"i have such a profound sense of creation. i, it’s like when i hatched sea monkeys, except that this is from my dna, so this is like me monkeys." "these cells come from both of us."
"yeah, but us monkeys doesn’t pop. oh, oh, oh, oh, wait, we monkeys, there you go."
s10 ep 08 - the brain bowl incubation
"clearly the combination of our dna is exceptional. our child could be the next step in the evolution of mankind. we’ll be able to get into any preschool we want!"
PENNY: Are you ever gonna sleep with Amy?
SHELDON: That's awfully personal.
LEONARD: We don't ask Sheldon things like thaaaatttt...
PENNY: Maybe you don't, I do, what's the deal?
Do you think Leonard Cooper ever gets in fights with other kids at school over comments they make about his parents? Like maybe Sheldon and Amy give a talk about their work and winning the Nobel Prize for Career Day but then all Leonard's classmates can talk about is how his dad is super weird and his mom is super hot?
Why do we just call Sheldon and Amy's son Leonard Cooper when it's also Amy's child? Amy didn't take the last name 'Cooper.' It's properly, 'Leonard Cooper-Fowler.' Smh.
I'm a bit rusty, but I wrote a story inspired by a line in Young Sheldon that bothered me more than it probably should have. I'm not sure how old Leonard Cooper was meant to be, but figure he's about eleven here, so I guess his sister could be around nine. Her name is Marie in this, since the writers apparently couldn't be bothered to give her one.
Word count: 2450. More or less.
***
“Eight… nine… ten!” Marie Cooper removed her hands from her eyes. “Ready or not, here I come!”
Sheldon smiled and shook his head as he watched his daughter run off and try to find her brother. Now that they were getting older, they didn't play together as much as they used to, but a particularly stormy day had knocked their Wi-Fi out of commission and (after 45 minutes of whining) seemed to leave them little choice but to entertain each other with a good old fashioned game of Hide-and-Seek.
He turned the page of his book, still keeping an ear out for the sound of his daughter's feet as she bounded up the stairs. One might have thought she was a herd of wildebeest by the amount of noise she was making.
“I'm gonna get you, Leonard!" She called as she made it to the landing at the top of the stairs.
Sheldon heard the door to Leonard's bedroom open (that infernal hinge wouldn't stop squeaking no matter what they did with it), followed by Marie letting out a high-pitched squeal, and Leonard saying a word he should have been glad his mother wasn't around to hear.
“Alright, my turn,” Marie said, as Leonard started to count.
Sheldon settled back more comfortably in his seat, satisfied that the kids were staying out of trouble, and turned his attention back to his reading.
-
Just as Sheldon was about to finish his chapter and get a head start on dinner before Amy got home, Leonard raced into the living room, skidding a bit on the rug.
“Dad, Dad!” He said hurriedly, bouncing on the balls of his feet. His natural athleticism seemed to often manifest itself in the boy's inability to stand still at any given moment. “We’re eight rounds in and I'm running out of good hiding places, where should I go?”
“That closet in your room hasn't been cleaned in ages,” Sheldon said pointedly, standing from the couch and turning toward the kitchen. “I bet you could hide in there so long we'd forget what you looked like.”
Leonard scowled.
Sheldon patted his son on the head as he walked past him, making his way out of the room.
Marie's voice came into earshot. “Nine… ten!”
Leonard raced back up the stairs, apparently to take his father up on the suggestion.
-
Letting out a pained grunt as he shifted in the back of the closet, Leonard attempted to make himself somewhat comfortable in the limited space.
“Dad was right,” he muttered. “This place is a mess.”
... Not that he'd ever admit that out loud to said dad, of course.
Another shift in position, and an old Star Trek action figure started to speak its catchphrase as he accidentally sat on it. “Oh, shut up, Wesley,” he hissed, trying to stifle the sound with an old blanket.
It was unfortunately too little, too late, as he heard Marie's footsteps getting closer, before the closet door flung open. Leonard squinted as the light from his bedroom momentarily blinded him.
“There you are,” Marie said, as an avalanche of Leonard's belongings fell out of the closet, pooling at her feet. She kicked an old toy that had landed on her shoe aside. “You know, Mom tells you to clean your room all the time.”
“Don't be ridiculous,” Leonard grunted, attempting to extricate his long limbs from his cramped position. “Everyone knows cleaning your room doesn't include the closet. If anything, it’s where you throw everything so your mom thinks you cleaned your room.”
Finally managing to get to his feet, Leonard took a step forward, only to bump his head on a shelf and cause a box to fall on him in the process.
“Dammit, ow -” Leonard rubbed the back of his head where the box had hit him. “What was that?”
Marie shrugged, pulling the box aside and taking a closer look. “No organizational keywords written on it, so Dad didn't put it here.”
“Why would Dad put something in my closet?” Leonard asked, kicking whatever had fallen out back into the closet, leaning into the door to get it to latch shut.
“Why does Dad do anything he does?” Marie asked, with a roll of her eyes.
“Well, I didn't put it there,” Leonard said. “Open it.”
Marie did as instructed, eyes wide with excitement, only for her face to fall once she viewed its contents.
“It’s just a bunch of old t-shirts,” she said disappointedly. “Probably for you to grow into or something.”
“Me?” Leonard pulled a shirt off the top, holding it out at arms length. “I wouldn’t wear this, I hate Green Lantern.”
“Who knows, maybe they’re hand-me-downs,” Marie rooted through the box, looking hopeful there might be something more exciting underneath the clothes. “Lame,” she said, falling back as she came up empty.
“Dinner’s almost ready, go wash up -” Sheldon appeared in the hallway, peeking his head into the room. “Where did you get that?” He asked, eyes locking in on the shirt Leonard still held in his hands.
“Uh, it was in my closet,” Leonard said, pointing at the box. “It fell on my head.”
Sheldon stepped into the room, rifling through the box and grumbling to himself. Leonard couldn't help but notice the tips of his ears were turning pink.
“Dad, what is it?"
Sheldon lifted the box into his arms, an odd expression on his face. “These are all my old shirts. Your mother seems to have hidden them in the one place nobody ever goes… your closet.”
“Yours?” Leonard took a closer look at the shirt, feeling it between his fingers. It was clearly an older shirt, soft and well-cared for as all his father's clothes were, but the decal on the front faded from countless washes.
“She said I needed to start dressing like a -” Air quote. “Grown up’ once you two were born, and I knew there was no way all my clothes got lost in the move.”
“Mom hid all your shirts?” Marie asked.
“Taking pointers from your Aunt Penny, no doubt,” Sheldon muttered, taking the Green Lantern shirt from Leonard. “This was always one of my favorites, too.”
Marie seemed to have a renewed interest in the box, and stood on her tiptoes to peer back in while Sheldon still held it. “What about this one?” She pulled out a blue Batman one, and Sheldon looked at it with a nostalgic sort of smile.
“I wore that the day I asked your mother to be my girlfriend.” He placed the box on Leonard's desk, and dug through the box a bit more. “I wore this one the day we met.”
“How about this?” Marie pulled out a red shirt with The Flash logo on it.
“I wore that the first time your mother kissed me.”
“Ew,” Marie said, dropping it back into the box as if she'd been burned, her nose crinkled in disgust.
“Oh, she's never going to hear the end of this,” Sheldon said under his breath, just as the oven timer went off. “Hmm, it sounds like dinner is ready.”
He carefully folded the shirts and placed them back into the box, closing the lid and patting it fondly, as the three of them made their way back to the kitchen.
-
Amy had called earlier, claiming she was working late that night, and Sheldon knew that probably meant she was just meeting Penny after work, but he didn't mind. He was having a nice time eating dinner with the kids, they were some of the only people whose fondness for spaghetti and hot dogs rivaled his own. It almost reminded him of the family dinners he'd had growing up, although he had to admit his children made for much more stimulating conversation than his siblings ever did.
Just as Marie was telling them about her upcoming spelling bee and how if she won (which of course she would), she'd be going to the state championship next, Leonard let out a groan.
Sheldon looked over and saw that his son had dropped a fork full of spaghetti on the front of his shirt.
“Aw man, I liked this shirt,” Leonard moaned, dabbing at the sauce stain with a napkin.
“Go change,” Sheldon instructed, pointing toward Leonard’s room. “I'll pre-treat it after dinner.”
“Dad, you don't have to-”
“Leonard, please,” Sheldon said. “I can get stains out of almost anything. It's like a gift.”
Leonard rolled his eyes, but obeyed and stood from the table to change.
“Anyway, you were saying something about your spelling bee?” Sheldon turned his attention back to Marie.
“Leonard really can be exasperating sometimes, can't he, Dad?” Marie said sagely, shaking her head in a manner far beyond her years. “E-X-A-S-P-E-R-A-T-I-N-G.”
-
By the time Leonard returned, Sheldon and Marie had finished eating, and Sheldon was clearing their plates from the table.
“I made pie for dessert, but I was going to wait until your mother gets home,” Sheldon said, as Leonard sat back down to finish his dinner. “Although I'm not sure when she - what are you wearing?”
“What?” Leonard looked up from his plate.
“You're wearing my shirt,” Sheldon said, the dirty dishes momentarily forgotten.
“It's a nice shirt,” Leonard shrugged. “Since Mom doesn't want you to wear it anymore, I figured I could.”
“That is not at all what that means,” Sheldon argued.
“It was in my closet.”
“But it's mine,” Sheldon loved his son dearly, but there were some things a man just didn't share with his children. T-shirts purchased at an old comic book store with Stuart's friends-and-family discount was one of them. “Plus, it's too big for you.”
“It's not that big,” Leonard said with another shrug. “Another growth spurt or two, and I'll be as tall as you.”
“A terrifying concept, really,” Sheldon muttered. “But very well. I'll allow it. The color does suit you.”
Leonard shook his head, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, before turning back to his - likely now-cold - spaghetti.
-
With an exhausted sigh, Amy turned the key to the front door. It had been a long, long day. While she knew Sheldon probably figured she had met Penny for drinks after work, she really had been just that busy at the lab today. She was very much looking forward to grabbing a bite to eat, taking a scalding hot bath, and falling immediately into bed.
Pushing the door open, she expected the kids to already be in bed, and Sheldon to be watching one of his strictly after-the-kids-go-to-sleep television programs, but was surprised to see the three of them sitting around the coffee table, playing one of those complicated board games her husband (and now in turn her children) loved so much.
“Hi, Mommy!” Marie chirped, before letting out a groan as Leonard surpassed her on the board.
“Hi you,” Amy planted a kiss on the girl's head as she passed by, dropping her purse into a nearby chair. “I thought you'd be asleep already.”
“I wanted to stay up to say goodnight to you,” Marie said, sweetly.
“Yeah, right,” Leonard scoffed. “You just didn't want to go to bed."
“It's Friday,” was all Sheldon could say to defend himself against Amy's look.
“Fair enough,” she relented, and turned away to head toward the kitchen, when she stopped in her tracks.
“Where did you find that shirt?” She asked.
“Oh, this?” Sheldon said, innocently, his hand sitting gracefully on his chest, over the decal of one of his favorite The Flash shirts. The black one.
“And that,” Amy said, pointing at the one Leonard was wearing. “And that.” She looked over and saw Marie was also wearing one - an orange one.
“Lost in the move’,” Sheldon clicked his tongue. “Really, Amy.”
“I told you I didn't get rid of them,” Amy said.
“You just hid them in my closet,” Leonard said, seeming to enjoy his parents' bickering.
“It's not as if you can ever find anything in there,” Amy crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at her son. “If you’d cleaned it once in awhile, you might have found that box ages ago.”
Leonard's smile disappeared.
“For your information,” Amy said, falling onto the couch beside Sheldon, poking the graphic on the aforementioned shirt. “I only hid your things away when Leonard was born because you wouldn't stop freaking out and running to do laundry every time he spit up on you. It was very inconvenient to not only have to bring spare baby clothes in the diaper bag, but to bring spare husband clothes as well.”
“Leonard has been capable of controlling his intestinal distress for a number of years now,” Sheldon pointed out.
“Well, just about the time he'd figured that out, Marie was born,” Amy said with a shrug.
“And when she got older?”
“Oh, by then I just forgot,” Amy said casually, taking a handful of pretzels from the bowl they'd been snacking on while they played the board game. “And you looked so cute in your grown-up clothes, I guess it never occurred to me to look for them."
“Gross,” Leonard scoffed.
“Yeah, gross,” Marie echoed. She moved her piece on the board to avoid looking at her parents. “I win, I win!”
“Aw man,” Leonard moaned, pushing away from the table. “No fair.”
“Alright, both of you brush your teeth and up to bed,” Sheldon said.
“I'll be up in a little bit to say goodnight,” Amy added, as the kids relented and trotted up the stairs, one after the other.
Once they were out of earshot, Amy turned to her husband and danced her fingers up his arm, before fiddling with his collar. “You know… as much as I love you in your new clothes, there is something sentimental about seeing you in this one again.”
Sheldon placed his hand over hers. “I could wear both, you know.”
Amy thought for a moment. “You don't mean just wear these over your newer ones, do you?”
Sheldon didn't reply right away, confirming her suspicions that that was precisely what he'd had in mind.
“I could wear them on alternate days.”
Amy smiled. “I suppose I'd be okay with that.” She leaned in and gave him a quick kiss. “On one condition.”
“What's that?” Sheldon eyed her warily.
“Our Christmas card this year has all three of you in those matching shirts,” Amy said. “That was so cute, especially the way it came down past Marie's knees.”
Sheldon rolled his eyes, and Amy knew his mind was swimming with comments about how much he hated Christmas, and cards, and Christmas cards, but after a moment he said, “You run a hard bargain, Amy Farrah Fowler.” He stuck his hand out for her to shake. “You've got yourself a deal.”
And idea I had in mind for a very long time, and also kind of a real life experience with my daughter LOL. She once kept the paper and throw the content of a gift when she was just a baby haha.
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