Maybe you don't know me anymore than I know you
And I wouldn't blame you if you walked away
I've been watching you all evening with those teardrops in your eyes
And it touches me much more than I can say
Sheldon Lee Cooper had been drumming his fingers on the table top for the past hour, wishing the evening would hurry up and be over when he caught sight of a disturbance happening over by the entrance. He glanced over to see a woman he'd never seen at the University before crying quietly at a corner table as her colleagues gathered around her, presumably offering her comfort.
"What's suddenly caught your attention, Sheldon?" His friend and work colleague, Howard asked as Sheldon's fingers stopped drumming; he followed the direction of Sheldon's gaze and saw that he was staring at a small brunette on the far side of the room.
"Ooh Kripke looks a little worse for wear… I wonder what happened to his nose…" Raj was looking at the other entrance to the hall and saw the physicist enter holding a wad of tissues to his nose which was bleeding profusely.
"Hmm?" Sheldon tore his eyes away from the woman across the room and turned to Raj. "Sorry, what was that?"
"Kripke just came in and his nose was bleeding. He didn't look too happy…Ooh, he's going over to the biology table!" Raj twisted in his chair and watched Kripke lean aggressively over someone sitting in the corner and how she shrank back away from him. Her colleagues had drifted away and she was now alone at the table. "Sheldon? Where are you going?"
"To offer my assistance, that young woman is obviously frightened and she's been left all alone with Kripke, we all know what he's like with women…" Sheldon tossed the remark over his shoulder as he headed across the room. Howard and Raj exchanged a glance, before quickly following after him. They both knew how aggressive Kripke could be when he'd had a few drinks and Sheldon was likely to come off worse in a fist fight.
"Sheldon, just remember that this isn't one of your comic-books and you aren't indestructible!" Howard jogged after his friend and all three men made their way over to the corner table where they saw Kripke leaning forward, with one hand on the back of the young woman's chair with the other holding the tissues against his nose.
"I've already thanked you for your invitation and I thought I made my feelings quite clear outside that my thanks did not extend to inviting you back for 'coffee' which you made quite clear was a euphemism for coitus!"
"Don't be like that, Amy…I can tell when a woman's interested and you seemed plenty interested yesterday afternoon." Kripke leant closer to the woman and ran his finger along her bared forearm.
"I was grateful for the escort, yes…but that was only because I didn't realise what type of man you really were!" The woman, Amy, shrank back in her seat as Kripke leered at her again. "Please, just leave me alone!"
Sheldon overheard the last part of their conversation and leant around Kripke to hold out his hand.
"Amy, so nice to see you again. I believe this is our dance?"
"Cooper!" Kripke whirled around to see who the owner of the proffered hand was and spat out Sheldon's name in disgust. "The lady and I were in the middle of a conversation, if you don't mind."
"Ah, but I do…Amy and I met in the cafeteria the other day and she offered me a dance if the band chose to play her favourite song. I believe I heard the opening strains of…"
"The Way You Look Tonight." Howard murmured in his ear and Sheldon nodded.
"Thank you, Howard."
"No problem, Sheldon." Howard emphasised his friends name and tipped his head slightly to the side, Amy's eyes widened in understanding and she reached up to slip her hand into her rescuer's firm grasp.
"Sheldon, how nice of you to remember our passing conversation. I'd be delighted to accept. Barry, I'm sure you'll understand if I don't accept your offer of a ride home; good evening." Amy turned her back on Kripke and went to walk away, only to find his fingers wrapped around the top of her arm and squeezed tightly.
"You're nothing but a tease, Doctor Fowler and you'll be sorry I swear!" Kripke hissed between his teeth and then howled in pain as Sheldon delivered a swift judo chop to his arm. Kripke didn't know what was more painful, his swollen nose or his bruised forearm.
"Kripke, if I find you've uttered one slanderous rumour about Amy, I will see that your works are never published by a reputable journal again! Do we have an understanding?" Sheldon's voice was a low growl and as he towered over Kripke the smaller man seemed to shrink under his icy glare.
"Jeez, some people just can't take a joke." Kripke tried to laugh the whole thing off, but Sheldon was in no laughing mood, especially as he saw the faint bruising left on Amy's tender flesh. He straightened up his spine, raising himself to his impressive full height of six feet one and whisked Amy out onto the dance floor leading her through the steps of the waltz. Kripke, Howard and Raj stared open mouthed at Sheldon's impressive dance moves and when the song ended, he bowed lightly to Amy before walking away; leaving her gaping at his gentlemanly behaviour.
"Wow, Doctor Fowler; I've never seen Doctor Cooper acting so…human before. You must have really made an impression on him." Doctor Benshaw, the head of Biology commented to the newest member of his team as he made his way back to the table.
"I've never met that man before in my life! He saw Doctor Kripke leaning over in an aggressive manner and came up with the elaborate ruse to get me away from him. You say his name is Cooper?" Amy sighed a little over the way the stranger had come to her rescue and Doctor Benshaw hid a smile at the thought of the enigmatic Cooper being the source of any woman's fantasies.
"Yes, Sheldon Cooper is a doctor over in the theoretical physics department, he hangs around with a couple of other equally strange misfits." Doctor Benshaw gazed around the room until he spotted the men in question. "There's Rajesh Koothrappali, the astrophysicist originally from India; next to him is Howard Wolowitz; he's an engineer working on a design for a telescope for use on the International Space Station and finally the smaller guy in glasses is Sheldon's roommate and fellow physicist, Leonard Hofstadter."
"Why do you call them 'misfits'?" Amy puzzled over his strange turn of phrase and her boss chuckled as he patted her on the shoulder.
"You'll see soon enough, my dear. Now, may I offer you a ride home? I assume that you arrived with Kripke…"
"Thank you, that would be most appreciated." Amy smiled at the offer and Doctor Benshaw patted her shoulder again.
"Not at all, my dear wife would be appalled if she thought that I'd left a young lady in such dire straits. I live over in Glendale myself so it's no trouble at all." Doctor Benshaw offered his arm and Amy placed her hand in the crook of his elbow as made their way around the tables and out into the hallway. Amy couldn't help her eyes drifting over the crowded ballroom, scanning the room for signs of her hero and Doctor Benshaw chuckled at her roving eyes.
"No point looking for Cooper, Amy; he makes a point of only staying until the free bar opens and then he makes a swift exit. He's always hated these things and only comes when Siebert forces his hand, he'll no doubt be making his way home by now."
"Oh…" Amy's tone held a note of disappointment and Doctor Benshaw chuckled again as he held open the exit doors leading to the main parking lot.
"If you want to thank him, I hear he has a particularly sweet tooth…" He hinted strongly and Amy made a mental note to bake a huge batch of cookies as a thank you gift. "Come along, my car's just over this way."
AN: If anyone's interested the song lyrics are taken from 'Rest Your Love On Me' by Andy Gibb