It was another Anything Can Happen Thursday and the guys wanted to check out a new bar. Being above all that as he was Homo Novus, he decided he would rather stay in and enjoy a quiet evening.

He had settled down in his spot when he heard Penny crying out for him. "Sheldon! Sheldon, please hurry!"

Sheldon wasted no time and quickly ran across the hall after grabbing the key. He was about to knock when he could hear Penny crying in pain. He had never heard her in such distress and it was rapidly worrying him. He forego his knocking routine and quickly unlocked the door.

He was unprepared for what he saw next. Penny was laying on the floor curled up in a fetal position. She was wringing in pain. She turned over and raised a hand to him. Her voice was barely above a whisper. " Sheldon, my stomach hurts so bad. Hospital... drive me to a hospital. Please"

For the first time in a long time, he felt afraid. Afraid for Penny. This fear caused something to snap inside his head. He was now Sheldor and his Queen Penelope was in dire need of help. He quickly ran over and performed an initial assessment. From there he ran and grabbed her purse and car keys. Surprising her, he swooped down, picked her up and started carrying her down the stairs. On the way down, he could feel unusual warmth that was coming from her lower abdomen. When they got to lobby, he laid Penny down and checked again.

"Penny, I'm not a medical doctor but I feel that your appendix is on the verge of rupture based on the rapidly climbing temperature. It would be best to call for an ambulance. "

"I don't have insurance Sheldon and I can't afford the bill. Just drive me please. I know you don't..." Penny tried to say more but the pain was ramping up. She looked at Sheldon and through the tears, just nodded her head. Sheldon quickly pulled out his phone and dialed 911. They were there faster than Sheldon had anticipated.

Despite her pain, she maintained an iron grip on Sheldon's hand. For the second time that night, Sheldon felt fear. He was afraid to let go of her hand. Afraid that if he did, he would lose her. It wasn't until they got to the hospital that they were forced to let go. Surprisingly it was Sheldon that didn't want to release his grip.

He has an intense dissatisfaction to hospitals. Crawling with diseases, pathogens and who knows what else. Penny's condition however took greater precedence. A nurse had asked about his relationship to Penny. Sheldon indicated that he was Penny's durable power of attorney. Given the sudden appearance of the situation he did not grab the paperwork before they left. However they were filed with a well known law office down the street. Before leaving for the Artic, Penny and Sheldon were made each other Power of Attorney. Despite his attitude towards Priya, even Sheldon recognized that she was an extremely talented lawyer and had her everything. A wise move on his part as she found and revised a number of items that greatly enhanced everything.

What felt like forever, a doctor came out and escorted Sheldon to a private waiting room and explained that it was indeed appendicitis as he initially suspected and that surgery was needed. They were also fortunate that they came in when they did. A few more hours and things would have been dramatically worse. While the doctor was explaining everything, a nurse joined them. Penny had gone under for the surgery. While being prepped for the procedure, Penny gave the nurse the PennyBlossom she was wearing and told her to give it to Sheldon. The doctor and nurse excused themselves. On their way out, the doctor informed Sheldon that he has use of the private waiting room until Penny was assigned a room for overnight observation following her surgery.

Sheldon spent the next hour trying to contact the guys. When they saw it was Sheldon calling, they each turned off their phones. Each of them were all Penny's friend. Yet in darkest hour, they all rejected Sheldon's call.

The surgery, while successful, had some complications. There would be no lasting damage, but the doctors wanted her to stay an extra day for some additional testing and observations.

The guys came home later than they anticipated. They ran into some grad students and had a long but pleasant conversation about various Sci-Fi shows.

When Sheldon never answered his door, Leonard figured he was sound asleep. Whatever crisis he must of had, it couldn't have been that bad since there was no note or anything else.

The next morning Leonard woke up to an eerily quiet apartment. He tried to recall Sheldon's phone call the night before nothing came to mind so he continued getting ready for work. He still had some sort of lingering thought that he was missing an important detail. More of the call came back to him. Something about sick, hospital, urgent...

"Oh no, code Milky Green, code Milky Green!" And with that, he flew out the door to work. He was not dealing with a sick Sheldon today.

During lunch, the trio was talking about the great conversation they had last night when stop by.

"Gentlemen, I granted his vacation request time for today through next week. In my excitement to have a break from him, I failed to inform him that I still want the draft for his funding request . If you see him, please inform him."

They waited until he walked away.

"What the frak Leonard, I thought you said it was a code Milky Green."

"Even when he is sick, he still manages to provide me with a list of objectives to focus on. I didn't get anything from his this morning." Raj added in with a perplexed expression.

"Guys, I think we are missing out on the bigger picture here. If Sheldon is gone for vacation all next week, it going to be a glorious 'Anything can happen week' !"

"Bernadette's job is having some conference at headquarters next week so I'll be free."

"Sheldon is my boss. It not like him to disappear like this. What did he say last night?"

Leonard scratched his head a moment. He said something about hospital, sick and urgent. I figured he got sick. More so when I woke up and the place was quiet."

Howard piped in "Isn't his meemaw getting up there in age? Maybe something happened to her?"

Leonard got excited. "You're right. A few weeks ago his mom called saying something about his meemaw looking under the weather. It obvious he took off right away."

The three of them continued to make plans completely unaware that Sheldon was sitting by Penny's beside at the hospital.

Penny slowly opened her eyes. She still had some pain in her stomach but it felt different. Looking around the room, she was realized that she was in a hospital but has a fuzzy recollection of what happened since last night. She tried to sit up, but that caused her to moan in pain. Front the chair that she didn't see, Sheldon woke up shouting "Danger, Danger!" Seeing that Penny was awake, he quickly jumped up.

"Sheldon?! What are you doing here? What happened?"

Sheldon explained what happened from when she first started calling out for help. He explained staying with her and never leaving her side unless he was forced away by a doctor. Penny's eyes started to water up.

"Penny, are you in pain and discomfort? I shall call for the nurse right away!"

"Sheldon, no, well yes I'm in pain. You really are my Sheldor. I can't believe that you carried me down the stairs. I can't believe you would stay. I know how much you hate hospitals. Germs and all. "

"Penny, your well-being is a critical component of my well-being. Your were in distress and I could not stand the thought of prolonging it if I could help it. You have wormed your way into my every day routines. I have made many attempts to eradicate the disturbances, but have grown to anticipate them. In some cases I enjoy them. Despite your indulging of alcoholic drinks, you maintain a physique that would suggest optimal health and beauty."

Sheldon cheeks started to burn and quickly turned away. Even in her condition, Penny saw Sheldon blush. Granted it took a long time, years in fact, but she developed a 'Sheldon Filter' per se. Not counting the science stuff but the general everyday babble is something that Penny can effectively translate... for the most part. Seeing Sheldon blush and turn away like he did was enough to confirm the he did just say the he likes her more than he should and found her attractive. She wanted to press it a little more but decided to let it go for now. Changing the subject, she asked if the guys would be visiting later.

After explaining being hung up on and phones turned off, Sheldon really had no idea about the guys were enough to make Penny want to get out of bed.

"Penny, please. You are being held for observations. It would not be in your best interest to go Junior Rodeo. Though you have been promising to do so and I'm curious to what that actually entails."

For a person who schedules his bowel movement, having Sheldon here is a big deal for him. She was tired and still in some pain. Before long, she was asleep again. Sheldon, seeing her fall asleep, tucked the blanket up around her. He found a comfortable spot in the chair and fell asleep himself.

Later that night back in the apartment, Leonard realized his phone was off when he tried to order some Thai for him, Howard and Raj. Turning it on, he saw several voicemails from Sheldon. He ignored them all and called in the order. His craziness can wait.

Howard and Raj showed up a little bit later. "Bernie left this afternoon to visit with her parents over the weekend before her conference. She said that as long I have the place picked up before she gets home, I'm free to party all week! I was thinking that since Sheldon is not here, let go to Vegas. Since Raj and I were already going to crash here, we are already packed." Leonard agreed and quickly packed some stuff and soon they were off down the stairs.

"Hmm, that odd. Penny's car is still here. I haven't heard and seen from here all day."

"Leonard, you know that ship sailed, let get out of here."

Agreeing with Howard, Leonard opened up his car and they all loaded up.

Back at the hospital, Penny developed a slight infection at the surgery site. A round of antibiotic treatment would clear it up, but it meant she wasn't going to be released until Monday. Sheldon refused to leave her side anymore than absolutely necessary. It was only during testing when she was taken away did Sheldon dare leave to grab a bite to eat or whatever he needed to do. Just as soon as she was due back, he would be right back in the room waiting. She would have found it annoying a few years ago but now found it a little endearing.

The guys returned from Vegas Sunday night. After food, gas and hotel, they did manage to come out a little ahead. Parking his car, he realized that Penny's car hasn't moved all weekend. He started to wonder if Penny left with Sheldon. As much as he claimed to have loved her, even he could see that their relationship was not going to work. From the very first day, he saw the sparks fly between her and Sheldon. Them two had more chemistry together. After all the two of them had done over the years, they were practically dating. Heck, they acted like the old married couple quite a bit. Leonard chuckled a bit wondering if they would ever admit it. And thinking of Sheldon, even from the train, he would have checked in by now. Looking at his watch and calculating the time zone difference, he should have arrived in Texas by now. Unless there was a delay or two. Realizing he has to be at work the next morning, he pushed everything out of his mind and made he way upstairs.

Late Monday morning, Howard and Raj burst into Leonard's lab.

"Dude, we got a problem. Bernie just called. She been trying to get a hold of Penny all weekend. When I mentioned Sheldon and Penny taking off to Texas, she was confused because she had a workshop she was supposed to be at Friday afternoon. Worse yet, I checked the train schedules. Sheldon should have been in Texas already."

That feeling of missing some detail suddenly grew in size. Leonard pulled out his phone and called Mrs. Cooper. While yes, meemaw was sick, she had gotten better. She did not go to the hospital nor was there an urgent matter for Sheldon to run home.

"Guys, I really have no idea where Penny and Sheldon is."

Raj grinning ear to ear, "maybe they ran off to Vegas as well to get married!"

Howard grumbled about that being an impossibility. Leonard feeling rather sick pulled his phone back out and played Sheldon's voicemail message from Thursday night. His feeling of dread was soon justified.

"Really Leonard, you really must learn to answer your phone when it rings. I am fulfilling my duties as Penny's durable power of attorney. She is really sick and we are currently at the hospital where she is undergoing emergency surgery for appendicitis. It is urgent that you come right away."

The door to lab had barely closed before the guys were halfway down the hall.