A/N: Sorry, I completely forgot: I don't own anything! Many thanks to Hazelra7 for beta-reading! This is now the final chapter, thank you everyone again for all your wonderful support! You guys are really the best!
"Amy. Are you aware that we are living in the only industrial nation that doesn't offer any maternity leave?" Sheldon asked one evening while he was massaging Amy's ankles, sitting in his spot with her feet on his lap. Amy was due in one month and still working full time at CalTech. She was getting regular massages from Sheldon in the evenings which both of them enjoyed immensely.
"Yes, but I'm not ill. Apart from my back and my ankles which only ache a bit once in a while everything is perfect. And you take so good care of me." She smiled at him lovingly, wiggling her toes in his hands.
"I simply don't want you to feel exhausted. I admit that it's cute… and sexy… when you waddle around with that big belly, but I know that you are getting tired more easily now," he explained. "I make enough money. I've never even needed Leonard to pay the rent. I was just nice to have the company. I'm just saying… you could relax more if you want."
"I know that, and it's not for the money. I love my work, Sheldon. You know I've got an assistant now in the lab. And I have some great news I wanted to tell you. I talked to the Dean today, and as I'm not performing that much experiments any more but more data analysis and paper writing, we agreed that I could work in home office if I like. I think I will do it for two or three days a week. Even though you got the elevator repaired, this would be much more relaxing. I'd only have to be at work every other day and can do the rest from here. Look how attentive Guiseppe is watching us," she pointed to the terrarium where the turtle was looking at them. "He already seems to know Mommy will have more time for him, too. Isn't that great?" She beamed at him.
"It sounds acceptable," Sheldon confirmed reluctantly, glad that she agreed to relax more, but not so thrilled that it entailed he would be seeing her less. "But what about our lunch breaks? I'll only see you in the evenings then," he pouted.
"I'm sure we'll make the best of the time when we're together," she winked at him. "And Howard admitted that the guys are missing you with all the time we're spending together now. You could have lunch with them, just the gang like in the old days."
"But now I like the new days. Why do I always have to change…" Sheldon was still not convinced. "And what if your water breaks while you're alone at home?" Then he smiled. "I know! I could ask Gablehouser to take a home office day as well. Just once a week. I only need my whiteboard and my laptop, I can work anywhere. My dark matter lectures take place only once a week, that's the only day I have to be there. It'll be just like parallel play we have perfected already."
"I would like that," Amy conceded. "And we talked about that we'll both take three months off when the baby's there," she continued. "But I'd like to stay in contact with the department to keep up-to-date with all the progress in research. I just don't want to feel left out."
"Amy. With our genius, you know there'll be only true progress as long as we're working on it. And even if we'll only work part-time, there's still enough left to keep on the Nobel track. I told you before that we can combine family and a career. We'll just need time to adapt to the changes first, no one knows that better than me. There will be enough sleep deprivation in the beginning, so I'll just be happy to stay in bed with you and the baby for three months. We can get news from Leonard and your assistant about work if you want. Science won't reinvent itself in the meantime."
"You are a wise man indeed, Doctor Cooper," Amy smiled. "Now, about that bed sit-in," she said, deliberately using that hippie phrase to tease him, "would you mind practicing a bit already?" She grinned and pulled him up behind her towards the bedroom.
Sheldon had been really touched one day when his students had gathered after the final lecture for this semester with smiley faces. His teaching skills had improved considerably – of course, like everything he did – just as Gablehouser had hoped when he sent him to attend the seminar with Amy. His students seemed to have reached the same conclusion. They had even prepared a small speech, thanking him for teaching them, and that although he never gave them easy exercises it was well worth it when they finally got to the solution. They thanked him for encouraging them to come to him with their elaborations and for always giving them useful hints to bridge the gaps.
At the end, they gave him a large teddy bear wearing a t-shirt of Maxwell's equations for his daughter and gave him and Amy all their best wishes for their childbirth. Sheldon had been truly surprised how they knew about it, but they had seen Amy visiting him a few times after their lectures, and despite his aversion to public displays of affection they had always hugged and they had seen him stroking her belly as well. Trying to smooth over his embarrassment he then told them that he didn't participate in the social construct of gift-giving since it always left one party in debt of the other, but they convinced him that it was simply the appropriate response to having been gifted with his knowledge, and that technically the teddy was not for him, but for his child.
He wasn't sure about sarcasm again, but as they definitely spoke the truth, he gladly accepted the present. Then he went on for twenty more minutes about the history and significance of the Maxwell equations with special emphasis on the second one, Gauss's law for magnetism, which states that the divergence of the magnetic field equals zero, implying that magnetic monopoles cannot exist. The student's bored looks then changed a bit as he told them about his arctic expedition in search of slow-moving magnetic monopoles and how his experiment had been tempered by his friends with static signals from an electric can opener. Therefore his students now had a vivid example that those equations were still valid for the time being.
Amy had been so proud of him when he came home with the teddy bear and told her all about it. Contrary to the beginning of the semester, he hadn't talked about how tedious the students were for a long time and even told her from time to time funny anecdotes they came up with if they had found a creative way to solve an equation. Everything seemed to have fallen into place now.
The last two weeks before her scheduled birth date, Sheldon had finally convinced Amy to work entirely from home, and he called every two hours to check on her if he wasn't staying at home anyway. But there weren't any signs that the baby was about to come.
For the final preparations for the baby Sheldon had started to sanitize the whole apartment because Amy didn't seem to be interested in it – possibly due to her increased exposure to Penny's sloppy behavior over the years, he thought. When he was still working on it two hours later after Amy came back from a nap, she had enough.
"Sheldon, you know I love you, quirks and all. But your mysophobia seems to increase inversely proportional to the time left before the estimated birth date. I appreciate that you furbished the whole apartment, but it already was impeccable before, so please give it a rest now," Amy started tentatively.
Sheldon didn't even look up from wiping the floor. "Oh, I tried to stop half an hour ago, but it's a vicious circle – everywhere I went I left footsteps, and then I had to clean them up again," Sheldon started to explain and continued with the cleaning. "And just as we're speaking, all these germs are multiplying exponentially, oh dear I will never finish…"
He paused, then he smiled. "Oh, I have a great idea! Why don't we set up a clean room environment, at least in the baby's room? I just need to install an air filter and replace the door by a hermetic version… Then we'd simply have to sanitize that room only and wear gloves and overalls that will be disposed of after each exposure to the rest of the apartment…"
Amy was listening with increasing anxiety. "Sheldon. It is a proven fact that regular and consistent exposure to a variety of germs and germ sources is vital in the development of a robust immune system that doesn't perceive everyday trivialities as hostile invaders. But at least I'm glad that your sanitizer doesn't contain Triclosan because it may help bacteria becoming resistant to antibacterial compounds."
But Sheldon just shook his head and kept on cleaning, ignoring her explanations. She sighed. "Sheldon, stop it, you're starting to act crazy," she pleaded.
"Am not," he mumbled, not even looking up at her as he continued his self-imposed task.
"If you keep that up, I'm gonna have you tested myself!" Amy threatened.
"Mh-hm," Sheldon answered absent-mindedly.
Amy was getting worried as that still didn't help, so as a last resort she crouched down in front of him, grabbed his face and kissed him hard. Sheldon lost his balance at the surprise, and then Amy tipped over as well, landing on top of him on the floor. Instinctively his hands came up to protect her belly, and then he leant in and kissed her back, nibbling on her bottom lip which always made her part her lips to grant him entry. The cleaning wipes lay forgotten on the floor as he got lost in the sensation of feeling her tongue swirling around his.
Finally Amy broke the kiss and grinned slyly at the sight of him leaning back into her, lips following hers with eyes still closed. "Now, did you just care about the amount of germs being exchanged between us?" She asked.
"Uhm," he started, blinking at her while he slowly opened his eyes. "I've thought about a lot of things, but my first coherent thought was, why did you stop already?" He pouted.
"I'd be happy to continue, but please stop sanitizing. A robust immune system can only develop by exposure to germs, do you understand?" Amy asked, hoping to get through to him finally.
"Oh, whatever, c'mere," he said and pulled her back into him for another kiss.
One evening Amy was sitting next to Sheldon on the couch, drinking tea. She was wearing a shirt and elastic pants to accommodate her belly. She had reclined to a comfortable position to breathe more easily. Her enormous baby belly was like a magnetic attraction to Sheldon, he just couldn't keep his hands to himself and was stroking her stretched skin tenderly, pushing up her shirt. He loved feeling their daughter kick him, and she seemed to be most active in the evening.
"Hey, Amy, if she's not kicking, you could rest your teacup on your belly. It's large enough to be used as a table," he grinned.
"Sure, make fun of me, go on," Amy replied sarcastically.
Sheldon thought for a moment. "Sarcasm?" He then asked insecurely.
"Obviously," Amy rolled her eyes.
"I saw that. And you may praise me now, I'm really getting better at this," he said proudly.
"At getting sarcasm or attempting humor at my expense?" she asked sarcastically again.
"Sarcasm," he explained, not getting it this time. "And about your tummy… you know how much I love your mind and body. You've always been gorgeous… my favorite spot has been your shapely posterior… but lately with your luscious belly… and even your bosom is more ample… I just want to touch you all the time, is that crazy?"
"Not at all," she smiled at his compliments. "I'm sorry if I seem to be in a bad mood. I'm just a bit anxious. I'm already five days overdue now and still haven't felt anything to indicate I might give birth soon," she explained.
"Amy. Don't take this the wrong way, but are you sure it's my child? I'm always on time!" Sheldon wondered, winking at her.
"Hey, you made another joke, good one," Amy grinned now. "So you seem to have forgotten that we've been fooling around all day when she was conceived. And we've been together in the seminar. Even under the completely hypothetical assumption that I had wanted to cheat on you, the logistics would never have worked out," she argued.
"Even without an eidetic memory I would never forget that," he said with a dazed smile. "But alright, then it's just women and their punctuality," he concluded.
"Hey, I'm nearly as punctual as yourself! But seriously, I'm starting to get a bit worried," Amy said. "The doctor said, if there are still no signs next week, they would like to try to induce labor. I don't like that!"
"Uhm… there must be more natural ways to help it along?" Sheldon asked, wiggling his brows at her.
"Is everything about sex with you?" Amy asked sternly, but failed to suppress a grin.
"I can't help it when you're sitting here, looking so cute and sexy," he mumbled. "And once we're parents, there won't be much time for that anymore, at least in the beginning. From what I've heard, we will be glad to catch a few hours' sleep at all. So it would be logical to built up stocks of memory... But simply out of curiosity… would making love really work?"
"If it did, our daughter would have been born a long time ago," she winked at him. "There's no solid evidence, but it surely wouldn't hurt to give it another try. There are indications that an orgasm might help to stimulate the uterus into action. Your semen also might help to soften my cervix, readying it to open when labor starts. And the release of oxytocin during sex might help the contractions."
"I love it when you talk scientifically about this," Sheldon said huskily.
"Then how about this as a further turn-on," Amy smiled and wiggled out of her shirt. Her breasts sprung free, because she hadn't been wearing her standard bras at home anymore as she had felt too constricted by them. "As oxytocin helps the labor to progress, another way to release this hormone is to trick my body into thinking I am suckling the baby. This can be achieved by breast stimulation like this," and she demonstrated by gently rolling and rubbing her nipples. Sheldon's jaw dropped as he stared at that erotic sight in front of him.
Amy continued, enjoying his full attention. "It's important to not just massage the tip of the nipple, but the whole areola around it, like this," and Sheldon gulped as she continued massaging her breasts. "I've been trying this for the last two days, three times a day stimulating continuously one breast for fifteen minutes, then continuing with the other breast for fifteen minutes again. Until now, it didn't show much of an effect, but perhaps I've been doing it wrong. Would you like to help me?" She asked, batting her eyelashes at him flirtatiously.
"Are you trying to kill me here? How should I be able to work when I know now that you're sitting at home pleasuring yourself? Good lord, woman," he groaned, his voice dropped an octave. He lunged forward and kissed her hungrily while he fondled her soft breasts. Amy replied avidly, exploring his mouth with her agile tongue and nibbling on his bottom lip. Their breaths mingled, tasting of the fennel tea they had just shared.
When they came up for air, Sheldon took the nearest nipple into his mouth. He ran his tongue around it and eagerly started to suckle and nibble on it, cupping her full breasts in both hands. Amy leaned back her head on the couch and reveled in his touches. He was very thoroughly in his 'massage'. His other hand had moved to her other nipple to caress it in a similar way his mouth was doing, rolling it between his fingers and also rubbing the area around it. When the fifteen minutes were over, he moved his hot mouth over to her other breast, giving it the same treatment. Amy was moaning softly as his tongue worked her magic on her.
After half an hour, Sheldon couldn't take it much longer. Her breast popped out of his mouth and he looked at her with dilated pupils. "Get out of these pants now and turn around on the couch," he said hoarsely, stripping off his shirts.
"I thought you'd never ask," Amy smiled and eagerly complied, tossing her remaining clothes on the couch. She rested her arms on the backside of the couch, put her knees on the cushion and raised her bottom which allowed for enough space to accommodate her waist. When he had freed himself from his pants, her lush posterior was already greeting him. He slowly entered her from behind, marveling at how wet she already was, both moaning at the contact.
"Oh yes, we will definitely be doing that thrice a day now," he leered at her while he started to speed up his thrusts. Amy met him, rocking her hips against him in synchronization. His hands were on her hips while he stood behind her, then he moved them forward to fondle her belly. As his thrusts became more urgent and Amy started to pant as well, he moved further down to the apex between her thighs and rubbed her swollen bunch of nerves in tiny circles.
"Oh yes, just like that, so good… so close now," Amy moaned. They were both breathing heavily.
"AMYYY…. You feel so good, this is perfect… oh yes… here it comes," Sheldon groaned and shuddered behind her as he reached his climax, his fingers flicking over her nub frantically now, and she convulsed around him with a deep moan as she flew over the edge as well, milking the last drops out of him.
When he pulled out, Amy turned towards him and they kissed tenderly with his hands on her waist.
Suddenly Amy gasped, breaking the kiss. "I felt something," she said, clutching her belly.
"I should hope so," Sheldon grinned.
"No, that's not what I meant, I think it was a contraction," Amy said. "You simply excel at everything you do," she said calmly, stroking her abdomen in wonder.
Sheldon, however, was frantically putting his clothes back on. "Oh dear, oh dear," he wailed, "I didn't think it would work that well," he nearly fell to the floor as he stumbled with one leg in his pants and couldn't get them up fast enough. He turned to her and saw her still sitting naked on the couch. "What are you waiting for, little lady? Come on, I have to get you to the hospital!" He tossed her shirt towards her.
"Sheldon, calm down." Amy had gotten up now and grabbed his arms to stop him pacing around. "It might have nothing to do with what we did. It could be what people unfamiliar with the law of large numbers might call a coincidence. And I won't be walking around in the hospital for hours."
She put on her shirt and panties and went to the kitchen counter to get a stop watch. She needed something to keep him from panicking. "Now, I want you to count the time between contractions. It's not even real labor yet. That would come if I have difficulties breathing and really need to concentrate on it. Now, only when the contractions start to come within four minutes for about an hour, we will drive to the hospital, understood?"
Sheldon took the watch and stared at her, then nodded. A thought ran through his head that he desperately needed a shower now, but he couldn't leave her alone. Amy sat down on the couch again and patted to his spot next to her. "Now come here, you can do some counting. That's what you've learned in my lab during your vacation some years ago, right?" She smiled at him and cuddled into his arm.
A while later she cringed and grabbed his arm. "Now… start… the clock!" she groaned. Sheldon complied and stroked her arm soothingly. They stayed in their embrace, and when the next contraction hit her, he looked at the watch. "Ten minutes forty," he said.
"Good," Amy exhaled as the pain subsided. "Still plenty of time. I will take a shower now. I know you want one too, and I might need some help, no funny business, though. Would you like to join me?"
Amy's patient nature had calmed him down considerably. They lathered each other, and as Sheldon started to wash her hair, her knees became weak with another contraction. She wrapped her arms around his neck and Sheldon supported her, looking at the watch hanging next to the shower curtain. "Ten minutes twenty-one, the gradient is decreasing," Sheldon said and made a quick calculation. "If we assume this can be extrapolated linearly, then in two hours twenty minutes your contractions will be only four minutes apart."
"I doubt it will go that fast. Let's just collect more data, then the model will become more accurate," Amy panted.
When they had dried each other off, Sheldon proposed to watch Little House on the Prairie so that Amy could do something she loved while she walked around in the living room to keep in motion which seemed to help her.
Four hours later, Amy had to rest all her weight on the back of the sofa as another wave hit her and she panted heavily and groaned.
Shortly before, Penny and Leonard had knocked on the door, politely asking if they might keep the noise down a bit because people were trying to sleep. As long as it took them to finally believe that they were having sex indeed, they now seemed to think Sheldon and Amy had been going at it for quite some time that evening with all that moaning and groaning coming from their apartment. They had been quite surprised when a disheveled Sheldon had told them Amy had entered labor, although they knew that she was overdue already. They had asked if they needed any help, but Amy had cried, "Go away!" as another contraction rippled through her body and she clung to Sheldon for support. They gave them their best wishes and told them they knew where to find them if they needed anything. Sheldon had called after them to feed Guiseppe which they agreed to of course, relieved that he hadn't given them a whole nutrition list with an explanatory lecture as usual.
Sheldon looked up from the watch now and cringed as he saw her face contorted in pain again. "Finally, four minutes now! You're not gonna make me wait any longer. We're going to the hospital and have you get an epidural. I don't want to see you in pain anymore," he said and stroked her hair tenderly.
Amy didn't argue anymore. She nodded meekly and grabbed his waist for support as they slowly made it to the elevator, Sheldon carrying her bag. They arrived at Amy's car without further incident, but as soon as she was seated, she convulsed again in pain.
"Should I wait?" Sheldon asked concerned from the driver's seat.
"Nooo! Get that car going, ahhh…." Amy cried, clutching the door handle in a death grip.
Sheldon could drive surprisingly fast in times of need. And luckily, as it was nearly midnight, the streets were mostly empty. When Amy finally got her epidural, both of them were immensely relieved. She still felt the contractions, but the pain was switched off. It still took her two more hours until she was dilated enough to be finally allowed to push. Sheldon's hand had never been squeezed that tightly, a boa constructor was nothing compared to Amy's grip.
After another hour of pushing and denying Sheldon's attempts to convince her that she could do it, just a little bit more, at 3 a.m. in the morning Amy finally gave birth to their perfectly healthy little daughter. For her first birth, it had actually gone rather fast in retrospective.
When she was cleaned up, measured and weighted, Sheldon brought her over so that Amy could hold her in her arms, and the little one instinctively started to search for her nipple.
"Look at her, Sheldon, isn't she perfect," Amy said, completely exhausted and in awe.
"Of course, she's our child, what did you expect? Although she looks a bit crumpled from birth, but I've heard that's normal. I'm sure she will turn out just as beautiful as you," he replied, honestly as always, and stroked both their heads tenderly. "Welcome to this world, little lady… I've got two little ladies now," he whispered.
"I love you, Sheldon. I am so happy to share this with you," Amy said, tears dwelling up in her eyes.
"Wait, I think I've got it… it's an easy one, because you said you're happy. So these must be happy tears," Sheldon said, proud to have guessed it correctly, and Amy giggled at his enthusiasm.
Then he grinned as their daughter had found Amy's nipple in the meantime and started suckling. "She's definitely a Shellybean, she already knows what's good," he smiled goofily and felt a tear dropping from his eyes. 'I'm starting to get the hang of happy tears,' he thought in wonder. "I love you both so much… and now I've officially turned into a hippie," he sighed and kissed his daughter on the forehead and Amy on the lips tenderly.
A/N: That's it now, they have a daughter but you can think of a name yourself. I never liked the names of children in other stories, so I thought I'd just leave it like this. Thank you all again so much for your wonderful support, you made me so happy! Especially Hazelra7 who is such an awesome and kind beta reader! For this chapter I'd also like to thank IDICGlyph again who mentioned that Sheldon would need to do the nesting and cleaning stuff (I hadn't even thought of that at all, so I included his sanitizing obsession here), and she provided me with Amy's reply that exposure to germs helps the immune system. Thank you so much!
By the way, if you're interested, I've started writing another story taking place after season eight's finale... yeah, one of many others that already exist... but I wanted to give it a try as well. I will post it as soon as I have figured it all out. Until then, take care everyone:-)