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A flash of gold catches her eye. Mary Cooper looks up from the dishes in her sink in time to see Penny race by her window, her hair streaming out behind her. Penny is screaming but her face is all smiles. She is holding a water gun. Sheldon comes bolting into view, also armed with a water gun. Mary smiles and shakes her head as she scrubs a pan. Those two, she thinks, playing games like they were still twelve years old.
“Sheldon, I am warning you…” Penny’s voice comes through the open window.
Mary looks up again and pauses in her washing. Sheldon is standing right in the center of her window. Mary tilts her head as she views her son. Sheldon is staring at Penny who has a clear shot at him, but whose laughter prevents her from taking it. The words come unbidden to Mary’s mind.
But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
Mary’s eyes narrow. Never in her life did she ever witness Sheldon look at anything other than a whiteboard with such intensity and…longing. The rest of the quote Mary whispers under her breath:
“If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.”
The sun frames Penny all around. Her hair is streaked with platinum. Her skin is golden and far too much of it has been on display lately, in Mary’s opinion. Sheldon steps toward Penny. To Mary’s horror, he actually licks his lips! His steps are slow and measured as he closes the distance between himself and the little girl he’s been friends with for years.
Little girl, Mary chides herself. Penny has graduated from high school; Sheldon has been an adult from the time she weaned him. Mary must stop thinking of them as children. Still, they have been spend far too much time together this summer. Alone. Unsupervised.
Don't lust for their beauty. Don't let their coyness seduce you. For a prostitute will bring a man to poverty, and an adulteress may cost him his very life.
Mary jumps as if the words were spoken out loud. The Book of Proverbs? She hasn’t read it in years and yet the words are as clear as a bell.
“Shelly!” Mary calls through the open window. A little distraction is all they need. Just then, Penny darts off with Sheldon in full pursuit. Mary hears another high-pitched scream so she runs to the front of the house. Penny is shooting water at Sheldon for all she is worth. The screaming is coming from her son.
Mary chuckles once more. Oh, Sheldon. Always thinkin’ he’s smarter than the rest. Good thing he has Penny to knock him down a peg or two. Mary returns to her dishes in the sink. Sheldon is in the backyard again; his Flash shirt is plastered to his body by water and he is breathing heavily. Penny appears and stops short when he raises the garden hose at her
“Remember Sheldon, who drives you everywhere,” Penny holds both hands in front of her. She starts to back away. “Who protected you from the bullies?” Penny’s voice has undertones of desperation; Sheldon places his thumb on the lever of the nozzle. “Who ate lunch with you everyday?”
“That was out of your fear of being ostracized.” Sheldon counters.
“True!” Penny is pleading with her eyes, “But I still kept eating with you even after I really was ignored by everyone.”
Mary watches this exchange between the two of them, fascinated. She had always questioned this little relationship of theirs. She was no fool - Sheldon, as much as she loved him - was a misfit and Penny was clearly not. Yet, they had been friends for years through all the ups and downs of adolescence, through all the arguments and Penny certainly could put up with her Sheldon even better than his own family at times. As for Sheldon, Mary never saw him act the way he did with anyone else but Penny.
“I am sorry, Penny but this is one of my favorite shirts and, for that you must pay.”
The water hits Penny full blast and her shrieks could shatter glass. Mary is on her toes watching Sheldon advance on Penny, angling the hose so he soaks every possible inch of her. Penny keeps walking backward until she turns the corner of the house. Penny’s screams have stopped along with the hiss and rush of water. Mary starts to walk to the other window but stops. She was young once, too.
She considers Sheldon and Penny as she pours two glasses of lemonade for them and puts some cornbread on a plate. Sheldon does say the universe is a mystery. The screen door slams and the two of them enter the kitchen. Water drips from the angles of Sheldon’s elbows and the curls of Penny’s hair. Mary clucks at them and hands each one of them a towel. Penny smiles and blots her hair for a few minutes. Sheldon doesn’t seem to know where to begin. Mary carries their snack over to the kitchen table. Once again, words Mary learned in Bible school long ago come to mind.
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Mary’s eyes soften as Penny stands on her toes and begins to blot the water off her son’s face.
X
“Junior,” Mary is making a shopping list, “Do your momma a favor and go in the den and see what all your brother and Penny are doing.”
Junior looks up from his half-made olive loaf sandwich. He looks over at the clock on the stove then squints at the calendar on the wall. His mother continues with her list and he lays slices of cheese in a diamond pattern on top of the deli meat. Sheldon isn’t the only one around here with food quirks.
“It’s Saturday night, Momma,” Junior plops yellow blobs of mustard on top of the cheese. “They’re in there watching one of Sheldon’s science movies. Penny’s probably droolin’ on his shoulder right now.”
“Exactly what I’m worried about,” Mary mutters as she scans the dairy page. Junior sighs and puts down his sandwich. He walks toward the doorway that leads to the hallway to the den.
“Hey, Shelly! Are there two sets of feet on the floor in there?”
Mary slams her pen down on the table.
“What an absurd question,” Sheldon’s voice drifts into the kitchen. “Where else would our feet be?”
“Dunno,” Junior shrugs. “One pair could be up on your shoulders for all I know.”
“George Junior!” Mary hisses as Penny’s braying laughter is heard followed by: “I’ll explain in a minute, Sweetie.”
“Y’all leave room for the Holy Ghost in there,” Junior waggles his eyebrows at his outraged mother.
“We will,” Penny sing-songs.
Junior picks up his sandwich and joins his mother at the kitchen table. He beams a smile at her frown.
“Satisfied?” He asks.
“I oughta take the strap to you,” Mary growls.
Sheldon keeps his ear cocked toward the kitchen. When he hears the murmur of conversation between his mother and his older brother, he gives Penny a lazy smile and bends his head down to her bare breasts once again.
X
Wyatt shakes his head as Penny clatters down the stairs. His eyes follow her as she skips into the kitchen and pulls the extra keys off the key rack by the door.
“Where ya goin’ Slugger?”
Penny’s brows draw together as she faces him. “Why, Dad, I didn’t realize you were home this morning.”
Wyatt ignores the barb. Penny never made any secret of her hostility toward him and his life outside the home. Tommy, like his mother, ignored it but Penny never missed a chance to throw it in his face. What she failed to understand is he is the adult and doesn’t have to answer to her.
“I asked you a question, Penny.”
She doesn’t even bother to hide the eye roll this time, “I am going to pick up Sheldon and then I am going to work the lunch shift.”
Wyatt looks at his watch then takes a slow sip of coffee, “Little early for a date.”
“Not if we’re going out for breakfast,” Penny counters.
“Let me ask you something,” Wyatt leans back in his chair. “Sheldon is supposed to be so smart - builds a CAT scanner and all that - how come he doesn’t drive?”
Penny crosses her arms. Her cheeks visibly redden. She clicks her tongue before answering her father.
“He doesn’t drive because he can build a CAT scanner. He can’t get past the science of driving. He calculates rates of impact and stuff in his head which distracts him from paying attention to the road.”
Wyatt listens to her explanation, each word spit out between her clenched teeth. The keys jangle against her hip in time with her words.
“You ever gonna get tired of defending him, Pen?”
“Christ, Dad! What is this all about?”
“You two are an odd fit. It doesn’t make sense to me and just about everyone in this town.”
“Oh, you suddenly care about what people in this town think?” Penny’s eyes are glittering with malice.
“You watch yourself, young lady, or you’ll be walking everywhere like that freak you hang out with. I make the car payments around here.”
Penny walks over to the kitchen table. She slams the keys down in front of her father then heads right out the door.
X
When Penny arrives home after her work at the diner, sweat is running in rivulets down her back. She ended up walking home because there was no way to get in touch with Tommy and the thought of Sheldon picking her up on his ten speed was too embarrassing for words so she trudged home in the blistering heat.
She can feel the silence in her house the moment she steps inside.
“Mom?”
The interior of the house is cooler - her mother pulled the shades at some point and left a fan running. Penny stands in front of it, letting the breeze kiss the sweat from her body. She walks to the kitchen. She reaches into the fridge for a can of Coke; the note clipped to the door flutters to the ground.
It is from her mother, telling Penny that her parents have gone out for the evening (Daddy got theater tickets!). Penny’s eyes flick to her mother’s car in the driveway and her mouth sets in a firm line. She thinks about the argument with her father this morning. She remembers the many, many nights Wyatt didn’t come home and her nose wrinkles when she recalls how her mother welcomed him back every single time.
“Doormat,” Penny mutters and places her Coke on the counter. She needs a shower before she can decide what she’ll do with the rest of her evening.
X
“So, what movie did you bring?” Penny turns to him, her smile bright in the dim light of the den.
“Me?” Sheldon touches the exploding computer image on his chest. “I thought you were providing the evening’s feature film.”
“Sheldon, I specifically said: “Come over tonight and we’ll watch a movie.”
“But you didn’t specify that I was the one to bring the movie.” Sheldon spreads his arms wide. Penny pushes off the couch and begins pacing in front of the coffee table.
“Well, I guess we could go out to a movie - Mom left me her car,” She muses. “Or, we could watch TV but there really isn’t anything on…”
Sheldon tilts his head as she continues to whip back and forth in front of him. Her blond hair is striated with platinum from the summer sun. Her skin is smooth and golden and every turn she makes sends a waft of honeysuckle mixed with the scent that is uniquely Penny his way. His eyes track her movements as she digs the newspaper out of the trash to check current movie listings, lingering on the way her black shorts hug the curves of her backside. It occurs to him as Penny reads off movie times to him that he has never felt this level of attraction to any other woman or girl who has crossed his path.
In Austin, he was inundated with myriad forms of visual stimuli from the opposite sex and while he most certainly looked and could understand why some coeds were deemed more desirable than others, not one of them held his attention the way Penny did. As Sheldon grew to maturity on the campus, some of the female students became more overt in their attention to him (particularly if they were in one of his classes and even more aggressively so if the girl was a student in his TA section with a low GPA) but he rebuffed them easily and soon garnered a reputation for being “a waste of time.”
“Any of those movies tickle your fancy, Dr. Cooper.” Penny gazes at him from the armchair.
Sheldon looks around the room as if he’s never been there before then settles his gaze on Penny. Her lips are shiny with some type of light purple gloss and there is a thin gold chain circling her left ankle.
“I prefer to stay in.” Sheldon answers and his reply surprises him as much as it does Penny whose eyes widen. A slow smile breaks across her face.
“Ok, Sweetie. Should we watch TV?”
Sheldon nods and Penny crosses the room to sit next to him on the couch. Her proximity causes a flush to stain his cheeks. During the Fall semester, Professor and Dr. Ricks (with whom Sheldon still resided, preferring the house to the germ-laden dorms) held an Oktoberfest open house.
Graduates students, faculty and visiting faculty all filled the home. Sheldon did his best to remain on the perimeter, but one visiting professor (Dr. Sanborn from Toronto) would not leave him alone. She was constantly in his line of vision, brushing up against him as he went to the table for food or working her way into circles of people where Sheldon was trapped in conversation.
Finally, he escaped to Professor Ricks’s study and threw himself on the sofa. She followed a short time later to his dismay. He tried to engage her in scientific discussion but her hand on his thigh followed by her fingers running through his hair left him stammering and fidgeting with discomfort. His mother always taught him to be polite to his elders and he could see no way to extricate himself from this woman without employing the height of rudeness.
“Exactly how old are you, Dr. Cooper?" She purred; her aqua eyes lit with an expression Sheldon could not place.
“Eighteen, ma’am,” he replied and shifted farther away.
“So young,” Dr. Sanborn murmured, “With so much to learn.”
“I am continuing my studies by pursuing a second doctorate.” Sheldon offered as Dr. Sanborn leaned even closer to him. He was saved from falling over the side of the couch by Professor Ricks bursting into the study.
“Sheldon!” His mentor’s eyes darted from Sheldon pinned in the corner to the woman leaning over him. “Is everything okay?’
Sheldon used the brief distraction to scramble off the sofa; Dr Sanborn smoothed down her skirt and stared at the floor.
“Sheldon, please bring this out to the wet bar,” The professor handed him a bottle of scotch, “while I speak to Dr. Sanborn."
Sheldon lost no time fleeing the study. Shortly after, Dr. Sanborn came striding out and left the house without a backward glance.
“What are you thinking?” Penny gave him a gentle poke in the ribs.
“I was reflecting how being this close to any other person, my family included, causes me great physical distress.”
Penny begins to draw away, but Sheldon grabs her hand to pull her closer.
“Except you. It has always been this way with you and I suspect it always will be. I can tolerate physical contact from my family but from you,” Sheldon looks down at their joined hands for a moment.
“Yes?” Penny ducks her head to catch his eyes. When Sheldon looks up, their lips are perfectly aligned and, though he’s kissed her many times this summer, he is always taken aback by how much he wants to again and again.
Instead of answering her, he presses his lips to hers. Penny’s hand tightens around his and her other hand reaches up to cradle the side of his jaw. Sheldon slides his free arm around her waist and Penny climbs into his lap.
“Sheldon,” she whispers, opening her mouth to trace his lips with the tip of her tongue. Sheldon keeps one arm around her waist but snakes the other up between her shoulder blades. His fingers tangle in the curls spilling down her back. Penny rolls her hips against his; Sheldon tugs her head back, exposing the arc of her throat to his lips and teeth.
The couch creaks in the silence of the house and the only other sounds are the small gasps that come from Penny as Sheldon works his way down from under her ear to the curve of her shoulder or when he pulls her hips into his again.
Penny’s lips leave his and Sheldon watches as her hands roll her shirt off her. She shakes her head; the curls spring around her shoulders and Sheldon reaches up to twirl one around his index finger. Penny smiles when Sheldon releases the curl to let his finger trail over the curve of her breast. His hand slips around to the clasp of her bra. That’s where he fumbles. He can feel the tremble in his fingers; his nerves, in this moment, are getting the better of him. Then, Penny’s hands are working with his and she is freed of the lace and satin.
Sheldon pulls her mouth back to his and his other hand runs up her arm and over her exposed breast. Penny’s tongue stroking his sends shivers down his legs; inexplicably, one of his legs jiggles, bouncing her up and down. They both laugh for a moment before their mutual need consumes them again. Penny’s hands are little mad creatures pulling and twitching at his double shirts until she has him as bare-chested as she is.
Penny doesn’t speak again until Sheldon has her reclined on the couch. Both of them are naked from the waist up, though Sheldon’s pants are undone. Sheldon bends his head to run his lips over her breasts again. His senses are on overload and his ears pick up every noise she makes from the smallest purr to the hitch in her breath now, as he pulls at the zipper of her shorts. She is a blend of heat and softness. His hand peels open her shorts; Penny’s hips rise into his and Sheldon curls his fingers around the waist band to take them down.
“Sheldon,” Penny’s fingers grip his bare shoulders. “Wait. Wait.”
Sheldon leans on his elbows, still covering her with the length of his body. There is no where he would rather be and the thought does not surprise him. What does now is his complete and utter lack of nerves. He feels no hesitation, no trepidation over what they are about to do. He traces her eyebrow with his index finger and leans in once more to savor the feel of her lips on his.
“Are you sure?” Penny’s eyes are dark forest green. Though she is questioning him, her hands have pushed his grey plaid pants past his hips; her shorts have already been tossed to the floor and he is doing his level best not to send her pink panties after them.
Sheldon doesn’t trust himself to speak now. Is he sure? Sheldon has been nothing but a paragon of certainty from the moment his eidetic memory kicked in. He has been certain of his life’s goal, his research and his abilities but all of that pales in comparison to the utter and complete certainty he feels when in the arms of the girl beneath him. From the first moment Penny sat at his lunch table, Sheldon has known that his life would be irrevocably twined with hers. He will have it no other way.
Penny is questioning him with her eyes. Sheldon hooks his first two fingers onto her panties and slides them down. Penny is reaching between them.
“Oh, God, Penny,” Sheldon kisses her deep and long, holding himself back from her.
“What’s wrong?” Penny whispers. She undulates beneath him and Sheldon grips the sofa cushion as Junior’s off-hand remark comes back to him.
“I don’t have… I didn’t think...we aren’t...”
Penny’s brows draw together before the light of realization fills her eyes.
“Sheldon, I...I went on the pill once I turned eighteen.” Her cheeks are scarlet. “I wanted to be prepared in case we ever,” she shrugs and looks away. “But,” her voice is firm now, “If it will make you feel better, I know the exact drawer in Tommy’s room where he keeps...”
He locks his blue eyes with hers and Penny gives him a wry grin.
“They’re in the dresser, bottom drawer in the back,” she sighs. He runs up the stairs as if every bully he has ever known is after him. The drawer is a confused jumble of clothing, magazines, mismatched socks and a few random pairs of dice. Sheldon’s fingers touch cardboard and he pulls out a few foils squares before flying down the stairs again.
He practically swan dives onto the couch again. His lips land on her neck and he kisses her until she is mewling beneath him once more. Penny’s eyes widen at the amount of condoms clutched in his palm.
“Someone has a very high opinion of himself,” she raises an eyebrow. Sheldon can feel the blush rising in his cheeks. Penny laughs, “Do you need some help?”
He shakes his head and feels her hands pushing at the waist band of his underwear. Despite his denial, her fingers twine with his to roll the latex down.
Her legs fit perfectly around his. The couch rubs against his knees; Penny’s nails bite into his back once, twice and then he is closer to her than he ever imagined. His eyes close at the warmth around him, a thousand times more encompassing than the heat of a Galveston summer. Penny moves beneath him and Sheldon pulls her close. Their hips aren’t in sync but he can’t stop thrusting, won’t stop long enough to adjust the alignment. He buries his face in the curve of her shoulder. Penny holds him tighter. His head clears just enough to realize she is whispering to him.
“Sheldon, oh, Sheldon. This...this...it feels.” Then she is moaning and his hips pick up the pace of their own volition. Sheldon has never felt such a disconnect to his own body. His conscious thoughts are on hold but some primitive part of him seems to know just how to make Penny groan, writhe and gasp his name between her clenched teeth.
It is by no means perfect. At a critical moment, he slips out of Penny who actually growls in annoyance. Sheldon mumbles his apologies which sets off a fit of giggles in her and completely unnerves him. Sheldon begins to sit back up when Penny reaches for him, her expression wicked as she strokes him and guides him back into her once he’s ready.
Now, he’s got the timing down. Penny is matching him push for pull. Sheldon remembers three quick flicks of her earlobe with his tongue and once again, she’s doing that amazing growl of his name again. The couch has peeled the skin of his knees down to the stratum granulosum and he’s pretty sure his calf is about to spasm in the most vicious charlie horse known to man when Penny throws her head back. Sheldon slows for only a moment and then Penny is literally vibrating around him and his mind blanks and he’s pretty sure he shouted a four letter word that Missy tosses around with abandon but Penny is giving him a slow, lazy smile and Sheldon doesn’t think he’ll ever view a couch the same way again.