Okay, decided to post two days in a row so I can get back on my usual schedule of every other day. The next update will be Thursday, I promise you! I'm not going anywhere for a while now. :)

Oh yeah...still own nothing. Not even Gilda, gosh, that's depressing. But anyhoo...

"So what does this mean?" Bernadette asked, taking a sip of her coffee.

"I don't know," Penny said. "I mean last night felt really, really good. We got all our frustrations out, we had one of those heart to hearts…" she closed her eyes momentarily. "We had an amazing kiss, and we curled up together and fell asleep. And that felt really good, which makes me wonder…" she looked over at her friend, "do we really want to have kids? I mean, once that happens, there won't be any more us. There won't be him coming home and me…you know, jumping on him at the door."

"I thought that scared him," Bernadette said.

"Well it did. But he got over it. But with a kid, we won't be able to just spend time together alone, we'll always be worrying about what the kid is doing, and if the kid is going to, you know, walk in on us having sex…do we want that yet?"

Bernadette was taken by surprise at how intensely Penny was staring at her from across the table. "I don't know," she said slowly, not moving a muscle as she eyed her friend. "I'm not Leonard."

Penny rolled her eyes. "I know. I know. Can I just get some advice?"

"Am I really the right person to ask?" Bernadette asked. "I don't want kids."

"I know that, but you know us," Penny said. "And I think you're more reliable than Amy when it comes to this sort of thing."

"Well," Bernadette said, shifting her weight in the booth. "There is the whole getting older thing, and…" she shrugged. "You guys were in limbo for too long, you know, with getting back together, and just getting things right, and if you wait on this…will it ever happen? It's so rare that you two know what you want and want the same things at the same time."

"Yeah," Penny said, "you're right. But…"

"No buts," Bernadette told her. "You guys already decided to do this, if you keep hemming and hawing over it Leonard's going to get angry."

"See," Penny said, "I don't know if he would. He's been really great to me, like, amazing, and…"

"He's thinking you completely, one hundred percent want to get pregnant and he feels bad because you've been hurting over the fact that it hasn't happened yet. He's the kind of guy that when you're unsure, he obsesses over what being unsure means, doesn't he?"

Penny had to concede that point. She nodded. "So he'd probably rather have me tell him I do or don't want to keep trying then me coming to him all unsure." She tapped her fingers. "Still, I want to talk to him about this…"

"I'm not saying you can't," Bernadette said quickly, "I'm just saying if he eventually gets a little irritated, you gotta understand that."

Penny put her head on the table. "When did you get so wise?"

"When Howard left," she said simply. "I had to."

Penny raised her head. "Do you think I'm, like, trying to say we don't need to have kids right now because-"

"Because it's not happening?" Bernadette finished. "Quite honestly, yes, because you were all Rosie the Riveter on the subject when this all started."

"I know…" she traced a dried watermark on the table with her finger. "I'm so used to failing, you'd think I'd be good at this." She offered Bernadette a halfhearted smile. "Sorry you have to listen to my depressing life woes."

Bernadette looked over Penny's shoulder. "Well, you and I are both about to get a not so healthy dose of cheer."

"What?" Penny looked over her shoulder. "Gilda!"

"Hey guys," she said, sounding very excited. "Scootch." She slid in next to Bernadette and smiled. "So, how's everyone?"

"Where's Iris?" Bernadette asked.

"With her grandma. She got a new book last weekend, uh, what do you call it, 'Stu the Cockatoo at the Zoo' or something…"

"Oh God," Penny said under her breath.

"And my mother – in – law decided to take her to the zoo today, she's been laughing a lot recently at animals on television so the zoo will be a lot of fun for her." Gilda grinned. "Isn't a baby laughing one of the most adorable things you've ever seen?"

"Did you work that out on your board?" Penny asked, her face perfectly straight. Bernadette put a hand to her mouth to prevent the laughter.

"No," Gilda said. "Actual field work, which I must say, is incredibly interesting." She smiled at Penny. "So we haven't talked in a while!"

Penny nodded slowly. "Nope. Glad to hear Iris is doing well, though!"

"Thank you," Gilda said. "So when does she get a playmate?"

Penny groaned inwardly. She really didn't want to talk about that with Gilda. "As soon as the timing is right, I guess."

Gilda reached over and gave Penny's hands a firm pat. "Well, look on the bright side, you aren't woken up at night all the time because your kid wants something."

Penny smirked, thinking of all the times Sheldon had woken them up. "Yeah…that'll be different."

"Hey," Gilda said. "Don't stress over it. My husband and I had a plan, if we couldn't get pregnant in our first months of trying, we'd research reasons why people have problems. We'd get fertility tested. We'd explore all our options. There are things you guys can do aside from having sex all the time."

Penny nodded. "True…true."

"Of course," Gilda added, "we got pregnant almost right away. But it's good to have a plan if something doesn't go the way you want it to. You can even write it all out on a board, if you like!" Bernadette put her hand to her mouth again.

Penny nodded. "Excuse me," she said, standing up and sliding out of the booth.

"Where are you going?" Bernadette asked.

"Home. Leonard's off today." She grinned. "We're going to go all Rosie the Riveter on his board!"

"Atta girl!" Gilda said proudly. "When in doubt, go to the board."

When Penny left, Bernadette sighed. "What's the matter?" Gilda asked.

Bernadette shrugged. "I just really hope it happens for them," she said. "And I hope it not happening so far doesn't mean anything's wrong."

"Nothing will be wrong," Gilda said confidently. "The CERN supercollider wasn't built in a day."

Sorry this is so very much shorter than the last one! Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far, especially those of you who put detail into them. This is my first fic to be over 200 reviews, so thank you all!