This fic is based off the movie TiMER, a mediocre movie with an incredibly interesting premise. People can get these displays implanted into their wrists called TiMERs, and they count down to the day that the person will meet his or her soulmate – providing their soulmate also has a TiMER, if not, theirs would just be blank. It reaches zero at midnight the night before you meet him or her, and at some point the next day, you'll make eye contact with your soulmate and both of your TiMERs will beep at the same time. I heard of the movie because my friend Amber was writing a TiMER fic for Warehouse 13 after reading another TiMER fic, and we both thought it would be cool if there was a TiMER story for Leonard and Penny. So here's the first chapter. Shamy and Howard/Bernadette will also be present in this fic.

I know I have The Sulfur Juxtaposition to update – that will more than likely happen tomorrow. I just had to get this one started.

Disclaimer: I do not own the show, the characters, the movie from which I got the premise, or the premise itself. I just don't like to keep these things mint in box, it's a lot more fun to take them out and play with them.

"Think of it this way," Sheldon said, as they climbed the stairs. "At least that ridiculous device didn't go off while you were in the sperm bank. Though come to think of it, that would have meant that you'd be destined to end up in the arms of a very intelligent man."

"But it doesn't make sense, Sheldon," said Leonard, shifting the Indian food to the other hand. "We know everyone in this building. I've met all of them since I was fourteen, meaning none of them are my soulmate. And we don't plan to leave the apartment for the rest of the day."

"Maybe the lights will go out and the new electrician will stop by," Sheldon said.

"We have a new electrician?" Leonard asked.

"I hope not," Sheldon responded. "Brad does an excellent job. But my point, which you seem to have missed, as usual, is that unless you are about to be thrust into the limelight as the sole example of why the TiMERs do not go off on the day they are supposed to, you will make eye contact with someone by midnight tonight and your TiMERs will both flash green, make that annoying sound, and you will abandon your dream of being a Nobel Prize winning scientist to have regular coitus. Better ignore that fortune telling device, accept it for the hokum that it is, and pursue that Nobel Prize dream and become the mediocre scientist that I know you can become, with just a little hard work."

"Thanks for the pep talk," Leonard said.

His roommate gave him a big smile. "You're welcome."

They reached the fourth floor, and didn't bother glancing to the right to see if Louie/Louise was exiting 4B. He'd moved out four days ago – a shame, Sheldon had said, that he wasn't Leonard's 'one'. He was a very organized person, the theoretical physicist said, and would be an ideal third roommate. Leonard, not wanting to be controversial, decided not to argue against the transvestite specifically and decided to point out to Sheldon that when he found his one, they would not be living with Sheldon.

But then a flash of blue caught his eye, which made Leonard glance across the hall. Louie/Louise, in the four years they'd known him, had never worn blue unless it was one of his police uniforms, and he didn't work on Mondays.

Across the hall was a woman, probably a hair or two taller than Leonard, in a blue shirt and jean shorts, looking at something in one of the many boxes that surrounded her.

"New neighbor?" Leonard said to Sheldon.

Sheldon wasn't impressed with his friend's powers of observation. "Evidently."

Leonard decided to ignore it. "Significant improvement over the old neighbor."

"We'll see how organized she is," Sheldon said.

The woman looked up then – she saw them watching her and she smiled. "Oh. Hi!"

Leonard opened his mouth to respond…but he was thrown off by the incessant beeping on his wrist. He looked down, then back up. The woman across the hall was staring at her own arm, her face white as a sheet. Leonard assumed that that wasn't her natural complexion. When she looked up and made eye contact a second time, he wondered if her eyes were always so wide.

They stood there in awkward silence for several seconds, both of them staring at each other, their TiMERs gradually calming down. The people to which the devices were implanted, however, were not so calm. Leonard pulled out his inhaler, shook it, and placed it in his mouth, feeling relieved as the medicine began to take effect. The blonde woman – how had his TiMER gone off for this woman? She was nothing like he'd ever dated – not that he was complaining – and no one like that had ever shown any interest in him before – the blonde woman was blinking rapidly, staring straight ahead, looking like an animal in Freeze Mode that wasn't sure whether to fight or flight. Finally, Sheldon spoke, apparently deciding that it was better to ignore the reason for the silence and go back to a point where he felt comfortable. Or rather, more comfortable. "Hi," he said to the woman.

"Hi," she responded.

"Hi," Leonard blurted out.

She nodded. "Hi."

"I'm Leonard," Leonard said, reaching his hand out as he walked across the hall. "This is Sheldon. We live across the hall in separate heterosexual bedrooms."

"Hi," she said hesitantly, taking his hand and giving it a hard shake. "Penny. I guess I'm your new neighbor. And…" she trailed off, rubbing her TiMER with the thumb of her other hand nervously, "apparently…" she shook her head, "whatever else."

"If it makes this situation somewhat less awkward," Sheldon said, "I think the whole TiMER thing is complete tomfoolery."

"Sheldon," Leonard said warningly. "So," he said to Penny, "welcome to the building."

"Oh, yeah, thank you," she said. She cleared her throat. "I…I have a lot…a lot to, to unpack, so…" she gestured to her boxes. "I'm sure I'll be seeing you," she said, giving a little laugh, "TiMER buddy."

"I'm sure!" Leonard said, smiling broadly.

"Okay," she said. "Well, bye."

"Bye," Leonard and Sheldon chorused as she shut the door.

"Okay," Leonard said. "It's a good day." He reached in his pocket and took out his inhaler again.

Penny closed the door and turned her back to it, sliding down to a sitting position and putting her hands to her face. "Oh my Go-o-od…" she moaned.

She'd gotten her TiMER on her fourteenth birthday, just like everyone else. It still had four years to count down when she'd met Kurt – and his TiMER had been and still was blank – but she'd fallen for him so hard that she'd decided that it didn't matter. She loved him, and he loved her, and screw what those little machines said. She and Kurt were going to be together forever.

Then had come the unusually slow day at work, the unexpected afternoon off, the other girl in the bed Kurt and Penny had shared since she was eighteen. The shouting, the throwing of any object that wasn't bolted down, the pleas for forgiveness, the deaf ears. In all the confusion and anguish that had engulfed Penny in the past two weeks, she'd completely forgotten that her TiMER had been reaching zero. She knew that at midnight last night it had reached that zero, the sign that the next day she'd make eye contact with her soulmate.

Then it had shocked her by going off – for a guy who must be a bit shorter than her, with obvious social awkwardness, glasses, and a roommate who was wearing one of those superhero tee shirts. Leonard – whose last name she didn't know but would apparently share one day – was not even close to the kind of guy that she usually went out with. And suddenly, after her whole world had been shaken to the core, after the last thing she wanted was to assume that something was a guarantee and risk being hurt again, her TiMER told her that yes, without a doubt, this was who she belonged with.

And the whole thing just freaked her out.

As in the movie, people do not automatically fall in love when their TiMERs go off. Rather it just tells them - like a scarily accurate fortune teller - who they will fall in love with.