Title: Six-Day Marriage
Characters/Pairings: Cuddy/House
Note: Missing scene for Small Sacrifices, S7.
Warning: Angsty; sensitive issues.
Summary: Cuddy remembers her short, disastrous marriage.
Word count: 600 (100 per day of the marriage)
Unbeta'd, coz my beta will have a holy cow if I dump any more fics on her ... Thanks to LJ's Clinic Duty for the episode transcript of Small Sacrifices.
"You were married before. 1987, for six days. Your knowledge of New Jersey divorce law made me suspicious, so I looked it up."
She struggles to maintain her poise as she tries to figure out his agenda. "So this was all a trap?" What does he know?
"Uuuh, a trap's primitive. I prefer 'inveiglement'. Anyway, the point is, I lied to you, you lied to me, I forgive you." He bows magnanimously.
He's really clueless. He's not being wilfully cruel; he's just playing his juvenile games, unwittingly hurting her as he has never hurt her before. Quite a feat, that.
The day after the party she received a summons to the Dean's office. Awaiting her was the Dean himself and Professor Winters, her endocrinology professor, both looking grave.
"Professor Winters has noticed some congruencies between your paper and that of another student," the Dean said.
"I didn't ...,"
"I'm sure you didn't," the Dean said smoothly. "You have an impeccable record, whereas the other possible culprit - let's just say he has attracted attention before. But to be on the safe side Professor Winters will ask you some questions. If you master them with bravura, as you undoubtedly will, you need never bother your pretty head about the matter again."
Professor Winters launched into his first question. "Can you tell us ...?"
She hesitated. She'd merely audited the class, taking the examination as a practice paper. Given her clean slate, she needed fear no worse than a black mark in her record. Greg, on the other hand, ...
"Lisa?"
She blinked, and then she answered smoothly.
When she left the office twenty minutes later she told herself that it wasn't her fault. Instead of cheating, Greg should have prepared for the exam. She wasn't his keeper!
"Screw you, Greg," she muttered.
The scandal hit the medical faculty like a tornado. She went into hiding until it subsided, unwilling to discuss House's expulsion with any of their common acquaintances. She started dating Todd, an economics major who never mentioned Greg because he'd never heard of him and who was ridiculously grateful when Lisa put out on their third date.
By that time she was vaguely uneasy - she was late, but she put it down to examination stress. A month later there was no room for denial. She wasted a further week trying to track Greg down.
"I'm pregnant," she told Todd baldly. "We need to get married. Preferably before my mom finds out."
If being chained down with a wife and kid at age twenty-one was not what Todd envisaged for his future, he hid it nobly. They were married within a week, a simple ceremony at the registrar's. The morning after the ceremony Lisa woke from uneasy dreams of sad blue eyes and long sensitive fingers to find sturdy, reliable, compliant Todd snoring gently beside her. She couldn't do this, not every day for the next forty years of her life.
She shook him awake. "You're not the baby's father."
"Dad, I need some money."
"What for?"
"To pay my lawyer."
"Oh God, Lisa! What have you done?"
"Nothing illegal - don't worry. It was just terribly stupid. Please don't ask. And don't tell Mom!"
"How much do you need?"
"I ... don't know yet."
"Okay, tell your lawyer to send me his bills."
"Thanks, Dad. You're the best. Could you send me a little extra cash? Please?"
Sigh. "Okay. Take care of yourself, Lisa."
"I will. Bye."
Five days later the marriage was annulled. The judge oozed disapproval while Todd refused to look at her throughout the proceedings, but thankfully he wasn't crying anymore. Cuddy had been dry-eyed the entire six days, despite all his recriminations. She'd even managed to remain firm when he begged her to stay, vowing that he'd raise the kid as if it was his own.
She cried, though, when she made another call later that day. "My name is Lisa Cuddy. Could you schedule a termination for me, please?"
Later, she'd wonder if the outcome would have been happier if she hadn't terminated, if she hadn't confessed to Todd, if she'd found Greg or if she hadn't betrayed him to the dean.
She barely manages to make a dignified exit, grateful that he hasn't followed her to witness her melt-down.
"Screw you, House!" she mutters in the darkness of the cab, suppressing bitter tears.
Mostly the memories stay put in some dark corner of her mind. Whenever they rise to the surface, she tells herself she did the right thing; she'd have resented the child if she'd had to drop out of school to raise it.
But tonight she'll dream of a blue-eyed child smiling saucily at her, and she'll wake wondering if she gained more than she lost.