Parking the car, Leonard looked across to Bernadette. "Has Howard read the book?"

She nodded. "He kinda read the whole thing."

He looked repulsed. "All of it?!"

"Yeah."

Leonard rested his chin on his hands and stared at their apartment complex with a far-off look in his eyes. "Dammit."

Just like Howard knew when Raj was in trouble, Raj knew when Howard was in trouble. He made his way to the door and knocked. No answer. But he could see their light spilling out through the side of the door. Tentatively, he gripped he handle and opened it.

"Dude? Where are you?"

He knew he was in here. He knew this for a fact. Why wasn't he talking to him? He padded around, looking everywhere in the living room, even behind the couch as if they were playing a game, but couldn't see him. His ears picked up a slight sound. He looked around their bathroom and saw no trace of him. He hesitantly stepped towards their bedroom. As a rule, he didn't go near it unless Howard or Bernadette was in it, it didn't seem right going into other people's bedrooms for some reason.

Still, he entered their bedroom and saw the closet door was open and he could just make out a shadow of a person. Feeling relieved he walked towards it. Oh, boy. Bernadette was not going to like this. Boxes were opened and spilling their contents all over the floor. Photographs, clothes he'd never seen either of the married couple in, adorable cuddly toys and a bunch of old inhalers were strewed along the carpet. At least he'd found his best friend.

Howard had lied his ass off to Bernadette. He wasn't fine at all, but putting any more of his family woes onto his pregnant wife was a big no-no. He'd lasted about ten minutes after she'd gone before tearing into their closet and ripping down all the stuff from his childhood before Nathan had left. After letting out all the fury he felt at his father, he'd felt drained. Exhausted and sad. So he'd picked up an old T-Shirt of Nathan's and clung onto it, sliding on the wall until he wound up on the ground, breathing in the almost comforting smell of the black shirt. It was soft and warm and would've warded off all the negative emotions completely, had the shirt not been his.
He felt numb and then he heard Raj's voice through the fuzziness of his mind. He hoped Raj would go away, he didn't want him to see him so low. It wasn't really unexpected, though, that the Indian had found him. He felt one of Raj's hands gently shake his arm.

"What is it?"

"My father's a jackass."

Raj pushed a dolphin toy away and crouched next to him. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"He wrote a book on how he compared me and Leonard. You know, for years I thought he fractured my radius by accident. Bastard wasn't above playing dirty."

"Wait, he experimented on both of you? I thought he was the better parent." He noticed Howard's incredulous look and hastily added, "Out of Mrs Dr. Hofstadter and him."

"When I was a kid, I thought my mom shouted at my dad so much, he got sick of us. I was so mad at her. I feel like thanking the woman now."

"Hey, dude. You've got other family than him. I don't mean your cousins or your uncles..I mean us. You have us and you have a child on the way. He doesn't deserve to be in your thoughts and he's certainly not worth destroying your closet over."

Howard looked around his closet as if he'd not known of the mess he'd made. "Oh, balls." He scrambled to his feet and started snatching stuff off the floor and cramming it back into shelves. Raj shook his head.

"That's not how you fold stuff, dude."

Howard threw an ancient green towel at him. "I have to hurry. Bernie won't like the mess."

"What are all these clothes?" Raj asked, picking up a sky blue tie.

"He left them behind. I managed to save them by sticking them under my bed." He looked down at the peach coloured shirt he was holding. "I don't want them anymore." He tossed it onto the ground and picked up the dolphin Raj had pushed away. "I think I'll keep Shamu, though."

"That's a dolphin." Raj pointed out.

"My parents bought him for me at Sea World. I loved Shamu, but he only came in puppets, for some reason." He tucked Shamu into a cupboard and started throwing the rest of his father's stuff out the door.

"Man, your father's crap took up a lot of room." Raj pointed out, looking at the considerably less cluttered floor.

"That's my new motto." Howard muttered. Raj was right though. With all the clothing gone, the mess had nearly gone placed his hands on his head and looked around.

"Hey," Raj said. "It could've been worse. He could've been a psychopath."

"He was a psychopath." Howard retorted. "Anyway, he's out of my life now."

"What about Leonard."

Howard exhaled slowly. "I don't know."

We know what Leonard thinks! But there are many twists ad turns that could be taken, so bear with it! Thank you for reading, I hope you've enjoyed and see you soon!

Love from Shania. xx