If someone had asked Leonard if at any point he would be driving a car with this particular group of passengers he would have laughed in their face. But here he was, driving a car with Howard riding shotgun, and Raj, Sheldon and Sheldon's 7-year-old daughter in the backseat. For that matter, if someone were to tell him that Sheldon would ever even have a child or find a human woman willing to create one with him, he also would have laughed.

It was as interesting as any experiment just to watch the interactions between Sheldon and Zoe. Leonard couldn't help but notice the way Sheldon's eyes lit up when they picked up Zoe and she was dressed as Superman. "Not supergirl," she had stressed adamantly, "a girl dressed as Superman." It didn't surprise Leonard at all that Zoe would have a love of costume, her mother was an actress and her father was, well, Sheldon.

Leonard has also noticed the way Sheldon kept craning his neck to check the road and to check his speed, even more then he usually did. The addition of Zoe as a passenger had increased Sheldon's paranoia concerning his driving. It seemed, despite his best efforts, Sheldon felt concern for another human being. Go figure.

Zoe was a little enigma in herself, at some moments she seemed to be a miniature of Sheldon, like at this moment as she was busy psychoanalyzing Raj in an effort to understands the cause of his mutism. But her kind smile, gentle nods of understanding, and words of empathy, those were Penny's.

"Leonard," snapped Sheldon, drawing Leonard's eyes away from the rearview mirror image of Zoe to the face of the irritated physicist.

"What?"

"I do not think any of us would be improved by a fiery death on the highway, so please keep your eyes on the road."

"Father," said Zoe, looking up at him. "Is it true that you just received your license a few years ago?"

Howard laughed and turned around in his seat.

"Kid you're dad didn't even know how to drive until a few years ago."

"That is completely untrue. I have known the rules of driving since I was 10, I just chose not to put them into practice until recently."

"Mommy told me about the time she fell in the shower and you had to drive her to the emergency."

"Yes one of my first experiences with driving," said Sheldon.

"Not to mention his first experience with female anatomy," said Howard with a laugh, garnering a look of disapproval from Sheldon.

"Oh yes," said Zoe with a laugh. "The time you "copped-a-feel", to quote mommy."

Sheldon's mouth fell open and his face turned bright red.

"That…how…it was an accident," he sputtered.

"Relax father…it wasn't like she didn't want you too."

Sheldon colored even deeper.

"I find it odd that she chooses to discuss such things with her child."

"Really for a while it was just the two of us, it's not like she had anyone else to talk to."

Sheldon felt a small stab of shame. But the thought of Penny being alone with their child without any help from him, it made him feel very small. But he supposed that everything worked out for her in the end.

"She also told me about the time you threw her undergarments out the window and on to a telephone wire."

"Yes, but she started that by her incessant inability to abide the rules of the apartment, did she tell you that?'

"Yes, and that she bested you by telling your mother on you."

"A cheap shot no doubt enabled by certain so-called friends," he returned shooting a glare at Leonard, who merely shrugged his shoulder.

"While, I have never exiled her from my room, I did have a similar experience when she organized my room for me. I understand her motherly desire to straighten up after me, but there was however a method to my chaos and it's taken me quite some time to return to it."

"She cleans up after you," asked Sheldon with shock.

"Oh yes," she said with a nod and a laugh. "Or at least she tries."

XXX

"Good grief, how many times are we going to have this argument Sheldon?"

The four physicists and the little girl exited the theatre in the midst of a heated discussing concerning the movies.

"As many times as it takes for you all to see that I am right and admit to the scientific inaccuracies of the scene."

"Well," said Zoe piping in to their usual argument. "I am not entirely familiar with the Superman universe or with whether or not Superman's flight is a feat of strength. But I can't believe that you are fixating on that particular scientific fallacy in a movie where Superman turns back time by flying so fast around the world that he reverses its spin on its axis. Even assuming that such a thing could turn back time, does Superman not realize the damage that would do to the earth itself, not only would it kill Lois Lane, but the entire world, frankly I would expect more from someone as supposedly intelligent as Superman. If any part in the movie deserves this amount of scrutiny I would say it is that one. "

"Yeah but we decided there was no logical explanation for that so we decided to just skip over that particular inaccuracy," explained Leonard.

"Yes I suppose you would have to," said Zoe as she climbed into the car and she settled next to her father. "In those two movies alone the writers had to constantly undermine themselves due to the fact that they have a nearly flawless protagonist. I imagine it would be difficult to find ways to create conflict over five movies, not to mention the countless cartoon and comic book portrayals. So all in all, I found them both to be very enjoyable movies, I particularly enjoyed the character of Lex Luther and would like to think that if I were to ever be a villain, I would be one like him."

Sheldon looked down at her with a nod of approval.

"Not Catwoman," asked Howard, turning in the front seat to look at her. "She was always my favorite."

Zoe gave him a look of annoyance. "Of course she is. I have done a bit of research into the world of comic books and I actually am quite disturbed by the lack of female evil masterminds. From Mystique to Harley Quinn, it seems that they are always subservient minions with a certain amount of sex appeal. Why doesn't any superhero have a female arch-nemesis?"

"Because," said Howard. "It's difficult to take a dude seriously when he's whooping up on a lady, whether she's evil or not."

"That's sexist Howard," said Zoe. "Also predicated on the assumption that the male hero would be able "whoop up on" the female villain, maybe she's stronger."

Howard looked at her condescendingly. " Okay Zoe, maybe in a comic book that's possible."

"I wouldn't argue with her," said Raj. "I would put good money on the fact that Penny could take any one of us down."

Zoe shot a triumphant look at Howard. "That's right! My mommy broke your nose once, because you tried to kiss her!"

"What," asked Sheldon angrily. "When was this?"

"Oh you know, during your whole relationship Penny and I were sneaking off for secret make-out sections."

Sheldon's face turned red with unexplained anger, and Zoe felt him twitching next to her.

"Don't worry father," she said, placing a hand on his arm and looking up at him. "He's being sarcastic." This seemed to calm him down a bit and she continued. "And it was when mommy hurt Howard's feelings so she went to apologize. You said you fell and hit your nose on the bathtub, right Howard?"

Howard looked at her with annoyance. "Is there anything Penny doesn't tell you?"

Zoe shrugged but she didn't answer, she just looked out the corner of her eyes at her father. There were few things Penny didn't tell Zoe, and the things she didn't tell her…well, Zoe knew about those to.

XXX

Weeks passed and Sheldon found that Zoe was rapidly becoming an essential part of his life. He found himself counting down the days until he was able to see her again. Instead of thinking about his work, he was thinking about what he could do with her and what they could talk about. Every time he went to pick her up, his heart would start pounding with nervousness, the continual fear that this time Penny was going to send him away and tell him not to come back or that he would say the wrong thing and that Zoe wouldn't want to see him. And every day when he dropped her off he felt the sting of disappointment. He found that the 30 second conversations he had with Penny before picking up and dropping off Zoe were only serving to make this disappointment worse. Every time he drove away from the perfect neighborhood, the perfect house, the perfect daughter, and the perfect woman, it just reminded him of the life that could have been his, even without a Nobel Prize, it still looked pretty good.