"That's fine. Just drop them off anytime," Sheldon said, ending a call and setting his phone back on his nightstand. Rolling over, he could sense Amy was wondering what his early morning phone call had been about. "That was Howard. Bernadette's dad is in the hospital. He wanted to know if we could watch Halley and Michael so they can spend the day at the hospital."

Amy was already moving to get out of bed before Sheldon finished talking. "Did he say what's wrong with her dad? Will he be okay? Why didn't they ask Raj or Stuart to watch them?"

Shaking his head, Sheldon answered his wife's questions. "He didn't say what was wrong, but did say that he should be able to go home sometime this afternoon, so I doubt it's anything too serious. It's Saturday, so Stuart and Denise are probably busy with the store all day. I don't know what Raj is doing today that he can't watch them. What I do know is if we needed someone to watch Katie and Leo last minute, they'd take them no questions asked."


Howard and Bernadette stood in the entryway of the Cooper home. "Behave," Bernadette firmly reminded her five- and six-year-old children. "Listen to Sheldon and Amy. Pick up after yourselves. We should be back by dinnertime."

Watching Halley and Michael run into the living room where Katie and Leo were playing, Amy answered for the children. "They'll be fine. There haven't been problems when they've been here before."

"Halley's been in a bit of a defiant phase lately. Michael sees her not listening and thinks it's okay for him to do whatever he wants, as well," explained Howard. "Hopefully she listens to you because Bernie and I have been at our wit's end with her the past few days. If she gets to be too much, don't hesitate to call."

"Go take care of your dad. Don't worry about them," Amy hugged her friend before they turned to exit the house.

Sheldon had already found the kids playing together in the living room. "Did you guys eat breakfast yet? Katie and Leo haven't. I was thinking about making pancakes. How does that sound?"

"I want waffles. I don't like pancakes," Halley screamed at the physicist.

Halley's outburst caused Michael to also start yelling for waffles, which Amy quickly put an end to. "Both of you need to stop yelling right now or you'll be in time out. Sheldon is making pancakes this morning. If you don't want pancakes, you can have cereal. We're not making something different for everyone. Sheldon makes pancakes every Saturday. Now if you don't quiet down, you're going to wake Max up and he gets really cranky when he wakes up early on a weekend. You don't want Max to be cranky, do you?"

Halley smiled at the mention of the teenager, whom Amy knew she had a soft spot for. "No, Max should be happy because I'm here. I don't want him to be cranky."

"Then you can't yell today and you have to listen to us. If you yell or don't listen to us, that will make Max cranky and he won't want to hang out with you today."

"Okay," the kindergartener replied before turning to her little brother. "Michael, we have to be good today or Max won't play with us."

Michael looked at his sister and simply answered, "I know."


An hour later, Sheldon had made a mountain of pancakes and was cutting them for the kids gathered around the kitchen table when Max joined the group. "Morning," he sleepily greeted everyone before turning his attention to Halley and Michael. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Grandpa's sick so mommy and daddy went to see him. They said we couldn't go cuz kids aren't allowed at the hospital," Michael answered between bites of his breakfast.

Max helped himself to some pancakes and took a seat at the end of the table. "My biology partner is supposed to come over this afternoon to work on our project. That's still okay, right? You said it was fine yesterday, but that was before Halley and Michael were here. I can ask if we can go to her house or meet at the library instead."

Amy shook her head while filling juice cups for the kids. "That's fine. You can work in your room and we'll keep the little kids down here or outside. Just keep your door open, please."

"Mom," Max rolled his eyes at Amy's request. "Why do you say that whenever any of my friends come over? Nothing's going to happen; besides, Emma has a boyfriend."

"Your mother and I just want you to be careful," Sheldon answered for his wife. "Katie and Leo will have the same rule when they're older and have friends over."

Finishing his breakfast, Max set his plate in the sink. "Whatever, I'm going to shower."


"Hi, Emma," Max welcomed his lab partner that afternoon. "We're going to work up in my room. My mom and dad are babysitting for some friends. They're supposed to keep all the little kids out of our way."

Emma followed Max to his room, "I don't think it should take us long to finish. We got all the research done; we just need to put it all together for the presentation."

The pair hadn't been working long when Katie appeared in the doorway of Max's room. "Hi," she shyly said.

"Hi. What's your name?" Emma looked up from the computer screen she and Max were both looking at.

Max glanced at the doorway. "That's Katie. She's supposed to be downstairs. What are you doing up here?"

"I want to play."

"We're not playing, Katie. We're doing homework. Really hard homework. Why don't you go back downstairs and find Halley and Michael and play with them?" Max's suggestion was met with a firm shake of the two-year-old's head. Max stood from his desk chair, crossed the room to the doorway, and lifted his little sister to his hip. "I'll be right back."

Returning the toddler to the living room, Max turned to his parents. "I thought you said you were going to keep them downstairs. Katie came up, wanting to play. I know I closed the gate at the bottom of the stairs when Emma and I went upstairs. I heard someone else come up, so whoever it was didn't close the gate."

Sheldon and Amy exchanged a look before Sheldon spoke, "That was me. I'm sorry. I hope she didn't interrupt you too much. Come here, Katie Beth. You know you aren't supposed to go upstairs alone."


"How's your dad? Is he home?" Amy asked Bernadette when she and Howard were picking up Halley and Michael a few hours later.

"Yeah, it was just a kidney stone. He'll be fine. How were the kids for you?" She answered while taking note of the state of the living room.

Sheldon passed Howard the kids' backpacks. "They were okay once Amy laid down the law. I said I was going to make pancakes for breakfast. Halley said she didn't like pancakes and she wanted waffles. That made Michael start screaming he wanted waffles, as well. Amy told them to stop yelling and that if they woke up Max with their yelling, he would be cranky and wouldn't play with them. That stopped it pretty much right away."

Howard grinned, "We're gonna have to keep that in mind. Might just have to threaten to call Max when they aren't listening. Anyways, thanks again for watching them. See you guys at work on Monday."

Amy waited until she heard the Wolowitz's car pull out of the driveway before turning to Sheldon. "Do you want tea? I could use some."

"That sounds great," Sheldon glanced at his watch. "We've got about half an hour before Katie and Leo are up from their naps." He followed his wife into the kitchen and watched her prepare two cups of tea before speaking again. "Do you remember when I said I wanted fifteen kids?"

Amy chuckled, "Yeah, why?"

"I'm so glad we decided to stop after Leo. We didn't even notice Katie had made it all the way to Max's room. The kids outnumbered us this afternoon. Could you imagine what our lives would be like if we had that many kids?"

Passing Sheldon a mug of tea, Amy smiled at him. "We just have to be glad she only went upstairs and didn't try to go outside or something. I'm glad we decided our family is perfect with three kids, but we'd have figured it out if we'd had more than that."