Fic- The Space Angel Angle 7/?
Title- The Space Angel Angle 7/?
Author- Faythbrady
Rating- YT
Show- TBBT, Firefly
Disclaimer- i own everything...the 'verse is mine.
Summary- Penny and Sheldon have made a mistake and end up far from home.
A/N- For Spaceanjl.
Chapter 7
Mal let River take them off planet before he said a word. Not that his little albatross needed silence to concentrate but it made him feel better.
“So, I didn't get shot,” he said with crooked grin.
“Congratulations,” River's fingers danced over the controls like she was conducting an orchestra.
“Neither did anyone else.”
River glanced over at him, a soft expression on her face. “Procrastination with regards to a conversational gambit does not heighten expectation but rather fuels negative anticipatory feelings.”
Mal stared. “Huh?”
“You're making me nervous. What do you want to say?”
“What was all that go se about things changing? Are they changing still?”
River licked her lips and glanced down at the dinosaur manning the navigation beacon. “Things always change. Sometimes for the worse, sometimes for the better. The catalyst for change is present. The direction is less certain.”
Mal watched her for a long moment. His little witch had a way of making things clear that unnerved him. But it wasn't her fault. Those gorram Alliance Blue Handed hundan's had taken a bright and beautiful young girl and turned her into a fractured assassin. It was beyond monstrous and Mal felt his hands clench into fists, the way they did every time he thought of what she had gone through.
Yet she still smiled and laughed and danced when any other person would be a psychopathic, catatonic mess.
Since he'd met River he'd had reason to marvel over the human spirit. She'd restored a faith in him that he'd thought died in blood-soaked valley.
He reached over and lay his hand on her soft hair, allowing himself the luxury of affection for one minute, allowing his guard to drop infinitesimally.
“Will you be safe darlin'?” he all but whispered. “They ain't after you?”
River's eyes shone as his thoughts infiltrated her mind and lay like a healing bandage on her heart.
“Bàba-” her voice faltered and died, a single tear slid down her face.
Mal reached over and smeared the droplet away with his thumb. “Ain't no cause for tears, darlin'. I'm here and I ain't gonna let no one hurt you ever again, dong ma?”
River nodded, her throat too tight to reply.
He turned on his heel, too overcome and uncomfortable to stay in the room but River heard his final thought as he walked away.
And I'd be proud to be your daddy.
She put her head down and cried onto the watching brontosaurus.
>
Mal wiped at his face before he stepped into the kitchen, allowing River to see his insides was one thing- was no call to be letting the crew see how soft he'd gone over the feng le girl.
He hooked his fingers into his belt and eyed the new folks on board his boat.
Kaylee and Jayne had brought them to the most heavily trafficked area, knowing that sooner or later Mal would drop by to check them out. This was standard procedure now to keep any 'guests' away from isolated areas of the ship until their intentions could be gleaned.
Mal had had enough of folks hiding away in the guest rooms, calling the feds and otherwise being two faced.
If he had spies or gorram feds on board he wanted to be the first to know about it, instead of waiting until some hundan had a gun in his face.
Again.
He leaned against the door jamb and raked his eyes over the two new faces.
The doctor was not at all what he had expected. Maybe because he was so used to Simon, Mal expected all doctors to be short, immaculate and stuffy. This guy looked like a teenager had decided to pay dress up for the day. His t-shirt had a weird cartoon character on it, his pants were cord and possibly cost more than Serenity and his shoes were just plain odd. He was tall, gangly and seemed all elbows and knees as he leaned over to inspect the compression coil Kaylee was still tinkering with.
He turned his head to speak to the other one and Mal got a shock as she turned around. Badger had said that she was a looker but Badger's taste was negligible (his fascination with River notwithstanding). She was stunning and Mal had spent enough time around Companions and whores to know what he was talking about.
With gleaming sun-kissed hair and a soft look of exasperation she went beyond cute and into truly beautiful. Mal sighed, if only he was ten years younger. Of course that never seemed to stop Jayne.
Mal's gaze flitted to the merc, expecting him to be drooling over their guest.
To Mal's surprise, Jayne was looking at him.
“Hey Cap, has Crazy got us all set on course?”
Mal raised an eyebrow as everyone turned to him. “Yes she has and no she ain't.”
Jayne frowned. “Huh?”
“She ain't Crazy,” Mal waited a beat, “leastways any more'n you or me.”
“Well then,” Jayne shrugged, ignoring the bite in Mal's tone. “This is Penny and this here's the doc. Sheldon.”
Mal had been about to greet Penny warmly when Jayne introduced the doc. His head whipped round.
“Sheldon? Seriously?”
The tall gangly man nodded. “Dr. Sheldon Cooper.”
Mal mouthed at Jayne. “Sheldon?”
Jayne bit back a grin.
“So,” Mal drawled, “Sheldon, Penny. Welcome to Serenity. I'm Captain Malcolm Reynolds. Badger said you were wanting to go to Osiris. Well it's not too far, mayhap we'll be there inside a week.”
“A week?” Penny squeaked, her eyes widening at Mal's words.
“That a problem?”
Penny shrunk under his gaze. “No, I guess not.”
She looked unsure even as Sheldon inched closer. “Penny?”
“It's fine, a week. Fine.” She worried her lower lip between her teeth and gave Kaylee a hesitant smile.
“The juxtaposition between your tone and the way you are gnawing your lower lip implies otherwise.”
“Leave it,” she insisted and turned back to the Captain. “A week, ought to be fun.”
“The cockpit and cargo hold are usually out of bounds since we're usually carrying cargo. Just so happens our hold is empty but that don't mean for you to be poking around. Turbulence knocks us, things shift and we can be picking pieces of ya up for days.”
Jayne had been in the kitchen, opening cupboards and taking things out seemingly at random but at Mal's words he turned. “Hey! I put all that stuff away right and tight, even balanced it. If it falls t'weren't me.”
Mal rolled his eyes. “Yeah.”
Sensing that they were going to fight Kaylee jumped in again. “Where is your stuff?”
Penny didn't even look at Sheldon, she just launched into the ready made excuse that Badger had handed her. Kaylee looked suitably stricken.
“Oh, you poor thing. Those space cowboys can be real shee niou uh muo.” She shook her head. “Well I got some spare stuff that you can use, Penny. And I think Inara left some of her stuff behind which might fit.”
They all ignored the small intake of breath from the Captain at that.
“Or Zoe's outgrown some stuff on account of the baby. And uh, well,” Kaylee frowned at Sheldon. “Simon's kinda shorter than you.”
“Doc's kinda shorter than everyone,” Jayne muttered. Kaylee glared at his back and then flashed a smile at Sheldon.
“Maybe Jayne's got something for you.”
Sheldon gave a horror stricken look at the mercenary's cargo pants and t-shirt.
Wear someone else's clothes? He shuddered.
Penny could almost see the cogs whirring as he headed for Sheldon Cooper rant of epic proportions.
There was no way that Dr Sheldon Cooper Phd would wear someone else's things. He'd rather go nude.
Penny shook that thought away quickly. “Don't worry, sweetie, we'll sort something out.” Something occurred to her. “So, are there, like, beds and stuff on board?”
“Ain't you ever been on a ship before?” Jayne asked, somewhat incredulously.
Penny and Sheldon both shook their heads.
“Well now, that ain't nothing.” Kaylee piped up, “Until the Cap picked me up, I'd never been on one neither. It's fine. You couldn'ta picked a better ship to try out, though. Serenity is the best ship in the whole 'verse.”
“In your unbiased opinion,” Sheldon said, one eyebrow raised.
“Oh we're plenty biased,” Mal's tone was sharp. “Don't mean we ain't right.”
Penny put her hand on Sheldon's arm as he opened his mouth. She shook her head at him. Sheldon shut up.
There was a moment of awkward silence and then Kaylee seemed to bounce back.
“Well, how about I show you to your rooms and ya'll can get settled before dinner?”
>
After a mini heart attack from Sheldon and a hurried explanation from Penny they were eventually settled in separate rooms across the corridor from each other. Perhaps Sheldon hadn't needed to complain so vociferously about no one being allowed in his bedroom, but Kaylee had taken it in her stride.
In fact, little Kaylee seemed to take everything in her stride. Penny had once been told that she was a ray of Sunshine; she was a cloudy March in England compared to Kaylee who just seemed to emit joy and cheeriness with every breath. It was a little exhausting.
But she was true to her word and showed them to their rooms.
The 'rooms' were little more than cubicles tucked into the sides of the ship. All they contained were a bed, a very small desk and a 'bathroom' that pulled out of one wall.
According to Kaylee they all shared a shower and Penny was not looking forward to telling Sheldon that; he'd been bouncing on his bed checking for tensile strength or something at the time.
After examining the standards of cleanliness in his room and deciding that he required some rather heavy duty cleaning goods to feel even remotely safe in there Sheldon had come in and sat on Penny's bed.
He gave her his best interrogation look, something he had been practicing for some time.
“Now perhaps you can inform me as to the real reason for your perturbation earlier.”
“I told you, it's nothing.”
He expression was one of blatant disbelief. “Penny.”
“A week!” Penny rounded on him. “Sheldon, maybe you have a million sick days saved or flexi options or whatever but I have to work. You don't show up, whatever they'll wait cause you're a brainiac genius guy. Me? If I miss a shift, okay, I am totally replaceable. I need that job, Sheldon. I can't afford to get canned.” Tears welled up. “I haven't even had a audition in months, the Cheesecake factory is what's feeding me now. I can't go back to Nebraska, Sheldon, I can't!”
Petrified at her outburst Sheldon edged away slightly. Only to reach his hand over hesitantly and pat her twice on the back.
“There there.”
Penny's laugh was a cross between a sob and a hiccup. But it made her smile and Sheldon's heart eased as the tears dried up.
“Sorry, sweetie, this has just been a really weird day and we're stuck here for at least a week, maybe longer since we have no idea how to get home.”
“Actually, Penny,” Sheldon said smugly, “I have been giving our current predicament some thought and believe I have uncovered a plan of some sort to get us back home.”
“Really?” Her eyes shone.
“I,” he beamed, “am going to build another time machine.”
The grin dropped off her face. “That's not a plan,” she said icily, “that's a notion and rather sucky one at that.”
Sheldon did a double take as she quoted his own words back to him. “Penny!” he admonished.
“Seriously,” she sneered, “you're just gonna up and build a brand new time machine? From what? My shirt and your pants? Let me break this down for you. We have no money, no lab, no parts. We're stuck in outer space for at least a week holding onto the fact that the watch Leonard bought me is gonna be worth more than twenty dollars.”
He stiffened. “I am trying, Penny.”
She sagged. “I know, honey, but one of us needs to be realistic here. Do you even know how to make a time machine? Didn't you mail order the other one?”
“Yes, but I have an eidetic memory, Penny and an unmeasurable IQ. Added into that equation the fact that we are currently in the future which must have far more advanced technology, I believe I can successfully construct a time machine.”
Penny licked her lips and sat by his side. “Really?”
“Yes.” Sheldon took a deep breath. “I'll begin by constructing a schematic detailing whatever I recall about the machine that got us into this mess. Then when we are on Osiris and we have sold your watch, we can use some of the money to purchase raw materials with which to build the new machine. I'll construct it and we can then go home. If we manage to time it just right we could even, theoretically, arrive back just as we have left causing you to miss no time at all.”
Penny nodded slowly, “And if the watch isn't worth that much?”
He sat up straighter. “Then I will attempt to gain employment. It shouldn't be too hard for me to get a job. You too, could find gainful employment, after all we already know that there is a desperate need for competent waitresses.”
That was as close to a compliment as she was going to get.
She softened. “Aww, competent? Thanks, sweetie.”
His face turned pink and he looked away.
Penny patted his arm. “Hey, you know Kaylee said she was the ships engineer, you could hang out with her this week and maybe she could tell you about machines of the future. At the very least you'd be able to watch and pick stuff up.”
He gazed at her with frank approval. “Well done, Penny, you know I am more and more pleased that it is with you that I have been stranded rather than Leonard or Koothrappali.”
She leaned over and nudged him with her arm. “Me too, Sheldon.”
Sheldon examined his nails, a ridiculously pleased grin on his face.
She looked at their surroundings with an odd grin. “This is pretty whack though, right? I mean, future, space ships. I feel like I'm Alice falling down the rabbit hole.” She eyed him. “You're definitely the Mad Hatter.”
“Really? I always felt more akin to the White rabbit, in a state of worry about tardiness and a preoccupation with gloves.”
Penny grinned. “Well if we don't hustle, we'll be 'late' for dinner.”
Sheldon followed her out of her room his shoulders slumped. “I suppose it's too much to hope for that they're serving Tangerine chicken tonight.”
Author- Faythbrady
Rating- YT
Show- TBBT, Firefly
Disclaimer- i own everything...the 'verse is mine.
Summary- Penny and Sheldon have made a mistake and end up far from home.
A/N- For Spaceanjl.
Chapter 7
Mal let River take them off planet before he said a word. Not that his little albatross needed silence to concentrate but it made him feel better.
“So, I didn't get shot,” he said with crooked grin.
“Congratulations,” River's fingers danced over the controls like she was conducting an orchestra.
“Neither did anyone else.”
River glanced over at him, a soft expression on her face. “Procrastination with regards to a conversational gambit does not heighten expectation but rather fuels negative anticipatory feelings.”
Mal stared. “Huh?”
“You're making me nervous. What do you want to say?”
“What was all that go se about things changing? Are they changing still?”
River licked her lips and glanced down at the dinosaur manning the navigation beacon. “Things always change. Sometimes for the worse, sometimes for the better. The catalyst for change is present. The direction is less certain.”
Mal watched her for a long moment. His little witch had a way of making things clear that unnerved him. But it wasn't her fault. Those gorram Alliance Blue Handed hundan's had taken a bright and beautiful young girl and turned her into a fractured assassin. It was beyond monstrous and Mal felt his hands clench into fists, the way they did every time he thought of what she had gone through.
Yet she still smiled and laughed and danced when any other person would be a psychopathic, catatonic mess.
Since he'd met River he'd had reason to marvel over the human spirit. She'd restored a faith in him that he'd thought died in blood-soaked valley.
He reached over and lay his hand on her soft hair, allowing himself the luxury of affection for one minute, allowing his guard to drop infinitesimally.
“Will you be safe darlin'?” he all but whispered. “They ain't after you?”
River's eyes shone as his thoughts infiltrated her mind and lay like a healing bandage on her heart.
“Bàba-” her voice faltered and died, a single tear slid down her face.
Mal reached over and smeared the droplet away with his thumb. “Ain't no cause for tears, darlin'. I'm here and I ain't gonna let no one hurt you ever again, dong ma?”
River nodded, her throat too tight to reply.
He turned on his heel, too overcome and uncomfortable to stay in the room but River heard his final thought as he walked away.
And I'd be proud to be your daddy.
She put her head down and cried onto the watching brontosaurus.
>
Mal wiped at his face before he stepped into the kitchen, allowing River to see his insides was one thing- was no call to be letting the crew see how soft he'd gone over the feng le girl.
He hooked his fingers into his belt and eyed the new folks on board his boat.
Kaylee and Jayne had brought them to the most heavily trafficked area, knowing that sooner or later Mal would drop by to check them out. This was standard procedure now to keep any 'guests' away from isolated areas of the ship until their intentions could be gleaned.
Mal had had enough of folks hiding away in the guest rooms, calling the feds and otherwise being two faced.
If he had spies or gorram feds on board he wanted to be the first to know about it, instead of waiting until some hundan had a gun in his face.
Again.
He leaned against the door jamb and raked his eyes over the two new faces.
The doctor was not at all what he had expected. Maybe because he was so used to Simon, Mal expected all doctors to be short, immaculate and stuffy. This guy looked like a teenager had decided to pay dress up for the day. His t-shirt had a weird cartoon character on it, his pants were cord and possibly cost more than Serenity and his shoes were just plain odd. He was tall, gangly and seemed all elbows and knees as he leaned over to inspect the compression coil Kaylee was still tinkering with.
He turned his head to speak to the other one and Mal got a shock as she turned around. Badger had said that she was a looker but Badger's taste was negligible (his fascination with River notwithstanding). She was stunning and Mal had spent enough time around Companions and whores to know what he was talking about.
With gleaming sun-kissed hair and a soft look of exasperation she went beyond cute and into truly beautiful. Mal sighed, if only he was ten years younger. Of course that never seemed to stop Jayne.
Mal's gaze flitted to the merc, expecting him to be drooling over their guest.
To Mal's surprise, Jayne was looking at him.
“Hey Cap, has Crazy got us all set on course?”
Mal raised an eyebrow as everyone turned to him. “Yes she has and no she ain't.”
Jayne frowned. “Huh?”
“She ain't Crazy,” Mal waited a beat, “leastways any more'n you or me.”
“Well then,” Jayne shrugged, ignoring the bite in Mal's tone. “This is Penny and this here's the doc. Sheldon.”
Mal had been about to greet Penny warmly when Jayne introduced the doc. His head whipped round.
“Sheldon? Seriously?”
The tall gangly man nodded. “Dr. Sheldon Cooper.”
Mal mouthed at Jayne. “Sheldon?”
Jayne bit back a grin.
“So,” Mal drawled, “Sheldon, Penny. Welcome to Serenity. I'm Captain Malcolm Reynolds. Badger said you were wanting to go to Osiris. Well it's not too far, mayhap we'll be there inside a week.”
“A week?” Penny squeaked, her eyes widening at Mal's words.
“That a problem?”
Penny shrunk under his gaze. “No, I guess not.”
She looked unsure even as Sheldon inched closer. “Penny?”
“It's fine, a week. Fine.” She worried her lower lip between her teeth and gave Kaylee a hesitant smile.
“The juxtaposition between your tone and the way you are gnawing your lower lip implies otherwise.”
“Leave it,” she insisted and turned back to the Captain. “A week, ought to be fun.”
“The cockpit and cargo hold are usually out of bounds since we're usually carrying cargo. Just so happens our hold is empty but that don't mean for you to be poking around. Turbulence knocks us, things shift and we can be picking pieces of ya up for days.”
Jayne had been in the kitchen, opening cupboards and taking things out seemingly at random but at Mal's words he turned. “Hey! I put all that stuff away right and tight, even balanced it. If it falls t'weren't me.”
Mal rolled his eyes. “Yeah.”
Sensing that they were going to fight Kaylee jumped in again. “Where is your stuff?”
Penny didn't even look at Sheldon, she just launched into the ready made excuse that Badger had handed her. Kaylee looked suitably stricken.
“Oh, you poor thing. Those space cowboys can be real shee niou uh muo.” She shook her head. “Well I got some spare stuff that you can use, Penny. And I think Inara left some of her stuff behind which might fit.”
They all ignored the small intake of breath from the Captain at that.
“Or Zoe's outgrown some stuff on account of the baby. And uh, well,” Kaylee frowned at Sheldon. “Simon's kinda shorter than you.”
“Doc's kinda shorter than everyone,” Jayne muttered. Kaylee glared at his back and then flashed a smile at Sheldon.
“Maybe Jayne's got something for you.”
Sheldon gave a horror stricken look at the mercenary's cargo pants and t-shirt.
Wear someone else's clothes? He shuddered.
Penny could almost see the cogs whirring as he headed for Sheldon Cooper rant of epic proportions.
There was no way that Dr Sheldon Cooper Phd would wear someone else's things. He'd rather go nude.
Penny shook that thought away quickly. “Don't worry, sweetie, we'll sort something out.” Something occurred to her. “So, are there, like, beds and stuff on board?”
“Ain't you ever been on a ship before?” Jayne asked, somewhat incredulously.
Penny and Sheldon both shook their heads.
“Well now, that ain't nothing.” Kaylee piped up, “Until the Cap picked me up, I'd never been on one neither. It's fine. You couldn'ta picked a better ship to try out, though. Serenity is the best ship in the whole 'verse.”
“In your unbiased opinion,” Sheldon said, one eyebrow raised.
“Oh we're plenty biased,” Mal's tone was sharp. “Don't mean we ain't right.”
Penny put her hand on Sheldon's arm as he opened his mouth. She shook her head at him. Sheldon shut up.
There was a moment of awkward silence and then Kaylee seemed to bounce back.
“Well, how about I show you to your rooms and ya'll can get settled before dinner?”
>
After a mini heart attack from Sheldon and a hurried explanation from Penny they were eventually settled in separate rooms across the corridor from each other. Perhaps Sheldon hadn't needed to complain so vociferously about no one being allowed in his bedroom, but Kaylee had taken it in her stride.
In fact, little Kaylee seemed to take everything in her stride. Penny had once been told that she was a ray of Sunshine; she was a cloudy March in England compared to Kaylee who just seemed to emit joy and cheeriness with every breath. It was a little exhausting.
But she was true to her word and showed them to their rooms.
The 'rooms' were little more than cubicles tucked into the sides of the ship. All they contained were a bed, a very small desk and a 'bathroom' that pulled out of one wall.
According to Kaylee they all shared a shower and Penny was not looking forward to telling Sheldon that; he'd been bouncing on his bed checking for tensile strength or something at the time.
After examining the standards of cleanliness in his room and deciding that he required some rather heavy duty cleaning goods to feel even remotely safe in there Sheldon had come in and sat on Penny's bed.
He gave her his best interrogation look, something he had been practicing for some time.
“Now perhaps you can inform me as to the real reason for your perturbation earlier.”
“I told you, it's nothing.”
He expression was one of blatant disbelief. “Penny.”
“A week!” Penny rounded on him. “Sheldon, maybe you have a million sick days saved or flexi options or whatever but I have to work. You don't show up, whatever they'll wait cause you're a brainiac genius guy. Me? If I miss a shift, okay, I am totally replaceable. I need that job, Sheldon. I can't afford to get canned.” Tears welled up. “I haven't even had a audition in months, the Cheesecake factory is what's feeding me now. I can't go back to Nebraska, Sheldon, I can't!”
Petrified at her outburst Sheldon edged away slightly. Only to reach his hand over hesitantly and pat her twice on the back.
“There there.”
Penny's laugh was a cross between a sob and a hiccup. But it made her smile and Sheldon's heart eased as the tears dried up.
“Sorry, sweetie, this has just been a really weird day and we're stuck here for at least a week, maybe longer since we have no idea how to get home.”
“Actually, Penny,” Sheldon said smugly, “I have been giving our current predicament some thought and believe I have uncovered a plan of some sort to get us back home.”
“Really?” Her eyes shone.
“I,” he beamed, “am going to build another time machine.”
The grin dropped off her face. “That's not a plan,” she said icily, “that's a notion and rather sucky one at that.”
Sheldon did a double take as she quoted his own words back to him. “Penny!” he admonished.
“Seriously,” she sneered, “you're just gonna up and build a brand new time machine? From what? My shirt and your pants? Let me break this down for you. We have no money, no lab, no parts. We're stuck in outer space for at least a week holding onto the fact that the watch Leonard bought me is gonna be worth more than twenty dollars.”
He stiffened. “I am trying, Penny.”
She sagged. “I know, honey, but one of us needs to be realistic here. Do you even know how to make a time machine? Didn't you mail order the other one?”
“Yes, but I have an eidetic memory, Penny and an unmeasurable IQ. Added into that equation the fact that we are currently in the future which must have far more advanced technology, I believe I can successfully construct a time machine.”
Penny licked her lips and sat by his side. “Really?”
“Yes.” Sheldon took a deep breath. “I'll begin by constructing a schematic detailing whatever I recall about the machine that got us into this mess. Then when we are on Osiris and we have sold your watch, we can use some of the money to purchase raw materials with which to build the new machine. I'll construct it and we can then go home. If we manage to time it just right we could even, theoretically, arrive back just as we have left causing you to miss no time at all.”
Penny nodded slowly, “And if the watch isn't worth that much?”
He sat up straighter. “Then I will attempt to gain employment. It shouldn't be too hard for me to get a job. You too, could find gainful employment, after all we already know that there is a desperate need for competent waitresses.”
That was as close to a compliment as she was going to get.
She softened. “Aww, competent? Thanks, sweetie.”
His face turned pink and he looked away.
Penny patted his arm. “Hey, you know Kaylee said she was the ships engineer, you could hang out with her this week and maybe she could tell you about machines of the future. At the very least you'd be able to watch and pick stuff up.”
He gazed at her with frank approval. “Well done, Penny, you know I am more and more pleased that it is with you that I have been stranded rather than Leonard or Koothrappali.”
She leaned over and nudged him with her arm. “Me too, Sheldon.”
Sheldon examined his nails, a ridiculously pleased grin on his face.
She looked at their surroundings with an odd grin. “This is pretty whack though, right? I mean, future, space ships. I feel like I'm Alice falling down the rabbit hole.” She eyed him. “You're definitely the Mad Hatter.”
“Really? I always felt more akin to the White rabbit, in a state of worry about tardiness and a preoccupation with gloves.”
Penny grinned. “Well if we don't hustle, we'll be 'late' for dinner.”
Sheldon followed her out of her room his shoulders slumped. “I suppose it's too much to hope for that they're serving Tangerine chicken tonight.”