So I couldn't get it up before a month, *sighs* promises really aren't my forte. Anyway, we're 5 more chapters from the conclusion, and, I'm not as confident as I used to with the last few chapters. BUT! I will finish this fic in the best way I can, and I hope you have enjoyed this roller coaster ride with me!
Also, this chapter may have a kind of sad and bittersweet ending... but the next chapter will be better. *wink*
Disclaimer: excluding the OCs imported from the Alternate Roommate Paradox, none of these characters are mine and belong to their rightful owners which I'm too lazy to type down. There are several mistakes, spelling and frammatical errors that I missed. Please do ignore them and go all grammar nazi as thisis un-beta'd. Also, Penny is now showing her dark and manipulative side in this chapter. Her vulnerable and weaknesses will be revealed in a chapter or two. All errors and mistakes are, sadly, mine.
"Well, that's really like him. We haven't seen him in over a year and he still manages to avoid us!"
"Calm down, I'm sure he's just in a meeting. He'll be back, it's probably his lunch break or something."
"Oh no sister, you hey you! Where is Sheldon Cooper?"
"Oh uh, he's out for lunch. He left a few minutes ago, I think?"
"See, I told you, he's out for lunch."
"Well maybe if you didn't take half an hour to choose an outfit from your wardrobe that consists of all black, maybe we could have caught him!"
"Hey don't put the blame on me, I'm not the one who needed to apply makeup even though he doesn't even need makeup!"
"Maybe if you put some makeup on you wouldn't look like that ghost girl from the ring!"
"That's it, I am so done with you!"
Penny furrowed her eyebrows at the two people fighting in front of her. Sheldon was out for that lunch meeting with that floozy woman, and had also practically avoided her during the morning. A thousand punishments flooded her mind as she thought about what they could be talking about, but her father had interfered and asked her to prepare her documents for board presentation. She decided to drop the documents of her agenda at Sheldon's office when she saw the pair. The pair consisted of a tall, dramatic, good looking man, and an equally as tall, pale, emotionless woman with jet black hair. She had been watching them for a while now, and she found herself oddly... amused.
"Gregory Michael Wilkes, you were the one who dragged me into this! I was perfectly happy minding my own life until you suddenly barged into my quiet apartment and declared that we see Sheldon!" The lady accused, pointing a slender finger at him.
The man huffed, fixing his light brown hair. "This is so like you, Bailey! Don't tell me you didn't miss Sheldon when you were the one who practically cried when he decided to move to California!" Penny raised an eyebrow, intrigued at what the seemingly gay man had said. So they were Sheldon's friends back at Texas... and the girl seemed to be very close to him. How interesting.
The dark haired girl's face paled, if it could get any whiter, "what? He's my friend who was leaving the state, how could I not cry? And you cried as well! You even wrote poetry to express your grief! You pretended as if he died, Gregg." The man, Gregg, gasped, dramatically placing a hand over his mouth. "Poetry is my hobby, and it just so happens that I found a wonderful topic! Unlike you who just kept terrorizing Texas and blaming me for everything! We haven't spoke nor seen Sheldon since he got fired from that stupid company, you can't blame me for missing him! What kind of friend are you to not even miss him?"
Penny's eyebrows went high, were they talking about *Calder? "Just cause I don't cry and whine to everyone how sad I am that he's gone doesn't mean that I don't miss him! Honestly Gregg, stop being such a bitch!" The man's body straightened, his face darkening. "How dare you call me a bitch-"
"Do you have any business here?" She asked as she stepped forward, announcing her presence.
The two friends, if they were, looked at each other before sighing. "We're looking for Sheldon Lee Cooper, the new VP? do you happen to know him?" The girl asked as she folded her arms over her chest. Penny smirked, "Oh yeah, I'm his colleague and I also am here to see him. If you're not doing anything, would you care to join me for lunch? We can wait for him together." The two looked at each other again, shrugging, before smiling back at her. She smiled back then gestured to the elevator, "my office is on the 19th floor, we'll have lunch there."
The two followed her inside the elevator, staring at her as they waited.
"So you're friends with Sheldon, huh?" Penny inquired, glancing over to the two. The woman nodded, "yes, we're his old friends." The man's eyes then widened, his face animatedly expressing worry. He stepped over to his friend, "you have no manners at all!" He lightly slapped her arm, then turned back to Penny, "it's so rude of us to not introduce ourselves! I'm Gregg, and this is Bailey, we're Sheldon's friends from Texas." Penny grinned at the two, they were still odd to her, "I'm Penny, head of the clothing department. So what brings you two all the way from Texas to see Sheldon?"
The woman, Bailey, shook her head, "oh no, we wouldn't do that. We both live in Los Angeles, and we came here because your company's wonderful vice president vanished from the face of the earth." The flamboyant man, Gregg, crossed his arms, "it's true, I mean, it's not unusual for him to avoid humans, but we barely even got an email updating us about his current whereabouts. He normally sends his family, and the two of us, logs of what he has accomplished for the sake of us knowing. Then he suddenly stopped, and the two of us hadn't heard from him in a year. We only heard about him transferring to Penbark when I called his mother."
"You two must be really close to Sheldon." Penny commented as the elevator door opened, leading them to her office. She heard them laugh wildly from behind and briefly wondered what the hell was up with the two. Gregg stopped laughing first, sitting on one of the chairs in front of her desk. "You could say that! We were always together back in the day, especially Bailey over there. They practically spent their whole lives together! Isn't that right Bailey?" The dark haired woman sighed, "it's true, and I blame science for it."
Penny took a seat at her desk, grabbing her files as she texted the chef to bring them lunch. A little digging into Sheldon's past would be very, very interesting.
"Are you really gonna ignore us?" Howard questioned, slamming his glass on the table.
Sheldon looked up from his barbecue bacon cheeseburger, barbecue, bacon and cheese on the side. "I am not ignoring you, I have merely opted to not respond to your blasphemous accusations." He took a napkin from the dispenser then wiped his mouth from the unavoidable sauce stain at the corners of his mouth. They had been in the restaurant for more than an hour and a half, and Howard decided to use it to interrogate him about his relationship with Penny, which was very predictable. Leonard and Raj had remained silent the entire time, while Alex lashed out on Howard. Not that he didn't deserve it.
"He can ignore you if he wants, Howard." Alex hissed, she wouldn't be surprised if she, one day, assists in murdering the annoying little engineer. She understood why her boss had refused to speak, Howard's most used phrase in the past half hour was Penny's a devil, and even she wouldn't respond to that. "Ignore her," Howard said, continuing his argument, "look the point is, stay away from her. She's no good! And don't you give me that look- there's something going on between you two! Don't deny it, we all know about what happened during the Picobus party."
"What happened at that party was the result of alcohol intake," Sheldon explained, furrowing his eyebrows at him, "we were both inebriated, and it was a mistake that will never happen again. I should also remind you that 'peeking' isn't appreciated anywhere, Howard." Alex nodded in agreement, "I never took you as a voyeur." Howard turned to her, eyes widening, "I wasn't turned on by that! Maybe if it was Penny and someone else... But it was with Sheldon! It burned my eyes!"
"And yet you always seem to bring it up," Leonard remarked, causing Raj to chuckle. "Yeah, dude, if we hadn't known better, we'd think that you actually enjoyed it!"
"I did not enjoy it!" Howard snapped, "there was a plan and stick to it! If the two of you don't, this," he brought his cast enclosed arm up, slightly wiggling it at them, "will happen to you too! We're all lucky that this is my left hand! Had it been my right, the Picobus Drogue would be stuck in development hell!" Sheldon frowned at Howard's injured arm, regardless of how he annoyed him at the moment, he had no desire to see him get hurt. Apparently, after Penny and Howard's encounter, Penny decided to target Howard. Not target like making him her dog, or get him fired, target as in making his life a living hell. Within a short span of a day and a half, Penny had manage to destroy his entire presentation, ruin his lunch, and had managed to break his arm, hence the heavy plastered cast currently wrapped around Howard's arm. According to the employees who were present when it happened, Penny tripped Howard, making him fall and land on his arm.
Sheldon secretly thanked his mother's god, had it been his right arm, Howard would be right; the Drogue would be doomed. Only Howard could build the hardware chip he designed, which was only 50% done. He had to have a word with Penny, due to her irrational logic, the production of the Picobus Drogue would be delayed until the cast is removed, which was a week later.
"Dude," Raj took a sip of his beer, regardless of the fact that he was friends with Alex, he still couldn't talk in her presence. "That won't happen to me, okay? I'm the head of the research department head, and I'm the one who suggested to use that new, cheap yet superb material the Blossoms brand uses! She isn't gonna get rid of me." The Indian man proudly smiled as his best friend frowned at him. it was true, he was the one who discovered a material for the clothing line that was cheap but was great quality. He had gained a Penbark award of excellence for it, too. Leonard leaned towards Alex, whispering, "why is that he gets cockier and cockier each time he drinks?"
Howard scoffed, "please, Penny doesn't even know your name! And it wasn't just you who worked on that. Ah, forget about you, you traitor!" He turned to Leonard, "I still have you on my side, right Leonard? If we don't stop the chains of Medusa aka ice princess aka Penny from reeling Sheldon in, we'll have failed the company- even the world! We're not afraid of any of her threats, right Leonard?" Leonard sheepishly looked down, furrowing his eyebrows, "about that... I, I'm not really up to her level."
"Well yeah, of course, she's about one or two inches taller than you. You're really not on her level." Leonard frowned at Howard before sighing, "look, she's been threatening me, okay? She hasn't hurt me, and I don't have proof that it's her, but I've gotten mysterious messages from someone. I know it's her, I'm not scared that she hurt me, I've had bullies in the past- I just don't want to lose my job."
Sheldon frowned, Penny had been threatening him too? But what for? Leonard didn't have anything to do with this, it was purely Howard. Was Penny already a step forward and decided to scare Leonard as well? What if she goes after Raj and Alex as well? He really needed to talk to her. "What kind of messages have you been receiving?"
Leonard shifted his glasses, obviously uncomfortable with the topic. "Some were about ruining my records, getting me fired... one about making me feel what hell really is. I-I'm still not a hundred percent sure it's Penny, but I do have a feeling since she's been glaring at me every time we see each other. She usually ignores me when we pass by each other..." Howard slammed his uninjured hand on the table again, abruptly sitting up, "it's Penny! I know it's Penny! Do you see that Sheldon, your relationship with Penny is ruining us!"
"I think you're crazy, Howard," Alex commented, calmly placing a fry in her mouth. "That's rich coming from you, Alex. We all know who destroyed your computer, and hired someone to get you mobbed, don't you?" Sheldon turned his head towards the person beside him, "you were... mobbed?" Alex gingerly shook her head, lowering her gaze to her meal. "It was just some robber, okay? How could you honestly blame that on Penny!"
"I know it was her, Alex! How can you be robbed in broad daylight? They didn't even hurt you- they just threatened you, they didn't even take your bag! What kind of mobber would do that, tell me?" Howard argued, he knew the truth, it was Penny. He didn't need evidence, it was obvious. Why Alex was still defending Penny, he didn't know, but what he did know was that he gotta stop this. He did have a plan, but he wasn't sure if it was gonna work. He didn't know what he needs to do to stop Penny from threatening them, but he was gonna find out, soon,
"Alex, is that true?" Sheldon asked, still shocked at the revelations he had just heard. He couldn't believe what he had just learned, he didn't want any of his friends to get hurt. Why was Penny even doing this?
Alex took a deep breath, meeting Leonard and Raj's sympathetic looks. "Y-yes, but I doubt that it's Ms. Penny's doing! Howard here is just overreacting, Mr. Cooper, pay no mind to him." Howard haughtily scoffed, crossing his arms. "Oh stop covering up for her. You see, Sheldon? Penny is ruining our friends' lives! Are you really gonna wait for Penny to strike on Raj, too?"
"Howard, stop it." Alex commanded.
"Are we your friends not more important than some woman who is just manipulating you?"
"Howard, please stop!" Leonard whined, glancing at Sheldon who's face was now twitching. Sheldon had once told him that he wasn't comfortable with fighting and people yelling, it made him remember the dark days of his childhood.
"Stay out of this, Leonard! Huh, Sheldon, answer me! I already broke an arm, Alex was mobbed, who knows whats in store for Raj and Leonard? Are you really just gonna sit back and let us, your supposed friends, get hurt or worse- killed?!" The engineer seethed, he was so mad. He hated how Penny could easily make them weak with a snap of a finger. She could even get them killed, if she really wanted to. He loathed how they couldn't get Sheldon to open his eyes to the truth, that she was only going to get him fired in the end. He hated how he couldn't do anything to help his friend.
Sheldon furrowed his eyebrows before standing up. He pulled his wallet out, placing a twenty on the table and looking at Howard straight in the eye. "Thank you for the meeting gentlemen, and Alex. It seems we have reached an impasse, and I shall deeply consider your propositions. That is my share of the tab, I must go for I have a meeting." He gave them a curt nod, "I'll see you at the office." With a grim look, he turned around and headed for the exit.
Raj turned to Howard, glaring at him, "good going, Howard, you're practically the douche of the century."
"So Bailey pours the vinegar and- BOOM! It explodes and the lava flies at the face of the judges, then you see Sheldon twitching and furious, and they argue like crazy!" Gregg guffawed while Bailey pinched the bridge of her nose in irritation. "Look, I got the measurements wrong, I know. Didn't I already get the lecture of a lifetime from Sheldon because of it?"
Penny laughed lightly as she ate her lunch along with the two friends. It had been an hour and a half since she met the two, and they were now amusing her with childhood stories of Sheldon. She didn't know that Sheldon had wanted to be a physicist, and was actually supposed to go to college at the age of eleven. Regardless of the extensive background check she got, there was still a lot she didn't know about him. Like the fact that he loved trains, and that his Meemaw called him Moonpie. She wondered if Sheldon would ever tell her about those things, had not she heard it from the two.
"So you were his classmate and science partner every year since the fourth grade?" Penny inquired as she cut her grilled chicken into strips. The dark haired woman nodded, "unfortunately, yes. The administrations somehow found it a sick cruel joke to put us in the same classes until we graduated," she glared at Gregg, "I also have an odd feeling that Gregg here had something to do with it." The flamboyant man chuckled, playfully waving his fork at his friend, "maybe, maybe not, as school president, I had my connections. Plus, practically everyone loved the idea of Sheldon having at least a friend to do everything with."
"Do you mean, a person who will suffer with him so everyone else doesn't?"
"Maybe, but why are you denying it?" Gregg smirked, leaning towards Bailey, "didn't you have a crush on him in the eight grade?" The blonde raised an eyebrow, "wait, Bailey, you had a crush on Sheldon?" Bailey growled, hitting Gregg, who was making a kiss face, on the arm. "Alright, I did, I thought he was cute and Gregg could you please cut that ou-"
"Penny, I need to talk to you-"
The three turned towards the door, surprised at the sudden visitor who stared at the two people on the couch. He had the urge to tell him to stay away from the couch as it was *the couch he and Penny had coitus on, but he thought it was unnecessary. He stepped forward, crossing his arms over his chest, "Gregg, Bailey, it's nice to see the both of you."
Gregg leapt from the couch, wrapping his arms around Sheldon, "Sheldon, you jerk! Why didn't you call, mail, email, text, or write to us? Why the hell did you vanish from the face of the earth?" He stepped back, placing his hands on his hips as he gestured for Bailey to come over. "I was busy with work," Sheldon replied as Bailey stood beside Gregg, "I see you've met, Penny." The blonde blinked at him, still curious about what Gregg was talking about. She watched as Sheldon glanced at Bailey, giving her a small smile, "how is your cat, Zazzles?"
Bailey shrugged, "still zazzy, I guess. We're having lunch," she pointed to the coffee table, "do you want some?" Gregg gasped, walking over to Sheldon and dragging him to the couch, which he rejected and moved to one of the chairs in front of Penny's desk. "Bailey Mckenzie! Is that how you treat your first love who you haven't seen in two years?!" Bailey's face reddened as she made her way back to the couch, "What? Do you honestly need to bring that up? Geez, Gregg that's all in the past, move on!" Gregg laughed, "I love how flustered you get whenever I bring that up!"
Sheldon glanced at Penny's table, then grabbed a folder on top of her organizer. "Is this your second quarter report?" He opened the folder, skimming through the files, he'd talk to Penny later. Penny frowned, "uh yes it is. Hey, Gregg, whats that story you were telling?" Gregg face lit up, he loved telling stories and embarrassing his friends, he lived for them. "So it was in the eighth grade, and Bailey told me that Sheldon hit puberty, kind of, then I knew- she had a crush on him!"
"Okay, story's over!" Bailey snapped, sending Gregg a deadly look. Gregg waved his hand at her, "shh, we're almost at the best part! Then in came Valentines day and Bailey got Sheldon here some chocolates, do you remember that, Sheldon?" He nodded, closing the folder and placing it inside his messenger bag, "of course, I remember what my mother made me for my first day of pre-school, and the day Bailey ruined our science fair entry. Bailey had given me homemade chocolate, which her mother had helped in making, that was an array of mint chocolates and chocolates with peanuts." He turned to Penny, smiling happily, "they were very good, Bailey's mother is one of the best cooks in the world! Along with my mother and grandmother of course."
Gregg happily clapped his hands, "yes, I tasted some too! So, she gives him to Sheldon, who whines about how gift giving is a burden. Bailey gets mad, then kisses him! But that's not it, what puts the icing on the cake is when Sheldon stared at her for a few seconds before grabbing his disinfectant wipes and rubbed his mouth repeatedly until he got home!" He burst out laughing, causing Bailey to growl and shove him in anger. "I told you never to bring that up, Gregg!"
"I'm sorry it's just so funny, that I can handle not telling that part! You're first love, breaking your heart," Gregg slightly calmed down, turning to Bailey, "but come on, nothing is as bad as what happened with Sheldon and the CEO's wi-" Bailey quickly clapped a hand over Gregg's mouth, silencing him as she glanced at Sheldon, who was clenching his teeth. "Really, Gregg? Do you have to bring that up? It wasn't a good time for him, and you really got to remind him that?" Gregg pried his friend's hand off his mouth, "but didn't you say that it's the past? That means we can discuss it now!"
Penny fought the urge not to open her mouth, she thought that that information was confidential, no one but the CEO, her, her spy and Sheldon knew about that. Or maybe he told them about it? She had so many questions about that girl, and now she's found the people who could answer them.
"I'm going to get something from my office," Sheldon announced, standing up and walking towards the door. "I'll return shortly."
"See, what you did, Gregg?" Bailey hissed as Sheldon exited the room. Gregg huffed as he fixed his coat that Bailey had wrinkled. "Sheldon was involved in an affair?" Penny cautiously asked, pretending to not know anything about it.
Bailey turned to Gregg giving him a look of caution, who shook his head, "Bailey, we can trust her, okay?" Gregg turned to Penny, "you see, Sheldon had a high position in Calder. He had a great job, and it was a great company, but then he met her. She was beautiful, young, and the CEO's wife, which meant she was off-limits." Gregg frowned, troubled with the idea, "but she didn't care, she seduced him, and he fell for it. Then that idiot, Sheldon, fell for it." Bailey nodded in agreement, "I even remember Sheldon consulting the two of us if he was sick. All of his symptoms were those of someone head over heels, in love. We tried to make him stop seeing her, she was just this dirty woman who wanted new meat, the CEO wasn't exactly a young man. It cost him his job, and he had broke down, she broke him, you know?"
The light haired man pursed his lips, his eyes downcast.
"Whats sad is that even after everything that he went through, we're pretty sure he still loves her."
Sheldon groaned as he slipped his towel off and stepped into the shower.
Bailey and Gregg had left a while ago and had made him promise to keep in touch with them. He hadn't meant to ignore them for a year, he was just too busy with the Picobus and being an obedient dog to Penny. He still needed to talk to her about threatening his friends, he didn't want them getting hurt.
He took a deep breath as he turned the shower on, Bailey had accidentally spilled her bottle of wine on him during dinner. They had dinner at the restaurant at the hotel, causing him to take a shower here at Penny's suite. It was a Wednesday, he was supposed to be at home, playing HALO after reading the progress reports. Sadly, he smelled like wine and his upper body was drenched, he didn't want to go home like that. Sheldon grabbed the loofah Penny had bought for him, dousing it with the Star Wars body wash Penny had gotten him. He didn't think that this little piece of sponge was actually very useful in cleaning one's self.
"Do you need help with that?"
Sheldon jumped in surprise dropping the loofah as he turned to see Penny standing in the doorway clad in a robe. He quickly covered his front area and turned around, why was Penny inside the bathroom and how did she get in? It was nine thirty, his bath time, she shouldn't be inside!
"Penny, what in the heavens are you doing in here?" He shrieked, his back still turned to her.
Penny smirked, moving to the sink and grabbing her toothbrush, "I was going to brush my teeth." She squirted the toothpaste on her toothbrush, placed it inside her mouth and took a seat on top of the counter. "I agree with your Meemaw, your tushy is nummy, nummy." She loved talking to Gregg and Bailey about Sheldon, she had learned so much about him during dinner that it had felt like she had known him for years. She planned on calling them to hangout again soon, since they only lived about ten to twenty minutes away, depending on the traffic.
"Please stop ogling me, Penny, it makes me uncomfortable." He admitted as he shifted inside the shower. He wanted to turn the shower off, but it would make him cold, but what he was doing was wasting water. However, he couldn't do anything as Penny was inside, staring at him through the glass walls.
"I'm not ogling you, I'm admiring my wonderful view," she said with her toothbrush in her mouth.
"Well, please hurry it up as I must finish my bath and go home. We have work tomorrow, and you know that this is my bath time!"
Penny scrubbed her teeth a few more times before spitting in the sink, "Sheldon it's a Wednesday, you don't have a schedule for today." She rinsed her mouth with mouthwash before placing her toothbrush in it's proper place then turned to face him. "Which means, that this could be my bath time too." She shrugged her bathrobe off, revealing that she had nothing underneath, and placed it on a rack beside the shower. "I'm itching for a bath, you know?" She pulled the shower door open, stepping in and standing behind Sheldon.
"Penny, please get out, this is my shower time, not yours!" He begged, glancing over his shoulder to see her then quickly returning his gaze towards the wall.
She stepped underneath the water, moaning at it's warmth. "God, you should learn to relax, Sheldon. I'm just taking a shower okay? It's not my fault you're having a different opinion on this." She grabbed her loofah from the rack in front of Sheldon, accidentally brushing her arm against his shoulder. "Come on, I don't even get why you're embarrassed, Sheldon. I've seen and felt your little friend so many times before that I can pretty much tell it apart if I ever see another one." Penny remarked as she rubbed soap on her bath sponge, she really didn't see why he was acting so shy. Just two days ago she had seen him fully naked as she dripped wax on him, what was the difference of this and that?
"Oh please don't tell me you are planning on having coitus with other men."
Penny cocked an eyebrow, "why, are you jealous?"
"No, I just don't want any chances of getting a sexually transmitted disease." Sheldon frowned, slowly turning around to stand beside her. He turned to her, "also, keep your hands to your self, I am merely taking a bath." Penny turned to him, smiling, "of course, I just wanna take a bath. I think you look nice all wet and naked." He nodded as he rubbed the loofah on his neck, "if that was sarcasm, then yes, you look very aesthetically pleasing under the warm sprays of the shower." She giggled as she rubbed her upper arm, "real charming, Sheldon, and no, that wasn't sarcasm. It's nice to see you wet for once." She mentally laughed at her innuendo and the fact that Sheldon didn't get it.
Penny stuck her tongue out as she tried to reach the middle of her back. She always had a hard time reaching it, and it always made her furious. Sheldon raise an eyebrow as he saw her struggle, "do you want me to help you?" Penny turned to him, a slight blush creeping on her cheeks, "uh, sure, I've always had trouble reaching that part." She handed him the sponge and moved in front of him. "Aren't you an athletic person? You should be able to reach his part," Sheldon commented as he scrubbed her back. Penny tightly closed her eyes, resisting the urge to moan at his actions. She silently cursed her libido for being so active, if it wasn't, she wouldn't be having a problem with showering with Sheldon. He handed her the sponge once he was done scrubbing her back, then moved to her side to continue bathing.
She glanced at him scrubbing her arms and decided to change the topic, this wasnt helping to her desire to slam him against the wall. God, she was the man in this, whatever you call it. "So, uh, what did you want to talk to me about?"
Sheldon stopped scrubbing and turned to face her, a serious look on his face. "Penny, why have you been threatening my friends?" Her eyes lowered to his organ then back to his blue eyes, "that's easy, it's cause they're interfering. They shouldn't meddle with someone else's business, Sheldon. Make them stop, and I will." He frowned at her, his hand tightly clenching the loofah. "Penny, Leonard and especially Alex had nothing to do with this! Leonard isn't even doing anything, and Alex has even been defending you from Howard. Please don't hurt my friends, Penny."
"Sure, Alex." She furrowed her eyebrows then rolled her eyes, "fine, I won't do anything to them and that Indian guy... I think his name was Rag?" Sheldon shook his head, "it's Raj."
"Yes, him, but I can't promise the same with that annoying engineer," she warned.
"Please don't do anything extensive to him," he added, "I need to finish the Drogue first, then you can do something. But please do not hurt Koothrapalli and Leonard, and especially, Alex. It's hard to find outstanding assistants these days."
She frowned, "do you like her, Alex?" She hated herself for caring and she hated how such a little thing made her want to scream as loud as she can. She hated how such a simple mention of her name made her jealous enough to plan the girl's funeral. Why was she becoming such a sap, she should've stopped when she could. She should've gone with the original plan... now it was too late to proceed with that. She finally acknowledged that she did have feelings for Sheldon, and that it would be the death of her.
The tall man blinked, contemplating his answer, "of course! She's my secretary, I'm supposed to like her. Although, she is a brilliant secretary which is also a strong reason why to like her." He replied, smiling down at Penny, "and she's great at paintball! We brought her along to a game last week and she was fantastic! She's now a secured member of the C-men."
Penny stared at him, irritatedly, before turning to the shower and continuing her bath. How did she even fall in love with this idiot? She rinsed the loofah off, placed it back on the rack and took her shampoo, squirting it into her hair before returning it back to the rack. She had suddenly grown annoyed with the man who was currently scrubbing down his legs.
"Whats sad is that even after everything that he went through, we're pretty sure he still loves her."
She stopped rubbing her hair and bit her lip at what Gregg had said. What if he did still love Mrs. Harrington, then she was now a member of the unrequited love community. If that was true, then she had to end this, this was a one sided love, she was sure. Sheldon didn't have feelings for her, and he never would, he saw her as this... heartless wench, like his friends did. She really didn't want to be like this, if that didn't happen, maybe she would've been some bubbly, happy girl. Now, because of that incident, she became cold, and the one person she truly loved barely saw her as anything other than this tyrant.
"Penny, are you alright?" The blonde opened her eyes, she hadn't realized that she was already crying. When did she even start crying?
She turned to him, his face evident of concern, and pulled him down for a passionate kiss. He placed both of his hands on her shoulders, trying to push her away, "P-Penny, didn't you say that we were just going to take a shower- this defies the rulebook!" Penny stepped back, her eyebrows furrowed. "You did this to me."
"What?" Sheldon confusedly asked her.
"I-I," she looked down, deciding whether or not she was going through with this. With a huff, she met his gaze, "I love you, okay? I'm so in love with you that I've even resorted to threatening your little friends just so they won't stop you from being with me! I love you so much that even I don't understand why this is happening to me!" Penny cried, trying to wipe away her tears but she had forgotten that the shower was still on.
"I love you, Sheldon, run away with me. We can be happy together, I promise!"
Sheldon stared at her silently, memories of her flashing back. He was never good at these kind of things, and never understood what the protocol was. He was never 'sure' if he had loved someone other than his family. Did he love Penny? He didn't know. He did enjoy her being in his presence, and spending time with her, that isn't coitus. He truly missed her when they avoided each other, and she had become a significant person in his life.
But did he love her?
Penny watched his mouth open and close, then she shook her head. "You know what, forget I said anything. Finish your shower and go home, Sheldon. I'll call you when I want to see you." She hurriedly said as she exited the shower, grabbing her robe and walking out of the bathroom then her room. She ran out to her terrace and collapsed on one of the chairs. She was such an idiot, she really was. She shouldn't have told him that, she shouldn't have dragged him into this, she shouldn't even have hired him. Maybe this was karma for every bad thing she ever did- to be rejected by the person who suddenly became her whole world.
She cried hard that night, so hard that she fell asleep.
She didn't even notice when Sheldon draped a blanket over her sleeping form and left.
*Calder is the company Sheldon worked for before Penbark. Mentioned in chapter one.
*Reference to chapter two.
A kind of short rant:
I visited the TBBT forums for the first time, and after reading page after page of it, I am completely disheartened by everything in that post. Most of you know that I don't ship Lenny, but I do not hate them, same goes for Shamy, but I found the forum people's reaction to a HUG completely ridiculous. One was going ballistic about no they're ruining the show- Sheldon hugging is completely OOC!- when the person who posted the spoilers already specified that it was Penny who had initiated the hug. I also saw various overreactions and I can't help but agree with some shippers, some fans take it too far. Once again, I might be a hardcore Shenny shipper, but as a passive person, I do not spend anytime hating a certain ship and fans over assumptions of an episode that has YET TO BE EDITED. Honestly, I am extremely disappointed at some of the Lenny/Shamy fans who were going crazy mad based on their own personal assumptions. I may not write nor read Lenny Shamy stories, and I may not fangirl over their every interaction, but I do respect those ships. I don't understand why those people had terrorize the post due to a hug. You may think we're delusional to ship Shenny, but that's our preference. I know there are a lotof Shenny fans who hate on Amy and Leonard in everything they do but thats cause Sheldon and Penny cant interact without someone calling it OOC. Please, Sheldon has been hanging out with Penny long before Amy appeared. You don't have to go insane cause of the possibilities of shipping them. I'm sure a Lenny/Shamy fan will leave a negative review on this chapter, especially with this rant, but I don't care anymore. Some of you have made me rethink being a TBBT fan, especially if I'll get shit just cause of a difference in opinion.
The smut is saved for next chapter, I'm making it good and different!
Once I update The Alternate Roommate Paradox, I will focus my attention on finishing this fic. Then, once this is over, I'll start my new fanfic, "Saving Doctor Cooper". I am really excited for that one, and no, TARP will not be forgotten. I'm on my way to finish that too, and to start the fic that will replace that, "Babysitting."