AN: A little one shot! Enjoy.
Amy hummed cheerfully as she dissected the brain of some poor old soul. The person had died as an addict and she was trying to unlock the secrets of nicotine addiction. The reason for her humming was not the brain that was in front of her. But rather it was the thought of going to 2311 Los Robles later after work.
Sheldon had notified her through mail as well as a text that they were scheduled to have a quarterly relationship analysis meet that day.
Amy loved these meetings.
The meetings mostly consisted of going over minor changes in the agreement, a complain section and suggestions section. Not to mention that Sheldon being all confident and businesslike was titillating.
She sighed as she thought about her baby powder scented boyfriend. Gosh! His eyes were so blue that they resembled the ocean. Amy continued to day cream a little more, scalpel in hind hovering over the tissues and a vacant dreamy smile on her face, until her phone beeped with a message.
She reprimanded herself for getting lost in the thoughts of her Texan man, again.
The text was from a fore mentioned Texan man.
Amy, this is a reminder for our quarterly relationship analysis meet. See you at 6 pm.
-Sheldon.
Amy was particularly excited about this meeting.
She had a suggestion to make. One that she hadn't thought about before.
The idea had come to her that morning.
It was her colleague, Dr. Donald's birthday that day. They didn't have the policy of throwing a party at work so they had just expressed their wishes that he lived longer.
However Donald's wife, Joana, who had been out of town had come down to meet him during lunch. She brought a cake with her and had asked his colleagues to join her. The temptation of a black forest cake was too much to resist, so they had allowed her to herd them all into a conference hall.
Donald was over joyed to see his wife and even more so when she squealed 'Cookie dough' and flung herself upon him.
All the romantics went 'oooh' and 'Aww' over that. Whereas the majority stayed focused on the delicious cake.
It was later when they enjoying the cake (as delicious as it looked) that someone asked what Joana meant by 'Cookie dough'. It was a grinning Donald who answered that.
"It's her pet name for me", he said holding his wife by her waist.
"Yes. My favorite in the world" she said and smiled at him.
Later in the lab, the incident had Amy wondering.
They had been in a relationship for three years. They had even progressed to kissing (closed mouth) on date nights. Yay!
However she now realized that they didn't have any pet names for each other. Now that she thought about it, everybody had a pet name for their partner. Like Howard called Bernadette Bernie and she called him Howie. Penny called everybody sweetie but that was an entire matter differently.
So in today's meeting she would bring this up.
She had already thought about what name she could give Sheldon and had come up with a cute one.
She finished up slicing the brain and taking samples. She was the last one to leave the lab so she had to lock up things as well.
Finally at six she was in her car driving to Sheldon's. The Gods (whom she did not believe in) were merciful as there was very little traffic and she reached the flat on time. She was a stickler of punctuality and so was Sheldon.
He answered the door after the first knock.
"Hello! Amy. Come in" he said.
"Thank you, Sheldon."
"Make yourself comfortable. Would you like some tea?" he asked already heading into the kitchen.
"Yes. Lemon Zest would be great" she said as she sat on the couch, next to his spot.
As he made tea, Amy took a moment to ogle her boyfriend. He was wearing a sky blue shirt, his second favorite. The color looked amazing on him. His thin yet strong arms stretched as he reached for the mugs. She had to force herself to get a grip. Sheldon would definitely freak out if he saw her lusty stare.
He returned with two steaming mugs of tea and sat on his spot.
They talked about each other's day as they drank their tea. Once they were done, Sheldon went up to the computer drawer to get the documents. He first provided her with an itinerary, which he had already mailed her and then they proceeded with the events.
The meeting went well, for most part. Sheldon had yet again tried to change their date timings for his favor but she stood her ground. He even made his puppy face, but Amy had developed resistance to it. Well at least she thought she had. She was just about to give up, when he himself surrendered.
Well, that was close, she thought.
From then on it all went smoothly and it was time for suggestions.
"Amy do you have any suggestions to make? That is apart from suggesting that we engage in coitus?" he said as he notarized the new documents.
Like he had said, Amy always suggested that they engage in coitus each time providing a good reason with it. However they weren't good enough to sway her germ phobic boyfriend.
"Yes. I have a suggestion to make. As much as I wish to suggest what I usually do, this time it's different."
That picked up Sheldon's curiosity. He placed the notary stamp and looked at her.
"Yes?"
"I propose that we give other a pet name."
Sheldon's face morphed into one of confusion that came with social situations.
"Why would you want to do that? Pet names are simply stupid and irritating" he said.
Amy knew that he would resist so she made sure that she had a strong reason.
"It's a non-optional social obligation" she said simply.
"Are you trying to trick me, little lady?" he asked figure out whether it was really an obligation or not.
"Sheldon, other couple refer to each other as baby, darling, bae, babe and the list goes on."
"You want me to refer to you as baby?" he asked.
"Well you make it sound really weird. Anyway, No. I don't want to use these childish terms. Hence I've decided to call you cuddles" she said with a grin, clearly pleased with her choice of name.
"Cuddles? Well, that is ridiculous. Why would you call me cuddles?" he asked in disdain.
"I really like cuddling with you. It makes me feel warm and secure. Besides that is what comes up to my mind when I think about you."
Sheldon felt warmth spread through him as he heard her words. Yet, he tried to not show it.
"Fine. You can call me that, but only in private. And I don't like it" he said with a sniff.
Amy just smiled. She knew he liked it and would try to use the name a lot.
Like now.
"So what's my pet name, cuddles?" she asked eager to know.
Sheldon threw her, what she knew, a fake glare.
"I'll call you Gollum" he said.
When her mind connected the word with the image she had been forced many a times to watch, Amy instantly felt hurt.
Is that what comes to his mind when he thought her? She felt tears collect in her eyes.
Though Sheldon was not adept at reading facial cues, he was good at reading Amy's.
"Amy? Why do you look sad? Like you are going to cry?" he asked alarmed. He was worried about her and also about handling weepy.
"GOLLUM?" she screamed. "Is that what you think of me? An ugly half crazed obsessive creature?" her words filled with the hurt she felt.
Now Sheldon understood. He should probably explain. No definitely explain.
"Amy listen to me" he said trying to speak over her voice.
"Of all names you could think of, this is what you came up with?"
The first drop was tear was beginning to make its way from her eyes, sliding down her soft cheeks. Sheldon hastened to explain.
"Amy please let me explain."
"Fine go on. What do you have to say?" The hurt had turned into anger.
Now Sheldon didn't know how to explain. He really didn't want to sound hippy dippy but if he didn't say something Amy would surely be unhappy.
"Uh…" he said squirming.
"I'm listening" she said tapping her foot.
"It's because of the Gollum's famous dialogue" he said praying that she understood without him having to go into detail.
However Amy's face remained impassive.
"What dialogue?"
Sheldon sighed. He then took a deep breath and said "My precious."
For a moment Amy didn't react. But then her face split into the happiest smile he had ever seen. He had named her Gollum not because of the creature's appearance or character but for the dialogue. She was his precious. Amy had to violently resist the urge to kiss him.
"Really?" she asked.
"Truly" he confirmed.
That was enough for her.
AN: Thank you for reading! :D