Sequel to "In another Howard universe" and "Return to another Howard universe." Howard has graduated from Caltech and works at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, he is now married to Bernadette. Part 8, Comic Book Store.

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Howard used his sabbatical time to finish off his Ph.D thesis. He went to Caltech on April 1st to submit his thesis, then went to the JPL. He spent the rest of week catching up with what had been happening with the Mars lander and Titan projects over the last three months. In spite of Sara covering for him during his sabbatical he was bombarded with requests for help.

Two weeks later he heard from Caltech that his thesis defence exam was scheduled for May 15th. Howard was spending every waking moment outside work checking and rechecking his thesis. Sara, wearing her co-supervisors hat, told him not to worry too much but Howard got more and more worried as the big day got closer.

With two days to go Howard had a meeting with his Caltech supervisor, Bernadette said she would take him home after the meeting but instead she took him to the Comic Book store.

"Howie, you need a night off from your thesis" as she led him into the store. Waiting to see him were Stuart and Rebecca.

Stuart said "Hello stranger, long time no see." Then Rebecca gave him a big hug "Hello Howard, I haven't see you since Xmas, we have missed you." Howard spent the next hour chatting about geek culture and looking at the Comic Books.

Howard helped Stuart close up the store at the end of the day. Then together with Bernadette and Rebecca they went to the Cheesecake Factory, where they were met by Sara and Simon.

Sara gave him a hug "I am here tonight as your friend, not as your boss or supervisor. So no thesis talk." Howard had a great evening with his friends.

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Two days later, at the end of the thesis defence exam the chair off the committee said

"Well done, that was an excellent thesis and you did a great job defending it. Congratulations DOCTOR Wolowitz!"

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Next Monday afternoon Howard and Sara had a meeting with Professor Suzuki.

"So Howard, I understand that I can call you Dr. Wolowitz now."

"That is correct Professor, I put in the thesis corrections over the weekend and dropped off the corrected thesis at Caltech this morning."

"Very well done, you have travelled a long hard road to get here Doctor. We are all glad you have got your Ph.D at last. At the end of the summer things are going to change for the two of you. Dr. Bloom is going to be promoted to become my assistant as head of engineering and Dr. Wolowitz will take over from Sara as head of her new missions engineering group..."

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Epilogue. One year later, Howard and Bernadette and Sara and Simon were in the spectator stands at the Kennedy Space Centre to watch the launch of the first Mars lander mission, containing the spacecraft Howard helped to design.