Chapter 14

Penny was pacing the parking lot, desperately trying to remember who was in her car that night. There was her, Jessa who was driving, Courtney, Katie and Jenn. It must have been one of them. She started by calling Jessa, who was the sober one, maybe she knew who did it. Penny selected her name and hit dial. No answer. She ran through the rest of her friends, and called them. It all went to voicemail. Why were none of them answering her calls? Were they feeling guilty? Penny started pacing around the parking lot biting her nails.

"Oh my god..what if they're hurt?" Penny whispered to herself. She grabbed her phone and opened her email. What were the new side effects that caused them to recall the drug?

Diaxophedrine trials recently showed, that in certain individuals, the drug can cause an extreme and sudden rise in blood pressure. This extreme rise in blood pressure may put the patient at very high risk of heart attack, stroke, aneurysm, heart failure, kidney failure, vision loss, memory loss and comprehension loss.

It seemed like all the drugs that they sold had a laundry list of side effects. But this must be much more serious if Johnson Medical was actively trying to recall all their samples. Oh my god, what if they had taken the drugs, and were lying unresponsive somewhere. She didn't know where they all lived these days, so she couldn't even go to their houses to check on them.

The only thing she could do was text them at this point.

The box in my car with the drug samples is extremely dangerous. It has been recalled by my company. Please do not take them or give them to anyone! It could cause a brain aneurysm! I desperately need to get those samples back to my company or I could get fired. Please, I'm not mad, but just call me right away.

She hit send, and prayed that they would text or call her soon. That didn't help her in the meantime, Dan was waiting for her samples and she had none to show. She knew that she would be fired immediately for this, they were never supposed to leave their samples unattended; they were to be in secure places at all times.

She didn't know what to do? The only person who might be able to help her was Bernadette. Penny glanced up at the Johnson Medical building and blinked away her tears. She was going to have to ask Bernie for help.

Bernie was sitting in her lab on the phone with Amy. When Amy answered the phone, she sounded absolutely giddy.

"Amy? You sound like you're in a good mood."

"Oh, believe me Bernadette I am. I don't think I've ever felt this exhilarated in my life before."

"Why what's going on?"

"Oh I went and saw Sheldon last night. At his office."

"I thought that you weren't talking to him in person for two weeks? What happened to that?"

"Well, I thought about what you said to me the other night at the lounge. We really did need to talk. You know how we were just doing email correspondence? Well he wrote me the most touching and amazing email. I just couldn't keep away. I knew that we needed to talk, but electronically wasn't doing it. We needed to talk in person."

"So when you went there, did you two have a good talk? Did you talk about the train trip and how it made you feel?"

"Oh we didn't really talk at all" Amy smiled as she spun around her lab happily.

"What? I don't get it. Why didn't you talk?"

"Cause we were too busy…making out on his desk."

"WHAT!? Wow! How did that happen? I mean..WHAT?" Bernadette exclaimed.

"I told him that we needed to talk about everything. He said he agreed that we DO need to talk about everything. And then he kissed me. Oh Bernie, it was the most glorious kiss that I've ever experienced in my life….AND…"

"And what?!" Bernie desperately asked.

"He found second base..Oh boy did he ever find second base."

"AMY!" Bernie gasped. "Then what happened?"

"The night janitor walked in on us with our tops off! I had to hide under the desk until she left."

Bernie smiled. It was so nice to hear Amy sounding so happy again. Wow, had her and Sheldon made a lot of progress is such a short period of time.

"Amy I'm so happy for you. I'm glad you and Sheldon are getting closer. It's about time, in my opinion. But, I don't want you to ignore the stuff you wanted to tell him. You two still need to talk."

"Oh we will, I definitely want to talk to him about everything. I want things to be better and stronger between us. I just feel like I'm in a state of bliss right now though." Amy said dreamily. "But Bernadette, please don't tell anyone what I told you. You know how private Sheldon can be. I just needed to share this, or I was going to burst!"

"Deal, but I need some help from brainiac Amy right now." Bernie said urgently.

"What's going on?" Amy asked her voice filled with curiosity. Bernadette launched into the explaining the chemical composition of the Dioxaphedrine drug, and how things were changing with the side effects after a period of time, and how none of that showed up in their clinical trials. The two got into a deep discussion about the molecular structure of the drug, when Penny showed up at the door with tears in her eyes.

"Umm..Amy, I've got to go. Penny is here." Bernadette said softly.

"What? Are you two talking again?" Amy's voice suddenly went flat.

"No, it's not like that. She showed up earlier about the Facebook post. We talked a little, nothing serious…Listen, she's crying, I better go."

"Ok, call me later. Bye."

Bernie looked up at Penny with a confused look on her face.

"Penny what's wrong?"

"Bernadette, Oh my god, I don't know what to do. I had the box of the Diaxophedrine in my car. I think my friends must have found the box last night and stolen the drugs." Penny sobbed as she held the empty box. "I don't know what to do! I tried phoning them and texting them but there is no response. I don't know where they live. What if they took it and are hurt somewhere? Dan is going to kill me. I don't want to lose my job." Penny crumpled into the chair sobbing.

"You LOST the drugs! Penny, this is a disaster!" Bernie exclaimed.

"Don't you think I know that? I know.. I know."

"What the hell were they doing in your car? You know you're not supposed to leave those unattended"

"I put it there for Doctor's visit the next day. I totally forgot to bring them into my apartment last night when I was getting ready."

"Well I really don't know what I can do to help you." Bernie sighed.

"Please Bernadette think! I need your help so bad. Isn't there a way you could get more samples?"

Bernadette's eyes narrowed. Yes, there was a way of getting more samples. But, she was putting herself at great risk. She worked so hard to get this job, was she going to risk it all to help Penny? Penny who hadn't been the greatest friend lately? Bernadette thought back on her friendship with Penny. This was the same Penny that had befriended her at work when she had no friends there. She was the same Penny that stayed with on the phone all night listening to her crying about an old boyfriend. She was the same Penny that had introduced to her the love of her life Howie. Yes, they were in a bad spot, but it hadn't always been this way. She looked at her friend, who had her head in her hands, her body shaking from crying. She would help her, she was still her friend.

"I have some of the drug for my lab testing, but I need to keep all of it accounted for. I also need it to do my work. How many samples were in this box?" Bernadette grabbed the box from Penny and looked at it. Fifteen samples. Oh my goodness, why couldn't it just be like five samples. Bernadette's Diaxophedrine was not nicely packaged also, it was in its raw pill form. "Penny, I can't give you the Diaxophedrine from my lab, it doesn't look the same as the stuff you give your clients. Your client's samples are all nicely packaged. But I have an idea."

Bernadette picked up the phone and phoned the lab on the fourth floor.

"Hi Jerry its Bernadette. I'm doing some further testing on the Diaxophedrine, but I accidentally dropped some solvent on my batch, and it's all been wrecked. I really need to work on this right away, and I need some more. What are you doing with the samples that the Pharm Reps have been returning?"

"Well, once we count them, we've been just storing them in a bin."

"Would I be able to get some samples from you for testing?" Bernadette asked.

"I don't see why not. You'll have to sign out the amount you need, so that it's all accounted for though."

"I think twenty samples should be sufficient for now. I'll sign the paperwork when I come down"

Bernadette left the lab promptly, and then returned with a bag of twenty Diaxophedrine samples. She took fifteen from the bag and put it in Penny's box, and sealed it with packing tape. She shoved the box into Penny's arms.

"I need to write a report about every sample that I am testing, you've created a huge amount of work for me, and I need to fake a bunch of reports now. I'm putting my butt on the line for you Penny. I am risking EVERYTHING for you. Do you understand?" Bernadette said urgently. "Thank God the samples don't have serial numbers on it. It's just generic packaging. Now take this box and return it to the Lab."

"Thank-you Bernie" Penny sniffed "Thank-you so much. You don't know how much this means to me." Penny was still shaking, she picked up the box and tried to wipe the tears from her eyes.

"If this ever comes out at all, YOU are taking the blame for this. I had no involvement. Understand?"

"Yes" Penny said quietly.

Penny walked into the hall and breathed a sigh of relief. That was one problem solved, but what about her friends. Were they ok? Did they take the drugs? And if they did, could it be traced back to her?

A/N: Bernie saved Penny's butt. But is she in the clear? What became of the box of Diaxophedrine?