Chapter 9

It was Leonard's first day at work after having a heart attack. All of his colleagues at the university greeted him and shook his hand, glad that Leonard was doing fine and out of harm's way. He arrived at his office and was glad that the janitor kept it clean from dust. He logged onto his computer, letting it connect to the university server to synchronize his month-long email inbox. He left the computer to do its business and looked at the picture frames on his book shelf – pictures of him and Penny when they were still dating, his children at different stages of their life, a picture of them in New York when they visited his father Alfred a couple of years before he passed away and a picture of him with Sheldon, Howard and Raj with their other colleagues.

He took the picture frame of him and Penny showing the time before they got married and can't help but smile. After all the craziness and problems they went through, from breaking up, jealousy, financial troubles and most times just dealing with Penny's commitment issues, it still amazes him to find himself where he is right now, happily married to the woman he loves with two amazing children.

He heard someone knock on his door. He opened it and saw the university president Dr. Wilson, welcoming him in.

"Dr. Hofstadter, so glad to see you're doing alright." Dr. Wilson said shaking his hand.

"Thank you sir. I'm just happy to be alive." he said.

"Well, not as glad as your students would be. I heard some of them considered dropping out ever since your friend Dr. Cooper took over your class while you were recovering." he said.

"Oh yeah. Howard told me about that. I guess they'll be glad of not seeing Sheldon any more than me surviving my heart attack huh?" said Leonard.

"I'm sure that's not the case. Your students love you." he said. "Anyway, I guess I better get going now. It's nice to see you again Leonard." said Dr. Wilson shaking his hand.

"Thank you Harry." said Leonard as he went out the door.

After an hour, he went out of his office to go to his class. Upon entering the classroom, his students gave him a standing ovation, cheering and clapping, glad to see him again. He motioned for them to sit and quiet down so he could catch up on what happened in the month he was away.

"Okay guys I want you all to be honest, are you glad that I survived my heart attack or are you happy that Dr. Cooper will no longer teach this class?" he asked making some of the students laugh.

"Don't get us wrong sir, we're glad that you're out of the woods but I think I can speak for everyone here in saying that we're more relieved of you taking this class back. I mean, some of us here were seriously considering changing our majors into literature or something." his student Thomas said to the agreement of the whole class.

Leonard laughed. "Come on guys, Dr. Cooper is not that bad!" said Leonard.

"Sir, did you know that sent me out of the room because my hair was tied up. He said it looked like a rooster's head and scared him. After that, I was seriously considering cutting my hair." said Mila who was sitting at the front.

"How about the time when he gave us a surprise quiz because nobody laughed at his joke about a cow?" said Eli sitting at the third row. The rest of them muttered in agreement.

"Seriously sir, we really don't know how you managed to tolerate Dr. Cooper all these years. I mean, are you some kind of monk or something?" Thomas asked.

"Guys, I think I would have an easier time solving String Theory than answering that question." said Leonard, making the entire room erupt with laughter. "Now why don't we get back to business." he said as he opened his briefcase to take out his file folder to start his lecture.

Lunch time came and he joined Sheldon, Howard and Raj at the cafeteria. He put his food tray down on the table as he sat beside Howard, facing Sheldon and Raj.

"You must feel a little weird being back to work huh?" ask Howard.

"A little bit, yeah. I mean I've gotten used to walking the dog every morning and watching Ellen re-runsafter coming home." Said Leonard.

"I watch those Ellen re-runs in the evening." Raj said.

"So how was your checkup with the doctor?" asked Sheldon.

"The doctor said everything's fine. I just have to stick with my medication." said Leonard. "Who would have thought that these things would happen to us huh?" he asked his friends.

"Leonard if you're referring to us being in life-threatening situations, perhaps you've already forgotten our countless encounters with bullies, animals, birds, Penny's ex-boyfriend Kurt." said Sheldon.

"Yeah but still, when we were younger, all we were worried about was getting girls to even talk to us. But now we're worried about our kids having boyfriends and stuff." said Leonard.

"You can say that again." said Howard. "I mean, the other day I heard my daughter Halley talking quietly on her phone and when I asked her who she was talking to, she immediately put her phone away and said that she was just talking to her friend from school." he added.

"Same here. Sarah has so much of Penny in her that she can be sweet and bubbly and then just completely bite your head off the next minute." said Leonard making the guys laugh a little.

They continued eating lunch while Leonard catches up on his month-long absence from the university.

Leonard arrived home around five-fifteen in the afternoon. He opened the door and was surprised to see Penny and Sarah welcome him home with a banner hanging from the ceiling with the words 'welcome back to work!'. Penny hugged and kissed her husband.

"Welcome home honey!" she said.

"Hi honey. What's with the banner?" he asked as Sarah hugged him.

"It's our idea dad. It's your first day at work and I told mom that we should celebrate your recovery." said Leonard's daughter.

"Aww, that is so nice! I love it!" he said hugging his daughter. "So how do we celebrate?" he asked Penny.

"Well, after dinner, we can do whatever you want. We can watch Star Trek or Star Wars, play Dungeons & Dragons, Lord of the Rings, whatever you want honey." said Penny.

"Really!? Thank you honey!" he said kissing Penny on the lips.

"Ewww! You guys are so gross!" said Sarah teasing her parents.

Penny glared at her daughter. "Hey! Watch it young lady!" she said as they walk to the kitchen to have an early dinner.

After dinner, they retired in the living room to watch a movie complete with popcorn, chips and sodas. Leonard decided to watch a romantic-comedy movie that Penny and Sarah like instead of watching a sci-fi movie.

"Honey, I thought we would be watching one of your dorky space movies or something?" asked Penny.

"It's alright honey. I already saw those a thousand times." said Leonard.

Penny leaned onto him, putting her arm around her husband. "You're so great honey." she said kissing his cheek as they continued watching the movie, laughing and enjoying their simple bonding experience.

Midway in the movie, Penny looked up and saw that Leonard has already dozed off while Sarah sat on the floor, not taking her eyes away from the TV screen while quietly eating her popcorn. Penny smiled looking at Leonard. She gently kissed Leonard on the cheek and leaned back on his shoulder, putting her arm around him to feel his warmth.