The Mistletoe Hypothesis

It was a cold winter's night in Pasadena, and Jack Frost teased the atmosphere with the rare chance at snowfall. Silver bells and gold tinsel adorned each light pole around the mall, and colored lights were strung across the rafters.

"It's magical!" Bernadette squeezed her shoulders together and giggled.

Amy smiled indulgently. "If by 'magical', you refer to the chemical reaction –"

"Yes, that's what she meant." Penny cut her off impatiently. "But the real magic will be when we find some mistletoe for the Shamy." She pulled Amy into a small florist shop, and inspected the ornament in the doorway.

"What makes you think Sheldon will ever follow social protocol for mistletoe?" Amy asked skeptically. "He has made certain exceptions; taking my hand… he even quoted Spider-man for me." She paused for good measure, letting a light, dreamy sigh escape her.

Penny resisted the instinct to smirk and roll her eyes, light-hearted as they may have been. Instead she moistened her lips to reply, "I had this plan… I thought maybe I would slip a little rum into his eggnog?" Amy gasped, but her bestie held up defensive hands. "Not very much, just enough to make him just barely tipsy?"

Bernadette had entered, and heard Penny's idea; she often had doubts on Penny's interference with Sheldon and Amy. Her bright face now clouded over with doubt and concern. "That's really not a good idea… wouldn't it be better to just let Amy continue her experiments? It's seemed to work well so far?"

"Normally I would side with you, bestie, but I think our third wheel is correct here." Bernadette didn't refrain from the instinct to roll her eyes at Amy's attempted compliment.

"But Christmas is right around the corner! It's that magical time of the year… don't you want magic in your life, Amy?" Amy paused to think, but Penny added, "And don't go over-thinking it. I just mean do you want that special holiday moment that couples are supposed to have?" Amy paused again, but for a different reason this time.

A girl stepped out from behind the counter, and raised a slightly shy hand. "Might I offer y'all a suggestion?"

The three women seemed a little startled by her sudden appearance. "Um, sure." Penny offered, noting the girl's name tag, "Mailie".

Mailie intertwined her fingers nervously. "Perhaps if you just hung the mistletoe, and let love take its own course? I know I don't know anything about your respective boyfriends, but your blonde friend seems to have doubts… which doubtless have quite valid grounding. It's just a suggestion, at any rate." She looked down quickly.

Bernadette put a reassuring hand on the girl's shoulder. "Thank you for your vote of confidence, May – Mai – May-ly?"

"It's pronounced 'My-lee'." She returned with a good natured, albeit crooked, smile and shrug.

"While your suggestion is cute, sweetie…"

"No, it is a sound and reasonable idea. I must thank you for your kind suggestion." Amy beamed.

"Mailie Wyrmseeker, at your service." The girl replied with a giggle, gesturing gracefully in a bow.

"I take it that's your role-playing name?" Bernadette asked with a smirk.

"Well, yes rather… I prefer it to my real name, anyway." She scratched her temple shyly. "It was the name of my healer; I've grown very attached to it."

"I'm Bernadette, this is Amy and Penny. Amy's boyfriend is…"

"Wonderf-"

"A whack-a-doodle." Amy's expression didn't exactly deny Penny's definition of Sheldon. "'I'm not crazy, my mother had me tested.'" She made a mock mimicking of Sheldon's common outburst.

"Sheldon is a brilliant theoretical physicist, and a wonderful boyfriend… he's just slow when it comes to physical contact progress."

"He hasn't kissed you yet?" Mailie ventured.

"He refuses to maturely talk about when he grabbed my hand when our friend launched into space."

"My Howie." Bernadette couldn't help but beam a little. She was worried constantly about her husband, but always sprung at the opportunity to brag about him. Mailie smiled at Bernadette, and looked back at Amy, her brows knitting together. Her mouth twisted about, as if to try and form words, but all that escaped her was a confused squeak.

"Exactly." Penny replied.

"However, I don't want to have him intoxicated. Bestie, you must promise that you won't put a Mickey in my boyfriend's eggnog." Amy extended a pinky.

"…fine. Pinky swear. No Mickeys." Amy raised an eyebrow at her, causing her to add, "I promise to not add alcohol to anything Sheldon consumes… except maybe to his girlfriend." Penny raised her own eyebrow and smirked. "Just saying. It might help." Amy looked doubtful, but chose to shrug off her final comments.

"Did you want to buy any mistletoe? Not to sound pushy, but even though I'm just a holiday temp my boss will kill me if I have no sales this afternoon."

"Yeah, that's not pushy at all." Penny rolled her eyes, causing Mailie to giggle. "Sure, we'll buy the mistletoe. If you want to run into Sheldon and see him for yourself, just go to the comic book store down the block from here on new comic book night." When she saw the confusion rise again in the girl's face, she added, "On Wednesday."

"Then I shall do a little research to put this mistletoe hypothesis into action." Amy beamed again.