A/N: I was going to wait until Wednesday afternoon to post this, but I can't stand myself any longer. I need you guys to have this. It is now one hour into Wednesday for me, so here you go! The second act deals with Howard who, despite his resemblance to Moist, is not someone Sheldon considers a friend, or even a treasured acquaintance, anymore. It's considerably shorter than the first, and for that I apologize, but I think it works better this way. I also apologize for the lack of Penny. It's mostly a Sheldon story, with Penny supporting him. Hope I don't disappoint.
Sheldon and Raj visited President Siebert in his office first thing the next morning. Raj explained what had happened, suggesting, but not outright telling him, that it had been Leonard's idea. When asked what he had wanted to do about it, Sheldon had told him very succintly, and very humbly, "I just want to get on with my work and forget about it. Don't tell them we came to you, it will only cause more trouble. I've emailed you the correct experimental data. Perhaps there is still something we can glean from the negative results."
A week later and it seemed everything had returned to normal.
The engineering department was still a little wary of Howard ever since the space toilet debacle. They made him double and triple check everything he worked on, and the truth was, Howard himself had started doing that before they'd even mentioned it. He joked about a lot of things, but his work was very important to him. It was a point of pride in his life. It hurt when people doubted him, but he understood and worked every day to regain their trust and respect.
And Sheldon knew this because he felt the same way at the moment.
He told the others he was eating lunch in his office so he could keep working, and not a tic showed on his face. When the hallway was clear he walked to Leonard's office. It was a warm day, so he'd taken his jacket and hoodie off. Sheldon put it on, zipped it, and threw the hood over his head. Head bowed, he pulled on a pair of latex gloves, calmly strode into Howard's lab the JPL, and without turning on the light, unplugged the two cameras. Like with his Vulcan hearing he had very good eyesight, even in the dark. Once the cameras were unplugged he turned the light on and looked around. His eye caught the robotic arm Howard was building and he smiled.
It took a few minutes, but Sheldon found and rewrote the program so that when Howard input his password (Really, Howard? Turbriskafil?) the arm would grab hold of him as part of the startup program. He set the height at 5 feet 1.7 inches, and once the hand mechanism gripped it would rise a foot. If everything went to plan, the robotic arm would grab him at the throat and raise him up. Of course, the people he worked with could just unplug the computer from the arm and it would release him, but engineers rarely ever utilized Occam's Razor. They would likely try to disarm it using the program. It would take around six minutes for them to do so, during which time Howard would be losing oxygen, causing him to pass out. If his colleagues failed, he'd be dead. And just as well. Raj had also told him of Howard's crossbow.
Sheldon believed in nothing if not reciprocity.
He turned off the light, plugged the cameras back in and left. Before he returned Leonard's hoodie he carefully went over it with a lint roller to remove any hairs that might've stuck, then slid back into his office with no one the wiser.
The next day Howard was rushed to the hospital due to oxygen starvation and a bruised trachea. He wouldn't be talking for a while. The JPL found the problem with the arm and fixed it. Howard was not blamed, as it was clear it was sabotage, but no one knew who it could've been.
Sheldon offered well-wishes along with everyone else, but Penny knew and, while no one could prove it, Raj was sure it had been his doing.