There was tension in the Hofstadter household after the botched threesome with Raj. A few evenings later, Leonard and Penny had Amy & Sheldon over for dinner. As Amy and Leonard set the table in the living room, Penny brought the wine and glasses over, "Leonard, if you're not busy tomorrow, I have to do a little reception after work."
He looked up at her, but wanted to stay clear of her until things were worked out, "Oh! I would, but we need to make a push on the Air Force project."
"Are you sure? We're celebrating out new ADD drug. I mean, it'll probably be over in, like, six minutes," they both chuckled.
Amy cut in, "Did you say you guys are working in the guidance system tomorrow?"
He looked at her, "Yeah why?"
"Well, Sheldon said that he was gonna work with me on our quantum perception project."
He shrugged, "We've had this planned for a week."
"Well, he reconfirmed with me this morning."
To make matters worse, Raj entered the room and Penny turned to him, "Hey, Raj, do you wanna go with me tomorrow?"
He was a little skidish after what occurred, "Are you asking because you want me there or out of pity?" He raised his hand, "Actually, never mind, don't answer. I'd love to!"
Just then Sheldon entered the apartment, "Hello."
Amy jumped all over him, "Why did you tell Leonard you're working on the gyroscope tomorrow?"
"Because I am."
"But you said you were working with me?"
Sarcastically Penny cut in, "Oh-oh, someone's got two dates to the nerd prom." She sat back and took a sip of her wine.
"I have a plan to work on both projects simultaneously. And for your information, the summer conference on algebraic topology at Caltech is nerd prom."
Leonard sat down, "I'm sorry, what is this plan you have?"
"Hmmm, I'm not needed at both places at the same time. And I can also free up extra hours with simple tricks, such as using a minimal amount of words to convey my point."
Leonard scoffed, "When does that start?"
He stared at Leonard, "Soon! See, I could've said "in the near future," because "in the near future" is three more words than "soon."
Raj sat down with the box of carry out food, "Genius! I was going to say, "Why does anyone think Sheldon's a genius?" But I didn't!"
The next day, Sheldon started with Amy, hurried over and worked on the project with Howard and Leonard. He helped out there and went back to work with Amy. He popped back several times and to the amazement of all three of them, it was working out quite well.
He pushed too hard and in doing so, he got sick. He kept going and woke up in Leonard's apartment with Amy, Leonard Penny and Raj standing over him. He found out it was 9 PM and was shocked. He told them he took cold medicine and lost track of time after that. He looked under his blanket and was shocked, "Why am I naked from the waist down?"
Raj scoffed, "I don't know where you pants are, but your underpants are in a pot on the stove."
He was baffled, "My pants are missing, I don't remember anything." He looked to Penny, "This is your youth, what do I do?"
She shrugged, "I don't know, check your body for tattoos?"
He panicked, "Wait, wait, where's my bag? My phone and my wallet are in my bag.""
Raj reached over and grabbed it, he handed it to Sheldon, "It's right here."
He looked through it and panicked again, "Where's my notebook? My notebook's gone, oh no!"
Penny stopped him, "Okay, it's just a notebook. What's the big deal?"
He stared at her, "What's the big deal? It's full of classified information about the Air Force project."
Leonard was shocked, "How could you lose that?"
Amy stood up, "It's okay, I'm sure we'll find it."
They searched everywhere and found nothing but his pants; they were in the microwave. He thought he was going to prison because he lost the sensitive information.
Raj had an idea, "Let me see your phone." He took it from Sheldon, "It's possible it was tracking everywhere you went."
Amy looked at him, "Phones can do that?"
Raj nodded, "Yeah, all depends on your privacy settings."
All of a sudden Penny panicked and she looked very guilty, "Wow, that's so cool! How do you, uh... How do you turn that thing off?"
Leonard stared at her, "Relax, I know when you go for a run, you stop for a donut."
Her shoulders slumped, "I don't even run there, I drive."
Raj checked it out, "Hang on, I can see every place you went. You were in the building, you were at the university, then you were somewhere on Colorado Boulevard."
Sheldon was befuddled, "Where?"
"Wait, hang on. Did you go to a cowboy bar?"
He looked at Raj, "I--No! That is preposterous!" He thought back and had a flashback he was doing a line dance. He looked back at the group, "Maybe!"
Raj and Leonard took Sheldon back to the cowboy bar and he looked around, Raj turned, "Does this place look familiar?"
He stared at the group, "It's hard to say."
All of a sudden the bartender called out, "Hey! Sheldon's back!"
The entire bar full of cowboys and cowgirls turned and yelled out, "Sheldon!"
He looked to Raj, "It's getting clearer."
The bartender yelled to him, "You gonna buy another round for the house?"
He shook his head, "No, thank you." He turned to Leonard, "We know now why MasterCard sent me a fraud alert."
Leonard guided him to the bartender, "Ask him about your notebook."
He walked over to him, "Hi, howdy partner; do you happen to recollect if I left a notebook in these here parts?"
He nodded and reached under the counter, "Here you go."
Sheldon grabbed it, "Oh! Thank goodness."
The bartender chuckled, "One top secret quantum guidance system."
Leonard leaned over the bar, "You understood the math?"
He shook his head, "No, Sheldon told me all about it, he told everybody."
Leonard rolled his eyes, "Oh that's great!"
"Oh don't worry. He made us pinky swear we'd keep it a secret."
Sheldon thought back and looked to Leonard and Raj, "We really need to skedaddle!"
While all of this was going on, Bernadette was torn about returning to work. She didn't want to leave Halley and she was upset to the point of worrying Howard. He thought he did something wrong and for once it wasn't his fault.
Later Bernie and Howard took Halley to the zoo to spend time with her before returning to work.
While they were out, Bert called into an airing of "Fun with Flags" and told them he had a girlfriend. It had nothing to do with flags and it upset Sheldon. The following day at work, he wanted to know if her could bring her over and introduce her to the group. As always, Sheldon was against it, but the rest of the guys told him it was okay.
That evening he brought her over to the apartment where the kitchen counter was set-up with dinner. They all moved to the living room to meet her as Bert introduced her, "Everyone, this is Rebecca (April Bowlby)."
They all smiled at her, "Hello!"
As always, Sheldon stuck his foot in his mouth, "She's younger and far more attractive than he is."