"They look cute together," Penny said to the grad student Raj had taken under his wings. "Your friend and Raj, I mean."

The young woman looked guilty, but then shrugged. "Melissa is a wonderful person, and so is Dr. Koothrappali. She's had some bad relationships, though. Looking for the wrong things."

Penny smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I've done that as well, in the past. I just wanted to let you know, if you need any help in getting them together, even though you seem to be doing fine on your own, just let me know. I'm sure that between the two of us, we can make this happen."

The young woman smiled. "I'll remember that. I think I just have to convince Melissa she shouldn't worry about Dr. Green being more compatible, and that she should ask Dr. Koothrappali out."

"She definitely doesn't have to worry about Sam." At the young woman's doubtful look Penny clarified, "She's into women, not men. And you have no idea how big of a relief that was to me when I found out she was partnered with Leonard."

At that the young woman laughed. "I'm sure it was. You know, you and Melissa have quite a bit in common, with the both of you hanging around us science nerds."

Penny nodded. "I guess we do, though Melissa has been your friend from a very young age. I only began hanging out with the guys six years ago." She shook her head. "Not too long ago, it was pointed out to me I'd been a bully at high school, even though I didn't think I'd been one. It wasn't until I started hanging out with all of them, and especially after Leonard and I got involved, that I realized how hard it'd been for them, how painful. I guess you know what that's like."

The woman nodded. "Yeah, it was terrible. And I was lucky, because I had Melissa as a friend. She stood up for me, even though that meant she was excluded from the popular group. But she never stopped being my friend."

"You and Linda were gone for quite a long time," Leonard observed as they drove back home.

Penny smiled. "Yeah, I told her I help her play matchmaker."

"Ah, you picked up on that as well, didn't you darling?"

Leonard looked in the rearview mirror at Sam. "Picked up on what, exactly?" Sometimes women still baffled him.

"She's trying to get Raj and Melissa to go out together," Penny answered. "Oh, I told her you weren't going to be competition, because, well, you know."

Sam laughed. "That's quite alright, love. I'm not ashamed of my sexual preferences, nor do I feel a need to hide it."

"Wait, you guys are trying to get Raj to go out with Melissa? Do they even want to?" Leonard's question was met with laughter from both women.

"Oh, trust me, they want to. Haven't you seen how they kept looking at each other, how they laughed at each others little jokes, even the ones that weren't particularly funny?"

"They've definitely fallen for each other," Sam agreed with Penny. "They just need to be given a nudge in the right direction." To Penny she added. "Let me know if I can do anything to help."

"I will. You're probably in a better position to help Linda with convincing Raj. I can work on Melissa at the Cheesecake Factory."

Leonard just shook his head and decided to keep quiet about the subject. He had no doubt that between the three of them, they'd have no problem convincing the two lovebirds to go on a date.

And it would be great if his friend would finally be in a relationship, something he'd wanted for so long, but never seemed to be able to get. Perhaps, now that he didn't need alcohol to talk, and with the help from no less than three women, he might actually be in a relationship, quite possibly soon. "So, Sam, you're sure you'll be able to find your way to the university on Monday?"

"Oh, yes, that won't be a problem. Besides, I have a cellphone I can use and I speak the language. I can always ask for directions should I get turned around anyway."

Sam opened her apartment door. "Ah, Dr. Cooper. What can I do for you?" She tried not to grin, knowing exactly why the theoretical physicist was looking uncomfortable and unsure. "Forgot how to talk, love," she asked him after a few seconds.

"I simply came over to properly introduce myself. I'm Dr. Sheldon Cooper, BS, MS, MA, PhD, and ScD."

"That's a lot of letters, darling. Nice to meet you, Sheldon, I'm Samantha, but you can call me Sam."

"I believe you failed to understand the enumeration of abbreviations I gave you."

Sam shook her head. "I did no such thing, and am fully aware of what you have accomplished academically. However, I fail to see the necessity of enumerating those accomplishments when one introduces oneselves. Tell me more about you, as a person. Who is Sheldon Cooper?" Sam knew it wouldn't work, not the first time. It didn't work on Karen the first few attempts, and she had no reason to believe her first attempt would work on the praying mantis.

"Well, I'm a theoretical physicist at CalTech..."

Sam interrupted him. "I asked who is Sheldon Cooper, not what does he do." She could tell it got him uncomfortable, and moments later he turned around and walked back to his apartment, mumbling something about neighbors.

Sam closed the door with a smile. 'I'll get you to open up, Sheldon, even if it takes all of my time here,' she thought. She plopped herself down on the couch and grabbed the laptop to go over her notes and the results of the last experiment she and Leonard had performed together.

Penny leaned against the wall with her shoulder, smiling as she watched Leonard going over his work notes. He looked so cute in just his boxers, glasses on, fully focused on his work. Not for the first time she asked herself why she hadn't allowed herself to give in to her feelings for him sooner.

He'd never done anything to hurt her, not physically, not emotionally, at least not on purpose. He'd just been a close friend when she wasn't ready for a relationship, but had still treated her like she was his entire world. 'Of course he did,' Penny thought. 'He loved you from day one, and he never truly stopped.'

She knew he still thought he didn't deserve her, but really Penny wondered if she deserved him, especially after the way she'd treated him, by not telling him how she really felt for him. Yeah, she was the lucky one, not Leonard. He could've found someone so much better, someone willing to tell him she loved him.

Penny walked over to him and hugged him from behind. "I love you so much," she told him.

He turned around, "I love you too." As he looked at her, he added, "I'll be done in just a few minutes."

"Okay. Do you mind if I stay here and just watch you?"

"Why would I mind?"

Penny smiled. "If you'd asked me if you could just watch me do my work, it'd freak me out." She grabbed another chair and sat down next to him, deliberately letting the robe fall open partially. She smiled as she saw his eyes dart toward the opening and lingering there for a few seconds.

"Won't freak me out," he answered, before resuming his work. Penny could tell he had quite some difficulty keeping his attention on his work and she smiled. As his eyes darted to her half opened robe the fourth time she asked, "I'm not distracting you, am I?"

He glanced up at her and shook his head. "No, of course not." Once again he turned back to the computer.

She retrieved her glasses from the robe's pocket and put them on. She knew he'd give in soon, especially when she noticed the bulge in his boxers.

Leonard yawned and opened up the results and notes he'd been working on last night until Penny began to distract him. He hadn't been able to focus on his work and decided to just give in and continue his work at the lab in the morning. Stephen Hawking and Sam weren't going to be here until the afternoon, and realistically he only needed ten minutes or so to complete what he'd started last night.

Of course, that was assuming he could stay awake and not envision Penny in nothing but a pair of glasses. He wondered how someone as hot and sexy as Penny, could become even sexier just by wearing a pair of glasses. His mind conjured up the vision of Penny, sitting in the chair with her half-opened robe and a pair of glasses, placed slightly down her nose.

Damn, this was not the place to be thinking of that sort of thing. He needed to focus on his work today, or Sheldon would be proven right about Sam being the brains in their collaboration. He took a careful sip from his coffee, surprised to find it had cooled down considerable. Glancing at the little clock on his computer he realized he'd been daydreaming for close to ten minutes. He downed his coffee and got up to get a new one, before diving into his work.

Back at his desk, he went over the data and marked some of the numbers that appeared out of the ordinary. He was sure Sam would've noticed the same thing, but that didn't matter. He typed up some additional notes about the findings, before opening the brief Stephen Hawking had sent ahead of time.

Reading through it several times, to make sure he didn't miss anything, he went back to the protocol Sam and he had devised. Stephen Hawking had made some suggestions, but he conceded that at this point it was unclear if his suggestions were actually the right direction, or would take them further away from their goal.

He looked up from his work when he noticed he had company. "Hey, Howard."

"Hey, Leonard. I didn't want to disturb you while you were going over Stephen's brief."

Leonard put down his pencil. "No, that's alright. What can I do for you?"

Howard entered his lab. "I wanted to see if I could interface Stephen's computer to yours. It should help with the collaboration." He held up a circuit board. "With this, I should be able to, but I'm thinking that it might be better to link it through the mainframe. Are you currently logged in to the mainframe?"

Leonard checked. "Nope. Do you need me to?"

Howard moved toward the mainframe hookup. "In a minute. I'll plug this in first, and hook you up to the board." He suited the action to his words and in less than a minute gave Leonard the okay to logon to the mainframe.

Howard came over to Leonard's computer and performed some simple tests, before nodding his head in approval. "Yeah, that should work perfectly." He pointed at the circuit board. "I made that so it works as local network, which can interface with Stephen's wheelchair computer. It would allow you to work either locally, or directly on the mainframe."

"Excellent," Leonard said.

"Keep in mind, though, Stephen will not be as quick, given the limited motions he can make."

Sam entered the university and found Leonard's lab without trouble. "Hello, darling."

"Hey, Sam," he answered and glanced at the clock on his computer. "You're a bit early, aren't you?"

"I know, but I didn't want to be late, in case I took a wrong turn somewhere. But I didn't and found both the university and your laboratory easily. If you'd like we could compare our notes before getting a bite to eat?"

He pulled up a chair and placed it next to his. "Sure, have a seat."

Sam sat down in the chair and retrieved her laptop and powered it on. "I found some anomalies in our data," she said while the laptop was busy booting.

"Yeah, I found a couple as well. I don't think they're entirely out of the expected range, but they're somewhat off, compared to rest of the dataset. You know, I was thinking, it may have been the storms."

Sam frowned as she looked at the datapoints Leonard marked. "But we did those particular tests after the storm passed."

"I know, but what if the storm influenced the sea, all the way down the bottom. It would take quite a bit longer for that disturbance to move through the water, but it would likely be following the same path. All of our anomalies occurred over the course of two days, three days after the storms hit us. We should check if we can get a report about the currents during that period and see if there's any correlation."

Sam nodded her head. "It does sound plausible." She looked at her laptop. "So, how are we going to do this? Can I hook up my laptop to yours, or should we use USB flash drives?"

Leonard shook his head. "Lemme call Howard. He's the engineer who's going to be taking care of Stephen Hawking's wheelchair equipment. He already made a circuit board that would allow Stephen's computer to be hooked up."

Sam nodded, while she navigated toward her documents and opened the results and her notes. Moments later a short man with a Beatlesque haircut entered, who turned out to be the engineer Leonard had mentioned.

"Yeah, we could hook her up as well," he answered Leonard's question after being introduced. He took an ordinary USB cable and plugged one end into the circuit board and the other into her laptop. "I'll need to install a special driver," he said, pointing at her laptop.

Sam handed it to him and not two minutes later he gave it back. "That should do it," he said and pointed at the screen. "I've hooked you up to a folder on Leonard's computer, so you can share documents. The driver will automatically copy modifications from and to your laptop, so you don't have to worry about that. You can also logon to the mainframe, but you'll have to copy anything from and to the mainframe yourself. Leonard will know how to do that."

Melissa sat down with a big sigh.

"You'll get used to it," Penny told her as she sat down opposite her. "Though this was a pretty busy shift."

"I never realized how hard a waitress has to work, or how much you depend on tips until I started here."

"Been there, done that," Penny said with a nod. "Wait till you get the late night shift. You'll have some cleaning up to do, after all the customers have left."

Melissa moaned. "I'll never get through that." She just couldn't imagine having to work even more after having pulled of her regular work.

"You will, trust me. The first few shifts I was just like you, exhausted, didn't want to get up, but gradually I learned to do it."

"Exhausted? I'm beyond exhausted. I don't even want to get up to go home."

Penny laughed. "Just give it a few minutes, and you'll be fine. I have almost an hour before my second shift starts."

"You're doing another shift," Melissa asked, with no small amount of awe.

"Yeah, but I'll be behind the bar tonight, so that's a bit easier. But I've done double waitress shifts in the past, so it can be done, though I wouldn't suggest to that on a regular basis, or for any longer than a week."

"Why would you even want to?"

Penny shrugged. "It's extra money, so why not? Sometimes your bills might be higher than you anticipated, or something breaks and needs to be replaced. Granted, now that I live with Leonard, money isn't a real issue, but they needed the extra help and since Leonard's working late most of the week, I figured I might as well volunteer."

"Does your boyfriend work late often?"

Penny shook her head. "No, but this week his British colleague and him are going over their experiments on the North-Sea, so they kinda have to."

"Aren't you worried that there might be more between them then work?"

Penny shook her head and smiled. "No, no need to worry." She leaned in closer and said in a hushed voice, "she's into women, not men." Sitting back and continuing in a normal tone of voice, she added, "Besides, Leonard's not really the type to cheat on his girlfriend. I don't think any of the guys are. Generally, they're just happy when they have a girlfriend."

Melissa smiled. "Yeah, same with Linda and boyfriends. I just don't understand why guys don't see what a wonderful person she is."

"Pretty much the same reason most girls don't see how wonderful guys like Leonard, Howard, and Raj are. They're being judged by the fact they're into comics, science, sci-fi, instead of looking at the person and see their passion, their personality. I used to be the same, before I met the guys."

"What's it like, dating a smart person?"

Penny smiled. "I'm not going to lie to you. It's different. They have their interests, which is usually not something you share with them. But it's also wonderful, at least it's been that way with Leonard."

Melissa watched Penny with interest, and could tell she was reliving some pretty good memories. "Well, I've hung out with a smart person most of my life, so I think I know what to expect."

"You haven't been in a relationship with one. What you need to realize is that, for most of them, they're mostly inexperienced when it comes to romantic relationships. This can make them very insecure, with all kinds of aspects. Leonard always found it troubling that wherever I went, guys would hit on me. A regular boyfriend would have either told the guy to go away or, at the very least, make sure everybody knew I was taken."

Penny took a sip of water, before continuing. "Leonard always felt he didn't measure up to them, and I might leave him at anytime. Add to that that he's short, and the only way he could deal with guys hitting on me was to sulk and, believe it or not, do some pretty stupid things."

Melissa nodded, mulling over the information. "But you think it's worth it?"

Penny nodded. "Oh, yes. Especially once you make clear to him he doesn't need to worry, that you love him, it could very well be the best relationship of your life. But, like you said earlier, being Linda's friend for so long, probably helps you a little to understand him better."

Melissa nodded again, and sat in silence, thinking about all Penny had told her. Perhaps dating someone like Dr. Koothrappali wouldn't be the worst decision of her life. Linda didn't seem to think so. "What's Dr. Koothrappali like?" The question was out of her mouth before she knew.

Penny smiled. "Between you and me, you couldn't find a better guy than Raj. He used to be unable to talk to women, unless he got drunk, but that's no longer a problem. He's had a hard time, probably the hardest of the guys, because of his inability to talk to women."

"Penny," Leonard called as he walked into the apartment, putting the keys in the bowl near the apartment door. He stepped into the apartment and called her name again, but no reply came. She probably was still on her way home.

He walked to their bedroom and got undressed to get a shower. Being cooped up in his lab for hours with a failing AC hadn't been the best way the day could've gone. Luckily, maintenance had assured him the AC would be fixed by tomorrow late morning, so they wouldn't have to go through that another day.

He turned on the water, before taking of his pants and his glasses. He stepped under the stream and sighed at the soothing feel of the water on his body. He stood there for a minute, before grabbing the Darth Vader shampoo.

Just as he rinsed out the shampoo, Penny's arms snaked around his torso. "Hey," he said while trying to turn around but Penny prevented him from actually doing so.

"Just stay like this," she half whispered, pushing herself tightly against him.

Leonard simply nodded, content to feel her body pressed against him. "I missed you today." Penny simply hummed, a signal she felt the same. "Hard day," he asked, which Penny asked in a similar fashion to his previous statement. He decided to keep quiet, until she felt like talking to him.

After a few more minutes she simply said "turn," but not in a commanding tone. Nonetheless, Leonard turned around immediately, Penny maintaining physical contact the entire time. She kissed him passionately, letting the water cascade over them. After a while, too soon as far as he was concerned, she broke the kiss, sighed and place her head on his shoulder.

Leonard held her in his arms, enjoying the feel of her, but worried about her current state of mind. She was the strong one in this relationship, the one who could handle almost anything. He couldn't imagine what could've possibly got her shaken up like that today at work. But at the same time, he knew it would be pointless to try and force it out of her. Eventually she'd tell him, when she was ready to talk about it.

They were standing there for perhaps another two minutes, before she asked, "Do you think I'm stupid?"

"No, of course not. Penny, you may not be super smart like the guys and I, but you're definitely not stupid!" He wondered what brought this on. They hadn't spoken all day, and there hadn't been more than three very short texting conversations, and everything had seemed fine at the last one.

"During the late shift, a couple of educated women came in. I could hear them talking, saying that you must be really stupid if you work at the Cheesecake Factory."

"What?" Leonard couldn't believe anyone would say that. "Bernadette worked at the Cheesecake Factory. She isn't stupid, is she?"

"No, but she worked there while she was finishing her education, and quit as soon as she was finished. But let's face it, I work there because I don't have any degree. Most of us there are in the same position as I am. Aspiring actor slash actress, but pretty much none of us really make it. And why do we work these jobs? Because we can't do anything that requires any form of education, because we never finished ours. We're stupid."

Leonard sighed. "Penny, you're not stupid, nor are your coworkers. You've simply chosen a different path in life." He paused. "And since when do you care what anyone else thinks?" He only got a shrug in response, so he continued, "And you're still going to your history classes, and that's going great, isn't it?"

"Yeah, if someo... Whatever."

Leonard grinned. "You mean when you get Bernadette or Amy to help you with your papers?"

She looked up at him. "You know? Well, that just proves it, doesn't it? I must be stupid if I can't write my own papers."

"Or you're smart enough to ask for help to improve yourself. I'm assuming that first one was pretty much entirely written by either one of them, and for the record, no, they didn't tell me. But how about the last one, the B minus?"

"They wrote that first one," Penny admitted.

"And the last one," Leonard prompted her again.

"They helped me make it better."

"See, you're not stupid. You went from having someone write the paper for you, to writing your own paper and have someone go over it to make it better. You learned to write better papers, and learned the subject matter. If you were really stupid, you wouldn't have been able to do that."

"Hmm," was the only thing she said, moving her hands down to the small of his back. They stood like that for a minute or so, before she said, "We should probably finish our shower."

This time Leonard answered with a, "hmm," unsure if he should drop the subject so easily. Did he actually make her feel better, or was she just worried he'd be angry at or disappointed in her if she continued to pursue the subject. He didn't get much of a choice, as Penny grabbed her loofa.

He watched her as she began cleaning herself and felt himself react physically. Penny just grinned and winked at him. "I'll be done quick, I promise."

Raj shook himself and thought, 'come on, dude! Focus!' Ever since he'd met Linda's friend, he found himself daydreaming about her. But he couldn't ask her out, even though the girl was not a grad student. It could make things awkward between Linda and him, or between Linda and her best friend.

No, he just couldn't start dating that sweet and beautiful girl. It hurt, he realized. He was finally in a position where he could talk with a woman he had feelings for, but he had to refrain from doing so, to make sure the three of them could still get along.

Of course it didn't help that the three of them were going to lunch again. Why had he said yes when Linda asked? He was sure she wouldn't have asked if she knew what kind of things he was thinking about, regarding her best friend.

"Enter," he said when someone knocked on the door.

"Oh, hello Dr. Koothrappali. I was looking for Linda, but couldn't find her. I was a little early for lunch, but I figured she wouldn't mind if I kept her company."

"Oh, I think she's still going over her research data. I don't think she wants to be disturbed."

The beautiful woman shrugged lightly. "Do you mind if I wait here until she gets back?"

Raj shook his head and gestured to the chair opposite his. "No, of course not. Have a seat." 'Excellent way to attempt to keep her at bay,' he thought to himself.

Melissa smiled and walked in. "You're sure? I can just wait in the cafeteria, if you need to work."

"No, that's alright. I didn't take a break earlier, so I'm due for one." He wasn't actually lying, though in reality he pretty much hadn't accomplished any task yet, this morning. "Please, tell me more about yourself."

Penny got out of bed, thinking about last night. She really didn't deserve such a sweet guy like Leonard in her life. He'd been so great during her moment of insecurity, not pushing her when she first arrived and didn't talk to him at all. He hadn't laughed at her when she told him what had bothered her, hadn't made any accusations about her deceiving him with her grade on the first paper.

Instead, he'd been very supportive, letting her know she wasn't stupid, simply by pointing out her accomplishments. She felt a lot better, but she'd been so tired, she didn't actually go through with her planned thank you. Instead they'd just spooned and she'd fallen asleep in minutes. She'd have to make up for that tonight, especially since Leonard hadn't even brought it up after their shower.

She grabbed one of Leonards shirts and walked toward the kitchen area, ready to make some breakfast. While working on that, she thought back to yesterday, wondering why it had bothered her so much. Like Leonard had said last night, she usually didn't care what others thought of her.

But it hadn't been what others thought of her, she now realized. It had been about what she thought of herself. Plus, the fear that Leonard would sooner or later find a girl that was as smart as he was. Just like the way she felt when she found out he was partnered with a woman. Just like she'd told Linda, she'd been so relieved to find Sam was not at all interested in him.

But what about the next smart woman to cross his path, she asked herself. Would she be forever worried he'd dump her for someone smarter than she was? Then she smiled wistfully, as she realized her fears were so similar to Leonard's. She knew he was afraid she'd dump him for someone who was, in his eyes at least, more attractive, or taller.

So, perhaps she should take her own advice to him to heart herself. She'd told him to stop doing that to himself, that she was with him. Wasn't it true that she should just accept he'd chosen her, wanted to spend his life with her, if his proposals had been any indication.

"Why not," Melissa asked, a little hurt that he turned her down.

"You're Linda's best friend, I'm her adviser. It just would get awkward between the three of us."

Melissa smiled. "You do realize you'd be dating me, not the both of us."

He chuckled. "I do, and believe me, I don't have any such feelings toward Linda." He seemed to be looking for words. "I don't want to make you or her feel awkward."

Melissa smiled again. "I appreciate that, and I'm sure Linda appreciates that too. But you do realize she'd been trying to get us to go on a date, right?"

He looked incredulous. "She is? Are you sure?"

Melissa nodded. "Oh yeah, I'm sure. I'm also pretty sure she got your friend's girlfriend to help her out. You know, the one that works at the Cheesecake Factory."

"And you're sure Linda is okay with this?"

"Think about it, she invited you to lunch which she was supposed to have with just me. She only did that because..." She paused, not sure if she should let him know she'd already fallen for him the minute she'd seen him. "Because the day before she figured out I was interested in you."

He seemed to think about it, and then smiled. "Okay, we'll go out on a date. When is a good night for you?"

She smiled, happy he had finally accepted her invitation to go on a date. "How about Friday evening? I'll be finished around five at the Cheesecake Factory. I'd be ready to go around six."

He nodded. "Sounds good. If you'd like, I could come pick you up, or we could meet at the restaurant? What kind of food do you like?"

"I love Mexican food," she replied, still smiling. "If you have a pen and a piece of paper, I'll give you my address, so you could pick me up." She wrote down the address on the piece of paper he handed to her, and gave it back to him.

"Oh, that's just two blocks away from my place," he said, after reading the piece of paper.

Penny waited impatiently in the bedroom for Leonard to get back home. She'd put on a black teddy, knowing how Leonard preferred seeing her in black. In addition she wore the glasses and had opened one of his science books. She tried reading it, but most of it was too difficult to follow. It didn't matter; as soon as Leonard saw her he would make sure the book was the first to go.

She had to wait for almost half an hour when the apartment door finally opened, and Leonard called her name. "Bedroom," was her only reply. Seconds later Leonard entered the bedroom and stood still at the door, swallowing audibly. She glanced over the top of her glasses. "Hi, honey." She patted the bed. "Why don't you join me?"

She giggled when he practically ripped of his clothes, trying to join her as quickly as possible. He apparently noticed her book as he stepped in bed and simply said, "you're so hot," before kissing her passionately.

She returned the kiss with equal passion and smiled when Leonard tossed the book on the floor. She gently pushed him back on the bed and sat on his abdomen, caressing his chest before bending over to kiss him on the lips once again. "I know I kinda disappointed you last night, after hinting we'd do this then, but I was just too tired. So, I'm making it up to you now."

"I wasn't disappointed."

Penny raised her eyebrow. "Really?"

"Alright, I'd preferred it if you hadn't been too tired, but I'm not a total jerk and demand to have sex just because I want it."

She smiled. "I know. You're the kindest person I know. But still, I want to make it up to you, because I think you deserve it. Plus, you turn me on without even trying." She kissed him tenderly on the lips, deepening the kiss as their passion increased.

"I hope I'm not gonna regret this," Leonard asked when they ended the kiss, "but you're not upset anymore about what those students said?"

She shook her head. "Nope. I know now that I'm actually really smart."

Now Leonard raised his eyebrows. "How so?"

"I chose you as my boyfriend. I chose to ask you to move in together. Those are decisions only smart women make. Now shut up and let me give you the ride of your lifetime."