A couple of people, correctly but post-emptively, commented that this story should be betaed despite the fact it was marked as FIRST DRAFT. I have now posted the corrected chapters of LEGACIES AND LOLLIPOPS.

I thank Taruia for so kindly offering to edit my work. You will see how much a good editor gives to a writer's work without imposing their own words or attitudes on the text. Taruia is a fine editor and she is also the person who provides us with those invaluable transcripts of HOUSE MD at http/malaquent. . I also thank MacNMolly for her invaluable information on microdiscectomy spine surgery.

This story is a continuation of my previous fic "Breakfast with an Orang Utan" therefore the characters behave in character with their shared experiences in that fiction as well as their shared experiences at PPTH as seen on HOUSE MD. All characters from the series HOUSE MD are the property of the producers.

LEGACIES AND LOLLIPOPS - Part Five

Written by Magdala

Editor/Beta Taruia

PART FIVE

I was sitting in the waiting room outside operating theatre, thinking of them cutting into Greg. Frightened for him, but knowing it was his choice this time. If he thought it was right, it would be right. I pulled the envelope with the photographs out of my purse and started to look through them.

"I was told it's double milk and now you take sugar," said Cameron. She startled me I hadn't noticed her come in she apologized for surprising me as she handed me the coffee.

"Last time I sat here it was with Greg while they did the exploratory operation on Mark," I said.

Cameron nodded, sitting down with her coffee.

"I thought you'd be in there," I said. Since I had worked at the hospital I had noticed that while everyone thought of Greg as a solitary man, he was often surrounded by his team. He could be cruel and mean but they respected him and Cameron, well she loved him.

"Chase is assisting and Foreman is in the Gallery. You know what's happening?"

"Steigler ran thought it," I really didn't want the details of the operation I just wanted it over. But I did want to talk about Greg. I had opened up to Wilson and now I wanted other people to know about my time with Greg. I handed some of the photographs to Cameron. I knew she wanted to see them. It occurred to me that if I denied her she might ask Greg about them and I didn't want that. So sharing them, telling her of our experiences in Singapore seemed the better idea.

"I've never seen him smile like that," she said. She was looking at the one of the shots of Greg with the baby Orang Utan.

"That was at Singapore Zoo. No one ever gets to hold the baby, but Greg talked to the keeper and asked if they spoke to Ah Meng, she's the big Orang, in Malay. They told him some of the things they said to her and ... well you know what he is like with languages. When he sat down he looked at Ah Meng and told her she was a beautiful lady in Malay. She handed him the baby just like that. It was incredible, a real privilege," looking at the tiny Orang Utan me smile spontaneously and I noticed it had the same affect on Cameron.

Cameron looked as each shot carefully. "Dr. House looks so happy."

"He was then. We both were."

She turned to the next shot. It was a full length one of us dancing together on the verandah of our suite at Raffles. The young doctor's jaw dropped open as she looked at Greg in his white tuxedo, and me in that wonderful black full-length evening dress. The dress was swirled out as Greg dipped me back over his arm. "He was the most wonderful dancer."

"Was it like your husband said? Did you leave him because of the limp?" She was almost accusing me.

"Of course I didn't. You must know him well enough to work out what happened," I said. Cameron thought about it and nodding seemed to understand.

"He pushed you away didn't he? And you still love him and he still loves you," Cameron was certain she had it all worked out.

"Who knows how he will feel when this terrible pain has gone and he just has his usual pain," I concentrated on drinking my coffee blinking to keep tears at bay.

Then Allison Cameron told me about how he had seen me lie beside my husband on the hospital bed after Greg had cured his paralysis. She told me he looked devastated and she told me how she had thought he was too screwed up to love anyone, but she realized the reason he could not love her was because he loved me so much.

I just let her talk it out. She told me about going to see the Monster Trucks. She told me how Vogler had tried to destroy him, and how she had resigned, and her condition for returning. She also told me what he had said about her attraction to him; how he thought it was because he was damaged. She realized I had told him to ease up on her and thanked me. And I thanked her for leading the meeting and caring so much.

"Greg needed you so much so much last night when you were all working on the white board. I just wish someone like you, with a brain and a heart like yours, had been around when he had the infarction," I said. "He might have been diagnosed in time. They might have just been able to restore the circulation. He might have been all right and I might never have had to sign the proxy that allowed them to mutilate his leg. You were at that lecture he gave, weren't you?"

"Yes."

"Will you tell me about it? Please. Wherever I go in this hospital I get odd looks from the students and some of the medical staff. I know it is connected to that. Please Allison, tell me what Greg said."

"I think it came as a shock because he has always been so private. Anyone mentioning his leg or asking how he was only ever did it once, and there he was opening right up. Of course there were no names but everyone there had to know it was him."

"I saw him for the first time just before he went in to give that lecture. I had just told him I was married and Mark was sick," I told her and she looked shocked.

"What did House say?" she asked, putting the photographs on the seat beside her.

"He said he wasn't sure he wanted to treat him because he wasn't sure he wanted him to live," I said, registering her concerned expression. "Then he went straight into the lecture. He was terribly hurt, I don't think it had occurred to him that I might marry."

"I didn't get into the lecture hall until they had their first break. I heard a couple of the students talking about it in the ladies room. They were rushing off to bring in the students who normally avoided the lecturer who was sick that day."

As she told me what had gone on, I realized what a state I must have left him in. Obviously it during that lecture that he decided to treat Mark. I was surprised how detailed her memory was, and worse still how clearly Greg had remembered everything. It was exactly as I remembered it. Every terrifying moment.

Cameron put her arms around me, and I put mine round her acknowledging our mutual understanding and concern for the man we both loved.

I though we were alone in the room. I didn't notice anyone enter. Then I heard the squeak of the rubber wheels of a chair stopping on the linoleum. It was my husband Mark

"A writ of Habeas Corpus was it? Or have you gone back to your old dancing partner?" The harsh sarcasm surprised Cameron. "Oh don't stop hugging my wife Dr Cameron I would much rather she was into girls than this."

Mark had picked up the photograph of Greg dancing with me from the chair beside Cameron. He held it up shaking with fury. Even sitting in a wheelchair he looked dangerous.

"I know House is sick; one of the nurses thought I should be told what was going on."

Mark turned the photograph around and looked at it with distaste; then he ripped it in half, dropping the half that contained my image in the wonderful black dress. Then slowly and cruelly he ripped the image of Greg into tiny little bits.

For the first time since our marriage, I was frightened of my husband.