Disclaimer: I figure it's about time for another one of these. I don't own anything related to House, its characters, or PPTH. I do, however, make a claim to Kate!

A/N: I am dreadfully sorry for the length of time that has passed since my last update. I have no plans to abandon this story. Quite the opposite actually. This chapter is extremely long for what I usualy write as I just couldn't figure out where to cut it, so I hope you enjoy!

A/N 2: In case you are wondering, I threw the whole Diabetes thing in as a shout out to a good friend of mine.

A/N 3: FORGET YOUR TROUBLES, COME ON GET HAPPY!


A little after nine Lisa answered the door to a cheerful Allison. "Hey," she said. "Thank you for coming to help me clean up. It's not terrible, but it's nice to have some company."

Allison was happy to help. "Anything I can do for you. Last night was a ton of fun. I got the feeling that you do a lot of entertaining. You seemed really prepared for everything."

"Yeah, I do. Mostly it's just with the people at dance though. I don't do much with people from the hospital." They were making their way down to the basement where the majority of the mess was. "I found it's pretty difficult to bring them into my home without letting my…" she searched for the right word. Not finding one, she chose the next best thing, "Personal life spill out of the cabinets." She recalled a moment from a few years ago. "Or walk out of my bedroom and call me by a pet name. I managed to convince my guests that it was simply a joke, but it was awkward none the less. I have half a mind to think she did that just to frustrate me."

Sensing that Lisa was starting to feel annoyed about whatever she was referencing, Allison decided to try to change the subject. "I'm still curious about the beginning of your relationship with Kate. You were telling me about after her surgery. What happened next?"

Lisa was happy for the distraction and at this point was so wrapped around Allison's pinky finger that she would probably have done just about anything for her. "I guess the next thing that happened was…"


Lisa was walking back to her office from a board meeting when her cell rang. She looked at the caller ID and it was Kate. "Kate, hi. What's up?"

Kate paused. "Lisa? My catheter is burning the hell out of me and I don't know why. I told my surgeon but he just bushed it off and it hurts. I don't know what to do."

"Usually that means you have a urinary tract infection or maybe a bladder infection. He didn't do anything?"

Kate started crying. "He didn't even care. It hurts a lot though. I'm sorry I bothered you. I'm sure it's nothing."

Lisa reached her office and sat down at her desk. "I'm sure it's nothing serious," she reassured her. "I will call him though and tell him what you told me, ok?"

"Yeah, thanks." Lisa heard Kate crying still. "Hey, do you want me to come visit tomorrow?"

Kate's mood brightened. "Yeah, that would be great. I love when you come. It gives me a break from my dad… that didn't come out right…"

Lisa laughed. "It's ok. I know what you mean. I'll call your doctor and I'll see you tomorrow evening."

Kate smiled. "I look forward to it. Thanks Lisa."

The next call Lisa made was to Dr. Christopher's office and left a message for him to call her as soon as he could. Later that evening she was about to leave the hospital when he returned her call. "Cuddy," she answered.

"Dr. Cuddy," came the fakely cheerful voice of the surgeon. "What can I do for you?"

"Kate," then she remembered, "Jennifer Kramer says her catheter is burning her. She says she told you about it and you refused to do anything. I think she might have an infection. I think you should remove the catheter. She's able to get up and walk around by herself now; there is no reason why she should have it in anymore."

Dr. Christopher remained as calm as always. "I don't believe there is anything going on. I'm sure she's just tired of having it in her and would like to get it out, as would most patients, and I think she is just using her connection to you in order to try to persuade me. It won't work. Now, if that's all, I have work to do. You should go back to pushing papers or whatever it is you do." He ended the call.

Lisa was pissed. She made a decision before she left the hospital. She would be driving to Philadelphia tomorrow and she was going to come prepared. She went to the supply rooms and pulled out a few items. Two syringes, one to drain urine from the collection bag and one to pull the saline out of the balloon in the catheter, a cup to put the drained urine into, test strips to test the urine for an infection, and a few other items needed in order to remove a catheter. She fully intended to bring these things with her when she left tomorrow afternoon. With that, she went home for the evening which she was sure would not be relaxing due to the fact that she was about to tell Tess she would be spending another weekend alone.

Over dinner she broached the topic. "Tess, I'm going to Philly for the weekend again."

Tess became angry. "What, Lisa, do you love your new little pet more than me now? You can't leave her alone for more than a few days at a time?"

Lisa put her fork down and put her hand on Tess's. "It's not like that and you know it."

Tess was outraged. "Well please explain it to me because it seems like she's been taking precedence for a while now."

"I'm sorry you feel that way."

"Right," Tess countered.

Lisa was doing her best to remain calm. "She needs somebody right now."

Tess was downright pissed at this point. "It seems like she's got a great dad and he's got a girlfriend and they seem to be doing just fine to me."

Lisa sighed. "That's not what I mean. She needs a friend other than her family."

"What, she doesn't have any friends of her own? Can't one of them keep her company?"

Now Lisa started to lose her cool. "She does have a friend of her own. I'm her friend, and she needs someone who knows enough about what's going on to advocate for her and that's what I'm going to do. When she's home I'll be here. She'll still be my friend. She'll still be a part of my life, but I won't have to travel anymore to help her. I'll be here with you. I promise."

Tess was still angry as anything. "Right, I'll believe that when I see it. I would put money on the fact that you'll be spending weekends at her house right here in Princeton as soon as she's back."

This set Lisa off. She didn't say anything more. She packed her dinner into a container as well as some other items from the refrigerator. She then moved to the bedroom and packed enough clothes and toiletries to last her until Sunday evening before leaving the house and driving to the hospital without saying goodbye to Tess. She had nothing more to say to her right now. She hoped that a few days would allow her to cool down a little and allow herself to regain her equilibrium. She drove while listening to the music on the radio. When she reached the hospital the lobby was virtually deserted and the clinic was completely empty. She sat down at her desk and finished her dinner before resuming some paperwork that she had intended to finish the next morning. Around midnight she decided it was time to lie down on her couch and try to get some sleep.

It was around four thirty Friday afternoon when Lisa arrived at Kate's hospital room. Ryan was sitting in a chair next to her bed and they were watching a movie. Kate looked up and smiled. "Lisa! Do you want to watch a movie with us? We just started. We can start it over for you if you want"

Lisa came over to the side of the bed and looked at the screen on Kate's computer. They were watching Best In Show. She had to admit, it was a hilarious movie and she loved it, but she had more pressing matters to deal with. "I'd love to, but I have something to take care of first." She pulled out the specimen jar and a syringe from her bag.

Kate looked at the huge needle. "Please tell me that is not getting anywhere near me," she pleaded.

Lisa put on a pair of gloves. "Nope, don't worry. You won't even know I'm doing this." She leaned down next to the bed where the collection bag was hanging and withdrew a sample large enough to test. Kate and Ryan watched as she emptied the sample into the cup and dipped some sort of strip into it. She withdrew the strip and placed it on a few paper towels she had placed on the sink in the bathroom. She then pulled over a chair and watched a few minutes of the movie with Kate and her dad. When she felt that the strip would be done she went back to check it. One look and she left the room and headed to the nurses' station. She was annoyed, to put it mildly, but she knew there was no reason to take it out on the nurses so she composed herself before approaching. "Hi. I was wondering if you could get Jennifer Kramer's doctor to give me a call? I need to speak with him."

The nurse nodded and placed a call to his office. "Could you please have Dr. Christopher call back here? There's a woman-"

Lisa cut her off mid sentence. "Dr. Cuddy."

The nurse continued. "A Doctor Cuddy wants to speak with him." The nurse was put on hold while the person on the other end relayed the message to the doctor. "Thank you. I will tell her." The young woman turned her attention back to Lisa. "I don't know what kind of pull you have around here, but he said he'll be down within the hour."

"Thank you very much for your help." Lisa made her way back to Kate's room satisfied that the situation would be resolved.

About an hour later Dr. Christopher made an appearance in Kate's room. Lisa stood up. "I hear you wanted to talk to me," he said menacingly. "I thought we had already discussed this."

Lisa walked over to the bathroom and picked up the wad of towels which housed the now dry test strip. She walked back over to him without saying a word and shoved the strip in front of his face. "Positive for leukocytes, and not just trace amounts, either. Like I said, she's got an infection. Removing the catheter is the correct course of action medically."

He just looked at her with a smug grin. "What would you know, you haven't been a real doctor in years."

Lisa was taken by surprise. Sure, she knew this guy reminded her of him, but she didn't realize just how much they shared. "You know House. Wow. I thought I knew all his frienD," she said, emphasizing the singular form of the word.

His grin just kept getting smugger. "Greg and I go wayyyyy back."

Lisa regained her composure. "If you don't remove the catheter, I will."

He looked at her. "Is that a threat?"

"No." Lisa remained calm. "It's a promise." Dr. Christopher shook his head, turned around, and exited the room. "Ok then. I guess I'm doing it."

Kate watched as Lisa put on another pair of gloves and pulled out another syringe and a small bag from her bag. Kate was again dismayed. "Is that one going in me?"

Lisa looked over to her. "Kate, you've been stuck how many times in the past few weeks and you're still worried about this?"

Kate saw her point. "It's just that those things you brought are so big!"

"Don't worry. This one isn't going to go inside you either," Lisa reassured her.

Suddenly Kate had a thought. "Uh, Lisa? You're not going to be looking down THERE, are you?"

Lisa noticed her discomfort. "Well, actually… yes. But I'm not going to be actually looking, looking. There's no way for me to remove the catheter without…" She made a gesture. "You do want it out, right?" A confirming nod from Kate was her answer. "This might be uncomfortable, but it won't hurt. Just like when your NG tube came out, ok?" Kate nodded again and braced herself. Lisa pulled the saline out of the bubble that held the catheter in place and gently pulled the catheter out.

Kate was surprised. "That wasn't so bad." She relaxed a little before making a discovery. "I gotta take a leak." With that, the three people in the room had a quick laugh as she made her way to the bathroom.


Saturday morning came and Kate was a little bit dismayed to find that instead of the clear liquid diet she had been on for the past two days, she was given a tray of actual food to eat. It's not that she had so much of a problem trying to eat because of possible pain, it was more the fact that she was completely hung up on the fact that she was supposed to eat actual food AND still have the TPN nutrition going into her at the same time. That was just completely unacceptable. In the end, she went back to sleep and ignored the breakfast that had been brought to her.

A few hours later Lisa arrived and sat reading the latest budget reviews until Kate woke up. "Hey," she said when she noticed Kate was looking at her. She reached over to the table next to the bed and handed her her glasses.

"Hi," Kate said with a smile. "Work?"

Lisa grimaced. "It's a never ending process. Once you are done, there's always more to do."

Kate smiled. "It's kinda like doing laundry. You think you got it all done and then you go to put your pajamas on and WHAM! Another outfit to wash…"

Lisa chuckled. "Exactly."

The two decided to take a walk around the floor. Kate was getting much better at this. She only had to sit down twice during the entire circuit around, and she managed to find an empty chair both times so Lisa no longer had to carry one for her. After this they went back to her room and watched one of the DVD's that Lisa had brought this weekend. It wasn't too long after this that Kate was again faced with the same problem she had earlier, only this time she had an audience. Wonderful, she thought. This is going to be difficult to explain.

Lisa saw the fact that Kate was on solid food was a great sign and commented on it.

Kate was not so thrilled. "Yeah, great…"

Lisa felt she was clearly missing something. She took a stab in the dark on this one. "I know you are afraid of it hurting, but think about this. Most of your pain is from the lower end of what they did inside of you. This isn't going to go near that. I can guarantee you it won't hurt you as much as you are worried it will."

Kate looked away. "I'm not worried about the pain," she said.

Lisa spent a while trying to think of something she could say or do to convince Kate to eat, but it was difficult seeing as she truly had no idea what the problem was. It was at this point that Ryan made an entrance. Lisa intercepted him as Kate stared off into space and took him out into the hallway. "They gave her some solid food for lunch but she won't eat it. I'm thinking she's really scared that it will hurt her. She told me she wasn't worried about the pain, but I am not convinced. What I do know is that I'm sure they won't let her go home until she has demonstrated she can handle food. Maybe you can talk to her?"

Ryan processed the information and sighed. "Are they still giving her the IV nutrition?"

"Yes, but you know she can't be on that indefinitely."

Ryan nodded. "I do. I also know that pain is almost certainly not the reason she won't eat right now."

Lisa was perplexed. "I don't underst-" Suddenly it dawned on her. "Oh." She thought back to what she knew about Kate from the past year and a half. Sure, she was quite thin, but she had simply assumed that was because of her illness, but she realized she had never once seen her eat anything. The class liked to go out for dinner and drinks every two or three months just to socialize after class. Kate always went. She generally kept to herself, not sharing much, but she laughed when someone said something funny or told a good story, and she seemed engaged. But, every single time, when everyone else was enjoying their dinner she simply sat there with her glass of diet soda saying she didn't like to eat that late at night because it would keep her awake. It seemed like as good as an excuse as any at the time, but now it made more sense than ever. Lisa became curious. "Is this a new thing?"

"No. We've known for about six years, but I'm sure it was going on long before that."

"Has she ever gotten any kind of treatment? I know that there are a lot of really helpful and successful programs out there," she supplied.

Ryan rubbed the back of his neck. "We tried about three years ago. She was pretty non-compliant. Eventually the insurance wouldn't pay anymore and we couldn't continue out of pocket. It's not always so bad. She goes through phases. When she was in high school, after she and I moved out of her mother's house, I would notice she would take her breakfast with her. I have a feeling she never ate it. Eventually she stopped asking for lunch money but I left it for her all the same hoping she would use it. I don't know what she ended up doing with it. She would go through phases where she would sit and eat dinner with me, and then she would stop for a while and just take a baggie of cereal and a piece of fruit upstairs to her bedroom and saying she needed to work on homework. Sometimes it would be better and sometimes worse. I tried to get her to do what she needed to do to be healthy, but it gets to the point where fighting just doesn't work, y'know?"

Lisa didn't know what to say.

Ryan had a thought. "What if we could stop the TPN long enough for her to eat some lunch and then start it again after, would that work, do you think?"

Lisa shook her head. "It's not that simple. If the drip gets stopped and the line isn't flushed with heparin and saline chances are a clot will form and the line will be useless."

"What if it was just slowed down to a crawl?" he suggested.

Lisa thought. "It might work for her, but I know her doctor would never agree to that. If you haven't noticed, he's a bit of a jerk and flat out refuses to hear anyone else's perspective on anything."

"Then I'll do it."

Lisa was surprised. "You know how to work that thing?"

Ryan looked at her. "No, but you do. You can tell me what to do."

Lisa sighed. "I can't do that. Well, I guess technically I can, but I won't." She paused to breathe. "Look, I already crossed a line yesterday removing the catheter. I did that because I felt it was the correct course of action medically. This I won't do. Just try to talk to her. Explain that she can't go home until she's off the IV nutrition and that they won't take her off of that until she eats. She's not stupid. Eventually, hopefully sooner rather than later, she'll see it's the only thing to do and she'll do what she has to."

Ryan processed her words. "I'll try. I've tried to reason with her before and it hasn't done much to convince her to eat."

"While that may be true, we both know she wants to go home. This is a fact that will make," she thought about the word, "Persuasion much easier."

"Can you help me?"

Lisa tugged on her lip with her teeth. "I think ganging up on her might be a little much. I'll come back in, but I'll stay on the other side of the room and work on my work. That sound ok?"

Ryan agreed to this and they reentered the room just as somebody came in to remove Kate's uneaten lunch. Ryan intervened. "Could you please just leave it in here for a bit longer? Maybe give her a little more time to eat?" The man agreed and left. An hour later Kate had managed to eat half of her sandwich and drink some of her juice. It was a small victory, but a victory none the less. If things continued the way they were headed she would be able to go home by the end of the week.


"Dad? Dad?" Lisa awoke with a start. Years of sleeping with her ears open in order to wake up if she were suddenly needed had her attuned to the slightest sounds. "Dad?" she heard Kate call again quietly. She looked at the clock which read just after one. She got out of bed to see what was wrong. Opening the door, she heard Kate call again. She walked the few feet to the staircase and saw Kate lying down on the stairs, about two thirds of the way up, wrapped in a blanket. It was obvious she was crying.

Lisa made her way down to Kate and sat down next to her. "Kate, are you ok? What are you doing up here?"

Kate sniffled. "I'm sorry, Lisa. I was trying not to wake you. I needed my dad."

Lisa put a gentle hand on her back. "I've learned to be a light sleeper over the years. Can I help?"

"I leaked. I cleaned myself up and I changed my ostomy bag and all but it got all over my clothes and my sheets and I don't have anything to wear and he did my laundry last night and it's all up here and I was trying to crawl up here to get it but I couldn't make it all the way up and I needed help and…"

"Kate, breathe." Lisa started rubbing small circles on her back. "Come on, I'll help you up." She helped Kate get up and they made their way to the guest bedroom where Lisa had been staying. "Sit here. I'll get you some clothes from the dryer." She walked over to the laundry closet and opened the dryer where Kate's clothes were. She fished through until she found a t-shirt, pajama pants, and some underwear. "Here, put this on. I'll go downstairs and take care of the rest of the stuff."

Before leaving the room, Lisa pulled out a pair of latex gloves which she carried plenty of in her bag on a regular basis. She made her way downstairs and stopped in the kitchen to find a trash bag. Once located, she made her way to the living room and removed the sheets from the air mattress on the floor. She peeked into the bathroom to find Kate's other clothes. After returning upstairs, she placed the sheets and the clothes into the washer and then removed the gloves and washed her hands. She then started the load of laundry and hoped that the washing machine was quiet enough to not wake up the rest of the house. After this was done, she returned back to the bedroom to find Kate curled up on the bed, now clothed, but still crying.

She knelt down on the floor in front of her and moved a tear drenched lock of hair out of Kate's eyes. "Are you hurting?" Kate nodded. "I can go get you your pain meds. Do you know where they are?"

"I think they are downstairs in the kitchen on the counter by the dumb looking banana thingy that Meg likes."

"I agree, I don't understand hanging bananas either, but I guess some people don't like bowls? I'll be right back." A few minutes later Lisa returned with the medication and a glass of water.

"Thank you," Kate said after taking the pills. Within moments, she was again sleeping. Lisa gently pulled the blankets up to cover her.

Allowing fatigue to overtake her, Lisa walked around to the other side of the bed and lay down, not even bothering to get underneath the covers. About three seconds later she abruptly scampered off of the bed. Clearly, there was nothing going on here, but she could understand how wrong that could look to an outsider. Ryan's daughter lying in bed with her friend. Her much older friend. Her much older lesbian friend, she amended. The friend he let into his house and trusted to help his daughter. His daughter who was currently partially incapacitated by pain and impaired by narcotics. That would not look good. She was more or less certain he would see the situation as she did, but it still felt like a very bad idea. She grabbed a pillow off of the bed and made her way downstairs to the living room to sleep on the couch. She pulled the throw blanket off of the back of the couch and covered herself with it before drifting off.

The next morning Lisa was woken up by the smell of freshly brewed coffee. She extracted herself from the blanket surrounding her and ran a hand through her unruly hair to at least look marginally presentable before walking the short distance to the kitchen. Ryan was sitting at the table with the newspaper and a mug of coffee. "Good morning," Lisa offered.

"Good morning," Ryan replied as he looked up from the paper. "I have to admit, I was a little surprised to come down here this morning and find you on the couch instead of Kate on the mattress. Did something happen during the night?" Lisa explained the events of the early morning. "Thank you for helping her. I'm sure I would have woken up eventually, but thank you. Would you like some coffee or breakfast?"

Coffee sounded great, and quite frankly, Lisa never turned down the offer of something to eat. "That sounds great. I'm going to go brush my teeth and I'll come back for that. Thank you."

A few hours later Lisa's phone rang. She took a look at the caller ID before answering. "Tess, hi." She listened for a moment before becoming appalled. "You told them I was currently involved in an activity of a more physical nature?... I don't care that you never mentioned exactly WHAT that nature was. That was a lie and more importantly entirely inappropriate." She listened again. "Ok, I'll give them a call. I can leave now and I'll be home in about two hours or so. I'll see you then. I love you." She hung up the phone and turned to Kate who had been sitting at her dad's piano playing until she had answered the call. "Kate, I've got to go do some damage control. Honestly, sometimes I wonder if I'm living with a twelve year old."

Kate made a face. She knew she didn't like Tess, but she wasn't going to say anything to Lisa. If she loved her, that was her business and it was not Kate's place to voice her opinion. "Good luck with that."

Lisa ran upstairs to grab her overnight bag and her computer. Coming back downstairs she thanked Ryan and Meg again for their hospitality and told them to keep in touch before saying goodbye to Kate and leaving for Princeton.


Lisa looked around and saw that the room was finally spotless. The trash had been bagged up, the floor had been swept, and everything else had been put back into its place. Lisa and Allison then took the trash out to the larger cans out back for collection before Lisa walked her through the house to the front door. "Thanks for helping. I really appreciate it." She beamed at Allison. She simply couldn't get enough of her.

"You're very welcome." Suddenly they noticed how every goodbye they have had in the past two months had seemed so awkward.

"Well, I guess I'll see you Monday?"

"Sure." Allison thought for a second. "Actually, I'm working the overnight shift Sunday. It's one of my five overnight shifts a month, so…" She again thought. "I could stop by your office before I leave if you want."

Lisa smiled. "I'd like that. Have a good rest of your weekend."

"You too." With that, Allison turned and walked out the door immediately breaking the tension. I need to think of something. I need to think of some way to let her know how I feel, she thought. During her drive home she had an idea, but she was going to need Kate's help after all.

PPTHPPTHPPTH

Kate looked at the clock and sighed. It had already been a long night. It was currently 5:05 am and if she didn't get into the freezer right now to pull the food to get it cooking for the morning she was going to be really late. The breakfast items had already been pulled and cooked, but she still needed to get the day's soups and sides as well as more of the usual hot food choices. After making a list and grabbing her sweatshirt, she pushed a utility cart into the freezer and began picking through boxes to find what she needed.

Less than five minutes later the headset attached to the bulky radio hanging from her waste band crackled to life. "Kate! We need you out here right now!" Came the panicked voice of Nick, the 20 year old kid currently manning the registers at the front of the store. As the manager of the store on third shift, it was Kate's job to respond to any situation that might arise. Not knowing what to expect, she left the cart in the freezer and charged out onto the sales floor.

She couldn't immediately see what the problem was, so that at least ruled out a fist fight in the middle of the store. Just a split second later she saw what was happening. A man had just walked in off the street with a head wound that was gushing blood all down his sweatshirt. He seemed disoriented at first glance. Kate jumped into action. "Nick, get the phone. Call 911." She turned to the deli and continued to bark orders as she rushed to the man. "Mary, get the first aid kit," she hollered. She quickly grabbed two pairs of the flimsy food service gloves out of a box sitting on the counter and put them both on, praying that the man didn't have a severe latex allergy. She saw him start to fall and reached him in time to ease him to the floor rather than come crashing down onto it. Mary arrived next to her with the first aid kit. She instructed her to take out one of the absorbent pads and place it on the floor next to the man. She then took out a wad of gauze and pressed it into the head wound to try to ease some of the blood loss.

It was then that Kate saw the man's eyes close as he started to go limp. She eased him into a lying position and talking to him to try to keep him from losing consciousness completely. "Can you tell me your name? What's your name? Can you tell me what happened?" Kate hoped that keeping the man engaged would help to keep him conscious. She couldn't begin to guess what kind of head injury this man had, but she knew that this was the best thing to do.

The man didn't respond to her questions. Instead, he groaned. "I feel like I'm going to puke." Immediately Kate rolled him over onto his side so if he did vomit, he wouldn't aspirate. Just a few seconds later he did vomit onto the now bloodied pad and floor. After trying to make sure he wasn't going to choke, she again returned her attention to the head wound which had bled through the first dressing. She knew that rather than just replacing the gauze she should simply place another wad of gauze on top of the existing one.

It was then that the police and paramedics arrived to take over. "He's got a head wound and he seems disoriented, my guess would be he might have a concussion. He vomited, I don't think he aspirated anything. He nearly lost consciousness, but he's somewhat conscious right now. I did what I could." The EMT looked over the man and made note of what Kate had said and what she had been able to do. He was impressed. It's not every day that you see your average person able to perform first aid on the spot like this.

"You did good work," he told her. "I'm not sure many people who work here would know what the word aspiration means, let alone how to try to prevent it." The man was placed on a stretcher and taken outside to the waiting ambulance.

For the next ten minutes the police officers talked to Kate to get more information about the incident. Before they left she had one question. "Can I ask where he was taken? I'll probably need that for my report."

The officer, who was a regular at the store as many of the local officers were, was happy to answer any question she would have. "We've got him going to Princeton Plainsboro."

Kate was glad. "Thanks. I know a few doctors there. He'll be well taken care of." Surveying the damage around her, Kate realized that she would not be leaving on time this morning. She was thankful, though, that business was still rather slow at the early hour and the customers in the store had been more than understanding about the situation. I'm gonna be here 'till tomorrow, she thought.

Allison Cameron ran up to the side of the stretcher which came crashing through the ambulance bay doors. The EMT gave her a summary of the situation as they quickly wheeled him into an exam area. "Late 20 year old male came into the Wawa store on Madison and Queen with a bleeding head wound. The night shift manager said he may have lost consciousness briefly at the store before we arrived. She performed first aid. It was pretty impressive, actually. She knew to try to keep him conscious if possible, she had him on his side when he vomited to prevent aspiration, she even knew not to remove the first dressing after he bled through it. I'll tell you, she may have purple hair, but she knows how to use the brain underneath it."

Cameron paused. Wawa, night shift manager, purple hair? She immediately smiled.

"Dr. Cameron, is there something amusing about this situation I don't see?" Asked one of her nurses.

"Not at all. I just know exactly who helped this guy out." She turned to the exiting EMT. "Which store did you say he came from again?"

"Right near the intersection of Madison and Queen."

"Thanks." She smiled at the man and immediately resumed working on the patient while thinking to herself. She now knew how she could get in touch with Kate without getting Lisa involved. She then returned her full attention to the task at hand.

Allison looked at her watch. It was about fifteen minutes before nine am. She was supposed to leave around eight. She decided to make a quick stop in Lisa's office on her way out though to tell her about what had occurred a few hours before. Lisa was on the phone when she entered, so she placed the patient's file on the desk in front of her and took a seat in one of the chairs across from the desk. After ending the call, Lisa looked up. "Good morning," she said.

"Good morning," Allison responded. "Take a look at the chart."

Lisa opened the chart and browsed the ER notes. She didn't really see anything that stood out as unusual with those. "I am reading this and it seems like a typical case to me. What should I be looking for?"

Allison placed her elbows on the edge of the desk and leaned over. "Take a look at the EMT notes at the back. The night shift manager where he was brought in from performed some pretty good first aid before help arrived." Lisa looked at the notes and back at Allison still not following. "He was brought in from the Wawa on Madison and Queen. The manager had purple hair. How many night shift managers at that store do you know with purple hair?"

Lisa looked up from the chart beaming. "A few years ago she told me she wanted to learn first aid because of her summer job as a camp counselor and all, but I wasn't sure that she actually retained any of the information, she was so distracted by the idea of going back to the camp again. I guess she did."

Allison yawned. "I'm really beat. I need to go run an errand and then I'm going to head home to get some rest. I will see you tomorrow."

"Sounds good and sleep well." The two shared a smile before Allison exited the office and went to run her errand.

Fifteen minutes later Allison walked into a bustling Wawa store. She got the attention of one of the employees who was working at a register and asked if there was a manager around. The young man pointed to a middle aged man about ten feet away wearing a forest green polo shirt. "His name is Douglas," the young man added.

Allison walked up to the man and got his attention. Her cover story would look all the more credible considering she was still wearing her pink scrubs and had absently forgotten to detach her ID badge from her pocket. At least she had ditched the lab coat, she thought. "Excuse me? I'm Dr. Cameron. I am the senior attending of the emergency department at Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital. You had a customer early this morning that was brought to our hospital. I was wondering if you would be able to get me information to get in contact with the manager who was working last night. I just have a few items to follow up on." It was a lie, but he would never know that. She had gotten desensitized to lying after working for House for years.

Douglas gave her a smile. "Of course. I can do better than just get you in contact with her. She's actually still here in the office finishing the incident reports. Her name is Kate. It's back that way. You can go ahead and get any information you need. I'm sure she'd be happy to help."

Allison returned the smile. "Thank you very much. I'm sure this won't take too much of her time."

She made her way across the store and looked into the small office through the open door. Kate was sitting in the office chair with her back facing the door. She was on the phone listening to someone on the other end and taking notes on what was being said. She ended the call and breathed a sigh of relief. This was when Allison decided it was safe to interrupt by knocking on the door frame. Kate didn't turn around before speaking. "Doug, I'm just signing the reports now. I promise I won't forget to scan out spoilage or scan in the Frito-Lay and newspaper delivery bills before I go. Those are the next and last things on my list."

Allison suppressed a chuckle. Obviously Kate was a little stressed at the moment. Suddenly she felt bad for bothering her, but now that she was here she may as well ask for what she came for. "Hey, Kate. It's not Doug, it's Allison."

Startled, Kate leapt out of the chair so fast that she hit the top of her head on the shelf overhanging the desk above the computers. This caused her to ricochet back downward. She would have landed back on the chair she had been formerly occupying had it not rolled backward when she abruptly stood. Consequently, she landed in a pile on the floor.

This time Allison couldn't suppress her chuckle despite the fact that Kate was clearly rattled. She did, however, feel better when Kate stood up and was laughing as well. "Allie, hey. What are you doing here? Not that it's not nice to see you, but I'm just a little surprised."

"I'm sorry," she apologized. "I didn't mean to scare the crap out of you."

Kate shrugged. "It happens. What's up?" Kate suddenly remembered her manners and gestured toward the vacated chair. "Here, have a seat. It obviously doesn't like me anymore. Would you like some coffee? It's on the house," she offered with another gesture out towards the store.

"That coffee sounds nice, maybe I'll take one to go, but this won't take too long. I treated your customer with the head wound this morning. He's under observation for a few hours, but he should be good as new shortly. I was really impressed with how you handled the first aid before help came. There probably aren't many people working in this store who could calmly pull of what you did. Lisa was impressed too. I told her what you did and she was acting like a proud mom."

Kate rolled her eyes. "I'm happy I could make her day then."

"There is one more thing I wanted to ask you about too," Allison added. "I could use your help with something, if you have time. Preferably before tomorrow night's class. I mean, not right before, but maybe this evening?" She found herself blushing at the thought of what she had in mind for tomorrow night. She saw Kate raise an eyebrow in question. "It's music related. I wanted to pick music for the jazz warm up. I don't have any specific stuff in mind, but I know you have an extensive library on your computer and I was hoping to get a peek at it?"

Kate smiled broadly. "I certainly do have a library containing a wide variety of styles and you are more than welcome to take a look through it. I could bring it by the hospital later if you'd like."

Allison was elated. "Actually, since I worked all night I'm going home to get some rest, as I expect you are. I could come over to your apartment later though if that would work for you."

Kate thought about her day. "I'm going to go home and try to get some rest as well. I take Josh's Theatre Jazz class from five until six on Monday nights, but I should be home a little before seven at the latest if you want to come over then." She looked at Allison expectantly.

Allison couldn't hide the look of mild surprise which passed over her features. "He teaches? I know he's a great dancer, but I didn't know he had a staff position."

Kate smiled again. "He's one of the best dance teachers I've ever had. Lisa's choreography and style is a hell of a lot of fun and she's a lot of fun in general. Beth, well, you know how she is, she's great too, but Josh, he's got a unique way of doing things. Maybe it's simply the kind of dance he's teaching, but he doesn't just give you choreography and technique, but he describes the character you are supposed to be aiming to portray as well as some of the background of whatever musical the music is from. It's a ton of fun. You'd like it. The only thing is that I'm the oldest in the class, and I'm a good ten years older than the next oldest student. I don't stick out much because I look young." She looked at Allison. "You could probably pull it off too, though, if you wanted to."

Allison thought. "It sounds tempting, but I think I'll just stick to what I'm taking now. So, seven works for you?"

Kate nodded. "Here. I'll give you directions to my house. I'm not too far from Lisa." A few minutes later Allison was pretty sure she knew where Kate lived.

"Thanks. I'll see you tonight then."

Kate caught Allison before she had a chance to leave the office. "Allie, don't forget that coffee!" Allison thanked her again and walked to the rear of the store to pick up a cup of coffee before driving home to rest.

PPTHPPTHPPTH

Kate had just settled in on the couch when she heard the knock on her door. Simon got excited as she walked across the room to answer. As soon as the door opened, Simon lunged out and started "talking" to Allison who bent down to scratch his ears. "Hi, Simon! You're an excited one today, aren't you?"

"Yeah, he certainly is." Kate backed away from the door. "Come on in. Sorry about the mess. I am terrible at organisation." Allison looked around. The place was completely Kate, at least, what she thought was Kate from the little she knew about her. There were dance photos up on the wall as well as an oil pastel portrait of Kate and Simon in the same style as the portrait she had seen at Lisa's. On the wall behind the couch there were numerous autographed photos of actors and actresses, most of whom she didn't recognise. Over in the area which could be considered the dining area, had it had a dining table, stood the music room. It contained a Clavinova piano, a cello in a stand, a violin, and what looked to be a flute case on the piano. Obviously Kate's love of music had not been exaggerated by Lisa. "My computer is on the coffee table. You shouldn't have any trouble finding iTunes. Can I get you something to drink or anything?"

Allison was about to answer when something ran into her ankle, startling her. She jumped before looking down and seeing a purple ball roll across the floor. She pointed to the ball. "What the hell is THAT?"

Kate picked up the purple ball and opened the small door on the side. Out crawled a little white mouse. "Her name is Piper. Wanna hold her?"

Allison looked at the mouse. She had to admit, Piper was kind of cute. "I, uh, I'm good, thanks." She kept looking at her before tentatively reaching a finger out. Suddenly she hesitated.

"She doesn't bite, don't worry." Allison stroked Piper's back. She was really soft. "So, can I get you anything?"

"No, thanks. I'm good." She sat down on the couch and made herself comfortable.

"I just got home and I was going to make dinner. I can make something for you, if you'd like." Kate offered.

"No, thank you. You go ahead, I'll be right here." She opened the laptop and started to boot it up.

Kate made her way to the kitchen to begin cooking. She measured out water and poured it into a pot which the then began to heat up on the stove. She then pulled a box of rice out of the cabinet and started to fill a measuring cup to the right line. It was at this time Allison walked into the doorway. She was about to say something when she found she was intrigued at the lengths Kate was going to in order to get the exact amount of rice she needed. Finally satisfied with the measurement, Kate dumped the grains into the pot. She pulled a sauté pan out of the cabinet and placed it on the stove to heat. Out of the refrigerator came a piece of tofu. Kate cut a piece off and placed it on a small meat scale. She started to shave minute quantities off of the piece before she was distracted by the pan which was now hot enough. Using a measuring spoon she put just enough oil in the pan to cook the tofu, which she was again shaving down. Once satisfied, she transferred the tofu to the pan and began to cook it. Allison found herself unable to do anything but watch the process. Kate's attention then turned to a bag of lettuce which she measured out in a measuring cup before dumping into a bowl. Next came the bottle of dressing. She poured the dressing into a measuring spoon and looked at it for a moment before making a decision. "Not gonna happen tonight" she said under her breath before she tossed the spoon, dressing and all, into the sink before returning her attention to the stove. She stared at it before sighing and turning the stove off. She then dumped the half cooked rice and the tofu into the garbage and placed the pot and pan in the sink before turning around and seeing Allison standing there in the doorway. "Allie, I though you were…" she gestured towards the computer.

It was completely clear to Allison that she had just seen Kate completely give up on tonight's dinner. "Your computer is password protected. I was coming to ask you to unlock it, but you were cooking, and I was kind of mesmerized by your process. You do that every day?"

Kate ran a hand through her hair. "How long were you standing there?"

"Since the rice." She saw the look on Kate's face. It was obvious that she expected that sentence to be followed by a doctor's lecture filled with facts, statistics, recommendations, and other such content. "I'm not here for that. Are you ok?"

Kate walked to the couch and sat down. Allison followed. "It's just, there are some days where it's not quite as hard. Those days have become few and far between."

"Have you ever talked about this with Lisa?"

Kate looked at Allison and smirked. "What do you think? She does the whole mom thing. You know, she's supportive and all and she gives me a kick in the ass when I need it, she just doesn't do it in a mean way like my… like some other people. She does the whole doctor thing too." She saw Allison make a face that suggested that she thought that was a bad idea. "It's not what you're thinking. She doesn't treat me medically. Well, not usually. There was that time when I came over and she saw that I had an eye infection and she treated that for me, and there have been other small things like that, like the time I burned my arm at work pretty badly on a Saturday morning, you know, stuff like that. She helped me find a good general practitioner that specializes in treating patients with eating disorders, and she helped me find a psychiatrist and a nutritionist and stuff. Twice since I've known her I've had to go into treatment. Once inpatient, and once intensive outpatient day treatment. She helped me find that stuff to. Her connections are really helpful." Kate smiled.

Allison had an idea. "How about we go out? You know, get some dinner, maybe have some fun?" She saw Kate hesitate. "No pressure, no expectations. We can go someplace you like. Sometimes a distraction is helpful when you are trying to eat. Besides, I'd like to get to know you. You seem like a really cool person, and Lisa really thinks a lot of you. I'd like to get to see the person she knows." She watched as Kate contemplated her decision. "What do you say?"

Kate thought a minute and then smiled. "Ok, but I need a few minutes to change. I spent an hour sweating my ass off in these clothes at the studio so I'm pretty sure they're a little ripe."

Allison rolled her eyes. "Sounds good. I'll be right here."

Fifteen minutes later they were en route to a small place which specialized in homemade soups, salads, sandwiches, and wraps. Kate immediately fell in love with Allison's car. It was a newer model RAV-4, and according to Kate, it had all of the super cool "bells and whistles" that got her all excited.

When they reached the restaurant they went up to the counter and placed their orders before paying and waiting for their food to be ready. After receiving their dinners they found a table and sat down. That was followed by a few tense minutes of Kate simply staring at her wrap. Allison tried to think of a way to put the young woman more at ease. She had an idea. "How would you like to play the question game?" Kate looked at her quizzically. "It's a game where one of us asks a question and the other person has to answer it. Then, the person who asked the question has to answer her own question. This way, it's fair."

"Ok, I could go for that. You first."

Allison contemplated her first question for a second. She would start off with something easy. "Where did you grow up?"

Kate rolled her eyes. "Well, I was born in Wilmington, Delaware. When I was three I moved to a place just outside of Richmond, Virginia. At six, I moved to a place just outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. When I was thirteen, I moved to Luxembourg, that teeny country in Europe. Three years later I moved back to the town outside of Philadelphia. About eight years ago I moved here. Your turn."

Allison was surprised. "My history is nothing near as interesting as yours. I was born and raised just outside of Chicago. Your question."

Now it was Kate's turn to think. "If you could go back in a time machine and burn any article of clothing you've even worn, but not a costume, before you ever had a chance to put it on, what would it be?"

Allison smirked. "Just about anything I wore in middle school. The early 1990's were not the hippest era in fashion history."

"I would definitely have to say the dress my dad's wife made me wear to their wedding. That thing was the most hideous thing I've ever had to wear in my life. I'm not one to wear dresses to begin with, but this one was just awful. It was light blue and it was almost ankle length in the back but came to just about the knees in the front and it had this awful thing in the front that laced up, and to make it all worse, it was strapless. Now, you've probably noticed that for my size, my breasts are huge. In order for the dress to not fall down the top had to be tailored to be really tight. So there I was, standing there in the dress, and all you could see were my breasts spilling out over the top of the dress. It was horrible.

The two went back and forth while eating for a while. Allison came up with an interesting question. "What's the stupidest thing you've ever done?"

This was a tricky one for Kate. She knew, of course, the truly most stupid thing she had ever done, but did she want to share this with Allison? She decided that it wouldn't be so bad. I mean, it was just over ten years ago. Things had changed since then. "Ok, before I tell you, I'm going to warn you that it's really the stupidest thing I've ever done, and I have absolutely no intention whatsoever of ever doing anything like this again. I just want to reassure you of this. If anything were to ever change about that assurance I promise that I will come to somebody and get what help I need. Is that clear?" She studied Allison for a moment.

Allison felt like this was going to be something big. She nodded.

Kate continued. "When I was sixteen there were a lot of bad things that went on in my house. I'm not going to get into all of that right now. There was this one night that I remember, though. My mom was… I don't even remember what she was doing. All I knew was that I had to get out of the house. My dad agreed to take me to a friend's house. My mom absolutely forbade that. I told her if I couldn't leave than she had to. She refused. My parents ended up getting into a big fight and my dad went out for a few hours. I'm not sure where he went, probably just driving or something. That night I snuck downstairs and lifted a partially full bottle of acetaminophen from the cabinet. The next evening I was at school for an orchestra rehearsal and I snuck into the bathroom and took all of what was left. It was somewhere between thirty and forty extra strength pills. At the time, I felt like this was the absolute only way to get away. It was the only option to end what was happening. It wasn't one of those "I'm doing this for attention" kinds of things. I was completely serious. The next morning I was practically projectile vomiting. I hid it from my parents and my sister. I went to school. My first period teacher saw that I was sick. She asked me if I wanted to go to the nurse. I refused. I guess I passed out or something, probably from dehydration from the vomiting. I found out later she literally carried me to the nurse. They called my mom and told her I needed to go to the hospital even though they didn't know what was wrong. I remember during the entire ride there she kept asking me how I could do this to her. She kept saying she had things to do today and taking me to the hospital was taking away from them. I was in tears. Here I was, knowing that what I had done wasn't going to work and I was going to have to continue living with this woman. The hospital did a blood panel and they found out what was wrong. I spent the next week there, followed by thirty three days in a psychiatric hospital, followed by another six weeks in an eating disorder treatment facility. That's the stupidest thing I've ever done." She looked at Allison, trying to gauge her reaction.

Allison couldn't believe that Kate had trusted her enough to open up to her like that. It was pretty huge. She was actually really honored that Kate felt comfortable enough with her to tell her that. Finding her voice, she spoke. "Wow. I'm glad that you are still here with us." Lame, she thought. She felt a change of mood was in order, though, so she continued with her answer. "Let's see. The stupidest thing I've ever done. Well, there was this one patient we treated back when I was on House's team who had AIDS. One day I was treating him and he accidently coughed up blood into my mouth and my eyes. I had been exposed. The chances of me contracting HIV from that were negligible, but that's far greater than zero. I was scared and stressed." She decided to omit the part about the crystal meth, better not to bring that up for a few reasons. The first being that she really didn't want Lisa to find out. That would be something that could end her career, especially seeing as she had gotten it from the patient himself. Secondly, she worried that telling Kate, who appeared to be a rather impressionable person even though she seemed to have a good head on her shoulders, could possibly validate any sort of possible inclination to experiment she might have. "Well, I was upset. I ended up calling a doctor I worked with, Chase, over to my apartment, and I practically jumped him as soon as he walked in the door. That led to a couple of years of relationshipless sex followed by a rather relationshipless marriage. Admittedly not of the same caliber as your incident, but it wasn't the brightest thing I could have done."

The questions again bounced back and forth for a while. At some point, Allison came up with a more personal question. "Tell me about your first crush. I'm not talking about the person you might have liked in first grade, but your first REAL crush."

Suddenly Kate's heart sped up and her mouth went completely dry. She took a few gulps of her soda before she offered up a response. "Uh, you first," was all she could come up with. She prayed that by the time Allison was finished talking about her crush she would have some sort of acceptable answer to the question.

Allison pretended to be appalled. "Hey, that's not how the game is played!" She got a glare from Kate. "Ok, fine. His name was Brad Milligan. He was my seventh grade science partner. Your turn."

Kate sat in silence for a moment. That was entirely not enough time to formulate an answer. "I, um, I plead the fifth."

Allison looked at her. "You know, that has less to do with not wanting to tell me and more to do with not wanting to incriminate yourself."

"Oh, believe me, I know. That's why I'm pleading the fifth."

Allison studied Kate who was now blushing slightly. "Hmm. Well, whoever this person is, I know him?" Kate made a face. "Her?" Kate's expression was only slightly changed. "I'm going to figure this out eventually, you know. Just give me some time." Kate pleaded with whatever God or Gods existed that Allison would NEVER find out who her crush was…

Kate looked at her watch and noticed that it was now almost nine thirty. "We should go back to my apartment and work on your music."

"You're trying to change the subject," Allison observed.

"Was I effective?" Allison made a face but got up from the table with Kate.

Half an hour later they were sitting on Kate's couch in front of her computer. They had already compiled a playlist of several songs which included Lady, It's About That Walk, and Stuck (Thunderpuss version) among others. Allison looked at the library list again. "What about this one?" She played You Drive Me Crazy (Remix).

Kate laughed hard. "Lisa's gonna laugh your ass out of the room if you pick that one!"

Allison looked at Kate, surprised. "I never said this had anything to do with her."

Kate lifted an eyebrow. "Allie, come on. I see what you're picking. I may not be the brightest bulb on the tree so to speak, but I'm not a complete moron."

Allison had to concede that point. "You're right. But I still want to use that song."

Kate chuckled. "Hey, it's your seduction plan!" She ducked as Allison went to smack her with a throw pillow.

The next song Allison picked was the Michael Buble version of Save the Last Dance for Me. She hit play and Kate cringed. "Not a good one?"

It took Kate a moment to gather her thoughts. "Sure, it's a great song. It's just that we danced to it a long time ago for jazz. It was my first year in the adult classes. It was the single hardest dance I've ever had to get through in my life."

Allison was surprised. "That bad?"

"Well, no. The choreography itself wasn't bad. It's just that there was this one part. We were all in a diagonal line facing the back of the person in front of us, and Josh was facing the front person. We were essentially supposed to all be dancing with him in a way. Anyhows, Lisa was standing behind me in the line. Anybody else and I would have been fine. Seriously. It's just I was so wigged out. I mean, I was scared to death of her. I was so afraid I would step on her foot or smack her with an elbow or something. When I looked at her I saw the most perfect person in the world. She was the best dancer I had ever seen outside of a professional company and she seemed to just have all of her shit under complete control in her life and she was by far the most beautiful woman I had ever seen in my life. I avoided being in conversations that she was part of because I couldn't manage to form a coherent thought around her. It took me months to work up the courage just to ask her about something medical."

At that second Allison leapt to her feet and pointed to Kate. "Oh my God! You pled the fifth!" Kate turned beet red. Not just her face, either, but it extended to her ears and probably her entire head if you could have seen it through her hair. "You… it was… she…"

Kate cut her off. "It was not!"

Allison wouldn't let this go. "You're lying."

Kate started to stammer a little. "It's not like that. I mean, it was, but only until I actually sat down and had an actual conversation with her. Everything changed after that day. Trust me; I'm not your competition. I love her, yes, but it's not like that. It was like that for such a brief period at one time and it was completely one sided. It hasn't been like that for years. I love her in a different way. I never really "loved" her in that way at all. It was just a crush. I swear."

Allison sat back down. "I know. She does seem to have that effect on people, doesn't she?"

Kate nodded. "Allie? Promise you won't tell her? I can't imagine what she would think if she ever found out. I mean, seriously? I really, really, don't want her to ever know…"

"Your secret's safe with me," she said before adding that song to the list. Not long after they burned the playlist onto a CD. "Thanks for your help, Kate."

Kate smiled. "You're welcome. I hope it goes well tomorrow." She walked Allison to the door. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow night then?"

"Yup. Have a good night, Kate." She turned to the dog. "You too, Simon!"

After Allison left Kate and Simon got tucked into bed, and, still embarrassed, Kate flew off to dreamland.

PPTHPPTHPPTH

Tuesday morning had Allison humming the song Save the Last Dance for Me over and over again. For some reason after last night the song was permanently imprinted in her brain and it was driving her crazy. She was standing next to the desk in the ER filling out discharge papers for one of her patients as she heard the song play once again in her head.

"I know that song." Allison, startled, turned around to see Lisa standing behind her. She blushed.

"Yeah, I know. Kate told me you guys danced to it a long time ago. It's kinda stuck in my head right now."

Lisa was curious. "When did you talk to Kate?"

"Last night. We had dinner together." Immediately Lisa was feeling a myriad of emotions. Hurt, betrayal, loss, and others she couldn't yet name. Allison saw the look on Lisa's face and realized she had to clarify. "It's not like that. I was at her apartment…" Now Lisa's mind was racing. Sure, Allison was much closer in age to Kate, but still. She thought there was something there. Apparently there wasn't. All these hours Lisa had spent thinking about the situation and the whole time it was Kate that Allison wanted to be friends (or more) with, not her. Allison saw the new look of confusion join the other emotions playing across Lisa's face. Just shut up, Allison, she thought. You're just digging this hole deeper and deeper. Say something already that will help instead of just make her feel worse. "I needed her help with something music related. I went over to her apartment to use her music library. She was trying to cook dinner and she got frustrated and just threw the whole thing into the trash. I suggested we go out and get something to eat and just have some fun and maybe that would make things easier for her." She hoped beyond hope that this would satisfy Lisa's emotions.

Immediately the other woman seemed to visibly calm down. "Oh. That was… really thoughtful of you." She started smiling. "Did she eat?"

Allison looked at her seriously. "Lisa, I know you are concerned, but I'm not going to report back to you on what she does or does not ingest. It's not my place. If you want to know, you should ask her directly. You know that."

Lisa knew she was right. "You're right," she said aloud for Allison's benefit. "Thank you for being a friend to her. It really means a lot to me." She thought for a second. "Was she able to help you with your musical problem?"

"You're welcome. She's a friend to me, and I hope she sees me as a friend as well. And yes, she was able to help me with what I needed."

Lisa didn't want to leave Allison's presence, but she knew she had to get some work done. "Well, I guess I'll, ah, see you tonight?"

Allison smiled. "You can count on it."

PPTHPPTHPPTH

Lisa surveyed the outer room of the studio as she walked through the door. Kate and Allison were in conversation about something. She noted that Allison looked uncharacteristically nervous about whatever was being discussed. Tara was sitting by herself in the corner typing away on her laptop, something she usually did before class. The woman was new to the classes this year and generally kept to herself. Lisa thought briefly that it would be nice if she could allow herself to open up a little and "join the party" so to speak when everyone was joking around. She was obviously a private person. As far as Lisa knew, nobody knew what she did for a living or anything like that. The only things Lisa knew about her was that she was about the same age as she was, and she was pretty sure that the woman was in the closet. So far into the closet, she mused, that she probably didn't even know where the damn door was. Josh was laughing loudly at something Michele had said to him before Lisa had walked in. She couldn't suppress a slight cringe at the sight of Brooke talking to Mary at the desk. That woman truly pissed her off, and not just her, but almost everybody in the class. The only person who could stand her was Michele. She decided to take the empty seat next to Allison.

As soon as she sat down the pair's previous conversation ended and Allison's demeanor immediately changed to warm and friendly. She had been about to say something when the attention of the entire room was diverted towards the door. Standing on the other side of the glass door was Toni, who was wearing the most hideous pink and orange hat anyone had ever seen. That wasn't the odd part though; she was carrying a salad spinner. "A salad spinner? To the dance studio? That's strange even for her," Lisa commented. Just then Toni managed to get the door open and walked through. She got about a foot into the room when she tripped over the floor mat by the door. She managed to recover her footing without falling, but the salad spinner went flying. When it hit the floor, the lid popped off and dozens of pieces of leftover Halloween candy spilled out.

"Bummer," Toni commented, looking at the floor. The event seemed so out of place for the setting that most of the room were smiling or chuckling. Kate, however, always amused by someone acting like herself, was practically laughing in fits. The occupants of the room, including Kate, walked over to help Toni pick up the candies. Allison noted that Lisa was laughing a deep throaty laugh. This was perhaps the first time she had ever witnessed Lisa laughing like this. She was stunned to say the least, but she loved it. She was instantly addicted to this laugh. She knew she had to hear it again and again forever. She was soon brought back to reality though.

Kate was curious. "Toni, I've got to know. Of all of the things you could have put the candy in, why a salad spinner?"

Toni looked up, the candy now back in the spinner. "It had a lid."

Now it was Brooke's turn to chime in. "Which clearly worked."

Offended, Toni tried to defend herself. "Hey, it seemed like a good idea at the time."

Reminded of a favourite quote of hers Kate spoke next. "The road to hell is paved not with good intentions, but with things that seemed like a good idea at the time."

"Wow, that was actually rather profound, Kate," Allison said.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kate asked with mock offense of her own. "I can say something deep now and then you know."

Allison paled. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean it like that."

Kate smiled while she blushed. "It's ok. It's actually a paraphrased line from one of my favourite BBC period dramas from the 1990's. I didn't come up with it on my own." With this several of the people in the room rolled their eyes and laughed.

By this time the candy bowl had circulated most of the way around the room. When Toni reached Allison she declined. "That's probably not a good idea. I was at 186 an hour ago and I didn't do anything because I didn't want to crash while I was here. More sugar is not what I need right now." Lisa looked at her and blinked for a second. This was new information.

Toni gave a knowing smile. "It's sugar free. It's all I can handle too." After this sentence was completed half the room watched as Tara pulled a tissue out of her bag and spit the candy which she had previously been enjoying out. "Guess the power of knowledge ruins things for some people…"

Finally, the door to the studio opened and the ballet students filed out. "Hey, ladies, Josh! Come on in!"

As the group filed into the studio they made an observation. The room was hot and humid and quite frankly, it stank. Brooke was the first one to voice her opinion. "God, it smells like a freaking men's locker room in here."

Lisa raised an eyebrow. "Do I want to know why you know what a men's locker room smells like?"

"Use your imagination," Brooke shot back. "Oh, I forgot. Your imagination can't fathom that. You can only think about the things you could do in a women's locker room. Why don't you ask him about it," she said, gesturing to Josh. "At least he's actually seen a penis."

Lisa scowled and continued across the room with some of the others.

"That was unnecessary," Allison commented to Lisa.

"Yes it was. That's Brooke for you. I'm surprised you haven't noticed one of her outbursts before." The pair started to put their tap shoes on.

"Is she homophobic or something?"

Lisa looked at her. "No, she's just rude. She really couldn't care one way or another as long as she's making life miserable for others around her. I figure it makes her feel better about her own miserable life or something." With that the duo made their way onto the floor and Beth began class.

The tap class flew by without any other unusual events. It was finally time for the jazz class. Allison nervously walked up to Beth with the CD that Kate had burned for her the previous night. "Beth?" she started rather timidly.

Beth turned around. "Allie, what's up?"

Allison started to fidget with the disc. "." She wasn't even sure that the jumble of words that had just spilled out of her mouth actually formed a coherent sentence.

Beth looked at her quizzically for a split second and then her expression softened. "Of course, honey. You don't need to be all tense and nervous, it's just music."

Allison knew, of course, that it wasn't just music in this case. At least, she hoped that Lisa would be able to see that it wasn't just random songs but rather songs that had a purpose. "Thanks, Beth. I'm sure I'll loosen up a little once I start to stretch. I guess I had a more stressful day than I originally thought." She made her way to a spot on the floor next to Lisa and turned to her. "I have something to say to you," she said before walking a few feet away to begin stretching.

Allison tried to watch Lisa closely throughout the warm up exercises to see if she understood what she was hoping she would. It was thoroughly unclear whether or not her plan was working.

During the third song that played, Lisa noticed that there was something odd going on. No matter which way she was facing she could feel Allison's gaze boring holes into her. She also noticed the music choices. They were all songs that could be construed as songs to get her attention. Add that to the mysterious sentence Allison had said to her right before they began class and it occurred to her that this might just be the sign she was waiting for. This might just be Allison trying to tell her something. She purposefully kept her expression as neutral as possible as she danced, all the while trying to think up something that she could do in order to give a sign back that she had understood and she was receptive to what she was trying to tell her. She didn't want to make a huge gesture, but she needed to do something.

It was nearing the end of class and Lisa was still thinking about what to do when an idea struck her. Well, more accurately, a song stuck her. This song led to an idea. She had a plan. She made sure she was the last one to finish putting her sneakers and jacket on so she could talk to Beth after everyone else had left. "Beth, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind if I choreographed for next week. I have an idea that I would like to try."

"There seem to be a lot of you guys with ideas today," she observed. "That would be great, it will give me a break. Did you want to do tap or jazz?"

Lisa paused. "I, well, I really hadn't gotten that far yet. I really just had a song I wanted to use."

Beth was interested. "Which song?"

"Mercy, by Duffy. I really like that song."

"I think that song would be better suited for jazz in my opinion."

Lisa agreed. "I think you're right. Jazz it is, then."

"Sounds like a plan! I'll see you next week, Lisa."

"Bye," Lisa shouted over her shoulder and she practically skipped out of the room.

PPTHPPTHPPT

Lisa was late, stressed out, nervous, and generally not ready for what she was going to do tonight as she entered the outer room of the dance studio. She was, however, relieved that Beth had not yet started the class. She entered the open door to the studio itself and everyone fell silent and stared at her. What a comical sight she must have been to them. With the exception of Allison and Kate, only about half of the class had ever seen her in her work attire, and even then, the last time had been about a year and a half ago. She was standing there, just inside the door, wearing a tight black pencil skirt accompanied by a matching suit jacket and a red low cut blouse all topped off with a pair of five inch heels. Hanging from her left shoulder was her dance bag. In her left hand she had her cell phone glued to her ear. Hanging from her right shoulder was her purse, tucked under her right arm were her balled up dance clothes, and in her right hand was a half eaten sandwich.

She finished listening to the latest voicemail and pressed the button to end the call. Taking a large bite of the sandwich she was relieved when Kate came over and started taking items from her. "Arfie ahn gate," she said while chewing.

"She's sorry she's late," Kate translated.

Beth regained her ability to speak. "Take your time. You're here now. You can leave work at work for the next two hours. Rushing is not part of the fun here."

Lisa smiled before picking up her change of clothes. "Thanks. I'll be back in a few minutes." She took another bite out of her sandwich and handed the rest to Kate. "Ee at," she said to Kate.

Kate gave her a skeptical look. "No, thanks, I'm fine. I'm sure you'll want it between classes anyhows." She took a tissue out of the box on top of the sound system shelf and placed the sandwich on it for later.

Toni looked around. "It always freaks me out a little when I see Lisa looking all professional. It's kinda scary."

Allison turned to her. "You have no idea how scary Dr. Cuddy can be…" Kate concurred.

Lisa returned to the room after the flap warm up in time for the shuffles looking much the way she usually did upon arrival to the studio. Her hair was up in a fun yet messy style, she was wearing a tank top with a humorous picture of a talking coffee bean, and she had on a pair of black dance pants along with her tap shoes. She spotted her sandwich and snuck another bite (which was no surprise to Kate) before taking up her usual position in the room and joining in with the class.

At the end of the hour she was feeling much less stressed and actually starting to feel confident about what she had planned or jazz. As she was finishing up the last bite of her sandwich Beth came over to her. "Lisa, did you want to lead the warm up as well or just do the combination?"

Lisa considered for a moment. "I guess I could do the whole class. That's fine. Let me just search for some good music for the warm ups."

"OOH! Great! It's been a very long time since I've taken a class I haven't taught in an actual dance studio. For years I've only been to the workshops that are done at competitions. This will be fun." Beth seemed giddy at the thought.

Lisa walked over to the other side of the room and retrieved her iPod from her purse as well as the ear buds so she didn't have to distract the entire room as she chose some songs. She listened as she thumbed through her library for a minute. Finally something caught her ear. She started to just barely dance in place listening. This would be perfect. She had a random selection of music from The Black Eyed Peas, starting with the single, Dirty Bit, which was going to be the opening track to their latest album due out at the end of the month.

The students finally settled down and took their usual places around the room. While they were never assigned spots, everyone seemed to find a place in the beginning of the year that they just felt was their own and they seemed to stick to it. Allison and Kate were surprised to find that instead of Lisa standing between them they found Beth. They noticed Beth's usual spot, front and center, still empty and Lisa was standing by the sound system still fiddling with her iPod. Allison shot Kate a silent, "What's going on?" glance. Kate just shrugged and shook her head in a, "Damned if I know," fashion.

The warm up Lisa did was similar to Beth's but not exactly the same. Half the room was cussing at her under their breath because she had a tendency to try to stretch you harder. The final straw for Brooke was when Lisa decided that after doing the hamstring stretch on their backs they were going to flip over into full splits.

"My God. You really are a cruel bitch, y'know that?"

"Look, if you think calling me a bitch is going to upset me, you have no idea who you're dealing with. I get called that at least twice a day at the hospital. I can take any kind of lip you can give me." Lisa surveyed the room. About a third of the class, Kate and herself included, were completely lowered into a full right split. The rest of the class, minus Brooke, were stretching as well as they could. "I don't see anyone else complaining, they're just trying their best, which is all I expected anyone to do, Bitch."

Beth chose now to intervene. "Lisa, please. Can we move on now?"

"I'm sorry," she said sarcastically. "It just popped out before I could control myself." The rest of the class silently snickered. At this point Lisa led the class in doing the hamstring stretch on the left followed by the left split. This time Brooke held her tongue. Following this were the push ups and the planks.

After the warm up, Lisa was fully prepared for, and psyched about her combination. Lisa and Allison and a few others had exited the room to get water from the fountain or take care of other things that needed to be done such as checking voicemails. That was when a beeping noise started from the side of the room where about half of the class stored their bags while they were dancing.

Michele walked over to the bags. "I think Lisa's beeping."

"That's not Lisa. She stopped carrying a beeper like two years ago or something. It must be Allie," Kate replied. She walked out of the room and spotted Allison talking to Lisa. "Allie, I think someone's trying to get in touch with you. Your bag's beeping."

Lisa's stomach suddenly got lodged in her throat. This can't be happening. She had this planned out so well. Allison can't leave right now. Maybe they just need a consult. That wouldn't be so bad. She wouldn't have to leave. She was sure, though, that that would be too simple. She followed Allison into the room, devastated.

Allison listened. "That's not me," she said before opening the door and exiting the room to the outer room. "Does anybody out here have a beeper? Somebody's bag is beeping and it's not me."

Suddenly Tara started running full speed at the door before shoving it open without slowing. Stunned, the rest of the dancers outside followed her in. She continued to fun full speed before quite literally skidding to a halt next to her bag and pulling out the dreaded device.

Toni made an observation. "You really do know how to make an entrance, don't you."

"It's a gift," she said before reading the message. Then she simply lost it. She started pulling her shoes off and throwing them into her bag. "Two hours a week! Just two freaking hours a week, that's all I ask for." By this time she had slipped her shoes and jacket on and was making her way across the floor. "Sure, delivering babies is great until you wake up one morning and realize you haven't had a life of your own in twenty years!" She took the final steps to the door and flung it open. "I haven't gotten laid in a year, people!" She exited the room and the door shut on a group of very stunned dancers.

Toni made another observation. "She's pretty good at making an exit, too."

"Anything I might have to say just seems that much more insignificant following that," added Beth to the still stunned room.

Allison leaned in to Lisa. "She doesn't work for you, does she?"

Lisa raised an eyebrow. "Nope, and I think I'd like to keep it that way."

Beth decided that it was time to resume class. "Lisa, care to continue?"

"Sure." She turned to Allison and leaned closer to her. "I have something to say to you," was all she said before walking away to the front of the room.

After teaching about half of the combination she had choreographed she decided it was time to add some music. This was the moment of truth. If Allison was listening, she would hear what Lisa had to say. She turned on the song. They did the combination once and she saw no connection for Allison about the music. After the second time she still didn't see anything. At this point she polled the room. "Would you like to go on or should we do it again?" The consensus was to do it one more time and then go on. The third time Lisa was dancing, but at the same time staring intently at Allison in the mirror. All of a sudden she saw a dawning of realization appear on Allison's face. The look turned into a huge smile. This had Lisa so distracted she completely forgot she had been dancing and just stood there until she noticed that the part she had taught was finished. Mission accomplished, she thought. She turned around to survey the room before continuing with the rest of the choreography when she saw the look on Kate's face. It was clear that she knew that this was all for Allison.

Class was over all too soon. Lisa sat down on the window ledge next to Kate and started to change her footwear. She was suddenly feeling like a shy teenager. She couldn't believe what a bold gesture she had just made. This was not something she usually did. As in charge as she is professionally, she knew she tended to take a back seat in her personal life. She felt a hand on the back of her shoulder. Her first thought was that it was Allison but quickly dismissed the thought as she saw her about ten feet away. She turned her head and saw Kate's concerned expression.

"Lise, are you ok?"

Lisa managed a tentative half smile. "Yeah, I'm fine. I just feel… I really don't know what I feel. I'm happy, excited, nervous… in shock even. I'm shocked that I did what I did tonight. What if we try this and it doesn't work. I don't know if I can deal with another break up right now. What if-"

Kate silenced her. "Lisa, nobody knows how a relationship is going to turn out. You haven't even been on a date yet. Sure, you've known Allie for years, but this is different. Just go for it. Be yourself. Oh, and you don't need to worry about one thing: she's already seen the scary as hell side of you that you use at work and she is still interested in you. It'll either work out or it won't, but you will never know until you give this a chance." Kate smiled reassuringly.

Lisa smirked. "I can't believe I'm taking relationship advice from 'Ms. Never Had A Relationship'. But you're right. Ready to go?"

"Seriously? You just answered her very public statement with a very public statement and you're just going to leave? You guys need to talk, or something!" Kate was almost scolding her.

Lisa's brow wrinkled. "I honestly don't know if I could produce a coherent sentence in her presence right now. It's probably best if I just talk with her tomorrow. I know where she works."

Kate made a face. "Chicken."

"Klutz" Lisa retorted. "C'mon. Let's go." Just then she caught Allison looking at her. She smiled a shy smile which was met with a large one.

Allison followed them out the door and down the stairs from a short distance. She watched Lisa give Kate a quick hug before they parted ways in the parking lot as she got into her own car. Kate drove away, but Lisa was searching for something in her bag, probably her keys. After a moment she unlocked the car and that was when Allison made a quick decision. She got out of her car and walked over to Lisa who had her back turned as she threw her bags into the back seat. Allison placed a warm hand on Lisa's hip. Startled, she turned around. Before she could say anything Allison backed her up against the side of the car and pressed her own lips to Lisa's. The kiss quickly deepened.

Upstairs, Beth checked that the lights were off in both studios as well as the outer room before locking up the main door and descending the stairs and exiting. On the way to her car something caught her eye. She looked over and saw Lisa and Allison in the midst of what appeared to be an intense make out session, oblivious to the outside world. "Well damn," she said in surprise. She had known for years that Lisa dated women. She had never really been completely sure if she was a lesbian or bisexual, but she was pretty sure at this point that it was the former, not that it really mattered to her. She thought back. The event happened about twelve years prior. She had known Lisa for a little over two years. She and her husband had finally decided to get a babysitter for their young daughter and spend an evening together just themselves. They went to a small Italian restaurant nearby. After they had been seated she noticed Lisa and another woman at a table near the other side of the restaurant. It was obviously a date rather than a dinner between two friends. Allison, on the other hand, was a complete surprise to her. "You go ladies." Smiling, she got in her car and left.

Finally becoming desperate for air the two broke apart and stared into each other's eyes. Even in the darkness it felt possible to see into the soul of the other. Surprising herself, Lisa was the first one to find her voice. "I'm glad you got Kate to help you with the music. You picked good songs mostly, but Brittney Spears? Have you no dignity?"

Allison chuckled. "It got your attention, didn't it?"

Lisa smiled before feeling bold yet again. "Would you like to come over? I could make us some dinner. We could talk, or, maybe, do some more of what we were just doing." Suddenly aware of the public setting they were standing in she added, "In a more private setting."

Allison smiled. "I'd love that. I'll be right behind you." She placed a hand on Lisa's cheek and gave her a chaste kiss before walking back to her own car. During the entire ride back to Lisa's house she couldn't wipe the silly grin off of her face. The memory of the feeling of Lisa's lips pressed against her own was almost surreal.

Not too long later Allison was watching closely as Lisa was cooking a late dinner. She couldn't help herself from walking over and wrapping her arms around the other woman's waste as she cooked. "What are you making?" she asked.

Lisa turned her head around and gave Allison a quick kiss. "Just some pasta. I thought a nice garlic and oil sauce would be ok for tonight. It doesn't take as long as a tomato based one. Do you like your food a little spicy?"

Allison smiled. "Spicy is good."

Lisa grinned back. "I'll add some red pepper flakes then… and I was intending to add some sliced mushrooms?"

"Mmm. Sounds great."

They sat across from each other as they ate, both looking at the woman across the table. Conversation didn't revolve around anything of much significance and they both felt quite relaxed. Suddenly Allison got nervous. "Lisa, I don't, I, really, I'm not sure if I'm ready for… anything… more than what we've been doing. I mean… like… sex, or anything. This is all really new to me."

Lisa just looked at her over a forkful of pasta. She put the fork down. "Allison, nobody said anything about that. There is no pressure here. Sometime, if there is a time, when we both feel ready, it might happen. I'm not expecting anything tonight, or even tomorrow, or any time soon. When we are both ready, if what we have goes that way, it will happen when it's time."

This satisfied Allison's nerves. The conversation again turned light. When they were finished eating they cleaned up and moved to the living room. They found themselves at a loss for something to do. Neither one wanted to end the evening just yet, but thinking about an activity seemed difficult for some reason. "We could watch a movie," Lisa suggested.

Relieved that the awkwardness was over for the time being, Allison agreed. They both stood in front of the shelf looking. "I'm in the mood for a comedy, how 'bout you?"

Just then Lisa spotted a good one to watch. "Have you ever seen this?" Lisa held up Meet the Fockers. "In my opinion it's better than the first one."

Allison looked at the DVD case. "I don't know if I have. I'm pretty sure I saw the first one, though. It looks good." She handed the DVD back to Lisa who got the movie set up to play.

The two were simply enjoying being in each other's company. She wasn't sure when it started, but at one point Allison became aware of the fact that she had a bad headache. This caused her to evaluate how she was feeling otherwise and she could tell that her sugar was getting pretty high. In all of the excitement of the evening she had completely neglected to take care of herself. "Lisa? Can we pause this for a minute?"

"Sure," she said as she pressed the button to stop the movie.

Allison got up and started to walk towards her bag by the door. "I'll be back in a few minutes." After retrieving what she needed from her bag she walked back through the room and towards the bathroom down the hall.

When she sat back down on the couch Lisa turned to her. "That's not going to scare me, you know. I'm an endocrinologist in case you've forgotten. Believe it or not, I've actually taught people how to measure glucose and inject insulin."

Allison wasn't sure how to respond. "Oh," was all she came up with initially. "It's just I'm not much for showing off my dirty laundry on the first date…" Both women shared a laugh before returning to the movie.

At her apartment, Kate was finally relaxing. She had gotten home and taken care of Simon. After enjoying a hot shower, she put on her favourite winter pajamas. It was November, finally, and she could make a case for wearing her fleece pajamas with feet. The pair she liked the most was dark blue and it had brightly coloured rocket ships on it. She was standing in the kitchen peeling a grapefruit for dinner when it occurred to her that she had not brought in her dance bag. It was no secret that she had what some would refer to as a foot odor problem, so she always liked to air out her dance shoes after sweating in them during class. She quickly ran out to her car and retrieved the bag. It was only when she reached the light of her living room that she saw that it wasn't actually her bag. True, she and Lisa had the same black bag. So did a couple of others in the class. Normally this wouldn't have been much of an issue, but…

"No, no, no, no, no. Not good. Not good." It wasn't the bag itself, it wasn't even the stinky shoes, it was the OTHER thing in the bag. The thing that Lisa could not, under any circumstances, find. Surely by now she had found it. Kate's heart started racing. She had to get her bag back before Lisa found it. Without bothering to put shoes or a jacket on, Kate grabbed her keys and drove to Lisa's house. The single thought in her mind was that she needed desperately to intercept the bag before Lisa looked in it.

She parked her car on the street in front of the house and nearly ran up to the front door. She could have simply let herself in, but she only did that when Lisa was either expecting her or not home. Neither of those situations applied, so she knocked on the door a few times.

The knock at the front door startled the women on the couch. Lisa got up to see who was at her door. She barely had the door open when Kate launched herself through the threshold. She quickly started pacing back and forth down the front hallway while talking in one long run on sentence. "I took your bag by accident and you have mine and I need to have mine back because you can't look inside it because if you do you will find it and that would be very, very bad and I can't let that happen because-"

By this point Allison had become curious about what was going on and joined Lisa in the front hall. "Kate!" Lisa practically shouted. Kate continued pacing and talking. Lisa walked up behind her and grabbed her shoulders to stop the forward motion. She turned Kate around and looked at her. What she saw in the young woman's eyes was pure terror. "Kate, what am I going to find?" she asked in a more gentle tone.

Kate made a move to start pacing again. "Saturday was the last time. I promise I won't do it again. I promise. Just Saturday. Saturday, Saturday, Saturday…"

"What's she talking about?" Allison asked.

"I really have no idea." Lisa looked down at the floor where her own (or rather Kate's) bag was. She was torn. It wasn't her bag and she really had no good reason to go searching through Kate's things except that clearly there was something going on here that Kate needed help resolving. Kate started pacing her way through the living room having gotten tired of the front hall. Lisa made a decision to find out what she was hiding. She opened the bag and looked for a few seconds before finding a small plastic bag containing four little pills. She pulled the bag out and showed it to Allison. "Please tell me that's not what I think it is."

Allison looked at it. "I wish I could. Without testing it I can't say for certain, but I'm thinking… Do you think she's high right now? I mean, she's obviously nervous, she's pacing a hole into your carpeting, she's talking incessantly to herself… Damn. I might have been able to prevent this."

Lisa knew one thing for sure right now. "I am pretty sure she's not high right now. When I looked at her, I looked in her eyes. She was scared to death, but nothing about her pupils seemed abnormal, although I have to say I wasn't looking for that at the time. She keeps talking about Saturday and said she wouldn't do it again. If she isn't going to lie about using, why would she lie about when she was using? I think this is psychological not drug induced."

Kate came pacing back into the hall and saw Lisa standing there with Allison who now held the drugs. For a moment Kate simply froze and stared. The next second found her running through to the dining room and curling up over her legs underneath the table. She was rocking back and forth while holding the back of her head with her hands. She was crying and again talking to herself.

Lisa looked at Allison, who's gaze oscillated between Kate under the table and Lisa next to her. She shook her head. "Um, hm. Has this ever happened before?"

Lisa brought her palm to her forehead. "Not ever in my presence."

Slowly, Lisa made her way towards the table and crouched down on the floor. "Kate?" she said softly. She got no response so she reached a hand out to touch her shoulder.

Kate jerked her shoulder away and started screaming. "No! No! Don't touch me! Don't hurt me! I'll be good!" Kate lifted her head just enough that Lisa was able to see her face and more importantly, the look in her eyes. In the back of her thoughts she confirmed that her pupils were indeed normal, but that wasn't what she noticed the most. It was the look.

She stood up and walked back to Allison. "This is really bad. That look in her eyes. I've seen that look before. I saw it the one time I met her mother. I also see it when she remembers something that happened that has to do with her mother." She took a deep breath. "I think that right now when she sees me, she isn't seeing me. I think when she looks at me she sees her mother."

"Let me try to help her," Allison offered. "It might be different. She sees you as a mother figure. Hopefully she'll recognize me as me."

She got down on the floor by the table and was about to say something when Kate's head came up again. "Get out of here, Car! Leave me alone! This isn't any of your business!" Kate shouted before kicking out with her leg. Allison narrowly escaped a kick to her ribs before standing up.

"Who's Car?" she asked Lisa.

"Carrie's her sister."

"I guess my idea didn't work. What are we going to do?"

Lisa had been thinking about another idea. "We need to call her psychiatrist. I don't think I can handle this by myself. I don't think this is something that she's likely to just sleep off without help. I need to know what to do. I don't know her phone number. My computer is in the other room, could you look it up for me? Her name is Mercedes Francis."

Lisa was again down on the floor trying to see if there was any way to get to Kate. A little while later Allison came back into the dining room. "I called her office and got the answering service. I gave them your cell number and they said she would call you back." She looked at Lisa on the floor. "Any change?"

Lisa looked up at her. "No. I'm not going to try to get any closer to her just yet, though."

After nearly five full minutes of feeling helpless, Lisa's phone rang. "Cuddy," she said after bringing it to her ear.

"Dr. Cuddy, this is Mercedes Francis. I got a message that you needed to speak with me."

"Yes, thank you for returning my call so quickly. Kate Kramer is here at my house and she's having a big problem. She came over in a panic over something she was worried I would find. When I did find it, she ran and is hiding underneath a table. She's talking to herself and crying and shaking. Neither me nor my friend could get near her. She called my friend Carrie, and when she looks at me it's like she's seeing her mother. I don't know what to do to help her."

"How long has she been like this?"

"She's been under the table for about twenty minutes."

"Has she calmed down at all since then?"

"No."

"This has happened a couple of times over the years. When she is able to calm down by herself it happens sooner than this. When she isn't… There was one instance where I had to intervene pharmaceutically."

"You want me to drug her?"

"I know it sounds extreme, but it really is better for her than letting her spend what could be hours in this state. I assume you have access to Haldol?"

"Yeah, of course I have access to it, but I don't have any here at my house."

"I can call in a prescription for it for her. Is there someplace that's good for you?"

"I guess the best place, especially this time of night, is my hospital, but it will be at least half an hour before we can get it in her."

"I'll call it in and you can pick it up for her. If she calms down by then you don't need to give it, but if she hasn't, it's really the best thing to do for her in the immediate sense. I'll talk to her at her appointment Thursday. I wish I could fit her in tomorrow, but I'm actually going to be out of the office. Call me back if you have any questions or any other problems."

"Thank you for your help. You'll hear from me if we need anything."

Lisa ended the call and knelt down next to Allison. "I need to run over to the hospital. Her doctor said that chances are at this point the only way to get her to calm down is to give her some Haldol. I'm not fond of the idea, but I'm not a psychiatrist. She's calling it in to the pharmacy."

The two doctors stood up. "Lisa, let me go. You stay here with her. If she does calm down, seeing you here will probably be more comforting. I know I'm a friend, but your relationship is much more than that."

Lisa saw the logic in what Allison had said. "Alright. Thank you."

Half an hour later Allison returned to the house with the medication. She walked into the dining room and the scene was more or less unchanged. Lisa was sitting on the floor a few feet away from where Kate was folded up under the table. She had stopped talking to herself but she was still shaking and crying. "Ok, so, I have the meds, but how are we going to get them into her?"

Lisa thought about this for a few moments. "Well, a large muscle would be my first choice, but seeing as she is covered from her neck to her toes in fleece that will be difficult. I'm guessing she won't just roll up a sleeve and give us access to her arm?" She got a sarcastic glance from Allison. "I have an idea. I'll try to keep her attention on one side of the table and you try to get access from her other side. That might just work."

Allison nodded. "Ok. Sounds like a plan."

Lisa made her way around to the other side of the table and got back down onto the floor. Quietly, she started to sing a melody unfamiliar to Allison, who got down on the floor on the other side of Kate. When both women felt Kate's attention had been diverted sufficiently, Allison grabbed her arm. Kate immediately started struggling against her grip and resumed her stream of chatter. As if on instinct, Lisa threw herself on top of Kate to hold her still and pulled her arm away from the rest of her body. "Now," she instructed. Not being able to see the arm through the sleeve, Allison quickly felt for where she would inject the medication before she administered it. As soon as this was done they both backed away and waited for it to take effect.

Allison sighed. "Wow. That was… Are all of our dates going to go like this?"

Lisa ran a hand through her hair. "Nah. She didn't know you were here. If she did, she wouldn't have come. Well, maybe in this instance she would have anyway. She rarely came over when Tess was home."

Allison looked at Kate and then back at Lisa. "You don't think that might have more to do with the fact that she didn't like Tess than it does with her intruding on your personal time, do you?"

"You know? I never really thought about it that way…"

Allison looked back down at Kate who was now sedated. "What do we do now?"

"I'll move her to the other room. I'm worried that if I put her on the couch she'll fall off and get hurt during the night. I'll get some blankets and a pillow and get her tucked in on the floor. I've found her sleeping on the floor on more than one occasion over the years so I doubt she'll mind it." She went to the bedroom and pulled some items from the closet before making a makeshift sleeping bag on the floor of the living room. Then, with Allison's help, she maneuvered Kate out from under the table and picked her up without any difficulty. She saw Allison look at her. "I'm stronger than I look, and she's not heavy." She walked to the other room and put her down on the blankets. "I guess she'll be here for a while. I should go get Simon."

"I'll stay if you want and make sure she's ok," Allison offered.

"Thanks. That would be really helpful."

Allison sat down on the couch. "Oh, don't forget to feed and water her rodent!" she called out as Lisa walked to the door. All she got in response was a smirk as the other woman left.

A little while later Kate was finally situated and sleeping on the floor next to the couch and Simon had curled up next to her. Allison had an observation to state. "Lisa? I don't mean to suggest anything, but I just have this feeling. Kate showed up at your house, late at night, in a complete panic, dressed in pajamas with feet with little space ships on them. She then ended up having what could be considered a psychotic episode under your dining room table and didn't see us for who we really are. This is, obviously, not normal behavior. I'm thinking she may have suffered some sort of trauma when she was younger.

Lisa just looked at her. "Really? You think?" she deadpanned. She sighed. "I don't know the whole story. She never told me, but I agree with you. From the little I know of her mother, and what I saw the one time I met her, I think she must have had some sort of trauma growing up. I don't know what it is, and I am hesitant to bring it up because I'm worried that talking about it will rehash the entire thing. I know it happened, and I would like to know how to help her. I just don't want to open wounds that she has tried to heal, even if they are partially healed by trying to forget."

Allison and Lisa, now exhausted from the entire day's worth of activities leaned back on the couch next to each other. Lisa decided it was time to open up the topic Allison had so briefly mentioned earlier. "So you said you may have been able to prevent this. I'm curious as to how."

Allison leaned into her. "Last week when we were having dinner we played a question game. We each asked questions and we both had to answer. One of the questions asked was about the stupidest thing we had ever done. She gave me a very long answer and then it was my turn." Lisa opened her mouth to say something, but Allison placed a finger on her lips to silence her before she could begin. "I told her about how my relationship with Chase began. You probably know most of the story. It was when we were treating the man with AIDS and I had been exposed to HIV. That night was the first time Chase and I had sex. You know that ended up leading to a few years of meaningless sex followed by a brief meaningless marriage."

Lisa knew this part of the story. "I get how that may have been a stupid thing, but I really don't see the connection between that incident and how you could have helped Kate."

Allison suddenly realized what she was about to do and changed her mind. "I really shouldn't tell you."

Lisa looked into her eyes. "Allison, you can tell me anything. I won't judge you."

Allison looked away, ashamed. "I know you won't, Lisa, but if I tell you, Dr. Cuddy might have a big problem with it."

Now Lisa was even more curious. "I can put her away for a while. It's just us here. I promise."

Still looking away, Allison sighed. "That night when I slept with Chase? I was high on crystal meth."

There was a long pause before Lisa spoke, quietly. "You told her you used drugs, and by doing that you feel like you may have given her the impression that perhaps drugs were not a horrible idea."

Allison sat up and looked directly at Lisa. "That's just it, I DIDN'T tell her about that. I left that part out completely. I didn't tell her for that exact reason… and I didn't want you to end up knowing about it either. Maybe if I had told her, she might have seen that while my mistake wasn't nearly as bad as drug related mistakes get, there are almost always consequences. I'm sorry. If you need me to give you a urine sample or some blood or some hair or something to prove I haven't been using I'm more than willing to do that for you," she added as she again leaned into Lisa.

Lisa wrapped her arms around Allison. "I believe you that you haven't used since. I know you, and I know that you don't generally do things like that. Having said that, I'll think about your offer. It might be a good idea just for hospital records. Give me some thinking time." At this point the pair shifted and now Lisa was snuggled into Allison's arms.

At some point Allison noticed that Lisa had fallen asleep. "Lisa," she said gently as she tried to nudge her awake. This only caused the other woman to snuggle deeper into Allison's arms. "Lisa, sweetie, wake up." She saw one eye open lazily. "You should get some sleep in your own bed and I need to go home to get some sleep too."

Lisa pouted as she sat up. "But I was comfortable there," she complained.

Allison smiled. "So was I, but if we had stayed like that all night there would have been some hell to pay in our necks tomorrow."

Lisa agreed. The two walked to the door. "I guess I'll see you around tomorrow then."

Allison smiled. "Of course." The two shared a deep goodnight kiss before Allison made her way out to her car and drove home.

Lisa made her way back into the living room and looked at Kate asleep on the floor. She was a little hesitant to just leave her in the room there by herself. She made the decision that she would stay there with her. After putting on some comfortable pajamas and getting ready for bed, she grabbed another pillow and blanket and made herself comfortable on the couch. Before falling asleep she thought hard about how to handle Kate's newest situation. She had no experience with this type of thing and she wasn't sure where to begin, but she would do what she could.

Early the next morning she woke suddenly. Her eyes were still shut and she didn't hear any noise, but she had the distinct feeling that she was being watched. She slowly opened her eyes and her heart practically skipped a beat. Kate was standing over her, her deep brown eyes staring at her from mere inches away. In her hand was a steaming cup of coffee. "Shit, Kate, you really need to learn a new way to wake people up. You could send someone into cardiac arrest like that."

Kate backed up half a step and held out the steaming mug sheepishly. "Sorry. Coffee?"

Lisa sat up and took the offering. "Thank you."

Kate sat down next to her. "I'm really sorry about last night. I don't really even know what happened. I just panicked. I don't even remember anything really after knowing that I had to get here, and it had to happen RIGHT THEN. I can't even explain it. My thoughts were just all so jumbled up and I couldn't think about anything. Bits and pieces of… stuff… were just floating around and wouldn't leave. I don't know. It's happened before once or twice over the years where I just didn't even know what I was doing. Like I said, I don't even know what happened after I got here."

Lisa turned Kate's face towards her own. "Kate, I can't pretend to understand what was going on inside your head, but what I do know is that what you knew I was going to find triggered something inside of you that brought back some things from your past that you, for the most part, had managed to suppress to the point where when you had to face a similar situation you saw yourself in the old one. I also know you couldn't control what was happening inside your head." She placed her coffee down on the table in front of her. "We do, however, have to talk about what I did find, but we will have that conversation later. Unfortunately I really have to be at the hospital soon for a board meeting and I will be in more trouble than you know if I miss it. This IS important, and we WILL talk soon. You won't get out of this that easily."

Kate looked away again. "I know."

"Kate, look at me." Reluctantly, Kate again looked in Lisa's direction. "I am always here for you, no matter what you need. Any time you want to talk about something, just ask. Nothing you say to me will change that. I'm not your parents. You're not going to get in trouble, or yelled at, or punished, or anything like that, ok?"

Kate started to tear up. She wrapped her arms around Lisa and buried her face in her shoulder. "Thank you." After a few minutes Kate pulled back and wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her pajamas.

"I have to get ready for work. You and Simon are more than welcome to hang out here for as long as you'd like."

Kate gave a half smile. "Thanks for the offer, but we should go home too. Thank you so much for last night and everything. I'm still sorry though."

The two stood up and Lisa gave Kate a last hug. "I'll call you later," she said before making her way to the bedroom, allowing Kate let herself out when she was ready.

PPTHPPTHPPTH

Cuddy just couldn't keep the smile off her face as she was typing a proposal later that morning. She suddenly heard a knock on the door. "Come in," she shouted.

Wilson walked in and took one look at her and knew something was up. He was pretty sure he knew what it was. He pointed to her. "You're seeing someone."

She still couldn't wipe the smile off of her face as she lowered her pen to her desk. "What makes you say that?"

"I haven't seen you smile like that in years," he said.

Lisa was still smiling yet baffled. "What do you mean? I only broke up with my ex a few months ago."

He knew better. He sat down in a chair across from her desk and crossed his legs. "I know you weren't happy long before that. So tell me. Who is she?"

The smile immediately disappeared from her face. "She? What makes you say she?" she said in a slight panic.

Wilson looked apologetic. "Look, Cuddy, Lisa, we've known each other for what, eleven? Twelve years? You kind of figure these things out after a while."

Cuddy was in disbelief. Then she got suspicious. "What did House tell you?"

Wilson simply looked at her sympathetically. "House didn't say anything. Honestly, though, I don't understand why you are so worried about people knowing. It's the twenty first century. It's not like you're going to be executed for loving another woman." She gave him a look that told him he better get back to the subject. "Like I said, there are some things you just can't hide from your friends in this amount of time no matter how hard you try. There are always some things that just spill this kind of secret."

Cuddy still didn't believe him. "Like what."

"Do you really want to know?"

She did. "Yes. I don't want to make the same mistake more than once."

He wasn't sure where to start. "Well, for starters, you were two grown women living together in the same house."

Cuddy looked at him squarely. "You and House live together."

"That's different. He's got a drug problem." Wilson shifted. "So you have two adults sharing a house. It obviously wasn't for financial reasons. You're the Dean of a hospital, she's a corporate attorney. Between the two of you I'm sure you could have afforded three houses like yours."

Cuddy wasn't convinced. "There's more from the look on your face. Keep going."

Wilson sighed again. "Ok. Well, a long time ago you had a few of us over for dinner. It was getting late and your "roommate" told us she had to be up early for work and she was going to bed. You told her you would be "in" soon. About a year later you were ranting about your "roommate" and talking about your spare bedroom in the same paragraph. You live in a two bedroom house. Two years ago though, that was the dead giveaway. You let me stay at your house while I had a roach bomb going off at mine, remember?" He looked at her as she nodded. "You let me use Tess's "bedroom" and she stayed in yours. Memo: next time you have a house guest who might need to use the bathroom after midnight? Make sure you aren't having intimate relations down the hall if you don't want him to know you two are more than roommates…"

Cuddy turned a dark shade of crimson. "I see your point. I get it. Thank you for pointing out my mistakes."

Wilson wasn't done. "You still haven't told me who you're seeing which leads me to believe I know her."

Cuddy cringed. "I really don't know that she would appreciate me spreading the word about us at this time."

Wilson gave her a look. "Are you seeing Thirteen?"

"Oh God, no. Absolutely not. I am definitely not involved with Thirteen. It is absolutely somebody else. Besides, she's Kate's age. I'm not about to rob the cradle or anything!"

Wilson got the idea and raised his hands in surrender. "Ok, ok, I get it. You'll tell me about her when you're ready. I hope this goes well for you. You deserve some happiness. I'll talk to you later."

"Thank you." Cuddy was genuinely happy to have a friend like Wilson. "I appreciate that you have thus far not blabbed my "deepest, darkest secret" to anybody. When we are ready, if it gets to that point, you will be one of the first to know, I assure you. And thank you for your wish of happiness."

Wilson nodded to her and left her office. She was disturbed at how many mistakes she had made over the years in regards to keeping her secret, but she was glad that Wilson understood. She returned to her work, again plastered with the smile she had been wearing before.