The Penny Paradox

 

Hi! Hope everyone had a lovely weekend! Here it is the next chapter. Thank you to the people that took the time to review!!! I totally loved reading them. Enjoy and review!

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Chapter Seven

 

 

            It was night by the time they reached the last part of the dream. Penny was exhausted and her throat hurt to speak. She wanted to lay down and forget she could by memory write down the formula that would make or break a career. She wanted to dream of becoming a star and winning awards and…

            No, she thought, it wasn’t going to happen. Waitressing to pay the bills and auditions were fine and well, but was it enough? The only answer she had was a resounding no. And that, she reasoned, was why it had hurt as much as it did to quit the Cheesecake Factory. It was not only acknowledging that stardom wasn’t going to be happening for her, but accepting it as well. What now?

            “What?” Leonard asked. “What was that?”

            She blinked up at him. “I spoke?”

            “Yes,” Sheldon murmured, coming over to her with a hot mug of tea. “This will help your throat. It sounds sore.”

            “Thank you,” she said quietly and proceeded to sip on it.

            Stretching Raj inquired, “How many more to go?”

            “Just one more,” she answered.

            This had them all looking to each other and back to her, waiting for what was coming next.

***

            She is now laying down on a powder blue and tan laminate floor that had seen better days. Penny felt exhausted. How could one feel so damn tired when they were in fact sleeping? She hadn’t a clue, nor at this point, is she curious enough to ask anyone with the know how. It felt like she had been walking for a year and something told her the journey was far from being finished.

            “How many times do I have to tell you that my lecture hall is not a place for proper sleep, Penelope,” Sheldon said as he walked into the room, turning on the lights.

            Squinting at the brightness, she tried to get up. But when she nearly fell back, she was caught by two strong hands.

            “My, my, I do believe you’re new here,” he said casually. “New comers are usually made quite tired by the travel. Come along, Penelope. That’s a girl, now sit right here.” He sat her down in the front row, kneeling so that he could look into her green eyes. “Hello.”

            She smiled at him. “Hi.”

            “I take it you’ve come a long way,” he stated to which she nodded. “I figured as much. And what have you to say about it?”

            “They will never believe me,” she murmured. “None of them. Chances are Howard and Raj will stop talking to me and Leonard will try to have me thrown into a funny farm…”

            “Nothing funny about those,” he muttered.

            “Exactly,” she affirmed. “And you’ll just look at me like another little mind going off a big cliff.” She sighed heavily. “And in the end, it would have been for what? Nothing, because no one that I know of tends to listen to people they think are crazy.”

            He studied her a moment. “Very true that statement, but what if I gave you a gift to prove that you’re telling them the truth.”

            She snorted to herself. “It’s not like I can show them anything you give me. I can’t exactly take it with me.”

            Laughing he stood up and went over to the whiteboard. “This is a gift of thought. It can be taken over and shown just as easily as a napkin.” He smiled bigger. “I still have that, by the way.” He wrote out the formula, the equation in full along with the diagram. Putting the pen down, he looked over to her. “Do you know what this is?”

            “Haven’t a clue,” she replied, looking over to him. “Sorry, sweetie.”

            Smiling he said, “That’s fine, Penelope.” Looking over to it, he said, “That is what I’ve been working on most of my adult life…”

            “String theory? You did it? You came up with the answers you were looking for?”

            He nodded, making her give him a big smile.

            “That’s great, Sheldon! Congratulations!”

            “Thank you, darlin’,” he drawled, smiling just as big as she was. “It’s everything…” He held up his hand stopping her from getting up. “But it’s not the only thing that matters, Penny. It took me years to find that out. A lot of years and a lot of different Pennys coming and going for me to find that out.”

            “Have you…” she looked at the equation and graph. “Have you ever given this to any of the other Pennys?”

            He nodded. “That I did. Some took it and ran. Others turned their backs on it, wanting nothing to do with it.” Looking over to her, he caressed her face with lean fingers. “You’re the first to ever ask if you were the first to receive it though. I do believe I like that.” He went to his bag, pulling out a marker and handing it over to her. “Get to work memorizing it, Penny. If you need help or have any questions, let me know. I might step out from time to time, but I’m always here.” There were footsteps in the back of the room, calling his attention. “You better get to work. You don’t have much time.”

            She looked at the marker and discovered that it was a pink Hello Kitty marker for the dry erase board. Smiling to herself, she got to work.

***

            “He was the one I spoke to the most,” she said. “The one that listened to me complain about how my career was going no where and I didn’t know what to do about it. He made me promise to cut back, if not stop my drinking. Made me write that damn formula until I thought my hand would bleed for real. And he was the last one I saw before coming here.” She looked straight at Sheldon. “To you.”

            They all looked at her massaging her hands in a nervous gesture. Sheldon went over to her, taking them both into his own.

            “That’s it?” Raj asked, relaxing back. “Wow! What a ride!”

            “I need a drink,” Howard said, getting up. “Raj? Leonard?”

            “I’m beat,” Raj told him, walking towards the door. “I’m going home and crashing. What a day!”

            “I’m just…” He looked at them just sitting there saying nothing. “I could use coffee. Let’s go to Starbucks.”

            They sat there in silence for what felt like forever. Neither knew what to say or how to say it. Sheldon was never one to speak on personal matters having no clue what to say and Penny by this time didn’t want to say anything at all. And so they sat, holding and studying each other’s hands without uttering a word.

            Half an hour later Sheldon stood up, resolve in place and knowing what to do. Pulling Penny to her feet, he gently tugged her over to his bedroom, and shut the door behind them.

 

TBC...

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And there it went! Hold onto your horses, the epilogue is coming up next!