A/N I was a bit late with publishing last week. I had struggled with the chapter and was still struggling with some of the wording on Saturday night when I usually upload to the Fan Fic site. At 11:50 AM, my time, I finally uploaded my file, then did my usual, doing a few edits to it, on the FanFiction site, before saving and publishing at 12:25. At 11:50, I had nine views, to the story for Sunday, which is pretty normal for Sunday morning. At 12:25, after publishing, I went to reset my views and found over 150 visitors. That means there were a lot of people out there waiting for me to publish and checking on it. To quote Penny, it warms my twaddle, and I thank you for it.

Chapter 68

Wednesday 13 May, 3:30

Leonard was waiting nervously in his office, for the data team's preliminary report. They had run the experiment for over two hours this morning, and although the numbers they were getting as it was running looked good, he wanted the actual full report. There was a knock on the door and Keith, his number 2 on the team, and Tom, the head of the data team asked to come in. Leonard waved them in and said, "So, did it work?"

Tom looked solemn, and Keith looked pained, making Leonard nervous. Keith spoke up, "I don't know how it happened. We check and recheck, it just doesn't make sense."

"I know Keith, but look at the data," said Tom. "You can't deny the numbers."

Leonard felt his stomach drop, "How bad was it?"

Keith and Tom looked at each other, and Tom spoke up, "I mean getting 19 entangled photons consistently, when you were only supposed to get to 14 isn't a catastrophe."

"I suppose we'll have to look…wait, what?" said Leonard looking puzzled.

Tom started smiling, "Your idea worked. Better than expected as we averaged 19 entangle photons a run. That's 30% more than we thought. If we do that when we try for 24, we should get 32."

"Well, we don't know why, yet," said Keith who was smiling. "So, we're going to have to figure out why your idea worked so well, but we know it worked."

Leonard was now also grinning, "I guess that's our next job, find out why we got so much more. But, we can start that on Monday. Give the team the rest of the week off, but make sure they know the time off is only from the experiment. Classes, meetings, etc, are still on."

Keith was still grinning, "Oh, they'll be happy with that."

"That includes you two, also," said Leonard. "I need to get you two some time off before I get my two months off when the babies are born at the end of next month."

"Thanks, Leonard," said Keith. "But, I'll be around for a few other things I'm working on."

"Not me," said Tom. "I don't have anything for the rest of the week, so see you Monday."

"Tell everyone, 8:30 on Monday, in the lab," said Leonard. "Enjoy your time off, Tom."

Tom and Keith said their goodbyes and left the office. For the next 30 minutes, Leonard just sat at his desk smiling. My idea worked, better than expected, damn.

Wednesday 13 May, 8:30 PM

Everything from the dinner had been cleaned up and Leonard and Bernadette were upstairs putting the kids to bed. Amy, Raj, and Penny were in the living room, talking. Amy could stay a bit later tonight, as Sheldon wasn't there and she had already talked to him, before coming over. Leonard had been offered congratulations after telling everyone how well the experiment had gone. Bernadette and Penny were both doing well at Zangen. Amy said Sheldon was actually enjoying his time at Brookhaven. He said they had some good insights. At that, Leonard asked if there was something wrong with Sheldon, and everyone, even Amy giggled.

Amy asked Bernadette how things were going with Howard gone, and she simply said, "Exhausting."

"What do you mean?" asked Penny.

"Well, I've been gone twice, since we had Michael," said Bernadette. "This is the first time Howard's been gone, and it's run me ragged. At least he'll be home tomorrow. Howard had it easy both times I was gone, he had Stuart and Raj most of the time, I don't."

"I'm sorry, but I've been busy," said Raj. "Between working with the student, and the Planetarium…

"I know, Raj, things at work are going well for you," said Bernadette. "And Stuart now has a successful store and Denise. I'm not blaming either of you, I just miss the days when Stuart was here, and I could come home and he would take over for me, to let me have a few minutes. It's a handful, having two kids that close together trying to feed one, one thing, and the other something else. Not to mention having to change a diaper."

"How about having two kids a few minutes apart?" asked Penny, sarcastically. "Not to mention having to change two diapers. At least you got Halley off of breastfeeding before Michael was born."

"To be honest, it's going to be exhausting, for both of you," said Bernadette. "I think you'll both figure it out and be fine, but until you do, it will take a lot out of you."

Leonard and Penny looked at each other, concern in their eyes,

Bernadette continued, "But, although you won't have someone like Stuart all the time, to cover like he did when Michael was first born if you need help, I'm right next door."

The concern lessened when they heard Amy say, "Bestie, if you ever need help, just call and I'll be over in a minute."

"Thank you both," said Penny.

"Who wants more wine?" said Amy. "I don't have to leave early tonight." Penny just rolled her eyes.

Thursday 14 May, 7:25 PM

Penny was sitting between Leonard's legs, leaning against his chest, while she practiced her breathing. They had been there for ten minutes and he was counting and timing softly, as were the other couple in the birthing class. They had practiced every night, just after getting in bed, and several times during the weekend, on their couch, but just wanted to run through it again, before practicing here in class.

Promptly at 7:30, Dr. Stevens stood up and said, "Welcome, everyone, to our third class. I want to thank everyone for doing some more practice, just before class. We will talk tonight about the different possible medication options we may use during labor and delivery. We would like to avoid medication if at all possible, but we feel you should know which medications we might use. In addition, you need to know what the effects of each of them are and what the possible side effects are, so you can make an informed choice. The first half-hour will be about the medication, and the second half-hour will be breathing practice. Any questions?"

No one said anything and Dr. Stevens said, "Okay, come on up and grab tonight's pamphlets before I start talking."

Friday 15 May, 1:25 PM

Dan had called and asked Penny to come to his office, he wanted to go over some of the sales numbers for the last month. Penny said she'd be up in about ten minutes and Dan said that was fine and they both disconnected. Penny gathered her papers, notes, and charts and started to Dan's office, two floors above. It was closer, and usually faster to use the stairs, so she walked to the end of the hallway, and started up. The building's stairs were like the apartment, a landing between floors, and Penny found herself stopping on the second landing, out of breath. She stopped for about thirty seconds, before starting back up. Getting to Dan's office, she again stopped by the secretary's desk for about thirty seconds, before going in. She was also sweating profusely and just sort of fell into the chair Dan indicated.

"Are you okay, Penny?" asked Dan.

Breathing heavily, she said, "I'm out of breath."

"Should we call your doctor?" asked Dan, sounding concerned.

"No, it's returning to normal," said Penny. "Although I will ask her about it on Monday."

"Well, why don't we take a few minutes before we start," said Dan.

Penny nodded and took a drink of her water, while she laid out her paperwork.

"I also will come down to you, from now on," said Dan. "I don't want to push you too much."

"It's all right, Dan," said Penny. "You don't need to do that."

"Yes, I do, and I will," said Dan. "You're getting close to the end, and I don't want you to have any problems, so not another word about it."

Penny shrugged and nodded.

Saturday 16 May, 2:25

Leonard had been working on a new idea for the experiment, using the built-in desk near the kitchen. He'd been sitting for a couple of hours and he got up to stretch and to get a bottle of water. Penny was watching some television and noticed Leonard in the refrigerator and said, "Can you bring me a bottle of water?"

"Sure," said Leonard, reaching in to grab another bottle. He took it over to Penny and gave it to her.

After giving her the bottle, she said, "How about you sit down, so we can talk about something."

"Uh-oh, this sounds serious," said Leonard.

"Well, it is, but it isn't," said Penny. "We have to figure out what we're going to do when I go back to work."

"What do you mean?" asked Leonard.

"Well, you said we have a slot at Caltech," said Penny. "But, they don't accept any babies younger than six months, and I have to go back to work two months before that. So, how are we going to handle that?"

"I don't know," said Leonard. "I guess we'll have to figure out something for those two months."

"I've been thinking about it," said Penny. "What if we were to get a nanny?"

"A nanny?" said Leonard. "Why? It would only be for two months."

"Well, maybe not," said Penny. "I was thinking maybe we could use one after I go back to work."

"What do you mean?" said Leonard.

"I was thinking about what Bernadette said about Stuart and Raj being there to help them," said Penny. "I looked and Nanny's can work part-time. Maybe we could get someone from around four or five to eight PM, during the week, or we could figure out something else. They could help with watching the babies after we get home, give us time to cook, relax a bit."

"Do you think that will be needed?" asked Leonard. "I mean, Bernadette and Amy said they would help."

"Actually, yes I do," said Penny. "Look, Bernadette and Amy have their own lives, and what happens if I call and they can't come over? Like if they are both still at work or out of town."

"Yeah, I didn't think about that," said Leonard.

"Bernadette mentioned having Stuart and Raj there," said Penny. "But, remember how bad off Bernadette told us she had it. Not only that, they had a year to get the first one settled. We won't have that, we'll have two right from the start. We will need a nanny. And, after all, they have experience, we don't. I look at it as a learning experience."

"You may have a point," said Leonard. "How do we get a nanny?"

"I've been looking around the internet," said Penny. "I've gotten some ideas about it, but I'll keep looking for some more ideas and I want to start looking into getting some here to interview."

Leonard didn't know what to say, it seems Penny had thought this through far more than he had. "For not wanting a baby, you seem to be very into working on this."

"Leonard, I originally said, '...what if I didn't want one?'" said Penny. "Now, I feel kind of protective of the two girls in my belly."

Leonard smiled, "Well, so do I. Since you seem to be looking have a lot of information about it, why don't you pick who you want to interview and we can meet with them together?"

"That sounds like a good idea," said Penny. "I've already looked at some agencies and I've got a couple I really like, based on their profiles. There's a few more I have to check on, depending on what I see on the what I'm calling, the advice for nanny pages."

"That's fine, just let me know if you need me to do anything," said Leonard.

"I will," said Penny. "Also, I was reading some preparation things on the website and they recommend we do a trial run to the hospital, to see how long it takes to get there. In case the babies arrive early, and with twins, it could be the next couple of weeks."

"When?"

"How about now?" said Penny.

Leonard shrugged, "Sure, why not. We could do a couple of runs, using different routes, just to have a backup route."

"Ok, let say I start feeling the contractions," said Penny. "Let's start."

For the next few minutes, they simulated getting dressed, putting the suitcases into the car, and closing up the house, before getting into the car and driving away. For the first route, Leonard used the 210, to the 710, which took them right to the hospital. They drove back to their house and tried two other ways to get to the hospital and found it wouldn't be more than 15 minutes, and even with bad traffic, shouldn't be more than 20.

They decided three routes were enough, so they headed back to the house. Leonard went back to work on his experiment, while Penny continued working on how to find a good nanny.

Sunday 17 May, 5:25 PM

Amy was waiting just outside the security area for Sheldon. She knew his plane had landed, he had texted her, and now it was just a matter of waiting for him to get here. It was another ten minutes before she saw Sheldon come through. She walked up to him, kissed him, and then asked, "How was your trip?"

They started walking to the baggage claim area, and Sheldon said, "The flights were pretty good. I'm glad I got that power supply. I still have some power on my iPad and phone. So I was watching moving the whole way…"

"How was Brookhaven?" asked Amy.

"I was surprised," said Sheldon. "I expected them to not have a clue about super-asymmetry, but they were actually well versed in it. They also had some idea for an experiment, which might nail down the asymmetric particles it predicts. They told me they got the ideas after we talked about me going there."

Amy paused, she wasn't sure if she should bring it up, but she decided she should, "So, Leonard was right about talking to them, instructing them, helping them understand."

"Actually, yes he was right," said Sheldon. "He may not be a complete theoretician, but he does know how to handle people. I know his team likes him very much. I may have to ask a few more questions about how to deal with people."

Amy was surprised, but pleased by Sheldon's comments. "Do you want to stop and pick up dinner somewhere?"

"Yes, I think I would," said Sheldon. "How does Indian food sound to you?"

"It sounds good," said Amy. "We can pick up the food, get home, eat, and then get you unpacked."

"Okay," said Sheldon.

Sunday 17 May, 8:25 PM

Leonard had spent the entire weekend, trying to figure out how to make changing between ten and fourteen photos a bit faster. He was also thinking about the upcoming attempt to get 18 photons, and how they would have to swap out the circuit boards and change the wiring. But, through the two days, nothing was coming to him, other than swapping out the board and changing the wiring.

He had given up for the day, just before dinner and was now watching television. It was a documentary on how freight was moved by train. The show was explaining how a train switchyard was run. He could see the one path coming in, splitting off to different tracks, before coming together again at the other end of the yard. Suddenly, he realized what he needed to do. He could add a module for each amount, one for 10, one for 14, and one for 18. And, finally, they could create a fourth module, to replace the current control module, so they could choose whichever module they needed to create the number of photons the experiment needed, just like the freight yard could send a rail car to a specific track before it left the yard.

He started rapidly writing down the idea, along with a brief schematic. He spent the next hour writing down everything, sketching the sequence, showing how it would work. After he finished, he gathered up his notes and put them in his messenger bag, thinking how he would start explaining the idea of the switch to Keith, in the morning.