Chapter One
"Goodbye Sheldon." Amy Farrah Fowler closed the connection and promptly burst into tears, already regretting the decision she had spent a day and a half agonising over. "Oh god, what have I done?" She touched the photograph of her boyfriend that was on the screen of her laptop with her the tips of her fingers. She knew he would be hurt and confused by what she had just said to him and she hated herself for it, but was consoled with the knowledge that Leonard and Penny would make sure he was all right.
Amy wanted nothing more than to sleep, but her thoughts were solely on her complicated, frustrating and exhausting boyfriend. How had it come to this? She wondered. She loved him and she knew he loved her, but she didn't know where their relationship was going anymore. There would be times that she thought they had a future together and then something would happen and her doubts would re-surface. That had been happening a lot lately, leaving her confused and increasingly angry.
His application to go to Mars had been the catalyst to the way she was feeling. The first she had known about it was when he had casually mentioned it in the pet shop. She had never been so hurt by him and even though it wasn't likely he would even selected, she begun to wonder if they had any kind of future together. She had lost her temper with him and stormed out, but not only had he realised why she was upset, he had gone after her and they had resolved it. Both Penny and Bernadette had said she had forgiven him far too easily and should have made him work harder for it, but she hadn't cared because her doubts had been eased.
Their sleepover had further increased her hopes for the future of their relationship. Amy had expected him to freak out at her suggestion of having a sleepover but instead he had surprised her by agreeing to it. She hadn't been surprised that he had wanted a rating though and played along with the negotiations, although in truth she didn't actually care. She was just so happy that he wanted to be with her, that it didn't matter he was setting limitations. Even so, they had still kissed and cuddled and Amy had fallen asleep feeling wonderful. The next morning however, she had woken to find him spooned behind her and his hand underneath her pyjama top holding a breast. Trust him to find second base in his sleep, she had muttered at the time. Then she had panicked, as she was sure his reaction wouldn't be good if he woke to find his hand there. She had tried to ease his hand away, but that had been enough for him to stir. Had he been awake? She had wondered. Did he know where his hand was? In hindsight, she should have asked him about it, but at the time, she had been wary about doing so.
Sheldon hadn't mentioned the sleepover once in the four weeks since and Amy had begun to wonder if he was regretting it and then she begun to wonder if he had felt pushed into it and had only agreed to it to keep her happy. She would lay awake until the early hours worrying that she was asking too much from him and that in turn became a fear he would run away from her again. It was only a matter of time before she snapped.
Amy had never expected them to make-out the way they had on the couch in his apartment and she had been reassured, but then he asked if he should if should watch The Flash. She probably wouldn't have reacted that way if she hadn't been so tired, but she was and he had persisted with asking her if he should watch The Flash. She couldn't take it anymore. This time though, he no idea why she was upset and that just made it worse as far as she was concerned.
She was in no fit state to go to work the following day, so she had called in sick and stayed in bed. She was so exhausted that she had actually fallen asleep, only to have a nightmare of him leaving on a train that had blasted off into outer space. She knew then that she couldn't go on feeling the way she did and after much thought, had reluctantly concluded she needed to take a break from him. Amy thought she would feel better after telling him, but she didn't, she felt worse.
She needed to get some sleep and then maybe she could think more clearly, but was afraid she would have another nightmare if she did. Maybe a couple of sleeping pills would do the trick, she thought, but she hesitated. She knew if Sheldon ever found out she had resorted to sleeping pills, he would flip big time. "To hell with him." She got to her feet and went into the bathroom to get the bottle. Just as she was opening the bottle though, her phone started to ring and she went back into the living room and picked it up. The caller ID showed it was Sheldon. She looked at the bottle of sleeping pills in one hand and then back at the phone in the other. "How the hell did he know?" She wondered. She was tempted to ignore it, but knew he would just keep calling until she answered. It was probably best to nip that in the bud straight away. She accepted the call and held the phone to her ear.
"Sheldon if you don't understand what taking a break means, ask Penny and Leonard."
"They're not here." Sheldon sounded panicked. "Just tell me tell one thing. You're not sick are you?"
"What?" Amy was stunned at the question. "Don't you think I would tell you if I was sick?"
"You might not, if it was serious."
Amy sighed. Of course, he would think that. "No I'm not sick." She said. "Penny and Leonard will explain it to you when they get back."
"I don't know when that will be. They've gone to Vegas to get married."
"They've what?"
"They've gone to Vegas to get married."
"That's what I thought you said." Amy said and then groaned. "Oh crap, that means you're on your own."
There was a pause and then he replied. "Yes and it's kind of scary too."
Her resolve crumbled at that. "OK, I'll come over.
Sheldon Cooper put his phone down on his desk, not entirely convinced by what his girlfriend had just told him. He knew that she had gone sick the day before and yet she hadn't informed him, as per the Relationship Agreement. Amy was just as much of stickler for the Relationship Agreement as he was, so it worried him that she hadn't called him and he could only think of one reason why she hadn't. The mere thought that she could be seriously ill had sent him into a panic and that was why he had called her. How she would react to the news of Leonard and Penny's elopement had never occurred to him, but once he realised she was worried that he was on his own, he used it to his advantage. He knew he shouldn't have done it, but he didn't care. She was coming to the apartment.
Perhaps it was a sign that she hadn't been serious about this ridiculous break to re-evaluate their relationship after all, he thought. As far as he was concerned, there was nothing to re-evaluate. They were in love and happy weren't they? He had certainly thought so and that was why he had planned to propose to the neuroscientist. He looked at the ring box next to the Gollum figurine on his desk, wondering if he should just do it when she arrived and then decided not to. He opened the desk drawer, put the ring box inside and then closed and locked the drawer. He needed to fix whatever was wrong before he proposed, but the problem was he had no idea what he needed to fix.
He got to his feet and started pacing. If she wasn't sick, then what was wrong? He was the first to admit he wasn't the best at reading people's emotions, but he didn't need to be to know she was upset and he suspected it was something he had done. What though? He wondered. He knew she had been mad at him for appearing distracted during their make-out two nights ago, but he didn't think that was the problem. He had done much worse before and she had never reacted like that. Besides, she had immediately started on the slowness of their relationship. Her outburst had confused Sheldon. She had rarely mentioned the slowness of their relationship since the Prom and had thought she was as happy as he was with that aspect of their relationship. Now he wondered if he had been wrong to assume that. He knew about her fan fiction and he knew she had tried to trick him with the TARDIS, but he hadn't taken either as a sign that she was unhappy with the pace of their relationship, because as far as he was concerned it wasn't slow any more.
A thought then occurred to him. What if it was the sudden increase in pace that was bothering her? Sheldon had been surprised at how quickly they were now going and he was even more surprised that at how comfortable he felt with what they were doing, but he had never considered how Amy had felt about it. She was, after all, just as inexperienced as he was in these matters and no doubt just as nervous.
Sheldon stopped his pacing and leaned against the kitchen island as he thought about this. It would certainly explain her sudden request for a break, he reasoned, but they had agreed on a safe word if things got uncomfortable. It was really for his benefit, but he was sure she would use it if she didn't like what was happening. "It can't be that." Sheldon sighed.
He thought back to their Skype conversation. She had looked tired and if she wasn't sick that meant she wasn't sleeping. Amy was prone to night terrors. He had recently witnessed what it was like when she had one, although she didn't know that. It had happened during their sleepover when her screaming had woken him up. Sheldon hadn't known what to do at first, but somehow he had managed to calm her down and she had slept peacefully for the rest of the night, with him spooned behind her and an arm around her waist.
He had woken before her that next morning and found his hand had somehow found its way under her pyjama top to rest on her bare stomach. Instead of being alarmed though, he had been intrigued at the feel of her bare skin and then he got really daring and moved his hand upwards. He had never touched a woman's bare breast before and he knew he shouldn't have been doing it when she was asleep, but curiosity had got the better of him. He was amazed at how soft yet firm if felt, but as he was processing this, she had started to wake up. He had immediately froze, not sure what he should do and fearful of her reaction to being groped. He heard her murmur something about finding second base in his sleep and decided that pretending to be asleep was his best and safest option. Amy had moved his hand away and he used that as cue to pretend to wake up. She never said anything, so he assumed he had gotten away with it.
Sheldon had wanted to know what had triggered the night terror and what he could do to prevent them in future, so had done some research. He soon learnt that sleeping in unfamiliar surroundings could be a trigger. Sleeping in a blanket fort in his living room definitely qualified as unfamiliar surroundings. Lights or noise could also be a trigger, so the Christmas lights he had put up inside probably hadn't helped in the matter either. Added to those two factors, was the stress of it being their first sleepover and it was no wonder she had a night terror. He had mentally kicked himself for not having considered it could be a problem for them before. He was usually planned everything in meticulous detail before he did anything, but the problem was he hadn't planned the sleepover and it been a spur of the moment idea that he had been more than happy to go along with.
It was clear to him now, that she was having night terrors, but the question was why. He was certain that she was unaware that she had one during their sleepover because he had deliberately not mentioned it, so what could be causing it. He quickly ran through the list of triggers in his head. Extreme tiredness was one and as tiredness could be the result of night terrors, it was a vicious circle. Stress was another trigger of course and he knew she was upset with him, but he was now convinced that was the result of her tiredness. So what was it? He wondered and then he heard the knock on the door.
