Leonard was awakened by the tune of Pennys alarm clock going off. He was lying on his back, with his right arm outstretched under Pennys neck. He felt her reach up and put her clock on snooze, before turning around and snuggling into him. Leonard smiled to himself when he felt her reach her hand up to his neck and play with his hair. A few minutes later, her alarm went off again and she growled as she turned to switch it off. Leonard kept his eyes closed and pretended to be asleep as he listened to her get ready for work. He heard her go into the bathroom and have a quick shower, brush her teeth and use the bathroom. She came back out and he heard her shuffling around the room as she got changed into her uniform. He couldn't help but take a few sneaky peeks at her, but he managed to fight the urge to just sit up and blatantly watch her. He didn't want her to know he was awake, for some reason he liked the fact that she didn't know he was up, or looking at her.

He wasn't sure how much time had passed, but after a while he felt her sit on the bed beside him and push his hair back, before leaning in and giving him a kiss on the lips. "Bye sweetie. Love you." She whispered to him as he pretended to be asleep.

Moments passed, but she still hadn't moved from the spot beside him. Leonard somehow managed to keep a straight face as he felt the burning of her eyes watching him. She then leaned down again and whispered into his ear. "Honey, I know you are awake and I'm not leaving until you say it back."

Leonard chuckled and opened one eye. "How did you know?"

Penny smiled, "I caught you looking at me when I was getting ready." She giggled, "Honestly Leonard the amount of times you have seen me naked, yet you still feel the need to peek." A grin spread over Leonards face and his cheeks reddened, as she kissed him on the lips. "Crap, I gotta go or else I'll be late." She said quickly when she spotted the clock.

"Aww." Leonard frowned and made his best puppy dog face. "Do you have to?"

"Don't make that face! You know I can't resist it!" Penny playfully hit him on the arm, and then kissed him again when he didn't change his expression. They continued to kiss for several minutes, neither of them wanting to break it. "You're going to… get me fired… you know?" She said in between kisses.

"Good." He said and kissed her again.

Penny giggled and pulled away. "I reeallly need to go now. I'll see you later okay?"

Leonard nodded and watched her as she got up off the bed, "Bye honey, love you too."

Penny turned around at the doorway and smiled sweetly at him, then blew him a kiss and off she went; his future wife-to-be, hopefully.

Leonard got out of bed about half an hour after she left. He could never sleep in anymore unless she was there beside him, the bed just felt cold and empty when she wasn't in it. He done all the usual stuff when he was up; had a shower, had breakfast, tidied up a little, and then sat down on the couch with his laptop. He had to start planning how and when he was going to do this, but he had no idea where to start. There were so many things to consider. He had to make sure he proposed in the perfect place and at the perfect time, he had to buy her the perfect ring and he had to figure out what he was going to say. Leonard stared at the google homepage on his laptop, willing it to tell him where to begin.

After a few long minutes of staring at the computer, Leonard finally gave up and decided he needed help. He really had no idea about where would be a good place to do this or what kind of ring to get. He needed advice on how to do this properly. He needed someone to help him find the perfect ring because he honestly had no idea where to even start looking. He thought hard through all his possibilities. Sheldon was a definite no-no. He would be absolutely no help with any of those things and was terrible at keeping any sort of secret. If he told him right now what he was planning, Penny would probably know by the time she got home from work. Leonard thought that either Bernadette or Amy would be the most help with picking out the perfect ring for her, and would probably have great ideas of ways he could propose that Penny would like, but he had heard that Bernadette wasn't great at lying and would probably be just as likely to give the game away as Sheldon. Amy would probably be the best bet, but he then remembered that she was the one who got Penny that God awful painting, and he didn't want to take the chance that her taste in jewellery was as bad as her taste in art.

The only ones left were Howard and Raj. Leonard squirmed at the thought at first, but then slowly it dawned on him that these two would probably be perfect for the job. Howard has already been through all of this and would probably know where best to start and Raj, well Raj was pretty much a woman in a man's body. He would probably be the perfect man to help him pick out a ring and give him advice on the best place and time to propose.

Leonard jumped up and grabbed his phone to call Howard, and arranged with him to meet at Rajs place as they couldn't talk here with Sheldon being across the hall. He was bound to come over at some point and quiz them about what they were doing and the one thing he wanted to make sure of was that this was a surprise. He didn't want her to have any idea what he was doing. He knew it would be hard because he had never kept a big secret like this from her, but he reasoned that it would be worth it in the end.

Roughly 20 minutes later Leonard arrived at Rajs place. Nerves crept throughout his body as he thought about telling the guys about his plan. He wondered how they would react, if they would be supportive or if they would tell him he was crazy or that it was too soon. Raj made him some tea, as it was still morning, and he anxiously sat on the couch and waited on Howard to turn up.

"So, what's going on?" Raj asked.

"I want to wait till Howard is here and then I'll tell you both together." He said with a nervous grin.

"Ohhh, exciting!" Raj said with a huge smile on his face that Leonard couldn't help but chuckle at.

Moments later, Howard entered the apartment. "Alright so, what is it that you so badly wanted to tell us?" He asked as he made his way over to sit on the couch beside him.

"Okay!" Leonard said jumping up from his seat. Raj came around and sat where Leonard had been, while Leonard stood in front of them. He spoke with so much excitement and enthusiasm, "So here's the deal… I'm going to ask Penny to marry me."

"You what!?" Howard said with shock written all over his face.

"I'm going to ask her to marry me." He answered, this time a little less enthusiastic.

"Yeah I heard you, I just needed a minute to process that… Are you sure this is what you want to do?"

Leonards face dropped and he suddenly became quite worried.

"Oh, Howard, why do you have to be so negative?!" Raj said before Leonard had the chance to answer Howards question. "I think this is a great idea! When are you going to ask her?"

"Um, I don't know." He said to Raj and then looked at Howard. "Yeah, I'm sure Howard. Why, do you think I shouldn't?" He asked with a frown.

"No, it's not that, I just want to make sure that you realize what you are thinking of doing. Remember she said no to you once before."

"Yeah I know, but that wasn't a real proposal, plus we have grown up a lot since then. We are in a really good place now, I think we are both ready to do this." Leonard grinned uncontrollably, "Trust me Howard, I have thought this through. I am going to do this."

"This is awesome! I can't believe there is going to be another wedding!" Raj said with just as much, if not more, enthusiasm as Leonard.

"Okay Raj, don't get ahead of yourself here, I still have to ask her first."

"So, what do you need us for?" Howard asked.

"I need you to help me."

"Why us?"

"Because you have already done this before and Raj always has good ideas when it comes to all this romantic stuff, and everyone else is either horrible at keeping secrets or has very questionable taste. So… will you help me?"

Raj immediately got up, "Yes! Of course we will. Right Howard?"

Howard seemed to think it over for a few seconds. "Okay, I'll help you." He eventually said.

"Great! I really appreciate it!" Leonard said, "But you've got to remember, you can't tell anyone about what I'm doing. I don't want Penny to find out."

"Are you telling me that I have to keep this secret from my wife?" Howard asked with a frown.

"Yeah, is that a problem?"

"No," Howard said straightening his face. "I was just making sure I knew what you were asking of me. But you should know if she ever finds out, I will be blaming this all on you." Leonard smiled and nodded. "So what's first then?"

Leonard shrugged, "Um… I don't know."

"Well, have you asked her father yet?" Raj asked.

Leonard frowned, "Asked her father what?"

"For permission to marry her?!"

"Is that not a little old fashioned?" Leonard asked.

"Well you want to do this properly don't you? It's a mark of respect, Leonard. You are going to take his daughter from his family into yours. It's only right that you ask him first."

Leonard looked to Howard, "Did you ask Bernadette's dad for permission?"

Howard shook his head, "No, I would have, but I knew her dad didn't like me and didn't want to risk him saying no, so I just skipped over that part."

Leonard took a deep breath, "So you both think I should ask her dad first?"

They both nodded. "Her dad likes you anyway so he will probably be fine with it." Howard said.

"And he will like you even more if you ask him first." Raj added.

Leonard thought hard. They were probably right, if he was going to do this, he should do it right. The thought of asking her dad didn't scare him too much, he knew Wyatt liked him. Leonard was just having a hard time figuring out how he was going to ask him when he lived in Nebraska. It really wasn't the kind of conversation that should be had over the phone, but what would he say? 'Hey, is it ok if I marry your daughter?' Leonard grimaced at the thought. He was definitely not going to say that.

Leonard sighed loudly, "Okay, I'll ask him. But quick question, what do I do if he says no?"

Howard and Raj looked at each other, and then back at him. "Uh… Um…"

Leonard slumped down on the sofa, in between the two of them.

"He won't say no, dude." Raj eventually said as he placed a re-assuring hand on his shoulder and Howard agreed. Leonard nodded unconvincingly. "Oh, see now we have bummed you out!"

"No you haven't, it's just a lot to take in and think about… Her family is in Nebraska, how on earth am I going to ask him?"

"You could go out there?" Howard suggested.

Leonard thought for a second then shook his head. "I can't do that. What would I tell Penny? 'Hey, I'm just going away for a few days to talk to your dad.'" He said with a grimace.

"She could go with you." Raj answered.

Leonard shook his head, "She wouldn't be able to go. She's too busy rehearsing for her new play, as well as working in the cheesecake factory."

"Oh…" They all sat in silence again for a few minutes. "Oh I know!" Raj exclaimed. "Why don't you get her parents to come here? You could tell them about her play, I'm sure they would be happy to come here to see her perform, and it gives you a perfect time to ask her dad. You could even do it so that it was a surprise for her!"

Leonard thought through that idea, as a huge smile came to his face. "Raj, that's perfect! I knew you would be good at this!"

"Ah, It's what I do." Raj said nonchalantly.