Chapter 7
Little cliff hanger at the end. Sarcastic House throughout and fluff.
Disclaimer: Virgin say that they're still accepting tickets to the moon. But I don't have the money or fame to buy a ticket, therefore the rest is implied. But if I did, I would go to the moon!
7 months on ...
House was sat at his desk, reading a copy of the New Jersey Medical Journal. Well, more like criticising the moron who had written this piece. It was a hobby of his to go through and underline the incorrect information and edit it. Then send it back to the moron who wrote it. Most of the time he didn't receive a reply (probably due to his unkindly remarks) but did see an edited edition online.
He had just finished a case. It was a relatively easy diagnosis of ALS. However, it presented in a person who had a Spinal Cord Injury from the waist down. So numbness in the limbs, trouble walking and clumsiness was a little hard to asses since he was already in a wheelchair.
In that moment, Foreman strolled In. "We've ran the DNA test and it came back positive for ALS."
Without even looking up, he replied "Why did you come here to tell me something I already knew? Go tell the patient, prescribe him with Blacofen and get rid of him."
Foreman tutted in disgust at House's comment. "You really are that cold. The guys going to find out he has ALS on top of the shitty Spinal Cord Injury and you don't care?"
House finally looked up from his journal with a face of mock shock.
"Cameron! You've changed colour! And you've got a ..." House pointed to Foreman's lower area.
Ignoring Houses comments, Foreman continued. "You can't just discharge him like that House, he's going to need a bigger network of support. He needs to be transferred to a specialist."
House sighed. His team had got attached to SCI guy. Even the usually indifferent Foreman had got attached. It pissed him off when that happened. Granted, it happened rarely but still, it seemed that he would have to deal with this himself. He took his glasses off, stood up and grabbed his cane.
"Fine, I'll deal with it. Go find another case or finish my Clinic hours." House stopped and turned around, having an idea. "Actually go do my Clinic hours and find a case at the same time. If you don't, daddy will get upset." With a pout, he turned and left Foreman.
House opened the glass doors of the patients room and slammed his cane down on the metal railings of the bed.
"I'm Dr House, the lead Doctor on your case."
The patient offered his hand out to shake but House ignored it.
"You have ALS or Motor Neuton Disease." He said as if he was telling him he had the common cold in the clinic.
There was an awkward silence for a while. The patient had a mutual expression that House couldn't read. Finally, the patient looked up towards House.
"That's shit then, at least I'll be like Stephen Hawken." SCI guy acted like he had been told he had the common cold and then just accepted that he would be sneezing for a week.
House was thrown off by the comment. He had expected some emotional outburst about his life being shit already and how he didn't deserve this. Followed by him bursting out in tears. But definitely not this.
"You do know what that means right? You will need constant care for the rest of your short life. If you have no family or friends, you would probably have to move into a care home. You will lose control of all your body and your mind will be trapped. So, it's not exactly good."
"I know, but there's not exactly much I can do about it. Complaining isn't exactly going to help."
He liked this guy. He could see why the team had taken a liking to him. No stupid crying or shouting. Just acceptance.
"I'm going to refer you to a specialist who will be able to follow up on your care as well as provide practical and emotional support for yourself and any friends or family."
House settled into a comfortable spiel.
"I don't have any family or friends that would really care that much."
"So John Bon Jovi was incorrect then?" House tested. 'Let's see if he knows the lyrics' he thought.
The patient smiled. "I'm my own island." House definitely appreciated the guys knowledge. He decided he would sit down. His leg was bothering him again and standing still for set periods of time did him no good.
"So, what are you going to do?" House questioned. He was surprisingly interested.
"Dunno" SCI guy replied. "Probably continue living in my apartment until it gets bad enough that I can't and then off my self." He let out a small smirk at the end.
"You know, I am supposed to report that and you'll get dragged away for psych evaluation, but because I like you and I can't be bothered with the paper work, I'll let it be."
House couldn't help but sympathise with the guy. He would probably do the same to be honest. It was a cruel and undignified way to die. But nobody died with dignity.
"You know, there's some alright nursing homes you could try. There's even some that don't smell of pee. Or you could try assisted living?"
He scoffed at Houses suggestion.
"Yeah and have someone wipe my ass for me and dress me. Been there, done that, got the T-shirt." He gestured to his useless lower body. "Don't really fancy doing that again, would you?"
House looked down towards his battered leg. He had been there. After the infarction, he was wheeled around like a rag doll. People washing him and dressing him. Cleaning his catheterisation because he couldn't get to the toilet. He was brought back to the present by a nurse checking SCI's vitals. As soon as the nurse left, the patient spoke.
"Your leg I guess? You've been there so you know what I mean." He said. It seemed like they were on the same page. Able to read each others minds. House had to put a stop to this. He abruptly stood up and grabbed a piece of paper.
"Go write a paper proving Black Holes exist or that String Theory is true or something and then find someone to help you off yourself. In the mean time, here's the name of a good care facility, an hour outside Princeton. If you change you're mind, consider them. It doesn't smell like pee and the staff are quite cool. I'll put in you're referall to the specialist."
With that, he left.
That's one of the reasons why he didn't see patients. The other was because he would end up punching them if they got too annoying or asked stupid questions.
People didn't believe it but he could get quite easily attached to people. It was then hard to let go when they eventually rejected him or didn't need him anymore. He'd learnt this the hard way with a patient before. Ester. He would never forget Ester.
Time to go see Wilson. He needed a distraction.
He burst through Wilson's office door.
"Entertain me, monkey!" House shouted.
"House! First of all I'm not your personal source of entertainment. There's you're ducklings for that. Secondly I'm with a patient!" Wilson exclaimed loudly, with hand gestures expressing his displeasure.
House turned to the poor, startled elderly woman. "You have cancer. By the look on your face and the tissue in you're hand, it's terminal. Go cry with your son or something."
"I don't have a son." She sobbed.
"Well, daughter then. Anywhere but here. I need a consult on someone we can actually save. Dr Wilson will contact you when he's available." He opened the door and gestured for the woman to leave. In a state of shock, she obliged and left.
"House, you can't just barge in here and demand my attention every time you're bored. I have a job to do!" Wilson stood with hands on hips, his bushy eyebrows pointing very obviously down. House just ignored his blatant anger and plopped down on the sofa.
"I solved the case. Pretty boring really. Just ALS. Well ... for him it's a debilitating genetic disease." He rubbed his forehead subconsciously and started at the ceiling.
"It's bothered you hasn't it?"
House looked up at Wilson, who was now standing quite close, hovering over him.
"What are you talking about?" 'Try and throw off the sent, maybe that will work' House reasoned.
"The guy with ALS, he got to you somehow. You must of talked to him. He must of said something that resonated with you." Wilson was quick to catch on.
'Dammit, I'm busted. Why did I come to Wilson?' His internal thoughts told him.
"He wanted to end it when it got bad. Don't blame him. Now, let's talk about something else." He was getting agitated now at Wilson's mothering.
Wilson contemplated if he should leave it or not. He could push, but that might make House more frustrated. But his maternal instincts were telling him to push the subject.
"So, isn't it Danny's competition tonight?" He decided to let it drop. Times had changed. If House was truly upset he would seek him for himself. Sometimes House just needed company. And today was on of these times.
"Shit!" House bolted into a sitting position and checked his watch. 5:15. He was due home 15 minutes ago.
"Wilson grab your stuff, we need to go." Wilson quickly understood and started fiddling around with his stuff and his brief case. That infuriated House more. He went to Wilson's desk and started stuffing random papers in and then his laptop.
"House, they're organised!" He winged but didn't stop him.
"Grab your coat, we need to go otherwise we'll be late." They rushed to Wilson's car.
Wilson frantically started searching for his keys. He must of left them in the office or something.
"I can't find my ..." House had already unlocked the car and was sat in the drivers seat.
"I wasn't going to let you go at snails pace Wilson"
The car journey was mostly spent in silence. Or terrified silence for Wilson as they ran 3 red lights.
House jumped out the car, yelling something at Wilson.
He burst through the door to his home, completely out of breath. Zoe was sat watching TV with Daniel.
"Danny, I'm so sorry I'm late." He gasped while trying to catch his breath.
"Dad! I thought you had forgotten!" He ran towards House and hugged his good leg. Zoe stood up to grab her stuff.
"He's been excited since leaving school you know. You could of at least bothered to turn up on time." She snarled at him. She loved Danny but got annoyed at House for his long work hours. She knew he was a doctor but didn't think it was fair on Dan the long hours his father sometimes worked.
House reached into his pocket and gave Zoe her money before shooing her away.
He turned to his son who was still clinging to his leg.
"Of course I didn't forget, I just got delayed." He ruffled his sons hair and Danny let go of his leg. "We still have two hours before we need to get there. So, do you want to get some practice in whilst James cooks?"
"Yeah. I think I need it." Danny's excitement had obviously turned to nerves.
"Nah, you've got this kid. You're going to kick all the others out of the park. Also, you had the best teachers." House smirked at Danny. He pointed to the piano bench. "Go plonk your bottom on that chair, whilst I got to the toilet. James will be here soon."
House hobbled off to the toilet. He could hear Dan start to play his warm up that House had taught him. Danny had technically started learning the piano as soon as he could walk and talk. Jen insisted on teaching her son. So they would sit down every night and Jen would teach Dan basic notes and tunes. Then the accident happened. House couldn't touch the piano for a year afterwards. The ghost of her touch used to haunt House as he stared at the keys. But gradually he began to start playing his keyboard again. Dan was always fascinated by the sound and movement of his hands. Two years on he decided to play the baby grand again. He started to re-teach Dan . The ghost of Jens musical gift now inspired them and lived within the music Dan played.
He hobbled back into the living room. He stopped in the doorway and watched Danny's brown curly hair bob up and down with the music. House waited until he finished his last note.
"You missed only two notes. It still sounded amazing but we should probably run through it again."
House took control of the piano and played the part he struggled with the most. He played it slowly, singing the notes he was playing as he went. It always helped Danny remember.
Wilson walked into the apartment, dressed in a white dress shirt and matching royal blue tie and trousers. His dress shoes polished to the point that you could nearly see you're face in the black leather.
He watched both father and son sat at the Baby Grand. Both enthralled in the music. It always made Wilson smile, to this day, to see them so happy and content. He didn't want to ruin the moment but the clock was ticking.
"Right you two, you need to get dressed. We have to go in 30 minutes." Wilson announced. Both Danny and House jumped at the sound. They both had completely missed that he had been standing there for about 5 minutes.
"Uncky! You scared me!" Danny exclaimed as he jumped off the bench and headed towards Wilson to give him a quick hug before going off to his bedroom.
"You took your time, I thought you were making food for us? Or did you have to blow dry your hair?" House hobbled towards his cane and picked it up.
"I thought we could grab something on the way back, as a treat for him." There was a buffet laid on after but he knew that both House and Danny wouldn't really be bothered to stay that long.
House contemplated this and then nodded in agreement.
"Alright, But could you make him a sandwich to eat in the car? He'll get Hangry otherwise." House said before turning towards his room.
"Don't put any sauce in it though!" He quickly exclaimed as he remembered white shirt plus tomato sauce plus child equalled disaster.
"I'm not stupid House" he shouted back before heading towards the kitchen.
Danny appeared 10 minutes later holding his tie and black shoes.
"Can you help me Unc? I don't wanna mess up my tie."
Wilson smiled and tied Danny's tie and helped him with his shoes.
House appeared 5 minutes later, clean shaved.
"Wow Danny, have you seen you're Dad? All I can see is a clean shaved, respectable man in front of me." Danny giggled.
"That was lame, even for you. Also, who's idea was it to wear matching navy blue suits?" House adjusted his tie. To be honest, he didn't really mind the suits. He actually thought it was a sweet idea. But he would never admit that.
"It was Dan's and you two look so handsome. Picture time I think." Wilson pulled out his phone whilst House stared disapprovingly at him. Eventually he put his arm around Danny's shoulder. Danny grinned straight at the camera.
"You both look beautiful."
"It's not prom night Wilson. I'm not an anorexic teenage girl." House tutted and grabbed his car keys.
"Times ticking boys, lets go!" He turned to them before holding open the door.
—
"Lady's and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls. Welcome to the 26th annual New Jersey ..."
"Why did we have to get here so earllyy? All they do is ramble. It gets on my tits." House winged as he listened to the man dressed in a tux drone on about talent and young people and whatever else.
"Shut up House and listen. We both have to sit here and listen to this crap."
They sat for 20 minutes through gratitudes and picture slideshows. Finally, the first kid came up on stage and started playing.
"He's missed a note there." He got some angry shushing noises from around him.
"House, he's 10. Shut up."
These comments continued throughout. From 'it's out of tune' to 'she's playing like a robot.'
Finally, it was Dans turn to shine. Backstage, he was panicking. Hands shaking slightly. He didn't like big crowds. But his music teacher at school signed him up, never thinking that he would get to the finals. With a few deep breaths, he tried to think of the small memory of it just being his mum and him. She used to play him lullabies to get him to sleep when dad was at work. It always helped to calm him down. It was his only memory he had of his mum before.
The tux man returned to the stage after the applause.
"Our next performer is something of a young protege. His musical abilities are inspirational to us all, following the steps of his talented mother Jenifer Greyson- House. All of us wish the best to her family after such a tragic event that happened 4 years ago. He is the youngest contestant we have ever had make the finals. We are very proud to welcome Mr Daniel James House, playing Rainbow Prelude by Chopin Blad.
The crowd applauded Dan onto the stage. He took his seat and stared at the black and white keys. He kept his focus on his mum. Of that memory. As soon as he focused, the music flowed out of him. His fingers dancing over the keys. At that moment, he didn't see the crowd of people watching him closely. At that moment, he saw his mums smile, he heard the laughter of his dad and the feeling of his mother's soft kiss on his forehead. At that moment he felt free.
He was shaken from his memories by the cheering of the crowd. At that moment it didn't matter if he didn't win. He knew he had made his parents proud.
Wilson was clapping wildly. He was so proud of his adopted nephew. He had given it his all.
"He was amazing House, truly amazing." He looked over to see House staring at his son, tears in his eyes and his mouth curled up. Wilson put his arm around Houses shoulder. Surprisingly, he didn't back away from it.
"That's my son Wilson. That's my little boy up there." He almost whispered to Wilson when the clapping had calmed. He had never seen House like this. He seemed to be completely overwhelmed with pure emotion and pride.
"I know House, you're doing a great job. You're a brilliant dad." They both shared that special moment together. House allowing Wilson within his walls.
After a few more kids had been up, they prepared to announce the winners.
"Well done to every talented child here tonight. You were all absolutely amazing tonight."
"Blah blah blah" House thought.
"In third place, Johnathan Howards" the young boy jumped up in joy and collected his trophy.
"In a very close second place, Daniel House" Danny stood up, grinning with excitement, he shook the tux man's hand and accepted the trophy. Tux man bent down and whispered in Danny's ear "Next year, first place will be your's. I can promise you that."
Meanwhile, Cuddy was watching with warmth in her heart. She always came to the state finals as it was held just outside Princeton. She came to represent the hospital as it was a good chance for profiling, but she also enjoyed listening to the children play. She hoped that one day Rachel would be able to enter. After the main event had finished, she wondered into the buffet that had been layed on afterwards. She was feeling tired after a long day dealing with House's antics again and having boring board meetings. She decided to congratulate the top three, then head home to relieve the babysitter.
Danny met his dad and uncle at the buffet. House saw Danny running towards him and opened his arms wide. He scooped Danny into a tight hug.
"That was brilliant Dan. I was left speechless. I'm so proud of you. And you're mum would be so proud of you as well." House said, joy filling his voice.
"Dadddd stop doing a Wilson!" Dan said lightly and House put him down.
"Yeah. Stop doing a Wilson, House"
They all chuckled as Wilson headed off to the toilet. They didn't notice the slim woman with dark curly hair approach them.
"Daniel! I'm Doctor Lisa ...
"Cuddy" House finished as he looked up and saw Cuddy through the crowd of people.