Disclaimer: All is Chuck's...
Part XLII...
"Ladies, there's no reason not to be civilized." Xavier Francis noted pleasantly. "I've a broken hand and no weapon available of any kind. Plus, if you consider the matter carefully, I feel you'll see our goals basically coincide. Why not sit and have a decent lunch, on my counterpart and Francis Stein? You may well learn something to your credit, even if I can't convince you that we are, essentially, allies."
"Amy, you should go. I don't trust him." Penny, firmly.
"If you like..." Xavier shrugged. "I can't stop her. But two heads are better than one...And no offense, Miss? Fowler? You do look as if you could use a hearty meal or two."
"So long as he can't keep me here or harm us, I think it's not a bad idea to talk, Dr. Hofstadter." Amy noted to Penny. Xavier concealing a slightly amused smile at the "Doctor" Hofstadter.
"The door stays open, you stay next to it. He, then I, sample anything that comes." Penny insisted.
"By all means..." Xavier nodded. "But shouldn't you be calling me 'Dad', Penny?" as she turned to open the door.
"Each time I do, I'll remember my real dad." Penny eyed him calmly, pushing door wide and moving to take a seat at the room's table, Amy beside her, closest to the door. "And what pain I owe you...You pathetic little man."
"Fair enough...Though I again remind you, those deaths and losses are only potential ones. We, working together, can prevent them." He noted.
"How?" Amy asked, pulling chair closer. "How would we work together? And how would it prevent all that's happened?"
"Room service..." a cheery call...
"Ah, right on time." Xavier nodded. "Please, come on in. My daughters here are starving. Girls, I hope you like what I ordered..."
"Sure...Thanks, 'Dad'." Penny smiled coldly as the server placed several covered dishes...
...
Head on hand, propped arm on desk...Dr. Margaret Fowler-Horowitz regarded her two extremely unexpected morning visitors...
"GranMag, you can see I'm Amy..." the seated Amy pleaded.
"I can see you resemble my niece, dear. But you're about twenty years too old." Dr. Fowler-Horowitz noted calmly.
"I've shown you my California license, circa 2015..." Amy sighed, indicating the license with photo on desk, next to Kripke's.
"Indeed you have...But I would note you claim to have chosen this door at random. Very unlikely coincidence, given the situation. You'd've been better to claim you were seeking me, you ought to know I came here for a sabbatical and to see you...Your supposed younger self. Where is she, by the way?"
"I don't know...You just tried her dorm room. It's not a class time, I think...The library? We haven't made contact with her as yet. I'd hoped to keep her out of it."
"Admirable. And you...?" Dr. Fowler-Horowitz scanned the license. "Dr. Barry Kripke...? What do you have to say?"
"Just what Amy has said, Doc." Kripke shrugged. "I get that it's hawrd to beliweve, but..."
"That's quite a lisp...How long have you had it?"
"What wlisp?"
"Gran..." Dr. Fowler-Horowitz cutting Amy's plea off with a wave of hand.
"First things first. I don't say this is all a lie, but it's a bit incredible. Still as Sherlock Holmes would wisely say...When you eliminate the impossible, you are left with the improbable and that must be your solution. I need to speak to my granddaughter, first though. I have to know she's all right." Stern look.
"We wouldn't harm my counterpart..." Amy began.
"I don't know who you are or what you would do, Miss." Slow shake of head. "Oh, I could buy this time-travel story, but it could just as easily be some sort of elaborate prank on my poor Amy. And then there's her sister..."
"Charlotte? She wouldn't... Well, there was a time in the future when she might've done something like this but..."
"It is unlikely but Charlotte's a very angry girl, my poor lamb, and very intelligent. Plus reasonably wealthy in her own right, thanks to all those awful ads."
"She was determined to complete her treatment, Grandma. And she knew you and even Great-aunt Mag couldn't help her anymore."
"Ads?" Kripke asked.
"Her surgeon was a very greedy, very publicity-seeking man...He promoted her in various ads as the Recovering Elephant Girl. People took rather patronizing pity. Charlotte hated it but it got her the money she needed." Amy nodded. "And went a long way toward darkening her view of Humanity in general."
"Very good." Nod. Dr. Fowler-Horowitz giving shrewdly appraising glance.
"I can answer any question about Amy...Charlotte...The family..." Amy noted.
"You could have been given those answers...Though it's true, one wonders why anyone would go to such trouble for a cruel prank or stunt. You've shown me things anyone could have had produced to deceive, if you did come from the future and via such an advanced and dangerous method, you ought to have some equipment?"
"We do, but it's with the rest of our team..." Amy noted.
"I see..."
"You haven't taken a sabbatical in ten years, since Grandpa died while you were away. You told me you blamed yourself for not canceling and going home the day he talked with you and said he had indigestion after that pastrami on rye sandwich."
"I never should have indulged him." Dr. Fowler-Horowitz sighed, tearing a bit. Kripke eyeing her. "I bought the pastrami in New York when he begged me. He was supposed to be on a heart-healthy diet."
"Grandpa Leonard loved life...He couldn't've borne not enjoying it." Amy shook head.
"No, he couldn't..." sigh. "Well, again, very good, but hardly conclusive proof." Stern look. "It's not that hard to make a sentimental old woman cry." She dabbed at eyes under the rims of her glasses with a small handkerchief from her breast pocket.
"That's the one Grandpa gave you. Well, he didn't 'give' it to you, he dropped in your class and you saw and kept it. Though later he did have it monogrammed for you." Amy smiled. "You didn't even tell Charlotte that one, it was only that I was going to wash your suit that time and it fell out and you told me the story."
Narrow stare...
"That could be strong evidence for your case, dear. But I'm afraid I'll still require more to believe you. Can you summon the rest of your party? Or are they blundering about too much to be in contact range?"
"I don't have my...Phone..." Amy sighed.
"There's one right here." Dr. Fowler-Horowitz noted, indicating her desk phone.
"That's not quite what I meant...We use direct phones of a kind that one can carry. OH!" Amy turned to Kripke. "Show her your cell!"
Hmmn.... "You know, it won't work without the network and it's out of powewr."
"Just let her see it, Barry."
"All wright, fine."
"I really could help you with that." Dr. Fowler- Horowitz noted, eyeing Barry who frowned but handed over phone.
"Interesting but it's just a thin black case to me..." she held it up to the light in the room's ceiling.
"Wait. I can call the Steins. They must be there now." Amy noted.
"Francis Stein." Dr. Fowler-Horowitz smiled faintly.
"He was crazy about you back in the 60s, at Princeton." Amy smiled. "Probably still is, if he has as much brains as he seems to."
"The architect of the theory that got you here, you said? Well, he certainly has the brain for it. Poor Francis...Despite his reputation, he's not had an easy time of it."
"His wife." Amy nodded.
"Never would have believed Stein would have gone fishing in that well..." Dr. Fowler-Horowitz shook head sadly. "I tried to warn him after I'd met her. Her bipolarity and schizophrenia were reasonably well concealed, but obvious. Even my grad assistant, Beverly Hofstadter..."
Both Kripke and Amy regarding each other...
"That psychotic, in her own right...Saw it. But Francis refused to see. Even Xavier couldn't warn him off. I suspect he saw something of his mother in her."
"Beverly Hofstadter, yes...Your grad assistant..." Amy nodded. "Where is she, now?"
"That lunatic? She experimented on her own children, I had her up before the APA on child abuse charges. Those poor children. She used electroshock on several of them, enough to potentially damage them and had the gall to try to publish in a respectable journal..." grim stare. "But she backed off afterwards...I believe her husband threatened to take the children and leave. Yet they let her slip off, too many Nazis on the board, if you ask me. She ought to be in jail. But her children are quite successful in spite of her, though I'm sure most are basketcases under the veneer. Her boy Leonard seems a sweet fellow though, he wrote me once...Thanked me for saving them. I wish to God I had, poor boy." Shake of head.
"Leonard!" Amy turned to Kripke.
"He can't help us now, Hofstadter's bawrely 12 and while too not shwabby with the appwlied stuff, probably isn't even in college yet."
"Fourteen, he was a late bloomer, Sheldon says. "But, at least we know he's alive! We just have to make sure he and Penny meet..." Amy, anxiously.
"Well, they're meant too, if we stop Susan fwrom doing mowre damage." Kripke noted.
"Lets call Dr. Stein at home, Sheldon and young Sheldon should be there." Amy urged. "If they've convinced him, will you believe us, Grandma?"
"That equipment would be more of a convincer, dear. Stein's the sort who loves sci-fi and such, plus his ego is quite sufficient to appreciate the idea that he developed the basis of time-travel." Smile. "But, fine...Let me call him. Maybe your friends can convince me." She dialed.
"Hello, Susan. This is Maggie Fowler-Horowitz."
She knew my gran...And she could still do this...Amy shook head.
"Yes, is Papa there? I need to...Oh, yes. Class." Eyeing her guests.
"Susan? Did your father have any visitors...Oh, he did? And Georgie Cooper is still with you?"
Georgie...? Amy mouthed to Kripke.
"Put him on, will you? Thanks, dear."
"It must be Sheldon..." Amy reflected. "He's cleverly disguised himself as his brother George."
"Georgie." Kripke grinned.
"Hello...'Georgie' Cooper? This is Margaret Fowler-Horowitz. I have two guests here in my office, one claiming that she is your fiancée and my granddaughter, from the future. Is that right? I see. Well, that's fine, Sheldon. Thank you." She hung up.
Dialing again...
"Grandma?" Amy eyed her.
"Campus Police? This is Margaret Fowler-Horowitz? Could you send someone to the home of Dr. Francis Stein? 1140 Stone Way, near the Physics building? Yes, there's someone visiting with his young daughter who may be unstable, possibly violent. If Dr. Stein can be reached in class, please check with him as well. I'll be over shortly, please hold the fellow there."
"Grandma!" Amy rose, anxiously. Kripke as well... Dr. Fowler-Horowitz raising a hand.
"Thank you." She put down the phone. "I've no intention of leaving a child alone with someone who may be unstable, whomever you are. If you're telling the truth we can find out later. You can come along or I can report you two as well." She eyed them.