I would liketo thank Shamy4eva because this chapter would have been barf without her. But now it rocks so please read, Also I own none of this.

Moving from the pulpit back to his seat Sheldon feels as if he is walking through thick fog,

"That was lovely." Amy tells him. As he takes his place next to her he barely registers where he is.

"That was one of the hardest things I have ever done." He tells her grabbing her hand..

The rest of the service passes in a blur. He watches with detached interest as his uncles and his brother carry her coffin down the aisle and place it into the hearse which will take her to the cemetery where her body will be lowered into the ground.

"Do you want to ride with me, or with your mother when we go the cemetery." he hears Amy ask him.

"Oh, I am not going to the cemetery. I have performed my function here and I am going to go back to my mother's house" he tells her. He really cannot face the finality of it, thinking about what will happen to her body when it is left to decompose in a gilded box six feet under the ground. He knows he is going to experience resistance but there is no way he is going to that cemetery.

"Fine, let me tell Leonard and Penny to catch a ride with your mother and I will take you home."

He turns to her surprised "Aren't you going to tell me that I need to go and that I am being ridiculous?"

"Not at all, it took a lot of strength and courage for you to go up there and speak as you did. I do not think anyone can expect any more from you, I am sure your Mother, and your Memaw, for that matter would understand." Amy tells him as they get up and file out of the church.

"Thank you."

"Of course."

….

"Do you think that Sheldon is ok?" Leonard asks as they pull into the driveway of the house.

"He's fine. I mean I am impressed that we even got him to go to the funeral at all. And then he delivered such a beautiful eulogy. Honestly it was really more than I expected from him. Remember what he was like about Professor Proton's funeral." Penny says getting out of the car.

"I am with Penny on this one, that boy cannot be made to do anything he does not want to do. I am sure he needed to recharge his batteries after speaking in front of all them people."

"Funny, when he was up there speaking it was one of the few times that I was not positive the man does run on batteries." Missy tells them as they enter the house and find Amy sitting on the couch by herself reading.

"Where is Sheldon?" Leonard asks her sitting down.

"He asked if he could have some time alone. Sheldon is taking this quite hard and has had some pretty bad nightmares over the last couple of nights which have been disrupting his sleep." Amy tells them setting down her book.

"Sugar come on with me to the kitchen for a spell. I want to talk to you before the rest of the family gets here." Mary says to Amy.

"Oh,ok,is anything wrong?" Amy says anxiously

"Oh no honey, there's nothing to be worried about." Mary says pushing through the kitchen door and taking a seat at the kitchen table. She pulls out the seat next to her and signals for Amy to sit down. The serious expression on Mary's face is making Amy nervous as she slowly walks towards the offered chair. "Honey, I told you I don't bite!" Mary snaps and Amy hurries to the seat and sits down. Mary takes her hand as she does so and studies the ring on her finger.

"Did he tell you, or did you infer from the eulogy and the ring." Amy asks her knowing now what Mary wants to talk about.

"A little bit of both actually, I guessed and he then confirmed it." Mary says releasing her hand.

"Does everyone know now?" Amy asks.

"Well honey that is what I wanted to talk to you about. You know Sheldon is not always the most communicative of people. It was a big step for him even to admit that he had asked for your hand in marriage. I need you to fill in the rest of the details."

"Of course, what is you would like to know first?"

"Are we telling everyone? Sheldon might think that little speech he made today is the equivalent of an announcement but folks around these parts can be pretty thick. I am fairly certain about half the population of that church thought he had taken up gardening as a hobby."

"We discussed it, but decided that we did not want such an announcement to overshadow Memaw's funeral." Amy tells her.

"Honey I understand where you are coming from, but I think nothing would please every member of the family more than to hear that Sheldon is getting married. We all loved Memaw very much and we are going to be grieving for a long while yet, but nothing takes the sting away from pain like some good news."

"Do you think so? Very well I will talk to Sheldon and see what he wants to do from here on out. Is there anything else you wanted to speak to me about Mary?"

"If I can get serious with you for a moment, there is something else I have been meaning to discus with you." Mary says pausing to gather her thoughts.

"Oh I thought we were already getting serious, but please continue." Amy tells her.

"I know you love Sheldon, I can see it in the way you look at him, and I have no doubt in my mind that my boy is just over the moon about you. That being said are you prepared to take care of him the rest of your life?

There is no doubt that Sheldon is a brilliant man but sometimes I feel that his advanced mind has stunted him in other ways. Leonard and I have experienced and lived with Sheldon's; let's say eccentricities, over the years. I do it because I am his mother, and Leonard… well he is just a saint. But when you to get married the weight of that responsibility will all fall to you sugar, are you sure you can handle it?"

"Mary, I know Sheldon can be difficult, that he likes things done a particular way. But I do not think of it as a burden. In fact I feel that his quirks are what make him what he is and makes me love him even more. Also Sheldon is growing and I think that you can see that. Yes he used to depend on you and on Leonard for a lot of things but he is learning to stand on his own now and take responsibility for himself. I have even taught him how to drive, and though he does not like doing it, at least he can now. I love him, everything about him, and that love is absolute and unconditional."

….

Sheldon lays on his bed knowing from the din he heard coming from the living room that the family had arrived about an hour ago, but he did not feel he had the strength to get up and say hello. His heart is too heavy and his mind too full, dreading the moment when he would be summoned out to join the frenzy. He thinks about how quickly things have changed. He and Amy would be going home tomorrow and the entire paradigm of their relationship was irrevocably altered, though in a good way, but altered none the less. Not all the changes had been unexpected. For some time now he had been planning on moving forward with Amy, but not in such an accelerated timeframe.

What he had told her the previous night about his tension relieving activities was not entirely true. The method was correct, but he had been doing it more frequently recently than he cared to admit, even to himself. At night his dreams were no longer his own, they were dominated by her. Vivid dreams which featured her in various stages of undress, her hands and mouth roving freely over his body. He would wake up sweating and panting and almost grieved to find that she was not there in bed with him. His physical desire for her had also begun to dominate his waking moments. He had agonized on how to make his feelings disappear, until he realized that the only way to make them go away was to act on them. So had begun an extensive research project on the subject, he had reread the book Leonard had bought him, and read through numerous mind-numbing Cosmo magazines seeking out the best ways to satisfy a woman until, as with swimming, he felt he had mastered the concept. The only thing left to do now was to proposition Amy and see if she was agreeable to the idea.

The night that he had received the call telling him that Memaw had died was the night he had intended to ask Amy to sleep with him for the first time. He had had it all planned out, Leonard had already given him advance notice that he was going to be staying the night with Penny. He knew that Amy would be expecting them to stay in for date night since it was his choice but he was going to surprise her and take her to the restaurant where they had had their second anniversary. Then when they were given dessert he would ask if her offer of "dessert" three years ago still stood. Then… well he did not know what then, but he had felt achy and excited thinking about it.

He had not given much thought to what would happen after. He thought that it would be like going to the dentist. They would make a biannual date to engage in the act, but if an emergency arose they could make appointments for it as needed.

Even when he thought of asking her to marry him he had not given much thought on what coitus would be like and was certainly unaware on how it would affect him. Now, much to his chagrin, he realizes that his initial plans were badly thought out. He suspects that coitus will have to be added to his schedule just like any other significant aspect would have to be. Though as he lies here and he feels a stirring of his need for her, he wonders how he would be able to regulate these feelings to a schedule.

These thoughts, plus the added stress of Wolowitz and Koothrapali finding out are enough to make him never want to return to Pasadena at all. He buries his head back into his pillow as he hears a knock on his door

"Are you here to tell me that I should make the effort, while I am still in Texas, to get up and talk to all the family?" Sheldon says thinking it is his mother, trying to lure him out of his room by making him feel guilty.

"No, if you do not feel up to socializing then you can stay in here." Amy enters the bedroom and he feels the bed shift as she balances herself of the edge

"I thought you were my mother. She hates it when I 'hole myself up and sulk the day away'"

"I don't think you are sulking, you are grieving, there is a difference. I came to tell you that Leonard and Penny are leaving soon to catch their flight back home. I did not know whether or not you wanted to see them before I drive them to the airport."

"Can I go with you?" he says sadly, he cannot believe that she would leave him here alone.

"Of course, come on we are leaving in a few minutes." She says patting him on the back and getting up. He gets up and follows her out of the door mentally steeling himself for the onslaught of attention he knows he will receive. And sure enough as soon as he reaches the living room he is assaulted by his Aunt who wraps him up in a tight hug, pinning his arms at his sides, but not for the reason he thinks.

"Honey, you are walking proof that the lord answers prayers!" she cries before releasing him and wrapping Amy up in a similar hug. "This girl right here, as an angel! The girl who finally won our Shelly."

"I take it that everyone has heard the news." He asks Amy a little stiffly.

"Your sister noticed the ring before I could come and see you to talk about it, and once she found out, the news kind of gathered speed" Amy hisses to him as the rest of his family descends upon him with their congratulations.

"I didn't think you had it in you son!" one of his uncles says clapping is hand on his back.

"Yes, well I think I have always had the same components inside of me as any other male, now if you will excuse me I must be going." He says dodging through the rest of the crowd and out of the front door.

….

It is late when Sheldon and Amy return from dropping Leonard and Penny off at the airport and they find the house emptied. Knowing they have an early start the next day they retire to bed and exhausted with the stresses of the day they quickly fall asleep in each other's arms.

The following morning they are up early to say their goodbyes.

"I must say I am going to miss you." Missy clings tearfully to Sheldon. "I just cannot believe that you are going to be a married man soon!." She releases Sheldon and hugs Amy. "You have got to include me on all the plans okay? I gave you my phone number and my e-mail address, now don't be a stranger. That includes you brother, I want Ayden to be able to get to know his uncle the genie."

"I will be keeping in contact." Amy assures her returning her hug. "And I will make sure he does too okay." She whispers to Missy

"Alright baby bro, I will see you when I see you. Probably at your wedding. Congratulations by the way." George pats him on the back awkwardly still cringing at the memory of what he had walked in on yesterday.

"Yes, well we will let you know when further plans are made." Sheldon tells him though not entirely sure that even if there is a traditional wedding he would really want his brute of a brother to be there.

"Well we really must be going, come on mother you said you would drive us." He tells Mary settling his bag on his shoulder and heading out of the door. The ride to the airport is mostly in silence with everyone lost in their own thoughts. Mary pulls into a spot in front of the airport and gives Sheldon a hug before he leaves the car. She leans in and whispers in his ear before she releases him.

"Now you take care of that girl, you hear me?" Sheldon looks at her surprised as Amy exits the car's backseat.

"Of Course." He tells her.

"We all love her, you hear that, and if you do anything to hurt her then you will have a hoard of angry Texans on your case. You hear me sugar?"

Sheldon is earnest in his response "Mother, you should know that if I ever hurt her I would never forgive myself."

….

Amy pulls up to the front of Sheldon's apartment building to drop him off. It will be weird being without with him after spending almost every minute of the past week with him. Yet she is also anxious to get back to her apartment and make sure everything is alright.

"Aren't you going to come up with me?" Sheldon looks at her confused; he had thought that she would be coming up with him at least for a little while.

"I would, but I have to go check on my apartment. I have not been home in almost a week and I have to go back to work tomorrow."

"Yes I suppose you are right; there are affairs you need to get in order. Get your mail and make sure marauders have not ransacked the place in your absence. " He says but is still a little disappointed.

"Do you want me to take you to work tomorrow, I don't mind swinging by and picking you up."

"That sounds agreeable, after any absence of mine Leonard does tend to slip back into some of his more annoying habits like singing in the car."

"I will see you in the morning then okay? I love you." she says giving his arm a squeeze and he surprises her by giving her a kiss goodbye that leaves her feeling breathless and regretting a little her decision not to go upstairs with him.

"I love you, too." Sheldon tells her exiting the car and making the long trek up the stairs alone. Thinking about how everything has changed, yet how much is still the same. Hoping that Howard and Raj are not in the apartment as there is no doubt that they know everything by now and he is in no mood to deal with their inappropriate remarks. He pauses at the apartment door before opening it and takes a deep breath. However he breathes a sigh of relief when he opens the door and sees that it is just Leonard and Penny inside.

"Hey buddy, how was your flight?" Leonard asks.

"Where is Amy?" Penny asks.

"My flight was fine, and Amy is back at home, she had some business to attend to before returning to work tomorrow." Sheldon tells them his tone a tad dejected

"You going to be able to sleep without your fiancée tonight?" Penny asks winking at him.

"Oh, please, I had thirty four years of sleeping without her and only five nights with her, I think I can survive." Sheldon says huffily going into his bedroom and slamming the door.

"I think I touched a nerve." Penny says looking down the hall.

….

When Amy gets home she finds the apartment to be in the same tidy order that it was when she left it. Though after being in such a loud boisterous atmosphere for a week, it is a little hard to adjust to the silence again.

That night Amy has difficulty getting to sleep, her bed had never felt so large and empty and after experiencing the real thing, even rice Sheldon offers her no comfort. She tosses and turns wishing that she could call him just to hear his voice to help her sleep but she can just imagine how that conversation will go:

"Hi, Sheldon I just wanted to hear your voice before I went to sleep."

"You woke me up just to hear my voice? May I direct you to any number of Fun with Flags videos available where my voice is available without rousing me from my slumber."

"But, it is not the same I miss you and I just wanted talk to you."

"You miss me? We just spent an entire week together and you are still taking me to work in the morning are you not?"

"Yes but…"

"This conversation could have easily waited until then."

Amy looks at the clock, its two o clock in the morning. Then she hears a noise that she realizes is her front door opening and shutting and the sound of footsteps. Amy reaches into her bedside table and gets the stun gun that she keeps next to Gerard.

"Wouldn't want to mix this two up." She says to herself as she slips out of bed and waits by the bedroom door. The door clicks open quietly and just as she is about to jab the stun gun to the intruder's throat she sees that it is not an intruder at all. Sheldon sees her and screams loudly.

"Sheldon, you scared me!" Amy exclaims dropping the stun gun on the ground.

"Scared you, how do you think I feel? You brandished a stun gun at me! Why do you even have that?"

"For God's sake, I thought you were an intruder and I have a stun gun because as a woman living on her own I need some form of protection. What if, like you have just done, someone else had snuck into my apartment like this? I have no intention of being ravaged by some stranger!"

"Well, I am not a stranger and I am not here to ravage you." Sheldon says walking nto her bedroom and sitting on her bed. He is dressed in his pajamas and robe.

"How did you get here, and more importantly why are you here, not that I would mind if you were here to do some ravaging." Amy tells him sitting next to him on the bed. He looks at her surprised and she raises her eyebrows at him, he gives her a half smile in return.

"Be that as it may the ravaging will have to wait. As to your inquiry as to why I am here, well I could not sleep without you, so I woke Leonard up and demanded that he bring me over.

Amy, I used to think that if Memaw died I would be one inconsolable moonpie. And yes I am very sad, but all the unhappiness and stress of the past week has been made bearable by you. You are my fiancée and I want to spend the rest of my life with you and right now I want to spend the rest of my nights with you."

"Are you saying that you want to move in together, like right now?" Amy asks hesitatingly

"Well, maybe not combine living situations just yet, but I think we can work out an arrangement of apartment sharing that will allow us to share the same bed."

"Do you think you would be comfortable sleeping in my bed?" Amy asks him concerned.

"Amy, the only place I am ever going to be comfortable again, is in the place where you are."

So that is a wrap folks Thank you so much for reading and reviewing it means alot to me.

I am currently working on a new fic called The Amy Diaries that will take be completly Amy's perspective on things two dates before Sheldon and then her meeting him. Then it will be about filling in the picture on some of those off-camera Shamy moments. So if your are intrested keep an eye out.