The Sheldon Cooper Effect (AKA: The Initiated Hug Sequence)
The guys and Leonard are testing ways to improve their memory. Sheldon being Sheldon, they kick him out. Penny and Sheldon have a chat. She drives him to Siam Palace as it is Monday. They go back to her apartment.
Walking up the stairs they get into a conversation of what Sheldon would have been otherwise missing out on with the guys.
"I can remember a lot of stuff, random information." Penny was saying to him. "I barely ever needed to study or read a text more than once since I remember it very easily. I can remember quotes, facts, images, and entire dialogs of movies but I have issues remembering trivial stuff, like what I need to buy at the supermarket, or what time I need to go to for an audition, so I keep an agenda with a complicated set of alarms on my phone as well as a paper one, and even then, it fails."
"Memory is a funny thing, Penny, especially if you have a eidetic memory like me. Not a lot of people do. People like you. I always wonder what's going on in your funny little brains. How you manage to survive. I suppose it comes down to remembering the most important thing of all... Pants first... THEN shoes !"
Penny laughed as they went around the corner of the second flight of stairs. What puzzles her is the fact that Sheldon can be empathetic sometimes and is not so much. In instances like these he was normal, he was a human being. Simply her being here and setting him up with Amy was changing him for the better.
When she first met him, Sheldon barely made eye contact. His behavior far less than human. Now when they were alone in moments like this she saw in his eyes a familiar type of hurt.
They come up the third flight of stairs, stopping outside Penny's apartment.
Across the hall, Leonard, having heard the commotion, opens the door, and sees Penny with Sheldon. She goes to hug Sheldon. His body is tense for a second. Then, to Leonard's, as much as Penny's, he relaxes, though it is obvious that he is unsure what to do with his hands (plus he had the bag in one of them) From what Leonard can tell from Sheldon's expression, he doesn't understand why she is hugging him. Awkwardly he puts his hands around her but hesitates, as if he's about to pat her on the back. "Sorry." He tries to reposition his hands. He takes his arms out from around her. "Sorry. Can we just..." He looks around for a place to set the bag and sets it down beside him. He tries to give her a hug. It once again becomes awkward as he is still hesitant."Nope. Sorry." He simply with drew his hands and put them back down by his sides.
"Why do you keep apologizing?"
"I'm sorry, Penny. This is just not going to work. " He says fidgeting a bit. "Things are moving way too fast."
If Penny didn't know any better and didn't interpret his little quirks a sign as him being uncomfortable, she'd think it was an attempt at sarcasm. You never know what it is with Sheldon now a days.
"There's the Sheldon I know." Penny smiles, putting the key into the lock and turning it. Sheldon picks up the take out bag and follows her inside, both of them unaware Leonard had been watching.
Leonard had never seen Penny this happy in the last few days. He decided to let them have some privacy. For now all she needed was a friend.
AN: I did explain about Penny's 'father' that we meant in season 4. It's in the second chapter unless you skimmed over it. He was actually an actor Penny hired to pretend to be her dad. I know the concept might seem too far out there but she is going through an identity crisis. She doesn't want to hide her feelings so she expresses them by telling Leonard about her real dad without him knowing the truth. She wants to tell him the truth but is afraid that he would feel sorry for her. She trusts him enough to openly talk about her father, Paul but if she told Leonard she'd been lying about who she really is, she thinks that Leonard will leave her. She wants to remain as Penny as long as she doesn't loose sight of who she really is. She grew up in a household where sharing your feelings was encouraged. She wants to tell Leonard so badly because she does trust him, only her fear of loosing him that's standing in the way.
It could also work as an AU story though.
I wish in the show they'd do an actual AU story, where Sheldon and Penny are together. The episode would be a satire on the whole Shenny thing.
PLOT: Penny hits her head and ends up in an Alternate Universe where she never met Leonard, Sheldon and Raj live across the hall from her and she eventually gets involved with Sheldon (because in this reality Leonard doesn't exists) near the end of the episode she wakes up, only to discover it had all been a dream, to Leonard, she says she 'just had the worst nightmare" Now that would be something.