"Hey sweetie!" Penny waved at Leonard from behind the bar, and then grinned widely as she saw Sheldon walk in behind him. "I see you brought a friend with you."
"Actually, I'm here with him…Get him whatever he wants and it's on me." Leonard jerked his thumb over at his roommate who was carefully wiping the seat of the stool with a wet wipe pulled from his pocket.
"Okay…" Penny drawled slowly and made her way over to where Sheldon was now perched on the very edge of the stool. "What can I get for you, Tex? Virgin Cuba Libre or perhaps a Shirley Temple?"
"Long Island Iced Tea please barkeep." Sheldon stated quietly, his fingers flipping a coaster over and over. Penny glanced over at Leonard and he gave her a slight nod, she pulled a tall glass over and filled it halfway with ice, before adding the liquor mix and topping it off with a squirt of cola. She slapped a napkin down on the counter and placed Sheldon's drink on it, sliding a straw among the ice cubes. "Thanks…" Sheldon mumbled as his hand closed around the glass, his fingers trailing up to make patterns in the condensation that formed around the outside.
"That bad, huh?" Penny asked Leonard as she slid a soft drink in front of him and he sipped slowly.
"Sheldon and Amy? Yeah, that must have been hell on earth; and it sure explains a lot about him."
"How do you mean? What happened between the two of them?" Penny whispered as she leant closer to Leonard, sneaking a peak over at where Sheldon was sucking down his drink. Leonard checked to see whether Sheldon was paying any attention and slid a lone photograph over the counter, keeping it face down so that Penny couldn't see the image just yet.
"Sheldon did meet Amy when they were at Harvard…but they were a little bit more than just friends."
"And?" Penny asked as she tried to prise up the edge of the photograph; Leonard relaxed his grip and let Penny flip over the image. "Aww, it's Moonpie dancing with his Meemaw…ooh, he looks kinds cute all suited up, must have been a special occasion."
"You could say that…look closer." Leonard tapped the corner of the photograph and Penny squinted a little as she leant in closer. "See that? Right there…"
"The little table?" Penny glanced up at Leonard and he nodded. "There's presents stacked up and that's maybe the edge of a cake?"
"Yes…?" Leonard drew out the word and glanced over to see Sheldon reaching the bottom of his glass. He turned slightly to the side and tapped the photo again. "And Sheldon's wearing a fancy suit because…?"
"Holy crap on a cracker! They got married?" Penny squealed and then clapped her hand over her mouth when she realised that her excited tones had Sheldon raising his head to glance over at them. "This is a real picture right? Not one of those photo shop thingies that Howard cooked up as some sort of weird joke?" Penny lowered her voice and leant over the bar.
"It is a real picture and you definitely shouldn't ever refer to it as a joke in Sheldon's presence." Leonard's face was completely serious as he warned Penny of the potential consequences. "You'd most likely look at making his mortal enemy list with no chance of ever getting off it if you so much as thought about it, never mind saying out loud."
"Wow…little Shelly actually got married." Penny shook her head in amazement, as she handed the photo back to Leonard who slipped it into his pocket. "I wonder how long they were married for?"
"That's the thing, Penny…they still are." Leonard let his words sink in a little before continuing, "Sheldon said that he's never been interested in anyone else remotely so why would he bother getting a divorce? Plus, there was the little inconvenient fact that he didn't know where she was…"
"Wait…! Sheldon didn't remember where he put his own wife? That's a classic!" Penny smirked over at Leonard, and when he didn't smile in return Penny knew there was something more to the tale.
"Unfortunately there is nothing remotely funny about the whole thing, Penny. Something terrible happened and Amy ran away to recover, the whole thing changed Sheldon into the man he is today and he's been trying to find her ever since."
"How terrible?" Penny asked, her eyes full of worry for their friend. Leonard just glanced over at Sheldon's woebegone face and shook his head.
"It's not my tale to tell, Penny."
"Leonard? Where's Leonard? Oh…there you are." Sheldon looked up from his empty glass and slid over onto the vacant stool next to his roommate. He tapped his empty glass and Penny recognised it as the universal symbol for a refill.
"How're you doing, buddy?" Leonard asked, and Penny could hear the sorrow lacing his tone as he glanced over at his roommate. Sheldon sighed heavily as he slumped on the bar stool.
"I'll be fine once I get another one of these inside me."
"Sheldon, alcohol isn't always the best solution you know." Penny said as she slid the refill in front of her friend.
"I come from Texas, a little drink like this isn't likely to knock me back." Sheldon sucked down half of his drink in one go and then pushed it away. "It doesn't taste as good as I remembered…Oh God, what am I even doing?" Sheldon leant his forehead against the counter and Leonard rubbed his back.
"What do you want, buddy? Do you want me to take you home or maybe we could order some bar food here?"
"I don't know…" Sheldon's face was tortured as he tugged at his hair. "It's as though my world has been wrenched apart again and I don't know whether I'm strong enough to survive it if she leaves me again." Sheldon's voice dropped down until it was a mere whisper and Leonard felt his own heart cracking a little at the thought of his friend experiencing that much pain.
"Here, sweetie…let's get you over to a table where you can sit more comfortably." Penny came around the bar, and Leonard saw that she had taken off her apron. "Marty's covering the rest of my shift…Sheldon's more important right now."
"Wanna see a picture of her, Leonard?" Sheldon asked, a little drowsy from the alcohol intake and Leonard nodded, thinking Sheldon was going to pull a picture of Amy out of his wallet. Instead, Sheldon pulled out a little laminated envelope and smiled tenderly at the tiny image, before handing it over to Leonard.
"That's my little pumpkin, Emily Rose…."
"Oh Sheldon…" Penny peered over Leonard's shoulder and her eyes filled with tears as she saw the sonogram image of the tiny baby; knowing instantly what the tragedy was that pulled Sheldon and his wife apart. "Sweetie…"
"You can't tell Amy that I have that, Leonard…" Sheldon said, taking the picture back and storing it safely behind his secret agent card in his wallet. "After the accident she got rid of everything that would remind her; she forgot that I had one in my wallet."
"Okay, I won't tell." Leonard promised and Penny nodded in agreement.
"I promise…how did you leave things with Amy tonight? Are you going to see each other again?"
"Tomorrow afternoon, we're meeting up to discuss where we go next." Sheldon was rubbing his finger and Leonard finally realised that the nervous habit that he'd seen over the years was probably from where Sheldon used to rub his thumb over his wedding ring; something he'd seen his own father do on many an occasion.
"You can always put it back on, you know?" Leonard suggested quietly, nodding at his friend's left hand, and Sheldon quickly tucked his hand under the table, flushing a little under the scrutiny. "You do that a lot, especially when you're nervous."
"Habit, I guess…I can't put it back on, not until she's ready; if she's ever ready. I want her back, Leonard. She's like the other half of my soul and I feel empty without her beside me. What can I do?" Sheldon raised his pale, tear streaked face up at Leonard and it was Penny that leant forward to take his hand.
"You're going to walk over to that bathroom and wash your face, and then Leonard's going to drive you home. We're going to share a nice pot of tea and you can tell us all about this woman that made my Shelly cry. Go on, wash up and we'll take you home." Penny nudged Sheldon in the direction of the men's room and she murmured to Leonard that she would be right back.
"I just need to grab my stuff from my locker, can you give me a ride back in the morning to fetch my car?"
"Sure." Leonard nodded and Penny kissed his cheek before ducking into the small room behind the bar to fetch her purse and jacket. When she returned, Sheldon was waiting quietly at the table and he looked up as Penny approached.
"Leonard's just paying the bar tab." He explained briefly and rose to his feet, looking a little uncertain. Penny wrapped her hands around his forearm and tugged him over to the exit.
"Let's get some fresh air, we can wait for Leonard outside." She didn't wait for him to argue, just kept tugging on his arm until he followed her out into the warm night. "It's nearly summer…you can almost smell it coming." Penny turned her head up to the moon and breathed in deeply.
"You're one crazy lady…" Sheldon shook his head at her antics and sat down on the low wall outside the restaurant. "I hate the summer."
"I know, sweetie…Is that when it happened?"
"Please, don't call me that; not tonight…Amy used to call me sweetheart and every time you call me 'sweetie' it reminds me of her." Sheldon glanced over at Penny and she saw the pleading look in his eye and nodded. His lip rose in a slight quirk of thanks and he continued. "Just before…it was summer when Amy left me, if I close my eyes I can still smell the scent of warm popcorn and freshly mown grass. The accident was at the end of May, I was released a few weeks later and we lost Emily on June twentieth…By the third week of July, Amy was gone."
"What were you in hospital for? I know you said it was a car accident, but you never said where you were injured."
"I broke my ankle when it got jammed under the foot well. They had to cut me out of the car where the door buckled around me." Sheldon shoved up the sleeve of his t-shirt and revealed what he kept hidden from view; a faded pattern of scar tissue crisscrossed around his triceps and disappeared up his sleeve. "I took most of the impact on my side of the car, where I tried to steer away from the bank; the glass shattered and this was the result. It goes up around my shoulder and half way down my back." He said in a matter of fact manner. "That's why I prefer to wear long sleeves, it stops all of the questions."
"You ready, buddy?" Leonard asked as he jogged over to join them at the wall. Sheldon nodded silently and followed him back to the car, Penny clinging to his hand the whole time. They drove back to the apartment in almost complete silence and walked up the stairs to the fourth floor, where Sheldon came to an abrupt halt at the top. His mouth running dry at the sight that awaited on the landing.