The Parallel Worlds Proof

A/N: You know I have almost the whole exchange between Leonard and Penny written out, and I STILL haven't reached the point of the story where I can add that in. *shakes head* Too much plot to wade through. On the upside, I finally utilized Donna! A little bit anyway. I felt bad because I haven't been doing much with her. :|

Disclaimer: Still own nothing. :P

Chapter 5: Broken Nose = Girlfriend(?!)

"Hang on! Howard wins a Nobel Prize?!" Sheldon exclaimed in shock.

"Why can't I have a girlfriend???!" Howard demanded.

"How could YOU win a Nobel Prize?!" Sheldon cried.

"Bernadette. Kripke. All these names! I don't recognize them, but somehow they're important," the Doctor was running his hands through his hair again, obviously frustrated.

"No, seriously. I want to know. Why is it impossible for me to have a girlfriend?" Howard asked again, this time with a hint of panic in his voice.

"I don't understand it. You don't even have a PhD! And you're a mediocre engineer at best. How could anyone possibly award you a Nobel Prize?" Sheldon pondered.

"January 12th. Nothing happened that day. It was just a fighting robot.," the Doctor continued, thinking aloud, and completely ignoring everyone else. "Nothing out of the ordinary. Building a robot. Losing a fight. Building a robot. Think, think, think! What was it? What's different?" He paused. He looked over at Howard. "You lost the fight. You lost the fight, because you weren't there. Why weren't you there?"

"I was otherwise detained," Howard said, looking down at his feet. Raj whispered in Leonard's ear.

"Yes! I got it, Raj," Leonard told him. He addressed the Doctor, "Penny had yelled at him the day we finished Monte. It hurt Howard's feelings so Howard locked himself in his room and refused to come out." Raj whispered furiously in Leonard's ear again. Leonard shook his head. "No, that's not the wording you used. I thought we'd try being a little nice for once." Raj rolled his eyes.

"Why did Penny hurt your feelings?" Donna asked.

"Uh, I don't know. She must have just been in one of those moods," Howard said, shrugging. Raj went over and whispered the real reason to Howard. Howard glared at Raj. "Yes, thank you, Raj!" Raj smiled and then nodded his head in Donna's direction. Howard shifted and reluctantly admitted, "I was being overly 'creepy' apparently that day so Penny chewed me out."

"Creepy? What were you doing?" Donna asked, confused.

"He was hitting on her, like he always does, but that time he refused to stop or shut up," Leonard said, shooting Howard a stern look. Howard glared back.

None of this was helping the Doctor, though. "Something still isn't adding up," he insisted. "Something is off in this story, but I can't figure out what." He started flicking switches and twisting knobs again, bringing up something else on the screen.

"What are you doing?" Leonard asked.

"I'm pulling up your biographies from the Tardis library. Maybe this robot fight was mentioned. It could help us pinpoint what's different in your time line," the Doctor replied, concentrating on the screen.

"But that's cheating! You're a Time Lord. You should be able to remember these things," Sheldon criticized.

The Doctor tilted his head up to glare at him. "You really expect me to remember every single detail of every single person's life?"

"If they're important people like me, then yes," Sheldon replied. The Doctor shook his head and returned to scanning the screen.

He flipped through what looked like hundreds of pages at a lightning pace before finally exclaiming, "Ah ha! Here we go! Monte, the killer robot. Completed January 12, 2009. You fought your rival, Barry Kripke in an unsanctioned fight on January 14th. You were victorious and Kripke never bothered you again. It seemed to be a major boost for your self-esteem, too."

"Hang on, we were victorious? How?" Leonard and the guys crowded around the console screen to read, shoving the Doctor away in the process.

"'They got the edge by viewing YouTube footage of Kripke's previous battles and practice runs,'" Sheldon read.

"'Wolowitz added side blades and extended the front arm to allow for a larger range'?" Leonard also read.

"So I was there to make improvements?"

"Apparently."

"So wait, does that mean Penny never chewed me out? Or did she apologize earlier?"

"There's nothing here about an argument between you and Penny," Sheldon said reading the page completely. "Nor is there any mention of you getting punched in the nose." Howard glared at him.

"So what. The argument never took place?" Leonard asked.

"It would seem so," Sheldon answered.

"Maybe that's why you don't have a girlfriend." Everyone looked over at Donna.

"How is that relevant?" Sheldon asked.

"I'd like to know that, too," the Doctor said, looking just as lost as the other four.

"Seriously? You don't see the relevance?" The guys exchanged blank looks and shook their heads. Donna gave an exasperated sigh. "It sounds like Howard, there, needed a lesson in how to talk to women properly. Penny calling him out on his inappropriate behavior and punching him in the nose was just the wake-up call he needed."

"But Howard still hit on Penny and any other woman he came into contact with," Leonard contradicted.

"Oh, yeah," said Howard, nodding in agreement.

"But you said you have a girlfriend now," Donna pointed out.

"Yeah," Howard said, slowly.

"Did you have a girlfriend in the other time line?"

"No," the Doctor answered.

"Then, there you go," Donna finished.

"So hold on," Howard said, still trying to work this out. "You're saying, I only have a girlfriend now because Penny punched me in the face last January?"

"Huh," said Leonard.

"So it's Penny's fault Monte is dead," Sheldon reasoned. He hit Leonard on the arm. "I told you not to say 'hello' to her!" Leonard just ignored him.

"Brilliant Donna!" the Doctor exclaimed. "Now we know the altered event!" He pulled up the time line trace again.

"So the Time Beetle caused Penny to yell at Howard?" Leonard asked.

"More likely it changed something that led to that argument," the Doctor clarified, "but the time lines are so fuzzy that day, we can't narrow it down to a more precise change."

"But how does Penny punching Howard in the nose affect our heater going out at the North Pole?" Sheldon questioned, utterly perplexed.

"Don't you see? There were other repercussions from that event. You lost the fight to Kripke! You were supposed to win. You would have gained a grudging respect from Kripke, and he would have left you alone after that."

"But instead we lost, and he continued to mock us and give us a hard time," Leonard said, picking up on the train of thought.

"Oh, my..did Kripke sabotage our equipment?!!!" Sheldon shouted.

"Here it is! Tenth of May 2009. Barry Kripke, quite clearly, crept into your lab and damaged some of the wiring. Eventually, it would lead to your fuse box overloading. And the day that occurred on just so happened to be the day you would first record some positive data. Real positive data. Not electric can openers." The Doctor looked triumphantly around. "We solved it!"

"Great. Now how do we fix it?" Howard asked.

The Doctor opened his mouth, closed it again, the opened it again. "Ah."

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