A/N: So here's the final chapter reworked. Not too many changes, just a few rewordings here and there. Anyway, enjoy and keep your eyes out for the next chapter of TGDR!

Run Away, Love

Written by Amputation

She had seen this coming a mile away. She was going back to Nebraska. Acting had failed, no matter how hard she'd tried. She'd lost Kurt, lost Leonard, lost everything. Tears fell uninhibited down her cheeks as she stood out in the rain at her rented truck with her boxes inside, staring up at the building she had called home for so many years. That building filled with so much love and friendships she would dearly miss.

She didn't tell the boys. It just didn't seem like a great idea, she could only imagine what they would do to convince her to stay. She didn't know if she'd survive Raj's puppy eyes, Howard's pleading and possible offers to stay at his mother's house, Leonard's disappointment that was so much like her father's, and Sheldon—oh god, Sheldon—she didn't even want to think what he would do or say. As the rain washed away her salty tears, Penny shut her eyes and tried her hardest to let go of what she could easily call the best years of her life.

She needed to talk to someone, that certain someone. But unfortunately, that person was probably unavailable. In all the years she'd been in California, something told her that Superman was close. That thought had comforted her in more situations than one. But now, she felt lost. Lost and alone without her shining Superman to swoop down and offer her advice and console her worries; to save her from her sorrow. But that was so long ago.

She'd even lost the picture she'd taken way back at Comic Con. Her phone hadn't been equipped with a memory card and when she'd gotten her annual upgrade, the image was lost. She could barely remember what he looked like. He had short brown hair. Piercing blue eyes. Incredibly tall. But other details were forgotten. Forgotten and she hated herself for losing something that made her feel so safe.

Superman was someone who'd pulled her out of the darkness when she felt no light could reach her. He was the one who showed her that darkness must be cast by a light, and that no darkness could outshine her light. Tears tumbled down her cheeks, rain water disguising them amongst the trails of shining liquid descended from the skies above. She knew this was goodbye, and it pained her heart to not leave any notice.

As she walked, leaving the suitcases and furniture in the moving truck to be brought to the airport, she thought about her last encounter with her Superman. He had found her at Comic Con, not back in the train station in Texas. Was it possible that he knew where she was at all times? Could he have been some sort of angel? Penny laughed at her childish idea. Of course he wasn't an angel. She wasn't religious, and didn't believe that prospect. But secretly, she wanted it to be true.

Penny looked up to the familiar, looming college building that stood to her left. She didn't bother looking at the nameplate, she knew where she was. In her sorrow, she'd walked to a place where her dear boys worked. Grief and regret filled her to the brim; she should have completed college. She didn't even have an associates' degree, for crying out loud! What would she do back in Nebraska? Become another useless waitress? Penny felt the tears start again as she threw herself down on the soaked wooden bench by the parking lot.

Sobs wracked her drenched body as she hugged herself, her head hanging down towards the ground, her vision blurred by her tears, shrouded by her soaked hair, and smothered by her overwhelming exhaustion.

Elsewhere, a tall, blue eyed genius could tell something was very wrong. Despite all his intelligence, he could not tell why he felt this way. It was similar to the time when he was sixteen at the train station, and when he was nineteen and returning home from CalTech. It was even similar to the last time he'd seen her that fateful year at Comic Con. Looking back, he realized he'd witnessed her growth.

First she'd been a pretty but naïve girl lost in her youth, then a broken woman having lost her dear friends and purpose, and then a blossomed Power Girl, brimming with confidence. He wondered if she was still in California, because something instinctual was telling him she was in need of a hero, knight in shining armor; someone to help her in her desperate time of need. Sheldon knew he should try to listen to the voice in his head pressuring him to find her again. Grumbling, he put down his Expo marker and pulled on his raincoat. He was going to do something to help. Or at least just go back to his apartment and do more work.

Fate, despite his disbelief in it, was on his side it seemed as he exited CalTech into the rain, for there on that unsanitary bench, sat a woman who looked very similar to his Power Girl. He hurried forward, a sudden sense of urgency coming over him.

"Power Girl?" his voice was softer and more urgent than he'd ever heard it.

The blonde woman looked up, some of her hair obscuring her face, "S-Superman?"

He felt a smile spread on his face, and Power Girl began sobbing anew. Sheldon hesitantly placed a hand on her back, unsure as to what he was doing and simply operating on long-suppressed instinct.

"Tell me, what ails you now?"

She shivered and snuggled closer to him. Sheldon stiffened, but realized this was his Power Girl, the woman he'd let kiss him and touch him three times before, the woman of whom he kept a picture of on his desk at work. The woman who haunted his dreams and made him feel warm inside. His body relaxed.

"I-I have to leave," she paused to choke back a sob, "I failed what I came here to do."

"And that was?" he prodded.

Power Girl gripped his raincoat, the slick Batman symbol shining as the fabric bunched in her small fingers.

"A-acting. I came to act," she paused again to shiver, "it was my dream. You remember, t-the friends I lost in the car accident?"

"Yes, I do recall you telling me such."

"W-well, we were gonna' do it t-together, but I-I've failed them," another sob, "cause I can't do it myself."

Her small body shook as she cried, and Sheldon breathed deeply to collect his thoughts. The scent of her shampoo struck him as familiar, but he dismissed such a strange déjà vu as many women use the same shampoo brands.

"Why have you given up now?"

"It's been too l-long. There's no hope now. I-I can't afford my apartment now."

"I think you should give it another try."

She looked at him with fogged green eyes that poked through her soaked hair.

"Why?" she breathed.

Sheldon smiled at her, "You should try again because maybe you are trying for the wrong role. I can see you as a strong heroine, boldly standing for what she believes in and for her friends. Maybe you should try an action film, or a romantic movie. You could fill the heroine role well in either of the two."

"I-I see," she murmured, pausing to look down at her feet, "perhaps I should try, but why would they want me? I'm too 'Nebraska' for many roles," she trailed off.

The phrase sent warning lights off in his mind, but he pushed through them for once ignoring the signals that sent him in the right directions.

"A friend of mine used to say the same thing; this infuriating woman who lives across the hall. And frankly, despite her exasperating habits, I find her to be incredibly talented and remarkable. I believe that you, too, have the same potential. Do not give up."

She looked up at him again, and her green eyes pierced his soul. Although they were still fogged, he could instantly tell who she was. His amazing Power Girl had inadvertently revealed her secret identity.

"Who are you, Superman? I've—I've wanted to know for so long. You-You've always been there for me, especially when it was bad. Who are you, and how are you so perfect?"

"No one is perfect, not even Superman. We all have our own brand of kryptonite, and you just happen to be mine."

Penny laughed, and in that short moment she looked beautiful. Her glistening skin, thrown back head, soaked hair flailing about. Breathtaking. But her words made his usually impassive heart soar.

"A special friend of mine would have said something so similar. I-I regret having to leave without telling him."

Sheldon was confused, "Telling him what?"

Penny breathed out slowly, "That I think that I-I might have fallen in love with him."

The world stopped spinning.

Penny didn't know why she was telling Superman all of this. She just felt at such ease with him and it surprised her. She never felt like this with any of her other boyfriends, but then again, the kisses she'd given him were the most powerful she'd ever felt. It shook her to the core how familiar he felt this time. Almost like he'd been there all those years when she'd really needed him, as though he'd been a friend that she'd relied on and spent an absurd amount of time with.

"I think he loves you too."

She glanced at him again, his brilliantly blue eyes shining through her tear-and-exhaustion-induced haze so clearly her heart almost stopped.

"H-how do you figure?"

He smiled softly, a gesture so gentle and heartbreakingly sad she almost started crying again from the sheer emotion it held behind it.

"I will tell you how I know," he said, wiping some tears from her face with his thumb. It was soft against her skin.

"You are beautiful in every possible meaning of the word. You are kind, and do not judge others from all my perceptions of you. You are nurturing and gentle, but can control a room with a single look. You have shined light into the lives of many and assisted in many endeavors without a thought to your own benefit. I ought to know."

"W-what?"

He smiled again, so heart-wrenchingly melancholy, "Do you want to know who I am?"

"Y-Yes," Penny started, "I would, very much. You've haunted me for so long—Superman, who are you, really?"

"I am but a simple man from Galveston, Texas. You could say a child prodigy, a genius who moved on to become a teenage professor," he paused, brushing some hair behind her ear with a tenderness that made her knees quiver, "I am a comic book aficionado. I do believe you actually already know my name, but if you need a reminder, it is Sheldon Lee Cooper, and I am the same sixteen year old boy from the train station. The same boy who received his first kisses from you all those years ago."

Penny felt like she couldn't breathe. He really had been there all those years! She should have recognized the similarities! How could she have been so stupid?

"S-Sheldon? Oh god, please don't say bazinga!"

"There's no joke here, Penny. And I'm sure Leonard would be overjoyed to know that you love him."

She stared at him, wide eyed. He—she couldn't finish her thoughts. Turning abruptly, she shivered from lack of his delicious warmth and started off towards her initial destination. Tears fell anew. He didn't love her. How could she be so dense as to believe he'd harbor affection towards her?

"Penny!" a hand caught her wrist, long fingers elegantly enclosing the joint, "Please, don't go!"

"Why not?" she cried, "I've got nothing left here!"

His expression was so pained she began to cry harder at the sight, "You have me!"

"Sheldon, how could you lie to me?"

"I didn't know it was you. I thought my Power Girl was gone."

Penny bit her lip, turning toward him, "I-I thought my Superman was gone."

"I'm never going again. No more running."

She smiled, "Okay. I won't run anymore."

The kiss they shared was like all the others combined; in simpler words, perfect. Funny how running away can show you love in the strangest places.

Finis

A/N: Please review and let me know your thoughts! Thanks for reading!