Penny goes to her first audition, and she blows it, like huge chunks, whale sized chunks. Everything she has been working, studying and preparing suddenly flew out of her head as soon as the audition started.

Laura laughs a lot and tells Penny that's the reason why the first audition should not be for your dream role.

Penny's second audition goes better. It's a part for a commercial, she just needs to look like the teenage daughter in the background, which she nails, it's just a local commercial but Penny feels wired all week long after the shoot. They will air it sometime in March so she mentions it to Sheldon so he can remind her about it.

School is somewhat easier to manage, it's the last year of college and for the first time she's not playing catch up. Laura has been a godsend and Penny is taking advantage of her presence as much as she can.

On the recommendation of Laura, she's also attending improv classes and singing lessons.

The improv classes are fantastic! The singing lessons are…well, they're singing lessons.

Kelly asks for help with a project and Penny can't say no to her. Sheldon is the hard sell.

"I refuse."

"Please, please, please Sheldon. It's for my sociology project."

"I understand, howe-"

"Penny will do that thing you like that she doesn't."

"Hey!" Why did Kelly have to drag her into it?

"Is that true?" Sheldon was suddenly all business.

Kelly turned puppy dog eyes at her and Penny couldn't hold out "Yeah, yeah, okay. But only once!"

Sheldon nods satisfied "Very well then, I'll participate."

Later Kelly has the decency to apologize at least.

"I mean, he's a guy, so I thought that would break his defenses. Which it did!" Kelly looks triumphant before looking subdued again. "Look, I'll owe you one."

"Deal."

"I'll even buy you the lube myself."

"...what the hell are you talking about?"

"Oh, I thought that since he was so into your butt that…you know." Kelly wiggles her eyebrows and it takes Penny a second to get it.

"OH!" Penny starts laughing hysterically "You thought he?" Laughter doesn't let her continue. Kelly looks putout so Penny tries her best to control herself. "He was talking about a Star Trek TOS Marathon." Laughter still bubbles out of her.

"Oh, well, that is less fun."

"Not for him." Her laughter reduces to a smile.

"So…you two never, you know?"

"And that's my cue to leave."

"Aw c'mon. I told you about the rope thing we do!"

"I'm leaving!"

Kelly's project is supposed to be easy. Penny will emcee a small Q&A forum where the guests will be men in committed relationships. One of those men is Sheldon, another one is someone in their mid-fifties and the last one is someone in their sixties. Sheldon is sitting between the two older men and he makes for a striking figure, the other two were not what you would call 'conventionally handsome'.

The attendants will be able to submit anonymous questions that Penny will read out loud so that the guests can reply to them. Kelly will also provide the attendants with a questionnaire where they will be able to submit their thoughts at the end of the event while she documents the entire thing.

Also, all of the attendants will be women, students from UCLA from different majors.

Everything was going fine until the second question, as Penny reads it she can feel her eyebrows go higher and higher in disbelief.

"Thank you, now for our next question. This is for…'The cute one', ladies, please remember, these men are in committed relationships. Especially Sheldon!" Her voice was hard. "Anyways, the question is: How did you meet your girlfriend? Sheldon?"

"I met her as she struggled with her math homework, I assisted her and she provided me with cheesecake." His tone is clinical, nothing romantic about it, and still the women in the audience let out a collective 'Awwwwww' which just makes Penny narrow her eyes at the audience.

"Moving on, next question." Her tone of voice is no longer warm. "For…'The Hot one.'" Penny smiled woodenly at the audience and in a sweet voice repeated "Remember ladies, committed relationships. We also have two other guests. The question is: What is your girlfriend's worst trait? Oh that's a great question. Sheldon?"

"She doubts her own skills far too often despite repeatedly showing proficiency."

This time Penny wants to join in the 'Awwwww'

The next 3 questions were for the other two guests and things seemed to be back to normal.

"This question is for Dr. Cooper, glad someone listened to his title." Penny feels better so she's back to joking. "The question is: My name is Maureen, would you like to have dinner with me? I give a mean blow-HEY!" Penny is fully glaring at the audience now, trying to find this Maureen. "Committed relationships Ladies!"

The rest of the night doesn't go any better and Kelly agrees that this is the last time she asks for this type of favor.

Penny fumes while Sheldon thinks it all went swimmingly.

"So, let me get this straight. You want to propose?"

Sheldon is in his office and Fred is sitting in front of him.

"I believe that I have been clear about my intentions." Sheldon is close to fidgeting, he is not sure on how to proceed with this matter, Fred was the obvious choice to ask due to him being his closest male friend while also knowing Penny.

"No no no, don't get me wrong, I think it's great!" Penny had once said that Fred had the same energy as a Golden Retriever, Sheldon had to agree with that assessment. "But what is your question?"

Sheldon sighs annoyed, he liked Fred, but the man was easily distracted. "My question is, how to proceed? Penny does not enjoy public demonstrations like those shown in movies and shows."

"Ohhhhhhhhh I got you, I see. Well…first of all, you should get a ring. Can't propose without having a ring." Fred scratches at a non-existent beard. "Also, girls like being surprised. So, make sure to do that. And since she doesn't like doing it where people can see you, do it in a private place."

Sheldon nods, a lot of what Fred is saying he had already considered. "I see. Thank you."

"Anytime man!"

His Meemaw gives him similar advice. With the only difference being that he needed to go to Galveston to pick up Meemaw's engagement ring.

"Are you sure Meemaw?"

"Boy, don't ya sass me and come pick this thing up." Even through the phone Meemaw's voice was full of strength.

"Yes Meemaw."

Penny was 99.99% sure that Sheldon was going to propose.

Fred had been acting funny around her, trying to not spill the beans most likely. And then Sheldon took an unexpected and spontaneous trip to Galveston. Sheldon didn't do spontaneous.

Penny was 100% sure she was going to say yes to him.

But it's been a month since that trip and nothing.

Sheldon hated surprises. Both being in the receiving end and being the one planning them. He was certain that so far he had been successful at hiding his intentions from Penny.

But he knew his limits, it would not be long before his face started twitching and there was no way to prevent Penny from noticing that.

He was unsure on what counted as a sufficient surprise, which led him to create and run a survey.

Fred: "A romantic dinner at home, and then propose as you toast."
Kelly: "Take her to a fancy restaurant and order champagne, once it arrives hide the ring in the flute."
Tamika: "How did you get my number? Anyway, just tell her, she doesn't do over the top romance."
Laura: "Pack a picnic, take her on a hike and propose around sundown. Just the two of you."
Missy: "Shelly, just tell her and then screw her brains out."
Mother: Unintelligible
Meemaw: "Cook her something nice, tell her how ya feel and just let it happen."
Georgie: "Do everything Meemaw tells you to do."
Mandy: "Whatever you do, don't do a Bazinga."

That feedback kills his favorite plan. He was planning on deceiving Penny into thinking he had fallen in love with someone else only to reveal that it was actually her all along. He was sure that Penny would have liked it and laughed alongside him. Alas.

Penny graduates.

Her family is there for her. Not her blood relatives, but the family that she found with Sheldon. Meemaw, Mrs Cooper, Missy and even Jonah are there. It makes her cry and thanks god for her luck.

Mrs Cooper yells out so much when her name is called that Penny can't help but smile like a loon.

Lunch afterwards is super fun and she can swear that at one point during the lunch Sheldon was trying to do something but he never actually did it.

Penny was getting a little impatient.

Sheldon is still unable to find the right time.

Auditions are brutal.

Penny is thankful for Laura's advice because otherwise she's pretty sure that she would have flopped down into a depressed blob.

She's got a callback and it went great. It's for a small part in 'Scrubs' but Penny is happy because it's for a patient, not for the hot cousin or the hot girlfriend but for the patient of the week. The role at least has some depth.

Penny has never been so anxious, the call confirming if she got it or not takes forever. At least it feels like it does.

"Ohmygodohmygodohmygod-" She chants after hanging up and once Sheldon comes home from work she tackles him against their door, not even giving him a chance to remove his jacket.

"IGOTIT!" She can't stop jumping and squeeing.

"Congratulations Penny." Sheldon hugs her, it's the only way that she stays still, but she grabs the lapels of his jacket and runs in place. "I was confident in your acting skills."

"I can't believe this!" Penny looks up at him. "This day can't get better!"

Penny sees Sheldon freeze for a moment before he slowly asks "If another event were to happen today, a happy event, would it add to your current level of happiness?"

It takes her a moment to run the words through her Sheldon filter. "Yeah. Of course it would."

Sheldon nods satisfied and moves away to start putting his jacket away as well as his bag. "One moment." Sheldon goes into his room and Penny is left alone in the living room. 'Weirdo', but the fondness can't be hidden even in her own head.

Once he comes back, he's carrying a towel for some reason.

"Er, everything okay there Moonpie?"

"Yes, Penny, could you please stand here?" He points in front of his whiteboard.

"Okay?" She does as he asks but he's definitely acting weird.

"Excellent, one moment." Off he goes, he rarely uses the dimmer but for some reason he makes sure the lights are low, the light from the early afternoon comes through the window and the apartment glows amber in her eyes.

"Moonpie?"

"Almost done." Sheldon adjusts the lights one last time and then goes back to stand in front of her. An idea starts forming in her head and she can feel her eyes start to sting.

"Wha-"

"Penny." He stops for a moment and puts the towel at her feet. The vague idea is now picture clear. Sheldon goes to one knee and her breath is gone. "Penny. You are t-"

Before Sheldon is able to finish she's tackled him to the floor and is kissing him fiercely. Once her need of oxygen can't be ignored any longer, she stops, grabs his face, makes sure that his eyes are focused on her before saying "Yes."

"But Penny, I wasn't able to-"

She kisses him again. Technicalities can wait.

Sheldon is asleep under her, even after upgrading their bed to a double they always ended up wound up around each other.

Penny is still admiring the ring he gave her. Eventually.

Penny knew that she could be a little impatient at times but yeah, this one took the cake, no way they can tell their hypothetical grandchildren that Sheldon popped the question while they were in the middle of sex because their grandma was impatient. Yeah no.

The smile on her face might as well be tattooed. This getting married thing was weird, when Penny was thirteen she had made the very conscious choice of not getting married, sure, she was a sucker for romance movies and books. But she never actually thought she would be doing it herself, it was something for everybody else to do.

But not for her.

It wasn't that she was jaded…well, it wasn't just because of that. Growing up in her household didn't exactly show her healthy marriage dynamics, her mom was a mess for sure, but her dad wasn't exactly a saint.

Young Penny was smart enough to put two and two together and decide that marriage wasn't for her. Of course, like any kid she thought this was normal and that all other kids lived like this, so she had quite the shock when finding out that no, not all moms got drunk at 2 in the afternoon and that the occasional screaming matches during dinner wasn't something everyone experienced.

Young Penny had made that decision to not marry, and then Teen Penny discovered sex. It's a hard lesson to learn that sex does not equal love.

Penny learned that in a gas station bathroom while crying and hoping the pregnancy test didn't show a second line. Matt Robinson had promised that he loved her, that he would marry her and then he had told her to fuck off once her period was late.

Not ideal, as Sheldon would say.

High School had been fun, she had kept her grades high enough to not ruin her chances at College, but mostly, she had fun, parties, boys and alcohol. Her mom would be proud.

And then Sheldon had come into her life, tall, gangly and cute as heck.

That Penny in 2000 had no idea how much her life would change just by meeting Dr Moonpie. She's glad that it happened tho, otherwise she's not sure where her life might have gone. That Penny had thought that acting was easy, that all she needed to do was smile and people would be lining up to offer her roles.

But that Penny is lost to time.

This Penny has a degree, is starting her acting career and very shortly will be married to over six feet of crazy. She can't wait.

Sheldon had told her about multiverses, how every choice created a new possible universe. Penny doesn't want to think about the universes where she and Sheldon never meet. They must be incredibly dull and sad.

Sheldon mumbles something in his sleep and Penny smiles at him. Her own eyes feel heavy, cuddling closer to Sheldon she closes her eyes.

Maybe she can dream of the other universes, the good ones, where a Sheldon and a Penny meet.

"It's too early, Moonpie, I don't want to move." Penny whines and buries her head in the crook of his arm.

"Penny. It's the same time I always get up."

"And you get up way too early." Her voice is muffled but she doesn't doubt that he can hear her perfectly.

"I can stay in bed with you for another…11 minutes before I have to get up."

Penny finally leaves the safety of his arm and places her chin on his chest to look up at him. "What do you say about marrying in Texas?" Penny yawns in the middle of her question and rubs at her eyes.

"I find the idea agreeable." Sheldon tries to resist it but he ends up yawning as well. "Do you want to invite your parents? Though I believe I know the answer."

"God no!" Penny shakes her head. "I don't want them there."

Sheldon nods, he already knew she would answer like this. "I am not a fan of elaborate and large events. But should you desire a larg-" Her hand covers his mouth before he can finish.

"Nah, I don't want anything super large, just your family and our friends and that's it." She removes her hand and continues. "In fact, if I didn't know for a fact that it would break your mother's heart, I would be happy just by going to the courthouse."

Sheldon grimaces, reluctantly nods "Yes, I do believe that would be the case."

"I liked Missy's wedding, it wasn't big or flashy."

"Do you have a preferred date in mind?"

She actually did. Even before Sheldon proposed, she already knew the date she'd like. "Yep." Penny popped the word and smiled brightly at him.

"Missy got New Year's. We get Christmas."

Sheldon hums "I suppose it's fitting."

"Yeah, that first Christmas at your mom's was special and every Christmas since I've felt accepted by your family, it means a lot to me."

"Christmas has been much better since you've been part of my life." He gives her one of his authentic smiles. "I've come to appreciate Christmas again."

Penny smiles up at him. Her Moonpie has-

Before she can finish the thought, Sheldon stands up and lets her face fall to the mattress "Time's up, I need to get ready."

Penny chuckles, and here she was about to say he had gotten better at intimate moments. "Have fun at work Honey."

"Thank you Penny. I always do."

It wasn't long before Penny fell back asleep.

When Penny informs her (new) family and friends about Sheldon proposing, the lack of real surprise makes her realize that she was the one playing catch up.

Skype is a wonderful tool, most of the time.

Having the 3 Cooper women on a call would usually be great, except when they're trying to organize your wedding. Penny had feared that Missy would move to Boston but Jonah's disbelieving 'I wanted sun, why do you think I moved out?' is enough to make everyone laugh in relief. They bought a house in Galveston, close but not that close to Mrs Cooper home.

"Okay, stop, stop!" Penny wishes she could be in the same room as them. "We don't want anything big. We both liked Missy's wedding and would like the same treatment."

"Practical, I like that." Meemaw agrees right away.

"We can start by booking the church and the hall. I'll handle that." A heavily pregnant Missy promises.

"We'll get our pastor to do it." Mrs Cooper hasn't stopped smiling since she broke the news.

"I would love to get my dress while I'm there, but time-wise it's going to be tight. So I'll buy it here."

"Nonsense Penny, we'll travel to you and we can do it together."

"Er, that would be lovely Mrs Coop-Mary, but Missy is due any day now and I'm sure a baby will be hard to manage."

"Don't you worry about that." Mrs Cooper didn't look worried. "Jonah's mom is already here and she can sub in for a weekend."

"Yeah Girlie, we do this together."

Penny feels her eyes sting, she really got lucky.

Missy safely delivers a gorgeous boy that even Sheldon admits to be really cute. Shane is a Virgo like his dad. Hopefully he'll be just as jolly.

Her role in Scrubs is amazing! Zach Braff is a little full of himself but he's never rude or impatient towards her, he's directing the episode which makes Penny panic for a moment but he's good at it and soon Penny is in the groove of things.

The hardest part of the entire shoot is makeup, she has to sit for 2 hours while they make her look sick, but not sick enough that the audience can tell how sick she really is. That's the twist after all.

It's all over far too soon for her liking. On the last day of shooting she cries on the way back home, but they're happy tears.

Penny loves acting.

Mrs Cooper and Meemaw make good on their promise and they go dress hunting for an entire weekend. Penny finds her perfect dress on the second day.

It has long billowed sleeves which make it look dreamy, Penny loves the pleated waistband and bodice, it has a slit that ends at the knee and the keyhole back is conservative enough that even Mrs Cooper approves of it.

They still try more dresses but Penny is confident that she has found her dress.

Meemaw pays for it and it blows Penny's mind.

"Nonononono, I can afford it, Meemaw. I just got my firs-"

"Girlie." Meemaw's voice is sharp and her face is serious. It makes Penny shut up right away "You're family." Suddenly her face broke into a very Sheldon-like smile. "I got ya Girlie."

"Thank you Meemaw." Penny choked out.

"Come here you big baby." Meemaw laughed and pulled Penny into a hug.

Yeah, Penny had found her family.

On the other side of the country.

"Buddy, did you watch Scrubs last week?"

"Oh man, the blonde?"

"I know buddy, I know, So hot."

"Why can't we get girls like those?"

"Because we're short and nerds?"

"It was rhetorical Howard."

"I know, I know. Your microphone sounds great by the way. Better than whatever crap you were using."

"Thanks, I decided to replace my old headset."

"I can't wait for you to get here. Mobs at three o'clock."

"Got them. Me too, just half a year before I'm done and get my PhD."

"That's awesome buddy. Your mom still the same?"

"Ugh, yeah. Watch my back, healing."

"I got you. Well, soon you'll be able to forget about her buddy. You and Me. Friday night. Clubbing. We're gonna score so much."

Before Leonard can react to that statement Howard is yelling.

"I GO CLUBBING MA!...YOU DON'T KNOW THEM!...BECAUSE I DON'T WANT TO LEAVE YOU ALONE AND THIS IS THE THANKS I GET?!"

"Everything okay Howard?"

"Oh yeah, yeah, all good. By the way, have you thought about what I told you? We got that extra room and I think you and I could make for pretty badass roommates."

"I don't kno-"

"I'M TALKING TO LEONARD! Sorry, you were saying?"

"I think I want to try living on my own, you know?"

"Ahhhh I get you buddy, you want the bachelor pad, good thinking."

Leonard couldn't wait to get out of Jersey.