Flashback II

Leonard sat with his laptop on his couch looking at an eBay auction while his friends Howard and Raj were over preparing for a night of EverQuest, "Some guy is auctioning off a miniature time machine prop from the original film and no one is bidding on it."

"A time machine from the movie The Time Machine?" Howard asks from his spot at the dinette set.

"No, a time machine from Sophie's Choice," Leonard says sarcastically.

Raj wipes away a non-existent tear from his spot next to Howard, "Boy, Sophie could have used a time machine in that movie. Did you see it, it's rough."

Howard walks over and looks over Leonard's shoulder, "Oh, that's cool." Leonard agrees, "Uh-huh."

Raj joins the pair and looks at the auction screen, "It's only $600?" "Yeah. And that's my bid."

"You bid $600?" Raj asks incredulously.

"It was a spur-of-the-moment thing, I figured it would go for thousands and I just wanted to be a part of it," Leonard shrugs.

"There's only 30 seconds left in the auction," Howard states, "Do you have $600?" "Not to blow on a miniature time machine," Leonard admits.

Howard shrugs unconcerned, "Don't worry, the way these things work, there's people waiting 'til the last second to bid, and then they swoop in and get it, it's called sniping."

Raj calls out, "Fifteen seconds."

Leonard looks at the screen apprehensively, "Come on, snipers." Raj counts down, "Ten, nine, eight…"

Leonard starts to sweat, "Where are your snipers?" He asks the auction screen. "Five," Raj says ominously.

"Snipe," Leonard says gripping his laptop tightly. "Four."

"Snipe," Leonard says louder. "Three."

"Snipe!" Leonard begs. "Two."

"SNIPE!" Leonard yells shaking his laptop. "One," Raj finishes his countdown.

"Aaaa-aw!" Leonard says resigned as the screen changes declaring an end to the auction and his bid the winner; that one impulse bid cost him $600.

"Congratulations, you are the proud owner of a miniature time machine," Raj commiserated. Howard added, "You lucky duck."

"I wonder why no one else bid, this is a classic piece of sci-fi movie memorabilia," Raj asks after looking at the auction details closer.

Leonard sighed, "Yeah, I know, I still can't afford it."

An idea struck Howard, "Why don't we share it? We'll each put in two hundred bucks and we'll take turns having it in our homes."

"A timeshare time machine? I'm in. Raj?" Leonard agrees, he has no other choice. "Need you ask? But I still don't understand why no one else bid," Raj says.

The following Saturday in the lobby, the guys stand around a full-sized time machine. "I understand why no one else bid. Did the listing actually say miniature?" Raj asks. "I just assumed. Who sells a full-sized time machine for $600?"

"That would be the guy that says 'no longer want my time machine' and 'needs $600 ASAP,'" says Raj.

"It's actually a tremendous bargain, even with shipping it works out to less than four dollars a pound," Howard calculates.

Raj nods, "Cocktail shrimp is $12.50."

"How are we going to get it upstairs?" Leonard wonders.

"If we take the dish off it might fit in the elevator," Howard suggests.

"Yes… but the elevator's been broken for four years," Leonard looks around and then says, "Remember?"

Sheldon and Penny come down the stairs in workout clothes intent on going for a run together, Sheldon spots the trio and the large object they're staring at. "Are you hoping that thing disappears? If you do, you gotta pull that lever." Sheldon jokes.

Leonard looks up, "No, we're wondering how we're getting this upstairs."

Sheldon walks over, taps on a golden bar with a knuckle and hears the distinct ping of iron piping with gold paint, "Yeah right, good luck moving more than 612 pounds of iron piping and other materials up four flights of stairs. Especially with only the three of you and a turning radius on each landing 12 degrees narrower than you need. And I will remind you, Lennie, that the stairs are the only way in or out in case of emergency so should you block it with this monstrosity, you better

have a Plan B for the rest of us."

As Penny and Sheldon head out the door, the trio hear Penny faintly say to Sheldon, "Was all that really necessary?"

They don't hear his reply, as the couple take off down the street.

"What the frak was that? The airy jarhead diagnosed the issue with a tap of his knuckles, tells you why, and then tells you off. The dude is really scary," Howard says.

Leonard waves his friend off, "Whatever, let's just see if we can lift it, Raj come back here and lift from the back, Howard you take a side, and I'll take a side. Together we lift on three, all right?"

They get in place and Leonard starts the count, the trio are able to lift the time machine four inches off the ground and immediately regret it; setting it down with trios of grunts. When they put it back down all three are breathing heavily. Leonard reaches for his inhaler.

"Good God…" Howard says his hands on his knees and panting, "There's no way we can get this up four flights of stairs; we can't even lift it higher than the first step."

Leonard thinks to himself, then finally says, "I think we can apply math to this, Archimedes once said, 'Give me a place to stand, and a lever long enough, and I will move the world.'"

Howard looks at his friend, "You're insane."

Scoffing at his friend's dismissive attitude, "No I'm not, I'm being practical, all we need is a lever and fulcrum to counteract the weight, an inclined plane to move it, a wedge and pulley system would make it easier and voilà!"

"And pray tell where exactly are you going to source all of these materials? You're already $200 in the hole from buying the thing, a trip to the hardware store to buy wood, rope, and pulleys would put you back even more," Howard argued.

Leonard is about to refute when he realises Howard has a point. Several minutes of silence reign over the lobby before he snaps his fingers, "Okay… we could just dismantle it and take it up piece by piece. Then once in my apartment reconstruct it."

Howard and Raj smile and the pair head back upstairs to retrieve Leonard's toolkit while he watches over his time machine. The pair return to the lobby and open the small tool duffel and start passing out screwdrivers while Leonard takes the only power drill. The trio work in diligent silence for 25 minutes before it's disturbed by a commotion at the front doors. They stop and see Penny run in laughing and pulling the handles of the doors in, not allowing Sheldon to fully open the doors all the way.

"When I get in there Penelope, I'm going to make you pay dearly," Sheldon growls with a playful smile.

The trio don't see Penny's response, but whatever it was, causes Sheldon to frown and growl and practically yank the doors wide open causing Penny to stagger backwards slightly, but before she can fall or any of the nerds can steady her, Sheldon is through the door and has her up and over his shoulder in a modified fireman's lift as she shrieks in laughter.

"Okay, okay I give!" Penny giggles, and from her spot on Sheldon's shoulder she notices three guys staring at them, she grins and waves at them, "Oh, hi guys!" They wave back lamely, she then taps Sheldon's shoulder, "To the bedroom, Sheldon!" Penny orders.

Sheldon starts up the stairs with Penny still over his shoulder, once on the landing between the first and second set of stairs he turns, and directs his comment to Leonard, "I'll have a much easier time with my payload than you ever will. Taking parts off is a good idea but that is still several iron piping bars with a metal density of 0.30 lbs/inch cubed welded together to the size of a golf cart or slightly bigger, therefore, weighing in at around I'd say 612 pounds. If the three of you can even make it to the second floor it'd be a miracle."

"Sheldon…" Penny says impatiently.

"I'm sorry, Penny, I got distracted. Bedroom, right?" Huffing and rolling her eyes she says, "Yes, Dr. Obvious."

Sheldon wishes the trio luck and disappears up the stairs with Penny's faint giggling echoing down the stairs.

Leonard, Howard, and Raj all look at each other and then simultaneously shake their heads still in disbelief at what just happened.

"What just happened?" Leonard griped an octave higher than normal.

"The Marine and his hot wife are about to get it on," Howard says with a wiggle of his eyebrows. "Wait, he's a Marine?" Raj asked.

Howard snapped his fingers, and pointed at Raj, "Oh that's right, you weren't with us when we met them, yeah, Staff Sergeant."

Leonard scoffs, he doesn't need to be reminded of that, what he was wondering about was how a Marine knew what metal density was and exactly what the density of iron was and the approximate weight of the machine. He pulled up the auction page on his phone and looked closer at the details and as clear as day it said, 'Item weight: 727 pounds' so he was in the ballpark—he really should have looked closer at the description before bidding. Leonard then turned to his friends, "You don't think, he," Leonard points towards the stairs, "sold me this thing, do you? He seemed to know a lot about it."

Raj shakes his head amused at Leonard's theory, "If he did, why would he tell you not to block the stairs with it? It sounds like you're having buyer's remorse."

"No… it's just… you know what, let's just take this thing apart."

Howard and Raj shrug and get back to work. Once the trio get the back dish off, it takes them an hour to get it up to the fourth floor. They are scientists, not bodybuilders. When they lay the dish against Leonard's outer apartment wall, Leonard concedes, "Screw it, I don't care if it costs me more money I'm hiring people to carry that thing up here," he says in-between pulls of his inhaler.

"Good idea," Howard and Raj chorus in agreement.

***

After ravishing his wife after their run, and for her little stunt in the lobby, they had a talk about his attitude toward Leonard and the guys, neither Sheldon or Penny had been formally introduced to the third member of Leonard's circle of friends but Sheldon knew from talking to Bobby that it was probably the Rajesh Koothrappali individual his friend and colleague spoke of. Sheldon doesn't know why exactly he's so hostile to their neighbour; then again, the little creep admitting he stole

their mail to try and talk to Penny certainly didn't ingratiate himself in Sheldon's eyes. Because really what kind of anti-social ass does that? Sheldon wasn't always so confrontational, part of it he attributes to the gruelling 13 weeks in Basic Training, the rest probably was due to three deployments to three separate war zones. If you aren't confrontational on the battlefield that means you aren't aware and that's when bullets, bombs, and other munitions being fired around you could get you killed. Going through Basic Training changed him more than he expected, he knew it would of course but he hadn't expected such a drastic change. However, in the beginning, he was at least thankful to see a familiar face on the bus on the way to Parris Island. That made the nearly 16-hour bus ride to South Carolina much more enjoyable.

It was on the bus ride that he, Michael, and a few other recruits got an answer as to why they were going to Parris Island and not Camp Pendleton. Apparently, the Marine Corps was testing out a new distance-based algorithm to cut down on logistics, based on where exactly the recruit initially applied rather than an arbitrary regional division based on merely which side of the Mississippi River they signed up on. Sheldon thought that was more logical. He found out that Michael was from Omaha, and like Sheldon, he had a military legacy although his, goes back to the Civil War. Sheldon wasn't forthcoming on a few details primarily because he hoped to leave that version of him behind, but a day-long bus ride wore him down and he admitted his educational background to Michael and a few recruits sitting nearby. By the end of the journey he had gained the nickname "Doc" which he found he was okay with, it wasn't given to mock, but as a sign of respect for his past accomplishments—accomplishments he would sooner forget… if he could at all.

As he and Penny got ready for bed that night, he had to marvel at the woman lying beside him, she was his constant—the Marine Corps gave him purpose but she gives him a reason to come back.

As he drifted off to sleep, however, one prominent memory played back in his mind: Basic Training which if he was honest without Michael he would've given up on, and then meeting Penny which he also attributes to Michael. Sheldon never had a friend he could count on before the tall, wavy-haired farm boy from Omaha but he would say if ever pressed that meeting Michael was absolutely worth giving up science for.

Flashback

March 1997

The bus pulled into Parris Island at four in the morning the next day, Sheldon enjoyed long train journeys, but long bus ones not so much. Three minutes after the bus stopped, a drill instructor came on board and yelled at them startling everyone who was dozing or asleep wide awake, including him. That was the single worst wake-up call he's ever had, and that includes the time when he was five and Georgie saw him taking a nap outside and apparently decided it'd be funnier to have him wake up in the hen house.

"Wake up! From this moment I and any other instructor will be your only point of contact with the outside world. You will treat me and any other instructor and our instructions with the utmost respect and only respond with, 'Aye sir!', do you understand?"

"Aye, sir!" The bleary-eyed recruits respond. "Louder!"

"Aye, sir!" The recruits chorus louder. "Scream it!"

"AYE SIR!" The recruits echo back louder still.

"Now when I tell you to, you will get off this bus, grab your shit, and step on the yellow footprints, do you understand?!"

"Aye, sir!"

"Louder!"

"Aye, sir!"

"Get up!"

All 84 recruits, who were seated two to a bench, stand. "Sit down!"

The recruits sit immediately. "Stand up!"

The recruits stand immediately.

"Get off my bus!" The drill instructor yells with his back to them and heads off first.

The recruits make a mad dash down the stairs, and onto the footprints. Sheldon is lined up behind Michael on the yellow footprints, next to three others; Gunner Neuheuser from Minnesota, Roy Granberg from Kansas, and Alberto Soriano from San Antonio—three recruits he talked to on the bus.

Another drill instructor comes and tells them to stand at attention, and then what to expect for the next three months. In Germany, Sheldon got up pretty early but even though he thinks a pre-dawn pep talk is unnecessary, he keeps his mouth shut and keeps his thoughts to himself.

"You may have been brought up believing you were special or not, I don't care. Standing on these footprints you are all the same and about to take the path that many have travelled, but few have earned. If you are successful, you will earn the title of United States Marine. We are a brotherhood, the finest warriors on the planet. From this point on, you will eat, sleep, and train together with your brothers; if one of you fails, you all fail because in the Corps we cannot have any weak links. These next three months will shape your character in ways you never even imagined. If you are not up to the task, now is the only time to leave. Do I have any quitters?"

"No sir!" The recruits respond.

"From this moment, you are no longer civilians, everything you do will be judged by military standards. If you were a track star in school, don't expect any gold medals for finishing first, because in the Corps there is no first, no second, no third; only you, your fellow Marines and serving your country, do you understand?"

"Aye, sir!"

"Do you understand?!" The drill instructor yelled louder. "Aye, sir!"

"Once you go past the hatch doors you will take your first steps toward becoming United States

Marines, there is no going back. Are you ready?" "Aye, sir!"

Are you ready?" The drill instructor yells louder. The new recruits respond louder, "Aye, sir!!" "Open the hatch!"

If Sheldon was honest, he rather enjoyed Receiving Week; he had lived his life pretty spartan up until that point, with the exception of comic books and science experimentation for recreation therefore it wasn't that much of an adjustment. In actual fact, he learned more outside of drills from Michael and his other recruits than he did in preparing for the next 12 weeks from the instructors that first week. The first thing they helped him with; getting used to getting dirty. Sheldon had spent the last year and a half in Germany training his body for the physical nature of the Corps but it was all in relatively sanitary conditions—in gyms, his bedroom, pools, marked trails—places he knew were clean or at least made for that purposed activity. He was still fairly Mr. Clean when he got off the bus, so dirt and therefore possible germs made him uncomfortable. The recruits got him through that during the first week by spending every spare minute making him wear dirty laundry

—sweaty shirts, dirt-covered shirts, and the like. It was probably the worst kind of immersion therapy he'd ever endure. This unfortunately didn't go unnoticed by the drill instructors and when they caught Sheldon wearing dirty laundered clothing while the rest of the company were in fresh ones, they made everyone in the company run six miles in the dark, one mile for every day Sheldon had been wearing dirty laundry. That wasn't so much a bonding experience as it was festering resentment among his fellow recruits. He resolved to change, to accept the chaos that would be his life because he would not be the weak link—at least not anymore. What took much longer for him to break was his habitual lecture style of speech but like Pandora's Box, once it was out and free, he was free. And it came from a very unusual quarter.

After Receiving Week, they hit the Confidence Course, a behemoth 15-station physical and mental obstacle course, that includes a hand-over-hand rope climb and descent of 30 feet. With his company taken to Leatherneck Square and starting at the 30-foot climb and descent station called Tough One, Sheldon wasn't so confident considering he failed the rope climb in PE every year and the only reason that it never affected his GPA was that his dad, in addition to being head football coach was also Chair of the Physical Education Department and the school needed his GPA boost. But surprisingly he got through the Tough One climb with ease—which he attributes to training with Mats and the latter's insistence on pull-ups and upper body focus. But it was another 30-foot obstacle, dubbed Stairway To Heaven which made him question his approach to speech. While he was a doctoral candidate, later a guest lecturer and if he really thought about it, even before that while just a child prodigy—still the youngest winner of the Stevenson Award—he had a rather long-winded way of speaking. Mainly because he wanted to include all the necessary details people needed upfront—that was how his mind worked, that was how it organised and processed information—because knowledge is power, and the more you know the better you can act, or so it goes. Watching his fellow recruits navigate the 30-foot wall of logs and telling each other briefly, incomplete instructions but somehow both knowing exactly what the other is saying made him realise that for all of his smarts, for all of his attention to detail and proper diction, in a battle situation that could spell disaster. He needed to change. If he could withstand dirty shirts and handshakes, he sure as hell could dumb down his diction when the situation called for it. After all, hadn't he done that with his family all these years? He was the only one in a family from the Texas Gulf Coast to not speak with a southern accent a majority of the time. If he could do it with his family he can—no… will do it—in the Marines. His climbing partner for Stairway To Heaven was

Dan O'Leary, an Irishman from Boston—who had arrived on the 4:05 AM bus and sorted into his squad bay—with a heavy Boston accent.

With the objective of Stairway To Heaven to go up, over, and down together without a harness both had to know, hear, and understand the other. Dan was 6' tall with a wiry body, so Sheldon was pretty confident they could make it up and over if they could understand each other. The only problem was this would be the first time he spoke to Dan. Sheldon decided to stick to the monkey- see, monkey-do principle; he'd imitate Dan's instructions. Unfortunately, it seemed that Dan had the same idea and was waiting on Sheldon. So there they were 30 feet in the air, each waiting for the other, it looked like each was afraid of heights—frozen.

The drill instructor for their turn at Leatherneck Square yelled, "Get to it!"

"Aye, sir!" Sheldon replied, then because he took the initiative he said in his most authoritative and non-condescending voice, "I stay, you go!" Then nodded at Dan. The Boston Irishman received his cue and made his way over the top log. Sheldon tells him to wrap his arms around the log and slowly go over.

"I stay, you go!" Dan repeated. Sheldon nodded in acknowledgement before doing what Dan just did. Now with both of them on the other side, and their backs to the ground, but unable to judge the distance going down, they both have to rely on each other and information from their initial ascent. Sheldon knew this would test him more than Dan. He was an academic before pursuing this life, and if he can't help a fellow recruit down a wall of logs, then his doctorate, his years in Germany, and his skipping grades would be useless.

"Ready, step!" Sheldon called out.

"Ready, step!" Repeated Dan as they took another step down.

The pair repeat their call out until they make it down the last of the 10 logs. Sheldon feels validated and somewhat freer, he now understands the concept of, 'less is more'. Perhaps, it was less to do with his IQ and more about his pedantic nature that caused him to be beaten up and harassed by neighbourhood bullies so much in his youth. It wasn't an instantaneous change, he didn't miraculously start spouting slang and using broken grammar like a yokel, he just understood better how much to say and how to say it—the cursing didn't come along until The Crucible. Until now, he never had to push himself or force himself to evaluate any of his mannerisms or his approach to what he thought was the ideal trajectory of success. His father was right if he needed to ask, then he needed it. It would be later that night when Dan formally introduced himself, and Sheldon found out that he and the Bostonian had a lot more in common than initially thought. Dan was a recent graduate of Boston College and enlisted because his older brother by two years was doing the same with the Army. Dan came from a poor, working-class family and he thought this was both a way to move up and to get rid of his introvertedness. Sheldon had to admit it was a pretty bold choice, not many would decide on the Marine Corps to cure them of being an introvert, but he knows he can't really judge considering he left science to further a family legacy and to be the best version of himself.

***

Until he shot his dad's Remington 700, he never touched a gun, but he found he particularly liked the M16A2 and was rather proficient with it. It just felt right in his hands. He felt almost one with the assault rifle, firing it for the first time and being surprised he actually hit his target, mostly, there were a few scatterings of bullets outside of the target area but he knows with time he'll be able to group them in. He never felt this sense of accomplishment even when he proved to NASA that his idea for individual rocket vectoring was a sound idea. He thinks it's because he can see

tangible evidence of progress with each successive target sheet; whereas with NASA they admitted his design was brilliant and logical because his math was flawless, but there was no way to test and/or implement it. And he knows in the grand scheme of things he is one clog in a massive military machine so his mere presence won't automatically win battles or wars, but he can at least do what he can to inch toward that goal. But above any grand notion of valour, Sheldon knows deep down he's doing the right thing and that's all that matters.

***

Sheldon long ago thought that if he did everything to the letter he wouldn't need anybody else, Basic at Parris Island made him reevaluate that notion in a damn hurry. Especially after the gas chamber, he understood then how horrible the idea of CBRN, or chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear war was—and he promised himself that whatever he had to do he would with the help of his fellow brothers-in-arms to prevent it; if he can make it through this. Five minutes exposed to tear gas made him want to quit the Corps. He told Michael that during a late-night jog that same day.

"Doc, you can't quit the Corps now. Look, I know it's been hard and thankless fucking work now, and the DIs are harsh, but soon you and me we are going to be a two-man wrecking crew. Stick it out and stick with me, all right? You'll be fine."

"I don't know…," Sheldon admitted, he never felt powerless before, and this was new to him, "This…," he seems at a loss for words, "Just seems like a mistake, I think I'd rather be back in the classroom or doing research on physics. That's what I'm good at… not this," he gestures to their surroundings as they run.

"All right Sheldon, I get it. You're scared, you're out of your element, but this doubt you have right now it's just temporary. Pretty damn soon they're going to be giving you the Medal of Honor. I know you have what it takes, buddy 'cause you know why? Nobody, and I mean nobody at 17

with a damn doctorate would go, 'Screw it, I'm done with being just a brain, I'm going to be a Marine.' You coulda sat back and done all the sciencey shit you wanted for the rest of your life but you took a chance and wanted to be better, the Corps will help you, I know it already has."

Sheldon couldn't refute his friend there, he then stopped running, "Fine, I'll stay but you have to do one thing."

Michael smiles, "Sure, name it."

"Admit that the Texas Longhorns are better than the Nebraska Cornhuskers." "Oooh, them's fightin' words," Michael said with a smile.

"Oorah!" Sheldon responded.

That was the first time Sheldon dropped his guard around someone and they didn't mock him for it, that was also the first time he had a conversation with a peer and they helped him rather than the other way around, and it was the first time that he openly joked about something that somebody else got and didn't get offended by it. That night, Sheldon lay in his bunk and thought that he could

tough it out, he could. Already just a few weeks in Marine boot camp have done wonders for him— even if some parts, like being exposed to tear gas was the worst kind of hell.

***

As a kid, he hated swimming and although his dad forced him to by literally throwing him into the

lake when he constantly refused, there was just something unnatural he felt about swimming. He knew some did it as a sport, and others as a survival skill but he was going to be utilising it as a job requirement. Because Marines are amphibious infantry units—says so in the title. And while he trained with Mats in pools in Germany in preparation for this he was more than thankful for the four weeks of practice he insisted on because he wasn't a strong swimmer, to begin with. Swim events posed the first real chance he could have dropped out, but he managed to meet Combat Water Survival qualifications.

***

The Crucible was the most gruelling event of his young life. He was 54 hours away from being a United States Marine, but first, he had this torment to endure and conquer with the rest of India Company. They were warned, they had prepared their bodies, and their minds for this one event, if they screwed up now there was no second chance. Zero hour was 0200. It was pitch black in their squad bay then all the damn lights came on like it was a scene from an alien abduction movie, and then their drill instructor call them to attention and to count off. He knew this was it. He was number 15. Michael was ironically number 23. Donning his desert utility uniform and making his rack—his bunk bed—with his rack mate Charlie Bern of Florida was the easiest part of the day.

Shouldering 50 pounds worth of gear, on just a few hours of sleep in the dead of night, falling in line, forming ranks, and preparing to hike six miles in the cold darkness; Sheldon thought to himself, maybe the doctors got it wrong and I am crazy. Now he is somewhat thankful his squad had to do a six-mile forfeit run that first week because of his dirty shirt during nighttime inspection.

When dawn broke, the first event of The Crucible began. His squad began with the advanced obstacle course, which apart from O'Leary costing them a set of burpees for failing to move his ammo can across monkey bars, was just the beginning. It was during another station when another recruit, Tyler Donaldson, wouldn't go over the bars; Sheldon was tired, hungry, and now pissed off because while he privately complained the week before, he still did his part; while this recruit had jawed throughout the lead-up to The Crucible that he'd 'dominate it and if any of you failed I'm gonna be pissed'. Well, now Sheldon was pissed.

"Go, Donaldson! Move!" He yelled. What he wanted to say was, 'Move your lazy ass' but the DI was watching.

When he went into the Octagon against Donaldson, he let out all of his frustration with pugil sticks. Winning that fight against Donaldson was the first time Sheldon truly let raw emotion and instinct take control, and if he was honest, it felt really good being the victor when his entire life he'd been the victim. When he fought Michael in body sparring, he felt conflicted until the bastard landed a blow to his ribs—that was when he felt that friend or not, right now he was the enemy and Sheldon went in for the kill. Downing his 'brother' in mere minutes with calculating blows to debilitating body pressure points—mainly the solar plexus.

Hour 14 came upon them and started on movement and cover drills. At this point, Sheldon is just glad his fireteam didn't include Donaldson. Sheldon was in FT Bravo with Michael, Gunner Neuheuser, Dustin Noble, and Ethan Collins; four other highly-motivated recruits. He pities Donaldson's fireteam. They made it through movement and cover without any problems but by now Sheldon is exhausted, and his MRE might as well be a 5-star meal.

When all of India Company completes movement and cover, they finally break for lunch. Sheldon knows he has to ration this, but he's already prepared a rationing schedule; he'll enjoy this first MRE with immense satisfaction.

"God, I don't care what this is I'm just happy I'm eating it," he says to his squad mates as they

chuckle, he knows they share the same sentiment.

A casualty evacuation drill was how Sheldon and FT Bravo ended the day. Ethan played the casualty while he and Michael, belly crawled to him from a distance of 75 yards while keeping their heads below a red line to simulate a "bullet hard deck" within three minutes until they reached the victim—that was one of the more physically intensive activities he's ever done. Once they reached Ethan, he and Michael put Ethan on each arm and quickly made it back the way they came.

"Hang in there Collins, we got you, buddy!" Sheldon said.

"Stay with us Collins, we're gonna get you some help," Michael said.

When he went to bed that night he knew what was going to happen tomorrow, the Battle of Hue City. Sheldon honestly didn't know how to feel reenacting a battle his father actually fought in. He wondered if this would bring him closer to his father or if it would give him early-onset PTSD. He had spent his free time in Germany researching his father's military exploits and he knew now that his father was braver than he ever gave him credit for.

Sheldon thanks his ever-analytical mind for this part of The Crucible. With his mind calculating his next move his body can act on instinct from the training he's taken in over the last three months. He remembers to move under cover, and check his surroundings by instinct. Though his fireteam made it across the course with all personnel accounted for with no casualties and all their equipment, he knew it wasn't like that for all fireteams. Climbing over walls, crawling through sand and under barbed wire was tough enough; to do while tending to an injured or dead teammate is brutal. Sheldon finds that he has a natural skill for trekking under harsh conditions and a tendency to lead. He is thankful the DI named him squad leader, but even more thankful his team followed and listened to him—very few people outside of academia have.

Once they moved into the woods for team-building obstacles, he got really annoyed when a member of his larger squad refused to jump and just sort of fell into the squad's waiting arms.

"Damn it, Perez, jump. Just jump we'll catch you! No fear."

During a Core Values session, Sheldon shared how much being in the Corps meant to him. "Like many of you, I didn't know what to expect during these last few months, but being with you, and getting to know you all, makes me truly understand the value of friendship. A bond of brothers-in- arms. I was despite what you see, never a normal child, I went to college at 11-years-old and then got my doctorate in physics last year," that got his squad's attention, "But I joined the Marine Corps because just before my dad died three years ago, he said it would help me with my deficiencies and he is right. I have learned to trust more; I've made friends that I would die for; and I've learned to not be so hung up on the details, and because of the Corps, I feel like a new person. I will strive to take everything I've learned here and be the best Marine I can be, however, I promise you all this, if you see me on the battlefield and need my help, I will be there. No matter the cost. If you are with me, I will do everything in my power to ensure you get back. I finally found my place and where I fit in and it's all thanks to you."

Hiking back to the parade deck after day two, Sheldon looks up at the sky at dusk and sees the early twinkling of evening stars, he isn't thinking about the Big Bang or how many lightyears to Proxima Centauri, he's thanking his stars that for once he listened to his dad and found a place he can call home.

***

Lining up to receive his Eagle, Globe, and Anchor emblem, he never thought there would be an emotional torrent behind it. It was just another formation and another award. But it wasn't, it was his link to two men who led him through two distinct phases of life; his academic adolescence and practical adulthood. His WWII-era grandfather gave him the persistence to tackle academics with an energy that few nine-year-olds had toward school. His Vietnam-era father gave him the practicality to shore up his weaknesses—weaknesses the Corps exposed. Now with him on the verge of joining the two men as United States Marines, he couldn't help the single tear that flowed from his right eye after the little black emblem was placed in his hand and followed by a hearty handshake. All of the literal blood, sweat, and tears this emblem caused meant more to him than any academic award or accolade.