Howard
Her sister Ruby had called earlier that week and had told her that she would be in town over the weekend; since it took nearly a days car ride to get to Pasadena from Omaha Penny was exceptionally excited to see her. Regardless of the inconvenience she was thrilled. Sadly, she knew Sheldon, Leonard and Raj had a three day Physics conference that they would be attending in San Diego, it was both very prestigious, booked months in advance and mandatory so she was stuck with the twins but it could not be helped so Penny Cooper did what she did best, she improvised. Because of this their initial plan of lunch and shopping had been scrapped in exchange for a rather cozy afternoon of pizza and movies (G rated of course) The upside to this arrange was it left Penny with plenty of time to go about her chores and time she would have spent primping was better spent preparing for the week ahead of her. Regardless of the particulars Penny was more then a little giddy at the potential of seeing her sister for an extended period of time.
Other then her 12 hour lay over when Penny had dragged her to city hall to witness her impromptu marriage (Ruby had been the only member of Penny's family to show). It had been years since they had had some one on one time, a complete 180 compared to what they had been like in Nebraska.
Being eight years older then Penny Ruby had taken on the roll of surrogate mother to her youngest sibling almost as soon as Penny was out of diapers. With both their parents busy managing the growing farm it was often Ruby that Penny remembered teaching her the most important lessons of her young life. It was Ruby who had taught Penny to tie her shoe laces, had taught her to ride her first horse, had shown her how to fix her first tracker, and how to shoot her first gun. So many memories.
When they were younger they had been so close, Ruby had been there to listen when Penny lost her virginity to Tom Stanton when she was eighteen, she had also been there to hold Penny when she had found out the bastard had cheated on her with her ex best friend Brittney Hayvers. It had been a two way street. Penny had been there as Ruby had gone on her first date, had gotten her first job and when she had been named Homecoming Queen (although she was so young it was in mostly a watching capacity). On her wedding day Penny had been the Maid of Honour and likewise, Penny had been there when Ruby had found out her husband was stepping out on her. She smiled as she remembered that night. They had gotten really, really drunk and when he had stumbled home , well, there was a reason Penny no longer kept a loaded gun in the apartment; fear that someday Sheldon might accidentally find himself on the business end of it.
Whether or not they were going to go out Penny was thrilled to see Ruby, to show off her home and her children and while she would have loved to go out just being with her sister was the important part. She wanted Ruby to see how happy she was and to share in it.
So, it came as a huge surprise to Penny when Howard asked to take the twins to the park for the afternoon. Freeing her up to go somewhere and do something mature with her sister. Actually, it surprised her so much she had dropped the bowls of baby food she had been preparing in the small food processor and sent everything careening onto the floor.. It had resulted in a spectacular crash with the contents spilled all over the floor along with large shards of porcelain and glass. She wanted to curse. The bowl had been a rather large glass mixing bowl that Sheldon had searched everywhere for. He was really, obsessed with the idea of homemade natural food and that there be as little plastic as possible in the process. He had explained it in a bundle of words that included things like, chemical residue, sterilization, and a whole bunch of other science terms she had blocked out in favor of the newest Christian Bale movie, Penny just chalked it up to him being crazy- an aspect of his personality she had long ago accepted. Still she wished he had been more into plastic, plastic didn't shatter, it bounced. Howard, for his part in the conversation, didn't seem all that concerned or even aware of the mess. He just kept right on talking.
"I've always thought about having kids so it might be good idea to yours out for a test drive. See how they handle. Get some air." he suggested, "There's a great little park around the corner, I've seen quite a few mothers entertained there en plein aire. I thought the twins would like it."
Howard exclaimed before he finally noticed she was on her hands and knees. As he bent down to help her clean she shot him an angry glare that had him instantly taking three paces back. Annoyed, she waved him off but continued to listen to his reasoning, she could always use a laugh.
"Didn't realize that there were so many girls at the park did you?" she smirked as she began to wipe up the mush intermixed with little glass slivers "That's kind of sweet of you Howard, looking to date a single mom."
"OH, I don't want to date them. This bird flies solo. I figure if they've got one kid their probably easy; plus single moms are always looking for a strong male figure like myself. It's like a grotto of beautiful nymphs full of daddy issues ripe for the picking." he cried, rushing towards her, stepping over the glass.
"They don't want you picking," she replied in exasperation, giving up on the goo and going for the larger pieces first, "Believe me Howard, no one wants you picking."
She gathered the biggest pieces she could as she moved towards the sink. She'd knew she'd have to sweep up the smaller ones before the twins finished their nap. Silently she cursed Howard. She could just picture Leo or Marie stepping on a piece of glass she missed. She had absolutely no desire to call Sheldon and tell him that one of their children had been admitted to the hospital and had required stitches. She tried as hard as she could not to be annoyed with Howard, who seemed totally unaware of the danger as he strolled (shoeless!) into the kitchen behind her.
"Penny my dear, once they see my amazing masculine attributes- not to mention my backside in these pants- they will be begging me to be their daddy." he flung his arms out dramatically to fully display the dark red skin tight pants and the silken yellow shirt.
She couldn't remember whether it was the mushy food that was still on the floor or the accidental smack Howard managed to land on her backside while he was displaying his clothing. Regardless, one of the two caused her to jerk herself towards the tall table in the kitchen and stumble. It all had happened it was so sudden that nether of them realized the situation they were in for a few moments. Simply put, they both just stood there for a moment, staring at one another as if they were frozen in time while the two of them locked their minds into the predicament before them. Both in the kitchen, morning sunlight streaming in through the windows, the vegetable smell of the spilt mush on the floor, the slight dripping sound of liquid hitting the laminate, a blossom shape of deep crimson and the long shard of glass now sticking out of Penny's belly. It was so unbelievable Penny forgot to scream.
Leonard was speeding, Raj was ringing his hands in the back seat and Sheldon hadn't said a word. The taller man just held tightly to Leonard's cell phone as if the physical contact with it made their situation much better. They had abandoned their plans to attend Dr. Putnam Wrights lecture on the Ashakic Field theory the moment Leonard had gotten the call. They were still an hour away and the radio had informed them that traffic entered Pasadena was heavy.
Howard just stood there. His eyes widened as Penny just looked down in equal disbelief. The glass stood out in complete contrast of her white T- shirt (a now gruesome powergirl on the center) and the denim of her blue jeans. The blood that was quickly spreading across her front really did look like a flower with a jagged stigma in the center that was growing wild and out of control. He gaped, looking at her as her mouth worked to form words that didn't exist. She backed up and hit her backside against the sink. Wordlessly she sunk downwards into a sitting position on the floor, the other shards of glass had fallen around her.
It was getting late, it had taken hours to get through the freeways and bumper to bumper traffic that seemed to clog every artery of the city. In that time Sheldon had said nothing, just looking ahead, tapping his knees with his hands and bouncing on the balls of his feet. Leonard had tried to call Howard but Sheldon would not give up the phone nor would he talk to their friend. Leonard was confused as to why but as they managed to near the hospital it was apparent that Sheldon's nerves had long since taken over. His head was jerking from side to side, as if his wife were to be found on the sidewalk in front of the Emergency Room exit, waiting for him. They were out of the car before it was stopped. Running over the asphalt, past the signs that highlighted this as the parking area for emergency vehicles only and practically shoving their way into the atrium. Sheldon hadn't even commented that Howard had called Leonard and not him.
Howard's hands were shaking as he called 911. Penny had slumped to the floor with the blade still stuck in her belly, her eyes were wide and somewhere along the line she had slipped into shock. He moved to his feet and grab her a towel from the bathroom.
"Howard, please don't leave me." Penny cried, her pupils were pinpoints in a sea of green.
"I won't!" he replied honestly, immediately at her side once more. The bathroom long forgotten.
He took off his silk shirt, revealing only a plan white T-shirt underneath and pressed it around the area in an effort to stem the bleeding. Suddenly the first Aid classes his mother had forced on him with the hope he would become a doctor were looking a like ray of hope in the darkness. He was amazed he remembered anything at all considering he had spent most of his time looking down the instructors top. As he pressed against the wound she let out a sharp cry, her hands instinctively going to the shard and motioning to pull it out. The woman on the phone who had sent the paramedics had told him not to and everything he knew about stab wounds (which was a lot less then he thought he did- all RPG's and first person shooters considering) had said that the removing whatever the person had been stabbed with before paramedics were there would only cause her to bleed out. Still there was so much blood. He pulled his eyes away from the wound to look up at her heart shaped face. In her glassy eyes he saw pain but more then that fear and he couldn't think of a single perverse thing to say.
He dropped to his knees beside her and held her hand tightly.
They practically tumbled into the emergency entrance, all three at top speed. The nurse at the front desk looked rather disturbed as they ganged up on her, all three speaking at once. Raj seemed to even forget she was a moderately attractive woman as he begged for directions.
Howard sat next to her while they waited, her eyes wide and scared and his terrified. It had probably only been a few minutes, in the background he thought he could hear sirens but it might have been wishful thinking.
"I'm so sorry," he cried suddenly, "I swear Penny, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. The ambulance is on its way."
"The babies," she gasped her eyes glassy with tears "Where are they? Did you call Sheldon? Did you call my sister? She supposed to be here in an hour. She's in town."
"Your sister?" he asked wondering whether it was the shock or just Penny being Penny.
"She always knows what to do" her voice fell into a long whine, the same painful one she used whenever she was exceptionally upset, "Please I just want her to be here."
He smiled as reassuringly as possible and reached for his phone.
"I'm sorry, you're going to have to speak one at a time and a whole lot slower." the nurse stated in a voice laced with irritation.
One voice came out a great deal clearer then the rest, despite being thick with a heavy southern accent. Her words were quick and sharp, the words of someone who had been doing this for a long time and no longer felt the emotional drain that the job entailed. She looked up at them with bored eyes that quickly changed as Sheldon slammed both his hands on the desk and bent his body so far over it it looked like he would jump the counter at any moment.
"MY NAME IS DR. SHELDON COOPER AND MY WIFE WAS STABBED. WHERE THE HELL IS SHE?" Sheldon screamed.
Leonard starred, it was the first time he had ever seen Sheldon swear.
Howard Wolowitz had never felt time stop before. He knew it was an impossibility of course, he might not have been a scientist by Sheldon's definition but he was an Engineer and a very good one. He had worked on the Mars Rover and the Space Station. He put complicated things together for a living, fixing them when they broke down and all in all making sure that things did what they were supposed to do when they were supposed to do it. When he had been sitting there he knew there as no way he could put Penny back together. They had told him not to take the glass out so he had just sat there and held her hand. Listening to her chat. Raj had said, a long time ago, she was chatty and talking seemed to calm her down.
So he had sat there, tried to slow the bleeding and listened to her whisper about her life. About her sister and brother and parents. About the twins and Sheldon and how much she loved them. How scared she was and how sorry she was that she had been thinking badly of him because he really wasn't all that bad even if he was a perv sometimes.
When the paramedics arrived the twins were already crying. They had been ignoring them, or rather Howard had been limiting their attention, running back and forth in an attempt to keep everyone calm. In retrospect they weren't all that long, they had probably only taken fifteen minutes tops but for Howard no wait had ever been longer. It seemed the entire world revolved around a star named Penny and that star was slowly going Nova. The twins were her planets, drifting out of orbit and it was his responsibility to make sure it was all working as it was supposed to. They they were damaged or destroyed in the process. For him this new role of protector was both terrifying and comforting. Eventually they had screamed so loudly that he had scooped them both up, made sure that he covered Penny from the chest down and placed the babies in the play pen that Sheldon had set up near his work desk so that he could write on his board and watch the twins at the same time. After seeing their mother, obviously pale and in pain they had clung to him desperately. The crying had started just after the medics arrived, around the time she had lost consciousness. Both theirs and his.
Sitting in the family waiting area was hell. The room was plain white with sea foam green trim and had glass windows everywhere. The chairs were metal benches with worn vinyl pads with little bits of stuffing visible through the cracks and seams. The small, fuzzy television had been set to Animal Planet but no one seemed to be paying any attention to anything that was being shown. Even Marie, who he knew loved documentaries, was silent on his lap, her small thump pressed into her pink mouth, her pink flowered jumper stained with red. He hadn't realized they were all covered with blood until after they had rushed Penny into surgery. They looked like a gruesome little family. He called Leonard and spoke to him in stunted tones. The words were so strange, so foreign it had seemed almost wrong to say them. Penny was stabbed. We're at the hospital. You should be here. Please bring Sheldon. Please Hurry. Simple, to the point and probably one of the most honest things he had said in the last fifteen years.
They were sitting for about half an hour in the waiting room a woman came in. She was beautiful, blonde and possessed perfectly, tanned skin. Exactly the kind of woman he would normally find himself drooling over. Today that Howard didn't exist. To his amazement not one pick up line came to him and as soon as her face came into clear view he could see that through her tears she possessed Penny's eyes.
"Are you Howard Wolowitz?" she asked in a hoarse voice, "I'm Ruby White, Penny's older sister. We spoke on the phone?"
Not one comment or remark about how Penny and her sister were both very beautiful and would be great in a threesome popped into his head, he could only nod at her impotently and motion that she should sit down.. The only thing he could think to say was that he hadn't known Penny's last name had been White and he told her so.
"Oh, it's not. White is my husband's name. Well, Ex husband." she said softly, taking a seat next to him and taking Leo onto her lap. She kissed the little boy's head and held onto him tightly, "Please tell me what happened."
And he did. He told her everything. From the guys being away and not inviting him to his attempt at babysitting for the purpose of picking of desperate woman. The accidental drop of food. How guilty he felt for not helping her pick up the glass even though he knew Penny well enough to now she wouldn't have let him. How absolutely scared he was that this was going to be it. His last memories of Penny would be her sitting on that floor in a puddle of blood with him not being able to do anything about it. How helpless and useless he felt and how he fixed things for a living but he had been at a loss in this situation. He told her more then he had ever told a woman before. About his mother and his childhood, everything came pouring out of him in a torrent of emotion he couldn't stem. His cheeks turned red with embarrassment, his breathing quickened but he kept going until he was spent and there was nothing left for him to say.
Ruby turned out to be a great listener. Giving him her full attention and commenting when necessary. He didn't know whether it was just her nature or whether she was grateful for the noise but it was exactly what they needed. No one wanted the silence that had been threatening to suffocate everyone in the room. Their small hushed voices were like little life lines in a stark white ocean of medicine smells, old vinyl chairs and the low quality droning of Animal Planet and they both held on as tightly as they could to these strings of reality.
They were sent to a waiting room after ten minutes or arguing. Leonard hated hospitals. Even when he was dating Stephanie he had always waited downstairs or in the car. He had never gone up to the office, walked the halls or viewed the beds. When they had piled into the elevator he had wanted to be the strong one, to comfort Sheldon and keep his friend from panicking. As it turned out that job had fallen to Raj because Leonard himself was busy panicking. Ever since Penny had moved into the apartment across the hall all those years ago she had wormed her way into his life. First through attraction, then interaction then, after she had finalized her relationship with Sheldon, through confidence. She was literally, his best friend, and if something were to happen to her. If she were to .... well, he would be a mess. He wouldn't know what to do. He would be useless to both Sheldon and the twins, he would probably drown in his own grief. He tried to wipe the tears from his eyes as subtly as possible.
"Are either of you related to Mrs. Cooper?" a man dressed in green hospital scrubs approached them.
"I am." Ruby stated solidly, jumping to her feet while passing Leo off to Howard.
The twins had been mostly silent throughout the entire ordeal which gave Howard the impression that they were indeed as smart as Sheldon kept saying they were. They seemed to know what was going on. He hoped that for once Sheldon was dead wrong, if the news was bad he didn't want to have to explain it to two toddlers.
"There was a lot of tissue damage but I am more then happy to report that Mrs. Cooper came through the surgery successfully. She was very, very lucky. The glass missed any major organs by inches. These sorts of accidents are more common then you think. She's in recovery. You're more then welcome to see her if you like." he stated, before looking at the tears streaming down everyone's faces and became very uncomfortable "I'll send a nurse here in a few minutes to collect you and take you to her room."
Howard felt as if the world had been lifted off his shoulders. In that moment he forgot he was covered with Penny's blood and tears, he forgot that he was holding her whimpering children waiting for her most likely panicking husband to arrive. The only things that existed were himself, Ruby, the twins and the news that the horror of the day had been erased. Just like that, everything he had felt was fixable. The trail was over and they had all passed. He jumped to his feet, the twins still in his arms and let an exuberant cry of joy before a weeping Ruby embrace him.
Prayers passed through his lips from days of his youth spent sitting in the synagog next to his mother watching the Rabbi speak to a higher being. He noticed that Ruby was doing the same. Different prayers with different form but the intent was the same. She wrapped her arms around all three of them and cried harder then he had ever seen a woman do but it hardly mattered since he was weeping at that moment too. Sheer happiness and relief permeated every fiber of his body.
Then they heard the strangled cry.
The doctor that they passed was shaking his head softly, his features lowered so that all they could see was the scrubs he was wearing. He was muttering to himself something about never get used to those emotional reactions. When Leonard asked him where the waiting room was he pointed down the hall but did mention that the people in there probably needed a few minutes to collect themselves. Sheldon didn't even wait for the man to finish speaking as he bolted towards the room with the glass windows, Leonard and Raj fast on his heels.
The image made Leonard's heart stop. Howard was in the center of the room. He was holding the twins tightly in either arm while simultaneously trying to comfort a woman with long blonde hair who was crying very, very hard. Leonard wasn't quite sure what was worse, the fact that Howard was obviously crying himself, mumbling something or the fact that when they parted he looked more frightening then any horror movie Leonard had seen. The front of Howard's white shirt was faded to a rust coloured brown, as he looked at them he noticed the twins themselves seemed to be speckled with blood as well. They both looked tired, ashen faced and scared. He surmised that Marie had seen Sheldon because as soon as he was in sight her pretty, little face turned beet red and she began to cry and reach for him. Leo followed suit.
"Oh no." he heard Sheldon whisper and then followed by a rather horrific strangled sound.
"Daddy! DADDY!" Marie was screaming, not at all used to the fact her father seemed to be ignoring her.
At his father's reaction Leo had stiffed the screams to a pathetic whimpering that pulled at Leonard's heart. He moved instantly, taking the children from Howard and then rushing over to Sheldon. As if he were running on autopilot Sheldon opened his long arms and gathered the twins to his chest, holding them so tight Leonard was worried he would hurt them but instead they seemed rather put at ease with the tight hold and were returning it. Leo's little hands curling into Sheldon's shirt, his head against his right shoulder while Marie was still opening crying her little face buried into her father's neck on the opposite side of her brother. Never had the family looked more vulnerable.
"What happened?" Leonard finally asked.
Howard looked down, his eyes on the floor and looking pained.
"We were talking, she dropped these dishes and started cleaning up. We were just talking. I don't even know how it happened but she tripped, fell towards the sink and then it was there. This huge piece of glass, right through her stomach. So much blood. It wasn't like any of the video games." he tried to explain but it was the only thing that came into his head. It was all he could think to say.
Leonard turned to see that Sheldon's face had gone ghost white and he looked about two seconds from toppling over.
"We were so lucky." Ruby whispered to no one in particular, "She could have died. OH God she could have died Sheldon."
For the first time in two plus hours she let go of Howard's hand and rushed to where Sheldon was standing, blinking in succession. His entire body seemed to ease out of the shaking tension it had been in moments before, his eyes, glassy but still focused.
"So she's okay?" he asked very tentatively,
Ruby and Howard's eyes both widened dramatically before they realized he didn't know. Leonard felt his own heart untwist. Reading emotions was not Sheldon's strong suit and even he had had so many mixed feelings. After all, this was Penny. Their Penny. Penny's sister rushed to them and threw her arms around Sheldon awkwardly reassuring him as she had Howard, it did not have the same effect.
Before anyone could say anymore a man in green scrubs approached them and told them Penny was ready to receive visitors. While Sheldon, Leonard and the twins hurried to go (at Ruby's request) Howard stayed behind. It took him a moment to realize Penny's sister had stayed as well. They would go with Raj in the second wave. What he didn't realize was that she was holding onto his hand, and kept holding it for the rest of the night.
