Earlier that evening, long lashes had finally parted and dimly gazed into the room. The colours were still there. Purple Potassium and Yellow Cilium were dancing, leaving Magnesium shines all over his white ceiling. The periodic table taunted him in giddy swirls, as muffled voices faded in and out. "I'm here to drive the train, …" he told them. Faraway voices were talking amongst themselves and took no notice of his announcement.

"How's he doing?"

"We're started him on intravenous antibiotics and will keep an eye on him."

"…. attention, passengers! We have a very full train today so please don't block the doors…"

"He'll be fine, he just needs some rest."

"Thank you, doctor."

Sheldon lifted his head to spy Andromeda standing in the corner of the room, looking at her Fitbit and tapping her foot impatiently. "… this train is about to leave the station. Please stand clear of the closing dooooors…," he trailed off as the darkness took him.

Meanwhile, Howard stopped Penny on the way out of door to press an envelope into her hand. "Sheldon will know what this means," he said. And then without a goodbye glance, she was on her way. Barely remembering the drive to the hospital, as the desire to see the person she cared about more than anyone, overshadowed all else. It didn't seem possible that she had once been in love with Leonard. Sheldon filled her heart completely and she knew that whatever the consequences to her friendships, or to herself, she would have to let him know. She would let everyone know. It wasn't until the blonde was yards away from the hospital door, having received admiring glances, that she realized she was still dressed for Date Night. Her pretty blue dress and high heels, which clicked along the vinyl floor, were a little out of place. Although this didn't bother her as much as the dawning realization of what she was about to walk in on.

Amy had won the dating experiment, and Amy was with him now.

She felt her footsteps slow, the terrible sense of loss flooded in. It had always been clear that Amy would win any competition to be a perfect match but she had allowed herself to hope. Knowing this hurt her heart so instead of striding into Sheldon's room boldly and with confidence, she found herself stopping by the door. Weary voices sounded down the corridor as an argument was in progress inside the room. "Sheldon, listen to me… just listen." Amy's familiar tone could be heard. "There's no need to decide now. Giving up your career just like that."

"It's n-not… just like that, I've always liked trains," his reply was almost inaudible and Penny's heart ached at how weak it sounded.

"But what about science?"

"Oh yes," he spat. "The great betrayer!"

"Sheldon, you know science isn't human. Science can't betrayal us."

"Well, I can no longer master science and… I'm late for my train, she is waiting for me."

The brunette responded with a hesitant, "S-she?"

A cursory glance at the corner of the room, where the hallucination had once stood, confirmed to Sheldon that the vision of Andromeda had gone. When he awoke the evening, it was Amy's face he saw. Andromeda was no longer tapping her foot and waiting for him to instruct their train to leave.

Amy's appearance had been down to Leonard, who'd wasted no time telling her the outcome of the dating experiment. "Sheldon's in hospital but don't worry, he's okay. I think he's just upset over me getting Tenure, got himself a bad chill. But you won the dating experiment, so that's good news. Right?" He'd told her, trying to make it sound as positive as he could. So Amy buried her niggling doubts about Sheldon's true feelings and rushed to his side, only to discover, between fevered hallucinations, that he was giving up his life's work to drive trains. She tried to redirect the physicist to see sense but was having trouble getting her usual methods to work. He seemed so determined this time. Under the fevered state, there was something changed about him, something that she wasn't sure she liked. He turned his head away as though to avoid her gaze and said. "Andromeda."

"Sheldon, you're dreaming. There's no one else here, you're not well."

His eyes narrowed with suspicion. "Do you have a valid ticket for this journey?"

"Yes," she said smugly. "I'm your girlfriend. I won the dating experiment."

"What dating experiment? I have no need for such a thing, I'm a train driver. Choo-choo!" The sparkles were beginning to fade from his ceiling and he fought to stay in the dream world a little longer. "All aboard!"

Still outside the doorway, Penny regained her reserve and decided it was time she stepped into the room. "Where are we going?" she asked the sleepy man. Her voice immediately registered and he tried to raise his weary head. "Andromeda?"

Amy laughed at this. "Oh, hello Penny," she said.

"Hello Amy," a stiffness in her voice.

"Andromeda," Sheldon repeated, reaching out his arm for her to come forward.

"Ha ha! I'm afraid he doesn't recognise you," she chuckled smugly.

"Oh no, I think he does." Penny said, pulling up a second chair on the opposite side of the bed and taking Sheldon's hand in hers.

"Sweetie," she said. "I'm here."

"I knew you'd come, I saw sparkles."

"I do love a bit of glitter." She smiled. "And I had to see you."

"You took you're time!" he scolded. "I had to hold the train."

"Well I'm here now."

"You see, he doesn't know who you are and thinks he's a train driver," Amy grumbled. "Says that he wants to give up being a physicist. It may be just the fever talking but he seems so adamant."

"Mind the doors, this train is ready to depart," he smiled and squeezed Penny's hand a little. All at once, he could see the train from whatever angle he wished, he could fly above it, swoop inside the engine room, or float just like a ghost down the aisles amongst his passengers. She was there, safely inside the carriage. The rumbling tracks, click-a-clacked and soothed his nerves. But his world kept parting, cracking and there were white walls around him and voices, taking away his happily place, he squeezed his eyes shut. "A little longer." He said.

"Where are we going?" Penny asked once more.

"You know."

"I do?"

"Back to the beginning," he said, leaning towards her.

"The observatory?"

"No silly," he said softly.

She looked across the bed to Amy, who just shrugged. "The coffee shop where we first met?" she offered but there was no response.

"I'll make this right," he said.

"Yes you will." Penny reassured, although she didn't have clue where their imaginary journey was heading, or what he wanted to 'make right'.

"Sheldon!" Amy said sternly, not at all pleased that Penny was still holding his hand and playing along. The doctor had told her that the fever had passed, so the increasingly impatient brunette saw no reason to keep indulging his delusions. "You're not driving a train, you're in hospital!" she snapped.

"Oh Amy, give him time." Penny said, she'd known this man a long time and appreciated his vivid imagination and had a way with her lanky neighbour, she knew there was something of a dreamer about him.

"His fever broke an hour ago, he should be coming out of it."

"He's trying to tell us something." Penny insisted. "It's important."

Amy scowled. "All he needs is to go back to work on Monday. I don't want my partner abandoning his career for an hallucination." Penny flinched at the word 'partner'.

"My career was broken a long time ago." He interjected.

"No, Sheldon," Amy replied, relishing the fact that she had his attention once more. "It's no reflection on you that Leonard got tenure."

"Isn't it?"

"Of course not, you have a brilliant mind."

He continued to hold Penny's hand, much to Amy's irritation. "I hope you don't mind the cold Andromeda, we could train for the sub-zero temperatures in a walk-in freezer..."

"A walk-in freezer? What are you talking about?!" Amy snapped.

It was in that moment that Penny guessed where Sheldon's train was going. It was going back to when he was winning in his career, before it all went wrong. Ever since that expedition, Sheldon had done increasingly badly at work, making mistakes and being upstaged. "The Arctic." She said.

"Yesss," he whispered. "We're going to the Arctic."

The brunette had no idea what they were talking about and had enough of the closeness between them, so she pushed forward, took hold of Sheldon's shoulders firmly and shook him. "Wake up!" she yelled.

"Attention passengers, we seem to be experiencing some adverse weather conditions," he said, defiantly.

"Stop it! I know you're awake," she bellowed and slapped his left cheek hard. Eyes shot open and the train carriage disappeared like smoke as Amy's face bore down. "Amy?" he said in shock.

"Yes, yes… Sheldon it's me." She said, snatching his hand away from Penny.

"I'm a train driver."

"No, you're not. You're a physicist and I'm your perfect match. Remember?"

He frowned at the long flat face before him, blinking in the brightness of the white room. "I had the strangest dream", he said, raising himself up into a seated position and pulling away. "Penny? You were there," he said, not in the least bit surprised to see her on his left, he had known she was there, had known who's hand he'd been holding. The Andromeda of his fevered state had born a more than striking resemblance to his date.

"Yes, it's me," Penny said. "Are you okay?" She grabbed a pillow to prop up behind him and although he eyes still looked a little hollow, he was lucid.

"Yes, I feel quite well."

"Thank goodness," said Amy. "You had a terrible fever and were rambling about giving up your job to drive trains."

"Oh but I am giving up my job to drive trains."

She gasped in horror. "Sheldon, no!"

"I am defeated Amy, my work has been on a downward trajectory for years."

"But you can't be serious?"

"I am serious. I love trains and I no longer trust science," his lips tightened on the word, as though he could barely bring himself to say it.

"But a train driver?" She said in disgust.

"There's nothing wrong with driving a train for a living," Penny said.

"There's not?" he asked.

"Hell no, most of my boyfriends weren't even employed." When their eyes met his gaze was warm and loving, soft dark pupils ringed in that familiar blue greeted her with an openness, which made her melt. "You would accept me a train driver?" he asked.

"Sheldon, I'd accept you as a busboy," she replied honestly, and the corners of his mouth turned up in a slight smile. "…but, you won't be either." She added.

"I won't?"

"No, because you have to go back to the Arctic. You were dreaming about it, don't you remember?"

"Yes," he hushed, as the memory flooded back in. "We were going to the Arctic although I don't know why I chose that destination."

"I do," she said. "You're a physicist Sheldon, it's obvious that you want to go back to finish the experiment, the one that was sabotaged by the guys. "

"But-t Penny, I can't just go back…"

"Why not?" the blonde said.

"I-I don't know, I…"

"Do you remember the commercial I was in?"

"How could I forget?"

"Well, the day we shot the farm scene the soundman didn't turn up in time because his van was clamped. By the time he got there, the light had gone and we couldn't film. We had to go back."

She heard Amy scoff from the opposite side of the bed and with an unmoving expression Sheldon said. "Are you comparing the mysteries of the universe to a haemorrhoid commercial?" That familiar tension sparked up between them and she shrugged. "It's what I do," she said with a grin.

Sheldon had to concede that this was in fact, 'what she did'. Somehow reducing his convolutions and complexities down to such simplicity, that it reset his brain and sparked inspiration. The lanky man raised an eyebrow as his thoughts whirred. "You know something, you're right…" and began to rattle off ideas under his breath. "…I suppose I could assemble a team… there's always funding, I could hold a fundraiser and even though I find them abhorrent, I could suffer the indignity of one… or two." There was definitely a little more color to his cheeks now. "I'll be away for approx four months of course…"

"I can wait… " Penny said. "…I mean, whoever…" she trailed off and flushed lightly as she realized what she'd said. Sheldon's eyes darted to Amy, who was not amused.

"YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!" the brunette bellowed angrily. "I've been trying to talk sense to Sheldon for hours and you change his mind with haemorrhoids?"

He gave her a terrified stare. "Although train driving is an honorable professional, Penny is right. My experiment was never completed and I don't know why I didn't think of this before." His eyes sparkled at the blonde and he noted the rush of adrenaline he felt by her presence, which was bringing him back to life. Penny pulled her chair a little closer to the bed and then remembering the envelope Howards had given her, she took it from her bag and handed it over.

"What's this?"

"I don't know but perhaps it's something science related to give you new ideas," she said happily. Penny hadn't even thought to look inside the envelope Howard had given to her before she left the apartment; she'd been far too intent on getting to the hospital.

Nibble fingers turned over the heavy package and drew out the pages within. "Ohh, …it's your questionnaire," he said to Amy.

"M-my w-what?" Amy stuttered, as her mouth dried up. Leonard hadn't told his conspirator about the forged questionnaire that Raj and Howard had typed up on her behalf. She'd just assumed that she'd won the dating experiment without sending one in. With all the excitement over winning tenure it had slipped his mind. Sheldon went to thumb through it but she lunged forward and snatched it away. "Give me that!" she said and a quick flick through the pages confirmed her suspicions, it had been written for her, and she suspected that Leonard had put Raj and Howard up to it, as they also wrote Sheldon's dating profile, back in the day.

"Why do you have Amy's questionnaire?" Sheldon turned to Penny, who was equally surprised that Howard would have a copy.

"I don't know. Howard gave it to me, he said you'd know what it meant," she said.

Sheldon frowned. "Perhaps if I take another look…"

"No need for that," Amy pulled a grimacing smile and tried to distract them by plumbing up his pillow with her free hand.

"Let him see it, Amy…" Penny said and leaned forward to try to take the document and within seconds a tug of war ensured. Penny had one side of the document and Amy the other, with a bewildered Sheldon stuck in the middle of the struggling pair.

"Let it go!" Penny pleaded, not entirely sure why Amy was reacting that way.

"You let it go!" Amy snarled, pressing her knee into the side of the bed for leverage, both women glaring competitively at one another.

Sheldon shut his eyes tightly once more and imagined his train. "Could passengers please refrain from blocking the doors," he announced.

"Cut it out!" Amy growled and as she did so, she managed to wretch the document from her competitor, who stumbled forward on her heels, causing Amy to drop the bulk of the questionnaire at her feet. A single page broke free and landed in front of the patient. He stared at the crumpled page, there were scrawled notes in blue ink along the margins. He recognised both Howard and Raj's handwriting immediately. At the top of the page was the word…

Draft.

"What it is?" Penny asked.

Sheldon eyed the brunette for an answer, "Amy?" he asked.

"Oh alright!" she relented, "I didn't write a questionnaire but I didn't know anything about this, I swear."

"So why did Howard and Raj write one for you?" he said.

There was one obvious culprit. "Leonard!" Penny snarled.

Amy nodded reluctantly.

"He's messed with another one of my experiments?"

"This surprises you?"

"I suppose not."

"So what does that mean?" Penny said tentatively. "Do I win?"

"No, I forfeit," Amy blurted, rising out of her chair.

"In fact it makes little difference to the outcome," Sheldon said. "The science is on her side."

"It is?" Penny asked, a flicker of worry in her voice.

"I'm afraid so, I ran all the possibilities and Amy always wins."

"You see!" The brunette fired at Penny. "You're not smart enough. You'll never be smart enough."

"To hell with the spreadsheet," Penny snapped, "I know how you feel, I can see it in your face, I can feel it!" She knew there was something unfathomable between them and it had always been there. Beginning as a simple recognition of strength forged through fiery exchanges, then an unexpected admiration and finally a growing rapport, which she had attempted to pull away from when she was with Leonard. Sheldon had kept her on the spreadsheet for a reason and if Penny knew one thing for certain, it was impossible to predict who you'll fall in love with, even for Sheldon.

"Yes." He admitted and the room fell silent. She sat back down next to him and took his hand once more. But the brunette was having none of this and flew into rage, grabbing the questionnaire up from the floor, rolling it up tightly and prodding Sheldon as though it were a weapon. "You said you loved me. ME!" she jabbed. "How can you choose some dumb prom queen over me? Someone who drinks and acts like a hussy."

"Not entirely accurate," he said unmoved.

The face of fury continued to bellow at him, "You owe me Sheldon, after all the endless stubborn years I endured, all that waiting and all those stupid 'Fun with Flags' video blogs I had to put up with."

"I thought you liked those." He whimpered.

"LIKED THEM?! They were total mindless bullshit," Amy snarled. "I only put up with them because I thought we ought to do something together, to create a familial bond."

"All part of your experiment to retrain me?"

"It was for your own good. Everything I did was for your own good."

"I chose to differ," he said, "It wasn't until I started the dating experiment and studied your processes that I saw the patterns and realised what you were doing. Reprogramming me, shaping me to your own design, punishment, reward, and disapproval. Using all your skills as a neuroscientist to take over my thoughts. I suppose I found it fascinating at first but I know I mistook it for something else."

"But you love me!"

"It wasn't love. It was math but I thought that was how a relationship worked. I had nothing to compare it to."

"So you choose her?!"

"Yes, I choose her."

"Then you're an annoying child," she bellowed and threw the questionnaire into Sheldon's face before stomping out the door. Then just when they thought she'd left, she briefly reappeared to add. "And one more thing! I don't even like Harry Potter!" Then she was gone.

They were quiet for a few moments, in case of another reappearance and Penny spoke first. "Damn, I'm sorry Sheldon, I hoped that would go better."

"I'm not," he said, a look of peaceful relief on his face. "Amy came into my life via a forged online dating profile, written by Howard and Raj. It's poetic justice that she should leave my life via another forged document, also written by Howard and Raj."

"A sneaky trick by Leonard."

"No, I'm glad he did it, he did me a favour. The patterns in Amy's behavior would never have occurred to me otherwise. It was how I realised that I was just another one of her lab rats. I learned that good math is often mistaken for something deeper."

"Is that why you wanted to give up science?"

"Yes, once I realised that Amy would always win I felt like I was drowning. I would have done anything to get out of heading towards the altar with her."

"Even quit your job?"

"I never really wanted to quit, not really. I just wanted an explanation."

"For what?" she said.

"For you… " He said, "… and why I can't explain our connection. Believe me, I've tried. I spent hours on my other subjects and wrote pages and pages analyzing their effect on me but when it came to you, I just couldn't explain it."

"Some things can't be explained," she said, with a smile.

"All things can be explained, Penny." He said.

"Well then, there's only one explanation." And with this, she leaned over the bed and kissed him tenderly. The touch of her lips sent a rush of pleasure through his body. Reaching his hand up to her shoulder at first, he pulled her to him and was lost in the moment of her warmth, until she pulled away. "Golly," he said.

This wasn't a word Penny had heard after a kiss before and she chuckled. "I love you Sheldon, I'm been wanting to say it a while now but was too scared."

He frowned a little and shook his head. "And it seems that I love you. So if you'll have me… the annoying child."

"Are you kidding? If you'll have me." And she kissed him once more.

The next day…

"Just a few more steps," Penny said, the patient was leaning on her for support, as they made their way up the staircase. "Okay Sheldon you're milking it now; you're not an invalid."

"I'm weakened," he complained.

A door opened on the third floor and an elderly woman, in her dressing gown appeared on the landing. "Hello Mrs Gunderson," Sheldon said.

"Hello Sheldon, Penny," she was carrying a bag of trash. "I've just had an interesting conversation with Raj about that questionnaire," she said with a grin. "He told me it was a dating experiment."

Penny nodded, steadying herself with the weight of Sheldon's body, he had an arm draped around her and seemed to be enjoying being helped up the stairs, a little too much.

"Well, I'll be damned." She said, "I take it you won?"

"Yep."

"How close did I get?"

"You did pretty well."

Mrs Gunderson winked at Sheldon, "Yeah, I still got it!" she said, as the couple ascended the last flight.

"I have to get my strength up before the expedition back to the Arctic."

"You'll be fine."

"Howard and Raj have agreed to go with certain stipulations. Leonard has responsibilities now he's Professor."

"He'll miss the acclaim when you rock it."

"Yes I shall be … rocking it for four months."

"I'll miss you," she said and made him release her so she could open the door of 4B.

"I'll miss you too. Can we do more kissing now?"

"Sure," she said, and he kissed her briefly.

"That was nice, let's go inside and do some more," he said.

"I thought you were sick."

"I feel quite well now."

She unlocked the door. "Take it easy Sheldon, we don't want to rush things," she joked and they disappeared inside.

The End.

Sorry it took me so long to finish this but I got there in the end and so did Sheldon and Penny. :) Oh and please review, thanks very much.