A/N This author's note will be a short one. First, thanks for your comments in DM and review. And B, you may hate me again, for making you wait.
Chapter 51 2771
Monday 30 March, 1:05 PM
Leonard was walking toward her slowly, and Penny hurried over to help him. As she got to him, she could tell he was breathing rather heavily.
"Here, sit down for a few minutes," said Penny, trying to lead him to a chair.
"No, no, I'm okay," gasped Leonard.
Penny tried to move Leonard to a chair, but he wouldn't budge, so she said, "I thought you weren't going to make it."
"They managed to find the problem quickly and do the first check," said Leonard, with deep breaths. "It was time for lunch, so I told everyone to be back by 2:30, PM, and we'll do the check then. Although, this may cause me to be late tonight."
Penny noticed his breathing was somewhat returning to normal, so she nodded at Dr. Samuel and said, "Come on, let's walk slowly. The important thing is you made it here for the appointment. If you're late tonight, it's okay."
"Are both of you ready?" asked Dr. Samuels.
Penny turned, "Yes, of course, just give us a few extra seconds, to get there."
Dr. Samuels nodded, then slowly led them to her office. Leonard and Penny sat in the usual chairs in front of her desk.
"Okay, are you having any particular issues," asked Dr. Samuels, looking through the paperwork she was holding.
Penny paused, "Well…I…er…it's, just that I've been feeling tired for no reason."
Leonard took another shot of his inhaler. He was glad Penny brought her being tired, so he didn't have to.
"Yes, that does make sense," said Dr. Samuels. "I think I mentioned that your hemoglobin was low at your last appointment. I also gave you a list of food to eat, to bring that up, have you been doing that?"
Penny nodded.
"Hmmmmm, last time it was 11.8, and we wanted to get it back to 12.0," said Dr. Samuels. "Unfortunately, it's dropped even more. You went past an iron deficiency and fell right into anemia. Your hemoglobin was at 10.0."
"How bad is that?" asked Leonard, concern in his look.
"It could be very bad," said Dr. Samuels. "This can lead to low birth weight and early labor. As you have twins either one of those could be problematic, as most twins are smaller and are born early as it is. It could also affect how well you recover from the pregnancy."
"But, I was eating the things on the list, like you said," said Penny. "What else can I do?"
"Well, there could be other problems," said Dr. Samuels. "Which is why we do several different tests. It could be that you are not absorbing the iron you are eating. So, I'm going to give you a prescription for an iron supplement, along with a prescription for vitamin C. This will help your body absorb the iron. Between the prescriptions and the list of things to do, we'll bring you in next week to check it out. If your hemoglobin levels are up, then we'll just keep you on the iron and vitamin C supplements through the end of the pregnancy. Although, we may have to put you on a stool softener, for constipation. Are you feeling movement from the baby?"
"Yes, I am," said Penny. "Mostly small movements, but I've had a big one every now and then."
"Okay, I will have you start tracking your babies' movement, after your next regular visit in two weeks," said Dr. Samuels. "Also, you need to get your regular dental check-in, in the next month or so. We want to make sure your dental health is good, in case you start having bleeding gums. Also, after that, it may be difficult for you to get in or out of the dental chair, not to mention the odd positioning could cause problems for you. Why don't we go over to the exam table and check out the babies?"
Penny and Leonard walked over to the table, and Penny got on it, while Dr. Samuels walked behind the table and turned on the ultrasound. Penny lifted her top and pulled down her pants a bit. Unlike previous times, Dr. Samuels examined Penny's stomach, which was protruding quite a bit now. After she finished looking it over, she put some gel on the transducer and started running it over Penny's belly. It really didn't take very long today, before Dr. Samuels turned off the machine and passed paper towels, wipes, and a towel to Penny. She then said she'd be right back and left the room.
Leonard and Penny walked back to the chairs and sat down, waiting for Dr. Samuels. It was only a few minutes before she came in and sat down behind her desk.
"Everything looks normal," said Dr. Samuels. "The one is head down, and the other is kind of sideways, but that's fine at this point. I must commend you on your skin regimen, I didn't see any stretch marks yet. Although they may come, as you get bigger."
She showed them a few pictures, and said, "They are just about a foot long, right now, and they weigh just over a pound. I've looked at your vitals and your blood pressure is just a bit high but still normal, you've gained 20 pounds, which is a bit low, but still normal for twins. So, so far, you are doing very well, with your pregnancy. Just take those supplements I've given you and we'll see how it looks next week, okay?"
Penny and Leonard nodded, then stood, before walking out of the office. Penny made a stop at the reception window, to make an appointment for the next week, then she and Leonard left. Leonard going back to school, and Penny stopping at the pharmacy, before going back to work.
Tuesday 31 March, 7:30 AM
Leonard had gotten in early, and was in the lab, going through the steps the team had taken the previous day. After getting back from Penny's doctor's appointment, and the rest of the team got back from lunch, they had run the system to test their fix, then did a simulated data run. Everything seemed to work, and Leonard sent everyone home.
Now, he was going over the log looking over what they had done, and how the simulated run had gone. He couldn't find anything wrong, so he sent an email from his phone to the team, telling them they would run the self-tests at 9 AM and start the run, at 10 AM, Tuesday morning, and do the full five-hour data gathering run.
With that, he headed to the cafeteria, to get a bear claw, and a cup of coffee.
Tuesday 31 March, 8:30 AM
Penny walked over to Jean's office, to talk to her for a bit, this morning. Before Penny was to go to Dan's for, what Penny thought of as her "management class". She and Jean talked about the previous day, and what Jean had left to do, as far as finishing her company in-processing. She told Jean to worry about getting all the paperwork filled out, learning how the computer system, email, and phone systems worked. Penny was going to wait until next Monday to start using Jean as her assistant and then told her that if she had any questions, she could drop into Penny's office and ask.
At that point, Penny told Jean she had to go and would see her soon. Going back to her office, Penny picked up her management book and started walking to Dan's office.
Wednesday 01 April, 5:00 PM
Leonard was walking towards Sheldon's office. It was Wednesday, and so the guys were going to the comic book store, before picking up dinner and taking it to the women, waiting at Lenard and Penny's apartment. His mind was on yesterday's run, and how well it went. The team did some checks on the equipment, this morning, and everything checked out. At that, Leonard gave everyone the afternoon off, so they could catch up on their school work, or research or any other thing they may have needed to do, and be ready for the final scheduled data run, on Friday.
Leonard arrived at Sheldon's door and looked in. Sheldon had his back to the door, going over some calculations on his whiteboard. Leonard knocked sharply three times on the door and said, "You ready to go?"
"Yes, I am, I was just going over the equations," said Sheldon. With that, he put his messenger bag over his shoulder, locked his desk, and then left the office, locking the door. Leonard and Sheldon then both left the building, heading for Leonard's car.
Wednesday 01 April, 8:30 PM
Everyone had eaten, and everything had been cleaned up, but there had still been some conversation within the group. The women started breaking away from the guys when Raj stood up.
"Everyone, well, Howard and Bernadette know," said Raj. "Saturday, I'm having a small party at Howard's, for me getting tenure. I would like to invite all of you and I'm having some of my new department people come also. I hope you can all make it."
The other six agreed they would be there, and the women went over to apartment 4B. They had quit standing at the island because Penny was starting to have trouble if she stood for more than a half-hour. The guys stayed at the couch and talked about their comic books until the women came back about 9:15 PM. Howard and Bernadette, with some help from Leonard, got the kids downstairs and left, so the kids could get to bed. Sheldon and Amy went back to their place, so they could get to bed.
Wednesday 01 April, 9:30 PM
Leonard and Penny watched some TV, before they turned off the TV, the lights, and then locked the door, before getting ready for bed.
After getting in bed, Penny was putting lotion on her belly, and her hands, and said, "Leonard?"
"Yes."
"I think I'm going to have to buy some more clothes," said Penny.
"Really?"
"Yeah, my work outfits are getting too tight," said Penny, sadly. "It's aggravating my indigestion, and I'm not sure, but it could be causing me to fart."
Leonard chuckled, "Yeah, I've noticed that you're doing that a lot, lately."
"And you didn't say anything," said Penny.
"Why, it was in the book that it would happen?" Leonard said.
"Thank you, sweety," said Penny. She leaned over to kiss Leonard and a sharp sound was heard.
"Dammit, why then?" said Penny.
Leonard just chuckled.
Thursday 02 April, 12:30 PM
Leonard was in the cafeteria, the first one at a table, waiting for Raj. Penny had talked to him this morning, and she wasn't really feeling up to a party and decided not to go on Saturday. Leonard had been tasked by Penny to tell Raj. So, he was waiting to tell him during lunch. He didn't think Raj was going to take it well, but, if Penny didn't feel well, and didn't want to go, he was not going to push her. He saw Raj and waved at him.
Thursday 02 April, 2:30 PM
Penny's phone rang and she picked it up without looking, "LA district manager's office, Ms. Hofstadter speaking."
"What the hell do you mean you don't want to go to Raj's party," she heard Bernadette yell.
"I'm just not sure it's right for me right now," said Penny. "I start getting pain in my legs if I stand too long."
"What, you don't think we have chairs?" said Bernadette, sounding angry.
"I've been farting," said Penny.
"You're pregnant," said Bernadette. "It happens."
"What's it to you anyhow?" asked Penny. "Why are you angry?"
"Raj is our friend, and he's done a lot to throw this," said Bernadette. "This is a big thing for him, as he gets to stay in the states. I would think you would want to celebrate that with him."
Now Penny felt a little guilty, "Okay, yeah, when you put it that way, I can stay for a bit."
"That's better," said Bernadette. "I'll see you Saturday."
"Okay, bye," said Penny.
"Bye," said Bernadette, before disconnecting.
Thursday 02 April, 8:30 PM
Leonard and Penny were watching a movie, one they had seen several times. When Penny spoke up, "I guess we're going to Raj's party. Bernadette called me and angrily demanded I go."
"Yeah, Howard was on my back about making you go," said Leonard.
"What?" asked Penny. "What's going on?"
"I don't know," said Leonard. "Howard wanted to make sure we were there. I shut him down, though. If you don't want to go in your condition, you don't have to go."
"That's strange," said Penny. "I guess we'll find out what's going on, on Saturday. Thank you for defending me." With that, they kissed and went back to watching the show.
Friday 03 April, 11:30 AM
Penny and Dan had just finished the chapter on employee morale, and Penny was getting ready to leave. Dan held up his hand and said, "So, Monday, it's all yours."
"Yeah, I guess it is," said Penny, a bit nervously.
"Don't worry Penny, you'll do fine," said Dan. "Look, you can ask me anything, you'll be me with me on Tuesday afternoons and Friday mornings, and you can ask anything from the previous few days. This way if you feel you've done something wrong, we can go over it."
"If we see something and don't think you were spot on with your decision, I'll contact you and discuss it with you. We don't want you to think we're overriding you, nor do we want you to think we're abandoning you. Treat it as one of those problems and think of this as more of a guiding phase for you."
Dan smiled at Penny who smiled back. Her emotions were conflicted. She was proud that they wanted her to start working on her own, but there was a touch of panic in her. She understood she had performed well in all of her training, so she nodded.
Finally, she said, "Thanks Dan, I'm excited, but worried about this. I just want to do a good job, and reward your faith in me."
"I get it," said Dan. "But, I wouldn't put you out there if I didn't think you were ready."
"Okay, again thank you for everything," said Penny.
"You're welcome, see you Monday," said Dan.
Penny turned and started walked back to her office.
Friday 03 April, 2:30 AM
Leonard was going over the run data. They had again run the machine for five hours, getting a lot of data from the machine. He was now looking it over and found that they had averaged 12 entangled photon pairs per burst, three more than they designed it for. He was also making sure there weren't any glitches, and like Keith, he didn't see any. He told Keith that everyone was relieved from the experiment, for the day, and tell them to be in the lab at 10:00 AM on Monday and they would start going over the plans to review the data. Keith nodded, told Leonard to have a good weekend, and left.
Saturday 04 April, 2:00 PM
Leonard and Penny had spent the morning at the farmer's market, buying their fruits and vegetables for the week, before heading home and having lunch. After that, they changed and got ready to go to Howard and Bernadette's. They arrived at the Wolowitz's right on time. They could see quite a few cars parked in the street, as they walked up to the front door. They knocked on the front door a couple of times, before Howard opened it, with a big smile.
"Come on in," said Howard. "Bernadette's in the living room, go say hi to her."
Penny and Leonard walked through the short hallway, into the living room, and saw Bernadette, facing them, near the door to the dining area. She was talking with another woman, who had her back to them and was holding an older toddler. There didn't seem to be any other people in the living room.
Bernadette saw them and waved them over, a bit too energetically, thought Penny. As they approached her, Bernadette said, "Hey, I think you both remember…"
The woman turned, and Leonard and Penny stopped in their tracks, with their mouths open. "Leonard, Penny, it's so good to see you," said Priya.