FIC: my missing puzzle piece | big bang theory
Title: my missing puzzle piece
Rating/Warnings: PG-13
Word Count: 3000
Disclaimer: BBT isn't mine, etc.
Summary: High School AU, prompt was "Teenage Dream" by Katy Perry
AN: Written for Paradox's 2011 Saturnalia, for ficliously.
Originally posted here, posting here for archival reasons mostly.
my missing puzzle piece
“Mr. Cooper,” Herrick says. “As much as I appreciate your dedication to the program, here-”
“Professor,” Sheldon says, “If we could skip the formalities, why have you called me to your office? Also, as I believe I’ve reminded you on more than one occasion, I would prefer you to call me Doctor, rather than Mister.”
Herrick leans into the desk, eyes studying Sheldon. Sheldon meets his gaze squarely. “Dr. Cooper, then,” Herrick says, “There’s been some concern about your social habits. Or your lack thereof.”
“My social habits?” Sheldon repeats, a lilt to his voice betraying his outrage. “What social habits?”
Herrick sighs. “Exactly,” he says. “Given that you’ve finished your doctorate, and are currently working on your second dissertation-”
“I spend ample times on social media outlets. I have whatever companionship it seems you require.”
“You’re still shy of seventeen, Sheldon,” Herrick says.
“Doctor,” Sheldon says.
“I’ve spoken with your mother, and the two of us are concerned about your lack of interaction with children your age.”
“…Children?” Sheldon practically squawks. Herrick swallows down a smile.
“We’ve made accommodations for you to attend a local public school for the sixth period theatre class, given that you’ve completed most high school classes outside of the arts.”
“And you’d hate to waste my time,” Sheldon says, voice sharp.
“And we’d hate for you to waste your time,” Herrick agrees amicably.
“Professor-”
“This isn’t optional,” Herrick says. “And Sheldon? I have my doctorate, as well.”
He has to take a bus to Westbrooke High.
Sheldon hates buses. Herrick knows Sheldon hates buses, which is really just one more indignity thrust upon Sheldon through this whole debacle. Sheldon is mentally composing the letters he’ll write to both his mother and the dean.
At Westbrooke, he checks in at the main office. Sally, as her nametag states, ignores him for almost a full minute. He clears his throat for a third time, and she looks up. He fills out forms. Herrick, he soon finds, should have come to sign the paperwork.
Somehow, though, this is Sheldon’s fault.
He’s already hating this semester.
The theatre building is rundown and off to the corner of school, where it’s perched on the edge of the parking lot. He enters the building amid the cacophony of bells and milling students he’d been sure he’d left behind years ago. He is not enjoying he reminder.
Inside, the professor teacher is reclining against the stage. Sheldon begins composing a mental letter to the school board as students perch haphazardly in chairs. Some sit backwards, some sit cross-legged upon the seats. There are no desks.
“Hello?” Sheldon prompts, catching the teacher’s attention. “I was told to give this to you,” Sheldon adds, waving the note Sally scribbled down before getting back to her magazines.
The teacher skims through the note, and then nods. “New student!” he calls to the class. “Introduce yourself,” he orders.
Sheldon looks between the still nameless teacher and the assorted students, for once at a loss.
“Ah-” he says, “I’m Dr. Sheldon Cooper.”
Immediately half the class starts snickering. “Doctor?” one of the boys says.
“I completed by doctorate last fall,” Sheldon says, chin lifting up a little despite himself.
Even the teacher is frowning at him, now.
“Listen, Sheldon,” the teacher says, and Sheldon shakes his head.
“I finished my doctorate last fall,” Sheldon repeats. He points at the note. “That should explain everything.”
The teacher finally actually reads the note.
“Oh,” he says. “Okay, well, I’m Mr. Jacobs. Take a seat.”
They’re working on a play. Harvey, in fact.
Sheldon sits gingerly in a chair, his messenger bag on his lap, as Jacobs starts filling the class in on what they’ll be doing this period.
“Sheldon,” he says, “Maybe you can help the group with touching up the paint on the stage?”
“I-” Sheldon says, not at all a fan of kneeling on the stage with black paint.
“Great,” Jacobs says, “Penny, how about you settle him in?”
Penny is a blonde girl sitting near him. “Okay,” she agrees easily.
As soon as Jacobs calls break, everyone scatters, except Penny, who stops in front of him.
“Penny,” she offers, holding out a hand. Her blonde hair’s tied back in a ponytail, and she’s wearing cutoffs and a t-shirt. Sheldon, despite his general distaste for skin-on-skin contact, returns the handshake.
“Sheldon,” he says.
She flashes him a grin as she walks backwards toward the stage, keeping her eyes on him. “You really a doctor?” she asks.
Sheldon shrugs. “Of the academic sort,” he says.
“Well,” she says, “You might want to lay a little low with that information,” she says. There’s two boys already on the stage, paint brushes in hand, black paint can between them. Penny grabs the other can and two more brushes.
“Lay low?” Sheldon asks, nose wrinkling up a bit. Penny hands him a paintbrush with a grin.
“I’m just saying,” she says, shrugging.
Sheldon doesn’t take her advice, and Dave starts taunting him about the doctorate.
Sheldon is finding it ridiculous that all these years after high school, he’s still being bullied.
“Kindly remove yourself from my personal space,” Sheldon says, keeping his voice at a fairly even keel given the way Dave’s backed him into the wall.
Dave grins. The useless Mr. Jacobs is off somewhere else in the theatre.
“You really should get that chip off your shoulder,” Dave says. “Or maybe I could help with that.”
And then Penny shoves Dave. “Sheldon,” she says, not even looking at Dave, “Get up onstage and finish painting.”
“Penny-” Dave whines. She glares at him.
“Get over yourself,” she snaps, grabbing Sheldon’s wrist and yanking him toward the stage. Once they’re away from Dave, she turns to him. “And you” she says.
“I don’t need protecting,” he says. He frees his wrist from her hand and crosses his arms.
“Do you have to wear that, at least?” Penny asks, gesturing at the plaid pants and superhero shirt.
Sheldon looks at her, steady. “I’m not about to change my habits on account of Dave.”
Penny sighs the sigh of the put-upon.
“Maybe just some jeans,” she suggests.
Sheldon’s never had any real relationships with people his age.
He reminds Leonard, Howard, and Raj of this as they slay demons online.
Leonard he met several years ago through his mother’s attempts to socialize Sheldon with peers his age. Sheldon still snorts at the notion that Leonard could be considered a peer. Raj was introduced to Sheldon through Herrick, and Howard and Raj were already fast online friends.
Naturally, then, it’s Howard who asks: “So is she hot?”
Sheldon blinks. “She’s attractive by social standards,” Sheldon says. “I hadn’t given it much thought.”
“You hadn’t given it much thought?” Raj asks, voice pitching high.
“Sheldon…” Leonard says, drawing the word out over the speakers.
“Are we going to kill demons, or are we going to dissect my personal interactions with a classmate?” Sheldon asks, irritated.
“Definitely the second one,” they generally agree.
Sheldon mutes the chat.
Penny offers to start dropping him off back at the University rather than having him navigate the buses.
“Really?” Sheldon asks, surprised. She shrugs.
“You’re on my way,” she says. “Plus, I like driving. I don’t mind.”
“She so wants you,” Howard says.
Sheldon mutes the chat.
Penny has the deplorable quality of getting lost often and easily. Granted, she can usually figure out where she turned wrong and find her way back, but still. It’s distracting, if nothing else.
Still, it’s certainly more convenient than taking the buses back to campus, and Penny is surprisingly enjoyable company. True, she’s unwilling to participate in any of the car games he suggests, but they do have lively conversations and banter.
She’s not interested in science, or comic books, or any of those things that most interest him. Instead, she wants to continue with acting, reads magazines he’s never heard of, and checks her horoscope every morning. It should be frustrating, but she lets him babble about whatever he wants to babble about, and she doesn’t seem surprised or infuriated when he flips off the Top 40 radio station.
“Tell me about yourself,” she says, and she’s laid-back as she glances up at the yellow light and then presses down on the gas.
So he does.
Sheldon buys her coffee on the way home one day, purely out of gratitude for her finally not getting them lost.
“You are the cutest couple ever!” Raj squees.
Sheldon mutes the chat.
Sheldon is finding himself looking forward to going to the theatre building every afternoon. He’s not sure why, although he’s a sneaking suspicion it has to do with blonde hair a quick smile.
“I brought you red vines,” Penny says when he walks in.
He thanks her, and offers to share them with her, which is a first for him, given his predilections with sharing food. She’s changed her hair today, which he notes offhand.
She steals his jacket on the way home.
“You do realize that you need to ask her out?” Leonard asks.
Sheldon…
Sheldon rubs long fingers on the back of his neck. “I know,” he says.
Dave leans into Sheldon’s personal space.
“So,” he says, “You ever even kissed a girl, Doctor?”
Sheldon doesn’t answer, preferring to continue sanding the chair.
“Never get anyone interested?”
“Dave,” Sheldon says, “This is hardly any of your business.”
“Humor me.”
“Dave-”
“What, are you afraid?” Dave asks.
Sheldon’s used to getting things his way. More than that, he’s used to not backing down. Usually it’s a matter of discussing his point thoroughly and relentlessly, but that doesn’t seem the sort to sway Dave. Penny laughs on the other side of the room, and it catches Sheldon’s attention, and before he can over think it, he brushes past Dave and walks over to her.
“Penny,” he says. “Will you accompany me on a date?”
As soon as he says it, he freezes, as if he’d not actually expected to get that far. Penny looks gently amused.
“Are you only asking me because you’re trying to prove something to Dave?” she asks. “Because I’m not agreeing to date you just so you can save face.”
“What if I wanted to date you?” Sheldon asks. “Although, as a warning, I’ve no experience in this field.”
“In this field?” Penny grins. “It’s a lot of trial and error. And yes.”
“Yes?”
“Yes, I’d go out with you.”
“Sheldon,” Professor Herrick says. “I’ve noticed you’ve started spending less time in the lab. I wanted to make sure everything was all right..?”
“Everything is fine,” Sheldon says.
Herrick doesn’t mention the fact that Sheldon’s wearing jeans. He does lean forward in his seat, a little, studying him. “You know, Sheldon, if-”
“I’m fine,” Sheldon says.
“I’m not fine,” Sheldon says.
“Oh, come on, this is completely normal,” Leonard says.
They’re quiet for a moment as a horde comes, the only sounds the clang of their weapons and the swoosh of their spells.
“I’ve never pursued a relationship,” Sheldon says. “Something must have changed. Something must be wrong.”
“Or you’ve just finally met the right person? It sounds like she understands you.”
“I don’t know if she does,” Sheldon says. “She’s empathetic. She’s…she’s comfortable with me, more than she is with others. She changes into fuzzy slippers in the car, and tells me secrets about what she wants to do with her life.”
“Sheldon, you care about her,” Leonard says.
Sheldon still seems unsure. “I care about my family,” he says.
“Mm,” Leonard says, “Yes, but have you ever actually listened to what they say?”
Penny teaches him to drive.
She takes him out of the city, driving until they reach back country roads. It’s dark out, and Sheldon protests, vigorously, about regulations and permits, but she talks him into it.
Sheldon vaguely thinks she should not be able to so easily talk him into things.
The road is deserted, though, and the moon provides enough light. Sheldon keeps the car below twenty miles an hour, and still manages to slip onto the grass on the side of the road, but Penny keeps her voice calm and level, and he doesn’t panic.
On the way home, she pulls the car over to the side of the road.
“Penny?” he asks.
She leans over and kisses him.
Jacobs has Sheldon working on the backdrops. He doesn’t mind; it gives him the chance to watch Penny during rehearsal.
He’s not entirely sure how he feels. Queasiness, a desire to keep her within his sights-he’s not naïve. He simply never expected to experience these symptoms first-hand.
“Cooper!” Jacobs calls over. “Stop daydreaming and get back to work, okay?”
Sheldon dips the brush back into the paint.
After class, Penny and Sheldon drive out of the city.
Sheldon is quieter than he usually is-instead of babbling, he’s looking out the window at the way the sky hovers over the tree branches.
Penny pulls up into a side country road, and then over to the side, underneath tree branches and blocked from sight from the main road. They’re about two hours drive from the city.
“Sheldon,” she says, and when he turns to look at her, she’s biting her bottom lip and looking at him with too-open eyes.
He kisses her, fingers skimming down her sides to settle on her hips. Getting into the backseat requires more coordination than either of them currently have.
Sheldon sprawls on the seat, but before he can get up Penny’s kissing him again, her jeans skin-tight underneath his fingers.
He’s tentative, almost unsure, but for this they’re on the same playing field. She kisses him, again, fingers sliding underneath the edges of his shirt until they touch bare skin.
“Penny-” Sheldon says, alarm and arousal mixing in his voice, and Penny pauses.
“Do you want this?” she asks. He’s not sure what he wants, he’s not sure what this means, he’s not sure what this changes-for him, for who he is, for who he thought he was.
“I want you,” he says, finally, his fingers tightening against her hips, his lips dropping to hers with promise. “I want you.”
“So you two…?” Leonard asks.
“Don’t tell Howard,” Sheldon adds, decapitating a demon with an unnecessary expenditure of power.
“Of course not!” Leonard says, sounding profoundly troubled at the mere thought.
“I don’t…I’m not sure what I’m doing,” Sheldon says. “I’m not sure why I…”
“You care about her?” Leonard asks. Sheldon adjust the headphones/microphone.
“I gave up my slot in the observatory because it conflicted with when we were supposed to meet,” he says.
“Oh, wow,” Leonard says, surprised.
“Leonard…” Sheldon says. “I care about her more than I should.”
“I’ve heard you’ve made some friends at Westbrooke?” Herrick asks.
“I have,” Sheldon says.
“A friend of the female persuasion?” Herrick presses.
“Yes,” Sheldon says.
“Are you dating?”
Sheldon’s quiet for a moment. “I’m not certain how that pertains to you,” he says at last.
Herrick shrugs. “I’ve noticed some change in you these last few months,” he says. “Given that you’d applied to that research program overseas, I wanted to make sure your priorities hadn’t changed.”
“My priorities?” Sheldon repeats dryly.
“Does she know you’re leaving?”
Sheldon misses class for two days in a row. Leonard calls into the school pretending to be him, coughing and hacking, and given Sheldon’s previous perfect attendance, they believe him.
“What’re you going to do?” Leonard asks.
Sheldon is silent, staring at the computer screen. A rogue demon breaks free from the pack and jumps him before he has a chance to react, and Sheldon watches his character fall to his knees, dead.
“I don’t know,” Sheldon says.
She leans into him, looking up at the stars. Sheldon looks down at their intertwined fingers.
“I’m only here for the semester,” he says, his voice quiet. “Herrick thinks I can get into a research program in Scotland.”
Penny squeezes his hand. “Scotland?” she asks, refusing to meet his eyes quite yet.
“It’s a good program,” he says. Penny nods.
“It’s okay-it doesn’t matter. I’m not staying here,” she says. “I’ve always known I’m not supposed to be here. I’m going to LA,” she says. “I can do it, you know. I can make it.”
“Penny-”
“I release you from any commitment,” she says, trying for light. It comes off a little ragged around the edges, and Sheldon looks away.
“I don’t want to leave you,” he says. His voice is soft, more breath than sound, and she smiles up at him weakly.
“We’re going to do amazing things,” she says. “We’ll do amazing things, and then we’ll find each other again.”
“People change,” Sheldon says. “People drift apart. We won’t be the same people.”
Penny grins unexpectedly. “Are you waxing poetic, Mr. Cooper?” she asks. “I thought you could do anything you put your mind to?”
“Penny,” he says, and she shakes her head, sticks out her hand.
“Shake on it,” she says. “We’ll find each other.”
“Penny-”
She spits on her hand and holds it out again, just to see him recoil. “It’s tradition,” she says, but her grin gives her away.
He leans forward, instead, and kisses her. “You have a deplorable tendency of getting lost,” he says, breath warm on her cheeks. “But I’ll find you.”
Penny doesn’t believe in goodbyes, so when Sheldon leaves on the last day of the semester, she slips away.
He doesn’t leave until he finds her, curled up in the girl’s dressing room.
“Penny,” he says, voice low, so she hugs him close even though it hurts.
When Penny arrives in Pasadena four years later, Sheldon has a spare bedroom in his apartment for her.
A couple of months later, they don’t need the spare room after all.
Finis
.
Rating/Warnings: PG-13
Word Count: 3000
Disclaimer: BBT isn't mine, etc.
Summary: High School AU, prompt was "Teenage Dream" by Katy Perry
AN: Written for Paradox's 2011 Saturnalia, for ficliously.
Originally posted here, posting here for archival reasons mostly.
my missing puzzle piece
“Mr. Cooper,” Herrick says. “As much as I appreciate your dedication to the program, here-”
“Professor,” Sheldon says, “If we could skip the formalities, why have you called me to your office? Also, as I believe I’ve reminded you on more than one occasion, I would prefer you to call me Doctor, rather than Mister.”
Herrick leans into the desk, eyes studying Sheldon. Sheldon meets his gaze squarely. “Dr. Cooper, then,” Herrick says, “There’s been some concern about your social habits. Or your lack thereof.”
“My social habits?” Sheldon repeats, a lilt to his voice betraying his outrage. “What social habits?”
Herrick sighs. “Exactly,” he says. “Given that you’ve finished your doctorate, and are currently working on your second dissertation-”
“I spend ample times on social media outlets. I have whatever companionship it seems you require.”
“You’re still shy of seventeen, Sheldon,” Herrick says.
“Doctor,” Sheldon says.
“I’ve spoken with your mother, and the two of us are concerned about your lack of interaction with children your age.”
“…Children?” Sheldon practically squawks. Herrick swallows down a smile.
“We’ve made accommodations for you to attend a local public school for the sixth period theatre class, given that you’ve completed most high school classes outside of the arts.”
“And you’d hate to waste my time,” Sheldon says, voice sharp.
“And we’d hate for you to waste your time,” Herrick agrees amicably.
“Professor-”
“This isn’t optional,” Herrick says. “And Sheldon? I have my doctorate, as well.”
He has to take a bus to Westbrooke High.
Sheldon hates buses. Herrick knows Sheldon hates buses, which is really just one more indignity thrust upon Sheldon through this whole debacle. Sheldon is mentally composing the letters he’ll write to both his mother and the dean.
At Westbrooke, he checks in at the main office. Sally, as her nametag states, ignores him for almost a full minute. He clears his throat for a third time, and she looks up. He fills out forms. Herrick, he soon finds, should have come to sign the paperwork.
Somehow, though, this is Sheldon’s fault.
He’s already hating this semester.
The theatre building is rundown and off to the corner of school, where it’s perched on the edge of the parking lot. He enters the building amid the cacophony of bells and milling students he’d been sure he’d left behind years ago. He is not enjoying he reminder.
Inside, the professor teacher is reclining against the stage. Sheldon begins composing a mental letter to the school board as students perch haphazardly in chairs. Some sit backwards, some sit cross-legged upon the seats. There are no desks.
“Hello?” Sheldon prompts, catching the teacher’s attention. “I was told to give this to you,” Sheldon adds, waving the note Sally scribbled down before getting back to her magazines.
The teacher skims through the note, and then nods. “New student!” he calls to the class. “Introduce yourself,” he orders.
Sheldon looks between the still nameless teacher and the assorted students, for once at a loss.
“Ah-” he says, “I’m Dr. Sheldon Cooper.”
Immediately half the class starts snickering. “Doctor?” one of the boys says.
“I completed by doctorate last fall,” Sheldon says, chin lifting up a little despite himself.
Even the teacher is frowning at him, now.
“Listen, Sheldon,” the teacher says, and Sheldon shakes his head.
“I finished my doctorate last fall,” Sheldon repeats. He points at the note. “That should explain everything.”
The teacher finally actually reads the note.
“Oh,” he says. “Okay, well, I’m Mr. Jacobs. Take a seat.”
They’re working on a play. Harvey, in fact.
Sheldon sits gingerly in a chair, his messenger bag on his lap, as Jacobs starts filling the class in on what they’ll be doing this period.
“Sheldon,” he says, “Maybe you can help the group with touching up the paint on the stage?”
“I-” Sheldon says, not at all a fan of kneeling on the stage with black paint.
“Great,” Jacobs says, “Penny, how about you settle him in?”
Penny is a blonde girl sitting near him. “Okay,” she agrees easily.
As soon as Jacobs calls break, everyone scatters, except Penny, who stops in front of him.
“Penny,” she offers, holding out a hand. Her blonde hair’s tied back in a ponytail, and she’s wearing cutoffs and a t-shirt. Sheldon, despite his general distaste for skin-on-skin contact, returns the handshake.
“Sheldon,” he says.
She flashes him a grin as she walks backwards toward the stage, keeping her eyes on him. “You really a doctor?” she asks.
Sheldon shrugs. “Of the academic sort,” he says.
“Well,” she says, “You might want to lay a little low with that information,” she says. There’s two boys already on the stage, paint brushes in hand, black paint can between them. Penny grabs the other can and two more brushes.
“Lay low?” Sheldon asks, nose wrinkling up a bit. Penny hands him a paintbrush with a grin.
“I’m just saying,” she says, shrugging.
Sheldon doesn’t take her advice, and Dave starts taunting him about the doctorate.
Sheldon is finding it ridiculous that all these years after high school, he’s still being bullied.
“Kindly remove yourself from my personal space,” Sheldon says, keeping his voice at a fairly even keel given the way Dave’s backed him into the wall.
Dave grins. The useless Mr. Jacobs is off somewhere else in the theatre.
“You really should get that chip off your shoulder,” Dave says. “Or maybe I could help with that.”
And then Penny shoves Dave. “Sheldon,” she says, not even looking at Dave, “Get up onstage and finish painting.”
“Penny-” Dave whines. She glares at him.
“Get over yourself,” she snaps, grabbing Sheldon’s wrist and yanking him toward the stage. Once they’re away from Dave, she turns to him. “And you” she says.
“I don’t need protecting,” he says. He frees his wrist from her hand and crosses his arms.
“Do you have to wear that, at least?” Penny asks, gesturing at the plaid pants and superhero shirt.
Sheldon looks at her, steady. “I’m not about to change my habits on account of Dave.”
Penny sighs the sigh of the put-upon.
“Maybe just some jeans,” she suggests.
Sheldon’s never had any real relationships with people his age.
He reminds Leonard, Howard, and Raj of this as they slay demons online.
Leonard he met several years ago through his mother’s attempts to socialize Sheldon with peers his age. Sheldon still snorts at the notion that Leonard could be considered a peer. Raj was introduced to Sheldon through Herrick, and Howard and Raj were already fast online friends.
Naturally, then, it’s Howard who asks: “So is she hot?”
Sheldon blinks. “She’s attractive by social standards,” Sheldon says. “I hadn’t given it much thought.”
“You hadn’t given it much thought?” Raj asks, voice pitching high.
“Sheldon…” Leonard says, drawing the word out over the speakers.
“Are we going to kill demons, or are we going to dissect my personal interactions with a classmate?” Sheldon asks, irritated.
“Definitely the second one,” they generally agree.
Sheldon mutes the chat.
Penny offers to start dropping him off back at the University rather than having him navigate the buses.
“Really?” Sheldon asks, surprised. She shrugs.
“You’re on my way,” she says. “Plus, I like driving. I don’t mind.”
“She so wants you,” Howard says.
Sheldon mutes the chat.
Penny has the deplorable quality of getting lost often and easily. Granted, she can usually figure out where she turned wrong and find her way back, but still. It’s distracting, if nothing else.
Still, it’s certainly more convenient than taking the buses back to campus, and Penny is surprisingly enjoyable company. True, she’s unwilling to participate in any of the car games he suggests, but they do have lively conversations and banter.
She’s not interested in science, or comic books, or any of those things that most interest him. Instead, she wants to continue with acting, reads magazines he’s never heard of, and checks her horoscope every morning. It should be frustrating, but she lets him babble about whatever he wants to babble about, and she doesn’t seem surprised or infuriated when he flips off the Top 40 radio station.
“Tell me about yourself,” she says, and she’s laid-back as she glances up at the yellow light and then presses down on the gas.
So he does.
Sheldon buys her coffee on the way home one day, purely out of gratitude for her finally not getting them lost.
“You are the cutest couple ever!” Raj squees.
Sheldon mutes the chat.
Sheldon is finding himself looking forward to going to the theatre building every afternoon. He’s not sure why, although he’s a sneaking suspicion it has to do with blonde hair a quick smile.
“I brought you red vines,” Penny says when he walks in.
He thanks her, and offers to share them with her, which is a first for him, given his predilections with sharing food. She’s changed her hair today, which he notes offhand.
She steals his jacket on the way home.
“You do realize that you need to ask her out?” Leonard asks.
Sheldon…
Sheldon rubs long fingers on the back of his neck. “I know,” he says.
Dave leans into Sheldon’s personal space.
“So,” he says, “You ever even kissed a girl, Doctor?”
Sheldon doesn’t answer, preferring to continue sanding the chair.
“Never get anyone interested?”
“Dave,” Sheldon says, “This is hardly any of your business.”
“Humor me.”
“Dave-”
“What, are you afraid?” Dave asks.
Sheldon’s used to getting things his way. More than that, he’s used to not backing down. Usually it’s a matter of discussing his point thoroughly and relentlessly, but that doesn’t seem the sort to sway Dave. Penny laughs on the other side of the room, and it catches Sheldon’s attention, and before he can over think it, he brushes past Dave and walks over to her.
“Penny,” he says. “Will you accompany me on a date?”
As soon as he says it, he freezes, as if he’d not actually expected to get that far. Penny looks gently amused.
“Are you only asking me because you’re trying to prove something to Dave?” she asks. “Because I’m not agreeing to date you just so you can save face.”
“What if I wanted to date you?” Sheldon asks. “Although, as a warning, I’ve no experience in this field.”
“In this field?” Penny grins. “It’s a lot of trial and error. And yes.”
“Yes?”
“Yes, I’d go out with you.”
“Sheldon,” Professor Herrick says. “I’ve noticed you’ve started spending less time in the lab. I wanted to make sure everything was all right..?”
“Everything is fine,” Sheldon says.
Herrick doesn’t mention the fact that Sheldon’s wearing jeans. He does lean forward in his seat, a little, studying him. “You know, Sheldon, if-”
“I’m fine,” Sheldon says.
“I’m not fine,” Sheldon says.
“Oh, come on, this is completely normal,” Leonard says.
They’re quiet for a moment as a horde comes, the only sounds the clang of their weapons and the swoosh of their spells.
“I’ve never pursued a relationship,” Sheldon says. “Something must have changed. Something must be wrong.”
“Or you’ve just finally met the right person? It sounds like she understands you.”
“I don’t know if she does,” Sheldon says. “She’s empathetic. She’s…she’s comfortable with me, more than she is with others. She changes into fuzzy slippers in the car, and tells me secrets about what she wants to do with her life.”
“Sheldon, you care about her,” Leonard says.
Sheldon still seems unsure. “I care about my family,” he says.
“Mm,” Leonard says, “Yes, but have you ever actually listened to what they say?”
Penny teaches him to drive.
She takes him out of the city, driving until they reach back country roads. It’s dark out, and Sheldon protests, vigorously, about regulations and permits, but she talks him into it.
Sheldon vaguely thinks she should not be able to so easily talk him into things.
The road is deserted, though, and the moon provides enough light. Sheldon keeps the car below twenty miles an hour, and still manages to slip onto the grass on the side of the road, but Penny keeps her voice calm and level, and he doesn’t panic.
On the way home, she pulls the car over to the side of the road.
“Penny?” he asks.
She leans over and kisses him.
Jacobs has Sheldon working on the backdrops. He doesn’t mind; it gives him the chance to watch Penny during rehearsal.
He’s not entirely sure how he feels. Queasiness, a desire to keep her within his sights-he’s not naïve. He simply never expected to experience these symptoms first-hand.
“Cooper!” Jacobs calls over. “Stop daydreaming and get back to work, okay?”
Sheldon dips the brush back into the paint.
After class, Penny and Sheldon drive out of the city.
Sheldon is quieter than he usually is-instead of babbling, he’s looking out the window at the way the sky hovers over the tree branches.
Penny pulls up into a side country road, and then over to the side, underneath tree branches and blocked from sight from the main road. They’re about two hours drive from the city.
“Sheldon,” she says, and when he turns to look at her, she’s biting her bottom lip and looking at him with too-open eyes.
He kisses her, fingers skimming down her sides to settle on her hips. Getting into the backseat requires more coordination than either of them currently have.
Sheldon sprawls on the seat, but before he can get up Penny’s kissing him again, her jeans skin-tight underneath his fingers.
He’s tentative, almost unsure, but for this they’re on the same playing field. She kisses him, again, fingers sliding underneath the edges of his shirt until they touch bare skin.
“Penny-” Sheldon says, alarm and arousal mixing in his voice, and Penny pauses.
“Do you want this?” she asks. He’s not sure what he wants, he’s not sure what this means, he’s not sure what this changes-for him, for who he is, for who he thought he was.
“I want you,” he says, finally, his fingers tightening against her hips, his lips dropping to hers with promise. “I want you.”
“So you two…?” Leonard asks.
“Don’t tell Howard,” Sheldon adds, decapitating a demon with an unnecessary expenditure of power.
“Of course not!” Leonard says, sounding profoundly troubled at the mere thought.
“I don’t…I’m not sure what I’m doing,” Sheldon says. “I’m not sure why I…”
“You care about her?” Leonard asks. Sheldon adjust the headphones/microphone.
“I gave up my slot in the observatory because it conflicted with when we were supposed to meet,” he says.
“Oh, wow,” Leonard says, surprised.
“Leonard…” Sheldon says. “I care about her more than I should.”
“I’ve heard you’ve made some friends at Westbrooke?” Herrick asks.
“I have,” Sheldon says.
“A friend of the female persuasion?” Herrick presses.
“Yes,” Sheldon says.
“Are you dating?”
Sheldon’s quiet for a moment. “I’m not certain how that pertains to you,” he says at last.
Herrick shrugs. “I’ve noticed some change in you these last few months,” he says. “Given that you’d applied to that research program overseas, I wanted to make sure your priorities hadn’t changed.”
“My priorities?” Sheldon repeats dryly.
“Does she know you’re leaving?”
Sheldon misses class for two days in a row. Leonard calls into the school pretending to be him, coughing and hacking, and given Sheldon’s previous perfect attendance, they believe him.
“What’re you going to do?” Leonard asks.
Sheldon is silent, staring at the computer screen. A rogue demon breaks free from the pack and jumps him before he has a chance to react, and Sheldon watches his character fall to his knees, dead.
“I don’t know,” Sheldon says.
She leans into him, looking up at the stars. Sheldon looks down at their intertwined fingers.
“I’m only here for the semester,” he says, his voice quiet. “Herrick thinks I can get into a research program in Scotland.”
Penny squeezes his hand. “Scotland?” she asks, refusing to meet his eyes quite yet.
“It’s a good program,” he says. Penny nods.
“It’s okay-it doesn’t matter. I’m not staying here,” she says. “I’ve always known I’m not supposed to be here. I’m going to LA,” she says. “I can do it, you know. I can make it.”
“Penny-”
“I release you from any commitment,” she says, trying for light. It comes off a little ragged around the edges, and Sheldon looks away.
“I don’t want to leave you,” he says. His voice is soft, more breath than sound, and she smiles up at him weakly.
“We’re going to do amazing things,” she says. “We’ll do amazing things, and then we’ll find each other again.”
“People change,” Sheldon says. “People drift apart. We won’t be the same people.”
Penny grins unexpectedly. “Are you waxing poetic, Mr. Cooper?” she asks. “I thought you could do anything you put your mind to?”
“Penny,” he says, and she shakes her head, sticks out her hand.
“Shake on it,” she says. “We’ll find each other.”
“Penny-”
She spits on her hand and holds it out again, just to see him recoil. “It’s tradition,” she says, but her grin gives her away.
He leans forward, instead, and kisses her. “You have a deplorable tendency of getting lost,” he says, breath warm on her cheeks. “But I’ll find you.”
Penny doesn’t believe in goodbyes, so when Sheldon leaves on the last day of the semester, she slips away.
He doesn’t leave until he finds her, curled up in the girl’s dressing room.
“Penny,” he says, voice low, so she hugs him close even though it hurts.
When Penny arrives in Pasadena four years later, Sheldon has a spare bedroom in his apartment for her.
A couple of months later, they don’t need the spare room after all.
Finis
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