The next three nights went almost exactly the same as the first, except that on the second day, Sheldon handed her a package of prenatal vitamins. She almost thanked him before remembering that he was doing it for his future child, not her. For the next few weeks, Penny tried to forget what she and Sheldon had done. She spent her days sleeping in late, going to work at the Cheesecake Factory and then going right to sleep when she got home. She didn't know if her tiredness was due to stress or… something else. Then one afternoon, she walked into her workplace to find the whole restaurant reeking of garlic, except no one else but her could smell it. She traced the smell back to a cutting board that was sitting in the dish rack, waiting to be washed. Her heart seemed to skip a beat as she stared at it, and then ran for the ladies' rooms, where she cried for fifteen minutes straight. Eventually, one of the hostesses came in after her, asking if she was okay.
I think I'm pregnant, Penny thought. Out loud, she said, "I'm fine. Just some bad cramps."
At the end of the evening, she turned over her last few tables to another server and left early. She'd never asked Sheldon about it, but she was certain that he had a stock of pregnancy tests somewhere. She didn't even feel guilty about knocking on his door a half hour past his bedtime. Once she explained why she was there, he questioned her carefully about her symptoms until she snapped, "Just give me the damn stick to pee on." He obeyed, muttering something about mood swings under his breath.
Five minutes later, three separate tests from three different manufacturers (each hermetically sealed in a plastic bag) were showing positive. Pregnant. Penny stared at them and wondered if throwing up was an appropriate response.
"Success," Sheldon said in an awed whisper. Then he looked at her and frowned. "Penny, you do not look well. Please come and sit down, and I will make you some peppermint tea. Mint extract is supposed to have a soothing effect on an upset stomach."
Dazed, she allowed him to lead her to the sofa. He tucked a blanket carefully around her and then bustled about in the kitchen. He handed her a steaming mug of tea in a surprisingly short time. Holding another mug of tea, he sat down in the chair across from her and asked, "How are you feeling?"
This was enough to shock Penny out of her fugue state. "Hold on. You're not sitting in your spot; my feet are in your spot. You just asked me how I'm feeling, and did I hear you say please a few minutes ago?" Her voice had risen as if she were accusing him of something shameful instead of being nice to her.
"Penny, you are now the mother of my child. As such, you deserve a level of courtesy which is at least equivalent to and perhaps greater than the courtesy which I normally extend only to myself."
Penny stared at him, shook her head disbelievingly. "I don't know if I'm knocked up, or if I've just fallen down a rabbit hole."
"An allusion to the classic children's literary novel, Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll. Very good, Penny," he enthused.
She stared at him, wondering just how far this strange new courtesy would go. To test him, she said, "I think I need to lie down. Can I sleep in your bed?"
As it turned out, there were limits to how generous Sheldon was willing to be toward the mother of his progeny. While he refused her his bed, he did escort Penny to her own bed with her hand tucked firmly into the crook of his elbow. He then smoothed out her sheets and plumped her pillows, waited until she crawled under the covers, and then drew them up under her chin.
"Good night, Penny," he said quietly.
She tossed and turned for a long time before finally drifting off to sleep, wondering if she would wake up tomorrow to find she had dreamed or hallucinated the whole thing.
The next few days proved that it was no dream. Sheldon continued his strange behavior, which might have almost seemed normal for anyone else. He asked how she was feeling, made her herbal teas and pestered her to take her vitamins. He also did extensive research online before selecting an obstetrician. As Penny prepared to move into Leonard's old room, he even offered to pay to store some of her furniture. At this point, the only thing their friends knew was that Penny was moving into the spare room to save money. There were times when Penny was strongly tempted to announce that they were moving in together because Sheldon had knocked her up, but she didn't.
Two weeks later, the move was completed. Penny had signed a sublease for the apartment but absolutely refused to sign any roommate agreement. Nonplussed, but by then accustomed to deferring to her, Sheldon reluctantly put away the contract he had drawn up. Although he would never have admitted it, he was pleased to see that she was starting to regain some of her old self-confidence.
None of that confidence was evident the day Penny pulled her car into a parking space in front of a medical building. She glanced apprehensively at Sheldon. "I'm nervous. I'm not sure I can go through with this." she whispered.
He patted her hand. "There, there, Penny. You are relatively young and physically fit. The odds are good that your pregnancy is progressing normally."
She shook her head. "That's not what I meant." Instead of clarifying her statement, she slid her hand out from under his grasp and opened her car door. "Let's get this over with."
They must have looked like a couple as they entered the doctor's office. Sheldon even held the door for Penny like his mother had taught him. His southern manners were rusty from disuse, but he could never forget them. It was strange how knowing Penny was pregnant with his child had made all those irrelevant social courtesies seem appropriate. In fact, he was developing the strangest compulsion to touch Penny whenever he could. He presumed it was some possessive instinct. He held her hand or arm to help her out of a chair or her car, hugged her when she was upset, and he liked to stroke her hair when she was tired. He noticed how much she liked that too. Since she had always been the one person he allowed to touch him casually, it was easy for this to become the new norm in their friendship.
He sat down next to her to begin filling out the medical forms. As he did so, he mused that they were most likely the only two present to have conceived as a fulfillment of a contract. It didn't matter to him. In fact, as far as he was concerned, all relationships would run much more smoothly if they were governed by a contract. Of course, he'd also had a contract with Amy, and look how that had turned out. Perhaps Penny had a point about refusing to sign his roommate agreement. Even that casual reminder of his ex-girlfriend made his hands start to tremble. He put down the pen and his breathing sped up as the walls seemed to close around him. He felt a hand on his arm.
"You look terrible," Penny whispered. "Are you sure you want to be here for the exam?"
He jerked his head up and down. "I am quite certain. I just happened to think of... Amy." A muscle twitched under his eye as he said her name.
She reached out and laced her fingers through his. "What made you think of her?"
He glanced down at their joined hands but didn't comment or pull away. Ever since those few strange nights of conception, he hadn't minded holding her hand. It felt as if he was actually drawing strength and comfort from the gesture, although he recognized how unusual that was for him. Even when he had been dating Amy, Penny was still the one he felt most comfortable around. "I was pondering our unique circumstances in that you have contractually agreed to bear my progeny."
This earned him a sharp kick to his ankle. "Say it a little louder; I don't think the receptionist heard you," she hissed. He opened his eyes and looked at her in astonishment. The sudden rush of anger he felt when she kicked him had completely banished his panic. When he opened his mouth to respond, she quickly clapped a hand over his mouth.
"That was sarcasm, you idiot," she whispered and then released him with a sharp warning glance.
Just then, a nurse in scrubs opened a door and called Penny's name. She gave him a look he wished he could decipher. "I guess that's us," she said. He squeezed her hand gently, and she clung to him tightly. He continued to hold hands with her until they reached the exam room.
He hovered close by, feeling useless and unwanted, as the nurse weighed Penny and monitored her heart rate and blood pressure. Then he waited impatiently outside the exam room while Penny changed into the paper gown provided for her. Once she told him he could enter, he found her staring at the models that depicted various stages of pregnancy and childbirth.
"Too late to back out now," she said with a forced smile that even he could tell wasn't genuine. He told her to lie back on the exam table and stroked her hair. The fragile moment of calm was broken once the doctor entered the room. Penny grabbed Sheldon's hand, and her nails dug into his palm. He yelped, and she eased off reluctantly without seeming to relax.
In just a few moments, Sheldon was the one who was about to go ballistic. The doctor, who was a middle-aged man, had told Penny that he was going to perform a physical exam. Apparently, neither Sheldon or Penny were expecting him to pull open the front of her paper gown and start palpitating her breasts. Penny let out a startled gasp. Sheldon, who hated confrontation, found himself on his feet, yelling at the doctor and trying to get between him and Penny.
After the doctor left in a huff, Sheldon turned back to Penny, who was staring at him wide-eyed as she tried to hold the edges of her paper gown together. With a soft cry, she reached for him. When he drew near, she hugged him tightly. He could feel that she was shaking.
"I'm sorry. Ever since my grandma died, I don't like doctors or hospitals," she whispered. "I thought I was over it until that creep came in and started feeling me up, and I panicked."
"He had absolutely no right to treat you that way," Sheldon insisted. After she had calmed down, he handed her her shirt and told her to put it on. "They will make this right, or I will give this practice a one-star review on every website I can find," he growled. Penny laughed a little at that, but the expression on her face as she looked at him was completely trusting.
"Thank you," she whispered. "I don't know what I'd do if you weren't here."
"You would have no reason to be here if it weren't for me," he pointed out.
She chuckled weakly. "You know what I mean. I'm just glad you're here."
After a few minutes, there was a knock on the door and a petite, dark-haired woman entered. "Hello, I'm Dr. Salinas," she said. "I understand you had an issue with Dr. Oberholzer?"
"Was that his name? He didn't even bother introducing himself. He just came in and starting molesting my… my friend," Sheldon retorted.
Dr. Salinas shook her head. "He's very good with high risk pregnancies, but sometimes his bedside manner is a bit abrupt."
"Doesn't sound like anyone I know," Penny said, looking at Sheldon with a grin.
Sheldon looked at the doctor uneasily. "Are you saying that my child is at risk?"
"Your child? Forgive me, I thought you were just a friend," the doctor said.
"That's correct," he answered.
The doctor was starting to look confused.
"We're just friends, but I agreed to have his baby. I don't want to go into the reasons, but…" Penny trailed off, unwilling to explain about their contract.
"Of course, I understand. What a wonderful thing you're doing for your friend," Dr. Salinas replied, smiling. "And no, there's nothing that indicates there are any problems with your pregnancy. Now, how about we get started with your exam?"
Penny wasn't at all sure her doctor understood the situation since even she still found it strange. She was also under the impression that the doctor thought Sheldon was gay, but she wasn't about to try to explain further. Instead, she listened as Dr. Salinas carefully explained every part of the physical before proceeding. Sheldon also paid close attention, although he stepped behind the curtain as Dr. Salinas showed Penny how to perform a mammary self-exam. Once that part was over, they invited Sheldon back.
"Let's take a listen to your baby's heartbeat," the obstetrician said cheerfully. She pulled out a handheld device with a short wand attached to it. Placing the wand against Penny's lower abdomen, she moved it around until a rushing, pulsating sound came through clearly.
"What's that?" Penny asked. "Is that our baby?"
"Yes, it's your baby's heart beating," the doctor answered.
"Why does it sound so fast? Is the baby okay?" she wondered.
Dr. Salinas smiled. "Yes, that's exactly how the heartbeat is supposed to sound at this point. At eight weeks gestation, your baby's heart beats much faster than an adult's."
"The average is between one hundred fifty and one hundred seventy beats per minute," Sheldon said.
"That's right," the doctor answered, sounding surprised. "Wow, someone's really been doing his homework."
Sheldon chimed in with a few more "fun facts" about fetal development. The doctor was impressed with his knowledge, but Penny said dismissively that it didn't count since he had an eidetic memory. That earned her a nod and a "Very good, Penny," comment from Sheldon for remembering the correct terminology. She shook her head with a grin, still not used to his deference to her. The two of them left the obstetrician's office feeling much more relaxed.
"I really like Dr. Salinas. I wanted to thank you for sticking up for me with that jerk doctor," Penny said, laying a hand on Sheldon's arm.
"Of course. I couldn't have him upsetting you. I was displeased myself with his boorish manhandling of your person." He patted her hand, and then tucked it into the crook of his elbow as he escorted her to her car.
His behavior, old-fashioned yet gallant, made Penny feel warm inside. When he just bothered to treat people like… well, like people instead of inanimate objects, he really was a sweetheart.