Chapter Three:

Author's Note: Thanks so much for all the lovely reviews. They totally made my day! I went straight home and wrote another chapter. Hope you enjoy. TBBT is not mine.

Leonard was really starting to worry about Sheldon. It had been almost two weeks since the break up and he was still mopping around. He seemed alright to most people. He got up, got dressed. He ate and went to work. But his friends knew he it was just a show. His eyes were void of life and he seldom spoke.

He went to work, but mostly he just sat at his desk and stared into nothing. It was really starting to creep Raj out. He had tried countless times to engage Sheldon in some sort of conversation. Comic books, TV shows, movies. Raj had even begun to make blatant mistakes on Sheldon's white board to rouse him. But nothing had worked.

At dinner Sheldon sat in his spot and ate his dinner but he avoided all conversation and eye contact. The guys even ordered Thai food on pizza night to try and shake him out of his silence. But Sheldon didn't seem to notice. He just ate his dinner and went to bed.

Leonard felt terrible. He remembered his first broken heart and knew that there wasn't really anything he could say or do to help his friend. He could only wait and be there for him, when Sheldon was ready to talk about it.

At first Leonard had been angry at Amy. He wanted to march right over to her apartment and yell at her. How dare she break his heart like that! But Penny had talked him down. She had gone to Amy's to find out what had happened.

She had returned with similar tales of heartbreak. Now Leonard just felt bad for both of them. He had noticed that Amy seemed to long for more attention from Sheldon. He should have seen this coming from a mile away. Now all he could do was try to help Sheldon while Penny and Bernadette tried to help Amy.

Amy wasn't doing much better herself. Sure it was her idea to break up. But she was heartbroken too. Was she that hideous to him that he wouldn't even consider touching her?

Why had she been so stupid to even think she could ever have a boyfriend? Alfred Tennyson was so full of shit. All that stuff about how it was better to have loved and lost, was such garbage. Amy was absolutely positive that she could have gone her whole life without feeling this bad.

Amy had taken a few days off from work at first and thrown herself into grieving the loss f her relationship. But Penny and Bernadette had nagged her. "Get dressed you'll feel better." "Eat something, you'll feel better." "Do some work it will take your mind off of it"

It hadn't helped but she knew she couldn't hide forever. So she had gone back to her life PS, as she called it, pre-Sheldon.

Amy threw herself into her work and was churning out papers and moving ahead with so many new experiments, she never had a moment to think about Sheldon and how much she missed him during the day. Nights were hard though, and often she worked on through just to keep her mind occupied. She stopped eating and barely had enough time to run a comb through her hair. She looked bad, she knew it. But who cares? It wasn't like she was a beauty queen before. Hell she couldn't even get her own boyfriend to touch her.

Damn it she let that thought slip now, back to work.

Penny was torn. She watched helplessly as two of her close friends disintegrated right in front of her. Sheldon seemed to have given up and disappeared into his mind, and Amy had disappeared into her work.

Penny and Bernadette and insisted that Amy get back to her life to help her move on but who knew she would take that one so far. Still she tried. They attempted to take Amy out for dinner or girl's night. They had sleepovers at Amy's but she either kept working or seemed so put out they always ended early.

After they had first broken up, Penny had completely understood. She knew Amy needed more from Sheldon. She saw how oblivious he had been towards Amy's growing loneliness. Yet now she couldn't help but think this was such a huge mistake. They clearly were lost without each other. But she didn't know how to help bring them back together. Sheldon was non communicative these days and Amy would just change the subject.

And even if they could get back together, would Sheldon ever be able to fully be Amy's boyfriend? Penny knew that below that quirky exterior Amy was a woman. They had spoken about it before. Amy wanted a traditional life in the long run. She wanted to get married and have a family. Things that Sheldon may never be able to give.

So things continued this way for months. Sheldon was withdrawn from his friends and Amy withdrew more and more.

She spent less and less time with Penny and Bernadette. She wouldn't go over to Penny's apartment, afraid she would run into Sheldon, and whenever they hung out it was always a little strained. It was hard for Penny and Bernadette to talk about their lives avoiding the subject of Sheldon. As time passed they saw each other less and less. Amy just wasn't strong enough to be around them, knowing their relationships were going so well, where hers had failed. Knowing they had spent time with Sheldon. Her Sheldon that she still so desperately missed.