A/N A couple of things here. The other show described in this chapter (you'll know what I'm talking about when you see section) was real. It was called "The Rat Patrol" and the producers actually did what was described in here. The other thing, I make a reference to something in this chapter. It's a sort of old Hollywood reference. We'll see if someone spots it, and is able to say what the reference is, and explain the reference. I'll give out the answer next week. One chapter and one epilogue left.

Chapter 84

Studio 44, 2:15 PM Friday January 4th 2013

"I didn't say they were harassing me," said Penny, looking down.

"I know you didn't," said Jim, "but, like I told you, Jeanie told us. We don't want you to be scared of walking around on the set and in the studio generally. I will let you know we got independent corroboration, of the harassment. We would like you to tell us, if there's been a problem, but with the information we have, we don't need to bring your name into it. Just let us know."

Penny nodded, "Yes, Brent has been making comments about what we did, and how we did it, and commenting on how I was in bed. Several of his friends in the crew also have made comments".

"Thank you," said Jim, "So, if you get any kind of harassment, from here on out, you need to let us know. We have a plan, you don't need to know about it, just be aware that after today, we want to know if you do get harassed, and who did it."

"But, that would make people think I was telling on people and I…"

"Penny, listen to me," said Kelli. "If we don't put a stop to it, we could lose control of the crew and the set. We don't want that kind of behavior on our sets, so you have to let us know. Like we said, we aren't telling you what we are going to do, so if anyone asks what going on, you can honestly say you don't know. But, we will do something, today, and after that we need to know, OK?"

"OK," said Penny. "Is there anything else?"

"No, that's it, for you," said Jim. "You can go get ready for the afternoon run-throughs."

Penny rose and left. Kelli looked at Jim and said, "When do we do this?"

"Right after rehearsals today," said Jim, "I want to make sure we have this under control. I'll talk to Brent here, you, and the head of the studio, will get the four guys on the crew."

Kelli nodded.

Studio 44, 6:00 PM Friday January 4th 2013

"Come in," said Jim, hearing the knock on the door.

"Tina said you wanted to see me," said Brent.

"I do," said Jim, "come in and close the door."

Brent entered, closed the door and sat down.

Jim paused, he had prepared for this, but it was more difficult than he thought. Finally he decided to just plunge in, "Brent we have reports that you are causing problems with one of the other actors. We are not going to stand for that."

"I suppose Penelope told you about that," said Brent with a smirk.

"Nope," said Jim, "it wasn't her."

"Then she much have told it to that bitch, Jeanie, and she told you."

"Nope, it wasn't her either, and I'd appreciate it, if you don't use that kind of language about others in the cast, got it?" In reality, it was Jeanie who had first told them, but since they had independent verification, Jim wasn't concerned.

Brent tried another tack, "It had to be Penelope, she's the only one that could have heard anything I said to her about sex with her. I didn't say it very loud. I would guess that you don't know about the slut sleeping with me?"

"Last warning about the language, about the others, Brent. Actually, as I told you, she's not the one that reported it first, but thank you for admitting that you did do it…"

"Hey, wait a minute," said Brent, the smirk disappearing, "I didn't say I did it."

A smirk appeared on Jim's face, "you said Penelope is the only one who would have heard you say it, because it was said softly. So, how did you know it was her, how did you know it was said softly and had to do with sex, unless you did it?"

"I…I…I…," stammered Brent.

"So here's what you are going to do," said Jim, leaning forward with a serious look on his face. "You will quit making comments about Penelope, Jeanie, or anyone else for that matter. You have a problem, with another actor, you bring it to us. That includes your little clique, who are being talked to, right now, by Kelli and the head studio executive. They are being reminded that if we hear about any harassment, we can, by contract, request a replacement for their position, for any reason we have, and all they get is two weeks' pay, and not so good comments if another producer asks about them."

"It's the same with you," said Jim. "If we hear about you giving anyone a hard time, or using negative language about other cast memebers, we will get rid of you."

"You can't do that," said Brent, "we have a contract."

"Yes, we do. And, if you look at it," said Jim with an even bigger smirk, "you will see that there is a clause that we can fire anyone, we determine, is causing problems, to maintain good order on the set. Since we decide what good order is, we've now decided that making vulgar or harassing statements to other people, who are with the show, constitutes a problem, that leads to a lack of good order. So you can count this as your notification. You can also imagine our comments when asked about you by other producers."

"You still can't do that," said Brent, the anger rising in him, "you have a four-person cast, how do you get rid of me?"

"I'm glad you asked that," said Jim, sliding a script over to Brent, "The appropriate page is page 11."

Jim waited while Brent looked it up, "You see, no one ever sees the piano that's headed their way. Hunk was walking down one of the streets in NY, and a truck driver loses control, and jumps the curb, running Hunk over. We don't even need you for the episode. As you can see, it's already written, and we can take you out with just a change of script."

"You can't kill me off like that!" said Brent, angrily. "No one's ever kill off a major character like that."

"We can, and will, to maintain good order. While not actually killed off, it was proposed," said Jim with a large smile. "In the sixties, there was a show, set in World War Two, where the actors demanded a large increase in salary. The producers simply wrote several different scripts where one or another of the characters die. People die in war after all, and they showed it to the actors. The actors got the hint, sign the offered contract or the character will be killed off. This is something quite similar, stop the harassment, or your character will die, just walking down the street."

Jim's looked changed to one of loathing, and his voice became cold, "Now, are we clear on not saying anything negative to Penelope or anyone else? This is your warning. You don't give anyone a hard time, and we have no legal reason to get rid of you. But mess up once, and you're gone, and not another producer will be interested, got that?"

Brent was trapped and knew it. If he said one word, he could be out, and basically not work again. Hell those crew guys could have given me up. He just nodded and without a word, got up and left the office, slamming the door behind him. Jim just smiled.

Kettelle Hall, 8:00 PM Saturday January 5th 2013

Leonard had just gotten back from dinner, and now he had some things to put away. He had spent the day walking around the college area, and town center in Oxford. He had picked up several personal items, and after finding the Oxford covered market, brought several things to cook his own meals, or for snacks. He had also found several different restaurants including places for Thai, Chinese, Italian and even a McDonalds and a KFC.

While he had mostly wandered around the town to basically get his bearings, he did search for two places. The Eagle and Child pub and across the street from that, the Lamb and Flag. He knew these from the Inklings, a literary group of which J. R. R. Tolkien had been a member. Leonard felt, almost awe, at knowing he was in the same pub, that Tolkien had been in.

He started putting his things away, thinking he would play some video games tonight. He had no plans for tomorrow. He was just going to relax, maybe read, so he would be rested for the upcoming week, when he would be meeting his boss and other faculty members, along with seeing the laser lab.

Apt 601, 5:00 PM Sunday January 6th 2013

Penny and Jeanie had started making dinner, after a busy weekend for both of them. They had moved the rest of Penny's things into Jeanie's apartment on Friday night. Saturday started with them putting everything away and the rest of the day had been spent cleaning Penny's old apartment.

Sunday, they had gone out for brunch, then came back to the apartment, and just kind of laid around. At 4:30, Jeanie got a call, and talked for about 20 minutes. When the call was over, she called Penny to help with dinner. While they were working on dinner, Jeanie spoke up.

"That was Kelli," said Jeanie, "they want me to tell you, that you should have no more problems with either Brent or those friends of his on the crew, making comments."

"What do you mean?"

"I can't get into it, too deeply," said Jeanie, "because I simply don't know. But, Jim and Kelli told me they worked things out, so you shouldn't be bothered anymore. Basically, they got verification of what Brent and the other guys were doing from someone else."

"What they said to Brent and the others I don't know, so I can't tell you. What I can tell you, is that someone you talked to, got in touch with Jim and Kelli, and verified it. Who did you talk to?"

"I don't know," said Penny. "I didn't tell anyone about what was happening, except for you. I knew you'd understand, and believe me, but otherwise it would be him against me, and nothing would get done."

"That's strange," said Jeanie, "they seemed to have someone who talked to them."

Suddenly Penny gasped, "It must have been Les."

"Who?" said Jeanie innocently.

"Les Droste," said Penny, "the A cameraman. I told you about him. He must have overheard Brent, because he came to me and warned me about Brent. How he had done the same thing on another show. Brent asked him to lie about what Brent had said, Les refused, and Brent got him fired."

"He must be the one then," said Jeanie offhandedly. "The big thing, is that you should have no problems with Brent. If you do have a problem, let Kelli or Jim know, they'll take care of it."

"Ok," said Penny. "I have to admit, it's a relief."

"So, break off the tips of those green beans," said Jeanie. "I'll get the chicken breaded and cooked, you can do the potatoes and beans."

Penny started working on the beans, and Jeanie said, "After dinner, we can start working on the scripts for tomorrow."

Apt 4A, 7:00 PM Sunday January 6th 2013

Sheldon was working on a gravitational problem. He had converted a problem in General Relativity, the question of Mercury's precession, into one with his new quantum gravity equations. He had decided to use this, as it was the first problem Einstein solved, when he had finished General Relativity. He had all the numbers, and he was just running them though the equations. It was taking some time, because of how complicated the equations were. He had started just after dinner, when Amy had gone to Howard and Bernadettes. He was now approaching the end of his calculations, and was being very careful now, because he knew the amount of precession, and he didn't want that to influence his work. He cancelled the last two terms, and now had to preform two divisions. He entered the numbers in the calculator, and there, in the display, was 42.9792, very close to the current measured value of 42.9799.

A feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment came over Sheldon. This was the first time, of which Sheldon was aware, that anyone had used a quantum equation, to predict the precession of Mercury. He had done it, no one else. However, he would need to show more than one example was solvable with his equation, and he would have to solve other problems. The big thing was he would have to show how he derived the equations and then write up a paper, including the start of the process, including Leonard's contribution. He was still a couple of years from proving anything, but he was satisfied with the start.

Kettell Hall, 9:00 AM Monday January 7th 2013

Leonard was sitting at his desk, his office door open, when he heard a knock. Looking up, he saw it was Geoff, with another person, who Leonard assumed was another faculty member.

"Hi Leonard," said Geoff. "I'd like you to meet Dr Alain Page, your boss."

Leonard rose, as Dr Page approached. They shook hands, and Dr Page said, "So good to finally meet you Leonard."

"It's so good to finally meet you, Dr Page," said Leonard.

"Ah ah ah," said Alain, raising his forefinger, "Remember, informally, it's Alain. I hope you're ready for a lot of handshaking today. We'll be spending the morning, meeting the physics faculty, then lunch with the physics chair and assistant chair, then I'll take you to the lab, so you can meet all the people that will be working for you."

"I prefer to think of it as working with me," said Leonard. "I plan to…wait, what? I thought I wasn't going to be running the lab?"

Alain chuckled, "Originally, we had planned to have you do tutorials at Trinity, and part of your salary would come from them. Dr Cahill has told us he will be leaving at the end of the semester. So, we decided, after talking with Dr Gablehauser, about your work at Caltech, to make you the head of the lab. We arranged to have him start the semester, with you as his assistant, give you a chance to learn about the lab and he will end the semester as your assistant, with you running the lab. However, with lecturing, and research, and now running the lab, the addition of tutorials would have been too much, so we have removed you from doing the tutorials. You were originally going to be a Research Fellow and Lecturer."

"I thought I was an Associate Professor," said Leonard.

"Oh, you are, that is your Oxford University title," said Alain. "But, for Trinity, you would have been doing tutorials. As a Senior Research Fellow, at Trinity, you don't have to do tutorials, unless it's to fill in for someone who is ill or cannot be there. Do you understand this?"

Leonard nodded his head, "Yes, sir…er…yes Alain, that all makes sense."

"Well, then, let's go meet your new co-workers," said Alain. "After that, Geoff will take you to complete some administrative things, before we go to lunch. Shall we go?"

Raj's Apt, 8:30 PM Monday January 7th 2013

Raj had just gotten home, after stopping by both Howard and Bernadette's place, and Sheldon and Amy's. Howard was in a panic about some change to his PhD. As a result, Raj had left their apartment and went over to Sheldon and Amy's. There he found Sheldon frantically pouring over the equations on his board. His attempts to talk to him, and attempts to talk to Amy, were rebuffed.

He left and was now home. He got a beer, and turned on the television. What am I going to do? None of my friends have time for me anymore, I can't really meet a woman, so I sit here alone. Raj shook his head, and started running through the channels, looking for something to watch.

Studio 44, 8:30 PM Tuesday January 8th 2013

Jeanie walked off the set of her apartment on the show, and started toward the stairs to get Penny, as they were now taking the halfway break in the taping of the show. Penny had run into Brent several times yesterday, and she said he had basically ignored her. Penny had said she felt relieved that he wasn't going to be bothering her anymore. As she climbed the stairs, she was thinking, I wonder if Penny would want to come to Jake's tonight? I can make sure she doesn't drink, get her a soda. Arriving at her door, she knocked, and was surprised to see what appeared to be Penny crying.

"What's wrong, Penny," said Jeanie, sounding concerned.

Penny led her into her dressing room, and pointed at the open script on her table. Picking it up, she saw it was next weeks script, and a list of the guest stars with a short synopsis of their characters. She started reading and the third one down said, "Dr Lawernce Fine - A physicist from Princeton, who is an expert in Lasers."

Jeanie looked up and saw the tears in Penny's eyes, "Oh, Penny, I'm so sorry."

Her lower lip was trembling as Penny said, "Jeanie, I think I should see your psychologist."

Rm 308 Lindemann Building, 1:15 PM Wednesday January 9th 2013

Leonard was sitting at his desk, in his office, going through a text book. He was working on preparing the syllabus for the 'Introduction to Lasers' class. He would be working on the other class, 'Lasers and Modern Optics', either later today, or tomorrow. The first two days had been something of a whirlwind for him. Meeting all the faculty, getting his class assignments, learning where everything was located, was almost overwhelming. He had known where everything was at CalTech, now he might have to ask. It wasn't bad when he was asking faculty, but next week, it may be, embarrassingly, a student.

He had spent most of Tuesday in the laser lab, getting to know everyone, and had invited everyone to a local pub, 'The Kings Arms', after work. He had bought the first round, and most everyone stayed for a couple of hours getting to know their new boss. Tomorrow, he would be taking the required laser safety class, and then on Friday, a look at the equipment he would be overseeing. He was hoping to get the syllabus done by noon and the other things done by 5 PM, so he could then spend the weekend preparing his lectures for the first two weeks of classes, and refine them the beginning of next week. He was going to be busy, but he didn't care, it was just what he needed, to keep his mind off of thinking of Penny.