Author's Note:

Probably about time I update this, huh?

I originally planned on dumping all my short Shamy one shots into this collection, but as you may have noticed, I kind of changed my mind on that. It's been brought to my attention that people don't really like story collections like that since they're hard to search though, which I can understand. Personally I kind of like them though, as long as there's a theme, so I'm just going to use this for canon-compliant missing scene one shots. And that's what this is.

Shoutout to my beta reader Stark who forgot the Isolation Permutation exists and didn't know what I was talking about for most of this.

Cuddles

"I'm just saying, second base is right there."

But why did she have to say that? It was already hard enough for Sheldon to be on the couch with her settled in his arms, and now he was hyper-aware of the fact that he could feel her breasts pressed against his side. Even worse, she was soft and warm and he was finding it not wholly unpleasant. Alarm bells went off in his head.

Sheldon cursed himself for being unable to leave things with Amy well enough alone. He could have taken her lack on communication with him in stride, assumed she was busy, and gone on with the evening he had planned. Except no, he couldn't. Not when he made communicating with her part of his daily routine. Not when she had never failed to respond to his messages before.

Sheldon had realized early on in their friendship that Amy was alone, alone in a way that he himself had not been for many years. She did not have a roommate, she did not have friends, she did not have a close relationship with her parents, and she was only on nodding terms with her neighbors. No one was checking in on her regularly. If something were to happen to her, it was likely no one would find out until her boss reported her missing from work. By that time, it could be too late. And while he did find it admirable that she waited until she found someone actually worthy of her to befriend, it was dangerous to live this way.

He remembered well what it had been like for him when he first came to California all alone, after Tam had abandoned him. His mother of course called frequently in those days, but she was so far away it didn't do him much good. He managed his anxiety by throwing himself into his work and being careful to take no unnecessary risks. He eventually did have roommates, but he never felt he could trust any of them in an emergency. It had been a huge relief when Leonard came into the picture. Despite his many shortcomings, Leonard was loyal and decent and Sheldon knew he could count on him for help.

And so in turn that is what he did for Amy, and he was happy to do it, because Amy was remarkable. If any harm were to befall her, it would be a devastating blow to the scientific community. So they had their Words of the Day and shared puns and invented games, and through these things he could remain in regular contact with her and rest assured that she was safe.

When she had stopped responding after lunch that day, he knew that she was in trouble and he had to help. But this was not the kind of trouble he had imagined, and this was not the kind of help he had ever expected to give. He would have been more comfortable fighting off the bobcat.

Amy shifted against him slightly and nuzzled into his chest. Her breath hitched a little when she inhaled, he could both hear it and feel it, though he wasn't sure if it was because she was holding back a sob or something else. What he did know was it caused a surge of unfamiliar emotion in him. Having her so close was triggering some sort of latent, caveman instinct to protect her, something that he should have evolved past. The alarm bells went off in his head again. This was getting out of hand.

He knew he should push her off of him, that that would stop these feelings, but he couldn't make himself do it. He had already negotiated her down from love-making to cuddling, and if she wasn't sufficiently comforted by this then who knew what she might demand from him next. He made a mistake by not setting a time limit first. And he also made a mistake by not keeping Amy all to himself. If he had never started inviting her to activities with the rest of his friend group, this evening could have been avoided. He should never have listened to Penny and invited her to dinner last year.

Penny. This was all Penny's fault. Her and Bernadette. First for tainting Amy with all their girly foolishness, and then for ditching her. He would give them each two strikes. Actually, he might as well skip all that and make them take his class again, this was completely unacceptable behavior on their part. He'd have to have a word with Leonard and Wolowitz too. Things had to be set right.

"Your heart is beating really fast," she commented, bringing him out of his thoughts. Of course she would notice that, her ear was positioned almost directly above his heart. He didn't like it. His body was betraying him and he couldn't even hide it.

"Did you know one of my colleagues is interested in researching whether heart rates synchronize in pair-bonded individuals?" she continued after he didn't offer any comment.

"What would be the purpose of researching that?" he asked. He felt Amy shrug in his arms.

"He hasn't gotten funding for his study yet."

"That funding could be better used elsewhere."

"Perhaps."

He looked down at her still resting on his chest to find her eyes turned up to look at him, and suddenly he remembered another evening spent on her couch not so long ago, when she had leaned in and kissed him. It did nothing to help calm his racing heart.

"Thank you for coming to check on me," she said after a few moments. They didn't break eye contact. "I thought I wanted to be alone, but that wasn't what I needed. You're a good friend."

You're a good friend.

He'd heard that before, on yet another evening not so long ago, when she had rejected Zack and left the bar with him. When she had held his hand.

All this unnecessary touching on nights where they ended up alone together. How did this keep happening? Why was he such a good friend?

They still didn't break eye contact.

"Amy?" he kept his voice low.

"Yes?"

"Have you received a sufficient amount of physical contact to restore your emotional stability?"

She blinked, then tilted her head slightly, considering.

"Yes, I believe so. Thank you."

She pulled away from him, but the feelings evoked by having her so close seemed to linger, though he realized sometime during their exchange his heart rate had slowed. That was not what Sheldon was expecting. Amy's next request, however, prevented him from thinking about it further.

"Would you like to listen to me play my harp now?"

Sheldon sighed. It was going to be a long night.

"Will you get me a beverage first?"

End Note:

There actually have been studies about heartbeats synchronizing in couples (there is evidence for this), but I was having trouble determining whether any were published before this episode aired, so I couldn't reference them directly. Such are the struggles of being a BBT fic writer.