Disclaimer: All is Chuck's...
Part LII...
Theme from "A Shot in the Dark..." (check youtube).
Careful...Catlike crawl, pause as lights from passing car are scattered by window blinds and reflected in strange lines on the opposing wall. Ok...
Stealthy slide toward door...Carefully pausing by a numberpad, typing hurriedly.
Hmmn...Knew it...
Now, just a quick...
"Amy." Cool tone, lamp switched on from rocker by sidetable.
Dang. Amy sighed.
Busted.
Once again the catlike Fowler reflexes fall to the catlike Fowler vision...
But I did think the warm milk had set the old girl off to dreamland...Fool that I was.
"Get back to the sofa and go to sleep." Margaret, sternly. "I promise we'll go over to Sheldon's as soon as reasonable in the morning. Don't give me that 'but it's technically the morning now' look. One thirty am is not a reasonable hour. Kudos on figuring out my code by the way, though I suppose 'wickeder#1" is rather easy to puzzle out. Now come back to bed and stop fretting, child."
"Can't I at least...?"
"Amy, you've called him twice already. The boy needs his sleep, you want to jeopardy his clearly fragile health?"
"No...I..." Blanch! "Fragile?! What do you mean, Gran?"
"He's a bit thin and pale. Clearly he's been working much too hard. A young boy like that..." sigh. "Working himself to death, really."
"What...?" Amy stared.
Oh, have I failed in my charge to my beloved? It's true he had been looking pale...Though I thought that his natural shade.
"I understand from Francis he'd not left his apartment in three days..."
True, true...True! I was gonna try and even urge Dr. Francis to go check on him in the guise of his anxious visiting sister if he hadn't anticipated me! Oh, I should've done it days ago!
"You think he's ill? I should go right now!"
"No...Not ill per se." Thoughtful nod. "But he clearly needs rest and food."
Amy narrowly... "Are you trying to manipulate me, Gran?"
"Of course." Smiling nod. "Being a Fowler you naturally got that right away, good. But I'm also quite sincere. That boy needs some rest and someone to put some meat on his bones."
"Fine...I'll let him rest...If we can see him early tomorrow. But as to food...I know he prefers hotdogs cut small and stirred into spaghetti, it's his favorite." She noted. "It was in a biographical article about him last year."
"Well, you let him, your old gran, and you, yourself get a little sleep and we'll get what you need to make Sheldon his favorite."
Hmmn, Margaret sighed...One must sometimes make due in Maine and Austin, but in Princeton and New York City, we would cut off the hand putting those cutup excuses for wieners into the sauce...Frowning.
Still, whatever works.
"And he can come over for dinner with everyone tomorrow night, a dinner you can make..." More or less, Margaret thought.
"I can? For Sheldon?"
"You can...For everyone, including both Sheldons."
Though you'll forgive me if I order out and slip upstairs to eat later.
Hmmn...
Amy Farrah Fowler, call upon the negotiating skills of your female ancestors that have made Grandma Fowler one of the five leading psychologists in the world...Apart from being one of the world's leading biophysiologists and biophysicists...
"Ok...But we get a separate table." shrewd look.
"Done..." appraising nod. "So long as it remains in the dining room with us."
"Done." nod. "Pleasure doing business with you, Grandma." Nod.
"And you. Now to go sleep. And in your excitement, don't forget to call Charlotte tomorrow, she ought to be out of recovery by now."
"Yes, Gran."
"You'd best leave any mention of you and Sheldon being in contact out of the conversation."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Wish I knew the secret of that boy's attraction for you two, there are other geniuses in this world about."
"His genius is attractive but it's his pure soul that draws us like moths to a flame. And, of course, he is the cutest thing imaginable." Beam.
"It must after all be the real thing if I'm still so into him after twenty plus more years..." she pointed out, carefully.
"I suppose it must." Nod. "However, you are not getting 'into' him for at least a few more years."
"Yes, ma'am." Sigh.
Should have chosen my words far more carefully...
"And next time, remember I'm long immune to the effects of warm milk after raising two teen-aged granddaughters." Shrewd grin.
"Yes, Gran."
...
"Cwoopewr?" Kripke frowning in Sheldon's doorway. "Fowrgive the intwrusion into youwr pewrsonal space, made possible by our alarm installation making it impossible to lock youwr bedwroom doowr but as appointed cawrtakewr fowr this evening, I feel obwliged to note you should be in bed not at your computer."
"I couldn't sleep." Sheldon sighed from his desk chair. "I'm worried about Amy...Both of them."
"Admiwrable, my wlovestwruck WRomeo but you can't pwrotect them if you'wre exhausted. Get to sleep."
"I'll try...Here..." Sheldon had come over, handling Kripke a print-out sheet.
"What is this...?" Barry stared.
"Lesley Winkle's current home address in Santa Monica, CA. If you want to check on her sometime." Sheldon smiled. "She's just about to enroll in some Cal Tech classes for gifted high schoolers, she seems reasonably bright. Just in senior year at 11."
Kripke, wan smile...
"Kind of you, kid...But I'm a bit old for hewr, Cwoopewr. And she doesn't...Or won't...Qwuite find me hewr type, though I beliweve she did love me, much as she could."
"Amy and I probably can't associate for a while...To protect the integrity of the timeline for the sake of the others who will become close to us. But I intend to act as her guardian and protector, at least from a safe distance, from all and any menaces, in particular, Dr. Susan Stein, adult, as Amy has for me, albeit against somwhat more general menaces, since she first saw me." Solemn nod. "It's not the same but, it's something. And it's what you intended, when Sheldon came to you for help, to see your beloved safe to the life she was meant to have."
"It was...Thank you, Cwoopewr." Nod.
"After all, in twenty years, the age gap won't matter so much. Sexuality has been proven to be a spectrum. And the eawrly biwrd catches the wowrm, Bawrry." Young Sheldon grinned.
...
About 5 am...Penny's room.
The CCU shift nurse entered...Pausing at Amy's loud snore from under the bed. Penny looking over to the nurse, sheepish expression.
"Your friends finally got to sleep I see. Thought they'd be at it all night." The nurse shook head.
"Thanks for not ratting on them..." Penny whispered.
"I was in here once...My husband pretended to be the unit clerk and slept down there till he slipped in with me." Smile. "It's ok, but you do have to get some more sleep today."
"I will...I did, a little. Before Amy opened up both barrels..."
"Yeah...Leonard? You kept asking someone named Leonard questions in your sleep every time I came in...Your husband?"
"He's teaching me Physics. He...He's gone. But he'll never leave me." Penny nodded.
"The good ones never do..." smile. "I should have added mine was killed in Iraq three months before I wound up in here. I kept telling him a ghost doesn't need to fake his way in, but..." pat, shrug.
"Quiet, please..." Sheldon hissed from below. "So long as you know we're here, my fiancée needs her rest."
...
"Well..."
"Well..." Dr. Stein eyed his rather early morning guest as they sat in his study.
"Prosit..." the other raised a glass of brandy he'd poured from a decanter just before Stein had entered to find him waiting. One likewise set before Stein on his desk. "Ah, you always had the best, once Margaret and I taught you to enjoy life." Smile at the quiet Stein regarding him.
"Not a very friendly greeting for your ole pal, Francis." Xavier Francis eyed him. "But thank you at least for not summoning the others when you got my message last night."
"Hardly. I simply wanted to keep them safe. Are you indeed still my old friend, Xavier?" Stein sighed. "What madness is this you've done?"
"That I've done?" smile, leaning back in chair. "I merely provided a trigger to your daughter's mad scheme. How is young Susan by the way?"
"You know how she is, you know your younger self visited here a month ago. When she thought of you as a loving uncle. When I could still call you my friend."
"And you can't now...?"
"You've made that obvious...Xavier?" Stein leaned forward to him. "What were you thinking? You'd go back and save Margaret? Without consequences?"
"Only to me...I'd have been the one trapped there, watching over her and seeing her with all of you, including my own happily clueless young self, his beloved, his life, saved by a miracle from Heaven dropped on his doorstep, for the little time I have left. But that I could bear, easily, to know I'd have her with me. Until your dear girl proved just a bit too clever for me, perhaps..." smile.
"Did she?" careful stare.
"Francis?" grin... "So...You know..."
"I do. I saw Cooper's data and reviewed it this evening. Your double did go back, didn't he?"
"I certainly hope so..." Xavier grinned. "I destroyed a universe to do it..."
"Xavier...Are you mad?"
"No, just a sad and pathetic dying man..." wan smile. "Who had one last thing he could try to do before it all ended for him, even though the friend he'd cherished and helped all his life refused him his one last request. Well, I see no harm here...Despite your concerns, the multiverse theory was correct." Xavier shrugged. "I only influenced that timeline. Where right now, my triplet is seeing Margaret lives to be all she could have been, with me...And you, old friend. I imagine even poor Susan will have a happier life with Aunt Margaret to help."
"And you came here, as well...To deceive Susan, to let her think you'd failed?" Stein eyed him.
"Your daughter has a vindictive streak in her madness...I was sure she'd do anything it took to block me. Finding me here, I hope, will convince her she succeeded."
"You want her to find you?"
"I do. For the reasons I've stated. Oh, I don't intend to harm the poor girl, Francis. I've done enough and her own demons have done the rest quite well enough."
"Why, Xavier...? What has she ever done to you?"
"She's your daughter. She ought to have been mine but the Fates intervened...And ruined your little scheme, for which effort, which I know was sincerely intended for my benefit, I thank you. Instead you, in a way, won the prize...Though with rather harsh consequences."
"She loves you, you know...And I thought..."
"Oh, I did, Francis...I loved her very much. She was my angel too. But sadly, you failed me and wrenched my last hope away. And she became nothing but a tool to me. Sorry, a dying man can't afford hypocrisy. I won't pretend what I did wasn't terrible...Nor will I pretend I wouldn't do it all again."
"These children...Including Susan...Did nothing to you, Xavier..."
"And I destroyed their world...Our world that may not be if the things that destroyed it are not prevented in this timeline. But they managed it, some of them, the poor fools. I feared Cooper might catch on to what Susan had in mind, I wasn't that surprised when I reviewed the data trace and learnt someone had managed to latch on with us. But several someones? Did he take Amy back with him? Or did she insist on coming? Foolish. Foolish." Shake of head. "Nothing would have happened to their world. I would have put all right and it would have gone on as before."
"This timeline yes, but their own? Their universe was destroyed, Francis, to allow you and Susan to alter others."
"And yet their younger selves are here, perfectly safe...Except from your daughter." Cool smile. "But I suppose Sheldon couldn't resist the temptation of utilizing the theory as much as the fear that his world...Amy...Might be lost. He reminds me of you, Francis, I always told you that...And will continue to, if allowed, that is, my current self, who must be very puzzled now or soon to find his accounts have been manipulated to the extent of over five hundred dollars and his law office had to have him bailed out in Austin the other day. Poor me." Sigh. "Robbed by my own self."
"You're saying you'd had no idea of doing this, then?"
"You hadn't even told me it was possible, then." Shrug. "And my noble old self would have refused to contemplate the idea of risking a universe to alter another in the multiverse strings....It was Susan, dear crazed Susan, who made me aware you'd gone much farther in the theory then any published papers suggested. That's so unlike you, Francis. Not to charge ahead, sure the ends justify the means?"
"I grew up a bit, thanks probably to you and Margaret...And Maggie Fowler and the others who helped me."
"Yes, the others I helped you to know...Helped you to love. You owed me everything, Francis." Cold tone. "Even Susan. You'd never have risked a pregnancy unless you'd thought it was Margaret's child."
"I do." Stein nodded. "And for that, in recompense, I beg you to stop this."
"Too late, it's done." Xavier shrugged. "Are you afraid I plan more mayhem? I've succeeded, so far as I can know. Why should I wish to do more?"
"And yet, you're here."
"I am. I've explained, in part, why. Frankly you should be grateful...If Susan thought I'd succeeded on my quest, she might try to interfere with that, even at the cost of this universe, especially if she failed here, to prevent Drs. Fowler and Cooper from finding their destined bliss." Wry smile.
"I see..."
"In fact, Francis, my coming here is a potential blessing, for those poor children who so foolishly got involved in what they should have avoided. I am their best hope for stopping Susan and seeing this timeline follows its proper, true course...And for restoring their own, which I assure you I had always intended. I said no harm done and no consequences but to me and despite your sniveling fears then, or rather, later, and now, I mean that. I can help. And I'm willing to. Just so long as Susan is prevented from interfering with what I've done."
"After all this, you claim no harm done? Xavier? No consequences? You can't restore their world, it's not possible. The best we can hope for is to see this one isn't destroyed in the same way...You've not only destroyed your universe, you've threatened this one and perhaps an infinite number of others like it."
"To make an omelet, one must break a few eggs, Francis." Grin. "Well, I should be off. My offer is on the table. I can and will help, if you'll help me. Put to young...Well, older...Cooper, he may see the reason in it." He paused, rising. "Did she come too? Amy?"
"He saved her, yes."
"Good...I'm pleased. Everyone should be happy in this. It would be terrible if he were alone, foolish a mistake as he made in coming."
"His friends are dead...And there is some one else, alone."
"Yes, poor Mrs. Hofstadter, dear thing...And quite able with a rock." He grinned, holding up his splint set hand. "She managed this and nearly killed me. Quite a girl."
"And her husband is dead, because of you."
"I regret that." Xavier nodded. "But if she had stayed with him, her suffering would have never occurred. I'd've restored all and they'd never have even realized anything had happened."
"You can't be sure of that..." Stein frowned.
"No, not one hundred percent...Not even sixty percent. But fifty, well...Good odds there. But they wouldn't have suffered, Francis. And their multiverse counterparts would surely go on..."
"Not necessarily...Not now that you've opened the potential for this to happen across multiple universes. Who knows how many times these kids will suffer?"
"We all die, Stein. No one knows that better than me. At least until we find the multiverse nirvana where immortality exists. Beware that one, Stein...You may well find Susan there or enroute. Her madness would be satisfied with nothing less. Good morning, old friend. If you want to get in touch with me, if your new friends accept my help...Just leave a note in the key box at the hotel. Please don't waste time watching for me there, I'll have someone stop by to check."
"I'll protect these kids, Xavier. I understand you've been suffering, I'm sorry if I wasn't there to help, and I believe you've lost yourself. But I will protect them."
"It's Susan you should be anxious to protect them from, my friend. And your own Susan...The Susan, of my era, will never be content merely to give her younger counterpart the happiness she's desired all these years. Good morning, old friend." Dr. Francis rose.
"Of course..." he paused, with smile. "You could imitate Our Lady Penny of Action and kill me or try too right now. Despite what I hope is an appearance of middle-aged vigor, I'mon my last legs..."
"I could...With regret..." Stein noted... "But the kids may need what you know."
"You begin to wonder...Good, that's the first step toward Knowledge." Xavier nodded.