Sorry this chapter is a little on the short side; I have spent the better part of my day freaking out with my fellow Snowflake Snugglers about the 100th episode and making a Shamy fan video, but in the last half hour of the day, I have managed to keep up with my promise to update every other day. So here you are! This chapter introduces one of the other plots.

And, big surprise, I still don't own anything.

"So guess what?" Howard asked the group later that day, surveying the room. The group was sitting in 4A with Chinese food, and their conversation had been tracking fairly naturally from one topic to another, with no awkward moments, mini fights, or even many "fun facts" interjected from Sheldon. As it rarely did transition so smoothly for this long, the group looked at Howard in both surprise and unison when he appeared ready to change the topic.

"What?" Bernadette asked, glancing at him and cocking her head a bit.

"You know already," He told her.

Her face fell slightly, and she looked down at her food again, speaking in a quiet voice. "Oh. Right."

"Okay now I'm sensing that this isn't good news," Penny said, giving Leonard a quick glance. They weren't planning on announcing their news to the group just yet, and now she was extra glad that they'd decided to wait.

"No, no!" Howard said. "It's good news. Good news, I promise." Raj leaned over and whispered something in the engineer's ear. "Yes it's that, Raj, what else would it be?"

Raj looked at the group and grinned, giving them a thumbs up.

"So this…is good news," Leonard said, looking from Bernadette to Howard to Raj and then back to the microbiologist, who didn't look extremely happy.

"It's great news," Bernadette admitted. "I have to be honest about that."

Howard took her hand and squeezed it, then looked at the group again. "Drumroll, please?"

"No," Penny said flat out. He feigned hurt, and she sighed, glanced at Amy, and the two of them beat their knees for a few seconds before the engineer spoke again. "I'm going to space!"

Penny, Leonard, and Amy's jaws dropped at the same time. "What?"

"I know!" He grinned. "And Raj is coming with me!"

"Wait, how?" Leonard asked.

"Yeah, didn't NASA decide to stop sending people to space?" Penny asked. "Or did they finally find out about you stealing stuff for your own perverted reasons and want to zap you out of here before you cause a raise in crime rate because all the cops are so busy chasing you that they can't go after the delinquents?"

"Like your brother?" Sheldon said pointedly.

Penny looked at him, then back at her food, raising her eyebrows. "Low, Cooper."

"No." Howard rolled his eyes. "No," he said again, "nothing like that. NASA pays the Russians to send our men up to the space station and…" He stopped. "We've been over this before! I was working on some equipment that they want to use up there, Raj helped, we got some strings pulled, and now…we're going up!"

"Oh my God," Leonard said. "That's great. When?"

"Well, we have to go over there for training, that should take a couple of months, and then we'll get to come home for a few days of course. Then…six month stay…well, that's providing that they don't have any technical difficulties, and it is space so…" he trailed off when Leonard cleared his throat and he saw the look on his wife's face. "You know, typical…space stuff. Anyway, they expect it'll be a year or a year and a half before we've completely completed everything, especially since Raj and I apparently aren't your 'typical' space going fellows." He grinned. "We should be home for good in a year or two, give or take. To be quite honest, they haven't given us a full timeline yet."

"Give or take what?" Bernadette asked after a moment of silence, reaching up to adjust her glasses ever so slightly.

"Couple weeks." He shrugged. "Hey honey, we talked about this."

She smiled a very obligatory smile. "I know."

"Oh, Bernadette," Penny said, reaching over the table to squeeze her friend's hand. "That's gotta be so hard."

"No, it's okay," Bernadette said, looking at her husband. "I mean yes, hard, but he's always wanted to do this…and there are other things he's wanted that he's giving up for me. But beyond that…" She patted Howard's knee. "I'm proud of him."

"That's a much improved attitude over the last time," Amy pointed out, grinning.

"Wow," Penny said. "You're going to space...people are getting married, or," she corrected "have gotten married, rather...everything's changing."

"Not everything," Amy said, smiling at Sheldon. "Date night is tomorrow!"

Sheldon nodded. "I wrote the agreement, I am very aware."

"That's my boyfriend," Amy said proudly to Penny.

Penny smiled at Leonard. "And that's mine." Breaking his gaze, she looked at Howard again. "You know, I think it's going to take some time to sink in that you guys are actually going to be...well..." she searched her brain for a better way to say it and failed - "out there."

"Isn't it incredible?" Leonard asked. "God, Howard, what an amazing opportunity!"

"We're happy for you too, Raj," Sheldon said, leaning over and smiling.

The group, including Raj and Amy, turned to look at Sheldon in surprise. "What?" he asked. "Was that not the socially accepted thing to say? As I couldn't care less and everyone always has different opinions as me, I assumed that we are also supposed to be happy for Raj, am I right?"

"Of course we're happy for Raj," Bernadette said.

"Koala face," Amy accused under her breath.

"Then say so next time!" Sheldon said to Bernadette, clutching his dish tightly. "You people make me worry that I'm starting to think like all of you."

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