Hi there! It's me again! Woohoo!
This story is based on a quote from S11E12 "The Matrimonial Metric", but it takes place after Shamy's wedding and honeymoon. It's my second longest story! 3 chapters in total.
Special thanks to my beta, he is the best in the world! Remember english is not my native language!
Like and review! That's my motivation to keep writing! Enjoy it!
btw... Expect drawings for this story, go to my instagram/twitter/fb/tumblr account "rgbcn". My patrons will see them before anyone as always!
It was late at night but finally, they were home. Sheldon and Amy sighed in relief as they opened the door, it was great to be back to their apartment. Home, at last.
The honeymoon had been a great experience. As Sheldon had planned, Legoland was the best place of all. How he loved playing with legos all day. And New York, with the Harry Potter play, and all the fun they had.
Well, there was a little misunderstanding, just a little faux pas from him, that made Amy cranky (and it was not her time of the month!). Note to self: never imply she is on her period. Ever! That makes the crankiness grow exponentially. But it was a minor problem. He had to agree, it was his fault but he'd fixed it. And oh my! How he fixed it. Well, it took some struggling from him, trying to understand why Amy was being difficult. Testy! He had planned lots of frenzied lovemaking for her! For both! Like she wanted. Like I wanted, to be honest. How had it all turned out to be a failure? Amy mad at his sex schedule? She loves planning, she loves preparedness, and she loves sex! With him, only, obviously. So, what was the problem? Until she told him, and he understood, there was some unpleasant time, but after that… all was good. Better. That wild, unscheduled and amazing time they shared in their hotel bedroom in New York… he still felt goosebumps remembering it. He made her repeat the random algorithm explanation… naked … and what happened next… Maybe he should give her 30 extra points for that.
"Oh, that's right! Amy's points" Sheldon muttered for himself as he carried the last of the luggage inside the apartment.
"Did you say something?" Amy's head popped out of the bedroom.
"Oh! Nothing." Sheldon dismissed her question by waving his hand and busied himself with the bags of presents that they had bought for their friends. He took out the 'I heart NY' t-shirts they got at the airport and put them on the table.
"Oh, OK." Amy was sure she heard him talking. "Sheldon, I really need a shower. Do you mind if I go first?" She was so tired, sticky, and dirty after the plane trip that she couldn't wait anymore.
"Go ahead." He liked to shower first, but it was the perfect moment to write down some entries in Amy's points list. It wasn't easy to sneak it in when she was around.
"OK good!" Amy disappeared to take a shower.
Sheldon took out one of his notebooks and sat on the couch. While he browsed the pages of that specific notebook, his mind traveled back to that time when he'd started doing this.
Sheldon had been assigning points to Amy for a while. And to himself too! He started long ago, after their break up. Sheldon shuddered remembering the empty feeling when Amy left him. He wanted to understand why Amy decided to end their relationship. Had he been a bad boyfriend? Not enough for her? Did he really always take Amy for granted? As she said that fateful day, being with him was emotionally and physically challenging. Well, he was deeply hurt by those words as well, both emotionally and physically. His heart ached and his head spun trying to understand it. It was hard, but he only saw one way to analyze the situation: take emotions out of the process and base it on empirical metrics. That way he could see clearly why Amy left. The data would tell him that. That's why I'm a genius after all.
He started assigning points to every action and event they did together. And it really helped him. He realized a lot of differences between how Amy treated him and how he treated her. Little details here and there. He knew that most of the time their relationship agreement was skewed in his favor (on purpose), but he realized that it wasn't fair to her. He loved Amy, she was his equal. Why shouldn't their relationship be equal as well? It took him some time, but he started to understand why it could be difficult for her to always deny her wants and grant his.
Now it was so different! They were married, with a breakthrough on science that could lead them (yes, them both!) to the Nobel prize, maybe more! Why was he still doing this? These points were made to analyze the balance between them as boyfriend and girlfriend. When they got back together, he used them to keep track and to be sure he was doing a good job. If Amy left him again... That couldn't happen, not anymore, never. Then, they became engaged. He made sure to deduct a huge amount of points from his score for the incident that triggered his proposal. It was not his fault though, but Penny insisted it partially was. And Amy, and Leonard. Anyway. He dealt with that guilty feeling and properly marked it in his own score.
He was about to abandon the points system for the wedding. Too much stress! And he was so confident that they were in a good place. But then, the best man and maid of honor controversy came up. He offered Amy the same idea he'd been using for a while, but he didn't want to let her know about that. Would she get angry if she knew? But oh, how fun it was to test their friends. With Amy everything was better, testing humans included. Without thinking, he continued doing scores for both of them. Not as a test though! That was not the purpose of his system.
Would it be better to stop now? They were already married, happily married he would add. He felt happy. He knew Amy was happy. He didn't need to continue with the metrics. It helped when he was blindly walking between emotions and confused feelings. But now...
Nah, I'll do it anyway, and I'll stop later. The honeymoon will be the last entry.
He searched for the last page of Amy's list. He didn't have the time (or the private moment) during their travels to do it. Sitting on the couch he wrote some entries: "Amy… 110 points …. New York lovemaking" Sheldon muttered while writing. "Oh, and let's not forget the wedding night. Oh boy, she was amazing." Thanks to his eidetic memory he recalled every moment of their wedding night. He had to shut his eyes and shake his head to stop the memories, or he'd need a cold shower.
He was so absorbed with his notes that didn't notice Amy was back from her shower.
"Oh, I really needed that shower." She was drying her hair with a towel. She approached Sheldon, with a big smile. "Hi husband."
Sheldon smiled back at her Why is she so cute? Maybe he should give her points for that. Oh, the points! He closed his notebook just in time. Amy came up behind him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Hi wife." Sheldon replied sheepishly.
"I'm so hungry!" Amy went to the fridge, leaving Sheldon with his notebooks. "What are you doing? Aren't you going to shower? Seriously I don't know why you didn't run to the shower after that awful flight." She grabbed some juice and fruits from the fridge, there thanks to Leonard and Penny. They'd left some food earlier since they knew it was going to be late before Sheldon and Amy got home. "Were you writing?"
"Uh?" Sheldon was caught for a moment staring at her, and he didn't know what to say.
"Some ideas for the super asymmetry project?" She asked drinking the juice.
"Oh yes! Just some notes, so I can review it later." Sheldon saw his escape and used it. "It's my turn to shower." He said standing up from the couch with his notebook in hand.
Amy popped some grapes into her mouth while she eyed Sheldon's form disappearing into the bedroom. She sighed, she was so happy to see how excited he was with his new project. He had been taking notes during all the honeymoon. Of course, being with her all day, they even discussed some parts together. The travel was long and there were a lot of hours to kill. Amy's back still ached a little from all the travelling. She massaged a sore spot in her lower back. Maybe she felt that way because of all the walking they did during their trip. Or maybe the luggage. Or the wedding night and all the nights that followed. She giggled remembering those moments with her husband.
Later that night, around 3am, Amy turned in her sleep. Is the light still on? She opened her eyes and saw that Sheldon was still up, sitting on the bed, scribbling furious in one of his notebooks.
"Sheldon, again?" Amy asked drowsy. He had been like this on a lot of their honeymoon nights, notebooks of ideas for the super asymmetry project always nearby in case he had a revelation.
"Can't talk Amy, in the zone." Sheldon was writing pages and pages, one after another.
"Just try to sleep later. Don't stay up too long, you know you get grumpy in the morning." Amy knew there was nothing to do if he was in the zone.
"OK, g'night." Sheldon answered in return, not even looking at her. He was up for 3 more hours, before he fell asleep with the notebook on his chest and the pencil his hand.
That was how Amy found him in the morning.
"Sheldon, wake up." Amy said sweetly to his sleeping husband. Amy was already showered and dressed. They both still had some days off, but she wanted to see Penny and the others, and give them the presents, and talk about the great places they'd visited.
"Sheldon." She tried shaking him.
"Mmmmmhhhh."
"What did you do, Sheldon? When did you fall asleep?" She grabbed his notebook and pencil and put them on the night table. She tried to shake him awake again, this time with a little more force.
"Mmm mmmm don't want to go to church mom!" Sheldon said sleepily, still not awake. Amy shook her head amused.
"Sheldon I'm not your mom, I'm your wife. Now get up". She tried to sound more persuasive, but she was giggling at the little boy who didn't want to wake up.
"Mmmm Amy? What time is it?" Finally, Sheldon seemed to be awake. Maybe not fully awake, but enough to forget his Mom and church.
"8am. Come on sleeping beauty, time to wake up."
"Uggh!" Sheldon grumbled. "I just fell asleep 2 hours ago. I need more sleep."
"Said the man with the untouchable schedule." Amy snapped at him. All these years being a perfect machine, annoying everyone to be on time and now he wanted to sleep in? "What married life has done to you Sheldon!" She joked.
"Fine!" He sat up clumsily. "I'm going to take a shower, Mrs Perfect Schedule." Sheldon said, annoyed and tired.
"It's Doctor to you." Amy teased him.
Sheldon stood up and walked his way to the bathroom, mumbling some incoherent words in the process. He suddenly stopped in his tracks. He realised he hadn't seen his notebook when he woke up.
"Amy! My notebook!" He quickly turned to the bed. "Where's my notebook!?" He almost shouted the last part.
"Sheldon, calm down!" His behavior startled her. "It's here, on your night table." It was right where she'd put it when she tried to wake him. "See?" She picked up the notebook and showed it to him.
In a quick move and fully awake now, Sheldon walked over to Amy and took the notebook from her hand. The points list! She can't see those!
"Hey!" Amy protested.
Sheldon blinked a couple of times, as he realized he'd taken the notebook a little forcefully from Amy's hand.
"Sorry, I...I...I wrote some ideas last night and they might be important." He stammered a little, unusual form him. "For our project." That was true. He'd made some good advances on the super asymmetry theory. But he'd done that in the first notebook he found, and that happened to be Amy's points notebook. But when he was in the zone, nothing else mattered. He needed to write his ideas immediately, whatever the surface. He'd even used a mirror and a napkin in the past. He just grabbed the first notebook from his drawer, and it happened to be that one. It doesn't matter that I used that one, I'm done with the lists anyway. But she can't see it!
Sheldon went to the night table and put the notebook back in the drawer, where it belonged. He looked for Amy, but she was already in the kitchen preparing breakfast. Sheldon sighed,
relieved. Definitely, she can't see it.
That night, after seeing their friends and giving them their presents, Sheldon and Amy went to bed. He was feeling very tired as he hadn't slept much the previous night.
But even exhausted, Sheldon woke up in the middle of the night, his mind on fire. He scribbled furiously for hours in the first notebook he found in his drawer, which happened to be the same he'd used last night. This time, to prevent a repeat of the events from yesterday morning, when he felt he was too tired, he stopped before falling asleep. He tried to put the notebook back in the drawer, but it slipped from his hand and fell to the floor. But Sheldon was too drowsy to notice, and he fell asleep.
The next day, they had some things to do, and in the evening the guys had planned to play videogames in 4A, as they couldn't meet while Sheldon was away. Bernadette was with the kids today and Penny had some extra work she wanted to do, so Amy found herself alone in the apartment. She could use some time alone. She was happy that Sheldon was having fun with the guys. She had him all to herself for the honeymoon, so she couldn't complain. Not at all. She knew he missed his friends. She understood he needed this time with them, so maybe she'd use the time to read a little. It'd been a long time since she'd read any of her favorite romantic novels.
It wasn't late, but Amy thought it would be nice to read in bed, as she used to do when she was alone in her apartment. All those lonely nights with only the comfort of her novels. She missed reading like that, but she would never change what she now had in bed, right? Amy giggled at the thought. She selected one of her favorite books and went to the bedroom to change and get comfortable.
She was about to go into the bathroom to change, when she saw something odd that she hadn't noticed before. Sheldon's drawer was a little bit open. Weird! Sheldon was an obsessive-compulsive with that kind of thing. Everything needed to be clean, ordered, and in the correct place. His drawer being open was...strange. Didn't he notice it? Maybe he was too tired this morning. She didn't know if he'd been up again, but he did the same show this morning of not wanting to wake up. And he looked really tired. Maybe she'd to talk to him about the sleepless nights he'd spent working. She knew his mind was a precious machine that worked at his own will. But if this continued too long, it would begin to interfere with his normal life.
She was about to close the drawer when she noticed a notebook on the floor. It wasn't easy to see. So, he was up late again! I knew it. The notebook probably slipped down when he fell asleep. Amy kneeled down to grab it and caressed the cover. In her hands was the fruit of his precious mind. Maybe after his discovery, these notebooks would be in museums, or even expositions! He always insisted that it was their discovery, but it was Sheldon who'd came up with the idea. She just pointed out a concept, and his mind unraveled a new vision from that. How she loved her husband's mind. That was a constant that never failed to amaze her.
Standing up, she flipped the notebook over, there was no title, label, or mark on the cover. It was a thick notebook and seemed old and well-used. Amy recalled that he bought more notebooks for this new research, and she didn't remember this one in particular. Maybe in his hurried need to pour his ideas out, he grabbed an old notebook from his drawer (it was full of them!).
Normally, she didn't spy on his work, not even when Sheldon was present. If he wanted to show her something, he never hesitated to do it. But he seemed private when he was still working on his ideas. In fact, how he reacted very protectively with this very notebook yesterday morning when Amy showed it to him… He probably was working on an unfinished idea and knowing him, he probably didn't want to share a failure in case the math didn't work out. He was so secretive sometimes, and she was so curious. Amy remembered that, after yesterday morning's incident, more calm and awake, he told her the math on this particular idea was tough, even for him. He was trying to figure it out and needed more time.
But curiosity killed the cat, as people said, and Amy opened the notebook to the last pages. She was sure she wouldn't understand all the math, but she wanted to see what he was working on all these long nights. Excitement went through her and she felt like she was being a bad girl for peeking at his work without his consent, but what harm could it do? It was just for a moment…
To be continued...
Amy found the notebook! Any guesses? What will happen? Tell me in the reviews! :D
Notes: I started writing this story before season 12 started, and I wrote about a honeymoon trip to Europe. I changed that when season 12 aired. It took me longer than I expected to write this down. It's been so many weeks (months!) writing this, that I feel really excited to finally publish!
Fun fact: I wrote the "Hi husband" "Hi wife" before season 12 started as well, and it was so funny to see this detail on screen after writing it. Coincidence!