Horrified, Sheldon looked around him. So many children! They were just everywhere… Some of them were sneezing and coughing, one girl was incessantly scratching her skin and a little boy had suspicious red stains in his face. The horror! Thank God that Rosy was to small for begging to play with the toys at the pediatrician's waiting room. Never, never would he allow for it. He would teach her playing with his phone as soon as possible, for being prepared to the waiting situation the next time a vaccination was necessary.

Amy was also horrified, but for another reason. She remembered clearly the last time they went to the pediatrician with Rosalind for a shot, more so, she was quite sure she never would forget that day in all her life. The way her daughter had screamed when the doctor had injected that awfully big needle in her delicate skin… In her heart she had been screaming to him to stop that torture for her little baby, who had to suffer so much. But her mind told her that it was all for her best. At least the biggest part of her mind. She never would admit it to Sheldon, but of course she had read the arguments of the people opposing vaccination and yeah, they had raised some little doubts in her…

Suddenly, they heard a baby cry from the room where the doctor used to do the injections. Rosy looked scared into the direction where the sound came from, then, slowly, the angles of her mouth went down, her bottom lip arched forward and – "Oh Rosy, look at this!" Amy had taken a toy from one of the shelfs and held it in front of Rosy's face. "Look at all those colored rings, they all have different sizes, can you see? So, if Mommy takes them off, can you put them on the stick, again?"

"Amy, what are you doing? All those things are full of germs! Rosy, put that toy away, please!"

But Rosy was refusing to let go of the colorful rings, so Sheldon tried to take it from her hands – without any success.

„If she becomes ill, it's all your fault!" He hissed at Amy, then he stood up quickly and went into the doctor's bathroom to wash and disinfect his hands. If already his daughter was doomed to become sick, at least he himself could try to stay healthy…

Angrily, Amy looked after him, then she softly rocked her daughter, who was sitting on her knees and still played with the rings. Quickly, she got lost in thought, again and jumped a little in surprise, when she heard Sheldon's voice.

"Rosy, that's wrong!"

Amy looked at Rosalind and the toy she held in her hands. Actually, she had managed to put some of the rings back on the stick. But not in the order she was supposed to, no. Instead of arranging the rings by their size, she had chosen to sort them by color.

"That's pretty smart, my little girl!" Amy praised Rosy's work and placed a small kiss on her head.

"But it's wrong!" Sheldon's eyes were twitching nervously.

"She's a baby, Sheldon!"

"Yeah, and this is a toy for babies!"

"Sheldon – "

In that moment, a receptionist entered the room and looked around in a searching manner. "Next one please! Rosalind Cooper!"

Amy breathed in deeply, then quickly put the remaining rings on the stick in a random order, put the toy on the table and got up. Sheldon stood there, next to her, a weird flicker in his eyes.

"Come, Sheldon, let's get this done," she said and went out of the waiting room.

Sheldon followed her slowly. Then, suddenly, at the threshold, he turned around and with three big steps, he went back to their former sitting place. Quickly, he loosened the rings from the stick, laid them on the table and put them back on the stick in the right order…

When Sheldon finally entered the treatment room, the doctor was already tossing the empty syringe into the trash, while Amy was holding her screaming daughter tightly in her arms.

"Where have you been?" She hissed at him angrily.

"After I had to fix up that toy, I just had to wash and disinfect my hands, again. That took me a while." He didn't really want to admit to her (and to himself) that primarily he had shied away from being present at the procedure.

Rosy had been fallen asleep on the way back home, but when they had climbed all the stairs into the 4th floor and opened the baby gate, that Sheldon had installed at the landing some weeks ago (thank God that there was no 5th floor with apartments and that Leonard and Penny had grown to accept his quirks over the years), she woke up and started crying, again.

This was the moment, when Amy finally lost fighting her own tears. She knew it was kind of ridiculous from a scientific point of view, but she felt so sorry for her daughter and guilty that she had let the doctor cause her pain in order to prevent her from possible future bigger problems.

Sheldon didn't fully understand why Amy was crying, but he tried to help as good as he could. So, he guided Amy to the couch and covered her with a blanket, before he went to the bathroom with Rosy to put on a fresh diaper. Then, he prepared tea for himself and Amy and a little glass of ready made mash for his daughter (of course the good Texan trademark his mother used to buy).

Rosalind liked her meal, but afterwards, she still was whiny. Amy rocked her in her arms, sang to her, read her favorite books to her… nothing really helped.

Sheldon was reading something on his phone. "On the internet it says that after a shot, babies tend to be whiny, sometimes. It is recommended to have some fever suppositories in stock." He looked at Amy. "I'll go to the drugstore and fetch some."

Before Amy could say anything, Sheldon had left the apartment. She sighed, patted Rosy's back and closed her eyes for a brief moment. This was going to be a rough day, but somehow they would get through it.

After a while, Amy jumped out of sleep, when the door opened and Sheldon came back home.

"Have you measured her temperature?" he asked Amy, while putting the plastic bag from the drugstore on the kitchen island.

Amy shook her head and laid her hand on Rosy's forehead. "I don't think she has a fever!"

"We will examine this more exactly," Sheldon said and went to fetch the thermometer, before he remembered that it was intended for rectal use. So, he came back to Amy, took the dozing Rosy out of her arms and went with her to the changing table. He also took the newly purchased suppositories with him; just in case she really had a fever, then he could do that in one go…

But, to be honest, a little to his disappointment, Rosy's temperature was normal.

The hours went by and while Amy was trying to help Rosy with enduring her malaise, Sheldon was hoping desperately for being able to do something useful and efficient, but the thermometer just never showed the numbers he was hoping for and Rosy also didn't show any other indications, that had justified the use of one of the other drugs that he had purchased, just to be prepared.

When it was time for going to bed and Rosalind still was whiny and clinging, they decided to let her sleep between them in the middle of the big bed, what she hadn't done for a long time.

The night was restless. Rosy was tossing and turning a lot. Sometimes she kicked her feet into Sheldon's side, then she wanted to hold his hand or to lay her head on Amy's arm. Once she even laid herself on top of both of their heads, so that she almost smothered Amy with her diaper-packed butt, while she kicked Sheldon's nose with her strong little feet. Some minutes after midnight, Rosy had slung her tiny arms tightly around Sheldon's neck, while her legs lay across Amy's belly. Finally, she seemed to be satisfied and although Amy and Sheldon were far away from being in a convenient position, they immediately fell asleep.

After some minutes, Rosy shifted her feet a little bit. "Mommy… Daddy…" she happily mumbled half asleep, then she followed her parents to the land of dreams.