When the first rays of morning sun slid through his windows, Sheldon let his eyes open. He didn't dare move out of fear that his plan had not worked, that Penny still would not know him.

Gingerly, he sat up. He was cautious, as if every crease in his blue comforter would cause some unexpected wrinkle in time. Sheldon stood and walked to the kitchen.

"Good morning, Sheldon." Leonard greeted his roommate over the rim of his coffee mug. "You're up late again."

Sheldon peered at the newspaper on the counter. He saw a two and a zero, but the rest was hidden by one of Leonard's papers. Sheldon sighed and looked to the kitchen. If he didn't even know what the date was, how could he eat breakfast? His eyes stared longingly at the cereal above the refridgerator as his stomach growled.

"Aren't you going to eat breakfast?" asked Leonard.

"Oh, yes," Sheldon tried to hide his emotional upset. "I just wish to revel for a moment in the glory of the morning." He took a deep breath of air, distracting Leonard from his elbow, which Sheldon used to uncover the date a bit more. He saw another zero and was immediately let down. "Alright," he stormed into the kitchen with a sigh, "definitely Big Bran today."

…

Over the next few days, Sheldon retreated into his thoughts. Nothing in the realm of physics could explain such a radical paradigm shift. The causality of the universe was forever altered. And he was beginning to fear he would never get home.

In the quiet peace of his office, Sheldon slumped against his whiteboard.

"A yellow-brick road with an unsounded end," Sheldon whispered as he leaned his forehead on his clenched fist.

"Yellow-brick road?"

"RAJ!" Sheldon zipped up and began to smear away his work.

"Woah, woah, woah!" Raj darted over to the board.

"Raj, as your superior, I order you to step back."

"Why, you got a secret?" Raj laughed. He tried to slip under Sheldon's arm and stop him from erasing.

"No!" Sheldon dropped his elbow, stopping Raj's advance, but Raj had already managed to grab the eraser. Sheldon looked down at his grimy hands. Oh, no. "Raj, please, step back." He gave one final plea.

"November, two-thousand-nine: Penny dislocates shoulder due to lack of adhesive ducks, discovery of soup tattoo on right buttock," Raj read the timeline with wide eyes.

"Penny? Didn't she just move in last week?" Sheldon nodded. Raj was back to reading the list. "There's a lot smudged here." Raj squinted at the board, "May, two-thousand-twelve: Penny rejects Leonard's proposal; Howard Wolowitz leaves for International Space Station, mairrage to Bernadette Rostenkowski." It was then Raj turned to stare at Sheldon, his jaw wider than the maw of the sarlacc. "Who's Bernadette?" he asked.

"You haven't met her yet-please, Raj!"

"Sheldon, what is this?"

"It's a list of past events."

"Sheldon, none of this has happened yet!" Raj pointed at the board. "Have you lost your mind?"

"No, no, no," Sheldon approached hos board and adopted his pysicist's visage. It was too late to hide this from Raj. The man was only an astrophysicist and could come to the wrong conclusions. At the very least he would tell Wolowitz of Sheldon's strange notions. Word would circulate to Leonard. And what would occur when things start coming true? It would be best, Sheldon decided, to keep Raj informed and the situation under control.

"These are things that had happened, in another time, an alpha continuum, if you will. Somehow, I have found my self back at, what I have come to call, the origin of these continua, point zero-zero." He circled the first date on the board. "Since that moment, everything has transpired just as it did before. The beta continuum was functioning like a reset." Sheldon began to refil the erased parts of his flow-chart. "That was until last night. I took a course of action other than was what predestined in the alpha continuum and changed history. Thanks to my eidetic memory, I can remember even the slightest details of my past or, in this case, my future. Thus, today I should be wearing a Green Lantern t-shirt. Alas, I am not." He motioned to the blue cotton of his current shirt. "Welcome, my friend, to the gamma continuum." He spun and looked at the other scientist, prepared to tackle him, despite what little muscle he had, should Raj make a dash for the door.

"Okay," Raj looked as if the contents of any algorithm, not time travel, were written before him, "First question: Are you high?"

Sheldon shook his head. "Focus, Koonthrappali."

"I'm sorry, Sheldon, just the idea that you are some time-traveler is a little hard to wrap my head around."

"You need to believe me. I have proof."

"Proof?" Raj sat forward in his chair.

"Yes, you will reveal in the years to come your bellydancing pastime." Sheldon figured the factoid to be embarassing enough to convince Raj.

"That's not hard to figure out. I'm an Indian dude with a nice body. Of course I'd love to flaunt it." He gave his shoulders a shake.

"I know that your research predicting composition of trans-Neptunian objects will run into a dead-end." Sheldon spat out and Raj stopped mid-dance.

"No way! It's a solo project and I'm the only one who could see the problems in the calculations, and they just started popping up a few days ago."

"Raj," Sheldon could see he had convinced his friend, "you can tell noone of this."

"Not even Howard?"

"Not even Howard."

Sheldon held his breath as Raj pondered for a moment. "So, tell me more about the future me. Can he talk to women?"

"Unfortunately for you, no, but, the events of the future have already been rehabilitated. I don't know the full extent of my actions."

…

"Maybe," Raj offered, "it's like a second chance."

"What?" Sheldon had taken the rest of the day with Raj to explain the entire story. After half a pack of Red Vines, they got to tossing around ideas.

"Well, In Seventeen Again, Zac Efron goes back in time to realize what he thought he wanted wasn't what he thought he wanted." Raj smiled triumphantly.

"Raj, this is not some chick flick romantic comedy! This is serious meddling with the universe!"

"In Star Trek Four, they traveled back in time to save George and Gracie."

Sheldon stared at him in disbelief, "George and Gracie," he said with a matter-of-fact and slightly pompous attitude, "were whales."

"So? What difference does it make?"

"I can see where you're going. It's positively dickensian, but this there's no ghosts." And the last person Sheldon wished to be likened to was Ebenezer Scrooge.

"You've got to figure it out yourself. Time travel happens for a reason." Raj stood and began to chew on a fresh Red Vine out of the package. "You've got to fix something, Sheldon. This is your second chance."