Happy Father's Day! spartanlady16 on Tumblr requested this ages ago and now it's finally time for me to post it (a day late, obviously, because that's the only way I know how)


June 21, 2020: Father's Day. Leonard had no reason to mark it on the calendar that year — next year definitely, but not this year. Then, Sara and Leonard's daughter Rory made an early appearance — a week and a half early to be exact — and he found himself fitting the criteria to celebrate.

Sara knew that he didn't expect any sort of festivities; having a newborn in the house was hard enough, but she still wanted to do something special. Leonard had never really celebrated Father's Day before (his father had never deserved the commemoration). She had first planned to simply let him sleep in, a gift she'd gladly take with all the hours of it she'd lost taking care of Rory, but, come Sunday morning…

They both woke up at the sounds of Rory's regular 4 a.m. shrieking. Sara, reminded of her promise to herself to let Leonard sleep in on Father's Day, rolled over to get up.

"I got it," Leonard said in his scratchy, early-morning voice, already standing up.

"Len, go to sleep, it's Father's Day," Sara replied groggily, but he waved her off, padding out of the room and down the hall.

Sara smiled to herself as she slowly swung her legs out from under the blankets to sit on the edge of the bed.

He was such a good dad, not that Sara had ever needed that proved to her, but she knew he'd had his own doubts. All of that had been forgotten the second Rory was born. Sara had heard stories of dads who would revel in being allowed to sleep. They'd stay in bed for hours, relishing in the freedom from the responsibility of caring for children for even just one day. Leonard was definitely not one of those dads. Even just now, he'd happily gotten out of bed at four in the morning to take care of his daughter. He wanted desperately to prove to himself that he was a better father than his own had been.

Sara could faintly hear Leonard soothing Rory and her cries starting to fade. She waited for a few minutes to let herself wake up slightly, not that she really needed to —- she didn't think she'd fully fallen asleep since before Rory was born. A couple minutes later, when the clock on her bedside table read a little past 4:30 in the morning, she stood from the bed and headed for the nursery.

Inside, a dimmed light revealed Leonard sitting in a rocking chair in the corner of the room with Rory, asleep again, cradled in his arms. He glanced up when Sara entered the room before looking back to his sleeping baby with a look of absolute adoration in his eyes.

Sara crossed the room to sit on the arm of the upholstered rocking chair. She leaned over so her hand was resting on his shoulder.

"Happy Father's Day," she whispered, kissing his jaw, "Came a little early."

"Only a year or so," he murmured.

"You wanna do anything later?" she asked, "It is your day after all."

Leonard looked between Sara and Rory.

"Y'know, I think I'm good."

"Oh really?" Sara asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I've got all I need right here."


Happy Father's Day!