Rendezvous (takes place after The Thinking Engine)

"Wait! How about I read it aloud for your pleasure?" Sheldon asked quickly, his heart hammering. Perhaps he should have opened with that essential detail. Why else would he be interested in her poorly written, historically inaccurate smut?

There was a pause as Amy bent back down toward her screen. "Seriously?"

He shrugged. "Do you want me to?" he whispered.

"Only if you want," she replied softly.

Licking his lips, Sheldon said, "Maybe we should make ourselves comfortable first?"

"Sheldon Cooper, I love you so much," Amy said.

He raised an eyebrow. "Just remember that when you're imagining yourself in that musty library screaming Mr. Darcy's name. Switching to the iPad . . . "

Years ago, on their first Christmas Eve as a married couple, Amy had discovered Love Actually on Netflix and cajoled Sheldon into cuddling and watching it with her, the room lit only by the bulbs of the Christmas tree. It perhaps didn't need to be said that Sheldon hated the movie. He huffed and sighed and squirmed to the point Amy almost volunteered to turn it off. However, her favorite scene of all was the very end, when all the couples and families reunited at the airport with so much joy and so many smilies and hugs. Although Sheldon not-peacefully suffered through until the very last, Amy never asked him to watch it again with her.

Now, airports were not joyous for her at all. She had seen far too many in the past few months. The accolades that came with her discovery were thrilling, of course, but they didn't make up for lonely hours on the road without her husband, without her family. There were no smiles in the TSA lines. There was no hug from the taciturn driver that invariably met her with a sign, even at the Burbank Bob Hope Airport to take her home. The driver and the closer, smaller airport were perks provided by Caltech for their newest star researcher. But she would have gladly exchanged them for just another week at home.

So Sheldon was the last person she expected to be waiting for her at the arrival lounge. He, too, was holding a sign, but it said 'Dr. Fowler, Genius.'

Her face broke open and she ran toward him, throwing herself at him, just like she was in Love Actually, ignoring his wwmmmphhh and the crumpling of the sign as they collided. "It's you!"

"Goodness!" he said, giving in and wrapping his arms around her. "Do you meet all your drivers this way? Exactly what kind of services is our employer offering these days?"

"I'm so happy to see you!" Amy gushed and tilted her head back to look into his grin. "What are you doing here? It's a Friday morning, you should be at work." She backed away slightly.

Sheldon shrugged. "I took the day off and canceled the car service. I wanted to surprise you. To welcome you home." He glanced away, his eyes searching, before he bent down and whispered "I missed you" just before giving her a brief, gentle kiss.

"Oh, Sheldon," Amy breathed out, pulling him back and kissing him longer, harder.

He tugged back, embarrassed, she knew, because they were in public. "Have you been reading more of that smut on the airplane?"

"Oh, no. I'm only going to let you read it aloud to me from now on," she purred.

Flushing pink, Sheldon said, "Come on, let's get your suitcase. Please tell me you have a suitcase to retrieve."

Amy laughed, put her free hand in his while trapping her carryon with other, and followed him to baggage claim. Happy and pleased, she chatted about her recent trip, about the weather in Chicago, about other new things she learned at the conference, answering Sheldon's questions as he drove them home. He told her about his week with Ada in more detail, about tidbits of gossip and information he had picked up about their friends.

All of the weariness of the recent week melted away by the time they made it home, and her heart lifted that way it always did at the sight of their abode. Here, where her heart resided. She had no sooner stopped moving than Belle wound her herself in and around her legs, purring loudly. Amy reached down and ran her hand along the cat's silky fur, cooing, "Well, hello, cutie. I'm happy to see you, too!"

Once Belle left her to go curl up somewhere, Amy wondered over to the corner of the dining table, where Sheldon had left the mail carefully stacked for her inspection.

"I presume we're still going over to Leonard and Penny's tonight?" she asked, picking up the first catalog.

"Do you not want to?" Sheldon asked, coming to stand beside her.

Amy shrugged. "No, it's fine. There's time for a nap first. And a hot bath. That's really what I want. Besides, Ada would be disappointed if we didn't go."

"Beyond disappointed," Sheldon said.

Then she felt him brushing her hair away from her neck and a soft kiss landed there. "I missed you."

"So you said," Amy said with a small smile, her eyes leaving the catalogue page. She turned around to look at him. "I missed you, too."

She reached up to cradle his face in his hands. As much as she enjoyed their FaceTime chats, nothing was a good as seeing him and touching him in person. Pulling him down, she touched her lips to his and enjoyed the feel of them for a moment before she opened her lips. He understood her cue and wrapped his arms about her as he met her tongue, gently at first and then urgently. They broke away with a pant, and Sheldon rested his head against hers.

"I missed that, too. All the reading in the world isn't as good as that," Amy said. She had thoroughly enjoyed Sheldon's recitation of that silly M-rated fanfiction to her the other night. She wasn't quit sure how he kept it together, his voice so soothing and strong and, yes, sensual even as she had turned the iPad camera off and pleasured herself to the sound of his voice. Although she hadn't muted her end of the conversation, there had only been the pause in his reading while she climaxed to give away that he'd heard her. She assumed he'd waited for his own pleasure until the call was over. "How about we take that nap together now?"

"Mmmmm," he said. "There's something I want to tell you first."

"Okay."

"I want you to know that I've given a lot of thought to Sherlock Holmes and Watson since Book Club -"

"Sherlock Holmes and Watson?" Amy raised her eyebrows in surprise, pulling away slightly.

"I want you to know that, although it is has not been or does not constitute my plan even at this time, I would be honored to be Watson to your Sherlock. Your genius astounds me, Amy. It always has. It's what I loved first, you know, that beautiful mind of yours." He looked down and shrugged. "I could not be more proud and happy for you right now. I am content to live in your shadow, and I apologize if it did not sound that way at Book Club."

"Sheldon, Sheldon," Amy murmured, picking his chin back up with her fingertips. "I don't want you to live in my shadow. I only want you to burn in the passionate fire of my love."

He looked at her a minute, blinking calmly and then he nodded. "I intend to continue to strive for my own break-through discovery."

"I'd be very concerned if you didn't. After all, Watson is the one who became famous for his writings."

He smiled then, and Amy pulled him in for a hug. "Did you take the day off of work just to tell me that?"

"That's not all. I may have thought about burning in the passionate fire of your love. Which, it seems you've forgotten about my memory, little lady." She loved listening the way his voice rumbled through his chest. "I seem to remember some burning in the passionate fire of love in the library at Netherfield at midnight in a certain story."

Amy chuckled into his chest. "Okay, you caught me. It is an awfully cheesy line, isn't it?"

"Yes," Sheldon said. Then he leaned down even closer, and blew hot breath into her ear, a sure way to make her skin tingle. "It was perhaps the worst line in anything we have ever read," he whispered.

She managed to hiccup a little chuckle just before his lips moved to find hers, and she met them eagerly, hungrily, in the way she had been aching to kiss him ever since that night in the hotel room. Her hands went around his neck, pulling him closer, burying themselves in his dark hair. One by one, his fingers had worked their magic on the buttons of her cardigan, and now his palms slid up and over her bosom to her shoulders to push the sweater down her arms.

Pulling back, Amy said, "The bedroom?"

"Why?" Sheldon murmured. "There are book shelves right here. And a table. Alas! no maps or globe."

Giggling as his lips captured her neck, Amy said, "Are you attempting to recreate a certain fanfiction? I'm not sure I have the stamina for that."

"And you're not a nervous but eager virgin named Elizabeth, either," Sheldon said, unbuttoning her blouse now, even as her cardigan remained hanging open. "And I fear I don't have the sardonic wit of Mr. Darcy, although I'm better looking. I suggest -" he kissed her gently "- a variation. And I'm not just talking about reality or the laws of physics as applied to the act of lovemaking."

"Oh, a variation?" Amy purred, snaking her hands under his tee shirts. "What did you have in mind?"

"First of all, please tell me this bra unhooks in the front."

Amy reached up and unclasped the front of her bra with a chuckle, just as Sheldon grunted his approval into another kiss. When his thumbs made contact with her nipples, she moaned into his mouth as her back arched. They circled as his palms cupped her breasts, sending wave after wave of strong arousal though her.

"Amy," Sheldon finally said, breaking the kiss. He moved his hands so that they were on her sides and lifted her slightly. "Sit on the table."

"Okay, but no split bamboo for me today. My hip is little sore -"

He pulled away. "Are you injured? What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong." She shook her head and put her hand on his chest. "I just got stiff on airplane. You know, sitting too long in one position, those seats are so uncomfortable and it was freezing. That's it, I promise. It already feels almost normal being up walking around."

Sheldon's eyes searched hers. "If you're sure, shall we continue?"

She could not comply fast enough. Already Sheldon's hands were smoothing up her knees, her thighs, lifting her skirt as they treaded up her body, finding her underwear. Preparing to lift her bottom so he could slide them, Sheldon ran the back of his hand between her legs instead. She shivered in anticipation as her legs parted wider on instinct and reached for his belt buckle. Quickly, she loosened his belt and unzipped his pants. Sheldon let go of her just long enough to push everything to the floor, kicking off his shoes in the process.

"Amy." He whispered it again, pushing her back carefully, until he was leaning over, first kissing her lips and then moving his lips slowly down her neck, along the exposed section of collarbone, and then capturing one of her breasts in his mouth. Amy gasped. Oh, yes, she'd missed this.

As he switched to the other breast, Sheldon finally reached up to her skirt to pull down her panties, letting them fall down around her ankles, and she wiggled one foot until she was able to drop them on the floor. He shifted closer, rising up off of her to pull her hips closer and then she welcomed him with a deep moan. "Oh, Sheldon."

He leaned down again, kissing her softly, even as he found a rhythm and whispered, "You have no idea how hard it's been waiting for this."

"Pun intended?"

"I don't even know." His lips smacked into her again in a frenzy as he increased the pace. Amy met him with just has much eagerness, tasting, enjoying the delights of Sheldon giving to her in so many different ways, one of his palms even holding her breast in its gentle grasp.

"Amy. Oh, Amy," he moaned as he he pulled away, and Amy looked at him carefully, his eyes shutting. "Wait." Everything stopped. "I'm sorry -"

"Shhh, Sheldon, shhh," she soothed, running her palm down his face. "It's good. Let yourself go." She wanted him to know that his body and his pleasure really were enough for her. It was now clear from his pace that he'd denied himself any release until this moment, which she did not entirely understand but knew was an act of love for him. So great was his love and desire and need, that he'd even left his tee shirts on, though normally he hated being half-dressed.

Shaking his head, Sheldon leaned back, one hand finding it's way between them, making contact, causing her back to arch. Then he started again, thrusting with his hips at the same rapid pace he touched her, kneading her gratification into a tight little knot.

"Oh, Amy, nooooo," he groaned, he lip curling and his head going back just before he slumped forward slightly, his hand falling way from her. He panted above. "I'm so sorry."

Close enough she could touch him now, Amy pulled him down into a hug. "Please don't be. This is enough for me, it really is."

"No," he shook her arms off as he leaned back again. "You know I can't leave it like this."

She could have argued, but she wouldn't. And not for selfish reasons, but because she knew Sheldon's pleasure was so closely tied to her own. He would not be fully satisfied until she was. Everything started again, even the thrusts. She wasn't sure how long he'd be able to maintain it, but maybe the friction alone would be enough for him. She put her head back and gave into Sheldon pleasuring her, even better than all that she'd imagined that night in the hotel room. That wasn't a lie she told him: she really did always imagine him when she read those stories, not anyone else.

Then, at last, she felt it come, the giant burst of pleasure, every time even better than she remembered, and she cried out all of her joy, only stopping when Sheldon collapsed against her. Amy wrapped her arms around him and kissed his glistening forehead. "Thank you."

"That's what I missed most," he panted. "The sound of your climax. In person."

"I love you."

He lifted his head and smiled down at her. "I love you, too. Now, I believe something was said about a hot shower and nap?"

Amy nodded. She didn't even correct him that it was a bath, not a shower, because she knew that this was his subtle method of getting his own way. It didn't matter. A hot shower followed by a nap with Sheldon was worth giving up a bath for.

Suddenly, a memory came to her and she burst out laughing, her head rolling against the wooden surface.

"What?"

"It occurs to me that we just literally put coitus on the table," she said, grinning up at him.

First his eyebrows dipped and then they went up. "It seems we did." Then they dipped again. "What were we thinking? We have to eat there! Where's the bleach?! I have to sanitize it!"

In one swift move, he ran away from her in his stocking feet, his tee shirt hems not covering his adorable little bottom. Amy sat up, her open bra and blouse fluttering around her and laughed some more at the sight of him fleeing half-naked across the room.

"At least put some pants on before you use that caustic chemical so close to your naughty bits!" she yelled after him.

Thank you in advance for your reviews!

Speaking of reviews, I did receive emails with the guest reviews on the last chapter of Book Club. However, several of them never appeared on the review page for that story, for reasons I cannot explain. I suspect a problem with this website. Please know your kind thoughts weren't lost; instead, they were very much appreciated.