Chapter 41 - Aftermath
Penny stood there is stunned, most everyone knew Leonard now and some of them looked at her, but what surprised her was that their looks were sad and sympathetic. She also heard some of what people were saying, she heard words like 'Bastard', 'Pervert', 'Locked Up' and people discussing if Art had drugged every girl he had ever been with on the shows he was producer for. There was even a girl in the corner crying and being held by a couple of friends and Penny suddenly realized that she too had been rumored to have been one of Art's one night stands before. It was all so overwhelming, so Penny just stood looking at the door, waiting for something to happen, like everyone else in the room.
The first one out was Caroline, who looked a little shaken up, but was not crying. She quickly found the friend she came to the party with, they talked for a minute, with Caroline nodding her head a couple times, before they both left. Then the next person out was Art, the room suddenly becoming quiet as he looked around at everyone, before he made a small groaning sound then made a quick departure, obviously very upset. Finally Leonard came out with Sam, they stopped outside the door while Sam told Leonard something then shook his hand. Sam then went to the host to tell him he had to leave and thank him, but before he left he walked up to Penny, who just rejoined Leonard, "Penelope, your husband is a good man, don't worry, I'll take care of everything." Sam then shook Leonard's hand again, and then Penny's, before he headed to the door to leave.
Penny looked at Leonard, "What happened?" she almost whispered.
Leonard gave her a sad smile, "I'll tell you after we leave."
Penny looked around, the party now seemed to be winding down, after all that had happened, so she looked back at Leonard, "Let's go now."
It was a little awkward when they thanked the host and left, then when they got to the car, Leonard insisted on driving, which surprised Penny, since he had never been there before. Penny sat quietly in the car, as Leonard drove out of the residential area, and stayed quiet till he got on the Freeway for their drive across town, but as soon as he settled into a lane, she couldn't hold back anymore. "Leonard tell me what happened!"
Leonard swallowed, "I was watching Mr. Langston tonight, I sort of hated him for what he did to you and I couldn't help myself from watching him, with that young woman." Leonard felt a little embarrassed, but went on. "I saw him put a pill into a drink for her that immediately changed the drink's color to something lighter and it dawned on me that Rohypnol, the date rape drug does the same thing."
Penny gasped, "You're kidding!"
Leonard shook his head, "He definitely put something in the drink and it had all the characteristics of Rohypnol, and Sam thought so too."
"Mr. Waterson knew about a date rape drug?" Penny said in disbelief.
Leonard nodded, "It seems his daughter was date raped by a guy who used the same drug, a couple of years ago."
Penny gasped again, "He told you all that!"
Leonard shook his head, "No, he told only me that, after the others left, and he told me to tell you he was sorry it happened to you too."
Penny's eyes went wide, and she stared forward trying to process what Leonard had just said, now understanding why he wanted to drive. It was several minutes before she could talk again, "He raped me?"
Leonard nodded, "Penny you didn't cheat on your husband, you were drugged and raped. The drug makes you feel like you drank too much, impairs you memory and it seems like a handover next day, but he big thing is it lets the person who gave it to you have his way with you. He raped you, that is why you couldn't understand why you did it, you didn't do it, he did it to you."
Penny slowly nodded while she continued to stare out the front window of the car for the rest of the trip home, her only movement being the wringing of her hands in her lap as she sat. Leonard knew she was doing a lot of thinking now and was upset, but he knew she should feel better in the end. She had been blaming herself the last year, and now she knew it wasn't her fault, and had a real person to blame, he thought she would be finally able to move on and maybe now could forgive herself.
"What are they going to do to him?" Penny finally asked quietly.
Leonard took a breath, he hoped she accepted the rest. "Penny since it had been a year and they would not be able to prove you were drugged now, there is nothing they can do to punish him legally about what he did to you. The girl he tried to drug was asked to forget about it and she would be put a 6 episode contract this year on the show. She agreed. Sam does not want this to impact the show." Penny looked at him wide eyed. "Penny, Sam says Art is done for in the business. He was extremely honest with me and he told me if I repeated this, outside of you, to anyone else he would deny it, but he said rumors in Hollywood were just as deadly as the truth. There were a lot of people at the party so it coming out, in a rumor, that Art drugged girls for sex, would create a big stir. Then when the network and studio offered no comment, plus released him from the show, he would be blackballed from Hollywood. No one would touch him, woman would probably come out of the woodwork accusing him and the police would investigate. He would be ruined and it would cost him a fortune in lawyers fees to fight it, so he would end up broke too. Sam said he was sorry but that was all he could do." Leonard looked at Penny, to see her just nod to him, she remained quiet all the way back to the house.
They had walked into the house, when Leonard couldn't take the silence anymore, he was worried about her and her state of mind. "Penny, I'm sorry, I wish I could help you more."
Penny looked at him, just staring at him for a couple moments, then headed to the living room, straight to the liquor cabinet to pull out a bottle of whiskey. Leonard hadn't caught up to her until she had downed her first shot, pouring a second as he finally walked up to her. "Penny is that a good idea?"
Penny looked at him again then downed her second shot, before turning to fill the glass for her third. "Leonard leave me alone, now."
"Penny come on, getting drunk is not going to help." Leonard pleaded.
"No, but it will make me feel better. Do you know what I went through the last year? At least getting drunk will make that temporarily go away and let me sleep." Penny downed the third shot, then leaned down to find a bottle of Rum.
Penny, with the rum in hand, started to walk to the kitchen, to get a coke, when Leonard gently grabbed her arm which made her stop. "Penny please, don't do this. Let me help you."
Penny was already feeling the effects of the whiskey, she felt hurt, violated, and mad. "Help Me! Leonard I didn't cheat, I was raped. Raped! I went through a year of hell, hoping you could forgive me, even though I couldn't forgive myself. YOU WERE SUPPOSE TO PROTECT ME! I WAS YOUR WIFE! But all you did was fold inside yourself and run from me." Penny was breathing hard now, "I needed you then, but now you want to help me, go Leonard, just leave like you did before." Penny yanked her arm from Leonard's grasp and walked to kitchen, getting her coke and then going to her bedroom.
Leonard stood there for a couple minutes just staring at the way she went, finally slowly walking to the guest room, he had been staying in. He found a small duffle bag and put in it a couple t-shirts, underwear and a pair of jeans he bought for himself that week. He then stripped off the sport jacket and clothes he wore to the party, so he could put on the second pair of jeans he bought and another of the t-shirts, finishing dressing with sneakers he purchased with the clothes. He took some money from Dr Hofstadter's wallet then the passcard/ID for the university, tossing the wallet, with the rest of its contents, on the bed. Finally putting on a jacket and hoisting the duffle on his shoulder, as he left the house and started his walk to Cal Tech.
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Penny woke up the next morning laying across her bed still in the dress she wore the night before, with a terrible hangover. She barely got to the bathroom before she started vomiting and spent the next two hours sitting on the bathroom floor throwing up and wanting to die, she was so sick. She finally managed to find aspirins in her medicine cabinet and drank some water from the sink, before she collapsed back on her bed to mercifully fall back to sleep.
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Leonard spent the night and most of the day on his couch in his office, tossing and turning trying to sleep, but only ended up laying awake thinking. It was about 4 PM when he finally left the university proper to eat a fast food establishment, just outside the campus, then he took a shower in the gym locker area and returned to his office, to email Howard. Leonard figured it was now time to leave, his misguided thoughts of staying there and trying to have a life just confirmed how pathetic he always felt he was. Penny would be fine now and she could move on with her life, so Leonard felt he needed to move on. But to do that he needed to find how long Howard needed to produce the power module.
Leonard was surprised when a minute after he sent his email to Leonard, he got a response telling him Howard had done a lot and would show him Monday morning. Leonard stared at Howard's response, then started typing, asking if he could see it now. It took two minutes to get a response, even though it was only few words, 'Sure, come on over'. Leonard remembered Howard told him he took the bus when it rained, so Leonard brought up the bus routes and planned his trip to Howard's. It was an hour later when Leonard showed up at Howard's house, that evening him and Howard going over all the work Howard had planned for the power module.