I'd like to say a huge thank you to my Beta, hazelra7, without whose help, this story would probably have never seen the light of day.

The Assignation Interference.

It had been a dreadful, draining day at Caltech. If it could go wrong, it had.

First the laser coolant leaked, then the computer crashed, taking the painstakingly typed report with it.

It had been such a bad day, Leonard had clocked off an hour early.

The only good thing was that, with Sheldon on a week's leave, he wasn't expected to play any of Sheldon's ridiculous car games.

The down side to Sheldon being on a week's leave was that, since he was being forced by HR to take it, he would be irritable. Still, that was a good 30 minutes away.

Leonard stopped off at the restaurant, to collect their take out evening meal. He even managed to extend his 'Sheldon free period' by letting a couple of customers be served ahead of him.

However, he knew it couldn't last forever and, 55 minutes after leaving Caltech, he trudged up the stairs of 2311 North Los Robles Avenue.

Penny was heading down the stairs, until her bloodhound like sense of smell detected the scent of food.

"Hi Penny, I've got takeout. Care to join us?" Penny thought for no more than a couple milliseconds, did an about turn and followed Leonard up to apartment 4A.

As he put the key in the lock, he thought he heard rapid footsteps, and the sound of someone sitting heavily into a chair.

He opened the door to find Sheldon sitting at his computer desk, looking a little flustered. Sheldon turned to look at him, clearly surprised to see him.

Sheldon was dressed in his bath robe, breathing heavily, and with a flushed face. He was pulling down the hem of the bath robe, as though he was trying to hide something embarrassing.

"Stop doing that or you will go blind", Leonard said, with a grin.

Sheldon rolled his eyes and replied "Firstly, I wasn't doing THAT, secondly, it doesn't make you go blind, and thirdly, you are the one who wears glasses".

"So, what are you doing then?", asked Leonard.

Sheldon put his hands to the keyboard, glanced back toward Leonard And said "Just updating my Facebook page."

Leonard served the tangerine chicken, bracing himself for the interrogation, about the nature of the meal, but it didn't come.

This was unnerving. Clearly, something was bothering Sheldon.

He was pushing his food around the plate, evidently not paying attention to his companions.

"OK buddy, what's up?"

Sheldon looked up from his meal, and replied "Nothing is wrong Leonard. Why do you ask?"

"Well, you didn't ask about the chicken, the Soy sauce, or the hot mustard, and you seem preoccupied".

Penny had been listening, and piped in "It's Amy isn't it? What have you done to her now?"

Sheldon looked like he'd just been accused of a capital crime. "I-I-I haven't done anything to her. I know, let's go to the comic book store."

Leonard looked down at his barely disturbed plate of food and said "Sheldon, we've only just started eating. Besides, we went to the comic book store last night. What's got into you?".

Sheldon looked sheepish, stared down at his food and murmured "nothing".

Penny wasn't for giving in. She was sure Sheldon was hiding something, and that it was related to Amy.

"So Sheldon", she asked, "seen much of Amy lately?"

Sheldon stuttered "What do you mean, have I seen much of her?"

"You know, have you spent much time with her?".

Sheldon seemed to relax a little, and replied "I saw her on date night, but not since". His mouth twitched as has said it.

Now she knew there was something going on.

Just as she was about to launch into full-on interrogation mode, there was a knock on the front door. Sheldon leapt to his feet, allowing him to, at least briefly, escape from Penny's questions.

Opening the door, Sheldon found himself face to face with Howard and Raj.

Without pausing for breath, Sheldon said "Goodie, now can we go to the comic book store?"

Leonard sighed deeply and replied, "Sheldon, I've told you once, NO!"

Penny started again, "Look Sheldon, you care about Amy, don't you?"

Sheldon's eyes looked to the far distance, as he thought for a moment, inhaled deeply, let out the breath slowly, and replied, "Yes, of course I do. She's my girlfriend".

Penny looked at the dreamy expression on Sheldon's face, then said "Well then, you've got to pay more attention to Amy, or you will lose her".

Sheldon's brow furrowed, at the thought of losing the one person, outside of his family, that he really cared for.

Howard seemed to agree with the Penny, "Why don't you ask Raj what he does to impress girls?"

Raj puffed out his chest, surprised Howard would compliment him on his dating skills, but before he could offer any advice, Howard continued, "and whatever he says, do the opposite!"

Raj deflated in a second, and replied "That was cruel and not funny", but everyone else disagreed, as they all started chuckling.

Raj wasn't finished. He went on "Besides, if it wasn't for Leonard and Penny, you would still be having imaginary sex with Katee Sackoff ".

The laughter went up a notch. Howard blushed, and looked at his feet.

After the food was eaten, they broke out the Nintendo Archery, but Sheldon wasn't concentrating. Every shot he made was rushed.

As the night passed, Sheldon became more and more furtive, glancing around the apartment, whenever he thought nobody was watching.

When Howard asked how Amy was, Sheldon snapped back "How should I know? I haven't seen her today". His mouth trembled as he said it.

Penny, who was by now on her third glass of wine, said "Calm down Sheldon, Howard was only asking".

"Sorry. I'm just sick of being on vacation".

Leonard sighed, "Sheldon, it's only been 36 hours".

Sheldon looked around the room and said "I'm homesick".

Penny looked puzzled. "Sheldon, this is your home".

With a grin, he joked "I know, and I'm already sick of it".

As 9-30pm approached, Sheldon stretched and yawned, turned to Leonard and said, "It's getting late. It's about time we turned in".

With that, he leaped to his feet, almost pushed Howard And Raj out of the door, and practically frogmarched Penny and Leonard down the hall, to Leonard's bedroom door.

Having pushed them into the room, he pulled the door shut, while saying a cursory "Goodnight", before quickly retiring to his own bedroom.

Minutes passed, and In the darkened living room, there was complete silence and stillness, until the floor length curtains, behind the desk where the ill-fated dining table briefly stood, moved.

From between the curtains, a pair of hands appeared, followed by a face. The face was pale, wore little makeup, and had emerald green eyes.

As the face moved forward from the curtains, it revealed the rest of the head, from which trailed a long mane of dark brown hair.

As the head emerged, it was followed by a beautiful, curvaceous, and completely naked female body.

The body rose to stand on two shapely legs.

Pausing to stretch her muscles, which were stiff from lying still for so long, the naked woman moved silently to the front of the couch, stooping to kneel in front of the cushion, recently vacated by Sheldon Cooper.

Lifting the cushion slightly with one hand, she used the other to withdraw a pair of white lace panties. Holding her breath, for fear of waking someone, she gingerly stepped into the panties, before gently padding round to Sheldon's computer desk.

Reaching behind the monitor, and down the back of the desk, she extracted a denim skirt, a floral pattern shirt, and a cardigan.

After quickly but quietly dressing in the shirt, skirt and cardigan, she grabbed a pair of Mary Jane Pumps from under the computer desk, before silently opening the front door, slipping through it, and closing it behind her.