The Talent Showcase

Part Two: Check Engine

"It's a never ending battle of making your cars better and also trying to be better yourself."

Diana Crescent

It had been two months since she played the piano for Sheldon, and he'd been nagging her to go get her car checked out since. He'd become very protective as of late, constantly giving her reasons to do the things he wanted her to do.

She figured if she had her car checked at AutoZone, he might get off her case. So what if this had been her first Saturday off in God knows how long?

It ended up being the catalytic converter. She figured if she was going to have that changed, she might as well check the fuel pump, fluids, and change the oil and air filter.

By the time she got home, at ten, she wondered what the hell she was even doing, spending all of this money. But maybe if she got this taken care of, Sheldon would stop being so nosy.

She wanted to surprise him more than anything. As she slowly put her car on the ramps to get under it, she thought about her reasons for not telling him. She didn't really have any.

She slipped her earphone in and turned on her iPod to the audio book version of Hamlet.

She had enrolled in college…or, well, back in college. She'd gotten through her basics in Omaha, but had left before finishing. She had transferred those credits to Pasadena City College, and had started taking literature and acting classes. She was enrolled in Into to Theater, Fundamentals of Acting I, History of Theater, Masterpieces of Drama, as well as Voice and Movement. She figured that in a year and a half, she'd have an Associate in Theater.

Penny crawled under her little red, cloth-topped jalopy and grabbed a wrench. She let her mind get lost in the story of the Prince of Denmark, and began taking her exhaust system apart.

She wasn't exactly sure why she had enrolled, except that she was tired of what she had. Which was nothing. Her grandfather had said "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten." Penny was tired of getting what she'd always gotten. So, she knew that the only way to get an audition wasn't to lose more weight (Sheldon had baulked when she mentioned losing a couple of pounds back in July, and she hadn't really been too serious), it wasn't to be the prettiest (as typically the people at auditions were pretty), and it certainly wasn't to keep hoping (lord knows that hadn't worked for her). So she'd done the only logical thing she could. She'd decided to take a couple of acting classes. A couple of acting classes had somehow turned into a five, which had somehow turned into a degree plan.

She'd spoken to an advisor, who'd been very blunt (something Penny appreciated) in telling her that it would be best if she took literature classes as well as the drama classes. That becoming knowledgeable about literature would help her acting. Penny had taken the advice and signed the paperwork.

So now, as she had put her acting career on hold for some much needed tuning up, she had taken more hours at work to cover tuition and books. As it was, she was at class through day, work at night, and a great deal on weekends.

She got every other Saturday off, and now she was spending it working on her car.

This past week had been mid-terms, and she'd done extremely well on all of them, which had pleased her to no end.

She gradually worked through the afternoon, replacing the converter, checking and cleaning her fuel pump system, checking the transmission, replacing wiper blades, tuning the alternator, before she realized that she had listened to Hamlet at least three times and could say them almost with the tape.

Penny cleaned up and decided that she could finally change the oil and oil filter.

Penny was on her back, beneath her car when the boys arrived home from paintball that evening.

"Penny? What are you doing?" Sheldon asked softly, bending over to look under her car and at her face. The boys, several feet behind him, were just as interested, though somewhat less than pushy due to their behavior over the last five months.

They had asked Sheldon how they could make up to Penny while at paintball today, and he said he'd talk to her.

"I got my check engine light checked, and I fixed the problem. Now, I'm changing my oil." She didn't figure mentioning the air filter or fuel pump were important at this time.

"I didn't know you knew how to work on cars."

"I rebuilt a tractor engine when I was twelve, Moonpie. I have two brothers and a father who all love cars. Between all of that, I've picked up a thing or two."

"She's beautiful and she's good with cars? Dude, she really is perfect," Howard whispered before he could filter it.

Leonard just nodded. "Yeah, but that's the past for me." After five months, he was starting to mend. Raj and Howard smiled slightly at him, glad they could now be friends with Penny again, if she'd let them.

Despite it being October, the weather was a warm 85 degrees, and Penny had been working up a sweat. As the sun sank, though, she started to cool off. She got out from under the car, careful to collect her tools as she did so.

Penny glanced at the three other boys behind Sheldon, and looked away, ashamed to be caught in their presence. Ever since she'd broken up with Leonard, she hadn't been able to be near them, despite them coming into the Cheesecake Factory every Tuesday night before and after said breakup. As a waitress, she could treat them as any other customer. Here, though, it was different. Here she was just Penny.

Penny poured the new oil into her car, before closing the hood. She started up her car. She slowly pulled it off of the ramps, and listened to it purr.

"The engine light's off," she whispered, her voice crackling a little.

"Would you like to come have supper with us? We're having pizza and having a "Firefly" marathon," Sheldon said gently, but firmly.

Penny looked at the others, who all smiled in a welcoming manner. Even Leonard.

She looked down at her nails. "I'd love to, but…" I have a six paper to write for next Friday "I'm filthy. I've been working on my car all day."

"You have twenty minutes to take a shower, after that I'm coming to get you," Sheldon said, his eyes showing no nonsense.

Penny sighed, and smiled. "Help me carry my tools up, Superman?"

"Certainly."

Sheldon bent and took up her surprisingly heavy tool box while Penny gathered her trash and tried to get her car ramps.

"Here, let me help," Howard said, grabbing two of the ramps.

"Thank you," she said in a small, unsure voice.

Howard smiled at her in a way that he hoped was kind and not creepy. He'd finally seen how much they'd broken Penny. He'd also seen how much she needed Sheldon, and decided that while Penny was showing that luscious (he was still Howard after all) body, he'd apologize to the taller, neurotic man for giving him crap for "betraying" Leonard.

Raj and Leonard grabbed the final two ramps and toted them upstairs to 4A.

Leonard smiled. Everything was going to be alright after all.

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