A/N: Penny follows her dream and leave carnage behind.

Chapter 3

1600 Fulton St
Apt 1006
10:45pm

Sheldon escorted Leslie Winkle to her apartment as a gentleman should do. He'd been schooled from an early age in the strictures of social etiquette where women were concerned. She kept looking at him out of the corner of her eye as the elevator crept up to her floor.

"Dinner was great, Sheldon. And I can't believe we spent the entire evening without once talking about our work. I really had a good time. Would you like to come in for coffee?"

"I don't drink coffee, Leslie, but if that's 'code' for coitus then yes, I'd love to."

She cooked him breakfast in the nude. He ate it in the nude. She'd experienced more orgasms in the past 12 hours than in the past year – including those that were self-inflicted.

Now she was basking in the afterglow of another satisfying session of intercourse. Never, ever would Leslie Winkle call it 'love making' – she didn't believe in love at all. It was all brain chemistry and hormones and instinct. It was hogwash.

"We really need to do this again, Sheldon. What are your plans for the weekend?" Leslie was lying in bed on her stomach, running her fingertips up and down the inside of Sheldon's thigh while he drew equations on her butt.

"I haven't planned that far ahead. What did you have in mind?"

"Any damned thing you can imagine, Sheldon. Anything."

"I'm on vacation so I'll call you when I know what my plans are."

"Promise?" He nodded, hoping she didn't see the swarm of tics that appeared on his face. He had no intentions whatsoever of seeing her again in the near future. He needed additional data samples for his study.

Cooper Residence

Sheldon sat at his desk and entered a summary of the previous night's activities into a file that would later become the basis of his research paper although it would never be published. It was personal.

He didn't include that during one particularly intense and creative act of fellatio he'd almost called out Penny's name when he ejaculated. Perhaps it was because he was deep in her throat and it reminded him of one of Penny's most interesting ways of bringing him to orgasm.

Sheldon glanced at his chronometer and wondered how Penny's date had gone and whether she'd swallowed her date and then milked him dry.

He couldn't recognize the emotions he was feeling at that moment but had he not been whom he was, he'd have recognized intense bitterness.

He cursed his eidetic memory but resolved to avoid any such comparisons in the future. He pulled up his daily To Do List and noted that today was 'Lawn Care & Maintenance' day. Sheldon changed into his 'Lawn Care & Maintenance' apparel and proceeded to mow his small lawn and apply a liberal spreading of fertilizer and weed control agent.

When he leased the small house (with an option to buy) it was with the intent of marrying Penny and starting a family. They'd moved in together and been very happy (or so he thought) until her ambition got the better of her. It was on a warm and quiet Sunday afternoon that his world went to Hell.

Two Years Earlier

Cooper-Drummond Residence
Pasadena, California

"Sheldon, what am I gonna do? My career is in the toilet, I have no prospects and my peers are either soccer moms or successful actors."

He set the Times crossword puzzle and pen aside and sighed as if put upon. They'd had this conversation many, many times and it always ended with Sheldon offering her a shoulder to cry on and then the couple would seek solace in the brief respite offered by coitus.

"Perhaps you should enroll in acting classes again. I will pay, of course. I would do anything to make you happy, Penny; surely you know that by now?"

Yes, she knew that he would literally give her the shirt off his back if it would make her happy and while she loved him for his unwavering support, it just wasn't enough. Not this time. She was suffocating and she needed to be free to spread her wings and practice her craft.

"I've taken all the stupid classes already, some twice. No, I need to be where the action is – on stage. The focus of Hollywood is all on tits and ass, not skill. The real place to practice my craft is on stage, on Broadway. The producers there look for charisma and acting talent not for a quickie on the casting couch."

"Aren't there stage productions here, Penny? Surely New York isn't the only city in America where there are such productions? Didn't we see 'Wicked' in Los Angeles? Have you asked your agent to – "

"It's not the same, Sheldon! It's like the minor leagues out here and I need to try out for the big leagues. Would you be happy teaching at Slippery Rock State Teachers College? No."

"Penny, Slip – " he began.

"I'm – I'm gonna go to New York and I'm gonna be successful. It's my destiny, sweetie, just like yours is to win the Nobel Prize for your research into String Theory."

"You're leaving? But Penny – " He was appalled at the sound of neediness in his voice.

"We'll Skype and have the occasional weekend together, baby. I'll call every night and – "

"You're leaving?" It was all he could think of to say. An IQ of 187 and he was having trouble finding words.

"Come with me! Your brain is portable…" Her laughter was something he'd miss. And her satisfied sighs after making love. He'd abandoned 'coitus' after experiencing intercourse with Penny. With her it had been 'making love'. 'Coitus' hardly scratched the surface in describing how it made him feel.

"I'm under contract for another year. I can't – "

"Take one of those sa-sa, oh, what's the word? Sabbatical, yeah, a sabbatical. You'll love New York and there's so much to do and you can work in an environment free from distraction."

The oxymoron in her single sentence was mind-boggling to Sheldon. "Penny, I can't – "

"You mean you won't! Sheldon, don't you love me? Don't you want me to be happy? Don't you want us to be together?" She was suffocating in California. She needed to breathe.

The very next day Sheldon inquired about taking a 6-month sabbatical. Dr. Gabelhauser was shocked when Sheldon approached him. It was obvious that the young genius was desperate.

"Dr. Cooper, a sabbatical at this point in the semester would be highly disruptive to your grad students but I'll allow it – this one time. When would you like to begin your 6-month sabbatical?"

Sheldon called Penny to tell her he'd been successful in obtaining a sabbatical but his call went directly to voicemail.

His mood darkened and he uncharacteristically slammed doors and snarled at his assistant when Alex gave him his phone messages, none of which were from Penny.

The final straw was when his debit card was declined in the faculty cafeteria and he had to ask Leonard to pay for his lunch.

"The bank has made an error and my account has been closed as a result. Could you – " He hated needing to ask but Leonard was his friend and happily 'spotted' him for lunch.

"I'll pay you back, Leonard. I must call the bank and straighten this out immediately."

His day got even worse. Leonard couldn't help but hear the shock and then the sadness in his friend's voice when he said, "Closed? But why? I'm a depositor in good-standing and…she – she closed the account?"

Sheldon hung up his cell and begged Leonard to please take him home immediately.