[Hello everybody! I'm back! Sorry for the very late update. Enjoy]


Chapter 7 - Masks


"What's this?" House said pointing to a spot on his mother's cardiac-MRI.

"A shadow or perhaps an artifact? Taub said

"Or maybe it's a mass ..." House said

"What kind of mass?"

"If I knew I'd not be here..." House replied, his pensive look fixed on those images... "What if the problem wasn't in her heart? ...What can annoy her heart so much to give her a heart attack? " He stood for a moment thoughtfully "Repeat the chest X-ray and do a CT scan of her chest."


"Lisa..."

Cuddy turned and caught Blythe's look.

"I'm sorry, Blythe. I didn't mean to wake you up ... I just want to see how you were doing ..."

Blythe smiled and beckoned her to approach her. She took her hand and forced her to sit next to her.

"Greg loves you... do you know it, don't you?" She whispered, looking into her eyes as if she was her daughter

"Blythe ... you don't have to tire yourself... and you don't have to think about this now ..."

"I want you to have no doubts about this ..." Blythe continued ignoring her words.

"I ... I have none, Blythe ... I know he loves me ..." she said, looking away

"Promise me you'll be there for him if ... if something wrong happens to me..."

Cuddy didn't answer but bit her lip.

"Life was hard enough with him. I couldn't protect him from his father and ... I can't forgive myself for this ... I wasn't there enough for him when he was a kid... and, when he grew-up, he didn't allow me to be there for him ... he built an armor to protect himself from pain. Pain made him hard. But ... when he looks at you ... only when he looks at you, Lisa, I can see his real eyes ... he do love you. I never saw him looking at another woman as he looks at you. He didn't look at Stacy like he looks at you. He didn't tell me that you were together ... I knew that...from the tone of his voice when he said your name. ..even if he calls you Cuddy... I've heard your name for many years, but at some point I noticed a different shade in his voice ... he's my son ... a mother feels those things .. . "

She paused looking into her eyes.

"Greg needs you in his life. He has a difficult character ... it's his way to protect himself from the world. It's his mask, not what he really is. What he really is... it scares him... because his sensitivity makes him vulnerable. When he was a kid, his father punished his sensibility. He considered that a sign of weakness. And a man should never show his weakness... That was my husband thought. And Greg had to learn to defend himself from that... If you hurt him, he'll hurt you even more... it's his weapon to defend himself. But if you'll give him the opportunity to open up to you... you'll be surprised by what you'll see ... "

"I really wanted that he could open to me ..." Cuddy whispered with tears in her eyes ... "... I ... I thought I could do that but ... I failed ... I can't change him, Blythe... "

"You don't have to change him, Lisa. Just to pull out what he really is ... what he already is... but that side of him is hidden under his armor. He have not to feel judged. Whenever he felt judged he closed like a clam... Every time he felt insecure he closed like a clam ... "

Cuddy kept looking at her without speaking.

"He needs you. You need him. He loves you and you love him. But you're both incredibly stubborn! Use this stubbornness for you two and not... against you!"

Cuddy nodded and Blythe smiled stroking her hand.

"I ... I shouldn't be here ... but I'm here ... Blythe ... I wouldn't worry about him, but ... I can't help myself ..." she paused briefly and smiled "..your son is my curse, Blythe!"


"Is this a NEGATIVE chest x-ray image? That incompetent jerk!" House shouted throwing the X-ray on the table, referring to Dr. Hayes.

Taub picked it up and put it back on the view box for a better look. "Pulmonary infiltrates... And bilateral hilar adenopathy."

"There're no cough nor fever ..." Foreman said "Tuberculosis test was negative. But it could be a fungal infection... histoplasmosis ... or ... coccidioidomycosis ..."

"Or a lymphoma ..." Masters said

House looked at her. "The blood count is normal."

"What are you thinking about?" Foreman asked

"Sarcoidosis" House said looking at Masters, Chase, Taub and Foreman. "Do a bronchoscopy, a transbronchial biopsy and an analysis of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid for confirmation. And we start with high-dose corticosteroids"


"Do you have the biopsy and BAL results?" Cuddy asked, stopping at the door of his office

"No. I don't." he said looking up from the latest issue of the New England Journal of Medicine and taking off his glasses.

She nodded her head.

"She's not in her room..." she said, not knowing what to say ...

"Chase and Masters are doing a spiral CT ..."

"Let me know if there are any news ..." she said looking him in the eye and reading his concern

He didn't answer but gave a small nod.

The phone rang. Taub.

House put the receiver down and looked at her.

"The biopsy confirmed the sarcoidosis."

"Did you already do to the total body CT searching for liver and kidney lesions?"

"Not yet."

"And she'll need an eye examination for the detection of eye damage."

"I know Cuddy. I attended the Medical School, too, do you remember?"

"Sorry ..." she said, looking down ...

House looked at her as she turned her pen nervously in her hands. Her face was tired. She wasn't in her administrator mode ... she was really worried about his mother ...

"It's not sarcoidosis in itself that is worrying me, Cuddy" he said softly "but cardiac sarcoidosis. Only 5% of the forms of sarcoidosis has cardiac involvement ... and those are the forms with worst prognosis"

She looked up to him. "She can have a complete remission of symptoms with corticosteroids. We can prevent the progression of the lesions and even have a complete remission... mortality is very low, House... and the 10-year prognosis is excellent" Her voice was calm and... reassuring.

"... not in the cardiac form... and there are not enough medical studies on this form ... The granulomas in the ventricle can lead to heart failure and unpredictable arrhythmias and... death. She already had a cardiac arrest."

She looked at him. She knew that his fears were justified. And she could feel his fear.

"What she have experienced could have been a reaction to the contrast. You don't know if that shadow in her cardiac MRI really is a granuloma. She had a chest pain misdiagnosed as a myocardial infarct. She had a cardiac arrest ... but no arrhythmias! Surely I'm not going to authorize you to stop her heart to make her a more precise cardiac MRI to erase your doubts! "

"I'm not going to ask you" he said looking straight into her eyes

"I know, House. Because she's your mother ... and not just one of your puzzle."

"And because in absence of other symptoms that wouldn't change the treatment, let alone the prognosis." he said, looking away from his eyes

"What's the prognosis of the cardiac form according to the latest statistics?" Cuddy asked him

He raised his eyes again to look at her. "No data. But in the studies I've read the 10-year survival is 50% ... maybe 60% ..."

Cuddy nodded.

"She's responding well to the treatment and she'll be fine with the therapy. Not always think the worst! And ... usually this disease occurs in 30-years-old or 40-years-old patients ... she's 75! And in 10 years she'll be 85 years old. .. Even my and your chances of arriving at the age of 85 years is 50%, House" she said with a faint smile

"Your...I hope not ... but mine is much lower" House said, looking at her and in turn smiling lightly at her.