A/N There's a reference to the Righteous Brothers in this chapter, let's see if anyone can find it. Finally some good news with the first drafts. I got chapter 66 done, and I'm well into chapter 67. So, for now, there won't be any delay in publishing.
Chapter 64
Sunday 3 May, 5:30 PM
Zack, Melissa, and Robert had just left. Leonard and Penny had taken them through the furniture that they wanted to be moved, along with explaining to them which furniture was to be moved from apartment 4B to 4A, along with bringing to 4A all of Amy and Sheldon's furniture, that was in storage. Both Zack and Robert said they would be able to move all of it, to 4A, and should be able to finish it on Friday, and if not, would be able to finish it on Saturday.
They also explained how the boxes would be moved to the house over the weekend, using Zack's truck and Howard and Bernie's van. The hard part for that would be getting everything down to the truck and van, because of moving one box at a time and then unloading it at the house.
Leonard and Penny had said goodbye to the other three and then started getting ready for dinner. They were planning on going to their favorite Italian restaurant for dinner.
Monday 4 May, 1:05 PM
Leonard and Penny were waiting for Dr. Samuels to come and get them. Penny had her blood sample taken and then she was weighed. They had taken her blood pressure three times, making Penny nervous, but she was now back out with Leonard, waiting. They were both excitedly talking about closing on the house later this afternoon when Dr. Samuels came out and called their name.
They walked back to the office, sat down, and before Dr. Samuels could say anything, Penny said, "We're so excited today, we're closing on our house, right after this appointment."
Dr. Samuels looked at them and smiled, "Well, I guess congratulations are in order."
"We decided it was best to buy a house," said Leonard. "We couldn't fit all the baby furniture needed for the twins, into our apartment."
Still smiling, Dr. Samuels looked back down at her papers, and said, "That may explain this."
"Explain what?" said Penny.
"Your blood pressure is higher than last week," said Dr. Samuels. "Even with you being on the pills. However, you being excited may be contributing to that, so I'm going to wait until next week before taking any other action."
"As far as your hemoglobin, you still at 12.2," said Dr. Samuels. "Since we stopped the supplements last week, I'd say that particular problem is over. How's your indigestion been?"
"Not bad, since I started eating smaller, more frequent meals as you said," said Penny.
"That's good," said Dr. Samuels. "Any other problems? Like your back?"
"My back?" said Penny. "Why?"
"Just wondering, normally, the protruding tummy, causes problems with the lower back," said Dr. Samuels. "But, it may not be as much of a problem for you, and I mentioned this before because, with your abs, your stomach isn't protruding as much. But, it's something to watch for."
"I'm starting to feel like a whale, does that count?" said Penny.
"Well, you have gained almost 27 pounds," said Dr. Samuels. "I'm quite sure you're carrying around more weight than you ever have before. So, yeah, I can see why you might feel that way. You still have to remember though, you're still on the low end for weight gain. Minimum, for this week, is around 25 pounds, and a maximum is around 37, with a mean around 31. But, from what I can tell, the babies are developing just fine and except for your blood pressure, you're not having any major medical problems, so I'm not concerned about anything, at the moment."
Dr. Samuels continued, "I mentioned having problems with your balance, have you had a problem with that?"
"No, I'm walking fine," said Penny. "I remember what you said, but I don't have to grab anything to keep my balance. I've been watching for that, and I'm not having a problem."
"Good, good," said Dr. Samuels. "Did you look at the delivery and complications chapter, like I asked?"
"Yes, I did," said Penny.
"Do you have any questions?" said. "Other than on a regular vaginal delivery, because we'll cover that in the classes."
"Not really," said Penny. "Looking at it, it seems that you can't really predict what is going to happen, so you just do what you can, and trust your doctor, and I do."
"Thank you," said Dr. Samuels, with a smile. "What you say is true. We try to be ready for all possibilities, but even that isn't feasible. I will bring up one thing, so you're prepared. If we have to do a cesarian, or something else that requires surgery, is it OK if Leonard signs the approval? If you both agree, I need you to fill out the paperwork, with you assigning him, and his accepting the assignation, as the person authorizing the surgery. I mention this as it will make things go faster as we can be getting you ready, while he does the paperwork."
Leonard and Penny looked at each other and nodded.
"That's good to hear," said Dr. Samuels. "I only bring it up here, so we can have the paperwork ready. If we have to do an emergency C-section, while you're in labor, speed can be very important. You and I can be preparing for surgery, while Leonard and the admin people will do the paperwork. That said, I don't see a problem currently, and we will do everything we can to deliver both through vaginal birth. Please get the forms from the office when you check out and bring them back next week. Now, how about we check the babies?"
Penny walked to the exam table with Leonard and got up on it, pulling down her pants a bit and raising her blouse. Dr. Samuels started the machine put the lubricant on the wand, and started checking. As usual, she moved the want around, trying to find the babies. At one point, she changed the dials several times, but finally, after five minutes, she said okay, and gave Penny the things to clean up, while she went to compare the last week's ultrasound with this week's.
Five minutes later she came back to the office, with a smile on her face. She sat down behind her desk and handed them a printout. Leonard and Penny looked at it, and they could see both babies, sucking on their thumbs. Penny and Leonard smiled as they looked.
Dr. Samuels said, "I thought you would get a smile out of that. As for the babies, they are both fine, and baby A is16.5 inches long and baby B is 16 inches and they both weigh just over 30 ounces, 31 and 30, respectively. I'll warn you now, don't expect them to grow too much longer, however, they should be gaining 4-6 ounces a week. So, they will get heavier, but not much longer."
Penny nodded, then looked at her phone and typed in the height and weight. Looking up, she said, "Thanks for letting me know. I would freak if they didn't get much bigger, and I didn't know about it."
Dr. Samuels nodded and smiled, "Do you have anything else for me?"
Penny and Leonard looked at each other and Penny said, "No."
"Okay, then go ahead and check out, I'll see you Thursday," said Dr. Samuels. "Remember the surgery authorization papers and good luck with the house."
Penny and Leonard nodded, walked out to check out, and left. They were heading to their realtor, to close on the house.
Monday 4 May, 2:30 PM
Leonard and Penny were sitting in a conference room, waiting for Patsy. There was an assistant of hers or a secretary, sitting in front of a stack of papers. Boy, Patsy wasn't kidding about the size of that stack, thought Penny, looking at it.
About five minutes later, Patsy came in, and from her expression, Leonard and Penny could tell she wasn't happy. She sat down, closed her eyes, and Penny thought she was trying to control her breathing.
"What's wrong, Patsy?" asked Penny.
"Just give me a minute or two," said Patsy, keeping her eyes closed. "I need to calm down, then I'll explain. Penny and Leonard continued waiting until finally Patsy opened her eyes, took a deep breath."
"I'm okay now," said Patsy. "There was a…a…let's just say a disagreement, to put it nicely. It appears, Mr. Ash finally understood what he did to himself by giving you the $50,000 break in price, so you could pay me instead of him. He was ranting and raving at me. Saying I had tricked him, that I had cheated him, etc, etc. I made him even madder when I pointed out I sent our portion out to a real estate lawyer and then asked if he had done so. He sputtered and tried to say something, but nothing came out until he started yelling again. Then, I mentioned that we had a witness in the room, a notary no less, and he shut up. I also showed him the official offer sheet and I pointed out that he had initialed the offer, and signed at the bottom. And then I asked again, did he send it to a real estate lawyer, before doing that?"
"You didn't have to do that," said Penny.
"Penny, you hired me to perform a service for you," said Patsy. "When you hire me, it's my job to see that I get you the house you want, at the best price I can. That all your inspections show a well-built house and all your valuations match the price of the house you are buying."
Patsy's voice turned cold, "I'm not obligated to work for the person selling the house. Especially as he didn't want my pay to commission out of the six percent cut realtors are entitled to, by law. If he wanted to sell the house on his own, it's up to him to check everything that concerns him. I've checked to make sure everything that concerns you two, was covered. Again, that's why you hired me. I got your house for under a million and saved you $20,000 in the process. If he didn't like it, he could have brought it up or had a lawyer look it over. I didn't think he would, simply because he was trying to cheap out about the realtor, he wasn't going to spend extra big bucks on a lawyer. He screwed up and I didn't check him, it's not my job to check him" she finished hotly.
Patsy stopped and took a deep breath and said, "I'm sorry if I'm sounding mad at you two, I'm not. It's just the situation that angered me. So, how about we forget about the previous owner and get your signatures on all this paperwork, so you will be the owners."
For the next hour, Patsy's assistant would slide three pieces of paper over to Penny and Leonard. One sheet was for Leonard and Penny, one for the realtor's office as a record, and one for the seller. The seller had already been there and signed all the paperwork. Now, Patsy would explain what the words on the paper meant, while Leonard did a quick review of the writing. Satisfied, Leonard and Penny would sign and date each sheet then slide them back to Patsy's assistant, who would give Leonard and Penny another three sheets, starting the whole process over again.
There were about ten sheets left when Patsy stopped the process and said she'd be right back. Less than a minute later, she returned with a guy, introduced him as Robert Hatfield, and said he would be notarizing the rest of the paperwork. It only took about ten minutes to finish, and then Patsy gave Penny a check for just under $20,000, and said, "This is what's left of that $50,000 extra you got, minus my commission and a couple of last-minute expenses that you will find on your accounting sheet." Patsy smiled at them and said, "Congratulations, you are now both homeowners."
Penny and Leonard grinned back at Patsy before looking at each other, still smiling. Patsy then gave them a folder with all the paperwork they had signed in it, after which they stood, thanked Patsy, and left.
Tuesday 5 May, 3:30 PM
Leonard was still going over the schematic, along with the written pages of what wire went in what pin on Module four. That was the module that Keith had worried about and after checking it, they had found several different wires which had been put into the wrong pins. They had removed the wires from the pins and had put everything back to its original configuration, double and triple-checking it. They then put the original boards back into the module. Leonard had planned on running some checks on module four and then running a full-scale test, to make sure they could get to the requirement of keeping the machine capable of creating ten entangled photons.
Leonard had already signed off on running the tests on Wednesday, but while he had jokingly been accused of overthinking the problem, he just wanted to make sure that they could at least get back to the original number of photons.
Meanwhile, in another building on campus, Howard was looking at the monitor, for the Scanning, Tunneling microscope, and he was overjoyed seeing the ends of the material, at the fracture point.
Only interaction with high-energy particles could have formed the patterns he was looking at, on the monitor. It was going to take some work, to get from what he was looking at, to a theoretical framework, but he didn't care. Any kind of answer would get me my Ph.D. and any other work toward figuring it out would have to wait until I finished my dissertation. I only have to show whether my idea works or not. Maybe I will guide that research in a couple of years, thought Howard.
Wednesday 6 May, 7:30 PM
They were all cleaning up, after eating dinner at the Wolowitz's. While eating, Howard had explained he had found the failure points, and it appeared that part of the failures was related to high energy particles striking the grips. When combined with the freezing temperatures in space, this was the cause of the grips, on the mechanical arms, not working. He knew why covering the material with ceramic had helped prevent the breaking. His idea to mix the ceramic into the metal, might even be better. But, either way, it was perfect for his Ph.D. If the mixing worked, that was new knowledge, if it didn't work, it was still new knowledge. And, either way, would get him his PhD., and coating it would still fix the problem.
After Howard, Bernadette spoke of a new anti-depressant one of her teams had developed. While she no longer spent much time in the lab, she still looked around and was called in, from time to time, to help solve a thorny problem. On the anti-depressant, she had come up with an idea, which she had developed with a younger member, and so she was getting credit on the new drug.
Leonard then talked about running the test earlier today and finding the machine could run ten entangled photons, as it was designed for. They would now, again, try to swap out the circuit boards, re-wire the machine, and rerun the tests, hoping to get to 14 entangled photons. Then, redo the boards and rewire the machine one more time, hoping to get to 18 entangled photons, before school started back in the fall.
Amy, Sheldon, and Raj both explained that nothing much had happened with them, over the last week, so there wasn't really anything for them to talk about.
At that Penny spoke up. She and Leonard had agreed that she would speak.
"Well, the big news is we've closed on the house," said Penny. "We will be moving in this weekend. We have people coming to help with the move." Penny paused and looked at Leonard as they both hid smiles, before Penny continued, "Especially the big stuff. So, remember, you all said you'd help us move when the time came, and the time will be this weekend. Meanwhile," said Penny holding up a key, "who wants to go over and look at the house?"