A/N: This is the last of anything from me for a while. Going back into the hospital for just a bit. Stay frosty.
Reparata
Chapter 6
Posted 12/6/2012
Cameron carried Penny into her bedroom like a sack of potatoes and not so gently dropped her on the bed. Sheldon was hovering over her like a mother hen, trying to grab her arm and examine it but Cameron just shook him off.
"Doc, I'll wrap it in gauze but you know I'll heal overnight so back off and give me some space. Honestly, you'd think by now you'd understand that I'm not a human being. I'm the same Cameron that you freaked out over when we first met."
"Sheldon Cooper does not freak out, Cameron. You simply misread my response to discovering you were a synthetic person. You've never been less than a human being to me so you'll have to excuse my concerns. What ever possessed you to do such self-harm?"
"Don't get your panties in a twist, Doc. I know you never thought of me as a machine and I appreciate it. You have to remember that I can handle myself whereas you, my underweight and overwrought man, need a lot of special care. Are you hungry?"
"Do not change the subject, Cameron. I'll eat something if you let me take care of that arm. That was a cruel thing you did to Penny. You should just have let her go home like she intended. Her life is going to be drastically altered by this experience and knowledge."
"Ain't that the truth." Cameron allowed Sheldon to wrap her arm in a gauze bandage and when he saw 'bloodstains' on her t-shirt he took her to task like a teacher with a hopeless student.
"You're leaking, Cameron. I suppose this was another self-inflicted wound for demonstration purposes? That was sarcasm in case you missed it."
"Thank you for telling me that, Sheldon. I never would have guessed. Actually, Sarah stabbed me with a paring knife. Now, if you're done fretting over me…"
"I'm not hungry but I think Penny will require an alcoholic beverage to calm herself after your presumptuous act. She finds comfort in wine and spirits when confronted with distressing events such as losing her electricity because she bought shoes or when one of her gentlemen callers fails to respond to her plaintive 'call me, okay?' after a night of drunken coitus. Rum is her preferred liquor but I suppose anything alcoholic will do."
She turned to get the unconscious blonde a drink of whatever was in Sarah's stash but Sheldon grabbed her arm.
"Not so fast. Pull up your t-shirt and allow me to at least put a bandaid on your wound." Seeing her 'blood' bothered Sheldon even though he knew it was simply a manufactured substance and not real blood.
"Okay, Doc." She whipped her t-shirt over her head and Sheldon let out a startled squawk of embarrassed umbrage. She stood there in just her black lace bra and Sheldon swore he saw her bosoms heave dramatically even though he knew she didn't respire.
"I shall avert my eyes and place this on your wound, Cameron. I fail to see why you insist on disrobing at the drop of a hat around me." He stuck an Avengers bandaid on her wound that had already begun to close.
Cameron giggled and said, "It's because you see me as a girl, Sheldon, and your outrage and embarrassment tickle me. Sometimes I think you and I are a better match than – "
"Please don't finish that sentence. You know good and well that you are John's devoted companion or whatever term is used Up Time and you're just trying to make me feel ever weirder and more uncomfortable than normal around women. I suppose that 'tickles' you to no end."
There was a degree of what she'd learned to categorize as 'sadness' in his voice. She hadn't realized that she'd struck a nerve and she hurried to repair whatever damage she'd inadvertently inflicted. If she could 'like' someone, she definitely liked Doc.
He never lied and his bluntness was refreshing. He never treated her any differently because she was a reprogrammed terminator than he did any human. She often played back those moments from her storage and she always felt 'warm' when he called her a 'synthetic person'.
"I did not mean to make you uncomfortable. I am sorry. Sometimes my understanding of humor and its application is incomplete and I misuse it." She was startled to realize that she had never apologized and meant it to anyone but the Doc. She set a query subroutine to review her history and confirm her supposition.
Penny had been 'awake' and aware for a bit and she was listening intently to what was said. She almost burst into tears when Sheldon recited her need for alcohol and why. The 'gentlemen callers' had hit home and she remembered the look on his face when she had ranked him out before this all started.
She cracked open one eye just in time to see Cameron whip her t-shirt over her head and the look on Sheldon's face was so precious. He reddened and looked away and their subsequent conversation made her look at the two of them in a different light.
'She called me 'Omaha' and then she sliced open her arm and I fainted.'
Penny groaned and opened both her eyes. She stared at Sheldon for a moment and then tried to sit up but the young girl effortlessly lifted Penny to her feet and kept her hands on Penny's upper arms to steady her.
"I shall go now and find you some rum as Dr. Cooper suggested. Your reaction to my status was unexpected and I believe the two of you have something to discuss even if neither of you wishes to talk about the pachyderm in the bed."
"That's 'elephant in the room', Cameron, although your application of the metaphor was quite appropriate. Bravo." His comment was made in an unusually dry tone of voice and Cameron knew that no response was necessary. She simply filed away the correction in her thesaurus and went in search of rum.
Sheldon looked at Penny and sighed. He really sucked at connecting with humans and he was so painfully shy without the armor of his Physics.
"I suppose you want to have that conversation now." His voice was flat as if he were saying 'I have a dentist appointment and they're out of Novacaine'.
"Sit down, Sheldon, and start at the beginning. I think I have figured out that somehow, some way, you've invented some sort of time travel gizmo and all this is about the future."
She sat on the side of Cameron's bed and patted the area beside her indicating that that would be his 'spot' for his lecture.
"I'm not sure where to start, Penny. Things are confusing and – "
"Start at the beginning, Sheldon."
"Okay. It was a warm spring evening in ancient Greece and – Ow! Jesus, woman! Quit hitting me!"
"I didn't mean that far back. I meant when you disappeared into the blue thingy, dumbass!"
"Huh. I thought that disparaging title was exclusively Winkle's but I see now I was wrong. Fine. After our discussion in the hallway I realized that I had no place in your world and so I decided to see what other alternate universes might have to offer me."
"Listen, Sheldon, I said I was sorry and – " Penny interrupted him, not really wanting to be reminded of one of the cruelest moments in her life.
"Do you wish to hear this or not? And don't punch me again, Penny, or your butt will be too damned sore to sit on when you drive home. Now, where was I?"
"Alternate universes." She hadn't meant to hit him but lately it seemed to be her response of choice. 'He wouldn't really spank me, would he?'
He explained simply that he knew that alternate timelines existed mathematically although no one had really attempted to prove them other than checking the math. It really wasn't considered an area worthy of study.
He proved the math and then began tinkering with how to open up a pathway or gate to another timeline. His first few attempts ended in failure as the equipment he had access to failed to stand up to the rigors of his process.
He 'dumbed down' his process until his apparatus could sustain the amount of power necessary to open a portal without melting. The problem then became weight. He couldn't haul around an 80-pound box of circuitry and power source in a backpack so he worked harder to reduce the size and power requirements.
"I finally was ready to attempt a gateway and I was so excited. I took examples of our technology and literature and I opened the first portal and stepped though – into nothingness. The landscape was barren and the air was thin and hardly breathable. I reopened the portal and returned at the exact same moment that I'd left."
"I don't need to hear about each trip, Moon Pie, just the last one."
"Most were failures but then I attempted the one that Howard spied on…"
"And?" 'It's like pulling teeth', she thought.
Sheldon really didn't want to go into any detail until he'd figured out some way to ease her into what had been their lives together.
"Perhaps I should simply let you read my journal in the privacy of your apartment. I don't think I can talk about it. I'm sorry, Penny, but my mind's made up."
"Is it that bad?" She saw how his hands had begun trembling again and he looked pale and sweaty and his breathing seemed labored.
"Go home, Penny. There's no place for you here. Just – go home. Forget about anything I've ever said and for God's sake, never mention this place or these people to anyone. Live your life. Have fun. Enjoy life to the fullest."
He got up and walked out of the bedroom and into the kitchen. "I can't talk to her about it. We can trust her to keep her mouth shut - especially after she reads the last few entries in my journal. No one should know when they're going to die but I do, thanks to Omaha."
Cameron took him by the arm and led him out into the backyard.
"Talk to me, Doc."
"Now remember, don't tell your mother, John. She'd skin me alive if she knew. Hey, ya know who the Jetta belongs to? Expecting company?"
Derek hoped that neither the Tin Lizzie nor John's mother noticed the bluish discoloring around his throat where the Triple-8 had tried to snap his neck. He liked his testicles attached and fully functional, thank you very much.
He pulled the Chevy Avalanche in behind the Cherokee and went into the house. They had a mission to plan assuming they hadn't been followed. John brought samples of their discoveries in with him.
It would be a very long night for everyone involved.
Penny read the journal and then closed it. "This can't be true. I can't – I mean, if it hasn't happened yet then there's the chance that we can do something, go someplace isolated and hide until it's all sorted out.'
Taking a deep breath and wiping the tears from her face and eyes on Cameron's bed sheets, Penny walked into the kitchen and handed Sarah the spiral notebook.
'He knows when he's going to die! How can someone live with that knowledge hanging over their head day after day. He will probably set up some sort of schedule – '
"Do you know what's in here, Sarah?" Penny asked.
"No. I only met Doc today so how could I?"
"I'm going. Tell him – tell him that I'll talk with him when I've had time to wrap my head around all that – stuff. Please see to it that he gets this back and that he has a ride to Pasadena. I – I can't be around him right now. I can't bear to look at him knowing…I just can't – "
Sarah watched as Penny's face scrunched up into a mask of anguish. When the sobs started, Sarah reached out and grabbed her into a fierce hug and stroked her hair and murmured motherly sounds to soothe her.
Derek walked into the bungalow and called for Sarah but all he could hear was someone crying like they'd just lost something or someone that meant the world to them. He'd heard that sound many nights in the Resistant HQ in a parking garage underneath what was left of a police station.
He signaled John to stay well back and then he jacked a shell into the shotgun he carried and stepped into the kitchen.
He took in the tableau of Sarah holding a young woman who was crying her heart out. Had something happened? Sarah held up a hand to let him know everything was okay and the girl stepped back, wiping her eyes with the backs of her hands. Derek almost dropped the shotgun.
"Omaha?"
There will be more journal entries to tie certain aspects of this all together but not until probably Sunday.