The Duality Synthesis, Chapter 6 by patricia51
(No matter what I do)
(5 months later)
"Alex are you sure you are going to be alright?" an anxious Leonard asked, for the fourth time in the last thirty minutes.
Alex rolled her eyes. She was stretched out in their favorite spot, the couch, with her feet propped up and two pillows supporting her head and shoulders. Her hands were clasped together and resting on her swollen tummy.
"Honey I will be fine. You're only going to be gone a couple of weeks. The baby isn't due till well after you will get back. I have the doctor's office, his answering service and the hospital all on speed dial. Penny promises she will look in on me every day and I have similar commitments from Mandy, Sally, Bernadette and heaven help me Amy as well who will probably drag Sheldon over here too."
Leonard chuckled. "Has he made any further suggestions concerning you being the surrogate mother for him and Amy?"
"Not directly although I have heard him comment that his research into the subject shows better results WOULD be obtained by employing someone who has previously given birth at least once. He didn't direct the remark to me exactly but instead used what Penny told me is a theatrical bit known as an 'aside'."
"What's that?"
"She told me it's a whisper that can be heard in the third balcony on the theatre but not by the other characters on the stage. She told him about that when she was trying to show him how to be a better teacher."
"Still though, I hope he doesn't get to be a nuisance about that."
"Not to worry honey. Penny also gave me the ultimate Sheldon stopper that she thought of when he first started talking to her about the same thing."
"I assume it has to do with his mother."
"Of course."
Alex scooted over as best as she could and patted the couch beside her. Leonard perched on the edge. Smiling, he stroked her hair.
"Okay then. No more 'are you sure? I promise."
"That's better. Instead you should be excited about this trip and what it's going to mean."
Leonard smiled. The past months had been the most wonderful and exciting time of his life. Going to bed with Alex, waking up with Alex and all the times in between. Day by day he had incredulously watched her tummy begin to stretch with the baby growing inside. He had run to the store in the middle of the night for Dill Pickle Spears and Black Walnut Ice Cream and watched as she mixed them together. He had held her hair back when she had morning sickness and rejoiced with her when it ended. The trips to the doctor had not been any kind of interruption but rather a series of wonderful opportunities. Never in his life would he forget looking at screen of the ultra sound with Alex and the smiling doctor saying "Listen to this" and filling with the sound of their baby's heartbeat.
He had been justifiably smug when all the predictions that married life, sex and happiness would detract from his work had all failed to pass even the starting point. Indeed it had been the opposite. No sitting around worrying if Penny was beginning to think he wasn't good enough for her or if Priya had found someone back in India and who could blame her when they were thousands of miles apart. Okay sometimes he DID get distracted when he had a very attractive and sexy lab assistant who would drop by when she was done with her own work. But all in all with Alex's support and care he had progressed farther than he could have believed in such a short span of time. It was the papers he had published on his work with the free-electron and helium-neon lasers that had led to the present invitation.
It might have been fun if he had been able to come home and break the news to Alex in the same way she had been able to do with her doctorate and pregnancy. But it had been more satisfying happening the way that it did.
(Two weeks prior)
"This is fun," exclaimed Alex as she double-checked the alignment of the laser Leonard was about to use.
"You don't get to play with toys like this do you?" her husband teased her.
"No, most of what I work with tends to be theoretical," she admitted. "Not hands-on experimentation."
"Like Sheldon does," Leonard continued with a grin. "In fact he finds actual lab work and experimentation quite a waste of time."
"No comment," Alex returned dryly. "I may have studied under him but after all I married you."
Leonard kissed her, handing her a pair of safety glasses as he did. "Something I am mighty glad wasn't the other way around."
"Yikes!" Alex shuddered.
Just as Leonard reached for the light switch a knock came of the door.
"Doctor Hofstadter?"
"Doctor Gablehouser?"
"May I come in?"
"Of course." Leonard powered down the laser for safety as the door opened.
"Good afternoon Doctor Hofstadter," the Physic Department Chairman said. Catching sight of Alex he smiled "And Doctor Hofstadter. When are you coming to work over here for good? The University would love to have a husband and wife research physics team."
"Hello Doctor Gablehouser. I would but after all Fermilabs pays awfully good and has a great maternity leave program that I've now worked there long enough to participate in. Besides," her eyes twinkled, "What if you or President Siebert decided that I would be better matched with a theoretical physicist rather than an experimental one?"
"Alex," Gablehauser protested, "I'm trying to recruit you, not make you move to Outer Mongolia." He shook his head and all three smiled. He continued. "Anyway, that's not why I'm here. I've come because a very exciting offer has been made to the department and to you Leonard. It's somewhere you ve already been but with a completely different agenda and purpose this time."
A whoop of excitement, actually a pair of them, from inside the lab brought other members of the department from their offices.
"What in the world?" fretted Sheldon who had been arguing with Raj over something inconsequential. Well in consequential to him anyway. Besides, just because Raj was right didn't mean he was wrong.
"Ah, Doctor Cooper, Doctor Koothrappali," Gablehouser greeted the pair. "Mister Wolowitz, Doctor Kripke, Doctor Winkle and other members of the department" he added. "Sorry for the commotion. Doctor Hofstadter, Doctor Leonard Hofstadter that is to be precise since both of them are here, has been asked by the European Organization for Nuclear Research to assist with a major upcoming experiment using the Large Hadron Collider. Not as a conference participant mind you as has taken place in the past but rather as a member of the research team and specifically requested because of his work with lasers."
"This hardly seems fair," objected Sheldon. "They didn't even ask me."
"No they didn't," Doctor Gablehauser replied amicably. Ignoring everybody and everything else he shook Leonard's hand. "I'm sure that you, that both of you, are interested in the details, particularly the dates of the experiment. I have everything in my office if you would care to accompany me."
(Later that day)
"Leonard Hofstadter you are going and that's final!" Alex insisted, folding her arms across her chest and over her tummy.
Leonard couldn't help it. A smile slowly spread over his face.
"What is so funny?" she demanded.
"You are," he stated with complete certainty. "I've never seen you this determined."
"That's because you didn't see me when I decided that I was going to marry you some day," Alex shot back before smiling herself.
"Serious darling, it's too good an opportunity to pass up. Added on top of your recent papers this is going to mean everyone in Physics is going to be sitting up and noticing Leonard Hofstadter. And the timing is perfect. You can finish your current experiments in plenty of time, be off to Switzerland and be back in plenty of time before the baby arrives."
"What about you?"
"I wish I could go. I'd love to see the Collider. I'd love to watch you work with it. But I promise you I am NOT up to that flight. I'm getting close enough that being off my feet means being on our couch. I have lots of work I can do right there and when I get tired of that I have books I have been aching to read."
"I know. I just don't like the idea of leaving you alone."
"Don't worry. I've already got a text from Penny. Apparently the word spread through the school and Mandy heard it and notified her. Howard called Bernadette. By the time we go home I bet we'll find the offers of assistance will already be pouring in. I bet I could have company every night that you are gone."
"No wild parties though," Leonard shook his finger at her in mock chastisement.
"Oh DRAT." Alex pretended to pout. "And here that was exactly why I wanted you out of the way. Now all my nefarious plans are for naught."
"As they should be."
The pair smiled at each other. "Speaking of home, don't you think we should be going?" He peeked out the lab door they had closed after they returned from Doctor Gablehauser's office so they could discuss it all in private.
"So we're agreed? The answer is 'Yes'?"
"I'll tell Gablehauser in the morning. Or now if we want to see if he's down in his office."
"Tomorrow will be fine. Besides," Alex locked the door and turned around. "I have other ideas on how we could spend time right now."
"Watch TV?" Leonard asked innocently as Alex slipped off her lab coat and then his jacket.
"Maybe read?" Alex countered tugging his shirt from his pants. He answered by unbuttoning her blouse.
"We could get something to eat." A skirt and a pair of slacks fell to the floor, joined quickly by a bra and a t-shirt.
"We'll think of something."
"You know, I've only ever fooled around once in the lab before."
"If you're keeping score remember each time we start over."
The conversation ceased, to be replaced by muffled sounds of happiness.
(The present)
The phone rang. Alex answered it said "Thank you very much" and hung it up. "Your cab is here." She grunted and got to her feet.
The couple went into each other's arms for a long hug and a deep soft kiss.
"Have fun honey. But not too much."
"I love you Alex."
"I love you Leonard."
Alex waved from the window until the cab was out of sight. Waddling a bit she went to the couch, settling down with an audible "Oof". Pulling her laptop to her she opened the paper she had been working on and started to type.
(To be continued)
(By the way, the definition I used of an "aside" is from "Twisted Tales from Shakespeare" or at least as well as I can remember it many years after having read it last. Also, Doctor Gablehauser always calls Sheldon, Leonard and Raj by their title "Doctor" not by their first names but with the two Doctors Hofstadter in the same room I expect he would use first names. And Barry Kripke is never (that I know of) addressed by a title but for him to be working with Sheldon and exchanging work with him it seems logical he would have to have his doctorate.)