The Snowball Occurrence

Texan summers were in a word miserable. Even inside with the air conditioner blowing, a room could warm right up if someone were to enter the front door. If Penny hadn't been excited for Sheldon coming home she would have almost considered visiting her Gammy in Omaha.

Almost.

But that was three days ago, she knew he was home by now; shoot, she had seen Junior leave to go pick him up, or at least that's where he said he was going. Unfortunately Penny wasn't home when they got back and she still hadn't seen him. In fact she hadn't seen much the Cooper clan at all the past few days, not even through her bedroom window.

Maybe they're all hiding from this heat she thought to herself, scowling at the house beside hers.

Penny's eyes caught the incased flower on her dresser and she decided she had waited long enough. She was going over there and finding out exactly why that whack-a-doodle of a boy was avoiding her. She pulled up her blonde waves into a ponytail and purposefully marched over to his front door.

"Why hello there, sweet PennyBlossom," MeeMaw opened the door with a smile and swept her up into a hug. "How are you darlin'? How's Thomas?"

"Oh, you know, trying to stay cool. Tommy is…well, he's got plenty of time to watch TV I suppose," Penny said with a disappointing shrug. Tommy started off his summer with a bang. Or more literally a shatter when a group of his buddies and himself decided to do a little joyriding and took out the driver's side window in the process. He was still under age and therefore now under house arrest.

MeeMaw gave her a comforting pat to the shoulder, "He'll come around, sugar."

"Yeah," Penny drew out. "So did Sheldon make it home? I haven't seen him and I was just…curious."

The older woman's face lit up and her blue eyes began to twinkle as she pushed Penny through the house until they were in the kitchen facing a glass door. "I told my MoonPie he should at least get over there and say hello to you, but he's been cooped up in that god awful garden shed."

"Garden shed? It's a gazillion degrees outside!" Penny scrunched up her face and looked out at the little tin roof building that stood in the back yard.

"Sugar, this is Sheldon we're talkin' about; I'm sure he's more than comfortable," she said with raised silver tinted eyebrows. "Now, go on." She slid the door open and gave Penny a series of gentle pats on the door until she was out and quickly shut the door behind her.

Penny cautiously approached the shed and listened to the clanging that was going on inside. She brought up her hand and knocked three times before slowly opening the door.

"Sheldon?" she called out, stepping inside, her mouth dropping open as she moved forward. Garden shed on the outside, mini lab on the inside. Hiding in plain sight, like the TARDIS…where the hell did that come from?

Penny laughed as she glanced around; of course Sheldon would have converted his mother's shed into his own little laboratory, complete with bright lights and a colder cooling system than both their homes. She almost wanted to put on a sweater.

In the middle of the room was a decent sized ring with a table lined up underneath it and Sheldon stood, leaned over it attaching various wires and mumbling as he went along. The machine beeped and the table began to slide forward and backward and he grinned before the word "Facinating" came from his lips.

"Sheldon?" she tried again, a little louder this time, she knocked on the side of the wall. "Hey, Sheldon?"

He jumped with a trill shriek and bumped his head on the edge of the ring and nearly ended up on the floor. "Good Lord, Penny, you frightened me!" He placed his hand over his chest and began a series of deep even breaths.

"Nice to see you too, MoonPie," she droned with an eye roll.

He stood with his hand still on his chest and let his eyes wander over her. She had grown a few inches in the seven months they had been apart, her golden hair now spilled out well below her shoulders even if it was pulled back. He was sad she wasn't there to celebrate his birthday last month, but she had sent him an envelope filled with comics, old and new and her usual t-shirt that had now seemed to be turning into a combo including a matching undershirt. She had also called him, and he was sure her parents grounded her with the amount of time they spent talking into the night. Austin wasn't that far away but it was still considered long distance.

His mouth spread into a welcoming smile. "Hello, Penelope," he said softly.

Sheldon crossed the room with his hands clasped behind his back and came to stand almost toe to toe in front of her, gazing down into her large emerald eyes. Penny beamed and quickly latched her arms around his middle and sighed into his shirt.

"Hello, Sheldon."

He rested his chin alongside her head and inhaled the sweet scent of green apple that he had missed so very much and brought his arms around her back.

"I waited for you," Penny whispered, "Were you ever going to show up, MoonPie?"

Sheldon pulled away and clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, waving his arm along the length of the device in the center of the room. "Penny, Penny, Penny, I was working," he stressed. "Of course I would have come when it was complete, but the idea came to me on the train and I had to get started right away." He looked at her and cocked his head to the side while he held up a finger and stepped around her to exit the shed. He quickly returned twisting a single familiar white flower between his fingers and he raised his eyebrows as if asking permission to continue with their usual exchange.

Penny breathed out a laugh and walked over to him, straightening herself up so she was closer to his face. He tucked the flower behind her ear with a smile and then quickly turned back to his machine.

Penny wiggled up onto the table, grabbing hold the edges as it began to move back and forth, smirking as he shot her a glare for touching his things.

"So what is it?"

"It, Penny, is a CAT scanner," he said nonchalantly, going about his business as if it were no big deal to have such a thing in your garden shed.

Penny hopped off the table and stumbled backward toward the door. "I'm sorry, a CAT scanner, like those things in the hospital, Sheldon? Why on earth do you have a CAT scanner in your garden shed?!" She tripped over her the back of her pants and instead of attempting to get up she remained on the ground and kept staring at him as he worked.

"Why, I built it of course. Honestly, Penny, if you're going to ask such mundane questions and continue to disrupt me I will have to ask you to leave."

"Oh my GOD, SHELDON! I can see that you built it, but why?" she huffed in annoyance, pressing the palms of her hands into her eyes.

Sheldon's head popped up and looked at her with a tilt. "Oh…well…A CAT scan, or a computed axial tomography scan, is an imaging procedure that uses computer processed X-rays to produce tomographic images or 'slices of a specific area of the body. Now, Digital geometry processing is then used to generate a three dimensional image of the inside of an object from a large series of two dimensional X-ray images taken around a single axis of rotation." He waved his arm inside the large ring beside the table.

"Oh yeah, I see now, of course," Penny rolled her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest, a little miffed that he still hadn't noticed that she was sitting on the ground.

His bright blue eyes began to shine, "You do?!"

"Of course not, Sheldon!"

He frowned and glanced down at his feet, "Oh, right. With this I can perform my own brain scans without having to make excuses to get someone to take me to the hospital. Naturally I will have to test it first, perhaps on Missy's guinea pig that she received for Christmas." His fingers rested on his chin as he went into a state of thought, his lips pursing and his eyes rolling up towards the roof. "Hmm," he hummed to himself after a moment, his head turning down to look at Penny.

"Good lord, Penny, when did you end up on the floor?" his voice went up a little higher and got a little twangier as he stalked over to her and held out a hand.

She had made it a point not to touch the dirty ground when she fell, but was surprised that he had offered to help her at all. She reached into her back pocket and pulled out the small packet of travel sized wipes and offered him one.

"Thank you," he nodded with an upturned lip.

"But why would you want to scan your brain to begin with, Shelly? You already know you're plenty smart. Probably smarter than the whole stinking state."

"A CAT scan can't measure how smart you are, Penny," Sheldon shook his head and clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. "And besides, with a brain like mine, who wouldn't want to get a look inside of it on a regular basis."

"I'm beginning to think I've seen plenty," Penny muttered. She didn't know quite why she said it, she usually didn't mind when he babbled on about his science-y things and was content to sit back and watch him as he worked. But she had missed him; and now when he shows the first thing he does is locks himself in the dang shed for days without even a hello.

Sheldon's shoulders stiffened and his upper lip began to twitch. He brought his hands behind his body and turned away from her.

"All righty, then I must ask you to return home, Penelope."

"Sheldon-"

His head tilted down towards the ground, "No, I must finish and I cannot do so with you distracting me. So if you please."

"But-"

"I will let you know when I have finished; hopefully it won't take all summer." His voice was cold and she noticed now that it had had begun to get deeper, only slightly but enough for her to take notice.

She took a step forward and reached up to lay a hand on his shoulder before changing her mind and using it to wipe the building tears from her eyes. She turned and walked silently out of the shed.

Sheldon had his eyes squeezed shut, fists clenched at his side and his lips pressed tightly together forcing himself to keep his back turned. He hadn't heard her leave, surely with his exquisite hearing he would have heard her leave and with Penny and her forceful ways she would have tried to initiate some sort of contact before leaving him to his devices. He couldn't just send her away, not after seven very long months, many letters and a lengthy phone call. He opened his eyes and turned on his heel and his mouth gently fell open at the sight of the emptiness behind him.

She left. She actually left. For the first time in their odd friendship Penelope Anne Widmore had willingly backed away without a fight, and Sheldon hated himself for it.

.

Two weeks went by and she still hadn't seen him, not personally anyway. She'd watch from her window and occasionally she would see him slink in and out of the shed doors. It was shaping up to be the hottest and most miserable Penny had ever experienced. She wondered if it was too late to go to Omaha to see her Gammy.

Junior came over to pick her up for pizza on Thursday, it was the only thing she had to look forward to that came from the Cooper household. She crossed paths with Sheldon on the way to their driveway to get into Junior's truck and they held each other's gaze for a moment. An unreadable steel blue matched with a hard green, he dropped his head and quickly shuffled inside without saying a word.

"He's miserable you know," Junior said casually as he slid into the driver's side.

"No, I don't know, because he shut me out. Not like I would know anyway," she replied gruffly.

"Normally, darlin', I'd agree with ya' there, but you can read that boy like a book. I don't care what momma says, Shelly is chock-full of emotions, he just don't know it yet." He reached over and ruffled her hair. "Don't let him ruin a good thing, Penn," Junior's voice dropped to a lull and his lip curled into a half smile.

"Thanks Georgie," Penny whispered, she smiled at the fact that he didn't even flinch at the name anymore.

"For what?"

"Bein' you."

Half way through week three Penny was woken up by sirens screaming down their street. She pulled the covers over her head, as well as a pillow but the sound only got louder…too loud and the lights were bouncing off her bedroom walls. She kicked off the blankets and her hand flew to her mouth when she saw the trucks lined up at the Cooper house and a line of paramedics marching to the garden shed.

"Sheldon," she gasped," throwing on some clothes and running down the stairs.

"Hey now, hold on a second there Slugger!" Her father's arms snagged around her middle and caught her just as she was about to bolt out the door.

"Dad I gotta go over there, they're going to the shed, Sheldon was building something in that shed!" she cried, trying to kick out of his grip.

"You can't just barge on over there, Penny."

"You're father's right, sweetie," her mother emerged from the kitchen, no doubt she had been peering out the window only seconds before. "I know he's your friend and I'm sure in time-"

"I have to go now!"

"What's the matter, little freak finally blow himself up," Tommy smirked from the top of the stairs.

"That's enough, Thomas," Wyatt said firmly, narrowing his eyes at his son. He set Penny down and placed his hands on her shoulders. "I'm sure you'll find out soon enough, sweetheart, but for now you need to stay put."

They all turned their heads up at the sound of an incoming helicopter and her mother went back to look out the window.

"Oh dear, looks like he's being flown to Lawrence Memorial, must be quite nasty if he's being flown," she muttered quietly.

"You're not helping, dear" Wyatt ground out.

Penny's eyes widened at the mention of her mother's words. What if he was hurt real bad? What if he burnt his brain up or something? Penny's eyes began to prick with tears and she sunk to the floor.

"Oh now, Slugger, I'm sure he'll be all right. He's young and they're being cautious is all." Wyatt shot a glare to his wife and wrapped Penny in his arms, picking her up and carrying her up back to bed.

Penny was eating lunch the next day when Junior knocked on their door, rubbing his hands together and bouncing on his heels as he waited for the door to open. Penny almost pushed her plate to the floor trying to get to him before her parents did, shoving herself off her stool and yanking the door open with brute force.

"What happened? Is he okay?" Penny demanded at the older Cooper brother on her stoop.

Junior slowly nodded, "He's better now," he said with a sigh. "Radiation burns from that damned contraption he was foolin' with in the shed. Doc says it'll take a few weeks to heal but he should be right as rain."

Penny let out a held breath and gave no thought as she stepped forward and latched on to his midsection. "I saw the helicopter, George, I was so scared," she whispered into him.

He firmly held her to his body, breathing in the top of her apple scented curls. "I know, Penn, I know." He rubbed circles into her back and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "So you wanna' see him?"

Penny turned away and slumped down onto the porch swing. "He doesn't want to see me, Junior, he sent me away, remember?"

Junior shook his head and laughed, "You two drive me crazy. You were the first thing he asked about when he woke up, you know that? Was worried 'cause he was mean to you an' all."

Penny's eyes snapped up.

"So you go get ready, and I'll drive you over there."

"I-Let me go tell my parents," she said quickly, jumping off the swing and rushing inside.

Junior was waiting for her by the truck in his drive way, she continued walking and went to the backyard.

"Where ya' goin'?" he called to her.

Penny waved a hand over her head and kept moving until she reached the tree in the corner of the yard, propping the ladder that was placed against the fence on its trunk and climbing until she could reach the white blossoms that it never seemed to run out of.

She got into the passenger's side with a smile, white bloom grasped in her hand. "Can we stop and get some pudding? Hospital pudding is just plain awful."

Junior rolled his eyes, but she could see that they had a twinkle in them as he did so.

They could hear Sheldon arguing with his mother as they approached his room, and above the arguing the voice of MeeMaw telling Mary to let him be, that he was capable of feeding himself he just didn't like the excuse for food he was being forced to eat.

Junior shook his head and bent down to whisper in Penny's ear. "It's been like this since we got here, MeeMaw's been sneakin' him cookies and momma's been givin' her hell for it."

Penny chuckled, "So what's going to happen when I give him a four pack of pudding?"

Junior smirked, "You're Penny, you can get away with just about anything." He gave her a pat on the shoulder. "Hold on, I'll get them out so y'all can make nice.

Penny waited a few moments while Junior ushered Mary and MeeMaw out of the room, but the lack of his twin was a little disconcerting.

"Where's Missy?" she asked.

The Cooper family glanced around at one another before MeeMaw spoke up.

"Missy is a little perturbed at Shelly at the moment, darlin'. Nothin' to be worried about though, I'm sure my MoonPie will fill you in all the details."

"O-kay," Penny drew out, stepping around them and slowly opening the door to his room.

His scrawny body sat tucked into the hospital bed with bandages draped over his arms and his cheeks were red. His eyes widened at the sight of her and his mouth opened but made no sound.

"Hey, MoonPie," Penny said softly, approaching his bedside and taking a seat in the nearby chair.

"Penny," he breathed, his eyes slipping closed momentarily. "Hello, Penny."

"What happened, Sheldon? Please tell me you didn't fry that big brain of yours."

"Heavens no, Penny, I wouldn't be so foolish to try it on myself first, I told you as such, right before-" he stopped and twisted his hands together in the sheets, staring down at them. "I have come to realize that my actions might have upset you." He took his lower lip into his mouth.

"Shut up, Sheldon! I wasn't so nice either, okay? I'm just glad you're going to be all right." Penny smirked, "But let's face it, MoonPie, if you would have come and seen me first this whole thing could have been avoided."

"But, Penny, for a brief moment it worked! I got to see the inside of Missy's guinea pig, Snowball." Sheldon's lips turned down, "then it burst into flames…poor creature, that really wasn't my intention."

Penny's eyes drifted to the bandages that enveloped his arms and she frowned, "Do they hurt?"

"They provided me with pain medication and an ointment that soothes and should prevent from any scaring. There is also a burn along my middle. My cheeks were singed but nothing serious."

Penny bent down and picked up the brown paper bag at her feet and pulled out the flower, twirling it between her fingers. Sheldon's lips flipped up into a smile when she placed it in the center of his chest.

"I believe that is what they would call 'my thing' Penelope," he said quietly, running his fingers along the soft petals.

"Yeah, well, today it's mine. Oh and I brought you pudding!"

"Chocolate?"

"As if there is any other flavor," Penny mocked.

"Of course there is, Penny. Vanilla, tapioca, banana-"

"Sheldon!" she interrupted, "I know what the other flavors are, and I also know that you like chocolate the best."

His mouth formed a small 'o'.

Penny placed a pudding pack and a plastic wrapped spoon on the table and wheeled it over him.

"Thank you, Penny," he smiled as his lips closed over the spoon.

"Your very welcome, Sheldon."

"Penny?" his tired voice creaked. She had been sitting there for quite some time, just sitting, the pudding long gone and his ramblings about what he saw inside poor Snowball were a thing of the past.

"Yeah?"

"Never mind," he sighed, turning his head and letting his eyes close. "I think I'll take a nap now."

"Don't be like that, Sheldon. What is it.?" She stood and let a hand rest on his shoulder immediately retracting it when he hissed in pain.

His head turned back to her, his eyes that were normally so bright and clear were dull and almost gray. He squeezed his eyes shut once more before they popped open again. "I find myself in some discomfort. Will…will you sing me Soft Kitty?"

Penny tilted her head and smiled down at him, "Soft Kitty is for when you're sick, Sheldon," she teased, you're not sick."

"Burned and lying in the hospital is most definitely a type of sick," he retorted with a pout.

Penny grinned. "Well, I can't argue with that, now can I?"

"No, you can't."

"Sheldon?" Penny pressed with a smile in her voice.

"What?" he sighed.

"I would have sung it anyway."

.

A/N: Some fluff, some angst, and some more fluff and a hug from Junior! can we all say "Awwwww!" Now how pissed are we all that Jim and Kaley got robbed by those Glee bastards? Now I love Glee, but I wasn't aware that all that crying Kurt and Rachel do is supposed to be funny. But I was super happy that the show won in its self. As usual, big love to my guest and anons! Let me know how you felt about their first summer and go watch tonight's new episode. See ya' around!

Shelly