Hey everyone! I wasn't expecting to get past 400 so quickly! I am so excited about this story. Here is another short Shenny filled chapter. More soon!

After escaping Howard's car at the apartment Sheldon was thoroughly drained. It was nearly 7 pm, the sun had gone down and his schedule was obliterated beyond recognition. The ramifications of his and Penny's rendezvous had never occurred to him. He was convinced he needed to talk to her immediately and chalk everything up to a one time lapse in judgment. There was no way that he could deal with this type of interference on a long term basis.

As he climbed the stairs and thought of what to say images of her surfaced in his mind. It had been happening all day. He unlocked the door lost in the thoughts and images of Penny beneath him. As though summoned there Penny stood in the center of the living room, though she was wearing her own clothes this time. She paused, a stack of Sheldon's magazines in her hands.

He looked around. The entire living room seemed to have returned to his specifications.

"Have you been cleaning?"

Penny put the magazines down and wiped her hands against her jeans. "Yea, I wanted to get done before you got home."

She gave him a small smile as he put his keys in the dish absentmindedly. Sheldon was looking at her as though she had told him she just got her PhD.

Penny went on. "I also washed your bed things and the shirt I borrowed. I've seen you do laundry enough times to know what to do."

Sheldon still just stood there. It was making her even more nervous. After Bernadette had dropped her off her plan was to clean the apartment and leave before he got home. If he wanted to talk to her he could come knock on her door. Instead, she lingered, hoping to run into him.

Now that he stood across from her though she realized her mistake. Maybe he regretted everything after all in spite of the fact that he'd asked her to stay.

Why do you even care? She asked herself.

"Well, I'll just go then, I know you probably had a long day," she said, moving to leave.

Surprisingly, Sheldon side stepped just as she was about to pass him. Penny nearly toppled, but put her hands on his chest to steady herself. Almost instantaneously, her body temperature rose. It was unnerving the way he made her feel like a teenager.

"Why don't I buy dinner?" He said, interrupting Penny's thoughts. "I know your refrigerator is probably empty…" his words trailed off but he didn't need to finish.

"Yea, I'm even out of pot pies," She admitted reluctantly. He still stood surveying her and it unnerved her.

"Okay. Penny?"

"Yea?"

"Am I a rebound?"

Oh, good lord. The word had bounced around a couple of times at lunch with Bernadette. She wasn't sure what had happened over the last few weeks, but it definitely wasn't definable by any normal terms.

"No, sweetie. Your my friend and…" I care about you. The words stuck on her tongue as her green eyes found his blue. A buzzing started in her head as the words echoed inside. She was afraid of what was happening here. This wasn't at all what she had signed up for. The buzzing continued and she realized it wasn't her head it was Sheldon's hip.

He seemed to come back to reality at the same time. His hand wrestled into his pocket for his phone. Looking at the screen his eyebrows shot up into shock.

"Dear Lord, it's my mother."

"Well answer it," Penny said glad for the distraction.

"I can't she'll know," he replied swallowing noticeably.

"That's ridiculous, no she won't."

He gave her the blatant, 'really? you choose to question my logic?' look. Penny was tempted to roll her eyes but she didn't. Instead she held out her palm.

"Then let me talk to her, she won't be able to tell with me."

Sheldon held the phone further away from Penny. "Absolutely not, you answering my phone would be even more telling!"

Penny just cocked her head to the side studying the Sheldon she thought she knew transform into a man who was completely out of his element. A smile tugged on the corner of her lips as she felt the anxiety from earlier be replaced by something close to elation. She may not be a genius like Sheldon, but she could handle this.

"Fine. Just let it go to voicemail," Penny assured looking smug.

She saw the apprehension on his face as he tucked his phone away carefully. There was silence as his phone stopped ringing.

"Good, okay, now we can talk," but Sheldon's sentence was cut short as Penny's phone began ringing.

Grinning, Penny pulled her phone out and answered it turning away from Sheldon.

"Hi, Mary!" she said cheerfully into the phone.

"Hi, Penny!" came Mary's equally happy reply. "You wouldn't happen to know where Sheldon is would you?"

Sheldon followed Penny, shocked indignation on his face as he moved into her way moving his hands into an x and out again, a clear 'no'.

"Yea! He's here," Penny replied looking him straight in the eye. "He was just about to order us dinner."

He gave her a look she was sure was supposed to be scathing, but came off more fearful than anything. She moved past him to get comfortable on his couch.

"Oh, how wonderful!" Mary sounded like Christmas had come early. "Then I won't keep you two, but I was just wondering if Sheldon remembered to ask you to join us for Fourth of July next weekend."

"Why no he didn't," she made sure she was the visage of mock hurt as she looked at Sheldon, covering her heart with her hand and giving him a small pout. Penny watched him trying to piece together what was being said with only one side of the conversation.

"Well, I'm sure it just slipped his mind. It's always so much fun, there is food, dancing and of course loads of explosives. Shelly usually loves that last part."

Penny tried to imagine Sheldon lighting off fireworks with his family and just couldn't get the image to form. Especially because he was pacing in front of her with his hands behind his back, looking like he was plotting revenge. She told herself this is why she said "I'd love to join you!"

"Well then, I'll make sure to let everyone know," Mary said. The word everyone made Penny feel wary, but the commitment was made. "You two have fun now!"

With that Penny said her goodbyes and looked up at Sheldon. He had stopped pacing and now stood in front of her raising a brow.

"So I take it you've conspired with my mother to force me to participate in Independence Day activities?"

Penny rolled her eyes as she pulled her knees up against her chest, "Yes, we are forcing you to eat good food and enjoy your family's company."

"Though I detect sarcasm in your voice, I assure you it will be extremely rowdy and a complete waste of what would otherwise be a quiet weekend. Nearly my entire family will be there."

As he described the weekend Penny began to realize what she had signed up for. By some lapse of sanity she had forgotten all that had transpired and agreed to spend a weekend in Texas.

Before the reality of what she'd done could set in Sheldon took out his phone. "I'm ordering Thai food. What do you want?

"Yellow curry," she murmured and Sheldon rang in mindlessly, his brain focused instead on the conversation that had just taken place. As far as social conventions went, any previous experiences could offer no guidance here.

How did one act around a friend who was more than a friend, but not quite more than a friend, around family and other long-term relations. It threw another cog in his perfectly illustrated way of life. He was about to tell her such as he hung up the phone, but as he turned his eyes caught on her jean clad legs, pulled up to her chin, her long tresses falling across her arms that cradled her he began taking notes. Her eyes gazed into the distance and she looked – what? Fragile? He had no experience with psychology and no way to tell what she was actually feeling, but a new emotion (oh, god he was experiencing FAR too many of those) began to form. It was identical to the way he meticulously kept his things in order for fear they might get damaged. He felt the same way now towards Penny.

She caught him looking and a silence stretched out with things they should probably say to one another. Instead, Sheldon moved to the armchair and sat down.

Penny stared at him for one stretch, two, and then her eyes widen to the size of saucers.

"What?" he heard himself ask, looking on his Shoulders for a spider or maybe a splash of ink.

Penny shook her head and straightened, removing her legs from the couch and sitting slightly facing him.

Sheldon searched again, eyeing his shirt, the armrests, even touching his face.

"You just sat in a different spot."

Sheldon looked down and found that he had indeed sat in a different spot, but it was of such little consequence the fact that she had noticed was incredible to him.

"So?" he said.

"So?" Penny replied sounding shocked. "Sheldon you have temporarily evicted people for sitting in your spot. At the very least, you stand there awkwardly until someone moves, but now, you just accept it like its normal…"

Sheldon felt exhausted. This creature he had only a second ago deemed fragile was proving to be quite capable of turning on him in a seconds notice. His irritation piqued, though he tried to stay calm.

"We just engaged in coitus and this is what redeems me as 'capable of change?'"

"No, I just, I thought," she searched for a rebuttal. "You're so robotic – all the time – I didn't think you were capable of – of-"

The word robotic stung. He'd heard it so many times in his life he should be used to it, but it irked him, but he pressed on "Of performing the act of coitus?"

"Don't call it that," Penny said closing her eyes as though the word offended her, she stood crossing the room in apparent distress. Good, now we're both offended, he thought derisively.

"Are we arguing over terminology? Really? After everything that occurred the term is what you have a problem with?" Of their own volition his legs carried him to where she stood.

"It just sounds so vulgar when you call it that!" She turned to face him and stumbled backwards against his desk. She seemed surprised to find him towering over her, but not as surprised as he was at what he was doing.

"What should I call it?"

"I don't know," she said watching him.

"Intercourse?"

"No."

"Copulation?"

"No!"

"How about just plain sex then?" He was inches from her now. He watched her eyes following him, her breath coming faster than normal.

"That sounds just as vulgar," she murmured.

"Well it is vulgar, and raunchy and unsanitary, but do you know what?"

"W-what?" He noticed her parting lips, wide eyes and hands grasping the edge of the desk. It gave him a strange pulse of satisfaction that he elicited such a response when so often he saw men with far less intellect attempt to do the same. He heard the word impossible echo in his head from earlier and made his decision.

"I liked it." The sentence was final like a book slamming and he pulled her against him so swiftly that he felt the air leave her in a gasp before his lips locked onto hers.

The world tilted on its axis - or maybe just her head as Sheldon parted her lips easily. Penny lifted her hands from the desk to clench his shirt, but his weight caused her to stumble back again. She knew she should be feeling guilty for what she said, but words would not form completely in her mind, she only caught things like 'what' and 'how' and then over and over a 'yes' as he deepened the kiss.

Any doubt that she had been wanting this all day vanished. She admitted to herself that she had no idea what she was doing, but that meant she was in her element. Her hands snaked up around his neck and she felt his wander down over her hips and legs. Penny couldn't remember the last time she'd experienced such raw emotions and she wanted him to know that to, but then the world shifted again falling away as she was lifted off her feet.

"Sheldon!" His name was a half gasp as she was perched onto his desk. His hands grasped her thighs and he moved in between her legs.

"I'm sorry, but this accommodates our height difference better." It would have been strictly matter-of-fact if she didn't see his hooded eyes before he closed the distance again.

Yup, he was going to make her go brain dead trying to figure him out.

A little voice in the back of her mind started to nag at her, drawing her away from the feel of lips and hands. She pushed it back letting her own hands wander under the back of his shirts. His lips dipped down to her neck and the voice came again. She opened her eyes, seeing but not seeing the open door. Then all at once her eyes focused in on what she was seeing. She pushed Sheldon away quickly clearing her throat and adjusting herself.

"Hi, Raj," She said sweetly, bracing herself for the questions that were sure to follow.