Chapter 12

A couple of days after William's graduation, the family just had dinner and was sitting in the living room, watching some TV. Sarah was leaning onto her mother while William was sitting on the chair, scrolling on his phone when Leonard came down from their upstairs bedroom, carrying a big box. He set the box on the floor while Penny, William and Sarah looks on, curious as to what was in the box.

"Dad what's with the box?" asked Sarah.

Leonard took a deep breath and wiped the sweat off his face with a small towel. "These are all my earthly treasures so to speak and I think it is time that my children inherit these." He said as he opened the box while the three looked inside.

Penny looked at him with a slight amusement. "Honey, these are just your 'nerd stuff'! Do you really consider this as your 'earthly treasures'?" she said sarcastically while doing a quotation marks with her fingers.

William took out one item and was surprised. "No way! An X-Men comic book signed by Stan Lee?" he exclaimed. "This must cost like a couple thousand bucks now!" he said as Sarah immediately jumped and rummaged through the box. "Wow, would you look at that. The prospect of money really gets you going huh?" William said to Sarah to the amusement of their parents.

"I'm just curious what dad's nerd collection is like!" said Sarah. "Dad are you gonna sell all this stuff?" she asked as she pulled out a Luke Skywalker action figure.

"No. I'm going to divide these between the two of you." Said Leonard to the surprise of the three. "These will be your inheritance from me." He added.

"Really?" Sarah asked as pulled out another collectible. "Can I have this one?" she asked pulling out couple of comic books.

"I already made a list of who gets what based on their value so you two will have an equal share." Leonard said.

"Wait, are you doing this just in case you get another heart attack?" asked Penny as William and Sarah looks at their father.

"No. Of course not." He said reassuring his family. "I'm doing this because our children are all grown-ups now, well almost." He said as he looked at Sarah. "I wanted them to have something that is important to me." He added.

Penny moved beside her husband and hugged him tight. "That is so sweet." she said kissing Leonard's cheek.

"Okay, that's it for the 'inappropriate public display of affection in front of your children' portion of the day!" said William while giving Sarah a high five before returning their attention to the box.

"Wow, a mint-in-box Star Trek Transporter! Can I have this one?" asked William.

Leonard took the Transporter from William and looked at it. "This one stays with me." said Leonard.

"Why?" asked William.

"Because your mom gave this to me." Said Leonard as Penny leaned on his shoulder.

"Yeah, I remember I gave Sheldon the same toy but he broke his and tried to switch it with Leonard's but then he felt guilty and had weird nightmares." Said Penny, laughing a little.

"You gave this to dad?" Sarah asked looking at the Transporter.

"Yeah. I mean, he was my boyfriend back then and I figured why not?" she said while smiling at her husband.

"You're not gonna give this to either of us?" asked William.

"No. And when I die, I want you guys to put this in the casket with me." he said as his wife and kids were surprised with what he said.

"Honey, why are you telling this to us?" asked Penny.

Leonard took a deep breath and looked at his family. "Okay, I don't want to scare you but I want you guys to be ready. I mean, I don't want to get another heart attack but if it does happen, I want all my affairs in order." said Leonard as William looked at his father while Sarah began crying. Penny pulled her daughter and hugged her tight to calm her down.

"Why do you have to say something like that?" Penny yelled at Leonard as she tries to console her daughter who wouldn't stop crying. "Don't cry sweetheart, it's gonna be alright." she said to Sarah. "You're really a jackass you know that!?" she yelled at her husband.

"I'm sorry, but it made me realize that I'm not getting any younger and I want our children to be ready." He said as he pulled his daughter to his side to hug her. "Don't cry honey. I'm not gonna die yet." he said as he reassured his daughter as Sarah leaned onto his father, hugging him tight.

"I don't want your stuff anymore daddy." she said as she wiped her tears.

"Don't be sad honey." said Leonard while kissing her cheek.

"Mom?" asked Sarah.

"Yes sweetheart."

"What did dad give to you when you were still dating?" asked Sarah.

Penny smiled. "Your dad gave me a snowflake from the North Pole." she said.

"You went to the North Pole?" William asked his father.

"Yeah, I went there with Sheldon, Howard and Raj for three months." he said. "But your mom wasn't my girlfriend yet when we left." said Leonard.

"What did you do in the North Pole?" asked William.

"We looked for Magnetic Monopoles but we didn't find any." said Leonard.

"Really?" William asked.

"Yeah. We wanted to leave Sheldon behind but I didn't want to upset his mother so we decided to bring him back with us." said Leonard, laughing a little.

"Do you still have it mom? Can we see it?" Sarah asked Penny.

"Yeah sure." she said as she went upstairs to their bedroom. After a few minutes, Penny came back and sat down beside her daughter, giving her a small cloth pouch. Sarah reached inside and took out the acrylic slide, looking at it against the light.

"Wow! That is so cool!" Sarah said as she examined the preserved snowflake under the light.

"As soon as I gave that to your mom, she jumped and kissed me on the lips." Leonard proudly said.

Penny glared at him. "That's not what happened." she yelled.

Leonard laughed a little. "Of course it did." He said then looked at his children. "Your mom fell hopelessly in love with me that day." he said smiling at Penny who was just staring squarely at him.

"Is that true mom?" asked Sarah.

Penny sighed and looked at her daughter. "Fine. I fell in love with your father and couldn't live without him." she said in a monotonic voice, mocking her husband.

"See that!?" Leonard said as William and Sarah gave him a high five.

"You do realize that you're in a lot of trouble now don't you?" Penny asked Leonard.

"I know." he said while smiling at his wife.

"Then why are you smiling?" Penny asked.

"Come on honey, can't you take a joke?" he asked while touching her hand.

"Fine, I'll give you this round but you have to make it up to me! You got that!?" said Penny.

"Sure honey!" he said. "Why don't we go out to dinner? Just you and me." he asked.

"Really?" Penny said.

"Of course. We'll dress up and go to a nice restaurant." He said.

Penny became excited. "Okay, let's go to dinner." she said smiling at her husband.

"Wow mom, the prospect of a date with dad really gets you going huh?" Sarah said, teasing her mother.

Penny didn't react and just leaned on Leonard's shoulder. "Ignore her honey, she's just jealous because all that Jason has given her was some flowers and a bag of M&Ms!" said Penny teasing her daughter.

"Yeah. I'm really happy at how things worked out for us honey. I'm married to the woman I love, we have our own house, we have a smart and handsome son, we have Marty and then we have Sarah." said Leonard with Penny and William laughing a little.

Sarah bowed her head and began to cry, hurt by her family making fun of her.

"Aww, come on honey, don't cry! Come here." said Leonard while consoling his daughter. "We're just making fun of you." he added.

Penny hugged her daughter and kissed her cheek. "Don't cry sweetheart. You're our princess and we love you and your brother all the same." she said.

"Then why do always gang up on me?" Sarah asked her mother.

"Because it's fun watching you get angry and steamed." said Leonard while touching Sarah's cheeks.

"It may be fun for you but not for me!" said Sarah while wiping her tears.

"Come on honey, you know perfectly well that we don't mean it." Leonard said. "What about all the shenanigans you did when you were younger huh? Do you think that was fun for us when we have to get you out of trouble every time?" he asked as Sarah didn't respond to her father. "And you must admit, most times your sassiness takes over that big brain of yours." he added making Penny and William laugh.

"Yeah, remember when she disabled the school's camera so that she won't be recognized sneaking around when she was late for that test?" Penny said.

"Yeah, that was some real Jason Bourne — Mission Impossible stuff huh!?" said William, laughing a little.

"You're right, it reminds me of something your uncle Sheldon might do to get himself out of trouble." said Leonard making Penny laugh. "Did you know that your uncle Sheldon pulled a prank on Barry Kripke in the university by putting large amounts of foam in his lab, remotely controlled by motion sensors." said Leonard.

Sarah looked at her father. "Really? What happened after that?" she asked.

"Well, it worked perfectly while the university president and board of directors were there." he said.

Sarah laughed and was delighted with her father's story. "That is so cool!" she said.

"No it's not because as soon as the prank was done, Sheldon automatically uploaded a video on YouTube explaining his revenge and telling everyone that me and your uncle Raj encouraged him to do it against Kripke." he said. "I'm telling you, that was not fun when we almost lost our jobs because Sheldon forgot to put a fail-safe into his design." he added while his family laughed with him.

"Uncle Sheldon really has a thing for Prof. Kripke huh?" William said.

"Yeah. Sheldon doesn't want to admit it but Kripke can be brilliant when he wants to." said Leonard.

"You're right but his sleaziness often takes over." said Penny. "Did you know that he once asked Amy out on a date?" she said.

"Prof. Kripke asked aunt Amy out?" Sarah asked.

"He did. Sheldon and Amy broke up for a while. Then Stuart asked her out which she turned down. Barry asked her out which Amy turned down too. Then Amy dated this tall British guy, Dave before Sheldon got her back." said Penny. "William was maybe two years old when that happened." she added.

"What did uncle Sheldon do to get aunt Amy back?" Sarah asked.

"He came up with this crazy song-to-Amy analogy and went to her place while Dave was with her, having dinner." said Leonard.

"Wow, aunt Amy must have really loved uncle Sheldon for her to leave that guy and get back together with uncle Sheldon huh?" Sarah said.

"Maybe because Sheldon is the last of his species and Amy felt a little bad for him." said Leonard making his family laugh out loud.

Leonard and Penny continued telling stories to their children about their adventures with their aunts and uncles, usually making them laugh at how stupid their parents, aunts and uncles were when they were younger. Leonard continued with dividing his collection between William and Sarah. Although the thought of losing his father was disturbing to both kids and Penny, Leonard assured them that this is the right thing to do and that his love for them would always be there, no matter what.