I'm sitting here on my upstairs deck tonight with a whiskey, cigar and the most gorgeous stars in the night sky. Last of the snow is gone, swept away by the sunshine today. I Love Oregon. It's supposed to snow on Tuesday, brief Love affair. Consider this the disclaimer, thinking of you.

Discourse, thinking without over thinking

Penny fed the dogs while Leonard took his stuff to the bedroom. He went down the right hand hallway and dropped it off. The hallway ran parallel to the great room. There was another bathroom whose door pointed out to the hallway to great room. In front of him was another door. He walked forward and opened it to have a look. It was the guest room. It was as big as Penny's bedroom but had no attached bath. There was queen sized bed and matching dresser and night stands all white. The bed had a pink comforter and white sheets. The walls had publicity stills from her TV show. He moved closer and started looking at them.

Penny walked in. "Who's snooping now" she asked smiling.

He smiled back, "Well I've only seen your bedroom and the great room so far."

"and the shower", Penny pointed out raising an eyebrow.

"It's a lovely room, with a beautiful woman gracing its walls"

Penny looked down, "I'd rather it had pictures of ponies and unicorns on the wall"

Leonard smiled, "It will soon enough, it's big enough for a desk and a play area as well."

She raised her head with what Leonard knew was her best smile, the one that was in none of the pictures. "Show me the rest of the house".

Penny led him back to the great room and across to other hallway. It was identical except for instead of a bathroom there was a small room with a dog door set in the wall. She turned right toward the pool. There was a room the same size as her bedroom. It contained nothing but clothing racks and stainless steel wire shelves. The clothing racks held hundreds of hangers, from tops to gowns. The shelves where stacked high with pants and tops. There was a doorway to the left.

"This is my wardrobe. Seriously 60% of this is from the show and any movies I've been in."

She walked to the doorway on the left. Leonard followed it was a room about the same size, filled with shoes.

"I wish I could say this all is 60% also but I'd be lying." Leonard started chuckling as Penny blushed. Both rooms had skylights. The wardrobe had glass doors leading onto the patio by the pool just as her bedroom did. He followed her to the room on the opposite end of the hall. It was her exercise room. It had a treadmill, a small weight machine, stationary bike and a flat screen TV on the wall. Mirrors lined the wall by the door. A window looked out on the dog run.

Leonard stood close to Penny. He ran his hand down her back and squeezed her bottom. "I see you spend a lot of time here." Penny actually giggled, and turned into him for a kiss.

"I'm glad to know you appreciate it."

She led him back to the kitchen and showed him a pantry and half bath there.

"You've seen it all, what would you like to do now?"

"Let's just relax. What would you do today?"

Penny thought it over. "I really should start going through the pile scripts on my desk. Then tweet out some things to my fans. They are going to want to know more about you. Then maybe watch TV or let the dogs swim."

"That sounds great. I'll grab my laptop and catch up on my reading by the fireplace. Then we can have something light for lunch."

They both headed out in opposite directions. Penny went to her desk and grabbed the stack of scripts and moved them to the couch by the fireplace. Kicked off her shoes and cuddled up on the couch. Leonard disappeared down the hallway returning with his laptop and joined her on the couch.

"Would you like a cup of tea?" Leonard asked.

"That sounds nice, the cabinet to the right of the sink"

Leonard started for the kitchen, and heard. "Hey you," he turned to see the cat in Penny's lap she was stroking his head. Leonard smiled and made the tea.

They sat together on the couch her on the middle right, the scripts beside her on the right. Leonard was on the left, laptop on his lap leaning back in the couch. Penny had turned on the fireplace and Christmas tree lights. They both read in silence, Leonard occasionally reaching over and caressing her thigh, She squeezing his hand and holding it until she needed to turn a page.

They both had the same thought "comfortable".

Penny had gone through half the scripts. Leonard was engrossed in a the Particle Physics journal. Both dogs were sleeping before the fireplace. Schrodinger was sleeping on the top of the back of the couch.

"Leonard can I ask you something?"

Leonard closed his laptop and put it on the table. He turned toward Penny and took her hand. She looked pensive, a touch depressed even. "What's wrong?"

"Leonard, am I getting old, are my looks fading?"

He looked at Penny closely. She was older, but she looked as good to him as the first time he saw her. He thought about what she wanted to hear. Then the voice was there, overthinking.

"No Penny, you look like the first day I saw you but even better. You now have a grace and wisdom on your face. You more confident and it shows. What brought this on, the scripts?"

She was starting to look like she wanted to cry. "Yes. The scripts I get now are for characters like I've never played before. They are more matronly or professional. The parts they want me to play are not the sexy, funny woman I've always liked playing."

Leonard looked confused, "So you saying you don't want to grow as an actor into other roles. Penny you're very talented, you could pull any role off. Have you considered theater? Maybe you're just nervous about moving on?"

Leonard regretted instantly what he just said, he was pushing.

"Penny forget that, I pushed you in your career once before. I was wrong then and it cost me everything. What is it you're looking for? Is it time to pack acting in like I did experimental physics?"

Penny was crying now, shaking her head. "No Leonard, you were being supportive then as now. You wanted me to succeed. We paid a terrible price for my success. But I do have my success."

Leonard took her hands. "Penny maybe you're looking at these scripts wrong. When I was designing experiments I would get stuck on a small detail or procedure. It was always a mistake. I needed to look at the whole experiment, at what we were trying to find out. So instead of the part you're going to play look for the best script. Which ones have the best story, the potential for the characters and the plot?"

She looked at Leonard like she'd had an epiphany he thought. Maybe I said the right thing. I think it's the right way to go.

Penny moved toward him and embraced him. She kissed his face and neck. "Your right Leonard, I need to find a story I believe in. A story where the part I play is meaningful. If the project is good I can push for changes in my characters. Actual production scripts change every hour sometimes, I need to think bigger. You are my genius fiancé and soon my genius husband."

Leonard blushed. They shared a long and passionate kiss.

Penny pulled back. "Let's get some lunch then let the dogs swim." She rose and started for the kitchen

Leonard nodded and started to follow Penny to the kitchen. He smiled to himself she still thinks I'm a genius.

Worldwide Communications

They made sandwiches for lunch, Egg Salad, on thick fresh sourdough from Penny's favorite bakery. Patty showed up as they finished with a small stack of mail for Penny.

Penny had Patty take two pictures of her and Leonard. One was in front of the tree the other on the sofa with her kissing his cheek. Penny then handed Patty a todo list and she left. Leonard noticed she never smiled at him the whole time.

"I don't think Patty likes me?"

Penny thought about it, "It's because she fears you Leonard. You are change and Patty hates change. If I do something spontaneous, say like go find my old boyfriend, she figures any fallout will make me upset. If I'm upset she has a real bad day. So you are a force for change and she's afraid of you."

"I just thought she was a bitch." Leonard quipped.

"Well then there's that", Penny chuckled

They let the dogs out into the pool and sat at the outside table. Penny was busy with her phone.

"Whatcha doing?" Leonard ask imitating one of her favorite phrases.

She frowned at him, "taking my lines now are you? I'm tweeting the pictures out to the world."

"How many followers do you have?"

She smiled sweetly, "Last time I checked about 750,000"

Leonard felt his mouth open, "Wow, I was happy when I got 40 once", being his only response.

Penny chuckled. "It pays to be popular in this business. Want to know what I wrote?"

She handed him her phone. Her twitter page app was up. The first tweet said, "My fiancé and me in front of the tree, isn't he handsome." Leonard pulled up the next with the picture of them on the couch. "Snuggling with my Honey."

Leonard chuckled and handed the phone back. Speaking of tweets and such I should check my email. Leonard walked into the house and returned with his laptop. He typed away for a few seconds and smiled. He moved next to Penny.

I got and email from Horst.

The subject line said. "I hear my son in law is engaged to a movie star"

He went on in the body of the email:

I'm happy you have found each other again. Liisa said you might. Congratulations' from Lena and I. We thought you would like to tell Lisel yourself. Love you my boy.

Horst and Lena

There were pictures attached. Two photos of Lisel playing in the snow. She was bundled up building a snow man. It was small but very cute. A third photo was of her sleeping on the couch.

Leonard was tearing up. Penny grabbed his hand and held it very gently, her thumb caressing the back of his hand.

"I can't wait for you to meet her Penny, she will love you.

"I know she will Leonard, I already love her because she's yours, I may have to steal her away from you. But I guess we can share her."

Penny leaned over and kissed his cheek. The dogs were out of the pool shaking off the water. Penny was laughing at them.

Leonard looked up, stared at the picture for several more seconds.

He wrote a quick reply to Horst.

The wedding will be in Paris February 1st. We'd like you both to come. Give my love to Lena and kiss and hold my little Lisel.

Love you all

Leonard and Penny

Penny looked over and shook her head and he hit send.

The next email was from Howard. Subject: "So when will the big day be?" with no body.

Leonard hit reply, "February 1st in Paris, your invited my treat. Make sure you and Bernie can make it. Amy and Sheldon will be there."

He hit send and went to the next message. He looked at Penny. "You were right Sam Larson would like a follow up interview.

Penny had a slightly wicked smile, "I thought she might. How's Monday afternoon for you/?"

Leonard pulled up his calendar, it was clear, nothing to really do until the 6th. "Looks Fine"

"Tell her sure, your apartment say 3:00PM, don't let her know I'll be there"

"You're coming?"

Penny had that wolfish smile again, "Oh I wouldn't miss it. We'll need to work out some signals about what to not talk about. Don't worry honey. We need to teach you some PR skills."

Leonard looked slightly confused. Penny went on, "Remember we need to control the message, no lying but boundaries. Lisel for example is off the table."

"Okay", he said happily, her face had gone from a wolfish grin to a soft sexy smile. He knew what that smile meant.

"Ever make love in a pool?" Leonard shook his head no. Penny pulled her top off over her head and looked over at Leonard. She reached over to push his chin up so he was looking in her face again. "Let's get in the pool", Penny said in a very sexy voice,

Leonard started standing when an email from Bernadette came in.

The subject line said, "We'll be in Paris or Howard will be dead."

Leonard started taking off his shirt. "Howard and Bernadette will be there"

He looked over to see a nude lovely 37 year old blonde with a beautiful bottom slowly walking into the pool. He fell over trying to take his pants off. "Oh yeah shoes first"

Glad to see you're all out there. I've been trying to do a chapter a day on this piece. So far so good I tend to get ahead in the evening and clean up and finish in the morning.

If you want to follow how it's being written, or ask question follow it on twitter ElipitcalThread.

I can put pictures up there, and let you know when the next chapter is out or if I'm editing or changing a Chapter.

Thanks again for reviews, love all your ideas.

T