Chapter 14
A/N: It has been FOREVER! Almost a month again (tsk tsk). I really need to get my act together. But life has been CRAZY, what with year 12 in itself as well as the added pressure of the Cabaret thingy (pics on my website, it anyone is interested…). It was hell fun though, so all worth it!
Anyway, the next chapter should hopefully be quicker than this in coming… I've already written a bit. So thankyou to those reviewers for sticking with me, prinnie, QT Roo, TNIIT, jassy2009, bostonfan, FriendsHolic, GallopGirl, StopTheWorldImGettingDizzy (there will be some Huddy soon!), Chromo26 – you are all my BITCHES. Hahaha no no, I love you. Keep reviewing. Please. No seriously, please. This fic is taking forever to write and I need you as my support team!
On with the story, you batty freak!
00
Emily stepped under the hot stream of the shower, trying her best to get any thoughts of her mother out of her head. She had laid in Chase's arms for a few hours, eyes shut, but still awake. He had dropped off nearly instantly, his steady breathing and light snore not even mildly lulling her to sleep. She had tried counting backwards from 643, a trick that usually worked every time, but still, her worry for her mother had kept her awake.
She should have taken the call. She should have let her mother vent, but Rob was so irresistible, nibbling at her ear and dominating her thoughts.
She was selfish, she decided, as the water pounded down, soothing sore muscles and slicking her long hair against her back. She thought only of her imminent pleasure, rather than caring for a woman who had always cared for her. Well, almost always.
Attempting to run her fingers through her hair, she looked around the shower, eyes searching for at least some shampoo. No sooner had she started looking than her eyes fell upon several bottles of product on three vertically aligned shelves. She smiled as she discovered two of those bottles to be the own brand she uses. She had to stifle a hysterical laugh, as upon closer inspection of the numerous bottles, she discovered them all to be hair products. There was one bottle of orange scented body wash on the bottom shelf, with bottles of shampoo and conditioner – 'for sleek, shiny hair', she noted – sitting next to it. On the middle shelf sat the shampoo and conditioner of her own brand, as well as a bottle of treatment for dry hair. She then found herself clasping her hand over her mouth to stop from making an outrageous snigger-snorting sound as her eyes met the 'color-lock' hair treatment and matching wide toothed comb on the top shelf.
"So many choices," she sniggered quietly, her eyes perusing the shelves for a product to use. She finally settled on the shampoo she was used to, and lathered it into her hair.
00
Chase awoke in the early hours of the morning to the sound of the shower running. He noticed Emily's absence next to him and sat up to look at his bedside clock. 4:52am.
"You've got to be joking me," he muttered, rubbing his eyes with his palms. A grin then played on his lips as he recalled the events of last night, his Emily filled post-coital slumber, and the naked girl now in the shower, hot water cascading over her sleek skin.
He quickly quelled those thoughts however, feeling himself becoming aroused. He ran his fingers through his hair and scanned the floor for his boxer briefs. Locating them he slid out of bed and pulled them on before heading straight back to the warmth and safety of the covers. He then sat patiently, dutifully awaiting for Emily to emerge from the bathroom. It only took a few minutes before he heard the water shut off, and a moment or two later a wet, towel-clad Emily came out of the bathroom. Chase quickly drew his knees up as he saw her there in all her beauty, long hair clinging to her shoulders, and long smooth legs covered in perfect droplets of water. She smiled as she noticed he was awake and walked towards him.
"Hey you," she grinned, sitting on the edge of the bed next to Chase, "sleep well?"
He could only nod, finding himself unable to form any words. He hadn't been in this sort of a situation for a while, and he didn't really want to say anything and risk screwing it up.
She laid a hand on his arm and gave him a regretful smile, running her hand along his hand absently, "I have to go."
"This early?" he asked, trying his best not to sound too upset by this news.
"I wanna get home before mom wakes up," she explained, "I feel kinda guilty for cutting her off last night."
"Well, that did have an upside," he smirked suggestively, tugging playfully at her towel.
"True," she grinned, a little too giddily. Chase took a lock of her loose wet waves in his hand and played with it aimlessly.
"I thought you had straight hair," he commented absently.
"Ah, the wonders of the hair straightener," she smirked, "my hair's almost straight anyway. Just a few kinks."
"Like your personality," he quipped, and she laughed, playfully slapping his knee.
"Well I'm not the one with several different brands of shampoos and hair treatments," she teased. He took the bait and suddenly became a little defensive.
"I just like to keep my hair healthy," he bit, looking a little offended. Emily laughed.
"It's like a salon in there! Which is good though, you had my products," she continued to tease. Chase just rolled his eyes, trying to shrug it off.
"Well I better get dressed," she stated, getting up and collecting her clothes from around the room. Placing them on the bed, she then looked at Chase, oddly expectantly.
"Eyes averted, please," she tsked.
"I saw you naked last night," he stated bluntly.
"Yes, but that was in a romantic context. This is an ugly 'I'm getting dressed' context, and I don't think you're ready for that," she explained with a shake of the head. Chase gave a little fed-up sigh and turned his head in the other direction.
"Thankyou," she proclaimed victoriously, quickly slipping her clothes from the previous night onto her body. Chase, of course, caught the occasional sneak peek. She buttoned her waistcoat and casually tossed her hair over her shoulder before turning around with a happy smile.
"Mkay," she hummed, picking up her shoes as she padded back towards Chase. She sat back down on the edge of the bed, closer to him, and leaned forward brushing his lips lightly with hers. Given the inch he ran a mile, wrapping an arm around her waist and deepening the kiss, her hand moving to his face, lighting cupping his cheek. He ran a hand through her thick hair as she moved to straddle him. The continued this exchange for a while before Emily pulled back quickly, out of breath.
"Okay, I really have to go now," she sighed, grin wide on her face.
"Just a little longer?" Chase pouted.
"If I don't leave now, I never will," she replied regretfully, running a hand affectionately down his chest.
"Bye," she flicked with a quick kiss, before hurriedly moving off the bed, trying to get as far away as she could – otherwise she'd never get away. Chase's gaze lingered after her longingly as she threw him a flashy smile over her shoulder heading out the door.
00
Emily crept into the dark house, the only light coming from the television in the lounge room. She looked in its direction to find her mother lying asleep on the couch, face smooshed against the arm rest, throw from the couch lighting over her body, and the DVD case for 'Yentl' sitting on the coffee table in front of her.
"Oh no," Emily muttered, noting the empty ice cream container sitting next to the DVD case. Disturbed by the sound of Emily's entry, Cuddy began to stir. But before Emily had a chance to quickly escape to her room, Cuddy noticed her.
"Emily?" she mumbled, sitting up groggily. Emily immediately softened, pang of guilt at her heart, and headed back in Cuddy's direction.
"Hey mom," she said sympathetically.
"What time is it?" Cuddy croaked, her voice rough from sleep.
"Early," Emily stated, sitting down on the couch at her mother's feet.
"Early is not a time," Cuddy glared.
"6ish," Emily replied, causing Cuddy to groan, knowing she had to get ready for work soon.
"Hey," Emily offered, touching her mother's calf affectionately, "what happened?"
"Nothing," Cuddy dismissed, sitting herself up properly and trying to avoid the conversation.
"Mom, you watched Yentl. Yentl. Sad, excessively Jewish Barbra Streisand film equals someone is upset. We only watch it when we're sad. Now what happened, were the waiters laughing at you because your date didn't show?" Emily demanded.
"No. Well… yes, actually. They were making bets," she sulked.
"Bets!" Emily sympathised, her eyes wide.
"That's what House thought, anyway. And he was probably right. He's always right…" she muttered.
"House? Dr House was there?"
"He showed up, and made the night a living hell," Cuddy complained.
"Oh no…" Emily bit her lip.
"Yeah. He just wouldn't stop scrutinising my every move, mocking me, like it was the only thing he knew how to do! I was already vulnerable because of Max not showing, and he was just… rubbing it in. And he was saying things about you -"
"What was he saying!" Emily interjected, demanding.
"Nothing I haven't heard before. Going on about how I must be… ashamed of you and Anna, to keep you a secret for so long…" she mumbled. Emily looked down awkwardly, a little embarrassed and hurt. The fact that her mom hadn't told anyone at the hospital about her was always a sore point. Cuddy looked up and saw how uncomfortable Emily looked, and tried to right her wrong.
"But I don't. I'm not. I could never be ashamed of you, Em. You know I love you," she explained, reaching out to take Emily's hand, rubbing it lovingly.
"Then why did you? Keep it a secret," she asked quietly.
"Because… because I didn't want you to get caught up in all that – the gossip mill. They're merciless, at the hospital, they would have torn us all apart. I couldn't bear to have them scrutinising all my life decisions, and I didn't want my job to suffer for it -"
"Of course, your job," Emily bit rather snappily, withdrawing her hand from Cuddy's grasp.
"Em… you know my job is important to me. But you and Anna are more important. If I thought you would suffer because of my choice to keep our private life exactly that, I would have told people. I didn't want them to judge you because of… the way you got here…" she explained, taking Emily's hand back. She kissed the top of it lightly and rubbed it reassuringly, making Emily feel a bit better.
"I'm the one that's meant to be making you feel better," Emily said with a small laugh. Cuddy smiled.
"Well… I'm okay. Nothing a good distraction like work won't fix. House just really got to me last night, that's all. I'll be fine," she explained.
"Good," Emily replied, standing up.
"Oh, how as Bettina's?" Cuddy asked, remembering, "this is a bit of an odd hour to come home, isn't it? I thought you were staying over."
"Oh. I ah, was. But I didn't in the end, I wanted to get home and make sure you were alright," Emily fumbled. It was then Cuddy noticed Emily's hair.
"Why is your hair wet?" she asked.
"I had a shower," she explained quickly, "at Bettina's. You know…"
"You couldn't have waited until you got home for that?" Cuddy asked, raising her eyebrow, knowing something wasn't quite right.
"Well she had, ah, this new hair product. Yeah, and I wanted to try it out, so I did. It's good. Feels shiny," she bluffed.
"Okay…" Cuddy accepted, still a little suspicious.
00
An hour and a half later, Cuddy sat at the breakfast table, right hand wrapped around a mug of hot coffee, and the other playing with a piece of raisin toast. Emily sat opposite her, hunched over a box of Fruit Loops, intermittently shoving handfuls of the sugary cereal into her mouth.
"Busy day?" Emily asked casually, reaching her hand into the box.
"No more than usual," Cuddy replied perfunctorily, eyes on the paper as she put down her toast to turn the page.
"Sounds like I might not be needed then," Emily slithered.
"You're coming. You're not getting out of working that easily," Cuddy replied, eyes gazing up quickly with a slight glare. The both looked up as the sound of shuffling feet brought a pyjama clad Anna through the kitchen.
"Morning," Emily smiled chirpily, eliciting only a grunt from Anna as she plonked down next to Emily, seizing the Fruit Loops box straight out of Emily's grasp and plunging her hand inside. Cuddy looked up with a raised eyebrow as she watched her daughters munching on the cheap dry cereal.
"Nice to know I taught my daughters such great eating habits," she snarked. Anna's gaze met Cuddy's and they quickly looked away, awkward after the events of the previous evening. Emily picked up on this straight away.
"You two bitch fight last night?" she asked bluntly before putting a handful of cereal into her mouth.
"Emily," Cuddy warned, "we did not bitch fight -"
"Mom was the only one being bitchy," Anna interjected.
"Hey!" Cuddy replied, offended.
"Truce! Truce!" Emily cried, putting her hands up defensively. "It is early. Let's not get started. Sorry for bringing it up."
They all went back to their respective activities, Cuddy reading and sipping her coffee, Anna and Emily sharing their box of dry cereal.
"Don't forget dinner at Jimmy's tonight," Cuddy reminded casually.
"Is Julie going to be there?" Emily asked with a slight disdain.
"Julie is his wife, Emily… so probably not," she replied. Anna snickered.
"As far as I know, she will be there. So be civil, please," Cuddy pleaded.
"Hmmm, I'll talk to my life coach about it. He doesn't like it when I suppress my feelings," she quipped, standing up and pushing the box from her seat to in front of Anna. Cuddy rolled her eyes at her daughter's comment.
"I'm gonna go brush my teeth. You know, really rub that sugar in," she trailed off as she walked out of the room, leaving Cuddy with her paper and Anna with her cereal. They sat their quietly, the mood a little icy. Neither felt particularly comfortable around the other following the previous night's fight. Cuddy took a sip of her coffee before sighing and deciding to bite the bullet.
"Anna," she started.
"I can go eat in my room," she replied quickly, standing and grabbing the box.
"No sit," Cuddy swiftly answered, and Anna reluctantly thudded back down into her chair.
"I have an offer for you," Cuddy continued, both hands clutching her mug for confidence.
"Does it involve any sort of anger management classes? Because I'm not doing them again," she replied defensively.
"No -"
"Or therapy? I told you, if I want my head to be shrunk I will do it on my own time -"
"No, Anna. Just listen," Cuddy interjected a little short temperedly. "I was wondering if… you would accept a kind of internship. At the hospital."
Silence.
"You're serious?" Anna scoffed.
"Yes. Emily told me you were thinking of oncology as your specialty - though I know you're still pre-med – and I'm sure James wouldn't mind having you tag along with him, learning a few things -"
"No WAY!" Anna bellowed furiously.
"But I thought you liked -"
"There is no WAY I would ever accept that," she scoffed rudely.
"Anna, this is a good opportunity to -"
"Yeah, not an opportunity I want because you are my mother. I'm not going to accept some sort of educational bribery from you. I don't want to get an internship simply because I am your daughter," she defended.
"It doesn't matter if you're my daughter or not, you are going to study to be a doctor -"
"I'm not studying to be you mother!" she spat.
"Alright that is enough!" Cuddy growled. "I am trying to offer you a genuine opportunity, and all you are doing is throwing it rudely back in my face!"
"I don't want to be 'Dr Cuddy's daughter', that's your style, not mine! I want to be successful in my own right! NOT because of you," Anna snarled, pushing her chair back violently and storming out of the kitchen. Cuddy remained sitting, vein pulsing in her forehead, and regretting the decision to make Anna any sort of offer.
00
A/N: There you go! TENSION in the ranks, my dears. Review, and more will magically appear.
Coming up next… dinner at Jimmy's does not go as Cuddy had planned, with an unexpected surprise throwing her off her feet…