The Hofstadter family were the last to arrive at Howard and Bernadette's that day. Megan took as long as physically possible to get out of the car, but no one seemed to worry, she had always been a bit slow to do things and the whole family would often be waiting for her. When Penny and Leonard arrived, Bernadette seemed a bit stressed

"You okay?" Penny asked as she lifted Alice out of the car seat "you seem stressed"

"Amy and Sheldon have been here for hours" Bernadette answered "apparently Harmony had them up at 5am, she's teething"

"Oh no" Penny laughed, she remembered those days with Megan and Elliot and knew she had it all to come with Alice "I do sympathise"

"Me too" Bernadette put her head in her hands "but not at 8am on a Saturday morning"

Megan strolled in dragging her feet, Penny frowned, it wasn't usual for Megan to be so reluctant to spend time at the Rostenkowski-Wolowitz house

"Is Megan okay?" Bernadette asked, as if reading Penny's thoughts "she seems a bit sad"

"I don't know" Penny responded, "maybe she's tired, its been a hard week"

"maybe" Bernadette responded "I'm sure she'll liven up once she's been here a while"

But Megan didn't liven up, she spent as much time as possible glued to either Stephen's side or her mother's side. The girls all agreed that this was unusual, and Penny's mind was racing. She had never seen this in herself, but hoped that she wasn't being bullied as her father had been so relentlessly during his schooling. Penny vowed to have a word with Megan later, to see if she could find out what was going on.

Megan seemed to totally relax as soon as she got home from the day out. Leonard noticed this as odd, he had seen her behaviour earlier but hadn't really given it much thought, and hadn't spent much of the day with her as the men had spent most of it playing Howard's new PlayStation game.

"is everything okay with Megan" Leonard thought out loud once the kids had gone to bed "she seemed to totally change when we got home"

"I don't know" Penny responded "she seemed really on edge at Bernadette's but then totally fine when we got home, and she didn't leave mine, or Stephen's side all day"

"That's unusual" Leonard answered, puzzled, "she's normally such a confident little girl"

"I'll go have a word with her" Penny smiled "I think she's still awake"

Megan was a excellent reader, at six she was already reading books for nine year old's and loved her parent's reading Harry Potter to her in the evenings

"Megan" Penny and Leonard had been standing in the doorway of Megan's room for a few minutes before saying anything "are you okay?"

"yes mommy" Megan tried wiping the tears away from her eyes before her parent's noticed she had been crying, failing miserably

"what's wrong sweetie" Penny ran straight across the room to hug her eldest daughter "you haven't seemed yourself today"

"Nothing mommy" Megan tried to smile through her tears "I'm fine"

"You're not though" Leonard hugged her tight too "you need to tell mommy and daddy what's wrong so we can help you"

"Has something happened at auntie Bernie's house?" Penny suggested "you seemed fine once we got home"

"No, mommy" Megan answered unconvincingly "I played with Stephen today"

"I know sweetie" Penny answered "but you just seemed a little bit sad, and me and daddy want to help you"

"You can't" Megan realised what she had said and put her hand up to her mouth "I mean, there's nothing wrong"

"so there is something wrong" Penny could feel herself welling up, she had done pretty well in her life to breeze through school without being bullied. But she had watched her brother Randall's life become hell when he went to high school

"Megan" Leonard looked her in the eyes, and saw tears in them "you need to tell us what is happening, and who is doing it to you"

Megan burst into tears and rolled up the sleeves of her pyjamas. On the tops of her arms were a cluster of brown bruises

"Oh my god" Penny could feel the anger rising in her "what are they? Who did that?"

"They're pinches" Megan couldn't breathe, she was crying so hard "I can't tell you who did it"

"Was it Halley?" Leonard said in a deadpan voice. He had always been wary of Halley "did she do this to you?"

Megan sunk onto her bed and nodded, now even more sobs came out of her, causing Elliot to stir

"Get your dressing gown" Penny demanded "we are going there right now"