The Abduction Incident

Summary: When Amy goes missing, Sheldon quickly retreats to Pasadena. (Set after Season 7 finale)

Warning: Spoilers for the finale

Prologue

Penny stared across the dining table only to meet Amy's unemotional gaze.

They were currently having Thai as the unwritten tradition dictated but the whole atmosphere seemed off. It had been two weeks since the physicist left and Amy had retrieved further back into her shell, barely interacting with them. Penny knew she had to do something to fix that or at least try to.

"Amy, sweetie why don't you tell me about how your research is going?" – she asked, hoping this would distract her friend. Leonard gave her an approving look as if he himself had been struggling to come up with a way to cheer up Amy.

Penny's attempt though, proved fruitless.

"It's going fine." – Amy said without lifting her eyes of the plate, her voice void of emotion.

"Any further details?"

"Well, I highly doubt any of you really cares all that much neurobiology. Not to mention you all have your neatly ordered lives, why take interest in mine?" – Amy replied, her words sounding much harder than intended. She immediately regretted them but the damage was already done.

"So much for playing it cool." – she thought bitterly.

Everyone stiffened at her reply, surprised at how cold Amy was. Normally she was the most kind and cheerful person and would never snap at them like that. The whole situation with Sheldon though was obviously taking a toll on her. Howard and Raj shared a concerned look while Bernadette petted her friend's back.

"Look, Amy we all know things are hard on you since Sheldon left but-"

"Don't pretend like you know!" – Amy snapped, giving an outlet to the emotions she had stifled for the past weeks – "How could you know? All of your relationships are going smoothly while me and Sheldon are the freak couple which everyone's betting when will fall apart!"

An awkward silence fell upon the room as Amy tried to regain her composure and the rest of the gang struggled to think of some comforting words.

"Amy things might be good in our relationship right now but that doesn't mean it was always like this." – Leonard said, hoping he could calm Amy, if only just a bit. After all the years with Sheldon he had pretty much turned into a professional psychologist.

"Not to mention with me in the room, you'll never be the one with the worst love life." – Raj said jokingly.

His attempt to lighten the mood though fell flat and Amy remained lost in thought, staring blankly at her full plate.

"I don't know why I even try." – she started slowly – "I keep pushing with Sheldon and yet we barely make any progress… Maybe it's just time to move on."

There was a change in her tone and it was now calm and steady, almost as if she had come to terms with the whole situation.

"What?" – Penny cried out, alarmed by her bestie's words - "Don't talk like that, sweetie. I mean sure Sheldon can be difficult-"

"To put it mildly." – Leonard jabbed in.

"But that doesn't mean you should give up. I'm sure in the end of that day you'll work out just fine." – Penny said as she tried her best to sound reassuring. Even to herself though, the words seemed empty and cliché and she realized when it came to relationships it was never that simple.

The brunette didn't look convinced but she nodded and offered a small smile to her friends. After all the years of bullying and too many disappointing interactions she had learnt to keep to it to herself. This way, even if she would miss out on some of the best things in life, at least she was sure she wouldn't get hurt by others.

"Anyway I didn't mean to burden all of you with my problems and I must apology for my sudden outburst. After all, what is between me and Sheldon is our problem only and I shouldn't bother you with all of this."

"Oh, honey you're not bothering us, we're here for you." – Bernadette said and squeezed Amy's shoulder.

"And I am grateful for that but I think I too need some time to clear my thoughts and put things into perspective."

"Of course, anything you need." – Penny agreed and gave her best friend and encouraging smile.

With that the dispute was over and Amy fell silent for the rest of the evening. From time to time she would offer small remarks in order to make sure the others wouldn't worry about her. She even joked about the extent to which Raj was ready to please his new girlfriend Emily when the astrophysicist told them how he had bought her a new phone for their one month anniversary.

Soon enough everyone seemed to be at ease again, laughing and joking around as usual. A part of Amy was glad they were enjoying themselves but there was a small part of her, buried away far in the depths of her subconscious, that felt hurt by how quickly they seemed to have forgotten about her.

Maybe after all her mother was right, maybe she simply didn't have the personality or set of skills to establish stable relationships in her life. In the end they were all Sheldon's friends and maybe now that he was gone, for an uncertain time period, it was time for her to leave.

She set her still uneaten food on the small dining table and stood up, taking her bag.

"It's getting late, it's probably time I left. Once again I must thank you for inviting me, I had a great time."

"Oh, are you sure, it's only half past nine, not to mention you can always crash at my place."

"Thank you for the offer Penny, but I'll must decline since I have to get up early in the morning. Got some important things to do." – Amy replied, trying her best to sound happy and casual.

"Will you come with us to look for bridal magazines?" – Bernadette asked, shooting her friend a hopeful look.

"Maybe some other time, I have a lot of work going on."

"Oh, well, call us when you can." – Bernadette said, her previous smile turning into a concerned frown.

Amy however ignored the concern of her friends, labeling it as mere politeness and quickly bid her goodbyes. As soon as she was out of the Leonard's apartment she felt and empty and alone, wishing she could go back and enjoy their company. A small voice in the back of her mind stopped her though, telling her she didn't belong with them. With that she left and headed back home.

"Did you see that?" – Penny asked the moment Amy left. The whole evening she had pretended she wasn't seeing how lost in thought her bestie was and had played it cool. The blonde was glad her acting skills could be put to some use at least but part of her regretted she hadn't openly confronted her friend about what was bothering her.

"Yeah, I am telling you something is not right with Amy." – Leonard mused.

"Can you blame her? Sheldon just got up and left, no goodbye, no nothing! I swear he's the most selfish person I've ever known." – Howard snapped. For the past two weeks he had kept it to himself, tried not to express how much the physicist's sudden move bothered him but he couldn't take it any longer.

It felt like his dad leaving all over again.

"Sheldon didn't want to hurt her, he was just confused and didn't fully grasp what kind of consequences his actions would have." – Leonard said, trying to reason his best friend's actions.

"Buddha once said we often don't realize how much our actions affect those around us." – Raj mused, while munching on the dessert.

"You sure that was Buddha, Raj? Sounds more like Oprah to me." – Howard mumbled while the astrophysicist rolled his eyes.

"Any way my point was, who would've predicted Sheldon leaving would have such grave consequences. I mean I for one was happy when he left! Means more fun and less of the "better-than-though" attitude!"

"Boy, do I not miss that!" – Howard chuckled.

"Not to mention me and Penny can finally have sex without hearing Sheldon humming the Empire march as he falls asleep." – Leonard said, grinning. He was having a blast, finally being able to explore his relationship with Penny without Sheldon interfering all the time.

To a degree the scholar realized just how selfish they were all acting but he would push those thought away and focus on enjoying his life as a newly engaged man.

"I don't know guys, I mean sure it's nice to be able to have a little more fun without Dr. Rigid Schedule but all of this kinda worries me, I feel like something is off." – Bernadette admitted as she took a sip from her glass of water. It had surprised Penny that she had refused to have some wine but shrugged it off.

"Oh, come on, Bernie, relax. I'm sure everything we'll work out just fine." – Howard said, cupping her face and pulling her into a kiss.

"Ooh, guys that's so sweet." – Penny smiled and gave Leonard and expecting look.

"I wonder if I'll ever have that with woman." – Raj cried out only to cause Penny to roll her eyes as his dramatics.

"Way to ruin the moment." – she chuckled.

With that their concerns about Shamy as Penny would call the couple were forgotten. Leonard had thought about maybe telling Sheldon about how Amy was feeling but in the end had decided against it since he didn't want to interfere with his friends' relationships.

Amy woke up early the next morning with a mission.

Even the mere thought of what she about to do caused her a sudden pain but she ignored the sensation. After all she was a strong and intelligent woman, not some stupid sophomore girl nursing a bad crush– she tried to rationalize with herself.

The scientist got up and after following her morning routine headed for her laptop.

"Now or never." – the neurobiologist whispered to herself as she opened her email. At that moment she could surely use a drink (or three) to give her some courage but unfortunately Penny wasn't around.

Hesitantly she chose the recipient - Sheldon Cooper and then slowly started writing the contents of her letter. The brunette had no trouble coming up with words, after all she recited in her head what she wanted to write at least a hundred times the last few days.

Only problem was Amy wished she didn't have to do it. The rational part of her knew Sheldon deserved better and she fully realized what kind of effect this would have on his psyche.

Change was hard even for ordinary people but for Sheldon? It would be a disaster. Her choice of action was the most irrational move she could come up with, really.

Unfortunately, Amy wasn't being rational right now. She wasn't thinking like the acclaimed neurobiologist or like the mature woman she had grown up to be. She was acting like the young girl who had been hurt too many times.

All her fears and insecurities, which had subdued during their relationship, had come back to haunt her and as Penny would put it "bite her in the ass."

Amy's survival instinct had kicked in, telling her she should just pull away from her relationships and distract herself with work as that would be the safest course of action. The irony was, no matter how mad she was with Sheldon, she was doing the exact same – running away from her problems.

But then again if he could just get away, then why couldn't she do the same?

Wiping away a few unwelcomed tears, Amy finished the succinct email, explaining her decision and then pressed "send."

She wanted to cry and maybe even break some stuff but instead took a shaky breath and buried down those emotions. The first few days after Sheldon had left she was indeed a mess, letting desperation and anger take complete control over her. But enough was enough and she had decided to move on, no matter how painful that felt.

She got up and gathered her stuff for work, ready to welcome the new day and whatever it had to offer.

And as it turned out later, it had to offer a lot.

Many miles away Sheldon Cooper was enjoying his morning coffee. After reading the news he decided to check his e-mail, not really expecting anything else than a few letters from his subscriptions on various websites.

Instead though he saw a letter from Amy, on the top of his inbox.

"Well, this is strange, I wonder what she could be writing about this early in the morning." – the physicist thought as he opened the letter.

After quickly skimming though the content of the e-mail he let of sudden gasp.

He could feel his throat tighten and his chest hurt. Panic was starting to creep into his conscience and the last few words of the letter were the final blow that sent him into a complete state of shock.

"I would like to set in motion the relationship-termination clause of our agreement."

Author's Note: First chapter was kind of setting the tone of the story, real action starts from the next one. I will try to be consistent and update twice a week. Also, English isn't my native language, so please excuse any grammar or linguistic mistakes.

I hope you've enjoyed the story and any feedback will be greatly appreciated :)

Disclaimer: I do not own TBBT and make no money out of this story.