Here's to you guys for all the fantastic reviews! You outdid yourselves!
Queen of Blank: No way, Chase belongs to ME! Haha, he's incredible; I love him. Anywho, you're not missing anything in regards to driving; I think it's terrifying, personally, but then that's just because my dad thinks it's a good idea to teach me to parellel park before I learn how to move forward. Anyways, glad you're loving the story, and thanks for reading!
47th Spirit: Glad you like it! I hope you're caught up to this point, I know there are a lot of chapters.
Kris Wright: I don't know how I did it, but I totally destroyed Wilson! I love him on the show, but I'm not particularly good at writing him (as you can see). Hopefully he'll get better in this fic, and will continue to be the Jimmy we all know and love if I write more House fics in the future. I'm so glad you like it!
Reitashnehelena: Wow, that's so cool! You called yourself the biggest fan of this story! Awwwwwww, this must be what it feels like to havea baby and having people stop you in the grocery store and tell you how adorable they are! Haha, I wouldn't know, but thank-you so much, that's so awesome! Glad you enjoyed it!
Nikelodean: Nothing to worry about in regards to the "paternal caretaker" thing. I love him, he loves me (...I think...), we just don't get along sometimes. No worries! I'm so happy to hear that you love the story!
Mrs Ronald Weasley: Haha, I hope you can get caught up in this story; it's so long now, your head will be positively reeling by the time it's finished! Glad you like it.!
Irock708: Here's my update; I hope it was worth waiting for!
Mollisk: Chase is just awesome; he's great fun to write for and equally terrific to watch on the show. Thanks for the review; glad you like it!
Sweet A.K.: Hey, what a coincidence, I love Aussies too! There's something about the accent that makes them seem so easy to love, you know? LOL! But some culture in the world must feel that way about the American accent, so whatever. I'm glad you liked it!
Amber Chase: Here's the update; sorry it took so long! I hope you love it!
WHEW! My hands hurt from typing all of that, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Anywho, here's chapter nineteen, and it's not the best work I've ever done, but whatever, it can't be the worst. But I'll let you be the judge of that. Enjoy!
House had been watching the fascinating exchange of words between Wilson and Chase in the waiting room. His leg was beginning to ache from standing so long, but he couldn't help but be drawn into the argument. It was like watching a train wreck. House shook his head, amused by the primitive discussion taking place. He had almost pulled Foreman and Cameron aside and started taking bets on who would end up victorious, or if anyone would at all…
His attention was suddenly drawn to Julia, who had stood up and started pacing back and forth in a rage. Her voice had brought him out of his thoughts on his observations of Wilson and Chase. "Would you please just stop talking?" she screamed, hands shoved into her pockets, face pointed towards the sky as if asking the heavens for help, or at least the repairman crawling around up there playing the electrical wires.
House felt cruel for letting this go on long enough to upset his daughter, so he hurriedly walked over to them. "Well, done Julia," he commented. "I couldn't have handled that better myself."
She looked happy; Wilson and Chase looked slightly less pleased. Whatever. He didn't need their drama. He had enough of his own to deal with.
"So," he said as he walked over to Julia, eyeing his co-workers warily. "How about if you two kindly go away so I can talk to my daughter alone?"
Chase nodded, appropriately humbled by the supernatural presence of his boss, and pursed his lips. "Let me know if anything happens, will you, Julia?" he asked her. She nodded quickly. "Alright. I'll see you later." He shot House a furtive but very deliberate look, and for once, he really couldn't come up with the right description for it. There was some defiance, mixed with a contradictory respect, and possibly a little bit of something he didn't want to acknowledge as sorrow for his situation. Chase walked away.
House turned to Wilson. "Why don't you follow Dr. Chase's good example?"
"It's a free country," Wilson replied, arching an eyebrow. "I can be here if I want."
House felt the urge to clout him again, right in the lip, in the same place as before. It would certainly be an interesting experiment to see how far he could open the wound again. "What are you?" he asked, sniffing disdainfully. "Eleven? Only kids say that."
"Jimmy, I think you should go," Julia added softly. "I'll find you and let you know if anything changes before the operation's done."
"Alright," Wilson said, giving up the charade. It was one thing for House to kick him out of the waiting room; it was quite another for Julia to do it. "Bye." Wilson left the room as well.
House sat down next to Julia and asked her, "How's it going?"
"I don't know anything," she admitted. "Nothing's happened, that I know of."
"How are you feeling?"
Julia glanced at him in surprise. "I'm not the one having major surgery done on me. I don't have time to think about how I'm feeling."
"You have a life-threatening disease that is just as important as your mother's liver transplant," House told her. "If you want to continue to feel well, even as you wait around for death, I have to know."
"I feel fine," she insisted. "A little tired, but then, sitting awake with an alcoholic all night will do that to you. And as long as we're on the subject of everyone's health, how are you feeling?"
"I've got nothing wrong with me," House said, amused on the surface, panicked below. Everything was wrong with him.
Julia cocked an eyebrow. "Excuse me if I don't share that opinion," she requested.
"Why? What could you possibly think is wrong with me? I have never been violently assaulted like you –"
"I find that hard to believe," Julia said, smiling. "People must attack you all the time, what with the way you talk to them."
"I've been lucky," he relented. "But as I was saying, I've never been assaulted, and while I appreciate alcohol and its ability to make everything seem okay, I am most certainly not addicted to it."
"Well, that's okay. You already have your Vicodin."
He considered that, then nodded as he patted his pocket containing the pill bottle fondly. "As true as that may be, I'm still fine. I function. I work, I eat, I breath, and I sleep very well at night. Sometimes, I even have this thing called fun."
"You've got me beat," Julia said, laughing. Somehow, talking to House took her mind off her mom in a way nothing else could. Maybe he introduced bigger problems to her, more immediate, dangerous problems that required more attention. Like getting through a conversation with him without getting eaten alive. "Why do you need that Vicodin?" It wasn't as if she didn't already know. In fact, it was quite obvious why he needed it. What she didn't know was what had happened.
House's mind was on red-alert. I don't want to tell her this now! he screamed inwardly. "Why aren't you calling me Dad anymore? First it was Dr. House, then Dad, then just House, and now you aren't calling me anything." Nice save. Ever on the offensive, Greg.
"To your face, anyway," Julia said. "To everyone else, I refer to you as 'Father House.' My personal favorite out of the choices I gave you the first day we met."
He rolled his eyes. "Please tell me you're kidding."
"I'm kidding."
"I'm going to have to punish you for such bad behavior," House told her sternly. "No more crosswords out of that book of yours, the one that Cameron and Chase and Foreman gave you. I can see it's having a bad influence."
"You have a lot to learn," Julia said. "You've got to do better than that. That's an Alma thing to do. Not severe enough, doesn't fit the crime, and doesn't teach a lesson."
"What would a normal parent do?"
"I don't know," she said, shrugging. "Grounding, maybe?"
"Corporal punishment," House decided. "I've always been a big fan of that."
"I've had quite enough of corporal punishment, thank-you," Julia said stiffly. "Not to mention the fact that I'm much too old for that sort of thing."
"You live under my roof, you follow my rules," House replied. "That's the way it works."
"I don't live under your roof, though," she said, bringing the conversation to a sudden halt as they both realized that this wasn't playful banter anymore. Isn't that how it always is? One little thing screws it all up, Julia thought. "I mean…"
"I'll tell you what," House mumbled, not believing he was actually doing this. "Your mother won't be out of the ICU for a few days, and that's if we know beyond the shadow of a doubt that everything is going well. Why don't you get a few things together and come spend a night at my place? I've got a t.v., I'm sure I can rustle up some Coca-Cola for you, since you're unlucky enough to be under-age, and we've got a Domino's right down the street. Sound good?"
"Sounds like a party," Julia said, smiling on the inside. He is sooooooo sweet! she gushed in her mind. He's trying to be all tough and manly, but the reality of it is that he wants me, his daughter, to come hang out with him! I wish I could take a picture of him right now, because I want to remember this forever… "I'd love to," she said.
House gave her a quick nod, suddenly nervous about the whole idea. This isn't going to go down like it's supposed to, he predicted. I can feel it. One night will turn into a few, a few nights will turn into a week, a week will turn into a month, and a month will turn into however long it takes until she dies. And she will die. The word terrified him unexpectedly. He wasn't prepared for this, to love someone and then have to watch them fade away. Try as he might, he couldn't prevent either of the two from happening. It was best, he decided, to pretend he had forever to cherish the time he had with his daughter. The unpleasantness of her passing would hurt all the more later, he knew, but letting it get to him now would color the next few months in darkness. "Good," he said. "After we learn what's going on here, we can go back to your place, get your stuff, and then we'll go to my apartment."
Julia nodded, then her eyes caught on something moving rapidly towards them from the OR. She stood up and walked briskly to the door. "Dr. Hayes," she said to the surgeon before he'd even stepped into the waiting room. "What's up?"
House was at her side in an instant, and Hayes talked directly to him, leaving Julia to feel like an eavesdropper. Everyone here felt like she was an intrusion! They didn't respect her position as they should have. If they had been there and seen what she and her mother had been through together, then they would have understood.
"Surgery is complete," he said. Dr. Arnold Hayes was a short and stocky man with almost no hair to speak of. The combination of his chubby, bright face and voice not unlike Piglet's made him the quintessential village idiot, but House knew he wasn't as dumb as he looked and felt it prudent to listen up. "She's being taken to ICU for recovery, and you can see her in a few minutes. I must warn you, though the surgery itself was successful, she's a far cry from well. Her vitals are lower than what they should be, and there's always the risk of rejection." He paused, giving himself a chance to catch his breath and House a chance to glance at Julia to gauge her reaction. Better than I would have expected, he mused. Pale, hands in fists, that hopeless, desperate look in her eyes. Oh, well. At least she's not crying yet. The thought discouraged him, signaling that he had a long way to go before he could consider himself a father. "Ultimately, it's too soon to say anything for Mrs. Peterson, but if she pulls through, that's when the real battle begins. She has to get her alcoholism under control."
"Okay," House said, motioning him away.
"Room 121, for when you go to see her." Dr. Hayes walked away.
Julia, not feeling it necessary to wait for House, hurried into the ICU. "Mom?" she said as she burst into the room. Alma was asleep on the bed, the monitors hooked up to her beeping steadily. She didn't look particularly well, but hell, it was a far cry from being dead. Julia sat down beside her, assuming the same position she had been in for the previous night. She took her hand and kissed it, refusing to cry.
House watched them but didn't come in. Since his "conversation" with Alma and invitation to Julia, he was feeling crowded and wanted some time to him and his thoughts. He was about to turn away and leave, when one particular notion struck him: patients in comas can hear everything said to them.
He brushed a hand across his forehead, feeling little beads of sweat beginning to form. There would be hell to pay when she woke up.
This is shorter than most of my chapters, I know, and not particularly significant in the grand scheme of things. Sorry, friends, I've been a bit distracted lately, but I'm trying to be faithful in updating. Next chapter should be better! I'm going to try not to sacrifice the quality of my work for the sake of being timely, but I so hate having an un-updated story hanging over my head. (And getting lots of reviews helps. Wink, wink.) Thanks for reading!
Also, on three totally unrelated notes:
1) I loathe it when people ask me how much I weigh. (I'm anything but insecure – it's just a pet peeve.)
2) According to my driving teacher, I could have two drinks and still be under the legal BAC limit in Maryland, at least if I was 21.
3) Sunless tanning lotion smells really bad.
Chapter Twenty should be up in a few days!