Hey, Sorry for the no update yesterday, but this chapter should be pretty good. Let me know what you think! (Sorry it's shorter than last time)
Thursday, Pre Sunrise.
"WHERE'S AMY?!" Bernadette was aware of only those two words, those words and that she was awake. She snapped her eyes open to see Penny, who had a blanket in one hand and Amy's phone in the other. "Not Here?" She asked mindlessly, her voice weak. Everything past Penny looked blurry, so she had to check twice to make sure that she had her glasses on. Penny was looking down at her, with a look of urgency on her face. Bernadette couldn't quite place everything, why did it matter that Amy had gone home in the middle of the night. Amy rarely drank much, and she almost always went home.
"Penny, I think you had a bit too much to drink last ni-" Bernadette started before it all hit her at once. Amy broke up with Sheldon, the freaked out, Amy drank more than she ever did. This was bad. "No, No. NO! Is her car in the lot?" Bernadette yelled, though it made her head hurt. Touching her hand to her head as Penny replied.
"There we go you're up now, to the parking lot!" Penny said as she put on slippers and headed for the door. Bernadette had come in heels, straight from work, she didn't dare to walk down 4 flights of stairs in heels in this condition, so she walked out the door barefoot. She and Penny ran down the stairs. Her head was pounding, but she didn't care, her friend could be in serious trouble. By the time they reached the lobby Bernadette was basically just holding the back of Penny's shirt and running with her eyes closed. As the girls stepped outside she realized for the first time that it was still dark out.
"What time is it?" She gasped.
"About 3:19 am" Penny replied, as she spotted Amy's car, "Good so she's either still in the building, or she took a bus, or walked, how far could she be?"
They exchanged a nervous glance and ran back up the stairs, when they finally reached the 4th floor Bernadette could hardly move.
"SHELDON" Penny wailed pounding on the door. He finally opened it. "Is Amy here?"
Amy, they really thought she had come here. "No" he said wanting only to close the door. He couldn't take this, just the sound of her name made him want to cry. "Penny I need to talk to you." He said, Penny was good with all of the twaddle that girls and break ups caused.
"Well I have to see where a drunken Amy stumbled of to. Go talk to Alison. She's a lot like me. Tell her I sent you there, sure it will be a little odd given the time, but she's the best you've got." Penny said as they turned to run back down stairs again. He trusted Penny but he wasn't so sure that he could trust Alison yet.
"Are you sure?" He asked all she did was nod. He was standing in front of a near stranger's door, at 20 after 3 in the morning about to divulge his problems to her. It was crazy. He tried to convince himself to go back to bed, but he couldn't do it. Something made him knock, he figured if he knocked at an average volume then the decision wouldn't be his.
Knock, Knock, Knock… "ALISON!"
POUND POUND POUND… "ALISON!"
POUND POUND POUND… "ALISON!"
When she finally answered the door he said, "I am here because Penny sent me here."
"Well, come in, but really, could I have a little more detail?" She replied, groggily. Sheldon entered the apartment and began looking for a spot to sit. "Okay, so you are looking for something, but WHAT?" She asked him.
"The ideal seating location, giving the location of that heating vent and the angle of your television would you be willing to move the coffee table 9 centimeters to the left, and turn the couch 12 degrees clockwise?" He asked.
"Maybe later, so you're here to sabotage the first day I work at Caltech?" she asked.
"No, I'm here because I usually discus my relationship issues with Penny, but she had to go "see where a drunken Amy stumbled to" so she sent me to you saying that you two were very similar," he added.
"Okay, well why don't you sit here for like 5 minutes and then move if you don't like it. Now in the meantime would you like some tea?" She asked. That appeased his seating need, though when he sat down, though not perfect the location was tolerable enough that he got absorbed into talking that he forgot.
"What kind?" He asked.
"I don't know tea, tea…" She answered, and then inquired, "So what's up with this Amy chick?"
"Fine I'll drink the mystery tea. I see that you have been taught that is is customary to give upset guests hot beverages. She was my girlfriend, and she broke up with me today via video chat IM box, and I'm not sure how I feel about it." He said, accidentally omitting the part about the broken wire, not thinking it mattered enough to say.
"That bites!" She yelled, when she received only a puzzled expression in return, she added "Like Oh, gosh, how terrible!" trying to explain the phrase. Opening the tea packet as she added, "She didn't even care enough to say it to your face! That means either she's leaving you for someone else, or she really couldn't stand the relationship anymore."
Sheldon didn't know what to think anymore he sat nearly in tears, by the time the tea arrived, prepared with just sugar and two ice cubes he didn't notice that it wasn't right. He couldn't care.
Stewart woke up to see that he had fallen asleep behind the register again, his eyes darted to the door where a clearly drunk Amy Farrah Fowler sat knocking lightly on the bottom of the door. He rushed to the door. Unlocking it and opening the door, he reached down to the hand she was knocking with and pulled her up. "What happened?" He asked her.
"I… I needed to talk to you so I came here … at like 8 the door was closed so I couldn't get in. I think I passed out, so I don't know how long I've been out there." She managed to say, she looked dizzy, but with a certain determination to it. Maybe he had been fantasizing about their brief date, and wishing for more a little more than he thought...
"It's like 4 in the morning! What was so important?" He asked slightly concerned. They had gone in only one date, and Sheldon had interrupted that, asking her to be his girlfriend.
"Stewart Bloom, I have seen the terror in my jays. I broke up with Sheldon. I was wondering if you would object to a second date." She asked sincerely.
"You came all this way at this hour just to ask me out?" He asked, and when she nodded he agreed, "Well then of course! Umm do you need a ride back to somewhere?" This was amazing. He would finally have a chance to go out with Amy, with her entirely detached from Sheldon.
"My car is at Penny's… I might need to spend the night there…" She spoke slowly. He drove her to the building and walked her up the stairs. She said very little the whole time, when they arrived he kissed her forehead and she entered Penny's apartment, not aware that Penny was gone.
Usually this would be awkward, a stranger in her apartment in the middle of the night-morning. He was too distraught to care about that, he was looking for a substitute Penny, a role she appeared to be able to play. Penny had sent him here and so she had to try to solve his girl problems. She couldn't, it didn't come so naturally to her, Penny actually was the crazy, formerly popular relationship master that Sheldon needed to talk to. Alison was not even close. She tried to remember high school, but would that really help? She had been semi-popular, but other than more than the necessary amount of gossip she hadn't had any situations that would help here.
"Well, you don't appear to be the type who approves of alcohol consumption, so think of it this way, She breaks up with you over IM, she then gets drunk, and runs off, to do who knows what. You are a man of acute scientific ability, what is there to be stuck on there?" She asked flatly. He looked up at her with pained eyes as if that didn't help. "Okay well you could run out there, and try to find the girl, who has so clearly rejected you, and beg her to take you back, now how would that work?" She suggested sarcastically.
"Assuming you have correctly assessed the situation that would be totally illogical." He said lifting his face out of the warm steam evaporating from the tea. Illogical, a word that has been used twice in two brief conversations between her and Sheldon, she chose it for her habitual over use of logic, but the way he said it, it struck her. It was purposeful; it felt special, even though it was only a word. She was taken back. She hadn't seriously proposed the idea, so it certainly looked odd for her to hesitate something like that.
"So you have to move on, right. Did she say why she broke it off?" She asked, and he only shook his head. "Hmm, that makes this a little harder. Well, if this was a developing relationship it's not too surprising, how did you meet, how close were you?" She didn't want to pry, but she had to ask a few questions in order to help.
"Some of my friends signed me up on a dating site, against my will I might add, and we met officially at a coffee shop. She only became my official girlfriend to keep her from dating someone else. I would have wanted her to remain my friend who is a girl, but isn't my girlfriend, free from the obligations of an official relationship, but clearly that wasn't good enough for her. " He explained.
"Well, it sounds like she was taking things too fast, and trying to make you jealous. Maybe you should give it about a month, and then patch up the friendship. Then keep it like that, as a friendship," She suggested, "And remember, neither one of us will make any great contributions to science if we stay up all night." She said smiling. When he left she had to call Penny. "Penny, I know you're worried about your friend but you have to realize that even though I handled the situation I'm not you! And Amy came loudly up the stairs with some other person about 20 minutes ago." she said as soon as Penny picked up.
"I know, but he's a crazy scientist, what do crazy scientists need when they have relationship issues? You, you understand me, the situation, and crazy nerd types." Penny replied, as she and Bernadette started to drive back.
There is a painful amount of foreshadowing in the last POV. I promised myself I wouldn't cram something so full of hidden details, but I did. (Hopefully I cloaked it well enough that you won't all get it) :P More next Chapter 3