The punch was never talked about again. It was just a blip in their marriage, a one-off that both hoped wouldn't happen again. The bruises eventually faded and over the span of three weeks, so did the memory. It was too good to last.

"Howie, will you record the new episode of America's Next Top Models for me?"

Howard hadn't been listening, trying to explain to his mother how to switch on her new television, but he nodded and mouthed "Yeah, yeah" to her in reply. She kissed the top of his head, and he squeezed her hand in a silent 'goodbye' before sighing in an exasperated manner and saying, "Just push the button, Ma. Push it like it's the popcorn setting on the microwave." She giggled at him before walking out.

Four hours later, she was back. She'd had a very long boring meeting with her bosses and her lab was going to experience cuts. She was pretty pissed off and just wanted to snuggle down with Howie, right after she had a glass of wine and watched the new episode of America's Next Top Models. She could see the light coming from their room and peeking in, saw he was reading one of those weird books J.R.R Tolkien had written. She smiled. He looked so cute when he found something interesting. She walked to the fridge and brought out a bottle of red wine and filled a glass. She then wandered to the sofa, set down her glass and began flicking through the recorded programs.

Huh. Funny. Today's episode wasn't there. But he'd said he was going to record it for her. He must have done it. Frustrated , she stabbed at the button, trying to find it. She couldn't. Furiously, she realized that the stupid jerk hadn't recorded it.

"HOWARD!" Bernadette screamed.
In the bedroom, Howard nearly jumped out of his skin at his wife's call. Worrying that she'd gotten hurt, he ran to the living room. He was relieved to see that she looked fine. But she also looked mad. Why was she mad?

"Bernadette, are you OK?"

"YOU IDIOT! HOW COULD YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN TO RECORD WHAT I ASKED YOU TO RECORD? ARE YOU STUPID?"

"I'm sorry, it just..."

"Shut up! I've had a hell of a couple of hours, pal, and all you've been doing is playing Assassin's Creed! All I wanted to do was relax and watch America's Next Top Models, but, no! You decided to forget it!"

"Bernie, I'm really sorry. Is there a repeat on tomorrow?"

There was, but now she was too angry to care. Growling in annoyance, she snatched up the forgotten wine bottle and swung it at him. This time she really did knock him off his feet. He yelped in pain and clutched his side where she'd hit him. She'd not put the top back on and the red wine was spilled on their carpet. The mess infuriated Bernadette even further and she began lashing out on her defenseless husband with the green bottle, while he just held his arms above his head and waited for it to be over.

Eventually, she stopped and went to their bedroom, slamming the door shut. After regaining his breath, Howard got up, slowly and collapsed on the sofa. He felt physically sick. Who knew little Bernadette possessed that kind of strength? Why was he such a bad husband? He'd promised himself he would never make her sad or angry. That he would never be like his father. A stab of pain crashed through him and he gasped, curling up. His father had hit him while drunk a couple of times. But this was different. This was all his fault.

The next day, Bernadette announced she was going shopping with Penny and Amy. He was free to do what he wanted. She was cold and distant and he was too afraid of angering her again to make amends with her about the wine bottle incident. When they got into 2311 Los Robles, however, she was all sunlight and smiles. He played along with her, thankful she hadn't walloped his face with the bottle, which would surely have raised questions. He just wanted to curl up on the couch and hang out with his buddies. But then Amy started pestering Sheldon to come shopping too. Sheldon refused, saying he only went shopping when necessary and seeing as he had all the food, clothes, water and hygienic products he needed, he wasn't going to go. Then Amy suggested going into game shops. He liked that and then Raj asked Sheldon to ask the girls if he could come too. They agreed, seeing as he was fun to go shopping with.

Leonard looked at Howard desperately. He was always on the prowl to get brownie points from Penny for being such a good boyfriend and being her shopping pal would get him brownie points almost at the speed of light. Cursing his soft nature, he looked at Bernadette.

"Can we come too?" Howard asked.

"OK." She said, sweetly. She wasn't angry, Howard saw with relief. Now all he had to worry about was getting through this shopping trip.

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So far, so good. Bernadette had found a pair of ripped jeans she wanted him to try on, so he'd gone into a dressing room to try them on. He as shocked by his stomach. It was black with bruises. No wonder he was hurting so badly. He couldn't stop staring at them.

"Sheldon, sweetie, go and check on Howard." Penny asked the physicist. Leonard and Raj were trying on clothes as were Bernadette and Amy and she didn't want to go into the men's changing rooms. Sighing that he was being asked to do such a mundane task, Sheldon went.

Howard jumped violently as the curtains tore apart. He was calmed upon seeing it was only Sheldon, until the PhD holder's eyes went wide with shock at the bruising on his stomach.

"Howard, what happened?"

Howard snatched up his shirt, covering himself, and glared at Sheldon.

"Nothing." Sheldon looked uncovincedly down at him.

"It doesn't matter, OK?"

"Howard..." Sheldon began. Then he stopped. He'd seen bruising like that on his mother and himself too. Bruising like that only came from glass objects in his experience and from abuse. He had a suspicion that all was not well in the Rostenkowski-Wolowitz household. He also knew that Howard was not the type to lash out, especially not at women and he knew Howard would be upset at him if he handled this badly and he didn't want to be on the receiving end of Howard's silent treatment. He was already annoyed at Amy who'd promised him a fun day out and didn't want to add annoying a close friend to the list of things that had ruined his day. Then it hit him. He'd ak Amy to help him. His fellow scientist always knew how to help him out.

"If you ever want to talk about anything..."

Howard nodded vigorously, eager to get the conversation over. Sheldon mumbled that Penny had wanted him to come out so they could see what the jeans looked like and backed out. Howard sighed and sat on the little bench in the cubicle. Suddenly, he grabbed his cell, tapping out a message to Sheldon.

Don't tell anyone

Why? Sheldon replied.

Howard didn't know how to answer. In the end he typed out

What you saw isn't important

Sheldon grimaced,reading the text. He'd already texted Amy to tell her he had something he needed to discuss with her. He decided not to tell Howard this and typed out

OK

Wolowitz was probably telling the truth. But Sheldon had a feeling that this was not the case.

I don't own anything. The only thing I own is this fanfic. Hope you liked it and please review!
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