Fictional story about fictional characters.
*****
It was supposed to have been a Valentines Day that fairy tales are written about for Penny and her beloved boyfriend Leonard. Dr. Leonard Hofstadter was a physicist at CalTech Pasadena and when a senior professor had been unable to attend, Leonard had been selected to attend a conference at the site of the Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland. He was permitted to be accompanied by one guest, and despite much politicking by his roommate and fellow physicist Dr. Sheldon Cooper; he had of course chosen his beautiful girlfriend. They were both excited at the prospect of spending a romantic Valentine's Day in the shadow of the Swiss Alps. Penny had some skiing skills, and Leonard assured her that she could ski while he "practiced falling." Leonard had gone all out with the preparations and reservations; procuring a room with a breathtaking view; making sure that a huge king-size bed was included; and arranging for roses and champagne to be delivered. Penny had purchased special lacy underwear with cutouts in the nipple and crotch areas. It was going to be the weekend of a lifetime.
Then the unthinkable happened: the night before their departure, Penny was suddenly and almost violently sick. It was the flu. When she thought about it later, she could almost pinpoint the moment she contracted the illness while waiting on a customer who was coughing and visibly ill at the Cheesecake Factory. She had always had a good tolerance to sickness and had thought nothing of it...until now. Leonard was completely sweet and caring, and offered to skip the conference, but Penny knew that it was every nerd's dream to see the "big machine" in Switzerland so she urged him to go without her. When he went back across the hall to the apartment he shared with "head nerd" Sheldon to tell him the good news that he could now go to Geneva, he found that Sheldon had contracted the flu from Penny and could not go either. Leonard would be stuck sharing Valentine's Day with "nerd number four," Raj Koothrapalli.
Leonard had called "nerd number three;" colleague Howard Wolowitz, an aerospace engineer, but he had big Valentine's Day plans with his new girlfriend, Bernadette Rostenkowski. She was a tiny effervescent blonde who worked part time with Penny to finance her pursuit of a doctorate in microbiology. Penny found Howard to be a repugnant pervert, but had introduced him to Bernadette when her friend had noticed how happy Penny was dating a nerd. It was true: Penny would much rather date "her nerd" than any of the egotistical jocks she had dated in the past. Leonard was constantly reminding her of how special she was to him; how much he appreciated and adored her. He never took her for granted, or intentionally made her feel less intelligent...like Sheldon seemed to constantly do. She was definitely in love with her nerd and was contented with their exclusive relationship.
Now, alone on what should have been the most romantic day of her young life, all Penny wanted to do was curl up on her sofa with her blanket and bottles of tequila and Nyquil. Unfortunately, three times she had been interrupted by a familiar sound at her door: three rapid knocks followed by "Penny." Knock, knock knock, "Penny." Knock, knock, knock, "Penny." Sheldon was very rarely sick because he isolated himself from human contact whenever possible, so when he was ill, it seemed to him like a life-and-death situation and he did not handle it well. He blamed Penny for his illness and assumed it was her responsibility to care for him, regardless of how miserable she felt. When she reluctantly opened her apartment door, there stood a pathetic looking Sheldon in his blue Star Trek pajamas, with the elasticized cuffs around the wrists and ankles...he looked like an exceptionally tall second-grader. This time he wanted to inform her that he was out of tea...like she cared.
Realizing that the only way she was ever going to get any rest, was to go across the hall to Sheldon and Leonard's apartment and find some way to get Sheldon to sleep; Penny told Sheldon to go back to bed and she would bring him something soothing to drink. Watching him shuffle across the hall, she quickly concocted a "knock out" drink. She poured some vodka and Nyquil into a half filled bottle of Gatorade; took a few more swigs of her tequila and Nyquil cocktail and trudged over to Sheldon's apartment with her blanket wrapped around her shoulders. When she approached his bedroom door, she smiled as she raised her hand: knock, knock knock, "Sheldon," she called.
She heard him groan behind the door, "I bet you thought that would be funny, and then found it to be quite satisfying," he sarcastically responded, "come in Penny."
He was sitting on the side of his bed hunched over a vaporizer, and when he saw the Gatorade bottle in her hand he, of course, responded negatively, "if that's for me...no thank you...I don't believe in the claims of the overgrown pituitary cases who advertise that beverage."
Knowing that she had to approach this scientifically to succeed, Penny attempted to persuade him, "you don't want to become dehydrated do you...that could lead to pneumonia...and besides this has been proven to replenish your electrolytes." She had no idea what electrolytes were, but they sounded scientific...and her plan worked.
"Yes, I have heard that...well, maybe just a few sips then," replied Sheldon, reaching for the bottle. Penny had taken into account that the flu dulls the senses of smell and taste and watched in astonishment as Sheldon nearly drained the bottle. "Why this has no taste at all," remarked Sheldon, staring at the bottle. When Penny turned to leave, he inquired, "you're not gong to leave me here sick and all alone are you? After all, I wouldn't be sick if it weren't for you...Typhoid Penny." "Did you see what I did there? I named you after the infamous Typhoid Mary...in 1900 she, like you, was employed in a restaurant and infected numerous people with Typhoid Fever, spurring an epidemic. She was eventually isolated for thirty years and died alone. You don't want to follow in those footsteps do you?"
Penny rolled her beautiful eyes, and forced out an exasperated, "all right...I'll stay in Leonard's room tonight. Right now I'm going to take a long hot shower and then I'll check in on you...just try to remember, I'm sick too."
"Alright then," Sheldon replied, "but don't fog the bathroom all up with steam...I hate that..everything gets all wet and clammy."
"Of course not," Penny sarcastically answered as she left his room, knowing full well that she was going to turn the water up as hot as she could endure. She wanted steam; maybe it would help clear out her nasal passages. She turned on the water and the bathroom was already steamy by the time she had shed her clothes and stepped into the tub. She just stood under the showerhead and let the hot water cascade down her perfect body, for some reason shivering even though the water was almost scalding. She wished Leonard was there with her...he always gave her the most through washing; not missing a square inch of her body and paying extra attention to the most sensitive spots. "I love you, my little nerd," she said aloud to no one in particular as she spread body-wash over her now pinkish skin.
She soaped her perfectly round and firm 35 C breasts and noticed that even sick, her jellybean sized nipples were responding to the stimulation. It seemed to Penny that her areola were a more vivid shade of pink...maybe it was the fever. As she scrubbed between her legs with increasing fervor she imagined that it was Leonard's hand caressing her puffy, prominent mound and his fingers slipping between her pouty lips. She looked down between her legs and could barely see her pussy through the thick steam. The comforting warmth of the water cascading over her slippery smooth skin made Penny forget all about the pest that was Sheldon and she convinced herself that she would now be able to fall into a welcome deep sleep. As if on cue, there were three knocks (pounds really) on the wall between the bathroom and Sheldon's room followed by the distinct sound of "Penny." Knock, knock, knock, "Penny."