Small differences
Penny realizes her dream was more than a dream, and Leonard starts to lead his family.
Dr. Johnson smiled at Penny's answer. "Okay then, we have you estimated at somewhere around 24 weeks give or take. We'll take a look at the scans more closely and the bone development to figure better now that we know there are two in there. So, hopefully, we should be able to see pretty well... Of course, if they don't cooperate, we may have more of a problem, there's a lot of "stuff" in there." Dr. Johnson smiled at a now frowning Penny as she moved the wand around trying to find the evidence, or not...
Penny was amazed at what she was seeing in front of her. As the wand moved across her belly...the feet, hands and heads came and went. The reality of there being more than one baby growing inside her was becoming more than she could bear. What was she supposed to do now? Until recently, she didn't even know if she wanted kids. When she made up her mind, she was all in. But that was for ONE baby! There were TWO in there. How was she supposed to do this? She always had doubts about her relationship with Leonard. She never thought she was good enough for him. Now this cruel twist of fate would prove to him just how inadequate she was. She squeezed Leonard's hand tighter as she watched her children on the screen.
Leonard was floored by the realization he was going to be a dad. The fact that he was going to have to raise TWO children at the same time was making him breathe faster. He could feel an asthma attack coming. He wasn't all that sure he was going to be a good dad at all. He didn't exactly have the greatest roll model. Heck, if he did things like his father, all he had to do was stay locked in his office at the University and hope to god Penny could handle things.
Leonard then felt Penny squeeze his hand. As he looked over he could see she was concentrating on the screen. But the look on her face was not one of joy. It was one that had a mix of fear and worry. There was a tear forming in the corner of her eye. He had to do something to make that look happy again. Leonard did the first thing he could think of. He leaned down and kissed his wife, softly and tenderly.
The feeling of Leonard's lips was all it took to bring Penny back to a better place. She knew right then that they, the two of them, no matter how different they were, she knew in that moment that the two of them could get through this together. Sure they wanted to have a baby, just one baby, well, actually it was her that wanted to have a baby, she needed to convince Leonard just a little... Now there were two, two baby's and two parents.
Wendy Johnson stopped the wand. "Eureka! There it is... the sure sign that this baby is a little boy."
Penny gasped. "Is that what I think it is?"
Dr. Johnson chuckled. "Yup... one penis. I'm not all that surprised that you could identify that particular piece of the male anatomy".
Penny was clearly not amused by the comment. "You know too much about me."
Wendy smiled. "Yeah, well, that's your fault for being so nervous when you have your feet up in the stirrups you basically say just about whatever is on your mind. Anyway, we definitely have a boy. Now lets see what we can see over here."
Penny looked up at her husband, the father of her children. "Leonard, we're having a boy." After another tender kiss, she turned back to the screen.
Dr. Johnson smiled as she stopped the wand. "Well, right there is a pretty good look at where the other penis should be... and there isn't one, so it looks like you're having one of each. One boy and one girl".
Penny gasped. "Oh my god... so that's why...!"
Leonard was almost speechless. He looked at his wife. " A little girl... oh my..." He started to breathe heavy once again.
Penny smiled at the look on her husband's face, he was clearly pleased. "I love you, you sexy, wheezy little man you."
Dr. Johnson looked over at her patient and her husband. Sure there was surprise in this revelation, apprehension, even a little fear, but there was one thing she was sure of. The Hofstadter's loved each other and would love their new family. Even though it would be the biggest change the two could ever imagine. "I'll leave the two of you alone for a few minutes. Come down to my office when you're back in your own clothes.
Dr. Johnson had just closed the door when Penny grabbed Leonard's arm. "Leonard! I knew... well I didn't know EXACTLY... or what it meant... but I knew!"
Leonard did that funny confused thing with his eyebrows that Penny had come to love. "Knew what?"
Penny smiled bigger than she ever had before as she looked down at her belly giving herself a soft hug and then rubbed her own belly. "That we were having twins... and that they were a boy and a girl". She looked up at her husband with the sweetest smile and a happy tear in her eye. Leonard couldn't help but to take his wife into a hug.
They stayed like that until Penny giggled. "We better get back to the Doctor's office. I know these nurses and they're gonna start talking pretty soon. Apparently there's a thing in this office that has some strange likeness to the mile high club... only its here on the ground and you do it in an exam room instead of an air plane restroom."
Leonard looked on as Penny still sat on the exam table. "This IS a baby doctor's office... and that table you're on is kinda interesting with those things you put your feet into". He then sat on a stool and started to roll around a bit coming to a stop at the end of the table.
Penny was both interested and aroused when her husband's hands came to rest on her knees. As he spread them slightly, she lifted her legs and placed her feet in the stirrups. What followed was something she never would think Leonard would do in such a public place where they might get caught.
Penny lay back and enjoyed what Leonard was doing and worried just a little knowing the door was not locked as she lightly bit on her lower lip to keep from calling out.
Suddenly, a knock came at the door and Leonard seemed to jump to the side... under Penny's left leg as she hurriedly sat up pulling he gown over her, taking up a spot by her side as they both struggled to get their breath under control.
The door opened and a nurse poked her head in seeing Penny and Leonard seemingly still staring at the image of their twins on the monitor while holding hands. "Oh good. the image is still up. Dr. Johnson wanted to be sure you got a good shot of them. Congratulations!"
Penny hopped down, grasping her gown closed. C'mon Sweetie, lets get me dressed and go see Wendy." Penny practically pulled Leonard out of the exam room.
Leonard stopped suddenly. "Hold on, I need to pee."
Penny nodded. "Good idea!"
A short time later they were sitting in the front seat of Penny's car, Leonard's was in the shop for a tune up. Penny turned to her husband. "What were you thinking? I told you the nurses were on the look out for patients doing that in the exam rooms! I'm SO embarrassed."
Leonard did his best at an eye-roll. "You? How about me? Do you really think its all that funny that Dr. Johnson keeps congratulating ME on being pregnant? And it didn't help at all that you told her that I go to the bathroom MORE than you."
Penny patted her husband's thigh. "You have to admit, with the morning sickness, needing bigger pants, all the peeing and now your back pains, Wendy has a point."
Leonard pulled out of the parking lot and into traffic while Penny giggled, trying not to agree. He needed to get the conversation off himself. "And you come to my lab... and we do it there... THAT'S a pretty public place where people could come in on us".
Soon, they were in traffic on the freeway back to Pasadena. Penny looked at her husband. "Okay, fine. I come to your office and we have sex. Considering that MY office is pretty much my car... How about we do it right HERE!" Penny reached over and proceeded to unbuckle Leonard's pants and reach into his boxers.
Leonard jerked the car to the left, nearly hitting a pickup truck. "Geez Penny, you're going to get us killed!".
Just then the pickup truck pulled up next to them and the passenger was about to yell something when he easily could see what was going on in Leonard's car from his elevated position. He immediately changed from an angry frown to a sly smile and gave Penny two thumbs up as she giggled and smiled. Penny saw the frown on her husband's face and gave him a kiss on the cheek as she tucked him back into his pants.
Getting back to the apartment was an exercise in recalling embarrassing situations one might get caught in. Leonard's centered on assorted academic situations while Penny's were much more sexual.
One incidence they both recalled was getting caught in bed with each other by Raj while at that science symposium in Big Sur, although Leonard maintained it was more annoying than embarrassing. "I could have killed Raj that night. We could have gotten back together sooner. There's no telling what our lives would be like by now".
Penny giggled and then admitted that it would have easily gotten far more embarrassing had Raj waited a bit longer to come to the room. He most certainly would have caught her riding her ex boyfriend in all their glorious nakedness. "Yeah, well, as much as I wanted to be with you, it was supposed to be just the one night." She could see the disappointment on Leonard's face. "Although, it would have been REAL embarrassing if Raj waited about five more minutes. I was planning to ride you like I was back in junior rodeo... only... wearing my best Lady Godiva outfit... if you get my drift." A sly smile easily came across her face.
Just as Penny admitted the last bit of information, Leonard opened the apartment door and led his wife to the couch. A short make-out session later found Penny panting. She quickly got up and crossed to the door, locking it and shedding her shirt and bra as she made her way back to the couch where Leonard was already pushing his pants down getting caught on his sneakers. Leonard watched as his now obviously pregnant wife crossed the space from the door to the couch naked from the waist up, showing off her now formidably endowed chest with her bump neatly concealed behind the stretch panel of her jeans.
Leonard looked on his wife. Even through her pregnancy, he could still see the seductive sway of her hips as she approached. To him, Penny was more beautiful now than she had ever been. His throat became dry as she approached and he let out a audible "Gulp".
Straddling his lap, Penny exhaled as Leonard paid attention to her breasts as she expected him to. Soon, Leonard's hands moved down and started to roll the front of Penny's pants down freeing that part of her body that they now knew was carrying both of their children. Penny stood and rubbed her now freed bump. "Oh god, that feels so good! scooch over".
Leonard lay back onto the couch on his side and took Penny into his arms as he pulled a cover over them. Penny backed into her husband's hold. "Leonard, back up... I'm gonna fall off the couch!"
Leonard chuckled. "It looks like there isn't so much room on this couch as there used to be."
Penny turned her head. "Are you saying I'm getting FAT?!"
Leonard could tell that damage control was going to be needed for a simple comment that was meant to be nothing more than mildly amusing. "Umm... no... not at all. It's just that this is a three person couch... and now... with you being pregnant with twins... there are four of us here now... you know how kids are... we might be more comfortable if we just went into the bedroom."
Penny rubbed her belly, knowing full well that Leonard was rambling nervously because of her accusing question. She knew that even after all the time they had been married, and how comfortable they had become in their relationship, she still had an affect on Leonard's insecurities and she felt bad about upsetting him. "Nice save genius. Okay, good. That bedroom thing sounds like a nice idea, I've been so tired lately".
After the short walk down the hall, they found themselves comfortably in the middle of their bed. Laying in bed with her husband was something Penny loved doing. She pushed back into her husband and sighed in comfort.
Leonard's arm was around his wife's belly, softly rubbing in soft slow circles. "Back in the exam room, when we learned the sexes of the babies, you seemed not to be surprised."
Penny thought about that moment. "That's because I think I already knew."
Leonard lifted up on one elbow. "How so?"
Penny leaned back and looked up at the expected furrowed eyebrows of her husband. She started to nervously pick at her nails just as Leonard still did when he got nervous. "I had a dream... one that I've had more than once actually... in some firm or another."
Leonard was more concerned. "What was it about?"
Penny sighed. "Don't laugh. I've had a dream since I was a little girl that some big muscular guy would come and take me away while I was playing at school. I never told anyone about it... and then it sort of came true when Kurt came into the picture and I came out to California with him. I never really gave it much thought for a long time... but lately, I've been having this dream where I'm watching this little girl play with her friends. there are four of them, two girls, two boys... It looked like they were going to play hide and seek."
Leonard could see Penny's face become sad. "Penny, what is it?""
Penny took a deep breath. "A big guy came and tried to take the little girl. I couldn't help her. I tried but my feet were like they were stuck." A tear formed in her eye as she rubbed her belly. "Then this other man came back with the other children and stopped the first guy. One of the kids looked like the little girl. It must have been her brother... Don't you see? The little girl was our daughter, and the boy was our son. He was fighting for her... And the man that helped her was YOU!" Penny was beginning to cry now. "I tried to help but couldn't. It was you that saved her. Leonard I'm gonna be a terrible mother."
Leonard quickly took his wife into his hold. "Penny, that's crazy. You will be an amazing mother."
Penny sniffed. "Really? Why?"
Leonard brushed some stray hair away from her face. "Because you have been one for over TEN years now. You ushered Howard and disciplined him through his extended adolescence until he grew up enough to actually be good husband material for Bernadette. You were supportive enough to Raj... so much so, you were the first woman he talked to, and now he's getting married. I can't even begin to describe how you transformed BOTH Sheldon and Amy from inexperienced, socially awkward aloof, know it all Prema-Donnas to the couple they are today, as weird and annoying as they may seem sometimes, they would be nothing like they are today without you".
Penny wiped her eyes. "You really think so?"
Leonard smiled. "I know so. I know because you made the biggest impact on me".
Penny was surprised. "What do you mean... you?"
Leonard brought his wife close. "Sweetheart, look at me... and then try to remember what I was like when we met. I was content with my life, being a go-fer for Sheldon, letting him rule my life with his schedules rules and that roommate agreement. I didn't know what it was like out in the real world... and I don't know if I really wanted to find out. My world was safe and comfortable... sheltered."
Penny looked up at him and smiled. "You haven't really changed that much".
Leonard kissed her forehead. "You are SO wrong. I met the most beautiful woman I had ever seen one afternoon. Since that very moment... I knew that I had to somehow change me... what I was... because what I wanted didn't fit any more. I knew that this woman..."
Penny smiled. "I was just a silly little girl".
Leonard smiled widely. "You may have been young, but you were no girl. You were perfect. The most beautiful, the kindest, the most patient understanding woman I have ever met, and if you could do ALL those things for a bunch of nerdy guys. You have no possible way of being a terrible mother... Our children are the luckiest people on the planet... next to me of course".
Penny now blushed. "Dammit Leonard!.. There you go again... you say the most beautiful romantic things at just the right time when I need to hear them the most. You are going to be such a good Dad. Now I'm gonna have to just make love to you."
Penny wasn't sure what exactly had changed, but that night, after they had made love, the dream she had was completely different. Penny stroked the curls at the back of Leonard's head as he snuggled into her shoulder, falling into a contented sleep. This time, instead of watching from the sidelines, Penny saw herself playing with the same two children from her other dream. All of them jumping up as Leonard came into the picture trying to carry three cones of chocolate ice cream and one of lemon sorbet.
Life now took a bit of a turn. Penny and Leonard had to prepare themselves for having a family together. And making sure their family grew up safe and loved.
A/N: So sorry it took so long for this chapter. A bit of writer's block, work and stuck on the direction.