She climbs the stairs slowly dragging her feet along and groaned. She wished the elevator was working. Damn you, Leonard. She cursed. It was his fault it was broken. All those years ago when the rocket fuel Leonard was testing became unstable, and Sheldon had to put it in the elevator which then consequently blew up leaving the apartment block without a working elevator. Penny's only wish was for a simpler life. Penny felt drained; it had been a stressful and long day at work. She wished she enjoyed what she does. Penny wasn't getting the mental satisfaction, the thrill of accomplishment she had hoped for or the feeling of self-contentment as a Pharmaceutical Salesperson, she wondered how long she could keep this up. Penny hated her job, the money was good, and the other reps were friendly enough, but she wanted more than just using her looks to sell her products and flirting with doctors. Giving the impression she was interested in them was what she hated the most. She wanted personal growth, development, and opportunities to grow as a person, not someone who uses her body to make sales. Penny reached the 4th floor and stared at the door to 4A. She reached for her keys in her bag. Penny wondered if Leonard was home. She let herself in and there he was on the sofa reading one of his scientific magazines. He looks up at her and smiled; she gave him a false smile back.

"Hey, you." he greeted.

"Hello," she answered in a soft tone voice as she lowered herself with a little difficulty and slumped onto the sofa next to him exhausted.

Leonard put the magazine down that he was reading. He could tell she was tense and troubled. He turned towards her and rubbed her shoulder. He knew this always soothes her.

"How was work?" He asked.

"Well apart from getting hit on by creepy doctors." the thought kept intruding into her mind, filling her with dread. "And making a couple of sales. Yeah, great day." She replied in a deadpan delivery.

The flirting was one thing Leonard hated about Penny's job, but he trusted her and understood it was part of her job and wanted the best for her. "Are you okay, would you like me to run you a hot bath?" he asked with a frown that expressed great concern?

"I'm fine, just tired that's all. Maybe later." She answered looking away to avert his gaze.

"I made your favorite dinner." he said in a pleasant, soft, sympathetic, warm tone.

"I'm not really that hungry. I had a late lunch." Penny wished Leonard would stop talking and asking how she was. She wasn't in the mood and just wanted to relax and be left alone.

Leonard could tell something was bugging her; Penny was good at hiding her true self away; he didn't want to push her. He knew when she is ready; she will open up.

"So do you want to do something later, maybe go to the cinema or something?" Leonard tried to lighten the mood.

I'm exhausted Leonard," the scenario of a bleak future running through her mind. "I just want to relax and probably have an early night." hoping to avoid talking about her feelings.

" We could go bug the weird neighbors." Leonard chuckled.

Penny glared at him showing a strong annoyance at his pathetic attempt to raise her spirit with humor. Penny had enough and angrily lashed out without thinking. "You call that doing something. My life is falling apart, and I don't know what to do, and all you can think of is hanging out with the two most obnoxious people we know. Are you kidding me?" She saw the frowned expression on his face; she knew he had a very low tolerance for conflict. Penny could tell he was only trying to help, but she wasn't in the mood for his silly jokes. It wasn't his fault, and she felt sorry for snapping at him but couldn't help herself. This was what Penny did now, taking her frustration out on Leonard.

Leonard was confused, surprised, and a little upset at her outburst and could not think of what to say. Penny saw the astonishment on his face. She quickly stood up and composed herself, pacing around the living room.

"Sorry I didn't mean to snap at you. I'm just feeling frustrated" Penny said sincerely.

"Penny. What going on?" He finally manages to get out." expressing great concern for her.

"Nothing." she lied but failing to convey her emotions effectively.

He knew she was lying; her lashing out was probably a cry for help. Leonard had worried about her state of mind for a while; Her negative emotional reaction was just an act of cold denial. He could see right through her. "You've have been acting strange lately, and what do you mean your life is falling apart? I thought we were happy."

Penny felt sorry for taking her stress out on him. It was wrong and not cool. She wanted to feel better about herself, but right now it was just too painful to talk about how she was feeling to Leonard. "I am, I mean we are. I've been dealing with lots of stress at work lately and stuff. I don't want to talk about it right now. Can we talk about something else?" she pleaded.

He knew her too well, she was stubborn, and if he pushed her, she will only get angrier at him and run away to avoid opening up. He decided to leave it for now. "Okay," he quietly said and went back to reading his magazine.

"Thank you," She sat back down next to him on the sofa and began flicking through the tv channels with the sound on mute. The silence was an attempt to act as if nothing was wrong. "Leonard, what are you reading?" Penny enquired.

"Oh, just an articles on facts about men and women. Do you know how many words women use a day?"

"I don't know," Penny answered.

"30,000 to a man's 15,000." Leonard giggled.

"Really. That's an interesting fact," the topic holding Penny's curiosity. "The reason has to be because we have to repeat everything to men." She replied as she rolled her eyes and made a face at Leonard.,

"What. Are you saying men are dumb and do not listen?" he asked

"Yes and idiots." She said firmly."

Leonard was taken aback by her thoughts on the subject and interjected. "You do realize that men resist sometimes talking to their partners unless a constructive outcome is likely and are not as dumb as some women proclaim, nor is using sex to manipulate a man. Although, it couldn't hurt." He grinned.

Penny was not amused. "So understandably men want to avoid conversations,

"Sometimes," he replied.

"I see, so you are saying women might incorrectly think that men cannot communicate and all men want is sex."

"No, I'm not saying that." He protested.

"Okay so when I want you to listen, vent or share my feelings, you do the classic move of giving the occasional non-committal nod in the hope that eventually I will give up."

"No Penny, it's not like that. I'm an excellent listener and can concentrate for ages while being addressed on a broad range of topics." Leonard proudly said.

"Like what?" She frowned.

"You know sports, shopping, celebrity world, stuff like that," he said nervously.

"You don't like any of those things, and you always make excuses not to participate in them." She glared at him.

"Yes I do, I like sports, but after a while, my mind breaks free and drifts away. Leonard admitted.

"Oh really, or is it the fact that you find sports boring. It's a known fact that the average man can only manage six minutes concentration before his attention is diverted to something else.."

"That's not true, it's hard work for us men. Many women demand being listened to and the man not dare offer a solution or all hell will break loose. Anyway, six minutes seems like a long time."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Penny demanded. "I'm not like that." she raised her voice slightly." When I'm ready to solve my problems, I don't need you to listen."

"Penny I wasn't referring to you. Please don't take this the wrong way but I have all this knowledge built up from helping you through your bold of depressions and several stressful situations in the years I have known you." He remained her. "I think you are showing symptoms of anxiety which may be caused by stress from past memories and experiences. It is best not to dwell on the past or future problems, just the present ones which are."

"What…" Penny interrupted him. " I'm sorry to be a burden on you. I guess I am flawed and therefore a bad person," she exclaimed sarcastically. "I must change or fix myself in order to be acceptable to you?" Penny began to ramble on about how unsupportive he can be and taking her for granted, not making an effort anymore and how she feels neglected, ignored and not appreciated. Making her feel unloved and caring more about playing his stupid video games than her. Penny knew it was wrong, but she felt some satisfaction out of screaming at him.

Leonard couldn't believe what he was hearing. He counterattacked with the little things he does for her, like cooking her food when she's too tired, getting her things when she doesn't want to get up and so on. Leonard knew this discussion was leading to an argument and neither of them was willing to concede their position. He could see she was overly stressed and her train of thought was bouncing from subject to subject; he didn't want to make things worse. Leonard wondered what was bugging her, she had been feeling reckless the last couple of weeks, and whenever he asked if she was okay, she just shrugged her shoulder and said she was fine and changed the subject. He could now see she wasn't. Leonard sat there trying to grasp some connection with her, but he just couldn't find it, he became lost in the rambling of her ranting. It was time to end this. "Penny I'm sorry if I upset you." He glanced at her and immediately looked away again. "I don't like it when we fight." Penny saw the pain in his eyes. But she was at the end of her tether.

"Yeah well stop taking me for granted," she said in a hard, aggressive voice. She stood up and stormed off towards the bedroom, leaving Leonard stunned and lost for words.