"The X-Advisors..."

"The X-Advisors..." Part L...

"I could see how much he meant to Sheldon..." Sheldon nodded. "He must have been quite a guy."

"And of couwrse...Well..." Kripke shrugged. "I pwromised to believe hewr, and I do. But..."

"Dr. Kripke? Not Penny? Someone else...? Hmmn?"

"Kid, evewryone else...No woman could wresist his eawrnest chawrm. Because it was always sincewre."

Sheldon, blanching a bit...

"No, he would nevewr do that to Sheldon and Amy is too dewvoted. But he did enough to make Sheldon expwress jealousy, for the fiwrst time evewr. No..."

"He took your giwrl...Uh, girl?"

"Lets say, as much as any man could, yes. But befowre I came onscene. He neawrly mawrried hewr."

"My. Instead of Penny?"

"He was suwre thewre was no hope thewre, not wrealizing in his self-depwreciation that anyone could see Penny was gonza on him even then." sigh. "And my Lesley was despewrate to find safe hawrbowr, afwraid of the twruth dawning on hewr. But she did lwove him, in hewr way, it was not possible not to. She lwoved him so much, she wrealized, not yet fully conwsciouswly, she could not take him, tolewrant and gentle as he was. She let him go fowr which I must be fowrevewr gwratful."

"He would have married her, this woman you loved?" Sheldon eyed his open face.

"Only out of kindness and his sense of duty I'm suwre. And it would have been a disastewr for him, hewr, and me."

"But he knew you loved her?"

"No...I didn't know I loved her then." Kripke, startling Sheldon by suddenly losing his lisp. "But thanks to him I had the one gwreat lwove of my lwife. Thewre'll nevewr be anothewr fowr me, as thewre'll nevewr be anothewr like Amy for you and Penny for him. I owe him for that, big time."

"But she didn't love you?" Sheldon, sympathetically.

"Oh, she did...As much as she could...It just wasn't enough. Though I would have dwone anything to stay with hewr, she wrefused to let me suffewr. But sometimes, Sheldon..." wan smile. "Thewre's suffewring one can beawr and thewre's suffewring one can't beawr. And now she's gone fowrevewr. And even if I could find Leswley hewre, nothing would change."

Sheldon eyeing the sad face... "And you're helping Sheldon...And Penny...And Amy...And me, stranded here, maybe forever, for her?"

"For lwove..." Kripke smiled. "In the end when the heawrt's bwroken, one still wants to believe in lwove. And no one believes more than you guys. No one is gwreatewr testiment to it s powewr. Pewrhaps I'm just a lwove pawrasite...Feeding off you all. But it's all I have. And it's enough."

"I'm so sorry, Barry." Sheldon patted his arm. "Thank you. And you have my support for dibs on any book deals."

...

"So you were saying you're an astrophysicist?" fifteen year old Miss Glau, a bit urgently to Raj seated beside her, Leonard having willingly agreed to take her seat by her snoring aunt.

"Uh...Yes." Squeak.

"That's so cool...What do you work on?" she tried.

"Uh...Space." he squeaked out. "Just a moment...I need to speak to my friend, make sure he knows the way to the bathroom. His bladder runs a regular schedule."

"Uh...Sure..." she nodded, grimacing slightly.

"Leonard? Leonard?" Raj shook him.

"Wha? What? Raj? Is anything wrong?" he looked up.

"Hey..." Summer beamed, waving from her seat.

"Time for your bladder run, dude. Here, let me escort you, you're probably disoriented."

You think so? Leonard frowned up at him, but got up.

"We'll be...Back." Raj nodded to Miss Glau.

"Great." she nodded, a bit puzzled by his emphasis.

"Raj? What the hell?" Leonard hissed as they walked.

"You must need to use the facilities...That lemonade you had earlier was medium-sized."

"Yeah and thanks but what's going on?"

"My mutism...It's back..."

"What? You seemed to be talking to her just fine before. Why would it be back?"

"I think it's Lucy...Her ghost." Raj sighed "I think she's reaching in, grabbing my tongue each time I think of something charming and yanking it till I nearly choke."

"Raj...You asked to me to let you sit next to her."

"No, I didn't..." Cautious look around. "You begged me to keep you from wronging Penny. That's right, Lucy...That's how it was." eyeing Leonard.

Play along, dude. At least let me get a crack at ghost sex.

"No...You didn't." Leonard, sternly. Then relented... "But why did you ask for the seat if...?"

"Dude? It's Summer Glau...I was getting one up on Howard. So then, when we meet in Heaven or Nirvana, I got bragging rights."

"And if Lucy's ghost catches you..."

"Therein my dilema. But there's more..." nervous look back at the smiling Miss Glau, looking back at them. Hey!

"Hey! Back in just a min!" he waved back, immediately turning back to Leonard, urgent tone... "Dude, doesn't it strike you as more than coincidence? We met her in our universe, on a train. Howard meets her at a NASA conference a few years later and she admits she was interested in him then, just being cautious until her view of him was mucho improved by NASA confirming his astronaut status..."

"And he told her he was married and that was that..."

"Yeah...But...Think about it... Now she's here, offering us a ride to near our destination...Just when we need it?"

"Right. Must be the Illuminati, trying to steal the secret of time travel." Leonard frowned.

"Dude...We're hoping maybe to restore our universe. That means Howard's safe."

"So...You think Summer Glau went back in time, disguised as her fifteen year old self...To help us save Howard?"

"Well, you make it sound stupid... But what if Howard is the key to some future resistance against Skynet? And John Connor has been sending her back at different points, at different ages?"

"What?"

"Or maybe...We lead the resistance." beam. "I know it would be damned clever of me to send her back to get my attention."

"Raj...Just let me pee." Leonard sighed.

"Come on...We're the living proof time-travel is possible, Dude. And who would believe Summer Glau would keep showing up at points in our existences, and always be nice to us?"

Hmmn...Leonard pondered...Looking up the aisle to the still beaming, and waving, Miss Glau.

"Anyway, whether she's a terminator or not...For Lucy's ghost's peace's sake, man. Take my seat."

"Arrugh...Fine. But Penny never hears this part of the story." Leonard frowned.

"Cameron/Summer can terminate me first." Raj nods, relieved.