Chapter 6: Romancing the Stone…or Trying To

Sheldon gets testy and Niki gets busy…with work.

Niki woke up the next morning in an energetic, positive mood despite the happenings with Sheldon the day before. The sun shining through the window like a golden rainbow energized her and she decided to take Sheldon's advice to heart and actually do some work on their research. She sprang out of bed, showered, dressed, and then woke up her daughter and fixed both Lori and herself a hot, nutritious breakfast of oatmeal with fruit slices on top of it.

Breakfast finished, Niki nixed the idea of going to her office in the front house and instead scooped up Lori and set her down next to the desk in their home office, which was located on one end of the large dining room of their home. She got out some of Lori's favorite toys and when the child's attention was focused on them, Niki began to work. By lunchtime she had accomplished quite a bit, much to her surprise and delight. Now, I have something positive to report to Sheldon that may lighten his mood a bit, she thought.

After she had fixed Lori and herself lunch, Niki placed a call on Skype to Sheldon. He answered fairly quickly which got Niki's hopes up for a pleasant interchange between them.

She greeted her husband with a cheery, Good afternoon, Sheldon.I hope everything is going good on your end.

His face remained somber and he answered her with, Niki, for an intelligent woman you can say the inanest things.You know full well it is not afternoon here in Heidelberg, it is nine thirty in the evening.Good lord, did you pack your brain somewhere in my luggage?

Niki sighed, took a deep breath and snapped back,Sheldon, that was just a figure of speech.Besides, it's twelve thirty here.That means early in the afternoon, does it not?

Sheldon's face clearly showed his annoyance as he responded with, I don't have the time to discuss petty semantics with you.Now, why did you call me?

Uh, because Lori and I miss you and want to talk with you?

His face brightened at the sound of his daughter's name,Is my Princess there?

Of course.Do you think I would leave her on her own in another room?

Nothing you do surprises me any longer.Now, have you continued with our research like I asked you to?

Niki was beginning to get very annoyed with her husband and replied in a testy voice, Yes, Sheldon. I spent the entire morning working.And of course I had Lori in the room with me.Now, does that meet with your approval?

Send me your research results to peruse and I will give you an answer to that one.Now, could you kindly put Lori up to the screen?I wish to speak with her.

Very well.Lori, DaDa wants to talk to you. Niki placed her daughter on her lap so she could better view the computer screen on the counter of the breakfast bar. The little girl's face lit up with excitement as she saw her father smiling back at her.

DaDa!Wuv you!

And I love you, too, Princess.Have you been a good girl for Mommy?

Yes!Mommy was on her 'puter today.

Yes, I know.She told me.What did you and Mommy have for breakfast?

Oatmeal wif fruit, DaDa.

Very good.I'm glad to see Mommy is feeding you healthy food for a change.At that, Niki frowned at the monitor and gritted her teeth.

It was yummy!

I'll bet it was.I miss you, Precious.

I miss you, DaDa.

Can you blow DaDa a kiss before I go?

The little girl blew her father a big kiss and he sent the same back to her. Niki thought to herself, why did her husband have to be such a big softie to his daughter and so cold to her? Before she could ask him this she heard him tell Lori, DaDa has to go to sleep now, Princess.Will you tell Mommy to send the research she did today to me?

Yes, DaDa.

Good.Now, DaDa will talk to you tomorrow, okay?

Okay.

Bye, bye, Precious Girl.

Bye, bye, DaDa.And with that, just like the day before, the screen went dark and Niki was left fuming. Not wanting to upset Lori, she pasted a smile on her face and took her daughter outside to play. No sense wasting the entire day inside when the weather was beautiful outdoors. She made a mental note to send Sheldon her work later that night. He would most likely be getting ready for bed now, so she decided to wait on sending it. What could it hurt? He was being an ass, anyway, so she wasn't going to waste another minute catering to him.

Shortly after Niki had come back into the house and put Lori down for a nap, she heard a knock on the door and a familiar, "Hey, girl. You home?"

Niki smiled when she recognized the voice as Penny's. "I'm in the dining room. Come on in and we can talk." Penny crossed the large expanse of the Cooper living room and made a right turn at the end of the massive stone fireplace. She saw Niki Cooper sitting at the dining room table with papers spread in front of her and her fingers flying across the keyboard of her laptop.

She stopped at one end of the dining room table, facing Niki, and asked her, "Whatcha doin'? And don't tell me you're working."

Niki looked up briefly and replied, "Okay, I won't tell you."

Penny took a seat next to her friend, "Nik, you never work on weekends. What's up?"

Niki responded to Penny's question with a slight frown on her face, "Well, with Sheldon out of town a lot of the research has to be done by me. So, I now work weekends until he comes back."

Penny stood up and countered Niki's explanation with, "That's bs and you know it. Let me guess, Sheldon wants to see your work and you're knocking yourself out trying to get him some."

Niki focused her attention back on her computer screen, "Not exactly. I did more than enough work this morning to send him. But you're right, he has been pressuring me to get more work done and then let him proof it."

Penny sat back down and gently asked her, "Okay, if you have enough done for now, why are you still at it?"

"I want to get a little ahead so I can have some free time with Lori tomorrow. Hey, speaking of that, want to take the kids to the park?"

Penny smiled and nodded, "Sure, I don't have rehearsals tomorrow. We could do that. Now, what's up with you and Sheldon?"

Niki's answered her in a small, sad voice, "I don't know. When he talks to me it's all business. He's so cold and dismissive. He even scolded me today about me forgetting the time difference. That's not how he usually talks to me. I'd like to know what's up with him."

Penny nodded once more and answered in a kind voice, "I kinda figured something like that was up after I talked to Leonard. He told me that Sheldon has been acting sort of removed and closed off since they got there. He can't figure it out, either."

Niki looked over at her friend, "You want to know something funny?"

"What?"

Niki gave a small sigh and continued, "He is so affectionate and kind when he talks to Lori. It's like a different person takes over. I'm almost jealous of my own daughter."

"Now you see why I call him a Wackadoodle. He can get a little strange sometimes."

This time it was Niki who stood up as she saved her work and turned off her laptop, "Well, I'm getting ready to send him some of my research results, maybe that will cheer him up. But honestly, I don't think Sheldon will be completely satisfied until Monday morning when everyone is back at work."

Penny shrugged, "Maybe, but maybe not. When Sheldon gets like this there's no telling when he'll come out of it. Are you going to call him tomorrow?

Niki headed for the kitchen and Penny followed her faithfully, "Yeah, but a little later than usual. He told me he's going to explore the town with Leonard tomorrow and they won't be home until later in the evening."

Penny took the bottle of water offered by Niki and informed her, "Yeah, Leonard told me the same thing. He asked me to call him on the phone, instead of Skyping him. That makes sense. Sheldon didn't ask you to do that?"

Niki sadly shook her head as she grabbed a bottle of water for herself from the refrigerator, "Nope. And it's starting to really cheese me off. We've always been really close. Why is he acting like this?"

A broad grin spread across Penny's face as she answered, "Because he's Sheldon. Need I say more? Look, Nik, you've humanized the guy a lot. But underneath it all, he's still the same old Sheldon."

Niki went into the living room and sat down on the sofa, "I'm sorry, Penny. But I can't believe that. Something's bothering him and until I know what it is, I have no idea how to make things better."

Penny took a seat next to her and continued making her point, "Look, Nik, for what it's worth, I have some kind of idea what's behind all of this, but you have to sit there and hear me out."

"Okay."

Penny looked directly at Niki and said, "You know how Sheldon hates change."

The taller woman nodded and replied, "Of course. It bothers him a lot."

Penny then asked her friend a pointed question, "Okay, now what has changed in his world lately?"

Niki gave a sheepish grin and answered her, "Well, almost everything."

Penny got up off the sofa and began to pace around the room as she continued to make her point, "Right. Until he left for Germany, his days were pretty much the same. He lived here in this house with you and Lori. He walked across the yard to the front building and went to work, again, most of the time with you and Lori. Monday nights you guys always had dinner with either his mother or yours, depending who was in town that day. Tuesdays Sheldon always went to the comic book store with the other guys, so did Leonard. Wednesday nights one of our group hosted Halo night and Sheldon always took part in that. Thursdays you guys spent the evening as a family. Friday night was always date night for you two while one of the grandmothers watched Lori. Every Saturday you two had dinner with me and Leonard. Every Saturday, even when it had to be late because I was working. Sundays, he either went to play paintball with you and the guys or he took you and Lori somewhere. Am I correct so far?"

Once again, Niki nodded, "Yes, you've nailed it."

Penny turned and stared her friend in the eyes and asked her, "Okay, how much of that is he doing now?"

Niki sadly hung her head and muttered, "None of it."

"Right. Now, that would be a bit stressful for anyone, but we're talking about Sheldon Cooper here. This has most likely thrown him for a major-league loop and he isn't handling it very well at all. I'd say the poor guy is suffering from missing you and Lori, being homesick, and trying to adjust to all the changes like living on another continent in a country where English is not the first language."

Niki looked up at her pretty friend and asked in a confused voice, "Sheldon has lived in Germany before, in Heidelberg, in fact. So it has to be somewhat familiar to him. He also speaks fairly fluent German, so he doesn't need anyone to speak English for him to get by. Now, Penny, knowing all that, can you somehow tell me why is he turning away from me?"

Penny sat back down next to Niki and took one of her hands in hers, "He loves you and you're not there with him. If he can convince his mind not to miss you, it helps him. So, he's making up reasons to be angry at you. He can't do that to Lori, so he dumps it all on you."

"So how do I deal with this?"

Penny thought a moment then told her, "That I can't tell you. How do you usually handle stress together?"

"Sex?" Niki offered in a not-so-sure voice.

The slightest of grins appeared on Penny's voice as she replied, "Okay. Not happening now, so you're going to have to get a little more creative and come up with something else."

"Like what?"

"That's up to you. When you guys were trying to solve a problem, what did you do?"

Niki suddenly smiled at a fond memory and offered, "Sometimes we went dancing."

Penny shook her head and made her point, "Okay, can't do that right now, either."

"Sometimes we sat in the jacuzzi and talked, but we can't do that, as well."

"Wow. Yeah, you're right about that." Penny then asked her friend, "Could you just Skype him and set aside time for it to be just the two of you?"

Niki's response did not sound enthusiastic, "Maybe, but that might just annoy him, like I'm pushing him for answers I don't think he has."

Penny patted her on the leg and agreed, "Yeah, could be. I'll tell you what, why don't you sleep on it and we'll talk tomorrow."

Niki let out a long sigh, "Yeah, I guess that might be my best way of handling it. Who knows? Maybe Sheldon will be in a better frame of mind tomorrow."

"Yeah, you never know. And if he isn't, between the two of us, we'll figure something out."

Niki stood up and looked towards the hall which held the bedrooms, "Yeah. Well, I've got to wake Lori up from her nap and start dinner. How's Blake, by the way?" She added contritely, "I know I promised to watch him for you this evening. I'm sorry I didn't ask about him earlier."

Penny rose from her seat as well and headed for the door, "Mary's watching him for me. I've got to head for the theater for rehearsal and costume fittings tonight. We open in a couple of weeks. I'm starting to get a little excited. I can't wait for opening night!"

Niki smiled at her, "Neither can I, girlfriend. Hopefully, Sheldon will be back to normal by then and I can facetime with Leonard and him during the play. Anyway, you'd better hurry or you'll be late. You don't want to get fired before the play even starts."

Penny walked over and gave her troubled friend a huge hug, "Nope, I don't. I'll call you tomorrow morning and we'll set a time to get together, okay?"

"Sure. We'll have a good time with the kids tomorrow. At least I have that to look forward to. And Penny?"

"What?"

Niki grinned at her and answered, "Thanks for everything. You're a good friend."

Penny winked lovingly and responded with, "So are you, Nik. Gotta go, talk to you tomorrow."

"Okay, 'bye!"

With that, Penny walked out the door and Niki headed for Lori's room, visions of a fun day in the park with her best friend and their children playing in her head.

Do you think Niki can get through to Sheldon, or do you think there is more turbulence ahead in their relationship?