Whatever Leonard had expected Sheldon to say, it certainly wasn't that. He tapped his ear and asked Sheldon to repeat his last words. Sheldon just smiled wryly.
"You heard me just fine, your last physical didn't state that you were experiencing any loss of hearing. I realise that this might have come as a bit of a shock but please understand that I had perfectly valid reasons for keeping it to myself."
"When…?" Leonard stumbled across the living room and practically fell into the armchair, still trying to process the news. Amy leant her head against Sheldon's shoulder and raised her brow at her husband, who smiled slightly giving her a small nod of approval.
"Stringbean and I met when I was just finishing up my graduate studies at Harvard before starting on my doctoral thesis. I had a free afternoon so decided to sit in on a lecture or two just for the fun of it. I started asking a few questions, Stringbean asked me to join him in a cup of tea…one thing led to another and we started dating."
"Amy even flew down to Texas with me for Christmas, Meemaw took to her right away." Sheldon said as he remembered their one and only Christmas together, Amy nuzzled her chin against his shoulder and Sheldon smoothed her hair back behind her ear. Leonard watched their movements as they sat close to each other, every touch seemed perfectly natural to them and it was in stark contrast to how Sheldon normally behaved.
"It was the best time of my life…so we decided to get married while we were down there."
"Wait! You got married in Texas…with your mother and everyone there?" Leonard was astounded at the news, he had assumed that the couple had married in a quiet civil ceremony in Cambridge.
"Really Leonard? You think my Mama would have allowed her baby to get married in some hole in the wall ceremony? Perhaps you were thinking that we snuck off to be married at a glittery chapel in Las Vegas and the ceremony was performed by some Elvis impersonator?" Sheldon shuddered at the very idea, and Leonard quickly apologised.
"Sorry buddy, I know you too well to think that…however they so have Star Trek chapels in Vegas too, you know!"
"How about we show him the pictures, sweetheart? You do still have them, don't you?"
"Of course I still have them! I could never get rid of them, they were all I had left of you…They're in the lock box under my bed."
"Same combination?"
"Of course…122404…our anniversary." Sheldon smiled sweetly at Amy and both men watched as she headed down the hallway into Sheldon's room.
"Wow, now I know for sure that she's your wife…you're actually letting a girl into your room." Leonard said with a smile and Sheldon leant forward, a serious look on his face.
"I know you saw the photo, Leonard…and probably have a whole heap of questions to throw at me…but please, don't bring it up when Amy's here. It's still incredibly hard for her to talk about." Leonard gulped hard and nodded, knowing exactly what Sheldon was talking about. Sheldon's smile was a little forced as he glanced up to see Amy smiling broadly as she flicked through the album.
"God…I can't believe how wild my hair was back then! Oh, and look at you dancing with Meemaw…you looked so handsome in your tuxedo." Amy slipped the photo out of it's protective covering and handed it over for Leonard to look at.
"Is this really you, Sheldon? You look so different." Leonard saw how happy and carefree his friend looking in the photo, his hair slightly ruffled and his whole demeanour screamed of someone perfectly content with his life.
"That was us just after the ceremony…" Amy pulled another photo from the album, her fingers running over the image as she smiled. "It took hours to get all of that birdseed out of my hair." The photo showed the newlyweds emerging from the church as they were showered with birdseed and coloured confetti.
"You got married in a church, I bet your mother was pleased about that." Leonard looked up from the photo and caught Sheldon shifting uncomfortably in his spot.
"I may not have been entirely honest with you about my aversion to religious aspects…Back then I was a little more willing to embrace the idea of an all knowing deity and attended regular church services. It seemed only natural that we should celebrate our union before God…it was only later that I changed my mind." Sheldon's eyes begged Leonard not to press him for details and he silently agreed, knowing that whatever had happened was enough to turn the other man completely away from the Church.
"Oh!" Amy gasped, clutching a photograph to her chest and tears threatening to spill over her lashes. Sheldon immediately leant forward with his arms outstretched and Amy felt against him, showing him the picture she held onto so tightly. "I forgot this one was in there…" Amy flashed Sheldon the image and he smiled faintly, tracing over the details with one lean finger.
"It's alright sugar, Leonard knows already." Sheldon murmured softly, and Amy's tight grasp on the photograph relaxed a little and she was able to pass it across to Leonard. He flipped it over to reveal a candid shot of Sheldon standing behind Amy in their wedding outfits, their hands were clasped over her abdomen and their heads were nestled against each other.
"No one else knew, we hadn't told anyone at all. We just wanted a small intimate wedding without all of the pointing fingers."
"Where was your family, Amy? There's lots here with Sheldon's but I don't see your mother in any of these." Leonard glanced up and just caught the steely eyed glare of Sheldon that warned him that this was yet another topic he'd have been wiser to ignore.
"My family couldn't make it." Amy said simply, and took the album out of Leonard's hands to close it softly. She rose up to place it on the shelf of the bookcase behind the couch, giving it a loving pat before she walked away. "Sheldon and I went back to Harvard after the ceremony; we were together for a little over a year and then things…well, they just didn't work out and we went our separate ways."
"But you never divorced?" Leonard asked, his brow wrinkling in confusion. The couple looked as much in love at that very moment as they had in their wedding photographs despite the fact that it had been nearly ten years since they had last seen each other in person.
"No, there wasn't any need to really. I had no interest in meeting another woman, let alone pursuing a romantic relationship with her."
"And I felt the same….It was always just Sheldon for me, no one else even registered in my radar." Amy leant up to stroke Sheldon's cheek lovingly and he nuzzled his face against her palm, pressing a tender kiss against her soft skin.
"Me too." He whispered softly, and Amy smiled at his admission.
"I should get going, it's laundry night tonight."
"Do you still start at eight fifteen?" Sheldon asked with a smile and Amy nodded.
"Pre-sorting followed by pre-soaking. I always felt it was a way of connecting with you even though we weren't together. I'd set the machines to wash and wonder whether you'd be doing the same thing at the very same time."
"And to think it's all because that was the only times the machines were ever free at that laundrette just off campus!" Sheldon let out a breathy laugh and Leonard grinned, finally slotting some of the pieces in place that made up the puzzling nature of Sheldon Cooper. Amy got up from the couch, smoothing her skirt flat with her hands and collected her shoulder bag from the floor. Sheldon rose up and walked her over to the door.
"Tomorrow evening then?" He asked hopefully as he clasped Amy's hand lightly within his own. She gave his hand a little squeeze and nodded.
"Tomorrow." She confirmed and leant forward, he met her halfway and their lips connected in a soft caress. Pulling away, Sheldon brought his finger up to capture the single tear that fell from Amy's sparkling eyes and Amy gave him a tremulous smile as she pulled her hand free and hurried away. Sheldon watched her disappear around the corner of the stairwell and then stepped inside his apartment, leaning his forehead against the closed door.
"Here…" Sheldon opened his eyes to see Leonard pressing a mug of tea against his hand. "You look like you could use it."
"Right now, I think I could use something with a little more punch; but tea will have to suffice." Sheldon accepted the mug and sipped at the beverage. He walked over to the couch and sank into his usual spot to stare sightlessly across the living room.
"Look, I don't want to pry into your personal life…" Leonard began, and Sheldon looked up with a brief smile.
"But you will anyway." Sheldon remarked drily, and then placed his mug down carefully on a coaster. "It's alright Leonard…ask away."
"What happened between the two of you? You obviously loved each other very much and there was the baby…" Leonard caught the pained look in his friend's eye and knew immediately what had caused the split. "Oh buddy…no."
"Amy was nearly six months pregnant and there was an accident…I was driving her back from the movies and the car in front of us suddenly skidded to a halt right in front of us. I hadn't been driving very long and wasn't experienced enough to swerve out of the way in time."
"You were driving?" Leonard asked with some surprise, Sheldon had always made it very clear that he was far too advanced to be bothered with something as trivial as operating a moving vehicle.
"Yes…our car skidded as the brakes locked and we ploughed into a bank. Amy seemed fine at first, a little shaken up but okay… a few days after we were released from hospital she went into premature labour and lost the baby. I haven't been able to get behind the wheel of a moving car since. Amy went into a deep depression after we lost our little girl and nothing I did or said seemed to make the slightest difference. Her mother came out from California and blamed me of course…"
"It was an accident, Sheldon! There probably wasn't anything that even the most experienced of drivers would have been able to avoid." Leonard protested and Sheldon shook his head.
"I know that now of course, but you have to realise that we were barely out of our teens and just gone through a traumatic experience…I was struggling with giving my last few lectures, looking after my sick wife and dealing with my own injuries and Amy was slipping further and further away from me. When Amy's mother suggested that maybe Amy go back with her for a few weeks to recover, it seemed like the ideal situation. Two weeks turned into a month, then two and finally I got a letter saying that she had transferred over to a university out here; the memories in Cambridge were just too painful for her to return. We kept in touch for a while and once I had finished at Harvard I followed her out here."
"Is that why you took the job at Cal-Tech instead of accepting any of those other offers? You mentioned that you could have taken a position at Rice back home…so instead you took the job at Cal-Tech thinking that Amy would still be here."
"Only she wasn't…Cal-Tech had no trace of her and her mother's house had been recently sold. I searched for nearly a year before I came to the conclusion that Amy just didn't want to be found."
"And yet you stayed…" Leonard stated softly and Sheldon gave a low chuckle.
"I stayed…ever hoping that one day I would just run into her again and it would be like we had never been apart." Sheldon sighed heavily, picking up his mug again to drain the contents. "Amy said earlier that she had taken a year's sabbatical and that her mother took her abroad to recover. They travelled around Europe for a while before settling in Glendale. All the time I was searching I was looking for Amy Farrah Fowler, but Amy registered at the university under her married name…Amelia Cooper. All this time and she was just a few miles away…" Sheldon set his empty mug down and rose to his feet, checking his wallet was in his pocket.
"Where are you off to now?"
"I plan on getting completely drunk, and you're driving."