I'm sorry for the wait, but this chapter is a little longer than normal so I hope it makes up for it! I also really like this chapter a lot and I hope you all like it as much as me! :)
Enjoy!
Chapter 9
"Is there something wrong with your face, Sheldon?" Leonard never took his eyes off the road as he asked his roommate.
Sheldon dropped his long-fingered hand from his cheek and answered. "No, Leonard, there is nothing wrong with my face."
"You keep touching your cheek like there is." The shorter man replied as he turned into the Caltech parking lot.
"Nothing is wrong." He felt his face twitch and hoped his friend hadn't seen. It was already bad enough that he had to keep the fact that Penny kissed his cheek a secret. He was sure he didn't have to, but he didn't feel like informing Leonard about it.
"Um, alright then." He was content to leaving it be and Sheldon was grateful for his friend's lack of interest in the things that seem to bother him.
The two friends walked side by side into the University, talking about the normal things they usually talked about. Superheroes, TV shows, Spock... It wasn't until they reached Sheldon's office when Leonard paused their conversation midway through a sentence and looked nervous.
"What is it, Leonard?" Sheldon clutched the strap of his bag and looked down at his friend. "But make it quick. I need to get to my work."
"Um, this morning Leslie called and asked if I could give her a ride after work today."
"Leonard, I hope you told her no. You know, how much I despise her." He sighed.
"Actually, I said yes." Leonard closed his eyes, like he was preparing for a blow to the face or something.
"Very well." Sheldon spoke with a roll to his eyes. "I will ask Penny to take me home. Have a nice day at work, Leonard." He was about to walk into his office, when his short-friend prevented him. Again.
"You can't just expect her to come pick you up, Sheldon." His voice took on a whiny quality that Sheldon disliked. "Why can't you just deal with Leslie for the five minutes she'll be in the car?"
"I'd rather not. Penny will be picking me up. Good day, Leonard." And this time he walked into his office and shut the door.
It was a wonder he had actually been able to get some work done. His stomach was in knots and he glanced at the ticking clock above the door every five minutes. The meeting he was supposed to be having with Dr. Gablehouser was coming up soon and his heart sank at the prospect of bad news.
He wished Penny were here.
The moment that thought passed through his brain, he froze. It seemed lately that his mind was often plagued with thoughts of Penny. It wasn't disconcerting at all. Even though his mind was more on her than his equations and theories.
Penny cares for me.
That thought flashed through his mind without his permission, but he found it to be true. He wasn't the best at evaluating human emotions, something he wasn't ashamed to admit, but as he thought of the way Penny treated and acted around him, he concluded that she cared for him.
She picks me up from work when I work late.
She makes sure I go to sleep at an optimal time. (Even thoughshe threatens me with physical harm.)
She smiles at me more often and laughs at me less.
She asks me what is troubling me.
She doesn't get angry when I disturb her REM sleep at inappropriate hours of the night.
She kissed my cheek.
The list went on and on and he scrambled to find an empty composition notebook so that he could write them all done. With his eidetic memory, he knew he could remember them all but he wanted physical evidence of them. He also wanted to add more to them if there was more to be added.
"Do I care for Penny?" He asked the empty room. Of course, he didn't expect an answer but a resounded 'Yes' entered his mind.
Of course, he cared for Penny. The list of why he cared for her mirrored the one he made earlier.
Now the question was; did he care for her like a best friend or did his feeling past friendships and head to something more?
"Woxanne, you'we hewe again?" Penny rolled her eyes when she once again ran into Barry Kripke. Didn't he have an office or something he should be in?
Instead of brushing past him without saying a word, she gave him a forced smile. "It's Penny and yes, I'm here again."
"Leonawd is a lucky man." He mumbled as she walked away.
She couldn't resist. "I'm not here for Leonard, actually. I'm here for Sheldon. That's who I was here for last time, if you remember?"
"Oh, I thought you wewe playing a joke ow something." His eyes raked over her body and she felt disgusted. "You'we too pretty for Coopew. Now, me on the othew hand-"
"Bye!" She quickly made her exit before she could hear the rest of that sentence. Kripke freaked her out.
11:42
Eighteen more minutes until his meeting and the knots in his stomach still had not let up, the equations on his board had not been touched and the only sound in his office was his pen scratching against paper.
He had complied as many reasons he could to the fact that Penny cared for him and as he wrote down each fact with his meticulous handwriting, he wondered if any of these reasons meant she cared for him more than a friend.
He wished he could just straight out ask her, but even with his limited knowledge of proper social conventions, he knew that was not to be done. With Penny being a big ol' five, he hoped that one day she would just tell him how she felt. If her feelings were purely friendship or something more.
The knots in his stomach tightened and he didn't know why.
A sudden knock at his door nearly had him throwing his pen across the room in surprise. A quick glance at the clock told him that it couldn't be the guys getting him for lunch; he'd have to decline their offer if it was, so he had no idea who would be disturbing him at this time.
Grabbing the black-and-white marbled composition notebook, he carefully slid it into his messenger bag that hung on a hook by his desk, walked to the door, and opened it.
The moment he opened the door, he wondered if wishes really did come true. Penny stood in the doorway with a bright smile.
"Hiya, Sheldon!" She waved and the smile never wavered.
He wondered briefly if a smile had the power to blind. No, he reassured himself, it is a physical impossibility.
"Can I come in?" She bounced on her toes and asked.
"Of course," he stepped out of the way and allowed her to enter his office. Closing the door behind her, he asked. "And what do I owe the pleasure of this visit?"
"Aw, you're happy to see me, sweetie?" She turned and faced him, hand clasped in front of her.
"Of course," he said again and stood up straighter. "You are my friend and I enjoy your company."
"Even while you're at work?" Her eyes had a teasing glint to them.
"Well, I'm not doing any work at the moment, so I find the time of your visit acceptable." He glanced at the clock. "Speaking of time, I'm going to have to leave soon for my meeting with Dr. Gablehouser."
"That's why I'm here!" She said brightly and hopped on his desk to sit.
He didn't tell her to get off and didn't know who that shocked more. Penny or him. But he found that he didn't mind her sitting on his desk. Didn't mind that she had visited him without calling first and didn't mind that she was now playing with the cup of pens on his desk.
"Oh, really?" He stepped closer to her, not close enough to touch, but close enough, if she wanted to, she could reach out a hand and grasp his shoulder. "Do you plan on going in with me?" He would very much like her support.
"Sorry, Moonpie, I think you need to go in there alone." She crossed her legs and Sheldon's gaze briefly went her exposed tan skin before shooting right back up to her eyes.
"Maybe you could wait outside the door? If Dr. Gablehouser is there to give me bad news, I would like for my best friend to be the first person I can go to in my time of grief."
Her fingers grazed his shoulder and he felt oddly comforted by the small touch. It seemed Penny was the only person to give him comfort through contact. With the exception of his Meemaw, of course.
"I'm your best friend?" Her voice grew soft and the smile on her face matched it.
"Of course, you are Penny! There is a list of reasons why this is true but," his watch beeped. "We must be making our way to Dr. Gablehouser's office."
"Okay." She hopped off his desk, hesitated for a moment and suddenly linked her arm through his.
Sheldon found himself momentarily speechless. He could count the number of time he had ever been speechless on one hand.
Penny's whole body was pressed against his side and it felt nice. He needed his notebook so he could catalogue all this down, but he would be late if they didn't leave now and he hated being late.
Sheldon left Penny standing outside the large wooden door that led to his boss's office. He briefly wondered how she would react if he had suddenly grabbed her by the arm and pulled her inside. That would probably cause a scene and that was the last thing he wanted right now.
So, with a deep sigh and a small smile to Penny (who gave him a large reassuring smile and a wave back), he opened the door and was greeted by his boss and Dr. Mueller. He remembered Dr. Mueller from his time in Germany and knew that he had liked the man.
"Good afternoon, Dr. Cooper." said Gablehouser from his standing position behind his desk. "Please have a seat." He motioned to the empty armchair next to his old professor.
He took and wiped his sweaty palms on his tan pants. He didn't know he could even get nervous. Well, he supposed that was untrue. He did get nervous when he had to speak in front of enough people that could trample him.
"It's nice to see you again, Sheldon." Said Dr. Mueller from his right.
"It is nice to you as well, Dr. Mueller." He returned.
The gray haired man chuckled. "Please call me, Dominik."
Sheldon nodded and turned to Eric when the man cleared his throat.
"Dominik and I have called you here to discuss something of great importance, Dr. Cooper and since we do not want to take away time from your lunch break, this will be brief."
Once again, Sheldon nodded and swallowed the lump in his throat. This was it.
"We are happy to inform you, Dr. Cooper, that after much discussion," Eric glanced at Dominik before focus his attention back to Sheldon, "we have chosen you to speak at an important lecture at Dr. Mueller's university in Germany."
The air left his lungs and he couldn't speak.
"There will be many important people at this lecture, Sheldon. If some of them are impressed by your work then they may give you money for grants and such. This will help you get closer to the Nobel Prize."
The last two words got him. He jumped out of his chair and nearly toppled it over. He wanted to rush out that door and tell Penny, but he had to thank the two men in the room with him. So, he did.
He was so excited that he almost shook their hands. Almost. Instead, he opted on gushing. "Thank you so much, Dr. Gabelhouser. Dr. Mueller." The former looked at him with a raised eyebrow. Sheldon never thanked any one for anything. The latter just smiled at him and stood.
"You deserve it, Sheldon. I am very impressed with the work you have done and I told Eric, here, that I was not going to let a little prank stop me from choosing you to speak at my University."
At the mention of the Arctic, Sheldon felt his face twitch but didn't say anything.
"Before you leave, Dr. Cooper, we also would like to tell you that you can bring someone with you on this trip." He gave him a wink and Sheldon was confused. "Maybe you can bring along that nice pretty woman who visited you at your office a few days ago."
"Penny?" He asked confused.
"Yes, Penny, that was the lovely young woman's name!" Dominik added with a smile. "I sense that she would be the most ideal travel companion for you."
"I'll have to think about that." He finally managed to force out. They wanted him to bring Penny? But what would she benefit from a trip full of academics and lectures? Wouldn't Leonard or Raj, even Howard, better be suited for this trip?
He had a lot of thinking to do when he return home this evening.
"You are free to go." Eric motioned to the door. "We will speak to you again at a later date to discuss the travel details."
"All right," Sheldon gripped the doorknob. "Thank you again for this wonderful opportunity." He opened the door and stepped out.
Penny didn't know what she expected of Sheldon the moment he walked out the door, but a hug definitely wasn't it. One moment, she was biting her nails waiting for him to come out and the next she had a face full of some superhero shirt and long gangly arms wrapped around her waist.
It only took her seconds to return the hug. Hugs for him were very rare and she was going to take advantage of this one.
"I take it; it was good news, Sheldon?" She asked after he had let her go.
"It was." He smiled. "They chose me to go to Germany for a very important lecture. This will help me get closer to obtaining my goal of receiving a Nobel Prize."
She clapped her hands in excitement and fought the urge to hug him again. "That's so exciting, sweetie! See, I told you that they would want you instead of Leonard."
"I should have believe you, Penny." He suddenly turned bashful and she thought he looked cute.
"You should have!" She teased and nudged him gently.
"Oh!" He suddenly brightened. "They also informed me that I could take any I waned with me on this trip. I have yet decided who I will choose, but I believe that by tomorrow I will have come to a decision. So, tomorrow, after your shift at the Cheesecake Factory, I would like to invite you to our apartment and I will inform everyone of my decision."
"Okay, Sheldon, I'll be there."
The next chapter is probably going to be in both their POVs. I didn't know I was going to enjoy writing Sheldon's so much! So, I'll see you all at the next chapter, which I hope doesn't take me as long to write as this one did!
Thanks for reading! :)
