Chapter 35 In Which House Feels the Love
Gregory House loved very few things about his life, but what he loved he really appreciated. There was his job. He loved his job. No, not really. More specifically he loved being where he had access to Cuddy and Wilson on a daily basis. He loved the free meals that he begged, borrowed, and stole from Wilson. He loved the banter with Cuddy. It was just business, sometimes it was said in anger and sometimes said in fun, but it always smoldered with hidden meanings. He loved the puzzles. A high that House never got tired of was finally getting a diagnosis right after hours, or days, or weeks of a medical mystery.
House loved his music. His guitar, his piano, his harmonica had the capacity to restore House to normalcy after a long day. They could take away his pain for awhile. His instruments could lift his mood or express emotional pain that was too deep for words. His old vinyl albums could take him back to his youth. The time he spent in college and med school were the best times of his life. He learned that he was more than his father told him he could ever be. He learned that emotional pain wasn't always part of the definition of love. He met Cuddy and had spent time with her studying while her "Best of Bread" album or John Denver, or Carole King, Elton John, Simon and Garfunkel, or James Taylor played in the background. That was all Lisa's music. He grew to love it as he grew to love her, though most of it he would never have chosen to listen to himself.
Strangest of all, he loved the Daycare. Those children were life to him. They had ready smiles on a daily basis. They always said exactly what they were thinking and it usually made House laugh. These kids drove the cynicism away from House for a time each day and made him feel hopeful. They made him want to walk into the hospital at a ridiculously early hour every day. Today was no exception.
House arrived a little later that usual on this occasion. He had been distracted by his own thoughts and had lost track of time. Fortunately, Amy had arrived on time and gotten the room prepared for the day. She was in a good mood, as well.
"I think it may be a slow day in the clinic" House said to Amy"
"Why's that, Greg?" responded Amy.
"Everyone must have Spring Fever and we can't cure that at the clinic!"
Amy turned and stared at House. He had a big, silly grin on his face. "You have the worst case of it I've ever seen, and of all the people I know, I would have guessed you to be the least susceptible to Spring Fever!"
"Don't tell anyone, please!" asked House. "I don't want to ruin the look of shock on people's faces when they see me smile. If I'm really lucky I might get to see someone faint!"
Amy laughed; despite House's, smile it was the same guy on the inside!
Soon children started entering the room. Sheila was the first and she entered the room smiling and running to House.
"Mr. Greg! I brought you flowers" Sheila handed House a bouquet of bright yellow dandelions.
House took the gift with the enthusiasm in which they had been offered. "I don't think anyone has ever brought me flowers before, Sheila, thank you! They are very pretty!"
Sheila beamed!
"Let's find some water to put these in," suggested House. He found a plastic cup that would suit perfectly. He filled the cup with water and placed the dandelions within.
Jackie was next to arrive, and Alex was right behind her.
"Mr. Greg, look what we brought you!" said Jackie.
"We weren't together but we did the same thing!" added Alex.
Both children handed House big bunches of dandelions.
"Wow!" said House "Great minds think alike."
"What?" both children responded.
"It means that both of you had a really great idea!" clarified House. "Sheila had a great idea, too. I will put what both of you brought me in the cup with hers."
"How will you know which flowers I brought?" asked Alex?
"Intuition" responded House. "I will know that all of these flowers were given with love and every time I look at them I will think of all of you.
"Now, how about I give you the gift of knowledge? After today, every time you look at a flower you might think of me and remember what I taught you."
House looked around the room and discovered that the dandelions were the only live flowers in the room. They were too complex for what he intended to teach the children. As he settled himself on a child-sized chair at the table the children ran to get paper and colored pencils at House's request. The children loved to have House draw for them. Although they probably couldn't have put it into words, there was a sense of amazement that such large hand could do such delicate work. Amy understood their fascination entirely and while she kept the littlest ones busy so that the doctor could work with the older children, she kept an eye on House, as well.
House had placed three pieces of paper on the table in front of him; one for each child who had brought him the dandelions. He decided to work from the bottom up. House deftly drew a stem on each of the three papers.
"This is called a…."
"Stem!" shouted three little voices.
"That's right. A stem has two other names and I bet you don't know what those names are." Three children shook there heads. Amy shook hers, too, but that went unnoticed. "The first is pedicel and the other is peduncle" the children giggled at the sound of the second name."
"Write those "P" names on my paper so my Mama can see it. I don't want her thinkin' I'm sayin' bad words!" said Jackie. " 'specially the pee-dunk one!"
"Me too!" shouted Sheila and Alex.
"A little less noise there," said House in his best formal British accent. Although the pharmacy couldn't read his scripts the labeling on the children's papers could only be described as elegant.
"At the top of the peduncle (he added emphasis to the word because he knew it would amuse them) is the receptacle." It holds the bud, the baby flower, and then adds support once the flower blooms." He drew three receptacles and labeled them.
"Next are the sepals," added House as he drew them on the children's papers. "They cover the flower bud and then look like pretty green leaves just under the flower once the bud opens."
House then drew on each page an object that looked like a long-necked vase with a bulb on the bottom and a thick lip on top. As he drew, he said…
"This is the carpel, or pistil, of the flower. This round-ish part on the bottom is called the ovary, the long part is called the style, and the stigma is this wide part at the top. The stigma catches the pollen; the style moves the pollen to the ovary." House looked up and smiled at the enrapt children.
"I have two more parts to tell you about and three more new words. Are you still with me?" The children nodded silently.
"These are the stamen." He drew three stamens to either side of each pistil ". The long filament holds up the anther, which looks just a little like two grains of rice side by side, This is where the pollen comes from."
"Alright, what are our flowers missing?" asked House.
"Petals!" responded Alex.
"You are right, young man! These flowers need petals. Now each of you tell me what color you want your flower to be."
"I want an orange flower," said Jackie.
House drew a cross-section of a poppy around the anatomy of the flower. Next to that, he drew an entire poppy. Amy wished that she could have one of House's works of art.
"You are next, my dear," said House as he looked at Sheila.
"Oh, Mr. Greg, you know….Pink!"
"I should have guessed." First he added the cross-section of a pink tulip to Sheila's paper and then he drew a delicate pink tulip to the side. House noticed movement out of the corner of his eye and looked up to see Amy watching the proceedings with interest. He smiled up at her acknowledging her presence.
"Alex, what will you have? asked House.
"I want a red rose with really big thorns!"
"That's my boy!" responded House, not at all surprised by the boy's request. Again, House drew a cross-section and then added a robust red rose with exaggerated thorns on the stem. It was, once again, a work of art. House added his illegible signature to each page and then handed each child their own picture.
Once the children had left for class, House set to work on one more picture. This time he drew a bouquet in a simple vase for Amy. He included the flowers that he had drawn for the children as well as daisies, because he had overheard her telling a child that her favorite flower was a daisy. At the bottom of the page he wrote in a lovely calligraphy:
"For Amy
~ Because you so willingly share your children with me ~
Greg House"
House then gathered up the pencils and the picture and headed over to the metal cabinet in which they were kept. There, he found a spool of narrow yellow ribbon. He cut a length of the ribbon, carefully rolled the paper, and tied the ribbon around it. Before he left the daycare, he placed the picture in Amy's mailbox.