A/N I do not own the quote from whatever that book was (the truth about forever, I think) and I don't own the one that's in this chapter. (that's why it's a quote...) :) Anyway,
Chapter eight/nine
"That was sarcasm, right?" Sheldon asked Penny. She considered her reply carefully. He had just presented her with the best escape route imaginable. She could say it was sarcasm and be done with the whole thing, and maybe her feelings for him would go away. But she didn't really want them to go away. And she didn't want to lie to him. But now she was regretting telling the truth. Damn it, Penny! Why did you ever think this was a good idea?
"I don't know, Sheldon. I don't know what that was." She decided that honesty would be the best route in the end. "It was what I said, that's all I know. So I guess that was pretty dumb, huh?"
"On the contrary, I appreciate that you told me the truth about what you said," Sheldon replied. This made Penny smile, Sheldon could always unintentionally make her feel a little less uncomfortable. What would have happened if he reacted differently? She didn't think about it.
"You're welcome, sweetie. I wish I had a more logical thing to tell you but I'm not sure anyone's got a logical explanation for love." Sheldon opened his mouth to try to explain chemical reactions that cause the feeling of love but Penny wasn't ready to sit through that. "Don't start!" she told him.
"Fine," he picked up the book she had brought for him and opened it. He read the first line he saw out loud: "There is never a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally, in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, throbbing moment." He turned towards Penny slowly.
"That's sort of how it was like last night," she muttered as she looked at the floor.
"Or maybe how it'll be like now?" Sheldon suggested and Penny looked up at him, puzzled.
"Are you proposing one of your experiments?" she asked him and tried to hold back a giggle. He nodded.
They leaned in and pressed their lips softly together, approximately two seconds before Anne and Howard walked in the door.
"Hi, Howard!" Anne spotted the engineer as he entered the hospital. As they walked towards each other Anne prepared herself for whatever greeting he might have. Penny had told her to be ready for cheesy pickup lines and foreign languages. Anne wasn't worried about the language bit because she had been taught by Sheldon and herself how to speak six languages fluently. She was however, worried about the pickup lines.
"Bonjour, mademoiselle. Vous avez l'air merveilleux aujourd'hui!" he told her she looked wonderful.
"Merci…" she replied. "So, yah here to see Shelly?"
"I had to come to see if they had any news about when he might be able to get out of here. Raj won't stop asking me if I know yet." Howard began to walk in the direction of Sheldon's room.
"Wait!" Anne stopped him. She couldn't let him walk in there while Penny was telling Sheldon what she had said! She had to do something, anything! "I was uhhh, going to go grab something to eat from the cafeteria, wanna come with me?" She really didn't want to have to talk to Howard for too long, but she had to.
"Of course, who would I be to let a—"
"That's enough fancy talk, Howard. Just talk to me like a normal human being, alright?" she smiled sweetly at him.
"Alright," he replied and they walked along the halls to the cafeteria making small talk. Howard's phone beeped from inside his pocket and he looked at it. "Ughhh…" he typed something on his phone and the put it back.
"What was that about?" Anne asked.
"Raj says he needs to go to the grocery store but he can't drive himself because the pain medication bottle says not to." Howard rolled his eyes.
"You must really care about him," Anne commented. Howard looked confused. "You do all of these things for him. It's sweet!" she told him.
"Oh god, not you too! Please don't tell me you think we're in a homosexual relationship!" his eyes were begging her.
"I never said that…" Anne replied, but she totally thought they were.
"Thank you!" he exclaimed. "Anyway, I have to go take Raj to the grocery."
"But we haven't even talked to the doctor yet!" Anne exclaimed, forgetting about Penny's plan.
"Oh yeah, that's right…" they walked to Sheldon's room and got wrapped up in a pointless conversation that made Anne completely forget to stop Howard from opening Sheldon's door without knocking. She was supposed to warn Penny. Whoops!
Howard and Anne burst through the door and saw-for just a split second-something neither had expected to see. They were kissing!
"What…the…hell…" Howard murmured. Anne was speechless. "Wow…" she finally muttered.
A/N sorry this chapter is so short… I've had writer's block so I started working on another ff and got a little carried away with it. I won't abandon this one, though. I promise!
Thanks for reading, I'm not sure if there's much to review here… but if you can think of something to tell me, then by all means, do tell! I'm open for suggestions. :)
