Chapter 44 - Chain of Events
"How could you!" Amy screamed at Sheldon, tears falling down her cheeks, her eyes wide, mouth open trying to breath. "How could you", she repeated almost in a whisper. Amy's world was falling apart before her very eyes, the man she loved unconditionally, not only cheated on her, but had a child by another woman. Amy's hand went to her small baby bump, not believing this was happening, he got another woman pregnant while his wife was pregnant, Amy was devastated.
Sheldon didn't know what to do, he had been so worried about getting caught at being a time traveler, that he never even considered that the man he replaced could have done something like this. He was on the verge of panic as he looked at his wife, then at Leslie, before turning back to look at this wife, in desperation, not knowing what to say. He now understood he had no idea what the man he replaced did before he got there, and he felt completely helpless "Amy I'm sorry." was all that came from his mouth.
"I loved you. We're having a baby." Amy now croaked out, then again, "How could you." She was having trouble breathing and knew she would faint if she stayed there, her mind screamed to her, 'RUN, run from the pain', so she turned and moved quickly out of the office area, practically running to the front door of the building.
It took several seconds for Sheldon to react to the shock of what happened and he stared at the open office door, then at Leslie again, before he started after her. He just gotten to the front doors of the building when he heard it, the squealing of car tires and then the muffled thud of whatever the car hit. It didn't really register what the sounds were until he burst through the building's doors to a horror far worse that he could ever imagine. Sheldon saw a stopped car, with people running to it and as he looked closer at the scene, before him, he then saw Amy's legs sticking out from underneath it. It took a second for Sheldon to get air into his shocked body to say anything as he headed to her, until finally he screamed "AMY!" as he now ran the rest of the way.
The scene in front of him was hopeless, there was already too much blood and Sheldon felt sick as he knelt down next to her legs sticking out from under the car. "Amy." Deep down he knew, but his mind hoped beyond hope, as he bent down to touch her still warm leg, then tried to feel for a pulse and found none. "AMY!" he screamed again, then he bent down and tried to crawl under the car, getting her blood on him, as he tried to be with her. He never heard anything, the voices of people trying to calm him, the people trying to preclude him from hurting himself, all he could understand was that something was preventing him from being with her, as hands pulled him away from the car and the scene. He was already covered in her blood from the road, when they made him sit down on a bench in front of the building, sobbing, as people tried to talk to him, the only word coming from his mouth, "Amy". He then seemed to shrink in front of all that were trying to help him, finally putting his head into his hands, while he wept, the reality of it all making him wish it was him instead of her, not wanting to believe that he just lost the only person he would ever love in his life.
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It was 15 minutes later, that Leonard's secretary knocked on his door, her eyes red from crying. "Dr Hofstadter, there has been an accident in front of the Engineering building involving Dr Cooper's wife…..they think she's dead." his secretary croaked out the last few words.
"Amy's dead?" Leonard said in disbelief, getting a nod from his secretary. Leonard jumped up and quickly left the Physics building practically running to the Engineering building. He gasped as he started to get close to the building, seeing all the cars with blinking lights and so many people crowded around the cars near the street. As he tried to get closer he heard two graduate students from his department talking and he stopped to hear what they were saying.
"They say she just walked out into the parking lot not even looking if there were any cars going by." the young man told the young woman.
"Someone said her face was in her hands and she was crying. She probably never saw the car." the young woman added. "Dr Cooper must be devastated."
Leonard moved closer, "Did anyone see Dr Cooper?"
The young woman looked at him and recognized their department head quickly. "I heard he was over there, Dr Hofstadter." she pointed in the opposite direction of the accident, then remembered that Dr Hofstadter was friends with Dr Cooper, "I'm so sorry, sir."
Leonard nodded and headed in the direction she pointed, seeing the small group of people milling around one of the campus benches. As he got closer he saw Sheldon on the bench, his head between his legs, a paper bag below his head and an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) kneeling in front of him. A police officer was sitting next to him, sitting quietly as the EMT was talking to him, it made Leonard stop and just stare at the scene in front of him.
Leonard stood their watching them, he didn't even know how long, until he couldn't take in any more and moved through the people to walk up to the people at the bench. Leonard looked at the policeman who had now looked up at him. "I am his friend."
Sheldon's face shot up to look at Leonard and Leonard was struck by the horrible grief on Sheldon's face. He had never in his life seen Sheldon so devastated and through his tears, he moaned. "Leonard she's dead, she's dead and it's my fault." Leonard immediately sat on the other side of Sheldon and took him into his arms as Sheldon sobbed on his shoulder, getting Amy's blood on Leonard too. Leonard sat there feeling numb himself, not wanting to believe Amy was dead and thinking could anything get worse in this timeline.
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It took over an hour for the preliminary investigation and before they got crane to lift the car off of Amy's pinned body. The police had talked to everyone who had saw anything, even Leslie and had determined quickly that even though Dr Cooper had upset his wife, it was her fault she got hit, by not being aware about what she was doing when she stepped into the parking lot traffic. The people gawking at the accident got bored after they took Amy's body away, and soon most of the morbid sightseeing students left the area, leaving only police and one ambulance crew to try and help with Sheldon, who was just a basket case. His only indication that he was aware of anything, around him, being when it took Leonard and two police officers to restrain Sheldon as they removed Amy's body from under the car. Sheldon having to be held firmly until she was put in the body bag and transported away from the accident.
However now Sheldon just sat on the bench, staring at the ground, not having moved or said a thing for over an half hour, having become still after Amy's body had been removed from the scene. Leonard sat next to him, occasionally trying to get him to talk with no success, it seemed he closed himself off from the world around him. Leonard watched the EMT and police officer talk a few feet away until the officer came over to sit next to Sheldon and tell Leonard that the EMT wanted to talk to him.
"Dr Hofstadter, I think we need to take Dr Cooper to the hospital for observation. He does not seem sane to me right now." The EMT told Leonard.
Leonard knew they couldn't take Sheldon, is his current state he could tell them about the time machine and if anyone in the Government got a hold of it, the results would be much worse than Amy's death, even as horrible as it was. Sheldon did need help, but knowing Sheldon so very long, he knew he did better with friends than strangers and they would probably just lock him up forever. Leonard had to get him out of there, not just the scene but the timeline.
"I've know him for a very long time, over a decade, and I think if you check you will see me on his next-of-kin forms for medical care, after his wife." Leonard knew in his timeline Sheldon still had him on his medical forms, even after he put Amy on as primary, Leonard was secondary in his timeline, he hoped it was the same now.
The EMT now was little nervous, if this man was on Dr Cooper's medical forms he had complete control over what services they could perform on him, in his present state. He still thought Dr Cooper should see a psychiatrist, but if he forcefully took him away he could be sued, however, if he didn't and this man lied, this man would be in trouble, not him. The EMT had a wife and children, so went with the safe plan. "Sir I really suggest against it, and I will check on your authority as soon as I get back, but right now I will accept your wishes, since Dr Cooper is in no physical distress."
"Fine. I then have no further need for your services." Leonard said with conviction.
The short man in front of him seemed so confident in what he was doing the EMT just sighed. "Okay sir, but please call us if he gets worse." Leonard just nodded to him.
Leonard sat back next to Sheldon, the man seemed almost catatonic, it was then Leonard knew he would need help. Leonard now sighed, because there was only one person in this timeline he could trust, and he didn't have any choice. So Leonard looked at Sheldon and said softly, "Sheldon do you have your phone?" Getting no response from the taller man. "Sheldon I'm going to check your pockets for your phone, okay?" Again getting no response.
Leonard carefully padded Sheldon's front pockets and felt it, slipping his hand into that pocket and retrieving Sheldon's phone. He quickly tried a couple of Sheldon's usual passwords and got it on the fourth try, then going to his contact list and finding Penny's number, listed next to his. Leonard quickly picked her number and hit send, then waited as the phone rang to hers.
Miles away, Penny's phone vibrated and rang, the picture Penny had put for Sheldon showing on the screen. It was a picture, Amy send to Penny after their honeymoon, and in it Sheldon had a huge natural smile, because below his face, Amy was against him, hugging him, a big smile on her face too. The phone kept ringing, until the computer chip that controlled it determined it rang long enough and sent the call to voicemail.