Chapter 20 - Confession
Penny stared at him, "What do you mean you are not from this timeline?"
Leonard looked back at her and sighed, finally repeating, "I'm from a different timeline, I come from a different version of this." Leonard looked around at the room and then back at her. "Time has changed."
"Oh My God!" Penny jumped up from her seat and backed away from Leonard looking at him like he was a monster.
"Penny, I won't hurt you, I promise. I am still Leonard, maybe not your Leonard, but I am still who I am." Leonard tried to calm her.
"What did you do? Sheldon and you were together, is he…..?" Penny looked at him wide eyed.
Leonard nodded, "Sheldon is from the same timeline as me, not this one."
Penny just stared at him, not knowing what to say, then as it all sank in, "Where is my husband?"
"I don't know." Leonard shook his head.
"What do you mean you don't know. Did you and Sheldon do something to him?" Anger started to form in Penny.
"No I promise you, we did nothing to him, we haven't even seen him." Leonard tried to calm her.
"You are wearing his suit." Penny pointed to the clothes Leonard was wearing.
"It was here on the coat rack when we arrived here. I couldn't wear what I came in with, so I borrowed this suit off the rack." Leonard pointed to the Army camouflage uniform he wore, now hanging on the coat rack. "He wasn't here when we got here. We believe he and your Sheldon traveled back in time at the same time we were traveling forward."
"What do you mean, he was time traveling. How do you know that if you didn't see him?" Penny questioned, starting to get upset again.
Leonard looked around the room, "The machine was on and had been used, so we looked at the computer log, for the machine's use history, and it says he went back, with your Sheldon, to see dinosaurs."
"Bring him back." Penny demanded.
"I wish I could, but we looked for his marker, and we can't find it, so I don't know exactly where they are."
"I don't understand, if you know where he went, why can't you just bring him back?"
"He has to have a tracking device to lock on and bring him back, we call it a marker because it marks where you are in time, to the machine, so it can lock on to you and bring you back. We looked and can't find one for them." Leonard explained.
Penny was on the verge of tears, "Are you saying my husband is gone."
"No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying I don't know right now." Leonard again tried to calm her.
Penny just looked at him, "When will you know?"
"My Sheldon and I need to figure this out, it may take a few days." Leonard honestly answered, then added. "But remember we are talking about time travel, a few days in this timeline does not mean that when we find them we can't get there a few seconds after they do." He hoped that would calm her.
Penny seemed to slump then, all the energy she had, a few moments ago, seemed to disappear, as Leonard watched. "Penny why don't you sit down, I'm not going to hurt you, we were together in my timeline too." Leonard gave her a sad small smile.
Penny stared at him, she knew she wasn't afraid of him anymore, but who was he actually, was he a copy of her husband, only different with different memories, it was just all so crazy. She needed to understand, she decided to talk to him, so she did as he suggested and sat back down. "This is impossible, this can't be happening." She shook her head now, "You told me…..I mean my husband told me he didn't think time travel was really possible and it was just a dream for Sheldon." Tears now formed in Penny's eyes as she looked at him. "Did he lie to me?"
Leonard suddenly wished he hadn't said a thing, but then thought, how would he have explained it when her husband showed up, so he reasoned to himself that he had to tell her. "I didn't think Sheldon could do it either, in my timeline, I don't think your husband lied to you, he was telling you what he believed." Leonard tried to explain.
"Of course you would take his side." Penny spat out, then looked at him in shock. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that, I'm sorry." suddenly she felt very tired again.
Leonard watched as she slumped in her chair, again the energy seemed to drain from her as he watched, it made him feel bad and he wanted to just hold her again, but knew now he couldn't. So Leonard just nodded, "It's okay."
Even sitting there Penny couldn't stop from still staring intently at him. "I know he didn't lie to me, he told me everything and I know he believed what he told me. You said you didn't think Sheldon would ever solve time travel either, but now you are here. Having a physics degree helps me understand, can you explain it to me? What did you and my Leonard do?"
'That was a good question' Leonard thought, "I don't know. The best I could tell we were both traveling in time at the same time, so I don't really know, either we combined or are both in different places, I guess."
"You and I….Leonard talked about time travel a lot." Her eyes looked concerned as she started to understand the implications of what he was telling her, "Leonard told me that going back in time was crazy and shouldn't be done. What did you and Sheldon do to change time!"
She was getting little upset again, Leonard needed to calm her down, so he thought for a minute. "I told you all this before, I mean the Leonard in this timeline told you this all before?"
Penny got calmer as she explained, "Leonard, told me time travel was extremely dangerous, that each thing you change has ripples, like a stone in water, and they spread out and change things here and there, until the whole timeline changes. You said man should never travel back in time to when man existed, the danger was too great, one ripple could destroy the world."
Leonard needed to think a minute and he wanted Penny to relax, so he momentarily changed the subject, "You have a physics degree." Leonard stated. "What made you get that."
"You….my husband, I wanted to be able to understand your…his work and talk to him about it. Doesn't the Penny in your timeline have a degree?"
"Yes as a matter of fact she does, but not in physics. She had a bachelors and masters in criminal psychology. She is a police woman, a detective and negotiator."
"So in your timeline I'm a cop." Penny shook her head in wonderment, but then she got back on subject with him, although now a little calmer. "Why did you go back to change time? Why did you take such a chance with everything? Didn't you know it was dangerous?"
Leonard nodded. "Yes, You are right, I did, but I had to go, in my timeline, Sheldon went back to change something, and I had to stop him."
"You failed?"
"No it was success, but there were still ripples." Leonard sighed, suddenly feeling very sad again, "I ended up here, so I lost you and our baby."
Penny sat there, her jaw dropped, staring at him. "Our baby?" Leonard just sadly nodded.
"Sheldon did this." she stared at nothing for a minute. "Wait, how can it be me, that you lost?"
"I traveled in time, not you. You remained here the whole time, so there is only one of you, the ripples changed this time and you along with it. Your career was changed but I guess we still got married." Leonard explained.
"Were we married, happily married?" she was staring at him intensely. He just nodded again. "And I was pregnant with our baby, I was a cop, we were happy and in love." Again he nodded.
They sat quietly in the room, Leonard watching Penny, he knew she was thinking so he just kept quiet. After ten minutes went by, he finally had to say something, "Penny?"
Penny looked into his eyes, this Leonard looked different than the last time she saw her Leonard, unbroken and confident. "Okay…..Thank you." She sat there a minute before she looked back at him, softly sighing, "I guess if there is nothing I can do here, I don't want to be here anymore, I want to go home. I'm a mess, this is a mess and I don't want to see anybody, anymore today."
Leonard nodded. "Okay, I understand, but please keep in contact with me….I may need your help, a friend you know. I'm sort of lost here right now."
Penny looked at him confused, then seemed to come to an understanding. "Sweetie, where are you planning to stay?"
Leonard looked around the room, "I guess…I could…..I don't know."
"You need to come back to our home. My Leonard still lives there and he will want to talk to you as soon as he knows about you….that is if you are sure you are not him." Penny stared at him again, wondering about all that was said the last few minutes.
Leonard shrugged, "I don't really know anything right now, to be honest with you. That is one of the big paradoxes in time travel, what happens if you run into your self, or you cross while moving in time. I just don't know."
Penny's look softened, "Since you don't know exactly who your are or what you are going to do, you definitely need to come to our home then, where I can watch you." Then Penny got a reflective expression on her face, "Maybe I can help you fix this."
Leonard nodded, "Maybe you're right."