Let's pretend in this story Penny and Leonard never dated. Because I'm always exhausted at trying to explain a way out of those shenanigans as I am a diehard Shenny-shipper.
"Soft kitty warm kitty little ball of fur. Happy kitty sleepy kitty pur pur purrr"
A feverish Sheldon Cooper smiled dreamily at his golden haired neighbor. how lucky he is, he thought, to have someone who's caretaking skills rivaled his mother's living right across the hall to take care of him. Though reluctant at first, he had molded Penny into the perfect bedside nurse.
As he drifted off to sleep, she smoothed his hair across his feverish forehead. It was times like this that Sheldon looked so pure and innocent where Penny could forget he was a complete and utter whackadoodle.
"Penny?" he whispered softly.
"Yes Sweetie?"
"Please stop breathing through your mouth, it's terribly annoying."
Aaaaand the feeling is gone. She sniffed in annoyance as her allergies made it difficult to breath through her nose right now. Penny stood and trudged towards the bedroom door.
"Penny?" he muttered so softly this time that she almost didn't hear him.
"What?" she snapped.
"Thank you for always being there for me..." he said finally falling asleep.
Aww Moonpie, she thought smiling as she tip toed out of the room.
Wandering into the living room of 4A Penny settled onto the couch and flipped on the tv. At 3pm on a Saturday there wasn't a whole lot to choose from. She checked the DVR playlist which of course was filled sci-fi movies and shows. Surprisingly she noticed the Sex and the City movie wayyy at the bottom of the list (no doubt Raj's doing). She happily clicked on it, grabbed a handful of red vines and settled in for the movie.
A little later on, as Carrie showed up at Miranda's for New Years Eve, she heard "Pennyyyyy? Can you rub this Vick's on my chest for meeee?"
Sighing, she paused the movie and got up to head to his room. She couldn't really complain - after all, she had volunteered to keep an eye on Sheldon while the other guys (conveniently) had pre-purchased tickets to a Celine Dion show in Vegas (wasn't she there every weekend?). Anyways Penny has been the go to person the last several times Sheldon has been sick and the guys always had some excuse to be busy. But they always left her with a fully stocked fridge and emergency funds (and in her opinion shoe sales 50% off or higher constituted an emergency) so she wasn't really complaining.
Although, now that she though about it, this was the fourth time within 3 months. Strange, given Sheldon's obsessive hygiene habits. Perhaps she needs to convince Dr. Whackadoodle to get over his neuroses and actually see a doctor if this happens again.
Settled in the chair next to Sheldon's bed Penny is absently rubbing the rub counterclockwise into his chest. Sheldon sighed contentedly until he notices Penny has slowed down her massage and seems to keep running her fingertips back and forth over an area between his chest and left armpit, a peculiar look on her face.
"Sweetie, how long has this been here?"
"How long has what been where?"
She asks gently, "This lump. On your chest."
))))TBBT((((
Breast Cancer. Exactly 5 days, 23 hours, 10 minutes, and 15 seconds after Penny's discovery, Dr. Sheldon Cooper, renowned scientist, future Nobel laureate, son of Mary, grandson of Meemaw, brother of George and Missy -MAN- sat numbly in the oncologist's office receiving this diagnosis.
Sheldon tried, he really did try, to follow what the doctor said afterwards but all he could think is 'Why me?'
'What will become of my work?'
'How will I tell Mama?'
'Am I really a freak?'
Taunts of peers from childhood in Texas through adolescence in Germany up through his current adulthood at CalTech began replaying louder and louder in his head until he unexpectedly sputtered out a sob, breaking the doctors speech to him.
A small soft hand he hadn't even even realized made its way into his gave a gentle squeeze. Snapping out of his thoughts, he glanced over into the face of Penny who had come along to the appointment with him. She had been by his side for each appointment and been around him as much as possible providing entertainment, comfort, and security.
His blue eyes met her green and he instantly felt some degree of relief. Squeezing her hand back he drew himself up, took a deep breath and looked the doctor in the eye and arrogantly stated,"Now Dr. Humphrey, I apologize for my temporary lapse in attention. I am now fully alert and need to know a detailed course of treatment that will bring about the most efficient and positive results as I have important and worldwide impactful studies that cannot be slowed down by this inconvenient diagnosis."
He glanced at Penny on his left and said gently "I'm going to beat this."
She placed her free hand on top of their joined ones and said "No Moonpie, WE'RE going to beat this."
"Penny, only MeeMaw may call me that!" he whined.
"Sheldon, shaddup so the good doctor can tell us how to get you better."
They turned back to Dr. Humphrey who was now watching with slight amusement on his face.
"Well Dr. Cooper, I would say you prognosis for successfully being cured is quite well given your otherwise good health, youth, and early detection..."
))))TBBT((((
One year later...
Hundreds of pink balloons filled the park. At the completion of the annual Race for the Cure walk, survivors of the disease gathered to release their balloon. Amongst the sea of women, dressed in a pink t-shirt that said "I'm a Survivor" across a silhouette of Beyonce (thanks again Raj), a yellow thermal, and his blue plaid "running shorts" stood a 6'2" Texan grinning from ear to ear eagerly awaiting the signal to release his balloon. For he had been in remission for 3 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, and 11 hours, and this was something he had been eagerly anticipating for weeks now since learning about it from one of his online male breast cancer support groups.
Hesitant at first, communicating with these men openly about his experience and fears has helped to fuel him in his research and his fight against this awful disease.
He heard stories of men who were not diagnosed properly for years due to the fact that breast cancer in men makes up such a small percentage of the population of those diagnosed annually -only 1% of all cases - so it is often overlooked as a culprit of symptomatic men.
He'd heard of an amazing couple who had been married for over 40 years, and both had battled the disease.
And then there was his own story: a genius, young, germaphobe with none of the traditional risk factors such as family history, alcohol or tobacco use, or the BRCA gene, which is a mutation that raises your risk for breast cancer by up to 85 percent and can be passed down in your family. No he was a random guy who developed an rare illness for his gender.
Though initially stoic and afraid to share, constant support from his rock, his Penny helped him to open up to his friends and family. And the outpouring of support and love had been TREMENDOUS. In all of Sheldon's years being the bullied one, the outcast, the target, he had never know such compassion.
Cards and baked goods from grad students. Flowers from President Sieberts office. A get well laptop from Stephen Hawking. And even the subtle but very much noticed glimmer of concern from Leslie Winkle when she inquired about Dr. Dumbass one day when he was out for a few months following his mastectomy and subsequent chemotherapy. And Penny was with him for every appointment, chemo treatment, and also the first visitor he saw post-surgery. She was there to for the weakness fatigue and extreme nauseous he suffered during this time, always ready with a cool cloth, mouthwash, and a round of soft kitty to sing to him.
His Texas family came out during his time after surgery while he was in the hospital also and totally took over of course. From his mother constantly calling his nurse from his hospital bed about everything from her Shelly needing a more comfy pillow to complaining about the lack of quality religious programming available. To his brother and sister arguing over who gave Sheldon more grief growing up, making themselves clearly more responsible for his current condition. To even his saintly MeeMaw who knitted up a storm during his stay, covering him in multiple handmade booties, scarves and hats. When she started in on knitting a hospital gown he firmly (but gently) told her enough.
His Pasadena family was great, Leonard bringing him all the latest comics, Raj keeping him up to date on all work related items, and even Howard by setting Kripkes car alarm to randomly go off every Tuesday night at 3am.
And all of these people were in attendance at the event, walking alongside Sheldon and awaiting his final moment of triumph in the day at releasing his balloon. As the emcee began counting down Sheldon frantically looked through the crowd until his blue eyes locked in on green, similar to how they had done almost a year ago. She gave a tiny nod of encouragement in her tear-filled eyes as "Release your balloons!" echoed throughout the crowd. Eyes stilled locked, he released the balloon and headed directly to her. To everyones shock including his own, he gathered her in his arms and pressed his lips firmly to hers. In the distance a cheer rang out amongst their friends along with an "it's about friggin time", muttered by Howard earning him a smack to the back of the head by Mary Cooper.
But Penny and Sheldon were oblivious to this as they slowly broke away from the kiss to rest foreheads upon each other.
"We did it."
"You did it Moonpie."
"Not without you."
She blushed and lowered her head.
Having none of that he gently lifted her chin.
"YOU dear Penny are the reason I am here today. I am forever grateful and unbelievably in love with you."
Tears now streaming down her face she gasped "I love you too!" as she yanked him down into an epic kiss that made the news coverage of the event.
Coverage that they were able to share with their grandchildren many many years later.