A/N Hey, look at this, a short author's note. Like last chapter, mostly Penny at the convention, and a bit of Amy, not Raj, this time.

Chapter 31

Wednesday 15 January, 6:30 PM

"Well," said Al, unperturbed, "normally we only have the head of the team come, as everyone here is a district Manager, and heads of teams are district managers."

"Then I guess I don't belong either," said Penny tersely, "I'm not a district manager, I'm just a damn good salesperson."

Al looked surprised, "Wait, you were running the sales team for the launch of Inflaminix, and now your leading this team, two in one year is a district manager level job, not a salesperson's job."

"Well, I'm sorry I don't fit the profile, " said Penny, sarcastically, and her anger rising again. "I'm only a salesperson, the one that came up with the name and marketing for Embryno. So, I guess we'll find somewhere else."

"Penny," said Karen, "it's okay, you can go with them." Roger nodded in agreement.

"See, they're okay with it," said Roy, "we want to talk about your presentation."

Penny angrily turned back to Roy, "No, you don't understand. About a quarter of that presentation was written by Karen, a third, if you count all the things she had to look up for me. She also helped me with practicing the presentation and she also gave it several times, so I could see it. Without her, the presentation doesn't get done. Roger ran the booth, while we did the presentation."

She turned to Al, "So, without him, I don't get to do the presentation. We all worked on it. This is a team, so it's got to be all of us, or I take my team elsewhere and buy them dinner." Penny stood in front of Al, and crossed her arms.

Al nodded and smiled, "Okay, fair enough, all of you are welcome." He extended his hand toward the table, and Karen and Roger looked a Penny. She nodded, and they started walking toward the table. Al looked at Roy, tilted his head toward the table, and Roy started after Karen and Roger. Penny and Al started walking after him and Al said with a grin, "Personally, I think Roy's more concerned his expense account."

"Hey, it's not that…" started Roy, turning around.

"Stow it, Roy," said Al. "Obviously, this little lady here, is smart and feisty enough to protect her team, and give credit where it's due."

Penny bristled at being called "little lady" but kept quiet. She followed Al to the table, sat down, and they ordered drinks. Al asked about her cranberry order, and Penny again explained about an 'infection' and her medication.

The rest of the evening went smoothly. Penny was a bit worried when she found out that Al was rather more important that she thought. He was the Senior vice-president of the Texas Sales team. Besides being in charge of the Vice-Presidents to the Dallas-Ft Worth team, the senior vice-presidents of the Houston, San Antonio, and El Paso sales teams, also reported to him. He ran the entire state, he was similar to Tim, Dan's boss.

But, Al didn't seem to harbor any ill-will toward Penny. In fact, he was excited to hear about how her and Karen developed the presentation. The heads of the other cities would be coming in tomorrow, and he asked if Penny would give the presentation to the company on Saturday, that way all of the sales people, in addition to the district managers, could hear the presentation. Penny explained Karen and her had already planned on doing the presentation for the company representatives, when they arrived, impressing Al even more.

After dinner, and discussion, the three from LA thanked everyone and left the Biergarten, heading toward their hotel. When they got to the elevator, and as they waited for it to arrive, Karen said, "Er, Penny, thanks for standing up for us tonight."

"What," said Penny, turning around, "what do you mean?"

"You standing up for us," said Karen, "Telling them you would leave if they wouldn't let us come in. That was cool. We both really appreciate it."

"Thank you," said Penny, "both of you. Without your help, I wouldn't have been able to give the presentation. You both deserved to be there as much as I did."

"Well, thank you," said Karen, "it made us feel good."

"Yeah," said Roger.

The car arrived and they entered and pushed the buttons for their floors.

"Make sure you both get a good nights sleep," said Penny. "The next couple of days are going to be busy."

Karen and Roger got off at their floor, and said goodnight. Penny got off at her floor, and after entering her room, started getting ready for bed. When she was done, she got into the bed, and using her iPad, called Leonard.

She selected Leonard's number and touched the screen, and after several rings, he answered, "Hi Penny."

"Hi sweety," said Penny.

She sounded a bit down and Leonard picked up on it, "What's wrong? Didn't the presentation go well?"

"No," said Penny, "that went very well. It was after, at dinner."

"What happened?"

"Well, I got invited to dinner by the group of salespeople here in Dallas, and thought it was for Karen and Roger, also. Turns out it wasn't. Well, I got pissy about it to one of the group, then someone else came up and I got pissy toward them too. During dinner, I found out the second guy was the equivalent of Tim, you know, Dan's boss."

"Ouch," said Leonard, "was he angry?"

"No, it didn't seem like it," said Penny. "He was nice for the rest of the night and was excited about what we're doing here. But, I just got a bad feeling about it."

"Well, don't worry about that," said Leoanrd, "I'm sure if it was bad, he would have told you. Now, tell me about the presentation."

Penny started telling Leonard about the presentation, how she did, the reaction and how Penny felt. She also bragged about how Karen and Roger did, and before they knew it, almost an hour had gone by.

"I guess I should get to bed," said Penny. "I need my sleep, for me and our babies."

Leonard smiled, "Yeah, you should get your rest. Talk to you tomorrow?"

Penny smiled, "Yeah, I'll call about seven, your time, same as tonight."

"That's fine. At least I won't miss comic book night tomorrow, like I did tonight."

"Oh, that's right," said Penny, "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," said Leonard, "The other's met at Howard's, but I'd rather talk to you. Now, you get your sleep. I love you, goodnight."

Penny smiled at him, "I love you too, sweety, good night."

With that, they both hung up, and Leonard started thinking what to order for dinner, while Penny rolled over and was soon asleep.

Thursday 16 January, 7:30 PM

Penny and the other two were sitting in the Sushi restaurant in the hotel, Penny, mindful of being pregnant, had ordered pork dumplings and a Pork Lo Mein dish. They were talking about the day, and it was almost a repeat of Wednesday, with small changes. More people came by booth on Thursday morning, than on Wednesday morning, and the presentation being at 2 PM, instead of 1 PM. But, there was still a full audience for the presentation, and afterward, many coming up to tell Penny how good it was. The booth was, again, very busy after the presentation. So busy, in fact, that they were still passing out brochures until the floor closed, at 7:00 PM, so after closing the booth, they went right to dinner.

They were all looking forward to Friday, as there were no presentations and all they had to do was man the booth. Penny still didn't know what time the presentation to the sales teams would be, on Saturday, but they would let her know. They finished dinner by 9:00 PM and Penny started toward the elevator. Roger and Karen hung back, and Penny looked around. "What?"

"We thought we'd go to the bar," said Karen, "they have a live band, we can do some dancing, you wanna come?"

Although she really wanted to dance, it had been so long since she had, she thought about the two babies in her belly, and shook her head. "I'm kinda tired. You two go ahead, I'm going to relax and get to bed early."

Karen said, "Okay, see you in the morning."

Roger said, "Night." The two of them started toward the bar, and Penny watched them go, thinking, is there something going on there? Penny shook her head, if those two want get some of each other, it's not my business. She took the elevator to her floor, got ready for bed and then started her call to Leonard.

Friday 17 January, 7:30 AM

Penny was drinking her tea, and saw Karen come into the restaurant, and walk over. She sat down and ordered a coffee, and a few minutes later, Roger came in. I guess they didn't get together last night, thought Penny. They both came in and ordered breakfast and, as they ate, the three of them talked about the coming day.

As it turned out, it was a quiet day for most of it. There was a steady stream of people coming by and asking about Embryno, with Karen and Penny steadily answering their questions. Around noon, Karen had left to get lunch, and Penny was putting out some more pamphlets, when she heard a voice she recognized. "Well, I'm surprised to see you here," said the voice, "I though you were leaving Zangen."

Penny turned to see Danny standing there, "I guess your sources weren't so accurate, huh?"

"Eh, it happens," said Danny, picking up a pamphlet. "But, what are you doing all this way from LA?"

"Oh, just helping out," say Penny.

"This is pretty slick," said Danny, picking up another one and scanning it. "Man, so is this one, who wrote these?" Danny looked around, "Who's the lead here?"

Penny looked at him smugly, "I am the lead, here, and I wrote the majority of those brochures."

"You?" said Danny. "Well, that explains why you are so far from LA."

"Is there something wrong with that?" asked Penny testily.

"No, no," said Danny, putting up his hands, "nothing wrong with it, just surprised that a salesperson would be the lead."

"Yeah, well, I came up with the name," said Penny, "and then a lot of the ideas for branding, so yeah."

"Man," said Danny, "I should have made an offer faster or for more."

"Well, you didn't," said Penny, "and if I had accepted, I would probably be your boss by now."

"Okay, okay, ouch. No need to get nasty. I'm leaving," said Danny, who turned and walked away.

A few minutes later, Karen came back and Penny went off for lunch. She found one of the places the convention center ran and had a salad, and enjoyed the thirty minutes off of her feet.

There was a crowd at the booth when Penny returned, so Penny jump in and started helping. About an hour later, there was finally a lull, so Penny sent Roger off for lunch.

With no one there, for the moment, Penny grinned asked, "So, did you two hook up last night?"

Karen looked disgusted and said, "No, after about fifteen minutes, he started dancing with another woman, and left me by myself. He was still dancing with her when I left."

Penny nodded, "So you were thinking of hooking up with him?"

"No, guys are creeps," said Karen, evasively. "Hey, speaking of guys that are creeps, do you remember that guy that was at the last convention, short, balding?"

"Yeah, Danny," said Penny. "He came by when you were at lunch."

"Well, he came back, while you were at lunch," said Karen.

"Really," said Penny. "What did he want?"

"Ask about the lead here," said Karen. "I told him it was you, then he started asking me a bunch of question. Seemed a bit creepy to me."

"Yeah, he can be," said Penny. "Remember, for Imflaminex, he wanted me to jump to his company, and I turned it down. Then, a few months ago, he saw me in the airport, and started bugging me about moving to his company again. And, again I turned him down. Now today, here was here."

"Then he started asking about what I did," said Karen, "and asked if I was in sales. I ignored him, and went over to help someone who had walked up."

"Yeah, I think he was looking for sales people."

"Well, that's not someone I would want to work for," said Karen.

"But, you could, if you wanted to, right?" said Penny

"Of course," said Karen, proudly.

Penny smiled knowingly, but but turned away before Karen could see it.

Friday 17 January, 2:30 PM

Amy felt a bit out of sorts. She was in her office, not her lab, as she usually was. But, she was trying to set up several appointments, with prospective grad students. She was nervous, because she hadn't had to teach or advise a student, for over ten years, since the last time she was a teacher's assistant, in grad school.

She was given a list by her department chair, of six students who would need an advisor, and it was up to Amy to determine which one, or ones, she would be willing to work with. She had looked at their records, and the comments from their previous advisors, and had chosen four, to interview. She was already leaning toward two of them, as their PhD work, tied in directly with her research. While she would be able to help the other two, they would have to work with a different research professor, based on the research required for their thesis. Meaning Amy would have to coordinate with the other professor.

She looked up the number of the first student, and dialed it. It was a bit strange, not having used the phone in her office for a while. As the number began ringing, she looked over the questions she would be asking.

Friday 17 January, 8:30 PM

Penny, Karen and Roger had just finished dinner, it had been a relatively quiet afternoon, and Penny was waiting for the waiter to return with her credit card. He brought it back, she signed the bill and the three of them left the restaurant.

Again, Karen and Roger tried to persuade Penny to come with them to the bar, and again she declined, and they said their goodnights to each other. They tried one more time to get Penny to come along with them, but she just smiled and told them to have a good time. They started off and Penny went to the elevator, heading for her room and a talk with Leonard before getting to bed.

Saturday 18 January, 7:25 PM

Penny woke up to her room phone ringing. She looked at the clock and saw it was five minutes before her alarm was supposed to go off. She reached for the handset and sleepily said, "Hello."

"Good morning, Penny," said Al, "I hope I didn't wake you."

"You did, but no big deal," said Penny, "it was only five minutes early."

"Oh, sorry," said Al, "I just wanted to know if you would be willing to come to breakfast with me, so we can talk about the presentation to the sales teams today."

"Sure," said Penny, "can you give me 30-40 minutes?"

"How about you meet me at the cafe, at 8:15, that's about 50 minutes?"

"That will be fine, Al," said Penny, "thanks."

Penny got her shower and then got ready. She wanted to let Karen know, and give her the booth keys, so she called her room, but there was no answer. She called her cell, and, again, got no answer. Puzzled, Penny left a message, to call her when Karen got the message. On the way down to the lobby, Penny thought to stop at Karen's floor, and knocked on Karen's door. After three knocks, where is Sheldon when I need him, thought Penny, Karen opened the door, in a T-shirt.

She looked confused, and kept looking over her shoulder, "Oh, er, hi Penny, what are you doing here?"

"I just came to tell you…"

At that instant, Roger came out of the bathroom, completely naked. When he saw Penny, he tried to say something but just mumbled, covered himself, and then quickly backed into the bathroom. Penny was amused and smiling when she turned to Karen, who had a horrified look on her face.