Hi guys! This is the last chapter of this little piece. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I loved writing it. Thank you so much for your reviews and support through various comments and messages. Have fun with this last part. Cheers!

Chapter Six

He still felt like this was some nasty dream. But the fact that he was currently living at Raj's sorta proved this was his new god awful reality now. After his talk with Penny more than a week ago when she had told him that there really wasn't a chance for them and that she wanted him to sign the papers, it had felt as if someone was twisting the knife that was already stuck in his heart.

He had barely seen Sheldon since that day they came back from their little escape trip to San Francisco. Yet, he had heard through Raj and Howard (they never talked about it in his presence though) that Sheldon was in a relationship with Penny now and that somehow it did not appear weird or disgusting. Instead they apparently fit well together and it made Sheldon much more…tolerable.

From Amy, the other hurt one in this mess, he had not heard much of since the day he had shown her Sheldon's note. Maybe for her this situation was even worse because he still had his other friends. Amy though had only ever really been friends with Penny and Sheldon which kind of left her alone. Feeling worse only thinking about that, Leonard decided to pay the neurobiology department a visit.

Amy seemed pleasantly surprised to see him. "Leonard," she greeted him and even smiled at him, though it seemed a bit forced.

Leonard couldn't help but stare. "Uh…hi," he said after a moment, "I wanted to check up on you."

"That's nice. I'm okay, considering. How are you doing? Last I heard you were living with Raj."

He nodded. "Yeah. Actually we switched places."

Amy nodded. "Understandable. You wouldn't want to see Sheldon and Penny together."

That surprised him. "You know about that?"

"Sure. I talked to Bernadette recently and besides that's what Sheldon informed me his plans were when he came to see me."

Wow. It seemed Amy was a lot less affected by any of this than he was. But how could that be? He knew she had always been crazy about Sheldon and had had a weird kind of crush on Penny.

"How can you be so cool about this?", he asked uncomprehendingly.

Amy shrugged. "I cried a lot, believe me. But when Sheldon came to talk to me…I guess I finally saw what's been right in front of us from the beginning."

Leonard gaped at her. "What?"

"Sheldon may be a lot of things but he is not a bad person. He just does what occurs to him as the right course of action. In this case he's unconsciously had repressed feelings for Penny for such a long time and never actively thought he'd ever do anything about it. But suddenly he thinks I broke up with him, she is about to end your marriage before it's really started and she is not opposed to his advances. I believe the natural course of action for everyone, including us, would be to go for it."

"So what are you saying?", Leonard asked shocked. "That we were just collateral damage?"

"Essentially? Yes!"

Taking another deep breath, Sheldon raised his hand a second time. Yet, it seemed like he still had not found the courage he needed to finally knock on Leonard Hofstadter's lab door. Sheldon had not seen his roommate since that fateful day when they had come back from San Francisco, but he knew Leonard was still mad at him. On the other hand, this had nothing to do with their personal lives but with a passion they had both in common and that maybe came before everything else.

Science.

Closing his blue eyes for a moment, he forced himself to raise his hand for a third time.

"What do you want?" Leonard's voice from behind him made him whirl around in surprise.

"Hello Leonard," he replied nervously and watched as his best friend came closer.

"I don't have anything to say to you," Leonard told him as he moved to open the door to his lab.

"This is not a social visit. I have to show you something. Please let me come in."

Leonard gave him a skeptical look but was apparently curious because he gestured for Sheldon to follow him inside.

"What is it?"

Wordlessly, Sheldon handed him two sheets of paper which Leonard took. Sheldon watched him as he read through everything and tried to name the ever changing emotions on the other physicist's face while he waited for a reaction.

In the end, Leonard only stared at him, obviously speechless. "Do you know what…Sheldon, this could be it. Your Nobel."

Sheldon nodded. "I know. I need someone to prove my theory experimentally," he replied, looking Leonard straight in the eye.

"Why don't you do it yourself?"

He looked away at that. He knew what Leonard was saying and a few years ago he might actually have done just that but now…

Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to meet Leonard's eyes again. "I am a theoretical physicist and while I might always have belittled your scientific capabilities, I do believe you are better suited to prove my theory than I am."

"If I can do this, it means you will have to share your Nobel with me," Leonard pointed out.

Again, Sheldon looked away but nodded. "I am aware. Are you going to do it or not?" Nervously, he waited for Leonard's answer.

His friend swallowed. "Yes."

Relief filled him. Quickly, he turned around to flee the room, but Leonard's voice stopped him. "I went to see Amy."

That made him freeze and turn back to face his friend. "And?"

"You always said Penny's and my relationship was ill-fated. What did you mean by that?"

His question surprised Sheldon. He would have expected Leonard to inquire why he had taken away his wife or how he expected them to work together, not to mention to ever be friends again, but not this.

Choosing his words carefully, he looked at his bespectacled friend. "I said that repeatedly because Penny and you both have the qualities you both fear the most in a romantic partner. You have both expectations of a romantic partner neither of you could ever fulfill for the other."

Confused, Leonard looked at him. "What are you talking about?"

Sheldon paused. How was he supposed to explain this to Leonard who had always worn rose-colored glasses where Penny was concerned?
"Penny needs her romantic suitor to be confident in relation to her physical appearance, his own person and the relationship itself. He needs to encourage her dreams, but show her her own boundaries and abilities. Her many romantic partners in the past and her rejection of your previous marriage proposals suggest a strong fear of commitment, but yet, as a very social person whose whole confidence depends on other people's admiration, she is very much afraid of being on her own. Hence the sudden agreement to drive to Las Vegas.
You, on the other hand, crave commitment and appreciation. You need to be needed and desire to have a beautiful woman because of your low self-esteem caused by your upbringing. At the same time you fear said sort of woman because of the mentioned low self-esteem. So yes, your relationship was ill-fated from the very beginning and for what's worth it, I am very sorry, Leonard."

Uncomfortably, he noticed that Leonard was staring dumbfounded at him. He moved to walk away again, but Leonard's voice haltered him a second time.

"What makes you think it's gonna be different with you?"

"Because unlike you and Penny, she and I have exactly the characteristic qualities we both desire in a romantic partner," Sheldon explained.

"Since when do you even have a list of attributes you want in a girlfriend?"

"I asked myself that question as well and I do believe the answer is 'since we met Penny'."

When Sheldon told Penny of his findings and his talk with Leonard after they had both recovered from the extensive love making, Penny smiled softly. "I think he's gonna come around," she mumbled into his neck as he let his fingers wander lovingly along her left arm.

And she was right. A few months later, long after they had started to work on proving Sheldon's theory, the whole gang started to hang out at 4A again. Amy and her new boyfriend Dylan joined them often enough and Penny and Sheldon were tactful in Leonard's presence. And then, two weeks after they had finally proven the theory and had handed everything over in order for their findings to be evaluated, Penny introduced Leonard to Haley, a new intern at hers and Bernadette's work place. They instantly hit it off and while Sheldon had been reluctant to have a new addition to their circle of friends, he had quickly realized how it got Leonard off their case.

It didn't take long after that for Leonard and Raj to switch apartments again and for the first time in months, Sheldon was able to really breathe again. Now that he had Haley worshipping him, Leonard had been able to admit that he and Penny maybe really had never been that good for each other and he even agreed that being with Penny made Sheldon much more tolerable.

"Have I told you that I'm glad you just kissed me that night?", Penny asked him on the night of Leonard's moving back in. She was resting nakedly against his equally naked body and smiled sleepily up at him.

"No, but I am as well. And even more so for Amy breaking up with me and Leonard kissing Mandy Chao."

Penny giggled. "Kinda looks like everything happens for a reason."

Sheldon rolled his eyes but chose not to comment. If he had learned one thing during his relationship with Penny so far, it was that sometimes it was better not to say out loud what he was thinking.

"I love you, sweetie," she murmured against his neck.

"I love you, too." He kissed her forehead and closed his eyes.

Life was good.