The Uncomplicated/Uncomfortable Principle (Big Bang Fanfic)

Chapter six

  (¯*´¯'*•.¸¸.WHOOSH! *´¯'*•.¸¸.•´¯)

Raj had shown Leonard the aerial news footage of a huge hole in a road nearby. Although the news guys couldn’t confirm it was a quake, Leonard drives to the scene determined it is. Raj feels pretty bad about the trick he played on Sheldon.

They can’t get very far in Leonard’s car – the traffic is too heavy – so they park up and rush to the scene featured on the news. A large crowd is gathered, held back by a police cordon, with red plastic barriers erected to block any entrance. It’s tough to see anything: most people are taller than Leonard and Howard, but everyone spots the tall, rumbling crane above, straining as its pulleys whir, bright orange straps attached to its enormous arm, lifting something.

“What can you see, Raj?” Leonard pleads.

Raj peers over the heads of the crowd, his gaze following the line of straps on the end of the crane’s giant fishing pole, running down into the abyss in the road. Something emerges… Raj feels an icy trickle of horror run through his veins. It’s Penny’s car. Now they can all see it as the crane’s pulleys hoist it into the air. The crowd gasps.

“Oh my god!” Leonard says.

“Whoa!” says Howard, and pushes through the crowd, dragging Leonard with him. Raj follows, eying the beat up Volkswagon, tilting slightly as the crane lifts it away from the hole. Raj peers through the car’s windows.

“The car’s empty, Leonard.”

“Yeah, but they might be in the hole!”

Howard makes a tutting sound. He pulls his MIT Engineer’s ID and waves it around before pushing himself to the front announcing, “Engineer coming through. Make way, people!” Raj and Leonard fall in behind him.

When they reach the barriers, Raj hears Howard gasp at the huge hole in the road. “Do you know what that is, Leonard?”

Leonard peers through his glasses. “Uh-huh.”

A female cop is ordering people to stand back ahead of them when she notices the three standing there. “Are you one of the rescue guys?” she says, pointing at Leonard’s safety outfit. Leonard looks behind him, not realizing she is talking to him.

“Yeah he is,” Howard says, confident. “He’s an expert seismologist from Caltech and I’m a Caltech engineer.” Howard flashes his Caltech ID. “We were just checking the perimeter, in case the crowd needs to be forced back further.”

The policewoman nods, letting Leonard and Howard through. “Not you,” she says to Raj, “unless you have ID too.”

Raj says nothing to the woman. His ID says he is an astrophysicist, and he wishes he’d drunk some alcohol. He shakes his head and retreats. 

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Quiz question:

Which member of the BBT cast is a real scientist?