Author's Notes: Welcome to the next step of this adventure. I wanna address the fact that some reviews say that my chapters should be longer and normally they are. But I have a distinct idea as to when they should end and what they should feel like and that's what I am doing here. So ... yeah ;-)

There is a scene from "The Fortification Implementation" - There is an actual passage from the finale in here so you are warned once again! Damn you sneak peeks!

Now, continue ...


Previously on The Transgression Acclimatization...

Maybe a weekend in New York City, attending a conference on Neuroscience, was what she needed. And more. She needed to evaluate her life, relationship and her expectations. She needed to find out if she was comfortable with never being as close to Sheldon as her other friends were with their partners. United in every way possible, mind, body and soul. She needed to think about whether she thought it was enough.

Somewhere deep inside she already knew the answer.

No.

She didn't want to be denied any longer.


Leonard knocked on his fiancée's door about thirty minutes after the last remnants of his tea had gotten cold and unenjoyable. He had put Sheldon to bed and assured him that things between him and Amy would be fine in the end. He had suggested that Sheldon used the night to sleep on what happened and then to approach the issue in the morning. Thankfully the clueless physicist had agreed and had gone to bed without causing too much fuss. Leonard nervously waited for his fiancée to answer the knocking.

"It's open! Come in, Leonard," she called out and he opened the door to find Penny sitting on the couch, her eyes fixed on the task at hand: her toe nails. Leonard stopped, shut the door, turned back around and chuckled.

"Something makes me think I am supposed to be helping here again, am I not?" he joked and earned a grin in return.

"Yeah, I guess. You know, it occurred to me that I can't get married with ugly looking toes anyway. This might have been a sign of the universe, huh?"

"Maybe? Who knows..." Leonard trailed off, sat down beside his fiancée and started to massage her foot without hesitation.

"You know? I am actually glad this isn't a big deal here," Penny said, leaning back and enjoying the well-meant and careful ministrations.

"I guess if it's expected that I forgive you to drunk-wed your ex-boyfriend, you can do this and we're even," Leonard said, an insecure undertone in his voice.

"Agreed," Penny said and nudged his arm, "thank you for telling me, though. Even if it was a little late, you decided to do the right thing. And I am glad you're not mad about the whole Zac-issue. We're good?"

"We're good," he confirmed and continued to rub Penny's left foot.

"Hey, how is Dr. Whackadoodle? Has the air cleared or is it still stormy between him and Amy?" Penny asked teasingly and turned her torso toward Leonard.

"Stroms and tornadoes, if you ask me..." Leonard answered and sighed. There were only so many limited ways to tell Sheldon what the problem was ...


Penny was still mocking Leonard when they entered apartment 4A after their interesting adventure at the Farmer's Market. Sheldon turned around to them, his face solemn and worried.

"Ugh, good, you're here. I need your assistance!" Sheldon said and turned around to face them.

"Can that wait until I put a band-aid on a goat bite?" Leonard huffed, looking rather annoyed at himself. The pain being the secondary problem he was facing, humiliation being the primary issue he was clearly having. A goat? Seriously? His cute Nebraskan fiancée mocking him all the way back home, priceless!

Sheldon's mouth formed a big 'oh' - "What happened?"

"Ah..." Penny sighed and explained, "your buddy got mugged by some baby farm animals..."

Sheldon shrugged it of with a derogatory hand movement, "been there!" Penny grinned knowingly, hummed and let it slide.

"So, what do you need help with?" she asked, coming full circle to his initial inquiry and moved closer toward him, to stress that she was indeed interested to hear about the struggle he was having.

"Amy is mad at me and I am not clear why," Sheldon complained, one eyebrow raised.

"Okay, were you talking before she got upset?" Penny simply asked, the answer not a great surprise to her.

"Yes!"

"Uh, that's probably it," Penny said knowingly, made a face and walked over to the kitchen counter to see how her fiancée was doing with the goat bite he had sustained. Sheldon raised his eyebrow even higher.

"What's that supposed to mean?"


"So, did you find out what happened?" Penny asked eagerly. She knew it wasn't easy to get answers out of the brilliant mind of Dr. Sheldon Lee Cooper when it came to social interactions let alone his love life but if anyone was capable of forcing those answers out of him, it was surely Leonard.

"Not really, all he would wanna tell me is that they were enjoying their date night and then he was making a suggestion as to which TV series to watch next. That's all I got," Leonard said apologetically.

"Wait. What exactly does "enjoying their date night" mean?" Penny quipped, her excitement rising noticeably.

"I am not sure..." Leonard trailed off, really not being sure.

"Do you think he pulled some crap as to ask her which show to watch in the middle of ..." Penny suggested but then wasn't bold enough to finish the sentence.

"... sex?" Leonard finished the sentence but snorted, "I am pretty sure that wasn't it..."

"Yeah because we know who does life-changing things during sex in this building, don't we?"

"Veeeeery funny," Leonard grinned but his face turned crimson-red, "for the record, I still think it was romantic."

"Yeah. You and no one else," Penny grinned but playfully nudged his side once again.

"Speaking of .. you know ... proposing..." Leonard hinted and Penny's eyes widened indefinitely.

"Shut the front door! He did not! Shut the FRONT DOOR!" She grabbed Leonard by the lapels of his shirt and shook his entire upper body ferociously. The sudden power she used to make him explain slightly frightened the physicist but what made it worse was the almost insane expression Penny wore on her face. Excited, insane. Maybe a little bit of both.

"No, no ... it's not what you think, relax," he managed to break free from her grasp and re-arranged his clothes.

"Relax?" Penny yelled in frustration and leaned back again, "you want me to relax and all I get is a 'speaking of proposals' line? Nope, I am so not taking it ... and if you ever wanna touch anything apart from my feet ever ... ever ... again, I suggest you tell me what he told you. And I suggest you do that NOW!"

Penny meant business. So he told her as much as he knew.


It took her the better part of two hours but the suitcase was packed, her nose was blown for the what felt like a hundredth time and yet Amy didn't feel better about herself or about the situation. She felt like she had invested her time, effort and her feelings into something that wasn't worth investing in.

Even if that was a very harsh thing to think. Or to say.

With Sheldon it tended to be a lot about action and reaction, she figured. When she reflected back on the times she had made the first move in order to provoke a reaction she realized ... indeed, it had mostly been her. At the top of her head she wasn't even able to name a singe situation in which Sheldon had desired her more than she had desired him.

Their sleepover maybe.

Yes, maybe that.

She had intended to end date night at a specific time as mentioned and agreed upon in the Relationship Agreement, had even set a timer in order to not cause too much of a delay for her notoriously punctual and rule-obedient boyfriend.

When Sheldon had asked to extend the night, she had felt extremely brave but seized the opportunity.


"10 o'clock. Date night's over..." Amy said, a sad expression on her face as she got up from the floor and attempted to pull the blankets down.

"But ... noooooo! We haven't picked a winner!" Sheldon exclaimed, disappointed.

"We both know this one's gonna win!" Amy rolled her eyes at the inadequacy of his assessment of the situation. The entire 'Fort-Off' was bound to establish Fort Cozy Mc Blanket as the winner, duh!

"Well, of course we do! Fort Knox doesn't have a secret physics lending library..." Sheldon said, proudly, and lifted a blanked off a hitherto hidden shelf that contained scientific books on various matters of physics.

Amy grinned appreciatively in return, "Come on, I'll help you take this down..."

"Uh, wait! What if ... just this once ... we suspend the date night parameters and you stay later," Sheldon suggested, his face showing an insecure but somewhat happy grin.

Amy suddenly got bold, "Well ... as long as we're suspending the parameters ... I could stay really late and we could have our first sleepover..."

"Thats a big step..."

"It's a big fort..."

"Very well. I will agree to a family-friendly, G-Rated boy-girl sleepover," Sheldon beamed at her.

Amy wasn't convinced, "PG, some scenes may be too intense for younger viewers."

Sheldon tried again: "G-Rated with a warning for families with babies and toddlers."

Amy reflected upon this for a moment and then grinned, "You got yourself a sleepover!"

"Do you need to borrow a toothbrush or pyjamas?"

"Would it alarm you to know that I hid those things here two years ago in case this ever came up?"

Sheldon's eyes widened in shock but then he said, "It would but you know how much I admire preparedness..." Amy beamed at him, apologetically but she was really excited that he had taken the news so well.

"How did you know we'd be in the living room?"

"Who says this is the only one I hid?"


So much for preparedness.

She felt as if she had been prepared for the better part of a couple of years now, despite the fact that she was absolutely clueless as to what she felt prepared for. She had gotten bolder, Sheldon had gotten bolder but they were nowhere near the level of intimacy she secretly and not so secretly desired.

Her boyfriend made all kinds of jokes about coitus, he knew the general concept of it and as a little birdie - Penny - had told her, he hadn't ruled it out, yet. That didn't give the entire thing a time stamp all together so Amy couldn't help but wonder if he'd ever be brave enough to admit his intentions to her.

She took a final look at the packed suitcase, reached for her passport and put all the necessary items for her flight into the living room and next to the door.

She needed to know if he was just kissing her, because she was kissing him.

She needed to be sure that he wasn't doing things because he felt obliged to doing them.

Was he kissing her because he wanted to and because it felt good doing it?

She needed to assess the situation. Alone.

Amy pattered back into her bedroom to get ready for the night. Her alarm was set to 6.30am. 'Bring on the tossing and turning', she frowned before she grabbed her nightgown and made her way into the bathroom.

The constant rejection had left a mark on her. She had always tried to suppress her anger, to ignore the snippy comments about their non existing sex-life, the constant reminders that she didn't appear good enough for him in that respect.


TBC