"Well, that wasn't as unpleasant as I feared." Sheldon stated as he and Amy walked into the lobby after his heat treatment. They'd had lunch while they were out and also called in to Amy's Glendale apartment to empty her mailbox. Sheldon rotated his shoulder experimentally and nodded slowly. "It feels much better already…maybe I won't be requiring that soft tissue massage after all." Amy caught the hopeful note in Sheldon's tone and shook her head ruefully.

"Nice try…but you're still going." Sheldon pouted a little and Amy chuckled. "We only have to attend the one appointment and then I can perform the same massage at home; if you behave, I'll take you out for a treat afterwards."

"Ooh, can we go to the train store?" Sheldon's disappointment immediately vanished at the prospect of Amy taking him to one of his favourite places. "Or the Lego store…or Disney…" Sheldon ticked off his haunts one by one only to be interrupted by the incessant buzzing of Amy's cellphone; she held up her finger to hush Sheldon's excited tones as she checked the caller display unit.

"Hello? Doctor Amy Cooper speaking." Amy adopted a professional tone as she answered the call, not recognising the number on the display.

"Where the Hell are you? And why haven't you been answering your calls?" The sound of an irate male voice blasted out of Amy's speakers and she winced a little as it assaulted her eardrums. "I checked your lab but they said you were taking a few day's leave…What's going on?"

"Who's yelling at you, sweetheart? Do you want me to speak with them?" Sheldon whispered in her ear and Amy waved her hand to make him move away.

"I can hear someone with you…"

"I don't appreciate you yelling at me as if I were a child that needs to check in with you all of the time. If you speak in a cordial manner, then I don't think we have anything further to say to one another."

"Aw, don't be like that…I just got worried when I couldn't get in touch with you. Has your phone been playing up or something? I must have left at least three voicemails yesterday when you weren't picking up."

"I haven't checked my voicemail today and couldn't have my phone switched on last night. Listen, this is a really bad line…can you call back on the landline in a few minutes? Let me give you the number."

"I think I know your number by now."

"I'm not at my apartment, listen it's a long story just call me back on…?" Amy glanced over at Sheldon who recited his landline number and Amy repeated it down the phone before disconnecting the call and sliding her phone back in her purse. "I guess you know who that was by now…"

"Yeah, you should have let me speak to him." Sheldon replied as they started making their way up the stairwell to the fourth floor. "He shouldn't have yelled at you like that."

"He didn't mean it, and I didn't want to get into an awkward conversation with him in a communal area; I think something like that needs to be discussed privately." Amy waited patiently as Sheldon unlocked the apartment door and waved her ahead of him. She walked in and immediately removed her jacket, hanging it in the living room closet and holding out her hand to take Sheldon's windbreaker.

"I'm going to take a quick shower, my clothes smell like a hospital." Sheldon sniffed his sleeve and wrinkled his nose up at the so called smell; Amy nodded and took a seat on the armchair, anxiously awaiting the expected telephone call. Sheldon dropped a quick kiss to her cheek as he passed the chair and murmured for her to call him if she got upset and Amy mustered up a quick smile, and gave his hand a quick squeeze in thanks. When the telephone finally rang, she almost jumped out of her skin, and picked it up with shaking hands.

"Hello?"

"Ames, you ready to talk to me now? What's going on pumpkin?" The man's quietly soothing tone was completely different from his attitude previously and Amy smiled softly as she kicked off her shoes and curled her legs up in the chair.

"Oh, Ritchie…it's so good to hear your voice, so much has happened over the last couple of days, I barely know where to begin."

"I've got a few hours to kill, why don't you start from the beginning?" Amy could almost see him stretched out on a bench, propping the phone beneath his chin as he got himself comfortable; a pose that she'd seen so often over the years.

"I've moved out of my apartment for a start…I'm living in Pasadena now and have a new roommate; actually I have two if you want to be completely accurate."

"Pumpkin, you haven't got yourself a bunch of cats like some crazy old lady have you? I knew I should've come stateside more often…"

"No, I haven't got any cats…these are living, breathing roommates of the human kind." Amy giggled as she heard Ritchie's sigh of relief clearly echoing down the landline. "I met someone online and we started chatting, and then we decided to meet up in a little coffee shop…it was the best thing I ever did."

"Then I'm happy for you…of course I am. I've got some news of my own to share, I'm going to be transferring back to US soil in a few weeks…"

"Oh Ritchie…that's so great! I can't wait to see you!" Amy's smile almost threatened to split her cheeks in half and she hugged the phone closer to her cheek. "I wish I could give you a hug in person right now, I've missed you so much." Amy was shrieking into the phone and missed Leonard letting himself into the apartment, he saw that she was talking and quietly started making his way down the hallway toward his room.

"I've missed you too, pumpkin. I've got a few days leave before I start my new post and was actually calling to see whether I could crash at your place for a few nights from Friday."

"This Friday? I've still got the apartment, we could meet there when your flight gets in. I can't wait to see you, it's been too long." Amy murmured quietly into the phone, and Leonard hustled down the hall to tap quietly on Sheldon's bedroom door, glancing worriedly over his shoulder at the way Amy was practically cooing into the receiver.

"Um, buddy…I don't quite know how to say this, but…"

"What is it Leonard?" Sheldon pulled open his bedroom door, having finished his shower and re-dressed in a set of clean clothes.

"Amy's on the phone and it sounds like she's planning on meeting someone at her apartment on Friday…" Leonard's voice trailed off, and he gazed down at his shoes not wanting to believe what he'd overheard. He felt completely miserable and his eyes started to smart with the sting of tears. Sheldon closed his bedroom door and started walking down the hallway, glancing back over his shoulder.

"Friday you say?"

"Yeah, Friday." Leonard nodded slowly and wondered why Sheldon suddenly seemed so full of beans, he followed his friend down the hallway to see Sheldon lean over to tap Amy on the shoulder.

"Ritchie?" Sheldon murmured and when Amy nodded he held out his hand for the phone. "Oooh, lemme speak to him." Sheldon bounced on the balls of his feet like a puppy begging for a treat and Amy finally gave in. "Ritchie, someone wants to have a word…be gentle." She handed over the phone and Sheldon let out his signature breathy chuckle as he took it from her.

"I don't friggin' believe it! Coop, is that really you?" Richard asked, recognising the laugh hoping that he was right and wasn't in the middle of some crazy hallucination.

"Yes, it's really me." Sheldon nudged Amy to one side so that he could squeeze in next to her in the armchair. Leonard scratched his head as he saw the crazy smile blossoming on Sheldon's face as he chatted away on the telephone and wondered what kind of rabbit hole he had fallen into. "So, you're coming into town on Friday?"

"Yeah, a few days leave before I start my new post…I don't want to say too much as I want it to be a surprise for Amy. I guess you were the one she was chatting to on line, small world."

"Indeed it is. Did you ever go onto flight school after you graduated BU?" Sheldon asked, settling himself in for a long chat as he reconnected with his old friend, and Amy snuggled against his side as she listened in on the conversation. Sheldon flicked a switch on the base of the phone and suddenly Ritchie's voice filled the apartment as Sheldon placed him on speaker.

"Sure did, Coop. You'll have to get Ames to show you the photos of my F18; you'll get a kick out of what the guys painted on the side for me. Pumpkin, show Coop the one that I sent through to your phone."

"Okay, hotshot hold your horses." Amy grumbled good-naturedly as she leant forward to pick up her phone from the coffee table and started flicking through the countless images that Ritchie had sent her over the years. She finally found the one that Ritchie mentioned and held it up for Sheldon who chuckled at the picture. Ritchie's jet had a cartoon of the Star Trek Enterprise painted on the side with the words "Ritchie 'Make it so' Fowler" stencilled underneath.

"Ah, I taught you so well; nicely done flyboy."

"Yup, after seeing that slideshow you put together it was no more Babylon 5 for me. We had some good times back then didn't we? What about that weekend that your Meemaw paid a surprise visit?"

"The movie marathon weekend…Meemaw thought she was tickling her Moonpie awake only it turned out to be you snoozing on our couch!" Amy giggled at the memory and Sheldon let out a breathy chuckle.

"She's coming to visit us soon, it would be great if you were around at the same time."

"Let me know when she's coming and I'll see what I can arrange, I've missed her pancakes and that Pecan pie she made at Thanksgiving was out of this world." Ritchie gave a heartfelt sigh and fell silent for a brief spell. "I'm glad the two of you found each other again, despite what Mom did."

"You know about that?" Sheldon asked in surprise and Amy leant over to whisper that she emailed Ritchie as soon as she had found the bundle of letters, wondering whether he had known anything about them.

"Yeah, Ames gave me the lowdown…I swear I didn't have anything to do with it Coop, I know how much you loved her and I wouldn't hurt her like that."

"I know flyboy…you're a good man."

"So are you, Coop. Anyway you take care of my baby sister and I'll see you both very soon. Catch ya later alligator!"

"After a while crocodile…" Sheldon chuckled at hearing Ritchie's familiar send off and Amy called her goodbyes before they disconnected the call.

"So…Ritchie's your brother huh?" Leonard said, glancing over to see Amy's nod. "Boy, am I glad to hear that! I was getting kinda worried for a while there…" Leonard slumped down on the couch and let out a huge sigh of relief. "You never mentioned that you had a brother and said that none of your family was at your wedding; I thought you were hiding a secret boyfriend or something."

"I have an older brother, Richard; or Ritchie as he prefers to be called. He was finishing up his undergraduate studies in aeronautical engineering at Boston University when Sheldon and I first met; he used to come and spend weekends with us at Harvard and he and Sheldon bonded over their love of sci-fi and comic-books. When we got married, Ritchie had just started at the naval academy and it was too short notice for him to book leave."

"So…no secret boyfriends that we…err Sheldon has to worry about?" Leonard asked and Amy shook her head.

"Nope, none at all. What about him? Any secret girlfriends that I need to start stalking on Facebook?" Amy joked, pointing at her husband and Leonard gave Sheldon a jab on the shoulder.

"What? He never told you about Ramona? Sheldon, you dawg…" Leonard started chuckling as he saw Sheldon's panicked expression, and almost choked on his laughter as Amy's expression suddenly turned icy cold as she jabbed a sharp finger at her husband's chest.

"Who the Hell is Ramona?"