Sequel to Recognition
Penny overhears Mindy say something.
For the next few days things are weird between all of them, apparently Leonard came clean to the guys as well. But then Leonard takes vacations and flies back home to New Jersey. He doesn't want to but he needs to, he tells her. His mom knows someone that can help him. She hopes that he can find the help he needs.
She's sure that he can do better. Be better.
And without Leonard there the group still finds a way to keep things 'normal'. Mindy's addition helps with that. And Penny doesn't voice this to anyone, but she can see how Sheldon is worried about Leonard, he just doesn't know how to express it.
Her Wackadoodle had a bigger heart than he'd ever admit. He even stopped worrying about the canceled Arctic thingy.
Howard tells them during Pizza night that Leslie and Leonard are giving it another try after he returns from New Jersey and Penny is happy for him. She's not sure how healthy it is to jump into a relationship after those revelations, but who is she to judge? Besides, he did admit to loving Leslie. That has to count for something.
And while the Leonard situation is something to think about, Penny's got her own bowl of weirdness to deal with.
Living with Mindy is great, more than great actually. Nothing like when they were younger, Penny is the messy one of the two, but not wanting to look bad in front of her baby sister makes her want to pick up after herself. That's not the weird part.
The weird part is how well Mindy fits in the group.
Howard gets hit with the "I didn't know you liked young girls. Do we need to notify the high schools around here?" and has been a perfect gentleman ever since. He still ogles Penny but as soon as Mindy is around he only has eyes for his shoes.
Raj and Mindy bond over Twilight and The Notebook. Penny comes home from the lunch shift to find the pair bawling on her couch, each has a blanket on their legs and a mess of snot and tears stained tissues on their laps while 'I'll be seeing you' plays loudly. Penny starts bawling too. Howard tries to tease Raj about his love for Twilight and Mindy jumps right in "Switch the genders and you have one of those weird Animes that you love." Penny doesn't understand what that means but it shuts Howard up and apparently gets him to read the books.
Sheldon is the one that surprises her the most. Her Moonpie has not complained once about Mindy's presence. It's…odd.
Penny hasn't decided if that's a good or a bad thing. On the one hand it gives Penny more free time, Mindy sometimes also gives Sheldon rides, Mindy sometimes works the shift when Sheldon goes to The Factory, Mindy sometimes joins Halo night. Which is great, Penny has time to go out dancing again, to try dating. But there's still something weird going on and it gives Penny heartburn because she's sure there's something she's missing.
Three weeks go by like this and then Leonard is back. He looks rough but the smile on his face is a good one, he joins the group again and one night after Halo he asks Penny and Mindy for a moment.
They get a long overdue apology about the way he treated them. It's not perfect, but it gets them to the starting line.
Later when they're alone, Mindy admits that Leonard looked genuine and Penny has to agree. Things are looking up.
Of course, because life has a sense of humor, that's when things take an even weirder turn.
Penny is tired and cranky, she had to work a double shift and was expecting Sheldon and the rest but they never showed up. A quick message to Raj and she's got more questions than answers. 'Ramona didnt let Sheldon go'
'Who the frak is Ramona?' Was all Penny could think, and why the hell was she deciding where Sheldon could go or not. She was initially looking forward to a long bath but after that message she thought it would be wiser to visit 4A first.
Penny is on the 3rd landing trudging up the stairs when she starts hearing the yelling. It's angry and fast, and more importantly, Penny recognizes one of the voices, Mindy.
Running up the rest of the way to her floor and the door to 4A is open wide. Penny doesn't even hesitate to go in but stops at the scene in front of her.
Sheldon is in his spot and looks frightened, which would be funny, except he looks honest to god scared. He looked frozen even. Mindy is standing in front of him, as if shielding him from the fuming redhead that looked like she wanted to slug Mindy.
"You are a distraction to Dr. Cooper!"
"Shut the fuck up. Sheldon and me are going out to have dinner and that's that."
"No! He needs to work!" Redhead takes a step forward and Penny is already preparing to serve a can of whoop-ass, because no redhead stringbean is going to threaten her sister.
"I told you to shut up. We're going to have dinner an-"
"Oh, I see now, I see how it is!" That girl had some pipes and she was gathering breath.
Mindy looks done, she was never one to slug it out behind the baseball field but Penny knew the girl could throw a punch, Penny taught her after all.
"You like Dr. Cooper and want to sleep with him!. You hussy! Well, he would never lower himself to be with someone like you!."
Penny could see Mindy recoil as if she had been slapped. 'That's it, time to go Junior Rodeo on Pippi Longstocking here'
"Well, we already fucked, so you're wrong!"
'What?' Penny felt funny, Mindy had just said something that made no sense. Her and Sheldon? No. Sheldon didn't have a deal, he didn't have any interest in the opposite sex. Poor Moonpie, his face must be a mess of tics and twitches.
Focusing on Sheldon so she can see his face, and there are no tics, no twitches. 'Huh'
She can hear the redhead shout something but Penny can't make out what it is, blood is rushing through her ears and she's trying to remember how to breathe. Her eyes feel like they're going to pop out of her face but try as she might, she can't close them, no, she's looking at her baby sister push and shove the redhead out of the apartment, the redhead is crying and all the fight seems to have left her.
Sudden pain in her hands and Penny takes the breath that had escaped her, she was clenching her hands so hard that it hurt a little. 'Okay Penny, breathe, there must be a mistake here.'
And it's not until she takes a couple of breaths that she's able to hear again, Mindy is reassuring Sheldon. She's sitting on the coffee table and her hands are barely touching his knees. He's not flinching away. 'Oh'
"I'll go get you something for dinner Sheldon. Your usual BBQ burger is fine?" Mindy sounds so concerned and Penny has the sudden urge to slap her in the back of the head like when they were kids and sitting on the couch watching TV without paying attention to their surroundings.
Sheldon finally seems to restart at the dinner offer "Barbecue Bacon Cheeseburger with the barbecue sauce, bacon and cheese served on the side. Please."
"I know Sheldon. Be right back, and don't worry about Ramona. She's not coming back."
"Oh…good. I fear she was becoming far too intense for my taste."
'So you have a taste now Moonpie? Did you also taste my sister you moth-'
"Yeah, bitch was crazy. I'll be right back." And Mindy finally notices Penny. "Oh, you're here Pen."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm here. What did I miss?" Penny wants to cringe, her voice is high and frantic.
"O-kay" Mindy dragged the word out, unsure on why Penny was acting this way. "I'll fill you in later, for now I gotta get Sheldon something to eat, he hasn't eat since morning, all thanks to this stalker, tha-you know what, it can wait. Be right back." And off she goes.
Leaving her alone with Sheldon. Penny runs back to her apartment.
She's still feeling weird, oddly light headed and with a clenched stomach. She also feels tears threatening to spill and is not sure why. That night she goes to bed without returning to 4A or talking to Mindy.
For the next few days she's avoiding both Sheldon and her sister. She's not completely sure why. Until one night she can't avoid Mindy any longer, they both have the night off but it's not an accident, Mindy changed one of her shifts and Penny didn't realize.
"Okay Pen, what's got your panties in a bunch?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." Penny is pretending to be painting her toes.
"Yeah right. You've been avoiding me, so, c'mon, spill, we literally have all night." Penny hated that Mindy perfected their mom's tone of 'I'm not joking young lady.'
"Look Min-"
"If you say it's nothing then I'll go and sleep with the first guy that walks by the lobby" Penny can see that Mindy is trying to keep things light, this is a joke, her voice is teasing. But for Penny it only brings back memories of that night when Mindy confessed sleeping with Sheldon.
And Penny tries, she really does try to not say it, but she can't help herself, "Like you slept with Sheldon?" Penny can't even look up from her toes, she's embarrassed. Her voice was soft and hurt and Penny hated it.
"Pen…What the fuck are you talking about." Mindy sounds exasperated, like Penny just said the stupidest thing in the world.
And that makes Penny mad.
"What I'm talking about? What I'm talking about?!" She finally looks up from her feet to glare at her baby sister, "I heard you!"
"When?!" Mindy is also raising her voice.
"The night that redhead girl was in 4A trying to make Sheldon work!"
"Oh!" Mindy doesn't even look embarrassed, just confused.
"Oh? Just oh?"
"Pen, I love you but you're a dumbass."
Penny could only stare in disbelief at her baby sister.
"I was lying, you idiot!"
"Wha-no, but Sheldon. He wasn't twitching!"
"Wow, no wonder you haven't picked up on the fact that Sheldon likes you. You're fucking blind."
"Hey! Since when you curse so much?"
"You're right, sorry." Mindy drags a hand across her face in frustration. "Look, the point here is the following. I didn't sleep with Sheldon. I don't want to sleep with Sheldon. I like girls Penny."
"Oh…"
"Yeah, oh."
"Wait, you like girls? Why didn't you tell me?" The hurt was back in Penny's voice.
"I wasn't ready, until you decided to be all dumb and emo. You honestly never noticed that Sheldon likes you?"
"He does?" And Penny hates the hope that creeps out in that question.
"Yeah, he does. I was teasing you a little, you know, trying to get you to act. And see where that got us."
"Oh…"
"I mean, it's not all your fault. Sheldon needs to get his big boy pants on and just ask you out, but you know how he is."
"Yeah, I know."
"So…we good?"
"We good…but wait, why wasn't Sheldon twitching that night?"
"Sheldon frozen-in-fear Cooper wasn't moving? Who could have guessed?"
"…Sarcasm?" Penny tried to fight the smile. She failed.
"Just get your ass across the hall and deal with this before we all grow old and wrinkly."
"Wow, someone's touchy."
"Someone had to give up a shift tonight to deal with their dumbass big sister, so yes, touchy."
Penny gave her baby sister a hug.
"Hey, I'm here for you. Do mom and dad know?"
"That you like Sheldon? Yeah, I told them."
"You told the-no, you know what I mean."
"No. I'm not ready yet."
"Okay. I love you brat."
"Love you too Pen."
Penny was feeling much better now. She knew that she had a bad habit of jumping to conclusions and was trying to curb that habit of hers, but man, she needed to do better.
She now had a Wackadoodle to deal with. And as she prepared to walk into 4A she wondered if maybe Sheldon and her were dumbasses, it would explain so much.
'Okay, no more misunderstandings Moonpie. Time to come clean."