Chapter 20
a/n *I am soo sorry for the wait! I've had a lot of things to do, and I had to make sure my Thursday was clear so I could watch the premiere. Just so you know, this story is still in the stages of Season 4, but it's making some progress. Thank you guys so much for the reviews, I hope you guys love this chapter(:
"Hey, uh, Penny, can I talk to you for a sec?" Leonard asked, fiddling with his hands. "Uhm, now's not a good time for me." Penny had her back to him, fumbling with her keys and attempting to lock her apartment. "Well, can we meet up later because I need to talk to you." Penny sighed quietly, momentarily closing her eyes. "Leonard," she said over her shoulder. "Is this about everything that happened between us these past couple weeks? because I will tell you this only once. You pretending to be my boyfriend in front of my dad meant nothing. NOTHING. Okay?" She asked, exasperated. "I just, I just need… like, some time or something." She turned toward Leonard and pleaded to him with her eyes, begging him to understand. "Oh." He said. "Yeah, sure. Whatever." Penny knew what that meant. She smiled shyly at him and brought a hand up to his cheek, gently stroking it with her thumb. "Thank you for understanding." She said quietly. And then she was gone.
Penny was practically out of breath by the time her car was in sight. Breathing heavily, she sprinted to her car and got in as fast as she could. As she had just started her engine, her phone rang.
"Hello?" she answered. "Oh, yeah, yeah, I know, I'm coming as fast as I can." She paused, biting her lip gently. "Look, I already said I'm on my way. Just tell him to wait and I'll be there shortly." She hung up and then she pulled out into traffic, making sure to be careful driving to work.
"WHY CAN"T YOU E A NORMAL PERSON AND WAIT?" Penny asked harshly. Howard looked up at her sheepishly. "I'm sorry." "You should be." Penny replied coldly. Howard rolled his eyes. "Look, Penny. Can you do me a favor?" He asked, almost in a pleading tone. Penny eyes him suspiciously. "It depends," She said. Howard looked slightly less tense as he continued. "Look. I need you to talk to Bernadette for me. She won't talk to me." "Still mad about that fight you guys had?" "Yes," Howard said. "Why do I have to talk to her? If she doesn't want to talk to you, she just doesn't want to." "I know that!" Howard replied, rolling his eyes again. "It's just, I have a plan and if you don't talk to Bernadette for me, all my months of planning it will be worth nothing."
Now Penny was intrigued. "What's your plan?" she asked curiously. That part I can't tell you yet. Just please, help me out and talk to her for me?" Howard might as well have been on his knees, begging. Penny crossed her arms. "Fine, but when you come on Tuesday you better leave me a bigger tip." Howard nodded and she gave him a small smile, patting his arm. "I gotta go, bye!" and with that, she left the parking lot and walked inside the Cheesecake factory to start her shift.
"What did the creepy guy want?" One of her coworkers asked her later that night, right before she was due to her shift at the bar. "Oh, Howard? He just wanted me to talk to Bernadette for him. He says he's got a plan and if I don't talk to her, it won't work." Penny said casually. Her coworker's mouth dropped open. "You don't think…" "What, Carol?" Penny asked, intrigued. "You don't think he's gunna pop the question, do you?" She asked, eyes wide. Penny lightly laughed. "I doubt it. Even if he was one day going to propose he wouldn't do it now, they're right in the middle of a big fight. Right now I don't even think she'd say yes." "But what if he were to ask her?" she asked. "Then he'd be getting himself into a painful rejection." Penny replied, shaking her head slightly.
"Bernadette!" Penny said cheerfully, while cleaning a glass with a rag in the bar. "Hey Penny," Bernadette said softly. "What's up?" Penny asked, not bothered by the fact that two guys on the end of the bar were hitting on her and trying to get drinks. "Oh, not much," Bernadette replied. "I just figured I'd come here and we could have some girl time." She shyly smiled at Penny and she got the memo. "Long Island ice tea kind of night or tequila kind of night?" "Actually, do you have any schnapps?" "Yeah, I have some at my house. My shift gets done in about 15 minutes. You could come back to me and we could hang out some more?" "Sure." Bernadette said enthusiastically. The two shared a moment of silence with Penny cleaning, and then an idea came to her.
"Hey, Bernie," she asked. "Can I talk to you about something?" "Of course Penny." Bernadette replied sweetly. "What is it?" "Well," she began. "Can you do me a favor…?" "Of course, what is it?" "Well, I ran into Howard earlier today right when I came to work…" Bernadette's expression turned sour. "Oh God. What did he do?" "Nothing, nothing." Penny said quickly. "Look, he asked me if I could get you to talk to him. He sounded really desperate and I think you should." Bernadette still looked reluctant. "I don't know…" she said, unsure of herself. "Just talk to him, let him explain himself. I'm sure everything will turn out okay." "But what if it doesn't?" she asked, concern evident in her voice. "It will," Penny replied. "I know it." "Fine." Bernadette reluctantly agreed. A small smile formed on Penny's lips. "Great."
"Penny, where do you get all this alcohol?" a surprised Bernadette asked. "You know, places." She replied. "I feel kinda bad." Bernadette said on a spur of the moment. "Why?" Penny inquired. "Well, because we are having a girl's night and we didn't invite Amy." "Yeah, I guess." "Remember what happened last time we did something and didn't invite Amy?" Both shuddered at the memory. "Okay then, if you want we can go over there and she if she's there." "Yeah, I guess." So both the girls sat their drinks on the counter and walked across the hall, where the paused, hearing Howard and Leonard's voice.
"Do you really think that's such a good idea?" Penny heard Leonard say. Desperately, she pushed her ear up against the door. There was a low mumbling, and then she heard Leonard's voice again. "Really, that's never going to work Howard!" "Why can't you just be happy for me?" This time it was Howard's voice she heard over Leonard's. "Well, I try!" Leonard harshly said back. "Don't listen to him." She heard Raj say. "I think it's a great idea." "I think you're just going to get-" but then the sound of a blender cut off the sound and Penny didn't hear the end of Leonard's sentence. Penny rolled her eyes, typical Sheldon trying to drown out noise of what he thought was fighting. Sighing, Penny stood up.
"So, what'd they say?" she asked. "Uhm, I'm not entirely sure." Penny said. "But I didn't hear Amy in there." "Well, maybe Sheldon knows where she is." "Maybe," So Penny turned to the door and opened it, interrupting the boys' conversation. They all stopped what they were saying and looked up at Penny, as if daring her to come in and interrupt them more often. The sound of the blender abruptly stopped and Penny looked around, feeling self conscious.
"Hey guys," Penny greeted, attempting to hide her nerves. "Hey Penny," Howard said. Raj whispered something into Howard's ear and Howard then said "Raj says hi too." Penny slightly nodded. Leonard remained silent, looking from her to Howard and Raj to Sheldon nervously. For a moment, Sheldon and Leonard held a brief eye contact, as if Sheldon were asking if it was social convention to greet her as well. After a minute of silence, Sheldon said "Hello Penny," all the while, his back to her, fiddling with something in the kitchen. "Hi," Leonard said quietly, avoiding eye contact.
"Sheldon," Penny called. "Yes," Sheldon called back over his shoulder. "Do you know where Amy is?" "I believe she has chosen to stay home tonight, due to a vigorous monkey she has just taken in. She told me, and I quote, "I must take care of him the first few days I have him. He's letting me do a study on him for addiction and the least I can do is let him hang around and watch my cable and buy him packs of useless cigarettes." Penny had no idea what to say to that so she just nodded slowly, slightly relieved that she wouldn't have to bring Amy to her girl's night as she'd most likely be talking about Leonard.
"Why do you ask?" Sheldon wondered out loud. "Oh, no reason," Penny said at the same time as Bernadette said "We're having a girl's night and we just wondered if she'd like to join us." "That's a great idea Bernadette." Sheldon said with a small smile. "I'll go phone Amy and she if she'd like to join." And with that, he left the kitchen and his wet dishes behind that he was washing and moved to his room, closing the door behind him.
"Well, I take that as a sign that things with Sheldon and Amy didn't go terrible that one night?" Penny asked Leonard, right after she gave Bernadette a look of disappointment that didn't go unnoticed by Howard and Raj. "Yeah, I guess." Leonard mumbled. "Leonard, what's wrong?" Penny asked, curious. "I don't want to talk about it." Leonard mumbled, while walking back to his room. While Penny stood, staring after Leonard, Howard was shyly looking at Bernadette. "Hi Bernie," he said quietly. "Hello Howard." Bernadette replied coldly. Howard's smile wiped from his face and a small frown found it's way to his lips. "Bernie," he said, moving closer to her. "I'm sorry…" "You should be." Bernadette replied, perhaps a little too harshly. Howard backed away slightly. "Right," he mumbled, looking at the ground. Penny was still staring ahead, as if waiting for Leonard to come back, so Bernadette pulled Howard aside closer to the door.
"Howard, look, I'm sorry, okay? It's just; don't you trust me at all? I would never hurt you on purpose or Leonard for that matter. It wasn't the situation that made me upset. What made me upset was the fact that you didn't trust me." Her voice was back to normal and she was having no trouble looking Howard in the eyes and telling him the truth. A glimmer of hope shone in Howard's eyes. "I'm sorry Bernie. I should've trusted you, And I do, I do trust you. I've missed you so much. Let's face it; you're the only girl for me, the only girl I'm ever going to find that I don't have to drug to get them to be with me. You're perfect." Bernadette was touched by Howard's words and a small tear was forming in the corner of her eye. Before either could say anything else, Bernadette wrapped her arms around his neck and placed her face in the crook of his neck, hugging him tightly.
"Hey, Bernadette," Penny started, but then she saw the two hugging and unconsciously she grinned, despite the feeling in the pit of her stomach.