67

Sheldon returned to his apartment, leaving Penny in hers, thinking about what she'd just learned.

Did Sheldon just finally have revenge on Leonard for the Arctic mishap?

Did Sheldon just tire of Amy's attentions and get rid of her?

Could she trust him? What if he was just biding his time, waiting to get back at her for some of the things she'd said about him and done to him?

Penny didn't hear Missy come in and almost jumped across the room when she softly touched her shoulder.

"Deep in thought, huh?"

"Yeah. I guess. Sheldon gave me a bunch to think about. And some of it scares me a little. Well, maybe not just a little."

"I'm not surprised. Wanna talk about it?"

"Missy, how much do you know about what Sheldon did to Leonard and Amy?"

"All of it. We talked through it all before we came back."

"And you're okay with it?"

"Penny, do you remember what Sheldon was like before he left?"

"I know he was pretty confused. I know he was kinda lost."

"Sweetie, my brother is a handful. I know it. You know. He has strange habits and he's sure he's always right and he's got a superior attitude. He thinks he's smarter than everyone in the room."

"He usually is."

"Yeah. Well, when I found him on my doorstep he was none of those things. He was my little brother crying because he'd gotten beaten up by a couple of bullies. The problem was that those bullies were his best friend and his girlfriend and they were tryin' to take everything that made him him away so that they could rebuild him into something more acceptable to them. And, by the way, they were doin' the same thing to you."

"We've been through this before. You're right. What Amy and Leonard were doing to Sheldon was wrong. But that doesn't mean he gets to do something wrong to get back at them."

"Shelly and I talked about this a lot. He had a lot of much nastier ideas about what to do about Amy and Leonard. Much, much nastier. And I'll admit that some of the nastiest and meanest ideas were my suggestions and involved guns, knives, chains and a couple of pick-up trucks."

"Yeah, but we all imagine the ways we'd get back at people who wrong us. But we don't actually do it."

"Penny, we went round and round tryin' to figure out what to do, if anything. Remember, Shelly wasn't even sure he was comin' back. He mighta just walked away. What do you think things would be like for you if that happened?"

"That's a scary thought. I'd still be with Leonard. And I wouldn't have a job. And I'd probably be drinking more than ever."

"Not exactly a happy prospect."

"No."

"Once I convinced Shelly that he had to come back we started talkin' about whether he should really do somethin' about Amy and Leonard beyond just givin' 'em the cold shoulder."

"So you set out to destroy their careers?"

"No. Not at all. Penny, I know you ain't that religious, but are you familiar with the concept of original sin?"

"Basically."

"The way me and Shelly figured it, Leonard and Amy were good people who at some point went off the rails. We thought long and hard about when that happened for each of them. For Leonard we thought it was the Arctic thing for a long time. But that wasn't really it. It was the whole Joyce Kim situation. He stole rocket fuel to show someone who he later found out was a spy so he could get in her panties. And he pretty much got away with it. From that point on he just did whatever supported what he wanted, sabotaged the Arctic thing, cock blocked anyone who got near you, took relish in exposing any of Shelly's mistakes, lied to pretty much any girl he wanted and all the while he said he was a nice guy. What he was was amoral."

"Okay?"

"So, me and Shelly figured that we'd give Leonard a chance to clean up the first thing we knew he did wrong, that we thought sent him down the wrong path. We though that might get him thinkin' about everything he did after that. All we did was open the door. What happened after that was all Leonard."

"You could have stopped it when it went too far."

"You'll have to admit that Leonard went off the rails pretty darn quickly. Once his world was threatened he circled the crazy wagons."

"Yeah, he did do that. But what about Amy?"

"Sweetie, didn't you find it odd that she was engaged to a man that she was takin' tons of money from and dating my brother at the same time?"

"Well, yeah, but she said that things like that happen in funding all the time. Even Leonard had to fuck an old lady to get some big new doohickey for work."

"I think using Leonard as an example kind of makes my case."

"Basically what Amy was doin' was saying the ends justify the means. She also probably never made any effort to find out what else this Faisal guy was doin' besides giving her money."

"She can be pretty focused."

"Not exactly the word I'd use. Anyway, Shelly and I did a bunch of Googlin'. This Faisal guy does not exactly try to hide what he's doin' and who he's doin' it with. His family has a ton of money an' he pretty much does whatever he wants. And that includes killin' people. But I'm pretty sure that Amy didn't know anythin' about that because it had nothin' to do with her."

"Yeah. That sounds about right."

"Shelly and I didn't really know what to do about her. She was involved with really dangerous people. The only thing we did know was that we didn't want her anywhere near the baby."

"Okay. I get that. But why didn't Sheldon just tell Amy what he'd found out."

"You know Amy pretty well. How does she react when she hears something she doesn't like?"

"She pretends she didn't hear it."

"So Shelly figured it was better to get the FBI to tell her what was going on. She still didn't want to hear it. She had a chance to tell them everything that she knew about a guy they could prove to her was killing people but all she would do was swear up and down how wonderful he was for supporting her research and how important she and her work were."

"And now they're both gone."

"It didn't have to go that way, Penny. Leonard and Amy made it go that way."

"But they aren't the only ones who hurt Sheldon. Howard and Raj were in the Arctic. And I did some stuff and said some stuff and helped Amy and Leonard do things that Sheldon wouldn't like."

"When push came to shove Howard and Raj did the right thing, copped to what they'd done and risked everything to do what was right. That's even more than Sheldon expected from them. And so did you. You have tried to be there for Shelly for almost as long as you've known him. Penny, you know that Sheldon has always given you a wide berth. According to the Roommate Agreement Leonard was supposed to be Sheldon's best friend. When Sheldon wrote that he didn't really know what it meant. Over time he realized that Leonard not only wasn't he best friend, but he wasn't really a friend at all. Shelly figured out that another person was his best friend. You."

Penny started to tear up.

"I wasn't exactly much of a friend at all."

"We blame a lot of that on Leonard. Y'see, we think that Leonard could see how close you and Shelly were getting, that you two just gravitate towards each other. And we figure he was jealous and decided to do something about it. Part of it involved encouragin' you to drink more and more, knowing that Shelly has problems with that 'cause of our dad. And he kept getting' you to do things that would piss Shelly off, like the thing with the dining room table."

"We also think that Amy was helping Leonard keep you away from Sheldon by making sure you were hardly ever alone with him. We think she was a little jealous too. We just weren't sure exactly how her head worked 'cause it seemed like she wanted Shelly and she wanted you."

"And Amy and Bernie did always make sure I had plenty of wine and kept pushing me and Leonard together. But things would keep happening and Sheldon and me would keep finding ourselves together."

"Penny, I know you're worried that you mighta done somethin' or might do somethin' to piss Shelly off and he's just biding his time until he does something that hurts you. I promise you that Shelly could never, ever do anything to hurt you on purpose. He only wants good things for you. He wants you to be happy. He probably wants that even more than his darn Nobel Prize. But he'll probably never admit it. You're gonna have to trust me on this, sweetie."

"Okay."

"Now there's probably some pizza across the hall by now. How about we have some dinner and watch us a little TV and then go to bed and have a good cuddle? I know I could use one."

"Yeah. Me too."