CH

Sheldon woke up, slightly confused. He'd slept well, better than he had thought he would, because he never slept well when he was lying to people.

Then he remembered that somehow Wolowitz had made it not a lie anymore.

He glanced at Penny, who had somehow migrated onto his half of the bed and was curled up next to him. Perhaps it was the extra body heat, combined with not technically lying which had made him sleep so well.

He watched her sleep for a moment. She was pretty, and smart, not genious, but smart, and was very good at video games. He'd never really thought of himself having a wife, but in that moment, he was sure that he would have wanted someone with those same criteria.

He wouldn't mind staying married to Penny.

She would, undoubtably require certain... "Actions" on his part, actions which he had thus far in his life avoided, but those same actions would provide him with the chance of creating prodgeny, and as he had already noticed, his endocrine system seemed to respond to Penny.

Which reminded him. He'd better get out of the bed and into the shower before Penny noticed what her thigh was currently brushing against.

He scooted out of bed and headed for the bathroom.

As soon as the bathroom door closed, Penny opened her eyes.

She had been awake for a while, enjoying just lying there, in the warmth that his body radiated. She knew that he'd been awake, she'd felt him looking at her, she could even feel him thinking... She'd also noticed the exact second when his thoughts had taken an un-Sheldon like turn.

Certain parts of him had gone from hard to really hard, and he'd darted out of bed.

She sighed. Too bad, because she wouldn't have minded a little...

Penny sat straight up in bed. "Bad Penny!" She whispered, reaching for her laptop. Some shock therapy was clearly in order!

A few minutes later, she burst into the bathroom.

"SHELDON!"

The shower was completely glass, but there was enough steam from the hot water spray that she couldn't see anything interesting, not that she was looking, because she was still staring at her laptop screen in shock. "We're actually married!"

"Penny, get out of the bathroom."

"No."

"Penny, I'm not suitably dressed."

"I'm not looking." Penny snapped.

The shower stopped, and Sheldon grabbed a towel and stepped out, carfully wrapping it around him. Normally he would have refused to come out, and pitched a fit, and handed out strikes and threatened the wireless connection, but this was Penny, and they were really married, and she sounded upset, and he didn't like it when she was upset.

She was sitting on the edge of the tub, staring at the image of the marriage certificate. "Sheldon. What do we do?"

He stared at her for a second, noting that she looked more awed than upset and then he turned around and started writing on the steamed bathroom mirror.

SLC PHD(x2) + PC + LMC = X

He narrowed his eyes at the equation and started scribbling other things underneath the equation, numbers and letters and squared signs, working quickly before the steam faded.

Penny watched him, paying more attention to the way the lean muscles in his back moved as he darted back and forth mumbling to himself, then what he was actually writing.

He turned around and caught her watching him, and immediately checked his pulse.

He wrote another number and then leaned over her, checking her pulse.

She blinked up at him, he was wet still, his hair was messy, and he was checking her pulse?

He looked suprised, then raced back to the mirror to write another number, another calculation.

Finally, he cleared his throat.

"Breakfast will be here in a few minutes."

Penny blinked in surprise. "That's it? All that, and that's it?"

He tilted his head to the side and regarded her warily. "Penny, we have only two options. Neither of which can be put into effect until Monday. We can either stay married, or we challenge the certificate, and have our marriage declared null and void. As we've already committed to being 'married' for the length of this symposium, I see no reason we have to decide right now. I have," he gestured at the fading equations, "devised a hypothesis, which will require testing, but I don't plan to start till after breakfast."

Penny nodded and closed the laptop, placing it on the counter. He was right. There was nothing they could do until Monday anyways, and she wasn't really sure what she wanted. "Ok." She whispered. "I'm going to have a shower."

He nodded and left the room, taking her laptop with him, muttering about condensation.

She turned on the shower and watched as steam filled up the room again, except for the spots which Sheldon's long finger had written on.

Stepping closer, she tried to figure out the equation. Sheldon Lee Cooper, PHD (times two), she rolled her eyes, of course he'd have to write that, plus PC. Penny Cooper? plus LMC, must be Legal Marriage Certificate, she mused, equals X.

The rest just looked like giberish, except for two sets of numbers which she recognized as pulse rates. The first was Sheldon's. The second was hers.

Both appeared to be elevated.

She stared at them.

Then she smiled.

She had some testing of her own to do.