Driving Dr. Cooper Chapter Six
Driving Dr. Cooper
by trippy41
Rating: PG
Words: 1, 274
Penny left her apartment heading to 4A - she had some time before she had to get ready for her Saturday shift - and a visit was in order to check on Sheldon - they needed a few more driving sessions, as the appointment she made for his test was looming.
She raised a hand to knock on the door, and opened it at the same time. As expected, there was Sheldon, at his whiteboard - with no Leonard in sight. She sighed - he was still wearing his paint ball outfit, minus the head gear and the chest plates, which were on the floor next to his whiteboard.
"Sheldon?"
He nodded, "Hello, Penny," without turning around.
"Sweetie," Penny began, approaching him, "why do you still have your paint ball gear on?"
"I was on my way to shower," Sheldon began, writing another symbol on his board, "when I passed my board - my peripheral vision activated my basal ganglia and I had a breakthrough with my equation."
"Where are the guys?" Penny asked, coming up beside him, knowing that they'd left him again.
"Leonard, Raj and Howard went with Leslie to Denny's after paint ball," Sheldon answered, capping his marker and reviewing his work, "I wasn't hungry, so they dropped me home first."
"Sheldon, you have to eat more," she poked his ribs, "you can't handle losing any weight."
"I ate breakfast-" Sheldon starts.
"Yeah, cereal at 6:30 watching Dr. Who," Penny finishes. "It's nearly 1:00!" Penny grabbed his wrist and pulled him away from his board then pushed, her hand firm at his shoulder blades, toward the bathroom, "Wash up and change - you're eating lunch!"
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"You know," Sheldon said as he started the Cylon toast for their sandwiches, and Penny warmed up some tomato soup, "I've been effectively on my own since I was sixteen," while he added sliced ham in between slices of the toast, "I've managed to take care of myself," Sheldon grumbled.
She turned around from the pot on the stove. She was intending to poke his ribs again, then took in his tired eyes, "You're working too long, too hard. You work with Raj all day at Caltech, then you work all night at home." A strange look passed between them, and Penny had the urge to hug him, but the soup was boiling. She turned off the burner, poured the soup into the waiting bowls, and said with a wink to ease the tension, "You're thirty in two weeks, you know - you need your rest."
Sheldon glared - staring her down under his brows, but sat down on the stool with an aggrievated sigh, so they could eat together.
"Speaking of your birthday," Penny continued, "I booked your driving test for that day." Penny slurped some soup, despite Sheldon's twitching eye at the sound, "so we need to get you out a few more times - during the day."
Sheldon looked startled at that - his spoon hovering between the bowl and his mouth, "I don't think I could do that - the traffic!"
"Sheldon, sweetie," Penny smiled gently, "they don't give driver's tests at night."
Sheldon looked slighly worried, with a wrinkle to his nose and a narrowing of his eyes.
"Look, I have to work the dinner shift today, so how about we go out tomorrow - Sundays are not busy for traffic - to ease you into it." Penny tried to sound cheerful to allay his fear. She brushed his shoulder gently.
"Agreed." Sheldon said.
They finished their lunch in companianable silence. As they gathered their dishes, Penny smirked, "I guess you'd better wash and I'll dry because if I wash, you know you'll just wash them again."
"You would be correct." Sheldon said, pulling on his dishwashing gloves. The stood shoulder to shoulder as they worked.
"Sheldon, what happened with your date with Amy? You never did spill the details." Penny dried a bowl - looking sideways at him.
Sheldon stopped scrubbing, and looked at her, "It wasn't technically a date--"
Penny interrupted, "Yeah, yeah, yeah - details! Did she like the movie?"
"It would seem," Sheldon said, finished with washing and now disinfecting the sink, "that Amy does not share my apprieciation for - imaginative forms of entertainment."
Penny hung up the towel she'd been using, "What do you mean - she didn't like Inception?
Sheldon shook his head, "Or any Science Fiction, even," Sheldon visibly shuddered, "Star Trek!"
Penny giggled, "Ok, so she doesn't like Star Trek - I mean, until I met you guys, I'd barely watched any - but Inception? That was a great movie!"
"I know!" Sheldon said excitedly, "Yet Amy complained through the whole movie that there was no possible way that anyone could insert themselves in someone's dream, like Cobb does." Sheldon rolled his eyes and he rinsed off his gloves, then washed his hands, "Then, she gave every neurobiological reason why that the way they entered the dream state was wrong, from lucid dreams to dream incubation." Sheldon breathed in deep, and 'tsk tsk-ed' on the exhale as he dried his hands. "She has no imagination." Sheldon simply said.
"And you do," Penny stated.
"Penny," Sheldon started, in his matter-of-fact speech voice, "I'm a theoretical physicist. I have to imagine," Sheldon extended his long arm to sweep the imaginary universe before him, "everything."
Penny rolled her eyes at Sheldon’s speech, but she conceded he had a point, “Well, I guess I have a good imagination too, then.”
“Well of course you do,” Sheldon said as he sat down in his spot. Penny followed him, “how else could you be an actress without using your imagination to be another character?”
Penny smiled and sat down beside him, “Well, I’m sorry that you didn’t have fun at the movies with Amy anyway.”
“Fun? I don’t think I was aiming for fun,” Sheldon smirked a little - just a slight pull at one corner of his mouth, Penny noted, “but some conversational points of similarity outside of the scientific arena where we spend most of our time.” Sheldon shrugged, “In that, I was unsuccessful thus far.”
Penny patted his knee in sympathy - at least he was trying, which she admittedly had pushed him along with Leonard to do - and got up, “I have to get to work sweetie,” she felt a sudden urge to kiss him on the cheek, but that would probably not be such a good idea - considering - so on her way out, she simply laid her head on his for just an instant, “I’ll see you tonight for laundry night?”
Sheldon sniffed her hair, almost imperceptibly - Jasmine? - before she raised her head, “Of course - and don’t forget to separate your lights and darks - remember the ‘white blouse incident?’
Penny did - she now owned a rather expensive, drab grey blouse, “Yes, Sheldon.” And with a tongue stuck out in his general direction, she was gone.