"Step out the front door like a ghost
into the fog where no one notices the contrast
of white on white. And in between the
moon and you, the angels get a better
view of the crumbling difference
between wrong and right. I walk in the air
between the rain, through myself and back again.
Where? I don't know.
Maria says she's dying
though the door I hear her crying
Why? I don't know."
- Round Here, Counting Crows
If he hadn't opened that door, he would have never seen her.
Leonard would argue that he would have eventually seen her, she had moved in with Penny after all; of course, Penny quietly informed everyone that her new roommate had not intended to leave the confines of Penny's guest room.
But he had opened that door.
He had seen her.
He had seen the soft, warm brown of her hair, the way the strands shimmered in the overhead light outside of the door. He had seen the muscles in her arms and legs, revealed by her tank top and tights. He had seen the bright red edge of a wound beneath the bandage on her eye, the bright, odd blue in the other eye - turquoise? Her eyes were turquoise, and they were. . .beautiful.
"This is my friend, Rita."
Penny stood beside the small Rita with a proud smile on her face, hands clasped in front of her floral print dress. This Rita looked so out of place, it was startling. No one – not even Sheldon – dared asked why her right eye was taped over with gauze, but they didn't avoid it. Just didn't acknowledge it. When it was Sheldons' turn to introduce himself, Penny held her breath, concerned on whether he would scare Rita off like he usually did with people.
Sheldon gave her a twitch of a smile, trying to be careful, because he did not want to be scolded and not allowed to study this little one. "Sheldon, and yes, I know, it's a pleasure."
Penny rolled her eyes in time with Leonard; Raj and Howard were muttering among themselves, not paying attention to the going on's on front of them. But, if they had, if Penny and Leonard were paying as much attention as they should, they would have seen the way she looked up at Sheldon. That one, wide eye rolling up to meet his. They would have seen the way her pupil dilated and would have seen the way her jaw twitched in an effort to keep that grin down.
"Hello, Sheldon," she whispered.