Chapter 12 Moving On

A/N: First, to those narrow-minded anal pores who 'hate' anything not canon or abhor the idea of any 'Sheldon/Other' no matter how brief or tasteful, I send a big middle finger salute. To the rest of you who've bravely read through the tripe, my thanks. I have two other fics and when they're done, I'm packing TBBT fics away. The characters as written today on the show are shallow shadows of the earlier seasons. Poor Penny. Poor Kaley - reduced to doing commercials that make her look fat and stupid but at least she's not drunk in them.

This is the epilogue. Fill in the blanks yourself.

Savoy Hotel
Jakarta, Indonesia

She cancelled her reservations to Bali, all thoughts of hooking up with some rich Aussie hunk of a surfer gone from her mind. She glanced at her room clock and tried to compute the time in Buenos Aires. Between the bottle of wine she'd finished off after talking with Beverly and an inability to picture just where Argentina was in terms of time zones, she decided to call regardless of the time in Argentina.

Penny keyed in the Skype info and waited for the call to connect when she suddenly realized that it was a SKYPE call and she was wearing just a robe.

She slammed the lid of the laptop closed, disconnecting the call and promised herself she'd call 'in the morning' and curled up on her bed and fell into a deep sleep, plagued by dreams of missing trains and planes, of being late for a dinner, and of just missing him before he left for another expedition to the South Pole.

He, of course, was her Moon Pie, her Whack-a-doodle, Sheldon Cooper.

Parea Family Apartment
The Hippodrome
Buenos Aires, Argentina

He glanced at the clock and fumbled for his cell phone, not truly awake but beset by thoughts that one of the twins might be ill and Amelia was calling with dire news.

It wasn't his cell phone. He'd left his computer on and an incoming Skype call was making enough noise to wake the dead, or him, as it turned out.

He didn't recognize the incoming address but then he got Skype and email from all over the world since winning the Nobel so he just clicked on 'Accept Video' and waited.

"Hi, Shel, it's Penny Ford." She looked at him and realized she'd woken him from a sound sleep. No matter. The nagging dreams had awakened her and her subconscious was still beating a drumbeat on her mind:

'Call him Call him Call him Call him Call him Call him Call him Call him Call him Call him Call him Call him Call him Call him Call him Call him Call him Call him Call him Call him Call him Call him'

"I see that, Penny. Is anything wrong?" He glanced at his watch and sighed. He had to get up in an hour anyway.

"No, nothing's wrong. Can't a girl call her best friend and talk? More importantly, to offer her condolences on Juliana? I know you and the twins must miss her and I only found out when Missy wrote me. Mail in Fiji is spotty and it took forever for someone to make the connection between Penelope Hofstadter and Penny Ford."

"Thank you, Penny, that's very thoughtful of you. Fiji? What – oh, have you run off with some rich undergraduate? I heard about the divorce from Beverly. I'm sorry things didn't work out."

"Are you, Shel? Are you really sorry or are you just making use of your new-found social skills?"

"Well, of course I'm sorry. Why would I want you to fail at yet another relationship? You were my best friend, Penny, and despite his betrayals, I was quite fond of Leonard."

"Were? Do you have a new 'best friend'? Have I been replaced so easily, Sheldon?" She didn't mean to sound so petulant.

"I could never replace you, Penny. We share too many memories for me to cast you aside and I've never needed new friends to fill the void. I have my work and my family and 'friends' are incidental."

There was an awkward lull in the conversation and then Penny brought up the reason for her call – the real reason. He looked terrible and not because she'd interrupted his REM cycle. He looked thin and drawn and his eyes, always so bright and lively, now seemed dull.

"How are you, Moon Pie? Losing Juliana must have been hard. I'm sorry that I wasn't there to comfort you. I'm sorry for a lot of things, Shel."

"Yes, it was. And you have nothing to apologize for, Penny. You were in the midst of your own tragedy. Seriously, Penny, how are you? You look healthy and despite your fair complexion, you seem to have tanned well. Please remember to use sunscreen when sunbathing on the beaches of beautiful Fiji. I couldn't bear the loss of another loved one."

"I'm in Jakarta on my way to Hawaii and then home to see my folks. Fiji was wonderful and I even taught English in a convent school, Shel. But more importantly, do you?"

"Do I what, Penny?" He could never follow her conversations for long. Her mind operated differently and she would segue from topic to topic without warning.

"Do you still love me?" There. It was out of the shadows and in the light of day. The question she'd promised herself she wouldn't ask because she was terrified of the answer.

"You and Juliana are the only women I've ever loved and I lost you both to circumstances beyond my control."

"You used the past tense, Shel."

He hadn't meant to but he had and now she was going to make an issue of it and he was still mourning his wife. Telling her the truth would seem to be a betrayal of his love for his wife but he couldn't lie, not to her, and not about this.

"I still love you both, Penny. Does that answer your question satisfactorily?"

"Moon Pie, would it be inappropriate for me to drop in on an old friend for a few days? Argentina isn't all that far from Omaha considering where I am. I could stay at a hotel and wouldn't be in the way of your teaching and lecturing and I'd love to see your daughters. You must be so proud of them."

"I would love to see you, Penny, but – "

"Oh, okay, I understand. Well, Skype works both ways, Sheldon. Call any time." She started to disconnect the call, feeling the pressure in her sinuses as tears began to form.

"No, wait! I meant that the girls are with their grandparents on their Estacio. We could go out and see them. It's not all that far. Six hours by car and yes, Penny, I drive."

"Oh, that would be nice but I don't want to put you in an awkward position with Juliana's parents. I mean you lost your wife and it would seem, I don't know, awkward is the only word that comes to mind."

"When can I expect you? I'm at loose ends this entire month except for an awards dinner in a few weeks. You can stay here. I have five bedrooms although the cook is off for the month so we'll have to do our own cooking or go out."

"Let me check and see the flights and I'll call you with my schedule. I'm looking forward to seeing you, Sheldon. I'll call you, okay?"

"Fine. Until then, goodbye, Penny."

"Oh, wait! One more thing."

She took a deep cleansing breath.

"You haven't lost me, Sheldon. I'm right here…"

She started to disconnect the call but she saw how his eyes filled with tears as he only nodded, his face crumpling, unable to speak.

"… and I still love you, Moon Pie, and I always will."