A/N Somehow, this chapter became the longest chapter of the story (I don't see any of the upcoming chapters beating this one. But, I had to get that conversation in here). So, I moved the last section from here, into chapter 83. This chapter is still the longest, but now only by 50 or so words, instead of the almost 400, before I moved that section. After this chapter, I start tying things up, as there is only three chapters and an epilogue left. I got my final copy edit back yesterday. And, I sent off the third chapter of my next story off this past week. And, I've been cast in another play. So, arts wise, things are going well. Have fun.
Chapter 82
Apt 314, 9:15 AM Thursday January 3rd 2013.
Jeanie took the elevator down, with her parents, walked out of the building and waited with them for the car she ordered for them. When it arrived, they put her parents' luggage in the vehicle, said their goodbyes, and Jeanie waved as her parents were driven off. She carried her bag and purse, back into the building, took the elevator to the third floor and knocked on Penny's door. There was no answer, so she knocked again. After a few seconds, she knocked and rang the doorbell. Still not getting an answer, she pulled out her key, opened the door and entered the apartment.
She didn't hear anything, as she walked up the hallway. It was quiet in the kitchen, the coffee pot was off, so she turned toward Penny's bedroom. Entering, it was still dark so she turned on the light. There in the bed, still asleep, was Penny. Jeanie walked to the bed and shook her. This elicited a groan from Penny, but no movement. Jeanie shook her harder, getting more groans, and some movement. Jeanie was getting angry, and she threw back the covers, and started shaking Penny, not stopping until Penny opened her eyes.
Jeanie could see her eyes were bloodshot, and they didn't look like they were focussing. "How damn much did you drink last night?"
"I don't know," said Penny, rubbing her face, "three, four, bottles?"
"What the fuck, Penny," said Jeanie angrily. "Get your ass up." She tried to help Penny up, but Penny was having trouble sitting straight. When Jeanie tried to help Penny to her feet, she couldn't stand and fell back onto the bed.
She tried to get Penny to her feet, again, and Penny said, "Hey, not so rough."
When she said those words, Jeanie could smell the alcohol on her breath, She looked down at Penny and angrily said, "Why are you still drunk? You knew we had to work today, and I told you to be professional. This is bullshit Penny."
"I saw some things about the parade," said Penny. "It made me sad and homesick, so I got a couple of drinks. I had a few more, then I thought about Leonard, and then…about…about…I…was…drugged…raped. So, I just kept drinking, I just didn't fucking care."
"What about work today?"
"I don't care," said Penny. "I sat up thinking last night, and I decided I didn't want to work on the series anymore," Penny burped, "and I think I finally got to bed around five." As she finished the sentence, Penny started sobbing.
Jeanie looked down at the crying woman. Penny was still drunk and with only three hours or so of sleep, she would not be in any shape, to make it to the studio today. There wasn't much Jeanie could do, so she told her to get back into bed, and she would take care of it with Kelli and Jim, but the two of them would talk when she got back. Jeanie walked out of the bedroom and could see four bottles on the coffee table. She looked closer, and found three of them empty, and the fourth almost empty. Jeanie shook her head, picked up her purse, and her bag, leaving the apartment.
Studio 44, 10:05 AM Thursday January 3rd 2013.
Jeanie was late, so she went right to the table, instead of her dressing room. As she sat, she didn't see Jim and Kelli. Tina walked up, and asked, "Where's Penny?"
Jeanie thought fast, "She wasn't feeling well this morning, and I told her to stay home. I need to talk to Jim and Kelli about it, where are they?"
"They're upstairs," said Tina, "the studio head called them up, just before they came out here. There's things going on this morning, but I don't know what."
That's unusual, Tina knows everything that's going on, thought Jeanie. Oh my God, did we get cancelled? Not seeing Jim and Kelli, Jeanie went to craft services and got a cup of coffee. She returned to her seat and seeing Brent had arrived, glared daggers at him, while he tried to ignore her. It was only about 30 seconds after she got back to the table that Jim and Kelli walked in. They look happy, I guess we didn't get cancelled, but I'm going to mess with those happy looks today, thought Jeanie.
Jim asked everyone to settle down and be seated. While that was happening, he looked around and then leaned over and whispered to Jeanie, "Where's Penny?"
Jeanie whispered back, "She's not going to be here, let's just say she's ill for now. I need to talk to you after the table read." Jim leaned over to Kelli and whispered to her. She looked, questionably, at Jeanie, who nodded.
Everyone was now quiet, and Jim said, "Good morning everyone, welcome back. I hope everyone had a good holiday season. I have several bits of news this morning, so let's get to it. First and most important, I got a call this morning from the head of the network, we have been renewed for a second season."
There were loud cheers, hugs, and handshaking. Jim let that go on for a bit, then asked for quiet. When everyone settled down, he continued. "While our ratings haven't been the greatest, they have been better than a few other shows. With this, and a few other things, they decided we deserved a second season. So, congratulations everyone."
There was some more cheering and after that slowed down, Jim continued, "On a more serious note, over the last couple of months, we found out someone had been feeding false information and false stories about Penelope, to some of the paparazzi. Well, over the break, through various clues, we were able to piece together that Lynn Thompson, one of the dressers, was the one doing it. She has been fired."
Jeanie noticed the smile on Brent's face, disappear.
"Let me make this perfectly clear, if you work here, you keep what happens in the studio, in the studio. If you think there is a problem, you bring it to either me or Kelli. If you feel you need privacy, let us know and we'll set it up for you to see us in the office. If there is something bothering you, what you do not do is to take it to the rag papers, is that understood?"
Everyone was murmuring and nodding their heads.
Jim continued, "So, if you hear or see something like this, we expect you to bring it to our attention. We don't want things like this happening on this show. One more note, Penelope is not here today, so Kelli will be reading her part. Any other questions? Then let's get started." Everyone opened their scripts and they began the table read.
Studio 44, 11:30 AM Thursday January 3rd 2013.
Jeanie knocked on the door and she heard Kelli say, "Come in."
Jeanie entered and Jim pointed to the couch, and Jeanie sat down. Jim and Kelli pulled up chairs and Jim said, "OK, you said you needed to talk to us, I'm assuming this is about why Penny wasn't here?"
Jeanie paused briefly, thinking about how she was going to explain everything. "I told her to stay home, she wouldn't have been able to do anything at the table read. She was still drunk, with only three hours of sleep, she wouldn't have been much use, here, this morning."
Jeanie saw the reactions, Kelli looked shocked, but Jim looked angry, so she hurriedly continued. "Yes, she got drunk last night, but you need to hear the rest of this, because you have a problem here, on set, and I don't think I can keep this in much longer, especially with what you said this morning."
"OK, tell us," said Jim.
Jeanie sighed, "I've been struggling with whether I should tell you this, so this may be rough for me, so take that into account." She paused, then started in, "Do you remember, a couple of months ago, when Penny left Jake's, with Brent, to go to Brent's apartment, to go over the script?"
Both of the producers nodded.
"Well, the two of them spent the night together," said Jeanie, "Penny remembers having two drinks, and then waking up, she thought, hung over, the next morning. Actually, something more than hung over. She has no memory of what happened, she was disoriented, and had blurry vision. She thought she had cheated on her boyfriend, and between the guilt and shame, broke up with him. So, for the last two months, she's been feeling down about everything and she started drinking, trying to forget what she did with Brent, and the breakup with her boyfriend. Her boyfriend was so messed up by the breakup, he left the US, for a position at Oxford, in England, which also has her reeling."
"What does any of this have to do with us, or here, on set?" asked Jim.
Jeanie again paused, trying to find the right words, "I've been asking around, some of my friends that have worked with Brent. Several have had the same thing happen to them, with Brent."
"So, your friends got drunk and had sex with Brent," said Jim, "just like Penny. So what?"
"I think there's more to it than that," said Kelli, looking at Jeanie, "am I right?"
"Yes, you are," said Jeanie. "One of my friends, does not drink, yet she had the same things not usually associated with being hung over. Dizziness, blurred vision, not feeling right until the next day. All of the women who had those symptoms spent time with Brent, at his house or apartment. I just put it together last week, finding all the symptoms aren't necessarily part of being hung over, but all of them are from being drugged. I think he drugged and raped them, Penny included. Penny's been struggling with this since I put it all together, and when you add her breakup, her guilt, her shame, it's really been too much for her."
Kelli gasped, and Jim looked shocked. "Do you have any proof of this?" he asked.
"No, of course not," said Jeanie.
"Did any of the other women report him?" asked Jim.
"No, they didn't," said Jeanie, "some because they felt it was too late to report it, some worried it would be nothing more than his word against theirs, some flat out didn't think they would be believed, so nothing would come of it. Penny…Penny…sorry, Penny is pretty much in all three of those categories."
"And what can we do about it?" asked Jim
"There's more."
"More what?" said Jim sounding exasperated.
"After it happened," started Jeanie, "Brent started making lewd and nasty comments to Penny. Then he told some of the crew, and they started making some of the same comments. I understand he's even told some of the guest stars. At one point, Penny was terrified to go to her dressing room, because she was afraid she'd run into Brent. She didn't feel as if she could say anything, because it would be his word against hers. Sometimes, there would be other people who hung out with Brent, but they made comments and Penny felt they would support Brent, not her. She told me about how one of the cameramen came to her, telling her what he had heard here, and what had happened on another show he and Brent were on. Brent had tried to get the cameraman to join in with the comments, to one of the women on the show, but he wouldn't. It may have spooked Brent, because soon after that, Brent, and his buddies complained about the cameraman being the one making the comments, and he got fired off that other show."
"How do you know this is what's happening?" asked Kelli
"After Penny told me, I went with her everywhere," said Jeanie. "When she goes to her dressing room, I go with her and when it's time to leave, I go get her. We've run into Brent several times on the stairs. A couple of times, he didn't see me right away and started to say something. When he saw me, he stopped. Or, if he sees me with her, he looks at me like he's mad and he doesn't say anything even with someone there. This is all besides what the cameraman told Penny. See, he doesn't say anything with me there, because he probably thinks that if I say something I'll be believed, but Penny is new and won't say anything, she'll just put up with it. So, all of what's happening with Penny, the reason she was hungover this morning, is due to her being raped by Brent and his continuing harassment of her."
"Hold on," said Jim, in frustration, "you have no proof that he raped her, and you have no proof of him harassing her, all of this is just hearsay, so unless you…"
"I believe her," said Kelli.
"What do you mean, you believe her?" said Jim. "She said she didn't have any proof."
"Jim, how many times have I told you stories about what's happened to me?" said Kelli. "Being pressured to go somewhere, alone, with someone, trying to get me to go drinking, the groping I've had to put up with, the innuendo about what I would have to do, to get my writing accepted."
"Too many to count."
"You know a couple of the women that could be involved in the stories about Bill Cosby, right?"
"Yeah, I do," said Jim. "You know them too."
"Do you believe me?" said Kelli. "Did you believe the other women we know?"
Jim nodded.
"Which is one reason why I believe her," said Kelli.
"Just one?"
"No, there's another," said Kelli. "I heard rumors about those problems with Brent when we wrote other shows. I was warned about being alone with him. As he was picked by the network, I didn't feel I could say something, without some hard proof."
"OK, you believe her," said Jim. "What can we do about it?"
"About the rape? Well, nothing really." said Kelli. "About the harassment, you and I talked about putting in some cameras and mics, for the paparazzi thing, but we both agree that isn't really an option, it's like we would be spying on everyone."
"Yeah that's true," said Jim, "but, we have to come up with something, we can't have this kind of harassment on our set."
"That's true," said Kelli, "maybe we can talk to Penny, get her to tell us, and then tell her what we're doing."
"No," said Jeanie, "don't tell Penny any specifics. Just tell her you're doing something. This way she can honestly say she didn't come to you, and knows nothing about it."
Jim turned to her, "Actually, that makes sense. But, if we talk to her and say we've heard some things, and ask if they are true, she's not coming to us. Then we just don't tell her what we've done. Do you have anything else for us Jeanie?"
"No," said Jeanie, "I just wanted you to be aware of what happened, what I think happened and why. Because it's really affected Penny."
"Yes," said Kelli, "but now I'm worried about Penny. I can see where this might have been too much for her. It's a shame, really, with what's coming up."
"What do you mean?" said Jeanie.
"Jeanie," Kelli said softly, "we were on the fence to get renewed, one of the reasons we got renewed is because of Penny. The network likes her and wants her in more scenes, for now."
"Well then you may have a problem," said Jeanie. "She's thinking about quitting the business."
Jim and Kelli looked at Jeanie, and Kelli said, "She said that?"
"Yeah, it's getting to be overwhelming for her," said Jeanie. "With everything that's happened, she is really down about it. I thought I might be able to help her through it, to get her to straighten out. But she flat out said this morning, that she didn't care about missing today, and doesn't want to work on the series anymore. That may be because she was still drunk, I don't know. She has to want to stay on the series, I'm not going to force her to stay in the business."
"I hope all of us can convince her to stay," said Jim, "What she doesn't know, and you can't tell her, is that when this show ends, or perhaps before, the network wants to do a spin off with her character."
"Really?"
"Yes, really," said Kelli. "It could be good for you, you could make a guest appearance a couple or three times a year."
Jeanie nodded, "Well, that's nice, but I'm more concerned about getting Penny through this, even if she quits. I've been thinking about one way to help her. How about she move in with me? I have two bedrooms, she could move her stuff up to my place and I can kinda watch over her, and give her someone to lean on, if she needs it. I'm also going to try and get her to see my therapist. It's not good for her to keep it in, she needs to talk to someone about it, and about her drinking. She starts feeling bad, she looks to drink. I think my therapist can help her there too. But, I want to make it clear that helping her is my main concern. If she decides she needs to ditch the business, to get right, then so be it, and I'm telling her that."
Kelli was nodding, "Ok, you get her to move in with you, get her to your therapist, and we'll talk to her tomorrow. But, I fully agree with you, about her continuing in the show, it's up to Penny, we will not put pressure on her. We will tell her why we think she should continue, but, as much as I would like to get another series, I'm more concerned about her mental health, OK? I agree with you that her mental health is more important than any show."
Kelli looked seriously at Jeanie, "I can't believe you kept all this in. It must have been some kind of weight on you."
Jeanie sighed and nodded, "Yes, it has. I've been trying to keep Penny going, helping her along, and trying to get her over it, and I've made mistakes along the way. When she's alone, she'll see something that reminds her of her boyfriend, or the rape, and she falls apart. But, after this morning, I knew I had to tell you."
"Yes, telling us was good," said Jim, nodding. "We can help and we can start throwing ideas around, hoping we might find something we can use, with this Brent thing. If we figure something out, we'll let you know, but we won't tell Penny."
Jeanie got up to leave, and getting to the door turned, "Can we get Tina to do Penny's blocking and write it down, so I can give it to her tonight?"
"Why, if she want to quit," asked Kelli .
"It may have just been the booze talking," said Jeanie. "Once she's sober, she may have different ideas. And if she does change her mind, she'll have everything she needs to study."
Kelli and Jim nodded and Jeanie opened the door and left.
Jim looked over at Kelli, "We need to find out which of our cameramen were fired from a show that had Brent on it, then talk to him. If the harassment is true, and he can confirm it, we can take action."
"What do you mean, if true," asked Kelli."
"Kelli," said Jim, "we can't just do something to Brent, without some kind of verification. I've come around and I think what Jeanie is saying is true, but we still have to verify it. I've already got an idea on how to take care of Brent, if we can verify it."
"OK," said Kelli, "I'll look up the show histories of our cameramen, and then cross check it with shows Brent's been on."
"And I'll start work on my idea for Brent," said Jim. "Let's get on it."
Kettell Hall, 5:00 PM Thursday January 3rd 2013
Leonard had put the final item on his desk, and had cut his last box apart, around noon. While he was, then, basically done with his office, he had to find a place for a few more things before he would consider himself finished. He would get to that next week, what he wanted now was to get to lunch on his way back to his rooms. He had stopped at the White Horse again. While he had never been a big fan of fish, there was something about the way it was prepared, here in the UK, that had him wanting it again. After lunch, he started on his room, putting his clothes in the wardrobes, and in dressers, and now he was basically done with those.
He thought he'd leave the rest for this evening, as he had to start getting ready for dinner, his first in the dining hall. It would also be the first time he wore an academic gown, other than for graduation. He would order his tomorrow, but for now, he had Geoff's. It was time for a shower, as he went to his bathroom.