It was only a few steps down to Copper's apartment, but Sheldon's footsteps were heavy with thought as he walked downstairs. Shaking them away with a motion from his head, he lifted his hand as he reached her door. The faint strains of the violin could be heard, playing a song that he wasn't familiar with, but it sounded similar to the music that she so often played in the car.

*knock, knock, knock*

"Copper!"

*knock, knock, knock*

"Copper!"

*knock, knock, knock*

"Copper!"

There was no answer, and his vulcan hearing detected not even a pause in the tempo of the melody that floated through the air. Frustration welled up in his chest and he knocked again, raising his voice.

"Copper! I can hear you playing in there, so please come to the door!"

Still, no response and he leaned his forehead against the door, a physical manifestation of the barrier that had risen between them. And all because he had been unable to see. Letting out a sigh, he turned his back to the door and leaned against it, crossing his arms loosely.

"You know that I am not leaving this spot until you open the door and speak to me, Copper," he called over his shoulder, then added, "I mean it!"

The music continued uninterrupted from the other side of the door and Sheldon began to let his eyes wander over the landing.

"Copper," he tried again, "I know that I said things...the last time we spoke, that...caused you emotional pain. I...wanted to apologize for that. It was unfair of me to accuse you and...I believe that you are very resourceful and intelligent. You've demonstrated those capabilities so frequently that they can't be anything but fact."

He knew that he was wandering outside the realm of the scientific with that declaration, but, for once, he was following his gut, to use the more common colloquialism.

"I-I've been doing some considerable thinking, which I realize isn't all that unusual but," he paused, sucking in a breath and lifting a hand to rub the back of his neck, "most of that thinking...has been about you, Copper."

He half-turned his head back towards the door, but the music still played, softly and steadily. In it's way, it was soothing, bolstering his confidence in his words a bit, and lowering his frustration as he allowed the melody to wash over him. He closed his eyes a moment, allowing his imagination to picture her standing just beyond the door, her head bowed as curls flowed over her shoulder and her slender arms moving gracefully, fluidly.

Blue eyes snapped open and he shifted his weight, turning his head, lips parting as he struggled to find the right words, the correct expression of concepts, ideas...truths, he admitted silently, that he was only just beginning to accept. Turning his head the other way, he bent his neck, his hands shoving into his pockets.

"Copper, please, can't you just...please open the door?"

No answer and he blew out another breath, letting his head thunk back against the door.

"Copper, I...I do not share your talent for language or any form of communication for that matter, but...I came down here to do more than apologize. I came down-"

He trailed off, hesitant as nervous butterflies fluttered around the lead ball of apprehension that had sunk low in his belly. Sheldon slid down the door, his hands coming out of his pockets to link around his knees as he drew them to his chest. Another breath, the awkwardness of this one-sided conversation painfully obvious, even to the oblivious physicist.

"I came down here," he continued slowly, his head still resting against the wood as his eyes focused on the ceiling, "to convey to you a message of vast importance."

He swallowed hard, then licked his lips, his mouth suddenly dry.

"I...I care about you, Copper...deeply, and...I know that I have been reticent in expressing that adequately. Oh, hell," he muttered, swearing under his breath as his words seemed to evaporate in the empty air in the face of her unresponsiveness from the other side.

"I came to a realization this week, you know. Well, you don't actually know, since you've been avoiding me, but I..want to be with you, Copper," he said, his throat constricting, "I want you. In every way possible, in any way possible. I could spout the typical drivel about hearts being joined, but the heart is just a muscle, as you know and it can't actually join with another one, unless it's a genetic anomaly, of course. But...all the same, I have felt an emptiness in that part of my anatomy, since you've been gone, despite the knowledge that it there is no physical explanation for it and that has only been a week and I can only deduce that the reason is because-"

Footsteps on the lower stairwell stopped him and he turned his head sharply before he felt all the air seem to just leave his lungs. Russet curls flowed around a face that he had memorized upon first sight, to count dearer than the answer to the universe's deepest mysteries. And seeing those luminous grey eyes, like liquid mercury as they looked at him steadily, he was struck with the knowledge that he would never, despite his brilliance, be able to tell her just how much her presence in his life had changed it.

"Because?" she prompted softly, her bare feet touching the landing as he scrambled to find his own.

He moved in front of her with a single stride, lifting his hand to cup her face, thumb lightly brushing over her cheek before he dropped it with a blush. The fear that had always kept him from physical contact seemed pointless as he looked down at her, illogical. She fit in his world and to have her absent from was just as unreasonable. Physics was a science of exploration, of possibilities, and the discovery of truth. It was a powerful force, magnetic in its attraction and stimulating to him in ways that would be unimaginable to others and somehow...she had become equal to that.

When everything had clicked into place, he had realized she was the largest piece, making a life he had thought complete become whole. He had begun to understand that he balanced between tangible and untouchable, ideas and facts, just as she did. They were equal, not perfect, just...what he needed. He needed a balance to his concrete existence, one that would keep him on even footing, teach him in ways that he, in all probability, would not have stumbled across alone.

Even with the statistical, analytical and experience-derived evidence that theirs was a relationship that was likely going to fail at some point in the future, he found himself unwilling to allow it to be a factor in his decision. No, he was never going to be able to sufficiently convey to her what she had come to mean.

"Because," he said finally, his voice low and his accent lacing his words, "I have found that, no matter the reason to the contrary...I do not want to live my life without you in it."

Her lips quirked.

"That sounds very unlike you, Dr. Cooper."

He looked up then back down at her as her fingers wrapped around themselves.

"I hypothesized that an experiment in verbal communication would perhaps render you at the very least willing to accept both an apology and a very illogical premise that we might once again attempt to establish a relationship outside the parameters of friendship, Dr. McIntyre."

Copper let out a quiet laugh, ceasing the fidgeting of her hands by hooking her thumbs into the waistband of her yoga pants.

"That is more characteristic of you, as I have come to know you, at least," she replied, her head tilted as she looked up.

Shoving his hands back in his pockets, he let his gaze fall, shuffling his weight from one foot to the other.

"Then perhaps you will understand that I would like to hear what you have to say regarding the subject."

She let out a breath, her lips curving into a smile before she walked past him and Sheldon felt the leaden weight that lifted when he had seen her fall sharply to the pit of his stomach. He turned to follow her movement with his eyes. Then Copper turned, her hand on the knob, her lips parting.

"After a time, you may find that having is not so pleasing a thing, after all, as wanting. It is not logical, but it is often true."

He stared at her for a long moment, his expression one of slight bewilderment.

"I recognize the line as Mr. Spock's from the "Time Amok" episode, but I am afraid that your interpretive meaning escapes me."

Copper sighed and shook her head before twisting the knob and letting the door swing open. Taking two steps she reached up, curled her fingers into his shirt and pulled him down until her lips touched his.

What felt like electric sparks skated through his bloodstream, igniting a low burning heat as his lips melded against hers, the contact eliciting biological and emotional responses that he was no longer able to deny. Her mouth glided against his, warm, pliant as he kissed her back, his hands coming out of his pockets to grip her hips, pulling her closer to him.

The need to breathe separated them and Copper gazed up at him with a determined set to her features.

"It means, Sheldon, that for you to want me, for reasons beyond physicality, intellectual curiosity, and the like...just for me, as I am, is enough because our wants are in tandem."

He blinked, taking a moment to fully absorb the implications of what she had just said. Then he looked down at her with a genuine smile.

"Which is why you utilized a reference that I would both understand and appreciate."

She raised a brow, her expression playful.

"Stating the obvious, Dr. Cooper? What has gotten into you that you would behave in such an unusual manner today?"

With a low sound he swooped down and captured her lips again, his hands roaming up and down the curves of her body as he backed her into the apartment. Her arms wrapped around his neck and he groaned when he felt her tongue softly touch against the contours of his lips, before sipping at the bottom one. He reached back with his foot and kicked the door shut.

"Aren't you going to lock it?" she murmured against his mouth before he kissed her again.

"No," he answered simply, his next words muttered between moments when her lips danced away, "Current project far too intriguing."

Using her feet in a way that was mildly distracting, Copper turned them and locked the door herself, craning her arm behind her before it moved to his shoulder. Then his tongue was gliding against her bottom lip, mimicking her earlier movement and she parted them in a small gasp before it delved in, sweeping across the honeyed cavern of her mouth. He retreated, unconsciously inviting her tongue to follow. Tentatively, she did, as his swirled gently around hers, a velvet caress that was intoxicating. A quiet moan escaped from her throat as she dipped into his mouth, tasting of flavors that he couldn't quite place.

He couldn't say that he had the presence of mind to really care.

Heat speared through her body as Sheldon ravished her mouth, a passion erupting from him that she had only speculated simmered below his logical shell. He groaned against her lips as she plundered his mouth as he had hers, her back arching just a little as his fingers trailed electricity across the soft flesh of her neck, his thumb resting on the fluttering pulse of her throat. He pulled away, desperately needing air before nuzzling the sensitive skin just beneath her ear, making her eyes float shut.

"Do you know that there are no adjectives, no descriptions, that are adequate enough to express how you taste? How exquisitely like peaches you smell? How you feel?" His voice rumbled against the softness of her neck, the vibration of his lips there sending a heated shiver rocketing down her spine as he pressed his mouth to her skin.

"That sounds suspiciously like a descriptive assessment to me," she quipped huskily, her fingers threading through the short dark strands of his hair.

God, she hadn't expected this. She had left her music playing as she had only need to run downstairs for a moment to check her mailbox, but when she had seen Sheldon approach her door, she had frozen. At first, she hoped he would simply give up and leave her in peace for one more day, so that she could figure out exactly how to talk to him again. Her jaw had dropped when she heard his words, warmth blooming in her chest at how awkwardly, endearingly he had tried to express what he was thinking, feeling. In a flash of clarity, she had understood the clicking sensation she had experienced, why she had felt a rightness. Since she didn't believe in normality, she couldn't believe in perfection either, but she had come to realize that she wanted to be in his life, and to have him in hers.

His lips dawdled lazily down the column of her neck, his tongue flicking out to tease at the smooth flesh, causing her to let out a tiny mewling. He placed an open-mouthed kiss on her throat where the sound quivered. She was burning up, her skin feverishly hot as she panted lightly through parted lips, a dull ache beginning to throb deep in her core. He lifted his head to plant feather-light kisses along her jawline, returning to her lips hungrily.

"Sheldon," she breathed, tilting her head back to allow him to access the other side of her throat, her body undulating against his, making him growl as he pressed his lips against her collarbone. His hand caressed the curve of her waist, down to wrap it almost possessively around her hip, before traveling back up in a seductive line that caused her to lightly buck against him. The timbre of his voice had deepened, the richness of his accent a delight to her ears and she bit her lip against his sensual assault.

"Sweet Lord, but I love it when you do that," he said quietly, lips finding hers again, his own teeth gently tugging the pink flesh from between hers to sip at it maddeningly. "You have no idea how much it tries my patience to watch you worry your lips when you think; how much it drives me crazy."

Oh, but she did. She'd never tell, but it was why she did it.

He touched her lips with his again, the kisses turning hungrier, fiercer, as his desire for her began to become evident as the front of his pants pressed against her belly. She grasped his shoulders, desperate to have something to anchor her in the swelling tide that was threatening to engulf all her senses in its blazing wake. Her hands moved down, the taste, the feel of his mouth on hers driving her need higher. She had to touch him, to feel him.

Her palms made swift work of tugging the hem of his second shirt out from the waistband of his trousers and she slid them against the lean musculature of his abdomen, pleased as goosebumps pebbled across his skin in the wake of her touch. Her fingertips lightly brushed over his nipples, dragging them back down again in a random pattern as his hands began their own exploration. Slipping under the edge of her Flash t-shirt, he drug the material upwards. Sheldon broke from her lips long enough to pull the shirt over her head and she met his mouth half-way eagerly. As his clever fingers roved the exposed skin of her upper body, she distracted him by peppering kisses along the line of his neck, working back to his ear as he pressed her back against the door. Copper took the lobe between her teeth and gently tugged, enjoying the shudder that racked his lanky frame at her action.

His larger hands were wreaking havoc on her body, his thumbs brushing the undersides of her still-clothed breasts; flicking over the pebbled tips that were discernible through the lacy material; making him groan against her mouth as he leaned down to capture it again.

He traced the curve of her upper body once more as he moved his head to trail searing kisses down to the tops of the creamy slopes of her breasts. Her thumbs found his flat nipples, nails grazing lightly over the sensitive flesh. He lifted his head to growl out her name.

"Sweet Jesus, Copper, what you do to me," he whispered hotly into her ear, pulling another soft sound from her throat as his teeth gently nipped at base of it.

She pulled his shirts up and off his shoulders, her hands tracing teasing, and dangerous, patterns across the muscles of his chest, questing lower. He braced his own hands back against the door, his eyes squeezing shut and bending his head to kiss a fiery path along her shoulder as she worked at the strap of his belt.

"Sheldon," She called his name huskily, and he lifted his head, eyes hooded and dark as she continued, "Don't you think we ought to move this to a more comfortable area?"

He didn't reply, tugging the straps of her bra down her arms, his brow furrowing. Taking pity, Copper unhooked the clasp at the valley between her breasts and shrugged her shoulders, allowing the undergarment to fall to the floor. He hissed in a breath between his teeth before swallowing thickly as he stared at her revealed body, a flush creeping up her skin.

"I'm quite comfortable right here," he replied finally.

He lowered his head, his tongue darting out to flick against one rosy bud. She cried out, her back arching at the contact. Their hips met intimately at her action and seemed to trigger something.

"Then again," he groaned as he straightened.

With a swift motion, he pulled her from the door, one of his hands gripping her hips as the other cupped her breast, his mouth worshiped both- suckling them, nipping them, driving her desire higher and higher. Copper turned, coaxing him along as she backed down the short hallway, shimmying her hips against his as her pants pooled on the floor and making him groan into her mouth. The sensation made her shudder with the power of it. He kicked off his shoes blindly as he pressed into her, lifting his head to find her mouth again. Thankfully, the door to her bedroom was open and before she knew it, her knees had hit the edge of the mattress.

As she fell back, Sheldon quickly shucked his trousers, pausing to stand over her and Copper took the opportunity to let her own eyes roam his body appreciatively, noting the large bulge in his briefs. He stretched out beside her then, resting on one elbow as the fingers slid to the apex of her thighs. He found the engorged bud of her womanhood and lightly circled it with his thumb, sliding his free fingers over the slick folds. She thrashed beneath his ministrations. He teased her, slipping the tips of those fingers inside her tight body and crooking them up; sliding out; repeating; drawing her further and further into a spiral of need and pleasure that left her breathless.

Where had he learned that?

"Google," he said simply, withdrawing long enough for her to regain some of her mental faculties, as well as making her realize she had asked the question out loud.

"Sounds like you've been planning."

"It is best to be prepared for any eventuality."

She rolled onto her side to face him, her hand drifting down his torso to run her hand along the length of him through his briefs. Copper curled her fingers around his length through the material, caressing the head with a light pressure of her thumb. He jerked against her hand, letting out a guttural sound.

"So this was inevitable, Dr. Cooper?" she teased, her unoccupied hand snapping the waistband of the material with a smirk.

"Indubitably," he ground out in a strained voice, then hissed a breath through his teeth when she slipped her hand inside the cloth and ran her palm over him, base to ti with a squeeze.

She relented when he grabbed her hand to still her, his body shaking and he made swift work of both their remaining undergarments. He placed tongue-flicked kisses to her skin as he crawled up over her body, settling between the cradle of her legs, the tip of him pressing against her wet heat insistently. She pressed a soft kiss to his lips as his hands grasped her hips and pulled her to him.

His eyes met hers with a silent question and she nodded, her hands smoothing up his chest to caress his shoulders.

"Pill," she merely said and he nodded.

He slowly pushed inside her sheath and she cried out, the sensation of his pulsing manhood inside her blurring the line between pleasure and pain. It had been so long since she had done anything like this, the tightness of her body telling the tale. Seemingly with an effort, he stilled. Sheldon placed butterfly-light kisses across her cheeks and her closed eyes, telling her more clearly with his actions what he felt than he could have verbalized.

After a moment, Copper tentatively rolled her hips, demanding that he move. Sheldon slanted his lips across hers, their kiss matching the tempo of their joined hips; a dance their bodies knew better than they did. His thrusts were slow and languid, filling her in an achingly teasing way that was more likely than not unconscious. Copper wiggled against him and he groaned into her mouth. The cord that tensed low in her belly coiled tighter and tighter.

Then she was peppering his jaw, his cheeks, with featherlight brushes of her lips and he pulled back, bracing his weight above her on his forearms. He thrust into her, slowly, pushing inch by inch until he was once more buried to the hilt with a low sound of pleasure. Her slick folds engulfed him in their heat as he pulled back again, his strokes becoming more sure with each passing moment. His mouth trailed down the curve of her jaw as he began to move in earnest, words whispered in her ear, words that she knew instinctively were only for her.

The world spun away as their bodies found a natural rhythm. Ripples built hotly low in her belly, like a stone had been dropped and the effects of its passage rolled through her body. Her inner walls tightened around his length, making them both groan, her mouth finding his, his tongue mimicking the motion of his hips. With a shudder, the wave she had been riding crested, tossing her beneath it as she breathed out his name again and again, his fingers linking with hers as he rode out her peak with her.

Panting, Sheldon collapsed on his side, his arm hooking around her waist and pulling her against him, his lips brushing her temple in a gesture that was as sweet as she was ever going to get. As her heartbeat began to slow, she lifted her head from the crook of his shoulder, uncertainty gnawing at her.

"I realize that the post coitus haze, as you call it, may inhibit your ability to answer me honestly, but...this is what you want? No regrets?"

Sheldon's cobalt eyes opened from where they had drifted closed, pinning her grey ones in a piercingly clear stare.

"Haven't you learned to appreciate my genius by now? It allows me an exceptional recovery time from physical exertion, thus enabling me to answer your inquiry with a perfectly reasonable answer."

Copper raised her eyebrow.

"Which is?"

He rolled onto his back, pulling her with him and draping her body over his, his long arms wrapping around her body to run his fingertips along the curve of her spine. He looked up at her with an expression that both surprised and warmed her.

"You anticipate what I would say, though you cannot know how earnestly I say it, how earnestly I feel it, without knowing my secret heart, and the hopes and fears and anxieties with which it has long been laden. Dear Doctor Manette, I love your daughter fondly, dearly, disinterestedly, devotedly. If ever there were love in the world, I love her."

He spoke slowly, deliberately. Copper smiled down at him, tracing the contours of his lips with a finger, his words both making her giddy and happy, two emotions that she had missed for longer than she cared to acknowledge.

"Charles Dickens."

He nodded, then tilted his head up at her.

"And you?"

His voice was steady, but she could almost see past his eyes, to the inner doubts of a man was too often blinded by hubris to realize them. Still, it changed little to her.

"Love is no hot-house flower, but a wild plant, born of a wet night, born of an hour of sunshine; sprung from wild seed, blown along the road by a wild wind. A wild plant that, when it blooms by chance within the hedge of our gardens, we call a flower; and when it blooms outside we call a weed; but, flower or weed, whose scent and colour are always, wild!"

Sheldon combed slender fingers through her mane of curls.

"An accurate and rather apt description. Fitting, I think. Who wrote that?"

"John Galsworthy," she answered, then braced her hands and rose, unashamed of her nakedness as she stood by the bed.

She stretched her arms high over her head before crooking her fingers at him, beckoning.

"Come on, let's get clean and then we'll see how the rest of the day goes."

He grinned up at her, a gleam in his eye that allowed her another glimpse into the workings of his brilliant mind, easily discerning just what he considered as constructive use of their time. When he sat up she darted off, her laughter mingling with his chuckle as he followed her down the hall.

Neither angels nor physicists hold the answers to the future, but Copper found that time meant little when, later that night, and for years afterward, she noted that her heart beat in time with his; not perfectly, but together all the same.

~Fin~

A/N: And that's the end, my dears! I want to thank you all, once again, for all the reviews, favorites, alerts, and the like. I've really enjoyed this story and I'm glad to see so many of you have as well. I look forward to hearing what you all thought of this final chapter! Again, thank you all so much and I hope you will enjoy my other stories as well! Cheers!

Love,

~silvergryphon :D