A/N This chapter is about 1500 words longer than the first two. Originally, it was about 800 words longer. My editing process tends to end up adding about 600-700 words.

Chapter 3

"You look great," said Leonard. "I would have never recognized you."

"Yeah," said Stephanie, "I've lost about 40 pounds. I was a bit hefty when we were dating, and after my first kid, I thought it was better to lose some weight. You like it?" At the question, Penny thought her voice had a hint of sultry in it.

Well, that is enough of that. He's mine now lady, thought Penny. She put on a smile and walked out from the hedge and said, "Sweety, I thought, you…oh I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt."

"Er, this is my wife, Penny," said Leonard, suddenly looking nervous.

Stephanie said, "So nice to meet you…"

Leonard clear his throat and said, "Penny you remember…"

"Stephanie, yes I remember. I'm Penny," said Penny, holding out her hand. "You were the doctor that Leonard dated. If I remember right, you moved in for a while." Penny gave a sideways glance at Leonard, who looked back at Penny looking worried.

While she took Penny's hand, it was clear that Stephanie didn't remember her. Penny thought, So, you don't remember me…well, we only did meet once, but how about I remind you. Penny said, "I'm the woman who came to get coffee in her underwear."

Stephanie actually chuckled, "Ahhhh, yes, I remember now. I was a bit puzzled by you that morning. I'm sorry I didn't remember without the reminder." There was an uncomfortable pause. "Ah, Leonard said you just got married. Did you have to push things along with him, like I did?"

Penny smiled, she remembered, a bit guiltily now, telling Leonard about slowing it down. She seemed kind of sweet when they first met. And now, despite her question to Leonard, Penny liked her. She said, "He had to push me, he was always ready. I was the one who had commitment problems."

"I wouldn't have thought that from when we were dating," Stephanie said thoughtfully.

Penny chuckled, "Yeah, it was reversed with us, despite his being shy, he was always ready to move to the next level. It took a while for me to get over my issues." Penny paused, "Stephanie, do you remember Raj, Sheldon and Howard?"

Stephanie thought for a second, "I remember Raj, he couldn't talk to women, but he seemed OK. Sheldon… ahhhhh, Sheldon, how could anyone forget him? He's a bit of a wing nut, isn't he?" She giggled at the memory, "I don't think I could forget Howard either. Boy was he creepy."

Penny grinned at her, "I get it, trust me, I've know them for nine years. But, Raj can now speak with women. Sheldon…well, he isn't quite as bad as he used to be, and besides, he has a girlfriend." She chuckled, "But, Howard… Howard is now married, and his wife just found out she is pregnant."

"Howard is married?" Stephanie asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, and is going to be a father."

Stephanie shook her head.

Penny said, "Believe me, I understand, he tried to hit on me all the time. But now? He's changed, he's matured. Well, at least he isn't creepy anymore."

"But…do you know how we met?"

"Yeah, I know," chuckled Penny, "Leonard told me. I snapped his eyepatch, before he went out that night."

Stephanie laughed, "That was ridiculous, wasn't it."

The more she talked to her, the more Penny liked her. Penny suddenly thought of something,

"Do you and your husband have anything to do tomorrow night?"

Leonard looked at Penny, with a quizzical look.

"Not that I know of, why?"

"Well, the rest of the group is coming over tomorrow night," said Penny. "Why don't you and your husband come on by, and say hi to them?"

Stephanie looked thoughtful for a few seconds, then said, "If we don't have anything, and we can find a sitter, we'll be over, what time?"

"A bit after six?" Penny said with an evil grin as a thought occurred to her.

"OK, We'll see you then. It was so nice meeting you again, and Leonard, so nice seeing you."

"Goodbye Stephanie," said Leonard and Penny together.

Stephanie walked up her drive way. Leonard and Penny turned and walked toward their house.

"So, that was Stephanie, huh?" said Penny.

"Yes, and thanks"

"For what?" Penny asked.

"For not making a big deal about it."

"Why should I make a big deal about it?" Penny said. "I mean other than asking you how you thought she looked and hugging you, what was wrong with it?" Penny had a wolfish grin on her face.

"So, you heard and saw that?"

"Yeah, I did," said Penny. "It was when I heard her ask you how she looked, with that voice, when I thought I'd better let her know I was there. Despite all that, I liked her, and she seemed pretty cool when you were dating. I'm not sure I would have taken another woman coming over the way I was dressed as coolly as she did. Since I like her, and she's our neighbor, I asked her and her husband over."

"Well, that's good, they are our neighbors and it would be good to keep it friendly," said Leonard. "We do still have to let the rest of our friends know where we're at now."

"Yes, and I need to talk to Amy and Bernadette," said Penny. Leonard unlocked the door, and they entered, Penny ran to the security pad, entered 2311 and pushed the arm button. The light turned orange, the display went blank and she turned and smiled at Leonard and said, "How about I make up a couple of salads?"

Two hours later they had eaten and were finishing unpacking the kitchen boxes. They gathered all the empty boxes in their garage. There were still many boxes that had some of their personal things, they would get to them later, on an as needed basis. They walked back through the house, stopping in each room to talk about what was needed in that room first.

The bedrooms, for now were fine. Leonard's bed was in the master bedroom as it was larger, but there was only one of his nightstands and his dresser. Penny's bed, and Leonard's other nightstand was in what they were currently thinking as their guest room, along with Penny's dresser. Each of the rooms needed a couple of pieces, mostly bookshelves, to finish them up.

The other two bedrooms we're scarcely finished. Both had quite a few boxes that had yet to be unloaded. Leonard's office had his desk and a couple of bookcases and a couple of whiteboards. Penny's office only had one bookcase, and her coffee table, as she didn't have a desk. One of the kitchen chairs, filled out the furniture.

The great room looked sad. Penny's small couch, and chair were the main things. Her nightstands were one either side of the couch. Her television stand and television were along the wall opposite of the kitchen. There were a couple of bookcases trying to fill out the rest of the room, and failing.

The dining room wasn't much better, with her small table and three chairs. The kitchen was the most filled out, but even there, it looked rather empty, as this kitchen was so much bigger than even the on in 4A. Penny sat down at the table, Leonard went to the refrigerator. "You want a water?"

"Sure."

He grabbed two and brought them to the table, sat down, and said, "Well, what do you think we need."

"We definitely need some area rugs and some runners," said Penny, "matched with some drapes…"

"I'm going to leave that to you," laughed Leonard. "But I would like to see what you picked out before you buy it."

"No problem," said Penny. "Some new furniture definitely, but we can talk about that. So what are we doing tomorrow?"

"I thought we could do brunch at Marston's," said Leonard. "On the way home, we can pick up some fruit and vegetable trays, a couple of sandwich trays and some wine and beer, some milk for Sheldon and soft drinks and water, mostly for Bernadette. Get things set up for a get together."

"Well, shouldn't I talk to Bernadette and Amy then?"

Leonard paused, looking uncomfortable. Finally he said, "Do you want me to call Sheldon?"

Penny sighed, "No, let me call Amy. She might be more receptive and she can get him to come. You just know Sheldon's gone nuts about this and we may have trouble getting him to come over without her help."

"Yeah," said Leonard, "she may also understand better why we did what we did. But, I don't want to put you in the middle of Sheldon and me. This was my idea you know."

"Yeah, but I agreed to it and, I'm not in the middle, I'm on your side," said Penny smiling and grabbing his hand.

Leonard smiled, and squeezed her hand, "You know what I mean."

"Yes, I do, and I'll tell you again, I'm on your side."

They looked at each other for a moment, before Leonard said, "Why don't you call Amy?"

"I'm thinking I may text her," said Penny. "I'd prefer talking to her, after I know that Sheldon won't be around."

"Good call," said Leonard. "After you get done talking to Amy, are you going to call Bernadette?"

"Yeah," said Penny. "If I can get Amy to bring Sheldon over, then I'll get Bernadette, Howard, and Raj over about an hour later."

"An hour?"

"Well," said Penny. "If we can't get Sheldon to forgive us and get him to stay, in an hour, they won't be here when the others show up."

Leonard nodded his head, "How about after you talk to Amy and Bernadette, we work for an hour or two? We have a quite a few boxes to empty yet. I'll order a pizza for dinner and we can work through as many as we can tonight."

"That sound's good to me, let me get my phone." Penny went to the kitchen, where her phone was plugged in, unplugged it and brought it to the couch, sitting down with Leonard.

Looking anxious, Penny said, "Here we go."

Penny typed in:

amy

Penny and Lenard waited. After a few minutes, with no reply, she tried again:

amy please

They waited. Several minutes went by, again with no answer. Penny shrugged her shoulders and looking at Leonard said, "Maybe she doesn't want to talk to us. Maybe we just pissed her off too much."

"Maybe we have," agreed Leonard. "Well, I suppose we can start working on emptying the boxes."

"You start working on it," said Penny with a grin. "I'm going in the kitchen to look at the mountains."

Leonard shook his head as they rose from the couch. He was about to say something to her when they heard a tone and Penny looked at her phone:

What?

Penny typed in:

is sheldon around

Penny waited, then she saw:

No, I'm at my apartment, why?

Penny typed in:

i want 2 talk 2 u call me

Penny and Leonard sat back down, waiting. It had been five minutes and they hadn't yet heard the ring tone for Amy's number.

"Do you think she's got doubts about calling you?"

"Yeah, she might," Penny sighed. "We've either really pissed her off, or we've hurt her, probably a combination of both. Well, lets get to the boxes."

"Boxes? Or looking out the window?"

Penny laughed and stood up, Leonard did the same and they took one step, when they heard from Penny's phone, Amy's ringtone. They looked at each other and sat back down. Penny answered and put it on speaker saying, "Hi Amy, Leonard and I are here."

"What do you want," said Amy, hostility in her voice?

Penny and Leonard looked at each other, Penny notice the tone, but she pressed on, "We wanted to explain to you about why we left without telling you."

"Why," snapped Amy? "Because you don't want to deal with Sheldon? Because you want me to do your dirty work for you?"

Penny shook her head. She was going to be difficult, not that Penny blamed her, but it was going to make it tougher. "Amy, Please…"

"Don't Amy please me," said Amy. "Do you know how difficult the last 24 hours have been for me? My boyfriend feels like he's been abandoned by his former best friend. I didn't think my former best friend would do that to me."

Leonard and Penny looked shocked. Penny said softly, "Former best friend? Did we make the two of you that angry that you would drop us as friends?"

"No," said Amy, "Sheldon is my best friend now, like Leonard is yours, I would assume."

Leonard and Penny both raised their eyebrows, but smiled at each other.

"Amy, you know we had to do it," said Penny.

"Why do I know that?"

"Why did you break up with him," asked Penny?

There was silence on the other end of the phone for a while.

"Amy?"

"Ok," said Amy, "so he's difficult, but that doesn't mean you just sneak off without telling anyone. Why would you do that to us?"

"For the same reason we didn't tell Raj, or Howard and Bernadette," said Penny. "As a matter of fact, I have to call Bernadette after I'm done here. I wanted to talk to you first."

"Ok," said Amy, "tell me".

"Tell you what?"

"Why you moved out without telling any of us," said Amy.

"OK, but you can't tell Sheldon we told you."

"I swear," said Amy earnestly.

Penny began, "A couple of weeks after you broke up with him, we told him Leonard was moving over to my apartment. He went all old school, took everything out of the Living room and used the stuff he had there in 2003. He was sad because he missed you, he was sad because Leonard was moving out…"

"I thought he was mad at me, not sad," said Amy. "And Leonard was only moving across the hall"

"Well, at that point he was sad about you, and you know how he gets when he's upset," said Penny. "Sheldon was talking about Leonard visiting less and less, until he wouldn't see Leonard anymore. Leonard felt so bad about missing him. You remember, in the store, how both of them got when they thought of not being with each other?"

Leonard whispered, "What are you talking about? That was you that felt so bad."

Penny held her hand over her phone, "Yes, but she doesn't know that and both of you do get misty when you think of separating."

Leonard thought for a few seconds, nodded his head and said, "Sure, sure."

While Penny and Leonard were whispering, Amy was thinking. Finally she said, "OK, so what do we do?"

"So your good with this?"

"I wouldn't go that far," said Amy. "But, I know I'll eventually get over it so I might as well do it now."

"You sure," asked Penny? "If not we can talk about this some more."

"No, I get why and after all, I'm his girlfriend. Besides, I want to see where you guys are living now."

"OK," said Penny, "what we would like for you to do, is to come over tomorrow, and bring Sheldon with you."

"When?"

"Tomorrow, afternoon" said Penny. She continued explaining, "We are planning on having everyone over, were going to get some veggie, fruit, and cheese trays. Some sandwich trays, some drinks. It's just a get together so you can see where we live and check out our place. But first, we really need to talk to him, and apologize to both of you, so, how about around five?"

"How am I supposed to do that," asked Amy?

"I don't know," said Penny. "Maybe take him to the train store, or the zoo, then head over here."

"We haven't been to the zoo for a while," mused Amy. "I can take him to see the koalas, that will make him happier. Take his mind off of it."

"That sounds great," said Penny.

"Am I going to go through all of this, just for you two to cave into him again?"

"No, we won't, not now, we can't, you'll see." She paused for a few seconds. "Amy, we're really sorry, but we needed to get out of there, and just be in our own place, by ourselves ."

There was no answer for a few seconds before Amy said, "I can understand that. But I'm still not really happy about all of this."

"I know, and you have good reason to feel that way. But, please, bring him here tomorrow."

"I'll be there," said Amy. "I appreciate you explaining it, I understand some of why you did it. Oh, where exactly are you two?"

Penny looked at Leonard who spoke. "We'll text you tomorrow afternoon."

"Still trying to hide it? Why not now?"

"We'll text you the address tomorrow," said Leonard. "So you don't have to worry about letting things slip."

Penny heard Amy sigh, and then say, "You probably have your reasons."

"Yes, we do. So, is five good for you?"

"Yeah, that should be fine. I'll get him there, but I can't promise I can get him to the door of where ever it is you are."

"Just get him here, please," begged Penny. "If you can't get him to come in, we'll talk to him at the car."

"OK Penny."

"Really Amy, thank you so much," said Penny sincerely. "Try not to be so mad, we really are sorry."

"I'll work on it, bye."

"Bye, Amy, thank you again," said Penny, and then disconnected. She looked at Leonard, "Do you think we can apologize and not cave to him?"

"Yes," said Leonard. "This is different. It's not a case of keeping our stuff in his apartment. We bought the house, we moved the stuff here. We can be apologetic, but we don't have to worry. We have the house, we've moved in, if he's sad, he's sad. Him and Amy are back together and besides, we've have a plan, right?"

Penny sighed, "I worry about how much he can manipulate us. But, yeah, we do have a plan, and we have the house."

"So, we really have nothing to worry about" he said.

Penny nodded, then said, "Bernadette's up next." She dialed Bernadette's number, put it on speaker and waited. It went to voicemail, and Penny said, "Bernadette, call me," and hung up.

They sat there for a few minutes, and Leonard said, "Well, the last two times we got our call or message, after we got up. Want to try it again?" Penny smile and shrugged. They stood up and as soon as they did, the phone rang.

They both laughed as Penny looked at phone, seeing Bernadette's name. They both sat down and after the second ring, she answered, " Hi Bernadette."

They heard Bernadette and could tell she was upset, her voice sounding too much like Howard's mother for comfort. "Penny, where are you? Where's Leonard?"

"He's right here. We're fine, we're at our new place."

"Well, we figured that out. Where is this new place," asked Bernadette?

"Bernadette, we will tell you tomorrow," said Penny.

"Tomorrow? Do you realize how nuts Sheldon has gone," ask Bernadette? "Do you realize how worried we were about you?"

"Bernadette…"

"We didn't know where you were," said Bernadette. "Raj has been trying to track you down, Sheldon's been calling, Amy's been calling. It has been chaotic…"

"Bernadette…"

"I don't need this," said Bernadette. "My hormones are going crazy enough as it is with the pregnancy. I tell you, if I could get a hold of the two of you, I'd break…"

"Bernadette, we had no choice."

"What the hell do you mean you had no choice," Bernadette's voice had finally changed back to her normal high pitch.

Penny said, "Do you remember when Leonard and I tried to move out last year?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Sheldon acted all sad," Penny explained. "We felt so bad we agreed to stay." Penny saw Leonard's eyebrows go up, "We," he mouthed? She held her finger to her closed mouth.

"What's that have to do with it," asked Bernadette?

"Well," started Penny. "We were afraid that if we tried to move across the hall again, Sheldon would do the same thing and we would cave again. And we'd be stuck there again. Bernadette, you know Leonard and I have to get out of there, and this was the only way we thought we could do it. Without Sheldon pulling us back in."

"But why not tell us? We don't live with Sheldon," Bernadette said. "We wouldn't have said anything."

"We couldn't risk it," said Penny. "You already said that Sheldon and Amy have called. We didn't want to put you in a position of having to keep a secret, or lie or accidentally tell him what we did."

"Why would you think we wouldn't be able to keep a secret," asked Bernadette? "We didn't say anything at all to you about the girl Leonard kissed on the North Sea…"

"What the hell?" yelled Penny, looking up at Leonard, angrily.

A/N The actress that played Stephanie, Sara Rue, is currently on 'Mom' in a recurring role. Similar to Stephanie here, she is married, has a daughter, and has lost quite a bit of weight.