Fic: Nemesis (An X-Files/BBT crossover) 2/2
Title: Nemesis
Author: mrsvc
Spoilers: None
Rating/Warnings: PG-13. End of the World fic.
Word Count: 3556
Disclaimer: I do not own Sheldon, Penny, or the X-Files.
Summary: Agents Penelope Fourby and Sheldon Cooper are assigned to the X-Files, the FBI division that deals with paranormal or unexplained events. When a second sun is discovered and a scientist goes missing, the agents are called in.
AN: Special thanks to fujiidom for once again being Super Beta and saving my neck with her awesome. You're the best, bb <3
Part I
8:34 PM
Friday, November 9th, 2009
Room 34
The pizza box on her bed was half empty and the television was being studiously ignored as the Agents threw papers to each other across the bed.
“Leslie Winkle lives alone,” Agent Cooper repeated to himself for the fourteenth time.
“Cooper, we’ve been over this. There is no sign of Leslie Winkle anywhere. Nothing was reported from her apartment, no sign of her being abducted, by humans or aliens, in the parking lot, no car. Her belongings are still in place.
“You will not turn this into an alien abduction. For what logical reason would the aliens have for abducting her?”
“She knows,” Fourby stressed, jumping up from edge of the bed and standing next to the television. “She knows about Nemesis.
“You think aliens are involved with Nemesis?” he scoffed. His condescending manner making her turn her back to him. “This is an astrophysical phenomenon, not some paranormal hoodwinking.”
“What if Nemesis is of their invention? What if it is in fact, not a star at all, but a spaceship? It would explain why there was no wobble!”
“Would it?”
“If aliens can invent spaceships, why wouldn’t they have discovered some sort of antigravity technology?
“Gravity is as fundamental to the galaxy as carbon is to the human life form, Fourby. You can’t get rid of gravity. It would be gravity itself that would maintain the ship’s orbit around the sun, despite its wide arc.”
“What if they could calculate their gravitational need to the slightest measure, allowing them to exert no more pull than it needs to maintain orbit?”
“The gravitational action of each planet is proportional to its mass and the inverse of its radius squared. No planet would take more gravity than it needs. The ship is already exerted the exact amount of gravity it requires to orbit.”
Agent Cooper stood by the door of her room, hand on the doorknob. “What difference does it makes if it is alien life? It's always about alien life with you. Let’s keep this about human life, for once, Fourby. We only have three days and no feasible options to prevent the extinction. The evolutionary chain is about to evolve again. Let’s hope we survive to be part of it.” He opened the door and left her alone.
3:20 AM
Saturday, November 10th, 2009
Room 34
A telephone rang in the silence and Agent Fourby bolted up in her bed. She fumbled around for the receiver, grabbing it on the fifth ring.
“What?” she growled into the phone, not thinking about FBI relations or professional courtesy. As it was 3 o’clock in the damn morning.
“Agent Fourby?”
“Yeah?”
“This is Officer Barry Kripke from the Chicago police. We have discovered a body. We have reason to believe it is Dr. Winkle.”
“We’ll be there in ten.”
3:32 AM
Saturday, November 10th, 2009
Washington Park
“Who found her?” Fourby said, slamming the car door and walking briskly toward the lead officer. Cooper followed, looking rather disgruntled from lack of sleep.
“Night patrol,” Officer Kripke answered, shaking hands with the agents. The agents walked over to the corpse, finding a Medical Examiner already on the scene. The red haired woman stood and shook hands as well. “Well, Dr. Barnett?”
“No sign of a struggle, no outward signs of sexual assault, no obvious cause of death,” she sighed. “She’s been dead awhile. It’s awful cold out tonight so I have a feeling liver temp wouldn’t tell us much.”
“Fourby,” came Cooper’s soft voice from beside her. She looked up at him. He was silently begging her not to say what was on her mind. He was pleading with her to keep her illogical opinions to herself.
“Agent Cooper will be there to observe the autopsy, Dr. Barnett. I’ll go speak to Dr. Hofstadter.”
3:59 AM
Saturday, November 10th, 2009
Dr. Hofstadter's Home
Fourby knocked tentatively on his door, worried about the news she had to bring him. She had to tell him that the love of his life was dead. She had to tell him he would never see her face alive again.
For a brief moment, she thought back to the times she had been told Agent Cooper was gone. He had once been shot, back earlier on in their partnership.
She blew the bastard that did it away but that didn't help her handle the situation any better. She had sat quietly outside his hospital room as his mother, his sister, brother, and his grandmother made a steady stream in and out, never really moving, never going in. She didn't think she could see him like that, all weak and vulnerable, not his usual hotheaded self. His mother would leave cups of coffee and wrapped sandwiches at her feet but she had never tried to force anything on her. She figured his mother knew, knew she needed to remember him strong and well and himself. When he was released, she was there, sitting in that chair, only ever leaving to shower and sleep. His mother was carrying a small suitcase of all the necessities he had demanded. He was dressed in a Flash t-shirt and some old faded khakis his mother had dug out of a bottom drawer.
He glanced at her and asked how long she had been sitting there. "Since Friday."
"Got your car here?"
"Yes," she sighed, taking him in. Despite his slightly pale face, he was still there, still one piece. Not dead. Not blown apart because she had sent him to check that room alone.
"Take me home." And she did, happily driving him home, despite his complaints about speed and safe distances between cars.
His mother had cleaned his house but he made her double check that she hadn't folded his clothes wrong before helping him throw back the covers. He looked at her softly and asked if she would sing him his song. He had made her sing it once when they were out on an all night stakeout; he had fallen asleep, she had been pissed. But, now, with him wincing when he laid too heavily on the side that the bullet had hit, she sat on his covers and sang him to sleep. "Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur..." and she locked his door when she left and on the first Monday he came back to work, she smiled for the first time since he had been in the hospital.
Fourby was thrown from her thoughts by the door opening. "Agent?" Dr. Hofstadter asked, his voice still hoarse with sleep. "Has there... have you found Leslie?" his mind clearing enough for the thought to come out.
"Yes," was all Fourby could say, not trusting herself to say more.
"Well," he said excitedly, tightening the knot in his plaid bathrobe belt, "where is she? Can I see her?" He moved to leave, his eyes on her car like she was going to drive him to the hospital, like she was going to take him to where his love was. She stepped forward and put a hand out, blocking him from walking away, gripping his shoulder.
"Dr. Hofstadter, I think... I think we should sit down."
"No," he sighed but might as well screamed. Fourby pushed him gently into the door, guiding him blindly to the nearest seat she could see. "No, you didn't find her d-... no."
"Dr. Hofstadter..."
"Where?" His eyes were dark and heavy and weighted against her face like a stone.
"Washington Park, by the campus." She thought he would break down, she thought he was going to sob hysterically with the confirmation but instead, he stared down at his thick socks and breathed.
"Did she suffer?"
"Agent Cooper and Dr. Barnett are conducting the autopsy now." Dr. Hofstadter nodded and bit his lip. She thought that maybe he was trying to put on a brave face for her, trying to hide his grief for the sake of the agents on the case. She stood, thinking of letting him relieve his grief in quiet but he stuck out a hand.
"No, stay... for just a second. Don't let... don't let me remember it's real." So she sat and looked at him as he breathed and suddenly realized he was breathing for her sake, not his own.
4:50 AM
Saturday, November 10th, 2009
Cook County Medical Examiner's Office
"Found anything, kids?" Fourby asked as she burst into the morgue, suit jacket unbuttoned and flying open behind her.
"Where the hell have you been?" Cooper spat, standing beside Dr. Barnett. "It's been an hour, surely you didn't get lost?" That was a subtle dig at her. She always drove and, because Agent Cooper couldn't, he liked to point out her distinct directional impairment at times. She thought maybe it was because he liked her to think she was dependent on his superior knowledge of the layout of every major city in the States. Or maybe he was just petty and jealous. Either way, she shot him a dirty look and turned to the doctor.
"What's going on here, Doc?"
"There is nothing here but one small mark on her thigh. She is in perfect shape, way better looking than most of the stiffs that slide through here." Dr. Stephanie pulled the sheet up on the side to show Fourby the mark on her thigh. "It's situated right above her femoral artery. Arteries are fast moving, high pressure vessels. Whoever did this, knew what they were doing and knew its consequences."
"Cooper, you done here?" Fourby said, moving past the body and the doctor to stand beside her partner.
"We're going to have to wait on the toxicology report."
"You going to do that waiting here?"
"No," he said slowly, sensing a trap.
"Then high-tail your ass out of here. Doc, you'll call us with reports?" Fourby shouted as she pushed the doors open. Cooper peeled his gloves off and threw them in the trash, the only one left to hear Dr. Barnett say, "I've got your number, Fourby!" before he too was out the door.
5:30 AM
Sunday, November 11th, 2009
"Where are we going?" Cooper asked as Fourby sped down the highway. She had woken him up this morning to no new news and no new leads. She told him to get his clothes on and meet her at the car in five.
"I've got a hunch," Fourby smiled at him. Cooper knew this smile. It's her 'This is going to be illogical and crazy but you'll probably love it anyway' smile. She gave this smile when she threw down a stack of government files she had obtained through questionable means. It was the same smile that she gave when she would drive him to forests along the rainy Oregon coast to look into the latest alien abductions. He knew this smile meant trouble and yet he couldn't help but trust it. He always seemed to go along with whatever crazed, life threatening, mind blowing adventure she had cooked up, that week, no matter how ill-conceived they might be.
"Science doesn't rely on hunches, Fourby. You have to give me more than that."
"Maybe this doesn't have anything to do with science, Cooper."
"Everything has to do with science! Science and the understanding it lends to the world's mysteries is the basis for all human thought and ingenuity. Every thing you find enchanting is explainable with science."
"And what about the things science doesn't explain?" she challenged back. She loved to fight with him, to challenge his beliefs. She loved to make him explain his worldview to her so that she could try her best to figure out the little things that made him tick.
"It is only that man has not evolved enough for science. Fourby, the meteorites are coming in," he stops to check his atomic watch, "one day. Man is going to move forward, science will progress. This is a dawning of a New Age of the New Man, a Homo Novus, if you will.
"Cooper, what if man does not survive this?" She thought she had put a competitive edge in her voice, her daring tone that was always present when they fought. Instead, she sounded small and unsure. He glanced over to see her eyes firmly fixed on the road, the wheels turning under her in a steady rhythm that reassured her she wasn't dead yet.
"Then the reign of man is over, Fourby. The species has run its course, it must die so that others may live. The Circle of Life at its finest." She chanced a small look at him. "What?"
"I'm waiting on Rafiki to sing me a song and present me with the next King of the Lions."
He rolled his eyes. "Are you going to tell me where we are?"
"We're meeting a friend," she said slyly. She pulled up to a warehouse and parked. "Stay here."
"What, why?"
"Because he doesn't like strangers."
"Then why even bring me along? I could have been helping Dr..."
"Hey, I needed the company on the drive." And she disappeared inside. Cooper waited, drumming his fingers on the door handle. She was always doing this, putting herself stupidly, wildly in danger. He clock-watched, swearing to himself that in five minutes, he was going in after her.
Finally, she came back out, glancing over her shoulder quickly, before hopping in the car and throwing it into reverse.
"Well?"
"Government's got no part in this, other than the cover-up," she scoffed, like she wasn't surprised.
"Cover-up?"
"They aren't going to tell people. Meteorites are going to cover the surface of the Earth tomorrow and everyone's just going to be calmly going about their lives."
"Fourby," Cooper tried, but she wouldn't have any of it.
"They can't even let people prepare," she sighed. Cooper opened his mouth again but his voice died as he felt the buzz in his pocket.
"Cooper," he began, listening intently to the line. "Yes, thank you, Dr. Barnett." Fourby let her gaze wander over to him slowly. "Dr. Barnett with the toxicology report. Nothing. There was nothing unusual or extraordinary in her report." Fourby swore and drove on, not looking at her partner again.
8:00 PM
Sunday, November 11th, 2009
University of Chicago, Dr. Rajesh Koothrapali’s office
"Agents," Dr. Hofstadter said, his voice weak. Dr. Koothrappali was standing behind him. "I want to thank you for helping us. Leslie..." he just looked away and nodded.
Dr. Koothrappali stepped in and continued, "Thank you. Tomorrow is the dawn of a new day, I suppose."
The saying may have once meant something good, but, today, the last day of Man, it was a dark saying. They let themselves out of the building, knowing there were hundreds of geniuses thinking, talking, arguing over how to save the planet at the last second.
Fourby glanced up at the sky. "This isn't something scientific. This is something extraterrestrial in nature."
Cooper kept quiet as they walked slowly to their rental car. Fourby reached her the driver's side door but she couldn't bring herself to open it. She wanted to weep like a child. She wanted to just let the world crash around her before it actually did. She heard Cooper's shoes crunch bits of gravel as he slowly advanced toward her, but she didn't move. His hand rested gently on the window, the warmth from his body slightly fogged a small area of the chilly glass. She turned her head to stare up at his haunted face. She laid her hand carefully over his.
"We're going to die tomorrow, aren't we?" He didn't answer. "We're going to die."
"My mother..." he sighed. "My sister. My brother."
"My father."
"You." He reached over and squeezed her hand. They were alone together, here at the end of the world. She thought of their cases together, of the times when he was the only person in the world who believed her, who trusted her, who didn't want to have her committed. He, who believed only in logic and fact, in what could be seen and quantified, would follow her to the ends of the Earth. He who thought he knew the truth let her discover her own. So she leaned back and let her head fall back against his shoulder, not letting go of his hand.
"It's been a good three years, hasn't it, Partner?" She felt him smile deep inside, a sad smile.
"I-" Cooper was cut off by the crashing sound of the doors opening in a hurry.
"Agents!" the voice of Leonard Hofstadter shouted over the wind. "Hurry!"
They broke apart. A brief, concerned look shared between them before they set off in a sprint, following the scientist.
"What's happened?" Cooper asked, striding quickly back into Dr. Koothrappali's office.
"There is some kind of gravitational fluctuation surrounding the meteors," Dr. Koothrappali said, typing franctically into the computer before him.
"In what way?" Fourby replied, sharply.
"It's almost as if there is a second force acting upon the meteors."
"How can you tell?" Scientists were rushing around, trading numbers and equations, plotting courses and trying to look up in the numerous textbooks just what was happening outside their doors, up in the sky.
"It's like there is something, another body trying to change their course."
Fourby quickly looked between the scientists, trying to decipher the meaning. "To push them away from Earth?"
"Miraculously," Dr. Hofstadter chuckled grimly, "yes." He pushed a shaking hand through his dense brown curls. "It's almost as if the sun, our sun, is trying to push the meteors back in place."
"Why wasn't this something you could predict?" Cooper demanded of them. Before he could get an answer, Fourby had turned on her heel and was sprinting out into the parking lot again. "Fourby!" Cooper shouted, following her. "Stop!"
"It can't just be a coincidence. It has to be something..." She panted, pushing on the heavy doors and busting out into the cold fall air, the sky dotted with fiery lights. "Something bigger!"
"Fourby! Fourby! Penny!" he shouted, pushing open the doors himself, stopping just behind her.
"It's them, Sheldon," she whispered. "It has to be." The lights grew closer, burning brighter like candles lighting the road to destruction. She stuck her hand out, groping blindly behind her for his hand. When she found it, she threaded her fingers through his, gripping tightly. "We aren't going to die, tonight."
"I must say that I appreciate your delusional optimism, even to the very end." He stepped closer, wrapping his free arm around her in his second uncharacteristic display of affection of the night.
"What can I say?" she chuckled, "I just want to believe."
9:15 PM
Sunday, November 11th, 2009
University of Chicago, Parking Lot
"Ugh, Cooper," Fourby groaned as she sat up. "What the hell happened?" Still unable to open her eyes fully, she groped around her partner. She found him just a few inches to her left and she gently shook him. "Cooper, wake up."
"What time is it?" he groaned, glancing down at his watch. "9:06? Impossible. It was 9:05 when you ran out the door."
"My phone says 9:15," Fourby said, glancing at the device she had just fished from her pocket. "Cooper, we lost nine minutes," she squeaked excitedly.
"My watch no longer works but you trust your phone?" he said disbelievingly.
"We lost nine minutes. I told you, I told you."
"Agents," came the voice of Dr. Koothrappali from behind them, "I think I'd like to speak with you, one last time."
10:30 PM
Sunday, November 11th, 2009
Room 34
"I call bull," Penny seethed for the fourth time since they came back to their hotel to pack for their return to Washington. "Bull! 'The official explanation'," she mimicked Dr. Koothrapali's accent. "'The official explanation' my ass."
"Fourby," Cooper said, standing with his arms folded over his chest, bags already packed and loaded in the trunk of their car. "Science is never just an 'official explanation.' It is fact. You cannot expect scientists to release your story about aliens influencing the meteors." Fourby scowled but continued to throw her clothes haphazardly into the suitcase. "The meteors were waylaid by the affects of the sun's gravity on the meteors. It counteracted it in a way that wasn't expected." She shook her head disbelievingly. "Besides, why would you assume it was aliens who saved Earth? What would be their motivation?"
"I don't know," she sighed. "Maybe they thought it would be fun, or they want us for probing, or maybe they felt guilty for delaying our warp program." Cooper's eyebrow quirked but he let her continue on nonetheless. "I just don't think they can explain this way with some hocus pocus science nonsense-"
"Hocus pocus science nonsense?" Cooper broke in, although she could sense the hint of amusement in his voice. "That is one I have never heard before."
"You know what I meant, Sheldon," Fourby said, her voice softer now. She zipped up her bag and slung it over her shoulder. "I just wish that everyone could see what I see."
"Yes," he said, taking the bag from her as she passed by, "don't we all."
THE END
Author: mrsvc
Spoilers: None
Rating/Warnings: PG-13. End of the World fic.
Word Count: 3556
Disclaimer: I do not own Sheldon, Penny, or the X-Files.
Summary: Agents Penelope Fourby and Sheldon Cooper are assigned to the X-Files, the FBI division that deals with paranormal or unexplained events. When a second sun is discovered and a scientist goes missing, the agents are called in.
AN: Special thanks to fujiidom for once again being Super Beta and saving my neck with her awesome. You're the best, bb <3
Part I
8:34 PM
Friday, November 9th, 2009
Room 34
The pizza box on her bed was half empty and the television was being studiously ignored as the Agents threw papers to each other across the bed.
“Leslie Winkle lives alone,” Agent Cooper repeated to himself for the fourteenth time.
“Cooper, we’ve been over this. There is no sign of Leslie Winkle anywhere. Nothing was reported from her apartment, no sign of her being abducted, by humans or aliens, in the parking lot, no car. Her belongings are still in place.
“You will not turn this into an alien abduction. For what logical reason would the aliens have for abducting her?”
“She knows,” Fourby stressed, jumping up from edge of the bed and standing next to the television. “She knows about Nemesis.
“You think aliens are involved with Nemesis?” he scoffed. His condescending manner making her turn her back to him. “This is an astrophysical phenomenon, not some paranormal hoodwinking.”
“What if Nemesis is of their invention? What if it is in fact, not a star at all, but a spaceship? It would explain why there was no wobble!”
“Would it?”
“If aliens can invent spaceships, why wouldn’t they have discovered some sort of antigravity technology?
“Gravity is as fundamental to the galaxy as carbon is to the human life form, Fourby. You can’t get rid of gravity. It would be gravity itself that would maintain the ship’s orbit around the sun, despite its wide arc.”
“What if they could calculate their gravitational need to the slightest measure, allowing them to exert no more pull than it needs to maintain orbit?”
“The gravitational action of each planet is proportional to its mass and the inverse of its radius squared. No planet would take more gravity than it needs. The ship is already exerted the exact amount of gravity it requires to orbit.”
Agent Cooper stood by the door of her room, hand on the doorknob. “What difference does it makes if it is alien life? It's always about alien life with you. Let’s keep this about human life, for once, Fourby. We only have three days and no feasible options to prevent the extinction. The evolutionary chain is about to evolve again. Let’s hope we survive to be part of it.” He opened the door and left her alone.
3:20 AM
Saturday, November 10th, 2009
Room 34
A telephone rang in the silence and Agent Fourby bolted up in her bed. She fumbled around for the receiver, grabbing it on the fifth ring.
“What?” she growled into the phone, not thinking about FBI relations or professional courtesy. As it was 3 o’clock in the damn morning.
“Agent Fourby?”
“Yeah?”
“This is Officer Barry Kripke from the Chicago police. We have discovered a body. We have reason to believe it is Dr. Winkle.”
“We’ll be there in ten.”
3:32 AM
Saturday, November 10th, 2009
Washington Park
“Who found her?” Fourby said, slamming the car door and walking briskly toward the lead officer. Cooper followed, looking rather disgruntled from lack of sleep.
“Night patrol,” Officer Kripke answered, shaking hands with the agents. The agents walked over to the corpse, finding a Medical Examiner already on the scene. The red haired woman stood and shook hands as well. “Well, Dr. Barnett?”
“No sign of a struggle, no outward signs of sexual assault, no obvious cause of death,” she sighed. “She’s been dead awhile. It’s awful cold out tonight so I have a feeling liver temp wouldn’t tell us much.”
“Fourby,” came Cooper’s soft voice from beside her. She looked up at him. He was silently begging her not to say what was on her mind. He was pleading with her to keep her illogical opinions to herself.
“Agent Cooper will be there to observe the autopsy, Dr. Barnett. I’ll go speak to Dr. Hofstadter.”
3:59 AM
Saturday, November 10th, 2009
Dr. Hofstadter's Home
Fourby knocked tentatively on his door, worried about the news she had to bring him. She had to tell him that the love of his life was dead. She had to tell him he would never see her face alive again.
For a brief moment, she thought back to the times she had been told Agent Cooper was gone. He had once been shot, back earlier on in their partnership.
She blew the bastard that did it away but that didn't help her handle the situation any better. She had sat quietly outside his hospital room as his mother, his sister, brother, and his grandmother made a steady stream in and out, never really moving, never going in. She didn't think she could see him like that, all weak and vulnerable, not his usual hotheaded self. His mother would leave cups of coffee and wrapped sandwiches at her feet but she had never tried to force anything on her. She figured his mother knew, knew she needed to remember him strong and well and himself. When he was released, she was there, sitting in that chair, only ever leaving to shower and sleep. His mother was carrying a small suitcase of all the necessities he had demanded. He was dressed in a Flash t-shirt and some old faded khakis his mother had dug out of a bottom drawer.
He glanced at her and asked how long she had been sitting there. "Since Friday."
"Got your car here?"
"Yes," she sighed, taking him in. Despite his slightly pale face, he was still there, still one piece. Not dead. Not blown apart because she had sent him to check that room alone.
"Take me home." And she did, happily driving him home, despite his complaints about speed and safe distances between cars.
His mother had cleaned his house but he made her double check that she hadn't folded his clothes wrong before helping him throw back the covers. He looked at her softly and asked if she would sing him his song. He had made her sing it once when they were out on an all night stakeout; he had fallen asleep, she had been pissed. But, now, with him wincing when he laid too heavily on the side that the bullet had hit, she sat on his covers and sang him to sleep. "Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur..." and she locked his door when she left and on the first Monday he came back to work, she smiled for the first time since he had been in the hospital.
Fourby was thrown from her thoughts by the door opening. "Agent?" Dr. Hofstadter asked, his voice still hoarse with sleep. "Has there... have you found Leslie?" his mind clearing enough for the thought to come out.
"Yes," was all Fourby could say, not trusting herself to say more.
"Well," he said excitedly, tightening the knot in his plaid bathrobe belt, "where is she? Can I see her?" He moved to leave, his eyes on her car like she was going to drive him to the hospital, like she was going to take him to where his love was. She stepped forward and put a hand out, blocking him from walking away, gripping his shoulder.
"Dr. Hofstadter, I think... I think we should sit down."
"No," he sighed but might as well screamed. Fourby pushed him gently into the door, guiding him blindly to the nearest seat she could see. "No, you didn't find her d-... no."
"Dr. Hofstadter..."
"Where?" His eyes were dark and heavy and weighted against her face like a stone.
"Washington Park, by the campus." She thought he would break down, she thought he was going to sob hysterically with the confirmation but instead, he stared down at his thick socks and breathed.
"Did she suffer?"
"Agent Cooper and Dr. Barnett are conducting the autopsy now." Dr. Hofstadter nodded and bit his lip. She thought that maybe he was trying to put on a brave face for her, trying to hide his grief for the sake of the agents on the case. She stood, thinking of letting him relieve his grief in quiet but he stuck out a hand.
"No, stay... for just a second. Don't let... don't let me remember it's real." So she sat and looked at him as he breathed and suddenly realized he was breathing for her sake, not his own.
4:50 AM
Saturday, November 10th, 2009
Cook County Medical Examiner's Office
"Found anything, kids?" Fourby asked as she burst into the morgue, suit jacket unbuttoned and flying open behind her.
"Where the hell have you been?" Cooper spat, standing beside Dr. Barnett. "It's been an hour, surely you didn't get lost?" That was a subtle dig at her. She always drove and, because Agent Cooper couldn't, he liked to point out her distinct directional impairment at times. She thought maybe it was because he liked her to think she was dependent on his superior knowledge of the layout of every major city in the States. Or maybe he was just petty and jealous. Either way, she shot him a dirty look and turned to the doctor.
"What's going on here, Doc?"
"There is nothing here but one small mark on her thigh. She is in perfect shape, way better looking than most of the stiffs that slide through here." Dr. Stephanie pulled the sheet up on the side to show Fourby the mark on her thigh. "It's situated right above her femoral artery. Arteries are fast moving, high pressure vessels. Whoever did this, knew what they were doing and knew its consequences."
"Cooper, you done here?" Fourby said, moving past the body and the doctor to stand beside her partner.
"We're going to have to wait on the toxicology report."
"You going to do that waiting here?"
"No," he said slowly, sensing a trap.
"Then high-tail your ass out of here. Doc, you'll call us with reports?" Fourby shouted as she pushed the doors open. Cooper peeled his gloves off and threw them in the trash, the only one left to hear Dr. Barnett say, "I've got your number, Fourby!" before he too was out the door.
5:30 AM
Sunday, November 11th, 2009
"Where are we going?" Cooper asked as Fourby sped down the highway. She had woken him up this morning to no new news and no new leads. She told him to get his clothes on and meet her at the car in five.
"I've got a hunch," Fourby smiled at him. Cooper knew this smile. It's her 'This is going to be illogical and crazy but you'll probably love it anyway' smile. She gave this smile when she threw down a stack of government files she had obtained through questionable means. It was the same smile that she gave when she would drive him to forests along the rainy Oregon coast to look into the latest alien abductions. He knew this smile meant trouble and yet he couldn't help but trust it. He always seemed to go along with whatever crazed, life threatening, mind blowing adventure she had cooked up, that week, no matter how ill-conceived they might be.
"Science doesn't rely on hunches, Fourby. You have to give me more than that."
"Maybe this doesn't have anything to do with science, Cooper."
"Everything has to do with science! Science and the understanding it lends to the world's mysteries is the basis for all human thought and ingenuity. Every thing you find enchanting is explainable with science."
"And what about the things science doesn't explain?" she challenged back. She loved to fight with him, to challenge his beliefs. She loved to make him explain his worldview to her so that she could try her best to figure out the little things that made him tick.
"It is only that man has not evolved enough for science. Fourby, the meteorites are coming in," he stops to check his atomic watch, "one day. Man is going to move forward, science will progress. This is a dawning of a New Age of the New Man, a Homo Novus, if you will.
"Cooper, what if man does not survive this?" She thought she had put a competitive edge in her voice, her daring tone that was always present when they fought. Instead, she sounded small and unsure. He glanced over to see her eyes firmly fixed on the road, the wheels turning under her in a steady rhythm that reassured her she wasn't dead yet.
"Then the reign of man is over, Fourby. The species has run its course, it must die so that others may live. The Circle of Life at its finest." She chanced a small look at him. "What?"
"I'm waiting on Rafiki to sing me a song and present me with the next King of the Lions."
He rolled his eyes. "Are you going to tell me where we are?"
"We're meeting a friend," she said slyly. She pulled up to a warehouse and parked. "Stay here."
"What, why?"
"Because he doesn't like strangers."
"Then why even bring me along? I could have been helping Dr..."
"Hey, I needed the company on the drive." And she disappeared inside. Cooper waited, drumming his fingers on the door handle. She was always doing this, putting herself stupidly, wildly in danger. He clock-watched, swearing to himself that in five minutes, he was going in after her.
Finally, she came back out, glancing over her shoulder quickly, before hopping in the car and throwing it into reverse.
"Well?"
"Government's got no part in this, other than the cover-up," she scoffed, like she wasn't surprised.
"Cover-up?"
"They aren't going to tell people. Meteorites are going to cover the surface of the Earth tomorrow and everyone's just going to be calmly going about their lives."
"Fourby," Cooper tried, but she wouldn't have any of it.
"They can't even let people prepare," she sighed. Cooper opened his mouth again but his voice died as he felt the buzz in his pocket.
"Cooper," he began, listening intently to the line. "Yes, thank you, Dr. Barnett." Fourby let her gaze wander over to him slowly. "Dr. Barnett with the toxicology report. Nothing. There was nothing unusual or extraordinary in her report." Fourby swore and drove on, not looking at her partner again.
8:00 PM
Sunday, November 11th, 2009
University of Chicago, Dr. Rajesh Koothrapali’s office
"Agents," Dr. Hofstadter said, his voice weak. Dr. Koothrappali was standing behind him. "I want to thank you for helping us. Leslie..." he just looked away and nodded.
Dr. Koothrappali stepped in and continued, "Thank you. Tomorrow is the dawn of a new day, I suppose."
The saying may have once meant something good, but, today, the last day of Man, it was a dark saying. They let themselves out of the building, knowing there were hundreds of geniuses thinking, talking, arguing over how to save the planet at the last second.
Fourby glanced up at the sky. "This isn't something scientific. This is something extraterrestrial in nature."
Cooper kept quiet as they walked slowly to their rental car. Fourby reached her the driver's side door but she couldn't bring herself to open it. She wanted to weep like a child. She wanted to just let the world crash around her before it actually did. She heard Cooper's shoes crunch bits of gravel as he slowly advanced toward her, but she didn't move. His hand rested gently on the window, the warmth from his body slightly fogged a small area of the chilly glass. She turned her head to stare up at his haunted face. She laid her hand carefully over his.
"We're going to die tomorrow, aren't we?" He didn't answer. "We're going to die."
"My mother..." he sighed. "My sister. My brother."
"My father."
"You." He reached over and squeezed her hand. They were alone together, here at the end of the world. She thought of their cases together, of the times when he was the only person in the world who believed her, who trusted her, who didn't want to have her committed. He, who believed only in logic and fact, in what could be seen and quantified, would follow her to the ends of the Earth. He who thought he knew the truth let her discover her own. So she leaned back and let her head fall back against his shoulder, not letting go of his hand.
"It's been a good three years, hasn't it, Partner?" She felt him smile deep inside, a sad smile.
"I-" Cooper was cut off by the crashing sound of the doors opening in a hurry.
"Agents!" the voice of Leonard Hofstadter shouted over the wind. "Hurry!"
They broke apart. A brief, concerned look shared between them before they set off in a sprint, following the scientist.
"What's happened?" Cooper asked, striding quickly back into Dr. Koothrappali's office.
"There is some kind of gravitational fluctuation surrounding the meteors," Dr. Koothrappali said, typing franctically into the computer before him.
"In what way?" Fourby replied, sharply.
"It's almost as if there is a second force acting upon the meteors."
"How can you tell?" Scientists were rushing around, trading numbers and equations, plotting courses and trying to look up in the numerous textbooks just what was happening outside their doors, up in the sky.
"It's like there is something, another body trying to change their course."
Fourby quickly looked between the scientists, trying to decipher the meaning. "To push them away from Earth?"
"Miraculously," Dr. Hofstadter chuckled grimly, "yes." He pushed a shaking hand through his dense brown curls. "It's almost as if the sun, our sun, is trying to push the meteors back in place."
"Why wasn't this something you could predict?" Cooper demanded of them. Before he could get an answer, Fourby had turned on her heel and was sprinting out into the parking lot again. "Fourby!" Cooper shouted, following her. "Stop!"
"It can't just be a coincidence. It has to be something..." She panted, pushing on the heavy doors and busting out into the cold fall air, the sky dotted with fiery lights. "Something bigger!"
"Fourby! Fourby! Penny!" he shouted, pushing open the doors himself, stopping just behind her.
"It's them, Sheldon," she whispered. "It has to be." The lights grew closer, burning brighter like candles lighting the road to destruction. She stuck her hand out, groping blindly behind her for his hand. When she found it, she threaded her fingers through his, gripping tightly. "We aren't going to die, tonight."
"I must say that I appreciate your delusional optimism, even to the very end." He stepped closer, wrapping his free arm around her in his second uncharacteristic display of affection of the night.
"What can I say?" she chuckled, "I just want to believe."
9:15 PM
Sunday, November 11th, 2009
University of Chicago, Parking Lot
"Ugh, Cooper," Fourby groaned as she sat up. "What the hell happened?" Still unable to open her eyes fully, she groped around her partner. She found him just a few inches to her left and she gently shook him. "Cooper, wake up."
"What time is it?" he groaned, glancing down at his watch. "9:06? Impossible. It was 9:05 when you ran out the door."
"My phone says 9:15," Fourby said, glancing at the device she had just fished from her pocket. "Cooper, we lost nine minutes," she squeaked excitedly.
"My watch no longer works but you trust your phone?" he said disbelievingly.
"We lost nine minutes. I told you, I told you."
"Agents," came the voice of Dr. Koothrappali from behind them, "I think I'd like to speak with you, one last time."
10:30 PM
Sunday, November 11th, 2009
Room 34
"I call bull," Penny seethed for the fourth time since they came back to their hotel to pack for their return to Washington. "Bull! 'The official explanation'," she mimicked Dr. Koothrapali's accent. "'The official explanation' my ass."
"Fourby," Cooper said, standing with his arms folded over his chest, bags already packed and loaded in the trunk of their car. "Science is never just an 'official explanation.' It is fact. You cannot expect scientists to release your story about aliens influencing the meteors." Fourby scowled but continued to throw her clothes haphazardly into the suitcase. "The meteors were waylaid by the affects of the sun's gravity on the meteors. It counteracted it in a way that wasn't expected." She shook her head disbelievingly. "Besides, why would you assume it was aliens who saved Earth? What would be their motivation?"
"I don't know," she sighed. "Maybe they thought it would be fun, or they want us for probing, or maybe they felt guilty for delaying our warp program." Cooper's eyebrow quirked but he let her continue on nonetheless. "I just don't think they can explain this way with some hocus pocus science nonsense-"
"Hocus pocus science nonsense?" Cooper broke in, although she could sense the hint of amusement in his voice. "That is one I have never heard before."
"You know what I meant, Sheldon," Fourby said, her voice softer now. She zipped up her bag and slung it over her shoulder. "I just wish that everyone could see what I see."
"Yes," he said, taking the bag from her as she passed by, "don't we all."
THE END