A/N Well, since were into January, story-wise, I might as well bring this up. When I started writing (Dec 19/Jan 20), Covid hadn't really been much in the news and this story, up until now, was still in 2019. However, now that I'm near when covid did start becoming much more widespread, at least here in the US, I have to choose to either ignore it, as if it didn't happen, or include it in this story.

It would take a lot of time, to chase down the various details, on how it was handled in California, to include it, properly, in this story. And, get togethers, with the group, would be out of the question, changing parts of the story. I happen to like the story, as I have it planned out, right now. So, I've decided that I won't be including it.

Perhaps, at some point, I'll do another story that includes Covid, and how it affects the gang, but this story won't be that story.

I've talked about upcoming twists, but, within this chapter there is not really a twist (like the twins), but, more of taking care of something, that was not taken care of in the show. This involves more than Lenny, but as I've been told, I don't have to worry about how the show is going to handle anything, anymore. I get to do this my way, and baring some sort of reunion, it won't conflict with the show.

Chapter 28

Tuesday 07 January, 6:50 PM

Leonard was trying to convince Penny that she had to be at the Athenaeum, at 1:45 tomorrow, and she was not buying Leonard's logic.

"I've only got a week before the convention," said Penny, "and I have to have everything ready. I really don't have the time to go to some unknown function, get everything finished, and still get the rest I need."

They continued trying to convince each other, going back and forth, when there was a knock on the door.

"Come in," yelled Penny.

Sheldon and Amy entered, and Amy said, "Leonard, do you know of anything going on, at the university?"

"Maybe," said Leonard guardedly, "why do you ask."

"Well, Sheldon and I have been basically ordered to be at the Athenaeum tomorrow, but we don't know what for."

"That's interesting," said Leonard, "so have I."

"Well, if you're invited," said Sheldon derisively, "then it can't be about our Nobel prizes."

"Sheldon," snapped Amy..

Sheldon nodded, "I'm sorry, Leonard."

"I'm going," said Penny, suddenly.

"I thought you had a meeting," said Leonard.

Penny was grinning at all three of them. "If you three have been told to be there, I wouldn't miss it for the world, meeting or no meeting."

Wednesday 08 January, 10:50 AM

Penny had just got back to her office, after a meeting to get some of the new drug to Dallas, where the convention was to be held. She had to get the orders done before lunch, as she had that damn, whatever it was with Leonard today. She was thinking about blowing it off, despite what she said about being there when she heard, "What are you thinking about so deeply?"

Looking up, she saw Bernadette at her door, "What?"

"I said, what are you thinking about?" asked Bernadette. "I called your name several times, and you were like zoned out."

"Oh, Leonard was told to be at the Athenaeum this afternoon," said Penny, "and it was suggested, that I be there too. But, I'm thinking of blowing it off."

"Why?"

"Because I have a lot to do," said Penny, "and I don't want to waste my time standing around for some event, without any idea as to why I'm there."

Bernadette was thinking, after a few moments, she said, "I think you should go. When Howard was selected to be an astronaut, it was announced by the university at an event at the Athenaeum."

"But, there isn't anything that is happening with Leonard, right now," said Penny. "Besides, Amy and Sheldon have to be there, so how interesting can it be?"

"Whoa," said Bernadette, "all three of them have to be there? Something is going on Penny, you might really want to be there."

Penny sighed, "Okay, I guess I'll go."

"And, so am I," said a smiling Bernadette.

Wednesday 08 January, 11:50 AM

Leonard was heading to the cafeteria, to meet the other three guys for lunch. He went through the line and found the other three at one of their usual tables, so he walked over and sat down.

"Did you find out anything, Leonard?" asked Sheldon.

"Nope," said Leonard, "I talked to Eri…er, Dr Gablehauser three times this morning, and I couldn't get anything out of him. At least Penny said she's coming. How about you?"

"No," said Sheldon, "President Siebert told me I would find out everything when I got there, and after the first time he was strangely not available, although I distinctly heard his voice in his office."

"Come on, dudes," said Raj, "it's got to be something good. If they were going to fire you, it wouldn't be in the Athenaeum."

"Well, that's true," said Leonard, nodding.

"And, they wouldn't invite Penny for that, either," said Howard. "Unless they're looking for some drugs to keep you from freaking out."

Leonard rolled his eyes at Howard, "I don't think that's why they invited Penny. I guess we'll just have to wait for another hour or so."

"I suppose so," said Sheldon, "at least it's new comic book night."

At that, they all smiled and nodded.

Wednesday 08 January, 1:50 PM

Penny and Bernadette were in the middle of the room, waiting for the event to start. Bernadette waved, and Penny, upon turning around saw Howard and Raj walking up.

"What are you two doing here?" asked Penny.

"Well," said Howard, "we had heard about this from Sheldon and Leonard, but when Bernadette called and said she was going to be here, I thought that the two of us should be here also."

"Do you know what's going on?" asked Penny.

"Nope," said Howard, "and we really don't care, just nosey."

The four of them stood there for a few minutes, talking among themselves, then started walking toward the small raised area, near the front of the room. More and more people came into the room, and by 2 PM, it was pretty full. They could hear some talking going on off to the side, then President Siebert, Dr Gablehauser, and a woman Penny didn't recognize came out, followed by Sheldon, Amy and Leonard.

President Siebert held is hand up, while everyone in the audience quieted down. "Thank you all for being here today. We have some announcements to make, two of which have to do with our new Nobel Laureates, Dr Sheldon Cooper and Dr Amy Farrah Fowler. Plus another announcement from our Physics chair, Dr Eric Gablehauser."

"First, I am pleased to announce that Dr Sheldon Cooper has acquired tenure, and is now a Professor of Physics, here at Caltech. We are honored to have him on the faculty, and we look forward to all the scholars and professors who will be visiting Caltech, to speak with Dr Cooper, about Super Asymmetry. Dr Sheldon Cooper."

President Siebert started clapping and everyone in the audience joined in. The four standing on the floor were surprised but happy and gave a short cheer. Sheldon took a step forward and, still smiling, waved. As the audience quieted down, President Siebert started speaking again, "And now, I wish to preset Dr Josephine Barnes, the Neuroscience Department Chair, Dr Barnes." The audience applauded, as Dr Barnes walked forward.

After they stopped, Dr Barnes said, "Thank you, President Siebert, I am happy to announce that our other new Nobel Laureate Dr Amy Farrah Fowler, will be returning to the Neuroscience department, as Professor of Neuroscience, with tenure. She will continue her Neuroscience studies, along with becoming a doctoral thesis advisor. Please welcome Dr Amy Farrah Fowler." Dr Barnes started clapping and the audience joined in, as Amy waved. Again the four on the floor, gave a cheer and waved at Amy, she nodded at them and smiled.

As the applause became quieter, Dr Barnes said, "And finally, The Physics chair, Dr Eric Gablehauser," she started applauding, as did the audience, as Dr Gablehauser walked up. He held his hands up, and the audience became quiet. "As many of you know, we will be losing the current co-lead of the Photon Entanglement team. Dr Michael Ward will be leaving us and we wish to announce that Dr Leonard Hofstadter, will be taking over as the team lead. Please give him a warm welcome." Dr Gablehauser led the applause, that included the audience.

Penny was disappointed. While it was nice that they did a public announcement, Leonard deserves tenure too. As the clapping became quieter, Dr Gablehauser held up his hand, "In addition, Dr Hofstadter will taking on the role of thesis advisor, and will become Professor of Physics, with tenure."

Penny whooped, then cheered, applauding loudly. Dr Gablehauser looked at her and smiled and then turned to Leonard, who was smiling at Penny and nodding at Penny. The others also applauded. President Siebert walked up, and held up his hand. After it was quiet, he said, "That concludes our announcements today, thank you for coming."

President Siebert, Dr Barnes and Dr Gablehauser shook each of their hands, and said a few words, before Amy, Sheldon and Leonard walked up to their friends. Penny enveloped Leonard in a hug, while Sheldon and Amy accepted congratulations from Raj, Howard and Bernadette. Then Penny hugged Amy and Sheldon, while the other three congratulated Leonard. For the next few minutes, there were various picture taken, using their phones.

Penny reminded everyone that they were all coming over for dinner tonight, after the guys got home from comic book night. Penny told the women they could come sooner, but that her and Bernadette had to get back to work. Howard and Raj said they had to get back to work also, and with that, the four of them took off, saying goodbye, leaving Leonard, Sheldon and Amy to head back to work.

Wednesday 08 January, 6:00 PM

Amy was sitting in her apartment, when she heard voices in the hallway, she got up and opened the door to see Penny with Bernadette and the two children. Penny was opening the door, so Amy closed her door and entered 4A with them. Amy and Bernadette had some wine, with grape juice for Penny, Michael and Halley. The women sat in the chairs and the couch, while the two children played on the floor.

Bernadette and Penny were anxious to hear about when Amy had found out, but she demurred, saying wait until the rest of the guys get here. Then Penny said, "We can talk about the babies, the guys won't care. Well, Raj might," but she ran and got the latest ultrasound, and showed it to Amy and Bernadette. They oohed and aahed over it, then Bernadette said, "How are you doing with the doubts?"

Penny thought for a second and then said, "Much better actually. One thing, when we found out I was carrying twins, I thought there was something wrong with the baby, 'cause the doctor had to go get someone else to look at it Turned out, she just never had a twin pregnancy and wanted to make sure."

"But, that scared me, and made me realize I didn't want anything to happen to my baby. Leonard and I talked about it, and although we have some concerns, I mean who wouldn't with twins, but the idea of me not being sure or wondering if I want one is gone. I can't wait to meet these two." Penny rubbed her belly.

Penny was smiling and so were Amy and Bernadette. "I think I speak for both of us," said Amy, "that we can't wait to meet them either."

"Was the doctor able to determine if they are identical or fraternal?" asked Bernadette.

"Yes," said Penny, "she said they were identical, because of amnio…ah…anmino…whatever, and chora…chori…"

"Amnionicity and chorionicity," said Bernadette.

"Yeah, what ever," said Penny, "any way, they are each in their own inner sac, but they share an outer sac and a placenta. But, we don't know their sex."

"Oh, okay, but the number of sacs is how they know they're identical," said Bernadette. "Although you don't know the sex yet, that's still pretty cool."

"Yeah, it is," said Penny, "but now I have to worry about the convention in a week…"

Just then, the guys came in, they had gotten pizza, salads, breadsticks, the usual Italian fare, and it was quickly set out, while Leonard and Sheldon put their comic books away, and then everyone started eating. Everyone was mostly quiet, until they finished eating and started putting away the dishes.

"So when did you guys find out?" asked Howard.

All three started talking, but Leonard told Amy to go ahead and tell the story.

"You all know we were told to be there today," said Amy. "Well, when we got there at 1:45 President Siebert, Dr Gablehauser, and Dr Barnes were there. They asked all three of us if we were offered tenure, and a professorship, would we take it? Leonard and I said yes right away, but Sheldon, being Sheldon, had all sorts of silly questions."

Sheldon looked offended, and said, "Hey…"

But Amy cut him off by continuing, "Finally, I told him to be quiet and just accept it, and he finally became quiet. President Siebert said Sheldon was getting tenure without having to teach or take on a thesis student, because there would be a lot of people coming here to talk to him and he could be going to other universities, to give talks, but this was one of the sticking points, so we'll have to wait and see. And, all the details have to be worked out, but they wanted the offer there, so we wouldn't be tempted to leave. Although, thinking about Sheldon wanting to change is kinda funny."

Sheldon stared at Amy, but didn't say anything.

"As for me," continued Amy, "you all know I had already requested moving back to the Neuroscience department, to continue my studies, so, for me to get tenure, I needed to be a Professor of Neuroscience, and to do that, I had to teach classes or be a thesis advisor."

"They have got several different grad students who want to work with me, so I'll be interviewing them, and when I decide on who, I'll be working in the Neuroscience lab for the winter and spring terms, and still doing the odd interview and meetings with alumni."

"What about you, Leonard?" said Bernadette.

"Well, I had already become a thesis advisor to a grad student. My co-lead, Mike, who you heard is leaving, had a grad student, who is also his TA. Well, he will become my grad student, and my TA, although I don't teach. Eri…er…Dr Gablehauser and I talked about possibly teaching a couple of graduate laser courses, down the road." Suddenly the light bulb lit in Leoanrd's head, "Tenure, that's why he was talking about teaching a class. Anyway, for now, since I don't have anything to teach, he'll basically be my assistant to keep me aware of all my meetings and things like that."

"He will also be part of the 10 photon entanglement experimental team, as his thesis has something to do with the interactions within the experiment. We know there are interactions happening, he only has to find out what specific interaction is happening, to get his PhD. Mike asked me to take over for him. I spoke to him on Monday and he'll be great to work with, and he will be a big help with all of the meetings I've started having to attend."

"Amy, Sheldon," said Leonard conspiratorially, "I also found out something else about our promotions."

"What?" said Sheldon.

"Huh," said Amy, turning from Bernadette.

"I was talking to Eric after the ceremony today, and I found out that you two could be in line for something bigger."

"What are you taking about Leonard?" said Sheldon. "What could be bigger than this?"

"Well, if we continue on our current trajectory," explained Leonard, "both of you could be in line for an endowed chair, whenever they open up. I'd say it's almost a given for Sheldon, with his Nobel. Amy, yours would be a given, but you are moving away from the field that you got the Nobel in. That said, you still have a Nobel, so your being assigned to an endowed chair won't be quite as dependent, on future research, as someone elses would be. I don't have a Nobel, so I have to rely on my research continuing to be good, or if the photon experiments lead to any quantum breakthroughs, I could be right there with both of you, even without a Nobel."

"I don't know what chair, or chairs they would consider Amy and I for," said Leonard, "but, I would think it would depend on what's available or their idea of where they want us. Ahhhh...Sheldon you will be so happy about this. The chair they think would be the best match for you would be the Richard Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, when that comes open, again. So you might not want to be too picky about refusing to go to other campuses to talk about super-asymmetry."

"Ummmmmmm," said Sheldon.

Leonard smiled and said, "Now, none of this is set in stone, we'll all have to keep working at it, and if we continue to do everything well, it may end up that way." Leonard leaned back and smiled, "But, if you fight going to give talks at other campuses, they might rethink giving you that particular chair. Anyway, anyone else got any questions?"

"Sure, just bury me under all your good news, while I sit here and get nothing," bellowed Raj.