help_haiti - The Return Contingency 2/5? (TBBT/SGA)
Title: The Return Contingency (2/5?)
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1793 for this part.
Disclaimer: Neither TBBT nor SGA are mine.
Summary: TBBT AU S4, SGA AU S3ish (diverges before The Return, Sunday never happens)
An old friend of Sheldon's needs help, but he and his team have brought trouble with them... (Sheldon/Penny) Part 1
help_haiti fic for ishie
AN: Sooo…as some of you know I’ve had some, let's say personal issues I've had to straighten out. My sincerest apologies that I basically disappeared, and that fic was delayed because of this. =/ I swear I haven't forgotten.
Also, Man, using everyone’s first names in the SGA fandom is incredibly weird, but I figured the BBT people would find it natural.
...TRC Part 2...
./.
At 7:59pm, all ten of them are crammed into Howard’s bedroom. Penny’s been waiting for him to make an unfortunate comment, but either the fact that there are only two women or merely the seriousness of the situation has kept him mostly quiet so far.
Raj, on the other hand, is holding a beer and talking to a laughing Carson. (“I don’t know if it’s really the moment for alcohol,” Elizabeth had said, and Penny had winced. “He…ah…can’t talk in front of women unless he’s drunk.” Elizabeth had sighed. “Another scientist,” she’d said, and Penny’d smirked.)
Leonard, who’d been packed into his car with the strangers, seems oddly cowed and is sulking in the corner.
“Howard!!” his mother yells, and Howard closes his eyes, obviously mortified.
“Yeah, Mom?” he screams back.
“Do your little friends want some snacks?”
“Oh, that’d be great!” Rodney cuts in. “But nothing with lemons, I’m allergic to lemons.”
“Sure, Mom,” Howard shouts.
“But no lemons!” Rodney adds with a yell. John is full-out smirking while Elizabeth rolls her eyes.
“Perhaps we should explain now?” Radek says, pushing his glasses up on his nose and looking slightly annoyed, as well as very bedraggled. Whatever they’re all involved in, Radek does not seem to approve, Penny thinks.
Sheldon, who’s sitting rather stiffly on Howard’s desk chair, lifts a cool eyebrow at Rodney. “Perhaps you should explain why you’ve hunted me down after all this time, Dr. McKay,” he says, voice tight. Rodney winces and sits down on the bed behind him as everyone else quiets down and looks at the unfolding situation.
“This is top secret, of course,” he says.
Sheldon opens his mouth with a scowl at about the same time as John says, “I think we’re a bit past that, Rodney. Just spit it out.”
The two of them share a look, and then with a shrug Rodney says, “Atlantis was taken over. We need you to help us take it back.”
Which is, of course, not nearly enough information, and Radek sits down on the bed next to Rodney, reflexively wrinkling his nose. “You know of Atlantis?” he asks, and Sheldon says yes at the same time Leonard snorts no. Radek nods and then shakes his head with a sigh. “Simply put, there is an organization-The Trust. They have infiltrated the SGC-”
“The SGC?” Howard cuts in, now perched on the edge of his desk in what little room remains around the speakers, computer, externals and various other scattered equipment. “What’s the SGC?”
With a sigh Elizabeth pushes away from the wall in full-lecture mode and John discreetly shares a smile with Carson. “The SGC stands for Stargate Command, a US military base,” she says. “Stargate’s are devices the military uses to travel from one planet to another. Atlantis is a base on another planet in another galaxy.
“The Trust, which is in effect a terrorist organization that branched off from one of our own government agencies, infiltrated the SGC, planted people aboard one of our spaceships, and when that spaceship had arrived in the Pegasus Galaxy instituted a lockdown of the SGC. In the 45 minutes of that lockdown, the Trust sent through emergency evacuation orders, following our own protocols, and with Destiny hovering in our orbit backing them up, we were forced to evacuate the city and return to Earth. Communications were jammed, and by the time we realized what had occurred and helped take back control, it was too late.”
Howard is staring at her, wide-eyed. Raj tilts back his beer, blinking. It goes down the wrong way and he starts coughing while Carson pounds him on the back. Leonard is looking around in disbelief. But Sheldon, oh Penny’s looking at Sheldon, and Sheldon’s eyes are closed, his fingers too tight around the armrests of the chair, his mouth pinched.
“Why are you here, Rodney?” he asks, blue eyes flaring open, and Rodney’s chin tilts up a little, something like determination and regret flickering across his face.
“The SGC is trying to keep us out of the loop. They’re discussing attempting to destroy the city rather than let the Trust remain in control. We aren’t going to let that happen.”
“I can’t help you,” Sheldon says, standing up and moving towards the door, but Penny catches his arm. His eyes meet hers, and she shakes her head minutely. He pauses. Inhales. Exhales. “This is ridiculous,” he says. “Penny, it’s ridiculous.”
“It is ridiculous,” Leonard growls, standing up. “You can’t honestly expect us to believe this, can you?”
John smirks. “It is a little out there, I know,” he says. “But remember that little chat we had in the car?”
“I’m not going to be threatened into-”
“Another galaxy?” Howard asks, wide-eyed, and Rodney sighs before tossing John a small round object.
“Light her up,” he says, and John grins as Howard lunges to his feet-
The device lights up and then lifts off of John’s hands to hover in the air, turning slowly. A slow blink from John and an array of stars appear in three-dimensional beauty around them, the object still hovering carefree above John’s hands.
Rodney starts pointing and discussing star systems, but Howard has quite obviously tuned him out as he looks at the spinning object and starts asking John quiet questions. Raj is looking less shell-shocked and has stopped coughing, and is talking to Carson, and Radek is appearing to be quite firm with Leonard.
Penny grabs Sheldon’s hand and pulls him backwards into Howard’s bathroom, and it’s a sign of the extremity of the situation that he follows her unprotesting.
“Talk to me,” she says. “This is real, isn’t it?”
Sheldon’s fingers interlace and then pull apart before wandering back to twist together fruitlessly. His mouth, on the other hand, is a firm unmoving line.
“Sheldon?” she presses, and his darting eyes slow down and slide over to meet hers.
“Rodney asked me to be a member of the science team that went to Atlantis,” he says, voice soft. “He had me sign a non-disclosure agreement and flew me out to Antarctica and showed me…Penny…” he breathes out, and the sheer, breath-taking wonder in his voice is enough for her to know.
“You didn’t go,” she says, because out of all the ridiculous things that have happened and that she’s heard in the last several hours, this is for some reason the strangest.
“Penny,” Sheldon says. One word that conveys his doubt and insecurities and irritation and fear, things he tries to lock away on a daily basis, parts of himself he doesn’t like to share. “Could you see me there?”
The answer is obvious to her, if not to him-Sheldon, her man of science, who has forced himself beyond his boundaries for her when she needed it, but maybe that’s why, maybe he couldn’t force himself past them for only his sake. Still, she says “Yes” without hesitation, her hands pulling his away from their fidgeting, her pulse steady just below her skin.
He opens his mouth, closes it, frowns, and then roundly changes the subject. “There are strange men in my apartment,” he says, words laced with irritation and indignation, and she can’t quite swallow the laugh in time.
There’s a quick rap on the door and then Elizabeth opens the door and leans in. “There’s food, if you want any,” she says. “Also, your friend’s mother is trying to hit on Carson. You really ought to see this,” she smirks.
From the other room they can hear Raj laughing, Howard’s voice pitching progressively higher, and even Leonard’s voice sounds amused. Penny looks up at Sheldon and he nods.
“You’ll hear them out, at least?” she asks, and he looks down at where his hands are still held in her grasp.
“My apartment is being ransacked, and we are trapped in Howard’s room with men who are undoubtedly masked coming after us. I haven’t really a choice in the matter, have I?”
“Sheldon-” she says, and he shakes his head.
“I will not make promises I may not be able to keep, Penny,” he says, pulling her back toward the bedroom. “I'll do what I am able.”
She smiles. “Beyond the brains,” she says, “You’re capable of more than you think you are.”
Howard has practically shoved his mother back into the hallway, so when Penny and Sheldon reenter the room they seem his standing in front of the door, red-faced and holding a tray of sandwiches. Across the way, a similarly red Carson is getting ragged on by an amused John and Rodney and a flat-out cackling Raj. Leonard and Radek are smirking with each other, and Penny feels a pang of relief that he’s finally settled down.
Rodney looks up, meets Sheldon’s eyes, winces slightly and then in a completely unexpected moment steps forward and grabs Sheldon in a hug.
The entire room goes silent. John is gaping. Raj keeps poking Carson insistently. Penny is trying not to grin, and Elizabeth doesn’t even appear to be trying.
“It’s good to see you,” Penny hears Rodney mumble. “I should’ve said that first.”
There’s an almost too-long beat and then Sheldon’s left arm snakes up to grab Rodney back. “Likewise,” he says.
Penny locks her knees to fight against suddenly unsteady legs, and then Rodney is suddenly three feet from Sheldon and they’re in full on technobabble mode.
And as much as she’s seen this with the boys, she can tell that this is different, that Rodney’s mind is rocketing around just as fast as Sheldon’s, that they’re keeping up with each other effortlessly and with obvious enjoyment.
Terms and equations and hell knows what else are slung around too fast for her to follow, but Sheldon’s right hand still hasn’t let go of hers, so she stays where she is.
And then there's the briefest lull in the conversation, and Leonard interjects something, and Sheldon shoots him a look of surprise and then spares him a nod, and Radek and Raj and Howard step tentatively forward while John shifts and pretends to look bored. Penny squeezes Sheldon’s hand and slips away.
Carson shares an understanding smile with her. “I cannae follow them when thaire like this,” he says, and Elizabeth drops on the bed beside Penny.
“It’s usually best they get it out of their system before we start planning,” she says with a wry smile and a tilt of her head that Carson obviously agrees with from past experience.
Penny nods vaguely and then with a horrified expression darts up. “Ohmigod! she chokes out. “I was just sitting on Howard’s bed!”
Howard grins at her, eyebrows lecherous, and Elizabeth gets up warily.
“Maybe I’ll just stand.”
…tbc…
Part Three
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1793 for this part.
Disclaimer: Neither TBBT nor SGA are mine.
Summary: TBBT AU S4, SGA AU S3ish (diverges before The Return, Sunday never happens)
An old friend of Sheldon's needs help, but he and his team have brought trouble with them... (Sheldon/Penny) Part 1
help_haiti fic for ishie
AN: Sooo…as some of you know I’ve had some, let's say personal issues I've had to straighten out. My sincerest apologies that I basically disappeared, and that fic was delayed because of this. =/ I swear I haven't forgotten.
Also, Man, using everyone’s first names in the SGA fandom is incredibly weird, but I figured the BBT people would find it natural.
...TRC Part 2...
./.
At 7:59pm, all ten of them are crammed into Howard’s bedroom. Penny’s been waiting for him to make an unfortunate comment, but either the fact that there are only two women or merely the seriousness of the situation has kept him mostly quiet so far.
Raj, on the other hand, is holding a beer and talking to a laughing Carson. (“I don’t know if it’s really the moment for alcohol,” Elizabeth had said, and Penny had winced. “He…ah…can’t talk in front of women unless he’s drunk.” Elizabeth had sighed. “Another scientist,” she’d said, and Penny’d smirked.)
Leonard, who’d been packed into his car with the strangers, seems oddly cowed and is sulking in the corner.
“Howard!!” his mother yells, and Howard closes his eyes, obviously mortified.
“Yeah, Mom?” he screams back.
“Do your little friends want some snacks?”
“Oh, that’d be great!” Rodney cuts in. “But nothing with lemons, I’m allergic to lemons.”
“Sure, Mom,” Howard shouts.
“But no lemons!” Rodney adds with a yell. John is full-out smirking while Elizabeth rolls her eyes.
“Perhaps we should explain now?” Radek says, pushing his glasses up on his nose and looking slightly annoyed, as well as very bedraggled. Whatever they’re all involved in, Radek does not seem to approve, Penny thinks.
Sheldon, who’s sitting rather stiffly on Howard’s desk chair, lifts a cool eyebrow at Rodney. “Perhaps you should explain why you’ve hunted me down after all this time, Dr. McKay,” he says, voice tight. Rodney winces and sits down on the bed behind him as everyone else quiets down and looks at the unfolding situation.
“This is top secret, of course,” he says.
Sheldon opens his mouth with a scowl at about the same time as John says, “I think we’re a bit past that, Rodney. Just spit it out.”
The two of them share a look, and then with a shrug Rodney says, “Atlantis was taken over. We need you to help us take it back.”
Which is, of course, not nearly enough information, and Radek sits down on the bed next to Rodney, reflexively wrinkling his nose. “You know of Atlantis?” he asks, and Sheldon says yes at the same time Leonard snorts no. Radek nods and then shakes his head with a sigh. “Simply put, there is an organization-The Trust. They have infiltrated the SGC-”
“The SGC?” Howard cuts in, now perched on the edge of his desk in what little room remains around the speakers, computer, externals and various other scattered equipment. “What’s the SGC?”
With a sigh Elizabeth pushes away from the wall in full-lecture mode and John discreetly shares a smile with Carson. “The SGC stands for Stargate Command, a US military base,” she says. “Stargate’s are devices the military uses to travel from one planet to another. Atlantis is a base on another planet in another galaxy.
“The Trust, which is in effect a terrorist organization that branched off from one of our own government agencies, infiltrated the SGC, planted people aboard one of our spaceships, and when that spaceship had arrived in the Pegasus Galaxy instituted a lockdown of the SGC. In the 45 minutes of that lockdown, the Trust sent through emergency evacuation orders, following our own protocols, and with Destiny hovering in our orbit backing them up, we were forced to evacuate the city and return to Earth. Communications were jammed, and by the time we realized what had occurred and helped take back control, it was too late.”
Howard is staring at her, wide-eyed. Raj tilts back his beer, blinking. It goes down the wrong way and he starts coughing while Carson pounds him on the back. Leonard is looking around in disbelief. But Sheldon, oh Penny’s looking at Sheldon, and Sheldon’s eyes are closed, his fingers too tight around the armrests of the chair, his mouth pinched.
“Why are you here, Rodney?” he asks, blue eyes flaring open, and Rodney’s chin tilts up a little, something like determination and regret flickering across his face.
“The SGC is trying to keep us out of the loop. They’re discussing attempting to destroy the city rather than let the Trust remain in control. We aren’t going to let that happen.”
“I can’t help you,” Sheldon says, standing up and moving towards the door, but Penny catches his arm. His eyes meet hers, and she shakes her head minutely. He pauses. Inhales. Exhales. “This is ridiculous,” he says. “Penny, it’s ridiculous.”
“It is ridiculous,” Leonard growls, standing up. “You can’t honestly expect us to believe this, can you?”
John smirks. “It is a little out there, I know,” he says. “But remember that little chat we had in the car?”
“I’m not going to be threatened into-”
“Another galaxy?” Howard asks, wide-eyed, and Rodney sighs before tossing John a small round object.
“Light her up,” he says, and John grins as Howard lunges to his feet-
The device lights up and then lifts off of John’s hands to hover in the air, turning slowly. A slow blink from John and an array of stars appear in three-dimensional beauty around them, the object still hovering carefree above John’s hands.
Rodney starts pointing and discussing star systems, but Howard has quite obviously tuned him out as he looks at the spinning object and starts asking John quiet questions. Raj is looking less shell-shocked and has stopped coughing, and is talking to Carson, and Radek is appearing to be quite firm with Leonard.
Penny grabs Sheldon’s hand and pulls him backwards into Howard’s bathroom, and it’s a sign of the extremity of the situation that he follows her unprotesting.
“Talk to me,” she says. “This is real, isn’t it?”
Sheldon’s fingers interlace and then pull apart before wandering back to twist together fruitlessly. His mouth, on the other hand, is a firm unmoving line.
“Sheldon?” she presses, and his darting eyes slow down and slide over to meet hers.
“Rodney asked me to be a member of the science team that went to Atlantis,” he says, voice soft. “He had me sign a non-disclosure agreement and flew me out to Antarctica and showed me…Penny…” he breathes out, and the sheer, breath-taking wonder in his voice is enough for her to know.
“You didn’t go,” she says, because out of all the ridiculous things that have happened and that she’s heard in the last several hours, this is for some reason the strangest.
“Penny,” Sheldon says. One word that conveys his doubt and insecurities and irritation and fear, things he tries to lock away on a daily basis, parts of himself he doesn’t like to share. “Could you see me there?”
The answer is obvious to her, if not to him-Sheldon, her man of science, who has forced himself beyond his boundaries for her when she needed it, but maybe that’s why, maybe he couldn’t force himself past them for only his sake. Still, she says “Yes” without hesitation, her hands pulling his away from their fidgeting, her pulse steady just below her skin.
He opens his mouth, closes it, frowns, and then roundly changes the subject. “There are strange men in my apartment,” he says, words laced with irritation and indignation, and she can’t quite swallow the laugh in time.
There’s a quick rap on the door and then Elizabeth opens the door and leans in. “There’s food, if you want any,” she says. “Also, your friend’s mother is trying to hit on Carson. You really ought to see this,” she smirks.
From the other room they can hear Raj laughing, Howard’s voice pitching progressively higher, and even Leonard’s voice sounds amused. Penny looks up at Sheldon and he nods.
“You’ll hear them out, at least?” she asks, and he looks down at where his hands are still held in her grasp.
“My apartment is being ransacked, and we are trapped in Howard’s room with men who are undoubtedly masked coming after us. I haven’t really a choice in the matter, have I?”
“Sheldon-” she says, and he shakes his head.
“I will not make promises I may not be able to keep, Penny,” he says, pulling her back toward the bedroom. “I'll do what I am able.”
She smiles. “Beyond the brains,” she says, “You’re capable of more than you think you are.”
Howard has practically shoved his mother back into the hallway, so when Penny and Sheldon reenter the room they seem his standing in front of the door, red-faced and holding a tray of sandwiches. Across the way, a similarly red Carson is getting ragged on by an amused John and Rodney and a flat-out cackling Raj. Leonard and Radek are smirking with each other, and Penny feels a pang of relief that he’s finally settled down.
Rodney looks up, meets Sheldon’s eyes, winces slightly and then in a completely unexpected moment steps forward and grabs Sheldon in a hug.
The entire room goes silent. John is gaping. Raj keeps poking Carson insistently. Penny is trying not to grin, and Elizabeth doesn’t even appear to be trying.
“It’s good to see you,” Penny hears Rodney mumble. “I should’ve said that first.”
There’s an almost too-long beat and then Sheldon’s left arm snakes up to grab Rodney back. “Likewise,” he says.
Penny locks her knees to fight against suddenly unsteady legs, and then Rodney is suddenly three feet from Sheldon and they’re in full on technobabble mode.
And as much as she’s seen this with the boys, she can tell that this is different, that Rodney’s mind is rocketing around just as fast as Sheldon’s, that they’re keeping up with each other effortlessly and with obvious enjoyment.
Terms and equations and hell knows what else are slung around too fast for her to follow, but Sheldon’s right hand still hasn’t let go of hers, so she stays where she is.
And then there's the briefest lull in the conversation, and Leonard interjects something, and Sheldon shoots him a look of surprise and then spares him a nod, and Radek and Raj and Howard step tentatively forward while John shifts and pretends to look bored. Penny squeezes Sheldon’s hand and slips away.
Carson shares an understanding smile with her. “I cannae follow them when thaire like this,” he says, and Elizabeth drops on the bed beside Penny.
“It’s usually best they get it out of their system before we start planning,” she says with a wry smile and a tilt of her head that Carson obviously agrees with from past experience.
Penny nods vaguely and then with a horrified expression darts up. “Ohmigod! she chokes out. “I was just sitting on Howard’s bed!”
Howard grins at her, eyebrows lecherous, and Elizabeth gets up warily.
“Maybe I’ll just stand.”
…tbc…
Part Three