Amy emerged from Penny's bathroom once she was satisfied that Sheldon had left to see Leonard and Penny talking quietly in the living room. Penny looked up as Amy walked in and immediately crossed over to rub her friend's arm in comfort.

"Leonard's going to drive you home, okay sweetie?"

"Okay." Amy replied quietly, hugging her purse close to her side. "I appreciate it, thank you."

"No problem, Amy. Let me run downstairs and bring the car around to the front of the building so you don't get even wetter; give me a few minutes and then head down." Leonard spoke over his shoulder as he picked up his keys and slung his jacket over his shoulders. Amy nodded and sat gingerly on the edge of Penny's couch, not wanting to get the fabric too wet from her damp clothes.

"Do you want me to come home with you?" Penny asked, hovering in the doorway of her bedroom. She could see that Amy was pale with tiredness and didn't want her friend to face a day of heartbreak and misery on her own.

"I think I'd rather be alone, thank you all the same." Amy stood up and walked toward the door. "I just need a couple of days to get my thoughts together and then we'll talk."

"You'd better not forget us…just because you're having problems with Sheldon doesn't mean that you have to avoid the rest of us. If you haven't called me by Tuesday, I'm coming over."

"I won't forget you, bestie…I promise." Amy gave Penny a small smile and Penny crossed over to enfold Amy into her arms, kissing her cheek gently. Amy returned the embrace before slipping out of the apartment and heading down the stairwell. She turned the corner of the third floor only to find the way blocked by a pair of lean legs stretching across the landing.

"I think you owe me an explanation, don't you?" Sheldon's quiet twang floated up, sending a tiny shiver of reaction down Amy's spine. "I came back as soon as I got rid of Eric and you had vanished…an hour later I received your e-mail terminating our relationship. I'd just like to know why…"

"Why? You really have to ask?" Amy repeated in quiet condemnation, her words hissing out between her teeth. "You managed to turn a beautifully intimate moment into some sort of joke and I almost hate you for that."

"A joke? Nothing about our relationship is a joke, Amy. I've told you before that I see us as having an extremely intimate relationship and I would have thought that I proved my intention when I kissed you on the train." Sheldon glanced up at Amy, a look of incredulity etched on his tired features.

"A kiss that you only initiated after dismissing the idea of romance…" Amy hissed again, trying to step around Sheldon's legs to continue down the staircase. Sheldon stood up and prevented Amy from walking past him by catching her arm and swinging her around to face him.

"I kissed you because…"

"Yes?"

"Because you're the first person I think about in the morning and the last person I think about before I go to sleep…you distract me at work so that I can't even write a simple equation…Because you looked so darned beautiful that I had to ignore you the whole night otherwise I might have just…" Sheldon let go of Amy's arm and ran his hand through his hair, causing the short strands to fall over his forehead, and it was all Amy could do not to reach up and smooth it back in place.

"Just…?" She asked softly, unable to stop the question from forming on her lips. Sheldon took a step forward, raising his hand to hover near her face. His fingers twitched and Amy's breath caught in her throat at the almost pleading look on his face. "Tell me, Sheldon, please…You need to start talking to me otherwise we might as well call it a day. We can't keep doing this, it's as though we take a giant leap forward and then you do something to deliberately hurt me and I can't take much more…oof!" Amy felt tears forming behind her eyes as she asked Sheldon to just start being honest with her and then suddenly he lunged forward and pulled her against his body; wrapping his arms around her back until there wasn't an inch between them. "What…?"

"Sometimes words just aren't good enough, talkin's overrated anyway..." Sheldon muttered as his head lowered and his mouth captured hers in a heated kiss. His tongue pressed against the seam of her lips and took advantage of her small sigh to dip inside to dally with her tongue. Sheldon's hands slipped down to hold Amy's hips, just the way he had on the train but this time one hand continued down to rest on the curve of her buttocks, urging her ever closer. Sheldon kept their lips connected as he walked Amy backwards until his lean length was pressing her against the wall of the landing, his hand left her buttock to slip down to her thigh lifting it slightly to wrap around his leg.

"Ahh…" Amy sighed against his mouth, as Sheldon lifted his head briefly to take in a much needed breath. His head dipped down to string a series of moist kisses down the side of Amy's neck, nudging aside the loose collar of her blouse so that he could nibble gently against her collarbone. Amy's head fell slightly to the side as Sheldon blew gently on the dampness left behind and then pulled a small patch of skin between his teeth and suckling hard. Amy groaned as she tried to arch her leg higher around Sheldon's firm thigh but was restricted by the tightness of her pencil skirt. Sheldon's fingers edged under the hem and wrenched it higher around her waist until it almost resembled a belt rather than a knee length pencil skirt. He rocked his hips forward until Amy was in no doubt of his urgent need pressing against the zipper of his pants.

"Does that feel like a joke to you? This is what you do to me every time I see you, I can't sit by your side without wanting to drag you onto my lap or touch you…you torment me with that bewitching smile…but what a delicious torment it is." Sheldon pressed one hand against the wall of the landing and the other gripped onto Amy's hip as he slowly rotated his pelvis, rubbing himself up against her.

"Sheldon…please…"

"Please what? Stop, don't stop? What do you want, Amy?" Sheldon stopped moving abruptly, staring deep into Amy's liquid pool of emerald. "What do you want?" He asked again, eyes firmly fixed on her face. Amy's hand reached up and gently traced a path down the side of Sheldon's face, drifting across his cheekbone to lightly settle on the full curve of his bottom lip.

"You, Sheldon…you're all I've ever truly wanted. I just need you to be honest with me and tell me what you want out of this relationship."

"Isn't it obvious?" Sheldon whispered softly, glancing down briefly and then back up to Amy. "So, it's just sex now?" Amy's tone held a note of disappointment and Sheldon moved his hips back in order to make her see that she was completely wrong.

"No! Of course I want that with you, but Amy – you have to realise that before I met you I had never even contemplated having an intimate relationship with anyone, let alone a sexual one…I couldn't imagine doing this with anyone else apart from you."

"Oh Sheldon." Amy sighed, resting her head against his shoulder and relaxing in his arms. "I'm sorry for leaving you last night, I don't know what came over me."

"Darlin', I'm sorry too. I was a complete jackass and should have just told you how I was feeling instead of bottling it up inside." Sheldon hugged her tightly and pulled Amy's skirt back down over her legs, his hands lingering as they smoothed the fabric in place over her buttocks. "I could have been doing this a lot sooner, especially now I know how it feels."

"Hmm…" Amy murmured her approval against the side of his neck and Sheldon ran his hands back up to her waist and then down to rest on her lightly curved buttocks. "So, you're an ass man…"

"Only for yours." Sheldon replied, his voice a little husky and Amy shivered lightly in his arms; Sheldon tightened his hold slightly, pulling her a little closer into the warmth of his body. "We're still wearing our damp clothes from yesterday, do you want to come up and take a shower? Maybe stay with me for a while?"

"Hmm…" Amy murmured again, nuzzling sleepily into his warm embrace. Sheldon smiled happily at her contented expression and turned Amy slightly on the stairs.

"Come on, darlin'…we both had a disturbed night and you're nearly falling asleep on me. Let's go upstairs and get cleaned up a little, then we can either talk a little or take a nap."

"A nap sounds good." Amy agreed, bringing her head up from Sheldon's shoulder to see where she was going. Sheldon scooped her bag up from the top of the stairs and pressed a hand into the small of her back, steering her toward his front door. He opened the door with his key and urged Amy to step across the threshold; just as Penny's apartment door opened and a frantic looking Penny stepped out, phone in hand.

"Amy! Thank God!"

"Penny?" Sheldon looked over at his blonde neighbour who was throwing herself at Amy and muttering something about how she and Leonard were starting to think that something terrible had happened.

"Oh Dear Lord! I completely forgot!" Amy pressed a hand over her mouth and gasped. "Leonard is waiting for me downstairs, he was going to drive me home! Oh, Penny I'm so sorry…I met Sheldon on the stairs and we started to talk…and I just forgot."

"Don't worry about it, I've told him that everything's fine…" Penny looked over at Sheldon and narrowed her eyes. "Everything is fine, isn't it?" Sheldon looked down at Amy with a soft smile, and pulled her into the curve of his body.

"Couldn't be better." He announced, dropping a tender kiss on the crown of Amy's hair and resting his hand on her waist. Penny smiled at the sight of the openly affectionate Sheldon and decided to leave the pair of them alone.

"Good, I wouldn't have wanted to lose you as a friend, Sheldon - seeing that we are close neighbours and such."

"You would have chosen Amy over me?" Sheldon asked curiously, and Penny nodded. "Good, she's a much better person than I could ever hope to be."

"Sheldon…" Amy whispered in embarrassment and Sheldon just tipped her chin up with one lean finger and dropped a light kiss on her surprised mouth.

"Ssh, you know I'm right about this… Come on, let's get warmed up and we can take that nap, later on we'll grab some lunch and then we can have that long overdue talk." Sheldon nudged Amy inside, closing the door firmly behind them. Before it shut completely, Penny heard Amy murmur something softly which made Sheldon give a rather unSheldon-like chuckle and she pressed her ear closer to the door wanting to hear more. The door suddenly re-opened for Sheldon to pop his head around the corner.

"Amy thought you might be listening still…"

"Bestie…I said that Sheldon remarked earlier that talking was overrated anyway…right before he kissed the stuffing right out of me." Amy yelled across from the hallway and Sheldon glanced back over his shoulder as a damp cardigan came flying toward him, he retracted his head with a shy grin and gave Penny a slight wave, before she heard the distinctive sound of the lock falling into place and the deadbolt being slid across the door.

"Well…that was certainly a side of Shamy that I never thought I'd see."

"What was that?" Leonard's curious voice coming back up the stairs had Penny turning to greet her fiancé with a smile.

"Sheldon and Amy…I think they're going to be okay."

"Oh good. What makes you so sure? I mean, Amy was pretty upset when she left here."

"Probably because he kissed the stuffing out of her…twice…and he's just dead bolted the apartment door after Amy threw her cardigan at him."

"Ooh, kinky!" Leonard murmured sarcastically as he pulled Penny into the curve of his body, she pressed a soft kiss against his cheek and murmured into his ear.

"That would be like me throwing my panties at you…remember this is Sheldon and Amy we're talking about here." Leonard leant back a little and looked at Penny, before glancing over at the locked apartment door.

"Wait…you think that they…Sheldon and Amy? Really?"

"He wrapped his arm around her and kissed her right in front of me, Leonard. It was truly beautiful." Penny sniffed a little as tears formed behind her eyes as she remembered how tenderly Sheldon cradled Amy against him. Leonard rubbed his thumb under her eyes, removing the stray teardrop and clasped Penny's hand in his own as he led her across the hallway into their own apartment.

"Come on, let's go back to bed and make our own beautiful moment."

"Sweetie, you say the most romantic thing sometimes." All thoughts of Sheldon and Amy disappeared as Leonard leant forward and pressed a tender kiss against his fiancée's soft lips and the two of them walked slowly into the bedroom, closing the door firmly behind them.