A/N Not much this week either. Although, I did giggle when I saw one of the reviews. That person will see why I giggled when they get through this chapter. Enjoy.
Chapter 45
Monday 02 March, 2:50 PM
"Well, yeah," said Penny, sounding frustrated, "what sex are the babies?"
"Oh, yeah, sorry," chuckled Dr Samuels, "you are going to have daughters."
Penny and Leonard looked at each other, their hands grasped the others and they both smiled.
"Daughters," said Leonard softly.
"We're going to have girls," said Penny.
Dr Samuels smiled at the both of them and said, "Now, do you have any questions, about yourself?"
"Yes," said Penny, "I've been having weird heartburn. I had the first one when we took a weekend trip. But now and then since even if I haven't been eating."
"What did it feel like?" asked Dr Samuels.
"Like gas moving around," said Penny. "The first time, it was really light but has gotten stronger. When the gas moves, the heartburn goes away."
Dr Samuels smiled, "Penny, what's causing the heartburn, is probably one of your babies moving."
"What?"
"I'm telling you, it's your babies moving around," said Dr Samuels. "They push on your stomach, causing the acid to move up your esophagus, giving you heartburn. Then they move, that's the feeling of gas moving, and the heartburn goes away, because they are no longer pushing on your stomach, and the acid drops back into the stomach."
"So you're saying that feeling of heartburn I have is my babies moving?"
"I think so," said Dr Samuels. "You said it's been getting stronger, and your description matches what other women have said about the first movements. Give it another two to four weeks, and you'll really be feeling it. Now, is there anything else?"
Penny was smiling at Dr Samuels, and said, "No, I think we have everything we need right now. Did you hear that Leonard? Our babies are moving."
Leonard smiled and nodded.
"Okay, then, I'll see you in two weeks," said Dr Samuels. "I want to remind you, that if you have any questions, in between visits, I want you to call me, all right?"
"Penny and Leonard both nodded and Penny said, "Of course."
Penny and Leonard rose and shook Dr Samuels hand, and left the office, stopping to make an appointment in two weeks. They then left, and both headed home.
Tuesday 03 March, 7:50 AM
Leonard arrived early, as his team would start adding more parts to the core of the machine that would be creating entangled photons. There wasn't really anything for him to do, but he wanted to be there if there were any problems. The day wore on, and each of those assigned a particular job were working on the core of the machine. He was the lead, but he knew these people and had assigned them their jobs, based on what he knew about them. Each of them went in, attached the particular piece of equipment they were responsible for, and then tested it.
Since Leonard expected no problems, he worked on the upgrades he planned, once this was over, to change it to a 14 photon entanglement experiment. Finally, at 3:00 PM, the last piece for the day was installed and tested. They would continue tomorrow, but for now, everyone was going back to their offices. Leonard got back to his office, went through his phone messages, and email messages, and was basically finished for the day. He still had an hour and a half to go, so he started thinking about what to do with the twins' room.
It was simply too small, to fit everything needed, into the room. And, they couldn't move it to their room, as it was smaller than the twins' room, as Sheldon had kept the bigger room. I can't put the furniture up by the window, in the living room, because there wasn't a lot of room there, and besides, we need those things in the twins' room, not the living room. And, I haven't even started thinking about where the playpens would go. There isn't room in between the coffee table and the computer desks. Well, one might fit there, but the other would have to go behind the couch, and that would block the door to the closet, and access to the bookshelves. If we did put the kids' furniture there, where would all of the books and collectibles go? I might as well face it, there just isn't enough room in the apartment. With just the two of us, we had plenty of room, but with the two girls coming, he smiled at that thought, we are going to have to find, some more room, but where?
Suddenly it hit Leonard, maybe they would have to move, but where? They would have to find at least a three, possibly a four-bedroom apartment, and those would run to almost double, at least, of their current rent. And, it would probably be much more, than what they were paying, probably equal to a house payment. But, a house? As Penny had pointed out, me taking care of the yard, could be considered laughable. So, what are we going to do? I should talk to Penny, thought Leonard. But, let me think about it a bit more.
He finally thought it was close enough to 5 PM, to leave, so he shut his computer off and left for the day.
Wednesday 04 March, 7:50 PM
They guys had gone to the comic book store, and the women had met at Leonard and Penny's, to talk and to wait for the men to arrive with dinner. When the guys arrived, the dinnerware and utensils were already laid out, and everyone grabbed their own play and filled it with food, with Penny and Bernadette feeding Halley and Michael.
After everyone ate, the dishes were washed, the extra food put away, and everyone sat around to talk. Howard talked about getting things ready for his Phd. Raj talked about starting to learn about his new job, and Amy told everyone the preparations she was going through, to get back to her own research. Sheldon spoke about the different scientists who had come to see him, Bernadette and Penny both talked about learning their new jobs, and Leonard spoke about preparing the machine for their data run in about three weeks. Once Leonard finished, Bernadette mentioned possibly leaving early for the night, but Penny and Leonard spoke up.
"We have something to tell all of you," said Penny, with a smile. The rest of them looked at Penny, questionably.
Leonard said, "Penny had her halfway scan on Monday, and everything is fine. But, we did find out, what the sex of the babies were."
All but Sheldon leaned in excitedly, as Penny continued, "We found out we will be having two girls."
There was a chorus of "Awwwwwwws" and "Girls!" Amy whispered to Sheldon and then she and Bernadette excitedly gathered around Penny. The guys gathered around Leonard, and for the next fifteen minutes, both groups talked about the twins. Then, the women went to the island and continued talking about preparing for their new positions. The guys stayed in the living room and started talking about their new comic books.
After an hour, Howard and Bernadette finally said they had to leave, so they could get their kids to bed by 9:30. Amy and Sheldon did leave, so Sheldon could get to bed by 9:30. Penny and Bernadette got the kids ready and took them to her car, while Howard and Raj took all the baby things to his car. Leonard was cleaning up the dishes.
After Penny returned, Leonard asked, "So, what did the girls think?"
"They asked if we were happy they were girls," said Penny. "When I said yes, they were happy for us. What about the guys?"
"Howard and Raj, were excited," said Leonard. "Sheldon simply said, 'If we were happy, then he was happy for us,' a bit out of character for him."
"Yeah, Amy told him to be nice, and not complain," said Penny.
"Ahhhhh, that explains that," said Leonard. "You want to watch some TV?"
Penny paused, wondering how to approach the topic she wanted to talk about. Finally, she said, "Leonard, can I ask you something?"
"Sure, what?"
"Why don't you help me or Bernadette, with their kids?" said Penny.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, when we get together, as a group, it's always me and Bernadette who get the kids their food, before we eat and take them downstairs when the evening is over. I understand Howard's a bit of a cave-man about it, but why aren't you helping? I mean, you're going to help me with the twins, right?"
Leonard looked surprised, then ashamed, "I…I didn't realize that I should be helping, but you're right, I should be. And, yes, I will be helping with our twins. So, next week, when we get together, please say something to me, if I don't just start helping. I don't want to be like Howard."
"Thank you, sweety," said Penny. "I would prefer you just jump in and start helping, but I will say something if you don't."
Leonard nodded, "I will try my best to help, to start helping before you do, or say anything. I'm sorry."
Penny hugged him and said, "That's okay, sweety, I'm just glad it was so easy to get it across to you. Thanks. Now, I've got to study. Dan and I have been going over that damn management book all week, and we have another day of it tomorrow. So, I'm going to take it in the bedroom and study it a bit."
"Okay," said Leonard. "I'll be in, in about an hour."
Penny kissed Leonard and headed off to the bedroom. Leonard flipped through the channels, found Hancock, and watched that until it ended at 11 PM. He shut off the lights and went to the bedroom.
Penny had already prepared for bed and was waiting for him. It only took about fifteen minutes for him to get ready and get into bed. As they were both tired, they simply shut the lights off and were soon asleep.
Thursday 05 March 11:50 AM
Leonard and Howard were walking toward their table, with their lunch. They didn't see Raj or Sheldon yet, but they knew they'd be there shortly.
Leonard had spent the last hour, again thinking of possibly moving, due to his perception of the apartment being too small for twins. He had been thinking about getting a different apartment, after all, he couldn't do yard work, or fix things. But, Howard couldn't do any of those things either, and he had a house. How did he get those things fixed or taken care of? thought Leonard, so he said, "Hey, Howard, can I ask you a question about your house?"
"What?"
"Penny was wondering about you having a house," said Leonard.
"Wondering what?"
"Well, how can you be so good at building stuff for the space station, but can't do things around the house?" asked Leonard. "Also, what about the yard work?"
"Oh, that's easy," said Howard. "I know how to work on space stuff, I was trained for it. But, I wasn't trained on fixing houses, so I don't know how to work on them. I flubbed the first couple of things, not because I wanted to, but because I had no idea about working on houses. Finally, Bernadette told me not to bother, so now, I just call a repairman. I have a whole list of them, for everything."
"And the yard work?"
"There are like five or six kids in the neighborhood," said Howard. "They are more than happy to cut the grass and do all the trimming. About the only big jobs are the trees, and I call a guy who cuts trees."
"So, you don't have to do any of that yard or maintenance stuff?" asked Leonard.
"Nope," said Howard. "Although I do have to pay someone to do it. And, Bernadette has me cleaning the house and cooking now, we have to share, she says. Why?"
"No reason, really," said Leonard. "We were talking and Penny was making fun of the thought of me working on the house, and I mentioned you, and Penny was wondering how you managed."
Just then, Raj, Sheldon, and Amy came up and sat down, and they all started eating their lunch.
Thursday 05 March 4:50 PM
Penny was looking forward to going home, as she had a headache after spending all day looking through that damn management textbook. They should have named it that, thought Penny The Damn Management Textbook. I'm really struggling with some of the stuff in there. Fortunately, Dan is really patient with me, leading me to get each idea on my own. It had been a very tough week for her, with Dan going through the textbook. She thought she was doing very poorly, and now, just before quitting for the day, Dan surprised her by mentioning how impressed he was with her.
"Why?" Penny asked.
"Penny, we've gone through this book for, what, the last four days?"
"Yes, we started Monday," said Penny. "And, I'm doing terribly, so how can you be impressed."
"Penny, we've gone through the whole book," said Dan. "Skimming parts, I realize. But, this book was meant for an entire management course. That's two semesters, say one hundred hours of classroom work, and another one hundred hours of homework and study over 36 weeks."
"Yeah, so?" said Penny not getting it.
"Penny, we've gone through the book in 24 hours, six hours each day, in only four days," said Dan. "We've squeezed 150 hours, into 24. But, you've picked up a lot of this in just that amount of time. I plan on doing a couple of days of review over the next three weeks, depending on what you may need. But, so far, I think your way ahead of where we need to be."
Penny thought about that for a few seconds and then smiled. "I didn't think of it like that, Dan," said Penny. "I just know I don't understand some of this."
"Yes, so? I don't understand some of it and I took the class," said Dan. "Take it home, look it over and where you don't understand something, write it down and we'll look at it on Monday. We'll start doing three hours of work each day, on Tuesdays and Fridays. Call it two to three chapters. I'll tell you what chapters to do."
Penny spoke up, "So, the first three chapters for next Tuesday, and four through six for next Friday?"
"See, you understand that already," said Dan, smiling. "You spend a couple of days looking them over, and write down ideas or principles you have trouble with and then we can talk about those problem areas. We'll get through the book again, in another month, without pushing you too much. If you still have questions, we can look it over again."
Penny looked at Dan gratefully, "Thank you, Dan. I bet you didn't think you'd have to teach management."
"Actually, when I thought about promoting you, I did," said Dan. He paused for a moment, then continued softly, "Penny, selling or having natural marketing ability or instincts, pushing yourself, things that make a great salesperson, I can't teach. But, management principles, I can teach. So, the sales and marketing stuff, you have that down, and I don't need to teach you that. Management, and leading people, you have some instincts there, defending your team for example. But the principles of management in the book, well, I can teach you those and how you can put those principles into action. If you can learn these principles, and put them into action, along with your natural sales ability, you'll make a great DM."
"Well, thank you so much, Dan," said Penny.
"Now, head on home, and we'll take tomorrow off," said Dan. Why don't you do a check on Karen, tomorrow, and see how she's doing?"
Penny stood, nodded, and left Dan's office.
Thursday, 05 March 6:00 PM
Penny had changed out of her work clothes, and put on a pair of sweats. This is so much more comfortable, thought Penny. Just as she finished changing, she got a text from Leonard, saying he'd be home later, they were finishing up a couple of tests of the machine. She thought she could make dinner, and started out to the kitchen. She was passing the twins' room, when she stopped, and walked in.
She looked at the cribs and dresser, against the walls, along with the one changing table. She looked at the three other pieces, still in the middle of the room. They still hadn't figured out where to put them. They both continued thinking of moving them to the living room, up by the window, but then they would have to find a place for the desk that was there, and besides, there was only room for one of the three things. Plus, there was a problem as to where they would put any playpens.
Maybe if they moved the couch, closer to the TV…no, if they did that, to make room behind the couch, the coffee table would block a passage from the door to the kitchen or hallway. Penny looked around and realized there just wasn't going to be enough room. She was shocked by a new thought, would they have to move?