A/N Well, a bit of information. There are ten more numbered chapters to go, along with an epilogue. So, you'll get a chapter 85, then an epilogue, and the story will be finished. In this chapter, I pictured the house from my story The In-Law Initiation: Nebraska, for those scenes. I haven't been doing much writing lately, I've been cast in a play, and have been studying my lines. However, I've finished learning them, and now only have to review them for about 15 minutes a day. I will start working on my next story the week after Christmas. Onward to Nebraska…

Chapter 75

Omaha 8:30 PM Wednesday December 19th 2012.

Leonard was sitting in the living room, talking with Wyatt and Susan. It had taken an hour to get to the farm, from the airport, another hour for Leonard to get settled and unpacked, and by then, dinner was ready. After they had eaten, Wyatt and Susan had done the dishes before coming into the living room, where they sat down and the three of them watched TV and made small talk. Leonard was trying, for tonight anyway, to stay away from talking about Penny, for several reasons. First, he wasn't sure how much Wyatt and Susan knew. Second, he wasn't sure how he was going to start such a conversation.

At 9:30 he decided to go to bed, as it had been an early morning. He got up and excused himself and Wyatt also rose and walked with him to the stairs. Just before Leonard started up, he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned and Wyatt said, "Son, I kinda left the elephant in the room stay there tonight. But, I really want to talk to you about Penny."

"And I want to talk to you about it too," said Leonard. "But, I appreciate you not bringing it up. I'm really tired, it's been a long day, so how about some time tomorrow?"

"That sound's good," said Wyatt.

"How much do you know?" asked Leonard.

"Not much at all," said Wyatt. "All I got from Penny was that she broke up with you, but nothing about why. When you called and told me you were going to England, I took it as the breakup was simply too much for you."

Leonard nodded, "Something like that. It wasn't so much the breakup, but the memories. I may not be much help, as I don't know much more, but we'll talk tomorrow."

"Good night, Leonard."

"Good night, Wyatt," said Leonard, "I'll see you in the morning." Leonard turned and walked up the stairs, heading for bed. Wyatt sadly watched him go.

Apt 4A 6:00 PM Wednesday December 19th 2012.

Amy's phone rang and looking at it, she saw it was Bernadette. She hit accept and and said "Hello."

"Do you have a few minutes?" asked Bernadette.

"Yeah, but just a few, the food should be here any minute."

"I called Penny on Monday night, like you asked," said Bernadette. "I told her that her stuff was picked up, and then we got in a fight."

"Yeah, I know," said Amy, "she called me afterward. Why is she so angry at you?"

"I don't know, I was just trying to find out what was going on, I feel bad about getting angry at her, but she won't tell me what's going on."

"Yeah, I could tell she was upset with me, because I showed you the box," said Amy. "What is her problem?"

"I wish I knew," said Bernadette. "Maybe it's all tied into that other guy and breaking up with Leonard. Maybe something happened and she feels bad about it. Now I feel bad about pushing her, but it makes me mad that she won't tell us. I'm going to try and call her tomorrow, and see if she'll answer."

"Should I try?" asked Amy.

"Yes, you should," said Bernadette. "Between the two of us, we need to talk to her and find out what's wrong."

Bernadette heard a knock in the background, then, "I've to go," said Amy, "The food's here."

"OK, I'll let you go," said Bernadette. "Give me a call if you get in touch with her, and I'll do the same. I'll see you tomorrow night."

"Oh, that's right, you and Howard are coming over," said Amy. "Ok, I'll see you tomorrow, goodbye."

"Goodbye, Amy."

Apt 4A 8:00 PM Wednesday December 19th 2012.

Amy was getting angry, but trying to stay polite. Sheldon and her had planned on talking about what things of Amy's, should go into Leonard's old room and what should go to storage. They also planned discussing where to go for date night tomorrow. But, just after dinner, Raj arrived, and had disrupted their plans. Raj and Sheldon were talking about the new comic books they had purchased. Amy was giving subtle hints that Raj should leave, but he either was ignoring her, or not understanding the hints.

Finally, after Raj changed the subject to when Sheldon planned on going to see the new Hobbit movie, Amy had had enough. She stood up and said, "I think it's time for you to go home."

"Amy," said Sheldon, "you're being rude."

"No, I'm not," said Amy. "We need to talk about moving my things, and what we're going to do tomorrow night. That's what we planned to do. We didn't invite Rajesh over so we don't need to keep talking to him."

Raj looked surprised, "I'm sorry Amy, I didn't know you had plans. I usually hang out with Howard and Bernadette, but with him trying to get his PhD…"

"What?" said both Amy and Sheldon.

"Yeah, he's taken enough classes to have the credits," said Raj, "and he's found a project and a thesis, that the university will accept. He's started a week or so ago."

"That's nice," said Amy, "but, that doesn't mean you can come over here and interrupt our nights."

"But, with Leonard and Penny gone," said Raj, "and Howard and Bernadette too busy to hang out with me, all I have left are you and Sheldon."

"Raj, we have things to do too," said Amy. "I'm moving into Leonard's old bedroom…"

"What?" said Raj. "You're moving in with Sheldon?"

"I'm moving into Leonard's bedroom," said Amy. "We will be roommates, like Sheldon and Leonard were." Amy was being very specific about this, as not to spook Sheldon. While Raj looked excited, Amy had to get him out.

"Now, we we're also supposed to talk about, and make plans for our date night tomorrow, and Sheldon has a new idea he'll be working on, and I've got a new project, with new monkeys, so we're going to be busy, ourselves."

Raj seemed to deflate, "I see," he said, "it seems no one want's me around."

Now Amy felt bad, "No, that's not it, Rajesh. We just have a lot to do. As do Howard and Bernadette. It's not that we don't want you around, it's just that we have other things we need to do."

Raj nodded, but looked depressed, "I'll make sure I call before I come over again."

"Thank you Rajesh," said Amy, "You have a good night."

"Thank you, I hope you both have a good night."

Raj got up and left. Amy looked sad and said, "I feel bad now."

"Why Amy?" said Sheldon, "you laid out cognizant reasons for him not to be here, or to call before he comes over. There's no reason for you to be sad."

"I suppose not," said Amy, "but, still…" She paused, then looked at Sheldon and said, "So, did you get my timeline for moving everything over here?"

"I did," said Sheldon, "I want some clarifications and have several counter-proposals." They both pulled their sheets out.

Apt 314 9:00 AM Thursday December 20th 2012.

Penny heard the knock and went to the door. Looking out of the peephole, she saw it was Jeanie. She opened the door and invited her in.

"Do you want a cup of coffee," Penny said, as she walked toward the kitchen.

"Sure," said Jeanie. She walked in and sat at the table. Penny poured her a cup of coffee and brought it to the table, where her cup was. She handed it to Jeanie, and sat down.

"Aren't you leaving for Boston today?" said Penny.

"Yep, I am," said Jeanie. "But, I thought I'd stop by and ask if you wanted to come with me."

"No, I'll be OK."

"You sure?" said Jeanie. "Or, I could stay here."

"No, it's all right," said Penny, "I might go home for Christmas, so I may call home to set that up."

"Oh, I didn't know you were thinking about that," said Jeanie.

"I wasn't, but since I'm not going back to California, I thought maybe I'd see about going home, if it gets too bad here."

"OK, well, then I'll head back up, and finish packing," said Jeanie. "I'll leave here in about an hour."

"You can take the cup," said Penny, "just bring it back when you come back. You have a good trip and a good Christmas."

Jeanie rose and said, "Well, I'll be back by Sunday, remember my parents are going to Florida for Christmas."

"Oh, yeah," said Penny. She got up and gave Jeanie a hug. Jeanie hugged her back then walked to the door. She turned and waved and then left.

Omaha 1:30 PM Thursday December 20th 2012.

They had eaten lunch, then Wyatt had gone out to the barn to do a couple of things. Leonard was now sitting in the kitchen with Susan, talking about the farm.

They heard the screen door slam, and Wyatt came walking in. He went to the fridge and pulled out the pitcher and poured a glass of tea, that he drank down quickly. He put the glass in the sink and said, "Hey, sweetie, I think the laundry in the dryer is finished."

Susan looked puzzled for a second, then her look changed to understanding, as she nodded and walked out of the kitchen. After she left, Wyatt grabbed two beers out of the fridge and said, "Leonard, how about we head out to the living room?"

They both walked out to the living room, with Leonard sitting on the couch. Wyatt handed Leonard a beer and then sat in his old recliner. Wyatt looked at Leonard for a few seconds, then said, "So, can you tell me what happened?"

Leonard took a deep breath, thinking about how to tell Wyatt he really didn't know what happened. Finally, he said simply, "I don't know. Things were going along great, we'd talk almost every day, she'd come home every couple of weeks, things were going fine." Leonard choked up, "I even bought an engagement ring."

He paused for a few seconds to gather himself, "Then, she quit calling, and wouldn't answer my calls. She wouldn't answer texts and only rarely called me back. When I did talk to her, she seemed distant, like she was bothered by talking to me. Then I caught her lying to me, and called her on it. Next thing I know, she writes me a letter breaking up with me. I tried to call her, to see what was wrong, but I never did get in touch with her. Then one of my other friends found a picture and an article about how she was now dating her costar. Another friend called Penny and there was a big fight."

"I couldn't find anything out, I was feeling so down, seeing her apartment every time I'd leave my apartment, and seeing all the places around Pasadena that we had been to. Then, the Christmas decorations went up. That really got to me, because I remembered how she helped make it a holiday for me, as it wasn't around my family. Finally, I just couldn't handle all the memories, so I took the job in England."

"Why England though?" asked Wyatt. "I would think you would try to find something in the US."

"I was working with someone there, I knew they had an opening and they offered me a good package, and some interesting research. I would have had to research other universities here in the states and look for open positions, so I simply accepted Oxford's offer." Leonard paused, looked at Wyatt, and asked, "Was Penny acting strange with you?"

Wyatt looked at Leonard sadly, "First off, Leonard, I'm really sorry all this happened to you. You're a really nice guy, and don't deserve this kind of treatment. I want to apologize to you."

"It's not your fault, Wyatt," said Leonard, "it's Penny's. It's her behavior that caused this, Not yours. I don't blame you."

"Still," said Wyatt, "she's my daughter, and I think there are reasons she's acted as she has. I just wanted to let you know, you don't deserve this."

"OK, I'll accept that," said Leonard, "but, I really want to know, was she acting strange when you talked to her?"

Wyatt looked deep in thought, for about 30 seconds, then said, "I'm trying to think, but we haven't really been in contact. Part of it, was that we had the harvest, along with selling and shipping of the crops, that took until just after Thanksgiving. So we were too busy to really talk, so I didn't think anything of her not calling."

"I wondered a bit, when we finally finished shipping the harvest, but there wasn't a lot of time before you called. After we talked and I invited you to stop here, I called her a couple of times, but didn't get any answers. I left a message or two, but she never called back."

Leonard nodded, "Sounds like what she did with me. You mentioned that there could be reason for her acting as she has. Can you tell me what reasons?"

Wyatt looked thoughtful, but didn't say anything.

"Wyatt," said Leonard, "I'm just trying to figure out if I could have done anything different."

Wyatt shook his head, "No, I don't think there is anything you could do about it. I hesitate to tell you, because I don't know if my thinking on this is valid. The reasons might have to do with how we raised her," said Wyatt. Seeing the confusion on Leonard's face, he said, "Let me explain. You know I wanted a boy, when we had Penny. I brought her up like a boy, sports, working on the farm, and, called her slugger. Unfortunately, she started acting like most guys do."

"You may have noticed that she's not really a romantic woman." He paused and watched Leonard nod. "You know she doesn't like to express her feelings, and can be scared of commitment. I'm not saying all guys are like that, but in my experience, guys are more likely to do that. When she started puberty," Wyatt looked sad, but continued, "I backed off on pushing sports and other 'boy' things. Basically, I just kinda stayed away from her, and I think it hurt her, but she kept everything in, so I didn't know."

"So, now," continued Wyatt, "she doesn't like to express her feelings, talk about problems, or like commitment. Not to mention, if you point out her flaws, she gets very defensive and doesn't want to talk about it, and she goes on the attack, deflection I think it is called. So, with all this, I don't think you could have done anything different. It's just who she is. I think it's because of what I did when she was younger. Like I said, I may be completely wrong on this, I'm obviously not a shrink, hell, maybe she should see one. But, it's why I apologized to you, I think it's partly my fault."

"It's not your fault, Wyatt," said Leonard, "she's an adult, she knows right from wrong, and she made her own choices."

"I wish I could see it that way, Leonard," said Wyatt, "but I'm going to think I had a part in it, because of how she was raised. As for what happened with her, I think something happened, something she did, that she thinks is terrible, and is afraid of you finding out. I read it as she had sex with that other guy you read about."

"Yeah," said Leonard, "that's what I think too."

"The way she can avoid telling you, is to not talk to you, or not tell you anything. At the extreme, she felt she had to break up with you, probably because she thinks she doesn't deserve you. She probably feels guilty, or feels ashamed and did it to try to not hurt you."

"This did hurt me," said Leonard, a short look of anger on his face. "And, not knowing is really rough."

"What I mean," said Wyatt, "is she thinks what happened will hurt you more than breaking up with you. It may not actually be like that, but from what you've told me, she's acting a lot like she did when she did something wrong, was ashamed of what she had done, and didn't want to tell Susan or I."

Leonard thought about all of this, then sighed. "I may very well be that, Wyatt. When she broke up with me the first time, she did it so I wouldn't get hurt more in the future, and she did mention not deserving me in the letter." Leonard paused, thinking, But, this is all just all speculation. Since you don't know anything, I don't think I'm ever going to find out what happened. So I'm just going to leave it, and try to move on with my life. Thank you for allowing me to stay for a couple of days, and talk to you about this."

"Anytime Leonard," said Wyatt, "if you ever come back this way, please feel free to call me and spend some time. Even though it doesn't appear that you will ever be part of the family, I feel a special connection to you. You are, after all, the only guy Penny's dated that I've approved of."

"Thank you, Wyatt."

"You want another beer?" asked Wyatt. "We're taking you out for dinner, and we have some time before we have to start getting ready."

"Yes, I do," said Leonard. "After we get back tonight, I've got to pack, cause I leave tomorrow."

"What are your plans?"

"I leave here and go to New Jersey, to see my parents, then to Boston, to see my brother, before leaving for England Christmas night. I'll miss my sister as she and her husband are in Europe."

"Well, let me get a couple more beers and tell Susan she can come back in. By the way, you know I'm going to tell Susan what's going on, right?"

Leonard got a small grin, "I figured you would. That won't be a problem"

Wyatt grinned back, took the bottle from Leonard, and walked toward the kitchen.

Apt 314 10:30 PM Thursday December 20th 2012.

Penny was staring at the bottle. She had drunk only one glass tonight. She hadn't planned on drinking at all, but after the last call, and message Bernadette had left, she decided she needed one and was now thinking about have a few more.

Bernadette had called several times throughout the day, and Amy had called a couple of times. Probably started out trying to tell me they were sorry. But, that last call and message from Bernadette. Who is she to yell at me that what I'm doing is wrong? Why would I even want to talk to her, if she's going to yell at me in a message? They had no problem looking through my stuff, and telling me everything I'm doing wrong and I don't need a repeat of that. I know I fucked it up, and I've got to deal with the problems I've caused, but I don't want to hear them ordering me around or telling me how wrong I am, it just makes me feel worse.

I wish Jeanie was here. She's been taking care of me, she's been a really good friend. What would I have done without, Jeanie? She's the one that's helped me get to where I am, she's the one that helped me with Brent. I wonder if there is any reason to go back. My stuff is packed, Leonard is gone, and all I've done with with Bernadette and Amy, is to argue with them. It's not fair to them, to get them mad every time I talk to them. Awwwwww, hell, I'm tired and I can't think straight, I'll think about it some more tomorrow.

Penny decided not to have any more drinks. She got up, put her glass in the sink, and walked toward the bathroom, to prepare for bed.