Chapter 1:
Time travel had always been fevered dream for Doctor Sheldon Cooper. He often watched Doctor Who and wondered what it would be like if he could time travel one day. Where would he go? What would he do? Would he meet some future version of himself? Would that future version of himself finally have a Nobel Prize? For the longest of time, it was impossible to see a day where Sheldon could gift the world with his genius and bestow to the plebeians time travel. Now, it was staring him in the face and it was all because of him.
That would be wrong. In technicality, Leonard had been the one to propose the idea of how to access time and make it able to be travelled through. Sheldon, as per usual, was the one who had been able to turn Leonard's hypothesis into a reality. It was because of Sheldon that he and Leonard were standing in Caltech's lab on a Saturday, debating on testing what they had worked tirelessly on for months.
"I can't believe that this is happening," Leonard said, his voice shaking with excitement.
Even Sheldon could not help but smile. This was exciting. "Yes! This is my ticket for the Nobel Prize, I just feel it." Sheldon replied.
Leonard shot a look of disproval at Sheldon, but he couldn't blame him either. "Maybe I will go back and tell my mother that I am part of the reason that time travel is possible. That would shut her up." Leonard said.
"Are you telling me that you want to be the one who tests it? What about Penny?" Sheldon asks, fake concern running through his voice.
Leonard glares at Sheldon. "I could say the same thing about you. What about Amy? Last time I checked, Amy tried to beat me mercilessly with our couch pillow when you ran away on your stupid train excursion." Leonard rubbed his arm, remembering. "It hurt too."
Sheldon shook his head. "We have a segment of the relationship agreement for such a thing. We can only put ourselves in danger in such a way if a Nobel Prize would be on the other side of it."
"Surely Amy wouldn't do that." Leonard muttered.
Sheldon smirked. "Of course she wouldn't. She didn't think I would either, but that is the beauty of the relationship agreement. Things tend to work in my favor."
Leonard didn't bother to point out to Sheldon how much of a jerk he would be to not even confront Amy about such a life altering idea. Leonard sighed in resignation. "You know what Sheldon, go ahead. Go test it out."
Sheldon was so happy that he almost hugged his roommate. "I guess we should start warming up the machine." Sheldon whispered.
The following thirty minutes were filled with tense commands between the two, though they didn't show how nervous they truly were. They had no definitive way to prove their calculations were correct until Sheldon came back alive, safe, and hopefully a tad more humble.
Finally, the machine was warmed up and ready to go. Sheldon climbed into the chamber and looked at the control board, filled with twinkling, indicative lights and switches.
"Sheldon," Leonard called, walking up the machine.
"Yes?"
"Take care, okay buddy? Give me a sign if you can that you are okay?" Leonard looked at his roommate: his gigantic pain in the ass roommate with sincerity.
Sheldon nodded. "Of course. " Sheldon climbed out of the machine to give Leonard a tentative hug. Sheldon knew he was going to be fine, but something deep within him knew that he should try to be humble, just in case.
Sheldon climbed into the machine and looked at the keyboard where he could type in the date he wanted to travel to. He knew exactly where he wanted to go.