THE UNEXPLAINABLE LOVE CONFLICTION BY: CECE DOUGLAS

Sheldon Cooper, Leonard Hofstadter, and Howard Wolowitz were having the best day they had ever had. A nuclear reactor was on the fritz so they had the day off, Sheldon's clothes were fresh as daisies and he was happy, and Penny was totally relaxed and calm. Raj Koothrappali also had a great day. He had just been at a bar, where he met this great girl. He felt like he just HAD to tell his friends. Raj ran into the apartment and saw Sheldon, Leonard, and Howard watching T.V.

"You guys will never guess what just happened!"

"Your social awkwardness has been eliminated?" Sheldon replied with a snappy remark. Raj glared at Sheldon.

"What Raj?" Leonard asked.

"I just got asked to a party!" When Raj finished, Howard started laughing.

"What? Can't I get invited to a party?"

"Well, besides that one mixer, you don't seem like the type of person to get invited to a party." Sheldon looked at Howard.

"Wolowitz, you shouldn't be talking."

"How did that happen Raj?" Leonard asked politely.

"Well, I was out at a bar…"

"Obviously." Wolowitz interrupted. Raj sent him an angry look.

"I was out at a bar and this cute girl came over and started talking to me!'

"That's odd since your physical appearance doesn't usually attract the female sex that often." Sheldon cut in.

"Anyway," Raj continued, "We started talking and she invited me and a few friends to a party on Saturday!"

"But that's paintball day!" Sheldon exclaimed.

"Forget about it Sheldon! A party is way better than getting our asses kicked by little kids at paintball." Leonard sounded excited.

"Are we ALL invited?" Howard asked.

"Yeah, she said I could invite like 4 friends." Sheldon quickly looked around the room.

"Raj, I don't wish to alarm you but there are only 3 humans besides you in this room."

"I know that Sheldon. I was thinking we could invite Amy."

Sheldon sighed. "I wish, but unfortunately she is out of town working on the monkey experiment. Apparently a monkey went insane on the drugs and they needed her help."

"Well, how about Bernadette? Do you know anything Howard?"

"She can't come either because her mom doesn't want her socializing with any other optimal male partner than me."

"Ugh, then how about Penny?" Raj asked unwillingly.

"YES!" Leonard shouted.

"Leonard, calm your penis down." Howard remarked.

"I'll go ask her. It seems Leonard is too incompetent to handle this."

Later on in the day, Sheldon went over to Penny's apartment.

Knock, knock, knock, "Penny?" Knock, knock, knock, "Penny?" Knock, knock, knock, "Penny?" Penny opened the door wearing a bright yellow tank top and white shorts.

"Yes Sheldon?"

"I am here to inform you that you are hereby invited to a party that a random girl asked Raj to. It's on Saturday so I'm thinking your schedule should be free."

"Um Sheldon… If the girl asked Raj, why are you asking me?"

"Because we are allowed to accompany Raj to the get-together."

"Oh! Um, ok. I'll be at your apartment at 7:00 on Saturday."

"Good, I will expect to see you at EXACTLY 7:00" Sheldon walked back to his apartment, happy that he accomplished his mission. Strangely, he felt something inside him that was different than usual. Lately, he had been getting butterflies in his stomach around Penny. He thought she was cute the first day he saw her, but didn't really think much of it. When she gave him the autographed Leonard Nimoy napkin, something inside of him must've erupted and changed his way of thinking.

On Saturday, everyone was getting ready for the party. Sheldon was wearing a tee-shirt that looked like a suit and a good pair of pants. Leonard slid out in the hallway with his fingers made to look like a gun. He was wearing a VERY nice tux and had even smoothed his hair back.

"The name's Hofstadter, Leonard Hofstadter." Sheldon started laughing.

"Ooooo… Nice James Bond reference except that you are using your own name instead of James Bond's. That makes it funny!"

Leonard sighed sarcastically. "Yes Sheldon that was the point." Leonard sat down in the chair when Raj and Howard walked in. Both Howard and Raj were wearing suits as well. Everyone started staring at each other.

"Well this is awkward." Sheldon said.

"She didn't specify whether it was formal or casual." Raj exclaimed. Leonard looked at himself in a mirror.

"Who really cares? Atleast we look cool right?"

"Chicks dig guys in suits." Howard added. There was a knock at the door and Leonard opened it. On the other side of the door was Penny. She was wearing a bright red, short, tight, dress with high heels. All of the guys in the room stared incessantly. Penny snapped her fingers.

"Guys!" Leonard snapped out of it.

"Oh, um hi Penny! You look nice!"

"Thank you! Are we ready to go?" Sheldon looked at Penny, a little irritated.

"Penny, it is now 7:05. You agreed to be here at 7:00. You are five minutes late." Penny rolled her eyes.

"I'm sorry Sheldon! I couldn't get these heels on, that's why I'm late."

"Whatever, let's go!" Leonard grabbed Penny and they left for the party. Raj grabbed a few beers before they left so he would be able to even talk to his girl.

When they got the party, the setting was classic of a drunken party. There were streamers everywhere, glitter all over the floor, alcohol and food were every which-where, and a huge amount of people in a small apartment didn't help either. All of a sudden, a girl with black hair, hazel eyes, and a gorgeous tan yelled out at Raj.

"Hey Raj!" The girl ran over to him and gave him a huge hug. Raj started smiling like crazy and the others were staring in randomness.

"Guys, this is Shannon. She is VERY pretty." Howard was staring at Shannon. He whispered to Leonard.

"How did HE get HER!" Raj had never really gotten an attractive girl before. Everyone soon separated and started doing their own thing. The music was pounding and everyone was dancing. All the people in the room where drinking their heads off, except for Sheldon who was drinking apple juice. Penny was dancing, Raj was making out with Shannon, Sheldon was sitting down drinking his apple juice, and Leonard was dancing with a random girl. When Sheldon ran out of his apple juice, he stood up to go get some more. When he went to get more apple juice, he bumped into Raj on the way.

"Heyyy Sheldon, where are you going?" Raj was drunk off his ass.

"I'm going to get some more apple juice."

"Oh, how about I get it for you! You go have fun."

"Oh, why thank you Raj! I think I will." Sheldon walked off and started hanging out with Leonard. Meanwhile, Raj took Sheldon's drink and refilled the apple juice. But, he also added a major amount of alcohol to the apple juice. He gave it back to Sheldon and he took a gulp. After he drank a swig, Sheldon looked at the glass.

"Raj, is there something in my apple juice? It tastes different." Raj had to come up with an excuse fast.

"No Sheldon, it's just plain apple juice. Just drink it." Raj walked off and Sheldon continued to drink. Leonard approached Raj afterwards.

"Did you spike Sheldon's drink, Raj?"

"Hell Ya!"

"Nice." He gave him a high five and continued to party. Sheldon drinks the entire glass and soon afterwards began to feel a little funny. He could not put his finger on it but swore he had felt this feeling before. Sheldon had become drunk and his senses had become completely impaired. Penny stumbled over to Sheldon totally hammered and had no idea what she was doing.

"You know what Sheldon? I always thought you were REALLY cute!" Her speech was completely slurred and almost unrecognizable.

"Do you think I could take my pants off over my head?" Sheldon couldn't think straight.

"Welllllll, how about we go back to the bedroom and find out?" Penny immediately grabbed Sheldon and kissed him madly. They both stumbled drunkenly back to a bedroom in Shannon's apartment and made hot, passionate, sweaty love. Both Penny and Sheldon had no idea what they were doing. After 10 minutes of the hot sex, they both passed out and fell asleep on the bed. Penny woke up at around 3:00 am to see a naked Sheldon sleeping next to her. She screamed at the top of her lungs and Sheldon jerked awake.

"Why are we naked in the bed together!" Penny's face turned white with fear and anger.

"First of all, can you stop yelling because I have a terrible headache. Second of all, from the extremely awkward look of things, it seems we have had intercourse." Sheldon actually seemed to be calm about the whole thing.

"But how the hell did this happen?"

"I believe that it was the enormous amount of alcohol in our blood that caused us to commit this act."

"Get your clothes on Sheldon! I don't wanna see your naked ass!" They both grabbed their clothes and threw them on sloppingly. They ran back to their apartments, extremely hung over. When Sheldon reached his apartment, he was greeted by a very angry looking Leonard.

"Ok, do you wanna tell me where the hell you and Penny went after we left?" Leonard was very angry.

"It seems as if Penny and I have had sexual intercourse." Leonard's mouth dropped open.

"WHAT? How did that happen? When Amy finds out, she is going to KILL you!"

"Well, Amy is not going to kill me. It's not in her nature to do that. But on the other topic, I suspect that when I gave my glass to Raj he mixed my apple juice with large amounts of alcoholic liquor. Apparently both Penny and I were extremely intoxicated and we did things neither of us were proud of or could've expected." Sheldon still couldn't believe what he had done. He actually felt a little guilty about the whole thing.

"Ugh, Sheldon just promise you won't act weird towards Penny? I don't want anything to be different between us."

"I promise I won't act weird towards Penny. I'll pretend like it never even happened." Sheldon and Leonard went to bed that night feeling terrible. Sheldon could barely get any sleep that night. He felt so dirty and guilty. He had to go apologize in the morning.

Knock, knock, knock, "Penny?" Knock, knock, knock, "Penny?" Knock, knock, knock, "Penny?" Penny opened the door looking like a complete wreck.

"What Sheldon?" She felt almost worse than Sheldon did.

"I want to apologize for my actions last night. I think it was wrong for me to touch you like that while both of us were intoxicated and had no idea what we were doing."

"No Sheldon, it was probably my fault. I was most likely the one who started it. Can we just forget about it?" Sheldon started to smile.

"Already shoved into the deep recesses of my amygdalla, Penny!"

"What?"

"I already forgot about it. By the way, you really need to know the parts of the brain!" Sheldon walked back into his apartment and Penny felt very relieved. Her relief was short lived. Four weeks later, Penny began to feel a little strange. She had felt nauseous that week but just threw it off as stress from work. But when she missed her period the week after, she got very nervous. Penny had to talk to Sheldon. She seriously could not believe what she was thinking. Penny walked over to Sheldon's apartment and knocked on the door. Leonard opened the door, looking semi-surprised.

"Um... Hi Leonard, is Sheldon here?"

"Yeah, he's watching a Star Wars marathon. Why?"

"I need to talk to him." Sheldon looked at Penny in the doorway and walked out to talk to her in the hallway.

"What is the reason for your calling Penny?"

"Sheldon, do you remember that thing we did 5 weeks ago?"

"You mean our accidental drunken sexual intercourse?"

Penny sighed, "Yes."

"Why do you ask?" Sheldon started getting slightly nervous.

"Did you wear a condom?" Penny started blushing a little.

"I don't know. Probably not, why?" Sheldon knew where this was going, and he didn't like where it was leading.

"Sheldon, this might be hard to hear but... I think I might be pregnant." Sheldon immediately turned white at the word.

"What?" Sheldon couldn't even bear to think that Penny was telling the truth.

"I think I could be pregnant Sheldon, and it's yours." Sheldon started getting a little defensive.

"Well how do you know it's mine?"

"Sheldon, I haven't had sex with anyone since that night! It's definitely yours!"

"Should we tell Leonard?" Penny began to freak out.

"NO! I don't even know if I am yet! I just think I am."

"You should take a test, before we proceed in this any further."

"I know, I was just going to buy some. I just had to tell you this." Penny left and bought a three pack of pregnancy tests. Unfortunately for her, she had left her door open and Sheldon had Vulcan hearing. One right after another, all three tests came back positive. She couldn't help herself, she broke down crying. Sheldon heard her and rushed into her room. He saw her crying on her knees in front of the tests.

"Penny, what happened?"

"Oh Sheldon, I think you would know that! Look!" She hands his the test. Sheldon looks blankly at the two little pink lines staring him in the face. He couldn't believe his eyes. Sheldon lost control and fell to his knees. Sheldon's emotions were welling up inside of him at an alarming rate. It finally overflowed into his eyes and he started crying. He had never cried like this before. Penny fell into his arms, crying harder than he was. He unconsciously started stroking her hair when Leonard walked in. Leonard was gob smacked at what he was seeing. Sheldon was stroking Penny and they were both crying.

"Penny, what's going...?" His sentence stopped short when he saw the other two tests on the floor. The unfortunate pink lines were glaring him in the face and he became infuriated.

"Penny, what is this about? How are you pregnant?" Sheldon looked at Leonard and stood up with Penny in his arms.

"Leonard, leave her alone. We can talk about this later." Sheldon had a VERY serious tone to his voice. Sheldon took the very distraught Penny back to her room. Leonard stormed back to his room and sat on his bed in thought. Two hours later, Sheldon returned to the apartment. Leonard had called Howard and Raj for support. Sheldon walked into the living room to see Leonard, Howard, and Raj sitting on the couch with blank expressions on their faces.

"Sheldon, HOW THE HELL IS PENNY PREGNANT?" Leonard was furious. He almost wanted to strangle Sheldon. Howard and Raj had their hands on Leonard's shoulders, in fear that he would hit Sheldon.

"Leonard, I am upset about this too," His eyes were red enough to tell that, "I cannot believe that I caused a parasite to do this to Penny. I had no idea what I was doing. That night at Shannon's party was the night that caused this. Blame Raj for me doing all this. He was the one who spiked my drink!"

"Look, I had no idea you were gonna act this way! If I had known you were gonna impregnate Penny, I would've never spiked your drink!" Raj was upset almost as much as Howard and Leonard. None of them could've imagined that this would've ever happened. Sheldon and Penny never really had any sort of love connection so nobody ever thought this could've happened.

"I've calmed Penny down enough that she was able to talk. I'm going over there to spend the night. I'm worried that she might do something drastic so I'm gonna stay with her. If you need me, text me ok?" And with that, Sheldon left the apartment. Leonard was furious but at the same time worried for Penny. Howard and Raj stayed with Leonard that night as well.

Sheldon went over to Penny's apartment to see her curled up on her bed with her hand on her stomach. Penny's eyes were red from crying and she almost had no tears left to cry. Sheldon sat on the bed next to her.

"Penny, I am SO sorry. I cannot even think to imagine how you are feeling." Penny sat up and looked at Sheldon. His big blue eyes seemed to be filling up with tears again. Penny wiped her eyes and felt a strange emotion she had never felt before for Sheldon: Love. She grabbed Sheldon and kissed him on the lips. Sheldon didn't believe it. He was surprised at first, but then embraced Penny's soft luscious lips. Penny released Sheldon from the kiss and Sheldon still couldn't believe it.

"Sheldon, I have always thought you were cute. It's just been your annoying-ness and constant talking that kept me at bay. Now that I have your baby inside of me, I'm free to actually express my feelings." Sheldon started blushing.

"I had no idea you felt that way. I seriously am sorry that I created a parasite that is going to live inside of you for the next 9 months. But I do accept your love. I have actually felt the same way about you for a while. I will support you and this baby for as long as I can." They kissed again and the love they felt was stronger than both of them had ever felt before.