Try not to just skip to the part where you get to find out what she did. Sorry about the cliffhanger, but it was too perfect to resist.

{Leonard}

He was startled as he tromped down the stairs after Alison. He couldn't come up with any reason for this, not why she would take him down to the lobby, she clearly needed to say something out of Sheldon's earshot, but what. He could nearly rule out the possibility that it had to do with him. Alison hardly knew him. She had been driving Sheldon to and from work, maybe he is a little too crazy. He thought they got along in some strange way, but maybe not.

They had reached the lobby, only standing still for half a second before he blurted out, "Is this about the car rides? It's only 4 more days, and then I'll take over."

"No, um, it's not that at all, let me explain. Um… well you see, where do I begin with this?" Alison struggled nervously to describe the situation.

"Well it may sound cheesy, but you could try the beginning," he suggested trying to lighten the mood.

"It all started when I was accepted for the science program in my school district when I was in the 8th grade. Or maybe it was the first grade when I realized how much I loved science…" She started, but was cut off by Leonard.

"Skip ahead a little."

"Okay so I was hired to the Caltech biochemistry department. I was thrilled, I was living my life dream, I walk into the building of my new home and there's someone digging through my stuff. I somehow manage to play it cool, and I'm glad I did. He turned out to be my neighbor, we work at the same place, and share a morning and evening commute. My research team is a depressed mess, but I know I'll be on my way to bigger and better things soon." It looked like she was talking trying to calm herself down. She was pacing the lobby.

She whipped around to face him, visibly biting her lip, eyebrows furrowed nervously. She took a deep breath. Closed her eyes. "I may have accidentally infected Sheldon with a genetically modified virus," She said it so fast he was shocked he understood it, but he couldn't miss it either. He assumed he looked shocked stunned and terrified because in the next breath she screamed,

"It was an accident I swear!" After another breath she continued, "Okay, now that I've said it, will you let me explain without interruption?" Without waiting for a response she continued, "My team is composed of door knobs. Today we had to observe the virus. Lisa, the least objectionable of all of my teammates, was holding the microscope slide, and she still got the solution containing infectious viruses on my hand. I used Hand Sanitizer that I borrowed from him that morning immediately. I threw it back in my backpack. Now the rest of my day is irrelevant to this explanation, after we got to the building and up the stairs, he wanted me to set up the food, I stood thinking about forks, and somehow I remembered to give him back the Hand sanitizer. I handed it to him and set the fork on top of his food."

"Wait- you touched the forks we ate off of? That means-"

"Ahh, yes you, Howard, and Raj have been spared by the mica eye shadow I got on my hands when I zipped my backpack. I washed it off of my hands before I gave you guys forks. It's not dangerous; in fact, it's less harmful than the wild form of adenovirus 40. It cannot be exposed to the public. No Matter what." She stopped talking.

After several moments of thinking she had come up with a plan. "I have a friend who runs a hotel a few hours away. I'll stay behind and take care of him, it's my fault. Before you say it, I know."

"Know what, that Sheldon is the worst patient in the world?" He scoffed.

{Alison}

"It's what you would call women's intuition, it's the only logical answer," she spoke, forcing herself not to hesitate. She thought of 5 different words she could have used. She Sheldon had an obsessive attachment to it. She had to know why. She couldn't accept it as just a fact. No a concept that meant so much couldn't be discarded. She had to know.

"I'll have an estimate time frame ready for you guys in the morning, get ready to call everyone for an emergency vacation. Anyone who he would trust above me has to be pulled out. You, Penny, Howard, Raj, if Howard goes, than so will Bernadette," She walked halfway up to the first landing, before she turned back down and added, "Amy" She was sure her meaning was clear. No matter how mad at her he thought he was he might still pick her. And Amy wouldn't know what she was up against. "Take Stewart too, and don't worry I'll handle the cover up to get you away safely, and figure out how to tell him the truth."

This was crazy. The best estimate she could manage would be 49 hours from the time of exposure to the time of infection. She couldn't quite determine the time that he would start to shed the virus, and when it would be traceable. More importantly when he would be contagious.

She needed tea. It didn't matter that it was 2 in the morning; she had to find the tea. Sheldon had specifically requested Swedish Breakfast tea every morning since he had first tried it. But it Alison couldn't find it. Alison was about to go crazy. There was only one way to know, it would require precision, a level of accuracy that she couldn't imagine her team being able to reach. She knew exactly what to do. She just had to find tea! She scoured the internet looking for stores in Pasadena that sold it. It didn't open until 6 am. "Crazy tea loving psychos…." She muttered wondering who would go to work at 6 in the morning. She wouldn't sleep tonight.

She needed the tea so she could give Sheldon tea in the usual travel thermos and collect it at about lunch. This would seem normal, and she could test the rim of the cup for the virus.

"Hey, Mandy! How's the hotel business? Umm, so yeah. You know how I was studying to become a geneticist? Well, that happened and so I need to ask you for a little favor. I know you are probably insanely tightly booked for the science convention, but " She started nervously, "I've kind of hit a little situation, long story short I need to get some friends out of town up until the convention. It's only a minor emergency, nothing I can't handle, and I swear I'll explain later, but I just need to know if you have 4 adjacent rooms. No, not adjoining. Just next to each other. Hmm, well if they are on the same floor that should be close enough,"

"Half price for my old roommate," Mandy offered, "Stat Class Buddy?"

"That was only for two years, and then you moved on. I-" Alison tried to decline, she hated feeling like a charity project. She couldn't just accept help. Maybe she was a little bit too independent. Mandy insisted. Alison finally accepted, "Alright, but I'm in California now, I'm going to drive out there in a while and treat you to lunch." Mandy accepted, with words she would never forget. She couldn't even fathom them as it was.

The last time she had decided not to sleep she was in Virginia, in college. Technically she was in a kind of college. She worked at a university. If someone had told her in the 4th grade, when she decided she wouldn't become a veterinarian because she would have to go to extra college, she would have laughed in their face. And now she would spend her whole life in a school.

Life, it had really 'thrown her a curveball' as her dad would say. On the other hand the difference between a back to school outbreak of viral gastroenteritis was her. That was important, empowering. Of course the whole thing was her fault, but she had a chance to stop it. Science Fiction, what little she had let herself read back in high school, it all came down to one person, one moment. It was them against all odds, one huge act of heroism to save the world, or even the universe. Sure this was much smaller, and there was a much better chance that she would succeed.

They always had the courage to make the perfect move. They made mistakes, but never failed in the end, but this was the real world. She was no courageous, stunning heroine with amazing powers; she was a meek, unconfident, geneticist. And if she got into trouble she wouldn't even have the sense to get help. She had to do everything on her own.

Maybe not, maybe she could convince someone to help her. She had to keep the others safe. She knew she did this at the cost of definite infection. If she was doing something so drastic she sure as hell wasn't going to risk that her effort be wasted. Sheldon was seriously mysophobic, she knew. He hadn't said so, but the quantity of hand sanitizers he kept, she knew the way someone watched a sneeze go across a room. She'd tried it before, she didn't really care, but she was observant enough. The way he turned his whole body around when Leonard sneezed, making carful note of everything he touched after.

Alison could easily survive if she was a germaphobe. She did have a habit of tracing potential infectious agents. The dividing line was her habit stemmed purely from boredom, there was nothing more interesting to do. The results of her observations made no effect on her behavior. She knew Sheldon wasn't like that. That was the key; if she could convince him that someone else in the group had a cold he wouldn't touch anything. He would save the group without knowing.

Who did Sheldon have the least empathy for? If there is any chance that he would make an attempt to care for the person, they could be infected. It couldn't be her; she knew she couldn't get him to let her stay if he believed it. Not Amy, if he still had any feelings for her, he might try to help. Penny, no, she was an actress, but she had taken care of him in the past, that could destroy the cautious apathy she needed to get everyone in and out of the apartment uncontaminated. If they were infected it would spread, Sheldon and herself, that was controllable, that could fade out without hitting the public.

Howard. That was it, if she could convince him to fake a cold on Wednesday, Sheldon wouldn't try to assist him, only concerned about his own health. Without realizing the time, Mandy was always a night owl, she knew she'd take nights at the desk, getting her at 2:30 in the morning, a no-brainer. She didn't reconsider this in calling Howard.

"Who are you and what could you possibly need at this hour?" Bernadette yelled when she picked up the phone.

"Alison Carter, I need to talk to Howard," She faltered realizing the inconvenience. They probably hated her for this. She felt like such an idiot!

{Howard}

Barely awake all he knew was that Alison had called.

"You're on Speaker Phone," Bernadette shouted angrily into the phone.

"Umm, well I've got a Sheldon problem," the voice on the phone was nervous, but that someone would have a problem with Sheldon that was no surprise.

She explained something about Sheldon being exposed to genetically modified virus, and that she had booked them a trip to San Diego. Before requesting, "On Wednesday I need you to fake a cold. Tell the others why, I'll call Leonard, but I think it would be best if you explained that you were faking a cold,"

He agreed, after hanging up he told Bernadette, "Well that was bizarre"

He was too exhausted to care; Bernadette seemed to accept the sudden trip that was all that mattered. That and getting back to sleep. Alison was a very interesting person, three in the morning was time for odd frantic phone calls and explanations he wouldn't remember in the morning. She like Sheldon built up impenetrable cover ups for lies.

If it hadn't been the middle of the night he would have asked the obvious question, she hadn't explained to him how he seeming sick would spare the group and the public from the virus. She must think it's obvious. Just like Sheldon. At least she seemed to have limits; she had been too worried about something to realize the time.

Yep, for now you only get to hear Alison's side of the conversation. You'll get to hear Mandy's last statement in a few chapters.