Sheldon was sitting in his spot reading the latest edition of The New England Journal of High Energy Physics. He was particularly annoyed at a scientist who had a doctorate in Chemistry having an article written about him. He rolled his eyes and looked over to the table in the kitchen where Penny and Leonard were talking softly as to not disturb him. He knew they didn't want him to hear about the wedding after all his recent outbursts about it, most recently when playing games the day before.
"If the planned date is on a Saturday then you'll have to take in consideration my food schedule for the menu." Sheldon interrupted.
"Damn his Vulcan hearing." Penny said to herself. "He could hear us talking about the reception menu."
"What happened to the roommate agreement and not talking about the wedding." Leonard smiled smugly.
"If I ask you can discuss it." Sheldon said.
"You didn't ask, you just interrupted." Leonard rebutted.
"Well you can get a lawyer." Sheldon said annoyed. He got up and left the apartment before Leonard or Penny could say anything. He walked down the stairs and out into the street. Sheldon walked past a coffee shop and decided he might as well get a hot beverage, since he was upset. He went up to the counter.
"What hot beverages do you have?" he queried the worker there.
"We have a variety of caffeinated beverages as listed on the sign behind me." The worker iterated.
"No I am not doing drugs." Sheldon shook his head and the worker gave a confused look. "Anything else?"
"We sell hot chocolate"
"No there is no 'R' in this month's name." Sheldon explained "Oh well I guess life was just meant to disappoint."
He turned around feeling saddened when he saw Amy sitting in a seat sipping a cappuccino from a mug. She saw Sheldon and instantly her eyes darted to the ground. Sheldon thought nothing of it and instinctively walked over to her.
"Salutations Amy." He greeted politely.
"Hello." Amy responded with a fake smile.
"How have you been?" Sheldon asked genuinely.
"You know…life goes on." She said generically. She glanced around the shop as if she were looking for something.
"As a physicist I assure you I already knew that." Sheldon boasted without thinking.
Amy almost gave Sheldon a look of derision when someone walked up to the table.
"Amy nice to see you again." The man said "And…"
"Sheldon Cooper." Amy clarified "Who was just leaving." She glared at him as if to send him a message.
"I wasn't." Sheldon didn't understand.
"Yeah you had that thing to do…" Amy hinted.
"Amy has all that caffeine gone to your head?" Sheldon asked.
"Sheldon this is a date!" Amy began to get angry.
"Oh..." Sheldon said in realisation. "Well Gooday to you." Sheldon quickly walked away before the situation got any more awkward. How did Amy get a date so quickly? Was he meant to be dating to? He had no experience with this and now he was just confused.
#
"Have we told all the family about the wedding?" Penny questioned Leonard.
"My brother, sister and their families are both coming and I told my mother." Leonard answered. "She said she'd be available but wouldn't be if she found something better to do."
"Ouch." Penny's face winced a little "I told my family and they all jumped at the chance to come. All that is left is for that get-out-of-rehab pass for my brother that I applied for. Hopefully it'll be processed in time."
"I sent out all the formal invitations to everyone." Leonard smiled "Even Sheldon's getting a pretty letter."
"You could have just gave it to him." Penny wondered aloud.
"Sheldon wanted to follow traditions." Leonard explained "You know how he is about formalities." Penny nodded knowingly.
"Where is Sheldon?" Penny was concerned "He has been gone for a few hours now and it'll get dark soon."
"I'll call him." Leonard got his phone out and dialled but no one picked up. Leonard quickly dialled Howard and he picked up.
"What is it Leonard?"
"Have you seen Sheldon?" Leonard asked.
"Not since he stormed off to his room yesterday." Howard remembered "Why?"
"He has been gone for some time and he isn't answering his phone. We're just worried." Leonard explained "Just call if you see him."
"I will." Howard said. Leonard said goodbye and hung up.
"Should we go out and look for him?" Leonard conjectured with worry in his voice. "I wish he didn't remove the phone tracking after we traced him to the train station."
"Than what if he comes back?" Penny asked.
"That is true." Leonard said. "I'll go out and you can stay."
"Great." Penny smiled. Leonard grabbed his key and was about to leave when Penny's phone began to ring. She picked it up and heard Amy on the other end.
"I heard Sheldon was missing." Amy told Penny "Bernadette texted me."
"It might be nothing." Penny said "Why? Have you seen him?"
"I saw him a few hours ago at this coffee shop where I was…" Amy paused for a second "Ordering coffee."
"Did you see where he went?" Penny asked.
"No he walked away angrily when he realised…" Amy paused again "I was ordering coffee."
"Amy tell me the truth." Penny demanded sternly.
"Fine!" Amy gave in "I met this guy last night and we were there on a date. I thought after I was ruining our shopping with my sadness I needed to do something to make me feel better. But Sheldon was there for some reason and he saw us."
"He is probably really confused. Leonard is going out to look for him now." Penny said "Do you mind helping us?"
"Helping find my ex-boyfriend…" Amy said hesitantly.
"Amy…please…" Penny pleaded.
"Ok I'll look out for him." Amy agreed "But I won't promise anything." Amy hang up at that moment before any more demands were made.
Leonard heard all of this and commented "He probably was really sad after that. I need to hurry." He quickly left the apartment.
#
"Who wants kisses?" Raj smooched his dog playfully. His phone began to ring. He saw it was Penny, put Cinnamon down and picked up.
"Hey Penny." He greeted "Found me a girlfriend yet?"
"Yeah kinda." Penny said "But I'm not concerned with that now."
"That is a pity." Raj said "I guess Cinnamon's kisses will have to do."
"Raj!" Penny raised her tone "Sheldon might be missing!"
"Sheldon isn't missing." Raj said confused.
"Why would you say that?" Penny questioned.
"He was here about an hour ago." Raj explained. "He looked really sad."
"What happened?" Penny asked.
"He wanted to know about picking up girls." Raj described "I explained I was the worst possible person to ask about that so he left."
"Is that it?" Penny inquired.
"Yeah." Raj said "And he asked which bars were the best to pick up girls. I said I didn't know."
"And you just let him leave?" Penny said annoyed.
"What was I meant to do?" Raj asked.
"Maybe not let him out into the streets." Penny angered "Because now we've narrowed our scouting to every bar."
"I didn't think about it Penny. I'm Sorry." Raj apologised.
"Don't worry I am just giving you a hard time out of worry." Penny took a deep breath to calm herself "Thanks for the info." She said goodbye and hung up.
"That was weird wasn't it Cinnamon?" Raj asked playfully. Cinnamon just rolled over and requested to be patted.
#
"This isn't a bar Sheldon." Stuart had to explain "This is the comic book store."
"Yeah but you know about bars don't you?" Sheldon queried.
"Bars set off my claustrophobia." Stuart explained "Can't go in without my medication."
"No one is any help." Sheldon said in frustration "Looks like I'll have to use Yelp. I guess my phone moved up to be my number one favourite person."
"Are you sure you don't want to sit down and I can get Leonard to pick you up?" Stuart asked.
"I'm a grown man so I can handle it myself." Sheldon exclaimed angrily "Now go back to your menial employment."
Stuart looked at him annoyed. "Fine then leave. I don't care."
"Then he left." Stuart explained to Amy "You are pretty smart to come to the comic book store first."
"You shouldn't have been so mean." Amy looked harshly at Stuart "He already got that from me. Now I'll have to tell Penny all this."
Leonard walked into the store and saw Amy and Stuart talking.
"Was he here?" Leonard asked out of breath. Like Amy he decided to check if he went to the comic book store first.
"Of course." Amy said in derision. "He then went to find a bar on Yelp according to Stuart"
"I'll text Penny the details we just found." Leonard said with an irritated tone.
"Are you ok Leonard?" Amy asked.
"Yeah, this is just a little annoying."
"Why?"
"Well this is meant to be a happy time planning my wedding, not stressing about Sheldon." Leonard explained.
"Sorry that is kind of my fault." Amy said "But I can help you find him."
"How?" Leonard replied.
"I think I know his Yelp password." Amy explained.
"I could never get that password even by looking over his shoulder." Leonard was curious.
"As he grew more comfortable with me he became less cautious. I happened to see it when he typed it in once." Amy explained.
"Nice." Stuart interrupted. "Are you two going to buy something?"
"Why were you so angry at him Stuart?" Amy than inquired, ignoring Stuart's question.
"He offended my employment. It just reminded me that my life was going nowhere. I applied for a job as an animator and almost got it. But I lost out to someone else." Stuart clarified
"I'm so sorry." Leonard said in condolence.
"No need." Stuart replied "You could always buy something to make me feel better."
"We need to find Sheldon." Amy hurried. "Thank you Stuart." Leonard and Amy left the store quickly and Stuart was alone in the empty store.
#
"This might work Honey." Howard said to Bernadette.
"Why would this work?" Bernadette questioned.
"My plan to get Sheldon and Amy together." He explained. "With Amy on a date and Sheldon running around to bars I think I know how to put my plan in the mix."
"Can you explain it to me?" Bernadette asked.
"Of course." Howard said. "Making Sheldon jealous was easy and soon he'll be realising that other girls aren't as good as Amy. Then he'll want her back."
"You remembered how he first asked her out." Bernadette said smugly. "With Stuart making Sheldon jealous."
"Of course." Howard smiled "If it worked once, it can work again."
Will Sheldon be found? A bit of mystery for all of you. Hopefully this isn't to angsty for you. I just find it a realistic thing for Sheldon to do in this situation. I hope you enjoyed this chapter and if you did please follow, favourite and review as it tells me that you did. Thank you bamadude, kimbee73, SRAM and michiamoverano for reviewing since I last posted. Thanks again for reading.
ClintEye