We're calling out to all Shenny fans and and writers. We cordially invite you to participate in the Shenny ships fun one-shot story share we've named Sharing the Shenny Sauce. We want all Shenny fans to come together in our shared ship. If you're willing to join in, here are some rules:

Search for Taco Bell Sauce Sayings and choose one you like most.

Place the title of your story as "Sharing the Shenny Sauce" and place your phrase in the summary and underneath the Author's Note describing the rules (like so).

Your story must be a one-shot between 500-1500 words (not including the A/N)

Your story may be of any genre or rating (yes…ANY rating *wink*wink*)

It MUST be a Shenny story.

Deadline is the end of March.

Let your creative juices flow and start creating!

Phrase: "It's okay. You can say it. I love you too."

Clarity

The sound of the windshield wipers sliding over the soaked glass with their consistent "swish-swish, swish-swish" accompanied the relentless pounding of the rain on the hood of the car. Inside, the heat blasted over the two occupants, one who stared straight ahead, watching the light from her headlights reflecting through the downpour and willing her passenger to remain silent. Said passenger was sneaking covert glances at the dash that didn't go unnoticed at all.

One word from him, Penny thought, Just one. That's all it would take…and snap…Penny goes bat-shit crazy.

With an ocean between herself and Leonard, her job sucking the ultimate suck lately and that phone call from last week where she'd clearly interrupted the good time her boyfriend was having not missing her still crystal clear in her mind, what tentative grasp Penny had on her sanity was quickly waning.

"Your check engine light is still on."

And there it was. Not one word, but seven. One word would have done the trick. Seven was an over-kill.

"Damn it, Sheldon!"

Penny twisted the keys, yanked them from the ignition and pushed the door open with not one care for the rain pelting down on her and soaking through her waitress uniform. She slammed the door with more force than necessary, part of her genuinely upset that it didn't shatter the window. Maybe someone would come along, not check to see if the door was locked and shatter the window for her. They could key the shit out of the damn thing too for all she cared; drive off into the night never to return. The tabs were expired, her insurance payment was late and that stupid check engine light taunted her every time she got behind the wheel. Let it be someone else's problem. She was done with it.

"Penny! You left your doors unlocked!" Sheldon called plaintively.

She heard his door shut, followed by the sound of his feet slapping wetly over the pavement.

"The percent of car theft in the city of Pasadena is 78.3. It stands to reason that should you leave your vehicle unattended and unlocked, it will become part of that statistic."

"Good!" she shouted back at him.

"If your car gets stolen, how will I make it to work in the morning?"

She whirled on him, her hair plastered to her flushed cheeks. "Stop talking! I'm not in the mood for this! And if you're that concerned, stay here with the damn thing!"

She turned and started walking again, not at all surprised when his footsteps sounded behind her seconds later.

They walked the few remaining blocks in silence, both soaked, both miserable though the misery showed much more clearly on Penny's face than it did Sheldon's. Thunder rumbled overhead and gratitude over the fact that their apartment was only a block away filtered through the cloud of negative emotions currently fueling her. Together, she and Sheldon sprinted the rest of the way, shoving through the front door just as lighting split the sky and the true potential of the storm was released in forceful waves of wind and rain.

They took to the steps side by side, not a word uttered between them. When they reached the landing between their apartments, Penny went to her door, half expecting Sheldon to retreat to his and leave her alone for the evening. Instead, he followed her. And she couldn't find it in her to care.

"Penny-."

"Still not in the mood," she cut him off, peeling her vest back with a grimace and dropping it over a chair on her way to the kitchen. There was a bottle of wine on the counter with her name on it. She'd been saving it for Friday but after a particularly crappy and tip-free shift and with her mood worsening by the second, she decided a Tuesday night was just as good a night as any to get rip-roaring drunk and pray the images of Leonard making his way through the female crew with his high-school like libido and constant need to please would subside enough to give her peace. Or at least to dull that nagging voice that kept pointing out that if that was what he was doing she didn't care nearly as much as she should.

She made quick work of pulling the cork and filling a glass, all the while aware of the lanky man standing behind her couch, dripping on the cheap carpet she'd bought from some department store when college décor had gone on sale.

After taking a long sip, she lifted it towards Sheldon, watching his wary gaze follow the careless arc of the glass. "I can't get that stupid phone call out of my head. The music in the background, the people laughing…how he didn't even care that I was calling him. He was having too much fun to miss me."

"Would you like me to re-state the comments from that evening?" Sheldon offered, his tone so matter-of-fact that it took some of the edge off of her anger. "Those seemed to be of some comfort to you."

"They were…at the time." And then every ounce of anger drained from her, leaving a bone-deep exhaustion in its place. She was tired. Tired of work, tired of her run of bad luck and tired of keeping up the pretense of loving Leonard. It was easy to let the half-truth slip from her lips when he was right there, standing in front of her and giving her that look that always seemed to beg for more. But when he wasn't there…she started to realize just how much those words of love had been used to appease and silence.

"I don't love him, Sheldon," she whispered.

With the truth of that simple statement out in the open, she felt much lighter. The pressure on her chest eased and she could breathe without constantly feeling like she was suffocating.

"But you said-."

"I know," she interrupted him again, nodding regretfully. "I know what I said. But…but I don't. Not the way he wants me to love him."

Once again, that thick silence hung between them. There was nothing to fill it.

With a sigh, Penny abandoned her wine and started for her room. She wanted a hot shower and a warm bed more than she wanted to explain the complexity of her emotions to a person who didn't understand human emotions.

As she passed Sheldon, his hand shot up, closing around her arm and pulling her back. She gasped, twisting just in time to keep herself from slamming into him and planting her hands firmly against his chest. For one frightening moment she thought he'd reacted in anger, stopping her to defend his friend and force her to see some kind of reason that didn't exist.

"Sheldon, I'm sorry. I know he's your friend but-."

"He shouldn't be," Sheldon said softly. Lightning flashed, filling the apartment and the lights flickered before going out, throwing the room into darkness. But not before she could catch of glimpse of the guilt.

"If he knew…"

"Sheldon…sweetie-."

"You said you didn't love him and the pain stopped. It just…went away. Is that supposed to happen?"

Her breath caught and his grip softened. But only for the barest of seconds. Then it tightened again, pulling her close until her chest was pressed against his and she could feel the heat of his skin through the wetness of their clothing. She could feel his heartbeat, quick and uneven. She stared up at his face, cast in shadows. But nothing could hide the burn in those blue eyes. A burn that called to her, that made her heart trip wildly and settle into a frantic pace that echoed his.

Again, lightning flashed, close to the apartment. Wet, spiked lashes framed wide eyes filled with longing and uncertainty. Their uneven breaths filled what little space there was between them, a space that was quickly closed when the crack of thunder shook the apartment and Penny flinched closer to him.

He was trembling, a hand at her waist gripping the fabric of her shirt. Lifting her hands, she noticed that she was as well. But this was right. As terrifying as it was…it was right. Because her shitty week no longer mattered. The ocean and the boat giving her the space she wasn't aware she had even needed no longer mattered. The rain had insistently washed it away and showed her the one thing that did. In so many years…how had she not seen it?

"I…Penny…this…" he stammered, but never stopped staring at her.

She pressed her hands to his cheeks, her eyes searching his. "It's okay. You can say it," she whispered. Her nose bumped his and her pulse leapt in response to the simple contact. He didn't say it. But she could see it and to her, that was enough. "I love you too."

One of his hands tangled itself in her hair and she met him in the middle, pressing her hungry lips to his and winding her arms around his neck. There was no time to think, to second guess anything. There was only wild desperation begging them to ignore their usual behaviors, their reservations, those doubts and fears that might stop them if given the chance.

Penny pulled at his t-shirt and thermal, yanking them over his head and tossing them aside, allowing only that one moment before she was kissing him again. Kissing him…Sheldon Cooper, in an awkwardly endearing way that made her want to weep.

He fumbled with the buttons of her shirt, then gave up all together when his long fingers wouldn't cooperate, a sound of frustration leaving him as he tugged impatiently on either side of the collar and clumsily tore the flimsy buttons free.

Trembling hands pushed the clinging fabric down her arms where it joined the quickly growing pile of clothing. Her skirt followed, joined shortly after by his pants.

They stumbled towards the bedroom, hitting the door frame, then fell in a mess of tangled limbs to the rumpled bedspread. Only then did Sheldon tear his lips from her, bending his head to taste her neck and drag a shuddering gasp from her.

She whispered his name, circling his waist with her legs, cradling his head in her hands and giving herself over to the feel of his over her heated flesh. He may have been a rookie when it came to bedroom activities, but that didn't mean Sheldon stumbled his inexperienced way through the process of foreplay as most first-timers had a tendency to do. No…he amazed her with his care, with the way he seemed to worship her, his fingertips barely brushing her skin. He studied the way her body responded to his touch, clearly comfortable with the idea of testing theories and making mental notations.

He stopped at the waistline of her lace panties and his uncertain gaze found hers. With a small smile, Penny reached down to remove the slip of fabric, then took his hand and guided it to the apex of her thighs. His hand rested on her hip for a moment and then he did the one thing that would break her soul entirely. He lowered his head and pressed a lingering kiss to her stomach, just below her belly button, then rested his forehead there, closing his eyes. It was something so simple, but the effect was profound. She pressed the back of her hand to her lips as one hot tear trailed down her temple, followed quickly by another.

There'll be time for foreplay later…I need him now…I need him as close to me as possible.

She pulled him up, ignoring his startled look and pushing impatiently at the elastic of his underwear. When he was free, she used her legs to pull him close, used her hand to guide him to her heat and threw her head back with a low moan as he pressed into her.

She took her hand away and gripped his arms, her body trembling with a near violence that she couldn't control. She could only watch him, silently beg him not to look away. He didn't. Not for one second. His hand cradled the side of her face, his forehead pressed against hers and he pushed into her, his breath hitching as he fought for control.

With a tilt of her hips, she encouraged him to give up that control, to allow himself the freedom he never did. Little by little, which each thrust and soft cry of ecstasy from her, he did. Together they consciously found a rhythm, then lost themselves to it, whispering truths they'd kept from one another for so long, their words frantic and tumbling free between gasps and moans. He pushed her to the brink and she cried for him to stay with her, to follow her over the edge. Groaning her name, pressing his lips to the racing pulse at her neck, he did, his body going tense before he collapsed into her welcome embrace.

Sated wasn't the right word for it. There was something more. Maybe some big, hyphenated word that the genius brain of Sheldon would only know. She smiled as she thought that, holding him close and running her fingers through his short hair. The rain pattered against the window, lulling them into sleep where they both went without much of a fight, neither willing to move from where they lay.

The thunder rumbled as the storm moved on, taking with it the oppressive clouds, leaving clarity in its wake. Several blocks away a man in a hooded sweatshirt stopped beside an abandoned vehicle, gave it a once over…then moved on.

A/N: Okay, I went over…by a lot. But DAMN that was worth it! I haven't written in weeks because I've been sick and so have my kids. But that…that was fun! I sure hope you guys loved reading this as much as I loved writing it! And forgive the typoes/mistakes. I wrapped this baby up and self-beta'ed at 12am...so...yeah. Lol.