17Happy premiere night! Here's part two of two. Thanks to everyone who reviewed part one!
As a disclaimer: everything I mention as being from the historical record is true. I have obviously taken some liberties with what happened beyond that.
"You are not going to feckin' believe this."
Penny cocked her head, leaning against the door frame. "You know you don't have to, like, knock, right? This door hasn't been locked in twelve years."
"It felt like it fit the moment," Raj said. "Now let us in, woman, we have news."
Penny raised an eyebrow, but stood aside, allowing Raj, Howard, Bernadette, and Amy to pass. "Leonard, dear," she said in a voice that she hoped – she did use to be an actress, after all – sounded like a stereotypical 1950s housewife. "We have company!"
Leonard came darting out from the hall. "I'm not dressed for…oh." He cocked his head at his wife. "They're not company."
"I can't decide if we should take offense to that or not," Bernadette commented to Amy.
"I think deciding that isn't why we're here and we should get to that," Raj said, hopping in place.
"You're here to eat our food and use our television?" Penny asked.
"Oh, like you didn't do that to Leonard and Sheldon for years," Raj sassed back.
"Oooh," Leonard said. "Savage." He cleared his throat and took a step back off of Penny's glare. "What's up, Raj?"
"I thought you'd never ask," Raj said. "Penny, do you remember the other week when you got your family tree?"
"…yes."
"And we couldn't figure out the parentage of Elisabeth Ružić?"
"Also yes."
"And you remember how Howard and I left the apartment and then Amy – "
"Is this a story or a recap?" Penny asked.
Howard cleared his throat and clasped his hands together. "First, a history lesson." He turned toward Amy. "Would the lady like to tell it?"
"You tell it better than me. Plus, I would rather watch the facial expressions of those not yet in the know."
"That's a good idea," Raj said, pointing at Amy. "I want to do that too."
Howard eyed each of them, then shrugged. "So. Albert Einstein was a famous – "
"I know who Albert Einstein is," Penny said, folding her arms. "The point, Wolowtiz."
"Albert Einstein married his first wife in 1903, and they had two sons. He proceeded to divorce her and marry someone else, and, well, his personal life was what the kids these days are calling a hot mess. But that first marriage only produced two sons, born in the early 1900s. That was the historical record until 1986. Then – " Howard stopped.
"…then?" Penny asked.
"I was pausing for dramatic effect." Howard cleared his throat again. "Then letters were discovered by a granddaughter. That collection of letters revealed they – Einstein and his first wife – had a daughter in early 1902."
"Lieserl," Leonard said. "An augmentative of Liesel or Liese. It was huge news when it was discovered. I was only six, but I remember it clearly. My parents had long discussions about it."
Howard nodded. "I was five, but I wanted to dress up as Einstein that next Halloween. My mother vetoed the costume once she discovered that he and Mileva had been shacking up before marriage."
"How did no one know they had a daughter?" Penny asked.
"Einstein wasn't Einstein yet," Leonard said. "He was twenty – three. 1905 was when he really started making an impact on the world. It's not like today when people's every move is documented, and he wasn't quite at the point where he was being monitored, even for back then."
"Plus, obviously, it's easier to hide a pregnancy when you aren't the pregnant one," Bernadette pointed out.
"And Einstein was not with Mileva when she gave birth, or for most of her pregnancy," Leonard continued. "That's why there were so many letters about her. She was born at the end of January of 1902, and Einstein wrote to Mileva in early February saying I love her so much and I don't even know her yet. The letters continued referencing her until September of 1903. In one letter in September, Einstein asks how she is and mentions scarlet fever. Shortly afterward, all mention of Lieserl stops."
"Oh no," Penny said. "She died?"
"That's the assumption," Raj said. "There was one letter that Einstein sent to Mileva that implies they might be considering putting her up for adoption, but there's no mention of what actually happened to her. Some said someone in Serbia adopted her, some said she had Down syndrome or had difficulty learning and was sent to live with Mileva's parents, and some say that the scarlet fever killed her. The latter option is the most prevalent and the most accepted."
"If she did survive the scarlet fever, she may have had complications that prolonged. Einstein potentially referenced this in one of the last letters that mentions her."
"Wow," Penny said. "That's so sad."
"Yeah," Howard said. "So after we saw your DNA results and the mystery of Elisabeth Ružić, we did some digging. Raj, Amy and I. Bernadette just sort of sat in the kitchen heckling us about our 'ridiculous theory'."
"I'm sorry," Bernadette said, "what other logical response to I think Penny is a descendant of Lieserl Einstein was there?"
Penny laughed.
"Anyway," Howard said, "we tracked down one of Einstein's confirmed descendants who lives in the area. We followed him to a restaurant…"
"Stalked, the word there is stalked," Bernadette said.
Howard blinked at her. "This part was your idea."
"I know. I'm just saying."
"We stalked him at a restaurant and took his glass. We took it to a buddy of Bernadette's…"
"You took it to someone who has no connection to me whatsoever for legal reasons."
"Do you want to tell the story, or…?" Howard asked, giving her a sideways glare. "Anyway. We got the DNA analyzed, this guy is really good, and it turns out that your chances of not being related to this grandson are one in greater than the population of the earth."
"And," Raj added, "since we know his lineage, and we know yours with the exception of Elisabeth Ružić, she's the only one who could possibly have that connection. And Elisabeth was born in 1902, the same year as Lieserl. In Serbia. Just like Lieserl was, since Mileva was living there at the time. And – here's the kicker – it was possible that Lieserl lived with her mother's parents, at least for a while. And the maiden name of Mileva's mother? Ružić."
Penny nodded slowly. "So…?"
Howard and Raj exchanged looks. "Wait," Howard said, "do we seriously have to spell this out?"
Penny looked at Leonard, then back at Howard, Raj, and Amy. "You're saying Elisabeth Ružić is – was – Lieserl."
Amy nodded. "Obviously, there still isn't proof. What if he had an illegitimate child with someone else? But, I mean…it's all there. Right down to her name – which actually is closer to what her real name was – Liese to Elisabeth, and then the grandmother's maiden name Ružić."
"If she had Down syndrome, would she even have been able to have a child in that time?" Penny asked.
"Sure," Bernadette said. "Considering she did live to maturity. The life expectancy of someone with Down syndrome in 1900 was something like eleven or twelve, but it isn't impossible that someone who lived to be old enough to have children would have. And that's only been the rumor over the past thirty years. It's suggested that she had Trisomy 21 due to the fact that Einstein referenced something being 'wrong' with her – which of course was the language and attitude being used at the time, and because she was never publicly acknowledged. But that's likely just due to the fact that her parents weren't married yet. Really, we have no way of knowing."
"But what we do have a way of knowing, now," Amy said, "is that you, Penny Hofstadter, are beyond a shadow of a doubt the descendant of Albert Einstein, through Elisabeth Ružić. And Elisabeth Ružić is almost certainly Lieserl – or Leise, the most likely actual first name – Einstein. She probably never even knew."
"Wow," Leonard said, rubbing Penny's back. "I always knew I married well, but this takes the cake."
"I have to go," Penny said, clapping her hands together and walking to Leonard's deak, where her purse hung.
"Where?" Amy asked, cocking her head.
"To your place," she said. "Sheldon will probably spontaneously combust when he finds out about this."
