Everything from that point on went in a blur. Probably for the first time in Sheldon's life, he could not remember something clearly, not counting these few times when Penny got him drunk, which he still had not fully forgiven her for. He remembered pain, and a lot of blood. He remembered his failing attempts not to faint, each of them followed up by a broken bone. He remembered Leonard waking up after about an hour, or so he thought. Although at that time Sheldon was too exhausted to look and make sure.
After it was over, the apartment looked like a scene from a cheap horror movie. There was blood everywhere on the floor and random blood splatters on the walls were smudged and layered on top of each other. Sheldon was lying on the floor unable to move, his whole body on felt like it was burning up in flames. He smelled smoke and seen somebody bending over beside him, putting a cigarette out on his cheek.
"This was fun, we should do it again sometime, don't you think?"
A smile spread across the offenders face as he stood up and left, followed up by his three companions. As the door slammed shut, Sheldon's peripheral vision caught a glimpse of a figure that stood up from the floor and now was slowly approaching him. It was the man, who from the very beginning of the evening was sitting in the corner playing on Leonard's phone. Seconds later beeping filled a silent room.
"911, what's your emergency?" a female voice said on speakerphone.
That was the last thing Sheldon could remember, as his consciousness started fading away plunging him back into the abyss.
"Anyway, it's like they knew what they were doing. None of Sheldon's vital organs or arterials was hit!"
"Raj, sweetie, shut up"
"Excuse me; I am just trying to lighten the mood here"
"Do you really think that's helping right now?"
Suddenly, Sheldon was aware of everything happening around him. Dialogue, footsteps of somebody pacing, beeping of the heart monitor – each noise felt like another hit on the head. The ringing in the physicists ears didn't stop, staying on a perfect E flat. Slowly, but surely, Sheldon started to distinguish the voices. Even though he hated arguments, it was comforting hearing Raj, Penny and Howard half yell at each other. Sheldon just laid there, listening to the conversation that died out way to quickly, filling the room with uncomfortable science broken only by the heart monitor.
Terrified by absence of Leonard's voice, Sheldon's eyes flew open. Flew was a rather harsh term though - it took Sheldon a few seconds to finally get his vision to focus. Blurry colors slowly became shapes eventually forming themselves into a clear image. There was not much to see though, it was fairly dark with just a bit of lamp light coming from somewhere beyond Sheldon's view. The physicist found himself staring at a white ceiling just above him. Sheldon's neck, just like every other part of his body felt stiff and refused to move even a slightest bit without coursing unbearable pain.
"Sheldon?" he heard Howards voice as a figure approached his bed blocking out the light, which Sheldon felt extremely thankful for.
"Hey buddy, can you hear me?" A wide, childish smile spread across Howards face as he saw Sheldon's big blue eyes looking at him.
When Sheldon was about to respond, when he felt sudden burning in his lungs and quickly gasped for air, his breath shaking.
"Okay, no talking now" Howard paused, thinking of something to do.
"Hey, how about you he blinks once for yes, and twice for no. I think I saw that in an episode of House MD"
"Seriously, you still watch that show?" Howard turned to Raj for a brief moment looking at him with a disapproving expression.
"It sure sounds like a good idea" Sheldon could hear Penny, although he could not see the woman anywhere.
"So once for yes, twice for no, okay?" Howard said after a bit of hesitation turning to face Sheldon again.
After a moment of silence and all eyes fixed on Sheldon he blinked. Howard exhaled falling onto a chair with relief.
A few seconds later, the engineer stood up telling everyone he was off to get a doctor and carefully walked out of the room.
"Hey sweetie…" now Penny was approaching Sheldon's bed trying to sound as sweet as she could. Maybe she wasn't smart like the guys but she knew one thing – sounding as nervous and tired as she actually was would not help anything right now.
"Umm... Leonard is sleeping; he is really tired so I don't want to wake him up right now, okay?"
Sheldon blinked once more trying to ignore the fact that Penny talked to him like he was a child. Leonard was okay and that was all that he was really worried about right now. Sheldon felt like it was his turn to be relieved, but everything was still a disaster. He was still in a hospital. His brain was still fuzzy and refused to think straight. His body still felt like it was dipped in acid and nothing could change what just happened to him. Suddenly Sheldon realized that he was not aware of the time. How long has it been? A few minutes? A couple of hours? Days?
"Sheldon sweetie, ummm… do you want me to call your mother?"
Panicking Sheldon quickly signaled a "no" and even attempted to sit up, regretting it a second later
Honestly, Penny wanted to do that hours ago but the guys convinced her otherwise saying that the last thing their friend needed is pretty much anything. None of the gang knew what to do in this kind of situation even if it was a normal person, but this was Sheldon, which made the situation infinitely more difficult. It was that, and the fact that nobody wanted to make any decisions made her wait. Leonard spent hours pulling his hair out saying all of it was his fault. Howard was pacing back and forth snapping at whoever had the nerve to talk to him. Raj kept trying to start a conversation, his each phrase ending on a nervous or a hysterical laugh. Penny herself, spent hours crying. Everything went to hell in the matter of hours and sure wasn't getting better.
