A/N I'm publishing a bit early. Our air is out (and it's August in Florida) and the guy will be here this afternoon. There is a little Howardette and Shamy in this chapter (and a little more in the next several). Finished the first draft of chapter 78 last night, and am on track for three more, and the epilogue to finish the first draft. As a warning, there are some sexual references in this one. On to it.

Chapter 58

Boston 11:45 PM Friday Nov 23th 2012.

Penny and Jeanie were getting ready to talk. Jeanie had agreed to wait until after Thanksgiving, but now, she was anxious to find out more. They were in the bedroom Penny was using and had both shut their phones off, so they wouldn't be disturbed.

Jeanie started off, "OK, you told me you were sure you had sex with him, how?"

Penny looked ashamed and her stomach was upset, "I had a wet spot under me when I woke up, and something else"

Jeanie let the something else slide for now. She looked at Penny. "You don't remember anything?"

"A little bit," said Penny, "he showed me his apartment, then I sat down on the couch. I was looking for my script, while he got me a glass of wine and he got himself a beer. He brought them over, and sat across from me and we started going over lines. I remember the first scene, but nothing after that."

Jeanie looked thoughtful, "Nothing eh? Hmmmmmm."

"Along with that, Brent told me I basically attacked him by taking his clothes off…" she started choking up, "He also told me I gave him a blow job and I said some bad things about Leonard.

"OK, first off," said Jeanie, "I would treat anything that Brent told you as a lie. You were drunk, but this doesn't sound like you."

"Part of it is true, so it all could be true," said Penny looking forlorn.

"How do you know?"

Tears started in Penny's eyes, she hung her head, "After I woke up, there was something on my face, you can probably figure out…"

"Oh, jeez," said Jeanie, closing her eyes, "from what I know of you, you would never do something like this."

Penny just shook her head. "What?" Said Jeanie.

"I have done things like this before," said Penny. "After I broke up with Leonard a few years ago, I went out with a guy who was my usual type of guy. He was so stupid, and I realized I just couldn't be with those type of guys anymore."

"I was feeling pretty tipsy, but lonely, and I went to Leonard for sex. He though we were back together, and I had to tell him no. When he got drunk a couple of days later, I threw him out of my apartment when he wanted the same thing."

"When Leonard was dating that Indian woman," said Penny, "I was drinking wine, with a friend of his, and woke up the next day in Leonard's bed, with his friend, with both of us naked. I had some memory of kissing him, but nothing once we got to the bedroom."

"Then as we were trying to get out of there, Leonard and the other two guys were in the living room, so they caught us. That put a strain on Leonard's and my friendship for a while. It was soon after that, Leonard broke up with that Indian woman, and if I hadn't been in bed with the other guy, we could have gotten together sooner. Although being a slut now, has ruined that."

"His friend and I talked later, he told me he had an orgasm when I tried to put on a condom. I figured that was the truth, I mean what guy would tell a lie like that"

"So, you didn't have sex?"

"Come on Jeanie," growled Penny, "I was holding his dick, when he came. For all I know, I was giving him a handjob, that's sex in my book. The point here is that I have done this before. I have hurt Leonard twice before, doing pretty much the same thing as what happened with Brent. I don't deserve Leonard, he's so great, and I'm just a dumb, blond, drunk who'll land with her legs spread, if I fall. He doesn't deserve that and I don't deserve him."

"Dammit Penny," said Jeanie, her voice rising, "Brent was not your fault, that friend was not your fault, the thing with Leonard, I'd need more info, but you seem to remember that time. The other two? If you can't remember, you were too drunk to give consent."

"But they were drunk too," said Penny.

"Doesn't matter," said Jeanie, "if you can't give consent, they should have just left you alone."

Penny couldn't quite believe it wasn't her fault, after all, she was the one who got drunk, she had to be responsible. But, the way Jeanie had put it, she could see where it might not be her fault. She felt confused, but looked at Jeanie, shook her head, and said, "It's my fault Jeanie, I'm the one that got drunk."

"No dammit," said Jeanie, "it's not your fault. I've been in the same situation, drank too much and ended up in bed with someone I shouldn't have been in bed with, and couldn't remember."

Penny looked shocked, "You?" "Yes, me," said Jeanie. "A lot of women have it happen to them."

"In Nebraska, we call them skanks."

"Oh, really," said Jeanie sarcastically, "so, I'm a skank?"

"No, no, I didn't mean…"

Get that through your head, if a woman can't remember, because she was too drunk, it's not the woman's fault" You might think about going to the police."

"I can't do that," said Penny, dejectedly. "It's his word against mine, and no one is going to believe me, at least not now anyways. It was several weeks ago and they'll ask why I waited. Face it, I lost control, I got drunk, and I slept with Brent. It's all on me. The big question, now, is what am I going to do?"

Jeanie said, "The only thing I have right now is to talk to Leonard, but you don't want to do that."

Tears started in Penny's eyes as she shook her head, "It will just hurt him too bad, and I can't do that to him."

Jeanie diplomatically didn't point out what she was doing was probably hurting him, "Then I don't have an answer for you right now. I'm going to have to think about it some more, and try to come up with an answer."

Wolowitz's Apartment 9:00 AM Friday Nov 23th 2012.

Bernadette called Penny, but her call went right to voicemail. Bernadette left a message:

"Penny, I need to talk to you, please call me."

After hanging up, Bernadette had no idea what to do. As she sat there, Howard came in, got a cup of coffee and joined her at the table.

"What's wrong?" asked Howard. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

Bernadette didn't know quite how to explain this to Howard, so she was quiet for several seconds, "Howie, you've got to promise me, you can't say anything about what I'm going to tell you, until I tell you it's OK."

Howard looked concerned, "Sure, whatever you say."

"Leonard asked me to call Penny," said Bernadette, "and try to find out what's wrong."

"Why doesn't he just call her?" said Howard, taking a sip of coffee.

"He's been trying," said Bernadette, "but, she doesn't answer his calls, she won't answer his emails and texts, and she only calls sporadically, and then cuts it short. He thought she might talk to me."

"OK," said Howard, "so why all the secrecy?"

"I found this, this morning," said Bernadette, as she opened her computer, changed tabs, then spun the computer around, so Howard could see the screen. As he read, Bernadette could see Howard's mouth drop open, then he said, "Oh God. What did Penny do?"

"We don't know, Howie," said Bernadette. "We don't know anything. That's one of those rag papers, that'll print lies, that's why you can't say anything, until I can talk to Penny and hear what's really happening."

Howard just nodded, a look of shock still on his face.

Apt 4A 1:00 PM Friday Nov 23th 2012.

Leonard was working on his idea for the reflections, and he wasn't getting anywhere. He had run up against a brick wall, both from lack of data from Geoff, and Sheldon not getting back with him.

He had heard Sheldon come out to the kitchen, pour his cereal, and take it to the couch to eat. While he had heard him, he wasn't paying any attention to him, and continued on working on the equations on his white board.

He was surprised to hear Sheldon's voice, "Leonard?"

He turned around and said, "Yes, Sheldon."

"I think I may have something," said Sheldon, "it doesn't quite fit with your idea, but it may go beyond it."

Leonard was instantly attentive, "What?"

"Actually, it's a bit different from your idea, theoretically," said Sheldon. "But, it does use your data, and the data from the guy at Oxford."

"What is it?"

"I don't have it all worked out," said Sheldon, "but, I can explain, what I'm trying to do, in rather simple terms." He paused here, looking like he was thinking.

"What if those unknown weak reflections are actually gravitons?"

"That would be great," said Leonard, "but, how would we know?"

"That's just it," said Sheldon. "We don't have the equations to describe the reflections, because we don't have the quantum equations to describe gravity. But, what if we were to assume those were reflections from gravitons. We would have the shape, and we might be able to determine, using the equations to determine the shapes of the other particles, what equations would give us those shapes."

"We could then try to match those equations, with those of Quantum Field Theory. If we were able to do that, we would basically be trying to reverse engineer the equations, perhaps finding the equations for gravity in Quantum Field Theory. Then we could use those equations, to solve some other gravitational problems, ones to which we have answers."

"Can we do that?"

"I don't know," said Sheldon. "It's something I came up with this weekend. Basically, I'd look for the equations that give up the shape, using similar equations for other particles. Then, I try to get from the Quantum Field Theory equations, to the equations describing the reflections. But, it's going to be mostly trial and error."

"There are so many possibilities, remember the infinities in the equations, finding the right one, even using the other particles to find a possibility, is going to be rather difficult. Then, we have to see if we can reduce these energy levels to get an effective theory, and then see if it holds for everything. This may be more than anyone can ever work out, even for me."

Leonard was immediately impressed as to how hard this might be. For Sheldon to say it would be difficult for himself, is something that Leonard didn't ever remember hearing Sheldon say. "Hmmmm, so, what are our options?"

"I'm not sure," said Sheldon. "You didn't mention this before, so I'm not sure how to proceed with this. I mean, I can work on what I've come up with, but then I don't believe it's your work any longer."

Leonard thought for a moment. It's true, it wouldn't be my work, but then, my work hasn't really produced anything, yet. Whereas, if Sheldon can tease out some theoretical things, he could get all four forces under one theory, something even Einstein couldn't do.

"How's this Sheldon," said Leonard. "I'll continue to work on my idea, while you look at what you've come up with."

"Leonard," said Sheldon, "when are you going to learn not to end a sentence with a preposition?"

"Do you agree or don't you?"

"Yes, I agree," said Sheldon. "I do have a question. How do you want to split priority?"

"Hmmmmm, if it's your idea, I'd say, you get all the credit," said Leonard. "I wanted you to look over my idea, and you came up with something else. Look, if you want to say your work came out of my work, or even reference my papers, that's fine, because I'd be happy with being a small part of it."

Sheldon thought a bit before nodding his head. "Sort of your work, leading to mine. If I need you to help me with something, although I can't really see that happening, I will give you more credit when I write up the paper."

"That's fine, Sheldon," said Leonard. "Now, let me get back to my work."

"And I will get back to mine," said Sheldon.

Apt 314 5:00 PM Saturday Nov 24th 2012.

Penny had just sat down at her table. Her and Jeanie had gotten into Penn station at 4 PM, only an hour late from Boston. But, between getting their baggage and a cab, it had taken them another hour to get back to the apartment.

Jeanie had to be on location, she was shooting a commercial, at 4 AM for makeup and rehearsal. She had to be there so early, because they were going to shoot as the sun was coming up. Due to this, Jeanie had decided to look over her lines, have dinner and get to bed, leaving Penny alone for the rest of the night.

Penny and Jeanie had talked on the way home. Jeanie, strongly suggested that she talk to Leonard. Penny, somewhat sarcastically ask, what she should talk to him about, sex with Brent or getting drunk enough to wind up naked in bed with someone else, again?

Jeanie got angry and told Penny if she didn't want any help fine, handle it herself. Penny apologized and just said she had no idea what to talk to him about. And, besides, she didn't think she deserved him anymore.

Jeanie said she would try to think of something else, but it wouldn't be until tomorrow. Penny nodded, knowing Jeanie didn't have all the information, as of yet. She might have to tell her tomorrow.

She was sipping some wine, when her phone rang. Penny looked at the name and number and saw it was Bernadette. Remembering she had left a message to call her back, and didn't, Penny accepted the call and said, "Hello."

"Don't you hello me, Penny," said Bernadette, with a touch of anger.

"What?"

"What the hell is going on Penny?" Said Bernadette. "Why haven't you been answering Leonard calls and texts?"

"What the hell are you talking about?" said Penny evasively.

"You know damn well what I'm talking about," said Bernadette. "Leonard told me you haven't been answering any of his messages. Does it have to do with the pictures of you out with someone else, looking like you were going to kiss him?"

Penny was genuinely confused, "What? Honest Bernadette, I don't know what you're talking about."

"Then explain the picture on the front page of EHNews."

Penny click on her iPad, and clicked on EHNews as waited. She gasped when the picture came up. "Oh my God, no. How did they get that?"

Bernadette was doing a slow burn, "It doesn't matter how they got it, does it? It just matters that that they did get it, and you seem to recognize it. How could you Penny? Do you understand how confused and hurt Leonard is, because you aren't answering his calls and texts? And, he doesn't even know about this picture yet."

Penny could well imagine Leonard confused, and unhappy because she wasn't calling back, it was part of the huge amount of guilt she was feeling.

How the hell did they get that picture? We weren't doing anything. How'd they make it look so sleazy? And, he doesn't know about the picture or the letter yet. Those thoughts started her crying, "I can't talk about this," said Penny, her voice cracking.

Bernadette could hear the change in her voice, "Why, because you are dating him?"

Penny was now sobbing, "It isn't, what it seems…it isn't…it isn't," sounding like she was pleading.

"Then what is it?" asked Bernadette.

Penny had no answer for her, "I can't, I don't know…the let...I can't…"

"What was happening, Penny?"

Bernadette saw the call disconnect. Dammit Penny, you sounded so guilty and you didn't flat out deny it. What is really going on? Are you really dating him? She tried to call back, but it went to voicemail. Bernadette didn't leave a message. She had to cool down, before trying again. Bernadette really felt bad for thinking it, but it appeared that Penny was now dating her co-star, and was no longer with Leonard. And it appeared Leonard didn't know.

2311 Los Robles, 4:00 PM Saturday Nov 24th 2012.

Leonard entered the building, with several comics. He had left to go to Stuart's comic book shop around 1 PM. Amy had come over and was going to help Sheldon film another episode of "Fun With Flags".

He had stopped for lunch, spent a couple of hours looking through the magazines, and then spent some time talking with Stuart, and was now looking forward to some dinner, and some time playing Grand Theft Auto.

He stopped to check the mail, and found a couple of bills, a couple of science magazines, and a letter. Looking at it, he was surprised to see it was from Penny. He started climbing the stairs, and stuffed the other things into his comic book bag, finally started opening the letter, as he reached the third floor.

Apt 4A 4:00 PM Saturday Nov 24th 2012.

Sheldon and Amy were arguing. They had done 30 takes of the first scene and they still hadn't gotten it right. For the 31st take, they finally got through it with no errors, but one of them had forgotten to push the record button. Sheldon maintained it was Amy's fault, while Amy pointed out that Sheldon had hit the record button for the first 30.

Although they had managed to record it on the 32nd try, Sheldon was still upset by it. They had just laid out the flags they would be using in the second segment. Sheldon sat down, and waited for Amy to push the record button, she wasn't going to give him a chance to blame her again. She started the recording and sat down next to Sheldon.

However, before they could speak, they heard a loud "AAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH" then there was a bang on the door, followed by a louder bang on the door, before a softer thunk.

Sheldon and Amy rose, went to the door and opened it. They found Leonard sitting on the floor, his bag sitting next to him, with an envelope and a couple of sheets of paper scattered on the floor around him.

As surprised as Sheldon and Amy were to see the scene, they were even more surprised by Leonard. He was sobbing loudly.

A/N I'll put this down here, so it won't spoil the chapter. If you can't remember where the picture comes from, look at the chapter titled as "Chapter 46", it's listed as the 47th, due to the prologue.