30Thirty-three words Sheldon used to describe Amy Farrah Fowler, from their first meeting to their big win. Canon. Written for the Fluff Crawlspace in honour of 10 years of digging the Shamy.
The Semantic Differences
Interesting.
If Sheldon had to pick a word to sum up Amy Farrah Fowler, that would be the one.
When Wolowitz and Koothrappali had blackmailed him into meeting a woman, supposedly his perfect match chosen 'by science' he had been sceptical to say the least.
But she had intrigued him from the start.
Besides, her expectations from this so-called date were not at all romantic – she made it clear to point that out immediately - so he saw no problem in buying her a beverage. He had no interest in romance either.
They talked rather awkwardly, but it was interesting to hear her opinions on religion, science, politics. Anything really.
Know-it-all.
That was another word to describe her. Or, if one preferred the German version: Besserwisser.
How dare she call him out, at his place of work, in front of his colleagues no less?
"Interesting. For theoretical work."
They had agreed to terminate the relationship between them; it was no use continuing this, when they had such different opinions on science and the importance of physics – physics being the obvious superior field of work.
Vixen.
Somehow, their relationship had evolved from texting to Skype calls, and Skype calls turned into dinners and lectures, and those turned into experimenting with on their friends. He was engaging in the social sciences even.
The satisfaction he felt from their experiment was unexpected, but not unwelcome. Amy claimed to be 'not quite there yet' whatever that meant.
Fascinating.
Amy's lips had been soft against his. Slightly wet, and tasting faintly of cranberry juice. Because she had been obviously drunk, she agreed rapidly to his suggestion to forget about the event altogether.
It gnawed at him, though.
At the beginning of the evening, she had tried to get him to kiss her – she was open for experimentation (her words, not his) and had kissed Penny instead. He almost didn't recognize her like this. She was so different from the woman he had met in that coffee shop, yet so similar.
His eidetic memory wouldn't let him forget the sensation of her mouth on his.
His.
Well, not 'his'. But definitely not Leonard's.
She was not for him. That much had to be clear, right? Leonard could have any girl he wanted; the neighbour, Koothrappali's sister, Leslie Winkle, even Elizabeth Plimpton. But not Amy.
She was not for him.
But if not for him, then for whom? He didn't want to think too much about that question.
Cuddles.
He guessed that word could be used to describe the both of them. He still didn't fully understand how she had managed to persuade him into an evening filled with harp music and spooning, but she had.
He had known Penny for three years before he had willingly touched her. Why was Amy different?
Sheldon scoffed. Why Amy was different was a question he couldn't possibly answer. He just knew that she was.
He hated unanswered questions.
Girlfriend.
He had tried – really, really tired – to shut off his feelings for her. To be logical about it; why he had been so incredibly jealous to hear about Amy going out with a character like Stuart of all people. Honestly, even Leonard would have been a better choice.
But he didn't want her going out with Leonard either.
So, that left him no choice but to give in. To his jealousy, and Amy's obvious cunning ways to get him there.
He just needed her off-limits to anyone else. That would quench this strange, unnerving feeling in his stomach when he thought about her with someone else.
A binding agreement would be sufficient. Thirty-one pages should do it.
Princess.
She really did look like a princess wearing the tiara.
Her lips had smashed against his again, and he hoped his shock didn't show too much. Penny was watching them.
She was looking at him wickedly, and it made Sheldon wonder if Penny had a secret plan to let the relationship between himself and Amy evolve even more.
Marie Curie.
Amy had some ridiculous idea in her head that the two of them working together would be romantic, like Madame Curie and her husband Pierre. It might have been, but she was so afraid he'd show her up, that she gave him only menial tasks to do. It was a big mood killer.
Apparently she had a right to be angry at him. He ended up apologizing to her. A real apology.
Sheldon Cooper didn't apologize, but to Amy he did.
Nurse Chapel.
The ridiculous plans she had to increase his feelings for her – just because Howard and Bernadette were getting married and Leonard and Penny had reconciled – were working. He had to admit it.
Leonard was no help. He automatically assumed that Sheldon would be sexually attracted to her, but he wasn't sexually attracted to anyone. Not even Amy.
But he kept thinking of her.
Mundane things reminded him of her for some reason, and besides that; she was being the best girlfriend he could have possibly asked for. And he hadn't even asked for a girlfriend. Arranging for him to be conductor, the spaghetti and hot dogs, the Super Mario Bros. theme. But the uniform.
He hoped Amy wouldn't cosplay ever again. It would be the death of him.
Support.
He had to endure Amy's love for anything romantic during the whirlwind wedding between Howard and Bernadette. He would never marry. The whole wedding was a waste of time really.
But he and Amy had an agreement about events such as this one – or her great-aunt's birthday – they would accompany them together. Sheldon had put that in the agreement because he couldn't handle seeing her take anyone else to another wedding ever again.
So, he endured it. For her.
The section on hand-holding in the agreement mentioned moral support during flu shots. Watching Howard being launched into space a few days later was almost the same thing, he reasoned. Even though it really wasn't.
But he needed her support for this, so he took it.
Mary Jane.
If he was a sexy praying mantis, then he didn't really know how to describe her. A lioness on the prowl? She gave him looks during dinner that made no sense to him.
When she threatened to leave him – how was he supposed to get home – if he didn't tell her something meaningful and from the heart, he had no other choice but to recite Peter Parker's declaration to Mary Jane Watson.
It was both meaningful and from the heart. And that realisation was something he would ponder for weeks to come.
His woman.
He was learning still. Sheldon had always thought he had nothing left to learn, but he was wrong. Apparently it was not okay to side with Wil Wheaton in their argument about the Fun With Flags episode. Penny made him see reason. He defended her honour, and Wil just laughed. But he had learned his lesson.
He should back her up.
She did the same for him, when Howard tried to steal his parking spot. It was nice, having something contractually bound to him who stood by him unconditionally.
It almost made him understand why people chose to marry. Almost.
Liar.
She had been dishonest with him. Taken advantage of his caring nature, because it was nice. Didn't she understand how hard the last days had been for him? He had to get over his fear of taking care of someone sick – she could be contagious – he had to touch her, rub her skin with VapoRub, bathe her…
He had done all that because he had made a commitment in writing – only because of that – and she faked being sick, because she had liked him taking care of her.
He couldn't tolerate this behaviour.
Didn't she understand how worried he had been when she didn't recover? He had been so scared for those lab results, he hadn't been able to sleep at night. She didn't even consider that.
He had no choice but to give her a corporeal punishment.
Emergency contact.
Sometimes Sheldon wondered what Amy wanted from him. According to Penny, Amy clearly wanted a physical relationship with him. He admitted to it being a possibility. That was all it was; he had not ruled it out.
Like now; cancelling the Valentine's Day plans to watch Star Trek with him? That had to be the most romantic thing she had ever done for him.
Was she expecting him to kiss her? Hug her?
It didn't matter; she ended up hugging him extremely tightly when he gave her his gift to her. He let her. It was the least he could do really.
Intimate.
She didn't see it. The intimacy between them.
Should he have been upset that they both looked at their relationship so differently? Perhaps he should try to give her more of what she wanted. A little.
He couldn't give her much – it was too new, too scary, too much – but what he could, he gave to her. Intimacy. Imaginary intimacy, but intimacy nonetheless.
Jaw-dropper.
Amy managed to ruin one of his favourite franchises. She made his jaw drop by pointing out a gigantic plot hole in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
The fact that she had spotted it and he hadn't, was even worse than the fact that he couldn't watch the movie ever again.
He tried to get back at her – and he was successful – but she pointed out that that was not the point of them. Of their relationship.
Sheldon then realised that his parents had set him such a poor example, that he worried what other things he might not be doing right.
Great.
Mr. Rostenkowski reminded him of his own father in every way: a football loving, beer drinking, big man who was protective of his only daughter.
What could have been an awful evening in which he cursed his father's untimely death and adultery, turned into a pleasant, albeit drunken night with a substitute father figure.
The alcohol caused him to behave inappropriately, and he had to apologize again.
For some reason, he asked Mr. Rostenkowski for his approval of his choice of partner. He would never be able to get his father's approval after all.
Ain't she great?
Mr. Rostenkowski thought so too, and if he approved, so would his own father. Sheldon was sure.
Trickster.
She didn't want their Valentine's Day weekend to be something they could both enjoy at all. It had all been a ploy – the vintage train, the dinner, having Howard and Bernadette with them at the Bed & Breakfast later – not so he would enjoy it, but so that she would get the romance she deserved.
Deserved.
What a strange word to use. Not 'wanted' or 'desired'. No, Amy was convinced she needed to trick him into getting the romance she deserved.
He decided to give her just that.
How was he supposed to know that kissing her would cause his heartrate to quicken and his nerves to stand on end?
Overload.
Everything was changing and it was too much. Leonard and Penny living together. The university forcing him to go back to string theory. The Comic Book store burning down.
And Amy wanting to live with him.
She must really love him. He couldn't process it. He couldn't process anything anymore.
8.2
Their relationship was superior than all the others in their social circle. Even after having gone on a train journey for a month and a half, without saying goodbye to her, theirs was still the best.
It shouldn't have surprised him, but it did.
Because Amy had wanted to move in with him fifty days ago, and he hadn't.
Because Amy obviously loved him, and even after travelling by himself for days, he wasn't sure what he felt for her.
Because Amy still wanted intimacy – actual, physical intimacy – and he didn't.
Had she cheated on the test?
Ladylove.
It had been when she had saved him from the simulated mines in the depths of Caltech that he had known for sure.
There was no other way to describe his feelings for her but love.
But the thought of spending the night with her – prom tradition or not – scared him out of his mind, and Amy looked so pretty that the image of her in his bed appeared in his head and he had to get away.
Amy seemed equally shocked to have him profess his feelings for her. Had it not been obvious?
She had torn down all his walls, little by little and now here he was.
In love.
Traitor.
Helping out another scientist. There was nothing more important than the advancement of science, but not if it was Barry Kripke who advanced in string theory with Amy's help.
There were so many things wrong with that sentence, that he didn't even know where to start.
It's interesting to see how a sudden death can put anything in perspective though, even something as heinous as Amy helping out his rival in his former field of study.
Overnight guest.
Spending the night. A sleepover.
He had been so giddy by the splendidness of their fort that he had agreed. Their relationship was advancing, and for the first time he didn't mind taking big steps.
He had a big step planned as well after all. The moment was almost there already.
Heartbreaker.
Time to take a step back to evaluate. He could give it to her, but how much time did she need? He couldn't handle the uncertainty.
But then she made it crystal clear to him.
He had never felt this kind of pain before without being inflicted physical harm.
Friend.
He was finally over her – right? – and they went to the aquarium as friends. It felt familiar, playing games and discussing anything and everything.
As her friend he could ask her about her love life, and he wished he hadn't.
She had gentleman callers knocking on her door, but none of them had taken her to bed. He didn't understand it. Wasn't that what she wanted?
But what she wanted was him as her boyfriend again, and he couldn't.
The pain had been too much.
Heartworm.
It was Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys who brought him back to her. Or maybe it was just the lyrics of a song he had heard once and his eidetic memory decided that they applied greatly to her.
And they did. Then I couldn't love, but now I can.
He did. Love her, that is.
Lover.
It made sense to go all the way with her. Especially now, after they had reunited. Her birthday was just a convenient excuse.
She had been nervous, and he had been determined but clueless, and somehow it was the best combination for the both of them and what they were doing.
He really wouldn't mind doing that again.
Roommate.
Well, perhaps 'roommate' wasn't really an accurate description. Leonard was his roommate. And Penny was his half-roommate.
Amy couldn't really qualify as roommate, because one didn't sleep in the same bed as a roommate. What was she then? His live-in girlfriend?
The semantics were something to discuss another time. This was just an experiment anyway, a temporary arrangement until her apartment was fixed. He wouldn't mind if the co-habitation experiment lasted longer than a couple weeks.
Co-worker.
They worked best when arguing. It was an interesting revelation, that brought him back to their earlier days, where they didn't agree on whose field was better – still his field obviously.
Or the days when Amy had the ridiculous idea that working together would be romantic.
They made breakthroughs though, and he couldn't help thinking back to the psychic he had once visited with Penny. Committing to Amy was best for his professional and personal life.
Fiancée.
He knew she wouldn't say no, but he was still somewhat nervous. It had been a rash decision, and he wondered if she had wanted something incredibly romantic and over-the-top, but she was as happy as he had ever seen her.
He liked seeing his grandmother's ring on her finger. And he liked calling her this even more.
Wife.
Committing to Amy – really committing to Amy – turned out to be the thing that made everything fall into place after all. It was preposterous that that psychic had been right all along, so he chose not to think about that too much.
But being able to call Amy his wife, not only made him happier than he had thought possible, it also brought a kind of calm over him that he needed to keep grounded and understand the world better.
Winner.
They both won. His life-long dream had come true because of a date with a woman chosen by science to be his perfect mate.
Dating websites were still complete hokum, obviously. He had to admit that if it weren't for Howard and Rajesh's meddling, his life would be completely different.
Thank God for that dirty sock on the roof, and Amy's promise to her mother to date at least once a year.
There was no way of knowing which words he would be using in the future to describe her. He hoped mother would be one of them.
FIN
A/N Ten years ago Sheldon and Amy had their first date. Happy anniversary everyone.
