CHAPTER FOUR - Dr. Lisa Cuddy's Office, March 18th, 2011

Lisa Cuddy was pacing her office, waiting for Wilson and Dr. Nolan. She knew she was going to regret the fact the Wilson's sister had temporary privileges at this hospital, but in the end, she had no choice. Wilson and his sister were related to half the Board members, and their uncle, Tony Mazzelli, had just been named chairman of the board.

To add insult to injury, Lucy had board voting privileges. Since she had been living in Florida, her uncle had her voting proxy, but now she was back and might stay for good. Cuddy was not a happy camper.

Wilson, Dr. Nolan and Lucy had slipped through the lobby and escaped Cuddy's notice for the time being, much to Lucy's annoyance. She wanted to meet the woman who directly or indirectly caused Greg to relapse and give her hell and her brother knew it. He took her directly to his office and sat her down.

"Lucy, stay right here until Dr. Nolan and I talk to Cuddy." Jim said as forcefully as he could when Lucy tried to get up and follow them. "Don't start any trouble."

Lucy glared at her brother and sat down to wait.

In the meantime, Greg's team had heard the commotion in Wilson's office and wondered what was going on. They were all stunned by Cuddy breaking up with House and they knew the reasons why she did it, but they blamed her for not staying with House to make sure he was okay and not let him take anymore Vicodin. They had all expected House to relapse at some point, but not like he did.

As a group, they decided to walk past Wilson's office to see if they could see who was there and what the commotion was all about. Of course they knew nothing about Wilson getting his sister to come home to try and help House. Taub and Masters didn't know House had been married. Foreman and Chase had heard about it, but Lucy had already left town by the time they started working for House.

They walked by Wilson's office and peeked in and saw Lucy sitting there, thumbing through one of the journals in her brother's office.

All the men's mouths dropped open. Lucy was as beautiful as she ever was. Today, she was wearing fitted dark blue denims and a fitted amethyst silk sweater under a black blazer. A pair of black ballerina flats were on her feet. The unruly hair was in its usual ponytail and she had pulled the ponytail through the back of her baseball cap. The four of them hurried down the hall before Lucy noticed them.

Naive as she was, Masters got a chuckle at their reactions. Lucy was beautiful to say the least. The only thing that surprised her was that Chase didn't walk in and try to pick her up!

They took the long way back to the conference room. Chase had a thoughtful look on his face as the other three were trying to figure out who Lucy was.

"That's House's ex-wife!" Chase exclaimed.

The other three looked at him as if he had sprouted horns.

"Chase, House was never married. What are you talking about?" Taub exclaimed.

"Taub, that's his ex-wife, Wilson's half-sister." Chase stubbornly insisted. He was right.

"And how do you know this?" Taub asked. He thought House had never been married and was trying to wrap his mind around this.

"She was finishing up her residency when her parents died. I guess it put too much strain on both of them and she left. I remember seeing her around the hospital a few times before she left him, but I never actually met her. Wilson and Nolan must have decided she might be able to help House now." Chase said thoughtfully.

"Chase, you're an idiot!" Foreman snorted. "Why would House's ex-wife show up now? Hasn't she heard about everything that's happened to him over the years?"

"Foreman." Taub interjected. "We don't know what the circumstances of their divorce were. For all we know, if she had known about House's troubles, she would have come back home much sooner. You know House and how he likes to hide things. He probably asked the family not to say anything to her because he didn't want her pity. We all know how he feels about that."

Foreman looked thoughtful now. "You could be right, Taub. We might get to see some fireworks."

Down in Cuddy's office, she was breathing fire, still trying to use her authority to ban Lucy from the hospital.

Wilson finally got fed up.

"Cuddy, listen to me and listen good! We all knew House might have a relapse. He's an addict; most addicts do relapse at least once. I lay the blame for this directly at your feet because you didn't stay with him to make sure he was all right or at least go through his apartment and look for Vicodin and take them away from him. Maybe he wouldn't have gone off on that bender if you had. And another thing, you do make him a crappy doctor. You claim you didn't want him to change, yet from the very beginning when the two of you signed that stupid "Love Contract" with HR, you've been trying to make him something he isn't. Greg House is a man who takes chances with patient treatment because he's usually right. Because of his desire to please you, he's lost three patients, two of whom could have been saved, because he was trying to please you and cure them at the same time. Yeah, he's rough around the edges, but that works for him!" Wilson shouted at his boss.

Cuddy gave Wilson a dirty look. "If House is so good, why did your sister divorce him then?" she snarked.

The look on Wilson's face was murderous and Cuddy took a step back.

"Cuddy, they both went through something that was too much for them to handle. My sister tried until she couldn't anymore." Wilson snapped right back. "And even that much is none of your damn business!"

Cuddy looked at Nolan.

"Dr. Cuddy, why are you being so defensive and stubborn at this attempt to help Greg? You may have broken up with him, but don't you have any feelings for him? Don't you want him to get better? Or are you angry because you can't help him?" Nolan wondered.

Cuddy's mouth clamped shut. Leave it to a shrink to tell her the truth about herself.

"Get out of my office and do what you have to do and don't be too disappointed when your little scheme doesn't work. I know House."

Nolan and Wilson headed to his office. Lucy popped out of her chair when they came in, and the look on her brother's face said it all.

"It went that well, huh?" she asked.

"Come on Lucy, let's go see House now." Jim said as he, Lucy and Nolan headed up to Greg's room.

As they walked down the hall to Greg's room, Dr. Nolan gave Lucy and her brother instructions.

"Lucy, I'm going in first to talk to Greg, I want you to stay out of sight as long as possible. I want to try and gauge Greg's reaction to a visitor, but I won't mention you by name. When you think the time is right, come in.

At first, Lucy was skeptical, but then she saw the wisdom of Nolan's plan. If she just waltzed into Greg's room unannounced, it might do more harm than good. She nodded her head yes, suddenly nervous about the whole thing.

She stood behind her brother, just outside the door, where she couldn't be seen.

Nolan walked into the room and picked up Greg's chart and made a few notes on it.

Greg just stared angrily at him. Why wouldn't everyone just leave him alone for now? He knew he needed help. He wasn't ready for it yet. He still hadn't quite digested the fact that Cuddy broke up with him, even though he knew it was inevitable because he was who he was. Cuddy wouldn't accept him because of that.

"Well, Greg, everything on you chart looks fine. How do you feel about a visitor this morning?" Nolan asked with a smile on his face.

Like a Jack-In-The-Box, Wilson popped into the doorway. Still refusing to talk, Greg glared and turned his back to Wilson. Lucy was still out of sight behind her brother, but she could see Greg's reaction. She poked her brother in the back to hurry him up.

"Nice manners there, House. I can see why I'm the last person you want to see, but I found this young lady wandering the halls, and I thought you might want to see her."

As Greg turned back to face Wilson, Lucy stepped out from behind him and his mouth dropped open.

"I'm hallucinating again!" Greg thought in a panic. "That can't be Lucy!"

"How's it hanging, Stretch?' Lucy said as she quickly covered the few feet between the door and the bed. She lowered the railing and sat next to him. He reached his hand out to touch her face.

I'm real, Greg. I came home." Lucy said softly as she turned her head to kiss his hand.

Nolan had quietly backed to the door to observe.

Greg sat all the way up and put his arms around Lucy, pulling her close against his chest, inhaling her scent. He looked over Lucy's shoulder at Nolan and Wilson. They were both smiling from ear to ear. If this were an hallucination, they would be laughing maniacally by now and making fun of him. He closed his eyes and held Lucy tighter whispering her name. Nolan and Wilson left the room.

Standing unobserved in the hall across from House's room, Cuddy watched the entire scene with a sad look on her face. Lucy Mazzelli did what she couldn't do. House was talking.