Dr. Leonard Hofstadter shifted into reverse, sliding a look at his best friend and fellow passenger, Dr. Sheldon Cooper, before simply backing out of his parking spot without even checking his mirrors. He shifted into drive, turned the steering wheel, and began to pull out of the parking lot, looking sidelong at his friend twice more as he drove. Sheldon was wearing his red Flash tee-shirt because it was Friday, with a blue shirt underneath it and a garish pair of green plaid pants. Leonard didn't think anything about his fashion choices made sense that day, but then Leonard figured his recycling tee-shirt, maroon hoodie and the red pants he was borrowing from Penny might not have been making much of a statement that day either. He took the corner of his hoodie and placed the maroon fabric against the cherry pants, wondering what his girlfriend meant about his inability to mix reds, but then shrugged and looked back at the road.
Leonard was simply glad it was Friday and he didn't have to work tomorrow. He heaved a small sigh, remembering that Penny had picked up a shift for a friend and would be working a double. He would miss seeing her on a Saturday, but at the moment, Leonard definitely felt he had more pressing matters on his hands and it was time to figure out just how bad the situation was.
After entering into traffic, Leonard deliberately dropped his hands from the Department of Motor Vehicles recommended 10 and 2 hold position on the steering wheel and completely let go with one hand, resting his right elbow on the center console and letting his hand hang from the wrist. He lazily brushed the fingertips of his left hand along the leather curve of the steering wheel to the bottom and relaxed into this position, barely holding on as he drove straight down the long road of Colorado boulevard.
He waited.
After driving this way for an astonishing ten seconds in total silence, Leonard flipped on his turn signal and pulled over to the side of the road, parking on the edge of the boulevard behind a gold Honda.
"Okay," Leonard said, "I don't know what is going on, but you are freaking me out. Spill it, Sheldon."
"Leonard," Sheldon weakly protested, reaching up to rub his fingertips across his temple.
"In the last 20 minutes, I have used improper grammar, been unable to reach the top shelf of my bookcase to reference a point I'm stuck on in my current project, used every incorrect, sloppy driving procedure I could think of, and then even commented that I thought the new shade of pink they are using for the walls of the Science library are not just calming and appealing, but made me feel a little like a beautiful fairytale princess. And you? All you did was pull the book off the shelf for me, fail to either correct me or insult me, and note that I'd probably make a rather fetching Belle."
Sheldon turned to Leonard, listening. He waited for a few seconds, and then inquired softly, "So?"
"So," Leonard drawled, "When are you going to tell me what's wrong?"
"It's nothing," Sheldon replied flatly.
Leonard spoke firmly, stressing his point, "I gave you an opportunity to insult my height. You didn't take it. What is happening to you?"
Sheldon swallowed, and fidgeted in his seat. He looked out the windshield, and then shrugged his shoulders and said, "The University is so pleased with the results of the work Kripke and I have done that they indicated they want us to do more work together in the future."
Leonard pondered that, and then said slowly, "Well, we can figure out a way to handle that, Sheldon. You've done just fine wi–"
Sheldon suddenly let out a sob and buried his face in his hands, "And I broke my train!"
Leonard paused, furrowing his brow. "Wait...what?"
"I was playing with it last night and I didn't put it away before bed like my Mommy told me I should and when I woke up this morning I stepped on it and I broke it!" Sheldon doubled over, holding his face in his hands and continuing to sniffle. "You should have heard the little crunch, Leonard. It's been haunting me all day. I'll never forget the sound of that little teeny tiny crunch! My poor little train!" With that, Sheldon began crying in earnest.
Leonard watched Sheldon for a moment, and then looked into his lap and tried to stay stoic. He was unable. He reached across the car and patted Sheldon softly on the shoulder twice. "There, there." He turned his head to watch the traffic whizzing by, resting his hand on Sheldon's shoulder and keeping it there. "Do you want me to take you to the train store?"
"No, I don't want to go to the train store!" Sheldon jerked himself upright and glared at Leonard, who let his hand fall away. "How can you ask me if I want to go to the train store?! I can't even bare to LOOK at a train right now!" He sniffled once, "I know you're very socially handicapped, Leonard, but please try to show at least a modicum of sensitivity."
"Fine," Leonard said, heaving a deep breath and trying to stay sedate, "Why don't I take you to the comic book store?"
"Oh," Sheldon said, sinking back in his seat, "Well, the comic book store might be nice." He sniffled once, and opened the glove compartment to get at his stash of tissues. "I don't know if there are enough comic books, action figures and memorabilia lunch boxes to soothe the sorrow in my heart...but we can try."
Leonard nodded, noting, "And we can go through the Starbucks drive thru and pick up some hot chocolate for you too, buddy."
"Thank you, Leonard," Sheldon said in a low voice, starting to pull himself together. He pulled out a tissue and patted the corner of his eye with it. "I'm glad you remembered that March is a month with an "r" in it." He paused and then added, "It's a relief that you still know how to spell, even if you did use 'different from' when you meant 'different than' when speaking with Dr. Gablehauser today."
"Hopefully, Dr. Gablehauser will overlook it," Leonard replied as he pulled back into traffic, returning his grip on the wheel to the proper 10 and 2 position which Sheldon would never normally let him deviate from.
"Like Dr. Gablehauser would know the difference," Sheldon murmured in reply.
When they got home from the comic book store, Radio Shack, and the grocery store, Leonard began to put the groceries away in the fridge with Sheldon helping him by pointing out how he was doing it incorrectly. Leonard started to rearrange them alphabetically when Sheldon interrupted to let him know he had changed the system to reflect their vitamin C content, and somewhere around then it had devolved into bickering over where to put the ginger snap cookies if the Batman cookie jar was strictly reserved for double stuff Oreos even though they didn't have any Oreos at that time, which Leonard pointed out was Sheldon's fault for not picking them up, but Sheldon claimed he should not have anticipated that was necessary as Leonard had foregone picking up any of his lactose-free almond milk, and who wanted Oreos in the apartment if you didn't have milk to dunk them in?
They were still heatedly discussing which one of them had eaten the last Oreo when there was a knock on the door. Sheldon moved across the room, noting sternly to Leonard, "Don't forget my eidetic memory, sir. You ate the last one at 10:54 last Sunday night because you were upset about the recent developments on Once Upon a Time–and don't tell me that was just a coincidence. You think I don't know what you watch when it's past my bedtime, but I hear you crying out here over Snow and Charming."
With that, Sheldon opened the door, looking down into the faces of his girlfriend, Amy Farrah Fowler, and Leonard's current girlfriend, Penny. They were each carrying a large bag of take-out food. While Penny was smiling a little bit, Amy looked neutral, she didn't even have a smile for him, which was unusual, and after only glancing at his face she turned her eyes down to stare at the floor.
"Actually, his favorite character is Rumpelstiltskin," Penny said.
"Leonard, is that true?" Sheldon stepped back to open the door wider, allowing both girls inside. He looked down at Amy, studying her closely as she walked by him. He then looked at Penny, who had stayed behind.
"I don't know what any of you are talking about," Leonard replied, studying the package of ginger snaps with suspiciously intense concentration.
"Of course you don't, sweetie," Penny said, smiling a little, although she was watching Amy, who had gone to the kitchen island and put her bag down on it, leaned her side against the counter and was looking down at its wooden top, her face hidden by the veil of her brunette hair. Penny tapped Sheldon on the shoulder, and pointed at Amy, even as she said at the same time, "Leonard, honey, how'd you like to come on a little dinner date with me tonight?"
"Tonight? Don't you have a double shift tomorrow?" Leonard looked up from the cookies, and caught some little gestures that Penny was trying to make for Sheldon's sake at Amy, who continued to stare downwards, toying absently with her nails. "Oh," Leonard said, looking between Amy and then Sheldon and Penny. "Um, sure, Penny. Some alone time with you would be great."
"Are you trying to learn sign language? Because if so, people usually use both hands for that," Sheldon told Penny, frowning as he watched her draw her finger from her eye down her cheek, and then point at Amy.
Penny sighed, and then went on tiptoe and whispered in Sheldon's ear, "Your girlfriend is upset. Take care of her."
Sheldon's eyes widened, and he looked over at Amy with something like both terror and concern, and then back at Penny as she backed into the hallway. He spread his arms open, mouthing, "What do I DO?"
Penny lifted her hands and made little pinching gestures, miming the idea of talking, and then pointed urgently towards Amy again. She reached over and took Leonard by the sleeve of his hoodie, pulling him back towards her apartment. Leonard patted Sheldon on the shoulder and murmured, "Good luck, buddy," and then left, closing the door behind him.
Sheldon looked at the closed door and then back at Amy and ran his hand through his hair, frowning. Amy looked around the floor and then up at him, something in her face both sad and yet hopeful. Sheldon was contemplating any course of action he could think of and coming up blank when the phone rang. He held up a hand to Amy, asking her to wait, and then practically dove for it.
"Cooper/Hofstadter residence," he said, "Go for Cooper." A pause, and then he said, "Hello Dr. Gablehauser. Yes. Yes, I agree." After a long pause, Sheldon suddenly sat down in his spot on the couch, going even paler than normal. Amy's forehead wrinkled, and she decided to get down some plates and start unwrapping the Chinese food, listening to Sheldon's side of the conversation as she did so. She put the kettle on, listening as Sheldon's assents became more terse, more clipped.
"And if I disagree to this course of action because I have better things to do?" Sheldon finally asked, waiting for a pause before answering, "No, I do not want a thorough review of my budget looking for miscellaneous wastes of money, but I want you to know that that expensive bird seed is a mandatory purchase. It's the only thing that the mockingbird that lives outside of my office will eat, and it's only as long as I feed him that he'll sing on key." A pause. "Yes, well, the bird and I worked this out." A pause. "Yes, the bird. I had no choice. I can't work when he's singing out of tune with Professor Snider's wind chimes." Another pause, "Yes, I understand." He put his elbow on one knee and buried his face in his hand, repeating the word, "Yes," several times, his voice getting softer and softer as he did so. Finally he simply said, "Yes, good evening, Dr. Gablehauser. I'll see you Monday."
With that he hung up the phone. Amy glanced at him from her place on a stool in the kitchen. All of the food and drink and silverware was arranged in front of her, and she just perched there, silently waiting. Sheldon looked up at her, and then slowly rose to his feet and came to join her, sitting down on the stool opposite.
"I got your favorite," Amy said, her own voice very subdued. She picked up a pair of chopsticks and started pushing food around her plate moodily.
Sheldon said, "Thank you," and then proceeded to do the same, and they sat that way for several minutes, both of them staring into their plates and toying with their food without taking a bite.
Finally, Sheldon and Amy lifted their heads and started in at the same time, "I have to do a lecture series at the Univeristy–someone stole my lunch out of the refrigerator even though I put my name and a note on it–with Barry Kripke–my favorite monkey died today–over 200 patchouli wearing idiot grad students–idiots? Two idiots smoking in the bathroom set off the alarm detectors and ruined 3 months worth of work for my whole department–I'm going to either faint or end up with no pants!"
Both of them finished in unison, panting for breath. Amy's lower lip was trembling, and Sheldon's eyes suddenly filled up with tears. He whispered, "And I broke my train."
Amy looked back at Sheldon for a long moment, and then glanced over at the TV set. She bit her lower lip and tried to collect herself, hunching her shoulders more than usual. She felt her own eyes get watery, and her vision turned blurry. She took her glasses off, folding them up and putting them next to her plate. "I guess you probably want to take your food to your spot and watch some Star Wars-Trek-something for awhile." She tried to wipe away her tears inconspicuously with the tip of her finger.
Sheldon tried to daub away his own tears with the sleeve of his tee-shirt, although he glanced towards the box of tissues and seemed to debate going to get some. He glanced at his TV and then his spot, and looked uncertainly back at Amy. Rubbing his nose with his arm once like a little boy, he murmured back, "Yes." He studied her and then guessed, "I suppose you'd probably like to cuddle and listen to some god-awful Baroque harp music?"
The two of them exchanged a long awkward glance, both of their eyes still shiny and their noses turning red. Amy couldn't really see Sheldon clearly, and she considered his comment, then nodded once, "Well, yes."
Sheldon reached out for his mug of tea, his fingers closing around it in a death grip. He pulled it forward and just stared down into its contents intently as his knuckles turned white.
Amy tried to wait him out, but her lower lip only started to tremble harder and her vision was growing blurrier and it wasn't just from the lack of her glasses. She made one feeble attempt, pushing around a dumpling on her plate with her chopsticks and noting, "You know…I…I never watched that DVD box set you gave me. Of the…" Amy had to think about it, "Star Trek. Stuff."
"Next Generation," Sheldon mumbled, maintaining the death grip on his mug.
"Right," Amy said, nodding a little.
Sheldon didn't reply, he simply stared at his weak reflection in his cup of tea, not moving a muscle.
Amy slowly pushed back her stool and went to her feet, whispering, "Well, I suppose I'll be going home." She went to reach for her glasses.
Without letting go of his mug, without even looking up, Sheldon's other hand suddenly darted out so quick it blurred the air, snapping up her glasses. He held them out of her reach and didn't look up from the depths of his mug once. Amy tried to snatch one hand at her glasses, but Sheldon only held them higher, and even sitting on his stool he was still that much taller than her that she knew she couldn't get them. Frowning, Amy crossed her arms over her stomach tightly and tried to calm her trembling lower lip. "Sheldon, give those back. You probably don't understand this concept, but I need them to be able to drive, and I want to go home."
Finally, Sheldon broke his concentration on his tea, reached up and wiped the tears from his eyes with his sleeve, and, most remarkably, opened her glasses and put them on his own face. He pulled them down the length of his nose, placed his elbows on the kitchen counter, steepled his fingers and rested his lips against his forefingers. Soberly, he peered up at her over the dark rims and held her in a long stare.
In the blurry edges of her uncorrected vision, Sheldon's deep blue eyes seemed to be the only points of focus in the whole world, and despite herself, Amy caught her breath and gazed back.
"Proposal," Sheldon said.
The world had taken on a certain stillness, and Leonard hated to break it, but he knew that Penny had work the next day while he was looking forward to being able to sleep in. The clock said it was only 11, but it had been a long day and if he didn't leave now he would end up falling asleep there with her. He slowly stroked Penny's shoulder for the last time, listening to her slow breathing, and then tried to extricate his arm as gently as possible.
"Where are you going?" Penny breathed, quick enough on the uptake to indicate she had never really been asleep.
Leonard leaned over and kissed her temple before pulling away, "I'm going to go check on Sheldon. Sleep in my own bed. You have a long day tomorrow."
Penny murmured a little, reached for his arm and caressed it without opening her eyes. Their bodies slid apart, but just as Leonard was about to break the connection, Penny caught his hand in hers and pressed her fingertips into his palm for several seconds before letting go. Leonard smiled and picked up his pants from the floor, turning to locate his tee-shirt and get dressed. Even though he didn't know it and did not see it, Penny's eyes cracked open just enough to watch him through her lashes. When he padded out into the hallway, whispering, "Goodnight, Penny," she smiled to herself, rolled over and took his pillow, hugging it to her cheek. She inhaled deeply once, and then let herself be given over to the sweet cocoon of sleep.
Leonard draped his hoodie over his shoulder like a towel and carried his shoes out into the hall. He went for the door, but then changed his mind and reversed course, going into Penny's kitchen. He grabbed a bottle of whiskey from one of her upper shelves and brought it down, heaving a deep sigh as he murmured, "One shot for Sheldon, the rest for me."
With that decided, he left Penny's and crossed the hall to his own door, noting as he approached it that he could see the flash of the television lights from the crack at the bottom, and somehow he just knew that Sheldon was sitting there in the dark watching Star Trek, and Leonard's stomach did a small flip at the thought of what he might find when he entered. He knew Sheldon had had a long, hard day, and he couldn't imagine how bad it might have gone trying to comfort Amy through the crisis Penny had been describing to him, and he felt a little guilty not to have been there for his friend but also a little relieved to have avoided it, and then of course he realized he felt even more guilty for feeling relieved.
Leonard squared his shoulders and braced himself, reaching for the doorknob to his apartment and walking straight in. As he had predicted, the apartment was dark, but what he saw revealed in the light of the television made Leonard stop cold and stare.
Their large comfortable chair had been pushed across the living room, directly in front of the TV. Sitting in it, wearing his gold Lieutenant Data Star Trek costume, was Sheldon, and in Sheldon's arms was Amy, wearing her blue medical Star Trek dress and black boots, her legs crossed over his thighs, her dark head sleeping soundly on his shoulder. He held her casually around the waist, the remote control balanced on the arm of the chair, his eyes focused on the TV screen. One of Leonard's favorite episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation was playing, and the flickering light of the television bathed their entwined figures in a soft blue glow.
Sheldon tore his gaze from the television to look up at Leonard. Although there was no other change in his expression, his eyes were alive and shining. In the storm of questions which bombarded Leonard's mind about what he was seeing, one truth stood out clearly among them all: Sheldon was happy.
The two men stood there looking at each other, sharing volumes of an unspoken conversation, and then Leonard's lips turned into a tiny conspiratorial smile, and Sheldon smiled right back him the same way. Leonard turned and shut the door quietly, and went to cross behind Sheldon towards the hall, but he reached down to put his hand warmly on Sheldon's shoulder in passing. To his surprise, he felt Sheldon reach up and clasp his hand. Leonard stopped, looked down and cocked his eyebrow curiously at his friend. Sheldon looked up and met his eye, and then turned his glance to Leonard's desk chair for a meaningful beat, and then he looked back up at Leonard and lifted both eyebrows wordlessly.
Leonard's smile turned into a God's honest grin.
The words "Data" and "Lore" had been penetrating Amy's mind for a few seconds before she realized she was waking up peacefully to the sound of the television, which she couldn't remember leaving on. From the warm and tranquil way she felt, she knew she had been asleep for a long time, and she lifted her head suddenly when it hit her that she definitely wasn't at home in her own bed. She opened her eyes and realized she wasn't wearing her glasses, but she could still see the tips of her black boots and the fuzzy glow of the television in front of her. Things began to click into place when she made out Sheldon's knees under hers, and curiously an extra pair of feet propped up on an upside down trashcan next to their chair. She followed the shiny black shoes up a pair of black clad legs, and found Leonard in his red Captain Picard Star Trek uniform, sitting in his desk chair immediately to Sheldon's right with a pile of ginger snap cookies on a napkin in his lap. He looked up at her as she blinked back at him in surprise, and gave her what seemed to be a warm, if rather fuzzy, wink.
"Shhhh," Sheldon murmured, reaching for the remote and turning the volume down a notch. He put the remote back down and then dropped his gaze to look into her eyes. Casually, as if he had done so all his life, Sheldon placed a quick but infinitely tender kiss on her mouth and whispered, "Go back to sleep."
Amy blinked as Sheldon went back to watching TV. She looked across at Leonard again, and noted that his jaw was hanging open. After a moment she simply shrugged at him, rested her head back on Sheldon's shoulder, and immediately fell asleep again. After her eyes closed, the hint of a playful smile turned Sheldon's lips upwards, and his eyes took on the same shining gleam as before.
Leonard's jaw dropped open even further, and he threw up his arms to the ceiling even as Captain Jean-Luc Picard's voice cracked from the TV:
"SHUT UP, WESLEY!"
*Hat tip*
- Lionne Lovegood