A/N: This is the sequel to "Secrets in the Dark". I highly recommend reading that before reading this one. Also, I will slowly build up to some Huddy action over the next several chapters. So be patient! As always, reviews are greatly appreciated!

SCENE 1:

Rachel Cuddy was getting ready for her first day of high school at Plainsboro Academy. She had already been going there for a year and a half now, so she didn't have to worry about getting lost or making friends. Still, Rachel was worried with her ability in handling the curriculum. This was the first time in her life that she was taking Advanced Placement classes. The second Cuddy heard that Rachel qualified to take AP Spanish and AP World History, she continuously nagged Rachel by saying how much having AP classes on her transcript would strengthen college applications. Finally, Rachel relented and signed up for them for the sole purpose of shutting her mom up. Cuddy meant well, but she had it ingrained in her head that Rachel was going to go to an Ivy League school in order to get into a highly respectable profession, such as a doctor or a lawyer. Rachel sighed as she put on her school uniform which consisted of a short-sleeved navy blue button down blouse and kaki colored pants. She grabbed a pair of black flats, slipped them on and brushed her hair into a side ponytail. Then she went in front of the mirror and began applying her make-up: emerald green eye shadow, black eyeliner, black mascara and ruby red lipstick. Once Rachel was satisfied with her appearance, she walked into the kitchen.

"I don't think so!" Rachel heard Cuddy say immediately upon entering. She looked over and saw her mom sitting down at the table with a cup of coffee in hand. "You are not going to school looking like THAT!"

"Looking like what?" Rachel moaned.

"Like you just walked out of a horror movie!" Cuddy shot back. "Either you go and put on your make-up in a sensible manner or I'm not going to allow you to wear any."

"What's wrong with my make-up?"

"For one thing, you caked on so much green eye shadow and red lipstick that you look like the bride of Frankenstein. For another, I don't like all that heavy black eyeliner all around your eye. Go wash it off and try again!"

"Seriously?" Rachel looked over at Cuddy who was now glaring at her. "Fine!" She left the kitchen and came back 5 minutes later wearing only mascara and a touch of her red lipstick. "Happy now?" Cuddy looked up.

"As a matter a fact, yes!" she said. "And don't you dare use that tone of voice with me again. Do you understand?" Rachel nodded. "Good! Well, I'm off to work now. I should be back by dinner time providing that everything goes well. If not, there's some pasta in the freezer that you can heat up."

"Okay," Rachel responded. "Where's House?"

"Still sleeping. He doesn't have to be at work until 11am today." Cuddy sighed. "Lucky bastard" she muttered under her breath. Cuddy then smiled and walked over to Rachel. "Good luck today! I'm sure you'll do just great, though." She gave Rachel a quick kiss goodbye. "Bye, honey! Have a great day!" Cuddy called out as she hastily ran out the front door. Rachel sat down at the table and saw her bottle of Abilify sitting there in front of her; it seemed as if it was looking up and taunting her. Rachel knew the drill; she was supposed to take two tablets with breakfast every morning. Little did Cuddy know that, in reality, she wasn't actually taking them anymore. Instead, Rachel would take two pills out of the bottle every day and flush them down the toilet. Rachel felt the medication dulled her manic episodes down too much and she needed to experience those highs in order to have the energy and focus required to meet all of the high demands that Cuddy had been placing on her lately. If Rachel wanted to please her mom, she had no choice but to stop taking her medication and put up with the crappy symptoms of her Bipolar Disorder.

SCENE 2:

House's phone went off at 8:30 am, waking him up from a very comfortable slumber. He groaned as he sat up and rubbed his fatigued eyes. House glanced over at the bed next to him and saw that Cuddy was already up and, in fact, had probably left for the day. House let out a grunt, realizing that the shrilling ringtone of his cellphone wasn't going to go away until he answered it. Begrudgingly, he picked it up. "This had better be good!"

"Good morning to you too, House!" Cameron sarcastically said on the other end.

"What do you want?"

"I need you to come in to the ER. I have a new patient presenting with some very puzzling symptoms."

"Which are?"

"I need you to physically come in to evaluate the patient" she explained. "You need to see them for yourself."

"Forman said I don't have to be in until 11 which means I still have about another hour and a half of sleep left. So thank you and goodbye."

"House, I…" Cameron started to say when House hung up. House had just about fallen back asleep when his cellphone rang again.

"For fucks sake!" he shouted as he angrily grabbed the thing and picked it up. "What now?"

"House, get your butt down here now and help Cameron out" Forman adamantly stated.

"But I don't work in the ER. Plus I'm not due to be in until 11" he argued.

"Plans changed! You're working the ER until this case is solved and I expect you here no later than 9:15. Got it?" House sighed.

"Fine! But I want a week off from clinic duty!"

"Just get down here ASAP!" Forman practically shouted before hanging up. House sighed. This was going to be a long day.

SCENE 3:

Rachel had just sat down in her first period English class and was getting her notebook out of her backpack when she heard a familiar voice. "So, we meet again." Rachel looked up. No. It couldn't be. This must be some sort of nightmare. There was no way that Annabell could be standing right there before her. Rachel gulped.

"Hi," was the only thing that managed to escape her lips.

"Hi! That's it? That's all you've got to say to me you little bitch?"

"What…what are you doing here?" Rachel nervously asked. Annabell sat down at the desk next to her.

"That's better. Anyway, my mom said that Plainsboro Academy has a better curriculum than Princeton Senior High. So she decided to cough up the five grand a year and send me here. Why, does that bother you?" Annabell sneered.

"No," Rachel lied, trying to keep her cool, but failing miserably.

"Good," Annabell said in a snarky tone. She noticed Rachel's schedule lying on her desk and quickly snatched it away

"Hey!" Rachel protested. "That's mine! Give it back!"

"If it's in public view, than it's meant for the public to see" Annabell shot back. "Hmm…let's see. Looks like we have also Spanish together. Muy bueno!" Rachel felt sick to her stomach. Here she thought all her problems were over, that she had finally moved on from her past, but her past was right here staring her straight in the face.

SCENE 4:

House had just arrived at the hospital when Cameron ran over to greet him in the lobby. "House! I'm so glad you're here" she said as she struggled to catch her breath. "Here's the file. Quick synopsis is that the patient is a 12 year old female who had a seizure with foaming at the mouth right before her mom called 911" Cameron explained as they both headed towards the ER. "Her heart rate is over 200, yet her blood pressure is only 85/42 and she has a fever of 104.2." House glanced down at the file.

"Pupils reactive?"

"Yep," Cameron responded.

"Has she had anymore seizures since she's been admitted?"

"Nope, but that's only because I have her on a high dose of anti-seizure medication" Cameron explained. "I can't keep her on this indefinitely. Just did it until we could figure out what's wrong with her."

"Chart says she went to the doctor a few days ago with complaints of a bad cough, dizziness and nausea" House pointed out. "Has she been tested for the Swine flu?"

"No, but she's young. So her body should be able to fight it off."

"That would be true except for the fact that she already has Asthma as an underlying condition, which you would have realized HAD YOU READ THE CHART! Confirm for Swine flu and then start her on anti-virals." House ordered. "Think you can handle that?" Cameron simply ignored that comment.

"I'll page you once I get the results" she said. House nodded as he started to head out.

"Where are you going?" Cameron demanded.

"Home. Did my good deed for the day."

"You were here for less than 20 minutes!"

"Forman said my only duty of the day was to help you treat your patient, which I did!" House shot back. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll be on my way."

"We haven't even confirmed that it's Swine Flu yet. Shouldn't you at least stay until the results come back?"

"I could, but I won't!" House turned around and left Cameron standing there in total disbelief.

SCENE 5:

Rachel was sitting on her bed, trying to focus on her Algebra 1 homework, but her mind kept drifting back to Annabell. What if she tried to hurt her again? Rachel fought to hold back tears as she contemplated doing something that she hadn't done in a long time. Rachel took a deep breath and stared down at her arm. There were several old scars there, which she liked to refer to as badges of courage. Her stomach knotted up as she slowly got up and walked into the kitchen. Rachel was about to open the draw and grab a knife when someone else walked in.

"Need something?" Rachel jumped as she looked up. She sighed a breath of relief when she saw that it was just Cuddy. "What are you doing with the knife?" she asked, noticing the knife that Rachel was holding.

"Oh, um…nothing" Rachel lied as she quickly put it back in the drawer and shut it. Suddenly a look of terror washed over Cuddy's face.

"Oh my God, you were going to…sit down, Rachel. We need to talk."

"But I'm fine," Rachel said as she started to walk away.

"This isn't optional!" Cuddy said raising her voice. She grabbed Rachel by the arm and lightly pushed her down into a chair. Cuddy sat down in the chair next to her. "You were going to cut yourself, weren't you?" Rachel shook her head. "Rachel, don't lie to me. If you were just planning on cooking with that knife, you wouldn't have tried to hide it so quickly." She stared Rachel straight in the eye, causing Rachel to feel nervous and look away. "Rachel! Look at me when I'm talking to you!" So Rachel did. "You were doing so well. What happened?"

"It's nothing," Rachel lied. "Can I go now?"

"Not until you tell me why you were about to cut yourself."

"I wasn't going to cut myself!" Rachel protested.

"Then what were you planning on doing with that knife? Take up wildling?" she added sarcastically.

"No. I wasn't going to do anything with it." Rachel bent her head forward and bit her lip. Cuddy saw that this approach wasn't working and decided to take the nicer approach.

"Look, I'm sorry for lashing out at you. I just had a rough day at work, ok? Not that it's any excuse because it isn't." Cuddy placed her hand on Rachel's shoulder. "Rachel, sweetie, I know there's something bothering you and I want to help you. But I can't do that unless you tell me what it is."

"There's nothing you can do to fix this" Rachel muttered.

"Try me!" Cuddy said in a confident tone. Rachel closed her eyes.

"It's…well…Annabell goes to Plainsboro Academy now. She's in two of my classes." She slowly opened her eyes and looked up at Cuddy who wore an expression of shock on her face.

"What?" Cuddy exclaimed. "How the hell did she even know you were going there? I didn't say anything to anyone. Did you?" Rachel shook her head.

"See, I told you there's nothing you can do. I'm officially screwed."

"Don't say that. Did she say or do anything to you?" Cuddy asked.

"Other than shoot a couple of snarky comments my way, no" Rachel said. "But I'm still really scared."

"Which classes of yours is she in?"

"English and AP Spanish" Rachel responded.

"How about this? I'll call the school first thing tomorrow. See if I can get you into a different timeslot for both of those subjects" Cuddy suggested.

"Won't that seem kind of suspicious?" Rachel asked. "I just don't want to provoke her and make things worse." Cuddy thought for a moment. Rachel did have a valid point.

"Rachel, I know you really wanted to take AP Spanish but what if you dropped the AP class and took regular Spanish instead. That way, if anyone were to ask, you can just say you didn't feel up to par with the curriculum, even though we both know you can handle it just fine." It took all of Rachel's self-control not to laugh out loud. Where did her mom get the idea that she wanted to take all these AP classes anyway? She was perfectly happy just taking regular classes, especially since she needed to maintain a higher gpa for the honors program and they didn't care what level of classes she took.

"Ok, that sounds good" Rachel responded. Cuddy smiled and nodded in satisfaction.

"Also, if she touches you or threatens you in anyway, go to the office immediately and have them call me. Understood?" Rachel nodded. "Rachel, I am so sorry. I honestly thought you'd be safe there. That you wouldn't have to worry about any of those girls anymore."

"It's ok. You did what you thought was right, mom. Thank you." Cuddy smiled. It truly meant a lot to hear her daughter say that. She was about to respond when House walked into the kitchen.

"Morning, all"

"Morning?" Rachel questioned. "Maybe in China. Did you just get out of bed?" House nodded. "What about work?"

"Solved a Swine Flu case in 20 minutes and, much to Forman's disliking, I took the rest of the day off." He walked over to Cuddy. "So what's for dinner?"

"Make it yourself you lazy bum" she said getting up. He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her close to him. Their lips locked as Cuddy rapped her arms around House's waist.

"Ok, I'm leaving before I officially go blind" Rachel said as she shielded her eyes with her hand and ran out. They both broke apart and laughed.

"Kids these days, huh?" House said. Cuddy just shook her head.

"Get cooking" Cuddy said before she too left the kitchen.