A/N: What if Amy had in fact met Sheldon before and neither of them realised. What if the man of her dreams and fantasies was in fact the man in front of her all along. This is my take on Amy's dreams, via her thoughts and diary. Let me know what you think. Ax

Her hair clipped back and checked blouse buttoned nearly to the top, Amy added her stripped purple cardigan and viewed herself in the mirror. She was ready. She sighed. She knew this was a waste of time but she had an agreement and she was nothing if not honest and she had made a promise. Amy looked at the book next to her bed and sat down pulling it towards her. She opened the diary and logged the date and time then made her entry:

Saturday 15.00: I have a date later. A scientist this time. I know he will not meet up to my 'Ideal Man' but I promised mother. AFF.

Amy closed the book then opening the drawer to put it away she saw the very first diary she had started all those years ago. The diary that she wrote about him in. Her Ideal Man. Glancing at the clock she smiled and pulled the old book out. It was fading and the corners were bent now having been shoved in the bottom of the drawer for so long; it had been a while since she had read it. It wouldn't hurt just once more...

I met someone today! Well not met exactly, saw would be a better description. Mother didn't see him luckily, he was sat behind her in the university canteen. He was on his own and he didn't care! Can you believe that? I wish I could be more like that. He was not like everyone else. He had his own sense of style, the strangest woolly hat with knitted ear flaps, and didn't seem bothered by the cool kids or feel the need to be surrounded by others. He was reading a book on physics. I know physics isn't as cool as biology but at least he isn't a literature major. Seeing him has been the highlight of the day, the highlight of the whole trip in fact! Mother has dragged me all over the town, round every department in this university, and she even made the biology students take me with them to a lecture, it was so embarrassing they clearly didn't want to take me. It was hardly a challenge either; and they didn't like it when I answered questions especially as I did it in German.

I bet HE can speak German. He was American though. I know because when someone stopped to talk to him I heard his sexy voice. They called him 'professor', he was so young though I had assumed he was a student. Then I saw his eyes! They were so so blue...we left before him so I don't know if he was tall or short but I really don't care.

I don't want to go home tomorrow now but mother wasn't impressed when I asked if we could go see a physics lecture; she told me I needed to do something worth while with my brain. I guess I will just have to make do with the dream.

Amy closed the book. She had been so young, it had been so long ago. But she could remember it as if it was yesterday. His eyes, his aloofness, those long slim fingers grasping his book as if it were the most precious thing in the world, and that brief glance he had given her as she had brushed passed when leaving. Oh well she had better go fulfil this obligation to her mother otherwise she would never hear the end of it.

As Amy walked to the coffee shop she pondered on the excuse she could use so she could leave quickly. Deciding to order tepid water and making sure whoever showed up knew she was not interested in any kind of physical relationship she was pretty sure, going on past experience, she could be in and out within half an hour. Then she would go home, inform her mother she had upheld her end of the bargain and collect the George Foreman grilling machine before retuning home to her apartment to grill some chicken to go with her salad tonight and watch the documentary on monkeys she had recorded. A perfect Saturday evening...

She looked at her watch, 4 o'clock. She was half an hour early. She found a seat so she could keep a check on new arrivals then sat down to think about her ideal man.

Every time she thought of him, even all these years later, she wondered if he had suffered like she had. Had he struggled to form friendships? Had his intelligence set him apart too? Amy knew when she had written that very first diary entry she had been much more emotional than she was today, she blamed it on the romance books she read. Now she knew she could quite happily rely on herself to satisfy any needs she may have and unless she met a man who was able to out do Gerrard then she really didn't see the point.

Seeing 3 men enter the shop Amy frowned. One of them could be him. She just hoped it was the tall one, at least he looked as unimpressed as she felt! The 2 shorter men looked to be intimidated by the taller man and she seriously could not entertain spending time with someone who was not likely to stick up for himself. All three were dressed against what would be considered fashion; but at least the tall man in his plaid pants and colourful t shirt did not seem to be trying to make a statement unlike the shorter man with some sort of fancy belt and alien head pin on his neck.

She sat for a while longer thinking back to when the thought of going on a date meant more than anything, to have someone want to be with her, how many nights had she watched the other girls at her school talk about clothes and boys; she had watched them get picked up from school in cars by boys and heard them comparing notes the next day. As she listened she consoled herself with him, the boy whose name she didn't know. He wouldn't have bowed down to those social conventions, she just knew he was his own man. In her dreams Amy knew her ideal man would be like that, a man with a goal a man with purpose someone who didn't care how others thought he should behave.

Pulling out her phone to recheck her email from the dating agency Amy glanced again at the men now stood talking in the middle of the shop. Yes, it must be the tall one. Standing Amy made her way over and tapped his shoulder.

"Excuse me, I'm Amy Farrah Fowler, you're Sheldon Cooper,..."