I swear I'm trying to get better about posting on a regular basis. Sometimes life happens and it just gets so dang hard to find time to do my chapter edits! Honestly, though... My sincerest apologies for the delays between posts.

Also - when I uploaded this post, the chapter name was too long, so I had to take off the "The" in order to make it fit in the drop-down menu. Just in case you were curious about that. And boy is that going to mess with my OCD. hahaha

Anyway - enjoy! And don't forget to let me know what you think!

The Compatibility Equilibrium
Chapter Four: The Involuntary Metamorphosis Complication

Days had passed without so much as a text message, email, or Skype request from Sheldon. Of course, Amy hadn't attempted to initiate any contact with him, either.

She wasn't sure what the proper protocol was after an argument like theirs. Should she hold firm to what she'd said? After all, she had demanded that Sheldon be the one to reach out to her when he was ready to accept the fact that she no longer wanted to be in a contractual relationship with him. If she went crawling back to him first, it would make her look weak. Wouldn't it?

It would certainly give him the upper hand. And she was tired of him always having the upper hand.

Still, it was difficult for her not to keep in touch with him. Despite how frustrating he could be, she missed his child-like smile. She missed the way her boyfriend's eyes lit up when he talked about trains, comic books, or a really good cup of tea. She missed texting him to pass along the latest jokes she'd come across – and she'd heard a couple of good ones this week, too.

But, most of all, she simply missed being with him. It had only been five days since their argument. It was Friday night, and next Thursday would be date night. Surely they would still be going on their date? Or would they? They no longer had a Relationship Agreement. Did that mean they no longer had a routine date night?

As much as she hated to admit it, a Relationship Agreement really did make things easier on occasion.

No! Amy reprimanded herself. No more agreements! Stand your ground, Fowler!

She shook the thought from her head and instead tried to focus on her coworker's seemingly endless blabbering.

"Oh, Amy! It's been so great!" Hannah relaxed against a nearby wall with a sigh.

The redhead was regaling Amy with the tales of she and Raj's numerous dates. The two had apparently hit if off quite well after seeing Penny's performance in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Amy was doing her best to listen as she wiped her lab table down, having just finished work for the day.

"That's wonderful, Hannah," she said with forced enthusiasm.

"And on our tenth date, he took me dancing in the park…"

"Hold on… tenth date?" Amy's eyes widened in puzzlement and she did a quick calculation in her head. "But... you've only known each other a week!"

"What can I say? Sometimes one dose of Hannah a day just isn't enough," she wiggled her eyebrows at Amy from behind her Magenta-rimmed glasses.

"Well, you definitely add some spice to my life," Amy conceded with a smile, "… that's for sure."

The sound of a quiet tapping on Amy's door got their attention. "Knock, knock. Hope I'm not interrupting?"

Hannah spun around to get a better look at their visitor. "Oh! Hey, Ben. How are you?"

The chemist glanced her direction and offered her a solitary nod. "Fine, thanks," his lips pursed into a tight-lipped, sideways smirk.

Amy wasn't quite sure why Ben had never really warmed to her former lab partner, but didn't dwell on it too much. She just supposed, as with so many of Ben's other quirks, that he was like Sheldon in that regard; There was only room for a certain number of people in his life. Amy was pleased that Ben had managed to squeeze her into his extremely limited social circle, although she honestly couldn't comprehend what it was that made her companionship worth the effort. And, now that she thought about it, she never really understood what Sheldon had seen in her either. They had simply been... drawn... to one another.

"Ben and I are going to eat dinner," Amy explained, as she removed her lab coat and draped it onto the hook near the door.

"Oh, I see," Hannah gave Amy a sly half-grin and pushed herself away from the wall. "Well, don't let me keep you two from your date."

Ben looked horrified. "It's not a date."

"My apologies," Hannah smiled playfully, and winked at her friend as she stepped into the hallway. "See you tomorrow, Amy."

"See ya," Amy replied with a half-hearted grin and an equally enthusiastic wave.

Hannah closed the door behind her and the sound of her heels clicking down the hallway faded into the distance.

"She's… annoying," Ben said with a grimace.

Amy snorted as she tried to stifle a burst of laughter. "I guess to some people."

"To me."

She nodded. "Yeah. You."

"So... are you ready for dinner?"

"Sure. Just let me put this paperwork up." Amy grabbed a stack of manila folders and carried them to a filing cabinet in the corner of her office.

"Sheldon's okay with us going to dinner, right?" Ben asked, fiddling with a nearby set of beakers to ensure they were all facing the same direction.

The question caught Amy off-guard. She hadn't even thought to tell Sheldon about her meal plans with Ben. Since they hadn't spoken after her abrupt departure from his apartment earlier in the week, any of her daily schedule updates that she typically provided to her boyfriend had fallen to the wayside. The notion to inform him of dinner with Ben had not even crossed her mind. Besides, she and Ben were just friends, so it wasn't a big deal. It would be like going out to eat with Penny. If Penny were taller. And smarter. And a guy.

Oh no... should I have told him?

"Um… I didn't really talk to Sheldon about it," Amy confessed. "But, he won't care."

Ben raised an eyebrow. "You sure about that?"

"Sheldon is oblivious when it comes to that kind of stuff," Amy placed the last of the folders into the drawer of her filing cabinet and pushed it closed. "He wouldn't feel threatened by you or anything."

"Again… are you sure about that?"

"Of course."

"I only ask because – as much as I don't want to admit it – Sheldon and I are similar," Ben had moved to straightening a rack of test tubes on Amy's lab table. "We may not see eye-to-eye on much of anything, but we're both pretty territorial. With our work, our belongings, our personal space, ... our... women. At least it seemed that way when we went on that double-date together."

Amy saw his point. If she was honest with herself, she had to admit that Sheldon might be jealous if he knew about her dinner with Ben. And Ben was right - Sheldon had become rather concerned when he learned that she and Ben had seen each other outside of a work setting. However, that misunderstanding was quickly explained away and Sheldon seemed to understand.

Besides, the fact remained that her boyfriend had not attempted to contact her, and she certainly wasn't going to make the first move. It was entirely out of her hands.

"Well, we had an argument on Monday, and I haven't heard from him since," she explained.

"Oh, really?"

Amy nodded and heaved a big sigh as she leaned against the filing cabinet. "Ben… can I ask you a question?"

"Sure," he shrugged. "You help me all the time. I'd like to return the favor. I'd hate for our friendship to be one-sided."

"Thanks," Amy smiled. "It's just… Sheldon wants me to sign something… and I don't want to do it."

"Like… a pre-nup? You aren't getting married or anything crazy like that are you?"

She laughed. "No. Nothing like that."

Ben released a sigh of relief. Amy knew that Ben often compared his relationship to hers. If she and Sheldon were getting married, that would mean he'd have to step things up with Claire.

Amy hesitated before continuing, though. Should she tell Ben about the Relationship Agreement? It wasn't like it was private. All of their other friends already knew about it. She'd even told Claire about it. Surely, she could trust Ben? They shared a special connection, after all.

She moseyed to Ben's side at the lab table and decided to go for it.

"Um..." she nervously tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "When Sheldon asked me to be his girlfriend, we both signed a Relationship Agreement." She paused to gauge his reaction; but he just stood there - expression unreadable - waiting patiently for her to continue. So she did. "It was a notarized document explaining all the rights, restrictions and the requirements for various activities that we would participate in together."

Ben simply nodded, as though a Relationship Agreement was completely normal, which made Amy feel much better.

"Recently… we terminated it."

"You broke up?"

Amy shook her head. "No. We just got rid of the Agreement. We decided to 'fly by the seat of our pants', as they say."

"I see."

"Now, Sheldon wants to bring back a portion of it."

"Which part?"

"I don't know. I refused to do it."

"Oh..." The uncertainty in his voice caused the color to drain from Amy's face.

"What? Should I have signed it?"

"Well… I don't know. It's hard to say without knowing what it was about."

"That's just the thing," Amy insisted with fervor. "I don't want to know. I want everything we do to be spontaneous!"

"Well, that's certainly problematic," he said matter-of-factly.

"What do you mean?"

"Your boyfriend isn't a spontaneous man. At least, that's what I've gathered from what you've told me about him. And from what I've seen."

Amy sighed. She knew that. Of course she did. But he had been spontaneous enough to get rid of the Agreement in the first place. And it wasn't like she was expecting him to make grand impromptu gestures all of the time. She simply wanted any future activities between them – from the romantic to the mundane – not to be planned out beforehand.

"Listen," Ben continued. "If I were in Sheldon's shoes, and in many ways I am, I wouldn't be so willing to change everything in my life so suddenly."

"But - I don't want him to change!" It was true. She wasn't asking that Sheldon change one single thing about himself or his personality. She fell in love with the man and all of his quirks. In fact, he had surprised her – and even scared her a little – with his suggestion to terminate their Relationship Agreement; but it ended up being a happy surprise. She didn't want to go back to the way it was before.

Ben gave her an incredulous look and stepped toward her. "So you're telling me that if your boyfriend was standing before you, right now, at this very moment… and was willing to change everything about himself… was willing to take you in his arms, and make love to you here on your lab table… you wouldn't want that at all?"

Amy was taken aback by the forwardness of his question, but, nevertheless, her gaze fell to her table as she tried to imagine it. She tried to picture Sheldon walking through her door with a look of desire in his eyes. Desire for her.

She couldn't. It was impossible for to her even envision it.

After a few quiet moments, she gave Ben a sideways glance. "No. I wouldn't want that."

Even she had to admit that her words didn't sound too convincing. But she wanted it to be the truth. She loved Sheldon. She loved everything about him. She knew this for a fact. One hundred percent. And it would be out of character for him to literally sweep her off her feet and throw her onto her lab table… so of course she wouldn't want that. Right?

Ben frowned, and stepped back. "I don't believe you."

"Well, it's the truth!" Amy said quickly with an overly defensive tone.

"What would you have him do, then?" Ben scoffed. "Never change? Which is it? You either love him for who he is, or you want him to change."

Amy detected a hint of frustration in Ben's voice. He seemed to be taking this much more personally than she had intended.

She thought back over her friend's question. He was right. She had dreamed many times that one day Sheldon would be hit with the sudden urge to take their relationship to the next level. To the ultimate level. She could lie to Ben all she wanted, but she couldn't lie to herself. It didn't change the fact that she loved Sheldon exactly how he was – whether or not her dream ever came true.

"Well…" Amy hesitated. "I wouldn't want him to change everything."

"It sounds like that's exactly what you are expecting of him, Amy. You are asking him to change everything about your relationship." The irritation was growing in Ben's voice.

"That's not true!" She couldn't help but raise her own voice now. "I haven't asked him to do anything. He made all these changes on his own, and then he wants everything to just go back to how it was before. I don't want that. He's an adult. He made a decision, and now he needs to stick with it. Why do I have to always be the one who gives in our relationship? He could at least try not having an Agreement for a little while! If he wants to keep me as a girlfriend, then he should at least be willing to do something for me, right? Right?"

Amy felt a sting in her eyes, as she attempted to hold back a tear or two. They weren't tears of anger… or even of sadness. They were tears that escape when one finally lets go of pent up frustration or bottled up emotions of any kind. She hadn't intended to admit so much - but once she started arguing her case, the words just poured from her mouth.

Ben didn't say anything. Instead, he closed his eyes tightly and took a deep breath before opening them again.

Amy was suddenly overcome by incredible guilt. Ben and Sheldon were very similar. She had just ranted on about Sheldon, without taking into consideration that much of what she was saying probably hit home for Ben too.

"Are you okay?" She asked, her words laced with sympathy.

"Of course I am," he snapped. "Why wouldn't I be?"

Amy didn't answer, but the tension hung in the air between the two of them.

"Maybe… maybe dinner isn't such a good idea after all," she suggested, her voice calm and collected once again. "Like you said… I haven't spoken to Sheldon about it."

Ben nodded. "Yeah. Maybe another day."

"Mhm," Amy mumbled. "Another day."

They stared at each other for an awkward moment before Ben made a move for the door, counting his steps under his breath along the way. His hand rested on the handle before he turned back around. "Amy?"

"Yes?"

"Do you and Claire...? Do you... compare your lives to each other's?"

"What do you mean?"

"Sheldon and I … well… it's glaringly evident that we have comparable… issues. Do you and Claire discuss your relationships when you are together?"

Amy wasn't sure what was going through her friend's mind, but she felt it wouldn't do any good to lie about she and Claire's chats. Of course they compared their relationships. It seemed too obvious not to do so.

"Yes," she finally said. "Yes, we do."

Ben nodded, as if he already knew the answer. "Goodbye, Amy."

"Bye, Ben."

A/N: Oy, this chapter was heavy. But never fear! Some lighter-elements lie ahead!

Thanks for all the reviews so far! They always make my day a little brighter. Just a reminder: Constructive criticism is also happily welcomed!

Thanks in advance! :o)

Also... I JUST realized that in this story Raj is paired with a redhead, and in the show (currently) he is also with a redhead. I suppose he just has a personality which attracts redheaded women. Whatever that means. HAHAHA ;o)