The next morning -
An alarm went off within the apartment of 4A. Reaching out from under a blanket, Leonard smacked the top of the alarm until it turned off and then reached for his glasses. It was 6:45 and he knew that Sheldon had been up for, at least, a half hour before him. Yawning, Leonard got ready for his day the same way he did every morning. He may not have been a creature of habit, but he wound up being one every single morning. Only, this morning there was no Sheldon to be found with food already made. As a matter of fact, there was no Sheldon at all. Briefly, it alarmed him until he realized that Sheldon was not home. At that moment, the life was scared out of him.
Suddenly, his phone vibrated with text messages from Raj and Howard.
"Sheldon's going crazy. - Howard."
"Howard! Wake up! Sheldon's at the hospital and is being threatened to be taken to jail. - Raj."
"God, how am I going to get out of this one?" Suddenly, a light bulb went off. He and Priya may not have been dating anymore, but that didn't mean that they weren't good friends either. He figured if Sheldon was to get into too much trouble, he could just call her and let her handle it. Deciding that it would, probably, be best to wait until he knew what was going on, he shot her a text.
"Apparently Sheldon's in trouble of some sort. If it gets too bad, can I give you a call? - Leonard"
Shoving his phone in his pocket, he got dressed and ready for the day as quickly as possible all while rushing out of the apartment and to the hospital. Knowing it was going to take some time (it was, after all, during morning rush hour) to get to the hospital he called all their jobs and told them that they all had an emergency and wouldn't be in for the next couple of days. Sheldon, Howard, Raj and himself may have been geniuses but that didn't mean that they didn't think every now and again.
He was jolted out of his thoughts by his phone ringing with the alert of a new text message.
"There's cops here. - Howard."
"We really need better signatures." Leonard sighed as he swiftly pulled into the parking lot and parked his car. Locking it, he made his way inside and stopped short. Howard and Raj were off to the side, probably figuring that it was better to cower from the entire thing than to be dead center in the middle of this. Causing everybody all sorts of problems was Sheldon. Right now, he wasn't living up to his normal doctoral self. Right now, he was busy throwing a temper tantrum.
"What the fuck are you all starin' at?" His southern Texas drawl was heavy. Right now, his emotions were flowing vividly throughout his body but his eyes were burning with rage. Leonard briefly wondered why this entire situation was going and why Penny being in a coma was affecting him in such a way. Suddenly, it hit him. Sheldon was going through the stages of grief. He'd already figured that Penny wasn't going to wake up and was blaming everybody for it. With a groan, he knew that today was going to rank number one on his list of least favorite days.
"Sheldon? What the hell is wrong with you?" Right away, he regretted catching the genius' attention.
"You wanna know what the hell's wrong wit' me, midget? You're what's wrong wit' me! You're the reason she wasn't able ta call out fer help or anythin'!"
"How was it my fault that she was raped?"
"She woulda come over to our place instead of always goin' home. She respected your wishes an' all you did was shun her! It's all your fault, Leonard!" Surely, he wasn't in the mood to argue. He was ready to rip some heads off of some shoulders. Adrenaline could do wonders for the body and he was enjoying himself. Before he could say anything else, a doctor showed up and walked over to Sheldon. Gently, a hand was placed upon his shoulder.
"I think we should talk."
Sheldon's blue eyes glared at the man but nodded. The two doctors walked off leaving Howard, Raj and Leonard to wonder what had happened and how the hell they were going to deal with it.
Inside a more private waiting room, Sheldon and the doctor sat down. "I'm Dr. Anton." The two shook hands and Dr. Anton continued speaking, "I wanted to talk to you, son, about what happened with your girlfriend. I heard you out there in the waiting room. You're reacting no different than the others fathers and husbands we ave in this place who hear news about their loved one. You're going through the stages of grief. Don't take this lightly, comas are not the easiest thing to deal with." Clearing his throat, he continued, "Also, the other reason that I pulled you aside is that we found out what happened to your girlfriend. The nurse that said she was raped, was lying."
"She. Was. What."
"I understand what you're thinking. She's been fired and her medical license has been revoked. The closest thing she'll ever get to is watching TV crime shows and dramas." Dr. Anton sighed, "I know it's not much of a consolation, but we're not charging you or your girlfriend anything for treatment or the like. You will have the best medical staff that money can afford, without paying a cent." The look in Sheldon's eyes told Dr. Anton that it wasn't enough, "Also. Here." A piece of paper was passed between the two, "This is that nurse's address and telephone number. Feel free to do with it what you will. I'm sure you won't be the only one stopping by."
"Hn." Sheldon's mind was racing and coming up with different possibilities. Soon, he realized that Penny would wake up! Hope entered his eyes without his acknowledgement and was caught by Dr. Anton, "I don't know when she'll wake up. She is recovering at a fast pace. Go in and see her. I'm told that it's the best way to get a coma patient to wake up." Dr. Anton stood and left Sheldon to his thoughts.
Sheldon scoffed as he batted the doctor's word around inside his head. There had to be some science around what was said, there just has to be. As far as he was concerned, everything could be explained or quantified. Then again, that was science to him. By this time, his head was beginning to hurt and it was something that he wasn't sure he was able to handle. For once, thinking was beginning to hurt and that was a strange, new feeling to him.
Heading to Penny's room, he walked inside and stared at her. "People are beginning to think that I'm attracted to you, Penny. I suggest you get up so that we can prove them wrong." He let a light chuckle escape his lips, "I imagine you would be asking what I was saying. Of course, you would. However, seeing as attraction is an emotion, which are therefore not based on science. It doesn't exist in my mind if you can't quantify or prove it, in my mind." Looking away, he glanced around the room. "You room is lacking your touch. Far too clean for it to be your room. I feel I should bring some of your belongings from your apartment. Just in case you wake up when I am not here."
Finally feeling the affects of not sleeping, he folded his arms on the side of her bed and casually rested his head upon his arms. Within a matter of seconds, he fell asleep with a peaceful look upon his face.
About an hour or so later, green eyes fluttered open slowly. Penny, slowly, became aware that she wasn't in her room and that there was a weight right next to her. With as much effort as possible, she managed to turned her head a bit and saw the sleeping form of Sheldon. Trying to open speak, she opened her mouth but nothing came out. That's when she realized that there was a tube down her throat. Alarm flew through her body within a matter of seconds as she began to panic. She had no idea where she was or how she got here. Or why Sheldon's head was next to her.
Doctors rushed in and began to undue many wires and tubes while explaining to her what was going on. They did their best to not wake Sheldon, as he was a cranky guy already. Within 15 minutes, they had removed all the tubes they had in her body and left only a couple of IVs inside to monitor her. Careful not to wake the sleeping man, they left the room and left Penny to her thoughts. Sure, she had only been out for about a day, but her body was still sore. She looked at Sheldon as if he was an alien.
"Why are you here, Sheldon? I figured that Leonard would be here, begging me to wake up. Weird. Figures that Wack-A-Doodle would be here instead, wanting to make sure that nothing would go wrong with him." She chuckled softly to herself as she turned her head to look out the hospital window, "I wonder how long I've been here and how this place fit into his never changing schedule."
"I resent that."
Penny whipped her head around and saw Sheldon lifting his head off of his arms. He had sheet prints on his forearms, causing Penny to smile a little. "How long have you been up?"
"When you shifted your weight."
"Sorry, trying to get comfortable. How long was I out?"
"From when I saw you in your apartment, 15 hours." He stood up and rubbed his back. Even sleeping in such a short amount of time in an awkward position had hurt his back in a way that was completely evident in his face.
"What happened, anyway? Where's everybody else?"
"You were robbed. I told you that you should always dead-bolt your door. You never listen, Penny. Never." His eyes held fear within them. As if he were scared of her leaving him. Nevertheless, he continued speaking, "I am unaware of what was stolen in your house."
Penny's eyes closed as she moved her head from facing Sheldon. She knew why he couldn't find anything that said she was robbed. They weren't looking to steal anything of value from her apartment, they were after her. She remembered that she had a problematic customer the other day and that they had followed her home. Visibly, she shuddered.
"Do you know what they stole?"
Tears began to run down her face, "Nothing was stolen, Sheldon. I need to get out of here. I missed work and I can't afford to be in the hospital."
Yeah, it's been a little while. I'll update more as I can but a lot of personal things have happened in my life and I'm attempting to sort them out. Whatcha think so far? Also, I've got about 4,000 plots going on in my head as well as helping a friend write a story in real life. So, yeah, I promise I will update when I have the chance. Thanks for all the wonderful reviews! They mean the world to me. =D