Disclaimer: I do not own The Big Bang Theory its characters or likeness. This is just my twisted little drama.
I know…I know… I haven't updated in a while, but I wanted to give you guys at least something. So here is a little short chapter and hopefully my writers' block won't last too much longer.
Enjoy!
Gut Feeling
"This is a nice place, wouldn't you agree?" Robert was unfolding his napkin as he motioned to the high-class restaurant that he had decided to take his granddaughter.
"It is. It's very…fancy," Lee Ann commented after the highly professional waiter brought their food to their table. They were sitting in the main dining room near a water fountain that was depicting a scene from Greek mythology. She wasn't sure but it looked like Narcissus' transformation in to the flower. Kind of fitting for the clientele, she thought to herself.
Robert glanced at his granddaughter as she nit-picked at her dinner, she was a picky eater and no matter the cost of the food there was always something that she would change or comment on. He shook his head at her, amused. "So, did anything happen at school today?"
Lee Ann glanced back at him, not sure if she should divulge all the details of her day. She figured that he would rather hear about her classes, "Um…I found out that I aced the calculus midterm." She offered a smile.
He nodded his approval, "That's good." He then motioned for her to continue, "But I was hoping you could tell me about the reason your principle decided to give me a call."
She cringed just a bit at the fact that she could never get away with anything at that school, she couldn't help mumble to herself, "Uh oh."
He became stern as he addressed her, "Lee Ann why do you continue tormenting that boy?"
"I wasn't trying to torment him," she blurted out without thinking. She shrugged her shoulders at him, "I was just merely enforcing my solid objection to his manipulation on Brenda." She noted the confused look on his face.
"What manipulation?"
"He was using her to get to me and my work! I can't just let that happen." She leaned forward and spoke a bit more conspiringly, "he was trying to turn her against me, and get access to my science project. And he was going to kiss her."
Robert couldn't help but feel upset at this; he had hoped that the issue of boys would be years down the line, "You girls are only 13."
"I know," she looked at him with mutual discuss. "That's why I had to put a stop to it." She noted his slight approval, "You see, right? I had to show him that he couldn't best me so easily."
Robert tried to look stern but sighed at his granddaughter, "well, while I don't condone you girls being put in those situations, wouldn't it have been best for you to go to a teacher instead of defacing his things and displaying them in the girls' restroom?"
"He's their golden boy and they don't know the things that he's willing to do to surpass my #1 ranking," she huffed and sat back before noticing the firm look that her grandfather was giving her, "I mean, yes sir."
They sat in silence for a moment and ate. After swallowing a bit of pasta Lee Ann looked back at him timidly, "am I in trouble?"
He was in the middle of cutting into his steak. He glanced at her and could see her anticipation, "No. I suppose not," he smirked slightly as he noted her relax, "they've told me that you now have a few new things added to the list of items you can't take to school. And to you that's punishment enough."
"Yeah, Ok," she smiled quickly at him and then began eating her chicken Florentine, sans seasoning, in earnest.
When they were both mostly done with their meal he broached the next topic of discussion, "Lee Ann there is something I need to ask you." He needed to know how her father knew of her but if Lee Ann knew nothing of his current where a-bouts then he would be involving her himself, so he chose his words carefully, "What do you know about your father?"
Lee Ann looked up shocked and couldn't look away before her face blushed bright red, she had been afraid of this question, "Um, well I- um…"
He noticed the change in her face and in her voice. He couldn't help feel angry and perhaps a bit wounded, "You…you were the one to go looking for him weren't you?"
She sat there and didn't know what to say so she just tried to avoid, "I …plea the fifth."
He hated for anyone to see the hurt on his face but he couldn't hide it in his voice when he finally spoke to her, "Do I not give you everything that you need?"
"It's not that," Lee Ann wasn't used to seeing him like this. He was always a solid pillar of strength and intimidation. Rarely did anyone see him upset; angry yes, but Lee Ann didn't know how to handle the hurt that was in his voice.
"Then explain it to me Lee Ann," he noticed her flinch at his tone; he didn't mean to sound angry but it was his way, "Tell me, go on."
"I-I just wanted to get to know him," she could feel her emotions rise up in her throat. She swallowed quickly trying to keep from getting upset.
He shook his head and closed his eyes for a moment, but he spoke firmly, "Your mother left you in my care."
"But she said he didn't even know about me and I thought that he might want to know me too," she sniffed and fought back tears, but she tried to get him to look up at her but he was refusing to look her in the eyes, and she didn't realize it but it hurt to know that she upset him, "I didn't mean to make you mad, but you're always gone."
She was so much like her mother. He looked at her finally and tried to justify his absences, "Lee Ann, I'm gone for work. I work so that I can make sure that you can have everything that you need."
"I know that, but ever since mom died I barely see you," she wiped under her eyes. "Even when you're home, we only talk about school and you're always so serious now. Not that you weren't serious before but now you act like I don't exist."
"Do you really believe that?" he waited for her to answer but he could see that it was true in her avoidance. They sat in uncomfortable silence for the rest of the evening, only talking to give a direction or a thank you or excuse me. He contemplated his actions over the years and she thought long and hard about what he might be thinking and how it was going to affect her and her dad.
When Lee Ann finally made it into her room that night she felt drained. She got ready for bed and crawled under her covers grabbing her rabbit on the way. She reached for her phone and called her dad.
"Hello," her dad answered quickly.
She instantly smiled at his voice, "Hi Dad."
"Lee Ann, how was dinner?"
She sighed but otherwise tried to control her emotions, she didn't want to worry him, "it was okay," she quickly tried to change the subject, "Sorry that I had to leave the Cheesecake Factory so soon."
"That's perfectly fine. It was dismal after you left, though, hardly worth mentioning."
She smiled to herself, "really what happened?"
"Oh well, apparently Penny had a few choice words with your nanny before I walked you to the door, and afterwards she was none-too-pleased." She could hear him chuckle a bit.
She gasped, "Really? What she say?"
"Don't really know, Penny kept mumbling about Barbie dolls and creating a Bar-bie-Q." She could hear his confusion in his voice, "I didn't even know that she enjoyed grilling."
Lee Ann laughed to herself; she could only imagine what kind of 'talk' Penny would have given Ali, "that's funny. Well Dad I'm tired, I'm going to go to bed. I'll talk to you tomorrow?"
"Ok, I hope that you have a pleasant REM cycle."
"I will, um ok, bye."
Lee Ann hung up and laid down. She tried to get comfortable, but there was something wrong.
She tossed one way and then the other but something was nagging at her. Things just didn't 'feel' right. She fluffed her pillow, she checked the thermostat, and she even double checked her alarm thinking that it might be that, but she was still uneasy. Something just didn't go right.
Then it dawned on her and she sat back up and reached for her phone.
"Hello? Lee Ann, is something wrong?" Sheldon answered the phone on the first ring.
"Dad," she cringed at herself for bothering him with this but she knew that the nagging feeling would just get worse if she didn't tell him, "um y-you didn't do it right."
"Um, what would that be?"
She felt her face blushed in embarrassment. This nagging feeling hadn't happened in a long time. Maybe it was just all the stress of the night that triggered her OCD. She felt the anxiety crawl across her chest, "you didn't call me Darlin' when you said goodnight." She tried to breathe in but she could feel herself become almost frantic after a moment, "You have to do it right…"
He tried to calm her down, "Ok, ok…is there something wrong other than this?" he tried to soothe, but he also had an almost instinctual feeling that there was something else bothering her.
She smiled knowing that he wanted to help. Finally she caught her breath, "no Dad. I-I uh, just really like it when you do and I just couldn't get comfortable until I realized that… I needed to hear it." She didn't want to worry him about her stressful dinner so she tried to just talk quickly and hoped he wouldn't ask about it. "Ok, I'll say, 'I'll talk to you tomorrow' and then you say, 'goodnight Darlin' and then I say, 'goodnight Dad'. See?"
He sighed but conceded, "Alright, that doesn't seem too hard to manage."
"Ok, I'll start," she waited a moment, "I'll talk to you tomorrow Dad."
And without missing a beat he responded, "Goodnight Darlin'."
She sighed in relief, "goodnight Dad." They hung up the phone and Lee Ann got comfortable and tried to just think about her dad and what life might be like with him, she was asleep in no time.
After getting off the phone with Lee Ann, Sheldon attempted to play a little Batman: Arkham Asylum but he couldn't concentrate and kept dying at the hands of a deranged Scarecrow to continue. He was too preoccupied with the second phone call with his daughter.
He figured that it may just be what she said and that she was already acclimated to a nightly routine that they had somewhat established in the short time that they have known each other. But he could feel that there were other things bothering her. He turned off his game and decided that it might be best to talk to someone about his thoughts.
He got up and made his way to Leonard's room.
Knock…knock…knock, "Leonard,"
Knock…knock…knock, "Leonard,"
Knock…knock…knock, "Leonard."
He could hear shuffling from the other side of the door but still no answer,
Knock…knock…knock, "Leonard,"
Knock…knock…knock, "Leonard,"
Knock…knock…knock, "Leonard."
He waited, figuring that he may not have heard his knock the first time.
Finally he could hear Leonard's stomping towards the door, "What Sheldon?! I'm busy."
He waited until the door was cracked open and he could see just a wedge of his roommate's face. "Hello, I need to ask you a question." He could hear Priya's groans, "What do you do when you suspect a 13 year old girl is keeping information from you?"
"What do you mean, like Lee Ann?"
"Well perhaps not her specifically, but a 13 year old girl none-the-less."
"Can't this wait til tomorrow?"
"I suppose it could but I don't want to."
"Sheldon tell me what happened, is something wrong with her?" he seemed concerned but kept looking back at what Sheldon assumed to be an insufferable Priya.
"Not that she has told me but there were some distinct pitch changes in her voice when I spoke to her on the phone." He could hear Priya's insistence that Leonard return to bed from the other side of the door. "Leonard, do 13 year-old girls often keep things from their fathers?"
"Sheldon, do I look like a 13 year old girl?"
Sheldon assessed Leonard, noting the wisp of hair in his face and the attitude he was displaying. He narrowed his eyes, "is this a trick question?"
Leonard just shook his head, "never mind. Look go talk to a girl about this, maybe they can help."
"True, a female perspective may be beneficial. Ok …is Priya available?"
"No Sheldon!" Leonard snapped as he saw that he may barge into his room to speak to his girlfriend. He shut the door right after.
"Well that was rude," Sheldon turned and began walking to the person across the hall that he knew in hindsight should have been his first choice to speak with about this.
Knock…knock…knock, "Penny,"
Knock…knock…knock, "Penny,"
Knock…knock…knock, "Penny."
Penny waited for him to finish his knock before answering the door, "Hey sweetie."
Sheldon smile at her, "hello Penny, I was hoping that you could give me some female insight into the mind of the 13 year-old girl."
"Why, what happened with Lee Ann?" she asked with concern. If Alicia didn't listen to her warning about leaving that poor girl alone she was going to go all kinds of Nebraskan on her ass.
"That is the thing, I don't know," he shook his head just as Penny was pulling him into the apartment. "We spoke on the phone, which has become somewhat of a nightly routine," she sat him down on the couch and sat next to him tucking her legs under her, "but then she called me back almost in a panic. She said that we didn't say our goodbye's properly, so we re-did them and we hung up."
"Ok, so you don't think that is really why she was upset?"
"Well I may just be over analyzing the situation. She may just have a slight OCD. But there is this thing," he motioned to his chest with confusion on his face.
"Like a gut feeling?"
"I suppose it could be considered as a corporeal sense of foreboding, or… I did feel a bit of indigestion after dinner, perhaps that's it?" He sat back and shrugged his shoulders. "Or…or do you suppose that there may be more to her sudden inability to calm down besides our lapse in routine?"
"Did you ask her?"
"She just said that I should say my goodbyes in a certain way."
"Oh, well I guess, you know there is a lot going on in her life right now, new dad, and family. And when you're a 13 year old girl choosing the right nail polish can be stressful. Maybe she just needed a set routine to feel, uh, secure," she patted him on the shoulder, "whenever stuff would get weird at home I would usually take a bath or something, maybe hearing you say it the way she wanted was all she needed."
He nodded his head and sighed. If having a daughter was going to be this taxing on his nervous system perhaps he should begin a new journal to document it all. He made a note to find a spiral in the morning.
After work Penny had rushed home to take a shower and had gotten comfortable on the couch. She watched him have a silent conversation to himself and went back to watching a late night entertainment show on the TV; they were currently talking about the upcoming award season.
Sheldon heard her laugh and he turned his focus over to her. He noticed that she was curled up in her oversized Huskers hoodie and her shorts that hardly qualified as sufficient clothing. She laughed out loud again and he looked at the TV to see what was so funny. He just shook his head at the ridiculousness of what she was watching.
"Why do you constantly watch such drivel? They hardly qualify as celebrities, such silliness in the pursuit of fame."
"Uh, excuse me but you kinda do the same thing."
"I do not."
She looked back at him pointedly. He looked back at her confused. "What I mean is their quest for fame is kinda the same to your quest for your Nobel Prize."
"No it's not."
"Uh, yeah it is."
"Really, Penny? In what universe are those two even remotely associated?" he countered.
"Ok, tell me the difference between a Nobel Prize and let's say an Oscar or Emmy," she raised her eyebrows, loving the fact that she was riling him up. His always did this twitchy thing when he was losing and she was hoping to get it out of him.
"One is given in recognition of someone's work that has benefited mankind in some way, the other is a glorified carrot dangling in front of a group of people who don't think that money and attention are enough. So there!" he felt like he won so he smirked.
"But they both give you some sort of world notoriety in your individual professions, don't they?" she saw the twitch!
"CNN is hardly the dog and pony show of the Oscars," he then boldly flipped her hair that was in a messy bun on the top of her head.
She leaned forward on her knees ready to pounce, "it's the same thing Sheldon, admit it."
He leaned back and started inching out of his seat seeing the predatory glint in her eyes. Perhaps his teasing went a bit too far. But he defiantly raised an eyebrow, "no." He bolted out of his seat as he saw her lunge at him.
He managed to escape her by a hair as he ducked behind the chair. "Can't get me Penny," he tried to double back towards the kitchen but she grabbed him by the waist and pushed him down on the couch straddling his waist as she tickled him until he relented.
"Gotcha honey, now admit it," she continued to tickle then gave him a moment to respond.
He couldn't stop giggling, but he managed to answer, "P-Penny you are in denial of the truth."
"And what truth would that be sweetie? That you are just as much an attention whore as the actors on TV?" she held his arms down keeping him underneath her.
"Of course not, that's what I have Leonard for," he struggled half-heartedly.
"Oh, so you're a pimp?" she sniggered at him.
"Penny!" he finally got the upper hand and maneuvered their bodies until she was under him, his knees in between her legs. He then proceeded to tickle her back.
After he had successfully made her laugh until she was a giggly mess he let up, "Ok, I will admit that I crave notoriety in the physics world, but I refuse to be compared to some of the organ grinder monkeys that you watch on TV."
"Uh! So you think that I'm a trained monkey?" she huffed back at him.
"Absolutely not. You are more of a house cat, you would have to be paid to be a trained monkey," he laughed as she swatted him on the shoulder.
"Well I'll remember to throw coins at you if you win a Nobel."
"And I can do the same if you ever win an Emmy or Oscar? That is only fair." Penny just shook her head at him. He then looked at the precarious position they were in, "you know we have been finding ourselves like this quite a bit lately." He raised his eyebrow at her suspiciously.
"Are you accusing me of planning out these little situations?" she motioned to their vertical position on the couch, which was very similar to the one on the floor they were in last week. "These are just serendipiluous moments."
"You mean serendipitous."
"Yup," she popped her P, she then wrapped her arms around his neck, "completely random opportune chances to get you on top, but this is the first time I'm aloud to do this," she pulled him down for a soft kiss.
A/N: I want to continue from this point and get a little Lemony but I am seriously stuck. And I will be changing the rating to M in the next chapter. (so if you don't like that I'm sorry…I'm so sorry)
Since this is my first time to do such a scene I want it perfect soooo… sorry for all long waits.
Please read and review and I will try to update as soon as I can.