Chapter 9: The Critical Cultural Construct

Tiny Spock [in Leonard Nemoy's Voice]: "Ow! Wake up boy! You're on my foot!"

Sheldon groans as he opens his eyes and lifts his head up from his desk. He is surprised for a moment when he sees that he is sitting in his desk chair back at the apartment. His tiny Spock action figure doll is frowning at him and hopping on one foot on his desk. Sheldon realizes this must be another hallucination, but he has no idea why.

Sheldon: "What happened to me Tiny Spock?"

Tiny Spock: "You're experiencing syncope, a transient loss of consciousness and postural tone characterized by a rapid onset release of oxygen and spontaneous movement downward caused by the gravitational pull of the earth along with global cerebral hypo perfusion that most often results from hypotension."

Sheldon: "So I fainted?"

Tiny Spock: "Precisely."

Sheldon frowns when he suddenly remembers that he was about to hear some very bad news about Amy.

Sheldon: "Oh what am I going to do, Tiny Spock? I don't want wake up again and find out my girlfriend is dead. I keep seeing strange images of us on a train together and they just will not go away. It just doesn't make any sense; oh please help me. "

Sheldon pouts and does his best not to cry in front of the toy version of his idol.

Tiny Spock: "Let me ask you a question. Do you love this female?"

Sheldon pauses for a moment befuddled. He wrinkles his eyebrows.

Sheldon: "Uh….I do not understand the question?"

Tiny Spock sighs in aggravation with Sheldon's cluelessness.

Tiny Spock: "Well your current state of unconsciousness stems from your fear of dealing with more undesirable emotional distress caused by the permanent termination of biological functioning in your girlfriend. Logic dictates that this phobia comes from some sort of strong emotional attachment to this female such as love."

Sheldon stands up from his desk chair and quickly moves away from Tiny Spock.

Sheldon: "That is absurd! Amy once told me that the notion of romantic love is an unnecessary cultural construct that adds no value to human relationships and I agreed with her. Surely, considering that you are Vulcan, you must agree that is the most logical approach too?"

Tiny Spock: "No, I do not agree."

Sheldon gasps at that response and puts his palms against his heart in disturbed surprise.

Tiny Spock: "Love is a critical cultural construct; it is an evolutionary necessity for all species in the universe. Strong emotional attachment to others is part of an adapted survival instinct that's primary function is to keep human beings together against menaces and to facilitate the continuation of your species. It is only logical for human beings to form these emotional attachments and more importantly for you in this case I suggest you share this information with your mate so you can both come to accept it as simple fact."

Sheldon considers Tiny Spock's proposal for a moment and then he uses the ancient practice of kolinahr to suppress his feelings about it.

Sheldon: "But, I can't do that Tiny Spock! She might reject me."

Tiny Spock: "She might…or perhaps you will finally discover the true meaning of life dear boy."

Sheldon: "Which is?"

Tiny Spock stares into Sheldon's eyes then lifts his tiny plastic arm into the air. He makes his classic Vulcan salute and looks at Sheldon as if he is about to say his famous catchphrase."

Tiny Spock: "Do I really need to say it?"

Sheldon stares back at the action figure for a moment pondering the implications of this and then he wrinkles his nose up when he suddenly smells ammonium carbonate, a colorless-to-white, crystalline solid ((NH4)2CO3·H2O). The awful smell helps to arouse his mind as he slowly feels himself regaining consciousness.

Sheldon opens and closes his eyes blinking them as the surgeon kneels above his head with smelling salt in his hand. He feels dizzy and confused again as the bright lights of the hospital blur his vision.

Sheldon: "Uh, what happened? Where am I?"

Penny gasps in relief that he is finally awake again.

Penny: "Sheldon! Can you hear me? Sweetie, you fainted."

Penny looks at Sheldon worried still not sure if he's okay or not.

Sheldon sits up slowly and groans as he looks at the surgeon and at Penny.

Amy's surgeon: "Do you remember your name?"

Sheldon: "Of course I do. I'm Dr. Sheldon Lee Cooper."

The surgeon checks Sheldon's eyes for signs of alertness with a small flashlight.

Sheldon looks around and sees that he is no longer in his apartment or in the waiting room. He is lying on a cot inside of the surgeon's examination room.

Sheldon: "I'm fine! Where's Amy?"

Amy's surgeon: "Miss Fowler's has been taken to room 316. Her mother called here a little while ago and informed my staff that it's alright to give you information about her daughter until she arrives. But, I'm not sure you can handle this right now perhaps you should lie back down and rest more. You hit the floor pretty hard when you fainted."

Sheldon: "Just tell me!" he groans in frustration and fear.

Amy's surgeon glances over at Penny. She nods back that it is okay to go ahead and tell Sheldon what is going on. She knows that he won't rest until he knows the truth anyway.

The surgeon sighs then starts to explain what happened to Amy.

Amy's surgeon: "When Miss Fowler arrived at the hospital with massive head trauma she had a concussion and interior brain bleeding. During surgery to stop the bleeding, Miss Fowler went into cardiac arrest so we had to use the defibrillator to restart her heart."

Sheldon can feel his heart beating faster and faster with each syllable that comes out of the surgeon's mouth. But, this time he listens carefully and refuses to allow himself to faint again.

Amy's surgeon: "I managed to stop the bleeding in her cerebral cortex, but she's currently in a coma so I've order another brain scan for tomorrow. She will most likely require additional surgery afterwards, but I can't confirm it until the results from her second MRI come in. The next 48 hours are critical for her and even if she survives the next few days we won't know her full condition until she wakes up and the swelling in her brain goes down.

There is some danger of blood clots forming in her brain and of aneurysms. But, if she does wake up there is still a chance that she may eventually regain full mental capacity and body functioning so don't give up hope yet. We'll be monitoring her closely until then and I'll make sure to inform her family of her condition."

Penny starts to cry again after hearing all of this she looks up at Sheldon expecting him to fall apart too.

But, Sheldon remains extremely calm. He stands up and looks the doctor square in the eyes.

Sheldon: "I am her family and you have informed me thusly."

Upstairs, Bernadette gets off the elevator and walks down the hallway looking for Howard and Rajesh. She calls out for them.

Bernadette: "Howie! Howie, where are you! Raj!"

She walks past the nursery and hears babies crying. The sound brings back awful memories for her growing up in a house full of loud, whiny, screaming kids so she quickly walks past.

Next, she hears the sound of a woman moaning from behind a door then Bernadette hears her husband's voice.

Howard: "Come on! You're doing great! One more time! Push Kathy Push!

Bernadette frowns up her face. She marches up to the door and starts to bang on it as hard as her little fist can. She starts yelling loudly sounding like his mother again.

Bernadette: "HOWARD JOEL WOLOWITZ! YOU GET OUT HERE RIGHT NOW! I'VE BEEN ALL OVER THIS HOSPITAL LOOKING FOR YOU!"

Howard trembles a little bit in fear, but decides to stand his ground because the baby is coming right now.

Howard: "Bernadette? Uh, um…I'm kind of in the middle of something honey. Just wait there okay and don't come in!"

He turns back towards Kathy as she squeezes his hand.

Howard: "Push, Kathy, Push!"

Kathy: "I'm trying!"

Kathy groans and grits her teeth. She pushes hard one more time and out pops the baby's head.

Bernadette gets even more upset when she hears Kathy's moaning again.

Bernadette: "Wait here! The hell I will!"

Bernadette pushes the door open and stands in the doorway looking completely horrified. The pain of childbirth has frightened Bernadette for years. She always tried to avoid watching birthing videos during her sciences classes and now she is staring at a full view of this strange woman's vagina. Kathy's legs are spread wide as she moans, groans and grits her teeth in agony. Bernadette starts to feel queasy and dizzy so she quickly grabs on to the door handle to steady herself from keeling over.

Bernadette: "Oh My God! Wha…What is going on? Howard!"

Howard sees her at the doorway and rushes to her side. He grabs Bernadette's shoulders and smiles at her.

Howard: "It's okay. Don't be scared Bernie. We're almost finished."

Bernadette takes a deep breath then looks at Howard with a nauseous look on her face.

Bernadette: "I...uh... I'm just going to go wait in the hall."

Howard knows he has a lot of explaining to do so he walks with Bernadette out into the hall and closes the door.

Nurse Fletcher takes Howard's place by Kathy's side and puts her hand on the small of Kathy's back to help position her body better.

Nurse Fletcher: "You're doing great, just one more big push and its over!"

Kathy shakes her sweaty head in pain.

Kathy: "I can't! It hurts! Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Robert: "Come on babe, I love you. I know you can do this!"

Kathy bears down and pushes out really hard.

Kathy: "Owwwwwwwwww! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Rajesh: "It's coming! It's coming! Oh my, it's a boy!"

Rajesh grins in delight as he holds up the wet infant.

Kathy gasps for air and throws her head back in exhaustion then she hears her baby crying.

Her husband Robert proudly kisses her forehead gently and a huge grin takes over his face.

Robert: "You did it babe. I'm so proud of you."

Kathy: "I love you too."

Kathy leans up to kiss her husband as they both revel in the afterglow of childbirth.

A nurse in the room hands Dr. Koothrappali some scissors so he quickly cuts the umbilical cord and gives the baby over to Kathy to hold him.

Rajesh then grabs the bottle of champagne he'd been drinking from the counter and takes one last big swig straight from the bottle.

Robert and Kathy look at him peculiarly for a moment then they both start to laugh, but Nurse Fletcher just stares at him in shock that Dr. Koothrappali is getting drunk on the job.

Raj lets out a loud hiccup as he puts the champagne bottle down.

Rajesh: "Well that was fun! So who's next?"

Author's Note: I just want to say that my hope is for people to take away from this chapter and from what Tiny Spock said that a life full of love is the most important cultural construct in our universe and just as some are taken from us new life enters the world every day so we need not be afraid of death just the unlived life and the fear of telling the people we love how we truly feel cheesy as that might sound LOL. So I hope you all enjoyed reading it and stay tuned because I have lots more angst coming up for our couples next.

Amy is not out of the woods yet and to be totally honest with ya'll I'm still debating whether she'll live through this whole ordeal or not. In my head it could go either way in the end which is sort of scary, but also makes it more fun to write for me. I can tell you that right now I'm focusing on how Sheldon, friends and family will cope with the news of Amy's critical condition and their angst over it. Her final fate will not be revealed for awhile so please bear with me until then.