Getting to know you

Sitting here (big sigh) not owning a thing

Penny was now dressed in pair of sweat pants and an oversized sweat shirt and sat down in Leonard's chair sideways with her feet off the side away from Sheldon's spot making sure any 'private parts' were oriented away from his sight. Penny started to flip through one of her magazines. "Better Sheldon?"

Sheldon looked over. "While your clothing is now more concealing, the question of being BETTER is somewhat misplaced." Sheldon put down the TV remote and continued. "You see… while I may find it surprising or uncomfortable for you to display some more private or intimate areas… I'm not sure that it is BETTER to completely cover your figure… you are actually quite attractive".

Penny smiled and sat around properly in the chair. "Thanks Shelly…. That was nice of you to say…"

Sheldon smiled. "Yes… now if you would let me finish… The way you are currently dressed is not unlike the many layers that Amy normally adorns her figure with. It is just recently that she will shed her cardigan while we engage in date night activities."

Penny put her hand to her mouth. "Sheldon are you going to get dirty with me?"

Sheldon scoffed. "Hardly… I was merely pointing out that the female figure be it yours or Amy's is more pleasing not hidden behind so many layers of clothing or hidden beneath oversized clothes. Amy really has a striking figure if you haven't noticed".

Penny gasped a bit. "Sheldon… are you hot for Amy?"

Sheldon sat back in his spot. "I can see that this conversation is going a bit off the rails… What I am saying, is that you have a pleasing figure… something that I'm quite sure you are aware of judging from the amount of preparatory time it takes you to get ready for your dates. You also have been a well sought after, for lack of a better term… piece of tail. But Amy is no less desirable a woman than you are. Studies have shown that beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder. When two people who are considered on similar appearance scales rate potential mates… they rate persons within their particular range higher than people of differing appearance scales."

Penny sat with her nose scrunched a bit. "Well…. I heard that you think I'm pretty… so…"

Sheldon huffed. "As always, you over simplify. While you certainly excel in what is considered desirable physical attributes, there are many other things to consider, for example… commonalities in leisure activities, intelligence, geographic upbringing, or familial experiences. All these things actually bring your relationship with Leonard into question. You are from differing geographic regions, your upbringing was by all accounts far less structured than his, you have few if any common interests, … coitus not withstanding… I do not believe that we need to discuss your disparity in IQ, and as far as appealing physical attributes, Leonard would be considered average at best."

Penny was a little annoyed. "Don't you ever get tired of tearing Leonard down? For your information… Leonard is an extremely attractive man… he has a lot of 'physical attributes' that most women would find EXTREEMLY desirable… believe you me…!"

Sheldon shrugged. "None the less, your relationship with Leonard is a puzzlement to many. Even back to the very first day that you moved in and Leonard somehow conjured enough courage to ask you over for lunch, you seemed to be quite first taken by MY intelligence as exhibited on my Board that day. I believe that you called me one of those beautiful mind guys… And you actually asked ME to sit next to you when you sat in my spot… Do you suppose that our relationship would have gotten off to a different start if…"

Penny thought back. "Yeah…, but you know… first impressions… and then you started talking about how there was something wrong with me because I was into astrology…. And then there was that breaking into my apartment…"

Sheldon smiled… "Yeah… good times… I hope after all this time, you have finally realized that astrology is nothing but a lot of hokum…"

Penny rolled her eyes and sat back in the chair. "Well, you still called me pretty and that isn't the first time either… when we played Halo that first time…. something that Leonard and I happen to enjoy doing… you said that someone that was as attractive as me and as good at Halo as me must be cheating. So you think I'm attractive…"

"You know Moonpie…. You're not so bad yourself… You're tall and thin… Once you get past that praying mantis thing… and you have real nice blue eyes… you really have a lot to offer… If you would just loosen up a bit..."

Sheldon took a deep breath and looked like he was counting to ten. "Nobody calls me Moonpie except Meemaw!"

Penny flipped yet another page of the magazine. "Sorry… So… Pretty huh?"

Sheldon returned to the Television. "I have never said otherwise… I only admit that there are other criteria that are just as appealing in a relationship… such as Amy's intelligence".

Penny was getting bored with the conversation. "Sure… sure… so what are we going to do this afternoon anyway? You know… to get to know each other better…"

Sheldon considered the question. "Well… we could watch Guardians of the Galaxy on the pay channel".

Penny smiled… "That's the one with the cute little Raccoon dude right? I'll get the popcorn… and after that's done… we get to watch a movie that I pick out…"

Sheldon looked on in horror. "Heavens!"

Emily walked up to Leonard. "Is this seat taken?"

Leonard looked up a little surprised that someone would be asking about a seat in an otherwise pretty empty coffee shop. He smiled when he saw Emily's flowing red hair. "Oh my god… you actually scared me for a second there. Please sit down".

Emily smiled and took a seat. "Has Raj been talking about me?

Leonard was a little confused by the question. "Raj?... Um… N…No… uh… surprised… yeah… that's a better word surprised… you surprised me that's all… I wasn't expecting anyone… let alone anyone that actually knew me… yeah… so…. How are you…?" Leonard took a deep breath realizing that he was going through his usual routine of rambling on when he was nervous or felt out of place when being addressed in public.

Emily just stared at him as he navigated his way around…. WAY around… his original statement. She knew he didn't mean anything bad by it, and she thought that he was absolutely adorable in his shy way. "Oh it's nothing… I knew what you meant. I was just joking about Raj. I know that he has told Howard about some of the things we do together… I was just wondering if… well… you know…"

Leonard was beginning to sweat just a little. "No…. Not at all… Howard and Raj are really a lot closer… Raj doesn't kiss and tell…. At all…"

Emily smiled and patted Leonard's hand. "Really, Leonard… It's no big deal… So, how've you been? We really haven't seen much of each other lately."

Leonard smiled. "Good… I've been…. WE'VE been good… Penny and me… that is….. you know…"

Emily blinked a few times at the mention of Penny's name. "That's good… so…alone tonight?"

Leonard was a little uncomfortable with the situation as it was. He didn't really know if Raj had told Emily of the new experiment. She knew about the original one…. They were out together with Amy and Raj at that Zombie thing after all. "Yeah… Penny is at home with Sheldon…."

Emily smiled at the conversation going in the direction she wanted it to. "Yeah… Raj said something about that. You guys are doing another affection experiment?"

Leonard looked down. "Yeah… well, to be accurate, Penny and Sheldon are doing another experiment… This one is more comprehensive… Penny moved into My room so she could have full exposure to Sheldon and all his idiosyncrasy's while Sheldon gets to experienced Penny 'Unplugged" so to speak".

Emily giggled. "Isn't that a bit dangerous?"

Leonard looked up. "Well, they wanted to figure out if the feelings from the original experiment were real or not, and this is a more comprehensive way to do it."

Emily prodded deeper. "They wanted to find out? Or YOU wanted to find out?"

Leonard sighed. "Actually, it was Amy's idea and Sheldon's design. Penny wanted to have nothing to do with it and I just sort of agreed… I mean why did they say there were feelings after the original experiment? And they said it after they both KNEW that they didn't perform the experiment by the established parameters… Ugh… I hate this…"

Emily patted Leonard' shoulder. "Raj said something about that too. Why would Amy propose something like this anyway… And why would Penny agree? I mean… you guys are engaged…

Leonard sighed again. "Well, Amy knows Sheldon pretty well and probably just wants to find out where he really stands with her… He told her that he loves her , and then this thing happened. She knows that this is something that Sheldon would be brooding over in one of the many simultaneous thought processes in his head. She just wants to either clear it out, or… I don't know…"

Emily took a breath before asking the next question. "Well… what about Penny? Why did she go along with it?"

Leonard looked at Emily. "Like I said… She didn't want to… she kept saying she loves me… but when I asked her if she had feelings for Sheldon and pressed her if the feelings were due to the experiment or were there all along.. she said she didn't know. She then said she had feelings for Howard and Raj too".

Emily sat straighter in her chair. "Raj TOO?"

Leonard saw the look in her eyes. "No….No… nothing like that… Penny said that after eight years of almost daily exposure to the guys… she said that she had to have feelings for all of them… and she has had the most exposure to Sheldon…. Of the three of them…"

Emily scoffed. "Yeah… well… She sure has had exposure to you and Raj. And Raj said she broke Howard's nose because he tried to kiss her… are you sure that Howard wasn't led on by her a little?"

Leonard was surprised by the question. "First of all… Penny is doing this because I pretty much pushed her into this… Granted, Sheldon didn't put up any argument against it, and Amy came up with the idea. Second, nothing HAPPEDE between Raj and Penny…"

Emily broke in. "Nothing except drinking, Kissing and getting into bed NAKED together… things would have gone a LOT farther…."

Leonard broke in. "THIRD… Howard was pretty bad in the days before Penny SET UP Howard with Bernadette. I'm pretty sure it was Howard that tried to put a move on Penny. I made her go over to Howard's house to apologize for hurting his feelings…"

Emily was confused. "You sent your girlfriend to go see Howard? And now you're making her LIVE with Sheldon?"

Leonard ran his fingers through his hair. "No… no… We weren't together when Penny broke Howard's nose, and technically we weren't together when She and Raj…"

Emily just stared at Leonard. "Technically? Weren't you seeing Raj's sister?"

Leonard sighed. "Yes… I was, but Penny and I have had a relationship from almost the beginning…"

Emily held up a hand. "Wait… You and Penny have had a relationship from the beginning… you sent her to Howard, who broke his nose, you were seeing Raj's sister while still having feelings for Penny, and now you are sending Penny to live with Sheldon?"

Leonard looked up. "Yeah… I guess… but it's not that simple".

Emily took Leonard's hands in her own. "I guess not… It seems to me that you are a little insecure about your relationship with Penny… You seem to keep throwing her out there to prove what she says about loving you… Are you sure that the insecurities you have aren't with Penny and your relationship, but more with YOU and your relationship?"

Leonard just looked blankly ahead, thinking about all the women he had been with while maintaining that he was in love with Penny. He started to count them off in his head… Leslie, Stephanie, Elizabeth, Mrs. Latham, Joy, Priya, Alice… and then there was that girl on the North Sea Expedition… all while being in love with Penny… "Ummm…"

Emily looked at the confused look on Leonard's face. "If you want to talk… I'm right here…"