First of all, thanks so much for the nice comments! Especially harpomarx. I really appreciate it! And once again, thanks to House's House of Whining and clinic_duty on Live Journal.
Shortly after they had all settled back in, there was a knock at the conference room door. A stocky red-haired woman looked in cautiously.
"Is this the Inquiry support group?" she asked.
"WILSON!" Rachel burst in from behind her and threw herself at Wilson. "WILSON!"
"Hi, Rachel." Wilson was delighted to see the little girl. "Hey, somebody has really grown up! How old are you now?"
"Five and three quarters." Her hair was in a ponytail, and she wore jeans and a pretty ruffled top. She hugged him, hard. "How're ya doing?" he said, helping her up into his lap. Rachel buried her head in his shoulder.
"I'm Gloria Baron, I'm a child psychologist," said the woman. "I was called to help Rachel testify."
"I want my mommy." Rachel's voice was muffled.
"Have a seat," said Foreman, pulling over another folding chair. Chase and Taub stared at Gloria.
"She testified?" Taub's tone was one of disbelief. "She's only, what five and a half?"
"Five and three quarters," Wilson corrected him.
"My little girls—" Taub continue to stare. "I would never let them in a place like that. Those people will stop at nothing!"
"Rachel and I did play therapy, and I encouraged her to talk about House. But what did I miss? There's some issues she isn't talking about."
The others looked each other meaningfully.
"I don't think we should say anything right now," said Foreman. "Could we have a word in the hall? You folks go on without me."
Gloria followed Foreman out into the corridor.
"What is she holding back?"
"Do you know what House did to Cuddy? Crashing his car into her house?"
Gloria blanched. "Oh, NO! Oh, sweet lord! Excuse my language, but Rachel never said a word. That's why she was so scared of being abandoned by her mother. I suspected she had PTSD, but she wouldn't talk about it. She became silent and shook her head. She said her house had been broken, but that was all she would say. I thought she meant a broken home. We didn't have time enough to work together for this to come out. The poor child! Was she at home when it happened?" Her green eyes were wide.
"No, she was at her grandmother's, but House didn't know that," said Foreman patiently. " Cuddy and House started a relationship—those two should have never gotten together. He twisted himself into knots trying to be the kind of guy she wanted. Then they had a nasty breakup—I don't know the details. All I know is that House went crazy. He'd had muscle removed from his thigh because of an infarction. So he tried an experimental drug to grow the tissue back, but it created tumors in his leg. House tried to cut them out himself in his bathtub. Cuddy drove him to the hospital A few days later, he deliberately drove his car into her house when she was entertaining guests. Wilson was with him, and Wilson's wrist was broken. He wasn't in the car, but I think House almost ran him over."
Gloria was silent for several minutes. Then she murmured, "That is one of the worst things I have ever heard—and I have heard a lot. Was House arrested for attempted vehicular manslaughter?"
Foreman shook his head. "He fled the country. But later he turned himself in, and he spent some time in prison." He sighed. "He made it clear he felt no remorse for what he had done."
"So, Rachel comes home to find her home wrecked, her mother devastated, everything fu—excuse me, screwed up—" She paused. "The panel didn't ask us anything about all of that. Even when she said her home was broken. Poor Dr. Cuddy. What a terrible, awful thing to go through. No wonder she left Princeton." Gloria took a deep breath. "We can go back in now."
They walked in to see Taub on the floor inside the circle of chairs, playing with Rachel and her floppy-eared bunny. Rachel looked scared when she saw Gloria.
"Mrs. Baron, you're not gonna make me go to that place again?"
"No, you're never going to have to go back to that place, Rachel," Gloria replied. "You'll be with your Aunt Julia." She looked at Foreman and lowered her voice. "That's where she's staying for the time being. We all thought it would be better if she was away from her mother while Dr. Cuddy was testifying."
"You can say that again," said Chase. "They'll—" He looked at Rachel to make sure she wasn't looking at him. He turned his head back to Gloria and drew his finger across his throat.
"Guys," Foreman said, "We only have the room for two hours. Meet back here on Thursday?"
