Evolution
Disclaimer: All characters are owned by Chuck Lorre and CBS. I make no profit from this work of fanfiction.
The man before him looked irritated and resigned all at once as he stared at Sheldon, who stood flabbergasted.
One second, Sheldon was making himself some toast for breakfast, next, he felt every molecule in his body being dragged through what felt like a thousand tornadoes…before he wound up standing in the middle of a science lab that had seen better days.
Close by, a familiar woman said, sounding surprised, "Oh my God. You did it. It really is you!"
"Penny?" Sheldon asked in panic. "Penny what's going on? Where am I? Who is this man? Why are you holding a baby?"
As the last word slipped out his mouth, he realized he wasn't speaking to Penny at all. At least, not the Penny he knew. The woman was slightly older, her blonde hair a darker shade than what he was accustomed to. There were lines on her face he didn't recognize, and a smile that was dimmed by grief. The cloths she wore looked old, and she seemed so thin underneath.
"Shut up." The guy said. "And listen to me."
Sheldon whipped his gaze around to look at the irritated man. He stood nose to nose with him, literally. Hair that had once been dark was now streaked with gray; there was a stiffness to his posture, indicating a latent pain that resided somewhere in his body. Familiar blue eyes bore deeply into him.
"It took every last tool I had at my disposal to bring you here, but I can't keep it up for very long."
"Where's here?" Sheldon demanded, taking a step back.
"Here is your future. Here is Pasadena, in my secret laboratory no one else except my wife knows about. Since I credit you with some measure of intelligence, I assume you've already come to the conclusion that I am you, albeit, a future version of you." The older man stated.
"This doesn't quite look like the future as I envisioned it. And what do you mean your 'wife'?" Sheldon shot a look at Other-Penny in shock. "You can't possibly mean…"
His eyes darted to the baby in her arms.
"Oh good God! Did you marry Penny and produce offspring?" his voice rose to a high and nervous pitch. "But she's…"
"Do not even think about finishing that sentence." The other Sheldon growled, causing the younger man to blink. "That's my family. Your family, if you don't screw things up too badly."
"Sweetie, go easy on him. Sure he may be an ass…" Other-Penny rocked the child in her arms gently. "But this can't be easy for him,"
"Listen to me. Within five months, give or take, you will find a formula that will prove to the greatest weapon ever known to mankind." Older-Sheldon said urgently. "You're already working on it as we speak. This weapon will decimate cities, destroy life on a scale once un-imaginable."
"Really?" Sheldon felt intrigued.
"Really. And it will be used." His older self said in a terrible voice, racked with guilt and anger. "Do you understand what I'm trying to say?"
Other-Penny seemed to take pity on the confounded and youthful Sheldon.
"Yesterday, the weapon was deployed on U.S. soil. We have…eight…maybe nine days before the cloud reaches us." She explained, trying to keep the tremors out of her voice.
"We are going to die." Older Sheldon said. He looked over at the sleeping, pale infant in his wife's arms. "Our daughter is going to die."
Any thought of expounding on the genetic inferiority of an offspring between himself and Penny faded, as he looked at the slumbering child. Something blossomed in his heart, as if he was discovering an affection that had always been there, but had hidden itself well. He tried to move closer, only to be stopped by his older self.
"Don't."
"Sheldon its ok. He just wants to take a look at Mary." Other-Penny soothed.
"Is it because if I touch her, it'll cause some sort of disruption to the space-time continuum, more than has already occurred just by my presence here?" Sheldon questioned.
"No, it's because you're an idiot." His older self informed him, eyebrows raised challengingly. "I remember what I was like. Arrogant, cold…"
"Sheldon!" Penny chastised. "That's not true at all. You're just being too hard on…yourself. Now's hardly the time to worry about such things,"
"But…" Older-Sheldon's voice rose in the same familiar pitch Sheldon's own voice had, only seconds ago.
"Sheldon, honey, meet your daughter." Other-Penny said gently, pushing past the older (and obnoxious too, Sheldon added mentally) man. Holding his breath, he looked down at the child's face, and gazed in wonder at the perfectly formed lips, the gentle curve of his grandmother's nose…her eyes opened, and he found himself looking at the greenest irises he had ever seen.
Sheldon reached out involuntarily to touch a smooth cheek, but the baby beat him to it, by raising a tiny hand up and grasping at his finger, staring at him with solemn eyes.
"Look at that." Other-Penny said in a reverent tone. "She knows you."
The scene before him was already starting to fade, leaving him only the lasting impression of his own face staring at him grimly, nodding as if to say 'this is what you have to lose'.
He could still feel the sensation of tiny fingers holding on to him with all the trust in the universe.
It felt as if he'd been dropped from a very high altitude, he thought as he came to, slamming rudely back into the kitchen in his apartment.
"He's awake!" Leonard's voice sounded relieved.
"Oh thank God!" Penny exclaimed.
Sheldon's eyes fluttered open, and the first face he saw was Penny's. Penny, as he knew her, face un-lined and un-burdened by time and sorrow. One hand stroked his face tenderly, as the other propped his head up in her lap.
"What happened?" Leonard asked from the side. "You collapsed so suddenly. We've called 911, so just hold still."
"Everything happened." Sheldon wheezed. He reached and grabbed Penny's hand, as if she were his sole lifeline.
One month later, long after he had wiped his hard drive at Caltech, and destroyed all his research notes with a lighter, after he had submitted his resignation email, he stared blankly at the job application form before him.
It was for the position of a Science Teacher. Sheldon doubted he could cause any apocalypses from a high school laboratory…though, he supposed, stranger things could happen.
In the kitchen close by, Penny hummed cheerfully as she made them both lunch. Turning to look at her, Sheldon could feel the rhythm of his own heart.
"Everything ok over there?" she asked, masking her concern with a cheery tone. It would have appeared that she had taken it upon herself to hover close each time she wasn't at work, ever since he quit his job. Everyone was still a little stunned by his recent actions, but chalked his behaviour up to his usual madness.
As for himself, at the very beginning, he hadn't been sure of what had happened exactly…if he had simply hallucinated the whole ordeal. But in the days following the incident, he had pored over his own notes, and saw to his horror and fascination that indeed, he had been on the verge of a breakthrough. A terrible, deadly breakthrough that would have made Oppenheimer's discovery seem like child's play by comparison.
"Everything's fine." He said with his heart in his throat. "Penny?"
"Yes?"
"Would you like to join me for dinner later?" he felt his cheeks burning as he added. "Just the two of us?"
It might have been his imagination, but it looked like her face had turned red as she nodded.
Watching her prepare sandwiches for the both of them, Sheldon sat unmoving for a long while, waiting for the future to start with a flutter of anticipation in his heart.
End