Big Bang Theory Season 02 Ep. 19-23

"Fear?"

"Yeah, like you're afraid that if you touch her, she'll break."

Stuart nodded, "Well, that plays right into my wheelhouse."

Leonard nodded, "Good, good, you guys have fun tonight.

"Thanks Leonard!"

The rest of the night they worked on Howard's space toilet. All the while Leonard sat there feeling bad about giving both Penny and Stuart bad advice. It ate at him and he got more and more depressed. In the morning he went over to Penny's to apologize. He knocked on the door and she answered the door in her tiny robe, "Good morning!"

She smiled back at him, "Morning, what's up?"

"Nothing, we just pulled an all-nighter trying to fix a Zero-Gravity pasta maker. I'm gonna make a coffee run, want any?"

"No, I have coffee."

"Great, so how'd it go with Stuart last night?"

She was suddenly defensive, "I really don't wanna talk about it."

He looked even more depressed about giving the bad advice, "Yeah, right, sure, but, you know, the thing is, before you guys went out, I spoke to him and I--"

She raised her voice, "I said I don't wanna talk about it!"

He started again "Okay, I kind of feel res--!"

"Look, Leonard! What goes on with Stuart is none of your business. So just leave it alone, okay?" She was really, really irritated now.

Before he could reply, she slammed the door in his face. He headed over to the comic book store to tell Stuart about how he screwed up. "Hey Stuart, I need to talk to you."

"Sure, what's up?"

"I think I gave you some bad advice about Penny and I want to apologize."

"No, your advice was great. Going slow really worked. Yeah, last night at dinner I did what you told me. I went really slow; I kept my distance and two bottles of wine later, we were making out in my car."

"Wine, I didn't say to give her wine."

"It doesn't matter, that's where it all went to hell."

"During the kissing? What did you do, sneeze in her mouth?"

"No, everything was good and really hot. I was going down on her and she was just about to cum. I said, oh Penny, you're so fucking hot. And right after that when she started cumming, and where she was supposed to say "Oh Stuart, she said...your name."

Leonard was shocked, "Leonard?"

"That's your name, right?"

"Yeah, no yeah, it is! Wow, I'm sorry. That must have been the last thing you wanted to hear."

Stuart shrugged, "Well, it beats, "You know I'm a dude, right?" Yeah, it was pretty bad."

Leonard nodded, "No doubt, no doubt. Okay, well I'm sorry it didn't work out."

"Not your fault."

Leonard walked out and he leaped for joy, Penny was thinking about him, while getting eaten out.

That night they were eating Chinese and Penny was seated beside Leonard. She reached out, "Leonard, could you pass me the soy sauce, please?"

He looked to her, "I'm sorry, were you talking to me?"

"Yeah, I said Leonard."

He handed her the soy sauce and was smiling from ear to ear, "Yes, you did, didn't you?"

A couple days later, Leonard is working on his whiteboard and Sheldon plays a prank on him. Leonard thinks he made a mistake and changes it, he finds out it was right all along. All of a sudden Sheldon gets an e-mail from the president of the university. He wants to meet with Sheldon in his office at 8 a.m.

He couldn't wait till morning and went over to the president's home at 2 a.m. he finally got it out of him. He's been asked to go on an expedition to detect slow-moving monopoles at the North Pole.

Leonard comes out of the bathroom, "He offered to send you to the North Pole?"

"Yes, in fact he was quite enthusiastic. He said, "Frankly, if I could send you tonight, I would."

"Okay, well do you wanna go?"

"Oh course not. I'm a theoretical physicist. A career I chose in no small part because it's indoors. But if I'm able to detect slow-moving magnetic monopoles there, I will be the scientist who confirms string theory. People will write books about me. Third graders will create macaroni-art dioramas depicting scenes from my life. I am on the horns of a dilemma. Can you imagine me, Sheldon Cooper, at the North Pole?"

Leonard looked to him, "Easy peasy, I'm doing it right now."

"I'm not good with the cold, Leonard. How often have we had to leave a movie theatre because I got headache from drinking the Icee too fast? I can't go."

"Then don't go."

Sheldon was sitting and jumped up, "How can you say that? The scientific opportunity of a lifetime presents itself and my best friend says, "Don't go."

Leonard turns his back to him, "All right, then go."

"Listen to you! How can I possibly go?"

"Sheldon, what are the words I can say now to end this conversation and let me go back to sleep?"

Sheldon was taken aback, "Odd, President Siebert posed the exact same question."

"How was it resolved?"

"It wasn't. His wife set their dogs on me and rendered the question moot."

Later that day, Howard, Raj and Leonard were celebrating having the entire summer Sheldon free. When they entered the apartment, Sheldon was already there.

"Good news gentlemen, I have tentatively accept--"

The three jumped for joy and all yelled "Yeah!"

Sheldon continued, "--the invitation to join the Arctic expedition."

"It's not gonna be the same without you; we're going to miss you."

"Thank you, but your sentiments may be premature."

Raj sat down beside Sheldon, "Oh, I don't like where this is going."

"I would like to propose, that the three of you accompany me."

"Howard was shocked, "To the North Pole?"

Sheldon nodded, "Yes! The fact is, I'll need a support team and the three of you are my first choice. I know I'm proposing an enormous undertaking, so why don't you take a few moments to discuss it." He hurried to his room to let them talk about it

Howard was totally against it, "We're not really gonna go to the North Pole with him, are we?"

They went back and forth and weighed the plus and minuses and after a vote, Howard agreed to do it.

Sheldon comes out of his room, "Well gentlemen, have you reached a decision?"

Leonard said, "I'm in," Raj replied, "Me too!" Howard rubbed his head and standing up let out a grunt, "Damn it, peer pressure, fine!"

Sheldon nodded, "Excellent and just an FYI, as I am the expedition's team leader, protocol dictates that be phrased, "Fine, sir! Don't worry, there will be a briefing."

The next evening, Sheldon heads over to Penny's place and knocking on the door; she opens it and pokes her head out, "What do you want?"

"I need access to the Cheesecake Factory's freezer. I need it to train for a three-month expedition to the magnetic North Pole."

She looks confused, "What?"

"I don't know how that sentence could possibly confuse you, but to elaborate, I am going to the Arctic Circle with Leonard, Wolowitz and Koothrappali."

Now she looks stunned, "You're all going?"

"Yes."

"For three months?"

He nods again, "Yes!"

She brushes past him and heads to his apartment, "Excuse me." She catches Leonard coming out of the bedroom, "Hey, Leonard, Sheldon says you're going to the North Pole."

He's smiling, "Yeah, pretty cool, huh?"

She tries to look excited for him, but is really crushed, "Yeah, I'm just a little surprised you didn't tell me."

"Well, it all happened kind of fast, and we had to get physicals and buy thermal underwear and study up on, you know, snow and stuff. Sorry, I was gonna tell you."

"No, you don't have to apologize. There's no reason you have to tell me. I was just surprised."

Sheldon broke in, "Where do we stand on the freezer?"

She turns back to Leonard, "Is he serious?"

Leonard is concentrating on his checklist, "Actually, it would help."

She looks back to Sheldon, "All right, I'll see what I can do."

After trying to simulate the Arctic in the freezer, they realize that they can assemble the experiments inside, before taking them out into the cold. They hurried out of the freezer, seeing their plan had failed. Later while preparing to leave, Penny comes over and asks to speak to Leonard alone.

He heads out to the outside hallway where it is quieter, "What's up?"

She pulls a present out from behind her back, "Well, I got you a little going-away present."

He takes it and smiles at her, "Oh, a blanket."

She giggles, "Oh, no, no, not just a blanket, see it has sleeves. So you can, you know, be all snoodled up while you do your science stuff."

He tries it on, "Oh, wow, cool!"

She leans in and gives him an extremely long hug and exclaims, "I'm gonna miss you. She finally breaks the hug and is a little choked up, but before he can see it, she turns and head back to her apartment, "See you later."

Leonard is stunned by the extremely long hug, thinking there was more to it, all he can reply is, "Bye!"

The next morning, they're about to leave on the expedition. It's rather early, but Leonard wanted to clear things up with Penny before leaving. He knocks on her door.

She opens the door, still half-asleep, "Oh, Leonard, what time is it?"

"Seven a.m. I'm sorry it's early, but we're leaving soon and I needed to talk to you. What did you mean when you said you were going to miss me?"

She tried to look brave, "Um, I don't know? You'll be gone and I'll notice."

He nods, "Okay, well what about this? What does this mean?" He's holding the sleeved blanket she gave him.

She shook her head, "Wine, a credit card and late-night television are a bad combination?"

He stood up straight, not getting the answers he's looking for, "Okay, fine! What about that really long hug? What did that mean?"

She looked confused, "That wasn't a long hug."

"It was at least five Mississippis, a standard hug is two Mississippis,... tops."

She was getting uncomfortable; her feelings were beginning to show, "Leonard, I don't know what to tell you. It was just a hug."

He tried to put on a happy face, "Glad we cleared that up."

She nodded, "Yeah."

He turned to go, "I guess I'll see you."

She smiled sadly, "Okay, have a safe trip."

He looked down at the floor, dejected, "Thank you, bye."

She smiled weakly, "Bye!" She slowly closed the door and lets out a long sigh, leaning head against the door, "It means I wish you weren't going."

The series resets again beginning with season 3, episode 1, which is the next story. It will continue with Penny missing Leonard, not the numerous encounters she had with Sheldon and Stuart.