3.
There was not a lot that Arlene Cuddy would keep from saying to her eldest daughter. While she didn't communicate as personally and effortlessly with Lisa as she did with her youngest, Julie, Arlene still felt a mother's prerogative to push Lisa and to 'set her straight' in matters pertaining to all aspects of her life, particularly in her personal relationships.
The last few months had been the stunning exception. Since Lisa's inexplicable breakup with one, Dr. Gregory House, Arlene had been unable to get her daughter alone to talk with her. She had been impeded on all fronts from not only giving Lisa the benefit of her motherly advice but also in getting her daughter to tell her exactly what had happened that had ended the months-long affair. Lisa needed to give her a reason, a satisfactory explanation.
For judging from the few times she'd seen them together, Arlene had witnessed something truly remarkable.
House, though juvenile and oftentimes an arrogant pain in the ass, was decidedly tender with both Lisa and Lisa's daughter Rachel. He was attentive and caring and yet, there was something else. In his occasional unguarded moments, which tended to be few and far between as he was overly cautious, there was something in his eyes and in his expression to make Arlene's maternal heart swell with joy for her daughter.
For in those moments, Arlene saw deep, unabashed, passionate love.
By the same token, while Lisa was with House, Arlene saw a light in her daughter's eyes that she had never seen there before. When they were together, her daughter seemed more engaged, more animated and alive.
Sure, Lisa complained about House, his idiosyncrasies, his need to be right and other trivialities that women had found fault with men since the dawn of time.
But even as she criticized him, there was a lilt to her voice, a secret smile of gratification as if she and she alone could love him for the incredibly brilliant, hopelessly flawed man he genuinely was.
The fact that he was tall, attractive and sexy with gorgeous blue eyes was not lost on Cuddy's mother either.
Lisa had been the quintessential example for being "madly in love" for she was without a doubt, madly in love with Greg House.
The couple seemed to be making progress together when suddenly, several months ago, they had broken up. Lisa refused to discuss it and when Arlene questioned her other daughter, whom she knew Lisa must have confided in, Julie had been mum as well.
It was driving Arlene crazy. For the first time in her life, she had been unable to get either one of her daughters to spill the beans. Weeks afterward, she knew no more of the whys and wherefores of the relationship's termination as when it had first ended.
And then, just a few weeks ago, the latest blow. Not only had Lisa taken up with her former boyfriend, Lucas Douglas, but the reconciled couple had wasted no time in announcing their re-engagement. From the time of their announcement to the actual wedding had been less than a month and the whirl of planning and activity had kept Arlene from cornering her now hyper-vigilant daughter so as to get a full confession out of her.
But even with other people around, Lisa could not hide everything from her mother. Beyond the plastic smiles and the forced laughter, Arlene saw that her daughter was playing a part.
Most heartbreaking of all, she saw that the light in Lisa's lovely blue-green eyes had been extinguished. This proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that Lisa was now rushing headlong into a commitment with a man whom she did not love.
Lisa Cuddy was, perhaps for the first time in her entire life, settling for second best. Where that thought would never cross her mind in her professional life, Lisa felt obligated, as a mother and as a woman, to settle personally. And that thought made Arlene mad enough to spit.
She was frustrated with her daughter but mostly, she was angry at Greg House who was obviously the architect of this entire, ensuing misfortune.
So Arlene arrived early at her daughter's home the day of the wedding in the hope of talking with her, talking some sense to her. But cornering her daughter alone on this day of all days had been completely impossible. First because of Lisa's insistence in keeping a hand in all of the ongoing preparations and second because Julie had traitorously run continued interference for her sister.
Now that the caterers were here and the guests had begun to arrive, Arlene began to give up all expectation of advising her daughter before she made this final, false step.
She was walking quickly through the living room, heading for the bedroom where Lisa must surely be getting dressed by now. Arlene would at last have the advantage. Lisa could hardly escape while she was only half-dressed.
As she walked past the couch, movement outside the window caught her eye. A motorcycle pulled into a tight space between two cars and the rider dismounted. Removal of his helmet and retrieval of his cane from the bike cemented the identity of the rider as Greg House.
A small, satisfied smile crossed Arlene's features. She changed direction in the middle of the living room and made her way to the front door.
She opened it before House had a chance to knock. There was a moment's surprise before an impenetrable wall was raised within the swirling depths of his bright blue eyes.
"Doctor House? Won't you come in?" Arlene said with a malevolent smile plastered on her face.
This was going to be good.
