"Was that really supposed to be your last lecture? You seemed so sure of yourself when I asked when you were next speaking…'Tomorrow' you said when I asked, no hesitation at all." Amy asked softly as she started preparing their meal and Sheldon crossed over to wrap his arms around her from behind, placing a soft kiss to the side of her neck.
"I just blurted out the first thing that came to mind, you took my breath away. I left the lecture hall and went straight to the Dean's office and practically begged him to let me stay on. Only the day before he'd asked whether I would consider extending my time by a few weeks and I practically bit his head off…he must have thought I was off my rocker when I said I'd changed my mind. A few weeks turned into a month and then they just let me stay."
After they finished their meal and clearing everything away, Amy suggested that they could both do with an early night after the disturbance of the last few nights. Sheldon agreed and they snuggled down under the covers, whispering their goodnights and exchanging a gentle kiss.
Sheldon bolted upright in bed in the early hours of Saturday morning and scanned the room wondering what had pulled him out of his deep REM sleep. A girlish shriek and a string of muffled curses drifting from the area of the living room had him throwing back the comforter and slipping on his robe.
"What's going on?" Amy's sleepy voice coming from under the pillow had him going over to pull the covers higher over her shoulders and dropping a kiss to her forehead.
"Ssh, go back to sleep. It's probably just Ritchie watching a horror flick and screaming like a wussy."
"Mmm…'kay." Amy rolled over and buried her head deeper into the bed and Sheldon smiled faintly at her ability to return to sleep with barely even a pause. Before leaving their bedroom Sheldon took a moment to retrieve the small bag containing the pregnancy test kit and left it on Amy's nightstand, setting her glasses carefully on top of the box so that she couldn't deny seeing it. As Sheldon pulled the belt of his robe tighter around his waist he wondered what could have had disturbed Amy's brothers' rest at such an early hour; Ritchie's flight had been delayed so it had been nearly eleven by the time they had left the airport. Sheldon had offered their couch for the night, not wanting Amy to have to drive all the way over to Glendale and then back to Pasadena at such a late hour. They had chatted for a while and finally got to bed around one in the morning; Sheldon checked his watch and saw that it was approaching four o'clock. He rounded the corner of the hallway and came to abrupt halt at the top of the stairs.
"Missy! What on earth are you doing?"
"Shelly, thank God...quick, hand me the phone!" The slender brunette was pinning a tall, broad man to the floor and growling when he simply grinned up at her. "I don't know what you've got to smile about, you're lucky I'm not packin' heat."
"Get off him, Missy." Sheldon ordered brusquely. "You're choking Amy's brother."
"Oh, Lordy..." Missy's face was scarlet as she scrambled off Ritchie's prone body and tried to straighten out her clothing. "I am so sorry, sugar…It was dark and I wasn't expecting anyone to be moving around without a light on."
"That's alright…nicest tackle I've ever had." Ritchie got to his feet and held out his hand. "Richard Fowler, pleased to meet you."
"Missy Cooper." Missy shook Ritchie's hand and gave him a shy smile. "Likewise." Missy glanced over at her brother as she dropped her hand away. "I came instead of Meemaw, she's got a bit of a cold and didn't feel like flying; she sent me with her apologies and a box of goodies."
"Aw, poor Meemaw." Ritchie and Sheldon murmured at the same time, and let out a chuckle. "I hope she's not too poorly." Ritchie added and Missy shook her head.
"It's not too bad, but she didn't want to block her sinuses by being cooped up in a pressurised cabin for four hours. I'm under orders to take a heap of photos and report back on Tuesday. I was hoping to crash on your couch, but I see it's already occupied."
"You can sleep in Leonard's room tonight, he's staying over at Penny's."
"Ooh are they an item again? Penny didn't say anything when we spoke last week." Missy clapped her hands together and squealed in excitement. Sheldon hushed her, glancing back in the direction of the bedroom where Amy was still sleeping.
"It's a recent development; they're currently at the 'on-again' stage of their yo-yo romance; who knows how long it will last for this time. Come on, let's get you settled in before the troops descend for breakfast." Sheldon placed his hand on Missy's shoulder and started steering her in the direction of the bedrooms.
"Wait up, sugar. I need to put Meemaw's pie in the fridge." Missy turned back to grab the box of treats from where she had set it down near the door. She pulled back the flaps and revealed the two Pecan pies sitting on top of a box of cookies. "Sugar cookies and chocolate chunk; she remembered your favourites."
"Goody…I'll hide them away before Penny gets her hands on them." Sheldon tucked the box into the topmost cupboard in the kitchen; somewhere only he was able to reach without having to use a footstool.
"She still helping herself so she doesn't have to buy groceries?"
"Yeah, it stopped for a while when she started dating someone else; but it's bound to get worse now that she's back with Leonard." Sheldon groused, and Missy chuckled lightly. "Ssh, Amy's gone back to sleep and I don't want you waking her up again."
"Aw, that's so sweet…" Missy rubbed her cheek against Sheldon's shoulder affectionately and smiled softly at her brother. "Feels good don't it? Having her back again, I mean?"
"Yeah, it really does." Brother and sister leant their foreheads together a moment before Sheldon gently wrapped a lean arm around Missy's waist and steered her out of the kitchen. "Come on, off to bed for a couple of hours and then you can catch me up with everything that's happening at home over breakfast." Sheldon glanced over his shoulder to where Ritchie was folding back the blanket on the couch. "Not going back to sleep, Ritchie?"
"Nah, too awake now." Ritchie wandered over to the kitchen and started rummaging through the cupboards. "Jeez, Coop...What happened to the Saturday morning bakeathon's? Where's all your good stuff?"
"You're forgetting that Amy and I have only been reunited for a short time, we haven't got into all of our old habits as yet." Sheldon yawned and rubbed a hand over his bristly chin and Ritchie grinned over at his brother-in-law.
"You head on back to bed and I'll go out and grab some stuff for breakfast." He glanced down at his watch and back up at Sheldon. "Croissants or french toast made with brioche?"
"As much as I love your brioche, I don't think Amy would like to wait until nearly ten for breakfast..." Sheldon replied and Ritchie shrugged his shoulders.
"It would be so worth the wait though..."
"Mmm, true." Sheldon twitched a little and Missy homed in on his involuntary reaction immediately.
"Shelly, there something you wanna share with your favourite sister?" She asked softly, moving closer to her brother's side, Sheldon glanced away and then started chewing nervously on his bottom lip. "Sugar, you know you can tell me anything, right?"
"I know, Missy..." Sheldon leant his forehead slightly forward so that it rested against the crown of his sisters' hair and he hummed lightly under his breath as Missy started rubbing soothing circles around his back. "There's a chance Amy might be pregnant again, only a slight one but a chance nonetheless." Sheldon kept his voice low as not to disturb his sleeping wife but both of his companions heard the tinge of expectation in his voice, and Ritchie caught the underlying tone of worry as well. He stepped forward and gently nudged Missy aside so that he could stand in front of one of his best friends. Ritchie placed his hands on Sheldon's forearms and looked directly into his eyes.
"Sheldon...it's okay." Ritchie had stayed with Sheldon and Amy after Emily's cremation and saw how devastated the younger man had been, especially when Amy had started withdrawing even further away. He knew how much Sheldon had been looking forward to the arrival of his daughter, getting involved with everything from arranging the clothes in the tiny dresser to attending 'Daddy and Baby' classes at the local Y. Sheldon looked down at Ritchie's hands on his arms and felt his defences crumble away. Ritchie felt the trembles in Sheldon's frame and the tears forming behind his eyes, making them look even more luminous than they already were. "It won't make you love Emmy any less, you big lug..." As soon as Ritchie said the words, Sheldon's breath hitched in his throat and he started shaking. Ritchie led Sheldon over to the couch and flung his arm over Sheldon's shoulder, throwing a look over to Missy and jerking his head over to the arm of the couch. Missy crossed over to sit down next to her brother and the pair of them sandwiched Sheldon between them as he sobbed against Ritchie's shoulder.
"Aw sugar...your heart is so big that it's gonna have room to love as many kids as you and Amy choose to have. Emily was your firstborn and nothing can ever take that away...she's always gonna be right there." Missy rubbed her hand over her brother's chest, placing a kiss directly over his heart. "It won't matter if you have one, three or six kids...she's got her own space and it won't make you love the others any more or her less, it just doesn't work like that."
"She's right, Coop." Ritchie murmured quietly as Sheldon's sobs settled down to jerky breaths intersperced with rattly sighs. "Your heart expands to make everything fit."
"I just didn't know that I was even capable of feeling that much emotion." Sheldon finally managed to speak, his voice husky with tears. "First Amy...then Emily...It just filled me with joy and I finally felt complete. When they both were gone, I was so empty and soulless and I don't ever want to feel that way again."
"You won't...I promise." Ritchie tapped Sheldon's shoulder to make him meet his eyes, and Sheldon saw the conviction shining from his brother-in-law. "I promise." Sheldon nodded reluctantly and Ritchie playpunched his arm when he wasn't convinced. "I'm gonna tell you something that I was saving as a surprise for tonight...but you've got to promise to keep it quiet for today."
"You know how I hate secrets!" Sheldon moaned and Ritchie grinned.
"You'll like this one, I hope. I'm no longer on active duty with the Navy...for the foreseeable future I'm gonna be land based, working on a special project for my new team."
"New team, but you love being a Navy pilot!" Sheldon was shocked, he had thought that Ritchie would never want to leave the jetset life of a Navy pilot behind him, but from the look on Ritchie's face he was brimming with excitement for his future.
"Something better came along...My new team is right here in California."
"Here? Doing what?"
"You're not the only one gonna be working out of Cal-Tech this year, Coop." Ritchie grinned and Sheldon started thinking about what the other man could possibly be working on at his University.
"Not engineering, please!" Sheldon hid his face in his hands and groaned aloud, just the thought of Ritchie working with the likes of Howard made his skin crawl.
"Not quite buddy...you're looking at the project leader for a new design of remote controlled exploration craft; I'm gonna be working out of the Jet Propulsion Lab over at La Canada Flintridge; if everything goes well this year then I go onto my new team in Houston."
"You're gonna be working at NASA?"
"Well technically I've been working for NASA for the past eight months, but I got my official transfer papers last week." Ritchie suddenly grinned as Sheldon pulled him into a warm hug.
"You're really gonna be staying in California?" Sheldon murmured against Ritchie's shoulder and felt him nod.
"Yup, you've gotta put up with me for at least a year; maybe more if the first design doesn't quite go to plan." The two men separated and both wiped their eyes, completely unashamed of showing their emotions, and Missy smiled.
"Maybe I can show you around Houston when you get up there." She offered with a slow wink and Ritchie grinned.
"Maybe I'll just take you up on that offer." He flirted back, knowing that a tour of Houston wasn't what was being offered and he saw Missy's smile widen; he opened his mouth to say something else but Sheldon's ears had heard something that he never thought he'd hear again…the unmistakable sound of someone retching in the bathroom…