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Chapter 13: Casey is Left Behind

While Derek was busy feeling sorry for himself, Casey was doing a little moping of her own…

Casey was surprised that Sheldon wasn't at her door on time. She happened to look out her window, and saw two familiar figures laughing and talking near her building's entrance.

"Fine, forget all about me," Casey grumbled, as she left her apartment and headed towards the lobby.

She figured it was only a matter of time before Emily and Sheldon bumped into each other, so she had decided to speed things up a bit by inviting them both over at the same time. But she hadn't expected them to ignore her completely.

The way they were standing so close, and laughing, and Emily's hand kept brushing Sheldon's arm, she couldn't help but feel a little jealous. Just a little.

Okay, so this romance thing she had going with Sheldon was more about having fun than commitment. And the publicity didn't hurt, either. But maybe I should just let nature take its course, Casey mused.

She didn't have time to think about much else, because as soon as she stepped outside, Sheldon and Emily ran over to her.

"Hi, Case!" Emily said, grinning from ear to ear. "Look who I found! Isn't this great?"

Casey nodded. "Um, yes?"

Sheldon beamed. "It is. We were talking, and we decided to be friends again."

"I thought for the longest time that it would be too painful, but…" Emily gazed wistfully at Sheldon. "I guess I missed you."

"I missed you, too," Sheldon said.

"Well, now we can all be friends," Casey jumped in, trying to remind them that she was still there.

They both looked at her quickly, almost sheepishly, and Casey thought, I knew it. It's love at first sight. Or for the second time. Or third. Whatever.

They all went out for brunch, and it was surprisingly a lot of fun. Neither Casey nor Emily felt like the third wheel, though Casey was the one supposedly dating Sheldon. She had a feeling they were both making a conscious effort to include her.

Afterwards, they strolled down the street and window-shopped. Casey ended up getting mobbed by fans a few times, and Sheldon and Emily stood off to the side, grinning with the slightest hint of pity in their eyes.

"Why don't you two head home? You don't have to wait around for me," Casey called to them as she frantically signed autographs. Most people didn't have paper, so she ended up signing a lot of shirts and random items like water bottles.

Sheldon was about to respond that they would wait, when a woman began telling Casey quite energetically that she had been an inspiration, and continued to talk. Casey glanced at her friends and waved them to go on ahead, while trying to listen intently to her fan.

Sheldon pulled Emily from the outskirts of the crowd and they kept walking. "I feel like we shouldn't leave her, but she could be awhile," he said.

"I know, but I'm like her publicist. I should stay."

"We'll call her in a few minutes to make sure she's all right. I wanted to talk to you alone, actually, to tell you that—" Sheldon paused, because a fan had broken off from the group, clutching a handkerchief with Casey's name on it in black marker.

"Hey, you're Sheldon Schlepper, aren't you? I love your show. Could you?" She held out the handkerchief and Sheldon obliged. He had a marker with him, and Emily watched with amusement as he chatted her up, acting like the star he was. Sheldon had come a long way since high school, when he paid girls to be his personal cheerleaders.

A few others trickled out of Casey's group once they saw Sheldon, so the pair didn't get very far away, even after several minutes.

"You are so not the Sheldon I used to know," Emily remarked, and Sheldon actually blushed.

"I'm still me, Em," he assured her. "It's just that a lot of people know my name now."

"I guess. Still, I never would have thought you'd be…"

"I know exactly what you mean," he interrupted, smiling ruefully. "I'm the last person you would have expected to be treated with such respect, huh?"

"I didn't say that!" Emily cried, indignant. "I always knew you'd do great things. I just never thought it'd be this," she explained. "And I always respected you," she added.

"I know. Thanks." He patted her shoulder affectionately.

They continued walking away from the crowd, once they were sure his fans were gone. There was still a swarm around Casey.

By the time they got back to Emily's apartment, Sheldon had completely forgotten about Casey. Truth be told, so did Emily. They had been reminiscing about old times, and instead of getting a stabbing pain in her chest like she usually did when thinking about the past, Emily felt like she could burst with happiness.

"You want to come up?" she asked, before she could stop herself.

Sheldon picked at some lint on his shirt. "I…" You're supposed to be with Casey, idiot, he reprimanded himself. "Um, not today."

"Oh."

"Yeah. Sorry." He really, really was.

"No, it's fine. We should do this again sometime." Emily hugged him gently, and Sheldon heaved a sigh.

"We should."

"Hey Sheldon?"

"Mm?"

"What were you going to say back there? You said you wanted to tell me something."

Sheldon threw caution to the wind. He knew this was probably not the best idea, but in the last few seconds his head had gone all fuzzy. Hugging Emily apparently did that to him.

"I wanted to tell you this." He leaned down and kissed Emily softly. She was too surprised to respond right away, but once she finally did, both of them forgot the rest of the world for a minute.

"We, um, so, uh," Sheldon attempted, and promptly gave up.

"I need to go," Emily replied, not quite looking at him.

And before Sheldon could put together any more words, articulately or not, Emily had darted inside her building.

"Excuse me?" Sheldon turned as a woman held out a pen and a notebook. "I'm sorry to bother you, but could you sign? I'm addicted to Midnight Chatter."

Sheldon took the pen and smiled, trying to compose himself. "Sure. I'm glad you like the show. What's your name?"

"Annie."

Sheldon wrote a little note to Annie and handed her the notebook and pen. "Here you go."

"Thanks so much! I can't wait to tell my friends I met you!" Sheldon nodded graciously, but his smile disappeared the second Annie continued, "Hey, what happened to that author, Casey something? The woman you just kissed didn't look like her."

Sheldon just stared at her blankly, and Annie shrugged, turning to leave.

As she practically skipped down the block, her smile a little too smug, Sheldon glanced around nervously. No photographers seemed to be lurking around, so if he was lucky, no one but Annie had seen him kiss Emily.

He could only hope.

He figured that the right thing to do was to set the record straight with Casey before she had a chance to get hurt. But he didn't want to hurt her by telling her.

Sheldon had a big, big problem.