Chapter25
Sheldon submitted his final draft of the 'Proof of String Theory' to his boss for approval via email. It was something he rarely did but felt it very appropriate considering how accommodating Dr. Gabelhauser had been to him and Penny. He was learning to play office politics and he brought his laser-like focus to it. He didn't need Gabelhauser's approval to publish but he wanted him to have the 'advanced copy' for his own purposes.
Penny was studying for her first set of semester finals and Sheldon gave her time and space to do so. At first he thought she was pulling away but soon enough, when she asked for his help in going over possible test questions she'd devised, he knew it was because she was terrified of falling short of some invisible mark she'd set for herself. After that, they worked out a schedule of work, study, and fun and stuck to it.
When Penny studied, Sheldon would either surf the net or he and Howard would work on the patent application for the Wolowitz Web Reader or work out bugs and glitches Sheldon had run across. There were some modifications to the surface of the reader board that Sheldon thought would make it more 'user friendly' and some of their 'discussions' grew quite heated – meaning Wolowitz moaned about the additional time delays and costs while Sheldon guilted him into making the modifications.
One night a week was set aside for dinner out with their friends. Raj and Aisha were still working on getting her into school and Raj was dealing with the possibility of having their wedding in Pasadena as opposed to returning to India for the marriage.
"Sheldon, my mummy and daddy are intractable with their objections, still contending that this is nothing more than a harmful infatuation and they keep sending me email addresses of 'good Indian girls' for me to consider for marriage. It is very stressful and I am feeling like I am being torn in two by elephants."
"Raj, only you can make this decision. Tradition-bound parents are a plague on us scientists. My own mother would rather I suspend my studies and return to Texas. She wants money, of course, and keeps calling Penny, asking her to 'talk some sense into her wayward son'."
He snorted a laugh. Penny's last conversation had ended with 'all you want is to get him and Missy back under your thumbs' and then 'Shel would be crazy to consider throwing away his career so that you could give Memaw's money away to your church'.
Penny even went so far as to block his mother's telephone number in her cell phone.
The three couples had agreed to meet at Raj's apartment for a traditional Indian meal. Aisha wanted to impress Raj's friends with her cooking. Penny told her that the only person she had to impress was Raj and not to worry about what anyone else thought.
"Sweetie, you have got to remember that this is America and we don't have 'castes'. Most people judge people on their character, not their social standing. Just be yourself and let Raj worry about his parents. Raj loves you and that's all that's important."
Penny talked to Sheldon about Indian traditions and cuisine. She wanted to make sure that he didn't freak out about eating with his fingers or sitting on the floor.
"Please, sweetie, do it for Raj. He's under enough pressure from his parents hassling him about Aisha. He doesn't need you wigging out and making a scene."
She needn't have worried. Howard's mother taught Aisha how to make brisket since it was 'that poor little Hindu boy's favorite food' since a camping trip a few years back.
Neither of them knew about the group's case of the raging munchies after eating some cookies baked by two grade school teachers who were unreconstructed hippies. All Mrs. Wolowitz knew was that Raj had raved about her brisket and that was approval and incentive enough.
So, when the Sheldon and Penny arrived for dinner, the smell that greeted them was brisket and broasted potatoes instead of curry and meat of questionable origin.
"Penny, I thought…"
"Not a word, honey, not – one – word."
"I'm scared, Shel. What happens if this doesn't work? What happens to us?" She was standing between his legs as he sat on the edge of the vanity chair in the bathroom, shaving him as she did every morning.
The couple were getting ready for the drive down to L.A. for Sheldon's pre-operation exam and consultation. Penny had scoured the internet for any and all information regarding cornea transplant surgery and she could quote doctors, medical journals and statistics that would leave lesser people in a daze.
"Penny, considering how far we've come since I got this way, I'd say that nothing will change…unless me being blind and a little crazy changes your feelings or intentions regarding our planned marriage. Does it? Are you having 'buyer's remorse' about 'hooking up' with me?"
He never pulled punches and that was one of the things that she both loved and hated about Sheldon. He never said anything he didn't mean but sometimes he was brutally economical in his word choices.
"No. I just want you to be able to see, that's all. I've got new nighties and a new bikini and…"
"Penny, you sleep in the nude and covering your beautiful body with flimsy cloth is totally redundant and unnecessary. It would be like having the Mona Lisa and keeping it covered with filthy canvas."
She smiled and drew the straight razor down across his cheek. Somehow in all the times she'd shaven him she'd never nicked him once, not one time.
"Quit talking, honey. I don't want to nick you. And I think that's a beautiful image you have of me. You do know that I've died my hair mousy brown and I don't bother shaving my legs or even painting my nails."
"Liar. Your legs are as smooth as marble and your hair is still blonde otherwise it would be like straw. As for your nails…you never painted them, simply putting on a coating of something to keep them from chipping or breaking. I know you, Penelope Drummond, better than you know yourself."
"Yeah…you sure do, honey," she whispered somewhat breathlessly. 'How does he do that? How does he make me so damned aroused with just a few words? Jesus, we don't have time for a quickie…tonight, though, tonight I'm going to rock his world.'
"Dr. Cooper, things are looking good. We'll schedule the transplant for after the first of the year if that's convenient. Hopefully by next Christmas the healing will be done and you'll get your sight back as a Christmas present."
Penny knew from her reading that the doctor's 'estimate' was generous. There were a myriad (her newest word, myriad: countless, innumerable, many, a lot) of damned possible complications.
"I've already submitted paperwork to the National Eye Bank Registry and it's just a matter of time now. We'll call when we have a donor match."
The drive back was quiet, each lost in their own thoughts. Penny knew that Sheldon knew the same statistics that she did and she knew he was afraid although the big weenie would never admit it. She was afraid, too. There were so many things that might go wrong and she was so hopeful that he might regain at least partial sight.
"Penny, do you think we ought to postpone the wedding until I get my sight back?"
"No! Absolutely not! I've waited all this time for the right man to come along and now that I've got him, I'm going to tie him up legally and marry his skinny butt. I want you to see so bad, Shel, but not bad enough to postpone our wedding. I'm selfish and I want you and me joined together. I don't trust this new crop of grad students at all…"
It was a joke between them. Penny pretty well let it be known that 'Dr. Cooper is taken' to the incoming graduate students. A few didn't seem to get the message and once or twice she'd had to make it physically obvious that he was hers.
He had a hatred of PDAs but it was the only way she knew to stake her claim when the grad students came sniffing around her man. She couldn't drop her panties and pee a circle around him but she could kiss him, hold his hand, stroke his thigh and play footsie with him whenever one of the poachers came around.
It drove him nuts and although he knew why, he couldn't understand the why. "Sheldon, these bitches have itches and they see you as a way of scratching it and getting ahead academically. You just don't know how far some women will go to get ahead."
"Penny, you know I have no interest in any other woman so why bother?" Sometimes Sheldon was denser than lead.
"Because I don't like seeing you being pawed at and ogled like some…piece of meat. You're going to win the damned Nobel Prize for Physics and you're above such things."
"True, but…"
"Shut up, Sheldon. The matter is closed."
"Yes, dear." He could play the game as well as she could but sometimes it just wasn't worth the hassle.
"Sheldon, I can't believe you're going to London and I have to stay here and take my damned exams! It's not fair. Could you, please, use your not inconsiderable influence and see if you can get my tests moved back a week? I mean, God, Shel, LONDON!"
"Penny, it's just for two days and then I'll be back. I promise I'll take you to Europe someday but I can't just call your professors and say, 'Please allow my fiance and companion to take her tests later. I'm going to London to defend my paper on Split End String Theory and I need her'."
"Why the hell not? That sounds perfectly logical to me." She wanted to go with him. She had a bad feeling about this trip and after all, he was blind and traveling alone in a foreign country…
"It's unethical, Penny, and I won't do it. There's always Stockholm, my love." He never used pet names, ever, so Penny figured it was final. Damn his ethics.
That night Penny told Sheldon she had a headache and went to bed early. He finished reviewing his notes, double-checked his paperwork and took a shower. He knew she was disappointed but they'd never gone to bed on an argument – until now.
"Hold still, Sheldon. You need to – " A nick. She had watched his eyes while they didn't talk about last night and she lost her concentration and now he sported a Batman Band Aide near his carotid. She didn't think about the band aide. She was too upset to think. This was an omen of huge portent.
"I don't want you to go. I'll make up some excuse. Illness. Everyone knows you get sick at the drop of a hat. Your germ-o-phobia has finally proven to be well-founded and you're deathly ill."
"Penny, I'm going. I need this presentation to go well and, quite frankly, it won't if you continue to pester me with your own insecurities. Your horoscope is wrong. You are being deliberately, I believe the term is 'catty', and mean. This is so unlike you."
She dropped him off at the departures terminal, not even bothering to get out of the car. She'd called ahead and arranged an escort for him. He took his bag from the car and waited for her to give him a goodbye kiss but she reached over and pulled the door closed and sped away from the curb, never looking back, furious that he was so damned stubborn.
His presentation went superbly. The Q&A session had been grueling and he was tired but immensely pleased. Considering the comments of the committee and offers to guest-lecture at several European universities, he cut short his attendance and hurried back to his hotel room to call Penny.
His calls went directly to voice mail and after the fourth call, he quit trying to reach her.
Penny was sitting for her Physics 101 test. It wasn't difficult and she was through with it in less than half the time allowed and was slowly checking over her work just as Sheldon had taught her to do. She smugly turned the worksheets into the exam proctor and started to leave when Dr. Gabelhauser came to the door.
"Miss Drummond…Penny…please come with me. I need to speak with you." He looked ashen and her stomach clenched and she felt faint for a moment. Howard and Raj were standing behind him looking close to tears. Howard blurted out "Sheldon's plane broke up in a storm over the Atlantic. They are searching for survivors but…"
Penny didn't hear anything else he said. She walked away and then sat down, suddenly boneless, on the floor of the corridor and started to cry.
The world descended on apartment 4B, or so it seemed. Friends from the Cheesecake Factory, Sheldon's friends and colleagues and people she didn't even know came by to offer their condolences, bring food, and talk quietly about Sheldon.
She sat on the couch, greeting people she wouldn't remember because all she could think about was how distant and cold she'd been to him.
Raj noticed that the message light was flashing on their home answering machine and he pressed play and then started to laugh. He yelled at everyone to 'be quieting yourselves now and listen!
"Penny, this is Sheldon Lee Cooper…I…I missed my plane, Penny…Penny, please pick up…Penny?'