Chapter Text
Come to my window
-Melissa Ethridge
Ch 1
"Who's that?" Penny nudges Bernadette as the tall man in a rainbow hued outfit sits down at her table.
Bernadette looks up, "Oh, that's Sheldon. He comes here every Tuesday, always sits at that table and always orders the same thing."
"Oh yeah?" Penny scratches an itch on the back of her calf. "You guys couldn't pool your tips to buy him pants that didn't make the other customers lose their appetites?"
"Oh, Penny. You are such a hoot!" Bernadette squeals. "Now, go take his order."
"Why don't you just tell me what it is and I'll bring it out to him."
"Sheldon always orders a barbecue bacon cheeseburger with cheese, bacon and barbecue sauce on the side." Bernadette recites automatically. "Oh, and a lemonade."
"Wait, that's just a ..." Penny begins to protest but Bernadette interrupts her.
"That's the order, Penny and, if you are smart, you'll bring it to him exactly as he asks."
XXXX
Penny's doorbell rings and rings. "I'm coming!" She yells, wrapping her hair in a towel. She looks through the peephole and her shoulders slump.
"Good morning, Mrs. Gundersun. Horace." Penny greets her elderly neighbor and the massive dog at her side. Horace bares his teeth.
Mrs. Gundersun lives in the fourth house on the cul-de-sac. She is the neighborhood busybody and self-proclaimed grounds keeper. Penny's mother told her a nosy neighbor is good protection especially for a single girl. Penny doesn't mind the old lady with her collection of floral baseball caps. Horace is another story. He is Mrs. Gundersun's constant companion - a cross between Great Dane, Clydesdale and demon from Hell. The first few weeks after she moved in, he chased her home every night.
"Penny, I want you to know Horace chased a deviant out of the woods behind your house last night at nine PM." The woman's bright coral lips shrivel into a bow and she gives Horace's choke chain an affectionate tug.
Poor bastard. Though, Mrs. Gundersun's words need to be taken seriously. "What was he doing?" Penny asks.
"Not much," Mrs. Gundersun concedes. "Just standing there as if he was lost. I was going to ask him that when I noticed what he could see. He was standing so he had a view of your bedroom window. You had actually just turned off the light." Penny's hand flies to her mouth in horror.
"Don't worry, dear. Horace gave him what for. I never saw anyone run so fast."
Penny shivers - Horace could cure the lame if he started chasing them. She thought about the trees that framed the cul-de-sac. They could hardly be called 'woods'- more like an attempt to muffle the sound of the highway. Penny could see the cars through them and there was a path people walked all hours, apparently. She'd have to get a security system because she is definitely not getting her own Horace. The dog yawns revealing row after row of pointed teeth and a savage black tongue. Penny gives another shudder.
"What did he look like? Should I call the police if I see him?" Penny wonders.
"I don't think he'll be back," Mrs. Gundersun adjusts her cap covered in bright red hibiscus. "I told him I'd call the police if I saw him again after I let Horace use his nether regions for a chew toy."
Okay. This conversation needed to end soon. "Still, I think you should describe him to me, you know, in case I see him," Penny prompts.
"It was dark, " her neighbor muses. "He was very tall and thin! I thought he was a birch tree for a second. Had on a beige windbreaker and blue eyes."
Penny feels ice water travel down her spine. That sounds just like that whack-a-doodle she waited on last week.
"Thank you , Mrs. Gunderson. I'll keep an eye out and everything locked."
"Good for you, Penny. Would you like to keep Horace for a few days since he has the scent?" Horace is growling in the back of his throat. At his owner's words, he gives his chops a lick as if Penny inspires his appetite.
"NO! I mean, no thank you." Penny smiles as she closes the door and slides the deadbolt. She pads down the hall to get dressed in her uniform. When that freak shows up tonight, he'll wish Horace did catch him.
XXXX
Sheldon's order lands unceremoniously in front of him. The cheese slides to the edge of the plate, barbecue sauce sloshes onto the bread and the bacon leaps to the table. There are exactly three French fries on the plate. When he looks up, Penny is fuming at the side of the table.
"What are you, some kind of sicko?" She hisses right in his face. Her breath is warm and minty. She slams his glass of lemonade down.
"I see you've spoken to that crone in the floral cap." Sheldon says calmly. "Does she have a permit to own that hellhound?"
Penny blinks at the paraphrasing of her own private description of Horace. "Look, Sheldon, you don't want to mess with me. Or Horace, actually - he eats mailmen as a snack."
"I believe it," he snorts.
"What is wrong with you? Skulking around the woods at night! Spying on me. I'm pretty sure that's illegal?"
"You are correct." Sheldon replies as he begins assembling his hamburger. "I was completely out of line. Quite frankly, I don't know what came over me. It is a definite aberration to my scheduled routine."
He looks truly contrite but, then, Ted Bundy also managed to appear helpless, Penny thinks. She did remember Bernadette saying Sheldon had three very close friends at one time but they all had a terrible falling out. Her anger and shock at his peeking lowers from full boil to a simmer. "Sheldon, just stay away from my house. We can talk here if you want but no more hiding in the woods, okay?" Penny's brain argues that she should have dumped his food on his head and filed a police report but those notions are being shouted down by her instincts - she always trusted her gut which is now telling her that Sheldon is harmless. Misguided, kinda strange, but harmless.
Sheldon finally has the cheeseburger assembled to his specifications. He has heard everything Penny said. If he were open to having friends again, he would accept her offer to talk here, perhaps even walk her to her car after her shift. He could establish a new social circle with Penny but the betrayal by Leonard, Wolowitz and Koothrappali in the Arctic still brings tears to his eyes. He looks up at Penny - there is an air about her that calls to him. Sheldon is afraid any further interactions with her will result in more than just his heart being broken. The actions of his former friends proved he could survive that but not much more.
"No more lurking." He promises and Penny rewards him with a smile. He opens his mouth to take a bite when Penny suddenly yanks away the plate, lemonade and his perfectly balanced burger.
"What are you doing?" Sheldon roars.
She doesn't bat an eye at his rage, "Trust me. You don't want to eat this."
XXXX
You promised, you promised, you promised. The beautiful mind of Dr. Sheldon Cooper taunts him as he walks down Rosemont Street. He managed to keep his promise to Penny for two weeks. Then, Sheldon inadvertently ran into Leonard in the men's room. His former roommate was coming in while Sheldon was washing his hands.
"Hi." Leonard said. Sheldon gave him an icy eyeball in the mirror. "Do you want to have lunch with us?" He continued. Leonard hoped everyday that Sheldon would come around but his hope was fading as they approached the two year mark. He had moved out of 2311 Los Robles, hoping distance would help; he tried to open communication via email but Sheldon blocked him; he tried phone calls but Sheldon screened them. Finally, Leonard resorted to visits to Sheldon's office until one slammed door too many broke his glasses. Sheldon dried his hands and walked out without a word to his former best friend. Nevertheless, he was shaking by the time he reached his office. His hands rummaged through his drawers until they came across a final unopened package of Red Vines but gnawing on the candy failed to deaden the rage (sadness) that boiled in him whenever he saw or thought of Leonard.
His routine suffered further disruption when he found out that Penny was not at work. Sheldon assumed he had adjusted to life on his own but human beings are primates. Primates have evolved to live in groups, both for protection and support. He had been looking forward to seeing Penny at the restaurant. She would ask him what was new and he would rattle off the latest scientific advancement (hopefully, one of his own). She would roll her eyes and get his cheeseburger and his lemonade - which she now decorated with a little sprig of mint (reminded him of Meemaw's ice tea in July). It was all the interaction he needed.
Bernadette ends up being his server and she knows science so the conversation actually moves forward but it is more fun telling his factoids to Penny because…well…it allows him to show off.
"Is Penny sick?" He grills Bernadette.
"I don't think so, Sheldon. She just took today off."
"When will she be back? Is this a temporary or permanent schedule change? Why wasn't I informed? You could have sent a text."
Bernadette knows about Sheldon. She studies at Caltech and had dated Howard for a while.
"Sheldon," she uses her no-nonsense-from-toddlers voice, "Penny took today off. She will be at work tomorrow and that is all you need to know. Now, eat your cheeseburger and I'll see if I can hunt up some chocolate pudding for you."
During the entire bus ride after dinner, Sheldon tells himself that he is merely going to see if Penny was okay. He will walk quickly along the path to ensure the bedroom light is on. Under no circumstances will he stop to watch.
XXXX
Penny is damaged goods. The reflection in the mirror tells her. She can see it around her eyes. Too many wrong choices. Head cheerleader in high school but when her popularity began slipping, she went from head cheerleader to cheerleader who gives head. Hockey players have their "puck fucks" but Penny never learned the comparable term used by football players. Eventually, she became the girl who was passed around but not much more. She left Nebraska after graduation since she didn't want to spend the rest of her life with the leers and knowing glances of a small town.
She came to Hollywood, ready to be an actress. Except, blondes are a dime a dozen and Penny's only real talents weren't fit for the mass market. She ended up in the adult film industry. She was eighteen; it was demeaning, degrading but she was good at it and the offers came in. Penny was no Jenna Jamison but her corn-fed vigour had appeal and the money appealed to her. Six years of scripted sex and at twenty-four years old, Penny was done. Done with that taste in her mouth, the endless waxing and bleaching her hair to almost white.
The only luck she had was her lawyer and her broker. Basil, her financial advisor, never asked how a twenty year old had the money she did. Penny swore it was all legal and told Basil (at that time) he had six years to set her up for life. He did it in four. Now she owns this little one-story house on a cul-de-sac, an investment portfolio that is nothing to sneeze at and royalties every month due to her lawyer's negotiations. Penny is just thankful she didn't end up with herpes, a heroin addiction or in snuff films. Her job at the Cheesecake Factory is easy and gives her a way to occupy her days. She is not one to travel and prefers her quiet evenings at home. Sometimes though (like today), being nice and perky wears on her and that's when she takes her beat up car and drives until it runs out of gas or the 'check engine' light comes on again.
But the damage remains. She can't tolerate people touching her. She has no interest in dating since all men revert to their most basic desires and she has done them all. She doesn't know what will become of her. All she does know is multiple showers a day never make her feel clean enough and endless sucking on the strongest mints she can buy don't break through the film she swears is still on her tongue. Her hair is back to golden hues and her tan is natural not sprayed on but Penny knows about the deceptiveness of appearance and there isn't much below her surface. She picks up her hairbrush and draws it through her hair.