A few days later and Penny had settled into a routine; lunch shift at the Cheesecake Factory, then straight to the hospital where she would see to Sheldon's ablutions before the guys came to visit. She was half way through a bed bath, chatting to him about the episode of Dr Who that had been on the previous night, when Missy walked in. She froze with the flannel on his chest.

"Erm, hi…" She looked down at what she was doing and suddenly felt embarrassed, but Missy just gave her a small smile. "Hi hon. Any change?"

Penny shook her head. "Nope. How's your mom?" She slowly started washing his chest again.

Missy sighed. "She's holdin' up. Spends mosta the time in the chapel prayin' the Lord'll bring Shelly back soon. Helps her, anyhow." She watched Penny wring out the flannel for a minute, clearly looking for the right words to say something.

"There somethin' I should know here hon? Just I ain't sure Shelly would be too pleased 'bout having someone all over him, y'know?"

Penny flushed. "I think it'll be ok. He makes me look after him when he's sick sometimes." She looked down at him and frowned affectionately. "Damn VapoRub stinks."

Missy looked at her thoughtfully. The expression was so similar to Sheldon's that Penny had to look away. "Huh. You care for him, don'tcha?" Penny swallowed hard, then stared up at her defiantly. "He's a good friend." Missy laughed. "Ok, gotcha." She paused, deliberated over her words. "I know he's weird. Hell, he's damn weird, and that's comin' from someone who loves him. An' frankly, he's a complete pain in the ass as a brother. But I also know, if he ever falls in love, he's gonna treat that woman like she's the only one on this Earth. 'Cause to him, hon, she will be."

Penny looked her in the eye. "You think that'll ever happen? You think he'll ever fall in love?"

Missy looked right back at her. "Sweetie, he loves me and he loves his brother and he sure as hell loves his Mamma. So why not?"

Sheldon listened to the women talking. Normally he tried to tune out most of what his sister said – it was invariably uninteresting – but the line about VapoRub had jarred his memory, and he got an image of a pretty blonde massaging it into his chest. So that was Penny, the woman giving him daily sponge baths. Interesting. The thought prompted another scene; he was holding a pair of silk panties – something told him they were hers - and feeling… frustrated.

For some reason, this second image also made him think of his mother.

Huh.

He appeared to have a somewhat odd relationship with this woman.