Chapter 14
*a/n You guys are lucky that I'm posting this early xD I've had this chapter working in my head since Saturday and I've been writing it and re-writing it since Sunday. Please let me know if it's good, reviews are helpful! Thank you to all those who have reviewed and who have followed/favorited. I love you guys(: Also, as for the different spacing, it's something that I'm trying. Just let me know if you don't like it. This chapter also focus' on more the L/P side of things for all you Lenny lovers c:
"Are you sure this is going to work?" Amy nervously asked. "Of course it will dear." Mary replied. "If I know my little Shelly at all, he can't stay in his room forever. He has a job you know." "Well, yes I realize that, Mrs. Cooper." Amy replied. To which Mary gave her a glance out of the corner of her eye. "If I may interject here, Mrs. Cooper," Leonard began, but Mary cut him off. "Please, call me Mary." "Okay," Leonard continued. "If I may then interject here, Mary, the job your son does doesn't exactly require him to get out of the house. If he really wanted to, he could do it from his room and just email the results back to Dr. Gabel-" but before Leonard could finish his sentence, Mary interrupted again.
"Pish-posh Leonard." She said. This whole time Amy was quiet. "If my little boy has learned anything from growing up, is that it's easy to shut people out. He may be doing that now, but think about it. When have you ever seen Sheldon take the easy way out? He'll realize that soon enough and come out of his little shell. Now, until then, Amy, dear, you may be the only person that he'll legitimately talk too."
Once Mary had finished her rant, Amy's nerves only seemed to grow. She was the only person that Sheldon would talk to? That put a lot of pressure on her. Amy took a deep breath and what she said was different than what she planned on saying. "Mrs. Co- I mean, Mary, I will try and do what I can, but I make no guarantees-" but before she could finish, she interrupted again. "Remember what I said dear, it will work."
Mary turned in her seat in the front and smiled warmly towards Amy. Amy returned the smile with a little less enthusiasm than she did, but it was a smile nonetheless. She then proceeded to fix her gaze on the car window the rest of the ride to Los Robles. It was silent the rest of the ride, with the occasional question from Mary to Leonard about his relationship with Penny.
"Mrs. Cooper…Mary," he corrected himself. "I don't think there's anything that can be done about Penny and I. I'm pretty sure that when someone dates someone else after breaking up with someone, it means that they are over that person that they broke up with." That sentence was even confusing for Leonard himself, but once Mary had figured out what he meant, she began to counter-argue him.
"Dear, you two are dumber than a bag of rocks." Amy lifted her head up to Mary, truly confused. She paused, and continued. "No offense dears." "None taken" Leonard mumbled. Amy merely nodded her head in response and turned her gaze back to the window. After a moment of silence, Mary's voice could be heard in the car once again. "I've seen the way you two look at each other Leonard, and it's the same way Mee-maw used to look a my dad. It's true, genuine love. You two will make it, whatever it takes." She looked at Leonard for a moment, watching him drive. He pulled up to a red light and glanced her way, only to see her watching him. He cast her a nervous smile, and it was as if she could sense his nervousness. "Now, dear there's no reason to be nervous." Leonard nodded and they continued driving in silence all the way to Los Robles.
There was a rasping at the door, and Leonard wasn't there to answer it. Sheldon grumbled under his breath in frustration, even though nobody could here. He moved back to his bed and sat back down on it, hoping that whoever it was would go away. The knocking persisted, and again, Sheldon grumbled in the silence. Still, he remained put, hoping that whoever it was would go away.
Leonard had a key, but if their plan was going to work, he knew he shouldn't use it because that would just not help the situation. Their original plan was the get Sheldon to answer the door, and for him to see it was Amy, and then slowly back away to leave them alone. Seeing how having Sheldon answer the door didn't seem like a likely scenario, the three of them tried to come up with a different plan.
"Let me have a crack at it." Mary told them. Nodding, Amy and Leonard moved back to let Mary try her plan. She knocked on the door, three times loudly, followed by a short, mini-speech. "Sheldon Lee Cooper. I know you're in there. Now you get out here and answer the door for your mother." She turned and gave a wink to Amy. Amy nervously smiled her nerves in her stomach building.
Sheldon heard his mom from his bed room, not because of his Vulcan hearing, but because his mother's voice was so loud. He now knew that it was his mother at the door, and she knew that he was there. Reluctantly, he got out of his bed and made his way to the living room. He took a second to stand there, having not been in there for weeks, and proceeded to walk to the door. Then, with a moment's hesitation, he opened the door. Instead of finding his mom waiting at the door, he was face to face with Amy Farrah Fowler.
"You think that will actually work?" Leonard asked in a whisper. Of course it will work dear." Mary replied. They had taken the time to quickly make their way over to Penny's and hide out there while the Shamy talked. Penny stood in her kitchen, pouring herself a glass of white wine. "Mrs. Cooper, why didn't you tell me you were coming to visit?" she asked. Mary sighed inwardly, deciding not to correct the blonde on her name. "Oh, why sugar. It's because it wasn't even my idea. Leonard called, telling me that Shelly was broken and nobody could fix him." Penny then turned her gaze to Leonard, eyeing him.
In the sweetest voice she could, Penny asked, "Leonard, how come you didn't tell me?" Leonard gulped, he knew that her sweet voice meant any wrong mistake and he'd likely end up injured. "I would have… but… we haven't exactly talked in a while…" Mary gasped. "You guys haven't spent time together or talked in a while? How long is exactly a while?" she had her own suspicions and she knew a way to help get the couple back together.
"At least a month." Penny replied, still eyeing Leonard. "I told you it was a bad idea to hide out in here." Leonard mumbled under his breath. Penny glared at him for the comment, and returned her gaze to Mary. She was looking between Leonard and Penny, trying to hide her grin. "I have an idea." She stated in her sweet, southern accent.
Leonard and Penny both focused their attention on her, and she continued. "I'm in town for about a week. How about tonight I stay at Amy's, giving you two some time to spend together." She saw the nervous glances cast between the two and decided to speak up. "Now, don't you worry about my little Shelly. You two are going to spend some quality time together. You let me take care of him." Her tone was soft but firm and Leonard couldn't argue with her logic. He glanced at Penny, who seemed reluctant to spend an evening with him, and he felt his heart shatter into a million pieces once again. Mary could sense Leonard's discomfort, though she couldn't do much about it. She fixed her gaze on Penny, her eyes pleading for her to go through wit the plan. She seemed to get the message, because after a moment's of hesitation, she agreed.
Rejoicing from her victory, Mary gave them both a warm smile and moved to hug Penny. She put on a fake smile and returned the hug, eyeing Leonard curiously. She then turned and gave Leonard a hug as well, who still seemed very nervous. After exchanging farewells, Mary then left the two alone in Penny's apartment. Before she walked down the stairs, she noticed that Sheldon and Amy were no longer outside the apartment. Perhaps they had gone inside to chat. Not wanting to mess their plan up, Mary decided that she would go to the little coffee shop down the road and wait for their plan to work. She would inform Amy of her whereabouts later in the evening.
Once Mary had gone, the air around them was thick in silence. By now, Penny had downed two glassed of white wine and was pouring herself a third. Leonard walked over to her slowly, almost cautiously. Penny looked up to find his gaze on her. She looked around slightly, avoiding eye contact. "Want some?" She asked nervously. Leonard nodded, but kept his distance. The memory of the night she had broken his heart played in his head and he desperately tried to shake the thought away. When it became apparent that is wasn't leaving, Leonard inwardly sighed, playing the event over in his head.
*Flashback*
It had happened a couple of weeks after the shower incident. The gang had gotten together on a Friday night, as per Sheldon's schedule, to order pizza. While they were waiting, Leonard had told the guys that he was going to get penny to let her know that they were ordering pizza. "I'll go get Penny while that guy spits on out food." He had told them. They didn't care; they just kept their discussion about the Wolverine and his prostate exam.
Once he had made his way over to Penny's door and knocked, he began to feel nervous. What if when she answered the door, she was with another guy? Then his attempts of getting back together with her would be considered moot. Sure enough, Penny did have a guy over. Looking him up and down, Leonard realized that he did not seem anywhere close to their age. "Yes?" The man had asked him. "Oh, um, is Penny here?" Leonard had asked in return. The man eyes him for a moment, before speaking again. "You're Leonard, right?" He said, realization dawning upon him.
"Yeah" Leonard had told him nervously. He had no idea what this guy wanted from him. "Damn, it's finally good to meet you son." The man had told Leonard. He was now truly puzzled. Was calling someone son now some kind of thing that older men did? "I think I'm going to need a little context here." Was what came out of Leonard's mouth, confusion dripping in his voice. The man opened his mouth to explain what was going on to Leonard, but before he could, his daughter popped up beside him. "Oh, hey Leonard" Penny cheerfully greeted him. "I see you've met my dad."
Her dad? Leonard thought. That explains why he looks so old. How come she didn't tell me her dad was coming to visit? He had the question ready in his mind, but what came out was "Oh, good. Context" Leonard mentally face-palmed himself for being so stupid when Penny's dad interrupted his thoughts. "Come on in son, take a load off." He suggested. Before he could reply, he saw Penny nervously look between the two of them. "Oh, gee, dad. Leonard can't stay. He just dropped by to say hello." She turned a little more towards Leonard to indicate that the next part of what she was going to say was more intended for him. "Thanks for stopping by sweetie, I'll see you later."
Leonard had no time to process this all, because before the door shut, Penny grabbed him and kissed him passionately, followed by a "bye" in her sweet voice. Confused, he stood by the door and watched it close in his face. "That was odd." He told himself. After a moment, Leonard re-composed himself and walked back over to his own apartment, only to find the rest of the guys talking about racism and comic books. "You'll never guess what happened." Leonard told them, having not thought any of that through.
"You went into the hallway, stumbled into an interdimensional portal, which brought you 5,000 years into the future, where you took advantage of the advanced technology to build a time machine, and now you're back to bring us all with you to the year 7010 where we are transported to work at the thinkatorium by telepathically controlled flying dolphins?" Sheldon guessed.
Leonard's mind went blank. For all the things Sheldon had said over the years, this was one of the most random. A portal in the hallway? "No." Leonard replied. "Aw" Sheldon said. He sounded disappointed. Leonard decided he didn't really want anybody to guess so he just came out with it. "Penny kissed me." "Well, who would ever guess that?" Sheldon asked, truly confused. Raj decided to speak up. "What… what kind of kiss?" His voice sounded insecure.
"A big kiss, on the mouth." Leonard replied, his excitement growing in him. "Is it possible that she was going for your cheek and you moved and she accidentally got lip? That happens with me and my mom all the time." Howard informed them. Leonard inwardly shuddered; he could have lived without knowing that. "She introduced me to her father, kissed me, and then shut the door in my face." Leonard recapped for them.
"Maybe she was trying to send you a message." Howard suggested. Leonard considered this, and the more he thought about it, the more he hoped it wasn't true. "You think?" He asked. "Yeah, this man is not my father, I'm being held hostage. So I'm going to do something insane in hopes you'll call 911." Howard told them. Leonard rolled his eyes; he didn't even know why he had thought that his friends would help him. "Penny kissing me is not insane. She used to kiss me all the time." Leonard defended.
Sheldon sensed that this may turn into an argument and he hated arguments so he decided to interrupt. "Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. By that standard, Penny is coo-coo for Cocoa Puffs." "I'm just saying it felt like it may have meant something." Leonard said, trying to avoid Sheldon's comment.
"Ah, this takes me back. Leonard obsessing about Penny, I mean, don't get me wrong, I love your new stuff, but once in a while it's nice to hear the hits." Howard commented. Raj turned so he was facing Howard. "Ohh, ohh! Do your 'our babies will be smart and beautiful!' that one always makes me laugh." He then proceeded to giggle like a five year old girl. "Why do I bother talking to you people?" Leonard asked, though more to himself. "If it'll make you feel better, we rarely listen." Sheldon said. Leonard rolled his eyes and shifted all his weight to the other foot. He was just so excited about this and his friends seemed to think it didn't mean anything. Maybe it didn't. He was tempted to go and ask her, but he knew she was busy. He had really fallen for her and now this was confusing him.
Penny appeared at the door a few moments later. "Hey, can I talk to you out here for a sec?" she asked Leonard. "Yeah, sure." He told her. Truth be told, he's do anything for her. Before Leonard stepped outside into the hallway, he heard Sheldon say "I'm starting to think we're never going to see that pizza." Once the door was closed, Penny took a deep breath and her words came tumbling out. "So, you're probably wondering what that was all about." In his head, Leonard thought that penny was stating the obvious. Of course he wondered what that was about. She had kissed him, and they weren't dating.
"What, uh, the kissing and everything? Nah, women do that to me all the time." Leonard told her, trying to act cool. He had a feeling that this was going to end in a serious rejection. "Yeah, the thing is," Penny said, ignoring Leonard's comment. "I kinda told my dad that we got back together again." She sucked in a breath and bit her lip gently, hoping that he wouldn't get mad at her. "What, why?" Leonard asked her, truly confused. Penny took a deep breath before continuing her explanation.
"Well, you're the first guy he's ever really approved of, you know? You're a scientist who went to college, and you don't have a neck tattoo or outstanding warrants or, or a baby." Penny said the last part hesitantly, though she didn't know why. "What kind of guys did you use to go out with?" Leonard asked. A picture of Kurt popped into his head from just shortly before this whole incident. "Just guys. Anyway, when I told him we split up, he was heart broken, and he kept bugging me 'how's Leonard? Why can't you get back together with Leonard? I bet Leonard never tipped a cow over on himself.'" Penny said the last part like she truly was annoyed, and that made Leonard upset to think that he annoyed her. "So, to get him off my back, I told him we worked things out." She told him. That was when reality hit him. The kiss, it really didn't mean anything. It was only to deceive her father. And that alone damaged Leonard ego and he stood there, his insides feeling like a deflated balloon, with no hope left.