I let my TBBT stories lie for a while, having had a writer's block when it came to those and then the show ended. It's very hard to get back to something when you don't see it on a regular basis. But since I usually don't like to leave things unfinished, this chapter is my attempt to get back into the groove, so to speak.
Hope you enjoy :)
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters that appeared in the show.
Disclaimer2: I'm again using the Penny family members that TerribleWaitress created, simply because I'm used to it :D
"Mom!" Penny managed to croak before she couldn't hold it in anymore and burst into tears.
"Penny!" Meryl could only gasp as Penny dropped her bags and slammed into her mothers arms.
For several minutes, Penny just cried into her mother's shoulder, feeling the weight of her previous years pushing her down before getting lifted back up. Meryl just held her, knowing that right now she shouldn't say anything. Penny kept crying, letting all her worries flow out of her, even the small pang of guilt she felt at Kurt's death.
"Alright, the pigs are taken care of, maybe we could..." her dad's voice shocked her from her teary daze. "Slugger?"
"Dad!" Penny said with quivering lips before bursting into more tears.
Wyatt had enough sense to not say anything and just walked over and opened his arms for her. Penny walked into his embrace and kept crying until she was spent, her strength leaving her completely. The next thing her parents knew was their daughters in an exhausted sleep. Wyatt picked her up and carried her upstairs to her old room, putting her down on the bed and tucking her in.
"I put her to bed." he told his wife when he came back down, finding Meryl in the dining room, her rigid body blocking the view on the dinner table. "What's going on?"
"I opened her bags to see if I should wash her clothes." Meryl said quietly.
"And?" Wyatt asked, getting next to her and seeing the open bag. "Holy shit."
"There were some clothes in the first bag but the second..." she whispered and pointed to the bundles of money.
"My god." Wyatt gasped and lifted one of the bundles. "Ten grand apiece and there are lots of those in here."
"What should we do?" Meryl wondered. "Talk to her about? Call the police?"
"Why the police?"
"Wyatt, our daughter has what looks like several million dollars in cash, do you think that came from legal sources?"
"We should wait for her to wake up and explain, don't you think?" Wyatt looked at his wife before putting the money back into the bag and lifting it. "Jesus, this is heavy."
"What are you going to do with it?" Meryl wanted to know.
"I'll bring it into her room and leave the bag open, so she knows that we saw it." Wyatt said. "If she doesn't say anything about it, it could be a sign that this is from something illegal."
"What did she get mixed up in." Meryl worried, her mind whirling with the possibilities and almost always settling on something drug related.
"I wonder where that money came from." Wyatt said after he came back down and grabbed a beer from the fridge.
"Where could it have come from unless it's drugs." Meryl mused. "I mean, what else could she have done that netted her that much money in cash."
"Maybe she had an acting job?" Wyatt suggested.
"They don't pay in cash, not even for porn." Meryl rolled her eyes, inwardly hoping that Penny hadn't been doing porn, though it would still be better than dealing drugs.
"I don't think we should speculate, otherwise we'll drive us crazy." Wyatt sighed and turned on the TV.
When Penny woke up again, she felt the sun on her face. After enjoying it for a few seconds, panic hit her, since waking up with the sun shining through her bedroom window meant that she had slept until noon and missed at least two possible clients, which usually resulted in severe beating by Kurt. She sat up quickly and was about to jump out of bed when she realized that she was in her old room at her parent's farm, the familiar furniture and even the old posters of her childhood still there. With a sigh, she remembered coming home and crying herself out in her parents' arms. Kurt was dead and there were five million dollars in her bag, just waiting to be spent.
"Shit!" she cursed and sat up quickly.
Where was the bag with the money? Had her mother opened it due to her propensity of taking her children's clothes to wash them? What would she have thought where it came from? Penny looked around and saw the bag next to her bed but her mind started racing even more when she saw the zipper open and some of the bundles showing.
So her parents had seen the money. What would they be thinking? If she wanted to avoid speculation, she would have to come clean about how she made it. But how could she do that without telling them what she did for the last few years since leaving them with a guy she thought she loved and then not contacting them even once out of shame?
"Better face this head-on." Penny said to herself with a sigh and got up to take a shower.
After drying herself off, she put on the clothes she had worn before. A pair of sweatpants and a sweater followed it and Penny breathed a sigh of relief at the prospect of not slathering her face in cheap makeup to make herself look as good as possible to lure in some ugly guy with the need to release.
"Good morning." her mother said cheerfully, if a bit hesitantly, and Penny felt it was probably due to the fact that she knew about the money.
"Morning, mom." Penny forced herself to smile. "Is dad around?"
"He's taking care of the pigs, why?" Meryl asked.
"I'd like to talk to you both." Penny sighed. "About what I did since I left."
"Alright, I'll get him." Meryl nodded and pointed to the couch before leaving and returning a minute later with Wyatt in tow.
"Okay, here we are." Wyatt sat down in his usual armchair.
"Well, it was like this." Penny started and the words began pouring out of her.
For the next hour, Penny laid out everything. What happened after she moved away with Kurt, how he had promised her the world and how it had come crashing down. How Kurt made her be an escort to earn some money and how it then had spiraled down to prostitution so gradually that she was unable to escape the life despite wanting to once she was neck-deep in it.
"Well, that explains your silence." Wyatt somehow managed to say calmly, despite the rage he felt at the man that had done this to his baby girl.
"How did you finally get out?" Meryl wanted to know, inwardly relieved that it wasn't drugs after all. "And more importantly, where did all that cash come from you have upstairs in your bag?"
"Well, last week, I was approached by a man. He hired me for a job he had to do, so he took me to a fancy hotel and let me do whatever I wanted in the room while he did what he needed to do. After a week, the job was over and he left that money for me. That's when I decided to get away to start a new life away from all the bullshit I had gotten myself into." Penny told them.
"And Kurt just let you leave?" Wyatt asked, hoping that Penny would tell him that her former pimp would come after her so he could kill him himself.
"Kurt is... not a problem anymore." Penny hesitantly said.
"What does that mean?" Meryl wondered.
"Please mom, don't make me tell you, it could be dangerous." Penny begged. "While the man who hired me was nothing but nice to me and never laid a hand on me, I don't know what would happen if I told you about him."
"Is he that dangerous?" Wyatt scoffed. "If he came here, I have a a few shotgun cartridges with his name on it."
"Dad, believe me when I tell you that if he came here with the intent of killing you, I doubt you'd even get to your shotgun before he got you." Penny sighed. "Please just let it go and forget that the man exists."
"Hmpf." Wyatt harrumphed and nodded before getting up to take care of the farm again.
"What are you going to do now?" Meryl asked her.
"I have absolutely no idea." Penny shook her head. "I guess finding my own place for now."
"Nonsense." Meryl stated. "You can stay here as long as you need."
"Thank you." Penny sniffed, wiping away another tear.
"You know what might help?" Meryl gave her a smile. "How about you go shopping? You got some money now."
"That's right." Penny perked up. "But I can't really do a shopping spree, given that I have this money in cash. The last think I want to do is walk around with a hundred grand."
"Put it in the bank." Meryl shrugged.
"Sure, I go to a bank with five million dollars to deposit it." Penny nodded sarcastically. "That won't set off any alarm bells with the bank and they surely won't report it to the government."
"Right." Meryl had to admit. "Well, take a thousand bucks with you and buy some stuff. I'm sure you can do with a couple of new clothes."
"That's true." Penny nodded, thinking of the small travel bag of clothing she had brought, having left all her former work clothes, if she could call them that, back in Los Angeles. "By the way, how are Bridget and Scott doing?"
"Scott's in jail." Meryl sighed. "He got caught cooking meth."
"Oh no." Penny groaned. "Please tell me he didn't do it here on the farm."
"No, he had built a lab in some old shed and was using instructions from the internet on how to do it." Meryl said. "I think he was trying to copy some show he saw on TV about a chemistry teacher becoming a meth cook."
"Never heard of it." Penny shrugged, since she had to spent most of her time on the streets or in dirty motel beds and if she wasn't, she spent it crying herself to sleep. "And Bridget?"
"She married a restaurant manager and lives in Kearney." Meryl told her.
"Is she happy?"
"Very." Meryl nodded. "Though she was disappointed that you didn't come to her wedding. Not that she was able to invite you."
"I know." Penny sighed sadly, knowing that she had more or less severed contact with her family out of shame during her years as a prostitute. "Maybe I can make it up to her with a generous gift. Do they need a car?"
"Penny, unless you go to a shady seller, you can't buy a car with cash anymore." Meryl chuckled.
"Right." Penny realized. "I will find something."
"If you go right now, are you eating lunch in town?" Meryl asked. "Just want to know if I should make some for you too."
"I'll eat in town." Penny nodded and turned around. "I'll go get dressed."
Penny skipped up the stairs and rummaged in her drawers for some underwear. Her eyes fell on a stack of clean clothes, the ones she had brought with her, and she smiled at her mom's consideration of washing and drying her clothes. She took some plain underwear, white slip and white bra and took some old jeans to wear along with an old shirt that was almost too tight to wear from her cabinet, making her wonder if she had either gained weight or if that shirt was one she had worn as a teenager. She liked the picture on it though, so she decided to keep it. As the finishing touch, she grabbed a wrapped bundle of cash from the bag under her bed, taking some of it out.
"Wow, haven't seen that one in a while." her mother commented when Penny came down. "You wore that last when you were fourteen."
"I knew it." Penny giggled. "It's a little tight in the chest area."
"Well, in the woman of this family, the breasts really got big when we were fifteen." Meryl nodded. "Happened to me, to Bridget and to you."
"Still, I like the picture on it." she giggled. "I'm out."
"You wanna take the old truck?" Meryl asked. "Though your dad needs it in the afternoon."
"I think I'll take the bus." Penny said and counted the stack of money she had brought down with her, coming to just over two thousand dollars. "I simply take a cab back with my purchases."
"Suit yourself." Meryl shrugged and handed her a bunch of smaller bills, so Penny wouldn't have to pay for the bus ticket with a hundred dollar bill. "Stay safe."
"Later, mom." Penny smiled after leaving a hundred on the counter as exchange for the smaller bills and walked out of the house and the mile to the bus station, waiting for her transport and getting on it once it arrived.
She paid for the fare and almost an hour later, the bus stopped at the correct station, a short distance away from the mall. Penny walked towards and into it, seeing the familiar bustle of people though it was less than she was used to when she was still a teenager, the slow death of malls across the country apparent in the number of customers.
Penny still enjoyed the bustle, though it felt strange to come here without her friends. She entered the first store, which sold electronics but only perused, not interested today in buying something of that stuff. As she came out and turned towards the first clothing store, she heard a voice calling her name.
"Penny? Is that you?" she heard and looked at the man who had said it, four other guys around him, one of them looking like he lived in a gym.
"Steve?" she asked hesitantly, unsure if he was the guy she remembered from high school.
"Yeah!" Steve grinned and she could see his eyes roam to her chest. "Haven't seen you in a while."
"Yeah, I was in L.A., only came back yesterday." Penny nodded and pointed to the bench in the center of the concourse, sitting down on it, Steve sitting down next to her while his friends kept standing.
"You went there with Kurt, right?" Steven asked.
"Yeah." Penny sighed. "I wanted to be an actress but... thinks didn't work out."
"Still, Kurt was such a great guy, I bet you had a great time with him." Steve grinned widely and Penny remembered them hanging out all the time after school. "I miss the guy and the fun we had."
"Steve, I hate to break it to you but your best bud treated me horribly over the years." Penny stated. "I couldn't care less if you miss him."
"Can you at least give me his phone number?" Steve asked. "It would be great to talk to him again."
"Even if I had it, it wouldn't matter anyway." Penny shrugged.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Steve looked confused.
"Kurt got what was coming to him." Penny shrugged, unable to even fake sadness at the death of her former boyfriend and later pimp and abuser.
"You killed him?!" Steve gasped.
"What? No!" Penny shook her head. "But he was killed by someone he shouldn't have messed with."
"Yeah, right." Steve scoffed. "A guy you didn't like and who treated you badly ends up dead and you have nothing to do with it."
"Exactly." Penny nodded.
"And why should I believe you?"
"The fact that I'm not in jail should be a good indicator, shouldn't it?" Penny rolled her eyes. "You should watch better crime shows. Or less."
While Steve kept talking, voicing more disbelief mixed with accusations, his friends standing around close by, Penny felt someone's eyes on her. She looked around and saw a person who quickly turned away and walked towards the exit. The small stature and the hair, along with the glasses reminded her of her savior and she got up to follow him, just to make sure that he was who she thought he was.
"Hey, where are you going?" Steve called after her as Penny walked past him, following the man she had spotted.
"I don't have time for this, I gotta go." she waved him off and hurried past several other customers of the mall towards the exit, where the man she thought she knew had slipped out of.
Once outside, she turned her head left and right, trying to find him and she was sure that she saw someone slip around the corner. Penny quickly set off after him, wanting to know for sure because if that was indeed who she thought it was, she needed to talk to him. She ran the last few hundred feet, reaching the corner but not seeing anyone.
"Dammit." she cursed and walked a few dozen feet forward, seeing an alleyway but still no trace of the man.
Before she could turn around, she felt a sense of dread before two strong hands grabbed her arms, pulling them behind her back and pushing her forward. She struggled as she was moved into the alley and after fifty feet, she got her left hand free and snapped her elbow backwards, feeling it connect with something and causing whoever was holding her to grunt in pain.
"Stupid bitch!" she heard and then she was turned around, right before a palm connected with her left cheek, leaving a painful sting as she stumbled backwards and fell over something her feet bumped against, falling on her butt and slamming into a hard object.
"Dammit Steve, what is your problem." Penny asked after recognizing her attacker, holding her cheek where he had hit her.
"You killed my friend." Steve accused and came closer.
"I didn't!" Penny shouted, hoping that someone would hear her and investigate but she could see two of Steve's goons standing at the mouth of the alley, being on lookout.
"Steve, get a move on, we want our turn too and we can't stay here too long." the gym guy to Steve's right, who looked like his diet consisted solely of steroids, said and Penny felt a hole opening up in her stomach.
They were going to rape her! After years of being forced to sell her body for sex, these assholes would take what they wanted from her, just when she thought that she had left a life like that behind. She began to cry when Steve ripped the shirt off of her body, exposing her bra-clad breasts and eliciting a whistle from the second of the guys behind Steve who began ogling her body.
"Damn, you've become even hotter since high school." Steve said and dropped his pants, exposing his hardening penis. "Time for you to finally suck on my cock."
"Please, don't do this." she begged him and tried to lean backwards, being stopped by trash container behind her. "HELP!"
"I'm going to shut your mouth with my dick." he threatened and grabbed her head with one hand and his manhood with the other, lining it up but he suddenly let her go and began screaming at the top of his lungs.
"Jesus, what's wrong with you?" the guy to his left asked. "Do you want to lure the cops here?"
"FUCK!" the steroid freak cursed when he saw the reason for Steve's sudden painful scream.
When Penny opened her eyes again to see what had happened, she could only gasp in shock. Her astonished eyes saw the handle of a knife sticking out the back of Steve's testicles, the short blade visible in the front and his scrotum hanging precariously on a piece of skin. As Steve moved, he walked into his buddy and the movement caused his left leg to stay in one place while his right leg shoved against his other.
The pressure of his extremities hitting each other was enough make the blade slice through the rest of the skin, his testicles falling to the ground and the blood pouring freely from the wound. Steve's scream reached an even higher pitch and just as Penny was going to jump up and make a run for it, she noticed that the two guys who had been standing guard at the alley mouth were on the floor, a lone figure standing on top of them.
Due to the shadows of the buildings around them, she could only see his silhouette coming closer and Steve's two friends shouted challenges and threats while Steve himself still cried in pain. As the guy who Steve had bumped into moved towards the lone figure, Steve fell to the ground and the pressure made the knife blade saw into his penis. With a last scream, Steve fell unconscious, the pain finally too much for his brain to handle while the puddle of blood beneath him became bigger and bigger.
"If you're looking for trouble, you came to the right place." the steroid freak threatened and walked up to the shorter man, switchblade in hand.
Before the large guy could even open the switchblade, her rescuer, if he indeed came to her aid, disarmed the guy within half a second. Surprised, the man tried a left swing but the smaller man caught it at the elbow, twisting it around and the sudden imbalance causing the larger man to stumble forward. The smaller man stepped to the side and gave a quick elbow punch against the joint and with an audible snap, the elbow bent inwards where it shouldn't be going, the bone coming out of the arm, indicating a compound fracture.
"What the...?" the other guy tried to say as his buddy began to scream but his buddy's closed switchblade connected to his face less than a second later, the nose breaking audibly and blood squirting everywhere before a palm hit him in the throat, making him go down, gasping for air.
She tried to hide, the sheer brutality of what was happening frightening her more than the promise of gang rape had. Her rescuer, if he was that, grabbed the foot of the guy gasping for air and gave it a quick twist, snapping the ankle and causing the guy to squeal in pain, the trouble he had breathing in making it impossible to get enough air for a scream.
Her rescuer hit the side of the guy's throat with the edge of his hand, causing him to fall unconscious before repeating the same with the steroid freak, shutting up his screams as well. Penny began shaking as she heard footsteps coming closer to where she was huddling and whimpered as she felt a hand on her shoulder.
"I told you to go home." a familiar voice said. "Why are you in this city and how did you find me?"
With a gasp, she looked up and saw the familiar face of Leonard.
Dun dun dun :D
I know this chapter is shorter than usual but I'm still trying to get back into the groove. Tell me what you think.
Review please :)