Chapter 29 - Regrouping

Sheldon's first instinct was to call Penny or Leonard to find out what to do about his problem with Amy now. Penny seemed to know the best how to handle Amy problems and Leonard sometimes had some good advice about things that guys should do. But he couldn't call them because…..because…..he sat there a second trying to classify them and the only thing that came to his mind was that they were his mortal enemies now. They were villains to his hero and they were planning to take away all that was good for him, they would need to be stopped. The problem was how to stop them and Sheldon's mind immediately focused on that problem, forgetting about Amy.

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Penny grabbed Leonard's hand and lead him into the house to the couch in the living room and made him sit down, while she sat in a chair next to him. She was concerned about him and the longer she was with him she could feel the bond between them getting stronger, especially now after the video they watched. Her husband was gone, well maybe not exactly gone, he was sort of sitting there with her, a younger version of him, like the man he married, before she married him. But then she was married to him before, twice, so she must be married to this man, wasn't she? It was so confusing, but no matter how confusing it was it now scared her when she thought about losing him and she didn't really think she would be able to function anymore if that happened. As she now looked at him, her heart started to break, he seemed so lost, so unsure, she knew he was struggling with what he just told her in the car and she hated to see him in so much pain. He was hurting and Penny was hurting, comforting each other seemed to be the only thing that made sense to her, so she stood up from the chair, she was in, and went to the couch.

Leonard's head turned to her as she sat down next to him, close, as close as they were in bed last night, and she put her arms around his neck. He offered no resistance as she pulled his head on her shoulder and started to rub his back, she just wanted to make him feel better. However, Penny had not really understood the way it was going to make her feel, the warmth and comfort it gave her, was incredible. She had so missed this over the last year, and their hug went on as she closed her eyes letting her other senses take him all in, the feeling of him, his smell, the texture of his clothes, skin and hair. Then it hit Penny, she now understand why she felt this way, she could feel it in her bones, this man truly was her husband and the thought both scared her and comforted her. She still loved her husband, the man they just watched on the TV screen, but this man in her arms was the same man, it just seemed right to hold him and be in his arms. Penny still needed time to fully adjust, but she wondered if she could fully accept who he was, the man she loved.

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It was the sound of the bedroom door opening and the bathroom door slamming that finally made Sheldon realize he had forgotten completely about Amy. He looked at the time, it had actually been a half hour since she got mad at him, and he got up from his seat to turn off the soup that had actually had simmered itself partially away in the pan. He had to talk to her, but he had to also put his plan with her into effect, so like a man condemned to the gallows he slowing walked up to the bathroom door.

"Amy, I'm sorry." He tried to sound sincere, which wasn't as hard as he thought, because he was sorry he upset her.

"Sheldon, I don't want to talk to you." Amy said through the door, her voice cracking.

"Never Amy?" Sheldon asked.

"No not never." Amy confessed, "You hurt my feelings Sheldon."

"So shouldn't we talk about that now?" Sheldon knew logic would work with Amy, because she had such an amazing logical mind, it was one of the reason he loved her.

The door opened a little and a red eyed Amy looked up at him. "Sheldon do you think I look fat and unattractive?" her voice small like a child.

This was an easy question, he didn't even have to lie, he just shook his head, "No Amy, I think you look beautiful."

A very small smile tugged at Amy's lips as she opened the door a little more, now exposing herself to him. Sheldon then realized she had changed into her nightgown and had a robe thrown over that, the robe untied and the buttons on the top of her nightgown unbuttoned exposing her cleavage. Sheldon's actually felt his breathing change to almost panting, as he took a quick swallow to try and calm himself. "Amy can you come out to the couch and talk."

It was an hour later, both of them on the couch, that Amy looked at her husband not sure if she should cry or just accept that he would probably be that way all his life. "Sheldon you mean all this was because you were finding it increasingly harder to have sex with me because of fear of hurting me or the baby?"

Sheldon nodded. "I'm sorry Amy, I am embarrassed and I didn't know what to do, so I tried this ruse at being sick, hoping to find something on the internet that could help me get over it. I was on the site looking for reason, going down the lists of causes, when you saw the screen. It was never about how you looked it was about my fears, only me."

"Sheldon, you can't hurt the baby or me, how we do it, I checked and talked to the doctor." Amy reasoned with him.

"I'm sorry Amy, I can't help how I feel. I'm scared." Sheldon was telling the absolute truth then, he was terrified of having coitus with Amy, so his sincere face made Amy just sigh.

Amy looked down at her hands. "You will still hold me, won't you, and sleep with me?" Her voice almost cracking.

Sheldon knew he just got away with his lie and he needed to comfort her and give her something too, so he took her into his arms and put his head on top of hers. "Of course Amy, you are beautiful and I love you, that will never change." He did like holding and smelling her, he felt he would have no trouble sleeping with her especially if he knew coitus would not occur.

Amy melted into his comforting hug, she felt so bad right now, him holding her was the only thing that was keeping her from crying. After all their time together and all the work they had to do to get this point, where they could get married and have complete relations, now this was extremely hard to take. Especially since only 4 days ago, he seemed to have enjoyed their love making together, him even initiating it, this change was so strange and the only word that came to mind was 'weird'.

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She didn't know how long they held each other, it just felt so good to be held by him, Penny couldn't let go, but after a while they separated and just looked at each other. "Leonard, ever since you told me everything, I kept thinking you reminded me of my Leonard when we first got married and now the man on the video, my husband, says you are. I don't know. It is a lot to grasp, just like that." Her voice soft, almost a whisper, but they were so close he heard her fine.

Leonard just nodded, this whole thing was crazy to him too, he couldn't even imagine how she felt. So Leonard just put his hand on her upper arm to give her a little squeeze to comfort her, but no sooner then he touched her, her eyes shot up to his. He swallowed hard as her eyes bored into his, it was like she was searching his soul and they stayed that way almost a whole minute just staring at each other. Then Penny surprised him, by slowly looking away and standing up from the couch, walking over to the cabinet that Leonard knew held her alcohol, but stopping when she got there.

She let out a soft sigh, "This is hard Leonard, so hard. This whole time thing seems so unreal and confusing, I'm still not sure I understand it all. Seeing that video, my husband and hearing his story, it is crazy, but I know it is true, and then there is you." Penny turned to him, staring at him again, as tears started to form in her eyes. "I love my husband, even though he lied to me, I still love him and you are him, I know that and I want to love you too. But I can't get this feeling that maybe it is somehow cheating and I don't want to do that again, ever." Penny sniffed a couple of times. "I don't know what to do."

Leonard got up and walked up to her, taking both her shoulders in his hands so he could look at her. "Just take your time and don't worry too much about it, when it comes to this, there is no hurry, don't let it upset you. You're a smart woman, you'll find your answer, you always do." Leonard gave her a small smile, which she returned, her tears now stopped. Leonard thought that maybe her feelings were good, because he couldn't really see himself staying in this timeline, he couldn't help feeling it wasn't his and he didn't belong.

They stayed in that night, ordering Pizza and just sitting around talking and eating. Penny told him everything she knew about his job at Cal Tech that evening, trying to help Leonard prepare for when he went to work on Monday morning. They just sat on opposite ends of the couch the whole evening comfortably talking, getting to know each other.

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Sheldon was alone in the laundry room looking at his tablet while he laundry, feeling comfortable in some of his old habits that seemed to be still part of him. He got lucky again, he had asked Amy if she wanted to go out to eat and she told him she would cook instead, reminding him it would drive him nuts if he missed laundry night. Sheldon now had some time to himself to think about his problem with Leonard and now Penny, he would need to do something about them.

His first idea was to talk to them, but he soon realized that wouldn't work, because he already knew Leonard didn't see things his way. Besides he never was able to compromise with lesser minds, especially when he knew he was right and it impacted what he wanted. No it wasn't worth wasting his time on, he would just have to do something more drastic, because of the unreasonability of the two people he was dealing with.

There was always getting rid of them both, them not being there to make trouble for him would solve his problem. Leonard, Sheldon thought, would never be missed, after all he was just a mediocre scientist at best, so who would miss him. Penny however was a bigger problem, she was a celebrity and the mindless masses cared about celebrities, for what reason he still couldn't understand, so her missing would raise a lot of questions.

Maybe he could make them go away without them leaving, by correcting their minds, he thought. Amy always said a hot needle in the right place would make them happy all the time, so if they were corrected, they wouldn't be a problem for him. The only problem with that idea was he would need Amy's help and he did not think getting her involved or telling her the truth was beneficial to him at this time, so that idea had its problems too.

Sheldon kept thinking until his Laundry was done, with no solid conclusions, which surprised him because he was usually better at this. He needed to get back upstairs, because Amy would have dinner done now and he was actually hungry, the work and thinking using a lot of his energy today. So Sheldon headed back to the elevator with his laundry to eat dinner, he still had a lot of thinking to do before the weekend was over and he had to see Leonard again on Monday.