Rolling her eyes, Penny put her hands on her hips as she realized her friends attention was not on her as it should have been. "And once again, you're on your phone! What is so important that it just can't wait until you've listened to my monologue?"

Maddie shrugged and locked her phone. "Nothing. Sorry."

"No, you're right - maybe I need to make it a bit more dramatic." Penny twisted her lips as she consulted her script once more. She was due to rehearse it in front of everyone tomorrow for the first time and wanted it to be perfect. Admittedly she kept stopping and starting whenever a fresh idea popped into her mind, but she wished Maddie would watch her properly.

But Maddie had a different objective, and quickly returned her attention to her phone.

"Seriously!" Penny made a lunge forward to grab Maddie's phone when she looked up and saw that her attention had once again left her, but Maddie leaned back into the couch and locked her phone again. "What is so interesting on your phone that you can't pay attention for like five minutes?"

"Nothing, I told you!"

"Then why have you been on your phone since we got home? You haven't even taken your shoes off!"

Kicking off her scuffed sneakers, Maddie smiled. "There you go girl, now I've taken my shoes off. Happy?" She looked down into her hands as her phone beeped with an incoming message and quickly removed the notification. As Penny glared at her and made for her phone once more, Maddie quickly put it behind her back. "Okay, look, Mark and I are sexting, and I just need to send one more message."

"Oh, seriously?" Penny withdrew and shuddered. "While I'm rehearsing? That's so gross, Maddie. Ugh, I need to pee again. You better be done with your sexting by the time I'm back."

"Okay!" Maddie called out, and waited for Penny to be safely in the bathroom before bringing her phone out from behind her back and unlocking it once more to resume her messaging.

I can't wait! She'll be soooo excited! And don't worry I'll look after Izzie for u guys BELIEVE ME Penny will want some alone time with ya ASAP. Anyway I have to go she wants to practice her monologue for tomorrows rehearsal so email me the flight hotel etc and I'll make sure she ends up in the right place at the right time!

Grinning, Maddie sent the message and exited the app before muting her phone. She hadn't wanted to not pay attention to Penny; however she'd been distracted since she'd read her messages that morning. Penny's husband had texted her to say that he was planning on arriving in New York a day early to surprise Penny on her day off work, and seek help in making that happen. Since then, she'd been bursting to find out more about his plan and was grateful to have the distraction of rehearsal so she didn't show too much excitement in front of Penny. At least now that she and Leonard had discussed things in more detail, she could quietly plan ahead and make sure that on their no show day Penny would end up in the same location as her husband and daughter. Maddie just hoped that Penny's current mood swings would have faded by then.

Since she also felt bad for lying to Penny about what she was doing on her phone, Maddie decided to head to the kitchen to grab a bag of pretzel M&Ms and two glasses of peach Iced Tea - Penny's latest pregnancy cravings (last week had been blue cheese and strawberries).

"I smell pretzel M&Ms!" Penny announced as she left the bathroom.

"Does pregnancy also give you a superhuman sense of smell?" Maddie laughed as Penny returned to their living area.

Shooting Maddie a glare, Penny snatched her script up off the couch. "Just watch my monologue."

"You got it, I'm all yours." Maddie grinned, picking up her script and pencil so she could make notes.

"No more texting?"

"All done."

"Happy ending?"

"Oh... yeah." Maddie nodded. "A very happy ending indeed!"


It was taking a lot of effort for Penny not to add the date of her first OB appointment to her and Leonard's joint calendar. While she was ecstatic at the idea of surprising him with the news of her pregnancy when he came to New York, a part of her was screaming to tell him the good news. She had had the pregnancy confirmed by a doctor a week ago, and he had helped her get an appointment with one of the best OB-GYNs in the city at her request. Since then, Penny had gone onto the joint calendar on her phone every single day and clicked on the date she'd be having her appointment.

As much as Penny desperately wanted Leonard to be there for the first scan, Penny wanted it to be a surprise for him even more. At six weeks pregnant (Penny was certain of this, as she and Leonard had obsessively learnt all the facts during her first pregnancy) and three weeks into rehearsals, she would be having her first scan in two weeks time - which meant she then had a week until Leonard and Izzie arrived in New York. Penny figured she could keep her mouth shut for the next three weeks of video calls to California. The idea of being able to show Leonard the ultrasound was exciting, and it would be more useful for Izzie to see some physical evidence of the baby.

As a way of releasing any thoughts and feelings she had that were pregnancy-related, Maddie had bought Penny a simple journal. She had written, 'WHOA, BABY!' in purple ink on the yellow front cover, and stuck pictures of female and male superheroes on the front.

With a smile, Penny finally began to write in the privacy and silence of the twenty minutes Maddie would be out purchasing dinner ingredients.

I am going for baby's first ultrasound in TWO WEEKS! AAH! Dr. Walsh is one of the best in New York - I Googled her in true Leonard Hofstadter style. Can't WAIT to see the scan!

Pausing to giggle, Penny couldn't help the grin on her face when she wrote her next sentence.

Can't wait to see the look on YOUR FACE, LEONARD HOFSTADTER!

Signed with love (and the urge to pee),

Six-week-pregnant Penny Hofstadter

Satisfied, Penny closed the journal and placed it on her bedside table. Amongst many other things, Penny couldn't wait until the night he'd be putting his glasses on the very same bedside table.


"Hey lovebug," Leonard grinned as he answered Penny's video call. "This is a little earlier than usual - are you getting an early night?"

"Uh, kinda..." Penny bit her lip nervously. "You said Izzie would be at a sleepover tonight."

"I did... she's at Howard and Bernadette's tonight. Why?"

Clearing her throat, Penny gave Leonard a smile. "Well, Maddie has kindly gone out for a drink with Sherie tonight."

"O-kay," Leonard raised a brow in confusion.

"And I went shopping after rehearsals and got this," Penny slowly undid her robe to reveal a black lace lingerie set that she had specifically chosen to make Leonard's brows rise as high as they were now, "so I was thinking we could... you know."

"Aah," Leonard smirked as he made his way to their bedroom. "We haven't done that in a while."

"Nope," Penny sat up slightly to give Leonard a better view, "and I want you to do it exactly like we last did this the second time round."

"Alri- wait. The second time?" Leonard raised a brow as he sat down on the bed.

"Well the first one doesn't count for me - oh you need to wipe that smug smile off your face! That was a while ago, and this time the first time will count for me... although I can't promise that. It's been a long time and you got me all turned on with that article of yours you sent me."

Pulling a face, Leonard paused in unbuttoning his shirt. "Really?"

"Hey, don't stop unbuttoning!" Penny frowned. "When I read the article it was your voice in my head and it was... wow. I have no idea what it was about but if I was in LA I would have driven straight to your lab. In this underwear."

"Well then maybe I should explain what my article was about."

"Oh God," Penny whispered. Whether it was the pregnancy hormones or the mere fact that she had been away from her husband so long she no longer cared. "Please do."


"Oh look at you, you are literally glowing," Maddie grinned at Penny as she walked into the kitchen and headed straight for the coffee machine, "and not in the pregnancy kinda way. How was it?"

Blushing, Penny took a sip of her decaf coffee before replying, "pretty much as good as sex via FaceTime can get."

"Woo-oo!" Maddie laughed. "It's a good thing by the time you'll be showing Leonard will already know because you would have to get really inventive with camera angles."

"I feel like you've invested too much time thinking about that," Penny raised a brow, "and that we haven't known each other long enough to really get that personal about that kinda stuff."

"I'd normally agree but we live together, we're in a play together, and we both are not the biggest fans of being away from our SOs, so you know..." Maddie shrugged, "plus since you ran into the bathroom while I was using the shower so you could puke..."

"Yeah... sorry about that. Besides that first night that Mark was here... man, that was a real eye opener," Penny giggled. "How did drinks go last night?"

"Oh, we actually ended up going to that Belgian place and getting food as well. It was delicious."

"Oh man, you had a second dinner?"

"Well I'd prefer calling it a... late night snack, but yes, essentially it was a second dinner."

"Ugh, I wish I'd known!" Penny groaned, setting her mug down.

"You were a little bit preoccupied having internet sex with your husband! It's the reason I had to go out in the first place!"

"I know, but I would have asked you to bring me some food home!"

Shuddering, Maddie frowned. "Following on from our earlier discussion I'd like to say that I draw the line at buying you your post-sex snacks."

"Alright, that's fair enough," Penny sighed. "Anyway, I have a favor to ask you - unrelated to said previous discussion."

"Okay, shoot."

"My first scan is two weeks and... obviously Leonard won't be there and nor will any of my friends from home so... would you like to come with me?"

"Oh my God! Are you serious?"

"Yup, I'm serious. But I've gotta warn you, I'll probably start crying."

"That's absolutely fine."

"And normally when I start crying, Leonard starts crying," Penny explained.

"Trust me, I'll probably start crying before you even think about crying," Maddie jumped up, standing behind Penny's chair to circle her in a hug. "Oh my God this is so exciting! Thank you for inviting me!"

"You promise you'll cry?"

"Hell yeah! Oh my God I can't believe I'm gonna be the first person to see your baby!"