This is a DOUBLE day [see above]. Two chapters in one!
"The Troubletone Incursion"
5 & 6: The Spa Excursion / The Bread Condition
The Spa Excursion
After their brief visit to Sheldon's apartment the day they'd arrived, the girls had gone back to the hotel. With the day's travels in them, the time difference, and their first trip out of the hotel, they weren't particularly in the mood to hit the town, so a slow night was the plan. They'd grabbed take-out on the way back, set up in front of the television… Somewhere mid-meal, Brittany had discovered the sound system, Santana had declared the mini bar opened… Their slow night had turned into dancing until three in the morning. How no one had called security on them was a small miracle.
They'd woken up, had a late breakfast, and then they'd gone around, played tourist around Pasadena all day, did some shopping… Night number two had turned out a lot like night number one.
By the morning of day three, they were ready for their spa day. Brittany was the first one up. Sugar, sleeping at her side, was still giving the occasional little snore, fidgeting, with her sleep mask over her eyes. Mercedes had the covers up so high all they could see was some hair. And then Santana, forever a warm body in her sleep, had kicked off the covers long ago, curled up and holding on to her pillow… it made her look small.
Brittany had ordered breakfast from room service, waited for the smell of food and coffee to draw out her roommates, all but hovering toward the table. They would be meeting Penny and her friends in the lobby. With Penny's group having heard about Brittany's, and Brittany's having heard about Penny's, their meeting was filled with curious looks from one end to the other.
"Okay, so let's go," Penny nodded, breaking the stare off, and the seven girls headed toward the spa. It hadn't taken long for them to come to the conclusion that their paths would diverge, from one treatment to another. So before that could happen, they had collectively changed and headed for the hot tub. The day hadn't truly begun, no one had mingled or really talked, and it showed in the two huddles in the tub. Once again, Penny had found herself the ice breaker. "Is this your first time in California?" she asked the girls.
"I was here last summer…" Brittany answered, but Penny shook her head and indicated the other three.
"I've been here, lots of times," Sugar nodded, while the other two shook their heads.
"We don't travel much," Mercedes shrugged.
"Hey, neither did I," Penny shrugged. "I thought I was so cool, moving out here to be an actress," she recounted.
"You're an actress?" Sugar seemed suddenly interested, then paused. "I don't recognize you from anything. What were you in?"
"I, well…" Penny tried to sound on top of her game, though it was hard when all she had to really stand on was one lousy hemorrhoid commercial. "I'm still looking for my big break, you know the right project," she nodded her head.
"How long have you been here?" Santana asked, and Penny decided a redirect was due.
"Oh, you don't want to hear about that," she waved it off. "So you're in Glee Club, what's that like?"
"It's awesome," Brittany smiled.
"Yeah, most times," Mercedes nodded, and there was a beat of remembering their defeat. This was quickly shoved to the side as they suddenly found themselves in the presence of a very enthused Bernadette.
"My high school had one of those clubs when I was there! Oh but my mother wouldn't let me join them," she shook her head. "She said that was a bad crowd, and the word 'gateway' was thrown around a lot," she explained.
"So what do you do now?" Brittany asked.
"I'm a microbiologist," she nodded, and Brittany looked to Santana for assistance.
"Big leap," was Santana's response.
After leaving the hot tub, the group had fractured. In one room, Sugar had found herself accompanied by Amy for a body wrap. After their minute 'face off' at the apartment two days ago, both of them had shown themselves curious about the other, and lying cocooned side by side there was very little else to do than to talk.
"Wow, I tell you, now would be a bad time to discover you're claustrophobic," Amy's eyes darted left and right. "Part of the reason I did this, so I could test myself." There was a moment of silence.
"And?"
"And what?" Amy asked.
"Are you claustrophobic?" Sugar clarified.
"Well… I don't think so. I might still change my mind," she carefully tested her range of motion.
"So is that tall guy your boyfriend?" Sugar leapt to a new topic.
"My relationship with Sheldon is not so easily defined… but yes, I suppose you could say that. At least that's what I tell my mother, but strictly in order to get her off my back. You know how mothers are," she put on a chuckle of 'camaraderie.'
"Yeah, sure," Sugar slowly answered.
"Okay, yeah… I think I'm starting to feel it… Oh, that's tight…" Amy began to wriggle, fighting against the linen. "Miss, if you could let me out!" she called out.
Brittany had wanted to try the mud bath and, of the other six, only Mercedes had agreed to go with her, though she did hesitate greatly as they eased themselves in. Once they were in their respective mud it was a moment of letting everything sit, and then… Brittany had started to laugh, which had gotten Mercedes going. "Okay, this isn't bad," she decided.
"How is it a bath if we're covered in mud?" Brittany asked, flexing her fingers, looking at her arms.
"We're sitting in a bath."
"No, I know, but… we're going to have to take a bath, because we took a bath," she explained, which got Mercedes laughing again.
Not too far off, Santana was sweating up in the sauna with Penny and Bernadette. They had soon found the heat tired out Bernadette, who fell asleep sitting against the wall. There had been a couple of older women sitting across from them when they'd come in, but within minutes it was just the three of them – two, once Bernadette had fallen asleep. After a minute, Penny had looked to Bernadette, then turned back to Santana. "So, you and Brittany…" she slowly started, testing the waters. Santana didn't reply at first, which worried her; had she overstepped?
"Yeah," Santana finally answered, and Penny responded with a smile.
"She looks happy," she gave a nod, which allowed a smile to slip on her face as well.
"She talks about you a lot," Santana looked to her. "She was right, you're pretty cool," she complimented, and Penny chuckled.
"Well, thank you." Bernadette suddenly yawned, and the other two looked to her.
"Maybe we should get her out of here," Santana suggested.
"Couple more minutes," Penny declared, and Santana agreed, sitting back.
They had begun to land back in the same area and split again as they took turns at getting manicures and pedicures. Bernadette, surrounded by Brittany, Santana, and Mercedes for manicures, was finding it difficult not to broach the subject of Glee Club, which was making it come off as her long lost missed opportunity. "And you dance, too, right?" she'd asked after a while, and the girls nodded.
"Some better than others," Brittany added.
"Yeah, one of the guys in our club, broke his girlfriend's nose last year in rehearsal," Santana went on, smirking.
"I think I'd be scared of that," Bernadette frowned. "My face is kind of at that height."
"You just have to be careful," Mercedes told her. "Just keep an eye on the ones who could be a threat… Or be aware if you're the threat yourself."
"Or position yourself next to them, make yourself look better by comparison," Santana suggested. "Put Finn next to her though, then it's just not fair," she looked back to Brittany, whose hands nearly slipped as she laughed.
"Is that the nose breaker?" Bernadette asked, up for the gossip, and she got three nods back. Nearby, Penny and Amy sat flanking Sugar on the pedicure side. Amy had already been uncertain about the whole thing, and when the slightest touch had revealed her to be so ticklish that she'd nearly kicked the woman in the face, she'd bowed out and just sat, waiting, while Penny and Sugar were getting worked on.
"So… Sugar… Interesting name," Penny casually commented.
"I think so, too," she smiled. "It's unique, and I like being unique. Who wants a boring old name that five other girls in your class have?" she shrugged.
"There were three girls named Amy in my class," Amy pitched in, and Sugar pointed at her as though to say 'see?' "Our teacher developed nicknames for us. Blonde Amy, Short Amy…"
"Which one were you?" Penny asked.
"Third Amy," she nodded, and Penny frowned sympathetically.
When the group split again the Lima girls were off on their own, leaving Penny, Bernadette, and Amy, together again for the long expected massage. "Are you sure you can do this?" Penny asked Amy. "You nearly kicked that woman before…"
"I have particularly ticklish feet, which I'm just learning. I've also discovered a touch of claustrophobia. But I assure you, this won't be a problem," she shook her head.
"I want that one," Bernadette honed in on one of the men who came to get them. "Tell me I can't get a massage…" she muttered under her breath.
In the end it wasn't Amy who had trouble with going through with the massage. Bernadette had barely laid down that she'd sprung back up, hopped off the table and scurried off, her voice sounding very much like her future mother-in-law as she forbade the man from touching her and she went off cursing Howard for getting in her head, though they knew it was just her, not wanting to be touched by another just as much as he didn't want it. Meanwhile, Amy was melting like butter, and Penny only grew more and more uncomfortable at how comfortable Amy was getting. She closed her eyes and tried to block her out, but it wasn't happening.
Brittany, Santana, Mercedes, and Sugar sat all in a row, their faces covered with ever hardening facial masks. When left alone, they sat up, looking at each other, and immediately had to look away so they wouldn't laugh and cause their masks to crack. Once they'd regained control, they were able to look at each other again.
"I'm glad we did this," Mercedes told the others, and they quietly agreed.
"Hurts a lot less than matching tattoos," Santana pointed out.
"I'm going to sleep so good tonight," Sugar breathed.
"I can't feel my face…" Brittany sounded more at ease than alarmed, and through her mask they could still see she was smiling, though they probably had no idea what for; she'd just had a thought.
The Bread Condition
Leonard had gone off with Howard and Raj to do… some thing or another. He's stopped paying attention once he'd figured out it was nothing to interest him. Instead he had stayed home, deciding this would be the perfect time to reconsider his memorabilia display. He'd been staring at it more and more and he'd come to the conclusion that the distribution was all wrong. He was in the middle of calculating dimensions for new shelves when there was a knock at the door.
"Oh, good, they fired the old delivery guy," he told himself, believing he'd find his dinner order on the other side of that door. Instead, it was a blonde girl out of Lima, Ohio. "Brittany," he straightened in surprise. "I wasn't expecting you."
"Everyone else is asleep," she explained.
"It's not even seven!"
"Well we got back from the spa and they all kind of…" she mimed 'falling asleep.'
"How come you didn't?" he asked.
"I wanted to come here," she started, then smiled, "I have a favor to ask you."
"Is it money?" he asked, and she shook her head.
"Can you show me how to do the banana bread? I tried back home and it didn't work. I almost broke the oven," she revealed. "Please, Sheldon?"
"Alright, come in," he sighed, stepping aside and closing the door once she'd come through. "Though in the future you might not want to lead with 'I almost broke the oven.' It might discourage people from letting you near their oven. Lucky for you, I won't let that happen."
"You won't help?" she asked.
"No, I'll help. But you'll keep your distance from the oven," he instructed.
"Got it," she nodded. He brought a stool around and set her up at the island before clearing the space.
"Here's paper, and a pen, write down everything I tell you," he put the pad and pen in front of her.
"Everything?" she uncapped the pen.
"If it's about the recipe, yes. You don't have to write the rest," he corrected, looking back to her. She nodded quietly, recapping the pen. "This is a family recipe, so I want your word you'll keep it to yourself," he started pulling out bowls and other utensils.
"So I can't share the bread?" she asked, and her disappointment drew him back.
"No, of course you can share the bread, just not the… This is for a boy, isn't it," he deduced.
"I… No," she shook her head, but he was still looking at her. "Santana's not a boy," she persisted.
"Santana…" he repeated, not yet grasping. She gave a pointed look, and he blinked. "Oh… Oh…" he slowly put the pieces together. He stood there for a moment as though he'd retreated into thought, then paused, gave a slight shrug, then went to the pantry. "Okay, now's the time to start writing." She smiled and nodded, uncapping her pen and writing 'BANANA BREAD' in bold letters at the top of the page, then 'ingredients' under it, underlining the word.
Sheldon led her in a precise listing of ingredients, going so far as to make her write down the acceptable brands of each product, where needed. He wasn't sure she'd remember it all, in fact he kind of expected her to forget. So he had a thought.
"Alright, hold on," he told her, and she stopped writing. "Get up, switch places with me," he directed.
"Why?" she asked.
"You'll do it yourself, I'll direct you, and I'll write down the directions myself."
"You're letting me near the oven?"
"Yes," he confirmed. "Practical learning might be best for you. Just be glad I'm not my mother. 'Go ahead, Shelly,' she says, and then she takes the spoon back and says 'Oh go play with your sister, I'll do it' because I didn't agree with her recipe." Brittany bit back a laugh, which she tried to hide when he looked at her.
"I won't change your recipe," she promised. "It's perfect."
"Tell that to my mother," he shook his head. "You've got your ingredients, now here's what you do."
As he told her what to do, he scribbled along on the pad. She would wait for his instructions before doing anything, which he highly approved of. With all ingredients mixed in, Sheldon tested the mixture before they could put it in the oven.
"It's ready to go," he nodded.
"It's good?" she asked, hopeful.
"Yes, now take your pan," he told her, and she did as told, grinning with pride. As promised, he 'let her near the oven,' and once she'd set the timer he wrote out the final directions and turned the pad to her. "There it is, banana bread recipe," he told her. She blinked.
"You wrote a lot."
"Leave nothing to chance," he shook his head. Seeing her frowning at the sheets – there were three – he sighed. "I'll rewrite them," he reached for the pad, but she shook her head.
"No, don't, it's okay," she promised.
"Are you sure?" he asked, and she nodded. "Alright, well, now we wait," he told her.
"You want a rematch?" she asked, giving a quick indication of 'dancing.'
"You told Penny," was his answer, and her face flinched.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, it just slipped. I didn't tell anyone else, I swear… Well, except my cat, but he's not going to tell either," she shook her head. "We could watch a movie?" she made a counter offer.
"I suppose we can," he got up. "I'll let you choose," he moved to the rack and pulled out a number of boxes. "From these," he presented them to her. She looked at the titles for a minute, then another. He was getting antsy, but he managed to keep quiet. When she finally did point at one though, he let out a breath that told he was this close to losing his patience even with her. "An excellent choice," he told her, indicating for her to sit. She took the middle seat, waiting for his return.
It wasn't ten minutes later when the sleeping spell that had taken her roommates appeared to finally get its hands on her and she had no fight in her to resist. When Sheldon realized this he paused the movie, unsure how to proceed. "Brittany?" he whispered, in case she wasn't completely asleep, but she didn't respond. He got up, looking back at her for a moment before going out into the hall, giving three cautious knocks at the door to 4B. "Penny!" he whispered, repeated the knocks. "Penny!" he gave three more. "Penny!" he raised the volume on his whisper as much as he could. There was no response, and he imagined she had fallen to the same slumber as the others. He frowned, going back to his apartment.
In his absence, Brittany had plopped down in a resting position on the couch, though somehow managed not to intrude on his seat. He wasn't going to move her, but at the same time he had to remember his manners. Going into the closet, he brought a pillow and blanket. He hesitated before carefully lifting her head and slipping the pillow under. Once that was done he breathed, reaching for the blanket and laying it on top of her. Putting on the headphones, he restarted the movie, sitting at her feet. He paused it again when the timer rang, rushing to shut it off before it would wake her. He pulled the bread from the oven, looked at it… It was as perfect as it would have been, had he been the one to make it… and she couldn't see it yet.
It had taken Leonard returning for him to realize, if she was going to just sleep the night there, he might need to inform some people, like the other girls she'd travelled with. He'd called the hotel, left a message for them there, did the same with her aunt two floors below. When that was done he gave a look to Leonard as though to say 'there, happy,' instructed him not to touch the banana bread, and then went back to his movie next to the sleeping blonde.
Before going to bed, he'd lifted her feet to let her rest on the couch proper, her feet on his seat.
TO BE CONTINUED (TOMORROW)
