Big Bang Theory Season 16 Ep. 01

Penny and Sheldon return to New York City and can't wait to tell everybody of their upcoming wedding.

Penny first calls Eric, "Hi Eric, I'm back from my weekend in Bermuda."

"Great Penny, are you ready to get back to work? I have a two on one for you. A little more tame than you are used to, but I'm sure you can handle it without any problem."

She giggled, "Yeah, even though I'm a little sore from my weekend. I have some big news to tell you. Sheldon asked me to marry him and I accepted."

"Wow, that is big news Penny. Is this gonna affect your return to the spotlight?"

"Hell no, Eric. Sheldon supports me one-hundred percent. As a matter of fact he wanted to know if he could come down to the set and watch me perform. Do you think that is possible?"

He groaned out, "Are you sure you wanna have him there? You know how you get into fucking black guys and I'm hoping he doesn't get jealous. If you think he can handle it, sure I'm okay with it."

"Great, I already asked him and he knows how I really get into the scene and he knows what to expect. He just wants to see how good I am. I'm hoping it will put things to rest and make sure he's okay with it all before we tie the knot. After what happened with my last marriage, I don't want to get married and find out he can't handle it. I love him dearly, but my career is important to me and if he can't take it, I'll have to make a decision. I'm hoping it doesn't come to that. I'd hate to have to decide one way or the other."

"Well Penny, you have to be happy with what you want. Are you leaning either way?"

She let out a deep breath of air, "Well, I haven't really thought a lot about it. I hope I don't have to choose, but I'm leaning towards my career. I just hope he'll be happy with what I do so I won't have to decide one way or the other."

"Okay, so what do you say? I'm having the men lined up for Wednesday morning around noon. One of the guys hates morning scenes and I told him I'd push it till noon."

"Great, who are the two men?"

He chuckled, "Well one is your old love, Lex and the other is Mr. Marcus, I'm not sure if you ever worked with Marcus Spencer, but I'm sure you won't be disappointed with him."

"Mmmm, I love his built and no I haven't had the pleasure, but I'm sure I'll love it. So unless I hear otherwise, we'll be at the studio on Wednesday before noon, love ya, bye."

Sheldon announced to his staff and co-workers about the upcoming wedding and he got mixed responses. The men were happy for him and so were a number of the women. There were a few of his regular sexual partners who were not so happy, but put on a happy face to congratulate him.

The first night back, Penny and Sheldon sat in the living room after their evening meal. They decided to Skype on the computer with each of their friends from California. Sheldon was gonna ask Leonard to be his best man, seeing he was for Leonard's wedding. Penny decided to have Amy as her matron of honor. She just hoped Bernadette wouldn't be upset.

They decided to call Bernie and Raj first, getting one of the easier calls out of the way and judge the climate of their announcement. Penny called earlier and and asked if they could be together when they called back.

Raj was seated beside Bernie when they video chatted and Bernie looked a little concerned, "Is everything okay Penny? Are you feeling alright?"

Penny was smiling from ear to ear, "Oh yeah, everything is fine with both of us physically. We just wanted you two to know first." She raised her hand and flashed her large diamond ring before the computer screen.

Sheldon drew Penny closer to him, "I asked Penny to marry me and she accepted."

Raj and Bernie's jaws dropped and you could hear a pin drop. Bernie was stunned and was the first to speak, "Oh wow, I can't believe it. I always thought you two were like oil and water."

Penny giggled, "We were, but it seemed he always had a thing for me, but sat back because of Leonard. He told me his true feelings and he supports my career and even encourages me."

Raj spoke up, "Have you told Amy or Leonard yet?"

Penny groaned out, "Oh, that is gonna be the tough calls. We wanted you two to be the first to know. We thought we'd use you two as a barometer to see how you two take it first."

Bernadette was the first to respond, "I'm sure I'm speaking for Raj, but we just want the two of you to be happy. As for Leonard and Amy, well they moved on and should feel the same way. Leonard has Stephanie and Alex. Amy has Bert and couldn't be happier. So it they don't like it, fuck'em. It isn't like you live in the same apartment like before. You guys are three time zones away."

Sheldon spoke up, "Thank you Bernadette. You were always the most sensible of the group. Please don't say anything to either of them. We're gonna call them next, so please wait for them to say we spoke first."

Raj broke in., "We'll keep it under our hats. Just don't wait too long, you know how bad I am with secrets. We have to go, the kids are making all kinds of racket upstairs and I wanna go check on them. Congratulations and good lucky telling the other guys, bye."

The screen went black and Penny looked to Sheldon, "I'm not too sure they were happy with the announcement, but like Bernie said, if they don't like it, fuck'em."

Sheldon nodded, "Yeah, but I still would like Leonard's blessing. You were okay with him remarrying."

She scoffed, "Yeah, but he didn't marry your ex, just like Amy didn't remarry hers. Okay so who next?"

Sheldon looked to Penny, "Who are we calling next, Leonard?"

Penny chuckled, "Oh no, I think we should call Amy next."

He shook his head, No, what do you say we flip a coin, heads we call Leonard, tails we call Amy. What do you say?"

She picked up a coin and flipped and it landed on the table and it came up tails.

Sheldon looked at it and rolled his eyes, "Oh fuck!"

Penny started giggling, "Wow, you certainly have changed. A couple years ago you would blush when you spoke the word, malarkey. Now fuck, cock, pussy and a lot more rolls off your tongue without blinking an eye."

He chuckled, "See Penny, you are a bad influence on me."

She scoffed, "Oh no, Sheldon, that is all you. You were that way when I came to New York."

He smiled and nodded, "I promised myself what when I left California I was gonna change and that is just one part of it. Exercise, my sexual prowess, and yes, my language is all part of my changes."

She leaned in and kissed him, "I love the new Sheldon, although the old Sheldon pops up once in a while and I like that man too. Okay stud, call Amy."

Sheldon tried to get Amy on his computer and Bert took the message, "Hi you two, what's up?"

Sheldon stammered, "Well, um, is Amy around?"

"Yeah, sure hold on, I'll get her."

"Bert, I want you here too, so don't run away."

After a minute or two, Amy came to the computer screen, "Hey, hi Penny, what's up?" All of a sudden she saw Sheldon in the screen too and she went silent.

Penny took it up, "Well we just got off a call with Bernadette and Raj and wanted you to learn from us and not second hand from one of them." She paused and looked to Sheldon, "Okay, she's your ex, you give her the news, Sheldon."

He was stuttering and finally blurted out, "Penny agreed to be my wife, we're getting married."

Amy's jaw nearly hit the computer screen and she slowly began to nod, "Okay, I thought something was up between the two of you, but never in my wildest dreams was it that the two of you would become husband and wife. Well congratulations, I'm happy for you. I hope the two of you have a long and happy life together."

Penny chuckled, "Okay Amy, I know you, you're holding back, let's hear it."

Amy let out a grunt, "Okay, I am upset. You were my best friend and then you go and have sex with my husband and think he's the one who made you pregnant. From then on, both of our marriages began to fall apart. Yeah, I blame you, but I can't be too angry. I have a perfect marriage now and Bert and I are extremely happy."

"Wow, how can you blame the falling apart of your marriage on me? If I'm not mistaken, when I went to calm Sheldon down, you were alone with Leonard and did the same. Sure he didn't get you pregnant, but that was just a part of it. I found out from Sheldon that he secretly loved me all along, but kept back because of his strong relationship he had with Leonard. After I screwed up with Leonard and was sent packing, he still stayed away until he was sure that the marriage between Leonard and I was completely broken."

Amy was shocked, Sheldon, are you telling me you never wanted me and just wanted Penny?"

"Oh Amy, of course not, but we were never right for each other. We were like water and oil and you can't tell me you were happy with me. You tolerated me and I wasn't happy either. We made a mistake and not to hurt your feelings, but you have to agree, we should never have gotten married. You broke up with me once and after you wanted me back, you have to ask yourself, did you want me back because you wanted me, or was it because it was better than being alone."

Amy was silent of a few moments and quietly replied, "Looking back, I guess you're right. I hated being alone. Sure I had that tall freak from England, but just like you; I dated him because I didn't want to be alone. Okay, I have to admit, we should never have married, but you chased me to Princeton and again, I was alone there and jumped at the chance to have what Bernadette and Penny had."

Sheldon nodded, "I guess I was in the same situation. I saw Raj with a couple women, Howard had Bernadette and Leonard had Penny. I was scared to ruin our relationship and be alone, especially after Ramona Nowitzki kissed me. Thinking back, I should have allowed my relationship with Ramona to blossom and see if there was something there. I'm sorry Amy, I panicked and rushed to you and made the mistake of asking you to marry me. You were my safeguard and I used you to block out my feelings for other women. That was my fault and I am very, very sorry."

Amy let out a long sigh, "I accept your apology, but only if you accept mine. Thinking back, we should never have gotten married. I think we both liked the idea of being married, most likely peer pressure."

Penny spoke up, "So are you okay with the two of us getting married?"

Amy snickered, "You don't need my permission. Sheldon, are you okay with Penny's line of work?"

He chuckled, "Oh yes, more than okay. How many men do you know who can say they are married to one of the hottest porn stars in the world?"

Amy laughed out loud, "You have a point, but can you share her?"

Sheldon spoke quickly, "They fuck her and she fucks them. We make love, even though a lot of the time it turns to fucking, but in the end, we are connected through love, not just sex."

Amy nodded, "Wow, you have changed, I never heard you speak like that before."

Penny added, "Funny you should say that, I told him the same thing earlier today. A far cry from malarkey, huh?"

"Sure is Penny, I can see you got a new and improved version of Sheldon. I am happy for the both of you."

"I'm glad, so I wanted to know, will you be willing to be my Matron of Honor?"

Amy let out a squeal, "I'd love to, but won't it be weird, for you Sheldon?"

He chuckled, "No weirder then me asking Leonard to be my best man for Penny."

Amy giggled, "Yeah, good point. I'd love to be your matron of honor. Just let me know when and where and Bert and I will be there. I have to go, good luck telling Leonard."

Penny let out a sigh, "Yeah, I'm gonna need it. He's our next call. Thanks for understanding, talk to you soon, bye."

Penny got up and poured herself a stiff drink and downed half of it. It hit her immediately and she came back to the laptop, "Okay Sheldon, better late than never, here goes nothing." She dialed up Leonard's computer and he answered it, thinking it was Sheldon, but when he saw it was Penny, he let out a tiny grunt, "Oh, it's you, want can I do for you Penny?"

She let out a moan, "Nice to see you too Leonard. So tell me, how is married life working out for you seeing you have twice the issues you had with me?"

He scoffed, "No, sorry to disappoint you Penny, but these two are not half the issues I had with one wife when married to you. So with that being said, I couldn't be happier. So now that the pleasantries out of the way, what can I do for you?"

She bit her lip and looked to Sheldon just out of the view of the laptop Penny was sitting before.

Leonard chuckled, "So I can tell Sheldon is there, have you gone and done some more porn and betrayed him too?"

Sheldon spoke up, "Sorry to disappoint you Leonard, but I unlike you, support her in what she has decided to do."

Leonard let out a disgusted laugh, "Yeah, I might have approved of her doing porn, if it wasn't started behind my back. Let me ask you this Sheldon, would you feel the same if she did it and then you found out without you knowing about it from her?"

Sheldon was stunned by the question and found he didn't have a definitive answer for him. He looked to Penny and sat down beside her, "You know Leonard, I can't answer that. I have to say, my agreeing with her doing what she loves doing is before she went ahead and did it. I support her in restarting her career. It is what she loves and what she is excellent doing. But I have to say, I don't know how I would react if she did it without my knowledge." He looked to Penny , "Sorry Penny, but I don't know how I would react."

She placed her hand on his forearm and nodded. She looked back to Leonard and bit her lower lip, "I can't change the past and I can see Sheldon is being honest. I know I hurt you and I can't take that back. I'm...we are trying to start a new life here. This is why I'm calling you now. We wanted you to hear from us and not from Raj or Amy, but Sheldon has asked me to marry him and I have agreed, we're getting married."

Leonard nearly fainted from the announcement. He stared at the screen and was blank. He didn't and couldn't feel anything. At the same time, he could have been knocked over with a feather from the announcement they just laid on him.

Penny spoke up first, "Leonard, please say something."

He groaned out and placed his hands over his face, "Oh my God, what am I supposed to say? I'm in shock. How did I not see this? It never occurred to me to even think that this was a possibility. Could I ask you to let me digest this and let it sink in. I'm not in a proper frame of mind right now to discuss this. Would it be okay if I called you back tomorrow? I'll hopefully be better to speak about this."

Penny nodded and Sheldon responded, "Please text me and I'll make sure we'll both be available. I'm sorry for the news, but we thought it would be better hearing from us instead of a second party."

"Thank you for doing that, but it still is a shock, I'll text you later, bye."

When they got up on Tuesday morning, Sheldon had a text from Leonard saying, "Video chat tomorrow at six PDT." Sheldon showed it to Penny, "Get ready we are in for a stormy evening."

Penny went to the fitness center to work off some of the nervous energy she had about tonight's chat with Leonard. While Sheldon dove into his work and before they knew it, they had finished dinner and waited for Leonard's call.

At nine EDT. Their computer chimed and they were already in their bed clothes. Penny in a tiny pink camisole with matching shorts and Sheldon was in his long sleeved PJ's.

Sheldon took a seat beside Penny on the sofa and reached down and answered his laptop seating on their coffee table, "Hello Leonard, how have you been?"

Leonard gave them a tiny smile and nodded, "Okay I guess. I've been digesting the news of your upcoming wedding and would like to congratulate the two of you. Thinking about what had happened, I should have seen the connection between the two of you long ago."

Penny smiled back, "Thank you Leonard. We just wanted you to know the last thing we wanted to do was hurt you, but after my mishap at a party in California, I decided to leave the porn industry and start a new life. I wished it could have been with you, but you moved on. I traveled out here and found myself at Sheldon's door with nowhere to turn. He took me in and found instant chemistry."

Leonard nodded, "I just wished you would have told me how much you were hurting. I would have understood."

She shook her head, "I wish I could believe that, but deep down, you have to realize, I was born to do this and no matter how many discussions we'd have, you would never accept me doing this."

He licked his lips and drew in a deep breath, "Yeah I guess you're right." He looked to Sheldon, "And you are okay with this?"

Sheldon cleared his throat and slid closer to the edge of the sofa cushion, "I am Leonard. I introduced Penny to Richard Castle, who introduced her to Eric Vaughn. He owns most of the biggest interracial porn industry here on the east coast and now even some over by you. Before she went for the interview, she asked me if I could accept her doing this and I was totally onboard. I knew doing this was what she loved doing. I knew she was a smart enough woman to separate sex on camera from sex with me. I don't want to hurt your feelings Leonard. I've been known to be insensitive, but am trying to work on that, but sex between Penny and I is more than that. It is the meeting of two people who love one another. Sure we get wild and go over the deep end, but in the end, it's making love, not fucking."

Leonard chuckled, "I still can't get over the way you talk now, I can see you've changed." He looked to Penny, "Why couldn't you have done that with me, Penny?"\

"I tried, but you wouldn't talk to me. I never planned it, but was sort of dragged into it by Dr. Lorvis and once I got turned on, I couldn't stop. Are you saying, if I talked to you, you would have accepted it?"

He shook his head, "I don't know Penny, but I would have liked the opportunity to have that option. I never had it and yes, I did go crazy, not because of what you did, but because I had given you the ultimatum and you never thought twice about it and went and did it. It was as if you never cared how I felt and be damned, you were gonna do what you wanted without even considering my feelings."

She nodded, "I get that and if I had to do over again, I probably would have done it differently. Now that it's over we can't go back. We'd love your blessing, Leonard."

He nodded, 'Sheldon, how long have you had feeling for Penny?"

Sheldon had been caught off-guard, "Um, to tell you the truth, from the first day we saw Penny moving into her apartment across from us. I saw how gorgeous she was and felt a stirring in my loins, but I saw how head over heels you were for her and I took a step back. Secretly I always hoped it wouldn't work out for the two of you and when I pushed the two of you to stop screwing around and get married, I nearly died when you and Penny eloped to Las Vegas. To make matters worse, I think Amy saw it and broke up with me that same evening."

Penny hugged Sheldon, "Why didn't you say something earlier?"

He shrugged, "I was caught between the two of you, the woman I secretly loved and my best friend who I would anything for. I fought to win Amy back, because I wanted what you two had and in the end, it all blew up."

Leonard scoffed, "You surely blew things up. Running away to a hotel bar to drink away your problems and the guy who hated change. Looks like you changed the most. You ended up fucking Penny and she thought she was carrying your baby."

Sheldon got upset, "Listen, that didn't stop from having sex with Amy on our old sofa. I guess it was okay for you, but not me, huh?"

Leonard nodded, "Okay, point taken, but that is where everything began to change. Again in the past and can't be undone. Amy is happy with Bert, I'm happy with Alex and Stephanie and I want the two of you to be happy. So yes, I love that the two of you have finally found love."