Chapter 25 - Sheldon's Plan
Penny woke up to her phone ringing and picked it up after it had rang about four times, seeing it was Amy, so immediately answering it as she thought about what Leonard had said about Sheldon. It surprised her it was Sheldon that answered, but she was not surprised he wanted to talk to Leonard. "Leonard its Sheldon." Penny then handed Leonard the phone, who woke up to the phone ringing too.
"Yeah, Sheldon?"
"Leonard we need to talk. I think we need to go to Cal Tech."
"Okay, that is probably a good idea." Leonard wanted to discuss plans anyway with Sheldon.
"You need to pick me up." Sheldon whispered so Amy didn't hear.
"Okay Sheldon, Penny knows where you live. I will see you in two hours."
"Can't you come any faster?" Sheldon wanted to get out of the apartment before he did anything wrong, he needed to think and he now knew that Amy running around half undressed, was not conducive to his thinking of anything but her.
Leonard was surprised at Sheldon's pleading voice. "I can get there in a hour, but no sooner."
"Okay an hour." Sheldon then hung up.
Leonard frowned at the phone, then handed it back to Penny. "I need to pick Sheldon up in an hour, you know where he lives, I think you told me."
Penny nodded. "He still lives in the old apartment." Then she got serious, "Why do you have to pick him up, can't he meet you there?"
"My Sheldon doesn't drive."
"Really, not at all!" Penny was surprised
"Nope not at all."
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Sheldon walked to the front door of the Cal Tech building and stopped, "Thank you Penny, we'll call you when we are done."
"Call me when you are done? Bullshit, I'm coming to the time machine with you." Penny responded.
Sheldon looked at her wide eyed then with a frown looked at Leonard, "You told her."
"Of course, I told her, her husband is missing she needed to know. Plus she already knew about the machine, before we got here." Leonard defended himself.
"Leonard whenever you are around her, you think with your little head instead of the one on your shoulders." Sheldon then looked at Penny, "Penny there is nothing you would understand or could help with, so why don't you just come back later."
Leonard shook his head, "Sheldon she has a physics degree, she understands a lot more than you think."
"She has a what!" Sheldon looked back at Penny, "You have a physics degree?"
"Yeah, genius, I have a physics degree and I'm not going anywhere, so lead the way or just follow me and Leonard. Oh by the way, my husband helped build that time machine and told me all about it during the last couple of years, so it is more mine than yours you….you time interloper." Penny was a little angry.
Penny pushed by Sheldon and headed into the building followed by Leonard, "Give it up Sheldon, she is still the original Penny, she is going to do what she wants."
It was a couple minutes later they went through the doors to the room the time machine was in, everyone of them stopping to take it all in. Now that it worked it was hard not to be in awe of it, even Sheldon amazed at what it could do. It was a couple minutes before Sheldon remembered what he wanted to talk to Leonard about. "Penny can I talk to Leonard alone."
"No." was all she said.
"Sheldon anything you want to say can be said to Penny, too." Leonard said in support of her.
"Why Leonard." He then looked at Penny, "What do you think we are going to do?"
"I want to make sure you look for my husband, like Leonard promised, so I am not leaving." Penny stood there glaring at him.
"Look for your husband? Didn't Leonard tell you he is probably either dead or nonexistent now." Sheldon blurted out.
"Sheldon please, you don't know that for sure." Leonard tried to soften Sheldon's harsh words to Penny.
"What are you talking about?" Penny's voice cracked. Then she looked at Leonard, "Leonard what is he talking about?"
Sheldon continued, "Your husband either became nonexistent when he entered the energy conduit, because the original Leonard was there or it is possible they combined with us. But if that didn't happen, then he ran into trouble because we have no marker signal for him to come back. Considering where he went, it is just as likely he was eaten as it was that he survived the trip."
Penny had a couple tears in her eyes, "No! Leonard is that true?"
"Sheldon there is still a chance he went through time and is alive with a marker malfunction only." Leonard said
"That is possible, but highly unlikely, the more likely scenarios are the ones I already described." Sheldon sounded like he was lecturing Leonard as he talked down to him.
"Oh My God." Penny now had tears dripping down her face as she went out of the room to find a bathroom.
Sheldon waited a minute then looked at Leonard, "Good she is gone."
Leonard looked at him in anger, "Did you do that on purpose!"
"I just told the truth, is it my problem that she can't take it. Anyway we need to talk." Sheldon said matter-of-factly.
Leonard was torn over going to Penny or listening to what was so important that Sheldon had to say. "Quick tell me what you were going to say, I need to go after Penny."
Sheldon shook his head, "Leonard she is not your wife and she knows it, I don't know what you are planning to do. I have not told Amy and she thinks she is my wife, so I have no such problem."
Sheldon was only making Leonard angry. "Dam it Sheldon tell me what is so important or I am leaving now."
Sheldon nodded, "I am not leaving this timeline and I do not plan on finding our alter selves, I am claiming this Sheldon's life, since I am the original Sheldon Lee Cooper."
Leonard looked at him dumbfounded "You just can't take another mans life."
"I beg to disagree." Sheldon confidently stated. "We are the originals, they can be considered placeholders that were here until our return. Since Amy and Penny are originals, it makes only logical sense that originals stay together, so the new Sheldon and Leonard are not needed anymore. It makes perfect sense, the copies are erased."
"Are you listening to yourself, you are acting like God, deciding who gets to live and who gets to die." Leonard now just stared at Sheldon.
Sheldon slowly nodded in thought then looked back at Leonard. "In a way you could say I am their creator, I made the machine and I set things into motion, so I can decide what happens to them."
Leonard looked at Sheldon for a couple of moments, not really believing what he just heard from him. "Sheldon you are crazy, you can't do that and as soon as I get back we are going to try and find them, but right now I'm going to look for Penny." Leonard then turned and left the room.
Sheldon just watched him leave, mumbling under his breath, "I am not crazy, my mother had me tested." then he turned to look at the machine's computers. He walked over and turned them on and waited for them to completely boot up, he would show Leonard who is crazy, he planned on making sure Leonard didn't do anything with the machine, that he, Sheldon Lee Cooper didn't approve of first. He would make sure Leonard would not be able find them, Sheldon was staying and no one, including Leonard or Penny was going to stop him.
Leonard went up the stairs and to the nearest bathroom he could find, hearing Penny crying as soon as he got to the door. Even though it was a woman's rest room he didn't hesitate to walk right in, mainly because it was on the weekend and they hadn't seen anyone since they arrived. Penny was at the sink, both arms holding her up as she sobbed, her body trembling, he seemed to be hurting her all the time today and it really made him feel bad. She had a lot of problems and he seemed to just be making her life worse, he really needed to find her husband and leave, also, maybe he could talk to him and help things before he left, too.
"Penny?" he softly said.
Penny turned to look at him, at first he thought she was going to run to him and hug him, but then her face changed, "YOU LIED TO ME!" she then backed away from him.
"I didn't lie to you. Sheldon made it sound worse than it is. You have a science degree, the probabilities he referenced were based on the limited data he had, there is so much we don't know, so the confidence level for those probabilities is very low, think, you know that." Leonard explained.
Penny just stood there looking at him, breathing heavily, her crying now stopped. "Is my husband dead?"
"I don't know and Sheldon doesn't either. He has much of a chance of being alive as being dead right now, we need to search and find out." Leonard answered.
"Schrodinger's Cat, he can be considered both alive and dead at the same time, we need to open the box." Penny softly said.
Leonard's eyes went wide as he looked at her. "That is exactly right!"
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Penny and Leonard walked back into the room to find it empty, both surprised that there was no sign of Sheldon. "Were did he go?" Penny asked.
Leonard looked around the room in disgust, he figured after what Sheldon said, he probably took off, to not fight with Leonard and maybe Penny, and to get his way. "I don't know, he might have left."
"Leonard, the power module is gone." Penny now informed him.
"Huh….I'm sorry what did you say?" Leonard now looked back at her.
"There is a power module that goes over there." Penny pointed to a place on the power converter system, which had a empty cavity, where something obviously was at one time.
Leonard shook his head, then looked at her after seeing the part location she was pointing at. "How did you notice that and how do you know it is a power module?"
"I was here when my husband installed it…..it was the last time we were here before we…." Penny got quiet for a moment. "I guess I was thinking about him and I just looked there. I looked there when we first got here and it was still there. Sheldon had to have taken it. Do you know why?"
Leonard nodded, "He told me he was staying here."
"Huh, what does he plan to do when the other Sheldon comes back?" Penny looked at Leonard then slowly nodded. "Leonard what else did he say?"
"He said he wasn't going to look for them. I thought I would have to do it myself, but he obviously didn't want me bringing them back." Leonard explained. "We'll have to get another power module."
Penny practically fell into a nearby chair, putting her head into her hands. "Leonard, why is he doing this?" Penny voice sounded extremely sad and tired.
"Penny he has all he wants, the Nobel, recognition and Amy, he had none of that before, so he wants to keep it all."
"So he will sacrifice my husband and his friend Sheldon, so he can be happy?" There was a hint of disbelief in Penny's voice.
Leonard nodded, "Yeah."
Penny looked up to Leonard, small tears on her cheeks, "Leonard can I really trust you?….What are you planning to do?"
"Try to find your Leonard and Sheldon and bring them back. That is always what I was going to do, I never told you any different. Have I done anything to make you think I was acting in a way to do something different?" Leonard stared at her.
Penny sighed, "No." and slowly shook her heard, then looked at him "But you have been a little secretive about things with me." It was a statement, not an accusation.
"Penny, I don't have a lot of answers, so I don't want to make things seem bad when I actually don't know and like I said before Sheldon doesn't know either. We are just going to have to try and see what happens, that is the truth." Leonard explained, "So we are going to have to get another power module. Do you know enough about it so we can replace it?"
Penny sadly nodded again, "I know a lot about it, that is the problem. My husband said they needed a power module that could regulate a huge amount of power and not be as big as a house, so they got the module from NASA, it is the one like they use on the space station. I don't know if you can get another one."
"Oh." Leonard now sat in a chair too. "How did he get it?"
"He knows someone from NASA, from when they put his laser in space." Penny explained.
"Oh." Leonard thought things just got harder.