Many thanks to everybody who has taken the time to read and review this story which I began more than four years ago. This is the final chapter. I have used extracts and drawn upon several episodes which I have acknowledged below.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Big Bang Theory.

Hello Again..

In the days which followed rekindling her relationship with Leonard, Penny found that she was putting off calling her parents in Nebraska to tell them that she was no longer returning home. Unsurprisingly when she finally plucked up the courage to do so they were disappointed, especially her mother who talked at great length about the difficulties of bringing up a child while working and studying without the support of nearby grandparents.

"We know it won't be easy, but we'll work something out." Penny had insisted. Feeling utterly deflated and with only her mother's tacit approval, she'd hung up.

A few days later Bernadette came to Penny with an exciting proposition. The pharmaceutical company which had recently hired her were looking to recruit a sales representative and she'd persuaded her boss to give her an interview. Aside from a stint at washing cars in a bikini, Penny admitted she had no sales experience, but somehow Bernadette was confident that with her help to prepare, she was in with a good chance.

"It does sound like an amazing opportunity." Leonard said that evening when Penny told him over dinner. If successful she could expect a salary which would far exceed that of what she earned as a waitress and a jobbing actress. Also the position came with attractive employee perks which included access to a child day care facility and the flexibility to study part time.

"Yeah it does, but I don't have any experience of pharmaceutical sales," Penny said, sounding uncharacteristically panicked. "And I haven't had a proper job interview in literally years."

Apparently it was now Leonard's turn to offer encouragement and to voice his belief in his girlfriend as she had done for him only a week before. "Listen I'm sure Bernadette wouldn't have put you up for the job if she didn't think you could do it," he said, "I certainly have faith in you."

Reaching across the table Penny took hold of Leonard's hand, "You really think so?"

"Yeah I do." Leonard confirmed.

"I don't know what I'd do without you Hofstadter." Penny whispered in reply.

The next day Leonard was in his laboratory, working to a tight deadline he had asked not to be disturbed so was mildly annoyed when Marie, one of the undergrad students knocked and entered. "Sorry to interrupt Dr Hofstadter there's somebody here to see you," She said apologetically, "I told him that you're busy, but he insisted."

From behind her a man dressed in jeans, a striped shirt and a corn huskers baseball cap stepped forward. "Hello Leonard, I think it's time we had a talk, don't you?"

Although Leonard had never met Penny's father Wyatt in person, he recognised him from the family photo which she kept pinned to the refrigerator in her apartment. Pressing the button on the bench to turn off the helium-neon laser, he removed his safety goggles. "Would you like a coffee sir?" he offered.

"I would." Wyatt replied as he walked about the lab surveying the multitude of equipment which to him looked more like something one would find on a spaceship. "Impressive set up you've got here," he remarked. Stopping in front of Leonard's whiteboard, he studied the rows of equations with bewilderment. "Certainly makes me wish I'd tried harder in school."

Leonard had no idea why Wyatt had come to see him, but a sense of foreboding was causing his hands tremble as poured the coffee. "Does Penny know you're here?" he enquired casually, trying his hardest to conceal how unnerved he was by his unannounced visitor.

"She does. I already stopped by her apartment. In fact it was her idea for me to come over here to meet you," Wyatt began after pausing to take a sip of coffee. In doing so he'd encountered her dressed smartly in a skirt suit about to go to her interview at Zangen. "You know I gotta tell you Leonard nobody was more pleased than me when you started dating my daughter. Before you came along it had been one long line of skateboard idiots and sweaty dumb asses with backwards on hats. Finally my Penny had met a guy with prospects. For once I didn't have to worry about my grandkids growing up in a house on wheels." he joked, although Leonard sensed that it had actually been a serious concern for him. "And then when she told me that you'd broken up I called her several times to try and convince her to give you a second chance. So much so that in the end she lied and told me that you'd got back together just to get me off her back."

It was certainly the first Leonard had heard of it. "Really? She lied about us getting back together?" he exclaimed.

"Yeah well unfortunately it wasn't the first time Penny has lied to me." Wyatt admitted, "Let's just say she was a bit of a troubled teenager. Anyway, I only found out that you hadn't got back together after you went missing and I got a call from the hospital to say that Penny had been in an accident. Susan was beside herself with the shock. We both were," Wyatt recalled, a year later the memory of that day was still painful and raw. "Penny may have given us more than her fair share of trouble when she was growing up, but believe me we've always loved her very much."

With that Leonard averted his gaze to the floor. "You know if I could go back and change what I did I would. I never intended to hurt anyone, especially Penny. I hope you can believe that." he said quietly.

Wyatt appreciated Leonard's candour. "Well, I guess we've all done things that we regret son," he acknowledged with genuine kindness. "What's important is that you came back and you're making up for lost time."

From what Penny had told him since his return Leonard had shown himself to be a doting father who in a relatively short time had formed a strong bond with his son. She had no doubt that he would do anything for him and she loved him even more for it.

"Yeah, I know I've already missed out on so much." Leonard admitted sadly. It pained him especially that he hadn't been present for James's birth. "I'm so glad that she had you though. I'd hate to think of her as being alone."

Penny had been about to return to Nebraska with her father when she'd gone into labour two weeks early on Thanksgiving. "You know how Penny can be. She thinks she's so tough. She insisted that she could go through the whole birth alone and had me wait out in the hall at the hospital," Wyatt smiled, "Needless to say by the end I was I was in the room holding her hand."

Wyatt drained his coffee cup prompting Leonard to offer him another. "Can I ask you a question?" he asked as Leonard turned toward the coffee maker in the corner of the lab.

"Sure."

"Do you intend on marrying my daughter? Because if you do, you should know that you have my blessing."

Blinking in amazement, Leonard exhaled and in his mind pictured how Penny might look in a wedding gown. "Nothing would make me happier than to marry Penny." he said, "But to be honest I don't think she's ready for that. In fact I reckon the whole idea of marriage freaks her out."

Wyatt nodded his understanding. He knew his daughter suffered with commitment issues and it concerned him that in time it might affect her relationship with Leonard. "Just promise you won't give up on her, ok?" he said adopting a serious tone of voice, "She'll get there eventually. Just be patient with her."

And without a moment of hesitation Leonard replied. "I promise."

One week later...

Penny's interview turned out to be an unmitigated disaster. Her lack of sales experience and knowledge of the pharmaceuticals industry brought it to a humiliating and premature end. Apologising to Dan for seeming to have wasted his time, she had asked that he not mention it to Bernadette.

"I'm a little terrified of her." she had confessed.

After bonding over their mutual fear of Bernadette, Penny had however been astounded to receive a phone call offering her the position and with her new job beginning on Monday, she was now working her final shift at the Cheesecake Factory. That night a Neil Diamond tribute act was scheduled to perform and the restaurant was packed with impatient diners with little sympathy for the fact that they were short staffed after several members of staff had called in sick.

"Well I have to say it's a fitting swansong to the end of your waitressing career that you should forget my order one last time." Sheldon moaned after Penny had brought him the wrong hamburger.

Exchanging glances with Leonard, Penny rolled her eyes and proceeded to clear the empty plates away. It was only then that Howard noticed a woman seated alone on a nearby table. Wearing dark rimmed spectacles and dressed in a black and purple striped cardigan and a grey pencil skirt, she seemed familiar.

"Hey, isn't that the girl who Stuart dated last year?" he said, suddenly recalling the shy and socially awkward girl whom he and Raj had been introduced to on one occasion at the comic book store.

"Yeah, Amy Farrah-Fowler. I wonder if she's still single.." Raj pondered.

Until now Penny had only been half listening, she had no real interest in Stuart's dating history, but the mention of his former girlfriend's name had peaked her curiosity. "Guys are you sure she's Amy Farrah-Fowler?" she questioned.

"Yeah, that's definitely her," Howard nodded, "Why?"

"Amy was the person who called me after you went missing," Penny began to explain, turning to address Leonard, "She thought she'd seen you while on her way home from visiting her aunt. I was supposed to meet her at the Coffee Bean, only I never made it there.."

Nobody needed reminding about what had happened that day. Even now Stuart preferred to pretend that it had never happened.

"Wow, small world." Raj said after taking another slug of his beer, "I wonder what she's doing here?"

"Given that this is a restaurant one would imagine that she came here to eat," Sheldon piped up, dabbing at the corners of his mouth with his napkin. "Although with the abysmal service here Amy Farrah-Fowler could well succumb to starvation before she gets her order." he added, unable to resist the opportunity to voice his dissatisfaction once more.

"She looks kind of lonely," Penny sighed as she watched Amy sip her milkshake miserably through a straw. "Maybe I should go over and say hi. Perhaps she could join us."

Ignoring Sheldon's whiny protest not to interact with a stranger, Penny made a beeline for Amy's table, returning a few minutes later. "I've persuaded her to come over, but you got to be extra nice. I think her date hasn't shown up." she said in a hushed tone.

"Hi," Amy stammered shyly after Penny had introduced everybody in turn, including James who eyed her with bewilderment from his high-chair. "Penny tells me that you're all scientists."

"That would be incorrect. Howard's an engineer," Sheldon snorted in his familiar derisory tone,"Penny as you can see is a waitress and a terrible one at that."

"Only for the next hour and twenty-two minutes Sheldon." Penny said, with an exaggerated smile, "And then I'll be a terrible ex-waitress."

"And FYI I have a masters degree in engineering from MIT." an annoyed Howard insisted.

"Well it was nice meeting you all," Amy said, shifting nervously on the spot, her eyes trained on the floor. "I'm supposed to be meeting someone, although it seems he may have got lost on his way here."

"Oh no that sucks." Raj said, sympathetically, "Not that I can speak from experience. I've never been stood up on a date." he lied.

"Oh it's not a problem. I'm only here because I have an agreement with my mother that I'll date at least once a year." Amy announced.

"Hmm interesting," Sheldon said, scratching his chin thoughtfully. "My mother and I happen to have the same agreement about church."

"I don't object to the concept of a deity, but I'm baffled by the notion of one that takes attendance." Amy came back, prompting Sheldon to suggest that in which case she should avoid East Texas.

"Noted."

Much to his friend's amazement Sheldon then offered Amy a seat at the table beside him. "Can I get you a beverage?" he asked.

Noticing her manager glaring angrily at her from across the restaurant, Penny hurried back to waiting on her tables. An hour later with her shift over she went into the locker room to change out of her uniform. By the time she returned to the restaurant there had been an influx of customers who were crowded around the bar watching the Neil Diamond tribute act. Negotiating her way through the throng of bodies, she felt somebody touch her arm.

"Excuse me Miss."

Penny turned to see man with a dark hair flecked with grey. Short in stature, she placed his age as being somewhere in his late fifties.

"I'm sorry I've just finished my shift." Penny told him, mistaking the man for a disgruntled customer intent on quibbling over his check or the amount of tip he was expected to leave.

"That young man over there," he said nodding in the direction of Howard who was in the middle of performing a card trick to a bemused Sheldon. "Is he Howard Wolowitz?"

"Yeah, why? Who are you?" Penny enquired. The man's face seemed vaguely familiar, although she couldn't think how she knew him. "Have we met?" she added.

"Ermm I don't think so..Actually forget it...It doesn't matter."

"Whatever." Penny muttered impatiently before making her way to the table to join her friends. It was getting late and she wanted to get home to put James to bed, giving her and Leonard the rest of the evening together. Having sat through X-Men the night before it was her turn to pick the movie and she'd rented Brides Maids.

"Hey, Howard some guy over at the bar was just asking about you." She said. Preoccupied with getting a wriggling James out of the high-chair and into his stroller, she'd almost forgotten to mention it.

"What guy?" Howard asked.

Craning her neck Penny scanned the faces of the crowd at the bar, but could no longer see him. "Looks like he left already." she answered.

"Did he say what he wanted?"

Penny shook her head while Leonard asked Sheldon whether he was ready to leave. "Actually I'm going to stay here a little longer. Amy has offered to give me a ride home and I'm going to explain to her exactly why physics is the most important of all the sciences." he replied smugly.

Relieved at the prospect of a Sheldon-free car journey, Leonard and Penny left the restaurant and headed out to the parking lot. The thundery down pour which had been forecast that day had arrived and they hastily lifted James from his stroller into the car. It was as Penny went to place the folded down stroller in the trunk that she noticed the man from the bar in his car. Seated behind the wheel he was staring at the restaurant entrance as though he might be waiting for someone.

"I just saw that guy again." Penny said as she slid into the passenger seat beside Leonard, her hair damp from the rain.

Leonard started the engine, "Which guy?" he asked, he too had been preoccupied with James and hadn't really been paying much attention to the earlier conversation.

"The one who asked me about Howard." Penny responded, feeling a shiver run up her spine, she admitted that she found him a little creepy.

"Maybe they're related." Leonard laughed as he steered his car out of the parking lot, glancing in the rear view mirror he saw the man emerge from his car just as he pulled out into the traffic.

"You never did tell me what you and my Dad talked about last week." Penny said after listening in silence to the mesmeric swish swash of the windshield wipers for a time.

"Why do you ask?" Out of the corner of his eye Leonard had noticed her chewing pensively on her bottom lip and gussed that she had something on her mind. Perhaps he thought she was nervous about starting her new job, although he was pleased that she was taking the time to prepare by reading up on the drugs that she would soon be trying to sell. "Honey, is something bothering you?"

Penny shrugged. How could she tell him that she was petrified that he was about to propose and that despite loving him and being so very happy, she still didn't feel ready for marriage.

"Listen I didn't ask your Dad for permission to marry you and I'm not planning on asking you anytime soon. I know you're not ready for that," Leonard began as though he'd suddenly developed the super power of being able to read his girlfriend's mind. "Although I will say that he did give me his blessing anyway."

"I'm sorry." Penny said quietly.

Taking his right hand off the steering wheel, Leonard slipped it into Penny's, squeezing it reassuringly. "Ok how about this, I promise that I will never ask you to marry me." he said startling Penny who for one terrifying moment thought that he might be breaking up with her. "And if one day you decide you want to get married, you have to propose to me."

"Really?"

"Yes, it's all on you. But I got to tell you, when the times comes I want the whole nine yards. I want you down on one knee, flowers, I want to be swept off my feet."

"Yeah, you got it." Penny smiled.

At the Cheesecake Factory Howard had spent the last hour getting much enjoyment from tormenting Sheldon with a card trick. "Ok Sheldon I'll show you one more time." he grinned.

"Oh come on Howie it's time to go now." Bernadette protested, with Sheldon's determination to figure out the secret behind the card trick, she feared that it could go well go on all night.

Howard had just begun to shuffle the deck of cards when he heard somebody say his name and looked up to see a man standing at the end of the table, his jacket sodden with rain.

"Excuse me sir, but can you not see that we're busy here?" a frustrated Sheldon snapped.

Slowly Howard rose to his feet to look the man directly in the eyes, realising that they were same colour blue as his own, only reflected in them were years of pain and regret. "Dad?" he breathed.

"Hello son."

THE END.

Acknowledgements:

The Boyfriend Complexity, Season Four, Episode Nine.

The Lunar Excitation, Season Four, Episode Twenty-three

The Tangible Affection Proof, Season Six, Episode Sixteen.

The Locomotive Interruption, Season Eight, Episode One.