Chapter Six
Thursday
"Hello, my name is Dr. Sheldon Cooper. I have an eleven o'clock appointment to see Dr. Martin."
The receptionist looked up from her computer and checked off his name on the schedule. She handed him a clipboard. "I just need you to fill out a couple of forms and sign and date the last page. The doctor should be with you shortly."
Sheldon sat down next to Penny on the most uncomfortable chair he had ever sat upon. He first leaned back in the chair, and then he leaned forward. He tried crossing his right leg over his left and then switched legs, all while balancing the clipboard and paperwork across his lap. He finally got up and crossed the waiting room and sat on a sturdy looking couch under a framed print of M.C. Escher's Bond of Union.
Penny shook her head and sighed. "Sheldon!"
He looked up at her from across the room. "What?"
"Are you done feathering your nest yet?"
"Penny," he spoke tersely to her. "I am neither a bird, nor is where I'm sitting anything remotely like a nest." He pointed back to where she was sitting. "Those particular chairs were not conducive to my completion of the assigned task of providing my complete medical history."
"Okay." Penny flipped through one of the waiting room magazines.
Damn, I read this last week at the hospital!
Sheldon looked up from his clipboard. "Penny?"
"Yes, Sheldon?"
"Why have you remained sitting over there when I have found us a much more comfortable place to sit?" He looked back down the paperwork, and continued with his rather detailed medical history.
"Because, it doesn't bother me." Penny said as she got up from the chair and moved next to Sheldon on the couch.
He gave a self satisfying smirk when she plopped down next to him. "I'm right, aren't I?
He was right, but she wouldn't admit it. She only looked at him with her lips pursed and her eyebrows raised.
"Of course I am." Sheldon said to himself as he finished filling out the forms.
He brought the clipboard back up to the desk and the receptionist smiled brightly at him. "It should be only a few more minutes."
Sheldon rejoined Penny on the couch. He ran his hand from his knees up his thighs and back a few times.
Penny patted him on his right arm and tried to reassure him. "You'll be fine Sweetie."
"Of course I'll be fine. Why wouldn't I be fine?" He said nervously to her.
A silver haired woman who was about five foot nothing came out to the waiting room. "Mr. Cooper?"
Sheldon sighed as he stood. "That's Dr. Cooper!"
The nurse raised her eyebrows. "I'm not familiar with your name. Do you practice locally?"
Sheldon corrected her primly. "I am a PhD, not an MD."
Oh dear God, save me from these pseudo-doctors.
"Really?" She sized him up and down, cocked her head to one side and gave him a stare that would have cut him in half if her eyes were lasers. "This way, Mr. Cooper."
The force of the woman's gazed unnerved Sheldon completely. He turned back to Penny. "Please come with me!"
"Sheldon, she's not going to hurt you." Penny had quickly appraised the woman, and liked what she saw.
"Please, please, please, please, please!" Sheldon put on the puppy dog eyes as he begged.
Penny couldn't help but give in. "Alright, you big baby!"
"I am not a big baby Penny. Only, it appears my fight or flight response has kicked in." He stood behind Penny, unwilling to lead the way.
"Some Superman you are." The nurse looked Sheldon up and down noting his superhero t-shirt. She cracked a wry smile. "It's no problem if you want your wife to come in with you."
"Penny's not my -"
"Sheldon's not my -"
The nurse looked back and forth between the two. "Well, whatever you two are to each other, come on in. Daylight's a wasting!"
She led them into a small exam room. "Hop up on the table, Mr. -"
Penny shot the nurse one of her own looks.
"- that is Dr. Cooper. My name is Bridget, and I'll be taking your vitals today." She reconfirmed all Sheldon's medical history, while taking his blood pressure, temperature and heart rate. "Your heart rate is a bit high. Are you feeling anxious at all?"
"Other than fearing for my life?" He said condescendingly. "No, I'm quite fine."
Penny became alarmed and moved closer to Bridget and Sheldon. "What does that mean? Is something wrong with his heart?"
Bridget noted that his heart rate suddenly increased. "Please, Mrs.?"
"Just Miss, and please call me Penny."
Bridget looked back at the monitor. "Penny, could you please do me a favor a step back from the table a bit?"
"Sure, but why?" Penny asked as she moved away from the table and next to the wall.
The nurse noted that Sheldon's heart rate went down. "Mm-hmm, just like I thought."
Sheldon looked shaken. "What's wrong with me?"
Bridget chuckled and looked at him before her gaze slid over to Penny. "Oh nothing, just confirming that you're a red-blooded American male."
Penny blushed and was saved from explaining it to Sheldon when she heard a quick rap on the exam room door. Dr. Martin entered with a spring in his step. "And how is my patient today?"
Bridget handed the doctor Sheldon's chart as she headed out the door. "All his vitals are good Frank. And, I owe you five bucks!"
Penny's interest was piqued. "Ooh, what was the bet?"
"My Bridie thought no other sane grown man would wear a shirt with a superhero logo on it." He broke into an easy grin and proceeded to undo the top three buttons of his dress shirt to reveal a t-shirt with the Batman logo on it. "Apparently Dr. Cooper and I shop at the same tailor!"
"Your Bridie? Penny asked.
Dr. Martin's smile got even wider. "Yes, Bridie, nee Bridget Flannery, now Bridget Martin. Otherwise known as my better half!"
Sheldon's eyebrows shot up. "That's her?" Sheldon recalled the story that Dr. Martin had told him while he was in the hospital of the nurse who had gotten under his skin while he was a resident.
"Yes sir, that's my girl. She may be small in stature, but she's a real pistol." Dr. Martin looked at Sheldon earnestly. "So, did she scare the crap out of you yet?"
Penny's peals of laughter could be heard all the way out into the waiting room.
Apartment 4B
Sheldon followed Penny to her apartment door. She unlocked and pushed open her door. "Um, Sheldon?"
"I won't stay long Penny. It's just that…here." He pulled out a small light blue gift box with its white ribbon from his jacket pocket and held it out in front of him. "I would have given it to you on Tuesday night, but circumstances being what they were, it seemed inappropriate. And, there did not seem another opportune time until now."
Penny took the small box from his hands. She was in shock. "You went to Tiffany's?"
"The flowers didn't seem enough of a thank you Penny for everything you have done for me this past week." Sheldon explained in the simplest form he knew how.
Penny walked into her apartment and sat down hard on her sofa. "Sheldon, this…this is too much!"
Sheldon became very quiet and sincere. "You saved my life Penny. I don't think I can ever repay you."
Penny carefully untied the ribbon and slowly opened the box. "Oh Sheldon, it's beautiful!" She pulled out a small gold and enamel bee pendant on a fine gold chain. She jumped up off the sofa and ran into her bathroom.
Sheldon thought he had made a grave error in judgment. Perhaps, it was not an appropriate gift.
"Damn!" Penny called to him from the bathroom. "Sheldon, come help me. I can't get the clasp!" She was waiting for him with the pendant dangling from her hand.
She scooped up her hair in one hand and turned to face the mirror so he could put the necklace on her. When it was around her neck, she stroked the tiny bee with her free hand. "It really is beautiful."
Sheldon didn't look at the pendant, only at Penny's reflection in the mirror. Then he got an idea. "Penny, are you still having your Halloween party on Saturday night?"
She met his gaze in the mirror. "Yeah, why?"
He thought for a moment. "Are you still upset with Leonard?"
"Why?" Penny started to look concerned.
"It's just that I never noticed the resemblance before." He stared at her reflection, and nodded to himself.
"To who?"
"To whom, Penny, it's to whom!" Sheldon looked around the bathroom. "We're going to need Wollowitz's help."
"With what?" Penny was really worried now.
"You'll see." Sheldon smiled his most evil smile. "You'll see!"
A/N:Two things
1) In my AU of S/P, Halloween hasn't quite happened yet, because in this universe, life got in the way of my writing. So I'm going to be about a week late to end the story at Penny's Halloween party.
2) There really is a bee necklace at Tiffany's, go check it out!