Hi lovely readers!

Thank you all so so much for all of the lovely reviews on the last chapter. I can't believe these prompts are still getting reviews, it means a lot, thank you!

This chapter was requested by a guest, I hope this is okay for you.

Enjoy reading!

Amy had felt this feeling before, it was an all too familiar feeling that filled her with both excitement and dread. It was how she felt just before she had discovered she was pregnant with Emily and just before she had found out she was pregnant with Arthur.

All of the symptoms were there she was sure of it. She had been achy and constantly exhausted and even though she wasn't suffering with morning sickness like she had with the others, she was constantly nauseous. However, unlike before, although it made her feel awful for ever thinking this very fact, she wasn't entirely sure she wanted the test to be positive.

She knew if she was met with that positive result she would be happy, of course, a brand new little life was always something to celebrate and feel grateful for, she would never take that for granted. She was sure, that in time, they would settle very quickly into being a family of five but she wasn't sure she wanted another baby, it was something that had never been discussed.

Tapping the cardboard box against the palm of her hand, she could hear the commotion of her family from downstairs. Sheldon telling Emily to give something back to Arthur, followed by Arthur crying. Sighing, Amy carefully placed the test in the drawer of her bedside table, she didn't feel brave enough to take it yet nor did she feel like she had the time. It could wait until later.

Dusting herself off, in a true motherly fashion, she painted on a brave face and made her way down the stairs. Emily was sat on the living room floor, looking rather sulky, her bottom lip full and pouty. Whilst Arthur bounced up and down on his fathers knee, a toy now in his grasp as the residue of tears was still evident on his cheeks and wet eyelashes.

"What's going on in here?" she asked, standing in the doorway, surveying the scene before her.

"I just took a toy off of him and he started crying," Emily exclaimed waving her arms round, she was six going on sixteen sometimes.

"Yes but how many times had I told you not to take his toys off of him" Sheldon told Emily, his voice a little stern, even though he was never great at being the strict parent. At two years old, Arthur was now very much the toddler who was in to all sorts which at times, didn't quite sit with his older sister who could occasionally become quite impatient.

"He was tapping me with it. You didn't see" Emily sighed, rolling her eyes and folding her arms across her chest.

"Emily, don't talk to your father like that" Amy scolded. "If there is a problem, you come and tell us, okay. Don't act upon it yourself" she told her daughter, this time a little gentler. "And Arthur, we don't hit our sister with toys, do we?" Amy watched as her little boy shook his head from side to side, more tears filling his eyes as he realised he'd been caught out. "Right, now kiss and make up please" that was a family rule, no matter what the situation, you apologise and hug it out. That was just how they worked, nothing was left lingering and grudges weren't held, it was a parenting style that had seemed to serve them well so far.

"Okay" Emily sighed as Arthur held out his little arms, ready and waiting to be embraced by his older sister. Amy sat back, watching, wondering if she really was pregnant how the hell they would cope with a newborn baby thrown in to the mix.

—

"Are you okay?" Sheldon asked as he pulled on his pyjamas, noticing his wife still sitting on her side of the bed. Amy hadn't really moved from the spot since they had entered the room. "You were quiet at dinner." Amy made a noise that told Sheldon he had pulled her from her thoughts, her huge scary thoughts about their future.

"I'm fine" she told him. Sheldon had learnt over the years, that 'I'm fine' often meant that she wasn't. Penny had told him never to take that response at face value and he had learnt over the years to follow her advice.

"Are you sure?" he tried again, there was only so much he could do.

"You know" Amy laughed gently, "sometimes I wish you were like the old Sheldon."

"Old Sheldon?" his gorgeous blue eyes were narrowed in confusion as he tried to understand Amy's comment.

"You know, back in the days where I literally had to spell out to you what was wrong. Before you became so good at understanding me" she smiled at his progress and how much he now understood her, how it was as simple as a look, a gesture, her body language.

"Oh" he still didn't understand why she wanted him to go back to that Sheldon. All she did back then was moan at him for not understanding her. "I'll be honest, it was actually Emily tonight. She asked me if you were sad," their daughter was incredibly intuitive, even at her young age.

"She did?" Amy hadn't actually realised she'd been so quiet over dinner, she definitely didn't think she'd been so different that her children picked up on that very fact. Of course, her mind was distracted, filled with all sorts of thoughts and worries but she never ever wanted to inflict that on to her children.

Sheldon nodded. "So are you okay?" he still hadn't been given an answer and didn't know how much longer he could push this for. Watching, he saw Amy reach across and pull something out of her bedside table before letting the box fall on to the bed. He had to do a double take before he realised that the box did in fact contain a pregnancy test. "Are you…?"

"I might be" she shrugged her shoulders, she could feel the tears that she desperately didn't want to fall, fill her eyes.

"Should we not find out?" this wasn't the first time they'd been here and it was always the point he hated the most. He hated the waiting. The unknown. He liked to be in control of things that happened in his life and this was something he just couldn't be in control of. No matter how many times he went through this, it left his heart pounding and stomach in knots.

"What if I am?" she turned to him this time, tears in her eyes that instantly made him want to feel closer to her. "I need to know what we're going to do? How can we cope with three children?" she asked, there were times when she felt like she could barely cope with the two that they had. Especially at the moment.

"I don't know. We just will" Sheldon shrugged, he didn't have the answers but he knew plenty of people managed with three children, his sister had four. "I'm sure we'll make it work" he told her, trying his hardest to sound reassuring. They always made things work, no matter what.

Amy didn't really know where Sheldon stood on the matter of another baby. All she could gather from his response right now was that he was pretty keen on the idea. In the past he had joked or so she thought about having fifteen children, surely he wasn't serious.

"Do you think so?" she asked.

"Yeah I do," he nodded with confidence. Fatherhood was good for him, it looked good on him and Amy loved him all the more for it. Having children had given him a purpose in life, a focus and purpose so much greater than science, so much greater than either of them could comprehend. "We'll make it work" he repeated his words again, maybe it was to convince himself that they would just make it work. He couldn't really provide her with much more than that right now.

"And it's as simple as that"

"Yeah, I think it is" he nodded. Silence fell for a few moments, before he asked "Do you think you are?" his eyes gestured towards the test, still laying there in it's box. The tiny device that could change their lives, the tiny device that had changed their lives twice before.

"I'm not sure" she shrugged. "I think so. I feel similar to how I felt with Emily and Arthur but I don't know. It's more of a feeling" she explained, knowing that he wouldn't really understand where she was coming from. "I guess I should probably go and take it, right?" she was already reaching for the box.

"Right"

—

Sheldon wasn't sure how long he had been waiting for Amy to emerge from the bathroom. All that he did know was that he had sat in this very spot when they had discovered they were going to be parents for the very first time and then again the second time. Sure the room was different, even the house was different this time round but this very position on the bed was where he had waited, albeit not very patiently, to find out he was going to be father the first and second time. He wondered if this could be a third.

Amy creaking open the bathroom door, drew him away from his thoughts. Scanning her face for any expression, he got nothing. She wasn't giving anything away or maybe she was and he just couldn't see it.

"Well?" he asked as she moved closer to him, test clasped in her hand.

"I don't know yet, we still have to wait" she told him. Now her heart was thumping in her chest and she felt more nervous than ever at the prospect of a tiny little life growing inside of her. A life that despite all of her worries she knew she'd instantly fall in love with upon seeing that positive sign. "My hearts beating so fast" she told him, somehow this felt like the very first time.

"Mine too" he smiled, hoping it would make her feel better as she finally sat down next to him.

"Shall we look?" she asked, her heart was beating faster now. As soon as Sheldon gave her the nod to go ahead, she removed her hands to reveal the small window on the test. One single, red, vertical line.

Negative.

"That means it's negative, right?" Sheldon asked before Amy really had time to process anything. She didn't quite know how to feel, something in her had changed and for the briefest of moments she found herself longing for a baby that never was.

"Yeah, it's negative"

"Are you okay?" Sheldon asked placing his hand on her knee as his heart rate started to return to a normal pace. He couldn't decipher how she was feeling, he wasn't quite sure how he was feeling.

"I'm okay" she nodded. "It's weird, you know, I didn't think I wanted another baby and now…oh I don't know, I guess I was so sure that I was" she explained. "Are you okay?" she turned to ask him, realising that she hadn't yet checked in with him.

"I'm okay"

"Did you want it to be positive?" Amy asked. It was a question she had been wanting to ask him before she had taken the test but she wasn't sure she wanted to hear the answer then. Now she was quite intrigued.

"I don't know" he really didn't know what he wanted the result to be. He knew he would have been happy and he genuinely did believe that they would work it out but he wasn't sure that's what he wanted. He could still feel Amy's eyes on him. "I think I'm just happy with two" he revealed, he had always been able to be honest with Amy.

"Not three?" she asked, a small smile on her face as she recalled a comment he made years ago about having a number of children that was divisible by three. She still to this day had no idea why.

"I mean, I guess it would be nice but I'm happy Amy. Really happy. I never saw myself having children so to have two, well it's the best thing ever. And to have one of each, we lucked out Amy" he smiled a really genuine smile that Amy instantly believed, he was happy with exactly the way things were. The way Amy wanted them to stay.

"I love you" she mumbled. In that moment, it didn't matter in the slightest that the test was negative. They had two healthy, beautiful, kind and caring children, they had each other and that was more than enough. Their little family of four made them the luckiest people in the world.

Thank you all so much for reading! As always reviews are always appreciated and so welcome. I love reading your thoughts.

Stay safe

Lots of love.