Special thanks to sciencenmed for the quick beta!

Note : Saturnalia Exchange gift for elffriend26. Her prompt was: Leonard gets delayed and cannot get back from his camping trip for several days when Penny dislocates her shoulder. When she cant get girl friends to help her, Penny must rely heavily on Sheldon for help (eating, dressing, doing her hair etc etc.) She is moved by how caring and careful he is and sometimes commanding when she is childish about taking her meds for instance. She starts to realize she has feelings for him and is confused because she begins to feel she and Leonard are not entirely compatible. Rating: PG-13

In Sickness

Penny awoke with a gasp, having rolled over onto her injured shoulder. She gritted her teeth against the pain and concentrated on breathing. Several minutes passed before the pain dulled enough for her to sit up and slide to the edge of the bed. She sniffed and wiped the tears off of her cheeks with the sleeve of her good arm.

Her mind was in a jumble of pain, exhaustion, and slight disorientation. Pain medicine. She needed more pain medicine. She eyed the sling on the bedside table. Sheldon had had to help her take the thing off last night so she doubted she could get it back on by herself. Besides, it would probably only cause her more pain to try to put it on.

She was very careful to not move or jostle her injured shoulder as she made her way to the kitchen where the bottle of pain killers was. It took twice as long to do everything one-handed, but eventually she had a glass of water and the medicine bottle opened.

The directions were to take one to two every four to six hours. Penny couldn't remember the last time she had taken them, and the dull ache in her shoulder was starting to turn sharp again. Thinking she must have time to make up for, she downed 4 of the pills, swigging the water.

That accomplished, she made her way to the couch, grabbing her cell from her purse on the way.

Penny hesitated before calling Leonard. There was a small prideful part of herself that did not want to ask for his help, but she brushed it away. He was her boyfriend, and it was perfectly fine to ask for his help.

She called him three times, the final time leaving a message. Sighing when she remembered that he wasn't supposed to be back until that afternoon anyway.

Her stomach was starting to hurt, and Penny suddenly remembered Sheldon's warning about making sure she ate before taking them. Oops.

She groaned and started going through her contact list. Bernadette was visiting her Grandmother in Nevada, Lisa was working a double shift, and Amber was still a bit wasted from partying too hard the night before.

Penny had barely disconnected after talking to Amber, before she was practically running for the bathroom. There was no way to not tense her injured shoulder as emptied her stomach into the toilet.

After she finished she sat leaning against the wall, and cried. Penny had not felt this alone, or missed her mother this much, since she had moved to California.

It was at this moment that Sheldon's obsessive-compulsive knocking began. She smiled through the tears.

"Come in, Sheldon! I'm in the bathroom again. Please come here and don't knock anymore!" She called, her voice raspy from getting sick and crying.

He suddenly stood in the doorway looking down at her, startled.

"Did you fall again?"

Penny opened her mouth to respond, but covered it quickly in an effort to hold back a sob. She wasn't sure if it was from pain or relief that she wasn't alone anymore.

She must have looked truly pitiful, for though Sheldon gave her his awkward, 'There, there. Sheldon's here', he actually patted her tangled hair as he spoke.

Penny took a few deep breaths and willed herself to calm down. When she could speak without crying, she explained about the pain pills and getting sick.

Sheldon sighed.

"I came over to tell you that Leonard called last night. Apparently he, Wolowitz, and Koothrappali were arrested for attacking a group of cub-scouts that went to watch the Leonid Meteor shower."

Penny felt her jaw drop.

"What?"

Sheldon looked slightly annoyed.

"I said, Leonard, Wolowitz, and Koothrappali were arrested for attacking a group of cub-scouts..."

"No, I heard you the first time. I meant to ask, 'why'?" She clarified, still in slight shock.

"Oh. They believe it had something to do with the marijuana-laced cookies they ate."

Penny just stared up at him, silently.

"Anyway, Mrs. Wolowitz is on her way to bail them out, but apparently the incident took place within the limits of a very small town. They already have a trial is set for tomorrow evening."

"Tomorrow! That means the soonest he'll be back is the day after tomorrow," she said, feeling the tears start to well up again.

"True. And then they might have a prison sentence to serve," he commented as nonchalantly as if he'd been talking about the weather.

"Anyway, Leonard said to let you know what was going on."

With that Sheldon turned to leave.

"Wait! Sheldon, you can't just leave me like this," she cried out.

He turned back to look at her.

"Like what? How should I leave you?"

Penny tilted her head as she looked up at him wondering how a man with such an incredibly high IQ could be so oblivious.

"I need help, Sheldon!"

Sheldon tilted his head, mimicking her. His eyes were wary.

"What do you need help with?" He asked, finally.

Penny slumped back against the wall, exhausted.

"My shoulder hurts, I need food so I can take the pain pills, I haven't had a shower in three days, and I have no idea how to get that stupid sling back on my arm."

Sheldon just stared at her for a few minutes, before nodding.

"Alright, come on then," he said, helping her stand.

He led her to the door.

"Where are we going?"

"To my apartment."

"What's wrong with my apartment?"

"It's not my apartment."

Penny sighed blissfully as she rested in her spot on her neighbor's couch. Her stomach was full of Sheldon's excellent scrambled eggs, the Percocet she had taken ten minutes earlier had effectively chased the worst of the pain away, and she was wrapped in a soft, thick, blanket.

She drowsily watched Sheldon as he kept making trips to her apartment, and coming back with more of her things. She closed her eyes for just a minute, planning to ask Sheldon to turn the TV on next time he walked past, but he was suddenly shaking her awake.

"Penny, your bath is ready," he said.

"No, wanna sleep," she murmured, leaning away from him.

"Penny, we need to bathe you before the pain medicine wears off. Come on," he insisted hauling her to her feet by her good arm.

The bath was... quite the experience.

Drowsy, and feeling a bit loopy thanks to the medicine, Penny immediately started to pull her shirt off, but Sheldon stopped her.

"Wait. Aren't you going to make me promise not to look?"

She tilted her head at him again with a small smile.

"You looked last time."

"I peeked."

"Fine, you 'peeked'. But you saw everything, right?"

Sheldon shifted uncomfortably.

"Yes."

Penny rolled her eyes.

"And you have an eidetic memory, right?"

He nodded.

"So what's the point in hiding anything from you? It's not like I have to worry about you losing control and ravishing me," she pointed out, teasing.

"Penny, I would never take advantage of you," he promised so sincerely that she felt her eyes prick again.

She sniffed and nodded.

He cleared his throat, then reached for the hem of her t-shirt. Penny obediently moved as he instructed and soon he was helping her ease into the water. He poured some of her body-wash onto a washcloth and handed it to her.

"Do what you can and I'll help with everything else," he instructed, sitting on the closed lid of the toilet and pointedly looking at the ceiling.

Penny contemplated Sheldon as she relaxed in the water and lazily washed herself. Such an odd relationship they had. Sometimes they fought and teased each other like siblings, sometimes she had to baby him like he was her child, and then there were times like this... when he acted more like her gay friend or something.

Still, she knew Sheldon better than almost anyone else she had ever met. She knew what he liked, what scared him, how he would react to anything. She knew what was important to him and what really wasn't. She tried to tell herself that she had learned all these things because it was important for her to get along with her boyfriend's roommate, but that was a lie.

Sheldon was easy to learn, once you got past his oddities. She thought of Leonard, and how Sheldon still threw him for a loop sometimes. Okay, maybe Sheldon was just easy for her to learn...

She let out a small pained gasp and his eyes flew to hers.

"What are you doing?" He demanded, leaning over to help her sit up.

"I was trying to get my hair wet so I could wash it," she explained, pouting at him.

Sheldon just shook his head and turned her so that her back was to the faucet. He turned it on. Then he had her lean back, supporting her with one arm so the other was free to wet her hair.

As he gently, but thoroughly washed her hair, Penny thought of how Leonard would have handled this.

He probably wouldn't have the arm strength to support her like that. Plus he'd be distracted by having her wet breasts out on display like they were.

Penny sneaked a few glances at her caretaker, but Sheldon seemed to be keeping his eyes focused on her hair. Absurdly, she felt slightly offended. Her breasts were very nice and Sheldon wasn't interested at all... She rolled her eyes at her own stupidity then stood in the tub with Sheldon's help.

He helped her out of the tub, and once sure that she could stand without help, turned to grab a towel. Once his back was to her though, he froze. She saw his is face in the mirror, eyes closed and teeth clenched.

He took a breath then turned back to her with the towel and started to dry her off.

"Sheldon? Are you okay?" Penny asked, concerned.

He nodded, but didn't say anything.

It was then that Penny looked down and saw his 'tented' khaki pants. She was stunned and looked up at him in shock.

"Sh-Sheldon?" She asked, shakily.

He saw where she was looking and he took a step away from her.

"Penny, don't be frightened. I promised I wouldn't take advantage of you, and I meant it," he reminded her.

She blinked a few times before responding.

"No.. I'm not afraid of you, I just... I didn't think..." she trailed of gesturing at herself then at him.

Sheldon gave her a look that said he thought she was being absurd.

"Penny, I may be slightly more than human, but I am still male. And your unclothed form is very aesthetically pleasing. It is ridiculous of you to think that I would be unaffected by it."

And with that, he finished drying her off and escorted her into his bedroom.

He dressed her in a stretchy, cotton sundress that would make it much easier for her to use the restroom on her own. Remembering their argument from the night before he didn't even bother trying to get 'panties' on her.

Sheldon had her sit on the bed in front of him and between his legs as he brushed out her long hair.

His gentle hands felt so good that she drifted off again.

A little while later she was once again on the couch ensconced in the thick blanket. Sheldon fed her grilled cheese, more pain pills, and after a quick game of rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock (which she won, knowing that he would always choose Spock) they settled down to watch Casablanca.

As the movie played, Sheldon explained a lot about the time period and history behind the movie that Penny had not known. At first it was interesting, but she soon grew bored. The painkillers were making her drowsy again and she drifted off.

When Penny awoke, the credits had just started. She was startled to see that she'd been sleeping with her head on Sheldon's shoulder. He was asleep, head inclined slightly toward her.

She contemplated his sleeping face. Her neighbor... her definitely not gay friend, had fed her, bathed her, and told her she was beautiful. And he did all of this without expecting anything in return.

Sheldon's cell buzzed indicating that he'd received a text. It wasn't loud enough to wake him so Penny carefully pulled the phone out of his pocket. It was from Leonard.

Good news! All charges were dropped. We should be home in a couple of hours.

Penny sighed sadly and slid the phone back into Sheldon's pocket. Then she grabbed the remote and turned the TV.

She thought again of how wonderful Sheldon had been and how much she had been looking forward to having him take care of her for a few more days.

Well, she had a couple more hours anyway.

Slowly, she scooted closer to him, and gently curled up against him, resting her head on his collar bone. He moved then, and she bit back a groan of disappointed knowing that he must be awake and about to push her away.

But his arm came around her and pulled her the rest of the way into his lap. She froze, but after a moment he let out a soft snore so maybe he hadn't actually woken up after all. Sighing in relief she relaxed against him and drifted off again.

If Penny had stayed awake a moment longer, she would have felt his hand stroking her hair and back, his blue eyes open and watching her sleep. She might have leaned back to see his wistful smile and adoring gaze.

The whole experience had made Penny see Sheldon differently, but it never occurred to her that he now saw her differently as well.

End

Last Note: I might do a Sheldon POV sequel, but I'm so busy right now -no promises! :D