Sorry about the delay, just getting over a 5 day migraine. Jealous? Didn't think so. It's kind of a bridge chapter. All the stuff I wrote on Migraine medicine was psycho. I may publish it later.

Usual disclaimers.

Good Morning

Amy had read the email before she went to sleep and chose not to respond. The tone was pleasing, but the content bothered her. It felt invasive. Also, frankly it was late in the relationship to be interrogating her on her past. Her past was part of who she was, but wasn't the whole story. If she'd allowed her life to be wholey shaped by events that were out of her control, she'd either be working above Bernadette directing her to create a race of zombies for profit or just mad sciencing around the globe as an aspiring super villainess. It would all depend on cash flow, of course.

She'd decided, at a young ate, that her will was more important than nature or nurture. Amy had developed a strong personal ethical code and had even begun to see herself as human being, eventually. Sure, events from her youth had made her scared to trust people and uncomfortable in her own skin. True, that lasted 30 odd years. 30 very odd years. But she was better now.

Sheldon could be told things, he could be allowed to know things. Amy knew that. And if they were going to be together long term, he would need to know them. He'd never gossip about her. Unless it felt like he needed to help her… and then he'd go straight to Leonard or Penny then it would go viral.

It came back to that didn't it? Everything in their relationship got filtered through Leonard and Penny first. They knew he was "working" on a physical relationship with her long before she did. They also knew that Sheldon had crowed about said physical relationship to Kripke long before he earned the right to. A fact she'd only learned this summer while fleeing Barry on her morning run. "Fowwa, did you mawk Cowpa chawse you like this wid da wockid?" She stopped because frankly she hadn't understood one word of that sentence. Then he'd regaled her with the fanciful tales Sheldon had spun of her and model rocket dildos. She'd looked at Kripke like he was compos mentis. But the phrasing… it had just sounded so… so Sheldon. She'd found Leonard in his lab firing up the coffee pot and sweated all over him until he'd told her the truth.

It had been early enough in Sheldon's petulant road trip that Amy hadn't really dared confront him. It was the same time she learned that Sheldon felt a physical relationship was a possibility. So. It wasn't like he was sharing every feeling he had with her either.

To recap, she hadn't slept and she had reached no conclusions. And it was too early to get drunk. She wanted tea. She slunk downstairs hoping not to wake Debbie.

She forgot that Debbie never sleep, "Morning kitten." She called, "How are things?"

Amy popped her head in the kitchen, "Anyway we can forget you saw me?"

"No freakin' way, make yourself some tea." Debbie said, "Then we talk."

Sheldon had slept, but he hated every moment of it. His room was inadequate. Amy had a big bed. Her sheets were nicer. She had too many pillows, but that was a small matter. She had windows on 2 sides so there was a cross breeze. Plus Amy was there and there was where she allowed him to have sex with her. Clearly her bedroom was better. Clearly she would never leave the house she owned to live in his cramped rental. A place, where shortly, Penny and Leonard would begin to bang on the door, demanding to be let in like a couple of wet horny hound dogs just so they could pee on his floors. He should just let them have the place. He had no desire to move to 4B. There were other apartments in Pasadena. Some closer to Caltech. Some closer to Amy.

He sat up. What better way to prove to Amy that he cut the cord with the horny hound dogs than moving out of their building entirely?

First the get to know you demand and now the moving out without coercion. He was a good idea machine.

"So." Debbie asked, "What happened last night. Besides you giving the lady bits a rest which they will thank you for mark my words."

"I saw my life." Amy said, "My past and my future. The four of us eating dinner. Or the three of them eating dinner and me being allowed to eat at their table. I don't like them together. Penny openly insulted me and Sheldon didn't say anything to defend me."

"He probably thought you could defend yourself." Debbie said, reasonably.

"I can. But if have him, I shouldn't always have to stand by myself. He should be on my side sometimes. Then they asked when he was moving in here!"

"That's the whole fight that made him run out!" Debbie said, "Why rub salt in that wound."

"They want him out of his apartment. The quickest way is for him to live with me. You know what he said… We haven't talked about it yet! Like it was happening! It is not happening, not for a long while."

"Darn right! Not after how he acted last time!" Debbie said with gratifying ire. "He can't move in just because he has nowhere else to go."

"That's what I said! I think. I think I said something like. I don't remember. I know I said was living alone for a while. Then I said I couldn't stand them as a group. And it got so confusing. I mean I can't make him chose between me and his best friends. So I can't give him a choice, right? I have to break it off, right?" Amy asked tearfully.

Debbie shook her head slowly, looking stern. "Sex has made you stupid." Amy looked up puzzled. "Look at that! I just confused you with simple English. That's not my Amy. Snap. Out. Of. It." She snapped her finger emphatically in front of Amy's face.

"What?" Amy sat up.

Debbie grabbed her hands. "You do not give up your man because you hate his friends. You do not leave the man you love in that sick fucked up dynamic. Do you know why?"

"I want to say… no. No, I don't." Amy peeped.

"Because it will undo the hard work he's done to be the kind of man you won't kick out of bed for eating crackers, that's why." Debbie finished, "He worked hard to come back to you less broken. Are you going to leave him in the clutches of his enablers?"

"No. No, I am not." Amy said more confidently.

"So, now you and I are going to walk to the baker around the corner that has the nice rolls. We are going to buy one each, eat them there. Go for a morning walk, come back here. Then you are going to shower and chase your man down and let him know you ain't letting him go for nothin'." Debbie shouted rousingly. "Now get your shoes on! It's like you were raised in a barn!"

"Yes!" Amy leapt to her feet, "I am seeing Howard's point how you might be kind of a pain in the ass!"

"All in a day's work my kitten." Debbie patted her check. "Move it.'