Sheldon watched as the numbers on his alarm clock changed and the hours followed behind leading into morning.
The sun slowly started to rise over Pasadena as Sheldon's heavy eyes stared at the ceiling; hair disheveled as tossing and turning was all he accomplished. Not once did he find himself waking up from a deep sleep during the night or even a state of Hypnagogia.
The sounds of his alarm clock sounded more like a chainsaw sawing through his brain and as he hit the noise box to end his suffering, he cursed under his breath for the day ahead of him.
"You look awful."
Stepping out of the bathroom and into the hallway took so much energy, he might as well have been pulling a semi-truck.
"Thank you, Leonard." The tone of his voice was nothing short of sarcastic. He made his way to the fridge and retreived the carton of orange juice.
"What's wrong. You look like you slept on a rock."
"I wish," he muttered, reaching for a glass.
"What?"
"I didn't sleep at all, Leonard. I got no sleep. None. Zilch. Nada." he sipped on his morning beverage.
"Why?"
Sheldon thought if he asked another question he was going to shove his alarm clock down his roommate's throat.
"I don't know. I just couldn't sleep."
"Thinking about Amy?"
Sheldon looked at him in bewilderment. "Thinking about A- Now, why would I be thinking about Amy? Everything is fine between us."
"Sheldon, I know you. You fell asleep on the couch with Amy and you've probably been thinking about it non-stop since." Sheldon watched as his friend grabbed the oatmeal and handed it to him. "Like I said. It's no big deal."
Sheldon slowly took the container before starting to prepare his breakfast.
"I'm going to need to cancel my lunch plans with Amy and take a nap in my office." He shuddered at the thought of his head on his germ infested desk.
Have to remember to grab an extra pillow to bring.
My apologies, Amy, but I'm going to have to cancel our lunch today. I have a lot I need to catch up on during my break.
"There. She won't know I couldn't sleep last night and won't know I'm going against my own rules of sleeping on the job by taking a nap in my office."
Sheldon hit send before picking up his dry erase marker again. Not like he was able to get any work done, though. He couldn't concentrate on anything that didn't have to do with the Vixen that slept on his couch just the two nights before.
buzz
Sheldon looked over at his phone before slowly picking it up, surprisingly nervous about his girlfriend's quick response.
That's all right. I have a big of Monty clean up to do, myself. I left him alone too long earlier and well, let's just say I'll be eating in the cafe today.
Sheldon chuckled at her text. He did want to eat lunch with her, that was no surprise to him. But he knew he needed to get at least a few minutes of rest if he was going to be of any use at all.
Unfortunately, sleep didn't come then, either.
"This is ridiculous," he sighed in frustration, face first in the pillow that lay on top of his desk. "How is possible that I could require so much sleep and yet not be able to succeed in a proper catnap?" He looked over at the clock resting on the wall above his office door. 1:09. "Well twenty one minutes is hardly enough to make a difference." He stood up and grabbed the face imprinted pillow before placing it on top of his messenger bag on the chair opposite his desk. "I'll just have to wait until tonight."
"Guys, I'm a little worried about Sheldon."
Raj and Howard simultaneously looked up from their Beefaroni. Howard was the first to speak.
"As in, you're worried he's going to blow us all up or you're worried he's going to buy twenty five cats again?"
Leonard shook his head as he moved his fork around his plate. "No, no I- Oh God. I can't let him bring cats into the apartment again. The smell didn't come out for a month."
"Calm down, Dude." Raj's fork made contact with his mouth before chewing on his lunch.
"Yeah. What's wrong with Professor Creepy pants?"
Leonard sighed debating if he should let his friends in on it. Who was he kidding? Of course he was.
"A couple nights ago, I walked into the apartment to see that Sheldon and Amy had fallen asleep on the couch together and Sheldon seemed pretty shaken up over it when he woke up."
"Of course he did," Howard sighed. "He's Sheldon. To him, that's like a stripper giving him a lap dance." He shuddered at the thought.
"Yeah, but I made the mistake of telling him they looked pretty cozy together."
Raj's eyebrow raised. "Were they?"
"Like conjoined twins."
"Damn," Howard muttered. "And I'm supposed to keep this to myself? No making fun of the schmuck?" He waited for a nod. "Then why'd you tell me this, Leonard."
Sighing at the engineer, Leonard shook his head. "Because I thought you guys could give me some advice to help him out. He didn't sleep a wink last night."
"Have you tried Zolpidem? Works great for my mom."
Leonard groaned before giving him. I need better friends.
The drive back to Sheldon's apartment was filled with more awkward silence than a first date. Not to mention he looked like he hadn't slept in a month. Though she knew that wasn't true since his outburst the morning before.
Don't let her get to you. It was a simple sleep on the couch. Your arm simply moved in the middle of the night and her waist was where it landed. She's your girlfriend. Has been for the past two and a half years. Nothing is changing. Everything is stagnate.
He jolted out of his thoughts when he felt the usual pothole just before the parking lot of his apartment building.
"Well, I appreciate the ride, Amy. Have a good evening."
She watched him step out of the car, messenger bag pulled to his side. His eyes were bloodshot and his balance was off. "Are you able to have lunch with me tomorrow? I promise the lab is back to smelling like- well a lab."
"Of course. I'll see you then."
She watched him shut the door and make his way to the apartment building doors, opening them and disappearing from her view.
"Maybe he really was freaked out by us sleeping on the couch together." She placed her messenger bag on her couch.
buzz
She felt her heart jump in her chest upon hearing her phone. Quickly pulling it out of her messenger bag before sighing in disappointment. Penny.
Hey, Ames. Bernadette and I are going for drinks tonight. Want to come?
Amy always enjoyed going for drinks with the girls, and she did need to talk to someone about what happened with Sheldon. Not like anything happened, but-
Sounds great. What time?
"So you were just sleeping? Nothing else?" Bernadette sipped her Malibu Bay Breeze before munching on a cheese fry as she repeated her friends' words.
"Of course that's all they did. What else does Sheldon know? No offense."
Amy shrugged before she sipped her own spiked beverage. "He didn't say a word on the drive back from work. I'm surprised he even let me drive him home."
"Well, Leonard left early to bring me food during my break. You didn't think he was going to take the bus without his bus pants, did you?" The waitress sipped her wine before reaching for the greasy carbohydrates.
Amy pressed her lips together as she stared at her best friend's lack of comfort. "Thanks. Glad to know I rate higher than local transportation."
"Oh Amy, I didn't mean anything by it. But it IS Sheldon."
She waved her off with her hand. "No, no. I know who I'm dating. I just wish I knew what was really bothering him. The fact that we were sleeping, that we were touching or that I was there after dark."
"Probably all of them. Again; it's Sheldon."
Sheldon placed his empty Chinese container into the trash, before washing his hands in the sink; scrubbing at the invisible germs he was more than certain were there.
"Finally," he sighed in relief. "Now that I filled my stomach, I can get some much needed sleep."
Luckily Leonard was staying at Penny's for the night so he didn't have to worry about any obnoxious noise coming from the pair as he got his REM cycle back on track.
He made his way into his room and changed into his Thursday night pajamas before getting himself under his Star Wars sheets.
"Ahh," he sighed happily, laying on his back and pulling the covers up to his chest, his hands holding them in place as he closed his eyes. "I am going to sleep well tonight."
But 7:30 turned to 8:30 and 8:30 turned to 9:30 and yet the physicist, regardless of how sleep deprived he was, could not get his mind to shut down.
"This is ridiculous."
Throwing the covers off him, Sheldon made his way into the kitchen, hoping some warm milk would solve his problem.
After warming up the sleep remedy, he made himself comfortable on the couch and turned on the television. "Maybe if I watched something tedious I'll fall asleep right here." He hated the idea of falling asleep anywhere but his bed, but if it got him to be able to have a proper REM cycle, he was willing to try anything.
Unfortunately, after staring at a two hour P90x infomercial, he was left watching three hours of a Wen hair care infomercial. And yet after all that, including two more mugs of warm milk, and a bathroom break, he still wasn't able to doze off. He did, however, have the need to plunge a knife through his jugular to end his suffering of, not only lack of sleep, but also of the knowledge that he had no choice but to absorb of the shampoo that guarantees to give you 'hair with even more body, bounce and shine'.
The only shine Sheldon was getting was the light from the sun as it started to rise.
Staring at the large window in his apartment, Sheldon slowly shook his head in disbelief.
Leonard slowly turned to shut off the alarm that was sounding more like a truck backing up.
Once silence filled the room again, he turned to his blonde girlfriend and wrapped her up in a tight embrace, kissing the top of her head.
"I have to go get ready for work," he whispered.
"What did I say about waking me before eleven?" Her words were muffled from her face pressed into the warmth of her pillow.
He smirked as he slowly made his way out of the bed and grabbed his robe, slipping it on before exiting her bedroom and then her apartment.
Leonard slowly entered the sun lit apartment, eyes immediately going to his distressed roommate. "Sheldon?"
The lanky physicists was staring straight ahead, eyes boring into the wall ahead of him.
"I don't understand, Leonard. I can't do it."
Leonard slowly shut the door behind him before making his way to the couch. "Do what?"
His eyes slowly turned up to look at his friend. "Sleep."
Slowly sitting down on the couch, Leonard picked up the remote and turned off the TV. "You didn't get a full nights sleep?"
"I wish that was my misfortune. I didn't get any. My REM cycle is completely destroyed, Leonard."
Leonard sighed as he saw how shaken up Sheldon was over this. It wasn't unheard of to be upset about not getting sleep, but the blank look in his eyes let Leonard know this was more than just not being able to sleep. The problem was why this was occurring.
"Sheldon," Leonard tried to phrase his words carefully. It was like trying to catch a wild rabbit sometimes with Sheldon. You never knew when he was going to make a run for it. "When was the last time you had a decent nights' sleep?"
Sheldon thought a moment before the vision came back to him.
Two warm bodies pressed against each other in a comfortable embrace, molding together like they were made for each other. Her hair displayed over his face as his head rested on her shoulder.
"Amy."
His words were so soft, that Leonard almost didn't hear him.
"Why-" he scrunched his face as he tried to choose his words. "Why do you think you were able to sleep well with Amy and not now?"
Sheldon's eyes widened and Leonard was sure he was going to admit his needs for the 'cute lump of wool'.
"She must have slipped me something just before I woke up that would keep me from being able to sleep properly and then disturb my work so she would have a chance of winning a Nobel Pri-"
"Sheldon! That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard you say. And I've heard you say a lot of absurd things."
"You're right," he agreed, waving the thought away like smoke. "Regardless of my sleep pattern, she wouldn't beat me to a Nobel Prize."
Groaning, Leonard walked to the fridge to grab the carton of orange juice. "I'm just saying, maybe the reason you can't sleep at night anymore is because you recently had such a good night sleep with Amy that you can't fall asleep without her anymore."
Sheldon stared at him in eery silence before hunching over in laughter. "Oh that's good, Leonard. You really are funny." He wagged his finger at him with a smile before he walked to grab his Fiber cereal from the cabinet above the fridge.
Sheldon might have laughed at Leonard's suggestion to his complex issue, but that didn't mean he wasn't thinking about it for the remainder of the day. Especially when he had his usual lunch break with the possible source of his problem.
"...To which the produce guy replied, "No, sir, you will have to do that yourself." Amy started cracking up at her own biology joke, tears welling up in her eyes as she slapped the desk, before looked over at her distracted boyfriend. Sheldon? Did you hear me?"
"What?" he snapped his neck to look up at the neurobiologist."
"Oh, Sheldon," she whined, "that was a good joke. I told it to myself at least five times, so I wouldn't start laughing while relaying it to you."
"My apologies, Amy. I'm just a little tired." He picked up his turkey club before taking a large bite.
"You look more than a little tired. Like you haven't slept in days."
Sheldon tensed up at how right she was.
"Amy, do you remember when we fell asleep on my couch the other night?"
Sorry for the cliffhanger, but I've got to keep you all on your toes somehow.