Disclaimer: The Big Bang Theory is a wonderful work of art, but I do not own it. Give thanks to Chuck Lorre, Mark Cendrowski, and Bill Prady.

Chapter 2: Can't Help Ourselves

Howard is not awoken by the calming Pasadena traffic or the beautiful singing of birds. No, Howard is awoken by the one and only, Sheldon Cooper.

Knock, knock, knock, "Howard!" Knock, knock, knock, "Howard!" Knock, knock, knock, "Howard!"

Howard tries to block out the sound of the knocking, but to no avail. He finally gets out of bed and picks up a robe from a hook on his bed. He opens the door and rolls his eyes at the sight of Sheldon.

"What do you want Sheldon?"

"You're not dressed for work yet? I need a ride to work." Howard looks at his alarm clock on his bedside table. It reads 3:00 AM.

"Sheldon, what the hell is wrong with you? Why do you need to be at work so early? You know what don't even start, I-"

"Well, since you asked, I need to be at work 'so early' because I've been working on my nuclear reactor- the plan stopped by government pen pushers claiming it's illegal to store yellowcake uranium in a garden shed!"

"Sorry I asked! Please stop it Sheldon! I will get dressed and we will go," Howard goes to turn to his closet for clothes and he notices Sheldon still standing there in his doorway. "Sheldon, get out of here!"

"Oh right, you scientists and your 'privacy'- there's no 'privacy' while the government pen pushers are around!"

"Whatever Sheldon," Howard slams his door shut and quickly gets dressed. He opens his door and almost runs into Sheldon because he's still standing in the doorway. They both leave the house and hop into Howard's car. In the car Sheldon starts to hum "Surfin' Bird" and taps his briefcase loudly. "Will you stop that Sheldon?"

"No," and he continues. Howard starts to do the same thing while tapping the steering wheel. "Oh, that is so annoying Howard, will you stop that?" Sheldon asks.

"No." Howard goes on and continues until they get into the parking lot of California Institute of Technology. They get out of the car and Sheldon goes to the trunk and opens it.

"What are you doing Sheldon?"

"Isn't it obvious? I'm waiting for you to open your trunk so I can get my in-progress project out of it."

"How did you get something in my trunk without me knowing about it?"

"Oh, you left your trunk unlocked last night and I put it in there before I came into your house."

"Well, why did you lock it aga- nevermind Sheldon." Howard unlocks the trunk and Sheldon pulls out a piece of blueprint.

"I thought you said you had an 'in-progress' project?" Howard's face is puzzled.

"This is that project. It neede it's own space in the trunk so it didn't get ruined by your junk in the backseat." Howard closes his trunk after Sheldon refuses to because his hands are full of his 'project that he couldn't bare to ruin'.

"Once again Sheldon I don't care if 68-70% of people cannot tap their thumb knuckle against their lower teeth with their eyes closed more than 16 times without getting dizzy." Sheldon is walking down the hallway behind Howard looking at his blueprint and rambling about every fact he read from Popular Science. They are walking towards Sheldon's office when they hear laughing in the room across the hall… Raj's office.

"What in the world, or should I say who in the world is Raj doing in there?" Howard advances towards the door to find it locked.

"Ooh, it must be pretty serious." Sheldon says.

Howard knocks on the door and says, "Raj, what are you doing in there? Why are you so early to work today? Anyways, we need to work on our proposal before 6 this morning." Sheldon and Howard hear items banging around the walls and whispering, then faintly, a door shutting. It's a good two minutes before the door makes a click and it swings open, revealing Raj. His hair is ruffled, and the last three buttons on his shirt are not buttoned.

"Hello guys." Raj smiles and keeps a close distance to the door's small gap.

"Hello Raj, who were you screwing in your office," Sheldon asks. Both Raj and Howard look at him with slack jawed looks. "What? We all know what was going on, it was just a matter of saying it."

"Umm… no one Sheldon." There's a bang inside the office and Raj cringes at the look Howard gives him.

"No one, huh? Well, if she's dressed tell her to leave so we can get to work. We'll wait in the hall." Raj nods slowly and closes his door without hesitation. There's talking and then the door opens again. Expecting to see a stranger or possibly a co worker, Howard sucks in air as he sees Bernadette try to sneak out. She sees him as well and drops everything in her hands; keys, coat papers.

"Hello Bernadette, we didn't see you come into Raj's office. Did you see who he was having intercourse with?" Sheldon asks after looking up from his blueprint.

"Oh Sheldon, shut up! Howie, honey, I'm so sorry! I was just going over some paperwork with Raj and we lost track of the time. I didn't mean to keep you from work." She smiles.

"I'm not stupid Bernie, you two were not in there doing paperwork at three in the morning, no matter how impotant it is. You cheated on me with.. Raj? Really?"

Bernadette opens her mouth to speak, but then shuts it. She tries again and says, "Okay, you're right. Sorry I lied."

"That's it? Sorry I lied about what I was doing, but you're not apologizing for doing what you lied about?"

"Howie I'm… actually kind of not sorry. I did have sex with Raj consensually and I don't feel bad about it. And the reason I don't feel bad is because I don't love you anymore Howie, I think we need to stop seeing each other." Howard starts to speak and then looks at Sheldon, who's head is buried in his blueprints, but his eyes are peering over the edge.

"Go to your office Sheldon," Sheldon turns around slowly and walks to his door. Howard and Bernadette watch as he unlocks his door and goes into his office, very slowly, careful to not ruin his blueprints. Howard looks at Bernadette and says, "Bernie, I don't want to break up."

"Well I do Howard and that is what I am trying to do right now. Goodbye Howard." Bernadette starts to walk down the hallway and then Howard talks a step, saying,

"Wait Bernadette, just a couple questions: one, why Raj; two, how long has this been happening?"

Bernadette looks down at the carpeted floor and blushes. "It started about two months ago at a conference. I was about ready to walk into the room when I saw Raj and… nothing made sense anymore about our relationship. I started second guessing my feelings for you and making new ones for Raj. Our first time was in a janitor's closet next to the conference."

"Okay, that last part I did not need to know, and I can't believe you let this go on for two whole months. How long would you have let it go if you weren't caught?" There was hurt in Howard's expression; his eyes were daggers of pain.

"I don't know. To be honest, in my mind, we were done already. I didn't want to make things complicated before Raj and I got more into each other."

"So… I was basically the last resort? If Raj didn't work out, you were coming back to me?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Bernadette's footsteps echoing in the hall are soon fading and Howard is left to throw himself down on the floor and cry. He glances up at Raj's door opening and stares at Raj's humble facial expression. Raj comes into the hallway and offers his hand, but instead gets the favor returned by a punch to the face. Stumbling backwards, Raj puts his hand to his cheek and says,

"I might have deserved that, but come on man, let's move on."

"Seriously? Just move on from something like this? No thanks." Howard stands up and punches Raj in the face again. By this time Sheldon has come out of his room as well, and watches in awe at such violence. He pulls out his cell phone and takes a picture of Raj as Howard punches him again. He sends it to Leonard and immediately gets a reply in all caps:

WHAT IS GOING ON? WHERE ARE YOU? I'M ON MY WAY!

Sheldon looks up to find Raj and Howard moved into Raj's office, and he hears glass breaking. He peers into the room and sees Howard getting ready to strike again, Raj cowering in a corner. After watching Raj get the crap beat out of him for about seven more minutes, Sheldon hears footsteps and sees Leonard rushing with messed up hair and wrinkled jeans.

"Where are they?" Leonard asks.

"In there." Sheldon points to Raj's room. Leonard goes into the room and breaks the two apart. He pushes Raj out into the hallway and puts his hands on Howard's shoulders and looks into his eyes.

"What are you thinking?"

"I'm not, I guess. But, he had sex with Bernadette!" Leonard looks, shocked, at Raj.

"Why?"

"Long story, just let me at him!" Howard says.

"No Howard! Just, back off, calm down. Let's go out to my car for a while," Leonard pushes Howard down the hall and out of the building to the parking garage. He opens the passenger side door and puts Howard inside. He goes around to the driver side and sits down at the wheel. They sit there in silence for a few moments and then Leonard says, "Penny cheated on me.. with Barry."

Howard looks at Leonard open mouthed. "I'm so sorry Leo."

Leonard shrugs. "I'm not. I have been cheating as well with someone else… for six months."

"What? Why?" Howard sits up on the seat, obviously intrigued.

"Because Howard, sometimes… sometimes friendships are just that… friendships. 'Love' is not truly love when you have to lie all the time to keep the love relationship together. Leave it alone Howard. I'll take you home and you can stay away from work for a few days. Clean everything of hers out of your room, burn it if you have to, just heal."

Howard sighs, "Is that what you did Leonard? You burned everything? Threw it out?"

"I've started, but mostly I have been staying up late at night thinking about her, instead of trying to get rid of the memories of her," Leonard shrugs, "I think I need to go."

"Okay, let's go home Leonard." Howard buckles up. Leonard sticks out his hand.

"No Howard, I mean leave Pasadena. The girl I have been seeing, Jamie? She is moving to San Diego to be closer to her family. And, after six months, I think we know each other pretty well."

"So, you're leaving Pasadena? For how long?" Confusion is written all over Howard's face.

"Well, leaving? Yes. For how long? I don't know." Leonard looks forward and starts up the car's engine and pulls out of the parking lot, driving to Howard's house.

A/N: Let me know how this chapter went for you in the reviews. Thanks for all of the previous reviews and I hope to update quicker than I have been- sorry about that by the way :)- and if you have any questions, please private message me.

~ NessaPoo