The Intrinsic Happiness Quotient - EPILOGUE!
So here’s the last little bit of IHQ. Or is it? *evil grin*
Please stay tuned for my next fanfic - ANYTHING-CAN-HAPPEN-AUGUST
This one is a little birthday gift from me... to me (August 5th - I’m a Leo. I already know what Sheldon would think of that). Chapter One will be up August 1st!
I hope you like the IHQ Epilogue - as always please comment. Comments are the fuel to my literary fire!!!
Cheers and Love!
Title: The Intrinsic Happiness Quotient - EPILOGUE
Spoilers: Everything up to and including 2 X 23
Rating: G
Word Count: 1,741
Disclaimer: Not mine... although I wish I had my own Sheldon *sigh*
X-Posted to Paradox (sheldon_penny): http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/393522.html
A/N: To newbs in particular: this could be considered a stand-alone one-shot, but I highly recommend reading my fanfic The Intrinsic Happiness Quotient (8/8 - Completed) before reading this. It’ll have more depth and meaning that way. IHQ (click on my author tag for link to all parts) is rated R for language and the final chapter.
Enjoy!
IHQ EPILOGUE:
EMMY FOR THE WIN
“Penny! Penny! Over here!” The voice, one of many in a sea of people, called to her. Penny recognised this voice though, and steered Sheldon towards it.
“Hi, Alexa!” She grinned at the sight of her friend and new host of Entertainment Tonight’s Emmy Awards Red Carpet ceremony.
“Penny, you look gorgeous!” Alexa exclaimed, holding her mike in front of Penny.
“Aww, thanks, sweetie!”
“How do you feel? And who are you wearing?”
“Absolutely thrilled,” she replied, darting a glance at Sheldon and smiling up at him - as always wanting to share every significant moment with him. “It’s my first nomination - and really, I’m so excited just to be here, and to be able to share this with the love of my life!” She melted a little when Sheldon’s gaze turned hot. She cleared her throat, and looked back the Alexa. “And it’s Vera Wang.”
“It’s stunning! And I’m so happy for you and for Sheldon! Sheldon, you must be very proud of her!”
“Of course. I’ll permanently cancel Halo night if she doesn’t win. So obviously, I am very sure she’s going to win. It’s all intrinsically mathematical: if you statistically take into account all the possible variables and plug in the relevant data - you can’t go wrong.” Sheldon spoke seriously and Alexa looked lost. Penny giggled.
“He thinks I have the best chance of winning,” she translated. “But I think he’s biased. Just a little bit,” she added with a smile when he glowered at her.
“And who are you wearing?” Alexa asked him. He looked at her like she had grown a second head. Penny laughed.
“It’s Hugo Boss. I had it made for him.”
“I am totally digging the wicked elbow patches.”
“I know, right?” Penny grinned up at Sheldon. “It’s totally hot.”
He blinked at her - once, twice - clearly surprised that she would say something like that in public. She just loved the two different sides of Sheldon. One for the world to see and the other... just for her.
Finally, smiling and waving at Alexa, she moved on to the next interviewer to shout out her name. Sheldon stayed by her side the entire time, his hand either on the small of her back - gently rubbing - or holding her hand. He was stoic and only smiled, really, when addressing her. It made her feel like she was the only woman in the world that he would ever notice on a purely physical plane, and the knowledge thrilled her today just as much as it had in the past, when they had first gotten together.
As they entered the hall, he grabbed a firm hold on her hand and did not let go until they were shown to their seats, which thankfully Sheldon had deemed acceptable. Once seated, he reached for her hand again, and she intertwined their fingers as she leaned into him. He pressed three tiny kisses to her temple.
Kiss. Kiss. Kiss. “Penny.”
Kiss. Kiss. Kiss. “Penny.”
Kiss. Kiss. Kiss. “Penny.”
She couldn’t help it. She giggled. And then grabbed his face and kissed him square on the mouth in front of everyone.
“I love you, Sheldon.”
“I know. Everybody does.”
“It’s because you’re so damn adorkable!” It was her new favourite word and it always made him equal parts pleased and pissed: pleased because it was complimentary, and pissed because she was slaughtering the English language. He briefly scowled at her, but then gave up and smiled instead.
“I love you, too,” he declared, and leaned over to warm kiss her behind her ear. Penny shivered. That was her spot - and he knew it. “Are you nervous?”
“Yeah. And - excited and - terrified.” And she felt it too. Her midsection was all tied up in knots.
“It’ll all be over in a few hours, right? Right?”
“Yes, Sheldon. I know you and the boys gave up Klingon Boggle just to come tonight, but this may be our one time to attend the Emmy’s. I mean - who knows what’ll happen next year? And the guys were thrilled that I got everyone tickets. I just wish I knew where they were sitting. And don’t worry, we can all go home later and play.”
“But it’ll be our bed time by then,” his eyes smouldered as he looked at her. Bed time had taken on a whole new outlook since they had gotten together. Now, even Penny made sure to stick to Sheldon’s schedule - it was so much more fun that way. Which is not to say that she did not delight in occasionally throwing his routines for a loop - that had certainly led to several memorable moments. She grinned, and then snuggled close to Sheldon to watch the show.
By the time they had reached the nominations for Best Actor in a comedy series, Penny was a bundle of nerves, but she did spare a huge holler when Jim Parsons, one of her favourite actors - just because he reminded her so much of Sheldon - took the Emmy in that category for the fourth year in a row. Then she waited with baited breath for her category to be announced.
**
Sheldon held his breath, but outwardly, his expression was tranquil. He knew Penny would win - her performance on the show had been exceptional this year, and she deserved it. However, voter emotion and bias had been difficult to factor into his calculations and projection for tonight’s Emmy outcome.
Penny had a death grip on his hand when they called out the nominations. Sheldon raised her hand and pressed a soft kiss there as a camera focused on her face and projected the image onto a gigantic screen. She couldn’t keep a goofy grin off her face.
“And the Emmy for Best Actress in a Comedy Series goes to...” there was a pause as the presenter - some actor he supposed - opened the envelope. “Penelope Cooper for Black Hole!”
The applause was thundering and Penny stared at him in shocked surprise. He grinned at her, kissed her and practically shouted in her ear: “When you have an understanding of mathematics, Penny...”
“Anything is possible!” She yelled back, laughing; she kissed him and then hurried up to the stage, gracefully accepting the award from the presenter.
She gazed out into the crowd trying to take a second to savour the moment, but her eyes sought him out in a mere second. He loved that about her - it always made him feel like he was the centre of her universe. Which was just as it should be, since she was the centre of his.
“OH.MY.GOD. This is right up there with some of the most truly epic moments in my life and the first person I have to thank is my husband! Sheldon, you’re like the big bang theory in the evolution of Penny and I love you for it, and I thank God everyday for making me move in next door to you five years ago. I would not be standing here without you. You know that better than anyone!” Penny’s smile widened impossibly as he mouthed that he loved her too. “And now to thank every single other person involved with the show...” her voiced tapered off, and a look of absolute astonishment marred her beautiful features. Sheldon stood - something was obviously not right.
“Sheldon, sweetie,” she gasped, blinking rapidly, and most of the audience looked back and forth between them. “I think my water just broke!”
There was a collective gasp from the audience. Sheldon started running to the stage as he had never run in his life. Once up there, at her side, he leaned down to the mike. “Stephanie - I don’t know where you’re sitting but can you get down here now?”
“On my way, Sheldon!” She shouted from way back in the audience. “Dr. Stephanie Barnett-Hofstadter, MD. Get out of my way! Clear a path,
people!”
Penny smiled uncertainly into the camera as she clutched Sheldon’s arm. “Sor-rrryy... ohhhh.” She gripped the podium as a contraction hit her, and her Emmy fell to the stage. Tears streamed from her eyes. “I’m five weeks early!”
“Should this be happening this fast?” Sheldon asked her as the paramedics rushed on stage, closely followed by Emmy host, Neil Patrick Harris.
NPH took charge as others attended to Penny, and grinned at the camera. “Wow. Clean up in aisle 1. And as Barney would say: this is LEGEN-wait-for-it-DARY!” He laughed and the audience laughed with him. “All right, folks, we’re going to take a quick break while Penny Cooper has her baby, and the Academy re-evaluates the category for Best Drama - because this moment right here...” he pointed to the commotion on the stage, “EPIC WIN!”
****
Emily Cooper - or Emmy as she would always be called - was born in record time backstage at the Emmy Awards ceremony the year her mother won her first award.
Her adoring mother was just glad that she hadn’t had her at a K-Mart, which was where her dad had been born. Mom would always go on to teasingly tell her that she had good taste and impeccable timing, and she was thrilled that Emmy had gotten her father’s eyes.
Her doting father - who, in her early years, loved her despite the fact that she didn’t know whether to use an integral or a differential to solve for the area under a curve (well, she did know - but taunting him was such fun!) - was happy and thankful that she came into the world safe and sound and very, very smart - and greatly resembling a miniature version of her mother.
Emmy would grow up feeling special and lucky and blessed, adored and supported by her family and their friends: Uncle Leonard and Aunt Dr. Stephanie, Uncle Raj and Aunt Jordan, Uncle Howard and Aunt Sasha - who had met, and married, in a little Cheesecake Factory franchise in Pasadena.
And her twenty-fifth birthday - the day she and her father were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics for their work in string theory - was the best day of her life.
Until, of course, the day she moved into her new lab at Oxford University’s Physics department - and found out that the lab across the hallway belonged to none other than Leslie Winkle’s pathetic-excuse-for-a-son, a guy who made his father, Eric Gablehauser, look like a genius: loop-theorist (as if!) Derek Gablehauser.
Emmy’s life - and her father’s - would never be the same again.
*THE NEW BEGINNING*