Sheldon finally turned back to Amy after he made sure that he put all of his new figures away. Amy was fast asleep on the lower bunk. He hadn't even noticed that she had sat down, but there she was, sprawled across the bed with her shoes still on. She didn't seem that tired when they were out, but maybe the anti-motion sickness medicine had drowsiness as a side effect. He looked at the box, and sure enough, drowsiness was written under side effects. She's either going to be sick or tired for this whole trip. Sheldon was worried that he had picked the worst possible vacation for them both.
Should I wake her up? Sheldon through, but in the end he decided to just take off her shoes and put a blanket over her. If she wasn't back up in time for dinner he would wake her up then. He would just read instead. He brought enough comic books to cover at least a few hours.
He was trying to focus on the adventures of The Flash, but every time Amy moved, Sheldon would look up over his comic book at watch her. After a while, he gave up and alternated between looking at Amy and looking out the window. When Amy did wake up an hour later, she looked over at Sheldon and he was staring at her.
"How long was I asleep?" Amy asked as she sat up. She felt bad about sleeping their weekend away. It was the second time that she had fallen asleep unexpectedly in the last twenty-four hours. She hoped she wasn't getting sick.
"An hour and seventeen minutes," Sheldon said without looking at his watch.
"Sorry I fell asleep again."
"It was a side effect of the medication you took," Sheldon said. He was still just looking at her from his chair.
"Well, I'm awake now. What should we do?"
"If you still want to kiss a physicist, I know where you can find one," Sheldon said shyly.
"That sounds like a brilliant plan. Just give me a minute to brush my teeth."
Sheldon got up and followed her into the small bathroom. He pulled his own toothbrush from its UV case. There wasn't really enough room for both of them in there, but they squeezed together to quickly brush away the remnants of their lunch. Amy was a little distracted by the way Sheldon was nearly pressed right up against her in order to fit in front of the sink.
"I'm glad you thought of that," Sheldon said after he spit out his second round of mouthwash.
"Me too," Amy said as she pushed him back out of the bathroom and over to the bed. They sat down and Amy was nervous again. She was trying to be sexy and she hoped that Sheldon didn't notice that her hands were shaking a little. Amy knew that she wanted Sheldon just as surely that he wanted her, but that didn't make it less scary. They were still both so new to all of this that they rarely knew exactly what to do. Once they got into it, things usually went fine. Amy tried to remember this when she pressed her lips to Sheldon's. She liked that his hands seemed to find her body of their own accord.
Sheldon thought that he was getting pretty good at kissing Amy. He wouldn't admit it, but he had spent time researching techniques for kissing. It didn't make as much sense when he was reading about it or looking at diagrams, but in practice, everything was clicking. At least at first, then it felt like all of the knowledge fell away and his mind became a blank. His mouth and hands seemed to know what to do without him even thinking about it. It was strangely peaceful to just be in that moment.
It also meant that he wasn't fully aware that his hands were currently busy unbuttoning Amy's blouse. Sure, there was part of him that knew exactly what he was doing. It was the same part that was frustrated when it came upon a t-shirt under that blouse. It was the same part that growled, "Dammit, woman. Why do you wear so many layers?"
"Look who's talking," Amy said as she pulled at Sheldon's t-shirts. She couldn't get them up over his head and it was suddenly the most important thing that they were removed.
Sheldon pulled his own t-shirts off over his head. Then he put his mouth back on Amy's neck. She let out a soft moan and Sheldon catalogued the noise and the location of his mouth on her body for future use. He was enjoying it so much that he didn't want to stop. The only thought that presented itself was, don't stop.
Then Sheldon suddenly jumped up. Amy's t-shirt had ridden halfway up her torso, and she pulled it down. She sat up and looked at Sheldon. She wanted to cry at the look of panic on his face.
"What's wrong? Did I do something wrong?" Amy asked frantically.
Sheldon just shook his head and closed his eyes. He looked close to a panic attack, and Amy didn't know what to do.
He just started saying, "Sorry. Sorry. Sorry."
Amy didn't know if touching him would help, but she needed to figure out something. She stood up and started wrapping her arms around him. He didn't push her away. Instead, he put his arms around her and put his head on top of hers.
"I'm sorry," he said again.
"Don't be sorry. Just tell me what's going on," Amy told him softly.
"I was losing control. My hands were moving on their own. I didn't tell them to remove your shirt. I didn't want to stop. I still don't want to stop," Sheldon sounded close to sobbing as he clung to Amy.
"Sheldon, it's okay. You obviously had control over yourself. You stopped yourself when you got uncomfortable. It's okay if you were uncomfortable. We've done so much in such a short time. If you need more time, it's okay."
Sheldon just held on to Amy like he would fly away if he let go. She could feel him shaking his head, but she couldn't see him. The side of her face was pressed to his bare chest. She could hear his heart pounding in his chest. His behavior reminded Amy of that day in the car after the zoo. She knew that she needed to help him before she lost him to the anxiety.
"Sheldon, look at me," Amy said as she pulled back a little.
Sheldon looked down into her eyes. "You didn't do anything wrong. You weren't hurting me. You weren't pushing me too far. I'm certain that if I had told you to stop, that you would have with no hesitation. I know this is scary because we haven't ever done it before, but we are okay," Amy told him calmly. Sheldon nodded and relaxed his grip on Amy a little bit. "How about we take a break and go to dinner?" Amy suggested.
Sheldon thought it was too early for dinner, but once he checked his watch he realized he should have had dinner a half an hour ago. "Okay," he told her quietly.
Amy gave him a big smile and handed him his shirts. He pulled them back on and combed his hair. She found her blouse and pulled it on and buttoned it up and then put back on her sweater. Sheldon reached out and touched Amy's hair lightly.
"Oh, I suppose I should brush it. Penny says that make-out hair is tacky," Amy said when he touched it.
"I was just thinking that it looks nice," Sheldon said. He still wasn't acting quite normal, so Amy was just pretending that everything was okay. Amy still ran her hairbrush through her hair. Then she took Sheldon's hand and let him lead her to the dining car.
The medication was working well. It was the first time that Amy managed to walk through the halls without feeling sick for the first time since she had been on the train. They were seated quickly and Amy was looking over the menu. She realized that it was the last dinner they were going to have on the train.
"I've enjoyed this so much. We should go on a longer trip next time," Amy told Sheldon.
"Are you just saying that to make me feel better?"
"No. When I don't feel ill from the motion of the train, I find this whole thing so classically romantic. I've read so many books where people have traveled this way, but I never imagined I would enjoy it so much. Thank you for this," Amy said.
"You're welcome. Even if it isn't your intention to make me feel better, I'm glad that you are enjoying yourself. I've been having a good time too."
Amy was happy that Sheldon was acting okay again, and once dinner was over she asked him to show her around the train.
"We've been here for over a day and all I've really seen is our room," Amy told him. She was a little nervous to go back to the room with him because she didn't want him to panic on her again.
Sheldon agreed and guided Amy through many of the cars. They found one of the cars with big windows to show off the scenery as they drove though the desert. They were now traveling through the plains and it was night, so the car was nearly empty. There wasn't much to see out the windows. Sheldon and Amy sat down on one of the bench seats.
They looked out at the shadows of hills and at the stars. Amy wished that she was sitting on Sheldon's lap again, but there were a couple people about.
"Okay. Do you want to go back to our room now?" Sheldon asked when he noticed the time. It was nearly his bedtime.
Amy had maintained a careful non contact distance since they went to dinner, but Sheldon grabbed her hand and pulled her up from her seat as they left. He had noticed and appreciated her effort to give him space, but he didn't want space anymore.
"I'm sleeping on the bottom bunk," Sheldon told Amy as he unlocked the door to their room. "You may either join me or sleep on the top bunk, but I will never get any sleep up there."
"I'll sleep on the top bunk," Amy said. She thought about sleeping in the same bed as Sheldon, but she was worried about pushing him too hard.
"You don't have to be afraid of me," Sheldon said.
"I've never once in my life been afraid of you. I've been afraid for you. I've been afraid of what you are doing to me, but I've never been afraid of you. I trust you. I just wanted to give you some space."
"I don't want space. Not from you."
Amy just shook her head and went to change into her nightgown. She had just grabbed one from her suitcase, but it wasn't until she was in the small bathroom that she realized that she had grabbed one of the new ones. She decided to just put it on rather than go back out and get her flannel one. It wasn't outrageous. It was just a shorter nightgown than she was used to. Maybe a little exposure to her body would make Sheldon a little more comfortable with it.
When Amy returned to the room, Sheldon was already in bed with the light off. She could only see the shadow version of him, but she could see that he held the blankets up so that Amy could climb in. She couldn't help herself and got into the bed with Sheldon.