CHAPTER NINE
The next day, Frank called Greg into his office to talk about Lucy. He explained that when Lucy was 14, she began having problems with her periods. For a while, she was bleeding so heavily that they almost had to give her transfusions. When this all started, Lina insisted that they take her to Dr. Thurston at PPTH. Frank wanted to take her to a specialist in New York. Lucy was his only child and he saw the worst case scenario of her possibly having cancer, but against his better judgement, he gave in to Lina. She was much too upset to discuss the situation rationally.
Thurston was supposed to be an excellent doctor, but he failed to come up with endometriosis as Lucy's diagnosis. He had already been on staff when Frank became the Dean and Hospital administrator at PPTH. Frank had never been all that impressed with his medical skills to begin with, but he never had a reason to fire the man. No malpractice suits, no patient complaints, a decent reputation, but overly cautious.
Thurston did a D&C on Lucy, and the results came back negative for cancer. He still didn't see what the problem was, even after running every diagnostic test available at the time. Lucy was tested for bacterial and viral infections and all her labs came back negative. Thurston was being so conservative with Lucy's treatment, he overlooked the scar tissue on her ovaries and Fallopian tubes. Still not able to come up with a diagnosis, the most aggressive thing Thurston did was to put Lucy on the Pill, hoping it would lighten her periods up a bit.
Unfortunately, Lucy developed a DVT in her right leg about six months after starting the Pill. There was still a small red mark on her leg from it. After about a year, her condition stabilized on its own. Her body functioned like it was supposed to, ovulating on schedule, but her periods were almost nonexistent, lasting a day or a day and a half.
After she had the DVT, Lucy actually diagnosed herself. She had snuck more than one peek at her chart from the beginning and started writing down her own observations. Her initial conclusion was that she had a mild case of endometriosis, but she needed to do more research to back that up. After she had been discharged and fell back into her regular routine, she spent a lot of time going through the medical books in Frank's office at home and in his office at the hospital, taking volumes of notes.
When Frank asked her what she was doing, she just replied she was doing a paper for extra credit in her biology class. Frank knew she was up to something. She had a solid "A" in that class and extra credit wasn't necessary. "Lucy, if you need any help, ask." Frank said with a smile. "Yeah, sure dad." Lucy said absentmindedly, immersed in her research again. All Frank could do was to wait and see what his daughter was doing.
Eventually, she typed everything up and went to visit her father's office after school one day. She handed a copy of a very neatly typed up report to her father and said quite calmly, "Dad, Dr. Thurston is a moron! I snuck a peek at my chart. Why didn't he figure out I have endometriosis? A first year medical student could have seen that! I've probably got scar tissue on my Fallopian Tubes that should have been removed a year ago!" Frank wasn't surprised at his daughter's assessment of Thurston. He had the same opinion, especially after going through the agony of Lucy having a potentially fatal blood clot.
Frank then read Lucy's notes. She had done a good job with her research, and Frank had to agree with Lucy's diagnosis. He went to Thurston with Lucy's notes. Thurston was furious that first of all, Lucy had seen her file and secondly, Frank actually concurred with the diagnosis. Worst of all for Thurston, Lucy was right.
To add further "insult" to Thurston, right around the time Lucy had the DVT, Frank had been able to hire Dr. Calvin Burke, the best OB/GYN in the tri-state, to head up the department at PPTH. Thurston thought the job should have been his and quit PPTH in a huff. Frank had a nose for medical talent, and it looked like Lucy inherited it. PPTH was lucky to have this man on staff.
Since Dr. Burke had been a partner in the group practice that Frank wanted for his daughter in the first place, he took charge of Lucy's follow up when it was scheduled. Lucy took to him immediately. He treated her like an intelligent adult. Thurston treated her like she was five.
Although it was a mild case, Thurston really should have spotted the endometriosis immediately, even though Lucy's symptoms didn't present themselves in textbook fashion. While Lucy only had one visible adhesion in her uterus, the heavy bleeding was caused by other adhesions somehow dissolving on their own and causing Lucy's extremely heavy periods. She never actually passed a clot.
Thurston deserved to be shown up by a teenager. Lucy never should have been put on the pill and have to go through the fear of having a blood clot. Regardless of who her doctor was now, unfortunately, the prognosis was the same for Lucy. Her chances of having a baby were slim at best.
Frank went on. Most of the time, Lucy was fine, but every so often she would get a migraine like she did yesterday, or she would get cramps that would almost double her over, but she would rarely let Frank give her anything for pain no matter how unbearable it was. Yesterday was the first time she had been sick since she started college that he knew of. She had been sick all day and refused to tell anyone about it until she couldn't take it any more.
"Greg, Lucy stopped calling me "Daddy" when she was ten. Now when she calls me "Daddy", she's sick." Frank said. His sister-in-law pushed her over the edge. Would Greg be able to question her in such a way that she didn't realize it and try to see if anything was seriously wrong? Lucy wasn't going to volunteer any information to her father if she could help it.
Greg looked at Frank. Being with his family had made him feel human for the first time in a long time. He had to say yes. His feelings for Lucy had gotten stronger, even though he still didn't know he was in love with her. Although he knew Lucy had only taken one, Greg didn't say anything about the Percocet to Frank. He didn't want him to know that Lucy was in that much pain until he found out exactly how often she was getting sick. He asked Frank if he could see Lucy's medical file, and he handed it over to Greg.
Greg saw Lucy's notes in her file. Burke had made them part of her permanent patient history. He read them and looked at Frank and smiled. "Lucy did this Frank?" he asked in amazement. "She was only fifteen?" Lucy's notes were about as good as he had ever seen! Frank beamed with pride. He knew Lucy had a nose for medicine and seeing someone with Greg House's reputation completely floored and impressed by what his daughter did at fifteen validated all the fights he had with his sister-in-law over Lucy's choice of a career.
After a quick perusal, he couldn't see how Dr. Burke could be treating Lucy any differently, and he didn't understand how Thurston missed the diagnosis. Even though it wasn't a textbook presentation, it was it was endometriosis. Anyone could have spotted it!
Over the years since Lucy had been Dr. Burke's patient, she had had several D&C's done, but there wasn't much he could do about the adhesions that would form on her Fallopian tubes. Dr. Burke could only remove so much of the tissue without destroying what little chance Lucy had of conceiving a baby. His treatment of Lucy had been nothing but top notch, and not just because she was the boss's daughter.
Frank went on to tell Greg about Lucy's only fear. Thunderstorms. When she was little, she would go with Jim to visit his cousins from his father's side of the family. For some reason, they forgot about her and left her in the basement of Jim's grandmother's house right when a bad storm started and the lights went out. She was hysterical, and Jim's grandmother was the only one who was able to calm her down.
For the longest time, either Frank or his wife had to sleep in her room during a storm. Frank thought she had outgrown that fear, or had learned to cover it as she grew up, but he wasn't sure. Greg smiled at the thought of Lucy being afraid of something. Frank saw the smile, and said "Greg, I'm sure you know my daughter by now. If she thought you knew everything about her, and I was the one who told you, I don't think she would ever forgive me."
Lucy wasn't scheduled to work, so Greg called her at home to make lunch plans. He wanted to take her to Fiorello's, a little neighborhood bar two blocks from the hospital. He had been there a few times with Wilson and he knew they could talk privately there. Lucy met him at 11:30. She was still pale, but not as pale as yesterday, and she said she felt better. Greg didn't believe her, but didn't say so. The Percocet hadn't done much for her. She had dark circles under her eyes, and she was still pushing her food around on her plate. Greg took care of that; he finished her food for her.
She kept drinking Coke until Greg laughingly told her to stop or she would be so drunk he would have to carry her home. That got a small smile from her as she told him that caffeine sometimes helped chase her headaches away "Doesn't the caffeine affect your blood pressure?" he asked. "Nope." said Lucy. "My blood pressure is low."
He complimented her on her cooking, which drew another small smile from her. "Did you actually taste anything?" she asked. "You ate like a starving man!" The conversation went to different things, and Greg tried his best to find out how sick Lucy really was, but he couldn't get anywhere. She was wise to him; she looked at him with those big brown eyes and simply said, "Curiosity killed the cat, Greg." He smiled and reminded her he wasn't a cat. "But you have whiskers" she said with another small smile. Greg laughed but dropped the subject. She apologized about not watching the game with him and her brother. He laughed again and said all that she missed was her brother getting drunk and a lousy game; the Pirates lost.
When they were through, Greg walked Lucy back to her car. He put his hand possessively on the small of her back and she didn't move away. During the time they had been in the bar, it had gotten very humid and the sky was clouding up. A storm was rolling in. Lucy was looking at the sky when she saw a bolt of lightning in the distance.
Almost imperceptibly, she flinched, but Greg noticed. He smiled to himself. She was still afraid. He wanted to hold her and make her feel safe, but she would probably hit him if he tried. She would really be angry if she knew her father had spilled the beans, so all he did was kiss her gently on the forehead, put her in her car and watched her drive away.
It stormed off and on for the rest of the day. Lucy barely made it home before what little lunch she had eaten came up on her. She really felt like crap. Thank God her mother wasn't home yet. Lucy could never handle being fussed over. She made a lousy patient. Her migraine was not completely gone, but when Greg called to ask her to lunch, she agreed to meet him anyway.
The pain had eased off a little and was almost tolerable, and she thought a change of scenery might help her. The bar was cool and dark, which helped a little, but trying to eat something was definitely a mistake. Then Greg was asking too many personal questions, and she didn't have the energy to tell him to mind his own damn business. No wonder she threw up. Lucy was all sweaty and shaky after she finished throwing up, so she took another shower and got ready for bed even though it wasn't even two in the afternoon. Her mother came home while she was in the shower, and Lucy went down to tell her she wouldn't be eating dinner tonight.
"Lucy, do you want me to ask your father to bring something for your migraine?" Lina asked as she pushed a stray curl from Lucy's face. "There's no reason why you should suffer so much." She had met her husband for lunch and knew what he had talked to Greg about. Of course, Lucy refused, saying all she needed was sleep.
She got herself some ginger ale, grabbed some saltines and another ice pack and went back up to her room. She was not too happy with herself. She had not completely gotten over her fear of thunderstorms either, and the last thing she wanted was for Greg to see that and give him ammunition to torment her. She turned the TV on; there was a Bogie Film Festival on TCM and she fell asleep in about a half hour.
Around 5:30 she woke up and her head was still throbbing. She ran into her bathroom and was sick again, only this time it was mostly dry heaves. At least she wasn't sweating. She rinsed her mouth out and managed to brush her teeth. She drank her ginger ale, ate a few saltines and gave in and took another Percocet.
Greg came up a few minutes after that and asked her if she wanted company. She said no, but he came in anyway and sat next to her on the couch. She gave him one of her patented "Lucy Glares", usually guaranteed to make even Aunt Loretta back off, but he seemed to be immune. He noticed that the bottle of Percocet was still on the end table near Lucy, along with some ginger ale. He didn't mention it.
This time, the Percocet was working on Lucy. Greg put his arm around her and pulled her closer to him, and she didn't resist him. They were watching "To Have and Have Not", and Lauren Bacall was asking Bogie if he knew how to whistle. Between the Percocet and Greg's being next to her, Lucy was slowly relaxing in spite of the storm and her headache. She fell asleep with her head on his chest, and eventually Greg fell asleep, too. He didn't wake up until he heard Frank knocking on the door. Lucy didn't move. As she slept, she had thrown her arm around Greg. Frank motioned Greg not to move and went back downstairs. Everything seemed to be under control.
Greg enjoyed the feel of Lucy next to him. Her body was warm. After a few minutes, he tried to wake her to put her to bed. No response. Greg put his hand on her face and turned it up toward him. She could barely open her eyes; she was stoned. "Lucy, did you take a Percocet?" Greg asked. She nodded yes, and barely got out "just one" before she put her head back down on his chest. Greg smiled.
Damn!" he thought to himself. "She's out of it with only one Percocet, but she can almost drink me under the table!" "Come on baby, time to go to bed," he whispered while raining soft kisses on top of her head and forehead. She tried to push him away, but couldn't. "Stop it!" she managed to get out. Greg chuckled and ignored her.
"Lucy, I want to make love to you." Greg whispered while kissing her softly on the forehead. He really did want to make love to her. That got her attention. Lucy looked up at him, barely able to focus. "I want you to" she finally mumbled, and put her head back on his chest and moved closer to him. Greg laughed. "Oh, you do, do you?" He worked his way out from under her, laid her back on the pillows and knelt next to the couch. He lightly kissed her face and neck, and was getting aroused. "Lucia, wake up." he whispered between kisses.
Lucy finally responded to him and woke up a little bit, but she was groggy. She tried to stand up, but lost her balance and fell against Greg. He put his arm around her, scooped her up and carried her the few feet to her bed. She looked up at him and said "You woke me up to put me to bed? You're mean!" Greg laughed and pulled the covers over her and bent down to kiss her goodnight. She brushed her hand across his face and mumbled "I love you" and fell back to sleep in a few seconds. Greg just looked at her when she said that. He bent down, kissed her forehead, turned out the light and went down the hall to his room.
As he got ready for bed himself, Greg was still thinking about Lucy. Ever since he moved here, Lucy's family had been trying to push her at him, but strangely enough, he didn't mind. As far as he was concerned, Lucy was the most beautiful woman he had ever met. She was warm, loving and about ten kinds of sexy rolled into one. Instead of his world being shades of gray, now there was color in it, thanks to Lucy.
He had had such a crappy childhood; his father had been in the Marines and they moved a lot. As a child, he was isolated because they rarely lived in the same place for very long, and his brilliance further isolated him. His father also verbally and sometimes physically abused him, and he could never tell anyone about the physical. Not even his mother. Because of Lucy and her family, especially Lucy, the pain and isolation Greg always carried around with him had lifted a little.
He was an ass and he knew it, but that didn't seem to bother Lucy. She just accepted him unconditionally for who and what he was. He wanted to be with her, be involved with her in every way. This wouldn't be one of the flings he had to blow off steam. He had hit the jackpot and he knew it. He hoped he didn't screw up; he had to find a way to make it work. He smiled again when he though of her mumbling "I love you" to him. He knew she was stoned, but still. Stoned or not, those were serious words. He turned out his light and his hand went under the covers again.
Lucy was back at work the next day. She was still pale and looked like she hadn't slept, but she was pain free. She was working in the Emergency Room again. Greg stuck his head in the office and asked her if she was free for lunch. "I'm starved!" she replied quickly. Her appetite was back, always a good sign. She ran up to his office at noon. Jim was there, too. They had ordered sandwiches and fries from the deli down the street. Lucy and Greg took turns stealing Jim's fries until he got so frustrated, he moved his food out of their reach.
"What's wrong, Jim?" Lucy barely managed to ask with a straight face. House stuck his two smart ass cents in. "Yeah, Wilson, why did you move over there? We smell funny or what? Lucy, what's wrong with him? "I don't know. Whatever it is, he's taking it very personally, don't you think, Greg?" Lucy said while trying not to laugh. Now Wilson was totally exasperated, because in addition to stealing his fries, Lucy was literally feeding them to House!
"House, I expect you to steal my food, but now you've pulled my little sister into your web of evil. Have you no shame?" Lucy couldn't stand it anymore. She just started giggling and the tinkling sound made House happy.
There were pickles with the sandwiches. Lucy looked over and saw that naturally, Greg hadn't eaten his. She reached over for it. He said, "Hey, that's my pickle!" "You don't like pickles." Lucy said. She put the pickle in her mouth and moved it in and out. House just stared; he couldn't take his eyes off of Lucy and what she was doing to that pickle.
Moving it in and out of her mouth, sucking it, taking little nibbles of it. He wanted her to blow him like she was blowing that pickle. His jeans were getting uncomfortably tight. Wilson just looked at his sister in shock. "Lucy, what the hell are you doing?" he yelled. "Eating a pickle." she said innocently as she bit down on it. Her eyes never left House.
