Sheldon Swifties LXIX: "Dark Bangs…"

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…

Note: In an AU, Amy went to France and her winsomely beautiful, despite adopting the cardigan as her trademark, and tragic but evil sister Charlotte followed/haunted/stalked and currently torments Sheldon (and anyone close to him) from Austin to Pasadena, forcing him to face a grim sacrifice to save his friends… [To learn more about Charlotte Magdalena Fowler, you might read my "Gran Mag" tale].

"Once upon a time, in a far-off, rather beautiful, if forbidding to some, place called Maine, there were two sister princesses, so beautiful only a few could see their beauty for it was too overwhelming for most to bear. Indeed, even their rather limited parents saw them as unattractive and not worthy to grace their social status in life as proper ornaments to their wealth and position so that the two princesses had been sent regularly off to their grandmother's castle in Maine, far from their great and elegant castle in the fabled and magical city of New York. But for the princesses, despite their pain over their parents' rejection, this was all to their joy, for in far-off Maine was the one person who truly loved both and could see their full beauty, their grandmother, Margaret.

Here, in Maine, for months at a time, the princesses could feel loved and appreciated and were instructed in all manner of learning and craft by their great and powerful gran, younger cousin to the famed if maligned Margaret of Hamilton, truly good witch of Hollywood nee the MidWest. And they profited mightily by her teachings and example, dreaming of following in her noble and Nobel-winning footsteps. But even here, in this place of love and security, tragedy stalked the sisters, for the elder Charlotte suffered woefully from an enchantment which while never touching her true beauty increasingly deformed her outward appearance till none but her sister and grandmother could see the pure soul's beauty within the hideous hulk before them. Indeed, so horrified were the parents that they had decided Princess Charlotte must depart from all possibility of being seen amongst their elite and elegant social set and be exiled…And after some searching they found their perfect place of exile, a boarding school in the remotest corner of a distant province, Arizona, where she would be hid from all eyes until, in their hearts they hoped, her expected soon death. Amy, against all her pleas, they deemed capable of possibly being improved to suit the family circle and resolved to send her to an even more distant land, France, where they hoped, her unfortunate awkwardness and lack of elegance and her appearance, plain in their restricted vision, would be dealt with. And so, over all the pleas of the princesses and their gran for them not to be separated, they were sundered. But, before their parting, they were allowed a last trip to Maine, in the princesses' favored way…The only way, given most airlines would refuse Charlotte on supposed medical grounds, despite Amy's strident insistence that such were in fact, groundless…By train.

And there, on that train to Maine, they encountered the vision that would change their lives forever…That of a magical, elfin boy, who also loved trains and adored his grandmother, the one person who truly, he felt, understood him. A boy who could, guided by his grandmother Meemaw's sight, see the true beauty of both sisters, in particular, poor, desperate Charlotte…Whose pure soul was tormented by the thought that her condition was the cause of the sisters' parting and poor Amy's exile to far-off France, a place from which it seemed likely she would never be able to return, at least before Charlotte's anticipated demise…"

"Are you an angel?" cocked head stare. "My Meemaw says you must be an angel…And she never lies. Are you?"

Amy, moving from her seat to stand ready to protect her older sister from what might be another cruel teasing, stared. Both sisters stared…

"I'm…Charlotte…" Charlotte gasped out, trying to avert her eyes, fearful of what disdain or disgust she might see in the beautiful creature before her.

"I'm Sheldon Cooper. Hello. Are you?"

"She's my sister. And yes." Amy nodded.

"Then you're an angel, too?" Sheldon eyed her. "It's a pleasure, ladies." He noted, respectful slight bow.

"Shelly…" a call from the lady in his coach lounge. "We'll be getting off in a minute. Come and help me with the bags."

"Yes, Meemaw. I have to go." He turned back to the sisters, both eyeing him, stunned. "I never met angels before, thank you. I'll read up about you…Why are you crying?" he eyed Charlotte, tears trickling down her enlarged cheeks. "Please, don't cry." He paused. "If I kiss you will that make you feel better? Meemaw always kisses me to make me feel better."

"Yes…" Charlotte gasped. Staring up at him as he gently touched lips to her lowering, huge forehead tumor.

"Sheldon…" Amy called as he turned to go. "That's your name? Sheldon Cooper?"

"Uh-huh…" nod as he hurried off, his Meemaw calling…She with bags in hand as the train pulled to a stop, Sheldon grabbing two, much too heavy for him.

"I'll take that…" Amy called, hurrying over.

"Why, thank you, sweetheart." Meemaw smiled. "Shelly? Thank the nice girl."

"Thank you, Miss." He gravely nodded. "You're a very nice angel."

Carrying one bag to the door behind the two, Amy looked back to Charlotte who waved...And nodded.

"So we're from New York and Maine and from your accents you're from…" she directed the question to Meemaw.

"Texas, child…Just giving Shelly here a nice little trip on the train before he starts college there."

"College?" Amy blinked.

"I'm a genius. They let geniuses in early." Sheldon noted.

"Shelly…Pride…?" Meemaw cautioned.

"Goeth before a fall…But that's why I'm going, Meemaw. And she did ask…"

"Yes, I did. You're…That's…Wonderful." Amy noted. "I'm going to high school in France soon."

"France is where Marie Curie worked." Sheldon nodded. "Are you interested in physics?"

"Neurophysiology and neurobiology." Amy replied. "We both are."

"Those are ok, for the littler sciences." Sheldon noted.

"We have to go now, honey. Kiss that sweet girl for us." Meemaw patted her, giving a quick kiss on the cheek. "Come on, Shelly."

"Bye." Sheldon, gravely. "Wish you and your sister were going to Austin." He turned to descend the stairs.

Yeah…Both sisters stared after him. Watching him walking away as the train started.

Name, name…Amy came out of her trance with a start. I didn't tell him my name! She ran to the car's platform….

Too late, the boy and his grandmother were gone.

"Sheldon! I'm Amy!" she cried to the wind…

…..

"It's all settled, Amy. When you come back from France, you'll go find Sheldon and marry him for us. He needs us." Charlotte noted, eyeing the image of Sheldon at his high-school graduation…Collapsed on the gym floor, guffawing students about him "Genius Can't Take It" a leering high school paper headline. Various clippings from newspaper and magazine articles on the floor about them or their computer screen, most featuring pictures of a very young Sheldon receiving one prize or another… "Austin takes on supergenius..." one UAustin paper's headline proclaimed.

"That student reporter and his editor are jerks." Charlotte noted.

"They're just jealous." Amy shrugged. "Though the Scientific American article profiling him with ten other 'young geniuses' did say he was a bit awkward in social situations. Gran says it's probably because he's so young and hangs around with older folks so much, like us."

"He needs us." Charlotte nodded. "I knew he did. You and he will have such smart, beautiful babies, Amy."

"He'll have forgotten me when I get back…" Amy sighed. "He'll be married to some beautiful physicist like that other profiled kid, Elizabeth Plimpton, or another scientist, like Carl Sagan married Lynn Margulis, only he won't leave her when she gets older." Downcast look… "I could never get him to love me…"

"That's not the way a Fowler talks. Amy…" Charlotte sternly. "Our golden boy needs us. He needs his angels to protect him from this awful world. I can't, so you have to. They'll teach you a lot of things in France. Just do what Gran did to get Grandpa Leonard. He'll come round."

"I can't kidnap Sheldon…"

"She didn't 'kidnap' Grandpa…She was treating him and saw he needed her so she took matters into her own hands to save him. That's the Fowler way." Charlotte, proudly. "You just show him you love him, don't take no for an answer, do whatever it takes, and he'll understand."

"You think…?" Amy stared.

"You have to…For him…And for me. It's my last wish so you have to." Charlotte nodded solemnly.

"You not gonna die, Charley." Amy, firmly. "Gran won't let that happen."

"Dad's sending me to that place." Charlotte, shaking head. "Gran won't be able to stop him. Mom won't even try. She hates me too."

"She's just desperate to keep Dad's and her set's approval." Amy shrugged. "Gran always said she wasn't very strong, characterwise. You hafta allow for that."

"I try…" Charlotte sighed. "But I see her look at me each time we come back and I know…She wants me gone. If it weren't for you and Gran, Am…I'd want to be dead." Mournful stare. "I will be dead, soon enough. And you have to find Sheldon and…"

"I won't let you die, Charley. We'll find Sheldon, together, but you gotta promise not to die."

"That's not rational, Am. My prognosis…"

"Screw your prognosis…" Amy, firmly. "They'll find a way to help you. Or I will. I won't abandon you, Charley."

"Just promise me you'll look after Sheldon for me." Charlotte sighed. "After you get back from France, I mean…He needs us. He faints too easily and there are classic signs of OCD."

"I said I wouldn't go and I meant it…I tole you, I'm staying with you."

"They won't let you." Charlotte sighed.

"I don't care what Father says. I have money, I'll go with you. We'll run away, find Sheldon."

"I can't walk far, Am…And Father will see you go. Even Gran won't want you to stay with me, she thinks France will get you away from Mom and that New York crowd."

"If they send me away, I'll come back…"

"That'd cost a fortune…" shake of head.

"I have six hundred dollars in my rescue jar. That'll be enough to come home. Don't worry…" Amy nodded confidently. "I'll get back and we'll get Sheldon…Together. I promise. If you stay alive, you'll see Sheldon again."

"Then he'd have to choose one of us…It'd be you. So, what's the point?" Charlotte, wan smile.

"That's not the way a Fowler talks…" Amy eyed her. "I challenge you…It's gonna be one of us but it's up to you, if you want to chance it."

"Amy…" frown, shaking of huge head. "Look at me. The growths are larger every day. Mr. Fuggles on my shoulder's nearly as big as my head now. I'm the Elephant Girl…I'd be the Elephant Woman. What 'chance'…?"

"That's up to you, sis." Hard stare. "Fowlers make their own 'chances'."

"So, he's all mine if I live…Somehow?" appraising stare.

"Never said that, Charley." Amy, shrewd smile.