CH

Batman, The Penguin, Joker, Riddler, the delectably devious horticulturalist Poison Ivy, Two-face, and then last but not least, Scarecrow. It had taken her all day, but she had done it. Before her was the complete mini action figure set as envisioned by Ronald McDonald, collected from 15 different McD's locations in the LA area. Now, to put on the candles and Sheldon's cake would be perfect. Thank god McDonald's sold toys separately or she'd have gained twenty pounds on happy meals.

Penny sighed, and stepped back to admire her handy work. When he had put a ban on birthday gifts he hadn't said anything about cake.

Things had been slightly awkward since his roundabout proposal of dating, marriage, and a life time of child-raising.

He hadn't seemed to notice anything different, all the awkwardness was in her mind but still... She'd spent the last few weeks going over the pros and cons, every possible outcome imaginable. She'd peppered him with questions about intimacy and family medical history and baby name preferences. Every little detail had gone under her microscope with a ruthlessness that she usually reserved for haggling over the price of knock-off shoes, because this was the rest of her life she was looking at after all.

Sure, she wanted kids, and they did live well together, which was something.

She'd always thought that she'd be madly in love when she got married though. And it wasn't that she didn't love Sheldon, because she knew she did, she just wasn't sure if it had the potential to be that kind of love, and with Sheldon, you had to be sure. He'd never recover if she changed her mind halfway along the line. There was chemistry though, and the man was better at commitment than any other on the planet excepting Buddhist monks, and definitely he was attractive, but he was kind of bat crap crazy.

She walked over to the sink and rested her arms on the edge, looking out the window at the backyard they had tended together all summer long.

Sheldon was in the far corner of the yard with Howard and Raj building a shed with laser like precision, double checking each measurement and screw placement like he was building a rocket to outer space, a tool belt full of machinery hanging off his hips and a blue print pencil tucked behind his ear. Every so often he would say something to Howard and the short man would start waving his arms around and pacing back and forth while Raj tried to sooth them both. No doubt it was some comment on Howard's lack of doctorate. The shed really did look like a space ship though.

Penny raised an eyebrow and leaned closer to the window. Maybe it was? You never knew with Sheldon.

She'd had an uncle like that, and as a kid he was her favourite relative next to Gran. You never knew what he'd do next, but you always knew where you stood with him. Not a bad quality to have. Her mom had always laughed when she went running out of the house to see what uncle Paul was doing now, and said that they were two peas in a pod, heads full of dreams and toes deep underground. It had always made a shiver of happiness go through her when she had heard that, because if her Dad was her hero, Uncle Paul was her Idol. Her lips curled into a smile with the memory.

Maybe there was just enough crazy in her blood stream to make this work after all.