Title: Contagious
Chapter Thirty-Seven: Family Reunions and a Brief Reprieve
House watched as the three siblings paced nervously, awaiting the arrival of their extended family. As this took place, House realized just why Allison paced so much, it was heredity.
"Would you three calm down. It's your family, not the firing squad." Lolie soothed from her spot on the couch.
"You haven't met our mom's oldest brother." Bryce grunted. "You remember what he said to Ally at Jakob's open house, don't you?" He said to his brother.
"In the room, you know." Allison waved her hand.
"Don't even get me started." Stephen replied without a hesitation from Allison's comment. He had a look of deep seeded anger on his face that apparently hadn't dissipated over the years. "She handled herself really well though. She didn't cry or even raise her voice!"
"Still in the room." Allison said again.
"We know, Ally." Stephen continued pacing, nearly running into Bryce. "But still, he had no right-"
"Your uncle Louis and Aunt Rosie are here." Jennifer called from the doorway.
"Hi, Jenny." Aunt Rosie gave her baby sister a peck on the cheek. "Now where are my wayward niece and nephews?" She peaked around the corner and saw everyone standing impatiently in the living room. "AH!" She threw her purse onto the kitchen counter and started hugging the three of them and then everyone else but House, who she gave a considering look to. "You must be Dr. House." She held out her hand and shook House's.
"Greg's fine." House shook her hand politely.
"Oh, look at the munchkin!" Uncle Louis started ruffling Allison's hair like she were still a toddler, but on closer observation, he realized that his fiancee didn't mind the action. "Stephen, still as tall as ever." Uncle Louis laughed, clapping the taller nephew hard on the back.
"Yes, tall as ever and making me look like one of the seven dwarfs." Allison grumbled.
"Your Aunt Carol is going to be here in a bit. All of your cousins are running a bit late. Little Jenny was being cranky. And you know when Little Jenny is cranky then Little Katie doesn't want to do anything either." Aunt Rosie rattled on.
"Head swimming yet?" Allison asked her fiance with a devilish smirk.
"I'll be scuba diving when all of these people show up." House grunted.
Luckily, most of the party goers showed up all at once, and their interest was more focused on the Camerons than on House. Thanking whatever deity was watching over him, House went and ate food, which Mrs. Cameron had to cater out for. By the size of some of the family members, House didn't think that she would be able to make enough food for everyone!
During the get together, House was surprised at how many young children there were. Some still in infancy, others in the late stages of baby talk, others just in their pre-teens, and then the teenagers. House watched Allison holding one of her baby second cousins. He nearly fainted when she took another one, and realized it was a set of twins that she'd been teasing him about a week ago. He prayed that it was not some evil form of foreshadowing.
When Mr. Cameron's family arrived, House spotted the cluster of five girls that Allison had mentioned one of her uncles having. Three were of middle eastern descent, as was her uncle's wife, and the other two, which he realized was a set of twins, were more anglo. House groaned. She hadn't been kidding. She did have twins on both sides!
But as he turned and watched her cooing over the babies in her arms, a small smile tugged at his mouth, and he wondered if he would mind seeing a bundle of their own in her arms sometime in the future. Even if he was old when they were in middle school. Even if he was old and fragile when they got married. He could still enjoy imagining seeing Allison holding their baby someday. Baby! Baby singular! No multiples! He pleaded in his head. But seeing those twins in her arms was cute... Please...
Please, no foreshadowing.
At one point the party moved outside and Allison went and grabbed a CD player and some music to play as everyone ate and talked and joked in the backyard as Kane, Sway, Mari, Zoso (Bryce and Lolie's dog), and Sandy (Mr. and Mrs. Cameron's gold lab) ran around the yard, weaving between party goers in an endless game of tag.
"So, how did you meet Greg?" One of Allison's aunts asked.
"We work together. We were in the same department for about three years, but I just got promoted to head the Immunology department a month or so ago." Allison explained.
"So, you've known each other a while then?" Her aunt asked then smiled awkwardly. "Well... If he makes you happy."
"He does."
"He's a bit anti-social though, isn't he?"
"Trust me, you want him to keep his mouth shut." Allison laughed.
"Talking about me?" House snuck up behind her. "Better be something nice." He teased.
"Oh! So, Greg, what department are you in?"
House hated idle chit-chat, and Allison knew this. She also knew that he was bored out of his skull and unless something interesting happened soon, he was going to cause a scene just for the hell of it. Unluckily for Allison, she already had an uncle who was about to do just that.
"Allison!" Uncle Jordan roared in a deep, rattling voice. Allison watched her uncle wheel over to her. He was missing his left foot, taken by diabetes, and was having a tough time getting his wheelchair to move his girth over the uneven patio in the backyard.
"Hi, Uncle Jordan." Allison waved halfheartedly. "How have you been?" She asked kindly.
"Where's this fiance of yours?" Uncle Jordan asked. House raised his hand, trying to keep the bemused expression off of his face. "Him?"
"Yeah, is there a problem?" House placed his hand on Allison's shoulder, drawing her back ever so slightly. This, apparently, was the uncle that had tried to put Allison down back in the day.
Allison managed to place herself between House and her uncle despite her lover's attempt to shove her elsewhere. She rolled her eyes when her uncle took a swig of his Jack and Coke. There was always a twinge of annoyance when she saw him drink. Not only because it turned him into a complete bastard, but because he was diabetic. Lolie, Stephen, and herself had tried years back to try and have her mother explain this little bit of danger back when Uncle Jordan had been on his way to developing diabetes, but their uncle had just ignored them.
"The only problem I see, is that you look old enough to be her father." Uncle Jordan growled, taking another swig of his drink.
"Well, if we want to discuss problems we're seeing, why don't I give you a breakdown of my own observations. YOU ARE MISSING A FOOT!" House pointed. "You are a diabetic, probably in a middle stage of kidney failure, and you are probably going to be on dialysis by the end of the month. That is if you're still alive. So, if you're going to tell me I'm too old for your niece, then let me tell you to stop drinking, smoking and killing yourself. If you want to die so bad, then either drink the whole bottle or take a gun to your head, and save us all the annoyance of watching you make a fool of yourself. It'll be cheaper than paying the hospital bills you can look forward to in the next couple of months!"
Needless to say, silence had grown all across the yard. Even the dogs had stopped chasing each other, the only noise coming from the CD player. The awkward silence made House realize that everyone was now staring at him and Allison.
Embarrassed and red faced, Allison took off into the house, leaving her fiance to the stares by himself. "Well, that could have gone better." He looked at the people still staring at him, "She's just so happy to see everyone again." House said as he dodged away and in through the backdoor.
Making his way to Allison's room, House heard choking... laughter?
Opening the door, House saw Allison, lying on the bed, stifling her laughter with a pillow.
"You're laughing?"
Allison looked up, her face red and streaming with tears. "I think I know how you felt now. When I told off your dad at Thanksgiving last year." She choked. "No one in our entire family has ever stood up to him."
House shrugged, "It's easy to yell at stupid people."
Allison watched as House flopped onto the bed next to her and gathered her in his arms. He could tell that even though she was laughing, part of her was still anxious. After all, she'd told off his dad in a more private setting, where he had just nearly screamed at her uncle in front of Allison's entire family. Not to mention, he had also pretty much told her uncle to go blow his brains out.
Tactlessness really did suit him in description.
A moment later though, a large congregation had gathered in Allison's bedroom. Her brothers and their spouses, and a few of her cousins were sitting on the floor now, everyone just staring at each other.
"Well, someone had to say it." Allison's cousin Kate shrugged. "We've been trying to get our mom to talk to him about it for the last four months!" She gestured to her brothers.
"Yeah, and mom just kept saying that it was Jordan's choice and blah blah blah." Louis Junior, Kate's brother, rolled his eyes.
"And then dad was going to talk to him, but our mom stopped him." Charles, Kate's other brother, leaned against the foot of the bed.
"Ally, do you still have your Nintendo in here?" Stephen asked, glancing at her little television. The gray box sat, covered in dust in the tv stand. "Wanna fire it up and play some Mario Brothers?"
Everyone laughed and clambered towards the Tv, taking turns and laughing as they played their way through Mario Brothers. During the middle of a later level, Allison's father came up and took in the group. "This brings back memories. You six would play until one in the morning during the summer." He said, sitting down on the bed and watching. "Anyone want to go play some football? Uncle Jordan's left."
"Sure." Everyone chimed in and stood up to go back outside.
House found Mrs. Cameron as he stepped back outside, "I just wanted to apolo-"
"Don't." Jennifer held up her hand. "You seem to be the only one here that says what we're all thinking." She tried to put on a kind smile, but he could see her struggling with it. "My brother has always been difficult to approach, and none of us could muster up enough courage to out bastard him."
"Well, I'm glad my bastardizing finally came in handy." House replied sarcastically.
Jennifer put her hand to her forehead and sighed, "That didn't come out right. Sorry... I just mean, we're all really stubborn."
"No, really? Do you realize how long I've been around Allison?" House asked.
Jennifer laughed. "I'm just saying. As stubborn as we all are, it's either a fight to the death, or we keep our mouths shut. Unfortunately, in this family, we seem to keep our mouths shut over the things we should speak up for."
"Yeah, I never keep my mouth shut, who knows when I'll mistake myself over what is or is not unimportant. I'd rather just speak my mind all the time, than second guess myself and say nothing when it really matters." House left her at that and joined the family members in a game that wasn't really football, but more, one person throws the ball and everyone else tackles each other trying to get to it first. Needless to say, House opted for throwing it.
"You've got a good arm!" Charles called as his brother nearly elbowed him in the face and their sister jumped on his back trying to take him down. Truly, you wouldn't think that, with exception of Allison, everyone playing was in their late thirties and early forties.
"Why don't you give your arm a break and come catch!?" Matthew Cameron hollered after nearly a half hour of the game.
"Can't run." House called back, giving the football another throw.
"Don't worry, neither can Ally!" Louis Junior yelled back.
"He's missing a section of his quadricep in his right leg." Allison explained. "Infarction."
Kate, who was a nurse, was the only family member to blanch at this other than Allison's siblings.
"Well, just tell me when your arm's getting tired." Matthew called once more.
It was well into ten o'clock that night when the party began to break up. Small children were cranky, parents were exhausted, and had a long commute home. At the end of it all, the siblings and their parents were practically dragging their limbs to bed.
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Two days later, when House and Allison arrived once more at their apartment, after a very tiring flight home from her parents' house, both collapsed on the bed. Neither felt like doing much else at this point, but Allison had brought the mail with her and stared at it tiredly from where it lie on the night stand. With a grunt, she picked up the large stack of envelopes and began flipping through it.
"Junk, junk, bill, junk, bill, something from the hospital for you, something from the hospital for me, bill, junk, junk, junk..." Allison felt the heavy envelope and looked at the return address. "Oh! It's Erica's wedding invitation!" She tore it open.
"Who's Erica?" House mumbled from where he was lying on the bed, the "junk", "bill", and "something from the hospital" envelopes lying sorted into piles on his back.
"Erica is Marah's older sister." Allison began flipping through the invitation, and RSVP. "You remember Marah right? She came up from Florida back in February. I didn't get to see much of her because she only came up for that week to see her sister and help her get the planning in motion." Allison grabbed a pen, "You're going with me, right? It's August 4th." She told him as she went to mark him down as her guest on the RSVP.
"Sure." House yawned, his body movement making the stack of envelopes on his back shudder but not lose their places.
"Marah's coming back up from Florida next week to pick up her bride's maid's dress for our wedding and help me out with a few things before she goes back down. I can't wait to see her again!" Allison kept babbling, not feeling as tired as she put the RSPV in the return envelope and licked it, sealing it effectively. "We should all hang out." She turned to look at House and saw that he'd fallen asleep, the stack of envelopes still on his back.
Allison sighed and began to pick them up.
TBC
A/N- Woot!