10-25-08 AN: I don't know why I'm even bothering with AN's.
Be careful who you fall in love with, because someone somewhere won't approve.
They were right there. Spelled out in a nurse's -probably Brenda's- handwriting. He could handle it, but he wasn't sure if Allison could, and that would make him unable to handle it. The two words, all eleven letters, twelve with the space, in black ink, read: Robert Chase. House's eyes looked up from the words to Cuddy's saddened face. He merely nodded.
"Don't tell Allison." Cuddy nodded her agreement.
"I'm only having you do this because you two worked together. I don't know if he'll need anything, but he deserves the best we can give him." House nodded as he closed the file and walked out of her room. He wasn't really watching where he was going, and neither was Allison. They collided, papers falling out of their lose grip in House's hand.
"Oh! Sorry, I wasn't really paying attention-" Allison bent down to pick up the papers. She gasped when she saw the name. Her eyes looked up at him, a mix of sadness and questions.
"I don't know what happened." House stated simply.
"I... I... I should go and apologize..." She tried to keep her eyes from clouding with tears.
House felt a small pang of anger and jealousy at the thought of her really being in love with Chase. "For what?" It was almost a whisper.
She didn't answer, instead she just handed him the file and rushed for elevator. She got in a moment before it closed, ensuring she would have a few moments to think about what she should do. She remembered the numbers to his room, as they had almost been seared into her memory. She got off the elevator when it hit the right floor, rushing to his room. He was in intensive care, but she would be allowed to see him. If not, she could say she was a doctor and on the case, which was partly true. She found his room, and taking a deep breath she opened the door and walked in. He way lying on the bed, right arm in a sling, bruised and cuts all over his face. He had gauze wrapped around his forehead. The heart monitor was still giving off its soothing, steady beep. Intense head trauma, no signs of internal bleeding. She remembered very well what his charts had said. Coma.
"Get out of here." Melanie, who was sitting by Robert's bed, glared at her. "You did this to him."
"I did this? How in hell did I do this?" Allison was trying to keep in her anger. She wasn't yet sure who it was directed at.
"You gave him the ring back. He was heartbroken and decided to take a drive. This is all your fault!"
"If you hadn't come with him today this never would have happened!" Allison's voice rose. She knew it was her fault; she just didn't want to face it.
"If you would have spent more time with him I would have never been involved!" Melanie knew she was lying, but she also had a lot to hate Allison for.
"He was never around! I wanted to spend time with him, but work and apparently you were more important!"
"You're the one who gave the ring back!"
"And I could have made it a lot worse! I thought that was the best thing to do!"
"Well apparently it wasn't!"
"And apparently I'm not a psychic!"
"Well you should have thought about how he'd react!"
"And you should have thought about how I'd react!" House was standing just outside the door, allowing her to release some of her anger.
"Well you were too in love with that other guy to actually care about him!"
Allison's voice lowered. "I know. But I tried to move on. I was doing the best I could!" Her voice rose again. House was shocked when he heard that she loved someone else.
"Well you should have done better!"
"I wish I could have!"
"He loved you! They always love you! I'm only a release, a rebound!" Allison became puzzled when she said "they." "Yes, they! Back in school all my boyfriends would dump me if they even had a chance to go out with you! And when it didn't work, they'd grovel back to me! Even though you were older! You could have anyone you wanted and then you didn't want the ones who wanted you!"
"So that's what this is all about." Her voice lowered.
"Yes! And you knew! You always knew! And I finally found an amazing guy, and you're misusing him? I wasn't going to stand for it!"
"I... I'm sorry."
"But he always talked and bragged about you! How smart you are, how pretty, how nice, how funny. I got sick of it! So today, when he walked in and was sad and lonely, I decided to change things. I was a fling, a one-time thing! And you make a bigger deal over it than it deserved!"
Allison was shocked to hear that he really did love her, and that he did talk about her like that. She didn't expect that it had only happened today, and hadn't been a long-running thing. "I didn't know..."
"Of course you didn't! And what hurt the most is that you didn't overreact!" Melanie was on the verge of tears. She was faking it all, of course, but the information she was telling was true.
"I... When he wakes up tell him I'm sorry." Allison said before turning around and exiting the room, again bumping into House. She was on her last bit of resolve, and suddenly she just let go. House pulled her into a tight hug, knowing that this had to be hard for her. She just stood there and cried, needing to let it out.
-
"Allison?" Robert was waking up. The world was foggy, but he could feel someone holding his hand.
Even though Melanie didn't love him, she did have a thing for him, and it hurt when the first person he asked for was Allison. "No, Robbie. It's me, Melanie."
"Where's Allison? Is she okay?" It wasn't like her to not be around when someone was hurt, especially if they were even friends. Robert wasn't sure what they were anymore, but knew it had to be at least friends.
"She's fine. Just fine. She told me to tell you that she was sorry." Melanie smiled at him.
"But where is she?"
"Oh, I don't know, probably with the House guy or something." Melanie shrugged it off. She could see the hurt in his eyes, but knew this is what she needed to do in order for them to be over.
"Oh..." He was angered at the fact that she was probably with House at the moment. Suddenly House barged into the room.
"I heard you were awake and-" But he was cutoff by Chase.
"Where is she?"
"Where is who? Cuddy? I know she loves you but-"
"Allison."
"She's calming down. Drinking some coffee. Apparently the she and the blondie here got into a fight." House waved his stick menacingly at Melanie.
Robert stared at Melanie. "What?"
"Oh, nothing. She and I just got into a little disagreement. Don't worry about it, Robbie. You need to focus on getting better." She patted his hand.
"What was it about?"
"Nothing! Just relax, sleep."
"I'm not tired. I have a headache from hell, but I'm not tired." He glared at her. "What did you fight about?"
"Please, Robbie, don't worry about it."
"Stop calling me Robbie."
"What did they fight about?" This time he looked directly at House.
"I'm not sure. It was the queen of all cat fights, though." House knew better than to tell the man -who was supposed to be resting- the truth.
"I need to talk to her." He stated it simply – no one was to argue. House nodded and walked out of the room, not sure if he should bring Allison back or not.
She sat on the bench outside, sipping her cocoa and wondering about the future days. She was also thinking about her conversation with Melanie earlier. She was right... Right about a lot of things. I can't believe I went through with all of this! I should have never married him. None of this would have happened. She was taken from her thoughts by someone sitting next to her.
"You just love making me come out here in the cold, don't you?" House grumbled as he pulled his jacket a little closer. It had gotten colder within the last hour or so. She chuckled. "He's awake and asking for you." He stared off at a random tree.
"I don't know if I can face him." Allison sighed. She could tell she was on the verge of tears, and was doing everything she could to not break out crying. "He deserves so much better..."
"Just talk to him. He just wants to see you." House knew it was the right thing, but why did it have to hurt so goddamn much?
"I guess I should. He deserves that, at least." She stood up, throwing her now empty cup of cocoa in the trash. She opened the door to the building, stopping before going in. "Thank you." She smiled weakly at House, who just nodded his head. She walked into the building, preparing herself for what was about to happen.