Things start to settle in
Dont own anything
The next few weeks were as hectic as they could possibly be for Penny. She was still upset about the issues she and Leonard were having, and the Director was, in her opinion, becoming more and more unstable. He either fired more of the cast for not following his directions, or they simply had had enough and quit. This meant that the less experienced cast members moved up in the pecking order. This was not necessarily a good thing considering the spotlight was then cast directly on you. At least if you weren't front and center, you could stick around longer and still be able to pay the bills.
Unfortunately for Penny, she apparently had risen to the top. Fortunately for Penny, she was not easily pushed around and had had so many disappointments in her acting career she would try just about anything. She wasn't the lead, but her part was becoming bigger and she had to memorize more and more lines. The opening was just a few days away and she was getting more anxious. When she was back home in Pasadena and needed to learn her lines, she would just go across the hall and ask Leonard to help her. Now, she had nobody. She could ask Sheila, but she hadn't spoken to her since their little dust up. She couldn't call Leonard because he was in England. Their schedules were very incompatible at the moment. With the time difference, they hadn't been able to really talk about things. And then, all that had been going on with the show and he was probably "out" anyway.
Penny took her material and walked home. She thought that it would help her clear her head. When she turned onto the block with Jakes store, she decided to stop for some coffee. If she was going to do this, she was going to need some help, and a strong cup of coffee was at least a start. Penny walked into the store and the bell above the doorframe rang. She didn't see anyone behind the counter, so she just went over to where the coffee was. As she picked up a bag of coffee, she noticed someone coming out of the back room tying on an apron. Penny looked up as Leon was now walking toward her with a cute smile on his face.
Leon walked up to her. "Can I help you find anything Miss?"
Penny was surprised to see him, she remembered that he was at the theater in the morning, but had not seen him as she left this afternoon. "Leon, what are you doing here?"
Leon shrugged. "Jake had something he needed to do, so he asked me if I could help out. Lucky for me he hasn't changed the cash register since the last time I was here."
Penny smiled. "You do this often?"
Leon took the coffee from her hand and they walked up to the counter. "Nah… not so much anymore… I used to work for Jake back before I got a real job… like what I do is something to be proud of…"
Penny slapped him on the arm. "Hey… what you do is SO important! Nobody on any stage or set anywhere would be very good without you guys in the back… with your lights and sets and stuff".
Leon went behind the counter to ring Penny up. "Yeah... sure… the whole world revolves around how bright the lights are".
Penny took out some money from her purse and paid for the coffee. "Hey… do you want to run some lines with me? The Director made some changes again. I swear, I think that new Script writer isn't going to last any longer than the last one".
Leon looked up. "Sure, but I gotta stay here at the store… We could do it in the back…" Leon's eyes got very wide realizing what he had just said. "I mean read lines… you know… until Jake gets back… we could read lines… in the back…" Leon was a perfect shade of red by this point.
Penny giggled nervously at the remark easily recognizing the sexual innuendo and half smiled. "Sure… read lines…"
The last few weeks were not exactly torrid for the small group of scientists from America, but things were certainly picking up. Pence had told the small group of Americans that they had been set up in the visiting Professor's housing. They were told to leave their things at the concierge desk at the hotel. A university staff member would pick them up and deliver them to their new quarters. Pence made sure that Leonard's things were all set. Leonard never really unpacked. He just sort of lived out of his luggage. Pence delivered them to his new quarters personally, unpacking them and setting things just so for him. When she told him what she had done, he was surprised but could only comment, "I guess that's Ok". Colin had been told to take Howard and Dr. Cooper's things, a task that did not go over at all well with Sheldon as he had lost custody control of his things. Sheldon made Colin sign paperwork holding him responsible for any loss or damage, something that caused Colin to purchase at least one extra pint that evening.
There had seemed to be more frequent lectures on the academic circuit that in some ways were referencing the research from the North Sea.
Howard had been busily devising a system to track the database where the Hawking group kept the data. He devised a system that would not corrupt the data upon access by those that accessed it without the proper key, but would insert specific sequences in the data that mimicked test results. "Okay… now whenever someone access the files, they will get this little tag along with it. We should be able to run any data published and identify our tag."
Leonard asked. "What if they just look at the data?"
Howard smiled. "The data is tagged when the data is downloaded. It will infect any document no matter what media they put it to."
Sheldon interjected. "That's fairly elegant Howard, Nicely done."
Sheldon was busily pouring over the data with Leonard identifying affected data. Sheldon had also memorized the sequences inserted by Howard's system. If anyone published the data, he would be able to easily identify it. To this end, Sheldon had taken to attending any lecture that might include data from the research expedition. "There's a lecture at Oxford tomorrow night, would anyone like to go?"
Right at that time, Pence came in and heard of the lecture. "I think that would be a fantastic idea. Leonard? How about you?" Pence walked over to Leonard and took his arm smiling at him.
Leonard smiled back. "Ummm… sure… I guess…"
Howard watched the exchange and jumped in. "Sure that sounds good, let's make a night of it".
With that, Colin and Nigel walked in. "Make a night about what?"
Penny got back to her apartment and was putting on a pot of coffee. She was going to go over her lines a few times more before calling it a day. She thought to herself that Leon was a real help. You could tell that he had seen a lot of shows. He had made some suggestions that he thought would help and hopefully the director would not object to. Leon had worked with this director before so Penny thought that things might be Okay. She put on some comfortable clothes and took her coffee to the couch.
Back in Pasadena, Amy and Bernadette were finalizing their plans to see Penny when they were in New York for the biology symposium. Bernadette called Penny's number. On the third ring, Bernadette heard her friend's voice. It sounded like Penny was a bit happier than she had been when they talked over the last few weeks. Penny had not taken well to her fight with Leonard. "Hi Penny… so… you sound like you had a good day".
Penny took a sip of coffee. "The day pretty much sucked the big one, but tonight wasn't so bad".
Bernadette smiled. "That's nice… what changed?"
Penny smiled to herself. "Well, a friend of mine sat with me and we went over some script changes. It was a big help. We open in a few days and I just want things to be perfect. He said he would do it again if I wanted to, so maybe we will do it again tomorrow".
Bernadette had been told about Leon by Howard. He also told Bernadette that Leonard had been a little depressed after their last fight. Bernadette had heard the same depression in Penny's voice when she spoke to her a few times. The change was nice, but Bernadette needed to know more. "Oh… really? Who did you get to do that? I know it was one of Leonard's favorite things to do".
Penny took another sip of coffee. "Yeah it really was… but he's… you know… in England… so… anyway, it was my friend Leon, he's the lighting guy and he's worked with this pain in the ass director before, so he gave me some pointers… He's really nice… I'll introduce him when you guys get here. When is that going to be anyway?"
Bernadette scrunched up her nose when she heard the name Leon. "That's why I called… We're flying out when your show opens… Do you think we could get tickets?"
Penny smiled and bounced a little on the couch… "Oh my god… that would be so great… I'll make sure there are two at the box office for you… This is so special!"
