Chapter 10: Epilogue

Deena was cleaning up the kitchen and the dishes after lunch. She couldn't stop thinking about the hurt in Leonard's eyes, how his words hit her like fireballs, the emptiness she felt after he left without saying a word. She didn't know where she found strength to talk to Beverly about it... But she knew she had to, after the way she looked like when she found it out earlier that morning... She knew that face, that blank expression with eyebrows slightly lifted. After more than twenty years working there she was one of the very few people that could deal with her. And also one of the very few ones who ever saw her open up. She was so lost in her thoughts that she was oblivious to the four people standing in the kitchen. It was the little boy who startled her.

"Granny!" He ran and grabbed her waist in a tight hug.

When she turned around she saw her daughter, Leonard and Penny by the kitchen door. She returned the hug, bringing her grandson closer.

"Well, I'm glad to see you met your father."

"Yes, Granny! He even let me call him daddy!"

Leonard smiled at his son. He still couldn't believe that all of this had happened in such a short period of time. Deena exchanged glances with him, and just by the way he looked at her she knew he had forgiven her.

"Are you guys hungry? I saved your lunch in case you still wanted to eat when you returned..."

"Thanks, Deena, and yes, we're starving!" Leonard squeezed Penny's hand, feeling a soft kiss on his cheek.

"Me too, Granny! I think Mom is starving too!" He walked towards her and pulled his mom by her hand to sit with him at the kitchen island.

"Take a sit then while I'll reheat the food."

Tommy was euphoric. For the very first time he was sitting between his mother and his father. He couldn't believe yet he met his daddy. It was amazing how in such a short time he felt that strong connection with Leonard. His blue eyes sparkled when he looked at him, he could recognize so many traces of him in his father. No one could deny how similar they looked like.

"Daddy, do you really need to go today?" He asked, placing his tiny hand on his father's arm.

Leonard felt his heart broke just by thinking about leaving the boy. But he knew that living in California and the boy in New Jersey it wouldn't be an easy task, and he would have to get used to the distance.

"I do, Tommy, Daddy has to work tomorrow. But I promise we will Skype every time we can. We have a lot to catch up." He smiled at his son, leaning his head to kiss his forehead.

Deena heard they talking, her heart melting with the father and son interacting. Jessy and Penny just watched them, with a silly smile on their faces. It was the beep of the microwave oven that startled them, and Deena started serving the chicken soup.

Penny finished her soup quite quickly, excusing herself from the group. She was walking back to her and Leonard's guest room, when she heard Amy's voice coming from the library. She entered the room, finding Sheldon and Amy discussing a book.

"It was a research to measure the levels of cognition by asking the volunteers to speak the word antidisestablishmentarianism correctly three times in less than five seconds."

"That's so easy. Antidisestablishmentarianism, antidisestablishmentarianism, antistablish-... drats!"

"Hey guys, what are you doing?"

"Hey Bestie! I didn't know you guys were back! How was it there?"

"Err... Fine, I guess... The boy is so cute! He's like a miniature of Leonard!"

"He must be really tiny then!" Sheldon observed.

"Sheldon!" Amy nudged him in the arm, chuckling. She noticed that Penny didn't laugh, though.

"Bestie, are you alright?"

"I think so... Don't you want to meet him? He's downstairs having lunch with Leonard and Jessy in the kitchen."

The three friends arrived in the kitchen. Leonard was sitting on the floor with Tommy, teaching him how to play 'rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock', while Jessy helped her mother to do the dishes.

"Sweet Jesus, he is really a miniature of Leonard!" Sheldon exclaimed, staring at the boy in disbelief.

Leonard turned around and smiled at his best friend. He stood up and offered a hand to help Tommy.

"Tommy, I want you to meet my best friend, Sheldon, and his girlfriend Amy."

Amy came closer to the boy, giving him a kiss on the cheek, feeling the boy return her a tight hug.

"Oh, Leonard, he's so sweet!"

The boy approached Sheldon, not knowing exactly how to greet such a tall guy.

"Hello, Tommy!" Sheldon bent down, propping his hands on the legs.

"Hello... Are you Dr. Cooper?"

"Correct. I'm Dr. Sheldon Cooper."

"Are you a doctor like Daddy?"

Sheldon thought of answering that he had two doctorates, that his IQ was higher, that he was a theoretical physicist, while Leonard was simply an experimental one, but instead he just nodded.

"Yes, just like him." He looked up at Leonard, winking. "I saw that you were learning rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock."

"Yes, but I didn't catch yet what beats what..."

"That's simple. Scissors cuts paper, paper covers rock, rock crushes lizard, lizard poisons Spock, Spock smashes scissors, scissors decapitates lizard, lizard eats paper, paper disproves Spock, Spock vaporizes rock, and finally, rock crushes scissors."

"Ok... Do you wanna play with me?"

"Alright."

The big physicist and the little boy said together 'Rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock!'. Sheldon quickly displayed Spock, while the smart boy chose paper.

"Drats! I can't believe you won!"

"It was easy! Daddy told me you always choose Spock!"

Leonard chuckled, feeling really proud of his smart boy.

"I have to say, Leonard, he's really intelligent. He may be even smarter than his dad."

"I'm pretty sure he will be in the future." Tommy approached him and hugged his daddy.

Leonard, Sheldon and Tommy played together while Amy and Penny went to the living room to talk.

"Why are you worried, Bestie?"

"I don't know, things changed so fast, I feel a bit lost..."

"Aren't you happy for Leonard? He seems to love the boy."

"I am... It's just... I wanted that for our future, you know, kids."

"But you can still have that."

"I don't know... what if Leonard thinks it will be too much? I mean, he already has a child, why have more?"

"Penny, Sheldon told me that the first day Leonard met you he fell for you... And he quoted his first thought about your future: 'Our babies will be smart and beautiful.' Of course he wants to have children with you." She left out the part that Sheldon complemented with 'And imaginary'.

"Yeah, I know that, Leonard told me some time ago. But thanks for reminding me that, Ames." Penny squeezed her hand.

"Can I share a secret?" Amy asked her, smiling.

Penny quickly switched to a better mood. "Sure!"

"Sheldon told me today that he would happily be the father of my child!"

"Oh my God! Sheldon told you that?"

Beverly was sitting comfortably on an armchair reading a book, when she heard a knock on the door. She patiently marked the page she was reading with a book marker, and placed it next to her cup of tea on the side table.

"Come in."

"Hello, mother."

"How can I help you?"

Leonard took a deep breath. He knew it was going to be a tough conversation.

"You can start by telling me why you never told me I had a son. Then you can tell me why you paid for his and his brother's education for years, without mentioning a single thing to me. Or maybe tell me why you never told me about Deena's health condition, or even worse, why you dared to think that any of those things were not relevant for me to know?"

He stared at her with his arms folded on his chest, with an anger look in his eyes as she had never seen before.

Beverly took a sip of her tea, and moved her glasses up to the top of her nose. She glared at Leonard, starting to speak.

"Leonard. Answering your first question, I suspected Tomas was your son. But I never told you that because that would be Jessica's task, not mine. She was the one to decide whether she wanted you to know about that. I paid for his education because even though she never told me he was your son, it was pretty obvious to me that he was, just by looking at the little boy's face anyone could tell that. And it would be such a waste to keep a brilliant boy like him in common schools. I paid for his brother's education as well because I believe that siblings should be treated equally, even though his brother is at most a regular student. Concerning Deena's health condition, I respected her will when she asked me not to tell you anything. I wouldn't say I didn't consider those things relevant for your life. Quite the opposite. I just respected each one's right to reveal things or not. I certainly was struck by rage during breakfast this morning when in a moment of weakness I let myself reveal that Deena hid something from you. I apologize for any inconvenience my behaviour may have caused."

Leonard took a while to process all the information his mother just blurted out in a period of less than two minutes.

Beverly took another sip of her tea. "Do you have any other question?"

After a few moments, Leonard blinked faster, shaking his head a little.

"In fact I do... I know I will regret to ask that, but how does it feel to find out you're a grandmother?"

Beverly took out her glasses, biting the tip of the frame. She thought for a few moments, before she replied.

"I wouldn't say it's better or worse than having a child. For a grandmother it's definitely a good thing that it's not her that is suffering the pain of childbirth, and the result is pretty much the same. There's also the sense of déjà vu, especially when the similarities between the grandchildren and their father or mother are as quite as in Tomas' case. Personally, I would say that the sum of these factors resulted in a great deal of satisfaction. Does that answer your question?"

Leonard smiled. Coming from his mother, it was a pretty nice reply.

"Yes, mother. I'm pretty happy too after all."

"Good."

"Right... We are leaving in a few minutes to the airport. May I ask you one last thing?"

"Sure."

"May I give you a hug?"

She blinked fast, taking a deep breath. After a moment, she finally stood up and looked at him again.

"I wouldn't oppose to that."

He walked towards her, slowly placing his arms around her, feeling her touch as light as a feather. What he didn't see was that her eyes were closed, and a small tear dropped from the corner of her eye as she hugged him. Neither did Beverly saw that Penny was standing by the door witnessing her moment of weakness. They held each other for a while, before breaking the hug. She quickly cleaned the tear before facing him again.

"Thank you, mother. That meant a lot to me."

"You're welcome."

"Now if you want to say goodbye, Penny, Sheldon and Amy are waiting for you in the living room."

"Thanks, I will be there in a moment."

At the airport lounge, Sheldon and Leonard were arguing while the two girls watched them, amused.

"And when he visits us, he is not allowed to touch nor open any boxes of my action figures. Is that clear?"

"Yes, Sheldon, what's next, are you going to ask him to sign a son-of-roommate agreement?"

"Well, that wouldn't be bad..."

"Sheldon! You're not making my son sign any stupid agreement! I already agreed to give you a 48-hour written notice when he comes to visit, and that's enough! He will behave, and I take responsibility of anything he might do. I'm his father for God's sake!"

"Agreed. You don't have to make such a fuss about it. I just don't want to have my routine disrupted neither my things messed up."

"That won't happen, ok?"

"Alright. And when he is around it doesn't mean that you're freed of your obligations as a roommate."

"I know, Sheldon, I can take care of my son and of my roommate."

"Alright. I won't oppose if he likes trains and wants to play with me, though. Or if he wants to play videogames with us. Or if he wants to go to the comic book store with us."

"I'm pretty sure he will love to spend time with his uncle Sheldon."

8 months later

"Leonard, do you remember that Amy is coming for our weekend sleepover here?"

"Yes, Sheldon. You've been reminding me that the whole week."

"So, what time are you leaving?"

"In thirty minutes, Sheldon, I'll just Skype my mother before."

"Alright. Send her my best wishes. I'm going downstairs to get started with my laundry."

Leonard turned his computer on, and soon her mother's face appeared on the screen.

"Hello, mother."

"Leonard."

"How are you doing?"

"Good. Still keeping my memory."

"Good. The reason of my call is that Penny and I would like to invite you for our wedding next month. We finally set the date, and we're having a small ceremony."

"Sheldon already told me that last week, but thanks anyway."

Leonard rolled his eyes. Not that he was not used to that happening.

"Right. I will send you the invitation by mail, together with the ones for Deena, Jessy and Tommy."

"Ok. We'll be there."

There was a moment of awkward silence between them, when Beverly started speaking again.

"Leonard. I wouldn't oppose to the idea of you and Penny coming again this year for Christmas."

"Is that just because of the social convention for inviting Sheldon?"

"No, I haven't invited him. But I believe that you can extend the invitation for him and his fiancée."

"Thanks mother. I will tell them. See you later then."

He ended up the session, turning his computer off.

"Well, that was not as bad as I expected." He whistled while going back to his room to pick up his stuff, before meeting Penny at the 4B.

The End

Author's notes: So guys, this is the end of this journey. Thank you very much for reading it until here, for your patience, and for all the support I received after every chapter. It was really amazing to write this story, I got so involved with the characters, and I learned to love Leonard.

Your reviews will be very welcomed!

Thanks again!