Round One – The horrors of Pictionary

"Now, I am very disappointed that I won't be able to celebrate Howard's accomplishment tonight." Sheldon announced to the room as he brought out the two whiteboards and began setting them up.

"Me too, but we'll see him tomorrow." Remarked Amy from her usual spot in the middle of the couch, watching on as Penny leant Sheldon a hand with the second whiteboard. Bernadette had specifically asked to spend Howard's first night back on Earth in a private reunion, and Raj and Stuart had tickets to the sing-a-long version of 'The Sound of Music'; so it was Leonard, Penny, Sheldon and Amy in the apartment where they had decided to spend the evening playing Pictionary.

"Yes, it's just that in all the years I've known him he's never had the opportunity to receive my admiration. I was excited to see the look on his face when it finally happened." Sheldon stated as he placed his whiteboard on the stand, making sure that it was perfectly centred.

"You're unbelievable," Penny remarked sarcastically, but as usual sarcasm failed to register with Sheldon and he accepted the phrase at face value.

"I know." Sheldon replied as he finished setting up the last of the whiteboards and settled on the arm of the couch.

"All right, Pictionary! What are the teams?" Leonard broke in, setting the box down on the coffee table and looking around with a look of excited expectation on his face.

"I want Amy," the low drawl coming from Sheldon's end of the couch sent a shiver down Amy's spine, finally! She thought, my boyfriend is starting to reveal his true feelings. She then found herself tugged toward her bestie, Penny who insisted that she wanted Amy instead. Whoah! Caught in the middle of two savages both desperate for my body, hoo!

"Penny, release Amy's arm immediately, please. She is not some cow that you can tip over with your Nebraskan show of strength. I thought we had already agreed that we would be paired in couple formation this evening. Since you and Leonard are no doubt in desperate need to return to your apartment to engage in amorous activities, I will take Amy on my team and we will get this over with." Sheldon stared over at his attractive neighbour who was tugging on Amy's arm and whinging a little now.

"Shellllldooon! I don't wanna play with Leonard…." Penny looked over at her boyfriend sitting quietly on the end of the couch, "Sorry, sweetie but the last time we were teamed up we had to quit after one round of Jenga because you had an asthma attack when you got overexcited."

"Well, that's not what you were saying last night…" Leonard muttered under his breath as he stuffed his hands under his armpits, obviously hurt that his girlfriend didn't want him on her team.

"Leonard, Penny…we are attempting to have a civil discussion over which team would most benefit from Amy's participation. We do not need a play-by-play account of your bedroom activities." Sheldon huffed with irritation and caught a brief smirk crossing Penny's face. "Yes, Penny?"

"Oh, nothing…" Penny said airily as she fanned her face quickly as Sheldon's statement brought back memories of exactly what kind of 'play' had taken place between herself and Leonard last night.

"Hmm, if you say so. I still say that if Amy and I team up; then we can whip your hides in approximately one hour, fifteen minutes and then you and Leonard can get back to whatever you were up to over there earlier." Sheldon checked his watch as he spoke, calculating the approximate timings for each level of the games planned; two round of Pictionary, a brief foray into the Wii and then Twister – yes, one hour and fifteen minutes should be exactly the right timescales.

"Sheldon, I think I would prefer to be on Penny's team tonight if you don't mind. After all, it is us ladies that have crashed your games night and would not want to cause any further disruption. You and Leonard are used to working as a team and for us to change that formula now could have a detrimental effect on your thought processes." Amy pressed a hand to Sheldon's arm, halting his train of thought. He twisted slightly on the couch, eyes widening in surprise.

"Why, Dr. Fowler! Anyone would think that you didn't want to be on my side tonight! Are you saying that you would rather make up precisely three quarters of an ineffectual pairing rather than one half of an obviously more intellectual team?" Sheldon glanced over at Penny and continued, "Yes, Penny…I was taking into account that you have the brain roughly the size of a lemon compared to Amy's... But I guess any team that I'm not on has a decided disadvantage."

"Once again, unbelievable." Penny sighed as she tapped the whiteboard marker against her leg, Sheldon looked up from where he was choosing his own marker from the tub on the table.

"Yeah, once again, I know."

"Right! That's it! Amy, you're on my team! Leonard, Sheldon – you're stuck with each other. Let the battle commence!" With a war cry, Penny leapt from the couch and prepared to enter into a battle of wits against the great Dr. Sheldon Cooper – her weapon of choice, a white board marker and a take no prisoners attitude. "Right round one," Penny chose a card and flashed it at Sheldon.

"Got it." He nodded and Penny slipped the card into her pocket, looking over she saw Sheldon poised at the whiteboard.

"Ready, set, go!" Both Penny and Sheldon started drawing with Howard and Amy looking on.

"Box…window…"

"Batman. Batman and Robin." Howard called out, Sheldon glanced over and narrowed his eyes into a steely glare.

"Gift, er..Present!" Amy shouted and Penny turned around with a yelp of excitement.

"Present! Yeah!" They high fived each other as Sheldon tried to explain that his diagram represented the four of them in that very room, playing Pictionary in 'the present'.

"Oh, my God, we're gonna kill them." Penny remarked as Leonard and Sheldon still stood in front of his board looking at his failed attempt. Next up were Leonard and Amy at the whiteboard with Sheldon calling out ideas as soon as Leonard started drawing.

"It's a quark-gluon plasma."

"No."

"It's asymptotically free partons inside a quark-gluon plasma."

"Nothing with quarks." Leonard turned around and advised his room-mate, before turning back to the board.

"It's a chocolate chip cookie!" Yelled Penny and Amy squealed in excitement, she'd never been on a winning team before and she had to admit the feeling was great.

"How could you not guess that?" Leonard asked Sheldon who rose from the chair in dismay.

"Hey! If you want someone to guess chocolate chip cookie…you draw a glass of milk next to it."

"Penny got it." Leonard stated, and Sheldon once again failed to detect the note of sarcasm lacing his friend's voice.

"Only after I eliminated all the obvious answers." Sheldon remarked, "You're welcome." He turned to Penny who was looking on at the two of them in amazement.

"Sausage." Howard called out after Sheldon took his place at the board again, Sheldon turned around and gave a little yip of excitement. "Bratwurst…?" Sheldon made a rolling motion with his hand, trying to egg Leonard on. "Hot dog!"

"Penny, aren't you going to draw something?" Amy said in confusion as Penny casually leant back on the arm of the couch and watched Sheldon scribbling on his whiteboard.

"Relax, we've got time. This is so fun." Penny remarked as she waved her marker in the air.

"It's already been five minutes, and Leonard is starting to sound a little hoarse." Amy leant over to whisper into Penny's ear.

"Ladies, no conferring! You know the rules." Sheldon tapped Penny's blank whiteboard with his marker. "Giving up so soon, Penny? You must complete all four rounds to be declared the winner, otherwise we win."

"Just giving you a little head start, Sheldon." Penny picked up her marker and crossed back over to the whiteboard.

"Now?" Amy asked as Penny got into position. Leonard started calling out random ideas such as solar system and unidentified flying liverwurst.

"Soon." Penny remarked as Sheldon frantically started drawing at the bottom of the whiteboard.

"Come on Leonard, I am spoon feeding this one to you."

"I don't know. Casper, the alcoholic ghost?" Leonard was getting sick of this game already, and he actually loved Pictionary; it made him wish that he'd been more assertive in choosing Penny over Sheldon.

"All right, that's enough." Penny turned to her board and started drawing. "Ready, Amy? Okay, five, four, three…"

"Hand…nail? Polish?"

"Yeah!"

"No, no, no! The word is Polish. See? Look." He turned to his board. "Polish sausage. Model of the solar system developed by Nicolaus Copernicus…"

"Excuse me! The word is 'polish'. See?" Penny fished the card out of her pocket and waved it at Sheldon. "Small P."

"Ah. So it is. I guess we both share blame on this one." Sheldon snatched the card out of Penny's hand and glared over at Leonard. Penny fastened the cap back onto her marker pen and high-fived Amy as both men looked at them in horror.

"We actually lost… to Penny?" Sheldon looked from his whiteboard over to Leonard and back again. "This is all your fault, Leonard!" Sheldon started to remove all evidence of his dismal attempt from the whiteboard, muttering at how Penny had stolen his girlfriend right out from under his nose.