'Remind me again why I can't let everyone know of my genius and winning of the Nobel Prize?' Sheldon asked as they climbed the stairs to Leonard and Priya's apartment.

'Because Leonard, Raj and Priya are still grieving over Naiya and it would be wrong to break your good news so soon after their loss. Just leave it a week or two.' Penny sighed.

'A week or two?! I'm gonna be featured on the news in two days!' Sheldon cried. Penny shot him a look and he gave in, 'Fine, but I get to brag about it at home and if they find out on the news and ask me about it, I can brag.' Sheldon said and Penny sighed and agreed. When they arrived, Penny knocked on the door. A few seconds later, it was opened by Leonard who looked surprised to see them.

'Oh hi… what are you guys doing here?' he asked.

'We came to see how you are,' Penny smiled.

'That's kind, I suppose you'd best come in.' Leonard said, inviting them in. Penny and Sheldon walked in and saw Priya standing up a framed picture of herself and Naiya that Leonard had taken.

'Hi Priya,' Penny smiled, 'How are you?' Priya turned to look at Penny before shrugging and looking back at the picture, stroking it softly. Penny looked at Leonard with a look of confusion and he sighed.

'She's hardly spoken to me at all these past three days; maybe you'll have better luck Penny. Annie referred us to a counsellor that specialises in this sort of thing and I'm hoping that soon Priya will start to improve,' Leonard said, rubbing his temples, 'Thea, our counsellor, she suggested that we start planning a funeral to bring closure. Apparently there are four stages for us to go through: accepting that our loss of Naiya is real, experiencing the pain of grief, adjusting to life without Naiya and finally putting less emotional energy into grieving and putting it into something new. In other words: moving on. We've barely even reached stage one yet… I'm trying to stay strong but I won't deny that I've had my fair share of cries,' Leonard sighed and although Sheldon felt sorry for them, he couldn't help but feel this would severely setback his ability to reveal his winning of the Nobel Prize.

Penny nodded and gave Leonard a small hug before making her way over to Priya and sitting beside her. She put an arm gently around Priya and watched as a single crystal clear tear rolled down her cheek.

'I feel so numb Penny, I don't think I'll ever love again.' Priya whispered.

'Of course you will Priya, you mustn't blame yourself for this at all. Sometimes these things happen and there's nothing we can do to stop it.'

'But there should have been. They should've been able to prolong my labour for another few weeks. At least then Naiya would have had a better chance of survival! I feel so guilty, I caused her death! Because my weak body decided that it no longer wanted to carry my baby. I'm such a bad person' Priya spat before bursting into tears again. Penny rocked her friend gently.

'Priya, you are not to blame. You are not a bad person in the slightest and I think you'll make a great mother again when the time is right. The doctors did everything they could for Naiya but unfortunately it just couldn't help her.'

'If I'm not a bad person or I'm not to blame, then why do I feel so guilty?'

'It's perfectly normal to feel this way; you're the easiest person to blame at the moment but soon you'll realise that that isn't the case. What you need to focus on is looking after yourself. You need to talk to someone like Thea or even Annie. You have to talk to Leonard too because he's going through the exact same thing as you are, so in essence he'll be the easiest person to talk to. You can always talk to me as well.' Penny said softly.

'Thea says we should plan a funeral for Naiya but I don't think I can do it. Laying her to rest when she didn't really ever live a day of her life.'

'Priya, she lived for three weeks. Most 22 week old babies don't live for more than a couple of hours. Naiya was a fighter, she stuck on in there because she was your daughter.'

'Well she didn't fight hard enough.' Priya sniffed.

'The important thing is to do what you feel comfortable with. Perhaps you could create a memory book for Naiya. Like, you could put in that picture of you and her in it, all the scans you had and any other mementos like her shawl, or the baby hat she was wearing. It could help you and Leonard to remember that Naiya was more than just a premature baby that you lost. It will enforce the fact that she was a real person and it will, in time, help you come to terms with the loss of it.' Penny said softly. Priya nodded and wiped away her tears.

'You're right. You know, I've been seeing to Thea for three days now nearly non-stop and she has not given me one bit of advice that was nearly as close to helping me as you have done in the past 5 minutes.' Priya sighed, 'I like this idea of a memory book. Although, I don't have many photos of her, as far as I'm aware, we just have the one.'

'Well I took some photos, if that helps.' Sheldon interceded and Penny smiled at him, mouthing "you're a star" at him.

'Let me see!' Priya cried, snatching Sheldon's phone and opening up the pictures app. Scrolling through all the cat Memes and physics quotes, she finally found what she was looking for, 'Oh she's so beautiful. We look like a family… I must have these photos… make sure you send them to me Sheldon.'

'I'll make sure he does and Priya, you mustn't blame yourself at all.'

'I'll try not to.' Priya said softly and Penny smiled. She and Sheldon stayed for another hour or so before deciding to head off. The moment the door shut, Priya walked over to Leonard and hugged him. 'Thank you for being my rock Leonard, I don't know what I'd do without you.'

'It's alright, we're in this together and we will pull through. I promise I will never run off and leave you again. I've learnt my lesson and I promise I will look after you. We can have more kids Priya, I promise.'

Sheldon and Penny opened the front door to their apartment to the wonderful smell of Mary Cooper's cooking.

'Wow, something smell's delicious!' Penny gasped and Mary smiled at her.

'That's because I'm treating y'all to my famous cobbler, it was one of Shelly's favourite dishes as a child.'

'Well, I look forward to tasting it.' Penny laughed, hanging her coat up.

'Mom, you really don't need to cook for me. I'm 34 years old, I can cook myself!' Sheldon cried and Mary gave a snort of derision. Penny could see where Sheldon had gotten that from.

'Nonsense Shelly, ever since you were little you've never been able to cook a decent meal, God didn't give you that gift.'

'No he gave me the gift of genius instead.' Sheldon huffed, 'If he wanted me to know how to cook properly, he should have come down and shown me himself, or bestow upon me the power of cooking,' he added sardonically

'Shelly, there is a saying: "God can't be everywhere at once, which is why he invented mothers". God placed me on this earth to feed you nutritious meals, so don't question the Lord Almighty. He is the reason why mothers can cook good wholesome food for their children.'

'Ridiculous, Penny could be a mother one day and she can't cook at all!'

'Gee thanks,' Penny said sarcastically.

'You're welcome.' Sheldon smiled and she rolled her eyes as her phone began to buzz, 'Hello? Oh, hey Steve, what's up?' She laughed. Sheldon observed her face as the smile turned into a frown and she quickly left the room. About 10 minutes later, she re-entered.

'Are you alright babygirl?' Mary asked and Penny found it difficult to find the right words to say.

'That was Steve, the director of my show… They're moving the production to New York in a month and a bit because it's been so successful here… and they're asking me to move with them.'

'Well, you can't go.' Sheldon laughed before walking into the kitchen and both Mary and Penny looked at him incredulously, 'What?'

'Sheldon, this is my life. I can't not go!'

'But… what about me? What about us? The relationship agreement states that we must have a fully functional relationship, how can we have that if we are over 2000 miles away from each other?' Sheldon said, starting to realise the severity of the situation, 'You can't go.'

'Well, you could always come with me.' Penny said softly and Sheldon shook his head.

'I can't…I've been offered a promotion and a raise and I've accepted it. I can't just leave; this is where my life is. Everything I know is here, everything I love is here: the comic book store, my friends, my apartment, my spot on the couch, you… even Wolowitz! We'd have to have a long distance relationship.'

Penny sat down and rested her chin against her hands. She knew that Long Distance Relationship's hardly ever worked out and she wanted to have a life with Sheldon but on the other hand, to give up everything she had worked towards… it was difficult, 'We obviously need to have a serious chat about this Sheldon, because it's both our careers on the line and also our relationship.' Mary decided that she was probably intruding on a very personal conversation so she stuck the meal in the oven to keep warm and excused herself to the bedroom, 'So let's just say I move to New York and you stay here and we each commit to flying back and forth to visit each other as much as possible.'

'It's doable, but I prefer the use of trains.'

'Ok, I'll fly and you take a train. But then let's say 3 months down the line we like hit a wall. Like, I can't be away from performing on stage or you can't be constantly interrupting your research. Then we start to feel the tension and we start to realise that our relationship just cannot function over long distance so then we just argue all the time because we don't know how to get out of this endless cycle that we've entered. And then after a long and serious heartfelt phone call… we say goodbye and our relationship would finish. That would be it, for real. We'd never bump into each other because we'd be in different states, I mean we might see each other on TV or in the news but we wouldn't be together. We'd just end up being totally miserable.'

'Penny…'

'Or maybe we should just realise that what we've had together has been amazing and if I do go to New York in a month, we should just accept that our relationship has been the best that both of us have ever been in, that we wouldn't change it for the world and part on amicable terms.'

'Penny, sometimes you are the most depressing girl I've ever met.' Sheldon said and he stroked her face softly, tucking her hair behind her ear, 'We are not going to terminate our relationship because of this, we will find a way. As the wildings say in Game of Thrones: You are mine and I am yours.'

'Now how am I supposed to go to New York when you say things like that?' Penny laughed, resting her forehead against his.

'If it really means that much to you… you should go… and should you ever get tired of New York, I'll be back here, waiting for you.' He said softly.

'And you're sure you won't come with me?'

'If I could I would, but I can't so I shan't,' Sheldon smirked and Penny thwacked his arm.

'You're impossible Sheldon, truly you are.'

'You know Penny; technically I can't be impossible because I exist. What you meant to say is "You're improbably Sheldon, you truly are".' He added and Penny thwacked him again, only a little harder this time, 'Oww!'

'Oh don't be such a baby.' She laughed before going to get Mary's cobbler out of the over, 'Mrs Cooper, you can come back in now.' She called and a couple of minutes later, Mary was back in the room.

'Did you two lovebirds sort everything out?' she asked and Sheldon nodded, 'Good, now who want's some dinner?'

Thans for all your reviews so far, can't believe we're near 300! You guys make my day! I hope you enjoyed the chapter, so let me know what you think xx