Shamy's First Hiccup, a big bang theory fanfic

Sheldon, Leonard, Penny, Howard, Bernadette and Raj all sat round the coffee table together each of them clutching unopened boxes of Chinese food apart from Sheldon whose eyes were fixed on his watch.

"Sheldon, can we eat already? I'm sure Amy is fine and I am staaarved!" Penny begged

Leonard looks up surprised and says "What?! We got a shared box of popcorn at the movies earlier and you slapped my hand away every time I tried to get any!"

"A girls gotta eat!" she replies before Sheldon interrupts with

"On average Amy is two minutes late, five minutes late on occasions but seven? she's never been this late before"

"Aw sweetie, I'm sure there's absolutely nothing to be worried abo-"

Amy walks in looking shocked, Sheldon stands as if to start a rant but sees her expression "Amy?" he says smoothly.

"Hey guys, I have some news to tell you all but i think i better talk to Sheldon in private first" she gestures Sheldon to the hall to go to his room, a confused Sheldon follows her in.

"maybe she's pregnant" Howard jokes

Penny who is now already halfway through her noodles chokes on her mouthful through laughter.

"Sheldon, sit down" says Amy, (he does) "I have some exciting news but I thought it was best I tell you first"

"Okay?" he replies, confused.

"I have been offered the chance to go on a once in a lifetime trip to South Africa to study the difference in deep brain stimulation between monkeys kept in captivity and in the wild"

Sheldon looks pleasantly surprised and replies with "that's great news Amy, congratulations" whilst patting her on the knee.

"The trip is for 8 months" Amy says staring straight into the now blank looking face of her boyfriend, moments passed before Sheldon looks up and forces a realistic smile to Amy and softly says "this is a fantastic opportunity for you and your career" he pauses for a second but finishes with "you should go" and another smile, Amy smiles back at him.

The couple walk back into the lounge to the others where Amy then tells everybody her good news, the evening that followed was the celebrations for Amy's news, they all drank, all played board games and all conversed about the things she could do in Africa in her free time, all except Sheldon, who sat quietly in his spot contemplating different ways to try and stop Amy going on the trip. Nobody noticed that Sheldon wasn't participating in the celebrations apart from Leonard, Amy had her moments of wondering if he was okay but every time she looked round to him she was greeted with a convincing smile.

It was 2am and everybody had left theirs at 11pm, Leonard walks out to the kitchen knowing that Sheldon would be sat on one of the stools, he could that this was bothering Sheldon more than he's letting it show so says "trouble sleeping?"

Sheldon turns to look at him and says "I wouldn't know, I haven't tried yet, I'll get back to you on that"

Leonard frowns in disapproval and tries again to get his friend to open up

"so you're really okay with Amy being away for eight months?"

"okay?" Sheldon repeats surprised "of course I'm not 'okay', Amy is going to be away for 243 days when I have got into the routine of seeing her at least 3 times a week plus date night, that's a minimum average of 110 days that I would normally be seeing her, in which, because of this trip, I wont. Then I also have the added discomfort of knowing that when she gets back, I'll be used to not seeing her and then I'll have to find a way to fit her back into my timetable."

"but don't you think that after 8 whole months of not seeing Amy you'd be glad to put her back into your routine? and also you can still stay in contact with her by texting, phoning, skype?" Leonard says comfortingly

Sheldon doesn't reply for a minute or so but then he stands and says "I just don't want her to go" and then heads off to bed leaving Leonard sat in the kitchen shocked at how affected Sheldon is by all this.

Sheldon lay in his bed, he would have to remember to tell Leonard the next morning that he did indeed have trouble sleeping. He was thinking up a master plan to stop Amy from being able to go on the trip but without her realising or finding out that it was him that had stopped her, so the next morning he would put his plan into action.

He was in Caltech and heading towards the biology department, he knew what he had to do he just had to make sure that he blended in with the biologists, unlikely he thought.

He got to Dr Sheridan's office, the organiser and leader of the trip

*knock knock knock* "Dr Sheridan"

Dr Sheridan opened his door with a confused look on his face, "yes? can I help you?"

"Hello" Sheldon says as he walks into Sheridan's office uninvited "My name is Dr Sheldon Cooper I am a theoretical physicist here at Caltech"

"Okay? Good morning, Dr Cooper"

"yes, So I've heard about your upcoming expedition to South Africa"

Dr Sheridan's face lit up and began to explain "Ah yes! we plan to study the difference in deep brain stimula-"

"I know, I researched it before coming here" Sheldon interrupted, Sheridan's face dropped.

"I've come down here to talk to you about your recent decision to invite Dr Amy Farrah Fowler along to the expedition"

"right… okay?" Sheridan said confused.

"I believe that she is absolutely the wrong person for the place and was thinking that you could invite somebody different, you see, Dr Amy Farrah Fowler isn't ready for such a great task as I believe that her knowledge in the field is too restricted for something of that nature and is much better off staying here in the university"

"Sheldon?" says an extremely angry looking Amy from the doorway "What the hell is wrong with you!?" she shouts as she storms off.

Sheldon stands frozen looking to the now empty doorway, even he knew that he had crossed some sort of line here but had absolutely no idea about fixing what he had done wrong. He turned back to Dr Sheridan who had clearly found that extremely awkward and says "excuse me" and then he quickly paces out of the office.

The rest of that day Sheldon could not find Amy anywhere so he just locked himself away in his office so he wouldn't see anybody, that was until lunch came anyway but even then he just went down to the cafeteria, got his lunch and ignored the guys when they were asking him what was wrong, he was too busy trying to figure out a solution to all of this to talk to them, which was difficult as he didn't understand what part of what he said had upset Amy.

In the car journey home Sheldon sat quiet, up all 4 flights of stairs he was quiet, it was only when him and Leonard were sat on the sofa with Penny that Sheldon decided to ask them for advice, he explained what had happened and what he had said, Penny sat open mouthed at the end and said "You're a total ass Sheldon!" whilst Leonard is just sat there shaking his head with his eyes closed.

"If I wanted to be called names I would have called my older brother or all 17 of my childhood bullies! I want to know what to do!" Sheldon said sounding almost desperate

"The only thing you can do is go round hers and apologise, but if I were you I wouldn't expect anything less than a door slammed in your face" says Leonard

"A door?" Penny exclaims, "More like a fist!"

Sheldon looked worried, "Okay, I'll go round but what am i apologising for? for saying her knowledge is restricted?"

"Yes absolutely that, but also for trying to stop her from going on an opportunity of a lifetime after telling her that you were okay with it, Lying in a relationship is not okay Sheldon!" Leonard explains.

"I see" Sheldon says looking guilty.

Sheldon approached Amy's door and took a deep breath, he was beginning to realise that this could be the end of their relationship, maybe he had pushed her too far this time.

he exhaled and then knocked the door.

*knock knock knock* "Amy"

"Go away Sheldon" Amy shouted from inside her apartment

"I've come to apologise" Sheldon said through the door

Amy did not answer the door, he heard no movement at all

"I'm just going to do it through the door, I understand that I upset you earlier in Dr Sheridan's office, I was wrong to say that your knowledge is restricted, you're knowledge is far from restricted, you are the smartest biologist I have ever come across "

Amy opened the door

"Hello" says Sheldon

"Hi" Amy replies bluntly

"um, as I was saying you are the smartest biologist I have ever met and I only said that to Dr Sheridan because I was willing to say anything that would stop him from giving you the place on the expedition so that you wouldn't be away from me for 8 months" Sheldon says as he looks at his girlfriend

"Sheldon If you had such a problem with me going away for 8 months then why did you tell me that I should go?" Amy questioned

"I didn't want you to think that I would hold you back with such an opportunity, everything I have done has been totally selfish, I didn't want you to go, I didn't want to be away from you for 243 days, It's all been me… and I apologise" Sheldon says whilst looking Amy straight in the eye, he'd always struggled with apologies and accepting the fact that he was in the wrong but right now, in this moment, he wanted nothing more than Amy's forgiveness.

"Sheldon I didn't want to be away from you for that long either, that's the whole reason I was going to see Dr Sheridan today, I was going to tell him to give my spot to somebody else, and then I get to his office to here my boyfriend saying that I wasn't ready for such a task and that my knowledge in my field was restricted? but not only were you openly insulting me to one of my bosses, you were making everything you said to me in our conversation about the trip a lie and I have told you so many times now that we are going to have an honest relationship but how am I supposed to trust you when you go behind my back to try and jeopardise something at that time you thought I wanted?"

Sheldon just looked at her stunned, he had never seen Amy this way before, he hadn't spoken for about 30 seconds before he said

"I really don't know how to apologise enough for how much I've hurt you, I will spend as long as it takes for you to realise how much I care for you and how everything that I ever do is only ever out of wanting to make our relationship stronger because believe it or not Amy I love you, and that's the truth"

Amy is stood frozen staring at Sheldon, he had never said anything so beautiful in their whole relationship, she couldn't bring herself to speak just yet because she knew she would cry and that he wouldn't be able to handle that, so she just stood there, looking at him, her boyfriend, who loves her.

I've said too much Sheldon thought, I've freaked her out

"I should probably go" Sheldon said

Amy got herself together and said

"Don't you dare!" as she threw herself into him, he hugged her back and they just stood there, in each others hold, Amy looked up to sheldon about a minute later and smiled, "I love you too"

Sheldon smiled softly and leaned in to kiss her.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 he counted, that should do her for now.