Chapter 23Plague

This chapter is almost entirely Penny-centric. Get over it. She's strong and caring and selfless and not the arm candy lush that the writers seem to think she is. Don't like? Don't efffn' read/

PPOV

If it's one thing I know for sure, Sheldon Cooper is wrestling with a problem that he doesn't really wish to solve. I saw how his face was pinched and judgmental when he and Bomber got back.

He was so sweet and caring with the little girl and I just knew right then that for all his wackiness, for all his annoying schedules and his penchant for childish things, that Sheldon would be a great father.

Perhaps it's because he never had the opportunity to play with other kids and have a normal childhood that when confronted with a child with 'play needs' he's so superbly equipped – because a part of 'little Sheldon' never got integrated into 'growing up Sheldon' and now is allowed 'out to play'?

I don't know but I love seeing this side of him.

But then I saw how he glared at Tasha and then just as quickly put on his 'Dr. Sheldon Cooper, PhD' persona and quietly ate his soup and drank his hot beverage. He was antsy, if that was a proper word, and finally excused himself from the table saying he wanted to shower and change clothes.

I wanted more than anything at that moment to also excuse myself and join him in the tiny shower and wash his back and just enjoy the closeness that the tiny enclosure would require. It wasn't sex I was after. I wanted to break down his walls and get him to tell me everything that had happened to him.

His eyes were the windows to his soul and one glance and I could see the pain he was in. What had happened that made him close himself off from all of us? From me?

I found myself staring at the woman across from me. She was pretty although careworn but we pretty much all looked that way. She was obviously an attentive mother, frequently glancing into the main lounge and checking up on her daughter.

"So, Tasha, you're coming with us? Good. Someone else to share the driving," Winkle said.

"Just as far as Lincoln as Dr. Cooper said. I have…family there and it's as good a place as any to start over." Again she glanced back to check on her daughter.

The conversation died for a few moments until Winkle asked Bomber about his morning excursion and just where he'd picked up Sheldon. The girl's coloring book, box of Crayola crayons and her boots and other things were not something Sheldon had found on a stump.

Bomber had previously stated, with the best of intentions, that it was for Sheldon to say but Leslie and I had a right, no, a need to know what had happened.

"I've never seem that look on his face before, have you, Penny?" she asked me. Winkle was good, I'll give her that. She was coming at Bomber from the side and he looked like one of those lemurs, all eyes, as he saw what was coming, the Penny-Winkle Express, but was unable to avoid it.

"Once before. When the guys sabotaged his data for his Monopole experiments at the North Pole. It was the look of 'betrayal' and it took a while for it to go away…a long while." I was looking at Tasha and she looked away but not before I saw how her eyes were all shiny with unshed tears.

"He followed our tracks into town. I guess he missed the ones coming out but it was dark and snowing and windy – " Bomber started to explain but Winkle interrupted.

"Oh, no!" Winkle started to stand but Bomber had a hand on her shoulder and forced her to sit back down. He looked at me with a plea for support.

"He was digging graves…for the kids. He used a shovel he found someplace and he was burying the baby when I got there. He had set fire to the church but had taken the kids' bodies – "

"He – he burned down our church?" Tasha's voice wasn't loud but there were undercurrents of something in it that made my hair stand on end – like satisfaction or elation. She certainly wasn't unhappy about it.

"Yeah. He muttered something about a 'hot lunch for the scavengers' and then said he wanted to leave so we did after stopping to pick up some stuff he said we needed. He already had stuff in a plastic bag but he wanted stuff for your little girl."

Winkle changed the route on the Penny-Winkle Express.

"YOUR church, Tasha? But you told Sheldon you'd come over from Nevada or someplace and your car ran out of gas and – "

Tasha looked frantic and said, "I lied! If I'd told him that my entire community had committed suicide and that I had fled with my baby girl he would have turned his back on us and – "

I quietly interrupted her. I couldn't let her continue. So, okay, 'quietly' might be an understatement, but so what?

"NOT Sheldon Cooper, Tasha. Sheldon would never turn his back on someone in need, and certainly not someone with a little kid! Bomber joined us on the road but not because we needed a stud for Winkle but because he was in trouble and we could help."

I stood up and brushed imaginary crumbs from my sweats and looked at Winkle who was glaring at Tasha but was also holding Bomber's hand in a death grip.

"I need to talk to him and make sure this doesn't send him into a depressive spiral," I glanced at Leslie, "like he was in before he came up with this crazy assed idea of getting me home to Omaha."

"Go on, Penny. Go take care of Shel. Bomber and I will keep Tasha company and since she's from around here, learn if there are any other towns that we can forage around for stuff we'll need in the future."

As I made my way back to our room I heard Leslie say to Tasha, "Why Lincoln? Are there more of these crazy cultists there? Are you joining them or what?"

The door's closed and for really the first time in my life I wish I was smarter because I'm about to go head to head with the world's smartest man and drag his ass kicking and screaming back out of the dark place he's in. And walking in and singing 'Soft Kitty' ain't gonna get it.

I don't want to wake him if he's asleep so I whisper his name from the open door.

"Sheldon? Are you awake, sweetheart?" He's lying on his side and I can't see his face but I can hear his breathing and it sounds 'labored', like he's got a bad chest cold and trying not to cough.

I toe off my sneakers and am in bed and spooned against his back before I know it. My body seems to have a much more attuned 'Sheldar' than my brain does.

He's trying to keep it together but I know he's hurting. This is the one place he drops his armor of eccentricity and becomes my Shel, my lover and my dearest and sweetest friend.

I lean up and rest my head on my palm, my elbow on the mattress and I wrap my right arm around him, pulling him as close to me as possible.

"Talk to me, honey. It's not good to keep all this shit bottled up, you know that. Tell me what's going on in that beautiful mind of yours," I whisper.

I hear him sigh and it's as if the weight of the world has fallen on him. I roll over him quite lithely and I think I've surprised him from the look on his face.

I'm an inch from his face and my position mirrors his, head resting on my arm, eyes open and a slight smile on my face. Well, okay, Sheldon's not smiling. His lips are white and pressed together so tightly that he has to be breathing from his nose.

"Sheldon Cooper, no matter what happens in the days ahead, we'll handle it together, I promise. Now, what's wrong?" I'm still whispering, enjoying the intimacy it implies.

Another sigh. I smell the vegetable soup on his breath and realize that whatever's on his mind has superceded (more awakening brain cells) his rituals like brushing and flossing after any meal, and that means…trouble.

"Is this all there is now? Death? Killing each other, our selves, our children? They killed their children and then committed suicide. What despair they must have felt to do such a thing?" He is whispering also, but not for the sake of intimacy but rather to avoid giving true voice to his fears.

His words stun me and I can hardly see his face through my blurred vision. For a moment I hate myself for not pushing on last night and saving him from discovering just how desperate things have become for some, for most.

"No, Sheldon, no. We won't let that happen to us, to our future. Those people gave up, they surrendered to their own despair and that's not us, my love, we're Queen P and Sheldor, we never give up, we never surrender!"

The corners of his mouth twitch and then he smiles, closed mouth, but still a smile.

"Galaxy Quest, Penny? You know how we all…" His voice falters. There is no more 'we'. There's just 'us'.

We wrapped up in each other's arms and I dozed off for a few minutes and when I awoke, he was gone. I felt a moment of panic but relaxed when I heard his voice in the companionway explaining to Tasha how the shower worked and the two-minute rule but since she had a child, it was waived for the immediate future as long as it was not abused.

His voice reminded me of how he'd explained the roommate agreement as it applied to 'proper notification of overnight guests' and how often I and…how often Leonard and I had violated it and thus the 'strikes'. There was an almost hostile and 'put upon' quality to it that I haven't heard in a long time.

He's angry with Tasha and he was trying so hard not to show it but I know my Sheldon and it was obvious to me.

I just don't know why but I mean to find out. Maybe our discussion broached the wrong topic or I just didn't know to dig deeper.

I stepped out into the companionway and scooted by Sheldon, giving his butt a little squeeze; his voice didn't falter one bit. I must be losing my touch.

Leslie had told Sheldon everything she'd learned from her grilling of Tasha Myers. The pastor of their church had had a 'vision' that it was the End of Days and that the faithful would sacrifice themselves and escape the worst of what was to come.

Tasha's husband was mesmerized by the pastor's words and had gulped down the poisoned Kool Aid with a smile on his face and died within seconds, holding her hand to give her strength but leaving her alone to murder their daughter and then take her own life – something she'd never do.

She had grabbed her daughter and blankets and run into the woods towards the interstate where she hoped to find an abandoned vehicle or a ride.

Lincoln was the first 'destination' that popped into her mind when Sheldon had first questioned her and the lie had grown until she herself almost believed it.

"Does Sheldon know the truth?" I asked Leslie, knowing how much he hated being lied to.

"Yeah, and he had little Blossom sitting on his lap the whole time. Tasha begged him to let her stay with us. There's nothing and no one for her in Lincoln."

I knew my guy better than most. There's no way he would turn Tasha away to fend for herself in this day and age.

"Have you made up the new driving schedule?" The matter was closed to further discussion. Our family had grown by two.

We totally bypassed Lincoln and headed straight for my folks' farm northwest of Omaha. The Air Force base at Offut would be there after we learned what had happened to my parents.

"There's the turn up ahead, honey! I'm so…" Sheldon's bare left hand covered mine and gave it a squeeze. He'd come so far in so little time. Months ago the very idea of touching my hand spontaneously in reassurance would never have occurred to him. He would have patted my arm and said, "There, there, Sheldon's here," and he would have been, too. He's always been there when I needed him.

We were driving the fuel truck, still breaking trail as it were, although really it was because I knew where we were going and if drifts blocked the road, I knew all the shortcuts. We were losing the light and I flipped on the NVGs and dusk turned to bright green daylight.

We're a hundred feet from the house and I start blowing the horn because there are lights on! I glance over at Sheldon and I see his mouth in that tightlipped grimace that means he's wrestling with a problem – probably how to explain to my dad that he's been poking me with his thing.

I start to giggle and he turns his head and that shy smile I so dearly love breaks out. "Are you fit to drive, Penny? It would be terrible to have come so far and done so much and only to die in a fiery crash because you're hysterical."

I just giggle at him and then blurt out "I love you, Sheldon Cooper. Marry me?" Okay, so it wasn't the most logical thing to say but I wanted to have my Mom and Daddy meet – Dr. Sheldon Cooper, PhD, my fiancé and the guy who saved my life.

His face turned pasty white and I could see his lips move but nothing came out. I'd never seen Sheldon rendered speechless by anything or anyone before and it was so precious…

"Yes, Penelope." That was all he said but it was more than enough. I leaned over and laid a wet smooch on his cheek and he yelled, "Penny! You're driving!"

I just chuckled and continued blowing the horn. We were just pulling up in front of the house when my mom and dad stepped out onto the verandah followed closely by another man that I instantly recognized.

Kurt.

I stopped in front of the house and turned off the diesel engine and jumped out of the cab and ran around the front of the truck and up the steps and threw my arms around my folks, laughing and crying at the same time.

SPOV

I sat in the cab, watching the homecoming. Of course I recognized Kurt from my encounter back in Pasadena when we had tried to retrieve Penny's television set and lost our pants in the process.

I'd met Penny's father briefly when Wyatt had visited his daughter in Pasadena but Leonard had spent the most time with him since they were between breakups. I assumed that the woman is Penny's mother.

I retrieved my MP-5 from the floorboards of the cab and hooked it to the D-ring on my parka, more out of habit than anything else. I clicked on the walkie-talkie and told Winkle to assume over-watch until Penny gave the 'safe' sign even though I know she's safe with her parents.

I see Penny hugging Kurt and I'm uncertain what to do. Penny just asked me to marry her and now she hugging on another man – a man with whom she has a long sexual history. I have no idea what to do so I open the truck door and slide down to the snowy driveway and walk up to introduce myself to Penny's folks.

I'm angry and jealous and a lot of other emotional states that are contending for dominance with my head. I'm not good with reading facial expressions but I can see something like distaste on Wyatt's face and utter horror on Penny's mother, Jennifer.

"Winkle, something's off here. Target the large man currently embracing my fiancé."

Penny somehow breaks Kurt's grip on her and stumbles backwards a step but the rears back and punches him hard in the throat. Kurt staggers back and then points the pistol he's been hiding beneath his coat right at Penny.

I key the walkie-talkie to demand that Winkle – BLAM! Kurt's head seems to bulge and then he falls against the front of the house and then flops around on the porch like a poorly decapitated chicken. His foot twitches a few times and stops.

Penny pushes her parents to the left front of the house just as two large angry men try to get out of the front door at the same time.

Winkle fires twice and there are now three messes I'll have to clean up on the porch. I have to smile at the brief memory of both men stuck in the door like some slapstick comedy program. Their plight provided the perfect opportunity for Winkle to take out both men.

My walkie-talkie crackles and I hear Leslie's voice announcing that there are no other heat sources in the house. I am so glad I picked up that thermal imagery device when I looted the National Guard Armory. It almost makes me believe that 'someone up there' is watching over us.

Almost.

"Let's meet Penny's parents and find out what is going on here. I didn't see the danger signal but Penny seemed rather preoccupied until she punched him."

Wyatt makes his to me after Penny and her mom step over the bodies on the porch and disappear inside but not before Penny viciously kicks Kurt's corpse a few times. The door closes and Wyatt grabs my hand and shakes it.

"Is Leonard with you? You're the roommate, right?"

"Leonard is dead. Yes, I'm the roommate." Something in me whispers that my engagement might be the shortest on record when Wyatt asks, "When are you leaving? You can't stay here."