A Saturnalia Gift For: weasleytook
Title: Doctor Who And the Inventor of What
Rating: PG-13
Fandom&Characters: TBBT&Doctor Who; Sheldon, Penny, 11th doctor, Amy, Rory, Rose (kinda), Bad Wolf (kinda)
Word Count: 2261
Disclaimers: The fanfic is mine, but that's about it.
Summary: Sheldon has a bad dream that leads Penny to the discovery of a gold pocket watch in his room. Then three British people show up in a blue box.
A/N: For weasleytook who who had the completely fabulous prompt of Sheldon as a Time Lord who the Doctor enlists to help with an intergalactic crisis - with Penny's help, of course. And I LOVED the part about the TARDIS being in a storage unit in Glendale, even though I mangled that part a bit.:D Happy Saturnalia, my dear! Hope you like this! <3
Prelude
The Doctor stopped pacing the room and leaned his forehead against the wall. Turning his head slightly to the right, he could see Amy and Rory huddled together, asleep, in one corner of the small shed they were all hiding in. He squeezed his eyes shut and began pacing again.
If he could just think!
They couldn't leave the shed, it was just too universe-ending-dangerous. But the Doctor had to do something. But what? The only solution was the impossible.
So, how do you make the impossible possible?
The Doctor stopped pacing again and closed his eyes hoping to sense - but, no. There was no one. There was always no one.
'If only Rose were here,' the Doctor thought, 'she'd know what to - that's it! The universe could end! Bad Wolf! Maybe Bad Wolf could help! Worth a try, anyway!'
The Doctor cleared his mind until only those two words filled it, echoing with a silent plea.
He was concentrating so hard he almost missed it.
His eyes popped open and he raced to the door and pressed his ear against the wood. The sound was very far away, but unmistakable.
It was the mournful howl of a wolf.
And there it was - a tingling in the back of his mind. Someone. There was, finally, someone!
"Amy, Rory, time to wake up! We're going to make a run for the TARDIS!"
**************************
Penny quickly glanced at Sheldon, a little startled, as he suddenly sat up with a sharp gasp.
"You okay there sleepyhead? Bad dream?"
She watched from two cushions away as Sheldon relaxed back into his spot and rubbed one eye with his hand.
"Yes, and I would say more 'unusual' than 'bad'."
Penny arched an eyebrow and popped a couple of popcorn kernels in her mouth. Pausing The Time Traveler's Wife, Penny turned around and propped her feet on the edge of the sofa cushion that separated them. "Really? Wanna talk about it? I read a book once about dream interpretation that my psychic gave me, maybe I could help you out."
Sheldon looked skeptical for a moment, then shrugged. "Oh, what the hay. In my dream I was facing a blond woman standing by a snarling wolf. She was petting it's head with one hand, and dangling a gold pocket watch with the other. Suddenly, a man's voice shouted, 'Bad Wolf!' The wolf howled, then snatched the pocket watch out of the woman's hand and came running at me. I tried, but couldn't move. He leaped, and I closed my eyes, bracing for the attack. However, just as I felt the wolf's paws on my chest - I woke up."
Penny gaped. "Wow."
"Yes, well...what is your analysis?"
"Oh, um, let's see...do you even own a pocket watch?"
Sheldon abruptly stood up and starting pacing. "A pocket watch? No, no, I don't think I - I mean I know I don't have a-"
Penny set aside her popcorn and leaped to her feet when Sheldon started to gasp and clutch his head. She rushed over and put an arm around him and led him back to his spot. Sitting beside him, she removed Sheldon's hands from his head and replaced them with her own - one on each side of his face. She started to speak calmly, but firmly, like she did when her horses got spooked.
"Sheldon, look at me." She waited until his usually bright, blue eyes (now clouded) met hers. "It's okay if you can't remember. You don't have to remember everything, you know."
To her surprise, Sheldon's hands gently removed hers from his face, then clutched them tight where both their knees brushed together. "But, Penny, I do have to remember. I have remembered everything that has happened to me since before I was two years of age. Why can I not remember the basic fact of whether or not I own a simple pocket watch?"
Penny removed one of her hands and placed it on his upper arm. "I don't know, honey. But...why don't you just go to your room and look?"
Sheldon's face went from scared and confused to full-on panicked. "NO!
"Okay, okay. Would you like me to go into your room and look?"
Sheldon's response was emphatic, but a lot calmer. Almost automatic, even. "No, no one is supposed to be in my room."
"All right. But I really think one of us should go check since this is obviously upsetting you, Sheldon. Why don't you just let me have a quick look around? Fifteen minutes and I'm outta there. And I promise to put things back exactly as I found them. Deal?"
Even though Sheldon's eyes were staring straight into Penny's, she got the impression that he wasn't really seeing her. That he was too busy fighting some internal war. Then something in those blue depths changed, and he was with her again. Still, if she hadn't been looking right at him, she may have missed the his whispered one-word answer.
"Deal."
Penny leaped up and, after giving him a brief kiss on the head, rushed out of the living room before he changed his mind.
"How could anything be misplaced in here," Penny muttered to herself. She stood just inside Sheldon's door as she glanced around his neat, orderly room, then she closed her eyes. "If I was an uptight, paranoid theoretical physicist, where would I hide something I didn't want to remember?"
Penny stood there thinking for a few moments, then it came to her. "The other puzzle box!"
Penny stuck her head out the door and shouted. "Sheldon! Where is your 'real' puzzle box!?"
"Top drawer of the dresser, in the back!"
"Thank you!"
"But it's not going to be in there!"
Penny retrieved a box about three times as wide as the novelty one she destroyed a couple of years ago, then rushed back to sit on the coffee table in front of Sheldon. She shoved the box in his hands. "It'll be quicker if you open it."
Sheldon gave an exasperated sigh, but his nimble fingers made quick work of the box. He began to rummage through it, his voice a little patronizing as he spoke.
"It's not in here, just as I said. Penny, I have looked in this box many times, I think I would remember if - oh."
"What? What is it?"
Penny watched as Sheldon pulled out a shiny, gold pocket watch.
"Sheldon is that it? Is that the watch from your dreams?"
"I - I think so."
"Do you remember where you got it? Did someone give it to you?
Sheldon didn’t take his eyes off the watch as he stood. "My mee-maw gave this to me when I received my first doctorate. It has been in our family for generations. It is best to keep it hidden and safe so it doesn't get lost or stolen."
Penny blinked. It sounded like he was reciting lines from a script. Badly. "Yoo-whoo. Sheldon." She stood and snapped her fingers in his face until he was looking at her. "Can I see inside? Is there an inscription?"
"I - I don't -"
Sheldon flicked open the watch.
A gold light seemed to shoot from the watch into Sheldon's eyes. A few seconds later he dropped the watch and fell backward onto the couch.
"Sheldon!"
Penny started to lean over him in concern, but Sheldon suddenly leaped to his feet to stand behind the chair closest to the couch.
"Where am I? What's going - no wait, I remember. I remember everything, of course. Had to save myself - those in the lab, but not...everyone. Glendale - we have to get to Glendale! Penny, don't just stand there gaping, we have to find them! My chameleon arch is broken, but if we just reverse the - Penny, for heaven's sake, what are you doing?"
While Sheldon had been talking, Penny had slowly - and keeping her eyes on Sheldon the entire time - bent over to scoop up the pocket watch off the floor.
"Sheldon, I think this thing did something to you, honey. You don't sound...um, exactly like...yourself."
"Don't be ridiculous, Penny. Of course I sound like myself, I am myself! Really, woman. And of course 'it' did something to me. It did exactly what I designed it to do. Though I wonder why - oh, the dream! Then who - the Doctor! It's the only explanation that makes since!
Just then, a loud sound filled the apartment, and both Sheldon and Penny gaped as a bright blue, tall rectangular box slowly materialized between the couch and the telescope.
The door to the box (which, according to the sign above the door, was apparently a Police Box) opened and three people rushed out. It looked to Penny that all three looked to be in their twenties, the first being a tall man with brown hair, the second a girl with pretty red hair and the third a man with blond hair. The tall man began speaking in a fancy British accent.
"Hello! I'm the Doctor, this lovely young lady is Amy and this strapping, young man is her husband, Rory. Now, which one of you is my fellow Time Lord?"
Amy gave him a light slap on the arm and started speaking in a light Scottish brogue. "Doctor! Don't be rude!" She stepped forward to address Penny and Sheldon. "I'm sorry, but we are in a wee bit of a rush. What are your names, please?"
Penny was still kinda shocked at, well...everything, but the mid-western manners her mom instilled in her rose to the rescue. "I'm - I'm Penny. And this is Sheldon." Penny's eyes darted to Sheldon then back to Amy. "I - I think."
"You think?" Amy asked gently.
"Well, there was this pocket watch, and, and - "
The Doctor rushed forward and stuck his face in Sheldon's, searching his eyes intently. "So, it's you."
Sheldon rolled his eyes.
"Yes, yes. I'm the Inventor and you're the Doctor. However, obviously the first of the two most pressing questions here is this: Why is your TARDIS still a British police box? I put that chameleon circuit in for a reason, you know."
Everyone just stared at the Inventor. After a few moments, Rory got out, "And - and the second question?"
Sheldon sighed and shook his head. "Humans. My goodness. The second question is obviously," he turned to the Doctor and raised his voice a little, "what on God's green earth did you do to her poor engines to make her sound that way?"
Amy put both hands on her hips and arched an eyebrow. "Inventor? Inventor of what? The TARDIS? Did he invent the TARDIS?" she asked Penny.
Penny shrugged and tried not to embarrass herself by hyperventilating. She must have been doing a bad job because Amy walked over and put her arm around her. Penny was grateful for the support.
The Doctor responded to Sheldon's glare with wonder, and no little amount of hope. "My God, could it be?"
"I can not give you an accurate answer since you did not specify exactly as to what 'it' refers."
The Doctor let out a loud, "HA!" and pulled Sheldon into a brief, hard hug. Then he put one hand on his hip as he gestured widely with the other.
"Amy, Rory, Penny...may I present the Great Improver of The TARDIS, Creater of The-Paths-Between-Worlds, The Extender of Lives, The Mouth That Mutters Truths and my dear, dear friend...The Inventor."
"Thank you, Doctor, but Penny already knows who I am."
Penny spoke softly. "Do I?"
The Doctor looked from one to the other, then put his arms behind his back to clasp his wrist with his hand. "Inventor, I hate to rush you, and I would LOVE to hear how you escaped the Time War, but we really must leave right now if we are to save the universe. So...let's go!"
The Doctor rushed into the TARDIS, Amy and Rory following. The Doctor then stuck his head back out to see The Inventor and Penny staring at each other. "Coming?"
Sheldon didn't take his eyes of Penny as he responded. "Go on. We'll be right behind you."
"Right." The Doctor wisely and swiftly closed the door of the TARDIS, and it slowly dematerialized.
Sheldon moved until he was standing right in front of Penny, hands clasped behind his back. "Is it 'we'? Or is it just 'I'?"
"Can I...can I still call you Sheldon?"
He rolled his eyes. "Of course, if it makes you feel better." He leaned over until their noses were almost touching. "I AM still him, Penny. Just a little...more."
Penny's grin slowly spread across her face. "I think I'm beginning to realize that."
"Sooooo..." Sheldon took a couple of steps backward and held out his hand as if he was asking her to dance. "Shall we?"
Penny marched over and resolutely placed her hand in his. "We shall."
The next morning, the manager of the Glendale Storage Units was baffled to discover that unit 4A had apparently disappeared without a trace.
Rating: PG-13
Fandom&Characters: TBBT&Doctor Who; Sheldon, Penny, 11th doctor, Amy, Rory, Rose (kinda), Bad Wolf (kinda)
Word Count: 2261
Disclaimers: The fanfic is mine, but that's about it.
Summary: Sheldon has a bad dream that leads Penny to the discovery of a gold pocket watch in his room. Then three British people show up in a blue box.
A/N: For weasleytook who who had the completely fabulous prompt of Sheldon as a Time Lord who the Doctor enlists to help with an intergalactic crisis - with Penny's help, of course. And I LOVED the part about the TARDIS being in a storage unit in Glendale, even though I mangled that part a bit.:D Happy Saturnalia, my dear! Hope you like this! <3
Prelude
The Doctor stopped pacing the room and leaned his forehead against the wall. Turning his head slightly to the right, he could see Amy and Rory huddled together, asleep, in one corner of the small shed they were all hiding in. He squeezed his eyes shut and began pacing again.
If he could just think!
They couldn't leave the shed, it was just too universe-ending-dangerous. But the Doctor had to do something. But what? The only solution was the impossible.
So, how do you make the impossible possible?
The Doctor stopped pacing again and closed his eyes hoping to sense - but, no. There was no one. There was always no one.
'If only Rose were here,' the Doctor thought, 'she'd know what to - that's it! The universe could end! Bad Wolf! Maybe Bad Wolf could help! Worth a try, anyway!'
The Doctor cleared his mind until only those two words filled it, echoing with a silent plea.
He was concentrating so hard he almost missed it.
His eyes popped open and he raced to the door and pressed his ear against the wood. The sound was very far away, but unmistakable.
It was the mournful howl of a wolf.
And there it was - a tingling in the back of his mind. Someone. There was, finally, someone!
"Amy, Rory, time to wake up! We're going to make a run for the TARDIS!"
**************************
Penny quickly glanced at Sheldon, a little startled, as he suddenly sat up with a sharp gasp.
"You okay there sleepyhead? Bad dream?"
She watched from two cushions away as Sheldon relaxed back into his spot and rubbed one eye with his hand.
"Yes, and I would say more 'unusual' than 'bad'."
Penny arched an eyebrow and popped a couple of popcorn kernels in her mouth. Pausing The Time Traveler's Wife, Penny turned around and propped her feet on the edge of the sofa cushion that separated them. "Really? Wanna talk about it? I read a book once about dream interpretation that my psychic gave me, maybe I could help you out."
Sheldon looked skeptical for a moment, then shrugged. "Oh, what the hay. In my dream I was facing a blond woman standing by a snarling wolf. She was petting it's head with one hand, and dangling a gold pocket watch with the other. Suddenly, a man's voice shouted, 'Bad Wolf!' The wolf howled, then snatched the pocket watch out of the woman's hand and came running at me. I tried, but couldn't move. He leaped, and I closed my eyes, bracing for the attack. However, just as I felt the wolf's paws on my chest - I woke up."
Penny gaped. "Wow."
"Yes, well...what is your analysis?"
"Oh, um, let's see...do you even own a pocket watch?"
Sheldon abruptly stood up and starting pacing. "A pocket watch? No, no, I don't think I - I mean I know I don't have a-"
Penny set aside her popcorn and leaped to her feet when Sheldon started to gasp and clutch his head. She rushed over and put an arm around him and led him back to his spot. Sitting beside him, she removed Sheldon's hands from his head and replaced them with her own - one on each side of his face. She started to speak calmly, but firmly, like she did when her horses got spooked.
"Sheldon, look at me." She waited until his usually bright, blue eyes (now clouded) met hers. "It's okay if you can't remember. You don't have to remember everything, you know."
To her surprise, Sheldon's hands gently removed hers from his face, then clutched them tight where both their knees brushed together. "But, Penny, I do have to remember. I have remembered everything that has happened to me since before I was two years of age. Why can I not remember the basic fact of whether or not I own a simple pocket watch?"
Penny removed one of her hands and placed it on his upper arm. "I don't know, honey. But...why don't you just go to your room and look?"
Sheldon's face went from scared and confused to full-on panicked. "NO!
"Okay, okay. Would you like me to go into your room and look?"
Sheldon's response was emphatic, but a lot calmer. Almost automatic, even. "No, no one is supposed to be in my room."
"All right. But I really think one of us should go check since this is obviously upsetting you, Sheldon. Why don't you just let me have a quick look around? Fifteen minutes and I'm outta there. And I promise to put things back exactly as I found them. Deal?"
Even though Sheldon's eyes were staring straight into Penny's, she got the impression that he wasn't really seeing her. That he was too busy fighting some internal war. Then something in those blue depths changed, and he was with her again. Still, if she hadn't been looking right at him, she may have missed the his whispered one-word answer.
"Deal."
Penny leaped up and, after giving him a brief kiss on the head, rushed out of the living room before he changed his mind.
"How could anything be misplaced in here," Penny muttered to herself. She stood just inside Sheldon's door as she glanced around his neat, orderly room, then she closed her eyes. "If I was an uptight, paranoid theoretical physicist, where would I hide something I didn't want to remember?"
Penny stood there thinking for a few moments, then it came to her. "The other puzzle box!"
Penny stuck her head out the door and shouted. "Sheldon! Where is your 'real' puzzle box!?"
"Top drawer of the dresser, in the back!"
"Thank you!"
"But it's not going to be in there!"
Penny retrieved a box about three times as wide as the novelty one she destroyed a couple of years ago, then rushed back to sit on the coffee table in front of Sheldon. She shoved the box in his hands. "It'll be quicker if you open it."
Sheldon gave an exasperated sigh, but his nimble fingers made quick work of the box. He began to rummage through it, his voice a little patronizing as he spoke.
"It's not in here, just as I said. Penny, I have looked in this box many times, I think I would remember if - oh."
"What? What is it?"
Penny watched as Sheldon pulled out a shiny, gold pocket watch.
"Sheldon is that it? Is that the watch from your dreams?"
"I - I think so."
"Do you remember where you got it? Did someone give it to you?
Sheldon didn’t take his eyes off the watch as he stood. "My mee-maw gave this to me when I received my first doctorate. It has been in our family for generations. It is best to keep it hidden and safe so it doesn't get lost or stolen."
Penny blinked. It sounded like he was reciting lines from a script. Badly. "Yoo-whoo. Sheldon." She stood and snapped her fingers in his face until he was looking at her. "Can I see inside? Is there an inscription?"
"I - I don't -"
Sheldon flicked open the watch.
A gold light seemed to shoot from the watch into Sheldon's eyes. A few seconds later he dropped the watch and fell backward onto the couch.
"Sheldon!"
Penny started to lean over him in concern, but Sheldon suddenly leaped to his feet to stand behind the chair closest to the couch.
"Where am I? What's going - no wait, I remember. I remember everything, of course. Had to save myself - those in the lab, but not...everyone. Glendale - we have to get to Glendale! Penny, don't just stand there gaping, we have to find them! My chameleon arch is broken, but if we just reverse the - Penny, for heaven's sake, what are you doing?"
While Sheldon had been talking, Penny had slowly - and keeping her eyes on Sheldon the entire time - bent over to scoop up the pocket watch off the floor.
"Sheldon, I think this thing did something to you, honey. You don't sound...um, exactly like...yourself."
"Don't be ridiculous, Penny. Of course I sound like myself, I am myself! Really, woman. And of course 'it' did something to me. It did exactly what I designed it to do. Though I wonder why - oh, the dream! Then who - the Doctor! It's the only explanation that makes since!
Just then, a loud sound filled the apartment, and both Sheldon and Penny gaped as a bright blue, tall rectangular box slowly materialized between the couch and the telescope.
The door to the box (which, according to the sign above the door, was apparently a Police Box) opened and three people rushed out. It looked to Penny that all three looked to be in their twenties, the first being a tall man with brown hair, the second a girl with pretty red hair and the third a man with blond hair. The tall man began speaking in a fancy British accent.
"Hello! I'm the Doctor, this lovely young lady is Amy and this strapping, young man is her husband, Rory. Now, which one of you is my fellow Time Lord?"
Amy gave him a light slap on the arm and started speaking in a light Scottish brogue. "Doctor! Don't be rude!" She stepped forward to address Penny and Sheldon. "I'm sorry, but we are in a wee bit of a rush. What are your names, please?"
Penny was still kinda shocked at, well...everything, but the mid-western manners her mom instilled in her rose to the rescue. "I'm - I'm Penny. And this is Sheldon." Penny's eyes darted to Sheldon then back to Amy. "I - I think."
"You think?" Amy asked gently.
"Well, there was this pocket watch, and, and - "
The Doctor rushed forward and stuck his face in Sheldon's, searching his eyes intently. "So, it's you."
Sheldon rolled his eyes.
"Yes, yes. I'm the Inventor and you're the Doctor. However, obviously the first of the two most pressing questions here is this: Why is your TARDIS still a British police box? I put that chameleon circuit in for a reason, you know."
Everyone just stared at the Inventor. After a few moments, Rory got out, "And - and the second question?"
Sheldon sighed and shook his head. "Humans. My goodness. The second question is obviously," he turned to the Doctor and raised his voice a little, "what on God's green earth did you do to her poor engines to make her sound that way?"
Amy put both hands on her hips and arched an eyebrow. "Inventor? Inventor of what? The TARDIS? Did he invent the TARDIS?" she asked Penny.
Penny shrugged and tried not to embarrass herself by hyperventilating. She must have been doing a bad job because Amy walked over and put her arm around her. Penny was grateful for the support.
The Doctor responded to Sheldon's glare with wonder, and no little amount of hope. "My God, could it be?"
"I can not give you an accurate answer since you did not specify exactly as to what 'it' refers."
The Doctor let out a loud, "HA!" and pulled Sheldon into a brief, hard hug. Then he put one hand on his hip as he gestured widely with the other.
"Amy, Rory, Penny...may I present the Great Improver of The TARDIS, Creater of The-Paths-Between-Worlds, The Extender of Lives, The Mouth That Mutters Truths and my dear, dear friend...The Inventor."
"Thank you, Doctor, but Penny already knows who I am."
Penny spoke softly. "Do I?"
The Doctor looked from one to the other, then put his arms behind his back to clasp his wrist with his hand. "Inventor, I hate to rush you, and I would LOVE to hear how you escaped the Time War, but we really must leave right now if we are to save the universe. So...let's go!"
The Doctor rushed into the TARDIS, Amy and Rory following. The Doctor then stuck his head back out to see The Inventor and Penny staring at each other. "Coming?"
Sheldon didn't take his eyes of Penny as he responded. "Go on. We'll be right behind you."
"Right." The Doctor wisely and swiftly closed the door of the TARDIS, and it slowly dematerialized.
Sheldon moved until he was standing right in front of Penny, hands clasped behind his back. "Is it 'we'? Or is it just 'I'?"
"Can I...can I still call you Sheldon?"
He rolled his eyes. "Of course, if it makes you feel better." He leaned over until their noses were almost touching. "I AM still him, Penny. Just a little...more."
Penny's grin slowly spread across her face. "I think I'm beginning to realize that."
"Sooooo..." Sheldon took a couple of steps backward and held out his hand as if he was asking her to dance. "Shall we?"
Penny marched over and resolutely placed her hand in his. "We shall."
The next morning, the manager of the Glendale Storage Units was baffled to discover that unit 4A had apparently disappeared without a trace.