"For fuck's sake," John sighed when the omelet he just tried to flip split in half. He growled and stabbed at it with his spatula, resigning to at least make it look like he meant to make his eggs scrambled in first place. It was four in the morning and he was the first person up. At least he thought he was. When he turned around, to find a plate to dump his food onto, he bumped right into Sheldon.

"Jesus! Make a little noise next time." John picked up the spatula from where he dropped it and threw it in the sink. "What the hell are you doing up?"

"My sleep schedule is still on California time. That and it's impossible to sleep with the racket you're making." Sheldon quirked an eyebrow at the frying pan full of eggs. "Meemaw and Mother are sure to make breakfast in a few hours."

"I won't be here by the time they get up. I'm meeting George at the docks and we're gonna teach Nathan how to fish. You wanna come with us?"

Sheldon watched John fill a plate with his scrambled omelet and lean against the counter to eat it. The last time that Sheldon had gone fishing, his father spent the whole morning drinking and filling empty beer cans with water so that they'd sink to the bottom of the lake, and George Jr. had tried to force feed him a bait worm. The memory of feeling the little creature undulating against his lips as George held him down to the worn wood of the dock made Sheldon shutter.

"Blech!"

John laughed and shoveled the last morsel of food into his mouth. "Not a big fan of gutting fish?" he asked as he went about washing his plate.

"Of course not. I'm not to partial to the taste of night-crawler either."

John laughed again. "Well what are you gonna do all day?"

"I'm most likely to spend my time with Amy and Meemaw."

"Seriously, you're gonna go make arts and crafts with a bunch of old biddies and miss the opportunity to have some man time?" John threw his head back and let out a howling sort of growl in his best imitation of Tim the Toolman Taylor.

Sheldon, startled by John's sudden vocalization, began to ease towards the hallway. "Yes I certainly am."

"Oh wait, I wanna ask you something," John said just as Sheldon started to disappear past the doorway. "What was all that last night about Amy, and intercourse, and a cat being alive?"

This startled Sheldon in a different way. "Do you really not know?" he asked as he stepped back into the kitchen.

"No."

"Well if it wasn't obvious, Amy and I are now betrothed. If that is all I'm going back to bed."

John watched Sheldon leave with a confused look on his face. "All right, but I still don't know what that has to do with a damn cat," he muttered under his breath.

XXX

Amy awoke to the smell of bacon and coffee, and Sheldon lying beside her, facing away towards the door. Sun light, filtering through the blinds, threw lines of light across the room and birds could be heard, twittering in the tree outside the window. She sighed contentedly and stretched. As her left hand withdrew from the bed clothes, a ray of sun caught on a shiny object. At first Amy was a little confused by it, but as she recalled the night before her lips stretched into a smile.

Casting a glace at the back of Sheldon's head, Amy brought her hand closer so she could finely look at the ring. While she did see it last night, their activities didn't really give her a good chance inspect it. It was rose gold with a singled white diamond. The fact that it was antique was quite obvious in it's appearance, with places on the band dulled with ware and it's simpleness. That didn't keep her from loving it though.

She twisted the ring around her finger several time in order to admire it from all angles. On the third go around Amy paused, glimpsing a brown speck hidden near one of the prongs that held the diamond in its setting. The shade of the speck reminded her of the color of dried blood, but before she could dwell on it too much Sheldon stirred beside her.

"You're finely up," he said

Amy smiled bigger than she had been already and kissed his cheek as he turned over to face her. "How long have you been awake?"

"Three hours, twenty-seven minutes and forty-five seconds."

"You've been lying there that long?"

"Not exactly. I got up to urinate and tell John that he was being too loud in the kitchen. Since then I've been working on a few new equations in my mind palace."

Amy frowned. "This is your vacation, that means that you don't have to work."

"But I wanted to, and I had the time to do so."

Stretching again, Amy slipped out of bed and wandered over to the dresser. "Well next time wake me up," she said as she picked out her clothes for the day. "I'm sure that I could think up a way to entertain you."

"There is absolutely no doubt about that," Sheldon replied as he watched her change.

After taking a moment to clear his mind of thoughts that had been invading his imagination at a disturbing rate ever since Amy's birthday, Sheldon got up so he could get dressed as well. In short order he was fully clothed and waiting by the door for her to finish combing her hair in the mirror hanging above the dresser. Sheldon couldn't help but smile at the thought of watching her get ready for the rest of his life.

XXX

Mary was humming to herself and cracking eggs into a frying pan filled with grease, left over from the bacon she had just cooked. A few feet away, Meemaw sat at the breakfast table, tapping the eraser of a pencil to her lips as she contemplated the crossword puzzle in that mornings newspaper.

"Alice's cat," she muttered to herself. "Not enough letters for Cheshire."

"Dinah."

"What was that dear?"

Missy lifted her head up from where she had been resting it on her arms on the opposite side of the table and blinked at Meemaw blearily. "Her cat's name is Dinah. When her sister finishes reading to her she plays with a brown and white kitten that she calls Dinah, then she falls asleep and goes to Wonderland."

"Yes, thank you pumpkin," Meemaw replied as she moved to pencil in the answer.

Mary started to hum the tune to Someone's in the Kitchen with Dinah and Meemaw tries to not feel embarrassed that she didn't know the answer. She hadn't seen the movie in nearly twenty five years, how was she supposed to remember the most forgettable part of it? Her daughter's humming is cut short just as she finishes filling in the last box.

"Mornin' kids. Shelly, do you and Amy want y'all's yolks runny of hard?"

Sheldon grimaced as he sat down next to his sister. "Why in the world would I want mine runny?" He nudged a mug of coffee further towards Missy's portion of the table so that it would stop interfering with his own place setting. "Give me hard, I'd rather not catch salmonella."

"I'll take mine runny if you don't mind." Amy smiled at the look of disgust that Sheldon shot at her.

When Mary brought over everyone's plates she couldn't help but notice the ring on Amy's finger. She mouthed 'thank you Jesus' up at the ceiling and poked at Missy's shoulder so that she'd lift her head up and make room for her food.

"So, I take it that we're gonna be planning a wedding," Mary said as she sat down.

Sheldon paused mid bite and looked around the table. Missy was rubbing sleep out of her eyes, Amy and Meemaw were grinning like loons, and Mary was looking at him expectantly. He gulped.

"Yes, I suppose that Amy and I will be making preparations in the near future."

Mary smiled at her confirmed suspicions. "Where do y'all think you're gonna get married at? I know about this lovely little church near the house that would be just precious."

Amy frowned at the shocked look on Sheldon's face. His mother was going to overwhelm him, she just knew it. "I think it's a little soon to be thinking about that," she replied for him. "We only got engaged last night and I have yet to tell my family. Speaking of them, I also think that we first need to assess whether it would be more cost effective to have my side fly down here or to have you guys fly up there. Not to mention all our friends and colleagues."

Sheldon nodded at his plate, grateful that Amy had saved him from the tongue lashing that he would have gotten had he outright refused a country church service like he had wanted to. Mary looked a little disappointed, but didn't argue against Amy, having found no real way to dismiss her logic.

"Well, how about a picture of you two to commemorate the engagement?" Meemaw exclaimed, happy to break the tension. She leaned over to gab the rest of the discarded newspaper off the kitchen counter and flipped to a page near the center. The page she found had a full color picture of a field of bluebonnets, the article header reading 'Bonnet Season Still In Full Swing'.

Mary took the article in one hand and let the other cover her heart, a sappy smile bloomed on her face. "Now that is what I call precious."

Sheldon gulped.