Chapter 13: Soft Kitty Sacrifice
Two hundred and one dollars and ninety cents.
Kayel stared at his bank balance with the kind of satisfaction that came from finally having enough money to breathe without calculating the cost of each inhale. The Penny Blossoms commissions had been steady, and he'd picked up several small web development projects that didn't require system intervention. For the first time since transmigrating to this universe, he had what could almost be called financial stability.
Which made the announcement from apartment 4A all the more exciting.
"Planet of the Apes marathon!" Howard's voice carried through the thin walls. "All five movies, starting at noon. We've got popcorn, we've got beer, and we've got Leonard's commentary about the scientific implausibility of simian evolution."
"Planet of the Apes. I love those movies. Haven't seen them since college."
Kayel was already mentally clearing his schedule when he heard it—a sound so pathetic, so utterly miserable, that it made his plans grind to a halt.
"Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur..."
The singing was coming from 4A, weak and nasal and delivered with all the musical talent of a dying walrus. Sheldon's voice, unmistakable even when filtered through what sounded like severe congestion.
"Happy kitty, sleepy kitty, purr, purr, purr..."
"Oh, no. Sheldon's sick. This is going to be a problem."
[QUERY: $0.10]
Balance: $201.80.
Through the wall, Kayel could hear Leonard's increasingly desperate attempts to manage his sick roommate.
"Sheldon, you need to drink more fluids."
"I don't want fluids. I want my mother."
"Your mother lives in Texas."
"Then bring Texas here."
"Poor Leonard. He's probably trapped in there playing nursemaid to the world's most demanding patient."
[QUERY: $0.10]
Balance: $201.70.
Kayel sat on his bed, torn between self-preservation and something that felt uncomfortably like empathy. He could go to the marathon, enjoy five movies about intelligent apes taking over the world, and pretend he couldn't hear the suffering happening twenty feet away. It was the smart choice, the financially responsible choice.
Or he could help.
"What actually helps with a cold? Basic remedies, symptom management, that kind of thing."
[COMMON COLD REMEDIES: $0.50. SYMPTOM MANAGEMENT AND TREATMENT OPTIONS.]
Fifty cents. It was a tiny amount compared to his current balance, barely enough to buy a candy bar. And having actual medical knowledge might be useful for more than just Sheldon's current crisis.
"System," he said quietly. "Purchase common cold remedies information."
[ACCEPTED. PROCESSING...]
The information flowed into his mind like a gentle stream rather than the usual violent flood. Chicken soup for hydration and electrolytes. Zinc lozenges to potentially reduce duration. Humidified air to ease congestion. Rest and fluids as the foundation of recovery. Over-the-counter medications for symptom relief, with specific dosages and timing recommendations.
[BALANCE: $201.40.]
Armed with this knowledge, Kayel made a decision that he suspected he'd regret. He grabbed his jacket and headed for the door.
The grocery store run took twenty minutes and cost him another twelve dollars—soup, zinc lozenges, throat spray, and a bag of cough drops that claimed to contain "soothing menthol." By the time he returned to the building, he could hear the Planet of the Apes marathon starting up in Howard and Raj's apartment upstairs.
"I'm missing Charlton Heston for Sheldon Cooper. This better be worth it."
[QUERY: $0.10]
Balance: $189.30.
He knocked on the door to 4A and waited. After a long moment, Leonard opened it, looking like he'd been through a war zone. His hair was disheveled, his shirt was wrinkled, and he had the haunted expression of someone who'd been dealing with a sick Sheldon for hours.
"Kayel," Leonard said with obvious relief. "Thank God. Please tell me you're here to help, because I'm running out of reasons not to smother him with a pillow."
"I brought supplies," Kayel said, holding up the grocery bag. "Soup, zinc, throat stuff. How bad is it?"
"He's convinced he's dying. He's also convinced that I'm personally responsible for his illness, his discomfort, and the general inadequacy of modern medicine."
From the living room came Sheldon's voice, weak but still imperious: "Leonard! My tissues are insufficiently soft! These generic brands are an affront to nasal dignity!"
"See what I mean?" Leonard whispered.
They entered the living room to find Sheldon wrapped in blankets on the couch, surrounded by tissues, empty soup cans, and various medications. He looked genuinely miserable—pale, congested, and wearing the expression of someone who'd never been sick a day in his life and was personally offended by the experience.
"Kayel," Sheldon said, his voice stuffed with congestion. "Have you come to witness my decline? Because I want it noted that this is all Leonard's fault for exposing me to the general public and their pestilent respiratory secretions."
"I brought soup," Kayel said, pulling the container from his bag. "Real chicken soup, not the canned stuff. And zinc lozenges."
Sheldon's eyes widened with something that might have been gratitude. "Zinc? You brought zinc?"
"Helps reduce the duration of symptoms. Take one every two hours."
"How do you know that?"
"Because I paid fifty cents to have medical knowledge downloaded into my brain."
"I read a lot," Kayel said aloud.
That's when Penny appeared in the doorway, carrying what looked like a homemade care package.
"I heard someone was dying dramatically," she said, surveying the scene. "Brought tea and sympathy."
"I'm not dying dramatically," Sheldon protested. "I'm dying scientifically, with careful attention to symptom documentation and progression analysis."
Penny caught Kayel's eye and gave him a look that said 'can you believe this guy?' The shared moment of understanding was surprisingly warm.
For the next three hours, Kayel and Penny worked together to manage Sheldon's illness with the kind of coordination that came from shared suffering. They took turns bringing him soup, administering medications, and listening to his increasingly creative complaints about everything from the temperature of his tea to the inadequate thread count of his tissues.
"This thermometer is clearly malfunctioning," Sheldon announced after his latest temperature check. "It claims I have a fever of 100.2 degrees, but I feel significantly worse than that number would suggest."
"That's because temperature doesn't directly correlate with subjective discomfort," Kayel said, handing him another zinc lozenge. "Your body's inflammatory response is causing most of the symptoms you're experiencing."
"Exactly!" Sheldon said, as if Kayel had just validated his entire worldview. "Finally, someone who understands the complex relationship between pathophysiology and subjective experience."
Penny raised an eyebrow at Kayel. "You really do read a lot, don't you?"
"Too much, probably," Kayel said.
"If she only knew that 'reading' in my case involves paying an AI system to inject information directly into my consciousness."
[QUERY: $0.10]
Balance: $189.20.
By late afternoon, Sheldon had finally fallen asleep, leaving Kayel and Penny sitting in the kitchen, drinking coffee and looking like combat veterans after a particularly difficult battle.
"You're nice," Penny said quietly, so as not to wake the patient. "Really nice. Most people would have run screaming by now."
"He grows on you," Kayel said, though he wasn't entirely sure that was true.
"Like a fungus," Penny agreed. "But still."
Through the window, Kayel could hear the distant sounds of the Planet of the Apes marathon continuing upstairs. Explosions, dramatic music, and Howard's running commentary about special effects. He'd missed the entire thing—five classic movies he'd been genuinely excited to see—all to play nursemaid to a sick physicist who'd barely acknowledged his help.
"I missed gorillas taking over the world for this. Five movies about intelligent apes, and instead I spent the day managing Sheldon Cooper's nasal congestion."
[QUERY: $0.10]
Balance: $189.10.
"Worth it," he said aloud, though he wasn't entirely sure he meant it.
Penny smiled at him, one of those genuine, warm smiles that made the whole afternoon feel less like a sacrifice and more like... friendship. Real friendship, built on shared experience and mutual understanding.
Maybe missing the marathon wasn't such a loss after all.
"At least someone appreciates the effort. Even if it cost me sixty cents and an entire day."
[QUERY: $0.10]
Balance: $189.00.
As they sat in the quiet kitchen, listening to Sheldon's congested breathing from the living room, Kayel realized that somewhere along the way, these people had stopped being characters from a TV show and started being his friends.
The realization was worth more than any movie marathon.
Even if the system insisted on charging him ten cents to think about it.
+1 CHAPTER AFTER EVERY 3 REVIEWS
MORE POWER STONES == MORE CHAPTERS
To supporting Me in Pateron .
Love [ In The Big Bang Theory With AI GPT ]? Unlock More Chapters and Support the Story!
Dive deeper into the world of [ In The Big Bang Theory With AI GPT ] with exclusive access to 26+ chapters on my Patreon, you get more chapters if you ask for more (in few days), plus new fanfic every week! Your support starting at just $5/month helps me keep crafting the stories you love across epic universes like [ Game Of Throne ,MCU and Arrowverse, Breaking Bad , The Walking dead ,The Hobbit,Wednesday].
By joining, you're not just getting more chapters—you're helping me bring new worlds, twists, and adventures to life. Every pledge makes a huge difference!
👉 Join now at patreon.com/TheFinex5 and start reading today!