Chapter 30
Yearning
Leonard felt utterly bemused. Never before in his life had he witnessed his mother in such a restless, nervous state as she was currently in right now .
Before she had always been cool, calm and clinically detached. But now she was sitting, standing then sitting, wringing her hands and fidgeting with her wedding ring. And also going for a bathroom break every 10 minutes. And then to make matters worse Mike's flight had been delayed an hour, and now Beverley had deteriorated to the state of a nervous wreck.
Penny, meanwhile had grown tired of sitting in the arrivals lounge and was feeling glad that the girls were at school.
After all keeping Beverley calm was bad enough on her own, but trying to keep her three daughters amused, would have been just too much.
The day before Penny, after searching the net. Had found a recipe for sausage rolls and made a batch to welcome Mike to Pasadena, and then she left them to cool while she turned her attention to working in the garden.
And as Penny was engrossed in her work, her daughters had come home from school and promptly ate half of them before Penny, who had returned to the house to wash her hands, and caught them in the act.
So after Leonard ordered take out and then nipped out to get some more pork sausage meat, Penny had to hurriedly make some more, while thanking the powers that be that she had had enough puff pastry left.
Finally at last the flight information screen showed Mike's flight had landed, and later Beverley at seeing him come through from passport control rushed into his arms, looking more like a love struck teenager than a woman in her 60's, Mike's face just lit up as soon as he saw her and after two long months husband and wife were finally reunited.
Which reminded Penny of those scenes she had seen on T.V. where soldiers coming back from the war would rush to meet their families.
So then, with Penny leading the way, and Leonard carrying Mike's bags, while Mike, his arm round Beverly followed behind.
Later Mike thanked Penny and informed her, her sausage rolls were delicious, Penny beamed at him.
They stayed at Beverley's for half an hour only as Beverley and Mike badly needed time alone, then Leonard dropped Penny off at home then made his way back to Cal-Tech.
Sarah Jeffers had been promoted by Leonard, as he had found her to be most efficient as well as becoming a dear friend to Penny and Himself, So Sarah was now secretary to the head of the physics department and Dr Wolowitz had also settled into his task of assistant head, while Dr Sheldon Cooper enjoyed the exquisite peace, being now free of the interruptions he had craved so much while assistant head, and was continuing his own work in extraordinarily good humour.
A month later and Leonard had gone to Sacramento on a recruitment drive for Cal Tech, and would be away for a night, before catching a return flight the next evening.
But despite being secure in the knowledge that Leonard was traveling by air, a graphic report of a 12 car pile up on the Northbound side of Highway 5, caused Penny a certain amount of distress, and she immediately called Leonard to check he was OK.
Though no doubt some would have thought that Penny was overreacting, however her traumatic experience over Leonard's accident before they had married, coupled with her deep love for her Husband, had markedly affected her outlook on Leonard's well being, hence her reaction.
Thus feeling unsettled she had rang Bernadette who, after discerning Penny's current state of anxiety while Leonard was away, and decided to hold an impromptu girls night at Penny's hoping that it might distract Penny from her anxiety, and to Bernadette's delight, Kay was able to come also that evening, in spite of her busy schedule.
"You know the best thing I love about babies, was when Samuel had been bathed and dressed in his onesie, was his scent, I mean it sounds crazy now but I just love holding him and getting that wonderful clean baby aroma from him, I just found it so soothing", Bernadette told them all as the subject that moment had turned to babies.
"I would just go totally misty eyed as myself and Leonard watched Honey Marie as she slept in her crib, My God it was the best feeling ever", Penny reminisced.
"yes, and I remember when Isaac was just about a year old when he began to give his Dad some sloppy kisses on his face. really, I thought Sheldon would freak out, but I was so shocked when Sheldon just smiled at me and he had tears in his eyes as well, he was so proud of his son, it was so wonderful", Amy too reminisced.
"Wow talking of Isaac, I'd better get back, I didn't realize the time had flown by so fast", Amy noted.
"Yep, you're right, well goodnight girls, this has been great", Bernadette told them all as she rose. As Amy had given her a ride to Penny's.
After seeing them to the car, Penny returned and was shocked to see Kay sobbing.
"Hey sweetie, Why the tears?", Penny asked her, but already having an inkling into Kay's distress as she recalled the subject matter being discussed a few minutes ago.
"Nothings happening, we've both been checked out but still nothing, and listening to you all this evening, just reminded, me how much I yearn to cuddle a baby, to watch Him/Her, sleeping, to have the treasured memories that you all have", Kay sniffed.
"why don't you and J.G. Get away for a while?, Just the two of you", Penny suggested.
"I can't relax in hotels, my beach house is quickly observed by fans and paparazzi alike, really, it's so hard to go anywhere where we can just relax", Kay pointed out.
"I know a place", Penny told her, remembering the cabin by the lake in Nebraska.
"It's out of season now, so it's likely to be real quiet, and if I ask my sister Jan to keep you supplied with provisions, then you need not go anywhere near where the paparazzi or the most persistent fans, might bother you. In fact", Penny revealed, " it's where I fell pregnant with Honey Marie", and to Penny's relief Kay looked up at her, but now with hope in her eyes.
Soon, Penny had arranged for the celebrity couple to stay at the cabin for three weeks, after Kay had finished a series of photo shoots for a fashion house next month.
A month later, and Penny sat at her laptop and printed out some A3 artistic impressions and plans of the bedroom and en-suite of a clients apartment, then made herself a coffee and sat and listlessly scanned through her magazine but finding she was reading the same line three times over and still not taking it in she put it back down with a sigh onto the coffee table.
Penny felt unsettled, and wished Leonard had not gone back to the office, she needed to talk to him, but she just did not know how to bring the subject up.
Penny greatly desired another child, ever since she had spoken to Kay.
And to further strengthen her own longing, she had just completed a nursery for a baby boy, for an expectant client, recently, and the client was very pleased with Penny's design and the high standard of work by Penny's decorators, Kelly and Sandra. And while Penny was there to check for herself if the client was totally satisfied, she asked Penny if she would help carry a new crib she had just purchased, into the newly decorated nursery to see how it looked and there while the client decided on the best position for the crib, Penny felt even stronger, that empty pang of longing as she stood with the client admiring the crib in it's new setting.
At first Penny had just dismissed it as a passing phase, but the desire had grown stronger and stronger as the days passed till she could no longer ignore it, in fact each sight of Sandra who was now eight weeks pregnant or a woman pushing a pram would almost make shed as many tears as Kay did, with the strong yearning, it had become almost an obscure pain.
She was quite sure in herself that Leonard wouldn't think she was mad if she asked him..
But how do I begin to tell him? she thought, Penny just did not know?, "just exactly how do you ask your Husband if he could reverse his vasectomy anyway?", she thought
It was no good, she must tell Leonard tonight, after all, she could still bear a child, she was still only 42 for crying out loud.
Leonard had been married to Penny long enough to know something was up and also long enough to know not to jump in with questions, but to let Penny tell him in her own good time.
She had cooked his favourite meal on a midweek day which tipped him off for a start and her monosyllabic answer to how her day went told him she was mulling over something.
As soon as the girls were in bed, Penny poured them each a glass of wine and sat down snuggled up against Leonard.
"Honey, how would you feel about us having another baby?", Penny asked him, After meditating all day on how she could broach the subject, Penny had finally decided to come straight to the point.
"Well we could go to that clinic where people with high intelligence quotient go to donate sperm if you really really want to have a child, as you are well aware I had the snip soon after the twins were born", Leonard responded.
"LEONARD NO!", Penny shouted at him aghast, "Honey I want a baby with you, Please Leonard I beg you, please", and Leonard was horrified as Penny desperately got down on her knees before him to beg, "People can have a vasectomy reversed now these days". Penny added tearfully.
"OK Penny darling, but please don't ever do that again, I love you, please get up, I'm glad you feel that way about the sperm bank honey. I'm sorry I said about the sperm bank, but I had to make sure you are dead serious about this before we went ahead, but please Penny, I'm sorry, but I can't have another vasectomy again, it was just too darn painful". Penny's answer to that was a squeal of delight as she jumped on her husband and kissed and hugged him so tightly, Leonard had to use his inhaler to recover.
Then she dragged him upstairs for them to practice.
Leonard had the reversal operation three weeks later and was too sore after that for another two weeks.
Penny, still strongly yearning for a child, was very much encouraged by the statistics of an 85% success rate of a reversal operation considering the length of time that had elapsed from the Vasectomy operation.
As soon as the doctors passed Leonard fit as able to carry out all functions, Penny, as soon as they got through the front door of their house, Led Leonard up the stairs disrobing on the way as she went (fortunately for the girls, they were at school).
So determined was Penny that a schedule was put up on the mirror of her dressing table marking likely times to make love, when she would be ovulating, and she also purchased a fertility tester into the bargain.
In spite of all this nothing seemed to be happening, then after hearing from an excited and thankful Kay revealing to Penny about her finally falling pregnant during their stay at the cabin, that Penny became more and more depressed and each month that went by without result the worse Penny became and more often she would be crying bitterly into Leonard's shoulder at the onset of each menses.
Finally Leonard decided it was time take another trip to Nebraska for two weeks. As he had become aware that those who greatly desire a child can become so tense it can interfere with conception,
and Penny, like Kay, really needed to come out of her depression and relax.
And as the girls were busy with school work, Beverley and Mike agreed to stay at their house to look after the girls, while Leonard took Penny to her old home.
To try to cheer Penny, Leonard booked them first class tickets on the flight going up, But Penny was terribly down about leaving her girls behind (which she absolutely hated doing) and feeling inadequate in herself in her apparent inability to conceive. (which was nonsense as she had been checked out and everything was fine).
So Penny felt more depressed than ever.
Leonard was worried "hang it all", he thought, Penny as always, was his first priority so Leonard defied the Pelican and his school and booked seats for all seven of them to fly up to Nebraska. (The girls were so disappointed, they had been looking forward to staying with Mike and Beverley, so this is why Leonard included them on the trip)
They landed in Nebraska about late morning and were met by Penny's parents with their cars.
Penny collapsed sobbing in her mothers arms and Marcia noting the worried look on Leonard's face, led her to her car with Leonard and the girls while Wyatt after congratulating Beverley and Mike on their marriage, led them to his car and the little convoy set off for the farm.
As soon as they arrived, the farm worked it's magic on Penny and she began cheer up a little, feeling very glad to be back in the place of so many happy memories (of course her happiest memory of all was her wedding to Leonard in the barn") and also feeling a lot happier that her girls had accompanied her too.
The girls took Mike and Beverley by the hand and led them to show Mike their horses.
Penny smiled gratefully at Leonard as hand in hand they entered the farmhouse, then while Leonard sat in the lounge talking with Wyatt. Penny told Marcia in the Kitchen, about her yearning for another baby and her problem in conceiving,
Later Wyatt after talking to his wife was pleased to learn Leonard was still doing his utmost to care for his Daughter. And listened with reddening face at his wife's plan to help the couple conceive.
Marcia put her plan into action that evening about 8:30, Wyatt moved some hay bales into the barn while Marcia made up a bed on top of the bales. Then coming into the lounge Marcia announced that Mike and Beverley would sleep in Penny's old room while the girls would sleep in Jan's old room and, to Leonard and Penny, they would have to sleep in the barn as the other room was in the middle of being decorated.
And as Marcia said to Penny afterwards you could hardly expect Beverley or Mike or the girls to sleep in there could you?.
So later Leonard armed with a flash-light with his wife on his arm, made his way to the barn.
Penny was immediately suspicious to find that the bales had been laid on the very spot they had said their vows over 13 years ago.
Penny now feeling relaxed and laying close to her husband breathed in his scent which always had a powerful effect on Penny as if she didn't crave her husband so much in the first place and soon afterwards they made slow sensual love more enjoying the closeness and the tenderness of each other, than the actual sex. And this was the thing that Penny loved the most not having sex but making love, being held before, during and afterwards by someone who loved you as much as you loved them transcended the cold sex that she mistakenly thought was love before she met Leonard.
Especially when they would kiss each other goodnight and tell each other I love you before Penny spooned in front of and held by Leonard, drifted off into the most restful sleep.
The next day Penny, Leonard and the girls went to go horse riding together after breakfast and as she mounted her horse Penny again felt that familiar twinge she felt just before she conceived Honey Marie in the cabin on the lake and immediately began crying so that a concerned Leonard rushed to her side to see what's wrong and was surprised to see her smiling at him, then Penny, once the girls had ridden on a bit, explained to Leonard why she was crying happy tears, at which Leonard then shed a few of his own.
They spent a happy mornings horse riding then returning and after seeing to the horses they went inside for dinner.
Mike was stunned at the sight of the wide open spaces of the US, far different from cramped London where as a boy, to see a large expanse of grass he would have to walk through the streets of Leyton to either Abbott's or Skelton's lane parks or further to Coronation gardens. It was just a totally different world.
Where until recently Mike didn't even have a passport and the furthest overseas he got before then was the Isle of White on a fortnights holiday camping with his first wife.
This would indeed take some getting used to, but Mike had now fallen in love with the wide open spaces of Nebraska, and the bonus was that he was seeing it all with Beverley.
In the afternoon, While Leonard did a few chores for Wyatt, and Penny sat watching him in between reading her book. While the two sets of grandparents all played games with the girls, Mike had quickly been adopted by the girls after his marriage to grandma Beverley and though Mike and his first wife were never blessed with children he had come to enjoy the girls company almost as much as Beverley.
That evening Penny opened some wine for Leonard, her Mom and Beverley, while she stuck to mineral water for herself.
After a couple of hours Penny kissed the girls goodnight and they went up to bed after kisses for Wyatt, Marcia, Beverley and Mike but had to leave out Daddy as with the wine, the heat from the fire and his exertions for Wyatt earlier he had fallen fast asleep on the sofa.
Penny, snuggled up against him looked at him adoringly and kissed him gently on the cheek.
Finally when it was time for them all to retire, Penny gently shook Leonard's shoulder "Honey come on let's go to bed, and Leonard half asleep and with the flash-light once again made his way with his wife to the barn where he had to wake up and love his wife again but Leonard didn't mind, He did love her very much after all.
In the morning they had just had more of the same as they had before falling asleep the night before.
Penny then lay with her head on Leonard's chest and her leg over his legs, watching the dust particles floating in the shaft of sunlight shining through a knothole in the barn wall. Penny felt as if she could lay like this forever in fact if she was asked where would she like to be most?, it was here, in the happiest place of all with Leonard.
Just feeling his skin against hers was like a soothing balm to her and already she could feel her tenseness evaporating away, it's funny how Leonard always seems to know just what I need,
"The next time I run myself to a frazzle, trying to get the girls to school on time, I shall close my eyes and imagine I'm here", she thought.
.
Though sleeping in the barn was her Mother's idea and Penny had to concede it worked because it was such a happy place for her, that she could never fail to be buoyed up by the memories it conjured up and if she closed her eyes she could still see the look on Leonard's face as she walked down the aisle towards him.
Reluctantly she decided, it was about time for them to rise before they were disturbed by their Daughters and Penny certainly did not want them discovering Mom and Dad laying naked in the barn, no, that would never do.
Marcia, now confident in herself, that things would be OK from now on, decided that that would be the last night Penny and Leonard would need to sleep in the barn.
It was Marcia's Idea to have a hoe-down in the barn on the Saturday night for all the family.
Penny's Sister and husband and their two boys, and Penny's brother, his wife and their son and daughter, and also Pete and Janey Harrison, were also invited as well as a few other family members from the near vicinity, and Marcia had even invited some of Penny's old friends as well.
So for the rest of the week they were all busy getting the barn ready, Marcia hired a local band and Wyatt readied the barbecue and by the Saturday afternoon it was ready.
The guests began to arrive And Penny was busy greeting and hugging family members and a great big hug for Pete and Janey then she became puzzled as three old members of her cheer leading troupe had been invited too.
Sharon Baskin, Della Marshall and Sylvia Casey.
And after talking to them she had learned that Penny's Mother herself had invited them, Penny could not help being puzzled as to the reason why?, as as her then boyfriend Tony Jackson had cheated on her with Sharon a couple of years before she left for Pasadena (which had greatly hurt Penny at the time and was a large contributing factor to her being afraid to commit to Leonard).
While Sharon went to the toilet, Penny asked Della and Sylvia how things were going Della told her that shortly after Sharon had married Tony, he had got a job as a truck driver and sadly it was not long before he began having affairs with other women and Sharon divorced him. Though alas not before he had infected her with chlamydia which had left her infertile, Della too was now divorced and struggling to cope on her own with five children, "I guess guys just ain't interested if you've got that much baggage", she sighed.
Sylvia though happily married with two children struggled to cope on her husband's low pay as a farm laborer, "but we manage",she said. And Penny knew well that struggle, unable to count the number of times Leonard or Sheldon to her shame, had to bail her out with money or more often food in order for her to make ends meet.
At this point Sharon had returned.
"How are you doing?, we heard you had married now", Sharon asked Penny.
"yeah It's Great, I have three girls, though two are twins, (at this Sharon's eyes began to fill with tears and she quickly brushed them away, but not without Penny's notice) My Husband Leonard is head of physics at Cal-Tech university, while I, when I'm not presenting or appearing on a program on T.V., do interior design for celebrities, so things are really going great now" Sylvia asked which stars she had worked for or appeared with, and their mouths opened wider and wider the more Penny reeled off famous names. Finally with an "enjoy the party", to them Penny left them to get another drink and to find Leonard.
Later while Penny was talking to Janey and Beverley, Pete Harrison and Mike Jones were getting on like a house on fire, and were in animated conversation. Being an ex cop (Harrison), and an ex fireman for the London fire brigade (Jones) their conversation had drifted naturally to 'shouts'
mainly R.T.A's, (road traffic accidents). when Penny disliking hearing about all the gory details, began requesting them to change the subject, when Beverley stopped her and then motioning for Penny to come with her, Beverley began to explain.
"Let them talk Penny, you see we don't realize the stress these men come under through the awful sights they have to witness, and men in general are not good at talking about their feelings at the best of times, indeed I found out that Mike had had a really bad experience. As far as I can figure it out a school bus was sandwiched between two articulated lorries and somehow it had caught fire".
"Oh my God, did Mike tell you about that?", Penny asked, holding her hands to her face in horror.
"No Penny, that's just it, he didn't. He just called out one night when we were in bed, it was as though he was back at the scene and shouting orders to get the children out, then I saw him sit up and hold his hands over his ears and he was crying". "I have been trying to get him to tell me about it, but he refuses to tell me at the moment, and it is going to take me some time I think, before I am able to help him", Beverley revealed.
Penny could feel her eyes begin to fill with tears at the thought of her daughters being caught up in something like that, and the imagining hearing their screams as the flames crept nearer.
"My God , how do they cope", Penny said, appalled and quickly shutting the mental images out.
"That's just it Penny they don't really, that's why they need to talk it out even like they are doing now, it helps them", Beverley replied.
Leonard had just finished talking to Penny's sister Jan and her husband, he had been dying to know how things were going at the diner, now Pete and Janey had retired and Jan and her husband was now running it, and was the Lake house OK?, as Jan was keeping an eye on the cabin for them
and it was used often as Not only Kay and J.G., but Howard and Bernadette, Raj and Emily or Sheldon and Amy would often use it for a couple of weeks in the summer, also Leonard was using the chat as an excuse to avoid the line dancing that had started, he just could not get his head around when to do the turns. He was reminded of something Sheldon had told him once "if a cowboy had moved like that in the 1870's they would have shot him". Leonard looked over at Penny as she was following the steps with ease her movements in the dance so fluid she just took his breath away. Just then a woman that Leonard hadn't seen before introduced herself as Sharon, and that she was one of Penny's friends from their old cheer leading Troupe.
"Hello, pleased to meet you, I'm Leonard", Leonard told her shaking her hand in greeting.
"Hi, Penny tells me your head of Physics at a university then"?, Sharon asked him hoping that Penny was just making it up to look good.
"Yes that's right, I'm at Cal-Tech in Pasadena, actually it's quite exciting at the moment as we are involved in conjunction with Cambridge university on the study of...", Sharon didn't take anymore in as the conversation had suddenly gone way over her head and realized to her chagrin that Penny had been telling the truth, she had already seen Penny's beautiful daughters for herself, earlier that evening and was now cursing herself over and over in her mind that she had ever stolen Tony from Penny in the first place. For Sharon, this truth was just too hard to bear and she left for home soon afterwards.
Penny watched her leave, no longer feeling angry with Sharon but so relieved that She didn't end up being married to Tony or it could have been Penny instead, leaving a party alone and in a rather distressed state.
Later Penny caught up with her mother, "Mom, why did you invite Della, Sylvia and Sharon, I haven't seen them for years?", Penny asked.
"Well honey, when I went to the mall four days ago, I was looking through the coats on a rail when I heard those three talking and they were ridiculing and laughing at you because you had been dumped by Kurt and was now married to some nerd, so I was not going to put up with their ridicule. So I decided to invite them to the hoe down knowing they would be bound to ask you how you were doing and now Penny,I have a pretty good idea, I don't think they are laughing now".
"you mean they were laughing at me for marrying Leonard?, but he's the sweetest guy I know, that's awful of them".
"Yep I reckon they got the best lesson of all, out of the four of you, you Penny, married the best guy of all", Marcia told Penny giving her a strange look.
Penny came away from her mother with the strong feeling that her Mothers lesson wasn't only directed at the three girls.
Then it was time for the last dance of the evening and Penny as she danced with Leonard thought of the conversation with her mother, You married the best guy of all". she realized then at that moment with her head on Leonard's shoulder that her mother was also warning her not to throw her happiness away. Since that time years ago, that she felt that it was a boring type of love with Leonard and was missing the excitement. Penny often remembered it with trembling at how close she often came to throwing it away back then. A lesson that Penny was always very very careful to keep in mind.
Three weeks later, early one morning Penny suddenly sat up and throwing off the bedclothes rushed into the bathroom and putting her head over the bowl and began calling for her friends Ralph and Hughie (as Mike Jones would put it) hugging the toilet bowl for dear life and feeling grateful to Leonard that he had put bleach cleaner down earlier, then after thoroughly rinsing with mouthwash to remove the awful taste of bile, she ran back into the bedroom and laughingly jumped on her beloved Husband, with her eyes shining with happiness, she proceeded to hug and kiss him and all of this while laughing at the same time. (Penny had a strong inkling that she might be pregnant, but refused to use a pregnancy testing kit as she knew she would be unable to bear to see a negative result.)
Penny's pregnancy was confirmed and continued along expected lines.
As She had had regular exercise with yoga workouts, she was as fit as a woman her age could be and had passed all the tests concerned for a pregnant woman her age, finally the time came to find out the sex of the baby, and Penny an old hand by now tensed herself up ready for the familiar cold gel on her bump.
"Yes that's good, good strong heartbeat Mrs Hofstadter you only have one baby this time, Penny breathed a sigh of relief at this revelation.
Now there's the legs and..., congratulations you're expecting a little boy. Penny turned excitedly to Leonard grasping his hand "look Honey, it's Wyatt Leonard Hofstadter. Leonard wiped a tear as he looked at his son "welcome to the family my son", he said simply, then turning to Penny said, "I love you so very much", before kissing her soundly.
Leonard did not object to Penny naming their baby Wyatt as he liked Penny's father a lot, but he had objected to her naming their baby Leonard, as Leonard did not like his name, but Penny told him "Honey please understand, that's the name of the love of my life and our son is the product of that love, so you see that I want that reflected in his name".
Later Penny heard from Kay that she was expecting a girl and she had agreed with J.G. to name her Chloe. Penny loved the name and almost began to wish that she had given that name to one of the twins.
In all her pregnancies Penny had cravings for different foods in each but had the same craving for Leonard's scent in all, so once again Leonard's tops were often to be seen being held by her, against her nose and Leonard knew better than to laugh at her and was very careful not to say anything when she wanted his shirt.
Though it was very hard not to when on one occasion, when Penny was trying to design her little boy's nursery on her computer with one hand and holding Leonard's t shirt up to her nose with the other. Leonard had to rush for the bathroom and shut the door quickly lest Penny heard him giggling.
The girls were thrilled to learn that Mom was expecting a baby brother, especially Honey Marie who had been fretting on having to share her room with a baby sister. (although they had another room free, Penny had told her that the twins would create if they had to share and Honey Marie didn't).
And all the girls were excited when Penny included them in buying things for their new brother.
Though Penny had to be a little firm as the girls seemed intent on buying every teddy bear in the shop.
When Penny was midway through her second trimester the Family went to stay at Lake McConaughy. For Penny surreptitiously glanced at Leonard a secret smile on her face as they drove up in the rented Winnebago after several stops on the way at which Leonard had severely tried Penny's patience by again complaining at length at the lack of science magazines every time they stopped, especially when Penny would come out with an armful of her magazines.
Finally Leonard pulled up outside the diner and was stunned to see it had been transformed, dark wood paneling had been fitted around the walls to dado height and there were art prints of the different species of fish that lived in the lake and instead of chairs there were now the high backed wooden settles either side of the tables. (Penny had got the idea of the settles from the pie and mash shop in London), with tiling on the front of the marble topped counter the diner looked astounding.
"Wow this place looks amazing", Leonard said looking round in all directions.
"Penny designed it, It's so clever of her isn't it Leonard", Penny's sister Jan informed him.
"It's brilliant", Leonard agreed deeply impressed, receiving the broadest smile from Penny in return.
Then the family made their way to the cabin and Leonard, having been told by Penny to keep his eyes tightly shut and led by her hand, they entered the cabin. "OK Honey you may open your eyes now".
the cabin too had now been transformed, again all designed by Penny and it too was absolutely beautiful.
"I had Sandra and Kelly stay up here and do the work then I gave them three weeks to holiday with their families up here afterwards", Penny explained to Leonard. Leonard smiled took her in his arms and said simply, "thank you Honey, It's wonderful", then he kissed her soundly.
One evening Penny sat her magazine on her lap and looked across at her daughters playing a game on the floor, then she looked down and cradled her growing bump and smiling down at the young Wyatt Inside her, before looking across at Leonard who was reading some reports which had been E-mailed to him by Sarah his secretary from Cal-Tech, at which Leonard, sensing her gaze upon him, and asked her if she was OK?, "I'm fine Honey, absolutely fine", she said smiling at him her green eyes filled with love towards him.
