And here it is, the final chapter of Just The Girl. Prompt fifteen. I hope you have all enjoyed reading these, and I'll have another collection in this style started within the week, so you can look forward to that! For now, enjoy the last chapter.

Never break her heart.

When Alex flirted, and Leonard liked it and then didn't tell her it happened, Penny got scared. She knew he wouldn't do anything about Alex's attentions while dating Penny, but there wasn't a rule that said he had to keep dating Penny. She'd been wary of Alex since early fall, but now, several months and an "I love you" later, it hit Penny just how insecure she was, especially now that Leonard had full possession of her heart. He could do with it what he pleased, and if it pleased him to rip it to shreds, she could do nothing about it.

But he didn't. Instead, he showed up at her door, playing his cello and singing a silly little apology song, then promising her that she had nothing to worry about, nothing would happen with him and Alex – ever.

When she turned their Valentine's Day into something more worth of Saint Valentine's actual end than anything related to the holiday, he promised her that he would never propose to her again, and Penny got scared. She wasn't ready to get married now, no matter how bitter she was over her old boyfriend becoming engaged to the girl he slept with while dating Penny, but she didn't want to know that she and Leonard would never get married. And why would one be in a loving relationship if marriage was no longer a possibility? "Are you breaking up with me?" she asked, ready to apologize up the wall, ready to beg him to stay, ready to remind him that she loved him and not now didn't have to mean not ever, ready to pour out her heart in a last ditch effort to prevent it from shattering, and then there he was again, reassuring her that he wasn't breaking up with her, not at all. He was just putting the ball in her court, letting her tell him when she was ready to get married by being the one to propose. It wasn't the answer she was expecting, but she was more than ready to agree to his suggestion.

Proposing was something she knew that somewhere down the road she'd want to do, and when she did, they'd be taking one more step toward being together forever, something that was still scary, but was looking like a better idea every day.

And that day, Valentine's Day, Penny took another step closer to being ready. Because on that day she realized, finally understood, that she shouldn't be insecure now that she openly loved him, because Leonard Hofstadter would never, ever break her heart.