CHAPTER 23

"I guess he is the father", Dr. Martina Lundqvist exclaimed as she saw Sheldon's precipitous fall. "And I thought this was just an ordinary day at work." Martina smiled.

Amy hastily got up from the examination bed and went down on her knees, next to Sheldon. She was trying to wake him up.

"Amy, please be careful, you need some rest, you can't have this kind of stress", Mattias affirmed as he entered the room; it was almost completely dark, lit only by the dim light of the ultrasound equipment.

Mattias took Sheldon by the shoulders, and helped him to sit with his back against the wall. Sheldon was still unconscious, and Amy, despite of the pain she was feeling, knelt beside him. "Sheldon, Sheldon! Wake up!. Don't do this to me!" she cried. Martina and Mattias looked at this unusual scene in astonishment.

"Can you believe that Amy assured me that this guy would be the next Nobel Prize in Physics?" Mattias whispered in Martina's ear. "Honestly, I don't know what she sees in him".

"Please Mattias, don't be so mean! Help us! We need to wake him up". Martina gently slapped Sheldon on his cheeks.

Sheldon shook his head and slowly woke up. He blinked repeatedly and rubbed his eyes, trying to focus those blurry images before him.

"Ahh, what happened to me?. My head is spinning! I'm so dizzy!." Sheldon looked at Amy and touched her face gently. "Aww, Amy! I'm so glad to see you! I had the strangest dream", Sheldon mumbled as he stood up, experiencing a reeling sensation. He offered his left hand to Amy, and helped her to get up off the floor. Apparently he couldn't remember what had happened three minutes ago.

"A dream?", Amy asked. She stood up, with some difficulty because of the pain she was still feeling, she put a hand on her belly as she listened intently to Sheldon.

"Yes, it was something like this... I'm a rogue night elf, the mighty Sheldor of Azeroth, on a mission to defend the honor of the beautiful Princess Amelia of Glendale who had been kidnapped by a giant, malevolent Viking. I remember I wrestled with that fearsome Nordic vandal, and I could finally break down the door, guarding the dark dungeon where Princess Amelia was imprisoned".

"Aw, Mattias, isn't that the most romantic thing you've ever heard?", Martina giggled, hearing Sheldon's story. Martina Lundqvist had a beautiful smile that lit up her delicate features. Her green eyes narrowed in a lovely way, every time she laughed.

"Yeah, really?, And who is that evil Viking supposed to be?", Mattias asked wryly. Martina smiled mischievously. The scene was hilarious for her; Martina could see that Mattias was jealous. He obviously had a crush on Amy. Martina shook his head as a sign of disapproval of her friend's attitude.

Sheldon continued with his story. "When I entered that dungeon, I looked at Princess Amelia, but she couldn't look back at me, she was deeply sad; I could see that she had suffered. A witch with long red hair, kept her under a spell, and I, the Mighty Sheldor of Azeroth, was the only one who could set her free. However as I approached her, a strange sound like a drum or… a heart beating very, very fast, made me fall under the same spell as Princes Amelia. And then… I woke up", Sheldon told Amy, realizing for the first time, the intense pain he felt in his right hand. "Ouch!"

"Seriously, what has this guy been smoking?", Mattias questioned Martina with a tone of disgust. "Is he calling you a red-haired witch?, Ha ha!", Mattias laughed out loud.

"Shhh!, Shut up Mattias!", I think he hit his head when falling or something like that, evidently he doesn't remember why did he faint", Dr. Martina Lundqvist was worried for Sheldon's health.

"Could you please leave us alone for a few minutes", Amy asked politely as she sat on the examination bed. Sheldon opened and closed his right hand, feeling a terrible pain.

The Viking and the witch… (I mean) Mattias and Martina left the room, leaving Sheldon and Amy alone. Almost immediately, Sheldon thoughts cleared up and he could tell that ... "That wasn't a dream. Was it?".

"No, that wasn't a dream", Amy replied, patting the space at her right on that hospital bed, inviting Sheldon to sit beside her.

Sheldon hesitated a few seconds, maybe sitting on a hospital bed wasn't so safe, but in the end, he sat next to her, despite of his phobia of germs.

Amy took Sheldon's right hand and examined it under the dim blue light of the ultrasound's screen. Sheldon's hand looked red and swollen. "Ouch!, that really hurts", Sheldon shouted, recalling how he had been injured by giving such a hard punch on the door.

"I think we should have your hand checked by a doctor, this looks like a serious injury, and it might be a fracture", Amy remarked.

"I'm… fine, this can wait. Please don't deviate from the topic, you were about to tell me something. Why are you here, at the hospital? And first of all, I need to know what that sound I heard was? Was it real? Was that heart beating some type of hallucination induced by the pain I felt when I hit the door?" Sheldon was perplexed.

Amy inhale deeply, trying to give herself confidence to talk to him, her legs were shaking and her heart was about to escape from her chest. "Oh my God!, This nausea is killing me! You can do this Amy. Tell him!", she thought, trying to keep calm. Sheldon looked at her. Those soft blue eyes could make her melt inside. Sheldon had come when she needed him most.

"Sheldon, you're familiar with the concept of the Doppler effect?. Don't you?, Amy asked looking at the ultrasound screen where the images of the tiny embryo growing inside her, were displayed. This was a rhetorical question, obviously.

"Of course I do; the Doppler Effect, named after the Austrian physicist Christian Doppler, who proposed it in 1842, is the change in frequency of a wave for an observer moving relative to its source, but I don't understand what you are trying to tell me, Amy". Sheldon added completely puzzled. "You need to be more specific."

"As you know the Doppler Effect has several applications in medicine, particularly in… Ultra… mhmm… Ultrasound" Amy stammered. "The principle of the Doppler Effect can be used to create an image of organs or other structures within the body that are located beyond our sight. The ultrasound transducer emits a wave that bounces on the objects and what we see is a projection of that wave."

"Well, it's more a reflection of the wave than a projection of the wave, but you have the basic idea", Sheldon replied. He still couldn't understand what was Amy's point with this whole conversation. "Amy, why are we here?, Are you sick?".

Amy looked at the screen of the Ultrasound equipment again, and then stared at Sheldon. "It's now or never", she thought.

"Sheldon… Check this, right here!", she said, pointing at the screen where an image was shown. It was a bubble-like black circle, and inside it, there was a small white figure of nearly half an inch, . "What do you think that is?"

"Ohh... I'm not sure; you know that biology isn't one of my interests. To me, it looks like a little bean, haha!" Sheldon replied with his characteristic giggle, like an innocent child. Although he had to admit, that the image looked familiar. "I think I've seen pictures like this before".

Amy stared again at the image and, in fact, it looked like a little bean. A jelly bean!. She smiled as she remembered that sometimes Sheldon's mother, affectionately called him Shelly Bean. Maybe that wasn't an inadequate comparison after all.

"Well, occasionally, those beans, have a heart and you can hear its heartbeat", Amy muttered, trying to suppress the unwelcome tears, escaping from her eyes.

"A bean can't have a heartbeat, Amy; nevertheless if it had one, we should use an Ultrasound, and apply the Doppler Effect to hear it. Ha ha!", Sheldon was befuddled. "I thought I was the one with a concussion".

"Sheldon ... listen to me carefully, I want you to know that you're not forced to do something you don't want to do. I won't ask you for anything. I can do this by myself." Amy told him with a halting voice. Sheldon looked at her dumbfounded.

"Amy. What's going on? Please, tell me".

"Sheldon, I'm pregnant!. That little bean, you see there on the sonogram screen is actually an embryo, and what you heard when you entered the room, was its heartbeat. Exactly 173 beats per minute. I'm seven weeks, plus one day, pregnant". Amy finally confessed.

Sheldon's mind worked at a fast pace, remembering what happened exactly seven weeks and one day ago; particularly in the early hours of March 25th and then again that night. He walked over to the screen and watched that image, in silence for a few seconds, which seemed hours.

In the upper left corner of the sonogram scan, there was a name, clearly written: Amy Farrah Fowler. He couldn't believe it. The reality was there before his eyes. Amy was expecting a baby; they're expecting a baby. Sheldon breathed deeply and heavily.

"It's so tiny!", Sheldon exclaimed with bright eyes, as if he was about to cry. "When did you know it?", he asked, his eyes were fixated to that screen.

"Five days ago. It was completely unexpected; I didn't imagine that something like this would happen. I know I said I was taking the pill, but somehow it failed. Please, don't think I planned this, because I can swear I didn't plan anything." Amy stopped talking to get some air. "If you want to leave, you can do it, I understand. I release you from any obligation. We can sign an agreement if that's what you want." Amy was afraid and nervous. She looked away so Sheldon couldn't see her crying.

Sheldon leaned and tenderly stroke Amy's cheek, with the thumb of his left hand (his right hand still hurt a lot), he wiped the tears away from Amy's face. She looked up to see him. He didn't seem angry, or frightened. He seemed... happy.

"Amy", Sheldon softly whispered as he pressed his lips to hers. It was a loving, sweet kiss, full of longing and affection, just what she needed at the time.

"I love you Amy Farrah Fowler, you make me so happy", He added, still looking into her eyes.

Amy was thrilled to hear those words. Finally, Sheldon had admitted that he loved her; she'd been waiting for a gesture like this for more than two years. The feeling was indescribable; all she ever needed was there with her, at that time. "I love you too, Sheldon! You don't know how much I love you".

Sheldon and Amy warmly embraced each other for a few seconds. Sheldon gave her another kiss, and taking her hand, he asked her:

"Amy, you didn't answer my question before. Why are you here at the hospital?, Why were you crying?", Sheldon was afraid that something was wrong with Amy or the baby.

"Sheldon, today I felt so much pain, right here", Amy placed her hands on her belly. "And then I started bleeding. It was frightening! I thought I'd lost my baby. Mattias brought me to the hospital. Without him, I don't know what could've happened. The doctor said it was a threatened miscarriage. It seems that everything is fine on the ultrasound". Amy held Sheldon's hand tightly. "I must confess that when I heard the beat of its little heart, and I knew our baby was alive, it was as if my soul came back to my body. I was so afraid" Amy admitted.

Sheldon hugged her firmly, kissing her on the forehead. He tenderly put his hand on Amy's belly. "You just wanted your dad to come and take care of you, right?. Well, I'm already here, so please don't give more headaches to your mommy."

Knock, knock. Someone interrupted that lovely scene. It was Dr. Martina Lundqvist. "Hi, I hate to interrupt, but I have to finish my work here. I'll print some pictures of the sonogram for you".

"Oh, please come in!", Amy told her, wiping her tears away and trying to regain her composure.

"Excuse me. Is everything alright with Amy and the baby?", Sheldon inquired Martina with his most formal tone.

"Oh yes, I consider this will be a temporary problem. Threatened abortion is a common complaint in early pregnancy. I have the results of your lab work and everything is within normal range. I would recommend you some rest, for at least 10 days. The baby looks healthy." Martina was always optimistic. "Do you want to listen to your baby's heartbeat again?, Martina asked Sheldon.

"Yes, of course I do.", Sheldon replied with excitement. "Can I?"

"Sure. Just… avoid fainting this time", Martina joked.

Amy leaned back on the examination bed, and pulled her hospital gown up, showing her belly. She shivered as she felt the cold sensation of the gel on her skin again. Martina quickly located the minute embryo and its heartbeat. That strong sound filled the room.

"Fascinating", Sheldon whispered as he took Amy's hand. His lips curled into a smile.

A.N: It's so fluffy I'm gonna die! Ha ha