A crimson explosive burst from its shell and burned as it flew across the California night sky. Much against Sheldon's fondest wish, it wasn't Superman. Not this time.
The entire gang was seated in outdoor chairs of various types on the front lawn of Sheldon and Amy's home, watching the fireworks being launched by both their group and the others in the neighborhood. In the past, Sheldon had hated the holiday. Amy put her understanding of sensory overstimulation disorders to good use, helping Sheldon discover the underlying cause of his issue with fireworks. Amy then guided him toward the best ear plugs in the pharmacy department at the store.
With the protection from sound the ear plugs provided, the Fourth of July became a holiday centered on the physics of rocketry – mass, acceleration, and the greatest of them all, explosive thrust. And what red-blooded all-American uber-geek wouldn't love that?
This year, the Fourth of July proved to be a moderately warm summer evening, and the result was entirely too much money being spent on entirely too many legalized explosives.
No one is sleeping in this neighborhood tonight, Amy thought darkly. At least I won't be the only one.
At thirty-five weeks, Amy's abdomen was heavily distended, however the baby was still sitting just high enough to interfere with her breathing. Amy found herself more and more easily fatigued, although her back remained free of the discomfort of carrying the pregnancy lower. Amy's thankfulness for this small mercy was modest, indeed.
Sleeping was miserable for Amy. The greater truth was a lack of sleeping: there was no comfortable position for her to lay. She was waking frequently during the night; in addition to a general discomfort in bed, it also seemed that the baby found great joy in wanting to play when its mother wanted to sleep. The latter represented a precursor, without a doubt, of things to come.
Howard stepped back from the curb at the street, where Sheldon, Leonard, and Raj were debating the placement and order of the next fireworks to be launched. He appeared headed to the table near the grill with the coolers, but stopped in front of Amy, Penny, and Bernadette.
Looking directly at Amy, Howard asked, "Can I bring you something? Some desert, or a soda?"
Amy smiled at her friend. "A bottle of water would be great."
"Hey!" chimed Penny and Bernadette in unison, as Howard started to walk away.
"What am I, chopped liver?" asked an all-too-quickly enraged Bernadette, ready to jump out of her lounge chair.
"No, but Amy's the pregnant one. I remember what it was like for you when you were pregnant with Max." Howard responded as he returned with the bottle; he was quick to defend himself.
Bernadette's outrage faded as quickly as it flamed initially. She turned toward Amy, as Howard handed Amy the bottle.
"So, have you and Sheldon settled on names for the baby yet?" Bernie asked.
In spite of the seemingly unending fireworks explosions around them and the best ear protection available, Sheldon's Vulcan-like hearing didn't miss the remark. From multiple feet away, Penny, Bernadette, and Howard could see Sheldon's spine straighten, and could nearly feel the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. They turned in perfect unison to see Amy's eyes narrow as she looked toward Sheldon's direction.
"Oops," Penny said in a low voice.
"I take it there's been no final decision made?" Howard coaxed Amy, gently.
Amy glared at her friend, who nearly jumped backward from his spot beside her. Then, her facial features softened. Howard, after all, was not the source of her irritation.
Amy genuinely smiled at Howard to let him know he wasn't the reason for her frustration. "No," she said, as sweetly as she could manage. "There hasn't been a decision yet."
"Yes there has," turned Sheldon, ripping the earplugs from his ears that made fireworks tolerable. He was obviously irritated with the turn of events. "Jack, if it's a boy…"
"Not this again!" Amy jumped out of her chair… or, at least, as best as her body would allow her to, "You know I love MeeMaw, nearly as much as you do, but even she'd tell you not to name our baby after your grandfather, or any other family member for that matter. You'll only saddle that child with the memories others have of the one that's no longer with us, or with expectations based on the one still here. It's just not fair!"
Sheldon charged onward, but not before rolling his eyes. It was obvious this argument had played out before, likely several times over. And as with all forms of insanity, there was no change in the result.
"… and if it's a girl, she'll be Marie."
"Oh, rapture," Amy cried, folding her hands over her heart melodramatically. "We've moved on to Madame Curie! Last week he wanted Rosalind, for Franklin, who helped discover the DNA double helix!"
"Hey, she was a biophysicist! I thought it was a good compromise!" Sheldon retorted.
Raj tried to intervene, to stop the argument before it went beyond the point of no return. He gently rubbed Amy's arm. "What do you want for names?" he asked her.
Amy's facial expression softened, while Sheldon's eyebrows almost knit together in the midst of his forehead.
"Laura, if a girl," Amy very nearly sighed.
This time, it was Sheldon's turn to grimace. "At least one of my choices is after a family member. Hers come straight from Little House on the Prairie."
Amy's chin lifted, her voice defiant, as she stood immediately in front of Sheldon. Their faces were paradoxically far apart, in spite of their respective stomachs' immediate proximity to one another.
"Well, if you get your heart's desire," Amy told Sheldon, and everyone else within earshot, "and it's a boy, he's Edward."
Sheldon's response was openly snide. "So, we're back to the classics at least. Sense and Sensibility, unless I am mistaken?"
Amy's smile was sweet, but the malice underlying her voice was evident. "Well, you never are mistaken… are you?"
Suddenly, it appeared the fetus, him or herself, had had enough of the parents' bickering. The baby was head down, and the donkey-like kick upward struck the mother from the inside, and was felt from well outside by the father.
Sheldon looked down at the spot on his own stomach he had felt his baby kick at him, then looked up at Amy. Her right eye was shut and her face contorted, as she was wincing in pain. Suddenly, the cause of the spat didn't seem nearly as important to Sheldon, as the person he was having it with.
Sheldon took Amy's hands in his own. "Are you OK?"
Amy nodded, but took a minute more to gather herself before she spoke. "I just got the breath knocked out of me… Give me a moment."
Sheldon led Amy back over to her chair, and helped her to sit back down. He grabbed an outdoor cushion from one of the reclining chairs (much to Raj's chagrin, it was the one he had been using) and propped Amy's back with it.
"Better?" Sheldon asked. "Much. Thank you." Amy replied.
Penny hopped out her chair, and moved it closer to Amy. She motioned for Sheldon to take her seat instead.
Penny squatted down in front of her two friends - who she had supported long before they had any inkling of what would come for them both. She took Amy's right hand and placed it in Sheldon's left.
"Guys, there's still time. Even if you haven't decided before the baby comes, maybe you're not supposed to. Maybe, when you see her face…"
Sheldon shot Penny a look of derision. Penny laughed.
"… or his face, maybe then you'll just know. However it happens, it will be the way it's meant to be for both of you. Hasn't it always been that way?"
Sheldon looked over at Amy, and this time the grin she favored him held no anger behind it. Sheldon squeezed Amy's hand inside his, and she responded in kind.
Sheldon's serene smile never left Amy. When Sheldon spoke, his answer to Penny's question was to them both, "Yes. Yes, it has."
Amy tried to lean in as best as she could; Sheldon quickly realized Amy's limitation, and met her more than half way to kiss her gently. Amy's eyes opened afterward, and her smile was soft. "Go on. You won't get to do this next year with an infant at home."
Sheldon leaped out the chair, plugging the sound mufflers back into his ears, to jump into the celebratory fray. Penny took the seat Sheldon had vacated.
Amy leaned in to Penny, "So, when…"
The remainder of Amy's question was drowned out as a flurry of firework explosions lit up the night sky.
######
Three weeks later, Amy sat on an examination table, robe open to the back, patiently waiting for Dr. Matthew Brown to come into the room. The cool air in the office felt good against the hormonally-induced elevated temperature of Amy's skin, but to Sheldon, who sat in the side chair, the room was freezing cold.
"I don't think I've been this cold since the North Pole," grumbled the impatient Sheldon, as he turned the page of the book he was reading.
Amy sighed. "Put your jacket back on, then. You realize this office is set for the patients… most of which are pregnant women?"
A brief knock at the door – Sheldon summoned great effort of will not to complete the series of three knocks – and Dr. Brown entered the room. He was middle aged, with some greying of his hair and evidence of many laughs in the wrinkles around his eyes and mouth. Dr. Brown always had an air of kindness, and calm certainty. It made Amy feel, no matter what happened, he would be able to make everything right.
Dr. Brown apologized for the delay. "Sorry, you two. I was caught by an unexpected delivery at the hospital."
Amy smiled at her obstetrician. "I understand," Amy replied. "Did everything go well?"
Dr. Brown smiled at his patient. "We made our goal."
Sheldon had learned Dr. Brown's "goal" the first time they met, when he and Amy came for Amy's initial obstetrics examination in January.
"A healthy mother, and a healthy baby," Sheldon recited.
"Exactly." Dr. Brown's smile was infectious. "Nothing else matters."
Dr. Brown walked over to the sink to wash his hands, and Sheldon helped Amy lay back on the examination table. Dr. Brown took a flexible tape measure from his coat pocket, and assessed Amy's abdomen, nodding to himself as he turned to the nurse to record the measurement. He felt around the stomach, stopping briefly at the top, before moving onward. Amy, laying fully reclined with her eyes closed, missed Dr. Brown's momentary frown. Sheldon, however, did not.
When he was done with the external examination Dr. Brown's nurse assisted Amy in the placement of her feet in the stirrups, and the doctor brought the light over to complete his assessment.
"One centimeter dilated, 50% effaced," Dr. Brown called to his nurse. Amy's eyes opened; the joy contained within was plainly evident in her voice.
"I might go early?" Amy's voice rang with jubilance and hope.
"You might…" Dr. Brown's response was not as happy as Sheldon or Amy would have expected, after working with him over several months.
Dr. Brown continued his assessment, pushing on Amy internally for what seemed like an eternity in a most uncomfortable manner. She began to appreciate the change in his demeanor and facial expression, and wondered what was concerning him.
Finally, Dr. Brown had finished; he removed his gloves and turned to the nurse beside him. "We'll need a sonogram. Can you call over and let them know Amy's on the way?" The nurse nodded, and grabbed the cell phone from her pocket as she left the doctor and the family alone in the room.
Dr. Brown looked at Amy, sensing the fear in her heart by the look in her eyes. He smiled at her. "Amy, we're still on track for our goal. We may be making a change in plans, though."
Amy was only slightly mollified. "What's wrong?"
Dr. Brown took Amy's hand, and demonstrated to her the same push on the top of her stomach, where he had spent an extra moment earlier. "Do you feel that?" Amy nodded.
Sheldon came around from behind Amy. Looking at her for permission, which she granted immediately without a word spoken, Sheldon also reached his hand to the top of Amy's stomach. He felt the tightening muscle underneath her skin, but nothing unusual. Sheldon looked quizzically at Dr. Brown, who laughed lightly in response.
"It's OK, Sheldon. You have to push a little harder."
Sheldon tried again, and this time, he met against an internal resistance… about the size of an oblong baseball, and just as hard.
Sheldon's head came up, and he and Amy looked at Dr. Brown. Realization was in Amy's eyes, but Sheldon still did not know what he had felt. Sheldon asked for both of them – understanding for himself, confirmation for her – "What is that?"
Dr. Brown's smile was genuine. "Your child's head."
"Breech?" Amy's fair facial complexion paled to near white.
Dr. Brown nodded. "At this point, we'll get a sonogram to confirm position and staging of the pregnancy. You're thirty-eight weeks by the calendar at this point; presuming the measurements agree, you'll continue as normally we would have anyway for another week. We'll schedule you for a Caesarian section next Thursday, unless 'Junior' here decides to turn around in the meantime."
Dr. Brown saw Amy's face lighten a little. He brought her back to Earth. "Amy, don't get your hopes up. Space is getting to be at a premium inside your uterus. There's the baby, and placenta, and fluid for protection… and very little room to maneuver. I'll wager you're feeling movement much less often already."
Amy nodded.
"We don't even try external versions on first pregnancies because they aren't often successful, and are highly stressful for both you and the baby."
Dr. Brown sought to reassure the couple. "Sheldon… Amy… look, guys. Everything's fine. This baby is happy and healthy inside of you. He or she will continue to grow, and develop, just as is supposed to happen. In another week, we'll meet at the hospital. If the baby has changed to a vertex position, we'll induce for a vaginal delivery so the baby doesn't get a chance to change its mind and switch again. If not, we'll do a C-section. Either way, we're at goal."
Sheldon recited once more, this time quietly and without his typical self-assurance, "Healthy mother, healthy baby."
Dr. Brown had known Sheldon now for several months, and knew of his challenges. Matt thought often of his own brother when he saw Sheldon… Michael was two years younger, and suffered from the same difficulties, especially with acceptance of change. Michael was incredibly intelligent, and well suited for a career in architectural engineering, but amending a plan "on the fly" would render him nearly catatonic.
Matt stepped over to Sheldon, and put his hand on Sheldon's left shoulder. Sheldon uncharacteristically didn't negatively react to the touch; the face he raised to meet Dr. Brown's was full of fear for his wife and their unborn child, yet hope that Dr. Brown would see them through.
Matt smiled. "Sheldon, we see this every day. I know the 'not knowing' is the worst for you. It would be for my brother, too. Go with Amy to sonography. See your baby inside of her. See with your own eyes and believe: everything is fine. We have a plan, and all will be well. Trust in that."
At that moment, there was a knock at the door, and the nurse reappeared. She murmured to Dr. Brown, and he turned to Amy.
"They're waiting for you, Amy. Go ahead and get dressed, and when you're ready, Sarah will take you over. If you don't hear from me today, everything was fine on the sonogram, and you'll check in at the hospital next Thursday at 7:00 am. I'll meet you about 8:00, and we'll plan on the C-section at 9:00. You'll likely be home Saturday afternoon, with the new baby in tow. Any questions?"
Amy looked at Sheldon, who looked almost as surprised as she felt. It appeared everything was in place, and they had just one week left when it would be just the two of them.
"I guess not," Amy replied, shrugging. She hoped she didn't sound as unsure as she felt.
Dr. Brown took Amy's hand. "It's not just Sheldon who's uncertain, is it?" Amy shook her head, but kept it low.
Dr. Brown raised her chin with one finger, and looked her directly in the eye. "You're not supposed to feel one hundred percent wonderful about this either, Amy. It's major surgery, don't kid yourself. But in the end, it's the safest way to deliver you, and I'm confident we'll be at our goal in less than one week. You can call me, any time, with any questions. OK?"
Amy nodded, feeling more certain. She knew she'd chosen Dr. Matthew Brown for a reason.
Matt left the room, and the nurse gave Amy the time she needed to change back into her clothes. Amy and Sheldon walked over to sonography, and sat only a few moments before Amy's name was called. She laid out on the examination table, and lifted her shirt to expose her stomach. The sonographer squirted the warm jelly onto her abdomen, and applied the ultrasound device to Amy's stomach, moving it around and clicking on a controller on the sonogram computer.
"First, I'll make several measurements… head, spine, femur," the sonographer reported as she clicked away on the computer.
Amy watched in awe as the skull came into view. The technician drew measurement lines with the computer, and Amy could see that all appeared formed correctly. She finally breathed a sigh of relief. Dr. Brown was right… Amy just needed to be patient and have faith.
Sheldon heard Amy's sigh, and watched her body as she outwardly relaxed from head to toe. Amy understood the biology better than Sheldon did… although it still seemed impossible, maybe his anxiety could lessen as well…
Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, came a soft but firm, "Stop."
Amy and the sonographer both looked at Sheldon, who had thus far been unusually quiet. Amy took Sheldon's hand, and marveled as a tear slid down his cheek.
"What is it?" Amy asked, softly.
"Watch," Sheldon commanded, quietly. His face never left the computer.
Amy and the technician turned back to the computer screen. Her measurements had already been completed, but behind the lines Amy could plainly see motion.
In the very middle of the computer screen, all three observed in reverent silence.
Two atria contracting, then two ventricles.
Lub-dub. Lub-dub.
A perfectly formed, four-chambered heart. Beating in perfect time, the heart's chambers were moving blood throughout the embodiment of Amy and Sheldon's love for one another.
It was a sight that moved Sheldon to tears. In that moment, Sheldon knew peace. In one week, as Matt had only just told him a few minutes before… Sheldon now saw with his own eyes, and finally truly trusted and believed…
They would be at goal.
######
Sheldon drove and Amy sat in the passenger seat, as they headed home after the doctor's appointment. Both gave each other the gift of quiet, to reflect on what they had seen and been told, and how their lives were set to change dramatically in just a few short days.
As they pulled into the garage, the UPS delivery truck pulled up alongside the curb to their house. "Were you expecting something?" Amy asked Sheldon.
"No," Sheldon replied, turning off the engine to the van and looking through the side mirrors to the driver unloading a box from the truck behind him.
Amy and Sheldon got out of the van, and Sheldon walked up to the driver while Amy walked up the sidewalk to unlock the front door.
The box that Sheldon signed for was nearly as tall as Amy, and had to be transported in by dolly. Amy thanked the driver for bringing the box inside. After the driver left, both Sheldon and Amy looked at each other quizzically.
"OK. So, where did it come from?" Amy asked.
Sheldon spotted the delivery label near the top of the box panel in front of him.
"Nacogdoches, Texas… Mom? MeeMaw? What on Earth did you do?" Sheldon wondered aloud, as he surveyed the box for a different label that might hint at the box's contents.
When neither Sheldon nor Amy could seem to find a clue outside the box, Amy walked out into the garage to find a utility knife from the tool box. She brought the knife back and handed it to Sheldon. Sheldon slid the knife through the packing tape at the top of the box, and opened the panels. Inside…
Bubble wrap. Lots and lots of bubble wrap, encasing something apparently very special. And a card.
Amy took the card, while Sheldon tipped the box on its side and pulled out whatever was inside, fairly heavy and "mummified" in bubble wrap.
Amy opened the card, and looked up as Sheldon began to unweave what felt like miles of plastic protection.
"It's from both of them."
Amy's awed, whispered report caught Sheldon's notice, and he looked at her in mid un-wrap. She continued, as Sheldon handled the plastic now with great care.
"Thirty-eight years ago, we were blessed with two angels from heaven: Missy, and you, Sheldon. Missy was the easy-going one, who required minimal care and took everything in stride.
You, Sheldon… and we love you very much… you were our challenge. From day one, you would tolerate nothing amiss. Slightly wet and you would cry. The stirrings of hunger would make you rage against the world. Dirty? Never for very long. You let us know right away.
But you knew you were loved, and in particular, in your MeeMaw's arms you were bound to be at peace. You knew where your home was.
When we found out that you and Amy were to be equally blessed, we decided together you should have this. We pray you will take as much joy in spending time with your child in this, as MeeMaw most certainly did with you.
All our love, Mom and MeeMaw"
Amy looked up from her reading, to see the final vestiges of plastic fall away… from a beautiful, old, but recently refinished and reupholstered rocking chair. Sheldon could not remember clear back to his infancy – no one can, no matter what Sheldon of old would have thought – but even he remembered the feeling of being held by his MeeMaw. The love that he knew was unconditionally his, taught to him from infancy in the warmth of her embrace and the gentle motion of this very chair.
Sheldon cried openly for the second time that day. Amy set the card down, and came up from behind him.
"It's absolutely beautiful," Amy whispered, as she wrapped her arm around Sheldon's waist. His tears began to ebb. "May I sit in it?"
Sheldon silently nodded. Amy gently lowered herself into the frame, amazed that in spite of her advanced stage of pregnancy she was still able to fit into it with ease. She began to rock back and forth, and found the gentle creaking (nothing that wouldn't be solved with a little mechanical lubricant, to be sure) was soothing to her emotionally spent soul. It had been quite the day.
Sheldon knew he needed to move the chair to the baby's room down the hall, but it would wait, just a few minutes more. For his part, Sheldon was struck by the beauty of this moment as well: Amy, his adored, heavily pregnant with their child, her eyes closed, rubbing a hand over the top of her stomach, and humming along a lullaby he knew so well in his heart.
You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
You make me happy, when skies are grey
You'll never know, dear, how much I love you
Please don't take my sunshine away…