Her head bounded from the pillow. She stared at the wall in front of her. She was covered in perspiration. Her chest hurt, she gasped for air. The room was dark. She cried as she reached for the table lamp to illuminate the darkness and bring order to her confused head.

Where am I? Penny thought

"Oh God!" She cried.

She tried to collect her thoughts for a moment. Leonard was dead? Leonard? Dead? Her Leonard? Dead? It couldn't be!

She suddenly looked down at the bed at the vacated pillow and empty space next to her.

"LEONARD!!" She screamed.

"Penny! Penny!" Leonard's voice came from the other side of the door. She hurriedly crawled over the bed and stood up just as he came through the door. She jumped and clutched him around his neck.

"Oh, dear God! You're alive!!" she squeezed him tighter.

"Of course I'm alive! Why wouldn't I be? Are you okay?" he asked incredulously.

"No I'm not! I dreamt that you died!" She cried.

"Well, I'm not dead yet!" Leonard shot back.

"Oh! Sweetie, you're alive! You're here with me!"

Leonard knew he needed to calm her down from the nightmare she had just awoken from.

"Its okay, my love, I'm safe. We're together. Calm down. It was only a bad dream. Here, let's sit down."

"Oh, crap!" Penny exclaimed as she climbed off of Leonard and sat down back onto the bed. He sat down beside her.

"Its okay, it was just a bad dream!" he hugged her and stroked her hair. She smelled so good, even in the middle of the night and covered in perspiration. How good it was to hold his love and take her all in. It felt as though the energy of the universe was injected into his being whenever he hugged Penny.

"It was a damn nightmare!" she said. She wiped away the tears with some tissue Leonard handed her from the Kleenex box on the nightstand.

"Do you want to talk about it?" he asked.

"No, not now, maybe later" she replied. She embraced him once again and wouldn't let go of him. Penny wanted to make sure that he was with her in her arms, absolutely and positively and that no bad dream would come between them.

As she brought one hand over her eyes she asked, "Where were you?" she let go and looked at him face to face with a concerned look.

"I was putting our baby to sleep!" Leonard exclaimed.

"Baby?" Penny asked amazed. Just a minute ago, Penny's universe was without Leonard, now it had them as parents?

"Yes, my dear, our new baby we brought home from the hospital yesterday." He explained while looking at her hoping she could ground herself back to reality and wrap her head around the fact that they were a new mother and father.

"You've been asleep for almost a day since we got back home!" Leonard stated to help get her jump started.

"Oh my God, we're parents?!" she exclaimed. "That's right!" Suddenly, Penny realized that just over 2 days before she was in labor and Leonard had been beside her, coaching and guiding her through one of the most difficult yet joyful part of life; bringing a new human life into the world.

"You want to see our new angel?" Leonard asked. He beamed with pride and love for both his bride and child that only a few short years ago would have seemed impossible if not for the incredible transformation he had undergone with Penny.

"Sure!" Penny exclaimed. Her recent distress now turned to sweet relief, joy and excitement that Leonard was indeed alright and the incredible rush of realizing she was a mother.

"Our baby!" she gushed with pride. She smiled and Leonard's heart was content in the fact that she was his and he, hers.

"Our baby! Beautiful and smart!" Leonard repeated the words he had told Sheldon on the day he first met Penny.

"Sweetie, I love you" he kissed her and hugged her.

"I love you too my love" she hugged him back. God, it feels good to hold you!

"Let's go see our baby boy!" Leonard stated.

With that, Leonard helped her up and led Penny into the baby's room to gaze upon the new life their love had created.

END