Chapter 46

Beep… beep… beep…

' Oh son of a bi**h where am I?!', Dakota thought as she started to come to and suddenly found herself lying in a hospital bed hooked up to a heart monitor with the worried expressions and tear stricken faces of her friends, her family, her goddaughter, Kenner, Artemis, a few other fighters from the gym, and doctors and nurses staring at her in the face as they were gathered around her bed. Even Mrs. Rivers was there with her husband Ed. There was another young woman there standing next to them too who looked like she was about 18 years old that she didn't recognize.

" Mmm…", Dakota moaned as she slowly started to open her eyes.

" Hey you guys she's waking up!", Megynn exclaimed as the others started to sigh with relief.

" Oh thank god!", Mrs. Harris exclaimed as she put her hand on her chest.

" Wha... what's going on? Where am I?", Dakota asked in a weak soft voice as she was slowly looking around the room and slowly blinking her eyes.

" You're in the hospital Mrs. Hofstadter.", a doctor said.

" Hospital? Wha...?", Dakota asked in that same weak soft voice.

" Yeah Dakota you were out cold at the gym. Do you remember anything of what happened to you?", Leo asked in concern.

" Well... I remember going up against this guy Randall ' Beast Boy' Jefferson, we were duking it out for a few, then I saw his fist come at my face and I blacked out after that.", Dakota softly said.

" Oh you were more than blacked out Skullbreaker, he knocked the wind out of you.", Kenner said in concern.

" Yeah girl, you scared the hell out of us! We thought that Beast Boy killed you!", Artemis said in concern.

" Well that must explain why my lungs hurt and ow, my head!", Dakota softly choked out as she reached up to touch her head with her hand to discover that it was wrapped in bandages.

" Are you ok Dakota?", Mrs. Rivers asked in concern as she looked at her former student.

" Yeah I'm fine Mrs. Riv I just need to get up for a minute.", Dakota softly said but as she tried to get up out of the bed Leonard gently pressed his hand against her chest and in a concerning firm voice, " Woah woah woah Dakota you're not getting up!"

" Leonard why are you being so concerned right now? I'm fine, I just need a minute?", Dakota softly asked as she tried to move past him but he kept blocking her path.

" Um hello MY WIFE just got punched in the face by some 6 foot, 200 and something pound male fighter and I almost, excuse my language for a second Sheldon, bitchin' lost her because of it! You need to get some rest or else you're just going to fall flat on your face!", Leonard interjected at her as he glanced over at Sheldon for a brief moment who was just standing at the foot of the bed next to Leo and Cayela before looking back at Dakota.

" Leonard I said I'm fine, please move.", Dakota softly said as she rolled her eyes at her husband and kept trying to push past him but he firmly stood his ground and kept holding her back.

" No you're not getting up from this bed, lay back down.", Leonard said in a firm voice.

" Yes please Dakota this is highly unsafe right now.", Sheldon said with concern as he walked around to the other side of the bed, reached over and gently grabbed a hold of his injured fighter friend's arm trying to pull her back into the bed.

" Sheldon let go, I'm f...", Dakota started to protest against Sheldon's attempts to get her to lay back down in the bed but once she was laying back down he covered her with the blanket and said, " Shhhh, stop talking now. You need to sleep."

" Fine, you win.", Dakota let out a defeated soft sigh. As she started to doze off she softly muttered under her breath, " A**hole." Sheldon wanted to object to that but Leonard gave him a death glare that said ' Shut it or I'll smack you!'

" Come on, let's all go out into the waiting room so we can let her sleep.", Mr. Harris said as he started ushering everyone out of the room.

" Yeah I agree with that. Come on Cayela let's go.", Leo said as she headed to the door gripping the strap of Cayela's diaper bag on her shoulder.

" Aww but Mom I want to stay here with Auntie Dakota!", Cayela protested.

" I know sweetheart but she needs to get some sleep. We'll come back up in a little while to check on her.", Leo said as she looked at her daughter.

" Oh, ok.", Cayela said with a defeated sigh.

" Well hold on wait a minute, why you just go to the waiting room with everyone else at the moment. I'll stay here with them.", the young woman that had been standing beside Mr. and Mrs. Rivers said with a smile.

" Oh I couldn't ask you to do that.", Leo said as she shook her head.

" No really it's fine, I'll stay here with them. Hi I'm Kesley Rivers, PRN.", Kesley said as she held out her hand to Leo.

" You're a pediactric nurse?", Leo asked as she shook Kesley's hand.

" Yeah I am, I work with the Children's Hospital of Savannah down in Georgia.", Kesley said.

" Oh well that's nice. I'm Dr. Leo Fordyce-Cooper, I was one of your mother's 4th grade students back in elementary school and my friend Dakota Hofstadter here was also another one of them too.", Leo said as she introduced herself and pointed at Dakota who was now sleeping in the hospital bed.

" Oh yeah my mother told me about that and told me a whole bunch of crazy stuff about you two. She even told me that you two freaked her out once after a school shooting by hiding up in a tree on the school playground.", Kesley said with a smirk.

" Yeah we sure did like to mess with her. She was our favorite teacher and she still is even though we're adults now.", Leo said with a slight laugh.

" Well that's great because she said that you two were two of her favorite students.", Kesley said with a smile.

" Totally.", Leo said.

" So is this your daughter?", Kesley asked as she looked at Cayela.

" Yes this is my daughter Cayela.", Leo said with a smile. The two of them talked for a bit more before Leo headed out to the waiting room leaving Cayela in the hospital room with Dakota and Kesley. Cayela gently climbed up on top of Dakota's sleeping form in the bed and whispered, " Please get better soon Auntie Dakota. I love you." before she laid her head down on Dakota's chest falling asleep as she listened to her strong and steady heartbeat. Dakota gently brought her hand up and placed it on Cayela's back in her sleep slowly stroking her fingers along her back as a soft smile began to spread across her face. Shortly afterwards the others came back into the room to get Cayela and they left the hospital to head home and go to bed. Then the next day Dakota was released from the hospital and over the next week as she was recovering from her injury her self-esteem fell down to the point where she didn't really want to do anything except lay in hers and Leonard's bed all day moping around which started to concern her friends and her family. Leonard and Leo tried everything they could think of to get her out of the bed but no matter what they did they couldn't seem to snap her out of it.

" Oh god this is horrible! What are we going to do Leonard?! I've never seen Dakota this depressed before!", Leo said in concern as she looked at her experimental physicist friend.

" Yeah I know Leo. Maybe we should take a break from trying to help her for a little bit and just give her some space.", Leonard said in concern as he scratched the bridge of his nose pushing his glasses up on his face.

" Yeah that's probably a good idea. I got to go pick up Cayela from school right now.", Leo said.

" And I got to go to work. See ya Leo.", Leonard said.

" Bye.", Leo said as she grabbed her keys and purse before she walked out.

" Now hold on wait a minute! You two are just going to give up trying?!", Sheldon asked in concern as he stared at his best friend the moment his wife walked out the door.

" Sheldon, your wife Leo and I have tried everything we could think of to get Dakota up out of bed and nothing has worked! She just will not get up! I don't know what the hell that Jefferson guy did to her but it's like he completely crushed her after he hit her in the face like that! She's been like that for the past few days now, like almost a week since it happened! Look I love my wife Dakota very much but maybe what we're doing right now isn't really helping her at the moment. Maybe we just need to give her some space for a bit.", Leonard hissed.

" Well why don't I take a whirl at it?", Sheldon said.

" Well good luck with that Sheldon because we've tried everything. If you can somehow get her out of this depressive funk she's in that'd be great. Anyway I got to go to Caltech, good luck with deciding on what to do about my wife.", Leonard said as he grabbed his things and walked out the door.

" Well alright.", Sheldon said as he headed down the hallway towards Leonard's and Dakota's shared bedroom.

Knock knock knock! " Dakota."

Knock knock knock! " Dakota."

Knock knock knock! " Dakota."

" Come in.", Dakota's depressive voice responded back to him through the door. Sheldon opened the door to see his friend just sitting in the bed with a depressed look on her face as she stared at the tv screen which wasn't even turned on. A box of tissues was sitting next to her with several used tissues scattered all over the bed and an empty ice cream carton sat on the night stand next to the bed.

" Are you alright?", Sheldon asked in concern.

" Not really.", Dakota sadly said as she grabbed another tissue out of the box and blew her nose. Then she sadly asked, " What do you want Sheldon?"

" I want to know why my friend is just sitting here not wanting to do anything.", Sheldon said in concern.

" Because I'm a loser that's why! After having such a great success with winning the international title I get punched in the face and completely humiliated by someone bigger than me! I might as well just give up!", Dakota sadly said as she started to cry.

" Now hold on wait a minute! You can't quit just because one guy knocked you down! That's basically taking the coward's way out and you are not a coward!", Sheldon interjected.

" I don't know what I am anymore! You don't understand how humiliating that was! To go from having two championship titles under your name to being knocked down by another fighter much bigger than you! Everyone at that gym saw what he did to me including my cousin Axel and now they all probably think I'm a weenie! And that's not what the real Skullbreaker is! I can't ever go back there Sheldon I'll be the biggest laughing stock on the planet for letting Beast Boy knock me out to near death!", Dakota cried as she turned away from him.

" You know what, I see what your problem is.", Sheldon said in concern.

" You do?", Dakota cried as she turned around to face him.

" Yes, based off of my calculations about your behavior I see here it appears that you get your self-esteem from your fight appearance image and how others see you when you enter the ring.", Sheldon said.

" What the hell does that mean?", Dakota cried.

" Well I think it's quite self-explanatory. What you need is a new image of yourself. A new splash of color to your fight persona if you will.", Sheldon said.

" You want to change my appearance? I don't see how that's going to help me get my confidence back.", Dakota sadly said.

" Oh believe me I believe it's going to help you more than you think. I don't usually do this kind of stuff but you seem desperate and I believe I can help you. Wait here one moment please.", Sheldon said as he walked out of the room, grabbed the emergency key to Penny's apartment and walked across the hallway to 4B letting himself in with the key since he knew Penny was at work and wouldn't be back for at least a little while. He then went into her bathroom and searched around going through her drawers, medicine cabinet and under the sink and found exactly what he was looking for: a bottle of bright green hair dye, a tub of bleach paste, a box of foil sheets and an applicator brush. He took all this stuff back over to his apartment and set it in the bathroom, grabbed some latex gloves out of his daughter's closet and set them beside everything in the bathroom before he returned to Leonard's and Dakota's bedroom with a blindfold in his hand.

" Ahhhh what the hell are you doing Sheldon?!", Dakota screamed as Sheldon suddenly covered her eyes with the blindfold and dragged her out towards the bathroom.

" You'll find out in a moment Dakota, now hush up!", Sheldon said as he sat her down on the closed lid of the toilet and set to work on what he was planning to do. A few moments later when he was finally done he dragged Dakota back to her bedroom that she shared with Leonard and stood her in front of the mirror before he removed the blindfold from her face. She gasped in shock at what she saw in the mirror staring back at her in the face. She had a big thick bright green streak of color across the front of her ginger colored pixie cut hair style and saw that she was wearing her fight outfit with brand new alterations to it. Her shorts were still black but the tank top shirt color had been changed to a bright green with big bold white letters across the front that said SKULLBREAKER and the two words were separated in the middle by a fist punching through a skull exploding it into several pieces and below that was the Green Lantern symbol. She also had bright green wire framed glasses on her face making her look more like an MMA fighter, female Green Lantern and nerd hybrid which was a total new appearance to her than what she looked like before.

" Sheldon… I don't know what to say except, this is amazing!", Dakota exclaimed in complete shock.

" You're welcome.", Sheldon said.

" Any reason why I'm dressed in my fight outfit though?", Dakota asked.

" Because you're going to stop feeling sorry for yourself, you're going to go back down to that gym and you're going to give that guy a rematch for making you feel like the biggest loser on the face of the planet.", Sheldon said as he narrowed his eyes at her.

" I don't know about this Sheldon.", Dakota said as she shook her head.

" Dakota this isn't going to get any better if you don't try. Do you want everyone to think you're a weenie?", Sheldon asked.

" No I don't.", Dakota said.

" Exactly. Now go back down there and make Beast Boy wish that he had never done that to you in the first place.", Sheldon said.

" Alright, I'll give it one more shot.", Dakota said with a sigh as a soft smile began to spread across her face.

" Good.", Sheldon said with a soft smile back. He then called Leo and told her to just take Cayela down to the gym instead of coming home at the moment. Leo asked him why and he just told her that it was because he had a surprise planned even though he hated surprises. Nevertheless she did what he told her to do and later that evening after everyone else arrived there Sheldon finally got there after him and Dakota took an Uber.

" Hello.", Sheldon said.

" Oh hi honey, you had me worried for a second. I was beginning to think something was wrong. How did you get here?", Leo asked as she kissed him.

" I took an Uber.", Sheldon said.

" Ah got it. Where's Dakota? Let me guess, you couldn't get her out of bed either?", Leo asked.

" Oh on the contrary I actually have.", Sheldon said.

" What?! How?!", Leonard exclaimed in complete shock.

" Yeah what the hell did you do?!", Howard exclaimed.

" Yeah we'd like to know that too!", Penny exclaimed as she and the rest of them nodded their heads in agreement with each other.

" You shall all find out in a moment.", Sheldon said. As he then rambled his mouth for a few Cayela interjected at her father, " Just get on with it Dad! What is it?!"

" Aw alright, I guess I have stalled long enough. Ladies and gentlemen it gives me a great pleasure to introduce you to the new and improved, Dakota Chantel ' Skullbreaker' Hofstadter.", Sheldon said. Then he turned his head and interjected, " Get out here woman!" Everyone gasped in complete shock with their mouths gaping open as Dakota entered the gym area sporting her new appearance that Sheldon gave her. Faint by Linkin Park started to play in the background as everyone started going nuts.

" I'm back bitches!", Dakota exclaimed with a smirk on her face.

" Oh hell yeah! That's what I'm talking about!", Kenner interjected with a smile on his face as he nodded his head in approval.

" Girl that new appearance of yours makes you look like a supernova!", Artemis exclaimed as she tossed her hair back.

" Thanks Artemis.", Dakota said.

" Sheldon what did you do to my wife?! She looks amazing!", Leonard exclaimed.

" I believe what you see speaks for itself. After I spoke with her I altered her appearance and convinced her to come back here to give the guy that knocked her out a rematch.", Sheldon said.

" Ok but what did you say to her to convince her to do that?!", Leonard asked.

" I simply asked her if she wanted everyone to think she was a weenie for not trying to make a comeback and she said no.", Sheldon said.

" Dude that's a nice touch.", Raj said with a smirk.

" Thank you.", Sheldon said.

" Yo Beast Boy! Remember me?!", Dakota interjected across the room at Randall displaying a whole new level of confidence.

" Yeah I remember you SkullLoser!", Randall interjected back at her.

" It's Skullbreaker! Get my title right you dumb a**!", Dakota interjected.

" Yeah I don't think so! I think I'll just keep calling you SkullLoser!", Randall interjected.

" Well that ain't gonna fly buddy! But what is gonna fly right now is me pummeling you to kingdom come!", Dakota interjected.

" Yeah right! I thought you gave up after I knocked you flat a week ago!", Randall scoffed.

" I was gonna give up but then my friend Sheldon convinced me to come back here and give you what for!", Dakota interjected.

" Your friend Sheldon is a geek!", Randall interjected.

" Excuse me?! Ok listen here Beast Breath, he is not a geek! You call Sheldon that one more time and my foot's going right in your face!", Dakota interjected as she got up in Randall's face giving him a dirty trash talking look.

" Oh I'd like to see you try! Bring it SkullLoser!", Randall interjected as he put his fists up.

" Again, it's Skullbreaker and fine! Have it your way! I'll give you a rematch you'll never forget! This is for stealing my confidence and making me look like a weenie in front of everyone here Beast Dodobird!", Dakota interjected as she raised her fists up too backing Randall up into the octagon. Once the door was shut Dakota interjected, " Ring the bell!"

Ding ding ding!

" You must be pretty stupid if you think you can take me on again! You must want another helping of Knock-Out Punch!", Randall interjected with a smug smirk on his face as he went to punch Dakota in the face again but this time she grabbed his wrist mid-swing which surprised him.

" Not this time Sir Beast Head of the Primates!", Dakota interjected which instantly received a chorus roomful of laughter from everyone in the gym. Even Cayela was laughing so hard that she fell to the floor, rolling around and slamming her fist down on the floor.

" Sir Beast Head of the Primates?! That is HILARIOUS Auntie Dakota!", Cayela screeched out as she continued to roll around on the floor laughing.

" Hey will somebody shut that girl up!", Randall interjected.

" Um hello that girl you're yelling about is my goddaughter and if she wants to laugh about what I said to you THEN SO BE IT! Leave her be! She's not hurting anybody! She's just an autistic teenager who's just trying to have a little bit of fun! You yell at her again and I'll shove your head down into a garbage can after I wipe the floor with you tonight! What do you say to that Beast Boy?!", Dakota interjected as she slammed Randall into one of the cage walls inside the octagon.

" I say get the hell out of my face SkullLoser!", Randall interjected as he shoved her back.

" How many times do I have to tell you it's Skullbreaker?!", Dakota interjected as she kicked him in the head. As the rematch fight continued everybody was going nuts rooting for both sides until Dakota finally took Randall down to the floor and pinned him down which ended the fight.

Ding ding ding!

Dakota's theme song started going off as Kenner, Artemis, her friends and family started going nuts. As Randall just laid there on the floor looking completely dumbfounded Dakota towered over him with a sly smirk and shouted, " THAT was for disrespecting me and trash talking my family! A**hole!" She turned away for a brief moment before she turned back around and gave Randall a hard kick to his leg as he was still laying there making him scream, " Ow!"

" Next time don't punch me in the face!", Dakota shouted before she exitted the octagon to celebrate with the others. She thanked Sheldon for helping her regain her confidence and for being a great friend despite his weird quirky behavior. In the middle of the night however, Cayela suddenly woke up, walked towards Leo's and Sheldon's bedroom and knocked softly on the door saying, " Mom, Dad?"

" What is it Cayela?", Leo asked when she quietly opened the door with Sheldon standing behind her.

" My stomach hurts!", Cayela cried with a hand on her stomach.

" Do you feel sick or something?", Sheldon asked in concern.

" No it just aches!", Cayela cried.

" Aww it's ok sweetheart, you probably just have a stomach ache. Sheldon can you please go see if we have any Pepto Bismol or something to give her? I'm going to try to get her to lay back down.", Leo said.

" I suppose that's a fair request. While you're doing so check to see if she's wet. Cayela may need her diaper changed too.", Sheldon said as he walked into the bathroom to rummage through the medicine cabinet.

" Ok.", Leo said as she walked her daughter back to her room. She changed Cayela's diaper after she discovered that it was wet and the moment she tucked Cayela back into her bed is when Sheldon walked in with the liquid Pepto Bismol bottle. A few moments after Cayela took the medicine she started to feel better and fell back asleep. Then 2 weeks later, Howard was getting ready to leave for another trip into space so his friends all headed to NASA to see him off. As they all said their goodbyes and wished him a safe trip Cayela had somehow wandered off to explore the facility without the knowledge of her parents and the others just letting her curious teenage mind run wild over everything she was seeing. Her curiosity, however, inadvertently lead her to the launch pad somehow and she soon found herself stuck on the space shuttle that Howard was about to board with the other astronauts. After they boarded and the shuttle blasted off Amy looked around the center and asked, " Hey has anyone seen Cayela?"

" No Amy, we haven't seen her.", Megynn said.

" This is ridiculous, where did she go?", Leonard asked in confusion.

" None of us know you asthmatic dumb ass! She was here with us a moment ago!", Penny hissed.

" Penny yelling at my husband right now is not going to do anything.", Dakota said as she rolled her eyes.

" Oh shut up Dakota!", Penny hissed.

" Oh good Lord not again! Please tell me someone didn't kidnap her again!", Sheldon shrieked.

" Honey calm down, we'll find her.", Leo said in concern as she gripped her husband's arm. They all started to search around but when they still couldn't find her Bernadette suddenly sprinted over to the space commander's desk station and shoved him out of the way grabbing the handheld radio mic making him scream, " Hey what are you…?!"

" Sorry I need to use this for a second!", Bernadette apologetically exclaimed before she pressed the button and screamed, " Howard Joel Wolowitz if you can hear this answer me now!"

" Hey you guys we got an incoming radio transmission from the center.", one of the male astronauts said as he picked up the handheld radio that was in the shuttle. The moment he heard the voice coming through it he turned his towards Howard and exclaimed, " Hey Fruit Loops it's for you!"

" Me? Who the hell is calling me?", Howard asked in confusion.

" Some woman with a high pitched squeaky voice.", the other astronaut said.

" Dude that's my wife, gimme it!", Howard hissed as he snatched the radio away, pressed the button and asked, " Bernadette MaryAnn Rostenkowski-Wolowitz what are you doing with the space commander's radio?!"

" Howie have you seen Cayela?!", Bernadette screamed into the radio.

" No our shuttle just left! Why?!", Howard asked in concern.

" Because we can't find her anywhere and we're freaking out!", Bernadette screamed.

" Oh son of a bi**h are you freaking kidding me?!", Howard asked in concern.

" Would I be calling you and screaming at you if I was you putz?!", Bernadette screamed.

" No you wouldn't! Ok ok don't panic, I'm sure she didn't get too far.", Howard hissed but then he said, " Wait a second I hear something behind me, what the…?" as he turned around in his seat and suddenly saw a hand slapping the window on the wall that separated the shuttle cockpit from the back of the shuttle and the moment he saw Cayela's head pop up in front of the window trying to gasp for air Howard screamed into the radio, " OH JEWISH HELL SHE'S ON OUR SHUTTLE!"

" WHAT?!", Leonard, Leo, Sheldon, Amy, Penny, Raj, Yesenia, Stuart, Dakota, Bernadette, Morgan, Kemdan, Carmen, Shelina, Melissa, Megynn and Axel screamed which made Bernadette drop the radio. The space commander jumped back into his seat as Howard screamed through the radio, " Houston we have a problem!"

" What's going on up there Astronaut Wolowitz?!", the space commander shouted through the radio.

" We have a serious life and death emergency here! My 14 year old niece Cayela Rachelle Fordyce-Cooper somehow got onto the back of the shuttle before it blasted off and now she's gasping for air! What do we do in a situation like this?!", Howard screamed as he started to freak out.

" Ok ok slow down I can't understand what you said there! What's going on?!", the space commander shouted.

" My niece is on the shuttle and she's suffocating!", Howard screamed.

" Ok yeah that's not good! This is serious! Tell the captain to turn the shuttle around and come back here immediately!", the space commander shouted.

" Uh sir we can't turn it around. We've already reached outer space and we're in route to the International Space Station.", the shuttle captain said when he took the radio from Howard.

" Oh crap this isn't good! Keep talking to him, I need to go back there!", Howard screamed at the shuttle captain as he took off his seat belt.

" The shuttle's still moving Fruit Loops! You can't get up yet!", another astronaut exclaimed.

" I don't care! It's better if something happens to me than my niece! She's just a teenager!", Howard screamed as he made his way to the back of the shuttle.

' Leo and Sheldon are so gonna kill me for this!', Howard thought as he pulled himself through the door hatch. A few of the other astronauts followed him back there too and once the shuttle reached the International Space Station they immediately notified a doctor that was working up there about the emergency situation. She boarded the shuttle within minutes and immediately started giving Cayela some oxygen while the shuttle was being flown back to Earth. Once it landed Cayela was immediately rushed to the NASA center's on-site infirmary.

" Mmm…"

" Hey she's waking up.", Shelina said as a soft smile began to spread across her face as well as everybody else in the room.

" Oh thank god you're alright Cayela!", Leo happily cried as she bent over and hugged her daughter.

" Where… where am I?", Cayela softly asked as she slowly looked around to find herself laying in a hospital bed hooked up to a heart monitor, pulse reader and a nose tube that was connected to a respirator. She could also see the faces of her parents and the others staring at her including the female doctor from the space station.

" You're at NASA's infirmary care center. You got stuck on a space shuttle traveling through space and lost consciousness due the lack of oxygen in your body. I'm Dr. Avis Metalhead, are you ok?", Dr. Metalhead said as she sat at the foot of the bed on a stool.

" Not really, can somebody please get me a bucket? I'm gonna…", Cayela softly said as tears started to form in her eyes.

" Oh dear Lord!", Sheldon exclaimed as he grabbed the waste basket that was sitting next to the bed and handed it to his daughter who then took it into her hands, sat up in the bed and immediately started throwing up into it. Leo and Sheldon both started rubbing her back as she continued to throw up. After about a few heaves she stopped and started to cry.

" Sweetheart are you alright?", Leo asked in concern.

" I don't feel good!", Cayela cried as she sat there in the bed wearing a blue scrub-like t-shirt with the NASA logo on it and her blue jean shorts covering her diaper.

" Aww it's ok, you probably just caught some astro flu bug that was going around up there. It's been floating around for a few days lately making a few of our astronauts sick.", Dr. Metalhead said.

" Sick?!", Sheldon shrieked as he jumped out of his seat and sprinted out of the room.

" Here we go.", Leonard said as he rolled his eyes.

" Sheldon would you calm down?! You're not going to catch it!", Howard hissed out the door into the hallway at his germophobic friend.

" Excuse me but you don't know that Wolowitz! It could be spreading this very instant and I certainly do not want to take any chances of getting sick from my daughter! So I shall stay out here until she is no longer sick!", Sheldon shrieked.

" Dr. Cooper I can assure you that this kind of flu is not contagious down here on Earth. You can only catch it in space. That's why it's called astro flu for a reason. Does that make sense to you?", Dr. Metalhead asked as she came to the doorway standing next to Howard.

" Yes, I suppose that makes sense.", Sheldon said as he started to calm down.

" Exactly. Please come back in the room.", Dr. Metalhead said as her and Howard stepped aside to allow Sheldon to walk back in.

" Yeah sit the hell back down Dr. Whackadoodle before you make me go all Nebraska on your a**!", Penny hissed as she pointed at the chair that Sheldon was sitting in before.

" That's not helping the cause Penny.", Sheldon said as he sat down back in his chair.

" Am I going to die?!", Cayela cried.

" No sweetie we're going to take really good care of you and you should be feeling better within a week or so.", Dr. Metalhead said.

" I'm scared! I want my cat!", Cayela cried.

" She wants her what?", Dr. Metalhead asked.

" Her cat Oreo. She wants one of us to go get her from home and bring her here.", Howard said.

" Well I don't think the infirmary allows pets.", Dr. Metalhead said as she shook her head.

" Ta loco what?!", Kemdan exclaimed.

" Are you freaking serious?!", Leonard, Leo, Sheldon, Raj, Penny, Amy, Bernadette, Stuart, Dakota, Yesenia, Morgan, Carmen, Shelina, Melissa, Megynn and Axel exclaimed.

" Oh come on this is ridiculous! Can you guys just bend the rules this once?! I really don't think you guys are going to want to listen to a teenage girl cry the whole time she's here. She's autistic and having her cat with her makes her feel better when she's sick. So can you please just let her have the damn cat in her room for the time being?", Howard said as he rolled his eyes.

" Well I suppose she can have her cat if it will keep her calm.", Dr. Metalhead said with a soft smile across her face.

" Thank you.", Howard said.

" Will one of you guys go pick up Oreo from the apartment and bring her here?", Leo asked.

" I'll go pick her up. I'll be right back.", Amy said as she got up and walked out.

" Thanks Amy.", Leo said.

" I want Oreo!", Cayela cried before she threw up in the waste basket again.

" Shhhh it's alright Cayela. Auntie Amy's picking her up. She'll be back in a moment.", Sheldon said. They all took turns trying to comfort her until Amy came back a few moments later with Oreo and a few of Oreo's things. Cayela immediately started to calm down the moment Amy handed Oreo to her. Oreo meowed as Cayela gently hugged her nuzzling her face into Oreo's soft black fur with a smile on her face. Oreo started purring too as she rubbed her face and body all over Cayela. It was shortly after this that Danny and Molly showed up running into the room all out of breath making Danny's police uniform hat fall off his head onto the floor.

" Finally we made it!", Danny said as he was trying to catch his breath.

" We rushed here as soon as we heard what happened! Is everything ok?!", Molly asked as she was trying to catch her breath too.

" Yeah everything's fine aside from the fact that Cayela caught the astro flu.", Leo said.

" Well that's not good Leo but thank the fudgin' space nuts she's ok and Danny your hat's on the floor!", Molly hissed as she pointed at her boyfriend's hat that was laying on the floor.

" Oh crap, I didn't even realize it fell off my head! Thanks for that Molly!", Danny exclaimed as he picked his hat up and put it back on his head.

" No problem.", Molly said before she kissed him.

" Smooth Sherlock Holmes.", Shelina sarcastically said to Danny as she rolled her eyes.

" Shelina Merrit shut up!", Danny spat back at her.

" Oh come on guys guys can't we just knock it off! This is not the time for, excuse my language, bi**hing at each other like drunken sailors! There's an astro flu stricken autistic teenager in the room and she doesn't need to hear this!", Leonard hissed at his friends as he gestured to Cayela who was throwing up again into the waste basket. Oreo had curled up next to her on the bed purring and nuzzling her head against Cayela's hip.

" Leonard nobody's doing anything like that.", Morgan said in confusion.

" Shut your trap Brisby.", Leonard said which made Morgan roll her eyes at him. She wanted to say something back but Leo gave her a look that said ' Don't even think about it.' Then shortly after Cayela had her diaper changed and she fell asleep that afternoon Leo told the others that her and Sheldon were going to run home for a moment to grab Cayela's ipod and a few of her Barbie dolls as well as her Raphael plushie considering the fact that Cayela was going to be staying at NASA's infirmary for a little while and that their daughter might feel better if she had a few of her comforts from home with her. The others agreed to stay with Cayela and once Leo and Sheldon were satisfied with that they left. Once they got to the apartment they went into Cayela's room, grabbed her ipod and her Raphael plush toy before they began searching the room for a few of her Barbie dolls that she likes playing with. But as they were looking and found some Sheldon went to pick up the last one only to have one of the legs on it come loose and break off by accident and upon further inspection of it, it was discovered to be non-salvageable because in addition to the now broken off leg the doll also had severely matted hair and there were marker stains all over it.

" Aww, it looks like we got one casualty here Leo that we unfortunately have to throw away. Cayela's not going to be too happy about it.", Sheldon sadly said as he showed the broken doll to his wife.

" Aww, it's ok Sheldon. We can get her new one on the way back to the facility.", Leo said.

" Well alright if you insist. I just hope she doesn't get too upset with me.", Sheldon said.

" Honey she's not going to get upset with you. She may cry about it a little bit but not she's not going to scream at you or anything. You're her father and she loves you.", Leo said as she looked at her husband.

" I suppose you're right. Let's head back to the facility.", Sheldon said as him and Leo grabbed what they came in for and walked out of the room. Sheldon then threw the broken Barbie doll into the garbage can in the kitchen before they left the apartment. They then stopped at a Walmart and bought the same doll to replace the broken one that Sheldon had thrown away before they arrived back at the infirmary center. It was about the same time that Cayela was waking up from her nap.

" Hello we're back.", Sheldon said as him and Leo walked back into the room.

" Hi Mom, hi Dad.", Cayela softly said as she sat up in the bed causing Oreo to shift her position next to Cayela letting out a meow. Everybody else was still in the room sitting around talking to each other.

" Oh hi sweetheart, how are you feeling?", Leo asked.

" A little better but still kind of nauseous. Where did you go?", Cayela softly asked.

" Your father and I went back to the apartment to pick up some stuff for you. We got your ipod, some of your Barbie dolls and your Raphael plush toy.", Leo said.

" Ooh yay!", Cayela exclaimed as she took her stuff from her mother. But as she pulled her dolls out her smile fell when she noticed that one of them was missing.

" Wait a minute, where's the doll that I use as the mother? She's missing.", Cayela asked in confusion.

" Cayela, unfortunately your father had to throw that one away.", Leo said with a sigh.

" What?! Why?!", Cayela exclaimed as tears started to form in her eyes.

" Yeah what the hell Sheldon?! Why would you do that?!", Penny hissed at her friend.

" Penny that vulgar language is not helpful at this time and to answer your question, it's because it broke. One of the legs accidentally came loose and broke off when I picked it up and not to mention the hair was all matted up and there was marker stains all over the body.", Sheldon said as he rolled his eyes.

" But I liked that one!", Cayela cried.

" Aww honey don't be sad, we got you a new one.", Leo said as she hugged her daughter.

" You did?", Cayela cried.

" Yes, see? It's the same doll and she's brand new. Your mother and I just picked it up from the store on our way here.", Sheldon said as he took the brand new doll out of the Walmart bag and handed it to her. The last tear fell from Cayela's face as she immediately perked back up.

" Thank you.", Cayela said.

" You're welcome sweetheart. I love you.", Sheldon said with a smile.

" I love you too.", Cayela said with a smile.

" What?! Why are y'all staring at me like that?!", Sheldon interjected with somewhat of a Texas twang when he noticed the stares and gawks that he was receiving from his friends.

" We're just surprised by your actions.", Howard said as the others agreed with him.

" Well it shouldn't surprise you, I would never throw something of my daughter's away and not replace it. What kind of father do you think I'd be if I did that?", Sheldon said.

" Probably a very crappy one dude.", Raj said.

" Shut it!", Howard hissed as he back slapped his best friend in the shoulder.

" Ow dude! I was just being honest, you don't need to hit me!", Raj shrieked as he rubbed his shoulder.

" What are you still doing here anyway Howard? We thought you would be off on your space trip by now.", Yesenia asked.

" I was Yesenia but then Cayela got curious enough to get on the shuttle and got sick so now we're scrubbing the launch.", Howard said.

" Well that makes sense.", Leonard said.

" Of course it does.", Howard said.

Knock knock!

" Who the hell is that at the door?", Molly asked.

" I don't know.", Danny said as he shrugged his shoulders.

" I'll handle this. Who's out there?", Sheldon asked through the closed door.

" It's Kirby. Who do you think it is Dr. Cooper?", Kirby asked as he stood on the other side of the door in the hallway with his sister Anna. Sheldon opened the door and said, " Hello."

" Uh, hi.", Kirby awkwardly said as he stood there with a bouquet of flowers in his hand with his sister standing behind him.

" If I'm permitted to ask, what exactly are you doing here?", Sheldon asked as he narrowed his eyes at his daughter's boyfriend.

" Oh, I just thought I'd stop by to see Cayela.", Kirby said.

" I see. How did you know she was here?", Sheldon asked.

" She sent me a text about it and told me what happened. Is she ok?", Kirby asked.

" Yes she's fine aside from the fact that she has astro flu.", Sheldon said.

" Oh, well is this a bad time for me to be here? Cause I can…", Kirby started to say but Sheldon said, " No no it's fine and who's this standing behind you?"

" Oh, this is my sister.", Kirby said as he pointed at Anna.

" Hi, I'm Anna. It's nice to meet you Dr. Cooper.", Anna said with a smile.

" And you as well.", Sheldon said.

" Can we come in for a few minutes?", Kirby asked.

" You may.", Sheldon said as he stepped aside allowing Kirby and Anna to walk in.

" Hi Kirby.", Cayela said with a smile.

" Hi Cayela. How are you feeling?", Kirby said with a smile as he grabbed her hand and held it in his.

" I'm fine just a little nauseous.", Cayela said.

" How did you end up on your Uncle Howard's space shuttle?", Kirby asked.

" I honestly don't know. I was curiously walking around exploring the facility and somehow I ended up on the shuttle before it took off.", Cayela said. Then when she noticed Anna standing next to Kirby she asked, " Kirby who's this next to you?"

" This is my older sister Anna. Anna this is my girlfriend Cayela.", Kirby said as he introduced Anna and Cayela to each other for the first time.

" I didn't know you had a sister.", Cayela said.

" Yeah I forgot to mention that. She's been out of town for at least a year.", Kirby said.

" Well it's nice to meet you Anna, I'm Cayela.", Cayela said.

" You too.", Anna said with a smile.

" So you've been out of town for a year? Where have you been?", Cayela asked.

" I've been on deployment in Iraq.", Anna said.

" You're in the Army?", Cayela asked.

" Yes. I'm a Lieutenant.", Anna said.

" That's cool. How old are you?", Cayela asked.

" I'm 19.", Anna said. They continued to talk for a bit until Anna suggested to the others that they should go out into another room so that Cayela and Kirby could spend some time alone with each other. They all left the room much to Sheldon's dismay leaving the two young adolescent lovers alone with Oreo.

" Meow!"

" Oh hi Oreo.", Kirby said as he gently petted her on the top of her head. Oreo nuzzled her face into his hand and started to pur.

" She really likes you.", Cayela said with a slight laugh.

" Yeah, so I've noticed. Hey, do you want to listen to some music?", Kirby asked.

" Sure, here's my ipod. See what you can find.", Cayela said as she handed her boyfriend her ipod. Kirby started to scroll through the playlist and eventually exclaimed, " Oh sweet! You got this song?!" as he showed Cayela the song he found which was E.K.N.Y by R.A. the Rugged Man feat. Inspectah Deck & Timbo King.

" Yeah cause I thought it was cool.", Cayela said.

" Are you kidding me?! This song's lit Cayela! Me, Skeeter and Kyle listen to this a lot when we get together!", Kirby exclaimed.

" Is Kyle another one of your friends?", Cayela asked.

" Yeah, the three of us are like best buds. We do a lot of stuff together, that is when I'm not hanging with you at the time.", Kirby said.

" Yeah that makes sense. I hang out with the girls a lot too when I'm not with you. Anyway, let's just listen to the song.", Cayela said.

" Ok. Do you need any help getting out of the bed?", Kirby asked.

" No I think I got it. I'll let you know if I do need help.", Cayela said as she slowly started to get up from the bed. Kirby switched her oxygen tube over a portable respirator and pressed play on his girlfriend's ipod turning the volume up all the way. As the two of them were waltzing around the room and kissing each other they were suddenly interrupted when someone started banging on the window. It was Kirby's ex-girlfriend.

" You got to be freaking kidding me! Hold on one second Cayela.", Kirby said as he headed to the window, opened it and climbed out shouting, " Toryee Bethany Grovinski what are you doing here?!"

" What do you mean what am I doing here Kirby Blake Rossfire? I want to talk to you.", Toryee said in a low emo-like voice.

" Why do you want to talk to me? We've haven't spoken to each other in a few years, not since you dumped me.", Kirby said as he rolled his eyes.

" Dumped you? What the hell are you talking about? I only screamed at you that day telling you to go away and leave me alone because I was stressed out and I didn't want to be bothered. I never said I was breaking up with you.", Toryee said in confusion as she stared at him with somewhat of a zombie-like stare.

" Well you can call it whatever you want Toryee but we haven't spoken since then so that pretty much tells you we're broken up.", Kirby said.

" That's because I've been really busy. But now I have some free time and so I wanted to come talk to you.", Toryee said.

" Well it's a little late for that now because I've moved on to another relationship. And if I'm being honest here, since I started this new relationship I realized I never really liked you in the first place.", Kirby said.

" That doesn't make any sense Kirby. If you never liked me then why did you date me to begin with?", Toryee asked as she rolled her eyes.

" Because I told you that I felt bad about your poor home life and I thought I could help you through it in some way. I never really liked you in the way that you seemed to kind of like me because honestly you're not really my type. I mean, sure you're pretty in your own way but your personality just doesn't really click with me. But what I will say is I hope you find someone that's better suited for you because you and I obviously don't mix.", Kirby said to his ex-girlfriend in an honest way.

" Is that your honest opinion of me?!", Toryee asked as she narrowed her eyes at him.

" Yes it is.", Kirby said.

" Well here's what I think of you Kirby, you're a jerk!", Toryee screamed in anger at her ex-boyfriend as she slapped him across the face before storming away.

" Ow! Fine, you can call me a jerk if you want Toryee! It doesn't bother me!", Kirby interjected as he rubbed the side of his face.

" Yeah whatever! Just don't talk to me ever again!", Toryee shouted back.

" Fine I can respect that because I honestly don't want to!", Kirby shouted before he climbed back in through the window and shut it behind him.

" Kirby who was that you were talking to?", Cayela asked.

" Don't worry about it Cayela, it was just my ex-girlfriend Toryee Grovinski. She wanted to talk to me but I told her I wasn't interested.", Kirby said.

" Well what did you say to her?", Cayela asked.

" I told her that I never really liked her cause she's not really my type and that the only reason why I dated her in the first place is because I felt bad for her poor home situation and I thought I could help her through it in some way. I said that she was pretty in her own way but her personality doesn't really click with mine and I wished her well in trying to find someone better suited for her but I guess she took my words as an insult to her so she called me a jerk and slapped me in the face.", Kirby said.

" Well that's rude! Screw her! She doesn't deserve you!", Cayela said.

" Yeah that's true, but you do.", Kirby said as he kissed her.

" Uh Kirby, could you hand me the bucket please?", Cayela asked as she began to feel the nausea coming back in her throat.

" Oh sure, here.", Kirby said as he handed her the waste basket.

" Thank you.", Cayela said before she threw up into it again. Kirby helped her sit down in a chair and started to gently rub her back as she continued to throw up.

" Are you alright?", Kirby asked.

" Yeah I'm fine I just got sick again. Oh that was a very dumb thing I did.", Cayela said.

" What was a dumb thing Cayela?", Kirby asked.

" Me stowing away on the space shuttle in the first place Kirby.", Cayela said.

" Cayela it's not your fault, we all do stupid and dumb things every once in a while too.", Kirby said.

" Yeah but this was very very dumb. I could have died.", Cayela said.

" Yeah that's true but you got lucky that you didn't.", Kirby said. Cayela nodded her head in agreement as she kissed him but shortly after that she began to feel her diaper becoming wet again which made it uncomfortable for her to sit still in the chair.

" Are you ok babe? Does something hurt?", Kirby asked as he stared at her.

" No.", Cayela said as she tried to sit still with tears forming in her eyes.

" Well do you think your diaper needs to be changed? That's the only thing I can think of.", Kirby asked.

" Yes!", Cayela cried out.

" Ok ok don't cry. Where's your stuff at?", Kirby asked.

" Over there by the bed!", Cayela cried out as she pointed to the bag that was sitting on the floor next to the bed.

" Ok hold on one second.", Kirby said as he ran over to the bed after he shut the music off. Once he got everything all set out he then shut the blinds on the window and shut the door before he picked up his girlfriend and carried her over to the bed.

" There, you feel better?", Kirby asked after he slipped Cayela's shorts back on and took the gloves off throwing the used items away.

" Yes thank you.", Cayela said as she sat up and kissed him again.

" You want to listen to some more music?", Kirby asked.

" Yes.", Cayela said as she stood up and the two of them turned the music back on. They continued to hang out until Anna said that she was ready to leave. Then the next day while Cayela was sitting in the bed watching tv she heard somebody knocking on the open door and turned her head to see her best friend Florence and the other girls.

" Hey bestie. How are you feeling?", Florence asked with a smile when she walked up to the bed as Charlotte, Summer, Julia, Robbie, Arista and Nim gathered around the bed as well.

" A little better than how I was feeling yesterday. How did you know I was here?", Cayela asked.

" Kirby texted me when I was hanging out with Terrance last night and told me what happened so then I told our friends and now here we are.", Florence said.

" We actually all got freaked out after she told us. What were you thinking Fordyce-Cooper?!", Charlotte asked.

" I didn't do it on purpose Charlotte! It was an accident that never should have happened in the first place.", Cayela laughed.

" Ok we're going to leave you girls alone in here for a bit to hang out. Come on you guys let's step out.", Leo said as she ushered everyone out of the room leaving the girls to themselves.

" Thanks Mom!", Cayela called out.

" Yo fudging Beach Boys are you freaking kidding me?! You got Club Can't Handle Me on your iPod Cayela?!", Julia exclaimed as she was scrolling her friend's playlist.

" Yeah. What about it Julia?", Cayela asked.

" I freakin love this song! I used to take my brother Mark's car keys when he wasn't looking a few times and go sit in his car in the driveway listening to it with the windows down from dawn til dusk which always made him mad as well as my parents! My mother used to scream at me out the den window saying, "Shut that bass off and come back into the house Julia before I come out there and, excuse my language for a second, whip yo ass!", Julia interjected before she started laughing her butt off causing her friends to laugh too.

" Oh man that's hilarious!", Summer laughed.

" Yeah I totally agree!", Robbie laughed.

" Well if you want to listen to it, go ahead! I don't care!", Cayela laughed.

" Ok!", Julia laughed as she turned the song on and started to show off in front of her friends who all started laughing at her hilarious antics. As Julia was stomping and flapping her arms around to the beat of the music Arista laughed, "What are you doing Julia?!"

" Arista what does it look like I'm doing?! I'm acting like a freak!", Julia laughed.

" Jules you're so weird yet so funny sometimes! You're seriously a great friend to hang out with!", Florence laughed.

" Same to you Florence! You're all great friends!", Julia laughed. As the girls were dancing around the room Charlotte suddenly enthusiastically screeched some of the song lyrics making herself laugh hysterically as well as her friends which caught the attention of the adults who were in another room talking to each other.

" What the hell?!", Penny hissed when she came back into the room with the others.

" Penny shut up!", Dakota hissed as she smacked her friend in the chest.

" Good Lord! Who just screeched in here at an obnoxious level?!", Sheldon interjected as he narrowed his eyes at his daughter and her friends.

" Dad calm down! That was Charlotte!", Cayela laughed as she fell backwards on the bed.

" Charlotte, why must you be so annoying sometimes?!", Sheldon scolded her.

" Because it's funny Dr. Cooper! I was just trying to have some fun!", Charlotte laughed.

" Well I would very much appreciate it if you would keep your voice down! We're inside a building! Use your inside voice!", Sheldon scolded.

" Sorry.", Charlotte laughed. The girls continued to hang out listening to music until they went home except for Florence who decided to stay the night. In the middle of the night however unknown to Cayela, Florence and the adults something was going on at the Pasadena Women's Correctional facility in the maximum security wing. Ramona had somehow gotten a hold of materials and chemicals to create a tear gas bomb and after she sealed the canister she attached it to the cell door and hit the activation button before she backed up against the far wall of the cell and shielded her face with a metal bucket just as the bomb exploded blowing the door off the hinges. The explosion immediately set off the escape alarms and inmates were shouting at the top of their lungs as Ramona was seen running down the cell block corridor and down a stairwell. Several officers started to chase her shouting at her while trying to subdue her but she attacked them before she escaped out the main entrance gate to the prison out into the streets of Pasadena. She then went into hiding to plan out her next move.

** Important author's note: fair warning you, Ramona is coming back in the next chapter for one more encounter with the gang. Please don't think I ruined the story by making this happen, I just feel like she needs some kind of intriguing exit and something that you would have never guessed before. Please keep in mind that this next thing I'm about to reveal about her is a completely made up secret that I feel will add a good plot twist to the story. What do you think will happen next? Let me know in the comments. To be continued...