Chapter 9
The Truth
House wanted to know how long the trial would last and whether MacBeth was prepared. He knocked on her office door but there was no answer and the lights were off so he trotted down to Boz's office and stuck his head in and sniped, "Does your cousin ever work? I haven't seen her in several weeks; we go to trial in a month, right?"
"Five weeks."
"Where is she? Usually my lawyers are all over me when we're going to go to trial."
"She's on vacation--long trip that had been planned for months. She'll be back next week but she's been working on your case. So don't worry House, she's got it covered."
"Vacation? Why does she need a vacation? That woman wouldn't know work if it bit her in the butt."
Boz was infuriated, he had a hard time composing himself Gritting his teeth he snarled, "You know House, you are such an ass. That "woman" works incredibly hard." Taking a big breath he calmed himself. "I need to finish this so if you don't mind, I need some privacy."
"Testy about our cousin, are we? Remember, incest is a family affair."
Boz thought about what MacBeth had said about Gregory House and he bit his tongue. Looking down at his desk, he simply said, "Goodbye, House."
House walked immediately down to Cuddy's office. "It's just like I feared, she's on vacation! How could you give her vacation right before my trial?"
"House, she owns the hospital, I don't give her anything and that includes lip! You're just going to have to live with it."
Back in his office, House consoled himself by calling Jessica. He had been extremely busy with one patient after another and hadn't had time to connect with her until a few days ago. Now they were scheduled to go out this weekend on a double date with Wilson.
Wilson brought Mary Rockefeller on the date. They had been seeing each other off and on over the six weeks. Wilson thought Mary was extremely witty and pretty, not to mention, rich. She had treated him to a weekend in Palm Beach where they had gone on the hunt for the perfect Mojito and found it. Mary was great in bed and had taken Wilson to a whole new level of fantasy sex. He doubted that this was going to be a serious relationship, but he was having fun.
They arranged to meet in east Philadelphia and go to dinner there. Since Jessica and Mary were friends, they rode together to the restaurant. Wilson took one look at Jessica and whispered, "You're in trouble." The woman was so good looking that Wilson was having a hard time concentrating on his date. Jessica reminded Wilson of Demi Moore.
After the introductions they were taken to a booth and the couples ordered drinks. House hated first dates, he was always unsure of just how much of the real Greg House to let out. He was glad to see that Jessica was as hot as he remembered. Lately, the only thing he kept seeing and dreaming about was looking down at MacBeth in her party wig on her bed. He didn't understand why the image was so clear and kept coming back to haunt him. In one dream he was sure they were having sex or at least it felt like sex, but they were both dressed. It was confusing.
Jessica slipped a hand under the table and onto House's left knee. He reached under and put his hand gently on her hand. They squeezed each other's hand and he looked into her green eyes. She smiled.
Wilson caught the looks and thought that this might prove to be an interesting night.
Jessica was curious, "How did you get invited to both the ball and the party? Usually the two sets of partygoers are mutually exclusive."
"I treated Wyman and cured him, he sent me the ball invitation. Boz invited me to MacBeth's party."
"Oh, so you aren't MacBeth's friend?" She gave Mary a look of anticipation of his answer.
The way she said it sounded more like she was relieved than curious. "Why do you ask?" House was interested in her response.
"Before I say anything I'd like to know if she's your friend?"
House looked at Jessica, trying to figure out what she was holding back, "No, we aren't friends, she's my attorney at work. I probably know Boz better."
Mary volunteered, "Oh Boz is luscious, but he's totally devoted to MacBeth. You know she took him in when he was 16. His own family had kicked him out for drugs. It was a mess. She whipped his butt into shape."
"Why are you relieved that she's not my friend?"
"I like MacBeth, but she's lethal to relationships." Jessica volunteered.
"I heard that she stole Elizabeth's fiancé." Wilson said.
"That's really unfair, she didn't steal him; he just fell in love with Mac. Mac tried to get him to go back to Elizabeth, but he wouldn't." Mary took a drink of her gin and tonic.
"So nothing happened between them?" House asked.
"Oh, yeah something big happened. They became a couple, they say she got pregnant, had an abortion and left him. He never got over it, started drinking. MacBeth went away, came back a different person too. It wasn't pretty." Jessica said.
Wilson asked, "When did this happen?"
"Oh, about six years ago."
"One broken relationship hardly makes her a homewrecker." House quipped.
"In her twenties, she stole my boyfriend's heart." Jessica said.
"Really? MacBeth? What happened?" House was puzzled, how could the strange and bizarre MacBeth compete with the sophisticated and gorgeous Jessica?
"You make her sound like it would be odd for her to lure anyone away."
House shrugged. "Well you are rather articulate, sophisticated and hot."
"MacBeth is different. She's always been that kind of woman that doesn't try to attract men but does. She's good looking and wealthy, but it's not just that; my boyfriend was richer than her. At least in the past she was attractive, but recently she's been smoking a lot of pot and I heard she's been taking a lot of drugs. She looked horrible the other night at the party, nothing like she used to look."
House was shocked to hear that his attorney was a junkie. Just what he needed, no wonder she looked so wasted lately. "How do you know she's smoking dope?"
"At the party, she went out with several of our friends in the woods and smoked some pot with them. They said she had a lot of it."
Mary piped up, "I don't know, she seems different the last few years. Funnier, more carefree, not as serious as she used to be. You know what I mean, she dresses in all those outfits and wigs and she's funnier. But then again, she's never married even though she's been asked several times. You have to wonder why. I haven't even seen her with a man lately."
House thought about what they said and realized he was in trouble if his attorney was a junkie. Wilson was surprised by House's behavior on the date, he actually was civil to Jessica and she was none the wiser that he could be a jerk. Wilson commented at the end of the date, "You were a good boy tonight. You must like her."
"She's hot, smart, nice and somewhat age appropriate."
"How old is she?"
"35."
"Well, go slow."
The next day House went into Cuddy's office. "My attorney is a junkie."
"You must be joking. MacBeth is a drug addict? Where did you hear that?"
"A friend of hers."
"A friend of hers? Not much of a friend."
"If it's true, I've got Courtney Love representing me."
"Be careful, some people think Courtney killed her husband."
The following week MacBeth was feeling well enough to come into the office. She called House and asked him to come up to her office since she didn't have the energy to go down to his. Her invitation was in response to his voice mail saying he wanted to see her. House came up, knocked on her door.
"Come in."
House had never been in her office and was shocked. The walls made quite a statement, they were so bright and silly that they made you smile. House actually liked the Navy Blue furniture in contrast to the bright green walls. It distracted him for a second and then he saw her hand and was shocked again. It looked skeletal, like there was no meat at all on it. He looked at her in her bubble cut auburn wig and sixties stewardess-like outfit. Her makeup was thick. She had lost weight, a lot of weight.But he wasn't surprised, junkies tended to lose weight, a lot of it.
"What the hell happened to you?"
"I went to a fat farm and forgot to check out."
"You went a little overboard didn't you? You look, well you look anorexic. Have you been smoking too much crack? You might want to think about rehab."
She smiled. "Rehab? I don't need a shrink, I'll put some weight back on soon. I was just so busy on my holiday I didn't eat much and I got Montezuma's Revenge, but I'm over that now. How can I help you Dr. House?"
"I came up to ask about the trial and how long you think it will last?"
"I have it scheduled to go ten days. We'll spend two days on motions in limine and jury selection. Two days on opening and closing arguments and six days on testimony."
"That long?"
"How many trials have you been the defendant in?" she asked.
"None."
"None?"
"Nope, the lawyers always figured I'd be such an ass that the jury would hate me and award the Plaintiff money just on principal. Did you make them an offer?"
"Yes, I offered to waive our costs if they would drop the lawsuit."
His jaw dropped, "You didn't offer any money?"
"Why should I? Do you think you screwed up?"
"No, but just the cost to go to trial will be a lot." House was shocked and sat down in the chair across from her.
"Maybe, but until we take one to trial, Plaintiff's lawyers are going to take advantage of the hospital's willingness to settle. You see, if I take the case against the most sued doctor in the hospital to trial and lose, it still demonstrates that we won't roll over. If I win, well, it sends shock waves through the Plaintiff's bar. For years you have been a perpetual gold mine to the lawyers in town even though I haven't found one incident where you were wrong. I was surprised that even your girlfriend settled all of your cases, never took one to trial. She didn't believe much in you, did she?"
"She hated trials and she was realistic, I don't do well sitting in court rooms. I'd settle if I were you."
"Nope and you're going to behave."
"Talk about behaving, did we have sex the night of the ball?"
She looked surprised and laughed. "What makes you think we had sex Dr. House? Are you doing a little wishful thinking? Gosh, if we had, it would mean I must not have been very memorable. That would be a disappointment. A girl likes to think that a guy can't get her out of his mind."
"You never answered my question."
"What do you think?" She asked jokingly.
He looked at her with sheer frustration, realized he wasn't going to get an answer, turned and left.
He kept thinking about her and she showed up in his dreams all week long. Besides being obsessed with the woman herself, he was worried about her abilities to handle such a big trial. It bothered him that she had never spoken to the so-called expert that was going to testify on his behalf.
On Friday, he decided he needed to return to the scene of the crime. He thought that if he went to see her at the Cottage that maybe something would ring a bell and he'd remember what happened. He had a good excuse to go see her, he wanted to ask her about what the trial expert had discussed with her. After all, it was his career; he wanted to make sure that this expert knew what he was talking about.
