Its so close now. Part of me wishes I was already married. Seeing Sheldon like that the other night... wow! It is both exciting and scary to think of our wedding night. I had thought I would feel more embarrassed with him seeing me naked but I was so stunned to see him, like that, that I almost forgot I was naked too. I think he felt the same. I know he didn't want to stop. I didn't really either but I know how important it is to do this right. Mar had said she would find a nice place for us to stay for our wedding night. I suppose I should get details from her, or maybe I should get Sheldon too. I will speak to him.
Amy was excited. Counting the days down and seeing her dress hanging in her wardrobe made it all seem so real. After Sheldon had stayed the weekend they had not really had any opportunity to be alone again. Amy had made sure she was free on Tuesdays so she could join him at the cheesecake factory and with their constant text and skyping she was happy things between them were good.
As she parked up now outside the cheesecake factory Amy was surprised to see Sheldon stood waiting for her. As she got and locked the car he walked towards her.
"Hi," she smiled "is everything OK?"
"Yes." Sheldon leant down and kissed her hello. "I missed you. I feel like it is ages since we have spent time alone, I wanted to ask, without an audience, if after dinner we could go back to yours. I know it is a work night and I wont stay long."
"Sheldon of course. I would love you to come back!" Amy grinned. "Come on lets go eat." And grabbing Sheldon hand they made there way inside.
As Penny came to take there order she smiled at the sight of Sheldon and Amy holding hands,
"Ah look at you two! Not long now. How are the plans going Ames?"
"Good, I am just glad it is soon. I am not sure how people cope having to wait a year or more. Mary sent me pictures of the flowers and where they have booked the reception. I cant wait." Amy grinned.
"My mother emails you?" Sheldon asked.
"Of course how else do you think we have organised this?"
Sheldon shrugged. "Why has she not shown me these pictures?"
"Do you want to see the flowers?" Amy asked knowing full well he had no interest at all.
"Well..."
"Of course you don't," Amy shrugged, "nor do you care where the reception is. I do care so therefore she sent me the pictures." Then turning back to Penny she said "How about we meet up tomorrow and I will show you?"
"OK deal. We also need to sort out your bridal shower too."
Amy's grin widened as Sheldon's frown deepened. "You are having a bridal shower? Does that mean you will get drunk and do wild things?"
"Maybe," Amy laughed winking at Penny. "You are having a bachelor party aren't you?" Amy looked to Leonard who shrugged.
"He said it was below him!" He grinned. "We had the strippers booked and everything!"
Amy tried to hide her laughter behind her hand but Sheldon spotting her amusement said "You don't mind me ogling naked women?"
"You can ogle if you want," Amy grinned now unable to hide her amusement "but I trust you Sheldon."
Muttering under his breath Sheldon ate the rest of his meal in silence.
By the time their food was finished and the meal paid for Sheldon still hadn't spoken, sighing Amy signalled for the others to go on ahead and moved to stand next to Sheldon who was fiddling with the cuffs of his jacket.
"Are you sulking?" Amy asked quietly.
"No." Amy grinned at his pouting expression.
"Sheldon I am not going to go wild. A few girls from work are join Penny, Bernie and I for some drinks and a girls night. And I think you should do whatever makes you comfortable about your stag. If you don't want one fine but this is a fun time, you should enjoy it with your friends."
Sheldon nodded but said no more.
Shrugging Amy grasped his hand and said "Come on lets go home."
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"Sheldon come on. This was your idea. If you are just going to sit and sulk I will take you home now!" Amy said frustration evident in her tone after her fifth attempt at starting a conversation.
"I don't want to go home." he said quietly.
"Then what do you want Sheldon? Because the man who greeted me in the parking lot doesn't seem to be sat on my sofa."
"I'm sorry." Sheldon clasped his hands on his knees and began to talk. "Amy I have missed you. So much. At night I have the vision of you in my head. I can almost feel you next to me. Like you expressed earlier the date of our wedding cannot come soon enough. But Amy after our last meeting, that weekend, now I keep seeing you naked." Sheldon closed his eyes as if picturing her. "Amy I am not sure you know the affect you have on me. I don't want a vision of another woman in my head. I don't want to see a stripper, have Howard sat next to me making crude wedding night jokes. It has started already a bit. Comments in the canteen at lunch, Leonard on the journey to and from work. Amy what we had that weekend was between us, what we will have, share together, I don't want to talk about it in the canteen or the car. In fact I don't want to talk to them about it at all."
Amy smiled and reached to hold Sheldon's hands. "Sheldon that is lovely and I do understand and it is fine."
"That's the thing Amy I'm not fine, and I am not sure you are going to like this but I have decided I am going to go home next week, to Texas."
"What? Why?" Amy began to panic "Sheldon that isn't necessary."
"Yes it is. Amy we only have a couple of weeks to wait, that's not so long. I will go home, help momma and Meemaw with last minute preparations then I will be there, waiting for you. Amy if I stay I will get more and more stressed. Or, and I am not sure which is worse, I will want to stay here with you, repeat that weekend and this time I don't think I will be able to stop. Amy I need to do this, for us. To make it right."
Amy saw the look of desperation in Sheldon's big blue eyes as he looked at her.
"I will miss you though," she whispered tears in her eyes. She leant in to kiss him, hugging him tight.
As he pulled back Sheldon said "I'd better go."
"Sheldon stay."
"Amy I cant."
"Please."
"Amy if I stay I know what will happen. Last time you stopped us and it was the right thing to do. I didn't want to stop. All these years I had thought I was above such things and now it is taking all my willpower not to turn into Howard Wolowitz." Amy grinned tearfully at this.
"You will still text me?"
"Every morning and lunchtime and each night we can Skype. It will be OK Amy I promise."
Amy nodded. "When do you go?"
"Well it only came to me at dinner thinking about strippers. I will speak to human resources tomorrow. Its not as if I am not owed the holiday. I will probably go Thursday."
"OK. Do you want me to take you home now?" Amy asked resigned to the new plans and knowing if she fought this he would become stressed.
"Please." he nodded.
As Amy pulled up outside the apartment door on Los Robles avenue she turned to look at Sheldon.
"The next time I see you will be in Texas!"
"The next time I see you you will be my bride!" Sheldon nodded. This earned him a smile from Amy and leaning over to kiss her quickly he whispered "I will see you soon."
Amy watched him disappear into the building and turn to climb the stairs. 'His bride' it had a nice ring to it and she smiled all the way home.
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"Amy smile!" Penny grinned as she snapped another picture of Amy the following weekend. They had dressed her up and decorated the room and bought lots of silly gifts that Amy had blushed over opening.
"So Amy, how do you think Sheldon will feel about your gifts?" Bernadette grinned picking up the chocolate body paint.
"I cant show Sheldon those!" Amy shook her head. She could almost see Sheldon's expression.
"But we chose the chocolate especially!" Penny laughed.
Shaking her head Amy looked around the room at her friends. "Thanks for this guys," she smiled. "I have had fun! Now I just have to patiently wait!"
"Have you heard from Sheldon since he left?" Penny asked she had been amazed when Leonard had told her his room-mate had gone home.
"Yes he Skype's every night. He is fine, he actually looks more relaxed. I hadn't realised how stressed he was. He has only been gone a few days and I hate it."
"Why was he stressed? He hasn't had to organise it all!" Penny pointed out.
"I think the guys had been teasing him a little," Amy admitted, "it was getting to him. But he said Meemaw is keeping him busy, she has a list of jobs she wants him to do. It sounds like she has practically chained him to the kitchen if the list of cooking he described is anything to go by.
He did say he wasn't happy about the theme for the reception." Amy grinned "but when he found out I had approved it and that a Texan theme would be a novelty to the guests from LA he couldn't really argue."
"I'd have thought he would have liked that. He has been quick enough to get his spurs on in the past!" Bernie grinned
"Yes I pointed that out to him and he said it was just another opportunity for Howard to dress up as woody from toy story and they wouldn't take it seriously. When I pointed out he would be the only genuine Texan from his group of friends, and it could be his duty to see the level of authenticity was correct he agreed pretty quickly. Meemaw emailed me later to say Sheldon had got off the phone from me and ordered outfits for Leonard, Raj and Howard just for the reception and I should warn them."
"Oh boy. What are they?" Penny and Bernie asked dreading Sheldon's idea of revenge for the teasing.
Amy laughed. "Oh I promised Sheldon I would not say, they don't sound that bad!"
"Are you making us wear themed clothes too?" Penny asked concerned.
"No. I thought you might want to stay in your bridesmaids dresses. The red will suit you both so much but if you want to change that's fine. Evidently Mary has organised tractor and horse rides to go alongside the barn dance and games, so the shorter style of your dresses shouldn't stop you having fun."
"What about you?" Penny asked curiously.
"Well I wanted to stay in my wedding dress but I am not sure it will be appropriate. Maybe I will have something to change into just in case."
"So what have you got left to do?" Bernie asked. She had been impressed at how calm Amy seemed considering how excited she had been as her maid of honour.
"Well nothing really." Amy shrugged. "Sheldon said the honeymoon is booked but wont tell me where too. I asked him what I was supposed to pack clothes wise and he said pack for mid temperature climate but with bathing stuff. Not exactly helpful really. The church and reception are sorted so now I just need to get there. 3 more days at work then I will be Dr Fowler no longer!
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"Sheldon it is only for one night! You fly to Europe the next day." George pointed out.
"I don't care. We are going to check them all I am not trusting some search engine recommendation." Sighing George got back in the car and waited for his brother to strap himself in. "What exactly was wrong with that one?"
"Nothing specific; I just need to have done a thorough survey before making my final decision and I am pretty sure this last one should rank highly."
Shaking his head but knowing it was wiser not to argue George drove to the Hotel Galvez. Pulling into the impressive drive he whistled.
"Yeah OK you may have a point." he muttered. By the time they had reached the gulf view suite that Sheldon had requested George was pretty sure even his brother would be hard pushed to find fault. Entering the bedroom George said nothing. It was weird. Shelly looking for honeymoon suites. The king size bed seemed to be taunting them and both men were pinker in the face as they tried to ignore the enquiring glances of the assistant giving them the tour. Finally, having checked the view the level of dust and cleanliness and crispness of the bedlinen, Sheldon had seen enough and returning to reception he said "I would like to book that room please. It will be in the names of Dr and Mrs Cooper."
George frowned but said nothing. When they got back to the car he said "Should that not have been Dr and Dr Cooper?"
"Well yes I guess it should technically, but I wanted to test what it felt like saying it." Sheldon admitted.
"And?"
"And I liked it."
"Well good luck explaining that to Amy!" George sniggers. "So Shelly are you ready for the big night. I know you don't need condom advise." he laughed.
Sheldon ignored his jibe and changing the subject said "there is something I need to speak to you about actually. I was thinking about my best man. As my brother some people might say I should ask you, but Leonard has been my close friend and room-mate for a number of years now..."
"Shelly that's fine," George interrupted quickly, relieved the task may be handed to someone else.
"You wouldn't mind?"
"No of course not."
"Well I had wanted to ask Meemaw to stand next to me, but Missy said it was stupid."
"Why? I think she would be honoured." George said knowing just how fond Sheldon was of their grandmother.
"Do you really think so?"
"Why don't you ask her, if she says no ask Leonard."
Nodding Sheldon smiled "Thank you George."
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"Oh I don't know Moonpie." Meemaw said the next day as they stood together putting the finishing touches to the wedding cake. "Its a lovely idea but you have friends now, surely they would be a better choice."
"Meemaw I was going to ask George as he is my brother, or Leonard as he is a good friend you are right; but if I am honest the person I would like beside me is you! It is you who understood me growing up, helped overcome so many things. It is you who helped me see that I could have both Amy and science. That it would work, that my feelings were love. Meemaw I am going to be nervous. I cant even bring myself to think about the wedding night and I know having you stood next to me, well it will make it easier."
"Then Sheldon Lee Cooper I would be honoured!" Meemaw grinned.
73
"Penny hurry up!" Amy called. The last week had past in a blur. Amy had been a combination of nerves, excitement and pure adrenalin. Her work colleagues had presented her with a new name plate for her lab door saying Dr Amy Cooper, and on opening it she had burst into tears and had to go home. When she had told Sheldon that night on the phone he had asked if she wanted to keep her name. The relief in his voice at her denial was sweet. Each time they had spoken Amy had been able to detect notes of excitement in Sheldon's voice, and when he admitted Meemaw was his best man and that he had helped make their wedding cake she had cried again. He then pointed out that he wanted her tear free on the day.
Now, taxi cab waiting, Amy just wanted to be there with him. They were due to arrive late Thursday evening and Sheldon said both Amy and Penny would be staying at Meemaw's. Her family and friends along with Bernie, Howard and Raj were all flying out Friday and the wedding was happening Saturday afternoon. As she looked at her case and her dress bagged up ready to go she all but screamed at Penny.
"If you are not out here in 30 seconds I will go without you!"
"Calm down Ames." Penny grinned dragging her own case and dress bag behind her. "You do realise when you come back not only will you be married you will be my neighbour!"
"Yes about that," Amy nodded "Sheldon tells me you have a habit of letting yourself into 4A and helping yourself to milk? Well that stops, as does the parading around the apartment in your night clothes. Sheldon is going to be a married man and it is not appropriate."
Penny sniggered. "OK, well I am sure Leonard will ensure our cupboards are stocked and he mentioned burning my nightclothes when he moves in so that wont be a problem." She was still chuckling at Amy's possessiveness as she climbed into the taxi next to her.
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Well we are here. In Texas. I haven't seen Sheldon as Missy met us at the airport. She said Sheldon was refusing to see me before the wedding as it was bad luck.. I think he is being over cautious but I am so excited I don't care. Penny and Missy have gone out tonight they wanted me to go but I am too excited and just wanted to be here, with Meemaw in Sheldon's favourite place. Tomorrow Meemaw is taking me shopping and then she is moving to Mary's and my mother will stay the night here with me. I got the best text from Sheldon tonight it just said less than 48 hours to go! So excited! I love you.
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A/N: OK, next chapter will be wedding. I hope to get it up tomorrow but it may be late. Thanks you for the reviews, I hope next few chapters don't disappoint!