CHAPTER FOUR
Lucy woke up before five the next morning, not to her alarm clock, but to a lot of pain in her arm. She took the ace bandage off. The bruising and swelling had gotten worse; it had spread half way down to her wrist and just above her elbow "Damn it!" she muttered to herself. Maybe Greg was right. It might be more than bruised, and if that were the case, she would never hear the end of it, even if it was only a hairline fracture or a bone chip. She needed coffee, but she didn't want to risk making any for fear of waking her parents with the smell.
She slipped into her scrubs, wincing every time she had to move her left arm and quietly went down the hall past Greg's room and out of the house, thankful that she had left her car in the driveway instead of the garage. No one but the paperboy saw or heard her leave. She headed toward the hospital, stopping in the cafeteria for coffee. She knew who was working in radiology this morning and she could get an MRI done and read before the day's flood of patients started and she had to start working.
By eight, her MRI was done and the radiologist had looked at it. The MRI took a little longer to do than usual because Lucy wouldn't hold still, even though she knew better! He couldn't see any breaks; just a good deal of bruising and swelling, but he sent her to see Cantrell in orthopedics for his opinion anyway. Cantrell just held his hand out when Lucy came running into his office with her MRI; he had already been warned by the radiologist that she was on her way. Cantrell had been treating her for some bump or bruise since she was twelve. She was the quintessential tomboy, and he felt sorry for the man who would eventually marry her.
Lucy jumped up on the exam table while Cantrell looked at the MRI; he saw the same thing the radiologist did; a lot of bruising and swelling, no breaks, hairline fractures or chips. "Yessssཀ" Lucy yelled as she jumped off the table with both arms raised in the air when she got confirmation of her own diagnosis from the night before. "I was right!" Then she yelped in pain because straightening her left arm that quickly turned out not to be such a good idea.
Shaking his head at her impulsiveness, Cantrell gave her a shot of prednisone for the swelling and a prescription for pain meds. He put her arm in a splint to just above her elbow to immobilize it and sent her on her way, telling her to behave herself. Lucy gave him a hug and grabbed her MRI. She ran down to her father's office (With another cup of coffee in her hand; she was a little caffeine junkie.).
When she got to her father's office, everyone was there; Uncle Tony, Jim, and Greg. "Uh, oh," thought Lucy, " looks like a hanging party." She slowed down a little bit and walked in and apologized to her father for leaving the house without telling anyone and for being late. Although he already knew what Lucy had been up to (Cantrell had given him a heads up that Lucy was on her way.), Frank asked his head strong daughter where she had been. Lucy handed her father the MRI and explained that she wanted to confirm her own diagnosis that her arm was only badly bruised and not broken.
Frank, Greg and Jim looked at the film. Lucy stood next to her uncle and finished her coffee. Greg couldn't resist teasing Lucy. He asked her, "Did you need a second opinion, Dr. Mazzelli?" "Crap." thought Lucy, "His sarcasm gives me goose bumps." Lucy stepped in front of him, getting as close to him as she could, and with fire snapping in her eyes said "I don't second guess myself, DR. HOUSE. I wanted to prove you wrong, and I did." As she was giving Greg hell, she was poking her finger in his chest and backing him across the office. Jim and Uncle Tony put their hands over their mouths to stifle their laughter. Lucy's father said "Lucia Anne, behave" even while he was trying to maintain his own composure.
Even though he thought Lucy might actually take a swing at him, Greg was enjoying the little spitfire in front of him. She was beautiful, intelligent, feisty, and definitely more than a match for him in many ways, and damn, did she look good in those scrubs! They fit her differently than her baseball uniform did, and House could better see her luscious curves, She also proved that his theory about women in medical school was wrong. Lucy realized what she was doing to Greg when he put his hands up in surrender and stopped. "Oh, sorry about that." Lucy said. But she wasn't.
"Am I still working in the ER this week, Dad?" Her father just smiled and said, "Yes, and oh, one more thing, daughter. I promised Greg that you would take care of his checkbook for him and make sure all his bills are paid." Lucy's jaw dropped, but there was no way she was going to let that pitch go by without taking a swing! "Jiminy Crickets, Dad. You hired a hot shot doctor that can't add and subtract even if he takes his shoes and socks off? Were you that desperate for a Diagnostics Department? Get him a calculator." Jim and Uncle Tony finally broke into laughter.
She picked up the big envelope from her father's desk and turned to go. Greg was not quite ready to see her leave and reminded her about the ice cream he promised her last night. She quickly turned around and said "You can buy me lunch, too, Stretch. Meet me in the cafeteria at noon." Lucy had the last word and Greg loved every minute of it.
