Chapter 5

A/N I apologize for the delay, but several things came together to delay it. The original was over 4000 words, so I split it. This means that the last chapter is the next one, Chapter six. I'm editing that one now also, so sometime this weekend, although I may wait to Monday. Real Life is already intruding.

"Come on, all we can do is hope they get here" said Leonard, "let's get our showers"

They turned and walked toward their bedroom and once there, took their clothes off and headed for the shower. Penny loved their shower, and their bathroom in general. It was big enough for both of them, with dual sinks. The shower was very large and had two shower fixtures. Both of the fixtures could be used as a hand held shower head, or a regular shower head, when stored. This time, like their first few showers here, they were playful, would soap each other up and then use the handheld heads, to rinse each other off. They each washed their own hair, and left the shower and started drying each other off.

A half hour later, they, and their hair were dried and they were getting dressed, Penny again enjoying the room in the walk in closet. Looking at her side of the closet, she picked out a pair of skinny jeans and a flowery blouse and carried them out to the bedroom. Leonard had his maroon pants, his recycle shirt and a grey hoodie. It seems those were the one constant in his clothes, since she met him. Of course, she didn't mind, and besides, his choice of suits and ties was now much more discerning than the one suit he had when she met him.

She put some light make-up on, and teased her hair a bit. She then started putting on her clothes. She thought about Amy and Sheldon and said to Leonard, "Do you really think they are going to make it?"

"I think so," said Leonard. "Amy seemed to understand what happened, and she can work miracles with Sheldon."

"I'm not so sure," said Penny sadly. "Amy would usually call, to at least tell me she would be coming. She hasn't even called to tell me she got the address, that tells me she isn't coming."

"Well, we'll find out in 15 to 20 minutes"

"Yep, we will," said Penny. "Let's put the booze and mixers out." They headed for the kitchen.

It was 5:10, Penny had just returned from looking out at their driveway, for the fourth time. Sheldon and Amy still weren't there.

She sat next to Leonard and said, "I told you Leonard, they're not coming."

"Hold on," said Leonard, "Amy just might be having trouble with him, there's still time."

"I think we broke him, Leonard," said Penny.

"We didn't have a choice," said Leonard, pointedly.

"I know," said Penny, "I know." Penny rose and started toward the door.

"Penny, you just checked," said Leonard.

She turned to Leonard, "I know, but I can't help it." Penny walked to the window, looking out. "Leonard," she said excitedly.

"What?"

"They're in the driveway," she said, almost jumping up and down.

"What?"

"Amy's car is in the driveway," explained Penny. "Sheldon is still sitting in it, but Amy has his door open and is arguing with him. Should we go out?"

Leonard thought for a few seconds, "No, let Amy handle it. We're here, she's going to have to learn the reality that it's up to her to deal with him. If she comes to us and tells us she can't get him to come in, we'll send you out, to see if you can get him come in. And failing that, we'll go out and see if he'll talk to us there."

"Okay, help me finish up setting things out."

They made several trips between the kitchen and the dining area. The finally finished placing the plates, cups and cutlery on the table. The food trays would stay in the refrigerator for now, they would put those out later when the others arrived. They walked out of the kitchen, and sat on a couple of the chairs, from Penny's table. The were both thinking about how they could get Sheldon and Amy to understand. After a few minutes, they heard the doorbell ring, they both rose.

"It might be better if you get it," said Leonard.

"You may be right," said Penny, "we don't know how much of the crazy Sheldon he'll be." She turned and walked to the door and opened it.

"Hello, Sheldon, Amy, Please come in."

"Hello Penny," said Amy stiffly, as she moved into the room, but Sheldon didn't move. Amy stopped and grabbed him by the arm, pulling him in. "Come on Sheldon."

Sheldon shook off her hand and walked into the house.

Penny closed the door and led them to the living room. Leonard was there waiting for them. He had noticed Amy looking around as she walked into the living room, which he took as a good sign. As there was no expression on her face, he couldn't read Amy, but from years of living with him, he knew Sheldon was extremely upset. "Hello Sheldon," he said. "Hi, Amy."

"Hello" said Sheldon his voice dripping with distain.

"Hello Leonard," said Amy, using the same tone she had used with Penny.

"Won't you please sit down?"

"For what?" snapped Sheldon.

Leonard controlled his voice, "Penny and I would like to talk to you."

"Why would I want to talk to you," said Sheldon angrily? "You left without telling me you were leaving, or ending the roommate agreement. Besides," Sheldon looked around, "you know I have to find my place to sit here, although I'm still not sure I want to find one."

"Sheldon, please sit down," said Leonard. "You can take your time, finding a spot, but be aware that our furniture, both the location and type will change, so your spot may not be here, if you decided to come back again."

Sheldon said, "Then where do you suggest?" From his voice, Leonard could tell this wasn't going to be easy.

Trying to control of his voice, Leonard said, "Why don't you and Amy sit together on the couch?"

Amy and Sheldon moved over to the couch, and both sat uncomfortably. Leonard sat in the chair, Penny pulling one of the kitchen table chairs over.

"So," said Sheldon, "what do you want to talk about?"

"Penny and I, moving out," explained Leonard. "Your reaction to what happened. What's going to happen now."

"Do I get to ask questions, or are you just going to tell me why you abandoned me?"

"I will explain to you why we felt we needed to do what we did," said Leonard. He stared directly at Sheldon, with a stern look on his face. "If you want to ask questions, Penny or I may expand on it, or we may feel we don't have to tell you."

Sheldon looked at Amy, she gave a slight not to him. Leonard could tell he was still miffed, but he turned to Leonard and said, "OK, I will listen."

"Do you remember the table Penny and I got for the apartment, Sheldon," asked Leonard?

"Yes."

"And how you acted like a baby and you used Amy to manipulate Penny to feel sorry for you," said Leonard?

Sheldon's voice rose, "I was upset by the change in…"

"No, it wasn't that," said Leonard cutting Sheldon off. "Because after it was all over, you gave me a smirk and told me sometimes the baby wins. You knew what your were doing."

Although Sheldon was quiet, from the look on his face, he was even more upset than he had been.

Leonard said accusingly, "Then there was how you made Penny feel bad about us moving out, by manipulating her to think you were sad we were leaving. Then she convinced me… "

"No," snapped Sheldon, "I did feel sad about that."

"Oh yeah, you didn't seem to have any problem looking for another roommate, even asking Amy, when the others didn't work out," said Leonard, the irritation was obvious in his voice. "When you couldn't find another roommate, you manipulated us, plain and simple. You started telling us what we had to do as soon as we agreed to stay."

"I did not do anything like that," said Sheldon indignantly.

"Yes, you did," growled Leonard. "You told us that we had to spend most of the time here, the Fourth of July here. You went to draw up a new roommate agreement immediately. We haven't told you before, but Penny was unhappy at the apartment, she was unhappy with us living with you. She was even talking to that psychologist about it. I was unhappy with the situation, and I told the psychologist about you also."

"So then why didn't you just move out," said Sheldon, with annoyance and getting louder.

"Notice we did move out," snapped Leonard, his voice also getting louder. "Look at how you tried to keep our stuff in the apartment when you thought we were just going across the hall. If we had told you we were moving you would have come up with something to try to keep us there. And, besides, when we were arguing about moving things across the hall, you told us to go ahead and move out. You said we could leave."

"Leonard," said Sheldon now sounding angry, "are you renting this house or buying it?"

Leonard was surprised by the change in subject, but answered with pride, "We're buying it."

"So, before I told you to move out, you already knew you were buying this house and were leaving the apartment anyhow," said Sheldon acrimoniously.

"Sheldon," said Leonard coldly, trying to change the subject, "things are changing, you're just going to have to deal with that."

"I have no choice," said Sheldon shouted, "you've abandoned me."

"Only because you are always being so damn manipulative, you crazy bastard," said an outraged Leonard.

Simultaneously, Amy and Penny called out, "Sheldon, Leonard."

Leonard and Sheldon, anger visible on their faces, looked at their partner, then back at each other.

Penny stood and pulling Leonard with her into the kitchen. "Leonard, come with me."

"But…"

"But nothing," said Penny. She stuck her head back out of the kitchen, "Amy would you like some wine and Sheldon, do you want some milk?"

"Yes, I would, white Please."

"Yes, Penny, some milk would be nice."

Penny pushed Leonard further into the kitchen. She went to the refrigerator, got a bottle of white wine and started pouring two glasses. When finished, she put the wine back in the refrigerator, grabbed a beer, and brought it over for Leonard. She looked at Leonard and said, "You need to control yourself."

"Penny, you saw how he…"

"Yes," she said, "I saw. And, you have a right to be mad, hell, I'm mad, but I also know he's hurt."

"So were just going to give into him again," asked Leonard sarcastically?

"Of course not," said Penny. She thought about this. She knew Leonard was angry, but she had to calm him down. "But you don't have to rub it in." Penny got the milk and poured a glass. "You know he's worried about how he's going to get along without us. We have to make sure he knows he's still important to us. That we will see each other. Remember his worry about drifting apart?"

Leonard thought about it for a few seconds. From the other room, he could hear Amy, talking to Sheldon. He couldn't make out the words, but from her tone, Leonard understood Amy was trying to calm Sheldon down, much as Penny was doing for him.

He took a deep breath and said seriously, "You're not caving this time Penny."

"Of course not," she said. "We've got the house now. We aren't going back, we can't go back, we make it clear that things have changed, and we are staying here. We just have to make him understand and we can't do it by making him angry."

"So, what do you suggest," asked Leonard?

"First you are going to apologize to him. Bring up how little we've eaten with him. I've got some ideas too, so let's work together on this. Even if it sounds silly just follow along with me, OK?"

"OK," said Leonard with a slight smile.

"Here's my wine, get yourself a beer, and lets go get this straightened out."