Title: "The Neurobiologist's Evanescence" - Chapter 1
Author's Note: This story takes place sometime in mid-season 8, before "The Comic Book Store Regeneration." Please see the end of the chapter for more notes. I don't want to give too much away beforehand. :)
Monkeys are assholes, Amy thought as she trudged toward her car after work. It was late and already dark outside. There had been several snafus with her latest experiment and she'd had to stay late to care for one of the Capuchins that had been injured in a brawl with another monkey.
She was exhausted and starving and wanted nothing more than a hot shower and her warm bed. She glanced at her watch, realizing she would just barely make it home in time for her nightly call with Sheldon. She decided to call him on her way home so when she finally got there she could do what she needed before collapsing into bed.
The icing on the cake of this crappy day was that she'd had to park in the back parking lot of the university because some jerk-wad had stolen her parking spot that morning. She hated having to park there, and it was especially worse at night.
As she made her way to the back lot, she noticed a man walking across the parking lot towards her. Her heart started to beat a little faster, and she reached into her purse for her can of mace. Her fingers wrapped around it tightly, just as the man lifted his arm in a wave.
"Dr. Fowler, hey!" He took his hoodie off of his head and smiled at her.
Her fingers relaxed around the mace as she immediately recognized his unique voice. Barry Kripke, she thought and her fear turned to annoyance. Ugh, what does he want?
"Dr. Kripke," she said.
"Oh man, am I happy to see you! I'm having car trouble and I've been waiting for a familiar face to rescue me."
She frowned and then cursed her polite upbringing. "What exactly can I do to help?" she asked.
"Give me a ride?" He said sheepishly and shrugged his shoulders. "Please. I just need to get home and I can get all of this taken care of in the morning when the auto shops reopen."
"Why didn't you call a taxi?" She asked.
"Oh, it all just happened and… well, here you are. Please? I'll make it worth your while," he said with a wiggle of his eyebrows.
Gross, she thought. "Where do you live?"
He rattled off an address and she realized it was on her way. She sighed heavily. She just wanted to go home.
"I… Okay. Fine. Sure," she said and clicked the button on her keys to unlock her car. "Get in."
"You're a lifesaver, Amy."
They both got into the car, buckling up. She placed her purse on the floor between them and started the vehicle.
"Rough day?" He asked.
"You could say that."
"You're here awfully late," he said as she pulled out of the parking lot.
"One of my monkeys was injured," she replied, and it didn't even occur to her to ask why he was there so late.
"And you had to stay for that? Isn't there a vet or something you can call?" Barry pulled his hoodie back up over his head.
Amy sighed and adjusted the car's thermostat, thinking he was chilly. "There's a whole team. It's complicated... I feel responsible because I put two monkeys withdrawing from alcohol in the same cage when I shouldn't have."
"Aw, well, don't beat yourself up over it. We all make mistakes."
She nodded and hoped he would stop talking. She was so tired.
"Hey Amy, where's your cell phone?" He asked.
Something in his voice made the hair on her arms stand on end. "What?" She asked, her brows furrowing in confusion.
"Give me your phone."
"What, why?" She looked over at him as he pulled something out of his jacket pocket. Her heart skipped a beat. "What is that?" She asked. It looked like some kind of weapon.
"It's a taser, my dear."
"What the hell, Barry?" she asked, her voice rising in anger.
"Give me your phone," he demanded through gritted teeth.
"What are you doing?" Fear started to bubble in her chest, replacing the anger.
"We'll have a nice conversation all about that as soon as you give me your phone."
Amy's hands gripped the steering wheel as her mind raced. She was so confused. Her brain wasn't working. She was exhausted, hungry, and now terrified. She didn't want to give him her phone. She wanted to go home.
Kripke jammed the stun gun into her side, causing her to gasp. "Now," he growled.
Her right hand shook as she reached into her purse on the floor. She dug around, trying to find her mace. He twisted the taser into her side.
"No funny business. Just give me the damn phone."
"I can't find it." Her voice shook.
He reached down and grabbed her bag. He dug through it, then held up the mace.
"Were you looking for this?"
A tear slid down her cheek, as hope slid away from her. "No, of course not, I was—"
He rolled the window down and threw the mace out into the night.
She winced and tightened her hands on the steering wheel. He started digging through her purse again until he found her phone. He powered it down and then held it out the window. He drew his arm back and then arched it, throwing the phone out onto the road in front of her car. She felt the slight bump as she ran over it.
A sob settled in her throat. She tried to swallow it down but she was so scared. Maybe she was having a night terror. Wake up! she screamed silently at herself.
Kripke rolled the window up. "You got any other secrets in this bag?" He asked.
She shook her head. "No." She wished she did. Better yet, she wished she had something in her coat pockets, something within reach.
"Somehow I don't think I can trust you," Kripke said with a smirk and started digging around in her purse. He pulled the taser back, out of her side, but he kept it aimed in her direction. After digging for a minute, he must have been satisfied, because he put the purse down on the floor between his seat and the door, out of her reach.
"Where are we going?" She tried desperately to remain calm, hoping if she was nonchalant about the whole thing he would give her more information.
"Don't worry about that. I'll tell you where to go."
"Why are you doing this?" She blurted out. So much for being calm, she thought to herself.
"Well, Amy, that's a loaded question. There's several reasons but we will discuss those later."
"Are you—" She swallowed, throwing a glance in his direction, not sure she wanted an answer. "Are you going to kill me?"
He chuckled and the sound sent a chill deep into her bones. This is crazy. He's crazy. "Not if you're a good girl," he replied in a terrifying singsongy voice.
Another tear slipped down her cheek. Sheldon, she thought. She glanced at the clock on the dashboard. He would be calling her soon for their nightly bedtime call. She wondered how worried he would be when she didn't answer. Would he shrug it off or would he go looking for her?
She desperately wished she could be with him now. She imagined him holding her close to his chest, cradling her as his whole body surrounded her. It wasn't something that happened very often, but when it had, she had never felt safer. She put herself there, in her mind, trying to soak up the comfort and calmness she had always felt.
She just needed to be smart and strong and she would get out of this.
"Turn right at the next traffic light," Barry said, pulling her out of her reverie.
She realized they were headed for the highway; the 210 to be exact. She bit her lip. "Barry, why don't you drive? You know where we're going and it's been such a long day, I'm tired."
"And give you the chance to run away? I hardly think so."
"I won't run," she lied as she turned right at the stoplight.
"Yeah, right."
She tried another tactic. "You know if you tase me while I'm driving, I'll just wreck. And you'll be injured, too."
"I'm hoping your survival instincts are stronger than that. A tase won't kill you, but a wreck might."
She frowned. He had a point. If he tased her and they wrecked, she wouldn't be able to escape anyway. Her body wouldn't work for awhile.
She thought about wrecking on purpose, not giving him the chance to shock her, but decided against it. She would have to do it just right so he would be injured and she wouldn't. She might as well stay calm and do what he said.
"Head east on the highway." He pointed at the on ramp for the 210.
Amy did as she was told. She was angry at herself for not being able to think more clearly and figure a way out of this.
"Go four miles over the speed limit," he ordered. "Set your cruise control."
She did.
"If you do anything to make anyone suspicious, I will hurt you. Don't touch the lights. Don't hit the breaks unless necessary. If you see a cop, do nothing. Do you understand?" He asked roughly.
"Yes," she muttered.
She wondered where they were going. She hoped they weren't going to cross state lines. If that happened, she knew it would make her rescue so much harder. Cops from two states would have to investigate and cooperate. Maybe the FBI. She didn't know for sure, but she knew it would be bad.
They drove in silence for awhile, eighteen minutes by Amy's count. The tension in the car was heavy in the air between them. Finally, he broke it. "Take the next exit."
"Okay." She made a mental note of the exit number and town - Exit 46 for San Dimas - as she left the highway.
"Turn left." She did.
They drove for the next fifteen minutes silently, except for when he told her to make a turn. By the time they were done, she was completely discombobulated. She was fairly certain he had taken her in circles, making random turns for the sole purpose of confusing her. She tried to remember the names of all the road signs, but there were so many that she struggled. She desperately wished for Sheldon's eidetic memory at that moment.
Her final turn lead her down a long winding driveway. They pulled up in front of a house that, to Amy, looked like it had been built in the forties or fifties. There were no lights shining inside. The boxy-looking house was fairly nondescript and looked to be two stories. It was a bland, brown-ish color with no decorations or live plants outside, other than a couple of overgrown bushes. It wasn't derelict but it also didn't look as though anyone lived there.
The house wasn't too far from the main road but it was well hidden by the curved driveway and lots of trees. They were in the woods. She couldn't see any other houses around.
Her heart was starting to pound.
Amy was so busy taking in her surroundings, trying to memorize everything and figure out where she was, that she missed the small object Kripke pulled out of his pocket.
Finally, she turned to look at him. "Where are we?" she asked him, her voice shaking with fear.
"We'll discuss all of that later. For now," he said and with a speed that shocked her, jabbed something sharp into her neck. "It's time for you to take a nap."
"Ow!" She cried out and reached up with her hand to touch her neck. But her hand never made it. Instead, it fell limply to her side, as her head lolled towards Barry. Fear seized her. She couldn't move. Then her eyes closed against her will and the last thing she thought of before the darkness overtook her was: Sheldon.
End Note: Obviously, Barry Kripke is going to play a big part in this story. I made the decision to not write his speech impediment into the dialogue, for two reasons: 1) It's going to be a lot of dialogue and would take forever to write. And 2) I don't want to mess it up and do it wrong. You'll just have to use your imagination. :)
I have only been to California once, a loooong time ago. I have never been to Pasadena. I asked my husband to help me make a best guess on the exit number and town name. I know nothing about San Dimas or the highways or any of that. So just… forgive me. LOL.
This is my first time writing a "mystery" story. I have been a big fan of several crime shows - usually ones with male/female partners in the lead roles - such as The X-Files, Law & Order: SVU, Bones, and Castle. But whenever I wrote fanfic for them, I focused on the romance side of things. My favorite books to read are romance novels with a mystery element. And I'm a true crime junkie, thanks to podcasts and streaming services. I am going to do my best, but it's just fanfic, so I don't plan on spending a huge amount of time doing research. Mainly because I don't have the time and I would rather write the story. :)
I am going to try to post on a schedule - Sunday evenings and Thursday evenings. I have a few chapters written already, so we'll see if I can stay caught up. I will let you know if I can't.
Anyway, let me know your thoughts! Thanks for reading.