Epilogue

Later that night

On the way to Shreveport, Amy asked Sheldon, "What did you and Miss Stackhouse talk about, while you were getting the soil sample?"

"Well, Miss Stackhouse couldn't explain the garden's fertile abundance in any coherent terms. She told me a fairy had done it, and she winked at me."

Penny piped up. "Oh, like a fairy godmother had granted a wish, but instead of turning a pumpkin into a coach, she got pumpkins the size of a coach."

There were a few giggle-snorts from the car's occupants, but not from Sheldon. He said, "I didn't see any pumpkins, Penny, but be that as it may, Miss Stackhouse didn't expect me to believe her fairy tale. No, she did not. But after tonight's little adventure, I wouldn't be surprised if Miss Stackhouse had fairies at the bottom of her garden, as well as maenads coming out of her woods."

Leonard nodded, as he drove, adding, "Speaking of mythological creatures, did you see the teeth on Adam and Eve? I thought it was the serpent in the Garden of Eden that was supposed to be fanged!"

"Vampires, Leonard. My belief in their non-existence has been seriously challenged by their apparent existence. When Adam and Eve took their leave of us, did you see how they dealt with those deadly snakes?" Sheldon answered his own question. "No? Well then, that would be my point. Adam and Eve were so fast, we could hardly see them. Suffice to say, there's no more serpents in that Garden of Eden!"

Leonard glanced at Sheldon, and then back to the road. "Aren't you worried about any of this?" Usually Sheldon liked change about as much as rerun of Babylon Five. It just wasn't acceptable.

"As a matter of fact, no. I am not, as you put it, worried. To coin a wonderful phrase, 'once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.'"

Sheldon paused to reflect. "And the truth is that I am Sheldon Cooper, genius and maenad nemesis. What's not to like about that?" He waved his hand around in the air to include the car's occupants. "It must be plain awful to be normal. Don't feel bad, though. Remember, you can be my C-men."

His C-men groaned.

Sheldon explained, "You recall it's like the X-men, but with a C for Cooper? C-men!"

Leonard said, "Yeah, yeah, we 'normal people' get it, Sheldon."

And Sheldon wondered what sort of costume a maenad terminator should wear.

At Sookie's house, Sam stripped, before shifting into his favourite collie-form. He licked Sookie on her ankle in a warm, friendly goodnight, and Sookie watched as he took off on all fours, running free right into the woods. Sookie was sure she saw him kick up his heels or paws (not a flipper in sight). He'd said he felt like his old self again. She was glad. Her own head and heart felt … numb, like they'd been wallowing in that Titanic full of ice water for too long.

She knew she would have to think about everything tomorrow, because some things never change. And because the word 'tired', didn't begin to cover the feeling, she realised. Sookie fell into a deep sleep, and dreamed. Sheldon's image rose up before her. He explained to her that the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few, or the one. She saw him accept the Nobel Prize and the Nobel Peace Prize, after saving the world from starvation with his discovery of 'joie de vivre'. She was at his side, smiling.

Her dreamworld morphed into her garden, where she saw Niall thanking Sheldon for saving Faery's forests. Wow, she thought, thanking! This was some dream.

Then, Niall spoke to her, "I always knew you'd do something wonderful for this world and beyond, with that essential spark of yours." He stroked her hair in one long, and kinda icky, caress. "You just had to meet the right man to help you!"

Sookie woke with a start!

There was no one there. Just a dream, she realised.

Squashing her pillow back into shape, she made herself comfortable again and shut her eyes. She chuckled as she relaxed, remembering the dream. Sheldon was the right man, huh, Niall? Fairies!

As she drifted off, Sookie hoped, for the second time in the long day and night, that she wasn't developing any psychic tendencies.

But she wondered.

Over at the Compton house, Karin said to Bill as she was dressing, "Does my butt, or my gut for that matter, look big in this? All my clothes feel so tight these days. How can they all be shrinking?" She looked at Bill. "You'd better get a new washing powder or something, because it's impossible for vampires to get fat, right?"

"Right," he agreed.

But he looked at Karin and he wondered….