The Duality Synthesis, Chapter 3 by patricia51
(And I'll be there some day)
Of all the people that Penny could have possibly imagined standing at her door the very last one would have been Alex Jensen. But there she was. Penny looked the slender girl up and down, her eyes lingering on the diamond ring on her finger.
"Well what do you want Jensen? Come here to gloat? To rub things in? I heard that Leonard had asked you to marry him. Just remember he asked me first, more than once."
"Yes he did. The difference is that you said 'no' and I said 'yes'. And I told him I loved him and you didn't. Beyond that I still love Leonard Hofstadter and I tell him that a lot. So we're going to get married. But that's not why I came here."
Penny was surprised at Alex's bluntness but also curious. She shrugged. "Knock yourself out." She waved the visitor in, closing the door behind them. She indicated the couch. "Have a seat." Surprising herself she automatically asked "Would you like something to drink?"
"Thanks anyway." The pair sat down and looked at each other. Penny broke the silence first.
"So. Let me repeat myself, maybe a little calmer now. And I AM curious. Why are you here Alex?"
"Because there's a certain group of friends, of whom Leonard is one of the main members. That group isn't the same since you stopped showing up on the nights that they all gather together. You're missed. A lot. And to be honest because he thinks it's somehow his fault it makes Leonard feel guilty and unhappy and when he's unhappy..."
"Then you're unhappy?" finished Penny.
"No I'd say that when he's unhappy I want to find a way to make him happy again."
"And that would be?"
Alex paused and gathered her thoughts. "Once upon a time there were four pretty darned smart, brilliant in fact, science geeks who gathered together on a regular basis. Their lives outside of the university they all worked for centered on comics and games and their wide-ranging imaginations that only occasionally touched the real world. But then something changed. A free-spirited and lovely woman moved in across the hall from two of them and things would never be the same again."
"She opened their eyes, well one of them in particular, to the world that exists beyond their labs and computer games. In return she discovered that there is a world full of guys beyond those that she knew. One of those guys and she did an incredibly complicated ballet together, joining and parting more than once."
Alex looked troubled. "Previous break-ups, although not calculated to be joyful, didn't really produce a rift. The five some, augmented bit by bit by other women and even other guys, carried on pleasantly. But now something has changed."
"Someone once figured out that Leonard was the center of the group. If he was its heart than you are the spirit Penny. What changed Penny? Why are you avoiding Leonard this time around? Or is it me?"
"Perhaps it's both," Penny said thoughtfully.
"I know you have friends beyond this little circle but they all miss you. And I know as Amy gets closer to Sheldon, with him kicking and screaming the whole way, and Bernadette and Howard begin to seriously explore the possibility of children that even your 'bestie' will have less time to split between here and across the hall. And let's face it Penny. You are sorely missed by everyone."
"Including Leonard?"
"Very much so," Alex said firmly. "Penny long before you thought of Leonard as a romantic partner you thought of him as a friend. A good friend. He still would be a good friend. He wants to be a good friend."
"And you?" Penny eyed her one-time rival with interest.
"The idea wouldn't have thrilled me back around the time you two broke up and Leonard and I started dating," the slender girl answered honestly. "Now? I'm a lot more secure than I was then and certainly a lot more comfortable then that famous afternoon in my apartment. I'm happy with Leonard and I know he is with me too. And," she hesitated for a moment, "as funny as it sounds I'd like to be friends with you too."
"Good heavens why?"
"Are you kidding? By adding Amy and Bernadette to the group and now me you have three female counterparts to Leonard and Sheldon and the guys. And don't even get me started on Raj's girlfriend. It would be great to have someone with their feet a little more firmly on the ground. Besides, when 'Streetcar Named Desire' goes to Broadway and then gets filmed we'll be able to say we knew a famous actress back in the day."
Penny laughed. "Well I hope that comes true." She stopped. "Wait a minute, Raj has a girlfriend?"
"And a perfect match I think." With that the pair settled down to a long nice chat as Alex told Penny all about Lucy and how the two of them communicated side-by-side via text messages. From there the talk ranged all over and it was three more hours before Alex finally tore herself away after they had exchanged promises that Penny would start coming back on group nights and that Alex would visit again soon.
Continuing to think things over for the next few days led Alex to decide there was one more factor that had not come up in Penny's avoidance of the group. It wasn't specifically because of her break-up with Leonard but it was a result of that. Penny was now the one person in the group who didn't have a boyfriend/girlfriend. Everyone else was paired off, even Raj.
Alex nearly laughed at herself over the idea of her, the science nerd girl, needing to help a beautiful sexy blonde actress find a boyfriend. But there it was. Not just Leonard but the other guys as well had talked enough for her to have an idea of the guys that Penny seemed to date and what was wrong with them, ideas which even Penny had confirmed in a round-about fashion during their talk. Alex even admitted to herself that in a lot of ways Leonard was wrong for the blonde girl as well.
It was obviously overstepping her bounds and maybe even her abilities. She could very well fall flat on her face. But she had found, to her own surprise, that she really liked Penny. Of course since she was no longer worried about her as romantic rival it was much easier to see the other girl in a positive light.
She didn't have time to follow up on her ideas for a couple of weeks. Coming into the cafeteria one afternoon, late as usual for lunch, she stopped and looked for a familiar face. A chuckle came out as she spotted a familiar form calmly lunching by herself while surrounded by enough empty tables that one might have suspected she was wearing a "Warning: Quarantine" sign.
It was normal for the faculty from different departments to tend to congregate together rather than mingle with people from other specialties. Even broader categories existed; the sciences rarely interacted with the humanities. And some didn't seem to belong anywhere. The particular woman Alex made her way towards was one of those, one who seemed to create her own category even though she wasn't the only one in her discipline.
Alex set her tray down, taking the seat opposite the other woman, who looked up from her meal and smiled.
"I wondered who was bold enough to bear the outraged scrutiny from the onlookers. I should have known it would be you Alex."
"I swear Mandy," the scientist returned. "You do this just to piss them all off don't you?"
The black-haired girl shrugged although Alex could see the devil dancing in her dark brown eyes. "Bunch of knee-jerk left-wingers. The whole group together couldn't do something as decisive as actually get angry. They're too busy wringing their hands."
"And you always wear you camo field uniform, boots, beret and all."
Captain Amanda MacKenzie, US Army, known to her friends as Mandy, shrugged again. "I have to wear something," she answered reasonably. "Just like I have to sit somewhere for lunch. And goodness knows when I wore my Class A uniform you could have heard the gasps of outrage all the way back in Afghanistan."
Alex giggled. Mandy WAS quite a sight in her pressed and tailored green uniform with its rows of brightly colored ribbons for service and valor earned during two combat tours topped by silver badges that she had learned signaled Mandy's qualification as a paratrooper and something called Air Assault. Colorful patches on the shoulders of the tunic had indicated her present assignment to the joint CalTech/USC Army ROTC program and her choice of the unit she had served with in combat, the Eighty-Second Airborne Division.
"But you DO have fun doing this. You know you're perfectly welcome over in the science area."
"I know but I just revel in the air of disapproval here. Not only are they disgusted at the very notion of a soldier sitting in their area what drives them absolutely wild is the fact that I don't hang my head in shame and scuff my toes on the floor in the embarrassment of being among my betters, defined as those who would piss in their pants and faint dead away if they ever found they had to handle some of the things I have had to do over the years." The female officer shook her head and suddenly grinned. "Listen to me. I'm whining as bad as them now. So what's on your mind Alex?"
"I have a friend, female friend, that I'm looking to find someone for."
"A date?"
"To start with. If it's the right person I hope it could turn into more."
"And you thought of me?"
"Uh-huh?"
"Ahhhhh, Alex just because I've never been married doesn't mean I swing that way."
Alex opened her mouth to protest that she had meant no such thing when she saw the twinkle in the other girl's eyes. She threw up her hands in mock resignation.
"Okay you got me on that one."
"Seriously though, what made you think of me?"
"Because of all my friends you are the one most likely to know someone who would be right for Penny." Alex went on to describe the actress/waitress and what the young physicist had learned about her. "What she needs is someone that she can accept as an equal, as a partner or even to look up to. At the same time the guys she's dated before who were strong and self-confident were also asses. I'm not sure she believes anymore that she can find someone who fills both roles."
"Holy cow Alex," Mandy protested. "Don't you think if I knew someone like that I wouldn't have snapped them up myself?"
Alex raised an eyebrow and looked at her friend. Mandy relented.
"Okay, okay, so I'm not looking, at least right now. My hands are full." Alex nodded. She knew the other young woman was not only had her military classes to teach but was also finishing her Master's degree in addition to being the single mother of two pre-teen sisters she had adopted. "Let me think." After pondering for only a short time she looked quizzically at Alex.
"Would it matter if he was divorced? There's a classmate of mine from West Point who did the 'married his high school sweetheart at the Cadet Chapel' thing immediately after graduation. She took off on him while he was in Afghanistan. He got out after his required five year commitment and now he's with the US Marshals in LA. He's not a Greek God but he's a pretty good looking guy in decent shape and after getting dumped by his ex by email of all things it would be great for him to find someone good."
"Let's set it up!"
(Back to Present)
Alex never took her eyes away from Leonard. If she had shifted her gaze she would have seen Penny in her bridesmaid dress stealing glances towards the groom's side of the church where a certain US Marshal was. But although she was happy for her rival turned friend nothing in the world was more important than the minister's words.
"Do you Alex Jensen take Leonard Hofstadter to be your lawfully wedded husband? In sickness and in health, for richer for poorer, forsaking all other until death do you part?"
"I do."
(To be continued)