A/N. Yeah, yeah, I know, it's a couple of hours early, but real life and all. As a matter of fact, due to things I have coming up, it may become the new normal time. It still feels weird that I don't have anymore of this to write. Just minor rewrites and edits for second and third drafts. I am doing preliminary work on two new stories. One, I'm not going to say anything about, just yet, and the other is a story about Penny finding out she's pregnant, and some of what happens after she tells Leonard. I've had this story idea for a while, and it's the reason I've only read two, of the Pregnant Lenny stories that came out after the announcement on the show.

Chapter 66

Studio 44, Noon Wednesday December 5th 2012.

The table read had just finished, and neither of them were needed for anything special this afternoon, so Steve had told them they were both released for the day. They started toward their dressing rooms, but Jeanie missed Penny's hesitation in climbing the stairs.

Fortunately, Penny got to her dressing room, without incident, then packed everything, and left. She hesitated as she passed Brent's door, and looked nervously at the stairs. But, Brent wasn't around and there was no one on the stairs, so she walked down the stairs and then went to Jeanie's door and knocked. Jeanie came out, and they left the building, walking home. Jeanie was trying to talk to Penny, but as had been happening more and more over the last few weeks, Penny wasn't very responsive.

Jeanie finally gave up and they continued to the store, where they each bought several meals, and Penny bought some wine, despite Jeanie's trying to persuade her not to buy any. On the way home, Jeanie had tried to ask Penny over for the night, but Penny begged off, saying she wasn't in the mood. Penny said goodbye to Jeanie at the elevator and got to her apartment, and opened the door. After entering, she put her groceries away, and then sat down at her table and tried to concentrate working on her script. But, her mind kept returning to the new tabloid reports, of Penny still causing problems on the set.

Several times she had an urge to get some wine, but she really wanted not to start drinking, especially this early, as she knew where it would lead. She finally gave up on her script, and turned on the TV, watching it for a couple of hours. Around 6 PM, she made herself a dinner of some salad, Ramen noodles and a couple slices of bread. She finished, cleaned up and did her dishes, then sat and watched some more television, for about an hour. She finally turned the TV off, going back to working on her script. It went much better than earlier, as she was able to go through it several times, adding notes on her lines and blocking. After about two hours of work, she was satisfied and closed her script. She watched a few more hours of TV, fighting the urge to get some wine, and around 11 PM, turned off her lights and started preparing for bed.

Apt 4A, 9:30 PM Wednesday December 5th 2012.

Leonard had just finished packing up a box of his collectibles from his bedroom. He was sure there were going to be several more boxes from the living room. He carefully put four items, from his bedroom, into his closet, then went out to the living room. He looked over the bookcases, and picked out several other things, and brought them back to his closet also. Those items were going to Raj, Howard, and Sheldon. He had hand-picked those items to prevent any fights between the guys. Everything else was going to Stuart, and if any of the guys wanted those items, they could purchase them from Stuart.

He started making a list of everything else in his bedroom. Tomorrow, he would start listing everything in the living room. He finished the list, and then signed on to his computer, putting all the items into a spreadsheet, printed two copies and then saved it. He would drop off one copy at Stuarts, with the collectibles, tomorrow, so Stuart could start figuring out prices for the items.

He now signed into his Facebook account. All he found was a video clip Raj had sent to all four of them a week ago, with a cat looking like it was playing the piano. He chuckled at that, then looked at his account. He noticed that he hadn't gotten anything from anyone else for a couple of weeks before that. A thought occurred to him. He would be going to England, and the only people he would be in contact with, were people he knew. He had their email or phone numbers, so why bother with Facebook? Why not get a fresh start? So, he spent the next half hour saving any of his photos he wanted, down to his hard drive, then took the steps to delete his account.

After he finished, he got his phone and looked at his Twitter account and found he was down to 36 followers. He never had more than forty, and he hadn't posted, or gotten any replies, in almost a month. It only took about 15 minutes to delete that account. Afterward, he checked his email, and finding nothing there, signed off, and then started preparing for bed. After he completed everything and got into bed, he realized he hadn't thought of Penny for most of the day. The talk with Geoff in the morning, working on the lab in the afternoon, and listing and packing his collectibles tonight, had kept him busy. Now, trying to get to sleep, he was thinking of her, it was going to take a while to get to sleep.

Apt 314, 9:45 AM Thursday December 6th 2012.

Jeanie knocked on Penny's door, and Penny gathered her things, left the apartment, locked her door and they both started for the studio. It was an unusually warm day and their normal 15-minute walk was rather enjoyable. They entered the production facility, made their way to their studio, and walked toward Jeanie's dressing room. Before Jeanie could enter, she saw Penny hesitate, at the bottom of the steps. Looking up she could see one of the crew and Brent, near his dressing room.

Jeanie turned and said, "How about I walk up with you?"

"No," said Penny, "you really don't have to do that."

"I don't have to," said Jeanie, "I want to." So they both started up the stairs. As they passed the two men, Penny looked down at the sets, but Jeanie stared right at Brent, and gave him a smirk, before they both entered Penny's dressing room.

"Thanks, Jeanie," said Penny, "but you…"

"No buts," said Jeanie, "I know it bothers you when they make those snide little comments, and I also know you don't want to say anything, because it's usually two of them, with just you."

"So here's what's going to happen, I'm going to bring you to your dressing room, and back down, whenever I can, or until I find a way to make it clear to Brent that I know what he's doing, and I can do something about it."

"But…"

"I said, no buts," countered Jeanie. "I know it b others you, and it's something I can do to help. So just wait until I come and get you. We're here together all the time, so a minute or two here and there isn't going to be a big deal, OK?"

Penny nodded and Jeanie turned to go, closing the door as she left. Brent was still in his doorway, and he looked angrily at Jeanie. Jeanie just smirked at him and walked on by, heading for her dressing room.

CalTech Laser Lab, 8:00 AM Thursday December 6th 2012.

Leonard had barely gotten into the lab, when his phone started ringing. He put his stuff down and hurriedly picked up the phone, "Hello," he said.

"Hi Leonard," said Geoff, "how are you doing?"

"I'm good," said Leonard, "I didn't expect to hear from you, what's going on?"

"I'm going to be your liaison," said Geoff. "If you have any questions, if you need something, if we need to contact you, it will all be through me."

"Hey, that's great," said Leonard, sounding excited "That's the best I could have hoped for. I have a singular point of contact, and it's someone I get along with."

"Well, one of the first things, I have to tell you, is you have to be here on the 26th of December."

"What? You said the end of the year," said Leonard. "That's in only three weeks, and I have a week to spend b before that, so I can see some people, before I leave. This is only going to leave me a couple of weeks to get everything done."

"We apologize for that." said Geoff, "But, you have to get here, all your paperwork done, get your rooms, develop your syllabus, prepare your lectures and get to know the lab, all before the semester starts on the 16 of January. The 26th is a holiday, and the 27th the University is closed, but I'll have some paperwork for you to fill out, so you'll have everything filled out, when we go in on the 28th."

"I'm sure there will be some others things we have to take care of, or things that may require more time, so we want you to get here to give us two days after Christmas, and two before and after New Years to process in here. That will give you two weeks to work with the staff and for everything else."

"Wow, three weeks?" said Leonard, thinking of everything he needed to do.

"How much furniture will you have?"

Leonard came back to the call, "Don't the rooms have furniture?"

"Yes, they do, at least the basics," said Geoff, "and since you'll be staying in there, you shouldn't need your furniture right away. Can your books, clothes and other personal items fit into a closet?"

"Yes, I think so."

"Well, we are allowed to ship two crates about two meters high, by a 1.5 meters square, by air. So what ever you can fit into two crates of that size, you can have here when you arrive, of course you'll have to do without before you go."

"Well, if I leave in two weeks," said Leonard, "it will be another week before I get there, then a few days, before I move in. As I said, there are a few places I want to stop to visit, before I come over there, so there shouldn't be a problem doing without."

"Well, we'll set up your flights," said Geoff. "We'll get you one from LA to New York, if you need to make changes, you'll have to make those and pay for the changes. Your flight to here will probably be on British Airways, out of JFK, in New York, on Christmas evening."

Leonard thought about it. Penny's not around, she's the one that loved Christmas. Sheldon doesn't like Christmas, so, that's fine. "That sound's fine, Geoff."

"OK, I'll arrange that, and get to work on getting you set up with rooms, food, all of that."

"Thanks, Geoff," said Leonard.

"You're welcome," said Geoff. "Oh, by the by, I wouldn't worry about a car for quite a while. Traffic is very limited in the city center of Oxford, and since you'll be living right there, a car isn't strictly necessary. You may want to look into a bike."

A bike? thought Leonard. I don't know how to ride a bike. I can walk. "I'll see about it," said Leonard weakly.

"I'll let you go now," said Geoff. "If you have a question, drop me an email overnight, and I'll try to get you an answer the next morning. Goodbye, Leonard."

"Thank you, Geoff, I'll talk to you later, goodbye," said Leonard. They both disconnected. Leonard sighed as he looked around the lab. He'd been here for a long time, and now it was ending. He felt a sadness, then remembered why it was ending and felt even worse. He shook his head to clear it. He had more work to do, packing everything up.

Studio 44, 4:00 PM Thursday December 6th 2012.

Penny waited for Jeanie, like the day before, then they both left the studio, on their way home. Before getting there, Jeanie, again asked Penny over for dinner, but again, Penny politely declined. Penny wanted to work on her scenes herself, as she only had two scenes with Jeanie this week, the others were with one of the guest stars. Since she wouldn't be working much with Jeanie, she decided that it would be better to work on those scenes by herself and let Jeanie work on hers.

Once she was done, she pulled out her script, and started looking at the notes, rewriting them when they weren't clear, and doing different readings. After a couple of hours, she finally closed her script. She turned on the TV, and was flipping through the channels. She wasn't finding anything to watch, and after about 30 minutes, she turned the TV off.

She made dinner, ate, and then did her dishes. She again pulled out her script and spent another hour working on it, then turned on the TV, and watched for another hour before she couldn't find anything, and so shut the TV off. Now, what? She really didn't know what to do. She realized she couldn't call Leonard, and suddenly, Penny felt very lonely. She thought about going to get some wine, do some drinking, so she wouldn't have to think about it. But, she really didn't want to, because she had to work the next morning, and she didn't want to go in with a hangover. She finally decided to just go to bed early.

She started preparing for bed, but it didn't help as she kept thinking about Leonard, which led to her thinking about how lonely she was. I was so stupid to go to Brent's, to believe he had changed. Tears started falling from her eyes. I was such an idiot to get drunk and sleep with him. I haven't changed, she thought, I'm still the same slut I was in high school. This brought even more tears and she was crying as she got into bed. She just let the tears come, as she cried herself to sleep.

Comic Center, 6:00 PM Thursday December 6th 2012.

Stuart saw Leonard struggling to open the door to the store and rushed over to open the door for him. Leonard carried the box in, setting it on the counter. Stuart looked into the box and saw six different figurines, several books, and an odd looking object. Stuart turned to Leonard and said, "You're getting rid of your light saber?"

"Yes," said Leonard, "I told you, just about everything. I have several things I'm giving the other guys, but almost everything else is going. I simply won't have the room over there, and I probably won't have a group like I have here, over there."

"I've got a list of of the stuff i the box, but I'll get some more done tonight, and bring that in tomorrow. I hope to have the completed list by Saturday."

"That will be fine," said Stuart, "how much time will I have to sell all this?"

"Take your time," said Leonard, "I'll be leaving in a couple of weeks…"

Leonard noticed the shock in Stuart's face, "Two weeks? I can't sell all of this in two weeks."

"I know," said Leonard, "but I don't expect you to sell everything by the time I leave. Sell things as you can, and say, once a month, send me the money as you get it."

Stuart nodded, and started looking at the list Leonard gave him, "I think I can sell most of this rather quickly. Most of these things are rare collectibles, things a lot of people want."

Leonard nodded and said, "Just put a value on it, what you expect to get, and give it back to me, so I have a rough estimate on how much to expect."

Leonard pulled out the light saber, and said, "How much for this?" Leonard had looked it up, and made a few calls. He was checking on Stuart, if he was honest about this, he would be honest about everything else.

Stuart looked it over, then went behind the counter, pulled out a book, flipped some pages and ran his finger down one page. He looked at Leonard and said, "This is a numbered, limited edition, right?"

Leonard nodded, "Yep, number 107 of 500."

"It's worth somewhere between $175 to $200," said Stuart, "so I can give you about $150 to $175."

Leonard nodded, again. He was aware of the prices, and Stuart was right on them. He knew he could trust him, but it was good to have verification. "I know you'll try to get the best price you can, and you'll get five percent of what ever you sell, but do me a favor, and don't try to get the best price, if it means you're not going to sell it. I'd rather sell it cheaper, then not sell it, we can split the difference."

Stuart looked at Leonard, "Thanks, I'm not sure I can afford to pay for the difference."

Leonard grinned, "OK, you can take it out of my cut. I'll see you tomorrow, with some more stuff, and another list."

"OK," said Stuart, "er, Leonard?"

"Yes?"

"I'm going to miss you," said Stuart, " you've been a good friend. I can't believe you'll be gone in two weeks. I want you to know, I'll get the best price I can, you can depend on it."

Leonard now felt guilty about checking up on Stuart. "I'm going to miss you too. I'll tell you what Stuart, I'll give you ten percent of what ever you sell, you deserve it." With that, Leonard turned and walked away, leaving the store. As he walked to his car, he was thinking about what had to be done that night.

I need to get my paperwork together and send that, so Geoff can get my visa application started, get my flight to England set up, and get the packing company dates set up. I have the password, so I can set up my Email, with Oxford. Pack a few more things to bring to Stuart, and list half of the rest of my things for Stuart. What else…what else…Oh yeah, I got to stop and get something for dinner.

He was also thinking about Sheldon. He felt bad about keeping this from him, but he wanted to tell him as late as possible. It would give him less time to think about it, less time he would have to find objections, and less time for it to be a distraction to Leonard. He was forming a plan in his head for one objection he knew Sheldon would bring up. Leonard arrived at his car, got in and started it, preparing to drive home.