Fic: The Ghost Girl Complex
Title: The Ghost Girl Complex
Part 1
Author: she_burns1
Pairing: Sheldon/Penny, Leonard/Penny
Rating: R
Word Count: 3,392
Summary: Life didn't really get interesting for Penny until after she died.
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The plot is all mine. No copyright infringement is intended.
Notes: I have Sheldon/Penny as a pairing, but I think this is going to pan out to be a bit more friendship fic than a romance one. This is also a strange blend of genres - angst and humor and then more angst.
What's the last thing she remembered?
She was in her car on Archer Avenue, she was entering the intersection and her engine made an awful noise - whining and sputtering and (if it was possible) her check engine light was flashing in a strobe-like fashion laughing at her.
She cursed and pumped the gas and fiddled with the keys but it was too late. Her car was dead and in the worst possible location. She had many fleeting thoughts snowball on top of one another - she thought about pulling out her cell phone and calling someone (who, she didn't know), she thought about the cops showing up to redirect traffic (embarrassing), and she thought about how this was just her luck.
Then there had been...a flash. A blur. Something like a scream and a wail and then bright, bright lights. So bright and blinding and all encompassing.
And now here she was.
Penny walked up to her apartment, her feet trudging slowly and she kept wondering how she got here, the exact last thing she remembered.
How did she get home?
She shook her head and decided it didn't matter, nothing mattered past a hot bath and reassessing the situation. She'd take that bath, go downstairs, take a look at her car (was it here?) and figure it all out from there.
She went to her apartment door and reached in her pockets. Huh. No keys. She frowned and chewed on her bottom lip and wondered what to do now when suddenly there was a flurry of activity behind her.
She turned and saw 4A's door burst open, saw Leonard run down the stairs. She called after him but he didn't acknowledge her. She frowned and saw he had left the door to the apartment open. Shrugging, she went inside.
Despite the on again/off again nature of their relationship, Penny had never found it strange to be in the boys' apartment. It was like a second home to her. Or maybe a third. After all, there was her true home (Nebraska), her apartment home, and then this home.
She didn't know why, but she found her hand running fondly over the book shelf, along the back of the couch. Penny looked at the mess on the living room table - old Chinese food boxes, the television remote, some comics - and she smiled.
Some things never changed.
She went and took her bath. It was hot and soapy and perfect. When she got out of the tub and dried herself, she looked down and frowned. Strange. The tub was completely dry again, as if she hadn't used it at all.
She shook her head and finished drying off. She thought to dress in some of Leonard's clothes like she used to (baggy pajama pants, oversized comic book shirt) but instead chose to find her spare key and go over to her place.
She looked and, not having any success, chose to toss back on the clothes she had just been wearing - not the best thing, yes, but it would have to do temporarily. The last thing she needed was for Leonard and Sheldon to come home and for her to be clad in nothing but a towel.
Once dressed, she started a more thorough search for her keys.
That's when she heard footsteps and voices.
"...we've got to go to her place, we've got to find her phone book."
"What about her cell phone?"
"Too damaged."
Penny saw Howard and Raj enter, she greeted them with a wave and a hearty 'hey guys', anticipating the moment when Raj would clam up and Howard would transform into a smarmy flirt, but instead they ignored her.
...and their faces...
Raj looked stricken, her eyes watery and Howard...he just seemed...beaten down...tired...
"What about Sheldon? Why isn't he-?" Raj asked and Penny beamed, her voice bright, "Raj! You talked in front of me!"
Howard answered Raj as if Penny hadn't spoken, "He's with Leonard."
"Really? Is he the best one to-"
"Yes," Howard interrupted firmly, "Believe it or not, he is. Think about it."
Raj nodded numbly, then, "I can't believe she-"
"Don't," Howard breathed, clearing his throat, "Just don't."
Penny frowned, "Um...guys?"
Neither one answered her. Penny started to feel a fluttering in her belly, a nervousness bordering on fear.
"Let's just find the keys and-and go over there...get this over with," Howard said, his whole demeanor bustling with a pent up energy, a strange web of emotions flittering over his face as he tossed things about.
Penny watched with confusion as he and Raj took no care with their friends' things. Comics that were to be kept in pristine condition were tossed and stepped on, their spines broken, pages bent. Notes were scattered, misplaced, landing in heaps on the floor. Penny cleared her throat, "Okay, um, you guys are scaring me. Tell me what's happening?"
Raj tossed aside couch cushions, Howard almost upended the whole living room table, his voice strained, "It's not here, I don't-"
"Maybe in one of their bedrooms?"
"Why would one of them have her apartment keys there?"
"Leonard, late night booty call, Sheldon...don't know."
Howard sighed heavily, then shook his head, "Let's check there."
Howard and Raj trudged off towards the back of the apartment. Penny just stood in the kitchen, her heart in her throat and she wanted to shout, she wanted to scream, she wanted to know what was happening.
But all she could think about now was the unfilled blank in her mind. How had she gotten here? How had she gotten home?
Her car breaking down...
Busy intersection...
All that noise, that light...and there had been...such a shock...pain? Had there been...
Just her luck.
Penny sat down on the floor.
She sat down on the tiled floor of the kitchen, her arms drawing her knees close, hugging them.
Raj had spoken in front of her.
Howard had ignored her.
They both hadn't...it was like they couldn't see...
"I found them!" Raj's voice called brightly and she could dimly hear Howard, "Where?"
"Leonard's nightstand."
"Figures. Was it next to a Penny shrine?"
Terrible silence.
Then, "It was a joke. I meant...I was talking about."
"I know," Raj's voice was so soft, so gentle, and Penny felt her hand go to her mouth and she didn't know why, "It's okay."
Howard and Raj returned to her view. She watched them exit the apartment. Watched them go into her own. She got to her feet. She followed them. Once inside her own apartment she felt better, she felt...whole.
Raj and Howard, amazingly, didn't have to search half as long to find her phone book. Howard flipped through it idly, "Ah. Okay. Here's her parents number."
"Who's going to call?"
"I don't know."
Penny was relieved when Howard and Raj left. She sat on her couch in the silence of her apartment. She rested her head back on the couch and closed her eyes.
***
It was dark when Penny woke up.
She sat up slowly and stretched. She rubbed at a kink in her neck. Rubbing at her eyes, everything came back. A slow filter, but there. The words, the movements, the feeling...the feeling of something cold and awful, a wet stone in the pit of her stomach...
She shook her head and got to her feet.
No.
No.
What she was thinking-?
No.
It was just a day.
A weird, trying day.
The whole thing with her car and coming back here and...
It was nothing.
She laughed dryly and went to the key bowl. The spare key to 4A waited there and she picked it up, shaking her head ruefully.
It was a joke.
It was a prank.
It was nothing.
She went to the boys' apartment and unlocked the door, she charged inside, ready to see Leonard and Sheldon and to have a good laugh and to talk about her shitty day.
It was dark in their apartment. Frowning, she wondered what time it was. She hadn't checked. She founded the closest clock. It was only eight. Maybe they weren't home? She walked back towards their bedrooms. Leonard's door was closed. She pressed an ear near the wood. She thought she heard heavy breathing, like that of a troubled sleep, someone with congestion, lungs full...
She thought about opening the door when she heard some noise coming from Sheldon's room. She walked easily down the hall, stopping just a little ways outside the open door. Sheldon was packing, his clothes neatly folded. He was muttering something under his breath, something that sounded like numbers (an equation?) and he worked with a jerky, sort of frantic energy.
He stopped a moment, fingers working in the air as he calculated out a particularly tricky part of the equation when she cleared her throat. Sheldon turned. He looked at her and his eyes grew wide, his skin seemed to drain of color and then he promptly fainted.
***
"...heldon? Sheldon?"
Sheldon awoke to Penny leaning over him. His eyes opened slowly and he promptly screamed.
Penny drew away, hands covering her ears as Sheldon pointed at her, screaming and screaming - the screams like that of a hysterical, wailing child. Leonard charged into the room, wide awake, "What!? What!?"
"Penny! Penny!" Sheldon twisted the name, almost strangled it, his voice high and squeaky, struggling to even say it.
Leonard let out a heavy sigh and ran a hand through his hair, "Yeah. I know, buddy."
"No, no," Sheldon hissed, shaking his head, his finger pointing in her direction, "Penny! Penny, there!"
Leonard frowned. He looked at Penny. He looked right at her. Then he looked at his friend, "Sheldon...."
"Leonard-"
"Sheldon, she's not-"
"I see her!"
Leonard shook his head, "I see her too. Sometimes...I think...it's just 'cause its' still so..."
"No, no, no, no!" Sheldon agonized over each 'no', stressing it and enunciating it, trying to make each one have impact, "You don't understand! I see her RIGHT! NOW! RIGHT! THERE!"
He jabbed his finger at her some more.
Leonard looked defeated. He sat on Sheldon's bed, he sat on Sheldon's clothes, Sheldon didn't even say anything about that as Leonard spoke, "Sheldon...Penny's dead."
Penny felt like she was going to be the one to faint.
She pressed a hand to her throat, she shook her head, she backed up until she met the wall and could go no further.
"Penny died yesterday."
Sheldon swallowed thickly. He looked at her, then back at Leonard, then back at her again, his voice now a childish whimper, "Than why do I see her?"
Leonard shrugged, "Everyone deals with this differently."
Sheldon reached out a hand towards her, fingers shaking. He stopped inches from her face. Penny was weeping now, silently, uncontrollably. Sheldon's hand fell, fingers curling in on themselves, "She...seems real."
"I know she does, Sheldon," Leonard breathed out, the sound wounded, "But she's gone."
Sheldon closed his eyes tightly. Opened them. Closed them again. Opened, "I...still see her."
"Give it time..."
Sheldon sighed and shook his head. Then he looked at Leonard, "You're sitting on my clothes."
Leonard huffed out a breath that resembled a pathetic laugh, "Sorry."
"Sorry won't fix it."
"Yeah."
They both sat there in silence. Penny looked at them and kept crying, kept shaking her head, she wanted to speak, but couldn't. They were liars. They were lying. They were bastards. They were-
She couldn't be.
She felt fine.
She felt fine.
She felt...
She was alive.
She ran her hands over her face, down her arms, she squeezed, she pinched, she felt her skin under her fingers. She was alive.
"We should get some sleep...still a lot to do." Leonard said, everything about him almost robotic, mechanical, as he left Sheldon's room. Sheldon watched him leave. He looked at the empty doorway for several minutes.
Then he looked at his clothes. He scowled and gingerly picked them up. He staunchly ignored Penny. She looked at him, watched him with absorbed fashion as he put the clothes Leonard had sat on off to one side, as he started rooting through his drawers for new, not-sat-on clothing.
She hated him.
She hated Leonard.
She hated Howard and Raj.
She hated them for saying...for acting like...
She thought to leave, she thought to storm out, she thought about screaming and throwing the biggest tantrum imaginable. She reached out, ready to smack the first thing over, to grab on to one of Sheldon's prized action figures and smash it, break it, destroy it.
Her hand touched nothing.
She gasped. A sob. A whimper.
She looked at the various items on Sheldon's dresser. She tried to grab them, tried to touch them, tried to throw them.
But it was like trying to hold air. Everything passed through her hands.
She sobbed more, she cried, she collapsed on the floor and she pressed her palms to her eyelids hard, pressing, pressing...
Her head ached, her mind felt as if it was going to explode, and the fear, the terrible, terrible overwhelming fear...
She was engulfed by it, washed in it...
Oh god, oh god, oh god...
And then she opened her eyes, eyelashes wet and clumping together, face hot and nose running and Sheldon was right there.
He was on the floor next to her, one leg bent, kneeling, face close and his voice was nothing more than a whisper, "Penny?"
She nodded.
He swallowed, "You...you can hear me?"
"'Course I can," her response was a hoarse hiccup.
Sheldon nodded and they both said nothing, the only sound her shuttering breathing and weak sniffles. Finally, "Penny...I don't know how to tell you this...but...you're dead."
Penny let out the strangest sound, a mixture of a sob and a laugh, "So I hear."
"You don't...don't know you're dead?"
"...I guess not."
"Fascinating."
Anger flood through her, "Don't pull that Spock shit now, okay?! I'm DEAD. Do you understand?! I died!"
"I know."
"You know! Oh, do you?! YOU KNOW!" she was hysterical and furious and filled with indignation. Outrage. How could God or Buddha or whoever/whatever the fuck deity that ended up being in charge (if there even was one) do this to her? How could her life be over?
There was still so much to do. So much to see. So much she hadn't...
She felt her hands twist around one another, grasping, her whole being uncomfortable and volatile and she let out a hiss of air, feeling like she'd explode, "Sheldon..."
"Calm down," his voice was commanding and it helped oddly, his earlier panic gone, "We'll figure this out."
"Figure this-?! How do you figure this out?! I'm dead."
"I know that, Penny. No reason in overstating the obvious," He looked at her curiously, "Interesting...until this moment I had never put any stock in supernatural hokum, but...you are here and there is no other way you could be here unless you were a gaistoz."
Penny blinked and, seeing her confusion, Sheldon sighed, "Common Germatic that was adopted by Old English into gāst."
Penny's face was blank.
Sheldon bemoaned her stupidity, even in death, "A ghost, Penny."
"A ghost," she repeated, "Do I look like fucking Patrick Swayze to you?!"
Sheldon frowned and now it was Penny's turn to bemoan his stupidity, "Look, I get it, okay, I'm dead, I'm a ghost, whatever. Just...fucking fix it!"
"I can't," Sheldon said simply, then, thoughtfully, "All though maybe my Mother could. I'm sure her chruch group would love nothing more than a good ol' exrocism."
"If I could touch you, I would punch your teeth in."
Sheldon's eyebrows knitted together in thought, his gaze fixed on her, "You can't touch anything?"
Penny glared at him as she reached a hand up towards his nightstand table. Again, her hand passed through everything that rested on top of it. Sheldon let out another 'fascinating' and again she wanted to destroy him.
He shook his head and got to his feet slowly, "This is all very interesting, Penny, but I must get my sleep if I am to do everything I have to-"
"Are you fucking kidding me!" she cried, "You're going to go to sleep! I'm a ghost, Sheldon! I'm dead!"
"Yes, Penny, again, I am aware. There's no need to keep whining on about it..."
"WHINE?!
"...nor a need to shout-"
"I'LL SHOUT ALL I WANT TO!" she bellowed.
Sheldon pressed his hands to his ears, then, lowering them, said quietly, "Penny, I can't help you if I don't get the proper amount of rest."
Penny let that sink in, "You are going to help me?"
"Yes. As much as I can. But I need to sleep first."
She let out an aggrived breath, then, flapping one hand uselessly, "Yeah, yeah, okay. Right. Get some sleep. We'll...we'll talk about it tomorrow."
Sheldon nodded and finished getting his things in order. Then, he got into bed and clicked off the light. He was in a perfectly straight line, ready to sleep as he always did, eyes closed, when he said succiently, "Penny?"
"Yes?"
"Get out of my room."
Penny blinked, stunned, "What...are you serious?"
"Yes."
"Sheldon...Jesus fucking Christ-"
"My mother would say it was a mouth like that that kept you from getting into the heavenly kingdom."
"Fuck you."
"Point proven."
Penny let out an exasperated sigh, "Sheldon, I don't know what fucking made me a ghost, but I'm starting to think, since you're the only one that can see me, that it was so I could fucking haunt you, so, no, I'm not leaving."
"Penny, I can't sleep if you're here."
"Too bad."
"Penny-"
"Look, Sheldon, I've had a pretty rough time of it, all right? I died, I came back as a ghost, I can't touch anything and apparently only you can see me, so, you know, shut the fuck up and just go to sleep."
"But-"
"No buts. Can't make me leave anyway, right? Go on. Try it. See if you can touch me."
Sheldon was very quiet for a while and she just knew he was thinking scientifically about what she had just said. Was touching her possible? What were the possible side effects of touching a ghost? If he could touch her, what was she composed of?
Eventually he spoke again, tone nothing short of begruding "Very well."
She picked at his carpet idly, not certain if she was touching anything. If she was a ghost, if she passed through solid objects, why didn't she just fall through the floor? And she had taken a bath earlier, hadn't she? She had touched things then...
Penny lay back on the carpet, her eyes on Sheldon's ceiling and she decided not to think about it anymore. There were too many questions with no answers. Hopefully Sheldon could help her with that.
But there was one question...one question that could be easily answered...
"Sheldon?"
No response.
A little louder then, "Sheldon?"
A muffled groan, "What?"
"How...how did I die?"
Silence.
Penny closed her eyes. She could hear the air conditioning kick on.
"Your car broke down in the middle of an intersection. Someone wasn't paying attention. They drove through at full speed and their car collided with yours. The nature of the accident...the impact," she heard him struggle and she tried to remember if she had ever heard his voice sound like this, "It was instant."
"Oh?"
"That's...what they said."
"So...instant death?"
He didn't elaborate. She rolled over onto her side.
He finally spoke, "Don't you...remember?"
"No. I just...the last thing I remember...I came home."
He didn't have anything else to say to that and not only was Penny surprised by that, but she was grateful. She lay on his floor and she could feel herself drifting off. She didn't know whether or not she was drifting off into sleep or into some other realm, but it was warm and restful and quiet and she was grateful for that too.
Grateful for the warm welcome embrace of unconsciousness.
Part 1
Author: she_burns1
Pairing: Sheldon/Penny, Leonard/Penny
Rating: R
Word Count: 3,392
Summary: Life didn't really get interesting for Penny until after she died.
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The plot is all mine. No copyright infringement is intended.
Notes: I have Sheldon/Penny as a pairing, but I think this is going to pan out to be a bit more friendship fic than a romance one. This is also a strange blend of genres - angst and humor and then more angst.
What's the last thing she remembered?
She was in her car on Archer Avenue, she was entering the intersection and her engine made an awful noise - whining and sputtering and (if it was possible) her check engine light was flashing in a strobe-like fashion laughing at her.
She cursed and pumped the gas and fiddled with the keys but it was too late. Her car was dead and in the worst possible location. She had many fleeting thoughts snowball on top of one another - she thought about pulling out her cell phone and calling someone (who, she didn't know), she thought about the cops showing up to redirect traffic (embarrassing), and she thought about how this was just her luck.
Then there had been...a flash. A blur. Something like a scream and a wail and then bright, bright lights. So bright and blinding and all encompassing.
And now here she was.
Penny walked up to her apartment, her feet trudging slowly and she kept wondering how she got here, the exact last thing she remembered.
How did she get home?
She shook her head and decided it didn't matter, nothing mattered past a hot bath and reassessing the situation. She'd take that bath, go downstairs, take a look at her car (was it here?) and figure it all out from there.
She went to her apartment door and reached in her pockets. Huh. No keys. She frowned and chewed on her bottom lip and wondered what to do now when suddenly there was a flurry of activity behind her.
She turned and saw 4A's door burst open, saw Leonard run down the stairs. She called after him but he didn't acknowledge her. She frowned and saw he had left the door to the apartment open. Shrugging, she went inside.
Despite the on again/off again nature of their relationship, Penny had never found it strange to be in the boys' apartment. It was like a second home to her. Or maybe a third. After all, there was her true home (Nebraska), her apartment home, and then this home.
She didn't know why, but she found her hand running fondly over the book shelf, along the back of the couch. Penny looked at the mess on the living room table - old Chinese food boxes, the television remote, some comics - and she smiled.
Some things never changed.
She went and took her bath. It was hot and soapy and perfect. When she got out of the tub and dried herself, she looked down and frowned. Strange. The tub was completely dry again, as if she hadn't used it at all.
She shook her head and finished drying off. She thought to dress in some of Leonard's clothes like she used to (baggy pajama pants, oversized comic book shirt) but instead chose to find her spare key and go over to her place.
She looked and, not having any success, chose to toss back on the clothes she had just been wearing - not the best thing, yes, but it would have to do temporarily. The last thing she needed was for Leonard and Sheldon to come home and for her to be clad in nothing but a towel.
Once dressed, she started a more thorough search for her keys.
That's when she heard footsteps and voices.
"...we've got to go to her place, we've got to find her phone book."
"What about her cell phone?"
"Too damaged."
Penny saw Howard and Raj enter, she greeted them with a wave and a hearty 'hey guys', anticipating the moment when Raj would clam up and Howard would transform into a smarmy flirt, but instead they ignored her.
...and their faces...
Raj looked stricken, her eyes watery and Howard...he just seemed...beaten down...tired...
"What about Sheldon? Why isn't he-?" Raj asked and Penny beamed, her voice bright, "Raj! You talked in front of me!"
Howard answered Raj as if Penny hadn't spoken, "He's with Leonard."
"Really? Is he the best one to-"
"Yes," Howard interrupted firmly, "Believe it or not, he is. Think about it."
Raj nodded numbly, then, "I can't believe she-"
"Don't," Howard breathed, clearing his throat, "Just don't."
Penny frowned, "Um...guys?"
Neither one answered her. Penny started to feel a fluttering in her belly, a nervousness bordering on fear.
"Let's just find the keys and-and go over there...get this over with," Howard said, his whole demeanor bustling with a pent up energy, a strange web of emotions flittering over his face as he tossed things about.
Penny watched with confusion as he and Raj took no care with their friends' things. Comics that were to be kept in pristine condition were tossed and stepped on, their spines broken, pages bent. Notes were scattered, misplaced, landing in heaps on the floor. Penny cleared her throat, "Okay, um, you guys are scaring me. Tell me what's happening?"
Raj tossed aside couch cushions, Howard almost upended the whole living room table, his voice strained, "It's not here, I don't-"
"Maybe in one of their bedrooms?"
"Why would one of them have her apartment keys there?"
"Leonard, late night booty call, Sheldon...don't know."
Howard sighed heavily, then shook his head, "Let's check there."
Howard and Raj trudged off towards the back of the apartment. Penny just stood in the kitchen, her heart in her throat and she wanted to shout, she wanted to scream, she wanted to know what was happening.
But all she could think about now was the unfilled blank in her mind. How had she gotten here? How had she gotten home?
Her car breaking down...
Busy intersection...
All that noise, that light...and there had been...such a shock...pain? Had there been...
Just her luck.
Penny sat down on the floor.
She sat down on the tiled floor of the kitchen, her arms drawing her knees close, hugging them.
Raj had spoken in front of her.
Howard had ignored her.
They both hadn't...it was like they couldn't see...
"I found them!" Raj's voice called brightly and she could dimly hear Howard, "Where?"
"Leonard's nightstand."
"Figures. Was it next to a Penny shrine?"
Terrible silence.
Then, "It was a joke. I meant...I was talking about."
"I know," Raj's voice was so soft, so gentle, and Penny felt her hand go to her mouth and she didn't know why, "It's okay."
Howard and Raj returned to her view. She watched them exit the apartment. Watched them go into her own. She got to her feet. She followed them. Once inside her own apartment she felt better, she felt...whole.
Raj and Howard, amazingly, didn't have to search half as long to find her phone book. Howard flipped through it idly, "Ah. Okay. Here's her parents number."
"Who's going to call?"
"I don't know."
Penny was relieved when Howard and Raj left. She sat on her couch in the silence of her apartment. She rested her head back on the couch and closed her eyes.
***
It was dark when Penny woke up.
She sat up slowly and stretched. She rubbed at a kink in her neck. Rubbing at her eyes, everything came back. A slow filter, but there. The words, the movements, the feeling...the feeling of something cold and awful, a wet stone in the pit of her stomach...
She shook her head and got to her feet.
No.
No.
What she was thinking-?
No.
It was just a day.
A weird, trying day.
The whole thing with her car and coming back here and...
It was nothing.
She laughed dryly and went to the key bowl. The spare key to 4A waited there and she picked it up, shaking her head ruefully.
It was a joke.
It was a prank.
It was nothing.
She went to the boys' apartment and unlocked the door, she charged inside, ready to see Leonard and Sheldon and to have a good laugh and to talk about her shitty day.
It was dark in their apartment. Frowning, she wondered what time it was. She hadn't checked. She founded the closest clock. It was only eight. Maybe they weren't home? She walked back towards their bedrooms. Leonard's door was closed. She pressed an ear near the wood. She thought she heard heavy breathing, like that of a troubled sleep, someone with congestion, lungs full...
She thought about opening the door when she heard some noise coming from Sheldon's room. She walked easily down the hall, stopping just a little ways outside the open door. Sheldon was packing, his clothes neatly folded. He was muttering something under his breath, something that sounded like numbers (an equation?) and he worked with a jerky, sort of frantic energy.
He stopped a moment, fingers working in the air as he calculated out a particularly tricky part of the equation when she cleared her throat. Sheldon turned. He looked at her and his eyes grew wide, his skin seemed to drain of color and then he promptly fainted.
***
"...heldon? Sheldon?"
Sheldon awoke to Penny leaning over him. His eyes opened slowly and he promptly screamed.
Penny drew away, hands covering her ears as Sheldon pointed at her, screaming and screaming - the screams like that of a hysterical, wailing child. Leonard charged into the room, wide awake, "What!? What!?"
"Penny! Penny!" Sheldon twisted the name, almost strangled it, his voice high and squeaky, struggling to even say it.
Leonard let out a heavy sigh and ran a hand through his hair, "Yeah. I know, buddy."
"No, no," Sheldon hissed, shaking his head, his finger pointing in her direction, "Penny! Penny, there!"
Leonard frowned. He looked at Penny. He looked right at her. Then he looked at his friend, "Sheldon...."
"Leonard-"
"Sheldon, she's not-"
"I see her!"
Leonard shook his head, "I see her too. Sometimes...I think...it's just 'cause its' still so..."
"No, no, no, no!" Sheldon agonized over each 'no', stressing it and enunciating it, trying to make each one have impact, "You don't understand! I see her RIGHT! NOW! RIGHT! THERE!"
He jabbed his finger at her some more.
Leonard looked defeated. He sat on Sheldon's bed, he sat on Sheldon's clothes, Sheldon didn't even say anything about that as Leonard spoke, "Sheldon...Penny's dead."
Penny felt like she was going to be the one to faint.
She pressed a hand to her throat, she shook her head, she backed up until she met the wall and could go no further.
"Penny died yesterday."
Sheldon swallowed thickly. He looked at her, then back at Leonard, then back at her again, his voice now a childish whimper, "Than why do I see her?"
Leonard shrugged, "Everyone deals with this differently."
Sheldon reached out a hand towards her, fingers shaking. He stopped inches from her face. Penny was weeping now, silently, uncontrollably. Sheldon's hand fell, fingers curling in on themselves, "She...seems real."
"I know she does, Sheldon," Leonard breathed out, the sound wounded, "But she's gone."
Sheldon closed his eyes tightly. Opened them. Closed them again. Opened, "I...still see her."
"Give it time..."
Sheldon sighed and shook his head. Then he looked at Leonard, "You're sitting on my clothes."
Leonard huffed out a breath that resembled a pathetic laugh, "Sorry."
"Sorry won't fix it."
"Yeah."
They both sat there in silence. Penny looked at them and kept crying, kept shaking her head, she wanted to speak, but couldn't. They were liars. They were lying. They were bastards. They were-
She couldn't be.
She felt fine.
She felt fine.
She felt...
She was alive.
She ran her hands over her face, down her arms, she squeezed, she pinched, she felt her skin under her fingers. She was alive.
"We should get some sleep...still a lot to do." Leonard said, everything about him almost robotic, mechanical, as he left Sheldon's room. Sheldon watched him leave. He looked at the empty doorway for several minutes.
Then he looked at his clothes. He scowled and gingerly picked them up. He staunchly ignored Penny. She looked at him, watched him with absorbed fashion as he put the clothes Leonard had sat on off to one side, as he started rooting through his drawers for new, not-sat-on clothing.
She hated him.
She hated Leonard.
She hated Howard and Raj.
She hated them for saying...for acting like...
She thought to leave, she thought to storm out, she thought about screaming and throwing the biggest tantrum imaginable. She reached out, ready to smack the first thing over, to grab on to one of Sheldon's prized action figures and smash it, break it, destroy it.
Her hand touched nothing.
She gasped. A sob. A whimper.
She looked at the various items on Sheldon's dresser. She tried to grab them, tried to touch them, tried to throw them.
But it was like trying to hold air. Everything passed through her hands.
She sobbed more, she cried, she collapsed on the floor and she pressed her palms to her eyelids hard, pressing, pressing...
Her head ached, her mind felt as if it was going to explode, and the fear, the terrible, terrible overwhelming fear...
She was engulfed by it, washed in it...
Oh god, oh god, oh god...
And then she opened her eyes, eyelashes wet and clumping together, face hot and nose running and Sheldon was right there.
He was on the floor next to her, one leg bent, kneeling, face close and his voice was nothing more than a whisper, "Penny?"
She nodded.
He swallowed, "You...you can hear me?"
"'Course I can," her response was a hoarse hiccup.
Sheldon nodded and they both said nothing, the only sound her shuttering breathing and weak sniffles. Finally, "Penny...I don't know how to tell you this...but...you're dead."
Penny let out the strangest sound, a mixture of a sob and a laugh, "So I hear."
"You don't...don't know you're dead?"
"...I guess not."
"Fascinating."
Anger flood through her, "Don't pull that Spock shit now, okay?! I'm DEAD. Do you understand?! I died!"
"I know."
"You know! Oh, do you?! YOU KNOW!" she was hysterical and furious and filled with indignation. Outrage. How could God or Buddha or whoever/whatever the fuck deity that ended up being in charge (if there even was one) do this to her? How could her life be over?
There was still so much to do. So much to see. So much she hadn't...
She felt her hands twist around one another, grasping, her whole being uncomfortable and volatile and she let out a hiss of air, feeling like she'd explode, "Sheldon..."
"Calm down," his voice was commanding and it helped oddly, his earlier panic gone, "We'll figure this out."
"Figure this-?! How do you figure this out?! I'm dead."
"I know that, Penny. No reason in overstating the obvious," He looked at her curiously, "Interesting...until this moment I had never put any stock in supernatural hokum, but...you are here and there is no other way you could be here unless you were a gaistoz."
Penny blinked and, seeing her confusion, Sheldon sighed, "Common Germatic that was adopted by Old English into gāst."
Penny's face was blank.
Sheldon bemoaned her stupidity, even in death, "A ghost, Penny."
"A ghost," she repeated, "Do I look like fucking Patrick Swayze to you?!"
Sheldon frowned and now it was Penny's turn to bemoan his stupidity, "Look, I get it, okay, I'm dead, I'm a ghost, whatever. Just...fucking fix it!"
"I can't," Sheldon said simply, then, thoughtfully, "All though maybe my Mother could. I'm sure her chruch group would love nothing more than a good ol' exrocism."
"If I could touch you, I would punch your teeth in."
Sheldon's eyebrows knitted together in thought, his gaze fixed on her, "You can't touch anything?"
Penny glared at him as she reached a hand up towards his nightstand table. Again, her hand passed through everything that rested on top of it. Sheldon let out another 'fascinating' and again she wanted to destroy him.
He shook his head and got to his feet slowly, "This is all very interesting, Penny, but I must get my sleep if I am to do everything I have to-"
"Are you fucking kidding me!" she cried, "You're going to go to sleep! I'm a ghost, Sheldon! I'm dead!"
"Yes, Penny, again, I am aware. There's no need to keep whining on about it..."
"WHINE?!
"...nor a need to shout-"
"I'LL SHOUT ALL I WANT TO!" she bellowed.
Sheldon pressed his hands to his ears, then, lowering them, said quietly, "Penny, I can't help you if I don't get the proper amount of rest."
Penny let that sink in, "You are going to help me?"
"Yes. As much as I can. But I need to sleep first."
She let out an aggrived breath, then, flapping one hand uselessly, "Yeah, yeah, okay. Right. Get some sleep. We'll...we'll talk about it tomorrow."
Sheldon nodded and finished getting his things in order. Then, he got into bed and clicked off the light. He was in a perfectly straight line, ready to sleep as he always did, eyes closed, when he said succiently, "Penny?"
"Yes?"
"Get out of my room."
Penny blinked, stunned, "What...are you serious?"
"Yes."
"Sheldon...Jesus fucking Christ-"
"My mother would say it was a mouth like that that kept you from getting into the heavenly kingdom."
"Fuck you."
"Point proven."
Penny let out an exasperated sigh, "Sheldon, I don't know what fucking made me a ghost, but I'm starting to think, since you're the only one that can see me, that it was so I could fucking haunt you, so, no, I'm not leaving."
"Penny, I can't sleep if you're here."
"Too bad."
"Penny-"
"Look, Sheldon, I've had a pretty rough time of it, all right? I died, I came back as a ghost, I can't touch anything and apparently only you can see me, so, you know, shut the fuck up and just go to sleep."
"But-"
"No buts. Can't make me leave anyway, right? Go on. Try it. See if you can touch me."
Sheldon was very quiet for a while and she just knew he was thinking scientifically about what she had just said. Was touching her possible? What were the possible side effects of touching a ghost? If he could touch her, what was she composed of?
Eventually he spoke again, tone nothing short of begruding "Very well."
She picked at his carpet idly, not certain if she was touching anything. If she was a ghost, if she passed through solid objects, why didn't she just fall through the floor? And she had taken a bath earlier, hadn't she? She had touched things then...
Penny lay back on the carpet, her eyes on Sheldon's ceiling and she decided not to think about it anymore. There were too many questions with no answers. Hopefully Sheldon could help her with that.
But there was one question...one question that could be easily answered...
"Sheldon?"
No response.
A little louder then, "Sheldon?"
A muffled groan, "What?"
"How...how did I die?"
Silence.
Penny closed her eyes. She could hear the air conditioning kick on.
"Your car broke down in the middle of an intersection. Someone wasn't paying attention. They drove through at full speed and their car collided with yours. The nature of the accident...the impact," she heard him struggle and she tried to remember if she had ever heard his voice sound like this, "It was instant."
"Oh?"
"That's...what they said."
"So...instant death?"
He didn't elaborate. She rolled over onto her side.
He finally spoke, "Don't you...remember?"
"No. I just...the last thing I remember...I came home."
He didn't have anything else to say to that and not only was Penny surprised by that, but she was grateful. She lay on his floor and she could feel herself drifting off. She didn't know whether or not she was drifting off into sleep or into some other realm, but it was warm and restful and quiet and she was grateful for that too.
Grateful for the warm welcome embrace of unconsciousness.