The Alternate Dimension

S I X

"I didn't know that shopping for your kids would bore you." Penny says as she looks at her best friend at her rearview mirror.

Bernadette, Penny and Amy were returning from their shopping trip when they notice Amy a little too quiet on the ride home. They were supposed to go into another baby store when they finally decided to call it a day since their pregnant friend seem out of sorts.

"Is there anything wrong, Amy?" Penny repeats.

"Huh?" Amy glances at her friends "Oh, I'm sorry. There's just a lot going through in my mind right now."

"Sheldon, huh?" Bernadette looks at Amy and she nods.

Amy sinks into the car seat and sighs "I know I'm being inconsiderate being irritable around my husband, but I feel so tired all the time. Plus, it doesn't help that he's adhering to a regular schedule, ticking off 'to do lists', and his insane notion that I might fall and break if he isn't there." Her friends laugh, and she glares at them "It took me 3 days of begging for him to allow you guys to take me out. I love Sheldon, I really do, but he's driving me insane."

"Wow. I never thought I would see the day when Amy would complain that Sheldon is being too clingy." Penny says. "Sorry. But isn't it better if you talk to him? We all know he can be a little cuckoo sometimes...."

Bernadette interjects, "Sometimes?" she raises her brow at Penny.

Penny rolls her eyes and continues "He may go overboard most of the time but he's your husband. You need to tell him what makes you uncomfortable."

"Plus, we can't stand the guys complaining about Sheldon." Bernadette laughs and Penny nods.

****

Sheldon sighs and picks on his food. Everyone pauses their weekly D&D game to look at their friend.

"Buddy, what's wrong?" Leonard asks him, worriedly but his best friend just sighs.

"It's your turn, Sheldon." Howard gets his attention.

Leonard could only glare at his friend for being inconsiderate. Sheldon was unusually quiet during their game which kind of weirds him out. He would occasionally nod, and sigh and Leonard would just look at him. What freaked him out the most is when his best friend just smiled when Howard boasted about his new project as an engineer.

"You're awfully quiet, which is unusual because you are never quiet." Leonard points out. Sheldon glares at him "Come on, talk to us."

"If you insist...alright." Sheldon sits upright sighs once more "Do you think I'm too controlling?"

All three of them look at one another. "Let me put it this in a way you might understand. Sheldon, you love to spend your waking days controlling every aspect of everyone's lives like the mad puppeteer." Howard points out and Raj laughs.

"Don't listen to him, Sheldon. You're not that controlling." Leonard taps his best friend's arm.

"Really? You don't actually see Sheldon as a dementor who loves to suck joy out of everyone's lives?" Howard muses "Well, he kind of looks like one. He's tall and pale, he fits the description perfectly."

Sheldon glares at Howard. "Anyway..." he continues "I recently noticed Amy trying to avoid me these past few days. I confronted her, but she suddenly flared up and told me that I'm suffocating her. I'm not smothering her, right?" he looks at his friends, but they just stare at him.

Raj looks at Sheldon, "Why don't you talk to Amy instead of overthinking everything? This isn't like you."

Sheldon is about to retort when the door to the apartment opens, "You know...I saw this cute little crib in IKEA the other night and it would be perfect for your twins....we could decorate it...." Penny lays her keys on the table and sees the other guys staring at them "Hi, you're all here..."