The rat did an adorable thing with its nose, nuzzling at Amy's palm. It was a shame that tommorow she was probably going to have to cut its head open to attach electrodes.

"You're serving the cause of humanity," Amy told it. "Which maybe isn't that great for you. Because you're a rat. Honestly, this isn't going to do much for rats. Sorry."

Maybe she could take it home? Oh dear. She was getting too friendly with her lab animals again. It was what she did when she went too long without having a real conversation with people. That was quick, she thought drily.

But here she was again, alone in a lab, probably the last person in the building. She had stayed after even Howard was gone to finish working through an idea, and on a project she wasn't even officially part of yet. It was fascinating work though, and a good team.

Amy put the rat back in its cage and reminded herself that breaking up with Sheldon was not going to be the end of her social life. She had other people in her life. Even Howard.

She grabbed her coat and wound her way out of the lab, past all the cages, computers, cables, welding tools, suspiciously feminine proto-android and the enormous robot arm.

Someone stomped by her in the corridor. "Your boyfriend is insane," he threw over his shoulder, then turned to walk backwards several steps. "You should see what he's done to himself in the mainframe lab. If you dump him after that, call me!" He gave her two thumbs up and a big grin. Amy thought he seemed vaguely familiar, but couldn't remember the name. Had he been at the party?

Caution fought with curiosity, but she was a scientist, and curiosity always won. Besides, she was going to run into Sheldon sometimes. That was life. It would be ok.

Howard had shown her the mainframe earlier, but the room looked dark and closed from the outside. Amy pushed the door open cautiously.

She blinked a few times, trying to make sense of what she was seeing. Then she burst out laughing.

"Amy? Are you laughing at me?" Sheldon asked, trying hard to hold onto dignity.

"Of course i'm laughing at you," Amy choked out.

"That is unkind. I'm furthering the cause of science," Sheldon said. "If you would just be so kind as to get my phone from my jacket. And call Leonard. And tell him to bring a knife, I won't impose on you any more."

She shook her head. "I'm not letting you ruin Leonard's evening." Amy knew Penny had planned a date.

Sheldon glared at her for a moment, then looked away. Amy nearly burst out laughing again. For a moment, seeing him had been hard, but it was impossible to be hurt by a man who had somehow contrived to be stuck with both wrists above his head, cable tied to the upper bar of a server rack.

"Will...you untie me?" Sheldon asked, looking at her sideways and drawing on the childish mannerisms that were adorable sometimes, and sometimes drove her mad.

Amy shook her head. "Of course I will." She searched the room until she found a pen-knife in a drawer. "How exactly did you get into this situation?"

"I needed to use the mainframe," Sheldon said, as if that was an explanation.

"This is a novel way of using a computer, Dr. Cooper. Have you considered publishing?" She turned to him, but realized it wouldn't do. She couldn't reach his wrists. With a sigh, she put the knife down and dragged the table across the floor until Sheldon was sandwiched between it and the servers.

"Very droll, Dr. Fowler. I was keeping it out of Kripke's grubbing perverted ape-man hands and the insult to rational numbers he calls his work."

"So you tied yourself to the server." She clambered up onto the table. It wasn't terribly steady, but it would do if she stayed on her knees, and that put her a few inches higher than he was, and was just enough to reach the ties.

"I tied one wrist to the server. Kripke nefariously tied the other."

"Why did you do that?" Amy sawed at the left cable tie, none too carefully. If Sheldon picked up a few nicks, that was his own fault. She was almost pressed up against him, and that wasn't making her happy either. Nor the way her heart was beating, in that old, familiar way. Hearts were weird things too, come to think of it.

"So he couldn't get at it. Then he tied me up and left, so I win."

Amy held back a burst of laughter. "You can't exactly use it either."

"But neither can he." Sheldon nodded.

The cable tie was stubborn and her arms were getting tired. Maybe she should leave him here. It might teach him a lesson. Amy looked at Sheldon the way she might have at a dissected brain with a particularly interesting medical history.

"Amy?" Sheldon said tentatively.

She sighed. "You broke the toy so no one else could play with it."

"No! I am not a child! It's just so Kripke couldn't play with it."

"Sheldon, that is an incredibly childish thing to do," she snapped and went back to sawing at the cuff. She didn't care if she was leaning against him, his breath warm on her neck. "An incredibly obnoxious, selfish, self-centered, small-minded, mean, vain, greedy," she was plumbing the depths of her vocabualry, and loving it. All the names she had ever wanted to call him, and no reason to hold back. "Vindictive, egomaniacal, petty, absurd, querulous, narcissistic, pompous, short-sighted, callous, cold, cruel, hurtful thing to do!" Amy finished with a gasp, breathing hard, her mind finally blanking for more synonyms.

Sheldon looked up at her through his eyelashes, his face an inch away from hers, and said, "maybe I should be punished."

A slow drum started pounding in her head. It took a moment to process the words. Was this some ploy? Trick? Excuse? It was probably an innocent comment. With Sheldon, it was most likely that he really meant she should take away his favorite ice cream.

...and if it wasn't innocent? So what? She was done with him, wasn't she? But Amy discovered her hand resting on his shoulder anyway, the cable-ties forgotten.

Why not? He was tied up. Had tied himself up, and should bear the consequences. He couldn't push her away or run or hide, and she could just...take. Just to know what it was like, after all this time. Just a way to lock that door, forever, and stop wondering. A small, sweet vengeance, for everything he had ever done to her.

How is that not petty and mean and vindictive? Amy asked herself, but then she made the mistake of meeting Sheldon's eyes again. Cautious...and still, and calm. Sheldon shifted slightly and it pressed him closer to her. For a moment, Amy didn't feel entirely in control any more.

Not that, she decided, and kissed him hard on the mouth.