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halfamoonTitle: The Greatest News
Fandom: The Big Bang Theory
Author: Apache Firecat
Characters: Leonard/Penny, Howard/Bernadette, Sheldon/Amy
Rating: PG/K+
Summary: The girls come together when Amy and Bernadette find Penny in crisis.
Word Count: 1,932
Written For: Half A Moon Day 9: Space and Fannish 50 #23
Warnings: Future Fic
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission.
She had never been this lonely. Even in high school, when she'd so quickly hopped into any group activity and any popular guy's arms to keep a crowd of folks around her, eager to spend time with her and chant her name, Penny had never felt this alone. She sat in the floor of the room that held more fond memories for her than anywhere else, nearly sobbing as she held her husband's discarded clothes.
She hadn't heard Amy come in and barely heard the creaking opening of her bedroom door as her friend stuck her head in. "What's wrong?" she asked. "What's got your beautiful eyes so full of tears?"
From anyone else but perhaps Leonard, that line might have sounded creepy or at least lame, but it didn't even surprise her coming from Amy. The poor girl had been even lonelier than she growing up -- actually, all of their friends had been far lonelier than Penny because they'd all been less popular. They had not done as she had and caved to any peer pressure in order to be liked. They had instead cried at home through many dance nights and many more weekend nights. She knew she had been Amy's first female friend, the first girl who had actually taken up time with her, and perhaps that was why the shy, little nerd idolized her so greatly.
Usually, being around Amy immediately made Penny feel better for that very reason, but not tonight. Tonight, she feebly attempted to lift Leonard's dirty, sweaty shirt into the air and wave it around like some sort of banner. Maybe Sheldon could have used it on his flag show even -- except Sheldon was gone too. It seemed so strange, having all their men gone! This couldn't be happening, not again! She'd barely survived the last time they'd all abandoned them to go on an expedition!
And this time, they had gone into outer space! Instead of thousands of miles separating them, her husband was billions of miles -- lightyears! -- away. A sob broke free and echoed not just throughout their small bedroom but out into the hallway beyond their apartment. She heard a door open somewhere nearby, and suddenly, there was Bernadette too.
"Oh no," Bernie said, making a face. "I was afraid of this!"
Amy nodded. "Me too. She needs cheering up. We could all get naked for a group hug."
"We're trying to cheer her up," Bernie said, casting a disdainful look at Amy, "not disgust her or make her run, screaming, into the streets."
"Hey!"
Bernadette ignored her and pushed pass her friend to her other friend. She still wasn't quite accustomed to having friends -- especially girl friends --, but these two had come to mean a great deal to her over the years she had known them. She had, at times, been at odds with them both, Penny more often for thinking that she was the prettiest of their group or that her and Leonard's relationship eclipsed Bernadette's own with her beloved Howie and with Amy for always thinking Sheldon was the best of their group and the smartest man in existence. Of course, they all thought their men were the best, which was part of the reason why they had married the ones they had, and, Bernadette knew, they all loved their own men with everything within them. That was the way it should be, and they were lucky to have found their perfect matches.
Part of supporting and loving their men, however, also meant letting them go when they knew they should, when there was something their guys yearned to do which could not be done sitting in these apartments in sunny California. Travelling into space was not somewhere where any of the three of them belonged. She and Amy would stand a better chance out there than Penny, but even so, none of them had any business donning spacesuits or going on moon walks.
"I miss Howie, too," Bernadette said, trying to bend to reach Penny. Her body didn't quite do as she wanted it to, although she had sprung back better than most young mothers. "But this is their dream!" She reached down instead and stroked Penny's quivering back. "We have to support them!"
"But they're gone! They're all the way in space!" Penny wailed.
"Have you been drinking?" Bernie asked, eyeing her.
"She's breathing, isn't she? And missing Leonard."
"So what if I have?!" Penny waved Leonard's shirt around in the air. "It doesn't change the fact that they're gone! I don't even have Sheldon to bug me anymore!"
"You have me! I can bug you!" Amy called, crossing carefully over the floor. There seemed to be discarded clothing everywhere. She eyed a big, pink bra that hung on the side of the bed. "Do you always live like this?" she asked, quirking a bushy eyebrow.
"So what if I do? It's not like he's here anymore to care!"
"He's coming back," Bernadette assured her.
"They're all coming back."
"But we don't know when!" Penny wailed and slapped Leonard's shirt around. Amy managed to make out part of a Green Lantern design and realized it was his favorite shirt. She was surprised that he had not taken it with him, and then realized that, most likely, either Penny had snuck it away from him as she herself had hidden a few of Sheldon's more valuable objects or it had been laying, dirty and discarded, in this floor. She had once wondered how Penny and Leonard had managed to keep such a prestigious apartment and was quickly realizing that they had never been as clean as any of them had thought -- they had simply hidden everything in their bedroom.
Cautiously, carefully stepping between discarded clothing articles, she made her way to her friends. She had never quite seen anything like this pigsty, but she realized it was probably how most people, especially young folks their age, were supposed to live. She and Sheldon, both being what others considered neat freaks, were rarities in their age bracket.
"You need to clean up and come with me and Amy."
Penny waved Leonard's shirt around again. "How is he supposed to take care of himself up there?! How are any of them?! They can't even take care of themselves down here!"
"Don't we know it -- " Amy started as Bernadette let out a sigh of understanding and acceptance and pushed her glasses back up onto the bridge of her nose.
"Be that as it may," she reasoned, "we have to let them have this time."
"Why?! He already knows how much he means to me!"
"Because it's their dream," Bernie answered immediately, "and besides, you know what they say about being away..."
"No, I don't!"
"Being away makes the heart grow fonder?" Amy guessed quite uncertainly. She couldn't imagine Sheldon actually growing fonder of her, although it would certainly be nice to see him, and especially feel him, display more emotion.
"You bet your sweet bottom lip it does," Bernadette exclaimed happily, "and that makes for the best sex ever!"
"I've already had too muich sex!" Penny wailed.
Amy's and Bernadette's mouths both dropped wide open. Bernie again pushed her glasses back up onto her nose. She looked from Penny to Amy and then back again to Penny. "What -- ?" she started to ask, but Penny cut her off with a frantic, flapping wave of her arm toward the bathroom.
Taking a deep breath, Bernadette carefully made her way into the bathroom. "Oh my!" she exclaimed, seeing the white strip of plastic on Penny's sink. She stared at the two pink lines for a moment before coming back into the room.
Amy looked up from where she was now kneeling beside Penny to witness a change come over Bernadette. The shorter, blonde woman had always been great in a crisis, and suddenly, she became the boss of them all. "All right, no more drink for you. Amy, find and eliminate any and all alcohol."
"Why?"
"Just do it!"
"Why does it have to be me?"
"Because I said so!" Bernadette snapped in a tone with which not even the first Missus Wolowitz had wanted to mess, let alone argue. "Now, Penny, what's actually clean around here?" she questioned, beginning to make up Penny's clothes while leaving Leonard's laying where they were.
"I don't know!" the other blonde wailed.
Amy grabbed her courage, grabbed the bottle next to her friend, and headed for the bathroom to pour it down the drain. Bernadette heard her exclamations and promptly ignored them as she found a suitcase and started shoving clothes into the suitcase. "You're coming with me," she announced, leaving no room for argument. "You can take Howard's mother's room until Leonard gets back. And congratulations!"
"I don't want congratulations!" Penny wailed. "I want Leonard!"
"Leonard's going to be coming home," Bernadette snapped, taking control of the situation, as Amy came rushing out of the bathroom.
"Oh my gosh! You're pregnant! Bernadette's right! The liquor's got to go!"
"NO!"
"Yes!" Amy rushed from the room and swiftly started going through each of Penny's known hiding places and cupboards while Bernadette snapped Penny's suitcase closed.
"Yes," she confirmed.
"I want Leonard!"
"Leonard will be coming home! Right now, you've got to think of you and the baby!" Bernadette could already see the guys' reactions when they were told the news. Her Howie would use his contacts and find a way to get the whole ship turned around. Leonard would be floored, but it would probably be Sheldon who fainted. Raj would be shocked and escatic, but she already knew how great a midwife he was. That man was definitely born with the wrong genitalia!
"Up an' at 'em, cowgirl!"
"I'm not from Texas! I'm from the Midwest! I'm not a cowgirl!" Penny wailed again.
"Didn't you say you've tipped cows before?"
"Yeah, so?" Penny asked, blinking in confusion through her tears.
"That's cowgirl enough for me!" Bernie declared. She grabbed Penny's hand and firmly, forcefully pulled her to her feet. She swept behind her before Penny could fall back down and pushed her steadfastly toward the door. "Now move on out! Move out of the way, Amy!"
Amy moved, but she was glowing far brighter than the mother-to-be. "Wow! You're pregnant! Who's the godmom going to be?"
"I don't know! I don't want to be the mom!"
"Well, honey, you should have thought about that before you missed a pill -- "
"Are you kidding?! I haven't missed a pill!"
"There's always a chance, pill or no pill! Now let's get you and baby to safety and comfort!"
"And then we have to find a way to call the guys," Amy put in, taking the suitcase from Bernadette and following behind them both.
"I don't want to call Leonard!" Penny wailed.
"Why? Is it not his baby?" Bernadette asked point blank.
"Of course, it's his baby!" Penny and Amy answered as one.
"Thanks," Penny said, blushing, to Amy.
"Of course." Amy beamed.
"Then you've got nothing to worry about, sweetcakes!" Bernadette exclaimed. "Leonard's going to be thrilled! You were the one who didn't want children!"
Penny stopped. No matter how hard Bernie shoved her, she wouldn't move for a moment. "You're right," she breathed as though in a gaze. A slow, huge grin spread across her face. "He is going to be thrilled!"
Amy nodded eagerly.
"It'll be the next move to ever hit space!" Bernadette exclaimed, still pushing Penny. "Now let's move!"
"Yes, ma'am." Penny didn't argue with her again for the rest of the night.
The End
Fandom: The Big Bang Theory
Author: Apache Firecat
Characters: Leonard/Penny, Howard/Bernadette, Sheldon/Amy
Rating: PG/K+
Summary: The girls come together when Amy and Bernadette find Penny in crisis.
Word Count: 1,932
Written For: Half A Moon Day 9: Space and Fannish 50 #23
Warnings: Future Fic
Disclaimer: All characters within belong to their rightful owners, not the author, and are used without permission.
She had never been this lonely. Even in high school, when she'd so quickly hopped into any group activity and any popular guy's arms to keep a crowd of folks around her, eager to spend time with her and chant her name, Penny had never felt this alone. She sat in the floor of the room that held more fond memories for her than anywhere else, nearly sobbing as she held her husband's discarded clothes.
She hadn't heard Amy come in and barely heard the creaking opening of her bedroom door as her friend stuck her head in. "What's wrong?" she asked. "What's got your beautiful eyes so full of tears?"
From anyone else but perhaps Leonard, that line might have sounded creepy or at least lame, but it didn't even surprise her coming from Amy. The poor girl had been even lonelier than she growing up -- actually, all of their friends had been far lonelier than Penny because they'd all been less popular. They had not done as she had and caved to any peer pressure in order to be liked. They had instead cried at home through many dance nights and many more weekend nights. She knew she had been Amy's first female friend, the first girl who had actually taken up time with her, and perhaps that was why the shy, little nerd idolized her so greatly.
Usually, being around Amy immediately made Penny feel better for that very reason, but not tonight. Tonight, she feebly attempted to lift Leonard's dirty, sweaty shirt into the air and wave it around like some sort of banner. Maybe Sheldon could have used it on his flag show even -- except Sheldon was gone too. It seemed so strange, having all their men gone! This couldn't be happening, not again! She'd barely survived the last time they'd all abandoned them to go on an expedition!
And this time, they had gone into outer space! Instead of thousands of miles separating them, her husband was billions of miles -- lightyears! -- away. A sob broke free and echoed not just throughout their small bedroom but out into the hallway beyond their apartment. She heard a door open somewhere nearby, and suddenly, there was Bernadette too.
"Oh no," Bernie said, making a face. "I was afraid of this!"
Amy nodded. "Me too. She needs cheering up. We could all get naked for a group hug."
"We're trying to cheer her up," Bernie said, casting a disdainful look at Amy, "not disgust her or make her run, screaming, into the streets."
"Hey!"
Bernadette ignored her and pushed pass her friend to her other friend. She still wasn't quite accustomed to having friends -- especially girl friends --, but these two had come to mean a great deal to her over the years she had known them. She had, at times, been at odds with them both, Penny more often for thinking that she was the prettiest of their group or that her and Leonard's relationship eclipsed Bernadette's own with her beloved Howie and with Amy for always thinking Sheldon was the best of their group and the smartest man in existence. Of course, they all thought their men were the best, which was part of the reason why they had married the ones they had, and, Bernadette knew, they all loved their own men with everything within them. That was the way it should be, and they were lucky to have found their perfect matches.
Part of supporting and loving their men, however, also meant letting them go when they knew they should, when there was something their guys yearned to do which could not be done sitting in these apartments in sunny California. Travelling into space was not somewhere where any of the three of them belonged. She and Amy would stand a better chance out there than Penny, but even so, none of them had any business donning spacesuits or going on moon walks.
"I miss Howie, too," Bernadette said, trying to bend to reach Penny. Her body didn't quite do as she wanted it to, although she had sprung back better than most young mothers. "But this is their dream!" She reached down instead and stroked Penny's quivering back. "We have to support them!"
"But they're gone! They're all the way in space!" Penny wailed.
"Have you been drinking?" Bernie asked, eyeing her.
"She's breathing, isn't she? And missing Leonard."
"So what if I have?!" Penny waved Leonard's shirt around in the air. "It doesn't change the fact that they're gone! I don't even have Sheldon to bug me anymore!"
"You have me! I can bug you!" Amy called, crossing carefully over the floor. There seemed to be discarded clothing everywhere. She eyed a big, pink bra that hung on the side of the bed. "Do you always live like this?" she asked, quirking a bushy eyebrow.
"So what if I do? It's not like he's here anymore to care!"
"He's coming back," Bernadette assured her.
"They're all coming back."
"But we don't know when!" Penny wailed and slapped Leonard's shirt around. Amy managed to make out part of a Green Lantern design and realized it was his favorite shirt. She was surprised that he had not taken it with him, and then realized that, most likely, either Penny had snuck it away from him as she herself had hidden a few of Sheldon's more valuable objects or it had been laying, dirty and discarded, in this floor. She had once wondered how Penny and Leonard had managed to keep such a prestigious apartment and was quickly realizing that they had never been as clean as any of them had thought -- they had simply hidden everything in their bedroom.
Cautiously, carefully stepping between discarded clothing articles, she made her way to her friends. She had never quite seen anything like this pigsty, but she realized it was probably how most people, especially young folks their age, were supposed to live. She and Sheldon, both being what others considered neat freaks, were rarities in their age bracket.
"You need to clean up and come with me and Amy."
Penny waved Leonard's shirt around again. "How is he supposed to take care of himself up there?! How are any of them?! They can't even take care of themselves down here!"
"Don't we know it -- " Amy started as Bernadette let out a sigh of understanding and acceptance and pushed her glasses back up onto the bridge of her nose.
"Be that as it may," she reasoned, "we have to let them have this time."
"Why?! He already knows how much he means to me!"
"Because it's their dream," Bernie answered immediately, "and besides, you know what they say about being away..."
"No, I don't!"
"Being away makes the heart grow fonder?" Amy guessed quite uncertainly. She couldn't imagine Sheldon actually growing fonder of her, although it would certainly be nice to see him, and especially feel him, display more emotion.
"You bet your sweet bottom lip it does," Bernadette exclaimed happily, "and that makes for the best sex ever!"
"I've already had too muich sex!" Penny wailed.
Amy's and Bernadette's mouths both dropped wide open. Bernie again pushed her glasses back up onto her nose. She looked from Penny to Amy and then back again to Penny. "What -- ?" she started to ask, but Penny cut her off with a frantic, flapping wave of her arm toward the bathroom.
Taking a deep breath, Bernadette carefully made her way into the bathroom. "Oh my!" she exclaimed, seeing the white strip of plastic on Penny's sink. She stared at the two pink lines for a moment before coming back into the room.
Amy looked up from where she was now kneeling beside Penny to witness a change come over Bernadette. The shorter, blonde woman had always been great in a crisis, and suddenly, she became the boss of them all. "All right, no more drink for you. Amy, find and eliminate any and all alcohol."
"Why?"
"Just do it!"
"Why does it have to be me?"
"Because I said so!" Bernadette snapped in a tone with which not even the first Missus Wolowitz had wanted to mess, let alone argue. "Now, Penny, what's actually clean around here?" she questioned, beginning to make up Penny's clothes while leaving Leonard's laying where they were.
"I don't know!" the other blonde wailed.
Amy grabbed her courage, grabbed the bottle next to her friend, and headed for the bathroom to pour it down the drain. Bernadette heard her exclamations and promptly ignored them as she found a suitcase and started shoving clothes into the suitcase. "You're coming with me," she announced, leaving no room for argument. "You can take Howard's mother's room until Leonard gets back. And congratulations!"
"I don't want congratulations!" Penny wailed. "I want Leonard!"
"Leonard's going to be coming home," Bernadette snapped, taking control of the situation, as Amy came rushing out of the bathroom.
"Oh my gosh! You're pregnant! Bernadette's right! The liquor's got to go!"
"NO!"
"Yes!" Amy rushed from the room and swiftly started going through each of Penny's known hiding places and cupboards while Bernadette snapped Penny's suitcase closed.
"Yes," she confirmed.
"I want Leonard!"
"Leonard will be coming home! Right now, you've got to think of you and the baby!" Bernadette could already see the guys' reactions when they were told the news. Her Howie would use his contacts and find a way to get the whole ship turned around. Leonard would be floored, but it would probably be Sheldon who fainted. Raj would be shocked and escatic, but she already knew how great a midwife he was. That man was definitely born with the wrong genitalia!
"Up an' at 'em, cowgirl!"
"I'm not from Texas! I'm from the Midwest! I'm not a cowgirl!" Penny wailed again.
"Didn't you say you've tipped cows before?"
"Yeah, so?" Penny asked, blinking in confusion through her tears.
"That's cowgirl enough for me!" Bernie declared. She grabbed Penny's hand and firmly, forcefully pulled her to her feet. She swept behind her before Penny could fall back down and pushed her steadfastly toward the door. "Now move on out! Move out of the way, Amy!"
Amy moved, but she was glowing far brighter than the mother-to-be. "Wow! You're pregnant! Who's the godmom going to be?"
"I don't know! I don't want to be the mom!"
"Well, honey, you should have thought about that before you missed a pill -- "
"Are you kidding?! I haven't missed a pill!"
"There's always a chance, pill or no pill! Now let's get you and baby to safety and comfort!"
"And then we have to find a way to call the guys," Amy put in, taking the suitcase from Bernadette and following behind them both.
"I don't want to call Leonard!" Penny wailed.
"Why? Is it not his baby?" Bernadette asked point blank.
"Of course, it's his baby!" Penny and Amy answered as one.
"Thanks," Penny said, blushing, to Amy.
"Of course." Amy beamed.
"Then you've got nothing to worry about, sweetcakes!" Bernadette exclaimed. "Leonard's going to be thrilled! You were the one who didn't want children!"
Penny stopped. No matter how hard Bernie shoved her, she wouldn't move for a moment. "You're right," she breathed as though in a gaze. A slow, huge grin spread across her face. "He is going to be thrilled!"
Amy nodded eagerly.
"It'll be the next move to ever hit space!" Bernadette exclaimed, still pushing Penny. "Now let's move!"
"Yes, ma'am." Penny didn't argue with her again for the rest of the night.
The End
