"The X-Advisors..."

"The X-Advisors..." Part VII...

Disclaimer: All is Chuck's...

Part VII...

"So I'm never gonna dance again...Guilty feet have got no rhythm..." The 1920s vintage style "Postmodern Jukebox" version of "Careless Whisper" played...

Sheldon safely seen to and something of a truce now in effect, Raj and Lucy were rather happily dancing, Lucy to the gang's general surprise displaying considerable talent for Jazz Era style dancing...

Amy rather annoyed to have been pressed to stay by President Siebert himself after Leonard had, with Howard's help, managed to load the still wobbily Sheldon into his car to get him home...

...to safety...As Sheldon, rather remarkably having recovered quickly...To an extent...Had put it, once safely away...

"Sheldon? We thought you were really ill. Amy was scared to death..." Leonard, frowning...

"I was, just not quite so..." sigh... "Oh, you saw them, Leonard...They were going to divide me between them...Or at least..."

Leonard glanced at him, briefly...

"Road?!" Sheldon insisted.

"Sheldon, there's no traffic and I'm going 20 miles an hour at Amy's request to spare your tummy." Leonard sighed. "I hope this doesn't mean you take back your proposal...You're not gonna break Amy's heart, now? Claim you were too drunk to remember?...Cause some people you know can tell you..."

"Yes, I know Penny's made other drunken proposals...She means them you know...She's just frightened if you say yes too quickly." Sheldon nervously considering the potential for whizzing death as he stared out at the road...

"What?"

"And it was an acceptance..." precise tone. "Amy proposed. And a Cooper doesn't renege on a promise."

"Oh...Well...Good, good...I'm glad. You have to ask her too, you know, it's only right. A girl likes to be...Penny really meant it?!" Leonard, a bit frantic to get to the real meat of interest...

"Yes, of course she meant it. You're the best thing that ever happened to her." Sheldon frowned. "She's just terrified you might decide she's lost value after the deal is signed and she's off the showroom floor. That's car sales talk, by the way. Apparently that's the standard for metaphor in Nebraska..."

"But if she meant it..."

"She declared herself your fiancée officially, didn't she? Geesh, Hofstadter what more hoops do you intend to put that poor girl through? Now me, I accepted Amy's proposal, right off the bat..."

"Right off the what? Sheldon? She's been trying to move you two along for..."

"You mean to the stage of your sort of nightly coupling...Lot of good that's done your long-term relationship." Offhand shrug...

"Hey, don't knock it..." Leonard shrugged. "Maybe it's not the best way to build a long-term relationship but it's better than..."

"Yes?" Sheldon, coolly...

"Well...Sheldon..."

"The steadily increasingly complex web of spiritual and emotional intimacy Amy Farrah Fowler and I have established, with every prospect for continued development versus Leonard and Penny in the sack after yet another break-up and usually no closer mentally, emotionally, and spiritual than you were at the start..."

"That's not..."

"You couldn't even sense Penny's desire to have you, the said best thing in her life, with her always versus her terror both that one or both of you might find it too confining or limiting and run...She's more afraid of you in that regard, by the way."