Merry Christmas everyone :) Here is the next chapter, I hope you'll like it.

Chapter 4 : Thank You Leonard

It was now 6.22 PM. It was like the hundredth time in the evening that Penny had watched that stupid clock. The clock on her phone. The clock on her wall. The clock in her bedroom. Her door was half open, so she could hear when Leonard would come back.

She had two false hopes already : she heard someone coming at 6.03 and 6.17 but they were people from upstairs.

6.23. She was so anxious. She still had no idea of how she would react seeing him. Penny was pacing nervously from her door to her couch when she recognized HIS footsteps. This time, she was sure : it was him. Her heart began racing faster, she opened wide her door, and when she finally saw him her mind was blank. She only could think : "Great. I spent the whole afternoon preparing myself for that and now I can't say anything."

Leonard was clearly surprised to find Penny in front of her door : "Hey you !" he smiled. Penny melted at his smile, his so sincere and full of love smile. While Leonard was walking toward her, all Penny could think was how he fought for her, how he defended her, how he confronted Kurt alone. When Leonard finally arrived in front of her, she realized : "It's MY man."

He leant for what was supposed to be a quick "good evening" kiss, but as soon as Penny felt his lips on hers, she felt the urge to kiss him deeply. She put her arms behind his neck and closed the gap between their bodies. Leonard was surprised to feel such a passion in Penny's kiss and he didn't understand what was the reason behind it. He started wondering what he had done, or maybe was it meant to be their last kiss ? Was she going to break up with him ? The next second, Penny's right hand grabbed the back of his neck and began to stroke his hair, while her left hand was going up and down his right arm. Leonard lost the control of his thoughts and focused on the kiss : he tightened Penny's waist and held her as close to him as possible. Soon, he felt her tongue making its way to his mouth, and he moaned in pleasure.

The kiss lasted for three of four more seconds before Penny realized that she needed to speak to him. She slowly softened the kiss and ended it by giving Leonard some quick pecks. When she opened her eyes, Leonard still had his closed and he was smiling lightly. This made Penny happy and she chuckled a bit. This soft laugh made Leonard open his eyes. He lovingly gazed into Penny's eyes, his hands still firmly on her waist and hers still behind his neck.

They stared into each others eyes for a few seconds, smiling. Penny was wondering how to bring the "Kurt" topic when Leonard broke the silence : "So... What have I done to deserve this ? You REALLY liked last night, uh ?"

For a second, Penny froze hearing a reference to the night before, the night she wanted to end things with him. She stopped smiling and Leonard felt something was wrong and frowned : "I'm sorry, did I say something wrong ?"

Penny shook her head to get last night out off her memory and answered : "No, nothing, don't worry..." Saying that, she let Leonard go and sat on her couch. "Sit next to me", she added, motioning the spot next to her on the couch.

"O-kay" agreed Leonard, unsure of what was coming next, and a little bit worried.

"Sweetie..." Penny started and Leonard was relieved : if she called him 'sweetie', she was not going to break up with him, right ? "I learnt something quite... troubling let's say, today. And you're involved."

Leonard started panicking : what he could possibly had done ? Penny saw the confusion and scare on her boyfriend's face and she put her hands on his to calm him : "Don't worry ! It's not a bad thing, I promise... I was just really shocked to hear this after so many years, and I'm still wondering why you didn't tell me afterwards..."

Leonard was totally lost : "Tell you what ? Penny, what are you talking about ?"

Penny breathed in deeply : "Okay, sorry, I should start from the beginning... Today, really by accident, I learnt what you did for me, when we weren't even dating. Do you have any idea of what I'm referring to ?"

Leonard took some time to reflect : he had done many things to please her, but it was obviously something big to her, and something she didn't know about. His mind was about to explode : "I'm sorry Penny, I'm REALLY puzzled right now, you'll have to help me..."

Penny smiled and took Leonard's right hand in her both hands : "It's okay..." She started to nervously play with Leonard's fingers and finally revealed, looking down at her hands : "I know you went to Kurt's place and asked him to give me my money back..." Penny wanted to continue but Leonard laughed and interrupted her : "Wow, that was a loooooong time ago ! You shouldn't make a big deal out of it", he then shrugged.

Penny shook her head and looked in Leonard's eyes while speaking faster and faster : "No Leonard, that's not it. I know everything. I know that you really insisted to go with your friends, I know that even though Kurt slammed the door at you, and even though your friends abandonned you, YOU knocked again at his door and YOU stood by your position, which was not leaving without the money. My money. And I know what he did to you... The ink thing..."

Leonard wasn't smiling anymore, he was petrified. He gulped. Great, now she knew how Kurt humiliated him. He cleared his voice : "Well... Yeah, you know now how I miserably failed this day..."

It was Penny's turn to be puzzled : "What ? Are you kidding ? You didn't fail ! I got my money back ! And I'm so, so, soooooooo, SO sorry of what he did to you ! What a jerk ! I can't believe I thought he had changed at the time..."

Leonard didn't reply anything. This was coming late, but it felt good. He was even actually surprised how good it felt. He didn't fail. That's what she said. Penny put her both hands on Leonard's chest : "When I learnt this, I was mad at me, because I didn't see anything, at the time. I was mad at me because I hadn't seen how thoughtful you are, and how you always do things for me, and how I don't even realize all these things you do because you don't tell me, even now I'm sure ! Anyway..." Her voice softened : "... I'm... like ... almost four years late but... I... I want to say what I should have said to you back then : thank you, Leonard Hofstadter. Thank you for having the guts to go and confront him, and not letting go. Thank you for giving me my money back from this giant jerk. I'm so proud of you. Thank you, my hero."

Penny didn't leave him the time to respond or even to think about what to say or do next : she firmly pressed her lips against his and moved her hands to his face. Leonard was on cloud nine, he definitely didn't expect that speech. Seeing how things turned out, maybe he did the right thing at the time, not telling her what he had done: now he was getting an even better award. The kiss was soft but passionnate. Leonard couldn't help but talk during the kiss : "It ... means... a lot ... to me... what... you... just said..."

Penny smiled and stopped the kiss. She leant her forehead on his and kept her eyes closed. While her right hand was now stroking his hair on the neck and her left hand was busy toying his right arm, she whispered : "Why did you keep this hidden from me ?"

Leonard shrugged : "I don't know... I guess I put that humiliating memory far far far faaaaaar away in my brain. So it didn't cross my mind once afterwards... And back then, at the time... you seemed so happy to have another chance with Kurt... I didn't want to upset you. I just wanted you to be happy."

Penny's heart jolted at those sweet words. She smiled wildly and quickly kissed him before saying : "You're amazing."

With Penny's love and recognition for what he did, Leonard's confidence was back : "Well, if you let me drive you in the bedroom, you'll see how more amazing I can be."

Penny giggled : "Oh yeah, show me that !"

This night, unlike the night before, she wanted it as badly as him. Maybe even more.

Maybe I'll write another chapter, I'm not sure yet...