Ok, I will own to it I got wacked out poo brain after last weeks Prom Episode and have not been able to finish this chapter. It was all "how will this even compare" as I sighed and watched the big moment 100 times in a row. I started writing this before I knew about the ILY and that was going to be a big plot point, him telling Mary but Amy now knowing. I have reworked some things so I think it will all come out just fine, their just be more coitus than I was planning. Does anyone object?
Sheldon is sitting on the dock again, staring into the water. The water looks different, not the murky greenish brown it should be. The water is crystal clear and deep turquoise like a postcard. He hears the screech of a bird overhead and looks up, the sky is as crystal clear as the water. Sheldon feels a wet splash on his lap and sees the calculus book, so long ago cast in the lake, resting there. Only the book does not look like a book that has been waterlogged at the bottom of a lake for twenty years. It looks brand new, yet it is wet. The water is repelling off its cover in beads like a freshly waxed car.
Sheldon looks around and sees a mermaid far way enough ,to make out its shape without any details. Somehow he knows that the mermaid is responsible for the books recovery. Sheldon calls out a thank you to the figure. The shadowy figure swims towards him, gliding gracefully on the water. The mermaid reaches him and splashes onto the dock, and he is shocked to see that it is Amy. Beautiful and gleaming in the sunlight, her long dark hair barely covering her naked breasts. Amy's mermaid tail is magnificent, opalescent , and glinting blue and purple sparkles in the bright sunlight.
"Amy, why didn't you tell me you were a mermaid." He asks her.
"Sheldon, this is my true form, I was a person for you for far too long. It is time I joined my people now."
"What will I do without you?" Sheldon asks her.
"Maybe the answer is in the book, I found it just for you." Amy says leaning over him places both her hands on the book on his lap.
Then she kisses him, and it starts out like a normal kiss then it grows. Sheldon brushes her hair off her breasts and cups them both in his hands. They feel full, soft and warm, Sheldon gently squeezes her breasts feels her nipples harden against his hands. Amy moans against his mouth as his hands explore her body. Sheldon kisses her deeper, his tongue exploring the depths of her mouth. Amy slides the book off his lap placing it beside him. Sheldon tries to hide his excitement but she already has it in her hands. Sheldon starts to take off his pants, he wants her, he needs her right now.
"How are we going to do this? " he asks between kisses "Now that you have a mermaid tail, can you change back?" Amy stops kissing him and looks at him frightened.
"I am sorry, Sheldon we can't do this! I have to go I don't belong here anymore." Then she dives into the water which turns immeasurably murky and deep.
"Don't go! Don't leave me!" Sheldon calls laying down on the dock searching for any sign of her. The last he sees of her is a flick of tail in the distant horizon.
"Sheldon."
"Don't go Amy! We can make it work! I will rent you out a tank at SeaWorld!"
"Sheldon, wake up, you are dreaming."
Sheldon's eyes snap open and he is back in his childhood bedroom, he is fully clothed laying on the top of the sheets. Amy is sitting beside him on the edge of the bed.
"How long have I been asleep?" he asks her groggily.
"About three hours, it is time to get ready now though. Big family dinner tonight. How's your head?" Amy asks smirking at him.
"Not great." he admits and she hands him two aspirin and a glass of juice.
"You know, you talk in your sleep?" Amy tells him coloring slightly.
"Leonard has told me as much. Have I been saying anything interesting?" Sheldon asks taking the pills and draining the juice glass.
"Last night you were crying, saying you were a real boy. Then this afternoon you called out my name and begged me not to go. Then you told me you would rent me out a tank at SeaWorld. To which I don't know whether I should be complimented or offended."
"Complemented, I dreamt you were a mermaid . You said that you had to join your people. Oh! and you found the calculus book my dad tossed in the lake." Sheldon tells her omitting the kiss.
"Do you get nightmares often?" Amy asks him.
"This wasn't a nightmare, it started out rather pleasant at first, the it turned unpleasant at the end. What were you saying about a family gathering tonight." Sheldon says wanting to change the subject. Thinking about his dream, seeing Amy in that particularly revealing dress is distracting him.
"Apparently we are going to one of your uncles houses where all your extended family will be gathered for a pig pulling? I don't quite know what that is." Amy tells him.
"Pig picking, is the term you are looking for, my uncle has a converted oil drum that he uses as a portable smoker. He cooks a whole pig makes barbeque and other various types of meat and the family unites in mutual gluttony." Sheldon tells her rolling his eyes.
"I thought barbeque was just hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill?"
"Oh, hold on little lady, in East Texas people take their barbeque very seriously. My Memaw would be fit to be tied if she heard you call anything other than chopped up pork barbeque. Although you are right the term as different meanings in other regions of the United States."
"I will try and remember that, anything else I should know before we go?" Amy asks him.
"No, because we are not going." Sheldon tells her getting up from the bed and heading to his desk where his laptop is set up. He opens it up and begins working on it.
"Why not?" Amy asks disappointed, she was looking forward to meeting the rest of his family without the sadness of a funeral event. Amy had thought Sheldon would want to show her off to his family maybe he was embarrassed by her she thought ruefully. Mary had warned her that he would be reluctant to go, and she also told her how to get him to go.
"I have no desire for you to see exactly how rustic my roots are." Sheldon says absently as he scrolls through his email.
"Come on Sheldon, it will be fun, and if you remember correctly I already met a great deal of them yesterday." Amy says walking over to him and perching on the edge of his desk.
"Yes, but my uncle did not bring his fiddle to the wake and force everyone to square dance." Sheldon says not looking up from the screen.
"Your uncle has a fiddle?" Amy asks side tracked.
"Yes, he is one of the premier dance callers in all of East Texas." he sighs
"I didn't even know people still went square dancing. I thought it was just one of those southern stereotypes perpetuated in movies and on TV. Amy says intrigued.
"If I could describe my family in one phrase, that phrase would be southern stereotype." he tells her typing something out.
"Your mother will be upset if you do not go. She has been making beans literally all day and she made your favorite… peach cobbler." Amy tells him wheedling.
"I will just have some cobbler before she leaves with it." Sheldon tells her shrugging his shoulders.
"Your mother says, if you do not go, you do not get any, and this is a direct quote, 'If he ain't going to go, then I ain't making it again.'" Amy tells him imitating Mary's southern drawl, he looks over at her with his eyebrows raised surprised,Amy knows that she has him.
"Fine, we'll go! To answer your question from earlier ,do not ask why the chili does not have beans."
"Why?"
"Because as the saying here in Texas goes ,anyone who knows beans about chili knows chili ain't got no beans." he tells her getting up and heading to the door.
"Understandable, anything else?" Amy says sliding off the desk and following him .
"Keep an open mind." he says simply and not elaborating.
"Always." Amy says smiling at him and he returns the smile if a little sadly and he walks over to her and places his hand lightly on her waist. The thrill of the contact sends chills up her spine, it is insane how the smallest touch from him sets her off.
"We'll see." he says and he kisses her softly and fleetingly on the lips before walking out the door.
The sky is a brilliant pink streaked over with deep purple clouds, it was lovely. The air was still warm but without the sun beating down it wasn't stifling anymore. Amy does not know what Sheldon was so worried about his family seems very nice albeit a little coarse.
The food was very good, Amy had never had barbeque quite like that before. His uncles smoker was quite fascinating, it was huge and had started its life as an oil drum. Then his uncle had sawed it in half, added hinges to open and close it, racks for new levels of meat, and a smoke stack on top. The whole contraption was soldered onto a trailer hitch so it could be hooked to a truck and brought anywhere. The side of the smoker was painted with a pig wearing a bathing suit and sunglasses with the words "pigs 'n' paradise" painted above it. His uncle bragged that he had one four blue ribbons in various barbeque cook offs all over Texas.
Sheldon was off with one of his younger cousins who wanted him too look at a science project he was working on. Amy smiled as she remembered how Sheldon had tried to pass the job onto had relented when the boy had said Sheldon was the smartest man in the universe. One sure fire way to Sheldon's heart, she thought, stroke his ego.
Now she was listening to Missy talk to one of the girl cousins whose name was Tanya. It was like watching a ping pong match, seeing these two exchange back handed compliments to one another.
"Missy, it must be nice living with your mama again, ya'll was always so close." Tanya tells her keeping her wide blue eyes innocent but not disguising the malice in her voice.
"Oh yes, you know with my husband, working on the oil rig, and us saving up to buy a house. It just makes sense to save all that money he makes while he is away. It must be so nice to live all alone though in that cute little apartment." The sweetness in her voice reaching a dangerous level.
"Honey, yes! I love working in the salon, making my own money. I know you must love staying at home all day with that baby. Then you got another one on the way! With your husband gone! I just don't think I could do it." Tanya says taking a long sip of her beer.
"No, I never did see you as the mothering type, you were always so wild." Missy makes no attempt to sugarcoat this barb and Amy tries to intervene before a brawl breaks out.
"I think being a stay at home mom would be harder than working a normal job. At least at mine I can go to lunch when one of the monkey's throws a tantrum " Amy laughs nervously
"I'm sorry, who are you?" Tanya asks looking at her with her batting her heavily made up lashes.
"This is Amy, Sheldon's girlfriend, she came with him from California." Missy tells her
"I think I misheard you… Sheldon's what?" Tanya asks again looking at Amy like she is an alien. Amy extends her hand out to her and Tanya takes it, her nails are fake with rhinestones imbedded in each nail.
"Amy Farrah Fowler, and yes you heard right I am Sheldon's girlfriend." Tanya releases her hand like she has just been shocked. Tanya asks making a face like she smells something bad. Sheldon walks back up and sits beside her on the picnic bench.
"Jonathan's project his actually very good, we may have another scientist in the family. I mean it is not ground breaking but still not a bad start." Sheldon tells her not acknowledging Tanya's presence.
"Sheldon! No one told me that you finally gone through puberty!" Tanya says to him.
"Hi, Tanya, yes, how are you, I hear you are a barber now." Sheldon says not taking her bait.
" I am not a barber, I am a hair stylist. " Tanya says rolling her eyes.
"I fail to see the distinction, both are menial jobs trimming the dead cells off the human head. We can quibble about what to call it, but the job description remains the same." Sheldon tells her. looking at her seriously. Tanya just rolls her eyes ,gets up and walks away.
"Thank you, Shelly, you have just done what I have been trying to do for the past half hour." Missy tells him.
"I always thought you liked Tanya, when we were young you told me that you wished she had been your twin and not me." Sheldon tells her and Missy touches his arm.
"I could not be prouder that you are my twin " she tells him and he looks at her to see if she is joking. Just then his uncles voice booms over the crowd.
"Alright folks! In honor of the best lady the world has ever known we are going to have ourselves a little hoe down. We all remember how much mama loved to square dance, so let's have this dance in her honor." The family all hoots and hollers and start coupling up and heading to where the stereo is set up. His uncle takes out a fiddle from a case and starts tuning it up.
"Sheldon, come dance with me!" Missy pleads.
"No, my hoe down days are done." Sheldon tells her.
"Please, Sheldon I am sure Memaw is watching from heaven and it would just melt heart to see us dance one last time." Missy begs.
"I do not believe in heaven, and even if I did, do not think her fondest wish would be to see us do'sa'do." Sheldon tells her stubbornly.
"Come on Sheldon, I would love to see you dance, I do not think I have ever seen anyone square dance before. If I am going to see it I might as well watch one if the best do it." Amy tells him and he looks like he is considering it.
"Oh all right, but you owe me." he tells Missy and they get up to join everyone else. Missy mouths thank you at Amy, and Amy mouths back no problem and gets up to get a closer look at the dancers.
Amy watches can't help but giggle a little at Sheldon. She is sure that he is executing the dance moves being called flawlessly. It is the expression on his face that is making her laugh. While everyone else is smiling and laughing he has taken on the air of complete solemnity. With his tall lanky stature he reminds her of Ichabod Crane dancing in the old cartoon. If you took away the country music you could almost imagine them to be dancing the quadrille, like out of a Jane Austen novel. Amy finds herself wishing she could join in, as if on cue his sister dance over to her and links her arm. Forcing her out on the dance floor and links her arm with Sheldon's.
"I've got to go check on the baby. You two dance for awhile, it'll be fun." Missy says.
"I don't know how to square dance." Amy protests.
"Nonsense, you just do what's being called out, and if you do not know Shelly will show you." she says before disappearing for not the crowd.
"We don't have to dance if you don't want to " she tells him trying to follow the dance as they talk.
"You don't want to?" he asks.
"No, I want to very much, I just don't want you to feel like you have too." she tells him. Sheldon does not respond but they continue to dance, most of the moves are simple and easy to follow. There are are a few that trip her up but he bends own and explains what the call means into her ear.
"Twirl around, smile, and look pretty." he whispers into her ear has he places his hands on her hip and twirls her around. Amy looks at him and sees he is smiling indulgently at her. Sheldon thinks she looks more than pretty at that moment, she is breath taking. That dress she is wearing is almost as revealing as the one she wore for prom. Amy's décolletage is shown at such an advantage it makes him think of his dream from earlier. Sheldon's desire wells up within him ,overwhelming his other senses. All he can think about his how much he wants to kiss her and feel her body underneath his hands. All he wants to do now is get her alone. Then Sheldon remembers something that has been in his possession for awhile. Since prom night actually, tonight might be the night he finally uses it.
"What? Am I doing this wrong?" she asks looking into his eyes which have turned dark, he looks like he wants to eat her up. Amy does not know if the look means he is angry, or something else.
"No, you are doing remarkably well considering you have never been forced to do this before. I was just thinking there is something that I want to show you. It is the only reason that I used to like to come to my uncles house."
"Color me intrigued, let's go." Amy tells him and he takes her hand and leads her away from the dancers and into a little copse of woods behind the house.
Mary watches from the sidelines clapping along with everyone else. Mary is having fun watching all the dancers but her eyes are glued to only two. Mary had watched him dance with Missy earlier and it reminded her if when they were little. Missy forcing him to do something, and him just sitting there stony faced, doing it without joy.
Mary watched his face change as Amy joined in on the dance. The way her boy looked at that girl just melted her heart, she had never seen him look like that before. Sheldon's eyes lit up when he saw her, he looks at her like she is the most beautiful creature in the world. Mary never thought she would see him like this, even though he told her that he loved Amy it did not seem real until now. Mary sees him bend down and whisper something in her ear, his hand gripping her waist. Mary is struck with the significance of the action he let's her in like he has never let anyone before. Then she sees him take her hand and lead her away into the woods behind the house. Mary's smile fades. She thinks she knows exactly where he is taking her and she is not sure she wants to know why.