I have been starting too many fics lately! I still have The Red Report Transgression, The Equine Expansion, The Penny War Antagonism, and The Marathon Analogy to finish! But the first two should be done by the end of October, and I still have my plot maps for the other two. They'll all get done, I assure you, but I wanted to start this fic because myself and some others feel cheated out of some great potential storylines that could have come out of Kaley's horseback riding incident. Much greater than "bartender.":D
I promise, this is not going to be like Kaley's injury. The only thing the same is she broke her leg-and I'm only writing this because we're not going to get storylines out of this situation. This is not an attempt to mimic what's happened in Kaley's real life.
This takes place at some point in the future (i.e. after The Zazzy Substitution) and is not connected in any way to any of my other fics that take place in a similar time period.
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing. Nada. Zilch.
"Sheldon, I cannot pick you up at the comic book store. I have to get to work…no, I don't have time for that…I really don't care how menial it is, I have to pay rent…no, you not wanting to walk half a mile is not more important."
If someone else was in the apartment, Penny would have rolled her eyes at them. Ever since the fiasco with the vegetables and Shelbot, Sheldon hadn't wanted to walk anywhere. He didn't care that it would keep him healthy. He figured that he was healthy enough, and made a fair enough argument that the pollution wasn't the ideal thing to be breathing in.
"Why don't you get Amy to get you…oh, that's right. Well…what?" She shifted the phone to her other hand. "Look, I'm sorry, but I'm running really late. They're short staffed today and I was late twice last week because of driving you around. You can walk, Sheldon. It's going to be fine." Penny didn't wait to hear the response. She simply hung up and dropped her phone in her purse. "Keys," she said aloud to no one, rushing into her room and swiping them from the dresser. "Okay." She was ready to leave, and she glanced up at the time. Damn, she was late!
Penny figured that if she ran everywhere that she couldn't drive, she'd just make it. Locking her apartment door, she sprinted for the stairs.
She was on the third floor landing when she slipped. Her feet flew out from under her, she landed on her back and tumbled down the stairway, limbs flailing. What had just happened? Penny struggled to think about the past ten seconds. She'd slipped and fallen, that much was obvious, but somehow she was now on the second floor and not the small landing in between. So this wasn't like the Jogging Incident of 2010 that had happened with her and Sheldon.
When she could breathe again, she tried to think her way around her body to make sure everything was okay. Her hands and arms were fine-her shoulders and back hurt from hitting the stairs, though. She thought that some part of her was on fire, but she couldn't see any flames. There would be flames, right?
Penny's head hurt, and she brought a hand up to brush some hair away from her face. When she did, her hand came back stained red. Startled, she reached back and touched the side of her face, along the hairline. It stung, and was clearly bleeding.
Penny sat up-or thought she sat up. The next thing she remembered she was lying flat on her back again, feeling dizzy and disoriented. When she made another attempt to sit up, the dizziness came over her again, and she fought to stay conscious. This time, she didn't black out, but she almost wished that she had. A sharp pain shot up her left leg, which was bent in an awkward angle. Penny gave up trying. The world went black again.
"Okay, Sheldon, I'll be right there…no need to apologize…okay, yeah, I guess that was more of an explanation…well, she's busy, Sheldon; I'm sure she…okay, okay, I'm leaving now." Leonard threw on a jacket and grabbed a key from the bowl. So Penny had been running late again. Typical behavior, of course. Sheldon ought to be used to it by now. "I gotta go pick up Sheldon," he said to Howard and Raj. "I'll be back in twenty or so."
"Take your time," Raj said. "We can't figure this game out anyway, and Sheldon's good at setting it up."
Leonard raised an eyebrow. "Sheldon would be able to show you and explain…" Leonard trailed off as he realized that that was precisely what they didn't want. "Oh, got it. Okay, I'll drive slowly."
Leonard carefully locked the apartment door and headed down the stairs. When he got to the third floor landing, he noticed a banana peel on the ground near the stairs. He stopped and raised an eyebrow. Anyone who slipped on that would fall victim to the lamest real life cliché in the universe. Leonard considered picking it up, but where would he put it? After glancing at the elevator doors and deciding against it, Leonard nudged the peel out of the way and continued down the stairs.
Coming to the next small landing he noticed a stain on the carpet and stopped again. What was going on today? He would have stopped to analyze the stain, but knew that Sheldon was waiting. When they returned home, he'd call on it. He wasn't sure what it was anyway; the stairways weren't very well lit.
Leonard's blood turned to ice as he came around that corner and saw the second floor landing. "Oh, my God," he said, bolting down the stairs.
Penny was lying on her back, her arms looking like they'd remained where they'd fallen. One hand was red, and Leonard could see the wound on her head. It looked as if she'd had a small nosebleed, too, but that was the least of his concerns. Her left leg was bent at an awkward angle on the lower half of her leg, and both of her feet were swollen.
Leonard reached her and dropped down on his knees next to her shoulder. "Penny!" He said in a voice that he hoped didn't sound too frantic. One of his hands found his pocket and frantically dug for his cell phone, and the other tucked a few stray hairs behind Penny's ear. "Penny, wake up, say something!" He found his phone and dialed 911. When he heard an answering voice on the other end, Leonard barked the address and information. "She's got a laceration on her head and it looks like her leg is broken. Her feet are swelling-I think because both ankles are sprained." Leonard kept stroking her hair, her hand, the side of her face, willing her to open her eyes and hoping that, even if she wasn't awake, she knew he was there.
Then she did open her eyes, ever so slightly. When he saw them again he realized just how pale she was. "Leonard," she croaked. "I fell down the stairs."
"I know," he said gently. "I called an ambulance."
Penny shook her head in protest; Leonard knew she hated ambulances. Once, she'd gotten Sheldon to drive her to the hospital for a dislocated shoulder, claiming that she couldn't wait long enough for an ambulance when she knew Sheldon would drive slower. She'd never said so, but Leonard thought that Penny associated ambulances with very serious injuries and was afraid of having to ride in one.
Penny slid her arms behind her and tried to sit up. She almost made it, but Leonard saw her injured leg move as she tried to shift her balance. He reached out a hand to catch her as she fell back, letting out a cry that reminded Leonard of the wounded dog that he'd tried to befriend when he was seven. "Ow," she moaned, her lips trembling.
"Don't try to sit up," he told her. "Keep everything still. Don't touch it."
Penny let her head rest back on the ground. "I tried to get up before. I passed out."
"Shhh," he said. "Just don't talk, okay? The medics are coming; they'll give you something for the pain. How bad is it? Scale of one to ten?"
"Eight or nine," she said, closing her eyes again. "Do I have to go in an ambulance?"
Leonard hesitated. "Um…yes. But don't worry about it. Hey!" he exclaimed when he saw tears in her eyes. "I'll come with you, if you want." She nodded quickly. "Okay," he said, instinctively reaching for her hand. He felt her fingers curl around his, holding them tightly.
Three more weeks! In three weeks I'll have more time than I know what to do with, so I'll finish two of my fics and keep working on the other three. (Wow, five fics at one time, that's more than I've ever worked on before! But I guess it's good-they're all different so there's always something to update!)
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