As he had tried to tell the guys during Raj's Harry Potter Marathon, Leonard had recently found them a new Comic Book Store. It was the same one that Bernadette had got Howard's replacement comic from a while back, but now under the ownership of none other than Stuart's assistant, Dale. He was doing rather well too, which surprised the guys when they went that week, but all were glad that one important element of their lives was back to normal, especially Sheldon.

Things did seem to be getting better for him, actually. He'd thought some more about Stephen Hawking's offer, and decided to take him up on it, and was due back to start work in the Astrophysics Department with Raj next month, concentrating on Cosmology. It was probably best that they had their own offices now though, considering the desk issue, and of course, there was Amy's lecture.

While their men were spending a happy evening catching up on all the reading they'd missed, Amy had asked Penny, Bernadette and Emily round for a Girl's Night. They accepted gladly, although with some slight trepidation on Penny and Bernadette's part. Having known Amy for longer, they knew that her Girl's Nights could be prompted by some random inspiration or concept of female bonding that was somewhat unexpected – Penny had vetoed the painting of some ancient fertility symbols on each other a while back, stating that her body was not going to be popping out any little Hofstadters any time soon. Fortunately for her, the activity Amy had chosen this time was rather more conventional – baking cookies.

'I know the wedding's being catered,' Amy began, as the girls sat down with a glass of wine, 'but I looked up these recipes and thought we could bake you some wedding favours, at least for the top table?'

'Oh, that's so sweet!' exclaimed Penny. 'This is like being a little girl again – did you bake cookies with your Mom too?'

'Actually no,' Amy replied. 'I understand it's what many girls do with their mothers, but if I wanted cookies, my mother just sent me to the store to go get some.'

There was the slightly uncomfortable silence then that had met her remarks rather more in the past. Penny felt a little guilty for bringing it up.

'Well,' Bernadette began brightly, trying to cheer things up, 'with all us kids, it was a lot cheaper to bake, so I'd love to!'

'Yeah, me too,' agreed Emily. 'Raj will love them…even if he'll say it ruins his figure!'

'OK, great!' Amy passed round the recipes, and later that evening the girls were full on cookies and Pinot, chatting about family holidays.

'We couldn't really afford to go many places,' Bernadette explained, 'so we went camping quite a lot. Sometimes the nuns at school took us out too.'

'Oh that's cool, we'd go out with my Dad,' Penny replied. 'Cooking the fish we'd caught that day over the fire, on a summer's evening…I'd love to take Leonard sometime, but he'd never go for it.'

'And I went with Eagle Scouts, before they realised I was a girl,' finished Amy, much to Emily's surprise.

'They didn't know you were a girl?'

'No, I was nine years old and had short hair at the time, and was rather further from developing secondary sexual characteristics than I would have wanted later, but it was good while it lasted.'

'OK…so, you've all been camping? You know, I never did!' Emily replied, taking a sip of her wine.

'You didn't?' Penny asked.

'No – from what you said though, it sounds kind of fun.'

'It's great!' said Amy enthusiastically. 'Hey, we should go sometime – what're you doing this weekend?' she continued, looking round the group.

'I think I'm free,' Bernadette said, with a smile. 'Let's leave the boys to go play that weekend!'

'One question,' said Penny. 'Can we take wine and a beer cooler? My Dad never went without a beer cooler!'

The other girls readily agreed, and Amy flashed up her tablet to look for possible locations. By the end of the evening, they'd settled on Big Bear Lake, a couple of hours' drive from Pasadena. She was so excited – if someone had told her at fifteen that not only would she have three girlfriends one day, but would be going away for the weekend with them, she'd never have believed it! She'd tell Sheldon all about it later, and smiled as she received his goodnight text letting her know he'd picked up the latest Flash, Batman and Wolverine.

'Looks like you have plenty of reading to do!' she replied, and before he texted her, that was just what he thought he'd do. Having heard from her though, somehow made him forget anything else…

The following day, Sheldon had met Amy at her lab for lunch. He was surprised, even shocked, to hear her plans.

'Really Amy? Camping out in the middle of nowhere?'

'It's hardly nowhere, Sheldon,' she replied calmly, typing up her latest REM study observations.

'And what about the name? The clue's in the name – Big Bear? Are you sure you should be staying there?' He was probably most surprised at how worried for her he was. It shouldn't matter to him, should it? He wasn't risking life and limb among bears, snakes, sunburn and possibly inadequate bathroom facilities.

Amy smiled. His concern was so cute! 'I'll send you the link to the campsite. Don't worry, there are no actual bears.' She didn't think so, anyway.

'I bet you haven't even got an adequate First Aid and Survival kit,' he continued, fixing her with a look that despite herself, made her blush suddenly. Are you telling me off, Dr Cooper?

'I have one at home,' she countered, with a smile that reminded him of thoughts that had plagued him ever since – it happened in the shower. 'I do try to keep it well maintained.'

'Not good enough,' Sheldon replied, trying to stay brisk and business-like. 'You and I need to go to Walgreen's tonight, little lady.'

'OK,' she agreed with a smile. Maybe her results could wait for now.

Sheldon nodded. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't somewhat relieved by her admission that she couldn't use those results, considering how disturbing his dreams had been, but still felt that any such study could only have been enhanced for having his brain in it, and said as much.

'Agreed,' Amy replied. 'I had hoped to find answers soon, but maybe it will become clear when we review the data.'

In an effort to take his mind off the potential results of her study, and her in general, Sheldon spent the rest of the afternoon downloading various First Aid tutorials from YouTube to take over to Amy's that evening. It didn't work. The combination of Amy and First Aid only made him think of her as Nurse Chapel, and had she not arrived when she did, he would have given in to temptation again…twice in one week! What was happening? He wasn't an animal! Fortunately, he always enjoyed pharmacy visits, and they spent a happy half hour going around the store together, collecting all the items Sheldon believed she needed to survive 48 hours outside the boundaries of greater Los Angeles. Her car was rather full by the time they finished.

'What's that?' Amy asked, as Sheldon loaded up the first video on his tablet soon after they'd settled down with some green tea.

'First Aid demonstrations,' he explained. 'You weren't going to leave the emergency procedures up to Penny, were you?'

Amy smiled. 'You know I was an Eagle Scout,' she replied.

'An Eagle Scout?' Sheldon looked at her in surprise. 'You're a girl.' And didn't he know it.

'Yes, but at the time I could easily pass for a boy, and I took one look round the room when my mother dropped me off for Girl Scouts, saw various girls that bullied me at school, and kind of slipped down the hall to where the boys were meeting instead. It was a few months before they found out,' she continued, catching his eye.

'What happened?'

'Well, one time, I'd had rather too much of my mother's chilli before the meeting. I could usually avoid using the bathroom, but this time it wasn't an option.' She paused. 'You were a boy. I take it you're familiar with the 'Peeing up against the wall' competition?'

Sheldon shuddered. 'Ugh. Yes. My brother tended to win.'

'Well, that's what I walked in on…and they asked if I wanted to join in…You should have seen the look on their faces!' Amy finished, amused at the memory. 'Of course I couldn't stay after that!'

Sheldon shook his head slightly in amazed exasperation. His Amy – such an enigma. Well, that didn't mean she got away with disappearing off to the wilds without a refresher course. They watched all the videos he had, and Amy was just about to put on a fascinating documentary about Antarctica when he stopped her.

'No,' he said, taking the DVD. 'If you insist on this folly of spending time in the wilderness, theory won't be enough. You need practice.' She looked at him, surprised, as he pulled some antiseptic lotion and a rolled bandage out of his bag. Offering them to her, Sheldon said, 'I've got a foot long gash up my arm, Dr Fowler. What're you gonna do about it?'

She eyed the medical supplies and his arm in slight shock. He'd rolled his sleeve up and clearly expected her to follow the appropriate procedure for treating him. This was so…unexpected. Unprecedented, almost, that he was asking her to touch him. It hadn't escaped her notice that his Southern accent had shown more just then, and she felt herself react, suspecting such a lapse to be betraying some flash of emotion he was trying to hide.

'Umm…OK,' she agreed, reaching for the bandage, and, fingers shaking a little, started to untie it.

'No,' he said again. It was important she get this right, he told himself. That's why he'd asked her to practice. Absolutely. That he was getting goosebumps anticipating her touch wasn't the point. Neither was the heat that raced up his neck, or the impulse to shuffle slightly closer to her.

'You need to disinfect it first. I don't wanna die of blood poisoning and then get eaten by a bear.'

'Uh…right.' Copying what he'd done over a year ago now when she was sick, Amy squeezed some lotion on to her fingers, and gently smoothed it into his arm. The clean, efficient smell should have calmed Sheldon somewhat, but it didn't. He was remembering when she was sick too, and wondered if it had felt this good for her when he'd rubbed her chest.

'OK, now I need to bandage you up, right?' she asked, looking back at him with darkened, intensely focused eyes that shone behind her glasses. This was hot. She could never have imagined 'no physical affection' could be so hot, and felt herself start to ache deep down inside as she wound the stretchy bandage over his skin. She secured it with a safety pin, and smoothed the fabric down to get out any kinks.

'How's that, Dr Cooper?' Her question came low, huskier than intended. Sheldon had been watching her hands, captivated by their softness and skill. It was so hard to sit still and not react – not in a panic, as he would if most other people touched him, but trying not to touch her. More specifically, trying not to pull her onto his lap, or push her up against the head of the couch and pin her down.

'That appears more than satisfactory,' he managed, not meeting her eyes. He should go – now. If he stayed, he'd break every rule they'd set. Worst of all, she seemed to know it, and seemed to be fighting to keep herself from letting him.

'OK, well, thank you for helping with all this stuff,' Amy replied, suddenly aware of the situation. 'I really ought to get you home…' She picked up her keys, and turned to Sheldon.

'Yeah, well…it's getting late…and I said I'd watch 'Firefly' with Leonard,' he answered, hoping she wouldn't check the TV listings later, and kept his eyes on her curvy rear all the way out to the car.