Chapter 59 - Aftermath - Preparations
Sheldon turned to the console, but before he could push a key, to start the recovery routine, he felt Leonard's hand on his shoulder, making him turn back around to look at his friend. "Sheldon not right now. We are not adventurers like those guys on TV, we are scientists, lets think about this before we actually do it."
Sheldon thought for a second, "I agree, we need to look at the possibilities, then assign a probability to each."
Leonard nodded, "Sheldon, I agree with you 100 percent on this one. Lets come up with a list of outcomes then calculate which one is more probable before we do anything."
It was later, at 4 in the afternoon, when Amy stopped by Sheldon's office to find both her husband and his best friend working on white boards. "Sheldon, will you be ready to go home soon?"
Both Sheldon and Leonard turned to look at her, like two children who got caught in the cookie jar, as all three of them stood there just looking at each other in silence. "Umm, Sheldon do you want to work a little longer?" Leonard finally broke the silence.
"Yes!….Amy we need to work on these calculations before we go home tonight." Sheldon finally said to his wife.
Amy knew they were hiding something, they were both horrible at keeping secrets, but she didn't know what. "Well how much longer will you be, I'm done for the day and would like to go home."
Sheldon looked at Leonard for help, "Amy, I can bring Sheldon home when we are done. So you can go home now, you don't have to wait."
Amy wanted to know what was up and wasn't so easily sent off, "No, I can wait."
Leonard now looked at Sheldon who turned to Amy, "Amy we have a lot more work to do, it is going to take a couple more hours." He easily told her, since it was the truth.
Amy sighed, the thought of waiting hours for them, was not something she cared to do, especially with them acting weird like they were now. Also how much trouble could they get into working in Sheldon's office and if they were up to something she would get it out of Sheldon before the weekend was over. Her husband couldn't keep a secret to save himself. "Okay, as long as Leonard brings you home." Amy walked over to Sheldon and got a kiss from him then went to the parking lot.
Amy had gotten to the front door of the building to leave when she felt a hand on her arm, and was surprised to see Sheldon there holding her. Amy smiled, "So you decided to come home after all."
Sheldon shook his head, "I still need to stay, but I wanted to walk you out to the car."
Sheldon being protective her really tugged at her heart, as she smiled wider to him, "Thank you honey." If Amy would have really thought about it, she would have realized that since Sheldon came back from his time traveling, she had never gone into the Cal Tech parking lot alone, and would probably not go alone for a long time to come.
xxxxTIMExxxxTIMExxxxTIMExxxxTIMExxxxTIMExxxxTIMExxxx
Amy was sitting at home having hot tea when she received the phone call and saw Penny's picture on the screen. "Hey Bestie, what's up?"
"Amy is Leonard there?" Penny sounded worried.
Amy had been on the couch catching up are her professional journals and had lost all track of time, so as she looked at the clock on her phone she became worried like Penny. "Leonard was with Sheldon at work."
"He hasn't come home and his phone goes to voice mail. Did he say where he was going after work?" Penny's worried voice seemed to go up a notch as she spoke to Amy.
"They said they were going to work late and Leonard was going to bring Sheldon home after they were done. I guess I didn't expect them to be so late." Amy said with worry in her voice too, now.
"Amy, I'm worried." Penny had expected to spend the evening cuddled up to Leonard, it was something she looked forward to every afternoon before she left work. Him not being there and her not able to contact him was driving her nuts in her condition.
Amy knew Penny admitting she was worried was serious. "Penny, let me put you on hold and call Sheldon." so as soon as Penny said 'Okay', Amy put her on hold and hit one on her speed dial. The call went immediately to voice mail, meaning Sheldon's phone was off, so she quickly hung up and hit the button to talk to Penny. "Penny, I can't contact Sheldon either. I will be by to pick you up in 10 minutes, so we can go to Cal Tech to find out what is going on."
"Okay Amy." Penny then hung up and just stood there, tears dripping down her cheeks, she hated being hormonal, she cried over everything and now being scared about her husband was making things even worse.
xxxxTIMExxxxTIMExxxxTIMExxxxTIMExxxxTIMExxxxTIMExxxx
Amy and Penny moved through the building as fast as Penny could go, until they found themselves in the open door of Sheldon's office, both relieved to see their husbands working on several white boards covered in calculations. It was what was on those boards that surprised Amy, they were probability calculations, not Physics equations, every scientist knew how to do probability calculations, so Amy began to study what was written on the boards. Penny was about to walk into the office, but Amy grabbed her arm to stop her, then put her finger to her lips to let her know to be quiet, while she looked a few more minutes at the calculations.
"Sheldon these calculations are not what I hoped." Leonard was talking with his friend.
"I know Leonard, but you have to agree, now that we know Aliens exist, in other dimensions, the probability of an Alien coming back with the marker must be larger than before."
"I know that is part of the reason I am concerned. We have gone over this three times now and with only a 60 percent chance it is one of us, the risks have gone way up. Way, way, up. What are we going to do if something comes back we can't handle."
Sheldon shook his head, "I don't know, but you know we have to do it."
"You need a containment enclosure to control what comes back." Amy told them, making Leonard and Sheldon turn quickly around to look at her wide eyed. Amy now walked into the room, "We use them with larger apes all the time and they can easily be biologically sealed."
While Amy continued to talk, Leonard looked at his wife, immediately noticing her eyes were red, now knowing she had been crying. It made him feel horrible and he quickly walked up to her and took her into his arms, his only thoughts now being about her. "I'm sorry I worried you Honey. I should have called, I'm so sorry."
"Yes, you should have called." Penny told him in a stained voice as she buried her face in his shoulder trying to muffle her sniffles that just started again. Leonard's hand went to her back, gently rubbing it, slowly starting to calm her down.
As Amy moved up next to her husband and explained how a containment enclosure would solve their problem. Penny started to listen and get an idea about what was happening, catching some of what Amy was telling Sheldon. She lifted her head to look at her husband, "Leonard are you and Sheldon going to use the machine?"
Leonard looked at her for a second, "No, not what you think, we are not going to time travel."
Penny's suspicious nature was somewhat satisfied by it did not overcome her worry, "Sweetie what is going on?" She gave him a serious look, "Leonard, I am you wife and you promised to never leave me behind."
"I was not leaving." Leonard protested and tried to defend himself.
Penny softened, "Sweetie, leaving me behind also means keeping secrets from me, especially about that machine."
Leonard nodded, "Penny we got a marker alert…." Leonard spent the next 10 minutes catching Penny up on events, while she listened to him in shock. They didn't even notice that Sheldon was talking to Amy and telling her basically the same thing.
xxxxTIMExxxxTIMExxxxTIMExxxxTIMExxxxTIMExxxxTIMExxxx
The next two weeks were a bitch, at least that's what Penny thought, it was bad enough that Leonard spent so much time at work with Sheldon, after hours, working on putting up a containment enclosure over the transport pad. Her worrying about the whole situation, and him not being there to comfort her, was almost too much to stand for her. She knew all women acted differently when pregnant, especially when they were getting big like her, and that she was becoming a nester, she liked just coming home and cuddling with Leonard all night at home. Her hormones were also having their fun with her too, she always had a healthy sex life, but now she wanted it as much as she could get it, but her husband working all the time and coming home tired was preventing that too. She hated to admit it but she wished this was all over and they could go back to their life, the way it was before.
So it was the Saturday, after two weeks of this miserable time in Penny's life, that Penny lay in bed, not able to sleep, the pillows stuffed behind her by Leonard before he left, not helping her at all. Saturdays had been so much better before, sleeping late, cuddling with Leonard, making love, then napping again, and finally getting up for brunch. Now they consisted of laying frustrated in bed, missing Leonard, so when she heard the knocking on her door, she just got up and went to the door, just to have something to do. She was actually happy to see Amy, at least now she could have someone to gripe to that morning.
"Hey Penny, I hope I'm not too early." Amy asked cautiously, remembering what Sheldon told her Penny was like in the early morning on her days off.
"Naw, I was awake anyway." Penny grumbled as she lead Amy in and to her kitchen. Penny opened the fridge and got out some juice, then asked over her shoulder, "Can I get you something to drink Ames, maybe some coffee?"
"I better not until I know for sure." Amy quickly answered, making Penny turn to look at her confused.
Penny now noticed that Amy put a small brown paper bag on the kitchen counter, which confused her more. "What's in the bag."
Amy blushed, "Um…." she didn't know exactly what to say, so she just dumped the contents of the bag on the counter.
Penny's eyes went wide as she looked at the pregnancy tests then back at her friend. "Are you?"
Amy shrugged, "I don't know, but I have been sick each morning all week." Amy then sighed, "I hope you don't mind, I just wanted to be with someone when I found out."
Penny smiled, "Of course not, I'm glad you came here. Now come on girlfriend, we have some peeing to do." Penny grabbed Amy's hand and the tests, taking them both to the bathroom.
xxxxTIMExxxxTIMExxxxTIMExxxxTIMExxxxTIMExxxxTIMExxxx
It was almost a hour later, after a whole lot of crying by both girls, Amy's from the test results and Penny's because her hormones made her cry over everything, that Penny called Leonard. "Sweetie, come home and bring Sheldon."
"Penny we have a lot of work to do." Leonard responded.
"Honey this is really important, and don't come without Sheldon." Penny said seriously to him.
Leonard could tell by the tone of her voice that he needed to obey her wishes. "Okay."
It was just over a hour later, Sheldon was sitting on Leonard and Penny's couch, holding his sniffling wife, his hand on her tummy, even though she had no visible sighs that she was carrying his baby. Sheldon sat there in semi-shock as he looked at Penny and Leonard, Penny wrapped in Leonard's arms and sniffling too while he had his hand on her belly, also.
"I'm going to be a father." he said to them, a big smile forming on his face, while they smiled back, nodding in agreement.