Here we go again. The Hofstadters keep climbing into my head. This story takes off after Jenny and Max have been home for a while. Read "The Perfect Number" if you want to know Jenny and Max from the start. The four friends have different things happening in their lives that they will need to deal with.

Oh... I own nothing

It is Saturday morning at 1:00 AM. Leonard had just gotten home. He had been putting in time with the new Argon laser. To get the time he needed, he scheduled evening hours three days a week. The apartment was dark; Penny was asleep along with Max and Jenny. He suspected that Penny had put them down between 10:00 and 11:00. Usually, they would sleep almost all night, letting Penny get some rest.

This night, as he was about to crawl in bed with Penny, he heard a small whimper from the next room. He quickly gathered himself so as to not wake Penny. He went in the next room to find Jenny awake. Leonard quickly picked up his daughter and checked for any hidden surprises. Finding none, he took her into the living room to see if she was hungry. Penny had left some breast milk in the fridge. Jenny was not hungry. She just seemed to want to cuddle.

As Leonard held her close, Max started to stir. Leonard wanted to let Penny rest so he went into the kids' room to see if Max was OK. Max seemed upset. Leonard thought he needed a change so he put Jenny in the crib and picked up Max. Leonard noticed that as he picked up Max, Jenny would fuss. Max didn't need a change either. Leonard put Max down and picked up Jenny. She calmed down but Max fussed. Determined now to let Penny sleep, Leonard was in quite a fix. Picking either of his children up, left the other fussing. He didn't really know how Penny handled this. In fact, he had a new found admiration for his beautiful wife. He had seen her handle both children more than once. She did it without thinking and as if it was the most natural thing. "Think, Leonard, think. You're better than this".

Suddenly, he had an epiphany. He got one of the baby carriers they used for walks with the kids and strapped it on carefully placing Max in, and then picked up Jenny. He reached into the closet and took out the blue snuggie with sleeves Penny had given him. It seemed the babies were just looking for some snuggle time. Neither was hungry and they were both dry and clean. Leonard sat in his chair and removed Max from the carrier and threw it to the couch as Jenny was on his lap. Leonard carefully repositioned his children on his chest while covering them all with the snuggie carefully tucking the snuggie behind each shoulder. They sat there in his chair, each cooing at their father, wrapped comfortably. Leonard shushed them while gently rubbing their backs until they all fell asleep.

Bernadette was straightening up the closet. As much as they tried, it just never measured up to how it was when Sheldon had organized it. She thought to herself, "We're going to have to have another dinner party". She was looking at some of the pictures that Sheldon had put away when Howard came in. "Howie, what was it like growing up alone"?

Howard sat down in the closet with Bernadette. "Alone with my mother? Or alone with no dad"?

Bernadette took her husband's hand. "Growing up with no brothers or sisters. I had a bunch of them and being older, I had to take care of them sometimes it was really no fun".

Howard looked down at some of the pictures. "Well, it could get a little lonely. Even with the friends I had, you find yourself feeling alone. I had to try to be strong for my mom. She was pretty broken up after my dad left".

Bernadette put her arm around Howard's shoulder and gave him a little hug. "I'm so sorry for you honey, you were a really good son".

Howard smiled back. "I tried, that's why I probably got into the science fiction stuff and the video games and stuff. It was an escape for me. I had no dad to do all the normal father, son stuff".

Bernadette kissed her husband, thinking..."

Raj was sitting on his couch wringing his hands in anticipation. Alex was in the bathroom with the pregnancy test she bought at the pharmacy, just the day before.

Raj and Alex had been seeing each other on a pretty regular basis since Max and Jenny were born. They actually had a lot in common. Each was a PhD in Astrophysics. Raj was still working with Sheldon, which always had its own set of interesting developments. Alex on the other hand was still trying to get out from under Sheldon's grasp on her career as she tried to start one of her own. She had submitted a grant proposal for funding dealing with the SETI project. She was very excited that she might be able to work with her father.

But, for now any excitement that might come with the confirmation of the grant proposal, was replaces by the anxiety of the result that would develop on the PEE STICK that she held in her hand, waiting for the next FIVE MINUTES to expire. This was certainly not how she had expected things to progress. She wasn't even sure if this is the way she WANTED them to progress….

FOUR MINUTES….. Sure Raj was a nice guy and sure he was handsome in a cute kind of way, but it had only been a few months since he could talk to women without the use of alcohol. Was HE even sure of their "relationship"?...

THREE MINUTES….. Her career was just about to start, how would this affect her prospects? Would there be a place for her here on the Cal Tech staff? Would there be any spots on the west coast? Would Raj's Visa be transferrable if he followed her to another region of the country? …

TWO MINUTES….. How would her parents feel about Raj? Sure she had talked to them about him. And her father was thrilled that Raj was in the same field as she was and himself for that matter. But a child? What would that mean? Her parents were fairly religious and this certainly would go over with some trepidation. What about HIS parents? From what he had told her, his mother was very set in her belief that Raj should marry an Indian girl. They had even gone so far as to cut him off with their support when he was seeing that deaf girl….

ONE MINUTE… What was this going to do to his social life? How would it affect his social group? From what she could see, it centered around the small group from the University. Sheldon was her boss, at least for the time being, until she heard about the grant from SETI. That would be uncomfortable. Howard and his wife seemed nice, but Bernadette was pretty close with Penny. Penny… there was going to be some potential issues there considering her marriage to Leonard. Penny had never really accepted her into the group. Probably because of her misguided flirtations with Leonard before she was assured that Leonard would never stray from Penny for anyone or anything. Things were better since the wedding and the birth of their children, but whenever Leonard was in the room, she could see that Penny kept an eye on her and how she and Leonard interacted…..

ZERO MINUTES….

Sheldon and Amy were sitting on the couch watching Dr. Who. Amy couldn't believe that she was actually sitting next to Sheldon at such an early hour. As she half-heartedly watched the show on the television, she couldn't help but to think of the situation and questions that were so apparent to her. He had called her the evening before and asked if she would like to come over early the next morning. Sheldon had a bit of urgency to the request so Amy agreed and Sheldon hung up the phone before Amy could get clarification or any additional information as to why Sheldon was making this off the cuff, out of schedule, over the quota request for additional time together.