Spoilers!: Quick mention of Thirteen's CAG test results from Lucky Thirteen.
A/N: I'm sorry that this chapter is so long. It was necessary to end it where I wanted and set up the rest of the story.
A/N2: Alexis is in this chapter…and Lucas. I didn't forget about Alexis' father...
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Chapter Two- Family Secrets
As Remy walks into the Diagnostics Office, Foreman arches an eyebrow and glances at the clock. "Running a little late this morning?" He questions the brunette.
Thirteen checks her watch in response. "I'm twenty minutes early," she responds in a confused tone of voice since it is only 8:10am.
"I mean running late for you. You're usually the first person here," the other man notes.
"Did Cameron keep you up late?" Kutner questions, wagging his brows suggestively as he does so.
Taub elbows the other doctor in his side as he says this. "Or is Alexis sick again?" He wonders, his voice holding a small amount of concern.
Thirteen rolls her eyes at the other men. She wonders why they decided it was okay to delve into her personal life once House outted her as being a mom, living with Dr. Cameron, and having Huntington's. It wasn't as if she volunteered this information to them. Except Kutner…by accident.
"None of the above. I am allowed to be running a little behind every once and awhile," Hadley states, not willing to give anything away.
"Good morning my little Houselings," House greets the others as he limps into the office.
"'Houselings'?" Thirteen asks distastefully, voicing what the others are thinking.
"Just another nickname I'm working on. 'Ducklings' was getting old and Buffy already stole 'Scooby Gang'. You don't like it?" House snarks.
"It's not very original," the brunette shrugs.
"In using it, you are suggesting that we are miniature versions of you. Do you really want a bunch of House Juniors wandering around? I don't think the hospital can take that much ego," Foreman smirks at his boss, expanding on Thirteen's original rebuttal of the nickname.
While House is distracted pondering Foreman's insight, she reaches over and snatches the file from his hand. "Hey!" House snipes in response.
"Get over it," Remy tells him as she looks through the file, trying to conceal her smile as she does so.
Since House told the entire hospital about Remy's daughter and her relationship with Dr. Cameron, he has stopped hounding her about her personal life. He seems to think that he has aired out all of her dirty little secrets. This has afforded Thirteen a certain level of comfort when dealing with her boss. However, she doesn't know what she would do if he found out about the tremors, her partying after work and lying about it to her girlfriend. Shaking herself out of her thoughts, she passes the folder around, knowing that he isn't even on to her.
"Meningitis could explain the headaches, muscle soreness, and fatigue," Taub points out after taking a moment to glance through the symptoms.
"But it doesn't explain the mood swings and memory loss," Kutner points out.
"The flu-like symptoms indicate a type of infection," Foreman mumbles.
"Could be lupus," Taub indicates.
" Or MS," Kutner adds.
They all take a moment to ponder the symptoms, the men waiting to see if Thirteen has any input since she has been fairly quiet for the last several minutes. As if sensing their stares, she looks up at them. "Lyme Disease?" She says, sounding more like a question than anything else.
House seems to consider all of their suggestions for a moment before nodding briefly to himself. "Run some blood tests and an MRI," he orders before turning around and going back to his office.
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1:00 pm
Thirteen is walking down the hallways downstairs, her face buried in her patient's file. To the average passerby, it would appear as though she is engrossed in going over the patient's test results. In reality, she just wants to appear distracted and unavailable as she makes her way to the break room upstairs.
A couple of hours ago last night began to really catch up with the brunette…the IV fluids apparently not having been enough. There is a dull thud behind her eyes and her mouth is so dry that it feels as though she rinsed her mouth out with sand.
Hadley breathes an internal sigh of relief as she spots the elevator not too far from her. She sets her sights on hitting the up button. However, she is intercepted by one of the multitude of people that she would rather not talk to right now. As a matter of fact, it is the person at the top of the list.
"Hey, Sweetie," Allison greets her girlfriend brightly, having spotted her making her way down the hall. "Where are you off to?" She questions, noting the file in the other woman's hands.
"Delivering the test results to the team upstairs," Remy replies briefly, wanting nothing more than to pop some aspirin and take a nap.
"Well, have you eaten yet? Maybe when you're done we can go get some lunch," the blonde suggests, wanting nothing more than to be able to spend some time with her girlfriend.
Remy sighs. "Honestly, I'm not really hungry right now. My head has been killing me since 10:30 this morning and I just want to lie down," she replies regretfully.
Allison nods in understanding, taking a tentative step towards the other woman. "You don't think you're getting sick, do you?" She questions with concern, raising a hand to the brunette's forehead to check for a temperature.
Thirteen allows herself the luxury of a smirk before removing her girlfriend's hand from her forehead and interlacing their fingers. "I'm fine. It's just a headache," she states with amusement. "But thank you," she offers in response to the blonde's concern, bringing their joined hands up and placing a light kiss on the blonde's knuckles.
"You think it's from not getting a lot of sleep last night?" Cameron wonders with an arched eyebrow.
Among other things. Is what Thirteen thinks. "Probably," is what she says, shrugging indifferently.
"I really I should talk to House about keeping you late like that. He's probably doing it on purpose because he knows that you have family waiting for you at home," Allison muses to herself.
Once Cameron refers to herself as 'family', Remy feels another wave of guilt wash over her. "Thanks, Mom, but I can handle House," she states, maintaining her calm exterior, as she gently squeezes the other woman's hand for emphasis.
"Fine," Cameron sighs dramatically. She notices the subtle shift in her girlfriend's attitude as well. "If there really was something bothering you, you'd tell me…right?" She asks in all seriousness, hoping to get to the root of the younger woman's recent descent into depression.
Remy offers a slight smile in response, instinctively gripping the blonde's hand tighter as she does so. "Of course. If it effects me, it effects you and Alexis as well," she points out, hating herself for lying about telling the truth.
"Okay," Allison nods in acceptance. "I'll let you get to it then," she states before discreetly leaning in to place a brief kiss on her girlfriend's lips.
Despite the fact the everyone in the hospital knows that they are a couple, they really try not to let it interfere with their work environment too much. Besides, you never know when House is lurking around the corner, spying on them.
"I'll see you tonight," Remy promises, resolving that she is going to sleep at home tonight after all.
This brings an unconscious smile to Cameron's face. "I'll see you then, Thirteen," she smirks at the nickname.
"Alright, Dr. Cameron," the brunette replies in the same playful tone before hitting the button for the elevator. Allison squeezes her hand gently and makes her way back down the hall as the elevator chimes and its doors open.
Once she has stepped into the elevator, Remy heaves a sigh of relief, having escaped the concerned scrutiny of her girlfriend. Just as the doors are about to close, a hand makes its way into the gap, causing the doors to open once more. Thirteen takes small comfort in it not being House. Then again, her boss' P.I. isn't much better.
"Lucas," Remy greets the man politely as the doors close for good this time.
"Dr. Hadley," the slightly shorter man nods at her, trying not to look her in the eye. Lucas shifts slightly under the other woman's gaze. The scruffy P.I. is not afraid to admit that the brunette doctor intimidates the hell out of him.
If Remy was honest with herself, she would say that the other man's presence was unsettling. She doesn't know if House is using the P.I. to look into his employee's backgrounds or not. Certainly, she wouldn't put it past her boss to do so.
The uncomfortable elevator ride is somewhat brought to an end when they arrive at their desired floor. However, the awkwardness carries over as they both make their way towards the same destination.
Thirteen flings the door to the Diagnostics Office open and steps in. Lucas scurries in behind her before the door shuts completely. "Tests confirm Lyme Disease," she announces before dropping the test results on the desk.
"I'll go get the patient started on antibiotics," Kutner states before making his way through the door.
"Where's Foreman and Taub?" Remy asks her boss with a furrowed brow.
"Sent them to the patient's apartment an hour ago," House waves off the question. Thirteen merely nods before turning around to go lay on the couch in the Doctor's Lounge.
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6:30 pm
"We treated her for Lyme Disease, but it must have been covering up a secondary illness," Remy explains into her cell phone, which is pressed between her shoulder and ear as she sifts through some papers in the lab.
There is a groan on the other end of the line. "You said you would be home tonight," Cameron points out, the disappointment evident in her tone.
"And I will. Kutner and I have to wait for some test results. Then, we'll get her set up with the treatment and I will be on my way home," Remy retorts, having every intention of going home tonight.
"How long?" The blonde asks, hoping that she'll be able to actually spend time with her girlfriend before they have to go to bed.
"I'm sure I won't be much later than 8:00," is the confident reply.
"Okay, I'll see you later then," Allison says, some of her anger dying down at the definitive answer. "I love you," she adds as a bit of an afterthought.
"I love you too," Hadley smiles into the phone before snapping it shut. Her smile instantly drops when she comes across the paper she was looking for.
While it was true that the patient had an underlying illness, the team had already solved the case about twenty minutes ago. After treating the patient, they were free to go. However, in a moment of weakness, Remy ran a CAG test to find out how fast the Huntington's was going to progress. Before she had the chance to read her results, House walked into the lab and she was forced to hide the results in a stack of papers.
Now, much like with the Huntington's test, she wishes that she never took the damn thing in the first place. Her numbers are high…very high. With her numbers, she knows that she has even less time than she originally thought. She'll be lucky if she lives another ten years.
Thirteen drops into a nearby chair and stares off into space. God, I am going to miss so much. I might not make it to Alex's high school graduation. I'll never get to see what kind of woman she is going to become. If I do get to see any of this, I probably won't even know who she is or be able to understand it.
"Shit," Hadley whispers to herself before standing up and making her way to the exit. She gets in her car and decides to head for the nearest bar. By now, she knows that it was a mistake promising to be home by 8:00. Thirteen won't quite be able to reach her desired state of oblivion tonight.
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Remy checks her watch as she slides into her car. She has had a few drinks, but she isn't stupid. It's just after 8:00 and over the course of the last hour and a half, she downed three shots of Jagermeister shortly after walking in. After that, she slowed down a little, consuming only a few drinks in the last forty-five minutes.
The brunette takes a quick stock of her appearance while she sits in her car in the bar's parking lot. After deciding that her sweatshirt smells like smoke, she sheds it and pulls her leather jacket back on, throwing the sweatshirt in the backseat of her Jeep. Without thinking twice, she pops several pieces of spearmint gum into her mouth and begins chewing. After glancing in the mirror to make sure that she doesn't look like she's been drinking, she starts her car.
During the ten minute drive from the bar to her apartment, she narrowly avoids hitting a stop sign. However, she does briefly ride up on the curb as she goes to park. After adjusting her car so that all four tires are on the street, she takes a moment to glance at her appearance once more.
Nodding her head in acceptance, she opens the door and spits out her gum. Then she takes a few long gulps of her Sprite to temper the smell of the gum. She makes a face of disgust at the taste of the soda and spearmint. However disgusting, she knows that it would send up her girlfriend's red flags if she came home with the scent of spearmint clinging so strongly to her…or maybe she is just overly paranoid.
Taking a deep breath, Remy gets out of the Jeep and makes her way to her apartment. She takes the steps somewhat unsteadily, hoping that she appears as sober as she thinks she does. Hesitating for only a moment, she twists the doorknob and enters the apartment.
"Mom!" The dark-haired eight year old instantly greets her with a grin as she moves off of the couch and rushes to hug her.
Hadley's face instantly softens into a smile at the sight of her growing daughter. "Hey Lexi. How was school?" She questions.
"Ben and I had to do our presentation on the solar system today and we got an A," Alexis beams.
"Very good, Sweetheart," Remy grins back proudly before looking up and seeing Allison on the couch, watching them with a reflective smile.
"Welcome home," the blonde offers after being spotted. Remy comes over behind the couch and leans down to give the other woman a kiss.
Allison detects the faint taste of spearmint on her girlfriend's mouth, but thinks nothing of it. Alex giggles at the display, happy to have both women in the same room with her again for the first time this week.
"I'll be right back. I'm just going to go get changed," Hadley informs the other two before disappearing into her room.
"Are you and Mom going to make out when she gets back?" Alex immediately asks the blonde.
Allison is always amused by the little girl's bluntness, obviously a trait picked up from her mother. "Maybe," she smirks. After living together for a year, the blonde has long since stopped walking on eggshells around Alex in regards to her relationship with Remy.
Alexis sticks out her tongue before laughing. "I have to go to bed anyways, but no funny business," she retorts in a mock-authoritative tone.
"Yes ma'am," the other woman humors the eight year old.
Back in her and Cameron's bedroom, Remy drops down on her bed, the alcohol from her last couple of drinks finally hitting her. She closes her eyes, hating herself for going out after work in the first place. Now, she has no idea how she will be able to hide her state from her girlfriend. With a deep sigh, she heaves herself up off the bed and sets to getting changed.
Not one minute after leaving the bedroom does her daughter come up and wrap her arms around her waist. "Goodnight Mom," Alexis says, smiling up at her mom.
Remy runs her fingers through the girl's hair briefly. "Goodnight Sweetie," she smiles back, albeit sadly. If Alex picked up on it, she didn't let on. As the eight year old disappears into her room, Thirteen feels her mood drop further with the realization that her daughter is growing up so fast and she is going to miss it all because of her stupid habits and her stupid disease.
When her girlfriend walks into the living room, Allison looks up to greet her with a bright smile. Her expression fades, however, when she sees the despondent look on her lover's face.
"Is everything okay?" The blonde questions with concern.
Thirteen shakes herself out of her funk as best she can. "Yeah. I was just thinking about how Lexi is growing up so fast," she offers the half-truth.
"Tell me about it. All I can say is that she better not skip any more grades because she's going to be graduating soon enough," Cameron replies, despite the fact that the eight year old still has eight years to go before graduating.
"Don't remind me," Remy groans before unsteadily making her way to the couch and dropping down next to her girlfriend.
"Are sure you're feeling alright?" Allison frowns at the other woman's uneven gait.
"Yeah, just a little tired," the brunette quickly covers her slightly drunken tracks.
"Did you want to go lie down and get some sleep? You don't have to stay out here," Cameron wonders with concern over her girlfriend's health.
"I'm fine and I want to stay out here with you," is the honest reply as Thirteen shifts closer to the blonde. She drapes an arm over Cameron's shoulders and gently draws her nearer.
"Good," Allison smiles, resting her head on the brunette's shoulder. The ER doctor lays an arm over her girlfriend's stomach and snuggles in more intimately. "I've missed you lately," she admits sleepily.
At the admission, Remy clenches her eyes shut and tries to fight back tears. "I've missed you too," she replies in a quiet tone so as to keep her voice from cracking. When she gets no reply, she realizes that that is because the blonde fell asleep.
Shortly after she began showing symptoms of Huntington's, Thirteen decided that she had to remain strong. She doesn't want to break down and show anyone how scared she really is about her Huntington's. She certainly never brings it up and, as far as Cameron and Alexis are concerned, no one even mentions it. Knowing what Allison went through with her late husband, she doesn't want her to suffer through her own personal drama.
So, as the blonde sleeps curled up against her side, Remy fights to keep back the tears. She doesn't know how she is going to make it through the upcoming weekend without breaking down in front of her girlfriend and her daughter.
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On the other side of Princeton, Lucas is in his apartment doing some research on his laptop. A couple days ago House asked him to do some digging on the members of his team. Having finished up with Drs. Foreman, Kutner, and Taub, he is now doing some digging on Dr. Hadley.
By the way House was talking about the dark-haired woman, he figured that the other man already knew everything interesting about the young doctor and the research was merely a formality. The first things he found out was that she was paying a really high interest rate on her car and that she paid for a gym membership that she doesn't use. The gym membership he understands since she has a kid and has that disease.
However, Lucas didn't entirely buy that these were the only skeletons in Remy's closet. Since she has a daughter that her dead girlfriend conceived and gave birth to while they were still together, he decided to go deep into her past.
The scruffy P.I. found her impressive transcripts from high school and med school. He found out a lot about her parents and the dead girlfriend's parents. Things became really interesting when he hacked into her salacious personal life.
Lucas was surprised to find out that she had a major substance abuse problem after the death of her lover, when Remy was only19 years old. He was also taken aback by the circumstances surrounding the girlfriend's death. As he moves on to the last page on his screen, his eyes widen.
Closing out of the page on the screen and shutting his laptop, the P.I. decides that he will respect Dr. Hadley by not telling House about the other woman's troubled past or Alexis' father. House doesn't need to know that Olivia became pregnant, not because she cheated on Thirteen, but because she was raped.
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So, there you have it. I couldn't very well introduce that little nugget into the last chapter of Taking a Chance, could I? Also, just so you know, Lucas is the only person other than Thirteen and her dad who knows about Alex's dad…not even Cameron knows yet.
I hope you don't think that I added the truth about Alexis' dad to abruptly or it come too out of the blue. I wanted the reveal to seem organic as possible…and I also didn't want to drag it out for forever (especially since many of you, I'm sure, were dying to know).
Next chapter is going to start to include a lot of the elements from actual episodes (and it will be really long). With the exception of bringing Lucas in, this hasn't really included a lot of stuff from season five yet. The next chapter will include a lot of stuff from Adverse Events…two episodes before Lucky Thirteen. Of course, they will be altered to fit this story.
As usual, let me know what you think. I have a pretty good outline for the rest of this story, but if there is anything in particular that you want me to include, let me know and I'll see what I can do. Until next time…
