Chapter 2: The Entertainment System Debacle
The crash was loud enough to wake the dead—or at least loud enough to bring Leonard and Sheldon running.
Penny stared at the disaster zone that was now her living room, the 85-inch OLED television tilted at a dangerous angle against her coffee table. She'd been trying to move it herself, because calling movers would mean paperwork and questions and possible recognition, and now the damn thing was one slight tremor away from becoming a very expensive pile of broken glass.
"I should have just hired professionals," she thought, grabbing the TV's edge to steady it. "But professionals talk, and talkers post on social media, and social media posts become TMZ headlines."
The knocking on her door was urgent but polite. "Penny? Are you okay in there?"
Leonard's voice. Of course it was Leonard.
She looked down at herself—yoga pants, tank top, hair in a messy ponytail that had come half undone during her wrestling match with several hundred pounds of television technology. Not exactly the carefully curated image her publicist would approve of, but then again, her publicist wasn't speaking to her anyway.
"Just a second!" she called, trying to figure out how to explain this without revealing that she owned a television that cost more than most people's cars. "Everything's fine! Just a little... gravity situation!"
The door opened anyway, because apparently Leonard was the type to ignore social boundaries when someone might be in actual danger, and Penny felt her heart do that stupid fluttering thing again as he appeared in her doorway, Sheldon right behind him.
"Oh," Leonard said, taking in the scene. "That's... that's a really big TV."
Sheldon's eyes went wide, then narrow, his gaze traveling from the television to the high-end sound system components scattered around the floor to what was clearly a top-of-the-line entertainment console still in its box. "Samsung QN85A Neo QLED 4K Smart TV, 85-inch display, retail price approximately $9,999 before tax and delivery fees."
Penny felt the blood drain from her face. "I... it was on sale?"
"Which retailer?" Sheldon continued, his voice taking on that particular tone that meant he was about to deconstruct her entire existence. "Best Buy's largest promotional discount for this model was 15% during their Black Friday event, which would still place the final cost at—"
"Sheldon," Leonard interrupted gently, stepping into the apartment. "Maybe we should focus on making sure Penny doesn't get crushed by falling electronics?" He looked at her, and that concerned expression was back. "Here, let me help you with this before it falls."
He moved to the other side of the TV, positioning himself to help lift it. Penny found herself staring at his forearms as he adjusted his grip, at the way his t-shirt pulled slightly across his shoulders. For someone who spent his days hunched over equations and laboratory equipment, he was surprisingly... capable.
"On three," Leonard said. "One, two—"
They lifted together, Penny trying not to notice how their movements synchronized naturally, trying not to think about how long it had been since someone had offered to help her with something without expecting anything in return.
"Where do you want it?" Leonard asked, slightly breathless from the effort.
"Against that wall, I think." Penny nodded toward the space she'd already cleared, fighting the urge to explain that she'd had her interior designer map out the optimal viewing angles and acoustic positioning before she'd even signed the lease.
They managed to get the TV positioned and stable, Leonard fussing with the angle until he was satisfied it wouldn't tip over. Sheldon, meanwhile, had moved on to examining the rest of her equipment with the intensity of an art appraiser.
"Bose surround sound system, retail value $2,000. Espresso machine..." He peered at the box in the corner. "Breville Oracle Touch, $2,500. Either you have extraordinarily good luck with sales, or..."
The pause stretched uncomfortably. Penny could practically see Sheldon's analytical mind working through the possibilities, discarding explanations that didn't fit the data. She needed a distraction, and she needed it fast.
"I won them," she blurted. "Radio contests. I'm like, really lucky with radio contests."
Leonard straightened up, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Really? Which station?"
Shit. "Um... different stations? I'm not picky. I listen to everything. Very... diverse musical tastes."
"What was the last contest you won?" Sheldon pressed, his notebook appearing from nowhere as he prepared to document what was clearly becoming a full investigation.
Penny's mind raced. "The sound system! Yes, that was... K-EARTH 101. They had this thing where you had to be the seventh caller when they played..." She scrambled for a song title that sounded plausible. "...Don't Stop Believin'? And I was! The seventh caller!"
Leonard was looking at her with something between admiration and disbelief. "Wow, you really are lucky. What are the odds of winning that many contests?"
Approximately zero, Penny thought, but what she said was, "I guess I just have good timing?"
"Actually," Sheldon said, flipping through what appeared to be several pages of notes, "the probability of winning multiple high-value radio contests within a short time frame is statistically negligible unless—"
"You know what," Leonard interrupted, shooting his roommate a look that could have powered a small city, "maybe we should focus on helping Penny set this stuff up instead of interrogating her about her... impressive streak of good fortune."
The grateful smile Penny gave him was completely genuine. "You really don't have to—"
"I want to," Leonard said, and something in his voice made her believe him. "I mean, if you want help. I'm pretty good with electronics."
Two hours later, Penny was beginning to understand why Leonard had won awards for his research. He approached her entertainment system with the same methodical precision he probably brought to particle physics, explaining each connection as he made it, troubleshooting signal issues with the patience of someone who genuinely enjoyed solving puzzles.
"So the HDMI-ARC port handles both video and audio return," he was saying, his hands moving confidently between components. "It's more efficient than running separate optical cables, and the bandwidth can support—" He glanced up at her, cheeks slightly flushed. "Sorry, I'm probably boring you with technical stuff."
"No!" Penny said quickly. "It's interesting. I like learning how things work."
It wasn't entirely a lie. She did find it interesting, partly because Leonard's enthusiasm was infectious, and partly because she actually knew more about audiovisual setup than she was letting on. Her Malibu house had been professionally installed with a system that made this one look modest, but watching Leonard work—seeing the careful way he handled her equipment, the little satisfied noise he made when he solved a connection problem—was somehow more engaging than any professional installation she'd ever witnessed.
Their hands brushed as they both reached for the same cable, and Leonard went very still. Penny looked up to find him staring at her, his eyes wide behind his glasses, and for a moment the air between them felt charged with possibility.
"Sorry," he said softly, not moving away. "I didn't mean to—"
"It's okay," Penny whispered back, acutely aware of how close they were, how she could see the flecks of gold in his brown eyes, how his hair was slightly mussed from crawling behind her entertainment center.
The moment stretched between them, sweet and awkward and full of potential, until Sheldon's voice cut through it like a knife.
"Leonard, you've created a redundant connection in the audio matrix. The signal path is now unnecessarily complex."
Leonard jerked back, nearly knocking over a speaker in his haste to put distance between them. "Right. Yes. Audio matrix. Very important."
Penny bit back a smile, watching him fumble with cables that had been working perfectly fine seconds before. For someone with multiple advanced degrees, Leonard Hofstadter was surprisingly easy to fluster.
They finished the setup in relative silence, Leonard testing each component with the thoroughness of someone conducting a scientific experiment. When he finally powered on the system, the picture quality was so crisp Penny could practically count individual pixels.
"Perfect," Leonard said, looking pleased with himself. "You want to test it with something? Make sure everything's calibrated correctly?"
Penny's stomach dropped. Testing it meant putting on a movie or TV show, and there was a very good chance that any random selection would include trailers or ads featuring her face. She glanced at her movie collection, carefully edited to exclude anything with her name in the credits, but even those felt risky.
"Maybe later?" she suggested. "I'm still pretty tired from the move."
"Of course." Leonard started gathering his tools, that considerate expression back on his face. "You should probably get some rest. Moving's exhausting."
As they prepared to leave, Leonard paused at her door. "Hey, if you need anything else—help with furniture or whatever—I'm right across the hall."
"Thanks," Penny said, meaning it more than he could possibly know. "For the TV, and for... everything."
After the door closed behind them, Penny sank onto her couch and stared at the blank screen of her perfectly calibrated television. Her phone, which she'd turned back on long enough to check the time, showed thirty-seven missed calls and a string of increasingly frantic texts from her agent, her manager, and her publicist.
"Emmy campaign meeting moved to tomorrow—BE THERE."
"Studio wants to discuss Season 4 renewal—answer your phone."
"WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?"
She turned the phone off again and smiled at her reflection in the dark TV screen. For the first time in years, someone had helped her with something without wanting anything in return. Someone had looked at her like she was interesting instead of valuable.
Someone had treated her like she was just Penny from 4B, with really good luck and really bad timing.
And maybe, just maybe, that was exactly who she wanted to be.
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