A/N - On the Snowflake Snugglers thread they were having this discussion which inspired this fic. Another stick in the palace thanks to you guys! Absolutely killing it with our posting challenge to reach 200 threads by episode 200 - so close now! Enjoy, and enjoy the celebratory episode tomorrow!
"Oh God, I can't believe this is it." Penny squealed nervously, tears shining in her eyes. The pregnancy test was squeezed tightly in her right hand, her left squeezing Leonard's arm.
"I know you're excited, but you're hurting my arm and you just peed on that stick - maybe put it down." Leonard suggested with a nervous chuckle.
Raising a brow, Penny let go of his arm and put the stick upside down on the bed before heading back into the bathroom. "You know, if you think that hurts - just wait until I'm actually pushing the baby out." Penny rolled her eyes as she washed her hands. "That is gonna hurt. That was just practice in case it's positive."
Silence reverberated through the bedroom when Penny returned. Rather than sitting down beside Leonard on the bed, she remained standing in front of him. Sighing, she glanced at the upside down stick. "This is scary, Leonard."
"Kinda is, isn't it?" He admitted with a nod. "As much as I want it to be positive, the idea of it actually being positive is-"
"Is terrifying." Penny finished for him, taking his hands. "It could change everything. I almost don't want to know. I mean," She tilted their hands so she could check the timer on his watch. "Forty-eight seconds is not enough time to accept how serious this is."
Continuing his slow nods for a while, Leonard's eyes lit up just as the timer went off on his watch. He clicked a button on the side before grasping Penny's hands between his own. "How about we don't. Just for a few extra minutes. Lets put it in a box, and then we have some time to just... accept that our lives could change completely."
"You mean like... a Schrodinger's Box?" Penny raised a brow.
"Something like that, yeah." Leonard smiled. "In those extra minutes, you are both pregnant and not pregnant. You won't know until you open it, but you can hypothesize on both until it is."
"Okay, lets do it." Penny pulled out the empty box the pregnancy sticks had come in and handed it to Leonard.
"It says this is a four pack but you only used one." Leonard frowned.
"Well it was economically friendly to buy four at once rather than keep buying packs of two. They always give me this look. Gotta be prepared."
"What?"
"Huh, what?" Penny blinked at him. "Just put the stick in the box."
"Alright." Leonard cautiously pushed the stick into the box. As he closed it, Penny sat down beside him hoping he would be too distracted by the fate of the stick itself than to ask about when she'd used the other three - she'd never really explained about the pregnancy test he'd seen in her box of things he'd given her. He placed the closed box between them and took her hand once more. "So... a baby, huh?"
"A baby." Penny nodded, turning her head to give him a small smile. "I get to pick out all the clothes."
"I get to teach it things about math and science and the universe and how amazing it's Mommy is. Even when she gets cranky."
Penny shot him a small glare that was ruled ineffective by the fresh tears in her eyes and slight smirk on her face. "And Daddy will give Mommy lots of foot rubs to stop her being cranky, right?"
"Right." Leonard squeezed her hand reassuringly. "A little baby with a killer wardrobe and an academic incline."
"Well that's just perfection in one human. Smart and beautiful."
Leonard grinned at her words - he didn't know if she'd ever found out from Sheldon about his fantasy of having smart and beautiful babies with her, but the idea of it being real was exciting. "Smart and beautiful."
"And if not..." Penny bit her lip nervously. "We just go back to normal." Her heart hammered painfully at the thought of that. Did she really want to go back to normal? Sure, Bernadette's experience of pregnancy hadn't exactly promoted it very well, but she'd found herself hopelessly thinking about being surrounded by little Leonard's, singing the elements song in a dramatic fashion similar to hers on her fathers home videos.
"Yeah. Back to normal." Leonard shrugged. "Which is... fine, I guess. I mean, we go to work, we have dinner, we watch TV... nothing changes. Which is... not going to affect us at all."
"I want to open the box now." Penny said quietly.
"Me too." Leonard slowly let go of her hand, bringing it up to Penny's face to brush a tear away before picking up the box and holding it out to her.
Hands shaking, Penny pursed her lips in anticipation as she opened the box and placed her fingers around the stick. She looked up at Leonard nervously, and he gave her a tiny nod that prompted her to pull the stick out. Turning it around, her face crumpled as she held it out to him. "It's positive. I'm pregnant." She laughed, tears suddenly streaming from her eyes as she excitedly bounced her legs up and down. "We're pregnant!"
"Oh my God - are you serious?" Leonard stared at the stick. "Oh my God! This is... this is amazing!"
"We're having a baby, Leonard." Penny half-giggled, half-choked out in her overwhelmed state. She wrapped her arms around him, still gripping the positive pregnancy test tightly. "I'm so happy we opened the box."