The next day, Penny received a distressing text message from Amy. "Why did you make me believe in Penny intuition? Date night was a catastrophic. Ax," it read.

Oh god! Well, at least it was Amy who broke Sheldon and not her, she thought. There had been no repercussions from the night he had pressed himself amorously against her. She hadn't seen much of him this week but there were no reports of a Sheldon breakdown. No weaving, no death rays. She had started to find the whole thing amusing now. Even so, an uneasy feeling inside kept niggling away.

She replied to Amy. "Girly night?"

"Yes please, I need to vent." came the reply.

Bernadette and Penny were sitting in Penny's apartment when there was a knock. Penny got up to answer the door and Amy waltzed in.

"I need a large glass of a fast acting intoxicant," she announced, swinging her bag off and sitting down with a thud.

"Coming right up." said Penny, pouring some wine into the empty glass in front of Amy.

"Amy, how are you? I heard things didn't go well with Sheldon the other night." said Bernadette.

"It depends on how you define well." said Amy.

She took a large swig and continued. "We ate our pizza and discussed the common exposure therapy, with systematic desensitization. To which he agreed," she said.

Bernadette nodded.

Penny looked puzzled. "We held hands." Amy explained.

"Oh!" and then "Great!" said Penny with a smile.

"Well, that's good progress surely." said Bernadette.

"Yes, but then when we tried hugging, he started comparing himself to a fermion." Amy complained "…and saying I was a boson," she frowned. "He said he had to leave immediately, so he could tune the masses of our particles to their precise values."

"But that's crazy talk!" said Bernadette.

"You think? He just jumped up and fled out of the apartment like a rabbit from the anatomy lab." Amy said.

"He's a runner," said Penny to herself.

"Surely he knows he can't solve this with math." Bernadette said gently.

Amy shook her head, "We've held hands before but he's never used physics on me." She look depressed. "Penny, you have to do something," she said.

"Me?" said Penny "I don't know anything about physics."

"You know how to talk to Sheldon," said Bernadette.

Penny saw where this was going and didn't like it. "He doesn't listen to me, Ames. He agreed that I was nothing but a blonde monkey," she said in desperation.

"But you know about men," said Amy.

"Sheldon's not any kind of man I know about," said Penny.

"That is true, he's more like a child" said Bernadette grimacing, "which means I'm not much good to you. Sorry Amy."

"It has to be you Penny" Amy said, turning towards her. "Or maybe… you could ask Leonard to talk to him?"

"It certainly sounds worrying," said Bernadette.

"Okay, I'll try," said Penny.

"Great, kick his ass! Mamma wants some hugs sharpish," said Amy, with a big grin.

The following day was Saturday. Penny decided she would ask Leonard to talk to Sheldon that night. When he went downstairs to do his laundry at 8.15pm as usual, she would pop over to the apartment, explain the problem to Leonard and disappear before he came back.

Later that night, Penny sat on her couch listening. At 8.15pm sharp she heard the door open and soft footsteps pad down the stairs. He would be down there at least an hour. She snuck out her door. Leonard was in the front room. He was watching something that looked science fictiony on TV. "Hi Penny, I was just about to text you to come over. Gattaca has just started," he said, looking pleased.

"Sorry Leonard, I wasn't going to stay but I do need a favor" she said.

"Sure, what is it?"

"Well, it's for Amy really. As you know, her date night with Sheldon didn't go well and she was a bit worried about him. She said he was ranting all crazy about science. She wanted me, to ask if you could to have a word to him. Make sure he's alright."

"Sure, but he's just fine." said Leonard.

"He's not scribbling on whiteboards and acting nutso?" Penny asked.

"No more than usual." Leonard grinned.

Now she was confused. They had both seen Sheldon flying through the door, like a frightened deer. Something was wrong. Sheldon is never just fine.

"But you saw what he was like that night." Penny said.

"He did seem extra agitated, but he's been okay since." Leonard said.

Suddenly the door opened and in walked Howard and Raj. "You're not going to believe this?" said Howard, grinning widely and holding his arms outstretched.

"What?" said Leonard.

"The comic book store has only gone and got Jim Steranko in this evening."

"It's super Marvel-ous!" said Raj.

"OMG! That's amazing, I've always wanted to get a Hulk comics signed by that guy." said Leonard.

"It's happened now," said Howard "Where's Sheldon? He won't want to miss this."

"It's laundry night," said Leonard flatly.

"Right! Well, nothing comes between that man and his smalls. Let's go… before we miss it!"

"Great!" said Leonard. He picked up the remote and switched off the TV.

"What about the film?" said Penny.

"Oh I've seen it 4 times? Leonard said.

"… and that chat you were going to have with Sheldon? Amy's really worried," said Penny.

"Trust me, he's okay," said Leonard. "I'll see you later?" He gave her a quick kiss and the three guys disappeared down the stairs.

Penny stood there for a moment, taking in what had just happened. He'd hadn't listened to what she had said. She wasn't happy.

Then it dawned on her. Oh crap! She was going to have to talk to Sheldon after all. What would she say? Maybe she could sneak back to her apartment and come back when she was better prepared. She pulled their door shut and was about to go inside, when she heard her name.

"Hello Penny."

"Oh hello, Sheldon." Damn it! she thought. "You're back early."

"Yes, number one is out of order. Number two is occupied, three is making a terrible racket and after the stretched t-shirt incident of January 19, I didn't want to risk number four."

She smirked. "Hmm," she said in agreement. He did seem fine.

"Well, goodbye Penny." He said, letting himself in to the apartment with one hand and clutching him laundry basket with the other. "Leonard?" he called out.

"Oh, Leonard's gone to the comic book store," Penny said, suddenly remembering the message. "Howard and Raj stopped by and said something about a signing with a guy and Hulk comics."

Sheldon turned and said, "They went to the comic book store without me? Laundry night ruined and now this."

"He told me to let you know and to come after your laundry," she said in a positive tone, hoping this would cheer him up. He didn't reply.

Oh god! I suppose this was as good a time as any, Penny thought. She followed him back into the apartment.

"Sheldon, are you okay?"

"It's disappointing but it is laundry night, so not entirely unexpected."

"I didn't mean about laundry night." He looked puzzled.

"I was talking to Amy about your date night…" she started.

"Oh that," he said.

"She was concerned that you were confusing things." Penny said.

"I never confuse things," he said, setting down the laundry basket down.

"She's worried about you. She said you were using physics, to solve your relationship issues." Penny continued.

"Yes, that's right."

"Sheldon, you can't solve everything with physics. It doesn't work that way, not in real life. There are other ways to help you work on these problems," she said.

"Oh, but I did solve it," he said, walking to the kitchen.

Ugh!

"You were right, you know. I should have gone to the seminar on supersymmetry after all. I would have come to my conclusions a lot quicker," he said reaching for a container in the kitchen.

"I don't follow," said Penny. "What conclusions?"

"Every fermion has a cousin boson" he said, pointing as he did so, "The fermion-boson sum is identically zero. Each particle, cancels out exactly the effect of the cousin particle, predicted by supersymmetry."

"Sheldon, you're making my brain hurt."

He shook his head at her. "Penny do try to keep up."

"Just tell me what it means, Sheldon!" she said getting annoyed, "so I can let Amy know what the hell is going on with you. Besides you being, bat crap crazy!"

He frowned at her. "It's a matter of physics, Penny. Amy is a boson. I'm a fermion"

She looked exasperated.

"The sum is zero," he said.

That she understood!

Feeling suddenly very depressed, she hunched back down in to the couch. "Oh Sheldon, you don't want me to tell Amy that do you?" she said.

"I don't want you to tell Amy anything. That was your idea." He said sharply.

"So all of her experiments were for nothing," she said in a defeated tone. "They didn't even work."

"Oh, they worked alright!" he said, grabbing the kettle.

"Huh?"

"As a result of her persistent attempts to awaken my darkest motives, I'm now stricken with an unrelenting fervor for carnal depravities," he said with a deeply depressed expression.

"You are?"

"Yes, several times a day."

Penny laughed, then quickly contained herself.

"Well that's great!" she said.

"Really?" he said, sarcastically.

"Sure it is. It's normal to have feelings, Sheldon. It just means you are ready now to move things forward."

"What a depressing thought." He snapped back.

"Sheldon, sit down."

He switched the kettle on and then went to sit down. She looked at him and said, "You're really come a long way, you know. After what happened the other night…" He looked away. "It's okay, you don't have to be embarrassed. I understand."

"You do?" he said turning towards her.

"Yes, I was very worried about you after Sunday. I was sure you would be a complete mess and that I'd have to call your mother but you have handled it so well," she said. "too well in fact" she said, eying him with suspicion.

"Why on earth would you think that? he said.

"Well, these feelings are new to you."

"I assure you they are not!' said Sheldon, standing up quickly. The kettle clicked and he walked towards it. "We all suffer the assaults from our appetent senses, Penny, but I chose to contain such libidinous appetites." He stopped to think. "At least I did, until Amy and her cockamamie experiments. Now I'm no better than Leonard," he said, shaking his head in dismay.

"Oh sweetie, you don't have to contain them."

"I don't?"

"No, it's unhealthy to bottle things up."

"I suppose it might be considered unhealthy, now they are raging like a deranged bear on steroids," he said, almost to himself. "Still… I must endure."

"No, you don't. It's okay to let them out."

He glanced up. "Do you have a proposal?" he asked.

"I do."

"I'm listening." Sheldon poured water into the cup and went to sit down.

"Instead of fighting your feelings, allow yourself to experience them."

He sat quietly mulling over what she had just said. Finally he replied, "That's very gracious of you Penny"

"It is?"

"Yes, but I'm sure Leonard would never give his approval."

"What has Leonard got to do with it?"

"Surely you must have considered his rampant jealousy. As generous as your offer is…"

"MY OFFER?!" Penny was struck dumb with shock. "I meant you and AMY!"

"Why would I have coitus with Amy?" he said confused.

"Because of your carnal… whatever they are's!" she raged.

"I don't have carnal desires for Amy, her experiments produced a discrepant event. Were you not listening, Penny?" he asked.

She leapt from the couch, panting wildly.

"Tea?" he said, offering up his cup with wide eyes.

"No, I don't want tea!" she shouted, as she made for the door.

"Or… coitus!"