{Alison}

She wasn't lying when she said she wasn't angry. How could she be? It was her fault to begin with. She stood in the shower, hot water pouring over her. She had so much to learn!

At least she had finally told someone everything that had begged to be said for so long. Penny would laugh if she knew that she had just told the story she had refused to tell her to Sheldon. Penny sees him as heartless. That couldn't be farther from true. Sheldon clearly had a heart. The look of pure terror he gave at the prospect of having mortally wounded their friendship, which was more than enough proof for her. And as a scientist who fully subscribed to "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof" that was something. She knew that he wasn't, because he already didn't want to wreck their relationship. After just about a week he already feels like there is something to lose that is worth saving.

If that was heartless then she was a lobster.

He cared more about their friendship than his condition. She knew she had chosen to trust the right person. If she was going to release herself to all of the things that she had held as forbidden, with the assistance of one companion, she was going to be damn sure that it was the right person, there could be no take two, no reset, no second try, it was pick the right guy against all odds or live in solitude.

Solitude, she could manage that… As long as there was Wi-Fi, her own private lab space, and some way to keep it updated, she wouldn't mind never seeing a person face to face again. And that stayed solid, until Sheldon slipped into her mind. She knew she couldn't live in solitude next to him. If he had never existed, she could live alone forever. That was a lot.

"Well, if he can crash my hypothetical plans for solitude, I've made the right choice," she mumbled to herself.

Love, to her it was silly and overrated. She had had more than one boyfriend in the past, but it was never real… Just a publicity stunt between the Urchin cheer squad and various sports teams, particularly football. Especially the flyers, there was something about the skinny, flexible, lightweight cheer girls and the tough, tall school sports stars that "the fans just eat it up, it increases school spirit, as cheerleaders our primary goal is to increase school spirit. Giving them a little cliché fairytale couple increases fan following, it increases ticket sales to games, which increases our budget, plus Prom Queen is ALWAYS an Urchin," Megan Stevens, the head cheerleader her junior and senior years, went on to be a publicist.

This was real, she didn't think it was love, but it was something. She was washing puke out of the tips of her hair. Most of the world would be on a series hate list for that, but she hardly cared, she would be at least a little bit upset about the whole definitely infected with a genetically modified virus thing. She wasn't, she could think of few people she forgave that instantaneously, her father, Mandy, and Sheldon, maybe Penny. Not quite love, but trust, an immense, unbreakable trust, to get that kind of trust from someone known to be reclusive and distrusting, that proved that he was doing something VERY right. She trusted him with the story of her past and the potential of her future.

Friendship, like back in kindergarten, when nothing mattered, and you had nothing to hide yet, an innocent relationship, just two kids, with no idea how the world works, they were just two kids.

He had smiled, multiple times, at her. Most notably earlier that very day, when he had asked her if she had seen any other Science Fiction shows or movies.

"Well hardly… I've tried not to. I've avoided it. I feared that I'd fail to become a geneticist. I didn't want to give myself anything to dream of back then. Now I've got all of history of Sci-Fi and super heroes to catch up on. I couldn't stop myself from watching the Spider-Man movies." She had fed him a cover, an excuse, swearing to tell him the truth when the pressure of the moment was long gone.

He didn't freak out; he simply smiled and responded, "Well, I guess we do…"

He had taken her singular statement and added himself to it, it was perfect. She set her head on the shower wall. She could see the periodic table through the curtain, backwards, but it still enforced how she was finally allowed to do crazy things like that. She was free from her oppressor, herself, but still.

She didn't care what anyone thought, high school was over- way over, so there was no one to think bad about her. Sheldon was here, and he wanted to rehabilitate her, well probably he was most concerned with having a new friend with similar interests, but that was enough.

"Alison?" he whimpered from the other side of the door, "I don't mean to intr-" she heard the door open. It didn't take a quarter of her intellect to piece that together.

She shut the water off and stuck her left arm out of the curtain, placing a hand on the towel hook, feeling the teal towel she had hung there.

'This has to be the most graceful thing no one will see you do, in three, two, one!'

She leaped out of the shower and wrapped up in the towel in one fluid motion.

'There we go Carter, now you are acting like a person.' She congratulated herself in the most condescending possible way.

"Sheldon," she announced her presence to avoid scaring him. Coarsely, but quite frankly she was shocked that she pulled off the towel maneuver.

She had no idea what to do next, she really hadn't thought any farther than leaping out of the shower and wrapping up in a towel, she was pretty sure she would mess that up. She hadn't, she did something right, she knew she had to trust herself, learn to listen to her own instincts.

She set a hand on his back, still unsure of what to do, and like it would matter if she had a plan. Sheldon vomiting and she stood powerless. She might as well be locked in a glass tube. This was a glass tube, her boundaries more mental than physical, and she just couldn't break out.

Sheldon recovered from the attack and stood up, slowly. She didn't think, she just wrapped her arms around him. For one moment she felt useful, he sank into her arms, she felt like she was actually doing what she stayed behind to do. She could feel the extra heat from his fever, knowing things weren't alright. She cared, of course, but for one moment everything was okay.

The moment naturally ended, and the fact that she was simply wrapped in a towel failed to cross her mind. The teal cloth dropped to the floor, her eyes wide with shock as she practically chased it to the ground. Heart pounding she draped the towel around her shoulders quickly then pulling her arms out on top. Panic, her initial reaction was panic. But she knew that Sheldon wasn't that kind of guy.

{Sheldon}

"Well, do we pretend that never happened?" She asked him.

"I assume you would prefer that," he replied.

"I have a feeling that won't be entirely necessary, or possible. We are two individuals with above average memories. Forgetting is impossible. Why should we pretend to forget, when we are beyond mature enough to continue on the same way regardless of the event in question," she responded.

He nodded, agreeing, she had so eloquently stated exactly what he was hoping she would. His question was a bit of a test. Only loosely thought out, but a test none the less.

All of the notable moments faded to the back of his awareness. He was exhausted, sick, and miserable. There was nothing that Alison could do, or fetch that would make it better, lots that could make it worse, but the cold towel and companionship was about all he could ask for. Well, sleep, but even in this state, he knew she couldn't bring him sleep. Too ill to even complain.

He didn't notice that she was guiding him to the couch until they got there.

"So then, Sleep or Star Trek?" Alison asked, with a little glimmer in her eye at the second option, it didn't look like she wanted to show a n opinion, though she did.

"I couldn't sleep if I tried", he replied, forcing her to choose for herself.

"Sleep is useless at this point..." She resumed her position by his knees and continued the show. He knew she could really use sleep, even if she claimed to be fine. She loved it, even if she wouldn't admit it out loud. That simple knowledge was enough to make him feel a bit better. Just a bit, as he still felt horrible.

I'm really sorry for not updating this for so long. It started with a little writer's block, and then I kind of started watching Sherlock, and then I had a little computer issue that really shouldn't have stopped me from writing, but it did, and so I have no legitimate excuse. I don't even think a family death would validate 9 weeks of no writing. How is a traumatic fandom incident? No? Well I will be doing this again as much as I have time for. So very sorry.