The Parallel Worlds Proof
A/N: I can't even begin to apologize for how long it took me to finish this last chapter, but I'll try anyway. I am so, so sorry for the long wait!! I have no excuses. I just fail.
I was planning on splitting the end into two chapters, but when I finally got around to writing it, I just wanted to get it done. Hence, the insanely long chapter. I actually have a short epilogue I want to write, but it has nothing to do with the plot. It's more of a tongue-in-cheek type of scene. *winks* It requires me to look up some info on an old sci-fi book which I don't have time to do at the moment so the epilogue won't be up until tomorrow. But the actual story part of this fic is finally finished! *celebrates* Hope you enjoy!
Chapter 7: Project the Solution and Say Goodbye
"Oh, really, great Dr. Cooper? Stitch this!"
Smack!
Sheldon recoiled and grasped his cheek. His lower lip quivered a little as Donna continued berating him.
"Call me an idiot again and I'm going to knock you halfway to Mars! Got that?" Sheldon meekly nodded.
"What's going on?" Leonard walked in and asked.
"Sheldon insulted Donna. Donna gave him one of her patent slaps." Howard said.
"Where's Raj?" Penny asked.
"He ran off to the bathroom as soon as Donna started shouting."
"Sheldon didn't you realize making Donna angry was a bad idea? They weren't exaggerating about her slaps."
"Yes, well I am aware of that now, thank you. Very aware." Sheldon groaned and rubbed his cheek. The Doctor suddenly poked his head out of the Tardis.
"If you lot are done chatting, I believe I found our solution." He disappeared back inside. The group looked at each other for a second then piled inside.
"Raj! The Doctor's figured it out!" Howard turned back and called from the doorway.
Inside, the Doctor was at the console screen, making some adjustments to the knobs nearby.
"So, what's the plan?" Donna asked, coming over to stand next to him. The rest of the group filled in around the central console. Raj walked in just behind them and made sure to stand on the very opposite side from Donna.
"Were you able to get the Tardis to move? Leonard asked.
"Nope."
"Then why did you say you have a solution?"
"Because I do! We may not be able to move the Tardis, but we can still move ourselves." Howard's eyes lit up.
"Projection?" he asked.
"Precisely!" The Doctor said. "Now since there is no possible way to reason with a Time Beetle, I have to find a place in the time line that I can change."
"So you'll send a projection and prevent Penny from criticizing Howard?" asked Sheldon.
"Yeah like that will work," Penny muttered.
"My thoughts," agreed the Doctor. "So instead, I'm..."
"Going to convince Howard to help out with the robot anyway?" asks Leonard.
"No, I'm going to..."
"Instruct them on how to improve the robot without Howard?" asks Donna.
"No! Now will you let me finish?!" exclaimed the Doctor, obviously getting frustrated. Everyone stayed silent, finally. "Thank you. Now since the days leading up to the robot battle are so muddled up, I thought it best to send a projection back to May 14th and prevent Kripke from damaging your equipment. You still get your positive readings, Kripke can no longer criticize you, and Howard gets to keep his girlfriend. Everybody wins!" the Doctor grinned at his brilliant plan.
"The Nobel Prize. Everybody wins the Nobel Prize," Sheldon clarified.
"Yes, yes, that too."
"So who's being projected back?" Leonard asked.
"Well me of course!" the Doctor said as if that should be obvious. Penny and Donna rolled their eyes.
***~~***
Barry Kripke walked carefully down the hallway. He smiled and said 'Good morning' to Dr. Gablehauser as he passed. Barry watched him until he rounded the corner and disappeared. He was alone in the hall now. Quietly he moved over to the door on the left and pulled out a ring of keys from his pocket. Head down, he concentrated on locating the correct key.
"Tsk tsk tsk. Barry Kripke."
Barry's head whipped up in shock and he quickly shoved the keys behind his back. He spun around expecting to see Dr. Gablehauser standing in front of him, but instead found himself facing a tall, lanky man with spiky brown hair dressed in a pinstripe suit. Barry's jaw dropped.
"Ah, I see you also recognize me!" the Doctor noted. "Must be a fan of my show. That's nice. Now! I bet you're wondering how I got here. Well, you see I fell through a crack in dimensions that your little prank there ends up causing. You meddling with a fixed point in time, Barry. And we both know what that means. Trouble. With a capital 'T'. Whole universes will start collapsing if you continue with your plan so unless you want to watch this world crash and burn until reapers come to purge the wound, I suggest you turn around, wander back over to your own lab and leave Dr. Cooper and his pals alone, capiche?"
Barry stood frozen in place. The Doctor sighed.
"Right, let's try it this way. Run!"
Barry's eyes widened at the command and finally began to back up a few steps. He stumbled a bit as he turned around and then he was sprinting down the hall, snatching glances over his shoulder.
The Doctor smirked.
***~~***
"Brilliant! All fixed now." The Doctor clapped his hands together. "The time lines should sort themselves out after we leave."
"And I'll get my Nobel Prize?" Sheldon double-checked.
"Yep! All of you will." The guys whooped with excitement and exchanged some high-fives.
"Doctor, you rock!" Howard shouted.
"No kidding!" Leonard agreed while Raj nodded fervently.
"So now we can be off?" Donna asked. The Doctor went back to the screen and typed in some commands.
"Yes! The time lines are already starting to shift. The Tardis can free herself and take us back to our own universe again. But there's still one more thing that needs to be done before we can go."
"What's that?" Sheldon asked.
The Doctor pointed at the wires and cables still strewn across the floor. "You four are cleaning this mess up."
***~~***
Donna placed herself in charge of overseeing the cleaning process, much to the guys' dismay. Penny stood at the outer edge of the room, trying to stay out of everyone's way. The Doctor saw this and decided now would be a good time to talk to her. Reading a third party account of a situation was fine when you wanted the facts, but when you wanted to know what something was really like, you need to talk to the people directly involved. That's part of why he traveled. And right now, he was itching to learn more about Penny's involvement in the scientists' lives. She left too quickly earlier for him to get a good read on her interactions with the guys. He was curious how she managed to play such an important role in proving string theory.
"Feeling better now?"
Penny looked up, startled to see the Doctor standing beside her. "Um, what?"
The Doctor shrugged. "You seemed a bit less comfortable than your friends with an alien spaceship landing in your living room."
Penny laughed. "Yeah, you could say that." She paused then added. "I don't really get into the whole sci-fi thing. I mean I watch it with the guys, like Battlestar and stuff. But I don't get excited about it, and I am definitely not okay with television characters suddenly showing up."
"Yeah, sorry about that. Honestly, didn't mean to, but trouble just seems to pull me in whether I was looking for it or not." He grinned. "It does make things more fun." Penny looked at him like he was insane.
"You're like Leonard and them aren't you? I mean, yeah, you're apparently an alien and everything, but your also just like them. A nerdy genius."
"Well, I don't like to brag, but yeah." Penny rolled her eyes and laughed.
"And the ego to go with it." She smirked. "Though, still not as big as Sheldon's."
"Ah, yes, Dr. Cooper. I've read his autobiography."
"What was it? Five hundred pages of how brilliant he is?"
"Pretty much."
Penny rolled her eyes again. Then she eyed him suspiciously. "So, assuming this isn't all just one big dream, you are an alien that travels through time and space getting into trouble?"
"Weeeell, and also having fun! But basically, yes."
"So what planet are you from again? Mars?" This made the Doctor laugh.
"Goodness, you sound like Donna, now. No, I'm not from Mars."
"Then where are you from?"
The Doctor took a deep breath. "From a planet that doesn't exist anymore." Something in his tone told Penny she shouldn't push the subject any further.
"I'm sorry."
The Doctor shrugged it off and turned back to look at her. "So, let me ask you something Penny, how did you meet this lot?"
"I thought you said you knew everything about us?"
"I do! I just want to hear it from you."
Penny shrugged. "There's not much to it. I moved in across the hall from Leonard and Sheldon after I broke up with my boyfriend. Leonard saw me, and they came over to say hi."
"And Leonard invited you over for lunch."
"Yeah. And I wound up using his shower. He and Sheldon wound up losing their pants when they tried to get my TV, and I took all four of them out for dinner."
"Why did you keep hanging out with them?"
Penny looked at him weird again. "What? What do you mean, 'why'?"
"I mean, why did you keep talking to them? What made you five become friends?"
Penny was taken aback by the question. "I don't know. Just did." She frowned in thought. "They were just so different from anyone I'd ever met before. They seemed genuine. No, they were genuine. They were exactly who they said they were. No pretense or alternate personality to hide behind. They were just, them." Penny shrugged. "I liked that. It meant I could actually be me around them. I could actually trust them. I don't know, I just felt comfortable around them. Even though I didn't understand most of what they said." She chuckled. "Still don't, really." She gazed over to where Leonard and Raj were bickering with themselves over exactly where a particular cable went. The Doctor watched her carefully for a few moments.
"That worries you, doesn't it?"
Penny blinked in surprise and looked back at him, eyes wide. "What?"
"You're afraid you're not good enough. That Leonard will realize this one day, and it will all be over."
"Okay, I'm done talking to you, now." Penny shifted uncomfortably.
"Now, what I don't understand is where these thoughts come from? I'm sure Leonard has never given you any reason to feel this way."
"It's none of your business how I feel!"
"And yet," the Doctor continued, "you still believe he's better than you."
"He's a genius for god's sake! And I'm, I'm nothing. Just a waitress." Penny said.
The Doctor sternly looked at Penny. "No one is 'nothing', Penny. In fact, most people who believe they're insignificant turn out to be some of the most important people in history."
"Right," Penny said, unconvinced.
"I'm serious! Take Donna over there. She always believed she was just a temp, couldn't be anything more than that. But she managed to track me down, has traveled to dozens of planets, helped save most of them, been declared a god more than once, and most importantly has saved my life countless times. In more ways than she'll probably ever know," the Doctor added.
"But that's only in a television show!" Penny said. "None of that's real. At least, not for us."
"The point is, no one is 'nothing'. No one is insignificant. Do you know why he became friends with you? Why he wanted to keep seeing you after that first meeting? Because you were kind. Because you listened. Because you showed him a whole other world, and he realized he wanted more than just science and comic books. He wanted you. And it doesn't matter that you don't understand the laws of physics or know who Brent Spiner is, because he doesn't need that. He needs someone who can see things in a different way. Who can contradict him and question him and make him think about things he never would have considered before," the Doctor smiled. "And that, Penny, is what makes you so amazing, and why on one fall night in the future, you notice a pattern on the white board that no one else noticed. Not Raj. Not Leonard. Not even Sheldon saw it. But you did. They couldn't have done it without you, you know."
Penny was completely speechless after this speech. Her mouth hung open, stunned.
"And finito!" Howard suddenly proclaimed. "Done!"
"Brilliant!" the Doctor yelled, turning back to the group. Penny snapped her mouth shut and shook her head a little, trying to gather her racing thoughts. "Now let's just check the time lines one last time." The Doctor rushed over to the console and scanned the screen. "Perfect! The time lines are adjusting and re-arranging just like they should!" He looked at Donna. "Time for us to go, I think."
"Finally! These four are about ready to do my head in."
"Hey!" Howard exclaimed, taking offense.
"Look," Donna said, "I already have to put up with Alien Boy over there. I can't handle you lot on top of that!" She looked at Penny, "Seriously, I don't know how you do it all the time."
Penny shrugged. "Ah, they're not so bad." She caught Leonard's eye and winked. Leonard grinned.
"Right! Must be off, now." The Doctor bounced around to each of the five to shake their hands again. "It really was a huge honor to meet you. All of you." He glanced at Penny there. "Good luck with all your research! Hopefully, you'll never see me again except through the telly." He winked, and the guys laughed. The five called out their good-byes to the Doctor and Donna and started to exit the Tardis for the last time. Sheldon hesitated in the doorway and turned back to the Doctor.
"Well, it wasn't all I hoped it would be, but it was still a very pleasant encounter. Thank you, Doctor, for allowing me to work on your ship. I learned many interesting facts about Time Lord technology. Unfortunately, I anticipate some resistance when I attempt to share these facts in the online fanbase." Sheldon frowned.
"Well, that's fans for you," the Doctor replied. "Have a good life, Dr. Sheldon Cooper. Enjoy your Nobel Prize!"
Sheldon's face lit up. "Oh, I plan to!" And with that, he slipped out the door.
The Doctor turned to Donna. "So what do you think? Try for the Galigna Plains again?"
"Alright by me," she replied. "Just don't hit any more wounds in time!"
***~~***
The five of them stood around the living room and watched as the Tardis' gears grinded and faded away.
"Wow," Howard said after it was gone.
"The dematerialization sequence really does sound like that," Leonard said in awe.
"Yeah, too bad we won't remember any of this," Howard said.
"There is a slight chance that the time lines will bend around us, and you will remember everything," Sheldon replied.
"Wait, what do you mean 'you will remember everything'?" Leonard asked.
"I'm sure I'll remember no matter what happens next."
"No, no, no, Sheldon!" Howard protested. "Altered time lines is something not even your eidetic memory can overcome."
"Well, not on its own perhaps, but the eidetic memory coupled with my mental prowess practically guarantees I'll remember."
"Oh, really Sheldon?" Leonard asked, incredulously.
"Talk about an ego," Howard said. Raj nodded to show his agreement. Penny just rolled her eyes as the four guys continued to bicker over the likelihood of any of them actually remembering the day's events.
The time lines finished shifting and resolved the issue for them.
They never remembered any of it.
