Chapter 10

Picnic

That Morning, after breakfast the honeymooners spent a good deal of the day fishing and then Penny steered the boat round the lake and they examined the shore for interesting areas that they might explore later. And Leonard also took the opportunity to try and photograph some of the local wildlife. "This is how I like to shoot animals", he commented to Penny, "with a camera". "Yes me too sweetie, me too", she happily agreed.

They returned mid afternoon and while Penny refueled the boat, Leonard cleaned the fish and placed them in the freezer, after which he made Penny and himself a coffee, and while Leonard watched a documentary on TV, Penny snuggled up against her husband and read a magazine. But after their excursion earlier, just 25 minutes later found Penny ensconced in Leonard's arms and both of them fast asleep on the sofa, so that by the time they roused themselves it was really too late to cook anything

therefore it was agreed that another visit to the diner would be nice, and as it was a warm evening they decided that they would walk to the diner instead, and the advantage of this Penny pointed out they could both have some wine with their meal.
Pete then came over to them, and asked Leonard that as he was an expert on computers if Leonard wouldn't mind if he could look at Pete's computer tomorrow evening as the thing was being quite a pain, Leonard not wanting to upset their host, agreed and again wondered how he was going to tell Penny, But surprisingly Penny was absolutely OK with it "That's fine Honey, I'll be OK for a little while", she told him. And though Leonard said nothing the anxiety at leaving Penny alone was clearly evident on his face.

Later after their meal, while walking back to the cabin hand in hand, Leonard pointed out individual stars and showing Penny which ones were galaxy's. Leonard explained how stars worked through nuclear force, strong nuclear force enabled stars to burn while weak nuclear force controlled the rate at which they would burn and how these forces were so incredibly finely balanced that a minute fraction, greater or lesser and the star would not function in that manner at all. Leonard also explained how scientists can tell the hottest stars by their colour , Penny was enthralled as Leonard explained things in a way that Penny could understand, and she wondered why on earth Sheldon couldn't explain things that way when she asked him to teach her about physics some time ago.

But then again, it might be because she had a huge crush on this particular teacher Dr Hofstadter

When they returned to the cabin, Penny was excited to continue her astronomy lesson so she dragged Leonard out to the Jacuzzi and they, lying naked in the water while Penny laying her head on Leonard's chest and she Listened enthralled to Leonard, as she dreamily looked up to the heavens and in her mind she repeated her words of a couple of years ago "Sometimes I forget how smart he is".

An hour later and they climbed into bed, and Penny acting on an idea she had (after learning how she had held tightly to the snowflake during her breakdown) placed it under her pillow and settling down and wrapped in Leonard's arms, she quickly drifted off to sleep, if the nightmares began she could hold her snowflake and the happy memories of it and the feeling of Leonard holding her close to him, would banish the bad dreams away.

The next morning Penny woke early and although woken briefly by the bad visions in her sleep, she had reached for her snowflake and the happy reminders chased the bad ones away.

Penny really felt so good to be alive this morning, she looked fondly over at Leonard who was still sleeping, then she rose and peeped under the blind at the outside world.

It was a beautiful day with a brilliant blue sky with just a few cotton wool clouds dotted here and there, Penny was immediately inspired as to what they would do today and ran into the kitchen started the coffee and began preparing things for their picnic, she fetched a large bag and packed everything in.

Leonard rose and panicked afraid that Penny would see the clothes on the floor and become stressed, or fret again over her self assumed low worth to Leonard. but he was very relieved indeed to see that there was no repeat of the other night's incident, and hoped that perhaps it was a one off and that the snowflake had seemed to work for Penny.

When Leonard, suddenly noticing that Penny was about to open the door to go outside, thought he'd better speak up and quick, "Penny? er Honey, don't you think you ought to get dressed first?.", he pointed out

Penny swiftly shut the door, she only wearing a tiny pair of panties and blushed in embarrassment as she looked at Leonard.

"What were you doing?", he asked her. Penny quickly recovered her excitement, "It's such a lovely day outside, so I though we could have a picnic", "What do you think sweetie?", she asked him hopefully, Giving him the full benefit of her wide open green eyes (Which Leonard could never resist). "I think it's a wonderful idea", he told her, with a broad grin. Penny clapped her hands in joy and poured their coffees out, then when she had drunk her coffee she had a shower and got dressed in a t-shirt and while putting it on, she felt a peculiar twinge in her abdomen and shrugging it off not knowing what it was, though she had experienced that feeling a few times before and continued dressing, donning a pair of shorts and then this time fully dressed, opened the door and loaded the picnic things into the boat, while Leonard had his shower and dressed then came out to her, whereupon he was promptly sent back by a pouting Penny to change his jeans for a pair of shorts.

They sailed the boat towards a beach they had spotted the day before the beach run up to a wide grassy area before disappearing into woodland further on.

They spent some time swimming together and generally frolicking and sunbathing on the beach before sitting down to eat, and as she ate, Penny noticed the change in Leonard after being outdoors instead of in front of a computer screen, and turning from pasty nerd to tanned hunk, At which point Penny began to feel quite happy with the weather being pleasantly warm and Leonard as usual having a particular effect on her.

After they had eaten packed up the picnic things they entered the cool of the forest where Leonard after some encouragement from Penny climbed a small tree before getting stuck and had to be rescued by Penny before returning back across the grass to the beach and the boat, where suddenly, Leonard stopped and bent to inspect a painful cut on his shin at which Penny at the sight of Leonard's slimmer tushy could not help herself and as Leonard stood up she launched herself into his arms and pressing her lips firmly on his.

Penny had never felt better as she lay on top of Leonard, hidden by the long grass, the mixed scent of his Brut aftershave coupled with the sweet scent of the grass and best of all Leonard's natural scent which always had a calming effect on her and when she was not sated like she was at the moment, It also would cause a certain excited feeling inside her which Penny could never resist and she just had to have her fix of some Leonard. And if the scents were not enough there was also the wonderful feeling of his skin against hers, added to his arms around her and Penny as far as she was concerned in paradise. She was quite prepared to lay like that forever had not Leonard suddenly inhale a grass seed which sent him into a coughing fit when a stag, startled by the noise, thundered just by them, causing Penny to giggle but being careful to hold Leonard down in the long grass by the means of her legs wrapped round his waist, lest they were seen if Leonard jumped up. "I thought the phrase was don't frighten the horses, but I think deer should be included in there too". Leonard smiled as Penny regretfully moved off of her husband and they lay together side by side holding hands and looking at the clouds picking out shapes from them. "that one looks like a pig",said Leonard pointing up at the sky,

"That one looks like a car", Penny said pointing to yet another. Leonard Jokingly said as he pointed to another one, "That one looks like Sheldon", "You're making that up", Penny disputed, then she pointed to another one," That ones got a face like a baby", Penny was about to say but stopped at the 'b' as a very peculiar feeling came over her.

"Pardon!, Got a face like a what?, honey", Leonard asked puzzled, but Penny deep in thought didn't hear him.
"Are you OK honey?", Leonard asked her. "yes I'm fine sweetie, but perhaps it might be best if we get dressed now", and as they donned their clothes, Penny just could not shake off that strange feeling at seeing that last image on the cloud, Penny was quite convinced that it meant something for her, with her woman's intuition she just knew, but if she was what would Leonard say?, they had made plans in the future for a family but not right now. And if she was then how would it affect her relationship with Leonard? She wanted so much to discuss it with Leonard but the only evidence was a feeling she had. Besides she remembered Leonard's reaction to psychics, some time ago.

They returned back to the cabin and Leonard after giving Penny a kiss left for the diner to look at Pete's computer.

Leonard was a little worried at leaving Penny as she had seemed so preoccupied since they came back from the beach, but he did not want to break his word to Pete, so he went anyway.

Five minutes after Leonard left, Penny went into action.
Opening the cookbook at the right page she began to prepare a meal, and while it was cooking she prepared the table with white cloth, candles and some purple serviettes (left over from their reception).

Leonard ran anti virus and anti malware programs cleared the '%temp%' cache and soon Pete's computer was soon running smoothly though rather on the slow side, "You really need to upgrade, this machine is quite old now and Microsoft will be ending support for this operating system next month , Leonard told Pete, "Thanks Leonard, I'm afraid I don't know much about these things, do you think you could pick a good one out and if you give me the details I'll be much obliged to you".

"Okay Pete I'll have a look on the net tomorrow, and while I'm at it I'll have a look at your ISP and see if you can get a better deal on that too", Then Leonard stood to reach for his jacket to get back to Penny, "that'll be great Leonard, here let me express my thanks by offering you a drink?", then strangely, just when Pete was about to get the drinks, Janey appeared and gave Pete a nod, at which point suddenly remembering that Penny was on her own in the cabin then said, "Sorry Leonard, I forgot, I shouldn't be keeping you from your wife, should I?", Pete told him. Leonard thankfully agreed and with assurance to Pete to provide details of a new machine tomorrow.

"Leonard seemed tense this evening, I noticed", Janey observed to Pete. "He seemed alright to me", Pete replied shrugging his shoulders, "I suppose it may be down to all that they have been through recently I guess?", He added.

All the time Penny was preparing the meal, she was deliberating, "What if I am pregnant though, how would Leonard be if I told him I was pregnant?, would he be pleased or not?, He did say we would start a family later, but now?, what if I'm mistaken and I'm not?", Now that the idea of her being pregnant had entered her mind, Penny found that it had become her greatest desire apart from Leonard and now she wanted it more than anything. It was no good she will have to talk to Leonard about it, Tonight.

Leonard entered the cabin and was stunned, The table was laid with candles in the middle and candles dotted around the room, some smooth jazz was playing softly in the background but best of all, there was his Penny, looking absolutely stunning in an evening gown and her hair styled on top of her head, she just took his breath away. "Wow it was no wonder really that Penny got hit on all the time", Leonard thought to himself.

"You've just got time for a shower and change before dinner Honey", she told him.

Leonard gave her his special smile that was always just for her. Then went and had his shower, then on entering the bedroom he saw his suit laid on the bed ready for him to wear and he promptly put it on .

"What's the occasion Penny?", Leonard puzzled, hoping against hope he hadn't forgotten a date or something.
"Well as you know sweetie, my cooking is a bit limited and now I am your wife and that means that I have responsibilities now towards you, and I really want to learn so for my very first lesson in cooking properly and by myself, I made it a special occasion and it's also because I love you so much" she informed him wrapping her arms round his neck and kissing him.

In spite of her preoccupation Penny did quite well and the Co q-au-vin was delicious, Penny poured him a glass of Liebfraumilch but stuck to sparkling mineral water for herself . After dinner Penny put on her Ipod play list on which were some of her mothers and favourites that Penny too had come to love, Gladys Knight and the pips, the Stylistics and other love songs, and they began to dance , holding each other close.

Penny now feeling fatigued sat down with Leonard and began to tell him about the cloud with the image of a baby's face, and how she had this uncanny feeling that she might be pregnant .

Leonard thought for a while thinking things through, "Well Penny the thought of being married to you was beyond my wildest dreams let alone even having a child with you, which to me is as exciting as if I I'd discovered how to create cold fusion".

"So what are you saying, cold, that's bad right", Penny quizzed with a frown.

"No that's wonderful Penny, cold fusion is the holy grail of science discovery, It's marvelous honey", Leonard told her with a broad grin, then added, "I know I said we would start a family later because I didn't want to put any pressure on you now, but If you are expecting then I am completely over the Moon", and he hugged her tightly.

"Be careful Leonard you might hurt the baby", Penny giggled, then added seriously "But what about my illness?, how are we going to cope?", Penny questioned.

"We will Penny, I will always be with you and together we will see this thing through".

As the evening was warm they walked outside and stood looking at the stars, with Leonard pointing out to Penny some of the constellations, when they suddenly saw, streaking across the sky a shooting star and though neither of them discussed their wish, Penny and Leonard's wish was the same.

The next day though Leonard discovered his clothes laid in a line and yet again the external doors blocked by furniture. And after hastily putting things back the way they were Leonard looked for the location of psychiatrists in the local area. Penny needed professional help, and even more so if she is pregnant.