Penny didn't like Amy.

Upon their first meeting, Penny was able to list more than three distinct qualities she did not like about the neurobiologist. She was callous, arrogant, inconsiderate, and overall annoying. However, much to Penny's dismay, she did not disappear from her life after that awful first meeting.

As Sheldon became closer to Amy, Penny noticed another quality in the woman she despised… she was needy. Eventually becoming her self-proclaimed "bestie," Penny felt suffocated under her weighty presence. She was everywhere, not leaving her be. The first time that she allowed Amy to a girl's night she had never felt more uncomfortable. That encounter topped the awkward first meeting that the two had.

Sometimes, she made comments that were so far off from socially acceptable that Penny began to wonder if it was possible to more socially awkward than Sheldon. Penny found that Amy was living proof that it was indeed possible. Some of the remarks that Amy made at Penny were testing the limits of Amy's heterosexuality. Penny found it more than disturbing.

When Bernadette and Howard got engaged, Sheldon and Amy we're right in the midst of their "social experiment" in which they tested how long it takes gossip to make its way through a social group. When it began, Penny was more shocked from the Sheldon aspect of it all, that's why the first person she told was Leonard. She figured if the two were going to be doing the dance with no pants, he should be the first to know considering he lived with the man. But then Amy got pregnant. Or at least that's what she told her. Another new trait Penny didn't like. Deception.

It was around that time that Penny and Bernadette started to include Amy in more of their girl's nights. Bernadette even went so far as to make her a bridesmaid. That's when Penny's feelings for Amy started to change. It wasn't until Penny and Bernadette went to Amy's lab to apologize about dress shopping that she began to feel something more than contempt for Amy.

When the two blondes went to that lab at UCLA, they expected it to be an easy encounter. Smile sweetly, apologize and move on. However, upon their arrival, they realized that would NOT be the case.

Amy had begun to slowly take the protective walls that hid her real personality, yet, it seemed that she rebuilding when Bernadette and Penny arrived. However, the confident Amy that Penny had initially met was gone and replaced with a self-deprecating Amy. After making comments about dying alone, pretending, and her over 20 years of loneliness, Penny had never felt guiltier.

She replayed the last year in her head. From the time she had met Amy until that moment in the lab with her head in the trash can. Throughout the year, Amy had made comments about her childhood that could come across as sad, but she always seemed so eager to change the subject. So, Penny didn't think about them too much.

Penny had heard Amy compare herself to a tumor when it came to her position in their social group, and Penny wanted nothing more than to bolt and get away. While the comments Amy was making simply were not true, she could see when the biologist got those ideas in her head.

Penny had treated her no better than anyone from her past had. She had hurt her and made her feel less than welcome after leading her into believing that she was cared for by her friends. She shunned her when she became too "weird" for Penny's taste. She was no better than anyone who had cast Amy aside in the past.

It was then that Penny vowed to be the friend that Amy needed. And while she fell short many times, Amy has stuck with her, so she counts that as a win.

Penny stood by Amy through thick and thin, and vice versa. Amy was there when Leonard went to the North Sea. Penny was there when Sheldon ran away on a train. Amy was there when Penny got her new job. And Penny was there when Sheldon said: "I love you."

Penny was also there when Amy needed her the most. The break-up. She knew first-hand how hard break-ups were and how painful they could be. And while seeing Amy go through such an ordeal was painful, it once again changed Penny's feelings about her.

Amy had always been strong, Penny knew that. The woman had managed to survive almost 30 years of solitude. However, the break-up caused something in Amy to shatter. Like it tore down the final wall that Amy had built. It left her in a state that Penny hadn't even seen when Sheldon ran away the previous summer. It left her emotionally vulnerable. Maybe it was because, unlike the train trip, she knew Sheldon wasn't coming back to her. She had cut him off emotionally, he wasn't coming back, and that's what crippled her.

Penny hated watching her friends go through that, but she needed to be there for Amy. So, just like all the times before that, she was there. She was there when she needed to talk just after the break-up. She was there to support Amy when she began to date again. She was there when Sheldon said that they just needed to be friends.

Penny was over the moon when The Shamy reunited. It was a simple fact that the two belonged together, and Penny was their best cheerleader.

Now, as Penny watched her best friend get married, she thought back to when she first met the bespectacled neurobiologist and wished she had kept more of an open mind about her. Screw the old list of traits, none of them were true. Amy was easily the warmest, kindest, most beautiful person she'd ever met. Who kept a modest view of herself at all times. She put her friend's needs above her own. She was the life of the party, the one who added a slight flare to their social group.

And even though she wasn't the best friend that Penny always imagined she'd have, she didn't care. Because Penny didn't like Amy.

Penny loved Amy.

A/N: Hi there, thank you so much for reading my story, I'm thinking I should do a part two from Amy's perspective but I'm going to wait and see how this does first. Hopefully these characters aren't too OOC, I tried my best.