fic: daddy's girl
Title: Daddy's Girl (Oneshot)
Word Count: 996
Rating: PG
Spoilers: None
Disclaimer: I own nada.
Summary: Penny watches Sheldon with their newborn daughter.
Warning: Again, here there be FLUFF. Serious, major FLUFF. Like... you know what, there is no appropriate simile for the sheer fluffiness of this fic - it's THAT sickening.
Can be read as a sequel to my fic 'Basics' but it's not mentioned at all.
Sooo... I'm supposed to be revising for my exams that start in 14 hours, but instead I wrote this. Once again, like with Basics, I am slightly disgusted at myself. However, none of you seemed to mind the hideous fluff level of that fic, so hopefully no-one will be too scarred by this one either. Enjoy!
Daddy's Girl
It was the shift of weight that pulled Penny from her sleep. She awoke very suddenly, but her body was too physically drained and drugged for her to do more than open her eyes the tiniest bit. She first thing she saw was Sheldon - his hair messy and his shirt rumpled - sitting up straight and looking slightly panicked. From the crease marks on his cheek and the rapidly cooling spot at her side, she guessed that he’d been sleeping with his head on her bed.
Then she heard it. A baby crying. Their baby crying. Well, not crying... but definitely sounding like she was going to.
Penny felt more awake with the realisation that her daughter needed something, but she didn’t move - Sheldon had jumped up from his seat and hurried to the foot of Penny’s bed, where the clear plastic crib was.
“Now now, don’t cry... there there,” Penny heard Sheldon say very quietly. “Your mother is sleeping, and I would greatly appreciate it if you did not wake her.”
Penny had to physically restrain herself from rolling her eyes at the sound of her husband trying to negotiate with their newborn child, and decided to stay still and see how he would handle the situation.
The baby was still whimpering, but to her relief a moment later Penny heard the sound of rustling sheets and knew Sheldon was picking her up. “Alright, here we are, there there...”
The whimpering quietened down, and Penny allowed herself a small smile. She couldn’t see Sheldon, but she still remembered how he’d looked when he’d held their daughter for the first time. She’d always remember.
“There now, that’s better isn’t it?” Sheldon was saying softly. “I apologise, you don’t have a name just yet. Your mother and I... are having creative differences on the matter.”
Sheldon wandered back into Penny’s line of sight - he was standing in profile to her, and staring straight down at the baby in his arms. Their daughter was looking right back at him, her blue eyes locked with his. Penny knew there was a chance they would change colour, but she really hoped they wouldn’t.
“You will be pleased to know, however, that I intend to rectify the situation by 1700 hours tomorrow - that is when your grandmother is due to arrive, and if you are not named by then she will most likely take it upon herself to name you,” Sheldon was saying now. “That is how your cousin came to be named Montgomery.”
Penny inwardly cringed - yeah, Missy still couldn’t say for sure how that had happened.
“Now... Miss Cooper... you really must be getting back to sleep,” Sheldon said, rocking the baby gently. “You have only been asleep for thirty-seven minutes, and newborns require up to 16 hours of sleep per day, usually sleeping between 3-4 hours at a time. You do not want to get into a bad sleeping pattern this early in life.”
The baby’s eyes remained defiantly open.
Sheldon’s voice took on a wheedling tone. “Furthermore, sleep is essential for growth in infants.”
She blinked, but otherwise ignored him.
Sheldon gently placed a hand on her chest, and she grabbed hold of his little finger in her tiny fist. He smiled and, to Penny’s utter surprise, started to sing. “Soft kitty, warm kitty, little ball of fur, happy kitty, sleepy kitty, purr purr purr...”
He continued to rock their daughter, shifting his weight from foot to foot in time with the song, and Penny watched as the baby’s eyes started to close on the second repetition of the song. By the fifth time Sheldon sung it, she was fast asleep.
Sheldon sang the song one last time, and then very slowly walked back over to the crib. Penny watched his every move, turning her head so she could still see him as he gently kissed their daughter’s hand before pulling his finger out of her grip and lowering her back into the crib.
“There now, Miss Cooper,” he said as he straightened her blanket. “You need your sleep.”
He looked up at Penny and gave her an unimpressed look. “And so do you, Mrs Cooper.”
Penny just smiled and nodded her head in a beckoning gesture. Sheldon gave the baby one last look before walking back over to Penny’s side and sitting back down in his chair, looking at her expectantly.
Penny reached out for his hand, which he obediently supplied. She linked their fingers together and gave him another smile. “We can call her Marie if you want,” she said.
Sheldon’s eyebrows knit together; Penny wasn’t surprised at his confusion. They’d been arguing over their name choices for a month. Sheldon wanted to call her Marie, after Marie Curie... Penny really wanted to call her Jessica, because... well, it was her favourite girl’s name. And she’d known a Marie in high school - man she’d been a bitch.
But her Mom had always said that children named themselves, and when she’d held her daughter in her arms, Penny had had to admit that she didn’t really look like a Jessica to her. And just then, when she was being sung to sleep by her daddy, she’d looked like a Marie.
“Why the sudden change of opinion?” Sheldon asked.
Penny knew Sheldon wouldn’t accept ‘she looks like a Marie’ as a logical reason for naming her that, so she didn’t say it out loud. She just shrugged. “I’m conceding defeat Sheldon,” she said. “Accept your victory graciously.”
Sheldon looked over at the crib, and then back at Penny. “We can make Jessica her middle name if you’d like,” he said.
Penny smiled and squeezed his hand. “That sounds perfect.”
Sheldon nodded and looked back at their sleeping daughter. “Marie Jessica Cooper,” he said softly. He turned back to Penny just in time to see her roll her eyes.
“What?” He asked.
Penny grinned. “Nothing... it’s just that I know she is going to be such a daddy’s girl...”