Author's Note: Thank you all again for the reviews. I really enjoyed hearing your guesses for Sheldon's motivators (although no one quite guessed the truth). Believe me your reviews are much appreciated and I have been working very hard to get this next chapter out. Enjoy!

Sheldon

"Sheldon, I need to talk to you."

Sheldon looked up from his computer to find Leonard awkwardly playing with his hands and looking uncomfortable.

"Alright." He turned around in his desk chair to face him.

"Um…maybe it would be best if you came and sat in your spot."

Odd, thought Sheldon. He shrugged. "Ok."

He walked over to his spot and sat down, Leonard taking a seat in the chair next to him. Sheldon waited for him to start talking, but Leonard was looking down and playing with his hands again.

"I assume you had more to say to me than the conversation we have already had."

Leonard cleared his throat. "Yes."

Sheldon waited, his patience thinning with each passing moment. Didn't Leonard realize that he had been working on a paper he was trying to get published? "Leonard. I don't mean to seem impatient, but I have other things I could be doing. Whatever it is, please feel free to spit it out at your earliest convenience. Unless of course your earliest convenience isn't right after I stop talking, in which case, please start talking after I stop talking."

Leonard again cleared his throat and looked up. "Penny and I are moving in together."

Sheldon frowned. "This is most unfortunate Leonard. You know Penny is my friend, but I don't think she will work as a roommate. Unless of course you believe that you will be able to pick up the slack that she will inevitably leave behind and therefore be able to continue to adhere to the Roommate Agreement. It will be up to you to see that the apartment vacuuming is increased to three times per week." He sighed. "And now I will have to start working on the new bathroom schedule and we will have to clean out the refrigerator so that all the communal items will fit on the door. Would you prefer the top, middle or bottom shelf? I would prefer the top one, as I am the tallest and detest having to bend over so…"

"Sheldon!" Leonard closed his eyes and put his thumb and index finger on the bridge of his nose. When he opened his eyes, he took a breath and said, "Penny is not moving in here."

Sheldon was confused. "But you said that you were moving in together."

"We are…but not here. I'm moving over to Penny's apartment with her."

Sheldon blinked. Leonard was moving out? But Sheldon didn't want Leonard to move out. He liked living with Leonard. And things would change. He hated change. Leonard can't move out. He looked at Leonard. "You can't move out."

Leonard raised his eyebrows. "Yes I can Sheldon."

Sheldon shook his head. "If you move out, who will be my roommate?

"You'll find someone else to be your roommate."

"But I don't want to find someone else to be my roommate. You're my roommate."

Leonard gave Sheldon a look Sheldon didn't understand. "Sheldon, I understand that I am your roommate and that we are friends, but my moving out won't change our friendship."

Sheldon scoffed. "How can you say that? Of course it'll change our friendship. I'll never see you."

"Never see me? I'll be right across the hall Sheldon. I can even still take you to work."

"But how can I know you'll do it? The only guarantee I have now is because of the obligation stated in the Roommate Agreement."

Leonard sighed. "Sheldon, I don't just take you to work because of the Roommate Agreement." He gave Sheldon that look again. He wondered what emotion it was. He was having the darnedest time placing it. "I take you to work because we're friends Sheldon. And as I said before, my moving won't change that."

Sheldon didn't know how to respond.

"Penny and I have been talking about it for a few weeks now, but neither of us wanted to tell you until we knew for sure that it was happening. But it's happening. I'm moving in with Penny. We agreed that since I've paid rent through the end of the month, I'll move out at the end of the month. That'll give you a couple of weeks to locate another roommate…or decide to live alone."

Sheldon got up and walked into his room without responding. What was he going to do? Finding another roommate would take longer than a couple of weeks. And he wasn't comfortable with the thought of finding another roommate. It had been nearly a decade since Leonard had moved in and Sheldon had spent an inordinate amount of time making him a passable roommate. Was all of that training now for naught? Aside from Amy, Leonard was the one person that Sheldon was most comfortable around.

Sheldon spent the remainder of the afternoon puzzling out what he would do. The more he thought about it, the less he liked the idea of having to find another roommate. He gave some thought to asking Koothrappali to move in. After all, when they had been temporarily roommates, it had been almost enjoyable. But as Raj was from another country there was always the risk that he would be deported, once again leaving Sheldon without a roommate. No, in the long run, it was probably best not to ask Raj to move in.

But who to ask? He didn't relish the idea of gaining a roommate who was a stranger. He already had more friends than he was comfortable with, and didn't like the idea of adding yet another member to his social group.

The longer he sat there, the angrier he became. It was very selfish of Leonard and Penny to decide to move in together without consulting him first. He decided to call Amy to verbalize his complaint to a sympathetic ear, but as he was reaching for the phone, he had another thought.

What if Amy became his roommate? She was his girlfriend and she was the only other person, besides Leonard, with whom he was comfortable spending prolonged periods of time with. And he already had a Relationship Agreement with her. He supposed it would be fairly simple to alter it to include provisions for living together.

He perked up. Yes. Why didn't he think of this before? Amy was the perfect person to replace Leonard. She already knew his dinner rotation. She knew how he liked his tea. She knew what his bathroom schedule was. Yes, it was so obvious that he couldn't believe it had taken him this long to puzzle it out.

But then a new thought occurred to him. Amy was a girl. And his girlfriend. He couldn't live with his girlfriend. He would never hear the end of it from his mother.

Oh, what a flaw in an otherwise perfect plan. He supposed he could just choose to defy his mother's wishes. It certainly wouldn't be the first time. And honestly, it was only her confounded religious beliefs that she would cause her to reject his living with his girlfriend.

But now that the realization had occurred to him, he found it made him uncomfortable…Drat. Now what?

Then he had another idea. It was such a simple obvious answer that he couldn't believe it didn't occur to him immediately. He would simply ask Amy to marry him. As a rule, he didn't care for the institution of marriage, but in this instance it seemed to be the only answer for him. And besides, it didn't mean things had to change. It would be a mere formality really. They already had the Relationship Agreement to dictate their actions. He was certain he could simply change the name to Marriage Agreement and leave little else unchanged.

He looked at the clock then, and realized that it was almost time for him to meet Amy for their anniversary dinner date. He had better get dressed. Yes, this was going to work out after all.

As they were eating their dessert, Sheldon decided it was probably time to bring up his proposal.

"Amy. I have a proposition I wish to pose to you."

Amy cocked her head to the side, curious. "Go on."

He set down his fork, and folded his hands on the table. "I would like to request your hand in marriage."

She blinked at him. He waited for her to respond, but she was still holding her fork half way to her mouth and staring at him. He wasn't quite sure what to do. Why didn't she answer him? What was she thinking? Did he not ask the question correctly? He wasn't exactly sure of the protocol, and as he had come to his decision so recently he hadn't had the time to ask Penny what to do. From what little research he had conducted, mainly from watching all those romantic comedies that Penny watched at their apartment (at least Leonard moving in with Penny meant Sheldon wouldn't have to deal with those horrendous excuses for movies anymore), he had expected his proposition to be met with happiness. Instead she merely looked shocked.

"Amy?"

She set down her fork and a slight frown came to her face. "Sheldon, where did this come from?"

"Well…Leonard informed me this afternoon that he would be moving in with Penny in a couple of weeks. Frankly I thought it was rather selfish of them to decide this without giving me more time or the chance to input my opinion in the matter, but alas, according to Leonard the matter is decided. When I was pondering what to do for a replacement roommate I came to the conclusion that you would be the best alternative. However, given that we are in a relationship, I grew worried at my mother's inevitable reaction. And to be perfectly honest, I'm not entirely comfortable with the idea of living with my girlfriend. That kind of progressive behavior may work for the likes of Penny and Leonard, but, I've decided, not for me. So of course the only reasonable conclusion would be for us to get married. That way no one need ever accuse us of having an unsavory relationship. Not that we would of course. The marriage would be a matter of convenience for both parties. I would have a roommate that I enjoy spending time with and you would get the privilege of living with me. Of course our Relationship Agreement would still stand, excepting a few provisions added to allow for basic roommate necessities, such as bathroom schedules. But otherwise we would be keeping the status quo, as, and I think you'll agree, it seems to be working fairly nicely for us both."

He waited again for Amy to respond in agreement. Instead she was still frowning…in what appeared to be confusion.

After what seemed to be an inordinate amount of time Amy finally looked at him and responded. "I'm going to need some time to think about this Sheldon."

"Of course. Take all the time you need…but please have an answer for me by tomorrow afternoon. If we're going to be getting married, I'll need time to go to the courthouse to procure the necessary legal documents. And we'll need to set a date at which we would both be available to go to the courthouse to actually be married."

"…Ok…"

They finished the rest of their dessert in silence before Sheldon paid and they left to go home. Sheldon was a little puzzled. Why wasn't Amy as excited by the prospect of living together as he was? It made no sense…

A/N: As a show of how much I value you the readers I am already almost 1/2 way finished with the next chapter. I will try to upload it before bed tonight...but don't think this means you can wait to review! I want to hear every thought you had! :)