I've been out of town for a few days, so there was a few day delay in getting this chapter up. Expect a couple of days in between them. And I'm going to try and have more of The Surrogate Aftermath up in the next few days as well because it's just been one thing after another preventing me from updating that one.

And I still don't own anything.

Penny usually had a passionate love hate relationship with a slow day at work. Usually she was torn between wanting it to be busy so the time would go by, or wanting it to be fairly quiet so she wouldn't have to be constantly thinking about who hadn't been helped, who wanted more food, who was waiting for the bill. But today she realized it being quiet gave her a lot of time to think, and she didn't want to let her mind wander, not today. Her mother and father had always told her that there was no use in worrying about what couldn't be changed and certainly not before whatever was causing the worry could be confirmed as a legitimate sort of worry, but Penny was never one to let reason direct her thoughts, at least not when the aforementioned thought was something that she was holding inside. And definitely not when she was this consumed by the possibility.

A voice pulled a grateful Penny out of her thoughts. "Hey stranger." The voice belonged to someone that Penny hadn't seen in so long that it almost felt like they really didn't know each other. She spun around, eyes resting on the small blonde woman sitting at the bar, grinning as if quite pleased that she'd been able to walk through the empty restaurant and hoist herself up onto the bar stool without Penny noticing her presence. "Bernadette!" Penny squealed, running around the bar to give her friend a hug. "You're home!" She wondered if her hug had been a little too aggressive, but Bernadette not only seemed totally comfortable with it but returned it with just as much enthusiasm. "I've missed you!" She said, grinning.

"I missed you too," Bernadette said, adjusting her glasses and then resting both arms on the counter top. "It's been so long, at least it feels that way."

"I know what you mean." She held the microbiologist at arm's length. "How was the honeymoon?"

"Oh," Bernadette gushed, "it was fantastic. The weather was great, Howard was just…" she shook her head. "Everything was perfect, and considering our luck I'm pretty much convinced that miracles do in fact exist," she added, laughing.

"Oh, I am so happy for you," Penny said. "You needed some time to relax. And as you can see," she added, gesturing around the restaurant, "I have been absolutely swamped."

Bernadette glanced around, even though she'd figured out moments after reaching the Cheesecake Factory's parking lot that she was the only one there who wasn't an employee. "Wow, you really weren't kidding. You'd better get right back to that, wouldn't want to fall behind and have everyone angry and under tipping!"

Penny laughed dryly. "Yeah, plus I'm probably gonna get fired if I can't catch back up."

The two women laughed, putting their hands to their mouths as if such laughter was forbidden. "So since we're speaking of catching up," Bernadette said, letting out a deep breath and shifting her weight on the stool as Penny went back around behind the bar, "how have you been?"

"Oh, fine," Penny said, shrugging. "Life's…pretty much as it always was. Do you want something to drink?"

"It feels like longer than a month since we've all hung out together," Bernadette said. "And no thank you, I'm going to see my mother later and you know that with my size it doesn't take much to get me drunk."

Penny laughed. It was always fun – and relatively inexpensive due to her size – to get Bernadette drunk. She and Amy had a good time doing that on occasion. "Well, if you include the panicked wedding preparation stage that preceded the wedding, it's been much longer than that since we've actually had a nice, relaxed girls' night," Penny pointed out.

Bernadette turned slightly pink. "Okay, fair point. But seriously," Bernadette said. She smiled. "Can we please go out drinking tomorrow night, after I've seen all the family that I need to be sober to visit with?"

"Um…" Penny hesitated for the slightest moment, wondering how she should respond, and then nodded, putting her smile back on. "Yeah, absolutely. Gosh, look at you!" She said, her smile growing more enthusiastic as she viewed the microbiologist. "You're positively glowing!"

"Well, isn't it nice?" Bernadette said. "The wedding stress is over, no more big financial burdens, at least for a while with my new job and…well, it's just been so long since we haven't been under stress! I love not worrying about anything, you know? Getting to go about the day with no pressing matters on your mind…" she shook her head, causing Penny to smile from the microbiologists surprisingly contagious enthusiasm. "Isn't it incredible?"

"Well, I certainly don't have to worry much either, at least not about pleasing all these nonexistent customers," Penny said wryly, glancing around the restaurant again and putting on a glare for all of the invisible diners. "You guys all suck!"

Bernadette burst out laughing, and the waitress laughed right along, knowing full well that under usual circumstances, that was a joke only Leonard and Amy would find humorous. But it had been weeks since the microbiologist and wanna be actress had seen each other and, like people who were low on sleep, everything had a higher comedic value than usual. "I have missed you so much," Penny told her again.

"I know," Bernadette said. "And again, you too." She got up from the stool, dropping down to the ground. "Well listen, I have to get home so I can prep Howard for dinner with my mother, but we are definitely hanging out tomorrow, okay? Text Amy. No, don't do that, I will, you've been talking to her." She floated toward the restaurant exit. "Night!"

"Bye!" Penny said cheerfully. As soon as the waitress was gone, she sank onto the stool that she'd dragged back behind the counter for herself and put her face in her hands, feeling her heart beating through her temples and willing it to calm down and the feeling of nausea - which she hoped was just from the nerves and wasn't another sign - to pass. The time she'd just spent socializing made the silence even more painful, and the suggestion that the girls go out for drinks made it impossible for her to pretend like nothing was bothering her.

Maybe Bernadette, pretty, well employed, newlywed Bernadette didn't have anything to worry about. But Penny did. She had been worrying nearly nonstop for the past six days.

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