A/N This chapter is mostly about Leonard. It's not a deep dive into his psyche, but you get some hints, while he makes some plans. On another note, I finished the first draft of the story last night. There is still a lot of work to do. The end is twenty chapters ahead, and I've got third and final drafts to do for most of those twenty. There are several second drafts, plus copy corrections on all of them, so I don't see a change in timing for the release of new chapters. It's a good time to thank TBBT78 and bfm10 for all their suggestions and help so far. I really can't thank them enough. If it wasn't for them, this story, in it's present form, would have been impossible. Finally, it's going up a couple of hours early, as real life will intrude later this afternoon, my time.
Chapter 64
Apt 4A, 7:30 AM Monday December 3rd 2012.
Leonard's alarm went off, and he struggled to reach over and shut it off. He was finally able to hit the button and then tried to get up.
Since Amy and Sheldon had put him to bed, he didn't drink any water or take any aspirin before going to bed, and he was now paying for that. His head hurt, his mouth was dry, and the rest of his body just didn't feel right. But, he knew if he didn't get moving, Sheldon would soon be in his room, complaining about Leonard being behind the morning schedule.
He made it to the shower and even took a chance of irritating Sheldon by taking a few extra minutes of letting the water beat on him, before he got out. After drying off, he went to the kitchen, and before pouring a cup of coffee, he took two aspirin and drank a glass of water.
Even with his efficiency reduced by the hangover, he was ready to go, before Sheldon, and they both made it to work by 8:45. Leonard unlocked his office, and turned on the coffee pot, before checking his voicemails. There was only one, from Dr Gablehauser, so he hit play and heard:
"Dr Hofstadter, President Siebert and I need to talk to you this morning. Please come to President Siebert's office at 10:30 this morning. We'll see you there."
Great, thought Leonard, I'm hung over, and have to go talk to those two. I hope Eric has gotten through all my explanations and saw I was at a dead end. I'm in no shape to have to explain everything all over again. Even if he didn't have to explain things, he was going to need several cups of coffee before going to the meeting. He walked over to the pot and poured his first cup.
Dr Cooper's office, Caltech 9:30 AM Monday December 3rd 2012.
Sheldon was looking over Leonard's papers, along with several of his own, about this idea Leonard had. He had all the equations, but renormalization didn't work, it gave him an infinite amount of answers, when he tried to use the equations to calculate gravity.
Quantum Electrodynamics, or QED, along with Quantum Chromodynamics, or QCD, used the same equations, with different variables, because of the different particles. These could be renormalized, which basically change the energy limits, so various values could be calculated, including the shape of the reflections.
But, how was he supposed to be able to calculate the force of gravity, if he couldn't get an answer, except infinities? He had all these reflections, and not one way to do a calculation to see if the reflection were gravitons, the particle that carried the force of gravity.
He had to get it down to one number, to be able to do the calculations If he could figure what that one number was, he had the answers, in the reflections. He was thinking about it, when it suddenly came to him.
Why worry about all the infinities? He had the answer in the shape of all those faint reflections. If he put those in as the answer, he could reverse engineer the equations. Start with the answer, start with the QED or QCD equations, and find the steps needed to get from the equation to the answer in the form of a reflection.
Sure, it was trial and error, but if there was no way to distinguish between all the infinities, he could use trial and error for a few of them, get the right answers, and then find the equations. One he had the equations, he could see if he could derive them, from first principles.
He excitedly pulled out two extra white boards and started writing down the equations. Then, looking up the data for the unknown reflections, he put those in the answer, and started working.
President Siebert's office, Caltech 10:30 AM Monday December 3rd 2012.
Leonard took another swig of coffee, while he nervously awaited for President Siebert and Dr Gablehauser. He still had a headache, and was just not feeling right overall. He heard the secretary's phone buzz, and was told he could go in.
He entered the office and saw they were at the same conference table they had been at, during the previous meeting. He was grateful they indicated he could sit down, and he sat, pulling his chair to the table. He reminded himself, that if they didn't want to let him go, he was going to quit.
Dr Gablehauser started, "Leonard, I looked over Sheldon's work, along with yours, and you seem to be correct. It looks like you're stuck at a dead end, while there is some promise in Sheldon's work. On that particular point, there is no reason not to let you go."
"However," started President Siebert, "there is the matter of the money. We don't want to lose that part of the endowment, but, we recognize that if you quit, we would lose it anyway. Oxford has agreed to let us keep about one third of the money. You, at Oxford, could still be working with Dr Cooper, passing along experimental results, to help him with his research. With this in mind, we have agreed to allow you to go to Oxford, while Dr Cooper works on his idea here, with you or someone else at Oxford, providing Dr Cooper the data."
"We would like to keep you associated with the university, but as you pointed out, we didn't award you tenure. So, we would like you to keep in touch with us, drop a note every now and then. This will give us a reason to allow you to return, if the situation ever permits."
Leonard was relieved, they were letting him go, so he wouldn't have to just quit, and it seems they were open to his returning, if he ever wanted to return. He thanked them, stood and shook their hands, then started to leave the office.
There were things he had to start doing, things he had to think about. He was almost to the door, when he heard, President Siebert, "Ahhh, Dr Hofstadter."
Leonard turned, "Yes sir?"
"I was told to ask you if you could be at your office at 7:30 tomorrow morning. Dr Whatney, and someone else will be calling to talk to you."
"Thank you sir," said Leonard, "I'll be there." With that, he left the President's office, going back to his.
Pasadena Comic Center 4:30 PM Monday December 3rd 2012.
Leonard walked into the Comic Center, and did a quick look around. Lonely Larry was there, along with several others, but he didn't see Stuart. Leonard walked to the counter and waited, figuring Stuart was in the back.
Less than a minute later, Stuart came out of the back and walked to the counter and said, "Hi Leonard, what's up?"
Leonard looked around, and seeing no one was close, said, "Stuart, I'm going to need your help here in the next few weeks. But, you've got to promise me that you won't say anything, to anybody about it, until I tell you it's OK. And you can't ask any questions."
Stuart appeared intrigued, so he nodded and said, "OK, nothing about what you are going to tell me, and I can't ask questions, so what do you need?"
"I'm going to be selling almost all of my stuff," started Leonard. "Do you want to buy it?"
Stuart was surprised, he wanted to ask why. He had heard Raj and Howard talking about something going on between Leonard and Penny and was wondering if this had something to do with it.
"I'm not sure," he said, "I know just about everything you have, and I'm pretty sure that, right now, I can't afford all of it."
"Well, how about this," said Leonard, "I've got a good idea of what each is worth, but I want you to make sure I have it right. I'm going to trust you on this Stuart, and I'm going to pay you for your estimates on all my things."
"Does this have anything to do with you and Penny?" asked Stuart.
Leonard looked surprised, but the ache in the gut feeling returned.
"I overheard Raj and Howard taking about it," said Stuart.
Leonard was short with him, "Yes, it does. But, I'd rather not talk about why, remember, I told you no questions."
Stuart nodded.
Leonard continued coldly, "Once we have the estimates, you can buy what you want, and I'll find somewhere else to sell the rest, or sell it privately, or if you're willing, I'll let you sell what you don't buy, and send me the money."
Stuart was surprised by the abrupt change in his mood, but thinking about the offer, it seemed fair to him and he offered his hand to Leonard. Leonard shook his hand and said, "OK, I need to figure out a few things, and I'll get back to you for dates on when I'll need all of this done. See you later."
Leonard turned and walked out, Stuart looking at him as he left, wondering why Leonard would want to sell all of his collectables, and what, exactly, it had to do with Penny.
Apt 314 10:00 PM Monday December 3rd 2012.
Jeanie had left a few minutes before, and Penny was now getting ready for bed. After Penny had finally gotten up, they had spent the day walking around Central Park, getting some lunch, and finally had come home and made dinner, and spent the evening talking about their day.
Their two-week break, over Thanksgiving would end tomorrow night, when the new script would arrive. Penny was looking forward to this, as it would take her mind off of her problems, with breaking up with Leonard, with Brent, with life in general. It was still very difficult for her, when she thought about Leonard, or their relationship or how she had broken up with him. She was trying to put it behind her, but he had been part of her life for so long now, not thinking about him, was proving to be nearly impossible.
She was also reproaching herself for the way she broke up with him. While she felt the breakup was necessary, to keep from hurting him even worse, she also felt her method could have been better. But, while she tried to think of a way it could have done better, nothing really came to her, leaving her thinking she was a terrible person.
Penny felt she had figured out a way of working with Brent, hell, Steve had complimented on her work with Brent, and he didn't even know what had happened. But, no one, except maybe Jeanie, understood how much effort it took, to get through scenes with him. She really disliked him, which made it extremely hard to appear in those scenes. It wasn't quite as bad when there were others in the scene, but it still took a lot of concentration.
Penny sighed as she got into bed. With everything she had to think about, she had been having trouble getting to sleep. She wasn't sure what she could do about it, because her mind kept going to all the different things she was thinking about. She laid down and turned off the light, hoping to fall asleep quickly.
CalTech Laser Lab, 7:45 AM Tuesday December 4th 2012.
Leonard was in his office, yawning, drinking another cup of coffee. He had gotten there at 7:15, to wait for the 7:30 call from Geoff. But, it was now fifteen minutes after that time, and there still was no call and his eyes were closing. Suddenly the phone rang, Leonard opened his eyes and reached out, picked it up and said, "Hello."
"Leonard," said Geoff, sounding happy, "I want to thank you for getting up early to talk to us. I have Dr Alain Page here with me this afternoon, he also wants to speak with you."
"Sure Geoff," said Leonard, "put him on."
"He's already on, Leonard," said Geoff, "I have him on the speaker phone." Leonard could hear a soft, "Alain," and then Leonard heard a quiet, British voice say, "Dr Hofstadter, I'm Dr Alain Page, and I'm the head of the Atomic and Laser Physics group, here at Oxford University. I oversee the various people, that instruct students, do experiments, or work with the high energy lasers."
"I've been looking over all of your work, your work with Geoff, and I must say I'm impressed. I was looking over your idea, and for an experimentalist, you seem to have a good grasp of theory. Your idea seems brilliant, and a possible way to move forward."
Leonard winced, "I wouldn't go that far, Dr Page, you see…"
"Please call me Alain," said Dr Page. "In an informal setting like this, we don't tend to use titles."
"I understand, Alain, then please call me Leonard" said Leonard. "What I was going to say is that I've pretty much have come to a dead end on that idea. There is a chance that one of the theoretical physicists here has another idea, which would use the data Geoff and I have gathered."
"That's quite alright, Leonard," said Alain, "that happens in science. We're interested in you because of your experimental competence, not your theoretical. What you do have there will just be a bonus."
"Now, as I said, we've looked at your work, we've looked at your past work, and we've also talked to a Dr Gablehauser. He tells us that you currently have four graduate students you're helping with their projects, is this correct?"
"Yes, it is," said Leonard, "their work required using our lasers and they needed some instruction on their use and some of the theoretical reasoning."
"So, you have no problem with giving lectures, and tests, leading labs, helping students, those sorts of things?"
"No, Alain," said Leonard, "As long as I get to do some research along with it."
"Oh, we will have plenty of research subjects for you," said Alain. "But we need both right now, which is why we are really happy you asked about coming here. You are an outstanding experimentalist, and you work with students, which is why we want you to come and work with us. You may also end up running the laboratory."
Leonard was surprised, but pleased, "Thank you, Alain. I certainly didn't expect that."
"Well, it is a possibility. I believe your boss has talked to you and you know Cal Tech isn't fighting it."
"Yes, they talked to me," said Leonard, who then paused. "Er, not to be demanding, but would it be possible to provide me with a more formal…er an official offer? And, along with that, what you expect of me, what I would and wouldn't be expected to do by the university, those sorts of things, before I would say yes. I'd hate to agree, and then find out later things weren't working out, because of something we should have cleared up earlier."
"Of course, what we can do is send you the draft of a contract you would have to sign, along with specific duties you would be required to do. We can also send you the faculty handbook. You don't need to agree based on this, but it will be exactly what we expect, and if you agree, we can send the official paperwork."
"That sound's great, Alain," said Leonard. "What if I see something I don't agree with?"
"Then we'll have to discuss it," said Alain. "Most of that draft is normal expectations and requirements. But, as everyone is an individual, quite a bit of that draft copy can be changed, if we discuss it first. Now, if it's in the handbook, we may not be able to accommodate you."
"Oh, I understand. That sounds good like a good plan." said Leonard. "I will look for the paperwork later today. Is there anything else?"
"No, not now," said Alain, "at least not until you look it over, and see if there is anything you object to, or anything you would want to change, to which we could possibly object. If what we send you is agreeable, we would have to speak about your salary."
"We have an amount in mind, but it's for either a lecturer, or an experimentalist. Since you will be doing both, we'll have to figure out a way to put the two together. It will probably be something similar to Geoff, who does both. But, it's moot, until you agree and we start drawing up the contract and discussing salary."
"If there is nothing else," said Alain, "I'll let you go now. We hope to hear from you soon."
"Thank you, Alain," said Leonard. "If you get the paperwork to me today, I should be able to let you know tomorrow, how's that."
"That's excellent," said Alain, "then I hope to talk to you tomorrow. Geoff, is there anything you want to say?"
Leonard heard something in the background, then Alain came back on the phone, "He says, he'll talk to you this week, one way or another. I'll let you go now Leonard. I hope to talk to you tomorrow, have a good day."
"Thank you Alain," said Leonard, "I hope to talk to both of you tomorrow. I hope you both have a good evening. Good bye."
"Thank you Leonard, good bye."
"With that, they both hung up."
Leonard sadly looked around his office, then back at the phone. I'm going to miss this place, my whole post graduate career was here. But, I can't be around Pasadena, just too many memories of Penny for me to deal with. I'm going to wait for a week or so, before I tell anyone. That will give Sheldon less time to say anything.
He sighed, I've got to get with Stuart, and get that started. I've got to pack up my files, the end of the semester is in two weeks. I've got to let the advisors of my post grad group know I'm leaving, so they can find another laser advisor. I won't have much to pack at the apartment. Some clothes, books, games, not much else. I guess I'd better get started.
He turned, opened his cabinet, and started pulling his files out.