The Forced Exploration Technique

A Big Bang Theory Fan Fiction By Dr Skywalker

Dr Sheldon Cooper lay in his bed awake, thinking of the nights events as they happened. He had a wonderful evening, he'd been on a train ride, he made a new friend, and he kissed Amy Farrah Fowler. It had only been a simple kiss. It was Valentines Day after all and it was expected of him, he was only trying to prove a point. He had gotten cross with her, that she'd deceived him into thinking he could properly enjoy himself on board a magnificant train shed planned. Then she had the audacity to demand some silly trivial useless sentiment as romance?! What nonsense. He was a scientist and had no use for such wastes of time.

And yet…something changed. He'd never kissed her before, not really. It had never occurred to him that he even wanted to, now he couldn't think of anything else. Sheldon knew Amy wanted more physicality to their relationship, but he had only believed it was female silliness. But when they broke apart shed said it was "Nice." It did feel nice. A different kind of nice than sitting in his favorite spot or getting his favorite meal prepared just the way he liked.

It was a new Nice. A nice he wanted more of. He thought of her face, and her lips and her hair. Her face swam into view, and she whispered in his ear. "Oh Sheldon….Sheldon….SHELDON!"

Sheldon blinked and found he was in the Cal Tech cafeteria sitting across Leonard, Raj and Howard. He had no recollection of how he got there, nor did he remember even leaving his bed.

"You okay?" Leonard looked concerned for him.

"What? Who me? Im fine." Sheldon muttered

"Really? Because you haven't spoken in two days." He said. "Is this another one of those times you're in your zone and going to discover a new element?"

Sheldon swallowed. He had no intention of reliving his actual thoughts for fear of ridicule. "Yes. Yes it is." He put his head down and pretended to be in deep thought.

Leonard looked at the other guys with worry. "Not that I'm not enjoying the quiet, but yesterday he didn't even notice when I forgot to put the cereal back in the right order, and before that, someone sneezed like right next to him, he didn't even flinch."

They hadn't even talked about the kiss. Sheldon wasn't even sure he should, he spent the rest of the trip gazing in her eyes, with a longing he'd never felt before, but he tried to act like everything was business as usual. Amy looked up at him with her deep brown eyes. He noticed she had little flecks of green and gold in her eyes, he'd never noticed that before now. It was as if he just discovered her. He heard De Bussy's Clair de Lune whenever he thought of her for some reason, and all he wanted to do was be around her. All he could think about was her face, and her soft skin, and the way she made that little crinkle in her brow when she was angry with him, or the way she pursed her lips when he said something insensitive. He sighed heavily, as if he wasn't allowed to breath for fear of loosing her.

"I say enjoy it while it lasts, don't stir the sleeping beast." Howard said.

Sheldon seemed to be unresponsive to all stimuli. They couldn't imagine what be going on in that mind of his.

"So what do you think about the new Batman/Superman movie?" Howard asked Raj.

"It looks really good. Its supposed to be a tie in to the New Justice League that's coming out, they're going to introduce the Flash and the speed force."

The guys instinctively looked to Sheldon for his opinion, but he didn't he even blink.

Raj looked closely at him with genuine concern. "How long has he been like this?"

"Two days now." Leonard said. "At first, I was enjoying the silence, but now Im starting to get worried."

"Maybe we should take him to someone to get looked at."

"Yeah right, like who?"

"I'd know. There aren't a lot of people in this school who'll want to take him on psychologically..." Leonard said. "Maybe we can ask Amy if she knows someone in the psychology department, she told me Sheldon is like their dream patient because he's so screwed up."

"Oh c'mon its not that serious. He been like this before. Remember when he went a week in deep thought and discovered the agitation properties theorem?" Raj said.

"Yeah that's true." Leonard admitted.

Howard leaned in closer. "He looks….glazed over….like he's…stoned or something." He waved his hand in front of Sheldon's face with no response. "You think he's on drugs?"

"If he is, its certainly not his doing." Leonard said. "He's been like this since you guys got back from wine country. What happened up there? He said he kissed Amy. On the lips."

"Seriously? Dr Germaphobe made out?" Howard grinned and smacked Sheldon on the arm. "Alright Sheldon! Finally getting some!"

Raj scowled. "Great. Even Mr Roboto is getting more action than me."

Sheldon snapped to attention once again. "What? What are we talking about?"

"You and Amy!" Howard leaned in. "C'mon gimme all the freaky details"

Sheldon looked affronted at the thought. "I will do no such thing."

"Sheldon its no big deal, so you guys kissed, it's a perfectly natural thing." Leonard said honestly. He looked at the other guys, and fainted sniffing, and wiping a tear form his eye. "Our little boy is growing up."

The guys laughed.

Sheldon snorted. "Oh please. Yes. Amy and I …." He couldn't finish the sentence. What HAD Amy and him done? There had been an invisible line that been crossed. He wasn't sure when or even how it happened.

"Amy and I…we… shared a moment…but that's between her and I" He looked uncomfortably at the table.

"Oh—ho! Doesn't kiss and tell huh?' Howard said. "Don't worry I'll just find out the gory details from Berny who will hear it from Penny who most assuredly will hear it from Amy if she hasn't already."

"Are you three gossiping Gerdy's finished?" Sheldon said crossing his arms in annoyance.

"Well I for one am very happy for you." Leonard said proudly. It was true, the kiss was big leap for Sheldon, and it meant he really was trying to work on his issues. A wide grin spread over Leonard's face as he thought of all the perks of a Sheldon who wasn't wound so tight. "The basic neurological baser urges that are emitted by pheromones in close proximity to males and females is a perfectly normal reaction." He tried to put in terms Sheldon could understand.

"Man I love those baser urges." Howard murmured. "I honestly have no idea how you lasted as long as you did."

"For your information, the biological urge to engage in physical contact is something I am simply unequipped with. I've never nor will I ever have any desire to …" Sheldon frowned and looked at his cohorts. This stupid kiss was going to ruin everything.

"I think it was a mistake." Sheldon blurted out.

Everyone looked at him. "How?" Howard asked astounded. "Were She'sya bad at it? Earth didn't move for ya huh?" He smirked.

"That's not what I mean, I mean the act itself. I rather think I shattered her world, but now what do I do? She's only going to want more now that she's tasted the forbidden fruit of my luscious lips…." Sheldon said sitting back in his chair pleased with himself. "Poor kid. She's hooked."

"Yeah right Sheldon…you're a sex god." Howard said rolling his eyes.

"Thank You Howard." Sheldon smiled happily. This little ruse was working perfectly.

Raj took a different approach. "Look Sheldon, I think its beautiful. You and Amy are in the most stable relationship Ive ever seen, you both respect each other and you chose the moment you felt was meaningful. "

"Well to be truthful, I … I didn't even plan it, it just sort of happened. You know all my life, Ive been diligently planning and researching and debating the outcomes of the decisions I've made in my life. Everything has a place, as a man of science, I look for the order in things." He said. "This sort of thing is too… erratic. There are too many variables to consider. Its too chaotic for it have any real meaning."

Leonard looked alarmed at this statement.

"Sheldon….think about what you're going to do before you do something you'll regret – or make us regret" Leonard said evenly.

"Its true. The universe is an ordered place, of course the order comes from that chaos, but at the base of every single living organism there is a pattern, and a reason for its existence." Sheldon continued. "Women are far to erratic and irrational for them to have any bearing on anything to do or care about."

"Well if that's true how do you account for the whole of existence doing the nasty since time began?" Howard offered. "The universe is like a woman, my friend, its a messy and beautiful creature, and all you want to do is figure it out, but you cant."

"Maybe you cant." Sheldon smugly countered

"Sheldon, whats your problem? Kissing Amy is a good thing isn't it?"

"No. Its not! It means things are moving in a way I don't want them to."

The guys all looked at each other. "You do like her right?"

"Of course! Im very fond of Amy. Its just that now, as her boyfriend, I have to be …" He looked revolted at the idea in his head. "Affectionate."

"Oh you poor bastard. You mean you actually have a girl who actually can stand you enough to kiss you, and does stuff for you all the time and in return you have to be NICE to her? Oh the humanity!" Howard said

The guys chuckled.

"I have better things to do than cackle with you ladies about the goings on of silly human emotions." With that Sheldon got up and took his tray and scurried form the lunch room.

"Geeze what was that?"

"You think he was that bad at it?" Raj asked

Leonard sighed. "Nope, I think for the first time in Sheldon's life he dosent have the answer to a problem.

Raj and Howard looked at him.

Leonard was always Sheldon's interprtor. He was one of the few people in Sheldons life who understood how his mind worked and could explain it to others.

"ya have to kind of live with Sheldon to undestand where this is coming from but, - he once told me when his father died is when he truly began his life of scientific discovery. Ya wanna know why? Because he shut off all his emotion so he wouldn't feel what it was like to loose someone ever again."

"What are you saying? Isnt it a good thing that Sheldon's finally opening up to Amy?"

"Not when its going to make him break up with her over it." Leonard said grimly.

CHAPTER 2

Sheldon sat in front of his white board in his office, trying despartly to concentrate, but all he could think about was Amy. He shook his head trying to snap out of it. "C'mon Cooper focus! Youre better than this." He said to himself. He stood up and looked at his board. After a series of complicated mathematics, he did a double take for hed written the following equation:

XÙ + A/MY ÖF Cos = Z /Am {y} | 34n/ A- My .

Grunting in frustration he erased and began again. After a few minutes of scribbling complicated equations he looked at his board again.

A = m(y)2, (S) /a| M+| y = 34n /a {m} Y2

He threw his easer down and strode to the door. There was only one thing to do. He needed her, he needed to talk to her, her hear her voice, and to just see her, more than anything hed needed to do in his life.

Sheldon went down to Amy's lab and stopped dead in his tracks. Shed want to know what he was doing there, what was he supposed to say? He needed a plan, he needed a reason. Confound that women she wasn't taking reason away form him! He was acting irrationally! This was riduclius, he wasn't some swooning teenage pop star! He was Dr Sheldon Lee Cooper! He needed to learn how to control himself. He breathed out calmly and gripped the stair well railing. Breathing seemed to help. He could focus now. He had work to do. But as he turned, he smelled something in the air, and his eyes began to droop once more, and a wide grin spread over his face . He found himself standing in her doorway leaning on the door frame.

"Oh snap out of it Cooper!" He barked at himself. "Youre a Texas man! Pull yourself together."