The Runaway Physicist
Sheldon Lee Cooper had run away from home. Again. Just like the last times, no thought process was involved with his decision. He got to a point where he could no longer cope with his surroundings and the situation at hand and merely fled.
The first time he ran away, was following the death of his beloved PopPop. Sheldon's whole family had gone to the hospital to visit him. When Sheldon saw his grandfather lying in the hospital bed, he looked nothing like the PopPop he knew. When he had last seen him a month ago, he noticed PopPop had lost weight and had been very tired. The man before him was emaciated and had a waxy quality to his skin. There was no twinkle in his eye, and he barely responded to his loved ones. Sheldon started to cry. He asked his parents what was wrong, but they didn't want to burden a five year old with the truth. Not being your average five year old though, he waited until the adults were preoccupied. He then read his grandfathers medical chart, that was hanging on the foot of the bed. Stage four pancreatic cancer. Sheldon knew that cancer was bad, but as it was not a subject he was too familiar with, he would have to do further research. When they got home after their visit to the hospital, Sheldon immediately headed to the encyclopedia marked "C". He started reading.
The phone rang fifteen minutes later, at the same time Sheldon realized that his PopPop was going to die. His mom had answered the phone and then he watched as she slowly sank down to the floor to her knees, a sob escaping from her lips, and tears rolling down her cheeks. His life broke into a thousand pieces. He fled out the front door, screen slamming behind him. He ran until he couldn't run anymore, then collapsed on the ground, crying.
The woman who lived in the house that he had fallen by, came out to see what the commotion was about. She knelt beside the distraught boy and tried to comfort him and ask what happened. He flinched away from her touch. After several more moments he was all cried out. She was able to convince him to come in the house and get a drink of water. After a few hours she was able to talk him into giving her his phone number to call his parents. His dad drove over to pick him up. He could smell liquor on his dad's breath as he thanked the lady who found him for caring for Sheldon. On the way home, his dad told him that he had to be strong for his mom. Only women and hippies showed emotion and he didn't raise himself no hippies! He raised himself a man, right? Sheldon didn't know what a hippie was, but it sounded like a bad thing. The small boy agreed with his father. He was going to look in the "H" encyclopedia when he felt better.
The second time he ran away he was seven. He had just burned his twin sister's eyebrows off using her Easy Bake oven to make ceramic semiconductor substrates. He knew his hide was going to get tanned, so as his sister ran wailing to their mom, he put out the small resulting fire and dashed out the back door. He ran all the way to his meemaw's house. Meemaw had a playhouse deep in her backyard for the grandkids to play in. He figured he could live there forever if need be. Meemaw came outside half an hour later and made a beeline to the playhouse. Drat! She lovingly yet firmly told him she was taking him home, and that he would have to own up to what he did to Missy. He did get a whipping, but also a relieved hug from his mother that no one was badly injured.
The third time Sheldon ran away he had been thirteen. It was summer break from college and he had high hopes of powering the entire neighborhood with a small nuclear reactor. The death ray he had built earlier that summer was a failure, but the reactor held promise. He thought of the fame and accolades he would receive. How this would help his family financially to not have to pay power bills. How this would fast track him to a Nobel Prize. But when the unmarked black cars skidded to a halt in front of the house and people with sunglasses and harsh voices flooded into the house, he knew his dreams were not to be.
After several hours of intense questioning, one of the men sat Sheldon down and tried to tell him in the best possible way that although Sheldon's intentions were good, he could not be allowed to continue. He couldn't believe the ignorance of others as tears of frustration streamed down his face. He left in the night after everyone went to bed.
He was gone until late the following afternoon, when his dad found him wandering a few miles from his house. His dad yelled at him, but not as much as Sheldon was expecting. His dad said that the government should have kept their nose out of hard working taxpayers business. He said he knew Sheldon was trying to help his family out and that he wasn't too mad at him. He gave Sheldon a grin, which was returned.
The fourth time was not long after the third. He was fourteen and in the middle of a lecture on advanced quantum mechanics, when someone from the office at the university walked in the room and up to the professor and asked for Sheldon Cooper. In the hallway, he handed Sheldon a note and mumbled a hasty "my condolences". After reading the note, Sheldon's stomach dropped, his dad had had a fatal heart attack, and his meemaw was on her way to take him home.
The long car ride home seemed endless. Meemaw did her best to comfort him on the way back. But Sheldon was numb. His daddy taught him real men didn't talk about feelings, and only would cry if they cut something bigger than a finger off. Even then it was shameful. When they made it to the house, his mother grabbed him in a tight hug, sobbing. Sheldon tolerated the bone crushing embrace well. He tried his hardest not to show how devastated he was to make his daddy proud of him. Even though Sheldon knew he wasn't a very good dad most of the time, he was still his dad, and losing him hurt.
He held himself together until the funeral. Sheldon had always been socially awkward, and displaying emotions and reading emotions had always been difficult anyway. Then to that add a father who had the emotional range of a teaspoon as a role model and you get someone who has no idea how to handle extreme emotional situations. As the oversized casket was lowered in the ground, Sheldon felt very guilty about wanting to cry. He could almost hear his dad calling him a hippie. Instead of crying, he had a panic attack. As his mom and meemaw tried to get him to calm down, he saw his older brother George Jr. look at him with disgust. As soon as he was able to breathe normally again, Sheldon ran away from the grave site. He wandered aimlessly for a day and a half until a police officer recognized him as the missing Cooper boy.
The fifth time may not count, because he ran away from home to home. He was twenty nine and confident he had locked in a Nobel. His work done in the Arctic was a success and he had returned triumphantly home. He was back in his apartment with Howard and Raj when they told him the truth: they had tampered with the results, and it was Leonard's idea. Feeling betrayed by his so called "friends", he fled back to Texas and his boyhood home. His "friends", tracked him down and apologized. It wasn't really enough in Sheldon's mind, but the overabundance of religious nonsense his mom was spouting off was quite enough and he left with them.
Currently it was the sixth time in his thirty four years that he had fled. A credit card and being an adult made running away much easier than when he had been a child. When he had left from Union Station a month ago, he just bought a ticket for the train that was leaving the soonest, and went the furthest. His thoughts were in jumbles, and his life falling apart.
He finally became aware of his surroundings somewhere in Arizona, with a pressing need to void his bladder. When that task was accomplished he realized he was very hungry. He ate but did not taste it. His meals were sporadic and slept uneasily for two days. His brain kept replaying events over and over in crystal-like detail. After four days he was able to sort his thoughts better and start to bring structure back into his life. He scheduled meal times and bedtime. He would get off the train for a few days and seek out comic book stores and train museums. He reinstituted laundry night. He called Amy.
Amy was happy to hear from him. She sounded worried about him. She asked if he was eating regularly and getting enough REM sleep. He assured her he was. He apologized for his sudden departure and that he didn't tell her goodbye. He told her he wasn't in the right frame of mind, and that he just needed to leave. She accepted his apology, but told him how much it hurt her that he thought she was pushing to be his roommate. She told him she just wanted what he was most comfortable with, whatever that may be. He thought back and realized that what she said was true, he had misunderstood her intensions and flown off the handle. He again asked for forgiveness and it was given.
They contacted each other almost every day. Email, text, Skype and phone calls. It reminded him of when they first met, how they were in constant contact but never physically in the same space. How far they had come in four short years. Now he almost hurt from not being able to sit next to her, smell her shampoo or kiss her lips.
His thoughts frequently turned to Amy. There is not much to do on a train but stare at the scenery. He would sometimes be looking out at the countryside passing by and dissolve into a memory of them playing Counterfactuals, or talking in a language they had made together. When the sun was bright he could imagine the light shining off her soft brown hair, with the little clip on the right side of her head. He recalled one time when she was going out on a girl's night, that her normal clip was replaced with one that was heart shaped and made of rhinestones. He liked it.
At this point his father's voice would cut into his thoughts and tell him to stop acting like a hippy. He would stop, but lately his thoughts returned to Amy faster than they used to and his dad's voice interrupted him less frequently.
Amy had been helping out with putting his broken life back together. It took two months of thought and planning but they had an outline. Sheldon would stay in 4A. That would mean he would keep his spot. Leonard would move in with Penny. Leonard would still be able to drive Sheldon around and to work. If Sheldon felt he needed a roommate after sixty days of living alone, he could either find a suitable new roommate, or let Amy move in. Sheldon would return to Caltech, but would look for another job elsewhere or find funding for a different position at Caltech in an area he liked. Stuart had no intentions of reopening the comic book store. He was enjoying taking care of Howard's mom. It was as if they needed each other. Sheldon could relate.
Sheldon was beginning to feel it was time to head home. It would be the first time he came home on his own without having someone come collect him. With a small laugh, he thought maybe he's finally grown up. He bought a train ticket for home. He thought of all the comforts of home waiting for him, but then realized something that made his heart pound. He imagined himself sitting in his spot, but it didn't make him happy. It was only when he pictured Amy sitting by his side that he was happy. Amy was now his spot. She was the single point of consistency in the ever changing world. She was 0,0,0,0. It was then he decided that the train was too damn slow.
He looked for flights to Los Angeles, but there was nothing till tomorrow. Drat! He found a hotel close to the airport and checked in. His mind was buzzing with the new found knowledge that Amy Farrah Fowler was the key to his happiness!
Over dinner he remembered October 2012. She had conducted an experiment in which she tried not to use her dominant right hand. It was supposed to increase the production of brain cells and exercise the brain. He found it charming. She also looked beautiful wearing electrodes.
Brushing his teeth that evening he wondered if she realized she was the only one in their group who never received a strike. He never could bring himself to do it. Even after being lied to. Twice.
Closing his eyes to sleep he pictured her with two teabags in one cup. The vixen.
He dreamt of train kisses and brownies. Her leaning against him very warm and soft, as he sat on the floor. He dreamt of bare legs and of Star Trek uniforms. Catholic school girl outfits. Cute knees. Smoking monkeys and Yoo- Hoo.
It took him a long time to get through security because of that accursed peso up his nose, but he thought that Amy was worth the trouble. The flight was uneventful, thankfully, and now he was in a cab heading towards Amy's place. It was Saturday afternoon so he hoped she would be home. He didn't wait for the elevator, instead rushing up the stairs almost tripping twice, till he stood at her door, 315. Knock knock knock, Amy. Knock knock knock, Amy. Knock knock, knock, Amy. Amy answered the door but before she could greet him, his lips found hers and muffled his name. He kissed her like his life depended on it, his hands on her hips, drawing her close to him. She kissed him back passionately her arms around his neck, no longer afraid any sudden movements would scare him off. After a while, they broke apart, staring in each others eyes. Big smiles broke out on each others faces.
Sheldon felt like a big hippie. And he didn't care.