New Chapter, I hope you enjoy reading it!
Amy had been sitting up in bed for nearly an hour. She couldn't sleep with her mind full of thoughts about Sheldon. She couldn't figure out why she couldn't shake the thoughts. Sheldon was brilliant, but it was tearing at her whether or not that was enough of a reason to put up with all of his flaws. The things that she had managed to convince herself she could tolerate. It really wasn't as easy as she thought it was. He never held her hand. They only kissed if she kissed him, hugs were nearly nonexistent, and she remembered people who she had nearly fallen for in the past, Stewart and Zach. They were the kind of people that could actually progress in a relationship, especially Stewart. Loyalty was the only thing that held her to Sheldon all that time. She didn't want to leave him out in the cold, she couldn't imagine just really breaking up with him, with no intention, no willingness to get back together. But then again he could be so emotionless, would he really even care? She didn't doubt that he loves her in his own way, but that way wasn't something that she could really feel. She knew exactly what she saw in him to begin with. She fell in love with his brain, and though she managed to overlook his lack of feeling, his lack of romance, all of his crazy quirks, even convincing herself she liked many of them, she didn't feel the same about him now that she had had this first second-thought there was no going back. Now that she had doubted the perfection of the relationship she knew she would notice these things all the time. She decided to send him an E-mail requesting a pre-lunch Video-Chat Session. Then if the moment felt right she would end their relationship.
In the morning Alison got up at 6:30 and started listening to old music from when she was still in college. Regular college, before she even started graduate school. It was ancient, but it was exactly what she needed, a reminder of where she came from before she began her future. She lied around and ate Frut Pufz until 9 am. She could barely contain her excitement; this was it, just an hour and a half until she would be walking into the halls of her dreams. She put on a red blouse, and a black skirt, she wanted to look formal, but not dowdy, and perky, but not over enthusiastic. Adding mascara and a dusting of a muted red eye shadow, she proceeded to do exactly what she always did when she needed confidence: curl her light brown hair and make sure every inch of her face was perfectly made up. She arrived at Caltech right on time. Stepping out of the white compact rental car and into the parking garage, she brushed a bit of pink fuzz off her skirt, and then walked into the building.
Amy called Sheldon's laptop at exactly 2 minutes until he would leave for lunch. She closed her eyes and thought to herself 'okay, you can do this' before opening her eyes at the exact moment he accepted the video chat.
"Amy, I'm assuming this is very important if it required privacy and couldn't wait until our date night, it's only 15 days away," he said. Typical, all too typical, she half wanted him to say something sweet that made her think twice about the break up, but he didn't. He said exactly what the Sheldon she was tired of putting up with would say. She took a deep breath letting her words fall into place, hesitating for as long as she could.
Then she tried to sound steady as she said, "No, this can't wait even one more second."
Her heart pounding as she blurted out the next sentence as fast as she could, "I'm sorry Sheldon, but I'm breaking up with you." She swallowed hard as she prepared her next sentence, even though Sheldon clearly hadn't heard the first.
He stated "It would appear that your microphone is malfunctioning." She could hear him just fine, so she looked down the length of the cable, sure enough it had been chewed apart by Freddie the lab rabbit. He was intended for her study on addictions in animals, but he seemed to be a bit of an escape artist. She opened the chat window and explained that the cable had been chewed, and then he asked what she had said. It took all of her strength to type in her words. He then, quite flatly stated that the relationship agreement was thereby voided and that he would not be seeing her in 15 days. The lack of emotion in his words angered her. She wouldn't miss him at all if this was the last memory she would have from her relationship with Sheldon.
Alison had nearly finished the tour, she had talked to several of her future coworkers, who she found to be wonderful people, seen the bright shiny lab and all of the equipment it contained, learned about the important features of the building, and time flew by. The Soon enough it was lunch time, she knew she could leave now, the tour was over, and it would have been the desired reaction for her to leave and grab a taco or something at some drive through, but the problem was that she didn't know where anything was in Pasadena yet. So she dropped into the Cafeteria. She walked through the doors looking down at her phone, and she crashed right into Sheldon.
"Oh my gosh I'm so sorr- Hey, I didn't know you worked here!" She gasped as she recognized him.
"And you go here?" He asked, not believing that the girl he had confidently marked as an immature wannabe actress yesterday could be a student, let alone an employee.
"No, actually I'm, well I will be starting tomorrow, a geneticist, I'm only here to tour the facilities today, and I'm beyond impressed!" She answered, smiling. Sheldon was slightly irritated by her long-winded explanation; he refused to believe that he could have been so wrong about her. Then they walked silently to the cafeteria line, neither knew quite what to say, but eventually Alison, broke the silence "I guess I've hardly introduced myself, I'm Dr. Alison Carter, and you are?"
"Dr. Sheldon Cooper," he replied flatly. She picked up her turkey wrap and setting the trey down said, "Well, I guess I'll head home…"
"Alright, I suppose I'll see you later," He spoke the words with relief , all he wanted was for her to leave so her could go talk to his friends, he was running a little late, after the talk with Amy, so he was the last to arrive. Setting his tray down on the table, and in the middle of sitting down he apathetically said, "Amy broke up with me," as if it meant nothing to him, because really it didn't. She had given him some great memories, and a wonderful friendship, the first something no one can take away, and the second something he was sure he didn't need. After saying this he received a chorus of "Oh no," "Really?" And "How are you taking it?" from his overly concerned friends, who were making a huge deal out of it. It meant nothing, sure Amy was a great person but that was really about all. "Yes, via video chat, although her lab rabbit had chewed her microphone chord, so she had to repeat it into the text window," He described, before adding, "And how would you expect me to take it?"
"Emotionlessly," they all said looking at each other.
Not another word was spoken at lunch. Sheldon was slightly offended that all of his friends could say something like that, but he wasn't quite sure what to think, since it appeared to be true.
"PENNY, I need to talk to you!" Amy wailed from the opposite side of the door. When she opened the door Amy shouted "I just broke up with Sheldon through a video chat IM window!" Her eyes wide, she was talking way too fast, and at that high anxious frequency, "I managed to convince myself that I would rather date Stewart, and sure Sheldon can be a pain in the ass, but really he was something steady, something that wasn't moving, that's why I got sick of it, but it wasn't like he was going to dump me. And sure Stewart is suitable, but is he really a replacement for Sheldon? What have I done?"
Penny looked up at her distressed friend unsure of what to say. "Um, come inside," that was all she could manage. She couldn't decide if this was a good thing that she was moving on from Dr. Whack-a-doodle or if this would crush them both. She knew Amy hade a sensitive side, and while she didn't have any proof she'd like to think Sheldon did too. She walked to the kitchen, knowing that this warranted alcohol. Penny tossed her phone to Amy and told her, "Call Bernadette, tell her that she needs to come to Penny's right away without asking questions." Amy complied and they both waited.
This was big. It was only just after 3 o clock; Bernadette knew that anything requiring Amy to have Penny's cell phone during the day must be important. She burst through the door without knocking to see Amy pacing frantically through the living room holding a glass of something she couldn't identify by sight, while Penny, who appeared to be completely exasperated, through her arms in the air and shouted, "Look, Bernadette is here!" before she immediately opened the refrigerator and pulled out several bottles of things Bernadette knew to be alcohol.
Amy looked up at Bernadette, and then wailed, "I broke up with Sheldon, via Video Chat IM box!" she then explained about the rabbit that chewed her microphone chord, and how she was upset that their relationship wasn't going anywhere, but Bernadette stood frozen through the whole explanation. She couldn't believe it. Sure Amy and Sheldon weren't a perfect couple, but they were about as close as either one could dream to find! Penny poured from a few of the bottles, none of which she recognized, and handed it to Amy, who in turn asked, "Are you sure this is a good idea? I've had like 5 cups of whateverthatotherthingyougav emewas…" running her words together.
Penny laughed, after a few moments she managed to gasp out, "That was Cool Aid. However, you seem to have managed to get quite a sugar rush…" Amy only nodded in reply, as she started to drink the beverage.
Alison sat down at her computer, fully intent on just goofing off for a few hours, but she realized she had an e-mail, like an important one, not just another "Sweetie, are you Alive?" from her mom. She had stopped asking "How are you?" years ago. Alison couldn't stand that question. It was one of a category of questions that people ask when they want you to feel like they care about your life, to which the only socially acceptable answers are; Good, Fine, or Yes, Answers that go past this to the positive side were only occasionally allowable, or you come off as too perky, and anything to the negative consisting of more than 5 words is considered "TMI". It was just a huge binding social convention, she had learned to live with a lot of things, but she couldn't wrap her mind around asking a question simply to receive such a meaningless answer. She had accepted coasters, not screaming at small spiders, and the perplexing concept of greeting acquaintances by name as proof that you remembered it, but these blather questions as she called them, they were a whole other problem.
She opened the e-mail from someone at the university. It turned out to be from Dr. Fredrick Neilson, the senior of the Caltech Genetic Research Sub-division. The Message read, "Due to the completion of our sub-division's expansion, I am pleased to announce that Caltech's genetics division will now be considered as a separate department. As a result of this we are looking for volunteers for a team that will be working on evaluating the potential for the incorporation of the genes that cause apoptosis overriding into a strain of modified Adenovirus as part of our study of potential methods for gene modification in existing organisms. Please respond if you are interested." A special team, she always wanted to be on a special team, it was a chance to stand out, to make herself someone worth watching, someone her advisors would approve of. She e-mailed Dr. Neilson back immediately requesting a place on the team.
After 5 hours of pacing, talking, drinking, and panicking, Penny was about to lose it, and Bernadette was about to fall asleep. It was only 8 o'clock, but it might as well have been 3 in the morning after listening to Amy freak out for this long, her statements making less and less sense as time went on. She was currently talking about Stewart's over active thyroid and whether or not it was actually a problem that needed attention, or mild enough to maintain her feeling of it being hot. If Penny cared enough, and Bernadette was awake she could ask Bernadette what Amy was talking about, but since neither of those was true, Amy continued to pace and ramble.
Sheldon was sitting on the couch watching the clock 8:59 he should be teeth brushed, on the way into bed right now, but he couldn't. He was stuck, he couldn't move if he wanted to. He was afraid that he would miss having Amy as his girlfriend. Maybe their relationship was something important to him. He sat watching the clock because he needed to think, he had to know if he would miss Amy. He could tell himself he didn't need her all he wanted, but even if he were able to convince himself, that didn't make it true. As he really thought about it, he thought about it for a while and then it hit him, the grief, all of the great moments they'd had since he met her. He quickly went off to bed, of course with a stop in the bathroom for frantic teeth brushing. After quickly setting the electronic toothbrush back into the UV light case and ran off to his room. As soon as he did he curled up in a ball as emotion flooded over him. He knew from the flat way she had broken up with him that she was done with him. The one thing he would ask for if he could was the reason why. The uncertainty hurt more than anything else, that she didn't care enough to explain the break up.
Penny and Bernadette were asleep. Amy realized this and knew exactly what she should do. She wanted to go to Stewart's right away and ask him to be her boyfriend. She knew she shouldn't drive, so she somehow made her way to a bus stop. Boarding the bus she made her way to the Comic book store, sure it wasn't open, but Stewart had mentioned late nights before. She saw him through the window he was asleep and the door was locked. She tried to open the door with her teeth, and after a few tries everything faded to black.
Amy had passed out on the comic book store door mat.
Hey guys, I hope you like this so far, a lot happened in this chapter, and all of these little things will be wrapped up next chapter. I'm not going to be quite this fast next time, but soon, I promise! (Sorry, I just realized the dashes didn't transfer from word. I had to fix that.)