AN: After finishing the other active fic I had on here I figured I could get around to writing down the ideas I had accumulated for this one. This is fic is officially going to be multichapter after a lot of back and forth on the topic. Hope you like it.
Mary Cooper had been a godsend. They had woken up to a cooked breakfast and two well cared for and usually calm babies for their first month as parents. Amy had been treated like a queen during those first couple weeks when she was still healing, barely allowed to leave bed or the couch, while Sheldon had been whipped into shape by his mother. He had been forced to handle nearly every dirty diaper and spit up until he'd been desensitized by all bodily secretions an infant could produce, he'd lost his fear of dropping a baby during bath time (especially dropping that daughter of his that was yet to stay still for anything other than sleep) and began stockpiling milk inside their freezer so he could feed his children while their mother slept. They were so in love with their progeny they hardly noticed Mary gradually taking longer shopping trips and church visits to the point of being gone for nearly a full day towards the end of her stay. With Penny so close to giving birth, Mary had decided to extend her visit from the original plan of two weeks indefinitely until baby girl Hofstadter made her entrance. To Sheldon's dismay the child had indeed been named Waverly Lane and was born four weeks ahead of schedule. Amy's parents had been by a couple times during the first few weeks, always bringing some 40-year-old baby item they'd found in their attic. To Amy's amazement her mother had very little to say in regard to her grandchildren, Stephen kept his usual composure while being held and his grandmother seemed to adore that about him, the most well-behaved baby she'd ever met. Laura on the other hand was quickly becoming her grandfather's favorite and whenever his daughter sat next to them on the couch Larry Fowler would kindly tell her how much her little girl reminded him of little Amy, sometimes she was even wearing a hand-me-down that had once belonged to her mother. Sheldon would usually sit by Mrs. Fowler and join her in admiring his serious looking son but earlier today had been the first time his father-in-law had visited them alone. He alleged to have been in the neighborhood and wanted to check-in on them now that Mary had returned to Texas. Sheldon had placed his daughter that seemed to never sleep in her grandad's arms and watched as love almost poured from Larry's eyes.
"You have learned to giggle haven't you? Who's just like mommy? You are, yes you are!"
"She shows signs of being extremely advanced, the pediatrician said she's hitting all the top percentiles but he refuses to acknowledge her above average intelligence just yet. Same for Stephen."
"I meant how happy she is, Amy was so much like this as a little girl it's hard not to feel nostalgic." Larry explained, eyes still glued to the little person he was holding.
"Was she as restless as Laura? We were wondering which one of our genomes was responsible for that."
"She was fairly energetic, especially when she was a toddler. She was fascinated about everything; it was so fun to talk to her about animals and fairytales." Larry replied nostalgically.
"So that's where her love of biology and literature began." Sheldon reasoned. "I guess we all need to start somewhere…" He dismissed. His daughter seemed to stick her tongue out at him.
Larry finally stopped staring at Laura to face his son-in-law. "Enjoy your children, my biggest regret was missing so much of Amy's childhood over work." He told him in earnest.
"That will not be much of an issue!" Sheldon waved off. "Seeing as my work is theoretical and Amy's isn't President Siebert was fine letting me work from home once Amy's maternity leave is up. He seemed thrilled even, I don't understand why."
"It's not just being home with them, when Amy was about 8 I began working long hours and didn't really have a schedule for spending time with my daughter until she was in High School, there were so many difficult days for her that I didn't get to help her with…"
Sheldon thought about his childhood as a gifted child and had to quickly set aside the thought of all the pain that would most likely await his children. "I'm sure they will be fine in that regard; they can socialize with each other, and we have Penny's children to shield them from bullies if we decide against homeschooling. Which I don't think we will, given our children's needs." He replied, also to calm himself. His kids may be his but they had much better resources to raise them with than his parents had had in Texas, that would have to account for something.
"I'm sorry for blabbing so much about Amy, I'm still adjusting to being a grandfather. Isn't that right Laura?" Larry tickled Laura's stomach and the baby kicked her little legs in delight.
"She loves you." Sheldon said observing his daughter. A melancholic feeling settled over himself and he could not pinpoint why, he'd have to discuss it with Amy later for clarity.
"I should stop playing with her so much to let her rest, go on Laura, go to daddy." Larry handed the baby over to Sheldon and she promptly grabbed a fistful of her father's t-shirt. No respect for ironed clothing whatsoever Sheldon thought.
"She won't stand still until she's exhausted, don't feel bad. We've tried several neurologists but none of them can figure out why she's so much more energetic than her twin, Amy says I should just take their word for it like a common Joe."
"How are you two handling being parents?" Larry asked as they both settled on the couch.
"We prepared well, everything is planned out and scheduled. The initial trouble we had getting them to sleep has been taken care of, Stephen sleeps through almost the whole night already as long as we put one of Amy's cardigans for him to smell and Laura falls asleep while nursing and is put in her crib immediately after, it usually buys us two hours of sleep at least." Sheldon replied through the bags under his eyes.
"For now it seems a little bit like a cycle of taking care of their needs doesn't it?"
Sheldon felt very confused. "Isn't that fatherhood?"
"For now yes, when they get a little older and perform surgery on themselves in your garage you can talk to me." Larry chuckled. The heard a key in the front door and instinctively turned their heads just in time to see Amy return with a bag of groceries.
"Sheldon I'm hom- oh hey daddy!" Amy smiled. Sheldon quickly set Laura down in the bassinet to free his hands so that he could take the grocery bag from Amy and let her enjoy the 5 more seconds she had before Stephen would sense mom was back and decide to cry his little heart out for attention.
"Hey pumpkin!" Larry hugged his daughter and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
"What are you doing here?" She asked, just as Stephen started whimpering and she quickly picked him up before he could start wailing.
"Just checking in on the two of you and the little ones." Larry replied. His grandson seemed to stare at him unhappily due to not having full attention from his mother and started to cry.
"Are you staying for dinner?" Amy asked over the wailing cries, bouncing a little to try to calm the baby. Sheldon swiftly moved to pick up Laura and soothe her before her brother's cries could annoy her too much, reciting the periodic table at her.
"No, I should have gone home a while ago but I wanted to see you first. Love you." Larry quickly kissed his daughter goodbye and waved at the rest of the family, seeing himself out before the scene could get too much out of control.
Later that night the feeling of mild melancholy still hadn't left Sheldon. Like in the previous 9 days Laura had allowed them just a little over 2 hours of rest before waking up and beginning to cry in her bassinet by Amy's bedside. Her mother had promptly woken up from her short nap to cradle her for a little bit and Sheldon had restarted to recite the periodic table at Bismuth where he'd left off with hours prior. He hadn't been able to fall asleep since getting into bed and for once was thankful for his daughter's disregard for a logical sleep schedule. The distraction the baby provided was short-lived however, and Laura calmed down around Californium.
"Day 3 alone with two infants. We have done it once more!" Amy gushed halfway through a yawn. Laura seemed to be content looking around her parents' room for the time being and her twin had most likely remained asleep across the hall judging by the baby monitor's silence.
"Sheldon?" Amy called when she noticed her husband's complete lack of a response. "Are you ok?" She asked him, nudging his leg with her foot.
"Huh? Sorry I was distracted thinking."
"Thinking alone or wanting to talk thinking?"
"I honestly don't know."
"What is it about?" She asked, settling on her side with the baby happily between them. Two weeks prior Sheldon might have complained that their bed was not where their progeny should be but sleep deprivation had broken several of his usually rigid tendencies.
"We both love preparedness." He began.
"That we do."
"And we prepared for nearly everything that could happen with the children…"
"You bought several plain shirts in each color so you could keep your rotation and have several backups."
"And pajamas too. And in onesies for them as well." Sheldon pointed out.
"You thought of everything Sheldon."
"The thing is, I thought I'd thought about everything and prepared for everything but I seemed to have missed something…"
"What?"
"Well… your father was holding Laura this afternoon-"
"And you realized your own father won't get to do the same?" She finished for him.
"Boy, it is true, new mothers are extremely empathetic…" Sheldon mused, remembering a conversation from years prior after Bernadette had had one of her kids.
Amy scooted closer to him, letting him lean his head on her shoulder and linking their hands. "Your mother mentioned him a few times when she was alone with me, she misses him too."
"He was far from perfect." Sheldon stated.
"I know."
"But yet he tried to understand what he never could, since our children were born I find myself remembering little things he did for me at random times and it just feels strange. I feel like I want to do some of those for our progeny but I at same time it's an almost dull sadness."
"Let's see if we can put some perspective to those feelings." Amy proposed. "I didn't plan for everything because I can't see the future. I didn't foresee that I'd be crying at how tiny their socks are or how wildly different their personalities are-"
"Stephen gets much mellower around you though; he lets himself be cuddled by only you." Sheldon interrupted.
"He gets that from his daddy." Amy winked at him. Between them Laura waved her arms around happily almost clapping several times.
"So what you are trying to say is that no matter how much we plan there will always be a variable we failed to take into account?" He asked. If he really thought about it he hadn't planned to allow his daughter to hang out in their bed between night naps yet there she was.
"Like grief, hormonal shifts or a baby that refuses to stick to a logical schedule. Or trouble conceiving." Amy told him, preparing to pick up Laura again after adding the last part, almost as if she needed more proof the baby was real.
"I don't like that." Sheldon sighed.
"I don't either, but they can never say we didn't try our hardest at this."
Sheldon replayed her words in her mind a few times. "That could be article 2!" He gushed. Article 2 of what he didn't have to specify.
"We can type it tomorrow morning." Amy smiled and passed him their daughter.
"Why not now?" He whined.
"Well, I'm going to check in on Stephen right now and I think Laura would like to hear some stories about her pop-pop, maybe it would ease her into sleep in time to put both of them in the same room for more than 20 minutes."
"You think it would help?"
"Grief is complex Sheldon. You just became a father, it seems perfectly normal to remember your own father and to maybe re-evaluate some things… the man may have been very flawed but he loved you and did his best, is that not the side of him you would rather his grandchildren associate with him?"
"All they will ever know of him will have to come from me I guess…" Sheldon looked down at his baby daughter, staring at her father and seeming to finally settle down a bit, as if preparing for an early morning lecture.
"Well little miss sassafras," Sheldon began, cradling Laura closer to his chest and playfully tapping her nose. "-your pop-pop was named George and this one time he tried to take your father to see a rocket launch!" He exclaimed, making the baby squeal in delight.
"If this story is going to get you that riled up I'm going to tell your about his job coaching High School football missy!"