Hello, you lovely people! I know updates take a little bit longer than what you would like, but believe me, this story was already complicated in my mind, and some of the situations are hard to explain (at least in English, I can do them quite well in Spanish) and I know that I have to be careful to make it work. Thank you by the way for your comments, I'm really happy to read them, I don't often think of good and original reply's for them – sorry about that -, but believe me your support keep me writing (whether is a simple hi, a click on the follow/favorite button or a long and helpful advice).

I'm planning on making some fun chapters, there are so many things that could go wrong with this two sharing minds, I will try to build the romance a bit quickly this time, of course you can always contribute with ideas, right now I'm still making a solid base for that. There's also a reference down there to Sherlock's fandom, I tried to work with the "mind palace" idea, not in the same way as in that series, but shaping it a bit differently to fit here. Read and enjoy, see you next chapter!

3.- Subconscious realm.

The rest of the evening was spent in silence, at least concerning to Sheldon and Penny that stayed like that while listening to Leonard, Howard and Raj talking about what they had noticed as side effects of the girl's experiment, somehow they had started to get along better, knowing instinctively if the other needed some object or how a sentence was going to finish, it wasn't telepathic at all, since there was no direct connection between minds – as Sheldon pointed out in a thought after listening to them – but there was a certain degree of similarity, it wasn't very strong either and it seemed to be wearing off after almost three days.

Leonard and Howard had mentioned also experiencing static electricity effects while they were working, mentioning sparks whenever they touched something metallic, but that had just lasted only the first day. The topic had fallen to that, when they decided to tell them what had happened during the weekend, just before they started worrying about them.

Sheldon had to admit that he was very impressed to find that, other than causing the little problem that he now had with Penny, the female part of the group had actually reached a positive response to their experiment…

He decided to lift the banishment that moment, Penny was right; Amy and Bernadette had done nothing wrong, and they deserved to come back. He wasn't at all sure if he wanted to allow things to continue in the same way either; at least his doubts about whether or not the consequences required them to be away were now cleared. With an encouraging nod from Penny, he sent them both a text message and informed them of his decision, apologizing for overreacting – something that Penny insisted he did – and inviting them to come over.

It didn't take long for the girls to knock at the door, though it was a bit surprising that they had arrived so fast, he stood up to open the door. Unaware of what Sheldon had done the guys looked at him confused.

"Who did you call? It's not pizza night! Raj and I are going to get the food later" said Leonard.

"I didn't order a pizza" he simply said, opening the door to Amy and Bernadette. "Ladies" he nodded and let them in.

"You called them?" asked a surprised Howard standing up to hug his wife.

"I did" said Sheldon suddenly being crushed by Amy's arms around him. Penny smiled widely and when he didn't hug her back she crossed her arms in front of her and he couldn't help but do the same. It was weird how this kind of things tended to happen in different moments; there was no way to know when they were in control and when not. He looked at Penny with a frown; they had to find a way to learn how to control this thing and all the involved parts of their mind soon.

"I was so worried!" Amy said, bringing him back to the present while looking up at him with a smile "I really thought we had done something really wrong when you wouldn't wake up, I feared that you would never want to see me again after that. I'm glad you changed your mind, but it's sort of unlike you."

"Penny and I talked about it, and she made me realize that you had no way of knowing when that lightning was going to fall, and so I had to admit that it wasn't your fault and it was unfair of me to have banished you. I'm sorry. I've heard your experiment was actually successful."

"It was." This time Amy stepped back smiling and went to sit next to Penny, she seemed relieved and relaxed.

"I'm going to need to speak with you, Amy and Bernadette, about something, but maybe other day, right now you can once again socialize with us as usual."

"That's very nice Sheldon! I think the experiment also worked on you two, this is awesome!" said Leonard smiling.

Things however hadn't become easy with only a day; Sheldon had tried to take note of every affected part of his mind that was now in shared domain with Penny, but it have been difficult with every passing moment.

They had managed to avoid talking at the same time, but only because every time one of them was about to say something the other had to make a conscious effort to not say it too, also with the movements, it had been hard at first to move individually, easier to do while in separate rooms, but sometimes really awkward, like when one of them needed to use the bathroom… That had really been a difficult task!

They, however, couldn't control their thoughts, they shared every single one and even things they were not really giving priority were displayed to the other. At some point, Penny had been bitten by a mosquito and Sheldon had to fight the urge to scratch his arm like Penny, he could feel the itch, but there was nothing to scratch.

That night, after battling through the night rituals, they finally felt a bit separated mentally speaking, once each were in their respective bedroom there was peace… at least for a while.

Sheldon was standing in the middle of a living room. Not the same living room that was in his apartment. No, in this place there was a chair, not a couch, specially centered over a circle on the black marble floor that showed an electronic display flashing the numbers "0,0,0,0", and a big flat screen, the walls were covered bottom to top in books, all of them in certain order, by subject, author and year of publishing, it was clean, ordered, high tech and a nice room. There was even a shelf with a space for every video game console he possessed, and their respective games were also ordered in the same fashion as the books next to it.

He looked around; it was without doubt a dream. He had dreamed about this place before, shaping it in his mind to make it the most comfortable place in… well, the most comfortable place for him, he had also an oniric representation of a city and a variety of places, but somehow this one was his favorite, it was peaceful and in order; but this time it felt weird, he had never dreamt so vividly about this place before. He walked out of the room, to a little hallway that had a few pictures hanging from it, pictures of his family and friends, he was going to stop and look at them when he felt the need to open the door.

What he saw there was not what he had expected. There was no visible up and down there, no lines to tell the ground from the sky, confident that he was wandering his mind he stepped out, standing in mid air he looked around. Next to the house – a big, three stored house of white walls and ample windows - was what looked like a bubble wall, it was transparent and shiny, even the same iridescent colors that a bubble showed were there, and on the other side of it was a different construction.

There were a few walls, but none of them was of the same height and there was no roof, the colors of the walls also were different and there was a bunch of objects on the floor, he looked more closely, making sure to not trespass the bubble wall, there was a mountain of shoe boxes, there were also some lists, and photographs, food and clothes, it looked as if someone's house had been blown up by a tornado and ended up there…

"Penny?" he asked wondering if what he was thinking was actually possible.

"What the…? Sheldon? Where are you?" came Penny's voice from somewhere behind a wall, he heard her trip over some things until she managed to step out of one side of the weird house, and once there test if she could actually step out of the place and walk towards him. "What's this place? Where are we?" She then looked around, first to Sheldon and the house behind him, then to the bubble wall and finally to the construction behind her seemingly floating in the air. "It's like a dream… Oh my God! Are we dreaming? This looks familiar, but… how?"

"Penny, are you aware of what this means? The fact that we both know this is a dream and that we're actually being able to communicate with each other?" said Sheldon trying to keep calm but feeling a shiver ran down his spine while he said that.

"Even I know this shouldn't be happening!" said Penny approaching the bubble wall to stand in front of him. "How do I know you're not part of my dream right now?"

"How would I know? You could be part of MY dream for all I know" said Sheldon trying to feel sure about this, looking for any sings of reason in this subconscious space.

"Maybe you should wake up!" suggested Penny.

"I don't want to wake up! You do it! Penny you know my sleeping schedules can't be disturbed." Penny frowned, and suddenly a line of white letters appeared over her head, they said 'I don't want to wake up either!', and for some strange reason he could sense the pout behind those words.

"Who lives in that house?" Penny asked pointing at the house behind him.

"I do" said Sheldon looking back at the white imperial house next to him.

"What do you mean you do? How would you know?" said Penny looking at the house in wonder.

"I made it. In my dreams. It took me years to make it look like that, but I've only ever been there while I'm asleep." He said looking at her; Penny then turned around and looked at the barely standing house behind her.

"Does that mean that that thing is mine?"

"I should think so" he said looking at the mess behind his friend.

"Why does it look like that?" she asked shaking her head, it was really a disaster.

"I don't know, but I have a theory." Sheldon said eyeing the bubble wall and walking to a nearest zone to Penny's messy place. "If this is our mind, and these places exist in our dreams it has to be part of our subconscious, our memories maybe, a place in our mind that we use to place recent events and analyze them while we sleep, resources for our dreams if you want."

"You mean this is like a supply room and that those things are memories that I use to build dreams…" Penny pointed at the mountain of things on the floor behind her, and then looked at him with confusion, she really didn't understand. She frowned at him and pointed at the top of his head. "Hey, at least I'm trying!"

Sheldon looked up in time to see a line of words disappear over his head that said 'She's not getting it…'

"Well I'm sure that while we're here in this… zone, you can put some order. It took me years to put my thoughts in order, you've never consciously tried to do something like this, I bet you weren't even aware of the changes you could do to that place, that's why it looks like that. Look we're both sleeping, is not as if you were going to get tired, you can do it now" Penny's frown deepened. Without making an effort to go to her things and start sorting them out she looked up at the bubble wall.

"What is this?"

"I don't know…" he said also looking at the wall. A phrase appeared over Penny's head. 'And like that the genius disappears and no one knows a thing…' He cleared his throat and tried to ignore it. "I think is some kind of barrier…"

"No way!" exclaimed Penny and the word 'Sarcasm' appeared next to her.

"… Would you let me finish first?" He asked looking at her and Penny nodded. "It's a mental barrier, one that's meant to be there to avoid our minds to totally blend together; it's a frontier that keeps our minds working individually…"

"It looks fragile" said Penny leaning towards it without touching it.

"It does. But as long as we don't touch it we'll be fine. This cannot last for too long, don't you think?"

"What if it does? Would we be able to 'mentally' change it and make it stronger?"

"That's an interesting idea. If we reach that point we'll try, but I want to believe that this is not going to be a permanent state." Penny nodded and pressed her lips together with concern, then looked back at the place behind her and sighed.

Without another word she started sorting things, placing shoe boxes in a more presentable way, trying some pairs and looking at some of the papers and photos, sometimes long sentences or tiny images would form around her, Sheldon watched her for a while, leaning against the wall of his house. After a while his own thoughts wandered and he ended up looking at the heights of the walls and calculating the difference between them.

After a while Penny giggled, he could see a thin line of words forming next to her. "What is it?" he asked curious.

"It's nothing. I was just watching you, and all the numbers that are appearing around you, diagrams and notes; you really are a very smart guy. I was thinking that it's very much like you to be surrounded by numbers." He smiled and was about to comment how she had been surrounded by thoughts as well, when a loud noise interrupted him, and suddenly he was opening his eyes, watching the white ceiling over his head and reaching out to turn off the alarm next to his bed.

Once he turned it off he stayed a few seconds like that, wondering if what he had just 'dreamt' was really a dream or if he and Penny had really being mentally linked during the night. As if to answer his question his phone beeped next to him.

Sheldon!? Dream. U. Me. Am I crazy?! – Penny

He sat up and started his morning rituals leaving the phone on his bedside table and ignoring the beeping that was probably only another confirmation of what had happened, Penny was probably expecting an answer but he wasn't sure about all of this, it was just too much.

Leonard wondered if Sheldon was suffering some kind of break down, during the whole ride to work – although he didn't need to go – he had been silent and looking outside, it was so weird to see him like this. He was kind of missing playing a car game since it had been three days since the last one… well, maybe that was just him going crazy.

He parked on his usual place and waited for Sheldon to step out of the car. Once there his friend sighed and started walking inside the building, things were getting weirder. He wasn't even sure if he wanted to ask, on one hand Sheldon was acting weird and that probably meant he was stuck trying to solve something or he had some trouble and didn't know how to ask for help, on the other hand his roommate tended to exaggerate and give a long awkward speech about his supposed trouble – that usually were simple things - before starting giving orders and expecting him (and Howard and Raj) to help without asking… Well, he was going to end up doing that anyway. Rolling his eyes he followed him.

"Sheldon, are you okay? What's wrong mate?" Sheldon looked at him and somehow his gaze seemed to be lost, as if Sheldon himself wasn't really aware of his mood.

"Nothing" his answer shouldn't make him feel so worried. Leonard waited, expecting the explosion of words that was the normal reaction after a short answer, when Sheldon usually let go of his unusual need to keep things for himself and as always started to talk… but that didn't happened. He followed him all the way to his office and in all that time Sheldon kept being silent, not a word, nothing else.

After finding himself facing the closed door to Sheldon's office he felt panic starting to rise inside him and turned around hoping that Howard or Raj or both had already arrived so he could talk to them about this. Sheldon had a problem, a big one and if they didn't do something about it quickly, they were going to be affected by it and whatever crazy idea de theoretical physicist would think to solve it.

Sheldon however once inside his office went to delete everything he had written in his whiteboard; he could remember every line on it anyway. Now he needed to work, he needed to make a huge research about some topics but it didn't matter. Once he could sort out what had really happened, what that meant for Penny and him he will be able to talk to Amy and Bernadette and maybe let them know about the problem.

At least here at work he couldn't hear Penny's voice in his head; he relished the quietness of his mind and started writing on the board…

When Penny arrived from work that evening she was happier than that morning. She had had a wonderful morning, being herself, away from the strange and confusing mind of Sheldon Cooper.

She liked him, really, he was a good – weird but good – friend and she had always admired his intelligence, but one thing was tolerating his personality and quirks and other was sharing them. She remembered just how overwhelming it was to be able to hear his thoughts, on one hand there was the leading thought that was usually connected to the present actions, but in his head there was also the logical thought that gave straight sentences and were like little rules he had to follow, then the analytic thought that in some level tended to compare everything with science, and some other trains of thought that made her dizzy.

She had not enjoyed sharing her precious night time in a semi-conscious state trying to put order to her mind; she didn't even do that with her apartment for god's sake! The worst part was that she had felt self conscious, when she had seen the gorgeous fortress behind Sheldon in comparison with the messy excuse of a shelter in her mind. She was not going to cope well with the situation if it happened again tonight. At some point she had been tempted to talk about that with Amy or Bernadette, but she was afraid that they were going to read too much into it and start making experiments with her. In that she had to agree with Sheldon, they were not going to mess with her brain again.

Trying to not ruin her good mood with distracting and annoying thoughts she went to the fridge and pulled out the ice cream she had bought last week, putting a big quantity of it in a bowl and walking back to her couch, she kicked off her shoes and went to the TV stand to look for a movie to watch. That was what she needed a good lazy evening watching a good movie with some ice cream!

As the movie went on she allowed herself to be dragged into the story, picturing herself walking those amazing places, feeling loved by the handsome guy, sometimes quoting the most romantic lines, titling her head trying to imagine the softness of the man's lips on hers in a passionate…

Penny…

Oh no! Not now, please! …in a passionate kiss, feeling his warm breath on her cheek right before his tongue…

Penny…

Ugh… there was no way of having a good fantasy with such a neighbor, and now even less given the lack of privacy even in her mind… She stood up, waiting for the last round of knocks on her door.

"Penny… Don't open the door!" She blinked in confusion at the door… 'What?' "I said do not open the door! I just wanted to tell you that I've been investigating and working on our… uhm problem; I think it would be beneficial for us to stay away from each other, maybe it'll make it disappear…"

"That's why I can't open the door then?" she heard Sheldon sigh on the other side of the door 'It's so hard to try and not think about it… but what should I say? Because I don't want to kiss you?' "It's because of that movie you were watching, your thoughts… I… I don't know how to explain this…"

"You know that you really don't have to explain it, don't you? I heard you!" Penny said, not happy of having to use her new 'ability' to communicate with Sheldon… She could picture his nervous and probably blushing face on the other side of the door.

"Sorry, I should have thought… shouldn't have thought… - well that's embarrassing. - Just stop day dreaming, I would appreciate it if you could keep your cravings to yourself thank you. I'll try not to bother you with mine." Penny giggled a bit when a picture of Sheldon in her head puckering his lips as if to kiss some imaginary person appeared in her mind, it was hilarious.

"Why thank you Moon Pie! I'll make sure to text you if your thoughts suddenly mess with mine."

"That will help with my investigation. Thank you Penny" She heard him walk to his door. "By the way I don't think that's funny at all, so please stop thinking about it." Penny returned to the couch and took another spoon of ice cream trying to muffle another fit of giggles.

Not good? Probably… *the man selling veggies puts a 10% discount on the tomatoes price* Sorry I still have to find a way of working their pile of thoughts in a more practical way, I'll start using different symbols maybe (stories with lives of their own tend to write themselves and are wild, believe me I know it); also it's hard to work with Leonard, for some reason I cannot fully understand him, he's weird… I'm sorry if this was awfully confusing, I promise to revise it and edit this chapter in the future!