A/N- I do not own any of these characters, except my OC's.

A couple of small things, Angelo was the name that Leonard wished he had been called, and Penny and Leonard live in NY near where Jim himself used to live.

Penny quickly grabbed the Beanie Baby from under her daughter's bed, they were running late, very late.

She stood up just as Taylor, her 5 year old daughter ran into the room to tell her that daddy was waiting and they were late. Penny passed the toy to her daughter and dusted herself off, "Really must get a vacuum under there." she smiled and followed her daughter into the lounge room.

"Penny I'm late." Leonard adjusted his messenger bag.

Penny nodded to her husband and handed him Taylor's school bag and watched as they walked out of the apartment, hand in hand.

It had been 7 years since Penny and Leonard had said their vows, 5 years ago Taylor was born and 3 years ago their son Angelo was born. About 1 year into their marriage Leonard was offered a position as Senior Experimental Physicist at New York University, it was an opportunity that he couldn't miss, so they moved to New York and both their children had been born here.

Penny walked over to her son who was playing with some toys at the kitchen table, and rubbed his head as she grabbed his food bowl and placed it in the sink. She looked at the pile of dirty dishes waiting for her, this was not how her life was meant to be, she was meant to be a movie star, or a TV star.

She loved her children very much and she had settled into a life of routine with Leonard, he went to work every week day, working extremely long hours,came home and worked some more, and she looked after the home and the children. Two days a week she dropped Angelo at day care, and they were her days, she went to theatre classes on Wednesday's and on Friday's she sometimes went for auditions, but nothing ever came of them, "Perhaps she should try her luck in LA." her agent would tell her, she smiled when he said that. They had a new group of friends, but Penny missed her friends in LA, mostly Amy and Bernadette, she missed a lot about LA.

The phone rang and the sound startled Penny from her thoughts.

"Hello"

The voice at the other end was an old friend, one that she had just been thinking about, it was Amy.

It was after 8pm when Leonard returned home, Penny was just tucking Taylor in for the night. Leonard quickly ran into her bedroom and kissed her goodnight, with promises that tomorrow night he would tell her a story.

"You promised that last night daddy." Taylor turned away from her father.

Penny looked at Leonard. "There is time for a short story hun."

Taylor turned around and cheered, "Yay! Daddy, this one." she grabbed the book sitting on the end of the bed.

Leonard took it from her and sat down and began to read. Penny left the room and checked on Angelo, before returning to the lounge room.

Ten minutes later Leonard sat down on the sofa in the lounge room. "Phew, what a day."

"Busy hey?" Penny smiled at him. "You hungry?"

"No I ate at work."

"As you always do." Penny replied under her breath, the same scenario every night. Her attention turned back to the TV and Leonard stood up and grabbed out his laptop, placed it on his desk and started to type away, yep same thing every night.

Other than the sound of the TV, which Penny had down low as not to disturb her husband, or her children too much, the apartment was quiet. Leonard had tried to move them all to the suburbs and buy a house where he would have his own den, and the children a backyard, but Penny liked living in Manhattan, she liked their 3 bedroom apartment. It was small, but it was in Manhattan, she didn't want the burbs, she wasn't ready for that yet. They lived in the east village near the corner of First and Third, she loved the local bakery, the local grocer, the vibrant feel of the neighbourhood.

Leonard walked into the bedroom, he looked tired, he worked long hours to provide for his family, he was a good man, a good father, and he tried to be a good husband. Penny placed her book aside and pulled back the sheets and patted the bed. "Come to bed hun, you look tired."

He was distracted and hadn't heard Penny, "Ah, that's why it didn't work." he turned and walked out of the bedroom toward the lounge room and Penny knew back to his laptop and back to his work.

Penny switched her bedside table lamp off, she knew Leonard wouldn't be coming to bed for hours.

"So what time did you get to bed last night?"

"Three or four perhaps." Leonard took a sip of his coffee. He leaned his head back and closed his eyes, they were smarting from lack of sleep.

"Hun, you need to get more than three hours sleep." Penny said as she tried to get Angelo to eat some breakfast.

"Yeah I know."

"You need a holiday, we need a holiday." Penny replied.

"MMM." Leonard sat with his eyes closed, but he really didn't hear Penny.

"Amy rang yesterday, it's her birthday soon and she invited us to come celebrate with her." Penny wiped her son's mouth and placed him on the floor and watched as he ran back to his bedroom.

"Did you hear me Leonard?"

"MM, maybe."

"Maybe you heard me, or maybe we should go visit Amy?"

Leonard sat up and looked at Penny. "Pen, I can't take time off work at the moment, we are so close to."

Penny interrupted him. "Same story every time."

Leonard stood up and called out. "Taylor, time to go."

Penny walked into her daughter's bedroom, Taylor was an intelligent little girl, much further ahead in her school work than other children her age, she got that from her father, she was also blonde with green eyes a very pretty girl, she got that from her mother. Taylor grabbed her school bag when she saw her mother and ran towards the door, Penny bent down and adjusted her daughter's pig tails so they were even and then she kissed her goodbye and watched as she ran toward the waiting hand of her father.

His lips were soft, much softer than she thought they would be, his arms were much stronger than she thought they would be and he kissed much better than he ought to be able too. Penny had gone to say her goodbyes to Sheldon and somehow she had ended in his embrace. Why hadn't he told her before how he felt, it was too late now, she and Leonard were married and she was leaving the next day to live in New York, to be with her waiting husband. She opened her eyes and looked into his. "Penny, stay." was all he said.

She jerked awake. Penny hadn't dreamt about Sheldon and that night for years now, perhaps it was Amy mentioning his name yesterday on the phone, telling Penny that he still lived in 4A by himself, that Howard and Raj rarely saw him anymore and that Amy herself didn't visit him very much either. He was alone in the world.

Penny looked at the clock it was 3pm, time to go collect Taylor.