{Alison}

As she pulled up in to the apartment, she was fuming. Bolting up the stairs she only had enough time to make the tea. In a desperate attempt not to sleep in and miss, well the whole day she had drunken the last two bags that she had from before the move, she had no choice but to run out and get the tea. Alison was there the minute the shop opened, but that was where her luck ended.

She didn't even have to knock when she got to the door, she was right on time.

"Dr. Cooper I hope you are happy, I had to drive all the way to Gardena at 5:30 this morning, and I just got back, it was only a 40 minute drive, but everyone in California decided that today was the perfect day to crash their cars into each other at 6:30 am to cause an hour long delay for someone who just wants to get home and make tea for her neighbor." She screamed into the doorway, at the fastest imaginable speed. "I did find a tolerable coffee house; I've had like nine cups of dark roast coffee. I haven't slept since this time yesterday; this is going to be one of those dark roast or die days. That hasn't happened in a long time…" She paused. "Swedish Breakfast Tea- Enjoy," She extended the travel cup to him and bolted into her apartment.

Grabbing her make up box she started down the stairs.

"Alison I think the caffeine may be effecting your emotional stability," He replied.

"I think you might be right," She gasped shutting up. She remembered that he was infected now, that the tea was for testing, and that she was the dividing element between minor and major disaster.

{Sheldon}

Usually he wouldn't think twice about someone fetching tea for him, even at an 80 minute transit, turned into a 2 hour fiasco. She had always been so willing, not thinking twice about doing favors; this tipped her over the edge. He was sure it was just the coffee exacerbating the stress of disastrous traffic. Alison was usually quite sensible, more than sensible. She had seen him in a more emotional state that this.

She seemed to dread getting back into the car. They finished the walk down the stairs, and she hesitated grimacing as she opened the door.

"We're taking Euclid," She stated flatly.

"But there are speed bumps on Euclid! One time Howard drove me down Euclid Avenue on a moped! It was horrifying!" He wailed in protest.

"Well this isn't a moped, and we are taking Euclid. I have had a very long day, considering my 'day' started this time YESTERDAY," She muttered, he could tell she wasn't mad, she was just venting energy, and she was miffed, but that was about it.

"What are you angry about?" He inquired.

{Alison}

He had noticed her hostile mood.

"Oh, it's really nothing. I've had a rough day and I couldn't sleep last night, too busy tracing this tea near Pasadena. By the way, how is it?" She asked making an effort to smile, "I'm also mad at myself for missing something blatantly obvious at work on Monday. Okay so it's mostly that." She tried to be honest. In a way she was, she had missed something, she hadn't slept, and she had to find the tea. That was more technically honest than she had been in a while. She hadn't had a reason for that in collage.

Sheldon made this feel like high school, only better. It was the same way she told her mother things that were true, but didn't say everything. With her mother it didn't hurt. She wasn't lying; she was just clever enough to have another layer of responses besides the complete ones. She hated doing that to Sheldon. She knew he was smarter, she could debate the increment, but she knew she was smarter than her mother. She wanted to tell him everything, to be totally honest, she didn't deserve to keep secrets from Sheldon, but she had to. In college the people didn't matter, there was Mandy, but that was like a super best friend. It hurt when she moved to California.

Her next roommate took night classes and worked mornings, she had day classes and an evening job. They saw each other about 15 times in two years of living together. She attended some parties, but after Mandy left she quit cheer. That was when she tanked. She had always been a scientist; she was born one and would die one, but she cared about social protocol, and sure that gave her some great memories, but the only movie close to science fiction she let herself watch was spider-man. No sane geneticist could resist that, a touch of wonderfully unreachable sci-fi, a heart melting story, and based on cross-species genetics.

Just the thought stole her lungs again, the muscles tightening; she bit the inside of her lip. This was both the result and the cause of her avoidance. It locked her in an unbreakable paradox. This was squee, as she had learned, the 'so happy I forgot to breathe'.

"We are taking Euclid because I need to stop at the pharmacy. Howard asked me to bring him some cough drops," She explained beaming. Maybe she had had too much coffee. Usually the act of explaining her odd behavior was frantic, nervous and endless. She hoped he wouldn't catch on as she added, "Apparently he's a little sick. I'm sure it's nothing ser-"

"Sick! With what? When did he call you?" Sheldon screamed.

"He just has a cold, and he called last night. I guess he figured I'd be the only one up at eleven. In more important news, I booked us all a trip to San Diego for the convention! We leave after Caltech closes on Wednesday, and stay until afterwards. I must ask that there be no hotel bashing, my old roommate owns the hotel. What do you guys do in hotel rooms?"

"Raj will probably be watching a romantic drama movie, Bernadette and Howard will probably argue, I can't be sure what Amy and Stewart will do, but it will probably involve a movie, Leonard and Penny will either ignore each other, or engage in coitus." He explained. She tried not to pull back at hearing the end of that. She would have to get to the lack of euphemisms he used. She had adapted to the use of such pointless cover ups as a child, it couldn't be easy for her to learn to drop them again.

"Well you left two people out of that, me and you. Is everyone else but Raj paired off? What do you do?" She asked curiously.

{Sheldon}

"Well we can be sure that no matter how carefully plans are made to set up a room arrangement it won't work out. People will move around and I will end up with Leonard and Penny. I don't know about you," He retold the tale of the last hotel trip they took.

"What if, for the sake of logistics we consider ourselves a pair? Then you won't need noise blocking headphones," she offered.

"Alison, I accept on the condition that it is absolutely clear that we are nothing more than friends sharing a room," he agreed.

"Travel Partners, nothing more," She nodded.

Alison always knew how to fix situations, "I presume that you don't mind watching Star Trek in the hotel," He stated, assuming that someone of her intellect would have seen all of the movies and episodes multiple times. It had to be true. She did a lot of things Amy never did, but also she didn't do the things that Amy did that bugged him. She never tried to hold his hand. She understood his desire to keep schedule. She did argue a bit more, but she sometimes did have a point. More than tolerable, she was a worthy companion.

"Umm, that sounds amazing, but you'd have to know that I've never seen any part of Star Trek, I've ALWAYS wanted to, but I haven't. I just never did. It's kind of hard to explain, but I promise I'll explain it later. I'd love to watch it though!" She looked nervous, her usual nervousness. The answer did come as a shock, but that meant he would get to teach her everything. This was going to be a fantastic trip.

Alison had made the decision to get the berry ice cough drops over the menthol ones, it was an odd choice he thought, but it would be Alison who had to take the force of the decision. He was busy thinking about a weekend teaching Alison everything there is to know about his favorite series. It wasn't even just a regular weekend. He'd have all day Thursday and Friday plus the weekend. If he could convince her she would make an excellent addition to the group for conventions. Oh what a shame they were attending Caltech's convention rather than Comicon, or something that would expand her knowledge of the series.

{Alison}

She leaped out of the car as soon as she reached the building.

"I have to go talk to President Siebert, See you later!" She yelled back as she fled. Wearing heels and running on little sleep, she must have been an interesting sight. Sheldon had finished the tea on the car ride; she held the cup and ran to the office of the University's President.

"I know I'm the rookie, but I need a morning of independent research I accidentally infected one of my friends with the virus and I need to test the rim of this cup. But don't worry, it's someone in the university, no public outbreak, and I've got it under total control," she blurted it all out as soon as he had opened the door. Then she squinched back, preparing to be scolded.

"Alright, I trust your reasoning Dr. Carter, I must ask though, Who?" He asked.

"Dr. Sheldon Cooper, He's my neighbor…" She explained.

"Oh dear god, you are so dead!" He yelled in shock at her.

"He'll be totally fine by the convention!" She wailed in her defense.

"No, not that, you got Dr. Cooper sick. Does he know?" He inquired; she shook her head in reply. "Well go, do your research!" He directed her.

That was a bit distressing, especially the fact that President Siebert had broken the professional atmosphere of her request. Everyone was acting strange.

{Howard}

Alison had tossed him the cough drops earlier that day. They stained his tongue an undeniable shade of purple. "Hi Guys, Raj is meeting Lucy for lunch, Alison is going to join us." He whispered. Sheldon freaked out at every cough, sneeze or sniffle. It was right where Alison needed him, not likely to get any of us sick. He couldn't believe Alison would do this, sure it was her fault, but it was an accident. She was the newest group member; usually Sheldon care went to Leonard, or Penny, and recently Amy, before they broke up. She didn't know how bad Sheldon was. She couldn't possibly fathom how much of a pain he could be.

He was torn. He could explain it all to her, or he could take the escape route she was offering them. She wouldn't accept it if he told her that Sheldon was crazy, he had to let he learn it for herself. He wasn't proud of his choice to leave her out to dry, but maybe it was the only way. Plus, they were a pretty cute couple. If she survived this upcoming week and didn't marry him, Sheldon would never marry. She was resilient, tolerant, she might even be pretty enough to catch Sheldon's attention. She stood a chance; he couldn't be the only one who thought they would be good together.

She wasn't bulletproof. She had to have a breaking point. As she sat down he unwrapped another cough drop.

Alison texted him under the table, "I have a burrito in my purse. I will put it in your office after lunch."

Howard tried not to laugh, he knew girls threw crazy stuff in their purses, but that had to be the craziest one he ever heard about. Even before he met Bernie when he had seen the contents of several women's purses, the oddest thing was continually bizarre key chains. He hid the laugh in another cough.

"I couldn't eat…" He pretended to struggle on the three words as hid hit send, a text saying "THX"

He had told Leonard and Raj all about the trip and the plan. Raj hadn't wanted to hear the details; he couldn't stand to hear the graphic information about a sick Sheldon. He had taken care of him once and that was bad enough. Leonard told him more details than he had gotten out of Alison on the phone.

He was excited for a chance of pace.

Thank you to all who continue to read and review, I appreciate reading every one. I hope you all enjoy reading the story! I do plan on correcting the problems with the early chapters and adding pretty titles to all of the chapters. I hope to be able to do this without a delay in new chapters, but it will take a long time.

Okay, enough of Alison's thoughts, the next one Sheldon gets the most POV time.

By the way I really thought I posted this like 4 days ago. Thank you so much for your patience, and I promise there will be another one tomorrow! Happy 10th chapter!