"So, we'll be at the Plaza until Thursday and then will head over to my Mothers for a couple of days, we'll be back on Sunday." Leonard hovered in Sheldon's doorway, twitching with concern at the fact that he and Penny would be leaving Sheldon alone for the first time since he returned from his voyage of self-discovery.

"Leonard, Beverley has already supplied me with your complete itinerary…" Sheldon sighed as he checked his watch for the time, "You will miss your plane if you don't depart within the next ten minutes."

"Sheldon, this will be the first time you've really been alone since you got back and I'm a little worried about how you will get along. Howard and Bernadette are away with her folks for a few days and Raj is away at a conference until Tuesday."

"Leonard, Leonard, Leonard…" Sheldon sighed heavily, "You really must learn to communicate with your fiancée a little more. Penny has arranged for Amy to come over and stay at your apartment so that she can drive me into work every morning, followed by the comic-book store and train store. I wanted Amy to stay with me but for some reason she flatly refused."

"Hmm, I wonder why?" Leonard muttered, sarcasm lacing his tone; once again Sheldon was completely oblivious and treated it as a genuine question.

"I really don't know, Leonard. It is very perplexing." Sheldon shifted on his feet and checked his watch again. "I am now ten minutes behind my morning schedule."

"Sheldon, did it ever occur to you that the reason Amy refused to stay at your place was because you blatantly refused to consider her as a roommate? I mean, just think back a few weeks to how you treated her on the way back from Arizona…? That's hardly the reaction I would have expected after being parted from Penny for nearly two months." Leonard was losing patience with trying to get Sheldon to see that his constant need to keep Amy at arms' length could eventually lead to Amy pulling away from him completely. He turned back over to Penny's apartment and yelled across the hallway. "Penny! Get a move on, we're gonna be late!"

"Okay, okay! I'm ready, I was just changing the sheets for Amy." Penny ran out of the apartment and pressed her key into Sheldon's hand. "Here, sweetie, see that Amy gets this will you?"

"You're only changing the sheets now? What about the dirty ones?"

"They're in the hamper." Penny replied as she prepared to walk down the stairwell with Leonard.

"The hamper? Do you know how many germs will be left in those sheets? Do you expect Amy to do your laundry for you as well?"

"No, I'll do it when we get back. Bye, Moonpie!" Penny gave Sheldon a jaunty wave as she and Leonard started their descent; ignoring his protest that only his Meemaw was allowed to call him that. They heard the apartment door slam shut and Leonard gave Penny a sly grin as he held the lobby doors open for her.

"Nicely done, Penny."

"I don't know what you mean." Penny gave Leonard her most innocent of looks and he chuckled.

"You changed those sheets whilst I showered this morning, there was plenty of time to have stuck them in the wash…you just wanted Sheldon to do it for you."

"Well, who am I to disagree if Sheldon feels the need to launder the entire contents of our hamper? Less for me to worry about when we get back, I know that Amy will have cleaned the apartment and changed the sheets for our return…so it will be like coming back to a completely brand new place." Penny winked over at her fiancé and Leonard just gave her another grin and a shake of his head. They carried their bags around to the resident's parking lot at the rear of the building and loaded up Leonard's car. As they pulled out of the lot, they noticed Amy pulling around the side of the building and Leonard lowered the window so that Penny could call out to her bestie.

"Hey Ames!"

"Good morning, Penny." Amy glanced down at her watch and then back over at Penny. "Aren't you running a little behind schedule?"

"Nice to see you, Amy. Gotta go, bye!" Leonard sighed inwardly, it was like listening to a female version of Sheldon. He waved out of the window and started to pull away. Penny leant across the centre console and yelled out of the window.

"I gave Sheldon the spare key to my place and changed the sheets on the bed…See you Monday!" Leonard waved again as he pulled out of the lot and Amy took his space; ensuring that her temporary resident's permit was displayed correctly in the windscreen. She pulled her roll along suitcase out of the trunk and placed her laptop bag over the handle. Slipping her purse crosswise over her shoulder, Amy wheeled her sparse belongings around the side of the building and into the lobby. She sighed heavily as she remembered that the elevator in Sheldon's building was still out of order and started to bump her case up the four flights of stairs to the landing separating Penny's apartment in 4B to Sheldon's apartment in 4A. Just as she was about to knock on Sheldon's front door to request the key to Penny's apartment, she heard a terrible groaning coming from inside 4A.

"Sheldon? Is everything alright in there?" Amy rapped on the front door with her knuckles and pressed her ear to the door. All she could hear were the muted groans from inside. She tried the door and discovered that it was unlocked. Withdrawing her can of mace from inside her purse, Amy slowly made her way through the empty living room, following the sounds of the groans down the hallway. "Sheldon?" Amy called out softly and heard a thud coming from inside the bathroom. Pushing the door open slightly, Amy peered through the small crack and gasped in horror at the sight of Sheldon lying semi unconscious over the edge of the bath. She ran over and switched off the water with one hand and with the other draped a towel over Sheldon's exposed groin area; not before she caught a peek at what he had been hiding underneath his baggy cargo pants all of these years.

"Hoo," She whispered under her breath and scrambled for her phone in the depths of her purse. "Hello…My name is Doctor Amy Farrah Fowler and I need an ambulance at 2311 Los Robles Avenue, Apartment 4A. I have a thirty four year old man, semi unconscious after a fall in the shower; he has lacerations to his scalp and face…and a clearly broken arm…how do I know it's broken? I may be a neurobiologist and not a medical doctor, but I'm pretty certain that the bone is supposed to stay on the inside…" Sheldon groaned weakly again and tried to lift his head from the side of the bath, Amy pressed a hand against his shoulder, holding him in place as she finished the call. "Fifteen minutes? Thank you." She disconnected the call and looked under the sink for one of the emergency first aid supplies that Sheldon kept in every room. She located a sterile gauze pad and pressed it against Sheldon's forehead. He opened his eyes slowly and blinked at the sight of his girlfriend kneeling down beside the bath.

"Amy? You can't be in here…I'm naked! Aargh…." Sheldon started to sit up in the bath and felt a wave of pain spreading down his right arm, his face paled and his vision blurred as he saw the way his arm was bent at an awkward angle.

"Shhh….Sheldon, you've had an accident…don't worry the paramedics are on their way; just sit back and breathe with me…that's it, nice and slow…" Amy kept her cool hand against his forehead, holding the gauze in place. She could see the beads of sweat forming on his waxy skin and knew that he must be in terrible pain. "Can you raise your other hand up a little to hold the gauze in place? I'm going to grab your robe from the back of the door and another fresh towel."

"The ducks…" Sheldon muttered as he fought to remain conscious when all of his body wanted to do was to slip away into that lovely peaceful darkness.

"Stay awake, Sheldon!" Amy turned around to gently tap his uninjured cheek and his eyelids fluttered open to reveal blue eyes that were dulled with pain. "What was that about the ducks?"

"Supposed to stop slippages…" Sheldon murmured as his eyelids fluttered shut and this time they stayed that way for a long while. Amy couldn't help but to feel a little relieved that he had finally passed out completely; especially when the paramedics had to lift his naked form out of the bath to strap him on the gurney. She knew how mortified Sheldon would have been if he were awake and made sure that his robe covered him sufficiently before the paramedics strapped him down and made their way down the stairs. After checking which hospital they were taking him to, Amy grabbed his emergency kit from the living room closet; shoved both sets of apartment keys inside her purse and followed the ambulance all the way to Pasadena General.