Epilogue

"Woah," Leonard swallowed hard, staring ahead at the three girls standing just inside the doorway to Sheldon's apartment. Each of them were dressed in a different outfit, yet each with the same theme – Star Trek. Amy was wearing the same one she had worn twice before already, the blue dress accompanied by black tights and boots, her hair tied back. Penny had chosen red, however unlike Amy she had chosen to wear the uniformed top with black skinny jeans and black heels and Bernadette was in yellow. Her outfit was just like Amy's, only without the tights. Leonard, Howard and Raj were relatively speechless, Sheldon wasn't even in the room. "You guys look…" Leonard trailed off, unable to finish his sentence.

"Stupid." Penny spat out, folding her arms across her chest.

"Weird." Bernadette added as she shifted uncomfortably in her outfit.

"Completely idiotic." Amy moaned, her shoulders slumped forward and just as obviously unhappy with the situation as her two friends.

"No…" Leonard shook his head slowly, his eyes mesmerized by a sight he never thought he'd see, yet couldn't find the words to describe.

"Amazing." Howard stated, his eyes wandering further south from his wife's eyes than he knew they should be.

"Incredible." Was Leonard's addition.

"Pretty damn hot." Raj said slowly, nodding his head. "What?!" He exclaimed, his hands held up in defence when he caught Leonard and Howard glaring at him, "They do!"

Stamping one foot on the ground, Penny scoffed as she fixed her purse on her shoulder and sat her hands on her waist, "Can we just get this over with already?"

"We, uh," Leonard cleared his throat, "yeah, we can, we just gotta wait on Sheldon."

"Well where the heck is he?" Bernadette snapped. "I wanna get this off as soon as possible."

"I don't know why you two are complaining so much," Amy snapped and Penny and Bernadette scowled in her direction, "at least you two haven't had to wear this crap twice already!"

Before either of the two girls could speak again Howard butted in, "Actually, Bernadette has wore-"

"Howie," Bernadette spoke through her teeth, shooting a death glare in his direction, "finish that sentence and you will be getting real familiar with our living room couch."

"Uh, yeah," Howard averted his eyes away from hers, his voice much quieter. "Never mind."

Howard walked away to join Raj on the sofa, and Leonard headed to the kitchen to grab himself a bottle of water while the girls stood their ground at the doorway, refusing to get comfortable in the apartment in case it took longer for them to leave again.

"Ah!" Everyone looked over to see Sheldon dressed as Spock standing at the end of the hallway with a smile on his made-up face, "Great, you're all here."

"Yeah. Great." Penny said, her voice dripping with sarcasm as she stared Sheldon's way. "Can we go now?"

"I'm glad to see you are as excited about this as I am, Penny." He truthfully replied, not detecting the sarcasm in her tone. He then stepped down the step into the living area, digging his hand into his pocket, "But we need our Starfleet badges first. I have them right…" He pulled his hand out, "here. Okay, Captain Kirk," Sheldon walked towards Leonard, handing him his badge before turning on his heel and heading toward the sofa, "McCoy." He looked at Howard, who had his navy blue uniform on and his hair brushed over to one side, "And by the way, I would just like to note that I am not happy about your change of character. The Borg was much cooler."

"Whatever, Sheldon." Howard moaned as he took his badge, "Do you know how difficult it was to get in and out of that outfit? I wasn't going through that again."

"My statement still stands – the Borg was cooler. Worf," he handed Raj his badge and then turned to the obviously unimpressed girls. "Unnamed Cadets. Yellow shirt," he passed Bernadette hers and faced Penny, "and, red shirt." Once Penny took her badge from him he took a step towards Amy, "and finally," he gave her a small smile, "Uhura."

"You know what sucks?" Penny moaned as she put her badge on, "We have to wear these silly outfits to go to this stupid movie and Bernadette and I don't even get actual names."

Leonard gave her a small, sympathetic smile as he walked her way, putting a hand to her arm, "Aw, you do have a name," his small smile turned into a teasing grin, "you're Red Shirt."

Penny narrowed her eyes at his amused expression, "Sweetie, I think you're forgetting that now that we live together, that threat of the living room couch now applies to you too."

Frowning, Leonard dropped his arm, "Sorry. But for the record, Red Shirt Cadet is pretty hot."

For the first time since walking in the apartment Penny found herself smiling, "Yeah, well, Captain Kirk ain't too bad either."

Leonard smiled back at her until Sheldon took their attention, "Alright, it is now exactly half past five, if we don't leave now we wont catch the movie so let's get on the move."

"Oh God," Penny groaned as they turned to walk out of the apartment, "I cant believe we are actually going to be seen out in public like this."

"I can't believe we agreed to be seen out in public like this."

"Yeah, well, we couldn't let Amy do it on her own again." Penny smiled at Amy, "But just for the record, you owe us."

Amy nodded, "Agreed."

Once everyone was out in the hallway and Sheldon had locked his door, the four men bounced ahead, talking with a giddy enthusiasm about the film they were about to see in stunning 3d.

The girls, however, trailed behind. Enthralled by their eagerness but not enough to join in with them.

"So, Amy, how's everything going with you and Sheldon? Did he drop the L bomb yet?" Penny asked with a grin.

Amy had told her, a couple of weeks after the party during one of their girls nights, of what she felt Sheldon was on the verge of saying that evening. Penny had responded by saying that she had felt the same, that she too had noticed changes in him which had started ever since Amy had come into his life and that she was certain that even though he hadn't yet said it, that Sheldon was in love with her. Something that she knew Leonard wholeheartedly believed too, and it was only a matter of time before he told her.

"No, not yet. I have noticed a certain degree of improvement in the intimacy area since the party though. We share a standard kiss every now and again and I think I'm close to getting 'kissing' permanently added to the Relationship Agreement. Though last week on date night I thought it was the right time to 'French it up', but I was wrong. He didn't speak to me for two days."

Penny rolled her eyes, "Good old Sheldon… I bet if I got pregnant right now my kid would be having sex before him." She quickly turned to Amy, "No offense."

"It's fine," Amy shrugged, "I'm well accustomed to Sheldon's slower-than-a-snails pace type of attitude when it comes to this kind of thing. I'm willing to wait it out. At least we are moving forward. Plus, so far this week I have managed to stay over at his apartment three days in a row and I'm pretty sure if I can keep that up every week it will come close to his rule on when it becomes 'living together'. I reckon in a few months we'll be changing his answering machine again."

"A few years more like." Penny replied, only really half-joking, as they turned to walk down the last flight of stairs. They could still hear the four men ahead of them talk excitedly about the movie they were about to go and see. The movie they had already watched on DVD countless times but insisted had to be seen in 3D.

She was just about to complain - and not for the first time that day - about the fact that the costume she was wearing was tight and uncomfortable. About to moan that she would much rather do almost anything else with her Saturday evening than this, when her phone in her small black purse begun to ring.

A slight frown on her face, she stopped to open up her purse and lift out her phone, staring at it for a moment as she studied the number she didn't recognise before answering.

Amy and Bernadette continued on down the staircase as Penny talked on the phone a few steps behind them. They paid little attention at first, simply continuing their conversation as Penny chatted in the background.

It was only when they heard a short squeal escape her as they descended the very last few steps of the staircase into the lobby, the four men ahead of them just about to walk through the double door entrance to the building, that they both turned in her direction. They only just caught a glimpse of her ecstatic expression before she ran past them, stuffing her phone back in her bag.

"Leonard!" She yelled as she ran towards him at the door. "Leonard, I got it!"

Before he could get a chance to ask what it was she had gotten, she had flung her arms around his neck with such force that he stumbled backwards a little, but managed to stay on his feet.

After giving him a quick squeeze she pulled back, her hands moving to grip the top of his arms and excitedly repeated, "I got it!"

"That's great!" Leonard instantly replied, her enthusiasm catching even though he had no idea what she was talking about. "What did you get?" He questioned a second later, by which time almost all of the rest of the group had become interested in what had gotten Penny so excited and were gathering around her, Sheldon being the only one who chose to stay beside the door, waiting impatiently to leave.

"The play! Remember a while ago I auditioned for it and I got the call back but I didn't hear anything back so I just assumed I hadn't got it?" Leonard thought for a few moments but eventually nodded, "Yeah, okay, well, I didn't. They said that they tried to call me and left me a voicemail or whatever but I didn't get it so I don't really know if I believe that but anyway," Penny stopped momentarily for a breath, "the girl that they did give the part to cant do it anymore, I think she like, broke her leg or her arm or something so they've asked me to fill in for her!" Gripping Leonard's arms tightly, Penny squealed a little before controlling her excitement again, "I mean, it means I was second choice and that kind of sucks, and I have to do like another kind of audition thing with all of the producers or whatever but my agent said that unless I do something crazy at that then the part is pretty much mine!"

"Oh my God! That's amazing!"

"I know!" Leonard pulled her back in for a tight hug, a smile on his face as wide as hers, a smile that was mirrored in all their friends as they looked on with glee at Penny's announcement. "I'm so proud of you." He said quietly into her ear.

At his softly spoken and heartfelt words, she moved her head back to look at him for just a moment before briefly pressing her lips to his. As soon as their kiss was broken, congratulations came flooding in from everyone else, each of the girls - and Raj - getting just as excited as she was about what had just happened.

It was only when she had only just pulled back from a hug with Bernadette when Sheldon could be heard huffing dramatically by the doorway.

"Sheldon!" Amy hissed, eyebrows high as she nodded in Penny's direction. "Don't you have something to say?"

Sheldon only managed to stubbornly stare back at his girlfriend for a few moments, his arms crossed and body tense before giving in with a sigh. "Fine." He moaned as his arms fell to his side and he glanced in Penny's direction. "Congratulations Penny." He reluctantly said.

A soft smile crossed Penny's lips, "Thank you, Sheldon."

"Okay, now that that's over with," Sheldon immediately pulled back his sleeve to look at his watch, "if we want to make this movie on time then we must leave now, I don't intend on missing this movie twice." Turning on his heel, he pushed open the double doors to head outside.

"You didn't miss this movie the first time though," Leonard said, gripping Penny's hand as she walked beside him and they followed Sheldon through the double doors, a smug smile forming, "I'm pretty sure you didn't see it because you wanted to wait until I was home so we could all see it together, am I right?"

"That sounds about right," Penny spoke before Sheldon could, "Little Shelly missed his Captain Kirk too much to see it without him." Her head tilted, she grinned as Sheldon swung his head around and frowned in her direction.

"I did not miss him, I simply noticed he was gone." He looked ahead once again, but only for a moment before turning back, the same scowl on his face, "And don't call me Shelly, unless you want banished from this excursion."

A contemplative look came across Penny's face. Getting sent home and not having to sit through this movie was exactly what she wanted, and she had just found out how easily it could be done. Unluckily for her though, Amy and Bernadette had caught this look. "Don't even think about it." Bernadette warned.

"If we're going," Amy added, "you're going."

Well that's that! Another story all over! Big thanks to everyone who read, reviewed, favourited and followed! I had so much fun writing this, even when trying to write the Shamy gave me headaches, and it was great hearing that you all didn't think I did a terrible job with them! Also, I know I have left this story very open, there really is a lot of stuff I could go into in the future but I don't think that will happen. This really was just supposed to be a story about how Leonard's trip could have affected Penny and Sheldon so I will probably just leave it as it is! I do have some other stuff planned though so at some point ill be back with that! :)

Toodles! For now!