The next day Cate was discharged from the hospital and sent home with an antihistamine, a bottle of calamine lotion and strict orders from Dr Hadley and Dr Cameron not to scratch. The acyclovir had eased the dose of chicken pox so she wasn't completely covered so with any luck she would be relatively spot free for her date with Remy on Sunday night.
"So she was interested in you all along." Her sister said smugly down the phone. Though she knew Aoife couldn't see her Cate rolled her eyes.
"Yes." She sighed; the rest of the phone call would be unbearable with her older sister gloating the whole time.
"I told you that you should have asked her out months ago."
"Yes, yes you were right you are always right now will you kindly shut up." Cate droned.
"Alright fine!" Her sister conceded. "So how are the pox?"
"Not too bad, they're slowly but surely disappearing. With any luck I should be able to cover them up with makeup for tomorrow night." Cate said examining her face in a mirror.
"They didn't seem to put her off so I wouldn't worry too much about it." Aoife laughed. "Are you nervous?"
"A little." Cate admitted. She'd wanted this date to happen for so long now she was afraid it would all go badly.
"Aww." Her sister cooed.
"I will hang up on you, you know?" Cate said in a warning tone.
"Sorry. I'm just proud of you. My little sister has a date. And with the Dr Hadley no less." Her beaming smile could be heard through the phone.
"Right that's it I'm hanging up." Cate threatened.
"I'm sorry I'm sorry!" Aoife apologised sincerely. "I'll stop now I promise. So she's coming to your place then?" She tried to move the conversation forward.
"Yeah we're going to watch a DVD and eat pizza." She tried not to sound too excited.
"That sounds nice. Just remember to clean your apartment before she comes round." Aoife chuckled.
"Oi!" Cate cried out indignantly at the implication that she was messy. "My place is not that bad!"
Her sister scoffed.
"Anyway she's already seen what it's like and she still asked me out so obviously you just underestimate my house keeping capabilities." She said cheekily.
"She's seen your place?" Aoife sounded confused.
"Yeah, I asked her to stop by and pick up some things for me when I was admitted."
"Oh! Well then you have nothing to worry about." She said wisely. "She obviously likes you so just relax and be yourself and have fun. Dates are supposed to be fun."
"Thanks for the reminder." Cate said sarcastically.
"Well you know it has been a while since you've been on one."
"Thanks." If it hadn't been true Cate might have been offended by her sister's comment.
"Seriously stop stressing it'll be great." She said reassuringly. "I have to go here and pick the kids up from mum's, but have fun tomorrow night and call me on Monday and let me know how it went."
"Ok. Give the kids hugs from me." She said with a pang of homesickness. She missed her nieces and nephews.
"I will. I love you."
"Love you too. Bye." Cate hung up the phone feeling a lot better after the conversation. Her sister was right she really liked Remy and Remy had to at least like her a little too since she asked her out. There was nothing to worry about the date would go well. Now all she had to do was choose a DVD.
-
"So tonight's the big night?" Cameron said excitedly when she caught up with Dr Hadley. She'd been trying to bump into her accidently all day so she could wish her luck and enquire about their plans.
"Yeah." Thirteen answered dismissively.
"Are you nervous?" The blonde smiled at her friend.
"A little." Remy huffed, she didn't like talking about things like this but if she had to talk to anyone Cameron wasn't the worst person to open up to.
"Well don't be." It sounded more like an instruction than encouragement. "I've seen you two together, you have nothing to worry about there's undeniable attraction there. Not to mention your sense of humour is practically identical to hers. I'm sure your date will be great." She smiled. Her words soothed Remy's nerves considerably.
"Thanks." She smiled at the head of the ER. "I hope you're right."
"I am. And you have to tell me everything when you come back to work on Tuesday!" Cameron smirked as she walked down the corridor. Remy shook her head and entered House's office.
"Got a case?" She asked, finding it odd to be hoping the answer was no for a change. Kutner and Taub shook their heads.
"Done my clinic hours yet?" House asked her limping in and taking a seat at the conference table.
"Just clocked out of the last one." She smiled. Nothing was going to bring her down today.
"Word around the water cooler is you have a hot date tonight." He goaded her. She raised an eyebrow at him but showed no reaction. "Amazing what I've been able to do while you were doing my clinic hours."
"Really?" She said sarcastically.
"I spent some time down there with the gossip girls and they say the reason you're so keen to get all finished up for today is because you're lined up for an evening with Dr Magee." He smirked at her. Kutner's mouth fell open and Taub turned to look at her. She fought hard to stop herself from blushing.
"Well I wouldn't believe everything you hear around the water cooler." She narrowed her eyes at House. "They also say you're in love with Cuddy."
Her comment took him by surprise and he had no response. She smiled victoriously and turned on her heels.
"So if we don't have a case I believe that means I'm free to leave for my date." She left them all speechless as she exited the room laughing to herself.
-
Remy arrived at Cate's apartment at precisely 8 o'clock; she'd been standing outside giving herself a pep talk for 5 minutes before she entered the building. Drawing ne final deep breath to settle her nerves she knocked the door. She could hear shuffling and movement coming from inside then Cate answered the door. Her hair was down, waving in soft curls around her face; Remy had never really noticed the uniqueness of its colour under the florescent hospital lights. There were a few faintly noticeable spots on her face but she looked amazing standing before her in skinny jeans and a band t-shirt that she'd never heard of before.
"Hey." She greeted the brunette cheerfully, swinging the door open to let her in.
"Hi." Thirteen grinned. "You look great! How are you feeling?"
"I feel good." Cate nodded, not feeling it necessary to inform her date that she felt a little nauseated due to the thousands of butterflies in her stomach.
"So do you think you'll be back at work soon?" She asked setting the pizza box down on the table. "Because I have to tell you it's hard fending off all these rumours by myself." She joked.
"Seriously? Have they started already?" She didn't know why she was so shocked, the hospital was 50% medical care facility, 50% gossip mongering.
"Oh yeah." She smirked, twisting the tops off two beers. "I'm pretty sure House is fuelling most of it though."
"What else would he be doing, you did all his clinic hours this week." Cate laughed and accepted a beer. "But let's not talk about work."
"No!" Thirteen echoed her sentiment. "I hope you like pepperoni." She said hopefully and opened the box to reveal a rather large pepperoni pizza. She had agonised over the decision for some 15 minutes in the pizza place; people were giving her strange looks.
"Damn right I do." Cate smiled, it was good to know Remy was also a keen carnivore like herself. "So what do you want to watch?"
"I told you it was your choice. I picked the pizza; my decision making is done for the evening." Remy shook her head. She wasn't going to let Cate off the hook that easy, plus she kind of wanted to see what the Irish doctor would choose.
"Shall we move this into the living room?" Cate suggested feeling a bit more relaxed. It wasn't overly awkward at all; she reckoned it was just the right amount of first date tension.
"I do have quite an extensive DVD collection." Cate began gesturing towards an entire cabinet full of DVDs. "But I didn't know what you have seen or what you haven't so I have a few choices in mind and a bit of an alternative option."
"Alternative option?" Remy was intrigued as she scanned through the titles on the shelves. All the classics and cult movies along with some lesser heard of ones. The bottom two shelves were filled with DVD box sets of TV shows. It was a rather impressive collection.
"Yeah I was wondering how you feel about marathoning." Cate asked.
"Marathoning?" Remy's brow furrowed in confusion at the term she'd never heard before.
"You know when you watch an entire series of a TV show in one sitting." Cate informed her.
"Oh." Realisation drew across her face.
"Because I have some DVDs from home that I know you'll never have seen before and when I asked Cameron for advice on what you might like she mentioned that you are almost as sarcastic as me so I thought you might like to watch this show called Black Books." Cate rambled a little. It was a stupid idea, she knew it. Why did she even bother suggesting it?
"Sounds good. I'm into trying new things." She said suggestively as she took a seat on Cate's black leather couch.
"Like asking patients out during an LP?" Cate teased as she selected the DVD from the shelf and inserted it into the DVD player.
"Well I thought I'd wait and see how this date goes before I try it again." Was Remy's witty retort.
"Good plan." Cate nodded and sat down beside her. Again there was that first date awkwardness. They helped themselves to pizza while Cate set up the first episode.
"You can tell me if you hate this by the way and we can watch something else." She said as she settled back into the seat, starting to feel more comfortable around the other doctor.
The show was a comedy set in a book shop in London owned by a surly Irish man who constantly smoked drank and swore. He was joined by his shop assistant a hairy hippy who catered to his every whim no matter how much abuse he was given. It was funny. There was nothing like this in America it was a very Irish/British humour. Remy liked it. She chuckled along as the first few episodes rolled; Cate realised she had an adorable laugh. She found herself at times watching the brunette instead of the TV show she was so familiar with.
"Another beer?" Cate asked when she realised her own was empty.
"Yes, please. Actually sit there; I'll get them." She insisted, taking the red head's empty bottle.
"But I'm supposed to be the hostess." Cate argued. Remy held up a hand to silence her.
"You're still sick. And I think I remember where the kitchen is...its fine." Cate opened her mouth to argue again but Thirteen cut her off.
"Just let me be nice!" She sighed with frustration and walked into the kitchen. Cate giggled a little.
She thanked the other woman when she returned with the beer. They sat closer this time, feeling much more comfortable around each other, Cate even rested her head on Remy's shoulder finding herself surrounded by coconut smelling shampoo.
"That was pretty good." Remy commented as the final episode credits rolled.
"I'll thank Allison for her advice then." Cate smiled.
"So who's the kid?" Remy gestured towards a picture on the wall, wanting to find out more about the Irish doctor.
"My nephew, well one of my nephew's, that's Dylan." Cate explained, smiling at the picture of the boy on the slide at a park.
"One of...you have a lot of nephews?"
"Uh...three nephews and four nieces." Cate smiled when Remy's eyes widened. "And another on the way my sister in law is pregnant."
"Wow. How many brothers and sisters do you have?" She wondered how many siblings added up to that many children.
"I have 3 brothers, 2 older and 1 younger and 1 sister." Cate informed her. "What about you? Any siblings?"
"No." There was a hint of sadness in her eyes as she shook her head. "I'm an only child. It was just me and my mom...then it was just me. My friends were my family."
"You lost your mum, huh?" Cate said sadly. Remy nodded slowly. "That sucks I'm sorry. My dad died when I was 16." She hoped the piece of personal information would make the other woman feel more comfortable.
"So what's it like having such a big family?" She smiled, trying to lighten the tone of the conversation.
"With 4 siblings and 7 nieces and nephews and my eccentric mother...it's interesting...and crazy. Most of the time it's crazy." Cate laughed. "We're very close and all very involved in each other's lives which isn't always a good thing. Holidays and birthdays are the craziest though. The oldest of the kids is 7 and the youngest is 18 months so you can imagine what that's like."
Remy noticed the twinkle in her eye when she talked about them. It was clear she really loved them.
"Why did you leave Ireland then?" She asked, thinking if she had a family like that she wouldn't want to be on the other side of the world to them.
"It was an opportunity." She shrugged. "I did an exchange thing after my final year and when that time was up Cuddy offered me a full time position. It was better than what I'd be offered at home and it's not so bad here so I took it. It's not like I'm here indefinitely but for some time yet." She looked up into those blue-grey eyes and smiled.
-
House had just settled himself down in front of his flat screen with a bowl of chips and a beer. He was looking forward to four mindless hours of flicking through the channels to find the trashiest thing on and watch it. His phone rang and interrupted him. He growled and glared at it. He wasn't going to answer it. It couldn't be anyone important. He returned his attention to the TV and the ringing stopped. He smiled victoriously. It wasn't long before it started ringing again, this time the person stayed on the line until the answering machine picked up. It was Cuddy.
"House don't think that by not answering the phone that I'll think you're not home. I know you're at home! And I'm going to keep calling you until you pick up so you might as well pick up now." She paused. He glared at the phone. She wasn't the dean on medicine; she was a devil woman. He huffed as he moved to pick up the receiver.
"I was asleep." He lied, not even trying to sound convincing.
"No you weren't." He could hear her rolling her eyes.
"Yes I was and unless you're going to come over here and give me the real life version of my dream then you better let me go back to sleep." He said pointedly.
"That's not going to happen either." She replied flatly. "I need you to come in, you have a case."
"No I don't!" He sang petulantly.
"Yes you do." She said with an amused laugh. "One of the hospital's benefactors was admitted and you're on the case." It was more of a command than anything.
"Oh no! Does a rich person have the sniffles?" He mocked. "Make one of your other doctors deal with it; you know you don't want me around people who donate money to the hospital. I only alienate them." It sounded like a threat. She laughed.
"It's your case." She repeated.
"I already filled my favour to the hospital quota by curing Dr Magee." He argued, though he knew it was futile.
"Dr Magee?"
"Yes, the Irish one." He clarified.
"Yes I know who she is; I'm just surprised to hear you call her by name. Now round up your team, the chart will be waiting in your office." She instructed and hung up before he could argue.
He looked longingly at his remote and Scotch and frowned. He headed to his bedroom to get dressed and call in the underlings.
-
"So the cops are standing there cautioning my friend Ryan for mooning a car and my other friend Nicole is on the phone not 3 feet away from them screaming a pizza order down the phone." Remy laughed. "When the police left and we were asking Ryan what had happened she was standing there saying I still don't think they got my order right."
Cate was in fits of laughter. They had been sharing stories of their misspent youth and just talking in general for a few hours now. Three empty beer bottles decorated Cate's coffee table as they basked in each other's presence. There was something so fluid and easy about their interaction, like they'd known each other forever.
"Sounds like a few of my friends." Cate chuckled. Cate fought hard to stifle a yawn, prompting Remy to look at her watch.
"Holy shit!" She gasped. "It's just gone half past one." She yawned herself, they hadn't even realised the time go by.
"Really?"
"Yeah." She chuckled. "Time flies..."
"It really does." The mood shifted in the living room as their eyes met, both thinking about how great the evening had been.
"Your hair looks really pretty like that." Remy smiled, causing Cate to blush at the compliment. "It's a shame you don't wear it down more often at work."
"Except most of my patients are either bleeding profusely or throwing up." Cate laughed, her cheeks still flushed. "You know when I answered the door to you tonight..."
Remy's eyes urged her to continue.
"I didn't think it was possible for you to look more beautiful than you do almost every day in the hospital but you do." She chuckled uneasily and now it was Remy's turn to blush. She leaned in and placed a soft kiss on Cate's lips. It would distract her attention from how red the brunette's face was.
"That's probably why I never asked you out at the hospital." Cate rambled when they broke apart. "You always looked so perfect and I...well you heard what I said about the blood and vomit." Thirteen laughed.
"I do not always look perfect." She rolled her eyes.
"You do a little." Cate nodded. "That's why all the nurses hate you."
"Shut up!" Remy laughed. Cate stuck her tongue out playfully. Feeling playful too the older doctor captured Cate's lips again.
The chemistry between them was thick and it ignited like a spark when they kissed again. Cate leaned in to deepen the kiss and she felt Remy's body move closer to hers. The younger girl's hands found their way to soft brown hair; her fingers lacing delicately through the coconut scented strands. Remy wrapped her arms around Cate, holding her close as their kiss became more and more passionate. They broke apart eventually; their need for oxygen finally able to overpower their feelings of desire. They laughed breathlessly, feeling like lust stricken teenagers. Cate rested her head on the other woman's shoulder for a second and failed to hold back another yawn. Remy felt a small pang of selfish guilt when she remembered that her date was still getting over the chicken pox.
"I should go. You need your rest." She said wistfully. Cate pouted.
"I'm fine!" Another yawn betrayed her. Remy raised a contradicting eyebrow.
"Ok I'm tired. But do you really have to go?" She admitted and made her best puppy dog face.
"I really wish I didn't have to." She replied with a sad sigh.
"Then don't!" Cate said perkily. "You could stay here...I mean not to...I didn't mean I expect...I...I just meant sleeping." She stammered when she realised how it might have sounded.
"I know what you meant." Remy chuckled at her nervousness. "I guess I could stay...but you have to get some sleep!" She said firmly.
"I will I promise!"
-
"Alright what's so terribly wrong with Cuddy's Daddy Worbucks that I had to be dragged in here when I should be at home in front of my TV?" House growled when he entered the conference room. Kutner and Taub stared back at him tiredly.
"He has paralysis in his left arm and has been complaining of migraines for about a week." Taub informed him with a surly tone.
"We sent him for a CAT scan." Kutner added.
"And why did I have to come in?" House huffed.
"Cuddy's orders." Taub smirked.
"Hey, where's Thirteen?" Kutner frowned.
"I didn't call her." House shook his head.
"What? How come she didn't have to come in?" He complained.
"Didn't you hear her when she left?" He said incredulously. "She has a date with Dr Magee! I'm not going to interrupt that for something you two can diagnose."
"That's not fair." He groaned, looking both shocked and irked.
"Life's not fair."