A/N: Thank you so much for the reviews and for your patience! You guys are the best. :)

Sheldon

"AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHH HHHH!" Sheldon yelled. He had never been in so much pain in his life.

"What the hell, Sheldon?" Penny asked, turning the video camera away from Amy and towards Sheldon. He whimpered as Dr. Billings said, "Alright Amy, let's have another push." As Amy began pushing, she once again squeezed Sheldon's hand so hard that he was certain the bones breaking.

At least he was already at the hospital.

Sheldon glared at the camera, already ruing his agreeing to let Penny stay and video the birth. He looked at Amy, whose face was currently scrunched, red, and sweating. It had been her idea, of course. As soon as the nurse had said she was ready to push, Amy had requested that Penny stay so that Sheldon would have both hands free to help her through the pushing process. So far, however, the only way in which Sheldon had been able to help was to lend his hands to Amy for her use in crushing.

Penny lifted her head from the camera and shooed her hand at him for the umpteenth time. "Encourage her, Sheldon."

Amy stopped pushing at that moment, having been given a momentary reprieve by the doctor, and leaned back, eyes closed and breathing heavily. This entire ordeal was wearing Sheldon out. He hadn't slept in over twenty-four hours and Amy had demanded his presence every moment from the time they had arrived at the hospital. Naturally he had expected the labor and delivery process to be arduous, but he had expected it to begin after waking from a good night's rest, not after one of the longest days, and evenings, of his life. He scowled to himself. This was just another show of blatant disrespect by his and Amy's prodigy.

Sheldon sighed, trying to ignore the pain in his hands, reached over to grab a wet wash cloth, and began wiping Amy's sweaty face. He had requested the cloth after Amy had buried her sweaty face in his shirt earlier. He had been about to protest, but had noticed a look from Penny, and had therefore simply requested the washcloth with which he could wipe her face clean.

As Sheldon wiped the cloth down the side of her face, Amy turned her head towards him and opened her eyes. Though he was still not adept at reading facial expressions, even he could see the pain mirrored there. Amy's eyebrows were knit together, her eyes glassy, mostly likely from being awake all night, and filled with tears. Sheldon hated the look, and wished he could make it go away.

He swallowed. "I'm sorry, Amy." The apology sounded inadequate, given the amount of pain she was in, but it was all he could think to say at the moment.

Amy shook her head ever so slightly.

Sheldon was just about to ask what her headshake meant when the doctor said, "Ok, Amy, start pushing."

Amy reached her other hand over to grab Sheldon's other hand, pulling both sets of hands close to her chest, and began pushing again, eyes closed, screaming, and crushing both of Sheldon's hands.

Penny, keeping the camera trained on Amy, said, "Come on, Amy, you can do it!" Then she raised her head and gave Sheldon a look. "Sheldon…"

Sheldon looked at Amy's scrunched face, trying to gather the emotional energy he needed to be there for her. "Keep pushing, Amy," he said, feeling very unsure of himself and his ability to help Amy during this time. In response, Amy pulled his hands closer to her face, leaning her forehead against them.

"Sheldon," one of the nurses said. He looked over at her. "Why don't you help push Amy up into a sitting position?"

Sheldon nodded, happy for something tangible and useful to do, and extracted his right hand, putting it behind Amy to push her forward.

"Alright, Amy," Dr. Billings said. "I can see the baby's head. You're almost done. I want you to give it all you've got this next time."

Amy, forehead still resting on Sheldon's hands, nodded slightly. Sheldon extracted a hand and gave Amy a slight pat on the shoulder. Not knowing what else to do, he turned his head so that his mouth was by Amy's ear, deciding to give the scientific approach to encouragement another shot. "Amy, what's the point of pushing?"

Amy turned her head slightly so that he could see her eyes. "To help the body's contractions expel the infant."

Sheldon nodded, and then leaned closer. "In that case, the current course of action that I suggest is for you to gather what remaining strength you have, and concentrate it in the lower region of your body so that this entire ordeal may be completed and you no longer have to be in pain."

Amy blinked at Sheldon for a moment. Then she nodded ever so slightly, took a deep breath, exhaled, and turned her head back towards the front. When the doctor said, "Alright Amy," she took a deep breath and then started pushing. Her face got all red again and she screamed.

"The baby's head is out!" said Dr. Billings. "Keep pushing!"

"Keep going, Amy!" Penny shouted.

"You can do it, Amy!" the nurses were shouting.

Sheldon put his forehead against the side of Amy's head and spoke quietly in her ear, "It's almost over, Amy. The baby is almost out and we'll finally be able to look him or her properly in the face and tell him or her that he or she inherited his or her stubborn streak from his or her mother."

Out of nowhere Amy chuckled, Sheldon wasn't sure at what, before she took another big breath, pulling his hand, wrapped in both of hers, back up to her forehead and continuing to push.

"The shoulders are out!" shouted the doctor. "Just one more good push!"

Sheldon swallowed, thankful that this exhausting situation was almost over and that Amy would shortly be out of pain. "You can do it, Amy," he said, eager for it all to be over. "Dr. Billings said one more push."

Amy nodded against his hands, took another big breath, and pushed.

And not three seconds later, she suddenly leaned back, opening her eyes as Sheldon heard a tiny cry. Before he had time to process the sound, a very messy, wet infant was placed on Amy's stomach…a little roughly in Sheldon's opinion.

"Congratulations!" Dr. Billings said. "A healthy baby boy!"

Sheldon looked from Amy, who had let go of his hands in favor of wrapping her arms around the messy ball of screaming infant, to his son, and then back to Amy.

He had a son. He blinked, completely uncertain of his emotions. He swallowed a lump in his throat as he watched the infant open his tiny eyes ever so slightly and look directly at Amy's face, which was now only a couple of inches away. She ran her finger down the side of his face, her other hand grabbing hold of the tiny hand and bringing it up to her lips to kiss.

He was so small. Sheldon frowned, getting worried. What if he was too small? Surely he wasn't over five pounds. Nothing that small could be over five pounds.

"Well, dad, what do you have to say?" Penny asked, smiling at him through the video camera.

Sheldon blinked at the camera, but could think of nothing more to say, other than, "I have a son."

Amy seemed to remember that he was there at that moment, as she looked over at him and smiled. Perhaps it was the lack of sleep, or perhaps it was the endorphin rush he was most assuredly feeling at having this ordeal finally end, but Sheldon could not remember a time when Amy had looked as pretty as she did now…which was a little bit ridiculous considering her face was red, with tears streaming down it, and her hair matted on one side. Sheldon cocked his head. But no, she was most definitely as pretty as he had ever seen her.

"We have a son, Sheldon." She looked back at their baby. "A baby boy."

The only acknowledgement that Sheldon could manage at the moment was to nod, which Amy couldn't see as she was entirely focused on their son, running fingers down his cheeks, through his wet hair, of which there was a shocking amount, tapping his nose, kissing his tiny fingers. Sheldon had never seen Amy act this way before. She had been excited to hold Julia when she had been born, but had only held her for a few minutes before passing her back to Penny; and she had most certainly not spent her time making noises which Sheldon could only describe as cooing.

He felt a strange expanding in his chest, causing him to inhale, and before he knew what was happening, he was smiling. And he couldn't stop. He smiled at Penny and the camera. He smiled at the nurse as she brought over a towel and began wiping down his son. He smiled at his son and Amy.

After the nurse finished the rudimentary cleaning, she gently wrapped their son in a blanket, laying him back on Amy's chest. Amy looked up at Sheldon.

"Would you like to hold him?"

The smile faded from his face. Hold his son? What if he dropped him? What if he held him wrong and he accidentally broke his tiny arm? His son's appendages were far too tiny and fragile to be held by Sheldon. His shook his head, his eyes widening.

Amy raised a hand to Sheldon's arm and smiled. "It's alright. You're not going to drop him."

Sheldon looked from the infant to Amy. "How do you know I'm not?"

"Because you're far too brilliant for that."

Sheldon swallowed, still unsure. Amy pulled him down, saying, "Just put your arms together and I'll put him in." Sheldon put his arms together like he had seen on television and Amy gently placed their son in the crook of his arm.

Sheldon very slowly stood up, careful not to move his arms.

"Hug him to your chest," Penny suggested. "And move your bottom arm so that you're supporting him from underneath."

Sheldon made the necessary adjustments, feeling a bit better when his son felt more secure in his arms. He stared down, processing every visible feature, and not quite able to reconcile in his mind that the infant in his arms was the tangible product of his proposal over nine months prior.

As Sheldon marveled at this, his son opened his eyes and looked up at him. Sheldon swallowed as the feeling in his chest swelled again. "Hello," he said, "I am your father, Doctor Sheldon Lee Cooper." The infant merely blinked. Sheldon supposed he would have done the same if he had learned his father was a world renowned physicist. His son closed his eyes. Sheldon looked over at Amy, to find her watching him with a smile on her face.

Sheldon then remembered something he had read. "What time is it? How long has it been since birth?"

"About ten minutes," Penny said.

Sheldon blinked in surprise. "That's all?" It seemed like much more time had passed. He cleared his throat, leaning down slowly to pass Amy back the infant. "You have to nurse him immediately. The literature all said that the first feeding must take place within the first sixty minutes."

A nurse walked over to assist Amy. As she walked up, she smiled at Sheldon and Amy and asked, "So what's his name?"

Sheldon and Amy looked at each other.

"Let's have another baby," Penny said, staring down at the infant in her arms.

Leonard choked. "I beg your pardon?" His voice cracked in the middle. "Don't you think it's a little soon for that?"

Penny leaned her face down and made cooing noises. Then her voice took on an extremely annoying high pitch quality as she said, "You want a little buddy to play with don't you. Tell Uncle Leonard that you want a friend to play with."

Howard walked over and clapped Leonard on the shoulder. "Yeah, Leonard. Julia's over two now. What's say you two crank out another kid?"

Leonard glared at Howard. "Yeah, why don't we wait until Bernadette has your baby and see what you say when you haven't slept in thirty-six hours and you fall asleep in the middle of the presentation that you are giving."

Penny's head snapped up. "Are you saying you don't want to have any more kids?"

Leonard laughed nervously. "No, no. Of course not." He suddenly held out his arms. "Why don't you let me hold him?"

Penny narrowed her eyes but eventually handed Leonard the baby.

"Soooo," Raj said, turning to Sheldon and Amy expectantly.

Sheldon blinked at Raj in confusion. "So, what?"

Raj rolled his eyes. "So what is his name?"

"Ah," Sheldon said, now comprehending. "Stephen Leonard Cooper."

"Oh, that's nice!" Raj said. "You named him after Leonard?"

Sheldon said "no" at the same time that Amy said "yes."

Amy frowned and looked at Sheldon. "What do you mean no? You were the one who suggested it."

Sheldon nodded. "Right. After Leonard Nimoy."

Penny rolled her eyes, and Sheldon frowned at her.

"Sheldon," Amy said, raising her eyebrows. "I already agreed to name our son after a physicist. I will not also name him after an actor."

"But the actor played Spock!" Sheldon protested.

Amy narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms. Sheldon, knowing the look, having seen it many times, sighed in defeat. "Fine." He crossed his arms. "We can name him after Leonard."

"Gee…" Leonard said. "I'm so touched."

Amy looked at Leonard. "If you don't appreciate the gesture I'm sure we can find another middle name which is more suitable to the name Stephen. Perhaps a one syllable name, like Lee."

"No, no," Leonard said hastily, "I'm extremely honored."

Raj and Rani, meanwhile, had been having a whispered argument. Sheldon gave it little attention until Raj spoke a little louder to Rani and said, "Oh come on. Can't we please just tell them?"

"Tell us what?" asked Bernadette.

Rani sighed and then nodded at Raj. Just as he was about to speak, however, she held up her index finger. "I would like to go on record as saying I did not want to share this information tonight." She looked at Amy. "I didn't want to overtake your momentous day with any other news."

Amy raised her eyebrows. "What news could possibly overtake this glorious day?"

Raj reached over to grab Rani's hand, smiling at her. "Well…" He looked back at the rest of the gang. "We're engaged!"

Penny and Bernadette squealed and Howard ran over quickly to hug his best friend.

"Congratulations!" Amy said from her bed. Leonard, still having Stephen in his arms, smiled and also gave his congratulations.

Sheldon frowned, confused. "Why on earth would the news of Raj's engagement be in any way more important that the birth of our child?"

Amy leaned over. "It's not, but let's go ahead and let them have this one."

After all of the women had taken a moment to stare that the ring on Rani's finger, Stephen began to cry. Amy immediately reached out her hands to take him back, and as soon as he was in her arms, she seemed to forget that anyone else was around.

"I think it's time we all go," Penny said, smiling at Amy.

The others nodded and began making their way to the door, when Raj suddenly stopped and turned back. "Hey! I just realized the date."

Sheldon blinked back at Raj in total confusion. To be honest, Sheldon wasn't entirely sure what day of the week it was, let alone the date.

"It's May twenty-fourth," he said smiling. The other's looked confused now, but Sheldon and Amy looked at each other with eyebrows raised. Amy was the first to overcome her shock and smile at Sheldon. He smiled back.

"I don't get it," Penny said. "What's so special about May twenty-fourth?"

Amy, still smiling, looked over and said, "That's the day that Sheldon and I first met, seven years ago."

The group all reacted with various "wow"s and "cool"s and then waved and continued out the door.

Sheldon watched as Amy tried to nurse their whimpering son, relishing the social reprieve before his and Amy's relatives descended upon them, and contemplating the fact that their son had been born on such a significant date. As he watched his wife and child, he again felt the swelling in his chest, causing his smile to return. While he most certainly did not believe in fate or any other such nonsense, he couldn't help but wonder at the fact that two very life altering events had transpired on the same date.

When his son finally succeeded in his goal of proper suckling, Amy lifted her head to look at Sheldon, tears in her eyes.

Sheldon sat up immediately, his smile fading. "What is it? Are you in pain? Should I call the nurse?"

Amy laughed lightly and shook her head, sniffing. "No. Nothing's wrong."

Sheldon blinked, confused. "Then why are you crying?"

Amy smiled. "I'm just very happy."

Sheldon relaxed back into his chair. "Oh."

He looked back at Amy, who was still smiling at him, and found himself smiling back. He looked from her to their son and back. "Me too."

The End

A/N: And that concludes my Shamy-series! All the gaps in between the Relationship Evolution and it's epilogue have been filled. It's been a blast writing for you. Thank you so much for reading and for those that have reviewed. You are a fantastic audience. :)