Tears poured from Mary's eyes as she looked at the doctor who was standing across the room, "My daughter is dead?"
"Yes," the doctor nodded. "I am so sorry."
"No!" exclaimed Meemaw, reaching for her daughter. Georgie stood from the opposite side of the room, crossed to his mother and grandmother, and knelt in front of them, pulling them into his embrace.
Sheldon was silent as he watched the doctor back out of the room. "Are you okay?" Amy leaned over, blinking back her own tears.
"I can't be here," he rushed from the room, leaving his family behind.
Twisting his head to watch the interaction between his brother and sister-in-law, Georgie tilted his head in the direction of the door. "Aren't you going to follow him? He can't be alone right now and I can't go after him."
Amy nodded, grabbed her phone, and turned down the hallway in the direction she saw Sheldon go. Not seeing the physicist among the people in the hallway, she stopped at the nurses' station at the intersection with the next corridor, "Excuse me, did you happen to notice which direction my husband went? Tall, dark hair, Batman shirt?" The nurse pointed Amy around the corner. When she saw the elevator, Amy sighed, not knowing where to find her husband. Amy quickly sent a text to Leonard as she waited for the elevator, letting him know what happened. "Hi, Leonard," she said when the phone buzzed almost instantly. "All he said was that he can't be here after the doctor told us. Can you please let everyone know? And ask them to give us some time? I'm sure the last thing Sheldon wants is everyone blowing up his phone."
"I can do that. Keep us updated," Leonard replied from across the country. "Oh, and Amy, check outside. Not somewhere Sheldon would usually frequent, but he probably wants to not feel like he's in a hospital right now. You know how he hates hospitals."
"Thanks. I'll text you later with how he's doing."
Amy followed Leonard's advice and found Sheldon sitting on a bench outside the hospital, his head resting in his hands. His eyes were bloodshot from crying when he looked up after she sat next to him. "My sister's dead," he sobbed.
"I know," was all Amy could say before he wrapped himself around her. She sat on the bench, holding him as he cried, grieving his sister.
Sheldon's cries slowed and his breathing steadied, yet he didn't move from where they sat. "The boys," he whispered. "Who's going to tell them? I don't even know where they are right now."
"We'll figure that out," Amy rubbed her husband's back. "I told Leonard and asked him to tell the others. I also asked him to have everyone give us some time so our phones aren't blowing up." After an hour of sitting outside the hospital in near silence, Amy suggested, "You think you're ready to go inside? I'm sure your mom and Meemaw are worried."
Clutching his wife's hand in his own, Sheldon stood. "I don't remember which way I went to get out here." Smiling, Amy pulled him behind her to the waiting room she'd left the rest of their family.
The pair returned to the waiting room and found a very different scene from the one they'd left. Georgie was now sitting between Mary and Meemaw and another man around Mary's age sat across from them. "Moon pie," Meemaw motioned for Sheldon to hug her when she noticed his presence in the room.
Having also hugged Mary, Sheldon reached for Amy's hand again before sitting. The newcomer to the group welcomed the couple, "It's good to see you again, Sheldon. It's got to be more than twenty years since I've seen you. Congratulations on winning the Nobel."
"Amy, this is Pastor Jeff. Pastor Jeff, this is my wife, Amy. What are you doing here?"
"Sheldon," scolded Mary, "He's here because I asked him to come. I thought we might want someone to talk to."
Glancing around the room, Georgie broke the silence that had fallen over the group. "So, um, what's going to happen with Levi and Theo?"
Sheldon narrowed his eyes at his brother, unable to believe they were related at times. "Ricky's still alive. Wouldn't he just get them full time now?"
"Missy didn't want anyone to know, but she hasn't seen or heard from Ricky in months. Last she told me, he hasn't paid child support since over the summer," Georgie volunteered to the group.
"What?" Mary's eyes shot up from the spot she'd been focused on on the floor.
Following his mother's concern, Sheldon interjected, "Why didn't she tell me? Why didn't Missy fight him to pay his child support?"
Sighing, Georgie revealed what his sister had shared with him, "Missy didn't want to make a big deal out of it. She was managing without his help and Ricky's been struggling recently. Last I heard, he was unemployed and had lost his apartment. I think he's been staying with friends. Missy knew he was trying to turn things around without the court breathing down his neck to get her a check every month. He's not really in a good place to be taking care of two little kids. That brings me back to my original question of what's going to happen with the boys."
"You may know that Missy and I have had a twin agreement since we were ten years old. We'd update it periodically based on what was going on in our lives. It was most recently updated after Amy and I got married. She and Ricky had just separated and with us getting married, she wanted to add a clause that the other would be responsible for our children if something were to happen and we were unable to," Sheldon shared the section of the agreement that only Amy knew about.
Amy squeezed her hand, "Are you sure about this?"
"Missy wanted us to be responsible for her kids and it sounds like Ricky isn't able to take care of them, so we should take care of them," he shot down her shutting this idea down. "Where are they right now?"
"The kids are with Missy's neighbor. She watches them all the time," shared Mary with the group. "How are we going to tell them their mother isn't coming home? I thought telling you kids George died would be the hardest thing I ever had to do, but this might be worse. You were old enough to understand what was going on. Levi and Theo aren't old enough to comprehend this. All they know is their mom left in an ambulance this morning. Can you help us tell them?" Mary directed the question at Pastor Jeff, who nodded.
Sheldon, wanting to uphold the agreement he made with his twin a year and a half earlier, volunteered, "Amy and I can stay with them at Missy's apartment for now. They'll be more comfortable in their own home while we sort everything out, but I do think it'd be best if mom were there, at least for tonight.
"Did anyone tell you anything while Sheldon and I were gone? What do we do next?" inquired Amy, hoping they'd be able to leave soon.
Nodding, Meemaw shared, "Someone came in and said they'd be back in a little while with some paperwork and asked if we knew what funeral home we wanted to take care of Missy's services. That's when we called Jeff to help us."