"So how was your honeymoon?" Bernadette said when Penny answered the video call. Amy sure she looked like crap and glared at the cheerful girl.
"Terrible," she moaned, and resisted the urge once again to vomit. She just needed to assure her friends she was back, safely if that was the correct word for it.
"Oh no. What happened?" Penny asked.
"We got parasites." Amy could hear her new husband vomiting. Bad choice in going to Cancun for their honeymoon. She was never going back to Mexico again. Not when the fruit disagreed with her that much, and she was careful to only drink bottled sparkling water.
"Is someone vomiting?" Penny asked.
Amy glared at her with a silent 'what do you think?' that the two blond woman immediately understood and stopped talking.
"Excuse me," Amy said, her nausea getting the better of her as well. She was certain Penny and Bernadette could hear her over the video call but she did not care. She wanted to lie down and never move again.
When she returned to her desk, Penny said, "You should see a doctor."
"Really? I hadn't thought of that," Amy snarked, not in the mood to be patronized.
"Do you know what type of parasite it is? I can get you a few things from work," Bernadette offered, one of the first sensible things Amy heard out of her friends.
"That would be great. I have to go." She hung up, stayed sitting for a full minute hoping the nausea would go away, and when it didn't, she dashed for the bathroom yet again.
They kept two trash cans by their bed on either side, and though neither had the stomach for dinner, the water Amy forced the both of them to drink simply would not stay down. "We're never going to Mexico again," Dave said, exhausted and unable to sleep.
"Agreed," Amy said. Their romantic honeymoon was only romantic for three days before they got sick, presumably from the fruit as they only drank bottled water, and spend the rest of their two weeks in their hotel room.
Bernadette came over the next day and when Amy saw her offerings immediately invited her in.
"I brought over a few different drugs. This one is effective against a wide range of parasites but it's side effects may include vomiting, nausea, heartburn, or hiccups." Bernadette handed over one of the bottles. "Now, these only work on a few strains of parasites." Bottle by bottle Bernadette explained the side effects of each, and by the end of which Amy was not certain remaining sick was any better than the side effects of the drugs.
Bernadette left with a cheery "Get well soon," a sentiment neither she nor Dave appreciated.
The drugs Bernadette left them with worked, luckily sans side effects, and within a month the both of them felt better and were able to return to work. Thanks to the post-docs she took on right before she left for her honeymoon, she was not that far behind after her extended sick leave.
At their next girls night, for once at the Wolowitz household so Bernadette would not have to go anywhere, Bernadette was two weeks past her due date and looked about ready to burst. Not a week later, and after several false alarms, Halley Wolowitz was born. Unfortunately for the poor baby girl, she inherited her grandmother Wolowitz's vocal chords. Amy felt sorry for Bernadette and Howard having to listen to not only a baby crying but that particularly infernal sound. Between Bernadette and the late Mrs Debbie Wolowitz, the baby was doomed before she was even born.
Their first Christmas as a married couple came upon them rapidly. Unwilling to inflict her family upon Dave yet again, no matter how well he handled them, her friends were around for Christmas that year. She and Dave hosted the Christmas celebration. Leonard, Penny, Howard, Bernadette, Raj, and Emily all came over to her house, making quite the merry party. She discretely overheard that a certain someone was in Texas for the holiday and gave the matter no further thought.
Christmas was a success. Once again it was nice to spend a New Years with someone. As they did the year before they went to a party hosted by one of Dave's coworkers. They kissed at midnight, ensuring good luck for the upcoming year.
Had she been prophetic, she would have known the superstition to be false. As it was, she gave no stock to luck. Only chance and probabilities. For Valentines day weekend they went with Penny and Leonard to a resort in San Francisco. Penny and Leonard argued, leaving Amy and Dave to absent themselves from the couple's argument. It was not unusual for Penny and Leonard to fight, but she did worry for the state of her best friend's marriage. Meanwhile, her own concerns nagged at her stomach. When she went to see her gynecologist, she was more aware than ever she was rapidly approaching thirty-five. If she wanted children, and she did want them, she should best be starting soon. She just needed to find a way to bring up the subject.
Despite everything, life returned to normal. Dave became busy with preparing for his lessons and she resumed working on her addiction in primates study. Amy made an effort to meet up with Penny and Bernadette more often, and was successful at it. The boys did not join them more often than not, but as long as she had her two best friends with her Amy was content.
Whenever Jenna had days off of school, Amy would take her to work. The young girl had an endless fascination, though when Mark's jealousy ramped up over all the time Jenna got to spend with his aunt, Amy took him to the lego store and then out for ice cream alone. She would deliver the sugared up boy to a less than enthusiastic Cecile, but at least Mark was happy.
She even volunteered herself for babysitting duty. Cecile and her husband were happy to drop the kids of at her house for her and Dave to occupy. Dave liked the children well enough. He would spend hours throwing paper airplanes around the house with them, a favorite game though Amy worried they would break something. It was a much less amusing game when it was her house and not her mother's. On two separate occasions they managed to get the paper airplane caught in the lit flame from the gas stove. Only one of those times did it set off the fire alarm, though Amy was able to contain the damage well enough. Still, it was a game in the name of science and she did the best she could to encourage it despite the near misses with the fire.
Were she not content to indulge the three kids—for as she watched him run around like the others she was almost convinced her husband was still a kid as well, even if he was technically older than her—she would have had a heart attack from the sheer number of scrapes they managed to get themselves into.
"Auntie Amy," Jenna said to her on one such night. Amy set the spoon down and sat down at the island and invited Jenna to join her.
"What's up?"
"I got into science camp for the summer," Jenna said.
"That's great!" Amy enthused, "Where?"
"Maine. They bring in all sorts of scientists for us to meet, and we get to meet a real life astronaut, and we get to run all kinds of experiments. It's really prestigious and I got a scholarship for my housing."
"That's wonderful," Amy told her, though from the way Jenna fumbled with her fingers and stared blankly down at the marble countertop Amy suspected something was wrong. "What's wrong?"
"Mom doesn't want me to go."
Amy frowned to herself. She could certainly see Cecile not wanting Jenna to go to a science camp given how reluctantly she allowed Jenna to go with Amy to her lab. She also knew Jenna would love going to science camp, a luxury Amy never was afforded as a child no matter how much she begged her parents to let her go. Her mother would not hear of her spending the summer at a camp that had boys and she certainly did not want her darling girl immersing herself in science .
"Why not?" Amy asked, already resolved to see if she could work out a way to see the sense in sending Jenna to science camp.
"She said the plane ticket is too expensive," Jenna bemoaned.
Amy did not express her displeasure to the younger girl, but when Cecile dropped by the next day to pick up the children, Amy had Dave take them to the park right before Cecile arrived so that she could talk to her cousin alone.
"Mark? Jenna? Where are you?" Cecile called when Amy invited them in. "It's time to go."
"Dave just took them to the park."
Cecile pursued her lips and Amy thought that the deception was perhaps not the best way to go about the conversation at all. Too late to change plans now. She had to work on Cecile quickly or Jenna would loose her spot.
"Well, call him and have him bring the kids back."
Yup. Trust Cecile to issue a demand and not to thank her for taking the kids off her hands for a night and then sleep in the next morning, missing their planned pickup time. Not that Amy was unhappy to keep the kids longer, but it was rather rude of Cecile.
"Actually, there was something I was hoping to speak to you about first. Can I get you a drink?"
Cecile opened and closed her mouth a couple of times before giving a terse nod and sitting down at the couch. "A diet soda, please," she said.
Amy delivered the beverage iced and got a tepid water for herself.
"What did you want to talk about?" Cecile asked.
"Jenna told me that she got into science camp. I was kind of curious why you don't want her to go?" Amy thought it best not to come off as accusatory or demanding. That would turn Cecile against her before she was even given the chance to voice her opinion.
"Amy, it's science camp. Jenna has better ways to spend her summer. I was thinking soccer camp."
Amy just knew Jenna would be horror struck at the thought of being at soccer camp all summer and she doubled her efforts to sway her cousin's opinion.
"Well, I've actually heard of the camp Jenna applied to. It's really prestigious. They get to meet lots of scientists and run their own experiments. It's a great experience and it could help Jenna later on."
"How so?" Cecile asked, and Amy was glad she was not arguing. Yet.
"It could help her get into other science camps. Even into college one day."
"You want me to let her go. Jenna put you up to this," Cecile said suspiciously.
There went her feeble attempt at subtlety. "Yes," Amy agreed, unwilling and unable to lie, "but I really do think she'd like it. When I first took her to my lab I thought I'd have to constantly watch her, but she's actually helpful and she likes it."
"Really?" Cecile asked, because in truth she never asked Jenna nor Amy how their days at Amy's lab went. She simply didn't care to hear the details.
"Yes, really," Amy said. "It's an amazing opportunity for her."
"But it's a science camp. That's like school. Shouldn't Jenna want to play soccer or basketball or something over the summer? Be active?"
"Not necessarily," Amy said, knowing that while most children might prefer to be active, or to sit at home watching tv, Jenna was not like that. "Not all children want to play sports. I know it would mean a lot to Jenna if you let her go. And it might seem like school to you, but Jenna's really excited about the camp."
"Can I ask you something?" Cecile said, and Amy could see her thinking, actually thinking, about changing her mind.
"Go ahead," she offered.
Cecile looked directly at her. "You were always a weird child, preferring school and books to, well, normal activities. Would you have liked to go to a science camp?"
"Had I been allowed to, I would have gone in a heartbeat," Amy confirmed.
Cecile sighed in acceptance. "Does this mean Jenna can go?" Amy asked.
Cecile laughed. "She really did put you up to this. Clever girl. But even if I wanted her to go, she can't."
"Why not?" Amy asked. The way Cecile's shoulders hunched up she suspected she misstepped somehow, yet as she repeated their conversation in her head she could find nothing wrong with what she said. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be nosey," she apologized.
"Don't be," Cecile brushed her apology off. "You're family. You should know." There was a long pause as Cecile took a deep breath. "Jack relapsed. He lost his job. The children don't know yet and I'm hoping I can get help for him before they notice something wrong, but I'm worried about him. That's the real reason I asked you to watch them."
Amy was not surprised Jack relapsed. Drugs were highly addictive, and while she found addiction a fascinating subject to study, she also understood why Cecile was in a difficult position. The woman had not known Jack when he was a teenager and going through the addiction the first time around. Amy remembered, and though she warned Cecile of his past, her cousin by marriage did not listen to her and married Jack anyhow.
"Anyways, I can't afford to pay for summer camp. Not with Jack out of a job and the mortgage."
Amy bit her lip, unsure whether she should offer or not at the risk of offending Cecile's pride.
"Jenna got a scholarship. The only thing she'd need is the plane tickets. I can chip in however much you need."
Cecile blinked at Amy, and she thought the woman was going to say no. "I really can't ask that of you."
"You don't have to ask. I'm offering."
She knew how she would feel if she was caught being unable to provide for her family and knew the inadequacy would be hard on Cecile. That her cousin did not outright reject her offer was startling.
"You really want Jenna to go."
"I want to encourage her passion for science. You know, because no one ever encouraged me." Even without support from her family she still ended up a world-renown neurobiologist, but she still wanted to help her cousin any way she could.
"Thank you, Amy," Cecile said, "Just don't tell the kids about this. I don't want them to know we're struggling."
Amy promised to say nothing to the kids. She and Cecile talked about Jack for a bit longer. Amy barely managed to restrain herself from talking about her findings from her research with how applicable they were to the current situation. The cold comfort of science would provide no reassurances to Cecile.
Cecile did not stay much longer once Dave got back with the kids, and once they were gone she told him about the situation. Dave listened patiently and once she was done recounting her conversation with Cecile, Dave affirmed that she made the right decision offering to pay for Jenna's ticket.
"If things are difficult with Jack, perhaps we could have Mark stay with us this summer. To get him out of that house. Like Jenna. If that would be helpful," Dave suggested.
The summer was still a couple months away, but once school was over for the year, Mark would be spending a lot of time at home with his unemployed father, something that certainly would spark the five-year-old to ask questions.
"That's a good idea. We could take him on weekends. Maybe we could see if UCLA or Caltech has some type of summer camp for kids his age as well. Then he could come to work with us as well," Amy said.
When she called Cecile with her offer, her cousin gratefully accepted, and Amy felt a bit guilty knowing what was wrong but not being able to do much more to help. Perhaps she should, but she and Dave were both busy with their work. They loved their jobs, but were often required to spend more than the usual forty-hour workweek working. As for her, she frequently had to spend evenings or weekends working depending on the phases of her experiments. However, if they could relieve a bit of Cecile's burden, she would be happy to help.
Jenna thanked her profusely the next time she saw her, no doubt aware that her good fortune in going to science camp was partially thanks to her aunt. Mark was excited by the prospect of getting to spend the weekends that summer with his aunt and new uncle. He lauded that fact over Jenna, saying that even if she got to go away to summer camp he got to spend time with their favorite aunt.
Amy grinned at that unintentional compliment. She liked the sound of favorite aunt. Cecile simply rolled her eyes, though Amy could tell from her pained expression that Jack was still a problem. She made a mental note to speak with Bernadette and see if the blond woman could procure something that would help ease Jack off of his addiction. She knew well enough that of the drugs currently FDA certified and on the market, there were limited in their effectiveness, but Bernadette might be able to get her something not yet approved.
Bernadette had a few options, and Penny suggested a few as well. As a pharmaceutical sales rep, she knew almost as much as Bernadette, though she could tell nothing of the mechanisms.