. . .

THE WONDER AMY PARADOX

Chapter Eleven

"Oh, this is hopeless!" Amy threw down her stylus, reaching up behind her glasses to rub her eyes.

Sheldon looked across the lab table at her. She looked tired. Already she'd left twice that day to photocopy something. "It's just a temporary plateau," he said.

"We don't have time for a temporary plateau! I hear the forensics team is making massive strides."

"So?" Sheldon asked. "Their research -" he waved his hand toward another black binder that had arrived this morning "- has proved useless to us. And why shouldn't it? We're trying to find the underlying scientific cause, they're just looking at a simple criminal matter."

Amy lowered her hands and then stood to turn on a machine on the counter, something he'd never seen her use before, and the room filled with a loud, high-pitched squeal. Sheldon covered his ears, but Amy walked close to him and pulled one of his hands away, whispering in his ear, "Because if they find the perpetrator before we finish, I think they'll shut us down. I don't care what General Bloom says, this is about finding a criminal, not about finding the truth. We're just another means to the same end; it's a race, even if we haven't been told so."

Sheldon frowned and whispered back, "You mean they won't let us finish? They'll just take all this away from us?"

But he knew they would. One day, he and Amy would walk into the lab and it would be just as empty as the lab he'd been given to work on the gyroscope project. All their research and ideas gone like vapor. They'd be left with nothing to show for the weeks of effort they'd put into it. Another incomplete project in his life, another crushing professional loss.

It took a second before he realized Amy hadn't answered, that she was just watching him, her face still very close from their whispering. "This really matters to you, doesn't it?" she asked.

"Of course it does! I want to find the answer just as much as you did. I'm just as much of a scientist as you." It smarted, this faint insult from Amy. Had she really doubted his dedication to the truth, to science, this whole time?

She leaned even closer and grasped his hand. "I did not mean it that way. I know how much you care. I just didn't expect to feel this sad about it ending and then when I saw your face was just as sad . . ." Amy squeezed his hand and he looked down at it. It was the first time she - the Dr. Fowler version of her - had ever touched him like this, here in the lab. Her hands, the same he held on his love seat in the evenings, warmed his skin. Her face so close to his, the feel of her soft breath on his cheek . . . It felt exactly the same and yet radically different.

It occurred to him that if the project ended, he had no excuse to continue seeing Dr. Fowler during the day. Yes, maybe the Wonder Amy-clad version of her would ask to keep coming to his apartment at night, but that's not what he ultimately wanted. He wanted just Amy, the whole and complete version of herself. He now understood that Dr. Fowler was both the key component and the hardest to uncover.

"Amy," he started in rush, not allowing himself to doubt to his words, "I think we should work somewhere else. A new space - just once, to try it - and we'll see if that works. There's been several studies about it, that going to a new environment, taking in new stimuli, can spark creativity."

She frowned. "Maybe it's a good idea, but we can't."

"Why not?"

"Because we're not allowed to take data out of this lab and you know it."

Smiling, Sheldon tapped his temple. "We have my eidetic memory. I'll recreate it if we need it. Besides, maybe it's enough just to brainstorm without the data. Maybe we're getting bogged down in all the binders."

He watched her tilt her head and the play of her lips first one way and then another. "Okay. Where? Your apartment?"

"No." Sheldon shook his head. "Because I'm used to working there. It needs to be a neutral location for both of us." And she would only come there dressed as Wonder Amy. He wanted Dr. Fowler.

"But we can't go to a café or something; this is classified and we can't risk being overheard."

Sheldon took a deep breath. "How about this? Tomorrow evening, we'll meet in Leonard and Penny's apartment. Leonard and the guys will be out at the comic book store, and then they're all going to see a movie. It's a neutral location, it will be private, but it's comfortable and you've been there before, so, um, well, you know." He shrugged.

"But what about Penny?" Amy asked.

"That's the beauty of it. Penny is in Nebraska for the week, visiting her family."

Amy looked down. "I don't know . . . What will you friends say? We talked about this."

"It's been my experience they tend to believe what they want anyway, so I'll tell them the truth: that we're just trying new visual and environmental stimulation to get our mental juices flowing. That we're just professional colleagues working overtime."

She looked up and nodded. "Okay. What time?"

"6:30? I'll provide dinner. And can you shut that thing off? It's starting to make my ears bleed."

By providing dinner, Sheldon meant that he would make it. He'd already learned about Amy's enormous caloric needs, no doubt necessary to support her metahuman metabolism; to order that much food would be to invite unwanted questions from his friends. He had already endured some teasing from them when they learned of his plans, but they left as promised while he finished the preparations with only a few lewd calls behind them.

Right on time, there was a knock on the door and Sheldon answered it with a smile. "Hello. I'm sure you didn't have any trouble finding it," he said as he reached for some stiff papers he'd already prepared. He held the first one up in front of him, still standing in the doorway, and he pointed to the words written on it.

Chit chat, please, while you read these.

"Um, yes," Amy said, her brow dipping. "I remembered the route."

I was going to have the apartment swept for wiretaps. Sheldon flipped the cards and he watched her eyes moving, then glance up when she finished each placard. "How was the traffic?"

But then I decided that if the apartment is bugged, it would be more suspicious if they didn't hear anything.

"No worse than usual," Amy replied as she read.

That's why you haven't jammed the bugs in the lab, correct?

"Still, it is rush hour. I don't know how far you have to drive," he said, watching her nod in answer to the question on his card. Since we're just professional colleagues working overtime, there shouldn't be anything to hide.

"Oh, it's not bad."

Sheldon wasn't surprised she wouldn't give that away. "Good." So, tonight, you're only Dr. Fowler. Ixnay onway ethay Onderway Amyway alktay. "I hope you're hungry."

"You cooked here? And is that homemade bread?" Amy said, lifting her nose to sniff the air even as her eyes remained on the next card, her brow wrinkling. She mouthed silently to him, "Pig latin? Why?"

He flipped another card. One cannot be too cautious in regards to Onderway Amyway. "Sourdough. My specialty. You're in for a treat. I asked my MeeMaw for her beef stew recipe. It's been in the slow cooker all day."

First a flash a surprise crossed Amy's face and then she smiled and nodded toward the card she'd just read. But she asked, "Because of how we met?"

I knew you'd ask, said the next card. "Yes. I feel confident you won't spill it on me this time." Sheldon smiled back at her as he revealed the last placard. Agreed?

"You cannot be too sure." She gave a mischievous wink, just the kind he often got from her over dinner in the apartment across the hallway. He took it as both a reference to the beef stew and her agreement with his plan.

Sheldon lowered the cards, and held his hand out to toward the kitchen. "Come and eat while it's hot," he gestured and then followed her there.

"Thanking you for cooking for me," Amy said as she sat on one of the stools at the island, already set for the meal. "I'm not worth all this trouble."

"But you are." Their eyes met and softened and Sheldon he felt something pass and contract between them. He cleared his throat and moved toward the refrigerator. "I mean, you work so hard on this project, you need more than a sad cafeteria lunch to keep you going. Here," he sat what he took out of the refrigerator down in front of her, "you seem like the kind of person who feels strongly about her butter."

"I'm not sure this is working," Amy said with crossed arms, studying Sheldon's equation on the whiteboard. She walked away and picked up another piece of bread, spreading it generously with butter. "Not to mention I'm eating too much."

"No more than usual," Sheldon muttered, watching her. Three bowls of stew and half a loaf of bread was about her average intake by volume.

"What?" she asked with a snap of her head.

"I mean," he turned toward his whiteboard, "no more than most people do when they first taste my bread."

"Hmmmm."

Sheldon capped his marker. "Perhaps you're correct. Some studies recommend a change of location, but other studies suggest taking your mind completely off the problem and doing an entirely unrelated activity."

After a swallow, Amy asked, "What do you have in mind?"

Looking around the apartment, Sheldon considered his options. Most of his hobby supplies had moved with him to his new apartment, and of course Amy hadn't brought any knitting with her.

"We could watch TV or play chess or, oh! Do you like Mario Kart?"

"I've never played it," Amy said as she brushed crumbs off the front of her sweater.

"Let's do that," Sheldon said, moving to the Nintendo Switch to set the game up. "It's easy to learn and it bears no relation to our current project at all. That is, unless you think it's not professional enough."

"Well, this whole evening is an experiment, correct? Let's try it."

"Here," Sheldon said as he sat in his old spot with the controllers, "come sit by me. I'll show you how to play."

Once she'd taken her seat, it occurred to Sheldon that this was exactly where they'd sat that fateful night. Maybe that was a mistake. But Amy took the seat and the offered controller without comment, so he didn't bring it up either.

"Who do you want to be? I'm always Toad," Sheldon explained. He leaned over and pointed to the buttons on her controller. "Keep pressing this and it will scroll through your choices."

"Why are there so few women?" she said with a huff.

"Sorry." Sheldon shrugged. "You can be Daisy."

"Who's this one with the tiara? I want her."

Sheldon slid his eyes over to look at her face but did not comment about tiaras. "Princess Peach."

Once they had selected their cars and tires and their characters were setting at the start line, Sheldon explained which buttons were gas and brake and how to throw the items she may pick up along the way.

Amy started slow and she moved her controller too much which resulted in her car facing backwards. "You have to reverse," Sheldon explained, stopping his own car to help her with the controls. "Here, use this button."

She pressed and moved her controller so much her car did a complete circle in reverse, landing in the same spot again. "Grrrrr. Why can't you get out and just pick up and move the car?"

His eyebrows shoot up. "Umm, because humans don't have the strength for the that."

"But we're not humans in this game, right? At least you're not?"

"Good point. Although I'm a little toadstool, so I wouldn't have the upper body strength of Donkey Kong," Sheldon said. Or you, he added in his head.

Amy's car finally took off in the right direction, and he grinned. "There you go! You got it!" Then his smile fell. "Be careful, there's a red shell ahead."

"What do I do?"

"I'll show you." Sheldon make a sharp curve with his car to get in front of her, making his vehicle a barrier between her and the shell.

"Thank you. Or did you just do that so you could be in the lead?" Amy asked.

The grin returned as Amy plowed through a prize box. Sheldon cheered for her, "You got a star! Good job!"

"What does it do?"

"It makes you invincible. Like a superhero."

"Superheroes are not invincible. Ackk! I'm going to hit you!"

Sheldon pulled his car away just in time and only their wheels met as they skidded around a corner together, flare and sparkles shooting between them on the screen.

"Wow, we generate a lot of sparks," Amy said as she pulled away from him.

"Indeed," Sheldon whispered. Then, louder, "Last lap."

Their cars were driving side by side now; one of them would pull ahead until something would slow them down and allow the other to catch up. Sheldon and Amy, the mushroom and the princess, traveling together, equals among the chaos around them.

"Look out!" Sheldon said when Amy slipped in front of him. "Donkey just threw a blue shell at you! Here, I'll use my mushroom to get in front of you."

He spent the mushroom accelerator he'd been saving for closer to the finish line, and it allowed him to pull in front of her. "Hang back, the blue shell only hits the first driver."

"But -" The spinning of his car as the shell made impact stopped her mid-sentence. "Sheldon, you'll lose now!"

"Go ahead," Sheldon encouraged. "Don't look back, I'll catch up. Don't let Donkey win!"

The finish line was visible now, just around the bend, and Sheldon followed behind Amy's Princess Peach and Donkey Kong, lobbing the two useful items he'd been saving out of his car at Donkey Kong, doing everything he could to make sure she'd win.

Finally he pulled up even with Donkey and he was just about to crash into him, to forfeit his own victory for her when the game stilled. "What happened?"

"I paused it," Amy said. "I don't want it to end like this. I don't want you to sacrifice yourself for me."

Sheldon turned to look at her, and his heart thumped at how sad and serious she looked. He put his hand on her arm. "It's just a game," he said. "We can always play again."

Amy shook her head and fluttered her eyes. "Oh! Of course! What a stupid thing to say; I don't know what I was thinking. I guess I just got caught up in the excitement."

"There's nothing wrong with that. Some things should be exciting, new things." He smiled at her. "Best two out of three?"

"Okay." Amy grinned back. The game started again, and Sheldon scrambled to grasp the controller he had put on his lap.

"Wait! I wasn't ready!"

"Ha! Ha! Got you!" Amy belly laughed as Princess Peach crossed the finish line in front of him, and Dr. Fowler's laugh was most wonderful thing he'd ever heard.

Less than twenty minutes after he offered to walk Amy to her car and she refused, Sheldon pulled the covers over himself in bed. He watched her go, knowing it was necessary for any eavesdroppers that may or may not be present in Leonard's apartment, and also because Amy still believed her Dr. Fowler half was being followed.

Amy probably wouldn't come after his bedtime, he realized as he shut off his light. Twice previously she'd left for a call, once right after they turned off the lights, and she never returned those nights because she said she didn't want to wake him. In addition, she had to drive home as Dr. Fowler first.

But then Sheldon saw the flash of light beneath the bedroom door, and he raised himself up on his elbow to watch her enter the bedroom.

"Did I wake you?" Wonder Amy asked softly in the dark.

"No." He shook his head. "I was just lying here, thinking." About you, he didn't add.

"Sorry I was late," Amy explained, starting to remove her armor with a yawn.

"I understand," was his simple reply. "Did you have a good evening?"

"It was excellent." His pajama shirt slipped over her head. "I defeated someone new with a toadstool mushroom for a head." She yawned again as she got in next to him and relaxed her head onto the pillow, already shutting her eyes.

"Never heard of him. Sweet dreams." He wrapped his arm around her with a smile.

Although they may not have made any actual progress on their work that evening, it did serve to lighten the mood in the lab. Sheldon and Amy continued to work as hard as ever, Sheldon perhaps even more so knowing he was counting down the days in Amy's day-time presence, but they talked more as they worked, idle chit-chat, gossip around campus, and professional articles that had caught their attention. They walked to the cafeteria together now, although Amy continued to decline his requests to join him and his friends before returning to the lab alone. Now that he knew she enjoyed her time reading or fighting crime, he let her go with a light heart.

It wasn't quite the in-depth Dr. Fowler experience he wanted, but it was a start, he thought. For both of them. He also noticed Amy was relaxing into Dr. Fowler, becoming bolder even in her non-scientific statements, sarcasm seeping in, and there were several sly smiles and winks. He did not think it was an illusion to believe she was also standing taller, holding her head with more pride and confidence.

About a week later, Sheldon had come back from lunch to find the lab empty, which was not so unusual. In the rare event anyone stopped by looking for her, he would inform them that there was another issue with the copy machine. He sat down to review the newest binder of mindless data; this was a point of disagreement between them. Sheldon thought they were worthless and should be ignored, Amy said any detail or data point could prove to be significant in the end.

He looked up when Amy walked in, not via the back room with an unexplained curl at the end of her ponytail as he expected, but rather from the hallway. She was walking and reading a colorful flyer at the same time.

"Hello," Sheldon said.

"Oh!" Amy looked up, startled. "I'm sorry, I didn't expect you back yet. I must have lost track of time at the Faculty Fun Time Board."

Rolling his eyes, Sheldon said, "Has a better name not yet occurred to anyone? Looks like you found something of interest."

"I did," Amy replied, holding the flyer out to him. "You always want to know more about me. I love these."

Sheldon's eyebrows went up in pleasant surprise at the offer, and he took the flyer and looked down at the image of a young woman twirling wide upon a hilltop, more mountains in the background behind her (Is that why Amy twirled the way she did?, he wondered). He read aloud, "'Come join us for our seventh annual Sound of Music Sing Along Viewing Party! Sunday, November 5th at the historic Alex Theater in Glendale.'" He lowered the flyer. "You can't be serious."

"I am. I haven't had anyone to sing along with when I play my harp since I left home. This is the next best thing. There's one every year at that theater and I've been looking forward to it."

"You take your harp to these?" Sheldon asked, reading the fine print for any mention of that.

"No, of course not. But it's still fun to be with others who enjoy the music as much as I do. I find it infectious and joyful, like playing your video game."

He couldn't help but smile at her. Infectious and joyful, eh? Yes, it had been. Seeing an opening, before he lost his nerve, he grabbed a piece of paper. It occurred to him as either a spark of insanity or the perfect solution to this current paradox.

Would you like to go on a date to this sing along viewing party together?

Amy's brow wrinkled and she snatched up her own piece of paper. A date? What if someone sees us together?

She tilted her head and Sheldon's whole world stopped.

So what if they do? Why does that frighten you so much?

But Amy shook her head and said aloud, "I don't know why you're wasting our precious lab time reading the fine print on that silly flyer. We've got work to do."

Sheldon stopped as he stood up from loading the dishwasher. Amy - the pajama-top-wearing-superhero version of her - was studying the flyer he'd tacked on the refrigerator after work. She was humming a song that sounded suspiciously like Do-Re-Mi.

"I thought you couldn't risk being seen at such a thing," he asked, bitterness rising in the back of his throat. Having shut him down so forcefully in the lab, Amy hadn't said another word about it all day. And evening. They'd eaten the meal Sheldon had prepared in mostly stilted silence.

"I didn't think you would ever want to go to such a thing," she answered instead.

"I've been promised infectious and joyful." He took a deep breath. "Amy, I think we should go out sometimes instead of spending all our time in. I've accepted your reasoning for not coming here as Dr. Fowler. I've kept my promise not to tell my friends your secret, or even that we see each other outside of work, but . . ." He closed the dishwasher door and pressed the appropriate buttons to buy time. "But I'm not sure this is enough."

"What do you mean?" Amy asked, turning toward him with wide eyes.

"I don't want to argue, but we can't ignore this, either. This -" he waved his hand out to encompass the apartment and her nightshirt "- isn't enough for me anymore."

"But -" Amy started and Sheldon held up his hand to stop her.

"I know. You think you're being followed. And maybe you are. But, even if that's true, why couldn't Dr. Fowler have a relationship and go on dates? We had so much fun playing video games, didn't we? You said so. And that was just Dr. Fowler. Neither one of us mentioned anything about Wonder Amy all evening."

She turned away, resting her hands on the edge of the countertop and looking down at them. "Dr. Fowler has never been on a date before," she said, her voice quiet. "I tired one of those Internet dating sites once and there wasn't a single match for me. There was someone, once, at Harvard, named Faisal, and I thought we might . . ." She took a deep breath and shook her head. "But I discovered his parents would never allow a match between us, so we never went out."

"See?" Sheldon waved his arms. "I just learned that Dr. Fowler went to Harvard, and not just because I saw your diplomas hanging in your lab. And had a crush of someone there. And tried Internet dating, which is the dumbest thing I've ever heard. The algorithms used by those matchmaking sites are complete hokum. Why don't you tell me these things freely?" He stepped closer. "Amy, that's what I want to know. I want to get know you. Just you. And that includes Dr. Fowler. Maybe," he swallowed, "it's just Dr. Fowler." Sheldon reached up to touch her shoulder. "Sometimes I think I see the real you in the lab. Or over dinner. But then you hide behind your armor, telling me that your doing it to protect me or your secret identity. Why won't you let me protect you, just this once?"

Amy turned to look up at him, and Sheldon saw her calculating her answer and he stopped breathing until she answered, "Okay. A date."

To be continued . . .

The gameplay for the Mario Kart scene is based almost verbatim on the lyrics from Mario Kart Love Song by Sam Hart. If you haven't heard the song before, please go listen to it on YouTube; it's beautiful and perfect in every way.

In addition to my regular and fabulous beta, I also need to thank Regina [rgbcn on Instagram and other social media] for beta reading that section to confirm the gameplay really worked, even without knowing anything else about the story.

Thank you for reviewing; reviews here make my heart so very happy!