A/N: I don't know where she is going with this. She has revised chapters and the original ending has been deleted. Anyhow, she's not making any money from this and neither am I. She only owns her imagination and the characters that are original.

Mysti

Settling In
Chapter 11

Previously: "You do not raise a hand to my Sheldon! Not if you want to ever use it again!"

Mary Cooper stared at the young girl, ignoring the pressure on her wrist bones. Then broke into the biggest smile her muscles where capable of producing and almost crushed Sara in a hug.

"Thank the Lord above! Finally, someone loves my Shelly just as much as I do. Welcome to the family, darlin', and don't pay no mind to what I said before. The Lord works in mysterious ways and this has got to be one of His most mysterious ways of all time."

Arm around her shoulders, she led Sara back into the kitchen for a little 'chat'.

"What the – "

"Sheldon Lee…you watch your mouth around the ladies, y'hear?" came his mother's voice from the kitchen.

"What the hell indeed, Moon Pie…I do believe you've found your answer to bringing that girl around to being human but I don't think it's the Lord's work to be lookin' after a machine, no matter how lovable and human-like she may be. No, I think it's just a fortuitous coincidence."

"Meemaw, there are no such things as coincidences. One can always find a – "

She looked up at her grandson and smiled slyly…"You'd rather your young friend went to Prayer Circle and…"

"Certainly not!" He walked quickly back into the kitchen. Like it or not, more people were being brought under the secrecy tent and he had no idea how his mother was going to react to knowing her 'future daughter-in-law' was anything but. He almost felt sorry for his mother – almost.

"Mother, I have to speak with you about a subject that is beyond your comprehension but I cannot allow you to continue on assuming that Sara and I – "

"Sheldon Lee Cooper, sit! We have a wedding to plan and poor Sara has no one but us. Oh Shelly, to be orphaned and to never know your parents…"

She started quietly weeping and Sara whispered, "She asked about my parents and I answered truthfully that I had no idea who or where they were and that I had been raised in almost sterile conditions without any human companionship and then she started crying…" He could see Sara was growing agitated so he sat down and took her hand in his and whispered back, "I know. You did nothing wrong, Sara. It's a terrible burden for us to live amongst such emotional creatures but – "

Just then his cell rang and out of habit (he would say courtesy but in fact he couldn't abide an unanswered phone) he rose and stepped away. It was Howard and he knew he wouldn't call unless the situation were dire.

"Hello, Howard." He held the phone away from his ear to protect his hearing. He might as well have had it on speaker. He had inherited his acute hearing from his mother.

Penny was screeching at him about government agents coming to kill him and Howard was trying to relate the gist of a conversation with Dr. Krueger but all he could really hear was Penny.

"You've got to run, Moon Pie, run and keep running. They want to kill you and take Sara back."

Mary Cooper stared at her son and then at her soon-to-be daughter-in-law and bristled like a momma badger whose young were threatened.

"Sheldon, government agents? Take Sara back? Oh, Lord, what have you two got yourselves in to? No! Don't tell me. The less I know the easier it'll be to lie when they come sniffin' around. But first off, what does the gummint want with our Sara?"

Sara felt as if her entire operating system had taken a jolt. Our Sara.

She recited exactly the words she'd used with Sheldon's Meemaw. After all, it had worked perfectly to explain her unique situation. She embellished a bit towards the end.

"Mrs. Cooper, Sheldon rescued me from a laboratory at the University. I've since learned that I'm not a human being but a Self-Aware Reconnaissance Android. Sheldon saved me from being 'disassembled' but to me it was a certain death. I know it is a lot to absorb but I am human. I feel, I fear, I have emotions. Please don't let them kill me!"

Mary blanched but then remembered how the Lord worked and she cupped Sara's cheek in a motherly fashion and smiled through watery eyes. "Baby girl, ain't no one touching a hair on your head. Not as long as the Coopers live and breathe."

She turned and made 'gimmee' motions with her fingers to Sheldon for his cell phone and quickly dialed a number.

"Missy, bring your car and my pistols to Meemaw's. We gots ourselves a situation here. Your brother Shelly and his girl are in trouble and we need to get them fitted out for a run." After a pause, "No, she's not in the 'family way'. They gots the gummint after them so git over here right away."

Pasadena

"Well, that went well," said Howard, sarcastically, glaring at Penny. Instead of determining their status, Penny had screeched an emotional warning and Sheldon had disconnected the call.

"As long as Sheldon is on the move and safe in Canada, I don't see how it matters just so long as they are aware that the government is coming to kill him. Isn't that why we called? To warn him?"

Leonard agreed with Penny although he had wanted to relate the message Krueger had left him. It sounded like there was more going on here than a simple theft of a government experiment in robotics. . 'You must tell Sheldon to deactivate Sara at once and return her before it is too late. There may be tragic consequences should he not do so immediately.'

Leonard was nearly as smart as Sheldon and he began to parse the words and phrases Krueger used. Were the 'tragic consequences' referring to the theft or to the need to 'deactivate Sara at once'? The image of Sheldon carrying a deactivated Sara past border guards made him smile until he realized that Sheldon would never 'harm' Sara. But could Sara pose a danger to his best friend?

He had to know.

"Howard, use my computer. Get me Dr. Krueger's home number as well as his CalTech cell number. I have a feeling there's more to this than simply a missing robot."

"Simulacrum," corrected Howard, sitting at Leonard's computer and opening up a file.

"Hottie," muttered Raj.

"A girl. A real person," said Penny, glaring at the others. "She's a real as you or I."