A/N: Sorry guys, meant to post this yesterday but I stayed up all night reading Heat Rises and then I went to a gun show with my dad (still gunless, tho, those things are expensive and I have tiny hands *sadface*) and when I finally got home at 6 I passed the fuck out. So here's the last chapter!

Enjoy!

An investigation had been launched to find the robot hacker. Sabotage on anything for NASA couldn't go unpunished. The FBI crime scene unit combed the place inch by inch, corner to corner, but found nothing out of the ordinary; fingerprints all matched employees who had been ruled out by alibis or lack of motive. A specialist was going over each hair found, matching it to each person. There weren't many, but DNA evidence took a long time to process, despite what tv leads us to believe.

The allotted time passed and the results came. A single hair was found that didn't match any of the JPL employees. President Seibert ordered the entire Cal-Tech staff to submit to DNA testing, and Sheldon felt a tiny tendril of fear snake through him. Maybe he hadn't been as careful as he'd thought. He knew he'd avoided the cameras, but it's possible a hair had escaped the hood. He acquiesced, all the while reassuring himself.

He needn't have worried. When the FBI pulled Leonard in for questioning Sheldon knew what had happened. One of Leonard's hairs from the hoodie must have dislodged and fallen to the floor. Sheldon was once again in the clear, as they say.

Leonard was harassed by the government for days before they let him go. Sheldon listened to his complaints and relished the psychological damage being done. It hadn't been part of the plan, but Sheldon was willing to relish it all the same.

~*DD*~*DD*~*DD*~

(This scene is brought to you because of Risknight. I had this thing finished, but she said something about a squirming Leonard scene and I just - I had to. Ask and ye shall receive, my dear.)

Leonard sat in the cold aluminum chair, hands cuffed together, wearing a white jumpsuit. He'd been in this spartan room for hours now. They had given him a glass of water when he arrived, told him to sit tight, and that the agent would be there in a while. He had to go to the bathroom, but he was too scared to ask. What was his hair even doing in the JPL? The last time he'd visited Howard in the lab was weeks ago. Surely the janitors swept more often than that?

Suddenly the door opened to a tall, beautiful brunette with stunning eyes and an even more stunning figure. As beautiful as she was, she was that much more intimidating with the scowl on her face. She was quickly followed by a guy who looked like a body guard, or a bouncer, but had the same kind of badge on his hip as the woman.

"Hello, Dr. Hofstadter, my name's Special Agent Katic, this is Special Agent Huertas. Let's start by telling us why your hair was found in the JPL when only employees are allowed in the lab?"

Leonard could barely think straight. The need to urinate conflicted with his self-preservation and skewed his focus. The effect the agents saw was a very skittish and conflicted looking man.

Special Agen Katic opened a folder, presumably his record. Leonard briefly felt relief at how small it was, but felt that relief drop out of his stomach as dread replaced it.

"Whatever happened to that rocket fuel you were working on, doctor?" she asked, calm as can be. "Did you give it to Joyce Kim before she was deported?" Leonard was close to panicking, and close to wetting himself. Probably the effect they were going for.

"I TOOK IT HOME TO SHOW MY FRIENDS BUT MIXED IT WRONG AND BLEW UP THE ELEVATOR IN MY BUILDING!" He was near tears now, but continued. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean for it to happen, but I just wanted my friends to think I was cool. But I swear, I had nothing to do with Howard! He's my friend! I would never hurt him!" Sheldon's face flashed behind his closed eyelids and he realized the truth of what he'd done. He'd hurt his best friend. Special Agent Huertas, standing silently in the corner of the room, movied forward to say something, but was interrupted.

A knock at the door signalled his lawyer's arrival.

"You can't interrogate my client about an incident that happened years ago and has nothing to do with this case. You have nothing and you know it so you're fishing. Leave. Let me speak to my client alone."

Special Agent Katic nodded and stood. "We'll be back. Don't skip town, doctor."

~*DD*~*DD*~*DD*~

Patience is a virtue, and one Sheldon employed often. Two weeks after the incident the feds gave up. The case was cold. A week later Sheldon entered the experimental physics lab. This room only had one camera, which he hacked into and put on a ten second loop. Free to do as he pleased until lunch was over, Sheldon started tweaking things. It was only Leonard and Leslie in the lab today, and Sheldon didn't care what happened to Leslie. She was a bitch who believed Loop Theory. She deserved whatever happened just as much as Leonard for all the mocking and teasing over the years.

As it was, Leslie was in the bathroom when the laser exploded.

Sheldon had rigged the laser display to show only a fraction of the output, so when Leonard had dialed it up to 4 it was really 3x that.

The cube he had intended to heat melted and the laser itself overheated and exploded. Shrapnel flew everywhere. One piece embedded in Leonard's clavicle and another gashed the side of his head, knocking him unconscious. A larger piece hit a chemical cabinet, breaking vials of corrosives. Some of the chemicals mixed and ate the metal, and others emitted a noxious gas that quickly filled the room.

Finally, the smoke from the laser set off the fire alarm and sprinklers, drawing people to see what was wrong.

Leonard was rushed to the hospital. They bandaged the shrapnel wounds and treated the poison gas inhalation as best they could, but he was comatose for almost two weeks, during which time his friends visited often, but Sheldon and Penny only visited once.

"Some coma patients can still hear the things around them," Sheldon told Penny. "I can only hope that's true. I want him to know it was me." He leaned close to Leonard's ear and whispered. "Don't ever mess with my work, Leonard. You will not come out ahead. Be glad it wasn't worse."

Penny watched him threaten his ex-best friend. She knew she should probably feel bad for Leonard, but she just couldn't bring herself to feel anything but satisfaction. And seeing that satisfied look in Sheldon's eyes, like cold fire, did things to her. Penny thought of a different act that could put that look on his face.

"Sheldon," Penny tugged his hand. "Let's go home. We can go to comic book store later. There's something I wanna do first." The look in her eye left little doubt as to what it was she meant, and Sheldon was eager to agree. It seemed the satisfaction of conquering his betrayers left him hungry for more.

And he knew just what to consume to slake his hunger.

~*DD*~*DD*~*DD*~

Three days after Leonard woke from his coma and the second day he'd been home, the FBI had returned with a warrant for his arrest in the jet fuel case they'd just reopened. He looked over at Sheldon, typing on his laptop, and could've sworn he saw a smirk on his face. It reinforced the niggling thought that Sheldon was behind everything. He'd had a nightmare while in the hostpital that Sheldon stood over his bed with a knife to his injured clavicle, whispering about messing with his work.

Leonard was charged with theft of government property and reckless endangerment regarding the jet fuel. Sheldon couldn't have been happier. It was an unforseen side effect of his revenge, but he and Penny were more than willing to relish it.

Penny came over that same day and wrapped her arms around Sheldon's middle. "So, Howard's throat's better. Halo night? We've still got four people." She smiled and Sheldon could deny her nothing.

"As long as you're on my team I'm up for anything."