Penny pushed the door open to the apartment block with her foot as she struggled with the grocery bags. She sighed as she saw the tall unmissable figure at the mail boxes. She wondered about him sometimes, her man child; all 6 foot 2 of him dressed in long sleeve thermals and comic book t-shirts. She sighed almost as if he was trying to relive some childhood his genius stole from him, her poor sweet naïve neighbour.
Wait a minute her where had that come from?
"Um Sheldon. Can I get some help?" She said as the bags began to slip from her grasp.
"You can but if it is from me why not simply ask may I help you. Your grasp of the English language is loose to say the least." He huffed as he approached her and reluctantly took two of the bags from her.
Once she could actually see over the bags she noticed something.
"They fixed the elevator awesome!" She gasped as she went to press the button.
"Yes I finally decided that I should make some calls in reference to it." He said proudly as if he himself had in fact fixed the broken machine. They waited in silence until the doors pinged open.
"Let's just get home and not speak. Okay?" She sighed, she'd had a long day of failed auditions and cranky customers all she wanted was peace and quite and a glass of the Australian Shiraz she had been looking forward to since lunch time which now rested in her grocery bags.
"That sounds acceptable." He said as he hit the button for their floor. Within seconds a grinding harsh sound emanated from above them and the elevator ground to a shuddering halt. Penny heard Sheldon yelp a little and wondered what sort of new hell she had to endure.
"Just press the alarm and we'll be out in a minute Sheldon." She said calmly placing the bags on the floor. She watched as his trembling hands reached for the alarm and pressed it franticly – nothing. Okay now she began to worry a little.
"Maybe it's a silent alarm and is ringing at the maintenance department." She suggested as she reached for her cell phone.
"But it's Friday what if they are all away!" He gasped clutching his chest anxiously. She sighed and slid down the wall of the elevator and sat on the thin carpeted floor. It was going to be a long evening and she was now stuck with Sheldon Lee Cooper life couldn't be any less fair. She continued to play with her phone until she found the number she was looking for Leonard answered the phone and sound quite out of breath.
"Um Penny not a good time Leslie and I were just well it's not a good time." And he hung up before she even said a word. She cursed as she put her phone back into her apron pocket.
"Well Leonard isn't rushing to our help. So just sit down for a moment and we will wait for the maintenance crew to get here. Do you want some wine?" She sighed as she unscrewed the cap of the green glass bottle. She saw the look in his eye as if he was about to say 'No I do not drink' Instead he reached out his shaking hand and took the bottle from her and took a big swig. Odd he didn't even seem to mind that she had just done the same thing and he never wiped the mouth of the bottle. She smiled as he whined from the tang of alcohol.
He slowly let the alcohol relax his nerves and he sat down on the thin carpet facing Penny his long legs up around his chest.
"I dislike small places." He stated and Penny felt her heart throb for him. Her man child was not only OCD but claustrophobic. She smiled as she took another gulp of wine thankful she had had the foresight to buy two. She opened up the other bottle and placed it in his hand, one bottle each.
They sat there in silence slowly drinking their wine while with each mouthful Penny saw Sheldon's rigid body relax.
"Mee-maw said that I shouldn't drink. It kills the brain cells but Dad always said it only killed the weak ones. I miss my dad sometime." Penny looked up at him and saw big sad blue eyes. She had never heard him speak of his late father and now as tears danced in his eyes she had the over whelming urge to give the man a hug.
"Tell me something about him?" She asked as she came and sat next to him.
"He was smart too not a genius but smart with cars and machines. He repaired cars on the NASA bases. He was only 49 when he had his heart attack. If genetics are anything to stand by that means I have only 19 years left to live. Not counting if this elevator suddenly tumbles down to the basement and we are both crushed beyond belief. You know that would mean that you and I would be forever mingled, as it would be too hard to separate our bones and hair from our crumpled corpse." He said as he took another slug from the bottle.
"Shut up Sheldon! We are not going to die in here. The maintenance crew must be on route by now and we'll be out in an hour." She said trying not to be freaked by what he just said.
"What if they're not?" He said turning to her with big innocent eyes. She wanted to reach out and stroke his face, to comfort this big man child who was all math and science. But it was Sheldon and the contact she would provide would more then likely freak him out even more. She watched as he turned again to look into space as if he had been dazed.
The temperature was slowly rising in the small cab and Penny took of her jacket. Sheldon watched as she threw it to one corner. "What are you doing?" he asked softly as she took off the yellow sweater vest and tossed it to one side.
"I'm roasting in here so I'm cooling down. Are you okay?" She said as she paced the small cab as if she was trapped in a zoo, his eyes watched her closely and she felt her skin begin to tingle. What the hell was going on? Was she on heat? As she looked at the figure curled up on the floor looking up at her with big blue eyes she felt her heart leap.
"Sheldon, may I ask you a question?" She sighed, this might be the only time she could ask the question that had burned inside her since his accidently girlfriend. There was for once no way he could run away to his room to hide from her.
"You may." He sighed as he took another gulp from his bottle.
"Are you a virgin?" She blurted it out as if the words were on fire in her mouth. She watched as he hiccupped in shock. His face turned deathly white and his eyes bulged.
"Why is that information relevant to our current situation? He gasped. He became fidgeting with the label on the bottle and seemed to want to jump right out of his skin. She felt bad for making him so uncomfortable.
"Sorry. I shouldn't have asked." She sighed knowing that the answer was yes. Yes Sheldon was a 29 year old virgin who preferred a good equation to a good night in.
"Don't you yearn sometimes to be held? To be loved?" She couldn't stop herself. He looked at her and sighed.
"I am loved; Missy, Mee-Maw and Mom love me. When I wish to be held, well I can not state I have ever wanted to be held the way you put it." He said as he retreated into the corner a little more.
"I know your family love you but I mean the love of some one else. You know where you can be you all the time be annoying and fussy and drive the person mental but they will still take your hand and smile at you and sing you soft kitty because they want to not because it is their family duty." She sighed sitting again.
"You sing me soft kitty." He said in a low whisper. "No-one else does, you and my mom are the only people. Because…" He stopped and his eyes flashed wide for the tiniest moment and he took the longest mouthful. 'because I love you' he thought. True when the boys had been stuck looking after him when he was sick he never for one second thought to get them to sing soft kitty, but he had gotten Penny to do it in a moment.
That was it, maybe it was the wine maybe it was the fact that it had simply been that long since some one had kissed her but she reached over and took his face in her hands and she kissed him. It was a soft chaste kiss, she felt him tense under it for only a second then he simply melted into it. He tasted like wine and dark chocolate. She felt him slowly kiss her back, slowly trying to figure out what was going on. The kiss reminded her of something long ago, at the back of the sports hall when she was 11. A first kiss! She was Sheldon's first kiss!