A/N Hello, I'm back. I again want to apologize for having to skip a week. However, I got several chapters done in the last couple of weeks. I went from having only chapter 73 to having 73, 74, 75, 76, and started 77. So, I will put up chapter 74 next week and continue publishing weekly. I don't think this will go past 85 (I know, I know, I said 80, but I said don't quote me on that and you know how bad I am at figuring out what chapter the end will be), so I don't anticipate missing any more weeks.

Chapter 73

Wednesday 27 May, 12:45 PM

Leonard had spent the morning working on putting in the modules that would send the signals to create ten and fourteen entangled photons, along with starting the installation of the new switch module. He then went to the cafeteria, meeting the other three guys there. After lunch he left the cafeteria, walking back to his office. As he approached, he was surprised to see his door open, Probably Tony, he thought, so he was stunned to see Penny sitting behind his desk.

"What are you doing here?" said Leonard, sounding a bit shocked.

"Is that a way to greet the woman you love and who will be delivering your children in a few weeks?" said Penny, with a wolfish grin.

Leonard grinned back and said, "Just surprised that you're here. How'd you get in?"

"I was going to leave a message," said Penny. "Then Tony walked by and let me in."

"Oh, that makes sense," said Leonard. "So, what are you doing here?"

"Dan threw me out of the office," said Penny.

"What? Why?" said Leonard.

"I mentioned my continuing high blood pressure," said Penny. "He asked a few more questions, then told me he didn't want to see me on Wednesday and Friday afternoons. It was a possibility he mentioned a few weeks ago. As I was already taking Monday afternoons off, he just mentioned those other two."

"I suppose he's worried that you might get put on bed rest, and not be available," said Leonard.

"Actually, no," said Penny. "Not being available doesn't concern him in the slightest. What he is concerned about is my health and doesn't care if I'm not available, as long as I don't have a problem with the pregnancy."

That surprised Leonard, but he was rather touched by it, "That's really sweet of him."

"He's been that way my whole pregnancy," said Penny. "Like I said, he suggested it a few weeks ago, but as Dr. Samuels didn't insist, I didn't take him up on it. But, now, I guess I don't have a choice."

"Will you be working from home?" asked Leonard.

"Not really," said Penny. "He's giving me until noon to work on those days, anything I don't have finished I should pass on to him. Afternoon, he wants me off our network. He even said he would check to make sure I'm not signed in, so I guess I'm going to be off for three afternoons a week."

"That's a good thing, considering what Dr. Samuels told you on Monday, about trying to get this under control," said Leonard.

"Yeah, I guess it is," said Penny. "Can you come home after work, and not go to the comic book store?"

"Of course I can," said Leonard. "I want you to relax and let me get things ready for the group dinner tonight."

"Amy and Bernadette will be coming over, so they might help," said Penny. "But, I really want you there."

"I'll be there," said Leonard.

"Okay, sweety," said Penny, struggling a bit as she got out of his chair. "Then I'll see you around 5:30 or so." She walked over and kissed him, then walked to the door before turning, "Bye, Leonard, I love you."

Leonard grinned, "Bye, Penny, I love you, too."

Wednesday 27 May, 2:30 PM

The operations group had finished putting the switch module into the control panel and they were now checking the wires and checking the input voltages. They had to make all those checks because of having to redo some of the wiring this morning. They should finish around 3:30 to 4:00 PM, and I'll send them home then, thought Leonard.

Leonard planned on doing the final checks and tests tomorrow morning, before running a full-up test, to see if they could switch between ten and fourteen photons, without having to change the circuit boards and wiring. As he watched, he was extremely happy with his students, his post-docs, and his team leads. They had worked their butts off this year, making him look good in the process. He felt a surge of pride in his team.

He wondered how Eric had known his team loved working for him. He just couldn't fathom that he had done all that much right, he didn't know that Eric had a long-time friend on the team. When Eric first asked, his friend hesitated, wondering about the ethics of it all. But, he knew Leonard had been doing almost everything right and the few wrong things were minor. So, since there wasn't anything bad to report, the friend would mention the good things Leonard had been doing to Eric, who had been very pleased.

Wednesday 27 May, 4:30 PM

Leonard pulled into the garage, closed the garage door, and entered the house. There he saw Penny, appearing to be cleaning out the refrigerator.

"Penny, what are you doing?" asked Leonard. "Dan gave you the time off to rest, not to come home and work on cleaning. I'm supposed to do that, remember?"

"Well, I saw some dirt on the fridge, I guess they didn't clean it very well," said Penny. "And, I wanted to make sure there wasn't anything that might contaminate any of the bottles of any breast milk I put in the fridge."

"But, why are you doing that now?" asked Leonard. "We have three to four more weeks to go and besides, I'm supposed to do that."

"I just want to make sure it's done," said Penny. "I've still got several things to do on my list, to get the house ready for the babies."

"You might, but Dr. Samuels said I was supposed to do all of this," said Leonard. "You're supposed to rest. Now, go sit down."

"I can get it," said Penny. "The cleaning is done, I just need to put the things back in the fridge,"

"No, you don't," said Leonard sternly. "Go. Sit. Down. I'll put the stuff away, you aren't supposed to be doing this, remember?"

"But, we have a lot to do yet, and I want to get it done," said Penny.

"Then tell me and I'll get it done. Now, go and sit down and wait for Amy and Bernadette to get here," said Leonard.

Reluctantly, Penny poured herself a glass of cranberry juice, then went to the couch and got ready to sit down. Just as she did that, there was a knock on the door, so Penny walked over to the door, found it was Amy, and invited her in. Penny was going to get Amy a glass of wine, but after getting a serious look from Leonard and Amy, she asked if Amy could go get her own wine.

Soon, the two of them were sitting on the couch, talking. Leonard wasn't paying attention, as he was putting things away, but he did hear the doorbell and looked up long enough to see Amy letting Bernadette into the house. She explained that the kids would be at her parents' until they brought them back around 9 PM. Then she got her own glass of wine, and sat down, talking with the other two.

Leonard was just finishing up the fridge, when Bernadette walked up, saying, "Penny says you're completing the job she started."

"Yeah, Dr. Samuels said she should be relaxing, not cleaning," said Leonard.

"She also said Dan was giving her Wednesday and Friday afternoons off, in addition to her Monday afternoon," said Bernadette.

"Yeah, that was really nice of him," said Leonard. "Hopefully it helps keep her blood pressure down."

"Leonard, how are you going to keep her from doing things on those afternoons when you're not here?" asked Bernadette.

"What do you mean?" asked Leonard.

"She said she was doing the linens the other day," said Bernadette. "And making sure the furniture is in the right spot, now she was cleaning out the fridge. She's been doing all of that when you weren't here. Who knows what else she'll be cleaning or moving, with those extra two days off, if you're not here to stop her."

Leonard looked confused, "You know Penny doesn't clean."

Bernadette smiled at him, "You're naive Leonard. The straightening out of the linens, the cleaning of the fridge, planning for the playpens, all of that tells me she's starting to get ready for the babies."

A light bulb when on in Leonard's mind, "She's nesting, isn't she? That's why she's doing all this cleaning and moving around."

Bernadette nodded, "Yep, that's exactly what she was doing."

"Don't worry, I'll talk to her about it," said Leonard. "I'll threaten to come home early to catch her and then tell the doctor on her."

"Or threaten to tell me," said Bernadette. "She knows I'll rip her a new one, pregnant or not."

Leonard grinned, "Thanks, Bernadette."

Bernadette raised her glass and went back to join the other women.

Wednesday 27 May, 9:30 PM

They had prepared for bed and Penny was now putting her skin lotion on her hands and her belly. She was rather proud she didn't have any very noticeable stretch marks. Oh, there were some, but you had to know exactly where to look for them, and for carrying twins, the lack of the marks made her proud. But, she was still a bit upset at how good Priya looked after having two kids. She looked down at her own belly and grimaced.

As she slid under the covers, Leonard said, "Can we talk about something?"

Uh-oh, thought Penny, what's happening? Penny said, "Sure, okay."

"I don't want to complain, but you need to slow down," said Leonard. "Dr. Samuels told me I needed to do everything, so we can keep your blood pressure down. You really need to stop cleaning, or moving the furniture around, or moving the baby clothes, or any other physical thing."

"I know, I shouldn't be doing those things," said Penny, a bit shamefaced. "But, I just want to have the house in perfect shape when they get here."

"Penny, everything is set up," said Leonard. "I cleaned it, now you have. So it doesn't need cleaning. We already have everything where it should be, so just relax. If I see you doing anything else, I'll be taking off the same days you are taking off, or maybe come home early, just to make sure you take it easy. If not, I'm going to tell Dr. Samuels on you and she'll put you on bed rest."

Penny shook her head, "I don't want that."

"And, one more thing," said Leonard. "If you don't cut back, Bernadette told me to tell her, and she'll come and…and…er…I want to say talk to you, but I don't think she'll just talk."

"Okay, okay, I don't need that," said Penny, wincing. "I'll keep from doing anything."

"Bernadette thinks you're nesting, so if you feel the need, let me know and I'll do it," said Leonard. "Besides, you should relax for the next few weeks. After the babies are born, we're not going to get any rest or have any time to ourselves for quite a few years."

"That's true," said Penny. "That may be your strongest point. Okay, I'll rest on my afternoons off, I promise, you won't have to tell on me to Dr. Samuels or Bernadette."

"Good," said Leonard leaning over to kiss her. "Good night, I love you."

"I love you, too," said Penny. "Good night, Leonard."

Thursday 28 May, 4:00 PM

Leonard was going through the status of the machine on the run they had finished at 3:30 PM. The operations team had spent the morning running tests and doing the final checks on the experiment. They had broken for lunch at 11:30 AM and had everything ready for the data run at 1 PM.

They started the run with the switch set for ten entangled photons and ran that for twenty minutes. Leonard had them put it into standby for twenty minutes and then changed the switch to 14, before starting it for another twenty-minute run. At that point, they shut it down, did some checks, and then brought the power back up.

Leonard set the switch to ten and started another run. At the end of twenty minutes, he put it into standby for five minutes, flipped the switch to fourteen, and started another twenty-minute run, before shutting it down. They reran the whole procedure for a third time, except they flipped the switch from ten to fourteen, without putting it in standby. After those twenty-minute runs, he told them to shut everything down for the day.

He went to and talked to Tom, about the data and Tom told him it appeared that they were getting more than 14 during the run. He also said that there was an increase in the number of entangled photons when they changed the switch at full power. He couldn't say exactly how many more, he promised that he would have the preliminary numbers in the morning, and the full analysis by next Wednesday. Leonard thanked him and went back to his office and began looking over the data.

Thursday 28 May, 4:30 PM

Penny put down the phone and leaned back in her chair. It had taken her four days, but she now had the four people she wanted to interview to be their twins' nanny. All had been nannies for at least fifteen years. One was married, two were divorced and one had never been married.

Three were women and one, to Penny's surprise, was a man. It hadn't occurred to her that men would have been a nanny, but looking at his record, and his references, she was impressed. Everything was set up for the interviews on Friday and Saturday afternoons.

The two tomorrow would be from different agencies, and the two on Saturday would be from the same one. There was enough time between interviews that none of them should see another candidate. Penny already had the questions she wanted to ask and all that was needed was for Leonard and her to pool the questions and decide which ones would be asked, and by who. They would do that tonight, after their birthing class.

Thursday 28 May, 7:15 PM

Leonard was explaining how well the experiment had gone. How even when it was operating, flipping the switch caused the machine to start producing more entangled photons. The result of getting over 14 while it was running was exciting, but it would have to be verified. They would have a better number tomorrow morning, but the final result would be next week. Why they were getting more was something they still had to figure out. But overall, it was a success.

Penny had to tell Leonard to shut up and count, telling him he could tell her about his experiment later. Right now they were supposed to be practicing the breathing exercises. At 7:20 Dr. Samuels walked in, laid the pamphlets on the table, and spoke.

"If I can have your attention," said Dr. Samuels. "Tonight we get a tour of the Hospital. We'll see a delivery room, the nursery, and the neonatal ICU. We will also visit the mother's rooms and the guest areas and we may visit the surgical areas."

"Since everyone is here, I want to start early," said Dr. Samuels. "This way, we can get more time in on the tour. If we get back later than normal, we'll still do fifteen minutes of breathing, although if you have to leave, you can. The brochures here are for the hospital, so before you leave tonight, go ahead and take one."

"Are they any questions?" asked Dr. Samuels. Seeing no hands she continued, "Okay, if you will follow me, we'll get started on the tour."