"The X-Advisors..."
Summary: Like my Immortal Beloved bits in my Buffyverse stories, these are fragments and short bits, some longer...Just to fiddle with ideas, possibly forming longer tales later.
Disclaimer: All is Chuck's...
Part LXVI...
"Give it here!" Penny cried. "Francis, you filthy little...! I'm comin' for you and your girlfriend!"
"Penny..." young Amy sighed. "Yes, Doctor. Mrs. Hofstadter is quite upset with you yet. And she's not at all interested in your good wishes."
"Amy!" Penny came off the bed.
"Penny, wait!" Sheldon urged. "He's trying to upset you...All of us. Let Amy speak to him...While I go down to the lobby. He might be there."
"No, go to Susan's room..." Penny, calming. "We've got to know he hasn't got to her yet."
"Right...Amy." Sheldon eyed the girl who nodded.
"Yeah, yeah...She'll keep me cool. Just hurry!" Penny urged, waving hands.
"And be careful...Sheldon, please!" she cried as he hurried to the door.
"Of course." Nod. "I have these two to live for..." he indicated Amy who beamed quickly at him.
"Doctor? What do you want?" Amy addressed the phone.
"Fine, you've offered your sincere wishes for a speedy recovery. Is this about the deal you offered Dr. Stein, to assist us with Susan?"
"Amy, put me on..." Penny had come over. "I'm ok now."
"All right...Doctor, Mrs. Hofstadter is taking the phone. Do not upset her or we will upset you." Amy, grimly. Here...She offered Penny the phone.
"Dr. Francis? Nice to know you're not dead yet." Penny told the phone.
"Oh, yes...I do want the pleasure myself...What the hell do you want?"
"Penny..." Amy, a bit nervous. "It occurs to me..."
"Just a minute, Doctor. What?" Penny, covering phone.
"Sheldon may not have been the best person to send to check on Susan."
"I know that...But we had no choice and we have to take some risks here." Penny hissed, then returned to phone.
"You know I wouldn't tell you if I knew where Susan was...Let it be a mistake on my part, thanks. So?" she told phone.
"He's lying..." Amy hissed. "He's with Susan now..." anxiously. "Sheldon's in danger..."
"Excuse me." Penny covered phone. "You two told me not to panic, now stop, Amy!" she hissed.
"Yeah, doc...I have angry friends here who wanted to tell me to tell you what they plan to do to you. Glad you understand, you son of a bitch f-ing female Hitler's helper. You want to meet, all of us? Not a chance. But I'll meet with you, for sure."
"No..." Amy waved hands.
"Amy. My friend is upset, thinks a fine man like you can't be trusted." Penny told the phone. "Dr. Stein, too? Ok by me. Though I wouldn't count on past friendship. In fact, he has his old pal back with him now...Yes, you, you son of a bitch. Sorry, I'm not that imaginative in insults, I go for tried and true. I wonder how your younger self will view becoming a mass murderer just because life handed you a raw deal. Maybe we should include Dr. Francis the younger in our party, eh? What do you think? I hope he would be horrified but I have my doubts, Doctor, knowing you as I do now. You wanna come by my room? Oh? No need, I'm well enough. Ok...A neutered place. Neutral, right. Ok..." she turned to Amy.
"Something to write this down...Quick!"
Amy pulling out notebook and assortment of pens in various styles and colors from her small purse.
Really? Penny eyed the assorted materials...Finally taking good ole reliable ballpoint blue.
"Ok, shoot...And believe me, I wish I could...Yeah, ok..." she wrote a bit on Amy's open notebook, Amy peering over. "No, I've no idea but Dr. Stein should. Ok...Really? That long? Why not tonight? Oh, that's really thoughtful of you, you pint-sized...Thanks...Pol Pot...Hitler was getting redunded...dant... Say is Sheldon there yet? Maybe we did, my posse is very resourceful. Amy?!" as a frantic young Amy grabbed at her arm.
"Call hospital security!" she cried.
"It's ok, he thinks we're looking for him..." Penny hissed, covering again. "Just be cool, lil' bestie. I got this."
Sheldon entering carefully at the door...
"I didn't go in but..." Oomphf...As young Amy lept at him.
"Guys!" Penny, frustrated, again covering phone. "Glad yer not dead, Cooper. Calm your lil' girl down."
"You're all right?" young Amy, breathlessly. "He wasn't there?" No...Sheldon shook head.
"Ok, Dr. Francis...Thursday night at eight, 'Dirty Martin's'? Great. See ya there. But how's about telling me if you found Susan? Or where you are right now, doc? I mean if you would like 'breed trust', right? Maybe we are..." she paused. "Or maybe I just wanna talk... Ok, doc. See ya Thursday. Eight o'clock. Gotcha. Bye." She hung up.
"He wants to meet at 'Dirty Martin's'?" Sheldon grimaced. "I avoided that place all my time here at Austin." Sheldon sighed.
"It's some kinda burger joint?" Penny eyed him.
"Very well frequented by the student population..." Amy noted.
"You're sure Francis wasn't in the room or near...?" Penny asked.
"I looked through the door window, saw no one, quizzed three nurses all on evening and night shift. No one's visited Susan."
"That they know of..." Penny noted.
"True but he didn't call from there." He eyed her.
"You didn't have 'George' pay a call and check her out?" Penny asked.
"I didn't want to get her suspicious..."
"Probably right..." she nodded. "Hopefully she doesn't know we're up here."
"You think Francis is telling the truth?" he eyed her. "He doesn't know where she is?"
"I think he hasn't contacted her yet." Penny shrugged. "He may know she's in here."
"What does he want to meet about?" Amy asked. "His proposal for an alliance? That sounds..."
"Yeah...But he may mean it." Penny moved back to her bed and got in.
"You look exhausted, Penny." Sheldon shook head.
"Yeah, a bit in...But I'll be up for Thursday. Is it a good burger place?"
"That's rather an oxymoron in my book, missie." Sheldon noted. "From the nutritional point of view I mean. I do have nothing against a good burger now and then tastewise apart from the high cholesterol, miserable bowel performance, and arterial fat clogging."
"I've heard students recommending it..." Amy, slight sigh.
I was all set to have my beau take me the first night we could manage...But now the favorite romantic rendezvous spot on campus must be shunned by us like the plague for the contamination it bears no less than the potential danger if Dr. Francis keeps watch there.
"It's an open-air picnicy sort of place if I remember." Sheldon frowned. "I hate open air picnicy sorts of places."
"But with plenty of the student body around it should be fairly safe." Penny noted.
"Perhaps..." he agreed. "But you and Dr. Stein mustn't go alone."
"He'll be expecting a trap, Sheldon. And too many of us there will just mean we'll be watching out for each other not watching him and for Susan."
"You think she'll go?" he stared.
"No...But if she's lying. We shouldn't risk you, the Amys, or your counterpart."
"You mean, leaving, Kripke?" Sheldon eyed her.
"The one of us he knows least...At least he can report back to you guys."
"That's not the worst idea, Sheldon." Amy noted.
"No...But I don't like you going Penny." He shook head. "You're still not well. And given your anger, you could have a massive coronary or stroke right then and there. Or go to jail for murdering an elderly man."
"I won't..." she smiled at him. "I promised you I wouldn't kick the bucket till I see this world's Leonard and the rest of you all safe and happy. Including Penny 2.0. And I want Francis alive for now."
"Hmmn..." Sheldon pondered, frowning. "I hate to say I find no flaw in your logic. Disturbing."
"How was sis?" Penny smiled.
"The bitch from Hell, I mean." She noted. "See, I'm gettin' the role down and moving into my 'calm' space."
"You don't have a 'calm' space." Sheldon frowned.
"Hey. I paid good money of my dad's to achieve that at all sorts of yoga and zen stuff classes...Sorta." She frowned. "How was she?"
"She seemed to be all right...She was watching television. She seemed a bit...Well, lonely."
"Poor thing. We'll have to get down there and comfort her asap." Penny noted. "Only sorry I can't do it with a blow torch or flame-thrower. Like in that movie you guys had on once about the space alien who took over people and was gonna run for President?"
"That must've been one of Leonard's strange pleasures... 'The Hidden'?"
"Yeah, that was it. If only I could set her on fire, then kill the thing inside. See, I'm bein' compassionate, suggestin' there might be a hideous creature possessing her and she might already be dead anyway." Beatific smile to Sheldon. "That's compassionate, right?"
Uh...He eyed Amy.
"Sure...One of those space creatures like Spock came down, wanted to put you in their zoo or something..." she nodded.
"Spock? A zoo?" he sputtered a bit. Amy's urgent glance urging him to silence...
The poor girl's trying to deal.
"So, it took over Susan, ate her brain or something, and went after you." She eyed them.
"Well, it's the only other explanation for her outside her being an utter human monster, right?"
Well...Amy sighed, eyeing Sheldon. I hate to admit there's a very valid other explanation given it says something potentially horrible about me and my counterpart.
But we haven't destroyed a universe...Yet...To win Sheldon.
Just a sisterhood...Sigh.
I really gotta call Charlotte.
The phone rang...
"Yo...Doc. Oh, sorry, Gran...Dr. Fowler-Horowitz, right." Penny nodded. "Oh, right...Just kidding...Thanks, Gran Mag."
Amy nodding confidently to Sheldon...She's in. Nervous look to Penny.
"You found them at lunch? Oh, great. Amy here will be so..."
"Oh...Thank God!" Amy, fervently. "I love you, Gran! Oh, my Sheldon is safe! Both of them!" she hugged herself, then a startled Sheldon.
"So..." as she pulled away, arch look, Penny staring from bed. "My counterpart has been physical with you." Shrewd tone. "You didn't flinch at all." Coy smile.
"Amy!" Penny, firmly. "Your Gran is on the phone! Get hold of yourself!"
"Sorry."
Later...She mouthed to Sheldon...Well, much later. But I know it will happen, now. Grin.
He, blinking...
"Ok, so everyone's ok there and you're on your way..." Penny nodded to phone, holding hand up for silence.
"We've got news for you too."
...
"Francis? You seem preoccupied. Is anything wrong?" Xavier the younger asked as he, Stein, and Kripke sat in the Academic Lounge. Dr. Stein having invited his guests to lunch, a proposal eagerly accepted by Dr. Francis and somewhat nonplusedly by Barry Kripke.
Who, yet...So long as he was to play the role of the sought-after wunderkid...Was only too happy to play it to the hilt.
While pumping Dr. Francis for anything that might shake their belief that he was as he claimed.
"So, Dwr. Fwrancis...? With wregawrds to youwr plasma physics depawrtment. Would my considewring an offewr include pewrhaps...A pawrking space, specifically labeled for youwrs twruly?"
"If that would make you happy, Barry." Xavier nodded. "And if it makes any difference in the scales, even Francis must admit the food in our lounge is far superior."
"It was...Last time I stopped by." Stein agreed. "But I've heard some rumors of decline since Jim Bates left."
"Bates? Not famiiawr to me. Was he in plasma?"
"Only when he cooked it. He was our sous chef, a great one." Xavier grinned. "But if anyone could make cooking both science and art...That was Jim."
"Wait...Yes...The one who cooked you that dinner with Marianne Parwell in '78." Kripke noted.
"Ah...Someone's been reading your memoirs, Francis." Xavier beamed. "That was just before you abandoned us for Texas. How is Marianne?"
"Still married. Still head of the French department at Boston University." Stein nodded. "Still..."
"Really..." Kripke nodded. Ah, if only cell phones were fully in vogue now I could look her up in a second. Hafta wait and use Cooper's at home.
"She was a beauty." Xavier smiled. "And incredibly versatile in more than academia."
"She was indeed..." Stein nodded. "But a thoroughly sweet lady, though a bit unhappy in her marriage when I knew her."
"So I've wread. Multiple times...With enowrmous satisfaction." Barry noted
"I was a young and headstrong fellow then, just learning that women could be as fascinating as physics in their ways." Stein smiled. "Before then, as Xavier can tell you, I was rather aloof to their charms."
"Putting it mildly." Xavier chuckled. "Margaret and I could never drag you out on a date. Still, she always said you'd be a killer with the ladies once you started. And you certainly made up for lost time, Francis, once you got started."
"I was a troubled soul then...But I can't say I regretted a moment. Nor, I hope did most of the ladies I knew then." Stein reflected, slight smile. "But I've settled down quite a bit since Susan and I came to Texas."
"Don't you believe it, Kripke." Xavier grinned. "He's a bit more careful not to offend Susan's sensibilities but the old fox still raids the henhouse, with the hens' eager acquiescence, of course."
"Suwre. But you were dating Dr. Fowler-Howrowitz then?" Barry asked Xavier whose face clouded just a bit.
"Oh, no...Though Maggie would have been a wonder to any man clever enough to land her, she was strictly Leonard Horowitz's lady, the lucky dog. No, I meant my own Margaret...My late wife."
"Oh, sowrry."
"No, it's been a good while..." Xavier sighed. "She was the joy of my life though, a good friend to us both. And largely responsible for pulling Francis Stein out of his shell."
"That she was..." Francis nodding.
"It's a hawrd thing, to lose someone like that. Someone muwrdewred the woman I loved, for no wreason at all." Kripke, matter-of-factly.
"What?" Xavier stared. "My God, man...I'm so sorry." Genuine shock and sorrow in tone. "Was this recent?"
"Oh, yes...Not long befowre I can hewre." Kripke nodded. Stein eyeing him. "A maniac and hewr pawrtnewr muwrdewred hewr, in cold blood. She nevewr even knew what hit hewr."
"I can't say how sorry I am..." Xavier shook head. "You were together long?"
"She didn't love me." Kripke shrugged. "But I adowred hewr. A woman who would have changed my life. But these things happen."
"Is that why you're considering coming out here? To get away?" Xavier asked, sympathetically.
"In a way...Though I mean to see those who killed Lesley pay." Kripke, no trace of lisp. "I mean to see them suffer, even if that's a bit unfair, in the cosmic scheme since, far as I know, she didn't. But they will." Grim tone. Stein eyeing him.
"I can understand, though I lost my Margaret to cancer. Are you working with the police?" Xavier asked.
"No, they've not taken up the case...You know how it is, one mowre cowrpse, one mowre muwrdewr they can't bothewr with. I'm doing my own investigation, with fwriends." Calmly.
"They've not taken up the case? How is that possible?" Xavier stared.
"As I say, one mowre muwrdewr they can't bothewred with. Time's a bitch, you know."
"Barry." Stein, carefully.
"Sorry...Yeah, Dr. Stein is wright. I get too wowrked up on this." Kripke nodded, faint smile. "Just wanted to let you know I undewrstand youwr feelings, Doctowr and even shawre them in a way. To those we've lost." He raised a glass.
"Indeed." Xavier agreed, raising his.
...