A/N: Thanks again to all who read this little story and take time to write a review. Thanks to SRAM for giving me a few inspirational thoughts.

Here's chapter 21.

Disclaimer: This is a work of fan fiction using characters from The Big Bang Theory. I don't own any of the characters.

CHAPTER 21

Leonard sat on the porch in front of the farm house and savored the last sunrays of the day. He read a science journal and a cup of tea stood on the small table in front of him. It was mid October, but it felt like a warm summer evening. The days before it was really chilly and windy, but today the Indian summer was in full swing. The leaves on the trees glowed in wonderful shades of red, orange and yellow.

Penny was in the house and fed Emma. Leonard could see the two, when he turned around and looked through the living room window. Suddenly Leonard heard his wife calling his name.

"Leonard, come here. Hurry up!"

He immediately got up from his chair and ran into the house through the front door that stood open. Penny was in the living room, holding Emma.

"What happened?" he asked concerned, but calmed down quickly when he saw the smile on Penny's face.

"Come here," she said softly, her smile getting wider.

Leonard walked over to the chair, in which Penny and Emma sat. With a quizzical expression on his face he looked at his wife and his daughter. "What..."

"Ma...ma"

Leonard opened his eyes wide open, while at the same time his jaw dropped. "Oh my god, Emma speaks her first words."

Penny nodded, a single tear rolling down her face. "Yes, she says mama."

"Da..da"

"Did she just said 'dada'?" Leonard asked, again with eyes wide open.

"Yes," Penny confirmed.

Emma giggled and smiled at her parents. She had spoken her first words.

Since Leonard and Penny had returned from their honeymoon, Emma was more than before fully engaged with the world. She smiled, laughed, and had babbling "conversations" with her parents. And she was on the move. A few weeks ago Emma has started to roll to her tummy and back again, sat without her parent's help, and supported her weight with her legs well enough to bounce when Penny or Leonard held her. She also had begun to use a raking grasp to pull objects closer and could hold toys and move them from one hand to another.

Something that was standing out too, was that Emma was more sensitive to their parents tone of voice and heeded their warning when they teld her "no." Emma also knew her name now and turned to look when she was called.

For a month now Emma's favorite game was Peekaboo. Playing this with her was a great delight for Leonard and Penny, and for Wyatt and Susan too. During the occasional visits from Penny's sister, she played with Emma as well, which was always a lot of fun. Emma also enjoyed finding partially hidden objects. If someone moved a toy in front of her, she followed it closely with her eyes. Also watching herself in a mirror was something that delighted her very much.

Emma really thrived on the interactions she had with her mother and father, so Leonard and Penny integrated play into everything they did with her. They read a lot together with Emma every day, naming the objects they saw in books and around them. They showered her with smiles and cuddles, and replied when she babbled to encourage her communication skills. And now by mid October they were awarded with Emma's first words. And these words were "Mama" and "Dada".

"This apartment is really wonderful," Penny swooned. "It's so spacious and so bright and friendly. Emma will have so much fun here. And there's a playground right across the street."

"Yes, it's perfect," Leonard agreed. "And we can afford it."

Penny looked at Leonard with big pleading eyes. "So, we'll take this apartment. As we have agreed on yesterday. No cop out."

Leonard smiled. "No cop out!" He nodded in direction of the realtor who stood in the corner of the living room.

The middle-aged woman with short hair walked over to Leonard and Penny. "Congratulations to your new home, Dr. and Mrs. Hofstadter."

Penny flung her arms around Leonard's neck and kissed him. "Yay! We have our own home," she exclaimed happily.

After signing the necessary paperwork, that was already prepared, Leonard and Penny returned to the apartment building at 2311 North Los Robles Avenue, where they were accommodated as Sheldon's guests in Leonard's old room.

The day before, the roommate agreement between Leonard and Sheldon was terminated. It wasn't an easy task to achieve this. Sheldon acted like a stubborn child and threw a tantrum. Only after a great deal of coaxing by Amy, Sheldon was willing to talk about the termination of the roommate agreement in the first place. At one point the situation almost escalated and Penny was on the verge of slapping Sheldon in his face, when he had the audacity to fine Leonard because of non-discharge of obligations during the time of his absence.

Standing in the hall in front of apartment 4A, Leonard and Penny knocked at the door.

A few moments later Sheldon openen the door. "Aha, the traitors are back."

Leonard and Penny looked at each other, rolling their eyes.

"Sheldon, let it go," Amy hissed, who sat on the couch.

"We only take our luggage," Leonard said, passing Sheldon. "Then we drive to the airport. Our plane to Omaha takes off in three hours."

While Leonard went to his old room, Penny turned to Sheldon. "Leonard's stuff will be collected and put into storage next week."

Sheldon just nodded.

"Are you still upset, we won't live here anymore when we're back?" Penny asked.

"I am," Sheldon answered and sat down in his spot on the couch next to Amy.

Penny shook her head. "Well, you have to accept it."

Leonard came back with two traveling bags. "Okay, I'm ready to go." Seeing the sore face Sheldon was making, he shook his head too. "Sheldon, the roommate agreement is terminated. I'm not coming back. I will live with my wife and my daughter. And no modification of the bathroom schedule is gonna change that."

"I still can't believe you do this to me," he complained.

Penny went over to Amy and hugged her. "Bye, Ames."

Sheldon demonstratively crossed his arms in front of him. "No hug from me, Mrs. Hofstadter."

Penny just rolled her eyes and went to the door, while Leonard hugged Amy. He then walked over to his wife. "Goodbye you two," Leonard said, looking at Sheldon and Amy. "The next time we see each other we'll be in our new apartment. You two are invited to our welcome party and in addition to it you can visit us every time you want. But please call first."

"Alrighty," Amy said and waved at Leonard and Penny. "See you soon."

Leonard and Penny stepped out of the apartment, while Leonard closed the door behind them. Outside the building a taxi was already waiting to bring them to the airport. The taxi started and they looked back to the rear window to the building, where they had spent so many years, where they had meet each other and where they had fallen in love with each other.

As they drove to the airport on this morning in mid November, they held hands and smiled at one another. Leonard's sabbatical would end in a few weeks. And then Leonard, Penny and Emma were ready to start their new family life at a new place in Pasadena, California.

Exactly one year after his return from a seven-month ordeal on a deserted island, Leonard was back in California with his wife Penny and their daughter Emma. It was mid December 2014, and the Christmas spirit had seized hold of Leonard and Penny. A beautiful Christmas tree graced the living room of their new place. Leonard and Penny's stored furniture, along with all their stuff from Nebraska, especially their wedding gifts, had been transported to the new residence. Howard, Bernadette, Amy and Raj were regular guests during the first days after the moving in and they also helped to furnish the apartment. Only Sheldon refused to visit Leonard and Penny in their new home. His obstinacy really became ridiculous. It was only after New Year's day, when he made his first official visit, and only on the insistence of Amy.

Although Leonard and Penny missed Nebraska immensely, the little family settled into their new life quite fast. Emma got used to the new California life without any problems, and made huge progress in her development in those months before her first birthday.
The new apartment was like an adventure playground for her. She became an eager explorer and kept them on their toes constantly. Of course Leonard and Penny made sure to provide a safe space to explore. It was delight to see, how quickly she could get around when she crawled or scooted. She could also sit on her own and grabbed anything she could pull to herself. Leonard and Penny paid particular attention to what Emma enjoyed, and gave her the freedom to use all her senses to play and discover. They offered her crayons and paper, stacking blocks, empty food containers, and pots and pans to play with. And Emma gratefully accepted all those things with great enthusiasm.

Emma was a little angel, so Leonard and Penny always praised and rewarded her good behavior. For the rare cases, when she got into mischief, a brief "no" and redirection was enough. Although Emma was too young to understand and obey rules, they started to show her which behaviors weren't allowed and always helped her to find more appropriate activities.

When it came to walking, Emma wasn't there yet, but Leonard and Penny helped her in every possible way to get ready for her first steps by holding her in a way that put weight on her legs or by propping her up against the couch in the living room. But then it happened. During the first days of the new year Emma started to undertake her first wobbly solo steps. Of course everything was filmed or photographed, many photos finding their way into Leoanrd and Penny's baby journal for Emma.

Another important thing was Emma's language development. Leonard and Penny kept talking to her, since this was a critical time for her development in this area. When they talked to her, they always described their routine, what they were doing in this moment and what they would be going to do next, and what they saw. But they didn't just talk with Emma, but also about her, describing how they think she was feeling. This helped her to learn emotions. Leonard and Penny kept reading together with their daughter and played a lot of games with her, she enjoyed very much. Like peekaboo, hide-and-seek and turn-taking games. Their reward was, that Emma's babbling also began to sound more like a real conversation. She paid close attention to Leonard and Penny's words and started to talk in simple phrases. Calling Penny "mommy" and Leonard "daddy", hence distinguish them was no problem for her. Other children in her age still called their parents "mama" and "dada", no matter who they were talking to.

Emma's hands became increasingly nimble. She amused herself by putting things in containers and taking them out again. She could use her thumb and finger as a pincer as a grasp to eat finger food. She loved drinking from a cup, and pretending to talk on the phone. What she particularly loved was combing her own hair, which had the same color like Leonard's. It was also as curly as his. However, Emma's eyes were clearly inherited by her mother.

While Emma was generally outgoing, she was a bit reserved around other people than her parents. When it was time to bring her to a daycare center, when Leonard and Penny were at work, Emma became distraught at first when they left her for a few hours, but separation anxiety was normal at this age and nothing to be worried about. To ease Emma's anxiety, Leonard and Penny built up trust, by giving her time to get used to the new caregivers and always said goodbye and kissed her before they had to leave.

On the first workday of the new year, Leonard returned to work at Caltech. He was welcomed back with an impromptu party at the cafeteria. President Siebert and Dr. Gablehauser, the head of the Physics Department at Caltech presented little welcome gifts to him. Even Sheldon showed his appreciation.

"Dude, it's so good to have you back," Raj said.

"Yes, " Howard agreed. "Sitting here on this table was not the same without you."

Sheldon just nodded with a smile, that really seemed to be sincere. "Yes, Leonard. We missed you."

Leonard smiled. "Thanks guys. This means a lot to me."

In the following months Leonard worked hard and was eventually rewarded with extraordinary results in his field of reserach. They were published in the most acknowledged science magazines around the world and even Sheldon couldn't deny Leonard his well-deserved recognition. But the best of all was, that the Nobel Committee for Physics became aware of him.

The return to California was also a new start for Penny's career. She found a job as an assistant for a fashion designer in Burbank, California. It was well-paid and her working hours didn't include any early or late shifts like her waitressing job at the Cheesecake Factory she had disliked so much. Finally she had found a job, she totally enjoyed and also gave her a lot of time she could spent with her husband, her daughter and her friends. It was something in which she could give her creativity full scope. And in her leisure she created her own fashion ideas.

After presenting some of her own creations on social media services like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, high profile major clothing companies took notice of her. For these companies she designed modern fashion for women and eventually she had her own brand. Penny had finally found fulfillment when it came to work.

It was a bright late summer day in early September. It was warm, but not too warm. Combined with the cool breeze that blew from the sea it was just very pleasant. Leonard and Penny walked hand in hand along the beach at Santa Monica Pier with its ferris wheel and the roller coaster track of Pacific Park. After a while Leonard and Penny stopped and turned to face each other, looking deeply into their eyes.

Suddenly Leonard's facial expression became thoughtful.

Penny smiled and gently ran her fingers through Leonard's curly hair. "Honey, you look absent-minded. What is crossing your mind?"

Leonard blinked, as if he was brought out of a dream. "Huh? Oh...Ummm...Well, this is exactly like the dream I had the night before I left the island on the raft to return to you about four years ago. It's the same place, the same weather. This cool breeze from the sea. Yeah, it's really exactly like the dream. Amazing."

Penny linked her arms behind Leonard's neck and smiled at him. "See, dreams can come true."

Leonard nodded, smiling radiantly. "Yes, dreams can come true." He tucked a strand of Penny's long blond hair behind her ear and looked deeply into those mesmerizing green eyes of his wife for a few seconds. "I'm married to the most beautiful woman in the world and we have a wonderful daughter together. This is also a dream that came true for me. And this dream which has become real makes me so happy."

Penny beamed. "I love you Leonard".

"I love you too, Penny."

Leonard leaned forward and kissed his wife. Soft and tender at first, but the kiss became more and more passionate with every second. Like so many times before they completely forgot the world around them.

When they broke the kiss to gasp for air, a little three-year-old girl ran up to them, holding a balloon in one of her hands that had a cartoon character printed on it. It was Emma. Coming closer, with a bright smile on her face. "Mommy! Daddy! Look what Grandma and Grandpa have bought for me," she happily exclaimed.

Leonard smiled. "Wow! What a wonderful balloon." He lifted his daughter up, which made her giggle.

Wyatt and Susan came up to Leonard, Penny and Emma. "Let's have a bite," Wyatt said. "Running with Emma up and down the beach made us hungry. Actually this visit was intended for recreation. But this little lady keeps us on the hop quite well."

Penny chuckled. "Yes, she's pretty challenging. Very well then, let's eat something. There's a great restaurant just around the corner."

Leonard and Penny took Emma by her hands, so she could walk between her parents, and started to go to the restaurant. Wyatt and Susan followed closely behind.

A few hours later, Leonard and Penny sat on the balcony of their apartment and looked at the sunset. The sky was painted in the most amazing shades of red and orange. Emma was already sleeping and Wyatt and Susan sat in the living room and watched TV.

Leonard looked at Penny, who admired the setting sun. After a few moments she noticed that Leonard was looking at her. Penny took his hand and smiled. "Honey, you look so absent-minded again. Like earlier today. What are you thinking about?"

"I'm thinking about us and how happy you make me," he answered.

"Aw, Leonard. You make me incredibly happy too."

Leonard leaned forward and gave Penny a tender kiss on her lips. "I love you."

Penny smiled and gently stroke Leonard's cheek. "I love you, too."

Holding hands, Leonard and Penny continued to look at the setting sun.

THE END

Well, that's it. I hope you liked this little story. Thanks for reading and thanks for all the reviews. You guys are the best.

See you next time! :-)