Circle the Drain

Penny stood in her kitchen, drinking her first cup of coffee of the day; she tried to think back to where it had all started to go wrong.

Where's Sheldon's time machine when you need it?

Penny heard the sounds of movement and coughing from the bedroom.

'Oh! God he's awake'

What was his name again Sam or Jimmy? Christ knows? He had been almost the last customer in the bar where she worked "Can I buy you a drink miss?"

Miss! It had been a while since anyone had called her that. They had started talking or he had. About his work, all about his family. He was a salesman - big surprise! What a joke- would his wife have helped him with the condom last night?

Penny could hear him moving about in the bathroom

"How did it get this bad" she softly sobbed. Penny looked over at a photo hanging by her bedroom door. It was the last time all five of them had been together

"Two years ago" Had it been that long? Shortly after the photo was taken, Leonard had moved to NEW YORK. His father had had a stroke and had asked for him

"It's ok Penny I'll be back as soon as my father is ok again" Leonard never did come back.

Howard and Raj had moved in together 'just as friends'

Penny still saw both of them now and again. They still worked at Cal-Tech but they hardly talked now. What was there to talk about?

Sheldon. Sheldon had changed after the realization that Leonard was not coming back. He had just closed himself off from everyone. Even Penny.

Then, a year ago, he was gone. No goodbye. Nothing. She had found out from Raj he had gone back home to Texas.

So,here she was-sad and pathetic Penny so terrified of being alone she would share her bed with a salesmen from Idaho who cried after sex at the very thought of cheating on his wife.