A/N::Thank you to all who've added TSFE as an alert and a fav. Thanks guys!

Thanks to TheRimmerConnection for the betaing.

Disclaimer: The gang belongs to their creators Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady. I'm just playing with them.

I would keep Shelly if I could, that would be fun. I wouldn't mind his OCD when it came to cleaning my house.

Previously...

"I honestly have no clue." He looked toward the bathroom when he heard the flush, followed by the sound of the sink. Sheldon re-emerged looking confused and rejected.

"What's up?" Leonard asked.

"Oh, you want to catch up with the events of the day. Very well. Well after a horrid experience down stairs, Penny and I ate breakfast at the diner down the street. Got supplies from the drug store. Took Howard to the hospital. Practically carried him to his room. Had an erotic experience with Penny, which ended with her leaving prior to completion of coitus, to take a blanket and pillow into the bathroom."

"What did you do?" Leonard and Raj asked in unison.

"I don't know."

Sheldon watched the emotions flash across his fellow scientists' faces as he told his telling of his day. Leonard's face was less friendly then Raj's. Leonard had the additional anger. When Sheldon finished, Leonard was visibly upset, now pacing the room like an agitated lion.

"Dude. Don't you have any clue of what you did that was wrong?" Raj asked. He crossed his arms and waited for Sheldon. Sheldon looked at him with an expression of exhaustion and irritation.

"Don't you think that if I knew, I wouldn't be here saying 'I don't know what I did'."

Leonard flapped his hands in exasperation. "You called her a slut, Sheldon!" Sheldon looked over to Leonard and rolled his eyes.

"Leonard, I have an eidetic memory. I think I would remember calling Penny a slut."

"You compared her to a used car with many miles and owners. Dude, how did you think she should interpret that?" Raj said as he took a sip of water.

"Well that's not what I was implying, I was just telling her that I was thinking about the-"

"Never talk in bed! I learned that the hard way. She threw me out of her apartment and I walked into you and my mother playing Rock Band. You don't think of anyone else, you don't talk about anyone else, and if you do talk, it's to talk dirty." Leonard flopped down in the chair. "Sometimes that even gets her in a huff and she's in the bathroom."

Sheldon looked at Leonard, trying to process this all. How was he to know Penny's preferences?

"Oh, I know I'm going to regret this," Leonard said as he straightened up in the chair. "Sheldon, you have to fix this. Penny is a good person. I screwed up big time with her, but in the long run it's going to be a good thing. I've known for a while that you two had something. You guys hide it with your bickering and nitpicking, but you two have something. You have to make it right. You two deserve something good."

Raj looked at Leonard in shock and awe. That was the last thing he thought Leonard would say, but he wasn't going to disagree. He could see that same thing that Leonard was talking about. He saw it years ago.

"How do I make it right? She commandeered the bathroom." The two men looked at Sheldon and smirked.

"You're the genius, you figure it out."

Sheldon thanked them for the use of their bathroom and made his way to his room. He found that Penny was still in the bathroom. He pressed his ear to the door and listened. Nothing. His hand was up and ready to knock, but he stopped himself. If she threw throat punches when they knocked on her door before eleven in the morning, what would she do at this hour of the night?

Two words popped in his mind. Junior. Rodeo.

He walked away from the door and stared into the darkened room. He wasn't tired. He sighed and walked to his computer.

Penny woke when her phone's alarm went off. She turned it off and moved the hair from her face. She tightened the blanket around her shoulders and hunkered down for a moment. To her great surprise, the tub wasn't that bad a sleeping spot. She huffed; the last time she slept in a tub was the night of Tracy Frankileno's 21st birthday party. At least this time, she didn't puke all over herself.

She rolled on to her back and sat up. It was six and she figured she could shower, pack and scoot over to the airport all before Sheldon woke.

Penny tippy-toed out of the bathroom, letting out a sigh of relief. Sheldon was out cold. She collected her things and made her way to the door. She made her way to Bernadette and Howard's room. She didn't want to talk to any of the guys and she knew that Bernadette was an early bird.

"Morning," Bernadette said in a teasing voice. Penny offered a smile, but she saw right through it. "What's wrong?"

"Oh Bernadette, it was a long night and not in the great and awesome way either. Is he sleeping?" she asked, inclining her head into the room.

"Yeppers. Out like a light. Talk about convenient. Half a pain pill and he's been out the whole time. We're going to save so much money when it comes to stuff like Tylenol and cold medications. I just give him the children's dose." Penny smiled, as she imagined an old Howard and Bernadette. Her measuring out his cough syrup in a little measuring cup. She sighed and gave Bernadette a high level overview of the night. When she was finished she was in tears. Bernadette gave her a 'there there' pat on her shoulder.

"So any hoot. I wanted to drop by, give you and the love bug in there this," she said as she handed over the bag of regular and snug fitting condoms. "Let you know that I'm going over the the airport. I got a text that our flight will be at ten."

"I got the same message last night. I told Leonard." Penny nodded and said her good bye.

Sheldon woke up before his alarm. He shouldn't have, but he did. He was up late last night surfing chat rooms and interactive blogs. He didn't much like the repeated statement from fellow insomniacs that he, in their words, was a 'dumb ass'. The time wasn't wasted though. He with the help of a few anonymous people, came up with a plan to fix the mess he had made with Penny.

He shuffled out of bed and made his way to the bathroom. He raised his hand to knock, but couldn't. The door was already open. No Penny in the tub. He spun around and looked at the empty space that had held her suitcase. He started to spin around in circles, hoping to find her standing right behind him. Boots, coat, backpack, all gone. He took a deep breath and told himself that she was probably downstairs eating cereal. He rushed into the shower, dressed and packed. He looked over the room, feeling a pang in his chest when he saw the discarded condom in the trash.

Science was easier then relationships.

Sheldon walked into the common room where breakfast was served. He saw Leonard, who gave him a look that asked "Did you fix your mess yet?", Raj, who mirrored Leonard's look, Howard, who looked under the influence of pharmaceutical pain management, and Bernadette, who just looked sad. No Penny.

He arranged his suitcase, placing his coat on it, next to the table. He sat down and waited, hoping that Penny would walk around the corner.

"Sheldon?" Sheldon looked toward Bernadette. "She's at the airport. She left this morning around seven. She just needed some space, OK." Sheldon shrugged.

"Why would I be concerned about the whereabouts of Penny? I'm not her keeper." He forced a blank face and occupied his mind with equations.

"OK, so your flight is noted as being on time. Here is your ticket," the lady said as she handed over Penny's boarding pass and ticket. She smiled at the lady and made her way to the gate. Penny hadn't bothered having the cab stop at a drive thru, she was going to have plenty of time to burn, so why not eat at the airport? She was in a zone as she walked through security. She thought to herself that she was going to have a good day overall, she wasn't the random female for security today.

Penny collected her carry-on and her purse after she put her shoes back on. Making her way to the correct gate, her attention was pulled to the sound of a baby's cry. She looked over and smiled. What would be her luck? As she sat down a few seats away from the baby and its mother, she took note of the Husker outfit the baby was in. The mother looked exhausted as she situated the baby on her lap so she could feed it. "Go big red!" Penny said, in hopes that the lady and baby were fellow Nebraskans. The lady looked up with a small smile. "Huskers are the best," she said.

Penny let herself show a huge smile. "You're a long way from home." The lady nodded.

"Sure am. Me and Junior here flew out to visit my sister and her family for the week. They're living in Cincinnati, somehow our plane gets redirected here because of weather. Now from here, there is no freaking flights to Lincoln. To get there, we have to fly from Denver. Can you believe that? I gotta go that way to get that way," she said as she pointed one direction to another. Penny nodded. It was a similar story from them.

"So you're on the ten o'clock flight out?" Penny asked, happy that she would have someone to talk to on the flight. It shouldn't be too difficult to trade seats after they wereup in the air. She shook her head.

"Nope. I'm on a wait list, but the next flight I would have out of here would be three."

"Three?!"

"Yep, I cant wait to get out of this freaking place. We've been here since the storm." Penny nodded.

"I'm Penny by the way," she said as she held out her hand. The lady took it and smiled again.

"Lisa, and this is Jay, or Junior."

"Come with me, will ya," Penny said as she stood up.

Sheldon was ready to have a full blown panic attack. He looked over to Leonard, who was starting to get nervous as well now. They all sat out in the waiting area for their gate expecting to see Penny waiting; and nothing. Now they were in their seats, and still no Penny.

"Call her again, Leonard." Leonard sighed as he pulled out his phone. He had turned it off, knowing that Sheldon would have a fit if it was on while on the plane. He waited for it to connect to the network. When it did, it dinged. Sheldon looked at him expectantly.

"Got a message?" Sheldon asked.

"Yep, It's Penny. Let me listen, OK," Leonard said as he dialed in his password. Sheldon's knees where bouncing a mile a minute. He had been planning on having her here, so he could talk about last night and explain what he was trying to tell her. He wanted to tell her that he was sorry for hurting her, sorry for making her cry. He hated himself so much for being the reason for her tears. His heart felt like someone was squeezing it. Drat, he hated that feeling. He got it a lot since he had met Penny.

For a split second he was overjoyed, but just as quickly his joy was crushed. He looked at the woman who had brown hair, dark eyes, pale skin, and a child. She sat down after putting something in the overhead compartment. She smiled and took her child's hand, making it wave as well.

"Hi," she said. Sheldon felt a twitch in his eyebrow and lip.

"You can't sit there. Penny sits there!" Sheldon spat. The lady smiled again.

"You must be Sheldon. I'm Lisa, this is Junior. Penny gave up her seat for us. Isn't she the greatest."

Leonard looked at Sheldon, finding that he was going from twitchy, to shock.

"Leonard. She's in Penny's spot."