A/N: Thanks again for reading and reviewing. Here's chapter 4. I hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction using characters from The Big Bang Theory. I don't own any of the characters.

CHAPTER 4

Penny and Leonard lay in their beds unable to sleep, thinking about what happened about an hour before. The butterflies in Penny's stomach were still in turmoil. This kiss was magical. A gentle and tender kiss. Not ecstatic, yet powerful. At the same time Leonard was in some kind of trance-like state. He couldn't believe he kissed this beautiful girl and she reciprocated it. It was like a dream come true. The feelings they already had for each other after such a short time really became stronger and stronger. There was no point in denying this, but neither of them wanted to deny this anyway.

It was long after midnight, when Penny finally fell asleep. Leonard had fallen asleep a bit earlier, but was awoken by Howard and Raj, who noisily came into the hotel room. As things turned out, Howard and Raj made a bar hop trying to pick up girls, but to no avail. Fortunately they were not drunk, just a little bit tipsy, so Leonard soon fell asleep again.

It was Friday, the fourth day of their trip with Penny as companion. Before noon they all visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, then they had lunch at a fast food restaurant in downtown. In the afternoon Leonard and Penny went to the Cleveland Museum of Art, while Howard and Raj strolled around downtown, as they were not interested in visiting an art museum. At six o'clock they all met again at Wade Park, ate something and drove back to the hotel.

Back in the hotel, they all discussed their further travel plan in the guy's room. On Saturday they wanted to drive to a small village at Seneca Lake, one of the so-called Finger Lakes in the central region of New York state, where they had rented a cabin for the weekend. And on the following Monday the last stage should lead them to New York City.

Apart from their visit at the Cleveland Museum of Art Leonard and Penny couldn't spend time together on this day. Howard and Raj were always present, and neither Leonard nor Penny couldn't find an excuse to separate from them. The evening faded out with all four of them watching TV. At least Leonard and Penny could sit together, which allowed them to exchange some tender looks from time to time. So, on the day after their kiss in the hotel corridor there wasn't time to further explore their feelings for one another.

On Saturday it wasn't better in regards to the exploration of their feelings. Again Howard and Raj somehow managed to prevent any time alone for Leonard and Penny. They knew they were on a trip in a group of four, but not being able to spent time alone became frustrating for Leonard and Penny. After checking out from the hotel in Cleveland, they drove in two stages to Seneca Lake. On the first stage from Cleveland to Salamanca, New York, Penny drove their rental car, while the second stage from Salamanca to the village at Seneca Lake was taken over by Leonard. Howard and Raj sat on the back seat the whole time, either occupied with games on their phones or sleeping.

Late at Saturday afternoon they arrived their destination at Seneca Lake. They checked in at the manager's office, received the keys and drove the short distance to their cabin. It was beautifully located, in close vicinity to the lake. After parking their car, they unloaded their luggage and put it down in the living room and inspected their home for the weekend. In addition to the cozy living room with fireplace the cabin had a separate kitchen and most importantly two bedrooms, each equipped with one double bed and an attached bathroom. But with three guys and one girl and only two beds there was a problem. Howard brought it up first, in his own manner of course. "Okay, first we have to take care of the sleeping arrangements. Who shares the bed with Penny?" He looked at Leonard and Penny. "I know you two have already spent a night together." Then Howard looked directly at Penny. "But maybe you want to try something new."

"Hey, I'm here too," Raj interposed, after taking a swig of beer from a bottle he just opened.

Penny rolled with her eyes. "I will share a room with Leonard. There's a couch in each bedroom. One can sleep in the bed, and the other on the coach. It looks quite comfortable."

"Of course I'm gonna sleep on the couch," Leonard insisted.

"Sweetie, you don't have to. It would be no problem for me to sleep on the couch," Penny said.

"No, no. You bed, me couch," Leonard ordered.

Penny had to smile at Leonard's mock commanding tone. "Ok, if you insist."

"I do."

Howard had to smirk at Leonard and Penny's little exchange of words. "OK, this question is settled to the satisfaction of both parties. Now onwards to the next question. What are we doing tonight?" he wanted to know. "I saw a poster advertising a dance in the village. We could mix with the locals and have a little fun."

Penny clapped her hands. "That sounds cool. I would like to dance."

Leonard was a bit reserved. "I don't know. I can't dance."

Penny tried to encourage him. "You don't have to perform at 'Dancing with the Stars'," she smiled. "I show you some moves. Come on. It'll be fun."

Howard raised his hand and looked at Penny. "Hey, when Leonard doesn't want to go, maybe you'd like to come with me."

"Or with me," Raj interjected, taking another swig of beer.

Howard turned to Raj. "I asked her first. Keep out of this, brother."

Leonard didn't like the direction this conversation was heading to. "We can certainly find something else we can do here. Maybe we could..."

Howard interrupted him. "Please, Leonard, not now. Penny wants to dance." He shook his hips and made some awkward dancing moves towards Penny. "She and I have just begun our little tango."

Penny was aghast and scrunched up her nose. "Our tango?"

Howard raised one of his eyebrows. "You know. The carnal repartee, the erotic to and fro. But as delicious as the appetizer might be, at some point we will have to succumb and eat the entreé while it's still hot."

Penny was beginning to lose her composure. "Okay Howard, look. Normally I would just ignore you. I mean, I get it. You're a little peculiar. I know you think you're some sort of smooth-talking ladies' man. But the truth is, you are just creepy.

Howard didn't get the message. "Umm okay, so what are you saying?"

Penny was flabbergasted. "I am saying no, I won't go with you to that dance. And by the way, it's not sexy to stare at my ass and say, "Ooh, it must be jelly 'cause jam don't shake like that." like you did during the boat tour in Chicago. And most important, we are not dancing a tango, we're not to'ing and fro'ing. Nothing is ever going to happen between us. Ever. Do you understand?"

Howard still ignored Penny's rebuff. "I like your flirting style."

Penny was now getting angry at Howard's ignorant obtrusiveness. "Flirting? Are you kidding me? You think I'm flirting with you? I am not flirting with you."

"Are you sure?" Howard asked. "Because I feel the fire of passion between us."

"Ugh!" Penny took her luggage and brought it into one of the bedrooms.

"Well, it was worth a try." Howard shrugged. Then he turned to Leonard. "How did you get her to sleep with you?"

Leonard just shook his head, took his luggage and followed Penny into their room.

"I'm sorry." Leonard apologized for Howard's inappropriate behaviour. "Howard can be a really strange guy, but deep down inside, he's a really nice guy."

"Well, that may be true, but all I can see is his creepy candy coating," Penny huffed.

"OK, forget him," Leonard appeased her. "Do you still want to go to that dance?"

"Yeah, I really think it could be fun."

"All right! I'm not sure I will enjoy it, but okay. Let's go dancing."

They all agreed to go to the dance. It took place in a gym in the nearby village, just a walk of fifteen minutes from their cabin. Admission was free. The attendees were mostly young people in their twenties and thirties, dancing to eighties and nineties music. They found an empty table and Penny treated all to a drink.

As the evening progressed, the time came when Penny asked Leonard for a dance, after she had already danced to some fast songs with Raj. Leonard was still very reluctant, saying he would rather sit at the table and watch the people dancing instead of doing it himself. But Penny wasn't willing to accept his excuses and dragged him to the dance floor. As promised she showed him some dance basics. Leonard learned surprisingly fast and absolutely didn't make a fool of himself on the dance floor. They both danced to a few fast songs and had a lot of fun. Then a slow song came up, which made Leonard unsure again. But Penny didn't let him off the hook. She pulled him tightly against him, with Leonard showing no signs of restistance as he savored this closeness. With Penny's head leaning on Leonard's shoulder they moved to the music intuitively, both having a content smile on their faces. The next song was another slow one. Leonard and Penny now were practically in a tight embrace. When the song ended they both looked into each other's eyes, smiling and reluctant to separate. They were about to kiss, when suddenly Leonard felt a tap on his shoulder. It was Howard who told them he and Raj were invited by two girls to drive around the village and they shouldn't wait for them, when they wanted to go back to the cabin.

In the course of the evening Penny was asked for a dance and hit on by quite a few guys, which she all turned down, clarifying she was with Leonard. For the rest of their stay they sat on their table talking and laughing, drinking some cocktails and soft drinks. It turned out to be a really nice evening for both of them and Leonard was glad he had agreed to go to this dance.

It was around midnight when Leonard and Penny returned to the cabin, a little bit tipsy, but not drunk. In a cheerful mood they entered their bedroom and got ready for bed. Leonard used the bathroom first, since he wouldn't need as much time as Penny. When Penny had finished her night routine and came out of the bathroom, Leonard already lay on the couch, a blanket loosely lying over him. He was so tired, he could hardly keep his eyes open. Penny hopped on the bed and crawled beneath the blanket. "Good night, Leonard."

"Good night, Penny," he replied drowsily.

She was about to switch off the light, but then she leapt out of bed again and went to Leonard. "I forgot something," she uttered more to herself in a quiet voice.

Leonard who was at the point of drifting off to sleep didn't notice her drawing closer to him, when he suddenly felt something soft and smooth on his lips. Within seconds he realized it was Penny kissing him. As soon as Leonard responded, she slowly slid her tongue into his mouth, where it touched his. Again electricity shot through their bodies, creating a warm and blissful feeling for both of them. It wasn't a gentle and tender kiss this time, it was a hot and passionate kiss. Penny held his face with both of her hands, while Leonard wrapped his hands around her waist, then sliding up on the side of her upper body till her scapulas and back to her waist again. They only broke the kiss, when the need to gasp for air became inevitable. The mixture of this need and excitement was so big, that Penny involuntarily let out a quite sensual moan, when their lips parted.

Penny smiled her most adorable smile at Leonard. "Phew! Good! Got that out of the way. You can't imagine how hard it was to keep my lips away from yours for the last two days. We barely couldn't spend time alone since our kiss in Cleveland. Now we can go to sleep." She went back to her bed and crawled beneath the blanket again.

"Wow, that came unexpected," Leonard said after finding his composure again.

"Yeah, I know. I hope it wasn't too much," Penny responded shyly.

"No, no." It was just the best kiss I ever received in my life. Leonard was astounded, how Penny handled this, like it was the most normal thing in the world.

"Well, umm...You can't deny, there was some sort of tension building up between us," Penny reasoned.

"Yeah, kind of," Leonard agreed.

Penny chuckled. "See it as a way to relieve this tension."

"Umm...Okay...Good night, Penny."

"Good night, Sweetie."

With a smile on his face Leonard finally drifted off to a restful sleep, while Penny still processed this amazing kiss. After the butterflies in her stomach had calmed down, it didn't take long and she drifted off to a restful sleep as well.

When Penny woke up the next morning, Leonard had already left the room. She went to the living room, where she found Leonard standing in front of the coffee table indicating to her with a gesture to stay quiet. Howard and Raj were lying on the sofas, obviously suffering from a hangover again. Leonard and Penny couldn't resist to take photos of the two men, who looked like they had a rough night past them.

"This means more alone time for us," Penny whispered.

"Yeah, looks like these two are not able to do anything anytime soon," Leonard grinned.

They left a note for Howard and Raj, and after a light brunch, Leonard and Penny headed out to a vineyard, where a wine tasting took place. Penny read about it in the internet, when she looked for some information about the village and its surroundings. They arrived at the vineyard early in the afternoon, on time for the wine tasting.

After the wine tasting Leonard and Penny walked back from the vineyards to the cabin, which took almost an hour. The good weather they had since the day Penny joined the trip also held on this Sunday afternoon, so they could enjoy their walk in the warm sun of the last day in September.

"This is the kind of day I love," Penny said. "Pleasantly warm with a light breeze."

Leonard nodded. "Same here."

On their way back to the cabin they had some really nice views of the lake and the landscape.

"This place is beautiful," Penny raved. "Too bad we have to leave tomorrow. But then again, I can't wait to see New York. It will be amazing. And I will be there with you."

Smiling at each other Penny linked arms with Leonard and together they strolled along the country lanes towards the cabin.

They arrived at the cabin late in the afternoon. The long shadows already indicated it wasn't long till dusk would set in. Leonard went into the cabin to refresh himself, while Penny stayed outside. Howard and Raj sat in the living room and were engaged with 'Mystic Warlords of Ka'a'. When Leonard returned he saw Penny sitting on the lawn that leaned towards the lake, apparently lost in thought. The surface of the lake glistened in the evening sun, the whole landscape was bathed in an infatuating golden light. The clouds in the sky were illuminated by the setting sun and looked like they were burning. They glowed in amazing shades of red, orange and purple. It was wonderful.

Leonard walked to Penny and sat down beside her on the lawn. "A Penny for your thoughts," he chuckled.

Penny looked up to Leonard and smiled. "I'm thinking about my life and how lucky I am to be here with you on the shore of this beautiful lake. I don't deserve to be here."

Leonard was puzzled. "Why do you say that?"

"I've done many bad things in my past," Penny replied in a sad voice.

"You did bad things?"

"Yes, Leonard. I did some really bad things, especially during my years in high school. I'm deeply ashamed when I look back at it. Like the cruel thing we did to this poor girl Kathy Geiger, just because she got good grades."

"What did you do?" Leonard asked.

"We blindfolded her, tied her up and left her in a cornfield overnight...with an ear of corn in her mouth," Penny answered.

"Wow! That's really a bad thing."

Penny looked down on the grass. "Then there was this boy, I had a date with, when I was sixteen." Penny's tone of voice became melancholy. "I liked him. He was very shy, but also sweet, kind and caring. Like you Leonard. When I told my friends about him, they absolutely ridiculed him. And I did nothing to defend him, to stand up for him. They didn't stop, until I dumped him in front of all my friends. Not because I didn't like him anymore, just because I didn't want to lose my position as the so-called popular girl in high school and because of what my friends could think of me. It must have been so humiliating for him. I couldn't look him in the eyes afterwards and avoided him, although I still liked him. I felt so terrible."

Penny sighed and looked out to the lake. "When you are the popular girl, people seem to have an expectation who you should date. My friends certainly had this expectation and they even pushed me somehow towards this certain type of guy. So I ended up with Kurt. I was still in high school, when we started to date. In the beginning I still thought I was attracted to him because of love and affection, and something could be different, but now I know it was never love and affection. Never! The reason I ended up with Kurt was a combination of this expectations many, especially my friends, had of me...You know the popular girl, the cute cheerleader, with a tall, buff boyfriend mixed with a teenage infatuation of said guys, I admittedly had at this time, but not exclusively. I succumbed to expectations and infatuation. My relationship with Kurt were really four wasted years."

After pausing for a few moments, Penny continued. "You know, I always wanted to be a normal girl. I didn't ask to be the popular girl. It just so happened, that I became this girl. Sure it was nice at times, and I would lie if I hadn't enjoyed the attention it brought with it, but it was also a lot of pressure. You were put in drawers. People somehow expected a certain behaviour from you. You had to fulfill a cliché. Like I said it was a lot of fun, but it was also constricting at the same time. I'm glad these times are over."

Leonard smiled sympathetically. "The past is the past. Now you can look forward to the present and the future. And those bad things? Well, sure it was malicious what you did with this girl and how you treated this boy wasn't something to be proud of either. But you regret it. I truly believe you would never do those things again. You are a different person now."

Penny nodded. "You're right! The past is the past, and what has happened has happened. We can't change it. But we can learn from the past. From the mistakes we made, so we can do it better in the present and in the future. Now tell me about your time in high school."

"Well, there's not much to tell. Other than the chess club, and a few friends with whom I could share a few of my hobbies, it was a quite lonely time. Most of the time I was all by myself," Leonard said.

"That's so sad. What about girls?" Penny asked.

"Girls? I had female classmates, that's it," Leonard answered.

"Really? Any girl would be lucky to have you."

"Thanks for saying that. That's nice."

"I mean it. C'mon, look at you. You're a great guy. You're kind, sweet, caring. And let me say this as a girl. You're a really handsome fella."

"I'm a short, asthmatic fella."

"Don't say that. Don't hide your light under a bushel! I say it again. Any girl would be lucky to have you," Penny insisted.

Leonard sighed. "Well, but certainly not a girl like you."

Penny was taken aback. "Hey! What's that supposed to mean? A girl like me. I kissed you, didn't I?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to upset you." Leonard apologized. "I still can't believe that someone like you...Sorry I have to find another wording...What I'm trying to say is, that back then in high school, the cool kids always ridiculed me. And among those kids were always the popular girls. I guess, this time has left some scars and some preconceived notions. But you showed me, you can't tar all so-called popular girls with the same brush."

"Damn right, mister," Penny said in a harsher tone than intended. She immediately regretted it.

"Penny, please. Don't be mad at me."

Smiling, Penny reached out and took Leonard's hand. "Sorry, sweetie. Of course I'm not mad at you. Look, I told you just a few minutes ago, it wasn't always easy for me to be 'a girl like me'. All those expectations and clichés I was willing to fulfill distorted my real personality. Back then in high school I was too self-centered and immature to recognize that and to stop this behaviour. But now I'm a different person, like you said. Again, I admit I was attracted to those tall, buff guys. But I also told you there was this other guy. So, in reality, I don't have a type. There are other things that are more important to me, when it comes to a relationship. Now I have fully realized that. Tall, buff...this all means nothing. You can be a hunk, good looking on the outside, but ugly and repellent inside. The inner values have to be right. Beauty is only skin deep. This goes for men and women."

Leonard nodded and smiled at her. For the next few minutes, they sat next to each other in content silence watching the sun go down. And all the while Penny held Leonard's hand.

Leonard ended the silence. "I think it's time to have dinner. How does that grab you?"

"Good idea!" Penny answered. "I'm hungry."

They got up and walked back to the cabin. Howard and Raj were still playing 'Mystic Warlords of Ka'a', when Leonard and Penny entered the living room. During the delicious dinner, that Raj prepared, Leonard and Penny had to endure a vast number of innuendos regarding their shared bedroom, but they mostly ignored it. After dinner they gathered in the living room and played board games in front of the brightly lit fireplace. Around 11 o'clock Penny called it a night and went to the bedroom. Half an hour later Howard and Raj went to their bedroom, leaving Leonard alone in the living room by the fireside. Sitting in an armchair, he looked into the flickering fire, wrapped in thoughts about Penny. He didn't noticed when Penny came out of the bedroom and touched Leonard's shoulder. He turned around and looked up at Penny. In the warm light of the fire place she was more beautiful than ever before.

"Oh, Penny! Still up?"

"I couldn't sleep. Leonard, I need you by my side."

She took Leonard's hand and looked deeply into his eyes. At first he didn't understand, but then he got up from the chair and together they went into their bedroom.

To be continued...