A/N: Alright Everybody! (drumroll please) This is the chapter you have all been waiting for! So, without further adoo! I present to you, Chapter 3! A whopping 3,130 words, ENJOY! (PS: Look at the A/N at the bottom! Very Important!)


I closed the door and leaned against it breathing a sigh of relief. All the worry and sadness that had built up inside me was finally subsiding to relief. He was okay, he was safe and he was still here. My mind drifted back to how different he was looking. Holy crap on a cracker. I still couldn't register that he had gained some sort of muscle. What about the duffel bag? Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. Holy cow he's been working out! I thought over it again and nodded; he definitely has been working out. I though back to when I hugged him. His stomach was firmer, and his arm was stronger. A slow smile crept onto my face. Sheldon hugged me. Still smiling, went to my bedroom, changed into a tank top and Hello Kitty shorts plopped into my bed. I passed out before my head hit the pillow.


The next morning my alarm clock rang at 7:15am sharp. I groaned and rolled over, smacking the air with my hand as I searcher for the snooze button. I found it and was rewarded with sweet, delectable silence. It was quiet for a moment until I remembered why my alarm clock was going off so early. My eyes snapped open and I jumped out of bed running as fast as I could for the shower. I made record time by showering in under 5 minutes. I grabbed a pair of turquoise sweatpants, a pink tank top and a white hoodie and brushed by teeth and hair. My eyes widened when I realized that I had forgotten to pack last night. I ran to my closet, threw the pink Hello Kitty suitcase on my bed and piled sundresses, shorts, jeans, tank tops, sweaters, underwear, bras and bathing suits all in fewer than 10 minutes. I grabbed toiletries and other essentials in the zipper pocket before locking up and dashing over to 4A. Sheldon was up and looking brighter than ever while Leonard, Howard, and Raj looked like they had been run over by a stampeding herd of elephants. I realized I probably looked the same but smiled real big at Sheldon.

He gave me a small smile. "Good morning Penny, I trust your sleep cycle was well?" I nodded. "Uh, yeah sure." He seemed satisfied. "Alrighty then, lets get on the road!" He grabbed his suitcase and went out the door. I followed him and Leonard, Raj and Howard trailed behind me. I noticed Sheldon didn't have his usual messenger bag with him, just the duffel bag and a rather large suitcase. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. Sheldon always had his messenger bag, or satchel as I now hear them being called. I smiled. Satchel. Leonard tapped my shoulder from behind.

"Hey Penny." He said in an overly tired voice. "Oh hey Leonard, you don't look so cheery." He smiled wryly. "Sheldon got me up at four this morning to go over possible tragedies that could happen while flying and how to handle them and what I would need to survive. He then called Howard and Raj over at five and made me listen again while telling them. Then he had to check our suitcases to see if we had packed the proper attire. So no, I am not cheery." He finished with a scowl on his face. I smiled, only you Sheldon, and turned to the person in question. He seemed to forget to brush his hair because it was going everywhere, but it was a nice type of messy. The kind that made you want to mess with it more. He was wearing his Green Lantern t-shirt, a purple thermal rolled up, and beige pants. The usual. But his hair definitely set him apart from the usual neat and trim Sheldon Cooper.


After the car ride to the airport (I had to ride with Howard and Raj) we parked and practically ran to our gate. We were all sweating our butts off by the time we got there (we had to take four flights of stairs, run to the tram thingy, go down two flights of stairs and run across down the big hallway to our gate) and we had just made it. I had seat 24A, the window seat (Yesss!) and Sheldon was sitting next to me while Howard, Leonard and Raj sat behind us. I spent take off and the first twenty minutes looking out the window, watching the cars become smaller and smaller until the ground below looked like an intelligent and developed colony of super ants. I turned back to find Sheldon reading a comic book, I looked at the title, The Flash. I leaned back a little to read it and came to a shocking discovery.

"Oh my god the Flash is a redhead?" I practically shouted. Sheldon jumped a little and turned to look at me with eyes filled with confusion and a tiny bit of humor. "Yes Penny, the Flash is a redhead." I stared at him with my mouth open for a second before jumping up and down in my seat. "Oh my gosh I never knew that, that's amazing cause all the other superheroes have like black hair! Like Superman, and Batman, and the Green Lantern, and even Wonder Woman!" He snickered before looking back down at the comic book. I leaned closer to read along with him. The closer I got the more prominent his scent became. He smelled so clean and fresh, like soap and freshly cut grass. It sounds kind of gross but for some reason it mixed wonderfully on him. I slowly started to doze so I laid my head on his shoulder and glanced between the pictures in the book and his face, making sure I wasn't crossing any boundaries. He seemed tense at first but then started to steadily relax, even going so far as to smile softly. With that to comfort me, I closed my eyes and dozed off.


Shake, shake, shake. "Penny." Shake, shake, shake. "Penny." Shake, shake, shake. "Penny." I groaned and opened my eyes to see Sheldon staring down at me with his hand on my arm. "Penny we will be boarding in fifteen minutes, its time to get up." he whispered. I groaned again and buried my face deeper into his neck- Wait his neck? I opened my eyes and looked around me to see his arm around my shoulders and my head snuggled deep into the crook of his neck. I blinked in surprise and sat up. He put his arm around me. I looked at him in surprise. His head was down but I could see a blush forming on his cheeks. Sheldon Cooper, you sly dog you.

Once we had exited the plane and collected our bags we headed to the pick-up area. "Now Missy and my mother will be picking us up and taking us back to my old home." Sheldon informed us. We nodded and stepped outside. Immediately I was greeted with the warmish-coldish air of spring in Texas. I took a deep breath and sighed at the sweet air of flowers and ranch land. Instead of arriving in the big airport in Austin, we had flown to a smaller airport on the outside of Sheldon's home town. We waited for a whopping five minutes before Mary and Missy pulled up. Missy ran out first and greeted us with the biggest, brightest smile. She gave Raj (who blushed and 'eeped'), Sheldon (who winced) and I a hug and shook hands with Howard and Leonard. Mary then came out and hugged us all. The boys, Missy and I put the bags in the back of the truck, then Missy and Mary sat in the front while we all sat in the back of the pickup. Sheldon practically had a fit about safety the entire ride and we all had to listen to his lectures about the dangers of this action. By the time we got to the house we were all glaring at him. When we pulled up I couldn't help but look I awe. This is where Sheldon grew up? There was a cozy little two story house with a small yard but way in the back I could see a barbed wire fence that seemed to go on for miles filled with cattle and horses. Next to the house was an old shack that must have been filled with gardening tools because there were so many flowers around the house and then on the left were woods, miles and miles of dense forest. Missy got out of the truck and turned to us. "Shelly, welcome home and the rest of ya, welcome to our humble abode." She grabbed a suitcase and strode up and into the house. I jumped out, eager to go in the cow pasture and see the horses, and grabbed my suitcase. Sheldon was right behind me and the boys were right behind him. The inside of the house was just as cozy as the outside. Warm colored paint covered the wall and bursts of red and yellow and orange object were on shelves and counters and the books, good grief there were so many books. Three quarters of them must have been Sheldon's, because they were mostly about science and physics and math, but there were some of the classics.

Sheldon turned to us and gave us our rooms. "Penny you will be staying in Missy's room with Missy, Leonard you are with Raj and Howard in George's room, and I will be staying in my old room. Any questions? Concerns? Good." With that, he turned sharply and headed up the stairs to what I could assume was his old room. I turned to Missy and she smiled. "Well I should show you were to go now shouldn't I?" She went up the stairs and turned in the opposite direction that Sheldon did. I followed her up but I couldn't help but glance at Sheldon's door. It was slightly open and I could barely make out the dark blue color of his walls and some brightly colored posters (probably superhero posters). I turned and followed Missy into her room. It was a light shade of purple with multi-colored translucent flowers of all different sizes hung randomly on her wall. She had a white board with neon colored markings written all over it, a mirror with tons of pictures hung on and around it, and a big neon green bed in the middle with a toy horse by purple pillows. I smiled and threw my stuff on the floor before throwing myself on her bed, bouncing a bit when I did. I laughed a little bit when the toy horse head butted me and turned over to look at Missy. She was staring at me with narrowed, curious eyes. "What's going on between you and my brother?" She asked, straight to the point. My eyes widened in shock as I tried to form words but nothing came out, I just sat there opening and closing my mouth like a goldfish. I wanted to lie, to brush it off as crazy but when I looked at Missy, all I could do was nod. I closed my eyes in fear of her being furious, but was greeted with a happy squeal of delight. I opened them and saw her covering her smile, her eyes alight with joy and she was practically jumping up and down. I smiled as she jumped forward and hugged me while jumping up and down. "Oh you and Shellybean, oh you two are just the cutest together. Oh Georgie will love this, oh and wait till I tell Momma! Oh and Meemaw! Oh she'll be so happy!" By the time she was done ranting on happily I was laughing. "Do you really think Sheldon will like me though?" I asked worriedly. She started laughing and brushed me off with a wave of her hand. "Are you kidding? I've seen the way Shelly looks at you, he adores you! He's never looked at a girl that way." I smiled but then frowned. "But he's supposed to be all 'Homo Novus', you know, 'Mr. Spock'?" She smiled softly. "Yeah but even Mr. Spock found him a girlfriend." I smiled at that. "Thanks Missy."

After we ate Mary's delicious fried chicken for dinner, cleaned up and watched some television, Sheldon went off to bed so he would "be up bright an early." I loved it here; it reminded me so much of home. Leonard, Raj, and Howard followed him soon after and I was left with Missy and Mary.

"Meemaw should be here tomorrow for lunch." Missy whispered. I nodded and smiled. Mary round the kitchen corner and looked at me with a soft and slightly amused smile. She looked up the stairs as she heard the bedroom doors close then turned back to me. "So I hear you have a thing for my Shellybean?" I smiled sheepishly and she shared a good natured laugh with Missy. "Oh sugar, I'm just glad that he can finally love something other than his job." She laid a hand on my shoulder and walked to what I am guessing is her room. "Well, before we go to bed, I think you might want to look at something." She handed me a photo album and walked into the bathroom. I looked at the cover curiously and read the beautiful handwriting in the middle. Sheldon. I smiled and opened it to find one of the cutest baby pictures ever. It was little baby Sheldon in a little baby bathtub, but instead of playing with the bath toys that floated in the soapy water beside him, he was holding a book with a picture of an atom and writing below it. I smiled bigger and flipped the page. Then there was a picture of an older Sheldon with a magnifying glass looking at an ant hill with a notebook beside him. I flipped the page and saw a picture of him and Missy at what looked like Christmas time, they were sitting in front of a fireplace; Sheldon had a mop of messy brown hair and wore a red sweater with brown pants while Missy looked all gussied up with a white lace shirt, a black skirt with more white lace, black shoes and her hair all tied up in a bow. I flipped the page again and saw a picture of him holding his Stevenson's Award, next to it was a picture of him about 17 or 18 years old with shaggy brown hair. Then I flipped the page and saw a picture of him when he was about 20, but he looked pretty much the same. From then on they were all pictures of him from 20 to now. I closed the book softly and went into Missy's room, she was sleeping, and grabbed my pajamas. I crept to the bathroom, changed, brushed my teeth and washed my face before crawling into bed and passing out.


When I woke up, Missy was gone and her side of the bed was made. I yawned and stretched before jumping out of bed and running down stairs. The first thing I saw was Leonard sitting at the kitchen table with an empty plate full of syrup in front of him, sipping his coffee. Then I saw the huge plate of pancakes and bacon, I also noticed Mary and Missy weren't here. And finally I saw Sheldon standing over the kitchen sink in only his pajama pants and white t-shirt. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. Where's his usual pajama shirt? His forearms were deep in dishwater as he cleaned up. My eyes traveled up his arms and stopped on his revealed upper arms. I don't think I have ever seen his arms that far up. They were lean and nice looking, they didn't have the usual beefy quality I was used to in my other boyfriends, excluding Leonard, but it was a nice change. Might be a nice change, I reminded myself. I continued looking upward and saw something even more surprising. Mr. Whackadoodle hasn't shaved in a bit because there was a nice layer of scruffiness from his chin to his jaw. This, I also noticed, looked very… good.

"Hey Sheldon! Morning Leonard!" I said merrily. Leonard looked up and pushed his glasses up his nose. "Morning Penny." He said with a sheepish smile. Sheldon turned to me and gave me his biggest smile. "Why hello there Penny. I trust you slept well?" I nodded vigorously. He smiled. "Good!" He then turned back to the dishes.

I went and sat down across from Leonard and picked at the pancakes and bacon. It took Sheldon about 10 minutes to finish before he came into the dining room to inform us of what we would be doing. "Missy and Mom have gone to Meemaw's till lunch. We are going to the shooting range today; wear something warm and pants because it is moderately cold outside and the range is an outdoor range." He didn't tell us anything more and practically ran upstairs. I shrugged, grabbed one more pancake and headed up to Missy's room. I can't deny it but I'm pretty curious to see Sheldon shoot. I recall him saying he could "shoot close enough to a raccoon to make it crap itself". And I absolutely couldn't wait to meet Meemaw.

I slipped on a pair of jeans, a gray sweater over a white tank top and my old riding boots. I brushed my teeth and hair, not bothering to mess with it, and put on a small amount of make-up. I smiled in the mirror when I was done and stepped out to find Leonard in jeans and a regular white t-shirt with his usual hoodie and black converse shoes. I smiled at him. "Let's go wait outside, it's too hot in here." He nodded towards the door. I was too happy to comply.

The air was so fresh outside. There was a slight breeze that carried the sweet scent of country air. We heard the front door close and turned. What greeted my eyes shook me to the core.

There was Sheldon in a pair of well fitting dark jeans, a white t-shirt, and a black leather jacket. His hair was tousled and the scruff on his face earlier was now complimenting this whole badass thing he had going on. Holy crap on a cracker! When the hell did Sheldon get hot? He barely looked up as he walked towards us. "Let's go, Leonard you're driving." Leonard barely nodded. "Oh and close your mouths, your gonna catch a fly." He added.


A/N: So? How was it? Good or Bad, either way review! Also, ******$$$$$$EVERYBODY LOOK HERE!$$$$$$$ ******* and if you want to see the pictures including Sheldon in his Badass Look, go onto my profile click on the links labeled Leather and Jeans.