Author's Note:

I'll start by apologizing for taking so long to update this. That was not my intention when I started this fic, but I was in kind of a weird place for a few months and couldn't make myself focus on it. But I'm feeling better now and hopefully it won't happen again. Thank you all for your patience. I hope you'll like this new chapter.

As always, thank you to my beta reader Stark and also Uri for looking this over. I appreciate all your support!

Chapter Two

The phone rang and Amy's eyes cracked open. She rolled over onto her back in her bed. It was early Sunday morning and the whole day stretched out ahead of her, full of promise.

She rolled back over and pulled the bedcovers over her head as the phone continued to ring.

This early it could only be her mother calling. Ever since Faisal's accident, she called multiple times a week to check on her, usually while weeping. Amy was pretty sure her mother took the passing of her fiancé and the subsequent canceled wedding harder than she herself did.

It wasn't that Amy didn't care about Faisal, but what her mother didn't know was that the whole engagement was really more of a business transaction than anything romantic. A way to secure funding for her research indefinitely. Faisal was nice enough, and some might even describe him as handsome and charming, and he was intelligent enough to invest in her work, but Amy didn't love him. Perhaps Faisal had felt differently, but she had never asked him. When she accepted his proposal, she had assumed the engagement would drag on for years and maybe never actually end in marriage. He surprised her by insisting she come to Riyadh once her last study at UCLA wrapped up to begin their wedding preparations. The accident happened within her first week there.

Thus she was thrown into an international legal mess. Because she had not married Faisal yet, any claim she had to his riches was in dispute. In the end, she reached an agreement with his surviving family. They knew of Faisal's long-time interest and support of scientific research and arranged to provide Amy with a large monthly sum that could be put towards her own research or donated to other projects as she saw fit.

It was a very generous arrangement, all things considered. Actually, it was pretty much what she had been hoping for with their marriage, with the added bonus of removing the awkward interpersonal aspects. And thankfully she had not broken her apartment lease like Faisal recommended, so she was able to return to more or less the same life she had before, just significantly richer.

The ringing stopped as her voicemail picked up, but then it started again just a few seconds later. Amy groaned and blindly groped for her phone on her nightstand, knowing her mom probably wouldn't stop until she picked up.

"Mother, I'm really not in the mood right now," she answered, still laying in bed.

"Dr. Fowler?" a male voice responded.

"President Siebert!" Amy quickly sat up and reached for her glasses. "My apologies, I, uh, wasn't expecting your call."

"Dr. Fowler, I would just like to offer my deepest, sincerest apologies again on behalf of Dr. Cooper. I hope his behavior last night hasn't tarnished your impression of Caltech."

Amy frowned. Siebert had spent a large part of the previous evening making that same apology. The words seemed effortless and thoroughly thought out. Practiced. As if he'd had to make the similar apologies to others before her. It had only served to make her wonder why they would keep someone like Dr. Cooper on staff.

Her curiosity got the better of her, and she looked him up before preparing for bed. As it turned out, Dr. Sheldon Cooper truly was a genius, a child prodigy, celebrated with numerous awards. Perhaps his claims that night about his time being better spent solving the mysteries of the universe were actual truth, not just his own grandiose opinion of himself.

It was fascinating, really. And infuriating. He was easily the most interesting person she spoke with at the fundraiser, definitely better than the geologist she was introduced to after who followed her around like a lost puppy the rest of the night. But how could she consider donating to fund the research of someone who so openly scorned her field and insulted her to her face?

"Tell me, is this Dr. Cooper incapable of apologizing himself?" she asked.

"Dr. Fowler, let me assure you, Dr. Cooper is very sorry about last night."

"Then I think he should be the one to tell me."

There was a heavy pause before President Siebert responded.

"Very well. We'll be in touch."

Amy flopped back down on her bed as soon as he hung up, once again closing her eyes. Situations like this made her long to go back to being just a regular scientist, not an heiress. The phone in her hand started ringing again before she could reminisce too much, though, and she answered it again without looking.

"President Siebert, what is it now?"

"Amy? Who is President Siebert? Are you seeing another man?" her mother's voice came from the phone. Amy cursed inwardly.

"No, mother."

"Oh, Amy, I know it's hard, but you can't wait too long. You're not getting any younger. Don't let your grief over your first failed marriage stop you. Didn't you say you were going to a party last night? Did you meet any nice young men there?"

An image of Dr. Cooper popped into her head unbidden. Amy rolled over onto her stomach and pulled the covers back up over her head again.

The phone rang in apartment 4A while Sheldon was finishing up breakfast.

"Hello?" he answered.

"Dr. Cooper, just the man I wanted to speak with," President Siebert said on the other line.

"With whom you wanted to speak," Sheldon corrected. "And that's the first time you've ever said that to me."

"I'll cut right to the chase," Siebert pressed on. "I'm arranging a dinner Tuesday night, Dr. Fowler will be there. You are going to go and apologize to her, fix whatever it was you did at the fundraiser last night, and make sure she knows Caltech is a prestigious institution on the cutting edge of research in multiple fields."

"I don't see why you simply can't pass that sentiment along to her yourself."

"I tried, Dr. Cooper. Believe me, I tried. It has to be you."

Sheldon sighed. "Very well, when and where shall I meet you?"

"Unfortunately, I won't be able to attend. It's my mother-in-law's birthday on Tuesday and my wife will kill me if I skip out on her. No, you'll go with Dr. Hofstadter."

As if on cue, Leonard walked into the kitchen just then in his robe and began rummaging through the fridge.

"Did you use the last of our milk?" he asked.

"Blame Penny, we would have had enough if she would refrain from stealing from us."

"Is Dr. Hofstadter there? Please put him on," Siebert said, still on the line, making Sheldon turn his attention back to the phone.

"President Siebert, I still don't see how—"

"Just put him on the phone, I want to explain the situation to him."

"Alright."

Sheldon passed the phone over to Leonard, who gave him a confused look before taking it. He watched him talk while he brought his empty plate to the sink. Leonard was answering in the affirmative, satisficer that he was, so Sheldon knew he had lost any hope of getting out of the dinner now.

How did these things always happen to him? How had making one appearance at a fundraising event now turned into a follow-up dinner? Where would it end? When was he ever supposed to get any work done?

The guys had explained to him last night, after he gave a full recount of their conversation, how the things he said to Dr. Fowler were insulting. He didn't really think it should count if what he said was also the truth, but after they returned home he took the liberty of looking up Dr. Fowler on the internet, and even he had to admit he may have underestimated her. She was involved in some fascinating studies prior to her engagement debacle, which just went to show how nothing good ever came from romantic endeavors. It was too bad Dr. Fowler hadn't realized that, if she had it would have saved him from his current predicament. As it was, even if he may have been wrong to dismiss her intelligence, he had no desire to look her in her pretty green eyes and admit that.

"Alright, we're meeting Dr. Fowler Tuesday night at the Athenaeum at 7," Leonard told him, hanging up the phone.

"So now I have to forego my Tuesday night burger at the Cheesecake Factory for this woman," Sheldon complained.

"I'm sure it won't be that bad."

"That's what you people said about the fundraiser, and look where we are."

"Come on, you've wanted to be a member of the Athenaeum club for years," Leonard said. "And Siebert said Howard and Raj can come too."

"Hmm . . ."

"We'll show up, talk some science, have some good food, you'll do some groveling, and it will be over before you know it," Leonard assured him. Sheldon still had his doubts, but decided for the time being to save his breath. If they were expecting him to grovel to Dr. Fowler, then he would probably need it.