A/N I got a couple of comments wondering, about their income, just be aware, back when the show ended, all the couples, as couples, would all have been earning above $250k. But, after their promotions in this story, all three couples would be earning somewhere around $500k or more, per year. For instance, the average professor salary at Caltech is $230k. Amy and Sheldon, as Nobel prize winners, would be above that(around $500k). Penny would be around $250k, (so Lenny would be near $480k) and Bernadette, as a VP, would be making close to $450k by herself. Which is kinda funny, in a way. The show was criticized for showing Penny living in her apartment, on a waitresses salary, even though it was possible. But, at the end of the show, it's rather ridiculous, monetarily, for any of them to still be living there.

Chapter 49

Tuesday 17 March, 8:30 PM

"$2300 a month, for each kid," said Leonard. "If we have to take them there for the school year, about ten months, that will be around $46,0000 a year."

Penny still hadn't said anything, but her mouth was hanging open.

"And the other places I stopped at aren't much cheaper," said Leonard. "Two thousand, each, was the least expensive. I also called around and found that's about the price for quality daycare."

"Leonard, that, plus a house payment are going to be close to being at least nine, possibly ten thousand a month," said Penny plaintively. "How are we going to afford that?"

Leonard tried to explain, "Well, actually, those two, combined, is still less than the 28% it's recommended to budget for the house alone." You forget Penny, with your promotion and my promotion, we're making quite a bit. I don't know if you realize this, but we now make more in a month, than you used to make in a year.

Penny was shocked at that, until she thought about it for a bit, and realized Leonard was right. It was still a shock though.

"Okay, so what are we going to do?" asked Penny.

"I did sign us up for the Caltech program, so we will have a place," said Leonard. "But, kids have to be six months old and you go back after four months. I thought we could look into other things, like, maybe a nanny. A live-in nanny might work better, or one that works a set time. I don't know."

"Would that change what kind of house we're looking for?" asked Penny.

"Maybe," said Leonard. "If we think about a live-in nanny, we would have to get, at least a four, maybe five bedrooms, which could drive up the price. That means any savings in getting a nanny, would go to the house. We're going to have to look at this. But, we have some time."

"So, we may have to decide if we want a nanny or use child care before we decide what kind of house we want?" said Penny.

"Or, we decided what kind of house we want, before we decide between a nanny and childcare," said Leonard. "If we find a three-bedroom house we like, that would mean childcare or a nanny that doesn't live with us. We really should look at houses, before we decide."

"I suppose you're right," said Penny. "Either way, it looks like it's going to be expensive."

Leonard just shrugged and nodded, "Kids are expensive, but we do make enough."

Thursday 19 March 7:30 PM

Leonard entered the apartment, and was surprised to see Penny typing on her computer, she usually worked on her problems with a pen and paper. Penny had called him earlier and wanted In and Out Burgers, so he brought the food in and took it to the counter. She had mumbled, "Hi," to him, as he came in, and now with the burgers and fries on plates, he called over to her.

She snapped, "I've got to finish this first."

Leonard was taken aback, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," said Penny angrily.

Leonard walked over to her, and look at her screen. He saw she was writing about her credit cards, how desperate she had been and the only way she was able to get by was with credit cards. He put his hand on her shoulder, and said, "Penny, that can wait."

"No, it can't, I have to have it done by tomorrow," said Penny.

"Come on, Penny, let's eat," said Leonard. "You can tell me what's going on."

Penny sighed, got up, and walked with Leonard to the island. Leonard got two bottles of water from the fridge and he gave one to Penny, as he sat down. They started eating and Leonard gave Penny about five minutes, before he said, "Okay, you've eaten a bit, what's going on."

She sounded ashamed, as she said, "I got a call from Mr. Harris this afternoon. He said the review committee found a problem with our application. Well, they had a problem with me. All those credit cards I had when I was young, and all the credit I used, and all my late payments and canceled cards were being questioned. They wanted to know what had happened."

Leonard understood, he had kind of expected it. He thought he'd try to get a laugh, "Did you tell them about getting food and internet from the guys across the hall?"

Penny just glared at Leonard.

"Okay, how about we do this," said Leonard. "We'll eat, clean up, then I'll help you with the letter, how's that sound?"

Penny looked downcast, but said, "Okay, let's eat first."

Thursday 19 March 8:30 PM

They finished eating, did the dishes, and then started working on the letter. Leonard said to Penny, "Don't explain every problem or the card you used to solve those problems, they want to see a progression."

"What do you mean?" asked Penny.

"Write down you were barely making it while you were a waitress, and used the cards to get by," said Leonard. "Then explain how you got your job as a sales rep and started a retirement and savings account. You got married and explain how we've paid off your cards. How you have been making all your payments on time and plan on continuing to do that. They will like to see how well you've done. How you've progressed to paying your bills on time. So, work on that, and when you're done, let me look at it."

Penny deleted her previous writing, and an hour later called Leonard over. He looked it over, made a few grammar, style, and spelling changes, then told her to print it out. She did, and signed one of the copies, and told Leonard she would take it to the credit union tomorrow. Then she smiled and told Leonard he earned a reward, and started pulling him toward the bedroom, he didn't fight it.

Friday 20 March, 8:30 PM

Leonard was finishing up washing the dishes. He had gotten home late all week and except for tonight, Penny had gotten home on time. But, she was working hard at home, on the problems Dan had given her. Leonard was going over his team's work, at night, to get the experiment put together.

It had been a rough week for Leonard, trying to get the experiment ready. He had hoped to have it all put together and tested, but as they added modules, more testing was required making it take longer with each module. And when the number ten module failed, it cost him and the team another day. He was now at the point that he and the team would be working through the weekend, hoping to have the machine ready by Monday morning. He wanted to do the final test then, before doing the first experimental test run, on Wednesday.

The last three days of the week, Penny had been going out to the field. She was talking with her salespeople, and watching them, which was why she had been doing the training problems at home. She was pleased with Karen's work, and the other salespeople had been doing their jobs for a while, so there wasn't much for her to do. Penny agreed with Dan that they were self-motivated, and Penny was just basically checking on them.

Today, for Penny, had been a problem. Dan and she had gone over the decisions she had made, for the problems, and they had also gone through three chapters of the management book. She also had turned in the last three problems just before lunch. Dan told her he would talk to her on Monday morning, after going through her decisions over the weekend. She then went to lunch, although it was a quick one because she had to drop off the letter at the credit union. After the credit union, she headed out into the field, to see the last of her salespeople this week. She had to go to the far east of her district and the drive there and back had taken a while and resulted in her coming home after seven PM.

During dinner, Penny had told Leonard that after turning in the letter today, she was told they probably wouldn't hear about the decision for the mortgage until late next week. After the dishes were done, they both decided to turn in, even though it was just after nine. Leonard because he would be going in tomorrow, and Penny, because she had felt tired the last couple of days.

Sunday 22 March, 6:30 PM

Penny and Leonard were eating dinner, Penny had made spaghetti. Leonard had gotten home around 5:00 PM, having worked both days of the weekend. He was happy as the equipment was all ready for the final test tomorrow. It had taken twelve hours on Saturday, and eight today, but they were ready.

Penny had spent the weekend looking at different houses. She had been tired all week, she didn't think much of it because of all the work she had been doing. But now, she was still tired but wanted to show Leonard the houses she had looked at over the weekend. So after they finished the dinner dishes, they sat on the couch and Penny opened her iPad. She had looked in the areas Leonard had suggested and had found three houses. One in Alhambra, one in Glendale, and one in Altadena, about three or four blocks from Bernadette and Howard.

While Leonard looked, he pointed out several shortcomings of each of the houses. Penny was aware of those, as they had a printed list of what they needed. They had decided to look at houses with a higher price than they originally started with, but she wasn't sure about going higher than the 800-900 thousand dollars these three houses cost, especially with the child care costs. After some discussion, they both agreed that the three were not ideal, and after Leonard did some quick calculations, to determine a rough payment, they decided they could look for a house that was higher in price, up to 1.2 million. They picked that as a couple of houses, at those prices, appeared to have everything they needed.

Monday 23 March, 9:00 AM

Penny had gone through her emails, and voice messages and was looking over the management book. She and Dan had a few chapters to go over tomorrow, and she wanted to be ready when her phone rang. Looking, she picked it up and said, "Hey, Dan, what do you need?"

Dan said, "Can you come up here? I need to talk to you about something."

"Sure, what is it?" asked Penny.

"Wait until you get here," said Dan. "And, I'm on the sixth floor now."

"Okay, see you in a few," said Penny, a bit impressed. The sixth floor was upper management territory and as head of all California DMs, Dan was now upper management, in this area. She hung up and started walking to the elevator. Getting to Dan's office, she was surprised to see a secretary, and after Penny gave her name, mentioned she was expected, and she should go right in.

Penny entered and started to say, "Hey, Dan, a secretary? When did you get so fan…" then she saw Tim, Dan's boss, standing by a large table. Dan indicated she should come over to the table the two men were at.

Penny walked over and sat down, wondering what was going on. Dan sat down and smiled at her, "So, how's the pregnancy going?"

"Yeah, are you doing okay?" asked Tim.

"I'm doing well," said Penny. "A bit tired, but I've been studying and doing those problems at night. But, overall, I'm fine. So, what's going on?"

"I spoke with Tim last Friday," said Dan. "And, again this morning, and we both agreed."

"Agreed about what?" asked Penny, sounding puzzled.

"Penny, I want you to know, that Tim has seen your answers, to the problems I gave you," said Dan.

This scared Penny, although she didn't know why.

"I really liked your solutions, overall," said Tim. "Except for that one, and I understand, you didn't have all the information because of the way the sentences were written, so we can ignore that. However, I do want to talk about that solution you came up with, for that pharmacy in the doctor's office in Ontario. Why did you split them between two different territories?"

Penny thought quickly back to that particular problem. "Well, sir, I was…" said Penny.

"Call me, Tim," Tim said gently.

"Er, okay, Tim, I was thinking about how that doctor's pharmacy was near the boundary of the two territories. There weren't any other places near there, and Rep A could only get to the doctor one day a week. But, it was the same situation with Rep B, and Rep B came to the area two days after rep A. So, I figured that if rep B could make a small change to his route, he could get there three days after the other guy, and even out when that office would get their medications."

"What about the loss of commission?" asked Tim. "Did you take that into account?"

"Yes, I did," said Penny. "But, I thought it better to take care of the customer, so we don't lose them, rather than worry about commission. After all, both reps are getting their commissions for what they sell. Now, Rep A doesn't have to make the long trek out there, two days later on an emergency, something that happened about six or seven times a month. Now, Rep B can get it to them a day later than they would have gotten it."

Tim looked at Dan and nodded. "You're right, she does get it."

Penny looked back and forth between the two of them. "What is going on?"

"Penny, we've decided that as of April 6th, you will be running your district," said Dan. Everything will go through you. Of course, if you have a question, you can call on me, or Tim, if I'm not here. If you have a doctor's appointment, just leave a message with my number. We'll look in on you, much as you're doing with Karen, and we'll probably do that again after you return, but I believe you should have no problems.

Tim was nodding.

Penny was suddenly nervous, and she remembered the look on Karen's face when Penny told her it was her territory. Penny assumed she had the same look.

Dan was watching her and said, "Are you okay, Penny?"

"Yes, I am," said Penny. "It's just I'm a bit nervous about this. This is a lot of responsibility and I wonder if I'm up to it."

Tim said, "We think you are, and being nervous is a good sign. If you didn't care how you would do, you wouldn't be nervous. From what I've seen, you will try your hardest to do a good job, and if you have a question, you'll call one of us. But, if the exercises Dan gave you are any indication, I don't see you having a problem."

Penny sighed, "Thanks, si…er…Tim. You're right, I just want to do a good job, for both of you, to justify your faith in me."

"Well, we think you are going to do just fine," said Tim. "Good luck. I'll see you this afternoon at the meeting, Dan." With that, Tim got up and left Dan's office.

After Tim left, Penny turned around and looked at Dan, she was still scared and nervous and said, sounding like a little girl, "Are you sure I'm ready?"

"Yes, Penny, we are both sure," said Dan. "Now, April 6 is in two weeks. We'll spend the next two weeks working on your management skills. I don't think I'm going to give you any more problems. You've done well, and I'm a bit worried about you being tired. So, with no problems to work on, you should be able to get more rest. We'll do it this way, if I have a decision to make, I'll call you in, and let you see what is up, and the how and why about the decision I am making. If you have a question, you can ask me about it after. How's that?"

"That sounds good, Dan, thanks," said Penny.

"Also, you will have an intern assigned to you," said Dan. "They are here to learn, so try to explain your process to them. Have them help with your data analysis, meeting prep, things like that. Think of them as a combination of assistant, helper, secretary, etc. You may need one, you look a little pale. But, they want to learn so let them. And always, always, answer questions, okay?"

Penny nodded, wondering if she should ask. Finally, she decided to, "Er…Dan, I interviewed several interns, who were supposed to start on the first of April. Can I request someone whom I interviewed?"

"I don't see a problem with that," said Dan. "As long as you realize that someone else may have claimed them or if someone higher up already has them, you may not be able to get them. Who are you thinking of requesting as your intern?"

"Jean Caldwell," said Penny

"Why her?" asked Dan.

"She reminds me of myself when I was younger," said Penny. "She also tried becoming an actress, so I want to try to get her to see the advantages of selling pharmaceuticals."

Dan chuckled, "Okay, I get it, I'll see if she's available, and if so, we'll get you your requested intern, how's that? And, if she turns out like you, we'll have another good salesperson in six to eight months."

"Thank you, Dan," said Penny. "Is there anything else?"

"Nope, I'll see you tomorrow morning."

"Okay, see you then," said Penny. She got up from the table and left for her office.

Tuesday 24 March, 4:00 AM

Leonard was going through all the emails, one from each of his team. All of them said the same thing, the experiment was ready to run. The team did the final dry run-through, the previous day. Each person, measured and recorded the inputs and outputs of their particular part of the experiment. They had taken all of the data and spent the first part of today, pouring through the data for trying to find something that wasn't right. Then after checking and rechecking, they send it along to Keith.

Keith took the data and put it into his particular spreadsheet, to check to see if everything was working properly, together. And when all the data appeared correct, he had sent it along to Leonard. Leonard had spent this afternoon, going over each individual's report, along with Keith's spreadsheet, and it all looked good. It was now up to him, to decide if they were ready to do the first actual run of the experiment. It would be a test run, but they would actually be entangling photons, and measuring their movement.

One last look at everything and Leonard made his decision. A year ago, this would have terrified him, but now, he felt very confident. He then wrote up an email, telling everyone to be in at 8 AM, so they could start the warm-up at 8:30 AM, before starting the experiment at 9 AM. Leonard hit send and then leaned back in his chair with a smile.

A/N BTW, I'll have a major announcement in a long author's note next week. BTW, this chapter is the second-longest, so far.