Epilogue

A few months later . . .

"Are you doing okay?"

Sheldon snapped out of a trace he didn't realize he was in when Amy placed her hand on his arm. He shifted in the uncomfortable waiting room seat beside her.

"I'm fine," he said. "I was just thinking about the last time I was here."

Amy nodded, having clearly anticipated that answer. "It's a lot different this time, you know we'll be getting good news."

A part of him wanted to argue that just because they were waiting for the birth of Leonard and Penny's child instead of the results of emergency surgery after a car crash, that didn't mean there couldn't be complications. Hospitals made him anxious even on the best of days, and after the accident it was hard to feel optimistic in this setting. Still, he knew she had a point, he couldn't keep dwelling on that.

"I suppose," he said. "But I still don't see why Penny's water had to break on our rug."

"You know she couldn't help it."

"Well, she's lucky it's laundry night, that's all I'll say."

Amy rolled her eyes and lowered her voice. "Are you going to act this way when I'm in labor too?"

Sheldon perked up at the mention of their child, currently the size of a grain of rice and resting comfortably in Amy's womb, known only to the two of them. He moved to place his hand on her stomach, but she shoved him away.

"Not now! It's Leonard and Penny's day."

"But-"

"No! You are not announcing we're pregnant now and stealing their thunder."

"They announced they were pregnant when we were getting the Nobel," Sheldon pouted.

"That was your fault," Amy reminded him. "Anyway, we're better than them."

"Well, you are right about that," he conceded. He rested his hand on top of hers instead, still thinking warmly of their future progeny. "You know, Leonard should have impregnated her sooner. Even with their head start, our child is sure to surpass theirs developmentally within the first year."

"What are you two whispering about?" Raj asked, rousing from a light doze just a few chairs over.

Amy shot Sheldon a warning glare, but he just smiled back. Once again, like that night in the fort all those years ago, he could see it. Their future, their family. It was right there.

"Nothing."

They were saved from any further discussion by Leonard's sudden return.

"She's here!"

Amy blinked back tears as she held her best friend's baby for the first time.

"She's beautiful, Penny," she told her. Penny smiled back tiredly.

"After all that, she better be."

"Does she have a name yet?" Bernadette asked, watching from the other side of the room. Penny and Leonard shared a look before turning back to the group.

"We decided on Olivia Farrah Hofstadter," Leonard answered.

Amy tore her eyes off the baby to stare back at the two of them in shock.

"Really?"

"We wanted her to share a name with her godmother," Penny said, and the tears Amy had been holding back finally started to fall.

"I don't know what to say. I'm honored."

Amy looked down at the baby's tiny face and willed herself to remember this moment. It was a mostly futile exercise, of course. If she were in another accident, she would have no control over which memories got to stay, but after everything she went through she couldn't help but try. Couldn't help but occasionally hold each moment up in her mind like a precious jewel to the sun. It wasn't so long ago that she was in the hospital fighting for her life, and now she was here to welcome new life in.

"That makes me her godfather, right?" Sheldon asked.

"Yes, Sheldon," Leonard confirmed.

Any other time she would have been annoyed with her husband for breaking the mood, but she was actually too happy to care. She turned to Sheldon to see him watching her, his expression unguarded and warm, making her stomach swoop. She knew he was thinking about how soon it would be their turn, soon she would be holding their own baby. It was so clear to her she almost wondered if their friends could see it on his face too.

"That's some pretty serious eye contact to be having in front of a newborn," Howard joked, and this time she was annoyed, but she passed the baby over to him without comment when he stepped over. She started fussing as soon as she left Amy's arms.

"This kid might be smarter than I thought," Sheldon whispered in her ear. She quickly shushed him, but any remaining irritation melted away when he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her into his side. His hand came to rest on her waist, as close to her stomach as he could get without raising questions, and she allowed herself a soft, contented sigh.

Finally everything was exactly as it should be. Her past was back where she left it. She was free to look forward to the future.

The End

Author's Note:

I went back and forth a bit on whether an epilogue was needed. It probably wasn't, but I had this idea and figured more content is usually better than less, so here you go. I hope you all liked it.

At the start of this year, I knew I was going to try to finally finish and publish a complete, coherent, chaptered fic. I did not know it was going to be this one.

I was actually a few chapters deep into writing a different Shamy fic when I started thinking about how I hadn't really found any yet that dealt with amnesia, at least not in the way I wanted. So this was really just me writing the fic that I actually wanted to be reading.

And now we're here, over 100 reviews later! Thank you thank you thank you to everyone who has made it this far with me. This is my first time completing a fic this long, and you've all made this such a wonderful experience. I'm so happy.

This is also the first time I've really worked with a beta reader. Stark, thank you for listening to me agonize over this story for all these months, for holding me accountable, and for offering your suggestions and not getting mad when I turned down a lot of them. Just being able to chat with you helped me out a bunch. You helped make this story better.

To the guest reviewer who asked whether I could write something extra about how everyone was coping during the 3-week time skip between chapters 1 and 2: It wasn't something I was thinking about before you suggested it, but maybe! Honestly, that time skip is there because A) when I started writing, chapter 2 was actually chapter 1 and I went back to write the real chapter 1 later on to better establish the timeline, and B) I didn't want to write a bunch of medical stuff I don't really know anything about. But you've made me think about it more, and maybe I can make something work. If I do decide to tackle this, it will be in a separate, companion fic. So keep an eye out!

This fic might be ending, but I don't plan on it being my last. In the meantime, you can find me Shamy-posting on Tumblr at fort-cozy-mcblanket or sometimes on my main eroticfriendfictions (which is supposed to be a Bob's Burgers blog but things happen). Come say hi!

Love you guys! See you on the next one!