A/N: I just love how the narrow minds spew their filth in reviews, don't you? Disagree, yes, spout filth, no. If you don't like it, don't read it. I know I can 'edit' guest reviews but I don't need to protect my ego.
I write edgy stuff, some of it downright strange but I write it. If I make even one or two of you think outside your box, then I've been successful. Fiction makes you think. TV makes you stupid and confromist. Consider the TV program's treatment of the Penny character and then consider that the vast majority of TBBT fics pair Sheldon and Penny. Oh heavens! Non-canon!
The final leg of their journey lasted 8 hours and 48 minutes. It was both the longest and shortest 8 hours and 48 minutes of Sheldon's life.
The flight from Los Angeles to Heathrow, excluding the 2 hours spent going through Customs and changing planes, was 10 hours and 32 minutes.
Adding them all together, they'd spent nearly 20 hours airborne and Sheldon was getting both claustrophobic and achy. Priya sensed his discomfort and handed him another dose of muscle relaxants and suggested that they visit the upper deck of the 747 and 'walk around a bit and stretch our legs'.
There was no one on the upper deck at this hour and they both chose to use the recliners and stare out the window at nothing but the darkness. Priya knew that flying made Sheldon extremely uncomfortable both because of the perceived air quality and his slight claustrophobia and because he had had to make a massive adjustment to his normal schedule.
"Sheldon, I want to thank you for accompanying me to my home. I know what a great personal sacrifice it has been and I just wanted to acknowledge your sacrifice. I brought hand sanitizer that I purchased in the airport."
"Oh, bless you, jaanam, I feel wrinkled and unkempt while you appear just as you did in our apartment. How do you do that?" Sheldon said as he liberally coated any exposed skin with the self-drying liquid gel.
"Do what, Shel-jaan?" She took the hand sanitizer from his and reached over and gently rubbed his jawbone below his ear, whispering, "You missed a spot."
"Stay looking as fresh as the proverbial daisy, I meant. Not even your clothing is wrinkled."
"I am a professional traveler and I learned tricks. Just wait until you unpack. No wrinkled clothing. As for 'fresh', I feel all yucky."
Both had reclined their seats to talk but Priya had not engaged her seatbelt and when the plane hit turbulence and then an air pocket, Priya ended up sprawled over Sheldon's lap and chest, her face only a few inches from his.
She leaned forward and touched the tip of his nose with her lips and then kissed it, almost giggling like a schoolgirl when he turned bright red. She moved her point of aim slightly downward and kissed his upper lip and then his lower lip and then placed a few moist kisses along his jaw line.
"Priya, you should buckle your seatbelt but since you're in my seat now…" He wrapped his arms around her and she snuggled her face into his neck and sighed.
"Sheldon, what are we going to tell my parents? I'm thinking that maybe you should not have accompanied Rajesh and I. It will only make any explanation of my deception more difficult and, most importantly, expose you to the anger of my parents."
"As well as, I believe the phrase is, 'cramp your style' with cousin Sanjay, correct?"
"I am going to kill my brother!"
"Leonard told me…everything, Priya. Another thing that makes this all a ruse is that you told Leonard your mother would birth a cow if you brought home a 'white boy'."
"Yes, Shel-jaan, but you are a man, not a boy. My 2nd cousin Sanjay was my…boyfriend, I guess you'd call him, although it was more of an American 'booty call' than anything else and – "
"Do you love him?" It was a reasonable question in Sheldon's mind. If it were a case of 'Lusty Love' then he could deal with it but if it were something else entirely…
"He is my cousin. Of course I love him. We grew up together…"
"Had sex together, cheated on Leonard together, and now what?"
"That is not fair, Sheldon! Leonard and I were over and done with but he just wanted to keep pushing for something that wasn't there and Sanjay was but he is nothing more than a dear friend. You must understand that in India morality dictates are very different than in the UK or US."
"Obviously. Fine. Let's go back to our seats. You and Rajesh need to discuss where I'll stay and what I'll be doing to occupy myself while you and Raj are with your parents at the hospital."
"Sheldon, you don't want to come with me to meet my parents and pay your respects to my father?"
"Yes, although I fear my presence there will only serve to generate more questions than answers. I will, of course, meet with your parents but then I feel you and Raj should spend time with them. After all, I'm not family."
Rajesh and his sister sat together for the remainder of the flight. Raj bluntly asked her what her 'deal' was with Sheldon and she said simply that she needed him. Priya gave no reason and she didn't answer his follow-up questions, simply ignoring her brother. In her mind the subject was closed. They would meet her parents, Sheldon would pay his respects and then…she had no idea what they were going to do.
"Priya, he is my friend and I will not allow you to jerk him around. How will you convince Mummy and Daddy of your impending nuptials while making the cow eyes with Sanjay? Oh, don't look surprised, Priya. The entire city knows about you and Sanjay. Leonard informed us about it over Thai food and he was quite upset. Sanjay has spoken openly about it for years, almost as a joke, and I think our parents know about it but have chosen not to acknowledge such abominable behavior because it was your abominable behavior."
"I do not make 'cow eyes' at Sanjay. Our trysts have been few and far between and besides, he is our cousin and it would not be proper to pursue a romantic relationship with one's own blood."
"No, but it doesn't stop you from sleeping with him when you're in town."
Out of nowhere she asked Raj a question that had been bothering her for quite some time.
"Rajesh, why is Sheldon doing all of this? Is it because he is your friend and I am your sister?"
"Partly. Of course you used his family as leverage initially but now…"
"That was hardly an answer. What is 'partly' and why else is he doing this?"
"I have known Sheldon Cooper longer than I care to think about. He became irascible, narcissistic, arrogant and many other traits that irritate people but he is my best friend although I pretend it's really Howard."
He ploughed on, ignoring the questioning look on his sister's face.
"And yet, under all these quirks and neurotic habits, he's a good man who has extremely bad luck. Especially with women. He pretends to be aloof from human emotion but, my dear sister, he is a swirling maelstrom of emotions."
He dropped the big bomb on her and immediately felt guilty for betraying a trust that had lasted since they were both 19.
"He is a 'touch empath'. He senses emotions in others when he touches them and it overwhelms him sometimes. He doesn't shake hands or touch people and yet you seem to be the exception. Not even Penny, for whom he has carried the love torch since first laying eyes on her, can say that."
"A 'touch empath'? What utter drivel and nonsense. You have taken one of the plots from your science fiction and applied it to our circumstances."
"Not fiction, science fact. His mother had him tested. The doctors thought it would eventually drive him mad but so far he's used his quirky behavior to stave off the worst of it but betwixt you and Penny…you are sorely taxing his ability to cope. You are both 'hot and cold' with him and he's having problems sorting out 'his' emotions from 'yours'."
"That is crazy talk, Rajesh. Crazy talk. Are you jealous that he and I might have feelings for one another?"
"Certainly not, Priya. I would consider it a great thing if my friend were also to become my brother in marriage but we both know that you are simply using him to get what you want just as you use all the men in your life, even me, and then cast them aside like used paper napkins."
"It is he who is casting me aside now that my need for him has passed. Oh, big brother, what am I to do? I think I love him despite his mannerisms and I know he has feelings for me."
"Then tell him how you feel. Let him feel it. Don't you dare pull him around by his Pud, Priya, but don't be surprised if he doubts you. Penny gave him a declaration of love and yet she is again wearing the Hobbit's ring."
Priya thought back to the biting insults and comments that had been exchanged between them and smiled as she thought about how they had nearly disappeared from their conversations over time as they became closer. They were friends but she wanted more. She wanted Sheldon Cooper in her life and she would have him.