Fic: The Vocabulary Conundrum, Scene 12/??

It had been a week since the fight and the make-up. Hank had to admit that saying good-bye to Missy had been hard. Sheldon's sister had been a delight, especially when she and Penny had made a girl's night of it with the "normal" Cooper and got all dolled up. Other than publicity stunts she rarely put on a dress, so it was kind of nice to play it pretty for a night, even if she did trip several times in those heels.

When Missy left on Friday everyone seemed to be upset, though they all did their best to ignore Howard, who tried to swoop in on the girl's group hug. Phone numbers, emails, and Facebook names were exchanged, and Missy encouraged Hank to let her know when she needed help with her brother.

Saturday night Leonard had convinced (after much persuasion by Hank) Sheldon to take his new girlfriend on a "real" date, so they ended up seeing a midnight revival showing of The Rocky Horror Picture Show at one of the local theaters. Unfortunately no one could convince Sheldon to dress up as Frankenfurter (or anyone else for that matter), but the evening went surprisingly well considering the amount of audience participation involved in the show.

Hank supposed the drive home could have been better, since she had to listen to every nuance of what was wrong in the film, the audience delivery, and the costuming- but again, considering the choice of movie and her date she was still pleased by the experience. And it had ended with a mutual hug, a surprising step up for the neurotic Dr Cooper.

But all of this could not compare to the anticipation Hank was feeling over Penny's call back on Monday. The first two auditions had gone really well, and now it was down to Penny and three other girls for the part Hank had suggested to her friend. She was sitting in 4A with all four of the boys on that evening, having convinced them to help her level up her Human Warlock character by going through multiple levels of The Scarlet Monastery™.

Her heart wasn't in it, though. Sure, she really wanted the Necrotic Wand™, but every few minutes her eyes moved to the door as she waited expectantly for Penny to walk in.

"Hank, behind you!"

"Oh, fuck!" she swore as she died once again.

Sheldon looked up, giving her one of his disapproving gazes. "We only did this dungeon at your insistence. If you do not want to be here I propose you switch over to your tank and we head to Gruul's Lair™. I am still trying to get the Axe of the Gronn Lords™."

"No, it's not that, I just-" She stopped as the door opened and a dejected looking Penny came through it. Moving her laptop over to the table, Hank stood, at once feeling gloomy.

"Oh, Penny, I'm so-"

Before she could complete her sentence Penny looked up at Hank with one of the brightest smiles anyone of the occupants of the room had ever seen. "And that's why I got the part!" she said, pointing at Hank.

It was all Hank could do to keep her own excitement in check, which she pretty much failed at. She bounced over to Penny, nearly knocking Leonard's laptop off his lap in her hurry to get around the coffee table. "Oh my God, you got the part?!"

"I got the part!"

"You got the part!"

Penny and Hank celebrated by hugging each other and jumping up and down in a circle, collectively making squeeing noises.

From his perch on the chair near Sheldon, Howard gave a sigh of contentment. "Someone pinch me, I think I've died and gone to heaven."

Raj and Leonard smiled at both the show and Howard's comment, and even Sheldon couldn't help the slight upturn to his mouth at the amount of joy exuding from the two women in the room. Leaning over, Raj whispered in Leonard's ear.

Leonard shrugged. "I don't know, but I guess Penny got the part?"

After a moment the two girls calmed and turned to face the boys, though from the beaming expressions on their faces it seemed as though at any moment they might regress to squealing once more.

"So," Penny began, wrapping an arm around Hank's shoulders as she spoke. "As you all know, our darling Hank here is making a movie."

"I'm not making a movie, I just-"

"Yes, yes," Penny interrupted, before Hank pulled a Sheldon and started analyzing her sentence to death. "Anyway, there was a role available, so she got me an audition, and the casting director loved me and I got the part! Twenty-seven lines of dialogue and a kiss with that hunky male lead they got!"

"Oh, please tell me they went with Gerard Butler," Hank muttered.

"No, I think they asked that one guy... The other one from PS I Love You."

"Sam & Dean's dad? Oh, that's okay then."

Before Hank could go off into her own world of casting dreams the four present males in the room brought the attention back to them.

"So you're going to be in a movie?" Howard asked, noting that Leonard had got suspiciously quiet.

"I'm going to be in a movie!" Penny squealed.

"Congratulations!" Howard replied, while Raj gave her a pair of thumbs up and one of his engaging smiles.

Even Sheldon smiled. "I believe this is one of those times where celebration would be appropriate."

"I agree," Hank said, giving Penny a quick side hug. "Lets all go out. Drinks on me!"

Before Sheldon could protest Penny stopped him. "Not tonight, sweetie. Tonight there are no rules, no schedules. You are not taking this away from me. We're celebrating, and even if you just have a Virgin Cuba Libre, you're coming."

And even though it went against everything in his universe, there was a surprising thought in his mind that he didn't want to take this away from Penny. So Sheldon gave her a nod, and turned his attention back to the computer so he could direct his avatar to an appropriate resting town.

Hank smiled at Raj, who seemed to be considering what this meant. "That's right, Raj-Podge. Even you get to speak tonight." She finished with a wink.

He gave a shy smile back at her, a slight pink to his cheeks as he gathered his own own computer gear together to put back in its case.

The girls excused themselves to go change and get ready to go out, while the boys signed themselves out of the game and did what little preparation they needed to leave. It was only Leonard, who had been quiet since Penny revealed her news, that seemed unaffected by the good cheer that had passed throughout the apartment.