Chapter 9: Favorites

Elisabeth woke up before everyone else the next morning. She had trouble breathing, and wasn't able to get back to sleep. There were nights like this before, so it didn't exactly scare her.

Trying to keep as quiet as she could, she made her way into the kitchen and grabbed a bowl of cereal. She had no idea what time it was as she sat down, but she could see that the sun was at least up.

"Hungry dadda!" she heard Jason demand from the stairway.

Andy came in carrying Jason into the kitchen and set him down in his highchair. "Hey Ellie," he greeted, a little startled by her presence.

Elisabeth smiled and waved. She knew that Andy felt a little awkward around her. He knew very little sign language, so it was a little hard for the two to communicate.

"Morning," Jason greeted, trying to get Elisabeth's attention.

Elisabeth waved to him, but that wasn't enough for the boy. "Morning!" he tried again, causing Elisabeth to laugh.

"She can't talk Jason. She lost her voice," Andy explained, hoping that Jason would understand. He waited a second by Jason as he handed him a bowl of dry cereal and a sippy cup with milk.

"You lost voice?" he asked.

Andy just laughed and went to go get his own breakfast ready.

Elisabeth looked to him and nodded.

"Where did you lose it?" Jason questioned, confused and amazed by this whole thing.

Elisabeth shrugged. Going along with it, she looked under the table and then tried picking up her bowl and looking under it. Setting the bowl down, she tried her hardest to keep a straight face as she shrugged and nodded.

Jason took the sippy cup and tried his hardest to look through the mouth piece into the cup.

"What's ya doing there buddy?" Gabrielle asked, trying her hardest to sound a little enthusiastic this morning. Her voice was still a little hoarse and weak sounding though.

"Looking for her voice," Jason casually answered, pointing to Elisabeth.

Gabrielle briefly chuckled and sat down at the table. Andy walked over and handed her a glass of orange juice. "Feeling any better?" he inquired, his hand gently on her back.

"Thanks, and yes," Gabrielle quickly answered before taking a sip and then laying her head down on the table.

Elisabeth looked up to Andy. "She was throwing up early this morning," he told her.

Elisabeth moved herself closer to Gabrielle and started stroking her hair. Starting to laugh, Gabrielle lifted her head. "I'm even getting sympathy from the sick. I think someone was lying to me this morning when they told me that I didn't look that bad," she stated, looking to Andy.

Andy shrugged. "Maybe I'm a little biased," he offered.

Gabrielle smirked and pointed to Andy. "I think I like that," she replied.

"Me too," Jason said just to participate.

Gabrielle laughed and then looked over to Elisabeth. "Something interesting about you came up last night. Is it true that our little mime has a bucket list?" she implored.

Elisabeth nodded and told her that she would show it to her when they got back to her house.

"Good, I wanna see it. Help you cross off a few things," Gabrielle informed her, and then yawned. "And now, if you'll excuse me, I think I can finally go back to sleep," she said and then got up and headed for the door.

ooooo

Cuddy sat down in the living room with her robe on. She had gotten up late and House was still upstairs sleeping.

The silence through out the house was broken as the door opened and Gabrielle lead her siblings inside. "Hey mom," she weakly greeted.

Cuddy looked up and smiled. "How was last night?" she questioned.

Elisabeth left the group and headed upstairs. She told Gabrielle that she could see the list and she wanted to get it for her.

The others went and sat down in the living room. "I heard that Gabrielle made you cry," Rachel announced.

Cuddy laughed. "Well, that's uh, nice."

Gabrielle laughed. "They were trying to figure out who your's and daddy's favorites were and they thought that I might be your's, so I said no," she explained.

"Yeah, for you we narrowed it down to either me or Ellie," Rachel told her. "And then either Gabi, Tommy, or Ellie."

"Interesting," House said as he made his way down the stairs. "Ellie was nominated for both and Jessie was on neither list." He came and stood behind the couch. "Just how did you figure these lists out?"

"Who was with who more, who did more things together, who had more in common," Rachel listed.

"How do you know that that's the parent's choice and not just each kid picking their favorites?" Tommy questioned.

Gabrielle pointed to him. "Good question," she replied.

"Either way, it works," Rachel argued, completely dismissing him.

"Why wasn't Jessie mentioned?" Cuddy asked.

Jessica looked to her and shrugged. "I just didn't think that I was anyone's favorite," she answered.

Gabrielle got Cuddy's attention and just looked from her to Jessica with concern. Silently trying to let her know what was going on.

Cuddy sat forward and just watched Jessica for a minute. "Jessie? Honey? Can I talk to you in the kitchen?" she requested.

Jessica looked up to her, surprised. "Yeah, sure," she answered and then got up and followed her into the kitchen.

Cuddy sat down at the table and waited for Jessica to join her. "What's going on with you?"

"Nothing," Jessica meekly answered.

"The sooner you tell me, the sooner that we can get out of here," Cuddy urged her.

Jessica looked down for a minute. She wasn't so shy about her feelings that she was about to close herself off, but she was about to hesitate to tell her about what was going on. "Daddy took Gabrielle to work with him and is happy to always see you, you two used to do a lot of things together, she told me that you used to take her out before dances and any events and all of that. I also heard that she was pretty popular in school," she started. "Then you do everything with Rachel, everyone at school likes her, including the boy that she likes. Then daddy just loves Tommy, even when he's getting in trouble at school."

Cuddy was starting to see where this was going and nodded with understanding.

Jessica then looked up to Cuddy. Guilt in her eyes. She hated what she was about to say, because she really did love Elisabeth, and she did understand why things with her were the way that they were. It just got to her sometimes. "And then everything always revolves around Ellie. Every time we make any plans, we have to plan around her. Nothing can happen around here without her coming first. Last month when I was told that I would get an award for my short story, no one came for me because you were all at the hospital with Ellie," Jessica explained.

Cuddy looked to her for a second. She honestly did not remember hearing anything about an award. "I'm sorry," she sincerely stated. "I guess we just get caught up around here and things get missed. You have to understand, Ellie has always been scaring us and then well, Rachel is now the oldest girl here and staring to really want to grow up quickly on me and then Tommy is the only son. We don't mean to leave you out."

Jessica shrugged. "It's all right," she said.

Gabrielle rushed to the doorway, short of breath. "I hate to break up a moment here, but Ellie just passed out and fell down the stairs," she informed them.

Cuddy jumped up and nearly ran out of the room.

Gabrielle looked down to Jessica to see her sadly looking down towards the table. "Sorry to ruin your moment kid," she apologized.

Jessica looked up to her. "It's okay," she replied and then stood up.

"You wanna ride with me to the hospital? You can talk to me if you want," Gabrielle offered.

Jessica smiled and nodded. "Sounds good," she responded.

"Good," Gabrielle said and then lead her out of the room.