A/N: This fic is ending shortly but not before everyone gets who and what they so richly deserve. Bwahaha.
Reparata
Chapter 8 Moving On
Permanent Station Belgrano II
Argentine Antarctic Research Project
The White Out lasted 6 days but even the most optimistic assessment of the likelihood of Dr. Cooper surviving in such weather conditions could not justify further rescue parties.
Dr. Sheldon Cooper had most probably succumbed to the elements and that any further attempt to rescue him should be considered a 'recovery of remains' effort.
Exactly as anticipated, Juliana collapsed emotionally and, exactly as planned, Eduardo Duarte was there to offer her his shoulder and his support. Juliana Parea requested compassionate relief from her assignment and a sympathetic government sent a plane to return her to Argentina. Her research project had been successful and there was little need to further expend precious money supporting her in the Antarctic when the purpose of her participation had been met.
Eduardo Duarte remained behind. His request to be relieved and accompany Dr. Parea was denied since his experiments were far from complete and his progress reports were totally unsatisfactory. The bureaucratic apparatus had little sympathy for a non-performer who had expended funds without result. His protests were curtly answered with 'achieve results or find another University to fund your research'.
Of course in his own mind Duarte blamed Sheldon Cooper since it was he who had forced Duarte to expend so much time and effort eliminating the American that he fell behind on his own research project.
Sobral Meteorological Station
84km from Permanent Station Belgrano II
At last! The generator turned over and finally caught and the roar of the diesel engine was the sweetest sound he'd ever heard. He sent a heartfelt mental 'thank you' to Howard Wolowitz for insisting that everyone know how the North Pole Station's generator worked. Howard's insistence had saved Sheldon's life at the other end of the planet years later. The generators were exactly the same make and model.
He'd practically jogged from his camp site to what he thought was the Permanent Research Station and had fallen to his knees in dismay when he'd rounded the huge chunk of ice that thrust up through the ice field and saw the small station almost covered in blown snow and ice. It was clearly the closed Sobral Meteorological Station.
Tears froze on his cheeks when he realized that he was a dead man as a result of an accidental transponder malfunction.
It was her voice that saved him from giving up, from surrendering to his fate, from freezing to death out there on the ice.
'Get up! Get up! Get on your feet, Moon Pie! Are you going to let this small problem kill you? Jesus, Sheldon, what kind of wimp are you?'
He got mad. 'Shut up!' he told the Voice. 'Leave me alone for God's sake! It's over, damn you, it's over. I've failed.'
All along his long walk it had been Juliana's voice he'd listened to as he used his unique memory to replay bits and pieces of the past months. His long strides had eaten up the kilometers as he replayed entire days of being with her on holiday or just spending quiet times together. In his mind, she'd been his driving force, the reason he had to make it. But now…
'See, Moon Pie, I told ya you could do it! You can do anything you set your beautiful mind to doing. You just have to have a little faith in yourself. I do and aren't I always right, Shel?'
'Yes, Penny, I did it.' He had been having long conversations with Penny, rehashing the past and coming to grips with his emotional inability to take the step necessary to claim her for his own while it was still possible. Maybe it was the isolation of the summer station or the stress and pressure of his situation but he spoke with her out loud as if she were standing beside him.
'I should have told Leonard 'No' when he said he saw you first. I shouldn't have stepped aside. It was me you talked with, my white boards you oohed and awed over, and it was my 'science-y stuff' you tried to learn. I listened to Leonard and his 'Bro Code' prattlings. Looking back, it was just Leonard looking out for Leonard, nothing more.'
'It's about damned time you figured it out. I couldn't wait forever, sweetie, and I took second best and I knew it but wouldn't face up to it.'
In more rational moments Sheldon wondered if he were finally going insane just as the doctors that his mother had examine and test him had suggested might happen.
'Oh, sweetie, you're not nuts. You're just coming to grips with how things might have been if either of us had just said, 'I choose you' and told Leonard to 'fuck off, hobbit'. Nothing more, Moon Pie, so don't fret yourself raw about it. Remember, your mom had you tested.'
Permanent Station Belgrano II
Duarte listened as the Chief of Research Station spoke over the short wave radio to his boss in Buenos Aires. He tried his best to look appropriately dour and sad but inside he was doing a happy dance.
"Yes, Doctor Cooper became disoriented or suffered an equipment malfunction and set off for Sobral Station unaware of the sudden weather conditions that quickly hit us. I have no doubt that he lost his way out in the White Out on the ice and succumbed to the elements when his meager supplies ran out. All our attempts at recovering his body have been suspended. We simply do not have the surplus of fuel to continue searching."
"And his research? Were you able to recover his equipment and read the data?" Ever practical, his boss was looking to salvage something out of this debacle and giving Cooper credit for discovering his missing Monopole would go a long way towards improving the University's image in the international community.
"We found his recording computers at all eight stations but the data discs were missing. Apparently he collected them before discovering that his snowcat was out of fuel and setting off on foot to return."
"Very well. We will inform the authorities and notify his last posting so that any public announcement can be made jointly with CalTech. It's such a pity that the world has lost such a great genius with such unlimited potential for discovery. Hmm, I'll include that in my statement. That is all."
CalTechPasadena, CA
Eric Gabelhauser read the email over and over, hoping it was a joke or a mistake but there it was: Dr. Sheldon Cooper has been lost in the Antarctic while performing research out on the ice. A sudden change in the weather and ensuing high winds precluded any further attempts at recovering his remains. The email went on and on about joint announcements, the loss of a great mind, yada yada yada.
He forwarded the email to his boss, the University president, and quickly got a phone call in response.
"Is it true? Cooper is lost and his body unrecoverable? How could something like this have happened? He was so meticulous in his preparations and you know he would have had several layers of backups in the event of such an occurrence. I can't believe it, Eric, can you?"
Leslie Winkle was in the faculty cafeteria when a tearful Rajesh Koothrappali burst into tears after reading something on his laptop.
"He's dead, Leslie! Sheldon is dead in Antarctica and they have little hope of recovering his body! Oh, Shiva, why did this happen? He would never have – he couldn't ever be – damn his fucking quest for the Nobel! Now I've lost my best friend, frozen like a Coopersicle somewhere all alone on the ice…oh, poor Juliana. I must Skype her and find out what she knows!"
Leslie heard every word but continued taking bites from her BLT until her mouth could hold no more and she started to choke on her tears. Finally she spit the mess out on her plate and grabbed Raj and dragged him out of the cafeteria and to her office where she tore off all their clothes and grieved in her own way.
Princeton University
School of Applied Sciences
He read the email many, many times before it finally sunk in. His friend and roommate for many years was dead. He couldn't accept it. There was no way that Sheldon 'Always Ready for the Apocalypse' Cooper could die from something so ordinary as an equipment failure.
Although he hadn't spoken with her since the dinner party, he felt an obligation to let her know. After all, she and Sheldon had been strange friends over the years.
"Hi, Mother, it's Leonard. He's dead, Mom. Sheldon's dead in Antarctica and they can't even find his body."
It was a strained conversation for both of them. Leonard was uncharacteristically remote and detached while Beverly felt an almost overwhelming need to give her youngest offspring a hug and offer him something she'd never done before – tell him that she loved him.
"You gotta tell Penny, Mother. I just can't do it."
"Of course. It should be me. After all, I've come to know them both quite well and it is Tuesday and we are meeting for lunch. I'll call Jislane and ask her to accompany me. She can deal with Penny's emotional outbursts of grief far better than I'll be able to. Yes, consider it done. Thank you for your call, son."
She hung up and found her ex-husband's telephone number in her address book.
She started to dial Jislane's cell phone number but stopped, unable to see the keys through her tears.
Sobral Meteorological Station
Two weeks after his 'death'
He was talking to himself more, probably an unconscious act just to hear something other than the wind and the whine of the machinery that was keeping him alive.
"No matter how you slice it, I'll run out of food and fuel oil well before the 'summer' comes and then it'll be over. I have more than enough food for a run to Belgrano II but I'm uncertain whether any of the homing devices have been set to anyplace other than 'here'."
'Shel, honey, have you thought about what we talked about?'
"Penny, Penny, Penny, or should I say 'subconscious, subconscious, subconscious'? I've done little else but consider the situation from your viewpoint and while I do find it possible, I cannot say probable. Who would do such a thing?"
'Okay, let's look at this like one of those detective programs you don't like to watch. Who has motive and opportunity to mess with your snowcat and your transponder? Who benefits if you're dead?'
"Penny, the only ones who benefit from my demise are my mother and sister. I'm heavily insured and they are my beneficiaries. I didn't see either of the skulking around so I feel correct in stating that they are not suspects."
'Okay, so we can rule out money as a motive. Why else bump you off? Who benefits? Who at Belgrano II would like to see you frozen like a piece of meat in a freezer? Who gains from your death? Is anyone else there pursuing String Theory?'
That got his attention. Who else might be pursuing String Theory and possibly using his research findings to make their own great leap forward? No one. He was the only physicist on the expedition. The others were all 'dirt scientists'.
"None that I can think of. I am the only physicist in residence and thus my research would be useless to the average dirt scientist. I think we're wasting time. It was mere coincidence, a coming together of unrelated events that combined to create my situation, nothing more."
'I thought you once said that there are no coincidences in science?'
The Arbor
Princeton, New Jersey
1:00pm
Penny looked around the large dining room but didn't see Beverly Hofstadter anywhere and knowing how anal her mother-in-law was about punctuality (almost as bad as my Moon Pie) she felt a little bit worried.
"Mrs. Hofstadter, Doctor Hofstadter and Mrs. Hofstadter are in the private salon at her request." Penny blinked. 'Too many damned 'Hofstadters' in that sentence.'
Penny was led to the private salon and the waiter seated her and took her drink order. Beverly looked pale and drawn and Jislane looked like she was going to either bolt from the room or start to cry.
"Who died?" she snarked, to break the tension at the table.
"Sheldon Cooper, Penny. He failed to return to the research station after checking his monitoring stations and the weather turned bad and despite many attempts to rescue him – they were unable to find his body and he's been declared 'lost, presumed dead'."
The words rushed out of Beverly's mouth and she picked up her drink and drained it in one large gulp and beckoned the waiter, hovering discretely near the door, for another round.
"I'm sorry, dear, but he's gone. I know he was your very dear friend and despite all that happened, I know he still cared deeply for you."
Penny couldn't move. She couldn't breathe. There was no air in the room and the walls were closing in on her and she screamed for the only person who could save her.
"Sheldon!"