66
Apartment 4B
Penny looked around her apartment. Everything was in its place and it was sparkling clean from top to bottom. She turned around and gave Sheldon a big hug.
"Thank you so much. I really appreciate this."
"Penny, please have a seat. There are a few things I need to tell you."
"Sheldon, you sound so serious. I'm getting a little worried."
"First, I need to ask you a question. How do you really feel about Leonard and Amy being gone?"
"Well, if you'd asked me that question a couple of weeks ago I'd have said that I was really sad and I missed them and hoped they wouldn't be gone long."
"And now?"
"I feel really bad for saying this but I think that right now the two of us are probably better off without them in our lives. They were kind of manipulating us both and, thinking about it now, neither of us was really very happy when we were with them. They were happy and they wanted us to be happy because of that."
"I would concur with your estimation of the situation, but I have felt that way considerably longer."
"How long?"
"Your relationship with Leonard, especially after you reconciled, I found deeply disturbing. Leonard seemed to have found a way to control you, to make you want to make him happy at the expense of your own happiness. He seemed to find a way to isolate you from others even while you were in the same room as them. I believe the two of you called that being in love. I don't believe that's what it was at all."
"I think you were probably right, Sheldon. I was convinced that being in love with Leonard was all I really needed, that he was the passion that was missing from my life."
"So you now feel that you are better off with him out of your life?"
"Considering how he started acting when I had other things in my life besides him, yeah. He figured he was enough and that he could fill my whole life with his image of happiness. He didn't really care about what I wanted at all."
"Yes, Amy Farrah Fowler was much the same way. She wanted Sheldon Cooper, potential Nobel Prize recipient. She had no desire for Sheldon Cooper, lover of comic books, science fiction, trains and schedules. She despised how I conducted my life. She was not terribly fond of my friends, save you, and I found her affection for you profoundly disturbing."
"Yeah, me too."
"In summation, I would say that we two are much better off and will have potentially much happier lives without Leonard and Amy in them."
"I'm a little to sorry to say this, because they were our friends for such a long time, but I agree with you Sheldon."
"Alright. Then I must admit to you that the events of the last several weeks were not entirely happenstance."
"Exactly what do you mean?"
"The FBI investigations that involved Leonard and Amy did not just happen. I played a part, albeit a small part, in getting them started. I did some things that you don't know about, that almost nobody knows about."
"What are you talking about, Sheldon?"
"While I was traveling over the summer I met someone who knew Joyce Kim and was aware that she had found her way out of North Korea."
"We all know she got out, Sheldon."
"Yes. But I began a correspondence with her, albeit anonymously, and encouraged her to come forward with details of what she had done while at CalTech."
"And expose Leonard's role in it."
"Yes."
"Why did you do that?"
"I felt that Leonard had never taken appropriate responsibility for his role in that matter and that it evidenced a pattern of behavior that led him to his actions in the Arctic, his shameful behavior with a number of women and his horrible treatment of you. I wished to give him an opportunity to finally take responsibility for some of his actions since his behavior over the years showed that he never believed anything he did should reflect badly on him."
"I guess you're right about the way he acted. But do you think you really had the right to wreck his career?"
"Penny, I don't believe I did that. Had Leonard merely admitted what he'd done and why he did it he probably could have gone forward with no more than a reprimand, a possibly diminished security clearance and a reputation as a horndog. But he denied anything had happened and ultimately sought to shift the blame to Howard, Raj and myself."
"Yeah, that sounds like Leonard, alright."
"Everything that happened to Leonard was a result of his own actions. I merely started the proverbial ball rolling."
"I think I understand what you're saying, Sheldon. I'm not sure that I agree that you are blameless but I'm willing to just let that lie for a bit. But what happened with Amy?"
"I have always believed that Amy Farrah Fowler's relationship with her Saudi benefactor and fiancé, Faisal, was a bit suspicious."
"Suspicious would be one word for it."
"When the FBI interviewed me regarding Leonard's role in the rocket fuel imbroglio I purposely let slip a nugget of information regarding Amy and Faisal. The FBI, as I suspected they would, followed up."
"What did they find out, Sheldon?"
"The FBI discovered that Faisal was deeply involved in financing terror activities around the world and in the United States. He employed Amy as an unwitting pawn to distribute funds."
"So he wasn't really supporting her research?"
"He was, but it was research that wasn't going to ever end, therefore providing an ongoing pipeline."
"I don't understand, Sheldon."
"Amy was addicting primates to substances already known to be addictive in order to study the effect of addiction on the brain. That is work that has been going on for many years. She was not interested in treating addiction, just studying its effects. It is not exactly groundbreaking work."
"Is that just you being snooty?"
"A bit."
"And you still haven't told me why Amy disappeared."
"When the FBI uncovered Faisal's network they shut down as much of it as they could and made a number of arrests. They also froze all of Faisal's U.S. bank accounts. Amy was suspended from her job at the lab and her supervisor was forced to resign for hiring her. It was very unlikely Amy would be returning to work there."
"Poor Amy."
"Additionally, some of Faisal's confederates who were not apprehended blamed Amy for their misfortune since she was their only link to Faisal."
"So Amy was in danger. Oh my God. How did she deal with that?"
"Amy dealt with it in the same manner she dealt with anything she didn't understand or appreciate. She was oblivious to it. She refused to believe she was in any danger. Much like Leonard refused to believe that you no longer loved him."
"I kind of see the similarity but Amy is in real danger."
"I agree. Ultimately the FBI asked me to assist them in convincing her to enter the Witness Protection Program, which I did. However, Amy attempted to use the situation as an opportunity to cement our relationship. She sought to convince me to enter the program with her."
"Guess she couldn't stop."
"No, she couldn't. I refuse to join her and ultimately I believe Amy's mother convinced her to go into the program and joined her. As far as I know they've been gone for over a week. We won't be hearing from Amy Farrah Fowler again."
"You know, despite Amy's problems, and she had a load of them, down deep she was kind of sweet. I'm sorry we couldn't at least have said goodbye."
"The FBI would never have permitted that. However, we can rest assured that she and her mother are safe."
"I guess."
"Penny?"
"Yes, Sheldon."
"You look a bit pensive."
"I guess I have some things to think about."
"I don't understand."
"Sheldon, I don't blame you for anything you did. I think that Amy and Leonard did some horrible things to you and it was entirely out of their own selfishness."
"You were a victim also, Penny."
"I guess. But the thing is, you let some pretty terrible things happen to people you once called your friends because they did some not very nice things to you."
"You're correct, Penny. I let things happen. I did not exactly make them happen. Conversely, both Leonard and Amy consciously took actions which ultimately came back and adversely affected them and they also consciously did things that harmed you and me."
"Okay. But I'd like to think that if I was going down the wrong road a friend, like you, would stop me."
"Penny?"
"Yes, Sheldon."
"Is that not exactly what I did?"
"I guess it is. I think I need to think about all of this a bit more."
"I understand. I just sincerely hope that it will not adversely affect our friendship."
"I hope so too. But I am going to need some time."