A/N This chapter is a bit all over the place, such as the group together on Wednesday, Raj and Gablehauser, Karen and Penny, Penny and Leonard, and Raj. Just a lot of different things that are happening this particular week in the story. Hope you enjoy it.

Chapter 38

Tuesday 04, February 11:00 AM

The phone rang, and Raj picked it up, "Dr Koothrapolli here."

"Dr Koothrapolli, this is Dr Gablehauser," said Eric.

"Yes, sir?"

"I understand you have an interview with the director of the Palomar Observatory on Thursday, in the morning," said Eric.

"Yes, I do," said Raj, wondering how Dr Gablehauser knew.

"I would like to see and speak with you afterward," said Eric. "How does 2:30 in the afternoon work for you?"

Raj looked at his calendar, nervously, saw it was empty, and said, "That works for me, I'm free."

"Fine, see you then," said Eric.

"Okay, I'll see you then," said Raj, nervously. "Er…may I ask why?"

"No, not at this time."

Raj slowly hung up, with a worried look on his face.

Tuesday 04, February 2:30 PM

Penny was finishing up writing predictions, for several drugs. Dan had given her some older monthly data this morning, and asked her to analyze the data, and then predict how she thought sales would go, on several different drugs. On Thursday, he would go over and compare her predictions, with the actual sales. Then he would explain where she did well, and analyze where she didn't do as well.

Penny paused, thinking about tomorrow. She and Karen would be going around to another group of doctor's offices, so Penny could introduce Karen, as their new salesperson. Penny had been doing this whenever Penny was in the field with Karen, and after tomorrow there would only be a handful of offices left. Next week, they would move on to Karen's final stages of training, with Penny watching Karen do the sales pitches, before the final thing, the dreaded field write-up.

Penny brought herself back to the present and went back to typing. She was almost finished when her phone rang.

"Ms Hofstadter," said Penny.

"Penny, this is Dan."

She looked at the clock, Shit, I forgot about the 2:30. "Sorry, I'll be right there," said Penny.

"Okay, fine."

Penny hung up the phone and started out of her office, That's the second one I've forgotten today, what the hell is wrong with me?

Tuesday 04, February 8:30 PM

Penny had just finished explaining to Leonard her new compensation package. Four weeks of vacation, a higher percentage of company contribution to her 401k, along with her medical, dental, and eye insurance. And then there was her pay. Her base pay was half again what she had been getting, but her commission percentage was now only a quarter of what she was getting previously. This was expected as her commission would now be based on the sales of all the territories under her. So, her actual commission amount would more than double what she had been getting.

Leonard smiled and told her he would be able to buy a lot more figurines, along with rarer, and thus more expensive comic books. Penny laughed and told him to use his own money, from his recent raise, because she was thinking of getting season tickets to the Lakers. At that, they both laughed and agreed that most of their money would be put away for the expenses they expected once the twins were born.

Wednesday 05, February 6:30 PM

The three women, and Halley and Michael, were in 4A. The two kids were playing with blocks and figurines on the rug, while the women watched them. Amy and Bernadette were standing by the island, while Penny sat on one of the stools. Amy and Bernadette were drinking wine, while Penny had pomegranate juice. She had been alternating between grape juice and cranberry juice. But, the book and her doctor, pointed out the complication of gestational diabetes, and she decided to look at how much sugar was in each type of juice. After looking, Penny decided to switch to Pomegranate juice, with its smaller amount of sugar.

They were talking about work and Amy remembered she had the school newspaper with the announcements for Sheldon, Leonard, and herself. She said she'd run back to her apartment, get it, and be right back.

After she left, Penny looked at Bernadette and said, "Hey, can you stop by my office tomorrow afternoon?"

"What for?"

"There's something I want to ask you about being pregnant," said Penny.

"Well, do it now," said Bernadette.

"I can't, it's embarrassing and Amy may be back any second, so please come by tomorrow afternoon?"

Bernadette said, "I can't. I was going to tell everyone tonight, but I'll be leaving in the morning to go to a company meeting, in NY, until Sunday."

"Well, maybe, I can get it in before she comes back," said Penny. "See, I was asleep the other day…" Amy came back in and Penny whispered, "Okay, come by on Monday. Bernadette nodded back at her."

Wednesday 05, February 8:00 PM

The usual dinner, after the guys returned from the comic book store, was finished. All the food had been put away and the dishes washed. Everyone gathered around the tables with Michael and Halley playing on the carpet, near Leonard's desk. Amy had passed around the article about her, Sheldon, and Leonard. Bernadette announced she would be going to New York for a few days, and Raj reminded everyone he had an interview with the director of Mt Palomar Observatory, for the assistant director job.

Howard then spoke up, about something he had discovered, "Remember that problem that the ISS was having, with the remote grip, locking up?"

Leonard looked thoughtful, then said, "Was that with the small hand-like thing they used to change out the radiation canister?"

"Yeah, that was it," said Howard. "Well, I got a hold of a backup from JPL, to test. I put it in a vacuum chamber, and then blasted it with the equivalent ultraviolet rays, over the last couple of months, and I got it to freeze up."

"That's good, Howard," said Sheldon, "now do you know someone who can fix it?"

"Hey, Sheldon," said Bernadette angrily, "remember the contract? The one you signed with the clause that says you can't say anything bad about Howard's work?"

"Sheldon, you need to apologize," added Amy.

Sheldon looked chagrined, bowed his head, and mumbled, "Sorry, Howard."

"Anyway," said Howard, "I looked for some info to fix it, but I couldn't find anything," said Howard. "So, I had to figure a few things out, for myself. I ended up redesigning the linkage and the grip, machined a couple of parts with titanium, coated them with ceramic, and replaced it."

"So, this is something new, right? Different from the other one?" asked Leonard.

"Yeah,"

"And, did you test it again?" asked Leonard.

"Yeah, I ran it this afternoon, for a couple of hours. Also, I hit it with two, and then three times the amount of ultraviolet, and it's run great. Of course, I'm going to have to retest it several times a week, for a few months, to simulate long term use, but so far, it's good."

"Hmmmmmmmm," said Leonard thoughtfully.

"We have to get ready to leave," announced Bernadette. "So we can get the kids home and into bed."

As Bernadette and Howard started gathering things up, Leonard walked over to Penny and whispered, "Can you help Bernadette? I want to talk to Howard."

While Amy and Sheldon prepared to leave, Penny nodded and went over to Howard and said something to him. He looked surprised, but nodded and let Penny take over packing the bag, while he walked over to Leonard.

"What's up?" said Howard, as he approached Leonard. Leonard said, "I have a couple of questions for you. The two biggest, I guess, are did you figure out why it froze and then, did you figure out why your fix worked? Like maybe try a different material, or combining different amounts of the titanium and ceramic material."

Howard looked thoughtful, "I didn't think about that, I was more interested in getting it fixed. You're right though, I probably need to see why it broke, and why my fix works. I still have the piece that froze. I could run it through the electron microscope, either the scanning or transmission ones."

"How about doing an X-ray diffraction run on it?" asked Leonard.

"That might work too," said Howard.

"That way you might figure out what happened."

"True," said Howard. "Thanks, Leonard, I'll look into it. I gotta get going, or Bernie is going to give me a hard time. Thanks, again."

Howard left and Leonard waited for Penny came back. She came in, locked the door, and then asked, "What did you need to talk to Howard about."

"I had a question as to what research he did for the part that broke," said Leonard. "I asked him if he had done an analysis and then ran…."

"Leonard," said Penny, "I don't need to know the science stuff. You think about it, while I watch some TV before we get ready for bed."

Thursday 6, February 2:00 PM

Raj was in his office, looking in his full-length mirror, and was not happy with what he saw. He took off his sport coat and sweater-vest and changed them. He spent some time, looking at it in the mirror, and finally decided to leave his current sweater-vest on, but changed his coat again.

He was nervous. He felt he had not done well at his assistant director interview, and now he had to talk to Dr Gablehauser. What if he was going to tell me that I wasn't getting the job, and he was putting me on notice that I would no longer be working here, at the end of the year?

Now, Raj had scared himself. He was starting to sweat and wondered about changing his shirt. He sat at his desk and pulled out the fan he kept in the bottom desk drawer and started fanning himself. He did that until 2:25 PM and then put the fan away, and walked out of his office, towards Dr Gablehauser's office.

Friday 7, February 11:30 AM

Raj and Howard met in the cafeteria line. Raj had called and asked Howard if he would talk to him at lunch. And Raj wanted to go early, so it would be just him and Howard.

"So what's up, buddy?" asked Howard, as he sat down.

Sitting across from Howard, Raj said dejectedly, "I think I'm done here. I messed up the interview at Mt Palomar yesterday, and that was my chance for tenure. Then, yesterday, I talked to Gablehauser, and he was asking me about my research, what equipment I was using and how that might be transferred to others."

"Did he say you were done here?"

"No," said Raj, "but the questions he was asking was almost like he was finding out if my research could be given to someone else. He also asked if I had thought about going back to planetary sciences, like I was doing when I found that Kuiper belt object."

"Listen, buddy," said Howard, "unless he specifically says your fired, I wouldn't worry about it."

"Yeah, just not worry about it," said Raj, angrily. "It's not like you have to worry about it, because you don't even have your PhD."

"Whoa, whoa," said Howard, "where is that coming from?"

"I'm sorry," said Raj, "I'm just so worried."

"As I said, don't," said Howard. "Until you find out something concrete, worrying is just going to make you feel bad."

"It has already," said Raj, despondently, "I've gained almost five pounds, due to stress eating. I've got to quit stopping at Marie Callander's on my way home, and buying two pies each night."

Howard just looked at Raj and shook his head.

Sunday 9, February 2:00 PM

They had just finished lunch, and Penny had gone back to reading a few more of her celebrity magazines. She was trying to relax more. Yesterday, she and Leonard had gone along a part of Hollywood Boulevard. As long as Penny had lived there, she had never gone to see the Walk of Fame, and the hand and footprints, at the Chinese Theatre. They stayed until Penny started aching, then they left for home.

Next week, they were planning on going to the Griffith observatory. Leonard and Penny had been there before, for Raj's planetarium shows, but the other exhibits had been confusing for her, at times. She was looking forward to it now, because she knew Leonard would be able to explain those exhibits.

Penny had noticed Leonard was really involved on something on his computer and before sitting down with her magazine, she walked over to her desk, sat down and rolled her chair over to him.

"Whatcha doing?" she said, putting her elbow on Leonard's desk, and her chin in her hand.

Leonard looked sheepish, but said, "I'm looking at ratings for cribs, changing tables, bassinets, all that baby furniture."

"What, you're looking at those, without me?" ask Penny in mock anger.

Leonard grinned, "Not looking specifically, I'm looking just to get an idea of the best ones on the market. I don't want to get a bad one for our kids. I'm also finding a playpen, which they now call a playard. And dressers and high chairs and…Penny, we got all this stuff to get, and then clothes, and diapers and, and, I…I'm feeling overwhelmed."

Penny smiled and put her hand on his arm, "My turn to calm you down, we'll get it all figured out." She leaned over and hugged Leonard.

Leonard hugged her back, and after breaking the hug, smiled at her.

"Come on," he said, "let's look at these things together. It's going to cost us over two thousand dollars by the time we're through with furniture. And, that's not counting clothes."

Penny looked mildly shocked, but grinned at him, "Two things," said Penny. "First, I'm not really worried, remember that big raise I'm getting and you've already got. We'll be able to afford it. Second, what have you found so far?"

Monday 10, February 4:00 PM

Penny was aching. She had been shadowing Karen all day. Karen was now making the sales pitches, while Penny watched. They had made seven stops, and after each one, they would sit in the car, while Penny critiqued Karen.

As the day wore on, Penny's back, and groin muscles started aching more and more. When they finally arrived back to the office, Penny tried to get out of her car, and there was a shooting pain in her left hip. She groaned, as she managed to get out, as Karen came around to Penny's side of the car.

"Are you okay," asked Karen.

"Yeah," said Penny, "I'm just feeling achy. Look, there's something I have to tell you. Come on." Penny started toward her office.

"What?"

"You may have noticed that I've been pushing to get your trained."

"Yeah, so?" said Karen, "I thought that was because you wanted to get moving on your job."

"Yeah that," said Penny, "but there is something else. I'm pregnant."

"What?"

"Yeah, you may not have noticed, because I've been wearing some loose-fitting clothes. But, I'm due around the end of June."

"Congratulations," said Karen, she paused for a second, "wait, is that why you were drinking cranberry juice at the conference?"

Penny grinned at her, "Yeah, it is, and I've switched to pomegranate juice. By the way, there is another thing, I'm going to have twins."

Karen opened her mouth, "Twins?"

"Yeah, I found out, just after the first of the year. I'm starting to show, and my boobs are getting bigger, my bra is getting too tight, I may have to get some extenders, for now, and I may have to start wearing maternity outfits."

They had just got to Karen's office, and she grabbed Penny and hugged her. "This is so great Penny. You did all that work, all my training, and your training, and the conference while you were pregnant?"

"Yep, and thanks, I do appreciate it," said Penny.

"This is so cool," said Karen.

Penny smiled and nodded, before saying, "Do you have any questions for me?"

"No, you answered everything on the trips to the next office, and the trip back here," said Karen. "I'll see you Wednesday."

"Yeah, I think we go out to Camarillo on Wednesday," said Penny, "less walking and standing. So, I'll see you then."

Karen went into her office, and Penny walked to hers. When she got in, the light on her phone was blinking, so she picked it up and dialed for her messages.

The first one was from Bernadette, who was yelling, "Penny, where the hell are you. You said you wanted me to come by your office. I've been there three times and you're nowhere around."