Deviation from the planned plot due to the sad demise of Prof. Stephen Hawking.
...
Penny is not a morning person. Even growing up on a farm with chores at dawn she's loved to sleep in. But its still dark in the room when she stirs, awoken by a bad feeling. Had she heard something? Her phone chirps, the screen lit up with messages and alerts. Beside her, she hears Sheldon's phone beep as well.
Early morning messages to them both? Usually that means something bad.
No phone calls at least, so that implies its not a personal emergency.
She rolls over to face Sheldon, sleepily pawing her hair from her face, then stops dead. He's half sat up, looking at his phone and in the light of the screen she can see his face is wet with tears
"Oh honey, what's wrong? What's happened?"
In answer he just shows her his phone screen.
Professor Stephen Hawking dead at 76
"Oh no!"
Sheldon is rocking back and forth, tears streaming down his face.
"He was my friend. and now he's gone. He was one of the few people who understood my theories, who was as smart as me, maybe even smarter and he's gone."
She crawls closer and wraps herself around him, holding him as he curls up against her, sobbing.
In Caltech that day everyone is sombre. many wear black armbands or black hole rosettes.
In the cafeteria at lunch no one shouts or laughs, hardly anyone talks.
That evening they all gather round in 4A, they order take out but no one has an appetite.
Howard places a shock absorber spring mounted on a wooden plinth on the table.
"The Hawking souvenirs"
Raj reverently reaches into his shirt and pulls out a small steel nut on a cord.
Leonard pulls a small pouch from his pocket and opens it reverently to reveal a steel washer
Sheldon goes to his room and comes back with a small strong box, which he opens with a key on his belt. Inside rests a single steel bolt, in custom cut black foam.
They lay the bits of wheelchair on the plinth and stay silent a moment.
Sheldon looks sombre "It is fitting that today is Albert Einstein's birthday"
Howard agrees "and Pi day, March 14th, 3.14"
Raj pipes up " if ever there was someone who should have had their brain transplanted into a robot body it was him"
Leonard sighs. "So, what are we going to do about it?"
"About it? He's dead!"
"What are we going to do to honour his memory?"
Howard suggests "replace the Lincoln memorial with the Hawking memorial? it's already got the big chair, just stick wheels on the side."
Raj and Amy confer then she suggests "Fund Stem cell research to find a cure for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis ?
Sheldon cuts them all down "It's obvious, we Invent a time machine, go back and save him!"
Leonard frowns "Not this again"
Sheldon shoots him a poisonous glare then looks at his watch "Everyone synchronise watches and make a note of the date and time, we'll stop off here to let us know we succeed"
Nothing Happens
Sheldon slumps into his spot, dejectedly
"looks like we fail to save him"
"What if you already did?" Penny is scrawling on the white board, lines and loops.
She steps back and taps the marker on her teeth thoughtfully. "Sheldon honey, which is right; terminator one or terminator two?"
Sheldon shrugs "I'm sorry, I don't get your reference"
Lesley explains " she means closed loop predestination or an open loop multiverse"
"Oh, multiverse, defiantly"
Lesley turns to Penny "Terminator 2"
Penny scribbles some more "OK, if he was given 2-3 years to live in 1963, don't you think it's weird he lived another 50 years?"
"That does make him a bit of an outlier..."
"A BIT? he lived 50 years more than they thought!"
She points to her diagram and cross references it to wikipedia on her phone.
"Ok, so what if he was given a few years to live, published a bit then died?"
she points to bottom of the first line "Born, diagnosed 1962, writes his thesis 1965, dies, just as they diagnosed." she ends the line half way up the board
"He still starts his work with Penrose on spacetime and stuff, just doesn't get to black holes"
"But what if someone in the future finds a cure for Lou Gehrig's disease?"
She draws a curve from the top of the board to the stopped line
" they come back, treat Hawking and slow the progress of the disease. He works more, discovers more, publishes more and lives longer"
She branches a second vertical line off the end of the stopped first line, taking it across then vertical some more
"Now he gets to marry, have kids, publish his time book, the start of the cool stuff"
She draws another curve from the top of the board
"he has a bigger effect on the future, so more time and effort is spent on treating him"
She branches a third line from the end of the second
"and so on and so on, until he lives TWENTY times longer than expected"
Sheldon watches, fascinated. "So you're saying time travellers from the future could have already saved Professor Hawking?"
Penny puts the top on the pen with a satisfying click. "One possible future, as I see it."
Sheldon pouts "But it wasn't me, as I never came back to this point in time"
Penny smiles "Of course it could be you, honey. it just means we're currently in the timeline here" She taps the third line "Between Hawkings death in this timeline and the point in the future where they go back"
Sheldon laughs, spirits lifting "Of course, because I haven't invented time travel yet!"
Everyone else just stares at Penny.
After eating the girls all crowd round Penny in the kitchen. "That was inspired! When did you study alternate worlds theorem ?"
Penny smiles " Film studies class, far too much Terminator and Back to the Future. Plus, really it's what Sheldon wanted to hear, that Dr Hawking could be safe and sound someplace"
Bernadette gives her a hug "you do look after him"
When Howard and Bernadette go to leave, Sheldon makes a point of leading them to the door.
He meets Howards eye and nods, a serious look on his face. Howard produces a small plastic tube containing what looks like wadded up tissues and hands it to Sheldon, who calmly hands him his bolt from Stephen Hawkings chair.
Howard pockets it and makes a fast exit and Sheldon carefully puts the plastic tube into the strong box and locks it.
