No clue what to say to you guys, except saying thank you, again. It amazes me that people like what I write.


Penny had changed her routine to avoid him. Hers wasn't as strict as Sheldon's, that much was true, but certain things were constants. If she didn't work, Penny would sleep in until 10:30, then she would have her coffee and shower before running errands and having lunch with friends. If she did work, then she would shower immediately afterward before coming over for dinner. If she didn't care for whatever was planned as the evening meal then she would eat at home and have a glass of wine while watching a reality show before going to bed.

She wasn't following her established patterns at all, Sheldon couldn't hunt her down. She had even traded a shift at The Cheesecake Factory that Tuesday so that she wouldn't have to deal with him. He knew that Penny was avoiding him, he could feel it. The moment he entered the apartment complex, it was everywhere. Avoidance was paramount, but it was the hurt and denial that got to him the most. The feminine aura that surrounded her when they first met felt tainted, it wasn't as pure and innocent as he remembered. It was wounded now, and as fresh as a cut.

Penny wouldn't answer Sheldon's calls, texts, or e-mails. She wouldn't answer the door when he knocked, she wouldn't answer the door for anyone.

He had to resort to subterfuge.

Sheldon hovered by the door, waiting to feel her walk up the stairs. Once he felt her, he looked through the peep-hole to see her. Once he saw her, he popped out of his apartment. He knew the moment Penny realized he was in the hall. Her entire body tensed up, waiting for him to say something.

"Penny? May we talk?" Sheldon asked timidly.

"Wouldn't you rather just read my mind?" She asked sharply.

Sheldon mutely shook his head. "May we talk?" He asked again.

"Fine." Penny replied in a flat voice before unlocking her door. She walked in and then gestured him to follow.

Penny walked over to her chair and sat down, "You wanna talk, so talk." She stated as she crossed her arms.

You didn't have to be an empath to know that she really didn't want to have this conversation.

Sheldon assumed his lecture stance, hands clasped behind his back, and began talking. "Once again I feel the need to say sorry. It was never my intention to ambush you but you left me little choice."

"I left you little choice?" Penny scoffed.

Sheldon glared at the wall right above her head for a moment before continuing, "As I was saying, you left me little choice. I feel that I must explain what happened three days ago. We were discussing a discovery that you had made about me, which in turn led me to a revelation about why particles behave as if they have no mass..."

Penny waved her hand in annoyance, "Yeah, I got it the first time. It's a wave."

Sheldon gave a small smile. "Yes, yes it is. However this discovery led to you leaving. Why did you leave?"

"Why didn't you tell me that you were one big walking lie?" Penny countered.

Sheldon blinked and took a step back. "I'm not a liar." He stated firmly.

"Yes, you are." Penny stood up in full confrontation mode, "You lied to me! You never told me that you could read my thoughts! Do you have any idea how creepy that is? It's almost like you came in here while I was sleeping or something! It's a total invasion of my privacy, Sheldon. How would you like it if I could do that to you?"

"You wouldn't be able to understand half of the things going on inside my head, Penny." Fake Sheldon was on auto-pilot. He deserved the evil glare coming from Penny.

"Don't. Even." She ground out.

Sheldon raised his hands up in surrender. "Ok, Penny." She looked startled as his entire demeanor changed, "No pretenses, no lies. Any questions you wanna ask, I'll answer." He moved over and plopped down on the couch, waiting for his very own inquisition.

"What are you?"

At least it was an easy one, "An empath. Although lately I seem to be developing at a rapid pace."

She took a moment to process this. "Ok." She whispered, "Ok, so this means you know what other people are feeling right? Like happy or sad?"

"It started out that simple yes. Just knowing that people were happy or sad. Then I one day I realized why they felt the way the did."

"Maybe you're just really good at sympathizing?" She asked hopefully.

"Sympathy is defined as an agreement of feeling, as between persons or on the part of one person with respect to another. When Leonard first moved in, his mother decided to visit. Her disappointment in him, Penny I felt it. It wasn't just knowing how she felt, it was as if I felt it first hand. She is disappointed that he isn't a leader in his field, she believes that he discredits her as a leader in child and parenting physiology. Her hope is that if she constantly forces him to achieve perfection, that one day he will be as successful as his siblings. I got all of that in the first ten minutes of meeting her. Leonard wasn't even in the room." Sheldon tried another tactic, one that he was sure she would understand. "First with Leonard in the stairwell, and again with Howard after your shower, I felt their arousal as if it was my own. It was all I could do to not attack you, possess you. That was why I had to avoid you until I could control myself again."

Penny was upset, this much Sheldon knew. He had his shields up as high and as thick as he could make them so that he wouldn't intrude on her. It was frustrating to say the least.

"So you felt their lust like it was yours?" She asked for clarification.

Sensing a trap, but not quite sure what the trap was, he nodded slowly.

"So then this isn't really you. You don't really want me, Leonard and Howard do and you being an empath," she spit the word out like it was a curse, "made you like me." Penny accused. Once again little tingles were picking at his shielding.

Sheldon closed his eyes and tried to maintain his calm and not let what he had recently dubbed his 'Penny-sense' get through to him.

"No." He answered her quietly, "Nothing the three of them could do, or feel as the case may be, can make me do anything."

Along with her glare came more tingles. One of which had to have been an arrow that found the weak link in his armor and his protection against her went tumbling down. Anger was paramount, tangled in with disbelief and wanting to hurt him as she had been hurt. Feeling like she had been tricked kept fading and coming back depending on what she was thinking of.

So softly that he had trouble hearing her she said, "Lie."

Drowning in her anger, wanting to lash out he exploded, "I am not a liar! Do you really think that there is anything those three idiots could do, say, or feel that could force me to do anything?" In this moment Fake Sheldon was gone, the real him had fought to the surface and was determined to stay there. His accent kept getting thicker as he continued speaking, "The only thing the three of them thought about, have ever thought about, was getting into your pants. It was all physical, and with Howard it pretty much still is. That man thinks with his dick more than anyone else on earth."

Sheldon reveled in her slight amusement before continuing. "Their feelings made me decide to practice control again. I didn't want to feel that way towards you."

Penny interrupted again, "So you were forced into it."

"Well yes," Sheldon agreed. "Penny, you forced me into it. You were so nice to a bunch of nerds, well I classify myself as more of a geek but I digress, you made fun of us but you never did it to hurt us." He turned to clasp hands with her and forced her to look him in the eye, "And you may not want to hear this, but since day one your aura, or whatever you wanna name it, called to me. Since the very beginning you made me feel safe, which is something I never felt with someone outside of my Meemaw. Yes, you are attractive. You are desirable. At night I lie awake and crave your touch, I am ashamed to say that sometimes it comes to the point of self-abuse. I stayed away from you because I was scared of you, of what you represented. Of what you could mean to me. But Penny, I'm not afraid anymore."

Sheldon gently let go of her hands, but kept his eyes locked with hers. "The question now becomes, what do you feel? Can you accept my condition? Can you accept me? The real me?"

Penny stayed silent and Sheldon closed his eyes, trying to build his shielding up. He figured it would make things easier when she rejected him if he couldn't feel it coming.

"You, Sheldon the empath, don't know what I feel?" She asked. With his eyes closed he didn't see the small smile on her face.

"I am trying very hard not to." Was his answer.

Penny gave a small chuckle from deep in her throat, "Sheldon, what am I gonna do with you?"