Title: Penny and Sheldon Get Married, Chapter Three
Author: happy_overdose
Summary: Penny and Sheldon arrange a marriage to impress Sheldon's investors, and build a life together. Futurefic
Penny opened the door for Howard and Bernadette, smiling, “Hey you guys!”
“Penny, I don’t wanna alarm you, but a lady and a little boy just went into your apartment,” Bernadette said, jerking her thumb in the direction of 4B.
“And they had a key,” Howard told her, “How did they get your key?”
“Oh, I don’t live over there anymore,” Penny said nonchalantly, “Come on in. Sit down. The others will be here soon.”
Bernadette and Howard exchanged looks as Penny gently nudged them towards the table.
“Penny where is the ...document?” Sheldon called from his room.
“Um...check the bedside table in my room,” she told him, going to the kitchen, skirting around the caterer and her assistant and grabbing the wine from the fridge, “You guys want a little Merlot?”
“You live here now?” Bernadette sounded surprised. Penny didn’t think that was an answer to her question, but she poured some wine into a glass and handed it to Bernadette anyway.
Sheldon emerged from the hallway, “Penny, you really should refrain from moving it around.”
“Sorry,” she had been looking at her wedding certificate all evening as they waited for their guests.
“Hey, Sheldon,” Bernadette smiled, “You look nice.”
“Thank you, Bernadette. I must agree, even if Penny did have to force me into this particular ensemble. Look! Green Lantern!”
“Cool!” Howard said, intrigued by the way the cufflinks shone in the light. Penny served herself some wine, hoping the rest of the guests were hurrying the hell up.
There was another knock, and Penny opened it again.
“I’ve got it!” Neya shouted as soon as the door opened, “You’ve started acting again!”
“No Neya, I haven’t,” Penny shook her head at her. She had been guessing all week long.
“Stop guessing, Neya! They’ll tell us when they’re ready!” Raj sounded at his wit’s end. He and Neya drove each other crazy half the time, but they were totally in love. He gave Penny a hug and went to sit at the table beside Howard.
“But I’m so excited,” Neya hopped up and down so much her earrings rang like bells, “I bet they won a vacation and we’re all invited!”
“Neya, your guesses are woefully inaccurate,” Sheldon told her, “and seem to be more rooted in a fantasy than anything.”
“Well, I work in showbiz, I can’t help it,” Neya thrust her chin in the air and sat beside her husband.
“So we’re only waiting on the happy newlyweds, huh?” Howard said.
“Them and my sister Missy,” Sheldon informed them, “I invited her and Dave to join us.”
“Wow. This news is gonna be huge,” said Raj, sounding just as excited as Neya now.
“Not that huge,” Penny insisted.
There was another knock, but this time the door flew open before Penny could get to it.
“Are you dying?” Missy Cooper-McKenzie stalked over to her brother, ignoring everyone else, “Because if you’re dying, I’m gonna punch you for making me wait a week to tell me!”
“I am in no way ailing, Missy,” Sheldon assured his sister, “Where is Dave?”
“He couldn’t make it. Sheldon whatever it is, it can’t possibly take a week to say! You got Mama worried and...”
“Hey guys,” Leonard said from the door. He was holding Anna’s hand and they were both beaming.
There was a mad scramble as everyone went to hug them and welcome them home. There was a lot of happy chatter as they all moved back to the table.
“Now if we can all sit,” Penny took the last seat available beside Missy as the caterer got ready to serve, “we can eat.”
“Then you’ll tell us what is going on?” Neya asked.
“Absolutely,” Penny assured her.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
“Okay,” Bernadette picked up her dessert fork and held it over her slice of apple pie, “I demand to hear what the heck is going on before I take another bite of food.”
“Me too,” Neya and Missy said in unison.
“I gotta admit, dude, it sounds heavy,” Raj said to Sheldon.
“What’s been going on while we were gone?” Anna asked, “It sounds like you guys have held everyone captive.”
Penny sighed and stood up. So did Sheldon. He reached out and took her hand and she steeled herself for what would come next.
Sheldon had decided from earlier that day that he would be the one to tell everyone. But when several seconds had passed in silence. Penny looked up at him and saw he had frozen solid like a nerd popsicle.
She sighed, decided to just jump in at the deep end, “We got married, okay? We’re married. That was the big secret. Now you know.”
The room was silent a few more seconds, then Leonard said, “What?”
“Oh my God!” Anna shouted.
Bernadette’s fork fell on her plate.
“Dude!” Raj exclaimed. Neya’s jaw fell open.
Howard’s look of surprise had a hint of humor in it.
Missy jumped up and hugged her brother.
“Shelly that’s wonderful!”
Sheldon made choking noises as she crushed his windpipe with her neck.
“How?” Leonard asked.
Sheldon, who had unfrozen fully now, answered that, “We went to the courthouse and a judge agreed to marry us.”
“Why?” Leonard asked.
“Well, you see, that’s the complicated part,” Penny could hardly speak because Missy was holding her in a spine-crushing hug.
“I don’t believe you,” said Bernadette, shaking her head, “I flat-out refuse to believe you.”
Penny went for the marriage certificate and gave it to Bernadette, “There’s the proof.”
“Oh my God,” Anna said again, staring at the paper.
“I didn’t even know you two were dating,” said Neya.
“We were not,” said Sheldon, “You see it was a part of my plan to appear more favourable to the Kikoshi investors...”
Nobody was listening.
“Wait a minute!” said Howard, “This is dated two weeks ago!”
“What?” Raj’s eyes were big as saucers, “You two have been married two whole weeks!”
“Let me see that!” Leonard took the certificate and scanned it, “This is the same day as our wedding!”
“What?” Neya sprang up to look over Leonard’s shoulder.
“Holy crap!” Anna exclaimed, “You’re right!”
“They went off to get married?” Bernadette said in disbelief.
Seven pairs of eyes turn to Sheldon and Penny, every one of them full of suspicion. They stood there, hands wound together by the fingers.
“So,” Penny cut the tension with a gigantic smile, “Pie anyone? It’s really good.”
“Are you pregnant?” Leonard asked.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
“Can you say disaster?” Penny groaned, flopping onto the couch, having just moved it back into place.
“It wasn’t so bad, Mrs. Cooper,” said the caterer’s assistant, who had helped her, “I’ve seen way worse. At least no one hit you.”
Penny glared at him.
He laughed nervously, “I...I’m gonna go now.”
When he closed the door behind him, Penny groaned again, “We shouldn’t have told them. We should have gone on like nothing was going on. They all secretly hate us or something now.”
“But they all admitted to being happy for us, Penny,” Sheldon told her, “Though if they had allowed me to explain the reason behind us getting married, many of their suspicions and misconceptions would have been cleared up.”
“Or if you explained one of the reasons,” Penny muttered between her fingers. Her hands were covering her face.
“There is only one reason,” Sheldon insisted.
Penny took her hands down, “You didn’t just jump up out of that reception and rush off to marry me because you wanted to impress the Kikoshi people, Sheldon.”
He pushed up his sleeves and turned to her, “What other reason would I have, Penny?”
She felt the annoyance bubble up. He knew what other reason. He had to know! There was no way he could think that the two of them making that split second decision was in any way smart or practical or sane. The Kikoshi thing was a justification. There was something deeper, much more complex, going on here.
“Sweetie,” she turned to him, putting a hand on his exposed arm, “You don’t think that maybe both of us rushing into this means there is another reason other than the Kikoshi deal why we’re married?”
She saw it. The tiny and swift change in his expression that she knew meant that he knew she was right. But as soon as it came it was gone, and a confused and naive frown took it’s place.
“No, Penny. I do not believe so.”
She released the breath she was holding. So Sheldon was taking the oblivious route. This was nothing new. She decided to drop it. For now.
“Whatever. Night,” she leaned forward and kissed him, “I’m going to bed.”
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Penny was in bed, reading by lamplight, when Sheldon knocked on the wall separating their rooms the way he always knocked on her door when she lived in 4B.
“Yes Sheldon?” she answered, trying to mask the annoyance in her voice and failing.
“What other reason would I have had for marrying you?” he asked.
Penny folded her arms, trying squash her annoyance.
“I ask because I have had a difficult time understanding all my actions that day. I fully comprehend the need that I had to appease the investors. But I gave no thought to...”
“Dammit,” Penny cursed under her breath. After all these years, after all the growing up she had seen Sheldon undergo, she had forgotten that deep inside he was still very vulnerable, and he still found feelings and other things she was so used to, difficult to comprehend. She stuck her bookmark into her copy of The Secret Garden, threw off her sheets and padded to his room.
She opened the door and walked into the room, which had always reminded her of a well-preserved museum. It was basically unchanged, except for the sheets. Having finally grown out Star Wars sheets a few years ago, Sheldon’s bed now sported striped sheets of various shades of blue. He gave her a confused look, as if about to tell she couldn’t be there. But it had been established long ago that she was allowed in his room, but everyone else had to ask permission.
“Honey,” she sat at the foot of his bed, her sleep shirt falling away from her thigh as she pulled her knee up, “What happened that day was...impulsive. I know that’s not really your area. But it kinda proves that even on a subliminal level we kinda like each other.”
“Of course we like each other, Penny. You along with Leonard are my best friends.”
Penny rolled her eyes, stretched across to capture his hand, “Honey, I didn’t mean that way, I meant in a romantic way.”
He looked at her like she had appeared out of thin air.
“I don’t think so, Penny. I believe that whatever I feel for you is strictly platonic.”
Penny had to thank Mrs. James for leaving her the store, because being around those books all day had definitely grown her vocabulary, “Yeah, I doubt that.”
“How are you so certain?” Sheldon asked her.
Penny rolled her eye, leaned forward, “Because of this.”
She touched her lips to her husband’s, counted the seconds before he reacted- two- and sunk into the sensations. His hands twitched as he placed them on her hips. Penny smiled against his lips, happy in the fact that she was right.
When they pulled away, the smile was still there.
Sheldon shrugged, “Well that hardly proves anything.”
She forgot to be angry. Getting up, she pressed her lips to his forehead.
“Goodnight, sweetie,” she sang, then walked out of the room.