Chapter 10: The Paradigm Shift Culmination

Summary: Boldly go, Sheldon Cooper.

A/N: Here it is. The final, shocking (literally) chapter of the TPSO saga. I can't believe I made it this far in one piece!

Most author notes are reserved for the end this time. But I cannot not thank mena for seeing this through to the end with me. I'm sorry for the endless text messages and interference with your studies, but I don't think I ever fully appreciated the value of a beta until you joined me in this endeavor. Hopefully this fruitful collaboration with continue, this time sans self-imposed deadlines due to racing against canon!

Usual disclaimers. I don't own TBBT. If I did, this is more or less how I would wrap up November sweeps.

Leonard urged his girlfriend and friends along, as the four of them made their way out of the sushi restaurant into the street.

"Let's hurry up, Howard is picking me up in less than an 45 minutes to go play Diablo III at Raj's."

"You didn't tell me you were going to Raj's?" Penny asked him.

"Well, you girls are having Girls Night, and Sheldon is kicking me out of the apartment because apparently he is working on his…" he made air quotes. "…super secret phase of the Halloween quest."

"Hey, you said you don't like spoilers, Leonard. I'm just doing you a favor." Sheldon called out over his shoulder, a few feet ahead of the two.

Penny spun around and made her way back to the restaurant. "Hang on, just need to use the washroom!"

Leonard groaned. "Oh, Penny!"

"I'll be quick!" And with that the turned and jogged back into the restaurant, leaving Leonard to stare after her, dumbstruck.

"Why is it that everyone is so considerate of your schedules, Sheldon, but when it comes to mi..." Leonard turned around to find the other couple with their back to him, pointing at something through the window of the coffee shop next door.

"Art!" Sheldon scoffed. "Look at him. All it takes is some expensive zoom-lens that is as big as one's head, and everyone thinks they are an artist."

Amy nodded, tilting her head at the window. "Honestly. How many angles can one photograph a teapot from?"

"Well, it depends on whether you choose to apply Euclidian geometry or non-Euclidian geometry, I suppose." Sheldon explained. "But, regardless, there is technically an infinite number of angles."

Amy looked up at him. "It was a rhetorical question."

He gave her an apologetic smirk. "My apologies."

She turned back to stare through the window. "It's not even that pretty a teapot."

"You do have better ones at your place." Sheldon acknowledged, with a bob of his head.

"Thank you." His girlfriend, smiled up at him. "I am quite fond of that leaf-infuser pot I bought at that flea market we went to the other month."

Sheldon scrunched up his nose at that. "I have to say… I am still not comfortable drinking tea brewed in something that was purchased from a place whose name includes the word flea."

He then snorted derisively and poked his finger against the glass. "Look! He just bumped his camera against the tea cup and spilled the beverage all over the table."

"Oh, Sheldon!" Amy shook her head, with a big, dramatic sigh. "Don't you get it? He did it on purpose, of course. It represents all of life's irreparable damages, which he will now capture with his camera. Would have been even better if the tea had spilled onto the floor."

Sheldon looked down at Amy's deadpan expression, trying to get a cue as to how he was meant to respond to that.

After a few moments, she decided to make things clearer for him. "Sarcasm."

Sheldon graced her with his breathy laughter. "Good one, Dr. Fowler."

Amy smiled at him, before the hipster with the camera caught her attention out of the corner of her eye again. "Oh my God. He is actually taking a photo of spilled tea!"

"Boy, you surely know how to keep yourselves entertained." Leonard muttered under his breath, just as Penny quickly made her way back.

She was slightly breathless as she caught up with Leonard, and turned to look at Sheldon and Amy, whose noses were pretty much smashed against the window now. "What are they doing?"

"Making fun of strangers living their lives." Leonard shrugged. "I guess for them looking at people in coffee shop windows is the equivalent of the rest of us humans going to the zoo."

All of a sudden, Amy's shoulders noticeably tensed, and Leonard and Penny peered over the couple's frames to find out that they had been caught staring and pointing by the subject of their derision.

Sheldon, however, didn't seem to care. "I mean, do you think he even knows how to use all the features on that camera?"

"Ummm, Sheldon…" Amy called him, a lightly alarmed tone in her voice.

But he persisted with his observations. "Look at him. With those glasses. He probably wears them just to look artsy and doesn't even require them to correct his vision."

The young man in the coffee shop had now let the camera down around his neck and was turning fully towards the couple at the window.

"Sheldon!" Amy called out again, to no avail.

"He most likely just uploads his photos on Instagram and applies some sepia filter to them…"

When the guy stood up from his seat, it seemed to register with Sheldon that maybe it was time to stop with his analyses. He smiled tightly at the man and made to raise his arm to wave at him, when Amy went to grab his forearm, trying to pull him away from the window.

The static shock Amy delivered when she made contact caused Sheldon to recoil and turn to her. "Ouch!"

But Amy's grip on his forearm was too tight, and she ignored the shock to forcibly peel him off the window and drag him down the street.

Penny and Leonard chuckled at the disgruntled photographer and followed the couple on the way to Leonard's car.

"Honestly." Sheldon continued his evaluation of the man's artistic skills. "This just proves my point of how much the arts, unlike the sciences, are evolving backwards."

"I know." Amy agreed. "How did humanity go from perfecting rare still life art to mass photoshoots of Ikea tea-pots in a cheap coffee shop chain?"

Amy's hand left his forearm, and unconsciously slid down his arm to wrap around his left hand.

"Indeed." Sheldon agreed, instinctively wrapping his own hand around hers. "It's not like digital photography requires much skill. With the possibility of taking hundreds of photos in the span of a few minutes, anyone with a functioning set of hands and eyes is bound to have some outliers that are impressive."

As the pair continued rambling on, their joined hand swinging lightly between them, Penny linked her arm through Leonard's.

"Awww!" she squealed, pulling at Leonard's arm and tilting her chin in the direction the pair in front of them.

Leonard affectionately scolded her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "Get a life, Penny!"

Amy tried to stifle a big yawn. She hadn't even finished her first glass of wine, but, while her girlfriends were on their way to excited inebriation, she was getting sleepier and sleepier by the minute.

"So, thanks to Sheldon and his suggestions, I have to dress up like a damn… Hobbit!" Bernadette barked in frustration. "Howard was even trying to convince me to put on fake body hair, because apparently female dwarfs have the body hair too."

She looked at the coffee table and reached out for the bottle. "I need more wine!"

Amy swirled the red liquid in her glass. "Actually, if you think about it, Sheldon picked the perfect costumes for you two."

The smaller blonde cocked an eyebrow at her. "What? Short, stocky, hairy creatures?"

Amy shook her head, putting her wine glass on the coffee table and, resting her hands on her knees, launched into her explanation. "In Nordic and Germanic mythology Dwarves were frequently associated with jobs like craftsmanship, especially metallurgy, which can be considered the equivalent of today's engineering. Howard would make a perfect dwarf."

"And, he's short." Penny added with a smirk.

"Also…" Amy continued. "They are often portrayed as kind beings until they are offended. Which then makes them very… vengeful. "

"And you're short." Penny added again, leaning in from her armchair towards Bernadette.

Bernadette rolled her eyes and downed the rest of her glass of wine in one big gulp. "How do you know all of this stuff?" she slurred.

"I read a lot of old medieval literature."

"She plays a lot of Dungeons and Dragons."

Amy and Penny replied simultaneously.

Amy narrowed her eyes at Penny, and the blonde gave her a big smile and a wink.

Bernadette just looked confusedly at the two.

"How about we polish off this puppy and hit the cocktail bar instead?" Penny motioned for the wine bottle.

"Oh. I don't know…" Amy picked up the bottle to pass it on to Penny. "I'm feeling kind of sleepy. I might just go home early."

The bottle slipped from Penny's fingers to tumble across the coffee table, causing the two girls sitting on the sofa to spring up reflexively.

"I don't see what was that shocking about my statement!" Amy exclaimed. "Maybe you should stop drinking, your eye-hand coordination is already impaired."

"It's not your statement that's shocking, it's your damn new cardigan!" Penny growled, shaking her hand to get rid of the tingles from the static shock.

She rushed over to fetch a sponge from the sink to clean the coffee table. "Oh, what a waste!" she cried, wiping up the red liquid.

"Besides, aren't you too drunk to drive already?" Amy pointed at Bernadette. "How are you going to get home?"

"Howie is picking me up when he drops off Leonard…. Whenever Sheldon allows Leonard to return, that is."

"Well, we're now out of wine." Penny announced sadly, tossing the now empty bottle into the recycling.

"I feel like I've done my part here, then." Amy picked up her jacket and purse. "I'm going to go get some sleep."

"Hey! Just because we're out of wine it doesn't mean we don't have more alcohol." Penny waved a bottle of coffee liquor in the air. "And I can make some mean White Russians. If you don't go to the cocktail bar, let the cocktail bar come to you…"

"Ooooh! I'm in!" Bernadette cheered enthusiastically.

"Thanks, but no. I do have a car to drive home tonight…" Amy politely declined.

"Boooo!"

"Have fun!" Amy waved at Penny and Bernadette, making her way to the door.

She walked out the pale blue front door, closing it behind her. As she patted her bag and body for her car keys, she found herself staring at the other pale blue front door across the hall.

Her boyfriend was on the other side of that door, alone, and probably engrossed in a fantastic land of mythical creatures and dragons.

Amy pondered her options for a mere few seconds.

"I'll just say goodnight quickly…"

Forty minutes later, Amy sat on the floor, legs curled neatly at her side, leaning her neck back against the seat cushion of her spot.

She was lulled into a state of drowsiness, as she listened to the drone of her boyfriend's voice, talking her through his latest progress in the preparation of their Halloween D&D quest, and she watched the Enterprise crew's escapades on the big TV screen across the room.

"How many times have you watched this movie since you bought the DVD?" she interrupted his monologue.

Sheldon seemed mildly annoyed at being interrupted, and his gaze flicked from the board, spread out on the coffee table in front of him, to the screen, to her face, and back again. "Eight times before tonight." He replied nonchalantly. Then he looked sheepishly at her. "I had to watch it a ninth time, it was driving me crazy…"

Amy chuckled at the screen, as Kirk walked past a confused-looking Spock. "Ears burning?"

Sheldon stopped writing on his notepad at the sound of her laughter, frowning at the screen. "I don't get why his ears would burn if he is fighting with his girlfriend. I'm not aware of this aspect of Vulcan physiology. Must be a reboot mistake,"

Amy chuckled some more. "They're not literally burning. It's a saying that when one feels one's ears burn, it means someone else is talking about them somewhere else."

"Oh. Ohhh! And he has Vulcan hearing!" Sheldon let out a breathy chuckle at that. "That is funny."

"I bet you were annoyed." Amy asked, never taking her eyes off the television, as he resumed scribbling.

"By the joke?" He asked, while scanning the board and moving a dragon to a different chamber.

Amy titled her chin at the screen. "By the new Spock."

Sheldon looked the screen again, and pondered his answer. "While I admit I wasn't originally happy with the idea of a new Spock, as I did not think anyone could be a suitable heir to Leonard Nimoy, Zachary Quinto has proven to be quite the fit for the role."

"Even with the fact that they gave him a girlfriend and all?" She turned her head against the cushion to look at him. "Isn't he meant to be some kind of rational, unfeeling being?"

"He is half human." Sheldon shrugged, and looked down at his notes again. "He merely employs techniques to ensure he isn't ruled by his human emotions at inappropriate times. And he does so quite successfully, I might add."

As he scribbled some more, he caught Amy looking at him from the corner of his eye, an unreadable expression on her face.

"Like us?" She spoke again, softly.

He paused scribbling just long enough to lock gazes with her in his peripheral vision. "Like us."

For a few, seemingly endless, moments, the only sounds in the living room were coming from the action on the television screen.

Sheldon broke the uncomfortable silence with one of his factoids. "Besides, Uhura was originally meant to kiss Spock in the original series. However, William Shatner wanted to be the one kissing Nichelle Nichols himself, and they changed the idea. Therefore, the idea of the alternative-universe Spock having a girlfriend does not necessarily conflict with the original Spock."

Amy reached out to play with the die that was sitting on the table in front of her. She twirled the object under the tip of her finger a few times, and balanced it on its axis. "If we didn't have to do a Dungeons and Dragons themed costume, we could have dressed as Spock and Uhura this year. I do have the outfit."

Sheldon clicked his tongue. "Uhura is a communication officer."

Amy scrunched her brow in confusion. "So?"

"Your outfit isn't a communication officer outfit. It's a medical officer outfit. You would have to be Nurse Chapel in that outfit, not Uhura."

"Well, you can be Spock and I can be Nurse Chapel then. Same thing." She waved a hand at him.

"It's not the same thing at all!" Sheldon scoffed, looking serious. "Nurse Chapel was infatuated with Spock, but he never returned her feelings..."

The moment the words rolled off his tongue, he saw Amy catch a breath.

He swallowed, hard, and felt his heart beat in his throat as he croaked out the rest of his statement. "You are Uhura."

Sheldon watched her exhale and smile one of those rare, teary, feminine smiles of hers.

For a fleeting moment, he worried that she was going to get emotional and he shifted uncomfortably on the floor. But, true to their earlier conversation, she managed to contain her emotions, and he watched her smile turn coy.

Amy shuffled closer to him, smiling cheekily, and when she reached out a hand, sliding it gently across the D&D map to meet with his, he knew she had him, again.

Her index and middle finger rubbed gently and lovingly against his, and only the umpteenth static shock delivered by her cardigan in that evening had them jolt apart for a moment.

"I hate this sweater." He said, but he couldn't help but smile while bringing his fingers back to caress hers.

He glanced down at their mating fingertips. "So you know about this?"

"I might not be a fan of the franchise, but I can research things on the Internet." Amy explained softly, smiling, while looking down at their hands. "And I have been a rather light sleeper these past few months." She looked up at him through her eyelashes and he blushed.

"Drats." Sheldon cursed.

Amy's smile grew wider and smug. "You took advantage of me in my sleep."

Sheldon's ears went red. "It was just a Vulcan kiss." He said, defensively.

"Still a kiss…" she kept on smiling.

"We are not Vulcan."

The seriousness in his voice immediately wiped the smile off her face, and she made to pull her fingers away from his, eyes downcast. "I'm sorry… "

But he hooked his own fingers firmly around hers and pulled on her hand.

His gaze wavered as he stared between her lips and her face. "I can kiss you… like a human."

Her breath caught in her throat again, eyes going glassy and wide as she stuttered. "You… you can?"

He kept staring at her.

"You can." A statement.

He gave her a shaky nod, kept hold of her hand and slid closer to her on the floor.

When Amy finally reassured herself this wasn't a fantasy she was going to break out of at any moment, she allowed her eyes to flutter close.

And Sheldon, excruciatingly slowly and gently, pressed his lips against hers.

Sparks flew.

Literally.

Amy reached her left hand out to hold the hand that was resting on his knee, and delivered another static shock.

"I really hate this sweater!" Sheldon complained, shaking his hand between them and moving back just a few inches. Just enough to break their brief, chaste kiss.

Amy laughed, face flushed. "Would you like to take it off?" she raised her eyebrows at him.

Sheldon went beet red once again. "Don't get ahead of yourself, little lady."

"Grouch." She whispered, looking down at his mouth, and taking another deep breath.

He looked at her mouth, then, uncertainly, back at her eyes. "One more?" he murmured.

Amy nodded, quickly and overenthusiastically, eyes sparkling, and his now parted lips descended on hers again, this time more firmly and more confidently than before.

"Second time's the charm." Amy thought, as their second kiss ended and they stared at each other, somewhat shyly, for a long moment.

Sheldon's eye then twitched, and his previously relaxed face turned into a grimace, wiping Amy's smile off her face once again.

"I'm sorry…" he rasped, his hand twitching against hers. "I'm really sorry, I just… I can't…"

She felt a knot in her throat, as her larynx constricted, and she desperately tried not to get upset.

"I can't leave it at two…"

Amy's mouth curled into a big smile against her boyfriend's lips, as he leaned in for his third kiss.

"Are we ok?"

Amy looked down at their hands, hanging between them in a relaxed embrace.

"I'm not sure what the correct social protocol is and…" Sheldon was interrupted by the sudden sound of the door to 4B opening, and the drunken giggling of Penny and Bernadette piercing the stillness like needles through a balloon.

"And, speaking of costumes… I'm now going to go home an let my pint-sized warrior put his arrow in my quiver!" Bernadette leered with a wink, stumbling backwards out of Penny's door.

The two blondes stopped dead in their tracks, the giggles quieting down as they faced the couple on the other side of the hallway.

Sheldon and Amy's hands jerked apart, the mood deflating between them, like it were indeed a pierced balloon.

"You people…. " Sheldon shook his head at Bernadette's comment. "Desecrating my costume ideas by thinking with your reproductive organs…"

"Hey, I thought you said you were going home!" Penny addressed Amy with a frown.

Amy, momentarily stumped, exchanged a quick glance with Sheldon. "Yes… Ummm…"

The two blondes across the hallway also exchanged a quick glance, eyebrows rising and lips pursing in silent communication.

"I just thought I'd drop by to say goodnight to Sheldon on my way…" Amy rushed to explain, eyes darting between the two.

Penny frowned some more. "That was over an hour ago…"

"Amy was… advising me… on my D&D quest for Halloween." Sheldon interjected.

Penny's frown turned into a knowing smirk and she winked at the two. "Ah, yes. Dungeons & Dragons. We all know what that means!" she leaned forward slightly and lowered her voice to a whisper. "For a whole hour! Good going, Sheldon!"

Sheldon and Amy blushed bright scarlet, and he quickly reprimanded his neighbor. "Oh good Lord! I said stop thinking with your nether regions, Penny!"

Bernadette looked at the trio, utterly confused. "What are you all talking about?"

"Nothing that concerns you." Sheldon dismissed her. "As we were saying, Amy is on her way home."

"Yes! I am. Going home." Amy nodded vigorously. "Goodnight, Sheldon."

The couple performed what could only be described as a clumsy, uncertain farewell dance of ticks and jerky limb movements around each other for a few moments, without completing any of their motions.

They reached out their hands only to abort a handshake.

They lifted their arms, and stepped closer to each other, attempting a hug.

They changed their minds and patted each other on the shoulder instead, Amy picking a piece of lint off from Sheldon's shirt.

Then they just raised their hands in a little, awkward wave, smiling uncomfortably.

"Goodnight!" Amy declared, rushing down the stairs with a quick glance at her two girlfriends.

"Goodnight!" Sheldon echoed, and, in the blink of an eye, he was gone, back into his apartment.

Penny and Bernadette stood rooted to their spots, slightly dumbfounded at the couple's odd behavior, until Penny finally broke the silence. "What the heck was that?"

Bernadette blinked, staring at the closed door to 4A. "I don't know… How much did we have to drink?"

Amy reached her apartment almost on autopilot, brain still buzzing from the evening and heart still pounding in her chest, whenever she would get lost in thought while waiting at traffic lights, reminiscing of her night.

It wasn't until she had changed into her nightgown and was standing by her bed, much later, that she finally seemed to snap our of her daze, as the sound of her phone vibrating on the nightstand startled her.

She checked the message to find a close up of Sheldon's index and middle fingers, with a short caption.

"Goodnight, Nyota. Pleasant dreams."

-THE END-

A/N: And we are done.

Hard to believe we got to the end. But here we are. It might not be as eventful as other stories around here, but my aim for this fic was to put myself in TPTB's shoes and envision how I could get Shamy, in S7, up to speed with the level of progress I really want them to be at by now. As predictable as it may have been, I could not end this story without the SIK. May they now boldly go, onwards to discover new dimensions of their relationship. And, hopefully, canon Shamy will soon do so too.

It has been a lot of work to write this story, especially racing against the show, as I did not want to be left in the dust if canon got better than fanfic. I know it would have been a lot harder to finish it without your reviews, follows and support. So thank you all, readers, beta and occasional helpers. I really appreciated all your positive feedback and encouragement, and I hope this last chapter was worth the journey.

Also, special thanks to the unidentified coffee shop hipster with the fancy camera, who gave me the inspiration for the, totally unplanned, opening scene to this chapter. I have no idea who you are, but, seriously, how many angles are there to take photos of a teapot from?

I'm going to take a break from writing for a while, but I have a few ideas for other stories, so, if you enjoyed this one, it might not be the last time you hear from me. I've done the canon-based fluff, now I'm toying with the idea of doing a bit of an alternate, drama-ish, path from S6. We'll see how that goes.

In the meanwhile, live long and prosper.

*jingle*