After 45 minutes, Dr. Ramona Nowitzki was seriously wondering what Sheldon's definition of "a moment" was. Most people had a rather squishy notion about what it was, but she hadn't thought Sheldon was one of them. She looked at her phone: yes, he had been gone for 30 moments - or 45 minutes. She was getting seriously annoyed at his rudeness. She tried calling his cell and got no response.

There was nothing for it, she thought, except to hunt him down.

She picked up the uneaten lunches and, regretfully, dumped them in the wastebasket – some things just didn't taste good cold and didn't reheat well.

Her first stop was Leonard Hofstader's lab – where Leonard was nowhere to be found. An assistant informed her that he had gone home for the day. Visits to Rajesh Koothrapali's office and Howard Wolowitz's lab weren't any more productive. She checked a couple of other places at the University and then decided to head for his apartment.

On the drive over, she mentally rehearsed several approaches. After discarding righteous anger, pathos, and humor, she decided that logic and fact were probably optimal. She would firmly sit him down and explain why she had kissed him and why she was a far more logical choice as partner than the dowdy Amy Farrah Fowler.

There was just one problem with that plan. Sheldon wasn't home. Or at least he wasn't responding to her knocking. She turned, took the four steps to the Hofstaders' apartment and knocked.

She pushed past Leonard when he opened the door. "Where is he?"

"Oh, gee, Dr. Nowitzki. Please, come on in." Leonard looked decidedly peeved. "How can I help you?"

"You can tell me where Sheldon is."

"Excuse me?" He looked somewhere between confused and offended. "First, you push your way into my home. You don't wait for an invitation, you just shove your way in. Then you start making demands. At this point I'm not inclined to help you at all." He stopped for a moment. "What do you mean, where is he? Isn't he at work?"

"No, he's not at work. I was having lunch with him – it was about 1:00 – maybe 1:30 – when suddenly he said, 'excuse me for a moment' and walked out. I waited a little, then went looking for him. No one could tell me where he was."

"You say he just said, 'excuse me for a moment' and left. He didn't say anything else?" Leonard asked.

"That's right."

"Okaay, what happened before that?"

"Nothing really."

"I don't think it was nothing: at least not to Sheldon. Something happened. So, what was it?"

"I said nothing, I just brought lunch, for both of us, to his office."

"And?"

"We … talked a little."

"And?"

"I … auumm … kissed him."

"There we go." Leonard was doing an admirable job of mirroring Sheldon.

"I had reason." She was feeling defensive.

"Doesn't matter. A good reason for you, would not necessarily be a good reason for him." Leonard picked up his cell phone and hit speed-dial. "Howard? Flight alert. Let Raj and Bernadette know. I'll call Penny." He picked up his keys and phone and started for the door.

"Wait, where are you going?"

"To find Sheldon. I just hope we find him in time. It would probably be best if, number one, you don't come along and, number 2, you're not here when we get back."

"I don't understand. Any normal man would have…."

"You're right, you don't understand. Sheldon's not normal. And I really don't feel like explaining it to you." He hurried out the door leaving her standing, mouth agape. "Don't be here when we get back," he called over his shoulder.

The train station yielded no results. He wasn't sitting in the waiting room, had not bought a ticket, had not been there at all.

They widened the boundaries of the search. He wasn't at the comic book store, the model train store, the bar at the Cheesecake Factory, the computer store, or back at the University. Sheldon Cooper had, by all appearances, vanished.

They congregated back at the apartment only to find that Ramona was still there.

"I thought I had asked you to leave."

"You did. I didn't. Where's Sheldon?"

"If I tell you, will you leave?"

"No. I do have a right to know where he is."

"No, you don't. Not really."

Penny stepped forward "Leonard, honey, let me handle this."

In less than five minutes Penny had Ramona out the door and down the stairs. Probably because she'd taken her car keys, tossed them out the window, and taken her and propelled her out the door with a sweetly worded "Get the Hell out and don't come back".

Penny turned and smiled.

Howard looked at her with admiration "to quote Sam in Wonder Woman 'I am both frightened and aroused'." Bernadette kicked him in the ankle. He grimaced.

Leonard sighed and went to the kitchen to put on coffee, "We still need to find Sheldon."

"Shouldn't we call Amy?" Raj settled in Sheldon's spot.

"Sweetie, that's the last thing we should do right now. We don't want to worry her until there's a good reason. Besides, you know how she gets …" Penny trailed off.

"No," Raj looked confused, "how does she get?

"Extrapolate, Raj." Penny sounded exasperated. "Oh, God, I've been around you people too much."

Raj moved to the window and looked out, "She's having trouble finding her keys."

Penny went to look. "Oh, good Lord." She opened the window and leaned out. "NOWITZKI," she yelled, "I USED TO PITCH FOR MY LITTLE LEAGUE TEAM, YOU'LL HAVE TO LOOK A LOT FURTHER AWAY. AND MORE TO THE NORTH." She closed the window and walked to the island. They were all staring at her. "What? I had a killer fastball. Now, what do we do about Sheldon?"

"It's going to be a long night." Leonard picked up his phone. "I'm going to order pizza. Bernie, do you want to bring Halley over here?"

"Stuart will be with her. Is that ok?"

"Yeah, sure, why not."

The pizza, Stuart, and Halley arrived just as Penny's phone rang.