Where We Left Off:
"Mom…are you dying?" The little girl hesitantly asks, her words lined with fear. With those three little words, Remy's blood runs cold.
Chapter Twelve- This Moment
Hadley is faced with a serious quandary. Do I lie to her and be a total hypocrite or do I tell her the truth and upset her, but keep her respect? She closes her eyes briefly and grips the steering wheel so tight that her knuckles turn white.
"Lexi, Sweetheart, it's…complicated," Remy cringes at the cop-out of an answer. "We have a long time before we will even be able to notice that I am sick. You have nothing to worry about for a while, okay?" She tries to respond as vaguely as possible.
Alexis nods slowly to show that she understands. She glances out the window before turning her attention back to the only mother she remembers. "So, you are dying, just not right now?" She asks for clarification.
"Not for a while," Remy tries to soften the blow. "But we'll be okay," she is quick to add.
The younger brunette seems to ponder this for a moment. "How long?" She wonders.
Remy knows exactly what the little girl is asking, but it doesn't make the answer any easier. "Ten years, maybe more," is the quiet response.
"Maybe less?" Alexis questions, filling in what her mother left unsaid.
"Yeah, maybe less," Hadley agrees, albeit reluctantly. "But the important thing is that I'm here now and I don't plan on going anywhere," she tries to keep her voice from wavering in an effort to appear strong for her daughter as she parks her car in the parking lot to their apartment building.
"But you didn't plan on getting sick either," Alexis bitterly snaps back as she opens the door, gets out of the car, and slams the door shut as she makes her way to the apartment.
Remy sighs as she grabs her and her daughter's bags as well as her crutches. She gets out and attempts to catch up with the girl. Once she makes it up to their apartment, she sees her daughter standing by the door looking sullen. As she tries to juggle everything in her arms in an effort to get out her keys, Alexis reaches over and takes her bag out of her mother's arms to make it easier for the older brunette.
Hadley offers her a grateful smile, earning a hesitant smile from the little girl. She pulls out her keys and manages to unlock the door and let them in. Once inside, Alex rushes off to her bedroom to put up her backpack.
Remy sets her stuff down on the table in the kitchen. A moment later, she feels a short pair of arms wrap around her waist. She looks down and sees her daughter hugging her at her side. With a gentle smile, she runs her fingers through the little girl's soft brown hair.
"I'm sorry for getting mad at you," Alex apologizes.
"It's okay. I understand," Remy assures her, earning a confused expression from the seven year old. "My mom had the same thing that I do. Only I didn't know until she was already in the hospital and she was, well…I didn't want you to be caught off guard like I was," she explains, not wanting to get too graphic in her description of her own mother's death.
"How old were you when your mom died?"
Remy takes a deep breath and closes her eyes for a moment before answering. "I was ten. She was thirty years old," she answers cautiously.
"If she died at thirty, does that mean you will too?" Alexis quickly asks.
Hadley pauses for a moment. She decides that Alex is too young to know the true circumstances of her own mother's death. Remy's mom didn't die from a complication due to Huntington's, but she killed herself in the hospital shortly after her diagnosis.
"Not necessarily Lexi. The average age someone with what I have dies is much closer to forty," she honestly informs the younger girl.
Alex is quiet for a minute as she takes all of this information in. "You were mad at Dr. Cameron because she knew you were sick before she asked you out?" She questions, trying to get the facts.
Remy is momentarily caught off guard at the shift in conversation. "Yeah. I didn't want her to ask me out because she felt bad about it," she replies, oversimplifying her excuse.
"But, wouldn't that give her more of a reason to not ask you out? She must really care about you if she doesn't mind that you're dying and wants to spend time with you anyway," Alex points out.
"Maybe," Hadley acknowledges, the argument, however flawed, is still a decent one. Before she can delve further into conversation with her daughter, there is a knock on the door. "Hold on one second, okay Sweetie?" She asks before going to answer the door.
"Okay," Alex replies.
Remy opens the door to reveal Ann and her sons. "Hey," she greets the trio with a smile.
"Hey, the boys and I were just heading down to the park and we wanted to see if Lexi wanted to join us," Ann offers with a smile of her own.
"Sure, let me ask her," Remy says before turning around to ask her daughter. "Did you want to go to the park with-"
"Yeah," the little girl replies enthusiastically with a grin, having heard the whole thing.
"Okay. Go get your shoes on," Remy instructs. The small brunette disappears. "Thank you," she quietly says to her slightly older neighbor.
"You know it's fine. Besides, you look like you could use the rest," Ann responds pointedly referring to the worn-out look of the young doctor.
"Yeah, yeah," Hadley smirks back just as her daughter comes back into the room. "Okay Al, be careful and have fun," she wishes the little girl off.
Alex gives her mom a big hug before going out the door. "I love you," she quietly informs her.
"I love you too Lex," Remy returns with a hug of her own. "Now you get going," she wishes her daughter off as they break away from one another.
"Okay."
"You boys be careful too. Brian, you especially be careful with that arm. I don't want you pulling out any of those stitches," she tells the boys in a warning tone.
"Yes, Dr. Hadley," Brian returns shyly.
"We'll be careful," Ben assures her with a small smile before they finally leave.
Remy breathes out a small sigh of relief before limping over to the couch, lying down and drifting off to sleep a few moments later.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A soft knocking wakes Remy from her slumber on the couch. She groggily rolls off of the couch and makes her way to the door. Without even looking through the peephole, she swings the door open only to find the pretty face and blonde hair of Allison Cameron staring back at her.
"What are you doing here?" Remy wonders in her surprise, sounding ruder than she intended.
Cameron looks stricken for a moment before she casts her eyes downward. "Sorry. I shouldn't have come," she says, mostly to herself before turning to go.
Impulsively, Hadley reaches out and wraps a hand around one of Cameron's arms to stop her. "Stay," she requests earnestly. The blonde gives her a skeptical look. "I shouldn't have been such a bitch to you yesterday."
"You had every right to be upset. I lied to you about something pretty important and-"
"You didn't lie to me," Remy cuts her off, earning a confused expression from the other woman. "It's not like it was something that could just be causally added to a conversation. I mean, you knew about it when you asked me out, you have to understand how that would look if you were in my place," she adds.
"I do understand. That's kind of the reason why I was afraid to tell you that I knew about your Huntington's. I knew exactly how it would look," Cameron informs the younger woman.
"You didn't ask me out because of that, did you?" Hadley asks the one question that she has been dreading the answer to since yesterday.
Allison ponders her response for a moment. "Yes and no," she finally replies.
"I don't…" Remy trails off, confusion written on her face.
The blonde decides to heed Cuddy's advice. "From the moment you set foot in the hospital, I couldn't take my eyes off of you. I couldn't explain it, but I just wanted to know you. But, because of House's game, I was afraid to get too attached in case you left. Then, after you did make it on the team, House pretty much made it known that you were bisexual to the whole hospital. It kind of caused me to reevaluate what I felt towards you and I was afraid of what I was feeling. Then, House came to me and told me that you just found out that you were diagnosed with Huntington's and I decided that I didn't want to waste anymore time being afraid. I didn't want to not take the chance and spend the rest of my life regretting it," she explains herself.
Thirteen takes a moment to process the other woman's words. "Okay," she simply replies.
"'Okay'?" Allison questions, thrown off by the simplicity of the response.
"Yeah, 'okay'. I'm glad that you decided to take the chance of being with me, even though you already have a good idea as to how this whole thing is going to end. I am also glad that you told me the truth about everything in the first place. If we're going to make this thing between us work out, we're going to have to be honest with each other," Remy explains her minimal reply.
Cameron begins to nod absently in agreement before she freezes and stares at the other woman in pleasant shock for a moment. "So, does this mean that you are still interested?" She asks hopefully.
"If you're willing to take the chance, then so am I," Hadley grins and Cameron easily matches her expression.
Allison replies by taking a step closer to the brunette and placing a hand on her hip before moving in and meeting Remy's lips. Their all too brief kiss is interrupted by the apartment door swinging open and Alexis walking into the apartment.
"Hey Mom, you'll never guess what…" the little girl pauses as she notices the other doctor. "Hello Dr. Cameron," she greets the blonde woman with a bright smile.
"Hello Alex," is the older doctor's warm greeting.
The seven year old looks between her mother and the pretty doctor for a moment. "Does this mean you guys are back together?" She inquires hopefully.
Thirteen chuckles and casts a sidelong glance to the blonde doctor. "Yes, Sweetheart," she informs the girl.
"Good. Let me show you my room," the little girl says to Cameron as she takes her hand and goes to show her all of her toys and stuffed animals and things.
Cameron smiles fondly at the little girl as she allows herself to be tugged away. "You don't have to call me 'Dr. Cameron', Alex. You can call me 'Allison' or 'Ally' instead," she tells her.
"Okay," Alex nods, brightening up even more, if that is at all possible.
Thirteen watches the entire interaction with a tender expression on her face as the two make their way to her daughter's room. She ponders all of the events that occurred in the last couple of weeks and is astonished at how much has happened. She started off feeling lonely and depressed about her disease and her uncertain future. She was closed off from everyone around her. Now, she no longer feels so alone and, for the first time in a while, the future doesn't look so bleak anymore now that she has let the other doctor in her life.
Looking into her daughter's room and seeing Allison laughing and tickling her daughter, Remy can't help the smile that comes over her face. I don't know if it will last, but for now, I will just enjoy the perfection of this moment and my life as it is.
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So, I decided that this is going to be the last actual chapter. It seemed like a good place to end it. There is immediate happy ending as well as the uncertainty of the future. Such is life. I think I am going to do an epilogue if for no other reason than to make the chapter count on this 13. I am not entirely sure what to put in there, so just let me know if there are any plot holes I need to fix or anything of the sort and I will gladly try to patch them up in the end.
Also, I am currently working on 5 other House fics. Check out my profile for more information on them. It will probably be a while before I post any of them. Two of them I just began and will probably be kind of long. Two I am not sure how long they will be. One is almost finished.
As always, let me know what you think. Loved it, hated it, whatever. Again, if I left anything out or left any major plot holes, let me know. My cousin will tell me what you guys say so I will still get the message. I know I never mentioned Alexis' father, so I will clear that up in the last part. Anything else, just tell me.
