"Your concern is touching, Penny. I take it that you've heard every word of my exchange with Amy?"
"I didn't mean to, but yeah – sorry. I just can't believe what she said to you! She's supposed to care for you and love you, I get that, but does she have to sound so clinical about it?" Penny growls, missing a faint look of bemusement flash across Sheldon's brows.
He pulls himself up to a rough seated position,"I agree that some aspects of her speech were mildly rude, such as her uncalled-for sarcasm; but she grasps social conventions and relationship paradigms much better than I do, and thus I am forced to uphold her words over mine."
She gasps loudly, earning a Sheldon-patented look of condescension and a raise of his eyebrows, but she doesn't care about his reaction for the moment. Her veins feel as if there's a firework cruising down them and alight with raw anger, and she has to chant silently in her mind to 'can it' lest she explodes and whooshes out of the hospital and into Amy Farrah Fowler's skin in demented rage.
"You've been listening to Amy for the past year or something because you think she knows better than you what should happen in a relationship?"
She struggles to keep her voice down, but from the look in his eyes, she's pretty sure she's startled him badly enough to activate the deer-in-the-headlights mode he's wont to launch into whenever he's frightened. A tsunami of memories and their corresponding emotions collide into her, knocking her back into her chair and leaving her gasping for air – she remembers, now, how docile Sheldon has been lately, how his eyes have been curtailed of their burning intensity, leaving him limp like a tamed animal, the shadows of his once-wild nature haunting the spaces between his fingers and the emptiness behind his ears.
"To put it frankly, yes." Then she snaps completely.
"Sheldon, she's trained you to listen to her! She's changed you from the stubborn, annoying wackadoodle I love and turned you into what she thinks a good boyfriend should be like!" She silently begs him to see it for himself, before the noose tightens any further and snags him away from her forever.
"Penny, you're being overly dramatic. Given your propensity for superfluous exaggeration and dramatic flair, it should not be surprising. I don't approve of your claims towards the actions of Amy Farrah Fowler, who has proven to be a remarkably convenient romantic partner despite my initial misgivings about our relationship." His voice lacks its usual haughtiness; this upsets her more than it should.
"For such a smart guy, why can't you see that there's something seriously wrong with your relationship if she gets to call all the shots and you follow like the children running after the piper? What happened to your 'working knowledge of the universe'?"
"Penny," she has never been so relieved to hear her name being spoken in such a condescending manner, "Amy has made it clear that my lack of proper insight into social mores has been blinding me, coupled with my arrogance and refusal to fathom the idea that I may not know everything there is to know about the world around us. Logically, it makes perfect sense to delegate the responsibility of upholding social conventions and expectations to Amy, who is more informed than I am, and ever will be about it."
Everything clicks into place. Sheldon's change into what Amy deems as 'boyfriend material'; his reluctance to contradict Amy; his eventual transition into a watered down, tamed caricature of himself. Suddenly, all of her anger evaporates, leaving her with the oddest urge to throw her arms around the physicist and sob into his clavicle.
"Why did you ask her to leave?"
"I was uncomfortable with her assumption that I was trying to commit suicide, which is a ridiculous notion and one she should have known better. I do not fancy death before attaining my Nobel prize, at the very least; ideally, I would like to infuse my skull with adamantium to prolong my lifespan. Surely anyone would have realized that I would never consider suicide."
To his credit, Sheldon barely twitches after that comment. Ignoring the growing amount of emotions piling up behind a mental dam, Penny decides to listen to her urges and wrap her arms around his neck and press her lips to his cheeks, his personal bubble be damned. Surprisingly, he doesn't wiggle his way out of her embrace; instead, he relaxes into her arms with a contented, soft sigh.
"You stupid wackadoodle, you have no idea how worried I was…I was so angry at myself for not realizing earlier that something was wrong with you – I kept thinking back to the last time we talked, and I wanted to die for not asking you what was wrong when I clearly knew that you were lying about your shirt." She breaks off with a soft cry, burying her head into the crook of his neck; she notices that it feels strangely comfortable.
"There, there – there's no reason to cry, especially on my person, Penny. Were I back in my domicile, I would offer you a hot beverage; but seeing as that isn't possible right now, would you like me to sing you Soft Kitty?" Large hands pat her back awkwardly, but she doesn't let go.
"You're the one who's hurt, I should be singing it to you, Sheldon. I – I just can't believe that I was such a coward that day; we've been drifting away for a while now, and I nearly lost you. I'm so sorry that I wasn't a better friend, and that I didn't try to stay friends with you after I broke up with Leonard – I just keep thinking back, asking myself, what if I was there for you – what if, maybe then, all this wouldn't have happened and you could be enjoying Vintage Game Night instead of being stuck in a hospital?"
"You could have never known the reason behind my distress, Penny. It is one that I have kept hidden for many years now. Furthermore, when we examine the chain of causality that has caused me to act…rashly and end up in a hospital bed, goodness knows how many germs must be crawling around the place; I can conclude safely that it was entirely unrelated to the topic that has caused my distress that I'd endured that night with you."
A/N: Not the next chapter. This the second part of chapter 10 that I neglected to finish last night. The ending is abrupt (like always) - whoops. I think Sheldon may be a lot more OOC than I thought, reading over it again. His subdued demeanour has a reason for it, I swear! Once again, thanks everyone for reviewing :) Thiiiiiis close to breaking 20k words! D: