"Sheldon, this is crazy." Raj squinted at the whiteboard over Sheldon's shoulder. "Brilliant, all right, but really completely insane."
"Mm-hm," Sheldon ignored him.
"Raj, lets start the game. He's not moving any time soon," Leonard said from the coffee table. He cleared away the boxes of take-out and handed out the character sheets. Raj shook his head and took a seat next to Howard, leaving Sheldon to his calculation.
"Is he doing what I think he's doing?" Howard asked, looking over the whiteboards. The apartment was filled with even more of them than usual, all covered in increasingly tiny equations.
Leonard shrugged. "Maybe? I lost track a while ago. He's just messing about with this because someone left a cupcake in his office three days ago and he's refused to go in there since."
"What was wrong with the cupcake?" Howard asked.
"Nothing, there was a birthday party and they had leftovers. I got one too, it was yummy," Raj said.
"It was blue," Sheldon said over his shoulder. Then they lost him to the whiteboard again.
"It had frosting," Leonard explained.
The door opened and Penny came in. "Hey guys, we're heading out. Have fun."
"You too," Leonard smiled.
"See you at home, Howie," Bernadette called from behind Penny.
"Love you," Howard said.
"Sheldon," Amy nodded at her boyfriend.
"Nyah. Something." Sheldon didn't look away from the board. He started to wave but gave up.
Amy looked disappointed, but she met Bernadette's look and shrugged. "It's all right, I'm attracted to his aloof obsessiveness."
My turn! "Goodbye, ladies!" Raj said with a broad smile. No alcohol! None!
"Bye, Raj!" All three of them replied together.
Raj basked. It had been days since he'd had a drink. Days! He didn't even like the stuff, so that was a relief, and here were three whole girls talking to him. Girls who were someone else's girls, admittedly, but he wasn't going to quibble. Girls who aren't Lucy. Maybe he would quibble a little.
Penny had almost closed the door when Sheldon yelled "wait!" He unfolded himself from in front of the board like a row of dominos falling, blinked and looked around the room with a disturbing intensity. He capped the marker and put it down.
"What is it, Sheldon?" Penny asked.
"Stand over there." Sheldon pointed to a spot by his desk.
"Why?" Penny asked, but she humored him and stood where he pointed.
"Rajesh, move your left arm four inches up."
Raj looked at Sheldon's calculations. He read the last line. No, that's insane. He read it again. All right, so it added up. Lots of things add up. The bill for the Chinese food added up. Tentatively, Raj moved his arm. He had a bad feeling about this, but curiosity was getting the better of him.
Sheldon leapt into action, positioning the six of them like chess pieces.
Leonard gave his long suffering shrug. "Let's just go with it. The sooner it doens't work, the sooner we can all get on with our lives." Sheldon snorted. "Even what passes for your life, Sheldon."
Sheldon shook his head. He repositioned Raj's arm again, messed with Howard's hair, put Amy by the window and had Bernadette perched on the corner of the kitchen table.
"Those are adorable shoes, Bernadette," Raj said.
"Oh, thank you."
"Quiet! Don't move!"
"Leonard, what's going on?" Penny asked from her corner, where Sheldon now had her standing on one foot.
Leonard rolled his eyes. "I think he's trying to establish a macroscopic multiverse resonance. It's nonsense."
Raj found himself looking over the whiteboard again. Pure nonsense. Sure.
"Are you done?" Howard asked.
"Almost." Sheldon did a slow turn in the middle of the room. "Now we just need something the probability of which occuring should take longer to come about than the time between now and the heat death of the universe. Give or take."
Sheldon looked at Penny.
Uh oh. Raj had shared an office with Sheldon for too long. He had an inkling of how that mind worked, especially it's limitations. "Dude, don't do it."
"Amy, I'm sorry," Sheldon said and walked over to Penny. "You understand it's for science."
Two things happened at once. Sheldon turned around and kissed Bernadette full on the mouth, and Lucy tentatively leaned in through the open door and said "um, hi."
Then the third thing happened.