Sheldon hated giving lectures. If only universities didn't have to have students. As ever, they'd stared blankly back at him when not buried behind their laptops, no doubt writing nasty Tweets about him and the subject he was trying to implant in their thick heads, and it came as a relief when it ended for all concerned. He stood back, shutting his own computer down and watched them leave, all too gratefully, and was just about to leave himself when he saw a young woman who'd stayed behind. Amy – although, this Amy didn't seem to know him. He looked up again, and suddenly she was standing at the lectern in front of him, dressed in a short sleeved blouse, tie, a little checked skirt and long white socks.

'If you missed anything,' he said dismissively, 'it's all on the University Intranet. Now, if you'll excuse me...'

'Oh, I didn't miss anything, Dr Cooper,' this Amy said, looking up at him. 'In fact, I wondered if you could tell me more. Quantum Mechanics,' she paused, and her blouse seemed to strain slightly as she took a breath, 'is fascinating.'

'Then you are of a rare intellect, sadly lacking in your peers,' Sheldon replied. 'Where should I begin?'

'Tell me…everything…' she murmured, moving around to sit on the shelf usually reserved for notes and laptops. Her skirt rode up slightly as she slowly crossed one bare knee over the other, and she leaned back on her hands, arms behind her back, chest out.

'Very well. Quantum Mechanics is a branch of physics which deals with physical phenomena at nanoscopic scales where the action is on the order of the Planck constant. It departs from classical mechanics primarily at the quantum realm of atomic and subatomic length scales…'

'Really, Dr Cooper?' Amy breathed, excitedly. 'That's…amazing…' Slowly she reached up, and worked the knot on her tie loose, before pulling it over her head and dropping it to the floor.

Sheldon watched it fall to the floor, captivated, '….and in advanced topics of quantum mechanics, some of these behaviours are macroscopic and emerge at only extreme energies or temperatures…'

'Oh, yes, Dr Cooper, don't stop!' she cried, unbuttoning her blouse while keeping her eyes fixed on him.

'In contrast, the angular momentum of an unbound electron is not quantized. In the context of quantum mechanics, the wave–particle duality of energy and matter and the uncertainty principle provide a unified view of the behaviour of photons, electrons, and other atomic-scale objects…' he managed, before she tore the blouse off her shoulders and sat before him in a leopard print bra, and suddenly all else was forgotten as she pulled him onto her lap, pressing herself hard up again the lectern on one side and him on the other, devouring him in an urgent, aggressive kiss…

It was the stickiness that woke him. That and being pressed face first into his mattress. Breathing hard, Sheldon didn't know where he was for a moment. He'd been at work, and then Amy had been there wanting to know about Quantum Mechanics…and…oh. This was going to be tricky. He wouldn't be able to change the sheets with that camera on, or his pyjamas with all those sensors on his head…he'd just have to take the pyjamas off…and surely, the camera wouldn't show what he'd been dreaming of – would it?

'Oh, Amy,' he thought uncomfortably. 'This is all for you…For you, and because of you…' Half naked now, and wriggled over to one side in a way he hadn't done since he was a teenager and couldn't get away with a shower at two in the morning, he attempted to go back to sleep, and prayed that Vixen would leave him in peace.

Chapter 6

Other than coming to collect her equipment and unhook Sheldon the following day, Amy proved quite elusive the following week, and it was driving Sheldon mad. Had she seen anything incriminating from that night? And why couldn't he see her? As it was, the study was taking up an increasing amount of her time, and she'd even been asked to join an inter-faculty bowling team. It wasn't until the gang reconvened on Sunday evening that he had the chance to see her, and was a weird mix of hot, nervous and excited from the moment she sat down alongside him with her Kung Po Chicken.

'So Ames, how's the new experiment going?' Penny asked over her noodles. 'You know, I've got this great book on dream interpretation that might help, or there's this website where you can post your dreams and a genuine Romany gypsy tells you what it means for your future!'

'Thanks Bestie, but self-styled members of the travelling community and popular psychology don't cut much ice in the world of neuroscience.' Amy replied. 'Brain waves on the other hand, never lie!'

'So are you coming to Girls' Night on Friday?' Bernadette asked, taking a sip of her wine.

'I'd like to, but no. I've been asked to participate in UCLA's inter-faculty bowling competition that night, representing the Biology Department against a rag-tag of opponents making up various disciplines in the Liberal Arts.'

'Oh, Amy, no contest!' cried Sheldon then. 'Scientists up against a bunch of patchouli smelling, bead wearing Gender Theorists and Literary Critics…you'll kick those hippies' butts!'

'I know!' she grinned.

'Do you bowl much Amy?' asked Howard then. 'Don't think you've ever been with us?'

'No, actually, it's my first time. My mother never let me go when kids from school were going. She said hanging around bowling alleys was the first step to teenage pregnancy.'

'What, you've never been?' Sheldon couldn't quite believe it. 'Really Amy, we ought to practice!'

'Oh yeah, it's been a while since we got the Wii Bowling out!' added Leonard. 'You could use that.'

'So, can you bowl?' Amy asked Sheldon then. There was a slight groan from Howard and Raj.

'Can I bowl?' Sheldon replied, a cocky look in his eyes. She loved that look. 'Well, as team captain of the East Texas Christian Youth Holy Rollers, I think I'm well placed to give you some tips.'

'Agreed,' she smiled. 'But could we make that another night? It's rather late, and I need to correlate some more data before work tomorrow.'

'Sure. How about tomorrow?'

'Tomorrow I'm going to Raj's Pilates class with him and Emily,' Amy said, nodding over at them.

'Oh. Tuesday?'

'Tuesday is a faculty meeting.' The girls shared glances. They knew exactly what Amy was doing.

'What about Wednesday? We still haven't found a reasonable replacement for the Comic Book Store in a five mile radius?'

'Oh, yeah, I was gonna tell you that…' began Leonard, but one glance from Sheldon was enough to cut him off.

'Wednesday…I start a Korean class at the YMCA Adult Education Centre.' That had been an inspired find. Amy loved languages, to the point of creating her own. Working with Dr Mee on her new project had prompted her to investigate her colleague's language and culture further.

'Korean? Wow.' Penny was speechless. 'Tenth grade Spanish was hard enough.'

'Really?' In spite of wanting desperately to see her, Sheldon was impressed. Less commonly spoken languages were just as interesting to him, and he wondered if she'd like to collaborate on a Finnish-Korean phrase book at some point. 'That's fascinating!'

'Yes, I'm looking forward to it!'

'So…Thursday?' Sheldon knew how he sounded to everyone by now, but really didn't care as long as he pinned her down for one date next week.

She paused for a moment before answering, just catching an approving look in Bernadette's eye. 'Thursday would be fine. We can do your next REM study then too.'