Penny dragged herself up the final flight of stairs. She couldn't wait until the renovations for this building were completed because then she was going to take the elevator every day. Even if there was a fire.

Being a mother and managing a fledgling business were exhausting. Sheldon helped as much as he could. After winning the Nobel, he decided to take a vacation which translated into free day care for Penny. All she wanted to do when she got inside was cuddle her baby, take off her shoes, have dinner and watch Doctor Who or BattleStar while canoodling with Sheldon. She opened the door.

Sheldon was standing at his whiteboard. He didn't even turn around when she called out "Hey!" Her fatigue made her irritation flame instantly. She glanced around but there was no sign of Lara. All her toys were put away and the apartment was absent of her baby chatter. If Sheldon had put her down for a nap at this hour, Penny was going to kill him.

"Sheldon, where's Lara?"

The physicist turned from his board and looked at her blankly.

"Lara." Penny repeated. "Fifteen months old. Green eyes. YOUR DAUGHTER." Her voice took on an edge of hysteria. Sheldon looked down at his feet as if expecting to find the baby there.

"I don't know." He said for probably the first time in his life.

Instantly, they both sprang into action, running frantically through the apartment. The bathroom, to Penny's relief, was empty.

"Oh God!' She heard Sheldon moan and her heart dropped into her shoes. She dashed to Sheldon's room to see her daughter on the floor happily munching an Amazing Spiderman comic book. From the tattered remains, it looked like she had been dining for some time. Ink stained her fingers and the corners of her mouth. Penny snatched her up to pull wad of arachnid-enhanced man out of her mouth.

"Sheldon, what the hell?" She fumed.

"She was under the whiteboard and must have wandered off." He explained.

"Must have! Must have!" Penny yelled "Were you even watching her?"

"Obviously, she escaped my attention," Sheldon reiterated.

"She could have choked, you jackass and you're out there calculating the circumference of your enormous ego."

"Actually, I think I may have figured out how to create the time device."

Penny faced him; he crossed his arms over his Superman shirt. She snarled at him and stalked past holding the baby.

"When is it going to end, Sheldon?" She demanded.

"You'll have to be more specific."

Penny placed Lara on the floor and gestured to the whiteboard in response.

"Science?" He was incredulous. "Never! My work has only just begun."

Penny covered her eyes with her hand while Lara tugged at her sandal straps. "Then what was the point of the Nobel?"

Sheldon looked at her as if she'd lost her mind. "The Nobel is recognition that I am one of the greatest minds of the twenty-first century which means I have to work even harder. Did you think that I would retire and wait for my dotage? Give me more credit than that!"

Penny stopped for a second as memories came flooding back to her. She was in a nail parlor with her daughter, her grown up, beautiful, smart and wonderful daughter.

"Leonard?" Penny almost dropped her magazine in the water.

"Oh yeah," Lara enthused. "We go on quests all the time - rock climbing, surfing, hiking. He taught me how to drive AND how to make rocket fuel."

"Wow." Then Penny added, "Sheldon, I suppose, just flits in and out when he isn't solving the mysteries of the universe." She frowned.

"Penny," Lara turned chastising eyes on her mother. "Sheldon deserves more credit. For one thing, he tells the best bedtime stories."

"Bed time stories?" Penny repeated.

"Don't sound so surprised. You're in them. They're all about Queen Penelope and Sheldor the Conqueror. He even wrote them up and bound them into a book for me." She paused. "You designed the cover, you know."

Tears began to fill her eyes. She was furious with Sheldon. Lord knew what trouble Lara could have gotten into or what could have happened. But the man in front of her, the one so obsessed with science that he was barely part of this world, was also a man who would create bedtime stories for his daughter. She took a deep breath. "This isn't how I thought it would be." Penny said quietly.

Sheldon pinched the bridge of his nose. "Penny, I understand you are upset but I am unclear as to why."

Penny smiled softly. "I'm upset because you were so lost in your work that you put Lara in danger. Do you understand?"

Sheldon looked at Lara sheepishly and nodded. His daughter smiled up at him with those familiar green eyes and held her arms out to him. He reached out and Penny let him take her. "I'm sorry," he whispered. Penny wasn't sure which one of them he said that to.

"Promise me you won't do that again. Promise me you won't be too busy to look after her."

Sheldon nodded. "I promise."

XXXX

Some time later, Penny and Sheldon stood silently across the aisle from each other. The priest spoke of things like "love", "cherish", and "vows" while the couple was thrilled they had come this far.