Penny was rolling her bag down the platform behind her. Leonard had told Penny that Sheldon had paid about $2800.00 for the train tickets alone, and the hotels were about another $500.00 for the two of them, she couldn't believe that he could just spend that amount of money and not expect her to pay at least half. It was just like that time that he lent her the money, except this time Penny didn't seem to have the same anxiety, no this time she had a different anxiety altogether. She was about to spend almost two weeks in Sheldon Cooper's company, alone with no Leonard , Amy or any of their friends to help. Was she mad?

Leonard, Raj, Howard, Bernadette and Amy had all come to the train station to farewell them. Leonard in particular was in a joyous mood. Penny knew that Leonard had organised a party whilst Sheldon was away, but she was in strictest confidence not to let Sheldon know.

Penny had been nervous about telling Amy about her trip away with Sheldon, but she need not have worried. Amy had told Penny that she had long ago given up on Sheldon as anything but a friend that is a boy, no Amy had moved on and was seeing a young biologist that she had been mentoring only the year before.

Penny finally caught up with Sheldon who was talking to the platform attendant showing him their tickets. Sheldon had told Penny that he would hold the tickets because she would likely lose them, and then where would they be, Penny really didn't care and was happy for Sheldon to take control of the journey, it kept him busier at least.

Sheldon turned to Penny and said,

"Penny are you ready for the journey of a lifetime?"

She looked at him, he was so excited, Leonard said he hardly slept the night before. Penny had also experienced a lack of sleep, but excitement was not the reason for her insomnia, she was thinking of how she was going to survive these next two weeks.

"Yes Sheldon, let's get this over with."

Sheldon turned and looked at her, "Really Penny? He cocked his head slightly and then continued, " This is going to be so much fun."

Penny smiled back at him, trying really hard to be nice to him, he really was doing this for her she remembered.

"Well have a nice trip you two, and don't forget to write." Leonard kissed Penny on the cheek, then everyone said their goodbyes, and before Penny knew it she was on the train alone with Sheldon. Sheldon had booked specific seats for this leg of the journey. Penny sat down, but soon she heard Sheldon say to her.

"Penny you will notice that I chose seats so that we have ocean views on our journey, and not only that, you will notice that the seats that we have are not over the wheel base, so that our journey will be smoother."

Penny looked at Sheldon, Oh god he's going to be talking all the time, she thought.

Sheldon turned away from her and muttered to himself, "Thank you Sheldon, very thoughtful Sheldon."

"Thank you Sheldon, very thoughtful of you Sheldon." Penny looked at him with a sarcastic smile.

"See wasn't too hard was it." Sheldon replied, then he continued.

"Did you know that between October 2005 through to August 2006 this particular service had earned the nickname of "The Coast Starlate", do you know why?"

He waited there was no reply.

"I will tell you, it was because during that time it only ran on schedule 2% of the time."

Penny looked at him blankly.

"But never fear, those times are over, The Coast Starlight now runs on schedule nearly 92% of the time, which is a higher average than any national airline."

She closed her eyes and turned toward the window. Leonard and the gang were all beaming up at her. They could see the exasperation in her eyes and they felt her pain, and the train hadn't even left the station yet. Then the train started to pull away, Penny waved down at them slowly, like a condemned women going to the gallows.

"So, I give her two days before she kills him." Howard said as they began to walk away.

"24 hours." Leonard replied, and then he started to whistle very loudly and soon Howard and Raj joined in.