Thank you for your kind words. I'm glad you enjoying it. Here's Chapter Four. Rating change due to use of language.

Chapter Four

Sheldon had been very unhappy when she had escaped to the bathroom and had sternly told her from the other side of the locked door that they were going to talk, whether she liked it or not. That was the last thing Amy wanted, but she knew he was right. They did need to have an honest talk. She was worried though, that being honest would guilt him into something he didn't really want to do.

As she showered, she tried to work out which was the best option. One moment telling herself that honesty was always the best option, the next worrying about the results of being honest. By the time she got out of the shower she was no nearer to deciding what she should do. What would friends say? She asked herself as she grabbed one of the towels to dry her hair, but she knew both Penny and Bernadette would tell her to be brutally honest with Sheldon and to hell with his feelings. His feelings did matter to her though, so she just couldn't do that.

Amy wrapped the towel around her head and used a second towel to dry herself before putting her dressing gown on and tying the belt around her waist. She put her glasses on, went over to the basin and got the toothbrush that Sheldon kept for her. She stared at it in her hand. "I should tell him." She said. "I can't though." She looked at herself in the mirror. "Damn it, what I am going to do."

She was apprehensive when she came out of the bathroom, which only increased when she saw that Sheldon had gotten out his largest whiteboard. He was standing in front of it, still dressed in his dressing gown, writing on the board. Please let it be a new theory, she thought and then considered going to the bedroom instead, but he saw her and he quickly moved the whiteboard so she couldn't see what was on it. "What are you doing?"

"You'll find out soon enough, little lady." Sheldon replied. "Now, the first thing on our agenda today is breakfast. I've made French toast for you."

"You have?" Amy went over to the kitchen island and saw that as well as plate of French toast, there was glass of orange juice waiting for her. "Thank you." She sat down on one of the stools and picked up a slice of French toast. "This is good." She said after she took a bite.

"Of course it is." Sheldon took the stool next to her. "Are you feeling better now?" He asked. Amy shook her head in silence. "I seem to recall someone saying that couples should work out their problems together. Now who was that? Oh yes, it was you, wasn't it?"

With a sign, Amy shook her head. "I'm not surprised you remember, but I'm surprised you were listening at the time."

"Which time? You've said it so many times, that I don't need to have an eidetic memory to remember that." Sheldon replied. "You've also said that we should be honest with each other on numerous occasions."

Amy groaned at that. "Yes, I know." She paused and then asked. "What if the result of being honest is something just as bad?"

"In what way?"

"What if it were to guilt you into something?"

"You would never do that to me."

"And that's why I can't tell you."

"That is a paradox." Sheldon leaned nearer to her. "Would it help if I told you I already knew?"

"There's no way you can possible know."

"You were talking in your sleep last night." Sheldon told her.

"Oh fuck." Amy groaned and put her head to her hand. What she had she said?

Sheldon made a face. "I can't believe I kiss a mouth that such foul language comes out of." He quickly wiped his mouth with his hand.

"I saw that." Amy looked up at him. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "What did I say last night in my sleep?"

"You kept saying don't leave." He replied. "It's pretty obvious you're still upset about my train trip last year. Rest assured that next time I run away, I'm taking you with me."

"Did you decide that before or after you applied for the Mars trip?"

"Ohhh….." Sheldon nodded. "No wonder, you're worried that I'm going to leave again."

Amy thought for a moment and then decided that as he knew that much, she meant as well try to explain why. "What if the positions were reversed and I was the flight risk? What would you do knowing that I could leave without saying good-bye at any moment?"

"That would be another paradox. On one hand, I'd be questioning whether it was worth the risk of getting hurt like that again, but on the other hand I love you too much to end it."

"Yeah." Amy nodded.

"But why would you think telling me that would guilt me into something?" Sheldon frowned. "I want to stay with you. I want us to be together." Sheldon kissed her on the cheek. "You have no idea how much I want us to be together."

"I want to believe you."

"Given my track record, I can't say I'm surprised at that." Sheldon told her. "Now, I think it would serve us much better if we did a re-evaluation of our relationship. Together." He stood up, went over to the whiteboard and turned it around. "Hence this."

"Oh crap." Amy muttered before turning around to look. Her eyes widened when she saw that across the top he had written 'The Re-Evaluation of the Shamy Relationship'. "You know how much I dislike that amalgamation of our names."

"It's kinda of grown on me." He smiled at her. "Now for this, we give yes or no answers and discuss those answers as we go along. Ready?"

"No." Amy went down the list of the questions, looked at her smiling boyfriend and then back at the whiteboard. She re-read the questions.

1. Do I believe you love me?

2. Do I love you?

3. Do I wish you would confide in me more?

4. Do I think I confide in you enough?

5. Do I feel respected by you?

6. Do I respect you?

7. Do I believe you desire me?

8. Do I desire you?

9. Do I believe you trust me?

10. Do I trust you?

11. Am I mad at you about something?

12. Have I ever been jealous?

13. Have I dreamt about you recently?

14. Do I know you're keeping a secret from me?

15. Am I keeping a secret from you?

16. Is there something I'm too embarrassed to admit to you about?

17. Do I know that you have lied to me recently?

18. Have I lied to you recently?

19. Do I know what you fear?

20. Is there something I fear?

"What is the point of the first two?" Amy asked. "We know we love each other."

"Reassurance." Sheldon wrote Ys in both their columns for those questions and then smiled at her. "My answer to question three is another yes."

"As you seem to prefer confiding in Penny to me, then my answer would also be yes."

"I only confide in her when I'm having an issue with our relationship. After all, she has more experience with relationships then either of us." Sheldon replied. "And I know you do the same thing."

She couldn't refute that, but that wasn't really the problem for her anyway. "It just that sometimes you seem more comfortable with her then you do with me." Amy said. "Leonard said it was because you've known each other longer."

"You've talked to Leonard about it?" Sheldon frowned.

Amy nodded. "|Just once, briefly." She said. "Are you sure about her expertise?" Amy used her fingers to emphasize the word. "Yes she's been in a lot relationships, but none of them have been successful until Leonard."

"That's a good point."

"She also doesn't really understand the way either of us think or do things." Amy then said. "For example, she has never even tried to understand the Relationship Agreement."

"Yet another good point."

"And what do you think she would say to that?" Amy pointed to the board. "She'd say the same thing she did about the relationship inventory test we took."

"A third good point." Sheldon looked at the board. "So our answers for three and four, for now, should be yes and no?" He said. "And we both agree that from now, we should try to confide in each other first before running of to find Penny?"

"Yes."

"OK." Sheldon wrote their answers on the board. "Question five."

Amy groaned, not sure about her answer for this question. "I want to say yes, but I can't."

"Why?"

"Most of the time I do feel respected by you, but you do put my chosen field down." Amy told him. "How it's yucky. How it's only biology and doesn't really count…"

"You've put Bernadette's chosen field down as well." Sheldon interrupted.

"That's different."

"How?"

"It just is."

"Hypocrite." Sheldon added her answer and then thought for a moment before adding a Y to his column. "I will try to be less disrespect to you chosen field in future, although I can't guarantee I will be successful doing so."

Amy smiled. She knew he would try and she knew he would slip up, but it didn't bother her as long as he tried. "My answer to the next one is yes."

"Well, mine was going to be yes as well."

"You can still put yes. You just need to show it more." Amy said. "OK, next one."

"That's going to be another no for you isn't it?" Sheldon put her answer in before she could say anything. "That's something you need to work on." He added a Y in his own column.

"What do you mean?" Amy was puzzled.

"You need to start noticing when I'm ogling you."

"That's a bit hard to do when according to you, it's my fat rear end you ogling."

"For the last time you don't have a fat rear end." Sheldon told her. "You have a gorgeous, shapely and perfect rear end, plus beckoning hips and curves in all the right places.

Amy smiled at that. "Really?" She asked and he nodded. "Thank you."

"Just out of interest, what do you like about me?"

"Well, I liked what I saw earlier."

Sheldon smiled and added another a Y to his column for that question and then in both of theirs for the next question. "As you think I'm going to run away at any given time, I know you don't trust me." Sheldon said. "And I know it's going to take me than words to fix that, but I'm at a loss as to what to do."

"Actually you started to fix it last night by staying with me." Amy admitted. "No one's ever done that before."

"What? Not even your mother?"

Amy turned away from him. "No." She said after a moment. "Not even my mother. She just ignores it or pretends it doesn't happen."

Sheldon went over to her and put his arms around her. "I'm sorry." He kissed her softly on the side of her neck. "I have to say that I find that very strange." He said after a moment. "Your mother is overprotective with you, so why would she be like that?"

"I don't know. She just is." Amy shrugged. "It's fine though. Emm… do you want to go onto the next question?"

"We will be coming back to this. We need to do something about your night terrors." Sheldon said. "When we start sharing a bed on a regular basis, I don't want to get hit or bitten." He released her and went back to the board. "OK, question ten. Do I trust you?"

"Hang on, hang on." Amy turned on the stool again to face him. "Sharing a bed on a regular basis?"

"It's inevitable."

Did he mean just sharing a bed or did he mean something else? Amy stared at him, but she couldn't tell from his expression. "Exactly what is inevitable?"

"Thatwewillhavesex." Sheldon said quickly before turning to stare at the board.

He did mean something else, but she wasn't finished with the topic just yet. "You said on a regular basis?" Amy stated. "I know you love repetition and the number three, so we're going to have sex at least three times, but does that make it a regular basis?" She asked. Sheldon slowly turned to face her and Amy struggled to keep a straight face. "And will it be three times a night?"

"Three times a night?" Sheldon spluttered.

"Oh another thing, what about your need for closure?" Amy asked. "Sex takes a lot out of the human male, so if it is going to be three times a night on a regular basis are you going to be able to keep going…" She started to laugh at his open-mouth, wide-eyed look. "Sorry."

"Ha ha, very funny." Sheldon breathed in deeply. "For the record, it's only knocking that I do three times, so it will not be three times a night." He turned back to the board. "And you damn well will be satisfied even if I have to keep going all night." He glanced at her. "I just hope you have the stamina for it."

"Hoo." Amy grinned.