Chapter 5: Pool Party and Unmet Expectations

Things get a little strange between Niki and Sheldon.Will they be able to fix it?

One hour later, Niki found herself stretched out on one of the chaise lounges by the pool. Her head was filled with the pleasant anticipation of shortly talking to Sheldon on her laptop. She noted in her mind that in the past three years since they had begun their relationship, they had never gone this many hours without speaking to each other. The feeling was strange, yet oddly exciting. For the first time in many months, Niki was excited to be talking to her husband about something that was not routine, like their work, their daughter, or their family and friends. Niki was looking forward to seeing what Sheldon's first impressions of Heidelberg were, as well as finding out just how much he had missed her.

She looked over at Penny, wondering if she was having similar thoughts. As her best friend's green eyes were sparkling extra bright and her cheeks were turning a very attractive pink, Niki deduced that Penny was having a similar anticipation about the soon-to-be contact with her own husband. Niki then turned her head to watch her mother playing with Lori. Her small daughter seemed to bring no small amount of joy to Audrey's heart. While she loved all of her grandchildren, it was small, effervescent, Lori Cooper who had taken possession of a special place in her grandmother's heart.

Suddenly her computer announced to her that she had an incoming Skype call. She accepted it and smiled broadly as she saw her husband's smiling face in front of her, albeit only on her laptop screen.

"Hey, Cooper!" she greeted him, "Long time, no see. How are you and Leonard doing?" Before he could answer, she looked over at Penny and saw with no little relief that she was having no trouble interacting with Leonard. Niki wrinkled her nose at her friend as if to say, See, I told you it would be easy to talk to him!

"Hello, Niki." He formally greeted her, "I see you are by the pool. Are you taking a break from your work?"

"No, Sheldon. Howard is at Disneyland with Bernie and Kelly and Raj is down at Palomar with Amanda doing some research there."

One of his eyebrows arched sharply and he snapped, "And you allowed this? What about the work that needs to be done at home?"

Niki was beginning to get annoyed, but decided to try and placate him instead, "Relax, Cooper. It's Kelly's birthday and Raj's work at Palomar is directly tied in to our current research. Besides, I am their partner, not their boss. They are both free to spend the day as they like."

"All right. They do have the right to do that, but why are you lounging by the pool?"

Now it was Niki's turn to snap at her spouse, "Because I decided to take a day off and spend some time with our daughter, my mother, and Penny. That's why."

Sheldon adopted a condescending tone as he replied, "I see. I do hope this 'mini-holiday' of yours does not put us behind. Binary does have certain expectations about timelines, Niki."

Once again, Niki tried to be the peacemaker as she told him, "Sheldon, we are comfortably ahead of schedule. I intend to work a bit tomorrow and send the results to you for your review. Please, let it be."

"Very well. Now, are Wolowitz and Koothrappali coming in tomorrow, also?"

Niki let out an audible sigh and adjusted her sunglasses, "Sheldon, I would say that is unlikely, though Raj said he would come in if he discovered something interesting at Palomar."

Sheldon's reply to her was more stern than loving, "Well, see to it that you keep the ball rolling there, as it were. Sometimes I worry that things will fall apart if I am not present."

Niki's grey eyes flashed silver as she shot back, "Can it, Cooper. I am quite capable of handling things here. Stop worrying about it."

"How can I not? You first move was to give everyone the day off. I don't call that handling things in a capable manner."

Now she was beyond annoyed and decided to end their conversation before she lost it completely. She carried her laptop over to her mother, who held Lori in her lap. She placed the computer on the table next to Audrey and told him, "You know what, Sheldon? I have someone here who wants to talk with you much more than I do right now. Would you like to speak with Lori for a bit?"

Sheldon almost snorted in derision as he answered her, "Of course. I do hope you are taking good care of her."

"Don't go there, Cooper. Here's Lori." With that, Niki handed her laptop over to her mother who placed her granddaughter close to the table's edge. That way, Lori had a perfect view of her father, which delighted the little girl no end.

"DaDa!" she squealed happily in recognition of the face on the screen.

"Hello, Precious." He happily greeted her, "How is my Princess doing?"

"Good. Grandma's here and I eat French fries!"

Sheldon's face lit up with a warm smile. His daughter's language skills were very advanced and he very much enjoyed conversing with her. So he asked her, "Did they taste good?"

"Yes, DaDa."

"And what else did you eat?"

Lori was pure toddler bliss as she told him, "Mommy gave me pizza!"

Sheldon's face lost its smile and he calmly replied, "I see. Princess, could Mommy come over and talk to me for a minute?"

Lori called out to Niki, "Mommy! DaDa says come!"

Niki reluctantly walked over to where her mother and daughter were sitting. She looked at her husband's face with no little annoyance, "What do you want, Sheldon?"

"Good lord, woman! Why are you letting Lori eat junk food? I thought you knew better than that."

Niki's eyes glistened with an inner fire as she gave her husband an exasperated explanation, "Listen to me, Cooper, and listen good. You daughter was really missing her father and my friend was really missing her husband. I arranged this day to help everyone involved deal with you and Leonard being gone. Before you say another word, know this; you are in Germany and don't have to deal with either of their tears, I do. As you can see, everyone is happy and having a good time. So, my plan is working. Trust me, Lori will be completely healthy when you return and Leonard's wife will not sink into a deep depression. THAT is what I dealing with here. Our work is important, but so are the feelings of our daughter and our friend. I think you should just deal with it, Sheldon. I'm doing the best I can considering the situation in front of me."

Sheldon tried his best to hide his annoyance, but failed, "Very well, Niki. Just make sure you send me any and all research you complete. Is that asking too much of you?"

"Not at all. I will do that without a problem. Now, do you wish to speak to Lori again?"

"Of course. I miss her terribly." Niki walked away and Sheldon saw the brows on his daughter's pretty face come together.

"You mad at Mommy, DaDa?"

He quickly lightened his mood and responded in what he hoped was a sincere voice, "No, Precious. We just had to talk about some things. Now, I have to say goodbye, it's time for me to go to sleep. Be good, Princess, and listen to Mommy, okay?"

"Okay, DaDa. I wuv you."

Sheldon blew his daughter a kiss and told her, "I love you, too. I will talk with you tomorrow, okay?"

"Yes, DaDA. Tomowwo. Mommy, too?"

He was somewhat taken aback by his daughter's question and he hastened to answer her with, "Of course, Mommy too. It's night here so I'm going to have to say goodnight to you. Okay?"

"Goo'night, DaDa."

"Goodnight, Princess. Daddy loves you." With that, the screen went dark. Sheldon had ended the call without saying goodbye to his wife, which bothered Audrey. Her daughter and her husband were one of the closest couples she knew. What was bothering Sheldon so much that he had spoken with Niki as he never had before? She decided to chalk it up to jet lag and let it go. She didn't want to be one of those interfering mothers-in-law, but still, something was off with her son-in-law and she couldn't quite figure it out.

Niki was also concerned about the way Sheldon had spoken to her. That had been totally unlike their usual conversation style. She knew her husband sometimes had problems with communication, but most of the time that was with other people, not her. They usually spoke to each other with kindness, empathy, and more than a little love. There had been none of those things present in Sheldon's interaction with her during their Skype session. She ultimately decided that he must have been tired from both his flight and settling in to his new surroundings. Maybe that was why he had been so short with her. Still, Leonard had seemed to be conversing with Penny just fine. Their virtual interaction had been filled with many laughs, some sincere declarations of affection, and lighthearted banter, everything her conversation with Sheldon had lacked. Niki sat at her table and stared out at the pool. She didn't know what her next move would be, but she knew she had to come up with something before tomorrow at noon. She had a strange feeling the future of her relationship with Sheldon depended on it.

Niki finally decided to put her concerns aside for the day and concentrate on enjoying herself with her friends and family. This worked fairly well until both Penny and her mother came over to her individually and voiced their concerns about the way Sheldon had spoken to her.

Her mother went first when she cornered her daughter in the kitchen where Niki was refilling everyone's glasses with lemonade. "Honey, I don't want to meddle, but don't you think it was strange the way Sheldon communicated with you?"

Niki put down the pitcher she was holding and answered her with, "I know he acted a little out-of-character, Mom, but I think he was just tired."

Audrey took one of glasses that had been filled and replied, "Nikita, you can't fool me. I'm your mother and I know this is troubling you."

Niki gave a long sigh and explained one of her husband's many quirks to her mother, "Mom, when Sheldon has something on his mind, he often withdraws like that. We call it Being in the Zone. He does that from time to time. My only concern is the distance between us. I can't just get back to him later when I see he's back to normal and start a new conversation with him. I can't SEE him now, so I don't know when he'll snap out of it."

Audrey took a sip from the glass and walked towards the door, "Perhaps he will return to normal tomorrow. If he has done this before and come out of it, he may very well do it again."

"That's what I'm counting on, Mom. And please, don't worry about this. I've got it handled."

"If you say so, dear. Just know that if you need to talk, I'm always ready to listen."

Niki went over to her mother and gave her a warm hug, "I know that. That's what makes you such a great mom."

Audrey Horner gave her daughter a tight hug in return and told her, "Well, I do love you, Nikita. Now, let's get back out there with everyone's drinks, shall we?"

Niki picked up the tray of full glasses and smiled at her mother, "I think that's a very good idea. Let's go!"

With that, both women went out the door and returned to the pool area.

Niki hadn't been seated at a table long when Penny came over to her and sat down in the chair opposite her. "Hey, Nik. What the heck was up with the Wackadoodle?"

Niki shrugged and played with her glass, "I don't know, really. I think he has a lot on his mind."

Penny cocked her head spat out, "Like you don't?"

Niki shook her head sadly, "I didn't say that. But you know how he is, he processes things differently than most people."

Penny's eyes went wide and she shot back, "Most people? Most people? Girlfriend, Sheldon Cooper is in a league of his own in that department."

"That's why I'm trying to give him the benefit of the doubt here." Niki threw her friend a weak smile and added, "He'll most likely be fine by tomorrow."

"You're sure of that?"

Niki stared down at her hands and replied, "Not entirely, but what choice do I have? He's my husband and I have faith in him."

Penny rested her chin in her hands and asked her friend, "Are you actually going to spend tomorrow working just so you can send him some data?"

"Don't be silly. Of course not. I have some research I finished just before he left. I'll send him that."

"Knowing Sheldon, all I can say to you is good luck with that."

Niki gave a soft chuckle and looked at her friend, "Yeah, I know. But I still have faith in Sheldon. He's just out of sorts right now. I'm sure he'll be in a much better frame of mind tomorrow."

Penny stood up and attempted to give Niki some reassurance, "I sure hope so. But if he isn't, let me know and I'll try to come up with something to fix things."

Niki laid one of her hands on top of Penny's, "Thanks, girl. You're a true friend. I'll let you know what happens tomorrow. For now, can you help me clean this place up while Mary and my mother are still watching the kids? Even doting grandmothers have their limits."

Penny smiled and helped clear the tables of plates, glasses, and plastic spoons and forks, "Sure, Nik. Let's get going. I don't have rehearsals tonight, but I do tomorrow. Do you mind watching Blake for me until I'm done?"

The women threw their refuse in the trash can and returned to poolside. Niki turned to Penny and smiled, "Not a problem. Now here, help me with these chairs…"

Will Sheldon get back to normal?Or whatever normal for Sheldon is.Will Niki have success getting through to him?Read on…