Disclaimer: All is Chuck's...
Part XLV...
"I apologize for calling the campus police on you, Sheldon." Dr. Fowler-Horowitz sighed as the group rode back to the main campus, Stein having suggested it was best to continue their discussion somewhere neither Xavier or adult Susan could be certain of.
"It's fine, ma'am." He nodded.
"You seem a bit intimidated by me?" she looked at him.
"Yes, ma'am."
"Was I that bad to him?" she turned to Amy.
"Oh, no. He just knew the weight your opinion carries with me. And you are the one Biophysicist he respects."
"Only part time..." smile. "But I like to cross the streams..."
"You always did, Maggie." Stein, driving smiled in the rear-view mirror.
Dang...If only old Stein had come back with us...Amy reflected.
"So I gave you the full force Folwer?" Margaret eyed Sheldon.
"Yes, ma'am...I think so."
"Middlin'...But you were concerned about Charlotte and trying to fully comprehend what power Sheldon had over us." Amy noted, helpfully.
"Well, that's easier to see now that I've met younger Sheldon. You are quite the cutie, honey." She beamed at young Sheldon in the front seat, who gave innocent smile back.
Hah! Grandma prefers me! Young Sheldon gave arch glance to the fuming adult Sheldon.
Putz.
"Well..." Amy, sensing the counterpart tension... "Sheldon is wonderful at any age, Gran."
"He seems to have scrawnied up a bit over the years." Judicious eyeing of adult Sheldon who frowned.
"Indeed." Young Sheldon agreed. "I've decided to take steps to avoid that. I'm embarking on an exercise program."
"What?!" Sheldon stared. "You can't turn me into some hulking behemoth, unless it's due to a laboratory accident involving gamma radiation and mutation. Besides, what about our work?"
"It should only take about thirty minutes a day. I'm thinking some chest expansion..." young Sheldon noted.
"Amy? You can't let him do this. It's a violation of the original timeline. Plus, I'd lose my fawnlike quality."
Hmmn...Amy pondered upon, fantasized a Sheldon with muscles and barrel chest.
Hmmn...
Still...I do adore his fawnlike quality.
And it could affect the restoration of the timeline...
"I'd prefer you not do it if you hadn't planned it before..." Amy noted to young Sheldon. "Please?"
"Of course, my angel."
"He's the cutest little thing." Margaret beamed. "Good choice, Amy. It helps to see him in the flesh, it's been hard to judge from that obsessively large poster in your room and the scrapbooks full of his news clippings."
"It's not...Obsessive...GranMag."
"Is that the one hanging in your apartment now?" Sheldon asked. "It even scares me when I go in your..."
"Living room!" Amy, hastily.
Margaret rolling eyes...Come now, girl. We're adults.
"And of course, cutie Sheldon here didn't endanger my granddaughter's existence and strand her twenty years out of her time..." Margaret, sternly.
"Gran! Sheldon saved my life. I would have been killed with everyone else."
Excuse me? Kripke frowned.
And Barry's help." Amy added.
"Yes...Mentwion it. Thanks."
"I suppose that's true in both cases...Thank you, Dr. Kripke." Margaret nodded.
Excuse me? In turn? Sheldon frowned.
"You have me to blame for all this, Maggie." Stein sighed. "I should never have carried through those theories."
"Nonsense, Francis." Margaret shook head. "You'd no idea anyone would be insane enough to apply them in this way. Speaking of which, with all due regard, Francis, I'm not surprised your poor girl went totally bonkers...I did speak to you about her mother..."
"So you did..." he sighed.
"But I went rather bonkers about my Leonard...So...Who am I to judge a severely bipolar schizophrenic. But Xavier? Francis, how could he have changed so?"
"Love, we think, Gran." Amy sighed. "Dr. Francis lost his wife and never got to know his wife's daughter before it was too late."
"His daughter? Francis? What have you been telling these children? There's no way in Hell, Susan is Margaret's daughter." Margaret frowned.
"Dr. Stein told us the truth, ma'am. Amy had only heard it from Dr. Francis. Susan is Dr. Stein's and his wife." Sheldon noted.
"Sheldon?"
"I haven't had the time to tell you, Amy. But it's the truth."
"Of course it's the truth. The girl has her mother written all over her. Body and mind, poor thing." Margaret nodded, firmly.
"And that's why Xavier deceived you and destroyed his world, because he believed such nonsense?"
"I think it's more than that..." Stein noted. "I suspect he tried to get me to tell him how to create the wormhole expansion from my theories. And hopefully, I refused. He wasn't planned to take or harm Susan, he's been out to save Margaret."
"And Susan, with her own sad obsessions...Largely you..." Margaret eyed a sheepish Sheldon... "Provided him with what he needed."
"That is now my conclusion." Stein nodded.
"That does sound plausible..." Amy agreed. "But does that mean Dr. Francis went back that much further?"
"Would it affect our timeline, Francis?" Margaret asked.
"Not according to multiverse theory..." Stein shook head.
"Multiverse theory..." Margaret frowned. "Always seemed like an evasion to allow time-travel in safety. Still...If it is so, Xavier might have altered a new timeline in the past...Or rather, confirmed one of the infinite possible lines. And may be stuck there."
"Just so long as he isn't here to interfere." Sheldon noted. "Susan will be enough to deal with."
"Indeed." Margaret nodded. "But what about restoring these kids to their proper existence, Francis?"
"I can't say as yet...It may not be possible. Here we are..." he indicated the Physics Building lot and turned in.
"Lets head back to my temporary office, Susan or Xavier won't be expecting that. They'd look for you in Francis' office or lab." Margaret, firmly.
"Probably so." Stein agreed.
"All right. We'll review the situation so that we're all up to speed, including the dottering old woman. And then we should split you up, to avoid the chance of detection. Young Sheldon and Dr. Kripke should go home to Sheldon's place on campus. Amy, you and Sheldon will stay with me. I assume you are sleeping together..." hard stare.
"No!" young Sheldon cried.
"Sheldon!" Sheldon, Amy, Margaret...
"I don't want Amy to sleep with that big lug." Young Sheldon fumed.
"My fault, I should have referred to it later." Margaret noted. "Sheldon? You're too young to get so attached to Amy, especially adult Amy." Stern look.
"But Amy is my future bride, the love of my life...And she deserves the best." Young Sheldon, solemnly.
"My future bride, you little putz!" Sheldon, angrily. "She is not for you! Well, not yet for you!"
Amy, sly smile...Kripke nudging her...
You love this, don't you?
"Boys!" Margaret, sternly as Stein parked.
"Don't let him defile you, Amy." Young Sheldon pleaded to her blushing but touched face.
"Oh, Sheldon..."
"Just wait for me, I'll figure out how to speed my aging."
"Hey!" Sheldon, fuming now.
"It's all right." Margaret sighed. "Now, Sheldon. Sheldon here is proof that you do wind up with Amy, correct?"
"Yes, ma'am." Young Sheldon, Sheldon.
"And you want to be with her and make her happy, correct?"
"Yes, ma'am!" both.
"Lets restrict this to Sheldon the Younger." Margaret insisted.
"Sheldon, I know you're brilliant and mature enough to know you must go through certain life experiences to be able to be the man Amy loves now, don't you?"
Yeah! Life experiences. Weighing on me but forging me into the Sheldon Amy truly loves...In your face, you little putz, Sheldon thought, triumphant.
"I suppose." Young Sheldon sighed.
"Well then, you must allow Time and Experience to shape you."
"I concur!" Sheldon, eagerly.
"Quiet." Margaret frowned.
"I will say I am very pleased you appreciate Amy at your age. It's clearer than ever to me that you and she are, as they say, made for each other. And that, is a great relief to me, Sheldon."
"Very well..." young Sheldon sighed. "Sheldon, I see I must entrust Amy to your care. Don't screw this up." Frown. "Remember the newer model is waiting in the wings till he becomes you. And is ever-ready to shove you out of his way if you let our beloved down."
"Never gonna happen." Amy beamed, squeezing Sheldon's hand.
"You're very lucky. Don't blow this!" young Sheldon frowned at Sheldon.
"Never..." Sheldon nodded, kissing Amy's hand. "GranMag, I swear I will never let Amy down."
"Or he'll have me to deal with." Young Sheldon, proudly.
Oh, my God...Amy beaming, tears running...
"Well, consolation prize and then some..." Margaret noted. "Young Amy, my current granddaughter is available."
"I had considered that..." young Sheldon nodded. "But there is the danger to the timeline if we wish to restore it."
"Well, why are you willing to go after my Amy then?" Sheldon eyed him.
"Heck..." young Sheldon shrugged. "I was just keeping my options, open. Cause if you screw it, to hell with the timeline."
...
Eastern Arizona...
"I can't go on like this. My thumb is getting chaffed." a dark-haired, rather dark skinned figure in worn but unsuitable for the time or region, clothes sighed.
"Someone is sure to stop soon. We have to keep going..." his companion, shorter in equally unsuited clothing though perhaps rather less elegant by a tad, noted firmly.
"How can you be so sure Austin is right, dude? They could be anywhere."
"It's the logical choice. Sheldon, Amy, and Dr. Stein and his daughter are there, now. Dr. Francis, from this era, visits there. I know they went there, Susan had the position and time fixed, I'm sure of it. She's there, Rajesh...I know Penny is there."
"Ok..." nod. "Well...Thank god that last store took your cash and didn't check the dates on the bills." Gulping down water from a bottle.
"Yeah, look. I'll take thumb duty for a while."
"Good. Cause really my poor thumb is ready to fall off. Leonard?" Rajesh eyed his companion. "You're sure Howard didn't follow us?"
"He'd stay for Bernadette even if he'd had the time to leap...I'm sorry, Raj."
"My poor Howard. My beloved...Friend...Bernadette. Those poor kids. Sheldon...Amy. Prya, my brothers, my dad...Mom...Well, Prya, frankly I could let go. And I know you love Sheldon, but..."
"Raj..." Leonard eyed him, trying to sweep dust off his clothes.
"No, I couldn't. Even if my sister is/was a bitch. And not Sheldon, either. Leonard? What do we do if we find Penny...And Susan? And Dr. Francis? If any of them did make it here."
"We figure out a way to fix things. Either by making things work out here or getting back to our lives."
"Stuck...Here?"
"I don't know, for sure. Maybe. I'm sorry, Raj." Leonard sighed. "It's my fault, I was too eager to make this test work and I didn't realize what Susan and Dr. Francis were up to."
"It's not your fault. It's theirs. And we will find these monsters no matter what it takes, including finding and robbing my younger self in his boarding school at Phillips Exeter. Really, he's loaded. And he'd faint before we'd need to really get rough." Nod to Leonard's stare. "I never felt this before but at the thought of all those innocent deaths I am filled with the savage lust for blood of my more warrior ancestors." Raj, grimly. "And I sure would like another pretzel when we get near another store, now you have change in this era's cash."