Amy walked in with both arms bleeding. Sleeves were torn over her forearms, strips of cardigan and blouse flapping about her. Nearly as soon as she opened the office door, she spotted her boyfriend. Sheldon did not turn away from an array of whiteboards cast in front of him. He did, however, do that subtle relaxation she saw in his shoulders when she entered his presence.
"Sheldon, I'm invoking the boo-boo and ouchies clause.", she declared.
"I apologize again for being so late.", Alex interrupted. She appeared completely harried. Even her mop of red hair seemed poofier than normal. "I'm ready to follow your scribblings with the digital camera now, Dr. Cooper."
Sheldon spun to Alex. "Not scribblings. Discoveries."
Sheldon spun to Amy. Amy stared agape at Alex.
"uh...I can come back later.", Amy started.
"Nonsense.", Sheldon told her. "I meet my contractual obligations.
"And I have people for that. Alex, see to Amy."
The women looked at Sheldon. Then they stared at each other. Back to Sheldon.
"Chop chop, Alex. The more Amy bleeds out, the less girl friend I have, technically. More importantly, the less oxygen getting to her brain which holds the thought patterns that worship me.", Sheldon chided.
Alex furrowed her brow. "Dr. Fowler...are you sure a hospital be more able to provide you with another care."
"A building that society concentrates the microbial attackers that cause sickness within the ill is what you're supposing would aid the injured; despite injuries require cleansing of any foreign contaminant. Please, Alex: stop the shucking and jiving and perform the task you're hired to do. Namely, assisting me.", Sheldon countered.
Alex gaped at the right side of Dr. Cooper she could see. Sheldon's right eye winked to Amy.
Amy started nodding. "And Sheldon is enough of a hypochondriac that I can count on him to be well stocked in first aid supplies."
The physicist turned to glare at her. Then a look of fear took him over. He twirled back to the white board marker first. Unfortunately, he still had his athletic ability. Inevitably he spun out of control and toppled all of the boards over. "Daggumit. Lost my train of thought."
Sheldon pulled himself to his feet. "Alex, I'm taking my 2:40." He then walked out the door.
Amy and Alex regarded each other.
Sheldon raced back the room. "I couldn't bring myself to leave with a messy floor." was the only explanation he offered. After a moment of silent straightening of his white boards, he left again.
Alex briefly shook her head. "Alright, Dr. Fowler. We can use Dr. Cooper's desk. I'll get his back up emergency medical kit. After reading your relationship agreement and his personal instruction set, you aren't authorized for his own personal one. Don't worry, Leonard and I aren't cleared for it either."
Amy attempted small talk while carefully pulling the tatters of her sleeves away from the back of her arms. "You said you were late."
Alex raised an eyebrow at her. Then she silently laid out her supplies. After the moment: "You're right. I usually travel from the other side of the...excitement.
"How did you get injured?"
Now was Amy's turn for silence.
Alex continued. "Just to make my job of rendering first aid easier. I should know what I'm dealing with." The physicist's eyes focused on her patient. "As much as I can."
Amy blinked.
"I mean, I'm not in biology. Completely different field."
"Of course.", Amy agreed. "I fell. On my lunch break. The, how did you say, excitement sped by. A block or so away, that is. You wouldn't see me on the news choppers overhead. But it got me to not look where I was stepping and the next thing I know is that my equilibrium is off. I did manage to bring my arms in front of my face and the glasses I wear. But my arms...well, you see."
Alex nodded as she looked over the punctures, not scrapes, on her arms. "I see. That's a perfectly logical explanation."
She reached for the tweezers. "Do you believe there's any foreign material in these wounds that I should chase after?"
Amy licked her lips. "There may be some oddly shaped pebbles."
"I understand.", Alex stated. She used the tweezers to pull out a no longer quite spherical pellets of metal from Amy's arms. At the Dr.'s apathy, she spread out a particular wound a little more than one might suspect was needed, but Amy did not flinch.
Instead, Amy asked. "Why weren't you on campus earlier in the day?"
Alex nodded slightly. "I planned on coming in a bit later as I pulled an all nighter, finishing up Dr. Cooper's turbulence calculations. Dr. Kripke can vouch for me."
"Oh, that's not necessary.", Amy assured. Then hissing when she remembered the normal reaction to someone digging in an open wound for yet another metal bead.
"Are you sure?", Alex countered. "It's nearly as if you don't believe me. Is there some reason for that?"
"Oh no.", Amy quickly replied. Then some fast thinking. "It's just that I've been demanding a lot of Sheldon's time as our relationship heats up."
"Dr. Kripke stated something to that effect.", Alex agreed...some what for lonely. "It does explain your scent across the office.", she nearly whispered.
Amy conversationally explained, giving no thought to how quietly Alex had muttered when she could adequately respond to the challenge. "Well, I had to. You're a new female in his space. The subconscious...perception...
"How did you detect it?", Amy asked with furrowed brows.
Alex shrugged. "Er...well, maybe you didn't clean up after one of your sessions as much as you remember?"
"Sessions...", Amy nodded. "That would make sense.
"I apologize. I'll hope to take these elsewhere?", Amy offered.
Alex nodded. Then she remembered to visibly relax as if a big weight was off her shoulders. "Thank you Dr. Fowler."
She pointed at and tapped a pre-existing bandage on the inside of Amy's arm. "I thought you fell on the outside of your arms."
"I pushed myself from up from the ground and tore a gash. The bandage exhausted my own personal emergency medical supply. And I didn't want to break into Sheldon's."
Alex nodded. "Well, ready for the antisceptic?"
Amy nodded and Alex poured the liquid over her cleared wounds. Amy hissed at the stinging.
"You don't need to fake it for me.", Alex assured.
Amy felt a distinct need to appear in pain with painful stimulus readily apparent. And that feeling led to a very uncomfortable silence. Any observer could see Alex carefully putting a spot bandage over every one of Amy's punctures. Not just anyone could feel the tension as flows of conversation, questions and response sequences, and the resulting banter was thought of and then tossed aside. And as the silence drew on, both women drew more conclusions of the other.
Sheldon walked in on this careful silence. He nodded in more than satisfaction and then turned back to his boards.
Alex's eyes darted to her boss, then her patient. "All done, Dr. Fowler."
Amy winced as she moved her arms. "Thank you for the aid, Ms. Jensen."
"I'm the one that ordered her to provide the aid.", Sheldon objected without turning away.
"Of course.", Amy replied. She got up and instead of directly leaving, she approached Sheldon. The neuroscientist tried to make the contact she engaged in appear casual as she placed a hand on Sheldon's shoulder and kissed his cheek. Fortunately, whatever Sheldon was thinking about after his hackysack session occupied him too much to visibly object.
As Amy walked down the hall, her eyes narrowed. The initial gut instinct about Alex had transformed. Out competing her for Sheldon's affections was one of the farthest things from her mind. The D.N.A. analysis of the long, reddish hair she had rolled into her palm was paramount.
"I still demand a tidy workspace.", Sheldon off handedly reminded Alex.
"Yes, Dr. Cooper.", Alex acknowledged. She carefully pulled remains of her work into the explicitly marked, red biohazard bags included in Sheldon's emergency medical kit. Everything was cleaned well beyond what was needed and hermetically sealed away with only a small, notable exceptions. The shot that Alex had pulled from *ahem* one Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler squeezed into nearly a single piece of metal in the palm of her hand.