Chapter 17 - Nightmare
"What do you mean, we are back and it is just the way I left it, it probably has been only a few minutes since I left." Sheldon said while looking around.
"Sheldon, I didn't leave from here, we moved all your equipment and it was in a military hanger, surrounded by military personnel when I left. That is the only way we could send the airplanes back. They had to be at full power when they arrived to be able to fly and the plan was when they brought them back, they would have their landing gear down and roll off the pad on arrival, out the open hanger doors, then brake to a stop. We were at Edwards AFB, not here and we left a month and a half after you."
"Oh" Sheldon thought for a minute, "Then it is logical that something has changed for you, but maybe not me."
"What do you mean?" Leonard hated that Sheldon didn't explain himself most of the time after he said something important.
"Well, what you did might have put everything back the way it was, so I am back were I started and you didn't need to come back for me…..oh no." A worried expression came over Sheldon's face.
"Oh No? Sheldon what do you mean by Oh No?" Leonard was now getting aggravated.
"If you didn't come back you are still here. It would be a time paradox." Sheldon explained
"What the hell Sheldon!" Leonard wanted to ring Sheldon's neck.
"There could now be two of you here, Leonard. We will need to determine what is happening, no one knows what will happen if you meet yourself in time." Sheldon stated.
"Stop the machine, we can't let those soldiers come back, if they are already here." Leonard told him, while pulling a key out of his pocket to quickly take the handcuffs off him. "This won't activate on it's own, will it." Leonard now looked at the field generators with a little worry.
"No not with you in there, the pad has to be clear." Sheldon then looked at him, "You had a key?"
"Howard saw the soldiers pack handcuffs, so he gave me this key, he said it was a magician's key to get out of handcuffs, he said it was just in case." Leonard explained.
Sheldon nodded, then went to the computer, bringing up and then turning off the return program. After finishing this task Sheldon then stood there a minute thinking, "Let me look at the computer history, maybe it would tell us something." He pulled out a seat and sat down at the computer terminal to begin running the history program. After a few minutes he turned, a puzzled expression on his face. "Well Leonard the good news is that we are not here."
"We?" Leonard asked in confusion as he approached Sheldon.
"Yes we. The bad news is it seems that we went back to prehistoric times to look at dinosaurs and we were due back an hour ago."
Leonard swallowed, "We are late from looking at dinosaurs, that can't be good. Can you look for markers without automatically bringing anyone back?"
Sheldon nodded and started typing again and after a minute looked back at Leonard. "There is a problem, our other selves markers do not show up. The only markers I'm getting are the ones from the two soldiers that were with you."
Leonard sat at the chair next to Sheldon, this was so overwhelming he didn't know where to start. "We can't bring the soldiers back, Sheldon, until we know what happened, and we can't leave them there, it could screw the past up more."
Sheldon nodded, "I agree, they could change the time line again."
Leonard looked at Sheldon, contempt only in his mind as he thought, 'Now you are worried about the time line, after damage is already done'. Leonard put his head in his hands, he was tired and he so hated Sheldon right now, "I talked to them, neither was married or had a family."
Sheldon nodded, "The future it is."
Leonard hated himself, but Sheldon was right, they had to go somewhere where they couldn't change history, so Leonard nodded, "They will probably hide out there and they still have their marker, so maybe we could still bring them back later."
Sheldon agreed, it took only a few minutes, but when he finished, the two soldiers were sent 100 years into the future. Leonard felt bad when they flashed momentarily on the pad, surprise in their eyes, but he tried to rationalize, in the worse case, at least they could still have a life and they left no one behind to miss. They couldn't come back to this time until Leonard and Sheldon made sure they didn't meet themselves and they couldn't stay in the past, they had no other choice, other than kill them and Leonard would never do that.
"Sheldon what about the other us? Do you have any other ideas?" Leonard asked.
"I don't know." Sheldon sat for a minute thinking, "We could have been both traveling at the same time and combined or there may be two sets of us and one set is looking at dinosaurs. But without the markers our other selves in that time can't come back." Sheldon gave Leonard his best guess, which he thought was probably better than anyone else could come up with, even Leonard.
Leonard now wondered about Penny and his baby again, "Sheldon we have to find out what happened and decide what to do, so I suggest we look around as see if we fit in here, and see how close it is to our past timeline." Leonard wanted to search for Penny.
Sheldon couldn't think of anything better, so he just agreed, "Okay." The other thought going through Sheldon's mind, he needed to find out about Amy.
Leonard nodded, he was full of dread about all that had happened already, but hoped maybe, just maybe not much changed, like Sheldon said, maybe it would be close enough to seem the same, after all for all they knew their colleagues could still be here at least. But even more importantly, he just had to find Penny. "Okay, Let's take a look." Then Leonard looked at Sheldon, in his World War II uniform, then back at himself in a modern camouflaged field uniform. "I think we have another problem."
"Maybe not. I saw some clothes hanging in the corner." Sheldon pointed to the corner and sure enough their was a coat rack with suits on it. He walked over and looked at them. "There are two suits here and they seem to be our sizes." Sheldon now held up one of the neatly folded suits that looked in his size.
Leonard looked down again at the uniform he was wearing, he definitely looked out of place. "We should change then, we can't go out looking like we do." Sheldon nodded.
The clothes fit perfectly and were actually quite nice, Sheldon looked at Leonard, "Our other selves must have changed into other clothes before they left."
Leonard nodded, "I guess, suits are probably not the best wardrobe to go see dinosaurs in." Leonard then sighed, they were wasting time, he needed to find out about Penny and his baby.
As Sheldon got dressed, finally putting the suit jacket on, he felt something in the pocket. On pulling it out he saw it was a wedding ring. "Leonard, there is a wedding ring it the pocket of this suit."
Leonard immediately felt for a ring in his suit, and found none, a sad feeling immediately overcoming him. Leonard had left his ring with Penny before he left and now not having it made him scared. "Sheldon put it on, just in case." Sheldon didn't want to, but he did it anyway, Leonard was right again, it was a good idea and Sheldon was a little bit concerned how much Leonard was right lately.
Sheldon and Leonard left the room and walked up the stairs, from the basement, to the corridor of the university, everything seemed the same, which was a little comforting. They decided to go to Sheldon's office first, because it was the closest, if it was in the same place, as before. They were going down the final hall, where Sheldon's office was located when coming down the opposite end they saw Penny walking directly towards them from the opposite direction.
Leonard's heart seemed to want to jump from his chest as small smile formed on his lips immediately upon seeing her, relief started to fill his body as he now knew she was okay and a sudden thought coming to his mind that maybe things would be alright. However that relief quickly disappeared as Penny got closer, his smile just as suddenly turned into a frown. Penny was beautiful as always, dressed in a stunning dress, she looked gorgeous and the dress she was wearing hugged her body perfectly. However Penny also had beautiful long hair, his Penny had her hair short in a style she said was a pixie cut, it was a better hairstyle for her police job. There was another problem, the Penny he left could never wear such a beautiful dress, her baby bump was too big, this Penny was obviously not pregnant, and the emptiness Leonard suddenly now felt was overwhelming. The thought of his baby being gone, racked his mind and body, making him wonder what other hell was in store for him now. But then if things couldn't get worse, as Penny got even closer, he saw the wedding ring on her left hand, it wasn't the one he bought for her, it was much larger, almost too large, and Leonard rubbed his left ring finger, dread starting to fill his soul.
Penny looked very serious at first, looking at both of them, then staring directly at Leonard's eyes for a couple seconds, before her face formed a smile as she approached closer to them. When she was almost to them she gave Leonard another short glance and then she then walked directly up to Sheldon and hugged him. "Where have you been Sweetie, the party has already started." She then squeezed him again and to Leonard's surprise, gave him a kiss on the cheek, while Sheldon stood there wide eyed, looking at Leonard.
Leonard stood there frozen, not believing his eyes, Sheldon and Penny must be a couple in this time line, they both had on wedding rings, and suddenly another thought filled him, could they be married? Leonard's mind raced, had he lost his wife and baby with this time change, he started to feel sick. As Penny hugged Sheldon again Leonard just stared at him, seeing Sheldon give him an apologetic look, there was nothing he could do and Leonard knew it. Leonard felt sicker, like his world just fell out below him, he couldn't take it any longer, this was too much for him, so he turned and walked back the way he came, he needed to be alone to think, his mind was going crazy right now.
Penny finally let go of Sheldon and smiled at him, then looked around noticing Leonard was gone. "Where did Leonard go?" She said with a confused look as she looked back at Sheldon.
Sheldon thought fast, "He forgot something and went back, I expect he'll catch up in a little bit."
Penny seemed concerned for a couple moments and didn't move, Sheldon thought maybe she was going to go after Leonard, but then she looked back to Sheldon and put on her smile again. "Come on everybody at the party is waiting. It is not everyday you're nominated for a Nobel Prize is it." She then took his arm to lead him to the party.
Sheldon's feet felt like lead, his mind still trying to process her last words as they ran through his head 'nominated for a Nobel Prize'. Could that be actually true, did he fix things with Lewis, was this whole thing a big success for him. A small smile started to form on his lips, he seemed unable to contain it, he had fixed things like he knew he would. But then he suddenly looked down, as Penny pulled him along, was she his wife, how did that happen, why did that happen, now went through his mind. He had wanted Amy and he thought as he walked, 'What have I really done, can I fix it again?'
Leonard entered back into the room with the time machine, he didn't even remember walking back, his mind now in such a ragged state, full of too many emotions. He felt more like a zombie, not actually alive, but not dead either and once in the middle of the room he sat down in one of the chairs, to think. It felt like he was in a dream and he so badly wanted to wake up, wake up from this nightmare he felt he was in. He left the love of his life and their baby, to try and stop Sheldon from doing just this, and now she was with someone else, him, Leonard had lost everything.
This was too much for him to take, and he knew he could never adapt here, he could never live here watching his wife married to another man, even if it was the man that was his best friend. Leonard now wondered if he could even live without her, they had been together for so long, she was a part of him, and now not being with her was like a major part of him was missing. Leonard was becoming so depressed he started thinking about joining the soldiers in the future, he just wanted to run away, but he really didn't know if he could even do that. He knew he would never get them out of his mind, the loss of his wife and baby, and the more he sat and thought about it, the more upset he got.
His breathing started to get erratic and he found he was getting short of air, everything he was going through aggravating his asthma. He quickly got up and got his inhaler, from the pocket of the uniform he had worn, and sat back down as his breathing got harder and harder. He had just brought the inhaler to his mouth, its mist only moments away from relieving his breathing problems, when he stopped. It was getting harder and harder to breathe, but all Leonard could do was look at the inhaler and wonder how much it would hurt to just give up, because in his mind all he wanted to do right now was die.