Richard73610: Could be, it's the same spot where I injured it. And regarding your comment about Penny not commenting Bernadette trying to seduce Leonard, Penny knows that Bernadette used to be interested in Leonard. And she wasn't taking off her shirt in that moment ^^

Enjoy :)

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters that appeared in the show.


"Alright, everything's here." Leonard said. "This is the diner we'll meet up in after the job is done."

"Lets recap." she said. "I'll go up to the roof, where I watch you through the tablet and give you information if something comes up. After the job, I take down the camera we installed before and bring all that back to this diner."

"Correct." he nodded and gave her a kiss before getting out of the car and putting on the ragged clothes he had acquired for the job.

"Good luck." she called after him and got out as well, quickly moving to the block she had to go to.

Leonard pulled the hood up and started walking, slowly and with a little sway, conveying the hopelessness of someone who had been living on the streets for a while. He pushed the old shopping cart forward until he reached the gate to the warehouse complex. The two guards were clearly armed and Leonard could see the in their posture that they weren't simple security guards.

He continued past them, using the small mirror he placed in the cart to see if the guards were looking after him. None were, the habit of most people to simply ignore those on the lowest rungs of the social ladder helping him in that regard. At the end of the complex, he turned to the right, following the fence line until he reached the blind spot he had scouted out earlier.

He discarded his disguise and with a few quick cuts of the bolt cutter, he opened a hole large enough for him to squeeze trough and pull the barbecue and gas bottle behind him. He used a small zip tie to bring the fence back together, so a courtesy glance from someone wouldn't alert them to the opening in it.

He put on his glasses and the world switched from city night darkness to almost daylight. Thanks to the standard build of the warehouse, a ladder to the roof allowed him to quickly get up there. He activated the scramblers and climbed up, poking his head above the rim before switching the view on his glasses to look for electromagnetic signals in case there were some cameras on the roof. Finding none, he deactivated the scramblers and climbed back down to get the tools but because of the safety cage around the ladder, he had to pull the barbecue and gas bottle up separately, doing it slowly and quietly to not alert anyone to his actions by accidentally making the two items clang against the metal cage.

Once the two items were on the roof, he tied them together with the rope he pulled them up with and placed them and the other tools near the roof hatch, where he used a small hand drill to make a hole in the thick acrylic big enough to let the camera through. Once it was in, he pushed the small lens through it and moved it around to get a view of the interior and where everyone was.

Then he waited.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the street and on the roof of a building, Penny sat and watched both monitors, one showing Leonard's cap camera and the other the picture from the surveillance camera she would later take down. While she had radio contact to him, he had told her not to talk except in an emergency, not just because it would be distracting but also because he wouldn't be able to reply due to the danger of being heard.

While Leonard wasn't moving, she watched the second tablet, looking if someone arrived and how many. During the next three hours, multiple cars drove into the complex, being waved through by the guards and the occupants exiting the cars and walking into the warehouse. Shortly before two in the morning, the guards closed the gate and walked into the warehouse as well.

"They have closed the gate." she relayed to Leonard, his acknowledgment coming in the form of two audible clicks and on the other tablet, she could see him move.

Leonard kept watching the image from the camera and he waited until the entire group was in the warehouse office. The guard who entered last did him a favor by closing the office door and since he had no idea how long that meeting would go, Leonard quickly went into action. He opened the air vent and placed the bottle into it, activating the timer on it that would release the gas in three minutes.

To prevent any gas coming back out too early, he put plastic cling wrap over the vent, sealing the air inside, then he turned on the scramblers again before opening the roof hatch and gently lowering the barbecue and gas bottle down to the floor. He used the pedal lock he had brought to block the door, the cylindrical device pushing against the railing and the door with equal force. Last, he put some duct tape over the keyhole and a long piece of cloth at the bottom of the door to seal it.

He pushed his back against the door and his feet against the railing and braced himself as he counted down the last seconds before the bottle would open. When his mental count had reached zero, the device Howard had built popped the cap off the bottle and its contents shot into the air vent.

Since Bernadette's mixture was odorless, there were no yells about gas from the office. The people inside kept talking until Leonard heard an increasing amount of coughs as various members of the gang tried to clear a blockage in their throats that wasn't there to get the oxygen their bodies demanded. A few minutes later, the first attempt to exit the office was made, someone trying to open the door but with Leonard and the pedal lock blocking it, the attempt was unsuccessful.

More and stronger attempts to open the door were made, several bodies smashing into the door but it kept shut until the attempts became less and less and ultimately stopped. Leonard waited five more minutes with no sound coming out of the office before he took the cloth and duct tape away and opened the door, seeing a total of sixteen bodies lying on the floor or slumped in their seats.

He took off his leather glove and put on a thin rubber glove, which he used to check the pulse of every body. All but one were dead and that one was still unconscious, his heart beating very slowly. Leonard put him into a choke hold, squeezing his forearm against the man's throat and felt him start to struggle, the adrenaline shooting through the man's veins giving him a burst of strength. Leonard held him close until his struggles ended and he let go, checking the pulse again to make sure he was dead.

He continued checking the rest of the bodies, including the leader, but everyone else was dead. He left the room and brought in the barbecue and bottle, placing the former into a corner of the office and the latter into the grill, opening up the valve before placing the second bottle Bernadette gave him next to a few nitrogen cartridges for wine and opened it, already smelling the odor of escaping gas.

"Leonard, there's a flash drive in the laptop." Penny's voice came into his ears. "You wanna take it?"

"No." he whispered back but took one of his own flash drive, plugging it into the laptop and copying the contents onto it.

The entire process took almost twenty minutes, a large amount of data being transferred. Leonard became concerned about the duration, hoping that the scramblers wouldn't fail or run out of power. Finally, the copying process finished and Leonard unplugged his flash drive, putting it into one of his pockets before leaving the office. He grabbed the rope he had used to lower the grill into the building and climbed the ladder back up to the roof, closing the hatch and spraying the small hole with resin, closing the hole he had made.

He ripped the plastic wrap from the vent and stuffed it into another pocket, then grabbed the bottle from the vent and screwed the cover back into place. Doing a last check to see if he had forgotten anything and finding nothing, he climbed back down the ladder and went back through the hole after cutting open the zip tie he had used to make it appear shut. Once he was out, he took more zip ties and tied the fence back together, making it look like a temporary repair job instead of a mode of entry.

He took another package out of the shopping cart, unwrapping another set of clothes which he put on after turning off the scramblers. He put them on, hiding the bodyglove and instead of going back around the fence, he moved behind some more dilapidated buildings to arrive back on the street over two miles away from the warehouse complex.

"I'm away." he spoke into the comm bead next to his ear.

"I'll pack everything up and meet you at the diner." she replied.

Penny turned off the tablets and removed the camera they had installed weeks ago. She packed everything up and left the roof, taking the elevator back down to the ground floor and leaving the house, making it appear for any camera watching that she arrived for a booty call with someone living in the building.

The walk to the diner was only a mile but Penny hurried regardless, not wanting to be accosted by whoever thought a lone woman at night was free game. She arrived without being disturbed, nodding towards the woman working behind the counter but not seeing Leonard yet.

"What can I get you?" the waitress asked.

"I'll take a ginger ale." Penny said, sitting down so she could watch the door.

"Waiting for someone?" the waitress asked as she put down the ginger ale, noticing how she watched the door.

"My boyfriend." she nodded and smiled when he came into view. "There he is."

"Welcome." the waitress greeted him too. "What can I get you?"

"You have hot chocolate?" Leonard asked.

"Sure thing." the waitress nodded.

"You got everything?" Leonard asked quietly when the waitress was out of earshot.

"Yes, packed everything." she nodded and pointed to her backpack. "You?"

"Yes, except the cart." he confirmed. "Left that a few feet from the fence."

"Don't you think it might...?" she stopped, seeing the waitress return.

"Here you go." the waitress said as she placed the cup in front of Leonard.

"Thanks." Leonard nodded.

"You want something to eat?"

"No, we're good." Leonard shook his head. "Just a small stop before heading home."

"Don't you think it might be suspicious when they find an empty shopping cart?" Penny finished her question after the waitress had left again.

"I doubt it'll be still there at lunch time." he chuckled.

"So, what will happen now?" she asked.

"Notifying Father Malloy about the fulfillment of the contract."

"And get the money." she giggled.

"I'll let him keep it." Leonard waved her off.

"Why?"

"With everything that feels wrong about this, I'd rather not have a money transfer on top of everything else." he said. "Even if it's cash."

"Understandable, I guess." she shrugged. "Shall we leave?"

"Yeah." he nodded, pushing his empty cup away and getting up, handing a twenty dollar bill to the waitress. "Keep the change."

"Thanks!" the waitress smiled happily as they left.

Across the diner, the car they had arrived with waited, both getting in and Leonard driving them home. As he drove, Penny thought about what she had witnessed, how he had choked the surviving gang member to death. It was the first time she had seen Leonard kill someone in cold blood like this. While he had killed that Caspar guy and his partner at her parents' home, that was necessitated by protecting her and punishing the guy, but she didn't even witness how he had killed Caspar because she had been in shock at that time.

Penny still wanted to become an assassin to take out bad people but she did doubt if she actually could kill someone face to face like that. Shooting them from afar was impersonal but choking someone to death, feeling the person die was another matter. Instead of driving home, Leonard took a detour, stopping at the church of the Father who had placed the contract. He wrote a note, saying that the job was done and that he should keep the money and pushed the piece of paper under the door of the residence.

He came back to the car and got back in, starting the drive towards home. A short while later, they arrived back at the apartment building, where Leonard parked the car and grabbed the bags with the equipment they had brought back. He open the door and both headed up the stairs but instead of continuing going up, he knocked on Howard and Bernadette's apartment, the former opening the door after a few seconds.

"How does it look?" Leonard asked without preamble.

"The algorithm is finished and I'm about to upload it again." Howard said as they walked into the apartment.

"Say what now?" Penny asked, confused. "Where's Bernadette?"

"Sleeping." Howard said quietly. "Leonard had me scrub the CCTV footage of all traces of him. I'll upload it to their servers again so when any official looks over the footage, Leonard will not appear on any recording during the operation's duration."

"What about me?" she asked.

"You walked into a building and left it a few hours later." Howard shrugged. "Nothing really suspicious about it. The worst they might think about you is that you're a hooker on a house call."

"Great." Penny rolled her eyes.

"Howard, I copied the contents of a flash drive on the leader's laptop, can you take a look to see if they contain something that would explain my doubts about all of this?"

"Sure." Howard nodded. "I'll take a look in the morning to see what kind of encryption it may have and if it does, I'll let the decryption algorithm run and check it out after work."

"Great, thanks, Howard." Leonard smiled and left the apartment with Penny, so Howard could get some sleep.

"Wow, I'm beat." Penny yawned, stretching her arms. "Sitting on a roof in winter at night can be exhausting."

"Try getting through fences, climb on roofs and then into buildings." he chuckled as he opened their apartment door, the two dogs rushing to them excitedly. "Hey boys."

"Yeah, we're back." Penny giggled and made a direct beeline to the bathroom, where she quickly undressed and stepped into the shower.

As she was showering, Leonard entered the bathroom, where he brushed his teeth and took off his clothes, waiting for Penny to finish before switching places with her. He quickly showered as well while Penny brushed her teeth and a few minutes later, Leonard almost fell into bed, pulling the covers up over his head.

"I'm getting soft. Or old. Or both." he chuckled. "Normally I'm not that tired after a comparatively easy job like this."

"Maybe it's your gut feeling about it that exhausts you so much?" she suggested while applying some lotion to her face and legs.

"Maybe." he shrugged. "I hope whatever Howard finds on that flash drive can put my mind at ease."

"If it even has something to do with their business and not something else." she said as she got into bed and gave him a kiss.

"Not tonight, honey, I'm tired." Leonard grinned.

"Hey, stop using my lines." she laughed. "But I'm tired too, turn off the lights."

"Was it so much to ask that these guys do their meetings on a Friday or Saturday?" Leonard grumbled.

"Get some sleep." she chuckled but as soon as she said that, Leonard was already asleep. "Wow, at least you listen to me."

With a final smile, she closed her eyes and soon was asleep as well.

A few hours later, she woke up from the rustling and bustling of Leonard, who got ready for his morning run. A quick clock check confirmed the time to be five-thirty, later than usual but still way too early for her. Leonard said something but she was too tired to understand and simply groaned before pulling the covers over her head to shut off the dim light he used to get dressed.

Leonard grinned at her reaction, famously not a morning person and he gave a soft whistle to get his dogs moving. He ran his usual route through the nearby park, the dogs staying at his side except when they had to pee and an hour later, he arrived back at the building, doing some stretches before heading back up and taking his morning shower.

He put on the hot water for his tea and grabbed his cereal, deciding to do a quick breakfast this time. The smell of the tea lured Penny out of the bedroom and she flopped down on one of the stools in front of the kitchen island, her head dropping onto her forearm.

"Good morning." Leonard grinned.

"Hmpf." she huffed and held out her cup, demanding the hot liquid.

"You don't have to get up to eat breakfast with me, you know?" he said as he poured the tea.

"You know the saying, the couple that eats together..." she shrugged.

"Um... digests together?" he guessed, not knowing the statement she was talking about.

"Stays together." she corrected him.

"That doesn't even rhyme." Leonard laughed.

"What, are you the rhyming police?" she moped.

"You may be an assassin soon but I won't let you murder language." he winked. "So, what's on your agenda today?"

"My run with the boys, dog park, reading the latest stuff that Sheldon gave me and then waiting for you guys to come home for dinner." she shrugged.

"Don't worry, your training will soon be more practical."

"What does that mean?"

"Sheldon had Howard, Raj and me build a few training courses, you're going to go through them." he told her.

"Like an obstacle course?" she wondered.

"In a way." he nodded. "Not in the track and field sense but more like reaching a target without triggering alarms."

"I can't wait, that sounds exciting." she smiled.

"You need to take it seriously." he warned her. "Always think that it's real, because what you learn there can and will save your life later."

"I understand." she accepted.

"See that you do." he nodded. "I always treat my next job as the hardest I have ever done. That way I make sure that I never get complacent."

"How many assassins died because they were complacent?" she asked.

"Since there were assassins?"

"No, lets say since you are in the business."

"A dozen or so." he shrugged. "It's hard to really know because nobody knows everybody in the business. But some die doing jobs that any assassin would consider easy because they think it can't go wrong."

"Like how?"

"For example, imagine someone else taking the job I did last night but not doing the research and finding out how the gang is structured. That someone then just walks into the warehouse, kills the guards and then goes into the office to shoot the leader, only to be gunned down by the other gang members present because they had no idea they would be there that night." he explained. "No matter how skilled, it's practically impossible to escape a dozen people shooting at you when you have few places to cover behind."

Penny couldn't really reply to that, thinking about what he had said and the risks that the business presented, which Penny never really realized. She wondered what Sheldon's courses would entail and after Leonard had left for work, she fed the dogs their usual breakfast that included, being an uneven day, three chicken feet per dog instead of sprats.

She waited an hour after the dogs had finished eating before taking them to the dog park again, letting them play with other dogs and seeing some dog owners she had met before. The two malignois, as usual, were two of the more active dogs, running around like energized puppies while some other dogs were mostly lying around, like an older malamute that was clearly uncomfortable with the temperature.

She was always fascinated with the kind of self-regulation that the dogs did. Every time one acted out, others would reign that one in by chasing them around until they calmed down. The two malignois seemed to be made for that task, both maintaining order in the pack like a military commander ordering around soldiers.

"Yours have really fit into the pack." a voice startled her.

"Hey..." Penny said, trying to remember the name of the familiar woman. "Katie, was it?"

"Yep." Katie nodded and let her husky off the leash who started running with the pack.

"Are there dogs that don't fit into the pack?" Penny asked.

"Of course but that's mostly the fault of the owners. One woman had a poodle which she always carried into the enclosure. When her dog began to play with others by doing what yours are doing right now with mine..." Katie replied, pointing to where Tyson was playfully biting the husky and getting playfully bitten in return. "She ran to them and picked up her dog. At some point, we asked her not to return because she clearly didn't understand what the dog park was for and how dogs interacted. At least, she shouldn't let her dog run with the others."

"Isn't a husky a dog for cold weather?" Penny wanted to know.

"Yes, and it wasn't a problem when my ex gave him to me as a gift." Katie chuckled. "I used to live in northern Minnesota, where summer temperatures were moderate and winters could get bitterly cold. I remember days when I let Amka out in winter and he just laid down in the snow and fell asleep."

"Who?"

"Amka, my husky." Katie chuckled.

"I never heard a name like that before." Penny admitted. "Where does it come from?"

"Amka is an Inuit name, it means one with a friendly spirit." Katie told her. "It's a girl's name though, but I thought it fit him."

"That's cool." Penny said, impressed.

"What are yours called?" Katie asked.

"My boyfriend named them Major and Tyson." Penny said. "They're brothers."

"Is he a fan of both the singer and the boxer?"

"What?" Penny was confused.

"There's a singer named Major and of course, Mike Tyson." Katie clarified.

"Only Tyson, in a way. Major has two fur patches on his shoulders that look like the rank insignias on a major in the army and Tyson has a black fur patch over his left eye that reminded him of Mike Tyson's tattoo."

"Really?" Katie laughed. "That's funny."

"Do you come here often?" Penny wanted to know.

"Every day, though at different times." Katie nodded. "Because of my job, I can't walk him for as much I would have to walk him and my roommate can only walk him for half an hour, tops."

"Oh, what do you do?"

"I'm an elderly care nurse." Katie said. "Working in shifts is really not conducive to owning a dog and if I didn't have a roommate, it could have been necessary to give him up, which would have broken my heart."

"My boyfriend said something similar." Penny nodded. "He also likes his boys more than people."

"I hope that doesn't include you." Katie laughed.

"Nah, I think I'm good." Penny grinned.

"What does your boyfriend do, can I ask?" Katie said. "Since I've only seen you here."

"He's..." Penny hesitated, almost spilling his real profession. "Actually, I don't quite know what he does exactly. He's a physicist and he works at CalTech."

"Oh, is he a teacher?"

"No, he works in a lab." Penny shook her head. "Researching stuff."

"That's cool." Katie nodded. "At least he seems to have brains."

"Oh yeah, that he does." Penny chuckled and looked at her watch. "Oh, I should head home, I've been here for several hours already."

"Until next time then." Katie said as Penny whistled for Major and Tyson, who both came running immediately.

"See ya." Penny waved and leashed the two dogs.

She led them back to the apartment block, both dogs staying faithfully close to her side unless they had to do their business. Major was clearly trying to antagonize her because he did a number two, forcing Penny to use one of the bags to pick up his poop. After arriving at the block and walking up the stairs, she opened the apartment door and found Leonard sitting on the armchair, typing on his laptop and smiling when he saw her.

"Hey." he greeted her. "Where have you been?"

"Dog park." Penny said as she undid the collars. "Got into a nice conversation with another dog owner and the time got a little away from me."

"What kind of dog does he have?" Leonard asked and Penny couldn't prevent the smile when she noticed the jealous undertone in his voice.

"She has a husky." Penny replied, putting the emphasis on the gender identifier. "Are you jealous?"

"Of course not." Leonard shook his head, almost too fast.

"So, if that dog owner had been a man, you would be fine with it?"

"Why wouldn't I?" Leonard huffed.

"Really?" Penny grinned.

"He may have had an accident at some point." he admitted.

"Don't worry." she said, taking the laptop from his lap and swinging her lap over him to sit where it had been. "I doubt anyone in this city can hold a candle to you."

"Well, I don't wanna blow my own horn, but toot toot." he shrugged, making her laugh while his hands moved up and down her sides and occasionally over her chest.

"Oh my god, can you be any more corny." she giggled and then kissed him.

The kiss quickly became heated, their hands roaming over the other's body and Leonard pulling Penny into him. Penny moaned at the sudden contact and when she felt his hands pull at her sweater, she lifted her arms so he could pull it off of her. Her bra quickly followed, his fingers deftly undoing the clasp at her back and his lips latched onto her left one, his fingers caressing the right, making Penny gasp at the sudden contact. She was about to undo his pants when the apartment door opened.

"Leonard, we..." Howard's voice interrupted them, making Penny scream in shock and if Leonard hadn't held her tight, she would have shown Howard her breasts by jumping up and around.

"Seriously Howard?" Penny yelled while scrambling for her sweater.

"Um..." Howard was unsure but ultimately just shrugged. "The urgency transcends the awkwardness."

"What's wrong Howard?" Leonard asked, seeing the facial expression of his friend, who was holding a laptop.

"We might have a problem." Howard said, pointing at the flash drive still attached to the laptop.


And chapter ends here ^^ I know, I'm mean.

Still, review please :)