Amy turned around from filling the kettle as Sheldon walked back into the apartment carrying the groceries.

"Bread, milk and juice all courtesy of the blonde breakfast thief in 4B. Did you finish the cheese?" Sheldon placed the milk and juice back in the fridge and turned around to see Amy standing directly behind him. "Whoa…I nearly knocked you off your feet."

"You did that ten years ago, and I've never been the same since. Sheldon…I want to come home…" Amy said tearfully and Sheldon's breath hitched in his throat. "I've hated being without you for all of these years…I thought you didn't want me anymore, you never replied to any of my letters and I've been so lonely."

"What letters?" Sheldon asked slowly. "I never received any letters from you. I told you this morning that I spend a long time trying to find you but I was looking under the wrong name…all you had to do was to contact Harvard or my family and they would have told you where I was in a heartbeat."

"Come and sit down, Sheldon and I'll try to explain." Amy held out her hand and Sheldon let her lead him over to the couch. When they were settled, Amy clasped his hand tightly and took a steadying breath. "This is going to be hard for me to explain so please try to remain calm and let me finish."

"Alright, I'm calm."

"When mother and I got back to California she decided that it was time to move out of the house that she shared with Daddy; I was still feeling a little blue so I agreed to help her find a new place in Glendale. I wrote to Harvard asking them to forward on our new address and mother posted it for me. A couple of weeks passed and I didn't hear anything so I wrote again, still nothing. I decided to write to your Mama to try and find out where you were but when nothing came back I thought that you had given up on me."

"Amy…darling…I didn't receive any of your letters, I swear!" Sheldon was distraught at the fact that his own family would have been cruel enough to hide the letters from him, even though he had been living with Meemaw at the time.

"I know that now, sweetheart." Amy assured him with a loving smile and then her smile faded away. "I know…because I found out that she never sent a single one of them."

"Who?"

"My mother." Amy admitted, twisting her fingers together in her lap. "She got sick about a year ago and I moved back to take care of her…heart failure…"

"I'm so sorry," Sheldon placed his hand over Amy's and let it rest on top of her fingers. She tilted her hand over so that their fingers could entwine and carried on.

"She passed away about a month ago and I started clearing out her things so that I could put the house up for sale. I found a box with all of the letters that I had written to you all neatly bundled up; she never sent them. I was so angry that I practically tore her bedroom apart looking for a note or diary, something that might explain how she could have done something like that…but there was nothing. I thought about writing to your family again, but it had been so many years and I didn't know where to begin."

"That's understandable, I guess." Sheldon said softly as he played with the ring finger on her left hand, stroking his finger over where her little diamond ring had once rested.

"What, that I was angry with my Mother? Or that I was too much of a coward to write to yours?" Amy asked as her finger rubbed against the slight callous that still remained at the base of his ring finger. Sheldon didn't reply, just let her continue to vent. "This afternoon when I left here, I got a call from the new owners. They found another box…this one had your letters inside, Mother had opened them all and read them but never told me that you had written. I don't know how she managed to slip them past me, I practically stalked the mailman every day certain that you would write."

"I still have them." Sheldon said suddenly and Amy blinked in confusion. "Our rings…you had to take yours off when your fingers started to swell up. You never put them back on afterwards, I still have them…perhaps they'll fit better now."

"Sheldon, are you saying what I think you're saying?"

"I'm saying that it doesn't matter what your Mother's reasons were; you know that she loved you and we found each other again despite all of the odds."

"I love you, Sheldon Lee Cooper."

"And I love you Amelia Farrah Cooper." Sheldon nuzzled his cheek over Amy's hair and breathed in her familiar scent, taking it deep into his lungs. "I'm not saying that we should pretend the last ten years never happened and jump straight back into married life…but what if we were to take things slowly? Have that grand romance that we never had the first time around?"

"I would say…that sounds absolutely perfect; with one slight amendment."

"Just the one?" Sheldon leant back and smiled down at Amy, knowing that she always had to tinker with his schemes.

"Okay, maybe two." She grinned and added a second finger to her first.

"Go on…"

"One…I want us to put our rings back on and agree never to take them off again." Amy looked into Sheldon's eyes and saw them begin to glow with feeling and he nodded.

"Agreed…my finger's felt awfully bare without it being there. What's your second request?"
"We agree to put sex on the back burner, but I still want to be able to go to sleep in your arms and see your face over the funny pages every morning as we eat breakfast."

"Did I happen to mention how much I adore the way you tinker with my plans until they in no way resemble my own?" Sheldon asked as he smiled softly at his adorable wife.

"You approve?"

"Wholeheartedly." And to seal the deal, Sheldon leant over to capture Amy's mouth in a tender, yet perfectly chaste kiss. "Wait here." He whispered as soon as he lifted his head and Amy nodded, not intending on moving from that very spot. Sheldon walked around the back of the couch to pull down a vivid green ceramic figurine from the bookcase.

"That doesn't look very much like the Green Lantern from your comic books." Amy remarked as he sat down back in his spot and started unscrewing the base of the figure.

"Unfortunately it's based on the dismal movie version rather than the comic…fortunately for us, it was such a disaster that no one would even think twice about stealing it; which is why I store my valuables inside his buttocks." Sheldon started pulling out rolls upon rolls of banknotes and piling them on Amy's lap, she started laughing as she mentally calculated just how much 'loose change' Sheldon was still squirreling away in the oddest of places.

"Sweetheart, there's at least five thousand dollars stuffed in his buttocks, don't you think it would be safer in a bank?"

"Nah…we were robbed a few years back; they stripped the place of electronics but left this little guy behind." Sheldon patted the figurine affectionately as his fingers rooted around for the most valuable of all of his possession. "Aha, there you are!" He pulled the object free and revealed it to be a small velvet bag. Undoing the drawstring, he tipped the contents into Amy's palm…her sparkling diamond solitaire and two matching wedding bands. Shoving the money carelessly back inside the figure, Sheldon screwed the base back in position and set it on the coffee table. Turning to face Amy, he picked up her rings and slid them gently over her knuckle.

"With this ring, I thee wed…" He murmured softly as he pressed a kiss over the bands that still fit her perfectly, just like they had done on their wedding day so long ago. Amy smiled tremulously as she picked up Sheldon's hand and slid his band on his finger.

"With this ring, I thee wed…" Amy repeated solemnly and ran her thumb over the soft gold of the band. She let out a little squeak of surprise as Sheldon scooped her up into his arms and started toward the hallway, he started humming the wedding march under his breath as he marched along.

"I thought we were taking things slow?"

"We are…but we've got ten long years of spooning to make up for; and I've missed having your cold feet against my shins."

"I didn't bring anything to wear…I must admit I didn't think things through properly when I came rushing over here." Amy rested her head against Sheldon's shoulder as he nudged his way through his bedroom door.

"We've shared pyjamas before…and I can find you a spare shirt to wear back to your place tomorrow. Tonight, can we just cuddle up in bed and not talk about the details?" Sheldon pulled out his Saturday night pyjamas from his dresser along with a clean undershirt. He hesitated a little, and then put it back, selecting a long sleeve version instead.

"Sweetheart, it's okay…I've seen them before." Amy's hands gently tugged the shirt out of his hands and replaced it back in the drawer. She pulled out a V-neck undershirt and pressed it to his chest. "Go on and get changed; I'm going to slip into the bathroom to freshen up. Can I borrow a pair of your boxers to wear under your shirt?"
"I don't wear them anymore; I changed over to briefs a few years ago…Um, there might be a pair in the closet that Leonard got me as a gag gift for my birthday." Sheldon rummaged on the shelf in his built in closet and emerged with a sealed package of comic book boxers. "Here, feel free." Amy grinned at the sight of the superhero emblazoned underwear and scooped up the pyjama top from where Sheldon had placed it on the bed.

"I've never been in bed with a superhero before." She quipped and Sheldon flicked his shirt at her as she ran giggling into the bathroom.

Coming back into the bedroom, Amy saw that Sheldon had plumped the pillows up invitingly and managed to source a second for her, remembering her preferences. He was sitting on the edge of the bed removing his wristwatch and looked up as Amy hovered in the doorway.

"You still like the left side, don't you?" He asked and Amy nodded as she made her way over to that side of the bed, sliding under the covers and smoothing them flat as she lay back against the pillows. She felt the mattress dip under Sheldon's weight and turned her head to see him mirroring her position.

"Is it strange that I feel like a virgin bride on her wedding night?" Amy asked suddenly, stretching out her hand to clutch at Sheldon's nervously. He gave a little chuckle as he nestled a little closer, slipping off Amy's glasses with his free hand and setting on his bedside table. He tugged at Amy's hand until she was resting against his shoulder.

"Not strange at all…if you think about it; we've been living separate lives for far longer than we were actually together for, so I suppose that it's only natural for us to feel a little nervous until we get used to each other again."

"Funny, I'm not nervous anymore." Amy said, nuzzling her head under her chin and bringing her hand up to rest against springy curls of his chest hair peeking above the neck of his undershirt.

"Me neither." Sheldon replied with a tired yawn, his hand slipping down to rest on the curve of her hip. "Just gonna take a little nap…" He murmured sleepily, pressing a kiss to Amy's forehead. "Love you."

"You too…" Amy murmured against his neck, one hand curled under Sheldon's shoulder and the other slipping down to hook around the elastic banding of his pyjama pants.

"Any closer and you'll be under my skin." Sheldon murmured and Amy just wriggled closer, hooking her leg over his hip and burrowing her head deeper.

"You know you love it really."

"I do…I really do." Sheldon's hand gently caressed her hip and slipped under her pyjama top until he was touching bare skin; Amy's hand had done the same, tugging his shirt free of his waistband so that her hand was touching the bare skin of his back. Murmuring in contentment the couple snuggled up closer and drifted off to sleep.