The Vegas Renormalization

Penny glanced back, hearing someone approaching as she got to the lobby of the apartment building, holding the door open when she saw it was Sheldon returning with what looked like food from an Indian place.

"Thank you," Sheldon smiled, "Hello, neighbor."

"Hello, Sheldon," she greeted, noting he was in a little bit of an odd mood as they headed for the stairs to begin the long trek up to the fourth floor.

"And how are you doing this fine evening?"

"Great?" she offered, hesitant and a little creeped out that he was in such a good mood. Normally he'd have had something to complain about by now or some sciencey thing to ramble about that she'd need to ask Claire to translate.

"Good. I'm glad."

She actually stopped at that, "Really? Are you drunk?" she almost took a step back at that, knowing how he could get when he was drunk and honestly not sure if his habit was just for Claire or any woman nearby.

"I'm just in a good mood," he replied, "While my compatriots are in Las Vegas, I will be enjoying a blissful evening in my personal Fortress of Solitude."

She wracked her brain for what that was and vaguely recalled Claire saying something about Superman, "That's Superman's big ice thing, right?"

"Do you know, I'm such a good mood, I'm actually finding your tenuous grasp of the English language folksy and charming today."

Penny shook her head, "Well that's a first. You know, you're more a stickler for that than Claire is, and that's her entire profession!"

She watched his expression carefully for any sign of disappointment or a lessening of his good mood. She wasn't disappointed. His smile faded a little, still there, but not as wide or energetic as before. Usually it was the opposite, the mention of Claire making him grin, but this time the reminder put a little damper on his mood.

Claire was away for the night. She was giving that lecture she'd missed when Sheldon got sick a few months ago and she'd had to call a family emergency and hightail it back there before she or the guys killed Sheldon. It had taken some doing for them to reschedule her, but it happened. The timing was weird though and Claire had decided it would be easier for her to spend the night there in a hotel instead of trying to do it in one day.

"That is true," he remarked, glancing down at his food, "I should call her and make sure she's eaten a proper dinner," he looked at her, "She tends to forget when she's preparing for lectures."

"I know," Penny reminded him, she had seen how into her preparations Claire got, sometimes forgetting whole meals at a time or even not realizing what time it was. She'd caught the girl awake at 4 in the morning once and Claire had genuinely thought it was only 10pm, "Speaking of dinner, what smells so good?"

"That is the intoxicating aroma of Kadhai Paneer," he told her, lifting the bag in his hand a bit to show her, "A perfect culinary representation of the freedom this evening holds. Not only is it Indian cuisine, which Koothrappali loathes, it contains a generous helping of peanuts, which would reduce Wolowitz to a wheezing 97 pound blister. And finally, it's main ingredient is Paneer, a farmer's cheese which would cause Leonard to render any room uninhabitable within minutes."

"No ingredient that would send Claire running?" Penny teased, seeing how he'd targeted each of the guys.

Sheldon frowned, "Why would I want to send Claire running?"

Penny hid her small smirk at his response by making a show of digging through her purse for her keys. They weren't at their floor yet, but his words were just too much.

And…well, with Claire and the guys off for the night…there was no one to stop her.

"I dunno," she shrugged, "Too much of something is bad, isn't it?"

Sheldon scoffed and rolled his eyes, "There's no quantifiable measure that could exceed the threshold which ventures into the undesirable in terms of temporal constructs conditional to Claire's company."

"Huh?" Penny asked, shaking her head, wishing she'd brought that little notebook Claire had gotten her for Christmas to jot down notes when the guys said things she didn't understand. She'd left it in her apartment. She knew Leonard and the others were in Vegas, something about wanting to cheer up Howard, she'd made the mistake of thinking Sheldon had gone with them. And even if he hadn't, she hadn't thought she'd run into him at this hour.

Sheldon let out a long-suffering sigh, "There's no quantifiable…"

"Never mind," Penny cut in as they came to their floor, knowing he wouldn't actually explain anything, just repeat what he'd already said slower and make her feel dumber for still not getting it, "Just…enjoy your big evening."

"Penny," he warned as she headed for her apartment, "I realize you are also on your own tonight, both of us being without Claire's company though, I note, you are also without male companionship in lieu of Claire's presence, so if, at some point, you find yourself with nothing to do, please do not disturb me."

She gave him an unamused look, "Have fun, Sheldon."

"Oh, I shall," he nodded, starting to hum the Superman theme while fishing in his pockets for his keys…only to realize with mounting horror that his pockets were empty of all but his wallet and phone, "No!"

Penny turned, the door to her apartment open as he began to jiggle the door knob, trying to get into his own apartment in a failing fashion, "What's wrong, Superman? Locked out of your big ice thingy?"

She gave him a smug smirk as he turned to glare at her.

~8~

It had taken no less than two apologies from Sheldon before Penny agreed to dig out the emergency key she had for his apartment, letting him into her own to wait while she riffled through the drawer of her kitchen, "Hang on, I think the emergency key is around here somewhere."

"We have a bowl," Sheldon remarked, glancing around in distaste at how messy the apartment had become. Penny at least tried to make more of an effort when Claire was there, but that was apparently out the window now though, "Our keys go in a bowl. You should get a bowl."

"I should get a bowl?" Penny repeated, "What about Claire? Not worried she'll lose hers?"

"Claire keeps all her keys on a keychain in one place and only one place, always."

"Great, where's that?" Penny asked, "Maybe her spare key is with the others."

"In her purse."

"Ok, not going to help us now," she muttered, moving to shuffle through some items on her coffee table, growing more desperate to find the spare with every passing minute with Sheldon, "So, how did the beautiful mind of Sheldon Cooper forget his keys in the first place?"

"I left them in the bowl."

"Oh…" Penny gasped, coming across a grocery receipt with an item on it that reminded her where the key was, "I just remembered where the emergency key is."

"Where?"

"In your apartment."

He frowned, "What's it doing in my apartment?"

"Well, I went in there a few weeks ago when you guys weren't home, and I forgot it there."

He tensed, "You were in my…why would you…what are you saying?!"

"It's not a big deal," she rushed to reassure him, "I was making coffee and I ran out of milk! Claire said she would pick up more on her way home from her class but it didn't help me right then and…"

"You're the milk thief!" Sheldon pointed an accusing finger at her, "Leonard said I was crazy but I knew that carton felt lighter!"

He had been an inch away from asking Claire to put her literary mind to work and treat the milk carton like the subject of one of those mystery books. She was the book reader, she had to be able to channel Sherlock Holmes or something and work out the answer. If he'd just ASKED her instead of listening to Leonard, he would have had his answer.

"Alright, Sheldon, let's just calm down and we'll call the building manager," Penny cut into his spiraling thoughts, moving to pick up the phone and do just that, "He'll come open your door, you just eat your dinner here while you're waiting."

"Eat?" Sheldon took a step back, clutching his food to his chest, "My dinner? In your apartment?"

"Yeah, why not?" she shrugged.

"Sure, why not?" he huffed, "And after the sun's down we can all pile in my pick-up and go skinny-dipping down at the creek. 'Cause today's the day to stop making sense!"

Penny pursed her lips at his reaction…until she realized something. She was likely going to be stuck with Sheldon a little longer…and this might be the only time she'd get to really put one of her experiments into full effect without any outside distractions or interference.

She nodded to herself, testing it out right now, "You realize this is Claire's apartment too, right?" she asked, crossing her arms as though daring him to insult it now.

Sheldon blinked, looking around, like he was just remembering that, "Well…then…I suppose it's not…SO bad an idea…"

Penny smirked, "I'll even let you sit in HER chair while you eat, will that make you more comfortable?"

"Very much," he nodded, relaxing just slightly, "It's probably the best kept chair here."

Penny took a deep breath through her nose, of course he'd find some way to insult her in the middle of it all.

~8~

Penny pushed around the bits of her microwavable dinner, half tempted to ask Sheldon to share his food, but not in the mood to listen to one of his lectures on hygiene or food safety or anything. She was trying to think of ways to approach the things she wanted to try out. Sheldon might be oblivious about some things, but if she pushed too much he might become suspicious and…

"So, how was your day?" he asked out of nowhere.

Penny blinked and looked up at him, "Are you trying to make small talk? Oh, sweetie, you really don't have to."

He shrugged, "Whenever Claire and I eat together, we always ask each other how the day was. It's quid pro quo," he added at the end, before cutting her off, "It means this for that, or something for something."

"I know what quid pro quo is, Sheldon," she gave him a look, "I just…didn't know you um…subscribed to the convention of small talk?" she offered, trying to think of a bigger word.

"As far as I'm aware it is an accepted convention for social interactions and beginning conversations, which are typical to have over dinner," he elaborated, "So…how was your day?"

"Well, uh, they shifted my schedule around at the restaurant so my hours are going to be a little different…" she began.

But Sheldon shook his head, "I'm sorry, that's not going to interest me at all, just eat."

Penny pursed her lips, another thought coming to her, "Ok," she nodded, turning to pick up her phone.

"No phones at the table," he said, "It's one of Claire's rules. My rule is that the food on a plate can't be touching each other."

"Speaking of Claire, that's exactly who I was about to call," Penny remarked easily.

"Why are you calling Claire while we're eating dinner?"

"Because I wanted to let her know you were being rude to me," Penny said, scrolling through her contacts, "She's always saying you're a sweetie, but I was going to tell her she was wrong and…"

Sheldon reached out to snatch the phone from her, seeming a little shocked he'd done so, before he quickly put it down, "You're right," he began, "That was rude. It's only fair I listen to your description, wearying as it is likely to be, so that you return the favor and listen to mine."

Penny smiled, "I'm glad you see it that way, Sheldon, that's very gentlemanly of you. Now, as I was saying, they shifted my schedule around at the restaurant…"

~8~

Penny was torn between being beyond annoyed with Sheldon and wanting to go 'awwwww' and do a little victory dance around her apartment. On the one hand, the guy was a pain in the ass! HOW did Leonard or Claire put up with him so long without wanting to kill him?! Ok, well Leonard probably did want to kill him a number of times, and given his mother and how that must have been to grow up he was fairly used to someone like Sheldon. And Claire, she had to have the patience of a saint and, she supposed, Sheldon was never quite so bad when Claire was around, the girl was like a certified Sheldon Whisperer or something. But, on the other hand, her experiment was raking in results faster than light traveled!

…that was right, right?

Light was fast? Or was it sound? Weren't they both fast or something?

Either way, for as annoying as Sheldon had been since she'd let him hang out to wait for the building manager, he was proving every hypotenuse she had right.

Hypothesis? Hypoxia? What was that word for experiments?

Hell, let's just go with theory.

If she brought up Claire, he perked up.

If he was being rude and she subtly threatened to tell Claire about it, he changed his tune.

If she did something wrong, he compared her to Claire.

If something made him think of a story from his childhood, 90 percent of the time Claire featured into it.

If they were talking about something random, that she didn't think Claire could have anything to do with, Sheldon found some way to turn the conversation to Claire.

And, her favorite, which she'd come to learn after they'd lapsed into silence a few times while eating…if no one said anything at all, Sheldon would bring up Claire all on his own.

She even timed it!

On average, after silence, it took him 6 minutes to bring up Claire out of nowhere. And in the middle of a conversation it took him about two minutes and 58 seconds to bring up Claire.

Holy cow. HOW had she not realized he talked about her THIS much?

And the best part…he didn't even seem to realize it!

Right now they were playing 20 questions, because it was a game Claire would play with him during recess at school as kids. He wasn't one for rushing about on the fields and he tended to get his homework done before the classes were even over so he never had to work on them during that period. God forbid he ever got bored and 'I Spy' was too juvenile, according to Sheldon. So Claire had adapted it, made it trickier, picked something, anything in the world, and gave Sheldon 10 questions to guess what it was. He always won, but Claire, in return, never had the same luck unless there were at least 20 questions. So Sheldon had adapted in return, and allowed for 20.

And the way he'd explained it to her just now? Of course he'd insulted her by saying he could adapt the game to 30 questions as he assumed she'd have difficulty narrowing down the broad scope of the universe, but that he understood the difficulties because Claire needed 20 to do it in instead of 10.

She maybe got a bit defensive and insisted she could do it in 20, thank you very much…and failed each time.

But at least she was entertaining Sheldon instead of duct taping his mouth shut like she very much wanted to do right now.

"Ok, that's question 20," Sheldon told her, pulling her thoughts away from plots to murder him and dispose of the body, and back to the game she should have probably been paying attention to, "You have to guess."

"Oh, God, I don't know Sheldon," she groaned, "Are you Star Wars?"

"How can one person be a whole movie?" he gave her a look like she should have realized this.

"Ok, I give up, can we just do something else?"

"Fine," he sighed, "I was Spock. And really, Penny, I was throwing you a bone by choosing him after my last person."

"HOW was that throwing me a bone?" she gave him an irritated look.

He rolled his eyes, "Spock is my favorite character in the Star Trek universe. Dr. Leonard McCoy is Claire's. She's fond of how he's from the south, like us."

"Yeah, how am I supposed to make that connection when I don't know who Claire's favorite Star Trek character is?"

Sheldon blinked, "I'm sorry, I thought that was something that came up between you already."

"When would THAT have come up?"

"Don't you engage in 'girl talk?'"

"We don't talk about Star Trek during 'girl talk,' Sheldon," she deadpanned.

"Fascinating," he murmured, seeming genuinely startled that Star Trek wasn't a high point of conversation.

"Again, please, can we do something else?"

She was all for 'sacrifice in the name of science' or whatever it was, but if they didn't stop playing this game she was going to sacrifice Sheldon to science.

"Like what?"

"I don't know…'girl talk?'"

"You're the only girl here."

"Fine, then talk-talk!"

"Alright," Sheldon nodded, pausing to consider a topic as Penny reached over to grab a bottle of water to drink. It was reasonable, she had gotten agitated a number of times during their game and raised her voice slightly, it was likely parched. He shrugged, "Are you and Leonard friends with benefits?"

Penny nearly spat out her water, only to end up choking on it as Sheldon awkwardly patted her back till she was done coughing, "What?!"

"Are you and Leonard friends with benefits?" he repeated.

"Where did that even come from? Did he say we were?"

"No, Leonard said nothing, but who knows what goes on over here when he pretends your mail was mis-delivered."

"No, just mail, no benefits."

"Hmm, I see."

Penny eyed him oddly for a moment, a suspicion striking her, "Why are you asking?"

Holy hell…could Sheldon actually be asking because he wanted to be friends with benefits with Claire?! Oh god, if that was true she was going to flip her shit and kick him out because she NEEDED to call Claire right now and…

"I'm curious about the whole social construct," he said, sounding like he genuinely found the whole thing distasteful…which shot her hopes to hell, "On its face, the idea of satisfying ones sexual appetite, assuming one is afflicted with such, without emotional entanglement, that seems eminently practical. What I've observed, however, is Howard Wolowitz crying like a little girl."

Penny sighed, taking another sip from her water, well there went her suspicion. For a hot second she'd actually thought Sheldon Lee Cooper, the man who needed contractual requirements to give a hug, might have been considering taking his friendship with Claire to the next level. Looking at it now though, it wouldn't have been something he'd have done anyway. Beyond the physical implications of it, he was already clearly emotionally entangled with Claire even if he didn't know it yet. And, given the 'social construct' around it, he would never do something like that to Claire anyway. If he was basing his 'findings' on Howard and his reaction, he would know that, sometimes, that sort of relationship could hurt one or both parties, and she knew enough to know he'd never do anything to hurt Claire.

Damn, she'd been so close!

"Well, some people just can't handle that kind of relationship," she shrugged.

"Can you?"

"Excuse me?" she gave him a look, not sure if she should be startled or offended.

"Are you able to have sex with men without developing an emotional attachment?"

"Sheldon, I really don't want to talk about this with you."

"Is this conversation making you uncomfortable?"

"Of course it's making me uncomfortable, can't you tell?"

"I really have no idea. I don't particularly excel at reading facial expressions, body language. Claire, even knowing her as long as I have, has to tell me when she's uncomfortable sometimes and…"

"I'm uncomfortable, Sheldon!" Penny snapped, momentarily letting his next mention of Claire slide in the face of how truly uncomfortable she was right now.

"Thank you, that's very helpful," he nodded, "In any case," he continued, "They should come up with a different name for it. Friends with Benefits. It's completely misleading."

She wasn't sure if she would regret this, but she asked, "How so?"

He looked at her, "Through my friendship with Claire I have been given numerous benefits in thousands of areas," he explained, "As I see it, friends can only come with benefits attached and friendships offer a number of benefits already. It's redundant. They should rephrase it as Friends with Sexual Benefits. Sexual Friends. Coital Friends. Sex…"

"I get it," Penny cut in, rubbing her head, starting to feel that migraine Claire seemed to get at times forming the longer Sheldon talked. She refrained from bringing up there were other terms for it, 'Fuck Buddies' being one, 'No Strings Attached' being another, she just did NOT want to hear him break them down and try to rationalize or pick them apart right now. Hearing Sheldon talking about sexual anything was too much. So she got up and headed for the door.

"Where are you going?"

"To see if the building manager is in," she told him. The sooner she got him out of her apartment the sooner she could recover from the ordeal that was babysitting Sheldon Cooper.

~8~

Penny sighed as she came back into the apartment from the hall where she'd gone to hunt down the manager's apartment to knock on it for help getting Sheldon into his own space. But the man wasn't there, which was just fan-freaking-tastic…because it would mean Sheldon was going to be stuck with her even longer.

"Sorry, sweetie," she called, moving past Sheldon and to a small linen closet in the back, stepping over to him with some spare sheets, "I don't think the manager's coming tonight so, here…"

"Are you suggesting I sleep on the couch?" Sheldon frowned.

"Well, it wasn't the first suggestion that came to mind, but it's the one I'm going with."

"I can't sleep on your couch. I sleep in a bed."

"Well the only beds around are mine or Claire's and I didn't think you'd want to sleep in her bed without her permission."

Sheldon frowned, nodding at that, before glancing down at his watch, it was very late at night and Claire would already be asleep. He had at least gotten through to Claire about forming a proper sleeping schedule, getting the full 8 hours to be refreshed for the day ahead. He knew, having moved in with Penny, she likely hadn't kept to it, but when she had a bit day planned she would do her best to get 8 hours. He didn't want to disturb her.

"I suppose it will have to do," Sheldon sighed, "Though, given its dimensions, I have to ask that you not make any attempts to reenact E.M. Snickering's beloved children's book, 'The Tall Man From Cornwall.'"

Penny blinked, "What?"

"The beloved children's book."

"Yeah, I heard you the first time, Sheldon. I'm not Claire, I'm not…hip on all the books you two read as kids."

"I should have expected that," Sheldon realized, nodding, "Not many have read as many books as Claire did as a child."

"So the couch is…"

But Sheldon wasn't finished, and began to recite the story itself, "'There was a tall man from Cornwall whose length exceeded his bed. 'My body fits on it, but barely upon it, there's no room for my big Cornish head.''"

"Oh, alright," Penny cut in, "I will give you my bed on one condition. That you promise to zip your hole for the next eight hours."

She was starting to regret that she hadn't just offered him Claire's bed in the first place. After all the grief he'd given her since she ran into him in the lobby, the last thing she wanted was to make him too comfortable there. The fact that she was even offering him the couch was something. If he wasn't so important to Claire, she was really sure that she would have thrown him out to sleep in the hallway. Had he not been so annoying, she would have offered the bed if just to see how her experiment would go to have him have that option. But now that she'd made the point about permission, he would refuse Claire's bed…which just left her own to get him to shut up for the night.

Oh, Claire owed her big time.

"May I say one last thing?" he asked.

"Only if it doesn't rhyme," she told him.

"Alright," he nodded, "Goodnight."

Before he added his little breathy laugh, it ended up rhyming anyway.

~8~

Penny was deeply regretting ever bringing up that Sheldon didn't have permission from Claire to use her bed as she found herself lying on the couch, trying to sleep. Sheldon wouldn't let her take Claire's bed either for just that reason and while the couch was fine to sit on or nap on, truly sleeping on it was another story. She was already annoyed that Sheldon had made her change the sheets on her bed for him and then vacuum the floor so he didn't have to worry about stepping on anything should he need to get up in the middle of the night. WHY would she have legos lying around?

"Penny," he called out to her.

She sighed, debating if she could pretend she was already asleep…but he'd probably heard her tossing and turning so that was shot, "What?"

"I can't sleep."

"Maybe that's because your hole is still open," she muttered. This wasn't the first time he'd tried to strike up a conversation since they'd both called it a night.

"I'm homesick."

She sat up to look at him over the back of the couch, him having requested she leave her bedroom door open to see into the living room, "Your home is twenty feet from here."

"Twenty feet, twenty light years, it doesn't matter. It's in a galaxy far, far away."

"Damn it," she huffed to herself, dropping her forehead onto the couch and shaking it, debating whether she could smother herself that way and put herself out of her own misery, before taking a breath and looking up again, "What do you want me to do about it?"

Sheldon was silent a moment, "Has Claire taught you Soft Kitty?"

Penny frowned, recalling when Sheldon had been sick and asked her to sing it for him, she hadn't known what it was then. Claire had saved the day and she HAD been curious what that song was. So she asked about it, she DID know it, "Yeah?"

"Sing Soft Kitty."

Of course that's what he wanted, she huffed. But at least she had one defense, "That's only for when you're sick."

"Homesick is a type of being sick."

"Come on," she groaned, "Do I really have to?"

"I suppose we can stay up and talk…"

"Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur," she began to sing, "Happy kitty, um…"

"Sleepy kitty," he helped.

"Sleepy ki…"

"No. Start over."

She grit her teeth, but if this would make him shut up, she'd do anything, "Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur. Happy kitty, sleepy kitty, purr, purr, purr. How was that? Feel better?"

Sheldon considered it, before shrugging, "It wasn't as good as my mother or Claire, but it was adequate."

Penny was quiet a moment, looking at him through the doorway, tempted to say something but not sure if it would start him on a talking tangent not even singing to him could stop. But…she'd started this experiment, and she might be at a good point to ask something she'd been wondering for a while. He was tired, sleepy, maybe comfortable, and he hopefully trusted her enough to give an answer.

She took a breath and bit the bullet, "You know, you do that a lot," she remarked.

"What?"

"Bring up Claire when she's not here."

At first she had thought he had chosen that topic, chosen to speak of Claire because it was something they had in common, a safe topic for him to go on about since Claire was her roommate. But she would slide some things into the conversations they had, things she was interested in, that he HAD to know she was interested in, but he never leapt on it, never brought it up as that safe topic. It was then she'd realized he talked about Claire not for her sake, but because HE wanted to. She was just curious what reason he'd give for it.

"She's my best friend," he replied, "Why wouldn't I bring her up in conversation?"

"I just meant…I knew you for like half a year and you never mentioned her in all that time. Leonard didn't even seem to know who she was and he knew you even longer. You never mentioned her then, when she wasn't around, but you do now."

"Exactly. She wasn't around."

"I don't follow."

Sheldon sighed, "Claire is here now," he explained, thinking about it now that it had been brought up, "Before, I didn't like to talk about her, because it wouldn't change anything. She wasn't here. Now she is. Even when she's not here right now, I know she's coming back."

Penny smiled softly at him, reading between the lines of the emotional part he wasn't saying. It hurt. She could hear it in the way he spoke. It hurt him to talk about Claire because she wasn't there, he would talk and remember her and be confronted with the fact that they were apart. It was easier to just remain quiet so he wouldn't constantly be reminded of their separation. But with Claire being around now…it was easier for him. The distance wasn't as large, the time apart wasn't so long. He could let himself miss her, because he'd see her sooner than later.

Homesick was a type of sick, he'd said, bringing up how his home was only 20 feet away and he missed it so it might as well be light years.

The same applied to Claire. She had been much farther away than his apartment and there was no hope, as far as he knew, to getting back to her or her coming to him.

"That's really sweet, Sheldon," she told him, "Claire talks about you a lot too."

"Well of course she does."

Penny rolled her eyes at his ego and moved to lay back down on the couch. Claire DID talk about Sheldon when he wasn't around, but she could at least go longer than 3 minutes without feeling the need to bring him up.

Even that was sweet. She knew Sheldon talked about Claire when she wasn't around, Leonard had mentioned it during their trip on the train a while ago. But she hadn't really SEEN it in action. Sheldon was so rarely without the guys or Claire around. It was kind of adorable how much he talked about her and didn't even seem to realize he had, or at least realize how often he had.

She was going to have to tell Claire about this. The girl was so sure Sheldon felt nothing but friendship for her, but what sort of guy constantly brought up 'just a friend' the way Sheldon did? He never talked about Leonard this much, he never talked about anyone this much, not even his meemaw who she knew he was very close to. Claire was constantly on his mind, and if that wasn't enough to show Claire something was there between them, she didn't know what else she could do.

"Penny," Sheldon called out a few minutes later.

"Yeah?"

"Thank you for letting me stay here."

"Oh, you're welcome, sweetie," she smiled to herself.

"Ok, I'm sleepy now, good night."

"Night."

Penny couldn't help her smile staying on her face as she finally began to drift off, she was going to have SO much to tell Claire tomorrow when the girl got back from her lecture.

A/N: I debated so much whether to have Claire and Penny there with Sheldon, or maybe just Claire. But in the end, Penny was the one lobbying for her to be the one stuck with Sheldon lol. If Claire had been there, Sheldon would have been less annoying because Claire is pretty good at anticipating things he doesn't like or would have an issue with and she'd also have a better hold on her own emergency key so it would have been a fairly short episode lol. And also, Penny wouldn't be able to put as many feelers out regarding his feelings for Claire because she'd be there to try and keep her from doing it. And if it was just Claire, neither would be willing to make a move or talk about anything even remotely about relationships, it would just be like a normal afternoon between them. This way Penny can do more of her experiments without worrying about the guys picking up on it and teasing Sheldon and without Claire trying to stop it ;)

It was also a little bonding moment for Penny and Sheldon. With Claire there, she's sort of the bridge between the two, Sheldon sort of sees Penny as his friend by association, through Claire, but not 100 percent a friend in her own right, even if he calls her his friend. I felt like this really was needed for just Penny and Sheldon to do because I do love their friendship in the show and I want Claire to emphasize and strengthen it, not replace it or lessen it ;)

But...even without Claire there, we got a whole heaping spoonful of her on Sheldon's mind ;)

Penny has quite a lot of ammo now ;)

Some notes on reviews...

No worries! :) There's always chapters and episodes I just can't get into either ;) It's actually so interesting to me, writing these episodes, because later in the show, seeing how much Penny changed and how much she grew, it means a lot more. I mean, I think there was an episode where Sheldon estimates how many sexual partners Penny's had, and even she looked stunned by it, because, I think, she'd grown out of being that person and couldn't imagine having that many at that point in her life. I like to think she and Leonard changed each other :)

I really was disappointed with Penny in the episode too. I had such high hopes when she went out with Leonard, because, for once, she didn't just sleep with a guy, it looked like she really wanted something different with him. And when it didn't happen, and then Stuart and how she was willing with him, poor Leonard :( I feel like Claire has a good grasp of the consequences, because she's sort of looking at Penny and her actions from an outside perspective, Penny's too close to how she feels and how she's seeing it all that she can't really look past what it would do to Stuart and Leonard. I also wanted Claire to be there as a sort of window into Penny's mind and thoughts, trying to work out, like viewers were, what Penny's reasonings and motives were. Who can say if what Claire and Penny talked about is what it actually was, but I tried to make it at least make sense and be plausible, especially with what happened with Alicia such a short while before. Lol, I think Leonard would be very grateful to Claire if he ever found out what she did, we'll have to wait and see if it ever comes up though ;) I sort of get the feeling that Claire has done a lot for Sheldon over the years that he's not aware of either, she sort of is the sort to just smile and be inwardly pleased things worked out than want credit for it. But that part of her personality will become more noticeable in a particular story in this series which will have some others thinking back to little details they might have missed about certain events Claire may have had a hand in ;) But thank you so much! That means a lot to me to hear :')

Claire may end up with someone else for a brief period, whether that's only 1 date or more we'll have to wait and see. But I can say that endgame is Shelly-Bear ;) I'm on the fence about Amy, mostly because I feel like, of all the pairings, they have this sort of balance, this opposite factor in their pairings, where the couples grow for having known the other person. I didn't really get that feeling with Amy and Sheldon, though it could be that she started off so similar to him that when she eventually changed it felt more like she changed because of Penny and Bernadette than because of Sheldon so Sheldon was sort of behind with the changing for the better. I try to explore that with Claire, mostly, here, at the beginning it's small things, like how she helps him consider other POVs on the things he does or says while he sort of helps bring order to her life and a care that only comes from knowing someone so many years. Slowly, I'm hoping it'll progress more and more where we see more changes in them as it goes ;)

I hope you found Sheldon cute here too ;) Claire, it appears, is constantly on his mind, even before she appeared in the story ;) I'm glad you liked how her plan backfired on her. For as well as she knows Sheldon, like she's said before, she can't win every argument with him, she can't stop him ALL the time, and sometimes her plans and sneakiness don't work out like she hoped. Human error and all :) I wanted it to be an ongoing joke that she's a Sheldon Whisperer, but without her coming across like she always has the upper hand otherwise Sheldon wouldn't be Sheldon, he's sometimes too smart or too focuses or too set in his ways and that's just life :) I can't say who I think the next Batman should be, I'm definitely not as knowledgeable in Batman lore :)

Lol, I love that part about Claire too :) She loves books so much, and she takes as good of care of them as she can, but some books she just goes back to over and over and they don't last long lol :) Claire's fashion might one day improve, slightly, maybe, Penny's got her work cut out for her ;)