A chapter every other day is probably the pace that I'm going to be working at for a good portion of the fic, what with the winter semester at school starting up again tomorrow, oy vey, syllabus week/adjustment week. Fan freakin' tastic. But whatever, you did not come here to read of my woes (although it might not entirely bore you to hear that my roommate got me for Secret Santa and got me the red Bazinga shirt), you came here to read more of The Parental Ambition. So here you are, dear readers.

Oh yeah, and I don't own any of this. Just borrowing. I WILL PUT THEM BACK WHEN I AM DONE, CBS!

Okay, I'm done. :D You can read on at your leisure.

"Leonard?" Penny rolled onto her side to face him and grabbed one of his hands, lazily curling her fingers around his own.

The experimental physicist opened his eyes and gave her a small, sleepy smile. "Hmm?"

She moved her jaw to one side, thinking. "I was thinking maybe we just could start living together. Like officially. I know," she said when he opened his mouth to respond, "you've had…bad experiences with that with Stephanie. But…"

"No, no, Penny," he said. "It's not Stephanie. I'm way past that. I would love to move in with you. Or have you move in with me." He frowned. "What would it be?" The whole matter seemed rather complicated to Leonard, which, considering they lived so close together already was something of a paradox.

She put her head to the side. "I don't know. I really don't want to live with Sheldon."

"Neither do I," he said under his breath. "And now that you mention it, he told me we couldn't keep the baby in that apartment."

"What baby?"

"Possible baby," Leonard said. "This was before you got the test back."

"I forgot you told them," she said swatting him.

"I only told them it was possible," he reminded her.

She sighed, smiling playfully. "Whatever."

"So…I guess it'd be me moving in," Leonard said, realizing as he spoke that that wouldn't make much sense either.

"But would you moving out put too much stress on him?" Penny asked, feeling a little concerned.

"I…I don't know," Leonard said. "I'd be right next door."

She shrugged. "We'd have to go somewhere with a second bedroom. We'd have to move again, and uproot Sheldon twice."

"Technically," Leonard said, "we're not uprooting him. He's not the one moving."

She glared at him. "My point was understood, terminology is irreverent. Irrelevant!" she corrected upon seeing Leonard's raised eyebrow. "Shut up, I can't talk today."

"Why are you telling me to shut up?" Leonard asked. "I didn't even say…" He cut off when Penny put her hand over his mouth playfully. He stuck his tongue out and touched it to her palm, and she jerked her hand back. "Eew!" She wiped her hand on his leg. "You're disgusting?"

"Still wanna move in with me?" He asked cocking his head and grinning.

"I'm busy deciding if I still want to date you," she said, looking completely grossed out.

"I thought you said you didn't see us breaking up!" He said.

"I didn't think you'd ever lick me…" she trailed off and giggled.

"Okay, I'm outta here," Leonard turning away from her.

She grabbed his hand and pulled him back. "Of course I still want to move in with you. But eventually…actually, pretty soon…we're going to need another bedroom."

"We can't ask Sheldon to move in here," Leonard said. "He'd go insane."

"Yeah," Penny said, sighing. "Unless we could convince him that he could hole up in here and live his wacky life without a roommate bothering him…but that wouldn't really be good for him."

"We could look for another apartment," Leonard said, "but do you really want to move out of the building? I mean…I've lived here for ten years."

"Why don't we just cross that bridge when we come to it?" Penny asked. "We'll move in here now, Raj could always move back in with Sheldon…or you could just keep paying rent on that place and just have your stuff over here. More of your stuff," she corrected.

"So…" Leonard gave a small smile. "Just keep everything the same."

"Minus the protection," she reminded him. "For however long we're going to need to. How long do you think it'll take?"

"No way to say," Leonard said. "As long as we make our chances good going into it, I don't expect it taking too long."

"I could be pregnant already," Penny said, shrugging. "So...you know. But just in case, we use my planner. Okeday?"

"Okay, Jar Jar," Leonard said, smiling. "Right. So, when can we start?"

Penny thought. "Um…Friday? No, Saturday…Friday." She nodded. "Friday?"

"How about Thursday, just in case?" Leonard said.

"I have to work all day Thursday. So if you want me to be in the mood, you'll have to take me to a Jennifer Aniston movie."

"What, so we can watch beach houses and rain only and fear of commitment and mistakes and regrets only to realize love was there all along?"

She cocked her head. "Leonard, isn't that precisely what happened?"

It took him a moment to realize she was talking about him. "Oh…" he trailed off, and when she grinned he became determined to have a coherent response. "Well, a beach house wasn't involved…"

She stepped closer and kissed him. "Movie?"

He nodded, laughing at her way of stopping him from rambling on and on about details that didn't really do much for his case. "It's a date."

New episode this week for those of us in the U.S.! :) (Oh, and reviews are nice. Reviews that aren't talking solely about my A/Ns are even nicer. :D )