Sorry for the fluffy bunny crap but I miss my guy and I wish he was here instead of over there.

Chapter8 The Incident

Things settled into a comfortable routine for the couple. Penny watched him like a hawk and Sheldon pretended to ignore it. Penny cooked and Sheldon would clean up afterwards.

Sheldon bent down to pick up something from the carpet and he groaned and fell to his knees and then to the carpet and slipped into a brief fugue state. Penny had been waiting on some sign of the difficulties the neurosurgeon had assured her were on the horizon and now she had it.

"Shel, Sheldon?" Penny turned him over onto his back and then pulled him up into her lap and held him against her breasts, waiting for the fluttering eyes and momentary confusion that she'd been told would happen.

'Changes in blood pressure as a result of bending or standing suddenly can affect him. It's normal and will pass but it will happen, Ms. Drummond, as sure as the sun rises. Don't panic unless he seizes and then simply stick something in his mouth so he won't bite or swallow his tongue and call 9-1-1.'

Sheldon's eyes snapped open and she saw the initial panic.

"Penny, am I in your apartment or my home? Which Penny are you? If you're Dream Penny, don't pull any crap on me because I've got your number, sister. You want me to give up, to go back and I won't, so don't bother wasting one breath on some bullshit I won't believe."

Penny almost dropped him. Sheldon never cursed, never.

"Y-you're home, sweetie, in our apartment, well, my apartment but what's mine is yours, Shel. It's me, crazy, screwed up, unemployed Penny."

"Thank God!" Sheldon tried to sit up but Penny's embrace stopped him and he settled back into her warmth and cushiony fullness with a sigh.

"I think whatever happened was just the result of me bending over. I got dizzy and…"

"Hush. I know. I just got scared that you were…"

"Penny, I need to get up even though my current physical location is both endearing and comfortable. There are things to be done."

"Just a few more seconds, Shel, until I'm certain you're not going to get dizzy again from 'postural displacement'. You don't mind, do you? For my peace of mind?"

The soft warmth of her breasts and her unique scent calmed and centered him. He could hear her heart beating and he snuggled closer, inhaling deeply. He could remain as he was for eternity…but there were things to be done.

"Penny, we have errands to run and important changes to be made and acknowledged in our relationship, some are financial and I will brook no resistance from you. Help me up and then change into something that will be appropriate to doing business."

The couple returned to Los Robles four hours later and Sheldon immediately went to his white board and began scribbling equations. Penny put her new shoes and other things that Sheldon insisted that she would need in her closet and then sat on the bed admiring the way her newly-manicured hands looked.

Their first stop had been Sheldon's bank. He presented himself to the manager and then introduced Penny as his 'fiance' and instructed the manager to add Penny to his accounts.

"Sheldon, what are you doing?" She didn't want his money. She needed it but didn't want it. It was too much like charity. And they weren't 'engaged'.

"Hush, Penelope. We both have expenses and I know you're struggling. I meant what I said earlier when I said 'what's mine is ours'. I was also serious when I said I would brook no argument or interference on your part. Oh! I almost forgot!"

He turned to the manager who had wisely not interrupted since she knew Dr. Cooper would chastise her for doing so and said, "She'll need to be on my credit card accounts and also she'll need access to my safety deposit box. Make it so."

Penny tried not to grin. He sounded like Jean Luc Piccard when he spoke to the bank manager. He was definitely 'in charge'.

Penny was sipping a nice herbal tea while Sheldon made notes on his iPad when the branch manager presented Penny with her new credit cards, her checkbook and debit card as well as a key to a safety deposit box.

"Ms. Drummond, on behalf of our bank, allow me to welcome you to the Prestige Club. Dr. Cooper is one of our most unusual but valued clients. Few of our depositors have the ability to manage their portfolios and accounts without outside assistance."

Penny had seen how the bank manager had rushed to complete his instructions and shook her head. All her bank ever did was send her notices of overdrafts.

The couple walked out of the bank and Sheldon pointed to a shop across the boulevard, The Mani-Pedi Palace, and 'suggested' that she get her nails done while he took care of an errand just up the street. Her first thought was 'I can't afford – ' but she stopped and smiled at him.

"I'd like that. Why don't you pick me up there and we'll grab something to eat for lunch before heading back home?"

"Sounds like a plan, Penny. I shouldn't be more than an hour or so. How long does it take to get your nails done? I have no idea about such things. I have so much to learn about the 'care and feeding of Penelope Drummond."

He looked so innocent and she felt a rush of enormous love and affection for her new boyfriend – so intense she felt like her heart had cramped. He was no longer a 'boy' in her eyes and she realized that she'd always categorized the people she'd met over at his apartment as 'the boys'. Sheldon had always been 'Sheldon', never one of the boys. Always apart, aloof, and distant.

She stood on her tiptoes and kissed just the corner of his mouth and gazed up at him and whispered, "Thanks, Moon Pie, for everything."

Penny was halfway across the boulevard when she heard him shout, "Penny, don't call me Moon Pie!" The smile on her face would have convinced a blind man that the young blonde was in love.

And now they were home and Penny was just enjoying their comfortable 'togetherness'. It always amazed her how they worked in synch with one another, whether it was doing something like making PennyBlossoms or arguing. Others had commented on it over the years but she'd always discounted it as just comfort but now she knew it was more.

Penny Drummond had found that she had a soul mate. And he's almost killed him.

There was a quiet knock at her bedroom door and Sheldon asked if she were decent. How typical. For just a second before she opened the door she toyed with the idea of tearing off her clothes and greeting him the way she wanted to: naked and ready for anything.

"Hey, Moo – Sheldon. What's up?" He looked strained and almost nervous. He reached down and took her small hand in his so much larger one and looked at it.

"I like the way your hand looks, Penelope, but it's missing something…can you think of what it is?" He looked at her in quizzical wonder and she had no idea what he was talking about. She held up her hand and looked at it and shook her head.

"Nope. Same old hand but thank you for the manicure, Shel." She'd splurged and gotten the 'Custom Nails' and they made her hands look very beautiful.

"I think it looks naked, Penelope. Without this." He slipped a ring on the finger and admired it. "It's not an engagement ring, Penelope, just something I saw and decided you'd like. I hope I'm not being too forward. These social constructs elude me as to what's proper or too intimate to – "

Her lips found his and stopped his self-deprecating comments and soon he could only moan as she plundered his mouth, tasting and teasing and robbing him of organized thought.

"It's perfect, Sheldon. And I assume you know it's a promise ring, right? Is there something you want to say?" Somehow she'd maneuvered them to her bed and now she was draped across him in the same manner they'd slept since returning from the hospital.

"I, I promise, I, I promise to always love you, Penny." He seemed out of breath and she could hear his heart pounding through his shirts and her smile would have lit up the room if it had been dark.

"I promise to always love you too, Moon Pie. Always and forever."

"Penny! Oh, drat, I guess you can call me Moon Pie."