'You know it's Emily's birthday this weekend?' Raj asked at lunch that afternoon. It was Sheldon's first week back, and although he'd heard of little else from Raj that morning, wasn't ignoring him simply because the subject bored him. It did, but there were other things to think about. His new field was very promising, and he'd been given his first project by Dr McNamara to complete in conjunction with Raj, but he wasn't concentrating on that as they sat down either.

'Dude, are you listening?' his friend asked then. 'You and Amy are going to be there, right?'

'We're in the cafeteria?' Sheldon asked, surprised. 'Sorry – zone.' He didn't say it as sharply as Raj would have expected, and he looked at Sheldon and smiled to himself. He knew that look – he'd had it over so many girls in the past, but never expected to see reflected on that face.

'So, how did it go with your roof date?' he asked excitedly. Sheldon had refused to discuss it at the weekend when they'd gathered for a celebration of all things Mario after the girls came back from shopping, but Raj thought he might be more comfortable with it away from the others.

'Oh, it was good,' Sheldon admitted, pushing some food around his plate. 'Better than good…do you think this burger is properly cooked?'

Raj gave it a cursory glance. He knew a delaying tactic when he saw it. 'Looks OK to me,' he shrugged. 'But Emily told me all about it, and it sounded beautiful! I can't believe you didn't get the roses though! And what about the champagne?'

'Raj, in what universe would it be appropriate to have alcohol on top of a six story building?' Sheldon replied, with more characteristic sharpness. 'And roses are too common – apparently most women like roses. Amy Farrah Fowler is not most women.'

'Ohh, right! I get it!' Raj grinned. 'So you got her favourite?'

Sheldon didn't reply for a moment. 'Yeah.' That seemed a more acceptable answer. 'Raj?'

'Yeah?'

This was hard. But his friend did seem to know more about this 'romance' thing, so maybe he'd know…

'Raj…do you think…Amy's OK with me now?'

'Hey, she's still with you,' Raj took a sip of his Diet Coke. 'And you just had the most beautiful evening together – seriously dude, I'd love it! With Emily though,' he added, feeling the need to clarify that last statement.

'But she could still leave me.' There. He'd said it. 'That was what we agreed to when I came back. After four months, one or the other could terminate the relationship.'

'Seriously?' Raj almost choked on his drink. 'You really think…with the way she looks at you?'

'She does?' It was really very hard not to let the blush light his cheeks.

'Yeah. She always has. So have you.' Like the rest of the guys, Raj knew he might tease Sheldon about Amy a bit, but he'd only ever wanted to see them together, even when Leonard and Howard weren't so convinced.

'So…what if she doesn't? Doesn't want to leave me, I mean?'

'What do you mean?'

Sheldon sighed in exasperation. Why couldn't he explain? Probably because it was mortifyingly embarrassing.

'I'm going to her Symposium in Santa Monica, so what happens if it goes wrong, and what happens if…it doesn't?'

Raj considered for a moment. He thought he saw the problem, even if he could only imagine having it back in the days he couldn't have even told a woman what he wanted.

'It won't go wrong,' he stated. He knew he was probably going to get a look of disdain for it, but said it anyway. 'You two love each other.'

He didn't get it. 'So what then?' Sheldon asked, almost too quietly to be heard.

Raj took a deep breath. 'Then I have to give you the advice I give 'The Batchelor' – follow your heart.'

'Really? That's it?' Sheldon wanted answers, and this was the best he was going to get?

'Yes. You just sort of know.' That didn't help. Sheldon pushed his chair back irritably. 'Well, if that's the best you got, forget it!' He snatched up his tray and stalked off angrily as Leonard and Howard came over.

'What's up with him?' Leonard asked, watching his retreating form. 'Project going OK?'

'Yeah,' Raj shrugged in resignation. 'Just other stuff…so, are you coming to Emily's party?'

Emily's 80s Night party was to be held on the Friday before Amy left for the Symposium in Santa Monica the following Monday, and she'd asked her new friends to join her family there. She was looking forward to introducing Raj to everyone, and he spent the rest of the week talking of little else. It was almost as bad as when he hadn't been able to go more than five minutes without mentioning the 'progress' they'd made in their relationship just before Sheldon had left.

Once he was back in his office, Sheldon collapsed on his chair and stared irritably at nothing. He'd asked for advice – did Raj understand how hard that was? And then, when he'd wanted plans, a schedule, tried and tested, all he'd got was some free-spirited flower child nonsense about doing what 'felt' right! Honestly, it was no wonder the world was in the state it was today if that was all the consideration most people gave to…that…and was he really thinking of it as a possibility when they went away? He didn't want to answer that, so knew that probably meant he was. It had taken a very long time for him to calm down sufficiently to sleep after Amy had left that evening, after their date on the roof. No-one should ever know that though, same as no-one should ever know he could still smell her perfume on the jacket after she'd gone, and folding it up and sleeping with it stuffed guilty under a pillow that night was one he was taking to his grave. He could still see her face in the moonlight and her smile as she'd stepped out onto the roof, and hadn't really stopped thinking of her since – he couldn't. If he was honest, he didn't want to either, and now he had the torture of a party to attend with her, trying to keep it together, keep his hormones in check and basically do his best not to make it obvious to his friends that he'd rather take her home and kiss her all night. He'd always managed it before, why was so hard now? Even as he thought it, Sheldon knew that wasn't quite true. He had managed it, in a way, but he'd hurt Amy in doing so, and not felt too good about himself either. Somehow, he'd realised it had to stop, even if the alternative was uncertain, unsettling and unprecedented. It was also what he wanted more than words could say.

'So what do you think?' Emily asked the girls brightly when they convened for Thai that evening. 'Big hair, legwarmers, bangles…it'll be cool!'

Penny nodded enthusiastically. 'I am so gonna be Madonna! How about you guys?' she continued, directing her question to the others.

'Well, my Mom was a big Dolly Parton fan in the 80s,' mused Bernadette, 'so maybe I could go as Dolly?' She smiled as she caught Howard's look of obvious approval. A costume that showed off his feisty, busty wife's best 'assets' – hell yeah!

'You mean, like early Madonna?' Leonard asked, trying to sound casual, and not like he was already entertaining visions of Penny in lace and fishnets.

'Oh yeah!' she confirmed, not believing his casual tone for a minute. 'I'm thinking the 'Like A Virgin' video…reckon I can pull it off?' Leonard caught the flash in her eyes and suddenly felt the need for his inhaler as his visions promised to come true.

'Yeah – no problem!' he managed, not quite believing his luck.

'What about you, Emily?' Bernadette asked, stabbing at her noodles.

'You know, I don't know yet…hey, what about Jessica Rabbit? Or a hot fitness instructor – like in the 'Call on Me' video?' For a moment, Raj felt like he couldn't speak around women again, and just stared at his new girlfriend in a daze. Either would be good – either would be great.

'So, Amy, what about you?' Penny said then, noticing she'd been quiet throughout.

'Well…' Amy paused. She thought back to her dream on the camping trip, and tried not to blush as she replied. 'I…uh…saw a documentary a while back on the cast of 'Dallas'…you know, looking at where they are now…' Please don't ask me…but I'd probably watch one anyway, anything to listen to men with that accent for the best part of an hour…

'…so I thought maybe do something with that?' she finished, looking down at her knees.

'Amy, that's not your usual documentary choice,' interjected Sheldon, surprised at her. 'Why in the world were you watching a review of a mediocre 30 year old soap opera?'

Penny snorted through her wine. 'Hey, c'mon Tex, that's you, right?'

'Please, Penny, you know I've tried to forget my rustic upbringing – I advise you to do the same.'

'It was just something that was on,' continued Amy, noticing Sheldon's eyes were on her again. They'd hardly been off her all evening. 'Just a thought.'

'Well, sounds like you girls got this!' said Howard then. 'What about us? Hey – if I'd kept going to those judo classes I could maybe go as He-Man now!'

Bernadette giggled. 'I think you still should!'

'Yeah, I loved everything He-Man…I even had Castle Greyskull…'

'You had Castle Greyskull?' Sheldon asked, incredulously. 'Do you know how much I wanted that when I was six? But oh no, Missy had to have her My Little Pony Grooming Parlour!' Nearly thirty years on, it still rankled that she'd got her biggest Christmas present that year and he didn't. No wonder he wasn't keen on the holiday to this day.

'Yeah, me too,' added Leonard. 'I can remember seeing the movie posters at Grand Central when my Mother took us into New York one time…for a couple minutes, I thought she might be taking us to see it…and then we went a lecture on degenerative brain diseases.'

Sheldon gave another little cry of envy. 'You were taken to lectures? On the train? Do you know what I was taken to see? Monster trucks. And not on the train!'

'Which every other eight year old boy would've thought was cool!' retorted Leonard. 'I even had to take notes!'

'I see myself as George Michael,' said Raj then, having regained his ability to speak. 'Or maybe with one of those 'Relax' T-shirts and stonewashed jeans!'

'Uh, you may wanna re-think that…' said Howard, giving him a sidelong glance.

'Well, anyway, you guys love costumes!' Penny spoke again. 'It'll be great!'

On the evening of Emily's party, the rest of the gang, minus her and Raj, who was in full scale party planning mode, met at Los Robles to change and travel together. As usual, the girls occupied 4B and the boys 4A, and the sight of their women that met Leonard and Howard when they stepped out took their breath away. Penny was indeed, clad in a trashy, sexy mismatch of a little denim skirt, lacy fingerless gloves, fishnets and a tiny vest top with beads dripping from her neck, and Bernadette had curled her hair up into big waves and squeezed her small frame with its nonetheless capacious bosom into a tight, rhinestone covered dress with stiletto heels giving her slightly more height than her husband for once.

The boys had settled on their costumes too, with Leonard as Ford Prefect from the 1981 adaptation of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy, and Howard as a small, rather less muscled, Terminator. Just before leaving, Leonard picked up the Rubik's Cube tissue box, as he felt it would add to the ambiance, and caught Sheldon stuffing something under the white blazer he was wearing as the incarnation of the Fifth Doctor, as seen from 1981-84, so it was in the rules.

'Sheldon, what have you got under there?' he asked suspiciously.

'It's just a few Doctor Who DVDs!' Sheldon replied, a slight whine to his voice. 'Emily may not know who I am – it'll be like the Doppler Effect all over again! But she will if we watch a couple selected episodes…'

Leonard smiled, and sighed. 'Sheldon, believe me when I say Emily does not want to spend her birthday watching Doctor Who!' He almost laughed at the perplexed expression on Sheldon's face. 'If it was one of our birthdays, sure, but for some reason women aren't like that.'

'Fine!' Sheldon finished, exasperated. 'But I won't be the one explaining it to her!' With that, he left somewhat sulkily to put the DVDs back in his room, and came back just in time to hear his friends positively fawning over their significant others' choices of costume. He rolled his eyes. Really? What they did to get coitus was beyond him. There was no way – he'd sorted it now, he was sure – he'd let himself do anything like that. He would not be affected by Amy's in any way, he thought as he joined Leonard and Howard on the landing. He would not….stare….

His eyes were irresistibly drawn to the Sue Ellen version of Amy as she emerged from 4B after her friends, running down from the previously unimagined waves and flicks of her hair, held in place by vast quantities of hairspray, over a pretty, demure, but fairly tight, blouse with frills and flounces, pulled in at her waist by a thick buckled belt. Sheldon's gaze went lower, over the neat, black skirt that seemed slightly shorter and tighter than her usual wear, which hugged her gorgeous curvy hips and rear, and carried on, all the way down to shoes she'd probably struggle to walk in, but did give unusual definition to her shapely calves. She was beautiful, smart, every inch the power dressed businesswoman…

'Hey, Sheldon!' He wanted to ignore the small engineer, clad in leather and mirrored shades. 'I said, we're ready!'

Sheldon blushed furiously at that, but not without noticing Amy seemed to as well. 'OK!' he snapped back. 'Fine! Amy, I think you ought to take those shoes off going down stairs!'

'I intend to,' she replied, with a smile. This could be an interesting evening…