Puzzles

Amy didn't know how they got to her couch. Sheldon must have walked her there at some point. The last thing she remembered was closing the door on Dave with her foot. Their lips had hardly separated since and she had let herself get completely lost in the kiss.

However it happened, she and Sheldon where now sitting on her couch, still clinging to each other, but their kisses were starting to slow down. They were both breathless. When their mouths parted for the last time, Sheldon still didn't let her go, opting instead to just hold her, her head tucked under his chin. After all these years, and after she'd thought she'd lost him forever, she was finally getting the physical contact she was craving from him. It made her feel lightheaded.

"Sheldon?" She was hesitant to break the peaceful silence between them, but she knew she had to say something.

"Hmm?"

"I want you to know I don't have any feelings for Dave," she said. "I only asked him over tonight because I was trying to move on from you rejecting me on Thanksgiving. I probably shouldn't have."

Sheldon nodded. "It's alright," he told her. "I did some ill-advised things while trying to get over you too."

"Like what?" she asked, pulling back from him a bit to see his face.

"Well, there was that girl at the bar I tried to ask out," he said. "When she didn't understand what I was saying, I asked her grandmother instead." Amy giggled, imagining the looks on their faces. "Her grandmother turned me down."

"I let Penny talk me into letting her pierce my ears herself when she and Bernadette suggested I change my look," Amy offered. "One of them got infected." She felt Sheldon try to shift away from her at that confession but she held him fast. "It's not infected anymore."

"I had an emotional outburst on camera and now Wil Wheaton is putting it into a documentary." Sheldon countered. Amy made a mental note to ask Wil if she could have the footage.

"When my mom found out we broke up, she demanded I sit in the closet to think about what I did. She was so angry, it didn't even occur to me to refuse, I just did it."

"I tried to go back in time to 2003."

"I drank nothing but Strawberry Quik for a whole week straight."

"I asked Howard and Raj to help lure you back to me. They devised a series of puzzles in a sort of scavenger hunt leading to my contact information and put it on Craigslist, but you never saw it."

"What?"

"They didn't know that's what they were doing," he explained. "I told them since they were the ones who originally found you, they could help me find a new girlfriend. But I really was hoping they would find you again. The puzzles were extremely difficult, I was so sure nobody but you would be smart enough to solve them."

"You thought I would be smart enough to solve the puzzles but not smart enough to recognize your contact information and realize you were behind it?" she asked him, shaking her head but smiling.

"Well, I thought in the process of solving the puzzles you'd remember how great I am and fall back in love with me." Amy sat back and looked into his eyes with a mixture of love and regret for all she had put him through. "It wasn't the perfect plan, but then again, what do you expect when you're collaborating with Wolowitz?"

"So what happened?" she asked.

"Like I said, they posted it on Craigslist, and we gave it a deadline. A woman did show up, but it was after time ran out, so I turned her away." Amy laughed a little in surprise.

"Just like that?"

"Of course. The deadline was stated in the post, she shouldn't have even bothered knocking on my door. Plus, she called atomic spectroscopy boring, so clearly a person with no taste. And, most importantly, she wasn't you." Amy's eyes misted over.

"Oh, Sheldon . . ."

He was going to say more, but her lips were on his again. Normally he hated to leave a thought unfinished, but for once he let it go. There would be more time to talk later. Amy may not have shown up at his door on that Saturday night, but now he had shown up at hers, and he wasn't about to let another Saturday go to waste.

Author's Note:

I hardly ever rewatch the early season 9 episodes because I cannot handle angst and I cannot physically sit still when they're on. (That's healthy and normal, right?) But the other day a rerun of The Mystery Date Observation came on, and for whatever reason I left it on, and while I was pacing back and forth in my living room I thought about this. I really do believe, consciously or unconsciously, Sheldon wanted Amy to be the one to solve the puzzles. Maybe he didn't realize it until he opened the door and it wasn't her, but I think that's the true reason he turned Vanessa away. I know the presence of a Klingon translation element is sort of evidence to the contrary, but I still don't think it's out of the question.

On a side note, while writing this I also realized Sheldon did a lot more dumb things than Amy while they were apart. I think. Again, I don't rewatch early season 9 that often. I was going to have them swap more stories but I didn't want to make up more stuff for Amy.

Thanks for your continued support!