A/N: Welcome back! And if you're here reading, thanks for hanging with the story! I think I say sorry every time I update, so...I'm just going to say life has been crazy, and give a blanket sorry for all future updating wait times. I'm really going to try to update sooner though. No promises, as work has been crazy and I've been job searching on top of it, but here's hoping. To bring you back into the story, last we left them Sheldon and Amy had gone to the doctor's to find out the sex of their child, only to find that said child had crossed his or her legs and refused to obey his or her father's demands to uncross them. Enjoy. :)

Sheldon

This was outrageous.

Sheldon stared at the letter, feeling indignant. What did they mean they denied the request?

Sheldon immediately grabbed out his phone and dialed the number for his and Amy's insurance company.

Amy walked into the room, paint samples in hand.

"Sheldon, please come back to the baby's room. We need to choose a color. You promised."

Sheldon held up a hand. "In a moment. I am going to speak with the insurance company." He sighed as he heard an automated voice. He pressed one and then sighed again when he was taken to another menu.

Amy walked over and grabbed the letter out of Sheldon's hand. She perused it while Sheldon continued to push buttons, wondering if he was ever going to be able to speak to an actual person.

Amy looked up. "Sheldon, I think you're over-reacting."

"I'm not over-reacting. I'm simply…reacting. The reason for denial is not acceptable."

Amy blinked. "It says there is no medical reason for an additional ultrasound at this time. Given the current health crisis in our country, and the drain on the insurance companies' resources, it makes complete sense."

Sheldon opened his mouth to respond, but stopped when he finally heard a real human voice on the other end of the line.

"Hello, my name is John. How can I help you today?"

"Hello, John," Sheldon began. "I am here to register a formal complaint."

John's tone of voice changed. "I see. And may I ask what your complaint is? Perhaps I can help you resolve the issue."

"I certainly hope so; otherwise I will need to speak to your supervisor. My wife has been denied a second ultrasound."

"I see. Let me look into the record for a moment here."

Sheldon waited impatiently. He hated dealing with mindless drones on telephones.

"Ok, it looks like there was no medical reason for a second ultrasound."

Sheldon rolled his eyes. "Yes. But there is still a need."

"I see. There is no reason listed here. If you could let me know what it is, perhaps I can finagle something for you."

"We were unable to find out the sex of the baby at our last ultrasound because he or she refused to obey my command of uncrossing his or her legs."

"Uh huh."

Sheldon waited for further response. When none came, he rolled his eyes again and said, "We need a second ultrasound to determine the sex of the child."

"Oh, I see. Well, I'm sorry, sir, but unfortunately we cannot authorize additional ultrasounds to satisfy your curiosity."

"I object!" Sheldon responded. Sheldon heard Amy gasp and grab his arm. He knew she liked it when he argued his case. She once told him she found it sexy. He stood up taller, straightening his shoulders.

"I demand that you authorize a second ultrasound."

"Sir, please calm down."

"I will not calm down. This is an outrage!" Amy shook his arm. He winked in her direction.

"How am I supposed to adequately prepare for the arrival of the infant when I don't know who to provide for? How are we supposed to pick a name? It is essential that we find out the sex of the child. Surely you see this."

"Sir-" The man kept talking, but Sheldon was startled by Amy's sudden vigorous shake of his arm and her shouted "Sheldon!"

He looked at her in alarm. "What is it? Is something wrong?"

He put the phone back to his mouth. "Hang on. It would appear that a medical reason for an ultrasound is now making itself known."

"Sir-"

Sheldon put the phone back down, putting a hand on Amy's shoulder.

"What is it? Has something happened? Do you feel ill? I told you not to eat that tuna fish and jelly sandwich yesterday!"

"Sheldon be quiet!" Amy exclaimed. She grabbed his hand and put it onto her stomach. "I just felt the baby move."

Sheldon blinked in shock. Amy was beaming. "Are you sure? The last time you said that, it turned out to be gas."

Amy nodded her head. "Yes. This time I'm sure. It's definitely the baby."

Sheldon looked down at his hand. "I don't feel anything."

Amy stared at him. "Of course you don't. The baby is still too small. I only just felt him or her myself right now."

Sheldon blinked. "Then why did you put my hand on your stomach?"

Amy blinked back at him. "I don't know. It just felt right at the time."

Sheldon looked back down at his hand, feeling an emotion swell in his chest. He looked at Amy and smiled. "Fascinating."

Sheldon heard distant yelling and looked down at the phone in his hand. He put it back up to his ear.

"SIIIIR!"

"You don't have to shout." That was rude.

Sheldon heard a sigh on the other end of the line. He was about to respond when Amy plucked the phone out of his hand and said, "Sorry to have bothered you. This is Mrs. Cooper. We won't be needing to file a formal complaint."

When she hung up the phone, Sheldon gasped. "Why did you do that?"

"We don't need a second ultrasound, Sheldon. Everything is fine."

"Everything is not fine. We are going into this thing completely unprepared. We need to know the sex of the child…who I might add appears to have a stubborn streak that he or she has certainly inherited from you."

Amy snorted and rolled her eyes. "Sheldon, you can't make me unhappy today." She put both her hands on the growing bump on her abdomen and smiled.

Sheldon frowned. "I wasn't attempting to make you unhappy. I was simply attempting to make myself happy."

Amy gave him a look. "Go grab the camera."

Sheldon stared and then nodded. As he walked over to the desk to grab out the video camera, Sheldon mused that, despite his initial feelings about the endeavor, these recordings had started to grow on him.

Sheldon walked out into the living room, just as Amy was pulling a lasagna out of the oven. Over time, Amy had somehow managed to change Sheldon's schedule enough to allow for a home cooked meal at least twice per week. And also somehow (he still wasn't exactly sure how) she had managed to talk him into letting her choose what to make. He had only agreed provided that she choose from a list of seven acceptable foods. She had agreed to the compromise, and ever since then, every Monday and Friday Sheldon had had to wait on tenterhooks to find out what he would be subjecting his digestive tract to. The strange part to this scenario, however, was that he didn't particularly mind. In fact, he sometimes found himself anticipating the evening meal, just to see what they would be having…but he would never let Amy know that, of course.

They were having their friends over for dinner that night and Sheldon had been looking forward to it all day as it had been several weeks since the entire gang had been together. Much to his annoyance, something had come up for at least one, if not more, members of the group which had prevented them all from spending their Friday nights with Sheldon and Amy, as was tradition.

Sheldon walked into the kitchen and nodded at Amy. "Ah, I see we're having lasagna."

Amy nodded back. "Yes. Although, I should warn you, they didn't have your specified brands of tomato sauce or mozzarella cheese, so I had to find substitutes."

Sheldon gasped. "Amy! Why did you tell me that? You know I won't be able to enjoy the lasagna now, no matter how tasty it may be…although with substitutes of the two most important ingredients, I don't see how it can be tasty."

Amy rolled her eyes. "Sheldon, you do realize that if I hadn't said anything, you would never have known the difference."

Sheldon raised his eyebrows. "If that is the case, then why did you tell me anything to begin with?"

Amy shrugged. "I believe in complete culinary honesty."

Sheldon nodded. "And I appreciate it." He sighed and looked over at the lasagna. "Too bad your culinary honesty will result in my inability to enjoy tonight's meal." Even after all this time, Amy still acted surprised every time she made changes to something and expected him to like it.

There was a knock on the door.

Amy, who was in the middle of chopping tomatoes for the salad, turned her head and said, "Please get the door, Sheldon."

Sheldon walked over and answered the door. It was Howard and Bernadette.

Sheldon nodded in welcome and moved aside to let them pass. "Good evening. May I offer you a beverage?"

"I'll have a coke if you have one," said Howard. Bernadette gave him a look and rolled her eyes, crossing her arms.

"Oh, come on, Bernie. If you want to have a coke, just have a coke. Surely one can of soda isn't going to cause our baby to become a crack addict."

Bernadette rolled her eyes again. "You know what the doctor said! I already had a piece of chocolate today. I've met my allotted caffeine requirements for the day. And you know I was just saying that I was craving a coke. How could you order one just to taunt me?" She started tearing up and walked quickly over to Amy. Howard just stared with a dumb look on his face.

Sheldon looked from Bernadette back over to Howard. "I see Bernadette's hormones have reached maximum levels."

"Yeah…" Howard said, and then lowered his voice. "We've reached defcon 1 on the crazy scale."

"My condolences," Sheldon said. Thankfully, Amy had learned to better control her emotions of late, and for that Sheldon was forever in her debt. Not that she didn't still have her moments…

"Do you still want the coke?"

Howard thought for a moment before replying, "Actually I'd better take a water. The only couch we have is a love seat, and while I am short, I'm not that short."

Sheldon nodded. "Wise decision. I'm impressed a man of your schooling could come to such a logical conclusion."

Sheldon walked over to the kitchen to get the glass of water as Howard walked over to the couch to sit down. As he was handing Howard his glass of water, there was another knock on the door. This time it was Penny, Leonard, and little Julia. Last to arrive was Raj and Rani. Once everyone was seated and had been given a beverage, Amy announced that dinner was ready.

When Sheldon saw that she had set it up buffet style, he held up a hand. "Hold on a moment, everyone." He turned to Amy. "Why is the food not properly divided?"

Amy sighed. "Sheldon, there is more than enough food for everyone to have not just a single portion but a double. We do not need to worry about properly dividing the food."

"But what if one callous person decides that they want a triple serving and then someone else is left hungry because there was only enough for each person to have a double portion."

"Jeez, Sheldon," Penny said. "It's not like we're all going to want seconds. There's enough food here to keep a football team happy."

Sheldon glared at Penny and then noticed Julia holding her mother's hand. He turned back to Amy, pointing at Julia. "And did you take into consideration the fact that there is a tiny human who will likely not even eat a full single portion?" He shook his head. "We really much divide the food evenly."

Amy rolled her eyes, and looked around him. "Please, everyone. Help yourself."

"Amy!" Sheldon began, but was quelled by a look from Amy. Sheldon pressed his lips together, irritated, but not stupid.

Amy put a hand on his arm and spoke quietly as he surveyed the group of people before him, grabbing food willy nilly. "It'll be fine, Sheldon." Sheldon looked down into Amy's eyes and felt a bit of his anxiety leave at her smile. "Just go grab yourself a plate of food and be sure to take the exact portion you wish to eat so that you don't find yourself short of food later." He looked heavenward and rolled his eyes at her wink.

After everyone sat down, the women started talking about female stuff like pregnancy and birth, which did not interest Sheldon. He turned instead to the men of the group and ended up in a healthy, invigorating debate on the merits and detriments of the latest Call of Duty.

After about a half hour, Amy got up and came back with a second plate of food, nearly as full as her first plate. Sheldon frowned.

"Amy, are you sure you should be eating a second helping? You've gained too much weight already."

All conversation in the room stopped and Sheldon couldn't help but notice that all three men leaned as far away from Sheldon as they could.

"What the hell, Sheldon!" shouted Penny.

Sheldon looked at Amy, who had her eyebrows raised in surprise. "Did I say something wrong?"

Amy opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, Penny said, "Amy looks beautiful and she's carrying your baby and if she wants to have a second helping of lasagna then she can have a second helping of lasagna. It's a small price to pay for forcing her to go through labor."

Sheldon stared at Penny, completely confused. "What are you going on about?" He turned to Amy. "Do you have any idea what she's talking about?"

Amy nodded. "I believe I do." She turned to the rest of the group, all of whom except Penny had their mouths hanging open. "I believe there has been a misunderstanding. Sheldon was not calling me fat."

Sheldon gasped and turned to Penny. "You thought I was calling Amy fat? That's ridiculous!"

"Well, it sure as hell sounded like it to me," Penny said. Bernadette nodded vigorously and Rani just gave Sheldon an uneasy look.

Amy continued. "No, in fact, Sheldon was merely reminding me of an earlier gripe. You see, at the beginning of this pregnancy he and I mapped out the week by week weight gain needed to achieve optimal growth of the infant without compromise my health as well. Earlier today after stepping on the scale, I noted that I had gained two extra pounds than our plan accounted for and had stated that I was not happy about it. Sheldon was merely reminding me that it might not be prudent to eat a second helping, given that I was unhappy with the results of my weekly weigh-in." She turned to Sheldon. "For which I am grateful."

He nodded at her. "Of course." Then he turned to Penny, feeling indignant. "I can't believe you'd think me so callous. Amy is carrying our child for Pete's sake!"

Penny rolled her eyes. "Oh come on. If any other man said that to any other woman, there would have been hell to pay."

Sheldon rolled his eyes. "Well, Amy and I are not 'any other' couple."

Penny snorted. "Obviously."

Sheldon heard Bernadette whisper to Howard, "Don't you get any ideas. I don't care if I look like your mother; you're not ever to tell me I've gained too much weight."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Howard replied. Then he turned to Sheldon and said in a tone which reeked of sarcasm, "Thanks for that."

Amy walked back over to the kitchen and then came back to sit down, salad in hand. "I thought perhaps it would be best to limit my second helping to salad."

"Are you sure it's wise to eat a second helping at all?"

Amy looked at Sheldon with raised eyebrows.

Sheldon cleared his throat and went back to eating his own dinner. As he put another bite of lasagna in his mouth he snorted derisively. As if I'd ever call Amy fat…Penny can be so awkward sometimes…

A/N: Thanks for reading! Fingers crossed I can update this sooner than a month from now!