Disclaimer: All is Chuck's...
Part XXIX...
"This is pretty neat..." Susan nodded, looking over the recordings of the electromagnetic variations. "You've nailed it. Microwormholes, no question."
"Thanks..." Leonard beamed, pleased to have the approbation of one other theoretical physicist in the room...And by far the hottest.
"I think it's derived from your father's theory on microwormhole stability." Sheldon noted to Susan who smiled at him.
Amy nervously clinging tighter to his arm.
"Well, Dad made a few guesses but never any practical application, Shelybot." Susan, cocking head at him.
And you are being lured nowhere to review those 'guesses' with that harlot, Amy thought, grimly. Pasted smile at Susan.
"Xavier, nice work." Stein had turned away to face Dr. Francis.
"An idea I'd been fooling with, Sue. Leonard here was the one who came up with the practical setup. And of course, Mr. Wolowitz...Did the tinkering together..."
Yeah, that's me...Howard rolled eyes. The "tinkerer".
"Nice..." another beam Leonardward. "How are you, Dr. Hofstadter? Better since your attack?"
"Much..." Leonard nodded. "Thanks..." Uh...He turned to suddenly buzzing phone.
"Honey?" he asked."What? Yeah, she...Penny?"
Susan had taken the chance to slip closer to Sheldon. "Shelybot? If you'd like to go over Dad's stuff, I'm sure he..."
"Absolutely...We should all do that." Amy, fixed frozen smile, tighter grip..."Amy, that hurts..."
"Sorry."
"So let go, please." Sheldon, slight plea in tone.
"Hant-uh..." she shook head. "We need to go, remember?"
"What...?"
"You remember what I told you?" she eyed him. "We have a 'thing'?"
"Penny?" Leonard eyed his phone...
Sheldon staring at Amy...Susan giving non-comital look, Xavier, a quietly amused one.
"You and I were going to go to...the 'thing'?" Amy urged. "You remember..."
What I told you about escaping that devil in a white dress, you better remember, you...
"Cooper? Did you fowrget our meeting?" Barry Kripke, at door of lab... "And hellow, nice to find you hewre, wrelatively spweaking, alone." He leered at Susan who sighed slightly.
Never, ever, have I thought I would adore Barry Kripke, even for the briefest instant, Amy thought.
"Yes!" she noted, triumphantly. "Your 'thing' with Barry...Lets go, it's rude to keep him waiting."
"Oh...No wrush now." Kripke, beaming at Susan.
"Oh, our meeting on the fusion reactor project, yes." Sheldon nodded. "But Amy, you weren't..."
"How could I say no to your invitation? I so love to watch you work, darling." Amy, hastily.
"Well..." Barry pondered. "If this is to be a couples meeting...?" he eyed Susan.
"Fusion? I wish I could..." quick sly glance Sheldonward. "But I think I'd like to discuss this wormhole thing with Dr. Hofstadter and Xavier here while the results are fresh. Next time, fer sure." She beamed.
"Of...Course..." Amy smiled...Pulling a puzzled Sheldon and Kripke, in tow, along. "Barry, I have a few questions..." Slamming the lab door after yanking Sheldon though.
"She's that interested in fusion?" Susan turned to Leonard.
"Who isn't?" he shrugged, nervous smile.
.....
"She's there all right." Penny turned to Stein, having closed her phone.
"I thought so..." he sighed.
"Well, Amy and Sheldon are out of the lab now, thanks to..."
"Then we may have very little time..." he noted, anxiously. "I didn't think she was so close but if Susan is willing to let Cooper leave her sight with Dr. Fowler, she must be close...We must hurry."
"Doctor..." Penny, grim tone. "I need to know what's going on and why Leonard might be in danger as well as why Sheldon and Amy are, even though you didn't say so for them. What is your daughter up to?"
"It's complicated, Mrs. Hofstadter...Indeed I only realized myself just last night how dangerous the situation was. How far Susan and Xavier were willing to go and had come..."
She rose from her chair, fists clenched.
"Give me the little golden book version, abridged and quick...Doctor, I'm a big farm girl from Nebraska who loves a scientist but isn't all that in awe of you guys. I'll hurt you if I have to."
"I believe you..." he smiled wanly, then a wistful look that made Penny relent, slightly.
"What?" she eyed him...
Is this one of the "Creator's" moves Howard was talking about?
"It's just...You remind me of two people who were very dear to me...One I failed, one I lost." He smiled. "But they both deserve my best effort here...As does my poor Sue...And her mother..."
"That...Margaret...?" Penny nodded. "Susan's real mother..."
He sighed. "Oh, Penny...That is exactly where I failed her. Though I sincerely believed...Until long after the damage had been done..."
She frowned. "Doc, you gotta be clearer... But I'll guess the other is Amy's gran, Dr. Fowler II or maybe I is better."
"Fowler...Horowitz." He sighed. "You know it still hurts a bit to add the second part. Yes..." he nodded. "She's the other...Oddly both Margarets. And I am trying here for both their sakes and my poor Susan's..."
"I want to believe you but..." Penny regarded him. "Your daughter wants Sheldon...And I think you love your daughter."
"More than almost anything in this world...And stopping her from what she plans to do is loving her." Stein, wan smile.
"Well?"
"Very well..." sigh. "Just as my poor daughter became a physicist to win Sheldon's approval and love...And I suspect, on some remote level, myself...So she now hopes to use Physics to game her chances."
"I knew it!" Penny, fumbling for phone. "She's gonna blow up the lab as soon she gets Sheldon somewhere safe! She'll get Barry to send Amy back...!"
"No, no...It's not that." Stein put up a hand. "For the moment, they're all physically safe, I promise you. But Susan does plan to do violence to your friend Amy and to all of you, perhaps all of us. She can't accept that Sheldon's lost to her. It's a problem to her and my daughter is never better than when dealing with a problem. Particularly when she's made it a physics problem."
Penny, stern look. "Cut to the chase, Doctor. What is she up to?"
"She and my old friend...A formidable duo indeed, with similar motives, though Sue still cherishes the hope Xavier lost when Margaret died. His dream here is far more revenge than...Penny, if I may...?"
"Lets keep it Mrs. H., Doctor."
"Mrs. Hofstadter..." he nodded. "Here we have two people here whose main source of what they perceive as the tragedy and grief of their lives is bound up in Time. And who are two of the world's leading experts on how Time can be manipulated..."
She stared at him...
"What? Are you saying...?"
"There's no more perfect revenge or more satisfying solution than seeing that your worst enemy never won." He shrugged.
"That can't..." she paused. "Can it?"
"She's been working on the theory I played with, years ago...Xavier on creating the practical application. Separately but in communication. And I fear poor Leonard is the tool they mean to use, at whatever...Penny?!" he looked after her as she raced for the door, phone open and being dialed.
Well, I thought I might have a harder job here convincing her. I suppose it really does help in crises situations to have no critical appraisal faculty, he thought, hurrying after. "Mrs. Hofstadter! Penny!" he called.