A/N: Another update! Yay! Ok, for purposes of this story, I've changed House's birthday. Also, I promise there is either Huddy or Lisa/Greg to come soon. Just bear with me. Enjoy! Remember your thoughts fuel my creative process! And thanks to everyone reading!


Previously…

She took a big breath of air and let it out, "He's so…alluring I guess. Don't get me wrong, he can be abrasive, infuriating, sweet one moment and completely do a one-eighty the next second and don't even get me started on that brain of his- I for one don't know half as much as he does, even though he's extremely annoying about it- but…I can't get him out of my head."

For a few seconds after her ridiculous outburst, the blonde woman sitting next to her smiled without saying anything, and finally broke her silence, "Funny, that's exactly how I'd describe him myself."

Lisa looked at her with a frown, "Huh?"

"I'm sorry I mislead you."

"What do you mean?"

The woman bit her lip for a second and waved over at Greg, who was frowning back at the both of them but waving slowly back as well- as if he were confused, which was something new, "Greg is my son."

The Letters

Part XII

Buca Di Peppo

Michigan April 12th, 1988

"I beg your pardon?" Lisa asked, completely dumbfounded by what the woman had just said.

"You must be Lisa", she said putting out her hand for her to shake.

Lisa nodded numbly and shook it, "Yes…how do you know?"

"I'm Blythe, Greg's mother. He mentioned you a couple times on the phone. And when I saw how you two were looking at each other, I knew it must be you", she said with a smile and shrug of her shoulders.

"He's-mentioned me?" That seemed impossible.

Greg's mother took a sip of her tea and smiled over at Greg who was still watching him with a very discontent frown as he continued checking people up, "Yes. He told me you were kind enough to invite him over for Christmas, because his father and I went to Paris for the holidays. I was really worried he'd be upset when we told him that we'd made plans this year, because he usually never comes home for Christmas. So it was odd when he said he planned on visiting us."

Lisa frowned, "Oh."

"Which is why I decided to surprise him for his birthday. But now I realize you kids must have had plans and here I am ranting on, I'm so sorry dear", she said with a lighthearted laugh.

She blinked a couple times, trying to regain her voice, which had momentarily left her from the shock of all that his mother was telling her. Lisa hoped that she didn't think she was some idiot, by how challenged she'd become at forming sentences.

"Today is his birthday? I had no idea", she let out slowly as she realized that he was walking in their direction, with a bit of a nervous look to him.

Greg eyes went to his mom, who stood up and gave him a tight hug, "Surprise! Happy Birthday."

"Mom- what are you doing here? How did you know I was here?" he smiled genuinely at her- though nervous at the same time, and hugged her back- looking over at Lisa in the process.

They broke apart and Blythe gave him a little sigh, "Your father and I got a letter from Hopkins. After that- with one call to Dylan, it wasn't difficult to figure out where your were. That boy is terrified of your father. Honey, you look so thin, have you been sick?"

"I'm fine mom."

It was odd watching them interact, because Lisa could see that for the first time, Greg actually looked scared. Something she thought he was incapable of being. Then, he looked at her again, and then back at his mom- licking his lips, "Uh-mom this is LIs-"

"Lisa, yes- we've had time to acquaint ourselves", Blythe smiled over at her, and she struggled to do the same.

He awkwardly placed his hands in his pockets, "I was going to tell you about Hopkins-"

Blythe waved her hand around and shook her head, "That isn't important right now. I just wanted to come and take you out to lunch, but I hope I haven't interrupted anything?"

"Oh no -I was just going to go-do…some homework anyway", Lisa nervously replied while she quickly began to gather her things.

Greg's mom placed a hand gingerly on her arm, "Oh please come with us. I would love to have you join us."

She looked up at his mom and then at him, searching for some tell-tale sign that would tell her whether to go or not, something that would tell her that he wanted her to stay or go, but he showed no expression at all.

"Really, its ok-"

"I insist. Don't you agree Greg?"

Lisa looked over at him again, and watched as he slowly nodded, and smiled at his mom, "Uh-yeah."

"Excellent. Where would you like to go?"

xxxoxxxo

After a while of watching Blythe ask Greg where he wanted to go for lunch, and him not knowing- Lisa had finally suggested an italian restaurant she'd passed by a few times- Buca Di Peppo.

Most of their ride she'd been silent, and had just sat idly watching the interaction between Greg and his loving mother. It was somewhat weird to see him in such a different light with his mom, he was more relaxed, nicer, and smiled genuinely at her. It was easy to see that she meant a lot to him.

After they'd finally arrived and had been seated, Greg excused himself to go to the bathroom, which left Lisa alone with Blythe again.

"So tell me Lisa, how did you two meet? I don't think Greg will be so forthcoming with that information", she said placing her menu down.

She swallowed at looked over to the door leading to the restrooms, making sure he wouldn't walk back up in the middle of the story, "Well, officially we met in our endocrinology class. He made fun of me because I spelled endocrinology wrong, and we sort of just began hanging out after that."

"And unofficially?"

Lisa bit her lip for a second, pondering with whether it was such a good idea to really tell his mother the truth. What if she went back and told him everything she'd said? Surely after that, he'd think she was some type of stalker. But there was something about Blythe House that made it feel safe to bare her soul to her.

"In the bookstore. He took my class schedule from me and of course did his thing and analyzed my personality based on the times of my classes and the professors I'd chosen. It swept me off my feet I guess", she tried concealing the blush that was surely forming on her face.

Blythe smiled widely, "He's always been very analytical. You should have seen him the first day of preschool. He walked out of the classroom right away and said that classroom wouldn't stimulate his mind and he felt he needed a more creative environment. He was also very upset that they'd spelt his name wrong."

Lisa couldn't help at laugh, because it sounded like something he would totally say. She had a million questions swirling through her head at that point, like if he had always been so frustrating, what his favorite foods were, what movies he liked, but one question stood out more than others for some reason, and she looked at Blythe curiously, "How did you decide on his name?"

"Oh well that's easy, when I was pregnant with him, I was head over heels for Gregory Peck, the actor", she let out in a dreamy way, "It was either Greg or Ryan- his father was fond of that name because of his favorite poem writer Abram Joseph Ryan. I liked the name, but not the man that he was trying to name him after, so we decided on Gregory Ryan House."

She sat up straight in surprise, "His dad wanted to name him after the 'Poet-Priest of the South'?"

Blythe giggled and nodded her head, "Isn't that silly?"

Lisa couldn't help it, and laughed too, "A little."

"What's so funny?" asked a sniffling Greg who suddenly sat down opposite of them, and hastily picked up a menu. She'd been so caught up in what Blythe was telling her, that he had taken them by complete surprise.

"Nothing", she said locking eyes with him for a second, and seeing how fidgety his fingers on his right hand had become, as they tapped on the menu he was holding.

Part of her understood his nervousness, because if she were in his shoes, she imagined that she'd be just as nervous to have her mother suddenly drop in on her. But Blythe House seemed to be genuinely sweet, and didn't give off any hint of craziness like Arlene Cuddy did.

"I just realized that they might not have any reuben sandwiches here for you", his mother said while glancing at the menu.

Greg shrugged his shoulders and sniffed again, "I'm not really that hungry."

Lisa frowned, there was something off about him. She wasn't sure now if his nervousness was because his mother was there or something else, but she did realize that it had began to bother her.

"Its your birthday, and you always have a reuben on your birthday- oh they do! That's fantastic", she said placing the menu down, and then speaking up again, "I just remembered, I brought you something."

"Mom you really didn't have to", he said with half a smile and scratched the back of his neck nervously.

She stood up and looked at both of them for a second before leaving, "I'll be right back. I left it in the rental car."

Lisa smiled and pretended to turn her attention back to the menu, until she was out of ear-shot, then dropped her menu down and looked at Greg, who very quickly rubbed his nose and looked at the menu- obviously avoiding her gaze.

Then it hit her like an oncoming train, when she saw him tapping his foot incessantly on the floor, "Are you high?"

He turned over at her with a frown and a peculiar smile that accentuated his dimples, "What?"

"You totally are! That's why you went to the bathroom", she accused him, through a gritted whisper.

He rolled his eyes and sighed, "There are other things people use the restroom for. Like for instance- peeing or pooping."

"Or in your case, snorting cocaine", she said raising an eyebrow.

Greg sniffed again and just shook his head, "Why do you always think I'm stoned or high?"

"Oh I don't know? Maybe because you always are?" she scoffed and began eyeing the menu as Blythe House made her way back to the table, but very subtly added, "Don't think this is over."

Greg didn't say anything back but just plastered a smiled on his face, as his mom walked towards them, "I'm so scared."

When his mother got to the table, Lisa saw that she held a guitar case, with a big red bow on it, and handed it over to Greg- who looked like he already knew that she had it, "Mom you didn't have to bring this."

"I knew you missed it, and since I couldn't bring the piano- I thought this might suffice."

Lisa frowned at him, "You can play the guitar?"

"And the piano, the saxophone- he's also pretty good with a harmonica", She could tell that Blythe was clearly proud of her son.

It was then, that he looked for a lack of better words- bashful, and just looked down with a singular laugh, "Please mom."

"I'm surprised you haven't shown her some of your many talents. He's also a good singer", she added.

"Actually, I have heard him sing- and yes, he is very good", she added, feeling a familiar swarm of butterflies fill the pit of her stomach, remembering the night he'd sang to her in the seedy Grand Rapids bar.

Greg looked over to her for a moment, and the look of whatever he felt, that he gave her made her butterflies break out to her entire body.

xxxoxxxo

Emily didn't like going to the hospital after school on the days that Marina didn't pick her up. It had a funny smell to it, and everywhere she turned, there was sick people and she didn't want to get sick.

The only thing she really liked about going to the hospital to wait for Lisa to go home, was when she got to see House. Even though he was weird, she thought he was really funny and always made her laugh, because he pretended not to like her and walked funny.

She looked around in the Clinic at the busy doctors roaming around and Nurse Brenda treating an old lady who'd just walked in with very poopy pants and Emily couldn't help scrunching up her nose as she was walking away. But as she turned around, she saw a cane go in to one of the rooms they used for sick people and knew who it was- House.

Emily turned back to look at Nurse Brenda, and smiled because she was too busy to notice her- so she decided to go into the room where House had gone.

When she opened the door, she heard him make a groan and quickly said, "Seeing a patient in here!"

Emily looked around but didn't see anyone other than House, who was sitting up on the sick person chair.

She frowned at him, "No you're not, you're lying."

He looked surprised to see her, and also a little annoyed, "What are you doing here?"

The little girl shrugged and sat up on the doctor chair, "Nurse Brenda is supposed to be taking care of me, but she's not."

He almost smiled and laughed a little, then took out a lollipop from his pocket and took off the wrapper- plopping the lollipop in his mouth, "Yeah, I can see that."

"Are you sick?" Emily asked suddenly, wondering why he was on the sick people chair.

House frowned at her, "What would make you think that?"

Emily swiveled in the doctor chair, and stopped when she was facing him again, "Because only sick people sit in that chair, and you sit in this chair so you can help them. Do you want me to help you?"

"I'm sitting here because I'm hiding from Cud-…Lisa…and Dr Wilson. I'm mad at them", he explained.

"Why?"

He took a big breath of air in and looked into the air, like he was thinking of what to say, "Well I'm hiding from Lisa because she gave my job to Foreman and I'm annoyed and I'm hiding from Wilson because he just annoys me."

Emily dropped her mouth, "Lisa took your job away?"

"Yep- she's very mean, she also didn't want to play with me."

The little girl thought about his predicament for a moment and looked at him after a little while, "I can give you another job."

"Oh really? What's that?"

"You could be my new dad", she said very-matter-of-factly.

House looked at her for a moment and then scoffed, "Uh-"

"That way you could go and live with us, because you like Lisa too", she explained nodding her head.

The little girl continued watching him, as he sat for the first time with a loss of what to say. After a few seconds, Emily watched as he took out his medicine and swallowed them, "What was that?"

"Vicodin."

"What's that?"

"Medicine."

"What type of medicine?"

He rolled his eyes at her, "Do you always ask so many questions?"

She shrugged her shoulders, "Sometimes. Ryan says that too. He's mean like you, but funny too."

Suddenly, they heard a voice that they both knew very well- her cousin Lisa, outside in the clinic and House put up his finger to his lips making a shush-ing noise.

Emily nodded and put up her finger to her lips too, but couldn't help at giggle.

"Brenda, where's Emily?"

"I don't know. She was here just a few minutes ago."

She looked from the door to House and popped her eyes wide open and got off the doctor chair, "I'll see you later."

As much as she wanted to stay in the room and hang out with him, she didn't want to get in trouble with Lisa. Because she'd seen how Lisa got mad at Ryan, and she didn't want her getting mad at her.

When she was outside the door, she closed it so that nobody could see House was inside, and saw that Lisa turned to look at her relieved, "Where were you Em?"

Emily wasn't good at lying, but she also didn't want to give away House's hiding spot, "I-I was looking for the bathroom. I forgot where it is."

Lisa frowned for a moment and looked at the door, "Was anyone in there with you? Was House in there?"

"No, Just me. Can you take me to the bathroom?" Emily asked Lisa and grabbed her hand, pulling her away from the door.

They both started walking away, but the little girl saw how for a couple seconds, Lisa looked back at the door before turning towards to the front, "Sure."

Emily smiled.

xxxoxxxo

After the little girl walked out, House waited for Cuddy to barge for what would surely be more bantering, but instead was a slightly touched when he realized that Emily had lied for him. At least now, he knew for sure he had a few hours to kill before he'd have to run into Wilson again.

He'd been able to avoid Wilson for three days now, mostly due to the fact that it had been the weekend and he'd up to New York for a monster truck convention and hadn't told him.

But the truth was, he knew that if he could avoid seeing him just long enough- it would help Wilson realize that he'd overreacted and there was in truth nothing wrong with him. Though he knew, the other person he was trying to convince, was himself as well.

Sure he was being a little hypocritical about not finding out for himself if there was anything to the pain in his chest, but he figured he'd just find out with the blood Wilson had collected from him.

House cleared his head, and closed his eyes taking his nearly empty bottle of Vicodin out of his pocket and popping a couple down, hoping it would help him fall into a nice nap.

After a little while of laying silently on the exam chair, he did begin to feel sleep beginning to win him over, but just as he began entering that sweet limbo, the exam room door was pushed open and someone turned on the light.

He groaned, "Its busy."

"I figured you'd be here, avoiding everyone, in the one place no one would look for you", Wilson accused him, with an annoyed edge to his voice.

House rolled his eyes and turned away from him, "Actually I was just trying to avoid patients, but you can think whatever you want. Can you close the door on your way out?"

"Got your lab results back, just so you know. There were some very interesting findings too, like your ammonia levels and how the are incredibly high just like your Vicodin levels. Then again, I imagine that isn't a surprise, is it?"

He sighed, and sat up, putting a hand over his right thigh, "In case you forgot, my leg hurts."

"Did you not just hear what I said? Your ammonia levels are through the roof, which means your liver is probably failing. We need to biopsy it, to confirm."

"No its not- elevated ammonia levels can be from many different things-"

"It could be hepatic encephalopathy. We need to do a biopsy of your liver and at the very least get you started on dialysis."

He scoffed, "I'm not in state of confusion, or a coma, or-"

"Your sleeping patterns have changed recently, Like right now, you were trying to sleep in the middle of the day, and you've been taking naps during the day for weeks. You've also been acting differently lately, especially with Cuddy."

"I've always slept during the day, and weren't you the one that said I had feelings for Cuddy? Maybe that's why I've felt a little funny lately."

Wilson stared at him seriously, "You're sick house."

"In the head maybe", he laughed sarcastically, but stopped when he saw that Wilson still looked upset, "I'm fine. When my eyes turn yellow, or I'm in a coma- then we can talk."

"You and I both know that just because you don't have those symptoms, it doesn't mean you don't have it. And only you would want to talk about your problems when you're in a coma, and its clearly too late."

House stood up and walked towards the door, with a laugh, "Caught that, did you? See yah Jimmy."

As he opened the door to leave, he came face to face with Foreman, who had his arms crossed and the same look of discontent, that Wilson had.

"You're doing the biopsy House", he said sternly.

As House was about to retort in a colorful way, he felt a needle prick in his left arm, and turned up to see Wilson had just injected him with something. He frowned, "Hey- that's..mea-"

But even before he could finish his thought, everything around him began to fade.

xxxoxxxo

The rest of the dinner had been quite nice. It was strange to see how well Greg got along with his mother, and how sweet she was as well. She actually felt a little jealous that she didn't have the same relationship with her mother, and that hers wasn't as sweet.

He had excused himself at the end of dinner, after only touching his plate a couple times, and came back in the same fashion as before, which only cemented her suspicions. However, it seemed that Blythe House was completely oblivious that anything was going on, and Lisa felt a little relief in that sense.

After they'd left the restaurant, Blythe had offered to give her a ride back to her dorm. But Lisa had declined, stating that it was finally a nice evening to take a walk, and honestly after all the pasta she'd consumed, she felt like she really did need the walk.

And she'd been surprised when Greg had announced that he was going to walk her home. She had almost began to protest but Blythe had insisted that he do it, and she had easily given in. After all, as much as he infuriated her, she had an inability to say no to him.

They both waved as Blythe drove off, and wordlessly began walking.

"Were you planning to mention, that today was your birthday?" she asked, looking at anything but him- she felt too nervous to look at him yet.

He shrugged his shoulders and placed both hands inside his pockets, with his guitar strapped to his back, with a sniff, "I didn't see how it was relevant."

She scoffed and shook her head, without saying anything back. And he spoke up again with an intake of breath, "You're mad. Why?"

"Oh I don't know? Perhaps because you didn't think telling me your birthday was relevant? Or no, no- maybe its the fact that you kept going off to sniff drugs up your nose."

Finally it looked like she hit a nerve, which she didn't necessarily like, because it meant he might push her away again. But also, she didn't care because her worry outweighed being scared that he'd do that again.

"What I do or don't do doesn't concern you. Haven't we had this conversation before? It kinda feels like deja vu."

She stopped in her tracks and turned to him, "We're friends Greg, that means I get to care and I get to voice my concern for you. And what you did wasn't only bad for you but it was rude to do it when you were having a meal with your mother."

"Who said we were friends?" he spat back at her again, in a lame attempt to evade the bigger picture.

"You're so- vexing. I know we're friends, and you care about me to some degree- which means I get to do the same thing back. And I also know that you were in there getting high."

He raised his eyebrows with a smirk, "Vexing, huh? Big word. Is that the word of the day?"

"Stop it! Stop evading me, and just say it. Say that you care about me, and that we're at least friends. And admit that I'm right."

Greg blinked, but remained serious, "At least? What does that mean? What else would we be."

Lisa shook her head, and swallowed- knowing she couldn't do it anymore. As much as he was alluring, made her smile, and made her feel like she was floating on clouds around him- she couldn't continue to stand by idly while he did things like the clinical trials, or whatever other various drugs he thought were fun. It scared her, and it had began to turn her into someone she didn't want to be.

"Do you care about me? At all?" she asked locking eyes with him.

He swallowed, "No."

"I can't do this, this-game anymore. I'm sorry. I care about you, but I just can't", she shrugged, willing herself not to cry.

He stood there, stoically and clearly unmoved by what she was saying. Then, after a few moments, and when Lisa knew he wouldn't say anything back, she slowly enveloped her arms around him and got on her tip-toes to plant a kiss on his cheek.

She slowly let him go, and looked at him one last time before she turned to walk away, "Goodbye Greg."


Next:

"So suddenly, since I'm sick you care?" he muttered bitterly from his bed.

Cuddy sighed deeply and smiled at him sadly, "I've always cared House. I just thought before that I could pretend like I couldn't, but I can't. You've always meant too much to me."

He felt a strange sensation of guilt, and it was odd. But he knew that it came from the fact that he knew how much he'd meant to her, and not thanks to the letters, knew a lot more than she'd ever told him before.

"I guess I like you a little too", he let out softly, feeling his stomach cramps coming back.

Cuddy frowned at him with a smile, "Is that a love proclamation?"

He scoffed and attempted to suppress a smirk. He was about to say no, but something stopped him, "Maybe."