A/N: I've been spending my time reading Stephen King. My entry for this year's TLAPD and Halloween challenges. All the best, *Lynn

xxx

It had been one year since Penny had been to the beach. One year since Sheldon fell off the boardwalk and drowned. They never found the body.

It had been a freak wave on a stormy day, Leonard had told her, but she read in his eyes that Sheldon's last step might have been of his own choosing. All the witnesses said that he was sitting on the railing and seemed to meet the wave as it came up. Perhaps he was startled by the wave. Perhaps, but Penny didn't believe that.

The Arctic. The guys and their stupid, stupid joke. Sheldon thought he had his Nobel Prize. Instead he was the laughing stock of the university and whomever else heard about the infamous Electric Can Opener Fluctuation.

Penny went to see Sheldon in his room to console him. Score one for Penny. Then she said that Sheldon should basically get over it as Leonard lied to make the best of a bad situation, i.e. Sheldon. Strike one, Penny. Then she gave away spoilers for the new Star Trek movie. Strike two.

She wouldn't even begin to think about sleeping with Leonard while Sheldon dealt with his humiliation. Strike three, thanks for coming out.

The guys went back to the way they were, thinking that the crisis was alleviated with Sheldon's return from Texas. Yes, he went through the motions, but in hindsight Penny realized they were more robotic than she had ever seen. They argued, but the spark in his eyes wasn't as intense as it once was. Perhaps there was anger in there, but in the year since Sheldon's death Penny had decided the look was one of disappointment. She was his friend, but he never looked at her the same. That epiphany killed her.

Leonard had come to an earlier conclusion that Sheldon's death was partially his fault. At first he said that suicide was a poor decision made by the fits of madness, but as he thought over the last six weeks of Sheldon's life he realized his own actions were also poorly derived. He compromised the integrity of the scientific method. He would have left Sheldon lingering in Texas if Penny hadn't insisted on him fixing things. Leonard, who couldn't buy a break because Sheldon freaking out at the realization that his scientific integrity had suffered a mortal wound interfered with Leonard getting down with Penny.

As if by wordless agreement, Leonard and Penny stepped back to being friends, but a friendship which was awkwardly balanced between guilt and shame. Penny had spent more time with her work and acting friends. Bernadette had been an awesome companion, whose optimism got Penny out of her funk.

Particularly today. One year since Sheldon had died. Bernadette showed up at Penny's apartment with a picnic basket and wearing a swim suit and flip-flops.

"No arguments, Penny," Bernadette barked as she took her friend by the arm and practically tossed her into the bedroom. "Get your swim suit and let's go."

"I don't want to go there," Penny said, her voice pleading. "'Specially not today."

"No, it's exactly because it's today. You've been avoiding the beach for too long." Bernadette clapped her hands once. "Now hop to it!"

Penny began changing into her swim suit. "You're quite the dictator when you want to be."

"It's the Catholic upbringing," Bernadette said sweetly.

"Yeah, you'd make a terrifying nun." Penny stood in front of her mirror, making sure she was stuffed in the right places under her metallic silver bikini. She cocked her head, noting that something was missing, and then went to her jewelry drawer and took out two silver bracelets and put them on her left wrist. They had been a gift from her grandmother's excursion to Mexico. The bracelets were a tad tarnished but still had enough bling to balance out the outfit. The last touch was a sheer silver skirt on top.

Penny slipped her feet into her flip-flops and grabbed her purse.

"I've got the blanket, towels and goodies," Bernadette said.

"Then I guess we're set." A brave smile on Penny's face.

Both women exited the apartment.

XXX

"Hey there!" An enthusiastic greeting from a blonde haired man wearing red swim trunks around his six-pack abs body.

"Hi," Bernadette squeaked as she fluffed out the blanket on the beach.

"You ladies up for a little Frisbee or are you waiting for someone?" he asked Penny with a smile that did its best to remain natural and eyes which did not wander.

"We're not waiting for anyone," Bernadette piped in before Penny could answer. Penny raised an eyebrow at her and she pumpkin grinned. "What do you say, Penny?"

Penny glanced at the ocean before her sparkling in the afternoon sun. The waves beyond, white but not blustery. Not like that afternoon when Sheldon—

"Sure," Penny said a tad overenthusiastically even as her smile found its strength. "Give us a moment to get organized, uh, what did you say your name was?"

"Jake." He pointed over at an area where two guys and a woman were tossing the Frisbee. "Any time you're ready."

"As a bright side, his friends look equally as yummy," Bernadette said as she watched Jake rejoin his friends. "Two guys and a girl. My guess is one of them is single. Score one for me."

"Why not Jake?" Penny said as she took off her skirt.

"Because Jake's got his mind set on you." Bernadette took two bottles of water from the basket and made sure the cord with her car key on it was firmly around her wrist.

"So what makes you think my mind's on him?" Penny said with a smirk.

"It should be." Bernadette elbowed her friend. "Wish my distractions had buns like that."

The two women went over to Jake's group and introduced themselves. Bernadette's analysis of the situation was correct: Amanda and Carl were dating and Bill was single and gave Bernadette a thumbs up when they were partnered with Carl.

Time passed, marked by giggles and laughter and faces and hair full of sand as Frisbee had taken on a tackling element. Jake was impressed with Penny's Frisbee skills as well as the way in which she had tackled Bill around the knees. Junior Rodeo, indeed.

Every once in a while Penny would glance at the water, her eyes catching on the horizon, although there was nothing out there to see. Then the Frisbee game would bring her back and she took off in pursuit.

At last the participants were hot and sweaty. Fortunately they had the Pacific Ocean at hand. They splashed their way into the water, their feet relishing the water's coolness as compared to the hot beach sand. Penny waded far enough so she could dive in and with a quick thrust and held breath she parted the water and dove. The water was a shock to her face as her eyes took in the lower extremities of the swimmers around her. The sounds above were muffled and she wondered if Sheldon had been relieved to hear the voices distort before fading away. Voices which had taunted or dismissed his pain. Voices like Penny's.

Her head came above water and she took a breath. In the distance she thought she saw something and squinted.

"What's that?" she asked Jake, who had come up next to her.

"Where?" he asked. She pointed. "Nothing I can see." He looked at her, all toned body and blonde hair plastered to her head and fringing her breasts, and wished she looked at him like she did the horizon. "Hey," he said, bringing her around. "I'm right here."

"Sorry," she said. "I was just—" She shook her said. "Never mind." She gave Jake a splash. "Let's get a swim in."

With powerful strokes Penny proved to be as good a swimmer as she was a Frisbee player. Both she and Jake swam away from the beach, but not so far that they'd be in the way of any watercraft—or so they thought. Two young punks on their dad's jet skis decided that Penny and Jake made great pylons to circle.

"Fuck off!" Jake snapped as he treaded water, moving his body so that he always faced the jet skier.

"Make me!" the skier shot back and then made a quick turn, sending a wave into Jake.

Penny's pursuer kept getting behind her, practically herding her further away from the beach. Realizing that this was suicide, she turned in the water and untied the top string of her bikini before giving a series of quick kicks to thrust herself out of the water. The jet skier let out a whoop and moved around her.

"You go girl!" he laughed.

Asshole. Penny started to swim back to shore, her bikini strings dangling around her body.

She would have made it, too, if the riptide hadn't caught her.

The harder she swam the further out she seemed to be. There was no doubt she was in trouble.

"Help!" she cried.

The jet skier realized she wasn't kidding and made to turn his ski around but the angle was too sharp and he ended up in the water. Penny could see the craft doing unmanned loops in the water behind her.

Great, now there's two of us. Penny did her best to conserve energy. At some point the riptide would ease and she would be released (right?) and when she was she had to be ready to swim back. She would have been more confident of the plan had she been successful in breaking out of the riptide. It seemed to be wider than usual and no matter how far she swam to the right she was still drifting away from the beach.

Then the waves hit. Way in the distance an oil barge had passed, causing whitecaps to roll towards her. Penny did her best to bob at the right time and hold her breath where need be, but the riptide's pull outwards seemed to shove her into the waves and in an awful moment she took in water where she should have taken air. She sputtered and began to flail about. In her panic, she had turned towards the ocean. And a ship. It was a three-masted wooden affair, although its sails weren't open.

Bobbing up and down even as she did her best to keep above water, Penny tried to make it to the ship. Maybe someone would see her and pull her up. If the riptide was going that way.

She sank underwater and when she surfaced she thought the ship was closer, its masts taller. Penny realized she had to get the ship's attention.

"Help!" she yelled and waved her arm, doing her best to rise above the waves which sought to weigh her down. "He—" Another wave, this one heavy like a cloak of molasses, crashed upon her and Penny was submerged. The water in her stomach and lungs was like lava and when again she surfaced she was unable to call out even though she was nearly at the ships port side. Her left arm reached up, the silver bracelets sparkling in the sun and for a moment she thought she saw someone on deck. Then came the shouting and she tried her best to stay sharp as she saw people scrambling and pointing and doing many things she hoped to help her.

She was headed for the hull, or beneath it if she couldn't keep afloat. She thought she saw a man with a rope around his waist reaching for her and she reached back but felt nothing but the sensation of her bracelets being pushed up her arm. Penny's body decided to relax and in that instant she knew she was going to drown. Down she went, her blonde hair a massive halo in the water before she went deep, deep—

She felt a strong grip on her right wrist and then she rose out of the water. Her eyes took in the side of the ship, realizing it was wood of all things, as she was yanked high into the air. At once there were many hands on her body lifting her over the railing and then Penny was on the deck.

"On her stomach, you boneswaggers!" yelled a voice in a strong East Texas accent.

Penny was rolled over and deft hands turned her head and forced the water from her lungs. There were many burbles of water and then one, two major bouts of vomiting, followed by more gagging and purging.

"Look what popped up from Davy Jones's Locker," said a male voice.

"And who'll become shark bait if he keeps this up?" Again the Texas accent. "Now get the bucket and swab the poop deck. Don't forget the disinfectant."

"Shall I get the rum?"

"For you or the bucket?" another man said. Laughter from the others.

Penny groaned. The smell of sea water and vomit stung her nose. She rolled onto her back.

A man whistled. "Look at the booty!"

"That's a strike," said the Texan in a cold tone.

East Texan, Penny's brain screamed. Her eyes opened to the brilliance of blue eyes under a tri-cornered hat.

"Easy lass," he drawled even as he took up the straps of the bikini top and covered what he could of her breasts.

Penny's heart nearly stopped. "Sheldon?" she croaked.

"You know her, Captain?" said a man wearing a red bandanna on his head, a striped blue shirt and leather boots over his pants.

The Captain's brow furrowed. "No," he said. "Perhaps my reputation precedes me."

"No," Penny said after clearing her throat. "You're Sheldon! Oh my God you're alive!" She reached out with her left hand and the Captain quickly stood.

"I'm Sheldor the Conqueror, woman," he growled and walked away. "Get the decks cleaned, lads. And get her some clothes," he said to the others without looking back.

With more than a few willing hands to assist her, Penny got to her feet. She then tied the bikini straps firmly at the back of her neck.

"God, I think I got some vomit in my hair," she said, wrinkling her nose.

"I'll get ye cleaned up, lassie," the red bandanna man said. Together they walked away from when she had soiled the deck. "Lean yer head over the rail. The last thing the Captain wants is more germs on the ship."

"I'll bet," Penny replied, even as her mind raced. What was Sheldon doing here? Where was here anyways? "So you guys a pirate recreation ship?"

"We be pirates, lassie. No doubt of that. Now close yer eyes, there's rum in the mix"

Penny smelled the alcohol in the water as it was dumped over her head.

"Like real pirates? Ho ho ho and a bottle of rum and all that?" She forked through her hair with her fingers. While she might smell like a lush at least she wasn't vomit head. Now if there was only something she could do about her breath? "You got any rum?"

The man chuckled as he handed her the bottle. "You mean ye haven't heard of Captain Sheldor, Conqueror of the High Seas? Or the Perse?"

"The only Sheldor I know is a barbarian." Penny took a big slug of rum and let the alcohol's burn warm her throat. "So how long has he been Captain?"

"Since the beginning."

"The beginning of what? What happened to the previous captain?"

"There is no previous captain, lassie." He took the bottle of rum and stole a quick gulp for himself before corking it. "Now, let's sit you here on the box and I'll go get ye a shirt to wear."

"Thanks, uh, what's your name?"

He flashed a smile. "Not important. Now stay put." The pirate went down the steps into the heart of the ship.

Penny felt a whole whack of eyes on her but when she turned her head she realized that everyone on the deck was too busy with their own tasks to bother with her. Some were mopping the deck while others seemed to be doing something to the starboard side of the ship. Some men were being lowered by ropes down the side while other lines carrying wood or other tools were being readied for descent.

Overseeing it all was Sheldon. Penny didn't give a damn what the Ol' Cap called himself, he was Sheldon Cooper, albeit one with an affinity for pirate gear than goofy t-shirts. This Sheldon wore an open-collared shirt underneath a blue floor-length jacket with a row of silver buttons down the left side. He had a wide black belt with a silver buckle, loose legged dark blue pants which tucked into high length black boots. The blue tri-cornered hat with silver trim was the icing on the cake. Sheldon was an anomaly of the crew as the others dressed casually in loose pants and shirts with perhaps vests and bandannas. Penny smirked. Only Sheldon would be a prim and proper anti-germ stickler on the high seas.

"How goes the hull repairs?" Sheldor bellowed to the men below.

"The tar coating is set, Captain," a man said from the side of the boat. "We've only to secure and tar the wedges."

"Timeline, Mr. Hogarth?"

"She'll be ready for midnight."

Sheldor nodded. "Make it so." He turned his attention to another man. "Oversee the sail riggings. I don't want anything delaying us from our expedition."

"Aye sir," the man said and hurried off to gather the rigging men.

In all, Penny estimated there were over a hundred men on the ship. This wasn't just a pirate ship, this was a grand poobah of a ship.

"Here's yer shirt," the man said as he had returned from below with a white billowy shirt. "No pants'll fit ye but I'm sure the shirt is long enough to cover yer basics."

"Thanks," Penny said and donned the shirt, rolling up her sleeves to the elbows. While it didn't outright stink of man-sweat, there was an overall sourness to the shirt that made her think of the damp basement at her grandmother's house.

She opened the collar as wide as it could go to reveal hints of her bosom and went over to Sheldor.

"Hey Cap," she said and noted Sheldor's back stiffen, "So what's happening with the ship?"

"She was damaged in a storm," he said. "Normally the skies foretell such things but in this instance the tempest came out of nowhere."

"Where were you going?"

"To the shore."

"You mean the beach?"

"Beyond the horizon."

"Mighty specific of you, Sheldon," Penny grinned.

"Sheldor," he corrected icily.

Penny held up her hands to ease tension. "Sorry, Sheldor."

"It's all I have to go on."

"A hunch. Totally understand that," she nodded.

He stared at her, his eyes, she knew, took in every inch of her with a clinical rather than passionate curiosity. "A friend of mine once spoke of omens and soothsayers. Perhaps I judged her too harshly."

Before Penny could ask about the friend some shouts were heard from the crow's nest.

"What's going on?" Sheldor bellowed and strode towards the central mast.

As the shouted out explanations and barked orders were exchanged, Penny couldn't get over this Sheldon. Authoritative. Arrogant. Everything which brought her into conflict with him. And awed her. She'd only seen Sheldon riled once—when she told him that Leonard said his work was a lucky hunch. He had stepped forward, all 6'2 of his height before her. And that voice. That don't fuck with me tone which he was using now on his crew. Sheldon the man without the child.

With the crisis averted, Penny again went to Sheldor. "Say, could you spare a boat so we can get back to the beach?" she asked.

"I am going nowhere," he amended as he stared with squinting eyes at the crow's nest. "Nor do I have a boat to spare."

Penny rolled her eyes. "Oh for Pete's sake." She grabbed him by the arm, only to have him rip it from her grasp with a ferocity that made her bracelets clash together.

"Don't touch me!" he roared.

"Sheldon, enough with the bullshit!" she shouted back.

He pursed his lips. "You're more than welcome to swim."

Penny looked at the beach in the distance. "It's too far. Besides those assholes with the jet skis might still be out there." She put a hand over her brow and stared at the water. "I don't see them but that doesn't mean they aren't out there."

"Do what you wish," Sheldor said. "We sail at midnight." He raised an eyebrow. "You are more than welcome to leave at any point before then."

Penny folded her arms across her chest. "Without a boat."

"Without a boat," he agreed.

"Sheldon, quit playing pirate Captain Kirk and let's get back to the beach," Penny sighed, only to stop short as she took in the darkening look on his face. "I mean, don't you want to see everyone again?" she squeaked.

"You think I'm playing around?" he said crisply as he stepped towards her. "Get these thoughts through your head. One, you will quit calling me Sheldon. Second, unless you get your sweet patootie back to shore on your own, you better get used to the ship and my orders, Missy, because you're stuck."

"Whackadoodle," Penny spat back.

A twitch crossed Sheldor's face before he spun on his heel and marched towards the stairs.

"Mr. Hogarth, you have the deck," he barked before descending into the darkness below.

"Aye Captain," a bald man said. Penny noted that he was different from the other man who answered to the same name.

"Freak-y," Penny whispered.

"Woman, make yourself useful!" Mr. Hogarth the bald said. "Grab the coil in the corner and come to the bow."

"Coming," Penny said, and after a last look at the beach she went for the rope.

Inside Sheldor's cramped quarters were an assortment of cosmological maps in a scroll locker and a large telescope secured to the wall. Sheldor was at the little table plotting out his course on the latest map he'd drawn before that freak storm had surprised him. He still couldn't figure out how he'd been lambasted. He watched the sky every night and upon his Meemaw's snickerdoodles he knew in his heart that this storm was like no other. His brows knit. Well, there was another storm, but...

"Irrelevant," Sheldor mumbled.

He looked over the star chart and plotted a course on the ocean map.

"Go to the beach," he growled. The beach was Over Here and the ship's course was set Out There. As if Sheldor the Conqueror had the time to take silly girls back to the beach. If she didn't like it here she could just— He thought about her green-eyed glare and folded arms.

"I am not a Whackadoodle," he said crisply.

Sheldor hadn't been so inflamed by someone since—His brow furrowed a moment and then he shook his head to dismiss the fragmented thought from his mind.

By evening, Penny found herself mentally exhausted. She had been from one end of the ship to the other helping to 'brace this' or 'pull that'. While she was pleased that her time at the gym gave her the strength and stamina to be useful, she couldn't get over the feel of the equipment. Sometimes the ropes felt slimy and worn to the touch even though they looked okay. When things got really icky she'd readjust her grip more firmly with her right hand as it was her dominant one, and pulled firmly.

"That's all fer now, lads," Mr. Hogarth the bald said. "Go 'bout yer business."

At once the men scattered to various parts of the ship. Penny spied the hatch to below deck and nonchalantly made her way to it. There was no way she was going to wash the poop deck or weigh-hey-blow the man down. Deciding the best attitude was to look like she knew what she was doing, Penny walked down the stairs without looking around, although she did hold her breath in case she was yelled at.

There were candle lanterns at the bottom of the hatch stairs and Penny was thankful that one of them was lit. She took it off the hook and made her way into the ship proper. She saw an assortment of old school rifles secured to the walls and a table in the middle with various tools for servicing them. Penny was familiar with them as her dad had showed her in great detail how to take apart, clean, and reassemble her .22 rifle.

She saw that there was writing on the floor near the far wall: Danger! Explosives! It was a hatch to further down in the ship.

"Probably keep the gunpowder there," she murmured.

There was a door to her right and she went to it, only to stop as she caught a whiff of an antiseptic quality in the air and could hear movement within.

'Has to be Sheldon's room', she thought. 'Bet no one goes in there, either.'

As she explored the ship fore and aft, she couldn't get over the same feeling that she had earlier. It smelled dank down there and things she touched felt icky, but when she moved her right hand with the lantern close to inspect the cloth or the table or the rope they seemed okay. Penny reached out to a lace covering over a chest and picked it up. It seemed even more delicate than its weave indicated. She gave it a little toss in the air so she could get a better grip on it with her left hand only to have to cloth seemingly melt between her fingers and fall to the floor.

"What the frak?" Penny set the lantern on a table in the center of the room and then picked up the lace. Her eyes narrowed in confusion as she was trying to absorb the conflicting sensations. The cloth in her left hand was a mass of rot while her right hand felt a weave as strong as the day it was constructed. She swapped hands and the material which seemed ruined felt fine and the once secure sections were as rags.

Penny wiped her left hand on her thigh to get off whatever it was that was doing this. The frantic motion dropped her rolled up sleeve to her wrist and again she smelled a musty rot. She began shaking her arm. "What the hell's wrong with my—" She stopped short at the clanging of her bracelets.

If she had been Sheldon she might not have thought twice about it, but this was Penny, who believed in psychics and voodoo and the pure qualities of metals. Like silver.

Penny slipped off her bracelets and put them on her right wrist. She repeated her experiment with the cloth and, as she expected, the cloth rot had transferred to her right hand.

"Son of a gun," she said. She took off one of the bracelets to put it on her left wrist when a thought came to her, a thought which gripped her stomach tight. Slowly she raised the bracelet to her eye and peered through its circle.

The cheerful quarters was no more. In its place, a world of rot and ruin. Broken furniture. And the stench which came to her nose was overpowering. In horror, Penny looked at her shirt and saw it was stained and rotted. She quickly tore the thing from her body and raced from the room. Her heart hammering in her chest, Penny kept raising the bracelet to her eye, seeing that the transformation from right to oh so horribly wrong took place wherever her hoop-encircled vision looked.

She made it back to the gunroom and saw that Sheldor's door was open.

"Sheldon!" she yelled. She got to the room and it was empty. When she went back into the gunroom a crewman was at the bottom of the stairs looking at her. She looked at him through her bracelet and let out a screech at the partial skeletal body, ragged clothes and the white pieces of flesh which stuck out in a variety of places. "Out of my way!" she snapped. The shambling man smiled and took a step towards her.

Penny gripped the bracelet in her right hand like a kind of poor man's brass knuckles and readied herself. With a half-yell she raced forward and tagged him right on the button, causing the thing's head to explode in a multitude of bone shards and flesh.

"Sonofabitch!" she said, and stepped past the falling body and dashed up the stairs. The deck was empty save a lone figure standing at the bow looking at the starlit night.

"Sheldon!" Penny gasped as she raced to him. "Sheldon we have to get the hell out of here!"

He turned to her with a frown. "I'm not—"

Penny was livid. "Damn it, Moonpie, just shut your mouth for once and listen to me! This is some kinda ghost ship. We've gotta get off!"

Sheldor was stunned. "How did you know my Meemaw calls me that?"

"Because I know you! You're Sheldon Cooper, a beautiful mind genius whackadoodle who's the most frustrating man I ever met!" He looked away. "Sheldon, please, let's go," Penny implored.

"I can't," was all he said.

"Sheldon—"

"Drop the port row boat and go."

" Not without you."

He turned and blue eyes met green. "You know I can't go."

Penny clasped the bracelet in her hand. They both looked at it and then at each other. Slowly she brought it to her eye and she saw ragged plaid pants and Flash t-shirt and bloated white skin. She lowered her hand.

"Oh Moonpie..." she said softly.

"The ship's leaving soon. You better go." She made to speak. "Please Penny," he said equally as soft.

They stared at each other a moment more before he returned to face the sea and Penny darted for the boat. She hoped that the ropes would be rotted enough to get through with her bracelet. She used it like a saw and it cut like butter through the rope. The row boat, which looked solid to her even though she knew better, dropped nose down towards the water. Penny went to the other rope and moved the bracelet from one hand to another.

It was really a fluke that her eye had caught sight of her foot through the loop. Penny moved the bracelet back so she could take in her foot's white, bloated quality...

As he heard the ropes give way and the row boat hit the water, Sheldor counted the stars. His charts were below deck as was his telescope, but he needed no aids to spot Sagittarius in the sky.

He was the captain of his own destiny and had no regrets.

Until now.

Sheldor looked towards the drifting row boat. A drifting, empty row boat.

"Hey Sheldor! You gonna get this trip started or what?"

Sheldor's eyes widened in shock as he saw a blonde buccaneer before him, her flowing locks underneath a silver bandanna, her white billowy shirt underneath a black tight vest which clamped her bosom high and proud, and silver high cut shorts with a black belt and black thigh high boots.

She grinned as she strutted over to him. "Can't let you have all the fun," she winked and moved past him to look out at the ocean. She leaned forward to address the waves and stars beyond. "Beware ye scullywags or face the wrath of Penelope, Queen of the Seas!"

Now it was Sheldor's turn to grin.

XXX

A lone beach scavenger had his lucky day. During the night the waves had brought in a rickety old row boat. It was a complete write-off but that didn't matter.

What mattered were the two silver bracelets he found inside.