"Have you heard from Bernadette?" Amy asked Penny. It was her day off, Howard had snuck off to work before she'd awoken, and Penny was working at the bar. She figured it would be good to hang with her bestie and see if having an alcoholic beverage before night fell really was as cool as it was made out to be in the movies. So far she hadn't found it to be very satisfactory.
"No. Have you?"
"Not a thing."
Penny sighed and set down the glass she'd been polishing.
"I really thought she would've tried to contact us or him, or..."
"She's probably ashamed of herself. Either that or she's moved on from him."
"Come on, she would never do that."
"Yes, but grief can make us do all kinds of stupid things."
"Yeah. Like the time I found my ex cheating on me, I got a screwdriver and scratched the hell out of his BMW."
"That sounds appropriate to do when you find your boyfriend cheating."
"Are you kidding? I should have blown the damn thing up and set our sheepdog on him."
"That would definitely be appropriate."
"Yeah." Penny sipped some soda and opened her mouth to continue talking and then she froze.
"What's the matter?" Amy asked. She turned her head and blinked when she saw who it was. "Wow. Talk of the devil..."
"Amy!" Penny hissed, hoping the newcomer hadn't heard.
"What?"
"Shh."
Bernadette glanced nervously at the two women. Feeling sure that they were judging her, she walked to the bar and tried to act casual. They looked pretty neutral to see her, but she was still terrified.
"Can I get you anything?" Penny asked her
"No, thanks. Is he OK?"
"Well, he's been better."
"I want to talk to him about this."
"Have you tried calling him?" Penny asked.
"No, I should talk to him face to face."
"More like fist to face." Amy muttered. Bernadette looked crestfallen, but still stood her ground.
"Look, you're our friend and he's our friend. We want you both to be happy. But we want you two to feel safe. Do you think he'll feel safe around you now?"
"Honestly, no. But I do owe him an explanation of why I've been treating him so badly."
"What's that?" Penny asked.
"You guys know how my childhood was. Every time that something wouldn't go right would remind me of my girlhood. And then he's in pain and I'm the one who caused that."
"Amy, you work with brains. Is that really possible?"
"Well,there is something called hypothalamic region of limbic system. That is the most primitive part of the brain. It wants what it wants, without conscious or judgement. It makes a child cry when he or she is hungry, in pain, when a toy is taken away. If a child has a healthy relationship with parents, especially the mother, brain pans hypothalamic region of limbic system for health y emotional responses. If not, it stays primitive.
Often, when parents punish their children, they say "it's for your own good" and "I only do this because I love you." Child doesn't want to think his or her parents would want to harm him or her, so he or or she starts believing in that. Like you did. So, punishment became natural expression of love, affection and care for you. And, due to your undeveloped hypothalamus, you couldn't bring yourself to punish him on more complex and non-violent way, so you would punish him on most primitive way possible. Beating. You loved him so much... that you harmed him. But I'm not an expert. It could very well be something else."
"I know someone who is an expert!" Penny exclaimed. Whipping out her cell, she selected a name and pressed 'dial'.
TBBTBBTBBTBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTB BBTBBBTBBBTBBTBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTB BBTBBBTBBT
"Yikes!" Beverly gasped. She grasped her phone and answered with a breathless, "Dr. Beverly speaking, who is this?"
"Hi, Beverly, it's me. Penny."
"Oh, slugger. Hello. You caught me at a rather slippery time, I'm afraid.."
"Sorry. Look, could I Skype you later? There's a friend of ours who's having trouble with his marriage."
"Friend of ours? Dear, we don't have any mutual friends..."
"No! I meant me and Leonard!"
"Oh, I see. Well, I'm free as a bird tomorrow."
"Great! I'll call at seven, if that's OK."
"Wonderful. Now tell me the problem. Things seem to have dried up considerably now."
TBBTBBTBBTBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTB BBTBBBTBBBTBBTBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTB BBTBBBTBBT
"Why are you here?" Leonard asked in astonishment. He'd heard from Sheldon, who'd heard from Amy that Wolowitz was back, but he had wanted to check for himself. Now he owed Sheldon $10.
"Why wouldn't I be? This is my workplace."
"I know, but I thought you were with Amy."
"I am," Howard replied grabbing a bolt, "but I've got a lot of stuff to do, and no, it can't wait." He picked up a nut and started attaching it to the bolt and then seemed to droop.
"What's the matter?"
Howard held the object out for him to see. After glancing at it, Leonard said the first thing that came to his mind.
"That looks like one of those enlargement rings you can buy online."
"No it looks like a wedding ring. See?"
"All I can see is proof that you came back to work too soon."
"No, I just gotta concentrate." He placed the object to one side and continued working on the satellite he'd been fixing.
"Howard?"
"What?"
"Why did you really come back?"
"Look, if I have to stop doing things as normal, this whole thing is real. If I stay at Amy's doing nothing, I'm only going to reflect on the fact I'm not with Bernie, that Sheldon could end up getting his gravy boat back."
"Think positive, will you? What happened to the man who'd say ''there's gotta be something we haven't tried yet?'"
"He got real."
Leonard realised that there was no use trying anymore. Before he exited the lab altogether, he turned to face him. "You know, that advice got us all out of a lot of trouble before. Try using it one more time."
TBBTBBTBBTBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTB BBTBBBTBBBTBBTBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTB BBTBBBTBBT
Too soon. What the hell did they know? He knew they meant well, but he knew his limits and that meant he was fine to go into work. Just fine. It took his mind off things and that meant work was the right place to be. And they had tried everything. Talking, leaving, apologizing. Nothing worked. And thinking about it hurt, so he'd woken up early and gone to work while Amy was sleeping. It wasn't very polite, but at least he'd texted her once he'd reached his destination, explaining where he was. His cell buzzed. Raj had texted.
Hey dude. R u comin to L & S's 2nite?
He considered this for a while and then figured it would be nice to visit them again.
Yeah
Cool. C u l8r
Just as he got back to his satellite, his cell buzzed again
Can I give u a lift? U can always hitch a ride back 2 Amy's w/ her and she could drop u off work 2moro.
That would be good, actually. He hadn't been able to concentrate on the road that morning. He texted Amy to ask if she would be OK with it and once she gave him the all-clear, he replied back to Raj to accept the offer.
TBBTBBTBBTBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTB BBTBBBTBBBTBBTBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTB BBTBBBTBBT
"Where's Priya?"
"She's already there. Dude, she's OK if you want to talk about.."
"Raj..."
"I get it, it hurts, but it's only gonna hurt more if you keep it in."
"I don't want to talk about it because it sucks to talk about, alright?"
"Alright, I'm just saying, you can talk to Priya."
"OK."
Going up the stairs, he became very aware of how quiet Raj was. Remembering how the group usually dealt with their friend's problems, he came to a stop.
"Wait a minute. This isn't an intervention, is it?"
"No, course not."
"You promise?"
"I can't believe you would accuse us of such a thing." Raj said, wounded.
"I'm sorry,but this is the sort of thing you guys do." Howard countered as Raj opened the door.
The first thing he saw was the six of them sitting and looking unnatually serious. He glared at Raj.
"You lying jerk. This is an intervention."
"No, it isn't."
"Well, what is it then?"
"It's a discussion." Penny answered. "Not an intervention. Sit down, sweetie."
"Penny has something to tell you." Leonard informed Howard. He didn't look very happy and Howard wondered what had happened.
"We've set you and Bernadette up for a marriage counselling session at seven via Skype."
"Does Bernadette know?"
"Yes. We saw her today and she really wants to eliminate her problem so we found a wonderful psychologist, who is willing to help for free."
"Who?"
"My mom." Leonard answered for Penny.
"Aw, no!"
"Just give it a shot, please. She will help you guys sort this." Penny pleaded.
"I know, but she's his mom."
"Is she good at what she does?"
"Yes, but I read on the internet that female psychologists are more likely to blame the guy if there's relationship difficulties."
"Good Lord, do you really believe everything you read on the internet?" Sheldon asked, looking appalled.
"I understand that you're scared. Counselling played a big part in your parents splitting up. But marriage counselling with psychologists has come a long way since then and my mother's not like other psychologists. Or women." Leonard told him.
"Yeah. So where are Bernie and I gonna talk to her? Our apartment?"
"She suggested a neutral environment. Somewhere you both feel at peace." Amy said to him.
"You can use this place." Leonard offered.
"What about your schedules?"
"We don't have anything planned." Sheldon reminded him. "Provided you end it at 8:30 sharp because that's the time we eat."
"Alright. Thanks for setting it up, guys."
TBBTBBTBBTBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTB BBTBBBTBBBTBBTBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTBBBTB BBTBBBTBBT
"I kinda feel bad." Penny confided in Leonard.
"What for?"
"Well, I don't feel bad for getting your mother involved. We had to help them."
"I know." Leonard briefly hugged his girlfriend, not wanting her to feel as though he was mad with her. "I just wish you rang to ask my opinion."
"I know and maybe I should have, but it was my first thought to get help, so I acted on it."
"I see. So what do you feel bad about?"
" I kinda feel we forced Howard into it. He wasn't very comfortable with it at first."
"You didn't force him into anything. You just helped him see what the right decision was."
"Thanks." She kissed him and leaned against him. "I just hope it works."
An enormous thank you to Mislav, my most loyal reviewer who gave me the info for Amy's explanation of Bernadette's behaviour from the Criminal Minds wiki. Not only has this angel been with me through the chapters, pointing out what's good and what's not, but they've also been a major support. Thank you so much, Mislav :) As usual, all I ask is a review so I know that you enjoyed this chapter. CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM IS VERY WELCOME AND ALWAYS WILL BE ! See you next time!
Love from Shania. xx