Work Text:
On a train in Roswell...
Sheldon was sat on a train, waiting for to leave the station. He had had a good time in Roswell, but it was time to go. From the corner of his eye he noticed a young tall man hover next beside him... he was hesitant but he had big green eyes and looked eerily familiar. He took a deep breath and then seemed to make a decision.
“Hello,” he young man said taking the seat opposite. Sheldon nodded to the stranger and went back to working on his laptop. Well, working was what he wanted to be doing... really he was looking at pictures of Amy and wondering what she was doing. In his head, he was composing his latest love letter to her.
However, as the train started to roll away, Sheldon got the impression that this young man was watching him. Trying to read his most intimate and Amy filled thoughts. This made him self-conscious and uneasy.
“May I help you?” Sheldon asked shortly. For the first time he looked at the young man. He was a little younger than him, with big glasses, slightly rumbled hair and green eyes. He wore a retro superman t-shirt and a curious expression. He looked oddly familiar.
“Yes,” the man replied with a smile, “I imagine you could. As I imagine I could help you.”
“I don’t like riddles,” Sheldon replied unfriendly. He didn’t want to engage with this person.
“Of course you like riddles da... daddio!” he man replied awkwardly.
“Daddio?” Sheldon snorted.
“Just trying something out,” the young man said with a shrug. “As a child, my mother always encouraged my sister and I to take an interest in the social sciences: such as linguistics.” Then the young man looked sad and for some reason it mattered to Sheldon.
“Did encourage?” Sheldon asked.
“Yes, she passed away,” the young man said sounding sad.
“Oh, I’m sorry for your loss.” Sheldon responded automatically.
“Thank you,” the young man said, with a slight Texan twang and Sheldon took notice. Then he continued. “Of course you like riddles: you’re a physicist. The best use of your time is to employ your rare and precious mental faculties to tear the mask off nature and stare at the face of God...”
“How do you know that?” Sheldon demanded, instantly recognising the words as his own.
"You mean, how do I know your Dr Sheldon Lee Cooper? Star of Physicists Gone Wild; Physicists Melts Down and other memorable videos."
“Yes, I repeat again: how do you know that?” Sheldon insisted, feeling uneasy.
“I know a lot more than that,” the stranger said with a smile. “I know that you’ve been travelling around the country and instead of using all your savings you’ve been playing piano in places your mother wouldn’t approve of. I know your last song is always The Way You Look Tonight because it reminds you of your girlfriend. I know you’ve been using the name S.Lee and only Amy Farrah Fowler knows that. I know you’ve been sending letters to Amy Farrah Fowler because in some hippy dippy way you think it’ll ease your parting.”
“Who are you?” Sheldon pressed changing tact. The young man gave a genuine grin.
“Well, my father’s family calls me junior,” he replied sounding incredibly Texan. “My parent’s friends call me re-run because sometimes I’m a repeat of my father. My father and mostly everyone else call me S.Lee,” It was then the young man called S.Lee recognised realisation dawn on his father’s face. “My girlfriend calls me sexy but that’s just to annoy her father. My momma and my sister call me Shelly. But on my degrees and on my Noble medal it says: Doctor Sheldon Lee Leonard Cooper-Fowler.”
“That’s some name,” Sheldon said appraising him like a priceless comic book. “So you’re saying you’re my... you’re my son!”
“Yes sir,” S.Lee said respectfully.
“And you have a Noble Prize?” Sheldon asked intrigued. S.Lee brought out a coin and handed to his father.
“Technically it’s half a Noble Prize,” S.Lee admitted earnestly. “The other half belongs to you. Mother always said we could do anything once we put our heads together and so... time-travel,” S.Lee gave a shrug like it was nothing but Sheldon looked overjoyed.
“Hold on a minute,” Sheldon interrupted, seriously, “We can’t have invented time travel. I promised my good buddy Leonard in the room mate agreement that if I did I’d go back to that moment we signed the agreement.”
“Father,” S.Lee answered equally as severity, “You didn’t invent time travel on your own so you didn’t lie to Leonard – from a certain point of view...” Sheldon looked both dubious and amused and so added: “And I should know... I’m actually the first Noble Prize winner to be the son of two Noble Prize winners.”
“Amy wins a Noble Prize?” Sheldon asked with a delighted smile.
“Yes,” S.Lee responded, holding his hand out for his coin. “She won because she was able while her basal ganglia was occupied with the routine tasks of wife and motherhood her prefrontal cortex was free to work quietly in the background. Your relationship represents a degree of freedom from her intellect...” “It’s the same for you, isn’t it?” S.Lee asserted. “That same freedom you experience is occurrences when you’re with her. Before you met her so much of your prefrontal cortex was occupied translating my own thoughts for stupid people... It was exhausting. Spending time with my momma lets both your prefrontal cortex and basal ganglia be brilliant!”
“Is that why your here?” Sheldon asked accusationally, narrowing his eyes, drinking every detail of this remarkable person he made with Amy. “To tell me that Amy is the key to the Noble Prize: to my happiness just so you can secure your own birth?”
“Only a fool would go back in time to try and prevent his or her parents from consummating their relationship and bettering the world with intellectually superior benign overlords,” S.Lee quipped light-heartedly. Then, something occurred to Sheldon.
“Overlords?” Sheldon asked intrigued by glimpses into the future. “What’s your sister called? Are you our only progeny?”
“I can’t tell you that,” S.Lee answered not meeting his father’s eye. “However, to answer your earlier question... I’m here now because I always was... I’m here now because you loved... love my momma and you need to know that. Letting yourself love her like a man was the hardest thing you’ve ever had to do.” S.Lee said passionately. “It’s also the most rewarding because she accepts the things that can’t be changed and challenges you on the things that can...” Then there was an alarm coming from his watch.
“Rats...” S.Lee exclaimed. “I have to go.” S.Lee stood up and then looked at his father. “When you’re ready... You’ll go back to Amy and everything will be fine.”
“But what if it’s not? Sheldon responded thoughtlessly.
“I can only offer you the empirical evidence of my own childhood,” S.Lee replied with a smile that reminded Sheldon of Amy. “You and mother had a long road to hoe. But, I am the evidence of your happy union, Father. And not a day goes by that you’re not grateful for Raj and that dirty sock.”
As he watched S.Lee go, Sheldon felt very proud. This young man had won a Noble Prize. He was the progeny of him and Amy: two Noble Prize winners... And then, an unhappy truth crept into Sheldon’s musings. S.Lee had said that his mother had died... Everyone must die of course, but to think of a world without Amy seemed incongruous. Suddenly, Sheldon released that he wanted to go back to Pasadena, not to see his spot, or his friends, but to be with Amy.
He opened his laptop and flicked through pictures of Amy. She really was like NesQuik made with syrup instead of power, he realizes life with her taste is better, but he realised that he couldn’t be angry because she stray from his routine. Hadn’t he abandoned his routine over the summer and wasn’t life so much better with her in it.
It was then that he decided to return to his fairest flower.
Meanwhile in Pasadena...
Amy was at home one summers evening, missing Sheldon so much it hurts when there’s a soft knock at the door. It’s the familiar three knock pattern; her heart did a funny flutter. She smoothed down her hair and her clothes – glad that she’d recently brushed her teeth. She rushed to the door, flunk it open and standing there is Sheldon.
Sheldon looking very good: wearing a suit and large thick rimmed glasses.
“Amy,” Sheldon whispered with a heavy Texas twang. Before Amy could say anything, he scooped her into his arms and kissed her passionately... expertly. Her arms, flailed at her side for a minute before moving around his neck and pulling him closer. He hummed in delight. All thoughts and anger melded away. He shut the door, backed her into the living room and down onto the couch without breaking their kiss.
Slowly, he pulled away and looked at her. He smiled a genuine smile that made him look so handsome. Then he stroked her cheek and ran his fingers through her hair. Amy was entranced. “My fairest flower...” he muttered with a satisfied smirk. She’d missed him and drank in every detail. For the first time, she noticed lines around his eyes and wisps of white hair. She looked for other inconsistencies and found that his hands looked the same... but there was a ring on his left hand.
“Sheldon, what’s going on..?” Amy asked moving away from him. She wanted to cry. Sheldon had left her and gotten married. Looking down, he realised why she was freaking out.
“Amy it’s not what you think...” Sheldon exclaimed desperately.
“What I think is that your married, Sheldon,” she moaned hopelessly. Tears started to rise. Waves of nauseous rolled over Amy and she felt pure disappear. It was worst than her lonely childhood, worst than beginning excluded from Penny and Bernie’s girls night; even worse than Sheldon leaving.
“Of course I got married,” he replied, reaching for her: but she moved from his grasp. “I married you.” Amy’s eyes snapped back to his and she reeled in surprised. “I’m not your Sheldon. I’m... from the future...”
“What do you mean you’re from the future?” Amy asked sliding back and staring at him in utter disbelief. Sheldon stood up and started to pace, running his fingers through his hair. And Amy noticed that Sheldon had filled out a bit and he looked very good as an older man. Her heart fluttered. Sheldon opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it like a fish.
“You’ve always been beautiful, you know,” Sheldon finally ventured. “My eidetic memory is filled with you... even when we first met at that coffee shop: your voice, your intellect... your figure: like Aphrodite incarnate.” He shivered with some untold delight and then continued whispered: “My fairest flower...” the way he said that was different to anything he’d ever said. Then, he seemed shy; recalling who he was talking to. “Remember, the first time I called you that. You were undressing me when I got drunk because I’d broken-up with Physics. You wouldn’t let me touch you. I started compose a sonnet to you – because in that moment a poem, to properly express my single thought and desire for you, with all the sentiment I felt in 14 lines, seemed like the most logical thing to do.” Amy gaped at him.
“That’s not an answer to my question Dr Cooper,” she asserted forcefully. It was a tone that Sheldon remembered; a tone that Sheldon missed.
“Don’t call me Dr Cooper like that my fairest flower,” Sheldon warned heatedly. “Because spoiler alert: I love it when you do...” Sheldon then took a deep calming breathe, “S.Lee and I created time travel together,” his face was bright and shining even though he was speaking about someone else’s accomplishment. “That boy really is a genius when he has enough incentive... the incentive being that well... I’m here now because I always was...” Finally, he looked at Amy and smiled. Amy didn’t return the grin instead he looked shocked.
“S.Lee?” Amy asked stunned. “As in junior... we had a junior.”
“Yes... No... err... Not quite...” Sheldon replied obviously conflicted. He breathed in deeply then looked at Amy wryly. “My family calls him junior. Our friends call him rerun because sometimes he’s a repeat of me. You, his momma calls’ him Shelly. His girlfriend calls him sexy but that’s only to wind her father up. His friends and I call him S.Lee. But his full name is Dr Sheldon Lee Leonard Cooper-Fowler.”
“That’s quite a mouthful!” Amy responded trying to reason why they’d call their baby that. Then, he heart skipped a beat: she’d created a baby with Sheldon. That was remarkable.
“Well, he’s quite a remarkable person...” Sheldon admitted kneeing down in front of her. “Just like his mother.” He cupped her cheek; his eyes seemed to darken as he leaned in and kissed her. It was a long, deep and passionate kiss; filled with all the emotion she had ever wanted to express to him. Slowly, he pulled away and their breathing synchronised. “There are so many things I’d like to tell you. I want to say the things you want to hear. But I shouldn’t...”
“Why not...” she murmured, pleading with her eyes for him to say it; to admit the feeling his face was displaying. Amy released that she had seen that look before; many time in a although fleetingly.
“Because I... I mean he needs to be the one to do it...” Sheldon admitted. “I won’t steal that moment from him too...”
“What other moment have you stolen?” asked Amy, unable to stop herself.
“Kissing you like he’s always wanted to, of course...” Sheldon answered quickly moving away from her. He reached into his pocket and drew out four coins. “These are because of you.” And with a thrill she realised that Sheldon was showing her four golden Noble prize medals. “Two and a half are mine.”
“A half?” Amy interrupted.
“Yes, the other half is S.Lee’s,” Sheldon admitted proudly. “And one is yours.” He beamed at her. She reached out to touch them but he pulled them away and put them back in his pocket. “I’m here to ask you not to give up. Don’t give up on your work and don’t give up on us: you and I.” He implored taking her hands in his and stroking them. “If you wait a little longer; all your dreams will come true...” he said gazing into her eyes. Adding softly: “And more besides...”
“Hoo!” Amy exclaimed feeling very stimulated by the possibilities.
“Indeed!” He smirked; he leaned in forward for another kiss. Before their lips could meet again, an alarm when off on Sheldon’s watch. “Rats...” he said looking at the watch. “I have to go.” Then, he stood up and made his way to the door. When he got there; he stopped with his hand resting on the door.
“Amy,” Sheldon uttered in an unsteady voice. “Spoiler alert: he will finish the sonnet on your wedding night,” there was a wistful quality to his voice. “Actually, we compose it together, line by line: new experience by wonderful new experience.” Finally, he opened the door but was unable to move. And Amy, who was also frozen on the spot realised he couldn’t look at her because he’d want to stay. “I was the moth: you were always the flame, Amy,” he said before finally exiting.
In the room, left behind on the sofa was a stunned Amy. Her heart had stopped. She was the flame in Sheldon’s life. Sheldon had travelled back in time to see her and she had an inclination that her future self had already... left him. It made her sad to think that she’d left him alone. But then again, Sheldon wasn’t alone. He had S.Lee and perhaps other siblings to keep him company.
All at once she missed Sheldon a little less because she knew that all good things would come to her who waited.