A/N Sorry this is a day late. Getting caught up and continuing. I'm almost finished with the first draft of Chapter 39 right now, so it wasn't a case of writer's block that caused the day delay. Real Life intruded (health issues and getting cast in a play). Should have chapter 40 and maybe 41 finished by the time I publish chapter 21 next week, then I'll go back to publishing when I finished a new first draft.
Chapter 20
Apt 314, New York, 2:00 PM, Tuesday August 7, 2012
Jeanie had finished the script around three. While reading they had both laughed at the script, and at each other, when they were laughing. Jeanie had finished first and went over to pour herself another cup of coffee. When Penny had finished, she got up and headed toward the coffee pot also. Jeanie said, "Well, what do you think?"
Penny thought for a minute, while she poured her cup, "It's funny, actually funnier than the pilot."
"What about our interaction?"
Penny walked back to the table and sat down, "What about it?"
"You didn't notice the little change in how we talk to each other?"
"Honestly, no," said Penny, "what do you mean, and how did you notice?"
Jeanie chuckled, "I did learn a thing or two at college. One thing they taught us was script analysis. How do the characters interact, how do they talk, how do they react, all of that? In this case, originally, you were pretty sweet and naive. But, there were some changes in the first script, and you had a snarky comment here and there. Now, in this script, you are all sorts of sarcastic and judgmental."
I don't see it, how could Jeanie? Maybe I'm not really able to do this. She thought sadly.
Jeanie saw the reaction in her face and said, "Hey, don't worry about it. You did fine in the pilot, you'll do fine here."
"I was more worried about how you knew that," said Penny. "I don't see it at all, and if I can't see it, how good will I be?"
"Penny," said Jeanie, "you'll get it. I've gotten much better since I've been reading scripts, it will come."
Penny sighed, "I guess, but I feel like I'm in way over my head."
"Don't worry," Said Jeanie, "you'll see. If you don't understand something, just ask me. I'm going to do all I can to help you."
"But, why?," ask Penny. "I'm just a someone who doesn't understand how I got so lucky as to get this. And you, you, you're a st…"
"Penny, listen to me," said Jeanie, "I'll help you because it makes the show better. Remember that. Especially if you go on to have a career. If you make other cast members stronger, you make the show stronger, and if the show is stronger, it has a better chance of staying on. Which means you get to keep getting a paycheck. Now, how about we go get some dinner, and then I'm going to look it over some more, decide on some line readings, and I suggest you do the same. We can talk about the script some more the rest of the week."
Penny smiled, "Sounds good, I also have a call to Leonard to make later. Let me get my purse, and we can go.
Apartment 4A, 6:30 PM Tuesday August 7, 2012
They had just finished eating. There was leftover salad, left over breadsticks, and leftover pizza. Leonard had been telling everyone about Penny, based on talking to her. He was puzzled because Bernadette seemed upset with him, but he couldn't think of anything that would have caused that.
He had asked her about her job, asked about how Howard was doing, even asked about how things were going with Howard's mom, but all he got were short sharp answers. While with everyone else, Bernadette seemed like, well, sweet Bernadette.
He had gotten up and was cleaning up the plates, cups, flatware and the boxes that were scattered around the tables, chairs and floor. Raj and Amy were discussing something about monkey's, and Bernadette got up and started helping him.
After getting the trash thrown away, Leonard washed and Bernadette dried the dishes. While doing the dishes, Leonard noticed that Bernadette was again being short with him.
Finally, he turned to her and said, "What is wrong with you? It's like I've done something to make you mad at me."
"What gives you that idea?" said Bernadette angrily looking at him.
"Bernadette," Leonard said, "you're snapping at me, and not snapping at everyone else. So are you going to tell me what's wrong, or are you just going be crappy toward me for the rest of the night?"
Staring at him, she finally said, "Can we go over to Penny's apartment? I've got something to tell you, something I think you should, no, you need to know. And I don't want to do it in front of the others."
Leonard was taken aback, but he nodded and said, "Come on."
He started walking toward the door, telling the others. "I need to get something for Bernadette, from Penny's and she's going to help me find it, we'll be back in a bit."
Leonard and Bernadette walked over to 4B, and after entering, Leonard closed the door. Bernadette had walked to the window and was looking out. Leonard waited for her to say something but after 20-30 seconds of her not saying anything, he said, "So, what's all this about?"
Bernadette whirled around, "How could you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Let Penny go to New York by herself," said Bernadette. "That is the biggest mistake you've ever made with her."
"What do you mean?" said Leonard sounding confused. "This was her big break, I've supported her trying to become an actress, and this is her chance for a good career. Besides, how could I have stopped her?"
"Oh, Come on," said Bernadette. "What she needed to hear was she shouldn't go. If you had simply said that she wouldn't have gone."
"Wait a minute," said Leonard, "why did she need to hear that? And why am I the one to tell her? I'm not telling her anything like that. She's wanted to be an actress before I even knew her. She moved out here to become an actress. I want her to be happy, and if being an actress makes her happy, then that's what she should do."
"Besides," said Leonard, "why do you think you're in any position to tell me what to do about Penny. What about you and Howard?"
"What about me and Howard?"
"You let Howard go to the Space Station," said Leonard. "You were afraid to let him go, and he was actually scared to go, but you let him, why?"
Bernadette looked away from Leonard, "It was his dream, I couldn't stand in the way of that. I started to, but realized it wasn't fair to stop him."
"And me stopping Penny is different, how?" asked Leonard.
"OK, fine," said Bernadette, "you couldn't stop her, because it's her dream. But, if she was going to go, you should have gone with her."
"Why? What was I supposed to do, quit my job and just follow her around?"
"Don't play dumb with me," said Bernadette.
"I'm not," said Leonard, "what the hell is wrong with her going by herself?
"She wasn't ready."
"What do you mean?" asked Leonard. "They picked her to play the part, I would say the people that picked her know more about whether she is ready than you do."
"She wasn't ready emotionally," said Bernadette.
"That's crazy," said Leonard."She moved out of her boyfriend's apartment to move here, was she ready for that?"
"Not the same thing, Leonard," said Bernadette. "You didn't see her when you were dating Priya. Has she told you about that?"
"She didn't get specific, she just said it got rough for her."
Bernadette looked at Leonard and sighed, "I guess it was only me and Amy knew how rough it was for her. Did she tell you about how she broke down crying when you started dating Priya?"
"No, wait, what?" said Leonard, "When did she break down crying?"
Bernadette realized that he didn't know how bad Penny had been, "It was that night Priya first came over," Penny had left earlier and when Amy was leaving, she went over to see her, and ask her how she was doing. She tried to make it out as if it was a good thing for you, but she broke down crying. She was still upset that weekend, when you went with Priya to Catalina.
"Why would she be upset?"
"Leonard, she still had feelings for you. Amy and I had seen it prior to Priya, but she didn't want to admit it. The whole time you were with Priya, she struggled. She wanted to see you happy, but was upset because it wasn't with her. She also wanted to tell you, but didn't think it would be fair to you or your relationship. She doesn't handle stress very good and the conflicting emotions were stressful to her. To make it through, she started drinking — a lot. There'd be nights where we had to put her to bed."
"I still don't understand."
"Leonard," said Bernadette, "she leaned on you for support. Even if you two weren't dating, you were always right across the hall if she needed you. When you were dating Priya, she still had feelings for you and was upset that you were no longer available. She couldn't depend on you for help anymore and so when she was having problems dealing with things, she didn't know what to do, and started drinking."
"For example, one night, we tried to take her dancing. She said she was fine, and didn't need to get out, but we insisted, trying to get her mind off of you. She finally agreed, but wasn't really into it, saying she was fine being single. Then Amy and I found the snowflake on her nightstand and…"
"Wait a minute," said Leonard, "she had the snowflake on her nightstand?"
"Yep," said Bernadette, "that was pretty sweet of you. Anyway, after that, we went out, but all she did was drink, and talk about you. Guys would ask her to dance and she would blow them off. That was one of the nights we had to put her to bed. One night she passed out when we were playing twister."
"But why?"
"She loved you, but couldn't or didn't know how to say it. But now, you've let her go to New York. You're not going to be there for her, just like you weren't there when you were dating Priya. I bet if she's under pressure and/or stress or if she has any problems, she starts drinking again."
"This is different," said Leonard. "We can call each other, and Skype, and we'll be able to see each other every three weeks. And besides, it's not like we're not together now. So that shouldn't be a problem."
"You don't get it Leonard," said Bernadette. "If things are not going well for her, if she has problems handling it, and you aren't right there, she will probably start drinking again. When she was struggling with the rehearsals here, you were there to help her or talk to her. Now, with her in New York, you won't be there for that kind of thing. A call or Skype isn't the same thing, and even there, the three hour difference could be a barrier."
"Well, there isn't anything I can do now," said Leonard bitterly. "I already feel guilty about how much I miss her and want her back here. But if I tell her that, she may just come back and I can't take a chance that I mess up her career. If I tell her, and she abandons her dream to come back, I don't know if I could handle THAT. So what do I do?"
"I'm not sure," said Bernadette, "unless you are going to tell her she needs to come home, about the only thing you can do is to watch her closely on Skype. Really pay attention during the calls and watch her when she comes back on those weeks she's off. All I can do is tell you what I think. You're going to have to make the decision based on her actions."
Leonard looked downcast, "That would break her heart, and I'm not doing that, just like you and Howard. I want to see her succeed. We did talk about this you know. She was just as stubborn about me not quitting, so if I tell her I'm moving to New York, she'll quit anyway, and I'm not going to risk that. On top of all this, I'll be getting a call from her in about an hour, so I've got to get this off of my mind, so thanks for that," he ended sarcastically.
"Oh, be quiet," said Bernadette, "I'm just trying to help you. If you want to get snarky about it, I won't bother."
"No," said Leonard, "I'm sorry, you're right. I'll watch her and make sure she's doing all right. If you see something let me know."
"I will," said Bernadette. "We have several 'girl's nights' planned, so I'll check on her then.
"So, you good with this?"
"Not really," said Bernadette, "but, I don't see any other way around this."
"I don't either," said Leonard, "so the only choice I have is to let her do her job in New York, watch her for signs of stress, and be there if she calls for me.
"Yeah," said Bernadette, "I guess that is it. Ready to go back?"
"Yeah, let's go."
They left 4B, Leonard locked the door, and they returned to 4A.
Apt 601, New York, 10:00 AM, Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Jeanie took Penny to some of various places around the city where tourists usually went. First, they took a taxi to Battery Park. They walked around in the park, and Jeanie pointed out New Jersey, Ellis Island, and the Statue of Liberty. Penny told her that her and Leonard had gone there, and to the Empire State Building, during the upfronts. After an hour there, Jeanie took Penny up Waters Street, and found a pizza place for lunch. As they sat outside, Jeanie pointed out The Brooklyn bridge.
After lunch, she took penny to Wall Street and showed Penny the stock market building, then took her to the 9-11 Memorial. Jeanie was interested in it also, as it had not been open, when she had been working on Broadway. They then caught a cab and stopped at the United Nations building, to look around for about an hour.
After that, they stopped for dinner near their apartment building, and getting to their building, went to their own apartments. Penny worked on some line readings for a couple of hours, then called Leonard, talking to him for over an hour, before they decided they wanted to finish their call in their bedrooms.
Apt 314, New York, 9:00 AM, Friday, August 10, 2012
Penny was sitting at her kitchen table, sipping her coffee, studying her script, and waiting for Jeanie. Jeanie had some errands to run on Thursday, but had promised to take Penny around the theatre district today. Just after nine, Penny heard the knock on her door. She answered it, asked Jeanie to come in and wait for a few seconds while Penny got her purse.
Jeanie told her there were a couple of places she wanted to take Penny today. They walked to Columbus Circle, and then they walked North on Broadway, ending up at the building at 1900 Broadway. Surprising Penny, Jeanie entered the building with Penny and took her to the fifth floor, where the SAG-AFTRA office was. She introduced Penny to several of the people there, also explaining that this is where Penny should come, or call, if there was any union problem with screen work.
After leaving, they caught a cab to Times Square. Penny was thrilled, taking pictures, but Jeanie had an ulterior motive. She took Penny past The Palace theatre, and entered the building to the right, and then got into he elevator. It was going up and when it stopped, Penny was surprised to find she was in the offices of Actor's Equity.
Jeanie had to come here for some paperwork, and she wanted to show Penny where the office was, if she ever got a job in the theatre, and needed to become a member. Jeanie even suggested that she join now, but Penny demurred, saying she didn't think she would ever do theatre. Jeanie explained that as a member of SAG, and having a major role, she was eligible for Equity, but she understood if Penny wanted to wait.
Jeanie filled out her paperwork, turned it in, and then both of them left, Jeanie taking Penny around to the three theatres she had worked in, then several of the others which were well known. Penny was shocked to find the theatres, really didn't look like theatres, they looked pretty much like all the other buildings around them.
Other than name of the theatre in a neon sign, only the numerous show posters, on either side of the doors, indicated a show was running inside. Even most of the marquees were under an overhang, making them difficult to see. She also thought it was strange that most of the Broadway theatres, weren't on Broadway, but on streets off to either side of Broadway.
By this time, it was getting close to five PM, and Jeanie suggested they catch a cab home. Getting to their building, they walked to the Indian restaurant, had dinner, then went home to their own apartments.