Title: Species Not Applicable
Author: smolder
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Angel the Series belongs to Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt. Big Bang Theory belongs to Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady. MIB belongs to Lowell Cunningham.

Chapter 3: Species Not Applicable

Fred knew even before she agreed to go that this would be a huge deal.

Not because it was Sheldon - she knew that like he said he was only asking her as a friend and unlike any other guy he really meant it. That was it though, Sheldon was unlike any other person she had ever known and she did not have enough words to describe how wonderful and comforting that was.

Her mind was riddled with landmines, too overfull of memories and so many things and people set them off. Sheldon never did. His utter oddity in all its tactless genius was such a balm to her.

He was also her first real friend in this place; still her only friend in this reality if she was honest with herself. K was wonderful and she didn't thing she would have gotten through those first few months without him. But, he was her self-appointed protector, her father-figure in a way. Not really a friend - somehow beyond that.

So, it wasn't Sheldon, if Sheldon had wanted her to go with him somewhere by himself, just the two of them, there wouldn't be nearly as much of a problem. But, a formal party meant going to the mall and finding a dress and shoes, the party itself where you were expected to socialize, actually meeting his friends, and then there was the whole driving thing.

Fred knew Sheldon didn't drive and although she had automatically been given a drivers license by MIB with all her other new ID papers (she even had one of those nifty official alien identification cards. Under species it said "N/A". Not Applicable. That tickled her more than was probably healthy) but with her tendency to be pulled under by memory driving really wasn't safe for her either.

And the people, all those people and things that could trigger her. She didn't worry about herself. After everything that had happened to her she no longer really had any fear for her own safety. It definitely was not fear of embarrassment either. Fred had always been an odd one and had now for a good portion of her life been labeled as a geek or crazy - long enough to become comfortable with the incredulous stares and disdainful remarks. Add on memories of a God King and, well to put it bluntly, fuck what anyone thinks of her. Writing on walls is no source of embarrassment for her, its something she desperately needs to cope and if anyone has a problem with that she knows that the MIB will have a word with them and they will forget about it in a "flash".

What worries her is that she might hurt them. She might have a slight idea of the familiar things and people from her own memory that are being triggered, but she has no idea of Illyria's until she is in the middle of experiencing them. And if someone interrupts her while she is caught up in Illyria's memories…..

Well, there have been accidents.

Sheldon has so many quirks himself that he doesn't think she's crazy; which is sweet in a way, but utterly utterly wrong. She's been cracked too many times now not to be broken.

Sometimes she has dreams of a teacup with so many cracks in it that it looks like a mosaic only held together by an eerie blue glow. When she wakes up from those dreams she doesn't write on the walls, she takes off all her clothes and searches frantically for blue. Worrying over veins and imagining things that she prays aren't there. (But even if they aren't on her skin, she knows they're in her brain. How much of yourself is your memory? If she has the memories of being Illyria does that mean that Illyria is still in here with her?)

The first time this occurred to her was the fifth day of her "stay" at MIB.

They found her frantically bashing her head into the wall after only a few minutes. She could not stand the thought of that damn blue parasite inside of her brain any longer. Inside of her. Being her.

She had to. GET. IT. OUT.

This was also the day that they found out normal sedatives did not work on her, J cold cocking her however did.

Fred thought of all of this when Sheldon asked. Knew the stress and hassle it would cause her (the possible injury to others) and still agreed because he was her friend.

And if there was one thing she wanted to remember about her life in the last reality, it was how much friends were worth.

Finding and getting to a store ended up being less of a problem then she thought. A little bit of searching online found a boutique where she could probably find a dress and shoes for the evening in one fell swoop. It might be slightly more expensive then the mall but even before she started at CalTech, MIB had given her a nice little bank account. And MIB, or K at least, wasn't stingy. And having to run into less people was definitely worth spending the extra dough.

Fred also found that wearing sunglasses, earbuds (not actually connected to anything), and staring intently at a notepad (blank, for now but important to have just in case) were very good deterrents of possible conversations with anyone who saw her walk across campus, the man in the cab she called to take her to the store, and any salespeople who tried to approach her.

Her first unexpected problem came when she actually looked up at all the fancy expensive dresses and realized she had no idea what to wear.

Fred had never been particularly into fashion - always the science geek (occasionally the stoner). Last time she had gotten all dressed up had been when the gang had gone to the ballet. She hadn't told the others that she had taken ballet as a child, and even though like most of their evenings it had ended with odd curses and bloodshed, the whole night was magical to her in an entirely different way.

She stepped forward hesitantly and touched a deep red satin dress and lets herself remember Charles fingers on her face. He looked up at her with such tenderness and awe despite the pain she knew he must be in from his wound in the sword fight. She had never felt more beautiful than the way she saw herself in his eyes at that moment. He leaned in for a kiss and she met him half way without a thought.

Fred smiled to herself, moving on to a different dress, not all of her memories were bad ones.