Disclaimer: All rights belong to Fox and David Shore.
Author's Notes: Special thanks to my beta Ceciilee, for continuing to do such an awesome job editing this fic.
***
House and Wilson's next stop is 'The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University.'
Wilson inquires about Marie at the visitor's center and the woman gives him a dirty look.
"Aren't you too old for Marie?"
"Oh, no I'm not interested in her that way. Actually, I've never met her before."
"Then why do you need to see her?"
"My friend" Wilson points to House who is chatting with one of the tour guide. "Dr. House's son is Marie's boyfriend. He is sick and we need to ask her a few questions."
"Oh my god! Is Jake okay? Let me call Marie immediately."
After informing Marie that Jake's father is in the lobby. The woman apologizes to Wilson and says "we do get a few men harassing Marie so we try to shoo them away."
Wilson arches his brow and says "really? That's a bit scary."
The woman nods her head and replies "tell me about it. Anyway, she should be here in a few minutes."
As is if an angel has just descended from heaven, Wilson is simply stun at the sight he is seeing across the room. House notices his best friend with his mouth open so he follows his eyes and sees a gorgeous blond girl walking down the stairs.
House elbows Wilson and says "stop drooling or you'll have to wait for me in the car."
Wilson snaps out of his trance and replies "oh sorry. Was I that obvious?"
House nods and says "atta boy! Jake sure knows how to pick em."
"Fuck! Jake is my new hero!"
Marie is tall (about 5'9'') with a long blond hair and a perfect super-model body. She has a gorgeous angelic face and beautiful smile. Upon seeing the duo, she immediately walks over to House and asks "Dr. House?"
House extends his hand and introduces himself "Greg House. I'm Jake's Dad."
Marie gives House a warm embrace and kisses him on both cheeks. In a beautiful Swiss accent, Marie introduces herself "I'm Elisabeth Marie Picard. You can call me Marie." She smiles and adds "I can see the strong physical resemblance between you and Jake."
House smirks and replies "it's nice to finally meet you Marie, I've heard so much about you."
He places his arms on Wilson's shoulder and introduces his friend "this is James Wilson."
Marie greets Wilson the same way as she did House and says "it's so nice to meet you Dr. Wilson. Jake speaks of you quite often."
Wilson nervously puts his hands behind his neck and stammers "hi."
House rolls his eyes and quickly asks Marie "do you have a moment?"
"Of course. Is everything alright? Is this about Jake?"
"Yes, that's why I'm here. He suffered organophosphate poisoning. "
"Oh my god! Is he going to alright?"
"Yes, he's undergoing treatment right now. But we need to find out how he got poisoned."
Marie heads towards the arboretum grounds and asks "OP is present in insecticides and herbicides among others. You think he may have gotten it here?"
House nods and asks "did he come by and help plant around here?"
Marie gives a small laugh and says "Jake may be a genius but he has 'black thumb' (opposite of green thumb). He once withered the bamboo that I asked him to plant-sit for a week."
"We found traces of organophosphate on his leather jacket."
"He normally picked me up when I have to stay late at the library but he hardly walked around the grounds of the arboretum. He prefers rowing by the Charles River."
House asks Marie "I understand that you two moved-in to a new apartment about two weeks ago. Did he pick you up or visited you that week?"
Marie thinks for a minute and replies "he came by and picked me for dinner but that was a week before he left. I was assigned to give the walking tour that day. It got chilly mid-way through the tour and he gave me his leather jacket."
"Did you set it down anywhere where they might have treated pesticide on the ground?"
"No, I wore the jacket the whole time. And the arboretum uses Integrated Pest Management (IPM) strategies that rely heavily on natural predators instead of using pesticides and herbicides."
"Did you bring the jacket with you back to the Visitor center or did you hand it back to him?"
"I gave it back to him when I came in to get my backpack." Marie pauses for a minute and adds "Actually, he never came inside because Joe asked if he could talk to Jake in private."
"Who is Joe?"
Marie turns around and points at the security guard. She asks "do you need to talk to Joe?"
House shrugs his shoulder and replies "why not?"
Marie introduces House and Wilson to Joe. She briefly informs Joe that Dr. House needs to ask a few questions about Jake."
Joe asks House "so, you're the JMan's daddy?"
House nods "yes, I'm Jake's Dad."
"You got yourself a good kid. Uh huh. What can I do for you Doc?"
House acknowledged Joe's statement and asks "about two weeks ago, Jake came by to pick up Marie and you asked to speak to Jake in private."
Joe blushes and nods.
"May I ask what did you have to ask him about?"
Joe looks over to Marie and Wilson and says "excuse me, can I speak to the Doc in private?"
Both Wilson and Marie nodded and move a few feet away from the two.
Joe explains to House that he was asking Jake for medical advice about the itchiness in his groin area. "He told me that it's most likely a STD and that I should drop by the University clinic immediately to get it check. He told me that the clinic was free and what I have is probably easily treatable. I followed his advice and I'm doing much better."
House asks "Do you remember if he was wearing a jacket when you were talking to each other?"
"Nu uh. He ain't wearing it. Nu uh, the JMan was holding it."
"How can you be so certain?"
"Because he left it on one of them delivery trucks. By the time we saw it, he and Marie had already left. I called and left him a message that I placed it on one of them lost and found plastic bag and wrote his name on it. JMan picked it up about two or three day after. Uh huh."
"Why the delivery truck?"
"One of them delivery men tripped over something and Jake went over to check on him. Uh huh. I reckon he set his jacket on the truck when he examined him."
"What type of delivery truck?"
"It was one of them rental tree and plant delivery truck. They usually take care of the plant decorations during special events."
House thanks Joe and walks over to Wilson and Marie.
Marie asks "did you find the answer?"
House nods and recounts what Joe had just told him.
Wilson asks "so he picked up the pesticide from the plant farm rental truck?"
House smirks and replies "am I the only one that sees the irony in the fact that arboretum rents plant for special events?"
***
After surviving through the emotional rollercoaster of almost losing the love of her life from a gunman and her eldest son from a health scare, there is nothing more that Cuddy wants than to indulge herself to the wedding of her dreams. In exchange for Cuddy promising not to drag House everywhere, he gives her carte blanche to make decisions on everything. Meaning, he forfeits the right to question or reject her choices on everything. With that Cuddy begins meticulously listing the things she needs for her wedding: the wedding gown, rings, invitations, flowers, cake, decorations, reception, menu, band, music, guest list, seating arrangement, photographer, videographer, etc. Every night after the twins have been tuck-in to bed, she reviews and adds a few things to her list. After three weeks of meticulously planning, she decides that it's time to turn her plan into action. First on the list are the wedding rings. She goes to five jewelry stores but can't decide what she wants so she decides to skip that item on the list for the time being. Second on her list is to select her wedding gown. Cuddy convinces her mom to fly-in one weekend to help her shop for her wedding dress. After trying on about ten dresses, Cuddy decides to skip that one too. She realizes that planning a wedding is not as fun as she thought it would be. Specially, when she sees how much everything costs. She would much rather use the money for her kids' college fund than spend it on her wedding.
House who has grown accustom to Cuddy reviewing her list or reading through bridal magazine every night, notices that she doesn't even open her wedding planner one night.
House asks "so how's the wedding planning going?"
Cuddy shakes her head and replies "Greg, will it be okay if we skip the wedding?"
House takes off his reading glasses "Lise, what's wrong? I thought you wanted to plan the wedding of your dreams."
"I did when I was younger. But with three kids, I just don't think it's practical. I'd rather help dress the twins than shop for a dress that I will only be wearing for a few hours. I'd rather enjoy baking cookies for my boys than trying on menus for the wedding reception. Don't get me wrong, I still love to shop for clothes but I like picking up stuff for my boys too. I guess, our priorities have shifted now that we have a family."
"So do you wanna fly to Vegas for the weekend and get this over with?"
"I want to get it over with, but I don't want to leave the boys."
"Well, why don't we take them with us?"
"Greg! Vegas isn't exactly kid-friendly."
A smug smirk appears on House's face as he gets an idea.
Cuddy asks "Why are you smiling?"
"Because I have an idea."
"Ok, are you going to share this idea?"
"So, here's the deal. Let's go visit city hall tomorrow during our lunch break. Get our marriage license, blood test and buy our wedding rings. After three days, we can come back with the kids and get married."
Cuddy smile and gives House a kiss on the lips "I love that plan!"
House kisses her back and says "Good! Because, there's a part two to that plan."
Part two to House's plan will be revealed in the next and final chapter.
Author's Note #2: This is the penultimate chapter for Minor Setback II. As always, I do appreciate all types of feedback, it's the only way I know if you love, hate or even reading this story ;-)