Chapter 12

When Pris had rushed to the door, Leonard followed a few steps behind her until she quickly ran out the door.

Sheldon squared himself on his feet, satisfied that she had left and not wondering about the consequences.

"I'm going to kill you!" Leonard rounded on him.

Sheldon screeched and stepped back a few paces towards the hallway. "Kill me? Isn't that a little melodramatic?" Sheldon asked eventually, making Leonard more mad.

"Run Sheldon." Leonard stepped closer. "Run and hide!"

Sheldon backed up a bit and stumbled into the side table. He corrected himself and raced down the hall, quickly and loudly, shutting his door.

"If you do kill him, we're all your witnesses, we will testify that it was an accident." Howard joked.

"What are you going to do?" Bernadette asked, panicked. "I agree that what he did wasn't very nice, but I think murder is a bit too far."

"Is it?" Raj asked. "Think about all the hell he's put us through all these years. "We've finally reached an end."

"Come on. You can't kill him." Penny stated. "He's a robot. Just switch him off."

Leonard smiled, finally calming down. This was a last straw for him but murder was still never an option.

"No, I'll just let him think about it for a while." Leonard sat down.

"He isn't a kid. You can't just put him in a time out and hope he will come say he's sorry. You know he doesn't even think he did anything wrong." Penny said. "What would you do if he was an actual robot? And he didn't work with another program or thingy?"

"We'd install plug-ins and bridge software to make him compatible with her." Leonard said, taking the conversation seriously.

"I vote no." Amy said quickly.

"What else can you do?" Bernadette asked. "You know. Not if he were a robot, but a real human being?"

"I don't know. Just don't let him near me. I might slap him so hard his teeth will bleed."

The next morning, Leonard got up earlier than usual and got ready for work. He wanted to leave before Sheldon woke up and expected him to take him to work. But Leonard was still seeing red, so he rushed to the door.

"Leonard?" Sheldon called as he shuffled in his pajamas down the hall.

Leonard didn't want to stop but Sheldon caught him right at the door.

"What are you doing?" Sheldon asked.

"I'm going to work. Good bye Sheldon."

"You have to wait for me."

"No. I don't." Leonard said as he opened the door.

"But the r…"

"If you say Roommate agreement, I will hire a lawyer and sue you for everything you own!" Leonard yelled. "Bye." And slammed the door shut behind him.

A couple days later, Leonard sat in Penny's apartment, wine in hand.

"So, she's going back to Seattle?" Penny asked about Pris.

"Yes." Leonard was still very upset.

"When will you see her again?"

"I don't know. She's visiting her mom this week, then she officially moves to LA and that takes a while, then she has her work to do. I'll call her and try and figure it out."

"Have you spoken to her since her party?"

"Yeah. We're good. She actually laughed about it. She gave me a few pointers if I wanted to kill Sheldon."

Penny laughed. "She's a cutey."

"Did I tell you that she once got suspended for a week from school because she punched a bully?"

"I though she wasn't bullied?"

"She wasn't. The kid bullied her friend and she knocked a tooth out. And she was only ten years old."

"How old was the bully?"

"Fifteen."

"Oh. Wow. She sounds a little like me." Penny grinned.

"She's strong. Like you. Yes."

"Have you thought what you're going to do about Sheldon?" Penny swirled the wine in her glass, feeling a bit like an evil queen mixing a potion and discussing evil plans.

"Killing is off the table. My mother would be so mad if I killed him. Not that her approval matters. But Pris also told me not to kill him. So I'll listen to her."

"So, you're just freezing him out?"

"I think by now he got the message that what he did was wrong. I think he's raking his head trying to figure out why."

At that very moment, Pris was sitting on a dirty floor, facing the wall. Dust and concrete fell over her lap as she carefully carved figures out of the wall. She jumped when her two-way radio beeped on.

"Prior?" a voice called.

Pris reached for the radio in her pocket and stared at the mess she had made.

"Yes Arena?" she answered.

"Are you sick? Or dying? Something that you haven't told me?" Arena asked.

"No. Why?" Pris listened to her friend's tone of voice and was curious.

"There's a doctor here to see you."

"My brother?" She wondered.

"No. This one is tall and lanky and makes me feel very uncomfortable."

Pris snapped her head away from her work.

"Sheldon?"