The Wolowitz Conclusion
Chapter 10
Penny woke up the next morning to the hustle and bustle of everyone in her home. Kristian had gone through the night waking just once for a quick feed and Penny felt more refreshed than she had for months. She picked the baby up out of the crib and put him on to feed, taking a final ten minutes to herself before Megan knocked on her door.
"Mommy" Megan put her head round the door, hopping on her crutches trying to steady herself "can I come in"
"of course sweetheart" Penny patted the bed next to her "come and sit here"
"Halley's bullying me again" Megan put her hand over her mouth, she hadn't expected to say it quite so bluntly "I'm sorry"
"when did she start" Penny asked, a mixture of understanding and anger in her voice
"this morning" Megan shrugged, the cat was out of the bag now "but you told me to tell you straight away if it happened again"
"you did exactly the right thing, sweetheart" Penny hugged her "what has she been doing?"
"pinching and flicking me" Megan shrugged "it didn't hurt, but that doesn't matter does it Mommy?"
"no sweetie, it doesn't" Penny agreed "can you ask Bernadette to come here please"
"I was listening" Bernadette interrupted, coming in to the bedroom "Megan, I'm sorry"
It's okay" Megan shrugged, "I know Halley's upset about uncle Howard"
"that doesn't excuse what she did" Bernadette smiled, impressed with Megan's big heart "I'll talk to her"
The two ladies watched Megan struggle with her crutches wobbling all around the place before steadying herself and hobbling out of the room. They were both impressed with the way Megan was dealing with this, it had been a long time since Halley had bullied Megan, resulting in bruises all over her back and arms, and Bernadette and Penny had sorted it out then so there was no reason they wouldn't sort it out again.
"she's a credit to you" Bernadette sighed, breaking Penny's thoughts "you should be proud of her"
"I'm proud of all my children" Penny smiled "even Kristian for sleeping well and letting us sleep well"
"bless him" Bernadette stroked his cheeks and cooed over him has he yawned "its lovely to have a baby around again"
"it is" Penny smiled, handing Kristian to Bernadette while she got up and threw on some different clothes "lets go face the day"
"let's go"
"oh and Bernie"
"yeah"
"you should be proud of your kids too, both of them"
"thank you"
Bernadette sighed as she looked through her phone. There were 54 messages, 9 missed calls and 3 voice messages from Howard, and she'd only just finished breakfast. They were all asking for forgiveness or apologising for what had been going on, sometimes both. The more she thought about it, the more she knew she couldn't go back. Every time she looked at a photograph or closed her eyes to remember him she saw him with someone else, the girl didn't have a face, she'd never seen Hannah, but it was obvious what was going on. She had hardly slept as every time she drifted off to sleep she saw him again. She knew she had to speak to the kids, but that would have to come later. First of all she needed to sort this out with Howard, and she was dreading it.
Bernadette had told Howard to come round to the Hofstadter residence at 2pm that afternoon, Amy was looking after the children, Kristian would be between feeds and Leonard and Penny would be there to mediate what was going on. None of them was looking forward to it. But this was the way it was. This was all Howard's fault and he knew it. It was just awful for Bernadette and the kids but it was what needed to be done
"good afternoon, Howard" Leonard said, somewhat sternly as he answered the door "come through to the living room"
"oh, hi, Penny" Howard scanned the room, he was hoping he was going to see the kids too, but they were nowhere to be seen "where are the kids"
"with Amy" Bernadette snapped "they don't need to hear this"
"okay" Howard sat down on the couch next to Bernadette, Howard said one last prayer before taking a deep breath
"so" Bernadette could feel her voice cracking, she wanted to stay strong "basically, there's no going back, Howard, you've broken my heart and I can't be with you any more"
"Bernadette, please" Howard begged "just give me one last chance, I promise I'll never do anything like that again"
"no, Howard" Bernadette felt the back of her eyes getting hot as tears started to form "I can't trust you any more, you cheated on me, and tomorrow, you're going to go back to work and see her again"
"but…"
"please don't interrupt, please stop asking, I said no, and that's that"
"okay"
"with regards to the kids, I'll never stop you seeing them, but you've got to be honest and tell them what happened, I don't want them being angry at me for something that wasn't my fault in the slightest, I'll never stop you seeing them, but I'll never make them see you if you don't want to, as for the house…"
"keep the house" Howard interrupted, saying something that Bernadette never thought she'd hear "I'm moving to Florida anyway"
"excuse me" Bernadette's tears turned from sad to angry "why are you moving to Florida"
"I've been offered a job with SpaceX" Howard answered "I wasn't going to take it, but since you've said there's no going back, I think I will"
"what about the kids?" Bernadette demanded "Elon said they'd be happy to fly me back and forth, and fly the kids back and forth too"
"oh" Bernadette stuttered, this had come right out of the blue "well, that's that then, you're going to have to tell them"
"I will"
"okay"
"great"
"great"
Bernadette could feel the anger rising in her again, she couldn't believe this. He had slept with someone else and it had given him the chance to walk away from his family and into his dream job. Would he have included her in the decision if she had decided to forgive him? had he done this to give him a window out of this life? Was he sick of being a father, had the novelty worn off after eleven years? Bernadette didn't know, but what she did know was that Halley would never forgive him for this. She would see it as he was abandoning her and Michael. There was no way she could be there when he told them but she didn't want him to be alone with him. she didn't want either of them to be alone with him ever again. There was no way they were flying to Florida on their own before they were eighteen. Bernadette decided that she'd ask Penny and Leonard to be there when Howard was talking to the kids. She trusted them and knew they'd have the kids' backs.