Emmy for the Win (2/?)
A/N: Hello, Paradox lovelies. Real life kept me from writing this until today, but it’s written now and I’m really having fun with it and the possibilities of where this could go. I hope you guys enjoy the ride too. Much love! Comments welcomed and appreciated as always.
Chapter One (along with my other fics) can be found here: http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/tag/.author:+qblackheart
Chapter Two
Emmy stood in a corner by the window, absently watching the rain drip in rivulets down the glass pane. She had been trying to corner Phillip Morgenstern, the Head of the Physics department, for the past hour but to no avail. He was always intercepted by someone else - and Emmy wasn’t exactly known for her assertiveness.
Her intelligence, her babbling - like the proverbial brook - yes, but the assertiveness and self-confidence that were the hallmark character traits of both her parents had somehow skipped a generation.
So she stood in a corner of the room, at a cocktail party dedicated to welcoming new faculty - namely, her and Derek Gablehauser - to the department, trying to strategize how best to confront Morgenstern about her predicament.
The predicament she had yet to share with her father.
Of course she had been up in arms over the fact that Derek Gablehauser had been hired by the department at the same time as she had been, but upon further reflection she decided that the department was big enough for the both of them - it just grated on her nerves that he was across the hall from her.
Not that she had ever actually seen him, thank goodness for small mercies.
Apparently the man never opened his office door, although on a couple of occasions, she had heard muffled voices in the room. She had taken to calling him the Phantom Menace in her head.
The sound of male laughter attracted her attention to where Morgenstern stood with some of the more senior professors in the department. Good Lord, how was she supposed to breach this topic with him? She had already sent him strongly worded emails - she had no problems being assertive in writing - but his response was only that he would consider her concerns and get back to her.
He had yet to get back to her, and there was no tactful way for her to personally tell him: Get rid of Gablehauser or else.
Not that she could ever say that in a million years - she was far too nice.
Nice. Yes - that summed up Emmy Cooper in a word.
And try as she might - she couldn’t ever not be nice.
She had even debated giving up her lovely office and moving somewhere else - away from Gablehauser - but she couldn’t bear the thought. Besides, she had been there first and dammit - she loved her office!
She rested her forehead against the window with a soft thud.
“Bad day?”
The silky smooth British accent made her body automatically stand to attention while her insides turned to mush. It was a paradox caused by only one person of her acquaintance - Marcus. She would also know that voice anywhere - God, if melting chocolate had a sound, it would sound like him - but what was he doing at the faculty party? Oh, goodness - who cared - at least his was a quasi-friendly face, when he wasn’t being all moody and mysterious that is. She turned to him with a smile - her first genuine one all evening.
“No - just a tiring one. How have you been?”
“Bad week.”
“Ah. Sorry.” Emmy apologized automatically. She usually tended to apologize for things that were not her fault.
“As well you should be,” she thought he muttered. She blinked in surprise. What? But his expression was so benign that she knew she must have misheard him.
“I... I beg your pardon?”
“Ah - there you are!” Phillip Morgenstern’s booming voice caused Emmy to start in surprise. “Emmy, darling - I haven’t seen you eat anything. Are you not enjoying the party?”
Emmy smiled at him. “No, no - I mean, yes - of course, I’m enjoying the party. It’s just that I’m not hungry.” She swallowed. “Phillip - I need to talk to you about those emails I sent you.”
“Emails? Oh, right - your concerns.” Morgenstern looked momentarily nonplussed. “I thought you had resolved the issue on your own.”
“What on earth would have made you think that?” Emmy exclaimed.
“Well - I’ve seen the two of you having coffee together every morning this week and I thought you may have decided to let bygones be bygones.”
“What?” Emmy was perplexed. “Two of us having coffee?” She spared Marcus a brief glance. What did having coffee with Marcus and Jacob in the mornings have to do with Derek Gablehauser? She looked back at Marcus, startled to see a cold, smug expression on his visage, while Morgenstern looked at them like a benevolent grandpa.
Her Spidey-sense tingled.
Her right eye twitched.
Her stomach contracted into uncomfortable knots, and she resisted the urge to turn tail and run all the way back to California.
“You’re Derek Gablehauser,” she stated flatly, her eyes trained on Marcus - no, Derek. Gablehauser.
The tiniest of arrogant smirks adorned his face as he watched her try to keep the shock from showing on her face.
Emmy was livid.
Fury, like she had never felt before rose along with the bile up her throat, threatening to choke her. She wanted to rail - at everyone - and she really, really, really wanted to go junior rodeo - Texas style - on Derek Gablehauser’s ass.
But of course, Emmy being Emmy, she did nothing. She flushed red - damn her fair skin - but that was about it. She took a deep breath and turned her gaze to Morgenstern’s look of puzzlement.
“If you will excuse me, Phillip,” she placed a hand on his arm and gently bussed his cheek. And then lied through her teeth. “I have a conference call with Raj Koothrapalli in a few minutes.”
“Ah, you’re still working with him on the Delaware project?”
“Yes - he got some interesting data yesterday and we’re trying to make sense of it,” Emmy knew she was on automatic pilot right now, but she doubted Morgenstern would notice that anything was amiss.
Gablehauser, on the other hand - sneaky bastard - was way more astute.
She had to get out of here.
“Goodnight, Phillip,” she said softly, unable to spare a glance in Gablehauser’s direction as she nodded to him and made her way to the door. Once there, she stepped up her pace and before she even realized what she was doing, she was running through the department to the sanctity of her office.
Accept that it was a sanctuary across the hall from the spawn of Satan.
Emmy grabbed her stuff, locked up and left the building via the back stairs.
***
“Okay, enough with the small talk - what the hell is wrong with you?” Lalilta Koothrapalli demanded in a no-nonsense voice, and carelessly tossing her dark, glossy hair over her shoulder, pinned Emmy with a piercing black onyx gaze. Emmy recognised that look all too well.
Resistance would be futile.
“Yeah, Emmy - you haven’t mentioned that hottie Marcus-who-looks-like-Richard-Armitage at all and we’ve been chatting for ten minutes already!” Danielle Hofstadter chimed in with a cheeky grin, green eyes sparkling with mischief as she huffed a breath to blow a frizzy red curl from the front of her face. The remaining member of their foursome, Violet Wolowitz, just studied her with a patient expression, as if she somehow knew what Emmy was going through.
Which, maybe she might - Vi was weirdly perceptive like that, and her grey - to the point of being crystalline - eyes made Emmy feel like Vi could see straight into her soul.
Emmy looked at the familiar and much-loved faces of her three best friends - via webcam chat - and took a deep breath before hesitantly spilling the beans.
There was pin-drop silence for a full minute as the enormity of her situation sunk in with the girls.
“Fuck me.” This from Lalita.
“Holy crap on a cracker.” This from Danielle.
“What a schmuck.” This from Violet.
“I prefer wanker, really.” Emmy supplied with a hint of a smile.
“Hey, don’t get all Brit on us. You’re Red, White and Blue, baby!”
“Lalita, the British flag is red, white and blue too,” Violet reminded her quietly.
“Yeah - whatever, Vi. Emmy knows what I mean.”
“So Hot!Marcus is really Hot!Derek. Jeez - what are you gonna do, Emmy?” Danielle regarded her in a manner that was reminiscent of Aunt Stephanie.
“Dude, that’s why she called this emergency conference call - so she can brainstorm with us,” Lalita looked disparagingly at the other girls. “Emmy - if ever there was a time for you to grow a set - it’s now, babe!”
“Running away won’t solve anything, so scratch that option.” Violet had ESP - Emmy was sure of it.
“You can’t possibly be contemplating... oh my God, you are!” Danielle sputtered. “Emmy! Research at Oxford has been you dream forever! You’re letting a Winkle get in the way of that?”
“I don’t know what else to do!”
“Wait - I think we’re all forgetting a very, very important question here,” Lalita stated as she sat back with a shrewd look on her face. A look that usually did not bode well for the rest of them. They looked at her expectantly, as one dark eyebrow arched in elegant arrogance. “What does Daddy Cooper think about this?”
Emmy gulped and closed her eyes.
There was a chorus of ‘Oh my God’s.
“So I haven’t exactly mentioned it to him yet.”
“Fuck me.”
“Holy shit.”
“Oy vey.”
***
So apparently the plan was to tell Daddy.
Emmy was dreading the conversation.
Sure Sheldon Cooper was never one to leave a damsel in distress - especially if said damsel happened to be his one and only daughter, the apple of his eye, who he would figuratively move mountains for - but this was her fight, wasn’t it? She didn’t need him to run interference for her, right? Right?
Yeah, right.
She just would have really liked to solve this in her own time - in her own way and getting Dad involved meant that he would go ballistic. And when he went ballistic - especially if he was aided and abetted by Uncle Raj, Uncle Leonard and Uncle Howard - then God help them all.
Damn Leslie Winkle and her inherent talent for cultivating enmity.
And from the looks of things, the poison apple hadn’t fallen far from the tree.
For poison he was. Emmy was definitely - now that she had finally allowed herself to accept the fact - more pissed off at him for lying to her about who he was rather than - well, who he was.
And why in God’s name did he have to be so damn hot?
And why did her traitorous body have to react to him the way it had never done in the past with anyone else?
It was agony.
She went back to work.
The consensus amongst her friends had been that she would not chicken out - she would try to grow a backbone - and face him only if she had to. But the plan to avoid him at all costs while she went about her work was shot straight to hell when Morgenstern called her into his office early the next morning.
And Gablehauser was already there - black suit with a black shirt, looking like a damn print ad for damn Hugo Boss - and owning the room like someone had poured him over the classy brown leather armchair across from Morgenstern. Emmy was so on edge when she saw him - and he saw her - that she felt like she would shatter. But there he was - looking like he didn’t have a care in the world, when she knew otherwise.
He was as pissed off about the situation as she was, if only in a much less girly way.
After all, the Winkle-Cooper War, as people in their circles referred to it, had been epic.
Oh, Leslie Winkle had always gotten the better of her father whenever they had battled in the past. She never failed to get under his skin, starting and ending every battle of wills with a mean smirk and a Dr. Dumbass.
Yes, she had definitely won most of their battles but Sheldon - Sheldon Cooper had won the war.
And the Nobel Prize for Physics.
Sure, he had to share it with Emmy - since those were some of her ideas that had eventually pieced the puzzle together and made it all work - but the resulting victory had been entirely her father’s.
Because they had - as a team - beaten Leslie Winkle and Derek Gablehauser, their closest rivals for the Prize.
And all Emmy knew for certain was that Leslie Winkle had had her ass handed to her courtesy of Sheldon Cooper.
But now, Emmy had the strangest feeling that Leslie Winkle Junior here, was going to make her pay for it.
“Good Morning, Phillip,” she intoned softly, and as much as she wanted to be rude and ignore Gablehauser completely, good manners won out and she muttered a tight-lipped greeting begrudgingly in his general direction.
“Good Morning, Emmy - thank you for joining us on such short notice,” Morgenstern beamed at her, a gleam of excitement in his eye. Dread settled in Emmy’s stomach like a stone, but she forced herself to sit down, stay calm and, more importantly, not give in to the desire to bolt from the room like she had done the previous night.
“Have you read the new issue of Science?”
“Over coffee this morning actually.”
“And?”
“I’m assuming you’re referring to the article on magnetic monopoles and how they relate to cosmological inflation?”
“Yes, yes - the most interesting thing in there!”
“Oh, I don’t know about that, Phillip, I thought the article on the role of pathogen recognition receptors in autoimmune disease was fascinating.” Emily teased, calmer now that they were discussing science - the realm where she felt most confident and self-assured. Phillip blinked in surprise, completely missing the point.
“That’s immunology.” Phillip said it as if it were a dirty word. Emmy grinned.
“I know. But think about it: what does pathogen recognition have to do with self-recognition in autoimmune disease models?” She smirked as a spark of interest flickered in Phillip’s eye. “Told you - fascinating.” She let out a little laugh and was surprised to hear a similar sound from the seat next to her.
Her playful manner disappeared, and she found herself tensing against her will.
“What about the article?” She directed her question at her boss again, her manner now business-like.
“I recall your father doing some research along those lines at one point in his career.” Something that sounded a lot like a derisive snort emanated from Gablehauser’s direction.
Emmy wanted to punch his lights out, but ignored him instead.
“That’s correct. His data were not conclusive though.”
“That’s because magnetic monopoles are a figment of a string theorist’s imagination - otherwise experimental physicists would have found some by now.” Gablehauser’s lazy English intonation made the already condescending comment sound like a personal, f-word-peppered insult to her father.
Emmy rounded on him.
“Some of the world’s most preeminent physicists believe in their existence and factor it into their calculations. Just because experimental physics lags behind the theory and hasn’t been able to prove it in real world applications yet doesn’t mean monopoles don’t exist. The department here at Oxford was the first to report the discovery of magnetic monopoles in a real magnet in 2009 - also reported in Science.”
“Yes, and string theorists around the world rejoiced and made all sorts of ludicrous extrapolations from that but basically just sat on their collective arses doing nothing about it for almost three decades now.” Emmy bristled.
“There has been plenty of research...”
“Circumstantial.”
“Validated!”
“Merely theoretically.”
“It begins and ends with theory. That’s what physics is all about - or have you forgotten that in your misbegotten quest to prove loop quantum cosmology?”
“Loop quantum gravity - the cosmology model in particular - will eventually explain the physics of the Big Bang. I am closer than ever to proving cosmological inflation in our model.” Gablehauser’s jaw clenched as he leaned forward in his chair to glare at Emmy.
For once, she wasn’t intimidated, and she didn’t cower. She leaned towards him and flashed him the patented Cooper death glare.
“While the idea that the universe expands and contracts over and over again - re-birthing for eternity - was a cute bedtime story when I was five, you will forgive me if I don’t buy it now,” she smirked when he frowned. “String theory and cosmological inflation is the only reconciliation that will eventually explain the Big Bang. And I will be the one to prove that.”
“Children!” Both of then started as their gazes swung round to look at Morgenstern. Emmy had quite forgotten that he was in the room. “And I thought you two were going to be more mature about this than your parents.”
“Not bloody likely.”
“No freakin’ way.”
“Well, that’s too bad,” Morganstern’s tone was stony, and Emmy didn’t like the implication behind it at all. “Because I have decided that you two will work this out together.” Two jaws dropped in unison, but Morgenstern ignored their shell-shocked expressions and prodded on. “We at Oxford have always been the forefront on monopole research. You said it yourself, Emily - the existence of magnetic monopoles was proven here first. In conjunction with our collaborators around the world of course, but this department led the way. And we are doing it again. With the two of you.”
“Are you insane?”
“Have you lost your mind?”
Morgenstern stared at them over steepled hands. “Why do you think we hired the two of you? You won the Nobel Prize,” he looked at Emmy, and then at Gablehauser, “and you were the runner-up.”
Emmy snorted involuntarily and Gablehauser glowered at her.
“She stole my Nobel, Phillip.”
“Dude, dream on.”
“Enough! I don’t have any migraine medication on hand to deal with the two of you and your bickering. I was at a meeting in Geneva last week. The think-tank at CERN believes this is the only way to go if the field is to make real strides in the foreseeable future: string cosmology and loop quantum cosmology must meet in the middle. It’s the only resolution to the Big Bang Theory. And because of the enmity between the two camps thus far - one propagated and indeed encouraged by your parents - we cannot push the science forward. I failed - spectacularly and horrendously, I might add - to bring Sheldon and Leslie together on this,” Morgenstern broodingly regarded the two of them, as if he couldn’t believe how foolhardy he was being to attempt this again, “but by God, I will not let the two of you fail the science.”
Emmy and Gablehauser actually turned to each other in their shared horror as Morgenstern stood.
Apparently, the meeting was over, so they followed suit and trailed behind him to the door. Once the two of them had crossed the threshold out of his office and into the hallway, Morgenstern surveyed their similarly bewildered expressions with a blunt stare.
“CERN and the NSF are sending another research team to the Arctic to study magnetic monopoles. I have secured a place for both of you there for the next three months; my assistant will give you the details. You leave in two weeks time, so I suggest you use that time to practice your people skills - or lack thereof - on each other. Bon Voyage.”
Then he shut the door in their slack-jawed faces.
They were so screwed.
***