This chapter is named "Well That Escalated Quickly" because I wasn't expecting this to come out so soon…in my rough outline, I had the ending of this chapter to happen about chapter twenty. But it seemed to fit better here than in its original spot, so I've done some re-working of the second half of the fic. (As of now, I have at least thirty chapters planned, but those of you reading me for a while know that what's left could double or get cut in half.)

"I'm so glad we could get you out of the house today!" Bernadette said as she and Amy slid into the side of the booth opposite Penny and Missy. "It's good to see you out and about more often."

"Well," Penny said, "with the counseling, I have to get out during the day. And I have to pick Iris and Savannah up from school every other afternoon. And if it wasn't usually the same day Leonard takes them to school as opposed to Mark, I'd probably forget what days I have to get them."

"Raj wouldn't let you forget," Missy said. "Because those are the days he gets to look after Ada for an hour."

Penny smiled. "I love how attached he is to her!"

"Me too," Missy said, smiling. "It's real sweet."

"Since you just came from counseling," Bernadette said, "how did that go?"

"Well," Penny said, "better, I think. Though honestly, I still can't get past the guilt. I'm trying, but it's so…well, hard."

"At the risk of sounding unsympathetic," Amy said, glancing up from her phone to look at Penny, "if Leonard has told you that he doesn't think you're unworthy because you needed surgery, what more do you need? You and Ada are healthy, and you have Savannah, too."

"I know," Penny said, "and I'm grateful, it's just…it's hard not to think about it when you're around scientists."

"What do you mean?" Bernadette asked.

"Well…evolution," Penny said. "Survival of the fittest, and…that stuff. Like, if you're worthy of passing yourself on to the next generation, you do, and if you aren't good enough, you die, or you don't reproduce at all, or you do reproduce but your children die. But science has made people able to survive even when they aren't supposed to." She let out a sigh, and then put a finger to her chest. "I am not supposed to be here. Ada is not supposed to be here. I am not good enough to pass my genes on. The only reason we are alive is because of scientific advancements."

"That's ridiculous, Penny," Bernadette said. "A ruptured uterus is a freak thing. If it was supposed to happen, if you were genetically weak, it would have happened the first time. Or you would have miscarried. Or Savannah and Ada wouldn't have been born healthy. Just because evolution is a fact…"

"Hey now," Missy started.

"Just because evolution is a fact," Bernadette said again, and Missy held up her hands in surrender. Amy looked relieved that they weren't going to get into a debate about what the word theory meant in the scientific world. "Doesn't mean that something crazy happening, out of the blue, is evolutions way of telling you that you aren't supposed to be here," the microbiologist finished. "If it was, then quite frankly, you wouldn't have survived the surgery. The doctors aren't miracle workers. Sometimes they lose patients. Sometimes they lose patients because of pre – existing conditions. And sometimes they lose patients for seemingly no reason at all. But you made it, and so did Ada. You're not an evolutionary mistake."

Amy's phone buzzed and she looked down at it. "I have to get going," she said, "Sheldon's had an epiphany that he swears will win him the Nobel Prize."

"Ah, I'm sure it will," Missy said, resting her chin on her hands. Amy looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "I'm serious!" she protested.

When Amy was gone, Bernadette looked at Penny again. "Stop caring about what role science has in your life," she said. "You don't even like science, remember?"

"Leonard is science," Penny said. "You're science. Amy's science, Sheldon's science, Raj and Howard are science. And you know, Bernadette, how afraid I was of something like what happened with Ada happening with Savannah. You were there in the early hours. I was so afraid of letting him down, and…it just feels like that did happen this time."

"You know," Bernadette said, reaching over and squeezing Penny's hand. "Without science, most of us wouldn't be here. Leonard needs medicine for his asthma. Sheldon spent much of his childhood at a hospital. Howard has a heart problem. Science is responsible for a lot of us being here. Try not to be guilty. Try to be thankful. Thanks to science, you and Leonard can grow old together. Thanks to science, you have two daughters. Thanks to science, your daughters exist, both of them, because without science, Leonard might not be here at all."

Sheldon greeted his wife with a smile when she entered the apartment. "What was so important that you had to come home so fast?"

Amy looked at him, her eyes flashing. "What?"

Sheldon took a step back. "You texted me and said you had to come home right away…"

"Yeah, I had to get out of there," Amy said. "I couldn't listen to Penny's sob story anymore."

Sheldon cocked his head. Never had he heard her speak of Penny this way. "Are you…are you upset about something?"

"Of course I'm upset!" Amy sputtered. "I cannot have children, Sheldon!"

"I know that. I was there."

"Will you just shut up and let me talk?" Amy said. "I cannot have children. Ever. And I love Penny, but she's up there being all depressed because she feels guilty that she couldn't give birth – a second time – without needing lifesaving surgery. How guilty do you think that I feel, not being able to give you a child at all? I'd take a forty hour labor that ended in emergency surgery if it meant that there could be a person in this world that is half Sheldon Lee Cooper and half Amy Farrah Fowler!"

Sheldon looked genuinely confused. "But you talked to people. You talked to me. I thought you were okay."

"I…" Amy stopped a moment. "I thought I was. And then maybe I actually was okay. But now, with Penny…she's so selfish. She wants to be this mighty female who has all these babies with no assistance, and she knows good and well that I would go through all that a dozen times over."

"Amy," Sheldon said slowly, carefully, as he always did when he wasn't entirely confidant of the point he was trying to make, "you always talk to me about communication. How you need to…tell someone how you're feeling."

"Are you honestly saying that I'm not doing that right now?" Amy asked

"No," Sheldon said. "No, this is very clear. My point, if you'll allow me to get to it, is, did you ever tell Penny you were resentful of her ability to have children?"

"No," Amy said. "But at the time she was pregnant with Ada, I wasn't upset."

"So then, that being out there," Sheldon said, "how was she insensitive for accidentally becoming pregnant with a baby that until now, no one, including you, knew you resented?" There was a silence. And then Amy lowered her head. "Emotional illness is, I'm told, a thing," Sheldon said. "I suffered it, if you remember, when I thought that Penny would die. You suffered it when we found out you couldn't bear children, and now Penny is suffering it. You can't expect her to not feel badly because it's making you feel badly. I wouldn't expect you to suffer just because I was."

Amy blinked. "Yes you would."

"Yes I would," Sheldon conceded. "But Penny isn't married to you."

Amy shook her head. "You've changed so much," she said, "but you're still blunt."

"If I wasn't blunt, I wouldn't be me," Sheldon said.

"That makes you an ass sometimes," Amy said.

"Not this time," he responded. "This time I'm using logic and reason to talk you down from a state of hysterics."

"Hysterics?" Amy said, not as volatile as moments ago, but still angry. "Hysterics? Penny's in that damn coffee shop going on and on about how maybe she was supposed to die because evolution prevents those who aren't supposed to have children from having children."

"Well, survival of the fittest does lay in the…"

"Sheldon Cooper, do you understand what you're saying?"

"Well, yes, that…oh." It hit him, and he looked uncomfortable. "Amy…"

"Don't even try to tell me that by that argument, I'm not good enough to be a mother," Amy said. "Don't even try. You'd be lying to both of us. Even if you don't agree, that's what that metaphor is saying."

Sheldon sighed. "Are you honestly taking scientific metaphors from Penny?"

His point hit home, and Amy stared at him for several seconds, face red, eyes glaring, before softening slightly. She looked at the ground, and then back to his face. She sighed. "I'm sorry," she said after a moment, still looking upset, but calmer now. "I just must not be past this yet."

Sheldon gave a shrug. "You're my wife. You're allowed to get angry with me. It's in our marriage agreement."

Amy sniffed. "We don't have a marriage agreement."

Sheldon shrugged. "You love me, and I love you. And that means that you can get angry with me. Now if you were Kripke, I'd have kicked you out long ago."

"Sheldon," Amy said, "stop talking."

"I'm only trying to…"

"I know," she said. "I know, just…" she walked over and put her arms around him. "Just stop talking."

Sheldon curled his arms around her. "Okay." He felt Amy shaking and became alarmed. "Are you experiencing dizziness?"

Amy pulled back and looked at him. "Sheldon," she said. "I resent Penny."

"But…"

"I know," she said. "I know. I shouldn't. It's not fair. It's not her fault. But I do. Every time I see her now, all I can think, more than ever, is she's a mother. And I am not." She shook her head.

"I can't help it. And I don't know if I can get past it. I'm not even sure if I want to."