No, I don't want this anymore! You need to leave!
Her voice startled him awake. What was I dreaming of? He thought to himself. He looked around to take in his surroundings, but they seemed unfamiliar. He took off the heavy stripped comforter that had been keeping him restrained to the bed while swinging his plaid covered legs off the bed to the cool floor below. A pair of slippers were laying on the floor awaiting their owner's feet. He carefully slid his chilled feet in them reminding himself to thank the owner later for allowing him to borrow them. He searched through the room hoping to find something that would give him a clue as to who this room belonged to. On the dresser next to the bed were baskets full of comic books. He picked one up and took the clear plastic lining off to revel the unprotected book.
"No name. Drat." He mutters quietly to himself while replacing the comic.
"Sheldon!" He hears someone calling out in the distance. He goes to the door and turns the shiny knob and pulled slightly to reveal the living area. A shorter man stomps by him and into another room. "Get ready, were going to be late!" he calls before the door slams shut behind him.
"Wait!" the door reopens and the short man appears again.
"What, Sheldon?" Sheldon? I wonder who that is. "We don't have time for this. I overslept and seeing as how you're still wearing your Tuesday night pajamas, it's safe to assume you did, too. Now please I am begging you to get dressed so we can leave or you're taking the bus to work."
"But…" the man stops him before he could finish
"Sheldon. I know you've been having a hard time with everything that happened even if you seem like everything is okay. So if you choose to stay home from work today, that's perfectly acceptable."
"Um… no I guess I'll go."
"Thank you, now please get dressed."

Sheldon got dressed as quickly as he could. He didn't want to upset the short man again. He seemed angry at him for some reason. They walked down the stairs

"Why don't we just take…." Something stops Sheldon in his tracks. A smell. His stomach clinches tightly and his eyesight goes fuzzy. The source of the smell walks around the corner. A gorgeous platinum blonde with shimmering green eyes comes into view. Sheldon can't help but notice how short the shorts she had on were and how the black, almost lingerie, tank top barely covered her firm body.

"Oh… uh… hi… I thought you'd be a work by now." She said. Her eyes looked sad as she tried to avoid making eye contact with Sheldon.

"Sorry, Penny. We got started a little late this morning. I should have texted you." Leonard said trying to rush Sheldon down the stairs.

"Its okay Leonard. I need to say something to him."

"Who, me?" Sheldon asked.

"Yes. I'm sorry. I shouldn't be here still after what happened. I'm apartment searching today. I just had to run down and get my mail. I will try to stay out of your way until I can find a new place."

"Why would you think you needed to move out on my account? Did I do something to offend you, Penny?"

"I don't want to talk about this anymore, Sheldon. I'm moving out and there's nothing you can do to stop me. What happened between us is over." Penny said as she ran up the stairs trying to hide the tears in her eyes.

"Did I do something to her, Leonard?" Sheldon asked finally knowing what the short man's name was.

"You should really stay home Sheldon. Especially if you are going to pretend like nothing happened still."

"No, Leonard. Ill be okay. Let's go." Sheldon said hoping that he could figure out what happened between him and Penny.

As they arrived at CalTech, two men walked out to greet them.

"Hey Sheldon," said the darker one, "Hey Leonard."

"Hey Raj, Howard." By the way the men nodded at their names being said Sheldon was able to guess who was who.

"Leonard texted us this morning. He said you two were on your way here. Did you want to go get some coffee or something before work? I know you don't drink coffee, Sheldon, but maybe they'll have something for you there."

"Okay Howard. That sounds wonderful." Sheldon replied. By the looks on the men's faces that seemed to be the wrong answer. He didn't know what answer he should have given but coffee did sound delicious. After coffee and many quizzical looks from his friends Sheldon decided to branch out on his own and walk around the University. He passed many people who said good morning to him and he replied, not knowing any of their names. He finally made his way to an office door that read Dr. Sheldon Cooper and he went in. Nothing about the office looked familiar to him. He sat down at the desk and noticed a picture. It was the woman from the staircase, Penny. He admired that picture for a few minutes until he heard a knock on his door.

"Come in!" He answered.

"Dr. Cooper I see you are at work today. How are you feeling?" The strange man asked him.

"I am well. How are you feeling, sir?"

"Well, thank you. I see your working on disproving the Swedish research team's findings. Very good work, Doctor."

"Thank you sir. I hope I will do this university justice."

"Don't forget your own research though. String theory needs you to prove its validity!"

"Will do, sir. Thank you for stopping by." Sheldon didn't know why he stopped by but he felt weird asking because he should know what was wrong. Looking at the board he realized the mistake the Swedish team had made pretty easily. He published his findings and sent it off as soon as he was done. At least he hadn't forgotten how to do his job.

The next few days seemed to flow by pretty quickly. Sheldon was learning as he was going on, but he still didn't fully understand why he couldn't remember anything before Wednesday morning. Luckily, Leonard knew Sheldon's routine pretty well so he could fall back into place with them and not seem weird. But he was getting tired of not knowing what happened to him. So he decided to tell Leonard about his problem.

"Leonard can I talk to you for a minute?"
"What's up?"
"I can't seem to remember anything. I've been trying to go along with everything hoping to remember but I just can't and I don't know what to do anymore.

"Sheldon what are you talking about? You've been just fine for the last week."
"No I haven't. I didn't even know my name until you called for me Wednesday morning. If you would please help me, I would greatly appreciate it. You seem to know who I am which is more than I know." Sheldon cried out feeling hopeless.
"Sheldon, are you okay?"
"No, I am far from okay!"
"Okay, please just calm down. My name is Leonard. You are in Pasadena, California. Do you remember that much?" Leonard spoke softly.
"Yes I know all of that! I learned that on my own. I am very sorry… Leonard… for being such an imposition."
"Wow, you really aren't faking. I was expecting a Bazinga somewhere in that sentence."
"A what?"
"Bazinga. It's what you say after you tell a joke."
"That's a ridiculous word. Why would people say that?"
"People don't say it buddy. Only you say it." Leonard looked at his broken friend. He went through a lot. I can't believe I let him get hurt like that.
"Oh. Well what else can you tell me about my life?"
"Well…" Leonard said as he began their journey into the life of Sheldon Cooper. He finally finished with explaining Raj and Howard.

"So, Rajesh Koothrappali and Howard Wolowitz are my friends?"
"Yes. As am I."
"Do I have any more friends or is that it?"
"Um…" Leonard hesitated, "no, not really. Just us three. I called them to help, they should be here by now." As if on cue they heard a knock at the door and Raj and Howard walked in."

"Do you know how this happened to him?" Raj asked.

"Well I have a good idea but I don't want to test it out yet until we can get him to Amy."

"Who's Amy?" Sheldon asked.

"Amy Farrah Fowler. She's a girl friend of ours. You always considered her your academic equal. At one time you two pursued a three year relationship, but she wanted more than you did so you terminated your relationship agreement."

"A relationship agreement?"

"Yeah, you have documents that you write up for different arrangements. You and I have a roommate agreement that goes over all different scenarios of things that could happen."

"That seems weird to me, Leonard. Why would I spend so much time on that sort of thing when we are already agreeing to be roommates?"

"I never knew why, Sheldon. Let's go see Amy." Leonard, Raj, Howard, and Sheldon walked into Amy's lab together as she was getting ready to clean up.

"Hello Sheldon." She spoke very formally without making eye contact. "I suppose you're here to terminate out friendship agreement now, too?"

"Why ever would I do that, Amy? If we are friends after what happened I presume it's for a reason."

"Amy, Sheldon doesn't really know what happened between you two other than what I've told him." Leonard interjected.

"Wow Sheldon. Too busy with her that you forgot all about me? You two don't call, text, email, or even skype for over three months and now you expect me to pretend like nothing happened?"

"Amy Farrah Fowler I seem to have come down with a case of amnesia. I don't recall my life or anything in it. The only things I can remember start when I woke up last Wednesday morning."

"Yeah right. You don't have to make up an amnesia excuse to break up with me again. She won. I don't know why you're even here."

"I have told you Amy. I cannot recall my life and I was hoping you could help me."

"No, Sheldon."

"Why?"

"Even if I did believe you I couldn't help you. From what it sounds like you have retrograde amnesia. This type of amnesia usually is caused by a psychologically traumatic event in one's life. There isn't really a lot someone can do for you. You just have to wait and hope your memory comes back."

"So I just have to wonder around blindly while people who I can't remember greet me, and do the only thing I remember how to do, which is work, and just hope my memory comes back?" Sheldon yelled in frustration. He quickly exited the room, racing out the door to get as far away from here as he can get. His phone vibrates in his pocket. The caller ID says Leonard so he puts the phone back in his pocket, gets on the bus and goes to the only place he feels safe.

Knock, knock, knock.

She always waits for her name to be called after the round of knockings but it never happens. She hasn't heard it in over three months. She never realized how much she missed it until it stopped. Penny got up off the couch with her wine glass still in her hand to answer the door. She had been watching that video over and over again, torturing herself with the memories. Before she realized, she had to open a new bottle of wine to satisfy the never ending thirst for the pain to escape. She staggered over to the door and opened it.

"Sheldon? What are you doing here?"

"I don't know, Penny. I guess I didn't realize this was your apartment. I have been so overwhelmed today with everything that has been happening to me. I just wanted to feel safe again. I was going to go into my own apartment, but I looked behind me at this door and felt this urge to come knock on it."

"Why didn't you knock three times?"

"I did knock three times. Perhaps you should put the wine glass down."

"Don't patronize me Dr. Cooperrrrrrrr." Penny slurred. "You didn't do the 'Knock, knock, knock Penny' thing three times! Why didn't you do it Sheldon?" Penny broke down in tears. Sheldon grabbed her before she fell to the ground and carried her over to the couch.

"I'm sorry Penny. I didn't mean to make you cry. Like I said, I haven't been myself today. I don't really even know myself. Let me help you into bed, then I will leave you to your rest and maybe we can talk later."

"No! I don't want to talk to you anymore! You should just leave!"

"You should just leave! I can't believe you would do that to me Sheldon. All I ever wanted was you and you never wanted to be with me." She yelled at him with more anger in her heart than she knew what to do with. "No, Penny please! Please don't do this to me, don't do this to us! It's not your fault this happened to us!" "Sheldon I can't even stand looking at your face anymore. Just go, and don't come back. It's over." She took her ring off and threw it at Sheldon. "Penny this is your engagement ring. I want you to keep it." Sheldon came too from his flashback with Penny laying on his shoulder sound asleep. He picked her up and maneuvered his way around her messy apartment and into her bedroom to lay her down.

Sheldon made his way back to his own apartment to contemplate what happened to him in there. He barely even knew her and she had this effect on him. How can she bring back the dreams? He remembers those dreams all too well now. They were only dreams, though. His neighbor was beautiful, enticing, smart, and caring. He wasn't sure how he knew all that but she was bringing out something inside of him that made him wish he could remember her. He knew she was too good for him. From what he was told Sheldon Lee Cooper was a dorky and arrogant theoretical physicist that only cared about himself and his comic books. He stuck to bizarre schedules and carried hand sanitizer with him wherever he went. How could someone like her want to be with someone like him? Only in his dreams.

The next day Sheldon woke up more aware. It was officially a week from that fateful Wednesday morning. He thought maybe something in his office would help him remember if he looked harder. Leonard was all ready to leave when Sheldon emerged from his room dressed for the day. They silently walked to Leonard's car, Sheldon hoping to catch site of his blonde neighbor before they departed from work. He scrolled through his phone hoping to find Penny's phone number. He wanted to text her to make sure she as okay after her episode last night. He immediately received a reply.

You don't remember do you?

No

We need to talk.

When Penny? I would like that very much.

She still hadn't responded to him and it was almost lunch time. He knew not to text her again and that she would text him when she was ready to talk to him. He didn't tell Leonard about who he was texting that morning. He said he had texted his mother and told her how things were going, leaving out the retrograde amnesia part. His heart skipped a beat when he heard his phone vibrate in his desk. He still was unaware of what she was to him. Leonard had told him for a long time before Amy he wasn't into dating anyone. He wanted to win the Nobel Prize in physics and he didn't want to share germs with anyone. Leonard also told him the reason him and Amy broke up. Amy wanted a physically intimate relationship and Sheldon didn't want that. But the new amnesia Sheldon wanted that. He wanted that with his neighbor. He wanted to know how she'd feel in his arms at night, how she'd feel beneath him…his thoughts were cut off when his phone vibrated again Both texts from Penny.

Tonight.

Come over around 9.

Sheldon beamed with excitement. He hadn't seen her in almost twenty-four hours and he felt like that was too long. Sheldon dove into his work.

"Sheldon?" Leonard said.

"Oh, what?"

"Where's your head at? I just asked if you wanted pizza tonight. That's usually what we order."
"Oh yeah sorry. Pizza sounds good. Should we invite Penny?"
"Um… no, Penny doesn't really hang around us anymore."
"Why not?"

"You should ask her one day." One day will come sooner than Leonard thinks. The second Leonard and Sheldon arrived home, Leonard ordered the pizza and invited Raj and Howard to come join them. Sheldon fired off a text to Penny asking if she'd like to come over as well, but she declined. He had to remind himself he would see her in three hours so he could wait. After dinner Sheldon showered and put on the nicest clothing he could find.

"I haven't seen you wear that outfit in a while." Leonard said when Sheldon appeared in the living room.

"Is it bad? Penny invited me to talk to her tonight and I just wanted to look presentable."

"You look nice, buddy. When are you meeting her?"

"Well, is 8:59 right now, so in one minute. I think I'll wait outside her door and knock at 9:00 sharp."

"There's part of your formal Sheldon back." Leonard said smiling at Sheldon. "Good luck."

Sheldon walked over to Penny's apartment and knocked at 9:00 on the dot. Penny was finishing off her glass of wine when she heard him knock. It wasn't the three knocks like it used to be, but she could tell it was him. She walked over to the door and let him in, taking his hand and guiding him to the couch.

"Sheldon. You don't remember anything?"

"No. Amy Farrah Fowler said it was amnesia and that I might regain my memory and I might not. We won't know until it happens."

"Okay. Well let me tell you what went on between us." Penny looked Sheldon in the eye. His eyes were always her favorite part about him. From the moment she laid eyes on him, it was only him. Leonard tried so hard to please her that she felt like he needed a chance. Sheldon wasn't ready for her, and she wasn't ready for him. "Sheldon, sweetie. Nothing happened between us. Whatever anyone tells you, just remember that. You and I are just really great friends and we always have been"

"Oh. Penny are you okay? You seem sad."

"You look really nice. I didn't notice what you were wearing until just now." Why did you have to wear that outfit? She thought to herself. That was the outfit. The one that changed everything between them. It was the first time she had seen Sheldon in something other than a thermal undershirt and a superhero themed t-shirt. She helped him pick that outfit out.

"Should I have worn something different?"

"No, darling. You look great."

Sheldon went to bed that night unsure of what Penny told him. He didn't believe there was nothing going on between them. He felt it, and he knew she felt it. For now he decided to go along with what she was saying. He didn't want to push her too far. He pulled out his iPhone to text Penny goodnight but he never got a reply.

After Sheldon woke up and got dressed, he and Leonard exited the same door to descend the same staircase as they always have, but as Sheldon walked out the door he froze in his tracks. Penny had her door open and was bringing a box full of things out of her apartment at the same time.

"Penny, what are you doing?" Sheldon asked.

"I'm moving, Sheldon."

"Where are you going?"

"I found a place in Los Angeles by the TV station I am interning for."

"But…why?"

"It's time to move on Sheldon." Penny looked at him with pain in her eyes. "I don't want to answer any more questions. I have more things I have to do. Goodbye." And with that Sheldon's blonde dream marched passed him and Leonard to descend the cold stairwell. The scent of Green Apple followed her as she disappeared behind the corner.

"We won't see her again will we?" Sheldon asked Leonard avoiding eye contact.

"I don't know anymore." Sheldon could hear it in Leonard's voice. It didn't need to be said. This day would mark the last day Sheldon would smell Penny Queen's strangely familiar scent. Giving her enough time to go, Sheldon and Leonard followed Green Apples all the way down to the door where it disappeared as they exited the building.

"What happened, Leonard?" Sheldon finally asked breaking the uncomfortable silence on the drive to CalTech.

"Look Sheldon, I can't tell you what happened. None of us really know what happened to you two. One day you were happy, she was breaking you out of the shell you cocooned yourself in, and the next you came home from her apartment and never spoke her name again. All of this happened three months ago. I think your brain finally had enough of you pretending like nothing happened that it just made it so, to you, nothing did happen. I wish I could help you figure out what it was, but I just don't know. Only Penny knows now."

"And she's gone for good." Sheldon finished. He knew she would never tell him what happened. Now that he didn't know he knew she just wanted to forget. Sheldon never wanted his memories back more than he did now. He pulled out his phone and texted Penny.

Please don't leave.

She heard her phone go off and picked it up off the passenger seat to check who it was. Sheldon. She knew he didn't understand what happened because she told him it was nothing. But it wasn't nothing. That day was the worst day of her life. When she learned he didn't remember anything she wanted him to forget about her. She needed him to forget.

I'm Sorry.

She replied back. That's all she could say to him. She wished that day hadn't happened. She spent so many nights crying herself to sleep wishing Sheldon would come back to her and tell her everything was going to be okay. He never did. He always respected what she told him and when she told him she never wanted to see him again she should have known he would do as she wished. That's what she loved so much about Sheldon Cooper. He challenged her every day to become a better version of herself, but he never pushed her. He always respected her boundaries. All she could do now was hope his memory never returned. She wanted him to stay free of all the pain she put him through. She loved him too much to wish he remembered.