Chapter Thirty

"What would you like me to catch you up on, Leonard?" Sheldon asked tiredly. "Our trip? If that is the case, I would like to rest a bit before I do. There is a lot to tell." He continued to walk towards the hall leading to his bedroom with his suitcase rolling behind him.

"No." Leonard scurried after him. "I want you to catch me up on what's going on with you and Penny."

"Leonard," Sheldon sighed, having no time for Leonard's petty jealousy. "When two people spend a week together in a foreign country it is bound to happen that they will get close."

The smaller man crossed his arms over his chest and looked at Sheldon over the top of his glasses. "How close are we talking here?"

"Honestly, Leonard, I would not like to discuss this right now. Give me an hour and I'll tell you about our trip." Not Penny and his relationship with her, though. He would wait until Penny was with him and they were ready to tell everyone.

"Shel-"

"An hour," he said, firmly. "I am not saying another word until I get my hour of rest." He stepped up into the hallway and continued to roll his suitcase. Thankfully, it didn't sound as if Leonard was following him.

"One hour, Sheldon," Leonard called after him. "Then, we're going to talk."

Sheldon slipped out his phone from the front pocket of his pants and sent Penny a quick text message, hoping that she would still be awake enough to see it. I wish we were back in Europe already. If he used emoticons, a frowny face would have followed.

Right when he stepped into his room and shut the door, his phone dinged with a new message. It was from Penny, of course. Leonard?

He replied with one simple word. Leonard.

Fifty-NineMinutes Later

Someone knocked on his bedroom door and Sheldon was jolted from his peaceful sleep. Rubbing his eyes and glancing at his clock, he saw that it was exactly an hour later. "Leonard, I was hoping that you would be a good friend and not be exact," he called towards the door.

"It's me."

Penny.

"Oh, well. Come in."

The doorknob twisted and Penny quickly slid into the room before closing the door. She was dressed in a t-shirt and a pair of sweats. Her hair was piled messily on top of her head. "What was that about?" She said, asking about what he had said after she knocked.

"Leonard kept trying to get information out of me after we went our separate ways and I told him to give me an hour to relax."

Penny took a seat next to him. "And it's been exactly on hour, huh?"

"On the dot."

"Typical." Penny sighed and flopped back on the bed.

"So, what are you doing here, then?"

"I laid down to take a nap and just couldn't sleep, though I'm exhausted. I was wondering if I could sleep here." She peeked up at him with pleading eyes, knowing that once again she was asking him to do something out of his comfort zone and this time, it was in his own bed.

"Where's Leonard?"

"Don't know." She shrugged, causing the blanket underneath her to scrunch up with the motion. "I knocked on the door and no one answered, so I let myself in."

"He may be getting dinner or went to visit with Raj or Howard."

"Did you know that he told them to stay behind when he came and got us? Raj told me." She closed her eyes.

"I am afraid he's going to be very angry with us when we tell him the truth." Sheldon sighed, hating confrontations but knowing that this one was probably inevitable.

Penny's eyes were open now. "He has no right. He has no claim on me." She rubbed Sheldon's back comfortably. "For now, let's just hope Leonard will act like a mature adult about this and not worry about it." She moved on the bed until her head was resting on the pillows. She moved over enough so that Sheldon could slip in.

"Leonard's hour is up," Sheldon answered to Penny's silent invitation to join her on the bed.

"Is Leonard here at the moment?"

"No."

"Then, you still have some time to relax." She patted the bed, again. "I promise I won't try anything." She winked.

After only a second of hesitation, Sheldon finally consented and laid in the bed next to Penny. Instantly, his body began to relax on the mattress once more and his eyes closed. Penny was already asleep next to him.

Leonard returned with the meal just as Raj and Howard walked into the building right on time. "So, how have things been since they've gotten back?" Howard asked as they ascended the stairs. Raj walked a little behind them.

"Weird."

"Weird, how? Sheldon even crazier, now? Penny?"

"No. If anything Sheldon is less...Sheldon. Not by much, though, but enough to tell. On the way to the apartment building, he let Penny have the front seat." Howard paused on the steps in shock.

"No way," he said.

"Yeah." Leonard sighed.

Behind them where they weren't looking, Raj let a small smile show on his face. This was all old news to him, but it was funny to see his friends freak out a little bit.

"So, do you think something has changed between them?" The way Howard waggled his eyebrows; it was no secret as to what he had meant by that question.

"Don't know. Something is different between them, definitely." They were stopped on their landing, but Leonard wasn't willing to go in yet. "I have a feeling that maybe they're together, now." Surprisingly, he didn't look angry. Just disappointed.

"Penny with Sheldon? I don't know." However, while Leonard was taking his keys out to open the door, Howard looked at his best friend remembering a conversation they had only a few days before while drunk.

"How do you think I should react if that's the case?" Leonard asked his friends. Hopefully, Sheldon wasn't up, yet (though the hour was up) and could hear them through the door.

"I think you shouldn't be angry," Raj said. "Penny was never yours to have." That wasn't the kind of answer Leonard wanted, so he looked at Howard, hoping he would back him up.

"I got to agree with Raj on this, buddy. If Penny wanted to be with you, she would have made it clear. She's straight-forward like that."

"I just really thought I had a chance with her, you know? I thought when she moved in across the hall that it was fate we were to meet and fall in love." His eyes took on a wistful look. "We would get married, have four kids that would look like her, and we would have house somewhere near the University. I would be a-"

"Dude, stop. It's starting to get really creepy." Raj stepped forward.

"Started?" Howard looked at his best friend. "It was creepy the moment he opened his mouth to talk."

Raj paused for moment and then, nodded his head. "True. Very true."

Leonard watched the back and forth between the two friends and rolled his eyes. "All right, it was creepy. But I obviously don't think that anymore." His two friends looked at him with a 'we know you're lying' look. "Okay, I try not to think about that anymore."

"It probably will take Sheldon and Penny to get married before you stop thinking that way," Howard said.

"Probably," Raj added.

Leonard, having enough of his friends, finally turned to the door and used his key to open it. The food in his hands had begun to cool and Sheldon would probably throw his out because it was below the acceptable temperature.

At least he had a week without Sheldon's odd behaviors.

When he opened the door, he was surprised to find that Sheldon wasn't already up in his spot waiting for his food. After all, he had told him that he would wake him up in an hour to talk and normally, Sheldon was reliable when it came to time.

"He's still sleeping?" Raj asked and sank into his spot next to Howard, who was sitting in his spot next to The Spot, which he kept looking at mournfully. It truly had been the most comfortable seat in the apartment.

"Looks like it," Leonard replied and started to spread out their food on the small table. "Anyone want to get him?"

"Not it," Howard called immediately, putting a finger on his nose, as well.

Raj stood up, not caring that it looked like he would be the one to get Sheldon. Raj walked down the small hallway and stopped in front of Sheldon's door. Knocking lightly, he stood and waited for the tall, lanky man to answer.

"Leonard, I am surprised you gave me more than an hour to rest," Sheldon was speaking before he opened the door, which he opened only enough so that his lanky frame could fill it. "Oh, Raj. It's you. Hello."

Raj gave him a small wave in return. "Leonard brought food if you're hungry. I can go next door and get Penny, if you want."

"I'm right here." The presence of the blonde had Raj's eyes bugging out of his skull and his lips to glue shut. What was she doing in Sheldon's bedroom? He knew they were together, but he didn't know they were 'together' in that way. At least not yet, anyways.

Raj gave her a small wave, no longer able to speak. Penny rolled her eyes, though she was smiling. "And here I thought that you might be able to talk to me." Raj held up a finger, whipped his phone out, and started to type quickly.

Not much has changed here in a week. Though things have seemed to DRASTICALLY change for you two. Penny's beeped with the message and she quickly read what it said.

"It has," she said. "So, on a scale of one to ten, one being not angry at all and ten being damning us to hell, how mad do you think Leonard will be when he finds out about us?"

Raj tapped his chin for a moment, and then held up three fingers. "Really?" Sheldon and Penny asked at the same time.

"Raj? Are you getting him up?" Leonard's voice caused all three of them to jump and it was coming closer. Without thinking, it seemed, Raj shoved Penny back into Sheldon's room. Surprisingly, she didn't make a sound as it happened. Sheldon closed the door a little more so that no one could see inside his room just in time to see Leonard turn the corner.

"There you are," he said when he saw Sheldon. "I brought us dinner."

"That was very kind of you, Leonard," Sheldon said, earning him an odd look from his small friend.

"Uh...no problem. I also got something for Penny, as well, if you want to go and get here." With that he walked into the bathroom and shut the door, making it perfect for Penny to be able to slip out of Sheldon's room without Leonard knowing she was there. However, they didn't think about Howard.

When he saw Penny shoot from the hallway on socked feet, his eyes grew wide and he stopped the fork halfway to his mouth. "You had Penny in your bedroom?" He asked Sheldon, who calmly took a seat on his spot.

"I did," he answered simply as he reached for his container of food.

Penny pulled one of the computer chairs over to the table and sat down. "And if you say anything to Leonard about it, I'll probably kill you." It wasn't one of her best comebacks, but it seemed Howard got the picture and clammed up.

"Got it."

Raj took his seat next to Howard just as Leonard came out of the bathroom. Seeing Penny, he blinked a little in surprise and looked at Sheldon. "Well, that was fast."

"She was right at the door when Sheldon opened it to get her!" Howard said a little too loudly, but no one said anything about it. Penny gave him a little smile over her container of food. Sometimes, she found Howard adorable. Oh God...she was going to live to regret thinking that.

Leonard looked at Howard oddly for a moment before turning to Penny. "Well, I'm glad you're here with us. We missed eating with you...and Sheldon. Right, guys." Howard and Raj nodded their heads enthusiastically.

Well, I didn't miss eating with you all, she thought. Especially since I had Sheldon all to myself. Of course, she wouldn't have dreamed about saying that aloud and just returned Leonard's smile.

Once they were all finished with their food, Leonard popped in movie. Penny thought it was one of the Star Treks, but she wasn't really paying attention. Besides the computer being very uncomfortable to sit in for a while, she wished she could be curled into Sheldon's side, like she had in Germany. Things were going to be a lot different now that they were back. But she knew that the sooner they told Leonard (since Raj and Howard already knew) the sooner he would get over it and the sooner she and Sheldon started acted like a couple. Well...try to act like a couple in Sheldon's case.

Sharing a look with Sheldon, she knew that he was thinking the same thing. Tonight, once Raj and Howard left, they would finally tell Leonard everything.

Sorry if things seem to drawn out. I'm reluctant to end this story...and write Leonard's reaction. I think in this chapter you can kind of tell which direction I'm going to go with him. But I still want to sit down and think about it for a bit. Don't worry though! The next chapter shouldn't take me long to update (and if it does, it's because of school and not because of writer's block).

Thanks for reading!