'I don't think Sheldon understands why he wants/needs to have Amy in his life; I just think he knows it's better to have her rather than not have her around' – Jim Parson's comments after Season Six.
Forty-five days on a train gave a man a lot of time to think. For Sheldon it meant forty-five days of watching New York, Chicago and Atlanta roll past his window while he thought hard about the direction his life had taken him in. It had just been a lot to deal with in a short space of time; for Sheldon change was something that happened on a gradual scale; rather like his relationship with Amy – that had taken two years and a whole heap of courage before he had even admitted to himself that he wanted Amy to be more than a girl who happened to be a friend. Two more years passed before he'd worked up the courage to initiate a kiss; now they were up to snuggling next to each other on Date Nights and a soft kiss goodnight at the door. After being away from his friends (and Amy) for so long; Sheldon had made a decision, it was time to go home. He picked up the phone and cancelled his plans to visit his mother and meemaw in Galveston and changed his tickets online; booking a seat on the fastest train to get him back home.
He missed the stability that his life offered him; fixed routines helped to focus his mind on one task rather than have a million thoughts buzzing around his head at the same time. With Leonard and Penny getting engaged and wanting to move in together; his disillusionment with his chosen field of study and the destruction of the comic book store – these were all just miniscule bumps in the road when it came down to what really had him hitting the rails; it was the offer from Amy that she could become his room-mate that was the catalyst. The gradual deepening of his affect for the quirky neurobiologist had been occupying a corner of his mind for some time; and although one part of him wanted to jump in the air and accept her offer immediately, there was still that tiny nagging voice inside his head that told him he wasn't good enough for her. What if she moved in and started pressuring him to push the boundaries of their relationship even further? The thought that he might never be able to offer that to her sent him into full panic mode and he'd headed for the train station – hoping that a few weeks away would clear his mind.
Unfortunately not being able to see her every day, only made him miss her all the more. He missed his friends and his routine but most of all she was the one that he missed the most; his Amy. She had somehow managed to sneak under all of his shields and was like his own personal piece of Kryptonite; she'd managed to integrate herself so deeply into his life that it was hard for him not to picture her there. To Sheldon, it was like he'd been living his whole life in black and white; his living only bursting into colour when the threat of being exposed to a dirty sock changed his whole life forever…
"Who's going to tell whom about what?" Howard and Raj turned around like two guilty schoolboys being caught looking at porn sites as Sheldon entered the living room.
"Sheldon! Hi!"
"Your surprise confuses me. I live here." Sheldon remarked as he crossed to the refrigerator to extract a bottle of apple juice. Raj nudged Howard away from the computer and prodded him in the arm to get him to explain what the two of them had been up to.
"Hey, listen what are you doing tomorrow afternoon?" Howard asked as he and Raj walked over to the breakfast bar.
"Be more specific," Sheldon stated as he poured himself a glass of juice and watched as Howard nervously wrung his hands together.
"Four-thirty." Sheldon turned around and explained that four thirty was in actual fact preevening, a time of day that he'd invented to better define the ambiguous period between afternoon and evening.
"Well, tomorrow's Saturday. Saturday night is laundry night. So I'll be spending the preevening pre-sorting and pre-soaking." Raj and Howard exchanged a glance and then Howard stepped forward with an alternative suggestion.
"Okay, what if I were to tell you that tomorrow at four-thirty you could meet a woman who has been scientifically chosen to be your perfect mate?"
"I would snort in derision and throw my arms in the air, exhausted by your constant tomfoolery." Sheldon stated as he stood holding his glass and glancing between the two men.
"But, it's true." Raj insisted and Sheldon did exactly what he said he would do; snorted in derision and waved his arms in the air. He crossed over to his desk and sat down, preparing to ignore everything else that would be spouted out of their inferior minds.
"We put all your vital information into this dating site, answered all the questions just like you would and they found a match for you." Raj explained and Sheldon once again snorted as he attempted to block out their conversation; choosing to pretend that they were mere figments of his imagination. "Her name is Amy Farrah Fowler."
"Please." Sheldon snorted again as he brought up his current work onto his laptop, "Even assuming you could answer any question the way I would, the algorithms used by matchmaking sites are complete hokum."
"That's exactly the answer we gave to the question – 'what is your attitude towards online dating?'." Howard excitedly informed him and Raj nodded in agreement.
"Howard wanted to write 'mumbo jumbo', but I said no. Our Sheldon would say 'hokum'." Sheldon frowned at their enthusiasm and turned back to his laptop, Howard tried one more pitch.
"Come on, where's your scientific curiosity?"
"Most of it is being applied to unravelling secrets of the universe; while the rest of it is wondering why I'm having this conversation with you." Sheldon remarked in his usual manner, still looking at the data filling his screen.
"How about this? Even Spock had a date every seven years." Raj suggested and at his remark Sheldon turned around with a look of surprise on his face.
"He didn't date. It was Pon Farr. His blood boiled with mating lust." Sheldon stated slowly as if he were explaining things to a child; really had Raj even been paying attention to their Star Trek marathons at all?
Raj had one more ace up his sleeve and he wasn't afraid to use it. He nudged Howard out of the way and stood in front of Sheldon with his arms folded across his chest and presented him with the dirtiest trick in the book; one that he knew would get Sheldon to agree to practically anything.
"Sheldon…I've hidden the dirty sock from the roof somewhere in your apartment." Sheldon nearly fell off his chair at Raj's quiet statement and looked at the other man with a look of abject horror. "Unless you are willing to come with us to meet this girl; it will remain there…forever."
"You're bluffing." Sheldon stated, please say that you're bluffing; he thought already imaging the germs infesting his meticulously hygienic apartment.
"Are you willing to risk it?" Raj asked, already knowing that Sheldon was near breaking point.
"Curse you." Sheldon muttered as he stalked out of the living room to scrub his body with antibacterial soap and wondering whether he should stock up on disinfectant to douse the whole apartment in.
"Did you really hide that dirty sock in Sheldon's apartment?" Howard muttered to Raj as they let themselves out of the apartment; Raj turned around to face Howard with a look recently shown by Sheldon.
"Dude! You really think I would soil these silky soft hands with someone else's dirty laundry?" Raj screwed up his nose in disgust and muttered something about having to book another manicure appointment.
"Good point, what was I thinking?" Howard replied sarcastically as they made their way down the stairs.
The next afternoon, or preevening as Sheldon had stated; the three men entered the designated meeting point, a coffee shop a short distance from his apartment building.
"In a few minutes, when I gloat over the failure of this enterprise, how would you prefer I do it? The standard 'I told you so?' or would a simple 'neenah' suffice?" Sheldon asked as they walked further into the coffee shop.
"You don't know we're wrong yet." Raj insisted as he and Howard started looking around the shop for Sheldon's perfect match.
"I think we'll go for haughty derision…" Sheldon gave them both his best look, only to be interrupted by a voice coming from behind.
"Excuse me. I'm Amy Farrah Fowler. You're Sheldon Cooper." Sheldon turned around to see a small bespectacled brunette standing right behind him. She was dressed in a black and purple striped cardigan over a blue plaid shirt, and he could just see the neck line of a red undershirt from where the top button of her plaid shirt was undone at her throat.
"Hello, Amy Farrah Fowler." Sheldon nodded politely as he prepared to make his intentions quite clear. "I'm sorry to inform you that you have been taken in by unsupported mathematics designed to prey on the gullible and the lonely. Additionally, I'm being blackmailed with a hidden dirty sock."
"If that was slang, I'm unfamiliar with it. If it was literal, I share your aversion to soiled hosiery. In any case, I'm here because my mother and I have agreed that I will date at least once a year."
"Interesting." Sheldon nodded, seemingly unaware that Raj and Howard were exchanging looks of amazement behind his back. "My mother and I have the same agreement about church."
"I don't object to the concept of a deity, but I'm baffled by the notion of one that takes attendance."
"Well, then you might want to avoid East Texas." Sheldon informed her, and Amy nodded in agreement.
"Noted. Now, before this goes any further, you should know that all forms of physical contact; up to and including coitus, are off the table." Amy prepared to make her leave, this was usually where her dates left her high and dry, and so was pleasantly surprised when she was instead faced with a very courteous offer from Sheldon.
"May I buy you a beverage?"
"Tepid water, please."
"Good God, what have we done?" Howard muttered as Sheldon led his prospective match over to the counter, of course Sheldon heard every word with his Vulcan hearing, but chose to pay attention instead to his new companion whose level of intellect was similar to his own. Here was a woman who had chosen to explore the intellectual blending of two minds making contact rather than focusing on her feelings – a fact that very nearly made her as much as a Vulcan as Sheldon had become over the years.
AN: So, I was planning on having each chapter with a little bit of Sheldon's inner thoughts on his journey home, followed by another classic SHAMY snippet. I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter; I've already got the ultimate fluffy ending written out, it just depends on how many SHAMY scenes you guys would like to read...Please leave me a review or PM me to give me your thoughts, I can tell you that there will definitely be a scene from 'The Locomotive Manipulation' coming up in future chapters as I'm going to base Sheldon's changed feelings all on the reaction from that one kiss...