Summary: It has been almost a year, and Sheldon and Amy are circling one another, neither one quite sure of how to get where they both want to be. Starting after 10.08, "The Brain Bowl Incubation," this is a series of post episode stories to fill in some of the gaps of season 10. Each chapter should be able to stand on its own, but they also go together as parts of a larger story. Future chapters will, in large part, be shaped by whatever happens on the show.

Chapter 2, post-ep for 10.09, "The Geology Elevation": Bert is one giant of a man, but he is nothing more than the tip of the jealousy iceberg.

Note: If you see a word that looks misspelled, it's probably a pun, hon. This chapter exists because several readers kindly requested a continuation of what was originally a one-shot. Thanks to those folks for the encouragement.

—-

I.

Sheldon strides up four flights of stairs with a spring in his step, feeling like a whole new man. Today marks the dawn of a great new era. He never before realized what he has been missing, the joys of one of life's simple pleasures. As it turns out, a man really can have it all!

Boxer briefs: the comforting support of briefs without the hiney-climbing persistence of a high-cut leg opening. The world is a little brighter now that his knickers can never again threaten him with the wedgies of days gone by.

After the taping of Ellen, he and Bert had succumbed to the temptation to shop at the Ellen store as they left the studio. At Bert's recommendation, Sheldon had opted to try out the Ellen-branded underwear. While he has never been much of a shopper, Sheldon supposes that it was the overwhelming cloud of estrogen surrounding the entire experience that had made it feel natural. There had been so many women in that audience that he and Bert had stuck out like clueless engineers at a physics lecture. Sheldon hadn't let it keep him from having a great time, of course, even though his ears had been set to ringing by the constant barrage of so many ladies shouting 'Woo!'

Slower up the stairs, Bert eventually catches up. Sheldon is surprised to find that his new friend has followed him at all, but in his enthusiasm, he turns to him and says, "You're right. Boxer briefs really do rock!"

"Yeah. Geologists sure do like to have gneiss things, and I'm telling you, the ladies dig the look too. Those underwear are Ellen's best selling item, by the way."

"And rightfully so. Have a good evening, Bert."

"Hey, wait. I came up here to see if you guys want go out to eat or something? You or Amy? I've got quite an apatite after missing lunch. Besides, no one is more fun to hang out with than a geologist. We like to party allanite long."

Friendship is preferable to animosity, but he has had more than enough of this guy for one day. "No thank you, Amy was planning to cook for me this evening."

"I see. You're quite lucky to have her, you know. With the way things eroded between you guys last year, I hope you've since learned not to take her for granite. If she ever finds faults in your relationship again, I'll warn you that it might em-boulder me to go after her. And a guy like me knows all about making the bedrock."

If Sheldon hears even one more geology pun, he fears that he may have no choice but to karate chop the man again, even though he's not quite sure what that bedrock thing has to do with anything. "Good night, Bert."

"Bye, Sheldon. Tell Amy I said hello."

There is zero chance of that happening. He has no desire to see his new friend pursue his woman, and he is not at all convinced that Bert is over his prior crush on Amy. After all, the idea that a geologist like him could somehow do better than his girlfriend is absurd. No one can do better than Amy.

Sheldon fumbles with his keys and wonders if Bert is right that women prefer the aesthetics of boxer briefs. There's only one woman who gets to cast a vote on that subject when it comes to him, and he tries to imagine what Amy might say when she gets a peek at the goods before bed tonight. He figures she will appreciate the bright plaid print, similar as it is to some of her own fashion choices. The waistbands of all his new underwear are stamped with Ellen's name, an interesting souvenir of his outing, but he's not sure what Amy will think of that. Will another woman's name splashed across his most private garments incite jealousy?

They have only ever had coitus once, but that still ought to be enough for her to consider the territory hers. He certainly considers Amy to be his. Sheldon shakes his head, trying to shake off his immature feelings of possessiveness.

He pauses with his key held up to the lock, his light mood from before feeling heavier with every passing second. Jealousy is an ugly, often unreasonable emotion. Like so many other feelings, it is beneath such a superior being as himself. Sheldon has been proud of his ability to get over his bitterness about Bert's success. As he stands frozen in the hallway, however, he begins to become aware that his small victory has not been enough to win the greater war. Overcoming his feelings about the geologist's grant has not accomplished the primary objective that he had set out to achieve.

Sheldon takes a step away from their apartment door and scuffs the toe of his shoe against the ground. It's not a problem most of the time, and he is usually able to avoid giving it much thought. Ninety-nine plus percent of the time, he is happier than he ever thought possible. Every now and then, though, the doubts start to creep up on him, often at the most inopportune of moments.

Some kinds of jealousy are harder to tame than others, it seems, and the clock is ticking. The ring, coitus, permanent commitment… he feels like his life is partially on hold, paralyzed by his weakness to emotion, of all things. He must conquer his ridiculous insecurities before Amy's birthday, before she might come to think less of him as a man.

—

II.

Penny wrinkles her nose at the smoke billowing off of her skillet. The directions had said to brown the beef, but the contents of her pan have gone straight from pink to black. She moves the skillet to a back burner and frowns at the box on her countertop which offers her no further guidance. 'Hamburger Helper' her ass.

Amy and Sheldon take turns cooking for one another, and Penny had thought that she and Leonard should give that arrangement a try too. Alas, she's more suited to pushing microwave buttons than to using an actual stove. A quick look through the freezer saves the day—there's a box of frozen lasagna on the upper shelf. Leonard will no doubt figure out that she hasn't whipped up a home cooked meal, but he is a sweetie, and she's sure that he'll appreciate her good intentions. She hopes he'll still appreciate it after dinner, when she plans to have him try to scrub her burnt out skillet with some steel wool.

Penny keeps bracing herself for a rude comment from the other room, but Sheldon has done nothing other than sit quietly in his spot. If he's not over here to be aggravating, then she's not even sure what he's doing here at all. Annoying superiority is kind of his thing, and here he is missing a golden opportunity. After setting the microwave timer, Penny pours herself a generous glass of wine and then walks over to sit in the chair next to the couch.

"Please tell me you're not hanging out here because you've blown things with Amy."

Her comment seems to shake Sheldon out of his zoned out state. He looks at her, indignant. "Of course not. Things with Amy are better than ever. I'm merely having some visitation time with my spot. You and Leonard may be the ones living here now, but that doesn't mean I'm giving up full custody."

There's definitely something wrong with him. Like, something more wrong with him than in the usual sense. "I've known you for ten freakin' years, Sheldon. If you're here to get comfort from your spot, then something is up. This quietness isn't like you, and Leonard is going to be home any minute, so how about you cut to the chase and tell me what's bugging you?"

He doesn't respond. It's got to be something related to Amy, because he's never hesitant to rant about his other kinds of problems. She knows his love for his girlfriend is different, full of intense emotion that he always seems to bury under heaps of denial. Sometimes it's endearing and sometimes it makes her want to reach over and smack some sense into him. She's not sure which it's going to be this time.

Penny decides to prod him with a question that she is pretty sure he will answer, and if she's honest with herself, it'll satisfy a certain nosy curiosity of hers. "Are you getting nervous about the big day? Amy's birthday is coming up soon, and that's annual Shamy coitus day, is it not?"

That earns her a scoff, but it does get him talking. "That's none of your business. I'm not here to discuss something like that with you."

Ah, but he is here to discuss something with her. Penny is sure of it. She sits quietly, sipping her wine, figuring that he will crack sooner rather than later. It's close to his scheduled dinner time with Amy, and she knows that it would drive him crazy to be late.

As expected, Sheldon soon breaks the silence. Also as expected, he doesn't say something that makes any sense to her. "When our families were here for your wedding to Leonard, everyone thought that his father was offering far more than a mere nightcap to my mother that one night. Why was that?"

"Huh?" It takes her a second to flip her brain back to that time, but she can't for the life of her figure out why Sheldon's asking about that now.

"When someone invites a person over for a beverage at their home, or perhaps at their temporary living quarters, does it always mean that there is some coital subtext involved?"

Penny shrugs. "Not always, but sometimes. It depends on the vibe between the people and whether there's a romantic interest or spark. Inviting a person back to your place, or maybe to 'watch Netflix and chill,' is a pretty common way of suggesting some hanky panky."

"Vibe? Spark? That's not helpful. What if the two individuals in question were already dating? Is that what it means then?"

That's a bizarre question. "Your mom and Leonard's dad met that day. They weren't dating."

"Hypothetically."

"Ok, how about not hypothetically? What the hell is it that you're trying to ask me?"

Sheldon looks pale and uncertain as he examines his fingernails. "Amy dated a number of other men last year when we were apart, and she was dating one in particular when she and I got back together. The night I figured out the name of that song in my head and went to her, that man was in her apartment. She must've invited him, and I've since wondered what that might have meant."

Damn. Penny's pretty sure what a heartbroken Amy was trying to make herself do, but she never thought Sheldon would figure it out. And in all honesty, she doubts her conservative friend would've gone through with it even if Sheldon hadn't stopped by.

It seems like it ought to be safe to stick to the facts. "So this is what all that getting over jealousy business has been about, hmm? Sheldon, you've got nothing to worry about. For God's sake, she was a virgin when she slept with you, and she waited a hell of a lot of years because it was so important to her that it happen with you. You might have less reason to be jealous than just about any guy on this planet."

"Emotions can be stupid and ridiculous, the antithesis of all that is rational. Regardless, let's call my current state curiosity."

"Curious jealousy, maybe."

"Be that as it may, this curiosity has been inconvenient. It is interfering with certain aspects of my relationship with Amy."

"I'm not sure what you expect me to say, other than maybe 'get the heck over it'. If you want to know what was going on with Amy at that time, then you're going to have to suck it up and ask her."

Sheldon waves her off. "Oh, no, I couldn't possibly do that," he insists, like it's the most ridiculous suggestion he's ever heard.

"Why the hell not? And for that matter, why are you even asking me this kind of thing in the first place when you should be asking her?"

He tilts his head back and scoffs, affecting an air of superiority as he so often does. "For the same reason that I often come to you. Because I don't care what you think of me. As a friend, your opinion of me doesn't matter in anywhere near the same way that Amy's does. It can't hurt to bounce something off you first."

"So I'm what? Some kind of test person?"

"More or less."

It sounds like an insult, but of all the things he's said to her this evening, it might make more sense than anything else. What her friends think about her matters to Penny, but what Leonard thinks matters on a whole other level, and she knows how difficult it can be to admit certain things to her husband for that reason. With an ego like Sheldon's, it must be even worse for him. Amy might be the only one he's ever considered to be his equal, and as such, she doubts that he has ever held anyone's opinion in such a high regard. It's no surprise, then, that he tends to be reluctant to admit any kind of perceived failure or weakness to the person he loves the most.

"Look, I get it. Jealousy is difficult. But no one can help you with this except for Amy. You're going to have to work up the courage to be vulnerable with her sometimes. She loves you, and she's not going to think less of you. If anything, she'll be thrilled to get the chance to help you work through something that is obviously bothering you, especially if it has been having some effect on your relationship."

He doesn't answer her, and she hopes that his silence means he is considering taking her advice. Penny gets up and grabs a bag o' salad from out of the fridge. Maybe if she cuts up some extra vegetables to toss in the bowl, then she can count it as homemade. It's close enough.

The microwave beeps at the same time as Sheldon stands to leave. "Say hello to Leonard on my behalf, and my thanks to both of you for taking good care of my spot in my absence."

She suspects that this odd statement is his own special way of thanking her for the advice, so she nods. "And you say hello to Amy from me and Leonard. Make sure you pass along our thanks to her for taking such good care of you."

—

III.

Amy tries to put together the scattered words in her head in order to form a coherent sentence. The feel of Sheldon's lips sliding further and further down the skin of her neck is making it almost impossible.

He makes his way back up and whispers his question a second time, his breath tickling the sensitive area behind her ear. "Tell me again. What is the active component that is responsible for the intense heat that is generated?"

Her first thought is to tell him it's his own lips that are responsible for the burning heat that she's experiencing, but she knows he's referring to something else.

After dinner, Sheldon had become enthralled when she began to talk about the proper cooking process to prepare good Mexican food. Somewhere in the midst of her talking about her pico de gallo recipe and the importance of selecting the correct chile peppers with the aid of the Scoville heat index, Sheldon had made a move to kiss her. It's not the first time that he's ever initiated a make out in the middle of a discussion, but it does mark the first time that he has suggested they move their 'discussion' to their bedroom instead of the couch.

"Um… capsaicinoids, the primary one being capsaicin, are responsible for the sensation of heat generated by chile peppers, a feeling that can come from either the ingestion of the substance or the topical application of it." Sheldon pulls off her cardigan and gets to work on the buttons of her blouse. Amy's hopes are soaring ever higher, right along with her heart rate, and she's glad that the two of them are already lying on the bed, because she doubts that her shaky limbs would be able to support her weight if she were still standing.

She continues to sputter her scientific explanation, "And, uh, capsaicinoids bond to the pain receptors of the tissues they come into contact with, sending signals back to the brain. In response, the brain releases endorphins, raises the heart rate, and increases the amount of perspiration."

Those symptoms sound not unlike what she is experiencing right now. Sheldon kisses her lips as he finishes removing her shirt, and she feels the brief hot swipe of his tongue in her mouth, as if he's trying to taste the residual chemical heat she's talking about. When he pulls back so that they can both catch their breath, Amy tugs at his shirt, far more interested in exploring the heat of his body than she is in spending any more time thinking about their meal.

Never one to let something go until the topic is fully exhausted, Sheldon continues to ask for elaboration. "By what mechanism does this physical response occur?"

At least he remains focused enough on their other activities to help her remove his shirt. Her words come out in breathy fits and starts again, distracted as she is by the sight of his naked chest, arms, and shoulders. "It, um, it changes the way that cells use the energy from… from hydrolysis of denosine triphosphate. Energy that would normally be used to, um, move ions… is instead released as thermal energy when capsaicin is present."

Amy wonders if there are some trace amounts of capsaicin on Sheldon's lips and hands. She could swear she feels a burning trail of fire wherever he touches or kisses her. Then again, she can feel a substantial amount of heat in areas that he has not yet touched at all. When she runs her hands over his chest and back, she hopes that he is feeling it too. If the bright pink flush across his chest is any indication, then he must be.

"As I understand it," Sheldon mumbles, his lips brushing her own as he speaks into her mouth, "there can be a pleasurable and even euphoric effect from ingesting a food that is spiced with chile."

Pleasure, euphoria, and spiciness, indeed. It's impossible to keep herself from reaching for the button on Sheldon's pants, even though she knows it may be the thing that makes him pull away this time. Regardless of the fact that they have had coitus once before, there is always something that seems to hold him back from engaging in an encore performance.

To her surprise, though, Sheldon not only allows her to unbutton and unzip his pants, he even helps her slide them down his legs and off his body altogether. Down to his underwear, Amy finds herself faced with another surprise. Instead of his normal white briefs, he is sporting a pair of red and green plaid boxer briefs. The fabric looks inviting where it fits snugly around his posterior, and she takes the liberty of running her hand over the curve of his rear end.

Sheldon's throat bobs when he swallows hard, and he raises a nervous looking eyebrow. It's so cute to her that he wants to know what she thinks. Amy smiles and says, "These look amazing on you."

She thinks that they would look even better if they were pulled down below his knees or perhaps crumpled up in a ball on their floor, but she doesn't dare say that part out loud. In fact, rather than risk any kind of bold move that might scare him, she is careful to avoid the area that is more or less sitting up and begging for her attention. Instead she slides a fingertip along the side of his waistband, tracing the letters that mark out a name.

"A souvenir from the Ellen taping?" she asks.

A wide-eyed, unblinking Sheldon nods at her, looking hypnotized by the sweeping movement of her finger along his waist. From what she remembers of last year's dalliance, it took quite a while to get him to the point of being nonverbal, so his current silence seems like a promising sign.

She also recalls him enjoying the sound of her voice that night, so she continues to whisper in his ear as she slides her body up against the side of his. "Remind me to send a thank you email to whatever design team is responsible for supplying Ms. Degeneres' shop."

Sheldon smiles when her chest presses up against his shoulder. Amy smiles too and adds, "It's irrationally jealous of me, but I must admit that I would love these even more if they were marked with a-m-y instead."

He finally turns away from the sight of her moving hand to look her in the eye. When he does, she sees that his smile is fading away. Reaching one hand up, he cups her cheek and leans over to place a gentle kiss on her lips. His voice sounds both serious and sad when he assures her, "You have no reason to be jealous, now or ever."

His sentiment is so sweet that she wants to pull him in closer, but for reasons that she cannot fathom, he begins to pull away from her. She can feel an immediate chill on her skin as cool air rushes in to fill the areas where he was just touching her.

Amy has to close her eyes and count to ten to keep herself from whining. She won't allow herself to push him, but the pounding blood in her veins makes it difficult to allow her higher reasoning centers to rule over her libido.

She can feel when his weight leaves the bed, and then she hears him mumble, "I'm just going to go take a shower."

After he closes the door and starts the water running, Amy rolls over and buries her hot face in her pillow. Taking advantage of the muffling properties at her disposal, she groans and curses her frustrations into the uncaring fabric.

—-

IV.

When Sheldon reenters their bedroom after his shower, he finds that Amy is no longer in the room. An extensive cleaning ritual helped him rinse away the physical evidence of his most recent failure, but the knowledge that he may have disappointed her continues to weigh on him.

They were doing so well, and even though she took coitus off the table all those weeks ago, he feels certain that she was about to reconsider. He can almost feel the condoms in his bedside table drawer mocking him from all the way across the room.

To add further insult, he is now forced to admit to himself that Penny was right about what she said earlier. Penny, of all people! But it's the truth. If he wants to get these stupid feelings of jealousy out of his head, then he can't think of any other way to do so than to face the matter with Amy's help.

Sheldon gets dressed, and he finds that he misses having his girlfriend in the room to ogle his posterior while he does so. As if he isn't feeling like a primitive cave man already, here he is wanting to be appreciated for his body and not just his mind. He shakes his head at himself. The man he was years ago would be ashamed. Then again, the man he was years ago was ignorant of quite a lot of things, and ignorance of any kind seems like a far more shameful thing than admitting to being a human being.

Resolved to his embarrassing fate, Sheldon steps out into the main living area of the apartment in search of Amy. He finds her sitting on the couch reading a book, changed into a nightgown and no doubt waiting for him to join her so they can watch some tv.

Since it doesn't seem like she's aware of his presence, he takes a moment to think about what he should say to begin such a difficult conversation. He steps closer and opens his mouth.

"You dropped your bookmark," he says, bending over to pick it up off the floor. It's not quite the ingenious opening that he was aiming for.

Amy smiles at him as she takes it from his outstretched hand. "Ah yes, thanks."

She doesn't seem upset with him for ending their make-out session in such an abrupt manner, but that's not unusual, because she never does hold it against him. Sheldon looks around the room, hoping to spot something to talk about, anything at all that might help him start a conversation.

"Sheldon, what's wrong?"

"What do you mean?" he replies, continuing to look around in the hopes that a brilliant plan will somehow befall him.

"Whenever your eyes start darting all over the room like that, it always means that there's something you have to tell me that you don't want to. Like that time when I couldn't find my new car air freshener, and you wound up having to confess to dumping it at the cabin when we went to Big Bear Lake."

"It was too piney. It belonged in the forest with its brethren."

Amy tilts her head. "My point remains. There's something you're trying to say, and whatever it is, you can tell me."

She looks cute with her eyebrows all turned up in the middle. Sheldon can't seem to make himself say what he knows he must.

The corners of her mouth turn down. "Are you rethinking our new living arrangement? I thought our experiment was continuing to go well, but—"

"No!" he insists, jarred out of his nervous silence. "No, that's definitely not it." After thinking for a second, he goes on to ask, "Do you miss your old apartment?"

Amy looks indifferent at first, but then a smile starts to grow on her face. "Not exactly, but there are a number of nice memories I have of that place."

Sheldon nods, hoping that she's referring to the moments spent with him and not one of those other guys she dated. Annoyed and frustrated with himself yet again, this time he can't stop himself from starting to blurt out his worries, and once one concern tumbles out, the others follow in a nonstop ramble.

"Amy, why did you date a bunch of guys right after we broke up? I saw you kiss one of them outside your apartment once. Is it because he was better than me? You even had one of those men in your apartment on the night we got back together. What was he doing there? Did you invite him over to have coitus with him? Do you miss those other men now? Do you think you're going to leave me again someday to be with someone else?"

"What the—" Amy opens and closes her mouth a few times before she succeeds at getting out a complete question. "Where is this coming from?"

Sheldon shrugs, not wanting to say anything more. He already feels ridiculous about his outburst, and he's having a hard enough time simply catching his breath. Amy pats the spot next to her on the couch, and he not only takes her up on the offer, but he also grabs ahold of her hand in the process.

"Ok, um, we can talk about all of that if you want. I didn't realize that it was something that you ever gave much thought to."

He squeezes her hand and shrugs again, the closest he can get to admitting it a second time.

"Well, I first chose to start dating after you told me that you had asked out two women at a bar. That's when our breakup became real for me. It was a blow to my ego. I guess I always thought that your lack of interest in me was part of a greater lack of interest in all women. And at that moment I had to admit that maybe it was me that you didn't want, that I wasn't good enough."

He turns to look at her face for the first time since he blabbed. Her cheeks are a pale white as opposed to the pink shade from earlier. "But Amy, that's not true at all! I didn't want to date anyone other than you. I just didn't get to have you as a choice anymore. With Kripke asking you out, the guys told me that I was going to have to move on too."

Amy nods. "Yeah, I didn't really want to date anyone else either. I wasn't over you—I don't even see how I ever could be. So that's a big no to one of your other questions. I can't imagine someone being better than you."

"But you didn't want me. You were the one who rejected me." He intends to sound reasonable but fears his voice may have come out like a pout.

She takes her own turn at squeezing his hand. "I've always wanted you. At that time, I wanted more from our relationship than I thought you were ever going to want to give. You know as well as I do that we both learned a lot when we had to face living a life without each other. For me, that meant learning that a typical relationship with anyone else could never even begin to compare to what I have with you. I'm never going to break up with you again."

It doesn't sound so bad when she says it like that. "And the rest?" he asks.

Amy fixes her eyes towards her knees, and mumbles, "I don't miss anyone that I dated…" He stares at her in her state of obvious avoidance, and she sighs. "I don't owe you this explanation. We weren't together then."

"I know," he admits. "And though my feelings for you are immutable regardless of what you have to say, the curiosity remains."

She meets his eyes again and says, "Ok. I will tell you anyway because I love you, I have no interest in ever hiding anything from you, and I don't want you to carry some lingering worries over nothing."

She takes a deep breath before continuing, "When you rejected my offer to get back together last Thanksgiving, I decided that I had to force myself to let you go. I was devastated and angry and hurt, so I called up Dave. He seemed to like me, and yes, I thought I could push through all of those painful feelings if I could make myself have coitus with someone else. It was a stupid plan."

Tonight's Mexican food begins rebelling in Sheldon's stomach. He swallows down the nausea. It hurts to think of her even considering sleeping with someone else. He can't imagine being intimate in that way with anyone other than her.

Amy jiggles his limp hand. "But Sheldon, before you came over, I did learn another truth about myself. When Dave gave me a tiny kiss, I jumped away. I didn't even think about it; it was automatic, instinctive. Conscious mind, subconscious mind, body, you name it—there was no part of me that wanted to go through with it, and I don't believe for one second that I would have been able to."

That part makes him feel a lot better. If there's one thing he knows for certain, it's that Amy doesn't tend to pull away from physical contact when she's with him. It sounds like that guy didn't really stand a chance after all. As he finishes the thought, she lays her head on his shoulder. In response, he puts his arms around her to pull her in closer, resolving himself to the idea that he shouldn't pull away from her anymore either.

She's pressed against his chest in such a way that he can feel her jaw moving when she speaks again. "Are you ready to tell me what this is all about now?"

He supposes he should explain himself. "My attempts to get over jealousy with regard to Bert's achievement were designed more to get over the emotion in a broader sense. While I managed to overcome my ill will about Bert, my success did not extend to other issues that matter more. It turns out that it can be quite difficult to deal with that which is not rational."

"If you've been having residual jealousy about my dates with other men last year, then yes, that's irrational. I don't want anyone but you. I didn't then, I don't now, and I'm never going to."

Sheldon considers telling her the rest, about how the act of sex between them had turned out to be a more profound, cerebral experience than he had anticipated, about how it's been impossible to reconcile that experience with the idea of either of them doing it with someone else, and about how all of this jealousy nonsense has been affecting his ability to move forward with her. Now that she's reassured him of where he stands, though, it feels like it never should have worried him in the first place, and moving forward has never sounded better.

But he's not going to tell her all of that. Instead he mumbles an understatement while hugging her even tighter, "That's good."

Sheldon feels even lighter and happier than he did all day while trying out his new underwear. His time apart from Amy is more comfortably in the past now, and the ridiculous uncertainty that has been plaguing him no longer occupies a spot in his brain. She is obviously as devoted to him as he is to her.

It's Amy's turn to decide when they should proceed when it comes to coitus, and he is going to do his best to be patient and wait for her to put that particular subject back on the table. In the meantime, he decides to show his love for her with a different sort of gesture.

Picking up the remote control from off the end table, he places it in Amy's hand. She looks at him with raised eyebrows. "What is this? I get to pick the show tonight all by myself? Really?"

"I don't see why not. We compromise about everything."

"Yes, but I never get to actually wield the almighty remote control. Wow. I mean, what if I decide to turn on America's Next Top Model?"

Sheldon grimaces at the thought. Amy continues, "Or I might decide that we should start Keeping up with the Kardashians."

He squints at her. "You wouldn't pick either of those. I know you better than that. And just because you're pushing the buttons doesn't mean that I can't voice an objection."

Amy's straight face cracks into a broad grin. "You're right. I'm just teasing you, Sheldon. You do know me better than anyone."

She flips through a few channels and ends up settling on Antiques Roadshow on PBS, a show that he's fond of too. After snuggling up to him again and wrapping one arm around his belly, she turns her smiling face to his and says, "This being in charge of the remote business is pretty nice."

The smirk on her face grows when she adds, "I guess I should've declared the all-encompassing, forever nature of my love for you sooner."

—

Author ramblings:

So what do you think? Did I sell you on the idea of Sheldon's jealousy going beyond what we saw in 10.09? Are these post-eps worth continuing? Do you want to strangle me for making you read all of those terrible geology puns?