The Smart and Beautiful Baby Journey

Chapter Eight

The next morning, Penny decided she needed to clean. When she first moved in across the hall, she had been super messy, but over the years she managed to keep things tidy, the urge to just leave everything was still there, but the worry of Sheldon having a go at her overcame the untidy part of her. Thoughts of Sheldon weren't the only thing keeping her up and making her tidy up the apartment, the police had still not been to see her and she didn't think they'll be waiting much longer to talk to her. it had been a lot earlier than Penny thought when she got out of bed, it must've been wishful thinking, of course Megan wouldn't have slept through one feed in the night!

As Megan woke for the six am feed, Penny thought about how life had changed for her in the last twelve years. The ditzy blonde who turned up wishing for stardom and happiness had only found one of those things, but it was the most important thing, happiness. Last few days aside, Penny had never felt so happy. All of the happiest times of Penny's life had been with Leonard, and she had no plans to change that.

Leonard managed to get himself out of the bedroom and into the bathroom, groaning a little as he managed to relieve himself and brush his teeth, he looked into the mirror, and hardly recognised himself. He had more grey hairs than before he was stabbed, and he was so tired, both Megan and his injury had taken it out of him, but in some ways he felt like the luckiest man in the world. Penelope Hofstadter was his wife, she had recently given birth to their beautiful baby girl and he had survived an attempt on his life. Penny and Megan made the last bit worth it though. He'd go through anything for them.

It was past midday when the police finally turned up at the Hofstadter's door. They had been uncharacteristically thoughtful, knowing that Penny and Leonard had a new baby and wanted to make sure they were as refreshed as they could be.

"Mrs Hofstadter, can we come in" one of the officers asked her, once they had made their way up via the elevator "we need to ask some questions about your husband's assault"

"you mean when he was stabbed" Penny asked, somewhat needlessly "come in"

"my name is James" the nice man smiled as warmly as he could dressed in his uniform "and this is Alex"

"please call me Penny" she smiled, unsure what else to say "but I didn't see anything"

Around an hour later, they finally left them in peace. Penny felt like she was being interrogated, she didn't know how many times she could say 'I didn't see anything', but she had sure come up with a lot in the last hour. Fortunately, Megan had slept through the whole time, as timings go, they couldn't have been more perfect. Leonard, however, hadn't done very well while they were there. Apart from the obvious trauma of dragging it all up again, he had been stuck in the same position for well over an hour, not wanting to interrupt Penny to help him move.

"we're going to have to hire a nanny" Penny said out loud, unknowingly echoing Leonard's thoughts, "or at least a housekeeper"

"I was thinking the same thing" Leonard answered, a little apprehensively "but I didn't want to say, I didn't want you to think that you're not doing a good job"

"I do feel a bit of a failure" Penny shrugged "but I'm just so tired, Leonard"

"I understand" Leonard put his hand on hers in the way he had thousands of times before, however, today seemed a little bit more meaningful "I don't want you to burn out"

"that's the last thing I want" Penny rubbed her fingers across Leonard's chest, the way she always did, and buried her head into his neck "I need to be strong for my team"

"I need to be strong too" Leonard sighed "I need to try harder on my recovery"

"you are strong" Penny scolded him "you can't push yourself too much, you'll make yourself worse"

Leonard rolled his eyes. of course he couldn't push himself that much, it would be physically impossible and he didn't want to cause any more problems. God he hated when she was right, it was becoming more and more regular now. Selling pharmaceuticals had meant that Penny's knowledge of science had grown. She was even considering going back to school once Megan was older. Leonard was really proud of her, he was sure hanging about with 'a bunch of nerds' had pushed her to do more and learn more so she could keep up with them.

It was a few days later when Penny sat in her apartment looking through a list of potential nanny-housekeepers, there were around five on the list. All of which had a lot of experience and glowing references. However, there was one name on the list that Penny couldn't stop looking at. Alexis Jensen. She knew that name, she knew, she knew that name but she couldn't put her finger on were from. It was annoying her so much, almost as much as the 'earworm' had annoyed Sheldon that time all those years ago when it had been Amy he wanted.

"Alexis Jensen" she said out loud, almost hoping that hearing it out loud would aid her memory "Alexis Jensen"

"What's that?" Leonard asked her, sitting down on the couch. His wound was healing well and he was able to do a little bit more for everyone, however, much to Sheldon's annoyance, driving him to work was still out of reach "did you say something"

"nothing" Penny answered, shaking her head "I just recognised the name of one of the people coming today, but can't remember where from"

"who is it?"

At that moment there was a knock at the door, Penny got up to get it. She almost bounced towards it. One of her favourite things at work was doing the hiring and firing so, this was the perfect job for her. she took a little look into the mirror, ran her fingers through her hair and smiled at herself

"open mind, Penny" she whispered to herself "who ever this is, go in with an open mind"

Penny opened the door and immediately she knew why she had recognised the name, and also why she didn't realise who it was. It was someone from their past, someone who she had seen as a threat and therefore spent the last few years trying to block this woman out of her mind.

"hello Penny" Alex smiled sheepishly "remember me"

Penny felt the anger rise in her throat. There were three people Penny had ever seen as a threat to her and Leonard's marriage. Priya, raj's sister who Leonard had dated after she had dumped him, Mandy Chow, the girl he had kissed during his trip to the north sea, and Alex, Sheldon's old assistant, who was stood in her door way now, hoping to be trusted with her daughter.