Sorry for the long hiatus! Enjoy :)
Raj and Howard had come back to Leonard's and Sheldon's apartment cause Bernadette had insisted she wanted to see Amy and how she was doing.
„How are you, Sweety?" Bernadette said in her very high-pitched voice, mixed up with true concern.
„A little better" Amy smiled and was glad they all had come back.
The situation when Sheldon had come out of the room had been a little tense.
„If you need any pills just tell me, alright? You know, I can… just… mix them up or find someone to mix something up!" Bernadette smiled.
Raj cleared his throat. „Uhm, Berna…"
„No, not for you, Raj. Go see a psychologist!" It was remarkable how Bernadette menaged to sound like the sweetest person on Earth and right in the next second like she would rip someone's head off if they didn't hold their tongue.
There was a glass bowl on the couch table, which Amy had insisted on, with sweets inside. She had claimed it was more welcoming and Sheldon had answered that he actually didn't welcome anyone to his apartment unless it was the postman bringing him ordered movies, or someone he had invited over – which happened maybe once a year.
However, Raj and Howard grabbed for the last mini snickers in the same time. They stared at each other.
„You have eaten more than all of us at dinner, I think you can leave this one to me" Howard tried to stay polite.
„Typical only child! You want everything to yourself!" Raj blurted back.
„That is not exactly true. I wouldn't classify that as typical only child feature. Usually only children are more likely to share things because they don't know the competitions that come with brotherly or sisterly relations." Sheldon remarked.
„Whatever, he's greedy!"
„Oh come on guys, we still have cookies" Leonard hopped out of the chair and went over to the kitchen.
„But that are my cookies" Sheldon's shoulders hung down while he turned around to see his best friend trying to reach them in the top corner of the kitchen shelf.
Penny smiled. „Don't worry, Sweety, I'm gonna bring you a new pack tomorrow."
„I doubt you will find the right ones"
She rolled her eyes and turned back to Howard and Raj, who glanced at each other. Bernadette just mildly ignored them while taking a sip of tea.
Amy sat there quietly, wrecking up her mind. She wasn't sure if she should apologize to Sheldon or not. He surely wouldn't forget her words but she also didn't know if he even wanted an apology or if she had messed up for real this time.
Everytime she glanced at him he wasn't looking into her direction and neither his gestures nor his facial expression said anything about his current feelings; it was like trying to read a blank page.
„There you go" Leonard tossed the cookie pack towards Howard and Raj. „But leave one or two for Sheldon, otherwise Amy will go through hell."
The lanky physicist pulled both eyebrows up while turning back to his best friend. „Leonard, since when do cookies determine my mood?"
„They do. Just like the spot you sit in, the room temperature, the acoustic and volume of the TV and who is the Dungeon master when we play D&D. And that were just five things of about 3 billion that influence your mood."
„Even if you might be in disbelief about this" Sheldon faced the other direction. „Amy and I get along quite well."
Amy wondered if anyone had heard the rock falling off her chest. She looked around but no one faced her, they were all either concentrated on cookies, their tea, their fingernails or Sheldon.
„These are the best cookies I've ever eaten" Raj mumbled with a full mouth, getting an approving nod from Howard.
„I can't tell cause I never really manage to get any" Leonard answered with a dark glance towards Sheldon. He didn't notice though.
„I have an idea" Penny suddenly shouted before jumping up.
Everyone looked up surprised, except Sheldon. He let his hand slightly brush Amy's to get her attention. When she looked at him insecurely he gave her a mild smile to signalize everything was okay. It had been a tense topic, a tense situation. He knew she hadn't meant it like that.
Amy was so overwhelmed by this little gesture that she almost leaned in to kiss Sheldon.
„Ames" Penny dropped herself on the floor in front of Amy's feet. „Put your leg on here!"
Amy did what her best friend had told her and Penny pulled the capsule off the Sharpie she had brought. Then she started scribbling onto Amy's cast.
Bernadette was the next one to sign it, then Leonard, Howard and Raj. Sheldon quietly looked at all the things his friends wrote and doodled onto Amy's injured leg, before Penny handed him the Sharpie. „Your turn, Shelly."
„I find this ridiculous and childish."
„Oh, come on!"
„No. I mean, look at all that. ‚Get well soon, bestie. Xoxo – Penny.' Why would you have to write that onto her cast? None of us thought you wanted her to get worse…"
„Sheldon" Penny almost mourned in desperation of his obstinacy. „Just sign it. With whatever you think is appropriate!"
The physicicst glanced at her for a second, then took the pen, kneeled down and started scribbling. He was bent over Amy's leg so much that no one saw what he did. When he leaned back, six pairs of eyebrows raised.
„The… quantum theory?" Leonard was the first to ask. „Don't you think that's a little impersonal considering the fact she's your girlfriend?"
„Right" Sheldon leaned back and scribbled his name on the cast, before getting back up. „If you excuse me now, I have to go to the bathroom"
He tossed the Sharpie into Penny's lap and wandered off.
Penny sighed and looked at the cast again, then she laid her head aside. „Wait, why does this say L. Sheldon?"
„Lee Sheldon?" Howard shook his head. „I always knew he was crazy but this…"
„Well" Leonard gulped. „It either means Lee… or love."
It was deadly quiet in the living room, so quiet that you could hear the toilet flush from the bathroom.
Amy stared at this little letter on her cast and hoped with every particle of her body that Leonard was right. But this was Sheldon. L could have stood for anything. Lee, Live long and prosper, Later.
Everyone kind of winced when Sheldon came back to the living room. He looked around quizzically, then shook his head as no one answered him, and sat back down next to Amy.
„So, uhm, maybe we should drink some wine?" Leonard suggested out of pure desperation to find a halfway comfortable topic that would stop the awkwardness that was almost tangible.
„Wine? At this time? Leonard, are you taking drugs?" Sheldon pulled up an eyebrow and was deeply confused about his best friend's suggestion. How the hell had he come up with wine now? Was there anything to celebrate?
Sheldon thought about it for a while but didn't come to any conclusion that made sense.
„What does the L stand for?" Penny blurted out all of a sudden.
„I think it's late and you all should go home" Amy fired right after the question.
„But Amy…" Penny's voice became very high-pitched and she stared at her best friend, begging.
„I want to go to bed. It's way past Sheldon's bedtime anyway."
„Well, Amy's right."
„Oh come on you big baby, you won't die just because of 10 minutes" Penny pulled her eyebrows down.
„Eleven minutes. And you're correct, I won't die, but I hate not being able to follow my daily schedule because there are guests in my apartment that constantly overstay their welcome."
Howard and Bernadette stood up synchronically, followed by Raj and Leonard. Penny was the only one who sat there with a grumpy look on her face. „What does the L stand for."
„Drop it, Penny" Leonard hissed and tried to pull her up.
She pushed him away. „It was a simple question that the genius Sheldon Lee Cooper is able to answer perfectly!"
„Penny" Amy pressed her lips together. „You should go. I really want to sleep."
„Ames…"
„No"
Penny sighed, stood up and rushed past her friends while whispering „You're all cowards" towards them.
With one last apologizing smile Howard, Raj, Bernadette and Leonard left the apartment as well. The door shut. Amy took a deep breath.
„Careful, Sheldon. Careful!" Amy held her breath as her boyfriend dropped her on his bed finally. He had insisted on carrying her, cause her leg had been swollen due to all the sitting and not putting the leg up.
„Careful? Me? It wasn't me who let their injured leg hang around loose all day!"
Amy rolled her eyes but Sheldon didn't see it, he had turned around and headed towards the bedroom door. „Do you think I can go to the bathroom to get ready for bed?"
Amy nodded and Sheldon left. The young woman re-positioned herself and it took several minutes till she had found a halfway comfortable arrangement. She let go a loud sigh and started to relax. She was in Sheldon's bed. She… was… in Sheldon's bed.
She pulled up the blanket a little further with a surreptitiously look towards the door to then breathe in Sheldon's smell. She couldn't tell what it even was, but it smelt heavenly. Just like… well, like him. She looked aside and eyed the little model rocket on Sheldon's nightstand. A little smile appeared on her lips and she shook her head… he was so weird. But in a good kind of way.
Amy knew that she herself was considered a nerd or a freak or whatever people out there called her. It has been like that ever since primary school. But with Sheldon she had found someone who knew what she felt like… and the good thing was, even though he didn't let it show: He knew that everyone thought he was weird but he didn't care. He had his principles and he wouldn't let anyone stand between them and him. Ever. This was something Amy definitely and deeply admired.
„Alright!" Sheldon came back and turned the light off, only the little lamps on the nightstand were turned on.
In the dim light Amy couldn't see anything at first but just a second before Sheldon hurried under his blanket she realized that he wasn't wearing a shirt.
It was pretty warm in the room and she understood it, but what she didn't understand was that he wasn't too proud or ashamed to do that in front of her. Most of all because she was sure he wasn't even entirely comfortable with doing this all alone.
„Can I turn off the light?" Sheldon ripped her out of her deep thoughts.
Amy looked at him and nodded. „Yes. Of course. Good night, Sheldon."
„Good night, Amy!"
Sheldon got woken up because something kicked his leg and then something landed on his forehead and then something hit him again on his nose.
His senses were still blind and deaf and fumbled around confused till he got another hit in the face and heard some moaning.
He turned on the lamp on his nightstand immediately and turned back around. It was Amy, tossing her body around from left to right, from right to left, on her back, on her side again. Her eyebrows were pulled down, she was sweating.
Nightmare!
Sheldon had never had anyone sleeping over so he didn't know what to do. Was it common that people got nightmares on sleepovers?
„Amy Farrah Fowler, could you please stop that? It's interrupting my sleep!"
No reaction. Amy still grumbled and moaned in her sleep.
Sheldon bit his lip for a second and moved closer. „Amy… Amy!"
Bang, her hand in his face again.
„Amy, stop!" He tried to grab her hand but it didn't work, she was moving too much.
Sheldon tried to catch any part of her body that was kicking around without control but he couldn't. The more he tried, the more she moved.
Finally he let go a loud grumble and tossed himself halfway onto her. He slung his strong arms around her and held her firmly. At first he could feel the resistance, then her body relaxed all of a sudden and it felt like she was collapsing back into deep sleep.
After a few minutes Sheldon carefully moved one arm back to turn the lamp off again. Then he laid in the darkness without moving at first, then laying his arm back around Amy. It felt warm. Cosy. It was kind of a weird tingling sensation inside of him, that he had never felt before.
Here he was, Sheldon Lee Cooper, a brilliant physicist… feeling like he won the Nobel Prize just because of something simple like holding a woman in his arms.
Sheldon wondered where his priorities had gone.
Wasn't he the one who always rolled his eyes when Leonard had been sitting on the sofa sighing about how pretty Penny was and how absolutely amazing it felt to feel her skin close to his?
And now? Four years later? Now he was the pathetic loser that gave in to simple feelings like that. Love was nothing but some brain areas reacting together and spilling out hormones that caused one to feel good.
Somehow Sheldon was impressed that Amy had managed to stimulate these regions in his brain.
He looked back down on her in the pale moonlight and slightly shook his head.
„Amy Farrah Fowler, you little vixen. What have you done to me…"