The police question me the next morning, before my flight. Thankfully, they determine from my statement and the statements of witnesses that I am not a suspect, so I am quickly told that I am free to go back to Pasadena. I wonder briefly whether they will catch the woman (I doubt that she told me her real name and as a result I did not pass on her alias to the police) but I do not let the thought linger in my mind. Blissful normality is only a handful of hours away, and I am eager to return to it and forget the entire trip home. There are too many feelings here, too many new situations that are difficult to examine objectively or empirically.

Leonard is waiting for me when I arrive at LAX, and I am almost relieved to see him.

"So, how was... everything?" he asks carefully as we walk to the car.

"I'd rather not discuss it," I say quietly. Leonard may be my friend and he may occasionally feel the need to confide in me regarding certain aspects of his life, but I refuse to do him the same injustice.

"Understandable." We spend the majority of the trip in silence. I assume Leonard is going to take me to the university, as it is a weekday, but he takes the exit for home instead.

I give him a puzzled look. "Why are we going home? It's Monday. We have work."

"CalTech is giving you the week off, remember? You thought you may be in Texas longer than the weekend, and the university was more than happy to give you extra time."

"I remember, but I had no plans to sit idly at home," I say. "I have work to do, Leonard. Please take me to work."

Leonard glances over at me and sighs. "Sheldon, you just lost your grandmother. We all know how important she was to you. There's nothing wrong with taking a little time off to deal with it."

"But I don't want to take time off. I've already 'dealt' with it. Death is a natural process that all living organisms eventually experience, and while we may not know exactly what—"

"Listen, fine. If this is what works for you, then go for it. But I'm not taking you to work." Leonard glares at me a little from over his glasses. "You can do your stuff from home if you really need to."

I cross my arms in frustration. What is wrong with wanting to be productive? The last thing I want is time to sit at home and reflect on the events of the past few days.

"I'll see you after work," Leonard says when he deposits me at our apartment complex. "I bought you an extra box of high-fiber cereal, since you were running low. Try to have a good day."

"Thanks," I mutter as I grab my things. What on Earth am I supposed to do for the next week?

By Friday, I have completely run out of things to do. I have cleaned the entire apartment three times, re-organized my comic book collection chronologically by the days I received each of them, washed Leonard's laundry in addition to my own, spent a total of twenty hours walking to and perusing the comic book store, grouped foods in the pantry by sodium content and baked a disturbing number of non-dairy desserts. I have also been attempting to work through a number of equations that I began before leaving for Texas, but I am finding it unnervingly difficult to focus.

Despite all of my extra time, sleep is hard to come by. I awake multiple times in the night from nightmares involving robberies, funeral homes, and that woman's face dancing in my mind, taunting me. When Leonard and company pull out the Nintendo 64 for retro game night, I am thankful for the distraction from my own sleep-addled thoughts.

"Sheldon, you look like hell," Howard comments as he plugs his purple controller into the console.

"Sleep eludes me," I say, running a hand through my hair. "I blame Leonard and his refusal to take me to work."

Leonard ignores me and glances through our collection of games. "Shall we start off with a Super Smash Brothers match? I'm thinking a 20 stock fight to the death, Hyrule Castle stage, bob-ombs and motion sensor bombs only?"

"Oh, I hate those stupid motion sensor bombs," Raj whines. "At least add in the Poké Balls."

"Fine, Poké Balls, bob-ombs, and motion sensor bombs. Any other objections?"

I personally prefer adding in the baseball bat, as I am the only one who has mastered the move necessary for a home run, but I am too tired to argue with Leonard. I plug in my controller and settle back against the couch. "Let's start."

A half hour later, I am in a battle to the death with Howard. Leonard and Raj (Link and Yoshi, respectively) dropped out long ago and I am left alone to deal with Samus's potent energy blasts.

"Seriously, who uses Ness, anyway?" Howard complains as I toss a bob-omb in his direction. "His control scheme is funky as hell and I hate those damn energy yo-yo things!"

"You're just upset because you can't beat me!" The adrenaline in my system is giving me a second wind. I frantically shoot myself back onto the stage after Howard's Samus tosses me off.

Raj shakes his head at Howard. "You're on your last life, dude. There's no way you're gonna win against that little bastard."

I hear a knock on the door, but I am too absorbed in the game to answer. "Could you get the door, Leonard?"

"Only if you let us play Ocarina of Time next."

Damn it. "Fine, but I'm not staying up all night to help you when you get stuck in Lord Jabu-Jabu's belly."

I don't have to turn my head to know that Leonard is rolling his eyes. He gets up and answers the door just as I deliver the killing blow to Samus. "Victory!"

Miraculously, Howard's character manages to latch on to the edge of the stage. "Booyah, bitches, I'm still in this game!" he cheers.

From the half-open door, I hear an uncomfortably familiar voice. Leonard turns and gives me a very strange look. "Sheldon... a girl is at the door for you."

Howard pauses the game. "A girl? A girl? Sheldon, since when do you know any girls? Is it another crazy graduate student?" He waggles his eyebrows. "Is she hot?"

I snort derisively in an attempt to hide the panic that is racing through my breast. Unfortunately, I do not have much time to worry; before I can reach out to open the door, it swings toward me and the blond bandit from Texas throws herself into my arms.

"Oh, Sheldon!" She cries, tears rolling down her cheeks. I stiffen at her touch and have no idea what to do with my hands. "Things are just terrible! I'm sorry I didn't call, but you told me it was okay to come, and so I did."

"What—" I start, but I can't seem to voice the questions that are waiting on the tip of my tongue. Why are you here? How did you find me? In what horrible crime are you planning to involve me?

I turn a little and realize that my friends are staring at me. Or rather, they're staring slack-jawed at the (scantily-clad) woman that is clinging to me and shedding crocodile tears.

Leonard finally breaks the odd tension building in the room. "Sheldon, aren't you going to, uh, introduce us to your... your friend?"

The options run through my head. I could tell them the truth, but considering that they are all hot-blooded and undersexed, there is a strong possibility that they will throw me out of the apartment for even hinting that this woman has been involved in any wrongdoing. I am, of course, a terrible liar, but if I could invent a lie complex enough for them to believe...

The woman (Penny, I remember, her name is Penny) is a step ahead of me. "Sheldon and I are old friends from grade school," she explains, sniffling. "Practically related, really— when my momma died, I spent a lot of time at his place. My daddy's a mean-spirited son of a bitch and I never wanted to spend much time with him when he'd been drinking. Well, we ran into each other at his grandma's funeral— bless her good soul, she was a wonder— and Sheldon, always so sweet, told me to come on down to California if things ever got too bad. Well, they got bad quick, after he left." She bursts into tears again and I notice the bruises darkening the skin around her eyebrow and temple. I wonder how much truth is being blended in to the lies. "My daddy finally went too far. I had to get out, start over... so, here I am."

"That's terrible!" Howard exclaims with exaggerated sadness.

Leonard, however, looks a little dubious. "Sheldon? Sweet? Don't get me wrong, I'm sorry things have been tough for you—" he gestures toward Penny, then to me, "—But Sheldon's not really... you know..."

"Oh, I know he's not the friendliest right off the bat," Penny says, swatting at my nose. I give her a look and step back. "But we have a long history. Don't we, sweetie?"

I nod slightly, marveling at her ability to catch me in the middle of her lie. What can I do at this point, besides go along with it? She has my friends' sympathy, and Leonard seems satisfied by her explanation of our 'friendship'. I am also not completely convinced that she won't pull a gun on me if I deviate from her lie.

"Well, you're welcome to stay here for as long as you need," Leonard says, smiling. "I'm Sheldon's roommate, Leonard. What did you say your name was?"

"Penny." She reaches past me to shake Leonard's hand. "Thank you so much! Sheldon didn't tell me that he had such cute friends..."

A collective giggle echoes through the apartment. I sigh heavily and turn my attention to Penny. "May I speak to you for a moment in private?"

"Well, sure," she says, brushing against me as she walks by. "Where's your room?"

"I meant outside—" But she ignores me and saunters down the hall.

"This one must be yours," she says, peeking into my room. The innocent tone her voice had taken on earlier is gone. "You look like you go crazy if there's a single hair out of place."

I step in behind her. "Just to be clear, no one is allowed in my room under normal circumstances." I shut the door behind me and cringe when she tosses herself onto my bed. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm in big trouble," she says with a sigh. She brings a hand up to the side of her face and flinches a little when she touches the bruises. "I needed a place to lay low for a while, and I had no where else to go." She looks up at me, her eyes big. "That stuff about my dad was mostly true. He found me a day after I ran into you and beat me up pretty good... tried to drag me to the police. He says I don't send Mom enough money, when I know he intercepts a good chunk of it and blows it on drink and drugs. Asshole."

"So you thought it would be a grand idea to continue making my life miserable?"

"I told you, I had no other options." She picks at a loose string on her shorts and I think I see her hand shake for the briefest moment. "He would've killed me. And in my line of business, I don't make many friends. To be honest, you're the first person in a long time that's made me think twice about all of this crap. So I decided to come here and see if maybe there's something beyond robbing diners and pointing guns in people's faces."

I shake my head. "I can't house a criminal in my apartment, and I certainly can't back up this ridiculous lie you've told my friends. I have no intention of letting you go through with this—"

Faster than a bolt of lightning, she has a gun aimed at my head. "Then I'll make this easy for you. I'm not giving you the choice, okay? That way, if something happens and the police find me here, you can tell them I threatened you at gunpoint." I realize that tears, real tears, are meandering down her cheeks. "Please don't make this any harder for me than it already is, Sheldon. I've been through some shit in my life, especially lately, and I wouldn't be interfering with your little world if I had any other choice. I'll leave as soon as I'm able."

"Fine," I murmur, knowing I've been defeated. "But you're sleeping on the couch."

"I would expect nothing less from you, considering how surprised your friend Leonard was to find out that you've got a girlfriend."

"You are not my girlfriend."

"Girl who is a friend. Whatever." She shoves her gun beneath her jacket and climbs to her feet. "Let's go hang out with your friends. You guys are pretty nerdy, huh? Video games on a Friday night?"

"How did you even find me?" I ask as she reaches behind me to open the door. "And there is nothing wrong with playing video games on a Friday night."

"All that says to me is that you and your friends are sorely lacking in the female companionship department," Penny quips. "Oh, and all I had to do was google your name. You seemed pretty smart, and not just a ton of people born recently have been blessed with your name. I clicked on the results until your picture turned up on the CalTech web site."

"Clearly, I need to have a talk with the IT department," I mutter as I follow her out of my room and wonder what in the world I've gotten myself into.