The 53 Degrees Destiny
A/N: So this is my second Valentine's challenge story. The first is The 95 Degrees Destiny. Same outline, but different outcome. There are a few key things that are in both stories, but both are quite different. They are both stand alone, but I think part of the fun is to find what changed from the last story. Hope you like it.
Leonard strolled down the hall towards the engineering lab, to see if Howard was ready for lunch. He turned the last corner and felt a chilling draft creeping through the hallway. He noticed the lab door was open and walked into an Arctic freeze.
Howard's hands were wrapped around a hot cup of coffee as he sat huddled up in his coat looking at a diagram.
"Why in the hell is it so cold in here?" Leonard blew into his hands to warm them.
"Oh, something going on with the thermostat. Maintenance has been working on it all morning. If you call 'working on it' eating jelly doughnuts." Howard shook his head. "They were good jelly doughnuts though."
"How can you stand working in here? I've been here two minutes and I can't stand it." Leonard shivered.
"Yeah, the 'boys' are almost in my abdomen. It helps that Ma keeps a chilly house. It cuts down on the sweating. But a nice hot lunch is sounding good right about now." Howard grabbed his coffee and they left the numbing cold room behind.
They met Kripke on the way to the cafeteria. "You fewwas buy a waffle ticket? It's your wast chance to buy one." He pulled a pair of blue tickets out of his pocket. "Twip to Aspen, aww expenses paid. Wovewy wadies weawing tight sweatews and Ugg boots. A dweam come twue."
"I totally forgot about it. How much are the tickets?" Leonard asked Barry.
"Ten dowwars cash onwy. But the dwawing is at noon." He pointed to a clock, it was five minutes till noon.
"We can make it in time, come on." Howard led the way to the cafeteria.
They headed straight to the lady in charge of the raffle. Leonard pulled out his wallet and Howard pulled a ten dollar bill out of his coat.
The lady smiled. "You two made it just in the nick of time. Good luck." She took their ticket stubs and mixed them in a huge fish bowl. She then thanked everyone who participated in the raffle and started pulling blue tickets from the fishbowl and announced the third and second place winners.
Leonard nudged Howard, "If I win, I want to take you and Bernadette with us to Aspen. It would be a nice way to say thank you to Bernie for getting Penny that job, and you guys are by far the most fun to be around." He didn't tell him the real reason. That Sheldon would be a royal pain in the ass and that Penny and Emily didn't get along.
"Well thanks buddy, what a nice gesture." Howard didn't say anything else.
"And the winner of the trip for four to Aspen, all expenses paid, over Valentine's Day weekend is ticket number...87498!"
"Holy crap, I won!" Howard pumped his fist in the air. "Yes! Aspen here I come!"
"Howard! I can't believe it! Congratulations. Who are you planning on taking with you?" Leonard said as if he didn't already know.
"Well I do owe Raj for taking us to San Simeon." Howard mused.
"Buwn dude." Kripke said to Leonard. "That's got to huwt."
"What! I was going to take you if I won, why aren't you taking me?" Leonard demanded.
"Raj took Bernie and me on a trip, the least I can do is repay the favor. Besides admit it, you only wanted to take us because Penny and Emily don't get along and Sheldon is no fun to take anywhere."
"Whaaaaaaat?" Leonard said unconvincingly.
"I agwee with Wowowitz. Coopew is a pawty poopew." Kripke nodded in agreement.
"No one asked you." Leonard huffed at Kripke. Leonard turned back to Howard. "I think a weekend with the four of us would have been great. But you go with Koothrappali. It's his first Valentine's Day with Emily, so he is going to go overboard and drive everyone crazy." Leonard folded his arms over his chest and gave a curt nod.
Howard thought about this and muttered, "How come even when I win, I seem to lose?"
Leonard went home that night in a foul mood. He opened the door to Penny's place and flopped on the couch.
"That bad of a day, huh?" Penny sighed. "Me too. Our big erectile dysfunction drug Dixaflopin has been recalled. Turns out it causes total and permanent hair loss. Everywhere." She stirred the pot in front of her then replaced the lid. "They were going to see if they could spin it to be an alternative to laser hair removal, but people really like their eyebrows."
Leonard grimaced at her news, and then added his own. "Get this, Howard won a trip to Aspen for four and chose Raj and Emily over us." Leonard fumed.
"Well they are best friends, and Raj did take them to San Simeon." Penny pondered.
"You too?" Leonard slumped in his spot.
"It's no big deal, we can have a great time here by ourselves." She sat down next to Leonard and draped her arms around him. "A little dinner, a little wine, a little fooling around…" She kissed his cheek, then his neck.
"Change that to a lot of fooling around and it's a deal." Leonard returned her kisses.
The day before Valentine's Day arrived and Howard rolled over in bed to kiss his wife. "Good morning, beautiful. Feel up to skipping town for a few days?"
"Only if I get to take you with me." She kissed him back.
"I wouldn't have it any other way. Are you sure you're OK with Raj and Emily coming with us?"
"I like them both, though Emily is a little creepy sometimes. I can handle her in small doses. It's not going to be like we have to do everything with them though. There's shopping and winter activities, spas, theaters all kinds of things we can do without them if need be." She kissed him again. "Now let's finish packing. I need to remember to put that little lacy number in the bag before we go."
"Don't worry, I'll remind you." Howard growled.
Raj grabbed his beautiful lady's last bag and put it in the trunk of his car. He climbed behind the wheel and started the car. "I checked the accommodations and it seems to be a very nice place to stay. It has four and a half stars on Yelp."
She continued to stare out of the car window, pointedly ignoring him. He continued, nonplussed. "I made sure to schedule you an appointment for a massage and a pedicure. They have treats they leave on your pillow each night, and special breakfast in bed options." Still no reaction from her just silence. "There's an attached door that leads to a patio where you can sit and take in the scenery." He was still being ignored and he knew why. "Fine, I know you're angry at me, but there was nothing I could do about it. It's only one weekend out of our lives. We can spend some quality time next weekend all by ourselves. What do you say?" She turned her attention back to Raj, and he leaned over to receive a kiss with lots of tongue. He straightened up, eyes on the road. "Now let's get you to the kennel, Cinnamon.
Amy knocked on the door of 4A, but no one answered. She thought she heard a voice coming from the apartment and tried the knob. It was locked. Penny just happened to open her door at the same time, carrying a laundry basket. "Hey Ames, you coming by to see Sheldon?"
"I was but no one answered the door and I think I hear Sheldon's voice." She pressed her ear to the door. "Is he...singing?"
"Penny started grinning. "Sheldon singing! That never happens. I wonder if he's in the shower."
A flicker of a smile started to form on Amy's lips. "We should check on him. Right now. But for some reason the door is locked."
Penny pulled out her keys and placed the key in the lock. "I'll let you in first, I don't want to take any chances of seeing a naked wet Sheldon." Both women shivered, Penny in revulsion, Amy in anticipation. Penny pushed the door open and Amy entered the apartment before stopping dead in her tracks. Penny peeked into the apartment, fearing the worst, but then dropped her laundry on the floor and pulled out her phone and started filming the sight in front of her.
Sheldon was in front of his white board, marker in hand and headphones on. And he was singing.
"If you can see that I'm the one who understands you.
Been here all along so why can't you see,
You belong with me.
Standing by and waiting at your back door.
All this time how could you not know?
Baby, you belong with oh dear Lord!" Sheldon had turned around and saw the two women standing behind him. Penny stood with her phone in front of her and Amy was right beside her, both deeply amused. His hand went to his heart, to keep it from leaping from his chest from that last jolt of adrenaline. "The door was locked for a reason!"
"Though no one would ever guess this was why." Penny laughed.
Sheldon shot Penny a haughty look. "I never break into your home without knocking."
Penny looked him square in the eye. "Within a week of moving in to this building, you entered my apartment and organized it while I slept." She crossed her arms and tilted her head.
"Well I rarely break in." He muttered.
"What were you doing Sheldon?" Amy put her purse down and sat in her spot.
"As you know a few weeks ago I used anxiety to optimize my work productivity. I made some amazing breakthroughs. However because of the use of anxiety I lost sleep, was ejected from my girlfriend's apartment and received odd stares from an armadillo on the bus." Penny and Amy frowned. "Long story. Anyway, I found that Ms. Swift does increase my productivity over silence, just not as well as Darth Vader, Godzilla and the Joker."
"See Sheldon, I knew you didn't need to stress yourself out to produce good quality work." Amy smiled at him. "I'm proud of you."
Sheldon felt that warm glow he always felt when Amy said something nice to him. It was like being immersed in warm bathwater. His entire body relaxed from his earlier scare at those four simple words spoken by her. He smiled back at her. "Thank you Amy. And thank you for helping me when I was struggling and not making any sense. I like it when we support one another." He put his headphones and marker down and came and sat by Amy's side. Their eyes met sending shivers down both their spines. They were rounding eye coitus third base when Penny interrupted them.
"Are you two still joining us for dinner tomorrow?" Penny felt a bit like a third wheel.
Amy reluctantly tore her gaze away from Sheldon. "Yes, we're looking forward to it." Sheldon sighed as if the whole world was against him. Amy changed her answer. "Well I'm looking forward to it."
"Moroccan food? Who came up with that horrible idea?" Sheldon shuddered. "Eating with ones hands from a communal plate of lamb? Just give me a dose of Clostridium and E. coli now and save me the fuss of wearing an itchy suit." He folded his arms and sulked.
Amy sighed. "Sheldon, I told you we are not ordering lamb dishes, and you can have a separate plate and a fork."
"We're probably going to sit on the floor like hippies too. The things one does for love." He muttered.
"You know what, if you don't want to go, we won't go." Amy said curtly.
"Oh, no we're going. I've learned it's better to go through with an evening and complain about it, than to refuse to go and have your girlfriend complain about for the next week." Sheldon groused. He looked at Amy, who was looking at him with an unamused look.
"Neither of those seems like a good option." She said quietly.
"They really aren't." He agreed.
"Soooooo. Any other exciting plans?" Penny interjected to break up the tension.
"Ooh yes. After dinner Amy has agreed to come back here to watch the newly released season four Blu-ray of 'Game of Thrones.'" Sheldon said excitedly.
"Oh Amy, you lucky gal." Penny smirked. "At least you'll have Jon Snow to keep you interested." She winked at Amy.
Amy tried to hide a smile, but Sheldon caught it. "What is that supposed to mean?"
Amy was going to deny what Penny was talking about when Penny chirped, "Amy thinks he's hot!"
Amy's eyes got big and she broadly began to shake her head. "No I don't."
Sheldon looked confused as Penny continued to tease Amy. "Then how come you have a picture of him on your phone?"
Amy was blushing and her hands were sweaty. "I have a lot of different pictures on my phone." She grabbed her phone and scrolled through her photos. "See a capuchin, a chimp, a picture of Sheldon, a kitten, oh ignore that one, and that one, um a starfish…" She looked up at Sheldon who was looking back with a puzzled look on his face.
"Well, I need to finish this laundry." Penny picked up her basket and walked to the door. "You two kids have a nice afternoon." She closed the door and trotted down the stairs.
Raj grabbed his other beautiful lady's bag from her and put it in the trunk. They got in the car and headed towards Howard and Bernadette's apartment. "Emily, I have a special romantic weekend planned. Skiing, snowshoeing, a sleigh ride for two. I have reservations at the best restaurant in town and a little out of the way spot for cocktails afterwards." He took her hand and kissed it. "And I will be in charge of dessert."
Emily smiled at her charming boyfriend. He really went all out when it came to romance, and he was very good at it. "It sounds really great. I was online checking out the hotel we are going to be at, and it looks like they are having an anime convention during our stay. Did you guys do that on purpose, or is it coincidental?"
"No, but that is pretty cool. Howard and I love anime. We may need to check it out." He looked at Emily, and noticed her lips were pursed. "But on further thought, this weekend is supposed to be romantic for both of us, and I have to concentrate on my beautiful fiery temptress, not the convention."
"A wise choice." Emily stated.
Penny was reading a magazine when Leonard came over. "I may have broken the Shamy."
Leonard frowned. "What did you do?"
Penny flipped a page. "I kind of outed Amy to Sheldon for drooling over that Jon Snow guy on 'Game of Thrones.' I left before bad things happened." She flipped another page.
"Why would you do that for?" Leonard said exasperated. "You know who Sheldon is going to come to for advice or reassurance, me." He rubbed his forehead with his hand. He looked at Penny with questioning eyes. "Amy likes Jon Snow, huh?"
Penny grinned. "She does seem to have a thing for sexually inexperienced men."
Leonard sat down next to her on the couch. "So do you think anyone on 'Game of Thrones' is handsome?" Leonard started to stare deep into her eyes.
"That Kingslayer guy is pretty hot." She teased.
"Yeah, he kind of is." Leonard said as he kissed her.
Amy regretted the night when Penny got her to admit she thought that Jon Snow was kinda cute. It was an offhand remark that spurred Penny into texting her pictures of him. She had not thought to erase them. And now Sheldon was eyeing her with suspicion. "Sheldon, I have no romantic interest in that guy whatsoever. Penny was making a big deal out of nothing."
"Amy, I am a grown man. I am not threatened by a fictional character on a premium cable channel." Sheldon snorted.
"That's good to know. Are you ready to go run some errands?" Amy was relieved but surprised that Sheldon was being reasonable.
"I am. We should get going." They both stood and walked to the door. They made it down half of the first flight of stairs, when Sheldon stopped and walked back to the apartment. "Sorry, I have to take care of one little thing. Wait here." He opened the door and partially closed it. He grabbed the Longclaw sword off of his wall, went to the closet and threw it in before slamming the closet door. He then rejoined Amy walking down the stairs.
The flight to Aspen was uneventful, except for the fact that it was snowing heavily on landing at the airport. The weather worsened on the taxi trip over to the airport, and by the time they reached the hotel the snow was blowing sideways, pelting them with hard bits of ice. The windswept quartet made their way to the front desk and checked in.
"Wow that was wild. We made it just in time." Emily looked out at the near whiteout conditions outside.
"I guess this is going to cancel most of the activities I had planned for us." Raj said his voice dripping with disappointment.
"And I guess this means we are going to be stuck together in the hotel all weekend." Bernie said between her teeth.
"It does look that way." Howard took two keycards from the desk clerk.
At this point several women in school girl outfits walked by with pink, green and blue hair. "What's the deal with them?" Bernie watched the school girls walk to the elevator.
"There's an anime convention going on this weekend as well in the hotel. We're going to see a lot of people in all kinds of costumes" Raj replied.
They walked over to the elevators as well. The school girls had already caught an elevator so they had the next one to themselves. They got on and pushed the button for the eighth floor.
"Well the convention shouldn't impact us too much, even if we are going to be stuck in the hotel." Howard said as the elevator doors opened.
Before them a chubby lady with long blonde ponytails, a sailor top and a much too short shirt asked. "Going down?"
Raj and Howard froze staring at the familiar woman in front of them.
The woman looked at them and then her face lit up in recognition. "Hey, I know you guys! It's me! Patricia, from Comic con!" She smiled and eyed the boys up and down before addressing Raj. "Hey cutie, you still can't talk in front of the ladies? Not that you needed to."
Raj swallowed hard and whispered. "I wish."
A/N: Did you get fooled by my version of Emily or Cinnamon? Maybe. How are Raj and Howard going to deal with 200 lbs of Sailor Moon? Carefully. Is Sheldon jealous of a fictional character from premium cable? Absolutely. Are you going to leave a review? Definitely.