Hey folks! Thanks for the reviews! I really appreciate them! And don't' worry the romance is coming in the next few chapters! I have just been focusing more on the relationship between Zoe and Sheldon. I think it shows a different kind of love on the part of Penny and will lead into the romance, but I feel like Sheldon has a lot to make up for all he did and proving himself by being there for Zoe is important, for him and Penny! But it's coming!

Zoe and Sheldon made their way up the driveway to her house. She was all but skipping next to him gushing excitedly about plans for her next visit, but this delight was immediately squashed when Penny opened the door, her eyes red and puffy.

"Mommy," Zoe said in shock. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing sweety," she said with a smile. "Everything's okay now." She was not fooling Zoe or Sheldon."Why don't you go on inside and practice your violin."

Zoe nodded. "Yes mommy," she turned to Sheldon. "Thank you for dinner, father. I'll see you again soon." She hugged him around the legs, and Sheldon patted her head.

Penny waited for Zoe to leave then turned back to Sheldon. Sheldon didn't know why she was crying, but he hated it. And had to fight back the thought that he used to be the reason for so many tears.

"Sheldon, I have a huge favor to ask, and it's totally okay if you say no, but Jake wants to go out with some friends tomorrow and he wants me to go with him. And…well…he always wants to stay out so late and he always drinks too much and I was just wondering if maybe you wanted to take Zoe for the night? Like I said, I know its last minute so if you're too busy then…"

"No," said Sheldon, trying to mask his own eagerness. "I'm not busy. I would not mind in the least taking her for the night." Penny closed her eyes and breathed deeply and nodded, she seemed a little nervous.

"Thank you Sheldon, it's a big help."

He nodded and stood there for a moment.

"Penny," he said softly, looking down at her. "What's wrong?"

Penny looked up and met his gaze, their eyes held each other for five smoldering seconds before she blinked.

"Nothing's wrong Sheldon," she said forcibly.

"But…"

"Nothing is wrong," she said again, her voice slightly threatening.

"Very well," said Sheldon with a nod. "I'll pick her up after work tomorrow."

"That would be great," she said with a smile. "Thanks again."

Sheldon didn't have time to respond before she closed the door in his face. He stood there for a moment, something wasn't sitting right and he didn't know what it was. He could hardly trust his instincts, they were so often off in such situations, yet he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. But he would need more evidence before he was certain.

XXX

When Sheldon pulled up to Zoe's house the next day, she was already sitting on the front porch, her bag sitting next to her. As soon as he pulled up, Zoe leapt to her feet, stuck her head in the door and said something, before grabbing her bag and running to the car.

"Hello father!"

"What were you doing outside," he asked.

"It's a lovely day," she said with a smile. "Also mom and Jake dad are fighting again."

Sheldon raised an eyebrow.

"Again?"

"Yeah they've been fighting a lot lately….I don't like fighting. Mommy knows that so she tells me to leave when it happens."

"Does it happen a lot?"

"More now than usual…what are we going to do today? I'm so excited that I get to stay with you tonight? Can we watch the old Star Trek show you told me about? The season with Kirk that you used to watch when you were a kid? Can we go to a museum tomorrow? That would be fun!"

"Why are they fighting now more than usual?"

She gave him a look of patient condescension. "What do you suppose your ex-lover and her current husband are fighting about at this particular juncture in all of our lives?"

Sheldon pondered it for a while and then suddenly a look of realization crossed his face. "They are fighting because of me," he asked cautiously.

"Yes," she said with a nod. "Father doesn't like that she's letting me spend so much time with you, but she is going over his head and saying I can and it's causing some tension."

Sheldon felt a sudden conflict of feelings. He was happy that Penny was on his side, he was angry at Jake for upsetting her, and he felt guilty, guilty at the slight joy he garnered from finding that perhaps Jake wasn't the perfect husband after all. Not to mention, the guilt that he was feeling due to the knowledge that he could possibly be messing up Penny's life….again. But he couldn't worry about that right now.

"Father," she said, looking at him with concern. "Are you alright?"

"Of course I am," he said. "What would you like to do first?"

XXX

After dinner at a Sheldon approved restaurant, they returned to Sheldon's apartment where Howard, Leonard and Raj joined them for a night of Trekking. Zoe made it 3 and a-half-episodes in before she started to doze off, her head resting onto Sheldon's shoulder. Sheldon tensed under her the contact but nor did he scoot over. He just hoped to God that she didn't drool.

"Comfortable," asked Howard with a snigger.

"I'm not uncomfortable."

Sheldon's eyes widened when he heard a click and turned to Raj who was holding up his phone.

"What are you doing?"

"I wanted a picture," said Raj with a laugh. "This is a beautiful father, daughter moment!"

"Star Trek has a way of making those happen," said Leonard sarcastically.

"Really," asked Sheldon. "Well, maybe this whole fatherhood thing is going to be easier than I thought."

"What are you guys doing tomorrow," asked Raj.

"I was thinking about taking her to Disney Land," he said uncertainly, he looked at them. "That's something children like, right?"

Raj smiled slightly, while Howard and Leonard laughed.

"Yeah, kids like that," said Leonard. "I just can't believe you're actually doing this."

"Doing what," asked Sheldon, distracted looking down at the little girl resting against him.

"Being a father," said Leonard. "Like a real father."

"Hardly," said Sheldon. "I hardly have anything to do with her upbringing."

"But you love her," said Leonard.

Sheldon shrugged not answering the question. Leonard chose not to press it anymore, he knew the answer just from the way Sheldon was looking at her and the way he shooed everyone out so that his daughter could sleep and the way he roused her gently from her sleep, unwilling to let her sleep on the couch due to insufficient lumbar support. He had laid out a mattress he had purchased (just in case) in his room. He thought about putting it in the living room, there wasn't an extra bedroom, but there wasn't a lot of room in there, and he knew some children tended to not be alone when they slept in new places, though he suspected Zoe was more rational then that.

Good grief, he thought. How does Penny manage ANY decisions concerning Zoe, everything was so complicated!

After the two of them had changed into their pajama's and brushed their teeth Zoe pulled back the covers and laid down on the mattress.

"Well," said Sheldon, standing awkwardly next to his bed. "Good night then."

He made a move to turn off the lamp that was lighting the room.

"Wait," said Zoe. "Aren't you going to tuck me in?"

Sheldon furrowed his brow in confusion.

"Uhh, yes I suppose so."

He knelt down next the mattress.

"How does one do it?"

Zoe laughed.

"Just cover me with the blanket, and then tuck the blankets around me like a mummy!"

"You know," he said, pulling the blankets up over her. "This is hardly like a mummy, more like a straight jacket."

She shrugged. "I know, but mommy says it's like a mummy."

Sheldon nodded and tucked the blankets in around her.

"How is this?"

"Perfect. Mommy also sings to me, actually we sing together, but that's mine and hers song, so you don't have to sing it."

He nodded, perfectly alright with that.

"Alright then, well, goodnight."

He made a move to stand, but her hand on his arm held him still.

"She's crying again," she said, her voice soft and worried.

"What?"

"I'm worried about her father. I remember she used to cry a lot, when she missed you, but then she stopped. Now, she's crying again. She's the best mom in the world and I don't want her to be sad, and I don't think it's just because they're fighting more. What's wrong with her?"

For a moment, Sheldon wasn't looking at a child genius, for now, she was a daughter who was worried about her mother, and he had no idea what to say.

"I don't know," he answered. "I was never good at that kind of thing."

"Was that a part of the problem?"

Sheldon felt uncomfortable discussing such things at all, especially with a child, no matter how mature she was.

"I suppose so," he said. "She was more than patient with me, I suppose it was more the fact that I didn't appear to care."

"Did you?"

"I never believed I could care about a person as much as I did for Penny," he said. Zoe knew he was telling the truth, he was physiologically incapable of lying, after all. "But I suppose I got distracted."

"Mommy always said your first love was science, she also said she knew that when she entered a romantic relationship with you."

"She probably knew me better than anyone else."

"Yet she doesn't know that you're still in love with her," said Zoe, stating this as though it were a well established fact and needed no other explanation. Sheldon began to stutter as he struggled with something to say. "Oh I'm sorry, are you still in the stage of denial concerning that issue? I assumed you knew that, as smart as you are. Oh well, just think about it for a while you'll find that that I'm right!"

She sat up and placed a kiss on his cheek before falling back onto her pillow. Sheldon resisted the urge to sanitize his cheek as he stood and moved to the other side of his bed.

"Goodnight daddy," she said softly.

"Goodnight," he said, still distracted with his daughters observation.

Still in love with Penny! Nonsense!

He was a genius after all! If he was going to be in love with her he would have done it when she was single, and in love with him! Not now, when she was married. Just because she and Jake were going through a rough patch, understandable considering the complications of his presence, didn't mean that she was suddenly available for wooing. That was not to say that if Penny were in an unhappy situation and chose to remove herself from it that he would be altogether opposed to revisiting their previous attachment. However, he had no reason to believe that this was an option, and it didn't matter because he was not in love her!

Sheldon found it very inconvenient that he couldn't even lie to himself

XXX

I'm dying! This is the first thought that struck Sheldon when he awoke. The tingling in his left arm could only mean one thing, he was having a heart attack. But as the fog of sleep lifted, he felt a slight movement next to him and looked down to see a mess of curls in the line of his vision. Apparently Zoe's mattress had not been satisfactory. She had taken after Penny in that way, she clearly had no aversion to contact and had an apparent disregard for his aversion. It was awful presumptuous of her, but he couldn't muster as much indignation as he wished he felt. He looked at his alarm clock, it was 6:30 in the morning. Clearly, Zoe had no intention of waking up, and he hated to disrupt her comfortable slumber. Maybe, just this once, he didn't have to wake up at 6:30 and watch Dr. Who. The thought disturbed him for about 10 seconds until Zoe burrowed further under the covers her face and closer to him.