Here's chapter three!

It had been exactly two days, fifteen hours, and forty minutes since Howard's life had been ruined. He was still wearing the same clothes he'd worn to the doctor's office. His eyes were swollen from crying and sharp hunger pains plagued his stomach. Maybe I'll just stay here until I die. Howard mused to himself. It hadn't been that hard to convince his mother he was sick, giving the fact that he was still throwing up daily. Once he had gotten to his room, Howard had locked the door and not come out since. Leonard had texted him a few times, but it was so easy to lie when you didn't have to look at the person talking to you. Everyone though he was out of town for the week, taking a mini road trip on his scooter. For now the lie would get Howard through the week. Eventually he knew that he would have to tell his friends, tell Raj, what was going on. Howard Wolowitz was pregnant. Pregnant with his best friend's child. Even better, Raj wanted almost nothing to do with him. Raj. Just the thought of the man made Howard feel weak. Howard was pretty sure their friendship was over, ruined by one night of passion. And now this was the final straw. Raj was bound to hate him for this.

Someone gently knocked on the door. At first Howard thought it was his mother, but she would have broken the door down first before knocking that gently. "Who-who is it?" Howard croaked, his voice cracking.

"It is Sheldon. I found your story of a scooter road trip highly improbable, hypothesized that you were lying and decided to figure out the solution to this dilemma. Let me in."

Howard swore under his breath. Leave it to Sheldon to make his life even worse than it already was.

"No."

Knock knock knock.

"No, Sheldon"

Knock knock knock.

"Go away!"

Knock knock knock. Realizing that he was fighting a losing battle, Howard stood up and opened the door. Sheldon looked Howard over, frowning.

"You look awful." was all that Sheldon said.

"Gee, thanks." grumbled Howard. Without asking, Sheldon pushed past him and sat down on his bed.

"You see Howard, as stated earlier, I believed you were lying about going on a road trip. Knowing your personality, you are much more likely to vacation at home, feeling bound to this abode by your mother. I consulted Rajesh who, surprisingly- considering you two are "best friends"- had nothing to offer on the subject. You two must be having a lover's quarrel of sorts. Raj was incredibly uncomfortable discussing you. I noticed because his breathing became rapid and his left eye twitched at the mention of your name. Which was rather odd I thought since-"

"Sheldon! Hold on," Howard interrupted. He stood up and left the room, heading towards the bathroom. Having to pee every five minutes was yet another gift Howard's pregnancy had given him. Each time any of his symptoms arose, Howard felt shame grip his heart. It was unnatural to say the least. He was a freak. Luckily, no one knew except Dr. Monroe. It was Howard's plan to keep things this way. Sheldon, however, had other ideas.

Back in Howard's room, Sheldon sat on the bed looking around. Down the hall he heard the bathroom door shut. Slowly Sheldon reached for Howard's phone which was sitting on the bed. He flipped it open and glanced at the text messages. They had all been deleted. Cursing his lack of luck, Sheldon placed the phone back on the bed when suddenly, it began to ring. Sheldon glanced at the caller ID: Dr. Monroe. With a devilish grin, the man picked up the call.

"Hello. This is Dr. Sheldon Cooper speaking. I presume that you must be Dr. Monroe," he said into the phone.

"Ah! Hello Dr. Cooper, you must be Mr. Wolowitz's partner?"

"Yes, you could call us partners of a sort." Sheldon said, not understanding the implications.

" I must offer you my dearest congratulations. Any pregnancy is a true gift, especially in Mr. Wolowitz's case. Speaking of Mr. Wolowitz-"

"Pregnancy? You don't mean to tell me that Howard is pregnant. That is not physically possible," Sheldon cut off the doctor. His was extremely intrigued. This was not what he had been expecting to find. Sheldon's guess was that there had been a quarrel of some sort between Howard and Raj. Nothing like this.

"My god! He didn't tell you? Oh I feel awful! This is not good! You will have to tell him I send my deepest apologies. I just wanted to call and ask him to come in for a second appointment. Oh I just feel so awful!" the doctor rambled off apologies for another few seconds. Sheldon heard footsteps from the hallway. He had to hang up. Now.

"It is fine Dr. Monroe. I am not bothered. I will pass on the message. Thankyoubye!" Sheldon's last words were rushed. He just barely managed to end the call when Howard returned. He looked at Sheldon, then the phone in his hands, and back at Sheldon. The look on his face was one of anger; his eyes narrowed to slits.

"What the fuck were you doing you nosy little asshole?" he yelled, snatching his phone from Sheldon's hands. Already pale from not eating much the last two days and the stress, Howard, more stressed than ever, resembled a ghost.

"I could ask you the same Howard. This is a truly bizarre occurrence, which I will have to monitor carefully. But I am interested, how did you manage to get yourself pregnant? Was it an experiment?" Sheldon asked, clearly enthralled with the science of it all. Howard rubbed his forehead, trying to keep his panic at bay. No one was supposed to know, ever. Well, except Raj. Maybe. But Howard was getting to that. Sheldon was nosy, and in this situation, nosy would be very, very dangerous. Seeing no other option, Howard sat next to Sheldon.

"Look, you can't tell anyone. Promise?" Howard asked. After Sheldon nodded Howard forced himself to continue, "I slept with another man. And now- I don't know how it happened- but I'm pregnant." Sheldon shuddered at the mention of sex but his curiosity overcame him and he opened his mouth to ask another string of questions. Before he could speak, Howard leapt up from the bed and opened his door.

"I don't want to talk anymore Sheldon. I'll see you at dinner tonight," he said. For once, Sheldon took the hint and walked towards the door. Before leaving however, he turned around and faced Howard.

"Raj misses you. A lot. He just doesn't know how to say it."

..

"Howard's late." Leonard noted as he, along with Raj and Sheldon, were waiting at their apartment. The group was supposed to go out to a bar tonight. The only reason Sheldon was going was to observe Howard, who was becoming the scientist's new pet project. Raj looked at his feet when Leonard mentioned Howard's name, Sheldon noted. He wondered if Raj knew, but thought that to be unlikely because Howard made him swear to secrecy.

"Looks like your drinking buddy isn't going to show," Leonard said to Raj. It was 8:30, and they were supposed to leave at 8.

"It doesn't matter," Raj mumbled sourly.

"I do not believe that Howard will be drinking any time soon, give his condition." informed Sheldon. Leonard gave Sheldon a confused look. Raj pretended not to care but his eyes betrayed his indifference; they were filled with worry.

"Oh, that's right. You don't know yet do you Raj? I was surprised when Howard asked me to keep this information a secret. I assumed that he would have told you right away." Sheldon's words were sharp, perhaps a little more harsh than necessary but Sheldon didn't seem to notice. Raj was scared. Scared for himself, but mostly scared for Howard. After that night, Howard never called Raj. Every time they were together, Howard avoided talking to him. It broke Raj's heart.

"What are you talking about?" This time Leonard spoke up. Sheldon sat down. For the briefest moment, he considered keeping his mouth shut. They will find out eventualyl, he told himself.

"What is wrong with Howard?" Raj asked. The pleading look in his eyes was all the reason Sheldon needed to reveal his secret.

..

The wind was cold that night. Howard wished that there had been time to let his hair dry, but he was running very late. A wave of exhaustion had struck him and he had accidentally fallen asleep. Howard had only woken up from his nap thirty minutes ago, exactly at 8, the time he was supposed to meet his friends. Reluctantly, he got ready as fast as he could- hopping in a fast shower and throwing on clean clothes. Finally, he had rushed out the door and took off on his scooter. Everything outside seemed new to him. Perhaps spending almost three days locked inside of your room did that to you. The man let out a depressed sigh as he saw Leonard and Sheldon's apartment complex coming into view. He knew that he would have to talk to Raj tonight. Sheldon had probably spilled his secret by know, and Howard was prepared for an awful night.

He took the stairs because the elevator would never be working. Every step he took, Howard wanted to turn around and forget about tonight. He finally reached the right floor and stopped outside of the door to his friends' apartment. Inside, it sounded like an intense conversation was going on. Something inside of him told Howard what that conversation was about and he wanted to run. Before he would walk away, Penny came up behind him.

"Hey Howard, don't you think you should open the door?" she teased. Howard stepped aside without a word and let Penny go inside. Slowly, he followed her. The first person he looked at in the room was Raj. He looked like shit. His eyes were wide and confused and he didn't notice Howard had come in because his gaze was focused on something off in the distance. Suddenly, Howard realized that all eyes were on him. Sweat started forming on his brow and Howard backed up a few steps. Raj squeaked when he realized that Howard was in the room and was the only one who couldn't meet Howard's gaze.

"Sheldon…"

"Howard, I could not help but spill the beans, as the phrase goes. One cannot leave me with an interesting factoid such as the one you left me and expect me to keep it inside of my head. Besides, they would have found out in a few months." Sheldon explained calmly. Howard couldn't breathe. Penny looked at Sheldon, then back at Howard, clearly confused.

"What is going on?" She asked.

"Well," Howard managed to speak, "I'm kind of...you see, it's just that…" His words were failing quickly.

"Howard, you can't expect us to believe that this is true. Come on man," whined Leonard. He sat down on the couch and Penny joined him. Howard watched as Leonard leaned over and whispered something into Penny's ear. She looked at Howard in confusion.

"Is it true Howard?" This time, it was Raj that spoke up. He had spoken to Howard in the gentlest tone in months. Howard's heart felt pinched. All he wanted was Raj to be his friend again and he knew that things would never be the same. A one-night risk had fucked up his entire life. Gazing into Raj's eyes, Howard felt more nervous that he had ever felt in his entire life.

"Yeah Raj, it's true."

..

I know this chapter was pretty short, sorry! I hope you will love it! Thanks for reading.