It started rather simply, as most things do, with Leonard checking his email on the family computer as she peeled potatoes while singing to bad teen pop that, ironically, her teenage daughter hated.

"Penny!" Leonard called, "come here!"

She set down the potato she was holding and turned down the volume. "What?" she asked, rinsing her hands briefly and striding over.

"Sheldon emailed me," Leonard explained, tilting the screen so she could get a better view, "he said he's moving back to California."

"No kidding!" Penny gasped, reading the message quickly. "He's going back to work at the University?"

"Yeah, apparently Caltech is giving him his job back, with a promotion and a huge raise," Leonard said, hitting reply, "which is unsurprising, given the whole, won two Nobel Prizes thing. If he asked they'd probably give him paper towels and hand sanitizer in the men's room."

"Well, he is the Doctor Sheldon Cooper right now," Penny smiled, "this is great news! Has he got some place to live? Adelle would be so pleased."

"Adelle would be so pleased about what?" their bespectacled teenage daughter asked, as she walked into the living room and headed for the refrigerator, a thick college Physics textbook in hand.

"Your Godfather's moving back to Pasedena," Penny told her brightly, beaming. The words had their desired effect, Adelle froze where she stood and her eyes grew huge.

"My Godfather – Dr. Sheldon Cooper – he, he's moving back here?" she gaped in disbelief. Penny was momentarily reminded of a tall, praying mantis-like man whose voice had shook in the same way upon being gifted with a napkin signed by Leonard Nimoy.

"Yep, he got a job back at the University," Leonard supplied helpfully, but Adelle wasn't looking at him.

"Oh my – Oh my God! That's awesome! I can't believe – Oh God, I've got to blog about this," Adelle rushed out up the stairs, practically flailing a little. Only the mention of Sheldon Cooper could reduce their usually dignified daughter into a squealing, teenage-slang using fangirl.

"People with weak ankles shouldn't run up the stairs," Penny called after her, but was given the sound of a slamming door in response.
She shook her head, smiling fondly. Never in a million years would she ever have considered the possibility that her daughter would be a huge Sheldon Cooper fan. Adelle Hofstadter had never met her Godfather since she was a toddler, but she adored him. While she had always enjoyed the admiration from her schoolmates at having a famous Godfather, her obsession with Sheldon began the moment she was able to read his books when she was nine. By eleven she had read most of his papers and covered them with Post-Its full of questions she would later clarify with her father, and Sheldon's autobiography lay on her bedside table, with paragraphs she found especially inspiring highlighted and flagged. It fell open to the page in a chapter discussing Sheldon's childhood: in the section where he described his relationship with his grandmother, there was a small footnote about how his best friends Leonard and Penny Hofstadter had named their first daughter, also his god daughter, after her.

Penny glanced at Leonard, who was studiously typing out an email to Sheldon, and trying with little success to contain his displeasure. He had never really approved of Adelle's fascination with his best friend. She suspected that while most little girls went through a stage where they wanted to marry their fathers, Adelle would have picked Sheldon without question. It had been clear from the start that Adelle only had one hero in her life and that was Sheldon, and Leonard hardly appreciated being second best to his daughter, of all people. Even after all these years Leonard still had that insecure streak. Penny suppressed a sigh, "You wanna talk about – whatever it is you're trying to hide from me?"

"Trying to hide from you - ? I'm not trying to hide anything from you. There's nothing to hide. Nothing. Nothing's hidden," he rambled, as he often did when he was upset. Penny stroked his hair.

"Come on, Leonard," she said soothingly, "You know that even if Adelle admires Sheldon, she's never even met him. You're still her father. She loves you."

"You've got a point. She's never met Sheldon, she's only read his work, and she's obviously taken in by his brilliance," Leonard said, his voice light, though there was something vicious in it. "No one could still be blinded by his brilliance once they're introduced to his – pigheadedness."

Penny whacked him on the shoulder. "Leonard!"

"I'm sorry, just – " Leonard twisted his body to face her, "Remember that psychotic undergraduate who was always following Sheldon around and trying to help him with his work?"

Penny's lips twitched. "Which one?"

"Any one, it doesn't matter," Leonard rolled his eyes, "the point is, I never thought my daughter would be like that, you know? Why would she have to? I mean, she has me, right?"

"Sweetie, Adelle does appreciate your Scientific knowledge too! I mean, she's always asking you for help with this paper, and that experiment – "

"Yeah," Leonard said dourly, "But only if Sheldon's papers don't offer an answer."

-

Up to the weeks preceding Sheldon's arrival, Adelle had been nothing but a ridiculous ball of anticipatory energy. The apartment Sheldon had found was pretty close to the two-storey house they occupied, and Adelle was already looking forward to the almost-daily dinners they would have together, just like before she was born.

"Uncle Howard can come on weekends with Aunt Bernadette," she said excitedly, "and Uncle Raj can bring Deepa! Oh – oh God, it'll be so cool!" Raj was the last one of the three in the group who actually had a known sexuality to get married, due to his "woman problem", but finally started seeing a Psychiatrist due to his parents' constant cajoling. The sessions must have worked, because he eventually hooked up with his Psychiatrist's assistant.

It was nice seeing Adelle so excited. Penny was well aware that her daughter was no average teenage girl. She was by no means at Sheldon's, or even Leonard's, standard of genius, but she still had an IQ of 157, and had entered college at fifteen. Adelle spoke like an adult by the time she was six, and at eight was already having intellectual dinner conversations with her father and beloved Uncles that Penny could not even try to keep up with. As a result, Adelle was hardly excited over anything Penny could have a stake in, not popular fiction or new movies or clothes. Sure, Penny now made a decent living as a journalist in a local paper, and Adelle had depended on her for help in some of her writing assignments, but even that didn't last long. Somehow Penny had felt that in having a daughter as independent and intelligent as Adelle, she had somehow been robbed of the experience of being a mother. Sure, Sheldon had been a genius, but he still behaved like a child at times, even when he was an adult, and demanded to be looked after. Adelle had been half an adult from the moment she learnt to dress herself.

"Baby," Penny started, and Adelle grimaced instinctively, never having liked the nickname, "when Sheldon arrives tomorrow, you have to be careful not to overwhelm him."

"Yes, mother, I'm not a child," Adelle said, not disrespectfully, but with an unmistakable note of derision.

I know, baby, Penny thought. She bit her lip. She hadn't wanted to bring this up at first, but somehow, she didn't want to risk Adelle being caught unaware tomorrow and becoming devastated. Adelle had known that, from what her parents and Uncles had told her, Sheldon paid ruthless attention to detail and routine, that he hardly tolerated inconveniences, and was generally not particularly fond of people in general. But Penny wasn't sure Adelle had really considered those aspects of her idol's personalities.

"Sweetie, can I talk to you for a moment?" Penny asked gently.

Adelle blinked, "Aren't we talking now?"

"Yeah, well – " Penny broke off awkwardly, before continuing, "I just wanted you to know that sometimes, when we idolise people too much, like you do with Sheldon – "

"I won't quite put it as idolise, per se," Adelle interrupted, "I admire him greatly, but not quite to the extent of idolisation."

"Alright. Admire," Penny gave Adelle a testy look that quickly shut her up, "Sometimes when we admire people too much, we have unrealistic expectations of them. And when that happens, sometimes we're – disappointed." She glanced at her daughter, who was furrowing her brow. "Don't do that honey, you'll get wrinkles." Adelle quickly relaxed her face and scowled. "I just don't want you to, y'know, expect too much from Sheldon. He's as human as we are, despite being a really smart cookie."

Adelle was silent for a moment, and when she spoke Penny did not expect the words that came from her mouth, "Mother, did you ever like Sheldon?"

"Of course I did! I do," Penny said, surprised, "He's one of my best friends."

"Well, I…" Adelle wrung her hands, "I always wondered why he never came to visit. Especially since he and Father were supposed to be best friends. And you guys never seemed to talk a lot on the phone or email much… We didn't even visit when he got his second Nobel Prize. It all seemed rather odd."

Why hadn't they, indeed? Because they knew Sheldon would be insufferable after he had won not one, but two Nobel prizes? Because they were all getting older and knew they would never achieve half of what Sheldon had so far? Because deep down, they all knew that if not for them, Sheldon would have received his third Nobel Prize by now?

Adelle patted her mother's hand. Penny blinked, breaking out of her reverie. "It's alright, Mother," Adelle said, smiling her strange smile that Penny had somehow never been able to describe. It somehow made her think that Adelle had known the answer all along, but only wanted to hear her say it. "You don't have to tell me."

"It's – It's late, dear," Penny said, after awhile, "You should go to bed."

"I tried getting Adelle mentally prepared for Sheldon," Penny told Leonard that night, as they got into bed. Leonard snorted.

"Nothing could ever get anyone ready for Sheldon," he pointed out.

"Don't let her hear you say that," Penny warned. Insulting Sheldon, which had become a habit for all four of them, became difficult once Adelle came into the picture. "Anyway, she asked about – why we didn't really keep in touch with Sheldon when he was gone."

"What did you tell her?" Leonard asked, climbing into bed.

"I didn't say anything," Penny admitted honestly, "I don't know the answer myself."

Leonard only sighed. "Turn off the light, Penny. It's late."

-

Sheldon was flying in from Massachusetts, despite his preference for trains, and the next afternoon found Leonard, Penny, Howard, Raj and Adelle waiting anxiously for Sheldon's arrival at the airport. He had texted them earlier with an estimated time of arrival, and again when he touched down. Adelle, who had been on some sort of adrenaline high the whole car ride here, had fallen into a nervous silence, reading and re-reading the same paragraph in a book on cosmology.

Surprisingly, when Sheldon appeared exactly when he said he would, suitcase and laptop bag in hand, it was Leonard who bodily launched himself at the taller man, hugging him awkwardly around the middle for about twenty seconds before Sheldon calmly told him to let go. The others followed with their greetings and welcomes, though significantly less physically affectionate, except for Penny, who threw her arms around his neck and kissed him on the cheek, just to see him squirm.

Sheldon regarded the last member of his welcome party with a slight scepticism, as he tended to do with people he had not met before. Of course, he had met this young girl, but she had only been an infant then, capable of little more than crying hysterically and interrupting everybody's circadian rhythms. But she was sixteen now, his eidetic memory told him, her last birthday had been two months and twenty three days ago. She was clearly Leonard's daughter, his DNA was written all over her dark hair and dark eyes, but she definitely had Penny's prettiness, despite it being obscured somewhat by her serious demeanour and thick glasses.

"Hi," the girl said shyly, her hands clasped behind her back. "I'm Adelle."

He nodded, "I know. I'm Dr. Cooper," he paused for a moment, "I suppose you may call me Sheldon, despite the age difference between us. I would prefer it to you referring to me as 'Uncle.'"

Adelle's eyes brightened. Yes, that was definitely all Penny, that bright enthusiasm. "I'm really glad you're moving back, Sheldon," she said earnestly, "I'm a great fan of your work. I just finished your latest paper last night, it was brilliant! If you don't mind, I have some questions about it, but I know you're a busy man so I've kept them as short as possible…"

Oh, another fan. Sheldon had gotten somewhat used to the popularity and attention since he received his first Nobel Prize, and to an extent, he expected it. He was, after all, the only Nobel laureate to date other than Linus Pauling to win two unshared Nobel prizes. But he had not looked for it in a daughter of Leonard and Penny Hofstadter, though. "I was not aware you were interested in my work," he told Adelle, who smiled modestly. "Though it is rather unsurprising you do."

"My area of interest is Cosmology, though I find String Theory and M-Theory fascinating as well," she explained.

"Of course you do," Sheldon said, "I do recall your father mentioning that you started college at Caltech last year?" Adelle nodded. "Not unimpressive," he noted, and she seemed to positively glow with joy.

"So, when do you start work at the University, Sheldon?" Leonard asked, deliberately cutting into the conversation.

"Tuesday," Sheldon said immediately, "that gives me a day to unpack and get my new apartment organised."

"Oh, I've on off-day tomorrow too," Penny said enthusiastically, "I could come over and help you get organised!"

Sheldon snorted. "While I doubt your ability to help me, as you put it, 'get organised', given your inferior organisational ability, I would appreciate the extra muscle."

Penny forced a smile and rolled her eyes, "You're very welcome, Sheldon." Some things really never did change.

-

"Deepa apologises for not being able to come," Raj said, as they piled into Leonard's six-seater. "She had to do some extra shifts at the clinic."

"Oh, your new lady friend?" Sheldon asked, "I'd heard that you had gotten over your little problem. Congratulations."

"It's not a big deal," Raj said modestly, looking pleased with himself.

"Considering how you once couldn't be in the same room with an attractive woman – or, as you admitted yourself, an effeminate man – without wetting yourself, I would consider it a sterling achievement indeed," Sheldon said honestly. "You shouldn't belittle your accomplishments, Raj, they're limited enough in range as it is."

Adelle giggled. "Really, Uncle Raj? You couldn't be in the same room with a woman without wetting yourself?"

Raj scowled, "An attractive woman," he clarified, as if it made all the difference.

"Don't forget effeminate men," Howard added helpfully.

"Which makes it a wonder I was able to talk around you, Howard," Raj shot back, glaring at his best friend, who looked affronted and made a face.

"I like having you around, Sheldon," Adelle chirped, "Everything is so much more interesting. Tell me more embarrassing stories about my parents and Uncle Howard and Uncle Raj!"

"Well," Sheldon said, considering, "there was this one time when the four of us, that is your father, Howard, Raj and I were doing an experiment in which we attempted to reflect a laser off reflectors that Apollo 11 had positioned on the moon in 1969. Anyway, your father thought it would be a good idea to invite your mother, only she had her boyfriend of the day with her at the time. And he thought we were going to blow up the moon."

Penny gave a little yelp, "Well, the first time I met Sheldon and your father, they had just tried to masturbate for money. Additionally, Sheldon once strung up my underwear on a telephone wire."

"You can masturbate for money?" Adelle asked, amazed, "Also, you've touched my mom's underwear?" she asked Sheldon, as if intrigued by the idea.

"We were going to sell semen," Leonard corrected, almost huffily, "and he stole her laundry. Nothing more."

"On another occasion, Howard once got the Mars Rover stuck in a ditch because he tried to pick up a girl at a club by offering to let her drive a top-secret government project," Sheldon continued, unfazed, "Oh, and then Leonard proceeded to steal her."

"You stole Uncle Howard's girlfriend?" Adelle gaped at her father, who was struggling to keep his eyes on the road.

"Yes, Leonard, go ahead, tell your daughter about how you stole Uncle Howard's girlfriend," Howard ut in, narrowing his eyes at at his friend.

"Well, she was less of a girlfriend and more of just a date, really…" Leonard trailed off. "On a related note, Howard once sent a malfunctioning toilet into space that basically spewed faeces into the spacecraft after a few flushes. The whole rocket was unliveable in days."

"Seriously, Uncle Howard? That was you?" Adelle asked, horrified but amused.

"Well, in his defence, he only had a Masters degree at that point of time," Sheldon pointed out matter-of-factly, "Oh, congratulations on your Doctorate, by the way."

Howard accepted the congratulations through clenched teeth. "Any stories on Raj, Sheldon? We haven't heard about Raj in awhile."

"Excuse me?" Raj nearly squeaked, "Alright, let's not forget that time Sheldon won the Chancellor award, was too afraid to give his speech, resulting in Penny giving him alcohol and him mooning the audience!"

There was a petulant silence from Sheldon as the others burst into laughter at his expense, before he turned to Adelle with narrowed but respectful eyes, "Very impressive, Adelle."

"I'm sorry?" her brown eyes – Leonard's eyes – were wide and guileless.

"Very clever, turning us against each other for your own entertainment," he said begrudgingly, "You're almost as evil as your mother."

"My mother?" Adelle asked, the corner of her mouth curved upward, possibly in anticipation of another story, "Evil?"

"Never underestimate your mother's prowess, child," Sheldon said wisely, raising a finger, "her wickedness knows no bounds. For example, she once ruined laundry night."

-

They stopped off at Sheldon's apartment first, and though he'd already had his assistant make sure some basic furniture was set up, he insisted on unpacking and rearranging everything until he was satisfied, before making everyone take a trip down to the grocery store with him so he could stock up the pantry. Somehow, Adelle, who had always hated any sort of shopping that did not involve books, was more than happy to help her Godfather, pushing the trolley as he loaded it up with Sheldon-approved cereal, Sheldon-approved toiletries, Sheldon-approved pasta sauce.

"You might be interested to know that contrary to popular belief, Marco Polo did not bring pasta from China to Italy. In fact, archaeologists have found the will of a Genoan soldier who requested "bariscella peina de macarone", which is, literally, a small basket of macaroni. His will is dated 1279, 16 years before Marco Polo returned from China," Sheldon told Adelle, as he tried to decide between spaghetti and linguini.

Penny was about to make some snide comment warning Sheldon not to bore her daughter to death when Adelle actually laughed and said in a remarkably Sheldon-like manner, "Really? How fascinating!" Out of the corner of her eye, she caught Leonard briefly make a face as he examined a box of fettuccini.

At evening they got take-out, which they brought back to Leonard and Penny's house. Sheldon complimented the architecture and Penny's petunia plants, though he did have quite a lot to say about the financial impracticality of a two-storey house for a family of three. "It was the only house Penny wanted to live in," Leonard shrugged, "and we could afford it. We still can."

"Well in which case, it's a good thing that your daughter's so intelligent, because between the house and Penny's compulsion for purchasing new shoes, Adelle would hardly be able to receive higher education or complete an advanced degree without some sort of scholarship," Sheldon scoffed.

"Are you implying I'm unable to manage my own finances?" Penny demanded, glaring at her friend.

"Are you able to manage your own finances?" Sheldon asked, looking at her earnestly. She scowled.

"Yes, Adelle created me an excel spreadsheet and wrote me a budget when she was six."

Adelle nodded, "She's made remarkable progress. I limited her to only one new pair of shoes every six months, and only if a pre-existing pair wears out."

"Well, it's a good thing you have your daughter, because between your own lack of self control and your husband's complete inability to correct anything you do wrong, you would have driven your family to bankruptcy by now," Sheldon pointed out.

"Sheldon! Be nice to my mom," Adelle protested, and Penny was so surprised her daughter was standing up for her to Sheldon, of all people, she didn't notice that Leonard had been insulted too.

The rest of the evening passed rather smoothly, or as smoothly as it could go for a group with members as socially inept as they were.

There was none of that usual awkwardness between friends who had not spoken in years, Sheldon filled up any semblance of silence with ramblings of what it was like to be a Nobel prize winner, having to pick and choose the public appearances he was forced to make, writing opening address after opening address where he could not be the slightest bit honest about the intelligence (or lack thereof) of the event organisers. It seemed that the boys, though all slightly jealous, were curious enough about what Sheldon's life had been like all these years apart, since the questions came steadily not just from Adelle and Penny, but from all of them.

Sheldon (and Adelle, for that matter) had to be in bed by eleven, and when the Hofstadters got back from sending Sheldon home, Adelle was beaming from ear to ear. "I feel like my family's been completed," she declared, before hugging both her parents tightly and bouncing up to her bedroom.

Penny looked at Leonard. "Y'know, it's odd that I'm saying this, but it is slightly comforting that after all these years, some things never change."

"Perhaps, but except now we have a teenage daughter who makes it impossible for us to even defend ourselves against the madness that is Sheldon Lee Cooper," Leonard pointed out, before falling silent for a moment. "Penny, do you think Adelle would rather have Sheldon as a father?"

"What? Don't be ridiculous! Sheldon would make a terrible father, everyone knows that," Penny exclaimed.

"Everyone except Adelle, as it turns out," Leonard said quietly, and Penny found that, as usual, she had no answer for her husband.