House was finishing off his lunch in the hospital cafeteria. Wilson had just left, as apparently he had work to do, patients to see. He figured he might as well hang around for a bit, it was as good a place to hide out as any, especially now while it was quiet. He looked up to see Mrs Cuddy enter, and groaned a little at the thought that maybe this wasn't going to be the best place to hide, and yet, it might offer him the opportunity for observing Cuddy.
Mrs Cuddy collected and paid for her coffee before looking round the cafeteria, deciding where to sit. She caught House's eyes, and motioned to him, asking silently if it was OK to join him. He nodded, and cleared a space amongst the mess he and Wilson had left.
With a quiet, "Thank you." she sat down and took a sip of her coffee. Two pairs of blue eyes assessed one another. He saw an older, calmer version of Cuddy, amused blue eyes examining him as carefully as he was examining her, hair a shade lighter than Cuddy's, streaked with silver. This was very likely what his Cuddy would look like in another twenty or so years.
"So, have you been abandoned in favour of the baby? Don't say I didn't warn you, she is a little neurotic."
Mrs Cuddy merely smiled as she shook her head, and lightly replied, "Just arrived a little early, so I thought I would wait here for her."
Her expression turned serious, and she looked him straight in the eyes as she asked, "Do you mind if I ask you a personal question?"
Keen blue eyes narrowed at her.
"You can ask anything you want." He shrugged, "I might not reply, of course." He started rolling his cane between his hands.
"Of course!" she paused for a moment, unsure how he was going to react, but this was something she needed to ask, had wanted to do so for a long time.
"Do you blame my daughter for your leg, for your pain?"
The shock in his eyes was clear, but quickly hidden, as he tried to break down what she wanted to know.
"The truth!"
The quiet statement surprised him, as she appeared to have been reading his thoughts. He nodded at her, before staring thoughtfully at the shiny handle of his cane.
"No." She heard the truth in the statement, simple though it was.
He continued, talking more to himself than her now, "I was angry, so angry, with the misdiagnosis, with Stacy, with myself, with everyone, with life. I had been condemned to a lifetime of pain by a misdiagnosis and by my girlfriend overriding my wishes. Everyone says she saved my life, and I should be thankful, maybe she did, but we will never know. Was it worth it? Sometimes, I don't know." She got the feeling that some of this he had probably never spoken about to anyone. "But Cuddy, Lisa, ... I was angry and in pain and I probably said a lot of things, but truth is I never blamed her. How can I blame her for not diagnosing something that I didn't until it was too late." She couldn't help but reach out and lay her hand on his briefly. He pulled himself out of his reverie, flashed her a devilish grin, and whispered conspiratorially, "I'll deny it if it gets repeated, but she is a good doctor."
Mrs Cuddy smiled at his antics, appreciating his need to lighten the atmosphere. She was relieved by his declaration, she only wished Lisa could have heard it. She looked up to find piercing blue eyes studying her consideringly.
"You seem like the kind of mother who knows her daughter. Being prepared to beard the gnarly old lion in his den, means you are as prepared to fight for her as she is for this hospital. So, I have a question."
"You can ask anything you like, doesn't mean I will answer." She paraphrased him, with a grin that reminded him of Cuddy's, when she scored points off him.
He inclined his head, acknowledging her hit, leaned forward to rest his elbows on the table and his chin on his hands.
"So, if you know your daughter, you know she is a good doctor, and a compassionate person. You know she did her best when it came to my infarction and my surgery. Why does my opinion matter?"
"You're right. It doesn't matter, to me, or to anyone who really knows her. But it does matter to her. On this subject, yours is the only opinion that matters. There is nothing I or anyone else can say to her that will make the slightest difference to the guilt she carries for it. You are the one person who could lighten that load."
They were interrupted by the clicking of Cuddy's heels as she approached. She looked at the two innocent faces watching her, and groaned internally. She knew exactly who had been the subject of their little tête a tête, and she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know what part of her life they had been discussing. She should never have allowed her mother to head off to the cafeteria alone.
"Do you mind if I join you, or is this a private discussion."
House grinned at Mrs Cuddy, "Well I had better be off, clinic duty starts in a few minutes and my boss is a real hell cat. I wouldn't want to be late."
Mrs Cuddy just chuckled. He pulled himself to his feet, swaying slightly as he got his balance after having been sitting for so long. Lisa's hand automatically went to his elbow to steady him, even as she glared at him.
"Your boss will probably fall over in shock if you actually turned up at the clinic on time."
"Might do it then, just to see. As long as she remembers that this cripple won't be able to catch her." He turned back to Mrs Cuddy, with a smile, "Thanks for the chat. Enjoy your lunch."