Help_Haiti - The Return Contingency 1/5? (TBBT/SGA)
Title: The Return Contingency (1/5?)
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 1710 for this part.
Disclaimer: Neither TBBT nor SGA are mine.
Summary: TBBT AU S4, SGA AU S3ish (diverges before The Return, Sunday never happens)
An old friend of Sheldon's needs help, but he and his team have brought trouble with them... (Sheldon/Penny)
AN: First and foremost I'm sorry this is late! The scenario for this has basically driven me insane. I've deleted more than I've written. Now, of course, I'm writing an approx. 5 chaptered fic (the 2nd should be up tomorrow) with loads of fake science and conspiracies everywhere. ohdear. Not quite what you bargained for, so I, of course, can always write you a simple, normal fic as well. This bunny just popped into my head, though, and wouldn't let go.
help_haiti fic for the lovely ishie
...The Return Contingency - Part 1...
At 6:32pm on a Thursday night, there’s a knock the apartment door. Penny, who is sitting cross-legged on the couch eating an overly greasy slice of pizza, hears it first-probably because she isn’t involved in the discussion surrounding Leonard’s opened computer, three dismantled hard drives, and far too many cords for Penny to keep track of.
The discussion is really more of an argument at this point, and Howard has begun spraying Leonard with the canister of compressed air as Sheldon’s voice gets higher and Raj gestures furiously.
So when Penny hears the knock, rather than trying to cut in she merely stands, her cotton shorts hugging her thighs and her tanktop riding up her back a little as she walks to the door, pizza in one hand and an amused smirk firmly on her face.
When she opens the door, however, the smirk slides off into a frown, because there are four men and one woman standing on the other side, in jeans and dark shirts and identical frowns. The man in the middle steps forward, mouth opening, before the taller (hot) one grabs his arm.
“Hello Ma’am,” he says, “This wouldn’t happen to be where Dr. Sheldon Cooper lives?” and Penny realizes that the sound behind her has fallen off, so she glances back and sees her four boys staring at her in confusion.
Penny steps closer to the open door, letting her should and right foot brace it as she looks at them, irrationally suspicious by their presence.
“Who are you?” she asks, registering the fact that her voice has gone sharp but unwilling to do anything about it. Except she can feel warm breath on her hair, can feel him standing behind her.
“Dr. McKay,” Sheldon says, even tone unable to hide his astonishment. “What are you doing here?”
McKay opens his mouth, but the taller man squeezes the arm still in his hand. “Time for catch-up later, Rodney,” he says. “We’ve got a situation.”
“John,” the woman says, a note of warning in her voice, “We’ll have to explain some, we can’t just-”
“It’s been a long time, Dr. Cooper,” Rodney cuts in, the side of his mouth quirking up.
She can feel the way Sheldon’s body is radiating tension from behind her, but before she can step in and-what? Who are these people?-he clears his throat.
“Please, come in,” he says, his left arm half-encircling Penny’s waist to draw her backwards into the room. “This is Penny, and they-” he nods his head towards the still silent men, “Are Leonard, Howard, and Raj.” At their names they seem to start, and come closer to the five who’ve now entered the room-the short man keeping farther back, the woman, Rodney, and John in the front, the last man standing to the side, closer to the window.
“I’m-” the woman starts, but John clears his throat. She throws him a glare. “I’m Elizabeth,” she says. “I’m afraid we’re in a bit of a situation, and we’re going to need your help, Dr. Cooper.”
Sheldon, who Penny realizes still hasn’t let her go, tugs her even closer to him, so she can feel his body tense behind hers, hear his breath half-shudder in his ears. She wants to turn and see his face, wants to see why he’s reacting so extremely, but she’s unwilling to pull away from him when he’s reaching out to her.
“Rodney,” he says, voice unsteady, “I told you, I turned you down four years ago, I told you I wasn’t interested, I work in theory, and you told me-you told me-”
“I’m sorry, Sheldon,” Rodney says, stepping forward, his blue eyes worried, “There’s been an…incident. We won’t-”
“Who are you?” Leonard cuts in, frowning, and John shoots him an annoyed look.
“Damnit, McKay, you know we’re being followed, you said-”
“What’s going on?” Leonard snaps.
“Not now,” Sheldon says, waving a hand dismissively, and Leonard crosses his arms.
“This is my apartment, too, and I demand-”
“There’s a black van outside,” the fifth man interrupts, a strong Scottish accent highlighting the urgency in his voice. John curses.
“Not here,” he says, “We’ve got to go now, Elizabeth, the elevator is broken and there’s only the one staircase, we’ll be pinned up here.”
“Sheldon has a rope ladder,” Penny cuts in, instincts kicking in from high school when they’d party out in dark fields and raise hell, although she’s pretty sure there’s something a bit more serious at work now. “He bought a couple of them and tied them together so they’ll reach all the way down.”
“I like to be prepared,” Sheldon says, voice practically hoarse.
“Sheldon,” Rodney says, “This is important-you know me, you know I wouldn’t come here if it wasn’t.”
“I’m not coming with you,” he says, “I-”
“Well lad, ye’ll have to leave here, at the verra least,” the Scot says, “They’ve followed us ‘cross half the country, we’ll hafta find another-”
“My house,” Howard says out of nowhere. Raj, wide-eyed, starts to whisper something in his ear but Howard waves him off. “They’ll never think to look there, we can talk about what’s going on, just-”
“You don’t even know who they are!” Leonard yells. “What’s going on?”
“Fine,” Elizabeth nods.
Penny grabs Sheldon’s hand, tugs him to the Emergency Chest in the corner, heartbeat deafening as he lets himself get dragged along. “Sheldon?” she asks as she starts digging frantically. He leans over her and expertly pulls out the ridiculously thick bundle of rope.
“Not now, Penny,” he says, jaw clenching, “There doesn’t appear to be time.”
It’s Sheldon, of course, that has them frantic and panicking, that has Howard volunteering his home to strangers and Raj wide-eyed with fear, it’s Sheldon and his almost-level voice, the way he’s practically trembling with tension, the way he knows something of what’s going on and it terrifies him in a way nothing else has even shaken him.
John grabs the rope ladder and sends it spiraling down before pulling a gun from the back of his waistband. Rodney follows suit, and although the gun looks awkward in his hands John gives him an affectionate smile.
“Carson, go first and try to secure the area-or at least shout out a warning, hmm?” he smirks. With a scowl the Scot eases himself out the window and starts down. “Radek, you and the other three go down next,” he says, sizing up Penny with a glance.
“I’m not climbing out of my window without someone telling me what’s going on!” Leonard half-yells, as Radek tries to help Raj and Howard out the window. Howard is grinning like an idiot while Raj looks terrified, and Penny fights the urge to shake her head as she realizes how out-of-tune Leonard has been with everyone else since they broke up almost a year ago. Can he really not feel it?
John steps closer to Leonard, hazel eyes dark as he looks him up and down. “There are men who are coming to kidnap, interrogate, torture and probably kill everyone who is in this apartment,” he says. “Get out the window.” Leonard wavers for half a second, sending a worried look at Penny before following Radek out.
Now only Elizabeth, John, Rodney, Penny and Sheldon are standing in the apartment. John looks at them, tense. “You’re scared of heights,” he says, and Sheldon nods, hand tightening around Penny’s. “You’re going to have to do this,” he says, and Elizabeth and Rodney exchange worried looks.
“Rationally,” Sheldon starts, and then stops abruptly, half-biting off the word. John looks at Penny.
“Go,” he says, but she shakes her head, stepping closer to Sheldon.
“Penny,” Sheldon says, but she lets her shoulder bump into his and he falls silent. There’s yelling from downstairs, and John’s face is grim.
“Liz, you and Rodney go,” he says.
“John-”
“Go,” he says, unequivocal. “I’ll be down in a minute, I promise,” he adds, his voice softening a touch as he looks at her.
There are heavy boot steps on the stairs as Rodney and Elizabeth start down the ladder and John deadbolts the door.
“You have to do this,” he says when he turns back towards them. “You can do this,” he says. Next to her, Sheldon swallows thickly.
“Hey,” she says, turning towards him, blocking out the insanity of the moment, the gun in John’s hands, the yell of someone down below. His eyes are darting around, so she grabs his face in her hands. “Hey,” she says. “Let’s do this.”
He stares at her, silent, for a long moment-too long, terrifyingly too long-and then he nods, shaky at best, and John practically shoves them towards the window, eyes on the door as they hear the first knock. “Go!” he whispers, and Penny and Sheldon start down, he going slowly, agonizingly slowly, and they’re so far above, and John moves away from the window, and they slowly descend.
They make it down. They all make it down, although John half-falls down most of the way, letting himself slide and then catching himself more than anything, far more worried about the people at the door than anything else.
Penny somehow ends up driving, something about inconspicuous cars and followed us here, and Sheldon is in the passenger seat with Howard, Raj, and Carson crammed into the backseat.
“What’s going on?” she asks, driving too fast over speed bumps and taking corners without slowing down. It’s yet another mark of how much Sheldon is freaking out about other matters that he doesn’t protest audibly, although his knuckles are white around his seatbelt.
“Rodney…when I was a visiting Professor in Germany, Rodney was there as well. He was almost ten years my senior, but he didn’t…he didn’t treat me as if…” Sheldon cuts himself off, although Carson is leaning forward, listening, obviously intrigued.
“He wanted ye for his science team,” Carson says, and Sheldon shrugs, not turning around.
“I couldn’t accept his offer,” he says.
“Ah,” Carson says. “Well, unfortunately, circumstances have changed.”
Sheldon twitches. Raj leans over and whispers into Howard’s ear.
“That’s quite a good question, Raj,” Howard says, before turning to face Carson. “Just what the hell is going on?”
...tbc...
Part Two