Flashback VII

"Why would you do that?!" Howard asked disbelievingly. He and Raj hadn't been around much because of other commitments so when they finally made an appearance in the cafeteria that Monday, Leonard unloaded on them about his run-in with Sheldon.

"You realise he probably doesn't want to talk about it because most who get it are given it after they die. He has a newlywed wife at home, he doesn't want to think what could've happened," Howard told him sharply.

Leonard sighed.

"Leonard, I think it's about time you cut your losses with your new neighbours," Raj began, "Whatever you do from now on they'll look at you with suspicion. You spent four years practically ignoring the previous tenant and I don't ever recall you making an effort with the other people in the building so you're out of practice and you didn't exactly make a great first impression, to begin with. So move on. Live your life, instead of worrying about theirs." The Indian man told him sagely.

"But…"

Howard rolled his eyes, "But what? Raj is right, you've made no real concerted plan to befriend them or to be neighbourly, just half-assed schemes that would benefit you. I don't think you matter much if at all to them. We had one really enjoyable meal with them and their family and they haven't exactly been blowing up our phones with return invites. They have their own thing and so do we. You need to realise that too before things get really out of control."

Leonard realises his friends are right and that he should move on, but it's sort of hard when his professional life is stalled, his romantic life is non-existent, and his social life consists of two limited availability work friends. Over the holidays, he thought long about the last thing Sheldon said to him before he stormed into 4A—he hadn't seen much of either since then. "…you just want to use me. And I'm sorry but those days are long gone." That meant that Sheldon was probably a lot like him growing up: ridiculed, bullied and beaten up, but while Sheldon did something about it, he never did. He couldn't do what his neighbour did and join the military; he'd be dropped purely on physical fitness alone—he hated PE in school—he hated guns, he had never even touched one; and if paintball was any indication he'd likely be one of the first casualties in a war—not because he was stupid, but because of his desire to prove himself to others he'd charge in headfirst and be wasted. He knows he should see a therapist at the very least to get over this obsessive disorder he has to want to please people but never quite do the right thing, but his mother ruined that for him by being the bitchiest psychoanalyst he had the misfortune of being related to. Of course, everything wrong in his life came down to his mother. His mother made the Ice Queen look like Mary Poppins. This baffled him all the more because his siblings had a loving and close relationship with their mother, and at one point that made him wonder if they were all sadists. He thought he lived up to his mother's expectations; he skipped 6th grade and went straight into junior high, went to his mother's alma mater—the only child who did—and received a doctorate, and got hired by an elite university. But none of that mattered. His mother was more interested in his sister, Amanda, and her medical research career and later her love life with the youngest chief of cardiothoracic surgery in Massachusetts General Hospital history, the esteemed, Dr. Stanley Jennings. He hated his brother-in-law mainly because the man was everything Leonard wasn't: tall, broad-shouldered, good-looking, and good at his job. And able to give his mother grandchildren— four sons so far. Then when his own brother, Michael went into law and was hired by the Justice

Department as a US Attorney his mother was practically giddy. She showed no interest whatsoever in his 244-hour replication of the Dodd-Morris Theorem or when he was onboarded for the experimental rocket fuel project. He wonders if he needs to seek closure from his mother before he can move on with his life.

Howard and Raj sat watching their friend and were growing more and more concerned by his far- off expression. "Should we do something?"

"No, I think he's finding his own epiphany right now," Raj says. "That… or he's having a stroke."

"Come back to me—to us."

"Having second thoughts?" Michael asked beside his best friend on the plane, they were just entering North Carolina airspace.

Sheldon turned to his brother, "No, but I am starting to see Penny's point about how being in this unit might put a strain on our marriage. For now, we're just going off to train, God knows what it'll be like when we're finally called up on a mission."

Michael nods knowingly, "And I suppose it has nothing to do with her last-minute Christmas present?"

"Am I that transparent?" Sheldon chuckles.

"No," Michael shakes his head amused, "but you will be a parent soon, and I gotta be honest with ya Doc, if there was anyone who deserves the honour of being a father more, it's you. Trust me, if your old man could see you now, he'd be damn proud of you. I know mine is."

There were so many things Sheldon wanted to say, but all of them seemed inadequate at the moment. Instead, he just asked, "What are we?"

Michael replied with a smile, "A two-man wrecking crew."

Landing at Albert J. Ellis Airport and taking the shuttle to Camp Lejeune, to both Michael and Sheldon felt like a homecoming. They were trained here in infantry tactics and it was only due to their superior marksmanship that they were sent to Quantico. But now back to undergo MARSOC training, the pair were ready. Their personal lives would have to wait because their country needed them now.

It took a day for them to get to Camp Lejeune, but only a few hours after processing and sleep for them to be on the battlefield. The first event of the day was a routine urban detection training.

Sheldon and Michael had done this in Iraq and to a lesser extent Afghanistan, however, the Spec Ops version of this added a new element—insertion. They practised entry from APCs, on walls and sides of buildings, and with night vision. After urban detection, Michael and Sheldon and the new recruits were introduced to the new primary weapons the MK18 Mod 1—a, as the name implies a modified M4A1 with a 10-inch barrel and on a testing-only basis the FN SCAR. Michael preferred the MK18, due to its familiarity. Sheldon preferred the FN SCAR due to its penetrating power; but according to the DIs, the FN SCAR wasn't ready for unit-wide adoption, yet. And while Sheldon was disappointed, he perked up when they were told they could pick their secondary weapons right away, he picked the old reliable, the Glock 19. His Meemaw has one, and he knows his brother George has one—and while his father often liked to scare away solicitors and other unwanted guests to the house with his Remington, he knows his dad preferred the Glock, keeping it in his

truck. He was particularly happy when told they as special forces could customise their primary and secondary weapons to fit mission objectives.

After the first day, Sheldon nearly falls into his dinner at the mess because he's so exhausted. The travel time, and the abrupt start to their training—it feels like Basic all over again.

"One day down, 230 to go."

Sheldon turns to his best friend who is way too peppy right now, "Thanks for the update, Big Ben," he says sarcastically.

April 2008

When Sheldon and Michael were screened for MARSOC it was due to their aptitude in the field and leadership qualities; it probably didn't hurt that the two of them could hit a pin in a tornado from a mile away. With the Marine component of U.S. Special Forces so new, Sheldon doesn't know exactly what he and his team will be tasked with; at present, there were only three combat units and only one had been deployed. But if his MOS are any indication he and his team will be counted on for direct engagement and High-Value Targets/Manhunting. After all the United States has many enemies. And if he can lessen that burden with a pull of the trigger—to protect his wife, his unborn child, and the country he serves—he'd do it without question.

After a gruelling 16-week course that included Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE), Sheldon understands what his father meant when he told him that he had lost himself in science and was incapable of feeling emotions. Because one week in Isolation Survival, all he could feel were emotions. Panic mainly, but others as well. Coming out of IS, Sheldon would gladly endure endless hours in the Parris Island gas chamber rather than spend another minute in isolation. He is forever thankful he has Penny, Michael, Valerie, his family, his fellow Marines, and although he'd yet to meet them, his and Penny's unborn child. Surviving SERE was quite possibly the toughest thing he'd ever have to do, he doesn't think anything could be as demanding as simply learning how to survive, and yet humans have adapted and done so for thousands of years.

August 2008

After the initial incursion on his senses, by August things had normalised, relatively speaking. He and Michael were split up by this point to focus on their specific MOS training, but he still saw his best friend every day which was reassuring.

Michael can say without hyperbole that he is glad Sheldon is here. SERE training took more out of him than it took out of Sheldon, he thinks. It made him wonder what life would be like if the worst came about. If captured, could he not crack? But worst of all, it made him come face to face with his most lingering regret: never saying a proper goodbye to his own brother. In isolation that was all his mind kept playing back, the last conversation they had.

"Where are you going, bud?"

"To 7-Eleven to get a Slurpee and a pack of smokes."

Michael laughed, "You shouldn't smoke Kyle, they'll kill you."

His brother laughed, "I'll bring you back something, a bag of Cheetos if you don't tell Pop." "Make it two, and it's a deal."

That was the last conversation he had with his big brother, and the last thing he said to him was about chips. Michael felt guilty for months afterwards; isolation made it worse because it brought it all back. When he got out, he was never more glad to see the face of his surrogate brother.

December 2008

The apartment was loud, and Penny was tired. She was trying—and failing miserably—to get a four-month-old to settle. There was no manual for this! Her husband was cross-country and had been for a year. But as Penny soothed and rocked and walked around the living room with an infant, she couldn't believe she was a mother, to the most adorable baby girl on the planet. Was she biased, if she was, so was everyone else—including Val—who said that little Charlotte Marie Cooper, born on August 24, and named using the feminine form of Charles for Sheldon's beloved Pop-Pop and her own beloved Nana was a total Gerber Baby. But because she is Penny's daughter, her daughter appears to be a little bit of a diva. Penny has in the months since understood and has apologised to her own mother for being such a little brat, herself.

Val walks out of the guest bedroom/temporary nursery with a folder, and says tiredly, stifling a yawn, "According to this, if the baby is sick, restless, fussy or crying you should sing something called, 'Soft Kitty'."

Penny looks at her friend as she does another circuit of the kitchen trying to calm Charlotte, "I don't know that song."

"There are lyrics here," Val points.

Penny walks over and looks at where her friend is pointing, "Oh, simple enough," Penny clears her throat and begins, "Soft kitty, Warm kitty, Little ball of fur, happy kitty, sleepy kitty, purr purr purr."

"I think it's working," Val whispers as Charlotte stops crying, and her eyes start to get droopy, "Do it again."

"Soft kitty, Warm kitty, Little ball of fur, happy kitty, sleepy kitty, purr purr purr."

Within minutes, the apartment is quiet and the two women look at a peacefully sleeping baby in Penny's arms and smile.

"Your husband thinks of everything," Val whispers as she and Penny walk to the guest bedroom and lay Charlotte down.

When they close the door, Penny sighs in relief against the door, "Even when he's not here he saves the day."

Valerie laughs, "That's what Superman does."

March 2009

Leonard marched up the stairs depressed, he now had no more interest in Penny, but it wasn't his choice to make but rather the courts.

After getting nowhere with work in March of last year he had gone to a bar to drown his sorrows, one thing led to another and soon he was bragging to a group of college girls about his harrowing escape from an enemy engagement in Iraq which earned him the Purple Heart, they were impressed but when one of them started to ask questions he couldn't answer he was confronted by two guys and a police officer. He had argued that it was all harmless fun and that he was drunk

when they accused him of making false statements and impersonating a member of the military. He begged and pleaded that he meant no harm and that he was friends with a Marine and that if they drove him home he could prove it.

He was driven home by the cop who knocked on 4A's door forcefully. Penny answered it, Leonard was so thankful she did.

"Penny, thank God, can you get Sheldon so he can tell them that this is all a mistake?" He looked at her pleadingly.

Penny looked confused but then saw the cop, "What's going on? Is there a problem, officer?"

"Yes, ma'am, there appears so. This man bragged to a group of bar attendees that he was a Marine who served in combat and claimed to have earned a Purple Heart for a daring escape in Iraq. After being unable to answer certain questions, one attendee went to get security and I was flagged down." The police officer recounted.

Penny's eyes flashed with anger, and she slapped him right in front of the cop. "You sick bastard! War isn't a game, you jerk. People die, and people get hurt. My husband almost died, and for you, who can't even jog up the stairs without panting to claim to be a Marine is an insult to everything he and every actual service member stands for."

Penny saw Leonard's drunken face fall.

"I take it then that this man isn't a Marine nor has he ever been in combat?"

Penny shook her head, "No officer. When I moved in with my husband he told me he was a scientist."

"Would you be willing to testify against him should it come to that?" "Gladly," she said with a tone of finality.

The police officer turned Leonard around, handcuffed him, told him his rights, and then told Penny, "Thank you for your cooperation. I or another officer will be by to get your details shortly. Have a good night."

What followed after that was a flood of legal challenges, including a federal investigation into his involvement with a Department of Defense project in 2003. He ultimately avoided jail time for the Purple Heart story but was still fined $5,500 and had a felony misdemeanour on his record for it. Due to his mounting legal problems, particularly the pending one about the rocket fuel investigation, Caltech decided to let him go, to avoid any further bad PR. And because he lost his job, he had been evicted from 4B in May because he forgot to pay the rent for April. He moved into a bachelor's apartment in downtown LA on the sixth floor that while small, was all he could afford. The irony of it being a former hotel with a working elevator, but hadn't been since he moved in, was biting.

He doesn't know how or when the investigation for the rocket fuel will wrap, he is just hoping to avoid prison.

May 2009

Sheldon couldn't believe he was finally going home—a Lieutenant. And a member of the United States Marine Forces Special Operations Command. The last year and a half had been hell.

Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape (SERE) training was brutal for both of them. It only

strengthened Sheldon's resolve to always return to Penny. He and Michael had taken the earliest possible flight out and were exhausted but both of them knew what was on the other side of the country. Their wives and their kids. Because of the new additions—that he'd yet to meet—Sheldon tells his best friend they both now have to be extra vigilant and do their jobs better than the best if they want to come back. He is glad Michael agrees.

***

Penny and Valerie were at the airport, each rocking a sleeping baby over their shoulder. An elderly woman smiled at her.

"Who are you waiting for, dear?" She asked kindly. Penny smiled, "My husband and this little lady's daddy."

The woman smiled as she looks at the little baby in Penny's arms, "Oh, is he military?" Penny nodded, "Yes, this will be the first time he's seen her."

"I and my husband were in the same situation when he came back from Korea and he saw his son for the first time. That was all the way back in April 1953."

"Is that who you are waiting for, your husband?"

The woman shook her head, "Oh no, I'm waiting for my son and his family. He's coming over to take over garrison command at Fort Irwin. Before this, he was in South Carolina. So I'm happy he'll be closer."

"Your son is in the Army? My husband is in the Marines," Penny smiles. The woman laughs, "What are the odds?"

Penny laughs too, "I don't know but ask my husband and he could probably get close."

"Grammie!" "Gramma!" They suddenly hear, as the elderly woman is hugged by three children ranging from 10 to 15. Then a broad-shouldered man in an Army Green Service Uniform and a petite redheaded woman walk up to her and exchange hugs. The woman smiles at Penny, "Well dear, I hope you see your fella not too much longer."

"Thank you," Penny replies.

"You're friends with everyone, aren't cha?" Val remarks when the elderly woman and her family leave.

Penny giggles, "Sheldon said it's in my job description."

"Yeah well—" Valerie is cut off by Michael planting a kiss on her from behind, Penny is amused and distracted by her friend's homecoming that she doesn't even register Sheldon's presence until he taps her on the shoulder.

"Am I that forgettable?"

Penny breaks out into a huge smile, tears welling up at the sight of her Sheldon after so long, she leans up to kiss him deeply. "Welcome home, honey," she tells him when they part. Charlotte picks that as her cue to start crying. "Shh…," Penny soothes, "Daddy's right here." As if she understood, Charlotte's cries ebb and become soft whimpers. "I see someone's already a daddy's

girl," Penny chuckles and shifts Charlotte from her shoulder to her arms cradling their daughter as she shows Sheldon their daughter. "Sheldon, meet your daughter, Charlotte Marie Cooper."

Sheldon is stunned by the tiny little human in Penny's arms that is half him and half her. She has blonde hair that because of his genetics will probably get darker as she gets older, and she has blue eyes predominantly with flecks of green. She also appears to have Penny's cupid-bow lips and nose, but his high cheeks. All in all, he'd say they made a very cute baby. One that he knows will be an absolute heartbreaker in the future. He is thankful he's in the military because that indeed will come in handy when it comes to dealing with punk-ass little boys that want to date his daughter. "Cute kid," he says finally. "May I?" Penny smiles and places their daughter lovingly in Sheldon's arms for the first time and she immediately stops fussing.

Penny snorts, and wipes away a tear, "There's an understatement. Everywhere I go people tell me she should be a Gerber Baby."

Sheldon wiggles a finger in front of his daughter's face, staring down at her, "I hear they're offering a $50,000 scholarship for the new spokes baby. Should we enter her?"

Penny chuckles, "Sure… if you change her diapers from now on."

He looks at her smiling, after what he had gone through in training, changing diapers would be a breeze. "Penny, I will do whatever to make up for being gone so long."

Penny perks up and looks down at Charlotte who is delighted by this new person holding her, "Charlotte, can you say 'Daddy, can we go home now?'"

Sheldon chuckles, "All right, let's go." He looks up and sees that Michael and Valerie are in a similar position.

Flashback

May 2005

Sheldon didn't like surprises, not before or after he joined the military, so he has his doubts that Penny would like his. But Valerie told him Penny was eager to see him and he and Michael did just get off the plane from San Diego an hour ago, as training for their next deployment the next March concluded a week early.

Sheldon watched as his friend and his girlfriend reunited, he was surprised that Valerie's last class was an evening class but that meant she got to be involved in their little surprise for Penny. He just hoped she liked it.

Penny sighed, as she heard the professor drone on and on about finals and when they would get their grades. She didn't care, she knows she aced the final and at least passed with a B+ or if she was really lucky an A-. Imagine that, an A- in science, that hadn't happened since 6th grade when she won First Place for a potato-powered alarm clock. It was all thanks to Sheldon. That Spring Break, when they weren't fooling around, he was tutoring her in physics and when she came back she felt like she knew more than the professor. She looked at the clock, 10 more minutes. Ten more minutes and she'll be exactly one week closer to seeing Sheldon. She had it all planned, she'd meet him at the airport, take him home, see her parents, and have dinner with them before packing her bags for Galveston again. Penny hated that he had this pull on her, usually in relationships she's the one who calls the shots, but then again no guy had ever just wanted her for her rather than her looks. Because they spent nearly a month talking by phone and email before

really seeing each other, she feels a closeness to him that she's never felt with any other guy. He's never mocked her opinions—although he did have very choice words about her love of Hugh Grant movies—but she supposes everyone is entitled to their own opinion even if they're wrong. Penny had never been courted before, the guys she usually dated were pretty focused on making out or seeing her boobs; with Sheldon during that Spring Break though she felt like she was in a Jane Austen novel. It was romantic and it made her want him all the more.

The bell mercifully rang, "All right, have a good summer."

Penny gathered up her things, stuffed them in her backpack, and walked out the door. She was the fifth one out, but the person standing directly in front of her classroom door was the last person she expected—this early.

"Oh, my God!" Penny exclaimed as she saw Sheldon standing there in dress blues. She ran toward him. Pulling him down for a kiss, sobbing and hugging him. When they pulled away, she heard Val from the side with Michael also in dress blues, "That was perfect." Her best friend got that on video! She turned toward and looked up at her boyfriend, this time with watery eyes, "You lied to me!" Then hugged him again. She heard Sheldon chuckle and say, "I prefer omitting key details." She laughed despite herself and dried her tears.

When they flew down to Houston the next day after a pleasant dinner with her parents and her father graciously allowing Sheldon Lisa's old room for the night, Penny was on hand to see Sheldon surprise his mother and Meemaw. The sound that Mary Cooper made when confronted with her son at the church she worked at, that Missy drove them to, was indescribable. Penny's best guess is that it was somewhere between a yowl and a scream, but even that was conservative.

Missy chuckled and said, "She's getting better, the first time he came back from Afghanistan she fainted."

Meemaw's reaction was adorable because she was in the middle of a bowling frame when she saw him which messed up her throw, squealed, rushed over, hugged him, and then told him, "You owe me a 7-10 split," when she saw that she still had the 7 and 10 pins standing.

Penny finally met Sheldon's brother too, and if she was honest if she hadn't known Sheldon and continued to decide who to date on sheer looks alone, she'd have dated his brother. Because while Sheldon was cute, his brother was handsome. But his brother George has been divorced twice already and has a six-year-old. He called Sheldon, the "luckiest sonofabitch ever to have lived' upon meeting her. Penny felt the same way about meeting Sheldon.

She spent the next month getting to know Sheldon's family away from school and away from any time constraints and she found out that they were lovely people. The week she had spent with them during Spring Break was nothing compared to this.

One morning in late June, she was in the garden, pulling weeds when Missy came up behind her, "You must really love my brother if you're willing to pull weeds for momma in 90-degree heat."

Penny stood and laughed, "I grew up on a farm, imagine this but on 1300 acres. So I'm used to it."

"So you don't love my brother, then," Missy asked knowingly—she was a girl too, she knew the signs. This girl dating her former geek-turned-hardcore Marine brother was head over heels for her brother.

"I don't know, honestly. I… um, never really said it to anyone besides family and meant it," Penny

told the older girl honestly. "Has he said anything?"

Penny shook her head, "Not out loud, but little gestures here and there are more than I've ever received from any guy. So I think he's saying it without really saying it, you know?"

Missy nodded, "Want my advice?"

"Sure. You probably know him best, being his twin and all."

Missy chuckled, "If you want him to do something prepare him for it. Don't spring it on him. He hates surprises."

"How do you prepare someone for 'I love you'?"

"I'm pretty sure you know his kryptonite, as he calls it?" Penny nods. "Use that to get him to relax, once my brother is relaxed he prepares for all eventualities. Well… maybe not yours, baby girl," Missy winks.

Penny pouts, "I don't know how to bake."

Missy waves off that tiny detail, "Oh honey, just get Meemaw to make it or better yet get her to teach you."

Penny's eyes brighten at the idea, and she hugs the brunette who wasn't expecting it. But soon feels the other woman hug her back.

"All right now, calm down. I just told you how to get a cake baked, not agreed to be in your weddin' party."

Penny blushed when she pulled away.

***

"What's the occasion?" Sheldon asked as Penny led him over to his Meemaw's house, and showed him the German Chocolate Cake.

Penny was nervous. "Umm… no occasion, I just thought you'd like some after being away." "You made this?" He pointed to the near bakery-quality cake.

Penny blushed, "Well, no, Meemaw made this one, but she taught me how to make them for you in the future."

Sheldon was touched, nobody had ever just given him something out of the blue before.

"Come on, let's cut it," Penny said handing him a knife, which Sheldon then proceeded to cut two slices of.

After they ate, they retired to the sofa in the living room, Penny settled herself at Sheldon's side. It felt nice, it also felt like the right time to say what was on her mind—had been for weeks now if she was honest. She lifted her head from his chest, shifted so she could face him directly, and took his hand, "Sheldon… these last few months have been amazing. I have never met someone who cared for me, the person, rather than me, the hot girl before. You treat me like I matter, you make me feel things I never have before, and I know it's crazy but I truly believe that when I met you I

met the love of my life," she took a deep breath, "I love you, Sheldon Cooper."

Sheldon was stunned, this utterly beautiful woman, who he'd been seeing just told him—him—she loved him without any provocation. Penelope Teller has been the best thing that's ever happened to him because she gives him a reason. The Marine Corps gave him purpose, but Penny gives him a reason to defeat his enemies and return home to her. That was all he thought about during training exercises the last couple of months. She is that proverbial girl worth fighting for. He wanted to reassure her because he could see the confidence on her face start to slip the longer he stayed quiet, but he couldn't say anything, it felt like he had lost his voice. He did the next best thing, he kissed her. Hoping to convey to his extraordinary girlfriend that yes, he loves her too. He dug his hands into her hair pulling her in closer. He was losing himself in the moment until he heard—they both heard—the door open and a loud, "Ahem." They broke apart and sat with their hands on their laps nervously faster than it took the Millennium Falcon to make the Kessel Run.

It was Meemaw, "You know, if you two wanted to use my place to neck, the shed out back is more private," she laughed then headed upstairs leaving her responsible grandson with his lovely girlfriend alone, she knows they weren't about to do anything untoward.

Sheldon was actually thankful Meemaw interrupted them, it gave him a chance to find his voice— literally. He took Penny's hand, "Penny, despite my vast vocabulary, I am at a lost for words right now, so, I will just say this, I love you too, Penelope Teller."

Penny grinned wide before tackling him to the sofa with a hug.