AN: I know I finished the last story off because I was out of time, but of course, now I'm sitting here waiting for people who are late, so had a moment...Will update when I can, but it might not be till closer to the New Year, bear with me! :)

Sheldon stormed into the laundry room, tossing his basket down on the table angrily and began sorting his laundry with jerky movements.

Penny watched from across the small room, from where she sat on top of the machine that was currently cleaning her own laundry. She raised her eyebrows and tilted her head and waited to be noticed.

When he didn't notice her, she kicked the machine below her with her heels.

He gasped and turned, his eyes resting on her accusingly. "I should have known you'd be here."

"Where else would I be? It's saturday, laundry night." She replied, mentally rolling her eyes at the fact that saturday night had become nothing more than laundry night. It wasn't that long ago that saturday night meant mani's and pedi's and too tight dresses and shoes that begged to be noticed and bottles and bottles of booze.

Sheldon sucked in a breath and sighed. "I would prefer to be alone tonight." He muttered.

"Tough." Penny stared at him. "The sign says don't leave your laundry unattended." She gave him one of the looks he usually gave to her. "Can't leave till I'm done."

At her words, Sheldon's shoulders twitched. "Can't ever get done anymore." He muttered to himself, turning back to his machines to carefully measure in laundry detergent and fabric softener.

"Can't get done, or can't get," Her eyes dropped to his pants, "DONE?" She'd known something was up when he had been even more snarky than usual during the week, and the teasing he got from the guys was a little more insinuating than usual. She'd caught Leonard in the hallway briefly when he was heading out this morning and asked him what was up, the mumbled response had sounded suspiciously like 'blue balls'.

Leonard had commented once, a long time ago, that Sheldon was Semi-pro when it came to self satisfaction, at the time Penny's only thought had been along the lines of, oh good, he really IS human.

And much to his dismay, he was. He'd given up on the idea that he was member of some alien race which had left him there to study the earth and its people around the same age as he'd discovered the laws of the universe and the reality of the time constraints of space travel, somewhere around the age of seven. Since then, he'd been merely bearing with the various indignities of the human condition. Like Hormones. And Feelings. And Friends.

But this week had gone badly. Very badly. His schedule had been so messed up it made him nearly hyperventilate to think of it. Logically, he knew that he could set it straight, that come Monday morning, he could easily get back on track, but he knew he would never forget the week that had passed.

The comic book store had been closed due to a family emergency which required Stuart to be out of town.

The electricity had gone out on Halo night.

ART students had stolen all his whiteboards for some ridiculous project downtown, and when he had finally got them back they were dirty and grimy and all his equations were gone.

He had the equations in several other places as well, it was just such an inconvenience to have to write them all out again, AND have the locks changed on his office, AGAIN.

Then the bathroom upstairs had sprung a leak, and Leonard had had to sleep on the floor in his room, which gave him no alone time, which he had come to need more of the longer he knew Penny, and his sister was visiting, which meant he couldn't make Leonard sleep in the living room, and she never let him have more than ten minutes in the bathroom at a time, which was hardly long enough to shower and shave let alone deal with parts of him he'd rather not have most of the time.

The Thai place had been closed due to fire, the store had been out of his favourite spaghetti sauce, and Penny had been at an audition on the night when she was supposed to be serving his hamburger.

The stress was getting to him.

His needs were getting to him.

He had even got to the point where he had considered, briefly, of relieving himself elsewhere, but he had quickly rejected that, he was homo novus, surely he could wait.

So he did.

All week.

And here he was, saturday night, laundry night, strung tighter than a kite string wrapped around an aeroplane, and Penny was sitting there, on the laundry machine, in her short little shorts and her thin little shirt, kicking her heels and asking him something he was sure he shouldn't answer.

"I don't believe that's any of your concern." He finally replied.

She nodded, watching him.

Watching his fingers shake as he shut the last lid, how his eyes had lingered on her legs for just a millisecond longer than normal, how he was pale, but cheeks were flushed, and how he moved like a puppet on a string.

The last time she'd seen him like this, he hadn't slept in three days and was being hauled home from breaking into a ball pit, which was really something when you considered the amount of germs that collected in ball pits.

She had to do something.

Ok, so maybe it was something she kinda had wanted to do for a while anyways, but now seemed like the only time when he might actually...

"Sheldon. Come here." She said in the tone that meant he'd better do it or something terribly bad was going to happen.

His eyes were wide but he went to stand beside her anyways. "Yes Penny?"

She reached over and grabbed him by the waistband of his pants and hauled him closer, so he was standing right in front of the laundry machine, facing her, between her knees.

"Penny?" He squeaked. "What are you doing?"

"I'm helping you." She smiled coyly, her eyes on his as she slid her other hand down the front of his pants.

He sucked in air, and his eyes were huge, but he didn't move.

She wasn't sure if he was frozen or if he was staying put, but he wasn't saying NO, so she kept going. "Put your hands on the washing machine." She whispered, stroking him again.

He was definitely responding, and he obeyed without asking why.

He DID want to ask why. He wanted to ask lots of things, his brain was in an uproar, but his body had firmly shut his mouth, and with every touch his brain got quieter. This was an acceptable solution to his problem, it whispered. If someone came in, they would just see his back, and Penny's legs, and they would leave.

When her hand slid inside his pants, he realized that putting his hands on the top of the washing machine beside her thighs had been a very good thing, as his knees were suddenly quit wobbly.

His eyes closed, and his head was lowered slightly, he was leaning his weight onto his hands as she stroked him, and she could feel herself getting flushed as well.

He was more hung than she had expected, and lately, she had been giving it quite a bit of thought. She moved her hand against him, more, faster, tighter, and soon his head was resting on top of hers, she could feel his breath blowing across her face, his breathing patterns shifting, one of his hands suddenly moved to her thigh, and she knew it was almost over.

She pulled something out of her laundry basket and held it over him, so he wouldn't make a mess, she knew he hated messes.

With each shudder that went through him, his hand gripped her tighter, until he let out a sigh and totally relaxed.

She buckled his pants back up and patted his chest. "Feel better?"

He stared at her, a faraway look in his eyes as he considered it. "Yes." He blinked a few times, standing straight.

"Good." Penny smiled cheerfully, her cheeks bright red.

He stepped away, realizing her washing machine had ceased to make noise, she would need to switch her laundry over. His mind was in a floaty place, and he kind of liked it.

She hopped down and switched her laundry into the basket beside her, everything she had washed needed to be hung to dry, so she wouldn't be using the dryer tonight.

"Night Sheldon." She chirped at him.

He blinked again. "Goodnight Penny."

She was halfway out the door, when he suddenly called her name again.

Glancing back, she met his eyes, and saw a tentative smile on his face. "I believe in common terms, I," he paused, "Owe you one."

She licked her lips unconsciously and nodded. "Sure, Ok." She managed to say before escaping.

Good lord, what had she done?

She'd just given Sheldon a hand job in the laundry room.

And he'd said he would repay the favour.