Disclaimer of all ownership except what's mine as determined by someone who really is rather disinterested and paid very well for being so. I'm also pretty sure when it's sunny and 70 in March on my upstairs deck the neighbor should be enjoined from using the damn leaf blower. He usually waits for early mornings on the weekend. Okay ear buds in, iTunes cranked up ready, set, write.

15 Minutes

Leonard sat alone on the patio by the pool, the mid-morning light glistening off the water. Einstein and Leaky were sleeping below the table. He sipped his coffee wondering if he should just retire and do this every morning. He just might if Penny would to. She was doing voice overs for a movie at the studio this morning. She'd taken Patty with her. The housekeeper would be here soon, but for now he was alone. He missed Penny and Lisel, then suddenly Liisa. He just let the tears run down his face, not really crying just leaking out. He thought about a line from Liisa's last letter to him.

"You've always done the right thing for people, even when it turned out wrong. Keep doing that darling, no harm will come from a true heart."

He heard the vacuum cleaner start through the open patio door and knew his solitude had ended. Wiping his cheeks and eyes he opened his laptop that was on the table and moved it to the table edge. His email was mostly the usual. Horst would send a videomail with Lisel later. Howard and Bernadette wanted to go to the movie Friday, did they want to double? Then he saw the email from Sam Larson.

"Leonard my article will be in the Sunday addition this week. Before then do you two want to tell me about your daughter? These people seem to know about her. Want to set the record straight."

There was a link to a website, Leonard clicked it.

The headlines were in bold, some rag called "The Donner Report". Their logo was of someone chewing on a human arm.

"Star in Weekend Tryst with Genius, but who's taking care of his little girl.

Leonard felt like his mouth should be hanging open but he realized he was grinding his teeth. The anger in him rising, "son of bitch!" escaped his lips. He scanned the article. They couldn't even spell her name correctly and said she was 6 years old. There was a picture of Penny and Leonard leaving the apartment. The story went on to say the childless actress had hooked up with an old flame making him abandon his daughter. Most of the slander was directed at "Miss Jenson" or "Penelope" as they were calling her. That the couple announced they were engaged after only being together a few days.

Leonard seethed, could no longer stay seated. He stood up and paced back and forth. The dogs were up now following him. It took him a few more minutes but at last he was calm. Would this turn out wrong? He sat down and typed a reply to Sam.

"Sam my daughter is 4 years old and her name is Lisel, please spell it correctly. She spent the holidays with her grandparents in Europe. She'll be coming home to live with Penny and I in February. You may include that information in the article,

Leonard sent it and copied both the whole email with the links and his reply to Patty who took care of Penny's email.

He then composed an email in German to Horst telling him to watch out for the press. He attached the link to the gossip blog and sent it.

He then called Howard.

"Howard you got any kids that are real good hackers, I mean gloom and doom type"

"Great I have a job for them, tell them it pays well. I'll email the rest."

He started typing an email to Howard, the subject was "Thermonuclear War"

Can't Beat a Geek, Well at Computer Games Anyway

Leonard surfed the web for a while. There were other sites with stories about them. But most were just gossip, paparazzi pictures. Some had wild speculation about their upcoming wedding. Most quoted or used part of Sam's original article or even linked to it. One even said he was a widower with a young daughter but nothing vile like the first site.

Leonard was satisfied; he sat back in the chair. It was quiet again and his coffee was cold.

The phone rang. It was Howard, Leonard answered on speaker phone so he could continue to type if he needed to:

"Okay Howard what did you and the kids find out?"

"Is this line secure?" Leonard smirked and shook his head. "Sure let's say it is."

"We found their server farm, it's in Long beach. The name of the media company is DTR limited out of Delaware. They run a bunch of seedy blogs, porn sites, and from the look of things some pretty racy chat rooms. Six servers load balanced, online storage, near line also. Do you want to see the video feed from the server room camera?"

"Nope, can they do it?"

"Sure you want the whole thing done still?"

"Yep, how long to get ready and how long will it take?"

Howard was talking to someone else for several seconds. "They'll be ready in about 3 hours kill and wipe the backups, change the server and battery backup firmware, and load the dragon. Then once we tell it go it will take about an hour to complete, though the last 35 minutes is to make sure the hardware is fried. The site will be toast in the first minute or two. Might take a few seconds to start were routing through Nigeria?"

"Thanks Howard let's shoot for a 4:00 PM start."

"Leonard the guys want to know how much you're paying them."

"How much do they want?"

"Pizza, a case of beer and five hundred should cover it. I think they would do it for just the pizza and beer really."

Leonard laughed, "That will work with the $500 each, Howard start it at 4:00PM then."

"Roger that"

Howard hung up and Leonard picked up the laptop and moved inside. He sat in front of the Christmas tree and turned on the fireplace. Opened his laptop back up, 12:30PM he noticed. He opened up his media player and started watching season 1 of The Limit staring Penelope Jenson. Several minutes later laughter could be heard in the room.

Subtle Anger, Nebraska style

Penny stepped out of the sound booth. She handed her scripts to one of the AD's. She smiled over at the director and waved. He had his headphones on so he just waved back. Penny went over toward her chair. Saying goodbye and giving a few hugs to people she knew. Patty was standing by the chair. Penny knew something bad had happened. Patty was smiling but her body language very tense. Penny walked over and Patty handed her the tablet. There was an email from Leonard, it was encrypted. Penny typed her password in. Penny looked down to see the Donner Report website. She betrayed no emotion just hissed, "Dammit". She looked over at Patty there must be more she's still wound up

Penny touched the tablet closing the website, Leonard's email was visible. She read Sam's email and Leonard's reply then closed the email. She handed the tablet back to Patty. It was almost 3:00PM. "Nothing we can do here let's go home."

Penny sat in the back of the town car as they were being driven home. Something was nagging at her. She asked for the tablet back from Patty and reread the website. Why did they misspell Lisel's name and get her age wrong. If it was someone who knew Leonard or Lisel they would know the details. She's only four years old she goes to daycare then back home with Leonard. Who heard her name but didn't know her age.

Penny turned slowly toward Patty. She's still tense.

Penny got very sad. Patty had been with her for two years. "Patty we need to get some things for Lisel when we get home. What grade will she be in?"

Patty looked more relaxed, "6 year olds are usually in kindergarten or first grade."

"Patty Lisel's only 4 and I'm pretty sure you can't spell her name either." Now Patty was really tense. Penny had put on her coldest face. "Patty give me your phone and your keys now." Patty handed her keys and phone to Penny, tears started streaming down Patty's face.

Patty tried to speak but Penny held up her hand. "It doesn't matter Patty, it really doesn't. Driver pull over this woman is going to be sick."

The car pulled to the sidewalk, a nice residential neighborhood was off to the left.

"Get out Patty."

Patty opened the door and stepped out. Penny closed the door and told the driver to continue home. She got her phone out and dialed. "Josh I just fired Patty, I'll need another PA at the house tomorrow. Didn't you say that Chelsea girl was sweet, let's give her a try. Thanks Sweetie."

Penny hung up and took several deep breaths, and started to cry angry tears.

King Leo the first

Penny came home to find Leonard watching a TV show on his laptop. She walked up behind him and kissed him on the cheek. Then she was staring at her own face on the screen. "Oh that's season 1. Why are you watching my old show? You don't have to for me."

Leonard paused the show and pulled her onto the couch. "You tried reading my text book and my papers. I think I should see these, I've watched four episodes already and you're very funny. But I see what you mean by being the character. She's not you. She's passive/aggressive, and funny but a little bit hard. You do her so well, but she doesn't have both your soft heart and inner strength."

Penny almost cried, right answer Leonard, she thought. She snuggled up closer to him.

"I fired Patty today she gave the information to the Donner Report."

"Why would she do that?"

Penny shook her head, "Doesn't really matter now being a PA is about loyalty. I knew she had issues with me seeing you. Are you okay, I should have called you but by the time I got done with my work you hadn't called me? I just assumed you were alright or you were moving your clothes back to the apartment."

He kissed her lightly, "Actually I've got to go get the rest tomorrow. Was my response to Sam okay?"

Penny smiled, "Just right you gave the essentials, we may have to give that girl a real interview when we get back from Europe and can show off the Hoftstader family." She snuggled in even more. "I'll have Josh deal with the Donner Report, though they're probably judgment proof"

Leonard's grin was huge, even slightly wicked. "There are other kinds of judgments. We won't be seeing much of the Donner Report website for a while. There about to become server-less." Leonard looked at his watch, "in about 10 minutes."

Penny wasn't following him. "What are you talking about?"

"You shouldn't know the details. Just watch"

Leonard opened his laptop and pulled up the link to the Donner Report then just waited. When the site refreshed at 4:04PM it changed. A black screen with a cartoon Blonde Valkyrie stomping the Donner Report logo into mushy red lumps. A counter at the bottom read 46 minutes to Meltdown,

Penny laughed, "What happens in 46 minutes?"

"A server farm in Long Beach is going to have a serious power issue. Of course all the backups and current storage has been wiped so no getting anything back. But the power issue will take out the rest of the hardware."

Penny gasped, "How did you."

"Howard and some talented people" Leonard's eyes were shining.

Penny put both hands on his face, turned to him and kissed him.

"You don't disrespect the King of the Nerds girl. Or he comes down on ya"

Penny kissed him again, "Oh you are so gangsta"

Somewhere out there an engineer is thinking about how to do exactly what Howard and his hackers did. Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I got tired of Patty, so now we'll see how Chelsea works out.

Remember love the reviews, this chapter was a little toward the geeky nerd side of my nature, it is a TBBT Fan Fic after all. Next chapter may not be until Sunday unless I have a quiet morning.

You can follow my every move, or lack thereof on twitter follow ElipticalThread

Night

PS Kid macy, I didn't stand you up, wrong airport PDX is 300 miles north, MFR would be correct. I put your name on the list for 4B. Like to get its own Tish though. Oh and no Kevins allowed in the building.