Sequel to Dreamwalking
Sheldon woke up at his usual time feeling more rested than usual.
Even more strange, he could recall his dream perfectly. But none of the usual doubt crept in, no questions of whether he was good enough or not. Just a wonderful dream of him winning the Nobel Prize.
He had heard rumors that living close to a Somnia would make your sleep better, he had dismissed these rumors as hogwash but perhaps he needed to reevaluate his stance.
For some silly reason Penny had allowed Sheldon and Leonard to try and recover her stuff back from Kurt.
It didn't go well.
But at least it gave her the motivation to finally get off her ass and go herself, she threatened Kurt and he begged for another chance but the half-Orc never used force which is what she had been afraid of, those last 6 months of the relationship had been rough.
She even managed to get back the pants that the boys lost on that first visit.
Penny was able to set up the TV easily but the warding array took most of the afternoon and night and it still wasn't ready by midnight. She had an early shift and couldn't fiddle around for much longer trying to cover every square inch of her new home.
Once again she made sure to lock the door, bolt it and set a chair in front of it.
Sleep always came easy to her, she just had to close her eyes and an entire universe of bright dreams unfolded in front of her.
This time she moved a little more confidently towards the two bright bonfires.
Leonard's dream was what she expected after the day's events. The dream version of him was tall, muscular and knew how to fight. Dream Leonard beat up Kurt and swooned Dream-Penny off her feet. Chuckling she closed the dream again and turned to the supernova that was Sheldon's dream.
Would he dream of something similar?
Her hand is warm for an instant as she opens a window into Sheldon's dream and…it's not what she expected.
In the dream Sheldon is a boy and he was being tormented by 3 other boys. Sheldon was taller than his tormentors but he didn't respond to the jeers or the shoves. He just kept walking along a creek and to what Penny hoped was safety.
"Neeeeerd!" The voice of one of the bullies was crisp and clear in its cruelty as he shoved Sheldon with enough force to make him drop to his knees.
Penny stepped into the dream without a second thought. She looked around for shadows and darkness but found none and she frowned in confusion.
Sheldon stood up and kept walking, ignoring his tormentors, but this only seemed to make the boys angrier.
Penny wanted to intervene, to do something but somehow, this wasn't a nightmare. She frowned at the dream itself, just like last night, Sheldon's dream was vast and detailed but…perhaps a little too detailed. She kneeled down and touched the blades of grass at her feet, it felt real.
Sheldon's gasp forces her to stop inspecting the grass, by the time she has looked up, Sheldon somehow is in the creek now. He's in no physical danger, it's shallow enough that he's sitting with his knees poking out of the muddy water.
Cruel and childish laughter fill the dream, and it makes Penny want to kick Sheldon's bullies.
"There they are, go Georgie!" A girl's voice interrupts the laughter.
An older boy is sprinting towards the laughing trio who notice and start running away. The older boy passes by Sheldon but doesn't spare him a glance as he chases after the boys. The girl, who looks to be around the same age as Sheldon runs to his side and does her best to pull him out of the water.
"Shelly! Why the hell won't you fight back?!" Pure annoyance in her voice but Penny can hear the concern as well.
Sheldon turns a lost look on her and Penny wants to cry.
"Missy. Mother has always told me to not hit people that are smaller than me." No emotion in his voice.
The girl, Missy, lets out a breath and she opens and closes her mouth without any words coming out. After a moment with pure venom she spits out. "Mom doesn't know shit!"
Sheldon's eyes widen before he looks around, as if his mother would suddenly materialize out of thin air. "Missy!" He hisses in consternation.
"Whatever, let's go home." Missy starts walking and doesn't look back to see if Sheldon is following her.
Sheldon looks back at where the bullies ran, as if looking for something.
But after a long moment he starts following Missy.
Penny stays put and waits for the shift, waits for the dream to change to the new location. But it doesn't. Confused, she starts following Sheldon, keeping an eye out for any signs of a nightmare.
It never comes.
She walks behind Sheldon and with each step a feeling of dread starts growing inside her. She didn't want to accept that this wasn't a nightmare, because…
That would mean it was a memory.
Holy crap on a cracker.
Life continues to move forward. Soon Penny learns why Sheldon's dream was so detailed. His eidetic memory is both a blessing and a curse.
No wonder his dreams are so vast and detailed.
Penny finishes setting up her array and soon life in Los Robles echoes the multiverse. Prank wars, Halo night, Laundry night and Penny learning about Sheldon being called Moonpie.
Once every two months or so, Penny liked visiting Sheldon's dreams.
It was nice to be able to walk in such detailed dreams. She could now easily say that Sheldon was a Dreamer. No matter what his friends thought, Sheldon Cooper dreamed big.
That's why Penny was confused one night when she couldn't find Sheldon's dream. She was so confused that she forced herself awake, sat up in bed and frowned at her wall. Grabbing the spare key to 4A and making her way in, she almost shrieked as a tall pale figure loomed in the middle of the room but it took her brain a moment to recognize it as Sheldon.
"Hey Sheldon, everything okay?" He was expressionlessly staring at a whiteboard and did not react to her question. "Honey?"
Finally he reacted, taking a deep breath as if he had just come out from diving the deep end of the pool.
"Oh, Penny. Wait…Penny?" Sheldon looked around at the darkened room and then back at her. "What time is it? What are you doing here?"
"Oh, you know, emergency milk run. Having trouble sleeping so I thought some warm milk would help." She lied.
Sheldon frowned at her and then at himself, he was still wearing his regular clothes and no pajamas.
"I will overlook this infraction if you also prepare me a glass of warm milk, I fear that my schedule has been affected beyond any repair."
Penny nodded at him and Sheldon moved to his room where she suspected he would change into his sleeping clothes. In the meantime she went to the cupboard where she knew his little pan exclusively for milk was so she could prepare 2 glasses of warm milk.
Soon Sheldon returned and she found out that the reason for his lack of sleep was because Sheldon was stuck, for lack of a better word. One of his formula thingies didn't make sense to him and he was trying to figure it out.
Penny sat on her spot on the couch as Sheldon monologued and lectured her on physics.
Spending the night with Sheldon like this while not in her plans, certainly wasn't unwelcome. In this apartment it felt like the entire world only consisted of them.
Penny laid down her head on his spot and Sheldon narrowed his eyes at her but didn't ask her to move which made her smile.
This is why she loved Sheldon.
As the realization comes, her eyes widen.
'Motherfuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu…'
This is it for now.
Inspiration ran dry for this Universe.
I'll try to recover this weekend so I can write more either for this or the previous Universe.