The following morning, Amy was actually with Dr Mee, looking over the results from her first experiment with Sheldon.

'Oh, this is interesting,' Dr Mee said then, pointing out something on his graph. 'You see this spike right here? It appears at the same time as this jump in heart rate here.'

'Yes. So we can deduce from that that the subject's subconscious was somehow stimulated at this point?'

'Yes. I need you to go over the footage and see if there are any verbal or physical indications of the subject's thought process at the time of this spike…could you do that please?'

'Sure,' Amy replied, trying to hide her pleasure at watching Sheldon sleep. 'No problem.'

Later that day, Amy sat down to view her data. In the grey, Infra-Red light, she could see Sheldon as mainly a mound of covers, but she could still make out his head, and, just about, his face. She watched somewhat dreamily for a moment, before snapping herself out of it and moving on to the timestamp shown on the graph. Now, he was twisting and turning quite noticeably. She hoped he wasn't prone to the night terrors that she was. Being hooked up to weird machinery could set them off…and then the movement changed to a repeated back and forward motion, and she couldn't see his face, which was presumably buried under covers or into his pillow. She turned up the sound, and amongst the rustling, caught a few words, 'Quantum Mechanics…rare intellect…oh…yeah…'

Well, she thought then, I guess Quantum Mechanics is a possibility, and true to form, he's pretty confident in it! I'll let him know the results on Thursday.

By the time Amy arrived for her bowling practice/next stage of the REM experiment on Thursday, Sheldon had been quite busy. He'd created a file on his tablet detailing the various branches of Physics he'd ever had an interest in, and tables setting out the pros and cons of each one, and how they related to his experience in and understanding of String Theory. Quantum Loop Gravity was out though – no way would he do anything that was approved by Leslie Winkle, or increase the risk of working with her in future. He'd also been reading up on some Cosmology research – it did sound like an interesting field to go into, and working with Stephen Hawking was a real possibility.

'Good evening Amy!' he said happily as he let her in. It had been a hot day, and she wasn't wearing her tights, and no extra layer under her blouse. Her summer skirts seemed to be slightly shorter and lighter too. None of this was lost on Sheldon, who couldn't help but glance up and down at her usually hidden smooth legs (her introduction to waxing had had some benefits), and her rarely exposed neckline. She looked beautiful – she wasn't walking around half naked, like so many women in LA during the summer months, but there was just enough to catch his eye…as if she didn't anyway.

'Hello Sheldon,' she answered with a smile, inwardly aware of the intensity of his gaze, and trying hard to control the rush of emotion that came with it. She wanted to kiss him – really wanted to kiss him – but couldn't. Not yet…soon…two and half months to go. She kept smiling as he turned towards the kitchen, her eyes on the open necked, pale blue shirt, inexplicably bearing his name in the top left hand corner. Where had that shirt come from?

'I've got the Wii Bowling set up,' Sheldon said, busying himself getting her a cup of tea in an attempt to stop staring at the pretty brunette in front of him. 'I think I'll be able to help you with a few things.'

'I'm sure you will,' Amy replied, and sat down. Sheldon brought her tea and sat next to her.

'Can I show you this too?' he asked, opening the file on his tablet. 'These are some of the ideas I've had…Cosmology looks fascinating!'

Amy looked over at his findings. 'It does, and it would be a good match with your previous research interests and experience, but it surprises me too.'

'Oh? Why?'

'I got the results from your first EEG back today. They seemed to indicate a spike in activity here…'she said, showing Sheldon the graph. He reddened suddenly, and Amy gave him a puzzled look, '…and then you mentioned Quantum Mechanics. You sounded pretty confident in it too!' she finished with pride. She loved his intelligence more than she could say.

'Did I? Well…there's no doubt it's a consideration…was there anything else?' Sheldon asked, somewhat embarrassed.

'Have you ever been prone to night terrors? I speak as a sufferer myself, as you know. Around the time of this spike in activity, you appeared to be moving far more, as if agitated.'

'No, not really…but sleeping under such conditions may have disturbed me…' Yes. That sounded plausible.

'True,' Amy conceded. 'What's really interesting is the presence of both Theta waves, here, that are generally associated with a dream state and emotional stimuli, and Gamma waves, that correlate with will, extreme focus and energy. Some even describe them as indicative of an ecstatic state. Can you remember dreaming that night?'

Sheldon didn't answer immediately. To lie would probably be not only obvious, but he would be prejudicing another Scientist's research…what could he say?

'I…did dream about Quantum Mechanics,' he admitted, 'and had to give a dreadful lecture to sub-par students. That's probably what it was.'

'Interesting. The results indicate your brain was highly stimulated at this point – maybe tonight's experiment will shed some light on it.'

'Yes, maybe,' Sheldon said then, suddenly getting up to switch on the console in an attempt to distract Amy from going any deeper in her analysis. He straightened up then, and turned to her. 'Oh, I've got something for you.'

'Really? You don't give gifts,' she replied, puzzled.

'Ah, but this will help,' Sheldon said, racing off to his room and returning with a neatly folded pink shirt bearing her name in the top left hand corner. 'When bowling, it's important to dress the part,' he explained, surprisingly serious.

'Is that what you're wearing? A bowling shirt?'

'Yes. We all had them made some time ago, and I think it improved everyone's game immensely, so…I had one made for you too. I had to extrapolate as regards your size, going on my mother's and sister's, so I hope it fits.' He looked at her intently, hoping she'd accept his gift.

Amy's face broke into a lovely, warm smile that, had he conceded to use the term, gave Sheldon the sensation known as butterflies in his stomach. He'd tried to deny it for so long, but he'd completely, irrevocably fallen in love, and longer ago than he cared to admit, even now. And he'd nearly screwed it up in a stupid panic. If he passed, he'd never leave her again. He couldn't promise he'd always be easy to live with – he knew he wasn't – but he'd never forget her again.

'Cool!' exclaimed Amy brightly. It had to be her geeky boyfriend's love of quality, authentic costumes coming out…anyway, it was sweet. 'Not only am I going bowling, I've got a bowling shirt to do it!'

'I got it done at the same place that did your 'Council of Ladies' shirts,' Sheldon explained, somewhat giddy at how happy she looked. 'Do you like it?'

'I love it! I'm gonna go put it on!' With that, she made for the bathroom, leaving Sheldon far happier than he'd been for quite some time.

He still had her 'Council of Ladies' shirt, actually. He'd got rid of Penny's and Bernadette's when they hadn't been able to provide any useful advice on that occasion, but kept hers. It was folded away neatly in a drawer in his room, along with a folder containing printouts of various emails she'd sent him and papers she'd written, a hair grip that had fallen off on the couch one evening, Ferdinand T Flag, the receipt for her tiara and the Relationship Agreement itself. He told himself at the time that he was only keeping the receipt in case it didn't fit or was faulty, but still couldn't get rid of it or anything else – not even ticket stubs from the cinema or the zoo, or the flyer for the Brian Greene lecture. When he'd started collecting this stuff, he couldn't have explained why he had it; it just felt like he needed to. Now though, he knew, even if he wasn't ready to admit it.

'So what do you think?' Amy asked proudly, emerging from the bathroom and doing a little twirl. She made Sheldon's breath catch as he got a sudden all round flash of her body, dainty little breasts encased in the shirt he'd chosen for her. She looked so good in pink.

For a moment, he couldn't say anything, then managed, 'You…it looks…very nice…my spatial awareness is obviously accurate.'

'Obviously,' she agreed, coming back to sit next to him. 'It's a talent we share. I helped Leonard out with such reasoning before once…'

'Yes, well, we really ought to get going,' Sheldon said then, somewhat abruptly. He didn't want to remember that evening or what he'd thought his friend had got up to. 'Now, come and stand over here, and take this controller.'

She did as she was asked, looking at the simulated bowling alley on the screen. 'OK, so what do I do?'

'Watch me. Look, you bring your arm back like you would in a real game, holding the controller, and then bring it forward to bowl, and when you do, press down here,' he said, indicating the appropriate button.

'OK,' Amy said, and turned to watch. And she made Sheldon so nervous, he missed every single pin.

'Yeah, well, sometimes there are bugs in the game,' he asserted, in a brave attempt to cover up his embarrassment.

'We'll see', she replied. 'OK, so…bring my arm back…and forward…now!' She clicked the button, and released her virtual ball, sending six pins crashing down.

'That's not bad,' Sheldon said, trying to ignore the fact that his nerves had got the better of him. 'But maybe it'd help if you move back a little, and stand off to the side a bit.'

'OK, you go, and I'll try it.'

Sheldon did a bit better this time, knocking down eight. Amy didn't do so well, only managing four.

'No, you're not in the right position,' he said then. 'Look,' he continued, and without really thinking it through placed his hand lightly on the small of her back. 'Round at this angle.'

Amy felt suddenly hot at his touch. Strictly speaking, was this in the rules? Well…it wasn't exactly affection, was it? It was learning to play a game…

'Then bring your arm back.' She looked down and saw him gently guide her arm back at the appropriate angle. 'Like that.' He looked quite hot himself, and darted a quick, shy glance at her before fixing his eyes back on the screen.

'Like this?' she asked, copying the movement she'd been shown, and getting her first strike. 'Hey, how 'bout that!'

'Yeah, just like that!' Sheldon replied proudly. 'See, I wasn't team captain for nothing!'

He took his turn, heart racing far more than it should, and almost not caring when he failed to get a strike himself.

'It could be Beginner's Luck though,' he said then. 'I ought to show you again…'

'Maybe you should,' Amy agreed, the late evening sun just catching her hair and making it shine. Her cheeks were flushed and an intense, slow burning tingle was growing somewhere deep inside her as Sheldon re-positioned her, and drew her arm back and forward again. She released the trigger on the controls, and knocked down another eight pins. Who would have thought bowling could be so exciting?

'OK, you have a go yourself now,' Sheldon said suddenly, after a couple more goes. He didn't stay alongside her, retreating instead to his spot in an attempt to calm – himself – down, but sitting behind Amy bending and stretching in a fairly tight skirt wasn't the right place to do that, and he was reduced to muttering something incoherent about the bathroom and promised to be back in a minute. As he left, Amy sat down, still feeling his touch and running her fingers over her new shirt. This evening was turning out to be one of best evenings of her life, and she'd made this stupid rule that she couldn't even kiss him? No, you can't, the sensible part of her told her. If this – when this – works out you'll be able to kiss him whenever you want! Calm down…not long now.

Sitting in the bathroom, Sheldon stared down at his lap, and the strained, almost painful, tightness that had anchored itself just below his belt buckle and was pressing hard on his zip. He closed his eyes, willing it to go away. It had been happening so much more lately – ever since he came back – and in a couple of hours he was going to have to take Amy into his room again, and keep it together and professional while she sat by his bed. Two and a half months, he told himself. Two and a half months…please Amy…I can't wait longer than that…