Disclaimer: Not mine…just borrowing…

A/N: Phew, I just finished the chaotic move-in week and was able to get a new chapter in. Classes start-up tomorrow, so it may be a week until I've got Chapter 8, but I promise it's coming. Many thanks to my wonderful beta and my reviewers, you guys rock!

Title: Caricature of Intimacy

Timeline: Season 1, post-Vogler, pre-Stacy's return

Characters: Cuddy, House, Chase, Foreman, Cameron, Rebecca…


Chapter 7:

"Well, I'm going to get going." Cuddy stood up abruptly.

"So soon?" House pouted. "You just got here."

"You told me what I needed to know."

"And you don't want to know about anything else?"

"Are you in a sharing mood?" She looked at him in surprise. "Why don't you want me to leave? What's going on with Rebecca?"

"Nothing."

"No way." She pointed her finger at him. "You're trying to keep me occupied while your team does – I don't know – something."

"I'd never do anything like that!"

"Right – what are they doing?"

"Chase and Foreman are searching your house."

"And Cameron?" she challenged.

"Is chatting with Rebecca. I think they're gossiping about celebrities – something about Johnny Depp or Orlando Bloom – I wasn't really listening."

"Really? Because I would love to get in on that conversation – Johnny's justso dreamy!"

"Oh no you don't." He held onto her arm so she couldn't leave the room.

"If I stay, you talk."

"Cameron's just asking her a few questions." He let go of her arm

"If it's so innocent, then why I can't I be there?"

"Because if you're there, Rebecca will lie."

"About what?"

"Sex, drugs – you know, the kind of things you'd want to keep from your neurotic aunt."

"She already answered those questions. It's in her chart."

"Which she knew you were going to read." House sat back down at his desk. "If she was hiding something from you, she wouldn't have told us. She's smart."

"I know." She reluctantly sat back down as well. "Which is why she knows that keeping something like illegal drug use or unprotected sex from the doctors treating her would affect her diagnosis."

"You're sure about that?"

"Yes, I am."

"But she's kept stuff from you before."

"Like what?"

"Like when she called Daddy Cuddy on Chase's cell phone so you wouldn't know about it."

She looked away. "That was different."

"Why?"

"Because it is."

"That's the best argument you – the woman who runs this entire hospital – can come up with?"

"It's all the argument I need because, as you just pointed out, I run this hospital and don't need to explain anything to you."

"I don't need to watch The O.C., but I do because it's fun."

"You think it's fun to pry into my personal life?" She gave him an incredulous look.

"Duh!"

"Not going to happen." She shook her head.

"We were talking about it in your office before Wilson interrupted."

"No, you were speculating about my relationship with my dad, and we are not doing that again."


"I can't believe we're actually doing this," Chase said, as he looked through the cleaning supplies under Cuddy's kitchen sink.

"We're doing what we normally do," Foreman said calmly as he checked the refrigerator.

"If this is so normal, why don't you have a snack?" he asked, knowing full well how Foreman would help himself to the patient's food.

"Not hungry." He closed the door and stepped away from the refrigerator.

"Really?" Chase glanced at the clock on the microwave. "It's almost time for lunch."

"I'm good – anything in the sink?"

"All organic." He stood up, closing the cabinets as he did. "You don't want to eat because you're afraid Cuddy will notice."

"And you're not?" They walked out of the kitchen, and the first floor bedroom came into view. They looked at the bed and then at each other. "Cameron said Rebecca sleeps upstairs, right?"

"Right."

"So we don't have to check Cuddy's…?"

"No," Chase said quickly.

"Good." He nodded in agreement and they headed for the stairs. There were just some things about a boss that no one needed to know.


Cameron walked up to Rebecca's room as was surprised to see it filled with balloons, flowers, stuffed animals, and cards. The last time she had been in the room there had been a single flower arrangement and a few balloons, but now ever surface was covered. She was even more surprised to see Rebecca chatting with a candy striper while watching a movie.

"Hi girls." She smiled as she walked in.

"Hey." Rebecca smiled back, hitting the pause button for the DVD. She gestured at the girl next to her. "This is my neighbor Liz."

"I'm Dr. Cameron." She offered her hand.

"Nice to meet you." Liz smiled.

"Are you a candy striper here?

"Nah, she just really likes pink and white striped smocks." Rebecca teased.

"Yes, I am." She ignored her friend. "And I should probably be getting back to work."

"Don't want Evil Nurse Brenda to yell at you." Rebecca smirked.

"She's not evil." Liz shot a worried look in Cameron's direction. "She's just strict."

"That's not what you said thirty minutes ago."

"I'm leaving." She gave an exasperated sigh. "It was nice meeting you Dr. Cameron, and good luck dealing with Rebecca."

"Hey!" Rebecca gasped.

"Feel better," Liz called as she left the room.

"Sorry about that." Rebecca apologized to Cameron.

"Don't worry about it." She laughed. "It was entertaining."

"I've known Liz for eight years. She's like a little sister to me."

"She seems sweet."

"She is." She looked at the IV bag in Cameron's hands. "New meds?"

"Prednisone." She hooked it up to the IV. "It's a…"

"Steroid." Rebecca finished for her.

"Yes. It should help with the anemia."

"Okay."

"Do you mind if I sit down?"

"No. Go ahead." Rebecca pointed to the stuff Liz had left on the seat. "You can just put that stuff on the table."

"Thanks." She took the chair Liz had left at the bedside. She picked up the stack of papers and held up the DVD case that was on top. "You're watching Evita?"

"Yeah. It's one of our favorites – long story."

"Okay." Cameron glanced down at the stack of opened cards and a pad of paper. "And you were sorting mail."

"Liz was helping me go through the get well soon cards and writing down who sent them and what was said, so I can thank people later."

"Are you having more trouble with your arm?"

"Not really." She raised her arm and slowly made a fist. "It just feels weird."

"Okay. Let us know if it changes." Cameron set the stack of cards on the table. "Well, you're very popular."

"Not exactly."

"The flowers, balloons, and cards say otherwise."

"At first glance you would think that, but the majority are really for my aunt. Everyone wants to suck up to the boss."

"Ah." She nodded. "It must be weird being a patient in your aunt's hospital."

"A little."

"She's involved in everything – sees everything in your chart."

"She would do that even if she wasn't the chief of medicine. Aunt Lisa obsesses – it's what she does." Rebecca shrugged it off. "She even knew everything that was going on when I was at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and she was hundreds of miles away."

"But still, you have even less privacy here."

Rebecca's eyes narrowed. "What are you getting at?"

"Was there anything in your history about drugs or sex that you didn't tell us because you didn't want your aunt to find out?"

"You think I was lying?"

"No," Cameron answered quickly. "Just maybe there's something you left out. If you experimented…"

"Nothing."

"If you did anything. I would leave it out of your chart."

"I know, but I didn't," Rebecca said honestly. "I don't smoke, I don't drink, and I've never tried drugs."

"What about guys?"

"Like I told you before: I haven't been with anyone since I broke up with my boyfriend a year ago, and with him I always used protection."

"Okay. I just wanted to be sure. I'm sorry if it seemed like I was attacking you."

"No." Rebecca sighed. "I'm sorry. It's just so frustrating not knowing what's wrong with me."

"I know it's difficult, but we're going to get you better. We're going to run some more tests to figure everything out. You're very brave."

"Please, don't call me that. If I had a dollar for every time since the accident that I've been told I was brave…" she trailed off, shaking her head.

"You could buy this hospital," Cameron finished.

"Exactly." She nodded slightly. "Do you have any other questions?"

"You're sure you and Cud – er – your aunt…"

"You can call her Cuddy if it's easier. I don't mind."

"Thanks." Cameron smiled. "You haven't changed cleaners or fertilizers or done any remodeling."

"No, but why does that matter?"

"Certain fertilizers or pesticides can have toxins that could effect your central nervous system, and something like lead based paint could lead to heavy metal toxicity."

"Well, we have a gardener and a handyman, and I stopped licking the paint years ago, so I think lead is out." Rebecca hid a grin. "Although Aunt Lisa has been serving me powdered sugar doughnuts for breakfast recently, so maybe it's arsenic."

"You're terrible." Cameron laughed.

"You should have seen me harassing the social worker handling my DCFS case after the accident." She laughed as well. "That was terrible – I was obnoxious."


"Have you ever seen a teenager with a room this clean?" Foreman asked, as he checked the products in Rebecca's bathroom.

"She lives with Cuddy, what do you expect?" Chase said with a shrug. He looked through the closet, which was neatly lined with clothes, shoes, and storage containers.

"Still, I've never seen a girl with a bathroom that clean." He walked out of the bathroom and began checking the desk. The top drawer held pens, paper, and a basket holding the prescription pain killers Rebecca had already told them about. So far, they had found nothing that would explain the hemolytic anemia or any other of the symptoms.

"Some people are organized," he said, shrugging it off. Finding nothing in the closet, Chase moved onto the bookshelf. He looked at the top shelf and found two pictures of Rebecca and her parents. The first was the three of them in the African Savannah and the second had a beach that he recognized immediately. "Rebecca's been quite the traveler: Africa and Australia."

"Recently?" Foreman looked up from his work in surprise, wondering if Rebecca had been lying.

"Well, no." He glanced down at the pictures. "I'd say twelve for Africa and seven for Australia."

"Then it's not relevant." He went back to searching the bottom door.

"Whoa." Chase said, as he picked up another frame.

"What?"

"This." He held up the picture for Foreman to see. The picture showed a teenaged Rebecca on the beach in a bikini.

"Is that?" Foreman walked over and took a closer look at the second bikini clad woman in the picture.

"Would be the cruise to the Bahamas?"

"With Aunt Lisa."

"Yeah." he set the frame back down on the shelf. "Looks like they had fun."

"Yeah." Foreman shook his head slightly to clear the image from his head. Not that Cuddy had looked bad in the picture – in fact she looked pretty damn good – but there was a certain line crossed when checking out your boss in a bikini.

"Bingo."

"What'd you find?"

"This." Chase showed him the wooden box he had found on the corner of a shelf.

"Let's go." Foreman agreed after seeing the contents.


"So you really think she wasn't lying?" House switched back to their original subject. He was not going to drop the daddy issue, but he needed to divert her attention while he planned round two.

"Yes." Cuddy glared. "I do."

"You want to put money on it?"

"House!"

"Oh come on. If you're so sure she tells you everything, you should have no problem putting money on it."

"I'm not betting on my niece's medical treatment."

"You did it again."

"What?"

"Oh, nothing, Aunt Lisa," he mocked.

"Calling her 'the patient' will not change the fact that she's my niece."

"But this way it's easier to at least pretend that you're objective."

"Why do you care so much about my objectivity?" She folded her arms. "I stayed out of your way while your team was doing the differential."

"Because Wilson gave you a look. You were dying to come inside."

"But I didn't. I'm not the one treating her, so my objectivity is not a concern."

"Every test or procedure we do lands directly on your desk for approval. So unless you plan to step down as Dean of Medicine, you're involved."

"I'm still capable of doing my job."

"No, Cuddy, you're not!" he snapped. "You're rapidly losing perspective and are thinking like a worried aunt and not a doctor."

She glared back at him. "I'm sorry if I lack your detached objectivity, but Rebecca is not just a puzzle to me. She's my niece and I care about her. I want her to get better."

"No, you need her to get better."

"Same thing!"

"No, it's not." He slammed his cane on the desktop for effect. The sudden movement made her jump. "You need Rebecca to get better so you can continue trying to make her life perfect to make up for her parents' death."

"Leave it alone!"

"Nothing you do is going to bring them back – they're dead, so stop blaming yourself."

"It was my car. I was behind the wheel when we crashed." She stood up and headed for the door. "I don't need to sit here and rehash the worst thing I ever did with you."

"And the drunk driver in the pick-up truck had nothing to do with it?" She froze in place when he said this but did not turn around. House picked up his cane and stood up as well. He walked over and continued speaking slightly softer. "I saw the police report. You didn't cause the accident."

"But if I hadn't been driving…" she trailed off no longer trusting her voice. She closed her eyes, willing herself not to cry. Damn him. Why did he have to keep pushing? Why couldn't he just leave it alone like a decent person would have done?

"The drunk guy still would have been." He finished, waiting for her to turn around and face him, but she did not move. "You can't change the past."

"I know." She walked out of the office without glancing back.


A/N: So let me know what you think? Any lines you liked/didn't like? Any ideas/speculations? Remember, I love reviews like House loves Vicodin!