thank you all for your comments. I will finish this.
Rep
Chapter 10
Driving to Los Angeles
I'm sorry Leonard can't understand that I love you but it's his problem, not ours."
Sheldon catnapped as best he could while subconsciously awaiting a fiery death on the freeway. His face throbbed and he wondered if the punch Leonard hit him with could in any way affect the test results.
"Penny, Leonard is going to be living across the hall from us for a month, if not more. He was my friend once, even if he did falsify my North Pole Expedition data. We need to be civil to him but I'd really prefer that you weren't alone with him. I worry about what might happen."
"Oh, Shel, that's so sweet but I think I can handle Leonard."
"I was thinking about how ugly things might get if you went all 'Nebraska' on him and then there'd be the trial and the sentencing and I'm not big on conjugal visits to some filthy prison trailer that probably has cooties, Penny, no matter how much I love you. So, please, don't hurt him."
She laughed all the way to Los Angeles. Her boyfriend could take away all her worries and pain with just a few simple words. She felt so blessed to have him in her life now.
Penny couldn't watch them inject the dye into his eye. It was just too freaky even though Sheldon kept up a running commentary on the history of 'Nuclear Medicine' and how interesting the entire process was. Nope. She went out into the small lobby and sat down and found an 'US' magazine and read it, not seeing the words, just looking at it.
"Penny, Dr. Wexford wants you to come in. He has a few things to cover and then Dr. Cooper is all yours. He's so smart it's scary, isn't it? He and Dr. Wexford got into an interesting discussion regarding light wave interpolation and I just felt so dumb…"
"Yeah, he can do that without meaning to. He 'dumbs' things down for me sometimes and I help him ease through the social graces without getting too banged up."
"Dr. Cooper told us what happened last night. I can't believe anyone would hit a blind man over a non-existent relationship. He said you beat the crap outta the guy and I'm so proud that his woman stood up to that little creep."
Dr. Wexford was brief and to the point. The right eye was never going to improve and the left eye showed potential but he still wanted to wait to see if the retina resolved itself without surgery. "Surgery further scars the tissues we need to have healthy so we'll wait."
The drive back to Pasadena was quiet until Sheldon made his 'authoritative pronouncement'. "Penny, we have the entire summer to do anything we please. I have money and you have nothing pressing, so I suggest – a road trip."
"Sheldon! A road trip? In this car? Where? And why now?" Penny wasn't against the idea. She just wanted to know what Sheldon's idea of a road trip was.
"I'll buy you a new car, something in keeping with your image. We'll talk about where in the days to come. I'll make a list and you make a list and then we'll plot them on a map and make our schedule and…"
"Wait a minute. I'm not interested in seeing the biggest ball of belly button lint or anything weird like that. I'll make a list and keep it simple. We'll discuss this like adults, Shel. And we do it at the kitchen table because you know I can't say 'no' to you in bed."
"But first, I need Howard to help me with an invention I've been thinking about. It's simple, so simple that I can't believe no one has thought of it before. And I need to learn Braille as soon as possible. I'll need access to the Information Highway, the World Wide Web, the – "
Penny got mad and interrupted him. "So you are giving up! You promised me you wouldn't give up. Learning Braille is giving up, Sheldon. You broke your promise…"
She sniffed a few times and fought back the tears. If Sheldon gave up on seeing, what would he do about them the first time things got rocky? Give up?
"Penny, I need to learn Braille so that I can function in the sighted world until the operation. I need to be able to read journals and papers and I need to be able to do my research. Penny, you're only one person and I doubt when I get cracking, you'll be able to write down my thoughts quickly enough. That's why I need Howard's help."
"Okay. I jumped the gun there, sorry. I thought you'd – "
"Penelope, I told you I wanted to be able to see you naked. I have eidetic imagery but there are so many new things about you that I need to be able to see and remember."
"Okay…but why now, Shel?"
"Leonard's presence, even with a restraining order, cramps my style." His Texas twang twanged loud and clear and she got the message. She laughed and squeezed his hand and made plans for a very intimate evening.
"And besides, Penny, I want us to make new memories of things we can share when we're old and crotchety and your memory begins to fail. Everything up until the incident – I had to share you with others. Now, you're all mine…bwahaha!"
His evil mad scientist laugh freaked her out for a second until she realized he was smiling, quoting a movie, and then she laughed with him.
Everyone always said he was one failed science experiment away from being a mad scientist. They were so wrong.
They were curled up together in her bed and it was difficult to see where she stopped and he started. The sex had been fantastic and Sheldon had teased her about adding several new items to her 'climax repertoire' and she'd just kissed him and fallen asleep.
And began to dream of her wedding but it wasn't Sheldon she saw waiting for her when she walked down the aisle. The groom was a stranger, someone who looked like her typical 'old Penny' one-night stand guy would have been.
She woke up and nudged Sheldon until he awoke but she muffled his 'Danger! Danger!' with the palm of her hand.
"Sheldon, where do you see us in five years?" He wasn't as alert as he would normally have been and so he missed the subtle nuance of her whispered question.
"Hopefully I'll be a Nobel Laureate and you'll be happily married to a man you love, possibly with a child who looks just like you." In his mind, he was that man but Penny was still in the grips of her dream and so she didn't grasp the subtlety of his response.
She got out of bed and wrapped her robe around her and told Sheldon to get out. "Get out, Sheldon. This isn't what I want out of life. This isn't my dream. Get out of my room. We'll discuss what needs to be done in the morning."
"Penny, I don't understand – " He was confused and still not awake, a tribute to Penny's influence on him. Old Sheldon would have been busy preparing for Armageddon but New Sheldon was still trying to grasp what was happening.
"I said, get out! Now! You're all alike, aren't you? I don't know why I expected you to be any different. Maybe I just should have tried again with Leonard after all."
He found his robe on the chair beside the bed and left her bedroom. He knew it had been only a matter of time until she started questioning her feelings for him and realize that being with a blind man was too much for her to handle. It was Germany all over again, without the humiliation factor. That would probably come later.
Sheldon walked into his room, threw on some clothes and then left the apartment. He had nowhere to go but she had been adamant. Well, at least this time I'm not naked on the University lawn.
He walked out onto Los Robles and headed east with no destination in mind. He just wanted to walk and forget about everything. He was running various scenarios through his head while walking. Her comment about staying with Leonard had hurt him.
He walked and walked, running his hand along the side of buildings so he wouldn't wander out into the street, not knowing where he was and not really caring. He turned north onto another wide boulevard and started walking but soon realized he was totally lost. He'd been rehashing their argument instead of keeping track of where he was.
He'd left his cell phone at home so he couldn't call Howard and Raj wasn't due back from India until the following week so he just sat down on the steps of a store and waited for daybreak. He could ask a passerby about his location and then walk home.
After a good two-hour cry, Penny went into the bathroom to clean up. She'd acted like an idiot and Sheldon had gone back to his room and was probably asleep.
I need to wake him up and apologize and beg his forgiveness. I wasn't thinking straight. He doesn't think he'll get his sight back and he thinks I'll leave him for some guy, the big house with the white picket fence and the minivan and all the normal stuff.
I don't want 'normal'. I want Sheldon. I'll never be bored, that's for sure.
She went to his room and knocked lightly and then went in. She flipped on the light but the bed hadn't been slept in but his robe was casually thrown across it, something so unlike Sheldon.
He must really be upset with me. She walked out into the living room and turned on a lamp but he wasn't on the couch. His cell phone and keys were right where he always left them…so where the hell was he?
"Sheldon? Sheldon? Honey, I'm sorry. Where are you? Sheldon?" Each time she called his name a little louder until she was practically yelling. I was upset. I told him to get out. I meant 'out of my bedroom' not the damned apartment. Leonard! Maybe he went over to Leonard's.
Part of her hoped her boyfriend was mending fences with his best friend but the larger part hoped he stayed away from Leonard. Life with Sheldon was complicated enough without his best friend hanging around the apartment, trying to drive a wedge between the new couple while trying to get her back between the sheets.
Unbidden, a fragment of Sheldon's rambling comment leaped to the forefront of her consciousness. I want us to make new memories of things we can share when we're old and crotchety and your mind begins to fail.
She had her answer before she'd even asked the question. Shit-shit-shit! I'm so damned stupid sometimes. He told me what I wanted to know before I even asked but I didn't catch it.
It began to rain and so Sheldon walked up the street until he came to a storefront with either and awning or an overhang and sat down with his back against the wall. At least he was out of the rain. He pulled the collar of his shirt up around his neck, tucked his chin against his chest and fell asleep.
He'd wandered into a 'bad' section of town without realizing it and police presence had been ramped up because of a series of muggings and beatings. A blind Sheldon huddled up out of the rain made such a tempting target.
"Hey, over there, under the marquee of the old movie theater…some homeless guy." The driver slowed the car and then brought it to a stop at the curb. They both got out and approached the sleeping Sheldon warily.
"I know this guy. He's the blind guy from the domestic disturbance last night on Los Robles. Hey, Doc, wake up. What are you doing here?"
Penny was almost to the point of waking Leonard and sending his ungrateful ass out to look for Sheldon. She didn't want to leave the apartment in case he came back or called her and needed picked up.
She had gotten dressed and had a hand on the door knob when someone on the other side pounded on it and she yelped in surprise. She looked through the peep hole that Sheldon had insisted on installing years before and saw a cop's face staring back at her.
She threw open the door and brushed past the cop, who wisely stepped out of the way, and lunged for Sheldon, nearly knocking him off his feet.
The officers smiled at one another until Leonard opened his apartment door and squinted through his thick glasses to take in the tableau before him. Penny was crying and kissing Sheldon while the two cops looked on like proud parents – until one noticed Leonard and nudged his partner.
"Dr. Hofstadter, get your myopic ass back into your hole. You're in violation of a restraining order."
Leonard's mouth started flapping, making useless sounds, and then the officers herded Penny and Sheldon into their apartment, shot Leonard a glare and then returned to their patrol car.