Author's note:
I intended to post this earlier but I experienced some issues with . Once again, I did my best to keep everyone in character, let me know your thoughts by reviewing, constructive criticism is always welcome. Thank you for your patience and your reviews.
P.S: I am not a native English speaker so I apologize in advance for any error.
Chapter 4
(flashback)
It was quiet in 4A. Howard and Bernadette had taken Elliot with them to the zoo along with Halley and Michael so Leonard and Penny were granted the opportunity to enjoy an afternoon doing whatever they liked. They were currently spending it curled up on the couch, watching a movie.
Meanwhile, Sheldon was just arriving at 4B. He went to the train store to get something but he had to return as he and Amy were supposed to somewhere at 8 o'clock. The destination was still a secret though. Despite Amy's relentless begging those last three days, Sheldon had not yet revealed any information. It was all supposed to be a surprise and Amy was very excited so he was expecting to find her waiting on the couch.
"Amy, I'm home! Are prepared to leave?" he said cheerfully while opening the door as he was excited for the surprise himself. But the couch was empty and so was the living room and kitchen. "Amy?" he called again in the quiet apartment. As he turned his head, the open bedroom door caught his eye and he went in, thinking she was inside but found it empty, too. He was starting to worry when he noticed that the light was on in the bathroom. The more he approached the bathroom, the more discernible the sound of the shower became.
"Amy, are you still in the shower? We are going to be late, little lady!" he scolded but nobody answered him. With the relief that had momentarily washed over him now vanishing, he got even closer to the bathroom door. That's when he realized there was water under the door, making the carpet damp.
'Knock, knock, knock, Amy'
'Knock, knock, knock, Amy'
'Knock, knock, knock, Amy'
Nothing.
"Amy! Amy, are you inside?" he shouted. He kept knocking, growing more and more worried. He noticed the door was unlocked "Amy, I'm coming in" he announced.
"This is nice" Leonard thought. He might have disagreed with Penny's choice of film but he really adored spending this time with her and, if he had to endure a trite romcom, so be it. It's been months since they last watched tv, curled up on the couch. Penny had drifted off to sleep so he was being careful not to wake her. Everything was peaceful and quiet.
Until it wasn't.
"LEONARD! PENNY!" came Sheldon screams from 4B.
"What happened? Is it Elliot?" Penny said, a bit startled and still half-asleep.
"No, it's the other baby" responded Leonard.
Penny groaned. "Weren't they supposed to be out for the surprise thing?"
"I don't know but, still, wouldn't Amy be there? Why is he calling us?"
"LEONARD! PLEASE HELP!" Sheldon screamed again.
Leonard was now worried, he sounded very distressed. "Should we go?"
"Fine" said Penny and got up from the couch. "But if it's a spider, I'm not killing it." Leonard grabbed their extra key from the bowl and they rushed to 4B. They opened the door but saw no one in the living room.
"Buddy?" Leonard called for his friend.
"In here" came a trembling voice from the bathroom. The couple exchanged glances and paced to the bathroom, their minds racing with possibilities and plausible scenarios. Nothing, though, could have prepared them for the sight awaiting them in their best friends' bathroom.
"Oh, my god!" Leonard uttered upon entering the room.
Penny, being a few steps behind him, opened her mouth to ask him what he saw, but when she reached the doorstep, all that came out was a shriek.
The room was flooded and, in the middle of it, Sheldon down on his knees. His pants had gotten wet and he fought to prevent his tears from escaping his eyes. The most shocking sight of all had to be that of an unconscious Amy he was holding in his arms while pleading for her to respond to him.
"What happened?" Penny dared to ask.
"I don't- I don't know," Sheldon muttered "I came home and I- I found her here."
"Did you check her pulse? Is she breathing?" inquired Leonard.
"Yes, but Leonard, she's not waking up. She's not answering me" he told him, his voice shaking.
"Penny, call 911." Leonard turned to his wife. Penny took out her phone and went to the bedroom to make the call.
"Leonard, what if they don't get here on time? What if she-"
"Don't think like that. Everything is going to be fine. Amy is going to be fine, okay?" he attempted to reassure him despite failing to convince himself.
The next hour was a blur. The paramedics arrived and put Amy in the ambulance. Sheldon requested to accompany her in the ambulance and Leonard and Penny took their car. Penny called the others to inform them but, apart from that, the ride to the hospital was a silent one. They were both terrified. The silence was a disrupted by a notification on Penny's phone that startled them both. They dreaded finding a text from Sheldon telling them something they weren't ready to hear. Penny, hesitantly, picked up her phone and let out a quiet, subtle sigh of relief.
"It's Bernadette. They had Stuart and Denise to come over and watch the kids. "They are on their way to the hospital right now" she informed him.
"Oh, okay." he responded. He was relieved but trepidation continued to be decipherable in his voice.
Soon, they arrived at their destination. Suddenly, they both understood why Sheldon hated hospitals so much. They may lack his aversion to germs but seeing the enormous, grey building sparked even more fear in their eyes. They entered and, with the help of the rude, blonde woman at the reception desk, they managed to find Sheldon. He was sitting in a chair in the corner of the waiting room, staring at the floor. They approached him slowly.
"Hey, buddy" Leonard greeted him softly.
"Hello" he said timidly.
"What did the doctor say?"
"They took her in and told me to wait here but they didn't mention specific about her condition" he replied without looking at them. He kept tapping his foot on the ground and his hands were gripped on chair handles.
"Okay, just try and remain positive" Leonard said in the same tone and put his on his friend's shoulder keeping the other one in his pocket. Sheldon nodded hesitantly while keeping his head down. Leonard and Penny sat down near him. Not long after, the others arrived.
"Oh, here you are!" exclaimed Howard as he emerged in the room, accompanied by Raj and Bernadette.
"What did they tell you?" How is she?" Bernadette rushed to inquire.
"They told us to wait but they haven't given us any information." Penny replied. Bernadette looked around the waiting room and that's when she noticed Sheldon sitting in the corner. He kept looking down, tied to his chair as if he hadn't noticed they arrived.
"How's Sheldon doing?" she asked in a whisper.
"As well as you'd expect him to. He's been like that ever since we came to the hospital." said Penny.
Bernadette went near him but he, again, appeared oblivious to her presence.
"Sheldon? Since we are here, do you want to go take a walk around? Maybe, get something to eat and clear your head?" she said to him, lowering her head to try and meet his gaze.
"I'm not hungry and I'm certainly not 'clearing my head' in here" he responded in a sharp tone, looking around him briefly.
"What was the last time you ate?"
"At work" he responded, still not looking at her.
"That was seven hours ago" Leonard pointed out with concern, yet in a gentle tone.
"Sheldon, you need to eat." Bernadette insisted.
"What I need is to stay here" he raised his voice moderately, clinging more onto his chair.
"Okay, how about Leonard and I go downstairs, get a cup of coffee for everyone and one or two sandwiches? It seems we are going to be here a while." offered Howard.
"Yeah, do that. Coffee is much needed." Penny agreed and patted Leonard on the back.
And they did exactly that. After a quintessentially awkward walk, they got to the hospital cafeteria. Howard placed an order for the coffees and walked up to Leonard who was looking at the sandwiches and snacks with a heavy frown on his face.
"So, how about these two?" Howard proposed while pointing at two of the sandwiches on the counter. "They seem okay"
"No, no, no" mumbled Leonard and shook his head.
"Why? What's wrong with them?"
"In this one, the cheese is in between the ham and the tomato" he responded and pointed at the one on the right. "And that one has honey- lime mayo in it."
"So?"
"Sheldon doesn't eat lime in October. Since Halloween is coming up, it reminds him too much of the whole Skittles maneuver." he explained.
"Leonard, look around you! Think of where we are, think of the reason we are here! He's not going to care about the position of the cheese or Skittles!" Howard yelled quietly, moving his arms in frustration as he did.
"Well, he might, okay? I need to take care of him today. I can't let her down." replied Leonard and, instantly, cursed himself for the Freudian slip that had just escaped him. "Him. I can't let him down." he rushed to correct a little too late. Howard put his hand on his shoulder and didn't say anything at first.
"I'm worried about her, too." he finally let out. They looked at each other briefly, but were interrupted by a strange voice.
"Hey, guys, I don't mean to ruin the moment, but your coffees are ready. Do you want a sandwich or is that all?" spoke the guy from behind the counter.
Back in the waiting room, Sheldon was still in the same chair, same position. He hadn't said a word and his gaze continued to be fixed on the floor. He had been there for hours and he hadn't moved a limb. His mind kept replaying the events of the evening, trying to realize and comprehend what had happened. He couldn't. The eidetic memory, on which he had always prided himself, felt like his enemy at the moment. He could remember it all. Amy, unconscious on the flooded floor, the sound of the water running in the bathroom sink, the way he plead for an answer, for her to wake up. He remembered the ride to the hospital, the sight of her on the stretcher. He was petrified then and he still was. Part of him was waiting to wake up from this torturous nightmare next to her. But he was very well-aware that he was awake and he couldn't bear the thought that he wasn't sure when would be the next time he would have the chance to wake up beside his wife. He was so lost in his thoughts that, despite his Vulcan hearing, he hadn't perceived the whispers of Penny, Bernadette and Raj just a few feet away:
"How did this happen?" Raj finally asked the question he longed to ask and turned to Penny, waiting for an answer.
"I don't know. We heard Sheldon screaming for help and, when we went, we saw her unconscious. He probably found her when he came home, he didn't tell us much. Honestly, I thought he was calling us to kill a spider or something."
"Why would he be calling you to kill a spider in his bathroom?" Bernadette asked.
"He did it three times when Amy was at that neurobiology conference last month." she said, shrugging her shoulders. The sound of Amy's name seemed to make everyone quiet again.
"We brought coffee!" Howard's voice echoed as he and Leonard entered the room, holding 5 coffees and two paper bags. Howard went to give the others their coffee. Meanwhile, Leonard approached Sheldon, clutching one of the two paper bags.
"Hey, buddy" he greeted him in the same manner as before. He attempted to draw his attention to the bag. "We brought sand-"
"Dr. Cooper?" a voice, cold and unfamiliar, interrupted Leonard. A voice they had been waiting and dreading to hear, the doctor. Sheldon got up to talk to the tall, middle-aged man in blue who was calling his name. For a second, he hesitated.
"Can you come with me?" he turned to Leonard.
"Of course" he replied as he was able to decipher the fright quivering his friend. They both walked up to the doctor who was patiently waiting for them on the other side of the room while the others stayed put watching their every step, in anticipation of the news they were about to receive. They observed closely as the doctor informed the two men. They could only see the doctor's back so, for the moment, they could only watch Sheldon and Leonard. They had only been talking to the doctor for a minute or so when Leonard's frown disappeared and was replaced by a blank look. Beside him, Sheldon's face morphed into an indecipherable expression. The doctor put his hand on Sheldon's arm but he displayed no reaction to it. Soon, the doctor was gone and they were both left standing there. They started walking to where the others were patiently waiting. They reached the other side of the room to their friends but neither of them spoke.
"So, what did he tell you?" Raj asked in agony.
"Um, Amy suffered an acute hematoma due to the injury" he paused fleetingly, "They estimate the fall must have occurred hours before Sheldon found her and, um," he paused again, struggling to express himself.
"But she's going to be fine, right?" Penny asked but Leonard stayed silent. "Leonard?" she asked again.
"She's gone." Sheldon spoke from the chair with a weak voice. "Amy is gone."
Penny immediately let out a sob. That wasn't an answer she was ready to hear. Raj sat down slowly and Howard covered his mouth with his hand and took Bernadette, who was crying, in his arms. Leonard also hugged Penny tightly. They all cried. Some more discreetly than others. All except for Sheldon, who was stayed put in his chair, his face occupied by the blankest expression anyone had ever seen.
(end of flashback)