A very nervous looking Sheldon Cooper stood, staring out the window of his home, eyes never leaving the street as he waited for the familiar car to come pulling into his driveway. So lost in his own thoughts, he hadn't even noticed his wife approaching him until he felt her hand on the small of his back and he looked down at her. "She isn't here yet." His statement was obvious, even to his own ears, but he couldn't think of anything else to say. Amy nodded and let her hand move from his back to rest lightly on his waist, her head finding a nice place on his shoulder once he had twisted to wrap an arm around her shoulders. "Do you think she's decided not to come?"

He looked at Amy and noticed that she had paused for a moment, but she recovered quickly and shook her head. "She wouldn't do that, Sheldon. If nothing else, she loves her brother more than anything in the world. She wouldn't miss his wedding."

"But after her last visit... our last argument..." Sheldon couldn't complete his thought, and heard his wife sigh softly. When he looked at her again, it was with the sad smile she had come to recognize over the years. The one that told him all he needed to know. "She's not going to be happy when she gets here."

He watched as Amy's face twisted a bit, the sadness in her smile melting away, giving way to mirth, a small twinkle behind her bright green eyes. "Well, Sheldon, she is your daughter."

Sheldon let out a soft scoff and rolled his eyes. "Our daughter, much more your daughter, most days."

After they spent a moment looking at one another, Amy leaned up to kiss Sheldon on the cheek, a gesture that he welcomed for comfort. When he looked at her again, the mirth had melted away, and the tinge of sadness colored her smile again. "Try not to give her too hard a time, Charles will be furious if the two of you ruin his wedding with your incessant bickering."

Sheldon glared down at her for a moment, a reply already forming and trying to push past his lips, but he knew better than to argue with his wife. Especially when it came to the subject of their daughter. "Perhaps we should just go wait for her in the den. She might not come straight here, after all. I don't know why she insisted on staying at a motel when her old room here is perfectly fine."

Amy just shrugged a bit and nodded, knowing full well why their daughter had chosen a hotel room over her childhood bedroom. Marie would much rather stay in a roach infested motel than spend a week under the same roof as her father.

Letting out a soft sigh, Marie pulled her car into the driveway, eyes immediately darting to the window. She saw the curtain flutter a bit, and was sure that meant that her father was waiting just on the other side of the door, probably with a lecture about her tardiness. Steeling herself for a moment, she reached into her bag and pulled out a small orange bottle, shaking a pill out into her hand and swallowing it dry before tossing the bottle away again. She wanted to curse her brother for deciding to get married. After all, not only was he getting married, he was getting married to Irina Koothrappali. It meant that everyone from her parents social circle would be occupying her space for the next week. She could abide some of them, The Hofstadter clan most of all, but spending extended periods of time around Haley Wolowitz and her perfect husband would push Marie's patience like none other.

A resolved sigh caused her to realize that she was lingering too long in the car, but before she could even finish unbuckling her seatbelt, she heard her passenger door open and looked over in time to see Michael Hofstadter sliding into the passenger seat of her car. He shot her a crooked smile, reaching up to adjust his glasses on his face before reclining back in the seat comfortably. "I was starting to think you were bailing on us, Ree."

Marie rolled her eyes a bit, twisting so that her legs were up in the seat and her body was turned to face him. She supposed that she could wait just a little while longer to go in and see her family. "Were you just waiting for me to pull up, Hof? You know that's a bit on the stalker side, right?"

Marie watched as Michael rolled his eyes before leaning over to pat her leg condescendingly. "Unfortunately for you, Ree, I just happened to get back when I saw you sitting in your car staring into space. Your dad has been wearing a hole in the floor waiting for you to get here, you know. You're three days late and the best you could send was an email? To Charles?"

It was Marie's turn to roll her eyes with a small shrug. "I was covering for a coworker last minute when they got sick, and it's a bit of a drive from New York to California. I left six hours later than I thought I would and made the trip by myself. It would have been a death sentence to try and get here any faster." She watched as Michael lifted his hands in surrender before leaning over to pat her leg again.

"He missed you, is all. We all did." Michael's sincere tone caught Marie off guard, and she shook it off quickly before leaning down to grab her bag from under his feet. She didn't exactly want to think about anyone missing her. She felt bad enough as it was, knowing that her obsessive compulsive, schedule driven father was probably driving her mother up a wall by now. Pulling her keys from the ignition, she turned to Michael one last time, and she could feel her own face twist into a small grimace.

"I missed you, too, but cease with the hippy crap... and wish me luck."

Michael didn't miss a beat, giving her a lopsided grin. "Luck, Coop. I'll see you tonight at the big engagement dinner." After a small pause, he shot her a wink. "And I'll keep Haley away from you as much as I can manage." Without another word, he slipped out of her car and closed the door, giving one final wave before he jogged across the lawn to his parents house next door. With one final exhale, she got out of the car herself and headed up the driveway and to the front door, adjusting the knocker to a slightly off center position before lifting it to officially announce her presence.

Well, here goes nothing.

AN: Well, here goes nothing! I had this idea kicking around in my head for a while and wanted to try it out. Lemme know what you think, if you have any suggestions, and how you think it started out! Thanks in advance for any reviews, comments, or critiques you may have!