A/N Here's the next chapter. As I said, I will be on the road, so you won't get one of Monday. You will get one on Tuesday.

Chapter 6

Apt 4B, 8 AM, Feb 14th, 2012

Leonard had left a half hour before, but Penny got another half hour of sleep, and after she got up, a cup of coffee. She took several sips, while checking her email, then took the coffee with her to the bathroom and got her shower. She had dried her hair and dressed in loose fitting, comfortable clothing.

She had debated getting something to eat, but then remembered there would be the craft services table with all sorts of goodies, so she filled her travel mug with coffee, put her script and some makeup in her bag, and left the apartment at 9, knowing it would take a half hour to get to Burbank, and the Warner Brothers' studios.

She got off of the Ventura Freeway at Riverside, and turned left on West Olive. She turned into the studios at gate three and a few minutes later was parking her car next to Stage 25. There she parked in between, several Audis and Mercedes Benzes, a couple of Lexuses, and even a Ferrari. She was a bit embarrassed by her car, but thought, Well, at least mine is a foreign car, even though it's only a Volkswagen.

One of the people who had been hovering around Jim and Kelli yesterday saw Penny come in and walked quickly up to her. "Hi, Penelope," said the woman. "My name is Tina Powell, I'm the production manager. I want to take you to your dressing room."

"Nice to meet you Tina," said Penny. "Please, call me Penny."

"Ok, Penny, follow me, this way" Tina walked quickly and Penny found she had to trot to catch up. She took Penny to the other end of the stage, and led her up the stairs. There were several doors, and Tina walked up to one and opened it. "Here ya go, Penny." As Penny walked in, she saw Penelope Jensen on the door, along with her character's name.

"Your bathroom is that door over there," said Tina. "It also has a shower, and a hair drier, along with a makeup table. You can see the television up on the wall, the DVR below it. It also has a Blue Ray player. Over there is the fridge and you can see the chairs and sofa. If you're not needed on the floor, you can watch what's happening on the set, on the TV."

"The red phone over there is connected to a phone on the floor, if you come up here, tell me, and I can call you if you're not there when needed, but Jim and Kelli like their actors to be available. The other phone is for the regular phone network." She handed Penny a card and continued, "This is the username and password you should use to connect to our Wi-Fi network."

"We're going to start at 10, so be downstairs, where the table was yesterday. You can bring your coffee with you, and keep your script around. If you have any question, feel free to call me or if you see me, just ask. OK, gotta run, see you in a bit."

Tina ran off and Penny was breathless just listening to and watching her. Penny wanted to look around some more, but she also wanted to get something to eat and didn't want to be late for the start of rehearsal, so she left her dressing room, closed the door, and headed back down the stairs.

She got to craft services and picked out various fruits and put the in a bowl. She also refilled her coffee cup and stood near the table, eating the fruit. After she was finished, she walked over to where the tables had been yesterday, found her directors chair and sat down. She smiled and said hi to Jeanie and David as they arrived, and after a few minutes Dana came up.

Exactly at ten, the Kelli, Jim and another guy came out. Jim introduced him: his name was Ron Andrews, and said he will only direct the pilot, as he was already signed for another show. Tina was there also, and she passed out four new pages to the script. Penny shoved her new pages between the old ones, then everyone was ready to start.

The director said a few words, and then told everyone to come over to the main sets. Penny and Jeanie went to their apartment, and David and Dana went to David's apartment. With that, the director told David and Dana he would be over there in 15 to 20 minutes, after he set the women's blocking first. He came back over to the women's apartment and said, "Ok, everyone ready?" When the women nodded, he said, "OK, Penelope, stand behind the table, and Jeanie, over by the sink. This is where we're going to start out."

Caltech Laser lab, 11 AM, Feb 14th, 2012

Leonard was going over his calculations, making sure he had everything right. Sheldon was coming down to the lab and he didn't want to be harassed or condescended to, because he missed something in his math. Getting to the final page, he flipped it over, and went to get a cup of coffee.

He had just sat down at the workbench he used as a desk, when Sheldon came in.

"OK," said Sheldon, "Let's get this over with. It shouldn't take long. I'm sure I'll find something wrong with this. Tell me about it."

Leonard shook his head, he didn't want to keep hearing crap from Sheldon, but he did need his theoretical insights. So, he started explaining. "Sheldon, I want to explain what I'm trying to do, and then want you to look at the theoretical side to maybe see if it's possible."

"What exactly are you trying to do?" asked Sheldon.

"Well," said Leonard. "you know the EM force is a vector boson…"

"Yes, Leonard," Sheldon said dismissively, "All spin 1 particles are vector bosons, including the weak force particles, even though they have mass. You don't need to explain it to me, I'm the theorist, after all."

Leonard gritted his teeth, and then said, "I'm going over this methodically, Sheldon, so you can see where my thinking comes from and also so I can keep my thinking on track."

"Oh, well if that's why you're doing it, continue."

"OK," said Leonard, "I've been doing some work with lasers, and I was able to get some, what I thought were reflections off of photons. I'm able to handle the Quantum Field Theory math, well enough. I checked the math and my preliminary results showed the reflection shapes I was getting, matched the shape the math said I should get."

"Really?" said Sheldon, "You can handle the …"

"Yes, Sheldon, I can, and the reflections did fit to the first order," said Leonard. "I'll give you my results and the calculations so you can verify it. I realize you don't believe anyone can come up with something good, besides you. But, that is not what I want to talk to you about, so will you be quiet and listen?"

"Very well, you don't have to be so snippy."

Leonard sighed, "Then listen please. Now, here's the problem I'm having with this whole idea. I can match the first order calculation and the shape of the reflection for spin 1. I've been thinking about trying to see if I could detect other bosons. The scalar boson, the Higgs, and possibly the graviton, which, as you know is a tensor boson…"

"Leonard," interrupted Sheldon again, "Scalars, vectors are tensors also, just lower ranking tensors."

"Sheldon, I said let me finish, then you can make your snarky comments, OK?" Leonard looked at Sheldon sternly, and he simply nodded. "Here's the thing," said Leonard, "I think I know how to calculate the shape of the Higgs, but I don't know how to calculate the shape of the graviton."

"I can handle the tensors of General Relativity, where gravity is the warping of space-time. But, I don't know how to do the calculations for the quantum equivalent of the graviton, the exchange particle for gravity. I know you can't renormalize a graviton, I think it has something to do with the tensor representation in GR."

"Actually, no, it doesn't," said Sheldon. "It's a property of tensors generally."

"But," said Leonard, "vectors and scalars are generalized tensors, and you can renormalize vectors and scalars."

"Well, yes," said Sheldon, "I was being imprecise. It's a property of rank 2 or higher tensors, the equivalent of spin 2 particles. Rank 0 and rank 1, representing spin 1 and spin zero particles, are renormalizable, so scalars, like the Higgs and vectors, like the photon, can be worked with. The problem comes when you try to transfer a rank two tensor, into a Lagrangian, if you try to work out a second order loop, you can't pick a cut off, to do the renormalization which causes ultraviolet infinities."

"Anyway," said Leonard, "I was hoping you would be able to calculate the shape of the reflection on a graviton, and the second order reflections of the other particles. So I could check to see if there really are any reflections. I may have to see about getting some time on the petawatt laser in Texas, or possibly see if the university can afford a more powerful laser, to test it, but I need the math worked out before I start down those roads."

Sheldon didn't say anything, but appeared to be looking at the ceiling. Leonard knew he was thinking about it, so he stayed quiet for a couple of minutes, when Sheldon suddenly spoke. "Leonard, I can do the one loop for the graviton, but I think I have to do a second loop to get a definitive shape, and that's where the problems start."

"The other particles wont be any problem for second order and higher, after all, I led the university's team which did the sixth order calculations. Let me look at your results and calculations. If they aren't totally worthless, I may be able to see something in them. It may be a couple of months, as I have my own more important work to consider."

Leonard ignored the dismissive comment and handed over the folder with all his work. He of course kept all the original work. Sheldon took the folder and started to walk out. He stopped at the door and said, "Are you going to be able to take me home tonight? You've been ignoring me to be home in time for Penny and if this continues, I'll have to write in some fines for the roommate agreement."

Leonard shook his head, "No Sheldon, I'll be able to take you home, you won't have to call Amy tonight."

"Good," said Sheldon, "and don't forget it's New Comic Book night and we have to stop at the comic book store." He turned and left before Leonard could say anything.

Hallway, Apartment Building, 8 PM, Feb 14th, 2012

Sheldon and Leonard had walked up the stairs. Leonard knew Penny was home, as he saw her car before entering the building. He was carrying a bouquet of roses he had stopped to buy, for Penny, over Sheldon's objections, and several boxes of Chinese food, for their dinner. Upon arriving on the fourth floor, Sheldon walked to 4A and Leonard went to 4B. Leonard tried to open the door, but it was locked.

Leonard looked puzzled and knocked on the door. After about a minute he knocked again. Now, he was worried. He walked over to 4A and got the emergency key, walked back and unlocked the door.

The lights were off, so he flipped the switch. He could see Penny's jacket on the couch, and her shoes next to it. On the coffee table was her phone, an open bottle of wine and an empty glass.

Looking around, Leonard called out, "Penny, are you here?"

He heard a muffled, "Here, in the bedroom."

He laid the flowers on the coffee table, the boxes of Chinese food on the kitchen table, then walked quickly to the bedroom, which was dark. He again flipped a light switch on and saw Penny laying in bed. Her eyes were puffy, looking like she had been crying.

Leonard immediately became concerned, as he walked to the bed and sat on it, next to Penny. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, Leonard," said Penny sounding agitated. "It was terrible. I sucked so much today. Everything I did was wrong."

"What do you mean?"

"I couldn't find my spots," said Penny. "I couldn't walk in the right place, I stopped at the wrong place or the wrong time, I couldn't find my lines in script. I looked like an idiot out there today."

"OK, slow down," said Leonard. "What do you mean you couldn't find your spots?"

"When you move," said Penny, "you're supposed go to a specific spot, then stop and face a specific direction. The lights, the cameras are all placed, and we are supposed to move to a place where the lights and camera can see our face. I kept going to the wrong place, looking in the wrong direction, we had to keep doing scenes over and over because I couldn't hit my spots."

"Ok, calm down," said Leonard. "What about the walking in the right place and stopping?"

"The director tells you where you are supposed to walk," said Penny. "Like he would tell me to walk upstage of the couch, then move downstage to the chair. And I would walk downstage of the couch, moving right to the chair. That happened so many times. I was so busy trying to say my lines that I would forget where to walk."

"Then there was the timing. I was supposed to be at a certain place at a certain time, like when Jeannie stopped talking, but I would still be walking, and trying to say my lines. So, I was facing away from the camera at that time. When this happened, the director would yell at me to be facing the camera, because the microphones were in the direction too. See, I couldn't face the camera because I hadn't gotten to my place yet. Then I would try to find my lines, in the script, and stumble over lines or say the wrong line."

"I kept screwing up," said Penny, "and because of that, we probably spent almost three hours more than we should have. Jeanie was really nice about it. Dave didn't say anything, but Dana made a really snarky comment, trying to be funny I think, I just wasn't sure if he was serious."

"And the director was the worst. He just kept yelling at me, and telling me everything I was doing wrong. He had nothing good to say. He got really sarcastic, and I almost wanted to start crying, but I didn't want to give him the satisfaction."

"Once I got home, I wanted to cry and let everything out, but I held off. Then, around seven, Kelli called. She was very short and just told me to be there at 8:30 in the morning. She wouldn't say why." Penny paused for a minute, "After she hung up, I just broke down. I think they want to fire me." Leonard could see tears forming in her eyes.

Leonard looked at her. "Come on," he said.

"What?"

"I brought dinner home," said Leonard. "We're going to eat. Then were going to move the living room around so it's like your set, and then we'll go over where and when you're supposed to walk, or sit, or stand. We'll keep going over it until you have it in your mind. That way, tomorrow, you'll be ready."

"But, why bother if they are going to fire me?"

"Then this doesn't matter," said Leonard. "But, that is not important, because if they don't fire you, you'll be much better prepared tomorrow. They will see you are working hard to get it right, which means you won't give them a reason to fire you."

Penny looked up at Leonard and smiled. Leonard reached out his hand, and Penny grabbed it and he helped her up. They walked out to kitchen table. Leonard said, "You get the plates and silverware, I'll get your bottle and glass of wine."

Penny went to the cupboard to get the plates, while Leonard picked up her glass and bottle, noticing the bottle was empty. He also picked up the flowers and, holding them behind his back, brought them to the table. Leonard put the bottle and glass down, while Penny had put the plates down. He touched her arm and she turned. He brought out the flowers, holding them in front of her. She was smiling and said, "Thank you Leonard, but what is the occasion?"

Leonard smiled and said, "It's Valentine's Day, so happy Valentine's Day."

Penny smile slipped a bit, "But, I didn't get anything for you."

"Don't worry about it," said Leonard. "I wanted to give you a good Valentine's Day, since it's our first one back together. Let's eat, then we can move the furniture around and get working on your moving around."

Penny wrapped her arms around Leonard, said, "Thank you, Leonard, I love you," then kissed him.