Chapter 14 – The Chance Encounter Reoccurrences

Priya walked into the apartment building, placed the large gift bag on the floor and rubbed her hands down her suit jacket to smooth it out. She glanced over at the elevator, thinking of the conversation she had with her brother earlier that morning.

"Priya, I know you. All you want to do is find out any information you can on their marriage and I'm telling you now, it's strong. He has children with her now. Leave him alone. He's no longer available. Please, I'm begging you." Raj had said, a pleading look on his face.

Priya had smiled at him. "I'm just going over there to give the boys a birthday gift. I hadn't realized it was their birth…"

"Oh, bullshit!" Raj spat out at her. "You knew it was their birthday. You're just using it as an excuse to snoop around and cause problems for them."

Priya had continued to decorate the gift bag, adjusting the tissue paper at the opening as he talked. She finally glanced up at him with a smile on her face.

"Raj, I assure you, I'm not here to cause problems for Leonard and Penny. I just want to give the twins a belated birthday gift."

Raj crossed his arms and glared at her. "You do realize that Leonard probably won't be there and if he is, he'll be busy." Raj informed her.

Priya looked up in surprise. "Oh. Well, maybe I'll run into him and maybe I won't. But I'm sure someone will be there this morning." She stated, grabbing her purse along with the gift bag. "I'll see you later." She stated as she walked out the door.

Priya smiled as she picked up the gift bag again heading for the stairs. She knew the elevator was working again but it was too slow for her liking and besides, she didn't want to be heard by either resident on the 4th floor when the elevator reached the floor. The stairs would be quieter.

She took her time reaching the 4th floor. When she finally got to the last set of stairs, she noticed someone standing in the hallway between the two apartments. She hoped it would be Leonard but her smile fell and her stomach dropped and twisted into knots when she saw the blond-haired man with wire rimmed glasses.

What the hell is he doing here? She thought to herself, thinking quickly of an escape route.

She would simply need to run back down the stairs if need be. The hair on her arms and the back of her neck rose and she instantly became aware of her surroundings. Her fight or flight responses were kicking in. Her heart skipped a beat and she wanted to flee right then and there when he looked up and noticed her. His eyes narrowed with recognition and his grin was menacing.

"Well, we meet again, Miss…." He said, trying to remember her name.

"Koothrappali." She stated quietly. "Surprising to see you here in California, Dr. Bates."

He chuckled softly. "Well, after my unfortunate situation out there in Maine, as you well know, I had to relocate. What better place than sunny California?" He asked, his grin returning. "And how do you find yourself here?"

"I have a brother who lives here and I'm visiting with a friend." She answered, motioning towards the door of 4A. "And you? What are you doing here? This apartment building? Do you know someone who lives here as well?"

"Yes. Dr. Cooper."

Priya's mind raced with questions but the one kept repeating itself. What the hell was Sheldon doing associating with someone like Owen Bates?

XXXXXXX

Penny came out into the living room, a laundry basket under one arm, and sat it on the couch next to the other basket she had brought out earlier. She went about sorting the laundry in the two baskets, humming along to a song on one of the shows the boys watched earlier that morning.

Leonard had left with the boys over an hour earlier to take them to a friend's house and to meet up with the other guys to gather equipment to place the security cameras back up. Penny didn't understand why they had taken them down in the first place. If it had been up to her, they would've stayed up. They were nice to have. It would've been nice to have proof about the strange blond man that had broken into Sheldon's apartment the night before.

As she was sorting the laundry, she could hear voices out in the hall and she ran to the door to open it, thinking it was the guys. The first thing she noticed was the absolute terror in Priya's eyes. The second thing she noticed was the blond man from the night before, a menacing grin on his face as his attention moved from Priya to her, causing her stomach to constrict and the hairs on her arms to rise.

She looked back at Priya and smiled at her. "It's about time you got you. You're late." She said, reaching out and pulling the woman into the apartment. She turned back to the man and smiled at him. "Have a nice day." She said sweetly before closing and locking the door.

Without saying a word, she pulled Priya into the kitchen. "Are you okay?" She asked her. "Do you know who that guy is?"

Priya struggled to catch her breath. She started shaking uncontrollably and Penny quickly got her a bottle of water out of the refrigerator. Priya took it and drank from it quickly.

"I have no idea why you did what you did, but thank you. Thank you so much!" She told Penny, tears forming in her eyes, one managing to escape and fall down her cheek.

Penny sat down on one of the stools at the kitchen island and looked directly at Priya. "It's simply the girls code. When it comes to creepy ass guys, us girls have to stick together and have each other's back. No exceptions. I hate you're fucking guts but I also recognized the fear in your eyes and I saw that same guy just the night before break into Sheldon's apartment."

Priya's eyes widened in surprise and Penny told her everything that had taken place the night before, starting with the twins hide and seek game that ended badly.

XXXXXXX

"So…You want to explain the grin plastered on your face or do we have to guess?" Howard asked the tall physicist. Raj and Leonard chimed in with Howard, wanting answers to the change in Sheldon's happy mood.

"If I were to guess, I'd say he got lucky last night with one of the neighbors." Leonard said with a mischievous grin.

Raj almost dropped the equipment he was carrying into the apartment building. "You're sleeping with Mrs. Vartabedian? Does Mr. Wang know you're sleeping with her? Dude that is just so…not your type." Raj said, looking like he had just eaten something disgusting.

Leonard and Sheldon both looked at him with annoyance.

"We don't know if Mrs. Vartabedian and Mr. Wang are having an affair. And the neighbor I'm referring to is the one that moved into Mrs. Gunderson's old apartment. Her name's Amy." Leonard told him.

Sheldon pointed a finger at Leonard. "Actually, as of last night, we now have proof they are having an affair. I'll tell you about it later though. I promised Penny she'd be the first to know if I found out anything."

Leonard looked at him skeptically. "Really? She's finally got you pulled into her gossip group now?"

Sheldon shrugged. "Well, no. When she first brought it up, I just agreed with her to shut her up but now that I actually have something…"

Leonard crossed his arms, and scoffed at him. "Oh, what proof do you have?" He asked.

"While I was at Amy's last night, an old college buddy stopped by but got the wrong apartment. He started banging on Mrs. Vartabedian's door and Mr. Wang answered." Sheldon said, a smug look on his face. "In his underwear."

"Oh, hey that's bad timing. So, you didn't get any after all." Howard stated, sounding a bit disappointed that he wouldn't get to hear any details of the latest conquest. It had been awhile. At least for Sheldon. Raj was still providing him stories though.

"Actually, I did. Mr. Wang told him I lived upstairs. We never bothered opening the door. And I ended up getting some…. Several times." Sheldon said with a grin.

The guys chuckled good naturedly. But Leonard stopped, looking down in thought. "Hey Sheldon. What ever happened to your old college buddy? Did he leave?"

"Amy said he went upstairs. Probably to knock on my door but of course I wasn't home." Sheldon said, putting the equipment down in the elevator floor.

"What does this college buddy look like?" Leonard asked.

Sheldon looked at his friend questioningly. "Why?"

"Curious."

Sheldon shrugged his shoulders. "Blond hair, slicked back, blue eyes, wire rimmed glasses. Average built, taller than you." He added the last part with a grin. The grin dropped from his face when he saw Leonard was still lost in thought.

"Why?" Sheldon asked again.

Leonard put the equipment he was carrying on the elevator floor next to the equipment Sheldon put there.

"I'll let Penny tell you about it."

XXXXXXX

"You mean to tell me he got off? No jail time or anything? What about the girl he raped? Didn't they believe her?" Penny asked, shooting off a ton of questions at Priya.

Priya shook her head, taking a sip of her tea. "Sara was too afraid to press charges. I don't know if she was just afraid to in general or if he got to her and threatened her. Either way, she wouldn't press charges and it was basically her word against his. But Penny, if you had seen her after it happened. It was like two different people. One day she was bubbly and energetic and flirty and the next she wouldn't talk to anyone, or smile and jumped away if any man came near her."

Priya looked back at the door. Penny noticed she had done that several times as they talked. She still seemed nervous and on edge.

"Do you still think he's in the hall?" Penny asked her.

"I don't know. What I'm really wondering is how Sheldon knows him and why he would associate with someone like that." Priya said.

Suddenly the front door flew open and the girls jumped out of their seats. The four men stood in the doorway, their mouths hanging open at the sight they saw in the kitchen. Penny and Priya, two women that hated each other, sitting at the kitchen island drinking tea and chatting as if they were old friends.

"What is happening?" Leonard finally asked.

The women were finally able to calm their racing hearts to speak. They both went to Sheldon, both asking questions at the same time.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. One at a time, ladies. Penny." Sheldon said, looking at the blond.

"How do you know Owen Bates?" Priya asked, jumping in first.

"I asked Penny to speak…."

"Answer the damn question, Sheldon." Penny demanded.

Sheldon looked a bit shocked. "When I was 17, I went to Germany to teach at a university. I was a visiting professor there. Owen was a student and they happened to put me in his room since I was a minor. We became friends. But after I went back home to Texas, I never saw him again until recently. He happened to walk into Micki's bar a few weeks ago and we exchanged numbers. But I haven't seen or spoke to him since. Why?"

The two women began to talk at the same time again.

"Stop it! Stop! One at a time." Sheldon said. "Priya."

"I saw him break into your apartment last night." Penny said, jumping in before Priya could say anything.

"Oh my God!" Leonard said in shock. "You really did see a man break in. Honey, I'm…."

Penny glared at him. "See, I told you. And he's as creepy as I knew he was. He raped someone Priya knew years ago."

"What?" The guys said all at once.

Priya told them the story of how she met Owen. He had been a client at her law firm in Maine for a case where he was being accused of plagiarism. He had started pursuing a clerk at the office named Sara but she was interested in a fellow co-worker and kept refusing to go out with Owen. But Owen wouldn't take no for an answer and had ended up raping her when she continued to refuse his advances.

"And from what I heard, it wasn't the first time he was accused of raping someone." She said, looking at Sheldon. "I always did get an uneasy feeling about him but he never did anything or say anything to me. Sheldon what do you know about him?" Priya asked, sitting on the cream colored chair next to the couch.

Sheldon went to the couch and sat down. "When I knew him, he developed a crush on another student there. A couple of weeks before finals, Owen and I went to a party and we eventually got separated." He sighed heavily before continuing.

"After a while, I got to talking with this girl and we ended up getting sucked into a drinking game of some kind. The next thing I know, we're making out and ended up sleeping together. Turns out, it was the same girl he had a crush on. I ran into her a week later and we ended up sleeping together again."

"Is that the one you lost your virginity to in Germany?" Leonard asked him.

"Yeah. Amy." Sheldon answered. "Amy from downstairs is the same Amy from Germany." Sheldon said with a grin.

"Oh, my God!" Penny said excitedly, putting her hands over her mouth. "That is so sweet that you found each other again." A grin spreading over her face. Followed quickly by a horrified one.

"Oh my God!" She said in horror. "That creep….Owen whatshisname. Does he know Amy's here too?" She asked Sheldon.

Sheldon sighed again and looked down at his hands. "Yeah. He's working at UCLA now and when Amy first moved out here, she ran into him there. He started pursuing her right away but she's been turning him down. Then I kept running into her and we started going out. He knows we're both here but he doesn't know where Amy lives. At least not yet. But he was super shy around girls when I knew him. But now, he does seem more confident, more…I don't know. He just doesn't seem to be the same and yet, I guess I didn't notice before until now." He said, seemingly to himself.

Everyone stood around, not knowing what to say. Then suddenly, Raj remembered.

"Oh, shit." Raj said quietly looking at his sister. "You mentioned something at the twin's birthday party. About the girl Sheldon was walking around with at the park. That was Amy he was with. You said she looked like Sara, a clerk you knew back in Maine."

Priya looked back at him with a horrified look on his face and turned to look at each person in the room. "Oh my God! She did. That girl Amy looks just like Sara."

A/N: Again, I apologize for taking so long to post an update. I'm currently working on several other different Shamy stories. Sometimes, when you write, you get an idea in your head and you just have to get it out on paper (or computer screen, rather….lol). Then when I get it out, I'm able to come back to this one and work on it. But don't worry. I WILL finish this one. Might take me awhile but I will finish it. And when I have one of the other stories finished, I'll start publishing it also. But I don't want to publish a new one until it gets finished so I don't run into this problem again. Being in the middle of a story and another one (and a second and third) pop in your head and you're unable to concentrate on the current one until you get the ideas of the others out of your head. Anyway, here's the next chapter. Hope you like it and reviews are greatly appreciated. I'm almost done with the next chapter so see you soon…