Chapter 64 - Finally Home

That morning, Amy kept looking at Sheldon as he ate his breakfast, he was purposely avoiding her again today and every time they did talk she saw those ticks on his face, like he was hiding something. It was getting on her nerves, Sheldon was so obviously hiding something and Amy wanted to know what, because she was now sort of dependent on him since she had given her apartment away, and she seriously wondered if his ticks were because he now regretted his decision to let her move in. "Sheldon what is going on?"

"Going on! Nothing is going on, Amy." Sheldon couldn't stop the ticks from coming out and he watched as Amy's face turned into a frown.

"Sheldon Lee Cooper, your face is like a neon sign, telling the world you are lying, so what is this secret you are trying to hide?" Amy said sternly.

Amy always acted like his mother, when she was mad at him, and Sheldon felt he had no choice but to tell her everything. "Amy the police said I shouldn't say anything about Leonard and Penny."

"Leonard and Penny? What did the police want with Leonard and Penny?" Amy was confused.

"See what I mean, now you know the police were asking questions about Leonard and Penny and they told me not to tell anyone." Sheldon whined.

"What kind of questions and why didn't they want to tell anyone?" Amy was now even more confused and concerned, what would the police want with Leonard and Penny, they hadn't even been in town for months.

Sheldon sighed in defeat. "They wanted to know who Leonard worked with and where he was during the CheeseCake Factory thing with Penny. They also wanted to know more about Leonard and Penny being married, especially after they found out she worked at the CheeseCake factory." Sheldon summed up for her.

Amy stared at him, as a thought came to mind, and she walked over to sit by Sheldon. "Sheldon can you tell me exactly what they asked and what you told them."

Sheldon nodded, "Of Course." He then began to tell her word for word about his interview, while Amy listened carefully.

-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-

"Yes Howard that is what he told me." Amy was still talking to Howard on the phone, they had been talking for over a half hour now.

"Leonard and Penny will be back later today, after dinner. Bernie and I dropped their car off at the airport for them this morning. You are sure the police are going to come there to talk to Leonard, tonight?" Howard asked.

"Sheldon said the detective said they were taking Leonard to the police station to talk to him, tonight, Penny too." Amy explained. "Any yeah, they said they would pick them up here."

Howard's mind was racing, "Okay Amy thanks. Can I ask one more favor? Can you let me know when they arrive?"

"Sure Howard, no problem…Howard are Leonard and Penny in trouble?" Amy wondered what was happening with her friends.

Howard didn't know how to respond, so he just was honest. "I don't know Amy, I really don't, but I am going to find out."

"Okay thanks Howard. I will send you a text when they get here."

"By Amy. Thanks." Howard hit end on his phone then stood there staring at it, trying to think.

Major Lee and Dr Hogan had heard Howard's side of the conversation and were now looking at him as Howard still just stared at his phone wondering what to do next. He didn't have to wait long as Steve Lee started to talk, "Howard we need to contact General Turner immediately."

Howard looked at Steve and nodded, then turned to grab the secure land line to General Turner's office.

-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-

Penny and Leonard walked out of the tunnel from the airplane and into the terminal of Los Angeles airport (LAX), Penny still trying to wipe the wet spot off Leonard's shirt, where she had fallen asleep on him during the last leg of their trip and drooled on him. She was so embarrassed and Leonard wasn't making things better, as he kidded her about needing a bib for her, the next time they traveled by air. They quickly got to baggage claim and their bags were the first to come out on the conveyer belt, so it wasn't over a half hour before they were in their car and leaving the parking area of LAX to go home.

It was around the same time as Penny and Leonard were picking up their luggage, when the police arrived at Sheldon and Amy's apartment, Sheldon immediately allowing them in to wait. Amy went back to her room, as soon as they arrived, and sent the text she promised to Howard as quickly as she could, receiving a 'THANK YOU AMY' almost immediately afterwards. Amy then put on a disinterested look and joined her boyfriend and the police in the living room, mostly to keep Sheldon calm, so he didn't tell the police he had told her everything he knew.

Detective Kripke sat and took the drink Dr Cooper offered, he expected it would take Dr Hofstadter and his wife another hour to get home, so he had some time to relax. He had brought two uniformed officers with him, to intimidate the Hofstadter's and if necessary subdue them, because he was determined that they were coming to the police station tonight, if they liked it or not. Kripke had everything planned, as soon as he got them there, he would separate them and then threaten each of them that he would lock up the other if they didn't talk. Kripke was confident his plan would work, because he knew that people in love, like newlyweds, would do anything to protect each other.

The hour drug by, and Kripke noticed how bored the uniform officers got, both of them standing in the corner talking quietly while taking occasional looks at him while they talked. Dr Cooper and his girlfriend had been very quiet the whole time too, every time Kripke tried to start a conversation with them, Cooper's girlfriend would respond with a one word answer ending any conversation right then. It was with relief, when he finally heard someone outside the door, walking on the landing from coming up the stairs, and then he even smiled when he heard the knock on the door, Dr Cooper's prediction that they would tell him that they were home, seeming to come true.

However Detective Kripke was not prepared for who he saw when he opened the door, especially when the identification card and badge of Special Agent Robert Westland was put in front of his face. "What is the FBI doing here." Kripke weakly asked as Agent Westland and two huge men walked into the apartment. Kripke could see the two uniformed officers eyes go wide at Westland's two companions.

One of Westland's companions closed the door behind them before Westland spoke, but he did not speak to Kripke. "Dr Fowler, would you please go to your room and take you boyfriend with you. I'll let you know when we are done here."

Amy nodded and grabbed Sheldon's arm before he could protest, practically dragging him to her room in the back of the apartment. Then as Westland heard her door shut he turned to Kripke, his face deadly serious. "Officer Kripke, per the Patriot Act, you and your two associates are under arrest."

Before Kripke could protest or the uniform officers could say a thing, the two large men, with Westland, had pulled out submachine guns from under their jackets, laser beams from the sighting systems now producing a dot on each uniformed officer's chest. Kripke looked at Westland in shock, only to see Westland had a gun in his hand too, Kripke swallowed and looked back up into Westland's eyes, the look the FBI agent gave him sent a shiver down his spine.

Westland looked at Kripke and then at the uniformed officers until all of them were looking directly at him. "You three are being detained under the Patriot Act. You will slowly but your hands up and behind your heads, so that you can be disarmed and cuffed. Any other action will be considered armed resistance and deadly force is authorized. Do you understand?" Three heads nodded and three sets of hands slowly went up and to the back of their heads. It only took a minute to disarm, search and handcuff the three police officers, then before Westland and his associates walked out the door, with their three prisoners, he went to the bedroom door and knocked.

Amy opened the door to the FBI agent who now didn't look as serous as he did before. "Dr Fowler we are done now. The Federal Government would like to thank you for your help." Westland turned and left, Amy and Sheldon hearing the apartment door close shortly afterwards.

Sheldon turned to Amy, "Amy what did you do?"

Amy just smiled, "My patriotic duty of course." She then headed to the kitchen, she really needed a soothing tea after all this.

Leonard, Penny and Howard all leaned against Leonard's car watching the FBI agents, they met earlier, load three men into one of the huge black SUVs they had brought with them. Even though it was now dark, the parking lot lights had shown them that two of those men where uniformed police officers, so they guessed the third was the detective they were told about. The man that identified himself as Agent Westland was now walking up to them, his earlier serious demeanor now almost completely gone as a small smile formed on his lips. "We'll take them back to our headquarters and scare the shit out of them. Believe me, after we are done, they will never want to hear about or go near you Dr Hofstadter or you Mrs. Hofstadter."

"The FBI does that for the military?" Leonard asked in surprise.

Westland chuckled, "No Dr Hofstadter, the FBI doesn't, but the CIA does." he then produced his real credentials to the three, watching their eyes go wide.

"I thought….." Howard didn't finish the sentence before CIA Agent Tom Knight answered.

"We evoked the Patriot Act in this case, so that gives the CIA some authority domestically and it does not give them a right to a lawyer. When we tell them about how nice the conditions at Guantanamo Bay are and that they interfered with a Homeland Security terrorist case, I think they will quickly come around, but if they don't, we can always send them there." Knight explained.

"Wow." Penny said for them all.

Knight smiled and nodded, "Well I hope your night hasn't been completely ruined and here is my card if you have a need for us again. Your General must have a lot of pull or you guys must be really into something, my boss said to assist you all as much as we can." Knight then shook hands with them all and went back to one of the SUVs and left.

Howard, Leonard and Penny just stood outside looking at each other, neither of them knowing what to say. Finally Howard smiled and spoke to Leonard, "I guess we don't really have to worry about the police after all."

Leonard just shook his head, "Who would have thought." Penny then grabbed his arm and put her head on his shoulder. Leonard could tell she was concerned about what just happened, but he knew she would be okay after a good nights sleep. "Howard would you like to come up for a drink?"

Howard chuckled, "Well since my ride just drove off with three handcuffed cops, I guess I will need a place to wait for Bernie to pick me up." Howard then grabbed a couple of Leonard and Penny's bags and followed them up to the apartment.

Epilogue

Tin Man slowly walked to the Improvised Explosive Device, like many other bomb disposal men had done before in the Middle East. The terrorist sniper watched from a distance as the American thing walked to the trap they had set up. The sniper knew where to shoot, he had been trained to know where the Americans body armor was weakest, so as the man got in range, he put the crosshairs of his Dragunov sniper rifle scope on the place of the suited soldier's body that should be the weakest. Time slowed down as the target came in range, the sniper slowly squeezing the trigger, until the rifle fired and the bullet raced to the target.

Tin Man felt the bullet hit, it was a surprise to him, though there was no pain, and he immediately stopped in his tracks, but due to his training he quickly started to move again as he rapidly assessed his situation. He turned to the side the bullet hit and the new sensors in his suit triangulated the direction the bullet came from, placing a dot on his helmets heads up display. He then commanded on his infra-red system making the sniper's hot rifle barrel pop up on his display, right in front of his eyes. Tin Man now had a target.

TARGETING The eyepiece crosshairs came alive.

LASER QUICK CHARGE

COUNTDOWN The computer responded to Tin Man.

THREE ABORT

Tin Man concentrated on the now visible crosshairs.

TWO ABORT

The targeting dot appeared on the target, just were the crosshairs were, but Tin Man was too far to see it.

ONE ABORT

READY

"Fire" The command given without hesitation. In less than a second the beam from the laser reached the sniper, slicing through him and stopping against the brick back wall of the building. Tin Man didn't see the man get hit, but he did see the rifle fall from the window in the building and hit the street below. Tin Man then commanded the transfer of the target's coordinates to a squad of soldiers that moved up the far side of the street to investigate the kill.

The terrorist video camera man kept taking video, trying to overcome the terror inside him from what he just saw. He was suppose to take video of the American's death in the trap, so they could post it as propaganda on the internet, but something was seriously wrong. He had seen the American get hit, but nothing happened, instead the American had killed their sniper, his leaders had to see this video. He was now still taking video of the American when he noticed the helmet started rotating around, then slowing as it turned his way, suddenly he realized the helmet was looking directly at him, how?

Tin Man knew the terrorists liked to set up video traps so he searched the area in the infra-red mode looking in case he could see something and sometimes you got lucky. Tin Man just made out the man with the camera, he had found another target and now acted faster, the target being closer, the energy needed to terminate, less.

TARGETING then immediately

LASER IMMEDIATE FIRE it was a new lower power firing sequence put into the suit

LASER PREPARING TO FIRE ABORT The computer immediately responded.

The targeting dot appeared on the target, just as the crosshairs found the target too, but Tin Man was acting quickly now and had no time to use the dot.

READY

"Fire" The target never had a chance to move.

The terrorist never realized what killed him, one second he was wondering why the American was looking his way, the next a laser beam sliced through the video camera lens, the camera, his eye, then his brain, traveling through his skull to hit his armed partner in the chest, who was there to protect the camera man, but now found himself mortally wounded. The second man slid down to the floor, his artery from his heart cut in two and bleeding into his chest cavity, he was feeling weaker by the moment. He saw his dead comrade before him and as his brain started to slip into unconsciousness, his last thoughts being, "Where did that come from?"

In an underground facility near Nellis AFB, General Turner watched the monitor at what just happened, slowly nodding his head, he was greatly impressed and turned to the two Lieutenant Colonels standing by his side, nodding to each. "Good job, gentlemen, the enemy should think twice before they pull a stunt like that again."

Lieutenant Colonel Wolowitz nodded back. "Thank you sir. The suit seemed to work nominally, but we will have to check the post deployment data to be sure."

"Sir, can I speak to the operator." Lieutenant Colonel Hofstadter requested.

Turned nodded again, "Major can you connect us."

"Yes Sir." was the Majors quick response, then. "You're on sir."

"Parsons, how was the laser response. Was the new firing option effective." Leonard asked.

"Yes sir, it was perfect, it responded as fast as I could command, no delay at all." Lieutenant Commander Parson's responded, now on detached detail from the SEALs to the Tin Man project.

"Thank you Commander. Good job." Turner then added.

"Thank you sir, Tin Man out." Parsons responded.

Turner then turned to Howard and Leonard, "Well gentlemen, I would say that was an unqualified success, both of you did a fine job. We don't really need anything more from you now and I heard you brought your wives with you to Las Vegas." Turner gave them one of his rare smiles.

Howard and Leonard both smiled and brought up salutes, "Yes Sir." they both said in unison and as soon as Turner returned their salute, they about faced and quickly made for the command post door.

-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-TIN MAN-

It had been just over a year since Leonard and Penny returned home, and now the girls were returning to their rooms from spending the afternoon at the pool at their Las Vegas hotel. Penny walked down the hotel hallway to the room, eating her ice cream, she always loved ice cream and she knew if Leonard would let her, she would live off it the rest of her pregnancy. Bernadette was walking besides her, little Joel, her son, peacefully sleeping as he rode in the stroller his mother was pushing. Bernadette was not eating ice cream, the ice cream she had with Penny at lunch, being enough to last her the whole day, and while she looked at her friend in disgust, she thought 'how can she eat so much ice cream and not be as fat as a house'.

Penny actually looked extremely cute pregnant, Leonard even saying she looked sexy and she had become extremely smug with herself and all the attention she had been getting from the press. Penny had a regular part in a TV Sitcom, it was only a third tier character, but she was in every episode and it made her a professional actress, the pay wasn't bad either. The funny thing was that her pregnancy actually made her more popular, so much so they wrote it into the show, everyone said she looked cute and she even had been contacted to do some modeling for maternity cloths as a result of it. However, that was all secondary to her, the thought of her, Leonard and the baby being a family had become her primary thought, making her feel incredibly happy all the time anymore.

Bernadette was the first to see them walking down the opposite end of the hall, smiling at her handsome uniformed husband as they got closer to each other, "Look Joel, its daddy." she couldn't help squeal.

Penny then took her eyes from her ice cream, quickening her pace to Leonard, her excitement as great as Bernadette's as she just got out, 'Sweetie' before she wrapped her arms around him for a kiss.

Howard picked up Joel, holding his son slightly away from his uniform, "Hey buddy did you have a good day." Joel giggling as his father kissed his face before putting him back in the stroller, while Bernadette quickly making sure he was secure before then getting her kiss from her handsome military man.

Penny and Leonard finally broke the kiss and as Leonard licked his lips, said "Strawberry." which made his wife smile and nod.

"Did you guys eat yet?" Howard asked.

Bernadette frowned, "No, not since lunch, if you don't include the ice cream."

"Okay, we can all quickly change then go out to get something. Where do you girls want to go." Leonard asked.

"There is a buffet downstairs that I heard is great." Penny quickly responded.

"Why because they have an ice cream bar." Bernadette sarcastically added, she loved Penny but this ice cream thing was getting on her nerves.

Penny then looked at Leonard, with pleading puppy dog eyes. "I promise Sweetie, this is the last time…today."

The End

A/N: Happy ending, Howard and Bernadette, plus Leonard and Penny, safe, happy, and together where they belong. Hope you liked it. Thanks to all you that read my story and a special thanks to all those that left comments.