I apologize for the long delay. I wrote this chapter several times and each time the gremlin over rode my decision so here is what the gremlin thinks would happen. Thank you for your patience. As always I own nothing, make no money from this and bow before the genius that is Chuck Lorre, Bill Prady and all of the writers, actors and crew that bring the TBBT to life. Thank you.

Besties

Penny rested in the comfortable confines of her beach chair. The gulls and the waves fought to be heard. The heat from the surrounding sand felt good on her skin.

"Penny"

The sound of her name brought her eyes in focus and she saw Leonard walking up the beach after taking his swim.

She loved to look at him, he had a summer tan and his hair was glistening with water drops. He walked toward her, self assured and happy.

Gone was the old Leonard, always apologizing, hiding in hoodies, and keeping in the shade. He waved at her, the smile on his face was contagious.

"Penny"

She looked at him and waved back. God she loved that man. She resented every moment her own insecurities had kept them apart and swore nothing would ever keep them apart again.

"Penny"

Their honeymoon was almost over. She would miss the New Zealand beaches but found herself anxious to return to Pasadena. It was home and her friends, her family was there. She knew that she would never be alone again.

"Penny"

Leonard dropped to his knees and leaned in to kiss her. His lips were warm against hers. Briefly their tongues dueled, each trying to control the kiss.

"Penny"

Leonard pulled her to him, his breath warm as he nuzzled her ear. She was incredibly aroused just by his touch. Leaning into him she moaned daring him to take this further.

"Penny"

A loud noise startled Penny so she sat upright. Her eyes came into focus and she found herself sitting in the library in her favorite over-stuffed chair.

Looking down at her was Amy, a concerned look on her face.

"Penny, are you ok" she said.

"Just daydreaming Ames",she replied "what did Sheldon and you discover while on your sabbatical in Switzerland."

"Well Bestie" Amy said with a smirk, " it was as we believed. Edward Chiliton is about to publish his book about the Wolowitz Cascade Effect. It covers the time he believes Howard and Leonard began working on the project, the day Howard and Leonard were killed, Eric's publication of the effect, and also briefly mentions how the money generated from the effect led to the creation of H.W, and K financial group." Amy paused. "His description of the family and the compound makes us sound like a cult, but its nothing the newsies haven't been reporting about us already. He only covers the things that were public knowledge but does conjecture on the incident. His source for the book cannot be traced back to anyone in the family The details of their deaths and his thoughts on why they were testing the Cascade on a reactor in Pasadena are all far fetched. No one will be able to say that we had anything to do with this book. Any attempt by the government to accuse one of the family of breaking the Official Secrets Act will fail since his book does not match any of the events that were sealed. We believe the family should just say no comment if asked about it. Legal says we should just say I can neither deny or confirm any part to Dr. Chiliton's book and refer them to our lawyers if they persist." Amy finished.

"Is Sheldon prepared for the media attention on this. Everyone knows he was the last one to talk to both Howard and Leonard. The newsie's will be all over him again." Penny asked.

"Sheldon will be fine. Being home makes him feel safe and we can control the public access to him easier." Amy replied.

"I have been reading the book I was presented yesterday" Penny said, tapping the leather bound book resting in her lap.

"According to what I have read so far the events of that day are not very secret. It appears that Homeland Security and the FBI spent a lot of time getting the faculty and our families to sign the official secrets act, but they almost completely overlooked the University's service staff, the facilities personnel, the rescue teams, and a lot of students that were in the building that day. More than one story in this book has details of the events of that day that were sealed by the Feds, including the name of the man that sabotaged the reactor and the names of all those died that day. There are even events listed that do not even appear in the documents we have. According to one entry after knocking out the saboteur Howard drug an injured security officer out to the visitor's gallery and set 2 students to getting her to the medical offices in the next building. Another tells of how Raj went into the building repeatedly looking for stragglers or those who were unable to leave on their own. One of the students he rescued was 7 months pregnant and had to be carried out to an ambulance. Raj never told me about this. " stated Penny. "Another story tells of how Leonard sent Eric Gablehauser to secure the back up control room even though he knew it was destroyed. He kept Eric safe. These stories are all like that. Amazing," Penny sighed.

"Its the first I heard of any of these events. Raj and Eric never said anything about it" Amy added.

"You want to know something else I found interesting?" Penny asked.

"What's that?" Amy replied.

"I had some of our tech people check out the site and guess who has been the webmaster for all this time?" Penny queried.

"Well since Trish, aka Patricia Kripke Sterling, delivered the book and you were surprised I would have to guess it was Barry Kripke. Not only that but I remember meeting his sister at one of the University functions. At the time she was attending classes there and was very pregnant. Want to bet she was the one Raj rescued?" Amy asked.

" I keep forgetting your a genius, I had to dig around to find that out. " Penny replied.

Penny continued, "Well if anyone bothers to check the website several newsies and a good bit of Dr. Chiliton's book will be disproved. I do not know how any normal search failed to bring this site into public notice sooner. From what I can see its been up since the day after the event. It appears to have started out to be a spot for people to contact loved ones to make sure they were all right and then blossomed into a blog, with any one able to post their story to the site. Alone these stories are just jigsaw pieces but together they cover all of the events with the exception of what went on in the control room. Even the times and names of people who entered the visitor's gallery are recorded. It appears someone didn't think to restrict access to the sign in logs for the visitor's gallery. Anyone who entered that area wearing one of the University's security badges was recorded. It even recorded the moment Howard's and Leonard's badges stopped working. It does not let them know when they died but shows that neither Leonard or Howard was in that building for almost 2 months before the day they died. There is no way they would experiment with a nuclear reactor in a populated area, and since both men were never there before that day there is now way anyone can think they had anything to do with that fiasco. I will check with legal but Stephen and I believe with this already on the web the official secrets act is moot. If legal agrees we will go ahead and ask the government to report what actually happened." Penny stopped and took a deep breath.

"Amy as you know I had made arrangements for most of this to be revealed to the public on the next anniversary but now that Dr. Chiliton's book is to be released Bernadette and I have given Alice and Mary Norton permission to write a book of their own. I have given them full access to our files with the exception of Sheldon's and your entries of what occurred in the control room. That was a private conversation and is no one else's business. If either of you chooses to talk about it with the girls, Bernadette and I are ok with it. If the government should raise a fuss about their book, I have arranged for the files and documents we held on the event to be released by different sources throughout the web. I am the only one it can be traced to and since the postings are automatic no one else could be arrested if it comes to that." Penny paused.

"Penny do you think that is the right approach, what if the government decides to hold you accountable for the leak. " asked Amy.

"If Miss Penelope gets arrested I will admit my wrong doings to any newsie that comes within my reach, and like I said the web site already has most of the details we would have released. The public will be outraged that the widow of a fallen hero is being persecuted by the government." She smiled.

"I really do not foresee any problems. Now enough of that business, don't you have holo's of the new grand children to show me".

For the next couple of hours Amy and Penny relaxed around the vid enjoying the latest images of Amy's growing family and reminiscing about old times.