Saw you in the corner from the moment I walked in
Saw your lonely face across the room
No I won't forget you and the way it might have been
Why'd you have to leave so soon?
Amy wandered around the halls of the University, hopelessly lost a few days after the mixer. She was trying to locate the personnel section as she had some emergency contact paperwork to hand in for the team. "Doctor Benshaw said to follow the signs for the engineering labs and that personnel was just around to the left…"
"I think he meant to say right, rather than left." A quiet drawl from behind had Amy whirling around, papers flying through the air to land at her feet. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."
"Oh, it's you!" Amy knelt down to gather the fallen papers and the owner of the drawl knelt down to assist her. It was Sheldon who had spotted her wandering around aimlessly from the open doorway of his office. "I'm glad I ran into you actually, I wanted to say thank you again for helping me out with the Kripke situation the other night, but you left before I could find you again. I was thinking of baking you a batch of cookies to say thanks but I didn't know if you had any food allergies and didn't want to inadvertently poison you."
Sheldon let out a breathy chuckle as he handed over several of the loose papers. "No, I don't have any food allergies that I am aware of; but no thanks are necessary." Sheldon picked up a few more pages and held them out for Amy to take. "I simply did what any southern raised gentleman was raised to do."
"It was a nice thing to do and I enjoyed the dance very much as well." Amy blushed a little in remembrance and Sheldon gave her a shy smile.
"I haven't danced like that since my Mama forced me to accompany my sister to her dance lessons, back home in Texas. We learnt how to rhumba, cha cha and waltz but that's the first time I ever put them in practise."
"Well you couldn't tell, you were very good."
"May I walk you to Personnel? And perhaps escort you to the cafeteria for a spot of luncheon?" Sheldon offered quietly, not wanting to end their conversation too soon. Amy checked her watch and gave him a brief nod.
"That sounds lovely, I haven't eaten in the cafeteria as yet as I've been bringing in lunch from home."
"You're in for a treat, they're serving lasagne today."
"Sounds lovely, I usually just have a salad as I'm trying to watch my weight; but maybe I can relax my rules a little just for one day." Amy grinned ruefully as she glanced down at her curvy hips and Sheldon muttered something under his breath that sounded something like she was perfect already.
"How are you finding things with Cal-Tech? Is it very much different from where you were from before?" Sheldon steered Amy in the direction of the cafeteria after dropping of the paperwork with Personnel.
"Um, whereas Cal-Tech leads from the front with the Physics and engineering programmes, UCLA does the same for human studies…or at least my department does anyway."
"Urgh, lots of yucky squishy things instead." Sheldon shuddered at the thought and Amy smiled widely at him.
"Yes, we do have a reputation for being one of the leaders of biological studies, and our medical programmes are first rate."
"Are you here for very long?" Sheldon held open the door to the cafeteria and waved Amy in front of him.
"A year, perhaps two; it depends on how things progress. We do have funding available from a private investor that will see us safely through, but you never can tell how these things will go when you're working with small primates." Amy scanned the cafeteria looking for an empty table and once again, Sheldon placed his hand on her arm, gently steering her to a table in the centre of the room.
"I thought you might like to meet a few people while we eat."
"Oh, okay." Amy had been hoping for a quiet lunch where the two of them could get to know each other a little better, but it seemed Sheldon had other ideas. He walked her over to the table and cleared his throat to attract the attention of the occupants.
"Gentlemen, may I introduce the latest member of staff at Cal-Tech? This is my new friend, Dr. Amy Fowler and she's just transferred over from UCLA to work on a study with primates."
"Nice to meet you, Amy. I'm Leonard and I work with experimental physics." Leonard laid aside his napkin and offered his hand in greeting. "I also room with Sheldon over on Los Robles."
"Hi, I'm Howard Wolowitz and it's a pleasure to meet you again." Howard stepped forward and pumped Amy's hand enthusiastically. "I never thought I'd meet someone that could bust a guy's nose with one little tap."
"Oh, the night of the mixer! You were the one that prompted me with Sheldon's name."
"Yup, that was me alright. So, how'd you manage to run into Sheldon again? Isn't the biology lab clear over the other side of the campus?"
"I had some paperwork to drop off with Personnel and got a little lost. Once again, Sheldon came to my rescue." Sheldon's cheeks flushed at the compliment and he turned his attention to the serving line.
"I'll go and pick us up a couple of plates, did you still want the lasagne Amy?"
"I'm going up for dessert, I'll get them for you." Leonard offered and Sheldon smiled as he sat back down at the table.
"Two portions of lasagne please, one with curly fries and the other with salad."
"Oh, and please make sure there's no avocado in the salad!" Leonard continued to walk away, and Amy fretted over whether he had heard her last remark. "I'm terribly allergic to avocado, I hope he heard me."
"He probably did, the cafeteria isn't too loud today. If it were Sheldon, he'd definitely hear you as he has a keen sense of hearing…we call it one of his Vulcan traits." Raj chimed in, and Howard looked at him with some amazement.
"Raj, you're actually talking in front of a girl! How on Earth did you manage that?" Raj just shrugged his shoulders and carried on eating his salad. Amy pushed her purple framed glasses further up the bridge of her nose and smiled faintly.
"It's probably because Raj doesn't see me as a potential mate, and therefore feels comfortable in my presence, reassured by the fact that I am not a threat to his vulnerable masculinity."
"Yeah, what she said." Raj waved his fork across the table at Amy and Howard nodded as if he really understood what Amy had just said. Sheldon just grinned and picked up a handful of napkins from the dispenser, passing some across to Amy and keeping five for himself. Leonard came back over then and set two heaped trays on the table, he slid one of the loaded plates in front of Amy and the other for Sheldon. Amy's plate had a large serving of salad on one half, with a portion of steaming lasagne taking over the other side. On Sheldon's plate there was lasagne too, but he had opted for curly fries instead of salad.
"Ooh, this looks yummy!" Amy grinned as she picked up her knife and fork and prepared to start eating. Sheldon grinned at her as he popped a fry in his mouth, and gestured over with his fork.
"Eat up, little lady; there's chocolate pudding for dessert!" He chewed happily and then surprised everyone by suddenly leaning over the table to snatch Amy's fork out of her hand as it was about to enter her mouth.
"Sheldon, what on Earth?" Amy gaped at him as he studied the fork carefully.
"Avocado…Amy's salad is full of little cubes of chopped avocado." Sheldon started poking through her salad and looked up at Amy sorrowfully. "Sorry, but there's too much of it to pick out."
"That's okay, I guess I'll just have to do without. I can't risk eating the lasagne just in case a stray piece of avocado has touched the side."
"You don't have to, here…" Sheldon astonished everyone by swapping their plates over, it was unheard of for Sheldon to share his food and yet here he was giving up his own meal to someone he had just met. "You have mine and I'll eat yours; guess you'll just have to have fries instead."
"She could have died…" Howard spoke softly, "You saved her from anaphylactic shock, Sheldon…remember when I ate those peanuts by mistake and Leonard had to rush me to the ER? That's what could have happened to Amy if she had eaten just one bite of that avocado."
"You're a real hero, Sheldon." Raj was a little tearful at the thought. "Our Sheldon is a bone fide Superhero."
"Stop…" Sheldon drawled out, his cheeks ruddy from the unexpected praise and he bent his head to the offending salad, trying to ignore the applause from everyone at the table.
"Thank you, Sheldon." Amy whispered from behind her napkin, and her hand slipped between them to lightly squeeze his knee. To his surprise, Sheldon didn't feel at all uncomfortable at her light touch and gave her a lopsided smile as he bent over his plate, hiding his pleased expression as to avoid any pesky comments.