The White Asparagus Triangulation
"Claire?" Penny called as she entered the apartment, still reeling from her last conversation with Sheldon. She swore, one day she would get the hang of talking to the man, but today was not that day.
She really should have known something was coming when Sheldon started with 'what's shaking' as a greeting.
"In here, Pen!" Claire's voice shouted from the back of the apartment.
Penny headed for the bedrooms, and came to a short stop at the doorway of Claire's, "Oh honey, got the itch again?"
'The Itch' as she'd come to call it, meaning Claire had reorganized her room for the hundredth time that month, or near enough. She'd actually lost count of the different ways that Claire had moved the room around, she didn't think there were THAT many possibilities in a room that small, but apparently she was wrong. She was honestly thinking of bringing Leonard into it to tell her if Claire was somehow bending the laws of physics since it really shouldn't be possible to have so many variations of the same room.
Unless Claire was a witch.
Or a saint.
Either one would probably have that sort of power to them, and either one would be able to handle Sheldon the way she did. And she was perfectly fine with either possibility if it meant Sheldon was even the slightest bit more bearable.
"Yeah, sorry," Claire sighed and straightened up in the middle of what looked like a warzone in her room. Everything was an absolute mess of furniture and books and the bed was almost invisible buried under a mass of random things.
"Just tell me you didn't touch the closet," Penny gave her a firm look on that.
"Whaaat?" Claire tried to laugh, though her too-pitched question was a dead give away.
Penny dropped her head a moment, shaking it, "We agreed you'd leave the closet alone. Remember? To at least give you some sort of chance to have clothes that match?"
Claire sighed at that, nodding. Penny had been appalled at her fashion sense, or her lack thereof, and had helped her organize her closet. She had a terrible habit of just grabbing the first shirt or pair of pants she could reach, regardless of if they actually matched, so Penny had organized the closet so that the shirts that matched better with certain pants would hang right above them.
"I didn't touch it so much as cram things in there for some space," Claire defended, though it was a weak one given how little space there was even now, "I didn't move the clothes around too much, just sort of smushed them to the side."
"Do you own an iron?" Penny had to ask, knowing clothing and knowing that smushing them never worked well.
"I've got that wrinkle spray stuff…"
Penny shook her head, "We'll go through your closet when you're done and try to save the wrinkled ones."
"Thanks, Pen," Claire smiled at her, "Um…did you need something? You were calling me when you got in."
"Right, yeah," Penny nodded, back on track, "Just wanted to ask if Sheldon ever tried…I don't know…talking normal before or if I should be concerned he's had a stroke."
Claire gave her an odd look before something seemed to dawn on her, "He read the book!"
"What book?"
"He was asking me if I had any books that might help him have an easier time making conversation."
"Why?"
"Who knows why Shelly does anything," Claire offered with a smile, "I take it he used some of the suggestions from it?"
"I guess? He asked me what's shaking and how the weather was. Apparently he was trying to start an awkward conversation."
Claire frowned at that, "Awkward how?"
"Well it's Sheldon so I just assume every conversation with him is going to be awkward. But then he started talking about Leonard and that Stephanie woman having sex…"
"Got the awkward now," Claire winced for her friend, knowing she really did like Leonard but hadn't gotten to that part of the relationship yet.
"Exactly what I said."
"I'm gonna naively hope that was the extent of the awkwardness?" Claire offered, but Penny just gave her a look, "Right, probably not."
"Oh it got worse, he started going on about how their relationship was important to HIM because this Stephanie chick is the only partner of Leonard's he actually found tolerable so I needed to not come across like a 'sexual rival' if I ever meet Stephanie and not to hook up with Leonard. Or at least I think that's what he was saying. He sort of went on a tangent about estrogen and soup or something."
Claire sighed, "I'll talk to him," she promised, "He really hasn't been around girls enough to know what isn't really proper conversation topics to just blurt out like that."
"He's been around you," Penny pointed out.
Claire's small, offered smile grew just a little sad, "I don't think he sees me quite like that, Pen."
Penny shook her head, "He HAS to," she insisted, "I mean, basic biology, you're a girl, he's a guy."
"Well, it's a little more complicated than that nowadays, there's plenty of people who identify as…"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Penny cut in, understanding her point, but it wasn't really the point SHE was trying to make, "I know. But I'm saying, between you and Sheldon, girl, guy. Simple."
Claire just gave her a small shake of the head, "I've been his best friend since we were kids, he really doesn't see me like that. I don't think he sees anyone like that. As a…a potential partner or anything."
"Mhmm," Penny hummed, "Well, no offense to your smarts, but I've seen enough movies to know that it's usually the best friends that end up together in the end."
"This ain't a movie, sugar," Claire reminded her softly.
"We'll see about that," Penny muttered under her breath, but didn't say anything more.
~8~
The smile on Claire's face fell instantly when she reached the entrance to the movie theater, a giant tub of popcorn in her arms with a soda. It wasn't that she didn't like the movie or that the theater was too crowded, but she was now realizing that Leonard definitely had NOT organized a movie trip for everyone. Sheldon had come to her apartment, asking if she and Penny wanted to join him and Leonard at the movies. Penny had been working, so she'd agreed to go, wanting a break from the apartment. They were supposed to be meeting there and she was now realizing that that was not the case at all.
For one, a woman was with Leonard, Stephanie, and the second…both of them looked completely startled when Sheldon popped up beside them.
Oh Shelly.
She shook her head and began to make her way down to do some damage control.
"…sorry we're late," Sheldon was saying.
"We?" Leonard nearly groaned, looking back to see who Sheldon had brought with him and hoping it wasn't Penny.
"Hey, Leonard," Claire offered with an apologetic smile.
"Hi Claire," Leonard sighed, seeming to give up right then and there.
"Claire," she offered the woman, reaching in a bit to try and shake her hand.
"Stephanie," the woman returned.
"You left the most indecipherable invitation, Leonard," Sheldon didn't miss a beat.
"What invitation?" Leonard huffed.
"'We're going to the movies.' What movie? What theatre? What time? If you were trying to make it impossible to locate you, you couldn't have done a better job."
"Oh, clearly I could have."
"Word of advice, don't leave a note at all," Claire offered in a whisper that did little to actually hide what she was saying, "And always delete your internet history. This one thought I was secretly trying to join the Soviet Union once before I was able to tell him I was writing a paper comparing the greatest writers from different countries."
"Noted."
"Yes," Sheldon remarked, "It took me nearly 20 minutes to go through the browser history on your computer to see what movie times you looked up. Wait here, I'll find us seats."
"No, no, we have seats," Stephanie tried to call out as he hurried away, gesturing at the seats she and Leonard were already sitting in.
"Not the 'right' seats," Leonard rubbed his head.
"I'm so sorry for him," Claire told them both, "If I'd known this was a date, I woulda tried to stop him coming."
"It's not your fault," Leonard waved if off, Sheldon starting to move around the theater, sitting in random seats and shouting out a loud 'Ha!' every so often.
"What is he doing?" Stephanie whispered to Leonard.
"Finding the acoustic sweet spot," Claire remarked, moving to sit on the armrest of the nearest seat. It wouldn't make sense to sit down when Sheldon would just insist they sit in the sweet spot.
"Does he always do this?"
"Sometimes he brings a toy xylophone," Leonard muttered, "I am really sorry about this."
"No, it's fine. You know, he's...sweet."
"That he is," Claire agreed, "A big old kid with a genius intelligence."
"You've known him long?" Stephanie looked at her, an odd expression on her face like she couldn't imagine someone surviving Sheldon too long but also a little awed that the woman had.
"Since we were kids."
"You're Claire Benson!" Stephanie pointed at her, not having made the connection between the woman before her and the 'Claire' that Sheldon had brought up during her last date with Leonard.
Claire seemed a little startled she knew her last name.
"Sheldon was telling us about the CAT scanner you helped him build the other night," Leonard told her, "You know, after interrogating her about if she'd witnessed a violent crime, what her favorite fruit was, and where she did her internship."
"We've all lived near Galvenston, Texas, apparently," Stephanie offered.
"Now that CAT scanner story makes sense," Claire nodded, taking a sip of her soda, frowning a moment later, "Wait, he crashed your last date too?"
"Oh yeah."
"Apparently he thought we were 'at risk of losing our landing party's medical officer,'" Leonard rolled his eyes.
"Yeah…" Claire winced at that, "He's been trying to put that party together for a while…"
"So you're aware you're apparently Uhura?" Leonard looked at her, recalling how Sheldon had snuck Claire into the landing party too.
"Well, Shelly is Spock," she remarked absently, "Gotta have someone around that knows how to communicate with him, right?"
Leonard actually had to nod at that, it did make sense. They probably would also need someone there who wasn't likely to kill him in his sleep either. Sheldon was a little more tolerable when Claire was around to keep him in check for the most part.
Stephanie looked between them for their discussion, opening her mouth to question something about it when Sheldon returned to them, moving just past Claire and 'Ha!'ing right behind them, before leaning forward and doing the same thing.
"My apologies," he straightened, "You've been sitting in it all along. Leonard, you want to slide over?"
Leonard just shook his head, getting up completely, "No, just sit here."
Claire could only mouth a 'sorry' to them as Leonard reached out to help Stephanie up, the two moving to other seats.
~8~
Claire had just scooped some ice cream into her mouth as she and Penny had a bit of a girl's day, watching a movie, when there were three knocks on the door…
"Penny!" Sheldon called, knock, knock, knock, "Penny!" knock, knock, knock, "Penny!"
Penny let her head fall back against the couch, staring at the ceiling for a moment before taking a large breath and pushing off to set her ice cream down and get the door.
"What?" she demanded, seeing Sheldon there with something wrapped in clear plastic held in his hands.
"This is banana bread," he stated, offering it to her.
Penny gave him a look and pointed at her door, "This is a door knob."
Sheldon rolled his eyes at her, "It's my understanding that an unsolicited gift of food can be a precursor to an impromptu invitation to come in and chat."
"Or," Claire called, getting up, "You can just ask to come in," she told him, "You're also my best friend, Shelly, which is even more reason to just feel free to ask."
Sheldon nodded at that and looked at Penny, "May I come in?"
"Why not," Penny muttered, stepping to the side to let him in.
If she'd only known that letting Claire live with her would mean even more frequent visits from Sheldon due to them being friends she…ok, she probably still would have offered her spare bedroom to the girl. Claire was interesting and fun and smart, but not in a super duper science way. Claire also didn't make her feel dumb whenever she started talking like the boys did sometimes. And Claire seemed to have a knack for handling Sheldon, which was something she desperately needed to learn how to do.
Sheldon had only taken a step into the apartment before stopping short, looking around almost in horror, and turning to Claire, "Were you robbed?"
Claire had to laugh at the concern and genuine fear in Sheldon's voice as he asked that. The apartment was a bit of a mess, but both she and Penny had just been so busy with their respective work that the cleaning had taken a hold for the moment. She honestly didn't care much, it was all organized, in a way. Certainly not by Sheldon's standards, but she and Penny both knew where everything they needed was and they would get to it eventually, they just needed a break from the responsibilities of adulthood for just a little. They fully planned to get to cleaning once the movie was over.
"No, Shelly, we're fine," she reassured him.
"Yeah, no robbing going on here," Penny agreed, plopping down on the couch again and spooning up a mouthful of ice cream.
"How can you be sure?" Sheldon asked.
"Sheldon, what do you want?" Penny groaned, already having missed the best part of the movie because of his intrusion. And it was on TV not a recording so it wasn't like they could rewind and watch it again or pause it.
Sheldon looked at Claire for Penny's frustration, but she could only shrug, eating an ice cream of her own. He sighed, "I'm certain this will come as no surprise to you, but Leonard is failing in yet another relationship."
Penny turned to him for that, "He's having problems with Stephanie?"
Claire spooned another helping of ice cream to her mouth to keep from commenting on how Penny had said that. It was a perfectly normal question, any friend would ask that if they heard what Sheldon said. It was just…while Penny DID seem concerned for Leonard, there was also a tiny hint of what almost sounded like relief in her voice too.
Given the sermon Sheldon had given Penny about 'not being a sexual rival' for Leonard, any comment she made about it was sure to just lead Sheldon to think Penny was after Leonard again and that would just cause more problems. She did not think Penny was the sort to go after another person's boyfriend or anything, not when the boy was someone she genuinely cared about. She wouldn't sabotage Leonard's happiness like that, she really didn't think Penny would, but Sheldon might see it like that.
"She's sending virtual livestock to random men on the internet," Sheldon stated, as though it were a sure sign of Stephanie's infidelity, "If I have any hope of keeping them together, I need data. Specifically, I need to know exactly what Leonard did that caused you to pop an emotional cap in his buttocks."
Claire started coughing at that, half choking on her ice cream, "Pop a what, Shelly?" she managed to get out.
"Urban slang," he remarked, "I must say, Claire, that book was not as helpful as you claimed it would be. No one seems to understand a word I'm saying."
"No one understands you when you talk normal-Sheldon, either," Penny defended, "What does my one date with Leonard have to do with him having trouble with Stephanie?"
"You were his shortest relationship," Sheldon pointed out, "I need to know what he did wrong with you to keep him from making the same mistake with Stephanie. So, what is the down and the low? And don't worry, this is all entirely confidential, so, you feel free to include any and all shortcomings in the bedroom."
"We never got to the bedroom."
"Because…"
"Shelly, you just said she was his shortest relationship," Claire reminded him, "They went on one date, there wasn't time to take it to the bedroom."
"Poppycock," Sheldon waved it off, "I've seen men come and go within hours, half of them there was no indication they were even on a date when…"
"Ok," Penny got up quickly, not wanting to get into that with Sheldon, "Alright, fine, you know what? I'll tell you what happened. We were young, we were very much in love, but we could only communicate through a time-traveling mailbox at my lake house."
Sheldon gave her an unimpressed look at that, "It's not enough that you made me watch that movie, but now you mock me with it?" he huffed, "It has been weeks, and Stephanie's facebook page still says she's single. Is that normal?"
"It can be," Penny shrugged.
Sheldon looked at Claire for a second opinion.
She pulled the spoon out of her mouth and shook her head, "You know I've never been in a relationship like that Shelly, I wouldn't know how long someone should wait."
Sheldon frowned at her, not because he was disappointed with her answer but…he was feeling an odd emotion within himself. It was like…when he opened up a new model train for the first time, a sort of glee and even relief. He didn't know why he felt it though…maybe it was in knowing that Claire likely wouldn't think to change her relationship status on facebook either and that must be why Stephanie hadn't too.
Yes, that must be it.
~8~
Knock, knock, knock, "Penny!"
"Oh you've GOT to be kidding me," Penny muttered, hearing Sheldon knocking at the apartment door.
Claire looked up from where she was reading through a book to glance at the door at the next, knock, knock, knock, "Penny."
"Think I can pretend I'm not home?" Penny whispered to her from where she was collecting her clothing from around the apartment to wash them.
Claire shook her head, "He's got really good hearing."
"I do!" Sheldon agreed from the other side of the door, prompting Penny to stride over and yank it open.
"What?" she asked.
Sheldon, who had had his hand raised and ready to knock his last time, rapped against the frame of the door three more times before adding in, "Penny," and offering her another wrapped baked good, "Zucchini bread."
"Oh, thank you," Penny rolled her eyes as she took it from him.
"May I come in?"
"No."
Sheldon frowned at that and looked at Claire for help or a hint of why he wasn't allowed in. Claire just mouthed 'Leonard' which was just enough for him to make out what was wrong.
"I see," he nodded, "Apparently my earlier inquiry regarding you and Leonard crossed some sort of line. I apologize."
Penny crossed her arms and nodded, "Well, thank you."
"So, have you and I returned to a social equilibrium?"
Penny glanced back at Claire for that.
"Are you friends again?" Claire translated.
"Oh, right, yeah, sure," Penny shrugged, returning her attention to Sheldon.
"Great," he nodded, "New topic. Where are you in your menstrual cycle?"
Penny stared at him for a full minute for the question before simply turning around and walking into the apartment, patting Claire on the shoulder as she passed the girl sitting on the couch, "You're up."
Claire laughed a little to herself, but stood, completely understanding why Penny did NOT want to talk to him about that. It was her turn to make sure Sheldon understood the topics that were safe to discuss and which needed more context and lead in and gauging if the person was open to even discussing something so private.
"Shelly, let's step into the hall," Claire began, moving to shoo him away from the door so she could shut it behind her.
"Did I say something wrong?" he asked, frowning as he stepped back.
"Not so much wrong as socially unacceptable given the context of the previous topic."
"Drat," he muttered, "I thought I was getting better at that."
Claire just turned back to him, "Why do you want to know that about Penny?" she asked. She didn't really WANT to know, but it was something she felt like she needed to know in order to work out a way to phrase it to Sheldon why he couldn't just leap into a topic like that.
"Well, I've been doing some research online, and apparently female primates, apes, chimpanzees…"
"Humans," Claire cut in, already thankful that Penny had tag teamed her for this conversation. She could just imagine Sheldon finishing that with 'you' directed at Penny.
"Yes. See, they find their mate more desirable when he's being courted by another female. Now, this effect is intensified when the rival female is secreting the pheromones associated with ovulation. Which brings me back to my question, where Penny is in her cycle. I thought it would be more helpful to go that route than to take Howard or Raj's suggestions at wearing less cologne or apocalyptic genocide of the rest of the male species."
"Oh, Shelly," Claire murmured, rubbing her forehead, "Before I even get to that, which I won't be answering by the way, because that is something private to a girl and only up to her in terms of whether she wants to tell or not. Just like you hated having to tell anyone about that time you got that rash and…"
"Understood, understood," he cut in quickly, his cheeks tinged pink as he recalled that awful time in his life when he'd gotten a terrible rash from…well, he wasn't ever trusting his brother when he said that certain leaves were an acceptable alternative to toilet paper.
That was the reason he never, ever went camping with his family ever again.
"Some things are just private," she repeated, "Think of it like this, if you can't remember a time where you heard women talking about something around you openly, it's probably not something you should ask them about even in private. If you're still not sure, ask me or google it too. But for now, anything dealing with anything remotely related to reproduction or their organs, off limits, ok?"
"Ok," he nodded, sounding very serious as he listened to her. He hadn't meant to offend Penny or make her uncomfortable. But he could see now how his chosen topic of conversation might have been an embarrassing one for a woman to discuss. He had been looking at it in a purely scientific sense, but Penny had no such background. That was a misstep on his part, he should have taken that into consideration first.
"And, the next part of that, wouldn't asking Penny about that be illogical?"
Sheldon straightened at that, startled, "How so?"
"According to Penny, you talked to her just a few days ago about NOT being seen as a sexual rival for Leonard when Stephanie was around, didn't you?"
"Well, yes, but…"
"And that means NOT seeming like she's courting Leonard, right?"
"Well…yes, but…"
"So, logically, if Penny needed to stay away from Leonard to not be seen as a threat, wanting to know when she's ovulating so that she can 'court' Leonard is just contradictory. Illogical."
Sheldon stared at her a moment, his lips pursing, his jaw twitching as it often did when he was proven wrong about something.
"Fine," he huffed, "I was very wrong to ask Penny such a private question and I won't do it again."
"And if it has anything to do with Stephanie…"
"I won't bother Penny with it."
Claire smiled, "If Stephanie and Leonard do break up, then your stipulation would be null and void and Penny becomes a potential candidate for Leonard again. But only if she wants to be and with no interference from you, ok?"
"Fine," he huffed once more, crossing his arms, "I just…we need a doctor for the landing party and you know I experience numerous medical ailments throughout a year, this would save a lot of time wasted on doctor visits and more time on my work."
"That isn't a good enough reason to stay in a relationship, Shelly, and you know that very well," she pointed out, "People have to be happy together, happy to just be together with each other for a relationship to work."
"Like us," Sheldon began to nod, understanding her words, "You're my best friend, I'm always happiest when I'm around you."
"Right back at you, Shelly," she told him, "But if Leonard and Stephanie start being unhappy around each other, you know what'll happen."
"Fighting," he nodded more, his face twisting in distaste, having plenty of his own memories of his parents fighting but refusing to separate because of their religion.
"Leonard's your friend, and you don't want that for him, do you?"
"No."
"You can try to help Leonard and his relationship all you want, but you gotta draw a line somewhere, Shelly, and you gotta know when to stop if it isn't making Leonard happy."
"I understand. Please offer Penny my apologies if my questions made her uncomfortable."
"Oh no," Claire smiled, "You are apologizing to her yourself."
He groaned, "Do I have to?"
"Yup!" Claire turned, opening the door to her apartment and pointing him to head inside and do just that.
~8~
"He threw up?" Penny was asking as she powered up her laptop in her apartment the next day.
"According to Shelly," Claire nodded, recounting the rather…interesting evening he, Leonard, and his date, Stephanie, had had last night.
Sheldon had invited her over a few hours ago to look at Leonard's stitches and get her opinion on whether a mattress suture would have been better than a blanket stitch. She'd been completely confused by exactly why Leonard had needed stitches in the first place and Sheldon had launched into the tale of what had happened.
Apparently Sheldon had tried to make Leonard seem like the 'alpha male' of the two and made a show of needing Leonard to open a bottle of white asparagus for him. Only it hadn't quite gone to plan when Leonard couldn't get it open and banged it on the counter, breaking it and cutting his finger badly enough that he needed stitches. He'd not only thrown up at the mention of stitches, but also cried when Stephanie herself put them in.
Sheldon had spent a good hour lamenting about how all his efforts to officially get Leonard and Stephanie together had been undone because of it.
"Huh," Penny remarked, opening Leonard's facebook page. She'd just checked Stephanie's and she hadn't made any sort of remark about Leonard's trip, hadn't unfriended him, but Leonard's page had a very interesting change.
"What?" Claire stepped over to see what had gotten Penny's attention, her eyes widening as she saw it.
"Come on," Penny quickly got up with her laptop and headed for the boy's apartment, "Leonard, congratulations!" she called.
"What for?" he seemed confused.
"Your facebook status update," Penny turned her laptop in her hand to show him his page, "Leonard Hofstadter is in a relationship."
"What?!" he quickly jumped up and hurried over, gaping at the status that really was there.
"You're in one, but, um…so far Stephanie isn't," Claire told him gently, not sure if it was just that the girl hadn't seen it yet or if it was her way of rejecting it.
"No," Leonard groaned, "No, that's not right."
"Oh, man, did you switch your status before she did?" Howard let out a hissing noise, "Speaking as an expert, way to look needy."
"Yeah, that's what's throwing me off," Claire frowned, "You've been dating for a while now and you didn't seem in a rush to make it official before…"
"Because I wasn't and I'm not," Leonard insisted, "It's a mistake. I didn't change my status."
"Well, then who did?" Penny asked.
"I had no choice," Sheldon spoke up as he entered the room, "He cried in front of her."
Leonard rounded on him, "You hacked my facebook account?"
"Oh, it's hardly hacking when you use the same password for everything, Kal-el."
"Shelly…" Claire sighed, shaking her head.
But Leonard wasn't done, "Are you insane? Now she's going to think I'm desperate. You've destroyed this relationship! And you want to know what the worst part is? You don't even understand what you did wrong because you can't conceive of something that you are not an expert in!"
"In which I am not an expert."
"Shelly, not the time," Claire muttered.
"I don't want to hear another word out of you," Leonard huffed, more at Sheldon than Claire.
Raj let out a very high pitched noise, drawing their attention to where he was sitting on the couch with Penny's laptop before him.
"What's wrong, Lassie?" Penny teased, "Timmy fall down the well?" Raj shot her a dirty look and pointed at the laptop. Penny leaned over to see he'd brought up Stephanie's page again, only this time something was different, "Oh, wow. She just updated her facebook status."
Howard looked over too, "Stephanie Barnett is in a relationship with Leonard Hofstadter."
"Really?" Leonard perked up, moving to check for himself, "Oh. Look at that, I have a girlfriend."
"If I am permitted to speak again," Sheldon held up a hand, "Dr. Sheldon Cooper for the win."
"Alright, Dr. Cooper, now you and I need to have another talk about hacking," Claire remarked.
Sheldon pouted at that.
A/N: Awwww :) Sheldon's happiest around Claire :D And they somewhat almost kinda went on a date together :) I wonder if Sheldon realizes that? ;) I have to say, her role as Uhura is going to come back around one day in quite a significant way ;)
Some notes on reviews...
That is a tricky question. I feel like Claire would WANT contact first, but I feel like she would also hold back and let Sheldon make the first moves so she knows exactly what he's comfortable with and allowing him to get used to the touches in his own time. But, I also feel like Sheldon is so comfortable around Claire that he might actually start wanting the touches more because he is quite touch-starved, even if he doesn't realize it, and he knows Claire and trusts her, so I could also see him having like a crisis because he wants to touch HER but he doesn't want to TOUCH her sort of thing lol. I think, as soon as Claire is made aware that Sheldon would be open or ok with certain touches she would go for it though ;) She'd be less likely to get frustrated with the pace of their relationship than Amy did a few times, she's been around Sheldon nearly her entire life, she's already very aware of how slow he can go in some areas and I think she'd be very keen not to pressure him or make him feel bad if he isn't ready for a step in a relationship :) She's in it for the long haul ;)
Thank you :) So far no call backs for the interview but still no contact saying I didn't get it either so, fingers crossed :)
That's one thing I like about Claire, she's sort of an outside observer to the goingson of the group, but she is friends with them all (ish, Howard is questionable and Raj hasn't had enough 'conversations' with her yet lol), so she doesn't want to hurt them. She wants to give her opinion, but she doesn't want to just be like 'I told you so! Ha ha, sucks to be you!' so she tries to find ways to help them understand what might be happening so they don't hurt each other too :) I think that's the teacher in her, wanting to help impart lessons and increase understanding without making anyone feel bad :)
I loved the part about the Rover too :) I like coming up with the little ways that Sheldon can sort of 'protect' Claire in his own way :)
