Peggy's Apartment
Adam and Peggy were deep in a heart-to-heart when the phone cut through the silence with its shrill ring.
"Gotta be Sheldon—probably freaking out about that security thing again," Adam said, snagging the phone and giving it a playful little shake at Peggy before picking up.
"Hey, Sheldon."
"Who's this?" Sheldon demanded, dead serious, even though he obviously knew Adam's voice.
"...Adam Duncan," Adam replied, his mouth twitching slightly.
"How do I know you're really Adam Duncan?"
Sheldon's voice dripped with suspicion, paired with a smug, dismissive smirk. He acted like he was perched above the stratosphere, untouchable, and nothing could slip past him.
"Remember that time in science class when Dr. Ronaldo Hodges from the Houston Johnson Space Center came to guest lecture? Our teacher invited him, he totally blew you off, and then you schooled him hard?"
Adam tossed out the memory like it was no big deal.
"Ha! I knew it—you're aliens pretending to be Adam!"
On the other end, Sheldon's tone screamed 'called it!' "Adam doesn't give a crap about that stuff. Only you aliens would obsess over Earth's space program.
Oh, wait—I designed that booster rocket recycling system, didn't I? It's gonna slash launch costs big time. Once it's up and running, Earth's space game will level up—huge threat to you extraterrestrials! That's why you're here to kidnap me, isn't it?"
"..."
Adam's eye twitched.
Anyone else who thought like that—and had the guts to say it—would've been carted off to a psych ward ages ago.
Sheldon, though? He'd been mistaken for a nutcase more times than you could count.
Like that night he broke into a playground and dove into the ball pit, swimming around like it was the freaking ocean. The security guard caught him and called Leonard. When Leonard showed up to apologize, the guard just waved it off: "No biggie, my cousin's got a 'special' kid like that…" Leonard wanted to argue, but he bit his tongue. Then he spent half the night playing hide-and-seek in the ball pit, chasing Sheldon as he bobbed up and down like a manic submarine.
Or that time Sheldon's hair got shaggy, but his regular barber was stuck in the hospital. He wouldn't let the guy's nephew touch him—only his usual barber would do. So, he marched into the hospital with a pair of scissors, clicking them next to the comatose barber's ear, hoping the familiar snip-snip would jolt the guy awake to give him a trim. A nurse walked in, pegged him as a runaway from the psych floor, and started cooing "sweetie" to keep him calm while she ran for security. Sheldon, pro that he is, pocketed the scissors and hightailed it out of there. One more second, and he'd have been strapped to a gurney for real.
Emmm.
That's Sheldon—Adam's good ol' pal. 🤷♂️
"Remember when…"
Adam sighed, racking his brain for some tiny, random moments only the two of them would know. They both had photographic memories—sharp as a tack—so even the smallest, oldest stuff came back like it was yesterday.
"Poor Adam," Sheldon tsked, shaking his head. "You've got him under your thumb, huh? Scanned his brain with your memory-reading tech? If you hadn't, how could he recall all that? He's not me! Hmph, you're not fooling me!"
Adam wanted to fire back a snarky "Oh, come on!"—but, okay, Sheldon's wild theory kind of held water. 🤔
Most people's smarts are set from birth. Back when Adam hung out with Sheldon, he was still sharpening his brain, nowhere near genius territory yet. To Sheldon, he was just some regular dude. So, could a regular dude pull up a random memory from years ago—scene, words, tone, expressions, all in HD? Nope. Sheldon's paranoia wasn't totally off-base.
Adam, though, wasn't normal—he was a transmigrator with a system, leveling up to a photographic memory even super geniuses might envy. How was that any different from aliens hijacking his brain with a memory reader? Which sounded crazier? It's not like it was 2020, with Chinese transmigration novels flooding the U.S. Sure, Adam wrote Lord of the Mysteries, a transmigration story, but it had a golden finger, not a system. The whole "system transmigration" trope hadn't hit the mainstream yet. So, yeah, Sheldon's alien theory made sense in his head.
"I…"
Adam opened his mouth, then threw in the towel. "Fine, Peggy, you talk to him!"
He flipped the phone to speaker mode.
"Peggy?"
Sheldon snorted. "It's 2:23 AM in New York. How's Peggy gonna chat with me? Still claiming you're not aliens?"
"Would aliens pull this off…"
Peggy took the reins, diving into a rapid-fire exchange with Sheldon in their geeky, high-IQ math lingo.
Adam's brain checked out. He hadn't tackled those theories yet—stuff that took history's greatest minds their whole lives to crack. Even as a super genius now, he couldn't just get it without serious study. Their convo was lightning-fast and loaded with jargon—total gibberish to him.
They yammered on for a full thirty minutes.
"Okay, fine, you're Peggy," Sheldon relented. "Aliens might snag memories, but they can't hijack your brain. If they could, I'd be screwed anyway."
Then his tone shifted, curious. "But why are you with Adam at this hour?"
"You don't remember? It was your idea," Peggy said with a grin.
"My idea?"
Sheldon paused, then lit up. "Oh, ohhh~ You mean you two are ?"
Adam's mouth twitched. "Can you not use that word?"
It was one of Sheldon's favorites, but it grated like nails on a chalkboard.
"Got it."
Sheldon pivoted without missing a beat. "So, you're saying you two are @#?"
"…"
Adam gave up talking. God only knew what other cringe terms Sheldon had up his sleeve.
"Yup," Peggy said, cool as ever. "And thanks to your tip, my math research is unstuck. The ideas just keep flowing. If this keeps up for a year, I might crack the complete conjecture."
"For real? It's that good?" Sheldon marveled.
"For me, yeah," Peggy replied with a smile.
"No way!"
Sheldon's jealousy kicked in. "I've gotta try it too!"
"You? Want to try?"
Sheldon—the guy who'd never budge—was suddenly curious. When Penny heard about it later, she was so floored she crushed a wine glass in her hand. Picturing that, Adam instinctively let go of whatever he was gripping. Then, after Sheldon's next blunt ramble,
Adam: "…"