Legal Speak: I do not own any thing even remotely related to The Big Bang Theory. All characters remain the intellectual property of the show's creators.
1)
In the past three days, Penny had received eleven calls from her father. All of them had been sent directly to voicemail, and the messages were deleted without being listened to.
She didn't have to listen to the messages to know that a shit storm of epic proportions lay in wait for her—if there wasn't, Wyatt wouldn't have called so many times. By ignoring him, Penny believed that she was protecting not only the beautiful, spectacular life she currently has in Pasadena, but also herself from whatever disaster was occurring in Nebraska.
Deep down she knew she was only delaying the inevitable; however, as long as she could avoid talking to him, the bliss of not knowing would keep a sunny smile on her lips and a light, carefree feeling in her heart. It was completely childish and selfish, not to mention shameful, but it kept the fear and panic at bay and allowed her to be happy.
Because Wyatt was not a man to be ignored, she shouldn't have been surprised when Becky, one of the hostesses at the Cheesecake Factory, flagged her down as she flittered between her tables to tell her that she had a phone call.
"Ah crap…" she muttered, thinking Dr. Whack-a-doodle needed something. Grabbing the receiver and taking a brief calming breath, she put on a cheery voice and recited the restaurant's script, "Cheesecake Factory. This is Penny. How can I help you today?"
"Well, Slugger, you could help an old man out by answering your cell so I don't have to resort to stalking my daughter at work."
Penny let out a shaky, nervous breath, "Hey… Dad...yeah, I'm sorry. I've been super busy with work and stuff. Ya' know I've been getting home really late (lie) and didn't want to wake you up (another lie)…" Her excuses trailed off lamely. Wyatt had a keen nose for bullshit.
"Penny," accompanied by an exasperated sigh came across the line, "We need to talk, like have a serious fucking conversation, and the fact that you have refused to talk to me has made the situation worse, more dire. I need to you come…"
"Dad," Penny broke in, trying to get him off the phone so she could bury her head in the sand for a few more hours. "I can't really talk…I'm at work, but I promise to call you as soon as…"
"Your brother's been released, and he's been asking about you. You need to come home. This is not a request." With Wyatt's blunt statement, all of Penny's automatic bodily functions stopped: her heart stopped pumping, her brain stopped firing off synapses, and her lungs stopped taking in air. Realistically, she knew that none of these things actually happened, but Penny felt completely numb for several long seconds. She only came to when Becky tapped her shoulder and interrupted her call.
"Sorry, Penny, but Larry needs you back on the floor ASAP." Becky gave her a tight-lipped smile and a small shoulder shrug. Quickly taking in the alarm on Penny's face and the crushing grip on the phone, Becky asked, "Hey, you okay?"
"No…no…nonono…no," Penny muttered. "I'm not…not okay. I gotta go home…I can't…" She shakily hung up the receiver, ignoring Wyatt's shouting on the other end. "I can't stay…family emergency.." Without further explanation or even telling Larry that she was leaving, Penny collected her belongings from the back room and walked out.
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Opening the door to 4A and finding an inebriated Penny fumbling to unlock her door before stumbling into her apartment was nothing new to Sheldon. In all actuality, it had lost its novelty about a year after she moved in. However, opening the door to 4A to see an inebriated Penny fumbling with her keys at 1:48pm on a Saturday when she should have been at work was, to say the very least, surprising.
He watched her struggle for a few moments, desperately hoping that she would get into her apartment without noticing him so that he would not have to engage the blonde in conversation. Dealing with a drunk Penny was always a trial because she was either handsy or surly. However, when she dropped her keys and groaned out a string of expletives before starting to chant in low voice, "Breathe. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe." Sheldon decided to throw his superior judgement out the proverbial window and inquire about her well being.
"Penny?" Sheldon could see her spine stiffen before Penny took a tentative look over her left shoulder.
"Heeeey...Hey, Sweetie," Penny expelled in a relieved sounding rush. Her eyes closed briefly, and she swayed into the door slightly.
"Penny, are you all right?" He looked at her shrewdly.
"Yeah, Sheldon. I...I just had a rough shift." She gave him a lopsided smile. He could see her hands still trying to twist the door knob even though she had yet to retrieve her keys from the floor. There was something frantic about Penny's demeanor that triggered the small part of him that felt empathy for others. Although he did not like dealing with drunks, and was positive that Penny's drama was the result of her own poor life choices, Sheldon wanted to make her feel better, even for a moment.
"I am certain that whatever has upset you cannot be so disheartening as to reduce you to your current state. As your dearest friend, I am obligated to offer you a hot bevera..." Penny was on him before he could even finish his sentence. Placing her hands on his chest, she tried to curl into him even as he tried to push her away.
"Promise me, Sheldon," she quietly croaked out, "that you won't completely disregard the impossible…or the improbable either. Don't let that beautiful mind of yours blind you with its constant need for 'facts' and 'evidence' all the time." Her hands fisted into his baby blue T-Rex shirt, crinkling the material. "Sometimes, you just have to believe that what can't possibly be, is."
Briefly surprised by her non sequitur outburst and unwelcome invasion of his personal space, Sheldon stared down at the bunched material. Quirking an eyebrow, he was about to utter an indignant and prissy "Excuuuse me" to show his displeasure at having his shirt ruined by her Nebraskan man hands, but an insistent tug stifled his complaint and brought his attention back to her face.
"Sheldon, focus!"A drunken Penny commanding him, Doctor Sheldon Lee Cooper, to "focus" almost caused him to emit a breathy "ahehehe," but his laugh morphed into a sharpish intake of breath when he actually noticed her eyes did not have that glassy, heavily lidded look they normally had when Penny consumed her weight in booze. Instead her green eyes were clear, wide with panic.
"Do you understand?" Utterly confused by her sudden intensity, Sheldon gave her the very slightest of nods. She released all her overwrought emotion with a sigh and relaxed into Sheldon's chest. "Good," she mumbled into his shirts. With a sniff, she pushed away from him and bent to retrieve her keys. Completely thrown off-kilter , all Sheldon could do was stare at his neighbor.
Finally getting the key into the lock, Penny pushed the door open. Before entering her apartment, she turned to him and stated in a wholly flat, unPenny-like voice, "Something's come up with my family. I've gotta go back to Nebraska for a little bit. And before you start to ask a bagillion questions," she shot him a look because Sheldon was about to launch questions at her, "I don't really wanna talk about it. I just wanna go and get it handled. Really. I'm only freaking out because I'm in a hurry. Honest."
Not being able to help himself, Sheldon started to do exactly what his friend asked him not to, but when he saw that her watery smile did not even come close to touching her eyes, he only said, "Penny, bagillion is not a real number." The answering bark of laughter warmed his heart just a bit because it was something the normal Penny would do. It grounded him some. "Would you permit me to ask one question," he looked at her hopefully.
"Sure, Sheldon," Penny's acquiescence came out a little exasperated, and he liked that too.
"When will you be returning home?"
"I don't know," and with that she turned and went into her apartment, gently shutting the door.
Sheldon did not particularly care for her uncertain response, but what really bothered him was the crestfallen look Penny had on her face when she said it. It unnerved him something fierce.