A/n: Wow! This has been some of the most feedback I have gotten for a preliminary chapter for a multi-chapter fic! Also this story was added to a community, which hardly ever happens for me. I hope you aren't disappointed with this chapter!
Disclaimer: Lorre and Prady
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Brenda: Thank you! I love writing it. Here's the next chapter!
Chapter Two
Sheldon looked down at the woman seeing the warring emotions fighting on her face. What she couldn't see was his sweating palms hidden in his pockets, anxiously awaiting her decision.
"I suppose so," she replied slowly in a low voice. She stepped aside and he let his long legs cross over the threshold.
"Thank you. It smells wonderful in here. What are you makin'?"
"Pancakes," she said as she flipped one over, slightly browner than the other one.
"They look as good as they smell," he replied sitting down at the table.
"Thank you, that's very kind sir."
The polite terminology reminded Sheldon he didn't know her name. "It has occurred to me we haven't introduced ourselves. I'm Sheldon Cooper."
"Amy Fowler," she replied pouring more batter into the skillet.
"What a lovely name."
She snorted. "It's as plain as my face."
His facial features soften. "That's not true."
Amy angrily scraped the spatula against the skillet as she flipped the pancake over. "I'm sorry Mr. Cooper, but you are mistaken. Would you like some coffee?"
Sheldon registered the angry tone and saved the discussion about her obvious beauty for later. "Coffee sounds lovely." He pulled a cigarette and lighter out and lit it, taking a quick drag as he put the lighter up. He puffed smoke back out and looked back at the woman at the stove adding more and more pancakes to a stack. "What's keepin' you here, Miss Fowler? Something has to be holdin' you back. You don't strike me as the type of girl to do nothin' in life."
Amy finished the last stack and brought them over to the table. She put two mugs on the table and poured them full of coffee. "What's holding everyone back, the Depression." She undid her apron and hung it up on a hook. "I was supposed to go to college, but then the market crashed, wheat and corn prices plummeted and our savings ran out. My father was able to pull a few favors from some friends to keep us afloat, but I've been stuck here ever since. What's really been keeping us going is the strawberry jam I make and keeping the money away from his booze soaked hands."
Sheldon nodded and put his cigarette out in the ashtray. "That's why I left Texas, to make money."
Amy put a pad of butter on both stacks of pancakes and poured maple syrup over them. "How has that been going?"
"Not the best, 'til recently," he admitted and he took a long drink of coffee.
Amy began to cut into her pancake stack. "It's good to know somebody is able to survive in this."
Her last sentence hung between them as Sheldon sensed the bitterness in her tone. For a while all that filled the silence was the clinking of forks and knives on the plates. Sheldon almost purred at the pancakes' perfection. He hadn't had pancakes as good as these since he left Texas and nobody made them like his Meemaw. The butter had melted into the crystallizing syrup and had run its way through the pancakes giving each bite a wonderful sugary salty morsel. While Sheldon wasn't always a coffee drinker he liked the way Amy made it with a touch of cream and sugar. Something about her was changing him. "So," she looked up at him since he had broken the silence. "So, um, where is your father?"
"He heard of a job opening out east. He's hoping to make a little money," she replied.
"How far east?
"Just an hour away from the Kansas-Missouri border. He wasn't specific in what kind of work it would entail, but it is probably one Roosevelt's programs."
"Oh," he looked down at his empty plate sticky with syrup and he pulled out his pack of cigarettes. Lighting one up and taking a drag he noticed her eyes on him. "What?"
Amy looked at the smoke coming off the bright cherry end. "I've never had one."
He cocked his head and grinned as he pulled it out from between his lips. "You want to try darlin'."
"My daddy says smoking isn't lady like," she instantly replied.
Sheldon leaned across the table and looked her in the eyes. "Well, he ain't here. What are ya goin' do?"
She looked tentatively at Sheldon and then at the cigarette burning between his slim fingers. Amy gingerly plucked it with her dainty fingers and put it to her lips. She sucked in and began to violently cough.
Sheldon chuckled and took the cigarette from her grasp. "You need to go at it nice and easy, like this." He put it back in his mouth and breathed in languidly and breathed it back out in a long stream. He smiled across at her and licked his lips, realizing Amy must have gotten some syrup on the cigarette. "You wanna another puff?"
She looked at it and took it back, copying his movements this time and not choking. She breathed the smoke out with a smile across her lips. "It's oddly liberating."
Sheldon laughed and lit himself a new one. "Keep it if you want. I've got more."
Amy eagerly kept at it, reveling in her new found freedom. Sheldon chuckled under his breath as he watched her breath in and the bright red end flared, smoke leaving her pink lips in thin streams. She put the cigarette out in the ashtray and stood up. "As much as I have enjoyed this conversation Mr. Cooper I must be getting on with my day."
He was puzzled at first by her words and then noticed the crochet lace peeking out from behind her pale green robe, indicating she was still in her nightgown. "Oh, of course Miss Fowler. It was I who intruded. I best be going as well."
"Well, you could always come back for supper; my invitation was specifically for it. I make excellent fried catfish," suggested Amy.
Sheldon raised an eyebrow. "Oh do you, now? I'll have to take you up on your offer to find out."
"Then I can expect you around seven."
"Yes, ma'am." Sheldon pulled his cigarette out and grasped Amy's hand. He lifted her hand to his mouth and gave it a quick peck. "It has been a wonderful morning, Miss Fowler." He left, driving down the dirt road with a cigarette in his left hand and steering with his right. He had never been more excited.
-o-O-o-
Amy rushed up to her room and slammed the door with excitement. Nothing like this had ever happened before in her life. She brushed her fingers over the spot Sheldon kissed and she smiled; however, she would have more time to reminisce later. She wander over to her closet and grabbed her work overalls for her garden work, putting a button up on underneath. She would change before Sheldon came back, but she had work to do.
