*Thank you for sticking with me, and thank you to all of you that have commented! For those sending me well wishes, I am doing much better. I'm seeing a specialist, and they are pretty sure they know what the problem is. Thank you again, for your support, it means the world to me! I hope you are enjoying reading this as much as I'm enjoying writing it. I'm already coming up with other ideas for other stories about Sheldon and Penny. Please continue to write me comments, they always make me smile! (Even if you write me about something you didn't like, I'll still be happy just because I'm getting feedback!)
*Chapter 5*
It was dark outside by time they returned to the apartment building on North Robles Avenue. Sheldon and Penny lugged all their packages up the four flights of stairs while commenting on different aspects of their day. Just as they were reaching the third floor, they heard approaching voices and footsteps below them, and by time they reached the fourth floor Raj and Howard had caught up with them.
"Hey guys! What are you up to tonight?" Penny greeted them once they all were on the landing.
"Leonard didn't know when you would be home, so he invited us over for an Age of Conan night. You two wanna join us? We haven't ordered dinner yet." Howard replied encouragingly.
"What do you say, Sheldor? Wanna level up?" Penny smiled.
"I think that will be acceptable, but first we should deliver these packages to your apartment. We should eat first, so we don't get any food particles on our respective laptops. Howard, Raj, can you please make sure Leonard orders dinner?"
Howard rubbed his hands together "What are we thinking? Thai? Chinese?"
"It's Friday, and Friday is Chinese night. You know that." Sheldon replied sternly.
"Yes, but it's also vintage game night, and we're not doing that either." Penny pointed out.
"True" Sheldon thought for a moment, completely oblivious to his friend's reactions "I propose pizza as a viable option since Penny and I were out last night and thus was unable to consume it."
Raj quickly whispered to Howard, who then shook his head "No...I'm pretty sure this is our Sheldon, although alien possession is a valid theory."
"Gentlemen" Sheldon scolded "While my routine is ridged, I'm not completely inflexible. To suggest I'd been possessed by aliens is preposterous. One would assume that if I was, I - the alien in question - would do my best to blend in, I would ardently adhere to known idiosyncrasies as to not arouse suspicion."
"Nope, this is definitely our Sheldon." Howard told Raj out of the corner of his mouth. Raj just nodded his head quickly in agreement.
Penny sighed "Come on Sweetie, let's go put this stuff down, my arms are getting tired. We can talk more about it once we get back to your apartment."
"Very well, Penny." they walked over to her door and she used her keys to unlock her apartment as he continued "Maybe we should consider ordering from Greenleaf, we could order the Moroccan Bowl we looked at, and then we could split the Almond Crusted Chicken with the hummus again, but with different sides. Or maybe we could split the stir fry with the grilled citrus chicken."
Raj and Howard watched Sheldon closed the door after they entered Penny's apartment. "Dude, what the heck is going on here?"
"I'm not sure Raj, but we better go prepare Leonard."
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Leonard was in a sour mood. Bad enough he spent the whole day at work thinking about how Sheldon and Penny were off on some date, but even worse to see the results of said date. They ordered dinner from Greenleaf since Sheldon all but insisted, and he had to watch as they carefully split their meals in half to share with each other, then they spent a good five minutes comparing the meal to the one they had last night. Howard and Raj were no help, the two of them kept asking questions, and the next thing he knew there were plans to go there next week so "everyone could try it out". Sheldon, the one with a tight schedule, was willing to replace next Thursday's pizza night with a trip to Greenleaf! After that, they went online to play Age of Conan, and he had to listen to 'Sheldor' and 'Queen Penelope' talk about battle plans, and watch them team up against their enemies. They both looked so happy sitting there. Penny never looked at him the way she kept looking at Sheldon. He'd had enough, he slammed his laptop closed in aggravation. "Are we really going to pretend that nothing is going on?"
Howard continued to frantically press the controls as he fought his opponent. "Are you referring to the blossoming love of your best friend and ex-girlfriend? Or the fact that I am totally kicking this guy's ass?"
"He's probably talking about Sheldon and Penny, but I don't know what he means by pretending nothing is going on." Said Raj as he was mashing on his controls with equal fervor.
Penny had just finished off her opponent, so she quickly saved, logged off, and put her computer on the coffee table in front of her. "Leonard, why are you so angry about this?"
"Are you kidding me? You and Sheldon, Sheldon and you. Sheldon and Penny!" he threw his hands in the air, flopped back in the arm chair, and thumped his head back "Does no one else see how weird this is?" Leonard asked the room.
"Wow, we've been on exactly two dates, and you're freaking out?" she waited for him to look at her again "Leonard, we broke up, you don't get to have a say in who I date. I'm sorry if this makes you uncomfortable, but that's the truth. We aren't rubbing in it your face or anything, so what's up with the attitude?"
"First me, then Raj, and now Sheldon. Are you planning to sleep with Howard next?" Leonard practically shouted.
The whole room went quiet. Penny stood "Screw you, Leonard." and she walked out of the room, across the hall to her apartment, and gently closed her door, not knowing the pandemonium she'd left behind in her wake.
Leonard regretted it the moment he said it. He quickly stood up to follow Penny, but Sheldon was faster, and he blocked the doorway. "Leonard, I warned you before, I will not tolerate your unwarranted disrespect towards Penny."
Leonard sighed heavily "I knew I shouldn't have said it the moment I started speaking. I was headed over to apologize, not make things worse." he'd much rather take it out on Sheldon anyway. He pushed his glasses up and gestured to Sheldon to move "Move and I'll go apologize to her."
Sheldon stepped out of the way and waved Leonard to proceed him. Sheldon followed closely behind, there was no way he was going to subject Penny to any more of Leonard's nonsense. He would ensure Leonard apologized, and then he would do his best to comfort Penny, although it wasn't his strong suit.
Leonard knocked on the door. Penny whipped the door open, saw who was on the other side and went to close it again. He quickly placed his hand to stop the door's motion. "Penny, wait." Penny sighed and opened the door.
"What do you want Leonard?" She huffed.
"I came to apologize. It wasn't fair of me to say that to you. I was frustrated, and I lashed out at you. I shouldn't have said that. Forgive me?"
"I will forgive you on one condition."
Leonard pushed up his glasses and rushed to answer "Name it."
"I don't expect you to accept Sheldon and I dating, but I do expect respect. You are allowed to feel angry and confused about this, but you are not allowed to attack either one of us about it. If you need time to come to terms with this, we can give you time." Penny looked at Sheldon standing guard behind Leonard before looking back at him "I can't speak for both of us, but this is all new to us as well. We don't even have a label for what we are. We are just trying this out, and so far, it makes sense. I don't want to lose our friendship over this. Can you be okay with that?"
Leonard thought hard about everything that happened in the last 24 hours. It all seemed to be going so fast, but Penny was right, it wasn't fair of him to attack them. He just felt so...so jealous. Inadequate. Why Sheldon? What did he have that Leonard didn't? He had some serious thinking to do. "Absolutely. I don't want to lose our friendship either. I do think I need some time though. Seeing you both together at the same time is the hardest part." he saw Penny was about to say something, so he raised his hand to stop her "I'm not asking you not to see each other, just give me some time to adjust to this, and understand that right now, I'm not happy about it."
Penny gave him a small smile "I think we can do that. Why don't you go back to the gang? I think I'm going to tuck in for the night."
Normally, he would try to convince her to change her mind, come back over, and finish the game, but he wasn't joking about needed time. Maybe he needed to take a sabbatical, he had plenty of vacation time. Maybe he should take a trip, he could always go visit his father. "Okay, I'll...I'll see you around?" Leonard said nervously.
Penny nodded "Sure."
Sheldon waited for Leonard to return to their apartment before turning back to Penny. "I'll go get your computer for you. I'll return in a moment."
"Thank you, Sweetie."
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Penny had just sat down on the couch when Sheldon walked in with a laptop bag slung over his shoulders and a tea tray filled with the fixings for hot beverages. Any leftover frustrations she had melted away. "Sweetie, you didn't have to bring over tea, you are so sweet."
Sheldon waved away her comment as he walked toward the kitchen "Nonsense, Penny. You are upset. I am upset. Social convention dictates that we need hot beverages, and since I'm not confident that you have the supplies needed, I brought my own." He placed the tray on the island, then carefully slipped both their laptops out of his bag and placed them on her coffee table. "I don't know if you are interested, but we could continue our game on another server after we've consumed our hot beverage."
Penny stood and placed her hand on his shoulder and leaned up to kiss him on the cheek. "Thank you, Sheldon. I think that would be lovely."
He couldn't help but smile a little "Enough of that nonsense." he walked back to the island "You have your choice of Peppermint tea, Earl Grey tea, Matcha tea, Chamomile tea, Echinacea tea, and Ginger tea."
Penny leaned over on the island to have a better look at the selection. "I don't really drink tea very often, what do you recommend?"
Sheldon gave it some thought "Well, the Chamomile tea would be ideal since it helps promote a good night's rest, but I think you would enjoy the flavor of the Peppermint tea."
"Peppermint it is then!" Penny sat back and smiled. "Just call me 'Peppermint Penny!'" she laughed.
Sheldon gave her a quizzical look, but quickly connected the dots. He chuckled. He filled the tea kettle and set it on the stove to heat up. He took one Peppermint tea bag, and one Chamomile bag, then placed them in their respective mugs. "Penny, I find myself in an emotional quagmire, and you are normally the person I would turn to in a situation like this, but this particular dilemma involves you, so I am unsure of the proper protocol."
"Well, you could always pretend I'm someone else." Penny shrugged.
He rolled his eyes. "Penny, I said I usually go to you for this kind of thing, indicating that I need to speak to you, my best friend. How does me pretending you are someone else help?" Sheldon huffed.
"Hmmmmm..." Penny metaphorically scratched her head "I got it! Why don't you pretend that I'm me, but a different me? Like a clone or something?" Penny smiled proudly.
Sheldon tilted his head "I suppose that could work; I could always pretend you are a Penny from an alternate universe that is also my best friend in that dimension as well."
"Whatever, Sweetie. If it works, go for it."
Sheldon visibly brightened "Hello, other Penny. How are you today?" Sheldon asked politely.
She gave him a 'really?' look and rolled her eyes slightly. She blew out a breath and shook her head, smiling in slight amusement at his antics, and then got into character. "Hello, Moonpie, I'm fine, what about you?" she smirked.
"Penny, only my Meemaw calls me Moonpie." He grumbled.
Penny waved her finger at him "Ah, ah, ah. In my universe, I call Sheldon, 'Moonpie' all the time. It's his favorite nickname from me." She rested both her elbows on the island, leaned forward, placed her chin in her hands, and gave him a playful grin.
"Since I have no evidence to prove the contrary, I will have to accept the premise that in your universe, you do indeed call me 'Moonpie', and it's my favorite nickname from you." He laughed his breathy laugh at their combined whimsy.
Penny giggled. "So, I repeat, how are you doing, Moonpie?"
Just then, the tea kettle whistled. Sheldon turned off the stove, and carefully poured the hot water over the tea bags, then carefully set the kettle on the trivet. He set the timer for the appropriate amount of time for the tea to steep before answering. "Well, other Penny, I'm in quite the dilemma. See, I like the Penny in this universe, and to clarify, I mean, that I like her, as in more than just friends." he put up his finger to stop her from interrupting "However, she was in a relationship with my roommate, and one of the main reasons they broke up, was because he declared his feelings to her, sooner than she was ready to receive and reciprocate those feelings." he put his hand down "I am afraid if I tell her I would like to alter the relationship paradigm from a boy/girl friendship, to a boyfriend/girlfriend relationship, she might think me too fast, and decide to end our dating experiment." he paused "What should I do?"
Penny's heart sank. She knew Sheldon didn't always understand emotional concepts, so explaining this might be tricky. "Sheldon, honey, my relationship with Leonard was complicated at best. Yes, he told me he loved me before I was ready to hear it, but there was so much more to it than that. He saw me as a prize, something pretty that he could flaunt to his friends. He wanted me to be smarter so we could talk about the things he liked, without trying to understand the things I liked. He took more than he gave, and he never saw anything wrong with that. Him telling me his feelings was just the nail in the coffin." She paused for a moment to let him process "Sweetie, I don't want you to make decisions based off what happened between me and Leonard okay?"
"Leonard and I. But yes, I see your point." The timer went off, so he removed the tea bags and threw them away, and then passed Penny her mug before taking a sip of his own tea. "If that is the case, do you think would be precipitous of me to ask you to consider an alteration to our relationship paradigm?"
Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock "Penny, I know you're in there!"
They heard Amy's voice as she pounded on the door. Penny rushed over and opened it before she caught the attention of the whole building. "Amy! What are you doing here?" Penny was shoved aside as Amy stormed in.
"Don't play coy with me, Bestie." Amy stopped short "Sheldon, I should have known you would be here too." She turned back to Penny "Et tu, Brute?"
Penny leaned around Amy "Sheldon? Do you understand what she's talking about?"
"Yes, 'Et tu, Brute' refers to the-"
"No, I get that part, I meant what does she mean by it?" Penny interrupted.
Amy threw her arms up "Don't pretend not to know, you silver tongued vixen. Stuart told me that you and Sheldon hooked up. How could you do that to me?"
Penny flopped down on the couch and place her head in her hands, before she could formulate a reply, Sheldon spoke up. "Amy, Penny didn't do anything to you."
She turned on him next "At first, I thought it was a joke, there was no way that the brilliant Sheldon Cooper would refuse to solidify our relationship, but then turn to my bestie. And even though she is the most beautiful person I've even laid eyes on, after one date surely you realized that you didn't have enough in common to maintain a relationship?" she asked dumbfounded.
"Amy, while I understand your premise, it's flawed. Exhibit A: the colloquial 'opposites attract'." he ticked off on his fingers "Exhibit B: Penny and I both enjoy Age of Conan. Exhibit C: Penny and I are both dreamers. Exhibit D: Penny and I share a love for pranks, and we are on an equal footing when preforming said pranks. Exhibit E: There is the undeniable physical chemistry. While I have previously never showed an interest in physical intimacy, after spending time with Penny, I've realized that I just needed the right person to have those desires. Exhibit F: -"
Amy held up a hand "I don't think I want to hear any more. While I can appreciate you wanting to have a relationship with someone as wonderful as Penny, I still don't understand how Penny could agree to this!" She turned to Penny who was looking up at Sheldon as if she'd never seen him before. Amy was about to rant about how best friends don't stab each other in the back like that, but she was finding it hard to hold on to her anger. "Penny, you are my best friend. You know that I wanted Sheldon to be my boyfriend. Please explain to me, why you would do this without even talking to me about it first?" She pleaded.
Penny was in shock, Sheldon really wanted to explore physical intimacy with her? Everyone thought he didn't have a deal. After all, he'd had different women throw themselves at him over the years, and he wouldn't have even known it, if they didn't take the time to explain it to him. She shook her head to clear her thoughts, she could figure out how she felt about all that later. She needed to focus on Amy now. "Ames, I'm sorry if you took this as some sort of betrayal of our friendship, I never meant to hurt your feelings. I didn't talk to you about it first, because I honestly just didn't think about it. That is no excuse, just the truth. This all happened pretty quickly, and I didn't think it would really go anywhere, but I have really enjoyed my time with Sheldon, and like I told Leonard, we are still trying to figure all this out ourselves. I promise that I never meant anything hurtful by any of this." She took a breath and stood up. "Can you understand that?"
Amy hugged her tightly "Oh, Bestie, I should have known you wouldn't have done anything to hurt me! Of course, I understand." She let go and stepped back. "I won't lie and say I'm not jealous. That you could succeed where I failed, is extremely disheartening, but I will get over it in time."
Sheldon cleared his throat. "Amy, I would like us to remain friends if possible. I enjoy conversing with you, even though I did not desire a deeper relationship as you did. I can assure you that neither one of us had any ill intent when pursuing our dating experimentation."
Amy looked between them with a stab of regret. She would always wonder what it would have been like if she could have convinced Sheldon to be her boyfriend. "I would like that as well, but it may take some time."
There was an awkward pause. "If you don't mind me asking, did things not work out with Stuart?" Penny asked timidly.
"Our date was very successful, yet I found myself uninterested in another. While he is educated, we both work in completely different fields. He knows nothing about neurobiology, and I know nothing about art or comic books. While that gives us plenty to talk about – I always enjoy learning new things – it doesn't lead to romantic feelings on my part."
"Sounds like me and Leonard." Penny said under her breath.
"Leonard and I." Sheldon automatically replied. "Amy, it sounds like you want someone more on your level. Someone who can understand your work, or someone who can at least share your enthusiasm."
Amy looked down "Yes, well, I tried that. No one seems interested, or they're not available."
"I bet Raj and Howard could help. After all, they are the ones who arranged for you and Sheldon to meet, right?" Penny remarked with a shrug.
"You know, Bestie, that might not be a bad idea. Can you give me their phone numbers?"
"They're probably still across the hall, if you head over now, you can probably catch them." Sheldon replied.
"Thank you, Sheldon. I'm sorry again for bursting over here like this." Amy turned to Penny. "See you later, Bestie?"
"Sure Amy, we can meet up for a girl's night sometime next week. How's that sound?" Penny smiled.
"Sounds great!"