Chapter 14: Mom

Gabrielle wiped her face in the back of her sleeve as she closed the bathroom door behind her. There was nothing that she wanted more than to erase the last five minutes of her life. To simply go on as if it had never even happened. But there was something that she had learned form it. Something that had opened her eyes. Her father ran away from from everything. This was a well known fact, but now she had been wondering about last night's offer. What was he really trying to do?

As she walked down the hall towards the waiting room, she kept her head down. This was her way of avoiding other people, letting them know that she was not about to stop and talk to them.

There she was, the doorway to the waiting room. She stood there and watched him. Head down, deep in thought. She knew that there was more going on in that head of his rather than what was going on with Elisabeth, but she didn't want to go there. "Daddy?" she asked as she slowly walked over.

His head popped up and briefly looked over just to see who she was and then went back to staring at the floor. "What?" he gruffly asked. The last thing he wanted to hear about was what he should be doing. He knew that she had most likely been talking to Cuddy and he knew that he should go check on her, but he couldn't He couldn't been himself to see that constant reminder of what was really going on. He wanted to be there for her, but every time that he saw her face, he would see Elisabeth, he would see what he was truly at risk of losing.

Gabrielle sighed. This was going to be hard to bring up, but she had to sometime and this was the time for it to be done. Crossing her arms. she sat down on the arm of the chair. "Why did you invite me to go to New York with you last night?"

"I don't know," House said showing his frustration. This was not something that he wanted to think about, he had more important things on his mind. "Why does it matter?"

"Because it doesn't seem right that you would just all the sudden ask me to go somewhere with you and without everyone else. Especially right after someone gets sick."

"Nothing's ever going to be perfect, but the whole world doesn't stop for every little incident."

Gabrielle stood up. "I just don't want you using me as an excuse to run away from your problems." With that, she turned and walked away.

House just sat there and watched her walk off. "Right," he said softly to himself.

Cuddy walked back into the building and slipped into her office. She made sure that the blinds were pulled and that the door was locked. There was no way that anyone could see her like this.

Slowly, but surely, she made it over to the couch and plopped down. It had taken a lot of effort, but she had made it there before she broke down. For the next few minutes all she wanted to do was just sit there and let the tears go.

Gabrielle went and sat in her father's office. She left the blinds closed and then lights off. There was sun outside, but the room was still dim. There was blank paper before her, so she had decided to just go ahead and use it to draw.

One of the reasons she loved to draw was because it took a lot of her attention. It was something that she had to really focus on. It distracted her from what was going on around her.

"Gabi?"

Gabrielle looked up. It was Cuddy. She had no idea how long she had been sitting in the office, but she had known that drawing seemed to pass the time very quickly. "Yeah?" she asked expecting that she was going to mention something about going home.

"Earlier," Cuddy started.

"Look, I really don't want to talk about it," Gabrielle coldly stated. She set the pencil down and looked up. She knew that she shouldn't be, but she was still mad at her. The words earlier had stung her, and when she entered the room, the feelings were brought back.

Cuddy was slightly taken aback by her reaction. "I understand," Cuddy said. "But I would still like to say sorry."

Gabrielle still sat there, giving her the same look. "Accepted." There was no emotion what so ever.

"Right," Cuddy said. Again, tears were starting to form in her eyes. She tried her hardest to fight them. The last thing she wanted was for people to see her cry right now. "I'll be over at the waiting room." She got the to door and then paused. Looking back, she kept her hand on the handle. "You know when I earlier said that I didn't want to lose any of my kids? You're one of them," she said and then waited a second before she opened the door.

Gabrielle sat there at the desk and slowly laid her head down.

Gabrielle sat there at the desk until House came to his office. "What's with you?" he asked.

Gabrielle lifted her head. "Nothing," she lied. "How is everything going?" she asked trying to get off topic.

House took a seat. "Well," he said as he set his cane down. "I haven't heard anything yet, so I guess that's a good sign."

Gabrielle just watched him for a second. She was still stuck on the idea that he was about to use her. What got her though, was that she wasn't as hurt as she thought that she should be. "About New York again," she started.

House rolled his eyes. "If you don't wanna go all you have to say is that you don't wanna go."

"I wanna go, but I also think that Lisa should come," Gabrielle said.

"Fine, its a deal," he said.

Gabrielle stood up. "Really? That's it?" she asked.

House leaned back and closed his eyes. "Yep."

Gabrielle folded her arms and leaned back against the wall opposite from House. "Okay then," she said. "You're better than I thought," she said and then left.

She was still feeling bad about earlier, which she knew she should. Without any hesitation, she turned and walked down the hall and made her way to the waiting room, where she knew Cuddy would be.

When she got there she scoped out the room and finally spotted her. Walking over to join her she could hear other conversations going on about what they would do once they got out of there and what was going to happen from now on, all of the stuff that had somehow become unimportant to her at the moment.

"Lisa?"

Cuddy, who was staring down towards the ground, looked up. "Hey," she said. Her voice trembling and face red.

"I just wanted you to know, I'm not mad at you," Gabrielle sat down beside her. "And I completely understand your reaction. "I should've asked about Elisabeth before anything else."

"Thank you," Cuddy said.

"Sure. And also, I know that the surgery is tomorrow. I can have Ally help me out with Rachel and Jessica if you and Daddy want to stay here the entire time."

Cuddy slightly laughed. "I don't think I could do that to you. Besides, there's no way that Greg would let me stay the night here, which really he's right, I have other babies to take care of."

"All right then," Gabrielle said as she stood up. "I just want you to know that if you need anything at all."

Cuddy smiled up to her. "Thanks for the offer," she said.

"Well, I'm gonna go back and finish drawing, do whatever," Gabrielle said and then turned to leave.

"See ya," Cuddy said.

"Bye mom," Gabrielle said as she walked off.

Cuddy quickly looked towards Gabrielle with surprise. When it had finally hit her what Gabrielle had said, a small smile came across her face.