The Cooper-Swanson Conundrum
Summary: Alternative ending to S4E16; Paige responds differently to the news of Sheldon's crush on her.
Pairing: Sheldon/Paige
Rating: K+
Main Quad,
East Texas Tech
Sheldon looked surprised at Paige's admission. "I'd been operating under the assumption that my crush was unrequited."
She slid closer to him as she answered nervously, "Oh it's requited, Sheldon. It's very requited."
"What are you doing?" he asked uncertainly as she moved towards him.
"We have a crush on each other," she pointed out simply.
"So?"
"Now we have to kiss," she informed him.
"We do?" Sheldon sounded horrified at her disclosure. She shrugged.
"I mean, it's where the data has led us. Close your eyes," she instructed him; he obeyed.
Paige smiled and reached for her marker pen but as she looked at the boy, reading the vulnerability, shyness and trust written on his face, something sparked deep inside of her; she dropped the pen back in her pocket and instead leaned in and kissed him lightly on the lips.
"Wow," she breathed as she pulled away; he opened his eyes and looked at her.
"That was…" he paused, "a new and not unpleasant experience," he decided.
Paige reached over and put her hand over his. "What are you doing now?" he demanded, perplexed at the latest turn of events.
"Now we hold hands," she informed him.
"But I didn't bring my mitts," he noted.
She smiled patiently at him. "Sheldon, you don't wear mitts while holding your girlfriend's hand." When his expression didn't change she added, "it's a social convention."
"Curse these social conventions," he grumbled to himself before his head snapped around to face her. "Wait, girlfriend?"
"It's the next logical step in the experiment," she observed. "Otherwise we'd be drawing conclusions from intentionally incomplete data."
Sheldon was horrified at the suggestion. "Not even a geologist would make such a blunder!" he declared vehemently.
"Well then?" Paige laced her fingers with his and they stood up. "You wanna give me the real campus tour now?" she asked coyly. He smiled awkwardly but led the way.
"And this is the best building on campus," he told her.
"I know, Sheldon," the blonde said patiently, grinning at him, "you've taken me past the Physics Department three times already now."
"I'm sorry," he looked not only uncomfortable but also embarrassed; it was an unusual look for him. "I just find myself not wanting this tour to end for some reason."
Paige smirked; she felt the same way. "Why are you smiling?" he asked, confused at her response.
"You were smiling too," she pointed out.
"I was? Why was I smiling?" he demanded, not really expecting her to be able to supply an answer.
"Maybe you were happy about something?" she suggested.
"I have felt something unusual ever since we began our walk," he conceded, "but I need more data to discover what it is."
Paige frowned a little as she heard the clock chime. "While I'd love for us to continue 'gathering data' now, I'm late for our meeting with the President; we should go there now."
"Right," he agreed, "it's this way," and they walked, still hand-in-hand, to the President's office.
"Thank you for a wonderful tour," she told him as they reached it. "I'll see you later?"
"I suppose that depends on whether or not you decide to stay in Texas," he stated.
"I think we can guarantee that I will," she answered with a smile. She shyly leaned in and kissed him again on the lips before reluctantly letting go of his hand; she knocked on the President's door and, on being told to enter, waved reluctantly at Sheldon before going inside the office. For reasons that didn't make any sense to him, Sheldon found himself staring at the door for a few long moments after she had closed it behind her.
Sheldon was surprised to see Paige slide into the seat next to him midway through his lecture. She gently took the pile of notes he had already taken and began to speed read them while he continued to write while listening to the lecturer's words.
"I told my mom that since I'll be going to school here I should really start classes as soon as possible," she informed him with a conspiratorial smile as the class were packing away and leaving after the lecture finished. "The President seemed thrilled with my work ethic," she added with a laugh.
"It's understandable," he agreed; she rolled her eyes.
"Sheldon," she began patiently, "I really wanted to spend more time with you," as he looked a little confused she sighed and added, "on our experiment."
"Oh," it made a lot more sense to him now. "And how long do you think it will take for us to collect sufficient data for a preliminary conclusion?"
Paige glanced around the now-empty lecture theatre before she leaned in and kissed him softly on the lips again. "I think I have enough data to conclude that I want to keep on doing that," she disclosed.
Sheldon cocked his head in thought for a moment. "Me too," he admitted, slightly surprising himself.
"Well it's a good job I'm joining you at school here then," she chuckled. She took his hand again and they left the lecture theatre together.
One week later
"Study hard everybody," the lecturer called; the students expressed their lack of enthusiasm for that suggestion with a collective groan; Sheldon, of course, was extremely excited at the prospect of the test the following day.
"What do you say we make it more interesting," Paige suggested.
"It's Oblique Impact in Three Dimensions," Sheldon retorted, "how does it get any more interesting? Unless you want to apply rudimentary theories to advance the calculations into higher order dimensions."
"No-o-o," she replied playfully, "I meant we could have a little wager on the outcome of the test tomorrow."
"I tried to help Meemaw with her gambling one time; it didn't end well," he disclosed.
"Well, I thought we could make it a friendly competition then," Paige amended. "We compare our scores on the test tomorrow and the winner," she spread her arms confidently, "gets a kiss from the loser," she emphasised the word, eyeing him playfully.
"That doesn't seem like a valid prize – either way we both get a kiss," he pointed out.
"True but this way you have to kiss me for a change," she told him.
"You're assuming that you'll win."
"Yep," she confirmed with a grin.
Cooper home
Mary sighed as her daughter moped around the kitchen. "What's the matter?" she asked tiredly.
"Paige is here again."
"I thought you liked her," Mary pointed out.
"I did when she was here to see me. Now she spends all her time with Sheldon," Missy groused.
"Well honey," her mother sat at the table and gestured at her to join her; Missy slumped into the seat opposite and rested her chin on her hands, looking at her with a scowl on her face. "Sometimes in life things change between people, especially as you get older. It doesn't mean Paige is not your friend, just that she likes your brother too. They're working together on things for school as well, so it makes sense that they'd need to spend time together."
That's what you think, thought Missy, she's spending all her time staring into his eyes while he looks confused… actually I LIKE seeing Sheldon look confused. She smiled.
"That's better," Mary said, misinterpreting the reason for the smile, "see, you guys are still friends – and now you and Shelly have the same friend for once."
Two days later
"Well? How did you get on?" Paige asked.
"Ninety-nine," Sheldon pouted as he showed her his test paper. "I missed a mark on the angle of elevation, like you said," he added grudgingly.
"I got 100," she turned her paper around and waved it at him playfully. "You know what that means. Time to pay your debts Cooper."
He frowned briefly before conceding, "A bet is a bet." The blonde closed her eyes as he leaned in towards her, initiating a kiss between them for the very first time.
"That was nice," she told him when he ended the kiss, "thank you."
"I'm glad you liked it," he replied. Paige turned away and smiled as they started to pack away their things; her boyfriend's emotional development was proceeding just as she wanted it to.