"ARRRGGGHHHHHHHH!!"
Stacy and Lisa Cuddy had been talking about House's medical dilemma when they rushed into his room when they heard the agonized wail.
"Do something! Anything! Get me out of my misery!" House panted.
"What is it? Where do you feel the pain now?" Cuddy asked, frightened.
"It's a shooting pain...ARRHGGGH! It's going up from the leg to...to...arrggghhhhh!"
"Don't talk now, sweetie!" Stacy cooed, as she wiped the sweat off House's forehead.
"Baby, give me the damned proxy...I'll sign it!" House whispered, gasping for breath.
Stacy looked at House. She was totally taken aback. She expected House to give at least a little resistance. Cuddy had tried to prepare House, by telling him that a medical proxy would be necessary in case anything unforeseen should happen, and he wasn't in any shape to give his approval.
Stacy took the folded paper out of her purse and held it out to House on a clipboard that Cuddy handed her. House scribbled his name carelessly on the form and looked at Stacy, the pain evident on his face.
"How bad is it?" Stacy asked.
"It's bad...it's really bad!" House whispered as he grimaced. "Don't let them take my leg!" he added.
"Would you give up your leg for me?"
"Of course I would!"
"Then why don't you save yourself? Isn't that what you would tell your patient?"
House shook his head slowly. "I would tell them that it was their decision".
"Bullshyte!" Stacy was fuming. "You would not! You'd browbeat them until they were so beaten and humiliated that they would agree to see it your way!"
Stacy hated raising her voice at him, but she didn't like seeing this side of House. It was as though the fight had gone out of him.
"I love you!" House suddenly said softly, as the drugs to induce the coma he requested to be put into started to take effect.
Stacy said, "I love you too!". But the tears in her eyes were not those of happiness. It was the first time Greg House had ever told her he loved her. She wondered if he really meant it, or that he said it in a moment of pure desperation, not knowing whether he was going to make it, and wanting to please her by finally saying it. She didn't know it then, but it would be the first and last time she would ever hear those words from House.
"It's your call now", Cuddy said, as she stood in the room with Stacy, after House had fallen into the medically induced coma.
"What's that other procedure the surgeon suggested?"
"They would remove a lot of the dead tissue, but it would leave him with a permanent limp...are you sure this is what you want to do? There are not many options available, but it would save the leg...surely, House will be happy to know you spared him the amputation?"
"He won't see it that way", Stacy replied sadly, as she told Cuddy to have the surgeon go ahead and do the procedure, which would save House's leg, but leave him with a permanent limp and constant pain.
As the pain in his leg intensified, House thought briefly about Stacy's decision.
'I should've never signed that Goddamned proxy!' House screamed to himself. The pain in his leg was a constant reminder of her betrayal. He could forgive her, but never forget...how could he when his leg hurt day after day? Lately, it had gotten worse. He popped open the Vicodin bottle and swallowed down two pills dry.
He'd just ended their "white board meeting" and House was back in his office, checking emails and rubbing his leg at the same time. The phone rang, causing House to jump slightly out of his chair.
'Who the hell's that?' he wondered, as he glanced at the caller ID. No one called him, unless Cuddy was looking for him to do clinic duty, or the ducklings found the answer to their medical puzzle of the day...he'd just left them, surely they couldn't be calling him already?
But the screen on the caller ID said "Lucy Autry". Lucy Autry?! Terry's sister? He picked it up on the third ring.
"Hello?" House said hesitantly.
"Greg? I mean, Dr. House?" Lucy asked shyly.
"It's Greg, hi Lucy...I, uh, saw your name pop up on the caller id screen", he admitted.
Lucy laughed a little. "Darned technology these days, huh? Can't call anyone without their knowing who it is anymore! Greg, the reason why I'm calling is...well...actually, a friend of mine who moved to Jersey recently, came to be treated at your clinic...she didn't have a primary care physician picked out yet, and she needed to be seen right away...she saw you, and remembered that I had told her Terry had been dating a Greg House...she was surprised because she said the Greg House I had described was way different than the doctor that treated her!"
House actually chuckled. "Yeah, well, I don't have a Marcus Welby bedside manner!" he quipped.
"Indeed! That's what she said! That you were rude and obnoxious, but a great doctor, which is what I've heard about you", Lucy said. "What's changed you, Greg?"
House evaded the question. "So what was it you were calling me about?"
Lucy noticed this but decided to stick to the point. "I, uh, was thinking about calling you for a while now, ever since my friend saw you...I have something I need to tell you".
House sat up erect in his chair, his antennae raised. What could she possibly have to tell him after all these years? That Terry was alive and in some vegetative state somewhere? His mind raced wildly.
"Greg", Lucy began slowly, "Terry was pregnant when she...passed away". Dead silence for a minute.
"What?!" was all that came out of House's mouth. "Why didn't you tell me? And why are you telling me this now?"
"When I called you about the autopsy results, I didn't know at the time...the coroner's office called me and told me they inadvertently left out the fact that they found out she was pregnant, and that they would send me a corrected copy. I didn't tell you because I knew how grief stricken you were, and I didn't want to make it worse".
"Why now?" House demanded, his voice rising. His heart was beating fast and beads of perspiration had broken out on his forehead. His Terry! Pregnant with his child!
"Because I'm leaving the country...I'm going to Iraq with my fiancee. We're getting married in a few days and then it's off to Iraq. He's in the army, and I'm a nurse now, we couldn't bear to be apart, so I decided to take a job there with him...and, you know how dangerous it is over there, and well, in case I don't make it back, I felt I wanted you to know".
But House wasn't listening to her explanation. He mumbled something incoherent, told her it was fine, they spoke a few more minutes, then hung up.
House spun around in his chair, and gazed out the window. He spun around again, opened his desk drawer where his flask of liquor was stored, grabbed it and his cane, and limped slowly out the sliding door, to the balcony outside, which separated his office from James Wilson's.
He leaned over the ledge as he took a swig from the flask, as the tears he hadn't shed in years fell again and ran down both cheeks.
to be cont'd.
