The Paladin Protocol (21/?)
Title: The Paladin Protocol
Author: SpaceAnJL
Summary: In which things finally happen.
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Episodes to date
a/n - I've decided that the AnJLverse is probably AU from about halfway through TEA. AnJLVerse Penny would have grabbed Sheldon by the collar before he dived in through that door. And in TPF, the question, 'you and whose army?' would have had all sorts of implications...
Pt. 1 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/830557.html
Pt. 2 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/838672.html
Pt. 3 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/843029.html
Pt. 4 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/851973.html
Pt. 5 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/873952.html
Pt. 6 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/893411.html
Pt. 7 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/895530.html
Pt. 8 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/913902.html
Pt. 9 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/922075.html
Pt. 10 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/927279.html
Pt. 11 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/942054.html
Pt. 12 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/957365.html
Pt. 13 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/968076.html
Pt. 14 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/978817.html
Pt. 15 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/985364.html
Pt. 16 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/986898.html
Pt. 17 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/995637.html
Pt. 18 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/1006005.html
Pt. 19 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/1011093.html
Pt. 20 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/1015766.html
Leonard keeps trying to take her elbow again.
“You could have just asked for my jacket.”
“That wouldn't have helped with the fact that I was soaked, sweetie.”
“...but did you have to make me look ridiculous?”
“Excuse me?” Sheldon is confused.
“You disappeared with my girlfriend, and she comes back to the party dressed in your shirt...”
“I still don't see how that makes you look ridiculous. I'm the one in the undershirt. If Penny had dressed in your shirt, perhaps then she might have looked ridiculous. You are, after all, two inches shorter.”
It isn't the fact that someone spilt a drink on her, ruined her dress. No.
“So...” Penny touches the lapel of Leonard's blazer, “You wouldn't mind if I'd gone to the washroom with you?...”
And Leonard grins happily.
She feels cheap and stupid. That was why she was here. It wasn't to meet his colleagues, to be part of his life. He was just parading his blonde bimbo girlfriend round, to show what a stud he was. No, he wouldn't mind at all if people thought he'd been banging her in the washroom.
Leonard's not a 'nice guy', after all. He's a jerk.
He doesn't adore her. He just wants to bang the blonde. Same as any of the over-muscled jerks she's dated before. He doesn't listen to her, they've got nothing in common, and the sex feels weird because...she's so angry with him all the time.
And - this hurts, but it has to be said - she knows that people look at them and wonder why. And now, so does she.
Wonders what she was trying to prove. Who she was trying to prove it to.
...Admit that you like tall guys, guys who can do things, who can shoot and know football and have muscles. It isn't shallow. It's stuff you know. So, you don't understand the science, half the movies and tv and comics. You like shoes and dancing and pretty clothes. That doesn't make you a bad person, or a dumb person...
Time to deal.
She's tired of being treated like crap, like she's just tits and ass and blonde hair, and a convenient warm hole for some guy's frickin' ego.
Nobody's coming to save her from this. Her mess, her problem, her decision. Because she knows whose arms she wants, now, and it's not going to be easy or simple, and there's some major hurt about to happen.
Pressure of her finger hardens, propels him backwards, her face set.
“I got my dress wrecked in front of half the room, and all you can think about is the fact that you might have missed out on a little action? You really think I'd behave like that? That Sheldon would behave like that?”
Like this is some high school party. Seven minutes to heaven. Dumb jocks and cheap beer and the star quarterback gets the head cheerleader.
She's not even shouting. But the quiet intensity is drawing stares.
“We aren't working out, Leonard. And I'm tired of trying to make this something it's not. I want to be more than the trophy blonde, okay? And I want you to be more than the guy who struts 'cos he's got a babe. We're better than this. I...used to like you, y'know, when you were one of the guys across the hall, my friend Leonard. And I think we lost that somewhere.” Looks at him. “But maybe...we never had that.”
(Watching for the flicker of guilt, and it hurts her more than she thought it would, to be proved right and to see it.)
“Jeez, Leonard. It's always been like this, hasn't it? You were more concerned about getting into my pants than the fact your best friend had gone back to Texas. And I can't believe I let you.”
He can't defend himself, can't deny it.
Something snaps in Leonard's head.
“It's always Sheldon, isn't it?”
“This isn't about Sheldon, this is about us...”
(Sheldon, his face lost, his eyes dark, taking off his shirt in a public washroom with his long, clever hands, and she was more turned on by that than Leonard has ever managed.)
“But it's always about him! That's the point.” Defeat and despair and anger in his face. “He makes it about him. Every time. He's always in the way.”
“In the way? He's supposed to be your best friend, Leonard. Though I don't know why, the way you've treated him.” Click, click, click, the dominoes fall. “And...I'm fed up of just being treated as your little fuck-toy, too. I'm done.”
She's dumping him. In front of everybody. Walking away from him.
0000000000000000
“Doctor Cooper?” It's Gablehauser. “May we have a word?”
Sheldon eyes the men nervously. Wonders if they are about to terminate his employment. It would not be the first faculty gathering to end in this manner, after all.
It isn't even a conscious choice, that first step. But the next step, oh, that one's her choice. And all those after, unhurried but unstoppable, across that room and to his side, nudging his arm gently, her smile up at his startled face, that's all her.
She knows how this is going to look. And right now, she doesn't care.
They can all go to hell. She's not leaving Sheldon to stick both feet in his mouth here. Yeah, he's a grown man, blah blah. He's also got the social sense of a house-brick.
So perhaps it is always about Sheldon. So what? Perhaps he needs someone on his side, for a change. Well, now, he's got her.
She's not the damsel in distress here. She's the goddam dragon.
“Ah, ma 'tite, the outfit, that is ingenious, and très chic.” Poligny gives her a neat bow. “I hope that was not a so-favourite dress that received the little bath?”
Penny laughs. (Adults. Thank you.)
“I'm lucky I had a tall friend with a spare shirt.”
“Hardly spare.” Sheldon looks down at his undershirt, crosses his arms again. He feels practically naked under his jacket.
“He is like an onion, yes, with the layers?” Poligny smiles. “So, this is the young Doctor Cooper. I have been wishing to speak to you...you will excuse him talking the science, mademoiselle?”
Penny grins at Sheldon.
“It's stopping him talking that you might have a problem with.”
Sheldon's indignation burns away under the blow-torch brightness of her smile, her hand on his arm. He blinks at her.
Poligny laughs. Sheldon's gaze snaps back guiltily, and he stutters, flushes.
“My apologies, Professor...”
“Ah, non, it is perfectly natural, such a pretty girl...”
Penny indicates with her eyes that he should shake the proffered hand, and he tenses his jaw, but does so.
“Sheldon, this is Professor Poligny...”
There are maybe half a dozen people in the world who are capable of fully understanding Sheldon's work, and one of them is here in front of him.
Penny has never seen him go fanboy over another scientist before. The fact that he promptly does it in French nearly blows her mind. (His accent is more Pontchartrain than Paris, but he is perfectly understandable.) She finds herself exchanging a glance of amused surprise with Gablehauser.
“Professor Poligny is here on behalf of the Invisible College...”
Penny thinks this is a joke. It sounds like one. But Seibert and Gablehauser are nodding, friendly but serious. It is Professor Seibert who provides a quiet explanation.
The name is some kind of brainiac joke - the first Invisible College was centuries ago, a bunch of English guys - but it's kinda like the Justice League of scientists or something, (yeah, she's lost it, like, totally,) a small, informal network of the like-minded and brilliant. The majority of the world will never know their faces, or recognize their names, but in the scientific community, these are some of the elite. These people don't need to be invited to go to CERN, they can call ahead to arrange their own visits.
If this were a movie, these would be the folk who get roused out of bed by personal phone calls from the President, when the time comes to save the planet. Since this is life, they mostly just work quietly in small rooms, on campuses around the world, exchanging ideas, sharing knowledge, running experiments.
And they want Sheldon to go to England, to Oxford, to present a paper, discuss his research.
She wonders why Sheldon has gone so quiet and stiff. She thought he'd be running about the room in geeky joy. Then she looks at his face. Terror and elation are fighting for control.
“Honey, if you don't blink soon, your eyeballs are gonna dry out.” She gives him a gentle little shake.
“He is just a little overwhelmed.” Poligny says, kindly.
Sheldon manages a tiny, stunned “thank you”.
This...is how he felt when he got the Stevenson. When he realized that he was not the only person in the world who took his talk of the Nobel seriously.
This is real. It isn't the Nobel, but this is one step closer, a real actual step closer - these are the sort of people who might decide who's going get one, fifteen, twenty years down the line. This is his life and his hopes and his dreams.
This is the chance that was squandered before, this is redemption, and this is vindication.
“There is nothing wrong with my work.” He says, quietly.
“No.” Poligny smiles gently at him. “There is nothing wrong with your work. Even the negative results, they tell us much. The false nobility, it is for the schoolyard. Do not seek to shield them further. That polisson with the can-opener, it was not good, no, a trick of children. But we have all suffered the jealousy from others, even I, Achille Poligny. We must rise, rise above it, and not allow it to trouble us.”
They know. Somehow, they know of the treachery. He is absolved. Sheldon feels a knot of tension that he has been carrying so long, that he no longer registers it, give way. Penny watches his face light up, then, pride and relief and happiness. She understands, then, what they came so close to doing, with their dumbass stunt. Under the bright cartoon tee's, the comics and geeky movies, the weirdness, Sheldon is a genius, the core of his identity. And they made others question that. Made him question that.
The anger that flares through her then scares her. They know him, they know that he's a big bag of crazy who goes postal if you put a cup back on the wrong shelf. And they took him to the top of the world. Did they expect him to suddenly behave differently? Nobody forced them to go, and nobody forced them to stay. And for damn sure, nobody forced them to turn that thing on and off for how many weeks, and watch him unravel. Poligny nods.
“Perhaps you placed your trust where it was not wise. You will not do so again. We shall talk more of this in your office tomorrow, Doctor Cooper. But now, we may leave him in your hands, mademoiselle?”
“I'll look after him.” Penny promises.
“I have every confidence.” He twinkles at her. “And you, Doctor Cooper, elle est une fille jolie et avec du charme. Vous êtes un jeune homme chanceux.”
Sheldon gapes, flushes. Then he bites his lip, and nods.
0000000000000000
Penny has been able to put her own problem at bay, dealing with his. But now it's coming back to meet her, nasty blazer and flushed face.
“I broke up with Leonard.” She says, abrupt. “I kinda realised that he didn't like me, he just wanted a hot blonde girlfriend.”
“I am pleased that you finally realised it.” Takes her breath away. But Sheldon doesn't lie, and he doesn't pretend, either.
“Yeah, yeah, you were right, but I don't need to hear you telling me so right now, okay?”
He nods, solemn. And she doesn't want to be here any more, she'd much rather be back on that brown couch, playing 'Halo', or watching movies, or doing something that's fun, because it's with him.
“You wanna catch me up, here?”
“It isn't really any of your business.” Sheldon says. “But I have just received an invitation to give a paper. I don't expect you to congratulate me.”
But he is, of course, intent only on Penny, all impotent weak fury.
“So this isn't about Sheldon? You dump me, and go running straight to him?”
“He's my friend, Leonard, and it's none of your damn business who I talk to.” Turns her head deliberately, “I'm going home, now.”
“That seems like an excellent idea...”
“That's it, run away from a fight.”
They both look at him with angry contempt.
“Penny is not some object to be fought over." Sheldon's eyes narrow. “In addition, I am nine inches taller than you, and I outweigh you by some twenty pounds, all of which is muscle.”
Yeah, Sheldon is surprisingly strong. If he punches Leonard, he'll probably break his jaw. The thought is both scary, and kinda hot. He turns an enquiring face to her.
“Would you like me to hit him?” Folds one hand into a fist. Long fingers, unmarked knuckles. She never wants to see those hands bruised, broken. “I...think I want to.”
(Oh, god, she shouldn't find that sexy.)
“No, you aren't gonna turn this into a pissing contest.” They are better than this. “He's just making himself look like a petty little jerk. Besides,” She adds, “I can do my own punching out.”
Sheldon nods, total agreement.
Leonard is trembling with rage and humiliation.
“And how do you think you're going to get home? He can't even drive you, and he's too neurotic to take a cab.”
But Raj is there, squaring his shoulders, and lifting his car-keys.
“...Penny?” he manages.
“Oh, Raj, thank you.”
Raj doesn't meet Leonard's betrayed gaze. He's made up his mind where he stands. Looks at Howard. The other man spreads his hands, turns to Bernadette.
“We'll get a cab. That okay with you, honey?”
“Oh, yes.” Bernadette doesn't understand everything going on here, but she understands enough. “And then you can explain to me what this Arctic thing is all about.”
Her tone brooks no argument. Howard bows his head meekly.
Sheldon gestures politely to Penny. She lifts her chin, takes his elbow. Their entrance had drama. Their exit has a quiet dignity.
0000000000000000
Leonard is left alone. Sideways glances, a ripple of quiet talk, bitten back smiles and open grins, frowns and raised eyebrows.
“Doctor Hofstadter?” It is the little foreign professor. “You have your petty little squabble with Doctor Cooper, because...he is demanding, he is driven, he makes the people around him a little crazy, too? Or perhaps because you too are clever, you too are one deserving of this recognition, but it is all of it his? Or perhaps...because the pretty mademoiselle, she smiles at him once too often?”
Leonard's own smile is frozen on his face. The quiet voice continues.
“It does not matter why you did it, you understand, only that you did.” Those eyes are no longer amused, but cold, dark. “Whatever provocation you may imagine, it does not excuse the act. And I do not speak only of the science. When a man places his reputation in the hands of others, and asks that they share in his work, to spit upon that, with the silly prank, that is...insupportable. If it were my decision, then you would no longer work within this establishment. Somehow, you have dodged this bullet. But the truth, it is known, and you cannot expect that it will not follow you.”
Leonard faces a moment of stark truth.
Whether it was a cruel joke, or some vicious monster from the Id - there is no way around the fact that he did something monumentally stupid.
And it was all for nothing. Because he has lost his girlfriend.
And he has lost his best friend.
And there is nobody else to blame.
Author: SpaceAnJL
Summary: In which things finally happen.
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Episodes to date
a/n - I've decided that the AnJLverse is probably AU from about halfway through TEA. AnJLVerse Penny would have grabbed Sheldon by the collar before he dived in through that door. And in TPF, the question, 'you and whose army?' would have had all sorts of implications...
Pt. 1 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/830557.html
Pt. 2 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/838672.html
Pt. 3 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/843029.html
Pt. 4 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/851973.html
Pt. 5 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/873952.html
Pt. 6 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/893411.html
Pt. 7 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/895530.html
Pt. 8 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/913902.html
Pt. 9 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/922075.html
Pt. 10 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/927279.html
Pt. 11 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/942054.html
Pt. 12 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/957365.html
Pt. 13 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/968076.html
Pt. 14 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/978817.html
Pt. 15 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/985364.html
Pt. 16 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/986898.html
Pt. 17 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/995637.html
Pt. 18 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/1006005.html
Pt. 19 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/1011093.html
Pt. 20 http://community.livejournal.com/sheldon_penny/1015766.html
Leonard keeps trying to take her elbow again.
“You could have just asked for my jacket.”
“That wouldn't have helped with the fact that I was soaked, sweetie.”
“...but did you have to make me look ridiculous?”
“Excuse me?” Sheldon is confused.
“You disappeared with my girlfriend, and she comes back to the party dressed in your shirt...”
“I still don't see how that makes you look ridiculous. I'm the one in the undershirt. If Penny had dressed in your shirt, perhaps then she might have looked ridiculous. You are, after all, two inches shorter.”
It isn't the fact that someone spilt a drink on her, ruined her dress. No.
“So...” Penny touches the lapel of Leonard's blazer, “You wouldn't mind if I'd gone to the washroom with you?...”
And Leonard grins happily.
She feels cheap and stupid. That was why she was here. It wasn't to meet his colleagues, to be part of his life. He was just parading his blonde bimbo girlfriend round, to show what a stud he was. No, he wouldn't mind at all if people thought he'd been banging her in the washroom.
Leonard's not a 'nice guy', after all. He's a jerk.
He doesn't adore her. He just wants to bang the blonde. Same as any of the over-muscled jerks she's dated before. He doesn't listen to her, they've got nothing in common, and the sex feels weird because...she's so angry with him all the time.
And - this hurts, but it has to be said - she knows that people look at them and wonder why. And now, so does she.
Wonders what she was trying to prove. Who she was trying to prove it to.
...Admit that you like tall guys, guys who can do things, who can shoot and know football and have muscles. It isn't shallow. It's stuff you know. So, you don't understand the science, half the movies and tv and comics. You like shoes and dancing and pretty clothes. That doesn't make you a bad person, or a dumb person...
Time to deal.
She's tired of being treated like crap, like she's just tits and ass and blonde hair, and a convenient warm hole for some guy's frickin' ego.
Nobody's coming to save her from this. Her mess, her problem, her decision. Because she knows whose arms she wants, now, and it's not going to be easy or simple, and there's some major hurt about to happen.
Pressure of her finger hardens, propels him backwards, her face set.
“I got my dress wrecked in front of half the room, and all you can think about is the fact that you might have missed out on a little action? You really think I'd behave like that? That Sheldon would behave like that?”
Like this is some high school party. Seven minutes to heaven. Dumb jocks and cheap beer and the star quarterback gets the head cheerleader.
She's not even shouting. But the quiet intensity is drawing stares.
“We aren't working out, Leonard. And I'm tired of trying to make this something it's not. I want to be more than the trophy blonde, okay? And I want you to be more than the guy who struts 'cos he's got a babe. We're better than this. I...used to like you, y'know, when you were one of the guys across the hall, my friend Leonard. And I think we lost that somewhere.” Looks at him. “But maybe...we never had that.”
(Watching for the flicker of guilt, and it hurts her more than she thought it would, to be proved right and to see it.)
“Jeez, Leonard. It's always been like this, hasn't it? You were more concerned about getting into my pants than the fact your best friend had gone back to Texas. And I can't believe I let you.”
He can't defend himself, can't deny it.
Something snaps in Leonard's head.
“It's always Sheldon, isn't it?”
“This isn't about Sheldon, this is about us...”
(Sheldon, his face lost, his eyes dark, taking off his shirt in a public washroom with his long, clever hands, and she was more turned on by that than Leonard has ever managed.)
“But it's always about him! That's the point.” Defeat and despair and anger in his face. “He makes it about him. Every time. He's always in the way.”
“In the way? He's supposed to be your best friend, Leonard. Though I don't know why, the way you've treated him.” Click, click, click, the dominoes fall. “And...I'm fed up of just being treated as your little fuck-toy, too. I'm done.”
She's dumping him. In front of everybody. Walking away from him.
0000000000000000
“Doctor Cooper?” It's Gablehauser. “May we have a word?”
Sheldon eyes the men nervously. Wonders if they are about to terminate his employment. It would not be the first faculty gathering to end in this manner, after all.
It isn't even a conscious choice, that first step. But the next step, oh, that one's her choice. And all those after, unhurried but unstoppable, across that room and to his side, nudging his arm gently, her smile up at his startled face, that's all her.
She knows how this is going to look. And right now, she doesn't care.
They can all go to hell. She's not leaving Sheldon to stick both feet in his mouth here. Yeah, he's a grown man, blah blah. He's also got the social sense of a house-brick.
So perhaps it is always about Sheldon. So what? Perhaps he needs someone on his side, for a change. Well, now, he's got her.
She's not the damsel in distress here. She's the goddam dragon.
“Ah, ma 'tite, the outfit, that is ingenious, and très chic.” Poligny gives her a neat bow. “I hope that was not a so-favourite dress that received the little bath?”
Penny laughs. (Adults. Thank you.)
“I'm lucky I had a tall friend with a spare shirt.”
“Hardly spare.” Sheldon looks down at his undershirt, crosses his arms again. He feels practically naked under his jacket.
“He is like an onion, yes, with the layers?” Poligny smiles. “So, this is the young Doctor Cooper. I have been wishing to speak to you...you will excuse him talking the science, mademoiselle?”
Penny grins at Sheldon.
“It's stopping him talking that you might have a problem with.”
Sheldon's indignation burns away under the blow-torch brightness of her smile, her hand on his arm. He blinks at her.
Poligny laughs. Sheldon's gaze snaps back guiltily, and he stutters, flushes.
“My apologies, Professor...”
“Ah, non, it is perfectly natural, such a pretty girl...”
Penny indicates with her eyes that he should shake the proffered hand, and he tenses his jaw, but does so.
“Sheldon, this is Professor Poligny...”
There are maybe half a dozen people in the world who are capable of fully understanding Sheldon's work, and one of them is here in front of him.
Penny has never seen him go fanboy over another scientist before. The fact that he promptly does it in French nearly blows her mind. (His accent is more Pontchartrain than Paris, but he is perfectly understandable.) She finds herself exchanging a glance of amused surprise with Gablehauser.
“Professor Poligny is here on behalf of the Invisible College...”
Penny thinks this is a joke. It sounds like one. But Seibert and Gablehauser are nodding, friendly but serious. It is Professor Seibert who provides a quiet explanation.
The name is some kind of brainiac joke - the first Invisible College was centuries ago, a bunch of English guys - but it's kinda like the Justice League of scientists or something, (yeah, she's lost it, like, totally,) a small, informal network of the like-minded and brilliant. The majority of the world will never know their faces, or recognize their names, but in the scientific community, these are some of the elite. These people don't need to be invited to go to CERN, they can call ahead to arrange their own visits.
If this were a movie, these would be the folk who get roused out of bed by personal phone calls from the President, when the time comes to save the planet. Since this is life, they mostly just work quietly in small rooms, on campuses around the world, exchanging ideas, sharing knowledge, running experiments.
And they want Sheldon to go to England, to Oxford, to present a paper, discuss his research.
She wonders why Sheldon has gone so quiet and stiff. She thought he'd be running about the room in geeky joy. Then she looks at his face. Terror and elation are fighting for control.
“Honey, if you don't blink soon, your eyeballs are gonna dry out.” She gives him a gentle little shake.
“He is just a little overwhelmed.” Poligny says, kindly.
Sheldon manages a tiny, stunned “thank you”.
This...is how he felt when he got the Stevenson. When he realized that he was not the only person in the world who took his talk of the Nobel seriously.
This is real. It isn't the Nobel, but this is one step closer, a real actual step closer - these are the sort of people who might decide who's going get one, fifteen, twenty years down the line. This is his life and his hopes and his dreams.
This is the chance that was squandered before, this is redemption, and this is vindication.
“There is nothing wrong with my work.” He says, quietly.
“No.” Poligny smiles gently at him. “There is nothing wrong with your work. Even the negative results, they tell us much. The false nobility, it is for the schoolyard. Do not seek to shield them further. That polisson with the can-opener, it was not good, no, a trick of children. But we have all suffered the jealousy from others, even I, Achille Poligny. We must rise, rise above it, and not allow it to trouble us.”
They know. Somehow, they know of the treachery. He is absolved. Sheldon feels a knot of tension that he has been carrying so long, that he no longer registers it, give way. Penny watches his face light up, then, pride and relief and happiness. She understands, then, what they came so close to doing, with their dumbass stunt. Under the bright cartoon tee's, the comics and geeky movies, the weirdness, Sheldon is a genius, the core of his identity. And they made others question that. Made him question that.
The anger that flares through her then scares her. They know him, they know that he's a big bag of crazy who goes postal if you put a cup back on the wrong shelf. And they took him to the top of the world. Did they expect him to suddenly behave differently? Nobody forced them to go, and nobody forced them to stay. And for damn sure, nobody forced them to turn that thing on and off for how many weeks, and watch him unravel. Poligny nods.
“Perhaps you placed your trust where it was not wise. You will not do so again. We shall talk more of this in your office tomorrow, Doctor Cooper. But now, we may leave him in your hands, mademoiselle?”
“I'll look after him.” Penny promises.
“I have every confidence.” He twinkles at her. “And you, Doctor Cooper, elle est une fille jolie et avec du charme. Vous êtes un jeune homme chanceux.”
Sheldon gapes, flushes. Then he bites his lip, and nods.
0000000000000000
Penny has been able to put her own problem at bay, dealing with his. But now it's coming back to meet her, nasty blazer and flushed face.
“I broke up with Leonard.” She says, abrupt. “I kinda realised that he didn't like me, he just wanted a hot blonde girlfriend.”
“I am pleased that you finally realised it.” Takes her breath away. But Sheldon doesn't lie, and he doesn't pretend, either.
“Yeah, yeah, you were right, but I don't need to hear you telling me so right now, okay?”
He nods, solemn. And she doesn't want to be here any more, she'd much rather be back on that brown couch, playing 'Halo', or watching movies, or doing something that's fun, because it's with him.
“You wanna catch me up, here?”
“It isn't really any of your business.” Sheldon says. “But I have just received an invitation to give a paper. I don't expect you to congratulate me.”
But he is, of course, intent only on Penny, all impotent weak fury.
“So this isn't about Sheldon? You dump me, and go running straight to him?”
“He's my friend, Leonard, and it's none of your damn business who I talk to.” Turns her head deliberately, “I'm going home, now.”
“That seems like an excellent idea...”
“That's it, run away from a fight.”
They both look at him with angry contempt.
“Penny is not some object to be fought over." Sheldon's eyes narrow. “In addition, I am nine inches taller than you, and I outweigh you by some twenty pounds, all of which is muscle.”
Yeah, Sheldon is surprisingly strong. If he punches Leonard, he'll probably break his jaw. The thought is both scary, and kinda hot. He turns an enquiring face to her.
“Would you like me to hit him?” Folds one hand into a fist. Long fingers, unmarked knuckles. She never wants to see those hands bruised, broken. “I...think I want to.”
(Oh, god, she shouldn't find that sexy.)
“No, you aren't gonna turn this into a pissing contest.” They are better than this. “He's just making himself look like a petty little jerk. Besides,” She adds, “I can do my own punching out.”
Sheldon nods, total agreement.
Leonard is trembling with rage and humiliation.
“And how do you think you're going to get home? He can't even drive you, and he's too neurotic to take a cab.”
But Raj is there, squaring his shoulders, and lifting his car-keys.
“...Penny?” he manages.
“Oh, Raj, thank you.”
Raj doesn't meet Leonard's betrayed gaze. He's made up his mind where he stands. Looks at Howard. The other man spreads his hands, turns to Bernadette.
“We'll get a cab. That okay with you, honey?”
“Oh, yes.” Bernadette doesn't understand everything going on here, but she understands enough. “And then you can explain to me what this Arctic thing is all about.”
Her tone brooks no argument. Howard bows his head meekly.
Sheldon gestures politely to Penny. She lifts her chin, takes his elbow. Their entrance had drama. Their exit has a quiet dignity.
0000000000000000
Leonard is left alone. Sideways glances, a ripple of quiet talk, bitten back smiles and open grins, frowns and raised eyebrows.
“Doctor Hofstadter?” It is the little foreign professor. “You have your petty little squabble with Doctor Cooper, because...he is demanding, he is driven, he makes the people around him a little crazy, too? Or perhaps because you too are clever, you too are one deserving of this recognition, but it is all of it his? Or perhaps...because the pretty mademoiselle, she smiles at him once too often?”
Leonard's own smile is frozen on his face. The quiet voice continues.
“It does not matter why you did it, you understand, only that you did.” Those eyes are no longer amused, but cold, dark. “Whatever provocation you may imagine, it does not excuse the act. And I do not speak only of the science. When a man places his reputation in the hands of others, and asks that they share in his work, to spit upon that, with the silly prank, that is...insupportable. If it were my decision, then you would no longer work within this establishment. Somehow, you have dodged this bullet. But the truth, it is known, and you cannot expect that it will not follow you.”
Leonard faces a moment of stark truth.
Whether it was a cruel joke, or some vicious monster from the Id - there is no way around the fact that he did something monumentally stupid.
And it was all for nothing. Because he has lost his girlfriend.
And he has lost his best friend.
And there is nobody else to blame.