SCENE 1:
Rachel had just gotten home from school. Well, to her grandma's house, but that was going to have to be her home for now. Cuddy was busy working on getting Rachel an order of protection against Mark, having all of the locks at home changed and working over-time so she could afford a good attorney. Even so, Rachel was a little hurt that her mom didn't even bother to call her once in the three days that she had been away. Trying to shrug it off, Rachel went upstairs and threw her backpack against the wall before climbing into bed. The vomiting had ceased and her stomach pains were starting to go away, but now Rachel had a startling new symptom. Both her ears felt like they were stuffed with cotton and it were getting harder and harder for her to hear. Not wanting to worry her mom or grandma, Rachel decided to keep quiet and hid the problem as best as she could. Rachel turned on her phone and smiled when she saw there was a text from her mom. She opened it:
So sorry I haven't called sooner.
How is everything? BTW, I'm picking you up
from school early 2morow so I can take you
to the doctor.
The doctor? Rachel wondered why on Earth her mom wanted to take her to the doctor? Rachel sent back a text asking about this. Five minutes later she got a response:
There's a slight
possibility that this antibiotic
can cause hearing loss, even deafness (although
that's rare). How r u feeling?
Rachel gulped! Is this what was causing her sudden hearing problems? Was she going to lose her hearing forever?
Mom? If it does hurt my
hearing, will I ever get
it back?
Rachel's heart sank when she saw the word "NO" pop up on her screen. Tears formed in Rachel's eyes. She texted her mom the following:
Where r u and r u busy?
A minute later her phone rang. "Hello" Rachel answered.
"Honey, its mommy"
"Can you hold on one second?" Rachel asked. She couldn't hear anything and had to turn the volume up all the way. "Ok, I'm back".
"Is everything ok?" Rachel hesitated before deciding that she should tell her mom the truth. After all, her mom would find out about it at the doctor's office anyway because chances were she wasn't going to pass the hearing test.
"It's…it's just that…I don't know how to say this" Rachel muttered.
"Just close your eyes and tell me" Cuddy suggested. Rachel did.
"My hearing's gotten a lot worse over the past few days" Rachel quickly spit out. "I had to turn the volume all of the way up on my phone in order to make out what you're saying. I'm scared, Mom".
"I'll be there in an hour, ok" Cuddy said in a loud and slow voice, hoping that Rachel would understand what she was saying.
"Ok!" Rachel exclaimed. "Bye mommy!"
"Bye, now!" Rachel hung up and decided to do her homework while she waited for her mom to come over. She had 20 math problems to solve, a 2 page English essay to write and 30 Spanish words to memorize. Rachel decided to knock out the Math problems first.
"Caught in a bad romance. I want your love, love, love, love. I want your loveert is fried. I just can'll the time. now playing a Ke$ha song. English essay. "" Rachel sang along with her iPod as she solved quadratic equations. 15 minutes later, Rachel was done. She decided to go out for a quick walk before starting her English essay. "Bye grandma!" Rachel said as she waltzed out the front door. She didn't know whether or not her grandma was home, but always said hello and goodbye just to be safe.
Her iPod was now playing a Ke$ha song. Rachel sang along with it as she walked down the street. "What you've got boy is hard to find. I think about it all the time. I'm all strung out; my heart is fried. I just can't get you off my mind!" Out of the blue, Rachel got a chill up her spine. Someone or something grabbed her. She just froze as the thing threw her into a car.
"Bitch!" Rachel knew that voice. It was Mark. "I'll teach you to tell on me. You thought you had it bad before? Well that was heaven compared to what you're about to get." He climbed into the backseat next to Rachel and pushed her down. Rachel tried to kick him in the face, but he grabbed her ankle and thrust it backwards.
"I'm sorry!" Rachel cried with tears in her eyes. "I'm sorry. Please don't hurt me!"
"You're not as sorry as you are about to be!" he sneered as he started to un-do her blouse. Rachel tried hitting him, but he began to choke her. "We can either do this the easy way or the hard way." Rachel closed her eyes and he released his grip from her throat. "I knew you'd come around" he said. "Don't worry. It'll be over before you know it." Rachel gulped. She didn't know what to do next.
The next few minutes seemed like an eternity in hell to her. When Mark was finally done, he grabbed Rachel's wrist. "See this?" he asked, pulling out a gun. Nervously, Rachel nodded. "If you tell anyone about this and I mean anyone, I will blow your fucking brains out! Understand?" Rachel nodded. "Good! Now get out of my car you stupid bitch." Rachel did as she was told and walked home, still in utter shock over what had just happened. When Rachel approached the house, she saw Cuddy's car in the driveway. Rachel just stood in the driveway, frozen with fear and humiliation. After a couple of minutes, she managed to walk inside and locked the door behind her. Rachel slid down against the door and began to cry.
"Rachel, is that you?" Cuddy called out, but Rachel didn't answer. "Rachel, I'm sorry I'm late. I was just…" Cuddy stopped in her tracks when she saw Rachel sobbing by the front door. Her blouse was undone in some spots, her hair was a mess and she had a bruise on her left wrist. "Oh my God!" Cuddy exclaimed as she ran over. "What happened?" Rachel looked up at her. "Can you hear me? Nod if you can hear me." Rachel nodded. "Good!" Cuddy said as she helped Rachel up off the floor and over to the couch. "Now, tell me, what happened?" Rachel felt sick to her stomach. She wanted to tell her mom, she really did, but the image of Mark's gun flashed in her mind and she decided it was best to remain silent. "Rachel, I can't help you if you don't talk to me." Cuddy put her arm around the fragile girl's shoulders. "Please, sweetie. I won't let anything bad happen to you."
"That's what you said at the hospital" Rachel protested. "You said he wouldn't come near me again and…"Rachel's voice trailed off. She couldn't tell her mom. No! She was not ready to die. After all, if her mom failed to protect her once, who was to say if wouldn't happen again and this time she could lose her life for it.
"And what?" Cuddy asked, fearing the worst.
"It's nothing!" Rachel said as she started to get up. Cuddy grabbed her wrist and pulled her back down onto the couch. Rachel closed her eyes and began to scream. "No! Don't touch me. Leave me alone!" Tears poured out of her eyes and rolled down her face. They stung her chapped lips.
"What is it? What happened?" Cuddy asked, demanding an answer. Rachel wiped away her tears and quickly re-gained her composure.
"Nothing" Rachel said. "It's nothing. I'm hungry. Can you make me dinner, please?"
"Rachel, don't stray off topic" Cuddy said, sounding more like a professional and less like a mother.
"But I'm hungry, mommy!" Rachel whined.
"Fine. I'll make you a Grilled Cheese" Cuddy relented. "But only if you tell me what happened to you." Rachel sighed.
"Never mind" she moaned. "I'll make it myself!"
"Rachel, I…" Cuddy started to say, but Rachel was already in the kitchen. Rachel opened up the kitchen draw and took out a paring knife. Crying, she sat down against the wall and pressed the blade deep into her flesh and she kept pushing down until she saw blood. Slowly, she dragged the blade across her skin. Rachel winced as she did this. It hurt like hell, but it was a different kind of hurt, one that Rachel actually found herself enjoying. She lifted up the blade and wiped the blood off with her shirt. Rachel was grateful that she decided to wear a black top today as it wouldn't show any blood stains. Mesmerized, Rachel sat there as she watched the blood slowly trickle down her arm and splash onto the tile floor. It was so relaxing and she could feel herself finally forgetting about Mark. For once, she was in control of the pain she felt.
After a few minutes of pure silence, Cuddy decided to get up and check on Rachel. She walked into the kitchen and, to her horror; Rachel was slicing away at her own skin. "Rachel!" Cuddy screamed as she ran over and knelt down beside her daughter. "Sweetie, give me the knife. Please!" Rachel dropped it onto the floor without bothering to look up. "What's going on with you?" Cuddy asked sounding half angry and half concerned. "And I don't want to hear 'nothing' because I know it's something." Rachel stayed silent. "Rachel, look at me!" Nervously, Rachel glanced up. "I'm calling a therapist first thing in the morning!"
"No!" Rachel cried out. "I promise I won't do it again."
"You need to talk to someone!" Cuddy told her. "And if it isn't going to be me, than I want to find you someone that you feel comfortable opening up to."
"Why are you mad at me?" Rachel whispered as her whole body tensed up.
"I'm not mad. I'm just really worried about you" Cuddy said in a much calmer tone of voice.
"I want to tell you" Rachel said.
"Then why don't you?"
"It's not worth losing my life over!" Cuddy looked confused for a minute. Then something clicked.
"Did Mark ever threaten you in any way?" After a moment's hesitation, Rachel slowly nodded. "When?" Rachel took a deep breath.
"Today. A little while ago. After he…he grabbed me and…he pushed me into the back seat of his car…and he…he raped me and then showed me his gun. Said if I ever told anyone he'd…he'd…he'd blow my brains out!" Cuddy stood there in shock. "Now he's going to kill me since I told!"
No, he's not!" Cuddy assured her. "Why don't you come back home with me, tonight? All of the locks are changed. I'll make sure that all the doors and windows are locked and the alarm is set." Rachel contemplated the idea. "I'm going to drive you to school every day and pick you up and you are not to go outside, not even on the driveway, without a responsible adult present. And no, House is not a responsible adult." Rachel giggled.
"How'd you know I was going to ask that?" Cuddy smiled.
"A mother always knows" was all she said.
SCENE 2:
It was 6pm and House had just finished getting booked down at the local police precinct. "What the hell has happened to our country when a rapist walks free, but a cripple acting in self-defense gets arrested?" House shouted as they threw him into a cell.
"Going over to someone else's house and hitting them over the head with a cane while accusing them of something that they were not found guilty of is considered assault, not self-defense" the guard said as he walked away.
"Damn legal system" House muttered under his breath.
"So, what are you in for?" his cell mate asked.
"None of your damn business" House said as he sat down on the slate of cement they called a bed.
"Whoa, man! I was just asking. My name's Walter, but everyone in here calls me Scarface".
"Hi, I'm Greg, but everyone calls me House" House said in a mildly sarcastic tone. "How'd you get the name Scarface?"
"Got into a fight with another inmate. I got a bad-ass scar across my cheek, but they were the one who ended up with a broken clavicle. How'd you get the name House?"
"It's my last name."
"No really?" Scarface asked as he jabbed house in the arm.
"No, really that's my last name" House explained. "Now if you don't mind, I'm going to lay here and drown in my own self-pity." Scarface shot him a look.
"Baby," he muttered, but House ignored him. House set his cane beside the bed, climbed into the bed and was fast asleep by the time his head hit the pillow. House awoke with a headache the next day. He got up, got dressed and walked over to the bars.
"Hey, guard!" House shouted as he banged his cane on the metal bars. The guard looked over at him. "How about some grub. I'm starving!"
"Sorry, sweetheart, you slept through breakfast."
"Well, when's lunch?" House whined.
"Not for another 2 hours" the guard answered. "But I have something to keep you busy until then." The guard escorted House out of his cell and down the hall. Finally they reached the kitchen. "You're doing dishes until lunchtime. There are the dirty dishes. They go into this bucket of soapy water, than you rinse them and dry them and then put them over on that table. Stack them. Biggest on the bottom and smallest on the top. Get moving!" And with that the guard left. Begrudgingly, House began the task at hand. After a few minutes of soaping up dishes, he noticed that the guard accidently left the door open.
"This is way too easy" House thought to himself. He took off the netted cap, grabbed his cane and hobbled towards the door.
"Not so fast" the guard said as he tried to hobble out. "You really think I'm stupid enough to leave the door open for you while leaving you unattended." House shrugged. "Get back to work!" he shouted. House gave him a look. The guard grabbed him and cuffed his ankle to a table leg forcing House finish up the tedious task at hand. After a couple of hours, he was finally released from kitchen duty and escorted to the cafeteria where he was told to wait in line. "No talking and no pushing" the guard told him. "Your plate will be made up for you and we will tell you where to sit. You are to finish everything on your plate and are not to get up without permission. Is that understood?" House nodded. "Good!" After two hours of Kitchen Duty, House was never going to complain about doing Clinic Duty ever again. Well, at least not for the first two hours.
Lunch that day was a slab of tough meat on a piece of stale bread, 3 scoops of peas and a glass of tap water. House sat down and stared at the piece of leather sitting on top of a rock. He nudged the guy sitting next to him. "Hey, you want seconds?" he whispered.
"What are you kidding me?" the guy whispered back. "I don't even want firsts!"
"Figures," House muttered under his breath. The rest of the day consisted of two hours of hard physical activity, an additional hour of Kitchen Duty, eating dinner (PBJ on stale toast, a bruised mushy apple and a glass of tap water) and going to bed. Over the next two days he went through this same monotonous routine. During his fourth day behind bars, House had just finished having breakfast when a guard walked over to him.
"You've got visitors" the guard said as he handcuffed House's hands. "Follow me!" House followed the guard down a maze of halls until they finally reached a room. The guard took out his key and opened the door. House walked in and saw Cuddy sitting at a table with Rachel.
"House!" Rachel exclaimed. She went to run over but Cuddy pulled her arm and sat her back down.
"You can't do that here, remember. The guard said no hugs." Rachel frowned. She perked up again after House was un-cuffed and sat down across from her and Cuddy.
"Hi House!" Rachel said beaming. "How are you?"
"I'm in jail. How do you think I am?" House said half-jokingly. "They make me do 3 hours of Kitchen Duty every day. That's even worse than Clinic Duty and I didn't think it was possible to experience anything worse." Cuddy let out a laugh. "You think that's funny?"
"I better not hear any more complaining out of you about having to do Clinic Duty, then" she told him.
"But you're not my boss anymore. You can't tell me what to do!" House whined.
"That's a nice way to treat the person who's about to bail you out!" House felt a pang of guilt, but he didn't want it to show. "$1,500 House! And they want it all in cash. So I suggest you treat me with a bit more respect."
"Yes, mommy" House said as he pretended to pout.
"Guess what, House?" Rachel chirped.
"What?"
"I got hearing aids" she said showing them to House. "Mommy took me to the doctor yesterday. He said that my hearing wasn't too bad, but that I still needed them."
"Cool" House said. "But it's still not as cool as my cane". Rachel laughed.
"Yeah, but now I can hear everything you say. You'll never know when I'll be eavesdropping on you" Rachel joked.
"Yeah, but I can use my cane to reach things on high shelves, trip people and whack them too" House said with a phony smile. "So, why'd you need the hearing aids, anyway?"
"The antibiotic caused me to lose my hearing. The doctor took me off of that and gave me another one."
"It's less potent" Cuddy interjected. "But the side-effects are much less risky. The worst one for this antibiotic is an upset stomach." House nodded.
"Mark came after me again" Rachel blurted out. House looked at Rachel, then at Cuddy and back over again at Rachel again.
"Did he now?" Rachel nodded. "Well, I guess someone's going to have to teach him a lesson."
"House don't!" Rachel begged. "I don't want you going back to jail. Please! Mommy said I just need to have an adult with me whenever I leave the house."
"Did Mommy remember to take Mark off the school's emergency contact list so he can't come and pick you up whenever he wants?"
"Shit!" Cuddy muttered under her breath. "I'll change it first thing Monday morning. Don't worry, honey. He won't be coming anywhere near you." She turned towards House. "In fact, our lawyer got Rachel a restraining order which I'll be picking up this afternoon which reminds me, I need to you watch Rachel while I'm gone."
"Oh, come on!"
"It's either this or stay in jail!" Cuddy shot back. House nodded.
"Fine!" he said with a strong tone of reluctance in his voice.
"Don't you like me, House?" Rachel whined.
"Remember the last time when I watched you and you made me drive you to that stupid party and then you threw up all over my motorcycle because you thought it would be fun to mix Vodka and Xanax?" House said. "Not going there again!"
"When was this?" Cuddy interjected. "And why didn't I ever hear about it?"
"Two months ago" House told her. Rachel shot him the look of death. "Apparently her friend Mandy has an older brother who was throwing a big party and Rachel was invited. Rachel, desperate to fit in with all these other idiots, took 10 Xanax's and washed them down with 4 shots of Vodka." Cuddy glared at Rachel.
"You could've killed yourself! Do you know that?" Cuddy shouted. "What drugs have you done since then?"
"None" Rachel protested. "It was a onetime thing!" Cuddy shook her head. "No, really, it was."
"I know what this was" Cuddy said. "It was a cry for help. I'm calling a therapist on Monday no if's and's or buts about it." Rachel glanced over at House.
"You just had to tell her" Rachel moaned. "You just had to tell her!"
"That brings me to my second point! Why didn't you tell me about this until now?" Cuddy pressed.
"She told me not to!"
"Oh! She told you not to!" Cuddy said with fury. "Since when do you listen to anybody?" House didn't say anything. "Rachel, we're going home. House I'm posting your bail on the way out. You can call a cab for all I care, but you are not coming with us! And don't worry about watching Rachel later. I'll bring her with me!" With that said, Cuddy turned and left. Rachel stood there and smiled at House. She gave him a wave goodbye. "Rachel!" Cuddy shouted. Rachel quickly followed. Cuddy posted his bail and then the two of them got into Cuddy's car. The rest of the ride home was pure silence. Rachel wanted to say something to her mother and prove to her that this wasn't her fault, but she was too scared to utter a single word.
