Penny sat inside her car in the parking lot of the apartment complex, staring at her cell phone, as she ignored the downpour of rain outside that beat steadily on the roof of her vehicle. She dropped it heavily into her purse and quickly flipped the visor down to check the status of her face. "Hell.." Stretching over, Penny yanked open her glove compartment. It was fortunate that she'd stuffed some tissues inside. With a few of them in hand, she dabbed at the ruin of her make-up that her crying had caused. It in no way helped to make her feel any better about her appearance, but it did make her face feel a little less sticky.

She slammed the compartment shut, snatched up her purse and quickly climbed out of the car. The rain was merciless as it poured down on her. Penny was thankful that their lot wasn't too far away from the doors. Lifting her purse up over her head as a means to block some of the rain, the blonde hurried her way inside just before the downpour had worked up enough steam to become fully torrential.

Her foul mood hit rock bottom when she pushed in through the door and found that Sheldon of all people was there in the lobby. Penny saw that he was retrieving his mail, the tall man's back facing her. She wondered if she could run up the stairs before he noticed her. Out of all the things Penny wanted to deal with at the moment, handling Sheldon – even an amnesiac version – was going to be far too much. The woman lurched sharply towards the stairwell.

"Oh. Hello, Penny." Sheldon's voice rose pleasantly behind her.

Wincing, the blonde stopped with her foot on the first step. She cleared her throat, hoping that her voice sounded normal. "Sheldon. Sorry, in a bit of a hurry. See you later."

Then Penny was hurrying up the stairs, ignoring the first sounds of protest from below. "Penny, wait--!"

Penny managed to make it up the stairs in record time, though she cursed when she discovered that her keys were now buried at the bottom of her purse. She really needed to clean the thing out! The blonde was just starting to juggle them to locate her apartment key when she heard the sound of someone coming up behind her.

"Penny? Is something the matter?"

She sighed heavily. Her attempt to avoid him was no match for Sheldon and his long legs. Penny swiped her bangs aside and forced a smile as she turned to face him. "Of course not, Sheldon. What makes you think that anything is wrong?"

Sheldon was staring at her intently. At her question, he drifted closer, head craning as he peered down at Penny's face. "The bloodshot quality of your eyes, as well as the redness of your nose and state of make-up indicate that you might currently be in a poor emotional state. Or else you've been drinking. Considering the early hour of the day, I should hope that it is the former."

"You hope that I'm in a poor emotional state?" Penny asked him dully.

"Yes." Sheldon blinked hurriedly. "I mean, no! No, of course not. It's just that if it is a matter of the cause being one situation or another, I'd much prefer that you're just being emotional and not taking up unhealthy drinking habits."

"I'm not becoming an alcoholic, Sheldon. It was just a really, really rough day today."

Penny watched as Sheldon's face shifted subtly. Not that she could ever hope to follow how the patterns of his mind worked, but it was often easy to see when he was mulling something over simply by witnessing the quirks of his features. Right now, with the twitches at the corner of his mouth, Penny could tell that he was trying to figure out how to respond. She did not want to wait for whatever condescending response he came up with, so Penny shook her head. "Too rough for me to listen to whatever snide lecture or commentary you might have. So I am going to go take a shower and try to pretend that today didn't happen. Goodnight, Sheldon."

She felt bad about shutting the door practically in his face, yet Penny knew that sometimes that was the only effective tool to stop Sheldon from sharing his thoughts. Resting back against the door in the safe security of her living room, the blonde quietly resumed her crying.

Standing there in the hall, Sheldon frowned at the closed door of apartment 4B. His hearing was surprisingly sharp; he could hear the faint sounds of Penny crying even through the painted wood. Sheldon drummed his fingers against the pile of mail that he gripped in his hand. He glanced down at the papers and was surprised to see that his knuckles were white from clutching the stack so hard. He'd even put a dent in Leonard's physics magazine.

Sheldon opened his mouth. Then closed it sharply. What was he going to say to an empty hallway? The man pivoted in place and marched back into his own apartment with a distracted frown.

"I just don't know what to do, Mom." Penny wailed into the telephone. She roughly blew her nose into another bunch of tissue before tossing it into the growing pile on the coffee table in front of her where Penny had curled up on her couch. "Getting rejected at all of these auditions is really taking its toll on me! Maybe I'm just not as talented as I thought. Plus, my manager is being hard on me more than ever this last week. He keeps giving all of my prime shifts away to the other girls."

Penny paused to listen to her mother's response. "Maybe you're right. Or else I could just move back to Nebraska."

There was a sudden knock on her door. Penny frowned into the telephone. "Hold on a minute, Mom. Someone's at the door."

She shifted the receiver to rest against her shoulder as Penny climbed off her couch. Who could it have been at this hour? Leonard and the boys were still at work. Her rent was all paid up for the month, so it couldn't have been the landlord. Penny pulled the door, only to find herself eye-to-symbol with a familiar superhero logo.

Sheldon's tongue darted out to wet his lips as he shifted his weight from foot to foot. He had a large brown grocery sack balanced in his good arm. Seeing that Penny was on the telephone seemed to ebb some of his courage away. "I apologize for the interruption. I was unaware that you were occupied with a conversation."

Penny lifted the telephone back up to her mouth. "Mom? Lemme call you back later. Love you, too." She hung up, cocking her hip to rest against the side of the opened door as she looked up at Sheldon. "Did you need something, Sheldon?"

"It isn't so much a matter of need." Sheldon shook his head. He lifted the arm with the bag in it to indicate it. "I found myself unable to let the matter of your unhappiness leave my mind, so I brought some items for you that I understand might help improve your mood. May I come in?"

"Sure." She took a step back from the door to let him inside. Penny watched as Sheldon swept into her apartment, the man immediately moving to place the sack down on the counter of her kitchenette. There was a very good chance that this was going to lead nowhere pleasant. Despite that, the woman found herself curious. "What have you got there?"

Sheldon smiled as he reached into the sack, beginning to pull stuff out. "I wasn't entirely certain how to properly handle the situation, so I did some research on the internet. After obtaining a better grasp of recommended steps on how to proceed, I took it upon myself to walk to the small convenience store and pick up a few items that seemed appropriate."

Penny watched as he set down three small quarts of ice cream and a handful of chocolate bars. Sheldon's face was lit up with pride. "I purchased these food items because they are thought of as 'comfort foods' that women tend to enjoy when in poor spirits."

He then reached into the bag again and pulled out a DVD. "I also took the liberty of borrowing one of Leonard's romantic comedies. It occurred to me that viewing the formulaic yet pleasing tale of a young empowered woman and her adventures in the world of dating might somehow cheer you up."

"I don't know, Sheldon. That sounds more like a documentary of my life right now.." Penny said hesitantly as she approached him to take hold of the DVD, before a small, pleased sound squeaked out of her throat. "Oh, I love this one!"

"So did eighty percent of the people who reviewed the film. I looked it up." Sheldon said proudly, his mouth twisting into a quirky smile. "You want to watch it, then?"

"Sure!" Penny's answer was automatic. Then she seemed to realize his unspoken implications. "Wait… with you? You want to watch this with me?"

Sheldon's smile faded away. "Well. I mean, naturally, I could let you watch it alone if you preferred."

"No, no – that's not it. I'm just a bit shocked that you would want to – how did you put it the last time? – 'suffer through a droll rom-com'."

Sheldon's unbound shoulder pitched up in a quick shrug, fingers fussing with the lid of the closest ice cream container as he studied it with increasing fascination. "It probably isn't my favorite genre. I can only assume that I tend to like other things. But to be perfectly honest, Leonard won't be home for a while now. Being in the apartment alone is rather unnerving. I never know when I might forget the simplest of things: Like what to do when the telephone rings and someone asks me if I am pleased with my cable service. Do I even have cable service?"

"Um. I think so? I don't really know how happy you are with their service, though." Penny shook her head. Feeling a surge of sympathy, she placed her hand down upon his to stop him from plucking at the container any further. Penny angled her head until she finally caught a glimpse of blue peeking back at her, as the blonde smiled encouragingly. "Would you like to sit with me and watch this movie, Sheldon?"

Her response from him was a beaming smile. Then Sheldon retrieved his hand from under Penny's in order to pluck a couple spoons from where they'd been nesting near the sink. He held them up in his fingers for her to take one, murmuring happily. "Let's do this."

Leonard sighed over the top of his lunch. "Do you ever wonder…?" He trailed off distantly.

Howard glanced up as he stabbed more potatoes with his fork. "If they're real or implants? All the time."

"No.." Leonard scoffed at the man's interjection. "Do you ever wonder if maybe Sheldon not having his memories is a potentially good thing?"

"I take it that you're referring to the fact that his personality has turned for the better?" Raj piped up from his place next to Howard at the table. "Or perhaps the fact that he has gone from King Dick-tator to a tolerable, less demanding individual? Or that he is more lenient on the television schedule? Or that—"

"Yes, all those things." Leonard waved his fork around through the air in front of him. He scowled off ahead of him as he considered the situation. "It's almost a shame to think that we'll have to go back to putting up with him when he finally gets his marbles together. Is that terrible of me to think, being that I'm his friend and all?"

Howard snorted, placing his bottle of water back down on the table. "I don't see how it could be. Sheldon has been a lot easier to get along with lately. I can't understand why you would feel bad for being grateful that your roommate is not such a big pain in the asteroid. My only wish is that it could last a little longer. Like.. forever, maybe."

"You could always find some way to hit him over the head again when he seems on the verge of remembering." Raj suggested cheerfully. "It's not as if he would remember you doing it after he regains consciousness."

"I don't know.." Howard drummed his fork against the edge of his plate. "There's no guarantee that he would forget the assault part. If I thought such a plan would work, I would have already implemented it."

"Howard!" Leonard admonished him sternly. "Now that kind of talk is getting a little out of line, don't you think?"

"What?" Howard looked at him in confusion. "I was talking about my mother."

Leonard blinked owlishly. "Oh. Well, in that case, I could see where it might be useful."

"I think it would be best if you just sat down with Sheldon and explained your concerns to him." Raj murmured. "Perhaps if you were to appeal to his better nature as it is now, then when he finally comes back into his normal self, Sheldon might take consideration of your feelings on the matter. That way, even if his mind doesn't remember, his heart will not forget."

"That was really deep, Raj." Leonard stared at his Indian friend in awe. "Is that some sort of spiritual Hindu belief?"

"Nah. I just heard something like it in a video game once."

"I see. Well, it still makes perfect sense to me." Leonard nodded decisively. "I will talk to Sheldon about it as soon as I get home."