Chapter 2

A few days had passed since Penny had declared her intention to have a water birth and Leonard was struggling to stay awake as he ate lunch in the university cafeteria. The fights were on-going and he had just spent his third night sleeping on the couch. He knew that it was Penny's day off work and although he was fit to drop with exhaustion he didn't want to return home early only to resume world war III.

"I thought the sleepless nights were supposed to come after the baby's born" Raj pointed out as he watched Leonard finish up his second cup of coffee

"The reason Leonard can barely keep his eyes open is because he and Penny were up half the night fighting.." Sheldon remarked

He had already chewed Leonard's ear off in the car on the way to work about being kept awake by their yelling and slamming of doors. His noise cancelling headphones had proved to be ineffective.

"Sheldon this has nothing to do with you" Leonard asserted "So can we PLEASE just drop this and change the subject?"

They continued to eat in silence until Howard received a text message on his cell phone

"Looks like Bernie has found a doula" Howard announced to his friends as he read the message on his cell phone

"And you're ok with that?" Leonard questioned sensing that Howard wasn't necessarily in favour of the idea

Howard shrugged his shoulders

"I guess Bernie is very enthusiastic about the whole thing…."

Howard spent the rest of the afternoon at work mulling over Bernadette's decision to hire a doula. By the time he pulled his car into his parking space at their apartment he had come to the conclusion that perhaps he had over reacted, maybe having a doula as Bernadette firmly believed would be beneficial for both of them.

"Hi Bernie I'm home" called Howard as he let himself into the apartment. He could hear voices coming from the kitchen followed by burst laughter. Howard frowned, one voice definitely belonged to Bernadette but he couldn't identify all he knew was it sounded like a male voice.

"Hi honey!" Bernie exclaimed as Howard entered the kitchen to see Bernadette sat at the counter drinking coffee with a dark haired man with a short stubble beard wearing jeans and a red check shirt.

"Jake this is my husband Howard"

Jake smiled and stuck out his hand to shake hands with Howard

"Great to meet you Howard Bernadette has been telling me all about you" Jake said

Howard gazed at the man standing in his kitchen with an expression of total bewilderment. After being introduced to Howard Jake asked if he could use the bathroom and exited the kitchen.

"I have a really good feeling about this I think Jake's gonna make a wonderful doula" Bernadette beamed

At first Howard was lost for words and stared at the kitchen doorway through which Jake had just disappeared

"Bernie Jake's a guy, aren't doulas supposed to be women?"

"It's a little unconventional I know, but from the moment I met him I knew that he was the one. He's very experienced he has great references and he also works part time as an EMT" she told him proudly. Finding a doula had proved to be a lot easier than she had anticipated.

Bernadette bent down opened the oven door and using a set of gloves and removed the lasagne that she had prepared for dinner. After offering Jake the job she had invited him to join her and Howard for dinner so that they could spend the evening getting to know each other better.

"A male doula so he must be gay right?" Howard mused rubbing his chin

"No actually he told me he had a girlfriend but they broke up last year" Bernadette answered as she set about dishing up the meal

"Not gay interesting…" Howard said to himself and then added "Don't you think maybe we could have talked about this together before you went ahead and actually hired someone?"

Bernadette's turned away from the dishes to look at her husband her facial expression had turned from a smile into a frown

"I thought you said you were happy for me to make the decision?" Bernadette reminded him a fact which Howard couldn't deny, but at no point had it occurred to him that the doula would turn out to be a man.

"Howie do you have a problem with Jake?"

"Well you have to admit honey it's weird I mean a guy working as a doula…."

Hearing Jake's footsteps approaching the kitchen the conversation was halted and Bernadette asked Howard to open a bottle of wine for him and Jake to have with dinner. Howard took a bottle of red wine from the wine rack and set about trying to open it using a corkscrew.

"Do you need a hand there Howard?" Jake asked noticing that Howard appeared to be struggling to uncork the bottle

"No thanks I've got it" Howard responded and then added "Did Bernadette mention I went up to the International Space Station last year?" he was keen to assert his masculinity despite the fact that he was continuing to struggle to open the wine

"Yes she did that's really impressive Howard" Jake answered sincerely

"Well that's the kind of guy I am taking risks.. Putting my life on the line in the interest of science and space exploration…."

There was a loud pop sound as Howard finally uncorked the bottle and poured two glasses of wine and an orange juice for Bernadette. They all clinked glasses and Bernadette watched as Howard completely emptied his glass within a matter of seconds and then proceeded to pour himself another. Lifting his glass and with a nervous laugh he proposed a toast

"To Jake! The doula!"