A/N: Sorry for the delay! I've been out of town where it was not conducive to upload anything.

I don't own or make money from TBBT.

Chapter 12

Sheldon had done the unheard of, and slept in on Sunday. He had slept abominably, thanks to Cera or Olivia or whatever she chose to call herself. His dreams were filled with her. Mostly memories, but a few instances his brilliant, creative mind decide to twist into fantastical scenarios. Many images were of benign events. Movies, bowling, putt-putt, comic book stores, watching a guitarist in a pub, the one time she had him help her purchasing scrubs (he persuaded her to choose Thomas the Train.) Some, unfortunately for the man who had suppressed himself since parting with Liv, were quiet…erotic (who knew train scrubs could be as seductive as lingerie?) All, due to his eidetic memory, were quiet vivid with full sound, smell and sensation. None were restful.

He found himself weary and unsettled. He wandered to the bathroom, an hour and twelve minutes behind schedule. There was nearly no way to make up the time, he wasn't sure he even wanted to today. His normal routines and duties seemed like an impossibility, even his normal equations and theories seemed foreign. His mind was not his own. That thought had no more than passed through his mind than he glanced at his phone to see he had missed a call from Amy. He had also missed three text.

Sheldon, were you aware that your acquaintance, Cera Tollman is the scion of a couple in a popular musical group of the 1970's? And yet she will 'hang out' as the vernacular goes, with us? How neat is that?

Sheldon, were you aware, Cera Tollman appeared in, what I believe is, one of your preferred television shows? Star Wars Generation, I believe. She claims to have had a brief appearance in an episode about children in the late 1980's. It is not a television show I would partake of, so I have no knowledge of the validity, but thought you might be interested.

Sheldon, I believe we may have an ISSUE with heritability if we chose to pursue propagating. Cera brought up the likely hood of our offspring receiving our intelligence. Genetically speaking the odds are incredibly LOW. Bernadette backed up her claim. Perhaps we should reevaluate this plan.

While trying decipher exactly to what Amy had been referring, Sheldon felt nearly a crushing anger towards Olivia. How dare she crowd his mind with her nonsense? She had distracted him from even hearing his own phone ring. She was nothing but a…a liar. Nothing he knew of her was true. He didn't even know what her true hair color was! He knew nothing of her family, save her brother Braden, and when he asked about him she had merely shrugged and said they didn't talk. She certainly hadn't mentioned appearing in, if he interpreted Amy's text correctly, Star Trek: The Next Generation. At one time she had played a few notes on Meemaw's piano, when he asked if she could play she shrugged and replied 'a bit'. He didn't know if she told him any falsehoods, but clearly their association had been built on lies of omission. Was anything truthful?

She was, now, also upsetting Amy Farrah Fowler. He could tell by Amy's use of capital letters in her text, as she was not one give to such extremities when texting. Sheldon was unsure how the women could have gotten on to a topic in which Olivia would have discussed genetics with Amy, but clearly Olivia was aware of the transmissions of intelligence from parent to offspring, or lack thereof, that Amy was not. Sheldon felt quiet indignant that someone who already had a child with exemplary intelligence should remove his hope of future progeny. Though, the concept of producing offspring was Amy's to idea to begin with. It was of course, his idea to remove coitus from that equation. The result was quiet messy and had far too many complications, as was becoming evident, once again, by the presence of Olivia.

He wonder if, in her efforts to misrepresent herself, Olivia had also falsified her emotional state regarding him. Armed with knowledge that he had gleamed from observing Missy, Leonard, and Penny's failed romances, the words she had uttered weren't typically spoken lightly, but her actions had betrayed her words. She wouldn't have found a partner so quickly afterwards if her declaration had indeed been genuine. But then again, she did seem to lack the personal strength that he possessed.

She was frequently giving into the need for contact. Having her monthly hugging needs met by Meemaw had been brilliant, but he began to feel a twinge of...envy, and not because someone else was hugging his Meemaw. Over time he had been lulled into a false sense of comfort with her tactile outburst and began reason out causation for more. She had slowly exposed her weaknesses through emotive displays of teary eyes of sadness, shaky hands of panic. He was glad to remove himself from being assaulted by her weakness for physicality. His ability to repress his baser urges after having experienced such euphoric physical indulgences proved his superiority over her, and others.

Ridding himself of Olivia's disruption had seemed logical at the time. After weeks turned into months, when the distraction he thought he had rid himself of did not dissipate, he became desperate to know why. Why had he been so affected by her presence? Why was he just as distracted by her absence? Why had she allowed her typically logical mind to be overrun by her emotions? Why had she made such a preposterous claim that had no basis in logic? There came a point where, out of his desperate need be able to interpret her actions, he had Junior drive him to her apartment. After several rounds of knocks a neighbor had mercy on him and informed him that she had moved. He called her office and was told she was no longer working in the hospital.

So she had met a new man and left her internship. This knowledge just proved to him that he was right in terminating their association. He was not disappointed. Or curious about her whereabouts. Of course being the brilliant man he was, he could have found her. Honestly he couldn't bear the thought of what he may find and felt relieved to have reason to tuck those thoughts and…sentiments away permanently. He just wished he could do so now.

Sheldon reminisced on all their interactions, just as he had last night. It was as if his mind couldn't shut them off. He went over every meeting with Cera. She had never actually acted like he was a stranger. Most of their interactions she had treated him as she normally would. The only exchange they had that was disconcerting to him was the discussion in Penny's apartment about her progeny. He tried to recall the age of said child but didn't remember an age being stated. He even checked his daily log and could only narrow down the age to older than first grade, but not yet in middle school. That would put her age between six and a half and ten. Perhaps her next…partner had impregnated her, though he was surprised she would be that irresponsible with birth control. Goodness knows they planned on and were very conscientious with contraception.

As with any equation that Sheldon could not easily solve, these thoughts seemed to run in a loop and began to consume him. It took Sheldon three days of this mind numbing stream of consciousness before he recalled that, because of the human element involved there was very little logic and there for no correct answer for the variables that Olivia had once again forced upon him.

Wednesday found an irritated Sheldon waiting impatiently by the door for Leonard.

"Morning Sheldon. Feeling better?" Leonard asked, concerned for his roommate.

"Something would have to be amiss for me to feel any improvement. Now, we are nearly in peril of being late. Honestly Leonard, are you not aware of the time? It's amazing you managed to make it to your office the last two days." The positive of being sequestered for the past few days was not having to interact with his roommate and even more so his girlfriend, Priya.

Leonard just shook his head as he walked through the door. Yep, Sheldon was just fine.

"So, uh, Sheldon, how've you been?" Howard asked as Sheldon sat at their usual table, not so much out of concern, but more out of curiosity.

"I came up against an equation that required an alternative approach in order to solve and was having difficulty making headway. I therefore decided to take what is often referred to as mental health days. While I appreciate your concern it is unmerited."

Sheldon was finally able to gather himself last night and felt able to push forward with a clear head, barring another appearance of Olivia. He wasn't one to expose his private life to anyone and certainly not to these guys. They were no longer individuals he considered trustworthy after the damage he received both professionally and personally at their hands in the Artic. He suspected that Raj and Howard's discovery of Amy Farrah Fowler was intended to serve as a distraction against the tension he had carried since that debacle. While Amy could in no way compensate for his damaged reputation and his own uncertainty, she was someone that he could trust that was faultless in the Artic fiasco. Despite her elevated status over the friends he had obtained prior to her, he wouldn't share his previous experiences and thoughts with any of them, her included.

Sheldon was certain they would all exploit his one-time weakness and use it against him either by asking too many probing questions or more than likely, making fun of him. Besides, he no longer wanted to think about Olivia, his past, or his emotional wellbeing, because he had a series of equations to balance and tonight was Halo night.

The lunch table fell into an odd silence after that, as Sheldon still didn't seem to be operating at full capacity. Leonard was still feeling wary of his roommate, after this morning's unmerited verbal assault. Raj was considering the fragrance Bernadette had worn the night before and Howard was observing. Something had clearly shifted in Sheldon and Howard was concerned with how it would affect them all.

For forty-five minutes Cera and Merritt had been in a crowded mall. Merritt had been urging her mom to finish up so she could 'get to the good stuff.'

"OK, Momma. You got a new dress and a new pair of shoes. Can we go to Game Stop now? You said I could get Lego Star Wars III when you were done."

"Hmm, I suppose I could be done now. What was it you wanted again?" Cera grinned at her daughter's excitement. Merritt quickened her pace to a brisk walk down the mall corridor towards the store of her choice.

"Mooommmmaa, you know I want a game." Merritt said hopping around next to her mom. "I can't wait until Just Dance 3 comes out. There's only six more months. Oh, and the month after that the new Lego Harry Potter."

"Merritt Lise, didn't you just get Just Dance 2 for your birthday?" How many of these games were there? Though, Cera did really like the Just Dance game. It really was a fun work out at home when she was short on time. Which was always.

"No, momma, I got it for Christmas." Merritt corrected her.

"That's what I said, you got it in December." Sorting out when to give what presents was the downside of her birthday in December. "Do you really want Lego Star Wars III? You didn't even like the Clone Wars. And I don't think a video game about a movie you didn't like would be much fun."

"You just don't think it's fun because you're not very good at video games." Merritt retorted. After a beat she added, "Do you think it's because of my daddy? Is he good at video games?"

Cera always felt awful when she asked questions like this, but she always gave her the information she wanted. At four Merritt began to ask questions about her daddy. Her cousins had a daddy. It was UB. But UB wasn't her daddy and she wasn't allowed to call him that. Where was her daddy?

Cera explained that at one time her and Merritt's daddy had been very good friends. But they had to stop being friends before Cera knew her daddy had given Merritt to her. And because of that, her daddy didn't know she was alive. Cera had cried and said she should have been a better mommy and done a better job telling daddy about Merritt. Cera also warned Merritt she wasn't sure if they would ever see her daddy.

Merritt didn't mentioned her daddy again for months after that. Then she begin asking if daddy would like random things, her toys or an outfit. Did daddy like school or if he could build neat things like UB? Cera always answered as simply and honestly as she could and then later had a break down alone.

By the time Merritt was seven, Cera began offering information that Merritt didn't even ask for. When they had a layover in the Dallas/Fort Worth airport a year and a half ago Cera mentioned that Merritt's daddy was from Texas. Merritt had asked if it was close, Cera just said south. Cera thought maybe Merritt stored all of these pieces of information on Sheldon in hopes of meeting 'daddy' one day. Surprisingly she'd been silent on the issue since moving to California.

She honestly expected him to dismiss Merritt in much the same way he had her. Distracting, tedious, no place in his life...

Cera was taking all the blame in this. She felt that taking some of Merritt's anger and resentment about keeping her from her father would be better than Merritt feeling unwanted and burdensome. She felt certain Sheldon would be happy to sign Merritt away and not have to deal with either of them. She hoped not, but his behavior towards her the other day indicated he would not be content to have her in his life.

"Uh, yes, he is. But your Uncle Braden is good at them too. And I used to rock at Spyro the Dragon and back before that, I owned Mortal Kombat II." Cera finally answered Merritt about her video game proficiency.

"Yea, but I bet I got it from my daddy, not UB, and definitely not from you." Merritt said with a smirk that looked a lot like an over confident Sheldon Cooper. Cera just laughed at her bouncy daughter "I can't wait to get it home and play."

"Don't you think we should get some lunch first?" Cera asked smiling at Merritt's excitement. "Do you want something in the food court or do you want me to make you a wrap at home? You know food at home would be healthier, but it is the weekend, so you can pick."

"Oh, can we get Chickenow in the food court?"

"That sounds good!"

Though Sheldon lingered in the back of her mind, Cera had finally settled into an ease the following week. She handled normal appointments at work, spent evenings with Merritt (homework, piano lessons and baton twirling class included), and even managed to squeeze in an evening playing with Zack and her family. He was a bit rusty, but would fall into place within the band easily. When Friday finally rolled around she was glad for the upcoming weekend. Only one more appointment for the day and then she could go home, though she would still be on call.

The appointment seemed fairly simple and straight forward. Test a child and counsel the parent about a possible peanut allergy. She gave the customary knock on the door before opening to the patient and was stunned by what was on the other side.

"What are you doing here?"