Disclaimer: All is Chuck's...
Part XXVII...
Oooh...oooh, oooh, oooh... The famed theme from The Classic Outer Limits program playing through Leonard's particle lab. Leonard seated at bench, Penny standing beside him. Raj, Dr. Francis, Amy and Sheldon listening.
"Ah, there's nothing like the classic..." Raj noted fondly... "That old theme music always makes me too creeped out to turn anything on but I love it. Excellent choice, Music Director Hofstadter." He smiled at the beaming Penny.
"That's my wife..." Leonard, fondly.
You...Penny shyly. "Three hours today, not one minute more..." she insisted.
"Thanks for that much. I'll stick to the deal, don't worry...Ms. H." Leonard grinned.
"I'd stick an extra-half hour on for that Mr. H, but I love you too much." Penny eyed him.
"It's good. I don't want to push it either." Leonard nodded.
"Now that sounds like the old days..." Dr. Francis grinned, listening to the music as he stood at bench jotting notes.
"Remember that afternoon we spent discussing the creature from 'It Crawled Out of the Woodwork' and you told Lin and me how you'd destroy it?" Leonard beamed.
"The classic movie approach, really..." Dr. Francis smiled. "Choke it with all the energy you can muster, split it into two stable elements. Simple but the simple classic is often the best way."
"So this is what you do all day? Talk about how you'd beat monsters in old TV shows?" Penny mock-frowned.
"On the good days..." Leonard grinned. "Indeed." Xavier agreed. "After all, what's more probing than the human imagination? And what frees it more than the speculation of science fiction, comic books, graphic novels, the occasional fine film..."
"I know some of my best ideas came from..." Leonard began...
"Dutch physicists who beat you to the punch whose work you then imitatively reproduced?" Sheldon, looking over Dr. Francis' shoulder at his notes, cut in.
"Make him crawl back into the woodwork and you've earned my tax dollar for the year." Penny frowned at Sheldon.
"Ole ball and chain's got him by the throat already I see..." Sheldon hissed to Amy beside him.
"Careful...Don't discourage them or we may find him or her living with us like some bad 80s sitcom. Their depression hanging over us like some grim cloud, poisoning our loving atmosphere." She replied, in whisper.
"Really? Us with you, that's your concern?" Leonard frowned, easily hearing.
"Nonsense. We have every faith you and Penny will succeed as a matrimonial couple." Amy smiled.
"With their history, I give them two months." she hissed to Sheldon.
"Generous..." Sheldon shook head.
"Hey..." Penny glared.
"Just being realistic, bestie..." Amy noted.
"Amy..." Penny, hurt. "You're my best friend. You're supposed to be supporting us."
"Sorry...My own catlike fear of dread regarding my own romance is leaving my empathy at an unusually low level as compared to my generally loving warmth."
"Don't be afraid..." Sheldon patted her.
Ohhh...Penny teared up... "Look at them, Leonard..." she gasped, shaking head, taking his hand. "Our young people..."
"I'm not gonna start calling you, 'Mother', lets get that straight." Leonard noted.
"Certainly not, Father..." Penny smiled.
Yet...Wink to Amy.
"Ok..." Leonard put up a hand. "I appreciate all the love but I am here to work. Dr. F.?" he turned to Francis. "Lets make physics history."
"History or hilarity..." Sheldon noted, eyeing the notes on bench. "Seriously...Low power wormholes?"
"An old idea of mine since the first Einstein-Rosen bridge papers came out which I believe now the technology may have reached the point where the first experiments can be made." Francis, nodding. "It may seem unlikely to you, Sheldon, but I've always believed theory to be the child of experiment."
"Illegitimate child..." Sheldon sniffed.
"Shel...don..." Amy, tapping.
"And the marital agreement, pre-nup clause, kicks in." Leonard beamed. "The party of the female party, heretofore to be known as..." he eyed Amy who shyly beamed.
"The wife to be..." she grinned.
"You minx..." Sheldon frowned. "You leaked the prenup clause to Leonard? How could you?"
"How could you, Sheldon Cooper, have forgotten to insert a 'no distribution of these proceedings' clause into the prenup clause?" Leonard, archly.
"I was blinded by love." Matter-of-factly.
Ohhhh....Amy, and, to her slight annoyance, Penny...
"Damn...You are getting good at using stuff like that." Leonard grinned.
"I'm a romantic, it's only natural." Sheldon shrugged. "Now as to your concept..."
"I agree with Dr. Francis...Mini-low power wormholes can be created and there is evidence for their existence." Leonard, firmly. "The quantum foam hypothesis clearly states..."
"Oh, foam...Quantum or otherwise..." Sheldon fumed.
"Foam...?" Penny stared. "First, isn't foam bad for asthma?"
"Only if we let Sheldon keep talking..." Raj noted. "It's not that kind of foam, Penny. It's a conceptualization for the fabric of the universe. Sort of a way of describing that fabric and its turbulence at extremely small distances where Heisenberg uncertainty allows energy to decay into particles and antiparticles..."
"Ok, no...Particles are bad...Particles hurt Leonard's lungs." Penny shook her head. "No particles, Leonard..." wagging finger at him.
"Penny, these aren't that kind of particle..." Leonard noted.
"No, because they're at the quantum level." Penny, smiling archly. "I got that already, I was just pulling your leg...And trying to see if you started trying to cover for your dumb blonde wife." Wan grin.
"You 'got that...Already'?" Sheldon eyed her. "Just what did you get?"
"That this is at the quantum level and that means...It's gobbly-gook theoretical stuff that doesn't hurt Leonard. So I'm ok with it." She smiled.
"Fundamentally, right...She's got you there, Cooper." Dr. Francis smiled.
"Now hold on there..." Sheldon frowned. "There is the possibility that it could..."
"Rain very hard..." Leonard cut in. "And I oughta go get my umbrella...You were right, honey." He beamed at Penny. " I was wrong. I shoulda brought it."
"It's in the car. I took it anyway." She gave satisfied smile. "Be right back..." she rose and hurried out.
"Sheldon...!" Leonard turned to him immediately. "Do not start telling Penny that there is potential for me to be harmed. That's not the case and even if it were, I can't have her panicking every time I do an experiment."
"But you could be harmed...Theoretically it is possible if particles and anti-..."
"Are you out of your mind? There's more chance I could be hit by a bus leaving this office..."
"Theoretically, the odds are disturbingly high for that, too." Sheldon nodded.
"Higher that I'll shove you in front of that bus as my shield..." Leonard noted. "Penny's frantic about me and you want to make her more so, just to win this argument?"
"Hmmn...I suppose your hypothesis is valid..." Sheldon noted. "Though Penny is merely my crowbar opening the window of advantage."
"And I'm gonna shut the window down on your fingers in a moment..." sigh.
"Cooper." Dr. Francis, looking up from his notes, smiled at Sheldon. "I would never let Leonard do anything for this work that would endanger him, don't worry. And no need to have Mrs. Hofstadter worry. But you're a good friend. I assure you the experiments will be safe and I'll handle the actual materials in chamber, myself."
Sheldon eyeing him... Raj, Amy, and Leonard staring...
"Not that I ever thought that since I know as a theoretician it's safe...Thank you, Doctor." Sheldon nodded. As Amy gave Xavier a careful stare...
"You are good..." she noted, hesitantly. Sheldon frowning...What? As she patted him. "And you are a good friend, sweetheart." She kissed him.
"I worked with Francis Stein for over thirty years, Dr. Fowler." Xavier smiled.
"And I've hung with you clowns and practically lived with you for almost ten." Penny, at door, stepping in and handing umbrella to a sheepish Leonard. "Sweetie. I don't want you to talk down to me, even if I don't get it at first. I know you were protecting me but please don't. I get that you need to do your work and I'll try to trust you not to take risks."
"I'm sorry..." he sighed.
"Just lie to your colleagues and make up things when I say dumb stuff that makes me look wise but, you know, 'earthy'." She noted. "You don't need to protect them, after all. But you do need to be able to come up with better than something so lame I can see through it. I mean 'rain very hard'? Though I do want you to keep that umbrella around today...And to stay away from that foam." Smile. "And Raj, Sheldon...?"
"Right...No heart-rate raising, asthma-inducing debates on the first day back..." Raj nodded.
"That's my buds..." Penny beamed, fondly, then turning to Leonard again... "All right, Hofstadter...I got no sick days left after today so you're on your own." She put an arm round him. "Don't hurt me, Leonard. I couldn't bear it." She kissed him. "Stop crying Sheldon..." Penny eyed him. "Leonard will take care of himself and we'll help him keep safe." Leonard, wry smile, nodding.
"I know you will, Sheldon."
"We will..." Amy nodded, patting Sheldon. But a stare at Dr. Francis...Who was regarding Penny with a look mingling sadness...And a degree of shame.