A/N: I'm back baby! Woo! :D I'm going to keep this A/N short and just let you know there may be quite a doozy of a note at the end, but I'll be talking about why it took me a while to get back, my plans for updating going forward, and a few small little things...like what pairing name won the poll! :D
~8~
The Euclid Alternative
Claire smiled as she closed her laptop, cracking her fingers and leaning back in her chair.
"Finally finished?" Penny called, eating a snack by the kitchen island, an amused look on her face.
"Give it to me," Claire cracked an eye open, making grabby hands with her arms outstretched.
Penny laughed and turned to the freezer, pulling out a small pint of ice cream and tossing it over to the redhead as she stepped closer to hand the girl the spoon, "Congrats."
"...ankuu," Claire mumbled her thanks through a mouthful of ice cream, sighing happily.
She was starting to understand why there was so much muttering about her particular subject in literature. She was not ever, ever going to tell Sheldon about her inner most thoughts regarding her students, because he would use it to pick on her love of literature for the rest of time but...she could understand why he kept thinking almost everyone else on the planet was stupider than he was. She loved her students, she did, being able to teach young minds and share her wisdom was something she'd always wanted to do.
But those kids, if their drafts of their research papers was anything to go by, they were not paying attention at all to her introductory writing class. She taught a number of different courses at Cal-Tech, one of which was the very basics of writing.
She had gone over the proper formatting, how to identify good sources, how to organize and outline the papers, she'd even printed out an entire list of dos and don'ts and requirements for the paper.
And now she was seriously beginning to think that the students threw them in the trash right after class because not a one was correct. She'd thought grading the drafts for their mock-grades would be easy peasy. It couldn't take THAT long. She was wrong. Almost 24 hours later, two attempts at pulling her hair out, and one bout of scream sobbing into a pillow and she understood Sheldon's frustration with the 'common folk' as he sometimes called anyone who wasn't him. She had given her class all she could to do well on the paper, but there just wasn't any work ethic in it and that meant she was going to have to be serious with them in their next class and not the fun, understanding professor she loved to try and be.
Penny had been infinitely amused by her mini-meltdown over the papers and had tried to cheer her up and get her through by promising to pick up her most favorite ice cream when she was at the grocery for her to celebrate with once she finished her grading.
She did not think one class could be so hard, but she was also starting to realize why Sheldon preferred the sciences to literature. Of the four main subjects, literature was THE hardest to teach. History, names and dates. Science, chemicals and facts. Math, numbers and equations. All hard facts, all information that could be memorized and recited back and applied. English? It was HARD. It was hard to teach someone to be a good writer, English always seemed like a skill you either had or didn't and now she was realizing it felt more true than ever. Sheldon liked his facts, she preferred her descriptions, and now that was coming back to bite her in the ass.
"No problem, sweetie," Penny chuckled lightly, patting Claire on the head for good measure even as the woman rolled her eyes.
Claire opened her mouth to ask Penny something, when there was a noise at the door, one which made both women give knowing looks at each other.
Knock, knock, knock, "Penny!" Sheldon called through the door. Knock, knock, knock, "Penny!" Knock, knock, knock, "Penny!"
"You want to get that?" Penny asked Claire, even though she was already heading for the door.
"And give him a heart attack when not-Penny answers?" Claire shook her head.
Penny rolled her eyes this time and pulled the door open to see Sheldon standing there with a lump of fabric in his hands, "Sheldon, what is it?"
"Leonard's asleep," Sheldon stated.
"Wasn't he working late shifts this week?" Claire called, getting up and walking over to the door, a hunch that Sheldon was about to have one of his difficulties with change popping up and not fully sure if Penny had ever dealt with that yet.
Sheldon Lee Cooper didn't do well with change.
She'd changed her shampoo once because the brand she typically bought got too expensive for her to afford. Sheldon had tried to 'recreate' it in his 'lab' because he didn't like how 'fruity' her new shampoo smelled. He preferred a more 'floral' shampoo on her. Lord knew why the man cared that much.
"Yes," Sheldon responded.
"I'm pretty sure Leonard told you to make arrangements for rides, Shelly."
"Yes, he did."
"And, let me guess...you didn't?"
"No, I did not."
"Then that's on you, pal," Penny reached out to pat his shoulder, stepping back and attempting to close the door, but Sheldon stopped her.
"No, wait! I'm making arrangements now, you have to drive me to work."
"Yeah, uh, I really don't think I do," Penny countered.
"But I don't drive, and I can't take the bus."
Claire gave him a look, "Why can't you take the bus? We take it all the time."
Sheldon glanced away.
Claire sighed, taking a bite of her ice cream for strength, "What did you do, Shelly Bean?"
"Nothing."
"Shelly?" Claire crossed her arms for more affect, giving him the look she knew always made him cave. He wasn't doing himself any favors by looking up and anywhere but at her.
"Oh alright," he huffed, "I may have lashed myself to the seat with bungee cords the last time I was on the bus and they made me de-bus."
"Why would you..." Penny began, before cutting herself off, almost able to hear Leonard, Raj, and Howard's voices in her head going 'oh why would you ask that!?'
"They don't have seat belts anymore, Penny," Sheldon stated, lifting his nose just slightly as though that were a good enough reason to tie himself down to the bus seats.
Penny sighed, "Well, honey, you'll be fine as long as you don't do that bungee cord thing, ok?"
"Penny," Sheldon began, in that tone that Claire recognized as his way to try and 'out logic' someone into doing what he wanted. She was sure that it mostly came across as condescending to everyone else, "Didn't you recently state that you and I are friends?"
Penny sighed, almost like she could guess where this was going, "Yes, Sheldon, we are friends."
"Then I hereby invoke what I'm given to understand is an integral part of the implied covenant of friendship. The favor."
"Oh, dear God."
"I'm sorry, I didn't realize I was interrupting your morning prayers. When you're done, we'll go."
Penny watched as Sheldon stepped away and headed back towards his apartment. She slowly shut the door and turned to Claire, "You are coming with us."
Claire blinked, "But I didn..."
Penny shook her head, "Up-bup-bup-bup," she cut in, "If I have to be in an enclosed space with Sheldon Cooper, you're coming too. Unless you want me to throw him out into the middle of traffic."
"He's not that bad, sugar."
Penny gave her a look, "I may not be dating Leonard right now, but we're still friends. The amount of times I've heard him complain about driving Sheldon around would shock you."
Claire laughed a little at that, "At least he's old enough to take the bus if he needs to. Imagine what his mama went through when he was little and not allowed."
Penny mused on that a moment, "That woman is a saint."
"That she is," Claire agreed, "But he's really not that bad, Pen."
"Then why don't you get a car and drive him around instead?"
"Cos I don't like driving," Claire shrugged. "I get anxiety when there's too many cars around, always think one's gonna hit me. I like public transportation too, I can read a book or work on a paper while someone else drives."
"But that's the thing, you don't like driving, but you CAN drive," Penny countered, "I'm pretty sure Sheldon can't drive at all."
Claire had to nod at that, "I was there during the great license fiasco. His mama wanted him to get his license when Missy was...it didn't go over well. Shelly just kept on that he needed to focus on his school work, not memorizing a book about machines so primitive they could only run on a road."
"Sounds like Sheldon."
~8~
Claire wasn't sure what Penny's logic was for having HER sit in the back seat of the car while Sheldon took shotgun. On one hand, it could have been because Sheldon had called it and the last thing anyone wanted was an annoyed Sheldon complaining about the backseat the entire drive. But, on the other hand, that would mean Sheldon was even closer to Penny should he end up being annoying and complaining about something from the front seat.
She honestly wasn't sure which Penny would find worse, but she was sure she was about to find out.
The ride was, so far, silent, but Claire leaned forward, nudging Sheldon with a finger to the back of his shoulder, "Don't be rude, Shelly."
It wasn't a normal silence that had fallen, the way Sheldon was fidgeting in his seat, it was the sort of silence he inflicted when he knew he should say something but didn't want to admit to it or give in to it.
Sheldon let out a long suffering sigh, "Thank you for driving me to work," he offered to Penny.
Penny just focused on the road, "You know this is my day off, Sheldon."
"Oh, good. I'm not keeping you from anything."
"Actually, Shelly Bean, Pen and I were gonna watch a movie and hang out," Claire cut in gently.
Sheldon frowned and turned in his seat to face her, "What movie?"
"The first Star Trek."
Sheldon blinked, "You were going to watch Stark Trek without me!"
Claire chuckled lightly, "You've seen that movie a dozen times, Shelly, and we both know how you get when you're watching your favorite movies. It would have been Pen's first time seeing it. You don't want to spoil that experience for her, do you?"
Sheldon pursed his lips at that, but had to concede. He tended to get very excited for his favorite movies, and most of the Star Trek ones were counted among those. He would start spouting his favorite facts, go off on tangents about the brilliance of certain plot devices, even begin quoting the movie along with the actors. He'd been told it was obnoxious.
Worse yet, it was a spoiler for others who viewed it for the first time, like Penny. And he would never, ever, no matter how excited he got, want to spoil Star Trek for anyone. He could understand Claire's logic on this count. Spock would be proud of her.
Penny, however, just shook her head slightly at the interaction going on beside her. She still didn't know how Claire had gotten her to agree to watch the movie in the first place. Maybe it was a little to do with the hot cast of the newest Star Trek movie that was going to be coming out next year. She was sure she wouldn't be paying much attention to anything scientific going on, but she knew she'd enjoy the cast. Leonard and the boys had already made plans to see the movie and Leonard had already invited her along. Part of her did sort of want to understand the basics of what was going on and Claire had offered to walk through the original movies with her just for a general guide of that universe.
The fact that Claire had not only managed to calm down Sheldon's impending conniption over not watching the movie with them, but actually get him to consider the reasons why…that was just another thing for her to add to her growing list of why Shelly-Bear was the next ship to set sail.
"I suppose you're right," Sheldon had to reluctantly agree.
"Usually always am," Claire joked.
Sheldon turned back to Penny, "Let me know what you think of the first movie. I have all the rest on DVD and if you want to make a marathon of it I can…"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Penny cut in, "Let me get through the first one, Sheldon."
"Oh, alright," he huffed, sounding like he couldn't understand why she WOULDN'T want to leap into a marathon after the first viewing. But then something far more concerning caught his attention, "Your check engine light is on."
"Mhmm," Penny made an agreeing noise.
"Typically that's an indicator. To, you know, check your engine."
"It's fine, it's been on for, like, a month."
"Not making it better, Pen," Claire warned her quietly. Sheldon got very touchy when machines started malfunctioning, and he considered vehicles just enough of a machine to get put off by that.
"See!" Sheldon pointed at Claire as though she'd just agreed with him, "That would be all the more reason to, you know, check your engine."
"Shelly, I'm sure it's fine…" Claire tried to diffuse.
But Sheldon let out a scoff, "If it were fine, the light wouldn't be on. That's why the manufacturer installed that light, to let you know it's not fine."
"Maybe the light's broken?" Penny tried to offer.
"Is there a 'check the check engine light light?'" Sheldon countered.
"Shelly, it's really none of your concern what Penny does with her own car," Claire tried to get through to him, "It's like how Missy tried to organize your comic books that one time based on color."
"Oh, bring that up," he rolled his eyes, "That was a disaster of epic proportions! She came into my room! She touched my comics! She took some of them out of their protective casings!"
"I know," Claire reminded him, "I was there. But that's my point, you didn't want her to tell you how to organize your comics, you probably shouldn't tell Penny how to handle her car."
"I'M not telling Penny how to handle her car," he countered, "The manufacturer is telling her how to handle her car. In fact he's telling her to get her engine checked and she is blatantly disregarding not only her own safety but the safety of her passengers and others on the road and…"
"And here we go," Penny muttered under her breath, picking up a small cup of coffee she'd had the foresight to prepare for this trip, knowing she'd need to be wide awake and caffeinated to survive Sheldon during the trip.
"Ooh…" Sheldon grimaced.
"What?" Penny huffed.
"Studies have shown that performing tasks such as eating, talking on a cell phone, or drinking coffee while driving reduces one's reaction time by the same factor as an ounce of alcohol."
Penny's grip on the wheel tightened, "Do you have any alcohol?"
"Of course not. Claire is allergic. And you're going up Euclid Avenue?"
"What's the problem with Euclid?"
"I think Leonard takes Los Robles," Claire commented, her face scrunched as she tried to recall the path Leonard took the few times she'd hitched a ride with him and Sheldon.
"Well, good for Leonard."
"Euclid Avenue is shorter as the crow flies," Sheldon reasoned, "But it has speed bumps, which appreciably increase point-to-point drive time, making it the less efficient choice. But you have the conn. Of course, if you're not going to slow down for the speed bumps, I withdraw my previous objection. Here's a fun question. Do you know what the most common street name is?"
"No."
"Second Street," Claire stated, though she sounded more like she was recalling an old answer to an old question than something useful to know. Apparently Sheldon had asked her this question in the past.
"Correct!" Sheldon, however, seemed overjoyed that she remembered, "You see, Penny, you'd think it would be First Street, but in most towns, First Street eventually gets renamed to something else, you know, like Main Street, Broad Street, Michigan Avenue. Leonard and I often use our commute time to exercise our minds with brain-teasers like that. We also play games. Would you like to play one?"
"No," Penny deadpanned.
"How about the element game! I'll say an element, and uh, you say an element whose name starts with the last letter of the one I said, okay? I'll start. Helium. Now, you could say Mercury. That would give me a Y. Ooh. Very clever, that's a tough one. So I go Ytterbium, which gets you back to M. So you go Molybdenum, and I say Magnesium, you say Manganese, and I say Europium, and, and you're left with Mendelevium, and there are no more M's because I believe that Meitnerium should still be called Ekairidium, so congratulations, you win. Do you wanna go again?"
"Shelly, I don't think Penny's the sort of talkative driver," Claire tried to subtly get Sheldon to quiet down, seeing Penny getting more annoyed, "Don't you want her to focus on her driving instead of talking, like on a phone?"
"Oh, right, right," Sheldon agreed, seeming to quiet down.
Penny had JUST let out a breath of relief…when the silence was broken once more.
"Though, frankly, if Penny was that worried about the safety of her passengers, her reckless nonchalance regarding the check engine light is even more troubling."
"Pen…" Claire began, but Penny was already pulling over to the side of the road.
"Get out," Penny instructed, not even looking at Sheldon, her hands clenched in a death grip on the steering wheel.
"Well, I have to tell you that while I do have a theoretical understanding of the workings of an internal combustion engine, I'm not sure I'm capable of performing diagnostics," Sheldon began.
"Shelly, she's not asking you to check her engine," Claire sighed.
"She's not?"
"No," Penny answered, "She's not. Get out."
"Well, alright, I can see my Shotgun time limit has run out. I'd be more than happy to switch seats with Claire though I think you should make it clear before someone calls shotgun that it's only good for…"
Before he could even finish, before Claire could make to follow, Penny drove away, leaving Sheldon stranded on the sidewalk.
Claire turned to remark to Penny how that wasn't exactly a nice thing to do to Sheldon, only to see Penny giving her a death glare through the rear view mirror.
"He's not that bad?!" Penny grouched.
Claire just shrunk back in her seat at that.
~8~
Apparently, Claire had learned, it was not just Penny that had had the misfortune of experiencing Sheldon on the drive to or from work. Howard had tried to get Sheldon home from work on the back of his moped…Sheldon had screamed in his ear the entire time to the point where Howard left him in the middle of the road and Raj had to come collect him. Only for poor Raj to be informed it wasn't just a quick trip back to the apartments, but that Sheldon intended them to also stop for a number of errands along the way. Which then led back to Sheldon trying to ask Penny for another ride.
She was actually considering getting a car, renting one at least, for the next few weeks, till Leonard's schedule bounced back and he could resume his driving duties. She would almost feel a little bad for Leonard, but the man DID sign the roommate agreement, which did stipulate driving duties. She knew enough of Leonard's typical path that she was sure she could get Sheldon there with minimal fuss. She could prepare a few car games for him to use for the duration and the others wouldn't have to suffer through it.
She knew how Sheldon could get, it wasn't just the potholes down Euclid Avenue that made the ride less favorable to him, but also the fact that it wasn't his routine. Sheldon got set in his ways, and when things changed, he didn't cope very well. Eventually he could learn to change, but it wouldn't happen overnight. He had to want to change, be open to the change, and work on it little by little till he was ok with it. When something was new, like Leonard moving in and taking up the driving duties, Sheldon was better because that particular pattern hadn't developed yet, but whatever happened those first few trips would become his pattern and habit from that point on, his routine. The others, bless them all for trying to put up with Sheldon, they just didn't have the patience or understanding she did when it came to Sheldon Cooper.
Sometimes she got the feeling that they saw him as more of an annoyance, that he acted the way he did just to irritate them, when she knew it was the farthest from the truth. She had been there during all his 'testing' as a child, she knew what he was like, she knew what it was called, and she knew little tips and tricks to help him along the way. But when others vented their frustration, made their irritation clear, or even acted like Sheldon's behavior was a burden…it just made it worse. They didn't seem to understand Sheldon DIDN'T have as much control over the way he reacted as he portrayed. That was why he regulated everything and had schedules and time limits, he didn't like things to change and the more on-schedule things were, the better he felt and the better he could cope.
If her renting a car for a few weeks would help him and the others, she would do it…
Unfortunately her suggestion was shot down by the others, who all felt she shouldn't have to waste her money on driving Sheldon around when it was something HE should be working on instead. Sheldon needed to learn to drive, that was their decision.
She honestly wasn't sure how this intervention was going to go as she sat with Raj, Howard, Penny, and Leonard in Sheldon's apartment, waiting for him to enter.
"Good morning," Sheldon spoke soon after he stepped in to see them all gathered for him.
"Good morning," they responded almost as one.
"Shelly, you may want to sit," Claire offered, patting his spot from where she was sitting on the armrest, having made sure Penny scooted over when the woman sat down in Sheldon's spot earlier.
Penny waited till Sheldon sat down before speaking, "Sheldon, you know that we care about you..."
"And it's because we care about you that we've decided we have to speak up," Howard continued.
"You're hurting the people around you, sweetie."
"So we made you an appointment, and we want you to keep it," Leonard added, "Claire?"
Claire sighed but handed over the booklet Raj had picked up for this occasion. Apparently, it was her designated duty to hand it over to Sheldon as the others thought it would be easier coming from her.
"Department of motor vehicles new driver handbook?" Sheldon read the cover, "But I don't have a problem."
"Shelly, I think this is their way of trying to get you to learn how to drive," Claire told him gently.
"This madness has to stop," Howard agreed.
"Penny's taking you to the DMV," Leonard spoke up, before standing, "I'm going to bed."
Sheldon frowned at that, "Why Penny?"
"Because rock breaks scissors, goodnight."
"Sorry, Shelly," Claire gave him a half shrug when he looked at her, "I was exempt. Class."
Sheldon had to nod at that, Claire DID have another class to teach in an hour and, knowing the rumors of how people complained about the 'quick pace' of the DMVs across the world...she'd probably miss her class if she had to go with them.
"Alright, come on Sheldon," Penny stood as well.
"Hold on," Sheldon turned to her, "I have one condition."
"What?"
"We have to stop at Pottery Barn."
Penny sighed, but at least he was agreeing to go, "Ok."
"And Radio Shack."
Alright, a little less relieved, "Fine."
"And the comic book store."
"Alright."
"Good luck, Shelly," Claire spoke up as she stood with Sheldon.
"There's no such thing as luck," he stated.
She rolled her eyes, "I know you believe that, but I happen to believe in luck and I'm gonna wish it to you whether you like it or not. I know you'll do great and, soon enough, you'll be the captain of your very own Enterprise. Well, rental."
Sheldon smiled at the thought. It was part of their best friend agreement that, if ever they were on a trip and needed to rent a car, they would only do it through Enterprise, in honor of the beloved Star Trek ship. And, with that, he turned and followed Penny out the door.
"Ooh!" Howard jumped up, rushing after them, "I want to go to the comic book store!"
Claire looked over at Raj, who had his trusty white board with him, the man pouting, "What?"
He scribbled something on it and turned it so she could read 'I like comic books.'
"Oh sugar," she sighed, "You shoulda spoke up."
He gave her an unimpressed look for that remark.
~8~
Claire and Penny stood in the kitchen area of Sheldon's apartment, watching as Howard hooked up some sort of game to the TV. From what Claire had managed to gather, it was some sort of driving game, or a simulation, that Howard had adapted to help Sheldon learn to drive without actually putting him on the road. Penny seemed to think that was a very good idea judging from the story she was sharing regarding Sheldon's trip to the DMV.
"I'm still sorry I couldn't go with you, Pen," Claire murmured, taking a sip of the tea Sheldon had given her permission to make for her and Penny. He trusted her not to mess up his organized section of teabags.
"It's fine," Penny waved it off, "You had a class and Howard and I handled it fine."
"Did Shelly really get into an argument with a DMV worker?"
Penny gave her a look, "This is Sheldon Cooper we're talking about."
"Of course he did," Claire sighed.
"At least he got his permit," Penny remarked, "And faster than I've ever gotten anything from the DMV."
Claire had to agree with that, her experiences there were usually very dull and long lasting and, knowing how Sheldon handled being bored, it was probably a godsend that it had been quicker than most.
"Come on," Penny nudged her lightly, "I think they're ready to start."
The women headed over just as Sheldon moved to mimic fastening his seatbelt, sitting in a chair in front of the game with a small wheel console resting on his lap.
"Now, are there air bags?" Sheldon was asking the others.
"You don't need air bags," Leonard countered.
Sheldon frowned at that, "What if a simulated van rear-ends me?"
"I'll hit you in the face with a pillow," Penny offered.
"Ok," Leonard rubbed his forehead, moving to focus on Sheldon finally starting to learn to drive, "Now shift into drive, pull out slowly into traffic."
Claire winced as there was a sound of panic coming from the simulation coupled with noises of screeching, glass breaking, and screams, "Ooh..."
Which seemed to be a sentiment shared by everyone else as Sheldon's 'pull out slowly into traffic' ended up being jerk right out and crash into a car, swerve back and run up on the sidewalk.
"Watch, watch out, watch out for pedestrians!" Leonard began shouting.
"Oh God, wait, slow, hit the brakes, hit the brakes!" Penny cried.
There was another sound of a crash and Claire passed Penny the pillow to hit Sheldon in the face.
"Thank you," Sheldon muttered, though he was half panting and did not sound like he was having fun at all.
Penny passed the pillow over to Howard, stepping back to pull Claire across the room, glancing over at Sheldon as the man clearly struggled to try and control his driving. It sounded like people were just being murdered.
"So...any ideas on how to fix all...this?" Penny gestured at Sheldon as he crashed into yet another virtual person. She tried to keep her voice low so Sheldon wouldn't hear them talking about him, not that it was really needed, the screaming had turned into sobbing and the sounds of tires squealing.
"Working on it," Claire murmured, frowning as she observed Sheldon wincing and getting tenser with each crash, "I'm not sure if the suggestions I have would help…or just make him more willing to run through those poor people…"
"Why would they..."
"I was thinking if we try and tell him Leonard Nimoy was in the passenger's seat and needed Sheldon to get him to an interview it might help," Claire explained, "But knowing Shelly, he would just freak out so much that Leonard Nimoy was in his car that he'd pass out...or drive through the people because 'Leonard NIMOY needed his help!'"
Penny winced just thinking about either situation, "Yeah...probably not going to help."
"I might have a few driving books saved from when I took my test," Claire offered, "I can check if I do. Shelly usually feels more confident if he's done a bunch of research on something first."
"Anything's better than this," Penny flinched again at a sound of a woman crying 'My baby!' on the simulation.
Claire nodded and hurried out of the room, back for their apartment to dig through her books. She had a small problem with never throwing out any book she'd ever had in her life, so she might just have those driving books shoved under her bed somewhere.
Penny sighed and looked back at Sheldon, the man clearly freaking out and getting more worked up as he tried to drive. She bit her thumbnail for a moment, trying to think of what she could do to help in the meantime. Sheldon played so many video games that she was almost half sure that the simulation wouldn't really actually help him learn. He was probably so aware that it wasn't real people he was hurting or crashing into that he couldn't believe he actually HAD to be careful. Claire's idea DID have merit to it, if Sheldon was pretending someone important to him was in the car with him he might try to put more effort into the driving...
Wait a minute.
Penny made her way back over to him, reaching out to pause the game.
"Hey!" Sheldon huffed, turning to her, "I was winning!"
Penny gave him a blank look, "You just ran over a hundred pedestrians and crashed 20 cars."
"No," he shook his head as though she had said something completely wrong, "I ran over 68 pedestrians and..."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Penny cut in, "Look, Sheldon this is serious, you really need to learn to drive."
"So you all keep saying."
Penny bit the inside of her cheek to keep from retorting to his tone, "What if Claire was in the car?"
Leonard and Howard looked at her for that.
"What?" Sheldon frowned.
Penny nodded, "What if Leonard and Howard and I were all out, and something happened, and Claire couldn't drive herself..."
"Why wouldn't Claire be able to drive herself?"
"I don't know, she broke her leg. That's not the point. The point is, imagine if you were here, and Claire needed to go somewhere, and there was one car you could take."
"Well the bus..."
"Car only, Sheldon!" Penny huffed. "YOU are the one driving Claire somewhere, she's depending on you to get her there in one piece and without getting arrested for running over pedestrians. What would you do? You wouldn't know how to drive."
Sheldon was silent at that, considering her words.
"Don't you want to be able to help Claire?"
Sheldon looked down a moment, before turning back to the game and unpausing it.
Penny, Howard, and Leonard held their breath as they watched Sheldon reset the game...and pull out slowly into traffic.
Very slowly.
He was literally going 1 mile per hour.
But he was doing it!
Penny looked at Leonard with a smug grin on her face, if Sheldon could do it, even that slowly, there was a chance he'd be able to go faster one day, but for now, slowly but steady won the race!
~8~
Leonard sat at his desk, watching Sheldon on the simulator out of the corner of his eye. There were no sounds of screaming or crashing coming from the game, but there were various shouts of 'Move it buddy!' and horns honking. For how smug Penny had looked the other day, they'd assumed Sheldon would get better at one point. But the man had even gone SLOWER. The game was registering him driving at a literal 0 miles per hour, though they knew it was likely he was just going so slowly he wouldn't even reach one mile in an hour.
Still...he was at least driving.
Though Leonard was starting to worry. Sheldon was fixated on that game now, hunched over in his chair, his eyes focused on the screen...he was starting to think Sheldon hadn't even slept last night.
"Maybe you want to give it a rest and try again tomorrow?" Leonard called.
"No, I'm fine."
"Sheldon you've been playing that nonstop for days now. Maybe a break is what you need to let your mind process and absorb what you've learned."
"I can't stop Leonard."
"Why...why not?" Leonard shook his head.
"Claire needs my help."
Leonard blinked at that. He honestly hadn't thought Penny's suggestion would get Sheldon to latch on that strongly that he'd still be focused on that idea days later, "Claire's fine."
"But she might not be one day," Sheldon argued, "And I need to be ready."
"Sheldon, it was just a suggestion to help you focus. Penny didn't mean to scare you."
"I am not scared," Sheldon scoffed.
Leonard had a hard time believing that, Sheldon's behavior since Penny mentioned it had proven otherwise.
"Penny merely reminded me of something," Sheldon continued, "It is stipulated in my Best Friend agreement that Claire and I shall be there for each other should the other require it. I SHOULD know how to drive. What if Claire needed me and I couldn't get there because I couldn't drive?"
"Well, like you said, public transportation is..."
"On schedules," Sheldon cut in, "I'd have to wait for the right time, but if Claire needed me right away, my only option would be to drive and I can't, Leonard."
Leonard eyed Sheldon oddly for that. He knew Claire was important to Sheldon, the man went nuts over a roommate agreement, so imagining what might be in the best friend contract was like looking into another dimension of things he'd likely never consider. But this was...actually human. And coming from Sheldon Cooper...he wasn't used to it.
But he also wasn't going to complain any longer. Sheldon was actually LEARNING how to DRIVE. Ok, so the rate could be faster for literally anyone else on the planet, but even if it took Sheldon a year to be able to drive, it would be worth the wait.
Still...he WAS getting worried about Sheldon burning himself out on that game. If the man didn't stop and take a break he was sure Sheldon would get sick...and he did NOT want to deal with that again. He sighed and got up, moving across the hall to Penny and Claire's room to knock on the door, time to call in reinforcements.
"Hey, Leonard," Claire grinned as she greeted him.
"Hi, Claire," he rubbed his head, "Look, sorry to bother you, but Sheldon hasn't stopped playing that game and I don't think he slept last night."
Claire's smile started to fall as she sighed, knowing how fixated Sheldon could get on some things, "Leave him to me."
Penny walked up to the door as Claire stepped past Leonard to enter the apartment, "So what do you think?" she asked Leonard as they watched Claire talk to Sheldon through the open doorway, "Comic book store or model train store?"
Leonard shook his head, "I really don't care as long as she gets him out of the apartment."
The two watched Claire talking animatedly to Sheldon before taking his hand and half pulling him out of the apartment, "Hey, Pen, we'll be back soon. Just going to go get some ice cream."
Well, Penny was not expecting that.
"I hate it when you invoke the Ice Cream amendment," Sheldon was muttering as he followed her.
"No you don't," Claire laughed.
"I don't," he admitted.
"Do you..." Penny began, to Leonard.
"No," he shook his head, "And I don't want to know."
~8~
Leonard almost wasn't sure what to think when he saw Claire and Sheldon enter the cafeteria a few days later. He'd really thought Sheldon would crack and just decide to live in the university till he'd finished his night-work. But the man had held on AND not bothered any of them for a drive to work since.
Apparently, Claire's latest approach for Sheldon was to run through different methods to get to work besides car rides, an experiment, she'd phrased it, and Sheldon could never refuse them. So far they'd ridden bikes...which was amusing to witness Sheldon Lee Cooper on a bike...walked, taken a taxi, the subway, a horse drawn carriage, and even one of those person-manned bicycle cabs. Claire had just managed to get Sheldon back on the bus that morning somehow.
Well, Leonard wasn't going to ask, nor was he going to complain. He'd finished his work last week and it had been a week free of Sheldon bothering him on his drive in
He was not going to complain at all.
A/N: The winner of the Claire-Sheldon pairing name, after tallying the poll/reviews/PMs is...Shelly-Bear! :D I hinted at it a bit in the chapter with Penny, but officially announcing it here, Shelly-Bear for the win! :D
And I am SO happy to be back! Or at least I'm going to try and be. It will be really slow going with updates, but I'm going to try and update a story at least 3 times a week focusing on the currently in-progress ones: Calm Before the Storm, Intercession, New Beginnings, The Relationship Expansion, and Thief in the Night. So three of those stories should be updated a week and I'll do my best to rotate them, one after the other. If I can manage, I'm also going to try to get up the movie-stories caught up too, so Thor/Athena, Loki/Kona, Kirk/Victoria, Spock/Cora, and even introduce a Captain America OC for Steve, and try to get Sherlock/Leena squared away if I can ;)
There's a few posts up on my tumblr regarding why I wasn't able to post or be online much even after my last posts on tumblr promising to be updating again. Long story short, after my brother got married...and then divorced, so that was fun...the cafe I worked at ended up being without a manager for quite a while so it was basically me and one other girl running the show. We finally did get a manager near the end of last year, but she was not really the best fit. I don't want to say she was incompetent, but after the learning curve excuses wore off (it just isn't realistic that after 4 months she still didn't know what soups got water and what got milk) we started to realize that was truly the case. The other girl I worked with left after the manager made it almost impossible for them to work together, and it was just me for a while after, and I was doing almost everything the manager was supposed to be doing in terms of running the cafe. It got to be way too much stress and anxiety, especially because I would usually end up fixing things the manager was doing wrong (repeatedly and after I'd walked her through how to do it correctly a number of times) and I finally had to leave. I've been using the last month to really recuperate and get back to a good place with my anxiety and health and focus on things that make me happy and calm like my writing. I was expecting that, with a manager around, the stress I felt building up would have gone down and I could focus more on writing, but she just made everything worse and there went my writing plans :(
But I'm back now and, while I won't be updating every day, I will still be trying for 3x a week, probably aiming for Monday/Wednesday/Friday. The spin-off stories will be on hold for a while, probably just updated every so often when I can squeeze them in, but not on the days they used to be uploaded :( Still, I really want to get back to my posting and I'm going to start off slow and steady and see how it goes from there :) I want to try and rotate the stories and not just focus on one while leaving the rest to wait.
I just want to say I'm so sorry for it being so long since I've posted last, and I really cannot wait to get back to some sort of regular updating schedule :) I hope you all will like what's coming up for Claire (and Angel and Sadie and Menna, and Lyssa, and Kona, Cora, Victoria, Athena, Leena and...Steve's OC lol).
For anyone that wants a nice little throwback, I've also started reposting some of my older work on AO3, still under LizzeXX, I'll be putting a link on my profile soon but there's one up on my tumblr. So far I've just started Proffy's second story. I'll admit I AM a little worried about plagiarism since it's easier to copy things off of AO3 than FF, so if anyone who is a fan of AO3 or even here on FF, if you notice my work appearing again with new OC names, just drop me a message for me to check it out. I'm really hoping it'll be different and that my stories will be safe, but I've learned not to get my hopes up too far when it comes to plagiarism :/
Some notes on reviews...
I can't say if Claire may or may not date someone during the Shamy era, but I can say that a jealous Sheldon is always amusing ;) ;)
There'll definitely be a few moments throughout the series where things come up about Claire's past. Sort of like with the rest of the characters, her past will be revealed piece by piece as people get to know her more ;)
I'm sorry about that situation with your brother :( Mine is now divorced. He made it a grand total of 5 months before he realized he could not live with her and very much could live without her. I feel evil, but I did say 'I told you so' to him, in a nicer way but still made it clear that, next time, he may want to make sure the entire family can see the relationship being a good one before proposing. I love how Claire doesn't let Howard get away with talk like that. Whether he'll actually change before Bernadette, we'll have to wait and see ;)
Penny does tend to be a little more forceful in her approach with Claire's feelings, she'll ease up a bit more in the future, sort of backing away and trying to 'be a scientist' and learn more about both sides instead of getting a little pushy ;) But Claire and Penny will definitely talk about how they each handle their feelings :)
I've started updating Lyssa's OUAT story recently, Piper's I may hold off on just a bit to catch Lyssa up a little more ;)
That person who sort of sets up camp in Sheldon's apartment was so much fun for me to write, and Claire's reaction may surprise ;)
I can't say if I'm going to do a prequel for this story just yet. I know there's the Young Sheldon TV show, but as much as I love Sheldon, I just haven't been able to get into the show :/ We may not see those scenes played out in a lot of detail, but I am going to try and make any future memories a little more detailed :)
I'm glad you like the Claire-Penny friendship :) In my head I call their BrOtp Paire, because they're a pair of awesome gals being super amazing pals ;) I really wanted that for Penny too, there were so many moments where she was dealing with the guys alone or the guys were sort of unaware of how Penny was feeling, and I just kept wishing for her to have a friend too :)
Ooh the North Pole! I was agonizing over whether Claire should go, but there just wasn't a 'reason' for it :( Like, the guys all have a profound science background to help Sheldon out and while Claire understands physics, she's not hired by the University for physics and wouldn't fall under their funding for it :( But oh she will NOT be happy that they upset Sheldon that way, whether she flips on the boys and to what degree we'll have to wait and see ;)
The banishment will be hard for Claire, definitely. On the one hand, her best friend who she can understand the way he reacts to things and, by the best friend contract, would 'technically' have to take his side, but on the other hand is Penny, her roommate and friend who she knows Sheldon was being unfair to :/ I feel like there's a bit of a parallel going on there with the time Penny and Leonard were 'fighting' and Sheldon tried to support both sides ;)
This is probably going to be quite a 'slow burn' story for Claire and Sheldon, sorry! :( But I can say that there will be a season where Sheldon does more for and with Claire than he does someone else he should 'technically' be putting above 'just his best friend' ;) A lot of the foundation for the romantic relationship is going to be in Claire, and more specifically Sheldon, realizing and admitting to their feelings and internal/emotional connections between them :)
Oh I'm going all the way! ...that sounded like something Howard would say lol. I mean, I plan to continue this story for however long the show airs for :) It may take a while for me to get caught up, but I'll go as long as it goes ;)
Oh yes, I fully plan to update both Star Trek stories with Beyond, hopefully this year. I'm going to be working on catching up Athena, and then move into one of the Star Trek stories for Beyond, and go from there ;)
I'm glad you're enjoying Claire :) I try really hard to give my OCs some sort of flaw and realism to them. Sometimes what I see as flaws, or what I consider could be a flaw, don't translate well or become something readers get annoyed with. For instance, I had one OC who was very non-confrontational, to the point where people called her a Mary Sue for not sticking up for herself more. To me, that is a very real flaw some people have, we WILL let people walk all over us because we don't like fighting or we just don't have that strong a backbone as to stand up to others. I actually consider that to be one of my personal flaws, as evidenced by going into Accounting because it's what my parents wanted instead of Archaeology like I wanted. It's a tricky road to walk with OCs and keeping them realistic, but I try, so I'm really glad you like Claire and all her quirks :)
I understand, to each his or her own, there are probably other OCs out there for BBT that you might enjoy reading more ;)
Thank you, I'm glad you've enjoyed Claire so far, it really means a lot to me :')
Lol, I could see Reid driving Sheldon crazy if the story crossed over :) I feel like Reid is similar enough to Sheldon in some aspects that Sheldon would either be very angry she was with 'someone like him' and not with HIM or he'd be hurt too because Reid is 'like him' but more 'normal' compared to Sheldon. Claire may or may not date someone else at some point, I can't say, but I can say the Shamy era, or part of it, will be a confusing time for everyone ;)
Oh, I've got the feud between Penny and Sheldon all written up, Claire is in quite the pickle with that situation ;) As for Raj, Claire is definitely going to try and get him to talk around her, she's got some ideas in mind ;) And Will! Oh I'm very excited for him to appear. I can't say he'll be in a relationship with Claire or even genuinely interested in her, I just don't feel write doing that to a person who is portraying themselves, even on a TV show, because it's the real person not a character (even if he may be exaggerating parts of his personality for the role). But I CAN say that it's a proven fact he loves to rile Sheldon up the first few years he knows him and he'll be very aware how close/important Claire is to him ;) ;)
I'm definitely picking the story up again, a lot happened over the last few years. My brother got married, my brother got divorced, our cafe manager quit and when we finally got a new one she was a little incompetent, my health started to be affected, but I've made a lot of positive changes recently and I feel like I can really get back to updating. I'm trying to be more conservative in my updating schedule and how I plan out my writing so, if I do fall behind, it wouldn't be as far behind as it could be ;) But I'm glad you're enjoying how Sheldon comes across here. I think that's one of the things I love most about fanfiction is that it lets us get into the mind of the characters more. We SEE Sheldon acting a certain way, and fanfiction lets us look into his head and understand WHY he acts like that, what's making him the way he is :)
