Author's Note: With no further ado, let's dive right in, shall we? Reviews are golden ;-)

Previously on The Transgression Acclimatization...

"I am going to need your assistance," Sheldon repeated, one brow raised at the in comprehensive blonde in front of him.

"Sure. What can I help you with?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to help me set up an announcement. I will have to start looking for a new roommate soon," Sheldon said, stubbornly?"

"I'm sorry ... WHAT?"

There had been numerous instances in which Penny had been at a loss for words. The moment when there was just no proper way to respond to a thing someone else said, someone else did or that just happened ... the sheer inability to comprehend and process the sentence she had just heard left her empty and befuddled, especially after the request her friend Sheldon had just made. She was gobsmacked, the highest possible level of gobsmacked.

"I am sorry ... but ... what?" she pressed out, her voice strained from holding back a furious cry of disappointment.

"It's the only logical choice," Sheldon said, matter-of-factly. He stood in the doorway, no emotions visibly displayed on his face but Penny just knew better. She knew him way better than he may know himself.

"No, sweetie, it's not," she said calmly and ushered him inside. He followed her into the apartment and sat down on his usual spot on her couch. Just in that very moment Leonard emerged from Penny's en-suite bathroom, drying his hair with a towel.

"Penny, have you seen my inhaler? I must have forgotten it in the living room somewhere?" Leonards voice sounded strangled from under the towel and he rubbed his scalp a little harder as he waited for her to reply.

"It's right here, sweetie," Penny said and handed the inhaler to her fiancée. It was just then that Leonard noticed his roommate sitting on the couch.

"Everything ok, buddy?" he asked, looking at Sheldon.

"Of course, why would I not be okay?"

"That's not what I asked..." Leonard said and then spotted the way Penny was now leaning against the kitchen counter, arms folded in front or her, a stern look on her face. This automatically alarmed the reserved physicist and he shot his fiancée a questioning smile. Penny nodded and smiled at him before she turned toward Sheldon and said:

"Sheldon, sweetie, I think it is time for us to sit you down and talk to you about some things..."

"I don't think that's necessary," Sheldon said, brows furrowed in confusion, "how many times do I have to tell you that the things that I need to know ... I know already. I don't see the point ..."

"The point is, Sheldon, that you can't possibly be looking for a new roommate," Penny interrupted his too monotone appraisal of his own abilities, "besides ... did it never occur to you that apart from a random stranger that might show up when you start looking for a new roommate there might be someone else that would be willing to move in with you?"

"I still don't see how that's not a good idea, Penny, since Leonard was a random stranger once, too! And look what he has become!" Sheldon turned around and beamed at his best friend, clearly fully oblivious to the point that Penny was trying to prove.

"Listen buddy, I don't think that's the point here..." Leonard repeated and tried to save the day but unfortunately Sheldon still didn't get the too subtle hints that there was an all too obvious problem with the roommate idea.

"Well, then why don't the two of you start telling me what the point is instead of beating around the bush like hippies around a sixties campfire!" Sheldon pressed out, the fury at himself clearly audible in his strained voice. Whenever situations like the present occurred, he felt helpless and alone inside his great mind. Social conventions and patterns didn't make too much sense to him and he was still struggling to find the perfect way of co-existing with all these different people that confused him so, so very much.

Penny moved away from the kitchen counter and decided it was best to address the matter being on the same level as Sheldon was. So she sat down on the couch beside him and forced him to turn toward her. Leonard retreated slightly and fetched himself a bottle of water from the fridge. Penny still had a talent in not getting Sheldon skittish and he appreciated her willingness to broach the issue with him. He remembered one time that he had tried the same thing with the aid of an old-fashioned chess clock that was supposed to have them talk in equal proportions and required them to take turns. In retrospect it should not have surprised him too much that this had not turned out the way he had hoped it would. A shift of the attention from Sheldon and his problems to someone else's problems? Unthinkable.

"Sweetie, you can't possibly be looking for a new roommate when you ... and I can't believe I am saying this ... have a very impressive engagement ring hidden in your apartment!"

Sheldon sprang to his feet and turned to a abashed Leonard whose facial color suddenly turned to all shades of crimson.

"YOU! How dare you saying anything!"

"Relax, Sheldon, that is also not the point here," Penny had gotten up and gently pressed her hands into Sheldon's shoulders and motioned him to sit back down again.

"Well? Enlighten me!" Sheldon spat out, his eyes shooting daggers at his best friend.

"Sweetie, you don't get when you're being mean ... like ... ever," Penny stated and Leonard could not help but nod affirmatively, "and the part of your brain that is capable of understanding how mean you were is getting a wedgie from the rest of your brain, telling the responsible, socially aware part of you to shut up. Mostly that's fine and we are all used to it. Sometimes though, Sheldon, you cross lines. And judging from the fact that Amy flew to a conference in New York this morning ..."

Sheldon inhaled visibly and looked at his feet.

"... and you had no idea she wanted to do this, there must have been one line to many that you've crossed. Trust me, sweetie, you're going to have to buy a couple more rocks to make up for that," Penny concluded and looked at her friend.

"Rocks as in ..."

"Diamonds, Sheldon, diamonds!"

"I see."

"You see, Sheldon," Leonard carefully entered the conversation, desperately trying to avoid making his friend skittish and have him run away within the blink of an eye, "it is perfectly normal for you to think about several things at once because your brain is capable of doing it and you want to do it, right?"

Sheldon nodded, unsure where this was going.

"It's one thing to do that but it's another to be around with your girlfriend on your five-year-anniversary and then let the attention shift away from her. She will probably think you're incapable of focussing solely on her. That and your snarky side remarks you keep giving her to push her away ... I am afraid but you're the one who screwed this up, buddy..." Leonard carefully explained.

"You killed the mood!" quipped Penny and Sheldon made a face.

"That's what she said!" he mulled over the remark and mumbled unidentifiable words under his breath.

"We love you Sheldon," Penny said, her eyes starting to get teary, "and Amy loves you, too. She just needs to know she is appreciated, I think..."

"Appreciate them!"

Sheldon could have sworn he had not closed his eyes, yet he was back in the swamp land of Yoda's home planet, sitting on a stone, observing the mist in between the dark woods to emerge and retreat with any small whiff of air. The dampness of the air made him feel like he was close to the ocean and the sounds of the creatures lurking in the woods sounded oddly familiar.

"What am I doing back?" a familiar voice echoed through the small clearing and Professor Proton appeared, wearing the Obi Wan Kenobi bathrobe-type costume, carrying a light saber in his right hand.

"I am not sure..." Sheldon replied, despite being pretty certain as to why he had drifted off to a daydream in the middle of the day, triggered by something Penny had just said to him.

"Oh I think you know why I am here. And you know why you are here. Now ... why don't you tell me what happened so we can get this over with? I was so happily haunting my wife until you came along ... I wanna go back there as soon as possible," Professor Proton snickered.

"I am not appreciating them enough?" Sheldon asked, unsure.

"If you have to ask, what's the point?" the older men answered, still grinning.

"If this were so easy, I would have solved the problem already instead of escaping into a dreamworld swap land and talking to someone that is not even alive anymore ..." Sheldon hissed, immediately regretting his harsh tone.

"Fair enough," Professor Proton replied, sitting down next to Sheldon on the rock, "but we're still talking so it's not solved."

"Good point," Sheldon responded, his mind occupied with the search of a logical explanation to his latest escape to the Star Wars universe.

"Well, Sheldon, are you not appreciating them?"

"I am!" Sheldon replied all too early and the deceased child hero simply grinned a knowing grin.

"I don't think you are appreciating all of them...!"

"I am not appreciating her enough!" Sheldon almost screamed, blinked rapidly and turned his head towards Penny and then back to Leonard, both sat beside him on the couch now, looking worried and somewhat helpless. The daydream had made him realize that he had been, indeed, wrong. How could he have missed this? The truth glared at him from a poster the size of an advertisement hung at one of the casinos in Las Vegas.

"He got it!" Penny rubbed her hands and looked pleased.

"Sheldon?" Leonard asked.

"Yeah?" Sheldon answered, looking at his friend.

"You're not going to go look for a new roommate, buddy...?"

"No ... no, Leonard, I am not."

"Good ... good!" Leonard said, relieved that whatever happened in Sheldon's mind had let him to the right conclusion.

"I did kinda kill the mood, didn't I?" The physicist said and looked at Penny.

"If you guys were enjoying what you were doing and then you rambled on about how you are considering to start a new TV show ... yeah, probably. Why not enjoy it while it lasts? I am sure necking like hooligans under the school bleachers must have been fun..." Penny trailed off and judging from the small patches of pink color rising from Sheldon's neck, he had had fun alright.

"So ... what do I do now?"

Leonard and Penny looked at each other and smiled. The great Dr. Sheldon Cooper needed their advice. What a memorable morning indeed!

A little while later Bernadette had just finished paperwork on a new drug the company had put out for release when the telephone on her desk rang.

"Rostenkowski-Wolowitz?"

"Hey, it's me, Penny."

"Oh, hi Penny, you're not in today, are you?"

"Nuh, taken the day off," the former waitress replied lazily.

"What's up?" Bernadette asked. It was unusual that her friend called her at work, especially if Penny wasn't coming in on the same day.

"Listen, I need your help with something. But this is totally off limits for Howard or anyone else, are we clear?"

"As off limits as your ability of keeping secrets is?" Bernadette teased but the silence on the other side of the line got so deafening, she had to continue talking, "Ah, well, go on?"

"As I was saying, no Howard, no Raj, no Stewart, no Leonard and especially no Sheldon and no Amy..."

"Now we're talking? So this is going to be between me and you? Just the two of us?"

"You got it!"

"What is it then?"

"Listen, we gotta help Amy with something..."

The weekend passed by a lot quicker than Amy had imagined given the current state of her emotions. She had heard seven different talks on the brain functions, some of which were also her current field of study and especially one of the lectures had inspired to possibly tackle another angle in her studies, one she hadn't really taken into consideration earlier. On a professional level, Amy Farrah Fowler could be very satisfied with the outcome of the weekend, indeed.

On a personal level, not so much.

As soon as the evening hours approached, she got lonely, frustrated and sad. She missed Sheldon, despite being on a break from him. It almost ripped her heart out to know that she was on the other side of the country from where he was. Existed. Continued to live his life. Apart from her, alone. Amy knew that she had made the right decision. Staying with him for longer, in Pasadena, in California, would have meant equally as much pain and equally as much stress for her. The fondness for him would never be diminished, she was certain. But there was a limit to the pain she was willing to bear.

The level of tiredness she felt was getting to a point of no return. She was tired to explain to him, allover again, why she was disappointed, mad, sad, furious ... she was tired to explain how he attracted her and how she had to do a lot to keep it down in his company in order not to scare him away. She was tired of pretending she wasn't attracted to his very essence minus the constant bashing he never knew to control or to re-evaluate.

It had gotten to the point where she had to let Sheldon figure things out on his own.

Sending an application for the Mars mission without her knowing - not cool. Having to repeatedly tell Sheldon exactly this hadn't been the smartest and most considerate idea? Less cool.

Kissing him in a heated makeout session on the couch, wonderful, blissful, unforgettable. The mood killed by a remark on a new TV series and the question of whether or not to start watching it, totally not cool.

Maybe she had set her expectations too high. This was Dr. Sheldon Lee Cooper after all.

It would probably be another couple of years until they were finally on the same page.

The phone rang and a startled Amy needed a few seconds to come back around.

"Fowler?" She asked when picking up the phone in the hotel room she had rented until the day after.

"Hi Amy? This is Bonnie! From the airport! Remember?" a friendly voice quipped through the receiver and Amy's eyes widened. She had given Bonnie her hotel, but hadn't expected the quirky redhead to call her.

"Yeah, of course I do," Amy responded quickly.

"Listen, I realized you haven't booked an appointment at my cousin's spa, yet! I was wondering if you're still interested? I am done with all my appointments for today and I thought I called in to ask...?" Bonnie trailed off, expecting Amy to answer her queries. The latter did not know what to say at first and just opened and closed her mouth like a fish in a water tank.

"Uh, I ... I ... I would love to," is all Amy managed to press out.

"Wonderful! I have a driver pick you up in an hour?" Bonnie suggested and Amy nodded. When she realized that the other woman couldn't possibly have registered that, Amy said:

"Sounds great, I am looking forward to it!"

"You better! You'll be a different person as soon as my cousin is done with you!"

"I am not sure if ..."

"Balderdash! It's gonna be fun!" Bonnie laughed and after a short goodbye, Amy hung up. This evening had taken an unexpected turn, apparently...

Just as she was about to head out, her mobile phone chimed and indicated a new message. Amy retrieved her phone from her purse and looked at the message that had arrived. It was from Penny.

"I hope you're having a great weekend and the conference is very nice,
although I am sure there is little to nothing those weisenheimer can teach you.
You're most certainly smarter than all of them.
I hope you'll be able to understand brains sooner or later.
If you ever need help understanding the brain of a certain physicist,
there may or may not have been an intervention today.
Hold on tight. Can't wait to see you soon! xo Penny"

'An intervention?' Amy thought and re-read the message several times. What had Penny done now? She quickly typed a reply.

"Conference is great, learned new things actually.
Was invited to a spa tonight. Headed there now.
Can't say no to a free treatment, eh?"
Intervention sounds like it was necessary.
Tell me on Monday. Am off now. xo Amy"

"Amy has gone to a spa..." Penny said, re-reading the message several times.

"Well, good for her," Bernadette quipped and poured herself a glass of red wine.

"Who would have known. As soon as she is in a different city, Amy get's all girly without us..." Penny complained but grinned.

"She deserves to pamper herself," Bernadette said, "besides, she said she was invited, huh? No girl says no to a free trip to a spa!"

"You're probably right..."

"Of course I am right," Bernadette said and nudged her friend, "now, what are we helping Amy with?"

TBC