The Silence Hypothesis

Concerns for Sheldon

Chapter Two- Concerns for Sheldon

(Leonard's point of view)

24 hours ago, Sheldon was his normal self, nothing wrong with him at all.
12 hours ago, Sheldon was acting a little terrified and woke up, almost screaming, in the middle of the night.
6 hours ago, Sheldon started to ignore me.
3 hours ago, Sheldon left the apartment without answering me after asking him several times.
1 hour ago, I got the call.
A half hour ago, I had arrived at the hospital.
Just 15 minutes ago, Sheldon woke up to see me and Amy.

And now, he's taking a nap.

After Sheldon had fallen asleep, I got some nerve to ask the doctor what Sheldon's injuries are.
"A lot less than what would have been expected from getting hit by a car. He has a broken right leg, a sprained left arm, a small scar, that you would barely notice above his right eye that is mostly covered up with his current hair style and a small head wound near both of his ears. No internal injuries as far as we're sure, and he has woken up once 15 minutes ago since the accident occurred about a hour ago. Unless we discover any further or internal damage, your friend here should be released by the end of the next week."
"Thanks." I whisper, almost as quietly as Sheldon did when he was awake.

As the hospital gurney moves Sheldon to a different room, Amy and I trail behind him.
"Do you two want to move your friend to the bed or do you want the nurses to?" The doctor asked us.
"Umm, we can move him." I suggested.
The doctor gave us the gesture to go ahead. Amy went around to the other side of the bed to pick up his torso and I stayed to pick up his feet.
With a series of verbal instructions, Amy and I moved Sheldon carefully to the clean, by my standards, hospital bed.
One nurse took away the gurney and another started to hook up machines to Sheldon's napping body.
A third started to prop Sheldon's broken right leg up on a pillow.
The nurse, who had took away the gurney, had returned and was now placing a ice pack on Sheldon's sprained left arm.

All at once, the doctor and nurses left us alone with Sheldon.

Amy pulled up a chair to Sheldon's right side. She immediately started to hold his hand like if she let go, Sheldon would lose grip on reality and possibly die or something.

I sure hope he doesn't.

I text everybody Sheldon's closest to; Sheldon's mom Mary, Sheldon's sister Missy, Penny, Howard, Bernadette, Raj, Stuart; so they know what has happened to Sheldon and to come as soon as they can.

I look over at Sheldon again. Has he always been that pale?
No, I think to myself, I'm just overthinking this. Sheldon's alright. He seemed okay when he woke up for that short time. But, I got this feeling like, I don't know, something happened to Sheldon to make him get hit by a car. He doesn't drive; he was WALKING when he got hit. So that means, that Sheldon didn't even hear the car coming. But with his Vulcan hearing, I'm positive that Sheldon would have heard the slightest leaf move with the October wind. I wonder what happened to Sheldon for those few disastrous hours after he left the apartment without talking to me about where he was going and when he would come back.
I can only wonder.

"Leonard?" I hear a voice say quietly at the doorway.
I look over to see my lovely fiance, yes, still my fiance since over a year ago, Penny, standing in the doorway.
"Hi Penny." I say, just as quietly as her.
"Is Sheldon doing okay?" Penny says quietly as she pulls a chair beside me.
"So far, so good." I somewhat mutter quietly.
We sit there in silence, listening to Sheldon's quiet breathing.

About five minutes later, Howard walks in quietly with Bernadette.
"Hey guys," He whispers, "How's Sheldon doing?"
"He's doing good so far," Penny says with slight smile, "At least, that's what Leonard told me."
"That's good," Howard says and takes a breath that seems like he was holding it in for a while.
"Howie, how about we sit down by Sheldon for a while, okay?"
"Okay," Howard breathed.

"Howard, are you okay?" Penny asked Howard.
"What," Howard seemed distracted, "Yeah, I'm okay."

"Hey guys!" Raj barges in, "Sorry, I forgot."
"Hey Raj, where's Emily?" Bernadette asks.
"She's working." Raj says, "What happened to Sheldon?"
"He got hit by a car," Amy whispers, making everybody; except Sheldon; flinch, because we forgot she was there.
"Oh," Raj whispers, "Is he doing alright?"
"So far, so good." I say quietly.