Chapter 1
A few weeks had passed since Sheldon had arrived back in Pasadena after his train trip. Amy had gone with Leonard to pick him up in Arizona, but the reunion was not at all what she had pictured in her head. He had been robbed and lost all his belongings, which scared her half to death. When she saw him at the police station; other than being a bit flustered, he seemed himself. He was excited to go home, he was talking about trains with a childlike fascination, and giving vivid descriptions of all the stations he had visited. He was describing his trip like it was just some fun adventure, and not that he had run away from his life. That he was escaping all his problems…that he was escaping her.
He did not understand the tremendous effect his leaving had on her. She had felt destroyed, mocked and abandoned. She had cried in her apartment alone for weeks on end. When he had told her in the car, that he didn't want seem like a failure in front of her, she had felt elated. She was astonished that he cared so much about what she thought of him. But was that enough? She cared about Sheldon so much, she wanted more than anything to make this work. Maybe he had thought about things on his train trip. She should at least afford him the chance to explain, to show in actions that he cared. He didn't say anything specifically to her in that regard, but he must have thought about their relationship. He must have…
They went back to normal, except with an increase in the number of date nights, as to make up for the ones that were missed. Sheldon had asked her to join the gang for lunch tomorrow in the cafeteria at Caltech. She was happy to go. She was always happy to see Sheldon.
The first time that he had laid eyes on Amy Farrah Fowler was at lunchtime; she was in the cafeteria eating with Sheldon, Leonard, Howard and Raj. So this was Cooper's elusive girlfriend. She was not exactly what he had pictured. To be honest, he didn't really HAVE a clear picture of the type of girl that would date Sheldon Cooper in his head. All he knew that that she was a neurobiologist, she was dating that freak Cooper, and the two of them had wild sex all the time.
He looked her up and down. Pin straight hair, glasses, curvy little figure, kind of dressed up like a librarian. She looked so straight-laced; he was surprised that she was so naughty in bed. Rockets? Barry chuckled to himself at the thought. He wondered if naughty librarian was one of the games that they played together. He had to admit, he started liking Sheldon a little bit more when he found out that he had a girlfriend. It made him a little less of a robot and a bit more human. The gang looked like they were in a heated debate at the table. It was time to have a little fun, and make Cooper squirm a little.
"Good afternoon gentlemen" Kripke smiled. Sheldon looked over at him and the colour drained from his face. He looked tensely over at his girlfriend, who was smiling back at Barry Kripke.
"You must be the famous Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler?" Barry said grinning. Sheldon started squirming around in his chair.
"Famous? I'm hardly famous. You are?" Amy asked.
"Barry Kripke. Dr. Barry Kripke. I work in string theory with your lover boy here."
Amy looked at him curiously. So this was Barry Kripke… Sheldon's nemesis. He was on Sheldon's famous enemy list. He seemed friendly enough, although he had a weird speech impediment. This was the man that Sheldon was worried that his work superior to his. Interesting…he must be brilliant. He was not quite what she expected. He seemed quite friendly and out-going.
"Barry, don't you have other people to bother? We are having an intelligent discussion at this table, something that you would know nothing about." Sheldon huffed.
"Dude, we were talking about why they never make orange jello in the cafeteria." Raj muttered.
Sheldon shot Raj a dirty look and then looked over at Kripke nervously. He wanted to get him away from Amy, in case he decided to spill the beans about their sex life conversation. Kripke was eyeing Amy up and down with a funny grin on his face.
"Don't worry Cooper, I won't take any more time from your precious jello conversation. See you guys later. And I hope to meet you again soon Dr. Fowler. Cooper, nice to meet your reason for distraction" Barry grinned. Amy looked at him puzzled. Sheldon started coughing loudly, choking on his jello. Barry laughed, and walked out of the cafeteria.
"He seems nice" Amy said.
"Nice!? Nice? He's anything but nice. He humiliated me on NPR! Amy, you know he's on my enemies list. I think his sole purpose of being at Caltech is to torture me."
"I thought that was Leslie's purpose in life." Leonard chuckled. The rest of the table started laughing, and they all began talking with each other. Sheldon glanced at Amy. He needed to keep her away from Kripke, he couldn't have her know about the conversation that they had about her….and her bathing suit parts.
After their initial meeting, Barry seemed to run in Amy Farrah Fowler all over the place. He ran into her a number of times in the physics building, when she was coming to meet Sheldon. He also saw her at the main library on campus, looking up some old research papers. Barry was growing more and more curious about her. What kind of woman would date that nutcase Cooper?
Barry sat at his desk and typed her name into Google. The first ten hits were all her. She graduated with honours from Harvard University. A number of her research papers popped up, she had even been published in Neuron Magazine. So she was brilliant, he already knew that. He wanted to find the more interesting stuff about her. Blogs, forums….what was she in to? He needed to figure out her handle and go from there. Well he wasn't a genius for nothing. He started with the UCLA and Caltech Biology forums to see if she left any comments. Bingo, there were a few signed affowler. He googled that, but other people were coming up. It was too generic. He kept digging in various forums and her Facebook and LinkedIn to see what was there. He finally came across a post signed by her with the handle rickyrocksciggies that she wrote to her friend in the UCLA Biology department.
Jackpot.
It was like he found the secret life of Amy Farrah Fowler. He found a blog she had written, where she had detailed her hobbies. Writing, harp playing, medieval poetry, cooking, quilting…human dissection, self-surgery? What the frig? Well she was definitely a different type of chick. The writing on her blog was almost similar to her journal publications - completely clinical and matter of fact. Maybe she was a robot like Cooper?
Kripke noticed one more link on his search of rickyrocksciggies, one for a fanfiction for Little House on the Prairie. He clicked on it, and his eyes went wide. He sat and read the whole story, completely engrossed. That was amazing…and hot! That was the real Amy. The writing was passionate and soft. She had written about herself and Cooper her time traveling physicist. The time travel part was completely off, but the sex scenes were incredible. Oh boy…that Cooper sure was a lucky bastard.
Just then a reminder for a meeting popped up on his computer. What's your Personality Colour – and How to make it Successful for You!. Kripke chuckled, and gathered his things. He already knew his personality colour. He was a physicist. It was blue. This whole damn building was full of blue people. That was not the reason he was attending this seminar. He knew who liked to go to these types of meetings. Chicks. Chicks from commerce, chicks from medicine, chicks from arts….chicks galore. It would be heaven. Barry gathered his things and quickly left his office.
Amy was sitting in the lecture hall reading over the agenda for today's seminar What's your Personality Colour. Personally, she thought it was a bunch of hogwash. You can't fit people into four neat colour categories and they were all going to behave a certain way. She asked Sheldon to attend with her, so that they could pick apart the inaccuracies of the test together for fun. He just laughed at her and told her his time was better spent unravelling the mysteries of the universe. Oh well, she still wanted to attend, merely to find out what personality colour she was. As a scientist, she was fairly certain it was blue. She did have a lot of creative hobbies though, which might put her towards the yellow colour. She also like leading her research team, which may make her a red personality colour. It would be interesting to take the test.
"Amy?"
Amy turned around and saw Barry Kripke smiling at her. "Barry!" she said taken aback.
"Do you mind if I sit with you?" he asked.
"Oh, not at all. Please sit down." Amy patted the seat next to her . " I'm kind of surprised to see you here, I didn't know this was the type of lecture you would be interested in…well given the other guys lack of interest in it."
"Oh, I already know my personality colour. I just come for the –ah goodies." Barry said as he watched a leggy blonde enter the room.
"Oh I see" Amy laughed as she eyed the blonde near the door. "Is that what they are calling "goodies" these days.."
"I'm here in the interest of science Amy. I always want to learn how to relate better to my fellow colleagues." Barry whispered to her.
"I bet." Amy chuckled.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Barry enquired.
"Oh, I've heard your reputation for being a bit of a ….well lothario"
"A Lothario!? Who told you that? Cooper?"
"Well Howard and Raj actually" Amy replied.
"Oh those two should talk. They were quite a pair before when Howard was single. I have two words for them. Sailor Moon."
"What?" Amy said puzzled.
"Nevermind…nothing important." Barry replied quietly. He looked over at Amy. He couldn't stop thinking about her story. He thought about all the things that she did to Cooper in the barn. Those words came from Amy's own hand. She had quite the vivid imagination. A hot vivid imagination. All the stories that Sheldon had told him must be true, for her to write such tantalizing stuff. He looked over at Amy. She looked cute in her button down cardigan. He would have never guessed she had such a wild side, from his first impression.
"You smell really nice" Barry whispered over to her.
"What?" Amy replied.
"You smell nice. What is that?" Barry repeated.
"Well. My guess is that is a mixture of my shampoo and formaldehyde from my lab. I was just dissecting a brain earlier. Fun fact, did you know a lot shampoos contain formaldehyde in them?"
Barry looked over at Amy and smiled. This chick was full on strange….and he loved it.
"I did know that actually. So what personality colour do you think you are….I think I've got you pegged."
"Well I was debating between blue, yellow and red. My guess is predominately blue, as a scientist." Amy replied.
Barry leaned over to her and whispered. "You got it wrong. You're a red. I know you like to be in control."
"What?" Amy looked at him surprised.
"Shhh….the lecture is starting." Barry grinned at her.
The lights dimmed in the lecture hall, and the presentation began. Amy looked over at Barry. What was he talking about, how she liked to be in control? How would he know that? Barry Kripke was an interesting character. More interesting than the guys and Sheldon had let on….
A/N: I said my next story was going to be a light fluffy Shamy story. Sorry! This one popped into my head, and it may end up a bit of an angsty ride. Let's face it…I like me some angst. I always loved Kripke's character. Nobody can put Sheldon in a twist like he does. This story is set prior to all the Sheldon/Amy progress in Season 8, so things are still a bit rocky between them. If it struck a chord with you, I'd love it if you review. Thanks!