The Vacancy Problemation

Chapter 1

Penny stood in the lobby sifting through her mail in front of the apartment's mailboxes. When she heard the front door open, she looked up to see Amy walk in with a huge smile on her face.

"Hey Bestie!" Amy beamed with a wave of her hand.

Penny smiled back. "Hey Ames. What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at work? It is Thursday isn't it?" Penny responded, a little confused with Amy's mid-afternoon presence.

Amy nodded. "Oh, I'm here to pick up Sheldon. We're going to Reno for an extended weekend to see…."

Penny squealed excitedly, interrupting Amy and causing her to jump back a little in surprise. "Oh, that's right! You and Sheldon are going on a romantic weekend. Wow! So how did…"

Amy frowned and cut her off as they started up the stairs. "Oh, it's not what you would call romantic but it's going to be really exciting. First, we're going to go hear….."

As Amy droned on about the lectures her and Sheldon would be attending and the scientist they would hear speak, Penny frowned and rolled her eyes. She wanted desperately to change the subject and then smiled as she remembered the last Girls Night that had happened a few nights ago. She had purposely missed it because she just didn't want to deal with that bitch Raj was seeing. If it hadn't been for his big mouth, she and Emily would've probably become fast friends by now.

"So Amy, how did girl's night go? Did I miss any good gossip?" Penny interrupted her chatty friend.

Amy's smile instantly fell from her face and her step faltered on the stairs. She swallowed before answering. "Bernie had to work late so it was just me and Emily." Amy said quietly. Penny noticed the sudden change in Amy's demeanor and grew suspicious.

"So how did your night go with Emily? Did she say anything about me?" Penny asked, getting a little tense at the possible answer she was dreading. She didn't know why Raj kept bringing up their one night stand that didn't even amount to a one night stand. She wondered what Raj had told her exactly. If he hadn't told her the truth, she'd have to make sure Emily got the complete story.

But Amy remained quiet and seemed uncomfortable. Penny glanced down the stairs at her and frowned. "Amy?"

"My car should be alright. I had it serviced last weekend and I got a second opinion on its reliability yesterday afternoon. There's no reason why it should break down." Amy mumbled worriedly. Penny could see that she was clearly nervous.

"What?" Penny asked confused. "I asked you about girl's night. So what did you and Emily do?"

Amy glanced up but avoided Penny's eyes. "Oh, we just talked about how we met our boyfriends through a dating website." She looked around nervously before quietly adding, "And watched a movie."

Amy hurried up the last of the stairs and burst into the boys' apartment without knocking or being invited in. "Sheldon, I'm here. Let's go." Amy quickly headed to the kitchen and began to prepare a cup of tea for herself.

Penny slowly walked towards the kitchen as Amy went about making her tea, still refusing to look at Penny. "Out with it Amy. What did that bitch say about me?" Penny crossed her arms and glared at Amy. Even though Bernie and Amy always denied it, she knew Emily talked about her behind her back to her two good friends. There were only a couple of times all four of the girls got together and every time, there was heavy tension between Penny and Emily.

Amy looked up at Penny and quickly looked back down again. "We didn't talk about you. We talked about how we met our boyfriends and watched a stupid movie." She stated quickly. "SHELDON! Let's go!"

Sheldon walked out into the living room and looked at Amy with an annoyed look on his face. "Amy, you're early. We don't need to leave for another 5 minutes." He told her. He turned and saw Penny. "Oh, hello Penny."

"I hear you two are going on a long weekend trip together. Planning on losing anything while you're gone?" Penny teased with a smirk.

Sheldon gave her his famous haughty look of derision. "We will have adjoined rooms in a respectable hotel."

"Yeah, a hotel that's nationally known. Not one of those shady motels out in the middle of nowhere. Right, Sheldon? RIGHT?" Amy looked at him anxiously.

Sheldon and Penny both looked at her with confusion. "You know I wouldn't stay at an unknown hotel unless I had no other choice, Amy. I hope you're not trying to trick me into sharing a room with you. I already made our reservations and it's for two rooms." Sheldon looked at her sternly, holding up his first two fingers. "Two, little lady."

"Ok, good. As long as it's a national chain hotel that everybody knows. Good." Amy said. And in a small whisper that Penny was still able to catch, she added. "We'll be safe." Penny didn't know what to make of that last whispered comment. It didn't really make sense. But before she could question her about it, Amy was practically out the door.

As Amy walked out of the apartment, Sheldon followed behind. "She better not try anything this weekend or she's going to be getting another spanking." Sheldon told Penny before he closed the door behind him. Penny's eyes grew wide and when the quirky couple where out of ear shot, she giggled and made a mental note to ask Amy about any previous spankings when she got back.

After going back to her own apartment, Penny pulled her phone out of her back pocket. "Hey Bernie. It's me. How about you and Howard come over tonight and hang out with me and Leonard?" Penny smiled into the phone, hoping her plan would work.

As Sheldon and Amy drove down the highway, Sheldon talked non-stop about the scientists they would meet and the lectures they would hear. The more he talked, the more relaxed Amy was feeling. The last thing she wanted to think about was the girl's night she and Emily had had earlier in the week. She focused on listening to Sheldon so she wouldn't have to think about it. But it just made her more nervous thinking of the last time she watched a scary movie with the girls during a girl's night.

It had been a few weeks after Sheldon had returned from his train trip. She forgot the circumstances or whose idea it had been but the girls had decided to have a sleep over at Penny's and the guys had decided to sleep over at Leonard and Sheldon's. An hour or so after everyone had gone to sleep, Amy had woke up screaming from a night terror. After the third time of waking everyone in both apartments and hitting Bernadette in the face, everyone suggested she sleep with Sheldon so he could calm her down from the next episode if she had one.

Sheldon was absolutely furious and was convinced that it was a ploy on Amy's part to sleep with him in his bed. After everyone more or less called him an ass, said he was being insensitive, and finally telling him it was his duty as her boyfriend to comfort her in times of need, he agreed but told Amy that they would have to stay on their own sides of the bed and they would both have to stay on their backs so no "hanky panky" would happen.

To Amy's dismay, she didn't wake up screaming from anymore night terrors that night that she could remember. And instead of being mean and cold towards her the following morning, Sheldon had been nice and sweet to her. She never did question it and she avoided scary movies from then on. But when Emily suggested they watch the movie she had, she didn't know what to do. She didn't want to make the new girl in the group feel unwelcome and she tried to convince herself that she could handle it. She was a grown woman after all. Why should she be scared of some silly movie that came from Hollywood's imagination?

They were a couple of miles from the next town and Amy needed to stop and use the restroom. Before they pulled into town, Sheldon heard something hit the bottom of the car but didn't think anything of it. Since they were both hungry and Sheldon said the restaurant reminded him of a place he knew in Texas, they decided to stay and eat and then be on their way.

After their meal, Sheldon went outside and Amy stayed behind to pay their bill and use the restroom one more time. While outside, Sheldon noticed the fluid under Amy's car and went next door to the auto garage he had seen to find out if the car could be fixed quickly so they could be on their way.

As Leonard and Howard sat in the living room, playing a game on the video console, Penny and Bernie sat at the kitchen island, drinking some wine and talking about their day. Penny took another drink from her glass and eyed Bernie. "I think Emily was talking bad about me to Amy during the last girl's night." Penny stated.

Bernie looked at her for a minute, not knowing what to say. She looked down at her blouse and nervously started picking at it. "What makes you say that?"

"Well when I asked Amy about how girls night went…."

"Oh, Penny! Please say you didn't mention girl's night to Amy. You did, didn't you?" Bernie looked up at her with a concerned look on her face.

"Well, yeah. As soon as I did, Amy got all quiet and nervous. So I know something was said about me this time." Penny said defensively.

Bernie looked at Penny and sighed heavily. "Nobody said anything about you. The reason Amy got nervous when you mentioned girls night was because of the movie they watched. Emily didn't know."

Penny looked back at Bernie with confusion. "Didn't know what?"

"About Amy and scary movies."

Penny gasped and smacked her hand over her mouth. "Oh, man. What movie did they watch?"

Bernie looked hesitant. "The worst possible one under the circumstances. Have you ever seen the movie Vacancy with Luke Wilson?"

Penny shook her head. "I don't think I've seen that one. What's it about?"

Bernie took a deep breath and sighed. "While on a road trip, a couple's car breaks down in the middle of nowhere and they end up having to stay at this remote hotel and it turns out, the owners use it to make snuff movies. Emily thought it would be funny since Amy was going on a road trip with Sheldon and staying at a hotel. She really has a weird sense of humor." She added, shaking her head. She took another sip of her wine. "Anyway, Amy showed up at our place around 1 in the morning crying hysterically because she couldn't get any sleep. She kept having night terrors and came to our place so she wouldn't be alone."

The more Bernie told her, the more shocked Penny got. "Oh. My. God! Now everything she said and mumbled about earlier today makes perfect sense. She must be so nervous." Penny said, feeling concerned for the neurobiologist. Then she scowled, remembering Sheldon. "And that ass hat didn't make it any easier. Saying stupid stuff about them being in separate rooms….oh, God. Leonard! You need to call Sheldon and give him a heads up."

Just then, Raj and Emily came through the front door. "Hey everybody. Where's Sheldon? I need to talk to him about something." Raj said.

"Oh, and what could that be about? That your girlfriend scared the crap out of his girlfriend by showing her a scary movie?" Penny said sarcastically. She stood up from the bar stool and started walking over to the couple who had just arrived.

Emily looked down feeling ashamed. Raj took her hand in his and looked at Penny. "She didn't know and Amy didn't tell her." He said in his girlfriend's defense.

"Ok, what's going on exactly?" Leonard asked, standing up and prepared to stop whatever fight was about to go down.

After the group filled Leonard in on the events of the last few days, he sat down in his beige chair with his head in his hands. He was the only one who knew what Sheldon had been planning for this weekend and it wasn't looking good for him.

Bernie's phone started to ring in her purse. She looked down and quickly looked up at Penny in alarm. "Hey Amy….Amy? Amy, calm down. I can't understand you. What do you mean Sheldon's missing?"

Penny looked over at Leonard in alarm. "Call Sheldon and find out what's going on. Amy's on the phone with Bernie and she's screaming and crying and she can't get her to calm down."

"Oh, man!" Bernie exclaimed loudly.

Penny turned to her suddenly, getting really worried when she saw Bernie looking down at her phone. "What? What happened?"

"I don't know. The call just ended and I can't get her to answer her phone now when I call her back. I just get her voicemail." Bernie said with a worried look on her face.

Emily, feeling guilty, ran out of the apartment in tears and Raj ran after her. Leonard grabbed his phone and dialed Sheldon's number.