The Comic-Con Hypothesis (Part 1); The Big Bang Theory; Penny/Sheldon; PG-13
Title: The Comic-Con Hypothesis
Pairing(s): Penny/Sheldon with a side of Howard/Raj, Leonard/Stephanie and Leonard/Penny.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Other than the over abundance of nerd? Nothing.
Summary: Penny and the guys are going to Comic-Con 2014. There are costumes themed days (Batman, X-Men, DC Characters & Watchmen), panels with the best and newest news on upcoming TV shows, movies and comic books, and the show room with hours of shopping and walking to be had. Everything the five of them love, but when Penny breaks up with Leonard on the trip there, tensions are high and she ends up being Sheldon's Comic-Con buddy.
Author's Note: This post is coming to you in a few parts because I'm awesome. Links at the bottom and top. This was for bigbangbigbang and is my first The Big Bang Theory fanfic.
Enjoy!
The Comic-Con Hypothesis
Prelude
“It’s Anything Can Happen Thursday. It only comes along once a month. Why can’t we enjoy it?” Howard said as he grabbed a plate of breakfast-for-dinner that Penny had made for the very special night. Penny said nothing, Raj said nothing, and Leonard said nothing. It looked, however, as though Sheldon was winding up to say something, although in the realm of possibilities that “something” could have been anything. They were all worried anyway. He leaned forward, looked around the room for a split second before leaning back into his spot and said nothing. They were all amazed.
“So…is that a yes? Can we enjoy it and mix it up?” Raj leaned over and whispered something into Howard’s ear, much to Howard’s delight. Penny laughed. They were ridiculous. She looked up at her boyfriend in the chair that he had stolen from her. Yeah. Anything Can Happen Thursday sucked sometimes. She sighed before forking a bit of cheese-covered eggs into her mouth.
Sometimes it sucked big time, but next month’s Anything Can Happen Thursday was during the San Diego International Comic Convention. She was excited. She was excited to see what the guys came up with for next month. What their Comic-Con costumes could look like, how they would act, what they’d eat in San Diego, if they’d be able to bring Sheldon out on a bar crawl after Comic-Con stopped for the night. There were so many possibilities.
She looked back to her plate of food. It was tasty if she did say so herself. She was quite pleased with the way it had turned out. The guys were happy too, it seemed. Sort of. She looked over at Sheldon. He looked like he was going to go into cardiac arrest at the very thought of eating anything but the normal for dinner on a Thursday. She laughed and he cocked an eye at her before smiling slightly. He was finally starting to get it, after so many years. It was an Anything Can Happen Thursday miracle!
One
Leonard was rolling over in their bed, while Penny was putting on her Wonder Woman t-shirt and jeans for work. The Cheesecake Factory was a thing of the past. She quite enjoyed her new job - well, she’d had it for over a year now, so it wasn’t that new - at the comic book store. Stuart was one of the best bosses she had ever had. Plus being the “hot chick” at the comic book shop did have its advantages. Besides, the guys loved it and it made for a fun Wednesday every week.
For once in her life, she was ahead of someone with knowledge. She always knew when a comic book was coming out before the guys even thought about it. She knew when Stan Lee was starting a new project, or when a new action figure was coming out. She was finally able to give her opinions on the world that the guys lived in with knowledge that she knew what she was talking about and wouldn’t be berated for lack of knowledge. Sheldon still occasionally berated, of course, but she realized a long time ago that that was just the way he was. He was getting better, though, to her amazement. He thought, more often than not, before he said anything and often voiced his apologies if she said something to him.
When she got to work she opened the shop like she normally did. Captain Sweatpants was the first one in, wearing a Captain America shirt tucked into those godawful sweatpants. He commented on her Wonder Woman shirt and smiled before looked around, as though he’d find something new that wasn’t there at closing the previous day. She sighed and waiting until Stuart came in to call in the orders for the next day. Wednesday. New comic book day. The guys were excited about the newest issue of Wonder Woman and for the first issue of the newest series of The Green Lantern.
Penny couldn’t lie, though, because she was excited for those two issues as well. It had taken over two years and lots of goading from the guys, but Penny had finally, and without telling a single one of them, started reading the comic books that they had based the majority of their lives upon. She smiled at the thought and handed the keys over to Stuart as she walked out to take her lunch break.
When she got to her apartment at five o’clock that night, Leonard wasn’t home. Sheldon was, however, so she immediately turned around and headed back across the hall to her apartment. After all these years she still loved having her own apartment. Being alone sometimes was important, and it was something she knew she would never have if she moved in with Leonard like he had asked every six months for the last three years. She took off her shirt, her plain white bra standing out against her tan skin, and threw it in the direction of her room before walking over to the island and grabbing her mail from the last couple of days. She stuffed the three envelops into the back pocket of her jeans and started to walk towards the refrigerator. She picked out a water bottle, one of the only items that was still in her house, and walked to her bedroom, picking up the shirt and placing it properly in the basket while she went.
She sighed. She knew she didn’t have to do it that way. She could have just taken off her shirt once she was actually in her room, but she wanted to do it the hard way. Just because she could. No Leonard or Sheldon to tell her that such and such way was far better and more energy saving for her to do. Nope. Just her, all by her lonesome, doing things the way she wanted to do them. It was almost perfection. Almost.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
“Penny?”
Penny looked at the door and dreaded the moment she met Sheldon for just a moment before turning on the water for her shower and grabbing a towel.
When she reached the door, she stopped to situate herself first before opening said door. The too tall theoretical physicist standing with his arms behind his back, his red The Flash shirt on with the a new pair of plaid pants on. She wasn’t sure why she noticed that the pants were new, however.
“Yes, Sheldon?” She smiled at him for a moment as his face turned bright red after he had taken a moment to look at her current state of undress. She wanted to laugh, but refrained. She was already overstepping her bounds on their friendship.
Sheldon coughed before pulling a few bits of paper from behind his back. Mail. They’d gotten her mail again. He held them out wordlessly and averted his eyes while she reached for them.
“Thank you, Sheldon. Than you very much.” He nodded swiftly before turning around on his heel and walking the girth of the hallway to his and Leonard’s apartment. She allowed herself to laugh for a few seconds after the door was securely closed and locked. She let the towel fall to the ground once she was in the bathroom again and stepped into the hot stream of water.
It wasn’t until the next day that Penny realized that there was something was, decidedly, not hers in the mail that Sheldon had given her back. She examined the piece of snail mail in her hand. It was addressed to Leonard. She frowned as she read the return address on the sticker. National Research Facility of Germany. She thought about Sheldon and the way he acted last night and wondered if he wasn’t just acting weird because of the towel, but because he was starting a chain of events that would lead to a lie on his part. It wouldn’t be the first time. She laughed as she thought about the community college incident, but stopped herself before putting the letter down on her kitchen island. She hated that Sheldon kept getting roped into lying for Leonard and herself. She got dressed and left for the comic book store. She vowed to talk to Sheldon when she got home and went over for dinner.
Leonard woke up that morning and walked out of his room to see Sheldon sitting on the couch and eating from the high fiber side of his mass of cereal. Leonard knew he shouldn’t have asked Sheldon to keep the Germany research internship a secret from Penny, but he didn’t have the heart to tell her if he didn’t get it. Although, he wasn’t quite sure what he was going to do if he did get it. It’s hard to cross a bridge before you get near it. Leonard didn’t see Penny for three days before he started to get worried.
Two
The three days that Penny spent trying to avoid Leonard were the hardest three days of her life. She was so angry at Leonard for hiding something so completely huge from her, for not trusting her enough to even mention that it was something he wanted to do. She had to convince Stuart to let her take her lunch break whenever she saw Leonard’s car in the parking lot of the comic book store, for starters. She had to remember his schedule, even thought it wasn’t nearly as set in stone as Sheldon’s, and work around what bits she could actually recall. And she had to figure out a way to talk to Sheldon without Leonard being around.
Laundry night. The only time Penny knew of that Sheldon was completely alone. Saturday. Two days after the mail incident, which is what she had started to call it in her head. Nothing else seemed to fit, and she needed to know why Sheldon had put that letter in her hand to make sure that she saw it. Sheldon never did anything without a good reason and she was looking forward to the reasoning behind this one.
The last washer was already going when Penny walked down the hall and she could hear the folding board as Sheldon flipped it. It was steady and extremely predictable. Penny smiled as she turned the corner and saw his tall and slender body hunched over the laundry table.
“Hey, Sheldon!” He looked up from the table for a second before looking back to the shirt he was folding. His hands never stopped moving.
“Hello, Penny. How are you this evening?” Penny let the laundry basket rest on her cocked hip and tilted her head with a smile.
“I’m super awesome. You?” She moved and started to unload her laundry into one of the washers.
“Washer number four is still letting out bleach from Mrs. Saunder’s last load, so don’t use anything but whites in that one. And number two has started to throw the clothing around too hard in even the delicate cycle, so avoid using it for your under garments.” Penny just rolled her eyes and dumped everything into the second washer. Who cared. Her mother never had, so Penny hadn’t picked up the necessary empathy about clothing like that. As long as everything got clean, that’s all that really mattered.
When she looked over at Sheldon at his folding board, though, he had that look on his face. That horror stricken look that said that he thought she was positively barbaric. It would have made her laugh, but she needed to get on with this conversation. She looked back at the washer, reached down for the laundry detergent and poured some in. Dropping the bottle into her basket, she started her washer and finally turned back the Sheldon Cooper, PhD.
“Sheldon, are you aware that you gave me a piece of mail that was intended for Leonard?” Sheldon stopped moving. Nothing. No hands folding clothing, no fingers or legs twitching. Stillness, until he spoke.
“I am quite aware of that, Penny. I gave it to you on purpose. I thought you should know that Leonard applied for that internship, but I couldn’t tell you.” He dropped the half folded shirt that he had been holding and looked over at Penny.
“Why couldn’t you tell me, though?” Sheldon sighed and she knew that Leonard had told his best friend to keep it a secret from her. She laughed for a moment before catching the look on Sheldon’s face. She held up her hand, silencing him.
“Why did he want you to keep it from me?”
“I think he wanted to keep it a secret incase he didn’t get the internship.” Sheldon turned back to his laundry, trying to avoid looking at Penny.
“Did he tell the guys?” Penny knew the answer, but she wanted to hear it for herself and not just her brain screaming out at her that she knew. When she looked up at Sheldon, he just nodded.
Penny wanted to go back upstairs and lay in bed until Leonard left for Germany and then sent a letter home saying that he wasn’t coming back. She wanted to watch The O.C. until all the things she was thinking about doing - breaking up with him was first on the list and kicking him down the stairs was a close second - and all the things she wanted to throw at him - like the Batman lamp that he’d bought her for their two year anniversary, and the Starfleet Academy toaster that burns the symbol of protected space into bread - were all safely tucked down into her body and mind so far that she never thought of him and his stupid German internship ever again. That wasn’t going to happen, though. She knew it wasn’t. Sheldon knew it wasn’t. Leonard, who didn’t even know what was happening right now because he hadn’t gotten his mail yet, knew it wasn’t going to be able to happen. She sighed at the exhausting thought of all the things that would happen if they broke up again.
“Maybe he didn’t get it at all.” Sheldon shrugged. He had nothing to say. That was shock-ing. She continued. “If he didn’t get it, then I can forgive him for not telling me. It’s not like it matters in the long run, right?” Sheldon turned back around to look at Penny with a quizzical expression.
“And what if he got it and went? Would you really never be able to forgive him for trying to advance his career? It’s incomprehensible that people assume they are the only important event in their significant other’s life.” Penny stared at him, stunned into actual silence. Her mind was racing, though. She wanted to hit him, for an irrational reason. He was right. She hated that he was right. Again. He’s always right, always rational.
“I know. God. I know. It’s selfish and stupid, but I feel like he didn’t even take me into consideration when making this giant choice that will change both of our lives. I understand that I’m not the only important thing in his life, he’s not in mine either, but I also know that we both are important to each other. Even if we’re not the most important.” Penny wanted to pick something up. To fix something. To do fucking anything to avoid looking at Sheldon after she spoke. He was the only place she could look, though. His face was blank. It was like he hadn’t heard her. She would have thought that, had she not known him for so many years. She knew he was processing information and it might take a little longer than usual because he didn’t have any real experience in the area, and therefore had to form complete a new set of ideas instead of recalling and using previous ways to answer Penny.
“I…I don’t really know…I believe I am forced to agree with you.” Sheldon looked at the floor before turning around for the final time and finishing up his clothing. Once he’d finished folding the few shirts and pairs of socks that he had left, he put them all into his laundry basket and left the laundry room without saying another word to Penny or even looking at her.
Penny couldn’t figure out what that meant, exactly. Sheldon was, obviously, not the person to ask about this. She sighed and jumped up onto the folding table to sit and think while her laundry tumbled around and around in the wash.
Three
“Stuart, do you want me to do anything before I go and get the guys and leave for a week?” Stuart was stocking the new comic books that had come when Penny spoke. He looked up and nodded before continuing stocking comics.
“You gonna tell me what that task is before I give up and just leave, because I’m not spending the next ten minutes guessing when you could just tell me.”
Stuart smiled and stopped. He walked over to the cash register and pushed in his code. The register popped open and he pulled out a sign from under the cash drawer, which he held out for Penny to take from him. She laughed when she looked at the words on the white sign. Gone to Comic-Con. Why aren’t you there? Back on Monday.
She hung up the sign before walking back to behind the counter. She reached around Stuart’s body to grab her bag.
“I didn’t know you were going too! Although, I guess it’s kind of stupid to assume you wouldn’t. You are Stuart, after all.” She smiled and walked out the door.
“Penny,” Stuart’s voice made her stop with the door half open and her body almost all the way through it. “I hope that I’ll see you there. We can go to a panel together, or something. It could be fun!” Penny nodded and left the comic book store. She liked Stuart, but she was looking forward to hanging out with just the guys. She wasn’t sure how to let him down, so she avoided the subject entirely and started the walk to her car.
Penny had gotten entirely too invested in the stairs at the apartment complex. She didn’t know what she would do if the elevator suddenly started to work. She suspected that she, and the guys because of the habit forming nature of humans, would ignore the whole event and keep walking up and down the stairs. They’d been doing it for years, and habits were hard to break. She laughed and continued up the stairs. It was Leonard’s fault the elevator was broken in the first place, so maybe she should thank him for that little miracle even if it hadn’t seemed like one for over three years.
The bags were packed. Comic-Con was on route. Penny looked at the four guys in the liv-ing room. All of them, including herself, had on super hero shirts and were proud to support their favorite DC or Marvel characters. Penny was in one of her Wonder Woman shirts, Sheldon in Green Lantern, Leonard in The Flash, Howard in Batman’s Bat Symbol, and Raj in a Wolverine one, which was weird because she hadn’t seen him in anything put his undershirt that buttoned up shirt and sweater vest that doesn’t match either combo. She loved it. They were ready. She was ready. Her apartment was locked up and she had double-checked her bag for everything she would need four times in the last two hours. She was prepared for the trip and for the five days of the San Diego Comic Convention International.
All she had to do was tell Leonard what she was thinking about, and had been thinking about for the last few weeks, and then everything would be fine and she could have an awesome time at the convention. Easier said than done, however. Penny knew that breaking up with Leonard right before Comic-Con was a very bad idea. It could, potentially, ruin the next six days and the glue of everyone’s friendships within the group. They were all staying in the same hotel room, so that would be awkward too. There were so many factors that could make it horrible, but Penny didn’t want the feeling of “this is the wrong thing” to weigh her down during the best six days of her life. It was too important. Comic-Con this year was set to be amazing. She had tickets, along with a plus one that she hadn’t decided on yet, to the Doctor Who signing panel and to see part of the taping, on the third day, for Attack of the Show!. This convention was set to be the best convention ever, and she didn’t want her feeling of resentment about Leonard to get in the way of the amazement. It was perfectly human. And completely irrational.
“Leonard, I can’t do this. This is a walking cliché of what our relationship used to be. You didn’t even tell me that you were applying for that internship that will last for two and a half years. We always fight, or we just don’t talk at all. This is ridiculous and we both deserve better.” Leonard sat in awe next to Penny. They were sitting by themselves in an almost empty compartment away from the other members of their gang. Their luggage was packed away and the train was just about to disembark and take them to San Diego.
“So, we’re really over? This is it?” Penny nodded and shifted in her seat.
He sighed. His entire body hurt. He felt like he was going to throw up. They were breaking up again, and this time he actually agreed with her. They were like poison together-only bringing out the worst in one another. This wasn’t the way for it to end, though. This relationship was epic. It spanned years and many bumps and pot holes, and he couldn’t deal with the smug look from all three of the guys when they got to Comic-Con and he told them. Then there was the deal with the hotel. They were all staying in a single hotel room. There was no way to escape from Penny and their break up until after Comic-Con. The next six days were going to be interesting.
Next!
Pairing(s): Penny/Sheldon with a side of Howard/Raj, Leonard/Stephanie and Leonard/Penny.
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: Other than the over abundance of nerd? Nothing.
Summary: Penny and the guys are going to Comic-Con 2014. There are costumes themed days (Batman, X-Men, DC Characters & Watchmen), panels with the best and newest news on upcoming TV shows, movies and comic books, and the show room with hours of shopping and walking to be had. Everything the five of them love, but when Penny breaks up with Leonard on the trip there, tensions are high and she ends up being Sheldon's Comic-Con buddy.
Author's Note: This post is coming to you in a few parts because I'm awesome. Links at the bottom and top. This was for bigbangbigbang and is my first The Big Bang Theory fanfic.
Enjoy!
The Comic-Con Hypothesis
Prelude
“It’s Anything Can Happen Thursday. It only comes along once a month. Why can’t we enjoy it?” Howard said as he grabbed a plate of breakfast-for-dinner that Penny had made for the very special night. Penny said nothing, Raj said nothing, and Leonard said nothing. It looked, however, as though Sheldon was winding up to say something, although in the realm of possibilities that “something” could have been anything. They were all worried anyway. He leaned forward, looked around the room for a split second before leaning back into his spot and said nothing. They were all amazed.
“So…is that a yes? Can we enjoy it and mix it up?” Raj leaned over and whispered something into Howard’s ear, much to Howard’s delight. Penny laughed. They were ridiculous. She looked up at her boyfriend in the chair that he had stolen from her. Yeah. Anything Can Happen Thursday sucked sometimes. She sighed before forking a bit of cheese-covered eggs into her mouth.
Sometimes it sucked big time, but next month’s Anything Can Happen Thursday was during the San Diego International Comic Convention. She was excited. She was excited to see what the guys came up with for next month. What their Comic-Con costumes could look like, how they would act, what they’d eat in San Diego, if they’d be able to bring Sheldon out on a bar crawl after Comic-Con stopped for the night. There were so many possibilities.
She looked back to her plate of food. It was tasty if she did say so herself. She was quite pleased with the way it had turned out. The guys were happy too, it seemed. Sort of. She looked over at Sheldon. He looked like he was going to go into cardiac arrest at the very thought of eating anything but the normal for dinner on a Thursday. She laughed and he cocked an eye at her before smiling slightly. He was finally starting to get it, after so many years. It was an Anything Can Happen Thursday miracle!
One
Leonard was rolling over in their bed, while Penny was putting on her Wonder Woman t-shirt and jeans for work. The Cheesecake Factory was a thing of the past. She quite enjoyed her new job - well, she’d had it for over a year now, so it wasn’t that new - at the comic book store. Stuart was one of the best bosses she had ever had. Plus being the “hot chick” at the comic book shop did have its advantages. Besides, the guys loved it and it made for a fun Wednesday every week.
For once in her life, she was ahead of someone with knowledge. She always knew when a comic book was coming out before the guys even thought about it. She knew when Stan Lee was starting a new project, or when a new action figure was coming out. She was finally able to give her opinions on the world that the guys lived in with knowledge that she knew what she was talking about and wouldn’t be berated for lack of knowledge. Sheldon still occasionally berated, of course, but she realized a long time ago that that was just the way he was. He was getting better, though, to her amazement. He thought, more often than not, before he said anything and often voiced his apologies if she said something to him.
When she got to work she opened the shop like she normally did. Captain Sweatpants was the first one in, wearing a Captain America shirt tucked into those godawful sweatpants. He commented on her Wonder Woman shirt and smiled before looked around, as though he’d find something new that wasn’t there at closing the previous day. She sighed and waiting until Stuart came in to call in the orders for the next day. Wednesday. New comic book day. The guys were excited about the newest issue of Wonder Woman and for the first issue of the newest series of The Green Lantern.
Penny couldn’t lie, though, because she was excited for those two issues as well. It had taken over two years and lots of goading from the guys, but Penny had finally, and without telling a single one of them, started reading the comic books that they had based the majority of their lives upon. She smiled at the thought and handed the keys over to Stuart as she walked out to take her lunch break.
When she got to her apartment at five o’clock that night, Leonard wasn’t home. Sheldon was, however, so she immediately turned around and headed back across the hall to her apartment. After all these years she still loved having her own apartment. Being alone sometimes was important, and it was something she knew she would never have if she moved in with Leonard like he had asked every six months for the last three years. She took off her shirt, her plain white bra standing out against her tan skin, and threw it in the direction of her room before walking over to the island and grabbing her mail from the last couple of days. She stuffed the three envelops into the back pocket of her jeans and started to walk towards the refrigerator. She picked out a water bottle, one of the only items that was still in her house, and walked to her bedroom, picking up the shirt and placing it properly in the basket while she went.
She sighed. She knew she didn’t have to do it that way. She could have just taken off her shirt once she was actually in her room, but she wanted to do it the hard way. Just because she could. No Leonard or Sheldon to tell her that such and such way was far better and more energy saving for her to do. Nope. Just her, all by her lonesome, doing things the way she wanted to do them. It was almost perfection. Almost.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
“Penny?”
Penny looked at the door and dreaded the moment she met Sheldon for just a moment before turning on the water for her shower and grabbing a towel.
When she reached the door, she stopped to situate herself first before opening said door. The too tall theoretical physicist standing with his arms behind his back, his red The Flash shirt on with the a new pair of plaid pants on. She wasn’t sure why she noticed that the pants were new, however.
“Yes, Sheldon?” She smiled at him for a moment as his face turned bright red after he had taken a moment to look at her current state of undress. She wanted to laugh, but refrained. She was already overstepping her bounds on their friendship.
Sheldon coughed before pulling a few bits of paper from behind his back. Mail. They’d gotten her mail again. He held them out wordlessly and averted his eyes while she reached for them.
“Thank you, Sheldon. Than you very much.” He nodded swiftly before turning around on his heel and walking the girth of the hallway to his and Leonard’s apartment. She allowed herself to laugh for a few seconds after the door was securely closed and locked. She let the towel fall to the ground once she was in the bathroom again and stepped into the hot stream of water.
It wasn’t until the next day that Penny realized that there was something was, decidedly, not hers in the mail that Sheldon had given her back. She examined the piece of snail mail in her hand. It was addressed to Leonard. She frowned as she read the return address on the sticker. National Research Facility of Germany. She thought about Sheldon and the way he acted last night and wondered if he wasn’t just acting weird because of the towel, but because he was starting a chain of events that would lead to a lie on his part. It wouldn’t be the first time. She laughed as she thought about the community college incident, but stopped herself before putting the letter down on her kitchen island. She hated that Sheldon kept getting roped into lying for Leonard and herself. She got dressed and left for the comic book store. She vowed to talk to Sheldon when she got home and went over for dinner.
Leonard woke up that morning and walked out of his room to see Sheldon sitting on the couch and eating from the high fiber side of his mass of cereal. Leonard knew he shouldn’t have asked Sheldon to keep the Germany research internship a secret from Penny, but he didn’t have the heart to tell her if he didn’t get it. Although, he wasn’t quite sure what he was going to do if he did get it. It’s hard to cross a bridge before you get near it. Leonard didn’t see Penny for three days before he started to get worried.
Two
The three days that Penny spent trying to avoid Leonard were the hardest three days of her life. She was so angry at Leonard for hiding something so completely huge from her, for not trusting her enough to even mention that it was something he wanted to do. She had to convince Stuart to let her take her lunch break whenever she saw Leonard’s car in the parking lot of the comic book store, for starters. She had to remember his schedule, even thought it wasn’t nearly as set in stone as Sheldon’s, and work around what bits she could actually recall. And she had to figure out a way to talk to Sheldon without Leonard being around.
Laundry night. The only time Penny knew of that Sheldon was completely alone. Saturday. Two days after the mail incident, which is what she had started to call it in her head. Nothing else seemed to fit, and she needed to know why Sheldon had put that letter in her hand to make sure that she saw it. Sheldon never did anything without a good reason and she was looking forward to the reasoning behind this one.
The last washer was already going when Penny walked down the hall and she could hear the folding board as Sheldon flipped it. It was steady and extremely predictable. Penny smiled as she turned the corner and saw his tall and slender body hunched over the laundry table.
“Hey, Sheldon!” He looked up from the table for a second before looking back to the shirt he was folding. His hands never stopped moving.
“Hello, Penny. How are you this evening?” Penny let the laundry basket rest on her cocked hip and tilted her head with a smile.
“I’m super awesome. You?” She moved and started to unload her laundry into one of the washers.
“Washer number four is still letting out bleach from Mrs. Saunder’s last load, so don’t use anything but whites in that one. And number two has started to throw the clothing around too hard in even the delicate cycle, so avoid using it for your under garments.” Penny just rolled her eyes and dumped everything into the second washer. Who cared. Her mother never had, so Penny hadn’t picked up the necessary empathy about clothing like that. As long as everything got clean, that’s all that really mattered.
When she looked over at Sheldon at his folding board, though, he had that look on his face. That horror stricken look that said that he thought she was positively barbaric. It would have made her laugh, but she needed to get on with this conversation. She looked back at the washer, reached down for the laundry detergent and poured some in. Dropping the bottle into her basket, she started her washer and finally turned back the Sheldon Cooper, PhD.
“Sheldon, are you aware that you gave me a piece of mail that was intended for Leonard?” Sheldon stopped moving. Nothing. No hands folding clothing, no fingers or legs twitching. Stillness, until he spoke.
“I am quite aware of that, Penny. I gave it to you on purpose. I thought you should know that Leonard applied for that internship, but I couldn’t tell you.” He dropped the half folded shirt that he had been holding and looked over at Penny.
“Why couldn’t you tell me, though?” Sheldon sighed and she knew that Leonard had told his best friend to keep it a secret from her. She laughed for a moment before catching the look on Sheldon’s face. She held up her hand, silencing him.
“Why did he want you to keep it from me?”
“I think he wanted to keep it a secret incase he didn’t get the internship.” Sheldon turned back to his laundry, trying to avoid looking at Penny.
“Did he tell the guys?” Penny knew the answer, but she wanted to hear it for herself and not just her brain screaming out at her that she knew. When she looked up at Sheldon, he just nodded.
Penny wanted to go back upstairs and lay in bed until Leonard left for Germany and then sent a letter home saying that he wasn’t coming back. She wanted to watch The O.C. until all the things she was thinking about doing - breaking up with him was first on the list and kicking him down the stairs was a close second - and all the things she wanted to throw at him - like the Batman lamp that he’d bought her for their two year anniversary, and the Starfleet Academy toaster that burns the symbol of protected space into bread - were all safely tucked down into her body and mind so far that she never thought of him and his stupid German internship ever again. That wasn’t going to happen, though. She knew it wasn’t. Sheldon knew it wasn’t. Leonard, who didn’t even know what was happening right now because he hadn’t gotten his mail yet, knew it wasn’t going to be able to happen. She sighed at the exhausting thought of all the things that would happen if they broke up again.
“Maybe he didn’t get it at all.” Sheldon shrugged. He had nothing to say. That was shock-ing. She continued. “If he didn’t get it, then I can forgive him for not telling me. It’s not like it matters in the long run, right?” Sheldon turned back around to look at Penny with a quizzical expression.
“And what if he got it and went? Would you really never be able to forgive him for trying to advance his career? It’s incomprehensible that people assume they are the only important event in their significant other’s life.” Penny stared at him, stunned into actual silence. Her mind was racing, though. She wanted to hit him, for an irrational reason. He was right. She hated that he was right. Again. He’s always right, always rational.
“I know. God. I know. It’s selfish and stupid, but I feel like he didn’t even take me into consideration when making this giant choice that will change both of our lives. I understand that I’m not the only important thing in his life, he’s not in mine either, but I also know that we both are important to each other. Even if we’re not the most important.” Penny wanted to pick something up. To fix something. To do fucking anything to avoid looking at Sheldon after she spoke. He was the only place she could look, though. His face was blank. It was like he hadn’t heard her. She would have thought that, had she not known him for so many years. She knew he was processing information and it might take a little longer than usual because he didn’t have any real experience in the area, and therefore had to form complete a new set of ideas instead of recalling and using previous ways to answer Penny.
“I…I don’t really know…I believe I am forced to agree with you.” Sheldon looked at the floor before turning around for the final time and finishing up his clothing. Once he’d finished folding the few shirts and pairs of socks that he had left, he put them all into his laundry basket and left the laundry room without saying another word to Penny or even looking at her.
Penny couldn’t figure out what that meant, exactly. Sheldon was, obviously, not the person to ask about this. She sighed and jumped up onto the folding table to sit and think while her laundry tumbled around and around in the wash.
Three
“Stuart, do you want me to do anything before I go and get the guys and leave for a week?” Stuart was stocking the new comic books that had come when Penny spoke. He looked up and nodded before continuing stocking comics.
“You gonna tell me what that task is before I give up and just leave, because I’m not spending the next ten minutes guessing when you could just tell me.”
Stuart smiled and stopped. He walked over to the cash register and pushed in his code. The register popped open and he pulled out a sign from under the cash drawer, which he held out for Penny to take from him. She laughed when she looked at the words on the white sign. Gone to Comic-Con. Why aren’t you there? Back on Monday.
She hung up the sign before walking back to behind the counter. She reached around Stuart’s body to grab her bag.
“I didn’t know you were going too! Although, I guess it’s kind of stupid to assume you wouldn’t. You are Stuart, after all.” She smiled and walked out the door.
“Penny,” Stuart’s voice made her stop with the door half open and her body almost all the way through it. “I hope that I’ll see you there. We can go to a panel together, or something. It could be fun!” Penny nodded and left the comic book store. She liked Stuart, but she was looking forward to hanging out with just the guys. She wasn’t sure how to let him down, so she avoided the subject entirely and started the walk to her car.
Penny had gotten entirely too invested in the stairs at the apartment complex. She didn’t know what she would do if the elevator suddenly started to work. She suspected that she, and the guys because of the habit forming nature of humans, would ignore the whole event and keep walking up and down the stairs. They’d been doing it for years, and habits were hard to break. She laughed and continued up the stairs. It was Leonard’s fault the elevator was broken in the first place, so maybe she should thank him for that little miracle even if it hadn’t seemed like one for over three years.
The bags were packed. Comic-Con was on route. Penny looked at the four guys in the liv-ing room. All of them, including herself, had on super hero shirts and were proud to support their favorite DC or Marvel characters. Penny was in one of her Wonder Woman shirts, Sheldon in Green Lantern, Leonard in The Flash, Howard in Batman’s Bat Symbol, and Raj in a Wolverine one, which was weird because she hadn’t seen him in anything put his undershirt that buttoned up shirt and sweater vest that doesn’t match either combo. She loved it. They were ready. She was ready. Her apartment was locked up and she had double-checked her bag for everything she would need four times in the last two hours. She was prepared for the trip and for the five days of the San Diego Comic Convention International.
All she had to do was tell Leonard what she was thinking about, and had been thinking about for the last few weeks, and then everything would be fine and she could have an awesome time at the convention. Easier said than done, however. Penny knew that breaking up with Leonard right before Comic-Con was a very bad idea. It could, potentially, ruin the next six days and the glue of everyone’s friendships within the group. They were all staying in the same hotel room, so that would be awkward too. There were so many factors that could make it horrible, but Penny didn’t want the feeling of “this is the wrong thing” to weigh her down during the best six days of her life. It was too important. Comic-Con this year was set to be amazing. She had tickets, along with a plus one that she hadn’t decided on yet, to the Doctor Who signing panel and to see part of the taping, on the third day, for Attack of the Show!. This convention was set to be the best convention ever, and she didn’t want her feeling of resentment about Leonard to get in the way of the amazement. It was perfectly human. And completely irrational.
“Leonard, I can’t do this. This is a walking cliché of what our relationship used to be. You didn’t even tell me that you were applying for that internship that will last for two and a half years. We always fight, or we just don’t talk at all. This is ridiculous and we both deserve better.” Leonard sat in awe next to Penny. They were sitting by themselves in an almost empty compartment away from the other members of their gang. Their luggage was packed away and the train was just about to disembark and take them to San Diego.
“So, we’re really over? This is it?” Penny nodded and shifted in her seat.
He sighed. His entire body hurt. He felt like he was going to throw up. They were breaking up again, and this time he actually agreed with her. They were like poison together-only bringing out the worst in one another. This wasn’t the way for it to end, though. This relationship was epic. It spanned years and many bumps and pot holes, and he couldn’t deal with the smug look from all three of the guys when they got to Comic-Con and he told them. Then there was the deal with the hotel. They were all staying in a single hotel room. There was no way to escape from Penny and their break up until after Comic-Con. The next six days were going to be interesting.
Next!