This felt familiar.

Face down in a puddle of drool? Brain about to explode? Vague sense of lingering humiliation?

Again, Penny? Really?

At least she'd had the sense to get changed before passing out last night...well, not exactly changed, so much as pulled off her clothes and hurled them angrily against the wall, in a kind of sulky, childish tantrum. Her pants had knocked over a lamp.

She dragged herself up and managed a quick shower, trying not to get her hair too wet. The hairdryer was not her friend this morning; that kind of noise was not welcome so close to her head.

She looked at the clock as she pulled on a pair of bottoms and a fresh t shirt. A twinge in her neck reminded her of the little accident with the car and her stomach lurched; any minute now Leonard was going to go and find her note and have some questions. She debated leaving him to it, and just avoiding him for as long as possible but finally decided he might get less mad if she apologised in person. She knew he wouldn't stay pissed at her for long anyway; his crush on her came in handy sometimes. The thought brought an immediate sense of guilt.

Jeez, this was all such a mess.

She still needed to face Sheldon. She was pretty sure he would just be confused and she could exploit that; a quick bit of maths told her she could probably get away with blaming pretty much all of this on hormones, although knowing Sheldon he'd probably want to use her for research on freaking PMT.

She felt the pit at the bottom of her stomach expand slightly at the thought of just giving up on him, but he'd made it pretty clear he wasn't interested. So, the sooner she got this straightened out with him and they could go back to just being friends the sooner she would stop feeling crap. Probably.

It was time to bite the bullet. God knows she'd done this plenty of times; admittedly, it was usually just embarrassing 3am phone calls she was grovelling apologies for, but the principle was the same. She downed her coffee black, then headed across the corridor. She took a deep breath then plastered her best effort at a smile on her face, pushing open the door.

The woman from the club was in their kitchen.

Making pancakes.

Oh my God. Why was she here? Had she stayed the night...with Sheldon? What the hell?

She had a sudden, horrible image of the stranger in Sheldon's bed. That thought alone was like being slapped; when she thought of her in there with him she felt sick. She resisted the urge to start kicking ass and instead watched, open mouthed, as Leonard fussed around her, handing her utensils and ingredients. When he noticed Penny he froze, then quickly looked from one woman to another.

"Um, hey Penny." When she didn't reply he continued uncertainly. "This is Alex. She's...she's a friend of Sheldon's."

Alex looked up from mixing the batter just as Sheldon came out of the bathroom. He stopped when he saw Penny, then looked from her to Alex to Leonard, evaluating the tension in the room. Finally he spoke.

"Good morning, Penny."

She looked at him incredulously. The anger that she had buried the night before came flooding back, and she briefly wondered whether this was something to do with her hormones, because she was suddenly more pissed than she had ever been. She knew it was irrational and she knew it was none of her business who the hell he fucked...but right now, she didn't give a damn about rational. She rounded on him.

"Good morning, Sheldon?! Good morning?! That's it? That's all you've got to say?" She closed the distance between them and watched as he fought the urge to retreat from her anger. "Y'know, it was fine that you rejected me when I thought women just weren't your 'thing'. I could handle that, even if I wasn't totally convinced because I know what I felt that night and it was definitely interest." She looked at him pointedly and felt briefly smug as he blushed. She could sense Leonard opening his mouth to interrupt and whirled on him. "Seriously, not the time for this, Leonard. In fact, it's actually none of your damn business, so stay the hell out of it." She turned back to Sheldon. "And then, what? You're going on dates and making out with women you barely even know?! I mean, do you realise how insulting that is? To be rejected by you and then find out you screwed some random whore you picked up in a bar?"

From the corner of her eye she saw the woman glance at Sheldon. Penny mentally dared her to say something but she remained silent. Sheldon's jaw was set and his eyes were dark. After a long moment in which the only noise was Penny's breathing, he spoke tightly.

"Are you finished?"

The anger was dissipating as fast as it had appeared, and she felt the chasm inside her gape as she looked at him.

When she answered, her response was soft, resigned.

"You know what, Sheldon? Yeah. I'm finished."

Ignoring their stares, she turned and left.

...

As the door slammed, Leonard dragged his thoughts back from the awful place they had visited during Penny's speech. Sheldon had rejected her? What the hell did that mean? He looked at the other man; Sheldon was staring at the door, his jaw clenched. Leonard shook himself. That Penny had feelings for Sheldon was bizarre enough, but that Sheldon had had the opportunity to do something about it and had refused...? That was...mind boggling.

He watched as Sheldon appeared to come to a decision and stalked out silently after Penny, leaving Leonard and a vaguely bemused looking Alex.

"Sooo...I guess that was Penny."

"Um, yeah." He thought for a second. "She's not usually that crazy, though. And I'm pretty sure she didn't mean that whole whore thing." He gave her a weak smile.

Alex didn't look convinced. "So she's the reason I got the couch and he spent the night hiding in his bedroom?"

He was surprised, although he wasn't sure why; finding the cute redhead making breakfast in his kitchen had caused more than a little confusion, but he hadn't seriously considered that Sheldon had done anything with her. He imagined there would be some sort of a sign if Sheldon ever lost his virginity; possibly some manner of plague or pestilence and the four horsemen of the apocalypse setting up camp in the foyer.

"Really? Oh." He frowned. "I guess. You never really know with Sheldon. It could have been emotional distress, but then it's equally likely he just thought you were carrying a pathogen." He squinted at her. "You didn't sneeze or anything did you?"

She raised an eyebrow and resumed mixing her batter. "Not that I recall." She looked up and caught him glancing back at the door. "She was supposed to be yours, right? At least, that's what I'm getting from the way you look like you've just been kicked in the happy sack."

He started to protest but wilted under her gaze. "What? Nooo.....Well. Um, kinda. Something like that. I mean, it doesn't matter though. We're just friends, really. And if Sheldon likes her..." the thought caught in his throat, but he struggled on "...that's fine. And weird. But fine. I guess."

Alex was silent for a minute, watching him. He shifted uncomfortably. Finally she shrugged.

"Whatever. You got any objections to whore-made pancakes?"

...

Penny hadn't sat down. She had stormed about the lounge, picking up random soft furnishings and throwing them at the couch. It was that or cry, and she was done crying. She was done with him.

"Penny?" knockknockknock "Penny?" knockknockknock "Penny?" knockknockknock.

The banging on the door was loud, but she didn't answer; she threw a cushion at it instead.

There was a moment of silence after the impact and she waited for the next round of knocking. It didn't come. As angry as she was at him, she was nevertheless irritated that he had given up so easily. She had turned to go to the bedroom when she heard the door open, and stopped, her back to him. Hah.

"What?"

"I don't know what business it is of yours, but I feel I should correct you on one point. I didn't, as you so crudely put it, 'screw' her."

She could hear the distaste in his voice, and she revelled in it. She turned to face him.

"Oh, so what? You fucked her? No, wait...that's too dumb for Dr Sheldon Cooper, PhD" she mocked. "So, what? You 'engaged in coitus', right?" She could see him getting angry. It was childish, to wind him up, but it made her feel better.

"No. Alex slept on the couch."

The wind momentarily left her sails; she felt something leap in her chest and smothered it. Angry was better. Angry was less painful.

"Well why is Alex even here? One minute you're making out with her in a club and then she's sleeping on your couch? What the hell is that?" She closed the distance between them, arms crossed, and carried on. "What kind of man are you, Sheldon? I mean, she's hot. She sure seemed into you at the club. Why didn't you screw her? What's wrong with you?"

His eyes narrowed and he took a step forward. "Alex is here because she required a place to sleep after her so-called 'friend' had deserted her. If Raj hadn't found a woman drunk enough to let him dance with her, I would have insisted she stay at his instead. You know my dislike of having strange people in the apartment." She rolled her eyes, but he continued. "And there is nothing 'wrong' with me. I have been engaging in a social experiment. I think the question is, what is wrong with you that we are having this conversation? Because if this is, as I suspect, jealousy, then you should know it's very unbecoming."

"Oh, is it?" She took a step back. "Well, you know who doesn't find me 'unbecoming' Sheldon? Leonard. Actually, I might go and see what he's up to tonight." She went to push past him, watching his face for the evidence she wanted. In the end, it wasn't his face that told her she'd hit a nerve.

The feel of his fingers curling tightly around her wrist was enough to take her back to the night that started all this. It was like a flashback in its intensity; suddenly she was stood barefoot in his bedroom, feeling the heat emanating from him as he pulled her close, close enough to kiss. She realised she had replayed the moment over in her head a hundred times, but none of her fantasies had been this vivid.

This time, there was nothing sweet and gentle about his kiss. He pulled her to him and crushed his lips to hers, his hand going to the side of her face before burying itself in her hair, holding her firmly. For a moment she was frozen, then she kissed back, pushing against him, each fighting the other for dominance. She slipped her tongue into his mouth and felt his other hand tighten its grip where it had settled on her hip. He made a soft, completely involuntary groan and she pressed herself against him, her hands touching the flesh of his back where his shirts were riding up. The thought came into her head, unwittingly, that he was more experienced this time. Then the image of him in the club was there and she pulled out of his hold and stepped back, distancing herself as she breathed heavily. She looked up at him, taking in his flushed cheeks and huge pupils. He cleared his throat and crossed his arms protectively under her gaze. Her head spun, but she had a question she needed answering before anything else.

"Was that part of your experiment?"

He looked startled and his forehead creased. "No. Well, not exactly."

She raised her eyebrows and tried to keep her temper. "Not exactly? What do you mean?"

He shifted uncomfortably. "The experiment was to determine the nature of my feelings for you. Since our...previous encounter...I've found myself unable to stop thinking about you. I can't sleep, my appetite is reduced, and my abillity to concentrate is greatly impaired. Leonard even beat me at Klingon Boggle, although I'm still not convinced he wasn't cheating." He noticed her glare and continued hurridly. "Anyway. I wanted to know if the feeling was unique to you, and I am, in all things, a scientist. So I conducted an experiment." He couldn't meet her eye.

Klingon Boggle notwithstanding, she felt like the world was very gently shifting under her feet, as though someone was slowly but insistently pulling a rug out from underneath her. She tried to grab hold of her thoughts.

"Ok, so you did an experiment...what was with the kiss?"

He finally looked at her and gave a kind of half-shrug. "It was the result."

She stared at him with the horrible idea that her mouth was hanging open but feeling completely unable to close it. He waited, then when she didn't respond, he continued.

"You were the only woman to elicit both a physical and emotional response from me. Given how long it's taken for such a thing to occur, I believe the likelihood of there being anyone else out there who could achieve the same feat is exceedingly slim. Of course, your apparent jealousy aside, I will understand if you do not reciprocate. Although I must point out my eminent superiority over all of your previous mates, and..."

She cut him off, mid speech. "Sheldon, shut up." He stopped immediately and just looked at her. She reached out and placed her hands on his waist for balance, then stood on her toes and kissed him softly. She watched as his eyes flickered closed, then lowered herself down, resting her hands on his chest. She waited till he opened his eyes, and smiled up at him.

"I like you too, Sheldon. And this time I'm not just looking for...external validation."

He smiled, looking genuinely pleased, although she wasn't sure whether it was at the sentiment or that she had used his words. Either way, looking at him she felt a rush of something flood her chest. It threatened to overwhelm her, so she did the only thing she could think of.

She kissed him again, and marvelled at how you could feel a smile through a kiss.

...

The End.