Hello all! sorry this is late! and sorry to those i told that the chapter would be up by wednesday...RL got in the way, which seems to be my excuse everytime...but i think its Valid! twas my b-day on the 4th of this very good month! LOL THAT is my excuse ok!
i REALLY hope that you like this chapter because it took me forever to work out, and it also has my first BIG flashback!
this is super dooper loong, so i really would LOVE it if you'd FEED my addiction and write me some reviews!
thanks to those who did review, and to my new reader/s!
disclaimer: i dont own the lullaby. its a favourite of a friends, and it fitted my scene perfectly!
thanks to my beta, and my buddies for lettting me bounce off ideas on them!
The ride back to Casa Cuddy was a silent and uncomfortable one. It was for Stella at least. She should be used to the stony silence of Lisa Cuddy after 17 years, but she wasn't. Or perhaps it was the fact that a silent Lisa Cuddy was never a good one. It either meant that she was pissed off, thinking of revenge or worse – she was disappointed. She had a feeling that it was a mix of the former and the latter…but not the middle…no, Cuddy wouldn't extract revenge on her own daughter…not the evil deathly kind at least.
As a test to determine exactly how annoyed and angry Cuddy was, Stella reached forward to change the radio station to her Mix radio station - it played a mixture of 60's pop through to the current mainstream music. Probably the best kind of music was from those early era's. Cuddy was listening to a Josh Grobin CD – not that she minded, the guy had really relaxing songs – however the objective was to see if Cuddy would play along in the Radio Station /Music wars, if she didn't it meant that Cuddy was still mad. As Stella went to press the button to switch it back to the radio, Cuddy slapped her hand away.
"You have an IPod, listen to that."
Well, at least she spoke to me. Stella put the earplugs in her ear, and sunk back in her seat like a chagrined 4 year old.
It was 7 pm by the time that they got home and the slight breeze in the air was rustling the leaves of the huge oak tree in her neighbour's yard.
"The calm before the storm." she shut her eyes and breathed in the scent of the rain.
"Too bad it won't last." Stella wasn't just referring to the weather. She was also referring to her mother's mood and the silence.
Dinner was eaten in silence – most of the time. Stella's attempts at an olive branch passing were met with more silence and sighs. They were putting the plates and pans in the dishwasher when she finally snapped.
"Okay I get it, you're annoyed! Mad even…but it's been 3 hours since you've said anything. Don't you think that that's a little extreme? You know, if roles were reversed and it was me playing the 'silent' card, you'd be telling me to stop sulking. Now you may not see this," she motioned between the two of them to indicate the tension, "as sulking, but its bordering on it, and I can't think of another word to describe how you're being other than 'childish'." she finished with the 'finger quotes' gesture.
Cuddy turned away from the fridge and looked at her for a moment, "When Mrs. Perkins comes by tomorrow, and if I'm not here, make sure that you give her the potato bake in the fridge."
Stella gave a growl of frustration. She grabbed her Juice box and the cordless phone off the counter,
"Fine, I'm sorry! I'm sorry that I took your car and your assistant and I'm sorry that I'm a screw up. There. Happy? I can't believe it. Now I'm being a drama queen. When you're done being childish and get your tongue back, I'll be in my room." She turned on her heel, punching the buttons on the phone with her thumb furiously and ran up the stairs towards her room, just refraining from slamming her door. There was going to be only one childish person in the Cuddy household tonight, and her name was Lisa.
"The silent treatment! Can you believe it? What ever happened to 'we should talk things through? Don't go to bed mad-"
Stella's best friend Callie (Cailyn Maple Myers when she was in trouble) sat up on her bed and pulled up her knees, moved the phone to a comfortable position on her shoulder, adjusting the People magazine that now rested against her legs. "What did you do now?"
"Why is it that every time I have an 'issue' you immediately assume that I did something?"
"Uh – because I know you, and if there wasn't some major issue where you didn't do something, you would have said hello first."
Stella rolled her eyes, "Well fine. Hello Cailyn, how are you?"
"I'm good! Now what have you done?"
Stella rolled her eyes. And told her the story, as usual giving her commentary of the conversation – putting in her opinion at the end of whatever some person said. Callie was right when she said that she knew Stella. The two had grown up together, went through kindergarten, middle school and high school together. They were practically sisters, and one would think so, had their difference in appearance been not so blatantly obvious.
"Ooh…Stella likes Jaa-mes! Woooh" Callie started making kissing noises through the phone.
"Oh that's mature! Go figure that you would attach yourself to that rather than the BIG issue."
"That is the big issue! You vowed not to crush on another guy for the remainder of high school – and you're breaking that vow."
"Nooo, I vowed not to date another guy for the remainder of high school. Crushing is different."
"Whatever. Anyway…your mom…."
"Yes, my mom."
"She's just worried about you."
"She's being ridiculous."
"No she's not."
"Callie, 3 hours of not talking to me and 3 hours of sulking? I beg to differ! I can't remember the last time mom sulked! She stole my department!"
"Oh, get over it! Listen, last year was hard for her, hell it was hard for all of us. But it was especially your mom. I mean, she almost lost you. Wouldn't you flip out if your daughter almost died, and then stole your car and went for a drive?"
"No. I would get mad and then move on."
Callie laughed "Uh hun, no you wouldn't. You'd freak out too. You're more like your mom than you think."
"I am not!" it wasn't really an insult…Cuddy was great! But to be compared to an old person…yuck.
"Your mom is just being a mom. Would you rather her scream at you and ground you to an eternity?"
"Screaming yes, grounding no. I don't think that she's even mad. She's acting like she's disappointed with me."
"She probably is you know."
"Cailyn! For a friend you're doing a crap job of making me feel better."
"The world does not revolve around you Stella." Callie laughed patronizingly.
"Well for the moment, let's just say that it does. Don't you think that she was over-reacting just a little bit? With her MAJOR hissy fit at the hospital and the silent treatment I'm getting?" Stella pouted a little, and Callie could hear it through the phone.
"Mmm… yeah… I guess she was a little. Before you say it, 3 hours is a long time. So yes she is sulking." Callie rattled off, but ever the reasonable one, she finished with, "but with valid reasons to. You're her 'baby'."
"Oh shut up! The PPTH is Lisa Cuddy's only 'baby' you know that."
"Oh you're still not moaning and groaning about her blowing off your parent teacher interview for some hospital crisis are you? You LOVED that!"
"I had to take the bus home! In the dark!" she whined
"Build a bridge Stella!"
"I hate you"
"I hate you back"
They both started laughing. When they were done, they both gave a sigh for old times sake.
"You know what's worse? She's making me work in the clinic! The clinic! That's almost as bad as candy striping!"
Callie was caught between groaning and hysterics "Oh. My. God Stella! How about I just drive you to the hardware store myself so that you can get some wood, nails and a hammer and build yourself a bridge to cross?"
Then it suddenly clicked, "Wait a minute! James works there! Oh my gosh Stella! How perfect! Totally Cliché but it works! I mean you already saved him from being fired. Think of all the possibilities!"
Stella scoffed, her bestie was such a romantic "Enough of the Mills and Boon Cal, it's never going to happen. Rule one, don't date mom's employees, rule 2 I don't dip into company ink, ever."
"Oh please, like that's ever going to stick. But I guess you're right, it would be awkward."
"Right, and if we broke up, she'd have to fire him. How awful is that?"
"You assume that she'd fire him. Technically you work for her as well. She could easily fire you instead."
"She wouldn't fire me! I'm her daughter!" Stella sounded aghast at the thought.
"Yeah – she would fire you."
Stella paused for a second, "She wouldn't. Would she?"
It was getting late into the night, and Cuddy was finally coming to terms with the idea that she was going on a blind date. She didn't know what was worse, the fact that she 'met' him on a dating service, or that her teenage daughter had set it up. She was resigned to the fact that her daughter had taken matters into her own hands and practically forcing Cuddy into the wide world of dating. Her last 'serious' relationship had been a disaster waiting to happen. Mark Sanford was your ideal all American poster boy. Devastatingly good looks, athletic and an Ivy League graduate. Her mother's ideal image of her future 'son-in-law'. The only problem was that he was a controlling bastard stuck in the 50's. In the beginning, everything was rosy. He was romantic and charming and treated Stella well, not overlooking her as 'my girlfriend's kid'. But as that relationship grew more serious, to the point of him moving in – his true colours came to light.
He was what Stella despised the most, and the exact opposite of what Cuddy wanted as a partner. He was the domineering Stepford man. They say that opposites attract. That union proved the theory wrong. The girls were independent, having lived just as mother and daughter for just over a decade, and were not about to throw away that way of living and bow down to his needs.
Cuddy was definitely not a homemaker and Stella – well she wasn't your conventional Sunday school teen. Stella made a game of the situation, it was called 'Find Marky's hidden secret'. Boy did she find that secret. With the help of Callie and Luca, and a huge participation on House's behalf ("A real life soap opera - Count me in!"), she dug deep into his past and discovered that he had never attended Brown, but was slowly swindling Cuddy of her 'fortune' and on the side, supporting a girlfriend and 21 month old son.
The entire affair was kept quite due to the high profile of the case, and the money returned, only those close to them knew of what happened. For two whole weeks, Cuddy was holed up in her room on 'personal leave', ridden with humiliation and shame. She couldn't believe that she didn't pick up on the signs. She prided herself on always being able to pick up of the faintest trail of any form of indiscretion and disruption in her life. That was why her hospital was so efficiently ran and why she was so respected among the Deans. She'd had a lot of practice at it, considering she'd employed the most controversial doctor in the United States. Yet, she wasn't able to see through the shiny exterior of Mark's cavalier ways. Even Stella initially had trouble seeing past his façade, but when she did, she did everything in her power to make Cuddy see, but she was lost in his charm – which was so unlike her. In the end, it was Stella who had enough of eating leftovers, steak and salad and mashed taters (the only thing she new how to make that took less effort), to pull Cuddy to her feet, giving her a good 'kick up the bum'.
"Mom, don't beat yourself up about it. I have a theory. Wanna hear it? No? Well too bad. Everybody has to go through some sort of scandal once in their life. You got lucky, I mean, this was an awesome scandal! All the elements to make a good soap opera or even a B grade movie!" Cuddy shot her a look of resigned indignation, "Come on mom, you can't dwell on this forever. Just think of it the way I do. You've gotten yourself into scandal, and a damned good one, making your life, and mine just that tiny bit more interesting. And now, you don't have to worry about waiting for one to pop up. You should be proud that you got yourself such a good one. I mean, how drab would it be if it were just 'Oh woe! My boyfriend/husband cheated on me with the next door neighbour!' At least he wasn't using you to hide his sexuality like the lady down the next street across from us."
Cuddy shook herself out of her reverie and climbed the stairs in search of her daughter. Despite her anger, she missed having her around to bug. The silence was now deafening – and she needed someone to finish painting the nails on her other hand.
As she peered into Stella room, she saw her sitting in the middle of her room, surrounded by the old 'pop' posters that used to adorn one of her bedroom walls. What was now blue tacked there in place of the older posters were colourful collages and abstract pictures done in oil pastels, watercolours and paint – either bought or painted by Stella herself. She painted what ever she felt, or however she saw an object. She never did portraits or landscape paintings, preferring abstract creations – "Abstract is better, because even if it doesn't look like what you were trying to draw…the end result is you still end up with something half decent."
As she watched her daughter contemplate the next stroke of her brush on the canvas – ignoring the fact that she was again painting inside the house against her wishes – she noticed that her posture was tense and her facial expression worried. She looked annoyed and upset, confused even. That painting was going to turn out brilliantly. Cuddy sighed as she was reminded of when she first brought Stella home, when she first sought out her mothers comfort.
flashback
"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!
" It was 4 in the morning and Cuddy was up for the 3rd time that night. She was exhausted and tense, and Stella just would not sleep. She'd tried everything from changing her diaper to nursing her to singing her a lullaby. Eventually one of those would lull her back to sleep, but this time, nothing was working.
"Come on sweetie, what's wrong? You can't be hungry, I just fed you! And your diaper isn't stinky or heavy. Tell mommy what's wrong." But of course she couldn't, she was only a week old, so she just screamed some more. Lisa tried nursing her again but that only caused Stella tense up and wail even louder, scrunching up her tiny fists and flailing about in her arms. Lisa got up and walked around her tiny apartment floor space, wishing her back to sleep,
"Shhh angel, you're going to wake up the neighbours, and mommy really doesn't want to tell them to go to hell." When after 20 minutes, and Stella was still crying, spitting out the pacifier that Lisa had tried relentlessly to get her to suckle on, she decided to take extreme measures and started reciting body parts to her.
"This is your tibia, and your fibula yawn your radius, and ulna and this here is you clayawnvicle." Lisa went on to name a few other bones and organs, but to her despair, Stella just kept wailing and wailing, her face getting redder and redder. Another 20 minutes later and Lisa was at her wits end and was shedding tears herself, Stella had cried so much that she was giving great hiccoughs.
"Dad?"
"Lisa?" came the sleepy reply, "Lisa what's wrong?" "Oh honey, I'll be there in 20."
Frank Cuddy unlocked the door to his only daughter's apartment, and followed the sounds of his crying granddaughter. He found them in Lisa's room, on the bed, while Lisa was trying to soothe her daughter with a lullaby that he used to sing to her when she was a baby, changing the words slightly to fit her :
'Hush, little baby, don't say a word. And if that mockingbird won't sing, And if that diamond ring turns brass, And if that looking glass gets broke, And if that billy goat won't pull, And if that cart and bull fall down, Lisa looked up as she heard her father join in on the last two lines. Stella had quietened a little upon hearing a new voice in the room, long enough for Cuddy to pass her over to her father. She sat back and watched as her father sat in the rocking chair and sung another lullaby, easing her back into a little slumber.
"You made her stop!" Lisa was amazed, it took her dad 5 minutes to calm her own daughter and it took HER 2 hours just to get her to calm down a little.
"I think she just wanted to snuggle with you Hun, you were the exact same way, and you gave your mother hell for the first few months. Here, you might want to feed her again, all that crying worked up an appetite didn't it little lady." He murmured as he watched his granddaughter nuzzle his chest.
Lisa was still in awe as she took her back and began to nurse her, brushing a kiss on her forehead.
"You're doing fine Lisa. Really, I'm proud of you."
"Daddy I couldn't even get her calm. YOU did."
"Shhh, you just need to get used to the signs. Pretty soon you'll figure out what she wants and what she means when she's crying. Trust me, you're doing great."
He pulled his daughter to him and gave her a side long hug and kissed the top of her head. "You're going to be a wonderful mother, I know it."
Lisa had given a great sob, "I can't do this dad! She won't stop crying!"
Mama's gonna buy you a mockingbird
Mama's gonna buy you a diamond ring
Mama's gonna buy you a looking glass
Mama's gonna buy you a billy goat
Mama's gonna buy you a cart and bull
You'll still be the sweetest little baby in town'
end flashback
"Are you just going to stand there all night and stare at me in the creepy 'I remember when' way, or are you going to ask me what you want?" Stella called out, dragging her gaze away from the easel, to look at her mother.
"Um… can you finish doing my nails?"
Stella slowly smiled…one small step for Lisa Cuddy, one semi-giant leap for Stella. She wiped her paint-splattered hands on her track pants which made Cuddy cringe.
"Welcome to my salon, I charge a hug and a half for your act of childishness and your car sometime next week for the nails."
ok that's it for this week!
so PLEASE feed my addiction and tell me what you think! it really helps me pick what to happen next - and aid my ego...LOL
And in the next chapter of The Enigma: The physical debut of Stella's best friend, the Handyman Geoff..and Operation: Dress Dr. Lisa for her Date... hehehehe
Prinnie