Epilogue
The Cooper Prolepsis
Sheldon threw a load of laundry in the washing machine in the garage, then took his shirts from dryer to fold up in his and Rosemary's bedroom. Having just returned from their honeymoon in Iceland the day before, they had chores to do before heading back to work in two days. As he walked upstairs, Sheldon felt happy to be back to a routine, the excitement of the wedding behind them. Still, he'd had a great time in Iceland, seeing volcanoes that reminded him of his first week with Rosemary, making a couple new connections for future episodes of Gents and Gemstones, and engaging in frequent coitus.
"Baby boy, look," said Rosemary, as he entered the bedroom, throwing his shirts on the bed and retrieving his folding device. She showed him a text from Lillian. "Her defense is scheduled for a month from today. Good. I think she's been irritated Yoshi got his doctorate ahead of her. And it's open to the public, so we can attend."
"Excellent," said Sheldon, starting work on his shirts. "Another doctor in the family."
Rosemary sat on the bed, fidgeting with one of his shirts. "You know, it's been a year since I put my own program on hold. Maybe I should think about returning."
Sheldon just smiled and nodded, knowing her future lie in other realms, higher offices, world domination. He looked up to see her lying on the bed, watching him with a smile, and he leaned down for a kiss.
Two Weeks Later
"Sheldon!" cried Rosemary from the kitchen, Sheldon startled at his garage work bench where he painted a new building for the model train display for the Bellevue Children's Museum.
He walked into the kitchen to see her sitting at the table in front of her laptop, Facebook on the screen. Sheldon gasped at the photo.
"They had the baby!" Rosemary cried in delight. "A week early but healthy. Her water broke last night, in the limo on the way to the Gabon film premiere."
Sheldon looked at the joyous faces of Erik and Amy, a little baby with a head full of white-blonde hair and emerald green eyes. Luc Matthew Koster-Fowler, the caption read. Sheldon slid into the seat beside his wife to read the full post.
Rosemary took his arm, leaned against his shoulder, and sighed.
"I want one," she said wistfully.
Ten Years Later
Dr. Sheldon Cooper sat on the VIP platform, the rocket on the launch pad in the distance. To his right, one seat away, Rosemary looked over at him and grinned.
"This is it," she said, her voice rising above the crowd gathered below to watch the launch. "I'm so proud of you."
He looked to his left to see Carson and Olivia Silverthorne, both looking excitedly around them at the commotion, Carson finally locking eyes with Sheldon and nodding. This is it indeed, Sheldon thought.
Three years prior, a computer programmer at his SpaceX campus designed a program for Sheldon's dark matter theory, and as he plugged his thoughts and numbers into it, using the solar system as a primer, he made a shocking discovery. Learning from past mistakes, Sheldon went to Carson, who number crunched and problem solved with the physicist for two straight weeks, day and night, before no other conclusion could be made: a space anomaly existed just beyond the orbit of Jupiter. After reporting the discovery to Musk, NASA became involved, and soon, all the world's telescopes pointed to the tiny part of space where the Cooper-Silverthorne Anomaly spun like a mystery eager to be solved.
Claiming rights to the discovery, SpaceX set out designing a probe to explore the anomaly, as well as the rocket to take it there. Sheldon took a moment to glance behind him and smiled at Howard, the lead engineer of the probe, sitting with his team, laughing at some private joke.
Turning to face the rocket again, he saw Rosemary's assistant Craig ascend the platform with a drink carrier. He first stopped before Sheldon.
"Hot tea for you, Dr. Cooper," Craig said, then turned to the little raven-haired girl sitting between Sheldon and Rosemary. "And a hot chocolate for you, Arwen Marie."
"Thank you, Craig," Sheldon's daughter said, giving Craig a sweet smile.
"And a vanilla latte with an extra shot for you, Governor Fox," Craig said, handing Rosemary her drink. "Also, the vice president left a message with your office. She would like a holo-conference later. Does 4 p.m. work for you?"
"Yes, thank you Craig," Rosemary said, then took a long sip of her drink as the man left the platform. Rosemary turned to Arwen. "You excited to see the rocket launch, honey?"
Arwen nodded eagerly. "How far will Uncle Howard's probe travel?"
"Millions and millions of miles," Rosemary said, then looked up at Sheldon. "Maybe far enough for a Nobel Prize, huh?"
Sheldon tried to act casual and shrug, but Rosemary already knew he hoped this discovery was finally the one. The whole world talked about the Cooper-Silverthorne Anomaly.
Of course, he would not be the first of his Pasadena group to garner a Nobel Prize. Two years before, Amy, Erik, and the rest of the Project Gabon team won the Nobel Peace Prize for their work in ecological preservation as well as encouraging humanitarian efforts in Western Africa. While he felt a twinge of jealousy, he felt more pride in seeing Amy use her talents to make the world better.
"Are they starting soon, daddy?" Arwen asked.
Sheldon looked out to see one of the engineers walking to the platform with a remote with a red button, a bow on top. Ceremonial rocket detonator, he guessed.
"I think so," he said, looking down at his daughter, the spitting image of her mother, but her eyes not the deep brown, but rather a lighter shade, with flecks of blue.
A sad thought struck him. Arwen would be beginning full day kindergarten in two weeks. The past few years, he'd been able to work from home part time to alleviate the hours Arwen spent in child care, and he would miss the days of puzzles, tea parties, and story times. Still, he looked forward to seeing the academic his daughter would become.
The engineer with the detonator approached Sheldon and Carson. The two men looked at one another, and Sheldon pointed toward Arwen.
"Go ahead," he said, smiling broadly at his little girl.
Arwen let out a yelp of joy and pressed the red button. The countdown began at thirty, and the crowd cheered loudly.
But Sheldon's eyes were not on the rocket. They locked on Rosemary's, who looked lovingly at him over the head of their excited daughter.
Author's Note: Thank you all so much for reading my The Big Bang Theory alternate universe. I truly enjoyed sharing my stories with you.
People write fanfiction for many reasons. For my Star Wars stories, I write with a deep love of the fandom, the universe, and the characters. However, this is not the reason I wrote TBBT fanfic. I began The New Beginning Experiment out of frustration for the plummeting quality of the show. I longed to see real character development, not the reliance on tired archetypes and plot tropes. I simply had other ideas, and I abandoned the show for my own universe, happy to play around with the characters, adding my own touch.
Having not watched the show in over a year, I felt I needed to stop writing TBBT fanfic; I am no longer a fan. But the story of Sheldon and Rosemary seemed unfinished, and thus we have The Wedding Day Reflection.
I arrogantly adore my character development of Sheldon as well as Amy, and I loved creating characters to support and challenge them as they grew and changed. If at least one reader out there in the wide world found my stories engaging, I am satisfied.
But this is it…I was late to the TBBT party (caught up then began watching about season five), and I am happy to leave early. Still, I am grateful to the supportive people in this fandom, and I hope we will meet again. Please follow my other work; I have many more stories planned in Star Wars as well as other fandoms.
Take care, everyone, and happy reading!